diff --git "a/id/GlobalVoices.en-id.en" "b/id/GlobalVoices.en-id.en" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/id/GlobalVoices.en-id.en" @@ -0,0 +1,16043 @@ +Southeast Asia: The shoe, the shoe · Global Voices +Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi will be known for a long time as the shoe thrower. +He who succeeded in throwing a pair of shoes at U.S. President George Bush last Sunday in Baghdad. +The shoes are now priceless. +A Saudi entrepreneur has offered $10 million for one of the pair of shoes. +The shoe throwing incident has been hailed as heroic by many people around the world, especially those who opposed the foreign policies of the outgoing US president. +What are the reactions of Southeast Asian bloggers and residents? +Hafriz from Singapore thinks al-Zaidi should become president of the world: +"is anyone still not in the shoe-throwing craze yet? this Muntazer al-Zaidi guy is a worldwide hero. he's a legend. he should be president of the world." +Katak, also from Singapore, notes that the incident reflects the failure of US foreign policies: +"Being infamous in a foreign country is generally not a good farewell party for someone who is often regarded as the President of the ‘World’. +"The (incident) shows the build up of hatred and violence that the local citizens had to endure due largely to his failure in assessment of foreign policy, in particular, the 2003 invasion of Iraq." +Another Singaporean blogger, mrbrown.com, wonders why the Secret Service agents were unable to catch the shoes: +"It makes you wonder though, that if the Secret Service could not stop a flying shoe or two, how were they planning to protect President Bush from more lethal weapons? +"Or did they deliberately let that one through? +Hmmm..." +Filipino journalist Carlos Conde analyzes the shoe-throwing incident from the perspective of a media person: +"What he did was to show that he is a citizen before anything else; that he, too, feels the pain of his fellow Iraqis. +"Al-Zaidi is a journalist. +He knows the story of Iraq perhaps more than anybody else. +But more than anything else, he’s an Iraqi citizen. +He feels the pain of his people perhaps more than any journalist in Baghdad does. +Did we really expect him to just sit there and watch Bush lie through his teeth again and insult the memory of those who suffered in Iraq because of America’s act of aggression?" +Ka-Blog from the Philippines understands the motives of Al-Zaidi: +"Was Al-Zeidi justified in doing it? +Let me put it this way—if your country were ravaged by a war justified on totally baseless claims (WMD); if millions of your countrymen were dead because of it; if foreign aggressors are still occupying your country; and if the brains (now, this is a misnomer) behind all these comes to your country still saying he was right, won’t you feel the same degree of rage that this journalist felt? +"I was shocked by what I saw on TV and I was still shocked when I reviewed it on YouTube. +I asked myself how a United States President could be treated in such a manner. +"But when I put myself in Al-Zeidi’s shoes (pun intended), I can’t bring myself to denounce him. +In fact, my only problem with the Iraqi journalist was his aim." +Arif from Indonesia writes that US President-elect Barack Obama has to redeem the image of America which was destroyed by his predecessor: +"Hates are left in worlds heart. +Thrown shoes was only an expression of world hatred. +Think that Barrack Obama has to recover Americas’ image destroyed by George Walker Bush. +"Thrown by shoes was nothing. +But, Bush should think that he has created bad image and hatred. +Bush also has destroyed ancient heritages in Iraq. +He destroyed economic achievement. +He lied to us. +Iraq has had no weapons of mass destruction." +Perhaps anticipating a negative reaction from authorities, Salak from Malaysia is fearful that “one day when we have to get a license for our shoes.” +Many Southeast Asian bloggers are amused over the Flash-based games which were created after the shoe throwing incident. +Video samples of the games are shown below: + +Brunei: The ‘Ali Baba’ syndrome · Global Voices +Businesses are consistently popping up at different corners of Brunei. +Before you know it, we’d be getting a new restaurant, a new cupcake business, a new singer, or a new shopping mall, to name a few. +In addition, a significant number of these businesses are owned by the Malay Bruneians - the dominant ethnic group in the country. +This just proves to show that the Malays are not lacking in financial resources to start up a business, nor the capabilities to become entrepreneurs. +Unfortunately, despite the favourable rise in the local businesses set up by the Malays, a majority of them are not run by the owners. +A possible cause for this resistance to further development in the economy is the Bruneian culture itself. Rouge Economist used the example of the work attitude of the Bruneian Malays at the workplace: +Another example relates to the work attitude of the Brunei malays. +The five-tea-break-a-day routine becomes the culture in the government sector. +The attitude of ‘karang tah’ has lost the government millions of dollars in terms of productivity and even revenue-generation. +As a result, the government sector, which is the first employment choice of any Brunei malay, is slow, inefficient and backward so much so that it can take weeks to send a letter within one tiny district, and months for the results of a few applications. +(Come on! +What is our population again?) +Therefore, it is important for Brunei to focus on creating an effective environment that could induce productivity amongst the Malays, and the Bruneian workforce in general. +As development will only be a distant dream if the people behind these economic entities fail to progress. + +Israel: Praying for Rain · Global Voices +The first hard rains of winter fell this week after months of waiting, causing all of Israel to breath a sigh of relief. +Yaakov Kirschen, author and illustrator of The Dry Bones Blog, pens: +"I took a cab home yesterday, and heavy with thoughts of the terror attack on Mumbai, the missiles out of Gaza, organized crime, the upcoming elections, Olmert, and the spreading collapse of the world's economy I said to the driver "What do you think of the current situation?" +He said "We haven't had rain yet. +It's the first of December and we haven't had rain yet!" +I knew exactly what he meant. +He'd had enough of talking about the current situation." +Adding proof to the idea that things are slow to change in the Middle East, Kirschen posts a "Golden Oldie" from 20 years ago. +In a post entitled "Interwoven Fate," Lirun of East Med Sea Peace writes: +"Its dry right now in israel and palestine.. we have had two very dry winters and a third is slowly crackling its way into our region.. this affects everyone.. we all suffer from the shortage." +Lirun remarks that the drought has brought people together to pray for rain, featuring a video of one such gathering. +Meanwhile, Nicky Blackburn of Israelity recalls bicycling around Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) where she notes the water has receded to a dangerous level. +The Kinneret is Israel's largest source of drinking water. +Blackburn posts: +"Where has the water gone? +And it’s not that we’re seeing any signs of a wet winter to come. +On the contrary, the weather in Israel right now resembles, well, a desert... So that’s why Rabbi Shlomo Didi of the Jordan Valley, Ian Clark - the priest of the Scottish church, and Muhammad Dahamshe, the Imam of Kfar Kana, got together to try to ease the situation with a little combined prayer." +Blackburn quotes Shimon Kipnis, manager of a local hotel, who adds: +Rain!" exclaimed Israeli Mom yesterday. "This morning, it was so nice waking up to thick gray clouds covering the sky. +It wasn’t too cold, just cool enough to be nice, and everything had that nice scent of fresh rain. +It was just a drizzle, so I put on my running shoes and went out for a glorious half an hour, enjoying the fresh colors of the trees and flowers, and even of the red earth on the trails behind our street. +Lovely." +There is nothing that unites us and reminds us of our humanity more than Mother Nature. +We are grateful for the blessing of rain in this dry land. + +Palestine: "The Bloodiest Day Since 1967″ · Global Voices +It started as a "normal" day in Gaza. +By the end of the day, however, it became clear that December 27 would be known as the bloodiest day of the Palestine-Israel conflict since 1967. +Although the target of the Israeli airstrikes was Hamas, as the day went on it became clear that there were also a number of civilian casualties among the 225 or so total. +Bloggers in Palestine and around the world are in shock as the numbers climb. +That shock, coupled with anger at the biased media coverage of the events, is palpable in the blog posts from today. +Marcy Newman of body on the line details her day in the West Bank, recalling the moment she heard the news: +11:30 am the itf begin their air strikes in gaza with american-made f16 fighter jets. the radio is not on in the service. no one seems aware of this fact. but within 15 minutes over 200 patients flood hospitals, like al shifa hospital. orthopedic and maternity wards are turned into make-shift emergency rooms. from 10 month old babies to 55 year old women, palestinian civilians are massacred. this is the single bloodiest day since 1967. +She concludes: +this is the bloodiest day since 1967. i have lost track of time. i have been watching al jazeera–english and arabic–for hours. it is now 3:08 am. the itf bombed a mosque a couple of hours ago across the street from al shefa hospital. i think that was at 1:10 am. i cannot keep track. +225 palestinians massacred. more in the rubble. +Haitham Sabbah, a self-described "uprooted Palestinian blogger," shares a number of photographs taken today within the confines of Gaza. +Of them, he commented: +Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank went demonstrating against the Israel terrorist crimes in Gaza and attacked Israeli terrorists with stones. +Reports indicated that all fractions between political parties vanished during these demonstrations, which included Hamas and Fatah supporters who attacked Israel's terrorist army side by side. +Moroccan blogger Al Miraat (The Mirror) proffers his usually calm perspective, stating: +Bombing civilian areas is not something civilized countries do. +Since Nuremberg this is considered a war crime. +This is a war crime; a massacre; a mass murder, committed by American made deadly weapons, mostly paid for by American taxpayer’s money. +The terrible thing is, this will not make Israel safer and will only aggravate the trend in the Palestinian (and indeed the Arab street) toward a more extremist position. +These policies have been pursued for decade after decade and have led nowhere. +It is Israel that is upholding the status quo. +KABOBfest's Mohammad, who is based in Palestine, summed up the day's events. +He was able to speak to friends and family members in Gaza, and reported on their reactions: +It was tough to get a line into Gaza during the day, but I managed to get hold of my uncle Mohammad in Gaza City. +He sounded in shock, unable to say much. +I asked him where he was; he replied that he was next to the building used to issue passports, and there were about 50 bodies inside. +I couldn't say anything. +I hung up. +My uncle Jasim in Khan Younis was also outside. +He said he was okay, but there were explosions and dead people everywhere. +I didn't even bother talking to my uncle Mahmoud; my mom had called him and heard crying all around him. +His wife was mourning the death of her brother. +I think the most poignant emotion was shock, whether in Gaza or in the West Bank. +As its primary victims, we had become used to Israel crossing red lines in its continuous policy of opression and occupation. +But this was something else. +The sheer scale of the massacre was unfathomable. +He summed up: +Israel still believes it can impose its will by force. +The only way its goals will be met is through genocide. +But there is another angle, and that is the upcoming Israeli election. +It is not novel for incumbent Israeli governments to carry out atrocities against Palestinians to garner domestic support, and with the Likud expected to win the next elections, this is definitely a power play by the embattled ruling party, Kadima. +Today, and probably the days to come, will be a clear demonstration os the very worst of Israel, what Will termed a dangerous blend of Zionist fantasy and election posturing. +For 60 years, Israel has tried to use its overwhelming military prowess to cow the Palestinians into accepting the fate it dictates for them, and for 60 years no Israeli government has been able to do that. +Remember Gaza. +For more on the attacks on Gaza, visit Global Voices Special coverage page on the bombings. + +Egyptian Spinsters · Global Voices +The outcasts of the Egyptian society - the spinsters - are raising their voices in an attempt to change how society views them. +ولكن ماذا تعني كلمة الرجل في أذهان هؤلاء العجزة ؟ +Ethat ElKatatney of Muslimah Media Watch wrote an elaborate post on the issue confessing that she is a 21-year-old spinster. Yes, a spinster at 21. +In my country, although many many Egyptian women are delaying getting married until they’re in their mid-to-late twenties, society still looks at them with a critical, disapproving gaze. +“Men and women were made for one another. +You are a sinister spinster.” +“Better a man’s shadow than that of a wall.” +Both are Arabic proverbs reiterated by mothers, aunties, grandmothers and even friends, the former meaning that women who don’t marry are labeled “spinsters,” and the latter meaning that any man is better than being single. +I hate the word spinster, as I’m sure any woman does. +It’s definitely no female equivalent of bachelor. +Wikipedia tells us spinsters have a reputation for: +Sexual and emotional frigidity, lesbianism, ugliness, frumpiness, depression, astringent moral virtue, and overly-pious religious devotion. +Nice. +And in Egypt, where according to the latest statistics there are approximately 9-10 million spinsters over the age of 30, unmarried women are (alternatively) rejected, stigmatized, mocked, gossiped about, pitied and constantly reminded of what they’re missing out on. +Which is why 27-year-old Yomna Mokhtar’s facebook group Spinsters*/ Old Maids for Change is such a breath of fresh air. +Mokhtar is a journalist at Al Yom al-Sabe’, a weekly Arabic newspaper, and she set up the group in May ‘08. +True, I don’t know how successful a Facebook group of 600 (and counting) trying to change the Egyptian mentality of “spinsters” is going to be, but at least it’s an effort. +The group has a media spokesperson, a social advisor, a religious advisor, and a psychologist. +Impressive. +Discussion topics on the group include When spinsterhood is a choice, We won’t wear hijab or pray taraweeh prayers for the groom, Latest list of the groom’s demands, etc. +Ethar, a journalist herself, tracked down the media responses to Yomna Mokhtar's group +The first articles about the group were written in October within days of each other at Al-Lawha Online and at Al-Arabiya (the latter with hundreds of fascinating comments that offer great insight into Egyptian psyche and an interesting choice of picture. +Though I disliked Mokhtar saying she is against semi-arranged marriages, which she says turn women into “cheap commodities.”) +A couple of days later, an Egyptian forum posted a Q & A with Mokhtar. +She told them: +My goal is to change the image of the spinster in our society, encouraging the woman not to isolate herself from it, and ingraining the idea that making the world a better place is not only through marriage and producing babies, but in improving your community through the abilities God gave you. +Unfortunately, the Q & A wasn’t exactly the best I’ve ever read. +The reporter (who happens to be a man) asked her: “Why do you have such a negative idea about spinsters?” (duh, it’s not her, it’s Egypt), “Why did you use the words ‘for change,’ which are used by political movements?” (conspiracy theory much?), “Does your movement rebel against the the idea of marriage?” and most infuriating of all: +Why don’t you try changing the image of the spinster by trying to fix the behavior of some women who have helped give spinsters a bad name? +Thankfully, she pwnd him: +Your question encapsulates exactly the view of society towards women whose marriage date was delayed, who look at her as the girl with a bad reputation, and this is the viewpoint we are fighting against. +Especially since a lot of women hold the highest educational degrees and the highest positions. +But no, society begrudges them their success and considers it a way of compensating for delaying marriage. +A couple of days later, The Daily News Egypt picked up on the story from the Arabic media. +In the article, Mokhtar said she used the label ‘Spinsters’ in the group title though she’s against it, because “it is the term people use.” +I also believe that using a different label for unmarried women would just be ignoring the reality of the term. +By using it, they’re trying, in some small way to “take it back.” +Two weeks after that article came out, the story made the Los Angeles Times, where the author interviewed Mokhtar and brought up two great points. +One, that men are also joining the Facebook group, and two, that this is not the first time an Egyptian woman discussing the issues surrounding marriage does so online, with the first woman being the author behind the satirical blog wanna-be-a-bride. +. +Then two days ago, The Agence France-Presse wrote about the group, finally snowballing it onto the global sphere. +(English version and French version). +The article was pretty inclusive, and I particularly liked the fact it mentioned that marriage is an obligation for all Egyptians—Christians and Muslims alike. +The author also interviewed a well-known sociologist, which gives Mokhtar’s opinions added weight, and stops anyone from brushing off her comments as the rantings of a bitter spinster. +The author also pointed out that the group isn’t asking for the right to be single or crossing any of society’s “red lines.” +(Though I’m sure the fact that Mokhtar is veiled was very important to mention—you know, to prove that she’s not one of those morally decadent spinsters. +As was adding that mass Islamic weddings are held with the aim of preventing “deviant” behavior (a.k.a., homosexuality and premarital sex), and not simply with the aim of helping those without funds get married). +Another French interview with Mokhtar was also published on the same day at Lepetitjournal with the title Spinster Girls: Objects of Mockery. +My French is a little rusty, but as a journalist I loved the lead: +O la la! +The poor girl! +She’s still not married? +But why? +When will she start a family? +She risks living the rest of her life alone, the poor girl! +And the comment: “Not getting married is an unforgivable mistake; refusing to marry a punishable crime!” +It was also a Q & A interview, and Mokhtar explained that Facebook is not enough for what the group wants to accomplish. +In the future, they will be holding seminars to raise awareness and meetings where spinsters can talk about their experiences to their family in the presence of a psychologist. +ElKatatney messaged Mokhtar on Facebook and asked her what she though of the media coverage thus far. +She said: +I liked the western coverage more than the Arabic coverage, which I only dealt with superficially. other coverage in other print newspapers like Al-Masa’ and Rose al-Youssef. +One reporter asked me if the role of the movement was to improve the behavior of unmarried women who don’t get married because of their bad behavior. +I think the problem is not about the media outlet as much as it is the journalist. +A good journalist, whether western or eastern, produces a good article. +The 21 year old spinster concluded her post saying: +I am feeling so inspired now. +My new title = empowered spinster. +Hmm, not really working for me. +Bachelorette? *The Arabic word used, ‘Anis, has several meanings in Arabic but is socially understood to mean spinster/ old maid. + +China: Farewell, Bullog · Global Voices +In Associate Press' report, Bullog is said to be an "edgy blog hosting site", accommodating scores of social and political activists. +It looks like a gun powder barrel in this way. +However, in the mind of millions of Chinese netizens, Bullog is far more than that, and its forced closing, whether temporary or permanent, is not only a sign of intensifying media crackdown in China, but a tragic end that breaks many's hope to the country. +It's quite emotionally charged. +We are sad. +Bullog aggregates a group of shining bloggers, who are indeed influencing China with their opinions. +Lian Yue 连岳, for example, is a columnist, also a public intellectual who has advocated the Xiamen PX protest in which people gathered and walked to silently protest a chemical project. +He, with his witty insight into daily life, corresponds with readers on things from the most homely triviality to topics that more or less bear political significance. +If Lian-Yue belongs to the moderate, then, Ran Yunfei 冉云飞, on the other hand, is one of those progressive bloggers. +Ran might be the blogger who matches the word "edgy" the best. +Calling himself a "bandit", he has often fearlessly confronted injustice in the degenerating society. +This is well illustrated in his many bold articles, like "It is a national shame to have such a government", "How autarchy is made", and his "weekly news commentary of Mr. Ran". +Though furious at times, he is patient. +His motto is a persistent appeal: "a step every day, no hurry." +Where is the destination he is stepping to, if any? +Only he knows. +He railed, criticized and impugned, calling out what people wish to but dare not say; But it's not hard to predict that such plain opinions are ill tolerated. +A few weeks before the bullog was shut down, Bullog was forced to remove him. +Luo Yonghao 罗永浩, the owner of Bullog, a guy intimately called "Corpulent Luo" by people, used to be an English teacher. +I first know him because of his witty, cool and trenchant remarks that are compiled by some of his students and uploaded online. +It seems that what he hates the most is 装B (pretend to be cool), and therefore he must be an unaffected and straightforward man. +Later, he resigned from the institute and opened the Bullog. +And there are young writer Han Han, artist Ai, cynic and ironist ProState In Flame, independent blogger Bei Feng and many more. +They, men of personalities, men of faith, together shape Bullog into a place of ideas exchange and sincere opinions, with true debates, though it has at times gone a little bit over-exited. +And it is making its way to be a public forum for free discussions and popular opinions. Such is rare, for that it might be thought compatible with neither cultural tradition nor the authoritarian circumstance. +But it thrives, and as a collective blog, it opens a new gateway to see the China for many Chinese. +Bullog is rooted in people, hence we are actually affected by it, thanks partly to the "benevolent Great Firewall" (the national censorship network) that tolerates it for so long as two years. +Thus it is more influential in spreading liberalism and democratic thinkings than various overseas democratic websites which are banned out of the Chinese internet. +And it is associated closely with the current society that it doesn't give up any chance to present its ideas on what are happening on this land. +Bullog used to be a host of the blog named "I don't support Beijing Olympics", when the government was preparing the Game at any cost; It has questioned why Yangjia, the man killed 6 cops，is sentenced to death without proper legal procedure; It organized a team to deliver relief to the struck areas when in March the earthquake claimed over 80000; it spreads Charter 08, a statement supporting a notable political reform.... +All could be intolerable by those determined to shut it down. +Let the comment of scholar Xiao Han to conclude why Bullog matters: + +Greece: Outcry over arms shipment to Israel · Global Voices +With the war raging in Gaza, news reports earlier this month about the routing of an extraordinarily large shipment of arms from the United States to Israel through the private Greek port of Astakos caused an uproar among Greek bloggers. +They used Twitter to investigate the matter and put pressure on the government to halt the transfer. +Delivery of the munitions was suspended, just as the Greek government was coming under fire from opposition parties, and Amnesty International was calling for an arms embargo. +At first, official sources contested the story from the international news agency Reuters on January 9. +But it was picked up by Twitter users and investigated after Indy.gr - an offshoot of the Indymedia Athens group - provided a translation of the article in Greek. +The idea to organize an embargo of the port was proposed and widely "re-tweeted": +itsomp: http://is.gd/f8Wa Can we organise an embargo of the port of Astakos? +Only the US and Israeli ships... +Some tweeted direct queries to the Greek foreign minister, whose web team is operating a Twitter account: + +Madagascar: "Unmitigated Disaster" · Global Voices +( Soldiers in burned block by Mehmoud Karim) ) +After two days of upheaval that resulted in an estimated death toll at 80 nationally, and the looting of dozens of stores, a day of relative calm greeted a stunned nation. +Soldiers are now patrolling Antananarivo, and both parties have called for supporters to stand down. +The mayor of Antananarivo, Andry Rajoelina, called for a "ghost town" operation in the capital today, January 29th, urging supporters to stay at home, but attend an organized public demonstration on Saturday, January 31st. President Ravalomanana met with his executive cabinet as well as religious leaders to find a solution to the current instability. +Many foreign embassies have issued alerts to their citizens about carefully considering traveling to Madagascar. +Bloggers reflect on what many locally called "Black Monday" as confusion and anger prevail. +Mialisoa Randriamampianina writes that both sides should take responsibility for this "unmitigated disaster"(fr): +Yesterday the U.S. ambassador met with Ravolamanana to try and talk sense to him, but bore little fruit. +His car was attacked/rocked by a mob after leaving the meeting. +Now the economic impact is more threatening than the violence. +Gas prices have skyrocketed, food will soon follow. +Gas stations are like parking lots, lines around the block, and most are out of gas. + +Cambodia: Report accuses elite of theft · Global Voices +Global Witness, a non-governmental organization based in London released Country for Sale on February 5, 2009. +The report warns that Cambodia risks descending into a kleptocracy, alleging that large sums of monies paid to the government are benefiting the ruling elite instead of the people of Cambodia. +Vuthasurf reiterates the report's charges while highlighting the role of private companies: +Private sector companies also have a role to play in improving the governance of Cambodia’s extractive industries. +So far over 75 companies are working in Cambodia’s extractive sectors, including some internationally known operators such as Chevron and BHP Billiton. +Country for Sale documents how many of these companies have already paid significant upfront sums to the government. +At KI Media, Heng Soy posted an article from Voice of America. +Comments to the KI Media post reveal resignation and anger. +One anonymous commenter, like Vuthasurf, emphasized actions of private companies: +f this is true at all, perhaps, the companies who bought the rights to invest or bought the monopoly are the ones to blame for encouraging and tolerated corruption. +Global Witness also published a report on illegal logging in 2007, Cambodia's Family Tree. +The Cambodian government banned that report. + +Madagascar : Bloggers react to Red Saturday's bloodshed · Global Voices +Since riots and lootings claimed fifty dead in Madagascar on January 26, the situation has become bleaker. +Saturday, February 07 was an even bloodier day. +Dubbed "Red Saturday" by some, it saw the presidential guard fire upon a crowd of protesters who had gathered outside the Presidential palace of Ambohitsirohitra. +The crowd had marched to the palace where it wanted to install Monja Roindefo. +Roindefo had minutes before been nominated "Prime Minister" by Andry Rajoelina, himself proclaimed "President", by the protestors that started demonstrating in December, when Andry Rajoelina's TV station was shut down by the Ravalomanana government. +The protests have since become violent, resulting in lootings and riots, and with its supporters demanding Ravalomanana's resignation. +Among the victims of Red Saturday was Ando Ratovonirina, a 26 year old cameraman for the television station RTA. +He is no stranger to the Malagasy Global Voices team, as he was the one who reported on citizen media in Antananarivo, as encouraged by FOKO, a Rising Voices grantee. +Bloggers have reacted strongly to the news, struggling to understand what circumstances led Malagasies to fire upon each other. +Bloggers discuss who bears final responsibility for the massacre: those who incited, then led, demonstrators to the presidential palace, knowing that it was marked a "red zone" and that the soldiers there would have liberty to fire upon anyone violating the "red zone", therefore creating "martyrs" for a protest movement running out of steam; or those who gave the orders to shoot. + +Valentine's Special: From Egypt with Love · Global Voices +It is this time of the year when you start to believe that life is practically all about flowers and chocolates. +Single and couples, in favor of or against celebrating Valentine's Day are bound to indulge in the infamous February extravaganza. +Like it or not, you are haunted with teddy bears, flowers, boxes, and fluffy red wraps all around you, not to mention your office mate who would drive you up the wall talking, thinking, and planning for the grand day. +While committed Egyptian bloggers were swamped in the preparations, others were scratching their head trying to come up with new ideas and ways to celebrate the universal love day. +In her post, Super Lili contemplated the possibility of speed dating in Cairo: She said: +"So i was thinking, why is there no speed dating in Cairo? +It would be easy to organize, just get a venue, everyone pays 100 L.E., post an open event on Facebook and there you have it." She continues: "Personally, i think it's a great idea! first off the ticket price would control a little who would come, you have 5 minutes to decide, so if you meet Mr. Creepy Creeperson you would only have to spend 5 minutes with them. +You could decide to give guys your email account or Facebook account as a test first, or buy a new sim to receive the call(s) which you can throw out if you end up with a stalker.” +On the other hand Appy decided to broaden the context and invited her readers to join in a special event organized by NGO “sohbet khier;" the event will be held in one of Egypt’s most known rural areas “Istabl Antar." "كل سنة وانتم طيبين بمناسبة عيد الحب و يارب دايما تكونوا فى حالة حب للخير زى ما اتعودنا معاكم . عيد الحب السنة دى عايزينه يكون مختلف ، عايزين نقول الناس اللى مش بتحتفل به اننا يهمنا نكون معاهم يومها و نقولهم اننا بنحبهم ، و ده هنقدر نعمله من خلال جمعية صحبة خير ، اللى عاملة يوم لمشاركة الاطفال و الناس فى العشوائيات مشاعر الحب و الاهتمام" “Happy Valentine’s Day! +May you always be in love. +We want a different Valentine’s this year. +We want to tell those who don’t celebrate this day that we really care to be with them, that we love them. +We can do that through “Sohbet Kheir” the NGO, which is organizing a fun day to transmit some love vibes to the children and the residents in this area." +Mohaly declared valentine blogging week and ended his series with a singles agenda to take him/them through the day. +”After second thoughts, and instead of escaping, I told myself that it is Valentine's day, and singles have the right to enjoy it too, there is a brightside there for us ...Whether you choose to have other single people over to celebrate by playing these one-of-a-kind singles games, or whether you prefer to soak in the glory of being single on your own, the goal is simply to make the Valentine's day on Saturday your day! +He then listed a few tips he came across online, and ended his post with his own pick for the day: +"PURSUE YOUR PASSION (Mohaly's choice): Whatever it is that you are passionate about in life — be it a particular hobby, travel, craft projects, charitable acts, etc. — use this day to make great strides by just doing that today. +This is also known as drowning yourself in productivity... or pursuing those things that you are passionate about. +As long as it's something you are completely driven to succeed at, then you will still be having FUN while accomplishing great things at the same time." +Happy Valentine's Day; Hope the day bring each and everyone lots of, happiness, flowers, chocolates, and above all love and warmth. +Also on Global Voices Online: +On Valentine's: Teach Someone You Love to Blog (or Micro-Blog!) +Photo credit: Wikipedia + +Thai gov't upset over Angelina Jolie comment on refugees · Global Voices +Last week American actress Angelina Jolie visited Thailand’s Ban Mai Nai Soi camp which houses more than 18,000 refugees from Myanmar. +Jolie is Goodwill Ambassador of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. +The government of Thailand is upset over the visit and Jolie’s comments on the plight of the refugees. +Jolie also expressed concern for the Rohingya whose situation has caught the world’s attention: +"I also hope the Rohingya situation stabilizes and their life in Myanmar improves so the people do not feel the desperate need to flee, especially considering how dangerous their journey has become," "I was saddened to meet a 21-year-old woman who was born in a refugee camp, who has never even been out of the camp and is now raising her own child in a camp" +Thailand is accused of abandoning and mistreating hundreds of Rohingya refugees who escaped Myanmar. +Below is a video clip on Youtube which shows Jolie’s visit in Thailand: +Thailand’s foreign minister warned UNHCR “that they should not comment on the matter because they have no mandate." The minister added: +"The UNHCR should not have brought Jolie, its goodwill ambassador, to one of the nine refugee camps stringing the border which are run by Thailand's interior ministry." +"The Thai government will issue a reprimand letter to UNHCR, asking why it allowed Angelina Jolie to visit the refugee camps." +Bangkok Pundit believes that Jolie’s criticism was only mild: +Reprimand letter? +As others have noted, Jolie’s criticism was not strongly worded and more implied than a direct Thai-government-is-evil statement. +Yet, even such mild criticism has the Foreign Ministry in a hissy fit. +Next time, the UNHCR should have invite someone like Sean Penn and there will surely be fireworks…. +Pierre agrees that Jolie did not say anything directly critical of Thailand: +Jolie doesn't seem to say anything directly critical of Thailand, its government, or policies. +What she does do, though, is draw attention to the plight of refugees and so-called "economic migrants" in Thailand. +Fear from Freedom, a Burmese blogger, is unhappy over the “western imposed democracy in eastern countries” and urges Jolie to ask the United States to accept Mexican workers in its borders: +“The international news we read this week about my country is sick as well, Angelina Jolie asked Thailand to accept the Burmese refugees. +She should also ask US to accept the Mexican workers...The pictures show normal life like any other villages in Myanmar except that the victims were caged in that area for some people to tap funds from governments...There will always be problem with western imposed democracy in eastern countries as long as people do not understand the culture and stages of development of different parts of the globe.” +Angelina Jolie at a refugee camp in Thailand. +Photo from UNHCR +Namizon, a Thai citizen, insists that Thailand has been very generous in accepting refugees from neighboring countries: +"...Did you know that Thais have always supported refugees from all nations around Thailand? +We have refugee camps for Burmese-Kayan, Hmong-Laotian, Cambodian, etc. +Thailand is just a small developing country; although we Thais have the heart, kindness and the willingness to help all those unfortunate people. +We always try our best to support them, yet we still lack many resources; space, money, manpower and jobs to support the refugees. +"From my point of view, Thai government has a priority to take care of Thai people first. +Call me selfish but that’s all the governments in all countries do, isn’t it? +Even American Government does. +"The war in Viet Nam and Laos - which government took the major part in? +American? +Can I say that American Troops is the reason all these refugees flee their countries into Thailand? +I’m not playing the blame game here, but isn’t it the right thing American Government has to do? +Clearing up their mess after what they did? +Instead of having a permanent camp in Thailand, American should offer to take ALL people affected by the war to relocate to USA. +The fact? +US only takes educated-skilled labors; doctor, teacher, religion leader, etc. +That’s why the resettlement process is taking so long. +Americans only wants USEFUL refugees. +Those who didn’t pass “the bar” get left behind and stuck in Thai camp, cannot return to the countries they fled, cannot go to America." +The Nation, Thailand’s top English broadsheet, points to Myanmar as the cause of the refugee problem: +“We don't need to dance to Jolie's tune just because she is a Hollywood superstar. +What we need to do is come up with a sound policy that is based on legal and humanitarian principles. +Instead of blaming Jolie, who has the luxury of walking away from this after a few days of photo ops, why don't we start talking about the root cause of the problem? +Or is that against the unwritten rules of Asean when it comes to "domestic matters" in a neighbouring member country? +“This particular problem is caused by the Burmese junta - a source of headaches and heartache for Thailand, all Asean members and the international community.” + +India: The Pink Underwear Resistance · Global Voices +As a reaction to this event, on February 5th, the Pink Chaddi campaign was kicked off by a few people who posted up a Facebook group online called “Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women”. +They decided on a sassy, bold move to send pink colored women’s panties to the Ram Sena party as a ‘Valentine's gift’. +More than the actual physical action of couriering underwear to a political party office, it is the concept alone which is buzzing on the minds of everyone in India. +Videos and photographs of the Pink Chaddis are also being collected to be sent to the Ram Sena, as can be seen both on the Facebook group picture page. +On the Pink Chaddi Campaign official blog, it is said that: +We have heard that Mr. Muthalik has decided to send pink saris "with love" in response. +We greatly appreciate this and hope he continues to choose similar, non-violent methods to get his point across, just as we have chosen to be non-violent and loving in response to the brutality of the attacks on lovers and women in Mangalore and other parts of Karnataka. +Nevertheless, women from all over India, especially in Bangalore, where the campaign began, are preparing to send their personalized ‘chaddis’, which are underpants, to the Ram Sena party leader, Mr. Muthalik, who has been the man in charge. +The irony is that in a ‘land of Kamasutra’, women all over India have to fight for their rights, for their security, for their freedom and sexuality. +One woman, Ree Diwan, posts in the Facebook group an image of pink underpants with "India, the Land of the KamaSutra" overlaid on it, and Patricia Chandrashekar, comments: +can't believe this is happening in the land of KamaSutra. +Send these guys on a trip to Khajuraho. +Let them see for themselves. +The erotic statues are not even wearing chuddies! +We'll have to wait and see how the avalanche of Valentine's Day panties is received by the Ram Sena. +Thumbnail image used is "The Heart that Sings" by caribbeanfreephoto + +Cuba: The Release of Nova the Open-Source Operating System · Global Voices +Through a project developed at the University of Information and Technology Sciences of Havana (UCI for its initials in Spanish), the government of Cuba released its own version of the open-source Linux operating system and hopes to move 50% of government computers away from Microsoft Windows to this new system called Nova Baire in the next five years. +It was unveiled at the Informática 2009 International Convention and Fair. +"Tux Guevara" illustration by Brunocb and used under a Creative Commons license +Nova Baire was developed partly because of how difficult it is to obtain software legally on the island, but also, as ZeroZen of the Latin American technology site FayerWayer writes, "Cuba sees a potential threat from MS (Microsoft) software because U.S. security agencies can obtain their access codes." +The development of the system is also said to be in line with the government's ideology. +Penúltimos Días publishes a quote by Héctor Rodríguez, the dean of the Department of Open-Source Software at UCI who said: + +China: Religious demography and house churches · Global Voices +Last November (21-22, Nov 2008), the China State Council Development Research Center organized a seminar on "Christianity and Social Harmony — Special Session on House Church". +This is the first of its kind organized by a Chinese governmental sector. +However, soon after the seminar, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a statement for banning activities organized by the China Federation of Christian House Churches. +Latest Crackdown +The statement said (via cool mountain house at douban): +16 per cent of Chinese nationals adhere to state-sanctioned Buddhist institutions; almost 2 per cent go to approved Protestant Christian churches; another one per cent attend official Catholic churches; more than one per cent go to sanctioned Muslim mosques, and another one per cent are Taoist. +Family Church +The most controversial figure is how many people attend "family churches", “house churches” or “underground churches” in China. +Li Fan（李凡）exposed that + +Brunei: Rainy days and flooding · Global Voices +It is the middle of the annual North-East Monsoon season and Brunei has been experiencing strong winds and rainfall. +It was just ten days ago that part of the country was submerged by waters. +Blogs, no doubt play an important role in informing the public on the state of the rain and the aftermath. +It was only ten days ago Iskandar World reported on the flood that has affected another district in the country, whereby his own home was affected by rising water levels. +I was anticipating for a heavy down pour once I reach home...but nothing no rain and not even a drizzle..asked myself mana tia ujan nya ani!...baik tah ujan labat2..heheeh...Oh! boy..my wish sure comes true. +Woke up in the middle and found my room nearly flooded (carpets & all the cushions soaked wet), hiya! apparently, the water seep in from the balcony..From midnite till 3am..I was buzy cleaning....damn!!!!! +KB Happening wrote that the rain is possibly, the impact from global warming. +A perfect day that KB and Seria got flooded - on the first day I return to work. +Funny that we never seem to encounter these problem a decade ago. +Either we are sinking or that global warming is taking its toll. +However, last night's rain has caused much stand still to parts of the country. +A main highway underpass tunnel in the capital and some schools were closed due to floods. +It has caused diversion in traffic. +AnakBrunei, who was out on an errand trip, was caught in the rain downpour and stuck in traffic for a few hours. +Finally after another hour or so, traffic started moving again, thanks to the traffic cops on duty. +All in all, what should have been a quick 30 minute trip became a 3 hour adventure! +BruneiMotors, a blog that focus on car enthusiasts played good samaritans in informing the public on the state of the rain and areas that are affected by the floods. +]The flash flood occured around 11.00pm to 3.00am on the night of 20/1/2009 and the Royal Brunei Police has block all the road that is unsafe for a motorist to pass through. +They have done amazing job containing the serious area to avoid the road user from ruining their cars. +Fire rescue and Ambulance are dispatch all around Brunei to monitor the safety of the public. +BruneiLifestyle calls for a live traffic reports on radio to inform listeners on the current flood situation. +I think its high time for the authority to set up a 'live' traffic report especially during the current wet spell and air them over all radio channels in every half an hour or so. +Or why not make use of the Internet - after all Bruneians are IT-savvy lots. +Video reports live through the handphones to your hands. +The blogger also believes that the current rain and flood is due to the effect of La Niña, with more thunderstorms expected until the end of this week: +Translated, La Niña means, "The Little Girl" , but sometimes she is called "El Viejo", "anti-El Niño", or even just "a cold event". +La Niña is characterized by cooling of waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean and stronger than usual trade winds. +It occurs almost as often as El Niño and also affects the normal weather patterns in some parts of the world, such as higher than normal rainfall in Southeast Asia. +No doubt bloggers become good samaritans in providing another medium to inform the public. +Just like last year, Turqoise and Roses blogged about a flood in one of the districts in the country. +Although reported in the local paper, she updated her blog live from the affected area several times in a day. +The recent event in Brunei do explain the regional phenemenon currently experienced, as reported by others bloggers on GVO on floods in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Fiji, +Photos: courtesy of AnakBrunei, Iskandar World and BruneiMotors. + +Worldwide: 2,500 Languages Disappearing · Global Voices +An interactive map of endangered languages, showing 2,500 out of 6,000 tongues at risk, has been released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). +The international organization asks users to contribute comments to a project that has many bloggers worried about preserving cultures. +UNESCO Map of Languages at Risk +Iglesia Descalza, a librarian, blogs: +As someone who loves languages, I am chagrined to read the news coming out of UNESCO's presentation of the updated Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing. +According to the Atlas, unveiled on the eve of International Mother Language Day (21 February), nearly 200 languages have fewer than 10 speakers and 178 others have between 10 and 50 speakers. +The data shows that out of the 6,000 languages currently in existence, over 200 have died out over the last three generations, 538 are critically endangered, 502 severely endangered, 632 definitely endangered and 607 unsafe. +As the last remaining speakers of a language pass away, the language itself dies. +The language of Manx in the Isle of Man died out in 1974 when Ned Maddrell, the last speaker, passed away while Eyak, in Alaska, United States, met its demise last year with the death of Marie Smith Jones. +We need to prize bio-diversity, cultural and racial diversity, and linguistic diversity because we lose too much by becoming homogenized into one big, white, English-speaking society. +While disappearing languages are mostly those of indigenous peoples faced with globalization and state-nationalism, Daniel Moving Out, a blog by a Portugal native now in the UK, says not all “unofficial” languages are dying out: +The Galician sounds like a cross between Spanish and Portuguese, somewhat like a dialect originated from the second and enriched with vocabulary and accent of the first. +The language is originated from the Galician-Portuguese of medieval times, and it was spoken at all the County of Portucale. +This week, the Unesco atlas of world languages was released, regarding Galician as a strong language among those that are not the main languages of any country. +It receives protection from the Castilian (common Spanish) from being geographically close to Portugal. +The blog, nonetheless, summarizes some of the worst data: +199 languages have less than a dozen of native speakers. +In Indonesia, the 4 remaining speakers of Lengilu talk within ; the Karaim in Ukraine is kept by only 6 people. +Over than 200 different languages have disappeared in the last 3 generations. +The Manx, from the Isle of Man, here in the UK died with the last native speaker in 1974. +But not everyone is concerned with disappearing languages. +Commenting on TED blog, user Magnus Lindkvist says: +Why do we insist on romanticizing ancient languages that arguably noone wants to speak anymore? +What about the hundreds of new programming languages that have sprung up in the past decades? +Or the infinite variations of English that people are adopting and "remixing" to make their own around the world? +These are real languages and show a lot more vitality than Manx and Tirahi. +Abdullah Waheed, a native speaker of Dhivehi – an "official" language yet one with not many speakers in Maldives – explains in one example why language preservation matters: +Dhivehi language is absolutely vital to the identity of Maldivians as a people and Maldives as a country, because it is the only feature we all share and which few others have. +It is a strategic factor in our advances towards sustainable development and the harmonious coordination of our affairs. +Far from being a field reserved for writers, Dhivehi lies at the heart of all social, economic and cultural life. +Dhivehi does matter to all of us. +It matters when we want to promote cultural diversity, and fight illiteracy, and it matters for quality education, including teaching in the first years of schooling. +It matters in the fight for greater social inclusion, for creativity, economic development and safeguarding indigenous knowledge. + +India: Poets on Mumbai Terror · Global Voices +This post is part of the Global Voices special coverage on the terror attacks in Mumbai, India on November 26, 2008. +Nothing articulates your heart like a poem. +Sometimes the complex composition of a poem simplifies complex issues of life, sometimes it helps you come in terms with your surroundings. +Poets from India are saddened by the recent terror attacks in Mumbai. +You will find them asking questions in their poetry and sometime they are even answering them for us. +Here are a few snippets of their expressions. +Glory: Image by Flickr user 50mm, used under a Creative Commons License +A 12-year-old girl from Bangalore sets her thoughts on fire. +Soon after the tragic news of the hostages at Nariman House being killed was aired, Lavanya shut herself in her room for about 15 minutes and later handed her dad Anand Krishna with a poem titled ‘The city that never slept, slept’. +More lives are lost, +More battles fought. +The war was raging on, +The guns just fire everywhere, +Victory goes to no one. +The terrorists may be killed, +But the void of the lost loved one is never filled. +The roads are empty, there is no sound. +Mumbai, the city that never slept, +Slept long, deep and sound. +Vivek Sharma at Desicritics used metaphors from epic Indian Tales to describe the Mumbai terror in his poem, “Mumbai burns”: +Did you see the sobbing reporter describe how the Taj of Mumbai burns? +How many will Asuras (devils) cause to die before O Vishnu as avataar returns? +The fanatic bullet hunts gazelles everywhere that nostalgia mourns. +Where is the machine crafted that chokes our unfinished yearns? +Teal titles her poem ‘Battle without a cause’ at ~ Spero ergo sum ~. +She ultimately longs for peace. +But her never ending questions are opaque: +Has the power at center gone completely callous +focused on nothing, but creating chaos, raucous? +How many more to die, how many more to lose +Until they get the backbone to act, and set loose +The act of retribution, against these evil minions +Who, despite education and well bringing, act heinous +How dare you take away something that god has given? +How can you walk on, like nothing ever happened? +Sandhya Ramachandran cannot smile in peace anymore. +She finds no place to go and hide from terror in her poem, “Why can’t I smile in peace?” +I seem to have no streets +to run and play and fall! +There is no place to cycle +no place to hide and crawl +I am a little kid of seven +with her book and toys and doll +Why can't I smile in peace +It is my world too, after all! +Ashq, a 28 year old engineer from Rajasthan wants to know when all this will end. +He titles his Hindi poem, “Aakhir kab tak?” +(Untill when?). + +Michael Jackson 'Converts' to Islam · Global Voices +The King of Pop Michael Jackson has done it again and stories about his alleged conversion to Islam are keeping blogs in the Middle East abuzz with snark comments. +Is Jackson's conversion a part of an American conspiracy "to destroy Islam from within," is it a media stunt or has he finally found his true calling? +The Skeptic from Egypt remarks: +London’s Sun and the slightly more reputable Telegraph report that Michael Jackson has converted to Islam. +Both papers run photos of Jackson out and about in Bahrain, dressed in drag. +I think Run CMD said it best over email: “It’s obviously all part of a devious American plan to destroy Islam from within. +Michael Jackson is working for Dick Cheney. +It all makes sense now.” +From Kuwait, Loft965 notes: +According to this article, Michael Jackson has been converted. +These rumors have been circulating for ages now, but this one seems to be true as all the news agencies are talking of it. +It started with Jermaine Jackson and then the Bahrain residence and now his name is Mikaeel. +I don’t understand why you have to change your name if you convert. It’s not mandatory. +And he has the world’s most recognized name. +I don’t know what to think of this but he sure looks good in a burqa (a veil which covers the face). +Some Contrast, another Kuwait blogger, also tackles the topic. +And Palestinian-American blog Kabobfest, writes about Jackson's alleged conversion and his court case with a Bahraini prince, Shaikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Bahraini King's son who is suing the King of Pop for $7 million. +News is just out that the case has been settled out of court. +In this post, Kalash says: +You may have heard about the latest lawsuit facing Michael Jackson - a Bahraini prince paid him millions of dollars for an album and book that were never produced. +What you probably didn't know is that Jacko has an ace up his sleeve... The King of Pop converted to Islam. +I've been hearing rumors ever since he started spending so much time in the Middle East, but the detail in the most recent report leaves little room for doubt. +He even changed his name to Mikaeel. +I guess he wasn't feeling those Jehovah's Witnesses anymore. +Jordanian blogger Kinzi responds to the post saying: +I almost blogged about this, thought it is better not coming from me. +Mabruk (Congratulations), Ummah of Islam. +What a prize. +Um, good luck, whoever his handler will be. +Piece of work, indeed. +But American Muslim Girl adds: +you know what... I feel sorry for him and definitely he might have some, uh, issues and stuff, but... I don't know... +I wouldnt turn anyone away, especially not someone with a huge mic and many "followers." +Closer to the action, from Bahrain, which Jackson stayed for a year and where a member of the Royal family is at the centre of the court case which has thrust back the 50-year-old pop star to the front pages of newspapers, Esra'a from Mideast Youth runs the headline: Islam wins: Michael Jackson converts. +She further adds: +This one-gloved thriller star is being sued by a local prince here for going against some “contract” and not recording songs about peace or something. +Not that anyone cares what he does. +But sometimes I do, because I grew up obsessing with him. +Then I wasn’t sure if he was white or black or if it was “forbidden” for me to practically worship because he turned into plastic. +Or a woman. +He’s apparently now converting to Islam. +I am still in the “not caring” category. +Esra'a also digs up a two-year old sarcastic letter she penned two years ago, in which a fictional Jackson addresses the world. +In the letter, Esra'a writes: +I’m afraid I’m legally banned from going near any playground since this whole unfortunate misunderstanding with my trousers. +That story has gotten a lot of attention from the media. +Speaking of the overzealous media, I don’t know why I’m surrounded with cameras all the time. +I’m sure the boys and girls of Bahrain don’t want a succession of blurry photos showing me thrashing around my bedroom with a framed picture of their King. +I started wearing an abaya (black cloak women in Bahrain wear). +Our last stop is with Israelicool, from Israel, who notes: +Islam has a new, wacky recruit Mikaeel? +Sounds more like he has converted to Russian mob boss. +But if it turns out that Jackson did convert to Islam, I wonder if he will adapt some of his old songs to conform with his new beliefs. +I am guessing Beat It may be a prime contender. +Commenting on this post, TechyNews notes: +Oh no poor Islam, I am sure they didn't want Wacko Jacko to join their ranks. +Also was this just his excuse to wear a Burka instead of the hospital mask to cover his face? +Silly Jacko, Burkas are for Chicks. + +Jordan: Bloggers Reflect on Valentine's Day · Global Voices +Bloggers' reflections on Valentine's day in Jordan varied between wishes for a happy day, and raising important issues about the holiday. +Here is what some of them had to say.... +Eye on Jordan posted a picture of a donkey painted red in the northern city of Ramtha in celebration of Valentine's Day, and writes: +Viewpoints on the anniversary differ among people from all walks of life. +In the Ramtha district, 80 kilometres to the north of Amman, the celebration of the event was different this year as residents of Ramtha celebrated the event by painting a donkey red and placing it in the city centre for passers-by to see. +One of those who took part in painting the donkey was Ahmad Zu’bi, who said: “We painted the donkey with red to celebrate the event to show how ridiculous it is as if there is only one day to express love throughout the year. +The Diary Sequel wished everyone a happy Valentine's Day, and encouraged girls not to play monopoly with boys: +My late Happy Valentine's to all. +I hope you all had a good one. +I had a great one :) +I had an interesting pleasant and kind of funny day. +Maybe I'll blog about it tomorrow if I'm not too lazy. +By the way girls, NEVER play Monopoly with boys....especially if you're good at it! +Hamzeh argued that only those who are not good at being in a relationship, would celebrate Valentine's and that a happy couple wouldn't: +Please think about it people, why would a happy couple bother celebrating valentine? +I’ll tell you why, because they suck in relationships. +They don’t know when or how to appreciate their relation, when or how to be passionate, when and how to fire it up and totally celebrate. +That’s why, stupidly enough, they wait till flowers and roses prices are high so they mean something again,, crap! +Happy couples don’t do valentine! +Unless they break up on valentine :p +Siegex called for support to end violence against women on Valentine's Day: +Karama, Arabic for dignity, supports a regional movement to end violence against women and is led by women activists from eight sectors: politics, economics, health, art/culture, education, media, law, and religion. +With headquarters in Cairo and a regional office in Amman, Jordan, V-Day Karama builds networks within and across Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Morocco, Algeria, Syria, Sudan, and Tunisia, providing a structure for activists in the region to come together and build the movement for women’s equity and rights. +The V-Day Karama Program head office supplies training, funding, and ongoing support to these diverse women’s networks. +Multinational conferences and forums take place annually to serve as vehicles for fundraising, visibility, and inspiration. +And kinzi raised an important point about the common perception of the holiday amongst Muslims in Jordan that it is Christian, and therefore Muslims should not celebrate it: +In it’s current form and practice, anyway, there is no religious connotation. +Sure, there is some historical background, but nothing worth stomping roses over. +Lil Kinz came home sad from school. +She had asked her dad to bring back Valentine’s Day cards for her classmates, and then carefully wrote out the names of her friends. +She was excited to pass them out today. +She came home to say that a little boy told the other kids they couldn’t take them because they were “Christian”. +Those who received them he took and ripped up, he even took them away from the Christian kids. +We had the little discussion about rudeness being a state of all humanity, but I can see the wheels turning in her little mind. +Just in case anyone is wondering, these weren’t ’stealth’ Christian Valentine’s cards with a hidden evangelistic message. +They were from Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda. +Ya salaam. + +Egypt: Bloggers React to Cairo bombings · Global Voices +A French tourist was killed and around 20 people were injured when a bomb exploded outside the Al Hussein Mosque in Cairo's popular tourist area Khan Al Khalili earlier today. +And as the world was coming to grips with what was happening on the ground, Egypt's bloggers were quick at work, exchanging updates, information, analysis and concerns. +It all started when Zenobia posted a message on Twitter reporting that "There is some kind of explosion in Cafe at Al Azhar." +Minutes later Arabawy followed up with another confirming message which read: "Explosion in el-Mashhad el-Husseini Street, Cairo." +Moftasa was the first to guess a link between the bombings and a new controversial anti-terrorism law, which will be discussed within days in the Egyptian parliament. +The draft law was met by wide objections. +Nothing was confirmed yet, and rumors were circulating; however, Zeinobia was trying to gather updates from different sources Newspapers and TV channels in a quick but comprehensive roundup. +The Arabist, who was near the area and heard both explosions himself, wrote: +Am hearing reports of a bomb going off in the medieval part of Cairo near Khan al-Khalili, a major tourist destination. +Will update as more news is available. +Update: Al Jazeera reporting 11 deaths, three Egyptians, three Germans, one French, 16 wounded, one french dead these and others remain to be confirmed. +Update 2: Already activists are saying this is conveniently close to next month when the Emergency Law is to be discussed in parliament… Update 3: Four dead (German and French), 12 wounded, various nationalities. +moftasa then posts a link to a photograph from the blast area on Twitter. +And while Msfour, and American expat living in Cairo, was the first to ask bloggers on Twitter to use the tag #cairobomb, Arabawy was the first to ask bloggers to use a unified delicious tag: El-HusseinExplosion to pool all links under the same URL. +Yassary Masry , Carl, Msfour, Maree, Rob, SandMonkey and Grey wool Knickers were among the first to blog about the incident, whether to comfort their friends and families or to discuss if they think there is a connection between the bombings and the anti-terrorism law or not. +Grey wool Knickers wrote a short note connecting the last events happening in Egypt, trying to relate them to the recent bombings: +As several people have noted, this comes at a very suspicious time, considering that the extension of the State of Emergency (in place since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, with a brief break during Sadat’s presidency) was just about to be considered once again. +Mubarak’s government has been promising for years to come forth with an anti-terrorism law to replace martial law, which would at least give citizens some protection under Egypt’s constitution. +The regime is currently able to invoke the Emergency Law to do whatever it wants, which is what readers here will recognize in the abuction of Philip Rizk and Diaa Gad, among many others. +With the changes afoot in US and Israeli administrations—along with increasingly vocal, powerful and interconnected resistance groups, domestically and across the border in Gaza—it seems the aging Mubarak regime is getting nervous and finds little option to maintain its grip on power but to resort to a strategy of tension. +I think the recent release of celebrated political prisoner Ayman Nour should be considered as evidence of the panic roiling the upper echelons of this dictatorship. +For developing news on this event, check this delicious feed. +Until the writing of this post it has been confirmed that a 21-year-old French girl was killed, and around 20 people of different nationalities were injured. +However, it still seems to be pretty early to jump into conclusions about who is responsible for the blast. +Pictures can be found on Ahmed AbdelFatah's blog and readers can follow Egyptian bloggers on Twitter here. + +Indonesia: Clinton visit a "diplomatic success" · Global Voices +U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Cameron Hume blogged about Secretary Clinton's visit to Jakarta. +He says the visit was a diplomatic success. + +Pakistan: Honor Killings And Islam · Global Voices +Imam Zaid Shakir at GOATMILK: An intellectual playground reminds us that "the practice of honor killings has absolutely no sanction in the Qur’an, the Prophetic practice, or in the evolved systems of Islamic law." + +Clinton visits Indonesia · Global Voices +United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Indonesia last Wednesday. +She affirmed “Indonesia’s role in handling global problems, including terrorism, protectionism, climate change and the economic crisis.” +Indonesia is the largest Muslim nation in the world and the third largest democracy. +Aside from meeting the leaders of Indonesia, Clinton found the time to visit a slum community in Jakarta. +She also appeared in a teen-oriented TV show. +Everything Indonesia believes Clinton's visit to Indonesia starts a new era in American foreign policy: +Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Indonesia starts a new era in American foreign policy. +A lot less unilateral arrogance, a lot more inclusiveness and so-called smart power. +Mbak Rita observes that Clinton looks younger today: +"I really think that she looks younger and more goodlooking, maybe it was because of her constant smile she gave during her visit here...Some people on some boring TV talkshow mentioned previously that Jakarta is a little overreacted with her visit. +I am glad that I was wrong about that." +Devi Girsang was surprised about Jakarta’s traffic on the day Clinton arrived: +As a Jakartan who used to stuck in traffic, I tend to be panicky if the streets are quiet and deserted look-alike. +There are only two things popped in my mind in that case; there's a bomb terror or rampages. +Remember 1998 Jakarta riots or 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing? +Then you must know what I mean Around 2 PM today, it turned out to be US Secretary of States Hillary Clinton's arrival in Jakarta that stopped the traffic! +Lucky for me, there's still battery power remained on my digital camera to take a few snapshots. +Therry, in a comment, wonders if the US sent a fake Clinton: +I saw the speech Hillary made on television and I don't know whether it's just me but that woman doesn't look exactly like Hillary. +I'm starting to think the US government sent a fake one to us, because that woman looks too old and motherly to be Hillary! +Not everybody was cheering the visit of Hillary Clinton in Indonesia. +Picture from Jakarta Today +Andreas Harsono wanted Clinton to raise the issues of religious freedom, impunity, and military reform during her visit: +"(Clinton) should be careful not to say that Muslims in Indonesia are “moderate,” as most diplomatic visitors like to say. +For members of persecuted religious groups in Indonesia, it is a useless and inaccurate cliche. +"Concern over rising religious intolerance is not the only human rights issue Clinton should raise with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. +Freedom of expression is also a huge problem on islands where ethnic minorities show their resistance toward the Indonesian state. +But in Indonesia, even peaceful acts like a flag raising can land you in jail for a long time "Clinton may be tempted to gloss over issues like religious freedom, impunity, and military reform, in favor of closer Indonesian-US ties. +But if she does, she’ll miss a golden opportunity to transform the lives of many people in Indonesia who need pressure on the government to recognize their rights." +Via Twitter, below are some reactions to the Clinton visit: +waxinglyrical: someone asked who is Hillary Clinton?? +mirageinblue: saw hillary clinton at the lobby. awesome oplet: Obama Fans Club stages protest against Hillary Clinton in Jakarta, saying they're just not that into her since presidential race +Picture from Flickr page of US Department of State + +Pakistan: The Taliban Truce Deal · Global Voices +There is a civil war going on in Swat valley in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan for more than half a year between the Pakistani army and the pro-Taliban groups operating in that region. +Hundreds of people have died and thousands of civilians have been displaced due to the ongoing clashes. +The radical groups have shut down all girls schools, banned women in a market, snapped cable connections etc. claiming these are not Islamic. +A couple of days ago the Pakistan government has agreed on a truce deal with Maulana Sufi Mohammed of the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM, English: Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law) in consideration that sharia law based Nizam-e-Adl regulations will replace the law in the Malakand Division of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). +The pro-Taliban militants in Swat declared a 10-day ceasefire after peace negotiations had been rolled out by the NWFP government and the deal was imminent. +Chowrangi writes in the post "Why Restoration of Sharia Law is No Taliban Victory": +While celebrations are going on in Malakand and Swat, Western media has expressed its worry about the implementation of "Islamic Law" in the region, taking this as a victory of the Taliban– and defeat of Pakistani Government. +To correct this misconception, we have to first look into the origins of the demand for Sharia Law. +In 1969, the states of Swat, Dir and Chitral officially joined Pakistan and annexed into a division called Malakand, with Saidu Sharif (in Swat) as its capital. +Historically, people of these states followed their tribal system of justice, earlier known as Rewaj (Customary Law) and later as Sharia. +After becoming a part of Pakistan, the people of Malakand had to face the legal system of Pakistan, based on a British legal system fraught with complex procedures, which were slow, expensive and corrupt. +Soon, they started to demand reverting back to their former, independent system of justice. +The Pakistani government refused. +This dissatisfaction gave rise to the movement of TSNM by Maulana Sufi Mohammad in 1994. +Later on, his son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah broke away from the movement and started militant activities. +From their early days in provincial government, leaders of ANP acted with diplomatic and political acumen, first releasing Sufi Mohammad and then supporting the moderate elements of the region. +Now, by meeting public demand, they are positioned to isolate ‘Taliban’ elements of Malakand, who have lost their popular leverage. +Hopefully, peace will return to Swat, once again. +Manan Ahmed of Chapati Mystery says this is not new as similar deals were struck earlier: +There exists a history - 1994, 1999, 2007 - of efforts to install a Shari-Nizam-e-Adl (Islamic Order of Justice) in Swat region. +You can check my previous post on Swat to get a sense of this history, 'Akond of Swat'. +Sultan-i-Rome portrays the real situation of Swat in a report published by the Institute of Peace and Conflict studies: +Swat is at crossroads. +If both sides remain adamant and refuse to budge from their stated stances and precautions; it is likely to spell ruin for Swat and its inhabitants... If the issue was not resolved through negotiations, Swat's fate could be more tragic than Iraq. +Jauhar Ismail at All Things Pakistan is unsure whether the deal in Swat is a good move or bad move: In my opinion, the devil is really in the details and the implementation of this agreement. +The blog also highlights opinions of Ahsan Mirza, a student based in Toronto, who discusses the human elements of this conflict: The ceasefire is a highly desperate and hopeless act by the Pakistan government to restore peace to the valley. +In January, BBC News ran a regular “Diary of a Pakistani Schoolgirl” in which a grade 7 schoolgirl from Swat wrote her reflections as the Taliban announced and then executed a moratorium on girl’s education in the Valley. +Reading the diary would bring tears to any readers’ eyes. What will be the fate of these schools under the new law? +To me, the closing of these girls schools is only symptomatic of what will happen under such an extremist regime. +Yasser Latif Hamdani at Pak Tea House writes: +The imposition of a selective and retrogressive interpretation of Islam as a parallel system to the constitution and legal system of the country in any part of the country is in contravention to the very idea of Pakistan as an enlightened and modern state that it was envisaged by its founding father. +It is a break-away from the liberal Muslim national consciousness that rose up atop twin planks of modernity and women’s empowerment which ultimately led to the creation of Pakistan. +Faisal K. at Deadpan Thoughts thinks that peace has come with enormous costs: +The blog comments: The horrific murder of GEO’s Mosa Khankel today is an ominous indication that this peace deal will not spell an end to the violence in Swat. + +Vietnam startups encountering difficulties · Global Voices +In the past two years, almost 100 web 2.0 startups were launched in Vietnam. +Many of these projects are encountering difficulties today. +FaceViet, launched in August 2007 and hailed as Vietnam’s first Facebook clone was reported to be bankrupt already. +(FaceViet founder denies this report). +There is a rumor that Vietnam Online Network is looking for buyers. +Cyvee, Vietnam’s first social network for professionals, is laying off 75 percent of its workforce. +Fresco 2.0 thinks the failure of some of these startups is inevitable but adds that “It is unfair to pin the blame for the misfortune of these start-ups 2.0 on the recession.” +Harry Do is worried about the status of other startups: +“If FaceViet’s bankruptcy rumors are for real, this would be a sad, but predictable chapter of Vietnam’s web 2.0 bubble. +It would leave a lot of implications for web 2.0 Vietnam and more than 100 Vietnamese web startups still struggling to establish a sustainable business model in Vietnam, especially in the wake of the current financial crunch.” +He analyzes the failure of FaceViet: +“FaceViet failed to gain enough traction and reach critical mass not because of their vision...Poor execution and a lack of thorough understanding of local insights cannot compensate for a good vision, adequate funding and a passionate management team. +If FaceViet could address these issues in the beginning, I thought FaceViet would be very much different from what they are now, and this is a real pity” +Harry and Fresco 2.0 identify some of the startups in Vietnam +Blog.com.vn - Teen social network +Caravat - LinkedIn clone in Vietnam +Chacha.vn - iLike clone +Chuyendong.vn - Teen social network +Clip.vn - YouTube clone +Cyvee - LinkedIn clone in Vietnam +Linkhay - Digg clone +PhunuNet - Women social network +Sannhac - Online karaoke community +Tamtay.vn - A hybrid of Facebook and MySpace +TeeVN - Zazzle clone +Thodia.vn - Yelp clone +traitim.vn - A social network for lovers +buzz.vn - A combination of Digg and Delicious +Zing - Vietnam’s largest portal for teens +Vietnamworks - Online job service +Clipvn is first web service in Vietnam to reach 1 million users. +Sannhac recorded the fastest growth with 200 thousand users in 6 months. +Vietnamworks is recognized as among the most successful start-ups to date. +There are only three thousand Twitter users in Vietnam. +But Twitter-like platforms have been developed. +For example: Ola Me and Loop. +Aside from FaceViet, other Facebook clones include TheGioiBan.com and Guongmat +Screenshot of Ola Me, a Vietnam startup +Fresco 2.0 notes that startups in Vietnam should develop better models and services in order to be financially viable: +“Web 2.0 start-ups are surely hot, with a slew of new-comers springing up every now and then. +But how will they go about making money? +So how would all of these emerging technologies start monetizing their products? +“The key here is: before you start to think about money, think about your service first. +I don’t understand why most Vietnamese entrepreneurs get so excited about their products and I don’t get the same kind of excitement when I use them. +Am I a bit out of touch?” + +Australian wildfires and web tools · Global Voices +What Australia is calling the deadliest fires in its history claimed the lives of at least 108 people, burned a half million acres of land and destroyed an estimated 750 homes over the weekend of February 7 - 8. +In the worst hit state, Victoria, firefighters counted more than 45 active blazes, and as of Monday (Australian time), eight were still burning. +Scores of people remained unaccounted for in this area north of Melbourne. +Fires are common during the Australian summer, but uncommonly high temperatures (Saturday, thermometers topped out at 47 Celsius — or 117 Fahrenheit), strong winds and one of the worst droughts on record combined to create these devastating blazes that surprised entire towns. +Survivors say in some places walls of flames reached four storeys high and bolted across the land. +People hid in pools, in olive groves while others had time to evacuate. +Victims were found in cars, in houses, unable to escape the flames, smoke and heat. +The death toll accounts for Australia’s largest natural fire disaster, surpassing the 75 victims of fires on Ash Wednesday, 1983. +With devastation so widespread, and the threat of fire continuing, citizen journalists have had a hard time getting near the scenes. +Yet, the internet is full of pertinent information for those living in affected areas about the continuing spread of fires and those outside who want to stay tuned. +Three developers, Alan Noble, Raul Vera and Pamela Fox, at Google Engineering created a Google Map illustrating the real-time status of fires within Victoria. +They also added functionality for users search by specific address. +Here is their explanation at the Google Australia blog: +We've today pulled together a Flash Map, containing the latest up-to-date information about fire locations and their status from the Country Fire Authority (CFA). +The Flash Map is updated in real-time from the CFA website via an RSS feed. +We hope that it's of some use to people who may be affected, to emergency services personnel, and that it takes some load off other websites which are being inundated. +The map certainly makes the scale of this disaster immediately apparent. +Here's the map: +Referenced in the above post is the CFA, the County Fire Authority — one of the world’s largest volunteer-based emergency services — whose site continues to update the different fires they are responding to across the State of Victoria. +Using much the same technology as the Google developers, the Australian newspaper has created an interactive map demonstrating where deaths have occurred. +Here is a satellite image of the fires from the University of Maryland/NASA Modis. +The same group also created a time-sensitive fire mapper using satellite images to see fires within the previous 24 hours, 48 hours, week, all the way back to 2005. +Aus-Emaps.com provides is a link of Brush Fire incidents throughout Victoria. +. +Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has used his Twitter account to inform his more than 7,100 followers how to donate to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund or providing contact information for those needing emergency government assistance. +Staying with Twitter awhile longer, people have used the micro-blogging platform for a variety of information pertaining to this disaster. +A volunteer fire fighter, Tweeting under cfavolunteer was very much in the thick of things Saturday. +In one tweet of many: +Is sitting for a short break for the first time in 12 hours. +But about to go back to the fires. +Another: +Returns from the township of Calignee where everything is gone. +Another: +7th February 2009 will go down in history for all the wrong reasons. +I hope people are safe, especially after what I have seen. +Finally winds down after another day. +I feel sorry for people who have lost property and loved ones. +Will probably not recover from what he has seen today. +People are also using the platform to ask specific questions: +geehall1, living in Melbourne, inquires: +Anyone with updates Beechworth and Gippsland areas? +Any other parts of the state? +Strictly, a writer and web publisher living in Brisbane, provided a lot of information. +Urgent Crystal Creek etc west side of Black Range increased - LEAVE now if you can +46 fires burning across the state, 8 not contained +Photos have been the perfect medium to demonstrate the destruction of these fires. Australian-based photographer Aussie_Pecker started a group pool called Victorian Bushfires - February 2009 because he wanted to create “ historic diary, recording the images from the worst fires to ravage our beautiful state.” +Then we have Facebook groups, like those supporting fire fighters, to protecting the australian bush against bush fires - +"Every year in australia,we have to contend with bush fires and quite often , delibritly lit fires,so lets make an effort to fix the problem." — or an anti-arsonist group and a group organizing a Bushfire relief fundraiser: +My home State of Victoria is burning. +As of right now the death toll is 108. +Thousands of people are homeless with entire towns having been burned to the ground. Please join me in helping to raise as much money as we possibly can through the Australian Red Cross to help these people rebuild their lives. +Facebook is a wonderful worldwide community. +Let's use it to help these devastated communities +Photo on front page taken from the Flickr page of jsarcadia + +Malaysia: Many are not satisfied with their sex lives · Global Voices +Myhorng links to an article which shows that many Malaysians are not satisfied with their sex lives. + +Indonesia: Tsunami museum · Global Voices +A Tsunami Museum opened in Aceh, Indonesia last Monday to commemorate the 230,000 people who died in the 2004 Asian tsunami. +But some have criticized the project since they want the government to prioritize the homeless tsunami refugees. + +East Timor: Suai Media Space Challenges the Digital Divide · Global Voices +Nine years after East Timor was connected to the Internet for the first time, the country still faces a deep digital divide. +Physical access to technology, resources and tools is difficult; one hour surfing the Internet is as expensive as the basic daily salary, and digital citizen participation or e-commerce is virtually non-existent. +In the smallest communities, such as Suai, in the south of East Timor, connectivity through the Internet remains a dream. +Among those fighting to minimize this digital divide is Australian documentary-maker Jen Hughes, the founder of Suai Media Space - a social media project connecting the people of Suai with the world community. +Putting culture and creativity at the centre of friendship, the project's main aim is “for the voices of the youth of Suai to be heard all over the world”. +Q: How did you get involved with East Timor? +A: I began following the story of friendship between Port Phillip (my neighbourhood) and Suai in December 1999. +The friendship was begun to help Suai recover. +I was interested in what role this kind of cross-border cross-cultural friendship would play in the recovery of the Timorese people from trauma and devastation, and what the Timorese would be doing to recover themselves. +The result is the Suai Media Space website where there is content written and made by youth and others from Suai as well as myself and a documentary in the form of a series of video Letters to Suai and Port Phillip (that I will be uploading this year). +I shot the footage over nine years as I followed and participated in the friendship between people from these two extremely different places. +Viewed together the 'letters' reveal a rich and beautiful Timorese traditional culture that serves the Timorese well in their healing process. +They also reveal a culture in transition to modernity, indeed to post-modernity and the digital age, as the young are keen to embrace digital tools and the Internet to express their music and their stories. +Photo: Friends of Suai Rock +Q: Which are the communities you work with? +A: There are two communities I work with. +Port Phillip in Melbourne and Suai a rural town in Southwest East Timor. +Getting them involved actually on the website is difficult and it is still emerging. +From 1999 to now my ‘project’ has evolved in response to what the Friends of Suai has been doing, what is going on in Port Phillip and East Timor, particularly Suai, my resources and technological changes. +I began by collecting stories and forming relationships in Port Phillip and Suai as well as Dili and Darwin the bridging cities. +Within those places the people who relate to my project are mostly Australians, Timorese and Timorese Australians living in Timor and Australia. +Q: How does the community get involved with the project? +A: There are so many ways the community can get involved it is really up to their imagination. +But just becoming a friend of Suai by viewing and reading the stories, commenting, linking through your blogs or websites or joining the friendship through the various avenues is a great start. +Another very important contribution is translation of course. +The more languages we have the more diverse our community can become. +It may be, that community involvement on the website grows this year, it may not come in the ten year period I have committed to the project or at all. +At present people from both communities can request to become an author, in which case they can do everything themselves because the website is built with blog software to enable this. +Anyone can join the Facebook group, subscribe to our YouTube page and link to it, send a story and photos or a short video by email, CD, DVD, and I'll upload them on their behalf. +I have created a Ning social network site too. +I haven't promoted the social network sites yet. +I'm waiting for Broadband to arrive in Suai and for them to have some more workshops. +Then they can show each other the site and teach each other. +If people wish to help me or just talk to me because they have particular skills they would like to offer, they can contact me and start the conversation. +There have been many activities with various people in the Community in Suai which has led to the development of content. +This year a young man by the name of Chamot from Kamenassa Suai, heard about Suai Media Space through a mutual friend, and sent me his poems by email requesting that I upload them to Suai Media Space. +I have invited people who visit the site to translate those. +We are looking for an English and a Portuguese translator for these if anyone would like to volunteer? +Q: How do people access the Internet from East Timor, and particularly from Suai? +A: The Internet did not come to the Suai community until about 2004. +In 1999 in Port Phillip we had dial-up access in our homes businesses and libraries. +In East Timor all communication infrastructure was destroyed by Indonesian backed militia as they left the country after the vote. +By the time I went to Suai in July 2000 Telstra Australia was providing expensive mobile telephone communication that was unreliable in the districts and landline connections in Dili. +I think the connection was going from Timor via Darwin and back into Timor. +I heard calls were billed at international rates. +In the emergency phase the UN had a satellite in Suai which some of the NGO's could use but in the main we relied on mobiles. +Occasionally when a friend from the UN helped we could use their email access. +The UN took the satellite with them when they pulled out! +At this time access for Timorese was extremely difficult. +UN people and UN police often didn't know who were militia and who were not and so often foreigners could get access to special privileges like access to the Internet and helicopters to Dili, that locals could not. +The Timor Telecom Internet access in Suai is a dial-up connection. +The office provides one computer terminal for the whole Covalima area, plus one can plug in a laptop simultaneously. +So for the few who have a laptop they can usually jump on quite quickly while others are using the Timor Telecom computer. +The cost is exorbitant for the majority of people at $US2 per hour. +The Timorese people I know who used the Internet were waged with jobs in NGO's. +I was giving story writing for the Internet workshops which were accompanied by photographs that had been reduced in size to under 30 KB in Photoshop. +We were able upload the text but we were unable to upload the photographs or send them by email to Australia for uploading whilst using the Timor Telecom terminal and an Apple McIntosh laptop. +Several times we tried to get help over the counter locally and to contact Timor Telecom in Dili to get help with this but in the end gave up in disgust. +I am a very experienced Internet user and my colleague, who is also Australian, but who has worked and lived in East Timor and Indonesia for several years, is very experienced user of email and Timor Telecom. +She speaks Tetun but not Portuguese. +Together we were unable to get help. +The local terminal gives frequent warnings about viruses, but when we asked local office staff how to respond to it we were advised to ignore it. +When free broadband access is available in Suai the social network software linked to the site should make the connection between the two communities and the rest of the world more real on a broader front. +Then all we will have left as an inhibitor will be the language barrier! +To overcome this we will need some volunteer translators and some good community cultural development concepts to grease the wheels of the relationships. +Then we shall see if we can truly have a friendship between two communities that helps the people of Suai rebuild. +Q: How did the YoMaTre, the Youth Media Centre start? +How has the project developed? +A: I began working directly with the coordinator of the Covalima youth Centre, Ergilio Vicente in 2006, when I partnered with the Friends of Suai. +I met Ergilio before that, in 2000 when we first discussed the project and I also knew Josh Trinidade who set up the youth centre in 2000. +The rest of that story is on the website. +My first ‘community involvement’ was in the form of an attempt at a friendship with Sergio da Costa, who is a Suai artist. +He was about 18 when we started, now he is 27. +Sergio and I began exchanging things such as art materials, tape recorders, tapes, CD’s letters and paintings, by asking people to carry them for us. +And this is how most of our content in the form of movies, letters and photographs have exchanged hands over the first eight or nine years. +Sergio’s work and other artistic works from Suai can be seen here. +My first ‘community involvement’ was in the form of an attempt at a friendship with Sergio da Costa, who is a Suai artist. +Photo: Self-Portrait by Sergio da Costa. +Pencil on Paper 2000. +Initially Sergio gave me and sent me a lot of his drawings. +Some of them were intensely sad self-portraits. +So in 2003 I returned to Suai with them and Sergio and I made a video about his work with him providing the narrative for it. +I edited it and checked it with him when I returned in 2006. +That video is still to be uploaded this year. +He has a copy of it on DVD and I have some more material to add to it. +All of the films I make are sent to Suai or I take them and they are screened there in a variety of contexts - public and private. +The Circle of Stones is the most popular. +In 2006 we delivered media tools funded by the Friends of Suai in Port Phillip, and I ran the first video production workshops. +Since then YoMaTre a youth media training organisation has been formed and a range of Internet and video production workshops have been held. +In June last year we held workshops to teach the YoMaTre members how to write for the Internet, take digital photographs and how to manipulate and downsize them for the web and we made some imovies. +As well as this we showed them how to upload the stories in to Suai Media Space. +Their stories can be read in Tetun (the local language) and English. +Here you will also see stories and photographs written by YoMaTre members about their Peace activities late last year. +I stay with the Timorese market people and sleep on the floor in Suai. +I shop in the local market, and I have been doing this for nine years. +As I drove past the market in June 2008 I heard a voice yell out “Jen Hughes” – that was a bright moment for me. +Photo: Ergilio Grassi. Lin and others unpack video equipment February, 2006 +Q: Despite difficulties in access to the Internet, the Port Phillip and Suai communities seem to love interacting between themselves. +Can you tell us about the Exchanging Rock Messages project? +A: In 2001 I made a film calling for justice that was based on footage shot on the occasion of the first anniversary of the massacre in Suai. +It was called the Circle of Stones. +At that first Anniversary the people of Suai had placed a rock or a simply inscribed rock in a circle outside the Church where the massacre took place. +Photo: Circle of Stones, Suai, First Anniversary, Suai Church Massacre, September 6, 2000. +The following year I initiated a screening of the Circle of Stones and a remembrance event in Port Phillip at the St Kilda Town Hall. +Since hi-tech solutions for connection and involvement were not available I thought it would be great to use the communication medium used by the people of Suai to remember their loved ones. +So we invited the people of Port Phillip to bring a rock inscribed with a message to the people of Suai and form a circle of stones to remember those who died on the Second Anniversary of the Suai Church Massacre, September 9, 2001. +About 200 people attended that, viewed the film, listened to music and stories and placed a rock and flowers in a circle outside the Town Hall. +These rocks and the circles of stones now link the two communities and before the 10th Anniversary in September all those rocks will be on Suai Media Space in a special place. +In September this year also, we hope this story will be projected at the 10th Anniversary of the Massacre in Suai. +Circle of Stones, a 2001 Video +Q: And what about the self-portrait exchange? +A: A youth worker in Port Phillip initiated a self-portrait exhibition for youth in Port Phillip and asked the Friends of Suai to invite some artists from Suai to send some paintings to include in it. Sergio’s prolific portrait painting practice means he knows all the other artists in Suai, so Sergio was called upon to introduce them to the Friends of Suai. +... the others were young boys whose work could be seen all over the walls of Suai. First fhoto: Portrait of a Boy by Atoy; second photo: Art on Walls of Suai by Almeida (Both in June 2008) They were paid and given art materials to produce self-portraits for the portrait exhibition in Port Phillip. + +Bangladesh: Citizen Journalists Covering BDR Mutiny · Global Voices +Today morning Dhaka was rattled by a fierce gun battle inside the headquarters of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR - paramilitary border security force) situated in the heart of the capital. +Rumors had started to fly and later it emerged that junior officers have taken control and locked up seniors officers in a mutiny. +Gun and mortar shell firings were heard and local media reported that 3 civilians and 2 BDR officials have died. +But the real toll can be way more as eyewitnesses saw more dead bodies being carried inside the BDR compound. +The compound was circled by the security forces and the armed forces were sent in to quell the mutiny but the BDR members resisted them. +BBC has posted some pictures and some background of BDR. +There was a crisis for information and the website of the country's major 24 hour online news source was inaccessible probably due to heavy traffic. +That's where citizen journalists filled the void. +Civilians fleeing from the scene. +Copyright Drishtipat and used with permission +Here are some eyewitness pictures posted in Unheard Voices blog. +There were questions all around why they mutinied and these could be gathered from the various citizen media sites in Bangla and English: +* The disparity between army pay scale and BDR pay scale was a sore point. +* Discrimination and mistreatment +* Corruption of BDR high officials especially in Operation Daal Bhaat +* No peacekeeping missions for them +Earlier in September 2008 some irregularities regarding Operation Daal Bhaat was highlighted in this Bangla Blog. +Bangla Blogging platform Sachalayatan has been updating the news via posting phone reports from its citizen journalists in Dhaka. +Some are updating the news via twitter like Asif Saleh and Rajputro. +BDFact has been updating on different issues: +The blogger placed some pertinent questions: +1. +Did they ask for financial support and additional privileges? +For how long these demands were made and not being addressed? Why? +We need sequential stories. +2. +All sector commanders were present in today's meeting at Darbar Hall. +So, it cannot be the case that it was an accident. +Who masterminded this? +7. +What is now happening outside capital? +Do we know for sure if situation is under control, or not? +This is a defining moment for Bangladesh. +The blogger updates about the negotiation phase: +A 15-member BDR team, led by Nanok (state minister for LGRD), has moved to PM's house to start negotiation. +Their immediate demand is to free BDR from military's control. +Meanwhile, UNB reported soldiers took control of Goalkhali BDR camp here after the revolt by their colleagues at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in Dhaka, triggering tensions through the southern city. +Journalists trying to cover and keep away from the firing. +Copyright Drishtipat and used with permission +UNB ticker reporting: "PM announces amnesty for rebels; BDR delegation promises to surrender arms." +LGRD's Nanok confirmed the amnesty after meeting of PM with BDR representatives. +The Jawans promised that they will turn in arms (possibly by next morning. +After Army and RAB are withdrawn). +Rebel Jowans are claiming they were fired upon first, during meeting in the Darbar Hall in the morning. +A commenter at the Unheard Voices blog spells a hard truth: +This immediate acceptance of agenda set by the BDR also sends dangerous precedents for other groups to do the same thing if they feel marginalized. +In Bangladesh, if no one listens to you then go on rampage and your demands will be met immediately. +It’s been proven a successful strategy for the Students, Garment Workers, Political Parties, and now the BDR. +Ack Ack Gun on Satmasjid, Road 7A. +Copyright Drishtipat and used with permission +Everything was calm and quiet in Dhaka in the evening and Rajputro sends this twitter message a while ago: +The situation is far from over and still volatile. +Please keep an eye on the above mentioned citizen media sources to get the latest updates. + +Costa Rica: Creativity Through Collectivity · Global Voices +Like a delicious recipe, artistic, musical and visual talents are placed together as ingredients in a functional and creative tendency: collectives. +Across Costa Rica, many creative groups and collectives are using social media to showcase their work and connect with like-minded enthusiasts. +These are some examples of collectives in the fields of film, music, and the visual arts. +Filmic productions + +Madagascar: Rumors terrorize Antananarivo · Global Voices +Truth and freedom of speech and opinion seem to be victims of the political crisis that is now crippling Madagascar. +Threats are being made and rumors being spread, all contributing to a climate of terror that prohibits peace and normal life. +Jentilisa, a blogger who has not given his support to Andry Rajoelina's protest movement, reports receiving threats: +"for more restraint and to stop the hatred, incitement, rumors and misinformation in their news items and editorial line." Some journalists have been heard inciting mobs to hatred on various radio stations, especially the TGV VIVA radio station. Journalists have shamelessly designated some individuals as "Enemies of the People", while giving information on their homes and license plate numbers on the radio. +These "Enemies of the People" are then targeted by mobs and their homes are burned down or looted. +"Finally! the incumbent speaks up and his people show Madagascar and the world that they are not interested in a new government being forced upon them. +I was really starting to wonder what Ravalomana could do. +I hope this is the beginning of a realisation for the Malagasy people… Wouldn’t that be great? +There was about 30,000 people inside of the arena and about 10,000 outside of the arena, all standing in the rain supporting their country and democracy. +Most inside where shouting “Arrest TGV!” repeatedly (which is not a bad idea) and carrying around banners that say “Tsy Mila TGV” (We dont need TGV)!" +Singers were invited to perform, among them Samoela, whose song "President" seems now prescient in describing this power struggle: +"Unconfirmed reports claim that Andry TGV told the crowd that President Ravalomanana left the country." +Rumors on protesters of both camps being bribed: +"I think people here just want to live in peace. +They want to go to work or to school without the fear of being trapped in riots, or taken by force to join those who are on strike. +Shop owners want to open their businesses and be sure that no one will loot and burn them. +We are fed up with this feeling of permanent insecurity.The last protest didn’t draw as many followers as before still people are wary because nothing is sure yet. +Even though we are back to our daily life we don’t know what will happen tomorrow." + +Pakistan: Caste System Still Alive · Global Voices +Raza Rumi at Jahane Rumi comments on casteism in Pakistan: "I live in a society where branding and group labels are essential, if not unavoidable. +For this reason I am peeved that I still don’t know who I am." + +Israel: Novelist Writes From Palestinian Perspective · Global Voices +Matt Beynon Rees is a Jerusalem-based crime novelist whose third book, The Samaritan's Secret, has just been published to positive reviews. +His protagonist is the Palestinian school teacher and amateur sleuth, Omar Yussef. +Rees explains: "I think of my novels as humanist, filtering out the politics that makes people see the Palestinians as stereotypes (either of terrorists or victims)." + +Japan and Taiwan: Gay politics · Global Voices +Roy Berman from Mutantfrog Travelogue notices the different between gay politics in Japan and Taiwan. + +The Greatest Street Party on Earth: The Brazilian Carnival · Global Voices +A week ago today, Brazilians were waking up to enjoy the country's most celebrated annual festival: the Carnival, or rather, the biggest extravaganza on Earth that draws millions of people onto the streets of the many cities all over the country. +It is one of many European imports that having mixed Native, African and European elements, have found their own flavor, colours and fame in Brazil. +Nevermind the worldwide economic crisis, or Brazil's own everyday crises – it is carnival as usual. +The numbers for domestic and international tourism were above expectations and higher than last year's, following the trend for yearly growth. +It was expected that 719,000 international tourists would visit Rio de Janeiro alone (last year, there were 705,000). +And with the dollar on a high, many of the Brazilians who would normally spend their holidays abroad decided to have a carnival at home, traveling within the country. +During Carnival, people dress up, indulge themselves or just take the always welcomed opportunity of time off to recharge batteries. +The country grinds to a halt during the celebration, and many say the new year only begins after carnival. +It is impossible not to laugh at people's creativity when it comes to making costumes with a pinch of irreverence, sense of humour and an eye for local and international current affairs. +Here are some of the best photos licensed under Creative Commons posted on Flickr. +"First" day, Saturday, 21st +Not enough room to swing an umbrella! +In Recife, Carnival starts officially with Galo da Madrugada, Brazil's biggest carnival "bloco", figuring in the The Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest carnival parade in the world. +Photo by Felipe Ferreira (FF). +The condom man in Recife, photo by carlosoliveirareis. +During Carnival, authorities give out millions of condoms, but still, a baby boom is always expected nine months after. +Another very elaborated costume: an ironing lady in the streets of Recife, in photo by carlosoliveirareis. +Revelers at São Paulo's Sambodromo. +Photo by André Cherri. +Forgiveness Sunday, 22nd +Rodrigo Soldon has a shot at the Mona Lisa, enjoying herself at Rio Canival. +Cordão do Boitatá, Rio de Janeiro. +Photo by by Luciano Joaquim +For those who can not spend much time away from social network sites, here is the Orkut costume. +Rio de Janeiro. +Photo by URBefotos. +Fidel Castro also visited Olinda for Carnival. +Photo by Ádria de Souza/Pref.Olinda. +Among other politicians, Barack Obama was also spotted in many parts of the country, but unfortunately, the lucky papparrazzi did not upload their pictures under a Creative Commons license. +Clean Monday, 23rd +The Iraqi journalist, Bush and the flying shoe enjoyed themselves in Olinda. +You know the background. +Photo by Ádria de Souza/Pref.Olinda +A kiss from actress Paola Oliveira, the drum queen of Grande Rio Samba School, one among 30 schools to compete in the Samba School Parade. Photo by dubiella. +Photo by ane aguirre. Shrove Tuesday, 24th +Venice? +No, Olinda! +Photo by Ádria de Souza/Pref.Olinda +Jumping non stop in São Paulo. +Photo by Cristiano Caniche. +No pancake day in Brazil, the last day of Carnival is melancholy - early hours, Rio de Janeiro. +Photo by Ana Pinta, to which a flickr user commented: "pretty much like Rio de Janeiro scenery". +Ash Wednesday, 25th +A wishful thinker in Olinda counts down to next year's party holding a sign that says "Calm down, there are only 353 days left". +Photo by Ádria de Souza/Pref.Olinda +This year's carnival has now officially come to an end, and although the celebration usually goes on for another unofficial week of Carnival "hangover" parties, 2009 may now begin. + +Global: Hijablogging In Vogue · Global Voices +Hijablogging: Just another global trend taking the blogosphere by storm. +All around the world, women who opt to wear hijab (the Islamic head covering) are also opting to blog about their experiences, as well as veiled fashion, lifestyle, experience, and the political and religious issues surrounding it. +The Hijablog is leading the movement. +Based in Norway, the woman behind the blog writes about everything from political issues (such as the recent debate surrounding hijab-clad women joining the Norwegian police force) to Islamic wedding fashion in Malaysia. +In one recent post, the blogger profiled Indonesian designer of Islamic fashion Itang Yunasz: +Itang Yunasz is a designer that used to create revealing gowns but then dissappeared for some years, to return with a comeback collection designed for veiled women. +His designs were featured on the latest Islamic Fashion Festival. +Muslima Maria is a Canadian blog which greets readers with the sentence: "Welcome to my hijab journey..." From her most recent post, it's clear that the decision to wear hijab, which she made nearly eight months ago, has indeed been a journey. +She writes: +I don't know if this is the case for all women, but i think I discovered the core issue for why hijab is hard for most women - myself included. +When you put on hijab you have no where to hide. +You can't hide what you feel about yourself, all the things you dislike about yourself, all the character you feel you lack because you spend 25 years building a life revolved around beauty rather than building your character. +You feel ugly, even though every woman I have seen looks better in hijab, your own feelings about your body, your face, your self esteem is laid bare before you. this is the challange a woman has when she decides to take on hijab. +She has the challange of living in the world and not hiding behind her looks, her make up her hair, her clothes. +There is nothing to distract the world from her character, from the words she says, the thoughts she expresses....and that is what is truely scary. +It is scary to go from a world where you bat your eyes, toss your hair, and flash a smile and gain automatic acceptance, to a world where people are actually paying attention to what you say and how you say it. +Its easy to hide all the things you think bad about yourself behind fashion, make up, jewlery, and hair styling. when you were hijab, you have to face yourself, your low self esteem, your poor body image, your feelings about your lack of character or how you think you are not interesting now that you don't use sexuality to attract attention. +When you wear hijab you face your own demons inside - thats the hardest part. +New Jersey (U.S.) blogger Is There Food On My Niqaab? ponders the concept of hijab salons in this recent post: +I'm telling you, pretty soon you'll see HIJAB SALONS everywhere. +A sister can go and have a hijab stylist come and wrap their hijab for them if they have a wedding or aqeeqah to go to, if they aren't practiced in tying a hijab in a fancy manner. +Heck, you'll probably be able to go there and rent a hijab with a perfectly matching hijab pin! +You can wear it out and then return it to the salon where it will be thoroughly washed and waiting for the next customer. +Sisters will sit in the back, waiting... flipping through magazines with hijab styles, doggy earing pages that they may consider for their look. +They'll bring their outfit in a separate bag to have the hijab, underscarf, and pin properly matched with it. +The hijab stylist will examine their facial structure and complexion and then go to work, forming huge ruffles, buns, and arrangements with the hijab, tying and draping it in every way possible. +Maybe they'll need special hijab spray to make it stay in place and not flop! +Perhaps there will also be a beautician as well to help with makeup and they'll offer a niqaab for you to wear out since you'd be dolled up. +I can see it now... hmm... By the way, if ANY of you jack my idea and open up a hijab salon I WILL come after you for 50% ... at least! +Hmph! +HijabiStyle is a blog which captures the myriad styles of hijab, as well as a variety of different women's perspectives on wearing it. +This video was recently posted on the blog: +In addition to the three mentioned above, there are a number of other hijab-clad bloggers: Hijab Style, Hijabee, and Hijabi Couture are only a sampling of the others. + +Sudan: Mourning a Great Novelist and Musings on the ICC · Global Voices +After a long absence, a number of fascinating Sudanese bloggers, return to the blogosphere to rant, share their thoughts on recent events and vent. They're included in this roundup along with the usual suspects. +After a frustrated rant about Khartoum International Airport's unhygienic condition, Sudanese Optimist mourned the passing of the respected and well-known Sudanese novelist, Al-Tayeb Saleh. +Sudan has lost a dear citizen, who has contributed tremendously to Sudanese and Arabic literature. +His most acclaimed work is the 1966 novel “Season of Migration to the North.” +The novel was, at one point, banned in Sudan for its inclusion of sexual imagery, yet it was declared “the most important Arabic novel of the 20th century” by the Syrian-based Arab Literary Academy in Damascus. +Earlier this year, The General Union for Sudanese Writers, requested Al Tayeb Saleh to be preliminarily nominated to win the 2009 Literature Noble Prize. +Ras Babi Babiker mourned Saleh's passing too by reminding us about the great novel that made him a major name in the world of modern Arabic literature. +Season of Migration to the North (Arabic: موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال Mawsim al-Hiǧra ilā ash-Shamāl ) is a classic post-colonial Sudanese novel by the late novelist Al-Tayyib Salih. +Originally published in Arabic in 1966, it has since been translated into English and French. +The novel charts individuation of the (un-named) narrator, who has returned to his native village in the Sudan having spent seven years in England furthering his education. +On his arrival home, he encounters a new villager ("Mustafa Sa'eed") who exhibits none of the adulation for his achievements that most others do, and displays an antagonistically aloof nature. +The villager betrays his past one drunken evening by wistfully reciting poetry in fluent English, leaving the narrator resolute to discover the stranger's identity. +As it turns out Mustafa was also a precocious student educated in the west but simultaneously harbors a violently hateful and complex relationship with his western identity and acquaintances. +The story of Mustafa's troubled past in Europe and in particular his love affair with a British woman, forms the center of the novel. +Meanwhile, as Drima mourned along with his fellow bloggers the death of his country's great novelist, he also blogged an in-depth analysis on the possible consequences of an ICC arrest warrant charging his country's president with crimes against humanity and genocide. +the ICC can’t do much on its own in terms of enforcing the arrest warrant (if it issues it at all) and the UN is a fangless paper tiger, but… +… given that we now have Susan Rice as the US Ambassador to the UN, Hillary as Secretary of State (she has her own blog now by the way), and a Blue Donkey administration in charge of running things, US policies towards Sudan will gradually become starkly different than they were just a few months ago when Bush was still in power. +An ICC arrest warrant issued within this new context will now have more weight, and hence its potential issuance will probably be more useful as a tool for pressuring Omar al-Bashir to act in favor of peace in Darfur and implementing the CPA. +Mimz, who returned to the blogosphere after a long absence, also recently mentioned the ICC arrest warrant and her adventures with Facebook. +“Dang!” doesn’t even begin to describe it. +It’s been almost a year and a half since I was last here. +And a lot of things went down during that time. +Here are just a few highlights: +1. +I joined facebook. +2. +There’s a global economic crisis going on and it’s on the rise. +3. +Obama was elected president of the United States. +4. +Israeli troops attacked Ghaza killing and injuring hundreds. +5. +The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Omer El-Bashir on charges of war crimes. +6. +I graduated. +7. +Sami El-Haj was released from Guantanamo Bay. +(I obviously have a lot of editing to do). +8. +Gillian Gibbons was arrested for a “teddy bear blasphemy case” in Khartoum. +9. +The rebels reached Khartoum and attacked everyone. +10. +I quit facebook. +Did I mention that I finally graduated? +Hipster, a Sudanese blogger living in the UAE, is now also back actively blogging again. +She shares with us a little "Che Guevara" experience she had while driving to work. +Aggravated at the abrupt interruption, I glared at the monstrous vehicle, only to be completely amazed and amused at the sight of the colors and words adorning the spare tire case. +Che Guevara’s renowned & symbolic raggedy face picture was sandwiched between words in bold letters namely “T.N.T” and “ Al Maafia”. +I couldn’t help but look down at my paperback copy of “The Young Che: Memories of Che Guevara”, lying on the passenger’s seat, triggering me to ponder and wonder upon the mockery this revolutionary has become. +With my humble knowledge, I ask: What do “T.N.T” and “Mafia” have anything to do with the Soldier of the Americas? +And if you've ever wondered whether blogging is a form of therapy, you're not alone. +Path2Hope shares those thoughts too. +And then it happened, the dam that was blocking my ability from putting down thoughts onto paper broke and everything wanted to come pouring out instantly. +So much to write about, so many experiences to relate and then you sit infront of the laptop and wonder - who the heck cares? +Everyone has their own battle that they are tackling - and well I suppose blogging really is a form of therapy and an excuse to self indulge. +As for JohnAckec, he reminded us today of the increasingly sad situation with education in Sudan. +With more than 30 universities in Sudan and with talk of declining academic standards and rising level of unemployment amongst university graduates in our country, one is led to believe that university education has lost its glitter and is now next to worthless. +Nothing could be further from the truth. +On a happier note, Precious, wished everyone a Happy Valentine's Day. +Although I no longer beleive in romance and that passionate love I used to dream of, and although I no longer trust a man's fake "I love you"s, but you might still have a little hope. +So anyway, I deeply and sincerely wish you a very Happy Valentines day, whether you are Single, dating, engaged or married. +Enjoy the day and dont let anyone not even him/her, ruin it for you! + +Thailand: "Thai-style democracy" · Global Voices +Khi Kwai analyzes the two major and opposing political forces in Thailand and proposes several political reforms to establish a "Thai-style democracy." + +Guinea-Bissau: President's assassination sparks alarm at instability · Global Voices +Guinea-Bissau President Joao Bernardo Vieira was assassinated in the first hours of this morning, allegedly in an attack by renegade soldiers as he fled his home. +The crime happened a few hours after his long term rival, the country's army chief General Batista Tagme, was killed by a bomb blast, late on Sunday. +Although the reasons are still unknnon, the crimes have sparked alarm at instability in the young West African republic. +António Aly Silva has been following the news as it unfolds. +In his latest post , he brings the news that there will be 7 days of national mourning for the assassination of the president and two State funerals. +He promises to publish exclusive pictures of the funerals tomorrow: + +Czech Republic: Internet Outage · Global Voices +CzechFolks.com writes about "a careless but simple mistake" made by "an employee of an Internet service provider company SuproNet in Uhersky Brod," which "caused an Internet outage mostly in Spain, Belgium, New Zealand, Egypt, China, and the USA." + +Uganda: The Literary Blogren · Global Voices +Uganda's bloggers are increasingly using their blogs as forums for literary expression, and online poems, short stories and multi-part novellas are becoming increasingly popular. +Carsozy is one of the blogren's most prolific creative writers. +His series, The Devil's Bonfire, is the story of Simon Katende, a young Kampalan who leaves the city to visit his grandfather and gets mixed up in things he doesn't understand: +He was halfway to the bar when he saw her, his entire body froze and his mouth opened in shock, the glass slipped from his fingers and fell to the ground. +It was her the girl from the forest, she was wearing the same skirt and blouse he had seen her in, only this time she was clean and wearing white trainers. +He eyes sparkled in the disco lights, they were the same pretty eyes that had stared back at him in terror just a few hours back in the forest. +She smiled and waved at him playfully. +Each installment of Carsozy's story (there are eight currently, and a new "season" is scheduled to start next month) is commented on widely by eager readers: +Everyone at work has been reading 'the devil's bonfire' aloud from my PC +— Mudamuli +U know this could be a book. +Actually, lucky us, we get o read the manuscript before u publish on hard paper back. +Yay. +Seriously, nice read Caz. +Jon Gosier, an American living and working in Uganda, is also blogging a novel. +Muxtionary, currently in its second chapter, is African science fiction. +Jon introduced it as follows: +I gave myself three rules for writing this story... +It had to take place largely in Africa I wouldn’t sacrifice my own literary tastes It had to look forward +The reason for the last being that most literary works about Africa look back at what’s been, what went wrong, who caused what. +The historians of African are literally writing the past for the continent and subsequently the rest of the world. +In my opinion, there’s not enough dreamers. +I want people to come here and let their minds wander about the possibilities of what could be. +It’s my personal philosophy that if Africans don’t look ahead to what is potentially in store, they may find themselves in much more dire times in the future. +For those who prefer their literature in short form, Gay Uganda frequently posts poetry inspired by his daily life: +He is +a fast talker- +where I +with silence +an armor I +clothe myself; +he litters the air +with flak, +decoys, +noise- +and lo, behold +he’s past my defenses +deep, +down into +my fastnesses, +holding his own- +I cannot not +be in love with him. + +China: Youtube blocked · Global Voices +Aw Guo reported that Youtube is blocked in China. +The blogger confirmed the situation with his twitter friends. + +Maneno: A Multilingual Blogging Platform Built For African Bloggers · Global Voices +Maneno is a new blogging platform that promises to offer blogging and communication solutions for bloggers with limited or narrow-bandwith in Sub-Saharan Africa. +Maneno is a Swahili word, which means "words." +Considering the multilingual nature of the region, Maneno was built to allow for multiple language versions of articles to "sit atop one another for immediate access." +The interface of the platform is also translated into different languages to remove linguistic barriers. +At the moment, Maneno is readable in English, Spanish, French, Swahili and Portuguese. +Maneno developers are also planning on enabling African bloggers to use mobile phones to blog. +Maneno is a non-profit registered in the United States. +Its Directors, three of whom are regular Global Voices contributors are Rebecca Wanjiku, a journalist and blogger from Kenya, Elia Varela Serra, journalist and photographer with a background in humanitarian development, Saul Wainwright, a South African finance manager, researcher and strategist and Miquel Hudin Balsa, a web developer. +Translation of the site is open to people in the community: +Maneno relies on people in the community helping us to translate the site. +We encourage anyone out there with knowledge of a Sub-Saharan language to contact us to offer their linguistic help. +Please don't be discouraged if your langauge isn't widely spoken; we'd still love to have it as an option! +To create a translation is quite simple. +Once we hear from you, we'll send you a basic text file. +You substitute in the words for your language and send it back. +If desired, we will happily thank you on this page and in our blog for your work. +White Africa tested the site and found it a lot faster than most blogging platforms. +Do we need another blogging platform?, he asks: +When I first heard about Maneno, the first question that came to my mind was… “what about WordPress.com and Blogger.com?” +Don’t those serve the same purpose? +Realizing that my knowledge in this might be lacking, I contacted Miquel to answer a few answers. +Here is his response: +“We travel quite a bit and I found that anything hosted in the US gets slower and slower the further you get from the US, so I worked to create a CMS/blog platform that was very stripped down, yet fully functional. +Don’t get me wrong, WordPress is a beautiful, fantastic system that I admire and also use, but when you’re on a satellite connection in Bukavu or very slow DSL in Sarajevo, it’s mighty slow to use, which is the same problem with GMail and other web based applications that were developed in North America and Europe. +So, I realized that what I was doing for our personal blogs would translate very well in to a system that would meet a great many of the needs for a new blogging system for Sub-Saharan Africa.” +That makes sense. +Any hosted web platform based in the US and Europe is going to have lag issues Africa. +Every byte counts, so a system that has been custom built to work in this scenario can be useful. +Final thoughts +The site absolutely flies. +It’s a lot faster than most other blogging platforms. +I’m interested in hearing from others around the African continent on how fast the site loads for them. +Besides the standard text and images, Maneno allows you to add up to 10Mb audio files as a post. +This is a great idea, and shows just how much they’re thinking about things differently, as many normal users of blogging platforms can’t figure out how to host podcasts or audio files to get them out in the public. +Aid Worker Daily considers Maneno a lightweight blogging platform for "folks heading to the field," and wonders if its code or template will be released to the public as open source: +A few days ago I posted on Loband and how it’s the perfect tool for browsing the web in low bandwidth environments. +Miquel dropped by to read the post but also to let us know about Maneno which is a lightweight blogging platform that he and his team have created. +His comment sparked a discussion with Alan Jackson over at Aptivate, the creators of Loband, and while most of the back and forth is fairly technical Alan took the time to lay out some observations he has made of the Maneno platform. +It looks like a great product and it seems like a perfect tool for that mass of aid workers that start blogs primarily to keep their friends back home updated and to let their families know that they are still alive. +It has very low bandwidth demands and offers a clean and simple interface. +Please check it out and let us know what you think but first head over and check out the rest of the comments. +Here’s a taste: +Miguel it’s great to hear about your lightweight blogging system. +We’ve been thinking there was a need for something like that for a while. +Are you going to release the code / templates open source? +You might be interested in our web design guidelines where we go through various techniques for optimising the size of web pages. +We came up with a target page size of 25KB using estimates of the bandwidth you get on the desktop in African universities. +The 50KB typical page size of Maneno is fantastic, especially when you consider the average web page size is now over 300KB (which would have a 2 minute download time on a 20Kb/s connection). +If you’re interested in shaving off even more, you might want to have a look at converting RGB images to images with indexed palettes or reducing the number of indexed colours down to something like 32. +What is the point of a new site or platform when other good ones are available?, asks Mike Blyth: +There are several advantages: +• The site is designed from scratch with the goal of making pages load fast over the slow connections that most of us have in Africa. +There really is a noticeable difference. +• The site is easy to use. +(Actually, I'm not sure it's any easier than Blogspot, but the authors are working to keep it simple.) +• Maneno is multilingual. +Other sites do allow you to type your blog entries in your own language, but Maneno has the added feature of an easy interface that lets any member translate any blog post into another language, sort of a communal approach to making the entries themselves available in other languages. +Of course, it's the African languages that are the focus. +• Maneno recognizes that many users in Africa do not have access a computer, so the site is exploring ways to allow people to access it through mobile phones and other relevant technology. +(Blogspot also allows posting by mobile phone & email ... will Maneno be better in some way? +Probably it at least will be slimmer.) +• Maneno is focused on Africa. +Unlike Blogspot, which is a place for any and every type of blog, Maneno is more topical, describing itself as striving "to provide a communication and development platform for Sub-Saharan Africa." +TinderBlog hopes Maneno becomes the future of Content Management Systems: +So imagine my joy when I came across Maneno last week. +A CMS blogging platform designed specifically with low bandwidth in mind and provided from servers in Africa, cutting down on slow internal connections. +As the blurb says “Maneno strives to provide a communication and development platform for Sub-Saharan Africa.” +Good looking and providing all the functionality you need in a decent website, the online feedback I’ve seen so far has been universally positive, particularly around download times, which can massively increase the expense of browsing the net in the very places where this service needs to be as cheap as possible. +That is really important. +In the words of blogger White African “The site absolutely flies.” +Although Maneno is still in a beta version it works like a dream and looks very impressive. +It seems just the ticket if you are setting up a new site with little knowledge of design and want to ensure potential readers in Africa actually get the opportunity to read what you have to say. + +Liberia: Getting another chance at education · Global Voices +Emily writes about Liberian youth getting another chance at education, "A vocational training school nestled in the mountains in Yekepa and ravaged during Liberia’s civil war is being restored to its former self. +This March, 100 students ages 13 to 25 will come to live here and learn to be electricians, mechanics and farmers. +80% of the students are female. +Many are former child soldiers caught up during the war and demobilized by the IRC." + +Ukraine: A Visit to Chernobyl Exclusion Zone · Global Voices +The Uncataloged Museum writes about her visit to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone: "It is now a place of only memories, and for former residents, the memories are not solely those of the accident, but of a place and a time that they called home." + +Bahrain: Defence Lawyer Dismisses Rape As "Harmless Fun" · Global Voices +A court case involving the alleged abduction and gang rape of a woman has caught the attention of some of Bahrain's bloggers, because of the act was dismissed as harmless fun by the female defence lawyer. +The lawyer, Fatima Al Hawaj, said that the three young men accused of the abduction and attack of a Filipina should be acquitted, because young people often commit crimes for "fun", without criminal intent. +Coolred, an American living in Bahrain, is appalled: +I'm wondering if that defense attorney, Fatima alHawaj, would be willing to subject herself to a gang rape and come out of it with the philosophy..."it was all a bit of harmless fun"? +And I wonder if she would have said that if the victim had been a fellow Bahraini and not just a low class Filipino that are usually classed as "sexually available" to the Arabs they work for and among? +I also took note of the fact that the "youths" in question were 19, 20, 21...I'm curious as to why MEN of this age are always described as youths in the paper here whenever they commit such heinous crimes? +Final note...with women defending men like this...women lawyers at that...with the phrase "harmless fun" the perpetuation of the belief that "boys will be boys" will never be cast aside and the action they undertook viewed exactly for what it is...a crime against a woman that has no doubt changed her life and will never be forgotten...but I dare say...if she hadnt been able to identify those 3 "boys" they would have tossed the memory of their night of harmless fun behind them and gotten a good nights sleep in the process. +Maldita, a Filipina based in Bahrain, who blogs at Saving The World Together, is also incensed: +How can gang-raping and robbing a defenseless woman be considered as “HARMLESS FUN”? +Fine, they MAY have done it for the lack of better things to do in their free time and they do not have any small intent at all to commit a crime. +BUT THAT IS NOT AN EXCUSE to go about grabbing women off the streets to add spice to their lives! +True, young people often do crazy things for fun - a lot try their hand on shoplifting, some engage in road rages, others turn to drugs. +The norm is young people try to commit minor misdemeanor that would usually end up with a stern reprimand from their guardians or inflict harm only among themselves. +It is the misguided ones who goes for major stuff like this. +Stuff that forcefully involves people who are innocently going on with their own lives. +If these teenagers really did what they are accused of, how sad that a woman's life is now scarred for life with this horror...and yet there is the possibility that her assailants will walk free and not suffer the consequences of their actions. +Don't get me started with screaming racism. + +East Timor: Reporter used SMS texts to expose corruption deal · Global Voices +Last October, veteran East Timor journalist José Antonio Belo used leaked mobile phone text messages to expose a corruption deal involving the country’s Justice Minister. +Today, the journalist is facing a criminal defamation suit. +Writing for news magazine Tempo Semanal, Belo published details of alleged transactions between Justice Minister Lucia Lobato and several business associates for the rebuilding of a prison wall and the supply of prison guard uniforms. +The contract was bagged by the minister’s husband. The value of the tenders was over $US1 million. +Below is a text message sent to the phone of the minister on the 7th of August 2008, at 12:25 from a certain JS: +"Sister, I have just finalized the plans for the project items and I see that the price I informed you of today is enough because this fence is 10 meters high and very thick without using blocks but only cement fill (cement, rock and double layer of steel) International quality. +The works are the same as for the USA embassy fence only that theirs is only 3 meters high and not very thick." +At 12:30:10, the minister replied: +"Good, I will look at it later." +It may appear to be a normal text conversation but it was only on the 25th of August 2008 that the Ministry of Finance began to advertise for the project bidding to construct a new fence for a prison. +Minister Lobato complained that her privacy was violated. +The journalist argued that he wrote only about the minister’s activities as a public official, not her private activities. +The prosecution has decided to charge the journalist with a criminal defamation suit. +If proven guilty, Belo could spend six years in jail. +Several groups and individuals have expressed support for the journalist. +Pacific Freedom Forum links to a post from Cafe Pacific which asserted that the suit will create a “chilling effect on freedoms of speech in East Timor and the region’s youngest media.” +The groups adds: +For the government of East Timor to hide behind the same colonial laws used by Indonesia to suppress and intimidate genuine efforts towards democracy ignores blood sacrifice by thousands of their own citizens in support of freedom. +a copy of magazine Tempo SemanalThe “region’s youngest media” has only one national television station and a few radio stations. +Only 0.1 percent of the population has internet access which makes news magazines like Tempo Semanal (Belo’s paper) the major source of information in the country. +La’o Hamutuk, a civil society organization, said the accusation against the journalist creates an ugly picture which can kill freedom of an independent and impartial press. +Instead of punishing the journalist, the group wants the government to probe the alleged corruption dealing of the minister: The information published in Tempo Semanal is evidence that the Prosecutor General should use to open an investigation about alleged corruption in the Ministry of Justice. +But in reality, the Prosecutor is investigating Jose Belo, accusing him of defamation. +La’o Hamutuk sees this reversal as criminalization of a free press which provides true and factual information to the public. +Carmel Budiardjo of TAPOL, a human rights paper, is disappointed that the same law used by Indonesians to suppress freedom in the country is now being used against Belo, a staunch defender of press freedom: +We are well acquainted with the courage of Jose Belo during the more than two decades of the Indonesian occupation and are aghast that a law introduced by the Indonesians is now being used to stifle the legitimate activities of the press in a country that claims to be a democracy. +Minister of Justice Lucia Lobato should withdraw the charges in recognition of the principle of the freedom of the press. +Timorese journalists should not live in fear of charges that could land them in prison simply because they have done what any journalist would be expected to do when they find evidence of alleged corruption by a member of the government. +There is an online petition asking the East Timor government to stop harassing Belo. + +New Citizen Media Projects Foster Rising Voices in Ivory Coast, Liberia, China, Mongolia, and Yemen · Global Voices +In January we received over 270 proposals from activists, bloggers, and NGO's all wanting to use citizen media tools to bring new communities - long ignored by both traditional and new media - to the conversational web. +It was, by far, the highest number of proposals Rising Voices has ever received in its two-year history of supporting citizen media training projects. +The growing interest in citizen media from civil society shows that we truly are undergoing a major transformation in how we inform ourselves about the rest of the world and who is able to contribute that information. +Of the 270 project proposals, the following five are most representative of the innovation, purpose and goodwill that Rising Voices aims to support. +Abidjan Blog Camps +Théophile Kouamouo has long been one of Francophone Africa's leading bloggers. +Based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Kouamouo is one of the founders of the Ivoire Blog network and started the wildly successful meme "Why I Blog About Africa." +(Elia Varela Serra summarized many of the resulting responses in a two-part series on Global Voices.) +Kouamouo is now trying to bring many more of his countrymen and women to the blogosphere by organizing a series of "blog camps" around Abidjan in which current Ivorian bloggers can discuss the issues affecting them and show new bloggers how to join their ranks. +Kouamouo first proposed the idea on his blog back in August last year, which attracted a number of enthusiastic commenters supporting the idea. +Blog Camps have a long history of attracting new citizens to the participatory net. +A number of blog camps have taken place in India, including in Chennai in 2006 and, more recently, in Mumbai. +Blogcamp CEE last October brought many new participants to the Russian-speaking blogosphere. +For the most part, however, West Africa (and particularly Francophone West Africa) has been left out of the booming global blogosphere. +That is starting to change. +Panos West Africa, in partnership with Highway Africa and Global Voices, recently announced the winners of the Waxal - Blogging Africa Awards. +Next year we can expect to find many more Ivorians on that list as Théophile Kouamouo sets out to organize a series of events that will bring dozens if not hundreds of Ivorians to the blogosphere. +Abidjan Blog Camps will also promote more pan-African online interaction by teaming up with existing blog camp movements in Madagascar, Kenya, Uganda, Mauritius, and South Africa. +Ceasefire Liberia +Just west of Ivory Coast lies Liberia and its roughly 3.5 million inhabitants. +Settled by free slaves from the United States in the early 19th century, Liberia fell into a 14-year dark period of civil war and lawlessness that concluded in late 2003 with the presence of ECOWAS and the United Nations. +Today Liberia is slowly recovering despite inadequate infrastructure, unemployment at around 80%, and former combatants (many of them minors) who must be re-integrated into society. +Many unemployed Liberians have put their hopes in friends and relatives living abroad in the United States. +However, there is often a lack of communication and understanding between Liberians at home and those living in the diaspora. +By partnering with African Refuge - a drop-in center for West African youth - and the Century Dance Complex in Park Hill, Staten Island (the largest Liberian community outside of Africa), and Amnesty International in Monrovia, freelance journalist Ruthie Ackerman aims to help foster a transatlantic Liberian blogging community. +Those Liberians who lived through the war — whether soldiers or not — experienced some type of trauma or displacement. +By creating a community and sharing experiences with others, it has helped give these youth a purpose and vision that there is something larger than themselves. +This will benefit the community (on both sides of the ocean) on many levels: Liberians, many of whom have difficulty adjusting to life in America, can reconnect with their families and dispel myths about what life is like in the U.S. There are also left-over tensions from the war, which may be able to be diffused through the dialogue created between the communities. +Real Experience of the Digital Era - China +View Larger Map +Shenyang, literally meaning "the city to the north of Shen River" and capital of the Liaoning province, is touting itself as China's "next tourist destination." +But whether you are visiting the ancient pagodas of Old City or the official "High-tech Industrial Development Zone" the tourist brochures won't mention the city's male and female sex workers who mostly come from poor rural communities in search of talked-up urban opportunities. +In partnership with the Ai Zhi Yuan Zhu Center for Health and Education documentary filmmaker Wei Zhang will train male and female sex workers who use the AZYZ center how to maintain a blog and upload short video documentaries to share their experiences, opinions, and troubles in order to promote more understanding of the region's sex worker population. +Nomad Green - Mongolia +Environment officials from throughout Northeast Asia met in Ulaanbaatar this week for the first time to discuss climate change and how to enhance energy efficiency in the region. +Mongolia's capital city was a fitting location for the meeting as the country's environmental deterioration has accelerated recently due to rapid urbanization, industrial growth, and increased coal consumption. +Ulaanbaatar is frequently shrouded in a haze of thick pollution: +Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques - Yemen +With international coverage of the Middle East focused on the Israel-Palestine conflict, the war in Iraq, Iran's nuclear program, and the financial markets of the Persian Gulf States, little attention is given to one of the region's poorest countries, Yemen. +The few spikes in media coverage of Yemen over the past few years are all related to fears of al-Qaida presence. +In collaboration with the Hand in Hand Initiative, Ghaida'a al-Absi will organize a new media training course for female politicians, activists, and human right workers in order to bring a new perspective to the Arabic-language blogosphere and to build an online network of Yemeni gender activists. +It is fitting that today, on the 98th anniversary of International Women's Day, we announce al-Absi's initiative to bring more women's voices to the internet. +The deteriorating status of women's rights in Yemen is frequently documented and discussed, but rarely do women themselves take part in those discussions. +By reaching out to NGO's and political parties throughout Yemen al-Absi aims to change that. +Please join me in congratulating and welcoming the newest five grantee projects to our community. + +Russia: "Unsent Letter" on Health Care · Global Voices +Below is a partial translation of a post (RUS) on health care in Russia - a caustic "unsent letter" to the Russian president, written by LJ user sobe-panek on Feb. 22. +The post has made it into the Top 30 at Yandex Blogs portal and was picked up by some Russian media. +There is a town called Yelets in Lipetsk region. +And there is the City Hospital #1 in the town of Yelets. +There is a department of hemodialysis and gravitational blood surgery in this hospital. +The only one in the whole town, by the way. +Up until recently the department had its own room for its patients and was open 24 hours a day. +Because of this, doctors and nurses were paid some extra money, in addition to their primary salaries: for working night shifts, holidays and weekends. +Imagine how much the total bill ended up being. +Too much money, horrible. +And so in summer (before any official news of the crisis, by the way), Lipetsk Regional Health Care Department found a way to save the Motherland some money. +First, they took away the hemodialysis department's room, then canceled night shifts as well as Sunday and holiday shifts. +Of course, those irresponsible sick people started complaining right away. +Like, they are having attacks of acute kidney failure not only on workdays from 8 AM to 5 PM, but at night, too, and even on holidays. +And they started screaming that a person with kidney problems, who is having an attack on a Saturday evening, is unlikely to survive until Monday morning without hemodialysis. +And they cited the recent death of a 20-year-old woman as an example. +To make everyone feel sorry for them, of course... +Okay, so the woman died - failed to survive till Monday. +And so what? +The world has turned upside down? +Even if all the chronic patients of this department of the Yelets City Hospital die, the world isn't going to care. +Because, truth be told, these patients are taking up space under the sun in vain. +Judge for yourself, who needs those disabled people who are spending years waiting for kidney transplantation surgeries (which they'll never get) - no one needs them. +Or those other patients of this department - drug addicts after an overdose. +These are the scum of the earth, who needs them? +And all those different poisoning patients? +Mushroom poisoning or whatever. +What do they need treatment for - it's all their fault: don't eat and drink indiscriminately. +And I'm not even talking about patients with chronic kidney failure, dear president. +If these people led a healthy way of life, voted for United Russia, didn't attend the dissenters' rallies, didn't read all kinds of oppositional nonsense, didn't sign all kinds of letters (in defense and in protest) - would their kidneys fail? +Of course, not. +So yes, in summer the medical staff of this department were relieved of their night shifts and of work on weekends and holidays. +What would any normal person do in such a situation? +Rejoice! +And they - the medical staff - what are they doing? +They are outraged. +And are hiding behind their patients' interests. +Actually, what really got the medical professionals outraged were the salary cuts. +What kind of cuts - ah, not a big deal at all. +Take my younger sister Anna, for example, who works as a nurse at this department, has 20 years of experience - before the crisis began, she was making about 5,000 rubles . +And now she is making 3,380 rubles . +What's the difference, right? +No difference at all! +She doesn't care whether she's making 3,400 or even 4,300, when the housing fee she has to pay is 4,200 . +Even if she were making slightly over 5,000, she'd only have enough left to buy cat food. +If I were Lipetsk Regional Health Care Department, I'd be paying medical professionals no more than 1,000 rubles a month. +Why would they need more? +To survive till it's time for them to retire? +Look, dear president, how much money can be saved if we apply this nationwide. +First, all medical professionals will die off, then all their patients will follow them. +The state will at once get unbelievable profit on : a) money saved from salaries; b) money saved from unpaid disability payments; c) pensions; d) free medications... +(Yes, yes, free - and what did you think? +I don't know about other departments of this hospital, but in this hemodialysis department chronic patients are treated for free!) +Let's keep on counting: equipment, different kinds of medical devices, gloves and syringes, square meters of buildings occupied by some unneeded departments or even whole hospitals. +Why does the country need oncology clinics if cancer is incurable? +Why should our double-headed bear - sorry, slip of the tongue again - our eagle - take care of all those chronically disabled people, if they are no longer of any use to the state? +And why do we need sick children? +Better to give birth to new ones. +Healthy ones... +Dear president, , listen carefully to the opinion of the common folks. +And pay attention to the progressive undertaking of Lipetsk Regional Health Care Department. +And maybe we'll not just be able to overcome this damn crisis, but will come out of it with some profit. +UPD. +I wrote this letter and was about to send it off (not in LJ, of course, but much further), but decided at the last moment to let my sister know. +So I called her. +Warned her. +She says: "Are you crazy? +They'll fire me!" +So what, I tell her, let them fire you. +What are you losing? +Three thousand rubles? +It's not a salary, it's a humiliation. +I'm ready to pay you 5,000, just to keep them from wiping their feet on you. +And my sister replies: You don't understand anything. +I LOVE MY JOB VERY MUCH. +I can't live without it. +It has nothing to do with my salary... +Daaaaaamn! +The only thing left to do is . +It's also possible to be happy. +For the country. +For its president. +And, separately, for Lipetsk Regional Health Care Department. +And for Yelets medical professionals. +And, of course, for Yelets chronic kidney disease patients... +P.S. Dear president, please, I'm begging you: cancel salaries for medical professionals all together. +And please force some nurses (my sister, for example) to pay from their own pockets for the right to go to work. +Because otherwise nothing will change in our country. +Never. + +Philippines: The Death of a Rebel’s Daughter · Global Voices +On the night of March 5, 2009, two armed men abducted Rebelyn Pitao, a 20 year old teacher from the southern Philippine city of Davao. +The next day, her dead body was found in a neighboring town, bearing ice pick stab wounds, signs of torture, and most likely rape. +While Rebelyn was the daughter of Lenicio Pitao, a rebel leader of the communist New People’s Army, her mother claimed that Rebelyn was not involved in her father's activities. +President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who remains hounded by allegations of human rights violations in its war against the rebels, has denied military involvement in the abduction and murder of Rebelyn. +Many are outraged by the heinous crime. +It has drawn not a few reactions in the Philippine blogging community, including a poem by E. San Juan, Jr., a Filipino public intellectual and cultural critic. +Rebelyn would have celebrated her 21st birthday this 20th of March. She could have done more in the service of the community as a teacher if not for her untimely death, writes Norma Dollaga. +Marry Anne's Musings express her sympathy for the victim and her loved ones. +I don't know Rebelyn Pitao personally but I was moved when I learned what has happened to her, when they found her body in a creek clad only with underwear, bore several stabs wounds. +And her hands were tied and her mouth was bound with masking tape, fueling speculations she was tortured and sexually assaulted. +I as a mother will do her best to protect her children, to do not let them be harm in this cruel world, to get hurt triple times when my daughters are in pain. +My deepest sympathy to the Mom of Rebelyn and condolences to the family. +That Word in Me is angered by the incessant disregard for the value and sanctity of human life. + +China is Unhappy · Global Voices +One of the author of 1996 bestseller China Can Say No（中國可以說不）Song Qiang, has recently published a new book, China is Unhappy (中國不高興）, with other well-known writers. +The first book appeared after the bombing of China consulate general in Yogoslavia by the NATO that enraged Chinese people and led to a series of nationalist protests against western countries. +This time, the book is published on the 60th anniversary of the founding of People Republic of China. +The writer team is composed of famous media person, cultural worker and scholar: +Song Qiang（宋強）, one of the author of "China Can Say No", has the experience of journalist, editor and T.V script writer. +Song Xiao Jun（宋小軍） is a commentator in CCTV and Phoenix T.V., a well-known nationalist leader with military training. +Wang Xiaodong （王小東）was sent to Japan for studying Business Management after he decided to stop his study Mathematics in Beijing University. +He is famous for his criticism on "reversed racism" (逆向種族主義）, meaning the self-criticism of Chinese towards their own behavior. +Huang Jisu （黃紀蘇）is a sociologist and editor of the Chinese version of Journal of International Social Science. +Liu Yang （劉仰）is an experience media worker in issues related with culture, history and economy. +The book is divided into three sections: "Why is China unhappy?" "China's advocacy" and "Let go the tiny Buddha and draw the grand plan" (tiny Buddha means kindness in heart). +Douban has a summary of its content: + +Indonesia: Divorce and polygamy · Global Voices +I feel guilty writing about divorce and polygamy on Valentine’s Day. +But these two unmentionable topics are also realities of love and relationships. +In Indonesia, more women are divorcing their husbands because of polygamy. +Records show that in 2006 there were nearly 1000 cases of divorce because of husbands marrying another woman. +Polygamous marriages are also increasing - the Legal Aid Foundation of the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice received 87 reports of polygamy in 2008, up from 16 in 2007. +More women in polygamous marriages are becoming more assertive about their rights. +Abdul Khalik writing for The Jakarta Post quotes the views of scholars about this issue: +Director General for Islamic guidance at the Ministry for Religious Affairs Nasaruddin Umar: "There has been a significant increase in divorce because women have been rejecting polygamy in recent years.” +Muslim scholar Siti Musdah Mulia: “The data shows women are now daring to fight for their rights and reject male domination. +They are now saying, 'What is the point in continuing a marriage when I am miserable'" +Divorce in general has risen in Indonesia in the past decade. +A news report early this month confirmed this trend; and couples are also separating because of political differences: +The divorce rate jumped from an average of 20,000 a year to more than 200,000 a year over the decade Believe it or not, some couples decide to divorce because the husband and wife have different takes on political issues. +This has never happened before,” said Umar. +In 2005, 105 couples cited political differences as the cause of their split but this figure jumped to 502 couples in 2006. +Figures for 2007 and 2008 were yet to be calculated. +The official said 90 per cent of marriages between people of different religions ended in divorce +Indonesia Matters cites a 2007 study about the causes of divorce: +The main causes of divorce, says a report by the National Child Protection Commission (Komnas PA), are economic pressures (23%), followed by domestic squabbling (19%), incompatibilty (19%), interference by relatives (14%), violence (12%), adultery (8%), and sexual problems (3.6%). +However these figures are based on only 109 cases +A 2008 article cites the causes of divorce: +incompatibility (because of adultery) - 54000 cases +disharmony - 46000 +economic hardship - 24000 +interference by relatives - 9000 +family crisis - 4700 +forced marriage - 1700 +domestic violence - 900 +polygamy - 879 +biological defect (like infertility) - 580 +underage marriage - 284 +imprisonment - 150 +political differences – 157 +It is difficult to be a divorcee in Indonesia. +My Busy Brain explains: +Some people, in Indonesia that is (I don’t know about other countries), divorce is not a choice. +Even if the marriage is not healthy, even if it is abusive, one choose to be still married because either cannot imagine living by themselves, too tired and just accept that this is fate , or economically dependant (usually woman). +This morning I was bombed by an email that I received from my friend from highschool, that he is not doing well and lost 7 kgs the last 3 months because he is going through divorce. +Oh my God. +Not another one. +Even though I myself is a divorcee, I don’t really like hearing people getting divorce because I know how painful it is +Parvita writes more about the stigma associated with divorced women in Indonesia: +I have no problem being divorced, it was the right thing to do at the time and I never regret it. +When people ask me where my husband is, I tell them I’m divorced. +Usually, they are the one that feel uncomfortable. +The sad thing that I would like to address here is, that after 3 years, the person I hoped and wished to be able to accept me for what I am, still cannot accept it and look at me as I am incomplete. +I am sure there are lots of women here in my country that experience that, especially from the older generation or the conservatives. +Despite of their bravery to live alone, they just stick with an unhappy marriage because afraid of what other people think, or simply because they are not independent, financially or mentally. +In Indonesia, women are considered successful not from what they have achieved, but from their husbands, how many kids they can deliver and how fat their kids are and where their kids go to school. +nin's journey was inspired by the post written by Umm Faroug about being a radical Muslim feminist: +As a radical Muslim feminist I know my rights as a wife, which are to be fed, sheltered, clothed, and cared for in a way befitting to me. +I have the right to a marriage contract which safeguards me in case of a divorce. +On a lighter note, Indosingleparent Community posts pictures of divorce cakes. +Indonesian restaurateur Puspo Wardoyo offers "polygamy juice", a mixture of four tropical fruits, and "polygamy vegetables", a four-vegetable combo, in his restaurants. +Thumbnail image used is from the Flickr page of Daquella Manera + +Arab World: Culture, Culture Everywhere · Global Voices +Across the Gulf various cultural festivals and literary events have been taking place in recent weeks, and in this post we hear from some of the region's bloggers who have attended them. +However culture is not a politics-free zone; even a book fair or a cultural festival can be a source of tension... +We start with the United Arab Emirates. +The Dubai In Vogue blog writes about the busy cultural scene in Abu Dhabi, saying it is "one of the most interesting places of all seven emirates." +A major occasion in the book events calendar is the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, which will be taking place from 17 to 22 March. +Still in the Emirates, Dubai has been hosting a number of literary events recently. +Existential Al Ain recorded Saudi author Rajaa al-Sanea when she was speaking at the Emirates Airline International Festival of Literature held in Dubai from 26 February to 1 March (the festival was also mentioned at the English PEN World Atlas blog). +It was followed by the Dubai International Poetry Festival from 4 to 10 March. +Also in Dubai, Osama writes about attending a performance to remember: Last night, I experienced something exciting and amazing at the same time. I got the opportunity to attend an exciting show by the international Cirque du Soleil, whose performances in Dubai started on March 5 and will continue until April 5. +Ahmed at Saudi Jeans says: While I sincerely hope that the Ministry of Culture and Information would drop the word ‘International’ from the name of what has become the most important cultural event in the Saudi calendar, I’m glad that the Riyadh Book Fair is back again. +Seeing the crowds celebrate books and reading is heartwarming, regardless of whatever gripes I might have about the organizers and their approach. +I think the book fair this year is better than the previous ones, except, of course, for the usual kerfuffles by the religious police. +They made another scene last night when they decided that saleswomen are not allowed to be there on men’s days. +All saleswomen were kicked out. +I really don’t see the point of having the religious police in the book fair, but it is obviously part of the compromise deal the Ministry of Culture and Information had to make with the conservatives in order for the book fair to go on. +John Burgess at Crossroads Arabia picks up on Ahmed's point about a compromise, and says: +I recommend that next year, there be no compromise. +The Commission clearly doesn’t understand what book fairs are about and thus have nothing useful to add. +Perhaps if they publish a book or two, they might have reason to be there. +They could certainly benefit by reading more about Islam, however… +In fact the Commission had their own stall this year, which Ruhsa mentions: +The recent change of the Commission leadership by King Abdullah was noted by many. +The new head has since then made several statements about the new role of the commission, and the need to tone down the tension. +A noteworthy attempt is the Commission PR booth at the Riyadh Book Fair. +It features examples of items that they have confiscated, photos of items found in raids and also the reasons WHY they are banned. +There were also several Commission members explaining things at this fairly popular booth! +Judging by the number of people that thronged the booth, it was clearly a hit! +Perhaps the needs to further reach out through such toned down and educational means. +It would certainly give them an opportunity to develop a friendlier relationship with the population. +Saudiwoman mentions the Commission as well: +They did have one of the biggest stalls though and not a book in sight. +What they did have on display is all the witchcraft that they have confiscated over the years and a huge flat screen TV with a video running showing how they reverse spells. +She also says: +Of all the stalls, I saw only one manned by a woman. +She told me that she only comes when the book fair is open to women. +She came on the first day and it was open to men only and she found it extremely awkward. +So whenever it’s men only, she gets a guy to come in her place. +She came all the way from France for this lame book fair. +Two other recent posts at Crossroads Arabia concern culture. +One post comments on two American newspaper articles about cultural life in Saudi Arabia today, while the other mentions a change in policy: +For the first time, the annual Janadriyah Festival—a government-sponsored celebration of all things Saudi—is being opened to women as parts of families. +In the past, there had been special days on which women could attend the festival, but women and only women were allowed on those days; adult male family members were excluded. +This is, truly, a tiny step, but it’s an important one. +Honey vendor at Janadriya Festival in Saudi Arabia by Ashraf Osman +We end in Iraq, where Salam Pax writes about the politics of culture: +Soon after he saw a poster with the following slogans: “Iranian (art) exhibitions are aimed to distort Iraq’s identity”. and below it in yellow: “Iranian (culture) is an axe poised to crush Iraq’s cultural identity”. +And the images are of the national theatre and the arts palace. + +Thailand: PM meets exiled scholar and critic at Oxford · Global Voices +Giles/Ji Ungpakorn is Thai political science scholar who criticized Thai monarchy. +Last month he wrote the ‘Red Siam’ Manifesto (see previous post) and then fled to UK to avoid the infamous Lèse majesté charge. +He is half Thai-British, holding UK citizenship and graduated from Durham. +Abhisit Vejjajiva is the current Thailand's prime minister. +He comes from elite class, born in Newcastle and Oxford educated. +His Democrat party has been accused for supporting the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), a royalist movement, to seize Bangkok airport last November/December. +The Democrat party also has been accused for using Lèse majesté against their opponents for long long time in Thailand's modern history. +On 16th March 2009, Abhisit was invited to speech at St. John College, Oxford as a successful alumnus. +Giles also attended and asked questions in the forum. +So here is the video of that conversation by two leaders, both are UK graduated, of totally different mantra, in UK. +The full Abhisit's transcript and atmosphere report (including protest) is available from New Mandala (in English). +The Thai translation is also available from Prachatai. +Here is conversation excerpt on the Lèse majesté issue: +Giles began by saying that he faced a lese majeste charge from the Abhisit government for writing an academic book, and there are several people in Thailand are also facing the same charge unjustifiably. +He then went on to criticise Abhisit’s government for relying on the military intervention (in lobbying the faction of MPs to support them) to get into power, for having members of the cabinet that participated in the closing down of the airport, and for neglecting to charge the army general who ordered the Takbai massacre. +Below is the reply of Abhisit: +Abhisit responded to Giles by saying that the fact that he agreed to answer questions (like Giles’ questions) is a testament that he is a democratic politician, and he would be surprised if the people whom Giles admired when they were PM would accept such questions from the audience. +He then argued that Giles’ facts were not right, a number of lese majeste charges were not made when his party is in power, it was made during the time when Thaksin or his followers ran the government. +He also faced the lese majeste charge during Thaksin’s government but the police dropped the charge. +He argued that people who are democrats must respect and not run away from the law, and he believes that Giles’ charge was legitimate because he made an allegation that the monarchy backed the coup +Abhisit also mentioned the meeting with the free-speech movement group Thai Netizen for the future resolution on Lèse majesté and Thai internet users. +He is the first prime minister to invite the group called Netizen to work out how best to deal with illegal content on the web. + +India: Steps to Prevent "Yoga Piracy" · Global Voices +India has organized a team of researchers and scientists to identify and record all ancient yoga positions (or asanas) in an attempt to prevent people living in other countries from patenting this existing knowledge. +Some refer to this practice as yoga piracy, where people claim patents and/or copyrights on yoga postures and techniques found in ancient texts that originate in India. +For example, according to an article in The Telegraph, there have been more than 130 yoga-related patents, 150 copyrights and 2,300 trademarks in the United States alone. +In response, the Indian government has started scanning ancient texts and documenting yoga asanas. +The information is being stored in the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, an electronic encyclopedia of India's traditional medicine, which will be made available to patent offices globally. +Amit Agarwal elaborates: +"Alarmed by the growing number of instances of Western yoga gurus claiming copyrights to ancient 'asanas,' the Government of India has decided to fight back. +The Union Health Ministry has assembled a team of 200 researchers from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to put on record all known yoga postures and techniques in a comprehensive database called Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL). +The Government of India hopes that future patent applications would be rejected on the basis of 'prior art' from the information in the TKDL." +So far 600 asanas have been added to the database, and the team plans to record at least 1,500 yoga postures by the end of this year. +Many people are applauding this move. +For example, Marathi vedic, commenting on a Times of India article, says: +"I completely support this move... We have to preserve our culture which is being attacked by westerners by not only patents but also by missionary activities...Wake up Vedics!!!! +This is our country!!!! +Our culture if not us who will preserve it????" +Swami Param, commenting on a post on YogaDork, adds: +"Many Hindus are just now beginning to realize that in their sharing of the Hindu/Yogas, they did not realize that those who took this gift would then, effectively, steal it. +The entire phony yoga movement consists of a concerted effort to erase any Hindu connection to Yoga. +Of course anyone with a bit cursory knowledge, realizes that all of real Yoga is Hinduism. +It is past time to put an end to this theft, distortion and business of 'yoga'." +The idea of yoga as a business was brought to the forefront when Bikram Choudhury was granted a copyright and trademark and applied for a patent for a style of yoga he founded. +Called Bikram yoga (or "hot yoga"), it involves a series of 26 poses that are performed in a steam room. +Gopika Kaul, writing on Spot-On, elaborates on Choudhury's motivation: +"The practice of yoga is first described in Hindu sacred texts dating back five thousand years and Hindu sages have been practicing the art for centuries…The gurus, rightly, see yoga as an Indian tradition that is being popularized and, to some extent corrupted, by the West. +Why is Bikram so anxious to stake his legal claim? +Yoga has changed its image. +An element of Indian culture - a quasi-religious element - has become a multibillion-dollar industry." +In the United States, the yoga business brings in $5.7 billion a year, according to Yoga Journal, including money spent on yoga classes and products. +Some people question the idea of making money off yoga at all, though. guerrilla mama medicine says: +"i have questioned often the cultural co-optation of making money from teaching yoga. the fact that we teach an art and science that we have access to because of our incredible economic and military privilege in the US. where is the moral conscience of these yoga teachers? … how the hell are you going to call it ‘yoga’ and then claim that you thought of that unique way of bending over and teaching your toes? if you call it yoga (which is a sanskrit word)–you lost any right to a patent. the reason that someone in india isnt suing you for stealing their cultural knowledge ‘yoga’ is because it is collective knowledge. the best we are doing is borrowing that knowledge for a short amount of time. and then we give it back." +However, yomamma, commenting on a post on Guruphiliac, points out that it's not just people in the West profiting off of yoga. +"This whole deal of complaining about Westerners on the part of both Westerners and Easterners is kind of tiresome, so many Indians have come here because we will buy what they have, support their arts, spirituality, give jobs, etc... so i think the upside far outweighs the bad for the east and for the west... … All the yoga teachers I know acknowledge their teachers and forbearers, they don't pretend to have invented anything, they are in some cases making a good living, but that is mostly do to hard work and devotion. +Popularization was begun in the west, a lot of these arts might be dying otherwise or at least not getting the attention they are now. +That being said I don't disagree with this movement to authenticate and protect, it's probably a good idea." +Photo of Yoga By Sunset by Mahesh Khanna on Flickr. + +Long awaited victory for Baha'is in Egypt · Global Voices +After many years of being denied the right to legal documentation, Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court removed any grounds for preventing Baha'is from receiving proper official identity documents. +SandMonkey commented on the court ruling saying: +Then he wonders if other Egyptians, in the aftermath of this verdict will start demanding to get their religious status removed as well, even if they are not Baha'i? +Would that be possible? +Is that a step in the direction of abolishing the religion category from the Egyptian ID forever? +One hopes, but that's still too far away. +Too many people are clinging to it for reasons that simply do not make sense to me. +So, if you are one of those people, and you are against removing it, please ask yourself, what good, exactly, does it do? +And if you have an answer, let me know. +I am intrigued! +Wa7da Masrya commented saying: و الأن بعد هذا الحكم التاريخي لما لا نقوم كلنا كمصريين بوضع خانة الديانة بيضاء فما أهمية وضع الديانة في بطاقتنا ؟ إذا كنا جميعا مصريين لنا نفس الحقوق فما دخل الدين في البطاقة ؟ I am very pleased with the verdict and I hope the Ministry of Interior manages to put it to action by finding a technical solution in the database program used to create the social numbers cards whereby the religion entry becomes optional - I highly doubt their ability of working around that technicality the same way they failed to solve another technical issue that will lead us all to change our newly acquired cards in seven years. +Now, after this historical verdict, why don't we all - as Egyptians - leave the religious classification field empty? +If we are all Egyptians sharing the same citizenship rights, then what is the use of this field? +Voice of Egypt commended the Egyptian judiciary system saying: The Egyptian judiciary system is still alive and kicking and I am looking forward to the day when all Egyptians get ID cards that do not highlight their religion. +And speaking of religion, The Traveller Within, shared Gallup Survey announcing that Egypt is the most religious country in the world +Interestingly, 7 out of the top 10 most religious countries are majority Muslim countries. +And 8 out of 10 are in Sub-Saharan African or East Asia. +The link between underdevelopment and religiosity (not religion: religiosity) is one I'd be keen to explore... + +Malaysia: Government's love-hate relationship with new media · Global Voices +During a speech in a Party assembly, Malaysia's incoming Prime Minister said that new media should not be regarded as enemy. +But hours before the speech, the party banned almost all online groups from the event. + +Spiderman in Thailand · Global Voices +An autistic kid climbed outside the window on the fourth floor of a school building. +How was he saved? +A Bangkok fireman pretended to be Spiderman to convince the kid to move to safety inside the building. +Check a video report of the story. + +Maldives: Free Speech Under Threat · Global Voices +Male, the capital of Maldives. +Image by Flickr user mode (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mashafeeg/397839215/) +In early March Mohamed Nasheed, the new President of the Maldives, met with Frank La Rue, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression. +In the meeting Nasheed expressed his government’s commitment to free speech and announced that Maldives will be made a haven for dissident writers from countries such as Burma. +However, within a week writers from Maldives found their right to expression at risk as the government instructed the two Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country to ban several websites and a blog. +In October 2008 thousands of Maldivians flocked to polling stations in a historical election – the first multiparty election in the country – that ushered the first democratically elected government. +Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who had ruled the country for 30 years since November 1978, was challenged and defeated by Mohamed Nasheed, a former Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience, in a run-off. +Various political factions that competed in the first round of election backed Nasheed – a former journalist and acclaimed writer – in the run-off, hoping for a slice of the cake after a new government was formed. +While structuring the new government, a Ministry of Islamic Affairs was created, and assigned to Adhaalath Party, a conservative religious party in the ruling ‘coalition’. +It is the Ministry of Islamic Affairs which is issuing instructions to block websites. +Even though some pornography websites are among the list of blocked sites, there is a website with information on Christianity and another website consisting of information on Islam, raising fears that faith-based websites that offer a different view than the one interpreted by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs are targeted. +Moreover, the banning of Random Reflexions, a popular blog by the blogger Simon, who discusses a variety of issues and topics, has led to many Maldivian bloggers to examine this new assault on free speech. +Shaari thinks that Internet should be open for healthy dialogues and discussion and to foster tolerance: +this is a sad day for democracy. i'm a believer of islam & i've good friends who arent. they have their basis for disbelief & i've no problems with that. in any case the debate between faith vs science should prevail cos it's a healthy one & it remains a firm test of humankind's ability to accept & tolerate. +Thadu describes the blocking of websites as turning “the internet into an intranet”: +Converting the internet to an intranet for Maldivians seems to be what the Islamic Ministry is trying to do. +And this action is in contrary with the efforts and hard work of the several people who tried and who are trying to make Maldives a pure democratic country. +There are 12 countries marked by the Reporters Without Borders as enemies of the internet. +And if the Islamic Ministry continues its barbaric style of protecting people, Maldives is going to be on that list as well, putting in vein the work of several people. +In a new development the ban on Simon’s blog has been lifted after he approached Communications Authority of Maldives (CAM) and he shares his thoughts on the blockade: +I admitted to Mr. Nasih that some of my writing may contravene this reservation in the constitution. +But this too is debatable. +What the tenets of Islam are to some might not be the same for others. +It is susceptible to interpretation. +I could, for example, argue that the sale of alcohol in the Maldives is against the tenets of Islam. +What then? +In any case, I did make a compromise. +I promised to look through my posts and review past entries for any that may contravene this clause. +So I have reviewed and taken the necessary actions. +If CAM or MoIA still finds anything that they think does indeed break the law then they can always contact me directly. +If however they ban this blog again, I will take the matter to the court. +I want to thank all the blogs that have voiced their disdain towards this crackdown on websites/blogs by president Nasheed’s government. +Ideally, I believe no websites should be banned and no one should have to make compromises on freedom of speech. +The ban on the other websites is still enforced and at least for the moment Maldivians have to live with a censored version of democracy. +The image above has been used under a Creative Commons License + +Saudi Arabia: Forty Lashes for a 75-year-old Woman for 'Mingling' with Men · Global Voices +A 75-year-old Syrian woman was sentenced to 40 lashes, four months imprisonment and deportation from Saudi Arabia, for having two unrelated men in her house. +The men were reportedly taking bread to the widow Khamisa Sawadi, who was married to a Saudi, and one of them was her late husband's nephew. +The two men were also charged with 'mingling' with an unrelated woman and sentenced to prison and lashes, sparking criticism for the country's judiciary and the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. +The blogger continues: +So Saudi Arabia takes another slap in the face. +It is also a slap in the face for the new minister of justice, who obviously needs to fight really hard in order to end the embarrassments caused by our courts and implement the much publicized changes in the justice system. +Saudi Jeans' post has attracted about 40 comments at the time of writing this post. +I don’t think that Khamisa Sawadi celebrated International Women’s Day last Sunday. +International Women’s Day celebrates the economic, political and social achievements of women in the past and the present. +While the event is a national holiday in some countries, such as China and Russia, it goes largely unnoticed by women n Saudi Arabia. +The case of Khamisa Sawadi is evidence that the social achievements of Saudi women remain a distant dream. +While Jawhar acknowledges that Saudi women have taken a few steps forward, their reality remains grim. +She explains: +Saudi Arabia has made significant strides in the advancement of women in key government positions. +The appointments of Noral Al-Faiz as deputy minister for Girls' Education and Dr. Fatimah Abdullah Al-Saleem as cultural attaché at the Saudi Embassy in Canada by the Ministry of Higher Education, inspires Saudi women. +Saudi women view Al-Faiz and Al-Saleem as role models, recognizing that they, too, can achieve success on their own terms. +Yet the social realities are that Al-Faiz and Al-Saleem are the exceptions, not the rule, of what Saudi women face in the future. +For every Al-Faiz and Al-Saleem there are 100 Khamisa Sawadis. +For every female Saudi graduate student studying abroad, there are 100 other Saudi women denied their right to divorce abusive husbands or to gain custody of their children. +Crossroads Arabia says this case drives home the need to codify the Saudi law, which are now based on Islamic Sharia (religious law) and the discretion and interpretation of individual judges. +John Burgess adds: +The conviction stands as another example of why Saudi law must be codified. +I do not insist that Saudi law be like American or any other nation’s laws. +I do think, though, that it should be rational and clear enough that anyone has a clear idea if he or she is breaking a law. +Leaving judgments to the independent wisdom of individual judges does not assure that and results in messes like this. +And finally American Sand gets in my eyes cannot see the logic in the sentences. +She writes: +Mmm. +Let's recap. +The two young men were actually being charitable to an elderly woman. +You might even say they were bringing her her daily bread. +They were sentenced to lashes and jail. +The elderly woman was reaching out to someone she considered a family member, someone she had - in her old age - come to depend upon. +She was sentenced to lashes and jail. +And the men charged with promoting virtue...well those guys hid in the bushes, lied about their identities and then had the audacity to arrest an elderly woman in need of charity, and the young men who came to her need. + +China: Earth Hour · Global Voices +Fauna from ChinaSMACK translated netizens' comments on Earth Hour campaign. + +Japan: Tourism videos · Global Voices +Edo from Pink Tentacle introduces a series of official tourism videos produced by the city of Hakodate. +The videos are about aliens invasion of the city. + +As part of the G20Voice project, 50 bloggers from around the world have gathered in London to act as our "eyes and ears" as world leaders convened today (April 2) in London for the G20 Summit. +The bloggers come "from 22 different countries, and between them represent a global audience of over 14 million readers and online participants." +Global Voices is pleased to have been a partner on the G20Voice project, along with Oxfam Great Britain, Save the Children, One, and Blue State Digital. +See the G20Voice coverage at http://www.whitebandaction.org/en/g20voice + +France, Americas, Africa: The "Y'a Bon" Awards · Global Voices +Photo courtesy that_james, published under a Creative Commons License. +Visit that_james' flickr photostream. +"Banania" is a popular French hot chocolate mix, launched in France in 1912. +In the marketing strategy, the choice was made to associate this product (made of chocolate, banana, milk and sugar) with Africa or the French West Indies, in order to make it sound more exotic. +In 1915, during the First World War, soldiers came from the French colonies in Africa to fight for their Motherland. +That was the beginning of a long relationship between the brand and the image of the Tirailleur Sénégalais. +At the time, Senegal was enough of a household name in France to lend "exotic" authenticity to this product, originally exported from Nicaragua. +The image of this happy, smiling soldier coming from Africa to fight for France in the war, was associated with a now-controversial slogan: "Y'a bon". +This phrase - supposedly a form of broken French used by Africans to say "It's good"- was, for decades, (certainly up to the 1970's) linked with the image of the Senegalese soldier as a symbol of the product's authenticity. +Image courtesy just.Luc, used under a Creative Commons License. +Visit just.Luc's flickr photostream. +Back in 2005, blogger Alain Mabanckou published a blogpost entitled "Y'a Bon Banania ou Y'a Pas Bon Banania" about an action group of Guadeloupeans, Martinicans and Reunionese called Collectif DOM which sued Nutrimaine, the company which produces Banania, for... + +Bolivia: Unlikely and Historic 6-1 Win Over Argentina · Global Voices +With head coach Diego Maradona and his squad of superstars in town to face Bolivia in a World Cup qualifying match, it was expected to be another easy victory for Argentina ranked 6th in the world. +However, it was the Bolivian team that shocked the entire continent with at the unexpected victory. +It was not so much the victory that was considered to be unlikely, it was the final score of 6-1 that brought about renewed hope and faith in a team that was considered all but eliminated from the possibility of qualifying for the World Cup South Africa 2010. +Photo by Hugo Miranda and used with permission http://angelcaido666x.blogspot.com +Going into the game, many Bolivians dismissed the game as another loss by the home side. +Ivan Rodriguez of Probarse es Gratis was one of those people who said, "I was one of those skeptics, I admit it, I wouldn't even wager a piece of gum before the game." +During the course of the first half when Bolivia scored the first goal, heads began to turn and more people took an interest in the game. +Dhampire was at work during the match, but was able to catch a glimpse during his break. +Soon his attention was placed squarely on the developing turn of events. +Even with the halftime score 3-1 in favor of Bolivia, many like Willy Andres still expected the Argentines to come back to tie or even win the game . +Photo by Hugo Miranda and used with permission http://www.angelcaido666x.blogspot.com +When the final whistle sounded, few could believe the final score and celebrations began to erupt around the nation. +In the days following the victory, it sparked a renewed pride in the national team. +Even though there is an uphill battle to qualify for World Cup, mathematically it is still possible. +Santiago Terceros of Insomniaco wishes that they would play like this all the time. +Some were even repentant. +Gevalher on his Twitter account writes , "Bolivia beat Argentina 6-1, a thousand apologies to the national team for saying that they were useless." +One blogger, Hugo Miranda of Angel Caido proudly was at the game in person and captured and uploaded various videos of the game and some of the goals. +It is a match that he won't forget anytime soon: + +Red shirts. +Yellow shirts. +Blue Shirts. +Pink Shirts. +White Shirts. +Orange Shirts. +Purple Shirts. +Black Shirts. +Be careful what you wear in Thailand today. +Your politics are determined by the color of your shirt. +A blogger suggests that tourists should wear floral shirts in Thailand in order not to be identified with any of the political forces here. +The two main conflicting groups are the Yellow Shirts and Red Shirts. +The Yellow Shirts belong to the People’s Alliance for Democracy. +The Red Shirts are supporters of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship. +The Yellow Shirts are consistent critics of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted from power in the 2006 coup. +Most of the Red Shirts are supporters of Thaksin. +The Yellow Shirts adopted the color yellow as their protest color in honor of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the most revered figure in Thailand today. +But it doesn’t mean the Red Shirts are opposed to the King. +It also doesn’t mean that they are leftists. +They adopted the color red just to differentiate themselves from the Yellow Shirts. +The Yellow Shirts accused two Prime Ministers last year of being puppets of Thaksin. +To force change in government, the Yellow Shirts organized provocative street actions last August. +They occupied the Government House for several months. +They shut down Bangkok airports last December which crippled travel in the country. +The Yellow Shirts agreed to end their protests when a court order disqualified allies of Thaksin from running for public office again. +(See Global Voices special page on the protests initiated by the Yellow Shirts). +A few days after the Yellow Shirts declared victory, the Red Shirts began to organize their own street actions. +They also occupied the Government House a few weeks ago. +They were able to gather tens of thousands of protesters in Bangkok. +They were supported by taxi drivers who used their cars to block traffic in Victory Monument, a busy intersection in Bangkok. +The Red Shirts succeeded in forcing the cancellation of the ASEAN Summit in Pattaya which embarrassed incumbent Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. +There is now a state of emergency in Bangkok, but the Red Shirts are defiant. +Red Shirts display weapons captured from soldiers. +Photo from Flickr page of arjin j +Jonny Foreigner notes the similarity of Yellow and Red Shirts: +The Yellow Shirts got what they wanted by causing chaos and closing the national airport so the Reds (significantly made up of a strong presence outside of Bangkok) took this marker and went for the heart of the capital - closing roads and massively inconveniencing the city. +Who are the Red Shirts? +What do they want? +The Yellow Shirts describe them as ignorant followers of Thaksin. +Siam Report read a report which disputes this stereotype: +There are also reports coming out that many Red Shirts are individually well-off, driving their own cars and living in and around the capital. +Their demands are for a real democracy and a rooting out of the unelected elements that frequently interfere with the political process. +However, they are not interested in a return of Thaksin and do not swear allegiance to him. +The Red Shirts can no longer be abused and ridiculed as a monolith of "poor uneducated Thaksin stooges", as was previously the norm in certain media quarters. +The Yellow Shirts are not active today. +But the Red Shirts are being confronted by a different set of “colored” protesters: The Blue Shirts. +The Blue Shirts emerged when the Red Shirts began to mount a serious challenge to the government. +First, they said they only wanted to protect public utilities, like the airport. +But the Red Shirts soon accused them as being thugs hired by the government. +Nirmal Ghosh writes about the confrontation between the Blue Shirts and Red Shirts which may shed light about the real leaders of the Blue Shirts. +In the early morning they (Red Shirts) began marching up the hill to the Royal Cliff Resort, venue of the summit, but came face to face with a few hundred of the pro-government militia, well organized with freshly printed dark blue T-shirts saying 'Protect the Institution' – institution being the a reference to the monarchy. +All the blue shirts were armed with sticks, clubs and iron rods. +The face-offs occurred at two locations, each with around 1,000 red shirts against about 150 blue shirts. +The men in blue held pictures of the king and queen. +The blue shirted men – clearly a militia – essentially took shelter behind the army, whose officers made no attempt to disarm them. +According to two sources, the blue shirts had been organized by the mayor of Pattaya, who is the son of 'Kamnan Poh' – a controversial strongman of the province. +What are the reactions of Thai residents who are not directly involved in the political crisis? +When the Red Shirts were leaving the ASEAN Summit venue in Pattaya, a group of people wearing black shirts began throwing stones at them. +Who are they? +Some are confronting the protesters. +Check this video on how some Red Shirts were driven away by angry pedestrians: +Perhaps the decision of many Thais to wear “neutral” colors can be interpreted as a political statement too. +Via Twitter, the other “colored” shirts in Thailand: +sajal: no.. youll get thrashed from both sides... RT @jamiemonk: I am wearing orange shirts from now on. +stickmanbkk: Red shirts, yellow shirts. +Im wearing my white shirt! +thaicam: a friend opines: Maybe it's time to combine Red+Yellow and create Purple Shirts who actually rally for the country, not their own ideology. +bangkokpastor: Yellow shirts, red shirts and now blue shirts? before long there will be no way to dress neutral. +Tbarrett: I'm anxious about tomorrow's demonstrations here in Bangkok. +Red Shirts! +Yellow Shirts! +Who's gonna win the Biggest Dumbass award? +gregkjorgensen: Funny how red AND yellow shirts scream for democracy, but are unwilling to accept the results of an election if it doesn't go their way. +PT789: Last time it was the Yellow shirts taking over the city, now it is the red shirts... when will they stop playing this 'political ping-pong' +There is another option for Thais: wear pink. +The Pink Shirts want a political formation based on love. +Pop singer Jintara has a music video for the song 'Mop see chom-poo' which preaches the doctrine of the Pink Shirts. +Shameless Mack advises tourists to wear only floral shirts in Thailand +Indeed, the situation is becoming more and more unpredictable. +The red shirts are able to move their forces from place to place. +While the yellow shirts - the ones who closed the airport last November/December - have not yet re-appeared, the emergence of the blue shirts cannot bode well. +It is even more troubling that on their very first appearance, the blue shirts provoked violence. +One more thing: Do not go out on the streets wearing solid-colour T-shirts. +Yellow and red already indicate political affinity, and now dark blue is another group. +Who knows what new colours may become too “hot” to wear tomorrow. +What to do? +Pack only floral shirts. +Thumbnail image used from the Flickr page of Y-Not + +Sudan: Surviving without the help of NGOs · Global Voices +On March 4th, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan. +In retaliation, 13 NGO’s were banished from the country the day after, a number that rose to 16 within the week. +As a result, a handful of projects have halted operations: those offering drinkable water supply, food distribution, health care and teaching systems among others. +Consequently, many Sudanese people were forced to leave the country, seeking asylum abroad. +Victor Angelo was in Goz Beida camp, 200 kilometers south east of Abeche, in Chad, and from there he sent some pictures and reported on attacks by the Jenjawid, or “men on horses”, a militia allegedly paid by the Sudanese government. +“The reaction in Khartoum by the government was almost instantaneous. +After speaking with some relatives in Sudan, the situation seems normal and as one of my cousins put it, ‘business is as usual.' +People were expecting there to be a coordinated attack by the Darfuri rebel group Justice and Equality Movement, similar to the one that occurred back in May 2008. +People also expected for general violence to breakout, but none of the sort has happened. +That being said, people are very tense on the ground and anxious for what is to come. +I think people are worried most about the implications on the North-South peace agreement (CPA) and the reaction of the southern government. +Here are the positions of Sudanese most prominent political parties. +Also, the government has kicked out several international NGOs, among them are OXFAM, Care, and Doctors without Borders.” +The forecast made by the majority of NGOs is that a disaster will happen in the refugee centres, and that an estimated 4.7 million people will be affected, of whom an exodus of 2.7 million is expected. +What’s more, 1.5 million need some medical help, 1.1 million do not have food to eat and a million do not have access to water (data from OCHA). +In addition, there is a meningitis outbreak and "no treatment available in the camp, no one to refer patients to the hospital in Nyala, and no mass vaccination. +It means that people may die”, reports Lydia Geirsdottir (MSF). +Because of this, Lise Grande, the UN’s Deputy Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Southern Sudan said: "One of the things that those assessments will look at is possible migration flows". +There are more than 100,000 people vulnerable as a result of the upsurge of LRA attacks including over 36,000 internally displaced people who fled their homes in South Sudan, and more than 16,000 refugees from the DRC. +"An additional 50,000 people in host communities … are reported to be vulnerable and need humanitarian assistance," said Grande. +Migration has already started, and some reports have already started to appear via blogs. +The sudan-blog reports the reconstruction of a new camp of refugees in Chad, a neighboring country, which expects to attend to about 6,000 refugees. +Originally written in Portuguese, translation into English by Thiana Biondo. + +UAE: YouTube Ban Possible, Goodbye Flickr · Global Voices +According to Press reports, YouTube is ranked among the top 10 most popular sites in the UAE and news about its possible censorship has sparked debate in the blogosphere. +Fake Plastic Souks sounds the alarm, and writes: +Blocking YouTube will further deny Emirati, and other, youth here of the opportunity to embrace a range of technologies and changes in social behaviour that are revolutionising the world around us. +That we are even contemplating blocking sites that contain content we don't like is a deep concern - the trick is engaging in a conversation, taking part in the interplay of ideas and opinion that is driving the Internet - and the flow of public opinion around the world today. +the grapeshisha blog wonders: +We heard these rumors in the past, but more and more people seem to be confirming that these aren’t just false alarms anymore and that YouTube will actually be banned officially in the UAE. +We can’t be totally sure yet until the site is totally inaccessible for our friends and members there, and according to them no action has been taken yet (despite thousands of other sites being blocked) however many are expecting it. +Will the ban fail like it did with Facebook? +Is the UAE testing the waters with how much internet censorship it can get away with? +Local newspaper Khaleej Times reports that the UAE's Telecommunication Regulatory Authority has said that YouTube will not be completely banned in the country as its content is already regulated by the authority. +Dubai Jazz agrees that some of YouTube's content should be moderated. +There comes the inevitable question, is youtube totally ‘safe’? +Of course not, and I wholeheartedly support censorship on some of its content. +Especially the kind of hate inciting content. +You might choose to believe otherwise, but WE DO NOT have democracy and total freedom of expression in the Arab World. +We have a vicious Sunni-Shia sectarian strife. +We have an intimidating rate of illiteracy. +We have an intimidating rate of credulity. +The stable and relatively prosperous Arab societies are stable because there are measures that ENSURE everything stays stable. +Even when stability sometimes borders on stagnation….. in short, I am not worried about moral disintegration of societies, I am worried about strives and rifts. +So for the time being, some of the content, in my opinion, may have to be censored. +Meanwhile, MMM reports that Flickr is now totally blocked in the UAE, after it was blocked by one Internet provider. +Today, Du followed the lead of Etisalat and went ahead and blocked the photo sharing service Flickr, meaning that Flickr is now no longer accessible from the UAE through any of the ISPs. +I’m guessing it’s because of all the x-rated material that is available on Flickr. +But, it’s not like blocking Flickr is going to stop people who look for that kind of material from finding it. +This totally sucks! +All my photos are hosted on Flickr where I have a pro account, and now I’m unable to access my photos or upload any new ones because of this. +MMM also posts a photograph of the ban order: +A photograph of the Du censorship message + +Cyber-activism in Vietnam · Global Voices +The website Viet Tan features an article about cyber activism and online repression in Vietnam. + +Elections in India and Women · Global Voices +This post is part of the Global Voices Special Coverage on Indian Elections 2009 +World’s largest democracy, India, will hold general elections starting in a few weeks from now. +In a country of more than a billion people, general election is nothing sort of a “make or break” time for many interest groups, political parties and the common folk. +For how their life will be for next five years is decided on that day. +A rainbow of colours of rural Indian women gathered as volunteers for social mobilisation and development in their villages. +Image by Flickr user mckaysavage and used under a creative commons license. +Indian women, who have long been denied their rightful position at home, at work and at the helm of power also have a huge stake in upcoming elections. +Female literacy in the country (based on 2001 census) is at 53.63% compared to 75.26% for male, but Indian women are not completely shut off from the political process. +Level of their participation is increasing and a some prominent parties have women as leaders. +Although more and more women are becoming aware of their voting rights and participating at local level politics, a report suggests that this year less women are likely to be elected to the country’s parliament. +“The introduction of the Women’s Reservations Bill in 14th Lok Sabha has prompted more women asking for tickets from major parties this time, but the selection of candidates by the latter reveals that electoral politics in India still remains a male preserve. +Including party Chief Sonia Gandhi, only nine women figure in the list of 90-and odd Lok Sabha candidates announced by the Congress so far and the BJP list of 232 candidates, contains only 21 women. +The Left Front, which has accused both the BJP and the Congress of lacking political will on the women’s reservation bill, has fielded only two women out of 42 candidates in its bastion West Bengal, down from five it had fielded in 2004 elections.” +Samiya Anwar, a female voter, writes about upcoming elections focusing on her hometown of Hyderabad: +“There are more women issues than men to be addressed. +Isn’t it? +First, it is the safety of women in society she dwells in. +Many women in the Old City (of Hyderabad) do not trust police. +They go through domestic and physical violence and don’t complain. +We need a system where women can approach cops fearlessly. +The issues like water shortage, frequent power cuts, road accidents and physical abuse of women at workplace should be given first thought.” +Question of caste is a big one during election time in India. +As someone said “Indians don’t caste their vote but vote their caste”, the politics of dividing people based on their caste and exploiting them as “vote banks” is a common practice. +Joshua Meah blogging about caste system and of women in Indian politics at Washington Note says: +“India n. (perhaps it has potential as an adjective as well?): the land where the opposite of everything is always at least a little bit true. +This is the same country that has produced a great number of enormously powerful female politicians long before America even honestly broached the subject - Indira Gandhi being the case in point. +Even now, the head of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state and the home to 130 million people, is headed by a woman of dalit origin (India's lowest caste). +The progress of India's democracy in terms of its movement toward social equality has in some ways been as breathtaking as it is heartbreaking.” +Vinod Sharmaalso discusses “vote bank” through an imaginary exchange of words between three powerful women- Mayawati (Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh) who is a “dalit” (lower caste), Maneka Gandhi (Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law) and prominent social and animal rights activist, and Sonia Gandhi (Maneka’s estranged sister-in-law) and Congress party supreme. +Here is an excerpt: +“Sonia: The Congress party is a national party with a glorious history. +Mayawati: And no future. +Sonia: Don't say that. +Please. +It hurts. +We are confident of coming back to power on our own. +Mayawati: Really? +Look, I don't care whether anyone is from the Gandhi family or a raja or maharaja. +If you or your son threaten my vote bank in any manner, I will put you both behind bars.” + +Peru: Mass Sterilizations During Fujimori Term · Global Voices +After the sentencing of Peruvian ex-president Alberto Fujimori for crimes against humanity, Silvio Rendón of Gran Combo Club summarizes the events behind the mass sterilizations of indigenous women without their consent during Fujimori's term. + +Morocco: A New Green Party · Global Voices +The View From Fez announces that a new green party, called the Environment and Sustainable Development Party (Le Parti de l'Environnement et du Développement Durable), has been formed recently in Morocco. + +Italy: citizens provide news and reflections on the earthquake in L'Aquila · Global Voices +Rude awakening +The first pictures appeared immediately on Flickr and many more were uploaded during the day. +Photo by healinglight on Flickr +Similarly, the first news was transmitted by local Twitter users (particularly with hashtags #italy and #terremoto) and quickly spread throughout the world, thanks to services such as Breaking Tweets - even before the satellite news channels broadcasts. +And in the early morning hours more news and comments began to pour in on Facebook. +On the group "Terremoto in Abruzzo" (Earthquake in Abruzzo) Chiara urges people "not not leave them alone" and writes: + +Cuba: Blogger Yoani Sánchez Introduces Voces Cubanas · Global Voices +As a philologist and a blogger since 2007, Yoani Sánchez has been a big part of the phenomenon, which has been described by some as "blogostróika" in Cuba. +Her blog Generación Y is currently hosted on the portal Desde Cuba , which happens to be blocked within the country since the last week of March 2008. +However, it is still available by anonymous proxy. +Together with Reinaldo Escobar, she has helped organize the "itinerant blogger gatherings " held during the past two months and is also on the jury for the blogging contest "A Virtual Island." +Photo by Claudio Fuentes Madan and used with permission +She has been awarded with the Ortega and Gasset prize for journalism, the Bitácoras 2008 prize, and the BOBs organized by Deutsche Welle. +On January 28, the new Voces Cubanas (Cuban Voices) project was launched, which aims to gather citizen bloggers from across the island. +To date, there are 8 active blogs and 15 in development. +Claudia Cadelo: What are the goals of the new portal Voces Cubanas and how does it differ from Desde Cuba? +Yoani Sánchez: Voces Cubanas is a blogging platform and differs from Desde Cuba , which also contains a virtual magazine and other universal spaces. +It is a website where all those who want to express ideas, put their projects online, can do so. +It is born and inspired by the experience that we gained through the administration of other sites, but there is not an editorial policy that guides it, rather each blogger is his or her own director, editor and even censor. +CC: What does one need to do to have a blog in Voces Cubanas? +YS: The fundamental requirement for the new blogging platform is to live in and write from Cuba. +Those who want a space at Voces Cubanas only needs to let us know in person or through an email to bloggers@vocescubanas.com. +We'll help them with a proposal for a design and we'll teach them ways to administer their own blog themselves. +We accept any type of subject matter, only when it does not incite violence, pornography, racist or discriminatory propaganda. +CC: What are the blog that are hosted on the site so far, could you make a brief introduction to each one? +YS: By the end of February we have had 7 blogs, and little by little we will have another 3. +The greatest difficulty to have these blogs ready is internet access. +Since we cannot have internet connection at home, we are forced to use public sites, usually hotels or others sites that are very expensive to use. +Nevertheless, we have been building Voces Cubanas without trying to do it all at once, despite the limitations and obstacles that Cubans face when trying to develop projects in the virtual world. +To date, there are the blogs Reportes de Viaje (Travel Reports) written by Henry Constantin from the province of Camagüey, Veritas written by Eugenio Leal is dedicated to opinion surveys, my blog Generación Y has a mirror on the domain Desde Cuba, the independent journalist Iván García has a blog called Desde La Habana (From Havana), and we are working with the blogs Octavo Cerco by Claudia Cadelo, Habanemia by Lía Villares and Lunes de Post Revolución by Orlando Luís Pardo Lazo. +CC: What is the concept of blogostróika? +Do you feel that blogs can contribute towards the expansion of freedoms for the Cuban people? +YS: The idea of calling this new phenomenon with the label of blogostróika came from Cuban writing their blogs from exile. +They called this new wave of personal and collective sites with Cuban themes that have appeared in the past five years. +The use of this term is a clear allusion to the process that came about when Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, especially during the information transparency process called glasnost. +Even though the term sounds nice, I have to make a small comment that perestroika was pushed from a position of power, while the alternative Cuban blogosphere did not ask permission from anyone to exist. +CC: Talk to me about how your experiences with all of the international recognition that you have received and talk about the different stages of your life, before you were a blogger, as a blogger and as a blogger that traveled distances to teach people how to open a blog. +What can you say? +Have you changed? +Have you discovered something about yourself? +YS: My life has changed in many aspects, while others remain the same. +Ever since the foreign press discovered my blog, I have received many interview requests, offers for collaboration, and messages of encouragement. +I was a person profoundly shy and I had to evolve and adapt when people on the street recognized me and even asked for my autograph. +I have also learned to live with the unjust judgements against me, the acts of defamation, the lies to make me out to be an employee of the CIA. +My family has seen my free time decrease, but they have given me all of the support to free from daily chores. +What I have learned the most during these two years of blogging is the what an ordinary citizen can achieve, of the immense power that is hidden within each individual. +CC: What do you hope for the future of the Cuban blogosphere? +YS: I hope that it becomes more numerous and more pluralistic. +I have the feeling that the Cuban blogosphere will play an important role in the democratization of Cuba and in the field of public opinion. +That it will be healthy for a long time because there is a lot to tell and many ways of doing so, and I don't see that it is time to run out. + +Iran: Diplomats walk out at Ahmadinejad's speech · Global Voices +Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today made headlines once more, when he referred to Israel as a "racist state" during a address at United Nations conference on racism in Geneva, Switzerland. +Delegates from several European nations walked out of the conference in protest at Ahmadinejad's remark. +Jomhour has published the following video showing the diplomats' departure: +Commentators have drawn parallels between this incident and the speech the Iranian president gave at Columbia University in New York in 2007. +Ghommar says Iranians have once again been humiliated in front of the world community their president. +He writes : + +Guatemala: Collaborative Publishing of the Book TRANS 2.0 · Global Voices +In celebration of World Book Day, Guatemalan author and blogger Julio Serrano asked 50 of his friends and readers to publish different parts of his book TRANS 2.0 on their blogs. +This new publishing project brings together enthusiasts of literature from all over the world to participate in this open license initiative. +The book's site , which still has a temporary design, contains links to all of the participating bloggers. +Serrano, who also directs another open book project called Libros Minimos , received collaboration from other well-known authors like Javier Payeras of El Intruso and Denise P.P. of La Maleta . +Many of the bloggers included photographs or illustrations that they felt best complemented the text included on their sites. +Other fragments of the book can be found on blogs such as Notas Poco Rigurosas , which is hosting a poem called "The Center of America is a long asphalt road", while Fe de Rata shares with his readers "Marta Julia is the name of the Cascabel snake at the park" and is accompanied by a handmade drawing. +The blog Noticias para Dios is hosting a poem about a taxicab and prefers to illustrate it using a photograph of a woman sleeping in a car. +Diario Paranoico offers his space to publish "No, life is not this" adding music in the form of a Sui Generis video. +Photo from the public domain +Guatemalan bloggers, who participated in the project include Utopía del Pensamiento , El Pepian , Brevediario , CinesobreTodo, Matilisguate , The Magical and Curious world of Lissy , La Filistea and AcheAche . + +Jackie Chan: Chinese need control · Global Voices +"I'm mot sure if it's good to have freedom or not, I'm really confused now. +If there is too much freedom, like the way Hong Kong is today, it is very chaotic; Taiwan is also chaotic. +I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled." - Jackie Chan, Hong Kong and Hollywood's action movie star, spoke at a panel on "Tapping into Asia's Creative Industry potential" in Hainan, a southern province in China n 18 April 2009. (more from wtop) +China Law Blog considers Jackie Chan a racist for making such comment: +The title sums up my initial reaction to the news of Jackie Chan dissing the Chinese people by essentially saying they are too messed up to ever be able to handle democracy. +I was going to write a blog post criticizing Chan for his comments and noting how the same thing has been said about other countries that are now democracies (the United States, Japan, West Germany, Italy, Spain and South Korea immediately come to mind). +Then I decided I am not the right person to write such a post, so I didn't. +When compared with western media's reports, it seems that local people are less surprised by the news, as Joanna replied in the comment section of China Law Blog: +What Chan said is something I was told thousands of times since I was born, but the unusual point this time is that he is a celebrity and he is from Hongkong -the freest area in China, but also the most colonial area in Chinese history (Maybe that's why it sounds somewhat racist to western ears). +He said: "I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. +If we are not being controlled, we'll just do what we want." +Yes, people should be controlled (by what?to what extent?), or they'll just do what they want — but the government should be controlled also, or it'll just do what it wants too. +How sad is that only the former half can be told, and can be said. +Btw, this part of Chan's speech wasn't reported by mainland China's media. +He was again reported as a patriot, telling the young people to love China and to be proud of chinese culture, not the foreign countries'. +The power just doesn't like anyone talking about anything related to politics. +In Hong Kong, many people are disapointed, Uncle Ray said that Jackie Chan is heartless to talk like that: + +Fiji: Devaluation debate · Global Voices +The past week bloggers in Fiji have had a lot to say about the devaluation of the Fiji Dollar. +On April 15, the Reserve Bank of Fiji devalued the Fiji Dollar by 20 percent, making it cheaper compared to other currencies. +This means that more Fiji dollars are needed to purchase goods from outside the country. +For overseas buyers, products in Fiji will now be less expensive. +The tourism industry welcomed the decision, saying cheaper prices will bring more tourists. +Others say devaluation will affect the country’s poorest, especially when the government decided to decrease the retirement age to 55. +Loyal Fijian calls this devaluation is one of the most severe moves taken by a government in Fiji. +There can be no denying now that we are in serious trouble folks. +The smart businessman who are well connected would have been tipped off and squirreled their loot offshore before this announcement. +The common man and woman will now pay more for all our imported products. +So next time you go to the shops to buy noodles, mackerel, powdered milk and just about anything else, you will pay more. +And this is on top of the inflation rate which surely must rank in the double digits now. +The Fijian economy has been hit hard before, inevitable when you consider the amount of political turmoil we have had. +But we have come out without the economy collapsing. +On Twitter, gilbertfiji has advice for expat Fijians. +fijians working abroad? now is a good time to send money to fiji, after the Fiji dollar devaluation. +A post on the blog Intelligentsiya argues against it. +Perhaps the grand plan is to lure foreign exchange into the country leaving the majority of our citizens to tussle with hiked costs to 20% of imported goods. +It includes essentials such as mortgage payments, food (rice, flour, potatoes), fuel, medicines, building materials etc and guess who has to pick up the short-fall or face the social impact consequences? +Yes you Bainimarama. The “apolitical” tourism industry (we have not forgotten just how “apolitical” this group was in fighting Qarase’s draft qoliqoli legislation), will also bear increased costs of food importation that domestic production standards can’t meet. +The hint that exports will peak from the devaluation is shakey. +Our export earning mainstay, the sugar industry, which still has lost its core buyer the EU has been on a consistent downward free-fall. +The rise in domestic costs to boost exports effectively cancel out any savings as economist Satish Chand points out delicately. +Essentially no new money will make its way into the economy and the begging by the illegal RBF Governor that We the People need to bear inflation for only 12 months is ridiculous and downright arrogant. +What more can this illegal regime suck out of its citizens? +Fiji's poor will be hit hardest, writes Raw Fiji News. +Following the devaluation of the Fiji dollar by 20%, inflation or cost of living in Fiji is expected to rise given that the cost of imported food items and things will become more expensive due to the weakened Fiji dollar. +This means that the cost of rice, flour, tea, and other basic items will increase hitting the pockets of poor people very hard. +Expect to pay more for bus fares and fuel in the next few weeks as Fiji’s biggest import commodity, fuel, will be more expensive to buy. +It is time to go back to the land and start planting your own food people. +Buy local made products, vegetable and fruits and cut off the fat from your weekly budget list. +Talking Fiji underlines the point that investor confidence brings investment, not cheaper currency. +I personally don’t see how the RBF (Reserve Bank of Fiji) and the interim regime can encourage foreign investment by devaluing our dollar, because any economist will tell you that this will hurt us more than it will benefit us. +I suppose this is why it is a ‘last resort’ option. +At the end of the day foreign investors will come to Fiji if the political situation in this country is resolved, the military return to the camp and the rule of law and democracy are restored. +Investor confidence is what brings in foreign dollars, not devaluation. + +Indian Elections 2009: Villains And Votes · Global Voices +If elections are to be described as a process to elect better leaders for the country, the ongoing elections in India are of a very different variety. +A number of convicted felons, gang members with long criminal history and leaders accused of violent crime (murder, attempted murder, armed robbery) - villains in every sense are going to the people asking for their vote. +Abdullah Khan, says "this nexus of politicians and criminals is bane for great Indian democracy." +He provides a list of criminals turned politicians, most of whom hail from troubled states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. +"In UP only, BSP’s candidates with an alleged criminal past are Dhananjay Singh (Jaunpur), Aruna Kumar Shukla ‘Anna’ (Unnao), D P Yadav (Badaun), Kadir Rana (Muzaffarnagar) Rakesh Pandey (Ambedkar Nagar), Rizwan Zahir (Shravasti) etc. +Among the Samajwadi Party’s candidates are Brij Bhushan Singh from Gonda, Rakesh Sachhan from Fatehpur, O P Gupta from Dhaurhara, Mitra Sen Yadav from Faizabad, history-sheeter Mukhtar Ansari (Varanasi) and Bal Kumar (brother of robber Daduwa) from Mirzapur. +Seema Parihar, a former robber, is also contesting from Mirzapur on Udit Raj’s Indian Justice Party ticket. +In Maharashtra, gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli is contesting the Lok Sabha elections from the North Central Mumbaiparliamentary constituency. +In West Bengal, ‘bahubali’ Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary is in the fray from Berhampore on Congress party’s ticket. +In Bihar, JD(U) has given Lok Sabha ticket to Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna (a criminal-turned-politician). +Lok JanShakti Party has also given ticket to alleged criminal, Rama Singh, an accused in many criminal cases, from Ara." +The list of criminals turned politicians is long, and the political parties are accused of encouraging and accepting the felons. +Avinash Narula says that getting rid of criminal politicians is not an easy task because of the "cooperation" between them and the power circle. +He says that the 'Lead India" campaign launched by Times of India to ask citizines not to vote for criminals will not succeed because: +"Most of the politicians will not be convicted because of a number of reason. +There is a nexus between politicians, cops and criminals. +On top of this the courts take years to decide on a case which allows the criminals to keep on contesting elections and winning based on goondagiri (highhandedness). +So do you think Lead India Campaign against criminals in politics will have any effect? +I don’t think so. +First, getting criminals out of politics is not in the agenda or manifesto of any major political party. +Forget, forget about removing criminals from politics, they are not even talking about doing anything about corruption. +Second, we need to change the law but again we cannot do this without the politicians. +Third, we need to expedite the legal process which also we cannot do." +In city of Varanasi, holy city for Hindus, election battle sure looks like a movie script. +A person accused for murder (who just happens to be a Muslim) is pitted against a party veteran who is known as a Hindu hardliner. +BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi will be battling against Mukhtar Ansari, who was accused for murder and is currently in a jail. +Ansari is the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate. +Citizens are sounding alarm on muddied political environment not only through blogs but also through videos. +At YouTube, there are a number of videos urging citizens not to accept criminals as election candidates. +This post is part of the Global Voices special coverage on Indian Elections 2009 + +China: Our right to be spared from fear · Global Voices +Blogger Lan Xiaohuan （兰小欢）, in his post 'Bitter Smile', reflects on how a nation permeated with fear has muzzled people's voice. +Lamenting that the cost to claim the rights of a citizen is getting higher today, he also lampooned the infusing fear that crushes people's courage and love, concluding that Chinese have never really stood up without fear. +He starts with an anecdote of his childhood: + +Global Health: Swine Flu Threat Spreads Worldwide · Global Voices +Confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu, which was detected in Mexico earlier this month, have now been found in at least seven other countries around the world. +The World Health Organization (WHO) says that this outbreak constitutes a "public health emergency of international concern." +Also known as swine influenza A or H1N1, swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs that can be passed between humans mainly through coughing and sneezing. +In Mexico, there are over 100 deaths possibly linked to swine flu and more than 1,600 people have been sickened with suspected or confirmed cases of the virus. +Confirmed cases of swine flu have now also been found in the U.S. and Canada, while New Zealand, Spain, France, Israel and Brazil all have suspected cases. +Liz Borkowski, blogging on The Pump Handle, elaborates on why there is concern about the spread of swine flu: +"Swine flu is fairly common, but it’s usually only transmitted from pigs to humans. +This new strain appears to be capable of human-to-human transmission, and it’s also sickening young, otherwise-healthy adults. +This means the virus has the serious potential to cause a pandemic, so it’s appropriate that Mexico has closed schools until May 6 and barred large public gatherings, including church services." +American health officials declared a public health emergency on April 26 after confirming 20 cases of swine flu in the states of California, Kansas, New York, Ohio and Texas. +Most of these cases were mild, though, and no deaths have been reported. +Canada also confirmed six mild cases of swine flu in the provinces of Nova Scotia and British Columbia. +News of swine flu has spread quickly on the Internet, as people search for answers and share their thoughts on the disease. +Swine Flu and #swineflu are the top trending topics on Twitter at the moment, and various Google maps have been created to track the outbreak. +Bloggers around the world are also talking about swine flu. +Daniel Hernandez, blogging on Intersections, describes this scene in Mexico City: +"On Saturday, while the top brass at the WHO convened an emergency meeting in Geneva, soldiers in Mexico City were passing out face-masks at traffic stops, metro stations, and plazas. +A militar in fatigues handed me a mask upon entering metro Bellas Artes, but it fell apart before I could even get on a train. +On board, passengers eyed one another suspiciously and made every effort to avoid contact with strangers." +Matthew Yglesias, blogging for the Center for American Progress Action Fund, expresses concern over how those without health insurance in the U.S. will deal with this disease: +"I have no opinions on this subject beyond the observation that it would be nice to live in a country where, if fell seriously ill due to viral infection, your access to effective medical remedies was not determined by your wealth, income, or employment status." +Jim McVeagh, blogging from New Zealand on MacDoctor, thinks that more needs to be done in his country and worldwide to contain the virus. +In New Zeland, 13 students who recently visited Mexico are suspected of having the disease. +McVeagh says: +"Considering the massive over-reaction that occurred with bird flu, one would have hoped for a somewhat more vigorous response to this one than simple monitoring. +I would have thought isolation of cases and restriction of travel to Mexico would have been a minimum response until we have more data. +Since the CDC is now waking up probably about a week too late and the WHO insists on sitting on its hands, New Zealand’s lackadaisical response looks almost brisk in comparison. +While this might indeed be another non-event, it would be nice if health authorities made that call in hindsight rather than apparently up-front with incomplete information." +Many countries are implementing safety measures to prevent the spread of swine flu. +For example, some airports are screening travelers from Mexico for flu symptoms, and China and Russia plan to put anyone with symptoms under quarantine. +Vijay Sadasivam, blogging on scan man, says that no preventative initiatives are being taken in India, though, while boinky, blogging on Finestkind Clinic and fish market, describes one measure happening in the Philippines: +"The Philippines will stop importation of pork from the US and Mexico to stop the spread...this is funny, since the flu is being spread human to human, and our own pigs have Ebola Reston... but of course it's fiesta time, and so far no talk of a human quarantine such as they did with SARS..." +Many bloggers point out that while we should take this threat seriously and be prepared, there's no need to panic just yet. +For instance, a post on Utah Preppers says: +"Some quick anti-panic notes… Swine flu CANNOT be transmitted by food. +Eating pork does NOT put you at risk. +This is NOT the first time the ’swine flu’ has transmitted to humans. +It’s happened several times before without it becoming a pandemic. +This variant of swine flu, as with any flu, is a virus and primarily spread person-to-person through coughing or sneezing. +This is just a flu! +The key here is to NOT GET IT." +The WHO isn't currently recommending any travel or trade restrictions, and says they need more information on the virus before deciding whether to raise the global pandemic alert level, which is currently at level three of the six levels. +Photo of Swine Flu Protection by Sarihuella on Flickr. + +Morocco: On "Jewish Morocco" · Global Voices +Morocco has a long relationship with Judaism; during the spread of the Roman empire, a number of Jews settled in what is modern-day Morocco. +Over time, relations between Morocco's majority Muslim population and its small Jewish population have ranged from very good to heavily strained. +Following the creation of the state of Israel, the vast majority of Morocco's Jews emigrated (approximately 15% of Israeli Jews are in fact of Moroccan descent), however, approximately 7,000 Jews reside in Morocco today. +Moroccans are often quick to point out that the king's top adviser, André Azoulay, is Jewish. +There is very little about Moroccan Jews on the Internet, as Moroccan blogger Ibn Kafka recently pointed out. In a post on "Jewish Morocco," he said: +Spent last night with my wonderful hosts and had another delicious meal. +The oldest of the women sat down next to me before dinner and wanted to hear all about world Jewry. +She wanted to know how many Jews were still in Syria, Lebanon, everywhere. +She asked me about the Jews of Ethiopia and I was shocked that she even knew to ask. +She asked about Iran and I told her that there were many more Jews there than in Morocco. +They were all shocked and started asking if they covered their faces like all Iranian women. +It was very comical. +I learned more about these women throughout our meal. +One had been to Israel before but for some reason has decided to stay here in Morocco. +I told them that my mother had thanked them for being so warm to me and that got them really excited. +We ended our meal and they asked me to take about 4 pounds of truffles back with me to some mutual friends in Casa. +I of course obliged and have now added truffles stuffed in matzah boxes to my previously light load. +Bet El Synagogue, Casablanca, Morocco +Silver has also noticed the dearth of Jewish Moroccan sites online. +In one post, he writes: +Google Earth and Wikimapia have become two very interesting resources for discovering Jewish Morocco. +Both applications allow users to identify points on an often very clear map. +So for example, an aerial view of Rabat will identify the mellah and a synagogue ("cinaguogue juif" south of the mellah and in a cluster of 3 marked areas) amongst many other sites. +The information is user generated and usually by individuals on the ground. +It is quite clear that both bloggers are doing their part to bring this lesser-known population to the Internet. +Ibn Kafka, however, shares one regret: + +Indian Elections '09: On the Black Money trail · Global Voices +This post is part of the Global Voices special coverage on the Indian Elections 2009 +Black money stashed away in overseas tax havens/secret Swiss bank accounts - is not a new topic in India. +Dr. Munish tells us: +Black money in Swiss accounts: this is a phrase which I remember hearing from my childhood. +People believe that Indian politicians, civil servants (bureaucrats or babus), rich people have their Swiss accounts and they deposit black money there! +However, the very same topic is generating quite a bit of heat in this Election ever since the BJP brought it to the forefront of public attention by stating some figure estimates in their manifesto: +Firm action will be initiated to minimise the presence of black money in the national economy. +We will take determined steps to bring back the money (estimated at Rs 25,00,000 crore and Rs 75,00,000 crore ) illegally stashed in Swiss bank accounts and tax havens, and use it for infrastructure development, housing, health and social welfare schemes. +Though other political parties like the CPI(M) also spoke of launching a drive to unearth black money in their manifesto, the amounts stated by the BJP seemed so fantastic that it soon caught the public's fancy, and became a topic of debate. +Some people, like Shakthi, were impressed: +One of the biggest things that I liked about the manifesto is the promise to get the 25 Lakh Crore Rupees of black money in Swiss banks back into the market in India. +I can imagine what a heave that will give to our economy. +Others, like b50, were sceptical: +Will the BJP Fan Club please explain to me how the Swiss Bank billions can be bought to India and spent on infra within 100 days? +No one could however ignore the issue. +Soon, various political parties were hotly debating, not only about the actual amount of black money stashed abroad, but also about who was doing what to get the money back. +The CPI(M) called the BJP's stated figures a 'hoax' and tried to re-claim the black money issue as their poll promise by pointing out that they had raised the issue 'much before it appeared on the BJP's radar'. +However, the CPI(M) also flayed the Congress for not doing enough to crack down on illicit funds. +The Congress, stung by competition's accusation that their government had not done enough to, stated that the BJP's claim of the aforementioned amounts was based on 'bogus' sources and hence lacked credibility. +Furthermore, the Congress also raised questions as to why the BJP itself had not done the needful when they were in power earlier. +At the same time, the party also claimed that they were on top of things and that 'the government was already monitoring suspicious financial transactions'. +While the political parties thrust and parry on the issue in question, a PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court by eminent citizens seeking urgent remedial measures w.r.t the black money stashed abroad and its repatriation. +The Court will the hear the case (including the government's response) on May 4th. +Yes, the knowledge of the existence of black money is not new news. +Then why has it become a raging debate in this election? +According to Dr. Munish: +in today's global economic recession, the powerful countries like USA are making efforts to recover their lost money. +That makes sense! +Consider a situation: when in a home, we are out of money, what we do: we look around if some money is lying around (in piggy banks, in form of deposits). +Same concept lies behind the desperation that the developed countries are showing: they have fixed their eyes on black money that their countrymen had stashed out of country! +Rising above our own political preferences, there is no denying that a lot, a lot of money is stashed by Indian elite in Swiss banks: and I am of the firm opinion that these political leaders –if exposed- will be belonging to all major and many regional parties. +It may be a safe guess if you believe that each and every famous leader might have some money stocked there! +Thus it is amply clear that if this money is recovered and used in India: India can overnight become a major country! +In the midst of this debate, the Swiss Bankers Association has said that this topic has become "good election fodder". +However, with the OECD pressing for a crackdown on black money stashed overseas as well as cross-border tax evasions, it looks like this time round, this is an issue that is sure to remain the focus of attention for now at least. +Thumbnail image by Flickr user D.C.Atty, used under a Creative Commons License + +Russia: Teen Curfew; Police Officer's Shooting Spree · Global Voices +On April 20, it was announced that President Dmitry Medvedev approved the changes to children's rights law, allowing regional authorities to bar minors under the age of 18, unaccompanied by parents or legal guardians, from public places - "for example, in the street, stadiums, parks, squares, public transport and Internet cafes" - from 10 PM to 6 AM. +Below is one of the reactions (RUS) from the Russian blogosphere, by LJ user oleg_kozyrev: +Medvedev and the children +The president sincerely believes that the day after the 18th birthday is the first day when a young person can venture outside after 10 PM. +That is, tomorrow is already time for him to be drafted into the army, to defend the country, to be trusted with tanks and rockets, but a week before that, he was not yet trusted with stepping beyond the threshold of his house after 10 PM. +And this concerns all children - those from the villages, and those on vacation, and students, and those who attend music schools and chess classes, and those who are out in the field trip to make a fire and bake potatoes, and those who are into astronomy and are outdoors with a neighbor friend and with a telescope, observing the stars - all of them. +It's actually an incredible joke. +IN THE TIME OF PEACE, THEY'VE INTRODUCED CURFEW FOR ALL RUSSIA'S YOUNG PEOPLE. +High crime rates? +Fire . +What do the young people have to do with it? +IF THE PRESIDENT CAN'T SECURE ORDER IN THE STREETS AND INTRODUCES CURFEW AS A SOLUTION - IT'S WORTH FOR SUCH A PRESIDENT TO CONSIDER A DIFFERENT JOB +Below are some of the comments to this post: +georg_pik: +A person can get access to classified information at the age of 17 (many students need to have such access by the first year of their studies). +It means that a first-year student with access to documents that constitute state secret do not have the right to go out into the street after 10 PM. +*** +phillennium +And what if it's a first-year student at the evening department, where the last class may end, for example, at 9:50 PM. +*** +oleg_kozyrev: +I don't know what world the politicians who adopted this law are living in. +Must be some unreal world, in which young people don't work, don't study - don't live. +*** +komsomolka_new +Maybe they'd prefer to do without young people at all. +Retired people are more active at voting. +And they usually ask the election commission at the polling station who to vote for. +*** +Anonymous: +There is one thing - the most important one - missing from this law: the way it is in civilized Europe - all food stores (especially including those that sell alcohol) work till 3 PM on Saturdays and are closed on Sundays!!! all over Russia!! +*** +lev_evgenevi4: All is okay - this is just another law that is not going to be observed until a cop suddenly wants some money. +At least three of LJ user oleg_kozyrev's readers mention Denis Yevsyukov, a Moscow police officer who shot three people to death and wounded six in a supermarket on April 20, the day he turned 32: +m_holodkowski: +That's right! +Who needs to take walks at night when there are Yevsyukovs with bandit guns all around! ;) +*** +miecz_kaina: +This is a preventive measure, to keep the police from shooting those who haven't reached the age of 18 after 10 PM. +*** +alrihard: Kids provoke Yevsyukovs. +A drunk cop would enter a supermarket in the evening/at night to buy vodka, his wife hasn't given it to him yet, and here are all those happy young boys and girls... +Following Major Yevsyukov's shooting spree, president Medvedev sacked Colonel-General Vladimir Pronin, Moscow’s police chief since 2001. + +Growing Military Repression in Madagascar · Global Voices +While more protests have erupted in Madagascar and were repressed severely by armed forces, the members of the transitional government of Madagascar have been hard at work explaining the circumstances of their rise to power to the international community. +The recent reversal of the high constitutional court (HCC) decision on the illegitimacy of the power transfer (fr) seems to have caught the transitional government by surprise and was what most likely led to the arrest of the head of security at the HCC. +Representatives of the UN security council and the African Union are meeting for a "Madagascar contact group" in Addis Ababa to ensure that the nations take a common position in pushing for a return to constitutional order in Madagascar. +Although each Malagasy political party announced that they had representatives present at the meeting, it turns out that none of the opposition parties were present during the decision-making process meeting. +In the meantime, former president Marc Ravalomanana, in exile in South Africa, appointed a new prime minister, Mandandafy Rakotonirina, to form a new government, in effect disputing the legitimacy of the transitional government. +A few days after Rakotonirina listed the new members of his cabinet, he and his acquaintances were arrested by the security forces on charges of "illegally declaring himself as prime minister, vandalism & possessing weapons". +Malagasy bloggers were quick to react news of the arrest: +Rakotonirina arrested by Commander Andrianasoavina via andrydago.wordpress.com +Malagasy blogger, andrydago posts photos and describes the circumstances of the arrest of Rakotonirina in details and wonders whether the military thinks that this arrest will put an end to the movement. +Avylavitra posts the video of the arrest on his blog: +Jentilisa describes and transcribes what is happening on the video: + +Peru: Newspaper Questions Spanish Language Proficiency of Indigenous Congresswoman · Global Voices +The Lima newspaper Correo published a front page story about the low level of Spanish language proficiency by the indigenous Congresswoman Hilaria Supa and saying that in order to be a Congressional representative one should have a minimum level of education. +As a result, the Peruvian blogosphere put forth various opinions including agreeing that legislators should speak and write well. +There are also accusations of racism and discrimination. +Nila Vigil of Instituto Linguístico de Invierno repudiates the Correo newspaper and its editor Aldo Mariátegui: + +Iran: Eccentric candidates of the presidential election · Global Voices +More than 1000 candidates have registered online to be considered for presidential candidacy in the Iranian elections in June. +All candidates have five days from today to appear at the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior. +After the registration is complete, the powerful 12-member Guardian Council will screen the candidates and offer a final ruling on who will run in the election. +In the last presidential election in 2005, less than 10 people among over 1000 registered candidates got the chance to run. +All the lucky candidates were faithful and loyal to the Islamic Republic. +The presence of eccentric candidates this time (just as four years ago) attracts a lot of attention. +An Iranian blogger and journalist, Digital Kalashnikof has seized on this moment of "glory" and filmed some of the candidates who presented themselves at the Ministry of the Interior: +1- A man wearing a cowboy hat. +Maybe in the USA a candidate in a cowboy hat is more ordinary - at least in some states - but in the Islamic Republic it is an event: +In the video above, the guy in the cowboy hat responds that he has not finished high school, and that "he is at the service of all people and wants to revive Iran's 7000 year old civilization." +He answers reporters questions about the hat by saying that it is a sign that he is "the servant of Imam Ali, and that we find bad and good people in all countries." +2-Another fellow wears Iran's flag and says nobody can compete with him in this election. +The old man says he is doing his "civic duty" and following the Iranian leaders' words to present himself as candidate. +He claims he already has a program to govern and a list of ministers that are like him. +7Tir writes that Iranian authorities create a lot of publicity on these clowns to justify Guardian Council's decision to deny most registered candidates the opportunity to actually run in the presidential election. + +Global Health: "Swine Flu" In Images · Global Voices +Though concerns over the "swine flu" outbreak have eased, the virus continues to spread throughout the world. +Also called the H1N1 virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that there are now 4,379 confirmed cases of the virus in 29 countries, with 49 deaths from the sickness. +The United States and Mexico still have the most cases of the virus, though it has now been found on most continents. +This map shows all confirmed cases and deaths globally from the H1N1 virus. +Images from around the world are capturing the disease's impact and people's reactions. +This photo was taken in Mexico, where the virus has been the most deadly. +The WHO says that Mexico has reported 1,626 confirmed cases of the infection, including 45 deaths. +Photo by Guerry on Flickr +Photo by Chupacabra on FlickrIn response to the swine flu outbreak, which was detected in Mexico in April, the country's government immediately ordered the closure of all schools, museums, libraries and theaters in Mexico City. +This image shows the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, which was closed. +Universities, churches and museums did reopen last Thursday, as did cinemas, restaurants, and sports venues. +But younger kids won't be going back to school until this week. +Photo by 19melissa68 on FlickrMeanwhile, many schools closed across the United States, where the WHO now reports 2,254 confirmed cases of swine flu, including two deaths. +This photo shows a school in Fort Worth, Texas, that was closed due to the H1N1 outbreak. +The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now advises that schools should reopen because the virus is milder than originally anticipated. +Still, about 468,000 students around the country had already been affected by these closures. +When H1N1 was initially detected and started spreading in Mexico City it caused panic, said the photographer of this image. +This photo shows empty shelves in a supermarket in the east part of Mexico City. +The photographer added that authorities have stressed that there will be no shortage of food and medicine, which has slowed down hoarding. +Photo by Enea on Flickr +From Mexico City to New York City, people in closed places such as the subway have been using face masks to try and avoid getting swine flu, since the virus is mainly spread between people through coughing and sneezing. +But there's been much debate over whether these masks are actually effective. +Photo of New York City by Swerz on Flickr Photo of Mexico City by Enea on Flickr +Still, many people have used face masks to protect themselves, particularly when traveling, be it airline crew members or passengers. +In this image, members of a flight crew wear masks as they wait for their luggage in an airport in Bogota. +Photo by laimagendelmundo on Flickr +This image shows the panic that also hit the U.K., which has 39 confirmed cases of swine flu. +In response to the outbreak, Britain's Health Protection Agency announced last week that they have sequenced the full genetic code of the H1N1 virus, the first step in producing a European prototype of a swine flu vaccine. +Photo by donebythehandsofabroken artist on Flickr +This image shows an elevator in Hong Kong that is sterilized regularly to prevent swine flu. +Though there's only one confirmed case in China so far, the country has taken strong measures to prevent the spread of the virus. +For example, on May 8 Hong Kong lifted a weeklong quarantine on a hotel where a Mexican swine flu patient stayed, releasing around 280 people who had been isolated in the building. +Photo by David Bailey MBE on Flickr +Finally, in this image people gather at the Metropolitan Cathedral Mexico City. +The photographer said that they were praying for the sick, the government and the rest of the society, hoping "they make 'good decisions' against the swine flu epidemic in our country." Photo by Sarihuella on Flickr + +Iraq: Organised 'crackdown' on homosexuals · Global Voices +In the past few weeks there has been an increase in the persecution of homosexuals in Iraq, due to an organised 'crackdown' based on a religious decree for their death, reports UAE- based media network alarabiya.net. +There has been a spate of deaths resulting from a previously unheard of and particularly gruesome torture method being employed against homosexual men. +Iraqi human rights activist Yina Mohammad told alarabiya.net that: +Homosexuality is largely frowned upon across Iraqi society and it seems that sympathy for their deteriorating plight is non-existent. +Gay people are perceived as violating social norms and threatening the society with “moral decay.” +An eyewitness who saw an attack against a young man said: “The dog got what he deserved.” +This perception has legitimatized attacks on them. +According to Iraqi law all breaches of social or religious custom can only be dealt with by the judiciary. +There is no room for religious law and yet since 2006 militias have been attacking gay people with the religious backing of a number of Islamic clerics. +In light of the current situation, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) sent a letter last month to the Iraqi Minister of Human Rights, Wijdan Salim, requesting specific measures be taken to protect LGBT Iraqis against hate crimes and persecution. +The letter can be seen here. +According to the IGLHRC many of the attacks against homosexuals do not receive proper investigation, and the perpetrators too often go without punishment. +There have also been reports coming from alarabiya.net and the blogs that some homosexuals are denied treatment when seeking help at hospitals. +It is clear that some kind of change needs to take place to counter the rise in such atrocities. +While foreign support groups and outside pressure have positive impact, for the gay Iraqi living in fear, these groups have little effect on their daily struggle. +In Shams Al-Ma7aba, a couple writing from Bahrain, sum up the frustration experienced by homosexuals deprived of their basic rights: + +China: He saw no conscience, no sympathy. · Global Voices +At the end of the blog entry, the professor and lawyer Xu Zhiyong （许志永） wrote down the line: + +Paris court investigates three African leaders · Global Voices +"In Africa, you never look Presidents in the mouth. +They are, as it is said in popular language, groundnut roasters. +And you don't look a groundnut roaster in his mouth. +Because then he will definitely throw in some grains." +(Ivorian blogger Denis Zado) +Earlier this week, a Parisian judge ordered an inquiry into alleged corruption and embezzlement on the part of three African heads of state: Denis Sassou-Nguesso of Congo-Brazzaville, Omar Bongo of Gabon, and Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea. +Teodoro Obiang has been president of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea for thirty years. His luxury apartment and collection of cars are alleged to have been bought with misappropriated funds. +At last! +The French court's decision was greeted by many as a welcome surprise, one that may mark a shift in French attitudes toward Africa. +Congolese (DRC) blogger Musengeshi Kata, writes on Forum Realisance: + +Kazakhstan: Turmoil Royale · Global Voices +Rakhat Aliev, former son-in-law of the Kazakhstani president, former ambassador in Austria and former Kazakh oligarch, sentenced to 40 years in jail for abduction of the people, leadership of the mafia-type organization and attempt of the coup, keeps on creating a "democrat's" image by leaking discrediting materials against top officials. +Earlier this week his book "The Godfather-in-Law" has been issued. +It's first edition was published in Germany, in German language. +As Aliev himself says, +Europe still has little knowledge of what is happening in Kazakhstan. +This fact allows EU politicians to put a blind eye on repressions and righs violations. +There are few comments to this post. +Some of them are glad about the publication. heil-jonny says he'll definitely buy a book, while mimi7777777 offers translation services. +yeresim is skeptical : +I could have regarded this book differently, if the author were a consistent fighter against the regime. +But you - you have become what you are thanks to your fother-in-law. +And now you try to present yourself as a democrat, using discrediting materials against this man. +Are you so naive to think that the Kazakh people will be happy to see you again, ever? +I don't think so. +And this is your traged. +thousand_pa tries to clarify : +Does this book tell the reader how a man on public service managed to get large enterprises in private property, to own Nurbank , media and advertising holdings, shreholdings in a number of Kazakhstani and foreign companies? +Besides, the checking of users who leave positive comments Aliev's blog shows that most of them are fake accounts with no entries and a couple of comments in personal history. + +Arab World Reacts to Jordan's Twittering Queen Rania · Global Voices +One of Queen Rania's Tweets Not only is she giving us a sneak preview of her private life as a Queen and mother with messages like this and this , but has also agreed to conduct her first Twitter interview, according to the World Economic Forum Blog: +On the occasion of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East held at the Dead Sea in Jordan from 15 - 17 May 2009 Her Majesty has agreed to answer five questions from the general public via her Twitter account. +Since she will not be able to answer all questions we put the questions to a public vote and Her Majesty will reply to the top five questions. +Vote on the questions below to be put to Queen Rania here. +With 41,217 followers so far (she is only following 31), reactions from around the region on the Twittering Queen's adventure pour in. +Observations of a Jordanian praised the move, saying: +I have a LOT to complain about when it comes to how our country is run, but one thing I love is how the Royal Family are humble and try to stay connected with the people, especially technologically speaking. +First a YouTuber, now Queen Rania has moved on to the next popular internet craze, Twitter It's the real deal, in case you're wondering, her account has been confirmed by the Royal Court. +The Arab Observer is evidently ecstatic and writes: +Isn't Queen Rania the coolest Queen ever? +We can listen now to 140 character wisdom messages from our Queen. +A great tool for the leaders of the 21th century to use and build on. +Well done Queen Rania, we are so proud of you, really so so proud :) +And ArabCrunch, also from Jordan, follows suit: +It seems the Queen is personally who is tweeting, since we are seeing personal tweets like this one, she is also using twitpic where she posted a pic of her and her son. +Moving over to neighbouring Syria, Sasa, from the Syria News Wire, takes the opportunity to draw a comparison between the Queen and Syria's first lady Asma Al Assad: +Queen Rania is on Twitter (@queenrania). +She’s been flying around in her husband’s helicopter, meeting the Pope, talking about changing the world. +But Syria isn’t far behind. +First Lady Asma Al-Assad may not be on Twitter, but she’s on Facebook. +While her southern counterpart has been having fun doing acrobatics in helicopters and calling her husband a “real life action hero” (tell him to put the Playstation down then), Asma has been doing charity work. +She’s just launched the Massar-E project, which helps disadvantaged children learn about technology. +We know which of the two can be seen wondering around their city without hundreds of bodyguards. +I know Rania has just signed up for Twitter so maybe it’s not a fair comparison - but if numbers mean anything, Asma has 9000 fans, Rania has 4000. +And US-based Lebanese Dr Asa'ad Abu Khalil, at the Angry Arab News Service, is just that ... angry. +He rants: +"Thank u 4 followin! +Looking 4ward to hearin ur thoughts and ideas on using social media 4 social change." +Oh, you want ideas for social change? +I want to use social media (whatever you mean by that) in order to overthrow the Jordanian government and send you and the Hashemite royal family to exile in some remote European city. +You may then chat with exiled survivers of the Egyptian or Iraqi royal families. +And please use twitter in exile to amuse me. +And somebody on your staff who writes your twitter and youtube texts for you need to tell you how uninteresting and uninspiring you are. +Somebody needs to tell you that they only like you in the West because Israel approves of your PlayStation husband. +Egyptian activist and blogger 3arabawy shares similar sentiments, and here are messages (click on image below) he Twittered to the Queen: +Tweets by Egyptian blogger 3arabawy +And that is not all. +A controversy is also brewing in the background regarding a fan page created by an Egyptian blogger for Queen Rania on Facebook. +TripleM claims that he has been kicked out as an admin of the page he has created for the Queen. He says: +And, at Kermit the Blog 2.0, Kamel Al Asmar notes: +After 14 months on YouTube, I was wondering if Queen Rania wants to discover the power of social media and networking tools on the web one after the other when I saw her on Twitter a week ago (now with more than 40,000 followers). +Apparently I was mistaken, Queen Rania is working on her online presence using more than one social media at once. +Al Asmar adds: +When I checked HM’s page on Facebook, I figured out that I was missing something that’s happening on the background. +A page with more than 21,000 fans who are increasing rapidly. +In addition to adding her twitter updates on the page’s status, Queen Rania is starting discussion topics there, mentioning on of them: “How can we build and broadcast cross-cultural dialogue?”. +She also uploaded and still uploading some collections of photos on that page. +The interactivity factor on the Facebook page is impressive, and I’m regretting the couple of days I missed without being there. +But the question that I and the people around me are asking; who is updating those media tools?! +Is she Queen Rania personally who’s doing so or there is a team that is taking care of it, I’m really curious about it and I hope to have the answer one day. +On a different note; today I realized that the Queen’s page on Facebook was owned by my cyber friend, Mohammad Mansour AKA TripleM and one day he found that he’s no longer the admin of that page. +Basically Queen Rania stole her page as it’s supposed to be her property + +USA: The battle over medical marijuana · Global Voices +Photo by Neeta Lind on Flickr +In the United States, 13 states currently allow citizens to use marijuana for medicinal purposes, but even these limited rights are under threat. +In response, many Americans have created blogs to support and extend the legalization of marijuana. +The American debate over legalizing marijuana (cannabis) can be traced back to the early 1900s when people began using it for recreational purposes. +More than one hundred years have passed and the debate hasn't loss one ounce of heat. +State vs. federal law in courts +In February, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the federal government would no longer raid medical marijuana clubs that abide by state laws. +Despite this announcement, those opposing the drug are still fighting the battle. +Most recently, a Republican Senator in Oklahoma, Tom Coburn, introduced an amendment to a bill that would force states to abide by the federal government, which has not yet passed a bill to legalize marijuana nationwide. +The amendment failed to pass by a narrow vote on May 21. +A blogger for NORML Daily Stash, Dudemaster, quoted from an article on Opposing Views by Americans for Safe Access about the foiled attempt to stop medical marijuana: +"At present, the only way for medical marijuana to be properly evaluated by the FDA is for privately-funded sponsors to conduct FDA-approved clinical trials (like any other drug evaluation). +If Senator Coburn’s intentions with regard to the medical efficacy of marijuana were genuine, he would consider first removing the monopoly imposed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on licenses for the cultivation of medical-grade cannabis for research purposes. +Currently, the DEA exclusively licenses the cultivation of medical-grade cannabis to the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA), which primarily investigates only the negative effects of cannabis. +This monopoly obstructs any investigation and research in the U.S. into the medical properties of cannabis and thwarts the normal drug approval process. +In California, a longtime legal battle also came to an end earlier this month. +Two counties, San Diego and San Bernardino, attempted to overturn a 1996 state law that allows the medical usage of marijuana by bringing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. +They lost the case on May 18. +Scott Morgan of the Stop the Drug War Organization blogged about the counties' court loss: +"For the hundredth time, conflict with federal law is not an obstacle to passing and implementing state laws that permit medical marijuana. +Federal law enforcement can come in and cause trouble, but that doesn’t make state laws invalid. +Those laws still apply and provide valuable protection against state police, who patients are more likely to come in contact with. +The very idea that federal law somehow cancels out state policies is just some made-up nonsense that enemies of medical marijuana have been spewing in desperation for several years now. +Nice try, but you're wrong. +Case closed." +Medical marijuana club in San Francisco, by Thomas Hawk on Flickr +Joe Elford from Americans for Safe Access blogged at Medical Cannabis: Voices from the frontlines about his experience in a court room in California on May 26 where he presented an oral argument in favor of medical marijuana. +The case concerns a group of cannabis patients who claim to have been harassed by the sheriff's department. +I had an oral argument before the Court of Appeal for the Third Appellate District, which is a state court in Sacramento. +The case is Williams v. Butte County , which involves a small patient collective, which was harassed by the Butte County Sheriff’s Office. +Specifically, Williams and six other patients pooled their labor and resources to maintain a 41-plant garden on Williams’ property. +During one of the notorious Butte County sweeps several years ago, Deputy Sheriff Jacob Hancock came to Williams’ property without a warrant and required him to tear down all but twelve of the plants upon threat of arrest... +Blogging for marijuana rights +Although medical marijuana is legal in California, only 12 other states have adopted the same policy. +This leaves many advocates constantly campaigning to legalize the drug nationwide. +Advocates have taken their protest to the blogosphere, often listing the many reasons why marijuana is beneficial. +On the blog of the Marijuana Policy Project, MPP Blog, Bruce Mirken presents a study that shows cannabis can help against colorectal cancer, and insists that medical marijuana "is not just about getting high". +The Stimulist gives five reasons why he think marijuana will be legalized - including the fact that baby boomers are growing older; the decline in the popularity of the drug war; and the economic benefits: +"California’s economy is hurting, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking for any way he can to make some money. +San Quentin and the L.A. Coliseum are for sale, but the most drastic measure he’s taken is calling for a study on legalizing dope. +“Creating extra revenues, I’m always for an open debate on it,” he said earlier this month." +Entire online news communities about marijuana have been created, including maps that show users where to find the nearest cannabis clubs, photo sharing communities and forums. +Despite, its many supporters - opposition is still strong and therefore, a federal law legalizing marijuana may be far down the road. +Deb-HAS-grn write a forum post at Green Passion about a conversation she had recently with her son. +"I was talking to my son a few months ago about my love of growing and my new place on the internet, Green Passion, I also was saying to him, As I get older my desire to need to see pot legalized grows stronger and stronger. +His words responding to that should not of surprised me as I have thought the same myself, but at the time when he said to me, Mom I am sorry to say this but I honestly don't think they will legalize marijuana for many many years to come. +It kind of hit me hard hearing those words and thinking I may never see the day that I would be legal to grow and smoke as I please. +And I am not talking about the first much needed legalization of medical marijuana in all countries, I am talking about the freedom to do as I please when I please when it comes to weed." + +India Votes for No Change: Indian Bloggers & Twitter Users React to #IndiaVotes09 Results · Global Voices +Introduction: India Votes for No Change in the 2009 Lok Sabha Elections Photo courtesy Al Jazeera under a Creative Commons License +The results for the month long Indian Lok Sabha elections are out and India has voted back the incumbent Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) into power with a decisive verdict, surprising many observers. +As I write this post, the results for 480 out of the 543 seats have been declared. +The Congress is leading in more than 200 seats and UPA is less than 20 seats away from reaching the magic figure of 273. +The verdict is a reminder of the Indian electorate's love affair with the Nehru-Gandhi family and a coming of age of sorts for Rahul Gandhi, the young scion of the family. +A jubilant Sonia Gandhi reiterated that Manmohan Singh will be Congress Party's choice for the prime minister. +Manmohan Singh will be the first Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after a full five-year term. +The verdict has also led to some serious soul-searching within BJP. +It seems that Lal Krishna Advani's political career is all but over. +It will be interesting to see if BJP moves away from its Hindutva roots and repositions itself as a Right of Center party or becomes even more hardcore Hindu Right under the leadership of someone like Narendra Modi. +Some of the biggest upsets so far: Ram Vilas Paswan, Ram Naik, Renuka Choudhry, Vinod Khanna, Meera Sanyal and Captain Gopnath lost the election while Shashi Tharoor won by a record margin. +Summary of Reactions from Indian Bloggers and Twitter Users +The Congress supporters are jubilant, and the BJP die-hards are understandably glum, but most neutral Indian bloggers and Twitter users are happy with the verdict, for more reason than one. +The two national parties — Congress and BJP — have increased their tally by 40-50 seats. +Both Congress and BJP have a more-or-less similar forward-looking national agenda (apart from BJP's obsession with Hindutva), unlike the regional parties who are focused on caste, language and state affiliations. +The consolidation of the national vote is a sigh of relief for the urban Indian "elite", who were worried about the increasing fragmentation in Indian politics. +The UPA is 15-20 seats short of the 273 seats it needs to form the government. +This precludes the possibility of the opportunistic horse-trading many observers were expecting in the aftermath of the elections. +The (almost) clear verdict for UPA is likely to result in a stable government that lasts for five years and isn't held hostage by the narrow agendas of the regional coalition partners. +The decisive Congress victory has also surprised most observers. +Most predictions and opinion polls had predicted an indecisive verdict with a close finish between BJP and Congress and a rise in the power of the regional parties. +Some observers will see the verdict as a validation of the tried-and-tested methods of political campaigning in India. +The BJP ran an aggressive 360 degree campaign on mass media and digital media, but it didn't work, like its 2004 India Shining campaign. +The Congress ran a traditional campaign, focused on movie songs, local rallies and the charisma of the Nehru-Gandhi family, and succeeded. +I would caution you against reading too much into this coincidence and mistaking it for causality. +It's not BJP's campaign, but BJP's Hindutva ideology, that has failed the party. +BJP has lost in spite of its brilliant campaign, not because of it. +#IndiaVotes09: Reactions from Indian Twitter Users +Twitter conversations related to the Indian elections fell into a few distinct categories, including retweets of news reports on the elections results, exuberance over the Congress win, some soul-searching over BJP's loss (from a very strong BJP support base on Twitter), and opinions on what the election results mean for India. +Apart from the themes I have talked about above, the #indiavotes09 hastag on Twitter had its own unique memes. +The first such meme was predictably self referential. +After a handful of tweets on the #indiavotes09 hastag throughout the month long elections, the Indian Twitter community spent the day obsessing about election results, making #indiavotes the number one trending topic on Twitter. +This led to the usual recurcive navel gazing about how an India-related hashtag is trending on Twitter and Economic Times even did a story on it. +@Hiway: Indian Twitter community too big and united to be ignored: #indiavotes09 is trending. (we've made many topics 'trend' recently) +(Aside from the Economic Times story: As per ViziSense, which analyses web visitor statistics, there are about 533,000 India-based users of Twitter. +Tweeple.in follows 31,000 Twitter users in India.) +Dina just pointed to an interesting graphic on the irrelevance of trending topics on Twitter, which should dampen the exuberance over #indiavotes09 trending on Twitter. +The second #indiavotes09 meme was about the failure of BJP's aggressive digital campaign. +@MaheshMurthy, the CEO and founder of digital agency Pinstorm, offered some interesting analysis on why the BJP campaign didn't work - +@MaheshMurthy: #indiavotes09 Don't think BJP campaign was brilliant. +Strategy to project LKA as a strong leader was clearly wrong. +@MaheshMurthy: #indiavotes09 I dont think most of us thought we had weak leadership, or even if we did, that it was a big problem. +@MaheshMurthy: #indiavotes09 BJP would have had a better chance if it focused on the difference they would make that was relevant to us. +@MaheshMurthy: #indiavotes09 BJP campaign used the right medium: social/digital - but offered no relevant message. They were tuned out. +@MaheshMurthy: #indiavotes09 Googler to me: Advani using them as he wants to connect with young. +For that you need medium AND message. +Other Twitter users also had interesting comments on BJP's campaign - +@Dina: I don't buy that BJP tactics were brilliant. +To add to @maheshmurthy 's response, there were no conversations. +It was classic push advertising. +@NikhilNarayanan: The Bloggers for BJP has just 120 bloggers as per lkadvani.in (count taken 2 days back). +120 is a very small number. +@Danishk: The issue with BJP campaign as I see it was they forgot that most people looking at those ads are learned people unlike masses. +@Amit3D: 30 million people access internet daily in India. +Approx 10 mil voted and saw BJP's digimedia campaign. +Don't think that was enough. +@Amit3D: So I guess BJPs digimedia campaign was big #FAIL. india is not US in numbers when it comes to internet. +@Sanjukta: Exactly what I just said. +No body likes spamming. +All those over the top in your face campaign backfired. +@mohyt: BJP poll results make me wonder if they'd lost by bigger margin had they not done their huge Social Media Marketing campaign #indiavotes09 +@GasperDesouza: Advani tried an 'Obama' in India, online campaign, et al. +Now his head is on the BJP chopping block #indiavotes09 +@b50: wishes the BJP well. +They fought a hard, aggressive campaign. +Best of luck for 2014. +Be an Opposition we can be proud of. #IndiaVotes09 +@mudittuli: BJP campaign managers are always disconnected with reality, they tried to do a Obama but got slapped in the face #indiavotes09 +@NairArun: BJP's online campaign was desperate and tacky. +The intent was to replicate Obama's success, but the execution was poor. #indiavotes09 @DeadPresident: Advani honours BJP youth campaign team http://bit.ly/gmuWI - congrats folks! @bjp_ and @missionbjp and the people behind those +I tried to argue on behalf of BJP's strategist Sudheendra Kulkarni, but I'm clearly in a minority today - +@Gauravonomics: BJP has lost in spite of its brilliant campaign, not because of it. #indiavotes09 +@Gauravonomics: I agree that the BJP/ LKA strategy backfired. +I meant that the campaign was brilliant at a tactical level. #indiavotes09 +@Gauravonomics: The BJP campaign did have grassroots online support. Friends of BJP. +Bloggers for Advani. +Too many BJP supporters on #indiavotes09 +@Gauravonomics: The fact that it didn't work (due to message etc.) doesn't mean that BJP's (digital) campaign was flawed #indiavotes09 @Gauravonomics: In fact, I feel a little sad for Sudheendra Kulkarni. +Given what he had to work with, he did a really good job. #indiavotes09 +The other big meme on Twitter today was writer and Congress candidate Shashi Tharoor live-tweeting the election results - +@ShashiTharoor: I have won with a majority greater than any Congress candidate in Tvm in 30 years... +Truly humbling. +Now the real work begins. +@navinpai: Wow....just found out @ShashiTharoor tweets!! +I wonder if he does it or gets a crack team of writers to pen down 140 characters!! +@ArunRam: @ShashiTharoor Congrats! +Hope the Congress party gives you a key cabinet post. +India needs more professionals like you in politics. +@SheetalDube: I am wondering if the Indian cabinet might witness the highest % increase in literacy level with the inclusion of @ShashiTharoor. +@manishd: @shashitharoor, I think you would be the first MP to be on twitter. +Great way to keep in touch with the electorate. +We need more like you. +@SepiaMutiny: Congratulate Shashi Tharoor directly: @shashitharoor (see his live tweets as the results came in!) #IndiaVotes09 (via @sajahq) +@viveksingh: Looks like @ShashiTharoor is the most popular politician amongst the twitteratti #indiavotes09 +@GauravKanoongo: How many Indian politicians are here on Twitter? +I know about only @shashitharoor #indiavotes09 @acmhatre: @ShashiTharoor in all honesty, I didn't think you would win but congratulations. No the real test begins. +So, the top May 16 memes on #indiavotes09 were: 1. #indiavotes09 trending on Twitter, 2. +BJP's aggressive digital campaign failing, and 3. @ShashiTharoor live-tweeting the election results. +What else did I miss? +#IndiaVotes09: Reactions from Indian Bloggers +The same themes have also been dominant in the Indian blogosphere reactions to the election results. +Rajiv Dingra at WATBlog and Ashish Sinha at Pluggd.in wonder if BJP's "flawed" campaign strategy was responsible for its defeat. +Bhatnaturally argues that BJP's campaign was too negative. +Veteran film director and independent candidate Prakash Jha reflects on his loss in Champaran. +Dina Mehta thinks that the Mumbai terrorist attack did not affect the elections because people do not want more fear and hatred and negativity being imposed on us by our politicians. +In another post, Dina argues that Indian voters have voted for good governance and progress rather than good politicians. +Industrialist and independent member of parliament Rajeev Chandrashekhar compares his election predictions with the results and finds that, like most other pundits, he was way off the mark. +The Overlord points out that both the Indian online community and the poll pundits were wrong in their election predictions. +BJP supporter Yossarin Offstumped says that the Indian electorate has voted for stability but chosen the wrong national party. +Atanu Dey believes that the election results are a setback for India's development. +BJP supporter Brajesh Mishra says that, instead of grieving, BJP should introspect and start preparing for the next elections. +Friends of BJP co-founder Rajesh Jain says that BJP needs to decide if it wants to be Right of Center or the Hindu Right. +Sush Jaitley analyzes what went wrong with BJP and says that BJP needs to apologize to the country. +Jai Mrug at DNA says that BJP is back where it was a decade ago. +B Raman at Rediff does a good roundup of the post-election conversations on pro-BJP websites. +Mehul Srivastava at BusinessWeek does an analysis on what the results mean for Indian politics. +Zoya Hasan at DNA says that the verdict is a reaffirmation of the Indian electorate's faith in the Nehru-Gandhi family. +Sidharth Bhatia at DNA believes that the vote for Congress is a vote for an inclusive India. +An Indian Muslim says that the results are a verdict against divisive politics. +S. Mitra Kalita at WSJ calls the verdict a victory for the global Indian. +The BBC India team did a great live coverage of the election results, so did the NDTV team, Indipepal, Sundeep Dougal at Outlook and a group of Indian political bloggers, including Offstumped. +I'll be updating this post with reactions to the Lok Sabha results from Indian bloggers and Twitter users. +Please leave tips to interesting posts and your own reactions in the comments section. +Cross-posted at Gauravonomics Blog, my blog on social media and social change. + +Influenza A(H1N1) cases in Southeast Asia · Global Voices +Several Southeast Asian countries have confirmed that some of their citizens have tested positive for Influenza A(H1N1) infection. +The region is no longer swine flu-free. +Reacting to news reports about the discovery of a swine flu case in Malaysia, Nuraina A Samad fears the worst: +we know that there are those other passengers on the two flights who have not reported to the health officers. +And multiply that by the number of people they have come into contact with....and so on and so forth. +Scary, isn't it? +But...aaah, to think that just two weeks ago, the Swine Flu, — whoops, Influenza A or the H1N1 virus — was way yonder in far far Mexico. +Before you could say la Cucaracha, it flu to the US, Canada......and now it's here. +Othman bin Hj. +Ahmad thinks it is already too late for Malaysia to contain the virus: +With the limited success in quarantining all passengers or people in contact with swine flu confirmed cases, coupled with the delay in testing and confirming these swine flu cases, it is too late to contain this swine flu. +Please note that many swine flu cannot be detected with these tests and many now appear like normal flu except that they are not resistant to Tamilflu unlike the normal flu in US. +Malaysian normal flu may vary. +aeqmal onetale thinks Singapore should be doubly alert now that Malaysia already has a swine flu case: +Singapore has lowered its flu alert level from ‘Orange’ to ‘Yellow’; but Malaysia has just announced it’s first swine flu case yesterday afternoon. +It’s not time yet to party and do keep your personal hygiene in check. +Thailand has confirmed that swine flu has entered the country as well. +More than 20 people with flu symptoms are under surveillance. +Not the Nation features a satirical article about the presence of “swird flu” in Thailand +The precautionary measure was based on speculation that a pig with swine flu spending time with a chicken with bird flu could lead to the outbreak of a new flu virus he called “swird flu”. +Cambodia is on alert after Thailand confirmed its 1st swine flu case. +Recently, Cambodia is monitoring the health of three Cambodian-Americans who tested positive for swine flu. +Meanwhile, a Vietnamese air passenger was quarantined in South Korea after exhibiting symptoms of being positive with the dreaded virus. +For want of a better title reminds us that there are deadlier diseases than swine flu: +If youre worried about H1N1, Don’t. +There are 5 more deadlier diseases that are more virulent and have a better chance of killing you. +Think Dengue, Ebola, AIDS, Cholera and Spinal Meningitis. +I mean cholera has been around forever, and dengue is among us. +I think I would worry about those a lot more. +See leong Kit warns against communal eating in Singapore. +To prevent the spread of A(H1N1), he proposes the following: +-Health Promotion Board should mount an effective campaign to educate Singaporeans on “Eat The Hygienic Way” (using serving spoons) to complement its on-going efforts on ��Eat The Healthy Way” (more fruits and vegetables). -National Environment Agency, using its licensing clout, to issue a compulsory directive for hawkers and restaurants to provide serving spoons automatically. +The Philippines has two swine flu cases already. +The dominant Catholic Church is thinking of banning the holding of hands during mass as a measure against the spread of swine flu. +As the swine flu scare continues to grow, more and more people are getting paranoid about eating pork. +This may explain why Cambodia’s rat meat exports to Vietnam are increasing in record numbers. + +Russia: North Ossetia's Superstitious Law Enforcement · Global Voices +LJ user liza-valieva - North Ossetian journalist Liza Valieva - writes (RUS) about an incident that could have prompted a lighthearted reaction had it not occurred in North Ossetia, an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation, whose people have seen much violence since the collapse of the Soviet Union, including the Sept. 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis: +Terrorists have succeeded in achieving their goal: filling the people with fear. +And in Ossetia, the record-setter in acts of terror, this isn't hard to do. +A schoolgirl's nightmare has caused panic in the law enforcement establishment. +The girl said there'd be an explosion in a school on May 15. +She explained that she had seen a dream in which coffins were being carried out of a school building. +As a result, "law enforcement officials have taken precautions. +For the second day in a row, the school is being checked for explosives, with cynologists of North Ossetia's ministry of the interior involved in this work. +The school is being guarded by the local police officers; police has been stationed at a kindergarten located near the school as well. +Many parents refuse to bring their children to the kindergarten, fearing for their lives. +So far, no explosives have been found inside the school." +Absurd. +Would've been funny if it hadn't been so sad. +When the first blast took place in Ossetia at the central market, I was a university student. +Nearly everyone in our group had the same dream then, in which the university exploded and we were trying to rescue ourselves in panic, seeing a sea of dead bodies, dismembered by the blast, and blood. +But no one came to check the university building because of our dreams then. +Though interior ministry officers and cynologists were indeed checking the buildings, but for a different reason: student pranksters were calling to say that the university had been mined. +People have grown so superstitious that they take dreams seriously. +It's okay when people act this way, but the superstition of the law enforcement is surprising. +Then again, it's good that they are reacting to the slightest of signals. +Here is one of the comments to this post - and Liza Valieva's response: +glazastikk: +You know, Liza, this isn't even funny. +One can be practically 100-percent sure that they had known about the terror in Beslan in advance, and about other acts of terror as well. +Terror has been and possibly remains convenient. +So this alarm caused by a 15-year-old girl's dream - it's absurd. +Are they trying to prove that they are on high alert? +liza_valieva: Of course, it's not funny. +I was being sarcastic. +The dream story is totally absurd. +If our law enforcement officials are so prepared to , how come the number of acts of terror in North Ossetia isn't diminishing? +For some reason, they are just totally incapable of foreseeing the real acts of terror. + +Saudi Arabia: Will Swine Flu Threaten Hajj? · Global Voices +Every year millions of Muslims converge to Mecca to perform Hajj (pilgrimage), one of the five pillars of Islam. +Is this year's Hajj season being threatened by the A/H1N1 or Swine Flu virus? +Bloggers commenting on the region weigh in. +At CrossRoads Arabia, John Burgess explains: +A Saudi researcher in Shariah law find that there is precedent to ban Umrah pilgrims (those who undertake the non-obligatory, ‘lesser’ pilgrimage) who come from areas beset with the A/H1N1 or swine flu virus. +I suspect that this opinion is being floated now in anticipation of the Haj, which will take place in late November. +The Haj is obligatory, in that every Muslim is required to perform the pilgrimage at least once in his/her life, if feasible. +Similar concerns were raised a few years ago, when bird flu (H5N1) was threatening. +One Saudi scholar called for Haj to be canceled if there were a severe outbreak, but that proposal was shot down by others. +The argument was that Haj had never been canceled on public health grounds and that to do so would be counter to Islam. +Rather, those who are ill are morally obliged to not perform Haj. +Communicable diseases and Haj are historical companions. +There are many records of outbreaks of disease, from plague to cholera, killing thousands in Mecca, Madinah, and Jeddah over the years. +Only toward the end of the 19th C. did strictly enforced quarantines work to stop the spread of diseases out of the region, back to the homes of the pilgrims. +Quarantines and strict enforcement of medical screening can protect pilgrims and that might be enough. +Only time will tell. +Swine flu, as bird flu before it, may turn out to be a non-issue. +If it does not, however, it good that people are starting to think about it now. +The Middle East Institute's Editor's Blog adds: +This is getting stranger and stranger. +The Grand Mufti of Egypt is suggesting Muslim scholars issue a collective fatwa to postpone the hajj due to swine flu. +Arabic version is here. +Keep in mind — I know I keep repeating it — there have been no cases in Egypt. +In fact, according to WHO's rundown as of yesterday, the only cases confirmed in the entire Middle East are in Israel (seven cases). +And WHO says, "WHO is not recommending travel restrictions related to the outbreak of the influenza A(H1N1) virus." +Oh, yes, and another thing: the hajj isn't until November. +Am I missing something here? +Has the hajj ever been postponed for health reasons, in all of Islamic history? +I don't know, but I expect you'd need at least one infected person to justify it. +(Not only are there no cases in the Middle East, except Israel, but none in Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan — well, anywhere Muslim.) + +Tunisia: Ammar 404 is Back and Censoring Blogs Again · Global Voices +After a short hiatus, the dreaded Ammar 404 has once again attacked the Tunisian blogosphere. +Ammar is the nickname given by Tunisian bloggers to the censorship machine plaguing their access to the Internet and his victim this time is Zig Zag blog by 3amrouch. +It seem that the blog has been censored for republishing screen shots of a Canadian newspaper which unveils a real estate transaction in which the Tunisian President's son-in-law Mohamed Sakhr El Matri bought a villa in Canada for a huge amount of money - information which the Tunisian Government wants to hide from its people. +Many bloggers wrote about this censorship and condemned it. +Samsoum wrote: + +Iran: Facebook is accessible again · Global Voices +Iranian news sites and blogs report that Facebook is not anymore filtered in Iran. +Senoghteh says that national and international protest forced Iranian government to make Facebook available again. + +Egypt: Is Obama not Welcome? · Global Voices +Forty-eight hours before US president Barack Obama delivers his much awaited speech to the Arab and Muslim worlds from Cairo University, the Egyptian blogosphere is almost unified by the same feeling. +Bloggers are outraged by the massive and exaggerated preparations and precautions being taken by the Egyptian government to secure the visit, and most of them are doubting if the anticipated speech would usher any real change. +The photographer Waleed Nassar, who works near Cairo University, wrote about the preparations taking place in his neighbourhood: +I work next to Cairo University and this area has transformed over night. +The bumpy streets leading to the University are now as smooth as silk. +Even buildings around the area have been given a fresh layer of paint, but not the whole building, just the side that faces to the street. +That all sounds great but do you know what that means for the citizens of Cairo? +No one is going anywhere on Thursday. +I’ve heard that schools are taking the day off and some businesses are closing. +Since Obama will be criss-crossing through Cairo in a car, police and presidential guard will be closing down streets and areas where he will be expected to be. +Hossam El Hamalawy tweeting regarding the security precautions that will take place. +Al-Shrouk daily newspaper adviced Egyptians to stay home, as the streets will be nearly blocked. +Zeinobia wrote about Obama’s schedule in Egypt. +She also added an update that the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak will not attend the speech: +- Mubarak will meet Obama at Koubbah Palace only , he won't attend the speech in Cairo University according to Al-Muslamany's TV show on Dream TV 2 !!!! +- I think his absence from the speech will raise many question marks about his condition after the death of his grandchild. +Egyptian Leftist wrote a letter to Obama (strong language) with an expressive picture saying: "We don't believe you!" +Mahmoud wrote in his blog "Pains and Hopes" a cynical letter to Obama, encouraging him to see the “real” Egypt. +He explained that what he will see is only preparations for his visit, but if he tried to visit the other universities he’ll find something different; even streets which will not be as beautiful, organized and tidy as what he will see. +Another blogger, Sherif Abdelaziz wrote in his blog "Justice for all" another letter to Obama, and like Egyptian leftist, he expresses his doubt that Obama's visit would bear any fruit: +You know Cairo University you'll be visiting ? +Yup…it's my university …I got my degree from there years back ..I also heard that millions of dollars were spent to fix up the place just for you to lay eyes on it for couple of hours … +I have no idea if this visit will do us any good man, I got nothing against it , but I am sick and tired of every thing …I got no faith in no body any more , and am not even so hyped about listening to what you have to say , but I will give it a try .. +On the other hand, Dalia Ziada, a human rights activist who has retained some of her hope towards Obama's visit, concluded her “Young Egyptian Activists and the Obama effect!” post saying: +For the first time, in tens of years, Egyptians can see an American president who is not eager to establish a relationship with the Egyptian regime regardless of its black record of practices against democracy and human rights. +This forced the Egyptian regime to show more tolerance and flexibility towards human rights activists and groups. +Yet, the inevitable question, while waiting impatiently for Obama's visit to Cairo within few days, would be: is Obama willing to live up to the high expectations of young Egyptian activists through supporting them in their struggle for domestic reform and making their dream of change, inspired by him, true? +On a different note, Egyptian movement Kifaya called for a sit-in on the eve of the visit, opposing any intended support by the American government to Israel and the Egyptian regime: رفضا للزيارة A call for a sit-in in Tahrir square starting from 8:00 pm Cairo local time on the 3rd of June – on the eve of Obama’s visit - which will continue until the next morning - in protest against the visit. +In a reply to the sit-in call, Ahmed el Gizawy who like Dalia, also believes Obama is coming to Egypt with good intentions towards the Islamic and Arab world, asked the people to listen first to the speech then decide whether they want to proceed with a sit-in or not. +As a sneak peak to the event, American journalist Robb Montgomery, interviewed some Egyptians about their speculations regarding Obama's visit to Egypt next Thursday. +You can also follow an open discussion on Twitter between bloggers, about the speech and the visit's preparations, using the hashtag #CairoSpeech . + +Myanmar: Facebook campaign for Aung San Suu Kyi · Global Voices +A Facebook page was created by pro-democracy activists who are demanding the release of democracy icon and Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. +Almost 50,000 people have registered their support in the website. + +Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar: A Year After · Global Voices +A deadly cyclone hit Myanmar’s southern Irrawaddy delta in May 2008 which affected more than 2 million people. +It is estimated that 138,000 people were killed and 200,000 people have been missing after the cyclone struck the country. +A year after the Cyclone Nargis tragedy, survivors are still suffering while reconstruction efforts remain inadequate. +Contributions are still needed in order to help the cyclone survivors. +Many survivors are suffering from deep psycho-social distress but only 11 percent have received medical assistance. +More than forty per cent of the homeless are children; many of them are vulnerable to malaria and pneumonia. +Some are surviving by trapping rodents in the fields. +It was also reported that prostitution is on the rise in the Delta as economic conditions continue to worsen. +More than half of the survivors are still dependent on aid given by relief groups. +Indebtedness remains a big problem of residents in the Delta: +According to the United Nations World Food Program, 51 percent of households reported that they are still relying on food aid from humanitarian agencies, while only 25 percent said they could feed themselves…About 83 percent of households said they have been in debt through the purchase of rice. +It was reported that during the first year anniversary of Cyclone Nargis, Myanmar’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Division censored articles about the real situation of the cyclone-affected areas. +Friends of Burma Group want the government to be more transparent about its aid efforts in the Delta region. +They also want the freedom of political prisoners who were jailed for organizing relief missions last year: +We want to demand the Burmese government to open more for relief and recovery in the effected area with transparency and respect to human rights. +We demand for releasing 21 prisoners that have been arrested due to relief work +Despite the coordinated efforts of international groups to raise funds for Myanmar, aid remains inadequate. +The United Nations has estimated that more than US$691 million are needed to sustain relief missions in Myanmar. +Observers note that aid contributions for Myanmar are very small compared to what countries contributed during the Tsunami disaster in 2004. +Myanmar received US$300 million, or 2.5 per cent of what was spent on the 2004 tsunami. +Aid workers complain of the difficulties they encountered while delivering aid inside Myanmar: +Difficulties encountered by aid workers: logistical; the difficulties and dangers of reaching villages only by small boats, navigating the tides and the weather of the Delta. +Note visa restrictions, travel restrictions, and the government stealing supplies…. +Edward Hew of Relief Operations from MERCY Malaysia writes about the reconstruction projects in Myanmar today +A year later, we have seen many projects up and running, many still in progress. +But there are those who still suffer in silence. +There is so much to be done. +Many had use the Tsunami as a lesson to implement the intervention here. +A year has passed and most projects are yet to focus on sustainability but are still on emergency intervention. +I have seen many shelter projects that may not survive the next thunderstorm. +For example, latrines built with tarpaulin sheets instead of local materials like bamboo, a sturdier choice which is easy to maintain. +For more updates about the Cyclone Nargis anniversary, check out these websites which have special pages about the situation in the Delta: The Irrawaddy, Mizzima, and A Diary of the Cyclone Nargis. +Learn the story of Daw San Yee who survived the cyclone by watching this YouTube video: + +Chinese people's reaction to North Korea missile test · Global Voices +While the international society is working hard to maintain the security and peace on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea has conducted the second nuclear test on 25 May and launched several missile tests the following days. +As the Chinese government has been in good relation with North Korea, it would be interesting to see the mainland Chinese people's opinions on the recent North Korea’s military provocation. +Yide, a mainland blogger predicted that China would not show a strong military alliance with North Korea as it did during the Korean war. +He listed out three reasons as below: + +Ecuador: Evaluating Public School Teachers · Global Voices +The reform of the educational system in Ecuador has been a goal of the current government, and now it has its sights on the performance of the public school teachers across the country. +The executive branch has signed a new law (.pdf doc) requiring all teachers to be evaluated during the week of May 25. +However, the National Teacher's Union (UNE for its initials in Spanish) is resisting and has openly defied the order saying that it is not clear whether or not such testing is legal. +Only a small percentage of the teaching ranks showed up to complete the evaluation, and now it has opened up discussion about how to make sure that the children are getting the best quality education from the nation's teachers. +Unionized teachers marching for a salary increase on the streets of Machala, province of El Oro, Ecuador. +Photo used under permission by http://www.diariocorreo.com.ec +Many groups of the Teacher's Union are expressing themselves about the evaluation. +The UNE of Carchi , for example, have started a protest in support of those schools that refused to be evaluated . +David Guamba of Ecuador Noticias explains what the evaluation consists of and wonders what the teachers are afraid of: + +Israel: Bloggers Back the Struggle for Workers' Rights · Global Voices +One of the issues Israeli bloggers truly care about and campaign for is workers' rights. +In recent years, several emerging workers unions from less expected sectors such as café waiters, security personnel and journalists, have blogged as part of their struggle and were able to create a vibrant discussion and rally support in the blogosphere. +At present, two topics are stirring up the Hebrew blogosphere: supporting the academic staff of the Open University that has been on strike for five weeks and counting, and boycotting AMPM drugstores (the "seven eleven" of Tel Aviv) for their workers' rights infringements. +The Open University is the biggest Israeli university with 42,000 students nationwide and a staff of 1300 academic personnel. +As traditional media abandoned this dispute after two weeks of strike, over 30 Israeli bloggers took it upon themselves to keep this struggle on the agenda and the discussion alive. +Keren Fite, PhD in English literature, writes on her blog: +"For 13 years I was led by the notion there is no choice: that the Open University has its unique economic constraints and it can only hire me when enough students register for my course. +Due to these constraints I often get notified about my course's opening only a week before the semester starts, and until than I am left wondering if I will have a salary for the next few months. +Due to the same constraints I'm fired and re hired (or not) at the end of every semester. +But the university doesn't care about my constraints: I'm not entitled to call in sick or any other basic social rights for that matter, and when I was pregnant the university refused to renew my contract for the next semester. +At present, when I am on strike, the university doesn't respect my right to strike, to say no to these disgracing employment conditions. +Since the beginning of the strike I've been getting threatening emails, demanding to know if I am striking de facto and later notifying me that they will not be paying my salary if I'm on strike. +In other words, they know they are my main source of income and they're waiting for me to be hungry enough to break the strike. +Thus, the Open University that stands for making higher education accessible, denies me of the access to fair employment and the right to economical well being." +Labyrinth, an Open University student writes on her blog: +"It is possible that my graduation will be postponed, that my grades will drop or that in a month from today I will not breathe under the pressure of catching up the missed lessons. +But it is possible that my teachers will be able to breathe a bit between a lesson and an exam, because their salary will be a bit fairer. +I might also be able to recommend my teachers to other students knowing that they have a steady job and will be there for sure the next semester. +And it is also possible that the academic staff union will open the door for other strong and worthy unions in many private colleges that suffer the same consequences. +So maybe one day when I'll be in their place (yes, I'm considering this…) I will be happy i paid the price for this strike since I'll be paid back decently for my work". +And Tomer Reznik adds on his blog: +"As I was wondering how I can write an interesting post about a struggle for the obvious (collective agreement, job security etc), it suddenly came to me: the fact that the academic staff has to fight for the obvious is the whole point here. +The open university must meet their demands immediately and stop treating them as if they were temporary contractor workers!" +Limor64, a member of the academic staff of the Open University for 11 years, notes: +"We don't want to be the University's shock absorbers anymore. +The Open University is a successful enterprise but its success is on the expense of its human resource. +We're not getting paid for 5 weeks now, the future of this semester is unclear but we look into the future hoping for a secure and rewarding workplace. +Organized labor is so important nowadays on a global scale, since both employers and governments make the workers pay the price for the current economical crisis". +In addition to these blogging efforts, various Facebook solidarity groups were created and Roy Chicky Arad, a journalist-blogger involved in counter-culture activity, has organized a guerilla poetry reading titled "the closed university" that was held on May 12th in front of the private residence of the Open University's president. +In the past few days a new viral bloggers campaign emerged, promoting a boycott on AMPM drugstore chain, on account of severe right infringements of their workers, mostly of Jewish-Ethiopian ethnicity. +Blogger Sharon Gefen who initiated the boycott, writes: +"I ignored their overpricing or the fact that their increasing presence forces the closing of favorite family-owned drugstores, but workers rights infringements isn't' something I can live with. +Say, if the cashier is a few minutes late to her shift, she pays a fine of 150nis. +If she cannot make it to her shift she's fined with 450nis, which is more than double the money she earns for that shift. +Enough is enough. +I'd rather buy my cigarettes (and milk, and bread and tampons etc.) someplace else, so that everyone will feel 'it's good to live in this city' as the AMPM slogan states, even if they are AMPM workers". + +Israel/Palestine: Commemorating the Nakba and Debating Loyalty · Global Voices +May 15 is Nakba Day, when Palestinians commemorate the creation of Israel and subsequent Palestinian displacement and dispossession. +Shortly after the day this year, a controversial piece of legislation was proposed in the Knesset banning commemoration of the Nakba. +Two other bills were recently proposed, one introducing a pledge of allegiance to Israel as a Jewish state, and another criminalising public denial of Israel as a Jewish state. +While the "loyalty law" has been rejected, and the Nakba bill has been amended, the fact that the bills were introduced at all has prompted debate and protest. +My grandfather was martyred for the sake of the nation, and I will continue on his path, and swear an oath of allegiance to the State of Israel. + +Go Farm, Young Man! - How Farming in Japan is Changing · Global Voices +For a country that identifies strongly as being historically agricultural people, the landscape of Japan's agricultural sector is bleak, and has been for some time. +Simply put, the workforce is rapidly aging and there aren't nearly enough successors. +The price of rice has gone down, and structural reform is unlikely with the powerful coop organization Nokyo (農協) and whatever political party is in power. +The Tokyo Foundation offers statistics in a report, ominously but aptly titled 'The Perilous Decline of Japanese Agriculture'. +It starts, of course, with everyone's favorite nogyo (農業 / agriculture) statistic - 'Japan's food self-sufficiency ratio has dropped below 40%'. +However, the circumstances surrounding agriculture are changing. +Farming is undergoing a makeover for better or worse, as covered by Scilla Alecci in 'Japan: Agriculture the latest trend among celebrities'. +This follow-up post highlights some aspects of that change in an attempt to explore its scope. +Reporting for Duty by flickr user megabn +Farming and Food Safety +Growing concern for food safety is one of the factors that have contributed to this change in the way of thinking. +The blog 'What Japan Thinks' reported last year that 'food safety worries five in six Japanese': +Q2: Which of the following do you strive to do regarding your eating habits ? +(Sample size=1,089, multiple answer) +Buy Japanese products as much as possible 69% Pay attention to the date of manufacture, use-by date, best before date, etc 66% Buy products with as few additives as possible 51% Limit use of prepared foods 25% Limit eating out 16% Other 3% Nothing in particular 6% +Many consumers don't mind paying extra to ensure that their food is 'safe', especially in the wake of an incident in 2008 when dozens were poisoned by frozen dumplings imported from China. +In a typical example, Tamagomama lists some reminders in a blog post advising expectant mothers: +Here’s the very simple idea: send 18 to 40-year-old city slickers to rural communities for a free five-day trip to learn farming, meet local people, and perhaps be tempted to adopt that way of life for themselves. +Administrated by an environmental nonprofit group, a grant from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture paid our food, bullet train fare, lodging — everything (and I’m not even a citizen!). +Seems extravagant, but compared to the amount of money spent on recent bank bailouts it’s a very cheap form of stimulus — and benefits rural areas, young people, and the agricultural sector simultaneously. +Farming and the Internet +Here are some cases of people harnessing the power of the Internet. +Yasai8313, who produces rare vegetables, uses the Internet to cultivate sales channels . +Tomato farmer Shinichi Soga succeeded in connecting the popularity of his blog directly to sales, as covered by the Japan Times in 'Younger farmers blogging their way to success'. +Seebit, a company that produces video content for the Web, runs a website that sells rice. +They offer footage from an on-site Web camera so that people can see how the rice is growing. +There's a social networking site for all people related to nogyo, Boku-nou (Our Agriculture), which also enables people to buy and sell farming equipment. +Online learning is available as well. +Toshihide Muraoka introduced one such example on his blog: + +Gabon: On President Omar Bongo's death · Global Voices +Sunday night, French media announced the death of President Omar Bongo of Gabon, who had spent 41 of his 73 years in power. +French newspaper Le Point reported that they received news of his death, by cancer, in a private clinic in Barcelona, through a "source close to the President's entourage". +AFP, on the other hand, reported a French governmental source. +But later Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe Ndong told Gabonese TV that he had been "very surprised" to read the reports. +When Omar Bongo was admitted in Barcelona's Quirón clinic earlier in May, a comment by Akin a the African Loft predicted his death away from his subjects: +The greatest indictment of his lamentable regime of 42 years is that Gabon does not have hospitals that could treat either himself or his wife. +What kind of leadership is one that cannot bring any appreciable benefits to its people whilst the leaders jet off to foreign lands for the slightest sign of discomfort? +This is an indictment that applies to probably the whole of African leadership, the inability to raise the standards of infrastructure, education, health and opportunity. +When would we be able to make all leadership really accountable for their years of disservice? +The morale of this sordid tale is unAfrican in its context, the king shall not die in his palace surrounded by his subjects who “adore” him but in a non-descript expensive hospital room surrounded by strangers. +A king that fails to rule with probity will die in a distance in disgrace with everyone breathing a long sigh of relief - Good riddance! +To them all. +Togolese blogger Rodrigue Kopgli, of Jeunesse Unie pour la Démocratie en Afrique , called Bongo "one of the last crocodiles of Françafrique": + +Iranian Election in Photos · Global Voices +The Iranian presidential election will be held on June 12. +Only four men, out of more than 400 self-registered men and women, were given official approval by the Guardian Council for the candidacy. +The sharp eyes of blogger-photographers have captured moments and scenes in the streets of Iran where people promote their favorite candidates and political demands. +Maryam Majd has published several photos on Feminist School about "women’s independent presence in the electoral space." +In Feminist School we read that "Tajrish sq. +Emamzadeh Saleh (a holy shrine in the north of Tehran) and the memorable Tajrish Bazaar were hosts to the volunteer members of the "Coalition of Women’s Movement". +They enthusiastically demanded an independent presence for women in the city’s electoral space. +Their slogan was: "We Vote for Women’s Rights." +Their wish is for Iranian authorities to put an end to all discriminatory laws against women. +Saba Vasefi also captured this movement in action on Feminist School. +In Zoherpix Photo blog we see how Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's and Mir Hussein Mousavi's supporters are waving the photos of their favorite candidates: + +Myanmar: “No toilet paper but unity!” · Global Voices +The popularity of social network sites is increasing in Myanmar. +Some are using the sites to express their views about Myanmar society. +In Toilet Wall, the slogan is “No toilet paper but unity!” It is a parody of official slogans calling for unity. + +Russia: The Fourth Son · Global Voices +A month or so ago, LJ user voinodel (Russian journalist Vadim Rechkalov) started a second LJ blog (voynodel) and announced (RUS) that he would use it for writing "unhurried posts" there. +So far, Rechkalov has posted twice on this new blog. +The first text is about the funeral of one of the victims of a Moscow police officer who shot at least three people to death at a Moscow supermarket in April; the second one (RUS) is a sketch about a Chechen family - and here is a translation: +Alaudin and Fatima were only having boys born to them. +But they were dreaming of a girl, especially Alaudin. +Relatives did not understand Alaudin. +He's got three men growing in his house, the relatives would say, and he's dreaming of a girl. +Alaudin and Fatima lived in , in Tashkal . +In a 5-story building on Zavety Ilyicha Street. +When the war began, Alaudin took the family out to , then came back to Grozny to watch after the apartment. +At night, Alaudin used to come out on the balcony. +He smoked and watched fly by. +During mortar attacks Alaudin used to lock the apartment and go down to the basement. +Once, when he walked outside after the bombing, he saw a woman he didn't know and a baby lying on the ground - she hadn't made it to the basement in time. +The baby was alive. +Alaudin took the baby home, . +"A boy, again," Alaudin said and started laughing. +This is how Alaudin and Fatima got their fourth son. +Alaudin called him Moris, in honor of the horse catcher from his favorite book . +Alaudin's relatives don't get it. +What kind of name is that - Moris? +Should've called him Maerbek instead... + +Americas: Looking Forward to Central America Free Software Festival · Global Voices +The Central American Free Software Festival (ECSL09 for its initials in Spanish) will take place on June 17-21 in Estelí, Nicaragua. +This will be the first opportunity for many enthusiasts of open-source and free software from across Central America to come together to share experiences, promote their projects, establish common objectives, and to find ways to work together. +The schedule of events includes workshops and panels where different members from communities will lead and participate in these activities. +There will also be a "rapid-development" tournament, where participants will need to design and program an application in a short period of time, with the only stipulations are that it must be developed using free tools and available under a free license. +The event's logo +Many participants are looking forward to the event and to visit the city of Estelí. +Leandro Gómez describes the location of the festival in his home country: +Estelí is a city in northern Nicaragua, near to the border of Honduras, 150 kms. from capital city Managua, and the official venue of the First Central American Free Software Summit. +The city of Estelí, known as the Diamond of the Segovias, will also host the first international meeting of Ubuntu community leaders in Central America, with the participation of members from the Ubuntu Local Community Teams in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Panamá, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and special guests from other communities in Latin America. +From neighboring Honduras, Diego Turcios writes about the different communities that will be attending the event : + +Caste Based Communities on Orkut Mirror India's Splintered Society · Global Voices +One of the main themes of my research on digital activism is that social technologies are value-agnostic. +At each of the four levels of Content, Collaboration, Community and Collective Intelligence, social technologies can lead to both good and bad outcomes. +I have written before about Shiv Sena's militant approach towards Orkut communities critical of the party, its leader Bal Thakeray, or its Hindutva ideology. +Caste-based communities on Orkut are another disturbing example of online communities mirroring the dysfunctions in Indian society. +For instance, there are more than 1000 communities for Brahmins on Orkut. +There are 461 Brahmin communities listed under culture and community, 591 under religion and beliefs, 87 under activities and 117 under others. +One of the most popular Brahmin community, with 28, 726 members, randomly claims: "we r clever & hardworking. no one can fool us..." The Brahmans community with 41952 members and the Brahmins of India community with 30588 members are also very popular. +The other popular Brahmin communities are those for the various Brahmin sub-castes like Gawd Saraswat Brahmin (GSB) (12,189 members), Kokanastha Brahmin (4038 members), Deshashtha Brahmin (4083 members), Garhwali Brahmin (3067 members), Daivadnya Brahmin (2654 members) and Gaur Brahmin (2055 members). +Another group, Brahmin Culture and Tradition is "dedicated to the purpose of uniting Brahmins to revive, preserve, protect and propagate the Brahmin culture to descendants without intimidation or dilution from anti-Brahminical forces." +Interestingly, it seems that most of the threads under topics related to Brahmins have to do with defining the different types of Brahmins under various sub-castes. +There are also more than 1000 communities for Yadavs on Orkut, including gems like modern yadav girls and boys (5759 members). +Similarly, there are more than a 1000 Rajput communities on Orkut, including the Rajput the Royal Family community with 35,481 mebers, which asks people to join the group "if your soul justifies that you are Rajput both by soul and by nature." +Orkut's Debut to Indian Diwali - 2006, Image by Brajeshwar from Flickr (cc licensed) +Dalits have about 200 mostly small communities on Orkut. +Perhaps, the low number of Dalit communities on Orkut says something about Indian society in general, and Orkut users in particular. +Higher, more powerful, castes like Brahmins, Rajputs and Yadavs tend to have more money and easier access to the internet and old disparities are further accentuated by the internet. +Caste-based communities, however, aren't unique to Orkut. +Brahminsamaj.org is "a global platform for the Brahmin Community where you will learn, share and find lot of information, knowledge and fun." +Thambraas Muhurtham wants that "all Brahmins should come forward to marry breaking the sects and subsects within Brahmins, particularly Brahmins of Thamizhnadu." +It also points out that "the entire sects and subsects of South Indian brahmin population are totally vegetarians unlike certain brahmins of other parts of India." +A couple on the homepage of Marry A Brahmin claim that its "focused approach on Brahmin matches helped us find each other as true soul mates." +Brahmin Connections is "proud to present an opportunity and a platform to our young Brahmins and their parents to connect with each other across the world for the matrimonial purpose." +Brahmins Matrimony says that "it is the right place to search for your life partner!" +There are dedicated websites for sub-castes as well. +Sakhdwipi aims "to provide a common forum for the Shakdwipis to know each other and interact with each other." +KeralaIyers aims "to delve into the history, trace the roots, portray the life of modern day Kerala Iyers, and chronicle the achievements of this community." iKalyanam claims to be "the only exclusive site for Iyer matrimonials." +Shivalli Brahmins wishes "to bring together all Shivalli Brahmins residing in different parts of the world, through meaningful discussions about their traditions." +GSBMatch is a matrimonial website for the Gowd and Saraswat Brahmin community. +ModhBrahmin.org and BrahmanSamaj.org claim that "history proves that the people of Modh Brahmin Samaj are very enterprising and very resourceful" and aims to "bring all brothers and sisters of Samaj close." +Jangid Brahmin Samaj is a community for Jangid Brahmins. +RSBNet is "a single stop source of information regarding the origin, customs, culture, history of Rajapur Saraswath Brahmins." +Similarly, there are dedicated websites for other castes as well. +Kayastha Matrimonial is a matrimonial website for the Kayastha community. +Rajput Samaj is "presently predominately taking care of the Rajputs of Rajasthan" but in near future aims to be "taking care of the Rajputs living in India, Pakistan and abroad." +JatLand, "the online home for the Jats" is especially proud of its wiki. +The Dalit community is fairly active on the internet, even though it's miniscule on Orkut. +The International Dalit Solidarity Network, which has the most sophisticated of all these websites, "works on a global level for the elimination of caste discrimination." +Dalit Solidarity Network "brings together organizations and individuals in the UK who are concerned with caste-based discrimination." +Dalit India has "papers on various specific issues of the Dalits of India living in India and abroad." +Dalit Freedom Network "partners with the Dalits in their quest for religious freedom, social justice, and human rights by mobilizing human, informational, and financial resources." +Dalit Solidarity is "committed to the principles of justice and equality for all Indians, regardless of caste, race, gender or religion." Dalit Voice claims that India is "the original home of racism" as Dalits and Tribals, who "constitute the core of India's original inhabitants", are kept enslaved by "alien Aryans". +Dalit Education aims to "transform lives and communities through the Christian message." +Indian Dalit Muslims Voice is a platform to discuss issues concerning Indian Dalit Muslims. +Rohit Chopra has written about the tension between the elite Hindu nationalists and the disadvantaged Dalits on the internet. +In terms of content, the majority of these websites are focused on matrimonial match-making, but several of them seek to build international communities based on caste affiliations and offer tools like directories, bulletin boards and forums to their members. +I have also noticed a tendency to establish a rather embellished history of the caste, with detailed biographies of the important personalities belonging to the caste. +Ashok Kumar at Express India has a great description of the common features on these caste based websites. +Not surprisingly, Facebook has only 46 small Brahmin groups, 60 small Yadav groups, 126 smal Rajput groups and 41 small Dalit groups. +The absence of caste based groups from Facebook is in line with its cosmopolitan user base. +Orkut, on the other hand, should be a little concerned about its tendency to attract loonies of all types. +In the end, however, the cosmopolitanism of Facebook is an anomaly, and Orkut's crude caste communities merely mirror India's splintered society. +Cross-posted at Gauravonomics, my blog on social media and social change. + +Africa: Gay and lesbian voices in African blogosphere · Global Voices +Homosexuality is perceived as a new phenomenon in Africa and a taboo. +It is outlawed in many African countries. +Many African leaders have condemned homosexuality as being un-African. +The Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe once described gays as worse than dogs and pigs. +Former Namibia's President, Sam Nujoma, once stated that "Homosexuals must be condemned and rejected in our society." +Nigeria introduced a bill in 2007 banning same sex marriage. +According to Rod 2.0 the bill is the most comprehensive homophobic legislation ever proposed in the world. +Early this year homosexuals in Nigeria stormed the National Assembly seeking for legislation that will guarantee the protection. +Lifestyle, culture and religion have become the invisible fence to many homosexuals in Africa barring them from their freedom of sexual expression. +A Kenyan blogger, Wilde Yearnings, was quite optimistic after US President Barack Obama officially declared June being a gay pride month and decriminalizing of homosexuality all over the world earlier this month. +He posted Obama's speech on his blog: +My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. +At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world...NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. +I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists. +Naughy Feeling commented on the post: +It is great our comrades in America are getting recognition. +In our dear country we can't stick our necks in the sand and tell ourselves all will be well. +The gigantous task ahead demands of us that we kid not ourselves of the responsibility ahead of us. +It may require sacrifices but all for the greater good. +May God bless LGBT kenya n give us strength for what is ahead. +But hey, look on the bright side, we can still have fun at it. +But will culture, religion and lifestyle factors derail the decriminalisation of homosexuality in most African countries or will it be as Wilde Yearnings described "meanwhile in Kenya... +The struggle continues..."? +It has been said that homosexuality is a lifestyle adapted by Africans from the West, SebaSpace a Ugandan blogger tries to points out that his "sexuality" and "him " are one, that homosexuality cannot be a lifestyle because for him to be involved with someone it has to be sexually, emotionally and spiritually bringing the fact that homosexuality is a physiological function too. +SebaSpace has been on a constant war with an anti-gay blogger also from Uganda and the war is always revolving around religion, culture and lifestyle. +This created a stir in the LGBT blogosphere and another gay Kenyan blogger wrotes a post to answer the three questions The Red Pepper had asked. +The questions were: +1. +If you try to drink water through the ear, you naturally spoil it because it was created by God to do the hearing function. +That's physical harm. +2. when they discovered you were gay. +You know very well how we love having grandchildren in Africa. +Imagine what goes on in your parents' minds to know that you will never give them grandchildren (I am assuming that you a die-hard gay man but if you are bi, please forgive me). +So that is emotional harm. +3. +Spiritual harm. +You tamper with God's plan of procreation. +Understand that the main reason of creating the sexual organs was procreation purposes. +For you in an attempt to be very creative, you put your organs at the disposal of pleasure only (I hope it is fun).If you have radical parents, they can start questioning God as to why he gave them such a child. +I know parents of a gay boy who visited scores of witchdoctors thinking that their child had been bewitched. +I can give you as many reasons as possible. +I hope you are an objective gentleman who looks at things objectively. +With so much hate from all sides, will the African Leaders put their priorities in order from all the pressure by the UN, IMF and World Bank and speak out for the sexual minorities or will still hold them in this invisible cage? +His answers: +The Ugandan rag called Red Pepper has been engaging Afro gay, a fellow Gay blogger from Uganda in arguments regarding the situation on Homosexuality in Uganda. +Follow this link to see the full post. +Recently, the editor of red pepper wrote to Afro arguing that he (Afro) was causing Physical, emotional and Spiritual harm to his family by being gay. +I promised Afro that I will write my responses to the Editor on my blog and link back with him. +I have taken their questions, edited without altering the message and I have responded to each question. +I tend to disagree with you when you say that homos have never done anybody physical, emotional or spiritual harm. +Without any prejudice I want to tell you that they are guilty of all the three accounts. +If you try to drink water through the ear, you naturally spoil it because it was created by God to do the hearing function. +That's physical harm. +Red pepper has made three elementary mistakes (assumptions) 1) The common one that homosexuality is equal to sodomy (their shallow analogy of the ear above) 2) Following number 1 above that sodomy is practiced only by homosexuals and 3) That all homosexuals engage in anal sex. +I will deal with the last one first. +Is the paper saying they are ok with someone with homosexual orientation as long as they don’t engage in sex? +Have they ever heard of celibate gay people and gay people who don’t engage in anal sex? +Well, I have and know both types. +It's worth noting, that from the very beginning sodomy and homosexuality were two categorically separate things. +The correct definition of sodomy-then and now-is simply non-procreative sex, whether practiced by heterosexuals or homosexuals. +It includes oral sex, masturbation, mutual masturbation, contraceptive sex, coitus interruptus, and anal sex-any sex in which semen does not find its way into a uterus. +The anal sex thing is one elephant in the room, but it's not an inherent part of being gay, it isn't an activity engaged in exclusively by gay people. +SebaSpace refused to answer the questions from Red Pepper. +He gives reasons for his refusal: +If you look at the e-mail below, the editor of the Red Pepper has valid questions he is asking and, ordinarily, I would answer them – indeed I have answered these questions over the years more times than I have had hot dinners. +The problem for me now is I don’t believe the people asking the questions are sincere. +Rightly or wrongly, I think all they are looking for is material to feed their tabloid frenzy and so I have refused to provide the answers. +That said, I think it would be okay for other bloggers to attempt to answer them on their blogs or wherever as they are legitimate. +Here is the e-mail I got from the Red Pepper and the questions they posed +Thanks for the reply. +Well, you have not answered Phiona's question and I am sure she will maintain her opinion. +I also have a feeling that you don't have an answer for it. +The times I have interacted with you I have discovered that you are a clever man who cannot answer a question unless you are sure the answer is convincing.Again I tend to disagree with you when you say that homos have never done anybody physical, emotional or spiritual harm. +Without any prejudice I want to tell you that they are guilty of all the three accounts. +While gay and lesbian bloggers in Africa use blogs to express themselves freely, there are also anti gay bloggers targeting them. +One of them, Blake, had a blog called Kenyans Against Gays before it was suspended for violating Blogger's Terms of Service. +Kenyan Gay wrote about the suspension: +A couple of years ago, a dude called Blake started this blog and I think the first thing he did was to announce its launch on my blog. +Over time, that blog grew with articles explaining why he felt he should take a position against us etc. +However, from propagating his position against homosexuality in recent times he moved to actually calling for gay people in Kenya to be killed. +I have been alerted by a reader that the blog has been suspended whilst being investigated for possible blogger rules violation. +I suspect it is because of his latest position that was quite militant. +I am a believer in freedom of expression and actually think that blog helped expose that there are some willing to propagate hate to get their point across. +But I draw the line when someone advocates for homosexuals to be killed. +I think his blog served us more than it aimed to destroy us. +This is because we have many Kenyan gay blogs and Blake used to visit all of them and in the comments section try to drive traffic to his site. +If you followed links, you would find that very many of the comments were from people who attempted to engage him intellectually on gay issues. +Unfortunately, there were those usual vile comments from both sides with most insults coming from him. +He was a troll on my blog until I decided to ignore him. +When you visit Kenyans Against Gays blog you get the following message: +This blog is in violation of Blogger's Terms of Service and is open to authors only +However, Blake went on to start another blog using WordPress. + +Caribbean, UK: Padel resigns from Oxford post · Global Voices +After regional bloggers reacted en masse to the withdrawal of St. Lucian Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott from the race to be Oxford Professor of Poetry based on a smear campaign that targeted the writer's alleged past sexual impropriety, Ruth Padel, Walcott's closest competitor who eventually won the coveted post, has resigned under pressure of mounting allegations that she was the puppet master behind the smear campaign. +Caribbean bloggers do not seem surprised. +Repeating Islands notes that articles by the Telegraph detail the part Padel played in what Walcott himself called a "low attempt at character assassination": +In emails sent to a number of reporters, Padel pointed out his advanced age (Walcott is 79), claimed that he had suffered poor health, and stressed that he lived in the Caribbean. +She then went on to allege that what he 'actually' did for students could be found in six pages in a book called The Lecherous Professor. +Padel then went on to inform journalists that the claims could be found on the internet and were widely known in the United States. +The emails were sent just days before John Walsh, a close friend of Padel’s, highlighted the allegations against Walcott in a column on the Independent. +Padel does not deny alerting journalists to the accusations. +In another post, Repeating Islands republishes Padel's statements: +In announcing her resignation, Padel said that 'as a result of student concern, I naively – and with hindsight unwisely – passed on to two journalists, whom I believed to be covering the whole election responsibly, information that was already in the public domain. +I acted in complete good faith, and would have been happy to lose to Derek, but I can see that people might interpret my actions otherwise.' +Mainstream media are referring to Padel's stepping down as "poetic justice", a concept which Living in Barbados is happy to comment on: +When I first read last week about Nobel Laureate, Derek Walcott, withdrawing his nomination from an Oxford University professorship, I smelled a rat. +Now, Prof. Ruth Padel, who won the professorship, against the weakened field, has confessed and resigned from the chair, stating 'I acted in complete good faith and would have been happy to lose to Derek.' +Yea, right. +But when she won she had said her victory was 'poisoned by cowardly acts which I condemn and which I have nothing to do with...Those acts have done immense damage to people and to poetry.' +She certainly has a way with words, but truth doth elude her. +We may have to see if that is not a lift from a literary work. +In the end, she admits that she acted 'naively' and 'unwisely'. +But, she is still kicking the stone that I did nothing wrong and am gravely misunderstood. +Just reading a few of the reports about this episode would lead me to think that this might be some crazy, mixed up lady. +Then I find that she is a great-great-grand-daughter of naturalist Charles Darwin; had a father who was a psychoanalyst; and did a doctoral thesis on Greek tragedy. +She was once a journalist, too. +Funny, how she did not put two and two together when she sent the e-mails. +Or did she? +Repeating Islands also weighs in, noting that: +...she did admit sending two emails to journalists she was in contact with detailing information 'that was already in the public domain' regarding Mr. Walcott, acknowledging that sending the emails was 'naive and silly', but stopping short of saying that they were wrong. +Ms Padel, although slightly repentant, stopped short of any statement that would endorse Walcott’s candidacy in a new election. +She needn't worry. +Walcott has already stated that "he would not stand for election again as he did not want to revisit 'that awful business'.” + +North Korea: Two American Journalists Sentenced to Hard Labor · Global Voices +News coming out of Pyongyang is not encouraging. +After being accused of illegally crossing the border to North Korea, American Current TV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee have been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor (according to CNN). +Jillian York rounded up blog posts for Global Voices prior to the journalists' sentencing. +The bleak outcome is eliciting strong reactions online from those who support freedom of press and want North Korea to release the two journalists. +A Facebook page for Laura and Euna already has more than five thousand members. +Today they are asking the public to respect the families privacy at this moment and not to get emotional: +"You will have many emotions racing. +Please try to stay clear of anger. +Anger is a waste of energy and what North Korea wants of you.We can and will work together and use our minds, to work this through." +LiberateLaura, a blog authored by Los Angeles entertainment journalist Richard Horgan, describes events happening in North Korea as "worthy of Shakespeare" and questions the decision of the "Hermit Kingdom" to arrest Laura Ling and Euna Lee: +"Unfortunately, into that mad kingdom, just ahead of the chaos, wandered @Current journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. +On Tuesday, March 17th, whether by accident or the trickery of a paid-off Chinese guide, they are alleged to have stepped across an invisible border line at a bridge crossing between China and North Korea. +Harsh interrogations and two and a half months of solitary confinement followed, and now, after a brief trial, an absurd sentence of 12 years of hard labor for illegally crossing the border and an unspecified “grave crime.” +The Shakespearean analogy is useful because it allows us, just slightly, to make sense of the unfathomable June 8th Ling-Lee verdict. +Kim Jong-il is indeed pushing it to the limit on the diplomatic, nuclear and innocent Americans fronts, all in a bid to reassure the country’s military hard liners that a Kim Jong-un succession will maintain the Amy-first status quo." +Here is as public service announcement from Pacific Rim Video and Kelly Hu: +As the public and various organizations promoting free press are coming together to call for Laura and Euna's release, some are now questioning the reactions of United States State Department and former U.S. vice president Al Gore (the founder and chairman of Current TV, which employed Euna and Laura) to the situation. +At Asia Times, Donald Kirk says: +"The North Koreans also get offended every time a top-level American visitor visits the region, and one immediate complication of the trial is that it coincides with a trip to South Korea, China and Japan of a US delegation led by Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg. +Steinberg has not talked publicly about the two women but has made clear in meetings with South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak and other top officials that the US is not willing to negotiate their fate. +Could he have had their case in mind when he assured Lee that the US would not offer more aid for North Korea. " +He then proceeds to speculate about Al Gore's involvement in negotiations: +"How about giving them up to a high-level American delegation? +Gore comes to mind as the man for the job in view of his control over the network for which the two women were working. +Gore has been strangely silent throughout, all the more reason to think he's waiting to give face to the North Koreans and rescue the two women - a happy ending that may be too much to hope for." +Gore would be perfect for the mission. +His presence would acknowledge North Korea's need for recognition as a member of the global nuclear club but would not constitute official US recognition of anything. +Not everyone is taking Gore's silence so lightly. +John in Condition Yellow takes Gore's lack of involvement less lightly, saying: +I don't expect Mr. Global Warming to just drop what he's doing and go sailing off to north Korea to negotiate the release of two people who work for him. +The Nobel Peace Prize winner is far too busy saving the planet. +But how long would it take for him to issue a simple statement like, "Hey, Kim Jomg Il! +Let my people go, or we will take your carbon credits away." +But seriously, am I the only one who thinks that even a simple public statement from Mr. Pulitzer, condemning the trial, would at least be the decent thing to do for people who work for him? +Hmmm. +Okay, maybe Bill Richardson would be more effective. +But one thing is for certain, as Jo points out in the blog Jo's Department - everyone is wishing for the journalists' safe return: +I hope that they do not endure Pyongyang’s horrific (as described by escapees) prison system and that two journalists could safely return and be reunited to their families soon. + +USA, Singapore: On Buying Brides with Credit Cards · Global Voices +The Human Trafficking blog by Amanda Kloer at Change.org in the United States declared victory on Friday in their campaign to get the credit card company Diners Club International to stop doing business with a company in Singapore that sells Vietnamese mail order brides. +More than 800 people signed a petition to get Diners Club to stop making it easier to purchase women for marriage. +The online petition said: +Human beings should not be bought or sold, and they certainly shouldn't be part of a payment plan, a "blue light special", or a clearance sale. +Mail order brides are not only extremely vulnerable to human trafficking, but also domestic violence, abuse, rape, and exploitation. +While creating a payment plan to purchase a human being is ethically and philosophically disgusting, it also reduces the economic barrier to buying a bride. +Removing that barrier allows traffickers to acquire women using less capital than they needed before. +It opens the door to a new socio-economic class of criminals to buy and exploit these women. +Mail order brides are not illegal in Singapore, nor in most other parts of the world. +This month, The Electric New Paper in Singapore published a series of articles about Vietnam Brides International, including one about the company's $167 a month payment plan with Diners Club, and another about the sliding scale of prices for brides depending on where they are from. +The journalist, Crystal Chan, also spoke to the assistant general manager (sales and marketing) for Diners Club (Singapore), who said, "We don't make a moral judgment on the business set-up of our merchant partners. For us, it's more important that the business is legitimate." +Since the petition, the credit card company has changed its tune and written the following in a letter to Change.org: +“On behalf of Diners Club International, which is part of Discover Financial Services, we appreciate bringing this specific merchant relationship with a Diners franchisee to our attention. +Formal steps have been taken to terminate the relationship .” +On Change.org Amanda Kloer concludes: +This statement is telling, and it says that you all made a huge difference. +Your letters made Diners Club aware of the partnership one of their franchisees had made with a mail order bride service. +You helped keep an important financial protection in place for women at risk of trafficking and abuse via the mail order bride industry. +You refused to accept that an international company can treat and finance women like objects. +This is one of those rare moments when you can see the important changes your actions bring, and the difference you make in the world. +Thank you for bringing this issue to Diners Club's attention. +And thank you Diners Club International for making the important decision to protect women and girls from exploitation. +Together, we are the change we wish to see. +In April, Global Voices linked to a post by Alvinology in Singapore about an Al Jazeera film about Vietnamese mail order brides. +The film tells the story of two girls who come to Singapore seeking new lives. +Alvinology wonders why men must resort to foreign brides when there are already both men and women in Singapore. +In the video, a Vietnamese bride can be “purchased” on-the-spot for S$10,000. +The girl on the right was only 18-years-old when she was sold to a 35 year-old Singaporean man who went to the matchmaking agency to choose his bride together with his mom. +What’s even more humiliating, the girls were made to visit a clinic in Singapore to get a certificate verifying their virginity before they can be sold. +While both the Vietnamese girls and the Singaporean men who entered into such marriages are willing adults, I wonder how many of such couples end up truly happy. + +Kazkahstan: Educational Deadlock · Global Voices +The problem of Kazakhstani textbooks for secondary school is still very urgent - numerous misprints, factual errors and inadequate language are charachteristic for these books. +Lately, the Minister of Education reported to the ruling party on his activity, and told that his ministry is not responsible for them, as they are allegedly developed autonomously by printhouses. +This is not true, notes slavasay; he reminds that it has been 4 years ago when the "Textbook" research center was created under the Ministry. +He also gives an example of the ministry's work : +Cover of the "Russian Language" textbook has two misprints in the title and one in the name. +It is hard to imagine what's inside. +Megakhuimyak shares his impressions after the teaching experience at the informal journalism school and at the higher educational institution : +Conclusion: The system of education will be saved by small post-graduate schools, which deliver knowledge on one speciality, and where experienced professionals are teaching. +Employers will soon respect such certificates more than the university's diplomas. +Meanwhile, the government considers the possibility of introducing compulsory drug use tests in schools. +The motive is the good intention - care of the children's health. +Itsuken doubts - in case of positive test results the kid will suffer from biased attitude in school; besides, after such discovery, he would incline more to communication with marginal children : +Besides, police will have a life-time discrediting material against any of teenage dupe. +And our health care system is too dubious, that it is quite scary to let a child undergo a mass blood test. +It would have been much better to spend these funds for organization of normal leisure time for children. + +Latin America: The Problem of Child Labor - Part I · Global Voices +Child labor is a sad reality in Latin America, and often many residents throughout the region become so used to seeing working children that they don't even realize it. +Who has not used the services of a shoeshine boy or a young caretaker of cars? +Awareness campaigns and other steps are being taken to change all of this. +In observance of the World Day Against Child Labor 2009, which will be held on June 12, members of the Global Voices Latin American team helped to find related blog posts and links about this issue in their own countries for part one in this two part series. +Photo by Francesca Rauchi and used under a Creative Commons license. http://www.flickr.com/photos/francesca_rauchi/2266649087/ +From Guatemala, Marcial Pérez Guillermo Herrera of Haciendo Camino writes about perceptions of the business sector in a report on child labor in the coffee industry, an area of production that utilizes huge amounts of this illegal labor: + +Iran: Green Silent Protest Movement in photos · Global Voices +Protesters all over Iran continue their demonstrations against the June 12 presidential election result that declared Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner. +Supporters of Ahmadinejad's challenger, Mir Hussein Mousavi, and many Iranians who profess to believe in "change" continue to use the colour green as the symbol of their movement. +Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, the other reformist candidate, have asked people to stay calm and protest peacefully. +While Iranian state-run TV is not showing images of the demonstrations, Iranian citizen media is full of fascinating photos. +Hamed Saber has published several photos on Wendesday's demonstartion in Hafte tir Square in Tehran. +These photos reveal the nature of Iranian protest movement: +Green Silence or Silent Protest +No time to rest +Creativity +Huge Masses +Che meets Mousavi +Kosoof also published the photos of Tehran march when Mir Hussein Mousavi and Mehdi karoubi were present: +Mass Movement +Mir Hussein Mousavi among People +Mehdi Karoubi Greetings Crowd +On Thursday Mousavi delivered a speech in Imam Khomeni Square in Tehran. +His wife, Zahra Rahnavard, was with him and appears in following photo. + +Malaysia: Globalization Dilemma - Educational Progress or Preserving Ethnic Identity? · Global Voices +When a contentiously protracted education decision is no longer strictly an education issue, it blows up to the center stage with strong public debate and protest. +The teaching of science and mathematics in English (PPSMI) implemented in 2003 replaced Malay and other ethnic languages as the medium of teaching instruction for science and mathematics subjects in primary (elementary) and secondary (high) school level. +It is set for a final decision after long reassessment and repeated delay, with influential lobby groups at the center stage aimed to appeal to the Ministry of Education to revert to the previous policy of teaching science and mathematics subjects in Malay and other ethnic languages. +Their main argument has been to preserve the relevance of ethnic languages especially the preeminence of Malay language as the national language in the age of rapid globalization. +Image Source: flickr by albanna83 +We may rightly ask why is there still such great resistence 6 years after its implementation? +Besides, Ministry of Education has clearly stipulated the objectives of PPSMI in raising future competitiveness of students and the nation overall. +Does the intent not warrant collective effort to overcome challenges and obstacles that may be encountered during its progress? +The mainstream media has been highlighting the dominant views of various lobby groups, what about the views of neglected key stakeholders - parents and students who will be strongly impacted by the decision? +A group of concerned Malay parents established a platform to lobby for the support of PPSMI: +We all benefited from learning English. +So many rural Malays benefited from having a good command of English. +Student Bobby Ong reflected on his personal experience in Chinese medium school: +It took the government such a hard time making English the medium of instruction for Science and Maths in schools and now you want to revert the policy? +And your argument is to protect Chinese culture? +Being in a Chinese environment with Chinese subjects is not good enough to learn Chinese eh? +Not all Chinese kids are good in English too, ok? +I see so many students from Chinese schools graduating with poor speaking and writing skills. +Noor Ainulfahim, an ethnic Malay student delivered a blunt critique that more time is needed to judge the progress of PPSMI and it should not be construed as neglecting the significance of Malay language: +The truth of the matter is that English does not make us international. +It can help us know more about English-speaking countries like the US, UK and Australia. +It could help us connect with some Davos people who do not have much to tell about their own culture. +John Lee proposed: +What seems likely right now is that the government will switch back to the old policy for primary schools, while maintaining English in secondary schools; I think this is maybe the best compromise we can hope for. +Ideally, since students have six years of exposure to Malay and English in primary school, they would be able to use either language in secondary school. +And Poobalan, an online social activist supported the move for the Indian community but with a special condition: +Proponents of Tamil as the medium can argue that materials are available in Tamil, and the possibility of those subjects being taught by non-Tamil teachers (less jobs for Indians). +However, I think a clause can be included that the teachers of Science and Math must be bilingual so that when necessary the teachers can provide explanation in either Tamil or English. +Parents and students of various ethnic backgrounds highlighted here are fairly supportive of PPSMI, but is it a bias that because they are proficient in English? +What about those from rural community who are struggling with English and whose opinions are not represented at all in social media platform? +As the core argument revealed from above, it incessantly centers on the debates of ethnic language and cultural preservation, future competitiveness for students and the nation, along with implementation obstacles and recommendations. +So the title sums up the dilemma here, does globalization progress can only be attained at the expense of our unique ethnic identity in a multi-ethnic country? +Let us anticipate how Malaysia tackles and balances the core of this issue. + +Global Lullabies: The Arrorró Project · Global Voices +lullaby by Wide© Raf.f +Artist Gabriela Golder from Argentina has taken it upon herself to discover, record and collect lullabies from all over the world, and to find connections among them in the Arrorró project. +Rising Voices director David Sasaki wrote about the project on the 80+1 website, where he interviewed Gabriela on camera, and got authors and editors for Global Voices involved by inspiring many to record themselves singing the lullabies they remembered from their childhood. +David Sasaki wrote: +I sat down with Golder at El Hipopotamo in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires to learn more about what has been discovered in the 200 videos that have already been recorded, and how the project will evolve over the next two months leading up to its simultaneous live exhibition in Buenos Aires and Linz. +Our conversation was in Spanish, but I have added English sub-titles to the video: +Inspired by the lullaby project, he recorded himself singing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, a song he remembered his parents singing to him to send him to sleep: +Our own Managing Director from Trinidad and Tobago, Georgia Popplewell also joined in, with Blanket Bay: +Another lullaby with scary lyrics and an enchanting melody is the Shimabara Lullaby, roughly translated by Hanako Tokita as: + +Pakistan: Taliban Internal Conflict · Global Voices +Kalsoom at CHUP! - Changing Up Pakistan analyzes the assassination of Taliban commander Qari Zainuddin, a rival of the leading Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. + +Brazil: Amplified conversations to fight the Digital Crimes Bill · Global Voices +Art: Luciano Matsuzaki and Mariana Lettis +On May 14th a protest against the Digital Crimes Bill proposed by Senator Azeredo to typify crimes on the Internet took place in São Paulo to promote debate. +On May 25th, it was time for a demonstration in Porto Alegre. +On June 1st, a similar protest happened in Minas Gerais and a new one is being planned now in Rio de Janeiro. +These protests have been called “Against the Digital AI-5” after the Brazilian dictatorship's Institutional Act Number Five or “AI-5", the fifth, and considered the most cruel, of seventeen decrees issued by the military dictatorship in the years following the 1964 coup d'état in Brazil. +Issued in 1968, AI-5 abolished freedom of expression by introducing the preliminary censorship of music, films, theater and television. +Any work considered subversive to the political and moral values of the country was censored and artists jailed. +AI-5 marked the transition to the toughest period of human rights violations in Brazilian history. +All over Brazil, mobilization against the proposed bill has been organized by a group of bloggers, who have put together a manifesto, a Twitter account and Mega Não! , a blog created with the single purpose of gathering information and contributing to clarify what this bill might mean for Internet users in the country: + +Denmark: #TV2Wikigate · Global Voices +Last month, two Danish television hosts aiming to show that the participatory online encyclopedia Wikipedia is unreliable, instead ended up defending their own credibility when it was uncovered that the errors they showed off on television had been created by someone working for the program. +Wikipedia enthusiasts took up the fight with TV2, and the ensuing public debate has centered on questions of journalistic integrity. +On Twitter, it quickly became known as #TV2wikigate. +Stefan Bøgh-Andersen who manages the Danish RSS feed search engine Overskrift.dk has kept a thorough time line on his blog of the Danish media, blog, and Twitter reactions to the scandal throughout the month of May. +This post is based on his links. +Anders Breinholt and Cecilie Frøkjær +You can see an archived video of the program (May 13) on TV2's website. +The hosts of the TV2 program Go’ Morgen Danmark, Cecilie Frøkjær and Anders Breinholt demonstrate supposedly laughable errors in the Danish Wikipedia entries for themselves, and encourage viewers not to trust what they read on the internet. +Since the "history" of all Wikipedia pages show which users make what changes, it was quickly uncovered by a Wikipedia user that the IP address of the person who created an error in Frøkjær's date of birth on May 12 matched that of the production company of the morning show. +Incidentally, the history page also shows that the error was corrected only four minutes later by another Wikipedia user. +Danish blogosphere bites back +On Bootstrapping.net, Thomas Madsen-Mygdal wrote : +Yesterday the main morning news show ran a story about how anyone can edit wikipedia. +They make fun of a world where everyone can participate and spread fear about how dangerous it can be. +To prove the point they humorously tried to show that they had edited the hosts’ own wikipedia entries with some prank statements. +Like small bullies in kindergarten doing it on national television - f*** with our collective creation Wikipedia. +Arrogance is a small word for it. +On Blog.Flugge.Net , Matthias Flügge Hansen magnified the Wikipedia screenshot shown on television to prove that it was not the live webpage, but probably a photo-shopped image. +Claus Dahl of Notes from Classy's Kitchen said the media must be coming up with these stories to make themselves look better. +He wrote : "The sub-text is of course, 'who could possibly trust stories that are not produced by journalists?'". +Media lies or satire? +Bloggers were even more incensed when a TV2 editor, Jes Schrøder, defended the fabricated story in an interview with Journalisten.dk the trade publication of the Danish Union of Journalists, on May 15. +Schrøder said the hosts were merely trying to show funny examples of what one could have written if one wanted to manipulate the text on Wikipedia. +When he was pressed on whether that was an excuse for lying on television, he insisted it had been an attempt at "satire". +Here is the apology that was eventually issued by TV2 on May 18. +"We apologize for imprecisions," says Frøkjær. +The aftermath +Danish social media company, Socialsquare, (co-founded by Madsen-Mygdal) organized a meeting on May 19 for organizations to discuss how to engage productively with online communities. +Andreas Lloyd offered some practical tips , including "Get the facts straight" and "Show respect for culture you don’t understand". +In Mediebloggen, Lars K Jensen wrote an analysis on May 24 of what the scandal had demonstrated about the Danish blogosphere. +On the one hand, said Jensen, bloggers uncovered the story and were able to grab the attention of the press. +On the other hand, they did not demonstrate the ability to take matters any further themselves. +Instead they merely added their opinions to the echo chamber: + +Iran: Neda becomes a symbol for the protesters · Global Voices +The Iranian protest movement now has a symbol and a face: Neda. +Neda was an Iranian woman who was shot dead by Basij militia on Saturday during a protest of thousands against the Iranian presidential election results that declared Mahmoud Ahmadinejad president. +Her death was captured on video by bystanders and uploaded to the internet. +She died with her eyes wide open, and her last moments transcended citizen media to mainstream media, reaching millions of people. +A website has been dedicated to Neda, named We are all Neda. +A quote on the homepage says, "We did not throw rocks at them, we cried 'we want freedom'. +They shot us." +Both Iranians and non-Iranians are leaving comments in memory of Neda on the site. +So far, there are nearly 3,500 and the numbers are growing rapidly. +Mahyar says: "I wish my eyes could have learned from yours to be open bravely!!!" +Reza says: "Your open eyes taught me a lesson: 'Don’t close your eyes to injustice'" +Mojtaba says: "Neda will never die, everyone of us could one day be a Neda" Vida says: "Your light is shining the way towards freedom. +Thank you." +Iranian blogger Andisheh writes that Iranian national television are trying to blame 'anti-revolutionaries' for killing Neda. +The blogger adds that if anybody had any doubts that Iranian television lies, these doubts can now be put to rest. +Here is a video film on Neda and the Iranian protest movement (Warning: some images are very graphic) +In a very short time, Neda's death became an international news story and people responded in different ways to show their sympathy. +Blogger Asad Ali Mohamadi, writes that his neighbours in Copenhagen, Denmark, are asking him about Neda, and that as soon as you turn on the television and internet you see news about Iran and Neda. +"All talk about my Iran, our Iran. +All talk about my Neda, our Neda," he says. +Cecilia Morales tweeted, "We were not born to be slaves. +We are human beings, God Bless you Neda, God Bless the Iranian people who want to live in freedom." +Atefeh Walters tweeted, "I will fight for my country always!! +I will never forget Neda!!" +Zannevesht, a blogger and journalist refers in her blog to Neda's death and says courageous Iranian women and girls have been present in this protest movement. +There were candlelight vigils for Neda in many cities around the world. +From New York: +To Dubai: + +Jamaica: High Teen Pregnancy and Sexual Violence Rates · Global Voices +Despite increased awareness of contraception, adolescent pregnancy continues to be a major health problem in Jamaica with 35 percent of Jamaican women having their first pregnancy by age 19. +Most of these pregnancies are not planned. +In a study released in March, 94 percent of the pregnant teens interviewed said that their pregnancies were unintended. +The same study showed high rates of sexual violence among pregnant and non-pregnant teens. +It found that almost half of the 15- to 17-year-old female teens in Kingston, Jamaica, who were interviewed reported experiencing sexual coercion or violence. +One-third of these teens said that they had been persuaded or forced to participate in their first sexual experience. +Besides forced sex, UNICEF attributes high teen pregnancy rates in Jamaica to factors such as a low rate of contraceptive use, an early age for sexual initiation, exchanging sex for resources, and poor access to information and skills on safe and responsible sex. +Thinkbass describes this scene she witnessed when working as an intern in a hospital in St. Catherine, Jamaica. +She says: +"On a duty night it is a norm for me to see two or three incomplete miscarriages (we do not like the term abortions anymore)…The majority are under 30 years of age with a few being over 40 and an alarming number being under 21 years. +The shocking nature of the problem is best understood in short anecdotes. +Age 16 Problem: Incomplete miscarriage Alarming feature (AF): Asketh the stupid doctor (me) 'What’s the name of the partner (baby father)?' +A dumb stare then a mumbled ‘Zingy’. +I sigh and drop the pen. 'What’s his real name?' +She looks at me then turns to her mother for help…The mother asks me to wait while she goes outside to ascertain the man’s name. +Yes, you understood correctly. +She does not even know this man’s name! +She has been offering him her young body and his name she does not know. +He is at least 30." +Sasha D., responding to a Jamaica Gleaner blog post, shares her own story of being a pregnant teen. +She says the only thing that saved her was her mother: +"At age 17, fresh out of High School, innocent to the world and ignorant of men, I found myself pregnant after partying for one single night. +Boyfriend, who had been only just that, took advantage of the fact that he was leaving the island, and I was too drunk to say no! +And so after 2 minutes…perhaps seconds..of ruckus…that’s exactly what it was I think….I became pregnant. +Who did I turn to? +Mom! +Mom was hurt, upset, angry, mad, ashamed even….but she locked it all in, and stood by me….every step of the way. +And because of that I got the courage, the inspiration to move on ahead after the baby was born. +I went back to school, graduated from college, and went on to University. +What if Mom had turned me out? +Where would I have gone? +What would I have become?" +Sasha D.'s story is apparently not the norm. +Only 34 percent of adolescent mothers return to school after giving birth in Jamaica. +The March study adds that adolescent pregnancy also contributes to increased maternal and child morbidity and mortality, and a decreased likelihood of mom becoming gainfully employed. +Bob, also responding to the Jamaica Gleaner blog post, proposes one solution to help bring down teen pregnancy rates. +He says: +And they don’t know that by doing so it will come to bite them in the butt. when you don’t teach your kids how can you blame them?…i urge parent to start teaching their girl children about sex at age 10." +Others argue that Jamaica's abortion laws need to be loosened, so women and teenage girls have access to safe and legal abortions. +A blog post on The Perception and Self-Perception of Women and Their Effects on Health Globally elaborates on these laws: +"Abortion in Jamaica is still a federal crime except in some cases, (governed by an ambiguous “common law”),“(i) significant fetal abnormality; (ii) where pregnancy would represent a threat to the welfare or health of the mother and (iii) in cases where pregnancy is an outcome of rape or incest;” however, as of 2004, the third leading cause of maternal mortality in Jamaica was unsafe abortions." +Jamaican Gordon Swaby blogs about his belief that abortion should be legalized in Jamaica. +He says: +"Who the hell decides what i can and cannot do with an unborn child, it’s rubbish i tell you. +So many children are being born in unprepared and immature families. +These idiots prefer a child to be born and end up on the streets because their parents could not take care of them, and it’s not like the state has an effective system in place to take care of these children…if they are going to make the decision not to legalize abortion in Jamaica, don’t do it on a religious basis, do it on a logical one." +Other solutions the study suggests to combat teen pregnancy include encouraging adolescents to delay when they first have sex and discouraging multiple partnerships. +It also says that gender-based violence needs to be addressed at the community level. +Thinkbass adds that women and girls also need to start respecting themselves. +She says: +"There are many pregnant teenagers with their soon to be 30 year old grandmothers. +There are many women on their fifth or more pregnancy and desirous of more – cause 'di man wan’ more. +A few HIV positive mothers NOT in their first pregnancy (one was in her ninth). +And I am amused. +For in the last hours they are all screaming and calling to God for help. +One even asking what she did to deserve this! +But never once have I heard any of them scream: ‘Never again. +Ah doan want no more.’ +When did our women become receptacles, dumping grounds for men’s sperms? +When was it legalised for us to insult our bodies with effluence? +When did we decide it was ‘ok’ for us to torture our flowers at young ages with penises too brutal and babies too big? +When did men rule our bodies? +How is it that what they want is gospel even if it means our death?" +Photo of Jamaican Girls by marco annunziata on Flickr. + +St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Breaking the Silence · Global Voices +Blogging from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Abeni wants "to tell the children who are being sexually abused that silence is not golden." + +United Kingdom: Court decides against a blogger's rights to anonymity · Global Voices +A new legal precedent has been set for UK bloggers. +Last week, in the England and Wales High Court, Mr Justice Eady ruled that a police officer who previously wrote about his working life on his NightJack blog, did not have the right to remain anonymous. +The claimant - now known to be Detective Constable Richard Horton - had unsuccessfully attempted to get an injunction against The Times newspaper (UK) to stop it naming him. +Following the court's ruling Horton has now been issued with a written warning by his police force, the Lancashire Constabulary. +A victory for freedom of expression (The Times')... or a severe restriction for freedom of expression (anonymous bloggers)? +Popular opinion is divided, though a blog search would indicate that blogger opinion veers towards the latter. +NightJack, the judge said, did not "qualify as information in respect of which the Claimant has a reasonable expectation of privacy – essentially because blogging is a public activity". +Eady, who is well-known in the UK for his privacy-protecting rulings, stated: +"Furthermore, even if I were wrong about this, I consider that any such right of privacy on the Claimant's part would be likely to be outweighed at trial by a countervailing public interest in revealing that a particular police officer has been making these communications." +And the implication for bloggers? +"Those who wish to hold forth to the public by this means often take steps to disguise their authorship, but it is in my judgment a significantly further step to argue, if others are able to deduce their identity, that they should be restrained by law from revealing it." +It's hard to find anyone in the UK (or international) blogosphere overwhelmingly in support of The Times' ruling; and The Times' own stories about their battle received severe criticism from commenters, even if, as Malcolm Coles suggests, some of the negative comments are a little tricky to find... +Three things to bear in mind for background: NightJack had had undergone the scrutiny of a judging panel in order to win the prestigious Orwell Prize for blogging. +The prize's director, Jean Seaton, argues why she believes Eady's ruling to be wrong, here, on the Guardian Organ Grinder blog. +Horton, who ended his postings after being shortlisted for the award, donated his prize to the Police Dependants' Trust. +One of The Times' main arguments for outing him was its claims that 'he was also using the blog to disclose detailed information about cases he had investigated, which could be traced back to real-life prosecutions.' +The bloggers and commenters have reacted with force, many personally attacking Patrick Foster, the journalist at the centre of what Eady called the 'deduction and detective' process. +I've previously rounded up a good mix of links on the Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog and my own blog which tell the story, but here are a selection of the best blog posts, which draw out interesting nuances. +Opinions include: Those with experience of being 'outed'. +The Girl with a One Track Mind - once Abby Lee, now known by her real name, Zoe Margolis. +Those who defend their right to anonymity as a blogging police officer. +PC Bloggs. +Others who work in the public sector and write about their life and work. +Tom Reynolds, an ambulance driver with a book deal. +Those who think NightJack was a little naive in his attempt to remain anonymous: Eg. Letter from a Tory Those who think The Times, in some respects, had a fair point on the right to name. Eg. +Martin Cloake and FleetStreetBlues. +Those who make comparisons between anonymous bloggers and anonymous journalistic sources. +Sara McConnell and Justin McKeating. +Those with other criticisms against The Times' approach to the case. +Hopi Sen, once an anonymous blogger. +This is just a summary of a complicated debate. +Perhaps the court's decision has surprised onlookers so much because it happened in the UK. +We're not living in a repressive autocracy with threatening media laws. +While we have stringent libel laws, our freedom of expression extends far more widely than it does for many societies. +Perhaps more than it does for most nations in the world - not least because the English language is understood by so many. +Yet an award-winning blogger, whose voice, it could be argued, aided the democratic process (see Seaton's article), was not able to stay nameless. +To what extent it affects UK bloggers' future privacy and right to anonymity remains to be seen. +I shall report back. +In the meantime, all those who are blogging anonymously might do well to take a look at Global Voices Advocacy's guidelines ... then they might stand a chance of keeping it that way. +Perhaps taking up jiu-jitsu in a Lancashire town, and then writing about it, was a reckless decision on Horton's part. +Please do add any other good links below. + +Honduras: Political Crisis Over Controversial Referendum · Global Voices +Honduras is going through one of its most difficult moments of its political history. +Honduran President Manuel Zelaya removed General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez as Chief of the Armed Forces and accepted the resignation of Defense Minister Edmundo Orellana Mercado. +The announcement was made after meeting with military leaders of the armed forces to seek protection of the polls for the referendum that has been promoted by the executive branch to be held on Sunday, June 28, 2009. +This referendum will decide whether or not a Constituent Assembly is convened in order to write a new Constitution. +General Vázquez Velazquez found himself in a difficult situation, because the request or order of the President as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, contrasted with the conclusion reached by both the National Congress and the Supreme Court, that the referendum is illegal. +Soon after the removal of General Vázquez Velazquez, Army Commander General Miguel Garcia Padgett, commander of the Naval Force, Rear Admiral John Paul Rodriguez, and Air Force commander, General Luis Javier Prince Suazo resigned from their posts. +In the streets of cities such as Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, there is prevailing tension and anxiety of not knowing what will happen next, with charges of a coup d'etat and lack of support of democracy in the country, from both supporters and opponents. +This is seen most in the capital of Tegucigalpa, where businesses and schools were closed, gas stations and supermarkets full of people looking for supplies, and a military presence on the streets to prevent disturbances. +Hondurans have been using their blogs and social networking sites like Facebook, Blipea and Twitter to give their thoughts on the situation and to inform the country and world about the course of events. +Irina Vanessa Orellana of La Vida es Bella Aunque No Me Creas writes this post to document what is happening: + +Bahrain: Newspaper Suspended For A Day · Global Voices +On Monday, 22 June, Bahrain's oldest newspaper in circulation Akhbar Al Khaleej was suspended for the day after printing an article critical of certain Iranian leaders and making reference to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's alleged Jewish origins. +The move would seem to have been made to avoid provoking unrest amongst the Shi'a majority in Bahrain. +Yagoob was not pleased: +This comes as another blow to freedom of speech in Bahrain, after seeing a wide spread of web censorship with the aim of ‘a clean web’ which conveniently blocked everything from opposition websites, pornography, gambling, anti Islamic websites, web proxies and Google Translate, it seems that the ever enlongating arm of censorship has hit the mainstream media! +The strangest and most shocking thing about this ban is that it is Akhbar Al-Khaleej, a newspaper which is predominately pro-government. +So what has this clawless kitten of a newspaper done to ruffle a few feathers in government?? +Only time will tell but for now this is a very sad day in Bahrain history and its attempt in becoming a democratic country… +Mahmood also disagreed with the decision: +Not that I love Akhbar Al-Khaleej, nothing could be more remote from the truth, but my feeling for this decrepit paper, its publisher or some of its so called journalists is completely immaterial, but it should not have been banned under whatever reason given or withheld by whatever organ of government dictating this latest ban on freedom of speech. +My sources tell me that the paper was banned due to a rather cutting article by the infamous Shura Council MP Ms. Sameera Rajab who is no stranger to controversy. +She is loathed by a great swathe of people in Bahrain due to her background and rather critical writings especially about the Shi’a and their beliefs. +It is also no secret that she detests the regime in Iran and has been very sympathetic to the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussain. +Regardless, banning a paper because of a column is a slap in the face of the freedom of information that the Ministry has been at pains to promote – rather paradoxically, especially that it has made it their professional hobby to block websites. +However, not all bloggers were unhappy with the suspension; Green Oasis was pleased: The newsaper deserves to be closed because it participates in publishing these discordant voices. Thank you to the Ministry of Information for the closure. +Update: For Yagoob's perspective on how the suspension was lifted, see here. + +China's Stimulus Package and its Effect · Global Voices +China elections and governance has a series of article on the China's economic stimulus package and its effect. +Part one is An introduction to China's stimulus package. Part two is The green dragon soars on the wind: Chinese stimulus and the environment. +Part three is Migrant workers and social unrest. +The last part is China's Stimulus Package and its Effect on China's SOES: Bad for the Economy and Bad for the Prospect of Democracy. + +China: Urumqi mass incident and beyond · Global Voices +According to Xinhua latest report (July 6), the violence in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has led to at least 140 people dead and 828 injured. +The regional government said that the mass incident was masterminded by the World Uyghur Congress. +However, Uyghur independent activist explained that the unrest was sparked by anger over a confrontation between Han Chinese and Uyghur factory workers in Shaoguan city. +Shaoguan June 26 riot +So what had actually happened in Shaoguan? +According to the Chinese official report, the conflict on 26 of June was caused by a rumor about a sexual assault of Han Chinese woman worker in a factory campus by Uyghur worker. +The armed fight between Han and Uyghur workers had led to the death of 2 Uyghurs (some unconfirmed sources said the number of death was up to 18 Uyghurs). +The Youtube videos below showed the June 26 riot: +Ethnic policy and hatred +While the Chinese government continued to use western conspiracy theory in addressing the ethnic conflict, Drunken Pig pointed out from a Han Chinese perspective that the Shaoguan incident and other similar ethnic conflicts are a result of government's ethnic policy: + +Arab World: Good Bye Michael Jackson · Global Voices +Bloggers from across the Arab world bid King of Pop Michael Jackson farewell today as millions of fans tune into the silver screen to watch live coverage of his memorial ceremony at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. +Here is a snapshot of reactions from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. Saudi Arabia: +Public death scares me. +It makes me face all the realities I hate to acknowledge. When I woke up to the news of Michael Jackson's death, I did what most people around the world did. +But there were no good omens and nothing except stress which made me bite my nails in futility and agony. +From Kuwait, Loft965 writes: +This death is bringing people together This is heartfelt. +The part are she says MJ’s name in the song again and again is wrenching. +Still in Kuwait, Maze of Thoughts adds: +7500 fans were given the chance to attend the memorial service that will take place this morning. +Around 1.6 million fans worldwide tried to purchase tickets to attend. +It’s going to be a sad day for all MJ fans. +The KING will always live in the hearts of millions. +And 4thringroad reports: +Now i know lots of people are fed up with all the michael jackson news, i dont know about you guys but i sure am however i must say while doing my routine morning web surfing i read a weird article talking about how MJ will be buried without his brain in order to conduct more examinations to find out the exact reasons behind his sudden death.. +Bahrain: +Some of them see him as a victim of American society, fame and how being under the spotlight could impact a person's life while others see that he is a victim of his own making, a victim of his loss and his giving up on his race and humanity. +And our final stop is with American Um Naief, who is married to a Bahraini and blogs at Hypnotic Verses. +The blogger explains how it took time for her to come to grips with Jackson's death: +Wow... was shocked to learn of Michael Jackson's death. +Knew he was a drug addict long ago, but you never want to imagine it being as bad as it was. +Looks like they've come across bags and bags of drugs inside his home, so it's only a matter of days before the world finds out what was hidden in his closet. +Sad that he'd die like Elvis and was married to his daughter. +I felt unmoved by the news at first. +Took several days for it to sink in and after watching many a show and reading articles on the net, I feel very saddened, but feel, like many, that he's free of his demons now. + +Egyptian woman killed in German court for being veiled · Global Voices +It's been too long since Egyptian bloggers came together under the same opinion. +But the new hate crime that took place in Germany against a Muslim Egyptian woman, Marwa El Sherbini, was one good reason for them to unite again, condemning international media for ignoring such incidents against Muslims in the West. +The story goes back to August 2008, when Marwa filed a defamation case against her killer, Axel, a 28-year unemployed German, after he called her a “terrorist” because she wears the hijab (Islamic veil). +However last Wednesday, Alex stabbed her 18 times to death in a German courtroom after the judges announced she won the case against him, and that he had to pay 2,800 Euros as a fine for his previous insults. +Marwa, 32-year-old Egyptian, was the wife of an Egyptian academic, who was on a scholarship in Germany. +Her husband was also hurt in the incident and is now in critical condition in hospital, between life and death. +Zeinobia expressed her anger in a post titled "What If She Were A Lesbian", and said: +The woman is 32 years Marwa El-Sherbini , she was a pregnant in her second child when she was was stabbed. +This is for sure a hate crime but unlike other hate crimes like homophobic crimes or anti-Semitic crimes, it did not make the headlines abroad and I do not know why !! +This is a racism crime , a woman is shot down stabbed like that so simple in the court room for God sake and it is not important to be covered in the media as it should !! +She was a mother who was a pregnant for God sake !! +May Allah bless her soul , she is a martyr of racism and hate. Ahmed esmat questioned on Twitter The same thought was echoed by Hisham Maged on his blog, playing the What if game: +Let us play the What IF game, just imagine if the situation was reversed and the victim was a westerner who was stabbed anywhere in the world or -God Heaven- in any Middle Eastern country by Muslim extremists, or even what the media used to call ‘minorities’ in Egypt! +You definitely would have heard the world’s buzzing and the internet goes down too! +Bikya Masr, who was closely following the incident, asked if Marwa can be the symbol to bring people together. +He demanded an immediate action on the diplomatic and national levels: +Across the Middle East, anger is high. +This anger, however, cannot fall into random diatribes against Germans, or Germany. +It must maintain some semblance of coherence for any campaign that should be established to succeed. +And it will if Sherbini truly is a symbol that can bring people together much like Neda in Iran did. +Do people believe Sherbini is a symbol? +Egyptians should be outraged that a woman was verbally abused for wearing the veil and being Egyptian in the first place. +The government should be sending a strong signal to Europe that this behavior is unacceptable, but they remain silent. +That leaves it to the Egyptian population to take action. +Let us walk the streets in front of the German Embassy and demand a full investigation and report. +Because if Germany cannot do this, then it once more proves that European hate for Muslims and Arabs is stronger than their so-called “freedom.” +Yes, Marwa is a symbol, but she should be a symbol to bring people together, not divide them. +Another blogger Sadafat wrote: يجب ان تعلن الحكومة الألمانية ان هذا التصرف يمس المسلمين، يجب ان تضع في دستورها للغالبية الثانية من الديانيات وهم المسلمين حقوقا تحفظهم من العداء ضد الإسلام. +If a Jew was hurt, in Germany, even with a word or a joke, the prime minister would have done everything, and called Fox News and Sky News to defend Semitism and would have even declared war on anti-Semites. +But no one will cry over the Egyptian woman who died there. +The German government should know that this act affects Muslims, and should put in its constitution for the second majority of its religions, who are Muslims, that their rights protect them from hatred towards Islam. +Egyptian bloggers commenting or venting out their frustrations on Twitter. +As for myself, I found myself writing these lines on my blog Lasto Adri: لا أتوقع من الغرب -ذاته- أقل من أى يلغى من كل معاجمه فكرة أن المسلمين إرهابيين، ويؤمن أن بن لادن وأعوانه -مثلا- لا يمثلون العرب أو المسلمين فى شئ، وأفعالهم كلها فردية! وعلى رأى المثل.. لا تعايرنى ولا أعايرك.. دا التعصب طايلنى وطايلك! +After the West said that Marwa's murderer doesn't represent Germany, and that it is an individual act.. +I expect no less from -the same- West than erasing the idea that Muslims are terrorists from all its dictionaries, and to believe that Ben laden and his friends -for example- do not represent Arabs or Muslims in anything, and all what they do is individual actions! +As the proverb says: Don't blame me for something you do too. +We both have the same "extremism". + +Azerbaijan: Youth activists and bloggers beaten and detained · Global Voices +On 8 July, Emin Milli, one of the founders of a grassroots youth movement the Alumni Network and Adnan Hajizada, a video-blogger from the OL! Youth Movement have been severely beaten by unidentified persons while dining with a group of other civil society and youth activists in a restaurant in downtown Baku. +After complaining to police about the incident, they were instead detained themselves, up to a possible 48 hours. +According to the words of one witness, as conveyed by a local blogger: + +Iran: Myth and reality about Twitter · Global Voices +International media coverage of the Iranian protest movement in the past weeks has widely celebrated 'Twitter power' as a tool of organizing and reporting on protests, but the reliance on Twitter has had both positive and negative results in this crisis. +We look at some of them here to demystify the actual degree of impact. +There is no doubt citizens protesting the results of the June presidential election have made efficient use of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs to 'immortalize' their movement and broadcast scenes of violence by security forces, but the centerpoint of this movement are the people and not technology. +With journalists prohibited from doing their work and a world audience thirsty for information from Iran, citizen media has often become a primary source of information. +Unfortunately, the true identity and reliability of twitter users was not always known, and we saw instances where the lines of fact and fiction blurred - just as they may have in the presidential election results themselves. +1-Communication tool for reformists leaders +After the election on June 12, several websites belonging to reformists were filtered. +Security forces heightened their control of newspapers, reformist personalities were jailed, and those who were still free were barred from access to national television and radio. +The Internet is still almost the only window for them to communicate with the public. +The Facebook page of Mir Hussein Mousavi's campaign has more than 100,000 supporters. +On Twitter his campaign has around 30,000 followers. +Ghloamhussein Karbaschi, a top adviser to Mehdi Karroubi, a second reformist candidate in the election, tweets to inform his 5000 followers of events. +Twitter and Facebook along with reformist websites such as Ghlamnews help communicate the decisions of reformist leaders and pass on the message. +2-Closing the gap between Iran and the world +Iranian tweets touched thousands around the world and it seems by following and re-tweeting people feel involved. +The most common search topic on Twitter for days has been #iranelection (the "hashtag" for discussions on Iran) and global media outlets are relying on information and images disseminated via Twitter as well. +According to Bloggasm, tweets coming out of Iran are retweeted an average of 57.8 times. +3-Twitter does not organize demonstrations: +Reformist leaders and their supporters make decisions to organize protests and they communicate it through different means. +We have no evidence that people tweeted each other to organize a demonstration. +As Evgeny Mozrov, a fellow of the Open Society Institute in New York said to the Washington Post: +" has been of great help in terms of getting information out of the country. +Whether it has helped to organize protests — something that most of the media are claiming at the moment — is not at all certain, for, as a public platform, Twitter is not particularly helpful for planning a revolution (authorities could be reading those messages as well!)." +4-Tweets can misinform people: +Recently one of several people tweeted that 700,000 people had gathered at the Ghoba mosque in Tehran. Several people re-tweeted it and even posted the news on their blogs. +Meanwhile mainstream international media estimated the number of protesters was between 3000-5000 people. +What could have happened to the other a 699,5000 people? +As the new Twitter Journalism website by founder of Breaking Tweets, Craig Kanalley, explains: +"It’s obvious people want information from Iran, and they want it in real-time. +So it doesn’t take much for a person to hit “RT” and to rebroadcast information they feel may be a “scoop.” +But where’s the gatekeeper? +The gatekeeper is the retweeter, who takes a look at the tweet and within seconds decides its value. +Anyone who eyes a retweet must keep this in mind, and treat every tweet with caution until confirmed." +5-Tweeting is recycling news and tips +Most people tweet what they read on websites, and have also shared useful tips and information to help Iranians circumvent internet filtering and censorship. +In other words tweeting helps create an information pool. +6-Misunderstanding the sender: +Sometimes there are 'senders', like Iranians based in the West, for example, who receive information about a demonstration from a source and tweet it without checking the facts, or without mentioning any references. +Receivers - especially if they are not Iranians - may think the guy is in Tehran and tweeting from the frontlines. +7-Activism and agendas: +Most Iranians who tweet are activists supporting the protest movement and promoting a cause. +Their information should be double-checked and not be accepted at face value, or as an eyewitness observation. +With all these things in mind, it is clear that Twitter is both a source of information as well as mis-information. +It's the people behind the screens that matter, as much as the people who report on what they are saying. + +Paraguay: As the H1N1 Virus Spreads · Global Voices +Not getting caught in the traffic jam of España Avenue on a weekday at 2 p.m. is a daunting task. +That is why seeing the street almost deserted nowadays is stunning for most Paraguayans. +“I’ve never seen something quite like this before, everybody is paranoid now,” says blogger Nora Vega, who commutes to downtown Asunción every day. +What is keeping Paraguayans inside their houses is the fast spread of H1N1 virus, which has already claimed three lives and infected hundreds of citizens. +Last week the National Congress declared a national health emergency for 90 days and granted an extra 99 billion guaranies (about 20 million dollars) to the health ministry to deal with the swine flu epidemic. +The government is now analyzing the possibility of extending the two-week winter break for schools to prevent more children from getting the virus. +The city hall closed several public buildings and theaters for ten days. +The action was taken despite Health Minister Esperanza Martinez’s statements, who warned that this type of measures were not effective to stop the spread of the virus in countries such as Mexico and the United States. +Although the health ministry has only confirmed three deaths officially, it is suspected that at least 15 other deaths are related to the virus. +So far 114 cases of infections are official, but there are about 700 other suspicious cases. +One of the reasons why these cases cannot be confirmed is because of the shortage of materials to perform the analysis. +Other major concern is the scarcity of antibiotics, especially in the private sector. +Journalist and blogger Mabel Rehnfeldt on her blog El Dedo en la Llaga shares the frustration of having two daughters infected with the virus: + +China: Manufacturing abandon infants · Global Voices +Research-China.Org translated an article, Manufacturing abandon infants, from Southern Metropolis News that describes how the international adoption program provides incentive to local authorities in confiscating new born children from their natural born parents. + +Indonesia: Online Nationalism · Global Voices +Last Friday's dual blasts marked the end of six years of a peaceful and sound Indonesia. +As the nation condemns the terror attacks, Indonesian youths show the spirit of nationalism online. +Many Indonesians are sending tweets like "We're not afraid" motto through #indonesiaunite, something that people wouldn't dare say bluntly, especially right after bombing incidents a few years ago. +Thanks to microblogging sites, Indonesian youths are able to get out of their fear shells and express themselves and their opinion. +Pitra Satvika said: + +Citizens of the World rally for Iran · Global Voices +On Saturday 25 July, 2009, Iranians and non-Iranians alike responded to the initiative United4Iran by taking part in an event to support the Iranian struggle for freedom and human rights. +Coverage of these events included numerous citizen videos and photos. +Hamburg/Germany: +Washington/U.S. +London/UK +A protest outside the Islamic Republic's embassy in London +Saharlar writes that the police dispersed a rally in Dubai after 30 minutes and even confiscated their green ballons. +The blogger also published the photos of this event. + +Bangladesh: Photos Of Solar Eclipse · Global Voices +Anil Advani posts some amazing photos of the total solar eclipse of last Wednesday taken from Dhaka, Bangladesh. + +Peru: Bloggers Targeted by Hackers · Global Voices +Disagreements between bloggers and their readers may often take place within the comments section, and can continue in the form of debate and discussion. +However, for some Peruvian bloggers, some of their views motivated some to take actions to silence these differing opinions. +The blogger Carlos Quiróz, also known as Peruanista had his YouTube channel erased due to waves of complaints by a group who disagreed with him. +In addition, Francisco Canaza of Apuntes Peruanos was on the receiving end of a hacking attack that left his blog offline for days. +Many are asking what did these bloggers do to deserve these types of attacks? +Do their opinions on uncomfortable topics make them a target by those who disagree? +Is that a valid reason for these types of attacks? +Carlos Quiróz of Peruanista wonders why his YouTube accounts were suspended, where he lost hundreds of videos that took two years of work. + +Benin: Debating, feting Voodoo · Global Voices Benninese blogger Blaise Aplogan writes about the upcoming festival of Voodoo, set to take place in Paris this week, and the ongoing Voodoo debate (Fr): "More and more, prophetic religions, notably Christianity, are investing in a dialogue with traditional African religions... traditional African religious leaders are asking themselves what meaning to give to democracy, scientific and technological reason, ..." + +Laos: Pollution from paper factory · Global Voices +Lao Voices uploads a video which shows pollution from a paper factory in Laos. + +Maldives: Journalists at Risk · Global Voices +At least three journalists in the Maldives have been subjected to either physical or verbal abuse and psychological intimidation within a span of the last 10 days. +The first case involved Ahmed Zahir (Hiriga), the Executive Editor of Haveeru Daily, and the President of Maldives Journalists Association, who was attacked by a mob outside the parliament building while he was covering a protest there. +Interestingly the protest outside the parliament was sparked by a scuffle inside the parliament between some members of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party and opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP). +The second case involved an article written by Maryam Omidi, the Editor of the online English language newspaper Minivan News. +In the article Omidi reported on Amnesty International’s recent call to impose a moratorium on flogging in the Maldives and highlighted the fact that women are disproportionately flogged in the Maldives for extramarital sex while in most cases men are able to evade the punishment for apparent lack of evidence. +Even though the author of the article did not express any personal opinions on the issue, some groups in the Maldives declared the article as anti-Islamic and organized a protest against Minivan News. +The protesters also called for Omidi, a foreign national, to be deported from the Maldives. +Maldives Dissent debates this issue and points out that in several cases the victims of flogging are also victims of child sexual abuse: +The public flogging at the centre of the controversy involves an 18-year-old girl, but a disturbing aspect of the case appears to have gone unnoticed. +It has emerged that the girl, who reportedly “confessed” to having had extra-marital sex with two adult males, committed the “crime” when she was under-18. +If so, this would have grave implications for the Maldivian state. +Not only has the state failed to protect a child from sexual abuse but has, in fact, been party to subjecting her to further physical abuse. +Sadly, this is not an isolated case. +At least 22 girls under 18 years of age were sentenced to public flogging, in 2006, for fornication or giving birth out of wedlock. +Under Maldivian law child sexual abuse requires a confession by the alleged abuser, or testimony by four eye-witnesses, for a successful conviction to take place. +This means that if a victim reports sexual abuse but the perpetrator denies it and there are no eye-witnesses, the court can find the child guilty of having consented to the sex. +The state would then wait for the girl to turn 18 and then carry out the sentence of public flogging, in effect, punishing her for reporting the crime. +By continuing with the practice, the Maldives is violating no less than four UN conventions it has signed: the convention on the rights of children; the convention on civil and political rights; the convention against torture; and the convention against all forms of discrimination against women. +The third case of an attack against journalists involved Ibrahim Rasheed, newscaster for state-owned Television Maldives (TVM), who was assaulted while he was covering a gathering outside the residence of the former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. +A crowd had gathered outside the former ruler’s residence because the police were trying to escort the ex-president to the police station for an investigation of allegations of corruption. +South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) Maldives has condemned the attacks on journalists on their blog: +SAFMA Maldives expresses concern over the recent attacks on media personnel, and calls on all concerned parties to respect the ideals of freedom of expression and media enshrined in the Maldives Constitution. SAFMA Maldives also reiterates that it is not necessary that all media organizations share the same opinions and editorial policies, and believe that the public should be able to formulate its own opinion based on the different viewpoints and information accessible from the various media, and call on the Government, political parties and the general public to respect journalists working to acquire true information in order to carry out a public service. +Till a few years ago, the Maldives used to be a repressive state, with freedom of expression severely restricted by the government and journalists arrested or intimidated by the government for criticism. +With a democratic government coming to power in November 2008, the government is no longer regarded as a barrier to press freedom. +However, the recent cases of intimidation and abuse against journalists by various groups in the society indicate that journalists are still at risk, especially in the politically-charged atmosphere and the deeply partisan politics the Maldives is experiencing right now. + +Dominican Republic: The Financial Cost of Undocumented Haitian Immigrants · Global Voices +The countries of the Dominican Republic and Haiti share the same island, which has commonly been known as Hispaniola ever since its discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1492. +During that time, the island was compromised of the same territory and remained that way until 1697, with the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick, Spain ceded the western part of the island to France, which was renamed Saint-Domingue. +Map of Hispaniola. +From Traveling Man's Flickr and used under a Creative Commons license. http://www.flickr.com/photos/travelingman/2816126909/ +This colony was gradually populated by African slaves, and who eventually rebelled against their French colonizers. +It was in this manner in 1804 that Haiti was born, becoming the first independent country in Latin America. +By 1822, Haiti had total control of the island and occupied Santo Domingo until February 27, 1844, when a secret society called "La Trinitaria" led by among others, Juan Pablo Duarte, was created to gain independence from Haiti and to create what is now the Dominican Republic. +Since that day, the Dominican Republic and Haiti have been two independent nations, with a different culture, beliefs, and system. +Their paths of economic development has also varied greatly, with Haiti being the least developed country in the Americas and the Dominican Republic enjoys one of the largest economies in the Caribbean and Central America. +Despite these stark contrasts, it is the close proximity of these two countries that have the intertwined their own fates. +A large number of Haitians cross the border on a daily basis, usually illegally, to look for work as construction workers or to work as street vendors selling fruit, candy or other small, inexpensive items. +Others may be specially contracted to work on sugarcane plantations. +Haitian fruit vendor in the Dominican Republic. +Photo by Caymang and used under a Creative Commons license. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlakme/2903770065/ +Due to the large numbers of undocumented Haitians in the Dominican Republic, a large percentage can be seen in the streets as beggars. +These visible examples often leaves Dominicans with a negative stereotyped view of all Haitians. +However, there is still a smaller percentage that arrive legally with intentions to study, often with scholarships, but may not be the typical profile of Haitans in the country. +José Rafael Sosa introduces his readers to one of these successful students, named Gessy : + +Global: George W. Bush as Middle East Envoy? · Global Voices +An opinion piece written for Newsweek suggesting George W. Bush make an excellent complement to U.S. President Obama as Middle East envoy has made waves in the blogosphere. +The article, penned by Gregory Levey, the author of a book called Shut Up I'm Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government-A Memoir and former speechwriter for the Israeli government, advocates for Bush and Obama to play "good cop, bad cop" with Israel, whilst ignoring the need for diplomacy with the rest of the Middle East. +Syrian blogger Anas Qtiesh criticizes Levey's proposal, focusing on Levey's statements that Israel should be the top priority of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East: +So Mr. Levey suggests that the U.S. needs to acquire Israeli trust in order to stop the illegal settlements, illegal Judaization of Jerusalem, and to have Israeli permission to have talks with Iran. +The absurdity of his suggestion is only matched by a fact he mentions to justify his outrageous suggestion: "In the history of U.S.-Israel relations, probably no president has earned adoration and unequivocal trust from Israel like Bush." +Australian blogger and journalist Antony Loewenstein also wonders why the Arabs aren't considered in Levey's piece, remarking: +A former worker in the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, Gregory Levey, suggests that the Obama administration appoint George W. Bush as his Middle East envoy to pressure and cajole Israel. +Clearly Levey has never spoken to any Arabs in the Middle East; Bush isn’t the most liked individual. +Blogger Max Strasser of Next Year In, a blog which focuses on the Middle East, is more amused by the implication that Israelis love George W. Bush, despite his low approval ratings elsewhere: +Oy. +That’s just a little embarrassing for the Israelis. +Bush ended his term as one of the least popular presidents in American history. +He is despised around the world. +And still Israelis love him? +That makes Israel sound like some sort of “rogue” state. +I hope that it doesn’t bespeak anything too significant about the direction of Israeli politics. +Pseudonymous blogger Doctor Biobrain, whose location is as mysterious as his pseudonym, questions why U.S. support for Israel must always go unquestioned: +Would someone care to explain to me why we need to make Israel happy? +I don't even buy into the idea that having them in the middle-east is some great strategic advantage for us, and think it's the exact opposite. +Israel is one of the biggest problems we have in the middle-east. +That's not to say I don't support their existence or anything, merely that I fail to understand their strategic importance to us or why we need to keep appeasing them. +As with our embargo of Cuba, I believe our support of Israel is more about domestic politics than foreign policy and anyone who suggests otherwise is selling something. +But if their existence is somehow important to us, you'd think their existence would be even more important to themselves. +And if our support of them makes their existence possible, then you'd think they'd owe it to us to keep us happy, not vice versa. +And if our support isn't necessary for their existence and they're doing us a favor by accepting our support, then perhaps we should stop supporting them. +That seems fairly obvious to me. +Though it was nearly impossible to find a blogger writing in support of Levey's piece, Jason Zengerle, blogging for The New Republic, sees it as a metaphor of sorts, but criticizes Bush nonetheless, stating: +I guess it's to encourage Obama to be more Bush-like in his dealings with Israel. +One Bush-like gesture, according to Levey, would be for Obama "to speak directly to Israelis, the way Bush did often." +But did Bush speak directly to Israelis that often? +He didn't visit Israel as president until January 2008, some seven years after he entered the White House. +And he made only one more trip there, in May of last year, to speak to the Knesset (and take some thinly veiled swipes at Obama). +Obama, of course, has been president for six months now. +I'm with Levey (and pretty much everyone else it seems) in thinking Obama should speak directly to Israelis. +But I don't think he'll necessarily be following Bush's example if and when he does. +There were also a plethora of blog posts which took a more humorous tone. +While David Pleasant blogged... +Good Lord. +Gregory Levey, in a Newsweek article, is proposing that President Obama make George W. Bush his special envoy to the Middle East. +Um, the only place I propose the federal government send Mr. Bush to is the SuperMax Prison in Florence, CO. +...While Matthew Saroff of 40 Years in the Desert snarks... +In related news, he suggested that Hannibal Lecter as chairman of the special White House committee on nutrition, Mary "Typhoid Mary" Mallon as head of food safety at the FCC, Timothy Leary as Drug Czar, and South Carolina Governor Rick "Hiking the Appalachian Trail" Sanford as head of the special working committee for ethics in government. +...and Oliver Willis (U.S.) jokes: +In related news, Godzilla has been appointed to the task force to rebuild Tokyo. + +Gabon: Presidential Candidate Uses Social Media in Historic Election · Global Voices +Bruno Ben Moubamba, presidential candidate in Gabon, uses new media to spread his message. +As Gabon prepares for its first election since the death of Omar Bongo, one candidate is trying to make history with the aid of social media. +Bruno Ben Moubamba, journalist and director of the Edith Stein Institute in France, has returned to Gabon to run as an independent candidate. +His rivals who include the current prime minister, Jean Eyeghe Ndong, and Bongo's own son. +Moubamba is trying to level the playing field. +Before his death on June 8th at the age of 73, Bongo was Africa's longest-serving ruler, having spent 41 years in power. +With Bongo's son as the ruling party's official candidate, Gabon's lack of a democratic tradition, and with the August 30th election fast approaching, Moubamba faces an uphill battle. +Born in 1967, the year that Bongo came to power, Moubamba represents a younger generation of African leaders. +On his blog, Moubamba has harsh criticism for the powers that be, whom he has referred to as "specialists in repression," and calls for intergenerational dialogue: + +Uruguay: CIP, Showcasing National Films and Shorts · Global Voices +They call it an alternative to online video channels so that their videos don't have to compete for attention with short home-videos of birthdays, cats and lip synching to music. +Two young Uruguayans decided to change the situation and created Cip, a website dedicated to showcasing the works of independent film-makers, so they can take their films out of their desk drawers and share them with a wider community, much in the same way that it works in theaters, with premieres, seasons and different viewing rooms. +Thanks to @damianemanuel1 on twitter we discovered this video site, when he posted: + +Featured Author: Sara Moreira · Global Voices +This past week I was able to catch up with Global Voices author Sara Moreira at the International School for Digital Transformation in Porto, Portugal. +Sara arrived to the program after spending several weeks in Dili, East Timor, the country whose blogosphere she dutifully covers on Global Voices. +Sara teaching young women computer engineering at East Timor National University. +She has worked as a professor at East Timor National University and was awarded computer equipment from Hewlett Packard to help introduce more Timorese women to the fields of computer engineering and web design. +Make sure not to miss Sara's three-part series commemorating the 9th anniversary of internet access in East Timor. + +Israel: Cellular firm ad stirs occupation debate · Global Voices +The advertisement produced by McCann Erickson advertising agency, was accepted as insensitive at best by many Israelis, becoming an icon of blindness to the occupation in the Israeli society. +The Facebook group titled "I too get nausea from watching Cellcom's new ad" has 2,355 members to date and is growing daily. +Here is a sample of the main arguments voiced by many bloggers: +"After all, what do we all really want? +Not to see beyond the separation fence. +And then everything is indeed 'sababa': army service is fun and war is really a game in which the unseen Palestinians are little pawns one can move without paying a price in the real world. +This ad is a perfect reflection of our reality: we see only the things that affect our side. +The soldiers in the ad are not interested in meeting the people who live on the other side…..finally the ad exposes what the army generals tried to hide from us: on the other side of the fence there are no human beings at all. +Looking above the fence (min 0:47) we see there's nothing on the other side – everything is empty and green!" +(Romi Izhaki) +"What where the guys in McCann Erickson thinking when they chose the separation wall to star in the new Cellcom ad? +If they wanted to represent the vision of a new middle east, why hide the Palestinians behind a concrete wall and present the soldiers as ball snatchers who only care about their fun? +The result is an ad with the sensitivity of sandpaper and what stings most is the fact it makes the situation we live in seem not only bearable but even fun. +(Lior Zalmanson) +"The new Cellcom ad may seem like a bad taste provocation, similar to the Benetton ads with the hungry children, but it's actually an attempt to associate the firm with mainstream Israeliness, hence, involving the army. .. In an academic paper following the peace meter by Herman and Yaar from 2001, the authors found Israel is torn in half between the people who support and object the Oslo agreement. +However, both sides agree on one thing: weather there'll be a Palestinian state or not, the Palestinians should be totally separated from us. +We are here and they are there. +And maybe one day it'll be 'achla" or at least fast internet connection between these sides. +The separation wall allows us to push the Palestinians beyond the horizon, beyond visibility. +It allows us to shrink their existence and reduce our friction to occasional ball swapping, replacing the occupation goal with a goal conquest. +Cellcom's ad is infuriating because for some audiences it creates the impression of a peace gesture, coexistence and acknowledgment of the other side's humanity, when in fact it isn't. +Because there's no other side there and we don't really care about it. +In fact the message of this ad is that the separation wall allows us to keep playing and have fun, and we all know who the party poopers are". +(Mouli Bentman) +The criticism united both sides of the political spectrum as demonstrated on Yuval Adam's blog. +Yuval writes: +"when I watched this ad I shivered. +I've been there at the separation wall, I visited the other side. +Even right wing voters admit the other side wants more than just a little fun. +Regardless of political affinity, you cannot deny people on the other side are suffering. …this ad demonstrates cultural blindness and reality blindness. +The heartless people who produced it are blind to the real meaning of this wall and to the people behind it. +It seems the ones who built that wall succeeded in making us forget what's behind it, if we ever remembered." +Miriam, comments on the same post: +"I belong to the opposite political spectrum but when I saw this ad I was shocked as well. +First, it makes our soldiers look stupid, willing to throw everything away for a stupid ball. +Second, I live not far away from the wall and can see it from my garden. +I know Palestinian people in this area and I know how much they suffer. +This wall is a matter of survival for both sides and it's not about entertainment. +Our soldiers play free and on the other side they're trapped, invisible, meaning not human. +Just a force that throws balls so we can enjoy, on their expense. +I recommend the makers of this ad to get out of their air conditioned offices for one day and visit the wall so they will have a better understanding of reality". +Such visuals would be considered anti-Israeli if they weren't edited and distributed by Israelis. +Cellcom has asked both YouTube and Flix, a Hebrew video sharing website, to take off the videos on account of copyright infringement, but many Israelis re uploaded and shared them on Facebook over the last week. +The videos were also re uploaded to YouTube and currently can be watched via the provided links. +Other people fail to see what’s so wrong about this ad, as Moti Shushan writes on the wall of the Facebook protest group: +"I actually like the ad. +The only thing sad about it is that it was made by a commercial company and not the ministry of education. +The ad is so wonderful and innocent, it shows you there can be a ball instead a bullet between the two sides and it's an attempt to dream beyond our reality. +The only thing that makes me noxious is that this beautiful situation is so surreal we can only imagine it in an advert". +Yariv Oppenheimer writes in defense of the Ad on Ynet opinion section: +"The immediate message of this ad is that behind the fence there are people who also want to live a normal life, thus breaking the stereotype of the Palestinian people as filled with hate and violence and want to destroy us. +It is rare to present them as partners for a ball game, as good neighbors. +Their invisibility only reminds us that behind the fence children families and dreams were forgotten. +In addition, IDF soldiers are portrayed as normative people who might enjoy a human encounter with "the enemy". +The ad portrays an ideal of humanism and respect expected from our soldiers in their daily engagements with Palestinians. +The ad might change a bit the perception so rooted in us that every Palestinian is a potential enemy….it's a brave attempt to represent on screen the longing we have for peace, on prime time and by a commercial firm no less". +Indeed, Cellcom may have had good intentions by creating this ad, since as Walla!news discovered, the football game idea was inspired by an older Israeli ad made for OneVoice's peace campaign visioning to host the 2018 world cup in Israel-Palestine. +In addition, blogger Yoav Einhar pointed out that the graffiti on the separation wall in the ad, was drawn by graffiti artist Banksy, who sympathized with Palestinian suffering. +The real graffiti was drawn on the Palestinian side of the fence in Abu Dis and can be seen in Einhar's post. +Many angry customers got formal responses from Cellcom that were posted on blog comments and on the Facebook group protesting against the ad: +"Our intention was to show that we are all human beings that want to enjoy life in every situation and that fun connects between people….The message of this campaign was that human communication exists in every situation. +We got many positive and supportive feedbacks too. +There was no intention to be cynical, to hurt anybody or to take any political stand". + +Cambodia: Miss Landmine Pageant Raises Questions · Global Voices +"Everybody has the right to be beautiful!" so starts the manifesto of the Miss Landmine pageant, started by Morten Traavik of Norway. +According to the pageant site, the competition is intended to empower landmine victims and challenge traditional notions of beauty. +The winner receives a high-tech prosthetic limb. +Traavik has already organized a Miss Landmine pageant in Angola and was in the process of launching the event in Cambodia this month when the Cambodian government pulled its support and canceled the pageant. +The Mirror reports that other organizations, including the Cambodian Disabled People's Organization, declined to support the pageant after the Ministry of Social Affairs Veteran and Youth Rehabilitation expressed its displeasure with the pageant, citing the event could lead to misunderstandings about disabled people. +Not surprisingly, there have been varied reactions to the landmine pageant. +Jinja says: +I have mixed feelings about the cattle call of beauty pageants, but do agree with the general idea behind this one: that the participants have a right to feel proud about themselves and their appearance, regardless of circumstance. +Without condoning , I think the cancellation shows how Khmer society is often leaning towards modern and foreign concepts, only to snap back to what feels more traditional and ’safe’. +CAAI News Media posts a reader's reaction, originally printed in a letter to the Phnom Penh Post editor. +The reader questions whether or not the beauty pageant format is empowering: +As for beauty, whose concept of beauty is being promoted? +I visited the Web site and found the women from different villages in halter tops and short dresses, which may or may not be the clothing that they would usually wear, but it seemed out of place. +Are the organisers, while completely well-meaning, pushing a Western interpretation of "empowerment" where beauty and liberation is equated with being sexy and showing skin? +I would have rather liked to see the women wearing something they chose, Western or traditional Khmer, modern or conservative, which made them feel their most beautiful. +At Details are Sketchy, there is news that Traavik has left Cambodia, but that he plans on moving forward with the pageant, via an online vote. +Below is a photo of pageant contestant Miss Siem Reap from the pageant website. + +Taiwan: Southern Taiwan devastated by typhoon Morakot · Global Voices +On Aug. 7, 2009, typhoon Morakot landed on Taiwan. +The Central Weather Bureau urged residents in Northern Taiwan to be prepared for the heavy rain and strong wind brought by Morakot. +However, it turned out that southern Taiwan has suffered from more devastating landslides and floods when compared with northern Taiwan, especially when Morakot swiped the island(zh) at around 2 P.M. on Aug. 8. +Heavy rainfall in Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Taitung has resulted in record-breaking daily precipitation. +While the most devastated region is Pingtung county, where the accumulated rainfall in 24 hours is 1,403 mm (zh). +The accumulated rainfall in three days is up to 2,500 mm(zh), which is equal to the average annual rainfall! +Two third of the Pingtung County has been flooded. +In Linbian, Fangliao, and Kanding, a large number of buildings are surrounded with deep water and residents have to stay on top of the roofs awaiting for help. +In Chiadung, the whole town has to be evacuated(zh). +According to news report at 22:00, Aug 10, the flood has already claimed 23 lives and brought 56 missing cases(zh). +More than 30,000 people were traped(zh). +Photo by Liu of UDN. +Typhoon Morakot reminded Taiwanese of a previous disaster "87 flood(zh)" in 1959, which had destroyed 13 counties. +The damage caused was up to 11% GDP of Taiwan then. +The broken South Link Railway in Taimali, Taitung +Photo by CNA(quoted from UDN) +Witnessing the widespread destruction caused by Morakot in Southern Taiwan, blogger and netizens decided to take action. +Billypan and a team of volunteers on Plurk started aggregating and gathering informations from all over Taiwan and created a Google Map mash-up to mark the affected areas. +Billypan reported on Plurk: +"Having entered so many markers on the disaster map, I have a strong feeling that the situations in Changhwa and Taichung are getting more and more serious. +People in Central Taiwan better be prepared." +XDite also created a website, "Supporting for the victims of Morakot Typhoon", for netizens to offer helps to each others. +Twitter and plurk messages by GENE and landslides map by Schee are aggregated at Morakot Disaster Intelligence Center, another disaster relief coordinating platform created and maintained by ADCT, a non-profit organization of which I am also a member. +Below is a sticker that links to the website. +Sticker for Taiwanfloods: "God Bless Taiwan"(天佑台灣) +Blogger Ivan shared many information about disaster relief(zh) on his blog. +He reminded other netizens to send bottle water rather than cokes to the affected regions. +Vincent Chang suggested Administrative Yuan to learn from Web 2.0(zh) in its disaster relief work. +Blogger, Mr. Friday, inspired by Billypan and Xdite's responses to the flood, looked into theviability of redesigning the city with digital technology(zh). +Journalist and blogger Chyng wrote an in-depth report about the impact of the global climate change on tropical island. The article was ended with a citation of an environmental scholar Liao Ben-Chuan's words: + +Mauritania Experiences First-Ever Suicide Bombing · Global Voices +Mauritania suffered its first-ever suicide bombing attack on Saturday, wounding one Mauritanian and two French citizens. +Though Western media coverage has thus far been minimal, Dubai-based Al Arabiya reported from Nouakchott shortly after the attack, noting the timing in this article: +The attack came three days after Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who toppled Mauritania's first democratically elected leader in a military coup last year, was sworn in as president of the Saharan country after winning an election last month. +The Moor Next Door has penned a detailed piece on the incident, painting a picture of a public furious at the attack but even more frustrated by the regime: +Responses to articles on the attack in the Arabic internet media are telling. +A response to an initial report on the attack exclaimed “rid us of the General and then we will call you a shahid (martyr)!” +Others decry the attacker’s stupidity, mocking his Haratine origins. +The Mauritanians are angry, as they have been in the wake of just about every terrorist attack over the last however many years. +As much as there is disgust and frustration with the bombing, much of that is channeled back at the regime. +While the bombing is the biggest Mauritanian “story” to catch western media attention since the election Mauritanians are more concerned with other troubles related to legitimacy and creeping despotism. +Peace Corps blogger Becky, who is serving in Mauritania, notes the possibility that Peace Corps volunteers serving in the country may be sent home and laments: +This has been a somber day for Peace Corp Mauritanian volunteers. +Not just because it puts our future in jeopardy, but also because a country that we have grown to call home will now be thought of by the world as a dangerous and unstable place. +We are always reminded that terrorists are extremists and do not represent the mainstream thinking. +It will be very difficult for me to leave all those people who have done nothing wrong, although those that I have spoken to do understand. +Mauritanian Twitter user weddady expresses frustration in his Twitter feed, noting: +Although few bloggers are discussing the matter as of yet, France has condemned the attack, and new president Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz has warned of future terrorist attacks. + +Algeria: Business as Usual After Chinese Face Off · Global Voices +The influx of Chinese immigrants to Algeria ignited a face off between the immigrants and locals in the Algerian capital Algiers. +About 100 residents and migrants clashed, using knives and bludgeons, sparking a debate over whether this incident would impact Chinese investments in the North African country. +Bloggers weigh in on the debate. +Talking Under the Random Dribble, whose headline screams Algerians get more than they bargained for with China writes: +A fight has broken out between Chinese and Algerians in Algeria…Algerians complain the new migrants drink alcohol and don’t respect Islam (”They drink alcohol and do not respect our religion. +They must leave.“)… +While Algerian American Kal, from The Moor Next Door, describes it as Chinatown show down. +The blogger notes the history between the two countries and their flourishing relationship saying: +Algeria and China have quite fine relations. +To say “Algeria and China” is to say the governments of the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria and the People’s Republic of China enjoy long and friendly relations The PRC was the first country to recognize independent Algeria. +Quite a few Algerian military officers, engineers and others were educated in the PRC. +Chinese television once broadcast programs on the Algerian “people’s revolution”. +Algerian communists counted many, many Maoists in their ranks in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and the Chinese Embassy is historically one of the more important in Algiers. +Any Algerian who has done his national service has held a Chinese made rifle and served in a military modeled after the People’s Liberation Army. +Kal then zooms in to contemporary times and describes a new era of relations: +Algerians have not taken well to the large numbers of Chinese that have arrived in Algeria over the last decade, mostly to build the housing units and infrastructure projects president Bouteflika promised Algerians in 1999, 2004 and 2009. +Algerians want those jobs. +But they’ve gone to Chinese firms on Chinese terms. +He further notes: +So the flare ups in Sino-Algerian relations recently have been the result of domestic politics; in other words, areas the two governments historically have ignored in their dealings with one another. +But now, rebells in Algeria are setting upon Chinese interests based on the conduct of a Chinese rebellion; and ordinary Algerians are roughing up Chinese nationals, brought to the country as a result of this otherwise long and happy relationship. +And how will this 'brawl' impact Sino-Algerian relations? +The Moor Next Door assures us it is business as usual in Algeria: +A headline like “Brawl breaks out in Algeria,” is the North African equivalent of something like “dog bites man”. +One should consider that the day before Bab Ezzouar violence, there were youth riots in El Tarf, on the Tunisian border and that for a little more than a year intermittent violence has taken place between Ibadite Berbers and Arabic speakers Berriane, just north of Ghardaia. +This is to say nothing of the numerous fits of car and tire burning that go on quite often elsewhere in Algeria. +This is part of the setting of Bouteflika’s Algeria, and it is the failure of the socio-economic order he has setup, that addresses only macro-level economic and social problems, but fails to address the basic tensions in Algerian society in an effective way. + +Iran: Testimonies of torture and rape · Global Voices +The Iranian authorities have been accused by UN experts and the opposition of torturing jailed protesters of the June 12 presidential election results. +Mehdi Karoubi, an opposition leader and former Speaker of Iran's parliement, claimed that both male and female detainees have been raped in the Evin and Kahrizak prisons in Tehran, and that political prisoners are being tortured to death. +Rape and torture are not a new phenomenon in Iran's prisons, but the recent events have focused more attention on the prisons of the Islamic Regime. +Iranian civil society activists, including Reza Allamehzadeh, a leading film director, have been using citizen media to highlight testimonies about the Iranian tragedy. +A former political prisoner recounts the experience of being imprisoned, tortured and raped in an Iranian prison in the 1980s. +She was only 17 years old at the time, and did not know why she had been arrested. +More than 84,000 people have watched her testimony on YouTube. +Kahrizak +Thousands of protesters, including some who were injured, were arrested during the July demonstrations and hundreds were sent either to prison or a torture house called Kahrizak. +Here is a testimony from one of the survivors that has been published on several blogs: +They took us with tens of others to Kahrizak camp. +At least in that room that I were held there were another 200 people, all were injured beaten by batons. you could hear people crying everywhere....the plaincloth guards came into room...beat whom they could. they did for half an hour...after that they put a flash light in our faces and say if you make a noise with put these batons in your asses....to prevent us dying of hunger, everyday they give us a bag of leftover food. +In this interview, a survivor explains how prisoners at Kahrizak were forced to lick water from the floor. +Ayathollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, has ordered the closure of Kahrizak. +MPs have said that 12 officers and judges were prosecuted over the Kahrizak incidents. +Beaten with a cable, no questions asked +Iran's torture houses have been in existence for 30 years, however, and Kharizak is not the only one. +Here is another testimony from an Iranian citizen arrested and tortured at Evin prison simply for having been near the site where a demonstration took place. +I had no sense of being part of a demonstration and was just walking normally in the street. +Still, I was nabbed and put into a car and left there until about 9 pm. +Everyone in the car was blindfolded the whole time, and then we were driven somewhere. +Three days later, I figured out that we had been driven to Motahari Street. +There we were randomly assigned to an interrogator. +My interrogation went on until 1 am, but I was not asked any questions. +I was beaten with a cable and with other things without being asked a single question. + +India: A wave of suicides among farmers · Global Voices +India is the world's second most populous country with a population of 1.2 billion people and 70% of its population lives in the villages. +Over 456 million Indians (42% of the population) fall below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day. +Although the the agricultural sector accounts for 28% of GDP, a significant portion of the population are involved in this sector either as farmers or in support services. +However an epidemic has hit the Indian farmers. +Increasingly farmers are resorting to extreme measures like taking their own lives en masse to bail out of pressures of indebtedness and poverty and this has been happening year after year. +Devinder Sharma, an India based food and trade policy analyst who blogs at Ground Reality, informs: +60 farmers have committed suicide in the month of July (2009). +By Aug 10, another 16 had taken their lives. +That such a deadly drama continues to be enacted in the farms despite a number of committees and relief measures speaks volumes about the criminal apathy that prevails among the urban elite and the policy makers. +The tragedy is that no one is keen to come to grips with the reasons that lead to this never ending saga of human suffering. +And why are these farmers committing suicide? +Freelance journalist Nita J. Kulkarni explains in her blog A Wide Angle View of India: +Farmers fell into debt because of a combination of high farming costs - exorbitantly priced hybrid (so-called high yielding) seeds and pesticides sold by multinationals and a lack of a good price for their produce, partly due to imports. +Drought added to their woes. +Irrigation was too expensive for these farmers and the state government didn’t help. +Indian blogger S Gupta slams the ineffectiveness of the government relief systems. +Sonia Faleiro, an award-winning journalist and writer from India explains how the cotton farmers in Vidarbha region of the Maharashtra state are stuck into this quicksand of debt without the help from the State. +One diseased crop or the misguided purchase of spurious seeds, for example, necessitates a loan. +Only five percent of farmers are eligible for loans from cooperatives and banks, usually because of a previous default. +The remainder are forced into the grip of private, often hostile moneylenders who extract approximately Rs 500 interest every four months on every Rs 1,000 borrowed. +The burden of debt becomes unbearable, tips over at any small provocation by nature, and farmers commit suicide. http://www.flickr.com/photos/chinogypsie/ / CC BY 2.0 +Vikas writes at Associación Prabhat, the blog of a non-profit organization registered in Spain and India to promote and support community developmental efforts in the forgotten parts of India. +He is outraged by the inaction of the government and lack of concern of others: +If government want to solve farmers problem then why not farmers received special package after drought or flood (more often in Bihar). +Why farmers in many part of country are denied even legal right to credit from commercial bank… Why no one is talking about malnutrition and hungers in many part of India (25% world poor and hungry lives in certain part of India) ? +Why there is no news of slow systematic massacre of farmers in many part of India? +I guess India is too busy in its economic progress and just want to live in dream that it’s getting closer to developed world (and 25% world poor living in India are non-existent). +Indian film maker, teacher, writer and blogger Harini Calamur shows how the media ignores the plights of the farmers resorting to suicide, by comparing it to the much coverage on celebrities: +On the day Shahrukh Khan got detained for two hours 21 farmers committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh because they couldn’t pay off their debt. +But, farmers committing suicide cannot be sponsored, it does not drive up TRP’s and it definitely is not conducive for off the cuff ranting by our esteemed ‘journalists’. +Himanshu Rai , an IT expert and blogger, also points out to the selectivity of Indians in highlighting problems: +The increasing disparities between rural and urban sector is creating big vacuum in the development model.The irony is that nobody bothers about the poor any more or need for a real change. +The urban class, which constitutes less than 5% of the population, that gets disproportionate coverage. +Job shredding at the airlines becomes bigger issue than the mass suicide of farmers in our country. +A recent report by the Navdanya Trust, an Indian campaign group, showed that "there were now more hungry people in India than in sub-Saharan Africa. +And its hungriest of people are its producers - the farmers". +The farmers are protesting. +But their only tool is suicide. +After four years of drought, 5,000 farmers in Indian state of Jharkhand have signed a suicide pact complaining that government is not taking any steps to improve their conditions. +Indian philosopher, environmental activist, eco feminist and writer Vandana Shiva blames it on the negative economy in the agricultural sector and globalization. +However, with an unemployment rate of more than 7% it is unlikely that the farmers will be able to switch profession to survive. +An award winning Indian development journalist P. Sainath at Counterpunch shows poverty and hunger are growing rapidly amongst the Indian farmers: +Millions of small and marginal Indian farmers are net purchasers of food grain. +They cannot produce enough to feed their families and have to work on the fields of others and elsewhere to meet the gap. +Having to buy some of the grain they need on the market, they are profoundly affected by hikes in food prices, as has happened since 1991, and particularly sharply earlier this year. +Hunger among those who produce food is a very real thing. +Add to this the fact that the “per capita net availability” of food grain has fallen dramatically among Indians since the “reforms” began: from 510 grams per Indian in 1991, to 422 grams by 2005. +(That’s not a drop of 88 grams. +It’s a fall of 88 multiplied by 365 and then by one billion Indians.) +As prof. +Utsa Patnaik, India’s top economist on agriculture, has been constantly pointing out, the average poor family has about 100 kg less today than it did just ten years ago. +The poor Indian farmers will continue to suffer if there are lack of proper groundwater management, as geologist Suvrata Kher explains. +The unavailability of easy credit facilities like micro-credit and lack of diversification of crops or other earning opportunities will add to their miseries. +They are stuck in the cycle of poverty and the natural disasters like droughts pull them into the abyss. +Economist and environmentalist Sanjeev Sanyal opines that India needs to radically rethink its agricultural sector to stop these deaths. The number one cause for suicide is untreated depression. + +Southeast Asia: Twitter reactions on Suu Kyi guilty verdict · Global Voices +Myanmar opposition leader and global democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years imprisonment for violating the terms of her detention. +Myanmar’s military ruler Snr Gen Than Shwe later commuted the sentence to 18 months of house arrest. +Myanmar authorities accused Suu Kyi of allowing American national John Yettawv to stay in her lakeside house last May which is a violation of the terms of her house arrest. +The American was sentenced to seven years of hard labour and imprisonment. +Both Suu Kyi and Yettawv are appealing the guilty verdict. +Suu Kyi’s conviction was condemned by world leaders, Burmese activists, and also bloggers. +Twitterers based in Southeast Asia also reacted to the “harsh” sentence: +Manila +Starshadow: i'm not sure how to feel over that US guy who was sentenced to hard labor for swimming over to Aung San Suu Kyi's house. :( +Starshadow: well, i'm sad that he was sentenced so harshly, but surely he must have had *some* idea that he could get caught and things would go bad? +mitzvf: His intntns my hve bn noble bt shld've consdrd d consqncs:(Still,7yrs hrd labr isn't fair nor is anthr 18mths 4 Aung San Suu Kyi +Dhalili: is Calling on everyone to give one minute of silence for the FREEDOM of Aung San Suu Kyi +propelahead: I consider Aung San Suu Kyi's conviction by the Burmese military junta a load of crap. +More like Grade-A monkey crap. +Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam +redoranda: I'm disgusted at first then sad and now i feel helpless ... we have been waited long enough .. the junta is f**king an outrage (Singapore) +warlockp: the military junta in Myanmar has nothing to do but harrass Aung San Suu Kyi. +Another kangaroo court has sentenced her to house arrest...(Indonesia) +emflip: This annoys me. +RT @BreakingNews: Reuters: Myanmar court says Suu Kyi guilty of violating security law. +Malaysia +da_mike: ASEAN... please please push pressure to Burmese gov to release Aung San Su Kyi. +santiw: I just read the news on Suu kyi. +I'm not for Junta, but I'm in a puzzle about "the will of international comunity", media sometimes refer. +FatCatDave: Free Aung San Suu Kyi! why does the west ignore the injustices to the Burmese... No massive oil reserves? +kasaganahan: We must sustain the public outcry and outrage over the junta's recent verdict of Aung San Suu Kyi. +Photo taken from Wikimedia Commons + +USA: Activism to Stop Human Trafficking · Global Voices +Human trafficking in the United States is an often undetected problem because the victims are usually hidden from the public view. +The victims are enslaved into illegal jobs often in the sweatshop labor or clandestine sex services. +Frequently the victims are minors brought into the United States by organized crime cartels. +The organization Stop Child Trafficking Now estimates that over 2.5 million children—most of them girls—are sold into the sex trade every year. +Victims can be as young as 4 or 5 years of age, who often are abducted from their homes never to be heard from again. +Human rights groups and individuals are working towards educating the local community about this issue as well as making efforts to combat human trafficking in the U.S. and helping victims caught up in the human trafficking networks. +Photo of solidarity protest in Los Angeles by aclu.socal and used under a Creative Commons license. +In her recent blog post titled "Who’s Stealing Little Black Girls?" blogger and human trafficking activist, Amanda Kloer, writes about the problem with child abduction within the African-American community in the United States: +Across America, about 800,000 children are reported missing each year, 33% of which are African-American. +In New York City last year, half of reported missing children were black and 60% were female. +And these aren't 17-and-a-half-year-olds; most of the girls were between 13 and 15. +Other urban areas like Atlanta, Washington DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles with large African-American populations also have high instances of young black girls being kidnapped or "running away". +But what's happening to these girls? +Surely they don't vanish into thin air? +They vanish, in fact, into pimps' pockets; these girls end up as trafficking victims in the commercial sex industry. +Some meet pimps on the street and are deceived or coerced into street prostitution. +Others are forced into strip clubs or filmed for pornography. +Still others are advertised on Craigslist, escort agency websites, and other corners of the Internet. +They are just as much human trafficking victims as the Vietnamese women enslaved in brothels in Thailand or the Guatemalan girl held in a home in El Paso. +The U.S. Department of State Ambassador Luis C deBaca who heads the blog from the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons writes about the dangers facing youth in the United States. +He recently conducted a training aimed at professionals who work with children, such as school teachers. +All who work with young people should be aware of the dangers that threaten their students. +Technology increasingly has become a trafficking tool, with internet fora used not just to exchange apartments or furniture, but to make prostitution assignations. +Offenders use chat rooms, message boards, and specialized websites to obtain information about where vulnerable young victims can be found. +The most vulnerable girls are those considered “throw-away” or runaway youth from dysfunctional families. +They are at risk of becoming prey to pimps who lure them with the promise of love and security, only to expose them to a world of cruelty and violence. +deBaca also mentions in his blog a list of international offices where one can report human trafficking abuses or suspected incidents of human trafficking to the designated global NGO and governmental partners. +To raise awareness, some individuals are taking action through the legislative process, such as documentary filmmaker Tara Hurley, who is heavily involved in the state of Rhode Island. +In her blog, she adds her opinion on what can be added to make laws much more effective: +I testified in favor for the bill. +I hope that Senator Perry’s bill is the one that gets the support with the full house and senate vote. +I think that the most important thing in the Trafficking bill is the training. +How do we expect the police to identify the victims if they have not been properly trained? +We need to set standards for how we will deal with the victims. +We need to deal with the victims as victims and not criminals. +She also disagrees with some media and how they do not use certain terms to describe the situation, and points to a recent story about a 16-year-old victim: +What I can’t understand is why do they (the media) never use the word human trafficking now? +For years they media has been hounding on how they need to change the prostitution law because of human trafficking in the Asian massage parlors. +Now when they actually find a human trafficking victim they don’t refer to her a human trafficking victim but as a runaway?!?! +In addition, there are many community and grassroots groups across the country such as previously mentioned Stop Child Trafficking Now that are utilizing citizen media to spread the word about efforts to raise awareness about the issue. +Organizers for the DC Stop Child Trafficking Now Walk say this will be the largest anti-human trafficking event in the city’s history. +The Austin-based Child Trafficking Now Walk is using Twitter to invite people to join their 5K walk. + +South Africa: Taxis Defiant of New Bus System for World Cup · Global Voices +The South African BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system was launched in Johannesburg, South Africa on the 31st of August. +The BRT system which is called "Rea Vaya" is being put in as part of the transportation plans for the FIFA 2010 World Cup. +However, the system is facing opposition from the taxi industry (mini buses). +Traditionally, taxis have largely met the demands for transport in South Africa. +The industry developed during Apartheid, and exists outside of the formal economy. +The taxi industry feels that the BRT threatens their business, and protests against the new system started many months ago. +In march of this year, several highways were closed down by drivers blocking the entire highway refusing to move. +More pics. +Reactions to the taxi rivalry +In this post we will cover some view points and reports by bloggers. +Road Safety Blog reports: +The taxi industry had tried an eleventh hour court application to the High Court in Pretoria on Friday to prevent the launch of the BRT, but the judge did not give them the go-ahead for an urgent interdict to stop the buses. Further: But taxi operators say government has developed BRT on routes taxis took decades to develop, threatening their livelihoods. +Ndebele said the national joint working group on the project would continue to talk with the taxi industry in efforts to draw up a memorandum of agreement. +“Everything we do in public transport must ultimately benefit the commuter,” he said. +Zapiro a South African political cartoonist who always manages to capture the essence of a situation, drew this: +Malocoda feels the BRT implementation is just another example of broken promises by government he writes: +We are seeing a few, not surprising, broken promises from the King Chameleon. +How about the Taxi drivers, they firmly believed they would be accommodated within BRT System. +Doesn’t seem too much chance of that now, does it? +Ruth at Believer writes about her experience using the BRT on the first day: +Trying to get to work this morning was a mission. +Think more than one hundred people trying to fit in a single decker bus, mission impossible. +So one had to settle with standing and sometimes hanging in between butts, while one passenger was trying to get through the door. +Gunfire and recklessness +The first few days of the launch of the bus system was marred by a drive-by shooting in which occupants of a taxi, shot and wounded two people who were riding a bus in Soweto. +Lefty writes about the incident: +Now I read in the news today (Link) that certain taxi drivers are not exactly satisfied with the new BRT system. +So dissatisfied indeed, that they have shot 2 people. +One of whom, if I understand correctly, was a cop. +Further, he writes: +But how can you justify shooting at folks in order to make an objection? I am 100% in favour of BRT, it's gonna benefit all of the people (except the taxi drivers, of course). And to Mr John Q Taxi Driver, you murdered a girl on her way to school earlier this year. +You mutilated a student. +You endanger my life every single day with your reckless driving and your blatant disregard for the law. +You sir, please take your Fritos and get the fuck off of my roads. +If you're looking for sympathy, you may find it in the dictionary between shit and syphilis. +Charles takes a look at some of the problems in the industry, he writes +Is it about taxi drivers losing their jobs or taxi bosses losing some revenue? +From my outside view of the industry, it does not look very healthy at all. +If we look at the physical conditions of many of these vehicles it seems safe to say that the maximum amount of profit is extracted from the industry without any serious concern for the safety of the cash cows. +If we look at the over-utilisation of capacity we can infer that the actual comfort of the passengers never really features in any decision process. +From my point of view this looks like gaps or otherwise known as opportunities, in the market +.... +Is it really acceptable for a certain group to claim ownership of an industry or a part of an industry to the exclusion of everybody else? +Where does this sense of entitlement come from? +Jeanius writes +They threaten to hold communities, industry and government at ransom. +Commuters have been waiting for the BRT system for many years and no role-player or stakeholder can claim ignorance of the plans to implement this system. +It has been 10 years or so now that commuters are waiting for the BRT and if the taxi industry is still unready, they will never be ready as long as their unreadiness would prevent the system’s implementation. +The main players of the taxi industry are street-wise and well informed with regard to legal processes. +If they truly believe that their rights are impinged upon they have both the money and other resources to access court to enforce their rights…but a can of worms of such magnitude will be opened up that most do not want to go this route. +They prefer intimidation. +The situation is entirely intolerable. + +Kazakhstan: Lenin. +More Alive Than the Living · Global Voices +Two similar messages have entered the Kazakh blogosphere from opposite ends of the country. +They both talk about the revival of one symbol of a bygone era: head-and-shoulders statues of Lenin. +What motivates people to turn to the image of the leader of the international proletariat? +Nostalgia, perhaps? +Tormozz witnessed an amazing scene unfold as he traveled across Kazakhstan, where he visited the city of Aralsk, specifically the gas station, and there… +"And there was Vladimir Ilyich, hanging in a noose! +It turned out that the owners of the gas station saw this bust lying around behind the local Culture Building. +They purchased it for some 1000 tenge and decided to install it in front of their business. +I happened to catch them as they were in the process of doing it. +The old lady then gently washed the holy scalp with hot water. +As we were leaving, I recommended that they get a sign saying, “The V.I. Lenin Memorial Red Flag Gas Station.” +The next day, on our way back, we passed by again. +A sculptor was already working on the bust, restoring the original shape of the nose. +As the title of his post pycm from Karaganda used the famous Soviet phrase, which one was supposed to utter with particular pride and reverence: “I have seen Lenin!” : +In the past, there used to be an administrative building behind the gray picket fence. +In the near future, a new car dealership will be opening here. +Entrepreneurs are attracting more local businesses. +Now the building has a café and a store. +Ilyich stands on a pedestal in the middle of a small fountain, surrounded by flowers. +Very amusing. +The owner of the building is named Volodya (diminutive of Vladimir). + +Morocco: Child Labor Under the Spotlight · Global Voices +Zineb Chtit in hospital A young girl is suffering in a hospital, bruised and beaten. +Sent to work as a domestic servant at the age of 10, Zineb Chtit knew no other life than the one she had, working for affluent employers who beat her and refused her food. +As A Moroccan About the World Around Him described her injuries in a recent post: +Zainab looked emaciated. +Her body was bruised and bleeding from beatings. +She was branded on her lips with a red-hot iron. +She was burned with boiling oil on her chest and private areas. +She was illiterate. +She never experienced the joy of playing with friends. +Her future was decided for her: trudge around the mill till the day she dies. +And a few days ago, she almost did. +Unfortunately, Zineb's story is far from unique. +Morocco has 177,000 child workers under 15 years of age, 66,000 of whom work as domestic servants. +And although Morocco is party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, its minimum working age remains at 12, with minimal restrictions in place. +Numerous reports as to the mistreatment of domestic servants have been made, such as this one by Tingis editor Anouar Majid. +And yet, driven by poverty, families continue to sell their daughters to the highest bidder, to work as servants, sometimes around the clock. +Blogger Sarah Alaoui tells of the plight of most young maids: +These poverty-stricken, uneducated women come from villages on the outskirts of Moroccan cities and have no choice but to provide for their families and children by taking jobs as maids for the country’s most ostentatious citizens. +The stigma of poverty they are branded with at birth is further emphasized by this symbolic occupation—maids are to be seen and not heard. +They work behind-the-scenes—similar to the house elves in J.K. Rowling’s famous wizarding series. +There are many families in Morocco who attempt to provide a home and not just a workplace for their maids. +My grandmother has always made sure her maids’ children received an education alongside her own children and grandchildren—during the time her mother worked in my grandmother’s house, Naima went to the same school as my cousin. +Unfortunately, it is safe to say that most people in the country do not provide the same earnest care to their maids. +A report in La Vie éco states that both the husband and wife who had employed Zineb will be charged with a crime, but as blogger Reda Chraibi suggests, more change must occur, and soon. +In a detailed post , the blogger offers a proposal to prevent families from sending their young girls to work. +A piece of the proposal: +I am reminded of a speech Mr. Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel gave at the White House in 1999 “The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees — not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. +And in denying their humanity, we betray our own.” + +Taiwan: The future for the aboriginal people after Typhoon Morakot · Global Voices +Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan Aug. 7-9, triggering the worst flooding in 50 years in southern Taiwan and leading to landslides that buried remote mountainous villages and tribal settlements. +In order to speed up the post-disaster reconstruction, the Legislative Yuan passed an urgent special statute to raise a special budget on 27 of August. +However, the Statue authorizes governments at all levels to impose compulsory relocation of villages or tribal settlements from areas vulnerable to floods and landslides to safer areas. +For aboriginal people, the geographical location and tribal community are crucial to the preservation of their culture and tradition, many are worried that the "compulsory relocation policy" would make their more vulnerable in the future. +Home buried in mud +imagelight visited Mashia village and reported, + +Japan: Worries about spread of HIV and AIDS · Global Voices +By Flickr id: alephnaught. +There are some alarming statistics about the spread of HIV and AIDS in Japan. +While the rest of the developed world UNAIDS reported that the cases of infection are decreasing, Japan seems to be the only such country where the number of HIV positives and AIDS infected people is growing. +According to the AIDS Trend Committee, 2008 was the year with the highest number of new cases recorded: 432 people were diagnosed with AIDS and 1113 as HIV positive. +So far the statistics for 2009 are no more reassuring: for in June, 249 people were diagnosed HIV+ and 124 with AIDS. +Patients are mostly male, homosexual and in their 20s and 30s. +Among the causes is often cited the lack of information and need for a campaign to raise awareness of the problem, especially in the gay community. +While organizations such as WADS , JFAP and others seek to raise the level of public awareness especially among the young and young adults to the matter, government policies have not proved to be very effective so far. +With the recent general election and the new elected DPJ, there is hope that policies on HIV/AIDS issue will be considered more seriously though none of the competing parties addressed the problem in their manifestos. +An anonymous comment on the AIDS & Society Association's blog highlights this point. + +Lebanon: Lebanese Bloggers React to Israeli film "Lebanon" · Global Voices +Lebanese bloggers have offered a mixed reception to another Israeli film about the Jewish state's 1982 invasion of its northern neighbour. +Conspicuously titled "Lebanon", the autobiographical film is set entirely in a tank as it recounts the Israeli military's involvement in the conflict. +"Lebanon" is the second Israeli autobiographical film depicting Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers in action in the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), only a year after the Israeli animation Waltz with Bashir was released. +Both films have attempted to highlight - in the most gory and confronting fashion - the brutality and devastation of modern war. +Due to the political sensitivity in Lebanon surrounding events of the civil war, the latest film was always going to arouse controversy and interest among the Lebanese. +The film has received international acclaim after winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, but what do Lebanese think about it and its world fame? +Asad Abu Khalil of the Angry Arab News Service, who has yet to see the film, poured cold water on the film's success in Venice with the following comment on his blog: +""I dedicate this work to people all over the world that come back from the war safe and sound," the director told the audience at the award ceremony. +"They work, get married, have children, but the memories get stuck in their souls."" +So this Zionist clown dedicates this movie to the warriors (I will review it once I get my unpurchased copy) and not to the victims of the terrorist Israeli warriors. +Some Lebanese on Twitter also criticised the film for attempting to humanise Israeli soldiers and refusing to incorporate the stories of those who suffered under Israel's invasion of Lebanon ... the Lebanese people. +Some of the critical tweets from Lebanon are as follows: +justimage Another killer makes film to alleviate his guilt. +Tell stories of those you terrorized, then I'll watch. +MXML Great, yet another Israeli film about #Lebanon that only humanizes Israeli soldiers and not Lebanese/Palestinian victims. abdallahdeeb and the "#Lebanon" movie is made in #Israel. +How weird is that? +RamsayShort oh my god the gall of this new Israel film 'Lebanon' - if it was Hizbullah with guns defending against the Israelis would it be so acclaimed? +Interesting how the Israelis appropriate even 'Lebanon' the name in the new Venice film. +Sad too how awards are given for films about the poor +Israeli soldiers who did so much damage in '82. +Let's care about what they did in South Lebanon & Beirut when they came.. +The Lebanese won't forget the Israeli soldiers +A Lebanese Facebook group on the film has, however, offered a contrasting view. +Supporters of Israel's former allies in the Lebanese Civil War, the far-right Phalangists, have launched a Facebook group in reaction to the film, calling on a film to be made about Syria's involvement in the war as well. +Comments on the group's page - "We Want a Movie about Syria's WAR on Lebanon" - also criticise Israeli filmmakers for portraying the Phalangist militia as the villains while sanitising the IDF's actions and ignoring the atrocities committed against their own communities: +Jeff Merheb (Lebanon) wrote +Israelis have done a movie about the Sabra and Chatila massacre accusing the Lebanese (Phalangists),we need a movie on DAMOUR massacre too to show the world that WE were the victims too Jeff Merheb (Lebanon) wrote They (Syria) burned and destroyed Lebanon during the 1975-1990 war, they killed thousands of innocent and civil children with their bombed cars, they killed hundred of thousands of Lebanese with their bombs, they divided Lebanese even inside the same community to better rule them, they kidnapped thousands of Lebanese during war and during their occupation, they stole billions of $$ from Lebanese state for 15 years, they brought thousands of terrorists in Lebanon in case they want to blow up the country, they gave full credits and unlimited weapons to Hezbollah, they killed with cold blood every politician that could resist them from Kamal Joumblatt and Bachir Gemayel till Rafik Hariri and 14 March politicians passing by Dany Chamoun, they are using a group of destroyers (Opposition politicians) who have as only target the destruction of the Lebanese state and the return of the moukhabarat (Syrian intelligence) rules... And there are still Lebanese people who support them "mikeye" on other Lebanese...this is very sad +Any film on the Lebanese Civil War was always going to elicit such diverse opinions from a highly polarised Lebanese society. +"Lebanon" has not only rekindled painful memories of the war, but forced many Lebanese to relive the horror and emotions they previously experienced. +While many may disagree on the motives, intentions and focus of the Israeli-made film, it certainly has people talking. + +Malaysia: McDonald’s vs McCurry · Global Voices +Malaysia’s Federal Court has ruled that McDonald’s trademark name was not violated by McCurry, a local Indian restaurant which is popular in Kuala Lumpur. +McCurry, which opened in 1999, was sued by McDonald's in 2001. +According to the owners of McCurry, the "Mc" prefix in the restaurant’s name stands for Malaysian Chicken Curry. +Here are some reactions of bloggers to the historic court ruling: +As Suanie Sees It believes that some Davids in David vs Goliath fights are merely opportunists: +I'm like any other David, I love a good triumph over Goliaths. But sometimes I feel that certain Davids are merely opportunists, and when confronted they would argue that the Goliaths are major international corporations and have endless money, hence could afford to bully them. +Of course there are many Goliaths who do that and should be stumped, but in some cases the Davids are no better. +When it comes to McDonald’s vs McCurry, I feel that this is one of them +Commenting on a post, Melissa believes that many people know that McCurry is different from McDonald’s: +Of course they were totally riding on McDonalds’ wave, but considering the food they serve is completely different and I’m sure a lot of people know how different they both are and don’t associate them with each other, I guess I don’t see a problem with it +Eyeris wonders why McDonald’s did not sue another local “Mc” restaurant: +There’s another restaurant in Jelatek called McKandar… but just because it’s not as popular as McCurry, I suppose McD’s didn’t bother suing them. +So does this mean McD’s only sues companies with the ‘Mc’ if they are doing well, perhaps better than any nearby McD outlets? +Hmmm +Anonymous X advises McCurry to open outlets in the US and UK +"McCurry" should really consider expanding its business to US & UK. +Many love to read such a heart-warming story about how a giant multinational company is utterly embarrassed by being so picky against a local enterprise who just wants to use the prefix "Mc". +It's just a prefix, for goodness' sake! +Carl Parkes fears McCurry-like restaurants will open in other Asian countries +Silly stuff, but if McDonalds doesn't defend it's franchise around the world, we might see McSatays in Bali, McAdobo in Manila, and McSomTam in Bangkok. +The Bluesman asks if other local restaurants will be inspired by McCurry’s victory +Will there be other outlets wanting to use the prefix 'Mc' now that the prefix appears to be no more a monopoly by the McDonald's. +My favourite siamese restaurant Mek Habsah TomYam maybe wanting to change their name to McHabsah TomYam to lend themselves with some international credence or something. +Or maybe we can now have other 'Mc' related names in our other local food chains say like McNasiLemak, McSatay, McRotiCanai, McFriedKwayTiau, McChickenRice, and so the challenge to McDonald's seems endless. +The blogger writes that consumers will decide if McCurry clones will survive the market +But business is still business, which means that finally it's the people like us, the customers, who will decide as to whether or not any business concern will continue to exist in the market place. +My Journal theorizes on why McDonald’s was persistent in its suit versus McCurry +I think, McDonald insist on pursuing this matter because they also one day would roll out their new product called McCurry. +Since they also lost the battle, they have to give their dish another name, may be "McDonald Curry". +After learning about the court ruling, Malaysian Life exclaims +Wow, I don't believe it but it's true. +I guess it is possible to beat an international company in a lawsuit. +Twitter reactions from Malaysia: +dannyfoo: Did McDonalds realize their suit just gives McCurry free publicity and bigger awareness? +hasyudeen: When it comes to defending your rights, do not lose hope! +obel1: the new international foodie destination: McCurry +IamMalaysian: OKAY. +So, McDonald's loses legal battle with Malaysia's McCurry. +But who the hell cares?! +Enuf already! +davinarul: McD might sue McCurry again if they sell wild boar, 'cos Kaattu Pandi sounds too much like Quarter Pounder +davinarul: Does this open the door for McCurry to offer Egg McThosai, Sardine McChanai (with cheese), Moru shake and Tairu Twist? +altimet: I'm going there for some damn McCurry, damn it! +ZhiQ: nasty clown! now way any sane Malaysian can get confuse with McCurry, thinkin it's McD. me McDontKnow lah. lol! + +China: School girl wants to be "corrupt official" · Global Voices +On the first day of China’s school term (1 September), Guangzhou’s Southern Metropolitan Daily interviewed some primary one kids about their life-goals. +One of them told the journalist that her dream was to “become an official”. +When the journalist asked what kind of official she wanted to be, she replied that she wanted to “become a corrupt official. +Corrupt officials have a lot of good stuff.” +The video is now in the youtube, the face of the girl has been blurred: +This reply made its rounds on Chinese media and blogs. +Some think that it is just a random comment by a child, but many hold the view that it is a reflection of the society’s reality. +A forum in ifeng shows some typical comments: + +World: Tweeting Gaddafi's Address to the United Nations · Global Voices +In his first address to the United Nations General Assembly, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi more than made up for lost time. +His speech trailed on for six times the allotted slot, as world leaders laughed and yawned. +Speaking at the United Nations headquarters in New York, the self-proclaimed King of Kings, who has ruled Libya for almost 40 years, spoke for around 100 minutes. +Topics he covered ranged from criticising the UN structure to providing his take on the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan to discussing swine flu to hoping that US President Barack Obama would remain president forever... to calling for an investigation into the assassination of JFK. +Gaddafi, whose travels abroad attract a lot of media coverage because of his eccentric mannerism and his insistence to live in a tent, made a wave on Twitter. +In New York, he pitched his tent on property which belongs to real estate tycoon Donald Trump - a plan which was aborted after neighbours complained. +Reactions to this address ranged from calling the Libyan strongman a 'fruitcake' to sympathising with his stance on a number of international issues. +Many Twitter users gave Gaddafi high points for entertainment. +He quips: + +As Muslims in the United States celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the celebration which marks the end of Ramadan, a pernicious chain e-mail is making its rounds. +The e-mail falsely claims that President Obama has issued a new postage stamp commemorating the two Eid celebrations and urges readers to boycott it, naming several terrorist attacks on the U.S. over the past twenty years. +The full text of the e-mail can be seen in this post by Missives from Marx, who expresses frustration at the letter, saying: +I received the following email forward today from a family member. +It is because of stuff like this that I’m going to have to spend four weeks of my Western Religions course deconstructing Muslim stereotypes. +This is why critical thinking has to be an essential component of all my courses. +As it turns out, there's nothing new about the letter, or the stamp. +About.com explains that the letter has been around since at least 2002, while the stamp itself was issued on September 1, 2001. +Aziz Poonwalla, on the BeliefNet blog City of Brass, explains the history of the e-mail: +Versions of the email, which has been making the rounds for years, have been repeatedly debunked before, but it still persists. +I've blogged extensively about the history of the Eid stamp, the controversy that accompanied it when it was introduced (mostly from conservative Republicans), and the defense of the stamp by President Bush and Speaker Hastert. +In a nutshell, the stamp was introduced on September 1st 2001, ten days before the 9-11 attacks, during the Bush Administration. +Mayor Piper joins a long list of conservative politicians who have no objection to stamps commemorating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, even teh Chinese New year - but a stamp devoted to the muslim holiday of Eid is singled out as a threat, requiring response from "patriotic" Americans? +A post on the Clarksville Online, a blog for the town of Clarksville, Tennessee, explains why the e-mail has made major headlines this year: +Clarksville Tennessee’s Mayor, Johnny Piper has sent an inflammatory anti-Islamic email to employees of the city, encouraging them to boycott a stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service... ...Mayor Piper has since attempted to defend his actions, but they are simply indefensible. +Muslims are a integral part of this country. +They serve honorably in our armed forces, defending our nation, and our freedoms. +No one should be treated like a second class citizens based on their religious beliefs, or the actions of a radical fringe. +This incident created by our Mayor has been an embarrassment for our City, our State, and our Country. +Sheila Musaji has been tracking chain e-mails about the stamp for The American Muslim (TAM) since 2005, and in an update, remarks on Mayor Piper's abhorrent actions: +I’m certain the good mayor was just as surprised about President Obama’s White House Iftar. +And, of course the final recourse of all bigots: “I have some good Muslim friends,” he immediately added.” +Perhaps those good Muslim friends might enlighten him as to why THIS (PDF) is offensive. + +Bhutan: Climate Change And Religion · Global Voices +"For Bhutanese, there is an even stronger reason to believe in climate change. +Our own religion, Buddhism prophecies climate change," comments YesheyP at Kuzu Bhutan Weblog. + +Arab World: Artificial Virginity Made in China · Global Voices +Moroccan blogger Mounir writes on Des maux à dire about artificial hymens, made in China, apparently much appreciated by a growing base of Arab customers. +"In the Arab region, Syrians have seen this revolutionary 'product' invade the black market. +In Egypt, investors are seriously considering its introduction," alleges the blogger. + +Omani Bloggers Take the Streets To Combat Swine Flu · Global Voices +Omani bloggers have started their Swine Flu Awareness Campaign yesterday by going through Souq Matrah to spread the message and educate people. +The campaign which was originally initiated by Hamed Al Ghaithi, and then was taken to its next step by the cooperative effort of Bader Al Hinai, Ammar Al Mamari, Waleed Al Nabhani, Hashr Al Manthari, and Muawiyah Al Rawahi. +These bloggers distributed sanitizers to restaurants and coffee shops and guided their staff on the proper method of cleaning the tables after the customers. +The restaurants and coffee shops were very receptive of the advice and seemed to take it seriously, probably as some of them thought the bloggers were an official delegation from the Ministry of Health. +The bloggers then moved to taxi drivers to inform them about the benefits of using alcohol hand sanitizers and face masks for reducing the risk of infection. +The majority of the taxi drivers had no idea what the sanitizers were and thought that these are liquid soup that required using water to wash it off. +The final state of the program was walking around the souq to inform visitors about the benefits of using alcohol hand sanitizers. +Blogger Muawiyah wrote a detailed post with pictures on how the event went and the varied reactions they received from the visitors of the souq. +Another event in the campaign against the Swine Flu is supposedly scheduled during the Eid break, but no specific details about the event can be found online yet. + +Philippines: Flooding documented on citizen videos · Global Voices +Picture from Twitpic user reahguevarra +Several parts of Metro Manila and nearby provinces are still flooded today even if Tropical Storm ‘Ondoy’ (International name: Ketsana) has already left the country. +Almost 200 were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced when the storm hit the country’s capital last Saturday. +The heavy rainfall triggered the worst flooding in the country in recent memory. +The storm even dumped more rains than Hurricane Katrina: RT @wizkitabet: FACT: Hurricane Katrina rainfall =380mm in Louisiana. +Below is a video by Youtube user didipusrex My mother was able to take a video clip of the floodwaters of Typhoon Ondoy before the water surge forced them to flee to the second floor. +They were trapped in chest deep water on the second floor until the waters subsided the next morning. +This video shows a passenger who was trapped in a car while a strong floodwater was rampaging outside a Manila hospital +Marikina City, located east of Manila, was heavily devastated by the floods +Pedestrians and even motorists in Paranaque City, south of Manila, use styrofoam to cross a flooded street +Cars are swept away by strong flood currents +Bulacan province, north of Manila, was also severely affected by the storm +Techpinas praises a radio station for devoting its program to update listeners about the storm. +Many of its listeners were flood victims who relied on their cell phone radio for relief updates: +In the midst of uncertainty and suffering brought about by Ondoy and the lack of electricity in most parts of Mega Manila, DJ Gang, DJ Lambert and DJ Steph selflessly gave their time and effort into making sure that cellphone owners - especially those stuck in disaster stricken areas, whose only access to news was their dying cellphones' FM radio app - were kept updated on the status of relief operations and were somehow kept alive by Jam 88.3's display of resilient and pro-active hope. +They practically turned the usually indifferent FM radio scene into a venue for disaster relief info dissemination and volunteer coordination. +Texting was used to advise flood victims on how to survive +What was truly heartening is the public's involvement in Jam's efforts. +There were those who called the station to give updates on the traffic situation across the metro. +Doctors texted to give tips to those staying on the roofs of their flood-engulfed houses on how to avoid hypothermia, while a former red cross volunteer shared the procedure on how to prepare an oral rehydration solution +Photo by Celina Ann Natanauan Chan +Twitter is a reliable source of news about the disaster and to monitor rescue efforts. +Through Twitter, netizens are able to report the flood situation in remote areas +ageofbrillig: RT: one of our staff went to Payatas yesterday. +Dami na daw corpse. +No media attention there. +And not much aid. +Cocoy: RT @mlq3 @jeyaiy All I know is the situation in Candaba. +The whole town is under water, except for the Church. +Cannot leave town proper.. jovefrancisco: For most of Saturday, I thought my community was the hardest hit. +That was until I saw the images on TV +Tweets advise relief team and police forces on where to deliver the goods +alexderossi: RT @momma_erin REPOST: Rosario Pasig & Cavite area have NOT received any relief goods. +If you can, pls do something about it! - salamat po!! +RT @kitel_anne Policemen needed in Provident Village Marikina. +Der r robbers all over the place trying to break inside the houses. +Tweets remind the public about the status of relief efforts +ANDREWdecastro: How are the flood victims supposed to cook those instant noodles? +Or open those cans? +I'm just saying +philredcross: We are overwhelmed for the support of the youth on our Relief Operation. +Interested volunteers may visit PNRC NHQ (near Anda Circle cocoy: RT @dementia: Oh yeah, please donate ready-to-eat food and water. +Victims have no means of cooking noodle +This tweet by a Senator of the Republic shows that the flooding affected both the rich and poor: + +Puerto Rico: Debate on Censorship · Global Voices +Anti-censorship poster posted at Flickr by Andréia +The Department of Education of the government of Puerto Rico recently eliminated five books from the eleventh grade curriculum of the public school system: Antología personal, by José Luis González; El entierro de Cortijo, by Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá; Mejor te lo cuento: antología personal, by Juan Antonio Ramos; Reunión de espejos, an anthology of essays edited by José Luis Vega (all Puerto Rican authors); and Aura, by Carlos Fuentes from Mexico. +The public agency justified its action by saying that the books "contain unacceptable language and vocabulary, which is extremely coarse and vulgar." +The governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño, supported the decision: "I think I have been very clear, and that all of the mothers and fathers out there understand perfectly that the books that an 18-year-old can read should not be read by a 12-year-old." +Numerous writers and artists in Puerto Rico publicly voiced their concerns and described the government's action as censorship. +The Federation of Teachers also condemned the decision and stated that it "reflects ignorance about the social reality that our students live in, and a backward-looking vision of modern literature as part of the academic curriculum." +After such public pressure, the Department of Education said they had only permanently eliminated one book, but were still evaluating the rest. +Bloggers have also been commenting intensely.The writer Mayra Santos Febres says in Lugarmanigua : + +Iran: Animations vs. Dictatorship · Global Voices +Many designs, posters, songs and video films have been created by Iranians and non-Iranians worldwide in support of Iran's "green" protest movement against the June 12 presidential election results. +Animators too, have declared war on the dictatorship in Iran. +Green People is an animation inspired by Gandhi +Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 election debate +Baha'i human rights + +Guinea: Outrage, Grief After Brutal Massacre · Global Voices +Still under tight police surveillance, Guinea ended several days of official mourning today for those killed in the sudden and shocking massacre of opposition protesters on Monday. +An estimated 157 (probably many more) unarmed demonstrators were shot down, knifed or clubbed to death by army soldiers in and around the "28 September Stadium", where the opposition forces coalition, "Forces vives," had called for a demonstration against military head of state Dadis Camara and his intention to run for president during the January 2010 election. +Tragically, this stadium is named after the date Guinea celebrated its independence from France, on September 28, 1958. +It is now set to become Conakry's second landmark of torture and mass murder, after the infamous Camp Boiro. +Footage of Guinean soldiers shooting demonstrators in Conakry on Monday (ANSA, on YouTube) +On the very same day, Guinean blogger Konngol Afirik wrote with cold rage , from Europe : +Guinea is naturally quite wealthy. +It's not easy to just force down a regime through external pressure. +The Conte regime survived years of the suspension of European aid without ever caving in to the EU's demands for political reform. +Uproar in Germany +Meanwhile, Guinea's plight has raised another controversy. +When it became known in Germany, where Dadis Camara received military training, that he spoke German and always sported the German paratrooper badge on his red army beret, the German department of defence stated that training for foreign officers in Germany was promoted by the German government in order to further democracy abroad and that "Berlin was not to blame if the officers embarked on a different course when they returned home." +Outrage erupted over ten pages of comments on newsites Die Welt : + +Dominican Republic: Constitution Bans Abortion in All Cases · Global Voices +After an intense debate, in which doctors, sociologists, representatives of the Catholic Church, international health organizations, and politicians participated, legislators from the Dominican Republic ratified an article within the Constitutional Reform that makes it illegal for a woman to terminate her pregnancy under any circumstance. +This decision, in which many say the influence of the Catholic Church and the proximity of upcoming Congressional elections played a large role, places the Dominican Republic among a small group of countries that Constitutionally prohibits abortion, including in health-related cases where the pregnancy places the fetus or the mother at risk. +Females who have been victims of incest or rape also are banned from obtaining an abortion. +Abortion opposition banner outside the Cathedral in Santo Domingo by Duarte 101 and used with permission. +The article in question, currently known as Article 30, states: "the right to life is inviolable from conception until death. +The death penalty cannot be established, decided, or applied in any case." +Since its preliminary approval in April, protests have been constant . +Sociologist Rosario Espinal writes that women will now be deprived of a healthy and dignified life , adding that the doctors who performed illegal abortions will charge more money because of the higher risks. +Many believe that there will be an increase in clandestine abortions as a result of this decision, as well as higher rates of maternal mortality. +However, the way that the Article was approved is also a subject for many bloggers. +Luis José López of Ahí e' que Prende highlights that the Article 30 has been the most controversial Article debated in this Constitutional Reform, and notes that even the human rights organization Amnesty International has come out against the decision . +According to López, the definition of a person's life merits a profound and sincere debate in which all interests are represented, and that is something that did not take place in the Dominican Republic: + +Honduras: Citizen Videos from a Country Under Curfew · Global Voices +Three months after Honduran President Mel Zelaya was ousted in a coup that some Hondurans claim was justified and others insist was illegal, he returned to Honduras on September 21 seeking refuge in the Brazilian Embassy in the capital city, Tegucigalpa. +Zelaya's return has led to an escalation of the political tension and division in the streets of Honduras, leaving citizens frightened, and lacking food as a compulsory nationwide curfew was imposed by Roberto Micheletti's interim government +In cities across the country, Zelaya supporters ignored the curfews and staged protests, in spite of the warnings of the interim government and police. +As a result, police and Zelaya supporters clashed and there have been reports of casualties, as well as approximately 100 arrests . +The curfew was temporarily halted between the hours of 10 am and 4 pm on September 23 and allowed Hondurans to replenish supplies. +Aaron Ortiz of Pensieve writes: +Most people were at work when Zelaya announced his return and were unable to prepare for a days-long curfew. +Expect incredibly long lines, “venta loca” (mad sales) at the markets and bare counters at supermarkets everywhere, as millions of Hondurans rush to stockpile on food, candles, diesel, and other goods + +Israel: Prayers and Practices for Day of Atonement · Global Voices +This year, Yom Kippur was celebrated by Jews around the world on September 28th. +As the holiest day of the Jewish calendar approached, Israeli bloggers took to the internet to share their thoughts, feelings, and hopes for the new year. +Non-Jewish readers will note that Rosh HaShana is the Jewish New Year, while Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement: a fast day 10 days after Rosh HaShana. +Rock of the Galilee writes about the special time of year between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur. +This has been a crazy busy week between rosh hashana and yom kippur, I did two selichos tours, one in Tsfat with the boys… and then to Jerusalem the next evening with the girls. +We also built our sukkah, which we got from our friends... +Today started at 4:30AM. +That's not as early as it sounds because we changed our clocks last night, so it only felt like 5:30AM… Last night I had decided that I was going to go down to the nachal (stream) for an early dip in the mikvah (ritual bath). +Religious Jews, both men and women, traditionally purify themselves in the mikveh prior to the holy days. +At the Ingathered blog, Leah writes that there are two motivations for asking for forgiveness from G-D: fear of retribution and love of the divine. +She explains that: +Though both types of teshuva are accepted, the first voids the sin and clears the scoreboard, while the second places the repentant at an advantage by turning his sins into virtues. +Over at Aliyah! +Step by Step, Yael muses over the more practical aspects of preparing for the holiday: +Every year I am taken by surprised at this stockpiling mentality. +It is like people are getting ready to descend into bunkers for the next 6 weeks or something rather than the stores simply being closed for 24 hours. +The woman ahead of me kept sending her reluctant kids off to collect additional items, “Dudi, go back and get 4 more yogurts.” +On Yom Kippur, A Soldier’s Mother asks readers to remember the soldiers who protect the nation, referencing—as many Israeli bloggers did—the renewed threat of a nuclear Iran, following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week. +Our sons and daughters guard our borders, protected by a God who has promised us this land again and again. +A God who has seen us brought home after more than 2,000 years to a land that was always ours, and always will be. +The greatness of that covenant makes a mockery of Ahmadinejad and Iran. +They are nothing, their missiles a joke compared to the Might of Israel. +(Click here for the full text of Ahmadinejad’s address to the United Nations on September 24th, 2009.) +At South Jerusalem, Gershom Gorenberg contemplates the ways in which Jewish ritual is shaped based on its relationships with the Diaspora communities from whence they were influences. +In subtle, indirect ways, it seems, our sense of divine mercy is shaped in part by the amount of human warmth we’ve met. +He writes that on a trip to Bangkok during Yom Kippur, he and his wife were able to visit a synagogue of Mizrachi Jews—Jews who come from Arab communities in the Middle East—and was taken aback at the different way in which they prayed, compared to Jews from European communities. +He remembers: +We were used to the mournful melodies of Ashkenazim on the edge of bursting into tears. +In Bangkok, standing before heavily judgment, the Jews rocked. +“Hatanu lefanekha, rahem aleinu” – “We have sinned before you, have mercy on us,” they belted out, as if no thought could be happier. Jameel at the Muqata enacts the ritual of asking for forgiveness by doing so of his blog readers: +- if I forgot to link to your blog/add you to my blogroll - if I neglected to write a post about something requested. +- if I wrote anything factually incorrect on the blog over this past year. +I have tried extremely hard to only post factual updates, complete with sources and hyperlinks and have tried to correct any story or post that I found to be inaccurate. +At eJewishPhilanthropy, Gail Hyman shares a related list (excerpted): +I wonder how many of these transgressions of communications we all share. +- Failure to get all the facts right. +- Failure to actively listen as an essential part of communicating. +- Failure to be open to hearing others’ opinions and points of view. +- Failure to recognize that there are many – not one – valid perspectives on a subject. +- Failure to speak out on matters that require your voice. +- Failure to communicate more often with those who need and deserve your attention. +Returning to the Muqata, Jameel also shares an interesting way that his community is commemorating Yom Kippur: +Our settlement is participating yet again in the "Biyachad" (Together) community prayer service, in which secular and religious Jews come together in prayer on Yom Kippur. +It takes place in a local school, not in an official synagogue — yet in neutral ground so that no one feels "out of place." +A community praying together, with ALL sectors represented is truly special. +On this day of solemn holiness, the Jewish people put aside their difference, politics, and quibbles — and beseech G-d's forgiveness. +Over at Jerusalem Diaries and Jewlicious, bloggers Judy Lash Balint and Rabbi Yonah write about the ritual practice of kapparot. +Kapparot entails a chicken (or other symbolic object) being swung around the head three times. +Practitioners believe that the sin is transferred to the object and then, in the process of swinging, released from both the person and the object. +In her post, “Approaching the Big Day,” Lash Balint takes us through the steps of preparing for the holy days, starting with kapparot: +In a parking lot near Jerusalem's Machane Yehuda market, dozens of live chickens are whirled above the heads of men, women and children while a pronouncement is made declaring: "This is my substitute, my vicarious offering, my atonement: This chicken will meet its fate while I will proceed to a good, long life of peace.” …The chickens are then donated to the needy or redeemed with money that goes to the poor. +She continues: +In the streets later in the day, men hurry along with towels to the nearest mikveh (ritual bath). +Many have already started building their sukkot (booths) in readiness for Sukkot, the one-week festival that starts the week after Yom Kippur. +Sukkot structures of all kinds have sprung up on balconies, street corners and in front of cafes. +The final decorations and theschach covering will be added right after the conclusion of Yom Kippur. +Lash Balint adds that newspapers predict that an estimated 71% of Israel Jews between 18 and 35 years old will fast this year on Yom Kippur. +At Jewlicious, Rabbi Yonah asks readers what object they are using for kapparot this year. +Here were his results: +- Money (40%) +- Chicken (25%) +- Not doing Kaparos (25%) +- Vegetable (10%) +- Fish (0%) +Chaviva of Kvetching Editor reflects about her search for G-D among the prayers and practice. +In a post entitled, “When I Call, Will You Answer?” she recalls her feelings about religion as she was struggling for answers at this time last year. +The one thing I always detested about "religion" was that it lacked rhyme or reason. +Things were done because "that's just what we do." +You go to church on Sunday because that's what a good Christian does. +You daven three times a day, because that's what a good Jew does… The WHY gets lost in translation. +That's also what drew me so much to Judaism.... +It is enlightening and brilliant the amount of discussion and argument that goes into Jewish thought. +On a far more mundane note, Dion Nissenbaum of Checkpoint Jerusalem provides readers with a rabbinic rundown of whether or not Jews should wear Crocs on Yom Kippur. +After reviewing the various opinions, the conclusion seems to be: +An ultra-Orthodox rabbi has determined that the ugly plastic clog doesn't provide the appropriate level of suffering for the Jewish holy day of atonement. +Jews are forbidden from wearing leather on this day, making Crocs, which are constructed of plastic, a popular alternative. +Steve of Israel Seen leaves us with a blessing of his own: +Bless all of you Jews and Non Jews a like in the celebration of life knowing full well that there are people all over the world that still suffer from oppression, poverty and lack of opportunity. +Until all of us are free there will always be a piece of us that is a bit torn in the pain of the suffering. +Finally, Jewish blogger Ima On (and Off) the Bima, writing in an entry entitled, “I Hope You Don’t Have an Easy Fast,” leaves us with this fervent wish: +I don't want my fast to be easy.I want my fast to be purposeful. +I want my fast to be meaningful. +I want my fast to remind me that people are starving in the world. +I want my fast to remind me that my spiritual self has work to do. +I want to feel the light-headedness that comes at the end of the day when I've been on my feet for almost 12 hours leading services and I want that moment to lift me up and help me feel a true connection to God. +So this year I'm not wishing anyone an easy fast. +May your fast be full of all that you need it to be. +May your fast be powerful and purposeful and meaningful. + +ICTs and the spread of indigenous knowledge · Global Voices +At first glance, the relationship between indigenous knowledge and the Internet seems fraught. +Indigenous knowledge provides a distinct set of beliefs, practices and representations avidly tied to place; the internet lauds itself for erasing boundaries and borders. +On one hand, the traditions encapsulated in indigenous knowledge are culturally unique, using local understanding to solve local problems. +This makes it an important component in the fields of ecology, education, agriculture and health security. On the other hand, the internet is lauded for spreading information to help people, but it is also a bazaar, tilted towards large corporations and the economies of scale: Amazon.com, Google, Microsoft, PayPal. +Indigenous knowledge has certain spiritual and ceremonial components; the internet is largely agnostic, and makes a good deal of money peddling pornography. +For all their perceived differences, the indigenous knowledge and global knowledge systems have become much closer in the past decade. +Indigenous knowledge practitioners have begun leveraging different media to exchange ideas and publicize traditional learning to the larger world. +A researcher in Ethiopia argues Internet and Communication Technologies, called ICTs, can be used as cheap methods to capture, store and disseminate various forms of indigenous knowledge for future generations. +ICTs also increase access to indigenous knowledge systems, especially to schools, where this learning can be incorporated into classrooms. +Moving into education systems +As stated above, ICTs provide a perfect example for integrating indigenous knowledge into both formal and informal education systems. +Technology could facilitate disseminating ideas about local cultures to students and provide schools the possibility to teach some curriculum in a local language. +Before we get into specific examples, let’s follow this debate with two bloggers on the importance of making students aware of different knowledge systems. +For one, does increasing access to traditional knowledge give it more credibility in the eyes' of students? +Perhaps. +George Sefa Dei, at The Freire Project blog, argues that in both development and education issues, scholars and practitioners need to find a balance between tradition and modernity. +Students have often queried why and how is it that certain knowledges count more so than other ways of knowing. +There is a realization on the part of learners that knowledge is operationalized differently given local histories, environments and contexts. +Unfortunately, the processes of validating knowledges fail to take into account this multiplicity of knowings that can together comprehensive speak to the diversity of the histories of ideas and events that have shaped and continue to shape human growth and development. +In questioning the hierarchy of knowledges learners also allude to the problematic position of neutral, apolitical knowledge. +It is important then in our teaching of Africa we lay bare and grasp the processes through which for example, Western science knowledge positions itself as neutral, universal and non-hegemonic ways of knowing, and furthermore seeks to invalidate and devalue other ways of knowing. +This sounds good in theory. +How well does it work in practice? +Passionate Pedagogue, in a comment to the above post, illustrates a major hurdle. +I spend hours combing the Internet looking for sites about the peoples I teach in my history classes written by the peoples I teach. +Oftentimes the sites I locate are too complicated or tacit for students to understand. +Other times, the sites (rightfully so) are so culturally-specific that a teenager with no cultural capital about the area or peoples involved cannot possibly understand them. +This leaves little actual “indigenous” information that is accessible to students. +I trust that during my career as a teacher critical pedagogues will work to create student-centered access to indigenous knowledge. +My hope is that the information that we gleam from the invaluable contributions of indigenous peoples does not become relegated to university sociology textbooks or primers in critical pedagogy. +While it is of course wonderful for graduate students and academics to take the lessons that Native Peoples the world over have to offer to heart, perhaps we should be weary of becoming Napoleon’s in our own right; publishing surveys of Native history by Natives that only serve the higher echelons of academia. +Where there are no sources +When finding source material becomes too difficult, some teachers have decided to make their own. +Here are two examples of projects where technology can be a boon for students learning about different cultures. +The first comes from Australia, from Scot Aldred, who writes the blog e-learning. +Specifically, I'm interested in developing a WIKI section devoted to indigenous Australians; their diverse culture, history, language and their land. +While there is some publicly available information in hard copy publications, it is not substantial and does not detail all of Australian indigenous nations and their people. +Online the situation is much worse with very little accurate information available. +Just imagine if all of Australia's school students had an opportunity to contribute to a public WIKI with information about the indigenous people native to their geographical area. +Much of Australia's indigenous history is passed down by an oral tradition of story telling. +The old people, the elders and some historians have information that could be shared with all Australians and the world. … What about having a shared Webspace available to all of Australia's schools (public and private) where schools would submit a list of eligible persons who could create content and collaborate. +Additional roles/permissions for moderators who would again be nominated by the schools. +A comment from Ginga, who is from the American state of Alaska. +Your ideas on collecting indigenous knowledge, and sharing it with the world in a collaborative environment (wikis and more) run parallel to several projects happening in the Bering Strait School District in northern Alaska. +Our staff and students are creating wiki-dictionaries in Inupiaq, and Siberian Yupik to document the native languages in our area. +Students post a sound file, local image, and other information they have collected. +We're also trying to develop other projects that have flexible formats for student sharing and collaboration on our wiki. +The tower of Chinglish? +At least one expert argues that with all the promise of ICTs, many traditional organizations feel they get lost in the “overload” of the Internet. +Their websites lag in search engine relevance and (sometimes) lack a polished feel. +One problem is language. +It is hard for a website written in say, Greenlandic (spoken in Greenland) or Cha'palaa, a language from Ecuador, or Bisaya, from the Philippines, to compete for page views with websites written in Spanish, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese or Arabic. +Translating pages is often difficult and time consuming. +However, ICTs have the potential to expand a language’s reach. +Perhaps it is through online classes or through tutorials or small applications for phones and computers. +This is especially important because of the sometimes-frail environment indigenous languages now live. +Here is a good discussion of the issues surrounding language and technology from Heather, who lives in the US and blogs at flex your info. +She brings up the fact that technology may provide a good means to communicate for members of her tribe living in distant places. +However, “echnology can be put to even better uses: cultural revitalization and preservation.” +This does come with its own share of issues. +Native languages have long been endangered by a combination of urbanization and modernization, as well as past governmental policies of removal, relocation, and termination of native populations. +Today’s technology is such that you can easily record information and make long-distance contact with others, so it seems as if it should be easy to record, preserve, and make available native language information. +However, there are a number of other concerns which must be balanced with the urge to preserve language through recordings, primarily issues around ownership and access. +Language is closely tied to culture; even if tribal members don’t use their language day-to-day, they probably use in their ceremonies. +Language and ceremonies may only be shared with certain people: sometimes with all members of the tribe, other times with only a select few. +There may be people who are protectors of knowledge, language or otherwise. +It’s important to make sure that programs created to record and preserve languages are sensitive to these issues. +Another issue to be considered is misappropriation or exploitation of this information. +Indeed, some tribal elders have chosen to not share their knowledge with non-tribal members; by recording it, the chance that an outsider will access the information increases. +Not recording such information allows tribal members to retain control over their cultural information. +Another way to maintain control is to closely involve tribal members and elders in the design and creation of preservation programs. +As more Natives become involved in the work to preserve their languages, they inform the protocols and practices used to collect and make available information. +Whether a tribe decides to record and preserve language or to continue to share it only with tribal members orally, their positions must be respected. +Language learning on the telephone +With this in mind, she announces a new application for a mobile phone system that will teach the language of the Cherokee Nation, originally from the southeastern part of the United States but in the 1830s forcibly removed by the US government to the center of the country. +...The application includes flashcards, recordings, and games for language learning, and there is also a version for the Nintendo DS. +The idea of using popular technology to help preserve and revitalize languages is exciting, because it makes language information available to all tribal members, not just those who live near tribal lands, and in a way that can be easily integrated into their lives. ...The use of technology, such as the Cherokee language iPhone application, can help dispersed tribal members to learn their tribe’s language. +Software can be used to create multimedia teaching materials for lessons, while web conferencing technology can be used for teaching and for oral practice with other speakers. +However, such programs must be sensitive to the issues of control and access by closely involving tribal members and elders, and respecting their wishes. + +Guinea: A soldier's testimony on the massacre of September 28 in Conakry · Global Voices +The interview below is the testimony of a Guinean soldier who took part in the repression of the opposition demonstration in Conakry, in Guinea, on September 28, 2009. +The interview has been recorded over the phone and broadcast by French journalist Olivier Rogez on Radio France Internationale on October the 1st, 2009, two days after the Conakry massacre, and published in French on the RFI website. +This soldier testified under condition of anonymity, but his identity and occupation is known and vouched for by the RFI network of correspondents in West Africa. +Since then, the magnitude of the repression and the mass rapes have been confirmed by multiple sources and testimonies. +However, this testimony still contains first hand information about the state of the Guinean army, the presence of foreign soldiers within its ranks, and also forecasted the unrest and fight for power within the Guinean Army that has very recently surfaced on October 7 . +Radio France Internationale agreed for Global Voices to translate and publish this copyrighted interview for human rights documentation purposes and will publish the English translation on its website. +Olivier Rogez (Radio France Internationale): Sir, you are a soldier, you belong to BATA, the Autonomous batallion of paratroopers, and you were amongst the soldiers who suppressed the demonstration on September 28th. +Soldier : Indeed, I took part in the bloody repression around the 28 September Stadium; yes! +RFI : I'd like to ask you first if, according to the information broadcast during the past days, you saw with your own eyes real bullets being shot at the population and the women being raped as described in all the testimonies? +Did your colleagues from BATA take part in these actions? +I confirm that there have been rapes and shooting with real bullets. +On the morning of that day , when you were sent to stop the opposition demonstration at the stadium, did you have precise orders? +The gendarmerie were involved at first but since the police did not agree with the demonstrators, we received orders to curb this opposition, called "unruly" by our chiefs. +We went there. +I was among the soldiers. +We could not disobey orders, that is to say, to go and curb the demonstrators, to make them understand that there is only one authority in Guinea, and to teach them a lesson. +There were so many deaths, it was not even possible to count them. +I felt faint, honestly, I felt faint. +There were 160, 180 deads... I cannot even tell you how many corpses. +And I know that during the night, on Monday , they told us to retrieve the bodies. +We retrieved 47, that have been buried, but I cannot tell you where exactly. +Did you personally take part in the retrieval of the bodies in the morgues? +I am a fonctionnaire . +You were forced to go and retrieve the bodies? +We cannot say no. +If you say no, you are dead. +If you say no, you are dead? +That’s right. +So, you were given weapons and ammunition? +We had weapons and ammunition and for nearly a week beforehand, we were on standby. +For a week, you were on standby? +Yes. +When you were told to curb and to give a lesson to the opposition, were you ordered to kill opponents, political leaders? +No, not ordered to kill the opponents. +But a lesson had to be taught. +When I say "to teach a lesson", in military language, you know what that means! +Could you be more specific? +It means punish them, usually, without killing them, but to show them that the country is under control. +That's what we were told. +Many testimonies we have gathered mention mass and collective rapes, exactions, like raping women with weapons. +Were you able to identify the soldiers - or the units they belong to - who took part in these exactions? +They were people from the presidential guard, since the police were a little behind. +There were not only weapons, there were sticks of wood too. +We used all sorts of things. +We even kicked with our feet! +You said you could not refuse to go and curb the opposition. +How do you feel today ? +Since Monday, I cannot sleep. +I cannot go to sleep. +I only see again those horrible images, those living people, those people killed by real bullets at point blank... at the level… I cannot sleep. +I have nightmares. +I cannot sleep. (sighs). +Everybody killed? +There were orders, sir : to kill or to be killed. +Yourself, were you forced to kill? +(silence) It is very difficult for me to answer this question. +I told you. +Either you killed or were killed. +So the orders came from the higher up? +Honestly, there is no hierarchy right now in the army. +You can receive orders from everyone. +Everybody gives orders here, everybody gives orders. +There is not one hierarchy in the Guinean army. +It's a mess. +It looks like organized militias. +It's been a while since we have been in the army and now, honestly, it's a mess. +The International community must come to the rescue, otherwise, I am really afraid for this country. +There has been lots of talk about the mess in the army. +Could you tell us about this mess? +How is the BATA functioning, nowadays, where you are? +Have there been recruitments lately? Are there militias within the BATA? +Yes, I confirm that there are militias within the BATA. +People have arrived. +There are even militiamen who came from Liberia, who are currently incorporated within the Guinean army, in the BATA, with no military education, no training whatsoever. +They are really murderers who are currently being recruited. +Honestly, I am a soldier, but I am afraid for this country. +It was not in this spirit that we seized power. +We seized power to guarantee the integrity of our country, to really make our country into a great democracy. +But that is not what is happening now in the Guinean army. +It is truly sickening, we are scared, honestly. +Even us, the military, we are scared. +Currently, there are more than 600 persons incorporated in the army, elements who came out of the forest, elements who came from Liberia. +We even fear retribution. +Since when are you in the military? +Since 2002. +And since you joined in the army, since you have belonged to BATA, have you seen the situation worsen? +The situation is worsening from day to day. +Are the new recruits equipped with weapons? +Did you get new weapons? +Are there many weapons delivered nowadays in the army barracks? +Every day, weapons circulate in our barracks. +Those who are recruited and incorporated today have weapons. +They are given everything: grenades, weapons, ammunition. +No importance is given to the date of integration (in the army). +All that is needed is to train people and show them the way to the fighting, that's all. +There are young volunteers that have been recruited, and honestly, they are here solely to maintain the power in place. +She does not want to give up the power. +Those people are like President Conté. +Now we see, even us, the true face of this leader. +Even us, we are marginalized in the army. +We are scared, we cannot talk. +I am telling you, currently, in the army, it's total anarchy, total anarchy, total anarchy! +We do not know who is who in the army today. +Nobody knows today who is a captain or a corporal. +They beat up General Toto, the people from the presidential guard. +Corporals. +There is no discipline in the Guinean army. +In this army, if no intervention forces come in, I can assure you that Guinea will sink very soon into anarchy, and it will come from the very same Alpha Yaya camp (Captain Camara's barrack). +All the ingredients are there for a clash, very soon, in the midst of camp Alpha Yaya. +Honestly, I am afraid for this country. +Copyright : Interview by Olivier Rogez, Radio France Internationale + +Somalia: Is government recruiting young Kenyans for war? · Global Voices +This is the first roundup of Somali blogs in 2009. +Yes, it's been more than a year since I took leave a long leave from blogging but now I'm back, for good. +This is the first post and expect more posts about Somali blogosphere. +Blogger Royale Somalia profiles a young female Somali doctor in Mogadishu who'd graduated last year, he writes: +In December 2008, 20 Somali students overcame huge odds and graduated from medical school in Mogadishu—the first batch to do so for almost two decades in the failed Horn of Africa state. +Dr. Hafsa Abdurrahman Mohamed, 26, was one of those receiving a diploma from the capital’s Benadir University. +Upon completing her studies, she decided to work for the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), using her skills to help provide free medical care in Somalia. +The East African Philosopher comments on Somali President Sharif Ahmed's visit to US and the US government's policy shift in dealing with Sharif: +In December of 2006 Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, currently only-in-name president of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, was on the run from the Ethiopian army, the CIA, and the U.S. Rangers. +East African Philisophers continues: +This week Sheikh Sharif is in Minneapolis, MN (and the home of this crazy congresswoman) meeting with Congressmen, Governor, and city councilmen/mayor. +Couple of months ago he had a meeting with Secretary Clinton in Nairobi during her Africa trip. +From terrorist to president for Sheikh Sharif in just two years. +That, friends, must be a first. +To me this says a lot about the U.S.’s awful foreign policy than anything else. +The Kenya Somali Blog says Somali government is recruiting Somali youth from Kenya: +Somalia's U.N.-backed government has recruited more than 170 young Kenyans and former servicemen to help it fight rebels in the failed Horn of Africa state, local leaders in eastern Kenya said. +Mohamed Gabow, the mayor of Garissa, told Reuters the enrolment of ethnic Somali Kenyans was being conducted at a home in Bulla Iftin village, on the outskirts of his town. +The recruitment is not a secret. +Those involved are not worried. +They are going around all the villages to announce the exercise," Gabow said in an interview late on Thursday. + +Australia: Suffer the children · Global Voices +Asylum seekers and illegal migrants must be in the top five hottest issues around the developed world. +After the arrival of the Tampa, a cargo ship that had picked up refugees at sea, Prime Minister John Howard used border security as one of his catch cries in the 2001 Australian election with telling results. +This week his successor Kevin Rudd became embroiled in another controversy: +Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he spoke to Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on the weekend before Indonesian authorities intercepted 260 Sri Lankans on a boat who were on their way to Australia. +Asylum seekers stopped after PM's call +Heavyweight blogger Mark Kenny is Political Editor of The Advertiser, a News Limited paper in Adelaide. +He blogs at The Punch, an online venture that brings together both News Limited staff and dozens of independent writers from a wide variety of backgrounds and interests. +His response was scathing of the PM: +In just one interview in Adelaide this week, Kevin Rudd used the terms "tough" and "hard-line" over and over again and repeatedly declared the Government made "no apology" for its hairy chested approach to boat people. +His condemnation of both leaders is unequivocal: +Yet there is no more pressing moral question before the world than the human rights of the forcibly displaced - some 42 million of them at present. +And like capital, the movement of people is a global reality also. +The Government should now have the courage of its convictions and stare down the fear campaign being waged against it. +If ever there was a case for evidence-based policy, it is here and now. +That would be real moral leadership - voters respect that too. +My name is Kevin Rudd, and I’m just like John Howard +Mark Henderson, at The Australian Conservative blog, has the opposite view: +Kevin Rudd unwinds the Howard Government’s tough but highly successful measures against boat people and almost two thousand illegal immigrants find their way onto Australian territory. +�� What a joke. +The “most hardline measures” involves nothing more than a phone call to the Indonesian president. +Rudd is not prepared to make the really hard decisions the Howard Government took, decisions that made it deeply unpopular with large sections of the media and the elite commentariat, but decisions that actually stopped the flow of illegal immigrants and stopped the tragic loss of life at sea. +Tough on illegals? +Who’s he trying to kid? +Guy Beres’ presents his self-titled blog as: ‘Reflections on social democracy, economics, the media, and spin in an age of incorrigible cynicism’. +In a lengthy and impassioned analysis of the issue he argues: +The Opposition seems desperately keen to contrast its own historical rhetoric on asylum seeker issues with the slightly softer, more humane approach being taken by the Rudd Government. +Forgetting for a moment the rather ugly and sometimes disturbing human rights issues raised by the previous government’s mandatory and indefinite scheme of detention, the Opposition wants to remind us that they were “tough” on boatpeople when in government, and that Labor is “not so tough”. +In concert with this mode of attack, every rickety boat that happens to depart Colombo or elsewhere on its way to Australia apparently represents a failure of Rudd Government policy in comparison with the Howard Government’s illustrious record. +The boatpeople furphy re-emerges +Incidentally a ‘furphy’ is an Australian term for a red herring or false report. +Meanwhile we haven’t heard the last of these Sri Lankan asylum seekers as they are on a hunger strike: +THE 255 Sri Lankan asylum seekers staging a hunger strike last night remained defiant, insisting they would not leave their boat or even consume liquids, despite the blazing heat. +A young girl who made a plea for asylum on their behalf has been the subject of a personal attack: +Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan high commissioner, Senaka Walgampaya, cast doubt on the account of a nine-year-old girl on the boat, Brindha, who made an emotional appeal for the Tamils to be helped. "She is crying and weeping and said, 'We were in the jungles for one month'," he said. +"But she is quite well nourished and she spoke very good English. +She is not from Sri Lanka." +There are seemingly no innocents in this ongoing struggle. +It is not an issue that will disappear soon as a visit the news website of Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) will attest. +A click on the refugees tag brings up dozens of recent stories involving Australia. + +Japan: Latest survey on poverty destroys the prosperity myth · Global Voices +One Japanese in six is living in poverty says the latest Welfare Ministry report . +According to OECD figures , Japan has one of the highest poverty rates in the developed world and is 4th after only Mexico, Turkey and the U.S. +By Flickr id: Ushio Shugo +In September, Makoto Yuasa, Secretary-general of Anti Poverty Network (反貧困 Han Hinkon) , had already pointed to the problem explaining Japan's poverty issue in this way : +Ever since the high economic growth of the 1960s, Japan has inhabited the myth that all Japanese people belong to the middle class. However, Japanese-style employment, which is at the heart of this myth, has been transformed by the increase in nonregular employment and other factors, and a growing number of Japanese live in poverty. +As many debate on their blogs, nowadays the income gap in Japan is far from being new. +When the economic Bubble burst in the early 90s it revealed the weaknesses in the Japanese system and since then many experts say the country has never completely recovered from recession. +Ysaki suggests how this problem has always existed but have been regarded by most Japanese as a somebody else's problem. + +Nepal: Bio-gas Revolution · Global Voices +A Biogas plant. +Image by Flickr user Marufish. +Used under a creative commons licenseBiogas technology is starting a green revolution in Nepal. +According to WWF firewood is the preferred energy source in the country as almost 87% of households depend on it. +However, biogas is emerging as a viable alternative. +A recent report by AFP divulges that Nepal is making money (almost 600,000 US$ in 2007) trading carbon emissions with the help of numerous biogas plants across the country. +For a nation struggling find cheap and sustainable source of energy, biogas certainly brings good news for Nepal. +Globalwarming Arclein, a blog on how agriculture can help reduce carbon emission, says that the low tech approach of biogas makes it accessible to the majority of Nepalese people who live in villages: +"Biogas production is not high technology. +It takes a cistern that can be made with a shovel and perhaps setting liner stones as is often done in a modern septic field. +Capping this and drawing of the produced gas into a holding tank is simple and usage after that needs again fairly minimalist hardware that can be jury-rigged together. +The major requirement is to simply know that it can be done and that it will work. +Recovery of the produced slurry later is unpleasant but no different than similar tasks attended to.It is not a convenient way to produce enough gas for household heating, but certainly sufficient to support incidental heating for cooking and producing hot water in a healthy way." +Nepal's success in biogas could inspire its neighbors too. +Nepal's closest ally India is also looking forward to develop alternative energy sources to deal with the growing demand in its rapidly industrialized states. +Razib Ahmed at South Asia Blog, which focuses on the region's business and social issues, says: +"I am interested about biogas a lot because I believe that it has immense potential not only for Nepal but also for neighboring countries like India and Bangladesh. +Biogas Sector Partnership Nepal (BSP-Nepal) is an NGO that is actively working for the promotion of biogas in the country. +Until June 2008, 172,858 biogas plants have been made with their support. +As a result, more than 1 million people are getting the benefits. +1 million people may not sound to be that much to you but you have to remember that it is mainly the poor people living in rural areas who got benefited through this technology. +Not only that, I would also like to catch your attention about the fact that Nepal imports almost 100% of its oil. +So, every biogas plant made means saving some foreign currency for the country." +And the interest in biogas is not a passing fad for Nepal. +After many years of hard work and careful planning, it has been able to generate significant attention. +Back in 2005, Mallika Aryal at RenewableEnergyAccess reported on Nepal's quest to generate sustainability and revenue through biogas. +"Nepal's Biogas Support Program has extended its work to 66 of the nation's 75 districts and plans to have 200,000 biogas plants installed by 2009. +A plant suitable for a rural household costs US $300. +Government subsidies have made the plants affordable. +An individual invests only $200 and his investment is recouped in three years. +A very good deal indeed! +Now the Nepali biogas plants are on their way to becoming a "good deal" for the global environment. +When Kyoto Protocol, the global climate treaty, will enter into force for Nepal in December 2005, it would be eligible to start trading the carbon dioxide not emitted by using biogas and earn up to $5 million per year." +To learn more about how biogas is helping Nepal, here is a video produced by the Nepal Project at Tokyo City University, Japan. + +USA: Interracial couple denied marriage license · Global Voices +Last week, in Hammond, Louisiana, Beth Humphrey (who is white) and Terence McKay (who is black) applied for a marriage license and were refused on the basis of their races. +The justice of the peace, Keith Bardwell, claimed that in his experience, "interracial marriages do not last long" and stated that he was "doing it for the children." +"Jim Crow laws" which required separate facilities for black and white Americans ended in 1965, and anti-miscegenation laws that forbade interracial marriage or sex ended in all states by 1967. +But racism still exists. +Although much of the time it lies beneath the surface, occasionally racism rears its ugly head in a way that is impossible to miss; this story made headlines across the United States, prompting blog posts from the local community and beyond. +In response to Bardwell's "defense" that he marries black couples all the time, the anti-racist blog Stuff White People Do expressed outrage, saying: +Well, how thoroughly magnanimous of you, Justice Bardwell. +Not to mention, intrusively paternalistic. +Speaking of Bardwell's house, which I'm sure is just overrun with joyous hordes of black and white children carousing together, he also had this to say: +I have piles and piles of black friends. +They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. +I treat them just like everyone else. +Ah yes, black friends too, piles of them. +Right there, in his bathroom! +A commenter on the blog, Siditty (who also wrote her own post here), touched on the irony of Bardwell's anger: +I always wonder about a man who comes from Louisiana, who has a strong history of race mixing, through the system of placage as well as creole culture, is now all the sudden concerned about the children. +They weren't concerned in the 1700s, he shouldn't be now. +The blog Racism Review countered Bardwell's "concern for the children" with evidence on children of interracial relationships: +And, to further review the evidence, children of interracial marriages do not suffer in when compared to other children provided that they grow up in an environment that’s accepting of diversity and children of interracial marriages. +If children of interracial marriages encounter racism (and other structural disadvantages), then they’re more likely to experience stress, and health-related risks due to that increased stress, such as smoking and drinking. +That’s a result of racism, and yet another reason to work to end racism. +It should not be used – turning logic on its head – as a reason to perpetuate racism. +And Black Girl in Maine touched on the "what about the kids?" question as well, noting the experiences of her own biracial son: +As for the kids, what about the kids? +Yes, biracial kids sometimes catch flack from others but not always and I think among the youth today its almost considered cool to be biracial. +As a buddy mentioned to me my son most certainly doesn’t suffer from a lack of friends male or female. +I think the only time biracial kids have real issues is when they have no one to talk to them about their roots. +I think when kids are connected to their historical roots as well as community, it creates a safe space for them. +In the United States, anti-miscegenation laws in many states banned the marriage of white Americans to black Americans (and Americans of some other ethnicities) in a number of states. +While in some states, these laws were repealed as early as 1780, in sixteen states the laws were not repealed until a 1967 case, Loving vs. Virginia, in which an interracial couple who had married in Washington, D.C. were arrested in their own bedroom. +Their legal battle made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, at which point the laws were overturned. +A number of bloggers touched on the legal aspects of the case. +One blogger, Jay Says, writes: +As a Justice of the Peace, he should be aware that interracial marriage is not illegal anymore – having been deemed unconstitutional 40 years ago. +This particular instance hits home after this weekends National Equality March wherein I briefly interviewed an straight, interracial couple, the Newmans (pictured) about why they are marching. +Racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, religious intolerance and other biases can and do exist in our society, but they must not exist under the law. +To allow an employee of the government who is paid by the taxes of the “free” people of the United States (or in this case, a state in the United States) to use his/her own personal beliefs to decide matters governed by civil law is abhorrent. +If he doesn’t agree with interracial marriage, he needs to find a new job – perhaps Grand Master of the Ku Klux Klan? +Finally, one blogger has taken the opportunity to turn this incident into a moment of learning. +The blogger, whose blog is called What Do I Know?, begs readers to think about their own feelings on the subject: +If you doubt that racism still lives inside us all, consider your reaction to the idea of marrying outside your race, particularly if you are white and the other race is black. +Yeah, it's ok for other people, but wouldn't you find some good, rational reasons why your daughter would be making her life far more difficult when she brings home her black fiance? +Be honest. +Even if you said, "No problem" didn't you hesitate just a little? +If you didn't you're unusual. +With Bardwell now saying that he won't resign over the matter, one thing is certain: there is surely more news to come. + +Introducing Threatened Voices · Global Voices +Never before have so many people been threatened or imprisoned for what the words they write on the internet. +As activists and ordinary citizens have increasingly made use of the internet to express their opinions and connect with others, many governments have also increased surveillance, filtering, legal actions and harassment. +The harshest consequence for many has been the politically motivated arrest of bloggers and online writers for their online and/or offline activities, in some tragic cases even leading to death. +Online journalists and bloggers now represent 45% of all media workers in prison worldwide. +Today, Global Voices Advocacy is launching a new website called Threatened Voices to help track suppression of free speech online. +It features a world map and an interactive timeline that help visualize the story of threats and arrests against bloggers worldwide, and it is a central platform to gather information from the most dedicated organisations and activists, including Committee to Protect Bloggers, The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Reporters without Borders, Human Rights Watch, CyberLaw Blog, Amnesty International, Committee to Protect Journalists, Global Voices Advocacy. +What blogger, where? +Finding accurate information about arrested and threatened bloggers and online writers is difficult for several reasons. +First, the secrecy surrounding online censorship and repression makes it extra difficult to be accurate. +Not a single week passes without stories of arrests of yet another online journalist or activist in countries like Egypt or Iran, but the details and reasons are often shrouded in mystery. +Second, there is still some confusion about the definition of a "blogger". +Professional journalists are increasingly migrating to online media and blogs in pursuit of more freedom, blurring the old lines of definition. +And many so-called cyber-dissidents in China, Tunisia, Vietnam, or Iran, do not have personal blogs. Other times, bloggers are arrested for their offline activity, rather than for what they have published online. +This confusion has sometimes made it hard for online free speech advocates to come up with a good strategies and partnerships to defend bloggers and online activists, but it has never been more important to try. +Let's work together +At Global Voices we engage a community of authors, editors, and translators, who help keep us all informed of free speech and human rights abuses. +With Threatened Voices we aim to open the process of reporting up even further to any person who has information. +We're calling on those whose friends, relatives, colleagues, or compatriots, have been threatened to help create and update the profiles of those missing or under arrest, so we can seek additional sources, verify, and link to online campaigns dedicated to freeing them. +In the process, we are hoping to learn more about when, where, and to what extent bloggers are being subjected to abuse in different countries, so we can share that information widely with journalists, researchers, and activists, and work towards creating an internet where everyone can exercise their right to speak freely, and where bloggers in prison are not forgotten. +Help spread the word. +Tweet, blog and update your facebook status about Threatened Voices! + +Indonesia, East Timor: Border Dispute Heats Up · Global Voices +On 4 October 2009 the Timorese online media TimorOhin , reported that an old border dispute between Indonesia and East Timor has flared up once again in the Oecusse Enclave. +Broadcasting a radio report in the Tetun language from Candidus Elu of Radio Atoni Oecusse, TimorToday reported that; + +Cuba: Details of the Sánchez detention emerge · Global Voices + +Yoaní Sanchez & other Cuban bloggers detained, beaten · Global Voices +On the evening of November 6, Babalú blog linked to a post by Penultimos Dias (es) reporting that a number of prominent Cuban bloggers, including Yoaní Sánchez and Global Voices contributor Claudia Cadelo, were detained by state security forces. +An update from Penultimos Días reported that Sanchez and Orlando Luis Pardo were "verbally abused and severely beaten". + +Kyrgyzstan: Satanized · Global Voices +Shairbek Zhusuev, leader of political party ErK (Erkin Kyrgyzstan - transl. +Free Kyrgyzstan), shocked many Kyrgyzstanis stating that the capital of Kyrgyzstan Bishkek city has been satanized for many years, as it has a big sign symbolizing demonolatry. +Zhusuev says that he found out about it while surfing Google Earths and learning Bishkek from high up. +According to him, Panfilov park located in the heart of Bishkek, next to the Parliament and White House, was built in a form of Pentacle (aka Pentagram) widely used as a religious symbol by Satanists. +24.kg quotes Zhusuev saying : +I came accross very interesting picture - the park after Panfilov from high up represented pentagonal geometric figure known as a pentagram: a sign of Satan or also known as the "Sigil of Baphomet" - the official symbol of the Church of Satan. +It is absurd to say that the pentacle accidentally appeared on the map of the city or it is simply the star of the USSR. +Since the figure has a perfect proportion of angles to the poles of the Earth. +Leader of ErK Shairbek Zhusuev thinks it is high time to clear Bishkek from such religious symbols, as they are not traditional religions of Kyrgyzstan. +Prior to Zhusuev, the party ErK was headed by Tursunbai Bakir uulu, former ombudsman of Kyrgyzstan, who is well known for his pro-Islamic public statements. +It was Tursunbai Bakir uulu, head of Muslims Union of Kyrgyzsan and member of ErK, who earlier this year burned down Israel's flag in the center of Bishkek as a form of protest against Israeli actions in Gaza sector. +Kyrgyz internet users started actively discussing the news about the biggest Satan symbol in Bishkek. +Users of internet forum Diesel are the most active in debating over this topic. +Alx. says pentacle is a common symbol and does not necessarily mean religion : +It is difficult to comment on this nonsense. +They do not have anything else to do! +Such satanic symbols are on the shoulder straps of each policemen. +And the fact about the perfect corners - it is just the easiest way to draw a star. +It is unequivocally the legacy of the Soviet era. +photo.kg accuses the party leader of not working on more serious issues, but glad that he is a computer literate : +I think the leader of the Erk party to has to do nothing else... I am glad that the party members are learning the computer literacy and Google Maps, instead of spending time playing computer solitaire and surfing porn sites. +Don.Speekenglish thinks that Shairbek Zhusuev must better learn the history of Bishkek city : +Mr. Zhusuev apparently is not aware that this park was originally called "Star". The park was named after Panfilov after the World War II. +CAJAX! ironises the situation with interesting fact : +By the way! +The Ferris Wheel in the park is called the Satan's Wheel (Rus. +Чертово колесо). +It explains everything! +Thats why the park attracts kids and youth - people with a fragile psychology. +Elite houses with swimming pools and a casino in staggered order will correct the situation. +Talking about symbols. +Kyrgyzstan is still full of visible Soviet era symbols and signs, including pentagram stars, statues of Lenin, hammer and sickle symbols, etc. +Also posted on neweurasia. + +Philippines: Dita Tree saved 36 lives during floods · Global Voices +A 40-fee Dita Tree became a refuge for 36 members of 7 families in Barangay Bagong Silangan (New East Village), Quezon City, Metro Manila as flood waters rose last September 26. +The flashflood was caused by a record rainfall unleashed by Typhoon Ketsana which hit the Philippines last September. +It was the worst flooding in the country in the past 40 years. +There are only few Dita Trees left in urban Metro Manila. +Barangay Bagong Silangan is an urban poor community located in the northeastern part of the country’s capital. +More than 30 individuals died in this community during the flooding disaster. +Arkibong Bayan provides more details: +36 members of 7 families climbed up this dita tree as the flood waters was rising and were saved. +They stayed on the branches of this tree from 10 AM of Sept. 26 up to 3 AM of the following day when they climbed down with the waters still waist deep because they were cold and hungry for 17 hours. +The oldest was 60 years old and the youngest 2 weeks old Moral lesson: Don't cut trees, they may save your life one day. +(In this case, literally.) +Survivors recounted that there were many big snakes which also sought refuge in the Dita Tree. +Aside from the Dita Tree, there was another tree which residents claimed also saved the lives of other villagers +We were also shown what we now call the “Tree of Life”, the Dita tree where 7 families (34 individuals) sought refuge during the flood and were saved from the raging flood waters. +The surviving residents, who were surveying their homes for repairs, talked of how they climbed from roof to roof seeking higher grounds. +They recounted how they rescued a 2 month old baby on floating aluminum roofing. +Arkibong Bayan received a comment from a reader who shared a similar story about how a mango tree saved lives during a natural disaster three years ago +During the onslaught of Supertyphoon Reming on November 30, 2006, a mango tree saved 5 lives in Padang, Legazpi City (Bicol Region in Luzon Island). +One survivor had two choices: the mango tree or the slab roof of a house. +She chose the tree; those on the slab roof were entirely swept away to the sea. +Lesson: Plant a tree. +It may save your life +After surviving the deadly flood last September, residents of Barangay Bagong Silangan are facing a bigger challenge: rebuilding their homes and their lives. +The community is a changed community. +Houses were swept away and many basic infrastructure were damaged. +We were told that before Ondoy (Typhoon Ketsana) the area was congested like any other urban poor area. +Now, only the relatively sturdy homes survived. +And the area looks spacious with wide, open spaces — all because the homes had been swept away by rampaging and swirling flood waters. + +Angola: The high cost of living in Luanda · Global Voices +The capital of Angola, Luanda, is a very expensive city. +Both for Angolans as well as for foreigners. +If you are here, you are well aware. +Basic services, like food, education and housing are priced on par with some European countries. +The main difference is that the salaries in Angola are simply laughable when compared to their European counterparts, which leads to daily battles to secure basic needs. +Obviously this battle is not fought by those with money who, for reasons obscure or not, are protected with bank accounts that would make mere mortals envious. +According to a survey conducted in February by an English company, ECA International - Luanda ranks first among the most expensive cities in the world. +In his blog Mundo da Verdade , Miguel Caxias writes: + +Russia: Officer Exposes Police Corruption Using the Web · Global Voices +On November 6, a police officer at the Department of Internal Affairs in Novorossiysk used his personal Web site to address Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and talk about numerous problems police officers face in Russia. +I think many people will understand me. +I want to work but I am fed up with fictional plans when we are forced to investigate crimes that don’t exist. +I am fed up with fictional plans when we are told that we need to imprison certain people. I am fed up with staged crimes designed to put some people in jail. +Continuing with his revelations, Dymovskiy admits putting an innocent person in jail under the pressure from his supervisor: +The director of the Department of Internal Affairs awarded me rank of a major, which I received in May, because I promised him to put an innocent person in jail. +I’m not afraid to say that. +I understand that it can be punishable. +But it is the truth and I admit that. +Dymovsky also appeals to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urging him to investigate those problems and put an end to the widespread corruption in the police. +The video hit a “viral” stage within hours after its publication with several hundreds of thousands of clicks on YouTube. +It was widely covered by the Russian mainstream media and discussed on the countless blogs. +It is one of the first examples when Russian citizens successfully deploy new media platform to draw attention of the government toward hot issues in the country. +The novelty of “citizen video addresses” in Russia is best indicated by a cautious comment from one of the most popular bloggers in the country dolboeb: +A monologue with enormous force. +I won’t be surprised if it turns out to be a viral marketing. +The character is too out-of-this-word. +Another blogger marchenk writes: +None of us is an angel... +I wouldn't admire him as an honest policeman and the lover of the truth (he admits himself that he received the rank of major for putting an innocent person in jail). +However, sincere respect for bravery. +There are honest police officers after all. +Because of them, it makes sense to push forward police reforms. +I hope to God his publicity gives him protection and honest consideration of his situation. +On Sunday, November 8, Rashid Nurgaliev, the Russian minister of internal affairs, announced the audit of police forces in Novorossiysk. +Meanwhile, Dymovskiy has been fired “for libel and actions that damage the honor" of the police. +In his interview to Russian radio station "Ekho Moskvy," Dymovskiy said he had been followed and was considering sending his family to Moscow for security reasons. + +Southern Madagascar Hit Hard by Severe Drought and Toxic Spill · Global Voices +While the political direction of Madagascar remains mired in total uncertainty since the coup d'etat in March, in Addis Ababa, the international community is again trying to mediate an agreement between the various political movements. The president of the African Union and one of the mediators present in Addis Ababa, Jean Ping, opened the meeting by stating: +"The reality as you know it on the ground in Madagascar is characterized by fatigue that is felt by the people of Madagascar, people who are hoping the crisis will come to an end. +A crisis to which, after all, they are the hostages. +Whereas the socio-economic situation in your country is getting worse day by day. +The people of Madagascar deserve better destiny and that depends completely on you" +This sentiment seems to be shared by a large portion of the blogosphere who focused their attention on the other challenges affecting Madagascar. +Several provinces are currently plagued by the cumulative disastrous effects of a severe drought, the toxic spill of a ship wreck that poisoned the livelihood of thousands of fishermen and the ecological disaster of illegal logging of the rain forests. +(Update: A power sharing agreement was signed by the 4 political movements over the week-end (BBC) where Madagascar will be led by 3 co-presidents. +More analysis can be found on this political breakthrough on Reuters and Madagascar Tribune (fr) ) +The ecological scandal of the Gulser Ana toxic spill +The Gulser Ana was a Turkish freighter transporting Phosphate that sunk off the coast of Madagascar, spilling toxic waste in the process and killing migrating whales and causing illness among the fishermen community. +Although the disaster has been reported in a few media recently, the ship started to sink two months ago as Malagasy bloggers signaled on their blogs back in early September. +Tomavana wrote on his blog (fr): +The only explanation which can exculpate the Captain and Officer of the Watch of this vessel is mechanical breakdown. +Anything else is human error, and therefore incompetence, if not recklessness. +How can a ship go aground in perfect visibility if the OOW and Captain are paying attention and properly trained? +Another practice to save money. +The Captain and OOW should have been arrested when they got ashore, and held. +Mialisoa reports on her blog that (fr): +I noticed that the weather had changed from our usual predictions, and the rainy seasons were starting very late... Not only was rice production affected, but also sweet potatoes and cassava. It was getting hotter and hotter, which made planting cassava challenging... +When I harvested it, I discovered that the roots had become smaller, compared to my previous harvest. +In terms of rice, I used to collect three to four large baskets and now I can harvest only one small basket. +The change is so obvious that it makes me ask the question, "What is happening to the climate?" +A recent academic paper for the American Political Science Association by Richard Marcus illustrates the challenges of water resource management in the Ambovombe-Androy region. +The paper states that +"Rural communities are suddenly faced with having to pay exorbitant costs for water. +They are ill-prepared to carry out their municipal functions and unable to raise the level of user-fees or community taxes necessary to fund infrastructure development" +Stephane, a blogger from Foko Madagascar attended the UN conference on climate change in September and blogged about the challenges facing developing countries like Madagascar. +Finally, a resolution to condemn the plundering of natural resources in Madagascar has been introduced by Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) at the House of Representatives. +Illegal logging of precious woods from the rain forest has been increasing with the political turmoil. +Courier International and l'Express de Madagascar also reveals that the government allowed for exportation of precious rosewood in late September (fr). +More details on the illegal logging of the rain forest are available here (fr) . + +Russia: Bloggers Discuss 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall · Global Voices +Berlin Wall in front of Brandenburg Gate - 1989, by +Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall not so numerous Russian bloggers remember, celebrate and discuss the historical event that some call "the most important event in the history of the 20th century." +For most of the Russian bloggers 'The Fall' is a memory from childhood/adolescence, an act rather mythical than real. +Some bloggers use the date to remind their readers about the current political situation, some practice their cynicism, but most of the bloggers ask themselves: "Why no one talks about this date? +Why it is not publicly celebrated?" +Former Advisor of the President Andrei Illarionov (aka LJ-user aillarionov ) writes on his blog: +Today, 20 years after, the world celebrates "the most important geopolitical event" of the end of the 20th century - crash of the totalitarian communist dictatorships in Europe. +It is celebrated in many countries. +But not in Russia. +And not in the dozen of other post-Soviet states that are not only stuck but also got deep into new authoritarianism. +Russia's demonstrative neglect of this very important event of the whole epoch emphasizes the scale of the new wall that took a place of the destroyed one. +This wall is invisible but nonetheless effective in trying to isolate citizens of our country and our brothers in grief from the rest of the world. +Ilya Faibisovich (aka LJ-user faibisovich ) is also surprised by the lack of publicity: +It's really incredible that "Echo of Moscow" , "Lenta.ru", "Gazeta.ru", or any decent Russian "news portal" (even "RIA Novosti" or "Interfax") did not have "something" that is present on the Web sites in the rest of the world. +And this mysterious "something" has a lot to do with Russia. +And now it seems that it doesn't have anything to do with it. +But there is lots of news (depending on your taste) like "dead Soviet actors", "how much trains does Kim Chen Ir have," some cop who learned how to use a videoblog ], and Ginsburg's obituary. +Another blogger, SynthThesis, considers the event as a loss rather than a win: +As someone "born in the USSR," I have a pretty specific attitude toward this topic. +I think there are lots of people to "spit around" about it even without me. +Now the illusion that everyone can really decide for herself is put into brains by the actions of all those paid truth-lovers better than in any computer game. +Some bloggers used pictures to commemorate the event. +LJ-user Amelito posted a collection of photos of the dismantlement of the Wall. +LI-user Sotvoryaushij Miry shared 17 photos . +Privet-user Gernov51 posted the chronology of the events of 1989 that led to the end of the Cold War . +Additional Info +According to the survey taken by Levada Center on October 2009 , 63% of respondents consider the Fall of the Wall as a positive/rather positive event while 11 percent see it as a negative one. +The Fall of The Wall is the second popular answer (24 percent) to the question "Which events of 1989 you find the most important"; 50 percent of the respondents name the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan as "the most important" event of that year. + +Peru: Air Force Officer Charged with Spying for Chile · Global Voices +On November 12th, news broke that Victor Ariza Mendoza, a member of the Peruvian Air Force was taken into custody for the alleged spying for Chile within the Peruvian Armed Forces. +This incident, which takes place during the ongoing tense relationship with its southern neighbor, caused Peruvian President Alan García to cancel a meeting with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting being held in Singapore, as well as his subsequent return to Peru to evaluate the situation. +In addition, the Peruvian Ambassador in Santiago was called back to Peru for consultation, and the Prime Minister requested that the Production Minister, Mercedes Aráoz suspend her planned trip to Chile. +The official Chilean response has been a denial that it had anything to do with the matter, first regretting the incident, and then saying that Peru's reaction was hasty . +A Chilean deputy stated that due to "Peru's constant aggressive attitude" that "it should serve so that we do not continue to turn the other cheek to Peru." +Some of the Chilean press has been calling this one of the worst crises between the two countries . +Tensions between the two countries comes at a time when Peru is pushing for disarmament in the region . +The scheduled trip by Minister Aráoz was to discuss the initiative in Chile. +General Ricardo Ortega, head of the Chilean Armed Forces stated that "it is no coincidence" that the spy's arrest took place just when the United States announced that they would authorize Chile to purchase additional missiles. +He adds that the Peruvian government has "an interest in provoking" the Chilean government. +As the facts are being revealed, such as the information revealed to Chile includes the Armed Forces Strategic Plan, as well as the Basic Core Defense , public opinion and bloggers showed their anger and rejection. +Carlos Yancul of the blog Cortina de Humo was surprised: + +Singapore: Is it a city or country? · Global Voices Singapore. +Is Singapore a city or a country? +This question seems silly since Singapore is globally recognized as an independent state. +But for Singapore Law Minister K. Shanmugam, Singapore should be treated as a city. +This remark triggered a debate in the blogosphere. +In his lecture during a meeting of the New York State Bar Association International Section, Shanmugam observed that many people are criticizing the dominance of a single party in Singapore politics because they are comparing Singapore with other countries. +He insisted that Singapore should be judged as a city. +"…nobody questions whether there is a democracy in New York.... +This is where most people make a mistake. +I have tried to explain that we are different. +We are a city. +We are not a country." +Cavalierio accused the Law Minister of “twisting logic” to justify authoritarian rule in Singapore: +And now, for all our efforts and sacrifices put into creating a precious piece of country, we are told that we are not a country after all. +It sounded vulgar; sounded like a shirking of responsibility, like a dereliction of duty. +Singapore, if you are not my country, who is? +Shanmugam’s motive was less lofty: he was arguing that Singapore’s political system shouldn’t be measured against the yardsticks of ‘a normal country’, where Singapore would invariably appear undemocratic. +Instead, he argued, Singapore should be compared to ‘cities’ like Chicago, San Fransisco, and New York City – cities that have enduring one-party rule. +Cities that are democratic. +Sometimes when we reach into the crux of the matter, we find that it is the old chestnut again. +The old self-serving chestnut of authoritarian rulers pretending to be a democracy, twisting logic to suit one’s power. +So in the end, the answers that Shanmugam provided to his American guests last week, about our press, our judiciary, our political system, were non-answers really. +Pertinent questions explained away in a camouflage of rational non-responses. +Rachel Zeng wants Shanmugam to elaborate his point since she couldn’t understand that line of thinking +Personally, I find that a little difficult to swallow. +If Singapore is not a country but a city, then which country is our city part of…. +Well, I don’t get it. +I will really appreciate it if our dear K Shanmugam will kindly enlighten us here since he has been paid so much to play a part in the governing of Singapore city. +Commenting on this blogpost, Anon clarified that critics should first read the full transcript of Shanmugam’s lecture to appreciate the context of his assertion that Singapore is a city, not a country +Read the transcript. +When he spoke about Singapore being a ‘city’ rather than ‘country’ he was explaining why elections in Singapore were so lopsided despite us holding free and fair elections. +He compared Singapore to cities in the USA, and how many cities in the US had a single party dominating elections for decades. +While he did say that Singapore “isn’t a country”, he certainly didn’t mean it that way! +Clement Tan is disappointed that Shanmugam, a leader from the new generation, would deliver a controversial argument like this: +I am very disturbed by what the Singapore Law Minister said... At least with Lee Kuan Yew and members of the older guard, I knew what I could expect from them- whether or not I actually agree with them, is another issue. +But with K. Shanmugan, part of the newer generation of Singaporean political leaders, I'm not even sure if he actually believes, connects and knows what he's arguing for. +The Temasek Review dissects the loopholes of Shanmugam’s arguments +Did Mr Shanmugam make a “honest mistake” or a freudian slip? +If Singapore is NOT a country, then are we still considered a sovereign and independent state? +So which country owns the sovereign rights of the city of Singapore? +Singapore is unique in the sense that it is both a country and a city at the same time. +As an important minister in the Singapore cabinet, Mr Shanmugam’s words carry a lot of weight. +Why are Singapore males serving National Service when they are only defending a city and not their country? +Who does our Prime Minister report to? +What value does our pink IC have? +Are we citizens of a country or residents of a city? +The Journey of a Decade believes that yes, Singapore is and has always been a city: +Not say I say what.. +This sentence seems to have angered quite abit of Singaporeans.... +Lets get this straight... no one said anything about Singapore being a country. +We have always been a city. +We have always been an island city state. +I can understand how we often we hear things like defending the country among others....it is not exactly correct. +It should be defending the city. + +France: The Day Without Immigrants · Global Voices +Many observers and actors of the French political scene suspect a hidden agenda behind the "national identity" debate launched by President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Minister of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Solidary development , Eric Besson. +The tightly defined government initiative was entrusted to the prefects, the state's local representatives. +Opposition members counter-attacked, with Martine Aubry, leader of the Socialist Party, saying at a meeting in Grenoble that President Nicolas Sarkozy was embarrassing France by opposing National Identity to Immigration. +And anyway, what sense does it make to call 2nd or 3rd generation citizens immigrants? +Remembering the Great American Boycott in the U.S., a one-day boycott of schools and businesses by immigrants, both legal and illegal, of mostly Latin-American origin that took place on May 1, 2006, a group or "collectif", was created earlier this month, under the title : La journée sans immigrés - 24 heures sans nous (The Day without migrants - 24 hours without us), which is scheduled for March 1, 2010. +The group's manifesto is featured on its website , and Facebook groups have been set up in 10 regions so far. +There is also a blog and a forum. +The manifesto begins with these words: + +Dispatch from Copenhagen: Demands for Climate Justice · Global Voices +An estimated 100,000 people took to the streets of Copenhagen on Saturday and marched from Christiansborg Slotsplads to Bella Center – a distance of six kilometers – demanding climate justice. +In one of the strongest messages ever sent to world leaders to be serious and make a ‘real deal’ in the negotiations going on at United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15), people from different countries marched in the cold winter weather of Copenhagen. +The day started early for activists when they gathered at the DGI-Byen – the venue of the alternate climate summit Klimaforum09 – in the morning and marched to the Parliament Square, most of them clad in blue, in the symbolic event Flood for Climate Justice, organized by the Friends of the Earth International. +At the Parliament Square, they were joined by thousands of people, who started a march in the afternoon to Bella Center, the venue of COP15. +Even though pleasant rays of sunlight provided some warmth for the demonstrators in the afternoon, as the dusk settled, the temperature dropped down. +As the demonstration ended in front of Bella Center, people were seen huddled near bonfires lit on the street. +The final inspirational speeches were given by significant figures including former UN human rights commissioner, Mary Robinson and the 21-year-old climate change activist from India, Deepa Gupta who is the co-founder of Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN). +“This global day of action is reminding governments that climate change is hurting people. +This is a human rights issue – climate change is undermining people’s livelihoods and their access to health and education. +It is affecting poor countries efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals. +Copenhagen must deliver deep emissions reductions, and at least $200bn a year in new money to help the poorest countries tackle climate change,” Robinson said. +I am here in Copenhagen to attend the Klimaforum09, dubbed as 'The Peoples’ Climate Summit'. +It runs parallel to COP15 and has attracted a number of civil society organizations, environmental justice activists and indigenous people. +“The Bella Center is the biggest case of disaster capitalism. +The deal we really need is not even on the table,” Naomi Klein said in the opening ceremony of Klimaforum09. +Other high profile visitors expected to speak at Klimaforum09 includes Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, and Mohamed Nasheed, the President of the Maldives. +Ecological debt and climate justice are recurring themes in Klimaforum09 and in Saturday’s demonstration as well. +One of the most colourful groups participating in the demonstration was The Climate Debt Agents clad in bright red suits. +They called on rich countries to pay their climate debt to poor countries as part of an MS ActionAid Denmark initiative. +Earlier this year, 31 Global Voices bloggers were mentors to students participating in MS ActionAid's Global Change programme. +It was a pleasant surprise to meet my mentee among the red suits calling for climate debt to be settled. +Across the globe, citizens of the world demanded a fair and real deal to be made from the COP15 talks, as they held vigils and marches to mark the weekend of ‘The World Wants a Real Deal’ initiated by the TckTckTck alliance. +Copenhagen is flooded with activists, journalists, photographers and bloggers covering the most important climate change negotiations of recent times. At the Fresh Air Center in downtown, a work environment created by a TckTckTck alliance for bloggers, I met fellow Global Voices author Mac-Jordan Holdbrookes-Degadjor. +The Global Voices authors in Copenhagen during this exciting time will try to form a small team covering the lively conversations occurring in blogosphere on COP15. +Blogger Alex Engwete from Congo expresses deep skepticism of any significant deal to emerge out of COP15: +In Copenhagen, the US delegation doesn't seem to grasp the urgency of the catastrophe and is behaving like a bunch of squabblers and obstructionists. +And back home in Washington, with vicious and powerful climate skeptics in the Senate of the species of Oklahoma Republican Senator James Inhofe (author of the 2006 confused pamphlet “Skeptic’s Guide to Debunking Global Warming”) who is on record calling global warming a "hoax," I don’t see how the Obama administration could really take any really significant action in Copenhagen. +Angel, from the Maldives, blogging at FAMUSHU urges people to think and act beyond COP15: +The COP15 summit has begun at Copenhagen, Denmark and everywhere around the globe the same voice “save our planet – seal the deal” echoes. +My home Maldives is one of those helpless and fragile countries that are at the frontline to be affected by global warming, at this very moment we can only hope that the COP15 summit becomes effective, ‘cos the responsibility rests on the shoulders of those countries who emit large amounts of CO2. +However, each one of us should take the responsibility to care and nurture for our mother earth – switch off the lights, chargers etc if you are not using ‘em, plant more trees and walk, ride a bicycle or use public transport systems: opt for a ‘greener life’ everyone. +In Copenhagen, a number of artists and organizations are having exhibits in important locations of the city to stress the importance of achieving a fair and binding agreement out of COP15. +However, the real decisions are being made by negotiators and politicians at Bella Center, and it remains to be seen if they will listen to the voices of global citizens demanding a fair deal for the future of the planet Earth. +All photos by Saffah Faroog See more of Global Voices' climate change coverage on our special coverage page for the Copenhagen Summit. + +China: Will you accept ‘Naked Marriage’? · Global Voices +A new term has become popular recently among Chinese netizens: ‘naked marriage’ (裸婚). +Don’t be mistaken, but the term has a special meaning: it means getting married without a house, a car, a diamond ring and a proper wedding ceremony. +Just taking a picture and getting a marriage certificate is all that is involved. +Will you accept such kind of marriage? +Among these ‘naked’ aspects, having no house is the key point. +A popular Chinese TV drama, Dwelling Narrowness, strikes chord with China’s ‘house slaves’ (房奴), especially those born after 1980, whose youth ambitions are wrecked because of the high property prices in China and inability to afford a mortgage. +Perhaps ‘naked marriage’ is common in Western countries, as couples in love will not care too much about having no flat, car or a big fat bank account. +However, it is different in China, as housing is a very important symbolic guarantee. +Few unmarried young women (or their parents) would agree to marry to unsuccessful men. +And one important criteria of success is whether you have a flat. +This seems to be confirmed by an online survey last month conducted by Sohu. +In a survey named ‘In this new era, will you accept naked marriage?’, 43% say they will and 47% say they will not. +However, when the result is classified by sex, it reveals a more interesting pattern: 80% of male will accept while 70% of female will not. +How to choose between unconditional love and realistic concerns? +What can we read from the result about the Chinese concept of marriage? +Comments on the Sohu website offer some interesting perspectives: + +Egypt: Naga Hammady Massacre · Global Voices +Respect Religions by Sarah Carr +Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7. +On the eve of their celebrations in Egypt, Copts go to churches and celebrate the holy event. +But this year an unexpected incident happened in Naga Hammady, in Upper Egypt, where an unknown criminal opened his fire randomly on people there after they finished their prayers and were on their way back to their homes. +Zeinobia wrote a new post about the massacre in her blog saying: +I am really very sorry and angry for what happened in Naj Hammadi yesterday. +It hurts me more than the Egyptian Christians because what happened is against all Egyptians. +... +My condolences to the families of those who were killed and injured in this disgusting attack. +Another blog, Coptic File, wrote about the incident: A shooting gun was used from inside a car (green Fiat), to randomly kill eight people and many others were wounded. +They all were from those who attended the prayers that took place in the church on the Christmas eve. +On Misr Digital, Wael Abbas also published a video of Naga Hammay shootout on his blog. +The ministry of interior says that this attack is related to an older incident when a 12-year-old Muslim girl was raped by a Christian man in the same city. +But Zeinobia can't see how such incident can be accepted as an excuse for the shooting. +She also blames the ministry of interior for the whole thing: +And with my all respect this is ridiculous , fighting a crime by a group of crimes. +I blame the ministry of interior in all of this , if there is a real respect and fear of the law nothing of this could happen. +Also, Nawara shares echoes similar sentiments. +On the Ministry of Interior's press release regarding the shooting, she says: The strangest release I've ever read in my entire life, I've never seen a press release blaming the victims and encouraging mass punishment. +Nawara also blamed the Egyptian Media: The inactive Egyptian media is ignoring the incident, as if the ones who were killed yesterday are sheep. +The Cat of the Desert blamed the society and the extremists for all this. سرقوا فرحتهم بالعيد وقتلوهم برصاص الإرهاب والغدر .. وقاعدين لحد يولولوا على شهيدة المرجيحة اللى اطلقوا عليها شهيدة الحجاب +مستنيين ايه ؟؟ بعد الانحطاط وقلة الادب على المختلف عقائديا مستنين سمعتكو تبقى ايه فى الخارج ؟؟ +الله ينتقم من كل من افتى بتكفير الآخرين وعلى رأسهم القرضاوى والحيوانى وحسان Seven young Christian children were killed, and many others were wounded. +They stole their Christmas celebrations and happiness, and killed them with their bullets. +And they are still crying on the the martyr of the sea-saw, and they called her the martyr of the hijab. +What are you waiting for after all this ignorance, and retardation? +What are you expecting the others to think of us after this? +God damn those who call for considering the others infidels, and on top of the the Al Quaradawy, El Huwainy, and Hassaaan. +He then posted a video of Abu Is-haq El Huwainy warning people form the Christians and the evil plots they make against Egypt! +The Egyptian blogger, Te3ma, on the other hand, believes that some foreign entities stand behind such incidents: I'm so sure that the ones behind this massacre are from outside, and not from here. + +Diaspora Mobilize to Help Haiti in Earthquake Aftermath · Global Voices +carelpedre, a radio announcer based in Port-au-Prince, writes this morning: +1st After Shock Of The Day!!! +IHaiti is sill shaking!! +HELP!! +There have been at least 30 aftershocks following the 7.0 earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince yesterday, just before 5pm EST. +Information is still hard to come by, but it is feared that many lives have been lost it what is the worst earthquake to hit Haiti in 200 years. +The presidential palace, UN headquarters, not to mention an unknown number of shops and houses, have been seriously damaged or collapsed in the earthquake and its subsequent aftershocks. +As international media begin to arrive on the scene, several residents of Port-au-Prince continue to Tweet their eyewitness accounts. +Dan Kennedy writes about the role of citizen media in keeping Haiti connected to the world. +Photomorel, a professional photographer based in Haiti, posts devastating images of the quake (warning: graphic content). +Photo of Port-au-Prince in aftermath of January 13th earthquake (David Morel @photomorel) +Diaspora mobilize +The Haitian Diaspora have been mobilizing to support Haiti with its financial support and its prayers, and by exchanging information about missing family members. +On Twitter, rapper Wyclef Jean , currently en route to Haiti, is asking people to donate funds to his Yele organization. +A network of Diaspora on Twitter and Facebook are spreading the word. +alumstatus +If all of @wyclef followers text YELE to 501501 to donate $5, that would be $6,535,190 for relief efforts +Many on Twitter have warned about donating to fraudulent organizations. reduceharm writes: +Pls give to orgs that'll actually do sustainable work in Haiti and have some credibility on the ground +and advocates giving to groups like Yele, Catholic Relief, and Partners in Health. +Looking for Loved Ones +Most of Port-au-Prince is still without power, phone lines are down, and many have still not been able to reach their friends and family. +RubyWorthy +I still can't find my daughter. pray with me twitter fam. +MaddyMoreBucks +My mom just left for work in tears..lord guide her there safely.. +She said she gotta rack up $$ cuz she dk how many ppl she gotta burry :-( +JabariCMVP +Damn. +Pray for Haiti, y'all. +7.0 earthquake came through..situation is dire out there right now. +I just lost family. +The Livesay Weblog: +There are friends and co-workers that are missing. +People whom no-one can account for. +People we work with and love. +There are more than I can name, but in particular we wait on one single friend who lived near the Hotel Montana – which has reportedly collapsed. +The horror has only just begun and I beg you to get on your knees – I truly mean ON YOUR KNEES and pray for the people of this country. +The news might forget in a few days - but people will still be trapped alive and suffering. +Pray. +Pray. +Pray. +After that - PLEASE PRAY. +Juana4ev + +Blogging about Culture and Interracial Marriages · Global Voices +As people around the world get closer through modern technology, and cultural and racial barriers give way to mutual understanding and respect; and interracial marriages are becoming more common. +A number of mixed race and religion families are sharing their experiences in the blogosphere. +To look at a culture and country through the eyes of an outsider is a learning experience. +At InterracialMarriage, the blogger-an Australian male is married to a Chinese woman who happens to be an atheist. +Writing about the way they celebrated Christmas as family with their son, he finds himself in a fix trying to make sense of his wife's atheist views and belief in traditional Chinese rituals. +"Ms B may not believe in God because of a lack of proof, but this does not stop her believing in Luck, or in Feng Shui, or in Numerology, or in any other number of cultish beliefs that seem to have widespread basis within the Chinese community. +I sometimes notice Ms B performing strange rituals at home to ward off Bad Luck, and she has even cost us a lot of money in re-positioning our front and back doors, in order to capture Good Luck in our home through good Feng Shui. +Now I too see no basis in these beliefs, but I tolerate them for Ms B's sake. +I guess this is what she too does for me with my religion." +When it comes to a foreign culture reading between lines does not come easily, it seems; even when you marry someone from that culture. +But what do you do when you try to embrace your significant other's cultural practices and end up standing out among colleagues? +At GoriGirl the blogger, a white woman married to an Indian Bengali man, shares her experience of "wearing sindoor as a white woman". +Hindu married women wear Sindoor (vermilion power) on their forehead and this practice is common in many parts of India and Nepal. +But how about the practice in Washington DC? +"No, my problem with wearing sindoor is that most days I’m headed into work where there are a fair number of Indian people. +And none of them wear traditional Indian clothing, except for the occasional short kurta – certainly there isn’t any sindoor-wearing going on among the married ladies! +One older Bengali coworker even expressed amazement that I followed the “old-fashioned” tradition of wearing a loha – a gold-plated iron bangle that serves as a wedding ring among Bengali women – on my left wrist daily. ............On the third hand (yes, yes, I know), the last time I wore sindoor to the office, my boss wanted to know if I needed a band-aid for the cut on my head. Yeah. +Yeah, I know. +Does anyone else have problems with this?" +Standing out was also in mind of TheGoriWifeLife blogger, who is an American married to a Pakistani man. +She writes about what she is wearing while visiting Pakistan: +"This time, I brought two pairs of jeans and a few shirts because I thought that at least around the house I wanted to be comfortable, since that is my daily uniform back home. +But somehow I've ended up wearing jeans paired with a Pakistani shirt and dupatta when we go out probably as many times as I've worn shalwar kameez. +We've even gone on several walks around the neighborhood and it feels totally normal and at ease. +Somehow things seem different this time." +Difficulty of understanding and being accepted in a different culture is something interracial couples face regularly. +Sometimes they also face questions about the basis of their relationship, and when marriage and immigration status get mixed up it is not comfortable. +At IndiaTies, blogger Heather Lurdkee, an American married to an Indian questions people who see interracial marriage as a status symbol or a way to get permanent residency status. +" For my husband, being married to me (a white girl) isn't much of a status symbol - he didn't go out looking specifically for an American or a white girl. +He didn't "need me" in order to get somewhere in life. +We just happened to be at the right place at the right time and things worked out. +However, some of my husband's Indian friends have expressed their desire to find a white girl to my husband. +One friend (from India - who recently came to the States) actually said to my husband, "Wow, you've got it made, I have to find a white girl like you..." And he was serious! " +The trial and tribulations of interracial couples show a mirror to how far we-as a civilization have come in accepting and respecting differences. +These blogs are part of that mirror and are also a tool in cultural and social understanding. + +Caribbean: Helping Haiti · Global Voices +Within hours of the catastrophic earthquake on 12 January which devastated Port-au-Prince and other parts of Haiti, bloggers elsewhere in the Caribbean began to respond and comment. +By the following day, as the extent of the disaster became clearer — one estimate suggests a third of the country's population of 10 million may have been affected, with casualties in the tens of thousands — Caribbean bloggers were busy posting updates and appealing to their readers to support relief efforts. +In many Caribbean territories, NGOs, civil society groups, and private citizens quickly launched efforts to raise relief assistance. +In Jamaica, Silicon Caribe posted a list of international agencies accepting cash donations, as well as information on collection points for other donations in Kingston. +The MEP Caribbean Publishers blog posted similar information for Trinidadian readers. +Jamaican blogger Long Bench suggested six things "Jamaicans can do besides praying". +Miami-based Jamaican writer Geoffrey Philp, nothing that "Some things are bigger than literature," also suggested ways that concerned readers could help. +And in Barbados, Cheese-on-bread posted news of a fundraising radiothon, along with the text of Prime Minister David Thompson's statement on Haiti. +Live in Guyana posted a similar statement by Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo. +Repeating Islands gave a roundup of relief measures announced by other Caribbean nations. +Other Caribbean bloggers scrutinised the reactions of their respective governments to the ongoing tragedy. +The Trinidad and Tobago government in particular came in for angry words from bloggers who noted how long it was before Prime Minister Patrick Manning made any comment about the situation — almost a full day — and suggested that the initial US$1 million (TT$6.3 million) committed to Haiti was an inadequate response, considering the magnitude of the disaster and Trinidad and Tobago's relative wealth. +"All we've heard is that Trinidad and Tobago, a country whose Gross National Income per capita exceeds TT$25,000.00, could only donate TT$4.67 per capita to help," wrote kid5rivers. +In T&T, we consume at least TT$1m per day in carbonated "sweet drinks"; TT$5.5m per day on subsidising vehicle fuel; and, TT$1m per day on unnecessary cellular phone text messaging and calls. +For the time being, then, could we not set aside some of the money we gladly expend on such superfluous luxuries to divert same, instead, to our devastated neighbours? +"How can we dance when their beds are burning?" asked Guanaguanare. +He also posted a video and the lyrics of calypsonian David Rudder's 1988 song "Haiti", which has been a rallying cry for many in the Caribbean in the past two days: +Haiti, I'm sorry +We misunderstood you +One day we'll turn our heads +And look inside you +Some Trinidadian Twitter users also express frustration with their government's response. @basantam wrote: +Every int'l news report says that Haiti needs Search & rescue, heavy machinery & helicopters NOW. +PM Manning says "We will see what happens" +@blahblohblog responded: +Please remember, it's the quality of the relief assistance, not the quantity or speed that will matter. +Meanwhile, journalist and blogger Andre Bagoo posted a scan of a media release issued by the Office of the Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister on the afternoon of 13 January, with information about a party to be hosted that night at the Prime Minister's residence. +"No official release was issued on that day by the Government in relation to the Haitian disaster," Bagoo sardonically noted. +He suggested that his readers contribute to a YMCA relief drive. +In the Bahamas, Nicolette Bethel expressed outrage at the way the tragedy in Haiti was reported by Bahamian newspapers: +the headlines of our foremost newspapers ... rather than forcing us Bahamians to shake our deep, deep prejudices against our closest neighbours, against our cousins and brothers and sisters to the south, instead reinforce our prejudices and our fears. +“PANIC, LOOTING AND TRIAGE AFTER MAJOR HAITI QUAKE”, screams the Tribune; the Guardian warns, “GOVT BRACES FOR HAITIAN INFLUX”. +...the messages being given to our public are messages that reinforce our ideas that the citizens of Haiti are degenerate and lawless, helpless people who come and tief the wealth of others (=Bahamians), and messages that we need to brace for an influx of more of these people that we don’t want or need. +And these messages are having their effect. +The natural responses of ordinary Bahamians grow mixed. +Some of us express sorrow for the tragedy while worrying about our safety, concerned that we will have to house more refugees. +Living in Barbados expressed a sense of helplessness in the face of catastrophe: +But what to do? In discussing this briefly last night, it seemed clear that besides offering financial aid, most of us could do little. +I have an urge to go and help claw away rubble and maybe help find bodies. +But, I know too that my willingness is not enough in such situations. +US-based Guyanese blogger Charmaine Valere reflected on parallels between events in Haiti and the disastrous volcanic activity in nearby Montserrat over the past 15 years, prompted by her recent reading of the late Montseratian writer E.A. Markham. +For others, the Haiti earthquake was a wake-up call for the whole Caribbean region. +Trinidadian Taran Rampersad wrote: +While everyone is up in arms about getting relief to Haiti — as well they should — they should be taking a few moments to look around their own country. +Since the limelight is on, all the Caribbean nations should be looking into building standards and enforcement of those building standards.... +Shouldn't the Caribbean as a whole be better prepared? + +Thailand: “We're sick of Ministry of Culture” · Global Voices +“We're sick of Ministry of Culture in Thailand” +This Facebook fan page was created by netizens who are criticizing the methods and policies of Thailand’s Ministry of Culture. +The Ministry has been strict in its promotion and monitoring of authentic Thai culture in old and new media sites. +As of this writing, the page has 2,857 fans. +The Facebook page was also a response to the exaggerated reaction of ministry officials to the discussion thread started by one of its staff workers on popular web portal Pantip. +The intention of the staff was to solicit feedback from the people about the performance of the ministry. +The web forum generated an interesting discussion, including constructive criticism about the work of the ministry. +But ministry officials didn’t like the negative comments. +It forced its own employee to reveal his identity and to issue a public apology. +Sampan Ruksa, the staff of the ministry who initiated the online thread, wrote an apology letter for his actions. +He began by pointing out that he didn’t mean to cause disrespect to the ministry by starting a web discussion on Pantip since it is a popular and credible website +Pantip is a top tier, high quality Thai web board. +The respondents on the web board are members of the site who must submit their national ID card number or show their IP address. +Discussion on this web board is more polite than on other web boards. +Sampan apologized to his superiors and colleagues in the ministry +I, Mr. Samphan Ruksa, started discussion threads at the beginning of last month on the web boards of Pantip.com, Larn Dham Sewana, and MThai. +I contacted the Larn Dham Sewana administrator at the beginning of last month to request the thread be deleted. +I believe that my actions have had no benefit to the Cultural Monitoring Office, and worse, have caused discouragement and unease to the staff members who work therein. +I hereby accept that my actions were due to my ignorance, inexperience, foolishness, and an incomplete understanding of their work process. +In addition, I acted without consulting my superiors, acted beyond my duties, without judgment, and inappropriately, by allowing the outside public to criticize the Office's work too intrusively, to the point of criticizing specific individuals. +Thus, I, as the one who caused the damage, hereby take responsibility, admitting that my actions were unwitting. +I apologize to each staff member of the Cultural Monitoring Office. +I realize that the policies and the work of each staff member benefit our society and nation. +They are determined and diligent, enduring difficulties and fatigue, and are very dedicated to their work. +I am sorely grieved. +Kong Rithdee, in his Bangkok Post blog, lambasted the reactions of the ministry officials +The more the conservative wing of the ministry — which is the dominant wing — continues to display their pathetic inability to understand what's going on outside their self-constructed cocoon of "morality" and "values", the more they're feeding the bonfire of frustration and radicalism. +The more rabidly they want to censor, the more they'll drive people to hatch underground vendetta — and the power of technology will be on their side. +Poor ministry. They still don't get it that the most important culture is the culture of constructive criticism and free expression. +Commenting on the Facebook page, Natnaree Uriyapongson gives this advice +The Ministry of Culture should do something about the many prostitutes swarming our country instead of turning a blind eye and using it to "help and promote" our economy!! +In Thailand, citizens can call a hotline to complain about images, shows, and events which do not represent Thai culture. +Thai Film Journal reports: +Call 1765. +In Thailand that's the number to dial if you see or hear anything that might be deemed inappropriate — beauty queens in non-Thai costume, nipple slips, offensive love songs or a film — anything you think hinders social development, the Nation and "fine Thai culture". +Thailand’s “culture police force” is composed of 1.3 million volunteers from 4,825 networks across the country who monitor TV shows, websites, and media events that offend and harm Thai culture. + +American Petitioner in China · Global Voices +Julie Harms, an American and a Harvard graduate, hit the news as she becomes one of the few, or perhaps the first, foreign petitioner in China. +Her case was a grievance against the government that her fiancé, Liu Shiliang, was jailed on a charge which she says is not true. +She met Liu Shiliang a decade ago while traveling in China. +They were engaged in 2007, but the wedding was delayed because of a neighbor dispute that year, and Liu was arrested in June this year on a trespassing charge. +Julie decided to resort to the petition system in Beijing this year as she feels that the local judicial system has failed to resolve the dispute with justice. +The letter and visit petition system (xinfang) is an administrative system for hearing complaints and grievances from individuals in China. +The state and local bureaus of letters and visits are in charge of receiving letters, calls and visits from individuals or groups. +While the verdict of the case is still to be decided, the experience of petitioning must have let Julie realized the differences of the Chinese and American legal system. +As she has commented (from the news report above): +Local authorities are essentially counting on the fact that the local people don't have that much knowledge of the law. +I think it's a shame. +Comments on a sina forum point to the legal and cultural gap between China and the US: + +Avatar: For or Against Indigenous Rights? · Global Voices +While James Cameron's visually-stunning Avatar (2009), a sci-fi about earth-human's ultimately unsuccessful attempt to colonize another planet, is widely seen as expressively anti-imperialist, others claim the movie - history's fastest to make a billion at the box office - contains subtle racism against indigenous peoples. +Telegraph blogger Will Heaven, who usually writes about politics, internet and religion in the United Kingdom, charges the movie with racism and Western left-wing arrogance: +I won’t spoil the plot, but here’s the basic set-up: a group of mercenary humans have colonised a faraway planet, called Pandora, in order to extract an enormously valuable mineral found there. +Pandora’s “natives” – a race of tall, blue-skinned aliens called the Na’vi – live on an area of land which is set to be mined. +They won’t relocate, so the humans attack. +By far the most contemptible theme in Avatar involves the hero, a young disabled American called Jake Sully, played by Sam Worthington. +Before the humans declare war on the Na’vi, Sully is sent to them (in the form of a blue-skinned avatar) in a last ditch attempt to find a diplomatic solution. +But, lo and behold, he becomes one of them – sympathising so much with their plight that he decides to lead them into battle against the humans. +As Left-wing conceits go, this one surely tops all the others: the ethnic Na’vi, the film suggests, need the white man to save them because, as a less developed race, they lack the intelligence and fortitude to overcome their adversaries by themselves. +The poor helpless natives, in other words, must rely on the principled white man to lead them out of danger. +Thinking for You, a Florida-based blogger, agrees: +I was rather struck that so many people in the audience would accept the corporation and the caricatures of the US military as enemies, that they would literally applaud the destruction of the strike force. +But perhaps the joke is on me, because ultimately the representation of military loss is only pretend, and the message that remains attached to the visual spectacle seems to be that the fate of nature and culture depends not on right, or justice, or even on inner strength, but on the disputes and intervention of Anglo, male, U.S. Marines. +Whether you are a predatory corporate enterprise, or a valiant blue native, you can't win without an Anglo male Marine on your side. +Everything else is incidental, and resistance is futile. +Eric Ribellarsi, blogging at The Fire Collective: Fight Imperialism, Rethink and Experiment, disagrees: +I found the movie to be a nuanced and beautiful film that told the story of an elitist white soldier for imperialism who goes to exploit and oppress an indigenous nation of aliens (the Na’vi), but is instead transformed by them and won to take up armed struggle against imperialism along side them. Indigenous blogger Mindanaoan's Narratives sees Avatar as "an activist’s dream movie" and draws parallels with problems in her own homeland in the Philippines: +And lame preaching at that. + +Netherlands: Miep Gies, Woman Who Helped Anne Frank, Dies at 100 · Global Voices +Miep Gies and husband Jan next to the bookcase that hid the Secret Annex, around 1988 +Miep Gies, the last surviving member of a group that helped Anne Frank and her Jewish family evade capture in the Netherlands during WWII, passed away on January 12 at the age of 100, reports the BBC. +Anne Frank's Diary remains one of the most famous personal records of the Holocaust. +It was Gies who saved Anne Frank's diary when their secret hiding place was betrayed and the family was deported to concentration camps. +The BBC cited Miep Gies' website as its source: +Miep Gies deceased +On Monday evening, January 11, Miep Gies deceased after a short illness. +She has become 100 years. +Dutch media also reported the news, but slower. +The broadcaster NOS cited the BBC as its source for the story more than an hour later. +On Twitter, people were confused. +Jetteke69 posted: +Tweet 1: I'm trying to find words worthy of Miep Gies. +I don't know if I can do it. +Tweet 2: I can't possibly imagine what Occupied Europe was like. +I can't possibly imagine what living in constant fear of capture is like. +Tweet 3: Miep Gies didn't have to do anything. +She was a clerk at Otto Frank's spice company, but could have simply gone along to get along. +Tweet 4: The penalty for helping hide Jews was anything from 6 months in a labor camp to being shot on the spot. No one got away "unpunished." Tweet 5: Gies already was threatened with deportation by Nazis for refusing to join a Nazi women's association, +Tweet 6: In addition to running food to the Franks and the other refugees at incredible personal risk, Miep Gies also saved Anne's diary. +Tweet 7: When asked about her heroic efforts, she said she merely stood in a long line of Dutch people who did what she did...or more. +Tweet 8: How do you say thank you to Miep Gies? +Tweet 9: It seems so inadequate. +Tweet 10: I think the only way to thank Miep Gies is to take our own place in the line she spoke of; each of us doing what we can. +Edited: The website of the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam has published a special section on Miep Gies, including a condolence register. +Photo and thumbnail from Miep Gies' website + +Brazil: Net-citizens have fun shooting corrupt politicians · Global Voices +After finding himself the target of a Federal Police investigation as the leader of the latest corruption network to scandalize Brazil, José Arruda, Governor of the Federal District, can now be shot by net citizens in an online video game. +Launched by the Movimento Brasília Limpa , the game features Arruda and panettone (once simply a popular Christmas cake, but now a symbol of the fight against corruption in the country) flying through the air. +Paola Lima explains how to play: + +In aftermath of earthquake, eyewitness tweets from Haiti · Global Voices +As a result of the catastrophic 7.0 earthquake that hit the island country this evening (January 12), "Haiti" is currently a trending topic on Twitter. +Among the mass of retweets of mainstream media reports and tweets sending prayers and good wishes to the Caribbean island nation, have been eyewitness reports from musician and hotelier Richard Morse, who tweets as @RAMHaiti. +Morse posted his initial tweet around 6:00pm Haiti time, reporting that: +were ok at the oloffson ..internet is on !! no phones ! hope all are okay..alot of big building in PAP are down ! +A series of tweets sent an hour later reported: +Just about all the lights are out in Port au Prince.. people still screaming but the noise is dying as darkness sets. +lot's of rumors about which buildings were toppled..The Castel Haiti behind the Oloffson is a pile of rubble..it was 8 stories high +Our guests are sitting out in the driveway.. no serious damage here at the Oloffson but many large buildings nearby have collapsed +I'm told that parts of the Palace have collapsed..the UNIBANK here on Rue Capois has collapsed people are bringing people by on stretchers +Port au Prince is dark except for a few fires +A huge hospital that was being built across from the Oloffson has collapsed cars are starting to circulate..I see lights in the distance towards the wharf +Later, Morse re-tweeted @isabelleMORSE, who reported " much destruction on Grand Rue (Ave Dessalines) Daniel Morel's ok. +Police Sta, Cathedral, Downtown teleco, Church St Anne all destroyed". +Just after 7:30pm Haiti time, Morse wrote that: +Phones are starting to work..got a call from some one who's house fell in, child is hurt but ok. .A few people showing up @ Oloffson..roads are blocked by falling walls..much destruction on Grand Rue. +I hear hospital General has collapsed people are needing medical supplies..food, housing; I don't know water situation; +Then, around 7:45pm: +another aftershock..people are screaming and freaking out down towards the stadium..much singing and praying in large numbers +And at around 8:40pm Haiti time: +another aftershock..a little longer..much screaming downtown..this is going to be a long night +Also proliferating on Twitter are citizen photos of the destruction such as the ones below, reportedly sent to Twitter user @marvinady by journalist Carel Pedre of Haiti's Radio One. +@LisandroSuero has also posted photos of the destruction, including the one below: + +China: Google's possible exile leads to cyber protests; Netizens on move · Global Voices +Do no evil, Google says. +But the irony is that it did help the Chinese government block sensitive information from the Chinese internet users, which is necessary for it to operate in China. +However, this time it seems to be really provoked and made its simmering feud with the authority public. +Google is likely to quit China. +The post on Google blog states the Google China has been suffering from cyber attacks and also, the information of its clients, many of them human rights advocates, were accessed by third party. +What is more well-known is its self-censorship. +For example, typing in words such as Tainanmen in Google.cn will never return you pictures or texts about the 1989 incident. +So, when last night Google announced it would lift the censorship, the Chinese internet users flooded to the website to search for all the sensitive terms they never had a chance to access. +In twitters, forums, discussion boards, we witness an explosion of talks about Google and its possible departure, or exile, from China. +On Twitter, pzhtx said, + +More websites banned in Myanmar. Global Voices banned too · Global Voices +Bagan ISP, one of the two internet service providers under MPT (Myanmar Post and Telecommunication), has started banning more websites, including blogs with their own domains. +Screenshot of Global Voices website being banned in Myanmar Some of the newest addition to the ban list includes twitter, wordpress (and its subdomain blogs), and Global Voices. +Htoo Tayzar, one of the bloggers who has his own domain, wrote: +Actually, this is not the first time (that my site has been banned). +Since 2007, Bagan (MTP) has banned the entire blogspot.com. +At that time, I was still writing in blog, and when I refreshed the page, I first saw that it was banned. +At that time, MPT's side is still open. +So I moved to the cyber-cafe that uses MPT connection. +That didn't last long. +After about 2 weeks, MPT has also banned (Blogspot). +After that, I bought my own domain. +However, Htoo Tayzar wrote that in the beginning of 2009, he saw his domain being banned, so he sent a request to the ISP to open it back. +After about 2 days, his website, including the other 5 websites he included in the mail was re-opened. +Today is the second time that it has been banned. +It's banned only in Bagan connection but open in MPT. +The ISPs have banned Blogspot and its subdomains since 2007, so some of the bloggers who were blogging in Blogspot bought their own domains so that their readers can easily view them. +Nyi Lynn Seck, one of the bloggers who bought his own domain wrote: +I am sorry. +My blog has now been banned by Bagan ISP. +I bought my own domain with my own money, and redirected it so that the readers can easily view my site when they (ISP) started banning Blogspot and WordPress. +Now, I can't do anything anymore. +However, I have been writing in my blog since 2005, and I will continue to write here. +No matter how blogs are banned, because there is Mail to Blogger system, where I can e-mail the posts from any address, I will continue to write in my blog. +I value my life as a blogger, for every post I had written, I had put a lot of effort in writing my experiences, +There are currently two service providers - Bagan ISP (Myanmar Teleport) and MPT ISP. +Some of the websites that has been banned in Bagan ISP are not yet banned in MPT ISP and vice-versa. + +Lebanon: 90 Presumed Dead After Ethiopian Airlines Jet Plunges into Sea · Global Voices +Condolences poured in on Twitter after an Ethiopian Airlines jet plunged into the Mediterranean minutes after its take off from Beirut, Lebanon. +All 90 people on board are presumed dead after the plane caught fire during a lightning storm and crashed into the sea. +@tsepeaces retweets an eye witness as saying: +RT @patrickgaley: Eyewitness Naame "We saw an explosion in the sky like the sun, it was there for seconds then vanished into darkness"#ET409 +He also tweets: +The plane was a ball of flame for a second - these are haunting words :-/ #ET409 May they all Rest in Peace! Daily Star reporter and Huffington Post blogger Patrick Galey quotes a Lebanese man who lost 10 friends on board the flight: Fouad Shihab, 10 friends on board: "I was meant to be on that plane and look what happened. +All my friends are dead." +In an earlier tweet, he writes: +Just returned from Rafiq Hariri airport, scenes there are terrible. +No information, spoke with people who have lost entire family +Hichame Assi (@hiconomics) writes: +Very sad to hear about #ET409... I hope it's as painless as possible to all family and friends. +Allah Yer7am (May God have mercy on them) +Georges Azzi, who has been following the coverage on television, wasn't impressed and tweeted: +Lebanon: too many TV Stations= too much airtime #et409 #coverage switching into sensational and fictional mode #fail +Samer, who tweets @meetsamer, also expressed outrage at Lebanese media saying: +Lebanese media has no decency or any sense of ethics, they're already referring to the missing ppl as "dead" #ET409 #Lebanon Amer Tabsh (@arzleb) shares similar sentiments and writes: LBC (Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation) analysis of the #ET409 is very stupid and wrongful #fail +He also shares the hotline number for information and inquires on the crash: +Hotline 71207326 for info & inquiries by the Victims families / Hotline 1701 to inform of any wreckage of bodies sighting #ET409 #Lebanon +Meanwhile, Tala is shaken by the news and tweets: +25 bodies have been taken out of the water, 2 of them were children. +And they hardly identify any of them. +R.I.P #ET409 +CNN's Cal Perry was also tweeting and in one message says: +Such a sad day #et409 - tomorrow we'll try to get down to the beach. +Tonight's piece from the airport. +PM Hariri trying his best to console +Nathan Redd is in agony and writes: +I seriously cannot concentrate on anything today. #ET409 is the only thing on my mind today. +My heart is broken. +And @nightS sums up the day saying: +It's a very sad and horrible day :( #ET409 + +Haiti: Teens' perspectives on the earthquake · Global Voices +Although the coverage of the aftermath of the 7.3 earthquake which has left Haiti's capital partly devastated, has been massive, one group of Haitian bloggers has been overlooked - teenagers. +Here is a look at what young people have to say about this catastrophe, which foreshadows a new era in their lives. +You might not wanna know what happened to me. +You might only be interested to what happened to you aunt or your grandpa that are in haiti and that you can’t reach by phone. +I can’t blame you for that, though you can’t blame me for wanting to write all this, since there’s no one else but my blog that can sit and listen to it. +These are the first words of female blogger Krizkadiak in her January 15th post entitled "From 16 year old eyes" and they reveal her need to speak, to be heard and to have her pain acknowledged. +This echoes a post by Frantz Duval published by Espas Ayisien, entitled "On oublie que les enfants aussi ont mal" (We are oblivious that children suffer too), in which testimonies of Haitian teenagers are compiled. +Both posts inform us about the first signs of the massive earthquake. +In the words of Krizkadiak: +We felt the ground shaking, but we didn’t pay attention, because none of us had experienced that before, so we continued walking. but then it started shaking a lot more and we could hear the PE teacher screaming for us to lay on the ground. +This experience is echoed by 15 year-old Nathalie quoted in Espas Ayisien's post : +Then everyone got up and ran to go get their phones and try to call their parents… I tried to call my dad; the only thing i could hear was the « beep beep » it does when it’s busy. and disconnected.. i got extremely worried about him. worried. +While Nathalie adds : +I saw my school fall in front of me. +I saw people running covered in dust, hearing that their houses fell… sometimes with people in them. +I saw a refugee camp, as they are on tv… people praying, people alive but not really… +I saw a baby half dead, covered in bandaids… +I saw almost 150 people in three little tents… and thousands on the ground outside. +I saw a friend at the cemetery burying his little cousin. +I saw the oldest and prettiest houses of jacmel reduced to nothing. +I saw pickup truck filled with corpses… +I saw my teacher walking to the cemetery behind the car where his wife’s dead body was… I saw kids from my school, people i KNOW, at the refugee camp…. +Krizkadiak concludes: +When we got back to the beach, my neighbor’s hotel had huge crack all over it, the sea was still not at it’s place, my house didnt have much damage, there were broken bottles and glasses on the floor, but nothing very important… +However, these testimonies cannot hide the fact that other teenagers have also been affected by the earthquake. +In Espas Ayisien's post, we learn about 16 year-old Fanorah who did not experience the tremors herself, but saw her life turning into a nightmare on the following day : +… it’s good cause then you realize, none of all these stupidities everyone here wants, really mattered. partying never mattered, fancy clothes, making a big deal about how your hair is done, huge & expensive armored cars, summers at the beach in Miami, having a beautiful body, nice hair… you realize all this was BULLSHIT; that all this was going nowhere, a big nasty pile of POINTLESS time-wasting crap! +Now you have to open up your eyes and face reality with all it’s details and find a way to compress years of growing up into these 35 seconds, that changed everything +She also talks about cherishing family and the gift of being alive: +You can’t think the same way you used to, you’re not allowed to have the same priorities as you did before… Now you know what really counts in life… loving your brother more than anything, having the people you care about close to you… or simply being alive, being able to eat, sleep,… nothing else. +These awareness and sensiblity make new fears and doubts even more tangible for a 16 year-old: +to have doubts on how tomorrow’s gonna be, to feel the ground shaking at anytime (the shaking even woke you up once.), to hear about dead people everyday,… banks that are closed, schools also… This is driving you crazy right?! +You’re becoming paranoïd, you can’t go in the dark alone, you cry for no reasons. +The more time passes, the more i have to deal with the fact that this reality won’t go away… yup. it’s not a dream +Comments on Krizkadiak's posts show the great impact her testimonies have had on readers outside of Haiti, in countries like Italy, Ghana and the Caribbean, to name a few. +Here are some of the most telling: +34 GreyOne +janvier 18, 2010 à 3:45 +Your words are important. +You are a voice for many who cannot speak at present. +The things you have seen and endured are more than most will ever have to know. +Let it give you strength , let your strength give comfort and voice to your fellow citizens. +Thank you for helping us to understand what has happened, as if it were our sister telling us about it. +37 Michele (Italy) +janvier 18, 2010 à 6:26 +You go on this way. +You Speak. +You Tell. +You Make the History. +You Reconstruct. +You Keep on living. +Ciao Yael +44 Kate +janvier 22, 2010 à 7:10 +Your words say it all so much more eloquently than all the journalists in all the world have tried for over a week to say it. +Bless you and your family, Yael. +My prayers are with you and with Haiti. +If you want to know more about the Haitian people's day-to-day reality through 16 year-old eyes, you can also follow blogger Krizkadiak on Twitter @yatalley. +Global Voices' Special Coverage Page on the earthquake in Haiti is here. + +Announcing the Technology for Transparency Network · Global Voices +Internet technologies give governments an unprecedented ability to monitor our communication, internet activity, and even the microphones on our cell phones. +The Internet, however, also empowers citizens with new tools and tactics to hold their elected officials accountable, increase transparency in government, and promote broader and more diverse civic engagement. +Rising Voices, the outreach and citizen media training initiative of Global Voices Online, has launched a new interactive website and global network of researchers to map online technology projects that aim to promote transparency, political accountability, and civic engagement in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, China, and Central & Eastern Europe. +Over the next three months eight researchers and eight research reviewers will document at least 32 case studies of the most innovative technology for transparency projects outside of North America and Western Europe. +By thoroughly documenting and evaluating each project with a standard methodology we aim to come to a better understanding of what tactics, tools, and tips are most effective in 1) making government information accessible to the general public in a meaningful way, 2) holding political and corporate leaders accountable to the rule of law and their campaign promises, and 3) promoting civic engagement so that a wider and more representative portion of citizens are involved in policy making and political processes. +Over the next three months we hope to find concrete answers to the following questions: Can technology for transparency projects be evaluated individually for impact, or should they only be seen as part of a larger accountability ecosystem? +Does citizen participation in such projects lead to greater overall citizen engagement and more widespread demand for accountable public institutions? +Do public institutions change their policies and behavior based on the input from citizen-led initiatives? +To what extent does the usage of technology tools drive action around transparency? +The Need +As of January 19, U.S. cellphone users have donated more than $22 million in text-message donations alone. +In fact, roughly one-fifth of the $112 million total that the American Red Cross has so far raised for Haiti has come via text messaging. +Technology has clearly had an impact on global giving for humanitarian relief efforts. +The priority right now is that the money gets to Haiti quickly and is spent as effectively as possible to save lives, and provide medical care and shelter. +But in the longterm, as billions of dollars of aid money flow in to help rebuild infrastructure and entire industries, how can both Haitian citizens and donors hold institutions accountable so that development programs are run properly and without corruption? +As traditional media companies are forced to cut their budgets because of falling advertising revenue, investigative journalism and international coverage are the two most common areas to be disappear. +David Simon, in his testimony before Congress about the death of the newspaper industry, said that with a vacuum of investigative journalism, "it is going to be one of the great times to be a corrupt politician." +Meanwhile, Transparency International's 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index reveals that corruption is still a severe and worldwide problem. +However, there is also growing enthusiasm about the use of social media as a powerful tool in promoting transparency and fighting against corruption. +But how does the use of technology to promote transparency differ across regions, cultures, and types of governance? +What skills and expertise are missing from the current technology for transparency projects? +What types of relationships have they formed with media, government, and civil society organizations to increase their impact? +We will document in-depth as many technology for transparency projects as possible to gain a better understanding of their current impact, obstacles, and future potential. +The Team +Global Voices has long been reporting about uses of digital media and technology to improve governance and fight against corruption. +Several veteran Global Voices contributing authors are joined by leading transparency activists around the world to make up our team of researchers and research reviewers. +We are also fortunate to count on the experience and insight of a board of advisors made up of the leading thinkers in the field of transparency and good governance. +For those of you on Twitter we have made lists of our researchers, reviewers, and advisors. +The Results +As of today you are able to read three case studies documenting projects based in Jordan, Chile, and Kenya. +Ishki.com is a complaint brokerage which collects and organizes complaints from local citizens about the public and private sector. +Vota Inteligente uses technology to provide Chilean citizens with more information about their elected officials. +Mzalendo tracks the performance of Kenya's Parliament by documenting votes, publishing records, and providing analysis and context. +Over the next two weeks these three case studies will be joined by eight others. +In addition to publishing at least 32 case studies over the next three months, we will also facilitate 16 discussions on Global Voices that provide more context and background information about the state of transparency, accountability and civic engagement in specific countries and regions. +We are also building a toolset of the most effective tools used by the projects that we document. +Click on any of the tools and you will see which projects have incorporated it as part of their strategy. +We realize that these are busy times and that few readers will be able to read all of the thorough case studies, background discussions, and tool profiles that we publish. +For this reason we have created a weekly podcast that will feature five-minute interviews with leaders of some of the most interesting technology for transparency projects that we come across. +You can click on this link to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. +So far we have interviews with Waheed Al-Barghouthi of Ishki, Ory Okolloh of Mzalendo, and Felipe Heusser of Vota Inteligente. +At the beginning of May we will also publish a traditional PDF report which highlights the most innovative and effective tools and tactics related to technology for transparency projects. +The report will make recommendations to funders, activists, NGOs, and government officials regarding the current obstacles to effectively applying technology to improve transparency, accountability, and civic engagement. +It will also aggregate and evaluate the best ideas and strategies to overcome those obstacles. +Our research will complement - and collaborate with - the work being done by like-minded mapping, discussion, and toolset projects including ParticipateDB, Participedia, the International Association for Public Participation, the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation, ePractice, MobileActive's mDirectory, and LocalLabs. +How to Help +This is a collaborative research project which is open to the participation and input of anyone interested in the intersection of technology and good governance. +If you have suggestions for case studies that we should document and evaluate please get in touch via our contact page. +If you are interested in contributing as a volunteer researcher you can register for a user account. +You can subscribe to our RSS feed for newly published case studies and to our podcast for interviews with leading doers and thinkers in the field. +Please follow us on Twitter and become a fan of our page on Facebook to receive extra updates about daily news and information related to technology for transparency. +Finally, if you would like to engage in debate and discussion about the application of technology to improve governance in countries outside of North America and Western Europe, please subscribe to the Transparency for Technology mailing list. +For years now there has been an ongoing debate about whether the Internet is good or bad for democracy. +But we have few case studies and even fewer comparative research mappings of Internet-based projects that aim to improve governance, especially in countries outside of North America and Western Europe. +Hopefully the Technology for Transparency Network will lead not only to more informed debate about the Internet's impact on democracy, but also to more participation and interest in projects that aim to empower and improve the livelihoods of citizens who were previously excluded from political participation. + +China: Threatened by American Internet censorship · Global Voices +Just days after American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's speech on Internet freedom, open source source code repository SourceForge.net blocked access to IP addresses originating in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. +SourceForge justifies the move saying they are only following American law. +Which is more or less the same argument Chinese government spokespeople make when questioned about their country's Internet censorship. +SourceForge has been blocked by China before. +Hearing word of this new Great Firewall of America left some Chinese coders wondering if they might now start getting blocked from the other end and what can be done about it. +Photo from William Lone's Moonlight Blog. +At CNBeta on the day the news broke, ugmbbc wrote: + +Global Voices Online was recently nominated as a Community Choice Finalist for the 2010 We Media Game Changer Award. +GVO joins a list of individuals, projects, and organizations that were nominated by the We Media global community. +According to We Media: +Game Changers lead society to knowledge. +They inspire involvement and action through media, and we celebrate their achievement at We Media Miami, the annual innovation conference where their stories become the content of the program. +They provide example, insight and inspiration for leaders and visionaries from all fields by demonstrating how to navigate and lead the connected society. +The individual or organization that receives the most votes when voting ends will give a keynote talk at the annual We Media Conference to be held at the University of Miami on March 9-11, 2010. +All nominees will also be honored at the event. +To support Global Voices Online as the 2010 We Media Game Changer, please cast your vote here. +Voting ends at 11:59 pm EST on February 3, 2010. + +Egypt: The Right to Speak Up · Global Voices +Egyptian bloggers and activists held a conference on January 22 in defense of their right to speak up after more than 20 Egyptian bloggers were arrested when their train arrived in the village of Naga Hammady where the Coptic massacre took place. +They were released shortly after wards and they shared their testimonials of how they were "kidnapped" by the authorities and prevented from paying their respects to the families of the victims. +Detained Bloggers +Wa7da Masrya, a female activist who was detained with the bloggers in the photograph above, wrote on her blog: We got on board the deportation vehicle and experienced first hand how dark, filthy, and cage-like it was. +Upon his release, Wael learnt of his six month jail sentence: has been sentenced 6 months in jail and LE 500 pounds (92 USD) as a judiciary bail, as a lawsuit was filed against him by a citizen and his police officer brother on charges of damaging an internet cable! +Wael was ruled in absentia last November. +Abbas - a thorn in the side of the government - was interviewed on BBC Hard Talk where he talked about bloggers who were harassed, kidnapped, and forced into silence, he spoke about his own experience with detention, and responded to the following questions: +Do bloggers have any influence in changing authoritarian regimes? +Is he here just gaining celebrity status or making a real difference? +Dr Mostafa El Naggar posted the Egyptian Bloggers Declaration on the right to speak up: As proud patriotic Egyptian youth, we believe in the true meaning of citizenship and that we are not trouble makers or fame seekers. + +Peru: Heavy Rains and Mudslides in Cusco · Global Voices +On Tuesday January 26, after a rainy week and after three days of non-stop rainfall, the region of Cusco, Peru has been declared in a state of emergency for 60 days, in order to speed up the clean-up efforts and to help the thousands of people (local residents and tourists) that have been affected by the floods and mudslides. +Photo by Carlos José Rey of Living in Peru and used with permission. +While it is still too early for a formal estimate of the general amount of the damages, reports state that more than 40 mudslides have not only blocked many roads in Cusco and destroyed more than 9,000 hectares of land and crops, houses and infrastructure, but also caused three deaths. +In addition, almost 2,000 stranded tourists, who are currently arebeing evacuated in Army helicopters. +Local twitterers were especially active reporting the latest events in the disaster areas, and posting photos and videos almost in real time since early morning. +Some of the most active twitters were Marco A. Moscoso @Markopunk, and @Apu_Rimak, both of whom are from the area and have been tweeting all day, like these ones:From user @markopunk: +The Huacarpay District in Cusco literally "disappeared from the map." +The entire district remained flooded because of the lake and the river. +There are thousands of affected, the people are sleeping in the mountains unprotected. +Laura Arroyo of the blog Menoscanas writes: + +Syria: A Stroll Around the Blogosphere · Global Voices +This week we will take a random walk around different blogs, and different topics in a maze that is little different than the random markets of Aleppo. +Our first stop will be at Hanzala's Departure unto God, where he writes about his decision to quit his job: جرت العادة أن يحتفل أحدنا بعيد ميلاده بعيد الحب أو بعيد الشجرة حتى ، و لكني سأحتفل اليوم بمناسبة مرور عام على توظيفي في إحدى مؤسسات الدولة ، و أنا لن أوزع حلوى أو كاتو بل سأكتفي بهذه المقالة فحسب ، أكتب هذه الكلمات و إنه ليحز في نفسي كثيراً أن أكتبها ، لأن الواحد منا يركض طول العمر ليحصل على تلك الوظيفة و ينتهي بهم الأمر بعد عام كما هي حالي الآن أرفع كتاباً أطلب فيه إعفائي منها . +Traditionally one would celebrate his birthday, or Valentine's Day or even Tree's Day, yet today I will be celebrating the one-year anniversary of my employment at a state-run company. +I will not be giving out candy or cake, this article will suffice. +It pains me dearly to be writing these words, because one of us would spend his life toiling to get this job, yet they end up a year later, like myself now, writing this resignation letter. +We leave Hanzala to ponder the derelict state of Syria's public sector and his decision to quit, and we move to a little more joyful topic. +As with every Friday, the blogosphere was blessed with the new installment of Abufares and Mariyah's Sea Side collaborative story. +In Part 29, you'll read: +Yasmina sat down on the couch behind me. +Obviously she had seen way beyond the sexy smile.”Oh, Houssam. +Oh god, Houssam.” +She couldn’t hold back her tears and as she cried her heart out again, I knew that I couldn’t let her down. +I would just have to hope that Youssef would forgive me…someday. +“We’ll go in the morning, Yasmina. +I’ll be here early. +Ok?” +I said as soothingly as I could. +And on the topic of love and Valentines, Untold Damascene Stories, the blog of FW Magazine, publishes a report about the commercialization of Valentine's Day on the streets of Damascus: +For Syrians, who also aren’t safe from the hands of commercialism, the rituals of valentine start a month before Feb the 14th. +Guys start calling their friends to ask for money; No “man” wants to be caught penniless in front of their girl friends on Valentine’s. +Restaurants start preparations with decorations and special offers “For Families Only,” “No single men allowed.” 50 liras red roses magically gain an extra zero, turning to 500 liras. +And finally, cell phone companies start spamming their customers with bulk messages, such as: “Send a message to #### with your partner’s name to join the ‘Lover’s Day competition’ or to ‘test your compatibility.’” +Politics is also a featured staple in any conversation, and Syria Comment brings us the latest updates and analysis from around Syria and the world, with the provocative headline of "Has Washington Decided to Focus on Syrian-Israeli Peace?": +In short, the return of an ambassador is good, but playing along with a peace process that is long on process and short on peace will be difficult for Syria, which has none of the media savvy that Israel has. +Damascus undoubtedly fears that Mitchell will ask Syrians to meet with Netanyahu without conditions. +Syria believes this is tantamount to normalizing relations without any Israeli concession. +And finally, we'll sit down with Syrian Foodie in London, and finish our tour with a delicious Damascene treat, Ful Nabit: +Ful Nabit is boiled fava beans served with salt and cumin. +The seller cart will have huge pot with the beans slowly simmering. +The beans are served in a proper glass or china bowls rather than paper wrap or a plastic plate, which I find adds a nice touch. to the experience. +You usually get a glass of the cooking stock and half a lemon to accompany your ful. +The cooking stock flavoured with salt, cumin and a squeeze of lemon makes a delicious (but not at all pretty) side drink. + +The Breaking Borders Award is a new prize created by Google and Global Voices and supported by Thomson Reuters to honor outstanding web projects initiated by individuals or groups that demonstrate courage, energy and resourcefulness in using the Internet to promote freedom of expression. +We are proud to announce our jury members for the award. +The jury is drawn from experts and leaders in the freedom of expression, journalism, digital activism, and technology sectors, and includes representatives from around the world. +Members of the jury are: +Sheila Coronel, Director, Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism +Jose Roberto de Toledo, Projects and Training Coordinator, Brazilian Association for Investigative Journalism (ABRAJI); Director, PrimaPagina +Edetaen Ojo, Convenor, International Freedom of Expression Exchange, Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda +Dean Wright, Global Editor, Ethics, Innovation and News Standards, Reuters +Rebecca MacKinnon, Co-Founder, Global Voices; Visiting Fellow, Princeton University Center for Information Technology +Robert Boorstin, Director, Public Policy, Google +The Breaking Borders Award is open to people of all nationalities. +Winners will be selected by a panel of experts in the field of freedom of expression. +A cash prize of $10,000 will be awarded in each of three areas: +1. +Advocacy, given to an activist or group that has used online tools to promote free expression or encourage political change +2. +Technology, given to an individual or group that has created an important tool that enables free expression and expands access to information +3. +Policy, given to a policy maker, government official or NGO leader who has made a notable contribution in the field +Nominations for and additional information about the Breaking Borders Award can be submitted at http://breakingborders.net and close on February 15, 2010. +Global voices is very excited to be associated with this event. +Contact us at nomination@breakingborders.net with any questions. + +Morocco: A Charter for the Environment · Global Voices +On January 15, in the city of Skhirat, south of the capital Rabat, the Moroccan government launched an ambitious project on environment. +A series of regional meetings, workshops and conferences are to follow, sparking a national debate that aims at establishing a Charter for the environment. +This effort follows a policy speech delivered last summer by king Mohammed VI in which he insisted on the significance his government is attaching to environmental issues. +The Charter for Environment and Sustainable Development, as it was officially dubbed, will lead among other things to the creation of 16 regional observatories that would provide the government with yearly reports and recommendations on environment and developmental issues. +The initiative has now a website with interactive content and a blog in three different languages. +Mabrouk Benazzouz, writing for the online regional news website Eljadida.com, explains how the new approach is in part about holding polluters to account. +He writes: + +Haiti: Security vs. Relief? · Global Voices +A UN vehicle keeps watch in the Carrefour neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, 26 January, 2010. +Photo by Georgia Popplewell, posted at Flickr under a Creative Commons license. +More than two weeks after the 12 January earthquake in Haiti, official estimates suggest over 100,000 people were killed, 200,000 injured, and 1 million left homeless. +(The Haiti Vox blog has posted a partial translation of a government bulletin containing these and other statistics.) +Despite an outpouring of aid from many countries around the world, and the presence in Haiti of thousands of relief workers, United Nations peacekeepers, and US troops, media reports suggest that a substantial percentage of affected Haitians in and around Port-au-Prince have still received little or no relief assistance. +The sheer scale of the disaster is one reason, compounded by severely damaged infrastructure and the earthquake's impact on Haitian government agencies, many of which have lost key staff. +But some Haitians online, and others on the ground, are suggesting that exaggerated concerns about security and violence may be hindering relief efforts. +One outspoken commentator is the musician Richard Morse, who is also the proprietor of the Hotel Oloffson, where many foreign media personnel have been based. +Within hours of the earthquake, Morse began posting news and commentary on Twitter (as @RAMhaiti), and the stream of information has continued. +On 18 January, he angrily suggested that UN personnel were avoiding certain areas of Port-au-Prince: +A journalist receiving a ride from a UN vehicle was dropped off at Canape Vert."We are prohibited from taking to the Oloffson"!!! +The Oloffson is "RED ZONE" How can the UN help the people of Carrefour Feuille if they are prohibited from coming to the neighborhood!! +I went to the so called Red Zone on foot with the CBS crew so they could get a close up look at the destruction; smell the bodies If the UN can't go to where THE PEOPLE need their help then what are they doing here? +The fact that I haven't seen an international presence in this area tell me that others are following the lead of the UN +He refers to a system pre-dating the earthquake by several years, in which Port-au-Prince is divided into "red" and "green" zones depending on levels of perceived risk to UN staff and others. +Many parts of downtown Port-au-Prince are designated "red" zones, while the more affluent Petionville area to the southeast, for example, is a "green" zone. +UN staff are required to have a military escort to enter a "red" zone for any reason, including aid distribution (according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs). +Even before the earthquake, some residents of the city believed the zoning system disadvantaged certain neighbourhoods, as a September 2009 CIDA report on the Bel Air area made clear. +In the subsequent days, Morse has continued to comment on the "red/green" zoning system, alleging it has more to do with politics than security, and is affecting relief efforts: +RED ZONE either means "poor" or "we don't want our people spending money there" or "we don't like you" +RED ZONE/GREEN ZONE still seems to be an issue when getting aid to different neighborhoods. +Eventually GREEN ZONE/RED ZONE in Haiti will becom an embarrassment.It's part of the Haitian politics of MONOPOLIES.Everything goes 2 a few. +On 22 January, the US-based Democracy Now media organisation posted a video report on their blog, making similar claims. +The report quoted Sasha Kramer of the NGO Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods: +What I’ve been witnessing here is that the aid actually arrived fairly quickly.... +As I understand, there’s thousands of tons of food that are available. +But the problem that they’re having is distribution of the aid. +And one of the issues with that is that large aid organizations working in Haiti, because it’s an area that has a State Department warning, there’s a lot of regions in Port-au-Prince that are considered red zones that they’re not able to go into without very high security restrictions. +So when the large aid groups circulate around Port-au-Prince, they’re often in sealed vehicles with their windows up.... +British photographer Leah Gordon, working with the NGO HelpAge International, posted several photos of elderly Haitians in "red zone" areas of Port-au-Prince in a HelpAge Flickr set. +Janine, 73, and Lemoine, 68, live off Grand Rue, in Port-au-Prince's "red zone". +Photographed on 23 January, 2010, by Leah Gordon, and posted at Flickr. +Used by permission of the photographer. +Other accounts suggested that security concerns are also in play in areas outside Port-au-Prince. +The website Haiti Analysis posted a report (dated 26 January) by journalist Kim Ives of the weekly newspaper Haiti Liberté, describing a food drop-off in Léogane, near the epicentre of the earthquake: +Léogane ... probably had the most extensive damage of any Haitian city. +But earlier that day, the United Nations had announced that it could not bring relief to Léogane until it had established security. +"I don't know what security they need to establish," responded Roland St. Fort, 32, another one of the town's neighborhood leaders. +"There have been no riots here. +The people have been very disciplined. +They set up their own security around their outdoor camps." +Freelance journalist Ansel Herz, based in Port-au-Prince since September 2009, suggested on his blog Mediahacker (on 19 January) that biased reporting by international media might be fuelling relief workers' fears: +I have not seen a single incidence of violence. +The tent camps through the city, whether in Chanmas or near Delmas, are destitute but totally peaceful.... +Tell CNN, the BBC, and other media to stop being alarmist fear-mongers. +He repeated on Twitter (@mediahacker): "Stop pushing this violent criminals idea. +Talk to the people, not the police." +Charity worker Troy Livesay (@troylivesay) has also commented several times that he has seen little violence on the streets. +And on 26 January, two observers gave eyewitness reports via Twitter of a food distribution operation near the ruined National Palace in Port-au-Prince, overseen by UN peacekeepers. +"Brazilian soldiers throwing tear gas!" announced @karljeanjeune. +Radio journalist Carel Pedre (@carelpedre) commented: +Advice #1: Ask each family affected to choose someone to receive the humanitarian Aid. +U will have less people on the line and you'll be sure that u feed at least 1 family. +Advice 2: Prepare kits (little bag) of food. +Give Away a large bag of rice to one person. +It is a waste +Advice 3: have a group of volunteers to do the packaging and the distribution. +Advice 4: Distribution must be made at a fixed point on a fixed scheduled. +Advice 5: You don't have to give away food everyday. +Make sure that What U give can feed a family for at least 2 days. +Global Voices managing director Georgia Popplewell, leading a two-member GV team working on the ground in Haiti, offered some thoughts on her blog to put these reports in perspective: +As the tear gas story above demonstrates, it’s difficult to verify information. +You try to get around as much as you can, but in the end you’ll see only a tiny fraction of the whole, and perhaps understand or read accurately only a fraction of that. +But the overriding story is about the distribution of aid: how badly it’s going, how supplies are failing to get to those who need it, and also how difficult the whole exercise is. + +Video: Chile Earthquake through Citizen's Eyes · Global Voices +Santiago After the Earthquake by pviojo CC-By +As the day comes to a close, more videos crop up of the devastating 8.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Chile at 3:30 am. +The earthquake, which not only affected the mainland through the ground movements, also generated tsunami waves that set out an alarm throughout the Pacific as different nations prepared for the waves to hit their shores. +Some videos were made during the earthquake itself, as this amateur video found on YouTube. +It starts with a shot of a computer in a room, and as the earth moves the rumble of the earth can be heard, then the lights go out and we are left in the dark, hearing only the voices of a woman and a man we assume to be the one holding the camera trying to calm her down. (Video has since been removed from YouTube due to a Copyright claim made by Jonathan Munizaga) +As daylight came, more people went out to the streets and recorded the damage they observed: Netprox drove through the highway, and had to squeeze under a fallen bridge to get through. +Rafael Vial also went out to the streets and recorded a collapsed bridge in Llaillay, Chile, which he streamed through his mobile phone on Qik. + +Philippines: “Renewable Marriage Bill” · Global Voices +A partylist group in the Philippines wants to introduce a law that would put a ten-year expiration date on marriage contracts. +The unique proposal is the group’s answer to lengthy and expensive annulment proceedings in the country. +The Catholic-dominated Philippines does not have a divorce law. +According to the group, the “Renewable Marriage Bill” would “spare incompatible couples the expense of lengthy legal proceedings before their marriages are annulled.” +The group added that a marriage contract “should be just like a passport or driver’s license. +If we are not interested to renew it, then it expires.” +More than 500,000 marriages are administered by the Catholic Church every year with less than 10 percent getting annulled and reported. +As expected, the proposed marriage license with expiration date generated an intense reaction in the blogosphere. +Writing for Lex Fori Philippines, Oscar underscores the impact of this proposal on property relations. +If we are going to equate marriage with a driver’s license, can we then take the future spouse for a test drive? +That way, both persons will be spared from having to go through renewing or not renewing the expirable marriage license and save them money from holding the costly marriage ceremony. +Supposing that marriage will expire in ten years, what will happen to the property relations after 10 years? the validity of contracts entered into by the spouses jointly? +Do we liquidate the properties, terminate valid contracts, and tell the children to expect lesser legitimes in the event one or both their parents remarry and have additional children? +John Odonnell R. Petalcorin prefers a bill that would decrease the cost of annulment case proceedings +...if the proposal was conceptualized because of the expensive annulment case proceedings, I would rather propose a counter-bill to put a price cap on the cost of annulment. +To make the process speedy, we can also incorporate a provision that the annulment can be approved immediately if both the husband and wife will exchange a verbally denounciation of their love for each other for three times +Ice9web Blog wonders whether a new marriage vow will be uttered in ceremonies +If this will happen, gone are the days when the marriage vows are to be taken seriously "Til death do us part"? +Now what will the vow be? +Till renewal to us part? +Some said that this will be the answer here in Philippines, since we don't have divorce and annulment takes time and lots of money... is renewal really the answer? +Pinoy Politico doesn’t understand why incompatible couples have to wait for ten years before they can terminate their marriage +I don't understand why a person has to wait for a decade just to ditch his cheating wife. +This is also the same for the women. +If my husband beats me up everyday after 1 year of marriage, why should I wait for 9 years more? +Maybe you should propose daily renewal so that you can check their marriage status. +Capt. Nemo is supportive of the proposal +well this proposition just want to address the PRESENT situation that most of the Filipino couples are facing nowadays. +Based on my perception, this is for the better and a solution that treat both sexes equality regarding marriage. +For annulment can be acquired by those who are capable to “pay” the process. +How about the poor who want to put an end in their not working relationship, can they go with the same process? this proposition will motivate couples to value their existing relationship. +In fact, they have the FREE WILL to either renew their marriage contracts or just junk the paper after 10 years. +Jappysworld is concerned about the welfare of children if a couple decides not to renew their marriage +This is not the solution. +I do understand that there are many people who couldn’t stand being married a minute longer, but what would happen to the children if this proposal takes effect. +This may be beneficial to estranged couples but their children would be the one to suffer the most. +It’s like saying on the 1st day after the 10th year of Marriage; a married person could do anything they want without regarding their responsibility and loyalty to their family. +Maureen Flores believes the proposed bill bypasses the sanctity of marriage +This has been a laughing matter between my husband and I over the week. +We're celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary today, you see. +But really, the proposed 10-year expiry on marriage contracts is not funny. +I am also expressing my sincere disapproval on this proposal. +I am concerned about how it will affect families and our society itself should this be passed. +The sanctity of marriage is bypassed. + +Egypt: Valentine's Day Dilemma · Global Voices +Forget about anything you know about the Valentine's Day, as you are going to experience so many contradicting reactions and thoughts regarding this day, after paying the Egyptian blogosphere a visit. +Some people just celebrate the occasion, some curse it, some see it silly and some believe it is against religion. +Ze2red wrote a message here to her beloved one on the occasion of the Valentine's Day: +Like a soft whisper … you entered my heart +Eased my pain & washed my brain +You made it so clear that nothing goes in vain +Because of you i have trust again +That friendship is something someone has to gain +Fatma, at Brownie, wrote a post here to say that Valentine's Day can still be celebrated even if you're still not able to find your better half: +My English book when I was in my primary school was called “Look, Listen and Learn” it was a very sweet and informative book. +... +I added a new L word, which is love, although I was not happy in my love life, however I have always believed that love is not only between a man and a woman, it has many variations and one of its best variation is love between friends, and this is the motive of writing this post. +... +Amr Fahmy, who blogs at Zakzouk, wrote here on how we are imitating others, and importing celebrations from other countries while ruining the true value of those celebrations: نفس الكلام حصل قبل كذا سنة مع عيد الحب.. وفاكر كويس أوي شكل جامعة القاهرة يوم 14 فبراير واغلب البنات لابسين أحمر يا إما درجة من درجاته.. في حين كل ولد ناتع على قلبه دبدوب بشكل كرنفالي يفسد أي معاني حقيقية للحب A few months ago, on my way back to home, I noticed that all the shops in Zamalek were closed. What's going on, I asked? +Yes, that's it! And all of a sudden, I found boys and girls wearing plastic horns on their heads, and spraying each other in a comic scene. +I wasn't shocked any way, as it's now normal for people here in Egypt to be obsessed with anything that comes from the West. +The same incident happened to me few years, but that time it was the Valentine's day. +I still remember most of the girls with me in college were wearing red clothes, and the boys were carrying huge teddies in a carnival-like scene that ruins any romantic value of love. +... +Marwa Hasan, who writes at Depressedy, wrote a post here showing how she thinks the Valentine's Day is overrated: Apparently am an anti-valentine person and I hate how people just follow nonsense. +It's overrated in a way, I mean why should it be any more special than any other day in a relationship?! Also Neisy M believes that the Valentine's Day is overrated. +She wrote here about her feelings regarding this day, and then decided on this occasion to send her "I Love You" messages to her parents and friends instead of sending it to her lover: Love is in the air.Cupids are resting up above admiring their match making effort for the previous year.(Note to cupids:Stop aiming at lame people.I'm right here.Can't you see me?!=P)But seriously, I do think that Valentine's is the most over rated holiday ever.It has nothing to do with me being single or acting like a hater,but I witness how people tend to over react on which gift is bigger or more expensive or which date was the most romantic or who remembered first...etc.Love is not to be celebrated in a day.I don't believe that a guy/ girl will wait all the way to Valentine's to express love.Sometimes the simplest things are the most special.It sure is a special occasion to be celebrated with our loved ones.Its another day to say "I love you" sincerely.So here are my "I love you"s for this year. +My number one "I love you" goes as always to my mom.I believe that till the day I have my last breath ever no one will come even close to the level of love I have for my mom. +... +My second runner up will indeed be my awesome Dad.Although we don't always tend to go along because I'm always a bit over the edge and he is always trying to pull me back to the safe side. .... +And Egyptian blogger, Ana Muslim, posted here links to verdicts by Islamic scholars who believe the the Valentine's Day celebrations are prohibited by the religion. +While, on the other hand, Silent Majority, wrote here wondering why the Salafi/Wahabi scholars insist on fighting and cursing Valentine's Day. +He says: الناس دي ايه فكرتها عن عيد الحب بالضبط........؟ + +Poster image courtesy Wikipedia +This post is not about the Bollywood film 'My Name is Khan', but the way it is perceived in India and the US and why. +A look at the Hindi blog-posts related to this film reveals an interesting fact - that the reactions to this film have more to do with the cultural politics in India than with the aesthetic value of the film itself. +In the US, Shah Rukh Khan's recently released film "My Name is Khan" is doing well because it portrays the scenario in the West after the tragic events of 9/11 and attempts to show how Muslims in the US are perceived by the Americans. +This portrayal draws from Khan's own experience at the Newark Airport last year when he was profiled for secondary interrogation by the airport authorities. +This incident caused uproar in India and finally, the US Ambassador in New Delhi had to issue a statement to say that the causes of this incident will be investigated. +The film narrates a similar story of an autistic Muslim in the US, who is harassed by the police after 9/11. +To add an additional autobiographical touch to the film, his character in the film loves a Hindu woman. +It's well-known that Shah Rukh Khan's wife in real life is a Hindu woman. +Because of the growing unease with the Muslim population amongst the Western people of Europe and North America after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and later, this film has been well-received in the US and has managed to fetch 1 Billion Indian Rupees for its global distribution rights from the Fox Studios. +In India, this film ran into problems on the eve of its first screening in Mumbai with the fundamentalist Hindutva faction Shiv Sena. +I reported this in my blog 'The World Around Me' : +As I write this, Maharashtra government has made large-scale security arrangements today afternoon, and some 2000 Shiv Sena members have been arrested as they tried to disrupt the film screening. +Some of the Hindi blog-posts on this topic show several streams of thoughts. +Vijay Prakash Singh from New Delhi opines after watching this film that this is an ordinary film, but is gaining popularity because of the controversial environment in which it was released. +He says that Shah Rukh Khan is influenced by the Western mode of thought and hence, he has dealt with an issue that is of interest to the Western audience. +According to Singh, this film has consciously attempted to create sensation and has used all elements for this purpose. +Besides, it is to this film's advantage that India has degraded parties such as Shiv Sena, which created a scene on an unimportant issue and provided additional popularity to this film it didn't deserve. +Moreover, Khan also has the support of the ruling party, which immediately sent its police forces to arrest the trouble makers. +According to Singh, this same police force was nowhere to be seen when the North Indians were being killed by the same Shiv Sena. +In this context, BBC Hindi started a discussion by asking the readers whether they support the idea that Indians should be friendly towards Pakistan or that Shiv Sena's attitude is right. +Out of the many responses, Jamshed Akhtar from Lucknow says that Pakistan has always deceived India but Shah Rukh's attitude is right because a good player should be supported regardless of nationality. +Rajiv from Allahabad says that although Muslim players and actors are popular with Hindus, some of them try to play the victim to gain popularity. +Nitish Raj in his blog post published before the release of the film says that Shiv Sena took this stand to make its presence felt because its' popularity is waning now but their opponents seem stronger than them. +It is important to mention here Tarun Vijay's article which powerfully brings out the pathos of the Kashmiri Hindus who have lived a life of sufferings as refugees in their own country and who can't talk about their victimization because of the partisan politics that exists today. +This is another dimension of portrayal of a community in India. + +Chile: Praise for Earthquake Preparedness · Global Voices +The force exerted by the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that rattled Chile in the early morning hours of February 27 has shocked a country that is used to the earth shaking underneath their feet. +Quakes are commonplace in Chile; since 1906 and counting this most recent earthquake, Chile has experienced 28 earthquakes —without counting the smaller in magnitude but still frequent seismic activity that is often felt around the country. +The three biggest earthquakes that many Chileans can still remember left 30,000 dead in 1939, 3,000 in 1960, and 177 in 1985. +The international community together with Chileans living abroad have praised Chile’s preparedness in front of this devastating situation, which could have had an even higher casualty total. +Cory Hunt in the blog Better Now than Never wrote a post on February 28 about the earthquake in Chile. +The post begins by saying: +I have been following the events that have taken place in Chile today, as well as the subsequent tsunami warnings that have spread across the Pacific. +The Chilean government, society, and people should be praised for their readiness in dealing with such a catastrophic natural disaster…as of this writing, Chile has still not appealed for international help even though the death toll has topped 300. +Destruction in Santiago, Chile after earthquake. +Picture uploaded by flick user Ignacio Nuñez C. and used under a Creative Commons license. +El Pollo from the blog De Cualquier Vaina lived in Santiago for six months in 1998 and felt three earthquakes while he was there. +He describes what he saw during one of them and the importance of the building structures for safety: + +Chile: Army Deployed to Streets of Concepción · Global Voices +As the third day after the devastating 8.8-magnitude quake came to an end, the situation in Concepción, Chile’s second largest city, had worsened considerably since Sunday. +Confirmed reports of uncontrolled looting, building collapses, violence, and even in some cases, arson led to the deployment of a strong contingent of 4,500 soldiers to the city. +Photos of soldiers in the streets of Concepción by Juan Eduardo Donoso and used under a Creative Commons license. +The deployment of the army occurs at a time when regional authorities had begun to point fingers at the national government of President Michelle Bachelet for not sending the army earlier. +Currently, citizen and mass media outlets in Chile report that Concepcion is experiencing a shortage of food and water . +The city has no electricity and its water supply is intermittent . +Apart from these complications, several buildings have collapsed throughout the city . +Perhaps the most dramatic and devastating collapse that occurred was that of a 15-story building, where survivors are still thought to be trapped under the rubble. +Twitter user Eduardo Woo (@edowoo), a student and reporter, informed : + +Global: World Day Against Cyber Censorship · Global Voices +Internet censorship is still a major issue in many countries worldwide. +With that in mind, the Paris-based international organization Reporters without Borders (RSF) is promoting its yearly World Day Against Cyber Censorship on March 12th. +On the occasion, RSF issued its latest list of "Enemies of the Internet", where China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Tunisia are among the most prominent examples of countries censoring the web. +Reporters Without Borders will celebrate World Day Against Cyber Censorship on 12 March. +This event is intended to rally everyone in support of a single Internet that is unrestricted and accessible to all. +It is also meant to draw attention to the fact that, by creating new spaces for exchanging ideas and information, the Internet is a force for freedom. +However, more and more governments have realised this and are reacting by trying to control the Internet. +World Day Against Cyber Censorship Around the Web +Jordanian blogger Naseem Tarawnah on Black Iris urged people to join an online rally for free speech. +He says that over the past years there are traces that suggest the country is inclining to tough times for internet users, especially because there are "designs that the government may be planning to implement a “Cyber Law” to regulate the online world". +He calls on Twitter users: +For my fellow tweeps, I can only ask that you come together to tweet those posts produced by the blogosphere, or tweet your own messages in support of a free internet. Perhaps we can use the single hashtag of #FreeNetJo to unite our tweets. +And as Ramy Raoof outlined on Global Voices Advocacy: +Do you believe in Freedom of Speech? +Do you think its normal to be profiled or tracked while being online?! +Do you think it’s your right to enjoy uncensored Internet search & blogging? +Do you believe in Freedom of Information? +Right to Access Information? +Do you want to defend an Internet without restrictions and accessible to everyone at anytime and anywhere? +Support the World Day against Cyber-Censorship, 12 March… Spread the Word! +Global Voices contributor Archana Verma has written a post with thoughts and opinions from the Hindu blogosphere on freedom of speech and censorship. +India doesn't fall in the category of “Internet Black-Holes,” hence Hindi web-writers haven't written much on it because they haven't faced this problem. +However, there are some Hindi bloggers who have reflected on press-freedom from different angles. +On Global Voices Online, we're committed to raising voices that often go unheard by traditional and mainstream media. +We know that many governments do not allow its citizens to use the web openly and freely, often practicing censorship and regulating content. +Below we can see some of Global Voices' projects to promote freedom of speech, cyber-activism and transparency online. +Global Voices Advocacy +Global Voices Advocacy is where we seek to build a global anti-censorship network of bloggers and online activists throughout the developing world that is dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and free access to information online. +In this website, you'll have access to a myriad of projects that intend to help people fighting censorship on the web, as well as to blog anonymously in areas where internet users are often harassed by the government. +Threatened Voices +Threatened Voices is a collaborative mapping project to build a database of bloggers who have been threatened, arrested or killed for speaking out online and to draw attention to the campaigns to free them. +So far, Threatened Voices has already tracked 213 cases of arrested or threatened bloggers, such as the one of Ahmad Mostafa, an engineering student at the University of Kafr el-Sheikh -the first Egyptian blogger to stand before a military court because of his blogging. +Technology for Transparency Network +On the other side of the coin, from Rising Voices, the Technology for Transparency Network, a new interactive website to track online initiatives that promote transparency, accountability, & civic engagement around the world is an example of how freedom of speech can help monitoring governments and deliver correct and non-regulated information to citizens of developing world, as well as observing politicians movements and actions. +On the website, Renata Avila, a human rights lawyer and blogger in Guatemala, has presented the case of #InternetNecesario from Mexico, an online protest on Twitter and other social networks to fight a tax on the Internet issued by Mexico's Congress. +This movement is an example of how a non-censored internet can empower citizens to fight for their rights. +As Venezuelan blogger in Paris, Laura Vidal states in her comment review: +This project is an example of how civil society agrees to organize and reunite efforts to respond to a government that acts without consulting, and a press that doesn’t connect the public opinion with the leaders of the country. +Breaking Borders +Finally, Global Voices and Google's Breaking Borders Award is a new prize created by both organizations and supported by Thomson Reuters to honor outstanding web projects initiated by individuals or groups that demonstrate courage, energy and resourcefulness in using the Internet to promote freedom of expression. +The prize will honor work in three categories: tools that promote freedom of expression, outstanding work on policy and activism or journalism that contributed an important voice or argument - each awarded with USD $10,000. +Results of the award will be made public in May, during the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010. +- +On this important date for the Internet, we hope for people to urge for change. +To fight against censorship and to raise awareness on the importance of a free digital environment. +For more highlights on the struggle for freedom of speech on the web visit our page on this subject. + +The Technology for Transparency Review, Part I · Global Voices +Last month The Economist published a useful overview of how governments, geeks, and activists are coming together to make politics more transparent, elected officials held more accountable, and citizens more involved in shaping debate and policy. +To illustrate their point The Economist pointed readers to the Sunlight Foundation based in Washington DC, Britain's data.gov.uk, New Zealand's data.govt.nz and MashupAustralia, a competition organized by Australia's "Government 2.0 Taskforce" to encourage the development of applications that make effective use of public data to improve governance. +It makes a great deal of sense for The Economist to focus their attention on the US, UK, New Zealand, and Australia; all four countries have relatively high rates of internet penetration and their federal governments have shown a commitment to publishing government data in machine readable format, which can then be analyzed and re-used on websites with interactive visualizations. +But what is happening in other countries around the world where, for example, citizens might be more concerned about police bribery than campaign finance reform? +Over a three-month period eight researchers and eight research reviewers from Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, China, and Central & Eastern Europe will document around 40 case studies of technology projects that aim to promote transparency, accountability, and civic engagement. +Every two weeks we will publish an overview of their last eight case studies with the goal of promoting conversation and coming to a deeper understanding of how technology can be used to improve governance in developing democracies. +Bloggers Adopt Politicians in Brazil +Let's begin in Brazil where a pro-democracy civil society organization inspired a well known muckraking radio journalist who in turn challenged Brazilian bloggers to each "adopt a local politician" in order to keep an eye on their work and hold them accountable. +Dozens of bloggers joined immediately, but it wasn't until Everton Zanella, a web developer based in Sao Paulo, decided to list and categorize all these activist bloggers that the phenomenon turned into a cohesive movement. +Our Brazil-based researcher, Manuella Maia Ribeiro, sat down with Zanella to interview him about the successes and challenges of the project. +Fabiano Angelico, our research reviewer who is also based in Sao Paulo, congratulates the project for its focus on local accountability when so many of these types of projects are focused only on federal governments. +But he still feels that there is "room for a more efficient approach" and suggests that the bloggers should pick a monthly topic and try to raise awareness and advocate for more government data related to that one topic. +He also suggests that the project should encourage its participant bloggers to interact more with journalists, civil society organizations, and universities. +It is worth noting that a similar "adopt a politician" campaign began in Peru in 2008 when the well known journalist Rosa María Palacios asked citizens to mount pressure in order to get information about the operational expenses of national congressmen. +Juan Arellano wrote an in-depth review of the project, which is no longer active (though still has 1,500 members on Facebook) following an overwhelming resistance by most congressmen. +Promoting Collaboration Among Human Rights Groups in Cambodia +Cambodia has among the highest number of NGO's per capita anywhere in the world. +There are dozens of organizations throughout the country publishing information about human rights and human rights abuses, but they tend to file these reports on their individual websites or, worse, in lengthy PDF reports that are sent via email to their funders. +With the goal of promoting more collaboration among human rights, organizations the Cambodian Center for Human Rights has launched Sithi.org, a map-based visualization and archive of human rights violations and related news which can be filtered by category and sub-category. +Preetam Rai, our research reviewer for Southeast Asia suggests that Sithi.org make contact with Cambodian bloggers to spread more awareness about the initiative outside of just the human rights activist community. +By distributing their data via Facebook and Twitter - and by presenting the project at local tech meetups - they are more likely to attract the interest of Cambodia's enthusiastic 20-something generation of techies. +Lastly, Preetam recommends giving more visible attribution to the organizations that contribute reports to the map so that there is more of an incentive to do so. +A Twitter Tag Protest in Mexico +Can a single tag on Twitter reverse a bad policy decision by federal senators? +In Mexico "#InternetNecesario" seemed to do just that, eliminating a law that was approved by Mexico's Chamber of Deputies to impose a three percent tax on internet access. +But can Mexico's extensive community of Twitterers use the platform to influence policy that affects more than just their beloved internet? +So far we haven't found any examples, but anyone interested in organizing a political advocacy campaign via Twitter would be well served by reading this case study by Renata Avila. +She speaks with Oscar Salazar, Alberto Bustamante, and Homero Fernandez about some of the opportunities and challenges when it comes to distilling useful information from an avalanche of Twitter messages and then turning that information into offline political change. +Laura Vidal, our research reviewer for Latin America, comments that #InternetNecesario is an example of what she feels is an increasing trend of citizens taking in the slack when governments fail to consult with civil society and mainstream media fails to hold up a magnifying glass to their actions. +Better Government Through Better Maps +How we govern the land, people, resources, housing, and businesses of our communities depends on our perception of the physical space they occupy. +"Kibera, a slum in Nairobi, Kenya, has its roots in the first World War," writes Rebekah Heacock, when "the colonial government gave returning Kenyan soldiers land outside of the city center. +After Kenya's independence in 1963, new land policies made Kibera into an illegal settlement. +Despite this, the area has continued to grow. +It now houses as many as 1.2 million people and is widely considered to be one of Africa's largest slums." But until recently Kibera was largely "a blank spot on the Kenyan map" and aid organizations in the area did not share information with each other or the community at large. +Map Kibera, a project started by Erica Hagen and Mikel Maron of Open Street Map, aims to change that dynamic by getting residents of Kibera more involved in creating maps of their own community and publishing information and news about infrastructure and services that are both available and needed. +Kibera resident Douglas Namale says in a video published with the case study that the planning department has historically not had adequate geographic information about Kibera which has resulted in poor sanitation services. +The collaboratively produced map of Kibera has been integrated into the Ushahidi-based Voice of Kibera, a website that tracks news from Kibera and locates it on a map interface. +Readers can subscribe to updates via text message and/or email. +Hagen and Maron - both Americans - are committed to staying in Kenya until at least August, but they recognize the importance of long-term attention until the project becomes sustainable and completely managed by local Kibera residents. +Comparing the Promises and Performance of Politicians in Mumbai, India +Vivek Gilani, the founder of MumabaiVotes.com was tired of seeing his family and friends vote for their representatives based on the promises candidates made in the lead-up to elections rather than their actual performance while in office. +In 2004 he began building up an archive of media coverage that tracks what local politicians promised during elections and what they actually achieved once in office. +The website now includes an impressive archive of articles and videos categorized by politician, political party, and voting district. +Not every politician has a complete profile on the website, but many do. +I chose a few names at random and searched for information about them on Google; their MumbaiVotes.com profile was almost always the first search result, providing a more comprehensive overview of the politician than could be found in a single article or, most certainly, the politician's own website. +In her review comment Aparna Ray points us to Praja.org, a similar project based in Mumbai which tracks the attendance, related issues, and financial assets and liabilities of the city's elected politicians. +Both projects are pieces to a larger puzzle, but it would be nice if they shared data so that readers have a more comprehensive overview of the performance, risks, and potential biases of their elected officials. +Aparna also applauds MumbaiVotes for their offline outreach, university partnerships, and plans to print out and distribute a voter's guide in the lead-up to elections. +From "Not In My Backyard" to Greater Environmental Awareness +Without any doubt, China presents special circumstances when it comes to documenting online projects that promote transparency, accountability, and civic engagement. +Online activity is highly regulated in China and website administrators must adhere to a strict policy of what can and cannot be published online. +The difficulty of walking this line is intimated by a moderator of Jiang-Wai-Jiang, a community forum for residents living in Lijiang Garden, Baiyun District, Guangzhou. +Lijiang Garden's mostly upper-class residents used the forum to disseminate information and organize protests against a proposed waste incinerator that the government was planning to construct nearby. +Through coordinated efforts on the forum they "wrote proposals to relevant government departments, printed T-shirts with slogans, and demonstrated in front of the local supermarket," writes Carrie Yang, our China regional researcher. +Local authorities finally yielded to the protesters and announced that the incinerator would not be built in Lijiang Garden. +The moderator of the forum, however, says that the online discussions led to more than just your standard "not in my backyard" activism: residents gained a greater understanding of the China's garbage problem and have begun discussing how the community can become more ecologically sustainable. +Networking Civil Society Organizations in Zimbabwe +Finally, we end in Zimbabwe where Kubatana.net was founded in 2001 to promote greater cooperation and information sharing among civil society organizations and with the general Zimbabwean public. +Victor Kaonga spoke with Bev Clark and Amanda Atwood from Kubatana to learn more about how they aggregate information from civil society organizations and shape it into campaigns to change policy. +Their website now lists profile pages for more than 230 NGO's, stores an archive of 15,000 documents related to civil society, and claims a mailing list of around 18,000 people. +Still, examples of concrete, offline change as a result of the information collected and disseminated on Kubatana remain relatively scarce. +We are informed, however, of a recent campaign to encourage Transparency International Zimbabwe to investigate the use of revenue from toll booths which are cropping up on roads and highways around the country. +Conclusion: Small Wins, Tough Longterm Projects +Our first round of case studies show us that online platforms like Discuz!, the Chinese software that powers the Jiang-Wai-Jiang community forum, or Twitter in the case of the "#InternetNecesario" campaign, can be used effectively to reverse government policy decisions and stimulate debate about important issues like waste removal and internet access. +But both examples also reveal that such campaigns often depend on stirring the inspiration of those who are most likely to be negatively affected by the policy. +The other five case studies - Adopt a Local Politician, Sithi.org, Map Kibera, MumbaiVotes.com, and Kubatana - reveal the multiple challenges when it comes to building a sustainable community of citizen activists who are willing to regularly publish and disseminate information related to their elected officials and civic issues. +Mere internet access is one challenge, as we witnessed with Sithi.org, but basic education about the responsibilities of government and elected officials is another major challenge to the success of projects like Adopt a Local Politician in Brazil. +Two weeks from now we'll be back with another review of case studies from Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, China, and Central & Eastern Europe. +You can subscribe to our almost daily podcast of interviews with the leaders of these projects and follow us on Twitter for more updates and links to interesting news stories. + +Georgia: Mock news report causes panic · Global Voices +Crossed out logo of the channel +On Saturday 13 March, the Imedi national television broadcaster aired a mock news report stating that Russian tanks had invaded Georgia and that the president was dead. +Aired at 8pm, the usual time slot for daily news, the nation's most trusted broadcaster (according to the last year's study by Caucasus Research Resource Center) offered its audience the worst possible case scenario of what might happen a week after municipal elections scheduled for the end of May in the country's capital, Tbilisi. +According to that scenario, the opposition might seize power and turn the country into a confederation and ally of Russia. +Moreover, some Georgian troops decide not to defend President Saakashvili and instead back the opposition's temporary government. +The visuals accompanying the mock report, as well as the anchor of the program, were exactly the same as of that for a regular newscast, aside from a brief introduction informing viewers that what followed was a simulation of possible events. +Screen shot of mock report on Imedi television - RFE/RL +However, using footage from the August 2008 war with Russia presented in the format of a regular news program caused momentary panic in the country. +"Requiem of the Georgian Dream," as the producers called it, detailed an apocalyptic end to democracy in Georgia after opposition leaders Nino Burjanadze and Zurab Noghaideli, who recently befriended Russia's President, take power. +During the program, which lasted half an hour, some of those living in villages close to the conflict zone reportedly fled to nearby forests to escape what they believed were advancing Russian troops, while shocked people called for emergency help, lined up at grocery stores and ATMs, and cars queued at petrol stations, concerned that recent history was repeating itself. +The private company, which also broadcast the same program on radio, violated the Code of Conduct for Broadcasters which says that reenactments should be avoided or at least clearly identified as such, while outraged citizens staged a protest in front of the TV station. +One local blogger, Dodka was among the 300-500 people and posted updates on Facebook. +Accused by some of being a provocateur because she said she was there to protest against Imedi's actions rather than support the opposition, she also posted some photographs. +Protest in front of Imedi TV by Dodka + +Middle East: Mourning the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque · Global Voices +The Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo - by Hossam all line on Flickr +Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the Grand Sheikh of the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, Egypt has died at age 81. +Reactions to his death in Middle East blogs have varied from mourning to critical recollections of his many controversial fatwas. +Tantawi, who was regarded as one of the most important Sunni Muslim scholars, died of a heart attack during a visit to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where he was attending a prize-giving ceremony. +His son has requested for him to be buried in Saudi Arabia at ِAl-Baqi' - a holy cemetery for Muslims. +Issandr El Amrani, an American journalist living in Cairo, who blogs at The Arabist wrote a comprehensive article saying: +Tantawi leaves a mixed legacy behind him: overall, the immediate verdict may be that he was too liberal for conservatives, too conservative for liberals, too compliant with the regime for those who want al-Azhar to be independent, and too independent for those in the regime who needed Azharite support to enact policy changes on issues as varied as Palestine, banking and TV game shows. +The overall image is of a man besieged on all sides, but adept at fighting bureaucratic battles in the bloated, clerical civil service that al-Azhar has become. +Issandr also recalls some of the moments of outrage surrounding Tantawi, like when he shook hands with Israeli president, Shimon Peres at a UN-sponsored interfaith conference in New York, and another time when he lashed out at a girl who was wearing a niqab in a school classroom. +In conclusion, Issandr writes: +It is likely that Tantawi will be remembered for these controversies and his clashes with journalists — he frequently yelled at them and is said to have hit one — as well as his sometimes coarse language. +He leaves behind an unreformed al-Azhar — an institution that includes a university and a school system as well as a theological center — whose credibility has hit rock-bottom. +This may be because Tantawi was too pliant towards the regime, or because of the growth of various trends in contemporary Islam that reject al-Azhar's centrality. +Whoever replaces him — perhaps Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, another tentative modernizer — will have much work to repair al-Azhar's standing and its vitality as a place of learning. +It will also have to make difficult political decisions, especially on the issue of presidential succession, at a time when clerics are beginning to voice an opinion on the prospect of a Gamal Mubarak presidency. +Egyptian Zeinobia was among the first to mention the news on her blog : +We have disagreed a lot with the late Sheikh yet we can't deny that from the theological point of view he made a great work. +There is no doubt that politics harmed the late Sheikh still it does not matter because he is in the hands of God right now... +Maysaloon, a Muslim Syrian expat studying in UK, also wrote his opinion while mourning Tantawi's death: +I've just heard that the Sheikh of al Azhar, Mohamad Sayid al Tantawi, has passed away. +I think he was a frail old man in a difficult position, and that was what made him say some of the ridiculous things he did regarding Palestine, or shaking the hand of Peres. +I think that whilst the sensationalism of these mistakes has gotten a lot of attention, he should also be remembered for his work as the head of the second oldest university in the world. +The oldest being al Qaraween in Fez, Morroco. +The duty and responsibility of a man in his position was never going to be lightly accepted and in a time when the Arab and Islamic world's lights have never been so dim, even that such institutions exist is an achievement and defiance. +Many other bloggers from the Middle East and North Africa region commented on the news like Banat Zayed from UAE , Al Dorah from Kuwait , Mohamed Siruhan a Muslim living in Maldives, Amal Akefy from Yemen, Abdulsalam from Syria and Mayada and Loqmet Eash from Egypt. +On Twitter, the news was also at the top of topics discussed in morning. + +Akon performing in a concert. +Image from Flickr by Celso Tavares via Funchal. Used under a Creative Commons License +Akon was scheduled to visit Sri Lanka on a concert tour next month. +A couple of days ago approximately 200 people gathered outside the office of Maharaja, the broadcaster sponsoring the concert, and hurled stones injuring four people and damaging the building. +Online news portal Perambara reports: +Online opposition to the concert which started in the form of Facebook groups, has now grown to almost 13,000 in numbers, and is being supported by forwarded emails and blog posts. +The verbal opposition took a violent twist on March 22, when the offices of Capital Maharaja came under attack by a mob. +Placards left behind at the scene indicated that the attack was triggered by the proposed Akon concert. +This did not stop there and according to a news report some Buddhist monks approached the Sri Lankan government urging not to allow Akon to perform in Sri Lanka. +The Sri Lankan government turned down Akorn's visa request citing his: "controversial video images, offensive song lyrics and strong protests coming from various cultural, religious groups and organizations in the country". +Akon issued a statement saying that he was not aware of the statue and did not mean to offend. +This has become a hot topic in the Sri Lankan blogosphere. +Indrajit Samarajiva at Indi.ca finds the video annoying but criticizes the attacks: +If you want to defend Buddhism one might start by practicing it. +Rather than chatting on Facebook or (allegedly) throwing stones, that involves a little sitting quietly by yourself. +Dee at A Collision of Ideas slams the death threat to Akon in Facebook and suggests: +Perhaps we need to be a little less angry, give it a chance and see what positives we can get out of it rather than killing him and embarrassing ourselves all together. +Kalana Senaratne at Groundviews names this the rise of Sinhala-Buddhist fundamentalism: +Surely, if one or two seconds caused such anger and hatred, things would have been much more serious if the entire music video featured a Buddha statue or a temple in it. +More fundamentally, then, are these protesters who shout and scream and throw stones, including some monks, really ‘Buddhists’? +Perhaps as a nation, we have reached the stage where the kind of absurd protests that take place in the name Buddhism need to be critically analyzed. +There is a great danger in not doing so, because obviously, the impression that is sent out by the silence of those who are disturbed by such protests is that of ‘acceptance’; acceptance of every barbaric thing done in the name of Buddhism, mostly by politicians who hide behind religions. +Going Global has this to say to the Akon haters in Sri Lanka: +All accusations these kill Akon groups level against him centre around a Buddha statue used in a video of his. +Now i understand how that can be offensive; to have a couple of scantily clad ‘ho’s’ dancing around something you consider to be sacred, and if someone did that in a mosque I’d be pretty pissed off too. +But going berserk on the news that he is to perform in Sri Lanka and threatening to kill the guy is not going to help anyone. +Least of all the Sri Lankans. +A Voice in Colombo asks "is it ok for producers of the music video, to use a Buddha statue in the backdrop of that video?" +London, Lanka and Drums answers the question and wonders what God or Buddha would think about the matter. The Puppeteer has this to say about the refusal of Akon's visa: +However the blogger hopes that Akon will perform at a rescheduled date. + +Malaysia: New Economic Model · Global Voices +After months of creating anticipation for the ambitious New Economic Model (NEM), Malaysia's Prime Minister, Najib finally unveiled the first part of the plan detailing the future economic direction. +It is a major development following a series of selective liberalization measures introduced by Najib since he became the Prime Minister in 2009, constantly projected to be eloquently driving a strong message in gradual economic liberalization and overhaul of affirmative action for ethnic Malay majority in order to make the country more competitive. +The effort is much lauded especially by policy makers in mainstream press, but the citizen media abounds with skepticism. +Meanwhile Najib acknowledged the need to be more transparent about the timeline and implementation plan which will be announced later of the year. +So the questions are still centered on two key aspects: Has the government finally gathered enough political will to change? +Are there enough change agents to take up the ambitious initiative other than the PM? +South East Asian economies have always been characterized by large-state corporations, Najib has made a direct challenge to call for private-sector driven economy and reduce political patronage. +How many will embrace such ideas? +As Din Merican pointed out, Malaysia needs the drive of SMEs and entrepreneurs to turn this nation into high-income developed country. +These are the people who have been excluded from participation simply because they only have technical skills but no patronage and no intimate relationship with powerful decision makers. +Controversial writer, Raja Petra Kamarudin gave a colorful critique in Shakespearean metaphors, doubting the policy change will immediately constitute the change of heart of key implementers. +The New Economic Policy (NEP) has transformed into the National Economic Policy and now the National Economic Model. +It is certainly a change of clothes. +But is the wearer of the clothes the same? +If so then it would be old wine in a new bottle. +The affirmative action, NEP has always been at the heart of debate. +Najib promised to overhaul it into need-based rather than race-based. +But some still reserve doubts about it. +As Hafiz Noor Shams said: +Somewhere in the speech, the term market-friendly affirmative action appeared. +I am not quite bought by that term. +I rather hear the abolition of affirmative action but I am willing to give ground that need-based is far better than race-based affirmative action. +In a collection of interviews of economic policy experts, Stephanie Sta Maria highlighted polarized opinions on NEM. +Professor Lim Teck Ghee from the Centre of Policy Initiatives described the framework as pure rhetoric. +The long-term time frame of the NEM is an excuse for inaction or delaying tactics. +NEM has no short-term targets and I think it will suffer the same fate as the other ambitious policies before it. +University Malaya's Professor Edmund Terence Gomez also delivered a blunt critique that NEM is a fresh coat of gloss on old ideas. Najib says that the affirmative action policy will now be need-based instead of race-based. +Like balajoe27 articulated: The fact is NEM is still in its infant stage – there are good items under the NEM but whether it turns out to be another one-sided policy by another name or it can be implemented effectively, it will remain to be seen. Raja Petra Kamarudin + +Egypt: Excellent Cat Meows for President Mubarak · Global Voices +Mo-ha-med posted a note about Mumtaz El Qott's article where he mentioned that Egyptians want to get visas to Germany to wish President Mubarak a speedy recovery after his surgery. +Mo-ha-med writes: + +Poland: President Kaczyński is Killed in Plane Crash in Russia - Initial Reactions · Global Voices +The news of the plane crash in Western Russia, which killed the President Lech Kaczyński, his wife and dozens of other senior Polish officials this morning, is reaching the entire blogosphere, as well as the mainstream media now. +The President was traveling to Katyn, to take part in commemoration of the anniversary of the 1940 Katyn Forest massacre. +Both Twitter and its Polish mirror service Blip.pl host initial reactions to the catastrophe. +People are shocked. +KissMeJoeJ is posting: + +Thailand: Last images from camera of slain reporter · Global Voices +Reuters uploaded photos from the camera of its slain photographer Hiro Muramoto who was covering the Red Shirt protest in Thailand. +An investigation is ongoing about how the crackdown on the protest became violent last Saturday. + +Cambodia: Khmer New Year 2010 · Global Voices +It’s Happy Khmer New Year in Cambodia, celebrating the year of the tiger. + +Cameroon: E-Government for Southern Nations · Global Voices +Hervé Djia reflects on how governments could use information technology to simplify a multitude of administrative procedures and improve public services (fr). + +China: School killings and social pathology · Global Voices +Within 5 weeks, there were 5 school killings in China. +All the victims are innocent primary and kindergarten school kids, while all the murderers are also victims of social injustice. +The problem of the cold-blooded murders comes from society, but again, mainstream media are told not to further investigate the cases. +Here is a summary of the 5 killing cases + +Kyrgyzstan: The "Archived" Revolution · Global Voices +On April 6th, Kyrgyzstan a mountainous country in Central Asia, was hit by mass protests which eventually led to the overthrow of the government. +Regional administrators were seized by protesters, and the army and police switched sides to the opposition, leaving President Kurmanbek Bakiev with almost no support. +The riots have not been bloodless - the recent unrest has so far left almost 74 people dead and more than 500 wounded - unlike a previous peaceful "Tulip revolution" in 2005. +The two uprisings are not dissimilar. +Only five years ago, it was Bakiev who came to the Ala-Too square in the center of Kyrgyz capital demanding the resignation of former president Askar Akayev. +Now, it is Bakiev himself who has had to flee the capital amidst roaring crowds led by opposition leader Roza Otunbaeva. +Kyrgyzstan cultural-political divisions, map source: Wikimedia The roots of the present revolution are various: South vs. North clash (Bakiev is from the South, the rebels are from the North), corruption and suppressive government (in recent years Kyrgyz people witnessed all forms of oppression from closings of the newspapers to independent journalists' murders , Russia's Great Game interest, Ortega-y-Gasset'ian "revolt of the masses", etc. +Whatever the real reasons of the Kyrgyz revolution of 2010 are, it is important to note that it was overwhelmingly immediate, furious, bloody and... well-documented. +The role of the new media changed slightly this time compared to other dramatic events (like the protests in Moldova or Iran). +Blogs and Twitter didn't serve as serious means of public mobilization since the Internet penetration rate is relatively small in Kyrgyzstan ( just 15 percent in 2009). +However, new media were agile enough to cover all the main events giving detailed footage of initial protests in Talas, rampage in Bishkek and looting that followed. +At the same time, new media were efficiently used by the opposition attracting the attention of international community and shifting public opinion to the side of the protesters. +The opposition leader Roza Otunbaeva (@otunbaeva), for instance, registered her account as soon as she became the head of the provisional government. +On the other day, son of president Bakiev, Maxim opened a LiveJournal account to express the pro-government point of view. +As Gregory Asmolov concluded , it was not "journalists 2.0″ who were the most efficient in covering Kyrgyz events but the "editors 2.0″. Bloggers who both knew the region and were outside the country to see the big picture and collected the photographs, videos and Twitter confessions. +Two most informed bloggers in this situation were people outside the country: US-based Yelena Skochilo (a.k.a. LJ user morrire) and Kazakhstan-based Vyacheslav Firsov (a.k.a. lord_fame). +They managed to assemble the most complete collections of photos, videos and timelines. +Another "winners" in the coverage are the local blog-portals namba.kz, kloop.kg, issyk-kulpress.kg (as well as traditional news sites like internews.kg, neweurasia.net and 24.kg), forum diesel.elcat.kg and a wordless webcam showing Ala-Too square (its screenshots were captured and transmitted by many bloggers). +Twitter hashtags #freekg (the major hashtag of the event), #bishkek, #kyrgyzstan and #talas, although filled with re-tweets and various provocations, made it possible for English-speaking audience to follow the events as well. +Despite nation-wide problems with the Internet on April 6 and 7 (the government forces blocked several popular websites "Azattyk" (RFERL), 24.kg, ferghana.ru, LJ user sabinareingold reported), the Kyrgyz revolution came out to be very well-documented. +Registan.net, comparing the events with Andijan massacre, wrote: +The information coming out of Kyrgyzstan is not always reliable. It is often biased, short-sighted, confusing and contradictory. +But it is giving us a view of Kyrgyzstan that demands our attention — not only now, but in the months and years to come, when we look back on these events and try to piece together what happened +Since the information was so vast, so there was a systematized list of events and materials gathered and published by the bloggers. +April 6th, Talas +The revolution began on April 6 in Talas , north-western Kyrgyzstan, where the local people stormed the local administration. +The same happened in Naryn a couple of hours earlier. +On the next day, almost all regional capitals except Bishkek in the North of Kyrgyzstan were controlled by the opposition. +Photos of Talas City administration storming, Talasmost.kg Photos of Talas city administration after the storm, NewEurasia.net +April 7th, Bishkek rampage +The most important events happened on April 7 in Bishkek. +The opposition meeting turned to an open conflict. +When protesters (who somehow acquired arms) started to storm the Presidential palace after defeating police forces, the presidential guards started firing at them in an attempt to stop the attackers. +Witnesses said several snipers killed at least 20 people (others were killed by grenades and open fire). +Pictures of clashes with police, 24.kg Complete set of videos of Bishkek rampage, namba.kz Looting of Bakiev's house, sabinareingold Set of pictures of clashes with police, lord_fame Pictures of the explosions at the Ala-Too square, abstract2001 Set of pictures from the Ala-Too square, abstract2001 +Video of the storm: +Another video: +The police was unable to stop the protesters and left the building. +President Bakiev left for the unknown location on his plane. +On April 8, there was information that he landed in Osh (south of the country), and moved to his native village near Jalalabad. +He refused to abdicate. +The Osh region is among those that aren't controlled by the opposition so far. +It is still unclear what will happen to Bakiev. +April 8, Revolution aftermath +After the opposition forces won Bishkek, they confronted another serious danger: the looters. +Various bloggers reported omni-presence of looters (sometimes armed). +In the evening, the looters were stopped by newly established police and volunteer brigades with white bandage on their hands. +The last messages from the blogs said that the situation in Bishkek stabilized. +Pictures of the people next to presidential palace, Jamila Kulova Flickr set with photos of Bishkek streets, Yelena Skochilo Broken windows of the shops in Bishkek, Vyacheslav Firsov Pictures of Bishkek, Valery Georgiadi + +Photo Contest of CSIS Southeast Asia Program · Global Voices +The CSIS Southeast Asia Program is organizing a photo contest to feature images taken in Southeast Asia that demonstrate the importance of communication and cooperation - across countries, races and religions. + +Armenia-Azerbaijan: BBC Azeri Facebook Diary · Global Voices +This post is part of our special coverage Caucasus Conflict Voices. As part of the BBC Superpower Season, the BBC's Azeri service approached Global Voices Online's Caucasus editor to participate in its own reflection on the power of the Internet. +Locked into a bitter stalemate over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, BBC Azeri were specifically interested in how new and social media could bring the two warring sides together. +What follows is part one of the series, originally published yesterday in Azerbaijani, translated or using the original texts in English. +Two more parts will follow today and tomorrow. +The BBC Superpower season is in March. +In these programs we discussed the power of Internet and the way it affects the lives of people. +The Internet has brought big changes to the lives of people starting from personal relations to business contacts. +New media has opened up a new way not only for journalists. +It has also inspired an audience and civil society towards free thought and social activism. +The wide use of social media has changed cultural and political values throughout the world. +People are willing to communicate, participate and share their thoughts. +This new online project prepared by the Azeri service of the BBC within this Internet season is called Facebook diary. +Every day the participants of this project will follow social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and share their observations with readers of this site. +The first part of our Facebook diary is called Social media and conflict resolution. +As an observation, the main purpose of using Facebook is about the opportunities offered to users of social media as well as using it as a think-tank platform. +What opportunity does social media offer to peace activists from Armenia and Azerbaijan? +Can new media tools change the current situation? +What are the negative effects of social media in the light of nationalists using new media for an attack on the “enemy”? +Answers to these questions will be given by diarists writing on “Social media and conflict resolution” - Arzu Qeybullayeva from Azerbaijan and Onnik Krikorian from Armenia. +Arzu Qeybullayeva is a regional analyst in Baku, has a blog and conducts trainings on social media. +Focusing on the positive Browsing through status updates on Facebook, I come across one by an Azeri friend of mine, who posted a link as his status. +I was also inspired as the caption of it read “Organizer of this event is my friend, mets ashkhatavor (great worker) Georgi Vanyan!” +This is just one of numerous examples on Facebook. one of the most popular social networks used by millions today. +Also part of a new phenomenon, new social media such as Facebook has become a platform for Azerbaijanis and Armenians to share their similarities and differences, talk about politics, culture, life, and art etc. The use of Facebook, Twitter, and blogs in the Caucasus, and especially in Armenia and Azerbaijan, have all in their own ways opened up new opportunities for youth living in the two countries. +If I was told back then that in few years I would be holding trainings on new social media such as Facebook, I would probably have dismissed that idea as, and also found it, somewhat ridiculous. However, fast forward five years, and I cannot conceal my excitement every time I talk about this to an audience of Azerbaijani, Armenian and Georgian youth, sharing the positive experiences I have had and citing an incredible amount of positive feedback on my work on building cross-country dialogue. As a result, I have met many Armenian talented young minds and also taken part in what was a spontaneous and unexpected trip to an ethnically Azeri-populated village in Georgia with a journalist from Yerevan, Onnik Krikorian. +We then shared our experience on the Internet via Facebook, personal blogs, and of course, Twitter. The amount of positive feedback we received was incredible, demonstrating that things can change in a positive way, and that not only can both Azerbaijanis and Armenians work together, but they can also co- exist together. +Onnik Krikorian is the Caucasus regional editor of Global Voices Online as well as a freelance journalist and photojournalist based in Yerevan, Armenia. The Human Touch: Online personal communication between Armenians and Azerbaijanis +The Internet has changed lives the world over, especially when it comes to news and access to information, but the situation is not quite the same in the South Caucasus. +Albeit slowly changing, going online had been the preserve for the fortunate few and until recently mainly via dial-up. +Even so, costs still remain prohibitive for many, especially in the less well-developed regions of the three countries making up the South Caucasus. +Plagued by political instability and ethnic conflict, especially between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, those that did have access to the Internet were also more likely to use it to continue the war online rather than strive for peace. +Yet, if the Internet was once used by both sides to spread negative propaganda and sometimes misinformation about the other, there is now the possibility to achieve the opposite. +Telephone lines may be monitored or blocked, but those Armenians and Azerbaijanis wanting to communicate with each other can now do so on a daily basis via email, blogs, and micro-blogging sites such as Twitter. +They can also speak to each other thanks to Skype. +Previously influenced by a usually less than objective and often nationalistic local media, Facebook in particular allows both to glimpse into the lives of each other free from negative stereotypes. +True, nationalists on both sides continue to use the same tools for the opposite purpose, but their previous monopoly on disseminating partisan propaganda is now being broken, especially as Internet penetration increases in both countries. +Over the coming days, Arzu Geybullayeva and I will be looking into both the positive and negative use of the Internet in the context of Armenian and Azerbaijani relations. +Since we first made contact online a year and a half ago, it has become increasingly obvious that online tools offer an unprecedented opportunity to break the information blockade and restore open communication between the two sides. +However, to start the ball rolling, there's probably no better place to look than everyone's favourite Facebook as well as the newest (online) kid on the block, Twitter. +Although those opposed to peace may have set up countless hate groups on Facebook, they have failed to counter huge progress in personal relations and communication via personal user pages. +The same is true for Twitter, where alternative voices have drowned out the propagandists. +Both have also managed to remind others of one reality forgotten by many since the ceasefire agreement between the two warring countries was signed in 1994. +That is, Armenians and Azerbaijanis have more in common than some would care to admit. +This weekend, for example, marked the beginning of Novruz, a festival celebrated in Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkey, among others, marking the beginning of spring. +Not only did many Azerbaijanis on Facebook update their status lines or post photos marking the holiday, but so too did some Armenians, especially those who recognize the Persian influence on both cultures. +One of those was Liana Aghajanian, an Iranian-Armenian now living in the U.S. +“ being Armenian doesn’t symbolize an all inclusive club where only one set of traditions are observed and one language spoken. +We are an amazingly diverse group of ancient people, who have, through the years, influenced and been influenced by a set of beautifully rich and magnetizing cultures, and denying this would be doing a disservice. +I guess what I’m trying to say is that simply speaking, diversity is good. +Embrace it. ” +After her post, a brief conversation followed with an Azerbaijani on Twitter, noting the similarities between Novruz and Trndez, an Armenian holiday likely with the same origin, but radically changed to fit into the church calendar after Armenia adopted Christianity in 301AD. +This reality is a perfect counter to comments from former Armenian president Robert Kocharian in the 2000s saying that Armenians and Azerbaijanis were “ethnically incompatible.” +A year ago, such open communication was unheard of, but now there are many such examples of civil, polite and friendly discussions taking place as comments on blog posts, as tweets, and on the Facebook pages of like-minded individuals. +Indeed, that will be the message Arzu and I share with the audience during our co-presentation next month at a social media conference in Tbilisi, Georgia. +Just don't expect such a reality to be conveyed by the local media in either country. +For now, it’s only to be found online. +Of course, the negative still exists as well, but more on that as our observations continue. +The original text in Azerbaijani is available on the BBC Azeri web site. +Many thanks to Konul Khalilova for permission to post a version in English. +The main collaboration between the BBC and Global Voices Online for the Superpower Season is here. This post is part of our special coverage Caucasus Conflict Voices. + +Bangkok clashes: Pictures, Videos and Twitter reports · Global Voices +From the twitpic page of wassayos +Thailand Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will not back down as he ordered the military to continue the operations against Red Shirt protesters in Bangkok. +Abhisit insists the violent dispersal of protesters is justified to bring back stability in the capital. +He also accused a minority of Red Shirt “terrorists” of trying to instigate more violence in the country. +The Red Shirts have been protesting in the streets for the two months already. +They are demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister whom they accuse of being illegitimate and undemocratic. +They also want the Prime Minister to dissolve the parliament and call for new elections. +There were negotiations to settle the protest peacefully but they bogged down a few days ago. +The initial members of the Red Shirt movement were supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra but today the Red Shirt is also composed of groups and individuals who want democratic reforms in Thai society. +What happened in Bangkok in the past 24 hours? Here is a timeline of events provided by the The Thai Report +11:00 - Red leader: Conflict has come too far to negotiate... +11:45 - Civilians hit by sniper fire... +12:00 - “People grabbing food like crazy” in Bangkok Tops... +12:15 - Assassination rumors... +12:15 - Army snatches another body... +12:15 - Heavy sniper fire in Lumpini Park... +12:30 - Bodies disappearing... +12:45 - Injured for 30 minutes before died... +14:00 - Flash cameras draw gunfire... +14:15 - Protesters buildup defenses... +14:30 - Reporters being banned from conflict zone... +15:15 - Protesters advance towards troops on Rama IV... +15:15 - Japanese embassy staff trapped... +15:45 - 7 lifeless bodies spotted outside hotel... +16:20 - Lots of gunfire around Rajprasong... +16:30 - Australian tourists trapped in hotel... +16:30 - U.S. embassy offers to evacuate families of staff... +16:35 - Huge explosions rock Bon Kai... +17:00 - CRES complains about “distorted international media”... +17:05 - Shot in the head while rescuing injured... +17:10 - 1,000 peaceful reds will walk to Rama IV... +18:45 - Government: Don’t blame us... +18:45 - Red shirts demand ceasefire... +18:50 - “Military isn’t going to take its toys and go home”... +23:00 - Death toll at 22... +23:15 - The fury outside my window... +23:45 - New weapon, mortar shells... +23:50 - Media asked to leave Silom, military action expected... +00:10 - Report of police fighting soldiers... +00:50 - Monks pray for peace at Victory Monument... +01:00 - Deployment of more soldiers... +01:40 - Sniper fire still heard... +02:05 - Policeman says military ready to make an offensive... +03:00 - 24 dead, 180 injured and the vast majority are civilians... +03:45 - PM Abhisit “No turning back”... +From the twitpic page of DeanOut +Eyewitness accounts have been uploaded on the web. +For example, Nick Nostitz was inside the "killing zone”. +Vaitor and Riding out the Economy also posted their observations of the clashes. +A Facebook user posted this entry, “What should I feel when I wake up one day with the dead bodies of Thais in front of my house?” +But netizens are questioning the authenticity of this expose. +Are they fake dead bodies? +Tweetphoto from aleithead +Kishen, writing for New Mandala, is worried about the social, political and economic impact of the ongoing clashes +But everyone is fighting it out without considering the enormous economic and political ramification to Thailand as a whole. +Thailand’s economic growth for the year will be badly hampered if matters prolong. +As it is this year’s drought will have a telling impact on country’s exports of agri-produce. +As such, the wounds inflicted on Thailand’s psyche and image in the next few days could have a lasting impact on Thailand future growth as a nation. +That’s a greater wound that all the grenades, .308 bullets and armoured personal carriers can inflict on the Thai people +News in Bangkok speculates that journalists were deliberately targeted by snipers +I suspected that the shooting of the reporters seemed intentional. +I suspected that the intentional targeting of reporters were to prevent them from filming the carnage. +I now feel more confident that I am right. +Jon, via Greg to Differ, writes about the role of social media in monitoring the Bangkok clashes +Social media has played a major role in reporting the details of the Bangkok protests across the world. +Powerful images, compelling video footage, personal accounts and opinion have been amplified by Twitter, Facebook and blogs to the point where social media is a valuable accompaniment to media reports. +Tweetphoto by naelkung +Twitter reactions about the raging urban battles in Bangkok +ellymedan: Please don't believe what you see on CNN about #Thailand. +Very pro the #redshirt who has taken #Bangkok hostage +sutatip_b: RT @BangkokBill: In light of everything last night I think it is now fair to say that there is a #redshirt protest and a redshirt insurgency +seacorro: Has anyone actually seen with their own eyes a #redshirt with a gun or more to the point firing one? +Ive seen makeshift weapons onl +tulpin: i guess the #redshirt leaders will hold people hostage like this and try to find a way to flee the scene when they have the opportunity +Tweetphoto by aleithead + +Lebanon: Support the Water Taxi Project · Global Voices +The Beirut Water Taxi Project is a new idea to help reduce congestion on Beirut's busy roads. +It is currently being studied by the Lebanese government. +Show your support for the idea by joining the Facebook group. + +Morocco: Are Christians at Risk? · Global Voices +In early March, observers watched as around 20 long-time Christian orphanage workers were expelled from the country they called home. +The incident, and others which followed it, have brought to light the debate surrounding Christianity in the Kingdom. +While the official Moroccan line is that 98.7-99 per cent of the population is Muslim (the remainder being approximately 1% Christian and 0.2% Jewish), that statistic includes ethnic Europeans residing in Morocco. +Proselytizing is illegal, as is conversion away from Islam. +Still, foreign Christians are allowed to practice freely, and a number of churches, mostly from the era of French colonization, remain. +In contrast, the country's tiny Jewish population is almost entirely native, and is also allowed free practice of their faith. +Despite guarantees of freedom, it would appear that the government is taking a stronger approach of late to proselytism, both real and perceived. +The Moroccan Dispatches shares a recent incident in which an Egyptian Catholic priest was expelled from the country: +Evangelicals have operated for years in Morocco, with their main purpose being the conversion of Muslims. +Catholics have operated for longer, but purposefully have not engaged in proselytizing. +So it came as a surprise that a Catholic priest was also detained and then exported during last week's crackdown. +The blogger shares a message he received from a Catholic priest working in Morocco: +On Sunday the 7th of March, five minutes before mass began; the police in the city of Larache entered our friary and arrested one of our confrères, Rami Zaki, a young Egyptian friar still in initial formation who was spending a year with us. +He was ordered to go with the police, had no possibility to collect anything, and was given no explanation for his arrest... ...When Rami was put on the plane, his passport was taken from him and given to the pilot who later surrendered it with Rami to the police in Cairo. +He was detained by the police in Cairo for another seven hours for interrogation before he was permitted to telephone his community of friars. +From Sunday, the morning of his arrest, to Tuesday afternoon, when he was released – a total of more than 50 hours – Rami was deprived by the police in Morocco and Egypt of any of his human rights. +In another post, the blogger demonstrates that the public has joined in the crackdowns, citing a recent incident in which a cross was removed from its site of many years: +Where a cross once hung in Meknés +This is the place where a cross used to hang in Meknes' medina. +The Catholics who teach Moroccans languages and career skills in this building do not engage in proselytism but have caught up in the anti-Christian sentiment following the recent expulsions of Christians. Last week, the cross was knocked down and beaten into pieces. +On a positive note, Moroccans who have benefited from their services have volunteered to reconstruct the cross. +This jives with my experience: a number of Moroccans I know have had long conversations with Christian missionaries about religion and none have converted. Some defended Islam while smoking hashish just to piss off the Christians, it that gives you an idea of how many Moroccans understand their Islamic identity. This observation about foreign missionaries, of course, undermines the rationale behind the recent expulsions of many foreigners. + +16 Years Later, the Rwandan Genocide Remembered · Global Voices +On April 7th, Rwanda commemorated the 16th anniversary of the genocide that took the lives of as many as 800,000 people and traumatized a whole region to this day. +The genocide is commemorated to keep the memory of the victims alive and honor them but also to help the country move forward in the spirit of unity and reconciliation. +Survivors of the genocide recall those 100 days when humanity as a whole failed them immensely and consistently. +Many of them are involved in the reconstruction process, creating networks to sustain coexistence. +In the aftermath of French president Sarkozy recent visit to Kigali and acknowledging in a joint press conference with President Kagame that "mistakes were made" in 1994 (fr), bloggers discuss the meaning of Genocide Memorial Day (although commemorations really last a week) and the complexity of Rwanda's international relations. +Tutsi survivor Norah Bagarinka recalls how she was stopped by militiamen but was eventually saved by one of them who happened to be her gardener: He took us, my other and three other ladies, aside on the other bush. +And he apologized. +The project Voices of Rwanda records the life stories of Rwandans - not just stories about the genocide, but about their lives as whole. This testimony from a survivors explain why she feels compelled to remember and provide her testimony: +" If I die without telling my story here, my lineage will be snuffed out" +(For more details on Voices of Rwanda, read the article on The Hub at Witness) +Blogger Mamadou Kouyate posts an article on the recollection of a group of Australian soldiers from the UN peacekeeping team of the Kibeho massacre: +"Many of the vets have a lot of guilt about what happened because they were not able to do the best they could do to save lives. +They could not do anything to defend those who couldn't defend themselves." +"All that seemed to remain was the stench of genocide and children abandoned by war pathetically wandering the streets, traumatised by the death and destruction they had witnessed." +The commemoration in Amohoro (Peace) Stadium were followed by 20,000 people in a calm and uplifting atmosphere. +Sara Strawczynski provides a description of the Walk to Remember in the streets of Kigali: +During my months living and working as a Kiva Fellow in Rwanda, I’ve had a hard time reconciling what I know to have taken place with what I experience day-to-day. +Kigali is a safe, clean and beautiful city. +The countryside is lush and stunning. +That said, signs of Rwanda’s genocide are never far beneath the surface we passed two groups of prisoners, easily identifiable in their pink, orange and blue jumpsuits. +Rwanda’s prisons are filled with people accused and convicted of genocide and war crimes, and its incarceration rate is among the highest in the world. +Jenny Clover attended a commemoration at the Church of Nyamata where 10,000 people were killed: +The church at Nyamata is filled with the clothes of all 10,000 people who died there – thousands and thousands of shirts, dresses, socks and trousers piled on church pews. +They start to blur into one after a while – just a muddy pile of tatty clothes, pulled from a mass grave where the murderers tried to cover up what they had done. +There's a lot more to say about the memorial at Nyamata: the rows and rows of skulls neatly lined up in the cold underground crypt, some with clean machete cuts right though them.. +This is the second time that Jina Moore is in Rwanda during Memorial Day. +She is torn between "the obligation to attend and the urge to stay away": +Many are marking something they know from memory; others are remembering the loss of family, even if they were abroad and did not face genocide themselves. +But this is not my memory. +Without a doubt, I will spend the better part of today thinking of my friends who are survivors, and thinking of the family they lost who, through my friends' stories, feel almost like people I knew, too. Perhaps I will mark some part of the day with those friends. +Perhaps not. +There is often discussion among the mzungus here of whether it's intrusive of us to go to these programs, or on the other hand whether it's disrespectful not to. +I don't think there's a rule. +Many local bloggers have also reacted to the complex relations between Rwanda and the international community. +Stephane Ballong explains that the relation between Rwanda and France is still a bit tense (fr): + +Japan: Prime Minister Hatoyama resigns · Global Voices +Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced his resignation on Wednesday, after just 8 months in office. +Tobias Harris at Observing Japan comments on the news . + +Palestine: "Gaza wanted to greet you as victors" · Global Voices +People throughout the Middle East - and around the world - have been shocked and outraged at the news of the deaths on board the Freedom Flotilla early on Monday. +Palestinian bloggers reacted immediately to the news of Israel's raid on the Gaza-bound aid ships. +Freedom Flotilla - On The Way (photo by FreeGaza, reproduced under Creative Commons Licence) +The students writing at Life on Bir Zeit Campus (Birzeit is a university in the West Bank) are astounded at Israel's actions: +What they have done in the early hours of today is unfathomable. +It is senseless. +It is horrific, unnecessary, and brutal. +The worst feeling is that of desolate hopelessness, knowing that you can't do anything, while these good souls on the flotilla have suffered death and injury and terrorizing at the hands of mentally challenged state. +Mutasharrid is a blogger from Gaza who is currently studying in the West Bank, and he writes about his feelings towards the passengers of the flotilla: Free people of the world. +Terrorists with an order from the army. +No, you didn't break the siege. +Your toes did not reach the shores, fertilised by Huda's tears and the blood of her sisters. +You did not built the sand castle of freedom there. +But you broke - may my soul be sacrificed for you - something bigger. +You broke the crystal image of the state built on make-up and falseness. +Into the sea, you threw its fake mask, and showed the fangs of a naval fleet, which was on full alert for a box of medicine and a wheelchair. +Freedom Flotilla - Banner (photo by FreeGaza, reproduced under Creative Commons Licence) +Ola, who blogs at From Gaza, writes in a post called Pirates of the Mediterranean: أو انه اصبح مقصورا على الخيال في أفلام هوليوود +فكر مرة أخرى ! +أما أنتم يا شهداء أسطول الحرية .. +أردات غزة ان تستقبلكم كفاتحين .. فاستقبلتكم السماء كشهداء +تبكيكم امواج البحر والنوارس وشمس الغروب .. +For those who thought that the age of pirates had passed... +Or that it had become confined to fantasy in Hollywood movies… +Think again! +You, the martyrs of the freedom flotilla... +Gaza wanted to greet you as victors…but heaven greets you as martyrs... +The waves of the sea and the seagulls and the sunset all mourn for you... + +South Africa: Finding Common Ground Amidst “Race War” · Global Voices +South Africans are definitely not colour blind. +Forty-odd years of apartheid has ensured that the concept of race is entrenched in the hearts and minds of many citizens of Mzansi (as the country is known locally). +The dawn of democracy in 1994 gave birth to hopes of an equal society, free from the prejudices of the discriminatory laws that kept South Africans apart for so long. +However, sixteen years on, it is becoming increasingly evident that race and its associated stigmas, is a hurdle that South Africans are struggling to overcome. +Together as one! +Source:myweku.com +Judging from the blogosphere, it seems that South Africans are weary of being labeled and truly long to find common ground. +Ryland Fisher articulates these feelings: +In fact, I have been amazed when I travel overseas and we are all just considered to be South Africans, because that is where we come from. +However, as soon as we return home, we again attach our various identities. +So then we become African or African black or black African, coloured or so-called coloured, Indian, Chinese (or black), white or in the minds of some people who would like to perpetuate apartheid, European. +We disintegrate into Xhosas and Zulus, Tswanas and Pedis, Vendas or Sothos. +We become Tamils or Hindus, Muslims or Christians or Jews. +I am not saying that there is something wrong with all these multiple identities but when we use our identities as a weapon against others, as we tend to do in South Africa, then I think there is a problem. +Using “identities as a weapon,” as Ryland has stated, is something that South Africans are all too familiar with. +It is sometimes termed as “flashing a race card”. +It seems that race is often used to try to win over an argument or make a certain point. +In fact, the term race card became so popular that enterprising young South Africans actually produced tangible cards and marketed them as can be found here. +Be that as it may, wading further through the matrix of the web, one gets a palpable sense that change is in the air. +It seems that South Africans from all walks of life are transforming, irrespective of the divisions that are so widely reported about in mainstream media. +David Gemmell’s words are truly optimistic about the state of race relations in South Africa: +A few years ago, when my daughter was at junior school, we arranged for me to collect her and a friend, to go to movies. +When confirming our plans I asked which friend she would be bringing. +"Mel," she said. +"Remind me, who is Mel?" I asked in typically vague father style. +"She's the slightly plump girl with glasses that came to my party - you've met her." +When I picked them up, the most striking thing about Mel was that she was black. +My 14-year-old daughter didn't seem to think the colour of someone's skin was useful to describe people. +All my friends have similar stories. +One-Eye-Only has a similar experience: +Yup, the white folks and the black folks and the coloured folks and old folks and young folks and gay folks and breeder folks all danced together. +If Nelson Mandela had seen it he would have orgasmed. +South African folks, dancing together, to classic South African music. +Really, this divisive shit we like to espouse all day gets over-ridden by what happens when we all get together with a few drinks… +The upcoming FIFA World Cup has also contributed towards the surge in South African pride and togetherness. +Many South Africans have displayed the pride and confidence that they have in the nation by displaying South African flags on their cars, as African Crisis explains: +The interesting thing is that it is not only black motorists who are flying the flags. +A surprising number of white drivers have flags on their cars +Perhaps Dogs of War delivers the current sentiment the best, +South Africa belongs to all of us. +A guaranteed way to for all to succeed is for South Africa to succeed. +Take my word, South Africa will succeed. + +Censorship in Singapore · Global Voices +In a space of a month, Singapore authorities caused a major uproar when they banned a film of an ex-political prisoner and arrested a British author who wrote a book about the death penalty in Singapore. +Picture taken from The Online Citizen +On 12 July 2010, the Media Development Authority announced its decision to ban a film (starting from 14 July 2010) depicting Dr Lim Hock Siew speaking publicly on his experience being detained under the Internal Security Act. +The film was filmed by Director Martyn See. +Mr See was also asked to remove the film from YouTube. +You can read the transcripts of the film here. +Singaporean blogger, Lucky Tan called for the truth to be told: +Basically what MICA is saying is they banned this film because they want only the truth to be told and this film is full of falsehoods, lies and distortions. +Dr Lim Hock Siew was detained for 20 years without trial. +During that period, the PAP govt had all the time to show the evidence and tell the truth so that we can all see how wonderful a job the ISD has done to protect us from evil. +We are all still waiting. +Picture taken from Jacob Geroge +On 18th July, British author Alan Shadrake was arrested by Singapore police in his hotel on charges of 'criminal defamation', a day after his book, Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock, which was critical of the Singapore judicial system was launched. +His book was also taken off major bookstores in Singapore. +He was detained for two days in which Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders called for his release. +Singapore socio-political blog, The Online Citizen wondered why Mr Shadrake was charged with criminal defamation: +Alan Shadrake’s book “Once a Jolly Hangman” makes for uncomfortable reading. +The book might have made those in power uncomfortable enough to arrest Mr Shadrake on the rarely used draconian charge of criminal defamation. +A Singaporean blog, Chemical Generation Singapore, wrote: +With the arrest of Shadrake, the whole issue is less about the death penalty, and more about where we draw the line on supposed foreign intervention. +Cracking down on local politicians getting foreign money and logistics is fine with me. +But turning the screws on a foreigner in his book launch, although the foreigner is like a taunting Oliver Fricker and asking for it, is a bit too much in my book. +Unless there is more than meets the eye here +Political Activist, Chee Siok Chin accused the Government of having 'dirty secrets': +Now, which authoritarian regime would want to have it’s “dirty little secrets” blown opened in a book? +The same goes for Dr. Lim Hock Siew’s speech that was put up by Martyn See on Youtube. +Of course Martyn had to comply with the MDA who required him to take it down. +After all, Dr. Lim spoke about his unlawful 19-year detention without trial by the ISD. +Again, which oppressive regime would want to have the truth told about how it entrenches its power blown open in a video clip that can be accessed by all? + +South Korea: Halting Corporal Punishment In Schools Met With Opposition · Global Voices +South Korean society is buzzing with the old issue of corporal punishment on student, as an elementary teacher smacking, beating and kicking his students got leaked into public. +The corporal punishment, a widely discussed but practically ignored issue for decades in Korea, became the center of a controversy as the Seoul Education Office dismissed the teacher immediately and ordered a halt on physical punishment in every school. +This is a video of Mr. Oh, an elementary school teacher in Seoul beating his students. +The video was recorded by one of the students and later released to public by the parent’s association. +One of the students punished on that same day was taken was found out to be suffering from leukemia. +Oh was quite infamous in his school, even to the point students gave him a fearful nickname of Oh Jang-pong (掌風: Palm Blast) as Oh often smacked students by his palm, making them fell down to the ground. +The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education took a swift and unprecedentedly strong action. +It declared a full-out abolition of corporal punishment in every school starting from this coming fall semester and is considering enacting a ‘Student’s Human Rights Regulation’ to protect student's basic rights which customarily ignored. +Most Korean bloggers have greeted the news with enthusiasm, strongly supporting it as a long overdue measure. +The middle-aged conservative people, who themselves were the victims of corporal punishment in schools, however, are giving a suspicious look on the effectiveness of the new moves. +The Korean Federation of Teacher's Associations are expressing downright opposition to the news, worrying the abolition of corporal punishment may deteriorate the already undermined teacher’s authority. +The corporal punishment is not a legit way of teaching as defined by Korean education law which states teachers should ‘teach students with disciplines without inflicting physical pains with exception of inevitable cases’. +The loophole created by the vagueness of the ‘inevitable cases’ has caused confusion and misinterpretation. +Majority of bloggers are showing their absolute approvals to the Seoul Education Office’s decision. +The blogger OmegaPassion commented that it is time to redefine the word ‘Gyo-Pyeon’, a commonly used term in Korea referring the teacher’s post but which literally means a teacher’s rod or a teacher’s whip, interpreting the violent practice as the crisis of the democracy. + +India: Fair, Lovely and Facebooked · Global Voices +Image Courtesy Bhatnaturally A new Facebook app has been creating some controversy in India. +The Facebook app, launched by Vaseline, is a product line owned by Unilever lets users lighten the skin colour on their profile pictures. +It is not the first time that desirability of 'fairness' has been discussed in the Indian blogosphere. However, the app in question promotes a product that targets men, which is a relatively new trend. +In one way, these advertisements are certainly progressive in their inclusion of men in the “fairness” conversation. In response to Le Sigh's post, a comment by Sneha, who works for an advertising agency, highlights some of the reasons for men becoming the target of fairness cream manufacturers. +Men in urban India today are much more concerned about their looks today than they were before. +Today, whether at the workplace or outside, many men are more in touch with women who match their income level and job status. +Also, as more relationships develop outside the arranged marriage system and dating before marriage becomes more common, men are beginning to feel an increased pressure to be groomed and appear attractive to these women. ... +Fairness has been an age old obsession in Indian culture, and we find that in group discussions and interviews with men, when asked if there was one thing they could change, it would be their skin colour.. +Suhail at Rantings of a Homesick Lunatic discusses the subliminal racism that exists in India, where preference to lighter skin is deeply entrenched in many communities. +This preference can manifest in many ways. +Some pretty obvious observations are the film industry, and down south females need to have milky-white skin to be able to land the big roles along side "superstars", who are sometimes on the other end of the skin color spectrum, but that's more sexist than racist. +It became pretty apparent to me that camera-facing jobs for TV and media almost always go for the fairer skinned candidate. +Freshbrew points out that the controversial aspect of the product's marketing strategy is not so much that it attempts to sell 'fairness' but that it sells it to men, and that it's for this reason that people are sitting up and taking note. +Bhatnaturally points out that it maybe pointless to blame the manufacturers of the product, and perhaps that the 'digital' nature of the campaign brings more focus to the product and the app. +People accuse brands like these of reinforcing the notion that fairness is more desirable, superior and causing great harm to society. +The counter argument that such brands merely tap into an existing need (long before such products were even conceived or advertised) falls on deaf ears. +A related sentiment is echoed in many comments across blogs, where people feel that the preference for being light skinned is being judged by those who are not familiar with the cultural context and is being labeled racist. +Gautam Ramdurai comments in Danah Boyd's post: +The Western uproar is interesting – and is rooted in some amount ignorance. +The issue is about the perception of beauty and not of race. +Obviously, many commenting on this topic have no idea what the idea of beauty is in India – and hence this looks like an obviously “racist” app. +There are people in India who think this app (and the product) is despicable – but for different reasons. +I can pull out a lot of western counterparts to the same issue – like tanning salons, the obsession with staying skinny etc – but none of them comes close to explaining the complexity of this issue. +It surprises me, how as part of the a “flat world” – we still don’t take off our lenses of comfort when looking at the socio-cultural events from other parts of the globe. + +Morocco: "Why Belle is a Peace Corps Volunteer" · Global Voices +A blog meme is making the rounds amongst female Peace Corps Volunteers in Morocco; though neither of the bloggers who posted the meme disclosed its origins, both women say that they relate to it. +The meme in question? +"Why Belle, from Beauty and the Beast, is actually a Peace Corps Morocco volunteer." +Showing a video (below) from the film, the post (posted here by absolute uncertainty and here on the blog Hillary's Moroccan Adventure) enumerates 25 similarities between the character's life and the lives of female volunteers in the country. +Hillary explains: +If you ever wanted to understand what I go through as female Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco check out this clip from Beauty and the Beast. +What Belle experiences in this clip is my life in a nutshell here in Morocco. +"People scream “Bonjour!” at her from windowsills and alleyways," reads example #2. #15 describes a common occurrence in the Kingdom: "Belle goes on and on about how much she loves something, which basically requires the nice goat-man to give it to her. +You often see this in Morocco." + +Egypt: "The Inevitable Mubarak Photoshopping Contest" · Global Voices +As the 2010 Peace Talks-the latest round of direct negotiations between leaders from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, and the United States-kicked off at the beginning of the month, Egyptian bloggers were already expressing skepticism about their outcome, as well as about the involvement of President Mubarak (who is often the target of protests in the country). +Though bloggers may view Mubarak one way, however, Egypt's most widely-circulated newspaper, Al Ahram, sees things differently. +As blogger WaELK reported on his blog, the paper, using relatively advanced Photoshop skills, placed Mubarak front and center in the lineup of heads of state: +The original photo showed American President Barack Obama front and center, with Mubarak at far left +Outrage at Al Ahram +Several bloggers were aghast at Al Ahram's actions. +At the Eskandarany blog, Ismail Mohamed writes: +I got to know Mr. Osama Saraya for the first time through the series of posts he wrote about El Baradei few months ago. +He wrote there that Dr. El Baradei holds another nationality beside his Egyptian one, however he said that he is not pretty sure of this information. +I then wrote wondering if the Editor in Chief of Al Ahram (one of the oldest newspapers in Egypt) is not sure about information related the fourth Egyptian Nobel laureate, then who on earth should be sure then! +And who is supposed to tell us the truth then! +The blogger adds: +This time, Saraya comes back with justifications as if the whole world is wrong and it's only him - the experienced journalist and editor in chief - who is right. +Just after Al Ahram published the doctored photographs - or what Saraya calls Symbolic Photographs - Saraya came to tell us that the photo showing president Mubarak in front of the other leaders is meant to symbolize Egypt and Mubarak's lead role in solving the Palestinian crisis. +Abou El Maaly Fayek, who blogs at Lokmet Eish, is surprised by what happened: +Can't imagine a newspaper like Al-Ahram putting itself in such an embarrassing situation! +I can't imagine a junior journalist, a hobby writer, or even a blogger to put himself in such position, a position that can be described in a best case scenario as a silly one. +"The Inevitable Mubarak Photoshopping Contest" +As a result of Al Ahram's creative reporting, bloggers, both in Egypt and abroad, have taken the opportunity to demonstrate their artistic skills, using Photoshop to further doctor the image. +A Facebook group collected some of the images, while others are posted on blogs. +Blogger Egyptian Chronicles shares a slew of images, including the one below, and notes: +There is a rumor in the Facebook that the state security is currently searching the man behind this , well they have have to search for the man behind the photos which are far more hilarious !! +"The talks were like a balady wedding," reads the blogger's caption +Lebanese blogger Beirut Spring adds his own contribution to what he dubs "the inevitable Mubarak Photoshopping Contest": +"Keep walking Mubarak" says the blogger +Blogger Sarah Carr of Inanities, suggested that perhaps other historical events had been misrepresented as well. +Here is an example: +"الطريق الى الفضاء" ("The road to space") + +Ecuador: Police Strike Denounced as Attempt to Destabilize Country · Global Voices +Tension. +That is the word that summarizes the current situation in Ecuador. +A police strike began today when a group of Ecuadorian policemen shut down Quito's international airport and the main regiment of the city in a protest against President Rafael Correa. +The strike began at 8 this morning in the Nº1 Regiment in Quito against changes to the Public Service Law, which reduced benefits for various public entities. +In an attempt to dialogue with the police, President Correa suffered a tear gas assault and is being treated at the Metropolitan Hospital in Quito. +Events are developing rapidly, with new information emerging from various sources since this morning. +On Twitter, citizens report cases of roadblocks, assaults and bank robberies, while sharing their different views on the events. +La Patilla developed a comprehensive graphic summary where it also informs about Correa's words when he faced the police, telling them, "Kill me if you want." +Various social organizations and institutional websites have announced their support for the President outside government buildings, according to reports from the independent media source ALER . +Journalist Paúl Mena Erazo (@PaulMena) reports: + +Pakistan: Dr. Aafia Siddiqui Case – A Veiled Mystery · Global Voices +“It is my judgment that Dr Siddiqui is sentenced to a period of incarceration of 86 years,” (for the attempted murder of US officers in Afghanistan) said Judge Richard Berman, US District Court Judge of a Federal Court in Manhattan on Sept. 23 2010. +Pakistani citizen Dr. Aafia Siddiqui denounced the trial saying “(an appeal would be) a waste of time. +I appeal to God.” +As soon as the court verdict was broadcast on media, anger mounted among the Pakistani citizens and thousands of people came out on streets protesting against the 86-year sentence of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. +Within few minutes after the ruling was announced, Siddiqui’s sister Fauzia addressed a press conference along with her mother, where she criticized the Pakistan government for not fulfilling their promises to bring Siddiqui back. +As a result of public outcry against the sentence, Pakistan government came under duress at home and the Interior Minister Rehman Malik has requested USA to repatriate Dr Aafia Siddiqui to Pakistan. +According to reports, 12-year old Ahmed (Dr Aafia’s son) was handed over to his aunt Fauzia Siddiqui in September 2008 after years of detention in a US military base in Afghanistan. +Later on, media reported that a little girl named Fatima, was dropped off in front of the home of Siddiqui’s sister and the girl’s DNA matched that of Ahmed (Dr Aafia’s son). +Meanwhile, a Pakistani Senator and chairman of the Pakistani Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior, Senator Talha Mehmood, “slammed the US for keeping the child in a military jail in a cold, dark room for seven years.” +After the return of two of her children, Aafia’s family began to hope that she will also return soon and continued the contacts with Pakistan government in order to ensure Aafia’s safety. +But all their hopes ended in ashes with the news of Aafia’s imprisonment of 86 years. +Pakistani media and bloggers have a mixed reaction on this issue, some claiming that Aafia has been a subject of injustice while others view this incident as a lesson to learn the values of social justice. +Shaukat Hamdani writes at Express Blog: +“Regardless of what went on in the international media, it should be made clear that Dr Aafia has never been charged with terrorism. +Rather, she is charged with snatching a US warrant officer’s rifle in mid -2008 while she was detained for questioning in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province and firing it at FBI agents and military personnel. +However, none of the personnel were hit. +Hence the nickname given to her by the American media ‘Lady al-Qaeda’ was totally uncalled for and must have influenced the jury. +What is sad is that being such a core ally of the United States in the war against terror, our government has been able to achieve nothing in this regard, and the treatment a Pakistani citizen has received is just appalling." +Faisal Kapadia writes: +Nobody can deny that the way she was treated in Bagram was despicable but whether the Pakistan government can actually secure the release of an individual who has been tried and convicted by a U.S court is the stuff of hilarity. +Especially if the person concerned, is a U.S national. +Beenish Ahmed mentions some points to ponder: +“Siddiqui’s case has compelled some Pakistanis to look beyond social judgments to issues of social justice. +Siddiqui’s personal story aside, the curious circumstances of her arrest and the gaping holes in the evidence withheld as classified has become a rallying point for anti-American sentiment in Pakistan.” +Views of the western writers are equally significant in this issue who are debating on the justice system of US courts in view of the alleged crimes of Aafia Siddiqui and the nature of her punishment. +According to Stephen Lendman’s report: +“Her case is one of America's most egregious examples of horrific abuse and injustice, climaxed by her virtual life sentence for an alleged crime she never committed." +On Houston Criminal Lawyer, John Floyd and Billy Sinclair tells that the unusually long sentence is greater than necessary, cruel and unusual: +“The 86-year sentence imposed upon her by Judge Berman is just an unwarranted and cruel continuation of that torture..It is shameful, and her case will remain blight on our criminal justice system and the reputation of the United States throughout the world community until she is released.” +A poster from Dr. Aafia's site Yvonne Ridley writes in a recent post at Countercurrents.org titled "Aafia Today, U.S. Citizens Tomorrow": +The Pakistani government now needs to demand the repatriation of Aafia with immediate effect. +The U.S. needs to shut up, back down, and show some humility by returning the Daughter of Pakistan. +And with a bit of luck, innocent U.S. citizens travelling abroad will not get caught up in the fallout of this violation of international law and human rights. +The case of Dr. Aafia has been mysterious from the very beginning but as a citizen or a state if we continue to overlook such cases, it will only ascend the list of missing persons in Pakistan and give rise to chaos in the society. + +Indonesia: Earthquake, Tsunami, Volcanic Eruption in 48 hours · Global Voices +Photo of eruption impact from the FB page of JogjakuIndonesia is no stranger to natural disasters since its location in the Pacific Ring of Fire makes it vulnerable to storms, quakes and volcanic eruptions. +But this week, Indonesia was caught unprepared when an earthquake, tsunami and volcanic eruption battered the islands in less than 48 hours. +Casualties are expected to exceed 500 and thousands of families need immediate relief. +Photos of the impact of the triple disasters have been uploaded already on Facebook. +Click here to view the photos of the eruption of Mount Merapi, one of the most active and dangerous volcanoes in the world. Mentawai Island, meanwhile, was hit by a tsunami and here are the photos. +Photo from the FB page of JogjakuThe support message by singer Justin Bieber was used by some netizens to highlight the “delayed response” of the government + +I Paid A Bribe: An Endeavor in India · Global Voices +C=M+D-A. As Robert Klitgaard puts it, “Corruption equals Monopoly plus Discretion minus Accountability”. +Corruption, especially political, is rampant in India, where it is seen as commonplace and citizens come face to face with it in their daily lives. +It leads to severe injustice in a society and can even effect people’s survival. +In the recent New Tactics dialogue on corruption, Shaazka Beyerle, Senior Advisor of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, gives the example of a widow who cannot access food through the Public Distribution System because the government official demands a bribe to issue her a ration card. +Citizens who cannot afford to pay up suffer due to their inability, and those who can have no option than to give in to corruption. +There has been increasing anger and frustration against bribery, but at the same time there is a high level of tolerance too. +Some citizens habitually offer bribes in exchange for services, further perpetuating corruption. +I Paid A Bribe tries to address this complex issue that mars the Indian society. +It encourages people to not put up with official abuse of power and to report their stories of bribery to "uncover the market price of corruption." +People can report when they paid a bribe, when they didn’t and when they weren’t asked to pay one by submitting their story through a form, blogging about it or even posting a video. +This initiative, organized by Janaagraha, was launched on August 15 (India’s Independence Day), 2010. +T R Raghunandan, a former senior civil servant and now the coordinator of the initiative, says the goal is "to build a snapshot of the corruption scenario in India.” +Janaagraha has developed an innovative tactic to deal with corruption. +The idea is less focused on taking action with specific departments based on individual citizen reports, but rather to use a systematized process to identify the most serious areas of corruption. +Raghunandan observes that "every society has a very good idea of the corruption that happens there"; what is needed, then, is a better understanding of how and why corruption happens. +The reports posted on the website are aggregated and analyzed. +These analyses expose the more corrupt departments, loopholes used by officials to demand bribes, situations in which bribes are demanded and so on, and after identifying situations and processes susceptible to corruption, Janaagraha approaches the departments and the government for action. +The following illustration represents this. +The intent of I Paid a Bribe is also to encourage and empower more citizens so that they bring out their stories and experiences, which helps build more awareness. +In addition to people’s reports on bribery, the homepage of the website has a slideshow giving some vital statistics. +A map titled "Corruption Commons" lists out the number of complaints from different states of India. +The seriousness of the issue is brought out in these various ways, helping corruption and bribery change from something people just talk about into an issue people can do something about. +People can act through a simple, easy and non-threatening process, where they are not required to identify themselves or give an individual official’s name in their reports. +Other interesting and interactive features include the "Ask Raghu" section. +Raghunandan answers specific questions that people ask, providing them with the information they need. +He explains that people are usually very fearful of the government, something that is mainly due to lack of information. +There should be more information available so that people are more confident to deal with officials and can put their foot down on following the laid procedures and not paying a bribe. +There are plans to put out White papers, the first one being on Land and Property Registration in a month’s time along with a video feature, so that people are equipped with the right knowledge about the procedures, fees, time needed and the duties of the officials. +The ‘Impact’ section mentions cases in which people have been able to stand against bribery through information Janaagraha had made available, and by simply raising their voice. +People can also give their suggestions and contribute to newer practical and tactical approaches to dealing with corruption on the website’s forum. +Through this platform, citizens can share their experiences of corruption, be empowered to monitor the injustice against them and collaborate to fight against it. +So, “bribed? didn't bribe? powerless? victimised? angry? tell your story” and fight back! + +Wikileaks reveals how Singapore views its neighbors · Global Voices +Former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew thinks North Koreans are ‘psychopathic types’ and their leader is a ‘flabby old chap.’ +Senior Singapore diplomats believe that Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak is an opportunist while opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is guilty of sodomy. +They also describe deposed Thailand leader Thaksin Shinawatra as “corrupt” along with “everyone else, including the opposition.” +Japan is ‘the big fat loser’ as relationship between China and Southeast Asian nations continues to improve. +The source of these sensational revelations is Wikileaks. +It is up to the readers to believe in the authenticity of these exposed cable reports. +What is certain is that this latest batch of releases from Wikileaks will keep the Singapore government busy in the next few days and weeks as they try to minimize the damage caused by these reports in their foreign relations. +Meanwhile, here are blog and twitter reactions from Malaysia. +Din Merican is disappointed that the attitude of Singapore officials has remained “contemptuous” of Malaysia +It will be interesting to see how Singaporean diplomats can diffuse this situation. +As someone who has consistently supported better relations between Malaysia and Singapore and regards himself as a friend of Singapore, I am disappointed to note that the attitude of officials in Singapore has remained contemptuous of Malaysia. +Old habits of mind are certainly difficult to change. +I would have thought our two countries could move forward on the basis of mutual respect and interests with the warming of relations between the two Prime Ministers. +Ktemoc points out that the proof of Anwar Ibrahim’s purported guilt in the sodomy case is not factual but only hearsay +I read the news yesterday, and it’s an aspect of Anwar Ibrahim I have never really been interested in, well, for a couple of reasons. +One, so long as it was consensual between adults then it bothers me not; two, it’s news that came about from a series of “I was told by …, who was told by …, who heard it from …, “ so it’s technically not factual, hearsay evidence so to speak. +So what’s the big deal? +But let’s examine in more details where or who the source was. +The Yanks heard it from the Aussies; the Aussies heard it from the Sings, in particular LKY; the Sings claimed they extracted it from ‘technical’ intelligence, meaning electronic interception or even land line eavesdropping. +rocky's bru tells his readers that he has not yet signed the petition to support Wikileaks +Bugger. +So, we all support press freedom, right? +We all signed up the petition to defend WikiLeaks, eh? +Now, according to Wikileaks, the Aussies and the kiasu Singaporeans knew about Dr Anwar and Saiful all along, about it being a set-up and how Dr Anwar had known that it was an entrapment but didn't - or could not - give a damn. +Wow. +Damning ni. +Because it is Wikileaks, more people will believe that Saiful was buggered. +Right? +By the way, I haven't signed the petition to support Wikileaks. +Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad of Parti Keadilan Rakyat urges the publication of the ‘technical intelligence’ which was allegedly used by Singapore with regards to the case of Anwar +It should furthermore be pointed out that the cables exposed by Wikileaks are essentially information collected by third parties – like Australia – that were then shared to the US State Department. +As a result, the cables contain all manner of information – including personal opinions and hearsay and hence are far from reliable. +I hope the ‘technical intelligence’ mentioned in Wikileaks could be revealed to the public since that was the basis that the Singaporean intelligence claimed led to their conclusion. +My Words, My Freedom is more worried about the ability of Singapore to intercept Malaysian communications +what concern me much about the leak is that, if it was true, how safe our secret information is? if the singapore intelligence can easily intercept our communications, what our security officials are doing? and, i'm afraid that our military secrets can also be compromised! hey folks, our security is much more important that anwar and saiful's case! as my friend always say, "the future of our country is not depending on these two figures!" so, let's focus on more important issue than this sodomy case! ;) +Malaysiakini gathers the views of readers about the latest Wikileaks report. +Rolls-Royce opines +The intelligence services always think they are more intelligent than others. +Honestly, how much of the so-called leaked information are actually hunches that most of us have already had anyway? +Singapore talking bad about Malaysia, US talking bad about North Korea and Burma, Pakistan or Malaysia talking bad about Israel or Singapore, etc. +These are to be expected. +If we think these are great enlightenments, then we are the idiots. +Twitter reactions from Kuala Lumpur +CliffCLF: Wikileaks said that Malaysia was in a ‘’confused and dangerous’’ state due to “its incompetent politicians”. couldn't agree more though. +equal_o_not: @jonathanfun @timmysay just cos Wikileaks says that some1 thinks M'sia set him up? +Fat chance......unless solid proof is provided. +sultanmuzaffar: WikiLeaks is now officially relevant to the Malaysians. +More please! +drcheehoe: have second thoughts of #wikileaks being helpful instead of harmful. +I prefer to think the cable leak about @anwaribrahim merely 'cakap' +stephendoss: @matkeri the info is between diplomatic cables, wikileaks just exposes, it is not in a position to determine truth or falsity @Aisehman +YeoWai: actually who needs Wikileaks to tell us our politician is incompetent? +matkeri: @Aisehman bro, back to the source : WikiLeaks. +No source, no leaks. +Just a controversial rpt by a Sunday tabloid. :D +For his part, Anwar tweeted that the cable reports from Wikileaks strengthened his argument that there was a conspiracy on the part of the Malaysian government to set him up with a sodomy case and destroy his political career. + +Serbia: Police Hunt Facebook Misogynists · Global Voices +Serbian daily 'Kurir' alarmed the police, requesting adequate legal action against Facebook group 'Death to Women' +The Serbian Public Prosecutor, in cooperation with the Serbian Ministry of the Interior, conducted an investigation into the case of a Serbian Facebook group "Death to Women“ ("Smrt ženama"), which was propagating hatred towards women. +According to the Serbian daily Press,Tomo Zoric, spokesman of the Serbian Prosecutor's Office, said: +The group "Death to Women" is currently under investigation, along with other groups that call for violence. +Unfortunately, Facebook was not founded in Serbia, and sometimes it is difficult to identify the founders. +We are trying to establish cooperation with other countries. +In the first 24 hours after the group was set up, more than 450 people became members, posting some very abusive slogans: +"Stop women's abominations, fraud and deception!“; "You want to be equal with men, to do men's jobs, but not to obey men!“; "They are cowards who do not deserve to live!“; "Let's beat and kill women!" +The group's page was overflowing with photos of tortured and mutilated women, as well as men "in action,“ brutally beating women whose faces were covered in black and blue bruises. +Very aggressive tone was detected in a message directed at one of the group's opponents: +We're not gays, I swear by the venerable Cross that we are not gays, but we will not tolerate women while they are taking the money out of our pockets making asses out of us. +Okay, you defend them and you will end up in the grave with them. +Bobana Macanovic, an activist of the Autonomous Women's Centre, concluded that the group was the most horrible evidence of the thesis that aggression had become the way of communication in the Serbian society. +She stressed that violence often went unpunished, revealing that 26 women ended in obituaries since the beginning of this year as victims of abusive partners. +Psychologist Maya Antončić said it was not an insignificant fact that this group emerged in the month that saw an explosion of violence in Belgrade's streets during the Gay Pride Parade. +But she was more worried about the number of the "fans." +She observed: +This group pays attention to the fact that violence against women exists, and still there are people who do not hesitate to publicly denounce women as weaker and less worthy beings who deserve to suffer violence. +In an article published in Kurir, Neven Cveticanin, a sociologist from the Institute of Social Sciences, pointed out that this phenomenon was a reflection of the general situation in the society. +She saw it as an expression of social frustration and a form of violence against the minorities. +The editorial staff of Kurir alarmed the Serbian police about the issue, asking them to take the necessary measures against the group. +One of the earliest responses to this cruel anti-women group was establishing an alternative Facebook group - “Let's Get Rid of the Group 'Death to Women'” ("Ukinimo Grupu 'smrt Zenama'") - which currently has over 5,400 members. +A response to Facebook misogynists: “Let's Get Rid of the Group ‘Death to Women'” +The founders of this group are Serbian women of all ages, but there are also men supporting them. +The administrator expressed joy after the sexist group had been deleted and wrote this to members: +How are you today, after "Death to Women" has been successfully deleted and after finding that the public prosecutor's office will react? ... +Would anyone competent have responded if the report had not appeared in the Kurir? +Daliborka Kisic does not trust the Serbian police too much: +Yes, but the police said they believed that it was a joke and that they would react if something happened to a woman, if someone was being attacked… +Ana Milosevic is also pessimistic: +Come on, people, there is none of that, our cops do not react when a husband beats his woman to death. ... People, we live in a “rotten” country. +Nebojsa Tešević sharply criticizes the story about “safe home” for victims of domestic violence as an expression of powerlessness in the Serbian society: +I would rather initiate an investigation against these broadcasters and the money they collect to build shelters for women, the victims of violence. +The country, through the media, admits that the police do not have the courage to deal with bullies, but move women to a safe shelter. +Very soon, mass murderers will walk around the city and the police, to avoid going out confront to them, will look at Facebook to build a safe house for all citizens. +Nadaibrane Kutanjac asked: +I do not know what fool came up with the idea of “Death to Women." +I guess she/he has a mother … but we, mothers, have made a mistake and brought idiots ......... +Biljana Milivojevic-Lajtner is shocked: +Coincidentally, I have heard on the radio about the "Death to women" group. +They have also mentioned female children … it is terrible ... horrible ... +I have no words… +Unfortunately, this is not the end of the story. +Overweight women have also become targets of Serbian Facebook bullies +It seems that the Serbian Prosecutor's Office and the Serbian police will be very busy in next few months, hunting Serbian misogynists who have set up groups similar to the "Death to Women" group: e.g., “Death to Fat Women” ("SMRT DEBELIM ZENAMA!!!") and “All Women are Whores” ("sve su zene kurve -.-"). +For now, these groups continue to exist on Facebook and their membership is growing every day. +Serbian Facebook group 'All women are whores' is still there +On the other hand, 350 female members have set up a Facebook group “Death to Men” ("SmRt MuSkArCimA"), propagating abusive treatment of the “stronger sex.” +This page is also flooded with photos of violence and torture. +Some of the men who struggled to “neutralize” the "Death to Women" group are now disappointed by such “targeting” of the male population of Facebook. +Facebook group 'Death to Men' propagates abusive treatment of the 'stronger sex' +Alekasandra Demirovic reminds her fellow netizens: +Stephen is absolutely right. +This is not fair to those men who were with us and helped us to put out “Death to Women.” +It seems that user Idealno Losa has found the best solution for stopping the Facebook war between women and men: +Yes ... this is completely wrong. +We need to show that we are much more normal than those dimwits. ...Helloooo, delete the group! … + +Football revival in Indonesia · Global Voices +The Indonesian National Team was defeated in the second game of the championship match against Malaysia's football team, the Tiger of Malaya. +Despite the 2-1 result in favor of Indonesia, the Malaysian team won through accumulated goals. +The ASEAN Football Federation Cup final between Indonesia and Malaysia has been the year end's most anticipated event. +Previously on Boxing Day, at the Bukit Jalil Stadium, Malaysia won the first leg match 3-0 against Indonesia. +Since the start of the AFF Cup, the Indonesian team has managed to pull together nationalism, media attention, and controversies. +The match at GBK Stadium Jakarta. +Photo by Plixi user Citra. +Indonesian supporters. +Photo by Plixi user Hasanuddin Ali. +Live viewing at one of Jakarta's shopping malls. +Photo by Ranie Primza. +Most offices and public gatherings, such as reunions and gallery openings also held live viewing of the game. +Photo by Prast Lampard. +A day before the match, striker Bambang Pamungkas wrote a blog post: +“Football is an unpredictable thing.. Some results will make you shock, but that’s the thing that makes it passionate, the mystery in it” He reflected about the national team's defeat on Boxing Day: +Its not enough to win the cup. But we are the BEST of the whole tournament! +Im proud of you all and to be a Indo! +Amazing support from the supporters was a great honor for us. Our team is the best, our supporters are the best. The controversies +However, the AFF Cup 2010 was also marred with controversies. +Indonesian football fans blamed Halid for the rampant corruption in the PSSI body which caused, among others, lack of improvement of football facilities in the country, fans' injuries during football matches due to weak security, and rigged matches caused by corrupt referees. + +Protesters from today's demonstration by @monasosh From reports of small gatherings to those of thousands of demonstrators marching across different cities in Egypt, Twitter is ablaze with reactions. +This nationwide "Day of Revolution" coincides with Police Day and brings together people from different walks of life and a wide political spectrum to protest against President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. +Tweeting from Mohandesin, @monasosh notes: +If u r not here, u r missing a lot. +Down wt mobarak . +Mohandesin #jan25 +In another tweet, she chants: Mubarak! +Mubarak! +The plane is waiting for you. +in reference to Zein El Abidine Ben Ali's escape from Tunisia, after its people's uprising. +An ariel view of demonstrators gathering in Ramsis by @basboussa1As the gatherings get bigger, some find it difficult to catch up. +Ahmad Khalil tweets: عشرون الف متظاهر فى شارع جامعة الدول العربيةشباب وصبايا وربات بيوت واطفال يركدون لم استط محارتهم ...نفسى اتقطع 20,000 demonstrators on the Arab League Road. +Young people, housewives and children. +They are all running. +I wasn't able to catch up with them. +I lost my breath +In another tweet, he sums up the mood: الناس اللى ماشيين فى المظاهرة اول مرة اشوفهم ..يظهر اول مرة يتظاهروا كلهم همة وحماس عايزين يعملوا ثورة حقيقية This is the first time I see those people in this demonstration. +It seems that this is the first time for them to demonstrate. +They are full of enthusiasm and excitement - as if they want to create a real revolution +Soon enough, tweets of police repression start pouring in. +Sandmonkey reports: +Police just arrested everyone in cilantro. +Took their ids and phone. +We barely got out." #jan25 +Wael Abbas adds: انباء عن اعتقال صحفية في المحلة الكبرى News of the arrest of a female journalist in Al Mahala Al Kubra +And in another tweet says: اخبار عن ضرب المتظاهرين في شبرا News of protesters being beaten up in Shubra +Crowdmap to report demonstration updatesA crowdmap, prepared by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, is already in place for people to report the protests, arrests, police harassment and where people and police are gathering. +And in an expected or not so expected move, reports are also surfacing of the censoring of internet sites. +Mohamed ELGohary notes: Now http://dostor.org and Bambuser.com are blocked in Egypt #NetFreedom #Jan25 And Alaa Abd El Fattah tweets: +Egyptian ISPs seem to be illegally blocking websites again, collaborating with police despite no laws allowing internet censorship #jan25 +Meanwhile, Mona Eltahawy notes: +In past 8 days at least 12 #Egyptians set themselves on fire out of desperation: unemployment, poverty, corruption. #Jan25 #Egypt protest +For more reactions, follow the hashtag #Jan25 on Twitter. +Stay tuned for more coverage from Egypt. +Photocredit: +1. @monasosh +2. @basboussa1 + +Egypt: Twitter Blocked as Demonstrations Continue · Global Voices +The blocked Twitter page Egyptians get when they try and access Twitter Egypt has just upped its war on the Internet, and cut access to mobile phone communications, in areas where thousands of protesters are reportedly gathering in today's Day of Revolution. +The aim seems to be an attempt to control the flood of protesters and strangle the movement. +Demonstrations have sprung across the country today, with calls for the end of President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule, corruption, economic failings as well as other grievances. +Word of the protests and gathering points have been announced on social networking sites, including microblogging site, Twitter, which has been blocked by the authorities. +Such censorship has sparked the anger of activists, especially since it is the first time in Egypt's history that such heavy-handedness is used to silence people online. +The move is a stark reminder of the iron fist with which ousted Tunisian strongman Zeine El Abidine Ben Ali clamped down on the Internet, in neighbouring Tunisia, whose uprising has inspired millions of Arabs. +From Cairo, Eman Hashim tweets: +mubarak regime is blocking internet access to us. keep spreading the word. we are being trapped #25jan +She adds: +Twitter is banned now from home DSL and soon from mobiles. we r being trapped +Mohamed ElGohary adds: TWITTER IS BLOCKED IN EGYPT #Jan25 And Alaa Abd El Fattah is livid and screams: +reminder THERE IS NOTHING IN EGYPTIAN LAW THAT ALLOWS FOR BLOCKING WEBSITES. not a single clause, the ISPs are responding to illegal orders +Rami Raoof suggests a way of by passing the block: +netizens in #Egypt- if you want to access Twitter.com & Bambuser.com download TOR from http://torproject.org #Jan25 +Phone lines seem to be jammed too. +Sally Sami reports: +Just left tahrir square. +Tear gas being bombed and all mobile lines not working mostly #jan25 +And adds: +Mobinil lines present in tahrir square have been disconnected #jan25 +And news sites are also being filtered, to stop news of the protests from spreading. +Jordanian Tololy notes: +Dostor.org (independent news website covering #Jan25 protests live) blocked for the 2nd time in #Egypt #ArabProtest +And Suad Al Subaie adds: + +Egyptian authorities yesterday shut down the Internet and ordered closures of cell phone networks, in anticipation of today's protests. +The shutdown has significantly curtailed the information flow through those channels. +The four main internet providers are not working at present. Only the stock market continues to have internet. +Blackberry services are working sporadically, and most cell phones are down. +Internet activists are also reminding Egyptians that both internet and cell phone services can be used to track users, and that security precautions are vital. +EFF activist Eva Galperin, in a Global Voices Advocacy guest post, says: +it is absolutely critical that Egyptian protesters take precautions when communicating online. +To reiterate, social networking tools have given activists a powerful voice, which can be heard well beyond Egypt, but activists should also remember that the Egyptian government could use these same tools to identify and retaliate against them. +Despite that, some writers and observers continue to use digital media to get their message out. +Activists have found ways around the shutdown. +People around the world are focusing on radio, TV and print media. +They have also been using landlines to call colleagues, friends, an relatives outside of Egypt, who are then sending messages in their name, or using landlines to connect to outside internet services. +Nora Shalaby, for example says: +I'm tweeting on behalf of my sister from the states! 2 people seen pouring gasoline on cars in downtown cairo today w/police nearby..#jan25 +Jan25 Voices, @Jan25voices has set up a new feed specifically to breech the internet block. +They began sending messages January 28, and quickly garnered more than 700 followers. +Their feed says: +We are using phones and other means to speak with Egyptians behind the blocked internet, tweeting their words in real time. contact: jan25voices(at)gmail.com +They are attempting to name the source in each twitter. +A typical post: +Live Phonecall: Unconfirmed story from someone in Suez that a buldozer was used on a police station. #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt +Many others are feeding off of the images from Al Jazeera English, which is streaming live, although the images have been scrambled in Egypt, and are not available. +CNN has been streaming Egyptian state TV. +A screenshot from Al Jazeera: +Protesters take a prayer break. +Al Jazeera English screenshot, January 28, 2010 +Al Jazeera reports on the air that there is an attempted media blackout, and that their reporters, as well as other international and local journalists have received warnings, and may be shut down. +International broadcasters and journalists with other access points also continue to get online, and are using their outside bureaux. +In some ways, the Egyptian use of internet and cell phones as a tool for reporting is exactly opposite to the Iranian protests in June 2009. +In this case, mass media have continued to function, at least for audiences outside of Egypt, but networked media have been severely curtailed. +Finally, despite the shutdown, the networked nature of Egypt's society has connected people to the point that a shutdown is primarily reactive. +Street protests will now have their own momentum. + +Libya: "Tonight is the night. +TONIGHT." · Global Voices +Events in Libya can no longer be termed just anti-government protests. +Fighting with anything from heavy weapons to clubs and sticks has broken out throughout certain cities between defecting members of the military who have joined civilians against the remaining factions of Muammar Al Gaddafi's government and foreign mercenaries he has brought in to protect his regime. +As of 11 PM Sunday, February 20 local time in Libya, media reported heavy gunfire and fires in the capitol Tripoli. +Benghazi, the heart of Saturday's protest, still has unconfirmed reports that what remains of the military in the country's second-largest city has joined the side of protesters. +Gunshots were also heard at Col. Ghadaffi's residence. +Everything is happening very fast. +Once again: To keep up with protests in Libya (and government reactions), please view this map created by @Arasmus from “trusted Twitter accounts” to help with communication gap as independent media in Libya is scarce. +This site also collects regularly updated Twitter feeds. +The Twitter masses are relentlessly trying to keep up with events across the country. +@AJELive:"there is a white mitsubishi lancer ... they are shooting at people randomly" doctor in Tripoli tells @AJELive #Libya @MbinH: Gaddafi is hiring thugs to rape women in an attempt to keep their husbands indoors. His end is near. #Genocide #Libya #Gaddafi +@ChangeInLibya: Tonight is the night. +TONIGHT. +There are literally hundreds of thousands on the street now in areas surrounding green sqr accrdn to frnd +@abdu: the Tuareg tribes in southern Libya have joined the protesters. +This is from a Libyan Tuareg activist based in London (to AJ). #Libya +@ShababLibya: BREAKING CONFIRMED: Protesters in Tripoli marching towards the Green Square chanting: No God but God and Gaddafi is the Enemy of God #feb17 +@SultanAlQassemi: Al Jazeera: Libya's Ambassador to the Arab League submits resignation over what he called "the mass genocide of Libyans" +@iyad_elbaghdadiAljazeera seeing live footage of youths taking down #Gaddafi's flag and raising original #Libya independence tricolor flag! #Feb17 +@ChangeInLibya: Hearing very very distant gunfire in tripoli for the first time... nhar ehraff illela leltek ya geddafi #feb17 +@LibyansUnite: i've just received some news that my two uncles have joined in protests, obviously i'm crying bcoz i don't know if they're guna survive this +@evanchill: Tripoli sources to Al Jazeera: Security forces "besieging" the court complex where dozens of judges are protesting. #feb17 +@FreeLibyan87:Source from the ground #Gergarish area is like a war zone. with live weapons and mercenaries. #Libya #Feb17 @iyad_elbaghdadi: 250-300 dead in #Benghazi alone since start of protests #Feb17 #Libya +@iyad_elbaghdadi:50 dead in #Benghazi today since afternoon only #Feb17 #Libya +@FreeLibyanman: Guys are keeping females all together in safe places and gathering.. +@iyad_elbaghdadi: Live from #Misurata: Confirmation that army & police forces in the city gave up their weapons and joined the protesters #Feb17 #Libya +@iyad_elbaghdadi: #Benghazi: Pharmacies distributing medicine for free; youths taken care of city's security, not a single case of looting reported #Libya +@ChangeInLibya: The libyan word I love so much right now "maqluba" or "upside down". means all hell has broken loose on #gaddafi 's *** #feb17 @ShababLibya +@ShababLibya: Breaking: AJ Caller: Lieutenant Abdel Fatah Younis ElObeidi, has joined protesters (minister of public security) #feb17 #Libya +@ShababLibya: In answer to your questions, yes i do think his fall is soon god willing, i think we will see more ministers join protests first #Libya + +Libya: Gaddafi Junior's Speech Welcomed with Shoes and Slippers · Global Voices +Libyan dictator's son Saif Al Islam Al Gaddafi addressed Libyans earlier on Libyan State television, blaming everything other than his father for the massive protests and bloodshed the country has been witnessing in recent days. +He blamed Facebook, foreign mercenaries, Islamists, drug addicts and an army not trained in dealing with civilians for the carnage Libya has suffered, downplaying the number of victims and promising to stay in Libya to ensure that it isn't broken up into smaller Islamic Emirates, in order for the US not to invade it. +He also predicted doom, poverty and a bloodbath for Libyans should Gaddafi, who has ruled Libya with an iron fist for more than 40 years be toppled. +On Twitter, tweeps reacted to the speech in different ways. +Here is a snap shot of some of the reactions: +@AfriNomad: Wow - Pic of people in #Libya watching Seif #Gaddafi's speech. +Shoes in the air! http://twitpic.com/420xny (via @riy) #Feb17 +@gr33ndata: I'm sure I saw Seif Al-Islam Gaddafi somewhere before this? +Hmmm, yes, here he is... http://twitpic.com/420t9u +@gr33ndata: It's either Gaddafi, or u'll not find food, drink, and will be invaded by Egyptians and Space Ships! #Libya #Feb17 http://twitpic.com/420y09 +@RJAlvarez: Just took this pic in Red Hook. +Had no idea today might be the day & the we might mean Qaddafi. #fingerscrossed http://yfrog.com/gyw5dpj +@exiledsurfer: Saif's father, Moammar #Gadaffi's reaction to his son's "off the cuff" speech. http://yfrog.com/h6ciqggj #libya #benghazi @Jim_Watford: Me thinks Saif Gaddafi needs a higher chair. #Libya http://twitpic.com/421fhf + +Egypt: Videos Are Worth a Million Words · Global Voices +This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011. +In preparation for the fourth consecutive day of demonstrations, activists circulated pamphlets and shared videos via the internet, urging people to join Friday's planned protest. +The government has reacted by blocking access to many social media platforms before shutting off the whole network very early on January 28. +Loads of video montages are still available on YouTube. +A quick roundup: + +Libya: Stop Gaddafi's Massacre · Global Voices +The world is watching in horror, as harrowing reports are making their way from Libya. +News of the aerial bombing of Tripoli has united people from all over the world to call for an end to the atrocities committed by Libyan leader Muammar Al Gaddafi against the Libyan people. Here's a snippet from the reactions on Twitter: +IS THIS THE PREVIEW OF WHAT WILL BE REST OF MANDATE? @BARACKOBAMA This post is part of our special coverage Libya Uprising 2011. + +Libya: Death Before Liberty (Videos) · Global Voices +With an extremely dangerous and fluid situation on the ground - and spotty digital connections - people in Libya are beginning to smuggle videos and photos of the uprising against Muammar Al Gaddafi to the outside world. +Here is a group of videos and photos taken from demonstrations between Friday February 18 and Monday February 21, 2011. +The chant is to encourage more demonstrators to join them. +This photo, posted by @amtphoto shows graffiti in Tripoli that translates as: "Libya is free, the mass murderer is out." Anti-Gaddafi graffiti posted by @amtphoto. + +Libya: Why was Gaddafi Late? · Global Voices +Libya's dictator Muammar Al Gaddafi is now speaking on State TV. +In the wait leading up to his speech, tweeple tried to figure out why he was late in giving his anticipated speech in the following round up of tweets. +The same hashtag (several variations, in fact), was used when his son Seif Al Islam, addressed Libyans earlier. @hatemation: Gaddafi is live on AJ + +Just 12 hours after Saif Al Islam Al Gaddafi's speech, in which he blamed Facebook, foreign mercenaries, Islamists, drug addicts and an army not trained in dealing with civilians for the recent uprisings, Libyans are still going strong, and continue to protest. +With both phone service and the Internet in flux, many are sending out missives when they can. +Khadija Teri could hear gunfire overnight. + +Libya: Qaradawi Issues Gaddafi Fatwa · Global Voices +As the carnage and horror coming out of Libya continues to dominate our timelines, top Muslim cleric Youssef Al Qaradawi issued a fatwa (religious edict) calling for anyone who can pull the trigger, to kill Colonel Muammar Qaddafi and end the suffering of Libyans. +Meanwhile, both Egypt and Tunisia, which have had popular uprisings which have toppled Hosni Mubarak and Zein El Abdideen Ben Ali respectively, and which also flank Libya, have opened their borders for humanitarian relief to reach Libyans, under attack from the Gaddafi regime. +Following some of the reactions from Twitter: + +In response to the ongoing massacre in Libya under a media blackout, protesters in Dubai, UAE, headed towards the Libyan Consulate on Tuesday to call for the end of the bloodshed and toppling Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime. @nalshaikh AlArabiya: Protestors charge in Libyan Consulate in #Dubai & smash portraits of #Gaddafi. #Feb17 #Libya + +Jordan: Demands for Response to Libya Answered · Global Voices +During the mass demonstrations in Tunisia and then in Egypt, Jordanians held demonstrations in solidarity, and posted numerous blogs and innumerable tweets about these events. +The uprising in Libya has been no exception to this pattern; Jordanians have pro-actively re-tweeted information on the Libyan uprising and expressed their support for the Libyan people. +By February 22nd, as the violence in Libya grew, Jordanians began to wonder why their government had not issued a response condemning Libyan President Muammar al-Gaddafi. +Ahmad Omari wrote: + +Libya's dictator Muammar Al Gaddafi just gave a furious speech on Libyan State TV today, Tuesday, warning and threatening anti-government protesters and their supporters, that the Libya would end up like Afghanistan, Iraq, or Somalia. +He encouraged Libyans to come out of their homes tomorrow and chase down "the terrorists" and hand them in to security forces so they could be "punished with death". +He said he would keep fighting for Libya till "his last drop of blood" and went on to list in great detail every single thing that would be punished with death, including working for a foreign organization, using force against government forces, or threatening the unity of the country. +The rambling, apparently unscripted speech was followed by Libyans, Arabs, and citizens everywhere on Twitter, and evoked both sarcasm and ridicule, even amidst the tragic circumstances of death and instability in the country. +Gaddafi justified Libya's brutal crackdown on protests in recent days, listing other moments in history when governments have killed protesters, saying things like, "The unity of China, was more important that those on Tianamen Square." +Tomorrow, he said, youth (those not "on drugs") should form committees to defend his revolution. +"You are more than them," he said. +In the wait leading up to his speech, tweeple humorously guessed why he was late in giving his anticipated speech. @acarvin: Gaddafi: raise your heads for revolution, for battles of liberation. + +A declaration of love to the Portuguese language, in all its variations · Global Voices +This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet. The Portuguese language, spoken by more than 200 million people around the world, has often been described as the "fatherland" or "motherland" of the Portuguese-speaking world. +On February 21 we commemorated International Mother Language Day, established by UNESCO in 1999. +In a tribute to the Portuguese language in all its linguistic and cultural diversity, we invite you in this article to navigate through reflections from Portuguese-speaking bloggers, prompted by their reading of the first novel dedicated to the Portuguese language , Milagrário Pessoal - the most recent work by the Angolan author José Eduardo Agualusa. +The title of this article was taken from the blog Mértola, in which Carlos Viegas writes that Milagrário Pessoal is: + +Voices from Libya: "It's a massacre" (Audio) · Global Voices +As the scale of atrocities carried out by the Libya's government's against protesters begins to mount, people around the world have been clamoring for reliable information. +It's very difficulty in a country where foreign media has found it hard to penetrate and the government has attempted to restrict service to the internet and cell phones. +Yet, the online group feb17voices has begun interviewing and collecting audio testimonies of people throughout Libya. +This is the same group behind the jan25voices during the demonstrations that toppled Egypt's long-serving president Honsi Mubarek. +What feb17voices has created is a very personal and immediate perspective of the protests and how people are dealing with the chaos and violence. +Here is a sampling of feb17voices from the group's channel on the audioBoo website. +This man speculates on whether members of the Libyan military or mercenaries were shooting at protesters. +This person speaks about the alleged militias from sub-Saharan African countries who were brought to Tripoli and are attacking people like guerrillas. +A person from Misrata, 200 kilometers east of Tripoli, describes the protests taking place after a funeral where demonstrators were fired on by police, who killed one person and severally wounding six others +A man from Benghazi talking about the damage near Benghazi police department, which is like a war zone. +A woman from the Tipoli area reported heavy protests in districts of the capitol city, where snipers were shooting at protesters and the police making many arrests in Tajura. +A person from Benghazi describing the Saturday, February 19 fight between protesters and soldiers and mercenaries. + +Libya: Feeling the Iron Fist in Tripoli (Videos) · Global Voices +What is happening in Tripoli? +Libyans outside the capital — and the rest of the world — wonder, shuddering to think of the levels of depravity Muammar Al Gaddafi will stoop to keep control on the country. +During his speech Tuesday, February 22, Gaddafi vowed to go door-to-door to crush opponents, using terms one former ally claims is an invitation to genocide for Libya's remaining loyal troops and mercenaries. +As protesters, and defecting members of the military, claim to control the eastern part of the country — the Gaddafi regime's hold on Libya appears to be tenuous. +But information from the capital city is nearly impossible to come by. +Tripoli is closed off to foreign media. +Libya's government did tell people to return to work — via text message — and some were seen shopping for food. +Reports of two Libyan naval gunships are reportedly facing the city. +One report said the days in Tripoli are eerily quiet while death squads and gangs roam the city at night, spreading violence. +From LiveWord? +@AliTweel:@piggypotamus no snipers im still alive! + +France: Demonstration in Paris Against Gabon Dictatorship · Global Voices +This post is part of our special coverage of Gabon Unrest 2011. +The small West African country of Gabon has been experiencing weeks of political tension, as two governments - official and unofficial - have both lain claim to the presidency. +On Sunday 27 February, 2011, self-proclaimed unofficial president André Mba Obame left the United Nations Development Programme building in capital Libreville, where he had been taking refuge. +The day before, 7,000 people gathered in the streets of French capital Paris to demonstrate against African dictators and the French government's alleged collusion with African dictatorial regimes. +Protesters left from Place de la République and headed to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, via 51 rue de l'Université, where Ali Bongo Ondimba (current official Gabonese president) owns a 140 million Euro mansion. +Both Gabonese and Libyan activists were present in the procession. +Procession of protestors against dictatorships in Africa passing near the Louvres Museum in Paris, France on 26 February, 2011. +Image by author. +Gabonese activists demonstrating against official Gabon President Ali Bongo in Paris, France on February 26, 2011. +Image by author. +This post is part of our special coverage of Gabon Unrest 2011. + +Yemen: "Our blood is not cheap" (Videos) · Global Voices +Tens of thousands of protesters across Yemen rallied for and against President Ali Abdullah Saleh after Friday prayers. +Two protesters were shot dead in Yemen's second-largest city Aden on Friday, February 25, in what appears to be confrontations between anti-Saleh groups and police. +At least 34 others have been wounded, most by live gunfire. +In the Yemen's capital Sanaa, people were especially worried about rivaling demonstrations scheduled for Friday, but no major incidents were reported. +Around 10,000 pro-Saleh supporters rallied in Sanaa's Tahrir square, just four kilometers from where approximately 30,000 to 50,000 anti-Saleh protesters gathered at the University of Sanaa. +For and against the government +In the roughly two weeks since protests began in Yemen, an estimated 17 people have died and dozens hurt in clashes between anti-Saleh demonstrators and pro-government groups and security forces. +Since protests across the Middle East began to spread, opposition groups have squeezed concessions from Saleh, like a promise to not run in the 2013 presidential election and to enable more national political dialogue. +Yet anti-government protesters (and outside observers) accuse pro-Saleh groups of hiring thugs to beat them with daggers and clubs. +After pro-Saleh groups shot and killed two anti-government protesters on Tuesday, February 22 (and wounded many others), President Saleh ordered police to offer "full protection" to anti-government protesters, and, if necessary, separate them from pro-government groups. +Yemen is arguably the poorest country in the region, and the mostly young anti-Saleh protesters have been demanding economic development and human rights. +They say Saleh has been in power for too long (since 1978) and has reigned over a notoriously corrupt government with a poor human rights record. +Saleh supporters say his downfall would bring chaos to a country only 15 years removed from its last civil war with a southern secessionist movement. +Yemen still faces multiple security issues, like an on-again off-again war with tribes on its northern border. +Aden +Here is a photo from the demonstration in Aden where one protester was killed and 19 others reported wounded. +In a video uploaded to Twitpic by snuraddin, protesters chant: "Ali you bastard, our blood is not cheap." +#today #youth #protest in #almansurah #aden #yemen Image by Twitpic user snuraddin. +Aden is the former capital of what was once the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) before unifying with North Yemen in 1990 to form the current Republic of Yemen. +According to accounts on Twitter: +@aden_voice: Ali Abdullah Saleh's soldiers have no qualms about killing southerners and to fire live bullets in the head#Yemen #aden @aden_voice: they are burning pictures of #President of Yemen and #Yemen Flag in alorood area Aden, #protesters demanding the independence of South #fb @aden_voice: Security opens fire on the protesters at Camp Victory in Khormaksar and news of the martyrs and the wounded. +South Yemen#Aden #Yemen #fb +@snuraddin: #protesters burn #tires in revenge of what happened to their #friends in AlAreesh #khormaksar #aden #yemen +Sanaa +Here is a round-up of the day's events in Sanaa: +@JamjoomCNN: Prayers just finished - as soon as they were done entire crowd rose up chanting "People are calling for the fall of the regime" #Yemen #yf +@Yemen_2011:(Hashem @AJELive) cars w speakers infornt of pro-gov marchers #Yemen - plenty of banners - speaking of Dialogue committee by Prez - +@JamjoomCNN: One sign reads: "No to dialogue, no to negotiation" This crowd has one demand... That Saleh step down #Yemen #yf +@shephardm: Word on the street is that gov't loyalists getting about $20 + food and qat to stay at Tahrir Square. +That's a lot of money here. #yemen. +@JamjoomCNN: Oppo. politician @ anti-govt demos today:"This is a people's protest. +We're joining the youth to be among them and not to lead them." #Yemen +@tomfinn__ Crowds are deafening here at Sana'a university #yemen there must be over 30,000 people @JamjoomCNN: One student :"President Saleh is stubborn but our movement is a peaceful one and we'll keep coming day after day in greater numbers." #Yemen +@shephardm: Talked with one pro-Saleh demonstrator who said wanted to show support so country wouldn't collapse. +Wants to wait for elx in 2013. #yemen +@Abou_3ali: dozens of thousands at #Sanaa university today! +So exciting!! +More and more people there and so different... #Yemen #yf +@shephardm: But one cop raised his baton and came toward me when he saw my camera. +Guess he didn't get the "be nice to journos memo" from pres. #yemen. +@gregorydjohnsen: Pro-Salih protests look fairly small on tv - anyone on the ground have a sense of numbers?ite +@gregorydjohnsen: I was there a couple of hours ago, can't have been more than 10,000 pro-Saleh supporters +@shephardm: Went inside military PR office known as 26th of September. +A dozen video cameras. +Wonder about "citizen journalists" on the street. #yemen. +@ionacraig: Single panicking soldier who aimed at protesters after firing in air nearly changed course of events today. +Snr officer grabbed gun from him +@yemen4change: For security reasons, bloggers from #Yemen, please do NOT disclose your locations! +There is gov wide crackdown on online bloggers +@ionacraig: Came closer than I'd like to being shot today, lost my phone and then a pro-saleh guy hit me round the knee with a stick by mistake. +Bad day +@WomanfromYemen: liberals, islamists, socialists, young, old, students, unemployed, teachers, doctors, men, women etc at the protest #sanaa #yemen @WomanfromYemen: overwhelmed w/joy at the peaceful and festive atmosphere today in #sanaa, #yemen. not sure how many ppl were there but i think around 50,000 +@Abou_3ali: People prayed, ate, chanted, danced, chewed, at #Sanaa U. and it's still going on! +LOVE IT!! +Yalla ya shabab !! #Yemen #yf +Taiz +News Yemen reports that "tens of thousands" protested in Taiz, the country's third largest city. +Here are some photos from Friday's events. +Finally, a video of the protests beginning immediately after Friday prayers, uploaded by @kasinof +From Twitter: +@dia_assada: As Freedom Sq had no more capacity, inhabitants around the Sq opened their houses' yards n roofs 4 prayer performers. #Taiz #Yemen +Ibb +Here are some photos of protests in the city of Ibb, about 150 kilometers from the port of Aden. + +Libya: The African Mercenary Question (Videos) · Global Voices +One of the more distressing sub-plots in the ongoing two-week uprising against Colonel Muammar Al Gaddafi in Libya has been reports of the Libyan leader's alleged use of "African mercenaries" to prop up his falling regime. +Why put a Black face on the mercenary story when people in Libya are both light and dark skinned? +In an open letter to Al Jazeera posted on the blog Sky, Soil & Everything In Between, KonWomyn worries that the broadcaster's shorthand description simply has become "mercenaries from Africa", instead of looking deeper into who these people actually are, and that this description is being copied in media around the world. +Fear is another reason these claims are widely perpetuated. +In a comment on a blog post on Arabist.net about mercenaries in Libya, "Benedict" writes: ... in a climate of fear and scarce information, rumours that violence is being carried out by shadowy outsiders often spread widely (e.g. the rumours of 'Arabs' beating protesters in Iran in 2009). + +Japan: Fear in Fukushima · Global Voices +This post is part of our special coverage on the Japan Earthquake 2011. +The day after a 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck Japan, an explosion at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 150 miles north of Tokyo, is causing both fear and confusion online about what may happen next. +So far, the nuclear reactors themselves are alleged to be unharmed, and the worst radiation is contained. +Still, thousands of people are being evacuated from around two nuclear power plants in the Fukushima Prefecture. +Many references have been made to the devastating Chernobyl disaster in the USSR in 1986, but it's still not clear how big the damage will be in Japan nor how many human lives it will cost. +As an indicator of worry, one of the latest new hashtags is #save_fukushima. +Distance from Fukushima on mapped on Google Earth map of Japan - shared by bizenjirapid213 on Twitpic +Fear in Fukushima +Certainly people working inside the Fukushima plant and those living nearby are facing the greatest risk. +On Twitter, there are several messages of support and concern. + +Pakistan: Citizens In Action After Minority Minister's Assassination · Global Voices +Citizens for democracy letter signing campaign- Photo Credit Abro Khudabuksh +On the 2nd of March, an unknown gunmen shot and killed Pakistan's Federal Minister For Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti. +His body was riddled with bullets, as his assassins flew the crime scene leaving behind a pamphlet stating his death was justified. +This is the second high-profile killing after the assassination of Governor Salman Taseer. +Bhatti was the only christian member of the cabinet and his death is a huge setback not only for minorities but also for the entire nation. +Upon hearing the news of his assassination Pakistanis on twitter reacted with horror and grief. +On Gawaahi.com I wrote about the initial reactions and urged people to stand up against the violence. + +Palestine: Remembering Murdered Italian Activist Vittorio Arrigoni · Global Voices +Long before the deadline set by his captors arrived, kidnapped Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni was killed, apparently hanged. +Bloggers in Gaza and elsewhere have reacted with disbelief, anger and sorrow. +Vittorio Arrigoni by Carlos Latuff (@CarlosLatuff) +Arrigoni, an activist with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Gaza, was planning on visiting Italy soon because of his father's health . +A hero in whose eyes there was a whole lot of unmistakable meanings of profound love, loyalty, hope, sacrifice, truth and courage. + +Brazil: Forest Defender Shot Dead · Global Voices +As the Brazilian Congress debates a new Forest Code, and as the Environment Ministry launches new raids on illegal deforestation in Brazil, forest defender José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva was shot dead . +He had announced his life was under threat in the TEDxAmazonia conference, last November. + +Ukraine: "Stalin" Tea Sparks Controversy · Global Voices +According to a recent poll , up to 46 percent of Ukrainians feel nostalgic for the USSR, most of them being pensioners, as well as residents of Eastern and Southern regions of the country. +At the same time, only 18% of Western Ukrainians and 19 percent of young people share this sentiment. +Such blurred attitudes toward the recent communist past are being eagerly exploited by manufacturers, who have been using Soviet symbols to market their goods for years. +Nevertheless, the recent promotion of a domestically-produced tea named after the notorious Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin has sparked a heated discussion among Ukrainian netizens, many of whom felt that this time marketers have overstepped the line. +In February, Dnipropetrovsk city Internet forum user Vtoroy shared several photos of a billboard advertising the "Stalin" tea. +He wrote this : + +Yemen: Crowds Call for Saleh to Step Down in Sanaa · Global Voices +Thousands of protesters have gathered in Change Square, in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, to call on President Ali Abdulla Saleh to step down. +The protests are going strong in what is being described as The Friday of Departure and the army has reportedly fired gunshots in the air to stop pro-regime protesters from clashing with pro-democracy demonstrators. +Thousands of Yemenis in Change Square in Sanaa +Last Friday was the bloodiest since anti-Saleh protests started in Yemen more than two months ago. +Here are the latest reactions from Twitter: +@lcmarshal: #Protesters enter Sanaa's "Change Square" in #Yemen Capital http://ping.fm/p4Tel @Nefermaat: shots by the army are not at Change Sq, but at the periphery of the protest area... #Sanaa #Yemen #yf so far, just warning, nothing happened +@fbess: Army draws the line. Instead of bashing heads (option 1) the Yemeni army has chosen to stand by the people in the interest of #Yemen. +@fbess: In comes the army! +Yemeni armed forces are preventing regime loyalists from attacking the people. #Yemen +@fbess: The hour of conceding is too late. +President Saleh's own tribe calls on him to resign echoing the people's demand: STEP DOWN. #Yemen +@fbess: Sweet. +I see protesters in Sanaa took a pg out of the Tahrir Sq book, citizens set up checkpoints for demonstrators. #Yemen +@khadijapatel: Saleh is taking a leaf out of Gaddafi's book, alleging the opposition are drug dealers. #Yemen +@sunnysingh_sw6: #Yemen's Saleh trying to stay on: says opposition are small minority, criminals, drug dealers http://goo.gl/XRRYY What no nescafe drinkers? +@Dory_Eryani: president Saleh accused the protesters of being drug dealers..sounds familiar? #yemen #libya #egypt #freedom #world @nytimes #25jan +@AhmadHKh: Regime in #Yemen is saying the protesters are Hothi supporters & drug dealers .. Rightttttt can't you even be creative? +@alguneid: Last Friday (Dignity) #Saleh was happy trigger.This Friday (Departure),he is happy spender. #Yemen #yf +@befroggled: Last Friday of March, and we're waiting for a dictator to fall this month. +They have a history of leaving on Fridays #Yemen? #Libya +@kxsar: is ununstalling of #Yemen president coming to an succesfull end after his speech today? when Gaddafi will step down from #Libya? + +Kuwait: Shia Twitter User Arrested · Global Voices +Never before in Kuwait has a Twitter user been arrested for what they wrote online until Nasser Abul (@NasserAbuL), a young Shia Kuwaiti, was detained three days ago. +Only once before, a Kuwaiti Twitter user called Mishari Buyabis (@mbuyabis) was questioned by state security police but not arrested, for his criticism of the government. +The news took the Kuwaiti cyber space by storm on the morning of June 10, 2011, suggesting that Abul was arrested by state security police for threatening national security and was not allowed to see his family or his lawyer. +Many tweeps from Kuwait have condemned this act saying it is illegal, but many unknown netizens complimented it since Abul is known for his Shia extremism using dirty language online and supporting the Syrian regime while criticizing the Bahraini and Saudi regimes. +The situation, simply, was turned into an online sectarian war. Picture of detaineed tweep Nasser Abul (in blue) taken from his Twitter account. +Kuwaiti writer and cartoonist Jafar Rajab (@jafarrajab) was one of the first to tweet Abul's arrest news. +He condemned this act saying it violates freedom of expression (Ar): + +Singapore: ‘Save the World’s Saddest Dolphins’ Campaign · Global Voices +Below is a brief introduction of the ‘Save the World’s Saddest Dolphins’ campaign in Singapore: +25 bottlenose dolphins that once roamed free and wild in the vast Pacific Ocean, are now facing a life of captivity, boredom, stress, claustrophobia, frustration and slow death, thanks to Resorts World, which plans to keep them in its spa at Sentosa, Singapore. +Two of their family have already died during the ordeal. +Please help save these remaining animals +The campaign appeals to all animal lovers to pressure the management of Resorts World to release the dolphins: +What Resorts World, Sentosa is doing to bottlenose dolphins is enough to upset any animal lover. +Dolphins, you see, are highly social creatures that are accustomed to being in family pods. +These dolphins face a bleak future. +It is up to all of us animal lovers to get Resorts World to rethink their decision to keep them in captivity. +Please ask Resorts World to let the dolphins go. +Please lend your voice and support. +Avaaz.org, an international non-profit group, supports the petition +Petition To Resorts World Sentosa: We call on you to release all the wild dolphins from captivity, stop your practice of buying dolphins caught in the wild, and support global efforts to end the hunting and capturing of wild dolphins. +Maybe the management will listen to the petition in the same way it canceled a whale shark exhibit two years ago after it too was protested by the public: +Resorts World was forced to abandon plans for a whale shark exhibit two years ago because of the huge outcry that threatened their reputation. +Let’s build a massive call now to free these intelligent, beautiful creatures — and make this a turning point in the fight to end the global wild-dolphin trade. +Our petition will be delivered to Resorts World and the media. +Sign now and share this with everyone! +Facebook photo by Pearlyn Cheong +Below are some blog reactions. +As far as I am concerned, this plan to bring dolphins for display is a direct challenge to our dignity as a nation. +Are we really going down this road of having dolphins jump through hoops? +It has also been tiring to hear very old and worn arguments from the 80′s and 90′s surface about the research and conservation benefits of having dolphins in captivity. +The myriad of ills which the ocean faces will not be aided by any of this. +lekowala! criticizes the plan to use the dolphins for the hotel’s ‘interactive spa’: +What was RWS thinking? +Anway, how can they use excuse that the dolphins can be used for “Interactive SPA” to heal the sick and disabled children. +(I have no doubt dolphins make anyone feel better but it would be so wrong if the dolphins are captive). +If RWS is really sincere about this, they should donate their earnings to hospitals, hospices and other organizations which are in a better position than an integrated resort whose main expertise is food, entertainment – namely gambling, to do these things. + +Yemen: Confusion in Sanaa Amid Conflicting News on Saleh · Global Voices +This post is part of our special coverage Yemen Protests 2011. +The Yemeni capital Sanaa plunged into chaos this afternoon, with conflicting reports circulating about Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. +While some reports say he had fled the presidential palace in Sanaa, others are reporting that he was injured in clashes. +Some even went to announce his death. +Here's a round up of reactions from Twitter in the previous hour. +Mohamed Abdel Daymen tweets: +#Saleh "light injuries" now confirmed by multiple reliable sources. So at least that much is true. An anti-government protester outside Sana'a University shows the words 'Go Out' to Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh. +Read more on our live blog: http://aje.me/mPUHeO +And Ali Hashem, Al Jazeera's Arabic correspondent, adds: +Yemeni official: President Ali Saleh will talk to the public soon +And quips: +Saleh is confirmed to have escaped death, lucky him +Andy Carvin attempts to summarize the situation saying: +So to summarize, Yemeni pres Saleh is/isn't/could be/perhaps is/supposedly/according to twitter/according to Reuters/sort of/who knows dead. +News of Saleh's injuries, and possible death, raised hope in the Twittersphere, that the Arab world will soon have one less dictator. +Egyptian Mona Eltahawy tweets: +We are long overdue a Friday of Departure of Despised Dictator. #Yemen's Ali Abdulla #Saleh: could you be next? +Yalla, Yemen! +Back in Yemen, the confusion continues. +Ibrahim Mothana writes: +This post is part of our special coverage Yemen Protests 2011. + +China: Chinese Culture and Kungfu Panda · Global Voices +Sascha from Chengdu Living picks up the discussion in the Chinese online world on their view on the movie Kungfu Panda and its representation of Chinese culture. + +Norway: The Online Traces of a Mass Murderer · Global Voices +An Oslo street the day after the explosion, by Francesco Rivetti on July 23, 2011 shared on Flickr (CC-BY-NC-SA) +On Friday 22 July, 2011, at 3:26 PM an explosion in Oslo, Norway killed seven people and caused extensive damage to several government buildings. +The terror continued only few hours later when a man masquerading as a police officer opened fire on participants at a Labour Party Youth (AUF) camp on the island Utøya. +At least 85 people were murdered on the island before the shooter was apprehended by police and identified as a 32-year old Norwegian man named Anders Behring Breivik. +Breivik's Facebook page was quickly discovered (now offline) as was a single Twitter message he posted on 17 July. +Bloggers and journalists in Norway and abroad have continued to look for any trace of the man online that could help explain his unfathomable actions. +Searching for clues to a motive +On Saturday, a blogger named Kevin Slaughter (@kevinslaughter) in the United States found a 1,514 page manifesto and a 12-minute video that appeared to be by Breivik although it was published in English under the pen name "Andrew Berwick". +It's a rambling tirade against "cultural-Marxists" and the "Islamisation of Europe" and it offers advice for would-be terrorists. +Norwegian media have confirmed that the document and video were uploaded by Breivik on the same day of the attacks. +While the document can hardly be considered recommended reading, intense curiosity about the identity of the killer, has turned it into a popular topic of discussion. +On Twitter, conversations about the document can now be found on the hashtag #N2083 which is a reference to its title, "2083: A European Declaration of Independence." +Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) the managing editor of Foreign Policy Magazine live-tweeted quotes from the manifesto as he read through it on Saturday. +@blakehounshell: Author gamely concedes, "Being a Justiciar Knight is not for everyone." +@blakehounshell: "Appear politically correct or at least moderate, dress normally. +Try to limit your rhetorical activities. Avoid excessive forum posting." +@blakehoundshell: Author recommends telling your friends/co-workers/family that you have started to play, say, World of Warcraft and want to focus on that. +Ignoring his own advice, Breivik did in fact make postings to online forums, including to the Norwegian right-wing and anti-Muslim-immigration website Document.no. +His comments here from 2009 and 2010 have been translated to English and reposted on the personal blog of Doug Saunders (@DougSaunders), European bureau chief for the Globe and Mail newspaper from Canada. +As seen elsewhere +On Sunday, the founder of Document.no Hans Rustad uncovered that Breivik's manifesto plagiarized entire paragraphs from the manifesto of Ted Kaczynski, also known as the "Unabomber." +Kaczynski sent over a dozen mail bombs to universities and airlines between 1978 and 1995, killing three people. +Where Kaczynski wrote "leftist," Breivik has written "cultural Marxist" instead. +Rustad writes that he discovered this from an unnamed source who "studied the manifesto all night, and "coincidentally noticed a likeness". +Responding to intense media curiosity, Document.no have distanced themselves from Breivik, pointing to personal criticism of Rustad in the manifesto, and also by highlighting that Breivik also posted to other online forums like Minerva and to the Swedish neo-Nazi site Nordisk.nu . +Previous postings from Breivik have also been spotted in the online gamer's forum Eu.Battle.Net where players of World of Warcraft and other online multi-player games convene to discuss game matters. +In one thread entitled "Attacker from Oslo a WoW player??" forum members discuss if they have ever interacted with Breivik, and how his gaming history is likely lead to negative media portrayals of videos games. +On the NY Times news blog, The Lede, Robert Mackey, posted several links to "Web Clues to a Supected Attacker's Motives" and several citizen videos showing the damage on the streets of Oslo. + +Côte d'Ivoire: Gbagbo Resists, Africans Protest · Global Voices +This post is part of our special coverage Côte d'Ivoire Unrest 2011 +While former Côte d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo is still holed up in a bunker in the country, resisting arrest for continuing to deny his loss of the 2010 presidential election, the participation of France in the bid to oust him is raising reactions amongst French politicians and citizens , as well as within the African community in France. +Pro-Gbagbo protests in Paris, France, March 26, 2011. +Image by Flickr user anw.fr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). +From Paris to Douala +On April 5, 2011, in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon, Moto Taxi drivers gathered downtown in order to show their support to Laurent Gbagbo. +The following video was posted on Wat TV by Gri-Gri International, a news blog: +manif à Douala contre l'ingérence internationale - la prochaine fois, devant l'ambassade de France ? +Vidéo Gri-Gri-International sélectionnée dans TV/Séries +One of the interviewees in the video explains : +The problem of Côte d'Ivoire concerns all Africans we warn the international community and France to stop what they are doing in Côte d'Ivoire +Referring to what happened in Cameroon during the war of independence in the country, he adds: +Today we are understanding that it's true that France killed our parents 50 years ago +Embassy difficulties +French Defense Minister Gérard Longuet reported to the French Senate Commission on Foreign Affairs on the morning of April 7, 2011. +He reported that the forces protecting Laurent Gbagbo number around 1,000 and explained that the main difficulty regarding the intervention of the presidential palace in Cocody (where Gbagbo is hiding) is the presence of numerous foreign embassies surrounding it. +The latter are fast becoming strategical and tactical points: +200 hommes pour défendre Gbagbo ? +Vidéo LCIWAT sélectionnée dans Actualité +According to Jeune Afrique, the main African French language magazine, 100 Angolan special forces are backing Gbagbo's militaries who are protecting the presidential bunker where the former leader is still hiding. +This post is part of our special coverage Côte d'Ivoire Unrest 2011 + +Syria: Lesbian Blogger Amina is a Married American Man · Global Voices +This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011. +The Gay Girl in Damascus turned out to be a straight married American man, who seems to have no issue in taking the world on a wild goose chase after claiming that Amina Arraf was kidnapped by Syrian authorities in Damascus a week ago. +Thomas MacMaster chose to keep his silence for seven whole days while activists, bloggers and even officials continued to look for Amina, fearing the worst. +Questions continued to evolve when a woman who claimed that 'Amina' impersonated her, stealing her photographs from her private Facebook account, that investigations questioned that the gay girl of Damascus might not be who she claimed to be. +On Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah and Benjamin Doherty put pieces of the jigsaw together yesterday, pointing fingers to MacMaster as being the possible author of the blog. +While we believe that the information gathered here is compelling in its own right, we have managed to corroborate additional information from several independent sources that we are not publishing and that significantly increases our confidence in the information we have. +We do not know the motives of the person or persons behind this hoax. +The information presented below connects the “Amina” blogger to two people in real life: Thomas (Tom) J MacMaster and Britta Froelicher who are married to each other. +The Electronic Intifada wrote to MacMaster requesting to speak to him about “Amina,” to which he responded, “Thanks, but as I have stated before, it is neither my wife nor me.” +In a short post entitled Apology to readers, MacMaster, who identifies himself as the sole author of all posts on that blog, finally excuses his act saying: +I do not believe that I have harmed anyone — I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about. +Others believe that MacMaster's deception has left a damper on the work of activists on the ground, social media and the role it is playing in this year of Arab revolutions and the credibility of the Arab blogosphere. +Some also note that his prank takes attention away from campaigns being coordinated for real activists and bloggers in prison and under threat and also puts the Syrian gay community at risk. +At American-Arab group blog Kabobfest, Ali Abbas and Assia Bounaoui this post, where they write: +MacMaster, in all of his privileged splendor as a straight American white man, appropriated and “outed” his avatar Amina as a lesbian activist, and in doing so put numerous queer Syrians at risk. +Writing from a cozy home in Georgia/Edinburgh/Turkey bares no risk, allowing for plenty of slack when it comes to accuracy and accountability. +Yet the victims will ultimately not be the MacMasters of the world, the phony bleeding heart liberals, but the people on the ground that Amina fails to represent. +The writers continue: +Regardless of whatever lazy apology MacMaster nervously reaches for, Amina was never intended to be a fictional character for the betterment of women or LGBT people in the Middle East. +She is a western fantasy intended to arouse and titillate the western sensibilities to feel, not act. +This is the ultimate neo-orientalism as it not only re-imagines an existing geographic location, but invents an entire human landscape. +MacMaster posts a longer apology here, which is shot down by people disturbed by the prank, including British-Kurdish Ruwayda Mustafa, who tweets: Tom McMasters extended apology about #Amina Hoax: http://t.co/McfWpPj Not a shred of sympathy here. +Abunimah adds: My hunch is that the person behind #Amina hoax has a long history of, and need for deception that won't stop just because he was caught. +Antoun Issa writes: +Tom MacMaster exploited the weakness of the blogosphere, a simple fundamental that anyone can produce content and claim authenticity #Amina +And Ahmed Shihab-Eldin stresses: +Sure, #Amina is a hoax, but we still must RELY on voices of bloggers since Media is not allowed in Syria. +Andy Carvin is grateful to a reader for asking questions. +He notes: +How does that reflect on the LGTB community in Syria and across the Arab world? +And what sort of weakness in the Arab blogging movement does it point out? Seriously? ... +So some prankster somewhere in the world decided to fool the world, and now it is an issue for Syrian activists and their credibility; Arab gays and lesbians and their reality; and the Arab blogging community at large? +Am I missing something or is my brain just playing games on me, refusing to stoop to that level, as I see no relation on how giving so much airtime, energy and thought to a prank could get the real people tortured, imprisoned and in real danger now under the spotlight they deserve. +This prankster's ill-deed is unforgivable. +And giving so much weight to this story and creating such a distraction and detour at this juncture of our history is even more unforgiving than all that MacMaster has done. +Further Reading: +Understanding #Amina by Ethan Zuckerman +Timeline of the Amina saga by Andy Carvin on Storify +This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011. +Thumbnail image by Flickr user the.sprouts (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). + +China: Teahouse Culture in Chengdu · Global Voices +Sascha interviews a Sichuan comedian, Li Bo Qing abou the teahouse culture in Chengdu. +The city's teahouse is similar to the salon in France where citizen would spend the afternoon talking about current affair. + +China: the first gay wedding in Shenzhen · Global Voices +DongXia He from China Hush translated a report from Southern Metropolis Daily on the wedding of a gay couple in Shenzhen. +It is the first gay wedding made public in the city. + +Arab World: "Assad, You are Next After Gaddafi!" · Global Voices +This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011 and Libya Uprising 2011. +Sultan Al Qassemi, from the UAE, tweets: +@SultanAlQassemi: Are you watching Bashar? +You're next. #Syria +Libyan Libeeya cautions: +@Freedom_7uriyah: All i've got to say to Assad is watch #Libya closely, ur next. #AssadLies will get u nowhere +Picasso Kat warns: +@Picassokat: Assad can you hear foot steps? +Gaddafi's fate will be decided within hours & then all the eyes in the world will focus on you #Syria #Libya +And CBS journalist Toula Vlahou wonders: +@ToulaVlahouCBS: What's Syria's Pres. #Assad thinking as he watches #Libya fall? +Terrorist Donkey offers Al Assad some advice: +@TerroristDonkey: #Assad you should record few speeches just like #Gaddafi because your day is coming. #Syria #Libya +While Syrian Maysaloon last night tweeted: +@Maysaloon: There is one man watching events in Libya very closely tonight. +Bashar al Assad #Syria +Will Assad be the fourth Arab leader in line to fall after Gaddafi, Tunisian Zine Al Abedine Ben Ali and Egyptian Hosni Mubarak? +Stay tuned for more reactions from social media. +This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011 and Libya Uprising 2011. +Thumbnail image by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, by Fabio Rodrigues Pozzebom / ABr (available in public domain via Wikicommons). + +Iran: Regime called Google+ dangerous · Global Voices +Head of internet unit in the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance called Google+ is one of the most dangerous social networking for Iranian users. + +East Timor: Liberalizing the Telecommunication Industry · Global Voices +Tempo Semanal writes about the plan of the East Timor government to liberalize the country's telecommunication Industry which is currently monopolized by Portugal Telecom. + +East Timor: Changing Family Ties · Global Voices +According to Maria Domingas Fernandes Alves, the rapid modernization in Dili, East Timor has affected traditional family relationships which should force the government to prepare for the breakdown of 'solidarity bond' in society. + +Hello World! +In this edition of the Global Voices Podcast you can hear about the ripple effect of the Arab uprisings, find out what it is to be a digital mentor, and talk through some of the ideas that make up a good code of ethics. +First, a reminder of what happened earlier this year. +Tunisia saw a revolution and Egyptian protesters overthrew their dictatorship too. Global Voices Podcast 3: Ripple Effects of the Arab Uprisings by globalvoices +Sounds from Egypt +One of our authors, Maria Grabowski was in Cairo recently to get a perspective on how people are feeling after months of upheaval. +Maria recorded the moving testimony of one protester in Egypt, and she also visited a protest outside the Syrian embassy where people showed support for the protest movement in Syria. +It’s one example of how protest movements cross borders. +But how far does does the effect of this movement spread. +As this year sees the Arab Spring, has the rest of the continent seen an African Spring? +Africa Rising? +Ndesanjo Macha is our editor for Sub Saharan Africa, he’s from Tanzania and based in Zambia. +We talked about how the North African protests may have inspired protests and opposition in Sub-Saharan Africa countries. +Though the themes differ, the resistance appears to have been an inspiration in other parts of the African continent. +I spoke with one of our authors, Steve Sharra from Malawi. +Though Malawi is not seeing upheaval in the same way, there are repercussions that show a strong connection to the events of the Arab Spring. +Exploring communications in Africa as a theme in the podcast this month, it was apparent that the penetration of digital tools and online access in African countries has grown, but that there is still a lot of work to do. +But there’s good news too! +Global Voices Mentors +Ten of our seasoned Global Voices bloggers and 11 activists are working together virtually as part of a new initiative developed by Global Voices and Activista, the youth network of the international development organization, ActionAid. +I caught up with one of our mentors, Nwachukwu Ebunike in Nigeria who is working with a young Nigerian activist and blogger David Habba. +According to Nwachukwu, mentoring is not just about setting a good example and sharing technical skills, it is also about ensuring that the next generation surpasses us in excellence online, and in taking personal inspiration from younger voices. +A code of ethics for citizen journalists +Now, as citizen journalism grows and becomes ever more sophisticated, is it neccesary for authors to abide by a code of ethics? +Afef Abrougui is a Global Voices author from Tunisia, and she brought a set of ethics into discussion on our internal mailing list recently. +Rezwan is our South Asia Editor, based in Bangladesh. +He matched some of Afef's points with a link to a code of ethics from a bloggers group in Nepal. +I asked them both to join me in a discussion about ethical codes online and if they are required or even possible on a global scale. +Thanks for listening! +That’s all for this edition of the Global Voices podcast, but we’ll be back with more for you to listen to soon. +Please feel free to leave us a comment or suggestion for next time. +Music credits +In the podcast you can hear lots of lovely Creative Commons music. +If you want to find out more about these artists here are the links for you. +Thanks to Orb Gettarr for the atmospheric Return of the Atlanteans Lemurian Candidate, to Mark Cotton for his Spiritualized Homage, to Superbus feat. +NS for Fujjad! +Most of the music was found via OpSound.Org, The Free Music Archive or direct from the artists. +Thanks also to all of the wonderful voice over performances and clips that help to glue the podcast together. +Thumbnail image is of protesters in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. +Flickr: Jonathan Rashad (CC BY 2.0). +Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS + +Iran: Smile, the Regime is Reading Your Emails · Global Voices +A growing number of Iranian bloggers expressed their anxieties after learning that their Gmail inboxes may have been an open book for the Iranian state to read and target dissidents for the last two months. +RedOrbit says: +The rogue SSL certificate is used to digitally “sign” HTTPS connections to any Google site and was issued by a Dutch company called DigiNotar on July 10. +In particular, political dissidents who put their trust in Google’s systems for their security may have been targeted in the attack. +Google reacted on August 29, 2011, saying: +Today we received reports of attempted SSL man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks against Google users, whereby someone tried to get between them and encrypted Google services... +Google Chrome users were protected from this attack because Chrome was able to detect the fraudulent certificate. +Human rights organisation, Arseh Sevom warns that Tor, Yahoo and Mozilla are targets too. +Here is Ali Borhani's (an Iran-based IT student) conversation with Google: +Hi, +Today, when I trid to login to my Gmail account I saw a certificate warning in Chrome . +I took a screenshot and I saved certificate to a file. +this is the certificate file with screenshot in a zip file: +http://www.mediafire.com/?rrklb17slctityb +and this is text of decoded fake certificate: +http://pastebin.com/ff7Yg663 +when I used a vpn I didn't see any warning ! +I think my ISP or my government did this attack (because I live in Iran and you may hear something about the story of Comodo hacker!) +Iran Online Security writes that internet users got the warning when they wanted to access their Google Docs. +While several bloggers offered advice for secure internet use such as using proxies to login to their emails, Nima Rashedan, a cyber security expert, published a video explaining to Iranian users what happened. +Nima Rashedan told me via email that most Iranian media ignored the importance of this attack. +Hackers got their hands on passwords, files, archives and unfortunately it is not limited to Google, since Yahoo, Firefox were targeted too. +Diginotar still keeps silent although it was hacked by a group that called itself "Iranian hackers". +Rashedan says the damage is beyond imagination and nothing to compare with Comodo hacking. +A new campaign was launched to protect Iranian users where we read: +Our campaign is aimed at raising awareness for the dangerous situation for Iranian netizens, especially since the Diginotar scandal. + +Bolivia: Child Workers Unionize · Global Voices +In Bolivia, where unions are extensively formed by members of society, another group of workers have unionized: children. +A story on child labor in Bolivia is presented by Jean-Friedman Rudovsky as part of a series Ground Shifters: Stories of Women Changing Unseen Worlds. +Rudovsky writes: +Bolivia has 9 million inhabitants; one million are child workers, some who started working as early as seven. +Of these, almost half are girls. +The girls, like their jobs, are often hidden, inside homes or in the backs of restaurants. +Mauricio Aira in the blog Bolivia Primera Plana argues that child labor is not a concern for Bolivian society, and adds: +These children and adolescents work to help the family, to support themselves in their studies, to provide for their personal expenses, to secure themselves a better future compared to their fathers and brothers buried by silicosis and accidents in mines or plantations of sugar cane. +Child labor in Bolivia. +Photo by United Nations Photo on Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) +The majority of child workers attend school while keeping up with demanding jobs, some even working full-time hours. +They have formed unions to be protected by the government and treated respectfully by society. +As Marion Gibney writes: +these children do not view their situation as a bad one; they want to work, and formed these unions for their own benefit. +The unions are meant to grant them protection and basic rights from the government, as well as to gain respect from others in the work force. +Being children, they are often picked on and beat up by grown-ups, but they have learned to adapt and protect themselves. +Since child labor is outlawed, it is difficult to ask the government or other organizations for protection of child labor. +Noemi Gutierrez, a young coordinator for CONNATSOP, the Potosi Council of Organized Child Workers says: +"Everyone says that kids shouldn’t work, but they are not taking into account the economic reality in this country. +Sure, if we were all well off, none of us would have to work. +But rather than thinking rationally, the government only says we need to eradicate child labor. +I say, they ought to eradicate poverty first." +The blog Children's Participation summarizes some of the demands made by UNATSBO ("Unión de Niños, Niñas, y Adolescentes Trabajadores de Bolivia" in Spanish, or "Union of boys, girls and teen workers of Bolivia" in English) the country's largest union of child workers: +They want to ensure that children earn the same wages and have the same financial tools as their adult counterparts. +In some sectors, they earn less than half the salary of their adult colleagues. +Moreover, children don't have access to savings accounts and often give their earnings directly to their parents. +Union members also lobby for safe work environments and for better medical care, especially for children whose jobs present a health risk. +The lack of recognition of children who work forms one of the major obstacles in achieving better living conditions for working children + +Myanmar: Interactive Prison Map · Global Voices +An interactive prison map of Myanmar was created in support of the ‘Free Burma’s Video Journalists campaign. +The map identifies the locations and gives a brief description of Myanmar’s 43 prisons +Burma is home to 43 prisons and around 100 labour camps. +Conditions in these jails are notoriously poor - inmates suffer regular physical and psychological abuse from officials, while medicine is scant and overcrowding common. +The majority of political prisoners are held in Rangoon's Insein prison, although many are sent to remote jails hundreds of miles from their families where they are forced to battle extreme weather conditions and malaria. +Myanmar Prison Map +Insein prison is most notorious for being the detention center of Myanmar’s most prominent political prisoners. +Insein prison known as the ‘darkest hole in Burma’ is located in Rangoon division in lower Burma. +The total prison population is between 9000 and 10,000 prisoners including over 300 political prisoners with only 3 doctors. +It is a top security prison where Aung San Suu Kyi spent time. +Insein Prison +The 300 political prisoners in Insein have been given extremely long jail punishments even for minor political activities +Among the political prisoners are 225 monks, 11 MPs, 12 lawyers, eight doctors, 157 women, and nearly 30 media workers. +Burma has been known to sentence people as young as 14 to years in prison for seemingly minor political activities such as the distribution of leaflets. +One man, General Hso Ten, the chairman of the Shan State Peace Council, is serving a 106-year sentence for high treason. +The website also includes testimonies from former political detainees who bravely shared their prison experiences. +Wai Moe was one of the prisoners who were tortured +Once I had shackles placed on my ankles, and they didn’t remove these for seven months. +They weighed more than 10 kilos, and became part of my body. +Other times you were forced to clean the iron bars on cell door with cloth for four hours a day – 8-10am, and 2-4pm. +This is physical and mental torture – there’s no reason for it, but if you refuse, you are beaten. +And another punishment was being forced to catch flies with a plastic bag. +If you can’t catch them, they will beat you or tie you in shackles. +There are 17 jailed video journalists for the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB). +One of the video journalists currently under detention is Hla Hla Win. +She had been detained under the Import/Export Act for using an unregistered motorbike but her jail sentence has been extended to 20 years +During the first weeks of her seven year sentence, she was interrogated and eventually admitted to being a DVB reporter. +On 20 December 2009 her jail term was extended by 20 years for violating the Electronics Act, which prohibits downloading or uploading data from the internet that is considered damaging to the security of the military regime. +This is a tactic often used by the regime to imprison video reporters. +She was handed a further 20 years and offered no legal representative. +A protest action demanding her freedom has been scheduled next week in front of the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok. + +Morocco: French Made TGV Rail Project Causes Controversy · Global Voices +On Thursday 29 September, 2011, President Sarkozy of France visited Morocco to oversee the launch of construction work on a new TGV rail link between the cities of Tangier and Casablanca. +The French made high-velocity train is due to start operating by December 2015 and is worth an estimated 20 billion dirhams (US$2.4 billion). +Moroccan state-run news agency M.A.P. boasts that "Morocco is the first country of Africa and the Arab world to have such a technologically advanced rail transport grid." +At a ceremony chaired by King Mohammed VI of Morocco and President Sarkozy, the Moroccan Minister of Transport Karim Ghellab explained that the TGV is expected to generate new jobs and offer training opportunities in rail professions for Moroccan jobseekers. +The project is, however, causing a stir in the Moroccan blogosphere. +Bloggers are raising questions about the motives behind the scheme and asking whether their country needs a project that costly. +TGV train in the French countryside. +Image by Flickr user Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden (CC BY 2.0). +"Real" motives +Veteran Moroccan blogger Larbi protests against a project he deems an "economic crime". +He explains the contract was offered to Sarkozy back in 2007 as a reward to the French after they lost a lucrative arms deal against the Americans. +Back then, the Moroccan government preferred the United States' Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets to the French Dassault Rafales. +Morocco offered to purchase the French TGV system to console Sarkozy, the blogger explains. +Larbi writes , addressing President Sarkozy: + +United States: "Occupy Wall Street" Takes the Heart of New York's Financial District · Global Voices +This post is part of our special coverage #Occupy Worldwide. In New York City's Financial District, a peaceful protest has been organized by the group Occupy Wall Street (#occupywallstreet on Twitter), and supported by the Canadian organization AdBusters and the hacker group Anonymous. +Inspired by the demonstrations in cities throughout Arab and European countries, these youth are showing their dissatisfaction with the way in which Wall Street has, according to them, controlled the policies of the United States economy, making it into a "corporatocracy" and leaving millions unemployed. +This group has occupied Zuccotti Park since September 17, and they expect that more people will join in the upcoming months. +Poster from the movement. +Musicians, medical staff, an improvised library and a technology team armed with computers and other devices can all be found in the park. +The demonstrators also have created banners with pieces of cardboard in which they express their feelings against capitalism, as well as their opposition to the Troy Davis execution. +The demonstrators have joined under the motto: "We are the 99% who will not tolerate the greed and corruption of the remaining 1%." +Sofía Gallisá photo. +Published with permission. +A poster showing the online media resources for finding information. +Sofía Gallisá photo. +Published with permission. +Sofía Gallisá photo. +Published with permission. +Sofía Gallisá photo. +Published with permission. +Although the protests have been carrying on without much disturbances, there have been arrests: according to recent reports, close to 80 arrests took place on Saturday, September 24, mainly for disorderly conduct on behalf of "individuals who blocked pedestrian and vehicular traffic," in addition to resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration. +Nonetheless, this did not thwart the demonstrators' march from continuing to other parts of the city such as Union Square in the center of Manhattan. +While traditional media has not provided much coverage of the protest, information has exploded all over digital social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Vimeo, Flickr). +National figures like professor and philosopher Cornel West (@CornelWest) demonstrated his support via Twitter: +Courageous folk. +Civil disobedience is part and parcel of the American democratic process. #OccupyWallStreet http://ow.ly/6DNj1 +Van Jones (@VanJones68), a prominent U.S. activist, also expressed his solidarity with the demonstrators while simultaneously speaking out against police misconduct: +Those Occupy Wall Street folks deserve some serious love. +But NYPD? +WTF? +Check out video! +Watching http://livestre.am/PlNN via @livestream +Other Twitter users like Michele Catalano (@inthefade) believe that the protest is a dichotomy in itself: It's so cute how the kids at Occupy Wall Street are tweeting their fight against capitalism from their iPhones and Droids. + +Libya: Celebrations as Gaddafi Confirmed Dead · Global Voices +This post is part of our special coverage Libya Uprising 2011. +Libyan strongman Muammar Al Gaddafi is finally dead. +After hundreds of thousands of tweets and guess work between news of him being captured, wounded, killed, or all three together, we finally have a confirmation from the Libyan ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) that he really is dead. +Both Sultan Al Qassemi, from the UAE, and NPR's Andy Carvin joke: +@acarvin: And re-animate it. +RT @SultanAlQassemi: especially with the NTC's poor track record, they may need to bring his corpse on stage +Wall painting showing Muammar al Gaddafi, France. +Image by Flickr user Abode of Chaos (CC BY 2.0). +With news of Gaddafi's death, the NTC decided to be cautious with an announcement until it made sure he really was dead. +It had previously announced the capture of other members of Gaddafi's family, for them to appear on news channels to dispute NTC's claims. +Over all, the year 2011 seems to be a bad year for Arab dictators and a good one for their people. +Palestinian Ahmed Shihab-Eldin remarks: +@ASE: #Gaddafi was killed. +So that means, 1 dead, 1 fleed, 1 hospitalized, 1 burned and 1 batshit crazy...among others. +Meanwhile, celebrations continue across Libya. +And Ali Tweel confirms: @AliTweel: no I'm in Tripoli. it's like a war here because of the celebratory firing. +I can't explain. +And the jokes continue. +The different spellings of Gaddafi's name continue to spin jokes. +DJ Xpect quips: +@djxpect: So apparently Gaddafi is still alive...captured. +It's Qaddafi who has been killed. +Khaddafi is still releasing audio broadcasts from Sirte +Naser Weddady jokes: @weddady: Botox spilled? +RT @SultanAlQassemi: BREAKING photo of Gaddafi killed http://mun.do/p5pzgA via @Suanzes And Tom Gara concludes: @tomgara: Gaddafi being hunted down like an animal after promising to hunt his opposition like animals is one of 2011's finest developments. +Gaddafi called his people animals and rodents in long rambling speeches. +The fall of Sirte, Gaddafi's last stronghold, was reported a few hours ago. +Tripoli, the Libyan capital, fell in the revolutionary hands two months ago, and the Libyan revolution started on February 16, one day ahead of its scheduled start date February 17. +This post is part of our special coverage Libya Uprising 2011. + +China: Actor Christian Bale Roughed Up Trying to Visit Chen Guangcheng · Global Voices +Following an eight-hour drive from Beijing where he was promoting his upcoming film The Flowers of War, British actor Christian Bale was roughed up on Thursday 15 December, 2011, after attempting to visit the home of detained rights activist Chen Guangcheng. +A screen capture of CNN's video of Bale being turned away. +CNN reporters were with Bale as he tried to enter Chen's village and was forced to leave by guards, who then pursued Bale and company by minivan for more than 40 minutes. +Batman jokes are cascading across Sina Weibo and other online spaces. +In a New York Times opinion piece last month, respected Chinese journalist Chen Min sparked major controversy among Chinese activists with his stance that only quiet diplomacy will lead to lessened repression in cases like that of Chen Guangcheng, that the Chinese government's loss of 'face' on an international level only makes officials more unwilling to back down. +If elaborate censorship and policing measures prevent Chinese citizens from speaking on Chen's behalf, others retort, and foreigners should keep quiet about such cases, are people held completely incommunicado like Chen Guangcheng meant to be left to speak for themselves? +Christian Bale, image from Weibo +See Global Voices coverage on Chen Guangcheng: 10 Nov - China: Free Guangcheng, Dark Glasses Portraits 2 Nov - China: Visit Blind Activist in November 31 Oct - China’s Stability Machine and the Detention of Chen Guangcheng 11 Oct - China: More Visits to the Blind Activist Chen Guangcheng + +South Korea: North Korean Dictator, Kim Jong Il Is Dead · Global Voices +Kim Jong Il, the North Korean dictator who ruled the hermit kingdom for the past three decades, has died at the age of 69. +According to North Korean state television's official report on Monday, Kim passed away from "mental and physical strain" during a train ride on December 17, 2011. +The South Korean Twittersphere erupted with various responses. +Although the death of one of the world's most notorious dictators is something people might welcome, most South Koreans have expressed concern about the instability his sudden death might bring to Korean peninsula. +The South Korean public's initial response to the news was pure shock. +Son Byung-gwan(@sonkiza), a reporter from the South Korean citizen media site Ohmynews, tweeted : + +Syria: The Struggle for Freedom and the End of Silence · Global Voices +This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/12. +Since March 2011, when the uprisings that started in Tunisia and Egypt reached Syria, thousands have been killed and tens of thousands have been arrested and disappeared in the country. +Syrian activists face unprecedented brutality and a media war to suppress all forms of opposition. +However, content shared by citizens have flooded the Internet and managed to break the wall of the state-controlled narrative. +This post offers a selection of material posted by netizens online that portrays the struggle of the Syrian people for freedom and dignity, and the end of four decades of silence. +Silence vs. citizen voices +Decades of media control over Syria have helped the regime silence its people and maintain international legitimacy. +The Syrian government owns the Syrian telecommunications market, the most regulated in the region, and international journalists are banned from entering the country. +This picture showing protesters wearing bandages on their mouths sends a powerful message "from the occupied city of Kafar Nabel": +What are you afraid of? +During the last few months, Syrians have struggled against a 41-year-old wall of fear. +This video, widely shared online, shows a young man talking to an older man, numbering the reasons why he might be afraid and encouraging him not to be. It ends with the sentence "Your silence is their most powerful weapon". +Silencing music If there is one song that has become the anthem of the Syrian revolution, that is "Yalla Irhal ya Bashar" (It's time to leave, Bashar), popularized by Hama singer Ibrahim Kashoush. +On July 5, Kashoush was found dead with his vocal cords ripped off, as a revenge for ridiculing Bashar Al-Asad. +What's my plan for the weekend? +After watching all these videos coming from #Syria today, none of my plans seem to matter. +Silencing humor +Renowned Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat, head of the Arab Cartoonist Association, published a cartoon depicting a sweaty Bashar Al-Assad clutching a briefcase running to catch a ride with Gaddafi. +Ferzat was brutally beaten on August 26 and had both his hands broken "for mocking Syrian leaders." Image by Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat @Freedom_7uriyah tweeted: +All i've got to say to Assad is watch #Libya closely, ur next. #AssadLies will get u nowhere +Silencing journalists and bloggers +The list of journalists and bloggers who have been killed, arrested or tortured has increased dramatically since the beginning of demonstrations in March. +Cameraman Ferzat Jarban was found dead on November 20 with his eyes gouged out. +He was filming anti-regime protests in the town of Al-Qasir, Homs. Free Razan poster +The government has also targeted bloggers like Hussein Ghrer and Razan Ghazzawi, one of the most prominent Syrian bloggers and a former Global Voices Online contributor. +Razan, who was accused of "weakening the national sentiment and trying to ignite sectarian strife” was released on December 18, but many others remain imprisoned or missing. +Syrian blogger @anasqtiesh tweeted: +”Weakening the national sentiment, and trying to ignite sectarian strife” should be charges against Assad. #Syria#FreeRazan +Syrians garner global support +Several online initiatives show how activists have become more creative to ensure global attention towards the situation in the country continues. We are all getting together, from all corners of the world, men and women, to express our support for the demands of the free Syrian people, and to say out loud, with one voice, No to killing, oppression and injustice. +@honestmenofsyri tweeted : This online sit-in is not in any way a substitute for sit-ins and demonstrations on the ground. +Syria2012 "At this time next year, Bashar Al-Assad will be a former president" +Mouhanad Abdul Hamid added: +I'll visit my family and get back to my home in Damascus in Syria2012 after long years of exile. +Nora Bashra noted: +In Syria2012, "torture" will be a word of the past. #Syria Nour al-Ali hoped : Education will be a priority in the country... and we will eradicate illiteracy And Ahmad Ibn Rashed Ibn Said concluded: +Syria2012 will be cleansed of thugs and bugs, free of wolves and dogs, and full of kisses and hugs +This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/12. + +Palestine: Planning a Virtual Funeral · Global Voices +It is extremely difficult for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to visit Israel, and for political reasons it is impossible for most other Arabs to do so, because Israel is not recognised as a state by the majority of Arab countries. +At the same time, Palestinian citizens of Israel (approximately 20% of the population) are unable to travel to much of the Arab world, because they have Israeli passports. +Rasha Hilwi, who is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, has been reflecting on how these restrictions on movement will affect her – after she dies. +In a post on her blog, Zaghroda (which means "ululations"), Rasha writes : +Akka sunset. +مش مهم.. لكن منذ فترة، قررت أن أكتب وصيتي. +Suddenly you feel that death has been hovering in this sky, even though it never really left it. +Not just death, but also “that disease”, as it’s known. +(My friend even calls his star sign “that sign”.) +That is, cancer. +And whenever death arrives, with its many reasons, I ask myself, “Why am I surprised?” +Then I value life anew – for a few days. +Anyway, that’s not important... +A while ago I decided to write my will. +By the way, I don’t mean to be pessimistic by doing so. +Death is something natural. +That’s at least what I believe. +And because it’s natural I am writing about it. +As my grandmother says, or your grandmothers say, “No one knows what tomorrow will bring!” +لكن، تقتلني فكرة أن أموت ولا زال الاحتلال قاعد على قلبي! كيف سيصل أصدقائي وصديقاتي من رام الله والقاهرة ودمشق وبيروت وعمان وتونس والمغرب وصنعاء وبغداد وطرابلس لوداعي الأخير؟ A few months ago I returned from Cairo. +Two days after I came back I lost a dear friend; he departed for a faraway place, unknown to all who read these lines… I hope! +I won’t make this a long story for you all. +However, I have some questions relating to death and its rituals. +When I leave tomorrow for that unknown, faraway place, my funeral will naturally be held in Akka – I have no other home – so says my father. +I will certainly be buried there. +Right? +But the idea tortures me that I will die and the occupation will still be sitting on my heart! +How will my friends from Ramallah, Cairo, Damascus, Beirut, Amman, Tunisia, Morocco, Sana’a, Baghdad and Tripoli come to say their final goodbye? +Rasha wonders: لكن ماذا عن أحبائي في القاهرة وبيروت وعمان؟ +يعني، هل ممكن.. مثلاً.. مثلاً.. إن تكون وصيتي بحرق جثتي وإرسال القليل من الرماد إلى أصدقائي هُناك؟ وتنظيم أمسية موسيقية وأدبية بدلاً عن الجنازة التقليدية؟ طيب، هل ممكن أن تكون جنازتي عبر "الفيديو كونفرنس"؟ أو حتى "السكايب"؟ ماله السكايب؟ على الأقل مجاني. هكذا يكون بث مباشر لجنازتي من عكّا إلى بيروت والقاهرة وعمان وتونس ورام الله وغزة!أو لشو كلّ هالتعقيد؟ ممكن أن تكون وصيتي أن يحملوا تابوتي إليهم؟ أعتقد أن تصريح عبور لشخص ميت سوف يكون أسهل. والأهم، إنه لا يحتاج إلى فيزا. هكذا سيكون بمقدوري أن أرى بيروت. مين بعرف؟ ممكن أكون قادرة أشوفها وقتها. +Do you think I can put in my will that permits should be issued for my friends in Ramallah to come and say farewell to my coffin? +What a horrible idea: a permit being issued by the occupation authorities in order for my friends to see me when I’m dead! +But maybe it would be their chance to visit Akka, in exchange for saying farewell to me… +But what about my dear friends in Cairo, Beirut and Amman? Is it possible – for example – for my will to state that my body should be burnt and that a little of my ashes should be sent to my friends in those places? +And that a musical and literary gathering should be held rather than a conventional funeral? +Is it possible for my funeral to be relayed by video conference? +Or even by Skype? +What’s wrong with Skype? +At least it’s free. +That way there would be a direct broadcast of my funeral from Akka to Beirut, Cairo, Amman, Tunis, Ramallah and Gaza! +But why complicate things? +Maybe I can state in my will that my coffin should be carried to them. +I think the permission for a dead person to cross the border will be easier . +Most importantly, it wouldn’t require a visa. +That way I would be able to see Beirut. +Who knows? +Perhaps I will get to see it then. + +Indonesia: Lady Gaga's Concert Permit Denied · Global Voices +After being pressured by conservative politicians and hardline groups, which branded Lady Gaga as a devil worshiper, the Indonesian police announced that it won't issue a permit to the highly anticipated Lady Gaga concert in Jakarta, leaving over 50,000 fans disappointed. +@HeyPotterhead: Lady Gaga's concert better not be cancelled. +Stupid FPI #IndonesiaSavesGaga #BTWBallGBK FPI or the Islamic Defenders Front is an influential religious group which often campaigns against 'anti-Islamic' activities and ideas. +In this particular case, Lady Gaga was accused of corrupting the morality of young Indonesians. +One of the promotional merchandise items of the Lady Gaga concert. +Lady Gaga fans, who were called 'little monsters', have criticized the government's decision: +The cancellation is proof of how our country has lost its priority.#IndonesiaSavesGaga! +@danielvk: Religious mafia manipulates democracy & freedom to rob the freedom of others. +Don't tolerate intolerance! #saynotohate #indonesiasavesgaga +@DanielZiv: It's not a matter of #IndonesiaSavesGaga, it's more like whether Gaga can save Indonesia.And really, Indonesia needs to save itself from this extremist nonsense, Gaga or no Gaga. + +Macedonia: Graffiti Art in "Times of Revived Antiquity" · Global Voices +A short documentary on the Macedonian graffiti scene in the context of the state-sponsored art/construction boom, made by two female scientists and bloggers-Vasilka Dimitrovska and Ilina Jakimovska-has been shown at the renowned archeological conference Buffalo TAG 2012. +Entitled "Lions, Warriors and Graffiti Artists: Counter-Culture in Times of Revived Antiquity", the documentary juxtaposes (an important visual arts theory word!) information about the vigorous efforts of the government to impose new, polished classicist/baroque visual identity on the center of the Macedonian capital through the Skopje 2014 project (which features bronze lions), with interviews of people from the graffiti scene. +A co-author, archeologist Dimitrovska, wrote this on her blog, injecting a disclaimer often heard by people who dare to speak in public in Macedonia: +We made this documentary... in order to document with love part of the graffiti which disappeared or are about to disappear due to the new urban concepts implemented in our country, primarily in Skopje. +The project has no political dimension, nor did we intend it to have any political connotation. This small project on Macedonian graffiti was made with modest finances, and we intended to present-without any censorship or montage of statements-the voices and opinions of the graffiti artists who shaped or are still shaping the visual part of this subculture, which is punishable by the laws but is also used (not abused) by the political class in power. +In the film, the interviewed artists also feel the need to decline any interest in political life. +They talk about being torn between the threat of punishment if caught "writing" on their own (EUR 50 at least), and becoming a sell-out for commercial reasons or in local government projects, which sometimes involve co-opting graffiti artists to legally adorn specified public buildings. +They also mention a quickly forming generation gap within the subculture. +It might sound incredible, but the graffiti are - folklore! +Regardless of whether they convey messages through drawing or text, the graffiti, for those who make them and those who read them on city walls, are a form of expression and communication. +If you have something hidden deep inside you, something that aches and burns you, write it on the wall, and it will speak it... Some of my favorites from Skopje include "A woman is not a woman unless she's a woman," "Thank God I'm an atheist"... +In the past, other bloggers such as Alexx or Django wrote about Skopje graffiti. +The artists featured in the documentary do not have online presence on the public internet, but sometimes publish photos of their work within Facebook. + +Martinique: "Think Like A Man", Just Not in France · Global Voices +Thus, movie-goers interested by Afro-american films usually have to wait for their video release. Just weeks after the debate surrounding the election of Miss Black France 2012, another question is being discussed by French people of African descent: the cancellation alleged cancellation of the release of the American movie "Think Like A Man" in French movie theaters. +How does an American movie find a place in the French social debate? +Surprising as it may be, the answer lies in the fact that the film has an all-black cast. +French cinema is often pointed at for not fairly displaying all components of the country's multiethnic population. +Although the recent success of the movie Les Intouchables, which earned French African actor Omar Sy the Cesar award for Best Actor in 2012, caused great pride and hope among French nationals from Africa and the Caribbean, it was not to be the turning point for a deep and lasting change. +Movie Poster for "Think Like a Man" +Martinican blogger Bondamanjak is very cynical after this tainted victory, as he explains that Omar Sy's award nomination did not come all naturally, but was rather due to the great number of viewers in theaters. + +Lesotho: 2012 General Election Date Set · Global Voices +Lesotho will hold general elections on 26 May 2012. +King Letsie III set the date for elections following successful political negotiations mediated by the Southern African Development Community (SADC). +Blogging from Lesotho, Michael Jordan reports: +Political violence in the enclave encircled by South Africa has flared up ahead of May 26 elections – an ominous sign in what one analyst calls the latest “stress test” for democracy in sub-Saharan Africa. +Cracks have emerged here with high-profile assassinations, rumors of a “hit squad,” and clashes at campaign rallies. +So the United Nations invited Archbishop Tutu to bolster democracy in the land, where, before launching his crusade against Apartheid next door, he served his first bishopric from 1976-78. +On Friday, his “prayer meeting” extracted a pledge among political rivals to keep the peace and respect election results. +Citing the past political violence of South Africa, Tutu urged an audience that included the prime minister of Lesotho, “Please, please, please, please do not let the same happen to this stunningly beautiful land. +Nothing can be so precious that it can be bought with innocent lives.” +He continues: +Lesotho’s election is more than a contested vote in a remote country rarely heard from. +It comes on the heels of successful elections across the continent: Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, and Zambia have recently all experienced peaceful elections. +There have been a few notable blemishes: a couple of coups des états in Mali and Guinea-Bissau, and a contested election in Cote D’Ivoire in late 2010 that briefly turned into a civil war. +Khotso From Lesotho notes that political parties involved in the elections are too many to keep track of them all: +Elections are upon us in Lesotho. +The scheduled date of national elections is May 26th. +Parties are in full swing with events and meetings. +On the weekends people come out and sing, hold flags, line up their horses, and urge people to vote for their party. +There are many parties here, so it is hard to keep track of it all, but there are at least 2 major parties and from what people are saying it will be a very close election. +The current prime minister formed a new party to run with and there has already been a bit of fighting (actual physical fighting) even within this one party. +Although the elections do not seem to be a trending topic online, there are tweeps sharing information, insights and opinions about the May 26 elections: +@takwiram: Of factions & fractions, party splits & contested elections. +Lesotho has 120 MPs + 33 senators for 2,2 million people & GDP pc of $1,600 +@KayZeeKokotela: Lesotho's upcoming elections, May 26, a true testimony of Basotho's freedom. +@TumiVolume: “@KommandaObbs: It's annoying how a small country like Lesotho has over 17 political parties contesting for general elections.” democracy +@Snitzerd: @WilliamJHague. +The Kingdom of Lesotho is going for General Elections on the 26th may...international support needed +@gophlyone: Lesotho elections have neva been so closely contested, u can't tell who's going to win this one...LCD, DC, BNP or ABC +@KCMokoma: This weekend will most dramatic weekend as ever in Lesotho political history. +We faithfully pray for peaceful elections +The elections will take place against the backdrop of political violence. +The Lesotho Political Parties Leadership Forum claims that there is a “hit squad” that has been assigned to kill prominent people ahead of the general elections. + +Thailand: Red Shirts Back in the Streets · Global Voices +On May 19, 2012, tens of thousands of Red Shirt protesters commemorated the second anniversary of the army and police crackdown on anti-government protesters in central Bangkok, Thailand. +The May 2010 street violence resulted in the deaths of more than 90 people. +Many Red Shirt members are supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted by a coup in 2006. +The violent dispersal of the Red Shirt protest contributed to the unpopularity of the government in 2010 which was at that time headed by Abhisit Vejjajiva. +Abhisit’s party lost in the elections last year. +Thailand’s incumbent Prime Minister is the younger sister of Thaksin. +Photos of the event last Saturday are available on Facebook and Flickr. +Here are some photos: +Thousands attended Red Shirt rally in Bangkok. +Photo from @RichardBarrow +Red Shirts rally. +Photo from Facebook page of Richard Barrow +Red Shirts demand justice. +Photo from Facebook page of Richard Barrow +Red Shirts program in the evening. +Photo from @aleursic +@Rom Senakant: sad group of people... They thought they are fighting for just cause but actually they are the being used by a crony ex PM Thaksin or Thug-Sin +@ric_lawes: Reds calling for Justice http://bit.ly/Jv8Ien - simple fact - reds lay siege to the city and 91 people died. +No reds no deaths. +@Agam_T: Today, I'm celebrating 2nd anniversary of the END of #RedShirts arson and violence. +May19th was the day we got our city back. +Thaksin’s appeal for unity is interpreted by some people as betrayal to the cause of the Red Shirts who are still demanding justice for those who were killed in 2010: +@freakingcat: Are the Red shirts in Ratchprasong so brainwashed and cheered to Thaksin's betrayal speech. +93 died for the greed of the billionaire +@steviegell: Both Thaksin & his sister turned their backs on the red movement. +Robert Amsterdam is trying to hide that fact from the reds. +Bad form. +Tammy attended the rally and commented about the lack of change in Thailand’s politics: +I just got back from the 2 year anniversary of the crack-down on the Red Shirts protest at Rajprasong, that 2 years ago caused bout 100 civilian death The new constitution is poised to disappoint those who are looking for democracy, the lese majeste law, the root cause, of many injustices in Thailand, will likely be the same. +The death and imprisonment of political prisoners, looks like it will be un-accounted for and not re-solved. +Meanwhile, a government investigation body concluded that state forces are responsible for the deaths of 25 people in the 2010 crackdown. + +Yemen: Millions Go Hungry in Ongoing Food Crisis · Global Voices +In Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Arab world, millions of people are facing a severe humanitarian crisis, widespread hunger and chronic malnutrition. +In March the charity Oxfam International gave a dire warning in a press release: +Yemen is at the crossroads of humanitarian catastrophe international aid agency Oxfam said today in reaction to new figures from the World Food Programme, which showed a radical increase in the number of people facing severe hunger in the country. +The new figures indicate that 45 percent of the population in Yemen do not have enough to eat - more than 10 million people, with half of these people severely food insecure and in need of urgent emergency aid. +However, mainstream media is more interested in the existence of Al Qaeda in the country, supposedly justifying the US drone war. +Yemeni Mohammed Adel Alamer tweeted in dismay: +@M7mmdAdel: 10 million Yemenis facing #famine in Yemen! +The world only cares about #Qaeda and #DroneStrikes them and to hell with the 10 million +Oxfam offered more figures: +@Oxfam:.@WFP reports #Yemen food insecurity levels have doubled since 2009. +Today 5 million people go hungry so often that it affects their long-term health +Yemen has had massive food security problems for years, and Al Jazeera English recently produced two videos highlighting how the ongoing political turmoil has aggravated the situation and is putting the lives of many children at risk. +British-Yemeni blogger Omar tweeted Al Jazeera's photo of a severely malnourished child: +@OmarMash: 'The tiny bodies are still breathing' - Babies starve in Yemen's hospitals, he's a lucky one, he made to the hospital. +Severely malnourished Yemeni child, Sana'a, Yemen, April 2012. +Image by Al Jazeera (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). +Yemeni blogger Afrah Nasser wrote a post entitled "Hunger in Yemen": +Food crisis is increasingly becoming epidemic in Yemen. +Reports of starvation and malnutrition among children in Yemen have been gripping headlines for a while. +Last night , UNICEF spokesman Mr. Mohammed al-Asaadi spoke to al-Jazeera about this issue and said, "Around 1 million children are food insecure and malnourished. +At least 120 thousand under-5 children may die between now and the end of 2012 if no action is taken." +I wonder what the government is doing exactly to tackle this issue. +It's really sad that politicians in Yemen could ignore the children's plight. +Omar tweeted: +@OmarMash: The #YemenFoodCrisis is only going to increase in severity if not immediately dealt with by international donors, the Yemen government and the GCC . He added: @OmarMash: I have a horrible feeling that in 6 months time the #YemenFoodCrisis will at its peak, only then will the world's attention be focused. +London-based Yemeni Loubna Maktary urged immediate action to be taken to save Yemen's dying children: +@LoubbyM: Children in Yemen are dying of HUNGER!!! +Stop ignoring them. +Yemen is not a political problem, it is a human catastrophe #YemenFoodCrisis (: +It is hoped that the food crisis will be discussed at the Friends of Yemen Conference in Riyadh on May 23. +UNICEF has called for children to be kept at the centre of the conference's security and political dialogues. +To learn more about Yemen's food crisis read this Storify. + +China: In Bo Xilai Saga, Did Social Media Challenge Government? · Global Voices +Bo Xilai portrayed as Greek mythology character Icarus, who tried to fly too close to the sun with a set of wings made from wax. +Source: Beijing Cream. +Political struggle, murder, corruption, espionage and diplomatic conflict - the downfall of Bo Xilai from the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) elite ranks has turned out to be a multi-faceted story. +The Bo Xilai affair is also a good example of the disruptive role that social media plays in today’s China. +Despite censorship, discussions on social networks caused international media to prick up their ears. +With the CCP's once-in-a-decade leadership succession scheduled for October 2012, Bo Xilai’s case has jumped to the front page of international and local media. +It has been widely argued that social media has made it unfeasible for the government to keep the story behind the scenes. However, it is also true that the government has stirred social media to its own advantage. +Did the Chinese government really want to hide Bo Xilai’s story? +Did social media really challenge the government control on information? +The opacity of China’s politics makes it impossible to answer these questions, but they are worth a thought. +Let’s re-cap on how Chinese social media played a major role by apparently forcing disclosure and challenging government control on information. +February 2012 +1. +First rumors spread +Wang Lijun, Vice-Mayor of Chonqing, disappears from his post. +Despite censorship, speculation regarding his whereabouts spreads on China’s micro-blogs. +The rumors state that Wang has requested political asylum at the US consulate after falling out of favor with the local high-profile party secretary Bo Xilai, who aspires to a top political post. +Wang may have denounced Bo's implication in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood. +2. +A “vacation-style therapy” +An official statement on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo says Wang has been temporarily removed from his post for a “vacation-style therapy”. +The phrase becomes an ironic meme on the Chinese Internet. +3. +Where are the censors? +The Chinese government confirms that Wang did enter the US consulate in a post on Sina Weibo that netizens hurry to re-tweet. +The censorship machine not only allows but boosts online discussions, making netizens suspicious. +Blogger C. Custer, from ChinaGeeks writes: +At the moment, Wang is back on the Sina Weibo trending topics list twice. Searches for “Wang Lijun” (typed correctly) remain uncensored. +It’s quite clear that Sina is not trying to suppress this story at all, which begs the question: is someone at Sina trying to damage Bo Xilai? +March 2012 +4. +First rumors confirmed +Official news agency Xinhua makes a double announcement: Wang has been removed from his position and Bo Xilai has been replaced as Chonqing Party Chief by Zhang Dejiang. +Another report confirms that Wang did request political asylum at the US consulate. +5. +Second wave of rumors flows in +In the midst of hectic public discussion on Bo’s political purge, online rumors spread about a coup d’état in Beijing and a confrontation between President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao on one side, and Bo’s supporter Zhou Yongkang on the other. +6. +Talks of coup finally wake the Great Firewall up +Micro-blogging sites Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo block word search facilities. +Days after the blocking, the government cracks down on social media. +Six people are arrested and 16 websites closed for “disseminating online rumors” that “severely disturb the public order, undermine social stability and deserve punishment”, Xinhua reported. +The same report states Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo have been “criticized and punished accordingly”. +The two sites halt the posting of comments for three days. +April 2012 +7. +Rumors become the truth +On April 10, Xinhua makes two separate announcements: Bo’s dismissal from his position at the CCP Central Committee for "serious discipline violations", and his wife's alleged role in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood over “economic interests”. +Netizens can't get over their surprise. +The rumors that have been flooding the net for months suddenly make it to the covers of all official newspapers. +Jing Gao, from +Ministry of Tofu writes: +Weibo user Zhang Xingsheng wrote, “We had already followed the instruction from the higher-up that we’d never believe or spread a rumor. +But today, the rumor became the truth! +I am puzzled! +To believe or not to believe? +This is a question! +China’s 550 million micro-blog users have witnessed a twisted public information stratagem. +Online rumors becoming official truth overnight, endorsed by the same official media that censored and demonized them in the name of social harmony. +8. +Political struggle and corruption +The government insists that Bo’s fall is a fight against corruption that has nothing to do with political struggle. +As details on Bo’s family fortune emerge, public discussion gets heated over the enrichment of party officials. +With corruption debate taking over the press, the government manages to sideline sensitive discussion on political infighting. +Again, Jing Gao reflects: +But one thing is certain. +Before the advent of social media, the government never owed the people an explanation. +Today, with tens of millions of Chinese actively use Sina Weibo, a low murmur of political gossip may have already been amplified and heard by thousands before the internet police step in. +Social media play a major role boosting public discussion in China by breaking systematic cover ups. However, it seems clear enough that the Chinese government has shown a remarkable expertise in playing with censorship, leaking or blocking information at its convenience to lead public opinion. +Who wins? +Do China’s social media outlets really challenge the government’s control of information? +This post and its translations to Spanish, Arabic and French were commissioned by International Security Network (ISN) as part of a partnership to seek out citizen voices on international relations and security issues worldwide. +This post was first published on the ISN blog, see similar stories here. + +Indonesia: Should Mosques Lower Prayer Volume? · Global Voices +In a speech delivered during the national congress of the Indonesian Board of Mosques (DMI) last week, Vice President Boediono sparked a debate when he suggested that mosques should lower the volume of loudspeakers during the daily prayer call. +Mosques in Indonesia use loudspeakers to broadcast the “adzan” five times a day reminding people to pray. +Boediono warned that the loud volume might disturb other people, including fellow Muslims. +He added that a less noisy call to prayer is more likely to enter a person's heart rather than loud sounds. +But many Indonesians advised Boediono to address other more important issues. +Blogger happydsf , voices his concern: +Grand Mosque Al-Mashun. + +South Korea: Continuing Mad Cow Controversy Over US Beef Imports · Global Voices +Since last week, South Korea has seen continuing protests against importing beef from the United States after mad cow disease broke out in California. +The Korean government dispatched its inspection team to the US to quell the public anger incited by the government's unkept promise to halt the beef imports immediately the disease was detected. +However, the inspection team's lack of control over the investigation process and the biased member selection process further deepened South Korean's distrust of the government. +South Korea's Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries sent a nine-person inspection team that checked infected cattle and meat packing facilities in the United States right after the disease was detected. +They returned only to announce on May 11, 2012, there is no real human health threat posed by American beef and concluded that the country will maintain its quarantine inspections regime on the beef without halting imports, a solution that totally contradicts the government's promise made in 2008. +The Korean public responded to this result with heated discussions and criticism online. +One of South Korea's prominent political bloggers IamPeter clarified the reason for public distrust of the government's version of the story: + +Azerbaijan: Is Eurovision A Rare Opportunity For Change? · Global Voices +With increased media attention on the country during this week's Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, Azerbaijan, former prisoner of conscience Emin Milli argues that the international music competition offers a rare opportunity to raise concerns with human rights abuses and the lack of democratic freedoms in the oil-rich former Soviet republic on the world stage. + +Brazil: A Comic Book and its Soundtrack · Global Voices +Brazilian blogger Francielle Costa reviews Achados e Perdidos (Lost and Found), a comic book in which each chapter counts on an original soundtrack produced especially for the story. +The project was crowdfunded. +Chapter 1, and its soundtrack, is available here . + +Myanmar: Protest Against Power Shortage · Global Voices +CJMyanmar uploaded photos of the protest against the electricity shortage in Mandalay, the second largest city of Myanmar. +Hundreds who joined the activity lighted candles and peacefully protested in front of the government office of Electricity Supply and Chinese Embassy. + +Should Indonesia Ban Hard-Line Islamic Groups? · Global Voices +The Islamic Defenders Front (Front Pembela Islam, FPI), a hard-line Islamic group in Indonesia, was recently in the news after Dayak tribespeople in Central Kalimantan chased away the group's delegates who flew in from Jakarta to inaugurate the establishment of its local chapter. +Shortly thereafter, the Central Kalimantan administration informed the Indonesian president, Parliament's chairman, ministers, and the chief of National Police of its opposition to FPI presence in the province and asserted that FPI's methods aren't aligned with the Dayak's (indigenous Kalimantan ethnic group's) way of life. The FPI is accused in the past of using intimidation and brutal acts to attack religious minorities as well as raiding bars and pubs operating during the fasting month. +Digital art by blogger Hasyim Soska which reads "I support Without FPI movement. +It's time for Indonesia to speak up." +The Dayaks have inspired other Indonesians to speak up their minds about FPI. +There are even proposals to disband the FPI and other similar groups. +Hashtags such as #IndonesiaTanpaFPI (Indonesia without FPI), #indonesiaamantanpafpi (Indonesia's safe without FPI) and #bubarkanfpi (disband FPI) were flooded by comments from Indonesian netizens. + +Japan: I am Isolated in My Workplace · Global Voices +“The Internet can be a saving grace if you’re isolated in your school or workplace.” - This was a remark from my recent interview with Izumi Mihashi from Lingua Japanese. +I was reminded of it when chancing upon a poignant cry in the form of an anonymous blog entry . +Bullying doesn’t stop at the schoolyard. +by Flickr user maciejgruszecki.com +Note: This post was translated in its entirety. +Please note that the original text does not give any indication of gender for any of the characters, but the translation assumes that the blogger and colleague are male for brevity's sake. +Today, I realized yet again that the treatment I receive at my workplace is really acrimonious. +I went to work in the morning, checked my e-mail, and got chewed out by four people for four different things within the first hour. +When I was alone, I couldn’t help but quietly laugh with bitterness. +I feel that if I can just find one positive thing to latch onto, I can work out some of these issues as long as I apply myself to it. The thing is, I can’t help but think that I’m just being cut off completely. +After the troubles that morning, I ended up with some free time on my hands. +I went up to one of the people that had gotten angry at me and quietly asked, “Is there anything I can help with?”. +He replied “No”, with a very tired face. +That he couldn’t trust me with anything was written all over his face. +I felt extremely sorry, embarrassed, and so many other emotions mixed together. +From the bottom of my heart, I wanted to say, “I’m so sorry for making you feel this way.” +It was all I could do to force a smile and say, “Please let me know if there’s anything I can help you with.” +After going back to my seat, I reviewed my past work to see if there was anything to do. +There were many errors, so I went to work on fixing them. +It’s cold at my window seat so I got some hot tea from the vending machine and sat back down, trying to warm myself. +The person next to me furiously shouted, “Don’t bring anything that smells to your seat. +What are you thinking!?”. +I begged forgiveness - almost on my knees - and escaped to the coffee room. +Feeling depressed, I looked out the window from the coffee room and thought about ways that I might improve myself. +The only plan that I could come up with in my current state was very general - there’s nothing that I can do except take extra care with my actions and do my best. +This kind of life has been going on for more than three months. +In all honesty, I want to quit this company. +I think it’s time. +Sometimes, I think I shouldn’t be here. +Still, quitting without making personal improvements feels like running away. +I can’t do that. +Me breaking down mentally, or my colleagues’ patience reaching the limit... which will come first? +I’m so sorry that I’m such a miserable person. +I’m just so sorry. +And, I’ve caught a cold. +But I can’t take a day off. + +Tunisia: First Local Open Data Website Launched · Global Voices +Local open governance activists in Tunisia have launched the first open data website showing the municipal budget of the city of Sayada for the current fiscal year. +The Tunisian open governance community has had some success in increasing the government's transparency; they have already convinced the Tunisian presidency to reveal its budget. + +Belarus, Russia: An Online Charity Auction with People for Sale · Global Voices +The idea of auctions as a fundraising tool is not a new one in the charity world — everything from paintings to exclusive trips are sold this way. +Sometimes, there is even a market for people: dinners with celebrities and business-breakfasts are sold under the hammer, too. +Warren Buffet, for example, has auctioned lunch dates with himself since 2000. +The most recent one (in 2011) sold in an open auction on eBay for 2,626,411 dollars . +But that kind of fun is not available to everyone. +Ma Sense , a Belarusian project, aims to introduce to philanthropy two new categories of people that, as a rule, have not been active in charity: young members of online social networks and fans of dating sites. +In a nutshell, Ma Sense is a hybrid of a charity auction-house and a dating site. +Anyone interested may come and register as a 'lot,' proposing to go get a coffee or take a trip to the cinema with the highest bidder. +Whoever likes the proposal can place a bid and buy the 'lot.' +Four months into its existence, 11,200 people have registered with the project, raising more than 450,000 rubles (14,000 U.S. dollars). +Apart from the average date, there are also business meetings, and even more 'exclusive lots' (with celebrities and businessmen), now appearing on the site. +Screenshot from goodwillion.ru, 29 May 2012. +The charitable foundation Nastenka , which has been helping children with cancer for the last ten years, has become the new partner of the date auction site GoodWillion . +All proceeds raised from the sale of a date go to the treatment trust fund for Diana Cherbadzhi and Andrewshi Onikienko. +One of the most tempting auction lots belongs to Pasha Kiriloff, a Radio Maximum discjockey who sells meetings with himself, as well as time in the Radio Maximum studio during his evening show, 'Pashkov and Kiriloff.' +What do you get out of it? +People get to know one another, have a good time, and enjoy pleasant surprises (and any company that wants to present gifts to the the project's participants is able to become a partner) — all while helping sick children. +It makes sense for everyone! + +Hong Kong: Complaint Culture · Global Voices +Everything can be a subject of complaint in Hong Kong, like croaking frogs, flowering trees and tweeting birds. +Regardless of the fairness of the complaints, the government and private property management would act on the complaints, this time by catching frogs. (via Bad Canto) + +A Social Network for Wikileaks Supporters · Global Voices +Friends of Wikileaks (FoWL) is an independent social network for worldwide supporters of Wikileaks. +People who join the site are paired with twelve others who speak the same language. +FoWL groups from different countries have issued a statement of support for Julian Assange in advance of a United Kingdom supreme court judgement on May 30, 2012. + +South Korea: Blood Type Personality Theory, How It Works · Global Voices +In which countries in the world does everyone know their blood types? +The answer has to be Japan and South Korea. +The considerable interest in blood types in the two countries has become something of a running joke , especially when compared to Western countries in which many people don't know - and don't really care about - their blood group. +Whilst evident across Asia, nowhere is the 'blood type personality theory' more strongly adhered to than in Japan and South Korea, with books, comics, songs, and products on sale, all based on the idea. +On South Korean Facebook, people can even add their blood type to their profile along with other important personal information. +Although this fad has somehow faded over the recent years, its popularity is still strong, somewhat equivalent to that of horoscopes in Western countries. +Blood type personality theory +According to the theory, people's ABO blood type is predictive of their personality, temperament, and compatibility with others. +The adjectives which best describe the traits of each blood type are as follow: Type A is considerate but shy, B is creative but whimsical, O is sociable but unorganized and AB is rational but calculating. +The images below, created by cartoonist Park Dong Sun, exhibit how each blood type behaves in a certain situation. +Park's cartoon scripts on blood type personalities are published on South Korea's largest portal site, Naver.com on a regular basis. +Even though there are criticisms that his works often over-simplify the complex human personalities, they are widely loved by Koreans. +(The images below is from his blog , not from his official cartoon page on Naver . +Most of his cartoon images circulating online were once posted on and paid by Naver and therefore are protected by copyright.) +ABO blood types on a summer vacation: The B Type is seen as fully enjoying the moment, the Type A is putting quite a lot of effort into building a sand castle, and Type AB is located very far from the group. +Image from Cartoonist Park's blog (CC BY NC ND). +The most organised, Type A, softly complains about who packed the vacation baggage, Type AB points at Type O and B for lousy packing. +Type O and B are busy playing in the sea. +Image from Cartoonist Park's blog (CC BY NC ND). +Type B, so irritated, is on the verge of hitting Type O. Type AB is paying no attention to any of them. +Image from Cartoonist Park's blog (CC BY NC ND). +Type AB, the rarest blood type, is always pictured as a sort of outsider, even an alien sometimes. +In the image, AB is riding on a UFO while others are sitting on the ground. +Image from Cartoonist Park's blog (CC BY NC ND). +To find out more details about the each type's trait, read this Global Voices post written by Hyejin in 2007. +USBs based on the characters from the blood type cartoons. +Image from Cartoonist Park's blog (CC BY NC ND). +Harmless fun or dark relic? +Although harmless, cute images are adopted to explain the blood type personality theory in cartoons, the theory itself is a relic of the dark past. +It is often traced back to the scientific racism used first by Nazis and later by Japanese imperialists to promote ideas of supremacy over different races or countries during the 1920s-30s. +When Austrian scientists first found the four different blood types, it was a truly ground-breaking research which later saved countless human lives by preventing them from receiving mismatched blood transfusions. +However, later studies revealed that the different blood groups are distributed disproportionately across the world and this prompted some racist, imperialist researchers to publish non-statical reports on the theory of blood type personalities. +One famous piece of research was done by Japanese scholar Furukawa, who focused on the racial traits of the Taiwanese who revolted against Japanese imperialism. +The researcher concluded that since more than 40 percent of Taiwanese had type O blood, which is believed to be the least submissive type, they needed to dilute the country's 'rebellious blood' by increasing intermarriages with Japanese. +Even after many Japanese academics discredited the theory for its lack of scientific basis, it somehow managed to survive through several sensational publications, with the help of media's unyielding interest. +Starting from late 1990s, this fad spread to South Korea, gaining huge popularity in early 2000, and has been famous ever since. +South Korean blogger Age of Mass Production Type Romance reflected Korean public sentiment toward the theory. +Although the blogger admitted that the blood type personality lacks scientific evidence, his experience has convinced him that it is a sure-fire way to categorize people: + +Brazil: Most Violent State in the Country Protests for Peace · Global Voices +As I write this post, I read a piece of news about a teenager who was shot dead on the city streets of Maceio, Brazil, on the night of Tuesday May 29, 2012, while at least three other bodies of victims of violence were received at the capital's institute of forensic medicine. +Just a few hours before these recent crimes, thousands of people - mobilised through social networks - took the streets in the "Walk for Peace", an appeal to end violence in the city's coastal state of Alagoas. +For a long time the population of Alagoas has become indignant by the trivialisation of life and the growing number of murders for trivial reasons . +The last straw causing the mobilisation was the assassination of 67-year-old doctor José Alfredo Vasco Tenorio on the afternoon of May 26, following an armed robbery. +In the same weekend alone, 17 other people came to violent deaths in Alagoas. +The floor where the doctor was murdered was stained with 'blood' footprints. +Photo published in Facebook by Del Valle Allves. +The untenable insecurity of the situation led people to protest on the streets in a demonstration organised through the Facebook group Alagoas – Estado de Emergência (Alagoas - State of Emergency) . +After the protest on Monday evening, Silvana Chamusca provided a summary of the event, with an overview of the debate that followed the peaceful walk "whose single goal was to show our indignation, without looking at social class": + +Development Model for Myanmar · Global Voices +Myat Thu Pan discusses the possible development model for Myanmar by studying the development histories of Singapore and Thailand. +The author advises Myanmar to learn from the mistakes of its neighbors in the region + +Egypt: March to End Sexual Harassment Attacked · Global Voices +A march demanding an end to sexual harassment turned ugly when women involved were attacked by a mob of angry men in Tahrir Square today (June 8, 2012). +Eye witnesses share their experience on Twitter. +Associated Press journalist Sarah El Deeb, who was present, describes what happened in the following tweets: + +Singapore: Alternatives to Minimum Wage · Global Voices +Kumaran Pillai, editor of The Online Citizen, identifies alternatives to the proposed minimum wage system in Singapore + +China: Lives of Kidney Sellers · Global Voices +Alia from ChinaBeat translated a local feature story on the lives of kidney sellers in China. +What they gets in return is about USD5600 per kidney. + +Paraguay: President Fernando Lugo is Removed from Office · Global Voices +As we reported earlier, the Paraguayan Senate voted to impeach President Fernando Lugo after a hasty trial. +The Paraguayan Congress had voted in favor of opening an impeachment trial triggered by his handling of a land dispute between police and campesinos ("farmers"), which left 17 people dead (seven policemen and ten farmers). +A Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) delegation traveled to Paraguay to meet with the government and the opposition who pushed the impeachment trial. +UNASUR had warned of a “camouflaged coup” and of the consequences that the President’s impeachment could bring to the country. +Today the Senate, which is controlled by the opposition, voted 39 to 4 that Fernando Lugo is guilty of poorly performing his duties, as reported by Paraguayan newspaper ABC . +Moments later, Fernando Lugo said he accepted the impeachment. +Protests immediately broke out outside Congress, denouncing this procedure as a coup d’état. +Several Twitter users reported clashes and police repression . +Netizens have been actively reacting to today’s developments. +Estela Nuñez Acosta (@Jesudi) quotes the phrase repeated by legislators who voted in favor of the impeachment, and adds: +Maybe I don't get it, but so far I have seen no proof that ‪#Lugo‬ is guilty of any of these charges. +Just politicians shouting that he is. +While Lara Tomassi (@laratomassi) says: + +Sudan: Protests Trigger Arrest of Twitter Activists · Global Voices +Yesterday’s protests saw the arrest of many protesters from the streets by police and National Intelligence Security Service (NISS) agents. +Among them is prominent Sudanese Twitter personality and activist Usamah Mohammed Ali (@simsimt). +In his last tweet, Usamah was advocating free content to help spread the word about the events happening on the streets in the capital Khartoum: Btw, I'm just being technical. + +Senegal: Inaugural Use of Gender Parity in Upcoming Elections · Global Voices +This July 1, 2012, the Senegalese will be called again to the polls for parliamentary elections. +These forthcoming elections will be a first for West Africa, as the law on absolute gender parity in electoral lists will be applied for the first time. +The debates are lively, and numerous initiatives for women's significant involvement are ongoing across the country's social networks. +In a post on lesenegalais.net, Maté Dagnokho recalls some figures from the 2007 legislative elections: + +Morocco: Theater Group Adapts The Vagina Monologues · Global Voices +The association Théâtre Aquarium has begun the representation of the Moroccan adaptation of the play The Vagina Monologues called Le Spectacle Dialy in Rabat. +Ali Amar opines that the Moroccan version of the play is a breath of fresh air in the current era of religious conservatism. + +Egypt: Assault on Women in Tahrir Square · Global Voices +Just as Mohamed Morsi was declared the new president of Egypt, crowds poured into Tahrir Square to celebrate. +The square, which was the epi-centre of the Egyptian revolution, was filled with jubilation and chants. +Fireworks lit up the sky above, but something darker was happening during those moments of celebration. +Journalist Natasha Smith narrated her ordeal as she suffered mass sexual assault while heading to Tahrir Square to join the celebrations in a post titled “Please God. Please make it stop.”: +This is not Islam! +Please, please do not think this is what Egypt is!” +She appeared stunned. + +Free Children's Books Online in 61 Languages · Global Voices +If you have Arab roots but are living in Brazil, you may want to read Abu Ali Counts his Donkeys to your children, a popular story from the Middle East available in Portuguese on the International Children’s Digital Library. +Over four thousand children's books are available in 61 different languages for free with the aim of promoting tolerance and respect for diverse cultures. + +Chinese Investment: Boon or Bane for Southeast Asia? · Global Voices +Spontaneous protests against Myanmar’s power blackouts received news coverage in May 2012 because the government seldom permits anti-government activities. +Even more significant were the protests that took place in front of the Chinese embassy in Yangon, Myanmar's capital. +Protesters came together to raise their voice against the government's decision to sell Myanmar’s limited energy reserves to China. +Below is a comment from the Facebook page of Eleven Media Group , one of the largest private media organizations in Myanmar, which echoed the sentiment of many consumers in Myanmar: 70% of electricity supplied to Yangon is from Law Pi Ta and Ye Ywar hydro-powered stations, that from the Shwe Li station goes to China, so there is a shortage of electricity in Yangon. + +Latvia: Jackie Chan Blogs About Filming in Jelgava · Global Voices +Facebook page "If you like Latvia, Latvia likes you" highlights movie star Jackie Chan's April 2012 blog post, in which he shared his "impressions about 15 day long filming of movie stunts in Jelgava, Latvia, plus lots of photos. +He tells about flying experience in Aerodium vertical wind tunnel, which is also famous from Latvia’s pavilion in Expo 2010 Shanghai." + +Sharing Photos of the Afghanistan You Never See · Global Voices +The decades of war and terrorism have placed Afghanistan among the world's most dangerous countries. +Despite the progress made by the country since the ousting of the Taliban in 2001, most media writing about Afghanistan focus stubbornly on negative issues such as bomb blasts, suicide attacks, and casualties. +Reports in such media feature terrifying pictures that lead most people to never want to visit the war-torn but very beautiful country. +This is why the work of Antony Loveless, a freelance British journalist and photographer, makes so much difference. +Since March 2012, Loveless has been posting photos from his trips to Afghanistan on Twitter, using the hashtag he invented, #TheAfghanistanYouNeverSee. +Speaking to Global Voices about the hashtag, Loveless said: +I have a portfolio of over 2,000 images shot on three trips to Afghanistan in recent years and to keep track of them, I conceived of the rather unwieldy hashtag . +The Girl in the Lake. +Taking a dip to stay cool under the unforgiving midday sun. +Image by Antony Loveless, used with permission. +Afghanistan's 'green zone', a stretch of fertile, cultivated ground along the Helmand River Valley. +Image by Antony Loveless, used with permission. +The stunning beauty of Kajaki Lake in southern Afghanistan, seen from a Royal Air Force Chinook. +Image by Antony Loveless, used with permission. +Loveless' hashtag was picked up by the Royal Air Force (RAF) Sergeant Alex Ford, who spent six months in 2011 in Afghanistan's Hilmand Province. +Sharing his views about the hashtag, Ford writes in Warfare Magazine: +We have been involved in Afghanistan for almost 11 years now, and it has become commonplace to see images of the war back here. +But generally those images tend to be more about the negative side of the conflict there. +Pictures of flag-draped coffins driving through Wootton Bassett or out of Brize Norton... a picture of a soldier smiling, but the caption underneath giving the date he died. +Sadly, the majority of the British population that supports the lads and lasses on the ground have no real insight into the story of the war out there; the story that is Afghanistan. +Local children ready to chat to Paras leaving the Helicopter Landing Site. +Image by Alex Ford, used with permission. +Image by Alex Ford, used with permission. +The hashtag has become a popular photo tag for those who travel to Afghanistan to share the images that people outside of the country rarely see in conventional media. +An Afghan child seems ready to be on camera. +Image by Steve Blake, used with permission. +Lately, Iqbal Ahmad Oruzgani, a photographer from Afghanistan has also begun posting photos under the hashtag to show Afghanistan from a different perspective. +Collective wedding organized for tens of couples in Daikundi, central Afghanistan. +Collective weddings have becoming very popular in the country because they help lessen the cost of wedding for each individual family. +Image by Iqbal Ahmad Oruzgani, used with permission. +Image by Iqbal Ahmad Oruzgani, used with permission. +Winter in Behsud District of Maidan Wardak Province. +Image by Iqbal Ahmad Oruzgani, used with permission. +Every photo shared under this hashtag is retweeted by hundreds of Twitter users, giving the photographers a very wide audience. +Speaking to Global Voices, Antony Loveless says: +Countless tweeters have said it’s the best use of a hashtag on twitter, ever, and I am currently in talks to produce a book based on the hashtag after countless people expressed an interest in buying one. + +Japan: Infinite lines have a reason for being · Global Voices +Be it for a cup of delicious ramen, a new model video game console, a donut of a popular foreign chain of sweet shops or the latest book by a bestselling novelist, some Japanese people are ready to queue! +For hours if need be in front of the shop to get what they want, whether it be a chilly rainy day in winter or a 40°C hot day of summer. +Especially, new openings are tempting. +When a new shop opens, it’s like opening a treasure chest where whoever first arrives, can lay hands on the desired object before the others and at a special price. +A line in front of a takoyaki shop. +By Flickr id: idua_japan +Kuropurin tells how she initiated her daughter into the habit, queuing in line for over 4 hours to get the bicycle of her dreams. + +Japan: Can Twitter help to prevent suicides? · Global Voices +Blue LED lights at Shinjuku St.(Tokyo) By jediduke The National Police Agency has recently released the results of its annual survey on suicide in Japan. +According to the official statistics , 32,845 people committed suicide last year and dramatic is the increase in number of victims in their 20s and 30s; the main reasons are said to be 1) health problems, 2) economic and social problems, 3) family problems. +Sadly known as one of the developed countries with one of the highest per capita number of suicides , Japan has been trying for years to confront the problem, by working to tackle it at all levels of society. +The government and other groups constantly launch campaigns to raise awareness and invite people to turn to assistance centers whenever they feel depressed or convinced that the only way to solve their, or often their loved ones, problems is to commit suicide. +Deciding to talk to somebody, reflecting and defining the causes of their desperation, is a very hard step that few people in a state of depression are believed to be able to make. +But, although it cannot represent a definitive solution, some believe that the internet might be a tool to help, especially among the tech-savvy, younger generations. +To this regard, Twitter has been recently a subject of debate of those who see in its 140 word format a potential for contact with those who seek help but prefer to remain anonymous and cannot express their suffering in long and well articulated phrases. +Yamabe says that the news that actress Demi Moore reportedly prevented a woman from committing suicide by tweeting a 16-word-long comment recently made him reflect on the question. + +Myanmar: Students Detained for Commemorating Historical Event · Global Voices +On July 7, 1962, the building of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) was bombed by the military in response to the opposition of students to government policies. +Many students were killed and injured during the attack. +Fifty-years later, the ABFSU organized an event to commemorate the anniversary of the protest. +But the Myanmar government arrested leaders of the group which it claims is not legally recognized by the state. +The arrest instantly educated the online community, especially young netizens, about the historical importance of the July 7 event. +Ma Nandar posted a note explaining the background of the July 7, 1962 event: +ABFSU building that was demolished by the military government. +Photo from Wikimedia under CC Attribution/Share-Alike. Though the words written with blood on the wall could be erased, it would not be possible to erase the history written with heart the blood of brothers from generation to generation. + +Russia: A Great Firewall to Censor the RuNet? · Global Voices +Earlier today, the Russian language section of Wikipedia repeated past protests against American and Italian Internet laws by shutting down its service and posting in the place of its main portal a public announcement condemning a draft law now under review by the Russian parliament. +Law 89417-6 , "On the Protection of Children From Information Harmful to Their Health and Development," entered the Duma in early June with endorsements from members of all four of the represented political parties, but has since generated rising controversy, with critics portraying the legislation as an attempt to copy China's "Great Firewall." +Screenshot of ru.wikipedia.org's blacked-out homepage, 10 July 2012. +Text reads: "Imagine a world without free knowledge." +What Would the Law Do? +The law would create a registry (or "blacklist") of any online materials containing illegal information relevant to children (specifically child pornography, drug paraphernalia, and instructions about self-harm). +Once a website appeared on the list, the site's hosting-provider would have 24 hours to notify the site-owner, who must then delete the offending data. If the owner fails to act, the hosting-provider is required to shut down or delete the site itself. +In the event that the hosting-provider fails or refuses to act, it joins the registry and then web-providers must cut off access to that entire hosting-provider. +Anyone included on the blacklist then has three months to appeal the decision in court. +The draft law owes its origins to the "League for a Safe Internet" , which prepared a blueprint for the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications this past spring. +At that stage, the plan was to limit the registry to URLs (excluding DNS filtering and IP blocking), and delegate authority over managing the list to a non-governmental organization. +The League's director, Denis Davydov, explained that concerns about Internet society's fear of "excessive state control" motivated this design. +Duma deputies and the General Prosecutor, however , had other plans, and the registry's reach was expanded, and the likely candidate for oversight is now Roskomnadzor (the Federal Supervision Agency for Information Technologies and Communications). +Much of the controversy surrounding Law 89417-6 focuses on worries that its language is intentionally vague, opening the door to future expansions of the registry's application. +For instance, lawyer Evgeny Arievich, a partner at Baker and McKenzie, says that the blacklist could grow to include other types of information illegal under other criminal codes (such as those governing extremism, state secrets, personal data, and so on), and that it could be used to limit access to political information and social mobilization tools. +The most sensitive section of the law seems to be Article 5, Point 4, Sections 1 and 2, where the bill delineates what online information can be added to the registry without a court order and what requires judicial approval. +The following materials (pulled from the draft law after its first reading ) fall within the former category: + +South Korea: Backlash After '30 Minute' Pizza Delivery Death · Global Voices +A popular Domino's Pizza marketing strategy promising pizza delivery within 30 minutes of an order has met with a public backlash in South Korea, following the deaths of several young delivery personnel. +The Young Union, the union For Occupational and Environmental Health (FOEC) and several labor unions held a press conference on 8 February, 2011, in front of Domino's Pizza’s headquarters in South Korean capital Seoul, pressuring the company to abolish the '30 Minute' delivery system. +South Koreans are discovering the hidden cost of their takeaway pizzas. +Image in public domain via Wikimedia. +The issue gathered huge media attention in December, 2010, when a 24 year old part-time delivery boy died in a car accident whilst delivering an order . +Three more people from the same brand have died in similar circumstances last year alone. +According to the Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor, more than 7,000 thousand delivery-related motorbike accidents are recorded per year. +Several thousand people, including a celebrity author, famous actress and several academics have officially expressed concern over the '30 Minute' system; it pressurises delivery personnel to drive fast and dangerously, as they are given penalties or forced to pay for the cost of the order when the 30 minutes delivery deadline is not met. +The '30 Minute Guarantee' was originally introduced by Domino's Pizza in the United States in 1973, but was eventually dropped after several lawsuits related to dangerous driving associated with the policy. +Hostile Working Conditions +When most big pizza brands receive complaints about slow delivery, they give away a free pizza or a discount. +In the case of Domino's South Korea, when 30 minutes have passed since an order, customers get a 2,000 Won (around 2 USD) discount for each pizza. +After 45 minutes, customers get a free pizza or free side dish. +What aggravates the already hostile working conditions delivery personnel experience in the country, are customers who hold their elevator or do not answer the door to postpone delivery in order to get a free pizza. +Some customers demand delivery even on extremely snowy days, when many other pizza parlors do not accept take-out orders. +Gloria Gu, an intern researcher for FOEC writes on the page dedicated to the '30 Minute' issue on social networking site Facebook, "15 minutes is enough time to kill a innocent man". +It is believed that an average of 15 minutes are spent on making a pizza. +She encourages more people to join the social protest: + +Will a Unified Time Zone Work for Indonesia? · Global Voices +Indonesia, the world's largest archipelagic country, plans to synchronize its three time zones in October 2012. +The business sector, especially travel operators, applauded the plan saying that synchronized time with Asia's financial capitals such as Seoul, Hongkong and Singapore would boost business activities and tourism. +However, former Vice President Jusuf Kalla said that the plan is 'illogical' while the Indonesian Council of Ullemas (MUI) said that change will confuse religious believers. +According to blogger Rusrian Yuzaf, the time change will influence people's habits including prayer habits of Indonesian Muslims: +Daytime in Bromo Mountain, East Java. +Flickr photo by Robertus B. Herdiyanto used with permission under Creative Commons. + +Southeast Asia: Home to the World's Longest Ongoing Civil Wars · Global Voices +This post is part of our International Relations & Security coverage. +Southeast Asia is more than just white sand beaches, temples and resorts: it is also one of the most war-ravaged regions of the planet. +Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, for example, were among the most heavily bombed countries in the world over the past century. +Nearly a third of the cluster bombs dropped by the United States in Laos between 1964 and 1973 failed to detonate and are still scattered across the country. +Anna MacDonald, head of Oxfam International’s Control Arms Campaign, outlines the quiet but dangerous rural scenery of Laos: Stepping off the plane at Xieng Khuang province we were in a very rural area. + +Korea: AIDS and single mothers in Korea and the power of soap operas · Global Voices +AIDS and single mothers are not easy topics in Korean society. +Single mothers mean sex before the marriage and are not moral. +AIDS is regarded as the result of dangerous and inappropriate sex relations. +These prejudices generate social taboos. +And a brave Korean soap opera, “Thanks,” has taken on these two main themes and has been popular unlike anyone expected. +It has created more open discussion of these issues. +A blogger, naisuli, said how much her perspectives have changed about AIDS after this soap opera, + +Japan: Cat mania · Global Voices +The spreading of communities of people with same interests and hobbies is not new in the internet society. +Netizens often exchange news, suggestions and picture on things and activities they share a common interest on. +By Flickr user id:WasabiNoise +In Japan that is not only limited to hobbies, however, also love for pets is one of the most discussed topics in the blogs. +Cats in particular, occupy the first place in the “blog on animals” rankings and many bloggers dedicate entire pages to their feline buddies. +And there are all kinds of blogs: blogs about black and white cats (like this), fat cats, short-haired cats, long-haired cats and so on, or blogs that help to locate the areas where there is most likely to be a cat sighting (like this). +A blogger gives her interpretation of the reasons for black-cat mania. + +Korean 'Comfort Women' Photo Exhibit Sabotaged in Japan · Global Voices +Ahn Se-Hong, a South Korean photographer was harassed leading up to and during his exhibition in Japan, where he displayed pictures of aging 'Comfort Women,' a term used for Korean women that were drafted as sex slaves by the Japanese during World War II. +Ahn disclosed that he is facing threats from Japanese right wing groups, who held protests against the photo exhibition. +On his Facebook page photographer Ahn Se-Hong (ahnsehong) revealed that during his exhibition, he was closely watched, placed under surveillance and his visitors were thoroughly searched by security hired by Nikon, the Japanese camera maker, who also owned the building where the exhibit was on display. +Nikon first refused to sponsor the location and abruptly cancelled the event a month ago. +However, Nikon eventually succumbed to the Tokyo District Court order to sponsor the location. +News media speculated Nikon's abrupt canceling of the exhibit was an attempt to fend off the controversy and pressure from conservative groups. +The South Korean online space erupted with rage and countless users accused Japanese extremist right-wing groups of not only refusing to admit their war crimes, but attempting to sabotage the art exhibition. +Ahn’s show “Layer by Layer: Korean women left behind in China who were comfort women of the Japanese military,” shows faces of innocent victims who were dragged into inexplicably horrid situations in their teens or early twenties, now wrinkled and crippled. +During Japanese colonization, approximately 50,000 to 200,000 Korean women were kidnapped and forced to leave their homes to become military sex slaves. +Less than 70 percent of these women managed to return home. +Ahn's Exhibition on Comfort Women. +Posted by Ahn on his Facebook. +Used with Permission +Ahn wrote on his Facebook page on June 26, 2012 with the photo above. +The post has been shared for over 900 times: + +Kyrgyzstan: Cartoons Expose Ills of Patriarchal Society · Global Voices +The Kyrgyzstani art group '705' has produced a number of hand-drawn animation films that criticize the conventions and norms of a patriarchal society. +Domestic violence and the oppression of women in such a society are two big themes in these films. + +Video: Worldwide One-Minute Environmental Film Contest Accepting Submissions · Global Voices +The 3rd Edition of the Tve Biomovies 1 minute environmental film competition has begun. +Anyone above the age of 9 with a camera and an idea for a 1 minute video on environmental topics can participate to win a $300 award to produce their video and then compete to win a grand prize of $1500 and participation in the UN COP 18 Conference in November. +Still from one of the 2011 Biomovies winners, Drops of Hope +To participate, choose one of the 5 categories related to environmental awareness such as oceans, recycling, women and climate change, fresh water, and sustainable living. +Using their form, send in your pitch for what you'd like your 1 minute video to be before September 5, 2012. +A jury will select 10 proposals (two from each category) who will then be able to receive funds to make their one minute film. +Those 10 films will compete for the grand prize, and the one with more views for each category will win. +Full information on how to participate can be found on the tve biomovies 2012 guidelines, pitches can be made in Arabic, English, German, Russian or Spanish. +Last year's winners came from many different places around the globe, all promoting care of our environment and resources in less than one minute. +Following are three of the winning films. + +Understanding the Violence in Western Myanmar · Global Voices +This post is part of our special coverage Myanmar's Rohingya. +Myanmar is in the headlines these days because of two things: the historic European visit of Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, and the violence in Rakhine State located west of the country. +It’s difficult to blame a particular group for the riots, killings, and burning of houses that have taken place in the state in the past two weeks but the victims were clearly ordinary Arakanese, the ethnic majority in the state, and the Rohingyas who are asking for recognition in Myanmar. +According to a government report, a total of 2,528 houses have been burnt down since the clashes started. +Of these, 1,192 belonged to Arakanese and 1,336 belonged to Rohingyas. +The report also mentioned that 29 people had died in the fighting—13 Arakanese and 16 Rohingyas. +Thousands have been displaced because of the communal violence. +There are a total of 37 refugee camps housing 31,884 victims so far. +Aung Zaw, editor of the Irrawaddy, an alternative magazine, writes about the popular opinion against the Rohingyas +The consensus among Burmese, it seems, is that the Rohingya are illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh—a view that also treats this as an issue of sovereignty rather than religious animosity. +Indeed, many—especially ethnic Arakanese—have been resentful of the portrayal of this as a religious conflict, even though many have resorted to racial and religious slurs in their verbal attacks on the “Bengalis,” as they prefer to call the Rohingya. ...on the streets, popular opinion was more in favor of taking a hard line against the Rohingya. +Rohingyas are mostly Muslims which led many people outside Myanmar to ask if this is a case of religious persecution. +But various religious organizations in Myanmar denied that it’s a religious issue. +They issued this declaration a few days ago +1. +The conflicts in Rakhine did not begin as a consequence of religious strife, but because of the acts of breaking the prescribed laws. +2. +All religious organizations in the Union of Myanmar have been co-existed with each other in harmony and in amicable ways for ages, and are still maintaining this good tradition 4. +We vow to do our best in preventing the spread of this violence to other parts of Myanmar. +May Thingyan Hein writes about the various conflicting perspectives regarding the riots in Rakhine +On the internet the unrests are viewed in different perspectives: one is that the government is playing a trick to disturb the people’s attention on them; the other one is that the government cooperated with Arakanese to eradicate Bengalis; and the last one is behind the sight the Rohingya are planning to cause uncertainty to the government and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and ask their own autonomy in the area. +Kyaw Zwa Moe blamed social media for fanning the flames of hate speech and racism +Why is it burning? +Media and social media, of course: Some internet users insensitively posted pictures of the initial slaughter on their Facebook accounts. +These spread quickly and stirred other users to share emotional responses +Fortunately, there are moderate online voices which have been actively calling for peace and unity. +Dave Gilbert and Violet Cho posted some of the Facebook photos promoting harmony in the country +Photo from New Mandala +The Burmese caption reads: +‘All of us love our country. +Let’s prevent the problems that are happening. +Don’t make disagreements out of different beliefs. +Leave people who want to go back to an earlier era so we will move on.’ +Photo from New Mandala +Peace Warriors are disturbed about the threat to harm Muslims in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar +“In papers distributed in Yangon for the past few days, people were urged to attack Muslims, their mosques, shops and houses. +Muslim women were also singled out as targets. +It has made Muslims and those of Indian descent afraid to go about their work, or to even go outside alone. +Some Muslim families have closed their shops and Islamic Religious Schools and Universities closed two days ago” +State media New Light of Myanmar reported the visit of government officials in refugee camps +As riots occurred in Rakhine State, local battalions arrived at the scenes to restore peace and stability and prevalence of law and order of the region and safeguard the life of the local people as of 8 June. +Beginning that evening, the local battalions are providing necessary assistance to the local people. +Moreover, some naval vessels are discharging duties of patrol to protect Myanmar waters territory west of Maungtaw not to be infiltration of unscrupulous persons. +Violet Cho wants a more critical perspective in analyzing the situation in Rakhine +Poverty and state repression leads to intense frustration that does not have an easy outlet and can be seen as a common root cause of communal violence around the world. +If we dig below the surface, we can see that western Burma’s communal violence is rooted in wider and very complex historical, social, political, class and cultural processes. +Perhaps we should start redefining outdated categories, such as race, and look through alternative lenses that can help lead to more productive analysis. +Human rights groups want Bangladesh and Myanmar to open their borders and accept Rohingyas who are fleeing from violence. +Below is an appeal from the Asian Human Rights Commission +...in order to enable the provision of adequate food and health services to the affected populations, both of your governments are requested to cooperate with one another so as to provide complete, unimpeded, secure access to international agencies at the earliest possible opportunity, in order that these agencies can assess the situation and make arrangements for the necessary provision of emergency relief supplies. +To the surprise of many activists and media people outside Myanmar, veteran officials of the opposition 8888 Generation Student Leaders issued a statement which affirms the government line about the non-recognition of Rohingyas as citizens of Myanmar. +Ko Ko Gyi: Unless inevitable, we tried to avoid some issues patiently. +Now it is time that we announce our view on Rohingya clearly. +Rohingya is not one of the ethnic groups of Myanmar at all. +We see that the riot happening currently in Buthedaung and Maungdaw of Arakan State is because of the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh called “Rohingya” and mischievous provocation of some international communities. +Therefore, such interfering efforts by some powerful nations on this issue (Rohingya issue), without fully understanding the ethnic groups and other situations of Burma, will be viewed as offending the sovereignty of our nation. +Since no country wants to take them in, we feel sympathy for those people on the ground of humanity and refugee. +Taking advantage of our kindness and deference, if the powerful countries forced us to take responsibility for this issue, we will never accept it. +Some activists are asking if Suu Kyi, who urged the application of rule of law in resolving the issue in Rakhine, shares a similar position with the 8888 Generation Student Leaders. +The Myanmar government claims the situation is now under control in Rakhine. +But the suffering in the villages of the Rohingyas continues to worsen everyday. +This post is part of our special coverage Myanmar's Rohingya. + +India: Social Media Censorship to Contain 'Cyber-Terrorism'? · Global Voices +This is the second post in the 2-part series about the perceived role of social media in the wake of the Assam clashes that spilled across the country and threatened to upset the nation's peace. +The first post can be found here. +As the Indian government sought to block bulk SMS, MMS, webpages and specific social media urls, justifying its step as an attempt to control viral rumor-mongering and "cyber-terrorism", there was a lot of discussion on the mainstream media (MSM) about how social media was fast becoming a "double-edged sword" and how the recent events brought out the "mischief potential of social media in full play". +These MSM opinions, some of which offered tacit support the idea of reigning in social media, did not go unnoticed by netizens. +For example, Media Crooks asked: So what’s with the rant against the Twitterati and social media by these media celebs? + +Mexican Constitution Translated into Indigenous Languages · Global Voices +Ileana Fernández from Vivir México reports that the Mexican Constitution was translated into Mayan and other indigenous languages. + +Korea: Chopsticks... +Rather Complicated... · Global Voices +When I went out with East Asian editors one night at the Global Voices Summit 2008, we were so into talking about the differences between chopsticks. +Why does Korea use iron for chopsticks while other chopsticks countries use wooden materials? +Since returning home, I searched for whether some bloggers post about chopsticks. +I am introducing some of the interesting posts here. + +Japan: Being a Geisha in the blog age · Global Voices +One of the most ancient professions in Japan, geisha are masters of all kinds of skills, from music to poetry, and from traditional dance to conversation. +But today's geishas do more than this. +Just as geisha in ancient times noted down everyday life happenings and thoughts in their diaries, modern maiko (apprentice geisha) and geisha artists today write diaries as well. +Nowadays, however, they are also able to share them with their clients and fans, by posting them online at their blogs. +“Geisha wanted” (芸者さん募集中) is the title of an announcement posted at the geisha house Chikada's blog (芸者置屋 千佳田のブログ) a few months ago: +I have at least two days of vacation every month. +However, on my days off, I sometimes voluntarily visit local parties, so I mostly keep my hair dressed in Maiko style even on those days. +When my hair is dressed on my day off, I go out in the kimono that I wear for lessons. +Sometimes, when I let down my hair, I go out in Western clothes. +I rarely wear Western clothes on my days off, so I usually spend my days off with my friends, shopping, or talking about many things while eating our favorite sweets. +As a proof that blogs have become part of the job for many geisha from the beginning to the very end of their career, Onsen Geisha (温泉芸者), announcing her retirement at her blog Onsen Geisha no Kokoro no Hikidashi (温泉芸者のココロのひきだし), summed up a few months ago what being a geiko meant to her: + +Korea: Have You Ever Killed a Person? · Global Voices +A sixteen year-old Korean girl who became famous due to the extreme success of losing weight killed herself. +To please her grandmother who was worried about her grand-daughter’s heavy weight, the girl lost about 40 kilograms in three months. +Her story was introduced on a TV entertainment program. +At that time, she took a photo with one of her favorite singers. +Her death is assumingly caused by netizens’ ak-peul (notorious reply: trackbacks or comments which netizens abuse targeting specific people or events). +The jealousy of the singers’ fans left ak-peul related to her news in internet and her internet homepage. +Some of them even harassed her on her phone. +The exact reason for her death has not been cleared yet. +But according to her friends and families, she has been depressed due to ak-peul. +Recently several entertainers committed suicide due to ak-peul and depression. +Some of the entertainers are suing a group of ak-peul-reo (people who do ak-peul). +Bloggers brought the problems of netizens’ attitudes out. +A blogger, your inside, posted a netizen’s response right after her death with a picture that caused the problem. + +Côte d'Ivoire: CivRoute, a Citizen Project to Monitor Road Traffic in Real Time · Global Voices +In Abidjan, Cyriac Gbogou introduces on his blog the citizen collaborative project Civroute that he co-founded. +This online plateform will collect information sent by car drivers on the state of road circulation and potential traffic jams on the ivorian avenues via SMS, Twitter or Facebook. + +China: Journalists Leaving the Field · Global Voices +Many investigative journalists in mainland China are leaving the field. +The Tea Leaf Nation picked up and translated some of the discussions in Weibo to look into their reasons. + +South Korea: Controversial Launch of Online Music Video Rating · Global Voices +South Korean authorities have launched a new ratings system for music videos posted online. +The new bill requires every music video (or promotional video) and even movie trailers to be rated prior to upload. +Failure to comply will result in up to two years in prison or a hefty fine. +Artists and South Korean net users have labeled it a new form of enhanced censorship on cultural contents and a regression in freedom of expression. +It comes into effect starting August 18, 2012. +Censorship extends to online platforms +Previously, only television stations were responsible for airing music videos, whereas the new bill extends the censorship to video clips published on online platforms, including YouTube, blogs and Internet bulletin boards. +The law is applied even to clips, not for profit organisations, and various music and movie teasers. +The authorities argue that the new measure is to protect young, impressionable audiences from the flow of indecent or violent music videos. +Some predict the bill will first make content labeled 'not for children under age 19′ by the Korea Media Rating Board inaccessible to mass audiences, and in the long-run (as one media pundit worries ) will eventually lead every citizen to ask for, or at least consider, permission before uploading any content online. +Image of censorship, by Flickr user Isaac Mao (CC BY 2.0). +A net user who introduced himself as a 28-year-old working in the music promotion industry, filed an online petition opposing the new rating system. +The petition has gathered more than 10,000 signatures. +It reads: + +South Korea: K-Pop Video 'Gangnam Style' Goes Viral Internationally · Global Voices +South Korean singer Psy's tune 'Gangnam Style' has gone viral internationally, with its YouTube video (below) surpassing 70 million hits as of today since its release in mid-July. +This is the greatest hit in K-Pop (Korean Pop) history, and has got many Koreans talking. +The scope of discussions vary from simple praise of Psy's (short for Psycho, real name is Park Jae-sang) success, reviews of his marketing and social media strategies, criticism of other mainstream pop singers heavily invested in by their record agencies, to more detailed analysis of Koreans' deep-seated insecurity about their country. +South Korean net users, although well aware of Psy's great performance and catchy and satirical songs, are also bewildered by this explosive success not only on the local level, but also on the international level. +International viewers meanwhile comment on this YouTube video that although they love the song, they really don't understand what the song's lyrics are about. +And they are not the only ones. +Even many South Koreans, such as blogger Gl-Meet, admit they dont fully get the lyrics, because they are disjointed and nowhere close to having a storyline - just like many other catchy pop songs. +The basic commentary people agree is as follows: Gangnam is Seoul's poshest neighborhood and in the video Psy acts in a exaggerated Gangnam man's character who brags about how great he is at impressing girls. +It can be interpreted as a satire lampooning rich Koreans' self-importance, as well as materialistic South Korean society. +Many media outlets have not only interpreted the song but gone on further to dissect the lyrics seriously, such as a this detailed, sophisticated, but slightly over-the-top review by the Atlantic. +Blogger Gl-Meet wrote : + +Syrian Children Pay the Steep Price of War · Global Voices +This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/13 +During the last 10 years, around 10 million children are estimated to have been killed as a result of war, reports the Children's Rights Portal. +The site categorizes child war victims as civilian victims, soldiers, displaced, orphans, wounded or handicapped, imprisoned and exploited children (sexual exploitation or even forced labor). +Despite the fact that the right of children of survival and protection are guaranteed according to the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (VDPA), and UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was signed on 20 November 1989, children continue to suffer around the world. +UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 19: State Parties must "take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence" +Forgotten victims +Angels live in Syria's graves. +Source: @NMSyria on Twitter. +Since March 2011, when the Syrian revolution erupted against Bashar Al Assad's regime, the children of Syria were among the first victims of violence, torture, and killings. +According to HRW report: “We’ve Never Seen Such Horror” on June 2011: +The protests first broke out in Daraa in response to the detention and torture of 15 children accused of painting graffiti slogans calling for the government's downfall. +In response and since then, security forces have repeatedly and systematically opened fire on overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrators. +The security forces have killed at least 418 people in the Daraa governorate alone, and more than 887 across Syria, according to local activists who have been maintaining a list of those killed. +Exact numbers are impossible to verify. +Ever since, an estimated 4,355 Syrian children been killed (up to 15/1/2013) according to the latest report released by Martyrs of the Syrian Revolution Database. Besides thousands more are wounded, detained, or left without a family, or medical aid and humanitarian assistance. +Human Rights Watch, for instance, shares evidence, which shows that cluster bombs was used to killed children at the hands of the regime's air forces. +Angels... are angels that have left us ... a very high price that the Syrians are paying for this absurd war...Source: NINO Fezza cinereporter on Facebook +On January 18, UNICEF's Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Maria Calivis stated: “A series of reports from Syria this week underlines the terrible price children are paying as long as conflict in the country rages. +Here's a round up of reactions from Syrian netizens on Twitter: 15 Jan 2013: @rallaf: The Assad regime killed at least 21 children and 130 adults in #Syria yesterday, mostly in air strikes on homes and bakeries. +1 Jan 2013: @RevolutionSyria: Slaughtering over 52,000 defenseless civilians incl. 4,000 children isn’t a civil war but gigantic crimes against humanity. #Syria +26 Dec 2012: @RanaKabbani54 27 children + 13 mothers murdered by genocidal #Assad today, among 120 killed so far as a Christmas gift to our people. #Syria #AssadCrimes 31 Dec 2012: @farGar: NOT including today, more than 103 Syrians kids have been killed since Christmas eve #Childvictims +Dozens of Children Murdered in Syria +On May 25, 2011, after almost a month in custody, the world heard the horrifying story of torturing and killing of Hamza Ali AlKhateeb, a 13-year-old Syrian boy who died allegedly while in the custody of the Syrian government in Daraa. +His death showed numerous injuries, including broken bones, gunshot wounds, burn marks, and mutilated genitals +One year after Hamza's martyrdom story, Al-Houla Massacre took place. +On May 25, 2012, activists blamed forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad of murdering 108 Syrians, including 25 men, 34 women and 49 children under the age of 10 (per U.N. observers) by in the town of Al-Houla in Homs. +The next footage depicts the aftermath of a massacre showing children bodies, and human parts covered with blood. +Syrian children are paying the price of war between adults in Syria. +Syrian refugee children are overwhelmed, as they have never imagined being caught in such a situation. +The Syrian Organization for the Defense of Human Rights wrote on its Facebook page on December 28, 2012: +Almost 4,000 Syrian children have been killed so far in Assad's war on Syria, tens of thousands more are maimed and wounded, all are traumatized and terrorized.. +Question for World leaders How many murdered children will it take to make a 'red line'? by a regime that sees them as legitimate targets. +Many initiative are available to help the children of Syria. +For instance, people can donate to Save the Children to provide warm clothes, shoes, and blankets for children. +Winter aid packages specially-made for infants are available. +Hopefully, we could make a difference as Leila hoped on Twitter: +@leila_na: Looking forward to the day when I'll open my computer and will not find pictures of beautiful children slaughtered. #ThisIsSyria +This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/13 + +"What if Superman had Landed in India?" · Global Voices +Colombian blog Diario Nocturno wonders "What if Superman had landed in India?" : +We all know that Superman, while he was just a superbaby, fled planet Krypton in a space capsule, just before its destruction and landed (oh, what a coincidence) in Smallville, Kansas. +But, what if he had landed, let's say, in India? +Then he presents other new versions of well-known stories made in Bollywood. + +Venezuela: Hugo Chávez has Died · Global Voices +This evening, vice-president Nicolás Maduro announced the death of the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías. +President Chávez had been suffering from cancer since 2010 and had undergone various treatments on the island of Cuba on at least 4 occasions. +After winning the elections on October 7th 2012, which secured his mandate from 2013 to 2019, he announced in December that he had to return to Cuba for another operation. +More than 80 days later, during which he did not appear in front of the cameras, his health worsened as a result of respiratory complications and the advance of the cancer. +Twitter users reacted immediately to Maduro's announcement. +@marujatarre writes: +@marujatarre: The man dies and the legend begins, that is inevitable. +Hugo Chávez Frías, photo by Bernardo Londoy under Creative Commons licence (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) +Mardi (@mardicienta) displays gratitude towards Chávez: +@mardicienta: I will never be able to thank you enough for all that you did for us, my comrade. +Your seed flowers eternally in this Revolution of love! +While @LaDivinaDiva declares: +@LaDivinaDiva: and let's hope that we all understand that this is a time to forget unnecessary confrontations and that we try to resolve our differences in peace and harmony +Hugo Chávez governed Venezuela from 1999 until 2013. +He won 4 presidential elections and developed a new Constitution. +His method of governance was known around the world for its anti-imperialist ideology which was critical of the United States, although his country continued to be a supplier of oil to the US. +He also drove various proposals for regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean. +At home, he dedicated a considerable part of his public policy to favour the country's poorest classes through social investment funded by the money brought by high oil prices during his years of government. +In Venezuela discussion of the political polarisation which has divided Venezuelans between pro- and anti-Chavez for all these years is inevitable, making it more complex to understand many of the things which happen due to the constant presence of two competing perspectives. +Despite this, the President's death is a time of national mourning. + +Outrage Brews in China Over Hong Kong Milk Powder Regulation · Global Voices +On the first day of a new restriction that limits travelers from taking more than 1.8 kg of infant milk formula out of Hong Kong, border authorities arrested 10 people in violation of the new law. +The new regulations were implemented on March 1, 2013. +A 47-year-old man was prosecuted March 2, and fined 5000 HKD (approximately 650 USD). +The maximum penalty for smuggling milk powder out of Hong Kong would be a 500,000 HKD fine and 2-year imprisonment. +Mainland Chinese media outlets are divided in their opinion on the policy. +Commentators in the newspaper Global Times criticize the policy as a de facto embargo that violates the principle of free trade. +On the other hand, CCTV and the China Daily point out in their micro-blog comments that the mainland Chinese milk industry is to be blamed for the current situation. +As most of the mainland Chinese do not understand that the policy is targeting smugglers rather than normal visitors, many are outraged, in particular by the 2-year imprisonment penalty. +Famous mainland Chinese property developer Pan Shiyi describes the policy as a modern version of Les Miserables: +Just watched the movie Les Miserables. +It is a great movie. +Before the French revolution, Jean Valjean stole a piece of bread for his sister and was sentenced to 5 years in prison. +Today, in 2013, people are sentenced to 2 years in prison for buying more than 2 cans of milk powder for their 3-year-old infant. @Hong Kong Legislative Council Members. +Former CEO of Google China Lee Kai-fu points out that both the Chinese government and Hong Kong government should be blamed for the ridiculous situation: +Comment on the fallacies concerning the Hong Kong milk powder incident: 1. +Fallacy: We should criticize mainland China rather than Hong Kong - Why do we have to choose between the two? +We should criticize the poisonous milk, the expensive taxation on foreign milk and the ridiculous penalty. +2. +Fallacy: The criticism will create antagonism between Hong Kong and mainland Chinese - We are criticizing the law, not Hong Kong people. +Do not label the discussion. +3. +Fallacy: As Hong Kong people are facing milk powder shortage, the regulation is thus justified - Don't mix up the concepts: We can understand protection, restriction and fine, but a 2-year prison term is outrageous! +Ah Qiang, the director of PFLAG China, curses Hong Kong : +If buying three cans of milk powder results in a 500,000 HKD fine and 2 years in prison, my reaction is: Hong Kong, fuck your rule of law and freedom! +It is like a 2-year forced labour education sentence when find people holding a small knife. +Of course we have to criticize the mainland Chinese government for its inability , and the poisonous milk scandal. +However, we cannot forgive the Hong Kong government's abuse of the law. +It is replacing rule of law with populist sentiment and the eventual erosion of Hong Kong spirit. +As more and more countries have imposed restriction on the export of infant milk powder, Chinese parents are desperate to find safe milk for their children. +Children's book writer Zhen Yuanji also laments : +Those who sell the poisonous milk stay out of jail. +Those who try to buy good milk powder are put into prison. +The reality is crazier than fiction. +Children's security should be prioritized in national policy. +I urge that in the process of government transition, the state council should set up a milk powder office headed by the deputy premier to handle the situation. +Milk powder security will affect the future of the country. +Micro-blogger Silly Child reminds those who are unhappy about the Hong Kong policy about the story of Zhao Lianhai, an activist in the 2008 Chinese milk scandal who was sentenced to 2.5 in prison for his part in the backlash against the government. +Zhao Lianhai was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for "disturbing social order." +Photo from Boxun. +Non-commercial use. +As Zhao's name is still unsearchable in Chinese social media, the micro-blogger uploaded his post in image format: +Silly Child's post in image format. +We only have one Zhao Lianhai, that's why he is in jail. +If we have 10 Zhaos, they will censor your voices; if we have 100 Zhaos, they can't do anything; if we have 1000 Zhaos, they will be frightened; if we have 10,000 Zhaos, the Chinese milk problem can be solved. +China only has one Zhao Lianhai, though we have 10,000 people cursing the Hong Kong milk powder policy. +Indeed, while anger abounds, signs of any strong public movement are absent in the outrage. + +South and North Korea in 'State of War' · Global Voices +North Korea has a long history of bellicose rhetoric and threats against South Korea and its allies. +The North's latest aggression, however, has been as intense as ever and tensions in East Asia region have escalated dangerously fast over the past few weeks. +After the North nullified the armistice with the South Korea in early March 2013, the U.S.-South Korea executed joint military drills as a show of force. +On March 28, the U.S.’s B-2 stealth bombers flew over the Korean peninsula and North's leader Kim Jong-un, taking this as the last straw and ordered missiles on standby on March 29. +The next day, Kim also announced that the North is in a "state of war" with South Korea and vowed to shut down the Kaesong industrial complex, a joint venture between the two Koreas. +On March 31, the United States sent F-22 stealth fighter jets to South Korea for another military drill. +Image of the U.S.-South Korea Annual Military Drill, Uploaded by Flickr user U.S. Army Korea (Historical Image Archive) +Even to South Koreans who have been overexposed to all kinds of hostile signals coming from the North, current developments were frightening indeed. +And some net users tried to calm themselves by bringing up the old saying of ‘Barking Dog Never Bites’-which has become one of the most used metaphors in the Twitterverse and Blogsphere. +However, how net users employed this clause, varied. +@idk209: Some said the North, that usually responds to the US-South Korea joint military drills by having its own drills afterwards, is now in a situation that it lacks the stamina and tries instead to bark loud. +Dogs, when frightened, bark murderously loud, but rarely bite. +@tobeto01: Regarding North Korea’s war rhetoric, people say “Barking dog never bites”. +But what if that dog is a crazy one? +Victims will get rabies (referring to the following aftermath) when bitten by crazy one. +@nezerac: Of course seldom-barking dogs are more scary. +And surely North Korea- the more they bark, the more they make fun of themselves by doing so. +But still, we do need to prepare for the worst case scenario. +But there is no need to respond every time to each of their barking. +But of course, there were some usual uninterested net users who have had so much disturbing news about North Korea that they grew numb to it. +A tweet below shows how South Koreans take this news, comparing it to how Japanese citizens who are living in a country so prone to earthquakes, respond to news about earthquakes. +@kor_heinrich: When an earthquake of magnitude five points hits Japan, international Media says: Gasp! +What a crisis!! +Japanese citizen says: No biggie. +That happens a lot more than you think. +When North Korea claims it will turn Seoul into ‘sea of fire’, international Media says: Gasp! +What a crisis!! +Korean Citizen says: No biggie. +That happens a lot more than you think. +When Gaesung Industrial complex, which provides the North access to $2 billion in trade a year, is closed, local reports predict it will affect livelihood of 300 thousand North Koreans . +Some people discuss how different the crisis' implications would be for North Korean power elite and ordinary North Korean citizens. +hssi84: North Korean leadership, who had too much of the sweet taste of power, will never let the power slip away. +Those people are unlikely to risk a war which they will lose. +Power is not just a random game they can merely try-out for fun nor something they can afford losing. +@ourholykorea: (for North Korean people) Peace situation is not better than war. +It is cruel reality that more North Korean people died back in 90s when food distribution halted than those killed during the Korean War. +The tensions and conflicts have increased so far with no sign of alleviation, and some predictions claim Kim Jong-un may actually pull the trigger just not to lose face . +More than a few net users voiced concern that responding to hostility with more hostility may not be a wise move, considering what South Korea could lose in case of a real war. +@toplkw: In the case of North Korea actually making (some military) provocations, the number of victims could amount to those of the World War 1: link to local article Listen, you conservatives: It is unlikely that responding to their hostility with another hostility (will ever solve the problem) and having cold-war mentality will not magically strengthen our national security. +@welovehani: It would have been good if the U.S.’s stealth flights which flew over the Korean peninsula worked in a way of protecting our security. +However (after that) the North Korea decided to announce the end of the truce. +I am not defending the North, actually I blame them for having started all these provocations in the first place. +But even some people in the United States, have started voicing worries on how the U.S. handles this situation- responding to provocation with equal provocation. + +Indonesia: Relief Still Needed for Rokatenda Refugees · Global Voices +The impact of the Rokatenda volcanic eruption in Flores Island in East Nusa Tenggara in Indonesia is still felt by some 3,000 refugees from Sikka District. +Rokatenda erupted last February and following the natural disaster, residents are still hesitant and afraid to return to their houses. +Rokatenda artwork by @jamduapagi, used with permission +Through a text message sent to Global Voices, Father Hilde Tanga, from Maumere Diocese said that residents living near Mount Rokatenda are still living in shelters in Palu'e Island. Although the volcanic activity has receded, ash spew and small eruptions followed by tremors are still occurring. +Once again several Indonesian online network coordinated with each other to make sure the effectiveness of humanitarian response coming from all corners of the archipelago. +Communities of bloggers and social media users were actively and responsively passing on news about the eruption through Twitter and Facebook. On Twitter they used hashtags #Rokatenda and #KupangBagarak. Some of them also broadcast news through the popular Blackberry Messenger service. +Flobamora, East Nusa Tenggara bloggers community, dedicated their time and energy to report new developments from the field as well as continuously dispatching provisions badly needed by the refugees. +Latest updates on Rokatenda can be read on Flobamora's Twitter timeline or their Facebook page. +Christian Dicky Senda in his blog Naked Timur reflected on the social media users' contribution in the wake of the disaster: +The situation of refugees in the city of Maumere and Maurole Sub-District in Ende requires our attention, (when) administrative government seems ignorant about humanitarian response, I think the new Social Media movements such as those on Twitter, blogs, and Facebook are of great importance. +Thousands of lives are involved, we can't be sluggish or remain idle. +Who knew that from Facebook statuses, Twitter, BBM (Blackberry Messaging), or by writing stories on blogs, people would be inspired to volunteer or offer their help? +In cities like Ambon, Kupang, Soe and especially Ende where most of the Flobamora's community members are based, solidarity actions began. +On their blog, Flobamora community said scores of residents have been moving out of their villages since November 2012, long before the big eruption on February 3, 2013. +Mount Rokatenda situated in a small island called Palu'e. +The island is listed as part of Sikka District, however its location is exactly facing the beach of Maurole area in Ende District. +There are 11,000 residents living there and only 2,000 people listed as displaced. +Why many choose to stay in Palu'e? +Because they're attached with the place and bound to traditions. +Malnutrition, respiratory infection, Malaria, and Diarrhea are haunting those living in the emergency shelters. +Faced with trouble in accessing humanitarian aid from the administrative government, some of the refugees held a protest action last January. +The protest didn't end well since it led to the arrest of some protesters. +The mainstream media reported that refugees are experiencing logistics problem due to the preparation of the local election and limited stock of clean water and food reserve. +Information on logistics and donation for refugees are available by using the Twitter hashtags #Geser #Rokatenda, #1mugberas and #Kupangbagarak. + +Rare, Live Glimpse into Pakistan's Progressive Fashion Industry · Global Voices +As religious violence and American drone strikes continue to plague Pakistan, the country's latest fashion week promises some respite from the turmoil. +Fashion Pakistan Week is being live-streamed on April 9-10, 2013 from Karachi and is showcasing lines by 27 Pakistani designers. +Unknown to most of the world, fashion plays a huge role in Pakistani life. +Pakistan's Fashion Weeks +Since 2009, Pakistan has hosted dozens of fashion weeks. +These 'Fashion Weeks' offer the world a rare glimpse into a blossoming and professional industry that illustrates cultural norms in Pakistan aren't as rigid or conservative as most believe. +This Spring/Summer 2013 edition of Fashion Pakistan Week will be followed by two more fashion events in April - the Bridal Couture Week in Karachi which will focus on wedding wear and then Lahore will host another Fashion Week. +Global Voices interviewed three designers ahead of the event, who explained that despite their nation's circumstances, they are constantly innovating and creating: +Fashionably yours -Zari Faisal from Faisal Kapadia on Vimeo. +Fashionably yours - Hasina Khanani from Faisal Kapadia on Vimeo. +Fashionably yours - MONA IMRAN from Faisal Kapadia on Vimeo. +Designers are also coming up with high tech ways to reach their market. +A great example is this E Store which will be carrying these collections hours after they walk the ramp, for anyone to purchase locally or internationally. +Fashion Pakistan Week is set to break social media boundaries in the country, as well. +Not only will the event be livestreamed, but fashion bloggers like Nida Moughal and some Twitterati will be covering the event. +The Internet is a big worry though; the whole region is plagued by broadband issues because two out of the four submarine cables that link Pakistan to the web have been damaged. +Fashionistas Against Taliban +Security concerns and Taliban threats at the first Pakistan Fashion Week in 2009 also marked the beginning of the Fashionistas Against Taliban (#FAT) movement. +The event pulled war correspondents from neighboring countries into Pakistan to cover fashion and has been the source of satire-loaded tweets, memes and this Facebook Group which has developed cult-like status amongst the country's social media users. +Pakistani fashion designer Deepak Perwani. +Image used with permission. +Sabahat Zakariya (@sabizak_) whose Twitter profile says she is a 'reverse snob and tweeter about life' remarks: @sabizak_ (Sabahat Zakariya): #FAT “@tammyhaq: Thank goodness for fashion week season. +Mosharraf Zaidi (@mosharrafzaidi) A recovering bureaucrat and columnist known for his dry wit quips: @mosharrafzaidi (Mosharraf Zaidi): That's so Taliban! +RT @holland_tom: "Fine dining and an obsession with fashion are marks of sickness in a state." - Seneca. #FAT Investigative blogger and Twitter user Shahid Saeed (@shahidsaeed) tweets a picture of a Pakistani politician who's known for sporting punk-like hair colour: +Meme for Fashion Pakistan Week - used with permission Samra Muslim (@samramuslim), a self-described lover of shoes, marketing, and media tweeted about the social media hype surrounding Fashion Pakistan Week: +@samramuslim: Looking forward to #FPW now - strongly feel it will be a great #socialmedia #casestudy from #Pakistan! +Good luck @fashionpakistan @dperwani +Umair Mirza (@Umairmirza) celebrated the fashion week joining the "digital age": +@Umairmirza: the most interactive #FPW ever ! u'll feel like you are there at the venue ! thanks @fashionpakistan. its a DIGITAL AGE love ! +This event, which may offer a peek to a different side of Pakistan, will be available to watch here: +The author of this post Faisal Kapadia is managing the live streaming and social media of this event. + +Iran: Act Like a Man, Dress Like a Woman! · Global Voices +A man dressed in a red dress with a veil on his head was paraded by security forces through the streets of Marivan in the Kurdistan province of Iran on Monday, April 15, 2013. +A local court decided this would be the punishment for three men, reportedly found guilty in domestic disputes. +The exact circumstances are unclear, but the mere idea of this punishment has angered many. +Women in Marivan held a protest against the sentence on Tuesday, saying it is more humiliating to women than it is to the convicted men. +According to one human rights activist, security forces physically attacked protesters . +A video shows women marching through the streets. +Shared on the Facebook page 'Kurd Men For Equality' +Online, several Kurdish men have photographed themselves dressed as women as part of a Facebook campaign to say, "Being a woman is not an instrument to punish or humiliate anybody." +The photos appear on a Facebook page named Kurd Men for Equality. +Namo Kurdistani writes: +To show my solidarity and support to the "womanhood" and their suffers and torments during the history mostly have done by "men" . as we have faced recently a stupid judge"s order to punish a person by putting on him the feminine customs, so it is one of the times that we should gather around each other and condemn this stupidity, brutality and inhumanity against the womanhood; the half of society as well as at least half of the human being on the earth. +I am supporting womanhood by the at least I can do for them. The Facebook page of the Women's Association of Marivan also condemned the act and wrote : +Security forces dragged a convicted Marvani’s man in the city. +They dressed him as a woman and wished by this act to humiliate him. +The Women's Association of Marivan condemn this action and consider it an insult to women. +Mohmmad Mostafai, an Iranian lawyer and human rights defender says +Iran’s judiciary has no right to order such punishment which goes against human dignity. +Dressing convicts like women is not something you can find in the laws of the Islamic Republic. +History repeats itself +More than three years ago, Iranian authorities attempted to use the same method of humiliation against a student activist, but failed. +Back then, Iranian authorities claimed that Majid Tavakoli dressed as a woman to escape after delivering a speech in Tehran on Student Day. +However, human rights activists in Iran published a report from an eyewitness saying: “All the pictures published by the state media are false and a clear use of immoral means against student and civil activists in Iran.” +At the time, hundreds of Iranian men photographed themselves dressed as women in hijab to support Tavakoli. + +China Earthquake Donation Protected by Spell · Global Voices +Hong Kong based inmediahk.net's Facebook page shared an image circulated widely on Chinese social media which shows spells written on money, that says, "This is a donation for a Ya'an earthquake victim, those who dare to misuse this money will go to hell." + +As Japan's Star Fades, Many Struggle for Hope · Global Voices +As Japan's economic growth continues to shrink each year, the Japanese, more and more disconnected from their families and friends thanks to grueling works days and the Internet's erosion of personal relationships, are finding it difficult to put on a happy face. +Many are pessimistic about Japan's future. +With rising unemployment and a widening income gap shrinking the middle class, Japan was outpaced by neighboring China in economic growth in 2010, knocking the land of the rising sun into third place in global rankings. +General elections in December 2012 ushered Japan's conservative party back into power, but so far this has not done away with the country's economic uncertainty. +But at a time when most people would turn to their family and friends to help manage the stress, the Japanese find that their personal relationships at home, in the workplace, and within their local communities are weakening. +According to a government survey on Japanese lifestyles, Japanese people today have less time with family and friends due in part to longer work hours. +People have even coined two new terms in Japanese to describe this lonely condition - "Muen Shakai" , meaning "isolation society," and "Komyu-Shō" , meaning "communication disorder" to describe a person's poor ability to communicate or foster relationships. +Image by Flickr user FireWaterSun. +Used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 +So how can people possibly chin up with such a depressing state of affairs? +Dr. Kei offers a clue to readers in the following post , reprinted with permission, to help them hold on to hope and regain a sense of happiness despite the times: +The knell of the bells at the Gion temple +Echoes the impermanence of all things. +The colour of the flowers on its double-trunked tree +Reveals the truth that to flourish is to fall. +He who is proud is not so for long, +Like a passing dream on a night in spring. +He who is brave is finally destroyed, +To be no more than dust before the wind. +Do we have to remain a "strong nation" in the world? +Do we have to aim higher? +Do we have to live as a developed nation exploiting nuclear power? +Do we have to "grow"? +Do we have to carry out public projects and build more roads? +Do we have to seek wealthier lives? +Certainly, the energy to "go higher" is important. +I myself also live with the aim to "go higher" everyday, and I think the power of "higher" should never be denied. +In addition, nobody can deprive anyone of the freedom to want to be stronger or richer. +It is possible for anyone to be strong or rich and it's natural for a human being to pursue such desires. +But when I observe Japan as a whole, I increasingly see people who cannot be vocal about going "higher", people who have given up on going "higher" or those don't even think about it from the beginning. +Rather, they are "maintaining the status quo", "flying low", or "sinking". +People who don't have enough physical and emotional energy to aim higher. +Instead of saying "even if I'm poor, I'll be rewarded someday so I'll make an effort", there are people who say "I'm poor and I won't be rewarded so it's hopeless". +It's free to aim for a "strong Japan" but when I see Japanese living in Japan, they seem to become weak long ago. +Of course some people are strong, but in general, for me they appear weak, crying and tied down and unable to move. +“Joy”, by Flickr user ooberayhay.Used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 +I think Japan is taking a downturn... +Everybody feels this. +Even if we aim for a stronger Japan, it will only increase the "national debt" in reality and it's probably impossible for us to escape economic stagnation in this lifetime. +This is because we're approaching the unprecedented "hyper aging society" , which nobody has ever experienced before. +Under these circumstances, we need to pay closer attention to the basics of life. +It is not a time for excessive luxury. +It is even difficult in this era to have "small luxuries". +We need to put value on something other than material wealth. +Ultimately, it is "the realization that we are alive". +As long as we are alive, it is fine. +We are alive and we have something to eat for now. +In which case, isn't it important to be able to have a sense of satisfaction for now? +You have family. +You have someone close to you. +You can listen to your favorite music. +You have food. +You have shelter for now. +You have clothes to wear. +You have the sense to feel satisfied with those. +In other words, to feel satisfied with your daily life as it is and to feel happy that you can live life everyday. +Perhaps happy people, rich or poor, may have this interpretation. +Unhappy people cannot feel such happiness over being alive. +What they feel is "insufficiency", a "lack", and an "inferiority complex". +We don't learn this at school. +These are things that come from home or somewhere else you belong. +We exist on this earth now. +We can live. +We're still alive. +Can't we find hope in it? +translated with help of Isamu Yoneda, Keiko Tanaka and edited by L.Finch + +Internet Freedom Camp in Lima, Peru · Global Voices +Are you in Lima? +Would you like to do something to preserve the Internet? +Sign up for the 2013 Internet Freedom Camp: two days of free culture and activism in Lima . +On May 4 and 5, 2013, activists, designers, linux users, audio-visual artists, lawyers and journalists will come together for a 'Radical collaborate communication action in defense of the internet' . +You can also follow the event through the hashtag #yaratpp. + +Saudi Arabia Executes Five Yemeni Men, Publicly Displays Bodies · Global Voices +Five Yemenis convicted of murder and robbery were executed in Saudi Arabia and their bodies displayed in public in the southwestern town of Jizan. +The beheadings of the men, who were reportedly members of a gang, bring Saudi Arabia's total number of executions this year to 47. +Murder, armed robbery, drug trafficking, rape, and apostasy are capital offenses under the kingdom's Muslim Sharia law. +Yemen also has the death penalty and ranks sixth in the world when it comes number of executions, according to Amnesty International. +Saudi Arabia ranks fourth, behind China, Iran, and Iraq. +The United States ranks fifth. +Photos of the five corpses hanging from a rope high in the air tied to two cranes circulated on Twitter and Facebook on May 21, 2013 to the outrage of many users, including many Yemenis who were disturbed and enraged by the images of their executed countrymen. +Five Yemeni men were executed and publicly displayed in the streets of Saudi Arabia. +Photo via @Bintbattuta87 +On Twitter, a professor and editor in Saudi Arabia, Bayan (@BintBattuta87) wrote in dismay: +@BintBattuta87: Graphic: Image of 5 men executed today, their dead bodies hanging now in #Saudi streets. +Fuck this country, wallah. pic.twitter.com/LwztwvfpAB +She added: +@BintBattuta87: GRAPHIC: #KSA: Ppl sit around staring at their dead bodies. +Nobody stands up to condemn this?! +That's what kills me: pic.twitter.com/za72LMdNDQ +Haykal Bafana (@Bafana3), a Yemeni lawyer based in Yemen, tweeted a photo of the scene and commented: +@Bafana3: This is how Saudi Arabia executes armed robbers. +5 #Yemen men executed yesterday. #KSA https://www.facebook.com/haykal.bafana/posts/469019226511426 … pic.twitter.com/0NcWDxYBHc +A close up of the five executed men in Saudi Arabia. +Photo via @Bafana3. +Sana2 Al-Yemen (@Sanasiino), a Yemeni journalist based in the UK, pointed out: +@Sanasiino: Saudi executes 5 Yemenis in Jizan & leaves them for the world to see. +These are the people ruling over our Holy Land pic.twitter.com/JP6QpnzXsE +Journalist and former Middle East editor for The Guardian newspaper Brian Whitaker (@Brian_Whit) tweeted a link to his latest post: ‏@Brian_Whit: Saudi Arabia steps up executions. +In the piece, he observed how the Web was affecting the perception of Saudi Arabia's around the world: The idea behind public executions is to deter others, though it's not at all clear that they do. +But nowadays, as a result of the internet, it is not just the Saudi public that sees them and this reinforces international perceptions that the kingdom is barbarous. +Quoting Amnesty International, he added: +. +Amnesty International says: +"Authorities in Saudi Arabia routinely flout international standards for fair trial and safeguards for defendants, who are often denied representation by lawyers and not informed of the progress of legal proceedings against them. +"They may be convicted solely on the basis of 'confessions' obtained under torture or other ill-treatment." +Yemeni blogger Afrah Nasser (@Afrahnasser), who is based in Sweden, challenged Yemen to speak out against the execution of its citizens: +@Afrahnasser: I dare Mr. Hadi or anyone from #Yemen's foreign ministry issue a statement to condemn #Saudi execution of 5 Yemeni! http://afrahnasser.blogspot.com/2013/05/saudi-excutes-five-yemeni-men.html? + +Human Rights Lawyers in West Papua · Global Voices +EngageMedia video about the situation of human rights lawyers in West Papua + +Saudi Youth Arrested for Allegedly "Insulting Religion" · Global Voices +Two young Saudi men were arrested in the capital Riyadh by the Committee of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) for allegedly insulting religion. +Bader Al-Rasheed @BAlrasheed and Abdullah Al-Bilasi @3bdlla shared their story on Twitter. +According to Al-Rasheed, they were sitting outside a cafe when a CPVPV's car passed by to call people to leave the area to perform evening prayers. +He said he argued with the CPVPV member whether sitting at public places at prayer times was illegal. +Al-Rasheed later tweeted : +"@BAlrasheed: Because it was the first time I hear of this law and the heya’ (what CPVPV is informally referred to) acts arbitrarily sometimes, I went to their car and asked: is there a law that bans sitting in public places at prayer times?” +The employee’s answer was that it’s haram (religiously forbidden), but Al-Rasheed interrupted saying: +"@BAlrasheed: Don't tell me what religion says, is there a law? +Religion is a matter of personal choice. +It's the law that I have to abide by." +According to Al-Rasheed, the employee was irritated and asked for his and his friend's identification cards. +Then, the CPVPV member started threatening them and inciting the police official to take action against them. +Minutes later, another CPVPV car and a police car came to arrest them and took them to al-Sulaimaniyah police station. +Al-Bilasi talked about the inhumane conditions in the cells: "It was small and overcrowded. +There weren't any beds or mattresses,” he says. +“We slept on the floor. +I asked an officer to let me sleep in the hallway but he just cursed me," he adds. +The next morning, they were taken, handcuffed, to the Investigation and Prosecution Bureau. +Upon arriving there, they were taken to a small room where they waited for hours before they were called separately for investigation. +The investigator told Abdullah that CPVPV members and police officers are “not to be argued with but obeyed.” +Their nightmare came to an end when they were released after their parents bailed them out even though the investigator called what happened a "misunderstanding." +Religious police were not satisfied and demanded that the two men get tried. +More absurdly, al-Bilasi and al-Rasheed reported a strange story about a Lebanese man they met in al-Sulaimaniyah police station who was arrested for a “religiously illegitimate smile”! +@balrasheed: One of the more bizarre stories we came across during our detention was of a Lebanese salesman who was sentenced to five days imprisonment. +His crime: "A non-Sharia compliant smile." +The incident happened on March 25, 2013. + +Families of Saudi's 'Arbitrarily Imprisoned' Protest from Home · Global Voices +Pictures of their imprisoned loved ones hung outside their homes, to remind everyone of their plight and to mark the Second Detainees Day on June 7, 2013, an event called for by anonymous advocacy groups @e3teqal and @almonaseron to protest arbitrary detainment in the Saudi absolute monarchy. +The First Detainees Day took place on May 25, 2013 in which many brochures were distributed anonymously to call for an end to arbitrary detainment. +In addition, families chose to hang large photographs of their detained relatives on their houses, a practice which inspired even many more families to follow suit on the second day. +Photo of human rights activist Houd al-Aqeel displayed on his house. via @khawlah20 +In the early morning, three women were reportedly arrested while trying to hang a protest banner in Saudi capital, Riyadh. +They were held for 18 hours and then released . +The family of the president of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, Suliman al-Rashoudi, who was arrested back in December, hung his photo on their house, with a banner that says "Release reformist and lawyer Suliman al-Rashoudi." +The Saudi Arabian city of Buraidah also had notable participation in the event. +Banners were hung on public bridges. And many houses participated in hanging photos. +Police forces surrounded several houses that had detainees' photos, including the house of human rights activist Houd al-Aqeel (pictured on right). +They also reportedly arrested a detainee's brother to force his family to remove a photo. +In addition, many flyers were distributed that call for an end to arbitrary detainment. + +Attention! +Baby on Board: An Interview With a Travelling Blogger Family · Global Voices +An interview with The Family Without Borders: Anna and Thomas Alboth, parents, travellers and bloggers who've been around the Black Sea and around Central America with their two small daughters. +In 2010, a young couple from Berlin - Anna, a Polish journalist, and Thomas, a German photographer - decided to live on their globetrotting dream - and they decided to do it with their 6-month-old daugther Hanna on board. +With a fully-packed Renault Espace they made a half-a-year-long road trip around the Black Sea, through the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea. +The idea worked out so well that in 2012, already with their second daughter Mila, they travelled in Central America from Mexico down to Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. +From their first trip on they decided to share their unusual experiences through their blog, The Family Without Borders . +The interest turned out to be so significant that in 2011 the blog was named the Best Travel Blog by the Polish edition of the National Geographic. +Global Voices (GV): Let’s imagine 25 years forward. +Your daughters have their own children and want to go travelling with their babies. +What is your reaction? +Mexico (Yukatan), Holbox Island. +Photo © Thomas Alboth, used with permission. +Anna (A): I hope it will be this way. +Recently, we've had some discussions about parents, kids and grandkids and how it all can change. +We were a bit afraid that maybe they will choose a totally other way of life than we did and that it would be hard to accept it if they would start saying things like, "I want to go to a hotel.” +But on the other hand, the more they grow up the more I feel that I’m scared that something can happen to them, all these mother-ish things. +Thomas (T): I would have wanted it. +But I’m also not so sure if they will like this lifestyle, I have friends who grew up in a community flat and then they turned into the opposite. +I’m also pretty happy to be completely different from my parents. +So maybe one day they will stay in a hotel, will have nice rolling suitcases and that’s ok. +GV: You received the National Geographic title for the Best Travel Blog in 2011. +Why do you think your blog became so successful? +A: I think it was two things. +First, we didn’t plan for it to be big, so we were just doing what we liked, and I think these things are always going bigger when you just do what you love. +We have known all these travel bloggers who had business plans, but for us it was basically writing for the grandparents, so that they could see Hanna safe and smiling. +That was the beginning. +After a while we started to check the statistics and we saw that people from 20, 40, 50 countries were visiting the blog, and we were like, “wow”. +There is this generation of young Europeans who are studying abroad, travelling, making international couples and they think that if they have kids it will be all over. +I think when they see what we did, they see hope that it all really doesn’t have to be over. +The whole family in their flat in Berlin. +Photo by Kasia Odrozek +GV: Did you have a clear work division: who is writing, who takes pictures and so on? +A: Yes, we had clear divided tasks. +It happened that I made some pictures but not often, normally the camera was in his hands all the time. +I was writing the posts, Thomas wrote maybe two posts in these three years. +For the blog he does all the technical things and I do all the human communication work. +And on the road Thomas usually drives and I usually tell him where we are going . +The whole thing works when we are doing it together. +A couple of weeks ago, he was in Burma and I was in Palestine and we didn’t post anything on the blog, and it felt strange. +GV: Would your experience be different without the blog? +A: For me having the blog was very motivating to get more knowledge about everything. +On the second trip, I was writing in a much more journalistic way, so I was noting many more things, asking for more context while talking to people, taking leaflets in museums and so on. +I don’t know if I would do all of this without knowing that I will publish it. +GV: What is your favorite memory when you look back at your travels? T: More than a memory it is a feeling of being self-paced, that you decide about your own life. +When you stay in one place you get into this daily rhythm, you get up, grab a coffee in the morning, you take a tram or metro and you go to your office, and 80 percent of your day is predictable. +That’s what I liked about the trip, for a half of the year you decide what you want to do. +GV: Was there a moment when you thought, “This was a mistake”? +A: There was one such moment when I was scared and I thought that all these people saying that we were irresponsible parents were right. +It was the night at a hotel in Guatemala where we saw three big men with guns passing by the corridor, talking angrily on the phone. +We had to do something to feel better, so we asked them if they were dangerous. +We didn’t speak too much Spanish but, luckily, we knew the word peligroso, dangerous. +They answered “yes, but not for you and not here.” +Then we learned that in Guatemala everybody has guns because they hadn’t been disarmed after the civil war. +GV: You say that your travels were about people and their stories. +What was the craziest thing you heard or experienced? +T: If you come from a different world, even just the way people live their everyday lives seems interesting and sometimes strange. +The family has to say goodybe to their hosts in Guatemala, Chilasco waterfall. +Photo © Anna Alboth, used with permission. +A: During the second trip, in Guatemala, we were hosted by a Mayan family in their small house with plastic chairs and a TV. +After we talked to them, they were surprised, but not by the fact that we were travelling for so long - but that we could live without a TV for so long. +Then in the evening, when I started to cut potatoes for a soup, all these small girls immediately started to help me because that’s what they do, they do everything together. +When we were leaving, they were asking when we would come back and it was heartbreaking, we wanted to say that we would call but they didn’t have a phone, they wanted to write a letter but they didn’t know how to write. +GV: Any plans for the future? +A:We have to go on a trip again, of course. +But before we do it, I need to finish my book on Central America, then we will go travelling again. +On March 26, 2013, The Family Without Borders will share their pictures and stories at a slideshow presentation at the Globetrotter shop in Berlin. +For more details, please visit their blog or Facebook. + +Beheadings, Shoot-outs and Baby Dumping: Where is Japan heading? · Global Voices +News stories covered this week by the mainstream news media in Japan have shaken Japanese society, with many wondering where their country is heading and what has happened to the nation's youth. +Most sensational among these stories is the shocking tale of a high-school boy who killed and beheaded his mother, then carried the head with him to an Internet cafe before turning himself over to the police. +(It is noteworthy that this is not the first time that this type of crime has occurred in Japan.) +Police reported that after admitting to the crime, the boy said: "I want terrorism and war to disappear from the world," and explained that: "It doesn't matter who I choose to kill." +Next up is the story of a 24-hour standoff involving a former yakuza gangster, who hid in his suburban home holding his former wife as hostage. +The standoff finally ended, but not before the man killed one police officer, injured another, and also injured his own son and daughter. +Add to these two the story of the first Japanese "Akachan Post" (Baby Post, also referred to as a "Stork's Cradle"), a kind of "baby hatch" measuring 50 centimetres by 60 centimetres, opening onto a small heated compartment. +Parents who, for whatever reason, cannot take care of their children can drop off their young babies in this hatch; hospital personnel are alerted when the door is opened, and immediately come to receive the baby. +The idea of introducing a "Baby Post" was sparked by the rise in cases of child abandonment in Japan. +One such case, also in the spotlight this week, involved a couple whose baby died in the luggage compartment of their motorbike as they gambled their money away at a local pachinko parlour, the baby's body later found dumped in the gutter. +Although the Baby Post may help avoid horrific situations such as these, the system is not without its detractors. +On its first day of operation, a man apparently misunderstood the intended age range of the "Stork's Cradle" and dropped off his 3-year-old son into the baby hatch, telling him that they were just playing hide-and-go-seek. +The boy apparently could talk and was able to identify himself by name. +What do Japanese people think about all these stories? +Many expressed great distress about what is happening to Japanese society. +Blogger choumi summarizes the situation well in the first few lines of her entry on the topic: + +Fed up with ‘Rats’, Mexicans Support ‘Candidate Cat Morris’ for Mayor · Global Voices +In the state of Veracuz, a campaign of support has appeared for a cat named Morris that aspires for the mayor’s office of Xalapa under the slogan of “no more rats”. +Morris “the candidate cat” has a Facebook profile with more than 107,000 “likes” at this moment. +In his profile, he displays photos, campaign slogans and signs of support from the public. +The profile, in addition, explains : +The candidate cat Morris nominates himself so that you vote for him this July 7. +In light of the rats that watch these positions, only a cat will be able to put things in order. +The candidate cat does not promise anything more than the other candidates: to rest and frolic. +Distinct entities of Mexico find themselves immersed in the local electoral processes; election day will take place Sunday, July 7, 2013. +In Veracruz, in the western part of Mexico, new mayors in each of the 212 municipalities will be elected. +The portal Veracruzanos.info describes the project in this way: +Due to the apathy of the Xalapa people in casting their vote and because they are fed up with the same speeches-promises of the candidates and political parties in every electoral process, “Candidate cat Morris” has emerged, a creative and fun proposal that will answer for Sergio, a citizen who has nominated an adopted pussycat in a fictitious way for the mayor’s office of the State’s capital. +Sergio-who asked to omit his full name-who is the owner of the cat and one of the creators of this rebellious project, said he was surprised at the response that it has had from users of the social network Facebook. +Shared photo from the Facebook profile of the Candidate Cat Morris +Enrique Legorreta , on behalf of the blog revoluciontrespuntocero (revolutionthreepointzero) , commented: +In a satiric way, the cat Morris sends the message of repudiation to the political oligarchy-not only in Veracruz, but throughout the entire country- from a society that is tired of parties that are not differentiating amongst themselves and choosing candidates that are only interested in growing rich through their power. +If Morris receives more votes than any of the registered candidates, the symbolic blow to the political class will be devastating; it would make clear that the people are so fed up with politics that they prefer to use their vote in a playful way instead of trying to elect the “least bad” . +Víctor Hernández, for Blog de Izquierda (Left Blog) , noted that the idea of nominating a non-human for a position in a popular election is not innovative, although funny. +Besides, he pointed out that voting for Morris could help a specific political party: +The idea itself is not new, one must admit. +Michael Moore did the same thing in 2000 by nominating a Ficus plant to be a New Jersey delegate. +Ironically, Ficus was the candidate in the county of Morris, New Jersey. +But OK; as a big joke, a candidate cat is very good. +But as a political strategy? +It is a ton of help…for the PRI (Instititutional Revolutionary Party). +And every two or three years, it’s the same old story: “politics are shit, we are so fed up, it’s better to annul our votes in order to send a message”. +Ah, because voting for Morris (or for Cantinflas, or for Baby Pedro, or for Superneighborhood, or for whatever other false option) is legally entered as “other” or as “null.” +And it matters very little to the politicians, since in an election the person with the most votes wins. +Who has more votes if there are many null votes? +The party that has the most hard votes. +Who has the most hard votes in Veracruz? +The PRI. +Victor concludes: +So all of the angry people who want to “send a message” to the politicians are going to be letdown if they put “Morris” on the ballot, because the only message that the politicians of the PRI, those in power, are going to understand is “how stupid; if they had voted for someone from the opposition, they could have beat me.” +The portal sinembargo.mx (however.mx) reported on the reactions that the “candidacy” of Morris has generated within the local electoral authority: +Campaign promo, shared on the official page elcandigato.com +The president of the Veracruz Electoral Institute (IEV), Carolina Viveros García, requested that citizens “do not waste their suffrage” voting for the Candidate Cat Morris next July 7, because, she explained, their votes would be null. +“We want, we request the participation so that they vote for the registered citizens on electoral ballots; this is important-she emphasized-, the rest are expressions given online and that have my respect, but you have to vote for the registered candidates, please”, the IEV official insisted. +Twitter user Tora Toncha (@toratoncha) expressed himself like this about Morris: +@toratoncha Very ingenious the campaign of candidate cat Morris (a way of protest) but I consider it foolishness to put his name on the electoral ballot -_- +Gustavo Pelaez (@gjpelaez) invited his followers to vote for Morris: +@gjpelaez #Xalapa #vota por el (vote for the) #Candigato #CandidateCat #Morris write his name in the white box to vote, so that no human achieves the minimum number of votes!!!!! +User Jorge Cervantes (@jorcervan) pointed out that he will support Morris: +@jorcervan In Xalapa I am going with Morris, Morris for Municipal President 2014-2017. +The “candidacy” of Morris has generated diverse reactions among Mexican public opinion; some have expressed with suspicion about this being a market trick or a campaign to benefit one of the registered parties or candidates, nevertheless, the only thing evident right now is that the popularity of the feline is increasing. + +Censorship and Police Brutality Mark Three Weeks of Turkish Protests · Global Voices +This post originally appeared on the author's own blog, Azadolu. +It's been three weeks since massive protests started across Turkey. +Since their start on May 31, the country has witnessed media censorship, police brutality, protests by the thousands and the deaths and injury of protestors. +Here is the summary of past three weeks: +Media Censorship: +Even though Turkish mainstream media self-censored the protests, social media was active and is still active in covering the protests. +CNNTurk, NTV and Haberturk (the main news channels of Turkey) were all involved in self-censorship. +After CNNTurk published a documentary about penguins instead of covering the protests, Twitter user emre erdem tweeted with sarcasm: The whole country is shaking, but there is a documentary about penguins on CNNTurk. +The programme was prepared by Selin Girit, who tweeted: @selingiritBBC suspends partnership with Turkish news channel @ntv over television censorship on a piece about press freedom. @bbcworld@bbcturkce +Seven Turkish newspaper ran the same headline on the protests. +Photograph shared by @ozlemmisler on Twitter +There were also some interesting coincidences in the Turkish media's coverage of the protests. +Seven different newspapers had the same headline on the same day. +Twitter user Ozlem Isler shared a photograph of the newspapers: +@Sedat2Aral Never been like this... +Doctors, Journos, students, artists, actors, business men...all turkey helping each other against Police brutality. +You can learn more about police brutality during the protests here. +Social Media: "The Worst Menace to Society" +In return, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan vented off his anger at social media and called it "worst menace to society". +Twitter user Pelin explains the reason behind Erdogan's anger by sharing the Bloomberg report about Twitter usage in Turkey during protests: +@BettySpades Data shows why Twitter is a menace to Erdogan. +Impact of social media on the gezi protests: #occupygezi#direnankarahttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-10/twitter-really-is-a-menace-to-erdogan.html … +Contradicting Messages: +Twitter user Utangac Adam replied to the governor: +Our elders would always say "There is no school for learning humanity". +Now, I understand them better... Prime minister Erdogan arranged several rallies for his supporters, including in Ankara and Istanbul. Erdogan threatened the protesters to clear Gezi Park by calling them terrorists. +After his statement on clearing the Gezi Park from protesters, Turkish police attacked Gezi Park on June 16, and took control over Taksim Square and Gezi Park. +Standing Man is the most sophisticated protest in the history of Turkish Republic. +A great performance that the ruling party cannot deal with, ever. +Turkish people showed their desire for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation over the last three weeks. +Even though the policemen were fierce, politicians were angry and the media was silent, they continued on their journey for a better life. +Perhaps this video of protesters cheering sarcastically for more teargas to be thrown on them by the police speaks volumes of their ambition for a better country and a better tomorrow: + +Coptic Churches Burnt in Egypt · Global Voices +Coptic churches and businesses were attacked across Egypt today by what was described as Muslim Brotherhood members and their supporters. +The sectarian attacks followed the violent evacuation of Pro-Morsi sit-ins in the capital Cairo, in which many Egyptians were killed and injured. +On social media, many suggested that the Muslim Brotherhood has been fanning the flames of sectarianism, pitting Muslim against Christian, resulting in today's unprecedented wide-scale attacks. +The two sit-ins were for the supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi, a senior Muslim Brotherhood member, whose one-year reign was cut short on July 3, following massive protests calling for him to resign and for early elections. +For weeks, Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood supporters have been camping in Rabaa Al Adawiya, in Nasr City, and in Al Nahda Square, near Cairo University, calling for the return to “legitimacy” or reinstating Morsi as the legally elected president of Egypt. +Researcher in the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights Ishak Ibrahim tweets : +The toll for today's attacks in nine governorates is as follows: 20 churches, one monastery, two service buildings, three schools, three religious societies and one orphanage were burnt and seven churches were attacked and looted +In another tweet, he explains: +The targeting by the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters of courts, churches, town councils and police stations is due basically to their disbelief in the state +The Big Pharaoh tweets: +Till now 16 churches were burned, some of them of historical significance. +That's unprecedented. +Last time happened hundreds of years ago. — The Big Pharaoh (@TheBigPharaoh) August 14, 2013 +He adds: +Majority of churches that were set ablaze are in Upper Egypt, where most Christians are and where MB still has considerable support. — The Big Pharaoh (@TheBigPharaoh) August 14, 2013 +And continues: +I think the magnitude and geographical spread of the attacks on Christians didn't happen before since the mid ages. — The Big Pharaoh (@TheBigPharaoh) August 14, 2013 +Fouad MD shares a photograph of a church in Sohag which was burnt today: +A photo of the beautiful historic church burned in #Sohag #Egypt today by pro-Morsy supporters pic.twitter.com/HVdRPGhRb3 — Fouad, MD (@FouadMD) August 14, 2013 +Activist Dalia Ziada links the attacks on the churches to the evacuation of Pro-Morsi supporters. +She writes: +Reports from Upper Egypt: Islamists launching massive attacks on churches in reaction to evacuating strikes of #MuslimBrotherhood #Egypt — daliaziada (@daliaziada) August 14, 2013 +Firas Al Atraqchi explains: +The attacks on Coptic institutions in #Egypt betrays the understanding that an Islamist government can never be inclusive. +Or tolerant. — Firas Al-Atraqchi (@Firas_Atraqchi) August 14, 2013 +And Leil_Zahra Mortada notes: +You can be against #MB, and still denounce the massacre of the army and #MOI, and be against the sectarian crimes against the #Copts. #Egypt — Leil-Zahra Mortada (@LeilZahra) August 14, 2013 +In addition to churches, Coptic business interests were also attacked today. +Schehtazade says: +My source in Delga says that 10s of Coptic houses were torched while the police remain absent. — MK مريم (@MariamKirollos) August 14, 2013 +With all the death and destruction, today remains a black day in Egypt's history. +Yossra Farghaly sums up this sentiment with remorse: +I'm sorry for ever being a part of jan25....that deteriorated to reach the point we're living in right now. +I'm sorry for being an Egyptian. — Yossra Farghaly (@YossraFarghaly) August 14, 2013 +On Facebook, Watani Weekly Newspaper shares a list of churches attacked in Egypt so far. + +Coffee Art Goes 3D in Japan · Global Voices +In the land where green tea remains the hot beverage of choice, 3D coffee art is winning hearts one foamy cup at a time. +More and more cafe goers in Japan, inspired by popular photos on social media that show steamed milk creations rising out of a coffee drink, are asking that their latte be topped with a similar work of lofty art. +Japan is no stranger to coffee. +The All Japan Coffee Association has reported that Japan is third in terms of total consumption among importing countries. +In 2010, Haruna Murayama of Japan won the World Latte Art Championship. +Flat latte art is already popular around the island nation. +A search of "latte art" on Twitter returns many photos of special lattes bearing the shapes of hearts, leaves, teddy bears, popular anime characters, and even Internet icons. +A vending machine in Haneda Airport, Tokyo's international airport, even serves cappuccino with the face of a classic Japanese female, designed and produced by Kyoto's well-known cosmetic company Yojiya. +Reaching new heights +But baristas have pushed this creative coffee phenomena to a new level with foamy 3D sculptures. +3D latte art by Twitter user @george_10g: "A cat is looking at golden fish." +Kazuki Yamamoto (@george_10g), the latte art master who uploads his latte art on Twitter, wrote in his blog that he works at a Belgian beer house in Osaka. +He calls his latte art "spare time cappuccino" , a creation out of boredom or spare time, of course with great efforts and labor of love. +He once posted to Twitter recalling numerous works of latte art that he had drawn: +@george_10g: I started drawing on lattes in 2011 and I've drawn and served roughly about 1,000 cups by 2012 but somehow I still remember when and what I've drawn and who I served it for. +It's kind of creepy. +Twitter user @petakopetako responded to his comment praising his specialty: +@petakopetako: I like taking photos. +Normally I am bad at remembering people's faces, but once I take photos of them, I can remember where it was and what they were talking about. +Maybe people remember things better when doing something they are passionate about. +The social media effect +Cafe owners and baristas in Japan have uploaded photos of their secret, off-the-menu 3D latte art to social media. +These images were circulated widely and later gained the attention of local broadcasters and magazines. +The publicity has attracted so many new clients to some coffee houses that owners are struggling to keep up. The owner of Cafe Bar Jihan in Shizuoka prefecture wrote about Facebook effect in his blog : +With the image widely amplified, several media outlets asked me that they wanted to cover our coffeehouse. +This kitty cat latte art requires so much time that I can't take orders when things are busy in our cafe. +I've been struggling with what to do about this situation. +At least the cafe is relatively slow after 6 p.m. on weekdays, so if you are visiting for 3D latte art, please come around these times. +This post was originally written by Ayako Yokota. +Keiko Tanaka edited her post and L. Finch sub-edited. + +Video Exposes Lavish Lifestyle of Thai Monks · Global Voices + + +North Sulawesi in Indonesia Hit by Flashflood and Landslide · Global Voices Manado also experiencing horrible flood! +The town of Manado in Indonesia was hit by a massive flashflood and landslide that displaced more than 40,000 residents. +Strong winds and heavy rains that lasted days triggered a landslide that buried dozens of vehicles and their passengers. +It was also reported that the road that connects Manado city with Tomohon city was destroyed due to the landslide. +Photos, latest disaster updates from the ground, and solidarity messages are pouring on Twitter through the hashtags #prayformanado, #GodSaveManado, and #prayforsulut. +best prayers for friends and relatives in Manado and its surroundings. hopefully flood can be resolved at the soonest. +Heard a tragic news of the flood in Sulut, Manado. +Let's pray for our brothers and sisters in there #prayforSulut pic.twitter.com/plTfudzL4e — Grace Sharon (@grace_sha) January 15, 2014 +Twitter was maximized to to coordinate rescue missions: +Tweeps, please help RT this, a friend of mine Alex in Manado requires help from SAR team. +Big thanks. +On Facebook, community pages and North Sulawesi diaspora groups provide latest updates and news regarding the status of disaster reliefs. +Landslide in Paslaten Minsel Village, North Sulawesi. +All of the office members where my nephew works have been evacuated 30 minutes ago. +Meanwhile, the Manado community Facebook page advised netizens to refrain from circulating news from unconfirmed sources that could trigger chaos amid uncertainty. +Minister for People's Welfare Salim Segaf Al Jufri assured that aid for flood victims are ready to be distributed. +The Manado Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG Manado) predicts the possibility of further flooding due to heavy rainfall in the next few days. +Besides Manado, other towns were also devastated by the flooding such as North Minahasa regency, Tomohon city, Minahasa, South Minahasa, and Sangihe Islands. +Disasters caused by extreme rainfall have been reported in many parts of Indonesia, including the capital Jakarta. + +Bodies Pile in Egypt, But Birds Still Singing for Russian Vacationers · Global Voices +Over the past several days Russian newspapers have reported , with growing worry, about the 50,000 Russian tourists who run the danger of being stranded in Egypt, if violence there does not abate. +Egypt, along with Turkey, is a popular budget travel destination for Russians, who especially favor the all-inclusive resort towns of Harghuda and Sharm-el-Sheikh on the Red Sea. +In fact, it is so popular that even the growing instability, riots, and several hundred fatalities have not deterred many Russians from taking their long awaited vacations. +"Burning hot tours. +Egypt." +Anonymous image distributed online. +Some Russians, particularly the ones who have found employment in Egypt's bustling tourist industry, are quick to reassure potential travelers scared by photos of burning buildings and dying Egyptians published in LiveJournal posts like this one . +For example, the VKontakte account I♥Hurghada wrote : +People, don't cancel the travel arrangements that you've paid for. +Hurghada is calm, everything is normal!!!! +When Pavel Kulikov commented, asking : +How can you write that everything is calm and nothing is happening about a country in the middle of a civil war? +I♥Hurghada replied : +Because of panicky individuals, people spoil their vacations, by cancelling. +No one says you should go to Cairo or other cities where there is unrest (! +Unrest, not war or something). +I'm talking about resort areas where things are always normal and calm! +Sometimes these attempts to reassure sound a bit strained : +Hi everyone! +I live in Hurghada. +The roads are closed just in case, so the more remote areas of the city have trouble with transportation, sometimes it's just not there. +People are calm. +There are few tourists. +Hurghada is warm, nice there are many fruits. +Don't be afraid. +Similarly, a local woman tried to downplay reports of Muslim Brotherhood rallies in downtown Hurghada: +The mass media is a strange thing. +I watched a view stories from "Vesti" today, started thinking — do I live in the same Hurghada? ))) +We took photos of the crowd from all sides, no more that couple hundred people with photos of Morsi. +The news talked about some kind of crazy crowd 5,000-strong +Some people wrote straight from Cairo, the epicenter of violence. +On August 14, Lyubov Lobova wrote on the group "Your guide to Sharm-el-Sheikh": +Friends! +I am in Cairo. +Stupidly came here yesterday)))) There is no war here, but the situation isn't fun. +We're stuck at a Giza hotel, because there is curfew. +From 7PM to 6AM. +In Sharm everything is quiet, but it doesn't hurt to take precautions. +Another woman who works as a realtor in Hurghada also blogged : +I'm in Cairo right now, don't look scared! +Everything is fine!!!!! +Where I am there is no hint of some kind of special forces operation. +The birds are singing outside my window and I can hear the sounds of peaceful monotonous everyday life. +Meanwhile, on August 15, the Association of Russian Travel Agents reported that the Russian agency in charge of regulating tourism has advised Russians to refrain from traveling to Egypt, if possible. +Currently the Association's front page hosts an FAQ on how to "annul your vacation package to Egypt." +Even this, however, does not deter intrepid Russian travelers, who seem to think that, even in the worst case scenario, the cavalry will come to their aid: +Guys who live in Egypt have reassured us! +Even the ones who live in Cairo!!! +At the resorts its business as usual:) Even if, God Forbid, there will be war, we will be evacuated - naturally! +So we are getting ready for the usually party vacation in our favorite Sharm and advise that to everyone else!;) +A beach in Mersa Matruh, Egypt. +The caption reads "Russian tourists have threatened to quash the unrest in Egypt, if it gets in the way of their vacation." +Anonymous image distributed online. +This somewhat reckless type of behavior has led to jokes, such as this tweet: +Egypt is fine. +There are 60,000 of our nutcases there. +Theoretically we could put in a bit of effort and take power on the sly. +And there was this fake-news piece on "Intersucks" (a word play on the news agency Interfax): +The forces of Egypt's republican army have been smashed on approach to Sharm-el-Sheikh and Hurghada. +In the second half of the day, both cities came under total control of vacationers from Russia. +"These are our cities, and we won't let anyone dictate to us their rules. " said the commander of the Russian Alcoholic army, Nikolai Denikin. +Behind such levity lies a sad fact, however. +Many Russians are going through with their plans because they cannot afford to lose their vacations — especially since they are not guaranteed their money back. +This point was made by Facebook user Elijah Chertcoff: +Those who have managed to save for a warm beach vacation from their pauperly wages of 15-20 thousand rubles , have nothing to do but close their eyes, set their teeth, and get their dose of ultraviolet and vitamins "before it hits the fan." +After all, the Egyptian army will guard the resort area and the comfort of the Russians to the end +This theory seems to be borne out by this despairing VKontakte comment : +How can we not try to reassure ourselves, if we have decided to go? +We are all scared, but someone gave up their travel package, and someone didn't, and will try to reassure themselves. + +Heartbreaking News: Missing Malaysian Flight MH370 Crashed into Indian Ocean · Global Voices +Image from Facebook page of Malaysia Airlines +Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak announced Monday evening that missing airliner MH370 has crashed into the Indian Ocean based on the latest analysis of satellite data: +...its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth. +This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites. +It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean. +MH370 went missing on March 8 during its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. +There are still no conclusive information as to why the plane lost contact but authorities said its radar was deliberately turned off. +There were 239 passengers and crew members onboard MH370. +For two weeks, the world intently waited for updates on the search for the missing plane. +Malaysia Airlines posted this message moments before the Prime Minister made his announcement: +Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume that MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean. +On behalf of all of us at Malaysia Airlines and all Malaysians, our prayers go out to all the loved ones of the 226 passengers and of our 13 friends and colleagues at this enormously painful time. +We know there are no words that we or anyone else can say which can ease your pain. +We will continue to provide assistance and support to you, as we have done since MH370 first disappeared in the early hours of 8 March, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. +Netizens around the world used the hashtags #PrayforMH370 and #RIPMH370 to send their condolences to the families of the passengers and crew members of MH370: +In this very difficult time, we hope the families stay strong and hold on despite all odds. +Bless the souls #UniteForMH370 #PrayForMH370 — UNITE FOR MH370 (@uniteformh370) March 24, 2014 Its not a fact until hard evidence found. +I will pray for their survival and whatever best for them. #PrayForMH370 — Syafiq Mobin (@syafiqduckie) March 24, 2014 Even when they claimed it ended in the sea, part of me still hope that they would somehow find it #PrayForMH370 — syad (@syafiqarsyad) March 24, 2014 #MH370 Families of passengers to be flown from Beijing to Australia #PrayForMH370 http://t.co/jpf3xghilN pic.twitter.com/zQJPzFSLb0 — The Star (@staronline) March 24, 2014 + +750 Million People Expected to Speak French by 2050 · Global Voices +Bangui, Central African Republic. +The French language retains some of its former influence in the former French colonies in Africa. +Image from Wikimedia Commons. +Countering the assertion by John McWhorter at the New republic that learning French is pointless, Pascal Emmanuel Gobry writes on his Forbes blog that French might just be the language of the future: +French isn’t mostly spoken by French people, and hasn’t been for a long time now. +The language is growing fast, and growing in the fastest-growing areas of the world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. +The latest projection is that French will be spoken by 750 million people by 2050. +A study by investment bank Natixis even suggests that by that time, French could be the most-spoken language in the world, ahead of English and even Mandarin. +Global Voices translators weighed in a month ago on the challenges and the benefits of learning French. + +Hong Kong's Pro-Democracy 'Occupy Central' in Photos · Global Voices +Pro-democracy protesters in central Hong Kong on October 1, 2014. +Photo by Flickr user Mario Madrona. +CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 +Hong Kongers are calling on Beijing to allow the people to nominate the candidates themselves in city's next chief executive election. +China has said it will allow Hong Kong, a special administrative region that enjoys a certain amount of autonomy from the mainland, a direct vote in 2017 for the first time, but has ruled that a largely pro-Beijing nominating committee select the candidates before they are allowed on the ballot. +Protesters are also pushing for current Chief Executive CY Leung, who has refused to back down but has agreed to hold talks with the movement, to resign. +Occupy Central, as the sit-in in central Hong Kong is called, attracted tens of thousands of people at its peak. +Footage from a drone, vetted by Storyful, captured just how far the protest stretched on September 29: +The rally has so far stood its ground against police attempts to clear the area with tear gas, pepper spray and batons. +Protesters have used umbrellas to shield themselves from the aggressive tactics, leading some to call the movement the "umbrella revolution" or "umbrella uprising." +Take a look at photos below for a further glimpse of Occupy Central. +Protesters tie yellow ribbons to the arms of those who wish during the Hong Kong protest in Causeway Bay on October 1, 2014. +Photo by Guillaume PAYEN. +Copyright Demotix +Protesters at the Central Government Offices in Hong Kong use cellophane wrap and surgical masks to protect themselves against the use of pepper spray on September 27, 2014. +Photo by Robert Godden. +Copyright Demotix +Protesters staged a sit-in outside government headquarters on September 27 at Admiralty, demanding CY Leung, chief executive of Hong Kong, to meet them to have a dialogue. +Photo by P H Yang. +Copyright Demotix +Protesters in Hong Kong stand together after police begin to tear gas the gathering on September 28. +Photo by P H Yang. +Copyright Demotix +A barricade with a meaning, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. +September 29, 2014. +Photo by Pete Walker. +Copyright Demotix +Signs in various languages supporting democracy on display in Hong Kong on October 1, 2014. +Photo by Flickr user Mario Madrona. +CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 +A protester holds a sign of 'civil disobedience' in front of a line up of riot police on September 27, 2014 as part of Occupy Central protest outside government headquarters at Admiralty, Hong Kong. +Photo by P H Yang. +Copyright Demotix +Dubbed the politest protesters, Hong Kongers have set up a recycling station to keep the protest sites clean. +Photo by Pete Walker. +Copyright Demotix +Follow our in-depth coverage: Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution + +5 Tips to Prevent Threats of Cyber Snooping in China · Global Voices +Want to prevent threats of cyber snooping in China? +See the details of the following five tips given by Sean Maples on ChinaHush: +1. +Upgrade your operating system +2. +Remove extra data +3. +Bring a simple cellphone +4. +Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) +5. +Reformat your digital device + +Guinean Cities Keep a Strong Heart Despite Ebola Epidemic · Global Voices +Young girl in Conakry, by Sebastián Losada - Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic +The Ebola epidemic is raging, causing hysteria worldwide. +The people of West Africa, where the epidemic began, are under surveillance by international health authorities. +Guinée, which was already in the throes of severe socioeconomic problems before the virus' outbreak, has suffered the brunt of the epidemic. +Guinée's population, however, is coping valiantly with life's daily challenges, despite the risks, the sorrows, and the suspicion from the rest of the world. +The two bloggers quoted below illustrate Guinée's determination to survive. +Alimou Sow, a Guinean blogger, decided to eat some pizza with his wife and some friends at a small restaurant in the upper suburbs of Conakry, Guinée's capital. +He describes this experience of daily life in the capital with a distinct sense of humor: +From the inside perspective, it's as if our country has been ostracized. +The roar of airplanes passing overhead in Conakry has diminished considerably. +Foreigners have packed their bags, deserting the mining areas, hotels, and restaurants ... and bandwidth has increased on the Internet! +For some time now, the connection has become amazingly fluid. Downloads are running smoothly. +Meanwhile, seen from the outside world, through the prism of both new and traditional media, it's as if Guinée were nothing but an ocean of Ebola virus. +Many have barricaded themselves indoors, out of fear of being contaminated. +Friendship, solidarity, and conviviality have given way to suspicion and stigma. +Ebola will certainly find a place in training courses on international relations. +In fact, the epidemic has written a new chapter for the textbooks of that discipline. +Yet, we live on. +The heart of Conakry is still beating. +Always the same chaos on the two main roads: the same unscrupulous yellow taxis, the same human bodies packed like sardines into magbana taxi-buses, the same familiar noise that animates the life of my capital. +With horns that keep growing louder, the shouting of curses, and the barking of the coxeur touts, who are finishing up their day of petty larceny committed on passengers. +Markets are crowded, cafés are bustling. +The rumors and gossip, which are the very essence of Conakry, keep going strong. +Cireass, another blogger who writes about Guinée, chose a more direct approach to explaining both the epidemic and the challenges of informing the public: +Although it's not only Guineans who have done so, one big mistake made by our countrymen in the fight against Ebola Fever was to have politicized a situation which has nothing to do with politics. +Ever since the announcement of that epidemic, people denied its existence, without even trying to understand what it was. +The result: the Doctors Without Borders centers in the city of Macenta were vandalized by people who claimed that the disease was a lie (ed's note: the facility has resumed its activity). , even though no one could possibly benefit from having invented it as a myth. +Neither the Guinean authorities nor the international non-governmental organizations could profit by inventing a terrifying epidemic like that. +We shouldn't be looking for a hidden political motive behind everything. +And now, in the case of Ebola, Guinée has become completely isolated on the international stage. +The only way out of this unfortunate situation will be to work together, to combat Ebola, which is our true enemy. +It is also important to note that, in the race to cure Ebola, certain metropolitan areas such as the city of Télimélé, have been more resistant to the virus than others—a hopeful sign that could prove crucial to the medical research now underway. Follow our in-depth coverage: The Struggle to #StopEbola in West Africa + +An Urgent Call for the Protection and Preservation of Tibetan Language · Global Voices +Khenpo Tsultrim Lodoe is an influential Buddhist teacher at Larung Gar Buddhist Institute in Tibet. +His article which addresses the relation between language and identity and urges for the preservation of Tibetan language was posted on an official educational website for Tibetan middle schools on July 4, 2014. +High Peaks Pure Earth translated the reflective piece. + +Citizen Journalist Kidnapped and Killed in Mexico for Reporting on Organized Crime · Global Voices +Image from Valor por Tamaulipas' Google Plus account. +"For you we will be strong. +In memory of: María del Rosario Fuentes Rubio, 15-16 October 2014 in Reynosa. +Kidnapped on 15 October in the Reynosa area. +Rosario was a doctor dedicated to informing the community about dangers, with a heart as big as her courage, our Miut3." +Citizen groups in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas reported yesterday that Twitter user María del Rosario Fuentes Rubio​​ had been kidnapped and murdered. +Although it is unknown who was responsible for her death, photographs of Fuentes Rubio's body appeared on her Twitter stream. +Her Twitter account ​@Miut3 ​was suspended shortly thereafter​. +After María del Rosario supposedly asked for forgiveness for facing the drug lords, photos of her own murder were published, as well as a posthumous message that warned other citizen journalists to remain quiet about Reyonsa's violence because “you won’t get anything out of it.” +A​ Reynosa​ medical doctor, Fuentes Rubio volunteered as a contributor with Valor por Tamaulipas (Courage for Tamaulipas), a citizen media platform that allows users to file anonymous reports on violence, particularly incidents concerning organized crime and the drug trade. +She also served as an administrator for Responsabilidad por Tamaulipas (Responsibility for Tamaulipas), a similar project associated with the first. ​The last post by "Valor for Tamaulipas" described her as "an angel who gave everything, her life, her future, her safety and peace (...) for the good of the people of the state."​ +This is not the first time individuals associated with these networks have been punished for their reporting. +Since it was established in 2012, Valor por Tamaulipas has faced a range of threats and incidents of violence that at times have forced administrators to pause their activities. +Valor por Tamaulipas has been using social media to crowdsource reports from citizens in the state of Tamaulipas, which has been riddled with drug-related conflict and corruption since 2006. +In February of 2013, an unidentified drug organization circulated a pamphlet offering MX$600,000 (about US$44,000) for information on the whereabouts of the administrator(s) of the Valor por Tamaulipas social media accounts. +Shortly afterwards, @ValorTamaulipas announced plans to suspend reporting. +But the network has since taken shape once more — violent crime continues to plague Tamaulipas and citizens continue to report on it.​​ +This conflict has forced many traditional news organizations to curb their reporting on drug violence; the Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that sixteen journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2006, mostly due to their coverage of drug-related crime and corruption. ​As Darío Ramírez, general director of Article 19 in Mexico and Central America, said: “The violence against the press in Tamaulipas and the lack of protection for freedom of expression by the Mexican authorities has generated information vacuums in issues related to public security, for which social media has become an effective citizen tool to be freely informed about this acts.”​ +As citizen and social media users work to fill this silence and report on what they see and hear on the ground, groups like VxT and individuals like Fuentes Rubio have become prime targets for drug organizations. + +Educating Girls Today, Empowering Women Tomorrow · Global Voices +Marita Seara, who blogs for Voces Visibles (Visibles voices), invites us to reflect on the discrimination that affects girls and teenagers — access to education — and the need of educating our girls today so they can be the empowered women of the future. +Photo from the blog Voces Visibles, used with permission. +According to data backed up by Amenisty International, 41 million girls can't even access elementary education. +Illiteracy, child marriage, teen pregnancy are part of a vicious cycle that especially affects our girls. +Thus, Latina America isn't exempted from this global issue, mainly about teen pregnancy: +Venezuela is top of the list in South America and third place in Latin America with the highest rate of early pregnancy. +Out of 100 Venezuelan women that get pregnant each year, 25 are teenagers, according to Telemedicine program at the Central University of Venezuela. +Among the causes of teen pregnancy, it's worth mentioning that one-third of unwanted pregnancies are a result of not using protection, and half of the girls affected didn't receive proper sexual and reproductive education before getting pregnant. +So, education is the only way. +By educating our girls today, we are empowering women of tomorrow, and therefore, their families and communities. +You can follow Marita Seara on Twitter. +This post was part of the twenty seventh #LunesDeBlogsGV (Monday of blogs on GV) on November 3, 2014. + +Poetry Project Bridges Language and Cultural Barriers between Arabic and Hebrew Speakers in Israel · Global Voices +The Two Project promotes Arabic and Hebrew arts and culture through the language of poetry. +The Two Project has just launched, a collaboration between Israeli Jews and Arabs to connect their cultures through the language of poetry. +Hebrew and Arabic are both official languages of Israel. +Six years in the making, the project is an offshoot of a recently published book, Two: A Bilingual Anthology (link is in Hebrew). +On their website, the Two Project's creators Almog Behar, Tamer Massalha, and Tamar Weiss write : +This site is a part of the Two Project: a bilingual cultural project focusing on the literature and poetry of youth. +Its aim is to create a convergence of dialogue between the two vibrant cultures of Israel, in Arabic and Hebrew. a new generation of writers and readers, who because of language barriers, culture, politics, and physical boundaries are not familiar with what goes on in the modern literary scene of their neighbors. +Anat Niv, editor-in-chief of Keter Publishing, who is responsible for the anthology, remarks: +The very fact that you are holding a book and reading it in Hebrew, with a text in Arabic script on the facing page, or vice versa, is a very powerful experience. +Even if you don’t read Arabic, when reading this book you can no longer remain oblivious to the fact that this is a place where people live and create in two languages. +Follow the project on their website or on Facebook in Hebrew and Arabic. +Two new authors, an Israeli Arab and an Israeli Jew, will be featured monthly. + +The Leading Cause of Death in Developing Countries Might Surprise You · Global Voices +A landfill fire in Fada-Ngourma, Gourma Province, Burkina Faso. +Photo by Flickr user lepetitNicolas. +CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0 +This post by Richard Fuller was originally published on Ensia.com, a magazine that highlights international environmental solutions in action, and is republished here according to a content-sharing agreement. +What’s the leading cause of death in low- and middle-income countries? +A. malnutrition and undernutrition +B. tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS +C. pollution +If you guessed “C,” you got it. +Exposures to polluted soil, water and air (both household and ambient) killed 8.4 million people in these countries in 2012. +Another statistic worth pondering: that 8.4 million is out of about 9 million people killed by pollution worldwide in 2012. +In other words, this is not a “rich country” problem. +This is a problem contained to the developing world. +To put this in perspective, World Health Organization statistics show that 56 million people died in 2012 — that’s every person who passed away on the planet, whether from car accidents, suicides, old age, cancer, hospital errors, lightning strike, infectious diseases, parachute failures, war or any number of other reasons. +So, pollution killed nearly one in seven of them. +Contaminated outdoor air accounted for 3.7 million deaths. +Another 4.2 million people died from particulates exposure in indoor air from cooking stoves. +About 1 million died from chemicals and contaminated soil and water. And 840,000 succumbed to poor sanitation. +All of these data come directly from the WHO’s website and databases, except for the soil statistics, which are sourced from more recent numbers (likely understated) from the Global Alliance for Health and Pollution. +In the same year, 2012, 625,000 people died from malaria, 1.5 million from HIV/AIDS and 930,000 from tuberculosis. +That’s one-third the number of people that pollution kills, and yet this troika of terrible diseases attracts over $20 billion per year from international charities and governments. +Slow and indirect +It’s important to note that pollution rarely kills people directly or quickly. +Instead, it causes heart disease, chest infections, cancers, respiratory diseases or diarrhea. +Pollution acts as a catalyst, increasing the rates of these diseases above normal. +For this reason, the WHO considers pollution a risk factor — a threat to human health similar to obesity, smoking, malnutrition or poor exercise. +But pollution is the king of all risk factors. +Worldwide, its fatality numbers dwarf those caused by any other risk factor in any other context. +It’s hard to imagine just how bad it can be. +Try, though, to imagine this scenario: +You wake up each day on the dirt floor of a shack you and your family lashed together with cast-off materials from a nearby construction site for a five-star hotel. +Your husband works 70 hours a week sorting chemicals in a badly run pesticides factory. +Lately, he’s come home coughing up blood. +He looks thinner and more exhausted each week, and you want to tell him to stop, but how can you? +The pennies he earns are the only things feeding your kids. +So you head to the local pond with your plastic bucket. +The water you scoop from the pond is brown and stinks of human waste, but there’s nothing else to drink. +You try straining it through cheesecloth, but it doesn’t do much good. +Meanwhile, the factory next door to your slum, the one the government recently shut down, has started operating again — but only at night. +Its chimneys pump out serpents of thick smoke, and there’s no way of knowing what’s burning. +Last week, your eldest child started coughing through the night. +The rest of your children are sickly and slow to learn even the most basic concepts. +None of your friends or family can help you since, curiously, almost everyone in your neighborhood has the same problems. +Our economy is global and so are the pollutants it generates. +You are one of the poisoned poor, without voice and without hope. +Regulations that might exist to combat the conditions are never enforced. +You cannot simply pick up and move to another town — it took you years to establish yourself to this extent. +And anyway, where exactly would you go? +Every village shares this plight. +Like the rest of the world’s underprivileged, you have become cannon fodder in the ongoing war of growth. +How can we fix this problem? +Our economy is global and so are the pollutants it generates. +Contaminated air from China can now be measured in other countries. +Mercury from gold mining and coal plants can be found in fish, and arsenic has been found in rice. +Many highly polluting industries have moved from developed countries to poor countries with less environmental regulation and technology to manage and remediate chemicals. +Clean technologies and green growth are possible for emerging economies and can prevent decades of future contamination that will harm us all. +Western nations have had success in cleaning up pollution and can now transfer technology and funding to low- and middle-income countries. +Of critical importance is making sure pollution is included in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which look at how to achieve future development sustainably after the current Millennium Development Goals expire this year. +Prioritizing the prevention and cleanup of pollution will not only save lives, but also mitigate climate change and reduce threats to biodiversity. +Glancing through the program priorities of major international organizations, the low priority of pollution is startling, given its impact. +The likely reason for this is a lack of awareness, as well as not knowing where to begin to address this complex set of problems. +Of critical importance is making sure pollution is included in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which look at how to achieve future development sustainably after the current Millennium Development Goals expire this year and include topics such as ending poverty, promoting sustainable agriculture, ensuring equitable education and more. +The current draft does not include a goal for pollution on its own, although pollution is included in the health goal. +That text — sub-goal 3.9 — currently calls to reduce death and disability from all types of pollution. +This language needs to stay in the final text, because the SDGs will define international and national efforts for the coming years. +The Global Alliance on Health and Pollution is galvanizing resources to help low- and middle-income countries address priority pollution problems. +In addition to education on all forms of pollution, GAHP helps countries: identify and assess toxic pollutant threats, especially for contaminated sites create a planning process to prioritize action for problems posing the greatest risk to human health implement solutions to save lives. +The technology and knowledge exists in wealthy countries to address this health and economic threat. +Solutions can be implemented in low- and middle-incomes countries for a fraction of the cost spent in the West addressing legacy toxic pollutants from industrialization. +Which means pollution is not inevitable. +It is a problem that is solvable in our lifetime. +Richard Fuller is president of Pure Earth (formerly Blacksmith Institute) and a founding member of the Global Alliance for Health and Pollution. He tweets from @BlacksmithInst. + +Saudi King Abdulla Dies at the Age of 90; Succeeded by Salman, 79 · Global Voices +King Abdulla of Saudi Arabia died today at the age of 90. +His photograph appears on all Saudi currency. +Photo credit: Amira Al Hussaini +After weeks of speculation, Saudi Arabia today announced the death of King Abdulla bin Abdulaziz, 90, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. +Abdulla came to power in August 2005, after the death of his half-brother Fahad bin Abdulaziz, and is now succeeded by his other brother Salman bin Abdulaziz, who is 79. +And their other brother Muqrin has been named Crown Prince. +They are all the sons of King Abdulaziz, who founded Saudi Arabia in 1932, and have been ascending the throne in succession over the years. +Abdulaziz had 45 sons of whom 36 survived to adulthood and had children of their own. +Egyptian Amro Ali shares this infographic which shows the "ever shrinking old generations of Saudi kings in waiting." +The ever shrinking old generation of #Saudi kings in waiting. +Online, citizens of the world were quick to share their two cents. +Saudi blogger Ahmed Al Omran notes how the now King Salman's bio on Twitter has changed to reflect his new position: +Twitter bio of @HRHPSalman updated to read: Official account of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman pic.twitter.com/ieqqq1kTUZ — Ahmed Al Omran (@ahmed) January 23, 2015 +There was also a confusion about the deceased King and his new successor's ages. +From the UAE, Abdulkhaleq Abdulla tweeted: Just in. +And many were not kind to news of Abdulla's dead. This Twitter user shared this meme: +This Twitter user writes: + +Documenting the Struggles of Papuans in Indonesia · Global Voices +Papuan Voices is a video advocacy initiative that highlights the struggles of the people of West Papua, a province of Indonesia. +West Papua has been struggling to be an independent state although this conflict from Indonesia is not widely reported in the media. + +Why Hasn't the Baga Massacre Made as Many Headlines as the Charlie Hebdo Attack? · Global Voices +Nigerian refugees in Gagamari camp, Diffa region, Niger. +They crossed the border to flee Boko Haram insurgents who attacked their town, Damassak, on 24 November 2014. +Photo from Flickr user European Commission DG ECHO. +CC BY-ND 2.0 +Baga, a town in the north-eastern state of Borno, Nigeria, suffered an unimaginable catastrophe recently when Boko Haram, Nigeria’s vampires of death, slaughtered innocent residents of that town. +Amnesty International described it as the Islamist militant group’s “deadliest massacre in recent history”. +Controversy rages between the official estimates of 150 deaths against the 2,000 reported by other independent sources. +However, this horrid news did not make global headlines as much as the Paris attacks that left 17 people dead. +While many reasons abound for the media silence, in this case it appears to be a combination of three factors: the nearness news factor, the numbing callousness of Nigeria’s political elites — both the ruling party and the opposition — and a compromised local press. +#IamCharlie, but #IamBaga too! +Baga is an out-of-the-way town tucked in the impermeable Borno state. +Most places within north-eastern Nigeria, which borders Chad, Niger and Cameroon, are now controlled by Boko Haram. +Nigeria’s chief of defense staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, stated earlier this month that Boko Haram had seized the headquarters of a multinational military force located on Nigeria's border after Chad and Niger had withdrawn its forces from the base. +This means that neither journalists nor bloggers have full access to Baga and cannot give the exact assessment of the situation on ground. +This is a direct opposite of the horror that gripped Paris, an easily accessible city full of netizens wielding smartphones. +In an article for The Conversation, Global Voices co-founder Ethan Zukerman expounded further: +Paris is a highly connected global city with thousands of working journalists, while Baga is isolated, difficult and dangerous to reach. +The attacks on Charlie Hebdo targeted journalists, and it’s understandable that journalists would cover the death of their comrades. +The attacks in Paris were a shock and a surprise, while deaths at the hands of Boko Haram have become distressingly common in an insurgency that has claimed over ten thousand lives since 2009. +Nonetheless this does not totally extricate the complicity of Western mainstream media. +Correspondent Simon Allison wrote in a piece for South African news site Daily Maverick that “African lives are still deemed less newsworthy – and, by implication, less valuable – than western lives”. +Hi Twitter, can we please talk about #Baga/North East #Nigeria now? — Imad Mesdoua (@ImadMesdoua) January 9, 2015 +Some Nigerians are of the view that the country deserves more assistance from the global community against Boko Haram's unending murders. +For instance, Ignatius Kaigama, the Catholic Archbishop of Jos, Nigeria, thinks that the global solidarity accorded the Paris violence should also be shown to Nigerians. +"We need that spirit to be spread around. +Not just when it happens in Europe, but when it happens in Nigeria, in Niger, in Cameroon," he told the BBC. +'The outrage is almost non-existent' +As much as the global media conspiracy of silence seems inviting, it neither does justice to the complex nature of the Baga massacre nor does it exonerate Nigeria's callous political leadership. +Why are we asking for the world to help us talk about what happened in Baga? +Why are we not talking about it and taking action ourselves? — Henry Okelue (@4eyedmonk) January 9, 2015 +Less than 24 hours after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan issued a statement condemning that “dastardly terrorist attack” but kept mute on a similar but more devastating attack at home. +President Jonathan of #Nigeria has publicly condemned the attack in Paris, but nothing about the massacre of 2000 in his own country. #Baga — Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) January 9, 2015 +However, about week after the Baga incident, the president visited Borno State. +A statement by his spokesman states that President Jonathan told "officers and soldiers of the Division that the nation was very proud of them and grateful for their dedication and commitment to the defence of the civilian population against terrorists and violent extremists". +Nonetheless, this criticism is not reserved for the government alone, but also extends to opposition politicians who wish to score cheap political points from the Baga catastrophe. Shout to those using Baga to score political points. +We know you care. +It's election season in Nigeria, and as such the local media is more concerned with ads from politicians, joining and covering their electoral train than any factual reporting. +The Nigerian media is as much complicit in maintaining a silence on Baga as their foreign counterparts. +About 2000lives(not dogs) were lost in #Baga The outrage is almost non-existent. +The local media is awash with different political rallies. — I have Shoes (@abubakar47i) January 11, 2015 +The complicated mess of the Baga situation was best summed up by this Facebook post by San Francisco-based author and editor Jeremy Adams Smith: +The first thing you'll notice that there is not a lot of coverage of the massacres in Baga and Askira; in many papers, it's totally unmentioned and invisible. +Why this crime is not being covered IN NIGERIA, I'll address in a moment. +But what you do see in the papers is a lot of finger-pointing and rage against the government of Nigeria; of course, it's election season. +It's the job of that government to protect its people, and the government is not doing its job. The government of Nigeria doesn't want you to know, isn't transparent, and isn't helping people who are suffering. +In fact, there is widespread denial throughout Nigeria of what is happening-a denial that extends to the press. +#IamBaga will certainly not trend as #JeSuieCharlie has for these reasons. +Nonetheless, as much as there exists glaring evidence of a global media blackout on Baga, this does not mean that the Nigerian government is free from blame. +At the same time, the local press cannot be canonized. +In the end, it a combination of all these that make the injustice of the Baga slaughter bloodcurdling. + +Explore Bangladesh From Your Computer, Thanks to Google Street View · Global Voices +Formal launching of Google Streetview Car in Bangladesh. +Image by Rezwan. +(9/2/2013) +People from around the world can now explore Bangladesh from their smartphone or PC with the launch of Google Street View service in the South Asian country on February 5, 2015. +Roam the streets of Dhaka and Chittagong, Bangladesh's two largest cities, or explore digital panoramic imagery of 40 of the country’s most important historic, heritage, and tourism sites, also available on Google Maps. +Bangladesh's Street View was a year in the making — on February 14, 2013, the Google Street View car started its work from Uttara in Dhaka. +The country becomes the 65th to have this Google service, first launched in May 2007. +Street View in Bangladesh is the result of collaboration between Google and the Access to Information (A2I) Programme at the prime minister's office in Bangladesh, which is supported by the United Nations Development Programme and the US Agency for International Development. +Bangladesh Parliament House in Google Streetview +Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps that displays panoramas of stitched images of streets in a high-quality 360-degree view. +Most photography is done by the Google Street View car, but some is done by trekker, tricycle and underwater apparatus. +The Street View car has nine cameras, GPS and laser technologies which record the distances between the camera and landmarks. +The recorded images are then processed and personal info (faces, number plates, etc.) is blurred, and then the images are added to Google Maps. +#StreetView car stops play. +Many Bangladeshis shared their reactions to the launch on social media. +Pavel Sarwar, CEO of a software startup in Bangladesh, posted a humorous photo on Facebook with the caption: +Amused to see my lungi in #GoogleStreetView +Photo by Facebook user Pavel Sarwar.Kajal Abdullah wrote on Facebook: +I was exploring Dhaka's street view for a while. +Using Google Streetview on my mobile I walked across the street at my home. +Totally cool man! +Tafsier joked and posted a photo: +I am looking at Street View on my mobile. +But what did I just see? :) #StreetView #GoogleMaps +Photo by Facebook user Tafsir +Tamzid Farhan Mogno created a Hyperlapse video of Dhaka city using Google Street View images: In an op-ed in the Daily Star, Anir CHowdhury, policy adviser to the Access To Information Project, described how Google Street View can create new opportunities for Bangladesh in terms of boosting tourism and attracting foreign investment: +Google Maps and StreetView will play a key role as our country's small and medium businesses go online and improve their web presence. +Teachers in Bangladesh and around the world could use the imagery in lessons about culture, history, geography, architecture and local businesses. +Students can see parts of the country which they may not have the chance to experience in person otherwise. +StreetView technology could also play a key role in innovating Bangladesh's crisis response strategy by assessing locations where natural disasters have taken place. + +West Papuans Clamor for Justice After Indonesian Police Kill Young Protesters · Global Voices +West Papuan students in Java held a protest last month to condemn the killing of Papuan children by the Indonesian police. +Photo from Facebook page of Free West Papua Campaign. +West Papua activists and independence advocates are demanding justice for the killing of young civilians by the Indonesian police last month. +On December 8, 2014, Indonesian security forces allegedly opened fire on about 800 peaceful demonstrators, including women and children in Paniai district. +The protest was in reaction to a report that police beat several Papua children the previous night. +Five protesters were killed and at least 17 others were injured, according to a report from Human Rights Watch, which explained that human rights abuses are not uncommon there: +The December 8 shootings are emblematic of the routine human rights abuses that security forces carry out with impunity in Papua, in the extreme eastern of the Indonesian archipelago. +Over the last 15 years, Human Rights Watch has documented hundreds of cases in which police, military, intelligence officers, and prison guards have used unnecessary or excessive force when dealing with Papuans taking part in protests. +While a handful of military tribunals have been held in Papua for security force personnel implicated in abuses, the charges have been inadequate and soldiers who committed abuses continue to serve. +The annexation of West Papua, a mineral-rich and ancient Melanesia country, by Indonesia's military regime in the 1960s has caused displacement, hardship and death for the indigenous population. +Yet despite the blatant human rights abuses and institutionalized distilling of the local culture, the colonizing forces have failed to dampen the spirit of self-determination and independence among the people. +Benny Wenda, who is a West Papuan independence leader and living in exile in the United Kingdom, condemned the killing of civilians: +“We are blamed for violence we did not create and persecuted for expressing our desires to be free.”... http://t.co/NmDn4AaUXp — Benny Wenda (@BennyWenda) January 9, 2015 +On his website, Wenda accused the Indonesian armed forces of committing brutality in Timika, West Papua: +I am appalled that such police barbarism can go ahead unnoticed against innocent and defenseless people, especially at such close proximity to the world’s largest goldmine, Indonesia’s biggest taxpayer. +On Twitter, several commented about the suffering of West Papua residents: +If you have ever lost a love one spare a though for the people of West Papua suffering murder rape and torture almost daily inhuman TNI — Anthony Craig (@justicehealth) February 3, 2015 +So is no one going to talk about West Papua? #Genocide — Amen Oyiboke (@Amen2dat) February 2, 2015 +#WestPapua It is not war, it is not a conflict, it is an #OCCUPATION, and it is one that receives all around international consent. — non quis sed quid (@PurePapua) February 2, 2015 +#WestPapua situation did not improve in 2014 - human rights abuse continued. +The Indonesian government has vowed to investigate the killings. +A human rights probe will also release a report in relation to the incident. + +How to Reduce the Production of CO2 in Daily Life? · Global Voices +Rut Abrain reflects on her blog Esturirafi about one of the main cause of climate change: the production of carbon dioxide (CO2). +In this sense, the blogger stresses out that not only factories, vehicles and planes produce CO2, but also each one of un in our daily lives. +To have an idea of the magnitude of the impact of our daily activities in the production of CO2, Rut suggests us to use this calculator. +Surprised? +Yes, each one of us has some responsibility in climate change, and at the same time, each one of us is able to reverse that with small actions. +Rut shares some advises to reduce pur production of CO2: +- Reduce, reuse and recycle. +You have to do this in all aspects of your life: avoid products with excessive packaging, purchase second hand articles, separate litter properly for further recycling. +Rut also says to reduce our "carbon footprint": +- Save energy, electricity, natural gas, domestic gas or diesel. +- Purchase local products. +- Walk, use public transportatipn. +- Use less paper. +The blogger ends up with a quote by Eduardo Galeano applicable to the impact these small actions have on reversing climate change: +Too many small people in small places, making small things, can change the world. +You can follow Rut on Twitter. +This post was part of the thirty-first #LunesDeBlogsGV (Monday of blogs on GV) on December 1, 2014. + +Russia Step Ups Censorship of ISIS Social Media Content · Global Voices +Russia's new efforts to search for and delete ISIS social media content. +Images edited by Kevin Rothrock. +Its territorial gains over the past year have astounded the world, but some of the most surprising successes for ISIS have come in cyberspace, where the group's social media presence is booming. +Using Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, as well as various Internet memes, ISIS releases videos and images, often featuring violent scenes of beheadings and torture against Iraqis and Syrians. +Supporters and various twisted Internet users are quick to upload and disseminate this content all around the world. +Al Qaeda spin-off ISIS has come to control one-third of Syria and a quarter of Iraq, unleashing havoc and horror in its path. +It has attracted thousands of youth from around the world, who have been indoctrinated in its extreme ideology, which even the notorious Al Qaeda has found “brutal.” +But what is driving the sudden online expansion of ISIS? +Governments hope that cracking down on its spread in social media will help limit the group's reach ideologically and logistically. +Recently, Russian Duma deputies asked the Attorney General to label extremist all videos by and about ISIS, which would obligate federal censors to ban the publication and sharing of such content. +Last week, officials responded by asking Russia's media oversight agency, Roskomnadzor, to ban access to almost 400 different hyperlinks on Vkontakte and YouTube leading Internet users to the ISIS propaganda film, "Clanging of the Swords." +Earlier today, October 27, the Attorney General appealed to Roskomnadzor again, ordering it to ban seven different pages on Vkontakte for carrying ISIS calls to extremist and terrorist acts. +Roman Khudyakov, the parliament deputy heading the initiative, says free access to sites with ISIS content presents a threat to the Russian state and society, popularizing Islamic fundamentalist ideas. +Khudyakov, citing the presence of Russian subtitles on some of ISIS’s videos, says the materials are aimed at recruiting new members from Russia. +The move to forbid ISIS’s media content joins a broad trend of growing Internet surveillance and censorship in Russia, but the feasibility of weakening ISIS's recruitment efforts by targeting social media is questionable. +Last June, the the security consultancy Soufan Group published a study about the online recruitment efforts of Syrian combatants, finding that new members are often “interconnected within self-selected bubbles.” +In other words, the ISIS videos and memes circulating online might be a mere consequence of preexisting social networks in the offline world, rather than the result of some brilliant social media marketing campaign. +As Global Voices has written in the past, charges of terrorism and extremism are some of the ways police around the world limit free expression and justify the incarceration of social media users. +In Russia, there is a long history of persecuting Muslims, including the use of torture to extract confessions from those suspected of having ties to terrorism. +While Russia's crackdown on ISIS online content might succeed in weakening the group's reach, it will also make ordinary citizens—particularly those who share religious materials online—more vulnerable to new criminal prosecutions, which threaten more arbitrary detentions and mistreatment of prisoners taken into custody. + +Hacking Against Ebola · Global Voices +Global Editors Network intends to develop new technologies and social networks for covering and preventing the Ebola epidemic from spreading. Follow our in-depth coverage: The Struggle to #StopEbola in West Africa + +Telling Puerto Rican Stories on the Web · Global Voices +Esta Vida Boricua is a digital storytelling project which explores the past and present of Puerto Rico through the collection of experiences of people from all walks of life and all ages. +At its most basic level, it is "a place to share stories," as explained in their "About" section. +Elaborating on that thought, they write: +Thus, the stories herein are a journey. +They offer splashes of color and texture, shades of shadow and light as well as fragments of shape and depth to the existing Puerto Rican mosaic. +They unravel the stereotypes and biased images of Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican culture presented in the media and beyond. +They speak of a generation of young people struggling under the uncertainty of colonialism —and a backlash from the slow cultural genocide that has taken place since US occupation after the Spanish-American War and the advent of modernism. +The content, which can take the form of writing (in either Spanish or English), video or audio recordings, is entirely produced by volunteers, most of whom are students from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, on the western coast of the main island. +Poets, musicians and writers are also welcome to contribute original content. + +Gardeners Are Repurposing Coconut Waste as Eco-Friendly Plant Pots · Global Voices +Plant vases made of coir fibre and coir piths are eco-friendly and cheap. +Image by Subhashish Panigrahi under CC-by-SA 4.0. +Coir pots in the above picture are made from coir piths or coco peats, sourced as a by-product from coconut production. +Coir is a natural fibre extracted from the hard, internal shell and the outer coat of a coconut and used in products such as floor mats, doormats, brushes, mattresses, twist rope, and weave carpets. +Coir fibres make up about a third of the coconut pulp and the remaining portion, called pith or dust, is biodegradable. +Coir pith used to be treated as waste material, but is now increasingly being used as soil treatment, mulch and a hydroponic growth medium, e.g. use inside the coir pot. +If coir pith is artificially decomposed using biological agents, within 30 days it can convert to be 100% natural organic manure benefitting the plant. +Using coir pots that can be planted directly in the garden can save an estimated 100 million plastic pots from ending up in garbage cans. +The coconut tree (Cocus nucifera) grows in many tropical countries but is commercially exploited mainly in India, Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. +Ropes and rigging made from coconut fibre have been in use from ancient times and are found in the Indian and Arab histories. +India produces 60% of the total world supply of coir fibre. +India and Sri Lanka together produce 90% of the coir produced every year across the world. +India earned foreign exchange of Rs 2,200 million (approximately $37 million) by exporting coir pith during 2011-12 and aims to boost exports by five times mainly because of the demand in the Gulf countries. +One of the inventions using coir piths is the coir pot, an asset for anyone who wants to start green farming. Seed Germination Cup or COCO POT : Coir pots are made from coir fiber blended with or without natural rubber.... pic.twitter.com/9NslaI0ySR — Apex Coir (@ApexCoir) November 12, 2013 +GV author Subhashish Panigrahi writes in Facebook: Plant vases made of coir are the new export materials. +Surprisingly being quite cheap these eco-friendly materials haven't found a market in India. +Coir pith is used as manure in the vases. +After two years or so, when the roots start penetrating the vase, it could straight away be taken and planted. +What a neat idea! +The benefits of coir pots are that they can replace petroleum-based plastic nursery pots, flats and trays. +Although they are lightweight, durable and can be recycled, they usually wind up in the trash causing environmental damage. +But things are changing. +Plants in biodegradable containers such as coir pots are gradually becoming more available as growers wake up to the environmental consequences of plastics and rubbers. +Subhashish Panigrahi contributed to this post. + +Trinidad & Tobago: Am Gay; Will Travel · Global Voices +What is it like to be gay in the Caribbean? +The Travelling Trini occasionally gets emails from young gay Trinidadians who "have the burning desire to go abroad, travel, and see the world". +She deduces that this wanderlust stems from the fact that "the Caribbean is a incredibly homophobic place with a raging macho-man culture, and coming out is an incredibly difficult, and often dangerous, thing to do." +The post goes on to list several songs that promoted homophobia and gay violence back in the nineties: Buju Banton's Boom Bye Bye was unsurprisingly at the top of the heap, but the blogger describes them all as "dark, violent and downright disgusting." +She asks: +Why is it not considered hate speech? +Why are radio stations allowed to play it? +The question is, why is it okay to still be so violently anti-gay in 2015? +She connects this constricted reality with the desire many gay Caribbean people have to migrate and testifies that the Far East, where she currently resides, "is a very gay friendly place, indeed": +There are thriving gay scenes in every country, from the liberal far east to the conservative Middle East and everywhere in between. +The whole world is not straight. +It never has been, and it never will be. +Unfortunately these liberal lifestyles are not tolerated in the Caribbean, and are in fact still criminalised under law. +There is no legal protection for LGBT citizens just as people fought for equal rights based on race, and equal rights based on gender, the next step in our human evolution is equal rights for all people regardless of their sexual orientation. + +Some Right-Wing Groups in India Have No Love for Valentine's Day This Year · Global Voices +Hindu Sena Activist Protest in New Delhi Against Valentine's Day. +Image by Arjun Panwar. +Copyright Demotix (12/2/2015) +Valentine's Day has become more and more popular over the last two decades in India, a trend that has alarmed certain camps in the country, who have sought to put a damper on the Western celebration of love and romance. +This year, Hindu Mahasabha, a right-wing Hindu nationalist political party, has announced that in the Indian city of Meerut they will force couples caught telling each other "I love you" in public or on social media will be forced to marry in an Arya Samaj wedding. +If the couple are of different religious faiths, then they have to go through a religious purification ritual, the group has warned. +Similarly, another political group, Kalinga Sena from the Indian state of Odisha, has announced they will patrol public spaces, videotape couples in "vulgar" acts and share the videos with the couples' parents. +Forcing the couple to marry is also apparently part of their Valentine's Day plan. +Many have decried the groups' intentions on social media as a violation of personal freedom and privacy. +Activist organization Jhatkaa encouraged people to sign a petition on Twitter: +#HinduMahasabha want to punish couples celebrating #ValentinesDay! +Sign this petition against #MoralPolicing http://t.co/WisHg5GygB +Unfortunately, moral policing isn't new to India. +In one high-profile case from 2009, another right-wing group Sri Rama Sene assaulted young women in a pub in the city of Mysore. +To protest the violence, a campaign called "Pink Chaddi campaign" (pink underwear campaign) was launched and went viral to the extent that people started sending pink underwear to Sri Rama Sene's office. +Internet jokes poking fun at the two groups' announcements have started populating social media. +One offers a tongue-and-cheek interpretation of Hindu Mahasabha's and Kalinga Sena's plans as supporting LGBT rights (gay marriage is not legally permitted in India): +Gay couples excited after #HinduMahasabha announces weddings on Valentine's Day #fake http://t.co/2dR9DUDzxx pic.twitter.com/CLBgqFB0ez +Others used the news as inspiration for funny Internet memes: Of all those tragic love stories and heart-broken youngsters who never got support of their family, I am sure Hindu Mahasabha will be a one stop solution, at least on Valentines's Day. +Journalist Debashis Tripathy compared Kalinga Sena's attempt at violating people's privacy to that of Hindu Mahasabha: +Kalinga Sena to videotape couples seen together on Valentine Day & send clippings to their parents. +Now beat that, Hindu Maha Sabha! #Odisha — Debashis Tripathy (@deba1602) February 5, 2015 +Writer and commentator Sameera Khan objected to Hindu Mahasabha's act as a barrier preventing women from accessing public spaces: +It’s when women want to access public space for pleasure, to wander around, sit on a park bench and read, or hang out with a boyfriend, or as we say, to loiter, that is when Indian society is not okay with it. +Some have demanded that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi comment and stop Hindu Mahasabha. +Modi hasn't made any public statement so far, and Hindu Mahasabha hasn't released any further statements since it first announced its Valentine's Day plans. #HinduMahasabha is nothing but a bunch of goons masquerading under the garb of protecting Hinduism, BJP should distance themselves from them +The Silence Of #Modi will be repaid after 5 years #HinduMahasabha to install #Godse statue in temples -http://t.co/ZjNSep8Li7 — FreedomFighterz (@PuliArason) January 31, 2015 +A satirical protest is planned in Delhi for Valentine's Day in front of Hindu Mahasabha's head office. +The Facebook event page has more than 1,700 people saying they will attend: +All struggling lovers of the world and otherwise! +Lets gather in heartfelt gratitude outside the Hindu Mahasabha's head office on Mandir Marg this Valentine's Day for the most EPIC mass marriage ceremony Delhi will ever see! +"SHUDDH DESI ROMANCE: Hindu Mahasabha Style!" a protest against Hindu Mahasabha's plan to marry off couples making public displays of affection on Valentine's Day. +Image from the Facebook event page. +As Valentine's Day approaches, police are keeping a vigil eye on vulnerable places. +Inspector General of the city of Meerut Alok Sharma told Times of India, "It might be Valentine's Day or any other day, no one has the right to do moral policing. +But if the members of the outfit involve themselves in any such activity, they should be ready to face legal action." +With global cultural finding more acceptance locally, the intolerance of some religious and political groups of people's changing lifestyles is disrupting the harmony of society. +Intolerance like this comes at great cost to the people, damaging human rights and personal freedom. + +Turkey Mourns a Female Student's Brutal Death · Global Voices +Picture of Ozgecan Aslan, a 20-year-old woman who was kidnapped and murdered in Mersin, Turkey. Widely shared. +Turkey is in shock after the charred body of Ozgecan Aslan, a 20-year-old university student missing since February 11, was found in a riverbed on Friday. +A 26-year-old bus driver has confessed to her murder. +Suphi Altindoken, who now faces murder charges was supposed to be taking her home. +According to his own testimony, he first tried to rape Aslan, and when she resisted and fought back, he stabbed her to death. +Following the attack, Altindoken, his 50-year-old father, and his friend Fatih Gökce, burned the body to dispose of the evidence. +Everyday violence against women +In a country where violence against women has become alarmingly routine, the unfortunate, brutal, and inhumane death of a young woman has lead to a surge in public indignation. +Ever since Aslan's body was found, thousands have gathered throughout Turkey to demand justice for her death and an end to violence against women in the country. +A picture taken of a gathering for Aslan in the Black Sea city of Trabzon highlights the extent of public mobilisation over her death: In Trabzon, thousands are on the streets for Ozgecan Aslan. On social media, people have been using the hash tags #OzgecanAslan, #Ozgecanicinsiyahgiy (wear black for Ozgecan) when discussing the Aslan case. +Can you stand with us? +Wear BLACK for #ÖzgecanAslan on FEBRUARY 16 !!! pic.twitter.com/m4mKYBDW48 — Yağmur (@sebihayagmur) February 15, 2015 +Instead of teaching women how to shout, teach men how to behave. #OzgecanAslan #Ozgecanicinsiyahgiy. +Stories with no end in sight +The murder has also produced a hash tag #sendeanlat (tell your story too) to gather women's experiences of harassment and violence. +A Twitter search returns thousands of responses: +I feel uneasy when I realize that I am the only woman in the minibus, bus, or dolmus late at night. #sendeanlat. +what about the men that approach you in the car while you are waiting at the bus stop or waiting for a cab by the road? #sendeanlat +#sendeanlat And then there are the psychological harassment methods: 'you cannot do it', 'you are weak', etc. +Think about the things written under this hash tag, then imagine the tweets that were deleted without being sent. +It is impossible to describe. #sendeanlat +State officials and members of the ruling conservative AKP (Justice) party have been regularly criticised by civil society for their weak stance on violence against women and gender equality. +Although Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that he will do "whatever it takes" to stop the violence against women while taking part in a rally in for Aslan in Antalya on February 15, so far the government has not put forward any concrete proposals to combat the problem. +Amid a lack of ideas on the part of the state, public figures such as university lecturer Nurullah Ardıc have added their voice to the debate. +But Ardıc's notion of 'pink buses' — colour-coded public transport reserved only for women — seems to showcase rather than solve the deep rooted gender prejudices in Turkish society. + +‘Birdman’ Director Puts Mexico Front and Center at Oscars · Global Voices +Mexican film director Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2015 Oscar winner for Best Director his film, Birdman. +Photo taken from Tarlen Handayani's account on Flickr under the Creative Commons license. +Apart from Iñárritu's success at the mecca of movies, the issue most talked about on social networks has been the end of his acceptance speech, where the Birdman director mentioned the Mexican government and the situation of Mexican immigrants in the United States. +I want to dedicate this award for my fellow Mexicans, the ones who live in Mexico. +I pray that we can find and build the government that we deserve. +And the ones that live in this country who are part of the latest generation of immigrants in this country, I just pray that they can be treated with the same dignity and the respect of the ones who came before and this incredible immigrant nation. +Iñárritu's clear allusion to Mexico having not found a government worthy of its citizens resonated deeply throughout the country. #ElGobiernoQueMerecemos (#TheGovernmentWeDeserve) quickly became a trending topic on Twitter. +Good use of the #Oscar stage by #Inarritu. +His call for #TheGovernmentWeDeserve ought to open our eyes. +Mexican writer and political analyst Denisse Dresser joined in on the praise: +Bravo, González Iñárritu, for requesting that we have the government we deserve and remembering that we don't have to lose hope to achieve it. +We are joining in on the wave of Mexican pride and, as a matter of fact, we not only deserve a better government, we are already building one. +Congratulations, #GonzalezInarritu +To which many responded to with mockery and anger: +#EnriquePenaNieto is such an idiot that he didn't even realize #Iñarritu hinted at him. +Next thing you know he's going to tweet that he is also praying that we achieve a good government! +@PRI_Nacional the message was for you!! +What cynicism! +Others focused on the hopeful message of a Mexican succeeding in one of the most competitive industries: +A successful Mexican sends a message to millions of Mexicans who think that they cannot change this country... +Yes you can! #TheGovernmentWeDeserve +There were also self-critics: +We must shape #TheGovernmentWeDeserve, there are many Mexicans that are blinded by the small screen. +Mexico has not woken up from everything. +#TheGovernmentWeDeserve is not one that a successful film director asks for, it is one that we as citizens should be demanding. +Jorge Ramos, a Mexican journalist based in the US, wondered why Mexicans' talent for cinema doesn't seem to transfer to governance: +If we have two Oscar-winning film directors (Cuarón and Iñárritu), why haven't we been able to get a good director for the country? +People also commented on the issue of immigrants in the United States: +What a pleasure it was to hear González Iñárritu speaking in defense of immigrants in such an important and visible space. +I cried over his dedication: may we have the government we deserve; may our immigrants in the US be respected. +He urges more Mexicans with access to spheres of high influence in the US to use their voices to advocate for immigration reform. + +Bolivia Might Have the World's Most Devoted 'Simpsons' Fans · Global Voices +Bolivian TV channel Unitel probably didn't imagine that a decision some weeks ago to move "The Simpsons" out of its usual time slot to make room for reality show "Calle 7" would provoke demonstrations in several cities in Bolivia. +March organized on Facebook against Calle 7 asking for The Simpsons in La Paz and Santa Cruz. +D'oh! +Marches were held on February 6 in La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, and they drew hundreds of noisy fans of the popular series. +But demonstrators also protested against so-called "trash TV" and asked for more cultural programs on local television. March for The Simpsons, against Calle 7 program that airs on Unitel and against Trash TV #SantaCruz +As could be expected, not everyone agreed that protesting for a television program was the best use of time when there are more important issues: +We believe that this is a joke…. +Where did "cultural decolonization" end up. +Ha ha ha. +Local people will march for The Simpsons, but nobody says anything about crime.. +Good Santa Cruz..Good +The demonstration succeeded in convincing Unitel, the station airing "The Simpsons", to return the series to Bolivian screens on March 9. +The Simpsons are back after a massive and unprecedented demonstration in three cities (And Delius no longer on TV, great achievements) +However, some people were suspicious about the whole thing: + +A Crowdsourced Project to Map the Amazon · Global Voices +Image taken from the project's website. +Covering 5.5 million square kilometers (about 1.4 billion acres), and stretching across eight different countries (Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, and Surinam), the Amazon is both enormous and enormously important. +With much of its flora and fauna currently threatened by deforestation and intensive farming, the exploitation of the Amazon by non-renewable and so-called renewable "resource" industries is only making matters worse. +In remote areas like the Amazon, maps and charts for navigation are virtually essential. +That's where Mapazonia comes in: an "open project for crowdsource mapping the Amazon region on OpenStreetMap." +With long rivers, a rough landscape, dense vegetation, high temperatures that can reach up to 43°C (109°F), and a host of other spectacles and obstacles, the Amazon can be a very inaccessible place. +Mapazonia highlights just these challenges on its website: +The project comes up as an initiative of the OpenStreetMap Latin American community with the aim of carrying out crowdsourced mappings about lands and problems common in the region. Mapazonia explains: Our main purpose is to improve the map with the geometries of every river and roads. +Mapazonia contributes to OpenStreetMap, a collaborative project to create an open and free editable map of the world. +Currently, Mapazonia is working on three crowdsource mapping tasks: Acre River sub-basin in Bolivia (81 percent completed), Xingu River basin in Brazil (53 percent completed), and various basins in Colombia (99 percent completed). +Global Voices spoke with Marco Antonio Frías, a member of OpenStreetMap and the Bolivia Mapazonia project. +He says the initiative started in early October 2014, during the II Regional Conference of OpenData AbreLatAm and ConDatos, in Mexico City. +That was the first meeting of OpenStreetMap communities from Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Chile, and Argentina. +In the meeting, activists came to focus on reactive activities carried out during humanity emergencies like flooding, earthquakes, and fires. +Later, at the Eighth Annual Conference "State of The Map" OpenStreetMap"," in Buenos Aires, in early November 2014, the group discussed mapping the river, roads, and bodies of water that make up the Amazon region. +The project would be decentralized and rely on a diverse, self-managed, open and participative world community. +Volunteers communicate using a mailing list and an IRC chat channel, and there is an official Twitter account to collect news stories and to celebrate milestones. +The community is completely open to everyone—any willing contributor can co-create a map of part of the planet. +There are no exclusions made based on language, nationality, location, education level, or anything. +And the project is ever trying to expand its pool of contributors. +Map of the river Xingu basin in Brazil. +Image used with permisssion from Mapazonia project. +Mapazonia uses the open tool Task Manager, developed and led by HOT project, which simplifies the decentralized coordination of mapping tasks. +If you want to contact the project, it's accessible at Twitter and at its own WIki, where it coordinates tasks and resources. +More information is available at this blog post. + +Call for Urgent Climate Change Action After Cyclone Pam Devastates Vanuatu · Global Voices +Following the devastation of Pacific islands nation Vanuatu by Category 5 Cyclone Pam, John Englart (aka @Takvera) looks at links with climate change: +Vanuatu has suffered its worst disaster on record with the impact of Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Pam, with the President of Vanuatu blaming climate change for extreme weather (Guardian 16Mar2015). ...Cyclone Pam and the devastation of Vanuatu and other Pacific nations is one more step on the road to a climate agreement in Paris in December 2015. +John also speculates about Australia's contribution to foreign aid and its role at the UN Climate Change Conference COP21 in Paris later this year. +His post also has links to organisations where you can give donations for emergency relief for Vanuatu. + +In Argentina, a March on the 'Global Day of Action Against Monsanto' · Global Voices +Protest against Monsanto in Buenos Aires, in 2014. +Photo by Wikimedia Commons. +On May 23, a protest march against the multinational Monsanto was held simultaneously in several cities across Argentina, bringing together environmental groups and activists on a "Global Day of Action Against Monsanto." +Monsanto is a multinational company dedicated to the production of genetically modified seeds (GM) and chemical products for industrial-scale agriculture. +One of its foremost products is glyphosate, the main component of the herbicide brand Roundup. +Critics say Roundup has toxic effects on plants, livestock and people. +Beyond Argentina, a similar protest is being organized by the international movement Occupy Monsanto and the campaign Millions Against Monsanto, both of which began in the United States. +Since information about the negative effects of glyphosate and GM seeds came to light over a decade ago, the marches have become more frequent each year. +In the megacity of Buenos Aires, the protest marches usually take place on the Plaza San Martin, near the multinational's main country office. +The following video shows images from the protest that took place in May 2014, featuring folk and cultural expressions from regions in the country where Monsanto spraying is most prevalent. +The fight against GM crops has been carried out since the turn of the millennium in many countries after several studies by independent research centers and universities cast doubt over their safety. +As early as 2002, the blog Ecoportal published a report on the Toxicology of Glyphosate by Dr Jorge Kaczewer, founder and medical director of the Argentinian Institute of Neural Therapy and Integrative Medicine, wherein the author accused Monsanto and related laboratories of corruption: +The toxicological studies on glyphosate officially required for registration and approval, have been associated with fraudulent practices. +"Fantasy and Reality". +Photo from Facebook page "Millions Against Monsanto". +Kaczewer concluded: +Along with food aid that includes a huge amount of soybean products that are prepared as breaded soy meat, hamburgers, meatballs, spaghetti, ravioli, milk, yogurt, and soy cheese, almost 17 million Argentines, impoverished and hungry, will also get their massive dose of glyphosate.... +The industry's relentless business strategy allows us to anticipate how it will forge a path to a prosperous future.... at the expense of the health of millions that still do not even know about the existence of such products. +More recently, in September 2014, the environmentalist blog BWN Argentina published a report by Ignacio Diego Mur where he describes 'the 12 most terrible products' created by Monsanto, analysing its effects on the Argentinian agribusiness economy, where the 'Monsanto model' has been widely adopted: +Instead of healthy fruits, vegetables, grains and natural grass fed animals, the factory farms in the United States and Argentina produce an excess of genetic engineering junk food that causes heart disease, strokes, diabetes and cancer, with the support of agricultural subsidies, while organic farmers do not receive such subsidies. +Glyphosate toxicity is a political hot potato in Argentina involving multiple stakeholders (governments, companies, laboratories, farmers, workers, trade unions and consumers), numerous vested interests and plentiful misinformation. +Amid the furore are the people living near sprayed areas or consuming food containing residues of the product. +In #Argentina 300 million liters of glyphosate are sprayed annually across 28 million hectares of plantation, affecting more than 10 million people. +Given the low level of support from government agencies and the mainstream media, the movement is turning to blogs and social networks to disseminate information on the reasons for lawsuits against the company and its products. +It also shares research, cases studies, articles and images: +The Argentinian Pediatric Society of Hematology-Oncology (among others) has asked for action to be taken against the use of #glifosato +There are also popular figures from the music world supporting the fight against the company, such as Argentine pop singer, Axel, who stated via his official Twitter account: +#NoaMonsanto is largely responsible for diseases, climatic disasters, and other things. +Social networks have become the campaign's main medium to share information. +The Facebook page "Millones Contra Monsanto" with more than 55,000 likes, shared the invitation to join the protests in different cities across the country. +On Twitter people are exchanging information and views through hashtags like #fueramonsanto, #noamonsanto, #stopmonsanto and others. +May 23, 2015 Global March against #Monsanto. +Around the World and in all of its plantations #fueramonsanto. + +Message to an Ethiopian Blogger: Mahlet Fantahun, You Are Not Alone · Global Voices +Mahlet Fantahun (second from right) stands with Edom Kassaye, a jailed journalist. +Before she was arrested, Ethiopian blogger Mahlet Fantahun worked as a data expert in the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia. +Mahlet is part of the collective blogging group known as Zone9. +The group take their name from an Ethiopian state prison in Addis Ababa called Kality, which has eight zones. +The bloggers named their project Zone9, after the "proverbial prison in which all Ethiopians live." +I write this blog post in solidarity with Mahlet Fantahun and her group, Zone9. +Drawing of Mahlet Fantahun by Melody Sundberg +I have never been to Ethiopia. +I have however spent years in East Africa, and I am very aware that Mahlet's everyday life and the risks she has taken are very different from the life I live. +People like Mahlet who choose to face these risks, despite the consequences, have my deepest respect. +I do not know what it is like to spend so many days in an Ethiopian prison. +I imagine some days are worse than others. +I imagine that one of the hardest parts is the fact that it is unclear how many more days you are going to spend there. +I imagine that one of the worst parts is when you think of your family and friends, who are worried for your health and your future. +I imagine the frustration with the legal system. +The frustration with being imprisoned for doing something that really should be an asset to a community: social engagement and taking responsibility for the future of your country. +In late April, I took part in a conference in Copenhagen on Global Media Freedom with over 100 journalists and media practitioners from around the world. +One question was repeated: +Solidarity is word that keeps recurring at #mediafreedom2015 as vital to sustaining independent media. +The question was not answered, at least not in detail. +But a representative from Global Voices during the conference in Copenhagen did mention how they have worked to create awareness of what is going on in Ethiopia. +How to act in solidarity. +There is always something you can do. +Writing one single blog post is not going to bring Mahlet and the other imprisoned bloggers out of prison. +This is much rather about keeping the story alive. +Of not staying silent. +The work of Zone9 bloggers is about taking a stand and responsibility. +It is about acting, not only for an individual gain but for Ethiopia. +It is about working for constructive social change. +Right now, I just want Mahlet and Group Zone9 to know that they are not alone. + +Thailand Police Detains Student Protesters During Coup Anniversary · Global Voices +Students gather in a plaza during the coup anniversary. +They were later arrested by the police. +Photo from Facebook page of LLTD +Dozens of students have been arrested in Thailand for holding protests during the first anniversary of the May 2014 coup. +At the time of writing, 48 have been detained for publicly speaking out against the military-backed government. +The army launched a coup in 2014 to end the political turmoil in the country. +It controlled the media and banned protests including the gathering of five or more people in public places. +Before the end of 2014, it drafted an interim charter which became the basis in establishing a civilian government led by military appointees. +The army chief, Prayut Chan-o-cha, was selected prime minister. +Despite prohibitions imposed by the army, many Thais, especially youth have called for the restoration of democracy in the country. +They have consistently demanded the return of the free media, open elections, and civilian rule. +After the coup, at least 751 individuals were summoned by the NCPO . +At least 424 were deprived of liberty. +Some have been forced to undergo “attitude adjustment” to re-educate them about the necessity for the military to seize the power and then let go. +Meanwhile, at least 163 individuals have been pressed with political charges. +At least, 71 public activities were intervened or cancelled by the use of military force. +364 days after the coup, at least 428 people arrested, 124 civilian tried at Military Court http://t.co/lNstO8yUgk pic.twitter.com/6Zt58dhrGD — iLawFX (@iLawFX) May 21, 2015 +Journalist Saksith Saiyasombut criticized the excessive regulations of the army: +Not only is it like a bad teacher that expects its students only to obediently memorize stuff, but also like an overbearing nanny overlooking us at every step. +Below are some of the photos of students arrested by the police yesterday: +Activists from Permas (students and youth of Patani) are also detained at police station http://t.co/j0ScsdWbEz pic.twitter.com/fDkYaC6XJ2 — Zashnain Zainal (@bedlamfury) May 22, 2015 +Students said that cops didn't care about their activist friend who needs medical attention. http://t.co/42YnV1knSO pic.twitter.com/Wm09yvBBq4 — Zashnain Zainal (@bedlamfury) May 22, 2015 +A group which calls itself Young People for Social-Democracy Movement (YPD) released a statement against the coup regime: +We cannot build a democratic society if we lack freedom, liberty, rights, justice, and reconciliation. +We believe that peace in society will not be born out of a lack of resistance. +Peace in the society will only be born out of equality and justice in terms of power, economics, and politics. +A year after the army launched a coup, Thailand is still suffering from political instability. +The people wanted respite from the incessant squabbling of politicians but not at the cost of a military government which was quick to rescind civil liberties. + +No Extra Time for FIFA Caribbean Officials as US Justice Department Lays Indictments · Global Voices +Former FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner; photo by the BBC World Service, used under a CC BY-NC 2.0 license. +Whether or not they love soccer, the only thing Caribbean netizens are talking about today is the announcement that the United States Department of Justice is indicting nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives for racketeering, conspiracy, and corruption. +Working with Washington, Swiss police carried out a special operation in the early morning hours to arrest the soccer officials and extradite them to the United States on federal corruption charges. +Jack Warner, the Trinidad-born former FIFA vice president turned politician, is one of the indicted defendants, along with Caymanian Jeffrey Webb, who took over FIFA's vice presidency from Warner and promised to investigate the many corruption allegations plaguing the world football governing body. +(Warner's allegedly corrupt practices were widely explored in Scottish investigative journalist Andrew's Jennings' book Foul, which examined everything from voter rigging to ticket scandals.) +FIFA's president, Sepp Blatter, was neither charged nor detained in this morning's raid at an exclusive lakeside hotel in Zurich. +FIFA has since issued the following statement: +FIFA welcomes actions that can help contribute to rooting out any wrongdoing in football. +We understand that today’s actions by the Swiss Federal Office of Justice on behalf of the US authorities and the Swiss Office of the Attorney General (initiated by FIFA through the submission of the file on the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process) relate to different matters. +Firstly, the arrest of six individuals this morning in Zurich concerns investigations by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of the State of New York. +The Swiss authorities, acting on behalf of their US counterparts, arrested the individuals for activities carried out in relation with CONCACAF and CONMEBOL business. +The second instance follows FIFA’s initiative of presenting the file on the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup™ bidding process to the Swiss Office of the Attorney General in November 2014. +FIFA maintains that it is "fully cooperating" with the investigation into the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process. +The organisation also says it will proceed as planned with the FIFA presidential election, scheduled to take place this Friday, when current president Sepp Blatter will seek a fifth term. +Blatter subsequently issued his own statement on the matter: +This is a difficult time for football, the fans and for FIFA as an organisation. +Let me be clear: such misconduct has no place in football and we will ensure that those who engage in it are put out of the game. +Following the events of today, the independent Ethics Committee – which is in the midst of its own proceedings regarding the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups - took swift action to provisionally ban those individuals named by the authorities from any football-related activities at the national and international level. +These actions are on top of similar steps that FIFA has taken over the past year to exclude any members who violate our own Code of Ethics. +We will continue to work with the relevant authorities and we will work vigorously within FIFA in order to root out any misconduct, to regain your trust and ensure that football worldwide is free from wrongdoing. +Trinidadian journalist and blogger Vernon O'Reilly-Ramesar responded to Blatter's comments by tweeting: +The blog was particularly interested in the charges against Jack Warner: The Department of Justice revealed that Darryl Warner, the son of defendant Jack Warner and a former FIFA development officer, waived indictment and pleaded guilty on 15 July 2013 to a two-count information charging him with wire fraud and the structuring of financial transactions. +Daryan Warner, the eldest son of Jack Warner, waived indictment and pleaded guilty on 25 October 2013 to a three-count information charging him with wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and the structuring of financial transactions. +Daryan forfeited over US$1.1 (TT$6.9) million around the time of his plea and agreed to pay a second forfeiture money judgment at the time of sentencing. +The Warner brothers each face as many as ten years in prison for altering financial transactions in a manner intended to evade currency-reporting requirements. +The charges from the US Department of Justice come as a welcome move for many Caribbean football enthusiasts, who have been despondent about the perception of such rampant corruption sullying a game that the region—and the world—adores. +Quite humourously, Twitter's popular "God" account put it this way: +Only America could bring the force of impartial justice to FIFA, because it's the only country on earth that doesn't care about football. — God (@TheTweetOfGod) May 27, 2015 +Wired 868 explained that "two generations of soccer officials abused their positions of trust for personal gain, frequently through an alliance with unscrupulous sports marketing executives who shut out competitors and kept highly lucrative contracts for themselves through the systematic payment of bribes and kickbacks", with many of the schemes originating in the Caribbean and Latin America. +While speculation was rife as to when a request for Jack Warner's extradition would be made, Warner was busy issuing statements maintaining that he was unaware of any charges. +On a local radio show earlier today, he stated: +I have not been told or advised or questioned on any matter. +I’ve heard what you have heard. +According to Wired 868, the radio station invited calls-ins after the interview, where listeners were asked whether they thought Warner would end up in a US prison. +Unsurprisingly, "several people said 'no'". +Despite numerous allegations of political corruption over the years, no public official has ever been convicted on corruption charges in Trinidad and Tobago. +Warner later issued a press release further emphasizing his innocence: +The people of Trinidad and Tobago will know that I quit FIFA and international football more than four years ago and that over the past several years I have recommitted my life to the work of improving the lot of every citizen of every creed and race in this nation. +I have fought fearlessly against all forms of injustice and corruption. +I have been afforded no due process and I have not even been questioned in this matter. +I reiterate that I am innocent of any charges. +I have walked away from the politics of world football to immerse myself in the improvement of lives in this country where I shall, God willing, die. +The actions of FIFA no longer concern me. +I cannot help but note however that these cross- border coordinated actions come at a time when FIFA is assembled for elections to select a President who is universally disliked by the international community. +It has since been reported that the United States has made a formal extradition request for Jack Warner. +US Law enforcement authorities have made an official request to the Central Authority for extradition @CNC3TV — Khamal Ethan Georges (@khamal) May 27, 2015 +Warner's legal team, meanwhile, has taken this approach: +Jack Warner's attorneys have advised him against making further comment and to "stick to his press statement" at this time @CNC3TV — Khamal Ethan Georges (@khamal) May 27, 2015 +Regional netizens will undoubtedly continue to follow this story with interest, to learn of the fates of Jack Warner, Jeffrey Webb, and, of course, "the beautiful game". +Warner has since turned himself in to Trinidad and Tobago police. + +Selfie Campaign Promotes Interfaith Tolerance and Ethnic Diversity in Myanmar · Global Voices +Photo from the Facebook Page of #myfriend campaign. +A selfie campaign in Myanmar promotes tolerance and friendship amid rising cases of hate speech, discrimination, and communal violence accross the country. +The Facebook campaign is led by young people from Yangon, the country's biggest city, and it launched last April by asking the public to pose for selfies with their friends who belong to a different ethnic groups or religions. +The campaign uses the hashtags #myfriend and #friendship_has_no_boundaries. +Since 2012, there have been intermittent clashes between some Buddhists and minority Muslims in central, western, and northern areas of Myanmar, including in Meikhtila in central Myanmar, where the houses of both Buddhist and Muslim communities were burned down and thousands of people were displaced. +The most serious communal violence took place in October 2012 in the Rakhine state of western Myanmar, where Rohingya Muslims have been living in refugee camps near the city of Sittwe. +The Myanmar government considers the Rohingya to be illegal immigrants. +At the same time, online hate speech and harassment has been widespread on Myanmar's social media, creating an atmosphere intolerance and racism. +Below are some photos from the #MyFriend campaign to prove that people in Myanmar, especially the young, are determined to end hate by showing respect and friendship. +Han Seth Lu, a Buddhist, uploads a photo with his Muslim friend: I'm a Buddhist and My Friend is a Muslim. +Life is not permanent, enjoy yourself right now. Because friendship has no boundaries. #MyFriend #Friendship_has_no_boundaries - looking for peace with May Khin +Rody Din, a Christian, shares a photo with his Buddhist friend from Thailand: +“I am and my friend is [Buddhist/ Thai”Su Yadanar Myint, a Muslim, is proud of her friendship with a Sikh: +He is a Sikh and I'm a Muslim. +But we are friends. Although we have diversities,we share our own opinions and beliefs, we accept and respect our different identities. #Myfriend #Friendship_has_no_boundaries + +Southeast Asia Migration Routes and Statistics · Global Voices +The International Organization for Migration has released a map showing the routes taken by boat refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar when they sought shelter in several Southeast Asian countries. +As of May 19, 2015, the IOM estimated that 4,000 refugees are still stranded in the sea while 3,200 have already landed in Malaysia and Indonesia. +Malaysia and Indonesia have initially rejected the refugees but they are now ready to rescue those who have been victimized by traffickers. + +What Drives a Single Mother in China to Starve Her Daughter to Death? · Global Voices +Xiang Heping, the single mother who starved her daughter to death last year. +Screen capture from CCTV circulated on Weibo. +A single mother in China who starved her young daughter to death as punishment for doing poorly in school last year recently spoke about her cruel act on TV. +In the May 24 interview, she tearfully said that she had just wanted her daughter to perform well at school and get to university. +As the story spread across Chinese social media platforms, many denounced the mother as a cold-blooded murderer, while some tried to address the root cause of the social problem. +Xiang Heping, 52, was sentenced to 10 years in prison this year. +She had tied up her 9-year-old daughter Zhang Qiongdan (Dandan) and deprived her of food and water for six days in China's southwest Guizhou province. +Xiang wept and explained in the interview that she loved her daughter so much that she absolutely did not want to kill her. +She blamed the tragedy on her high hopes for daughter to go to college, a dream she herself hadn’t realized and so had pushed her daughter to achieve it to shed adversity. +Xiang said she had suffered two miserable marriages. +Her second husband left home when Dandan was just over a month old. +She was forced to return to her parents home in a shantytown and lived with her daughter in a store room. +She earned her living as a cleaner in a department store. +She also collected waste from the street and sold it to make ends meet. +The tension between the mother and the daughter had escalated when the girl began to play truant in third grade. +Her teacher said the girl began to hate doing homework and her classmates said the girl always kept to herself after class. +At first, the mother confined her daughter to her room, but she escaped through the window and wandered into the street. +Xiang then decided to bind her daughter to the bed post on April 4, 2014 and deprived her of food and water as a penalty for her poor performance at school. +Her daughter remained stubborn and did not beg for forgiveness nor ask for food. +Enraged by her daughter's silent treatment, Xiang did not stop the punishment. +After five nights, she found her daughter in a coma and called the police. +About 3.5 million couples filed for divorce in 2013 in China and the trend continues to increase at an alarming rate. +More and more single mothers have to bear the responsibility of raising children themselves, all the while facing discrimination and pressure for having broken societal norms, which say that women should remain in a marriage, even if they are subject to abuse from their husband. +On the other hand, the Chinese education system has long just focused on children’s study performances, neglecting their mental health as they grow up. +Many people furiously denounced Xiang on Twitter-like Weibo and Toutiao, a news headline aggregating platform: +“Karma of the soul": She tried to explain away her crime. +Adults can’t survive hunger and thirst for six days, not to mention a kid. +She intentionally wanted to starve the kid to death. +She should be harshly sentenced. +"Flower seas": How could she have the nerve to appeal? +There is no sign of repenting. Other people would feel regretful and would not file for appeal. +Wasn’t your behavior intentional homicide? +Go to hell, I won't forgive you nor have pity on you. +"If there weren't sunshine anymore": The mother surely has psychological problems. +Being a mother, we wanted our children to be successful. +But I can’t understand how she had remained indifferent to her kid’s hunger and thirst for so many days... +No food and no water. +How could a mother bear to see such skinny body? +How could she not give her some food and water? +What’s more important than kid’s health? +She has lost basic humanity. +Some tried to examine the root causes of the tragedy, such as ignorance and pressure faced by single mothers at the bottom of Chinese society: +"To be happy or not?": Xiang starved her daughter to death. +Every parent loves their children. +But some could injure or even kill their children due to ignorance. +How sad! +"Singing brother": There is no right and wrong in love. +But it is wrong when overdone. +The kid had done nothing wrong and was innocent. +Abnormal family, abnormal love, abnormal character and abnormal life lead to abnormal fate. +There is no single cause for a tragedy like this. +The saddest consequence is that we lost the blossoming life of this girl. +Everyone is attacking the mother. +Just imagine, since her kid was one month old, she had to raise her all by herself. +Taking care of the kid and earning a living at the same time. +Such a life can be unbearable for ordinary people. +The harshness makes her more ambitious for the daughter’s study than others and more extreme in behavior. +The daughter, who had a lack of self-esteem, was an introvert and stubborn. +These kinds of character traits could make parents enraged and crazy. +It’s unimaginable for a poor single mother to raise a child. +The child’s rebellion, poverty and social indifference are the real reasons for today's consequence. + +Israel Launches Multiple Airstrikes in Gaza · Global Voices +MORE: Explosions rock Gaza strip after locals report ‘Israeli planes flying low’ in the area http://t.co/mHOnTHJTR3 pic.twitter.com/uuojO7rltj — RT (@RT_com) June 4, 2015 +Three blasts were heard across the Gaza strip as Israel launched multiple airstrikes in response to rockets launched by a Hamas rival, an ISIS-linked group called the "Omar Brigades". +The Brigades' rockets landed in open areas in the Sdot Negev area and resulted in no damage, according to Israeli media. +The Israeli Air Force's official statement declares that it struck three "terror infrastructures" without releasing details of the strikes. +Hamas later confirmed that one of its military training grounds was hit by a missile. +According to RT, Hamas had reportedly killed a Salafist leader just a few days before and has accused the Omar Brigade of wanting to provoke an all-out conflict with Israel. +While Israel has admitted that Hamas was not behind the rockets, it did not explain why Hamas infrastructures were targeted in the strikes. +According to Reuters: "Witnesses and medics said the predawn attacks on two camps belonging to Hamas, which dominates the Gaza Strip, and to the smaller Palestinian group Islamic Jihad caused some damage but no casualties." +IDF spokesperson confirms in statement Israeli Airforce targeted 3 "terror infrastructures" in Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/5EehnyOfsy — Israel News Flash (@ILNewsFlash) June 4, 2015 +Thankfully, no one was injured in the strikes. +As usual, Gazans reported feelings of fear and anxiety as the bombs fell on their city. +The following are tweets posted by Shaima Ziara, Omar Ghraieb, Mohammed Omer and 'Farah Gazan'. +My name is #Gaza I am being bombed. +f16s are flying intensively over #Gaza and just shelled! +I could even hear the rocket falling — Guess What (@Farah_Gazan) June 3, 2015 +But some of them decided to end their live-tweeting with a touch of optimism: +The sun is slowly making its way up, its a new day & birds r chirping forgetting the horrible night that ended a little while ago. #Gaza — Omar Ghraieb (@Omar_Gaza) June 4, 2015 +Since Palestinian violations of the ceasefire are always breaking news, while Israeli violations rarely get reported, let alone make the front page, it's important to mention them in the name of fair coverage. +As Gaza-based reporter Dan Cohen wrote in a recent piece for Mondoweiss, "for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the period since last summer’s war has been a one-way ceasefire." +There has been as many as 67 shootings, six military incursions, 16 injuries and one fatality caused by Israeli violations of the ceasefire between January and March of 2015 alone. +The Middle East Monitor and Maan News have been documenting major incidents by month and by type. +Of notable emphasis are the routine targeting of Gazan fishermen, farmers and demonstrators. +Furthermore, as Visualizing Palestine documented in an info-graphic published by the Electronic Intifada, there have been 191 Israeli violations between 22 November 2012 (previous Egyptian-brokered ceasefire) until 7 July 2014 (beginning of Israel's latest war in Gaza) compared to 75 Palestinian violations. +Of these 191 violations, 10 per cent resulted in death and 42pc in injuries or detentions while out of the 75 Palestinian violations, 4pc resulted in injuries and none in death. The info-graphic complemented a previous one published by Al Jazeera. +Infographic done by the Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights +As to the demands of the peace deal, they were as follows: "The immediate demands of the peace deal include: the end of hostilities on both sides; opening of the Rafah border between Egypt and Gaza; handing over administration of Gaza's borders from Hamas to the PA, reconstruction of Gaza in coordination with the PA and international donors, including the EU; narrowing the security barrier along the inside of the Gaza border from 300 to 100m, easing restrictions on fishing in Gaza from 3 miles (4.8km) to 6 miles (9.6km). +The international allowance is 12 miles (19.3 km.) +The long-term demands to be negotiated are: the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners kidnapped by Israel in June after the killing of three Jewish teenagers in the West Bank; the release of long-serving Palestinian prisoners as demanded by the Palestinian Authority; Israel wants all body parts and personal effects of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza; Hamas wants a sea port built in Gaza in order to allow goods and people to move freely; Hamas wants the un-freezing of funds to allow it to pay 40,000 police, government workers and other administrative staff who haven't had any salary since last year; Palestinians are asking for Gaza's airport, built in 1998 and destroyed in 2000 by Israel, to be rebuilt." +It's hard to properly estimate the 'success' of the peace deal since most of the 'immediate' demands were never met, let alone the 'long-term' ones. +Indeed, as former US president Jimmy Carter said on a recent trip to the area: "The situation in Gaza is intolerable. +Eight months after a devastating war, not one destroyed house has been rebuilt and people cannot live with the respect and dignity they deserve," referring to the lack of any viable reconstruction in Gaza. +Furthermore, Egypt's border with Gaza was only opened for a few days since last summer. +The International Coalition for Freedoms and Rights (ICFR) reported that 10 Gazans have died while waiting for Egypt to open its border with Gaza. +Also Read on Global Voices Checkdesk (a joint project between Global Voices Online and Meedan, which aims at verifying news): +Tensions Rise in Gaza Amid Israeli Ceasefire Violations, Hamas-ISIS Struggle +To join our Checkdesk team, please contact our Middle East and North Africa editor Amira Al Hussaini, Faten Bushehri or myself. + +The Campaign to #SaveShafqat, the Pakistani Sentenced to Death at Age 14 · Global Voices +Updated at 19:50 GMT +What were you like when you were 14? +A powerful video plea asks this question, while imploring the Pakistan government to halt the Thursday execution of Shafqat Hussain, sentenced to death when he was only 14 for being involved in the kidnapping and murder of a 7-year-old. +Right before midnight on Wednesday, TV channels in Pakistan started reporting that the President of Pakistan had postponed Shafqat's execution indefinitely. +The video was released on the morning of Wednesday on popular activist Jibran Nasir's official Facebook page, and is being widely shared. On Twitter, the hashtag #SaveShafqat has been used 6,000 times in last 24 hours and 13,000 times in the last 30 days. +By the evening dozens of activists gathered in Islamabad to deliver a mercy petition to the President. +They were blocked by police. +Officials from Presidency tell us to return coz nothing will be done to #SaveShafqat. +He says it is 'illogical' to intervene at this stage … — #SaveShafqat (@SaveShafqat) March 18, 2015 +Shafqat has been on death row for 11 years. +Shafqat's sentence was based off a confession that his lawyers say the police got after nine days of torture. +Tortured. +Raped. +Nails pulled off. +He was 14. +And that's the state in which he confessed to a murder. +Shafqat deserves justice #SaveShafqat — Mehr Tarar (@MehrTarar) March 14, 2015 +Reprieve, a UK-based human right organization that opposes the death penalty, has been working on Shafqat's case for years: +The police told him they would not stop until he confessed. +He was blindfolded, kept in solitary confinement, beaten, electrocuted and burned with cigarette butts. +He was just 14 years of age at the time. +Shafqat said he would have admitted “that a deer was an elephant” by the time his torture was over. +Children aren't allowed to be given death sentences in Pakistan. +But the police recorded his age as 23 when they arrested him. +That record has never been corrected. +Shafqat was not given access to a lawyer when he was first charged in 2004 in Karachi. +Here is the birth certificate of #ShafqatHussain soon to be hanged-minor at the time of alleged crime’ #SaveShafqat pic.twitter.com/b5xasK43Sa — Raza Rumi (@Razarumi) March 17, 2015 +Courts refuse to look into Shafqat's age. +Justice Project Pakistan, a non-profit that defends Pakistanis on death row pro bono, has been leading the effort to prove Shafqat's innocence. +Soon after the video was released, Pakistan's Federal Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar said the Sindh government, responsible for carrying out the execution, has refused his request to conduct a DNA test to determine Shafqat's age. +Fed Govt passing the buck to Sindh Govt, Sindh Govt passing it back. +No one knows who has authority to #SaveShafqat and suspend sentence — Jibran Nasir (@MJibranNasir) March 18, 2015 +The #SafeShafqat video in Urdu, produced by Tazeen Bari runs just over three minutes and features four people, including activist Jibran Nasir, answering Tazeen's question, "What were you like when you were 14 years old?" +Here's an English translation of their answers by Rai Azlan: +I was really small. +I was really short and a lot fatter than this. +One second, if I want to say insecure, can I say that in English? +You can say I was an extreme introvert. +I was really insecure. +It was the first time I fell in love. +I used to play a lot of cricket. +I felt like maybe I had fallen love. +My favorite thing was music. +I loved to cook and my father used to say that I shouldn't become a cook. +I used to have a small radio. +I'd lock myself in my room and listen to songs. +Whenever my teacher asked I replied that I would become Superman when I grew up. +I would do bowling like Paul Adams, what is called chinaman style. +I had a strange action. +At the age of 14, at times I think that if at that time someone asked me what is right and what is wrong I would not have been able to answer it. +I was a scared, scared like anything. +Also I had no older brother back then. +I had no clue what life is. +I was still capable of doing terrible things but yes I was innocent. +Jibran Nasir then continues: +A 14-year-old child cannot get a driving license, a 14-year-old child cannot own land according to the law of this country, according to the law a 14-year-old cannot get married, a 14-year-old child cannot vote in this country, in this country a 14-year-old cannot get an identity card because he or she is a minor, is innocent, and is a child. +However, the government of Pakistan gave a death sentence to a 14-year-old child. Regardless of whether Shafqat committed the crime or not, he was given a death sentence when he was only 14. +Now you try to recall what you were like when you were 14 years old, and what were your ambitions back then, and what plans you had for life. +And think if Shafqat should get that right or not. +Should his death sentence be altered to a life sentence or should he be given a chance at rehabilitation? +Shafqat's case is a trial of our whole criminal justice system of how evidence is not collected properly, how statements are recorded forcefully, and how a sentence is granted, which he does not even deserve. +Save a child. +Save humanity. +Save Shafqat. +Police have blocked activists in Islamabad. +Since the moratorium has been lifted, 39 people have been executed. Another 1,000 prisoners have exhausted their appeals and are set to be hanged. +Sign the petition to #SaveShafqat. + +Big Brother Mouse and an Elephant: Innovative Ways of Delivering Books in Laos · Global Voices +The story of the elephant Boom-Boom is told in the book 'The Little Elephant That Could'. +Boom-Boom helps in distributing books in remote locations in Laos +A group in Laos has been using several innovative ways to deliver books and promote literacy across the country. +Laos is a developing nation in Southeast Asia with a majority rural population. +As a publisher, Big Brother Mouse has published more than 300 children’s books since 2006 but it also organizes rural book parties, teacher training workshops, and literacy sessions to improve the habit of reading among the Lao youth. +It also receives book donations and distributes them in schools to build village libraries. +To reach a remote location, the volunteers sometimes ride on an elephant ‘staff member’ named Boom-Boom to deliver the books to rural kids. +The group was established to provide "books that make literacy fun!" +The name Big Brother is a translation of "Ai Nu Noi", which in Lao culture signifies love and unity in a family. +This principle has guided Big Brother Mouse which identifies itself as a publisher, book distributor, and a volunteer organization: +We're not just a publisher. +We give hands-on experience to young people as they learn new skills. +We're also developing effective new ways to distribute books in a country where currently, there's no good system for that. +One of the popular activities organized by young volunteers of Big Brother Mouse is the rural book party where children are able to learn and read through games: +When we have a rural book party, or hold an art contest at a school, young Lao men and women lead the activities and make the presentations. +Children discover that books can be fun. +They also envision new possibilities for their own lives. +At book parties we read aloud, play games, sing songs about books, and give every child a book of their own, usually the first one they ever owned. +Teacher Jansaeng from the Nahai Village in Xayabuli Province affirms the effectiveness of book parties to inspire children to read: +Since the book party, many children like to read during their break. +Attendance got better because students had books to read. +Every day about 85% of students in the school read books. +Also, now many more students are writing their own stories. +An important member of Big Brother Mouse is an elephant named Boom-Boom which means ‘books’ in the Lao language: +Boom-Boom became a part-time member of our staff, helping us get books into remote villages of Xayabuli Province. +Kids have always been excited when Big Brother Mouse arrived in their village. +They're even more excited when we arrive with an elephant. +And our staff is thrilled that not only do they not have to carry all those books up mountains and over streams, but after they've dispersed some of the books that Boom-Boom carried early on each trip, they can sometimes get a free ride. +Below are some of the photos featuring the activities conducted by Big Brother Mouse across Laos: +Saodieo Village, Xayaboury Province, Laos +Sompori Village, Attapeu Province, Laos +Dorn Village, Xayaboury Province, Laos +Norngchorng Village, Luang Prabang Province, Laos +Somsanouk Village, Attapeu Province, Laos +Taothan Village, Vientiane Province, Laos +Sorngneua Village, Luang Prabang Province, Laos +To expand its programs, Big Brother Mouse is planning to build a ‘Discovery World and Learning Center’ on a three-hectare lot in the town of Luang Prabang. +All photos from the website of Big Brother Mouse + +Kuma Sutra Screw-Up Nails Qatar Editor · Global Voices +Qatari newspaper editor Jaber Al Harmi quit after this Kuma Sutra henna tattoo photograph appeared in his newspaper +Qatari newspaper editor Jaber Al Harmi resigned from his post today after this image of a henna tattoo showing intricate drawings of a couple engaged in a sexual intercourse appeared on the pages of a health supplement in Al Sharq Arabic daily. +The image may have slipped through the cracks, when it appeared in an article warning about the dangers of henna. +In a letter published in the newspaper, Al Harmi apologised for the "mistake" which happened in the 112-page issue, taking full responsibility for publishing the "offensive" drawings in a daily newspaper in the conservative Islamic country. +His stance was described as brave and was hailed on social media by Qatari netizens, who launched the hashtag #الحرمي_استقالتك_مرفوضة, which translates to "Al Harmi, your resignation is rejected." +The newspaper did indeed reject the resignation of the journalist, whose career spans 25 years. +Faisal bin Jassim Al Thani tells his 267K followers on Twitter: +Mr Jaber's resignation is proof that he is an honest person, who bravely shoulders responsibility and is able to assess situations. +He has transformed the newspaper. +And Al Harmi's own son, Salem, confesses: +I have never met anyone who loves his job like my father. +And when you ask him why, he says: Everyday there is something new and a new challenge. +He has completed 25 years in journalism +In an old post on Paraglider, Dave McClure, a Qatar resident, explains why any hint of sex is a problem in the conservative country: +The government takes the view that pornography is anti-Islamic and should not be allowed in the country. +Possession of pornographic material can result in severe penalties, including imprisonment and deportation. +Pornography is treated in much the same way as illegal drugs, with similar consequences if caught. + +Tor Use in Russia Spiking in Response to Kremlin's Censorship Efforts · Global Voices +Data from search engines mirrors Tor's own statistics: more and more Russian users show interest. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot. +As a new United Nations report recognizes encryption software and anonymizing tools as "essential to free speech," the Russian authorities are toughening their stance on anonymity software. +Lawrence Alexander uses open data to examine the rapid growth in Tor use on the RuNet—and to ask what might be driving this trend. +The Tor browser is one of the most popular anonymizing tools used globally to access content that might be blocked or blacklisted, as well as to preserve user privacy. +Initially a research project funded by the U.S. Navy, Tor is now run by a nonprofit group, though it continues to receive federal funding. +The Tor browser anonymizes Internet traffic by sending it through a unique configuration of nodes known as an onion routing system. +The network boasts over 4 million users worldwide (as of November 2013), including many tech activists in countries where online censorship and surveillance are common. +The Tor Project provides public statistics on user connections, and the results can be narrowed down to a specific country, which allows us to get an estimate of how many users in Russia use the Tor network. +Tor connections from Russia, 2013-15. +There is a significant, clear increase in Tor connections from Russia over the past two years; however, the initial spike in 2013 may be misleading. +Worldwide Tor data for the same period shows an almost identical trend, which has been attributed to malware activity on the network. +Worldwide Tor connections during 2013-2015. +But while the number of global connections tapered off following the malware attack, in Russia they continued to climb instead, reaching an all-time high in the summer of 2014. +Rapid surge in Russian Tor usage can be seen in mid-2014. +What caused this sudden leap of over 60%? +Can these figures be attributed to real users, or a second botnet outbreak? +The data on what and how often Russians are searching for on Google.ru and Yandex—two of the country's most popular search engines—may provide a clue. +Over the same two-year period (2013-2015), there was a major increase in searches for "tor browser скачать" ("tor browser download") from Russia. +This phrase was listed by Yandex Wordstat as a popular query related to Tor, and I chose it because it suggests an intention to use the software, rather then simply to research it or to get information about it. +Yandex searches for phrase "tor browser скачать" ("tor browser download") from Russia, 2013-15. +The Google Trends data for Russia shows a similar increase in search volume, with big peaks in the summer of 2014 and a high concentration of activity in the first half of 2015. +Google searches for phrase "tor browser скачать" ("tor browser download") from Russia, 2013-15. +In both cases, the search data tends to mirror that of the Tor Metrics, with only moderate activity prior to the 2013 spike. +Yandex's global statistics for "tor browser скачать" confirm that the majority of searchers are based in Russia, residing in the major cities and urban areas. +Moscow strongly dominates the list, just as it did in Google Trends. +This is probably a reflection of population density and internet penetration, but a younger urban demographic, which tends to be more savvy and curious about circumvention tools, may have also influenced the trend. +Top 20 cities of users searching for "tor browser скачать" on Yandex. +What is driving this ongoing three-year increase in Russian anonymizer adoption and usage? +As RuNet Echo has extensively documented throughout the period, the Russian government has been steadily tightening its grip on Internet freedom—and the increase in censorship closely mirrors the upward trend in interest towards Tor. +After initially introducing blocks on content related to self-harm and drug use, the Kremlin then instituted its own take on SOPA in the summer of 2013, and later that year made moves to prevent access to websites promoting unsanctioned public protests. +Increasingly draconian crackdowns on opposition media websites and Internet activists followed in the spring of 2014—accompanied by a huge surge in Tor searches on Google.ru. +As government regulations become more restrictive, more Russian citizens are adopting online circumvention tools to preserve their access to information, freedom of expression, and anonymity. +In response, the Kremlin seems to be eager to curtail the use of the very software that facilitates them. +Although Tor and other anonymizers are not officially banned in Russia, it is increasingly clear they're viewed as a threat to the tight control Russia seeks to retain over its mainstream media as well as the online information and communication spheres. + +Did Russia Just Effectively Outlaw Internet Anonymizers? · Global Voices +Russian officials have long debated banning Tor and other anonymizers. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot. +A Russian court has ruled to block part of the website of RosKomSvoboda, a Russian Internet freedom and human rights organization, on the grounds that the page in question is an anonymizer—a tool that allows users to access content and websites that might be banned in Russia. +The ruling is alarming because anonymizers and similar tools are not currently prohibited in Russia. +The court decision was made on April 13, when Anapa city court (Krasnodar region, Russia) ruled to block http://rublacklist.net/bypass – a section of the website owned by RosKomSvoboda that provides instructions on how to bypass geoblocking and access websites blacklisted in Russia. +The court ruling claims that the webpage "is an anonymizer" and that "by using this website citizens can get unlimited access to the prohibited content, including extremist content, through anonymous access and substituted user IPs." +Although the court ruling came in April after the local prosecutor's appeal, RosKomSvoboda only learned about it on May 27 and did not receive any warnings, Sarkis Darbinyan, the organization's lawyer, said. +Darbinyan also said they were surprised at the page being labeled an anonymizer, since it contains no such tools, only instructions for Internet users. +The organization's legal team plans to appeal the ruling. +Artem Kozlyuk, head of RosKomSvoboda, called the accusations and the court ruling "absurd" and wondered if the officials had a clear idea of what anonymizers were. +The workers of the law enforcement demonstrated their complete incompetence in the basic knowledge of all the common technical aspects of the network, though even youngsters can understand it. +The anonymizers, proxies and browsers are multitask instruments, helping to search the info on the Internet. +Although the court ruling mentions anonymizers, it ostensibly uses roundabout reasoning to blacklist the RosKomSvoboda webpage. +Because the information on the page "facilitates users' access to websites with content from the Federal extremist materials list," the page itself must be "banned on the territory of Russian Federation," according to the text of the ruling published online. +The court also lists some of the extremist materials that could be accessed using the bypass instructions and ultimately uses the law on counteracting extremist activity as the main grounds for the ban. +Still, the fact that the court specified the term "anonymizer" as one of the premises for blocking the page is worrying, since anonymizers, proxy-servers and other similar tools are not currently prohibited to use or to publish information about in Russia. +Russian officials have debated restrictions on VPNs and anonymizers for the last few years. +In 2013 Russian media reported that the Federal Security Service (FSB) was considering lobbying the State Duma with a bill banning "Tor and other anonymizing proxy servers," but the idea never got out of committee. +In February 2015, Leonid Levin, an MP heading the parliamentary committee on information policy and communications, suggested that access to anonymization and circumvention tools such as Tor, VPNs, and proxy-servers needed to be restricted. +In 2014, the Russian Interior Ministry also offered almost 4 million rubles (about USD $100,000) to anyone who could devise a way to decrypt data sent over the Tor network. + +Veterans of Croatia's War of Independence Are Still Knocking on the Government's Door · Global Voices +Croatian police on one side of the fence, veterans-protesters on the other. +Photo credit: Katarina Krizamanić, posted with permission +On May 29, a protest movement that has already lasted more than 225 days reached a climax when a small group of veterans from the Croatian War of Independence blocked one of the main streets in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. +The veteran protesters, who have expressed dissatisfaction with their treatment by the government for years, blocked Savska street in the center of Zagreb with a couple of gas cylinders in order to gain the attention of Croatian media and decision makers. +Since the Croatian War of Independence, several protests have occurred centred on veterans' rights and compensation for serving in the 1990s, notably in 2001 and 2011. +The rally in 2001 was organized as a show of support for General Mirko Norac, who was accused of killing Serbian civilians in Ogulin, Croatia, during the war. +Ten years later veterans demanded to "stop the prosecution of Croatian veterans", one of whom, Tihomir Purda, was accused by Serbian authorities of committing war crimes in Vukovar in 1991. +Veterans have also claimed that many of their numbers were not reimbursed for their service during the war and that a large proportion were left to fend for themselves, having been denied pensions by the government. +Both the Croatian National Parliament and the main government buildings are located on St. Marko's Square. +After the gas cylinders incident on May 29, the veterans subsequently barricaded themselves in Saint Marko's church, which is situated in the Upper Town of Zagreb. +The situation on St. Marko's square divided a country. +Some people considered the gas cylinders threats and self-imposed captivation as a form of terrorism while others viewed it as the veterans' right in the context of unfulfilled demands. +Veterans from all over Croatia began pouring into their local veteran associations to join the protest the following day. +The leaders of the protests, Đuro Glogoski and Josip Klemm, as well as a few of their closest associates spent the night in the church. +The veterans clashed with police three times during Saturday night as police tried to enter the building. +On Sunday, Glogoski made a statement: +Last night, the police tried three times to get into the church, but they had to go back because we didn't let them. +We are expecting, from the heads of the people of this country, to call us for a conversation. +This situation is serious. +Because of what happened last night, we think that our lives are at stake. +Gentlemen from the police tried to kidnap Josip Klemm, but they failed. +Minister of Veterans' Affairs Predrag Matic managed to speak with the protesters on May 30, a Saturday, and heard their demand for an audience with Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic. +But with Croatia's bureaucracy closed for business at the weekend, the meeting took place on Monday. +Since no agreement was reached during the meeting with Milanovic, Matic, and other officials on Monday, Đuro Glogoski announced that the veterans — who are pushing for the resignations of Matic and his deputy Bojan Glavasevic — will stay in their camp on Savska Street in downtown Zagreb and wait for the next meeting with government officials scheduled for Monday, June 8. +Prime Minister Milanovic told media after the first meeting with the veterans that the issues the protesters raised "are small for Croatia and are making too much noise about them." + +'Writing Code Is Not a Crime': Jailed Iranian Web Developer Saeed Malekpour Turns 40 · Global Voices +Photo from @malekpourm on Twitter. +Iranian programmer Saeed Malekpour will be celebrating his 40th birthday Friday from behind bars, where he's completing his sixth year in prison for creating an open source software program that others used to upload pornographic images to the Internet. +His story is an example of the fear Iranian authorities use to control the nation's Internet space. +Saeed was arrested in 2008 on charges of threatening the nation's Islamic ideals and national security via propaganda against the system, but evidence against him was scant. +He spent time in solitary confinement and gave forced confessions — widely publicized on national television in 2010 — that were extracted under torture. +The context of these confessions included electrocution and threats of rape. +He was originally sentenced to death, until what some activists believed was the influence of global attention and internal pressure convinced Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to call off his death sentence. +Saeed's arrest, which was widely seen as a way to spread fear, coincided with the start of strict Internet control policies after a cyber crimes law was ratified in Iran in 2008. +This week, many Iranians from both inside the country and the diaspora are convening in Berlin for iBridges to celebrate the burgeoning technology scene for start-ups and entrepreneurs. +While IT development and the expansion of opportunities for Iran's population is something to be applauded, the victims of Iran's Internet policy should not be forgotten. +Exactly a year ago, many in the Internet freedom community took a strong stance to advocate for the release of jailed technology bloggers known as Narenji. +There was a small victory when they were released this past October. +But Saeed is amongst a handful of developers still serving indefinite prison sentences. +Amongst whom are Vahid Asghari, an Iranian blogger and information and technology student, as well as Hassan Siskati, another programmer and cyber activist. +In an email from Saeed's sister, Maryam Malekpour, who is now based in Canada, told Global Voices that she and a group of activists are launching a campaign for him using the hashtags #FreeSaeedMalekpour #HBDSaeed and #LifesNotFair. +Global Voices got in touch with a few IT technologists and Internet activists to comment on Saeed's 40th birthday in jail. +Mehdi Yahyanejad, founder of the Persian language social and political website Balatarin, had this to say about Saeed's continued imprisonment: +It is not justice to keep a talented software engineer in jail just because the software he developed was used by others for reasons deemed illegal by the Iranian government. +With that logic, every time a hacker uses Gmail to defraud someone, a Google engineer should also be arrested. +I hope Saeed's birthday's can be celebrated as a free man. +Amir Rashidi, an Iranian internet researcher and activist, told Global Voices the following in an email: +A piece of open source code can be used in any system. +Just like many of the nation's software programs, such as as the Saina application and national search engines. +A open source programmer who releases his code publicly is no longer responsible for the use of his code after it is published. +With Saeed's open source code, you could have built a program to either upload pornographic photos or religious ones. +Unfortunately, in our country the lack of understanding about the work done by individuals such as Saeed is not the only problem. +In our country there is no clear law about cyber crimes. +Saeed was a victim of a lack of understanding from the regime about his work and the absence of clear and transparent rules of cyberspace. +A happy birthday to Saeed in computer language (Binary): 01001000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001 00100000 01100010 01101001 01110010 01110100 01101000 01100100 01100001 01111001 +Nima Fatemi, an Iranian Tor and free software developer, told Global Voices the following: +A very happy birthday to Saeed whose story is a good lesson on why writing free software and expanding its culture is so important. +Writing code is not a crime and no one in this world should be prosecuted for it. +Everyone, including governments benefit from free software and such actions hurt us all as a community. +The first and most important value of this community is 'freedom', and we should work together, strongly, to protect it. +Mohamed Hassan, a Bahraini activist, IT blogger, and Global Voices author previously imprisoned in Bahrain for his writing, told us: +Having been in a similar position I feel connected to Saeed, prison is about being robbed of your dreams, it's about fear, fear for the ones we leave behind, fear of the world that will re-enter. +A guy in prison told me that you should stop adding the years you spend in prison to your age, because years are measured by the progress we make and in prison you're not progressing. +Saeed's birthday should be a reminder to the rest of us that while we progress in time we must remember those who live outside the boundaries of time, those who don't age as we do. +I pray for Saeed's release and the safety of his family. +Nariman Gharib, an Iranian Internet researcher and activist, told Global Voices through Twitter direct message: +A lot of us know Saeed; those of us whose work involves the construction and understanding of web design. +I am saddened by the fact that intelligent individuals find their place in the prisons of Iran. +Saeed dear, I wish you a very happy birthday. + +Photo Project Documents Life in Post-Earthquake Nepal · Global Voices +A date none of us will forget, sketched on a wall in Pokhara. +The quake spared Pokhara, but aftershocks have hit in the form of cancelled bookings and empty hotel rooms. +Photo by @paavan11 via Nepal Photo Project. +Three catastrophic earthquakes have devastated Nepal in the past few months. +More than 8,000 people have been killed, twice as many are injured, 2 million people have been displaced, and an estimated total of 8 million have been affected in some way. +(For more information, see Global Voices' special coverage page.) +The Nepal Photo Project is working to capture this historic catastrophe in pictures. +The project belongs to a team of ten photographers in and around Kathmandu, led by photographer Sumit Dayal and writer Tara Bedi, who launched the initiative shortly after the April 25 earthquake. +So far, it has more than 61,400 followers in Instagram and more than 7,600 followers on Facebook. +Using crowdsourced photos, contributing photographers retell the story of life after the earthquakes: the devastation, rescue, relief, reconstruction, and the rays of hope for the future. +The increasing popularity of the project is due primarily to its simplicity: contributors merely add a hashtag to their images, writing #nepalphotoproject, and include a short caption about the photo's context and characters. +Organizers want to keep it more functional and personal in nature. +The project's recent posts show how life in Nepal is returning to normal and how people are rebuilding. +This is Manju Gurung. +Whenever I try to take her picture, she giggles and runs away. +She and her family have been living together with two more families in a chicken shed since April 25. +At least the school is on for her and she is happy to be with her friends. +She told me they have no classes, they only play to pass their time. +From next week she is hoping the regular school will start. +Photo by @sachindrarajbansi via Nepal Photo Project. +Sikrighyang, Nepal. +Mann Bahadur inquiries from Bilong the dimensions of wood required for the frame work of his house. +Bilong, 31, is from India and has a seven year experience in building bamboo houses. +In spite of the difference in their linguals, they understand each other well and are working together to build Mann Bahadur's house which was destroyed by the earthquake. +Photo by @ujwalgarg0412 via Nepal Photo Project. +Now, finally after 46 days of constant threat of tremors, it seems the ground is settling down. +We got one 4.1 magnitude tremor today 2 in the morning after two days gap. +People have started to live their lives normally now. +People are now sleeping in peace, switching off lights in the night time. +Traffic is back. +Kathmandu is getting back to normal. +Photo by @saagarchhetri via Nepal Photo Project. +Memories in the rubble - As I was walking through a rubble filled alley of Sankhu, I came across this photograph. +Looking closely, I saw people basking in the sun. +These were the scenes and habits of local people you could see everywhere along these village towns. +Now seeing rubble all around, the photograph surely is a distant memory. +Photo by @sachindrarajbansi via Nepal Photo Project. +Students of Dibya Jyoti School in Bungamati inside a makeshift hut prepared by KUArt ‪#‎RebuildingBungamati‬ team. +Some of the classes are still running inside old school building and team is preparing for more such shelters nearby.Most of the schools in Nepal re-opened last week after devastating earthquake of April. +Since many school buildings are not safe, classes are run out in the open and in some places, even inside risky buildings. +Photo by @kishorksg via Nepal Photo Project. +As if pulled from a Steven Speilberg movie scene, I saw this boy pushing his hand made toy designed from a simple stick and two metal wheels through the rubble and carnage that was once his neighbors home. +I watched him push his toy through the rubble and rock. +Photo by @kevinkuster via Nepal Photo Project. +During the Nepal Tibet war between 1855 to 1856 lots of lives were lost on both fronts. +After the war the soldiers of Haibung returned to their village and planted this tree to remember their fallen warriors and to mend their sins of killing thousands of their counterparts. +The tree still stands on the edge of ward no. +1 of Haibung village. +Photo by @sachindrarajbansi Used with permission +Making a small ‪#‎dharahara‬ at ‪#‎sahidgate‬. +Two men working to build small dharahara in memory of the fallen one. +The historical dharahara was broken down by earthquake on 25th April. +Photo by @inspiredmonster via Nepal Photo Project. +Sulochana Maharjan, 16, spins wool in Chapagaon, Nepal. +At the time she and her family were sleeping in a tent near their home, uncertain whether their home was safe to stay in after the quake. +Amidst rubble and grief, life goes on. +Photo by @eliegardner via Nepal Photo Project. +Nepalese are pitching in all possible ways to rebuild their country. +And artists are using their talent to campaign and raise funds. +These are artists associated with an eclectic group called Art Lab that's based in Kathmandu. +And they're using the public walls to spread the message of hope, peace, compassion and courage. +This is also part of their effort to use art as therapy for all the people who are in trauma after the earthquake. +Photo by @prach_is_here via Nepal Photo Project. +Schools reopen this week in ‪#‎Nepal‬ after the 25 April ‪#‎NepalQuake‬. +This one, under the cool shade of a majestic banyan tree in Salyantaar, close to Gorkha. +Photo by @mikaness via Nepal Photo Project. +Police constable and judo player Pramila Khadka gives self defence classes with her team to women and children at a camp in Kathmandu. +"Living in a camp is not like living at home, there are so many strangers around us. +But now if a boy teases me, he won't be safe," a participant tells me. +Kudos to Nepal Police! +Loving their work. +Photo by @paavan11 via Nepal Photo Project + +Nepal Is Using a Satellite Collar to Track a Snow Leopard Named Omi Khangri · Global Voices +A baby snow leopard in New York's Central Park Zoo. +Image by Linda Asparro. +Copyright Demotix (10/11/2013) +High in the Himalayas one of the world’s most beautiful and elusive cats – the snow leopards – are found. +Poached for their fur and bones, only 3,500-7,000 individuals remain in the wild throughout Central and South Asia, appearing as “endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. +The Nepalese government's Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, with support from National Trust for Nature Conservation and WWF Nepal, fitted a snow leopard with a satellite radio collar recently to monitor the snow leopard's movements and learn about its behaviour, movement patterns and habitats in Nepal. +Omi Khangri, the 5-year-old snow leopard named after a mountain in the Olangchung Gola of Kanchenjunga region, is the second snow leopard to be fitted with a radio device. +A rare snow leopard has been successfully collared with satellite-GPS technology in Nepal: https://t.co/7unfRMHIPi pic.twitter.com/jOCGTMpCw9 — WWF-New Zealand (@WWFNewZealand) June 9, 2015 +Conservationists believe that the information gathered from the collar will be crucial to conserving the 350-500 animals that roam Nepal's Himalayas. +A difficult task in difficult terrain +Even spotting a snow leopard is hard in the harsh, rugged and barren terrain, aided by their thick, pale fur with dark grey to black spots that help the cat to camouflage against the rocky slopes. +It took about a year and a half for the experts to put a collar on the second animal. +Officials had to wait for more than 20 days and had to change trapping methods to search, capture and fit the satellite collar on Omi Khangri. +Here’s a video of the snow leopard collaring. +The region where the snow leopard was radio-tagged is scenic and beautiful, with the world’s third highest mountain Kanchengunga, but it is also infamous for the 2006 helicopter tragedy. +A group of 24 including world-renowned conservationists lost their lives in the Ghunsa of Kanchenjunga in a chopper crash while returning after handing over the management of the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area to local communities – a moment to be remembered in the history of conservation. +The satellite-collaring of Omi Khangri is not new – tigers, rhinos and even gharials have been radio-collared in Nepal to research their movements. +According to the Saving Snow Leopards Report, snow leopards are in danger from the herders who kill them to protect their livestock: +Education programs run by agencies like the Snow Leopard Trust and the Snow Leopard Conservancy to discourage local herders from killing snow leopards are important. +Improving herding techniques and coming up with more effective ways of guarding livestock can prevent killing in the first place. +Anil Adhikari, local conservation officer and a coordinator of Snow Leopard Conservancy projects in the Everest and Annapurna region of Nepal, writes in a blog post how other incentives are used to protect the animal, such as compensating herders when livestocks have been killed by snow leopard: +Most of the group members do not own livestock, but some do. +If a snow leopard kills a baby yak the owner receives 700 rupees as compensation. +1,500 rupees is given for the loss of an adult. +With the study of Omi Khangri’s movements, conservationists expect to come up with better conservation efforts to conserve snow leopards that are poached for furs and bones and killed in retaliation by herders. + +Initiative Helps Children With Autism Through Surfing · Global Voices +Image on Flickr by user Manolo Guijarro (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). +Tabra is an association launched by Guillermo Ferrero and Andrea Mesones in Peru that aims to improve life quality for children with autism and Down syndrome through surfing and contact with nature, as stated on their Facebook page. +Guillermo is the father of a 13-year-old boy diagnosed with autism, and Andrea is a psychology student at a university in Lima. +Tabra was born of the desire to try new alternatives to achieve a significant improvement in children with problems in their cognitive development, giving them opportunities to expand their world. +During every monthly two-hour session, "They try to have newcomers, so everybody can participate." +Due to their logistics, they can allow only ten to 12 children per session. +As Guillermo Ferrero says: +The happiness they feel when they are in the sea is so contagious that you really end a session with Tabra with the heart and spirit full of energy for all that these children transmit during the time they are connected with the ocean. +About the name Tabra, the blog Seis de enero tells: +The name came up spontaneously one day when we were just talking by the sea and the boy started to say "I want tabra", with a bad pronunciation of the word tabla (the Spanish word for surfboard). + +Gaza-Bound Flotilla III Expected to Dock in the Palestinian Enclave at Dawn; Israel Threatens to Stop it · Global Voices +The Gaza-bound Marianne in 170 miles away from the Palestinian enclave and is expected to dock at dawn. +Photo credit: @rumboagaza on Twitter +The Freedom Flotilla is about 170 miles away from Gaza and is expected to dock at the besieged Palestinian enclave at dawn. +It may not be smooth sailing as Israel prepares to "take over" the boats. +The flotilla, the third attempt to break the siege on Gaza, is made up of the Marianne of Gothenburg and three other boats following slowly behind, and carries a total of 50 activists, including former Tunisian Prime Minister Moncef Marzouki. +This journey marks the fifth anniversary of the Israeli raid on the MV Mavi Marmara in which nine activists were killed and 10 Israeli soldiers injured. +Check out our Special Coverage of the Israel Flotilla Raid 2010 +The Marianne of Gothenburg, jointly acquired by Ship to Gaza Sweden and Ship to Gaza Norway, which left its home port of Sweden on May 10, was the first of three vessels to leave in an attempt to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. +In a press release published on May 10, the Marianne of Gothenburg group declared that it "will join other ships to form 'Freedom Flotilla III', a peaceful, nonviolent action to break the illegal and inhumane blockade of the Gaza Strip." +On Twitter, many are tweeting support under the hashtags #SaveFlotilla3 and its Arabic translation. +But it doesn't seem that it will be smooth sailing for the flotilla. +Dr. Belal Dabour from Gaza warns that the next few hours will be decisive: +Freedom Flotilla's boat Marian reaches Gaza at dawn. +Israel said they will not allow it to; the next few hours are decisive. — Belal Dabour - Gaza (@Belalmd12) June 28, 2015 +Dr. Ramy Abdu reports three boats, which identified themselves as Israeli military, are tailing the Marianne: +Marianne called at 1:06 CET: 3 boats, the closest beeing 500 m away. +They have identified themselves as Israeli military. #NextPortGaza — Dr. Ramy Abdu (@RamAbdu) June 28, 2015 +Jason Shawa announces that communication with the Marianne has been lost. +Reports that contact with Marianne of the flotilla3 has been lost or severed! #SaveFreedomFlotilla #SaveFlotilla3 — J. Shawa جاسم الشوا (@shawajason) June 28, 2015 +And Dr. Dabour confirms: +Connection with ship Marianne reportedly is lost. +Last message said 3 Israeli gunboats were harassing the ship from close distances. — Belal Dabour - Gaza (@Belalmd12) June 28, 2015 +However, others are rallying support to thwart Israel from attacking the flotilla: +Call the @WhiteHouse (001-202-456-1111) now and tell it to stop Israel from attacking #FreedomFlotilla III to #Gaza. pic.twitter.com/PcDvLN9OZ7 — Joe Catron (@jncatron) June 28, 2015 +And Muhammad Usman shares a photograph of Palestinian children waiting in anticipation of the flotilla: +#SaveFlotilla3 Flotilla is on its way to #gaza to break the siege. +Lets pray they don't get hurt. — Najla (@WhateverInGaza) June 27, 2015 +There are many activities planned in Gaza in anticipation of the Freedom Flotilla's arrival such as the "Gaza Ark Exhibition", an exhibition of Palestinian products hoped to be exported by the Freedom Flotilla III. +In a formal statement, dated June 5, they explained: +When Gaza's Ark was destroyed during last year’s attack on Gaza by Israel, we all lost a boat intended to break the blockade “from the inside out". +But our goal of helping to build a sovereign Palestinian economy based on freedom of movement has not changed. +Palestinian products from both Gaza and the West Bank were to be exported not only as a symbolic stimulus to the Palestinian economy but to show the world the industrious work of craftspeople and farmers who continue to struggle against the overwhelming odds of occupation, economic strangulation and war. +Sameera Qarmout, from one of the producers’ organizations at the exhibit, expressed her hopes that she would be able to sell her goods this time: +Before it was attacked, we had the hope that our embroideries would be exported aboard Gaza's Ark. +The coming Freedom Flotilla III has given us a light of new hope that our products will still be made available to world markets. +The exhibit includes goods from Palestinian producers in Gaza as well as goods from West Bank producers that reached Gaza in spite of the Israeli Occupier’s restrictions: embroidery, wood carvings and olive oil. +There have been several attempts to break the siege on Gaza between 2008 and 2010 and the boats have had such participants as 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan, Palestinian Legislative Council member Mustafa Barghouti, Irish peace activist Caoimhe Butterly, US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, author Alice Walker, Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein as well as international journalists and doctors and several EU parliamentarians from a variety of political parties. +This attempt will mark five years since Israel's deadly raid on the Mavi Marmara in 2010. +The raid resulted in the death of nine activists from the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İHH). +Some of the current flotilla's members, such as Kevin Knish, were on the Mavi Marmara. +The coalition is updating about its whereabouts through its Twitter account and Facebook page as well as on their official website. +You can also follow our updates on Global Voices Checkdesk. + +International 'Freedom Flotilla III' on Its Way to Break the Gaza Siege · Global Voices +Marianne of Gothenburg departs. +(Photo credit: Ship to Gaza) +The Marianne of Gothenburg, jointly acquired by Ship to Gaza Sweden and Ship to Gaza Norway, which left its home port of Sweden on May 10, was the first of three vessels to leave in an attempt to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. +In a press release published on May 10, the Marianne of Gothenburg group declared that it "will join other ships to form 'Freedom Flotilla III', a peaceful, nonviolent action to break the illegal and inhumane blockade of the Gaza Strip." +As of today, the 'Freedom Flotilla III' has reached the Mediterranean, with conferences planned in Portugal and Spain for the next few days. +Participants in the Freedom Flotilla Coalition also include Canadian Boat to Gaza, Greece Ship to Gaza, Freedom Flotilla Italia, South Africa Palestine Solidarity Alliance, Spain Rumbo a Gaza and Turkey's Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH). Israel keeps the port of Gaza closed, which used to be the main point of connection to the world #Justice4Freedom https://t.co/8IlmpBVOXn — Freedom Flotilla (@GazaFFlotilla) June 8, 2015 +I want to give a short history of the Swedish International Solidarity work. +It actually started here during the war against the fascists. +500 Swedish people volunteered in the International Brigades to fight Franco. +Most of them, 350 of these fighters, were sailors. +And as a Swedish sailor, I am proud to carry on this legacy. +Other members gave their thoughts on the current situation in Gaza and their hopes for breaking the siege. +- The people only remember Gaza when there is a war. +And when the war ends everyone calls me and says "congrats, the war is finished, you are in peace. +But there is no peace when the war ends. +The real war starts. +- We ask: Why doesn't anyone care for the fishermen in Gaza? +They get shot at, seriously harmed, and sometimes killed. +- If we succeed to break the siege of Gaza, I think it's possible to do anything. +- It's obvious that Israel will use all its power to stop the boat from entering. +- We will not give away our boat to the Israelis. +We will not give away our boat to soldiers on international waters. +It's my right. +Actually, I have a strong right to defend my boat, but we will do this in a non-violent way. - It was great news for us that 'Marianne' is coming to shore right now in Portugal and can take this message of solidarity and friendship from all the Portuguese people. +Marianne is breaking the waves and we in Portugal keep the work in parliaments, in the schools, in the work places، on the streets, just to raise awareness about what's going on in Palestine. +Bob Lovelace, Canadian delegate to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, wrote for Canadian Voice of Women for Peace's website on his hopes for this coalition: +Along with BDS, the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza stands as an inspiration and an effective action seeking justice for Palestine. +Against incredible odds both campaigns continue to triumph; sometimes small, sometimes large but always keeping the flame of justice and freedom for Palestine alive. +Despite political or material sabotage by Israel or international forces, they continue to lead the way and enrol people the world over to the side of credible, effective non-violent action and solidarity with Palestine. +After many criminal acts of state piracy in open sea, sabotage in international ports, imprisonment and even outright deadly assault on civilians, the Freedom Flotilla remains alive and is ever resilient. +Gaza Ark Exhibition 2015 Poster There are many activities planned in Gaza in anticipation of the Freedom Flotilla's arrival such as the "Gaza Ark Exhibition", an exhibition of Palestinian products hoped to be exported by the Freedom Flotilla III. +In a formal statement, dated June 5, they explained: +When Gaza's Ark was destroyed during last year’s attack on Gaza by Israel, we all lost a boat intended to break the blockade “from the inside out". +But our goal of helping to build a sovereign Palestinian economy based on freedom of movement has not changed. +Palestinian products from both Gaza and the West Bank were to be exported not only as a symbolic stimulus to the Palestinian economy but to show the world the industrious work of craftspeople and farmers who continue to struggle against the overwhelming odds of occupation, economic strangulation and war. +Sameera Qarmout, from one of the producers’ organizations at the exhibit, expressed her hopes that she would be able to sell her goods this time: +Before it was attacked, we had the hope that our embroideries would be exported aboard Gaza's Ark. +The coming Freedom Flotilla III has given us a light of new hope that our products will still be made available to world markets. +The exhibit includes goods from Palestinian producers in Gaza as well as goods from West Bank producers that reached Gaza in spite of the Israeli Occupier’s restrictions: embroidery, wood carvings and olive oil. +There have been several attempts to break the siege on Gaza between 2008 and 2010 and the boats have had such participants as 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan, Palestinian Legislative Council member Mustafa Barghouti, Irish peace activist Caoimhe Butterly, US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, author Alice Walker, Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein as well as international journalists and doctors and several EU parliamentarians from a variety of political parties. +This attempt will mark five years since Israel's deadly raid on the Mavi Marmara in 2010. +The raid resulted in the death of nine activists from the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İHH). +Some of the current flotilla's members, such as Kevin Knish, were on the Mavi Marmara. +Some of the current flotilla's members, such as Kevin Knish, were on the Mavi Marmara. Israel needs to be judged for Crimes Against Humanity. + +Free Zone 9 Vigil, August 2, 2014. +Martin Luther King Memorial, Washington, DC. +Photo by EthioTube via Facebook. +What is the state of freedom of expression online in Sub-Saharan Africa? +To answer this question, Global Voices's Sub-Saharan Africa Editor Ndesanjo Macha interviewed the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) East Africa Representative Tom Rhodes, from Nairobi, Kenya. +Ndesanjo Macha (NM): Will you please tell us briefly about yourself and your work you with CPJ? +Tom Rhodes (TR): I am the East Africa Representative for CPJ. +I monitor and look out for journalists who may be in trouble across this region (East Africa) as well as other areas including the Horn of Africa and parts of Central Africa. +Most of our work involves advocacy but we also provide direct assistance in some cases. +NM: How would CPJ rate the level of freedom of expression online in Sub-Saharan Africa? +TR: While the number of blogs and news web sites are growing, seemingly exponentially, the level of suppression of online media is also growing. +Generally press conditions are more free online than, say, in print, but this is changing as authorities grow more savvy in finding ways to suppress online critics. +NM: Are there governments in the region that have passed or are intending to pass legislation that would curtail freedom of expression online? +TR: Many of the laws designed to curb cyber-crime or terrorism are also used to curtail online freedom through sweeping language that can be manipulated to silence online critics. +Laws in Tanzania and Rwanda for example. +NM: What would you consider the biggest threat to netizens in the region who want to express themselves online? +TR: At the moment it is not the legislation that targets online citizens but arbitrary, often unlawful arrests of netizens that pose the greatest threat. +We are all following the trial of six bloggers in Ethiopia - the Zone9 bloggers whose trial has dragged on for over a year without any genuine charges presented over several court hearings. +It is increasingly evident that the prosecution had no genuine legal reason to arrest them other than a desire to silence critics ahead of elections. +The fact that authorities are targeting bloggers and social media users with arbitrary arrests casts a pall over netizens' rights to free expression. +Social media users in Kenya have also faced arrest over the past 1-2 years. +Critical citizen media websites have been blocked in Zambia as well. +It is a growing trend as authorities gradually learn the importance and influence of social media. +NM: What are common tactics, apart from legislation, that governments in the region use to limit netizens' rights to communicate online? +TR: Another tactic more and more governments are using in this region is social media itself. +Authorities in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia and elsewhere are hiring staff to react to social media users with counter hashtags and social commentary. +One tactic is to flood sites with comments to control the narrative or even induce the site to crash. +NM: There have been numerous examples of blocking of social networking sites and mobile communication during elections and upheavals in the region. +Have these tools really empowered citizens in these countries or this is a result of unjustified fears on part of the government? +TR: Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo are perfect examples of this. +Especially in the case of Burundi - social media acted as a communication tool to help civil society organise the protests in Bujumbura against the president's bid for a third term. +The ability to organise and communicate to vast populations through mobile phones should not be underestimated. +Sadly, most telecommunication companies are either state-owned or allies to the state and readily cut the signals when commanded to do so. +We also saw the same tactics during the 2011 elections in Uganda and Cameroon. +NM: Who are the worst culprits in the region? +Can you give some specific examples of what these governments have done? +TR: Perhaps the worst would be Ethiopia where websites are routinely blocked, forcing Internet users to find proxy sites, and bloggers are summarily jailed. +Ethiopia has also imported sophisticated online monitoring equipment to spy on its citizens, making online communication challenging. +EthioTelecom, the sole telecommunication provider in the country, is owned by the government. +All of this is done despite the fact the country has one of the lowest Internet penetration rates in sub-Saharan Africa, if not the world, despite being Africa's second-most populous nation. +NM: Is there a wider social movement in the region pushing for reforms to create a free space of communication, debate and information online? +TR: There appear to be many social movements - including Global Voices! +NM: Many African governments point to pornography and rampant online defamation as chief reasons to limit online expression. +TR: Yes, these are generally the excuses to censor online activity. +But how often are court cases and arrests conducted for, say, pornography, in comparison to critical news reporting? +I would venture that the latter is far more suppressed than the former. +NM: Are you optimistic about the future of online expression in Sub-Saharan Africa? +TR: Yes, very much so - especially with the burgeoning use of mobile telephones for online access. +In 2000, there were roughly 5 million mobile phones in Africa and now there are about 900 million. +While many of these phones are not "smart phones" per se - many of them are - and we are seeing more and more mainstream media using citizen's footage and social media to capture in-time reporting to the point where citizens enjoy a more nuanced, holistic narrative of events across the continent. +Tom Rhodes is CPJ's East Africa Representative. +Follow him on Twitter at @africamedia_CPJ. + +Israel Intercepts International Gaza-Bound Freedom Flotilla · Global Voices +Activists on board the Marianne now being held in Israel. +Photograph from @GazaFFlotilla +At 02:06AM today (Gaza time) the “Marianne” contacted Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and informed us that three boats of the Israeli navy had surrounded her in international waters, while sailing approximately 100NM from Gaza coast. After that we lost contact with the “Marianne” and at 05:11AM (Gaza time) the IDF announced that they had “visited and searched” Marianne. +They had captured the boat and detained all on board “in international waters” as they admitted themselves. +The only positive content in the IDF announcement was that they still recognize that there is a naval blockade of Gaza, despite Netanyahu’s government recent denial that one exists. +It is disappointing that the Israeli government chose to continue the absolutely fruitless policy of “no tolerance”, meaning it will continue to enforce an inhumane and illegal collective punishment against 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza. +Israel's repeated acts of state piracy in international waters are worrying signs that the occupation and blockade policy extends to the entire eastern Mediterranean. +We demand that the Israeli government cease and desist the illegal detainment of peaceful civilians traveling in international waters in support of humanitarian aid. +We call on our governments to ensure that all passengers and crew from the “Marianne” are safe, and to strongly protest against the violation of international maritime law by the Israeli state. +We call on all civil society organizations to condemn the actions of Israel. +People all over the world will continue to respond and react to this injustice, as will we, until the port of Gaza is open and the siege and occupation is ended. +Speaking from one of the boats, Ehab Lotayeh of the 'Canadian Boat to Gaza' team confirmed that the Marianne was intercepted: +The Marianne was intercepted by the Israelis a few hours ago and our understanding now is that it is being taken to Ashdod. +Robert Lovelace, former Algonquin chief in Canada, instructed the Freedom Flotilla Coalition's social media team to upload the following video as a call for help in the case of an Israeli intervention. +He had previously written an op-ed explaining why he joined the Freedom Flotilla. +The Freedom Flotilla was expected by Gazans who organized events and took to Twitter to welcome the crew members. +An example of such events is the “Gaza Ark Exhibition“, an exhibition of Palestinian products hoped to be exported by the Freedom Flotilla III, which was held between June 6 and 8. +Gaza Ark Exhibition 2015 Poster +Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, launched a propaganda campaign aiming at discrediting the flotilla, accusing the Freedom Flotilla of 'hypocrisy' and calling the blockade of Gaza 'legal under international law'. +The naval blockade is under Intl. law and confirmed by a UN committee. +Netanyahu also said that "this flotilla is nothing but a demonstration of hypocrisy and lies that is only assisting the Hamas terrorist organisation and ignores all of the horrors in our region." +The crew members were from 15 different countries including four European Union countries (Sweden, France, Spain and Greece); five MENA countries (Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria); Norway; USA; Canada; Turkey; New Zealand and Russia. +Among the most well-known crew members were former Tunisian president Dr. Moncef Marzuki; Knesset parliamentarian Bassel Ghattas; First Nation Canadian professor and activist Robert Lovelace; EU parliamentarian Ana Miranda; retired U.S. Army colonel and former State Department official Ann Wright; Moroccan member of parliament Abouzaid El Mokrie El Idrissi; Greek member of parliament Odysseas Voudouris; as well as journalists from Al Jazeera, Israel's Channel 2, New Zealand's Maori TV, Euronews Arabic and a number of freelance journalists. +Most of the remaining crew members were doctors. +They were divided in four boats named Marianne, Rachel, Vittorio and Juliano named after well-known peace activists Rachel Corrie, Vittorio Arrigoni and Juliano Mer-Khamis (full list). +The Israeli government's comments come just two weeks after the UN report on last summer's war on Gaza, which included a repeated call for the "immediate lifting of the blockade". +On the topic of the blockade, the report reads: +The impact of the hostilities in Gaza cannot be assessed separately from the blockade imposed by Israel. +The blockade and the military operation have led to a protection crisis and chronic, widespread and systematic violations of human rights, first and foremost the rights to life and to security, but also to health, housing, education and many others. +In accordance with international human rights law, Israel has obligations in relation to these rights and must take concrete steps towards their full realization. +In that context, while fully aware of the need for Israel to address its security concerns, the commission believes that the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, put in place with the assistance of the United Nations to accelerate efforts to rebuild destroyed houses and infrastructure, is not a substitute for a full and immediate lifting of the blockade. +Global Voices has been documenting the latest updates from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition in a CheckDesk story available here. +We are currently contacting crew members of the Flotilla for an upcoming post. + +Arrested for Criticizing a Former Prime Minister, Singaporean Teen Blogger Amos Yee is Now Being Evaluated for Autism · Global Voices +From the Facebook page of Amos Yee +During his public hearing in May 2015, the judge ruled that Yee be remanded for three weeks to assess his mental and physical suitability for reformative training. +On June 23 the court found Yee mentally and physically fit to undergo reformative training. +In addition, a psychiatric assessment suggested that Yee may be suffering from autism spectrum disorder, and the judge ruled that Yee to be remanded for another two weeks to assess his suitability for a Mandatory Treatment Order (MTO). +However, some people have serious concerns about the MTO being applied to people with mental illness, arguing that it can be disruptive to a person's progress. +Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by deficits in social communication and social interaction and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviors and interests. +Although there is no proven cure yet for autism, some medical care may help reduce their symptoms. +For example, some medications are approved by US Food and Drug Administration to reduce irritability in children with autism. +If the court decides that Yee must undergo MTO, it is not known what kind of ‘treatment’ the teen will receive. +Yee’s father said that Yee had not been assessed for autism. +Online commenters suggested that Yee might be autistic earlier this year, though these comments were based chiefly on local media reports about Yee, rather than actual interactions with the teen. +For example, Starboard analyzed the autistic traits observed in Yee’s behaviors in an online forum: +His lack of social skills is demonstrated by releasing the video at the time other people are mourning the passing of a former prime minister. +He lacks empathy. His repetitive behaviour of walking and eating his banana another indicator. +His lack of social development is clearly seen when he was slapped. +A normal person would have looked at the assailant, but he just nurse his pain and walks away without making eye contact. +All three symptoms taken together shows sign of autism. +These and other similar comments reflected common stigmas surrounding autism and other forms of mental illness in Singapore. +Others see his behavior as simply that of an overzealous teenager. +Writer Alfian Sa’at wrote an article about having supper with Yee and his family: +Amos Yee, as a teenager, is as normal as they come. +They chafe at authority, will always look for wriggle room and bargaining leverage, have a sharp instinct for pointing out adult contradictions and hypocrisies. +Instead of discussing Yee's behavior, Alfian Sa’at suggested that the reaction of the Singapore government is the real problem at hand: +When a brat acts up—and of course Amos can be taunting and bratty—the best thing that you can do is to ignore him and let him exhaust himself. But no, some people decided to get all sanctimonious the people who filed those police reports, the 8 policemen who arrested Amos at his house, the AGC, the man who smacked Amos—all of you look so violent, hysterical, foolish and feeble. +In trying to solve a 'problem' like Amos Yee you've only ended up displaying your own problems and neuroses-your pettiness, your cruelty, your beastliness, your insecurity-in all their garish detail. +Related GV articles: +Singaporean teenager arrested for making videos deemed offensive +Singaporean teenager video blogger sent to rehabilitation for offensive youtube video + +Readers Can Now Enjoy Little Red Riding Hood and Other Fairy Tales in the Cree Language · Global Voices +Scan of a page of the Cree translation of Pilgrim’s Progress published in 1886. +Courtesy - Kevin Brousseau. +Storytelling plays an important role in cultures around the world, helping to pass knowledge from generation to generation. +The universality of this tradition is reflected in the similarities of the central themes and characters in some stories across cultures and languages. +Thanks to the power of translation, tales from one part of the world can find their way into the homes of families on the other side of the world. +Blogger and Cree language digital activist Kevin Brousseau noticed that traditional Cree stories had been translated into English, but not the other way around as other well-known stories were not available in Cree. +He said in an interview with Rising Voices: +After translating the Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel, I realized that elderly monolingual speakers of Cree had never heard of these stories! +As I read my stories to my elderly grandmother, I was struck by how much she enjoyed them, but also how closely these stories resembled Cree stories once they were read aloud in Cree. +So began his desire to make these popular stories available to more people through his blog Cree Language. +So far, Brousseau has translated popular fairy tales such as Goldilocks and the Three Little Pigs, as well as some of Aesop's Fables in both the Southern East Cree and Moose Cree dialects. +Screenshot of the first part of Little Red Riding Hood translated into Southern East Cree by Kevin Brousseau +Cree is the most widely spoken native language in Canada, and is comprised of various dialects. +It is an official language of the Northwest Territories, and recognized as a minority language in five provinces. +According to the 2006 Canadian Census, there are approximately 120,000 speakers across the different dialects. +On his blog, he also writes original stories in the Cree language, translates into and from the Cree language, and shares insight about the language's grammar, dialects, lexicon, and the various orthographies. +When he is not blogging, he works as the Cree Language Coordinator for the Cree Nation Government in Quebec. +When it comes to its presence on the Internet, Kevin has noticed that the Cree language has significantly increased online over the past few years, but Cree citizen media is "still in its infancy." +In addition to his blog, he cites various online projects that are working to promote the language, such as Cree Literacy, a network that promotes Cree language and cultural literacy. +Another blog called âpihtawikosisân is written by a Plains Cree-speaking Métis woman living in Montreal. +Little Cree Books is an online project that seeks to publish free texts in the Plains Cree dialect, all of which are available under a Creative Commons license. +On social media, there are several Facebook groups that share resources, teach basic words or phrases, or act as a space where people can communicate in the Cree language. +And on Twitter, the hashtags #speakcree and #nêhiyawêtân can be found from time to time. +Kevin himself tweets at @_Kepin_ sharing encouraging words to others wanting to share the language. +Don't forget to #SpeakCree to one another & to your children today. +Let's keep our language alive! #Nehiyaw #Nehiyawêtâw #Nehiyawêwin #Cree — Kevin Brousseau (@_Kepin_) March 13, 2015 +Despite this increase in the availability of content in different dialects of the Cree language, communities still face challenges especially when it comes to the unique writing, also called syllabics, in the language on the web. +He said: +There are whole sets of characters that simply do not display properly if the website does not support the appropriate fonts. +That is definitely a problem for bloggers such as myself. +Although the proper fonts are selected as I draft my posts, another person’s computer may lack the fonts and as a result my blog will simply not display properly on his or her computer. +This is a nuisance that often keeps people from even attempting to write in Cree online. +The relatively low numbers of people that read and write in the language is one of the major challenges, but the increase in the number of online resources and content can help encourage more people to explore communicating in the Cree language. I love seeing things like this in my schools #nēhiyawe #SpeakCree +He cites one example of how the translations found on his blog are now being used for educational purposes: A lady from a neighbouring community was pretty excited about my Cree translation of the 3 Little Pigs and asked if she could use it in her community as a teaching resource. My hope is that more people take an interest in learning how to read our language – in the meantime, my blog will keep growing. + +New Art Project Seeks to Paint the Lives Lost in Palestine · Global Voices +Portraits of Gaza's victims by Kerry Beall (Source: Beyond Words Gaza) +"Wake up, my son! +I bought toys for you, please wake up!’". +Those were the words of Sahir Salman Abu Namous' father on their way to the hospital. +Four-year-old Sahir was already dead, with half his head blown away by an Israeli shrapnel. +An Israeli warplane had bombed his family home in the Tal Al-Zaatar neighborhood in Northern Gaza on the July 11, 2014. +Gazans were only three days into the war and already counted over 130 casualties, among whom 21 were children, in a bloodshed that would see over 2,000 Palestinians killed in 51 days. +Also Read: Hundreds Killed in War-Battered #Gaza +Sahir with his sibling (Source: Electronic Intifada). +The image of Sahir's death is too brutal to show here. +The death of Sahir was what motivated Kerry Beall, an artist from Brighton UK, to start 'Beyond Words', an art project which seeks to paint the portrait of those who have lost their lives in Palestine last summer. +Speaking to Global Voices Online, Beall explained how it hit her. +It all started when I read the story of Sahir Abu Namous, in a news tweet on Twitter. +One of his relatives was explaining how he had died. +He was only four. It wasn't another depersonalised report, it was real. +It was a family member's plea of desperation and hopelessness. +It was so raw,\5 in that moment it hit me like a ton of bricks. +Sahir Abu Namous' Portrait (Source: Beyond Words Gaza) +Beyond Words is trying to raise funds on Kickstarter in order to meet its £3,000 (US $4,711) by the end of July. +With that money, Beall is planning on using it to "pay for materials, the portraits to be framed, help with getting them to Gaza, and providing an exhibition space to show them until they are collected or delivered." I think I'm probably not alone when I say I felt completely helpless. +It's just so devastating, the sheer amount of innocent men, women and children's lives just evaporating. +It's a tough and overwhelming thing to think about and I, perhaps like others, often disconnect from it it so I can function in my own life. +But that day, it struck a chord that I couldn't switch off from. +I felt compelled to do something, so I painted him. +I had no idea what the response would be as it's such a sensitive topic. +I showed the portrait to his family and they loved it. +It reinforced that urge to take action, so I've gone on to paint many more lives that have been lost. +Beall ended with a note of gratitude: +The reaction has been amazing, with every positive comment it reinforces the motivation I have for this project. +I've been so fortunate along the way with people enthusiastic to help the project move forward. +For example my friend Dan, who has been keen to get involved in spreading the word of the project, Simon and Robin from Bristol who produced the video. +Mohammed Zeyara who kindly shared the video for the project which has helped a great deal in spreading the word. +A great feeling of warmth and support has been shown by the people of Palestine, and I feel I've made friends along the way with Iman, Shareef and DiaaMahmoud, who have shown invaluable support towards the project. +Here are some of the finished portraits so far. +You can see more of them on the Beyond Words Facebook Page. +Mohamed Sabri Atallah, 21 years old +Sara Omar Ahmed Sheikh al-Eid, 4 years old. +Samar Al-Hallaq, 29 years old +Hindi Shadi Abu Harbied, 10 years old. + +Here Are 16 Stunning Satellite Images of Southeast Asia · Global Voices +Thoai Son, Vietnam +Google Earth celebrated its tenth anniversary on June 28, 2015 by adding 1,500 images to its Earth View project. +We downloaded some images from Southeast Asia which reveal the beauty of the region’s unique and spectacular landscapes. +Behold magnificent views of Vietnam: +Ha Long, Vietnam +Lai Vung, Vietnam +Sa Thay District, Vietnam +And some images from the archipelago of Indonesia: +Kabupaten Aceh Utara, Indonesia +Another view of Kabupaten Aceh Utara, Indonesia +Kapuas, Indonesia +Singapore’s shipping lane is among the busiest in the world: +Singapore's shipping lane +Singapore +Below are popular tourism destinations in Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia +Thailand +Tambon Song Khlong, Thailand +Krong Siem Reap, Cambodia +Malaysia +Subic is a former naval base of the United States in the Philippines: +Subic, Olongapo, Philippines +And the personal favourites of this author: Majestic Myanmar! +The seascape is incredibly surreal. +Pyin Hpyu Gyi, Myanmar +Myanmar + +The Tajik “False Prophet” Sent to Jail for 16 years · Global Voices +Sheikh Temur's story briefly made Tajiks pause from discussing more mundane but pressing social and economic problems in the country when it was first aired by state TV in February. Screen grab from Tajik state media published by RFE/RL. A 65-year-old man called Saidmahdikhon Sattorov but known throughout Tajikistan as Sheikh Temur was sentenced to 16 years in jail earlier this week for 'illegal land grabbing', 'polygamy', 'extortion', 'desecration of the dead and their burial places', and 'obstruction the obtainmnent of compulsory basic education'. +Sattorov, who attracted hundreds of feet-kissing followers to his cause, claimed to be the 'Last Prophet', a title often reserved for the Prophet Muhammad in the Islamic religion. +Read: A 'Last Prophet Faces Jail for Land-Grabbing and Polygamy in Tajikistan +In the hearings that followed Temur's arrest in February, the sheikh admitted he has more than one wife, built illegally on lands he did not own, and did not allow his children to attend a school. +He requested compassion and mercy for his “old age” and in lieu of the holy month of Ramadan as he awaited sentencing on July 8. +However, a judge in the predominantly Muslim post-Soviet republic failed to show leniency to the sheikh, who just a few months ago was revelling in the joys of young wives, free land, and disciples that drank the water he used to wash his hands. +Readers of local news websites were more merciful. +Although several months ago Tajik netizens were angry at the sheikh and demanded harsher punishments, many asked for him to be released once the court's verdict became public knowledge. +On Ozodagon, a reader named Khayr wrote: +Free this poor man. +All officials are also corrupted. +Respected judge, did you buy your expensive car and luxury house with just a salary? +Ozodagon, publish ! +Another Ozodagon reader Marhabo agreed: +You are able only poor people. +Where is humanity? +This old man might die in the prison. +A commenter Kalkhoznik, writing under an article on the sheikh's sentencing published on the Asia Plus web-site was surprised by the length of the sentence: It is hard to understand the reason behind this verdict. + +Russian Police Want to Save Your Life With This Selfie Safety Guide · Global Voices +Image by Philippe Put on Flickr. +CC BY 2.0. +As part of a campaign to raise awareness of the risks posed by taking selfies, the Russian Interior Ministry has launched a "Safe Selfie" microsite on the Ministry's official website. +The microsite explains the rationale behind the campaign, reiterating the concerns caused by the growing number of Russians hurting themselves or even dying while trying to capture a selfie. +"Your health and your life are more valuable than a million likes on social networks," the website claims. +"When a person is trying to photograph themselves, their attention is scattered, they lose balance, they don't look around and don't feel danger," the microsite warns, encouraging selfie fans to be aware of their surroundings. +The microsite has caused a stir on the RuNet because of an infographic created for the campaign, outlining the riskiest scenarios for selfie-taking. +Some users have compared the infographic to "Dumb Ways to Die" (an Australian public service announcement campaign to promote rail safety). +Check out the annotated version of the infographic below. +Infographic from mvd.ru/safety_selfie. +Translations by Tetyana Lokot. +The Interior Ministry is hoping to get RuNet's creative juices flowing and is crowdsourcing for other versions of the "safe selfies" infographics, encouraging users to send in their own interpretations for the campaign. + +A Driver's-Eye View of Uber in China · Global Voices +Photo by Flickr user 2 dogs. +CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 +Below is a version of “Uber in China: A Driver’s View” by Lyn Jeffery, originally published on the blog 88 Bar and republished here with permission. +China’s major cities are seeing fierce competition for drivers to join ride-hailing platforms like Uber and China’s homegrown leader Didi Kuadi. +I just spent a few weeks in China using “People’s Uber”, the American company's technically non-profit ride-sharing service that uses private cars, and interviewed 10-12 Uber drivers in Beijing and Shenzhen. +Even though these services are currently illegal, it’s easy to find an Uber just a few minutes away in both cities. +And the US version of the app works shockingly well in China. +Here’s what I learned from talking with Uber drivers and regular taxi drivers. +It may not all be accurate, but it’s a driver's-eye view of how the company is operating in Beijing and Shenzhen. +While the first batch of drivers in Beijing were recruited in spring of 2014, Uber ramped up its Beijing campaign in April of this year, which has put many more drivers on the streets. +It has offered a number of different arrangements. +Currently, Uber is paying drivers a lot of money. +One Beijing driver I talked with is making over 9,000 RMB, or $1,500, per week, with more than 75% of it coming from Uber subsidies. +For every kilometer, passengers pay 1.5 RMB ($0.25), while Uber subsidizes it with another 2 RMB per kilometer ($0.33). +And there’s another subsidy of .25 RMB ($.04) per minute. +Drivers have a minimum number of rides per week to get the highest subsidies. +In Beijing it was 80 rides per week. +Drivers like Uber because there are driver and passenger ratings and they can refuse a rude or drunk passenger. +The Chinese apps don’t all have these features. +Passengers like Uber because at least for now it’s cheaper than the Chinese services and drivers, in search of a 5-star rating, tend to drive more slowly and carefully than traditional taxis. +Arrests are on the rise. +In Beijing, authorities are fining as little as 9,000 RMB ($1,500) and as much as 20,000 RMB ($3,333). +Still, it’s seen as worth the risk since the pay is so high. +I couldn’t, however, get an Uber driver to take me to the airport because that was seen as too much of a risk. +As in the US, some drivers are in it for the social experience or, in some cases, because they’re bored or lonely. +One driver I spoke to does it for a few hours after he gets off of work, just to have something to do. +Ride-hailing apps are already having a positive effect on traditional taxis, whose drivers are, let’s just say, not known for their courtesy. (Traditional taxi drivers often turn down fares that are too close or in the wrong direction from wherever it is they want to go.) +It seems like drivers are taking a wait-and-see attitude about regulation and trying to make as much money as they can. +At the same time, Uber is reducing its subsidies as it gains more drivers. +In other words, the risks are rising while the rewards are falling… for now. + +The Boomerang Effect: Why Would Tajikistan's Special Forces Chief Join ISIS? · Global Voices +Halimov in the clip. +Screenshot taken from a video later deleted. +In ex-Soviet Tajikistan, where the threat of religious extremism and terrorism has helped justify an excessive crackdown on practicing Muslims, people have been shocked to learn the head of the notorious special forces branch of the police — trained to fight the terrorists — has apparently joined the ISIS radical group. +Government officials claim close to 400 Tajik nationals are fighting with ISIS, an Al Qaeda offshoot which has come to control large parts of Iraq and Syria using openly brutal, oppressive and violent tactics. +In the 12-minute video released late on May 27, Gulmurod Halimov, 40, said he had defected to the group in protest against the policies of the Tajik Interior Ministry, which "does not permit people to pray and wear Islamic hijabs" in the predominantly Muslim Central Asian country. +In addition to calling the country's president and interior minister dogs and promising to "come for with slaughter", Halimov claims he trained in both Russia and the U.S., which he portrayed as infidel countries in his tirade. +Promoted to the rank of commander for outstanding service around three years ago, some now fear his viral appearance, capped off by him dramatically shooting a tomato with a sniper rifle, may make him an icon for future Tajik ISIS fighters. +The Tajik government is expected to release a full statement on Halimov's defection soon and blocked social media where the video has been shared on May 28, as well as Asia Plus, the Tajik news agency that first covered the story. +Edward Lemon, a researcher from the University of Exeter tracking Tajik fighters in Syria and Iraq tweeted: +This is the most well-made film of a Tajik IS fighter. +Unsurprisingly, they have quickly used Halimov for recruitment purposes — Edward Lemon (@EdwardLemon3) 28 мая 2015 +'Ministers will be delivering messages from ISIS territory' +In Tajikistan, readers condemned the commander. +Aziz wrote underneath an article of the local Asia Plus news agency: +He is a fool. +We have quite a few such fools, of course, but the problem is that the Ministry of Internal Affairs appointed one of them to such a high position - the commander of the OMON . +Most of them blamed the policies of the government as a root cause of ISIS' appeal to some Tajiks. +An Asia-Plus commenter, called FG, replied to those who condemned Halimov: +Dear commenters, do not be hypocrites. +He told the reasons for his behaviour ... has been fighting against the 1000-years-old history of the country, telling people how to dress, where to go, what to eat, what to do, who to worship, and so on. +So, naturally, everybody wants to get out of this prison in any way possible. +The reason is simple: the anti-constitutional acts of the government. +Izzat Amon, a Tajik migrants’ rights activist, also argued that Halimov's alleged joining of ISIS is the product of the policies of the Tajik regime. +He wrote on his Facebook page: +I do not justify the actions of the OMON commander, but I understand him. +When corruption, regionalism, and nepotism is rampant in the country and everybody lies, then there is not another choice. +This is the result of the politics of the ruling group for the last 25 years. +If it continues this way, then even ministers will deliver video-messages from ISIS territory. +Dear officials, continue your fight against the hijab, the beard, Azan and other Islamic attributes. +But it will certainly come back to you like a boomerang. +Rahmatillo Zoirov, the leader of Social-Democratic Party of Tajikistan, one of the country's few critical opposition parties, told Asia Plus that clan politics surrounding government appointments may have been one reason Halimov left his job, wife and eight children to join ISIS. +Zoirov noted: +Clan cadre politics, especially in the field of law enforcement and the judicial system, is a powerful factor in alienating employees not belonging to the clan, who then have to draw appropriate conclusions... +In general, many simply resign not seeing opportunities for growth and career advancement. +Tajikistan has blocked online resources in connection to ISIS before, notably when several citizens posted a video of themselves burning their Tajik passports and pledging allegiance to the group on YouTube. +Like efforts to control religion through forced beard shaving and hijab bans, however, the blocks have not resulted in any obvious successes so far. + +Bangladesh's Rich Iftar Tradition in 12 Spectacular Photos · Global Voices +Chowkbazaar of old Dhaka is the place for the traditional Iftar market in Bangladesh. +According to historians, the market started before 1857. +Image by SK Hasan Ali. +Copyright: Demotix (30/6/2014) +More than 90 per cent of Bangladesh's population is Muslim. +So it is no surprise that in Ramzan — when Muslims refrain from food, drink, and sex from sunrise to sunset — the culture around food in the country transforms. +From restaurants in luxurious hotels to small street vendors, everyone has a special menu and lay-out during this month. +On the road side, sizzling iftar items are transferred from open air stoves to street-side displays, as vendors call out to customers. +According to historians, some of Dhaka's "shahi" or royal iftar foods date back to the sixteenth century, when Dhaka was part of the Mughal empire. +Shahi Jilapi +Shahi Jilapi (fried swirls of dough soaked in sugar water), a famous sweet delicacy of Dhaka. +It dates back to the Mughal period. +Image by Reporter#11455. +Copyright: Demotix (21/7/2012). +Shahi Haleem (a meat lentil stew/soup). +Image by Reporter#11455. +Shahi doi bora +Shahi doi bora (fried and spiced lentil balls dipped in yoghurt) is a special kind of dish often included in an Iftar Menu. +Image by Fahad Kaizer. +Copyright: Demotix (30/6/2014) +Blogger Boka Manush Bolte Chai writes: +In the sixteenth century the Mughal empire expanded its reign to Dhaka. +When they first built a camp in Dhaka, they brought their own cooking team. +Mughals cherished their comfort and led a luxurious lifestyle. +Their culinart art was one of the important parts of their way of life. +Their cooks used extravagant spices and excess oil to make the food delicious. +To keep pace with the luxury of living of the Mughal families their own employed waiters and cooks were not enough and so they hired many local people to serve them. +Some of them were trained in the Mughal culinary arts. +Through these cook, Mughal cuisine spread in Dhaka city outside of the palaces. +Suti Kabab +Suti Kabab (marinated minced meat kebab bound together in threads). +Image by Reporter#11455. +Copyright: Demotix (12/8/2010) +Raan +'Raan' roast - Mutton leg roast - It is also popular as a wedding ceremony dish. +Image by SK Hasan Ali. +Copyright: Demotix (30/6/2014) +Chicken roast +Whole chicken roasts at the Iftar market. +Image by SK Hasan Ali. +Copyright: Demotix (30/6/2014). +Goat roast +A whole goat roast. +Image by Firoz Ahmed. +Copyright: Demotix (21/7/2012). +Boro baper polay khai +When selling the boro baper polay khai, vendors usually sing out this rhyme: boro baper polai khai, thonga bhoira loiya jai or the big shot’s son eats it and buys a packet to take home. +The most popular delicacy "boro baper polay khai", made by 13 spices and ghee including a mixture of chickpeas, beef brain, minced meat, potatoes, dried rice, egg, chicken. +Image by Firoj Ahmed. +Copyright Demotix (21/7/2012) +And at the average Bengali household, this is what the iftar spread looks like: +The caption below says, "Buddhist monks are serving food (Iftar) to hundreds of poor Muslims during Ramadan. This is an example of social harmony between religions in Bangladesh." +In Bangladesh, a wide variety of foods is prepared to break the fast at Maghrib (evening prayer) time. Some of the common iftar items from Bangladeshi cuisine include Piyaji (made of lentils paste, chopped onions, green chilies, like falafel), Beguni (made of thin slices of eggplant dipped in a thin batter of gram flour), Jilapi, Muri ( puffed rice similar to Rice Krispies ) , yellow lentil grains, usually soaked in water and spiced with onion, garlic, chilli and other iftar items), Haleem, dates, samosas, Dal Puri (a type of lentil based savoury pastry), Chola (cooked chickpeas), fish kabab, mughlai paratha (stuffed fried bread with minced meat and spices), pitha, traditional Bengali sweets and different types of fruits such as watermelon. +Drinks such as Rooh Afza and lemon sharbat are common on iftar tables across the country. +People like to have iftar at home with all family members and iftar parties are also arranged by mosques. +Blogger Mohammad Ilius Chawdhury writes about the rush at a mall during iftar time in Somewhereinblog: +Half an hour before iftar time I reached the food court level. +It was so crowded. +All the seats were booked. +Even corridors, narrow walking lanes and section of the floor were blocked by people waiting for Iftar. +There was no way to get pass them to some Iftar from the food court + +Nepal Closes a National Park to Give Mating Red Pandas Some Privacy · Global Voices +Umi, red panda of Nogeyama Zoo. +Image from Flickr by Toshihiro Gamo. +CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 +Langtang National Park, Nepal’s first Himalayan national park and the one nearest to capital Kathmandu, has been declared a restricted zone by local authorities to allow red pandas to mate. + +These are interesting times for Myanmar as it pursues reforms in order to become a modern democratic state. +It is a difficult transition for a country which has been under military rule for the past five decades but the international community should continue to press for reform. +Will there be clean and fair elections in November? +Will the military-backed government continue to welcome foreign investment? +What is the plan to achieve unity and peace amid ethnic and religious conflicts? +To improve our coverage of what’s happening in Myanmar today, Global Voices has partnered with The Irrawaddy, a leading media organization in the country which delivers alternative news. +The Irrawaddy was founded in 1993 by exiled Burmese journalists in Thailand. +Many of them witnessed, documented, and joined the historic 1988 democracy uprisings. +The Irrawaddy magazine was the first independent news publication unaffiliated with Burmese political dissident groups. +Because of its critical reports, it was banned by the military regime in Myanmar and anyone found with a copy could be arrested and imprisoned. +In 2000, The Irrawaddy website was launched and was promptly blocked in Myanmar remaining inaccessible in the country for the next 11 years. +When media restrictions were eased in 2011, The Irrawaddy was finally made available to Myanmar Internet users. +Meanwhile, the print magazine was finally distributed legally across the country in 2013. +Since its founding, The Irrawaddy has committed to provide the public with alternative news as part of its democratic positioning. +It believes a free press is essential to a democracy: +We have a strong belief in democracy, and believe that without free media a democratic society is incomplete. +It is our duty to protect and preserve press freedom and develop independent media free from bias and influences. +On the part of Global Voices, we are happy to undertake this partnership as we seek to provide our readers with better and more inspiring stories from Myanmar. + +Indonesians in Taiwan Find a More Welcoming Atmosphere on Eid al-Fitr Than in Years Past · Global Voices +An Indonesian mother brought her son to join the Eid al-Fitr celebration in front to Taipei Station. +Photo from 4-Way Voice's Facebook page +During the weekend of July 18 and 19, many Indonesians residing in Taiwan observed Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the holy month of fasting called Ramadan. +They held celebrations in public areas including Taipei Railway Station and 228 Memorial Park as well as in major mosques across the country. +Many Taiwanese enjoyed the colorful festival scene, something that would be difficult to imagine only a few years ago. +In 2012, the Taiwan Railways Administration surrounded the Indonesians who were celebrating the Eid al-Fitr inside the Taipei Railway Station and urged them to disperse with loudspeakers. +Rather than speaking up for the minority group, most mainstream media outlets condemned what they called an abusive use of public space. +The Indonesian community felt discriminated against. +Several NGOs that provide support for migrant workers protested against the Taiwan Railways Administration, hoping that authorities would show more respect for Indonesian Muslims. +Yet, the same conflict happened again in 2013. +The situation improved in 2014 as the new chief of Taipei Railway Station worked hand-in-hand with NGOs and the Indonesian community to prepare for the festival. +Not only was Eid al-Fitr celebrated without controversy, the event also served to educate Taiwanese on understanding their Muslim friends' religion and culture. +Currently, about 250,000 Indonesians live in Taiwan. +About 230,000 are staying for their work, while 20,000 have immigrated permanently to Taiwan. +This year, in addition to the Taipei Railway Station, there were more well-prepared festival sites. +The Department of Labor in Taipei prepared the event venue in nearby 228 Memorial Park, and five major mosques across Taiwan also hosted Eid al-Fitr celebration . +4-Way Voice, a newspaper devoted to migrant workers from Southeast Asia, reported on the celebration at Taipei station: +Many Indonesian workers needed to return to their work after the event in a hurry. +More could not celebrate the new year with their fellow Indonesians either because transportation or work. +However, no matter where our Muslim readers are, 4-way Voice wishes all our readers have a happy Eid al-Fitr. +The temporary clean water station prepared for Muslims who attended the celebration. +Image from 4-Way Voice. +Tien-Wan Chang, who employs an Indonesian domestic helper, took the opportunity to thank her on Facebook: +Hope all Indonesian workers who work very hard have a good day. +They play an important role in the caring service sector in Taiwan. +Without them, 480,000 families with bedridden elderly could not survive. +We are also lucky to have an angel in our family in recent years: she took care of me after I received a surgery, she took care of my father-in-law until he passed away, and she takes care of my bedridden mother-in-law. +She helps my mother-in-law to turn around in bed, takes care of her nasogastric tube, and bathes her. +Today is Eid al-Fitr. +I hope they enjoy the holiday, and I want to thank them. +Chih-An Chen, who also employs an Indonesian domestic helper, described how she celebrated Eid al-Fitr with her helper: +Ramadan this year is from 6/18 to 7/17 for Muslims worldwide, and there is no exception for A-Ting, the helper in our family. +She could not eat or drink after sunrise. +She told us that she cannot eat before 18:50. +It has been very hot in this month, and we kept sweating even without moving around. +It is hard work for her to bring my father to receive rehabilitation by the rehabilitation bus on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and bring him to stroll around on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. +It is close to the end of Ramadan, and soon they will have Eid al-Fitr, the new year in Indonesia and an important holiday for Muslims. +Today (7/16) she said she wants to buy new clothes, so I went shopping with her and she had a haircut. +The traditional Indonesian food to celebrate Eid al-fitr. +Image from Spice-up Tasat +Spice-up Tasat, a group of non-Taiwanese spouses from different Southeast Asian countries, hold regular gatherings to share different cuisines from their hometowns. +They prepared ketupat, the traditional Indonesian food for Eid al-Fitr, on July 17: +Ketupat is a traditional Indonesian cuisine. +We weave fresh green coconut leaves into a diamond shape. +Then we put rice into it and broil it. +The rice will expand gradually and bind together closely after being pressed. +When we eat it, we cut it into pieces and eat with sate, curry, or soup like soto ayam. +Although we eat at ordinary times, many traditional Muslims make special ketupat as gifts in Eid al-Fitr. +Some people said that the Javanese of ketupat is kupat, which means admitting the mistake, so it may be meant to reflect on ourselves and forgive others if we give ketupat as gifts to others in Eid al-Fitr. +“Maybe what is more important is bringing people together. +The complicated weaving of ketupat represents how different people are integrated together beautifully,” Lily said. +In a country with more than 13,000 islands, 360 ethnic groups and 719 dialects, it does not matter so much if we call it ketupat, kupat, or tipat or what their meaning is. +What matters is that Ramadan is finished, and the new year begins with the crescent moon. + +The Russian Government Wants Your Selfies to Be Safe · Global Voices +The Russian government wants your selfies to be safe! Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot +You might think of selfies as a fun thing you do, or at least as an annoying, but generally harmless pastime (unless someone is waving that selfie stick too close to our faces!). +But the Russian government is so concerned with the risks posed by Russian citizens taking selfies that it's calling together a federal video conference to raise awareness of the issue. +Russian media have reported on several cases of smartphone users getting hurt while posing for a selfie, the most recent case being that of a young woman who reportedly fell to her death on July 4 trying to take a photo of herself with friends on an overpass bridge in Moscow. +This case and several others that resulted in fatalities have led the Russian Interior Ministry to voice its alarm over the practice. +To alert Russians to the problem and to discuss possible solutions, the Ministry plans to hold a videoconference with its regional offices titled "The Safe Selfie" on July 7, 2015, a Ministry representative told TASS. +The Russian Interior Ministry is concerned about the growing number of cases when a person gets hurt or dies whilst trying to take a unique selfie—each of these cases could have been prevented. +Selfies can be memorable and surprising without risking your life. +Selfie-taking has been on the radar of Russian news media, with several cases of selfie-takers getting seriously hurt or even dying after climbing tall buildings, touching electric wiring, or otherwise risking their safety. +Some stories about selfies, however, are on the lighter side, such as the incident in Kemerovo region in June, where a drunk resident broke apart a statue of Lenin while trying to pose for a selfie with it. +In earlier efforts to educate children about safe selfie taking, Saint Petersburg schools introduced a lesson on safety in mobile photography practices as part of their annual Unified Information Day, to be held in October 2015 after the start of the school year. +Because selfies are often taken to be posted on social networks, organizers believe they're an important part of overall Internet safety training. +Although the Russian Interior Ministry has warned of the hazard selfies can pose, in November 2014 it asked law enforcement officers from across Russia to send in selfies with their mothers as a way to celebrate Mother's Day and to "help improve public trust" in law enforcement. +Photo albums created by the Ministry on the Odnoklassniki social network and on the official Ministry website showcased hundreds of photo entries. + +Protests as Malaysia Suspends Two Newspapers Following a Corruption Expose · Global Voices +Photo from the Facebook page of Malaysians stand in solidarity with The Edge +More than 300 journalists, activists, lawyers, and concerned citizens gathered in Kuala Lumpur's Central Market on August 8 to protest the suspension of two newspapers and the blocking of a news website by the Malaysian government. +The event, which is part of the #AtTheEdge campaign, deplored the action of the government as blatant media censorship. +Last July 19, the Sarawak Report whistleblower website was blocked in Malaysia for posting ‘unverified information’ about the corruption scandal involving 1MDB, a state-managed investment company. +A few days later, two newspapers of The Edge were suspended for three months for allegedly releasing fabricated documents related to 1MDB. +The issue also implicates Prime Minister Najib Razak after the Wall Street Journal published a report alleging that he got 700 million US dollars in bank transfers through the 1MDB. +Below are some of the placards and banners used in the rally: +From the Facebook page of Malaysians stand in solidarity with The Edge +Here are some photos on Twitter using the hashtag #AtTheEdge: +Feminists support freedom of expression & opinion #AtTheEdge @ivyjosiah pic.twitter.com/uItitSFsHk — HRC Malaysian Bar (@hrc_bar) August 8, 2015 +"Asking questions about #1MDB is not a crime" #AtTheEdge pic.twitter.com/FxwpqJEiCI — Sumisha Naidu (@sumishanaidu) August 8, 2015 +Good turnout for #808 #AtTheEdge Free the media from political control! pic.twitter.com/k9E0jGC9uB — Yin Shao Loong (@yinshaoloong) August 8, 2015 +.@Ambiga_S: we must never 4get abuses of power 2day. +U can suspend edge, sr, but u can't suspend truth! #ATTHEEDGE pic.twitter.com/kyeT2HLaeN — #AtTheEdge, Malaysia (@AtTheEdgeMsia) August 8, 2015 +A bigger rally is being arranged on August 29. +This time the issue is no longer limited to media freedom. +Dubbed Bersih 4, the rally demands the resignation of the prime minister. + +18 Stunning Photographs of the Rana Tharus From the Southern Foothills of Nepal · Global Voices +Rana Tharus - The silver white looks strikingly beautiful on the bright dress and black shawls. +Image by Solveig Boergen. +Used with permissionOnce rich landlords, Rana Tharus — the natives of Kailali and Kanchanpur districts in far-western Nepal — have witnessed loot, encroachment and discrimination. +Their isolated villages have been regularly looted by dacoits. +They were displaced when the Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve was being extended, and many lost their ancestral land during a land settlement programme. +The Tharus in Chitwan were reduced to occupying only 14 percent of their area after an anti-malaria programme sprayed DDT (Dichloro Diphenyl Trichloroethane) around their homes. +Earlier, they occupied almost 90 percent of the area. +It is hard to find written documents about the Rana Tharus as they have lived in isolation, writes Bikram Rana in his blog: +In India Rana Tharus of Khiri, and Nainital are under scheduled tribes. +In case of Nepal in terms of habitats Rana Tharus are the native residents of Kailali and Kanchanpur since 16th century and are the first settlers of the two districts later they were joined by Dangauras of Dang and after the eradication of malaria and resettlement plan of Panchayat regime, Khasiyas joined. +However, despite of all odds, they have not forgotten their culture and tradition. +Their way of life remains distinct and their traditional clothes and ornaments are a delight to every photographer and designer. +Solveig Boergen, a German photographer who lives and works in Japan, travelled to the Kanchanpur district of western Nepal to capture the daily lives of the Rana Tharus. +Here is what she saw: +The mighty rays illuminate the surrounding and the dark corner of kitchen turns into a portrait painted in ochre. +The morning chores comprise cleaning the premises and taking the cattle out in the open. +The morning chores comprise cleaning the premises and taking the cattle out in the open. The young one is a helping hand in looking after the goats and bringing grass for the animals. +The lady in her bright blouse sits on a rope cot and makes clay figurines for her grandchildren to play with in the upcoming festival. +She draws inspiration from the nature, the tattoos on her arms and the bright colours of her blouse. +Her bright costume stands out in the sea of yellow. +When her friend joins her, it seems like a competition between the traditional dress she is wearing and the modern dress her mate is adorning. +The coming together of the community for a bountiful catch is a moment to watch. +The joy of working together and sharing the catch – there’s plenty to learn from them. +The catch is enough for everyone. +It's the marriage season and the ladies show off their ornaments. +Mirror! Mirror! Who is the fairest of all? +Tell me if I don't look good. +And they don’t even leave the legs. +They are laden with the silver ornaments. +Like the beautiful patchwork in their dresses, the colours chosen by Ranas form a melange of vivid colours inspired by nature. +The young ones, careless and carefree, play and roam around the village. +Their smiles are precious and innocent. +A version of the story was published in the blog Voice of Tharus. + +Malaysia’s 34-Hour Bersih Rally Against Government Corruption Gathers 100,000 People · Global Voices +Bersih 4 is calling for the resignation of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. +Photo from the Facebook page of Bersih 4 +An estimated crowd of 100,000 people gathered over the weekend in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur in support of Bersih 4, a political movement calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is implicated in a corruption scandal. +Bersih, which means "clean" in the local language of Bahasa, was organized to push for electoral reforms in 2007, 2011, and 2012. +But this year, Bersih 4 is also calling for the removal of Najib, who is accused of receiving ill-gotten funds from 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state-managed investment firm. +Najib admitted that he received 2.6 billion ringgit (675 million US dollars), but he said this was an election donation from a friendly Middle Eastern country for his political party. +This year’s Bersih lasted for almost two days (34 hours to be exact) and its ending coincided with the national celebration of Merdeka, Malaysia’s independence day. +During the first day of Bersih, police said the crowd was 25,000 in Kuala Lumpur and about 5,000 in other parts of the country. +On the second day, the number of protesters in the capital went up to 35,000 in the afternoon, but it swelled to almost 100,000 during the final hours of the program, according to some media reports. +Official estimates were not yet provided as of writing. +Bersih 4 was also supported by solidarity gatherings in 70 cities around the world. +The number of people who joined Bersih 4 is impressive considering that the rally is deemed illegal by the government. +A recent order was even promulgated that criminalized the wearing of yellow Bersih 4 t-shirts. +One of those who joined Bersih was former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who ruled Malaysia for 22 years. +Many were surprised to see Mahathir since he was against the holding of rallies during his term, but some organizers welcomed the presence of the country’s longest-serving prime minister. +Mahathir said he supports the call for the resignation of Najib. +Below are some of the photos of #Bersih4 shared on Twitter: +#Bersih4 Live: An aerial view of the crowd at midnight. +#Bersih4: Sea of yellow in downtown KL as night falls on the second night of the rally http://t.co/00YJrkMjWn pic.twitter.com/upZJHrhkGa — Malay Mail Online (@themmailonline) August 30, 2015 +The PM is not a popular figure at #Bersih4 pic.twitter.com/lfbLami7vI — Eric Paulsen (@EricPaulsen101) August 30, 2015 +This is historical,I've never seen something like these.Rakyat are the true heroes!! +Turun & sokong!! #Bersih4 pic.twitter.com/xrCKqXtMFA — Adrian Ng (@AdrianNCF) August 30, 2015 +'Yearning for change' +There were various reactions to Bersih 4. +Wong Chin Huat was one of the Bersih participants who slept in the streets during the weekend: +I slept on the pavement on Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman last night. +It was like a refugee camp with many people - mostly in the illegal yellow Bersih 4 T-shirts - sleeping on not only the pavements, but also the middle of the road. +Some brought sleeping bags, some used newspapers as their mat, others just slept on the road. +Why did they sacrifice their comfort in bed? +Many of them, like me, have booked hotel rooms for refreshing themselves, but chose to sleep on the streets just to show our yearning for change. +Writing on news site Malaysia Kini, Dharm Navaratnam denounced Najib for calling Bersih participants unpatriotic: +To see so many Malaysians standing up for what they believe in can only be described as uplifting. +To read today’s news that the PM accuses those of us who were at the rally of not loving the country is absolutely absurd. +It is BECAUSE we love the country that we took part in the rally. +But Visithra Manikam wrote that more people could have joined Bersih if it was not scheduled a day before Merdeka: +I applaud those who went down to Bersih 4. +It was quite a sight. +I was most happy some of you carried the flag with you. +Most of you were getting involved with something involving the nation for the first time ever. +I applaud those who slept in the streets last night. +That was indeed historical. +But alas, the timing was ill-planned. +Neil Khor urged Bersih supporters to give more attention to the everyday issues of the poor, especially those who are living in rural areas: +…by failing to breach the rural divide – by being unable to mobilise even the semi-rural folks to participate – Bersih’s concerns, which have always been ideological rather than bread and butter issues – failed to connect with the masses. +Bersih 4 rally in Kuala Lumpur. +Photo from the Facebook page of Bersih 4 +This editorial by the Ant Daily news website describes the political impact of Bersih 4: + +You Can't Read These Books, But Your Great-Great-Grandchildren Can · Global Voices +Margaret Atwood, right, hands over her transcript for Future Library, a 100-year project by Scottish artist Katie Paterson, left. +Credit: Katie Paterson +This article and radio report by Susannah Roberson for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on July 16, 2015, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement. +We've all heard of time capsules, but this one is a little bit different. +It's called Future Library, and it's in the form of a forest in Norway. +Here's how it works: 1,000 trees have been planted in Nordmarka, a forest just outside Oslo, and these trees will provide paper for a special anthology of books to be printed a century from now. +This project is the brainchild of Scottish artist Katie Paterson, and she says she got the idea while doodling. +"I was making a very simple sketch in a notebook of tree rings, and I quite quickly made a connection between tree rings and chapters in a book," Paterson says. +Paterson plans to invite one author each year to contribute to the collection, for 100 years. +Award-winning Canadian writer Margaret Atwood was the first to submit a manuscript in May. +"To have held in my hands a piece of her writing that I can't read and know that nobody else can read until this moment in the future is very tempting indeed," Paterson says. +"But of course I'm going to be so strict, so I will never open any of the pages." +Paterson hopes her project will be a treat for future generations. +She thinks it will be just like reading an undiscovered antique text. +"I imagine the writings will contain crystallized moments from each year, whether that's 2015 or 2055," Paterson says. +"So I like to imagine what that first reader might open the first page to." +But that won't be until the year 2114. +Meanwhile, Paterson has announced the second author for the project, British writer David Mitchell. +And the forest in Norway keeps growing. + +Multi-Billion Construction Work Kills 107 Pilgrims in Mecca Just Weeks Before Hajj · Global Voices +Photo of the collapsed crane in Mecca's Grand Mosque. +Image from @haythamabokhal1 on Twitter. +When a red and white construction crane collapsed into Mecca's Grand Mosque on Friday, it killed 107 people and injured 238 others as of 12:40 a.m. local time, the Saudi Civil Defence reported on social media. +Tweets from Saudi Civil Defence with first news of the collapse. +Graphic photos showing streams of blood trickling down the steps of the mosque and crushed bodies piled on top of green prayer mats quickly spread through social networks. The video below, taken by a worshipper during the collapse, shows people attempting to escape. +Work and construction to expand the mosque continue to date. The following table shows a timeline of the mosque's various expansion plans since King Khalid took office in 1975 till King Abdullah's ten-year rule that ended this year, according to information from SPA. King Reign Duration Grand Mosque Sector King Khalid 1975-1982 Eastern Parks King Fahd 1982-2005 Western Side King Abdullah 2005-2015 Circumambulation Passage +Expansions also include the following sectors: The external parks, flyovers, stairs, complex of central services building, services tunnel, security buildings, the hospital, pedestrian-use tunnels, transportation stations, bridges leading to the mosque, first ring road surrounding the holy mosque area, and the infrastructure which includes power stations, water reservoirs and flood drainage system. +The Ministry of Finance said that this is the largest expansion plan in history. +The breakdown is as follows: +The report said the total building area amounts to 1,470,000 sq.m., the area of the expansions will reach 320,00 sq.m. to accommodate 300,000 worshippers while the area of the premises amounts to 175,000 sq.m. to make room for 280,000 worshippers. +The bridges and flyovers’ area amounts to 45,000 sq.m. to carry 50,000 worshippers, the area of the services building is 550,000 sq.m. which will accommodate 310,000 worshippers. +The area of the eastern stairs will be 263,000 sq. m. that is enough for 150,000 worshippers. +The Masaa area was increased by 57,000 sq.m. to accommodate 70,000 worshippers, with the capacity of the mosque increasing from 44,000 person/hour at the circumambulation path to 118,000 person/hour. +Worshippers' deaths prompt questions +Some Twitter users mourned the deaths after the crane collapse with prayer, Quran verses, and poetry. +Others remarked that their death, although tragic, is a blessing as it occurred on a Friday while praying in the holiest spot on Earth. +A Saudi scholar said in a YouTube video that God has "chosen ... the martyrs of the collapse," in his sacred home, an hour before Maghrib prayer (considered to be a holy hour), on a Friday. +He also said that the incident is not related the 9/11 attacks, as many conspiracy theorists claimed, and that the authorities in charge of Hajj have committed no error. +Others, however, disagree. +Twitter user Jamal, who has almost 70 thousand followers, said that now is the time to hand over the role of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to a parliament that represents all Muslim countries as the current command has "proven its failure." +It is necessary to hand over role of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to a parliament that represents all Muslim countries and end the Al Zahemeeri that has proven to be an obscene failure +Another user also agreed that the authorities should be held accountable for their decision to keep the grandiose construction work going. +A true tragedy , Saudi authorities must held accountable . +There is no excuse to have cranes hovering over pilgrims over people — Safa' Al Jayoussi (@Safaaljayoussi) September 11, 2015 + +What Are We Doing to Our Children's Brains? · Global Voices +Tehmina Shekh photographed at the Chingari Clinic in Bhopal, India — the location of one of the world's worst chemical disasters. +Photo by Flickr user Bhopal Medical Appeal. +CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0 +This post by Elizabeth Grossman was originally published on Ensia.com, a magazine that highlights international environmental solutions in action, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement. +February 16, 2015 — The numbers are startling. +According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1.8 million more children in the U.S. were diagnosed with developmental disabilities between 2006 and 2008 than a decade earlier. +During this time, the prevalence of autism climbed nearly 300 percent, while that of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder increased 33 percent. +CDC figures also show that 10 to 15 percent of all babies born in the U.S. have some type of neurobehavorial development disorder. +Still more are affected by neurological disorders that don’t rise to the level of clinical diagnosis. +And it’s not just the U.S. Such impairments affect millions of children worldwide. +The numbers are so large that Philippe Grandjean of the University of Southern Denmark and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Philip Landrigan of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York — both physicians and preeminent researchers in this field — describe the situation as a “pandemic.” +While earlier and more assiduous diagnosis accounts for some of the documented increase, it doesn’t explain all of it, says Irva Hertz-Piccioto, professor of environmental and occupational health and chief of the University of California, Davis, MIND Institute. +Grandjean and Landrigan credit genetic factors for 30 to 40 percent of the cases. +But a significant and growing body of research suggests that exposure to environmental pollutants is implicated in the disturbing rise in children’s neurological disorders. +What, exactly is going on? +And what can we do about it? +Chemicals and the Brain +Some chemicals — lead, mercury and organophosphate pesticides, for example — have long been recognized as toxic substances that can have lasting effects on children’s neurological health, says Bruce Lanphear, health sciences professor at Simon Fraser University. +While leaded paint is now banned in the U.S., it is still present in many homes and remains in use elsewhere around the world. +Children can also be exposed to lead from paints, colorings and metals used in toys, even though these uses are prohibited by U.S. law (remember Thomas the Tank Engine), and through contaminated soil or other environmental exposure as well as from plastics in which lead is used as a softener. +Mercury exposure sources include some fish, air pollution and old mercury-containing thermometers and thermostats. +While a great many efforts have gone into reducing and eliminating these exposures, concerns continue, particularly because we now recognize that adverse effects can occur at exceptionally low levels. +At early stages of development — prenatally and during infancy — brain cells are easily damaged by industrial chemicals and other neurotoxicants. +CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0 +But scientists are also now discovering that chemical compounds common in outdoor air — including components of vehicle exhaust and fine particulate matter — as well as in indoor air and consumer products can also adversely affect brain development, including prenatally. +Chemicals in flame retardants, plastics, and personal care and other household products are among those Lanphear lists as targets of concern for their neurodevelopment effects. +Chemicals that prompt hormonal changes are increasingly suspected to have neurological effects, says Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program. +Among the chemicals now being examined for neurological impacts that occur early in life are flame retardants known as PBDEs that have been used extensively in upholstery foams, electronics and other products; phthalates, widely used as plasticizers and in synthetic fragrances; the polycarbonate plastic ingredient bisphenol A, known commonly as BPA; perfluorinated compounds, whose applications include stain-, water- and grease-resistant coatings; and various pesticides. +Precise Choreography +As Grandjean and Landrigan explain, the fetus is not well protected against environmental chemicals that can easily pass through the placenta. +There’s evidence from in vitro studies, they say, that neural stem cells are very sensitive to neurotoxic substances. +In the past 30 to 40 years, scientists have begun to recognize that children and infants are far more vulnerable to chemical exposures than are adults. +An infant’s brain is also vulnerable to such contaminants. +At early stages of development — prenatally and during infancy — brain cells are easily damaged by industrial chemicals and other neurotoxicants. +Such interference can affect how the brain develops structurally and functionally — effects that lead to lasting adverse outcomes. +“The brain is so extremely sensitive to external stimulation,” says Grandjean. +Historically, chemical neurotoxicity was examined in adults — often through cases of high levels of occupational exposure. +In the past 30 to 40 years, however, scientists have begun to recognize that children and infants are far more vulnerable to chemical exposures than are adults. +It has also been discovered that very low levels of exposure early in life can have profound and lasting effects. +Another important discovery is that understanding how an infant or child is affected by a chemical exposure involves far more than simply calculating potential effects on a physically smaller person. +Stage of development — and timing of exposure — must also be considered. +Early stages of brain development involve “a very precise choreography,” explains Frederica Perera, professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. +“Any chemical that can disrupt chemistry at this stage can be very damaging,” she says. +For example, explains Deborah Kurrasch, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine who specializes in neurological research, during the early stages of brain development — when cells are becoming neurons — “timing determines destination.” +Results of Kurrasch’s latest study investigating neurodevelopmental effects of BPA illustrate what she means. +In a study published in January 2015, Kurrasch and colleagues examined the effects on neurodevelopment of BPA and a common BPA substitute, bisphenol S. Specifically, they investigated how exposure to BPA and BPS — at levels comparable to those present in her community’s local drinking water supply — might affect neuron development in zebrafish at a stage comparable to the second trimester of human pregnancy, when neurons are forming and moving to the correct location in the brain. +Many of the chemicals under scrutiny for their effects on brain development appear to act by interfering with the function of hormones essential for healthy brain development. +“It’s as if they’re getting on a bus to where they need to be,” Kurrasch says. +After exposure to BPA and BPS it was as if, explains Kurrasch, “twice as many neurons got on an early bus and half as many got on a late bus.” +The researchers found that these exposures appeared to alter nerve development — neurogenesis — in a way that caused the fish to become hyperactive. +Such an alteration, produced in this case by a “very little bit of BPA,” can cause permanent effects, Kurrasch says. +Many of the chemicals under scrutiny for their effects on brain development — BPA, phthalates, perfluorinated compounds, brominated flame retardants and various pesticides among them — appear to act by interfering with the function of hormones essential for healthy brain development. +Among these are thyroid hormones, which regulate the part of the brain involved in a variety of vital functions, including reproduction, sleep, thirst, eating and puberty. +During the first trimester of pregnancy, the fetus is not making its own thyroid hormone, says Thomas Zoeller, director of the Laboratory of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Endocrinology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. +If an environmental exposure to a substance such as a polychlorinated biphenyl or perchlorate interferes with the mother’s thyroid hormones in this period — as could happen through water pollution, for example — that could in turn affect her child at a critical stage of brain development. +Another thing to consider in the context of endocrine-disrupting chemical exposures, says Zoeller, is that a substantial portion of women of childbearing age in the U.S. have some iodine deficiency that may be suppressing their thyroid hormones. +While these deficiencies may not be prompting clinically adverse effects, they may be sufficient to impair fetal neurodevelopment. +“Impacts can happen at levels far below safety standards,” says Zoeller. +And there are a great many chemicals to which such women may be exposed environmentally with the potential to affect thyroid hormones, among them PBDEs, PCBs, BPA, various pesticides, perfluorinated compounds and certain phthalates. +Something in the Air +One particularly concerning source of exposure to chemicals that are suspected to harm children’s brain development is air pollution, which is a complex mixture of various chemicals and particulate matter. +Research increasingly suggests that airborne contaminants can have subtle but significant effects on early neurological development and behavior. +Perera and colleagues recently investigated the links between exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a fossil fuel–related component of air pollution, and incidence of ADHD in 9-year-olds. +Their study found that mothers who were exposed to high levels of PAH during pregnancy were five times more likely to have children with ADHD and to have children with more severe ADHD symptoms than those who did not have such exposure. +While this study is the first to make such a connection, it joins a growing body of research pointing to links between outdoor air pollutants, including PAHs, and adverse impacts on children’s brain health and development. +Looking at air pollution’s effects on brain health is relatively new, explains Kimberly Gray, health science administrator at the National Institutes of Health. +Research increasingly suggests that airborne contaminants can have subtle but significant effects on early neurological development and behavior, she says. +In addition to links between prenatal PAH exposure and impaired brain function, researchers are also now investigating potential connections between black carbon, volatile organic compounds and fine particulate matter — among other components of air pollution — and impairments such as autism and lowered IQ. +In a study published in December 2014, Marc Weisskopf, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health associate professor of environmental and occupational epidemiology, and colleagues looked at children whose mothers were exposed to high levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5, particles 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller), particularly during the third trimester of pregnancy. +The study, which involved more than 1,000 participants living all across the U.S., found that these children appeared to be twice as likely to be diagnosed with autism as children whose mothers had only low levels of such exposures. +Exposure to larger particles — between 2.5 and 10 microns (what’s known as PM10) — did not appear to be associated with increasing risk for autism. +“This is very important from an epidemiological point of view” because it “places a spotlight on the mother’s exposure,” says Weisskopf. +It also highlights the importance of timing and neurodevelopmental effects. +Although many other factors may contribute to autism, Weisskopf explains, this study strengthens the suggestion that environmental exposures can play a role. +That it appears it is the very small particles that are associated with these effects adds to what other research is finding: What might seem quantitatively small can “be quite important” when it comes to affecting brain development, Weisskopf explains. +Columbia University researchers recently published an additional study linking common air pollutants to cognitive and behavioral impairment in children. +Widespread Exposure +As Grandjean and Landrigan point out, one of the disturbing recent realizations concerning environmental exposure to developmental neurotoxicants is how widespread exposure appears to be and the ubiquity of such compounds. +“More neurotoxic chemicals are getting into products,” says Landrigan. +Phthalates, which are used as plasticizers — including in polyvinyl chloride plastics — and in synthetic fragrances and numerous personal care products, comprise one category of widely used chemicals that appear to have adverse impacts on brain development. +Researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health recently found that children exposed prenatally to elevated levels of certain phthalates had IQ scores that were, on average, between 6 and 8 points lower than children with lower prenatal exposures. Children with reduced IQ scores also appeared to have trouble with working memory, perceptional reasoning and information processing speeds. +Others, including air pollutants, are much harder given their ubiquity or lack of available alternatives. And, as Maureen Swanson notes, such choices are not necessarily feasible for people at all economic levels, which raises environmental justice issues. +Grandjean and Landrigan point out that the U.S. system of chemical regulation, which lacks requirements for full premarket toxicity testing, does not do a very good job when it comes to proactive chemical safety. “Untested chemicals should not be presumed to be safe to brain development, and chemicals in existing use and all new chemicals must therefore be tested for developmental neurotoxicity,” they wrote in an article published in The Lancet. +When it comes to protecting the exquisitely sensitive developing brain, the measures currently used to assess chemical risk and set safety standards fall short, says Cory-Slechta. +Examples abound, and include exposures to chemicals released in electronics recycling in various locations in Asia and Africa, to lead and mercury from mining activity, to agricultural pesticides, to products contaminated with heavy metals, including food and candy. +When it comes to protecting the exquisitely sensitive developing brain, the measures currently used to assess chemical risk and set safety standards fall short, says Cory-Slechta. +“It should be about primary prevention, but it’s not,” she says. +In the absence of what many environmental health advocates feel is adequate U.S. federal regulation of chemicals, many individual U.S. states have recently passed their own laws to protect children from harmful chemical exposures. +Many address chemicals with neurotoxic effects, particularly those of heavy metals such as cadmium, lead and mercury. +And even though some states are beginning to include language in their legislation to protect pregnant women from chemical hazards, this timing of exposure is left largely unaddressed. +While we now know a great deal about developmental neurotoxicants, more such exposures appear to be occurring than ever before. +And there appears to be wide agreement among researchers that these exposures are taking a toll on the world’s children. +“To me it is very clear we have to set up a different system to better protect the brains of the future,” says Grandjean. +Elizabeth Grossman is an independent journalist and writer specializing in environmental and science issues. +She is the author of Chasing Molecules, High Tech Trash, Watershed and other books. +Her work has also appeared in a variety of publications, including Ensia, Scientific American, Yale e360, the Washington Post, TheAtlantic.com, Salon, The Nation, and Mother Jones. +She tweets from @lizzieg1. + +And rather than purchase guidebooks, I like to read the blogs of locals and expats—and Global Voices, of course—to get a sense of a place before I travel." +A year ago I was in Italy with a friend, lamenting my choice of shoes. +I had packed only running shoes and leather boots, and both were soaked to the core after several days of downpours. +Our conversation gave birth to an idea: What if there were a website or app that allowed me to “visit” a country at ground level and see what kind of footwear was appropriate? +The site would be curated by locals, and would therefore have the side effect of helping me fit in with local fashion, thus minimizing the chance I’d be labeled a tourist. +A silly idea, perhaps, but the impetus behind it isn’t: Many of my generation don’t want to feel or look like tourists when we travel. +This explains the rise of companies like Airbnb, that help you avoid tourist hotels and “live like a local.” +Living abroad for a few years at a young age instilled this desire in me as well. +I prefer bunking down in apartments, hanging with locals, and visiting local hangouts to staying in hotels, package tours, and museum visits. +And rather than purchase guidebooks, I like to read the blogs of locals and expats—and Global Voices, of course—to get a sense of a place before I travel. +This got me thinking: Are there others out there who use Global Voices as a travel guide of sorts? +I had the opportunity to put this question to several of my GV colleagues at the recent GV Summit. +Here’s what they said: +Marianna Breytman, one of our Spanish-to-English translators, told me: +“I always use GV when traveling because I think it's a really great way to see what issues are currently concerning any given region. +Most recently I've done it when I visited Panama, Mexico, and Colombia, and I'm planning to do it again before my trip to Turkey in a few weeks.” +Anna Schetnikova writes for GV in Russian and English. She said: +“I was travelling in Turkey at the time of the recent general elections last summer. +And GV was great to use to know about political culture of the country, about different parties and activists and the society, so when I saw posters in the street, I knew what they were about." +Mohamed ElGohary, GV’s Lingua Translation Coordinator and staff representative on the Board of Directors, recently got married and used GV to research his honeymoon in the Maldives. +He said this post factored in his decision-making about which island to visit. +I also posed the question on Twitter: Have you ever used Global Voices to research a place before visiting? +Emer Beamer, a social designer and educator based in the Netherlands (and regular GV reader), told me in an e-mail that when she’s looking for “good people” in a certain locale, “Global Voices is a port of call.” +When she traveled to Cambodia, she met with three people that she located through GV, and is now working with a GV author on a project. +Beamer told me that she’d love to see GV implement a travel section, and that she would use it to understand “the local work ethic, where to find wifi where the (idea) sharing or counter culture is happening in city.” +She said she usually recommends that the researchers she works with check GV before traveling. +Katie Mulloy, who works for UNICEF in Uganda, said that GV is “the logical place to look” for information about a new place, specifically “issues that fly under the radar of the mainstream media.” +A seasoned traveler, Mulloy says she’s used the site to research Cambodia, Uganda and Malaysia. +I asked Mulloy to imagine what a Global Voices Travel section might look like. +“Most ‘48 hours in X city’ articles are by well-traveled Westerners, for well-traveled Westerners,” she said. +“But I’d be keen to know what a South Korean art student would flag as the best things to do in Seoul.” +Ben Valentine is a freelance writer currently living in Cambodia. “As a journalist and as a nerd,” he said, “I want information outside of Lonely Planet what are the new memes? +What are the recent political battles for free speech in these countries? +What are bloggers debating now?” +Understanding the perspectives of bloggers and social media users was a recurring theme among the people I spoke to. +Moroccan blogger El Mahdi told me that reading GV before traveling gives him “an idea of how people of that country are commenting online in their own words, translated into a language I can understand…” He first used GV to prepare for a trip to Thailand, because he was seeking “things I could read to learn about the country and its culture besides Wikipedia and the clichés we all hear about tourism .” +In his e-mail to me, El Mahdi also managed to coin a new term: +“Since , GlobalVoicing a country among the usual things I did before a travel, in addition of course to Googling and Wikipedi-ying the country, especially when I do not speak the country's language.” + +How School Lunch Plays a Central Role in Education in Japan · Global Voices +As anyone who has ever attended or taught at a Japanese school can tell you, school lunch (給食, kyuushoku) is the most important part of the day. +It provides not only nourishment, but also an opportunity to teachers and students to bond by eating together. +While the lunch is typically prepared by full-time staff in a large kitchen either in the school or at a central facility that serves the entire school district, it's the students who are responsible for serving lunch for their classmates. +New York-based Cafeteria Culture (CafCu), which has a mission to work creatively to achieve zero-waste public school cafeterias and climate-smart communities, has produced an engaging informative video that provides great insights about how school lunches are a fundamental part of learning in Japan's schools. + +Venezuela's Oscar Entry Speaks an Indigenous Language · Global Voices +Lo que lleva el río ("Gone With the River"), from Cuban-Venezuelan filmmaker Mario Crespo Dauna, is a Venezuelan film shot almost entirely in Warao, the language spoken by the people indigenous to the Orinoco River Delta. The film is Venezuela's entry to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign-Language Film. +According to Andrew S. Vargas, who wrote in Remezcla: The story follows an indigenous woman named Dauna who is marked by difference within her community. Torn between her love for Tarsicio or her desire to pursue studies outside of her village, Dauna’s decision to challenge the expectations of her traditional culture lead to suffering and, ultimately, reconciliation." +The film was selected as part of the Berlin Film Festival’s groundbreaking NATIVe showcase, earlier this year. +Here is the trailer: + +How Social Media Fuels China's Growing Love of Cosmetic Surgery · Global Voices +Image by TeeLamb. +CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 +In less than two decades, cosmetic surgery has surged exponentially within China. +The medical procedure has been transformed into a consumer product, thanks to a plethora of advertisements that preach a standardized Asian beauty and social media marketing strategies that build a community "empowering" women to change their face and hence their life. +According to the estimations of China's cosmetic surgery industry, there were 140 million potential cosmetic surgery customers in 2014. +One out of every thousand faces have undergone either major or minor surgical treatment and two out of every thousand have considered going under the knife. +'Not only changes your life, but your inner self' +Confucians believe that spiritual upbringing is more important than looks. +But that idea has given way to the reigning view among young Chinese that your looks can determine your fate. +According to popular thinking, by tweaking your facial features, be it nose or eyelids, your life will also become more beautiful. +Stories of how a changed face ushers in a brighter future have been shared again and again on Chinese social media among young women: +A beautiful appearance not only changes your life, but your inner self. +Be blessed, enjoy a beautiful life and future. +People often say that staying young at heart can make you look younger. +While it's certainly true, you need to have a good mood to keep yourself young at heart. +There are many ways to maintain your mood, but what's most necessary is the ability to appreciate yourself. +If a person looks into the mirror and feels bad, how can that person be optimistic about life and stay young? +So staying young at heart and your appearance go hand in hand. +Watch yourself become younger, more beautiful, who will care whether it is artificial or natural? +At least I am now very happy. +Similar assertions are found on soyoung.com, a cosmetic surgery service platform that allows users to upload their photos and share their surgical experience in an online diary. +The platform is run by a cosmetic surgery service agency to promote the elective procedures; it connects both domestic and overseas doctors and hospitals directly with their clients and enables users to have online medical consultations and make appointments. +Within two years, the online-to-offline platform has accumulated more than 600,000 registered users and facilitated 2,000 cosmetic surgery facilities in reaching out to their clients. +There are at least a dozen other similar platforms that help the industry to promote their medical services. +The power of social media marketing +Beautiful models in advertisements reinforce a standardized Asian beauty — white skin, double eyelids, tall and straight nose, oval-shaped face, big breasts, long and slim thighs. +And mobile apps that allow you to modify your looks only intensify the temptation of obtaining that "desirable" beauty. +The idea pushed by the beauty industry is that there are no ugly women, but lazy women who don't make the surgical changes necessary to conform. +But these surgeries aren’t always successful, yet there aren't any similar social media platforms dedicated to sharing experiences of botched procedures. +An investigative report from a Hong Kong-based news platform, the Initium, revealed that the cosmetic surgical industry uses potent social media marketing tactics to suppress complaints and create a herd mentality among potential clients. +According to the anonymous patient of a famous surgeon in the report, her doctor was involved in a bone-shaving surgical error that led to a serious disability in a different patient. +Despite this, the doctor's social media marketing team managed to convince her and other potential clients that the news was just a malicious rumor spread by his competitors. +Before the source decided to undertake the bone-shaving procedure, she joined the doctor's patient group on social media platform QQ. +The positive comments and the excitement and readiness of the patients in embracing the surgery made her forget the potential risk that she would be undertaking. +Victims' voices neglected +Most victims of botched cosmetic surgery are unwilling to share their painful experience because they rarely gain public sympathy. +The following comments under lifestyle blog Shanghaiist's report on a series of protests in Seoul, South Korea, by victims of botched surgeries are rather typical: +I don't have sympathy for people who fall for these 'super cheap' schemes. +Ok plastic surgeons aren't as qualified as real surgeons, but it still takes a lot of hard work and training to do it, if people are being cheapskates about it and trying to save money by using dodgy surgeons then they are hurting the honest ones who learn how to do it properly and are good at it. +I hate cosmetic surgery by the way, but the principle still stands. +China probably suffers more than any other rich nation from this attitude of 'why waste money on paying someone who actually knows what they're doing. +People are born with a certain look and defining features. +Are they denying their parents looks? +There's a difference between surgery after an accident to repair cosmetic damage and this. +This is just pointless and detrimental. +Even when victims are courageous enough to face public scrutiny and tell their stories, their voices are often drowned out by the profit-driven social media marketing business. +The imbalance of information reflects the adverse effects of China's current Internet governance policies, which encourage the growth of online businesses while suppressing the development of virtual communities, such as those dedicated to feminist, consumer and citizen right issues, that can genuinely empower ordinary people to speak out. +Ayo Awokoya also contributed to this post. + +The Best in Korean Street Food: From Sweet Pancakes to Live Baby Octopus · Global Voices +Despite the South Korean government's rigorous funding and promotion for high-end Korean chefs and restaurants, simple authentic Korean street food has garnered more respect and recognition online from foodies and travel savants. +Even notoriously spicy food, which marketing experts advise to "water-down" for global customers, has developed its own devout following from food-daredevils. +In this hilarious video 'Fire Noodle Challenge in London', Josh Carrott, an online celebrity of sorts (thanks to his series of YouTube videos), interviews British people and asks them about Korean food, music and culture. +In the next video, Popular food blogger Matt Armendariz of MattBite, explains Korean street food served on sticks: +There is no shortage of quick and tasty food in Seoul and Jeonju. +In fact, it’s hard to not stumble into a stand somewhere serving bubbling ddeokbokki or frying up the small disks of hoddeok, the sweet pancakes ready to be consumed on the spot. +The sheer number of carts, food stalls and ad hoc restaurants is only matched by the Korean appetite Not to make anyone dizzy, but here’s a quick slightly sped up video of my walk through Gwangjang Market. +I don’t think I could even keep track of the amount of food stalls. +Blogger and travel author Mark Wiens, posted a YouTube video where he shows and talks about popular Korean street food: +On the Migrationology site Wiens elaborates on each food he introduced in the video: +If you like to snack, you’ll have lots to do in South Korea! +Instead of wolfing down bowls of rice and full dishes, Korean street food is often reserved for things that can be eaten standing up, especially catering to Seoulites that are running from subway to subway. +Stuff on sticks or things can can be eaten with toothpicks are common. +For readers who want to give Korean street food a try in the comfort of their own kitchens, here are tutorial videos for two of the most widely-loved street foods: +1) Tteokbokki- Sliced rice cake, additionally with fish cake, cooked in the Korean chili paste. +Its sweet, spicy and chewy 2)Hotteok or Hoddeok, a variety of filled Korean pancake +And if you are a foodie daredevil, you might want to try Sannakji- fresh baby octopus eaten alive while it's still wriggling! +This dish is not being promoted widely, but has attracted a lot of attention from foodies who seem unable to resist it. +For viewers with a light stomach here's a video showing the final dish, without the scene of how it is consumed. + +Women Survivors Speak Out About Indonesia’s 1965 Mass Killings · Global Voices +Vena Taka. +Her brother and father were arrested in 1966. +"I didn’t know that my dad and younger brother were detained, or where they were killed. +Even where they were buried, I didn’t know." +Photo from Asia Justice and Rights. +The Asia Justice and Rights group has conducted a series of interviews with 26 women who survived the mass killings and other forms of violence in Indonesia during the anti-communist purge conducted by the military in 1965. +Fifty years have passed since the army arrested hundreds of thousands of communists and their suspected sympathizers as part of a campaign to save the country from the scourge of communism. +An estimated half a million people were killed during the anti-communist hysteria and even more Indonesians suffered “torture, enforced disappearances, rape, sexual slavery, and other crimes of sexual violence, slavery, arbitrary arrest, and detention, forced displacement, and forced labor” after 1965. +The army claimed it only retaliated, accusing the communists of attacking government forces first. +General Suharto rose to power during this period and remained Indonesia’s leader until 1998, when a popular uprising forced him to resign. +While in power, Suharto didn’t allow the media, academia, or the the public to discuss or probe what really happened in 1965. +This occurred only after his ouster, when victims and witnesses came forward to share their stories. +In 2012, Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights declared that the army committed gross human rights violations in 1965. +Last August, President Jokowi proposed the formation of a reconciliation commission to address unresolved issues related to the 1965 massacre. +The enduring importance of Suharto's legacy was evident, however, when Indonesia's biggest political parties and its military rejected Jokowi’s proposal. +This month, a literary festival aimed at sharing stories of what transpired in 1965 was cancelled due to pressure from the government. +But if the government is hesitant to look back and reflect on the lessons of the 1965 massacre, many people and groups in Indonesia are ready to dig deeper into the past and seek justice on behalf of the victims of violence and other crimes against humanity. +An International People's Tribunal is being organized in The Hague next month to probe the accountability of the Indonesian government in the 1965 violence. +Meanwhile, the research conducted by Asia Justice and Rights is a disturbingly poignant way to learn about the ordinary people who endured decades of violence and discrimination during the Suharto regime. +Many of the female survivors are wives or daughters of political prisoners and suspected communist sympathizers. +Their stories remind us that the quest for truth and justice continues to be an essential yet unfulfilled political demand in Indonesia. +Frangkina Boboy. +Her father was suspected of being involved with the Communist Party, and was arrested and detained in 1965. +"My father had land in Lasiana—a house and rice fields—but because he was accused of being a communist, his family took it. +We had nothing, and had to squat on land that was actually owned by my parents." +Photo from Asia Justice and Rights. +Migelina A. Markus, detained in 1965 along with both of her parents and her siblings. +"The ‘65 tragedy made us lose our parents, my older brother, and there were a lot of disappearances without any trial or evidence they had betrayed the state or nation. +I want to testify so that people know the truth about the events we experienced." +Photo from Asia Justice and Rights.Lasinem's husband was arrested and tortured in 1969, and eventually sent to Buru Island. " was picked up by soldiers, his own friends, and taken to the village office (Kelurahan). +He was beaten, sat upright in a chair and beaten. +His back was trampled on until he was wounded all over. +At first I was confused and scared, terrified, and I realized I had lost my protector, and my source of financial support. +What about my young children? +They need to eat!…I’m still wounded because I remember things that happened in the past… There is still a wound in my heart." +Photo from Asia Justice and Rights.Kadmiyati was studying at a teacher’s college in Yogyakarta in 1965 when she was arrested. +"When will there be justice? +Who is sadistic and cruel? +The communists? +Or the perpetrators of the killings? find out the truth." +Photo from Asia Justice and Rights. +Hartiti. +Arrested in 1966, one of her children passed away from an illness while she was detained. +"My first child was old enough to understand her mother’s suffering. +She thought about it until she died. +She also often heard news about me. +She died because she heard people saying things that hurt her." +Photo from Asia Justice and Rights. +Oni Ponirah. +She was 17 when she was arrested in 1965. +"I was told I was only being taken in for questioning. +It turns out I would be held for 14 years. +From 1965 until end of December 1979… We never got justice. +I hope the government will apologize to the victims." +Photo from Asia Justice and Rights. +Photos courtesy of Asia Justice and Rights, reposted with permission. + +Saving thousands of lives doesn't have to cost millions of dollars. +Two students in Africa recently demonstrated that it takes as little as 59 cents to keep some human beings alive, and the solution can be as simple as a bar of soap. +Moctar Dembele, a native of Burkina Faso, and Gerard Niyondiko, born in Burundi, are students at the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. +Dembele and Niyondiko are no strangers to the threat of malaria, which is the leading cause of death in Subsaharan Africa. +Every year around the world, about 600,000 people die from malaria—a disease caused by parasites that are spread to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes. The symptoms typically include fever, fatigue, vomiting, and headaches. +To help counter the disease, Dembele and Niyondiko invented a soap made from locally sourced herbs and natural ingredients, like Shea butter and lemongrass oil, that repel disease-carrying mosquitoes. They called it the "Faso soap”. +The concept has the appeal of being both highly practical and affordable: +To help them with their initiative, UC Berkeley's Global Social Venture Competition recently awarded Dembélé and Niyondiko $26,500. +The science behind the idea is quite straightforward, explains Hugo Jalinière, a science reporter at Sciences et Avenir, a French science magazine: +The soap acts as a repellent in two ways: its smell and an inside component that kills the larvae and prevents their proliferation in still water. +The tests performed on a sample population in Ouagadougou turned out quite promising. +According to the World Health Organization, there are about 200 millions cases of malaria infections annually, resulting in roughly 660,000 deaths. +There is no vaccine yet against malaria, but a plethora of antimalarial medications are available as treatments for the various symptoms. +Prevention measures are plenty, but there is no full-proof protection against parasite-carrying mosquitoes and repellents are part of the combination of preventive measures used in the region. +Scientists have extensively studied different plant-based repellents against mosquitoes. Sarah Moore, a scientist from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says the results of studies on such repellents' efficiency are so far are inconclusive, but their use has gained in popularity because of the rationale behind such measures: +The field of plant-based repellents is moving forward as consumers demand means of protection from arthropod bites that are safe, pleasant to use and environmentally sustainable. +It is also extremely fertile due to wealth of insecticidal compounds found in plants as defences against insects. +The modern pyrethroids that are the mainstay of the current malaria elimination program that is making excellent progress are harmless to mammals. +Screen Capture of Interactive Africa Map of Artemisinins data via WWARN +Dembélé and Niyondiko are also painfully aware of the economic obstacles to fighting malaria. +Niyondiko's home country, Burundi, is currently in the middle of a grave humanitarian crisis and the nation ranks 167th among 177 countries on the UN Human Development Index. +Burkina Faso went through its own political upheaval recently and about half of the population lives on less than 1.25 USD a day. +Any sustainable solutions to malaria in Africa must be especially affordable, given the region's history and ongoing struggles. +With this in mind, Dembélé and Niyondiko sought to design Faso soap to be as low cost as possible. +The project, moreover, could not come at a better time, as the Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network recently warned health agencies that resistance to the antimalarial drug artemisinin is on the rise: +As of February 2015, artemisinin resistance has been confirmed in 5 countries In the large majority of sites, patients with artemisinin-resistant parasites still recover after treatment, provided that they are treated with an ACT containing an effective partner drug. +However, along the Cambodia-Thailand border, P. falciparum has become resistant to almost all available antimalarial medicines. +There is a real risk that multidrug resistance will soon emerge in other parts of the subregion as well. +Dembélé and Niyondiko know the road ahead is still long, but they say they are prepared for an extended fight. +Dembélé says the battle is about more than beating the disease; it's also about giving Africa brighter hopes for its own future. +After winning the award from UC Berkeley, he said: +I am very happy that this award is also a victory for Africa and particularly for Burkina Faso. +This is the first time a non-American team has won this award. +This award is to honor of all the youth of Africa. +We hope it will inspire others to move forward. + +Shiseido's Gender-Bending Commercial · Global Voices +Screenshot from Shiseido official YouTube channel +Japanese cosmetic maker Shiseido's latest web-only commercial was designed to go viral. +The camera travels around the room, briefly pausing to give the audience a glimpse of the students in the classroom. Video caption: The Makeup Secrets of Japanese High School Girls +"Did you notice any boys in this classroom?" +Of course, it turns out that the female-students are in fact male, and the video cleverly starts to run in reverse, showing how the young men were transformed into young women. +Even the teacher turns out to have been a man. +Predictably, the commercial has turned into a hit in Japan. +Says one female Twitter user: +This Shiseido commercial is awesome! +These guys are even cuter than women! (*´ｪ`*)… +Most of the reactions seemed to think the transformation from boy to girl was amazing, but there was little if any attention paid to the deeper issues of how gender identity can be constructed, and what role cosmetics play in defining what it means to be considered female: +The professional stylists are amazing! +And so is Shiseido's perfect execution of this commercial! +Some of the models in the commercial posted before-and-after photos. +Here is Asahi Fuji, a relatively unknown model: +Here's a before-and-after photo! #cross-dressing #plsRT #plsplsRTthis! +Yuki Murakami, another model, posted photos of the whole group: +I'm in a new web-only commercial for Shiseido A lot of the guys were super handsome... a must-see commercial for the ladies lol. +Thanks to the pointers on how to apply makeup. +Twitter user @RII_925, a high school friend of Murakami's, posted some stills of behind-the-scenes footage of how the makeup was applied and expressed her disbelief at the transformation: + +Lumad Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines Speak Out Against Abuses · Global Voices +Lumad leaders display banner calling for the protection of their communities as they march towards Manila. +Photo from the Facebook page of ST Exposure +Over 700 Lumad (indigenous peoples from the southern Philippine island of Mindanao) traveled thousands of kilometers and set up protest camps in the nation's capital of Manila in October 2015 to demand the removal of troops and paramilitary forces from their communities. +Dubbed the Manilakbayan 2015, the people’s caravan also seeks public support to end the human rights abuses committed by state forces against the Lumad. +Testimonies from some of the Lumad were shared on Facebook by multimedia group Southern Tagalog Exposure. +The hashtag #StopLumadKillings trended in the Philippines after the gruesome murders of Lumad community school head Emerito Samarca and two indigenous leaders Dionel Campos and Bello Sinzo last September 1, 2015. +This was the most high-profile case in what activists claim is a systematic campaign of repression against indigenous peoples in Mindanao, including the targeting of their leaders for assassinations, the closing of indigenous schools, and the military occupation of their homelands. +Lumad organizations explain that they are being targeted at the behest of large-scale mining, plantations, and other companies salivating over the resource-rich Lumad lands. +The armed forces of the Philippines is also accused of arming and training Lumad paramilitaries to fight their own kin. +The militarization of indigenous communities has led to massive evacuations of thousands of Lumad across Mindanao. +These brief statements gathered by Southern Tagalog Exposure bear witness to the intense militarization of indigenous communities and plunder of their ancestral lands. +"Our ancestral lands are being forcibly taken from us. +We want to drive the soldiers away and dismantle the paramilitary groups dividing the ranks of us Lumad. +We want to live in peace." +Bai Bibiaon Ligkaian Bigkal, Woman Warrior of Tala-ingod, Davao del Norte +“Soldiers massacred our tribe. +The government and corporations prioritize personal interests, not the interests of the people. +The people are not important to them. +When we defend our ancestral land and culture, they accuse us of being part of New People's Army to justify abductions or murders.” +Kaylo, Manobo of Talaingod, Davao del Norte +"Because of the repression of the soldiers, we were forced to evacuate and leave our land. +To be displaced is difficult, with the heat and no water. +We want to return to our land. +I vowed to myself as a Lumad since childhood to continue our fight until I die." +Krstina Lantao, Southern Mindanao Region +“The Philippine Army destroyed our school. +They even burned our agricultural cooperative. +I experienced getting jailed and now face trumped-up charges of kidnapping. +We miss our ancestral land. +Wherever we go, we yearn for it. +This is where we live and grew up. +If it is taken from us, our culture will die with the next generation.” +Datu Isidro, Kitaotao, Bukidnon +“The helicopter of the soldiers arrived at our place. +They burned our house. +Only the clothes we wore were saved. +According to the soldiers, the Lumad are not allowed to study. +When I grow up, I want to be a teacher to prove them wrong.” +Kimkim Baliti, 13-year-old Manobo, Talaingod, Davao del Norte +“"We will not die in the jungles, but instead will die from the open pit mining. +We should be the ones benefiting from the wealth of Mindanao. +The soldiers say we are New People's Army to justify our displacement and murder. +They should be the ones who must go because they are outsiders to our ancestral land.” +Jean Derong, Manobo, Davao Oriental +“The role of women in the struggle of the native Lumad is important. +Our respect for each other is high. +We need to collectively defend our human rights and our ancestral land.” +Bai Aida Seiza, Manobo, Paquibato, Davao City + +Global Voices’ Hisham Almiraat Faces Trial in Morocco · Global Voices +Hisham Almiraat in his home city of El Jadida, Morocco in October 2013. +Photo by Ellery Biddle. +Claudio Guarnieri contributed to this post. +Hisham Almiraat, a medical doctor and long-time community leader at Global Voices, will face trial in Morocco this week on charges of "threatening the internal security of the State." +Almiraat is being charged along with four other civil society advocates — historian Maâti Monjib, journalists Samad Iach and Mohamed Elsabr, and free expression advocate Hicham Mansouri. +Free expression advocates and media rights groups widely agree that the case represents an attempt by the Moroccan government to silence those who are critical of its policies and practices. +Evidence in the case against Almiraat, who has written for Global Voices since 2009 and served as the community's advocacy director from 2012 - 2014, includes his testimony for "Their Eyes on Me," a research report on technical surveillance in Morocco. +The report was published by London-based NGO Privacy International in cooperation with the Association des Droits Numériques (Association for Digital Rights), a Moroccan civil society group which Almiraat helped launch. +Hisham Almiraat, Nighat Dad, Sana Saleem and Ellery Biddle at IGF 2013 in Indonesia. +Photo courtesy of Ellery Biddle. +Almiraat and his colleague Karima Nadir, vice president of the Association, were interrogated by Morocco's Judicial Police (BNPJ) in Casablanca in September 2015. +Authorities asked them about their work and their relationship with Privacy International. +The Ministry of Interior then filed a judicial complaint concerning the organizations' aforementioned joint report on surveillance in Morocco. +Almiraat has spent most of his adult life working to improve the lives and well-being of Moroccans, both as a civil society advocate and as a medical doctor. +While studying medicine and working as an emergency room physician by day, Almiraat ran his own blog, wrote for Global Voices, and co-founded citizen media projects Talk Morocco and Mamfakinch. +The latter project was formed by Almiraat and a group of fellow human rights advocates in an effort to bolster media coverage of social uprisings in Morocco in 2011-12 and played a central role in galvanizing public support for the protest movement. +During this time, Almiraat and his colleagues at Mamfakinch were targeted with surveillance software that invaded their computer systems and left them fearful that their communications were being watched. +These fears were later confirmed with research by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab. +In July 2015, leaks from the files of Italy-based surveillance software company Hacking Team showed that the Conseil Superieur De La Defense Nationale, a Moroccan government agency, purchased Hacking Team software in 2012. +Almiraat's work over time has been primarily in the service of supporting a robust media environment in his country, and holding his government accountable for its commitments to international human rights standards of free expression and privacy. +The Global Voices community stands in solidarity with Hisham and invites readers around the world to support his case on social media and to read and share his stories, which can be found here and here. +Shortly we will release more information about the case, along with an open statement of support. + +Russian Lawmaker Suggests Banning Telegram Messenger 'Because It's Used by ISIS' · Global Voices +Should Telegram be banned because it's used by extremist organizations illegal in Russia? +Images by Rflor and Mihael Tomic for the Noun Project. +Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot. +Russian users' access to the Telegram messenger app should be restricted, according to Russian lawmaker Aleksandr Ageyev, who appealed to the Russian state security service (FSB) to consider the possibility of blocking the app. +In his appeal, Ageyev noted that Telegram is "being actively used by terrorists from the Islamic State (IS) to distribute extremist content," and possibly also serves as a platform for "the recruiting process of Russian citizens into IS." +Ageyev notes that unlike other social networks, such as VKontakte, Twitter, or Facebook, which actively battle extremist content, Telegram's technical support "ignores user complaints about such content." +According to his appeal to the FSB, Ageyev's position on Telegram is based on a number of reports in Russian and foreign media about ISIS members choosing to use Telegram to coordinate their moves in the Paris November 13 attacks, allegedly because information sent over the messenger is protected by several layers of encryption. +Pavel Durov, the creator of the Telegram app and former founder and owner of VKontakte, quickly responded to Ageyev's suggestions on his VKontakte page, and was rather sarcastic in his remarks. +I suggest we ban words. +There's been news that terrorists use them to communicate. +Russian Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov also spoke out in defence of Telegram and said the authorities shouldn't block apps, but instead should "identify and prosecute those who engage in illegal activity." +Blocking Telegram, Nikiforov said, would simply drive those using it for illegal purposes to use another platform, and blocking all messenger apps and social networks would mean blocking the entire Internet in Russia, which Nikiforov argues runs counter to Russia's communications development strategy. +Blocking Telegram or some other messenger in Russia because ISIL terrorists use them would be as reasonable as, for example, banning the Toyota cars in Russia because they also turned out to be popular among ISIL terrorists. +Dmitry Marinichev, the Kremlin's Internet Ombudsman, also criticized Ageyev's proposal to limit Russians' access to Telegram. +In a radio interview on November 16, Marinichev mocked the initiative and suggested it would be "just as effective as determining what (cell) phones terrorists are using and then banning that specific telephone model within a certain region." +In May of 2015, Pavel Durov told TechCrunch in an interview that the monthly active audience for Telegram was 62 million users, and in September he announced that users send 12 billion messages through the app daily. + +The Global Voices community demands justice for seven free expression advocates who are facing trial in Morocco due to their advocacy. +The seven advocates have sought to defend human rights, hold authorities accountable to the public, and uphold rule of law in their country. +Five have been charged with "threatening the internal security of the State" and two face charges of "receiving foreign funding without notifying the General Secretariat of the government." +We call on the Moroccan government to stand by its commitments to international human rights agreements and drop all charges against these seven individuals. +Hisham Almiraat at the Global Voices Summit in Nairobi, 2012. +Among those charged is Hisham Almiraat, a medical doctor and long-time member of our community. +We cannot remain silent in the face of this threat to our friend. +Hisham has had a leading voice in Morocco’s blogosphere for nearly a decade. +He co-founded citizen media projects Talk Morocco and Mamfakinch, and served as Global Voices’ advocacy director. +Balancing profession and passion, Hisham has spent many years working to improve the lives and well-being of Moroccans, both as a civil society advocate and as a medical doctor. +Like other media and human rights groups around the world, we fear that this case represents an attempt by the Moroccan government to silence those who are critical of its policies and practices. +We see this not only as a threat to our friend and colleague, but also to our broader mission. +As a community of bloggers and activists from over 160 countries, we invoke the universal human right to free expression each day, as we tell stories from underrepresented communities around the world. +We call on allies to support our message, and on foreign governments to hold the Moroccan government to account on its actions and principles. #Justice4Morocco +SUPPORT OUR CALL +Sign this open statement from our community +Support the campaign on social media using the hashtag #Justice4Morocco +Read and share stories about the case: +Global Voices’ Hisham Almiraat Faces Trial in Morocco, Global Voices International appeal to the Moroccan authorities to drop charges against human rights defenders, Free Press Unlimited Morocco’s Smiling Face and Heavy Hand, Human Rights Watch Amid wave of defamation cases, CPJ joins call for Morocco to drop charges against press, Committee to Protect Journalists +Read and share Hisham’s past coverage for Global Voices + +‘Symphony for Peru’: Educating Children Through Music · Global Voices +Children of Symphony for Peru in concert. +Photo: Flickr / Miraflores City Hall (CC BY 2.0). +Renowned Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez heads an organization called Symphony for Peru, inspired by the National Network of Youth and Children Orchestras of Venezuela. +The group provides musical training disadvantaged children. +Flórez's organization has been active for five years already, and the results so far have been positive. +According to a report by Peru's Bureau of Studies for Development, "participants develop a higher self-esteem, greater tenacity to achieve goals, increased creativity and better ways of living together in society." +Writing for En busca del milagro peruano (Pursuing the Peruvian Miracle), Pablo Macalupú-Cumpén says Symphony for Peru uses music to foster values that last a lifetime: +intervenes and reforms children as rigorously as possible—hundreds (maybe even thousands already) of children nationwide, and the best way to do it is with music, because music, as English psychiatrist Anthony Storr said, has the capacity to transform our existence completely. +There are currently about 800 children participating in Symphony for Peru. +They come from four different areas of the country, according to Development Effectiveness Overview (an annual report produced by the Inter-American Development Bank to show the results and impact of its work): +The project established four musical centers in four very different areas in Peru: the marginalized, urban ghettos of Trujillo (coastal), Huancayo (mountain), Huánuco (rainforest), and Manchay-Lima (desert). +Each center brings music to almost 200 children and adolescents living at or below the poverty level. +The setting of the program helps children build their self-esteem, encourages them to have goals in life and to achieve those goals, promotes improved school performance, strengthens family ties, and facilitates positive involvement in their community. +Twitter users have also been busy discussing and even promoting the planned activities of Symphony for Peru: Call for Symphony for Peru - Huanuco Core Group. +Talento from Peru! +"El Cóndor Pasa" performed by Symphony for Peru. Symphony for Peru: the power of music that generates sustained development. Symphony for Peru – Trujillo Core Group at the Cultural Center. + +The Mesoamerican Abacus That Gives Modern Calculators a Run for Their Money · Global Voices +The nepohualtzintzin is a calculation device used in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures, including the Mayans, that is now making a comeback in several education programs, which are making use of this powerful tool to teach mathematics at an early age in a completely organic way. +The name nepohualtzintzin is formed by two words in the Mesoamerican Nahuatl language: nepohual, which means "counting," and tzintzin, which means "the venerable or relevant." Thus, the word nepohualtzintzin means "the relevant counting." +There’s nothing magical about this ancient device, known also simply as nepo. +It doesn’t require the use of paper or pencil, but instead makes its precise calculations using beads. +The Mayan numerical system was based on the number 20, unlike the decimal system used today. +This vigesimal system included the number zero: +The notation on the vigesimal system is similar, except that 20 is the base. +This system needs 20 different figures, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19 that can also be represented as 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I and J. +With the vigesimal numerical system, Mayans were able to carry out basic mathematical operations through addition and multiplication tables and using an abacus made out of a rod-based grid, or directly drawn on the floor, and they used pebbles or seeds to represent numbers. +This abacus was known as nepohualtzintzin. +Due to the huge number of operations it allows to carry out, it could be said that the nepohualtzintzin is comparable to a modern computer. +It's a set of 91 beads spread out in 13 rows of seven beads. +Ninety-one is a fourth of 364, about the number of days in a year, so the total number of beads represents one season. +Two times 91 is 182, the cycle of corn: +The nepohualtzintzin mathematical system came out of the necessity that our forefathers had for survival; to till the land they had to count the days, natural phenomena and their cycles, and watch, for instance, that the sun appears every day in the east, goes across the sky and then sets in the west. +It's important to note that the Mayan civilization was the first in the Americas to figure out the number zero: +Mayan mathematics have left an imprint in time; before any other civilization, Mayans came up with a revolutionary concept: the number zero. +Zero is a symbol commonly used to represent nothing; however, the Mayan concept of zero doesn't imply an absence or a negation. +For the Mayans, zero has a sense of fullness. +For instance, when writing the figure 20, the zero, put on the first level, simply indicates that the score is complete. +Today, this pre Hispanic tool is being used to make teaching math easier, among other uses: +Used frequently, it fosters numerical ability, improves the power of concentration, logical thinking, memory, mental agility, orderly information processing and visual attention. +Using the nepo could be considered an excellent way of exercising the brain, as it keeps it active and flexible at any age. +The nepo is one of few devices that stimulates a higher number of synapses (connections between neurons) between both brain lobes simultaneously, in addition to promoting children's development of their fine motor skills. +This website has an instruction manual of how to use a nepohualtzintzin. +In the video below, professor Everardo Lara González shows how to do mathematical calculations with a nepo: + +Chhaupadi, the Dwindling Nepalese Tradition That Turns Women Into Outcasts During Their Periods · Global Voices +Nyaya Health: Mass community health teaching. Street theater on menstrual hygiene and the practice of Chhaupadi. +Image from Flickr by Possible. +CC By 2.0 +While Nepal has made "fair" progress in promoting gender equality and empowering women, according to the United Nations Development Programme, news of ‘chhaupadi’ appearing in the mainstream media stand in stark contrast to the country's achievements. +Recently, Setopati, a popular online portal, proudly published a report announcing a village in Jumla district chhaupadi-free. +There won’t be chhaupadi in Dhimkot now. +So, what is ‘chhaupadi’ really? +In far and mid-western regions of Nepal, following centuries-old tradition, menstruating girls and women are shunned, forced to stay outside in cow sheds or small huts so as to spare their family members from being 'polluted'. +Razen Manandhar, a former journalist with The Himalayan Times daily, writes about chhaupadi in his blog: +They strongly believe that women become impure during those 4/5 days every month and their gods - "Mate", as they call him - don't like to see women coming to them at this period of time. +So, the men force women in their periods to confine themselves in small, narrow huts/sheds without any window or door. Men believe that if women in periods remain in their houses, tigers would come attack them or their cattle. +Or the god will be angry at them and they will fall sick. +They care more of the invisible god than their own family members. +Cecile Shrestha, associate director of programme development for water access non-profit WaterAid America, explains the tradition through her series of tweets: +This is a typical "goth," or shed, in Western #Nepal where girls sleep during menstruation. +Open and exposed. #MHM pic.twitter.com/GFETYKrckk — Cecile Shrestha (@CecileShr) July 27, 2015 +Six girls were planning to share the shed behind on the night we met them. +"I am fearful of snakes and weather." #MHM pic.twitter.com/TU3bsgHh9r — Cecile Shrestha (@CecileShr) July 28, 2015 +Kamala, 14. +Behind her, her shed where she's been sleeping while menstruating, since she was 11. +Rain or shine. #MHM pic.twitter.com/Gyp0M5tKrC — Cecile Shrestha (@CecileShr) July 27, 2015 +"I tell them it's an outdated practice, but they get angry." +Anjana, 16, on sleeping outside during her period. #MHM pic.twitter.com/Mxj7wr78Oy — Cecile Shrestha (@CecileShr) July 27, 2015 +Three generations of women. +"It will anger the gods." +Why women are forbidden to enter the home during menstruation. pic.twitter.com/WTdwKQRhwP — Cecile Shrestha (@CecileShr) July 25, 2015 +The tradition also means the girls are not allowed to touch books or go to school and are barred from carrying warm clothes and blankets to the sheds. +There is always the fear of wild animals and snakes, not to mention wanton male perpetrators. +They are not even allowed to take nutritious food and milk, fearing that the animal will either fall sick or stop milking. +The tradition is followed mainly in the western hilly districts Doti, Dadeldhura, Achham, Bajhang, Bajura, Darchula, Baitadi, Jumla, Huma, Mugu, Dolpa, Kalikot, Dailekh and Jajarkot, as reported by Rajdhani daily. +Although the Nepalese Supreme Court banned chhaupadi in 2005, it is still rooted firmly in many remote hill villages. +Even women leaders and activists are compelled to follow the tradition. +The Himalayan Times quoted Binita BK, the Bajura district treasurer of United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist: +It is obvious that it is a widespread social evil. +It is an outcome of conservative mindset. +But what to do, we don’t have any other option but to stay separately, away from our house during our periods, when we are in the village. +Though many chhau (sheds) were destroyed following awareness campaigns led by non-governmental organisations in coordination with government agencies, in some places they have been rebuilt to keep the tradition alive. +However, young girls and women are pushing back against the tradition that turns them into outcasts for a few days a month. +Thanks to the awareness raised by the NGOs and concerned government bodies, the sheds are being destroyed and more and more villages are becoming chaupadi-free. + +Every Year, 100,000 People in India Suffer From Tuberculosis and HIV · Global Voices +TB patients at Sewri Hospital, Ward 3. +Image by George Butler. +Used with permission from MSF. +There were 1.1 million people globally who needed simultaneous treatment for tuberculosis (TB) and HIV in 2013. +Out of those 1.1 million, 360,000 died, and the problem remains one of the major global health challenges in the present time. +HIV can destroy so many of your CD4 cells that your body can't fight infections and diseases anymore. +HIV patients usually are not infected with TB bacteria unless in contact with someone who also is infected with TB bacteria. +But if they live in a country with a high prevalence of TB, there is a high chance of being infected with it. +TB-HIV is indeed a critical public health issue in India, as Shobha Shukla at Citizen News Service writes: +According to WHO estimates, India has the highest burden of TB in the world with 2.3 million cases (out of a global incidence of 8.7 million) and about 320,000 deaths occurring annually. +5% or 0.11 million of the TB patients in India are HIV positive too. +India thus accounts for about 10% of the global burden of HIV-associated TB with 100,000 patients co-infected with the two diseases annually. +Without timely diagnosis and treatment, a large number of these doubly sick people are likely to die. +Estimated deaths due to HIV/TB are 42,000 in India, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). +The high rates of HIV are leading other diseases like TB to be a risk factor. +HIV/TB is a major issue in India due to the lack of space, fresh air, toilets, sunlight and education. +Anti-retroviral therapy along with anti-tuberculosis treatment is the only available treatment in present time. +There is currently no cure HIV infection, although anti-retroviral treatment can suppress the HIV virus. +Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is one organization that is delivering healthcare to people with HIV/AIDS and TB in India, especially to marginalised groups like transgender communities. +In the above video from MSF India, Iqbal, a drug-resistant tuberculosis survivor from Mumbai, Maharashtra, explains how he defeated the disease. +"You just have to be patient, don’t give up,” he says. +After struggling with tuberculosis for two years he says he finally feels that he is better. +Iqbal advises that “things can get better, DR-TB can be cured, you can live a normal life like everyone else.” +According to the World Health Organization: +TB is the most common presenting illness among people living with HIV, including among those taking antiretroviral treatment and it is the major cause of HIV-related death. A TB patient. +Used with permission from MSF. +Used with permission from MSF. Illustrator George Butler, who collaborated with MSF in 2013 to sketch patients suffering drug-resistant tuberculosis, writes on his website: +Until now tuberculosis has been continually overlooked but is a worsening problem, especially in the major capitals of the world and particularly London. +There is a strong stigma attached to both HIV and tuberculosis, and many patients lose their jobs because of it. +Beyond medical treatment, counseling is another way to help patients. +A patient with MDR-#TB & #HIV waits for his regular check-up in #MSF clinic #India http://t.co/4xHpDw9SgE pic.twitter.com/0ua6Vc53Ch — MSF Ireland (@MSF_ireland) May 16, 2014 According to the WHO, the Indian government has made a large effort to reduce the rates of HIV/AIDS and TB, with the country spending 252 million US dollars in 2014 on its TB program, of which 66 per cent was funded domestically and 34 per cent was funded internationally. +India has been able to eradicate polio with its mission modedness. +Why cant such urgency be brought to anti-TB/HIV program? #tickingTimeBomb — Trouble-phile Indian (@shakti_garg) October 26, 2014 + +Why Britain Owes India for 200 Years of Brutal Colonialism · Global Voices +Shashi Tharoor speaking at Jaipur literary festival. +Image by Jim Ankan Deka. +Copyright Demotix (23/1/2015) +Indian Opposition MP, former minister and former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations Shashi Tharoor recently participated in a debate at the Oxford Union society arguing that Britain owes reparations to India for misdeeds committed during two centuries of colonial rule. +The 15 minute clip containing Tharoor's powerful and lucid argument for reparations went viral on social media soon after the Oxford Union debating society posted it online on July 14. +The British East India Company ruled or dominated on the Indian subcontinent from 1757 to 1858. +The British directly ruled over the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947 when the region was commonly known as British India or the Indian Empire. +Here are some excerpts from Tharoor's speech: +India's share of the world economy when Britain arrived on its shores was 23 per cent, by the time the British left it was down to below 4 per cent. +Why? +Simply because India had been governed for the benefit of Britain. +Britain's rise for 200 years was financed by its depredations in India. +In fact Britain's industrial revolution was actually premised upon the de-industrialisation of India. +By the end of 19th century, the fact is that India was already Britain's biggest cash cow, the world's biggest purchaser of British goods and exports and the source for highly paid employment for British civil servants. +We literally paid for our own oppression. +What is required it seems to me is accepting the principle that reparations are owed. +Personally, I will be quite happy if it was one pound a year for the next 200 years after the last 200 years of Britain in India. +Tharoor's speech was widely appreciated in India and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Parliament: +Tharoor’s speech reflected the feelings of patriotic Indians on the issue and showed what an impression one can leave with effective arguments by saying the right things at the right place. +Miss Malini wrote in her blog: +Irrespective of our political leanings and beliefs, we can agree to the fact that Dr. Shashi Tharoor is one of the top debators of the country. +That’s why it’s not surprising when the diplomat and former minister of state for external affairs took part in a debate at the Oxford Union. +Shashi Tharoor himself said on Twitter: +Somebody told me this is one speech of mine that my usual "Hindu nationalist" critics might agree with! +True? https://t.co/BCBuXqbjJ9 — Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 15, 2015 +Writer and film director Radha Bharadwaj writes on Twitter: +@minhazmerchant outlines what British rule cost India. +I'd add Indians' self-esteem; the damage in this dept. lingers http://t.co/g5UfsPXQee — radha bharadwaj (@radhabharadwaj) July 24, 2015 +All differences aside, im blown over by this Shashi Tharoor speech. http://t.co/txUWZi45Vm must watch. — Vande Mataram (@UnSubtleDesi) July 21, 2015 +What a brilliant brilliant speech by Shashi Tharoor. +A must see by every Indian. +Would be good for Britain to return our Kohinoor to us. — Priya Gupta (@priyaguptatimes) July 19, 2015 +https://t.co/kfwdnxeCFG @ShashiTharoor That was a fantastic speech. +Thank You fpr upholding India's pride. +Thank You. — Dinesh (@DineshHegde) July 24, 2015 +Sandip Roy claimed in Firstpost that Tharoor's speech had united a polarised Indian society, adding: +While the reparations he argues for are for the sins from centuries past, there is a bit that might have far more contemporary relevance for our politics today. +At the end of the speech making a passionate case for even symbolic reparations Tharoor says “The abilty to acknowledge a wrong that has been done, to simply say sorry will go a far far longer way than some percentage of GDP.” +Now if only some of the politicians furiously butting heads in parliament and dredging up each other’s scams to shame each other would pay attention to that bit, we could all get moving with the nation’s business. + +Serbian Police Officer and Smiling Syrian Boy Show Europe How Welcoming Refugees Is Done · Global Voices +The image was accompanied by a tweet quoting a Syrian refugee in Belgrade: "#Syrians are full of praise for #Serbian police. +'They're fair. +They're the first who didn't treat us like animals.'" +Photo by Manveen Rana. +Used with permission. +The photograph above first appeared online on the morning of September 9, and since then it has become a viral sensation on Twitter and Facebook. +Two Serbian police officers stand at their posts somewhere in downtown Belgrade, one of them holding a Syrian toddler currently staying at the improvised refugee camp near the city's main train station. +The image was posted to Twitter by BBC Radio 4 senior broadcast journalist Manveen Rana, who seems to have traveled to Serbia with a group of refugees from Greece. +Rana's Twitter feed is filled with tales of the journey, from claims of refugees having been beaten by police in Greece to all-night bus rides and images of the makeshift camp in downtown Belgrade. +Arriving in a chilly Belgrade at dawn though, it's business as usual; tents and people sleeping wherever they can. pic.twitter.com/TwZ3RG312U — Manveen Rana (@ManveenRana) September 9, 2015 +Central Belgrade. Many of the #refugees can't afford hotels. +Things are finally brightening up in Belgrade. #Refugees pic.twitter.com/WgLC42gRRh — Manveen Rana (@ManveenRana) September 9, 2015 While Syrian refugees passing through Serbia en route to Hungary and other EU countries seem to be experiencing generally better treatment than in other countries along the way, Rana reports that these people are still vulnerable to groups trying to take advantage of their desperation. +Some Belgrade residents have reported and complained about street venders selling blankets and old clothes to refugees near the downtown train station—at prices three-to-four times higher than you find in retail stores, no less. +Rana herself was charged some 70 euro by a man who was probably an unlicensed taxi driver (known colloquially as "wild taxis" in Belgrade) for a ride that would have run him about 10 euro in a licensed Belgrade taxi. +Rana noted on Twitter that cab drivers seem to target refugees with these high rates, when driving them to their accommodations in the city. +#Serbian taxi drivers have been ruthless. +They circle the area where #refugees camp and charge extortionate sums at the end of the journey. — Manveen Rana (@ManveenRana) September 9, 2015 +After so many recent reports of police brutality and unfair treatment of refugees in some European countries, Internet users in Serbia and elsewhere have celebrated the image of the police officer holding a smiling Syrian boy. +Within a few hours, the tweet attracted more than 800 retweets and almost 1,000 favorites, and it soon spilled over to Facebook and other social networks, as it continues to be retweeted some 50 times per hour. +For everyone cheered by the #Serbian policeman playing with the #Syrian baby, here are some bonus pictures..#refugees pic.twitter.com/BEdzPNdUom — Manveen Rana (@ManveenRana) September 9, 2015 +Although its unemployment rate is approaching 28 percent and there are murmurs expressing fear of what might happen to the economy if many refugees decide to remain, Serbia and its people have been generally accepting and often helpful. +Both the public and state officials and police seem to have embraced an open-arms policy in this unfolding refugee crisis. +Serbian social media users have been praising the police officer, and many people say such compassion is what they hope to see from law enforcement throughout the country and in other nations. + +SMS Platform Empowers Small Scale Farmers in Uganda · Global Voices +A trainer showing a farmer how to use the SMS Platform. +Photo coutersy of WeFarm +Despite massive advances in technology, the majority of farmers in Africa do not know how to use a smart phone. +Few of them go online to research about a new species of crops or how to fight a new crop disease. +A new startup, WeFarm, intends to empower farmers with information by using the Short Messaging System (SMS). +Farmers ask questions which are translated and shared with farmers in the same region and beyond. +Once feedback is generated, it is then sent back to the person who asked the question. +Some of the countries already benefiting from the Startup include Uganda, Kenya and Peru with over 43,000 users worldwide in the first nine months of its operations. +It will be launched in Tanzania, Cote D'Ivoire, India, Colombia, and Brazil in the near future. +In a blog post on National Geographic, they shared a story of a farmer in Kenya, and how he benefited from the startup: +This is precisely what happened to Kepha from Baringo, Kenya. +After receiving advice from fellow farmers, Kepha managed to save 27 of the 52 chickens he owned. +Kepha’s chickens are very important to him. +Not only do they provide eggs for his family to eat, but they’re also his main source of income. +Kepha can sell chickens to other farmers or at markets when he has the opportunity to visit one. +He also farms vegetables and staples that he and his family can eat, but his chickens allow him to earn a modest living. +Kepha’s story will resonate with many small-scale farmers across Africa, Latin America and Asia. +A blog post on Takepart refers to We Farm as: +Wikipedia for farmers, or as its founder describes it, “Internet for people without Internet.” +Nicki Briggs feels this is an initiative that benefits not just the farmers but also the food industry: +An initiative that benefits farmers, and the food industry = JACKPOT. +Loving @we_farm info sharing platform. https://t.co/02uWj2dvMO — Nicki Briggs, MS, RD (@nicki_briggs_) December 21, 2015 +While Disrupt Africa listed WeFarm as one of the Startups to look out for in 2016. +12 African startups to watch in 2016 https://t.co/jTvRxSbMPt @yaoota @DabaDoc @shieldfinance @we_farm @SafeMotos @CladLight @GiraffeJobs — Disrupt Africa (@DisruptAfrica) December 31, 2015 Congratulations @we_farm on an amazing 2015 - hope next year is even better! #socenthttps://t.co/Pl5G2FicPt — Tamsin C (@TamsinChislett) December 22, 2015 + +Saber Hussain's Pedal-Powered Library: A Story of Hope from Afghanistan · Global Voices +Photo shared on Twitter by the Qessa Academy. +In Afghanistan, education begins at home. +That is the message of Saber Hussaini, a 35-year-old author and storyteller who has been on his bike for more than a month, distributing volumes of children's books in villages where there is a demand for reading materials and a program of learning that local government cannot satisfy. +Don't expect to read Saber's story on CNN, or even mainstream media in Afghanistan, however. +Positive stories about the country of 30 million people do not sell, leaving worthy tales unfairly ignored and a country misrepresented. +Yet there are still individuals and organizations who, no matter the violence and war, are committed to working hard for a brighter, more peaceful future. +In late October, Saber Hussaini, a 35-year-old author and storyteller, initiated a mobile library covering five villages a day in central Bamiyan, a mostly Hazara-populated province in the middle of Afghanistan where the smattering of poorly stocked libraries does not include a single children's book. +Saber Hussaini decided to distribute his 200 volumes of children's books to schoolchildren in his free time in order to respond symbolically to the unquenchable thirst to read in cut-off Bamiyan. +Saber’s mobile-library, with a rough capacity of fifteen books, quickly attracted many children. +Soon the story books and the books of illustrations he carried on the back of his bicycle substituted plastic pistols and other time-wasting toys. +Saber now plans to expand the number of services he offers and open a children’s foundation in Bamiyan. +#MyAfghanHero is Saber Hussaini, man who runs his own children's mobile library for 5 #Bamiyan villages pic.twitter.com/Vp5V7soZbt — Ahmad Shuja احمدشجاع (@AhmadShuja) October 22, 2015 +Saber represents a war-weary generation that hungers and strives for education and finds his ideal in the book and the pen. +People of his age are too young to have known a time where violence and conflict were not pervasive, but not too old to believe that Afghanistan's future is something different. +Facebook user Saeid Madadi praised Saber, referencing the words of a popular poem: +In the morning, I woke up to this news. +I smiled. +“Bamiyan is a world of miracles." +Zainab Karimi's story +Saber Hussaini, of course, is far from the only hero increasing access to education in Afghanistan. +Zainab Karimi, a 50-year-old woman that also hails from Bamiyan province has taught 500 women to read and write over the last five years at her own expense. +As an adult, Zainab joined literacy courses that enabled her to pursue her education until 12th grade. +She then turned teacher, determined to teach in the villages of her region until illiteracy was eradicated. +Zainab's teen years coincided with incessant war in Afghanistan. +Teaching hundreds of women of her age, she keenly proves that war cannot crush the human will to learn. +Bamiyan province has the highest rate of girls education in the country. +Of its 135,000 students, nearly half are girls. +Believe in Bamiyan +Hemmed in by majestic mountains in a country that is already landlocked, Bamiyan is one of the most deprived provinces in Afghanistan. +All the universities across the country are woefully underfunded, with only $1,000 available for books at each. +Bamiyan University seems somehow to have suffered doubly. +Yet despite its poverty the province is number one in terms of providing access to education for boys and girls. +Of all provinces in #Afghanistan #Bamiyan rocks when it comes to focus on education&gender equality despite poverty. pic.twitter.com/OPBkgE9CjM — shafi شفيع شريفى (@ShafiSharifi) April 1, 2014 +Students in Bamiyan are very active, with students at Bamiyan State University speaking out regularly against poor conditions there. +In 2013, they held a demonstration to draw attention to the degraded state of the students’ dormitory. +More recently, in early April, they went on strike, protesting the unfair distribution of the higher education budget, which they argued disadvantages Bamiyan. +On both occasions the government ignored them. +But they have become used to that. +In Afghanistan, the right to an education is not a right you are born with. +It is a right you struggle and fight for. + +Photos of a Misty Morning Sun Rising Over Myanmar's Last Royal Capital · Global Voices +Photo by Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy +This article by Zaw Zaw is from The Irrawaddy, an independent news website in Myanmar, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement. +Located to the northeast of the moat that surrounds the Mandalay Palace, this eponymous hill is a famous viewpoint for tourists and photographers hoping to capture daybreak over Myanmar’s last royal capital. +The Irrawaddy’s photographer Zaw Zaw got to the top of Mandalay Hill early on January 12, 2016, to await the rising sun. +At a cool 12° Celsius, weather and location were perfect to capture the moment as the sun’s rays broke through Mandalay’s morning mist. +But sightseers be warned: You’ll have to get to the top before 6 am if you want to take in the full breadth of these misty memories. +Photo by Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy +Photo by Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy +Photo by Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy +Photo by Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy + +The Caribbean Prepares Itself for 'Zik-V' Virus Threat · Global Voices +"Aedes aegypti on arm"; photo by AFPMB, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license. +Ever since Brazilian health authorities confirmed that there is a link between the mosquito-borne Zika virus and a fetal brain-damage outbreak in the country (more than 3,500 cases between October 2015 and January 2016), netizens have been getting nervous about the health of pregnant women throughout the region. +The disease is now being considered a threat to public health in several Caribbean territories. +Just last week, the Center for Disease Control issued an interim travel advisory related to the virus for 14 countries throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean. +There is, at present, no medicinal treatment or preventive vaccine available for the disease. +An unusually high number of babies affected by the virus in utero are born with microcephaly, a developmental disorder in which the brain is unnaturally small and ceases to grow with the child, thereby limiting intellectual development and muscle coordination. +Some of the infants have died as a result of their condition. +The regional blog Repeating Islands recently reported that Puerto Rico has recorded its first case of the virus. +Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress, advised that "the public should continue to take common sense steps to avoid mosquito bites, like using repellent and wearing long pants and shirts". +The post also confirmed that other regional territories such as Suriname and the Dominican Republic are being affected: +According to a report in Loop Suriname last week, the head of the Academisch Ziekenhuis Paramaribo (AZP) lab, where the first cases were confirmed, said thousands may be infected with the mosquito borne viral illness. +Once the disease reached the Caribbean, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) started taking action, advising people to protect themselves against mosquito bites and to ensure that their homes were not breeding grounds for mosquito larvae. +The organisation even plans to launch a mobile game called Zap-a-‘quito to educate the public about the Aedes Aegypti mosquito and its potential breeding sites; it also noted that the virus is a threat to "health, tourism, social and economic development" in the Caribbean. +As far back as June 2015, Trinidad and Tobago's health ministry had warned citizens to take precautions against the virus. +By November 2015, Jamaica began to take notice of the threat — having experienced a massive Chikungunya outbreak in 2014, the authorities were reticent to be unprepared once again. +Jamaica's health ministry even released a fact sheet about the Zika virus. +The Jamaican Blogs reported this week that the country's health authorities have gone as far as to advise women to delay pregnancy because of the "Zik-V" threat, as it is called on the island: +Following reports linking Zik-V to micro-encephalitis, an inflammation of the foetal brain that can stunt the growth of the affected foetus’ head, the Ministry of Health has advised women to delay becoming pregnant for the next six to twelve months. +The Ministry also encouraged those already pregnant, to take extra precautions to prevent being bitten by mosquitoes given the possible link between Zika Virus infection and micro-encephalitis. +Minister of Health, Horace Halley says although there is no absolute proof, the evidence from Brazil and the information from the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and other technical partners is strong enough for the ministry to take this position in seeking to prevent any possible adverse outcome to pregnant women. +The virus continues to move closer to Jamaica having already been detected in Haiti. + +For Southeast Asia, 2015 Was a Year of Corruption Scandals · Global Voices +The Bersih (change) rally in Malaysia gathered more than 100,000 people, the biggest political demonstration in Southeast Asia in 2015. +The protesters were demanding the resignation of the Malaysian prime minister who was being implicated in a corruption scandal. +Photo by Emran Mohd Tamil, Copyright @Demotix (8/29/2015) +Three issues grabbed the headlines in Southeast Asia in 2015, namely, the historic electoral defeat of the military-backed party in Myanmar, the Indonesian haze caused by forest fires, and the corruption scandals involving leaders of the ruling parties. +In Malaysia, the prime minister is accused of pocketing more than 600 million US dollars from anomalous bank transactions involving the country’s state-run investment firm. +In Thailand, the junta which grabbed power in 2014 is facing allegation that it built a graft-ridden park. +In Indonesia, the House speaker resigned his post after he was implicated in an extortion scandal. +And in the Philippines, the vice president is hounded by plunder charges. +Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak admitted that he has 600 million dollars in his bank but denied that the funds came from state coffers. +He claimed that a supporter from the Middle East donated the money for the election campaign of the ruling party. +Many doubted his explanation and called for his resignation. The issue generated funny Internet memes mocking the prime minister while large protests were organized across the country. +The Wall Street Journal published an investigative piece on the questionable bank transfers involving the prime minister and 1MDB, the state-owned investment firm: +New inquiry into Rajabhakti Park https://t.co/nTUSmiYMSv pic.twitter.com/rIPJIZU41a — Bangkok Post (@BangkokPostNews) November 24, 2015 +This cartoon shows the junta leader preventing activists from holding a protest in the park +cartoon of the day : Rajabhakti Park corruption scandal pic.twitter.com/YaU6jtOWIG — stephff art (@stephffart) December 8, 2015 +In Indonesia, House Speaker Setya Novanto is accused of asking for a 20 percent stake in the Freeport mining worth 4 billion US dollars in exchange of a contract allowing the company to continue operating in the country. +An audio recording between Novanto and Freeport executives was presented as evidence against the politician. +Novanto admitted that he made the demand but insisted that he was only joking. +He was being investigated for ethics violation when he stepped down as House speaker last December 16. +Novanto’s behavior was widely condemned in Indonesia. Novanto is no stranger to controversy. +Last September, he was criticized for appearing at the political rally of United States presidential candidate Donald Trump Donald Trump: Do they like me in Indonesia? +Setya Novanto: Yes, highly Fadli Zon: 's a friend of Indonesia http://t.co/xozyL572hc — Yenni Kwok (@yennikwok) September 4, 2015 +In the Philippines, Vice President Jejomar Binay is facing several corruption charges in connection to alleged anomalous contracts he signed when he was still mayor of Makati City, the country’s financial center. +Binay, one of the frontrunners in the 2016 presidential election, described the corruption cases as politically-motivated. +He questioned the string of cases filed against him, which he said was made to disqualify him as a candidate in the election. +Here's one of the many Internet memes alluding to Vice President Binay's corruption cases: Down with corruption…..down Binay pic.twitter.com/uFA1ZJQbEZ — Caste (@castewyo_rene) August 8, 2015 + +Expand Your Movie-Watching Horizons With These 16 Films From Around the World · Global Voices +Photo by Flickr user weegeebored. +CC BY-ND 2.0 +This story was compiled and edited by Taisa Sganzerla, L. Finch, Georgia Popplewell and the Global Voices community. +There's a big, wide world of film out there, but we don't often see that diversity represented on our local theater marquees, and it can be a little daunting to break out of the mainstream and explore the vastness of world cinema on your own. +So we've done the work for you. +We crowdsourced movie suggestions from the Global Voices community of authors, editors and translators around the world, and came up with a list of 16 films from five different regions, ranging from the old to the new, from the internationally praised to the completely obscure. +Movies are a great way to get a glimpse into a place or a time you know little about. +Ready for some armchair travel? +Read on. +Manila in the Claws of Light (Philippines, 1975) +Screenshot from Manila Under the Claws of Light. +To Singapore, With Love (Singapore, 2013) +Screenshot from To Singapore, With Love +This documentary, which has been banned in Singapore, profiles nine political exiles who fled the island nation in the 1960s during Lee Kuan Yew’s crackdown on leftist activists, and out of fear of persecution, never returned. +The current Singaporean government claims the film gives a "distorted and untruthful account of how came to leave Singapore". +Trailer on Vimeo, available to stream in its entirety for a fee. +(Recommended by author Kristen Han) +Siti (Indonesia, 2014) +Screenshot from Siti. +Lovely Man (Indonesia, 2011) +Screenshot from Lovely Man. +La Operación (Puerto Rico, 1982) +Screenshot from La Operación +A revealing short documentary on the sterilization policies the US imposed on Puerto Rico in the 1950s and 60s. +Over a third of the nation's women were sterilized as hospitals refused to admit healthy pregnant women for delivery unless they consented to sterilization afterwards. +(Recommended by Spanish-language editor Firuzeh Shokooh Valle) +Isle of Flowers (Brazil, 1989) +Screenshot from Isle of Flowers +An absolute classic, this award-winning 13-minute short film was screened endlessly in high-school classrooms in Brazil in the 1990s. +With its satirical voice-over narration and bizarre illustrations, the movie follows the journey of a rotten tomato all the way from a small farm to a landfill where a group of families live. +(Recommended by author Fabiano Post) +Herod's Law (Mexico, 1999) +Screenshot from Herod's Law +Magallanes (Peru, 2015) +Screenshot from Magallanes +The Longest Distance (Venezuela, 2014) +Screenshot from The Longest Distance +A moving story of a 10-year-old boy who travels to La Gran Sabana to meet his grandmother and rebuild family ties. +This road movie takes viewers from the turbulent urban environment of Caracas to the rural landscapes of the Venezuelan state of Bolivar, all the way to the top of Mount Roraima. +Trailer available on Vimeo with English subtitles (Recommended by author Marianne Díaz) +A Trip to Karabakh (Georgia, 2005) +Screenshot from A Trip to Karabakh +Looking to buy drugs, a group of young Georgian men cross the border into Nagorno-Karabakh—the region between Armenia and Azerbaijan contested since the fall of the Soviet Union—but end up being detained by local authorities. +(Recommended by author Mirian Jugheli) +Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Ukraine, 1965) +Screenshot from Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors +Considered a key cinematic work in Ukraine, the film delves deep into the culture of the Hutsuls, an ethno-linguistic group from the Carpathian mountains. +(Recommended by RuNet Echo editor Tetyana Lokot) +The Scoundrel (Azerbaijan, 1988) +Screenshot from The Scoundrel +If you enjoyed the Oscar-nominee Leviathan (2013) and would like more insight into Soviet Russia, don't miss The Scoundrel (Yaramaz in Azerbaijani), a comedy tackling the corruption of the late Soviet bureaucracy in Azerbaijan. +(Recommended by author Arzu Geybullahyeva) +Stories of Our Lives (Kenya, 2014) +Screenshot from Stories of Our Lives +Tabataba (Madagascar, 1988) +Screenshot from Tabataba +Its title means “rambling” in Malagasy, but it's also a code word describing the events of the 1947 Malagasy Uprising. +This movie depicts a Malagasy village's struggles for independence from French colonial rule during that period. +(Recommended by Lova Rakotomalala) +No One Knows About Persian Cats (Iran, 2009) +Screenshot from No One Knows About Persian Cats +Where Do We Go Now? +(Lebanon, 2011) +Screenshot from Where Do We Go Now? + +Is Taiwan a Country, a Self-Governing Island, or a Breakaway Territory or Province of China? · Global Voices +'The Island Formosa and the Pescadores', depicted by Johannes Vingboons in around 1640. +Formosa is the name given to Taiwan by Portuguese explorers who sighted the island in the 16th century. +PHOTO from Chinese Wikipedia. +A German friend once asked me about the sovereign status of Taiwan, and I told him that Taiwan is a country because we elect our own president and legislators, and we have our own currency and passport. +My friend bought what I said, but his wife didn’t. +She is a political scientist, and based on what she heard about Taiwan, she thought the relationship between China and Taiwan bore more similarities to the relationship between the East and West Germany. +In other words, as Chinese and Taiwanese can communicate in Mandarin and as the two countries’ cultures are so similar, it would have made sense for China and Taiwan to have pursued reunification after the Cold War ended. +I argued that a better comparison was the relationship between the UK and US. +The British and the Americans share a similar language, and a certain percentage of Americans were actually British before their war of independence. +Americans, nevertheless, claimed their independence because they—or at least their founding fathers—subscribed to a different political ideology. +Taiwan, likewise, embraces a democratic political system, while China’s political framework is that of a socialist republic run by the Communist Party of China (CPC). +China is a great country. +Like many countries in the world, Taiwan also wants to make friends with China. +However, many of the 23.4 million Taiwanese prefer not to unite with China because we embrace different political systems. +What has happened between Hong Kong and China proves that it does not work. +LEARN MORE ABOUT TAIWAN +A selection of recommended books, films, and musical works about Taiwan: +Tyzen Hsiao’s symphony ‘Taiwan the Green’: Many Taiwanese refer to this as the unofficial National Anthem of Taiwan. +Formose: French-language illustrated storybook by Li-Chin Lin depicting the author’s childhood and adolescence during the White Terror period in Taiwan. +Formosa Betrayed: George H. Kerr's account of Taiwan's abandonment by the international community after World War II. +‘A City of Sadness’: Film by Hsiao-Hsien Hou that tells a story related to the incident that triggered the Republic of China’s military repression in Taiwan, after Japanese surrendered. +‘Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale’: Film by Te-Sheng Wei about the revolt by Taiwanese Aborigines under Japanese colonialism. +China, or People’s Republic of China (PRC), always claims that Taiwan has been part of China from the very beginning, but it is not true if we check history records. +Taiwan became part of China during the period of the Qing Dynasty in 1683, and the Qing government did not seriously govern Taiwan except collecting heavy tax from Taiwanese and using military forces to repress 'insurgents'. +It was not until 204 years later, in 1887, that Taiwan was made a province. +In fact, if Taiwan was not attacked by the French during the Sino-French War (1883-1885), the Qing government might never have given Taiwan provincial status. +But the Sino-French War revealed the Qing government’s fragility, as well as Taiwan’s strategic position as a bulwark in the West Pacific again to other Asian countries with strong military forces. +Eight years later, in 1895, after the first Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government was forced to cede Taiwan to Japan. +At the end of World War II (WWII), the Republic of China (ROC) took control of Taiwan after Japan surrendered. +Taiwan was a colony of Japan during the Kominka movement or Japanization of subjects of the Empire of Japan. +Since Japan was an enemy of China during WWII, the ROC government had difficulty considering Taiwanese their fellow countrymen. +Taiwanese did not even speak Mandarin at that time. +During the Chinese civil war (1946-1950), the Kuomintang (KMT), led by Chiang Kai-Shek, decided to consolidate the power of his exiled government in Taiwan after it was defeated by the CPC’s People’s Liberation Army in China in 1949. +During the period of White Terror (1949-1987) and after, the Taiwan democracy movement took decades to build a free and democratic society. +They finally succeeded, and in their quest for a new society, forged a new Taiwanese national identity that is quite different from China’s. +Historical image of the Tsou people in Taiwan playing music instruments. +Photo: taipics.com. +Before 1683, Taiwan was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines, who are very proud of their role in the history of Polynesia. +Studies of genetics, pottery styles, languages, and the existence of plants such as the Pacific paper mulberry suggest that the Lapita, the ancestors of those who would go on populate Polynesia and Micronesia, very likely lived in Taiwan before they traveled to other islands. +For Taiwanese, the question of finding aboriginal bloodlines in our genealogy is central to discussions about Taiwan’s independence, because there is evidence that very few of the Han Chinese who moved to Taiwan during the Qing Dynasty period were female. +Underlying the debate about bloodlines is an idea about historical viewpoints and their role in forming national identity. +Taiwan’s history is generally viewed from two different perspectives: one that is China-centered, the other Taiwan-centered. +According to the China-centered version, China was kind enough to bring Taiwan back into the family after WWII. +In the Taiwan-centered version, both the Chinese and the Japanese empires were colonizers. +An outreach event by Taiwanese and supporters at Harvard Square in Boston that explained Taiwan's situation to interested passers-by. +Photo by Chia-Chun Chung. +Republished by Global Voices with permission. +Let us return, however, to the question of whether Taiwan is a country, a self-governing island, a breakaway territory of China, or a province of China. +It is a difficult question for diplomats and journalists, and it is not an easy one even for Taiwanese. +Firstly, it is true that Taiwan was—for that brief eight-year period before WWII—a province of China. But Taiwan is not currently a province of China, as China has no control over Taiwan. +Mongolia was once part of China under the Qing Dynasty, pursuing its independence in 1911 and became an independent country later on (a long story). No one would say that Mongolia is part of China just because it was part of China more than 100 years ago. +Yet some still insist on calling Taiwan a province of China because China claims so. +Many agencies still use the formulation ‘Taiwan, Province of China’, either out of ignorance or because they enjoy close relations with China. +To counter the China-centered viewpoint, some Taiwanese spend lots of time writing to these agencies in order to persuade them simply ­to use the term ‘Taiwan’, without further political attribution. +The terms ‘self-governing island’ and ‘breakaway territory’ are more widely used in international media reports that refer to Taiwan’s sovereignty status. +'Self-governing island' at least has the virtue of being relatively neutral, but it's also inaccurate, as the territory of Taiwan comprises several islands. +‘Breakaway territory’ (or ’renegade province’) is a formulation of the English-speaking world. +According to the China-centered historical view it's not incorrect, but it sidelines the Taiwanese-centered view of history. +In Taiwan, it's likely to offend the pro-independence community. +Taiwan’s sovereign status is tricky in many ways. +Even though we Taiwanese possess almost every attribute of a ‘nation’, we have very few diplomatic allies. +Taiwan is recognized by only 22 nations as a sovereign state, and diplomatic allies of the PRC are strongly requested not to recognize Taiwan a sovereign state even in non-diplomatic international events like film festivals. +As a result, Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, nor even of the World Health Organization (WHO), and it's the rare international mainstream media article that refers to Taiwan as a 'country'. +Thanks to Sophie Hsu, Brian Hioe, and Oiwan Lam for the valuable discussions and comments about this article. + +In Kenya, So Much Depends on the Orange Flesh Sweet Potato · Global Voices +New mothers and their babies wait to see a doctor at the Othoro Community hospital in Homa Bay, western Kenya. +Credit: Anne Bailey. +This article by Marco Werman for The World as part of the Owning It series originally appeared on PRI.org on December 15, 2015, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement. +There is a superstition in western Kenya, in the lush area that borders Lake Victoria. +If you are a woman and become pregnant, you do not talk about it because if you do, you will lose your child. +Listen to this story on PRI.org » +The downside of keeping it secret is that the mother very likely will not make any prenatal visits — maybe won’t even give birth in a hospital. +In an area of the country with a high incidence of malaria, not to mention HIV rates of 27 percent, that puts fetuses in jeopardy. +Beatrice Otieno holds some of the orange flesh sweet potatoes she's been growing with the aid of the SUSTAIN (Scaling up Sweetpotato through Agriculture and Nutrition) project. Credit: Anne Bailey. +But even if no one was superstitious, clinics are often far from home for many women. +And they’ve got chores that precede a prenatal visit. +If it hadn’t been for an unfamiliar variety of sweet potato, 27-year-old Beatrice Otieno would likely be giving birth to her third child at home. +That home is a mud brick shack. +It’s hot inside, and the coolest spot is the dirt floor. +It’s not where a child is going to have the best chances of success on his first day in the world. +But the orange flesh sweet potato will very likely change that baby’s fortunes. +It’s already turned around Beatrice’s life. +Not long ago, she heard that if she went to the hospital for pre-natal visits, she would receive coupons for orange flesh sweet potato vines to plant in her yard. +She bit. +The coupon would entitle her to the plants at a subsidized cost. +They would supplement her and her family’s diet, and anything they had left over she could sell. +Unlike her previous two pregnancies, Beatrice Otieno will deliver her third child at a local hospital. +Credit: Anne Bailey. +“Because I know I can get sweet potatoes from prenatal visits,” she told me in Swahili, “it made me understand the importance of giving birth at the hospital.” +Beatrice Otieno lives in Homa Bay, Kenya, not far from Lake Victoria. +And two years ago, Homa Bay became one of the places where a project was launched to introduce the orange flesh sweet potato. +That is happening through the American health organization PATH, the Kenyan government, and a project called SUSTAIN: Scaling up Sweetpotato through Agriculture and Nutrition. +There are always doubts when an unfamiliar crop is introduced for the first time. +Kenya has local sweet potatoes, but these varieties are white and yellow. +People like them. +But Beatrice told me she likes the orange flesh variety more. +A lot of the people in Homa Bay said the same. +That’s a good thing. +Because the whole idea of SUSTAIN was to make the sweet potato both a nutritional savior and an incentive. +On the nutrition front, it addresses health needs for pregnant women. +It’s loaded with Vitamin A, an immunity booster, great for vision and crucial for organ development in the fetus. +The orange flesh variety also provides a defense against disease for people who are HIV positive. +When I arrived at the health clinic in Homa Bay, I saw the dividends. +The veranda was packed with patients. +Some were there for typical outpatient needs: small injuries and illnesses. +But a lot of them were expectant and post-natal mothers, and were there for a checkup and the coupons. +Support the women of Homa Bay +PATH has an accountability + transparency score of 100 on Charity Navigator. +If you are interested in contributing, click here. +Batrise Akinyiopyio lives in the community and works as a liaison between the clinic and the mothers. +She pulled out a white board and showed me an array of numbers. +The crucial point, she said, is that the hospital used to give out Vitamin A supplements. Then the stock ran out. +“But when the orange flesh sweet potato came into the existence and we taught the pregnant mothers on the importance of orange flesh and vitamin A,” explained Akinyiopyio, “we realized that very many children are consuming orange flesh at the household levels.” +Mothers line up for post-natal visits at the Othoro Community Hospital in Homa Bay. +Credit: Anne Bailey. +We know the orange flesh sweet potato in the US. +(Heck, at Bartley’s Burger Cottage in Harvard Square, there are as many sweet potato fries orders as standard ones.) +Agronomists will tell you that even though it’s a tuber, it is not technically in the potato family. +Columbus found it, most likely in the West Indies, and from there it made its way to the US. +It was made famous by George Washington and later by George Washington Carver. +It’s native to the Western Hemisphere, and even though it’s not in the potato family, it’s introduction in Africa is being done in collaboration with CIP — the International Potato Center in Lima, Peru. +Hellen Nyongesa-Malava works for PATH in Homa Bay. +She says that “part of the reason why (Homa Bay) was identified as a site is because of the willingness of households and men to show their women where they can cultivate the vines that they are given.”David Elijah is a skilled local farmer who was tapped to be the local super-source of the orange flesh sweet potato vines. +He proudly showed me his starter field and the nursery where the first seeds are grown. +Beatrice Otieno follows others to the field where she grows orange flesh sweet potatoes. +Credit: Anne Bailey. +In a country where women own just one percent of the land, that’s a tally in the plus column. +As for turning their surplus sweet potato crop into a profitable business, that's a little harder to judge. +It's still early days of course, but in Beatrice Otieno's case, sweet potato sales have not noticeably lifted her out of poverty. +According to Rikka Trangsrud, PATH Kenya's community program coordinator, there is some clear success. +She notes the more nutritious sweet potatoes are now accepted because you can find them in the produce section of supermarkets like Nakumatt. +At the hospital in Homa Bay, the proof of concept is in the number of women who are showing up for prenatal visits. +And every day there are more women taking the same interest in sweet potatoes — and the health of their babies. + +Aqeela Asifi: A Teacher in Exile Continues the Struggle · Global Voices +Aqeela Asifi speaks about her journey. +Image: Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize / YouTube +Imagine teaching for 23 years in a small Afghan refugee camp at Kot Chandana village, on the outskirts of the Punjab province in Pakistan, and then, one day, learning that Stephen Hawking himself has lauded you and your work. +Aqeela Asifi—one of the top ten finalists for this year's Global Teacher Prize—knows this feeling. +In a video posted on the contest's Facebook page, Professor Hawking announced this year's finalists, and Asifi is among them. +The competition's website says the prize is awarded every year to a truly exceptional educator: +The Global Teacher Prize is a US $1 million award presented annually to an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to their profession. +The prize serves to underline the importance of educators and the fact that, throughout the world, their efforts deserve to be recognised and celebrated. +Asifi’s life in Afghanistan was relatively simple. +She belonged to a family that supported her right to education, despite cultural challenges. +She was content with her career as a teacher in Kabul, until the Taliban took power, making it impossible to continue her work. +Asifi and her family found sanctuary in Pakistan in 1999, hoping for a better and safer future. +When I asked the girls why they were going absent from school, they said girls are not supposed to go to school. +Relentless, Asifi established a small classroom in the refugee camp, where she's now been teaching for years, receiving multiple awards for her work. +She's been on the job so long already that she's even begun educating the daughters of her first generation of students: +The girls I taught 20 years ago now send their daughters to my school, so I’m teaching the second generation of my students. +Lili Mao, a graduate student in the Television Management Department at Drexel University, traveled to Pakistan last December to film Asifi at work with Afghan girls. +Mao says she witnessed the girls' eagerness to get an education, she told her university's newspaper: +I interviewed some girls at their school, and they shared their dreams with me. +One girl said that she wanted to be a teacher, so that she could teach other refugee girls like Asifi. +Another girl said that she wanted to be a doctor to serve her country. +Pakistan's Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai, prominent for promoting the universal right to education, also contacted Asifi, congratulating her over the phone on being among the finalists for the Global Teacher Prize. +Malala Yousafzai’s father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, also conveyed his best wishes to Asifi over Twitter: +Malala & I congratulated Aqeela finalist for Global Teachers Award & for her education work https://t.co/HFBWbR3aT5 pic.twitter.com/ehs1lbaBrV — Ziauddin Yousafzai (@ZiauddinY) February 19, 2016 +This is not the first time Asifi has been recognized for her work. +In 2015, she was presented with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' Nansen Refugee Award. +Astoundingly, Asifi is now running nine different schools with approximately 900 students. +Internet users throughout Pakistan have welcomed her nomination warmly: +I am inspired to meet Aqeela Asifi, a brave and tireless champion of education for Afghan girl #refugees in #Pakistan. — Illango (@Illango_WB) February 9, 2016 +@defencepk a PAKISTANI teacher in Stephen Hawking's TOP TEN Global Teacher Prize. congrats Aqeela Asifi. https://t.co/5eKl0OTLJm — Sardar Abbas Aziz (@SardarAbbasAziz) February 20, 2016 +The other finalists, selected from some 8,000 applicants, include teachers from Palestine, India, the United States and United Kingdom, Kenya, Finland, Australia, and Japan. +The Global Education and Skills Forum will announce the competition's winner on March 13, 2016, in Dubai. +Whatever the outcome, Asifi has already won many hearts with her work in education, and she's far from finished. + +Which Japanese Convenience Stores Attract the Most Insects? +One Student Decided to Find Out · Global Voices A typical convenience store in Japan. +A middle school student in Japan's rural Mie Prefecture noticed it was easy to find and collect insects at local convenience stores. +He then decided to launch a school research project to determine just which convenience store attracts the most insects. +And, in insect-loving Japan, his research project has become a hit on social media. +Here's one of the photos I took. +It's pretty clear here which convenience store is best for collecting insects: Circle K has a display case all of its own. +According to Fundo, a website that reports on social media in Japan, the student was interested in how lighting and illuminated signage at various convenience stores attracted insects. +He found that bluish fluorescent lights attracted insects; convenience stores where outside signage illuminated less light on the blue end of the spectrum attracted fewer insects than convenience stores that did. +The student determined that Circle K's signage typically emitted more blue light, thereby attracting more insects. +Although it might be expected that convenience stores would be simply a hot spot for undesirable insects such as cockroaches, the junior high school student from Mie Prefecture observed that a wide variety insects, from beetles to moths, could be observed and collected. +'Circle K's bugs are EPIC' +Collecting insects — especially different species of stag beetles — to keep as pets is a popular pastime with children in Japan. +And insects are a fact of life for much of the year in Japan. +The country's climate is hot and humid from late spring to early fall. +The result is a teeming insect population. +In fact, many businesses, including convenience stores, use an ultraviolet electric zapper to deal with the hordes of insects attracted by their illuminated signage at night. +The student displayed the results of his research at a museum in Mie Prefecture. +Up-and-coming Japanese musician Mizuka, who lives in nearby Aichi Prefecture, first noticed the research project, and shared a few snapshots with her followers on Twitter. +Mizuka's tweets quickly went viral. +A junior high school student has conducted some interesting research. +Why is one convenience store a good place to collect insects while another is not? +The student discovered the most insects at Circle K, by an overwhelming amount. +The student said that since Circle K locations are due to be handed over to the Family Mart brand, “Now is the time to go to Circle K to collect bugs!” +After she noticed her her post about the junior high school science project went viral, Mizuka explained a bit more about the research techniques. +There has been quite a great response so I thought I would follow up. +The student conducted his research using a simple spectrometer and an ultraviolet filter. +Interesting. +If you're interested in learning more the whole project is on display at the Mie Museum (MieMu). +Go take a look! +Spotlight, a website covering social media on Japan, found that Circle K's popularity with insects has long been recognized. +Way back in 2014, a Twitter user observed: +I thought to myself, "Wow, the Circle K is sure attracting a lot of bugs, but when I took a closer look.... +AIEEEEEEEE!! +Intrepid bug hunters will have to hurry if they want to go collecting at Circle K; the convenience store will merge with Family Mart at the end of March 2016, and its bug-friendly branding will vanish forever. + +An Artist Captures Kathmandu's Recent Hardships in His Imaginative Artwork · Global Voices +Trail of Liberation. +Artwork by Ashim Shakya. +Used with permission. +Nepal has suffered from a major shortage of fuel and supplies since late September 2015, as several thousand trucks with vital goods from India remained stranded at the India-Nepal border. +Due to the chaos resulting from the man-made disaster and the black-marketing of essential goods including cooking gas, people are still reeling under scarcity. +Ashim Shakya, a self-taught artist and musician from Kathmandu, has captured the situation in a series of artwork. +“Pressurized” below shows the strain Nepalis were living under during the blockade. +Pressurized. +Artwork by Ashim Shakya. +Used with permission. +Annihilation. +Artwork by Ashim Shakya. +Used with permission. +E X T R A C T I O N . +Artwork by Ashim Shakya. +Used with permission. +Ashim came up with his artwork "Explosive Aftermath" to depict these occurrences. +Explosive Aftermath. +Artwork by Ashim Shakya. +Used with permission. +This symbolizes the recent issue of exploding Transformers due to overload of electricity. +The transformer poles are levitating itself for the people as its no longer safe to be on the ground proving its smarter than most of the officials here. +Though this is the main theme behind this work, everyone may relate it to your respective Interpretations and feelings. +Thank you. +His work "Breakdown I E N C L O S E D" powerfully depicts the state of Kathmandu during the April 2015 earthquake that left nearly 9,000 people dead. +Breakdown I E N C L O S E D . +Artwork by Ashim Shakya. +Used with permission. +Facebook user Su Bash wrote about his impressions of the piece: For me this depicts the black day, the day when earthquake struck. +In his "Mellow Dwellings" piece, a line of homes are reimagined as instruments in a band. Shakya explained on Facebook: "Mellow Dwellings " +Souls of triumphant comes over these houses where Music dwells in every walk and gestures as I pass the melodies of my path. +A lone house may chant some notes but it's the community that composes a "Harmony" . +Mellow Dwellings. +Artwork by Ashim Shakya. +Used with permission. +A Facebook user, Manjima Sharma, commented: +Amazing imagination. +If the houses were constructed to reflect the sketch , it could have been a world landmark. +Wonderfully done. + +How More and More Schools in Brazil Are Teaching Kids to Eat Their Vegetables · Global Voices +Sixth-graders at the Leão Machado school in Sao Paulo. +School gardens have become a popular way to help kids learn to eat healthier in Brazil. +Credit: Rhitu Chatterjee. +Used with PRI's permission +On a hilly slope in São Paulo City, a group of sixth graders is busy at work. +They’re armed with seeds, soil and a range of gardening tools. +Upside-down soda bottles, filled with water, outline a series of rectangular garden plots. +A boy named Felipy Pigato tells me they are preparing the soil for planting. +“Yesterday we mixed regular soil with coconut fiber,” he says. +“The coconut fiber holds the seeds in the soil.” +Today, he says they will add in the compost. +As the students dig, they pull back chunks of dirt, creating shallow pits, where earthworms wriggle in the freshly dug soil. +Mateus Feitosa de Almeida, 12, slowly pulls back the soil around a worm. +“We have to pull like that so we don’t hurt the worms,” he explains. +“If we take them out, it’s bad for the soil.” +This digging is going on in a quiet middle-class neighborhood, in a garden that belongs to Leão Machado School, a large public school. +The students are working under the guidance of two teachers, Daniel Giglio Colombo and Marta Martins. +This is the second year of the project, says Colombo, who helped start the garden. +“We’re going to grow the same things we did last year — arugula, lettuce, radishes.” +The vegetables they grow are used in school meals. +But the real aim of the school garden is not to supply ingredients, he says, but to teach students where food comes from, so they can develop a connection to their food. +“When we ask students where lettuce comes from, they say the market,” Colombo says. +“They have lost contact with nature, the soil, sowing, and growing of crops.” +And that is reflected in their diets, he says, which are increasingly unhealthy. +Students say the school garden project is teaching them a lot about how to grow food, though it's still hard for some of them to appreciate vegetables. Credit: Rhitu Chatterjee. +Used with PRI's permission +Just like in the US, highly processed foods like fast food, soda, and high-fructose corn syrup have become all too popular here in Brazil. +And obesity rates are rising, even among children. +It is a nation-wide problem that has alarmed the government and public health experts in the country. +Brazil’s government has banned sodas, cakes and cookies in school meals. +It has restricted the amount of salt and sugar in them as well. +It also requires at least one daily serving of fruits and vegetables. +Initially, students used to reject fresh food, says Martins. +She and her colleagues hoped that the school garden would change that. +“We wanted to create better habits with this project,” Martins says. +“We wanted them to improve their eating and become healthier.” +That idea is behind flourishing school gardens across Brazil. +The program started 12 years ago as a pilot program in five schools, as part of a project by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Program. +Today, there are a few thousand school gardens in 700 cities and towns. +Many are run independently by schools. +Others are supported by city governments. +It’s hard to know yet whether school gardens have improved children’s health, says Albaneide Peixinho, who ran Brazil’s school meal program for 13 years. +But she says schools are reporting that the gardens have made students more aware of their food. +“With school gardens, they see that food comes from the Earth,” Peixinho says, and they are eating healthier. +Some studies even show that the students are influencing how their families eat. +“Parents say that the kids are eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, and they insist on eating those foods at home.” +Sarah Campos (left) and Juliana Santos, former students of the Leão Machado School. +Campos says she tried her first radish after working in the school garden. +Now she loves them. +Credit: Rhitu Chatterjee. +Used with PRI's permission +Sarah Campos, 14, took the school garden class last year at Leão Machado in São Paulo. +“I had never eaten radishes before,” she says. +But she tried some when she and her classmates cooked radishes they had grown in the school garden. +“I loved it so much that I even had a second plate,” Campos says. +Now, she says she eats radishes often. +“I ask my mom to make them for lunch sometimes. +She puts them in the salad with carrots, and with potatoes. +It’s very good.” +She and her classmates say they are more open to eating vegetables now. +They try to avoid fast food and they’re more conscious of their diets. +Out in the garden, I ask Mateus, the student who told me about protecting earthworms, what he has learned in his gardening class. +“Many things,” he says. +“Like digging, what organic fertilizer is, what animals do to make the soil better.” +“What did you learn about vegetables?” I ask. +“That they are good for our health and well-being.” +“Do you eat vegetables?” +“I’m not so keen on them, but I guess I do now with this project,” he says, laughing sheepishly. +The hope is that by the end of the school year, he will really enjoy them. +This story was produced with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. + +The Innocents of the Panama Papers · Global Voices +On April 1, 2016, a series of publications known as The Panama Papers were brought to light in many parts of the world. +Lots of names, lots of lawyers, and, above all, lots of questions. +In Costa Rica, the journalistic investigation into the Papers’ contents has been in the hands of Amelia Rueda and her teams at Databasear.com and Semanario Universidad, the news site of the University of Costa Rica. +What are the Panama Papers? +A video by Amelia Rueda explains it all #ourvoice +A critical question raised by the Panama Papers has to do with the reasons behind setting up offshore accounts or companies. +Answers vary, but one of the most common explanations is that these mechanisms are used to avoid paying taxes. +In some countries tax burdens are increasing: governments, having little economic solvency, continue to create taxes which affect bank deposits and, in a sense, penalise those with the most money. +Then there are people who simply prefer not to diminish their wealth by complying with their country’s tax requirements. +In order to "protect" their wealth, such people seek out countries where the fiscal facilities are such that their assets cannot be seized and they are not required to pay heavy taxes on their balances. +Political instability is another factor that’s often cited: if a country is politically unstable, people will be driven to take their money out of local banks. +In some of the coverage of the Panama Papers in Costa Rica and around the world, tendentious headlines like “Learn how the rich evade taxes” lump all well-off people into one category, when not all wealthy people are tax evaders. +Publications are also listing firms that set up companies or formally opened accounts in Panama, even if this was done legally and with no intention of evading tax responsibilities. +Many of the people mentioned in news articles have no connection to acts of evasion, yet their names remain in the eye of the hurricane and they are being scrutinized and pilloried on social networks. +Cristian Cambronero (@cambronero), a popular journalist and blogger from Costa Rica, has criticised the publishing of such information without seeking reactions from those involved. +“Publishing names without any distinction or disclaimer is totally irresponsible,” he tweeted. +I agree with @eduardoulibarr1 publishing names without any distinction or disclaimer is totally irresponsible #PanamaPapers +The widespread desire for transparency around the issue of tax evasion is completely understandable. +Nonetheless, the question arises as to whether innocent people are being hurt as a result of this process. Are the good names of ethical businesspeople and lawyers being unjustly attacked? Journalists on the front lines of reporting these revelations must be extremely careful and responsible: they should be carefully validating all sources before publishing the somebody’s name in this place where information lives forever. +As Mari Carmen (@marcar71) contends, only subsequent investigations will reveal those who are truly guilty of a crime. +The important thing about these #PanamaPapers are the upcoming investigations that will determine who committed crimes and who didn’t. +"This treasure trove of information," wrote La Nación, "in more capable hands would probably have permitted the lifting of the veil of these illegal operations, to the great benefit to the public. But Semanario made no distinction, and alongside cases that were clearly illegal, included a host of names and companies, casting doubts on them all." +#Live @Maluavi: “I don’t have money in #Panama. +The company that I am linked to is not being questioned” +Leonel Baruch, who is also president of the media outlet CRHoy.com, issued a press release demanding that Semanario Universidad write a public correction clarifying the real reason his name appears in the leaked documents. +“My name is mentioned,” Baruch wrote in his press release, “because I was notified of the sale of a company under investigation that I had when I was Minister of Finance.” +Various celebrities around the world have also come out to clarify their situations, one of the most well-known being star footballer Lionel Messi, whose family has said the company mentioned in the Papers was part of a “structure put in place by Messi’s previous financial advisers, the fiscal consequences of which have already been normalized,” and was now inactive. +These examples reaffirm the important role journalists play in shaping public opinion, not to mention history. +In the months ahead new information will certainly be disclosed. +Some of it will be able to be accepted at face value; some of it will need a legal explanation. +Those who are offended at being named should come forward and explain why their names are linked to the publication. +If they are completely innocent, time and the authorities in each country will reveal this to be the case. +For some of the innocent, however, it is likely that they will not be able to clear their names completely in the court of public opinion, and therein lies the problem. + +Indonesians Light Candles and Seek Justice for Murdered Teenage Rape Victim · Global Voices +Indonesians in central Java region light candle for Yuyun. +Photo by Forum Pengada Layanan. +Source: ‏@CuteTiel, used with permissionFor nearly a month, the public ignored news of a 13-year-old Indonesian girl being raped by 14 men and murdered last April. +Activists and feminist groups subsequently launched a social media campaign calling for justice, finally forcing the issue into the spotlight, and sparking a national discussion about ending sexual violence against women and children. +Yuyun, who was a top student in her class, was found dead with her hands tied at a rubber plantation. +Twelve of the suspected rapists have now been arrested, but two are still at large. +Most of the suspects are also minors like Yuyun which means they will receive a 10-year jail sentence if found guilty. +The hashtag #nyalauntukyuyun (“Light a candle for Yuyun”) was used enjoining the public to light a candle and demand justice for the young girl. +Internet users shared their sympathies for Yuyun's family, and Indonesian President Jokowi also vowed to arrest the perpetrators: +We're all saddened by the tragic loss of YY. +The perpetrators must be arrested and receive maximum punishment. Women and children must be protected from violence. Many also urged for the passage of the Elimination of Sexual Violence bill: +Victim Blaming Despite the outpouring of messages of compassion for Yuyun's family, there are also those who chose to accuse the victim for somehow provoking the men to rape and murder her. +Diana Nurwidiastuti, a sex-harassment victim, deplored this attitude: Because we often look down at rape victims. Because we still blame their appearance, a miniskirt becomes a scapegoat that triggers irresistible temptation. +Because we still believe that rape victims enjoy forced sex. +Because we encourage victims not to fight back. +Because we believe that sodomized victims will one day create other perpetrators and that it's a vicious cycle. +And we still believe that sexual harassment is a misfortune and a taboo that should be forgotten. +Others blamed alcohol for the cause of rape. +Former minister Tifatul Sembiring from the Islamist party believes that, instead of passing the Anti-Sexual Violence bill, what is more urgent is the proposed anti-liquor law: Alcohol is the root of all evil. + +The Less Sleek, More Timeworn 'Bits of Tokyo' · Global Voices +Bits of Tokyo is an anonymous photo blog that captures the quiet, older corners of Tokyo, the world's largest city. +Rather than focusing on the neon-lit, futuristic landscapes many people associate with Japan, Bits of Tokyo instead documents the more care-worn and often decaying homes and businesses that are common not only to many parts of Tokyo, but other cities around a rapidly aging Japan. + +Journalist Couple Attacked in Makassar, Indonesia · Global Voices +Arpan Rachman and Icha Lamboge covering security during elections in Makassar. +Photo courtesy of Arpan Rachman. +Two digital journalists based in Makassar, in the region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia were attacked on June 5, 2016, while attending an event held by Makassar branch of Islamic Students Alumni (KAHMI Makassar) at Makassar mayor's house. +Global Voices author Arpan Rachman and his wife Icha Lamboge, who is also a journalist, told Global Voices that two men in black uniforms – not the standard uniform of city security guards – stopped them and asked for their journalist ID cards. +The men then took them into a small room behind the house where Arpan asked them to identify themselves, which they refused to do. +One of the men then snatched Lamboge's mobile phone, which is her main reporting tool. +When Rachman intervened and tried to get her phone back, the man grabbed punched him in the chest while the other man strangled him. +The couple reported the incident to police, and Rachman was examined by a doctor. +He is recovering from the incident, however, both he and his wife are fearing for their safety. +The Alliance for Independent Journalists in Makassar has documented 12 cases of journalist abuse thus far in 2016, including harassment while reporting, destruction of reporting tools, intimidation, and physical assault. +Neither KAHMI, AJI, nor Makassar officials have issued any statement regarding the attack on Rachman and Lamboge. +Arpan Rachman and Icha Lamboge covering the aftermath of elections, when the Palopo Mayor's office was burned. +Photo courtesy of Arpan Rachman. +Shortly afterward, Lamboge expressed concern that the incident would be “dismissed and forgotten or the evidence record doctored.” +They have since obtained legal representation from Legal Aid Foundation Makassar, but much remains uncertain about their case. +They continue to fear for their physical safety. +Both work actively as journalists, with Lamboge working chiefly with SINDO Trijaya FM, a radio station based in Jakarta, and Rachman working as investigative journalist with multiple local news outlets including BaKTINews, inspiratifnews, Membunuh Indonesia and Media Lingkungan. +The couple has worked together on stories that they suspect could have provoked the incident. +For a recent print edition of the human rights magazine Torture: Asian and Global Perspectives, they wrote about controversial mass evictions taking place in the Bulogading zone at the center of Makassar. +More than one online story about the evictions has been taken down as tensions have risen. +In Indonesia, violence against journalist happens regularly. +Attacks like these often go unreported in the media, and perpetrators often go without punishment. +The case involving Arpan and Icha was covered by one local news website, but the story was subsequently removed for unknown reasons. +Global Voices community condemns all forms of violence against journalists in Indonesia and elsewhere in the world. +As a community, we stand by our colleague Arpan and his family's appeal for truth and justice. + +Take a Look at the Africa the Media Never Shows You · Global Voices +Screenshot of some of the images found under the hashtag #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou on Twitter. +The portrayal of Africa by mainstream media, particularly Western media, paints it as a dark, ugly, hopeless place that is ridden with civil war, militant groups, corruption, violation of freedoms, starvation, chaotic urbanisation and utter desperation. This gives people who have never being to Africa a false, misleading impression of the continent. +Africans on Twitter have came together to showcase the beauty, diversity and innovative modern architecture of the continent that Western media rarely show their audiences. +It all began with the hashtag #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou by Twitter user Mango: + +Who Was Jalaluddin Rumi, and Whose Rumi Is He? · Global Voices +As all the countries that call the work of Jalaluddin Rumi their own rise up against the idea of Leonardo Di Caprio playing the poet and scholar in a Hollywood epic, social media users in Afghanistan are pushing back against Iran and Turkey's reported joint claim to the poet's 800-year-old masterpiece Mathnawi Ma’nawi . +On May 31, Iran’s Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) released a report quoting the country’s chair of National Documents Organization on Iran and Turkey’s agreement to jointly register Rumi’s Mathnawi Ma’nawi collection of verses as joint cultural heritage with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). +The report proved a viral controversy on Afghan social media and prompted a frenzy of diplomatic back-and-forth. +On June 9 Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially complained to Patricia McPhillips, UNESCO's representative to Afghanistan who subsequently promised to report the issue to UNESCO’s central office. +Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani asked the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu “for details” of the news on the same day. +Çavuşoğlu in turn expressed his “unawareness of the issue” and promised “Afghanistan’s considerations and recommendations as the birthplace of Maulana Jalaladdin Muhammad Balkhi” would be considered in the submission, a reaction that failed to quell online protest. +Then, on June 12, a journalist for Afghan media outlet Ariana News posted an interview with Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan who said Iran "has no claim to own Maulana; Iran has no intention to register Mathnawi or Maulana. +Iran only attempts to register some old versions of the Mathnawi." +'I come from Balkh' +Mathnawi Ma’nawi (literally: The Spiritual Couplets) is one of three known works written by Rumi, consisting of six chapters and some 26,000 couplets in total. +Mathnawi Ma’nawi is revered across the Persian-speaking world, including in Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan, as a book of exceptional wisdom. +For many Persian language-speakers it is even heralded as a “second Quran” or “the Persian Quran” — the ultimate tribute to its mystical and spiritually rich content. +Mathnawi also helped Rumi become America’s best-selling poet in 2014, which explains Hollywood's interest in his extraordinary life. +On June 9, a group of civil society activists gathered in Kabul to protest Iran and Turkey's UNESCO submission, insisting Rumi was a “cosmopolitan poet who is a precious asset of all people of culture.” +They argued: “Everyone knows that he was born in Balkh and then moved to Konya.” +Suhrab Sirat, a renowned Afghan poet, wrote a long post, quoting a couplet from Mathnawi: +I come from Balkh, I come from Balkh, I come from Balkh/ A world rejoices my bitterness. . . +Many other Facebook users also cited the same couplet of Mathnawi as proof he belongs to Balkh, Afghanistan. +But in several of his ghazals, Rumi is more nebulous about his origins: +“Not Christian, nor Jew nor Muslim, not Hindu/ Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen. +Not any religion/ or cultural system. +I am not from the East/ or the West, not out of the ocean or above,” he writes in one. +Mohammad Husain Mohammadi, a modern-day poet, novelist and storywriter, who owns Taak Publications, wrote: Maulana’s homeland is the realm of Jaan (“spirit”) +Rocked by the loss, Maulauna burst into verse. Among the tens of thousands of verses attributed to Rumi, some 44,000 verses are collected in two epic books named Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi (his ghazals, love and mystic poems) written in honour of his friend, and some 25,000 are collected in Mathnawi Ma’nawi (lines of wisdom). +He died in Konya in 1273. +He also said that he wants Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio to play the role of Rumi, sparking excitement among some Afghans and revulsion among others. +I hope the #Rumi film will be an authentic representation of customs of the region unlike the traumatic 'Rock The Kasbah'. #RumiWasntWhite — Shuja Rabbani (@ShujaRabbani) June 7, 2016 So they want a white man to play Rumi, a SUFI PERSIAN poet, but when they need a terrorist they find Muslim actors so easily #RumiWasntWhite — Aayesha (@AayeshaJ) June 7, 2016 +Only time will tell whether Rumi's legend will be honoured or mistreated by the silver screen, but many Afghans admit — whether freely or reluctantly — that it was created thousands of miles west of the land of his birth. +Yet the theologian of broad learning still has much to teach Afghanistan, where extremist interpretations of religion continue cast a shadow over the joy of spirit that suffused his life's work. +Rumi's true admirers will hope the noise surrounding his origins does not drown out the power and wisdom of his words, at a time when the world is most in need of them. + +Founder of Protest Reporting Outlet Goes Missing in China · Global Voices +A photograph of demonstrations in Shandong province, posted on Twitter by Lu Yuyu. +Photo via Weibo. +Lu Yuyu, founder of citizen media outlet Not in the News (非新聞), has been missing since June 15, along with his girlfriend. +The news team also keeps track of the scale and number of incidents, the number of arrested demonstrators and the reason behind the demonstrations through its monthly statistics report. +It recorded 28,950 incidents in mainland China in 2015. +The site recorded 9,869 incidents in the first quarter of 2016. +The site collects videos and photos of grassroots demonstrations from online sources and redistributes the news via various social media platforms. +Twitter account @wickedonna is a major distribution spot and usually the account, managed by Lu Yuyu (Darkmamu), has several daily updates. +Since June 14, the @wickedonna account has posted no new updates. +Lu's friend @youyuping alerted followers on June 20: +Urgently seeking missing person, @wickedonnaa, a highly sensitive news outlet has gone missing. On Weibo, Lu's friend @ZGHQW99 is also looking for him: Lu Yuyu has been researching mass incidents across the country since 2011 and distributing the news on Sina Weibo and Twitter. +He has been doing this non-stop for years so that netizens from China and overseas can see people's suffering in China. +Even Hongqi's "Worker and Peasant" column has republished his writings. +Last week, Lu went missing and out of contact. +Even his relative's mobile phone is unanswered. +Please pay attention to this. +In an interview with @beidaijin published on Paopao.net in 2014, Lu explained the mission of his work: +To magnify the voices of the protesters and catch social attention. +To spread people's experience of struggle so that others can learn from their successes or failures. +Lu began researching mass demonstrations and incidents in 2011 and began actively distributing the news through social media in 2013, developing what became a counterweight to China's online censorship regime. +As witness accounts of protests are dispersed on social media and quickly deleted by web censors, Lu sought through his work to give people greater access to information of public interest and document a more complete picture of the incidents. +Lu Yuyu, the person behind @wickdonnaa. +Photo from Twitter user @youyuping. +He usually spends eight hours a day tracking protest news on social media, cross-checking the information via different search engines, and verifying that videos and images are really coming from the protest spots. @hpgd0 praised Lu's work on Twitter after he learned about his disappearance: +"Not in the News" bares witness to so many sufferings for us. +Putting such serious effort into this work is an act of respect. +I sometimes intentionally ignore the news, as it takes courage to look at others' suffering. +But I notice that he keeps track of every incident, every day. +These stories can make headline news in Japan, they are all loaded with social injustice. +Society is not perfect, but filtering out negative news will not make society better. +It is very likely that Lu and his girlfriend's disappearance is related to his citizen journalistic work. +Many speculated that they have been detained because of recent protests in the town of Wukan, Shandong province, where protests have erupted over an ongoing land dispute. +Xing Jian, an exiled dissident told Radio Free Asia: +As Wukan incident continued to gain public attention, the Chinese authorities are worried about media reports on the protest. +That's why they made him vanish. +This is a further suppression of freedom of press. +We urge international society and human rights organizations to pay attention on this. + +Come Along on a Canoe Ride Through the Amazon With Young Sarayaku Footballers · Global Voices +Imagine traveling 67 kilometers by motorized canoe in search of a rival for a sporting match. +That is what the young footballers from the Kichwa community of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon must do every week for regular competition. +These kids belong to Club Deportivo Sarayaku's football academy, which not only helps young kichwas from the community learn to dribble, pass, and play defense, but also helps steer them in the right direction, toward team sport, away from potentially dangerous temptations. +The school's website says it acts as a bulwark against the “aggression of globalization”: +The youth of Sarayaku possess intelligence, talent, and the ability to live in their territory's habitat. +They are skilled in the forest as hunters, knowledgeable about botany, the cosmos, the mountains, the rain, waterfalls, lightning, stones, the sacred Uchuputo tree, and of the Pachamama (Mother Earth). +Today they are falling slowly to the visible and invisible aggression of globalization, to the postponement and abandonment of the large governmental ministries, to the industrial projects, and to the lack of solidarity that leads to the serious risk at an early age of alcoholism and youth migration. +Helping to build self-esteem and pride in the local youth culture is another goal of the football school because of the camaraderie built among the team when representing their community. +This can be seen in the fun the close-knit team has when it sets off for the six-hour river journey to play its next match. +Filming with a GoPro camera, Gualinga documented the conditions in which the youth travel to play the sport they love: +In the Amazon, the climate is unpredictable. +You can see the four seasons of the year all in the same day: sunshine in the morning, rain in the afternoon, strong winds, trees with flowers, and trees that lose their leaves. +The little travelers face all of these adversities. +The river is sacred to the Sarayaku people, as it is not only the means of communication and contact with other communities, but it is a source of sustenance. That is why the Sarayaku people are well-known for defending their natural surroundings because of their relationship with nature. +And now the river is also a way to connect with other communities for a friendly match of football. + +A Children's Book Introduces German Kids to the True Story of Syrian Refugees · Global Voices +Rahaf and her family fleeing Homs, Syria to Germany. +Credit: Jan Birck +This article by Lucy Martirosyan originally appeared on PRI.org on June 20, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement. +There are now more than 65 million people displaced by conflict in the world, the highest level ever recorded. +Half of these refugees are children. +Germany has received more than 1 million refugees, mostly from Syria and Iraq. +Despite supporters initially celebrating Chancellor Angela Merkel's actions, many Germans have begun voicing concerns about when this acceptance of migrants will come to an end. +But while the adults in Germany have expressed mixed reactions to the refugees, German author Kirsten Boie wants children at least to realize that a refugee child is just like any other kid in the world. +Listen to this story on PRI.org » +In her latest children’s book, “Everything Will Be Alright,” she writes the true story of Rahaf and her family, who flee Homs, Syria due to bombings by war planes. +The family crosses the Mediterranean Sea on a small boat, ultimately choosing a small town near Hamburg, Germany to start their new lives. +The book is published in German and Arabic and is meant to be read at school to both German-born children and their new immigrant neighbors. +(An English translation is available online here.) +“You have hundreds of thousands of people who not only welcome refugees coming to us, but who support them very heavily, who give a lot of their time helping them to learn the language, to go to a doctor, to go to authorities and so on. +And on the other hand, you have some people who are completely against refugees,” Boie says. +“Children are somewhere in the middle and the information that they get — well, some parents speak about refugees badly, some say something different. +So I thought just telling a story of a genuine family would give them a chance to learn what it was like." +Throughout the past year, Boie has been in contact with refugee families. +She says that she could have chosen a more “dramatic” story to tell — one that would have included more loss, violence and pain — but she decided to tell a more “ordinary” one. +She hopes that will allow German children to relate to refugee children more easily. +The book includes some horrifying scenes endured by the main characters who are now settled in Germany. +Credit: Jan Birck +As she worked on the book, Boie would meet with Rahaf and her brother Hassan (not their real names) as well as their mother. +Instead of talking about the violence and war right away, the two children reminisced about their home and the friends and cousins they left behind. +Their mother eventually prompted them in Arabic to speak of the war atrocities they had witnessed, Boie says. +Boie keeps in touch with Rahaf and Hassan — they even go to the movies together — but she doesn't plan on a sequel. +“I'm pretty certain I won't do that. +I did everything so that nobody could identify these children. +I even changed their names — that is, they changed them themselves. +They told me what they wanted to be called in the story,” Boie says. +At readings Boie has done, some young German readers worry about the well-being of Rahaf and Hassan. +They have even started to empathize with them. +“Children, I think they're very, very open-minded. +When they hear what these kids have gone through, they want to know, 'Can we help them? +How can we help them? +What can we do to make life easier for them?'” Boie says. +“In this story of these two Syrian kids, the smugglers on the Mediterranean, they steal their luggage. +In the luggage there's the girl's doll. +And she's very unhappy about losing her doll that way. +The children here always start by asking, 'Has she got her doll back?' +I think the reason for that is that this is something that they can imagine themselves, whereas all the bombs and fighting and nights on the Mediterranean ... they can't imagine that happening to themselves.” +Boie, who has written over 60 books for both children and teenagers, believes stories help young people understand what's going on in the world. +“Stories, I think, always make it much easier for children to understand something than theoretical knowledge. I think that's the chance we have,” Boie says. + +After Brexit, Timor-Leste Workers Are Worried About Their Future in the UK · Global Voices +Through a referendum, the UK has voted to leave the European Union. +Photo from the Flickr page of portal gda, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 +On June 23, 2016, a majority of United Kingdom voters decided in favor of a proposal to leave the European Union. +Known as Brexit, the result of the referendum will have a massive impact not just in Europe but in many parts of the world. +For European citizens living in the UK, one of the principal concerns is their residency and right to work. +Will the UK government force them to leave the country? +Among them is a significant number of people from Timor-Leste. Timor-Leste is a former colony of Portugal, which means the Timorese are also recognized as nationals of Portugal, a member of the European Union. +Since 2002, when Timor-Leste achieved independence from Indonesia, many Timorese have come to the UK seeking jobs in the semi-skilled services sector and factories. +Pay for similar work in Timor-Leste is low, but in the UK means at least minimum wages of 200 pounds per week (about 270 US dollars). +Managed carefully, that's enough to live on as well as send some home to family left behind in Timor-Leste. +Following the Brexit vote, some Timorese residents of the UK are worried about their situation. +Will they be asked to abandon their immigration status? +This is the concern raised in the Forum Haksesuk Blog of Celso Oliveira, a Timorese living in UK: +Related to the referendum 23/06, there are some concerns the Timor-Leste government should address related to the future of its people living in the UK. +Many Timorese have been coming to the UK since the country became a free nation in August 1999 . +Today, there are still Timorese people leaving their own country to live in the UK. +The main reason has to do with the need to survive financially since many workers earn just $1 per day. +Secondly, unemployment is worsening while population growth remains high. +And thirdly, many people want to change their lives. +EU treaties recognizing the free movement of EU workers are still enforced today, but what will happen after Brexit? +The fate of Portuguese migrants from Timor-Leste remains uncertain. +Addressing the concerns of Timorese residing in the UK, the Timor-Leste government urged its people not to panic since there will be negotiations between the EU and UK authorities over labour conditions for EU citizens already in the UK. +Timor Leste's Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Roberto Sarmento de Oliveira Soares sought to assuage the concerns of Timorese workers in the UK. +Screenshot of Timor Post newspaper. +For its part, the Portuguese government is advising its citizens who are living in the UK to apply for a permanent resident card while securing dual nationality in order to secure their rights. +Meanwhile, Timor-Leste's former president and Nobel Peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta advised the EU not to panic and instead turn the situation into an opportunity to “reimagine” the regional bloc: +From afar, my best advice to European leaders is…there is no reason to panic; the EU still has Germany, France, Italy, Italy, Poland and Spain whose combined GDP dwarf that of little UK. +European leaders must display serenity and begin to re-imagine a Union that is more peoples-based, reconnecting with the real people, less focused on the stifling Brussels-based bureaucrats, real culprits and cause of disdain and repudiation; instead of overspending on a wasteful Brussels bureaucracy the new EU should double investments on youth and employment for all, education and innovation. + +This Classic Ukrainian Cartoon Can Help Parents Talk About Human Trafficking · Global Voices +Screen shot from "How the Cossacks Rescued Their Fiances" (1973). +'Traditional' bondage in Mauritania; forced prostitution in Europe; and bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan. In 2016, an estimated 45.8 million were subjected to some form of slavery in 167 countries, according to the Global Slavery Index. +Even though slavery continues to plague us, discussions about human trafficking or slavery are seldom part of mainstream public discourse, and rarely do these conversations cater to children. +But an episode from a classic Ukrainian cartoon series broke taboos around addressing human trafficking as early as 1973. +And now thanks to YouTube, almost half a century later, "How the Cossacks Rescued Their Fiancees" (Как казаки невест выручали), from the "How the Cossacks.." series, is making a global comeback. +Single episodes of the series, uploaded to the video streaming site, have received as many as a million views. +The episode on human trafficking has been viewed more than 500K times and intertwines folklore and social commentary in a way that can be used as a conversation starter about the broad area of kidnapping and slavery. +This episode is a little over 17 minutes long, but well worth your time, as the director Vladimir Dahno combined classic animation techniques with a hilarious storyline and an excellent musical score. +This episode follows three Cossacks who pursues a gang of girl-kidnapping pirates through various countries, which include satirically stereotyped depictions of Greece, Egypt and India. +The use of dialogue is minimal, making this episode accessible to worldwide audiences of all ages. +If you liked this episode you might want to check out this list from UA Post: 10 Ukrainian cartoons that will make your children smarter. + +Russian Artists Reimagine Pokémon Go With Soviet Cartoon Characters · Global Voices +Who wouldn't want to catch this little dude? +Cheburashka, a beloved Soviet cartoon character, placed in a Pokémon Go setting. +Image from 2D Among Us. +And Russian officials have already warned that the game could be used to "spark riots" and could "ruin us spiritually." +Other RuNet users have taken a more light-hearted approach to making Pokémon Go their own. +A group of Russian artists and designers from the 2D Among Us community on VKontakte, Russia's largest social network, asked the question: What if the game was situated in the former Soviet Union and populated with characters from old Soviet cartoons? +The resulting image manipulations are frankly adorable, bringing Cheburashka and other well-known cartoon figures to mobile screens, and placing monkeys, parrots and cute poltergeist Kuzya in recognizable post-Soviet landscapes, such as shabby garages, decaying playgrounds and industrial backgrounds. +Everyone's favorite big-eared wonder Cheburashka in front of a broken phone booth. +Image from 2D Among Us. +The artists also played with other game interface elements, replacing the pokeball device with a children's red rubber ball. +The details look so familiar that one VKontakte user remarked they could "almost hear the sound of that ball." +The Monkey from 38 Parrots cartoon finds herself in a dilapidated factory setting. +Image from 2D Among Us. +The 2D Among Us community shares images of cartoon or movie characters edited into images of mundane reality, providing a playful and often surprising look at the things we observe around us every day. +See more Pokémon Go-inspired cartoon characters on the 2D Among Us VKontakte page. +The Dude (Muzhychok), a character from the great plasticine cartoon "Last Year's Snow Was Falling." +Image from 2D Among Us. + +How a Hmong Song Tradition Is Kept Alive in the American Midwest · Global Voices +This article originally appeared on PRI.org on May 26, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement. +Think of kwv txhiaj as song poetry. +Or better yet, think of it like a Hmong version of the blues. +And in that vein, think of kwv txhiaj the way American writer Ralph Ellison thought of the blues: "an autobiographical chronicle of personal catastrophe expressed lyrically." +Ellison's quote starts off a new book about kwv txhiaj and one of its singers, a man named Bee Yang. +The story is by his daughter, award-winning author Kao Kalia Yang. +It's called "The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father." +Her book shows that, like the blues, kwv txhiaj can be soothing for the soul. +"It connects me to my dad," Yang says. +"Everybody in America knows him, and for most of my life I've talked about him as a machinist. +But I know that in his heart and in his mind he is a song poet. +So when I hear kwv txhiaj, I think about the man who, long before I'd ridden a bike or a car, I saw the world from his shoulders. +It was those shoulders that took me to the tops of the trees and said, 'One day your little hand and feet will not dictate your life journey. +You will walk on the horizons your father has never seen.' +So when I hear kwv txhiaj I think about his words and I think about the future he saw for me." +It's a future that is distinct from a past filled with war. +Her father fled Laos for a refugee camp in Thailand during the US war in Vietnam, and in 1987 settled his family in the US state of Minnesota. +"As a child of the Hmong people, I know that we come from a war. +Growing up in America I never knew which war we came from because in history classes we only learned about the Vietnam War as between the Americans and the North Vietnamese Army," she says. +"To belong to a people that has been deleted so thoroughly from history I think is terribly sad. +My father and other traditional Hmong kwv txhiaj singers have tried to document this in their songs, the stories of how war came upon a people, how lives were lost, and how we stood up again." +So kwv txhiaj is also history. +Yang adds that for many refugee children like herself, songs like the kwv txhiaj call them home and raise them up. +And only a select few can do it. +"You cannot just be a kwv txhiaj singer. +You have to be born with a gift because your voice is the only music accompanying your words into the world." + +If I Had a Gun · Global Voices +PHOTO: Public domain from Pixabay. +Listen to Jeronimo Yanez's voice after he shot Philando Castile. +Here's what I heard: The voice of a man who hoped to be the good guy with the gun, being confronted with the fact that he might be the bad guy—the fearful guy, the boy who protects himself against the dark, and is not protecting others from an imminent threat, as he may have imagined himself doing as a police officer. +Or, at a minimum, I heard in his voice the realization that shooting a man with a woman and child in the car is villainously terrible, and not at all heroic. +To my ears, there was nothing but pain and fear in his voice. +I've also been thinking about Castile. +He carried a firearm because he imagined it might keep him safe. +Perhaps he too had fantasies, or stories he told himself, of using the firearm to protect the people he cared about. +If neither man had had a firearm, Castile would be alive, free to keep making mistakes and loving and hating and growing, Yanez would have already forgotten about that ticket he wrote for the broken tail light, and Diamond Reynolds and her daughter would not be plagued by nightmares for the rest of their lives. +I've been thinking about all the times violence has swept into my life, and mentally inserting a gun into my hand. +A couple of weeks ago, my son and I saw a man attack a woman on Telegraph. +I jumped up and said something stupid like, "Hey, stop, that's not right!" +That broke the spell. The guy looked at me, blinked, and walked away. +Then he came back and apologized to her and to me (in a weird screwed-up way, but that's another story-and yes, I did call the police, or try to-but again, that's another story). +What if I'd had a gun under my jacket? +My hand would have gone right toward it. +The presence of the gun may have led to tougher, more confrontational words. +My son may have ended up seeing me shoot that man, or shoot a bystander. +Or I could have even shot my son, if something had gone horribly wrong. +But none of that happened. +Everyone lived. +When I think about the times I've been attacked or threatened or I've seen violence, I can't think of one instance when a gun would have improved the outcome. +Which is not to say that there will never come a time when a gun might help. +But my experience tells me that this time will be the exception, not the rule. +Over the weekend, my partner and our boys walked past a store that sold weapons. +Of course, the boys wanted to go in and gawk at the swords and knives and guns. +I understood: they've been fed images of good guys with guns for their entire lives, and they wanted to slip into those fantasies for a moment. +I have little doubt that Jeronimo Yanez and Philando Castile were once just like my boys. +Bored, I looked at the signs being sold on the walls of the store: Keep out! +Owner is armed and dangerous! +Gun control is being able to hit your target! +Everything said fear and isolation. +Nothing said: Breathe and count the good things in life, and remember that we're all fallible and precious. + +Afghanistan's Hazaras: 'Do Not Eliminate Us!' · Global Voices +Pairs of eyeglass frames and a sign on the Afghan flag, which reads "Do Not Eliminate Us!". +Shared via Republic of Silence Facebook page. +Nearly 90 people were killed and hundreds injured after two suicide bombers struck a peaceful protest led by the Hazara Shi'ite minority group in Deh Mazang, Kabul on July 23, 2016. +The attack, one of the deadliest since 2001, was later claimed by the ISIS. +Afghanistan's minority group, the Hazaras, were marching to protest the Afghan government's plans to re-route a major power project, the 500 kV power transmission line from Turkmenistan to Kabul, which was originally planned to go through Bamiyan, a predominantly Hazara province. +One Global Voices author, Bismella Alizada, was briefly hospitalized following the blasts, and other authors from the GV community had family members directly affected by the savage attack. +The Hazaras had carried out similar protests in May, launching the so-called Enlightenment Movement which had pushed President Ghani to issue a decree to build a smaller electricity line through Bamiyan. It's systematic discrimination when every single major project bypasses the #Hazara homeland (center) pic.twitter.com/B37Ci6Jbnx #enlightenment — Hector Of Troy (@HektorOfTroy) July 30, 2016 +When addressing the nation, he added: holding protests is the right of every citizen of Afghanistan and the government puts all efforts to provide security for the protestors, but terrorists entered the protests, and carried out explosions that martyred and wounded a number of citizens including members of security and defense forces. +Haroon Chakhansuri, spokesperson to the President of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, tweeted: +As we mourn victims of today's terror attack in #Kabul, tomorrow Afghan flag will fly at half-mast at all public buildings-at home & abroad. — Haroon Chakhansuri (@hchakhansuri) July 23, 2016 +Yet following the attack, Afghanistan's Interior Ministry issued a 10-day ban on public gatherings citing a heightened risk of sectarian violence. +Skeptical of the ban, Ahmad Shuja, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, wrote: +3/n The 10-day, countrywide protest ban risks being a blunt instrument at a time when civic action could be essential to public grieving — Ahmad Shuja احمدشجاع (@AhmadShuja) July 24, 2016 +Hazaras have been historically persecuted and discriminated against. +The Deh Mazang attack is the worst recent attack on Hazaras since 2011 when twin blasts in Kabul and Mazar-i Sharif killed around 80 people who had gathered to commemorate Ashura, which marks the death of Shi'ite Islam’s holiest martyr. +Since the collapse of the Taliban regime, abductions, extortions, and violent killings of Hazaras have remained a concern, and sparked protests and demands for better protection of the minority group. +Several Hazara political and intellectual figures blame Ghani's government and are concerned that it is not able to protect Hazaras anymore. +Some Hazaras believed that the attack on July 23 might have been encouraged by people from inside the government. +Aslam Jawadi, editor-in-chief of the Daily Opensociety, tweeted: +We wrote, we shouted, we talked and we demonstrated peacefully, but #NUG instead of listening shot #enlightenment pic.twitter.com/e1dlyNf6tu — Aslam Jawadi (@majawadi) July 29, 2016 +Moreover, some Hazaras were furious at their own political leaders for exploiting the grievances of their own people for their own personal interest. +One of the mourners, Ghulam Abbas, said: +They sold us and we will never forget this. +They've built skyscrapers for themselves and their families from our blood. +Bilal Sarwary, an Afghan journalist, tweeted that Afghan government knew about the attack. +We train our children hw to take pencils & pens in their hands, not weapons!#enlightenment #enlightenmentmovement pic.twitter.com/e2EqeSayb4 — MarYam MeHtar (@MaryamMehtar) July 29, 2016 +Bismellah Alizada of Global Voices wrote: +Never can a bomb silence the voice for justice & equality. #enlightenmentmovement #notosystematicdiscrimination — Bismellah Alizada (@BismellaAlizada) July 29, 2016 +Hazaras from all over the world showed solidarity through various gatherings and on social media with the victims of the protest and the enlightenment movement. +Saleem Javed, a Hazara human rights activist from Quetta, Pakistan, tweeted: +7 days ago, today, at this time, time stopped for many #Hazara anti-discrimination demonstrators. #enlightenment pic.twitter.com/Uvokq8fh4F — Saleem Javed (@mSaleemJaved) July 29, 2016 +Marziya Mohammadi, an Afghan human rights advocate, wrote from Australia: +You eliminated those who planted the seeds for #enlightenment, but how will you eliminate #enlightenment? pic.twitter.com/AqWmINQEtW — Marziya Mohammadi (@Marziiiya) July 29, 2016 +Who were the victims? +Afghanistan observed a national day of mourning on July 24. +Families of the victims collected bodies from hospitals and morgues to prepare for funerals. +Many families are still searching for their missing relatives and friends. +Hikmatullah Shafaiee was one of the protestors who was killed in the attack. Fallen protester: Hikmatullah Shafaiee an engineering graduate is 1 of 23rd July #KabulBlast victims#enlightenment pic.twitter.com/APmzFTOlec — Aslam Jawadi (@majawadi) July 28, 2016 Basir Ahang quoted the mother of a victim, who encouraged people to continue fighting for their rights. +"Do not exclude us!" +Facebook posts have this child listed as one of those killed in the attack. +Kabul Relief Effort, a Facebook page that coordinates all the relief efforts for the victims of the attacks, recently posted names of two other victims of the attack, Abdullah Frotan and Qurban, who lost their lives in the NATO Hospital. +Fatima Ghulami, a women's rights activist from Bamiyan, posted a photo of a woman crying for losing a loved one while photos of the victims hang on the walls. +Afghan woman mourns for losing her loved one in recent Kabul attack. +No word can describe the tragedy... pic.twitter.com/XvAHtz0tcv — Fatima Ghulami (@Fatima__GH) July 31, 2016 +Photos of those killed are hanging on the walls of the city. +Ehsanullah Amiri, a Wall Street Journal reporter, posted: + +Indian YouTube Channel Conquers the Hearts And Minds of Millions Across the World · Global Voices +Have you ever noticed what your toddler is watching online, when you hand them a screen in order to enjoy a little respite from the demands of parenting? +If your child is like most, their eyes are likely glued to recycled popular rhymes pouring from the mouths of cartoon characters singing catchy tunes. +Have you ever wondered why your kids happily spend so much of their childhoods watching these videos? +My daughter is probably responsible for a major chunk of number of views. +My night time ritual with little muchkin is CHU CHU TV without fail https://t.co/SEcllurZZ3 — anubha sinha (@anubha_sinha13) July 13, 2016 +No wonder. I see every toddler watching #ChuChuTv on the phone. +The smile I get from my daughter when I put on Chu Chu TV for her, am tired of the show but am happy she likes it because she really learn alot from it.😃😃😃😃she's even repeating some words from it,so thumbs up to that!!! ‪#‎carissaquietmode‬ ‪#‎herloveforlearning‬ ‪#‎herfavouriteshow‬ ‪#‎myhappychild‬ ‪#‎cantbtiredwhenshelearning‬ +British blogger Karen at Missing Sleep writes how Chu Chu TV helped her son grow: +I do feel we would have benefited from ChuChu TV though with youngest especially as he was more of a reluctant learner unless something seemed very fun and captivating for him. +He tends to switch off otherwise, so I really want to introduce as many parents to ChuChu TV as possible who might have challenging pre-schoolers like I did and are in need of a little learning inspiration to pass the time. +The channel also encourages good behaviour, such as the importance of sharing and telling the truth. +A blogger at Champa Tree, for instance, writes how her son was inspired by a video on Chu Chu TV: +One day I watched him listening to a very interesting rhyme on the channel. It was about brushing your teeth. +And, you won’t believe what followed soon-after. +He went straight to the bathroom and picked up his little, blue toothbrush and started rubbing it against his gums. +However, the repetitive rhymes can be annoying for other people at home. +@sanchayan @hankypanty I can hear CHU CHU TV SURPRISE!! even in my nightmares. — Rituparna Chatterjee (@MasalaBai) July 13, 2016 +We concentrate on quality rather than quantity. +We work hard on each and every aspect while creating a video which includes concept creation, lyrics, music, graphics, animation and then the final edit. +We just don’t compromise and the results are showing. +How much screen time children should have on a daily basis is hotly debated. +The average American child, for example, watches more than four hours of TV a day—twice the limit recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. +Watching television at excessive rates deprives children of much-needed physical exercise. +However, if you allow restricted screen time with quality content, experts have found that kids can develop some good skills. +Moreover, as any parent guiltily knows, screen time (watching television, and using tablets and mobile phones) is probably the cheapest and most reliable form of babysitting available to most moms and dads. + +Hundreds of Thousands Join Saudi Women-Led Campaign to End Male Guardianship in the Kingdom · Global Voices +As part of the efforts to end the draconian laws against women in the Gulf state, Saudi women launched a campaign demanding an end to male guardianship for basic practices such as work, property ownership and travel. +Using the hashtag #TogetherToEndMaleGuardianship and its Arabic version #سعوديات_نطالب_باسقاط_الولاية (which translates to ‘Saudi women demand the end of guardianship’), hundreds of thousands of supporters worldwide took part in this campaign. +The campaign was sponsored by Human Rights Watch and follows the release of its lengthy report entitled “Boxed In: Women and Saudi Arabia’s Male Guardianship System”. +In it, the international human rights organization explains that: +In Saudi Arabia, a woman’s life is controlled by a man from birth until death. +Every Saudi woman must have a male guardian, normally a father or husband, but in some cases a brother or even a son, who has the power to make a range of critical decisions on her behalf. +As dozens of Saudi women told Human Rights Watch, the male guardianship system is the most significant impediment to realizing women’s rights in the country, effectively rendering adult women legal minors who cannot make key decisions for themselves. +As one Saudi activist and former school principal, 44-year-old Hayat, told Human Rights Watch on December 7, 2015: +The guardianship system also impacts women’s ability to seek work inside Saudi Arabia and to pursue opportunities abroad that might advance their careers. +Specifically, women may not apply for a passport without male guardian approval and require permission to travel outside the country. +Women also cannot study abroad on a government scholarship without guardian approval and, while not always enforced, officially require a male relative to accompany them throughout the course of their studies. +It can mess with your head and the way you look at yourself. +How do you respect yourself or how your family respect you, if he is your legal guardian? +Human Rights Watch also explained that the religious reasons supposedly justifying the male guardianship system have been repeatedly challenged: +Saudi Arabia’s imposition of the guardianship system is grounded in the most restrictive interpretation of an ambiguous Quranic verse—an interpretation challenged by dozens of Saudi women, including professors and Islamic feminists, who spoke to Human Rights Watch. +Religious scholars also challenge the interpretation, including a former Saudi judge who told Human Rights Watch that the country’s imposition of guardianship is not required by Sharia and the former head of the religious police, also a respected religious scholar, who said Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving is not mandated by Islamic law in 2013. +This is why, among many reasons, the guardianship system is being challenged — on Twitter and elsewhere — by Saudi women and their supporters. +According to Vocativ, as of August 4, 2016, at least 170,000 tweets have been posted in both Arabic and English. +Ghada Al Zahrani, who tweets at @hanoohopi, wrote: +We are still waiting… Saudi Arabia has promised the United Nations Human Rights Council twice (2009 and 2013) to end the male guardianship system +Ri, who tweets at @ipergh, shared a photo of graffiti she did on a wall in Riyadh, which reads "we demand the fall of male guardianship of Saudi women": +I did it myself and sprayed on one of the walls of Riyadh. +In my name and in the name of every Saudi fighter +Abdullah Moqhem Al Moqhem tweeted to his more than 20,000 followers: +Women’s demands to end the male guardianship doesn’t mean the separation of women from their husbands, fathers or brothers. +All they’re asking for is a right to choose their own fate in life. +Mohammad Ali Mahmoud shared with his 35,000-plus followers his belief that: +A woman who fully believes in her humanity will call for the end of male guardianship whereas a woman who does not will call for keeping it. +Hajar, who tweets at @chanhxo, said that she will defend women's rights regardless of their nationality. +I will stand with women’s rights until my death. +Whether Saudi or Afghani, I will not accept injustice against women +The campaign also attracted substantial international support. +One blogger at "The Paludians" tweeted her solidarity from Italy: +Solidarty to Saudi Women from Italy, hope can rise in a new world that respect you, also here in Europe. #togetherToEndMaleGuardianship — Zoina's_underbelly (@z_01_na) 1 September 2016 +Pakistani-Indian blogger Dr. Ilmana Fasih, who blogs at 'Blind to Bounds', added: +What is being passed around in the media and social networking websites by manipulated teenage whores doesn’t represent Saudi Arabia or Saudi women. +Such positions are not surprising, considering that Saudi Arabia was ranked 134th out of 145 countries by the World Economic Forum's 2015 Global Gender Gap Report, but Saudi women continue to fight in the hope that the status quo will soon change. + +A Syrian Family in the US Creates Art and Music That They Couldn't Back Home · Global Voices +Jumana Jaber's project called "Chemo Therapy and Chemical Weapons." +The Syrian artist says it juxtaposes her experience with breast cancer in 2006 with the Syrian government's attacks on its people now. +Credit: Courtesy of the Institute for International Education +This article by Jason Strother originally appeared on PRI.org on June 21, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement. +Jumana Jaber has taught visual arts at Montclair State University in the US state of New Jersey since 2013. +It’s been a little different from her job teaching art and theater design in the Syrian capital, Damascus. +“Everything was new for me — new system, everything was different here,” Jaber, 55, says. +Jaber and her family of four are among the millions of Syrians who have fled their country since the start of the civil war in 2011. +But they aren't living in the US as refugees. Instead, they arrived with the help of the New York-based Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund. +Since 2002, the program has helped connect about 650 persecuted intellectuals (many from Iraq and Syria) with schools in the United States or in other safe countries. +The fund splits the cost of settling academics and their families with a host institution for the first two years. +It also arranges their J-1 exchange visitor and companion visas. +Listen to this story on PRI.org » +Jumana Jaber fled the war in Syria and now teaches in a college in New Jersey Credit: Courtesy of the Institute of International Education +Sarah Willcox, the fund’s director, says Jaber and her family are typical of the people that the fund seeks to help. +“They are often dissidents,” Willcox says. +“Scholars are targeted because they are recognized and respected people in their community.” +In Damascus, Jaber made art with political messages, including paintings that incorporated parts of chairs, which she says are symbols of power in Syria. +“The president, the boss, the sheikhs who say this is halal and this is not halal, you can do that, you can’t do that,” she says. +“They control everything, these people who sit in these chairs everywhere.” +As the uprising against the Syrian government devolved into civil war, Jaber says her commute to work outside Damascus became nearly impossible. +Then the university where she worked along with her husband, a ceramic artist, came under attack. +“We took the students to the basement,” Jaber says. +“Some of my colleagues were killed.” +Jaber’s oldest son, Yazan Al-Hajari, also got caught up in the unrest. +At the time, he was studying classical music at a Damascus conservatory and had his own band. +Chairs are symbol of power in Syria, says Syrian artist Jumana Jaber. +Credit: Courtesy of the Institute of International Education +“When the revolution started in Syria I had to make a decision,” says Al-Hajari, now 31. +And after witnessing the force used to put down the revolt, he sided with the revolution — politically and musically. +Al Hajari was detained a few times for speaking out against the government. +He also wrote a satirical song critiquing Syria’s leaders and media. +After uploading it to YouTube in 2012, he feared for his safety and fled to Beirut. +Eventually, the rest of the family also escaped to Lebanon, where Jaber was introduced to the Scholar Rescue Fund and offered the teaching job in New Jersey. +The family now lives in the suburban town of Nutley, about 16 miles outside of New York City. +But they’re in the country on temporary visas. +So Jaber, her husband and their two sons are applying for refugee status — a process that could take years. +Jaber says she feels free to create art here in the US that she never could have made in Syria. +Her family is worried about rising anti-Muslim sentiment following the attacks in Orlando and San Bernardino, however — even though they aren't religious. +Jaber says she tries not to let the atmosphere get to her. +“It’s hurts me a little bit,” she says. +“But I have wonderful colleagues and friends and they understand our situation.” +Yazan Al-Hajari fled Syria after composing music that was critical of the Syrian regime. +Credit: Jason Strother + +Empathy for the Enemy and the Oppressed: Political Pop Songs from the Eighties · Global Voices +Screen shot from the video for Elton John's "Nikita" (1985). +Themes of love, loss and the other trials of our personal lives have been the mainstay of popular music for centuries. +But in every generation there are pop artists who have taken on that other great theme called politics, responding to current events and instances of injustice both domestic and global, and bringing often controversial issues to the attention of the young people who make up their audience. +Growing up in Macedonia in the 1980s, my awareness of global politics was very much influenced by pop music, as a number of A-list artists during that era released huge hits addressing political issues, some of which were considered quite controversial at the time. +Here are a few of the stand-out political songs from the era: +"Sunday Bloody Sunday" – U2 (1983) +One of the most influential and overtly political songs by the Irish rockers, "Sunday Bloody Sunday" describes the horror the Bloody Sunday massacre in Derry, Northern Ireland, in which British troops shot and killed 14 unarmed civil rights protesters and bystanders in 1972. +The sound of the voice of the young Bono, shouting "This is not a rebel song, this is Sunday Bloody Sunday!" can still cause one to feel goosebumps, even for those who for whom he has become very much a part of the establishment. +"Pride (In the Name of Love)" - U2 (1984) +The following year, U2 released "Pride (In the Name of Love)", about the American Civil Rights movement and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. + +Updated and Translated, 'Hiroshima Archive' Preserves Eyewitness Testimony of Atomic Attack · Global Voices +Screenshot of Hiroshima Archive project online mapping tool. +A newly translated interactive mapping project combines first-hand testimony from many witnesses to comprehensively document the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath. +The goal of the Hiroshima Archive and an earlier mapping project documenting the bombing of Nagasaki is to preserve the memory of what happened now that more than 70 years have passed since the end of the war, and fewer witnesses and survivors remain alive to pass on their stories. +On August 6, 1945, in the final days of World War II, an American aircraft dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in western Japan. +Up to 80,000 people—30% of the population of Hiroshima— were killed instantly, and much of the city was destroyed. +Three days later, on August 9, 1945, the city of Nagasaki experienced a similar attack. +The Hiroshima Archive provides a personalized experience of what happened during the bombing. +For example, using the online tool, archive users can view a 1945 map of Hiroshima while browsing survivors’ accounts and photos, and where they were located in Hiroshima at the time of the attack. +It's possible to then switch to a contemporary aerial photograph of Hiroshima to see how the location has changed in the years since 1945. +The Hiroshima Archive maps the eyewitness testimony of bombing survivors such as Hiroso Niimi. +Screenshot from Hiroshima Archive. +"More than 70 years since the atomic bombs fell upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki," said project lead Hidenori Watanave in an interview with Global Voices about the Hiroshima Archive. +"Few survivors remain today and soon there will be none. +Who then can speak from personal experiences of the effects of nuclear war upon humanity?" +A video walk-through of the original Japan-language version of the archive, which has been been online since 2011, provides an introduction to the scope and depth of the online archive: +Besides being recently translated into English, the online mapping tool has been migrated from Google Earth to a new format that can be accessed by any browser in any operating system. +Watanave's technology makes use of Cesium, a JavaScript library for creating 3D globes and 2D maps in a web browser without a plugin. +Watanave is also the creator of a similar innovative mapping project that tracks the last moments of the victims of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan: +Screenshot of video walk-through of interactive map of Tohoku Tsunami. +Image taken from YouTube. +There are plans to use The Hiroshima Archive and The Nagasaki Archive at two youth peace conferences in Boston and New York. +The project will include talks by atomic bomb survivors living in the United States, an exhibition of archive materials, as well as opportunities for discussion among Japanese and American youth, and other participants and members of the public. +Check out @hwtnv's plans for a high school peace conference featuring the Hiroshima Archive: https://t.co/nKzbq5ipPI pic.twitter.com/r1P0tXeqZR — Cesium (@CesiumJS) June 13, 2016 +The high school students in Hiroshima and Nagasaki who are organizing the conference are seeking help through crowdfunding: +Those of us involved in the Nagasaki/Hiroshima Archives would like to send high school students from Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the United States to hold the Japan-U.S. High School Student Peace Conference. +Participants in the conference will include Japanese and American high school students, as well as the public and atomic bomb victims living in the U.S. +More details about the crowdfunding campaign can be found here. + +Hijab-Wearing Football Club in Thailand's Deep South Is a Space for Diversity · Global Voices +Buku FC teammates at their first practice. +Photo by Fadila Hamidong, courtesy of Prachatai. +This edited article by Thaweeporn Kummetha is from Prachatai, an independent news site in Thailand, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement. +The text was translated by Asaree Thaitrakulpanich. +A note to readers: Most of Thailand is Buddhist, while Thailand's Deep South has a Malay Muslim majority population, and some groups here seek to establish a separate state. +The only thing many people know about Thailand’s Deep South region, called “Patani” by the locals, is the conflict that has claimed more than 6,500 lives over the past 12 years. +Both state and private funding pours into the region, in efforts to resolve the violence through a peace process. +Nevertheless, Anticha Saengchai and Daranee Thongsiri, LGBT activists and the two owners of the Buku Books & More Pattani Bookstore, insist that Patani has no shortage of other social issues that need to be discussed, such as gender equality. +Anticha and Daranee believe that women and LGBT people should have a say in the Deep South's peace process, ensuring them a voice in determining Patani’s future. To further this cause, Anticha and Daranee have created a football club called Buku FC to provide local women and LGBT individuals a space to express themselves. In an interview with Prachatai, Anticha talked about the project: +Football is seen as a male sport, and a space for men. +Women often go to football fields with the role solely as spectator, cheering on men who are playing. +But in actuality anyone, regardless of sex, can kick a round ball. +By starting a football club and encouraging women to join, we are saying to Patani society that women can do the same things men do. +We want to convey to the women who come to play with us is the idea that they really can do things they may have thought they couldn’t, such as self-expression and leadership. +We believe that the simple activity of football will affect other parts of their lives. +While Buku FC encourages women and LGBT individuals to join, anyone can play on the team, regardless of sex, gender, age, religion, beliefs, or political views. +The only requirement is that the person should view the world through a “Gender Lens,” or an understanding of gender. +We intend the football field to be a microcosm of society, where people of any gender can coexist equally with respect for each others’ bodies and spaces. +If it’s possible for that to happen in society at large, then we believe that it’s possible for our little rectangular football field, too. +We want to demonstrate that whether man, woman, LGBT, or people with different levels of skill, we can all play the same game with the same set of rules, without the big people bullying the little people. +Buku FC, under the slogan “Football for Peace and Equality,” had its first practice on August 13, 2016, at the Victory Stadium in Mueang district, Pattani Province. +There were 20 participants, including 17 women and three men. +Most of the players were students at the Prince of Songkla University's Pattani campus. +Everyone seemed excited to play in a formal stadium—especially the women, most of whom were playing football for the first time. +Waeasmir Waemano and Sawani Mama, students at the Pattani campus of Prince of Songkla University, say they want society to see that women can play football, and do so even while wearing hijabs. +Photo by Fadila Hamidong, courtesy of Prachatai. +Hijabs and Football? +Compatible! +Waeasmir Waemano, a fourth-year student at the Faculty of Political Science in the Pattani campus of Prince of Songkla University, told Prachatai: +People often view football as being a man’s sport, so women think that it is inappropriate to play football, and they don’t dare. +In the Deep South, people think that it’s not appropriate for women to play football because it’s a sport that requires you to raise your legs to kick. +However, the world is changing and society in the Deep South must keep up. +Although Waeasmir plays sports regularly since she is on the futsal team at her university, she still feels hesitant about playing outside of her university at Victory Stadium, next to which is a football field where the players are exclusively male. +If I play sports outside the university, I get strange looks from people, as they think ‘Huh, a Muslim woman playing football.’ +People in the Deep South are concerned about the body and they feel it is inappropriate , because when we run, parts of our body shake. +Sawani Mama, a third-year student in the same department as Waeasmir, expressed her concerns about her body and sports. +She was afraid that others would judge her because it is inappropriate to run during football. +Therefore, she solved this problem by wearing two layers of loose-fitting shirts and a hijab covering her entire chest. +Sometimes I still worry that while I run, my breasts will heave, or something like that. +But I’m wearing loose shirts, a hijab, and even lipstick to play football. +So I feel that all of these things go together, no problem. +The two women agree that playing football is an activity that both promotes their self-expression, and is a way of telling society that women can play the same sports as men. +Anticha added that, in order for the women on the team to feel more comfortable playing, the men have not yet participated with them in a co-ed game. +They could practice together, with the men leading the warm-up exercises or acting as goalies. +After everyone understands the rules and respects each other and the differences between their bodies, we may open a space for men and women to play in the same game in the future, she explained. +Buku FC team-mates warm-up before playing football. +Photo by Fadila Hamidong, courtesy of Prachatai. +Deep South Women Lack Spaces to Exercise and Take Care of Their Health +Anticha stated that women in the Deep South do not have many opportunities to exercise. +Part of it is due to gender roles and women’s responsibility to take care of the house, their husbands, and their children. +Teenage girls also have to help their mothers with the housework, and it is less acceptable for them to exercise in public than it is for teenage boys. +Moreover, exercise often requires women to wear pants and move their limbs about in the same space as other men, discouraging Deep South Muslim women from exercising. +Of course, men and boys do not have this limitation, said Anticha. +Public parks and playing fields are almost completely taken over by men. +Anticha believes there should be more support to create female exercise spaces in the Deep South, such as female swimming pools, which will give women peace of mind as they exercise. +This edited article by Thaweeporn Kummetha is from Prachatai, an independent news site in Thailand, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement. +The text was translated by Asaree Thaitrakulpanich. + +Take a Virtual Reality Tour of West Papua’s Coral Reefs · Global Voices +Pristine reef of staghorn coral with juvenile batfish in Wayag Lagoon, Raja Ampat. +Photo by Sterling Zumbrunn. +Courtesy of Conservation International +The Bird’s Head peninsula in West Papua is one of the richest marine biodiversity centers in the world. +Through a virtual reality film launched by American nonprofit Conservation International, we can now see the underwater treasures of Birds’ Head and feel like we are “scuba diving in a healthy reef.” +"Valen's Reef" is one of the films being screened at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. +It is released in partnership with YouTube. +The Bird’s Head region has more than 2,500 islands and reefs. +It is home to 600 types of corals and 1,765 kinds of fish (including more than 40 species of sharks and rays). +About 3 percent of the world's mangroves are located in this area. +Scientists estimate that Bird’s Head holds more species of fish than Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and more species of coral than the entire Caribbean Ocean. +Bird’s Head provides food, shelter, and livelihood to 760,000 West Papuans. +West Papua is located in the eastern region of Indonesia. +"Valen's Reef" is more than just a film showcasing the marine treasures of Bird’s Head. It also tells the story of how a marine habitat threatened by destructive fishing was revived by a joint effort of community groups and conservationists. +The film is narrated by a local fisher who dedicates his advocacy to protect the seas to his son, Valen. +The "Valen's Reef" film was created in partnership with virtual reality production company Vrse.works and Finch Company, with support from The Tiffany & Co. +Foundation. + +Japanese Police Are Spying on Muslims, Despite The Constitution · Global Voices +Kobe Mosque. +Image by Flickr User Pete Ford. +CC BY 2.0. +Police in Tokyo have monitored the activities of Muslims in Japan, based on their religion alone, since at least 2008. +A court case challenging the constitutionality of this surveillance program was recently denied. +On May 31, 2016, Japan's Supreme Court dismissed the case questioning the legality of conducting surveillance on and profiling Muslims in Japan, even though surveillance based on religion or ethnicity is generally illegal under Japan's constitution, which enshrines the right to privacy, equal protection under the law, and freedom of religion. +This marked the culmination of several years of lawsuits by the same group of plaintiffs in different courts, resulting in a variety of judgements. +The fact that Tokyo police were conducting surveillance of Muslims first became public in 2010, when over 100 internal Metropolitan Police Department documents were leaked online. +The documents included the names, addresses and other personal information of Muslims residing in Japan. +The surveillance dated back several years prior to 2010, and was apparently motivated by security arrangements for the 2008 G-8 summit held in Japan. +According to English-language newspaper Japan Times: +The leak revealed that the police had compiled detailed profiles on 72,000 Muslims, including personal information such as bank account statements, passport details and records of their movements. +The leak also showed that police had at times planted cameras inside mosques and used undercover agents to infiltrate Islamic nonprofit organizations and halal grocers and restaurants. +Following the leak, 17 of the Muslims named in the documents sued the government and police in order to have the spying declared illegal. +In 2014, Tokyo District Court agreed that the leak had violated the plaintiffs’ right to privacy and awarded them ¥90 million (about US $900,000) in compensation. +However, the court also ruled that the intelligence-gathering was “necessary and inevitable” in order to protect Japan against the threat of international terrorism, despite constitutional protections for freedom of religion and equal protection under the law. +In the 2014 court case related to the leak, the plaintiffs alleged: +The Metropolitan Police Department and the National Police Agency had, as of 31 May, 2008, assessed and digitalized the personal information of ‘roughly 12,677 individuals’ equaling ‘roughly 89 percent of the 14,254 foreign nationals from Muslim countries registered in Tokyo,’ and later, by the time the Hokkaido Toya Lake summit convened in July of that year, had ‘profiled roughly 72,000 individuals from OIC (Organisation of the Islamic Conference) countries (assessment rate of 98 percent).’ +Earlier in 2016 the group asked the Supreme Court of Japan to rule on the legality of the surveillance. +On May 31, the Supreme Court dismissed the case, while upholding the decision to award compensation to Muslims affected by the leak. +On the Center for Constitutional Rights blog, Igeta Daisuke, one of the plaintiff attorneys involved in the case, described the extent of the surveillance program in more detail: +Police agents were stationed undercover in mosques all over the country, and the surveillance program extended to almost every other center of Muslim life, from halal shops to what the police bizarrely deemed “Islam-related” organizations that included Doctors Without Borders, UNESCO, and other prominent NGOs. +Further documentation of the surveillance program indicates that police regularly approached Muslim residents of Japan, asking them to provide information about and effectively spy on other members of their community. +This reportedly affected their relationships with their friends, neighbors and family, leaving psychological wounds. +With no census data available, it's estimated that there are about 100,000 people who identify as Muslim residing in Japan. +Some of these people are Japanese citizens, while others are non-Japanese students and permanent residents with deep ties to the country. +On July 9, the Otsuka Mosque (Majid) joined a volunteer event in a park in Ikebukuro (in Tokyo). +We helped provide 320 servings of curry to about 150 homeless people. +A number of university students joined us to help out as well. +Thanks to everyone who played a part today! +Thanks to the Silk Road trading route, Japan been connected with predominantly Muslim regions of the world for more than a thousand years. +However, it was not until the end of Japan's long period of isolation in the 19th century and the opening of the country when a larger local Muslim community started to develop. +Ertugrul was first Islamic ship carrying Muslims to Japan in 1890, and the first known official contact between... https://t.co/omQLbmHPWV — Islam In Japan Media (@IslamJapanMedia) August 3, 2016 +By 1935 a mosque had been established in the major western trading port of Kobe. +The Tokyo Camii mosque was established in 1938. +The postwar years have seen migrants arriving from Bangladesh, Iran, Indonesia and other Muslim countries. +Some come to study in Japanese schools, while others arrive as temporary workers. +Today there are mosques in every region of the country. +It's hard to say whether or not the actions of the Metropolitan Police and the National Police Association are indicative of Japan's attitudes towards Muslims. +For example, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government recently launched this guide book aimed at Muslim travelers: + +There’s a Teacher Roaming Rural Colombia Atop Two Donkeys, Bringing a Mobile Library to Children · Global Voices Biblioburros, a mobile library in Colombia. +What would the world be without the wit and inventiveness of all those who see what goes on and wonder what can they do to improve it? +What would the world be without teachers? +Luis Soriano, a Colombian elementary school teacher born in Nueva Granada, understands the value of education. +He was raised in a community in the municipality of La Gloria, in the department of Cesar. +Soriano graduated with a diploma in Spanish literature, thanks to a professor who visited his village twice a month. +Personally aware of reading's importance, Soriano is doing what he can to make sure books reach children where they might not otherwise. +“Biblioburros” (literally “Donkey Library”) is a mobile library that distributes books around Northern Colombia on the back of two donkeys named Alfa and Beto, whose names together form the word alfabeto, or “alphabet” in Spanish. +And one more thing: they are the “wisest donkeys in the world,” according to blog Narrative Journalism in Latin America: +In 1997, had an idea that many considered wonderful, but for others was simply crazy: he decided on his own to load the back of two donkeys with 70 math, literature, geography, and history books. +His goal? +Take them to several poor children located in remote areas of his township. +Luis Soriano has enjoyed reading since childhood—a passion he says he owes to his aunt, with whom he discovered a memorable poem by the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío: +No doubt about it, Soriano is a Colombian Quixote who went crazy, just as the Knight of the Sad Figure, with books. +When his aunt read him "Margarita how sad the sea is," he couldn't sleep for eight days. +He was four years old and if he couldn't foresee it by then, at least he intuited his life would be intimately linked to literature. +Soriano recently spoke to CCN.com, listing some of the motivations for his Biblioburros project. +According to the website: +In regions, a child must walk or ride a donkey for up to 40 minutes to reach the closest schools. +The children have very few opportunities to go to secondary school. +There are teachers that would like to teach in the countryside. +His wish to spread reading isn't limited to the Spanish language either: Soriano also shares his few English-language books with his young readers: +While crusading against illiteracy in a war-weary hinterland, Soriano is keen to expand his meager English-language book collection. +Understanding the importance of bilingualism in a country that increasingly is connected to the outside world through digital and print, he feels passionately that rural children should have greater access to words written in the world’s most widely-spoken language. +The video below shows Luis Soriano in action, highlighting the difficulties of obtaining books in some areas. +That, of course, is where he and his donkeys come in. +I have 3,480 books stored in boxes, stuck in shelves, in boxes, and in small boxes. +I also have them at my friends' places, otherwise there wouldn't be any space for me, or for the books. +Alfa is actually the one carrying all the library, we have 120 titles in these bookshelves for rural areas for children to enjoy. +We do tours of 3, 4, 5, even 11 hours. +That's 8 hours riding a donkey. +This is lifetime commitment—to feel useful to the society to which I belong. +In an article that appeared on the news website Quartz, Biblioburros was listed as one of eight libraries every book lover must visit. +Quartz sparked enthusiasm among English-speaking Twitter users, as well. +One day, the teacher Luis decides to load his two donkeys, Alfa and Beto, with books and takes them to remote areas for children who can't access them otherwise. +Since then, he's gone through the country with his mobile library. + +A Japanese Artist's Highly Realistic Paper Sculptures Are Coming to the US · Global Voices +Screencap from Chie Hitotsuyama “Paper Trails” promotional video / aPR Creative Marketing Management YouTube channel. +"My animal sculptures, made from an accumulation of newspapers, might perhaps be portraying ourselves and our lives, on many levels," says Chie Hitotsuyama. +The Japanese artist is embarking on her first tour of the United States, with four exhibitions running concurrently in different parts of the country until January 2017. +She will also be an artist-in-residence at the MOAH:CEDAR in Lancaster, California during that time. +Hitotsuyama creates objets d'art using paper mache techniques. +Her subject are animals, and her paper creations are highly realistic, and often occupy an entire room. +When a piece of paper is rolled up, Hitotsuyama says, it increases its strength, and by gluing together one by one and side by side she can carefully form contours and curves with each single string. +In an artistic statement published JAI & JAI, a gallery in Los Angeles, Hitosuyama explains her approach to making artwork out of paper: +Newspapers come out everyday and at the same time, are thrown out everyday. +This cycle repeats rebirth and death whilst carrying our memories. +This, I felt, is so similar to humans who also repeat their own histories and experience the cycles of life and death. +Prior to her current American exhibition, Hitosuyama, who is based in Shizuoka, near Mount Fuji, had already earned recognition for her art in Japan. +All of her creations are made from newsprint. Here are a selection of Hitotsuyama's work. Hitosuyama comes from a part of Japan that has long been associated with papermaking: +At the Mount Fuji Paper Fair , local artist Chie Hitotsuyama is exhibiting creations made out of paper. +Her creations approach a level of realism that seems to capture the soul of her animal subjects. +I'm at a Hitotsuyama solo exhibition (o^^o) Everything is made from newsprint. +I really love this artist. +Exhibitions of Hitotsuyama's art will be shown in concurrent installations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Lancaster and Miami until January 2017. It begins!! #installation of 'Paper Trails' by @hitotsuyama.studio Chie Hitotsuyama!! + +A Muslim man praying in front of the White House in Washington DC. +Photo taken in April 2013 by Flickr user Elvert Barnes. +CC 2.0. +On the eve of Independence Day in the United States, Khalid Latif, the executive director and chaplain for the Islamic Center at New York University (NYU), shared an emotional note and Facebook Live video explaining what it is like to be a Muslim in America. +His video, which has been viewed more than 161,000 times already, comes at a time when Islamophobic political rhetoric is at its peak, hate crimes against Muslim Americans are increasing, and surveillance of Muslim communities and places of worship is the norm. +This morning, I woke up to images and stories outlining numerous hate crimes taken place against Muslims in cities throughout the United States just in the last 10 hours. +Two Muslim teenagers assaulted in Brooklyn New York outside of a mosque while the assailant called them "terrorist," a Muslim doctor ambushed and shot in Houston Texas by three men as he went for morning prayers, and another Muslim beaten in Fort Pierce Florida right outside of an Islamic Center there. +These are just the stories reported and that took place less than a day ago. +That's in addition to so many more reported over the last weeks and months, and so many more that just aren't reported. +If you see something, say something has to mean something different to us today. +If you see bigotry, say something. +If you see hatred, say something. +If you see racism, say something. +You and I have to be the change that this world needs. +More likely than not we won't see an outcry against these actions by political leaders of any kind. +There will be a continued utilization of Islam as a political football by those who have no real interest in anything other than their own self-interest. +Letting hate prevail seemingly didn’t work as a solution to stopping hate, but seemingly that isn't an issue. +Khalid Latif's popularity goes well beyond the NYU community: his Facebook page has 122,042 likes and he has a significant following across the globe. +He regularly speaks on race issues and shows solidarity with other marginalized communities in the US. +If you think my anger and frustration is only because that there were Muslims who were attacked, then you don't get it. +I feel for these people because they are people. +I feel for these people as I feel for Orlando. +I feel for these people as I feel for Baltimore, Ferguson and Chicago. +I feel for these people as I feel for Turkey, Bangladesh, Iraq and Syria. +I feel for these people as I feel for anyone who finds themselves in any type of affliction or conflict. +We have seen minorities of all backgrounds get vilified more and more and things have gotten to a point where assaults and even death doesn't bring about a recognition of their value as humans. +We have seen shooting after shooting take place in this country, increasing directly along with our country's legislators unwillingness to speak about gun control. +My anger and frustration stems from the fact that with every act of hatred and our failed responses to it, indifference is becoming more alive and in the process our shared humanity is dying. +Latif's Facebook profile picture. Photo credit: Priya Chandra. +Latif was the first Muslim chaplain or imam to be appointed at NYU. +Two years later, in 2007, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg nominated him to become the youngest chaplain in history of the New York City Police Department. +He was only 24 at the time. +I am a Muslim. +I work as the University Chaplain for New York University. +I serve as a Chaplain for the New York City Police Department and am given the rank of inspector. +I have traveled on behalf of the State Department, met with the heads of homeland security, senior white house officials and even President Obama himself, shared stages with the likes of Pope Francis and the Dalai lama. +I am still one of the many Muslims in this country who have been detained, profiled, and surveilled. +My home has been visited by the FBI on numerous occasions where I have been told that I am being watched because I am too good to be true. +As much as I am seen as antidote, I am first still seen as a poison for no other reason that I choose to practice the faith that I do. +That is not ok. +But I still believe that we can and will be better. +Healing requires admitting we are sick. +You and I are a bigger part of the cure than we might realize. +On the eve of our Independence Day, we as a nation have a choice to make. +At a time when we are still debating whether Black Lives Matter or not, candidates for the highest offices of our land make statements that indicate they speak for and to only a select group of Americans. +We can no longer let our perspectives of each other be fueled through a media machine that seeks to sensationalize and bombard readers and viewers with narrative that serves to only segment and antagonize even further. +The amplification of extreme voices has to be drowned out by our coming together. +The ignorance of ISIS or the Republican right can no longer be the basis of how we function in diverse societies. +We must learn the reality of struggles faced by those around us by actually being with them, as opposed to simply through the biased images that are cast in front of us every day. +We do not have to be women to stand up women's rights, black to stand up for black rights, or Muslim to stand up for Muslim rights. +An attack on any of us is an attack on all of us. +I said it before and I'll say it again, if you see something, say something has to mean something different to us today. +If you see bigotry, say something. +If you see hatred, say something. +If you see racism, say something. +You and I have to be the change that this world needs. +We cannot adopt a bitterness or passivity that lets people who have no interest other than their own self-interest succeed. +We cannot lose hope - tomorrow will be better than today so long as you do our part. +Our coming together of today is only meaningful if we continue to come together tomorrow. +Let us be the reason that people have continued hope in this world, and never the reason people dread it. + +Meet Eufrasia Vieira, the 'Next Angelina Jolie' From Timor-Leste · Global Voices +Eufrasia Vieira painting. +Published on Facebook, used with permission. +Timor-Leste’s long struggle to achieve independence from Indonesian rule and move forward as a country is mirrored in its ongoing quest for worldwide recognition in the field of culture and the arts. +One example is the ascent of the multi-talented Eufrasia Vittoria Vieira, a young actress, singer, and novelist who wishes to promote friendship between the two nations. +Image of Eufrasia published on Facebook. Used with permission. +Eufrasia, or EV for short, was born in Dili, Timor-Leste. +She has one brother and four sisters from her mother’s side and six brothers and three sisters from her father’s side. +The only class that really spoke to Eufrasia in school was art, especially drawing and painting. +She lived in the United Kingdom for over 10 years and got a higher diploma in art and design from the City of Oxford College in Oxford. +One of the few artists from the younger generation of Timor-Leste, Eufrasia has attracted people’s attention for her style, originality, and advocacy work. +With her passion, she might well go beyond Timor-Leste’s borders to achieve worldwide stardom. +Some of the personalities who inspired Eufrasia are Catholic saint Mother Teresa, British author Richard Templar, and psychologists Daniel Goleman and Paul Kleiman. +In an interview, she told me: +I want to help change the world and impact people’s lives through my words. +I wanna be part of the world in a positive way. +I have doubts, fears and worries, like everyone else. +But I know I was meant to do this, because doing anything else is torture. +CD cover. +Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of soul. +Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is soul. +On some nights I still believe that a car low on gas in the middle of traffic jump can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. +In 2015, Eufrasia also premiered her first novel, titled "Vittoria: Helena's Brown Box," co-written with Les D. Soriapoetra. +The novel is a romance story about an Indonesian journalist and an East Timorese girl in 1999 amidst Timor-Leste’s struggle for independence. +Eufrasia explained: +The reason that I wrote the story was to try to communicate help and connect with others families, women, men and children going through the same thing...It has been more than 15 years since East Timor war began but many of those caught up in the conflict are still trying to heal. +A film adaptation of the novel is also in the works, set to star Eufrasia herself and famous Indonesian actor Ari Wibowo. So ready for our upcoming action movie after "Vittoria" The Movie A photo posted by Ari Wibowo (@ariwibowo_official) on Feb 28, 2015 at 11:48pm PST +Responding to fans comparing her to American actor and activist Angelina Jolie, Eufrasia said. +People say anything from what they see on the cover. +But yeah it’s pretty funny comparing me to Angelina Jolie. +It’s unbelievable. +Sometimes, I take those compliments as a joke. +Angelina is so beautiful and she’s just wow. +I’m just an ordinary woman living a simple life. + +Millions Are Playing Philippine President Duterte’s War on Drugs on Their Mobile Phones · Global Voices +As Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s marks his first three months in office, a mobile app, based on his controversial and widely popular 'war on crime,' has reached over 2 million downloads on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. +The popularity of the game Fighting Crime provides a peek into the admiration many Filipinos hold for their new president, in spite of human rights abuse concerns and cases of extrajudicial killings related to his war on crime. +Since Duterte took office at the end of June, more than 3,500 people have been killed as part of his war on drug traffickers and users. +Human rights groups say most of them were suspected drug pushers. +Fighting Crime was first made available during the height of the presidential electoral campaign last April and it recently released its second version, which is downloadable on smartphones, tablets, and iPads. +In the game developed by Anjo Pascual and illustrated by Donat Pascual of Tatay Games, players get to control the character of Rody (nickname for Duterte) as he shoots robbers, drug lords, and other characters, with an assortment of firearms as they appear on the screen. +Rody continues to move across the screen to collect badges and weapons while shooting criminals. +The game ends if the criminals reach Rody before he can kill them. +Dionisia Pacquiao, the mother of boxer and Senator Manny Pacquiao, then appears riding a wrecking ball on the screen. +The second version of Fighting Crime also features sidekick characters such as a machine gun-wielding “Bato” Ronald Dela Rosa, Duterte’s Chief of Police, and the late Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who will blow a huge fireball against the criminals when tapped by the player for help. +The game comes with the tough-talking president’s famous soundbites such as “My God, I hate drugs”, “Galit ako sa droga” (I am angry with drugs), and “Heto na ang huli niyong Merry Christmas” (This is your last Merry Christmas) in reference to his viral Christmas message to criminals last December 2015. +Most reactions to the game come in the form of reviews: +There should be armor to avoid knife jabs, punches, and hollowblocks hahaha great job +Nice game kabayan, nice ung mga updates ng game. +Hahahaha +Hahahaha +Starlight - May 22, 2016 +Awesome graphics, funny soundbites. +A change of scenery by level would be great too. +I hope there is a more efficient bullet to criminal ratio since killing takes too slow and no pause button. +I'm looking forward to upgrades to the game's aesthetics and playability. +Kudos to the developers. +Ajjuarez1791 - September 29, 2016 +Ahm miriam defensor santiago the former senator has died can u send update to change her character its awkward for me to play a dead character +Alice Liddel - May 20, 2016 +Good game.. it gets boring along the way.. too much repetitive enemies.. and also need some option upgrade or buy weapons.. good game that needs more options or maybe more enemies.. + +Meet the Street Kids of India Who Have Their Own Paper · Global Voices +Street kids playing in Ahmedabad. +Image from Flickr by Sandeep Chetan. +CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 +A Delhi-based newspaper written and published by street children has been telling their stories in their voices and struggling for their rights for over a decade now. +The newspaper named Balaknama, meaning ‘Voice of Children’ in Hindi, has built up a solid reputation over the years thanks largely to its bitingly authentic features. +In circulation since 2003, the eight-page tabloid covers seven cities and has become part of the lives of around ten thousand street kids. +#Balaknama: an 8 page quarterly newspaper BY children, FOR children living and working on the streets @k_satyarthi https://t.co/TRQBGp5NSN — Meena (@mgrg7) December 29, 2015 +Balaknama has not only made the street children independent & aware of their rights. its a tabloid run by street children. @MadisonMondell — subhi madan (@subhi_madan) July 25, 2016 +You heard it on the street +The topics Balaknama cover are not new, but are tackled from a fresh angle. Issues like sexual abuse, child labour and police brutality, are told from the perspective of real-life victims. +Homeless youth also tell stories of hope about positive things that are happening at street level. +The kids who work for the popular paper come from different backgrounds. +Present editor, Shambhu, 17, washes cars during the day for a living, for instance. +For children like him, Balaknama is a way to tell people about the problems they face in their daily lives. +Since its inception, Balaknama has been edited by volunteers of Childhood Enhancement through Training and Action (CHETNA), a NGO which works with street children and children forced into work by their circumstances. +Chetna is a public charitable trust that was founded in 2002, when it helped form a federation of street children called Badhte Kadam (Stepping Forward). +Thus, a question was posed: "Can we have our own newspaper?". +Journalist Bipasha Mukherjea writes about how the newspaper binds together the street kids who work on the stories: +Together they work on stories that only a child living on street can find and report. +The newspaper binds them and supports them. Nearly all children involved in Balaknama are students of National open school centres run by Chetna. #balaknana team in action. +Arijit Bose provides more information on Balaknama in his blog: Each paper is priced at a token 2 rupees and over 8,000 copies, most of them in Hindi, are published every month. +The paper makes no profit and is entirely NGO-funded. +The paper's ex-editor Chandni was studying for her class 10 examination when she spoke at a TEDx event in Bangalore last year. +She received a standing ovation following her 18-minute speech on how the newspaper had shaped her life. +RegalUnlimited transcribed some parts of Chandni's speech: +Do media think what a child thinks? +Do you know what children want? +Do you ever consider these questions? +They want our empathy, not sympathy… +This is our workplace @balaknama1. +Our journey not that easy. +It took us 13 years to establish Balaknama newspaper pic.twitter.com/mUXybmP7ts — balaknama (@balaknama1) September 14, 2016 +Many of the children who tell their stories for Balaknama are rubbish collectors or do odd jobs at roadside cafes, bus stations, and railway stations. +The paper visits them at their workplaces to listen and collect their stories. +RT MinistryWCD: #Balaknama, set up in 2003, is a monthly newspaper run by street children.… pic.twitter.com/OrlYdVp4UX pic.twitter.com/fTbuW1LTJc — Swapnil Pathre (@iSwapnilpathre) May 9, 2016 For those interested in finding out more, Balaknama's story is on YouTube, in a video uploaded journalist Bipasha Mukherjea: + +Portuguese, a Global Language? · Global Voices +A community page on Facebook, Língua Portuguesa: Uma Língua Global? +(Portuguese Language: A Global Language?) , provides a diversity of materials to promote the debate about the expansion of Portuguese language and its consequences. +Several critical issues on the policies of this language of around 200 million speakers are addressed, such as minority languages, multilinguism and linguistic colonialism. + +How Do You Say 'Bro' in Latin America? · Global Voices +The Bromap: How do you say "bro" in Latin America? +The Facebook page for Pictoline, a highly visual site for news and information, shared this map with the different ways people in Latin American countries say "bro", short for brother in English. +While in Mexico they use wey and pata in Peru, it's pana in Venezuela and parce in Colombia. + +The World Attempts to Make Sense of ‘Trumpocalypse’ · Global Voices +Black Lives Matter Protest. +Public Domain picture form Pixabay. +A surprising win for many, expected for others, and a total shock for more than a few. +Controversial far-right candidate Donald Trump won the elections for president of the United States of America held on November 8, 2016. +Trump was popular among his supporters mostly because, to their eyes, he is anything but the political establishment in which they have absolutely no faith. +Many pundits (and a whole lot of journalists) failed to realize this. +Outside the country, the world is pondering how this happened. +This. Is. +Not. +Only. +Poor. +Voting. +For. +Trump. +This is the America we have always lived with, just now undressing. — Francisco-Luis White (@FranciscoLWhite) November 9, 2016 +Another country didn't elect Trump. +This one did. +Your neighbors and relatives and co-workers and friends did. — 5'7 Black Male (@absurdistwords) November 9, 2016 +Latoya Peterson, a race and culture critic who co-authors the blog Racialicious, tweeted: I will not fear Fear is the mind killer. +Palestinian-American Sara Yasin illustrated the fear the Muslim community in the US is experiencing: A young Muslim woman in North Carolina reacts to #ElectionNight results so far https://t.co/WhbQc6G4dnpic.twitter.com/xBUAr1R5ir — Sara Yasin (@missyasin) November 9, 2016 +From Iowa, Pan-Africanist writer Siyanda Mohutsiwa reflected: +When we talk about online radicalization we always talk about Muslims. +But the radicalization of white men online is at astronomical levels — Siyanda Mohutsiwa (@SiyandaWrites) November 9, 2016 +Online privacy advocate and founder of Freedom of the Press Foundation Trevor Timm tweeted: +So glad Democrats institutionalized a vast and unaccountable national security apparatus that will soon be controlled by a madman. — Trevor Timm (@trevortimm) November 9, 2016 +Some thoughts from around the world +Writer and photographer Stacey Gonzalez, who is based in Canada, summed up how she saw the election using the #Trumpocalypse hashtag: +Well 🇺🇸 you voted against women's rights, against the environment, against minorities and for racism. +You voted in the #Trumpocalypse way2go — Stacey Gonzalez (@Gonzothefacey) 9 de noviembre de 2016 +Armenian journalist Liana Aghajanian stated: +This is America, raw and real. +Feels like we pretended this whole time that we knew America, but we couldn't have been more wrong. — Liana Aghajanian (@LianaAgh) November 9, 2016 +Marko of Macedonia tried to explain why the polls were so wrong: +Let's break the stereotypes! +Polls in the USA were incorrect because a lot of people were ashamed to publicly admit that they'd vote for Trump. +Based in the UK, Dr Siobhan O'Dwyer shared this thought by anthropologist Sarah Kendzior: +"Think Brexit, but with a shitload more guns" - @sarahkendzior has nailed it. — Dr Siobhan O'Dwyer (@Siobhan_ODwyer) November 9, 2016 +Palestinian human rights worker Mohammed Suliman sentenced: +Britain then America. +The west can no longer claim to be morally superior. +It cannot hide its face behind the mask of liberal universality. — Mohammed Suliman (@JabaliyaRefugee) November 9, 2016 +From Belgrade, corporate communications consultant and former Global Voices Central & Eastern Europe Editor Danica Radisic made this analysis on Facebook: +What fascinates me is that most people in the Western hemisphere still seem to think this US election is an isolated incident. +Just as they thought Brexit was isolated and a surprise. +Or Orban being re-elected in Hungary. +Or Duterte's expletive-filled rise in the Philippines. +Or Vucic and his nationalist, right-wing progressives in Serbia. +These are not flukes, my friends. +This is a clear pattern. +I tweeted the other day that "Right-wing ideologies grow and spread when economic & social change are necessary, but liberals & centrists are slow in offering solutions." +I didn't come up with that one all on my own. +This has all happened before. +It began in 1912 with the Balkan wars and ended with the rise of Hitler and World War 2. +And if you don't get it, then you are among the very privileged and out of touch with the average human and with the rest of the world. +I read this Michael Moore piece a while back. +And I never much liked the guy (okay, I think he's a whining douche), but I can't help but agree with him when he's right. +And he's right. +From Green Bay to Pittsburgh, this, my friends, is the middle of England – broken, depressed, struggling, the smokestacks strewn across the countryside with the carcass of what we use to call the Middle Class. +Angry, embittered working (and nonworking) people who were lied to by the trickle-down of Reagan and abandoned by Democrats who still try to talk a good line but are really just looking forward to rub one out with a lobbyist from Goldman Sachs who’ll write them nice big check before leaving the room. +What happened in the UK with Brexit is going to happen here." +And it will keep happening. +As long as the failing upper classes are so out of touch with the growing working (or unemployed) classes, things are bound to get worse. +One way or another, we will all go through this cleansing process. +The more we ignore it, the uglier it will get. +That being said... boy, the next decade is going to be fun to watch! +Well, for some of us. +As long as you're not too attached to living and working in certain parts of the world. +Referring to the recent rise of the far-right across the world, Mexican journalist and director of online news site Animal Político Daniel Moreno wondered: +Putin in Russia +Trump in the US +Rajoy in Spain +It's time for Le Pen in France and Farage in the United Kingdom I hope Canada can handle 7,500 million people +Speaking of pollsters' failure to predict the outcome of the elections, human rights activist from Mozambique, Zenaida Machado said: +Someone will have to reinvent Data, Probability & Statistics, after the upset caused by Brexit and the #USElection2016. +Numbers were wrong. — Zenaida Machado (@zenaidamz) November 9, 2016 +As for US media role in the elections, Nwachukwu Egbunike, Global Voices contributor from Nigeria, had something to say: +The image of the day. +Someone has left flowers outside the US Consular Office in Moscow with a placard, 'Je Suis USA' https://t.co/d9YG5O8DNt — Amy Mackinnon (@ak_mack) November 9, 2016 +On a contrasting note, Chilean writer and journalist Pedro Cayuqueo concluded on his column "Trump, ¿Apocalipsis ahora?" +(Trump, Now the Apocalypse?): +Move on! Author and filmmaker Mark Frost tweeted: +Tonight is a tragedy. +Get some sleep. +Tomorrow is the first day of the resistance. — Mark Frost (@mfrost11) November 9, 2016 American Civil Liberties Union former deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer urged Americans to stay put: +Stop saying you're going to move to Canada. +What you've got here is worth defending. — Jameel Jaffer (@JameelJaffer) November 9, 2016 +Open technology and gender equity activist Willow Brugh tweeted: +People protest, are just and kind in myriad tiny ways every day. +Do the same now. +Stand up for others. +US-based Syrian blogger Anas Qtiesh, also a Global Voices contributor, offered some canine comfort for those who still have a sense of humor: +I think y'all need some pugs right now pic.twitter.com/nkcEkqMjdG — Anas Qtiesh (@anas) November 9, 2016 +From Danny O'Brien, international director at Electronic Frontier Foundation, called for solidarity in a Facebook post: +Shout out to all my friends and all my heroes across the world: in Thailand, in Pakistan, in Hong Kong and the mainland, in Russia, Venezuela and Cuba, all across the MENA from Morocco to Bahrain. +Chiranuch Premchaiporn and Nighat Dad and Esra'a Al Shafei and Rami Nakhla and Alaa and Oiwan Lam and Nassir and shit I'm so bad at listing everyone. +Also shoutout to my Brexit buddies, Tom Steinberg et al. +I'm sitting in the Electronic Frontier Foundation offices in San Francisco running through the disaster scenarios with all of us at 10PM, and trying to channel all the things I've seen you do and act and say in far worse situations. +We're going to have lots of time tomorrow to work out the details, but here's what I'm going to argue for, if it goes the way I think: that our day job here is, to defend /everybody/ from what could happen here, anybody and everybody around the whole world. +We'll need help, and y'all are so good at solidarity and experience and just making me laugh and keep positive and keep going even in the worst of situations. +Not everyone here has quite grokked what's going on, but when they do, I'm going to BORE YOU SO MUCH with my questions and begging for advice. +Solidarity, everyone. +We're going to build a home for freedom, we're going to create such awesome tools, we're going to win everyone over and then WE'RE GOING TO MARS. + +A Syrian Refugee in the US Wants Americans to Understand Their Country's Vetting Process · Global Voices +Asmaa Albukaie, Idaho's first Syrian refugee, in her new home. +Credit: Courtesy of Asmaa Albukaie +This story by Jason Margolis originally appeared on PRI.org on October 20, 2016. +It is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement. +Asmaa Albukaie was married at age 14. +She had two children by the time she was 15. +Then she took an unusual step for a stay-at-home Syrian mom: She signed up for a university degree in library science in Damascus. +“I noticed that women in movies, American women, decide whatever they want to decide. +This is not acceptable in Syria. +So I made my own decision to learn and study, but I hid in the bathroom because my husband didn’t allow me to study,” said Albukaie, laughing about that now. +Albukaie told me her story in a coffee shop in downtown Boise, where we spoke for about 90 minutes. +The city of Boise, the capital city of the northwestern state of Idaho, is taking in a lot of Syrian refugees: 122 so far this year. +That’s more than twice as many as Los Angeles, Boston and New York combined. +Listen to this story on PRI.org » +Albukaie and her two teenage sons — who arrived in November 2014 — were the first Syrian refugees in Idaho. +Boise has been resettling a lot of refugees, from many nations, because of the affordable housing and need for workers in sparsely populated Idaho. +Albukaie told me a lot of details about her life in Syria, then would ask me to please not share certain parts of our discussion. +She wants to protect her family that’s still in the war-torn country — it’s a learned survival defense, not to criticize anybody. +“If I spoke in a bad way, you would not see me alive here,” she said. +Here’s what she said I can share: Albukaie’s husband and her two young boys were kidnapped. +She never saw her husband again. +But she got her boys back then immediately left for Jordan, then Egypt, where she applied for refugee status through the United Nations. +The UN focuses on resettling its most vulnerable cases first, and she qualified as a single mother. +After two years of interviews and background checks, she got a ticket for the United States. +“And then on my flight it’s written: ‘Boise, ID,’ which is Idaho, now I know. +But before I didn’t know. And I Googled that,” she says. +Naturally, it was a difficult transition being the very first Syrian refugee in the entire state of Idaho. +“The hardest part? +Everything,” said Albukaie. +“Learning how to pay the bills, learning how to drive because I got a stick shift car. +People were yelling at me in the middle of the street because my car died. +They'd call me names, and crazy, and the ‘F-word’ and very bad words. +I just smiled and said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m a new driver, this is the first time I’m driving.’” +Albukaie received the car as a donation. She said she didn’t drive in Syria because the buses were convenient, so a car wasn’t necessary. +Thanks in part to all those American movies she watched, Albukaie’s mastery of English quickly landed her a job as an interpreter. +Then after a few months in Boise, Albukaie got hired as a resettlement officer helping other refugees arriving from nations across the globe. +She's come a long way very quickly. +Last month, Albukaie was honored at the White House for her outreach work, along with seven other refugee community leaders, as part of Welcoming Week, an event run by the Welcoming America, an organization that promotes innovative ways to integrate immigrants into US communities. +Today, Albukaie says she feels like she hit the jackpot living in Idaho. +“First of all, it’s beautiful, it’s really beautiful and green. +And also I have a lot of nice friends here, I’m working, and I’m safe. +This is the most important thing. +I left my country because I was not safe, and I came here for peace and safety,” she says. +Angry drivers aside, Albukaie says Boise has been a very welcoming community. +She talks about the small details that make Boise feel that way: for instance, a Jewish family who invited her family to their home for Thanksgiving. +But that warmth is changing. +Albukaie wears a hijab, and she says people have screamed at her and called her a “terrorist.” +A man recently assaulted her 16-year-old son. +“He was with his friend, and this American guy asked him: ‘Are you Muslim?’ +And my son said, ‘Yes, I am Muslim.’ +And he punched him in his face.” +The assailant was arrested and charged under Idaho’s hate crime law. +Albukaie wouldn’t criticize any American politicians for the heightened animosity toward Muslims. +She’s afraid if she says the wrong thing, that she might get deported. +Legally, that can’t happen. +Albukaie spoke to me because she said she wants Americans to understand the refugee vetting process to get here. +All applicants are first screened by the UN, then three US government agencies: the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Health and Human Services. +Overall, the process to admit Syrian refugees generally takes 18 to 24 months, if applicants pass all the hurdles. +Around 10,000 Syrian refugees have been accepted to the US over the past 12 months. +Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has said she’d like to increase the annual intake to 65,000. +Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said we know “nothing” about the background of Syrian refugees. +At the third presidential debate on Wednesday evening, Trump echoed that point again when talking to Clinton. +“ is taking in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees who probably in many cases, not probably, who are definitely in many cases ISIS aligned. +And we now have them in our country. +And wait until you see, this is going to be the great Trojan Horse. +And wait until you see what happens in the coming years,” said Trump. +“This is what upsets me, because I love the country, I love America,” Albukaie said. +“This country is my mother. +When said Syrians are coming without any paperwork, he should see my paperwork and other people’s paperwork, it’s huge. +We went through a lot of interviews, a lot of background checks … More than 10 interviews, and a lot of them were scary and not comfortable, in small rooms, no windows, like an investigation. +“Scary because they ask a lot of questions, and a lot of embarrassing questions too. +Like, ‘Answer yes or no, do you want to bomb airplanes?’” +I asked Albukaie: What about the people who are scared of Muslims coming from Syria? +How do you assure them that you’re not a terrorist? +“When people say ‘terrorist’ to me… when I smile and wave and say hello, their face changes from somebody that’s mad to somebody who’s welcoming, more calm,” said Albukaie. +“I believe Muslim attitudes can change what American people think about Muslims.” +Albukaie recently gave a TED Talk in Moscow, Idaho, so more people can get to know a Syrian refugee. + +For Migrants of All Kinds, the Football Pitch Can Be a Place of Real Empathy · Global Voices +Kids playing football in Madagascar. +Photo by the author. +I have a confession to make: I am horrible at playing football. +My signature move is to scramble attempting a header while falling on the ground, a move that Phil Jones from Manchester United would shamelessly steal from me later on. +My classmates, my cousins and my wife can attest to the fact that I have two left feet. +Still, I always jump at any opportunity to make a fool of myself on the football pitch, along with whoever is charitable enough to play with me. +I usually end up being the designated goalkeeper, as that is where teams tend to put players with limited skills. +So why do I subject myself to the certain humiliation of being nutmegged by friends and strangers alike? +Why do I insist on running around like a headless chicken in pursuit of the elusive ball and almost losing a lung in the process? +It dates back to my childhood. +My parents worked for international health agencies, and their jobs required that we relocate every four years, on average. +For my sister and me, adapting to new languages and cultures became second nature. +Many people have their own tips and hacks for habituating themselves to new surroundings and new neighbors. +Mine was playing street sports. +In my experience, there is no faster way to gain an understanding of your social circle than engaging in a bit of chatter during a ball game. +(I favor playing basketball because of my height, but when traveling around the world you're less likely to stumble upon a basketball game than a game of football). +One of the pick-up games I join from time to time these days takes place just a few yards away from my apartment. +The field in the photo below is a frequent gathering place in Paris for recent migrants and refugees to come together for a game of football. +Make-shift football field for refugees in Paris. +Photo by the author. +The games are usually friendly, but still quite competitive. +Participants come from many different countries, so in-game chit-chat is kept to a minimum. +A few weeks ago a few Malians joined us for one game. +We chatted a bit after they gave us a sound beating. +The stories they shared of their journey from Mali to Europe across the Mediterranean sea were harrowing. +Alassane, the elder of the Malian group, is a obviously a gifted footballer, but he was limping a bit and was rapidly out of breath. +He explained that he had come to France to try to provide for his four grandchildren. +He didn't want his sons to have to leave their dependents to look for work abroad, so he made the long journey across the desert to Europe to seek new opportunities and send money back home. +He said that a few of the passengers on the truck on which he travelled fell ill during the trip and didn't make it to Morocco, the point from which they were to cross to Spain. +Alassane didn't give further details about the journey, but we could tell from the empty look that suddenly came across his face that there were some things he'd rather forget. Sports as a vehicle of understanding and empathy is a popular idea. +While I was in Madagascar a few weeks ago my cousins and I came across a fierce game of football being played between young kids on the beach at Ramena, a fishing village on the north coast. We asked if we could join in, and the kids generously agreed. +For me, random games of football have helped alleviate the difficulty of those circumstances in ways that no other program or public policy could have ever achieved. Playing football with fishermen's kids in Ramena, Madagascar (photo from author with permission) + +It's Autumn in Kyoto, Which Means It's Time for ‘Leaf-Peeping’ Season · Global Voices +Nighttime lanterns at Arashiyama, Kyoto (日本京都-嵐山夜燈) by Flickr user Keiko Shih. +Every fall, every hillside in Japan comes alive with koyo (紅葉), or autumn foliage. +Fall “leaf-peeping” is a longstanding tradition in Japan — so much so that the Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO) publishes a "national guide to autumn leaves," explaining where and exactly what time to see the best foliage in every corner of Japan. #bambooforest #arashiyama #kyotojapan #beautifulkyoto #travelgram +Grilled dango rice dumplings are favorite fall treat Arashiyama. It's the best walking around Arashiyama while eating mitarashi dango (rice dumplings in sweetened soy sauce) on a stick. +At the close of one day spent in Arashiyama, one Twitter user has captured the quintessential autumn flower of Japan, the Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus), the "cherry blossom of autumn" (アキザクラ, aki no sakura). "Mackerel sky" in autumn. To more fall foliage photos of Kyoto and Arashiyama, follow the Instagram hashtags #京都 anf #嵐山. + +The World According to Russian Stereotypes · Global Voices +Image: Pixabay +In early November, Vladimir Putin suddenly signaled his support for new federal legislation designed to clarify the government’s formal understanding of “the Russian nation.” +A vague, symbolic initiative, the Kremlin’s push to codify the meaning of Russia as a nation-state has reignited a centuries-old debate about “the Russian idea,” as well as work on this subject from intellectuals and scholars across the world. +Alexander Uspensky's map of Russian domestic stereotypes. +Image: Yod News! +It was in this spirit that Alexander Uspensky published a map on the website Yod News featuring Russia’s various regions and ethnicities, labeled with stereotypes gleaned from autocomplete suggestions generated by the website Yandex, Russia’s most popular Internet search engine. +To make the map, Uspensky searched for the word “why,” followed by the name of a group of people, such as “Muscovites,” “St. Petersburgers,” and so on. +Uspensky used the autocomplete suggestions to determine the top stereotype for people of a particular region in Russia. +Muscovites, for instance, were found to be “unkind,” while the defining characteristic of people from St. Petersburg is that “they don’t like Muscovites.” +RuNet Echo has applied Uspensky’s methodology to groups across the world, in order to uncover Russian Internet users’ most common stereotypes about foreigners. +The list below is far from complete, but it features the most popular searches on the RuNet, when it comes to foreigners. +Unlike Uspensky’s study, we have listed Yandex’s top three searches for each group. +The United States 🇺🇸 +Why do Americans say “oh my gosh”? +Why are Americans afraid of Russians? +Why are Americans afraid of clowns? +Mexico 🇲🇽 +Why do Mexicans flee to the United States? +Why are Mexicans so brutal? +Why do Mexicans eat spicy food? +Cuba 🇨🇺 +Why don’t Cubans like Americans? +Why don’t Cubans like Russians? +Why did Cubans support the revolution? +Canada 🇨🇦 +Why did Canadians play without helmets in 1972? +Why don’t Canadians like Russians? +Why are Canadians the villains in South Park? +Brazil 🇧🇷 +Why don’t Brazilians like Argentinians? +Why do Brazilians speak Portuguese? +Why are Brazilians so good at soccer? +Argentina 🇦🇷 +Why don’t Argentinians like the British? +Why are Argentinians white? +Why do Argentinians say Mexicans descended from the Aztecs? +Europe 🇪🇺 +Why do Europeans wear their wedding rings on their left hands? Why did Europeans seek a sea route to India? +Why did Europeans know so little about the peoples of Africa during the Middle Ages? +The United Kingdom 🇬🇧 +Why don’t the British like to sit on their hands? +Why did the British oppose new public telephone booths? +Why do the British want to leave the European Union? +France 🇫🇷 +Why don’t the French like Russians? +Why do the French eat frogs? +Why are the French unable to pronounce “r” and “l” properly? +Germany 🇩🇪 +Why didn’t Germans like the Jews? +Why did Germans exterminate the Jews? +Why were Germans afraid of hand-to-hand combat? +Poland 🇵🇱 +Why don't Poles like Russians? +Why do Poles hate Russians? +Why don't Poles like Russia? +Italy 🇮🇹 +Why don’t Italians get fat? +Why do Italians look like people from the North Caucasus? +Why do Italians like Russian women? +Ukraine 🇺🇦 +Why don’t Ukrainians like Russians? +Why do Ukrainians kneel? +Why do Ukrainians say “h” and not “g”? +Estonia 🇪🇪 +Why are Estonians slow? +Why don’t Estonians like Russians? +Why do Estonians take the front seat, when sitting down in a taxi van? +Latvia 🇱🇻 +Why don’t Latvians like Russians? +Why do Latvians still call Russians “krevz”? +Why don’t Latvians like Lithuanians? +Lithuania 🇱🇹 +Why don’t Lithuanians like Russians? +Why don’t Lithuanians like Belarusians? +Why are Lithuanians tall? +Belarus 🇧🇾 +Why don’t Belarusians like Russians? +Why are Belarusians so built and handsome? +Why don’t Belarusians speak Belarusian? +Armenia 🇦🇲 +Why are Armenians so wealthy? +Why are Armenians so clever? +Why do Armenians wear their wedding rings on their left hands? +Africa +Why are Africans black? +Why do Africans run so fast? +Why don’t Africans become more advanced? +Egypt 🇪🇬 +Why did Egyptians worship Amon-Ra as the supreme god? +Why did Egyptians call Nefertiti “the mistress of happiness”? +Why did Egyptians worship cats? +Arabs +Why do Arabs write backwards? +Why do Arabs like Russian girls? +Why were Arabs able to conquer large territories easily? +Jews 🕍 +Why don’t Jews like Armenians? +Why don’t Jews eat pork? +Why are Jews smart? +Israel 🇮🇱 +Why can’t Israelis come to a peace settlement with Palestinians? +Why aren’t Israelis Christians? +Why do Israelis marry Russians? +Islam 🕌 +Why don’t Muslims eat pork? +Why don’t Muslims use toilet paper? +Why do Muslims say “amen”? +Iran 🇮🇷 +Why don’t Iranians wear neckties? +Why are Iranians fighting in Syria? +Why are Iranians Shiites? +Syria 🇸🇾 +Why aren't Syrians fleeing to Russia? +Why are Syrians fleeing to Europe? +Why don't Syrians fight for their own country? +Turkey 🇹🇷 +Why don’t Turks like Armenians? +Why do Turks drink coffee with water? +Why do Turks call all Russian women “Natasha”? +Why don't Indians kiss? +Why do Indians shake their heads? +Why don't Indians swim in the sea? +Asia +Why do Asians look younger? +Why are Asians shorter? +Why do Asians eat with chopsticks? China 🇨🇳 🇹🇼 🇭🇰 +Why don’t the Chinese get fat? +Why don’t the Chinese drink milk? +Why don’t the Chinese like amber? +Japan 🇯🇵 +Why don’t the Japanese age? +Why are the Japanese thin? +Why do the Japanese live so long? +Korea 🇰🇷 🇰🇵 +Why don’t Koreans sweat? +Why do Koreans wear masks on their faces? +Why are Koreans thin? +Vietnam 🇻🇳 +Why do the Vietnamese wear masks? +Why don’t the Vietnamese like the Chinese? +Why are the Vietnamese thin? +Remarkably, Russian Internet users' chief searches for various nationalities appear to mirror significant geopolitical events relevant to Russia. +For instance, one of the most common questions Russian Internet users ask about people from different countries is why those people dislike Russians, and this question is most common in searches for information about nations with which Moscow's relations have recently deteriorated. +Popular Internet searches in regions where Moscow has less invested politically and fewer cultural ties, meanwhile, seem to focus on questions that are physiological, and sometimes outright bizarre, like those about weight and aging. + +Infographic: 5 Facts About Sri Lanka’s Tamil Community in the North · Global Voices +The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a civil society think tank in Sri Lanka, has recently conducted a top line survey on "Democracy in post-war Sri Lanka 2014". +The results show that difference of opinion on the reconciliation still exists between the Tamil and the Sinhalese people after the Sri Lankan civil war. +The findings from the survey with regard to the Tamil community is very significant. +Their key issues are poverty and unemployment and they feel deprived having very little say about the affairs of the country. +Here is an infographic depicting their plights: +Infographic courtesy of Centre For Policy Alternatives + +Watch This Giant Rainbow Mural Transform a Low-Income Mexican Neighborhood · Global Voices +a low-income neighborhood in mexico is now the talk of the town. @germencrew have transformed the village of #palmitas into a vibrant rainbow, connecting the community of more than 200 homes through an array of colorful hues. see more on #designboom A photo posted by designboom (@designboom) on Jul 28, 2015 at 3:30pm PDT A low-income neighborhood in Mexico was transformed in a giant rainbow by the collective Germen Crew—a youth organization of muralists and street artists formed by 15 graffiti artists, under the direction of Mibe (Luis Enrique Gómez Guzmán), who's teamed with Mexican Government. +Another example of the collective's “urban neomuralism" is Mexico City's famous Jamaica Market, which comprises over 1,000 stands dedicated to the sale of flowers, floral arrangements, ornamental plants, and garden accessories. +Last year, the crew created a mural that visualizes a symbolic ritual beginning with “Mother Earth” (Tonantzin) giving birth to a life-form that transforms into flowers on the south façade of the famous flower market. + +Meet Sam Wakoba of TechMoran Blog · Global Voices +Bloggers Association of Kenya profiles Sam Wakoba who runs Techmoran blog. +Techmoran won the award for the Best Technology Blog in Kenya this year: +We caught up with Sam to get some insights into his blogging journey. +Who is Sam Wakoba, in a few words? +Sam Wakoba is a humble and hardworking Kenyan, passionate about bettering lives in any way he can. +He believes that, with the right information, anyone can be empowered to become a better citizen, employee or business person. +My calling has been to dedicate my life and time to empower communities. +This is just the start. +How did you come up with the name for your blog. +Why ‘TechMoran’? +A Moran is a warrior and tour guide in the Maasai community. As tech ‘Morans’ we want to protect our local tech ecosystem as well as guide those who are new to it. +International media covers African tech in a bad way – focusing more on NGO backed companies. + +Surprisingly, the leading countries in terms of positive emotions were all in Latin America, from Paraguay to Nicaragua, according to Quartz. + +VIDEO: How Do Japanese Cats Stay Warm in Winter? +A cat in a 'kotatsu.' +From the Kagoneko YouTube channel. +Winter has arrived in Japan. On Thursday, November 24, Tokyo experienced its first November snowfall in 54 years. +While the snow may have been unexpected, it does herald the start of an uncomfortable season in Japan: winter. +While the torrid summer months can be made bearable thanks to ubiquitous air conditioning, Japan's chilly winter months can be cruel. +This is because central heating is not as widespread in Japan as it is in other developed countries. +Instead, many people rely on kerosene space heaters to keep warm, as well as something called a kotatsu—a low wooden table outfitted with a heavy blanket, and warmed by a heater underneath. +The word kotatsu conjures up images of coziness and warmth, and not just for humans. +House cats love the kotatsu, too, and can often be found snoozing under the table, inside the blanket, close to the electric heater. +Cats also lay claim to the warm spot in front of the kerosene heater. +The Nekobako blog captures this scene perfectly: + +Why You Shouldn’t Stick Your Chopsticks in Your Rice Bowl and Other Vietnamese Superstitions · Global Voices +Vietnamese elders will react in horror if you ever stick your chopsticks upright into your rice bowl. +This article by Vinh Trần is from Loa, an independent news website and podcast that broadcasts stories about Vietnam, and is republished by Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement. +Ever gotten a slap on the hand when you stick your chopsticks upright into your rice bowl in Vietnam? +What’s up with that? +Let’s explore this and other popular Vietnamese superstitions. +1. +The Black Cat +Black cats are a bad omen in many parts of the world, but for the Vietnamese, the bad luck happens when the cat comes into your house. +We got the lowdown from Professor Hoàng Mai Nguyễn. +Professor Nguyễn says that this superstition is rooted in the belief that when someone passes away and a cat enters the home and jumps over the coffin, the deceased person might sit right up. +Apparently, this came from a story passed down through the generations without scientific evidence. +But since no one wants that to happen, people will do everything to prevent this situation from happening. +2. +No Odd-Numbered Groups in Photos +Ever been to a Vietnamese wedding and notice that if there’s an odd number of people gathering to pose for a photo, another person will jump into the mix? +Well, here’s the “logic” behind that. +According to Vietnamese superstition, the person in the middle of an odd-numbered group photo will be the first to die. +Specifically, when there are only three people in the picture, the person in the middle could be the first one to die, and if he or she does not die, then all three people will receive bad luck. +Again, no scientific evidence, but… who wants to risk it? +3. +Chopsticks Upright in the Rice Bowl +Vietnamese elders will react in horror if you ever stick your chopsticks upright into your rice bowl. +What gives? +Some say it’s because it resembles an incense bowl (with the chopsticks as the incense). +Professor Nguyễn says it’s not so much that an incense bowl is bad luck, but because it is so often used during ceremonies commemorating the deceased, it is often associated with a death in the family. +She says there’s no proof of bad luck occurring because of this, but a student named Lan Bùi says she avoids positioning her chopsticks this way out of respect. +I don’t personally know if the superstition can bring misfortune but I still avoid it because I consider it as bad manners. +It’s a kind of a form of respect for me. +You now have a brief breakdown of three popular Vietnamese superstitions. +Whether it’s out of respect or to avoid risking bad luck, perhaps you can now make a slightly more informed choice on whether or not to adhere to the superstitions. +Learn more about Vietnamese superstitions by listening to this podcast: + +Cameroonian Government Launches Campaign Against Social Media, Calls It “A New Form of Terrorism” · Global Voices +A train station in Douala Cameroon. +Social media played a vital role in providing an alternative narrative to official accounts about the train accident in the town of Eseka, some 75 miles from the capital Yaounde. +Creative Commons photo by Z. NGNOGUE. +The government of Cameroon has launched a campaign against social media, which according to the government-controlled daily, Cameroon Tribune, is “fast becoming a threat to peace and a secret instrument of manipulation” promoting “character destruction, destabilisation of public opinion and deformation of facts among others.” +According to the bilingual daily, which published a special edition headlined “Dérives sur les réseaux sociaux : la cote d’alerte” (“The downward spiral on social media has reached alarming levels”): +A careful analysis of the situation tells of a phenomenon that is proving to be dangerous for society if no measures are taken to scale it down. +This is important especially as elections are approaching. +People with political ambitions may dive into it and use it to fight their opponents. +Other government media outlets, particularly the state-controlled Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV), have also joined the campaign to highlight the alleged ills of social media and the need for social media regulation in Cameroon. +This was the case, for example, of the French (audio) and English (audio) language radio newscasts of November 1. +Why now? +The immediate cause of the government’s outrage was the deadly train derailment in Eseka, some 74 miles west of Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, which resulted in the death of at least 80 people and injured over 600 on October 21, 2016. +While social media users were nimble in sharing information about the disaster in real time, government officials and government-owned traditional media were slow to respond to, and inform the public about, the accident. +In fact, pictures and videos of the tragedy were already being posted on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms when the government and Camrail (a subsidiary of the French conglomerate Bolloré that manages the railway system in Cameroon) were still denying that an accident occurred. +Once government officials finally conceded that there had been a train accident, social media played a vital role in providing an alternative narrative to official accounts about the derailment, for example, making the case that overcrowding and defective Chinese-made carriages were likely contributing factors, not just speed as Bolloré officials claimed. +For example, in an ironic tweet, user @pahedipoula posted a picture of one of the overcrowded carriages of the ill-fated train: +#Cameroon #Eseka. +"Everyone was seated in the train" according to Camrail. +I love the humor of the folks at #Bolloré". +It was also on social media that questions were primarily raised about the official death toll as individuals on the ground talked to friends, relatives, and the local and foreign media. +For example, Radio France International’s interactive program, Appels Actualité, tweeted the statement of an eyewitness who put the death toll at more than three times the official figures: “From what I could see first-hand, there were not just 79 corpses, there were at least 200, 250!” +Some individuals quickly transformed the Eseka disaster into a convenient alibi, an ideal outlet to strike, to deal the death blow and satisfy their despicable political appetites… statements obviously had a single objective: overwhelm and embarrass the President of the Republic to the maximum, and benefit from the political fallout. +During a press conference days after the accident, the Minister of Communication and Government Spokesperson, Issa Tchiroma, responded: +Internet users are constantly angry… it is their character… we are not bothered by social media. +In any case, it is a space that we have to logically occupy. +A "new form of terrorism" +The anti-social media campaign was taken a notch higher on November 10 when, in a speech to parliament, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Cavaye Djibril, complained about "the social malaise” caused by the “insidious effects of the social media” in Cameroon, which he described as "a new form of terrorism": +Social media... is now being used for misinformation, and even intoxication and manipulation of consciences thereby instilling fear in the general public. +In fact, it has become as dangerous as a missile... +In a nutshell, social media has become a real social pandemic in Cameroon… I urge the appropriate authorities to see the pressing need to track down and neutralize the culprits of cybercrimes… we should know that there is a limit to freedom, for freedom without limit stifles freedom. +The speaker’s statement seemed to confirm persistent claims that the government is drafting a social media bill to stifle speech on social media. +A tradition of hostility and suspicion towards social media +The recent attacks on the Internet in general, and social media in particular, are not new. +The government of Cameroon has had a longstanding policy of entrenched hostility towards cyberspace. +In 2014, the Director General of National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies, ANTIC, revealed that the agency constantly monitors social media to detect illicit content that may potentially threaten the national security and image of Cameroon. +President Biya himself joined the bandwagon in 2015 when he warned against online manipulation during his annual Youth Day speech: “Do not be misled notably by birds of ill omen, dreamers and enthusiasts of virtual calls for destabilization through the social media. +These irresponsible prophets are desperately seeking to manipulate you.” +The President ordered his cabinet ministers to implement a more proactive social media communication strategy earlier this year. +This came after the Monique Koumateke scandal in March 2016, in which social media users expressed outrage over the death of a pregnant woman who was denied access to a local hospital due to her inability to pay for care. +According to a report by the Paris-based weekly, Jeune Afrique, only six ministers in the Biya cabinet had personal Facebook pages as of April 2016, and only two of them also had Twitter handles. +The president’s order has so far had limited impact as government officials are constantly reacting to, rather than shaping, online events and conversations. +Social media legislation in Cameroon +Although Cameroon does not have laws that specifically address social media, a 2010 law relating to cybersecurity and cybercriminality contains two key sections that sanction online activity. +According to Section 77: +(1) Whoever uses electronic communication or an information system to act in contempt of race or religion shall be punished with imprisonment for from 02 (two) years to 05 (five) years or a fine of from 2 000 000 (two million) to 5 000 000 (five million) CFA francs or both of such fine and imprisonment. +(2) The penalties provided for in Subsection 1 above shall be doubled where the offence is committed with the aim of stirring up hatred and contempt between citizens. +According to Section 78: +(1) Whoever uses electronic communications or an information system to design, to publish or propagate a piece of information without being able to attest its veracity or prove that the said piece of information was true shall be punished with imprisonment for from 06 (six) months to 02 (two) years or a fine of from 5,000,000 (five million) to 10,000,000 (ten million) CFA francs or both of such fine and imprisonment. +(2) The penalties provided for in Subsection 1 above shall be doubled where the offence is committed with the aim of disturbing public peace. +Internet and social media usage on the rise +According to Internet World Stats (IWS), a website that tracks regional and global Internet usage, there were about 4.3 million Internet users in Cameroon as of June 2016, with an Internet penetration rate of 17.7% (up from 6.4% in 2013). +According to a recent survey by Mediametrie, a French audience measurement company, Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the country (IWS puts the number of Facebook users at 2,100,000) followed by Google+, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. +The survey reveals that 73.3% of individuals between the ages of 15 and 24 have social media accounts. +Social media is increasingly becoming a rallying point for those who want a change at the helm of the state. +No surprise, therefore, that the Biya regime views social medial as a subversive space that must not be left unchecked +The State of Cameroon is resolutely committed to the fight against social media so as to preserve the image of the country. +It appears that for the Biya regime, social media users must either be co-opted or coerced into submission if they wish to continue expressing themselves online. + +Refugee-Run Grocery Stores Help Bring Healthy Fare to a Food Desert in the US State of Pennyslvania · Global Voices +Pradip Upreti, center, stocks shelves in his Erie, Pennsylvania store, UK Supermarket. +Credit: Erika Beras +This story by Erika Beras originally appeared on PRI.org on November 24, 2016. It is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement. +Much of Erie, Pennsylvania is a food desert — people don’t have easy access to fresh or nutritious food. +But in one stretch of Erie, on and around Parade Street on the city’s east side, stores run by refugees are popping up and making a big difference. +At UK Supermarket, Samantha Dhungel pulls bags of vegetables out of the freezer. +In her cart are onions and eggplant, but she pulls out a vegetable she only knows by its Nepali name. +It's a leafy green that her Nepalese husband uses in his cooking. +“This helps a lot because you can’t find stuff like this in Walmart or K-Mart or wherever people shop,” she says. +Listen to this story on PRI.org » +And you can’t find stuff like it in much of the city. +“This store has tons of whole-grain rice, whole-grain meals, flours, things like that," she says, "lots of dry beans and peas, which are high in protein. +So all those are considered healthy, and our store owners like carrying items like that because they have a longer shelf life." +Then two years ago, Pradip Upreti, a Nepalese refugee, opened UK Supermarket. +“I looked in the community and found that there really is a need for Asian-based stores in Erie, which we really don’t have too many,” he says. +He wasn’t trying to solve the food desert problem — none of the store owners were. +They just wanted refugees in Erie, who make up 10 percent of the city, to have access to specific foods. +People would drive distances and buy up items like jackfruit and halal pizza. +Then they’d resell those items to people in their community. Upreti saw a business opening there. +“I wanted to do more, like a lot of people having to travel to Pittsburgh or Cleveland just to get groceries didn’t sound too good to me,” he said. +Upreti’s store carries mostly South Asian foods. +Across the street is an Iraqi owned store that carries lots of spices. +Around the corner, another Iraqi store specializes in fish and meats like lamb and goat. And there are well over a dozen more stores like them. +Upreti says he gets customers from everywhere, and the majority of customers are longtime residents of the area. +“Indian and Nepalese are the biggest two ethnic groups, along with African, Arabic Americans and some Vietnamese and some Burmese,” he says. +Iorio from the health department knows this spot because she runs Erie’s Healthy Corner Store Initiative, which helps Pennsylvania cities that have food deserts. +She visits the stores to ensure they have healthy foods on their narrow, packed shelves. If they do, they get rewarded — $100 a year, new shopping carts or vegetable display cases. +She doesn’t know where people got their groceries before these stores started popping up. +“There were always some corner stores,” she said. “But we think people are going to buy what they have access to and what they’re used to.” +Having these stores here isn’t a full-on solution. +As stocked as they may be with whole-grain rice and vegetables, people still pick up other things. +Like Swapna Sibarim, whose shopping cart is full. And as she pays for her vegetables, rice and yogurt, there are a few other things — like ingredients for some sweet desserts. + +Global Voices +Today is #GivingTuesday, a day dedicated to global generosity of all kinds, and we're hoping that Global Voices is one of the organizations whose work you'll support by making a donation. +The changes that have taken place across the world this year have offered a powerful reminder that the work of building bridges of understanding between people and communities, and of safeguarding basic rights, is never done. +At Global Voices we've forged a strong and empathetic community by reporting stories and forging deep connections across cultures, languages and differences of opinion. +Our work over the past 11 years is proof that that human connections across cultures and languages can change how people understand the world. +As people seek to understand how to live harmoniously in a difficult global environment, sharing and scaling our experience and expertise becomes an even more urgent part of our mission. +So on this #GivingTuesday, please make a donation to help us continue the work of building bridges, to combat the forces of hatred and intolerance that threaten to make our world a less hospitable place. +Donate now » + +Spaniards Fired up Over Photo of Bullfighter With a Baby in His Arms · Global Voices +The controversial photo of Fran Rivera bullfighting while holding his daughter in his arms. +Published by eldiario.es under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license. +Famous matador Fran Rivera held up a red rag to social media recently when he published a photo on his Instagram account of him fighting a heifer while holding his 5-month-old daughter in his arms. +The photo was accompanied by the following comment: +Carmen's Debut: she is the 5th generation that fights bulls in our family. +My grandfather fought like this with my father. +My father fought like this with me, and I've done it with my daughters Cayetana, and now Carmen. +Within hours, the photo received millions of "likes" (almost 14 million as of this article) and thousands of comments highlighting animosity between supporters and opponents of bullfighting in Spain. +The "anti-bullfighters," who have felt silenced for years by the protection that bulls receive from state institutions, have found an arena for their activism via social networks. +Of course pro-bullfighting arguments are ridiculous!! +Raising a living being with such great care to later torture them... +Recognize that you are a bunch of sadistic assholes... not that you need to listen... thank God the world is becoming aware and hopefully this carnage will cease to exist. +To those who don't like bullfighting, respect other people's interests. +It's a photo of a father with his daughter. +Showing her her roots. +Ole, Francisco Rivera Paquirri! +Those who don't like it should fight more to end world hunger and stop meddling in something that has been a part of Spanish culture for a lifetime. +niceguy_rob87 Your a freaking idiot. +Why would you risk your child's life with an animal who is not tamed!!! +You don't deserve to have children! +The scandal quickly migrated to Twitter, where "Fran Rivera" trended on January 25. +Tweets were typically loaded with sarcasm: +You have no shame. +Respect the tradition of a guy torturing a creature with horns with his baby in his arms. +Enough, man! +I'm hoping to have a baby to bring him to a crucifixion. — God +Mr. Rivera, can Carmen come out to play? +The issue even crossed borders, spiking interest from British actor and animal welfare advocate Ricky Gervais: +Mental, dangerous & cruel. +With or without a baby. https://t.co/KOEH2ZLEyG — Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) January 26, 2016 +On the other hand, Rivera's fellow bullfighters have sympathized with the matador, posting photos of themselves bullfighting with children in their arms, as seen in Paula Zorita's tweet below: +May the anti-bullfighters know about cultural roots and values! +I love seeing these photos... #YesToKidsInBullrings +Thanks to these tweets, many netizens have been astonished to discover a seemingly habitual practice among bullfighters, where they post chilling images such as this one published by retired bullfighter Antonio Martin: My son also had fun in my arms bullfighting, long live bullfighting +I think you still don't know how badly you've screwed up. +Susana Parra Becerril, however, defended Rivera: +I love bulls and the Fiesta. +What happens is that in Spain, instead of feeling proud of ourselves and our customs, we are self-conscious and everything from the outside seems better. +Aren't parents who drink and drive more dangerous? +What about guns in the U.S.? +Or domestic violence? +Virgilio27 equated Spain with bulls on eldiario.es: +(...) +The problem is that bulls smell of Spain, and that bothers those who are anti-Spain. +A society more and more hypocritical and false where people get wound up about seeing a bloody animal is a sick society that doesn't know what life is nor its value. +Putting animals above humans is at best ignorant. +Shortly after the scandal broke the Ombudsman of Andalucia alerted the public prosecutor of Sevilla — where the matador lives — to consider that the photo reflects "a situation of unnecessary risk to a child." +The public prosecutor opened an investigation into the event filed under the category "for the protection of minors", while Minister of Health, Social Services and Equality Alfonso Alonso advised the bullfighter to "reflect" claiming "it is not appropriate, under any circumstances, to endanger minors." +Alonso did not feel that punitive measures towards Rivera were necessary, however. +The Popular Party in government to which Alonso belongs has been staunchly defensive of bullfighting, an activity that was declared a "cultural good" in 2013. +The government has even bestowed the sport with fresh state grants during a period characterized by austerity and cuts. +Despite this, polls show that fewer than one in five Spaniards support government funding for bullfights. +It is worth noting Fran Rivera is a matador well aware of the risk posed by angry bulls, given that he himself has suffered serious gorings in exercising his profession. +As a child, Rivera lost his father, the famous matador Paquirri, who died in September 1984 after being gored by a bull. + +South Africa's Youngest Novelist, 7-year-old Michelle Nkamankeng, Wants to Inspire Others · Global Voices +On the Microphone: Michelle Nkamankeng in the studio at Powerfm987 radio station. +Photo via @Powerfm987 sur Twitter +After publishing her first novel Waiting for the Waves, seven-year-old South African Michelle Nkamankeng is being bowled over with requests for interviews and invitations to literary festivals. +Michelle's novel tells the story of a little girl on holiday with her parents at a seaside resort. +The girl, with the help of her loved ones, has to overcome her fear of waves. +The novel is the first installment of a tetralogy. She's already reportedly working on the next edition. +In an article about the young author for Ecce Africa, a news site dedicated to strengthening Africa's positive image, Servan Ahougnon writes: +Michelle Nkamankeng relies on her parents' full support, particularly her mother. +The latter founded LANSM Publishing so that her daughter's book would be published. +Nevertheless, it is easy for Africa's youngest author to talk about her passion with those around her. +When asked about what she thinks about herself and what she is currently achieving, Nkamankeng said, "I'm a humble little girl who writes books. +I'm self confident and I inspire young children to follow their dreams". +Daniel Orubo for konbini.com describes Michelle's mother's efforts in helping her and the young writer's aspirations: +Michelle's mother had to learn from the ground up in order to be able to successfully publish her daughter's book. +She even ended up founding her own publisher's. +In an interview with the Guateng province's website, Michelle talks about her hopes for her book and for the future, "I hope that I can earn enough money from my first book so that I can publish the next three volumes in the series." +The book will be available on Amazon from the 11 October. +The website Farable Weekly, which acts as a news hub for all African trends on art, culture, fashion, music and cinema, also writes about the phenomenon that surrounds the young author. +Writer Goke Alabi states: +At an age where most girls will be busy playing with toys or watching cartoons, 7-year old Michelle Nkamankeng is making the list of the top 10 youngest authors in the world. +The young South African becomes the youngest author out of Africa after she published her first novel ‘Waiting for Waves’. +Negro News, a community site for francophone Africa, summarises the novel's content and includes Nkamankeng's father Paul's thoughts on his daughter's work: +The book, which she wrote at the age of six, tells the story of a girl called Titi and her family, who live far away from the coast. +One day, they went to the beach, but Titi was scared of the waves. +Her family then help her to confront her fears. got inspiration for the novel after visiting the beach with her family. +Michelle's father, Paul Nkamankeng, tells us about how he did not even know that his daughter was writing a book until after it was finished. "The only thing we knew when was about four or five years old, was that she liked to read. +She always wanted us to take her to the bookshop to buy children's books, and she would finish reading them in a week. +When she was five, we took her to the beach for the first time where she asked me why everybody was looking out at the ocean. +I told her that they were waiting for the waves". +The novel Waiting for the Waves is to be the first of a series of four volumes. +When she isn't writing, Michelle Nkamankeng likes to do ballet, gymnastics, and to swim. +The precocious writer has, under the guidance of her mother, already established herself on Facebook and Twitter (links to her Facebook page and Twitter account here). +The publication of her book has made her a star, and she has been invited to interviews and talks by schools, non-government organizations such as UNICEF, and TV and radio stations such as, Insta: Craze.tv, Radio2000, and POWER98.7. +Even the BBC has contacted Michelle Nkamankeng for an interview: +@michelle_n23 Hi, I'm a journalist with BBC World Service. +We'd love to speak to Michelle on our radio prog, Newsday. +It was announced on Nkamankeng's Facebook page that she was to be one of the guests of honour at the SA Literary Awards 2016: +Michelle is currently on her way to Pretoria as a special guest of honour to the 11th SA Literary Awards (SALA) taking place tonight! +Michelle is indeed living proof of the famous words from Pierre Corneille's, Le Cid: "for souls nobly born, valor doesn't await the passing of years". + +Sriracha, a Truly Global Sauce with a Big Heap of Vietnamese Love · Global Voices +Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. +Photo from the Flickr page of Mike Mozart, CC License +This article by Chí-Linh Đinh is from Loa, an independent news website and podcast that broadcasts stories about Vietnam, and is republished by Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement. +I’m at Bánh Mì Boys, a local eatery in Toronto, Canada. +It’s late, I’m hungry, and my friend and I order some bánh mì with Sriracha sauce heaped on top. +Sriracha, in case you didn’t already know, is bottled chili sauce, instantly recognizable by its iconic green cap and rooster logo. +I use it on everything, and probably on some foods I shouldn’t. +For Halloween I dressed up as a bottle of Sriracha sauce. +To say I love the stuff is probably an understatement. But I’m not alone. +One of the staff explains why he likes too, even though it is a little different than what he remembers. +“I guess, ‘cause I’m from Thailand,” he says. +“Sriracha is originally based in Thailand, the small city,” he explains, “But the we have is very different from actual Sriracha sauce, like it’s not that spicy but you can put it on everything.” +Many people assume the sauce is an import from Asia. +Who knew there was actually a town named Sriracha? +I talked to Griffin Hammond, director of the short documentary titled Sriracha, which covers the history and phenomenon of the rooster sauce. +Yeah in the film we went to Thailand to kind of find out the story of the original. +The sauce, I don’t know what it’s like in Vietnam, but in Thailand it was much runnier, a lot sweeter, and different consistency and kind of seemed like it went with different things too—similar ingredients, of course. +Hammond explains more of the backstory of the modern Sriracha, which starts with David Trần, and his voyage to the United States: +He was in Vietnam and he one of the many ethnically Chinese people that were sent out out of country, kinda pushed out of Vietnam after the war, and he was asked to get on a boat, called the Huey Fong. +Huy Fong Foods, incidentally, is what David Trần would later name his company. +Hammond recounts: +There were 3,300 refugees on this boat, and finally after a month of living on this boat, Hong Kong relented, let them stay there for a little bit, and the UN relocated all these people and I think a large number them landed in the US. +David Trần, at the time without a dollar to his name, first arrived in Boston, but eventually made his way to Los Angeles. +Hammond continues: +When he was there, he was looking for a job and couldn’t really find anything he liked, but saw that a lot of Vietnamese people that wanted���they were eating phở and they didn’t have any hot sauce, like that from back home, and he just saw a market there and thought, ‘I could make some hot sauce,’ and that’s how he started making Sriracha. +The little business Trần created back in 1980 has now flourished and expanded. +There’s currently a large factory in Irwindale, east of Los Angeles, making the world’s supply of everyone’s favorite hot sauce. +In fact, if you so wanted, you could go there and book a tour and check it out yourself. Sriracha’s origin is getting harder to keep straight. Let’s recap: We have a Chinese-Vietnamese refugee who only started selling the sauce when he came to the United States. +The sauce itself is inspired by Thailand’s Sriracha sauce, but it’s not the same taste, not exactly. +So maybe…Sriracha is kind of a toss up between all the cultures? +A true fusion food? +It’s an intriguing thought, and it makes sense at a global level, especially since ideas and foods travel across borders. +And the neat thing about globalization is this—even though David Trần never sold Sriracha in Vietnam, it is rapidly becoming a favorite back across the pond anyway. +Victor Nguyễn, who does business in Asia, explains, +So I go back to Vietnam —I go to Asia maybe like once or twice a year on my schedule, and in the last few years, I’ve noticed that, whenever I post a message on Facebook or maybe like email my friends asking them if they want anything from California, or from LA, the number one answer is Sriracha sauce. +This past trip, where I went in September, my entire check-in luggage was all Sriracha sauce. It was all literally, I think, I had about 15 bottles in my luggage. 15 bottles is definitely no joke. +In the end, this mashup of cultures makes Sriracha a truly global sauce with a big heap of Vietnamese love. +And what’s better than that? +But anyway, where were we? +Ah that’s right, I was enjoying my bánh mì. With Sriracha, of course. +But in that case, I might as well ask the burning question: “What’s your favourite thing to put Sriracha on?” +My server responds: “Oh…pizzas, probably.” +Hey, that sounds pretty good. But I think it’s time to stop hassling the staff now. +The place is picking up their dinner crowd. +Listen to the podcast about Sriracha: + +Syrian Media Activist: 'It Is Terrible and Scary, Aleppo Has Become a Horror City' · Global Voices +“Aleppo is alive and will not die!” +This is what video journalist Gnaid wrote on Facebook when he announced the birth of his little daughter, his second child, on Thursday, November 24, 2016. +Both children were born and are growing up under siege. +Earlier last week, Gnaid told Global Voices in a series of communications that the Syrian regime's forces were only a couple of kilometers from his house and that panic has taken over the civilians and the media professionals who are still in eastern Aleppo. +At the time of writing, forces that support President Bashar al-Assad are reported to control most of East Aleppo, having made quick advancements in recent days under the cover of Russian bombardment and the large support of Iranian-backed militias. +Since 2012, the city has been divided between rebel-held East Aleppo and regime-held West Aleppo. +The first barrel bombs to have been dropped by the regime over Aleppo were in December 2013 and since then, many forms of weapons have been used, from chemical weapons to cluster bombs, leaving the eastern part of the city in complete ruins. +A brutal siege was then imposed by the regime in July 2016 as it declared its intentions to retake eastern Aleppo within months. +When Gnaid and his family assessed the possibilities of leaving eastern Aleppo, they found many obstacles. +Going to neighboring Turkey is difficult, and areas of Syria that are held by the regime are dangerous for media activists who fear arrest, torture or even death. +Gnaid remarked that only if he surrendered and held a portrait of Assad he might survive, but his pride and dignity would not allow it. +It is too humiliating for him, he told Global Voices. +So Gnaid and his family decided to stay in eastern Aleppo and continue. +“Tonight, the bombings are very heavy” Gnaid said on Wednesday, December 7. +“It is terrible and scary, Aleppo has become a horror city.” +He accused the international community of having "a lack of humanity": +My wife and I don’t have passports. +We cannot travel, but we could keep ourselves alive here in Aleppo, even during the siege. +There has to be a solution now. +It’s our right to live in dignity and freedom, just like all people in this world. +But unfortunately our voice is not heard over the sound of the weapons! +An enormous number of people have lost their houses and are driven away by the violence and the bombs. +Maybe our neighborhood will return to the regime. But we will hold on to our land! The shame is on the United Nations and all international organizations who could rescue the wounded but simply refuse to do so! +Gnaid then sent another message: +The situation is terribly difficult. +I don’t know what to say. +I am looking at the people. +I do not want to leave. +I do not want to leave Aleppo. +I am tired and utterly exhausted. +But there is nothing else to do for me than to stay. +This is my land. +There is nothing else for me than Aleppo. +I don’t know what to do anymore. +It’s in God’s hands. +Finally, on Thursday, December 8, Gnaid sent what he thought would be his last message. +Half an hour ago the fighting started here. +There is an enormous panic. +Especially with the children. +It is very very difficult now. +There are rocket attacks by the Syrian Army. +Soon there will be a battle now. +Fortunately, he managed to send a short audio note to Global Voices on the morning of Tuesday, December 13, saying: +We are okay thankfully. +We're still waiting to see what's going to happen to us. +Meanwhile, his colleagues at the Aleppo Media Center uploaded a 360-degree video to show the wide-spread destruction of the area of Al Shaer neighborhood in eastern Aleppo. +For Gnaid and his family, the international community is doing nothing to stop the bloodshed. +The only hope now, he says, is that he and his family can get out safely to the remaining opposition-held areas, hoping that the warplanes don’t follow the people there eventually. + +Russian Journalists Fired for Reporting About a Children's Art Project That Ended at the Dump · Global Voices +Image: Pixabay +Journalists working for a local state-funded television network in Russia recently discovered that city officials in Chelyabinsk trashed more than 3,000 holiday tree ornaments made by children, in a sad end to a public competition that was supposed to drum up publicity for the Russian Figure Skating Championships and place the ornaments on trees around the city. +If the reports about children finding their homemade ornaments at the dump, fighting back tears as they tried to locate and take back their own artwork, aren’t enough to rob you of your holiday cheer, perhaps this next detail will: the two journalists responsible for breaking the story were summarily fired two days later. +The segment in question never aired on the “1OBL” news network, a state-funded TV channel in Chelyabinsk, but two reporters for the station did cooperate with REN-TV to help put it together. +The story was broadcast on December 6. +Children in Chelyabinsk find their tree ornaments dumped in the garbage. +Video: REN-TV +Two days later, 1OBL newsroom chief Oksana Shevchenko began the morning staff meeting with a furious announcement, explaining that the station wouldn’t be renewing its contracts at the end of the month with Nadezhda Zalevskaya and Svetlana Sverchkareva, the two reporters who worked on the segment that aired on REN-TV. +“A government channel is selling stories to national networks that trash the Russian Figure Skating Championships! +We smeared the reputation of the Russian Figure Skating Championships! +Do you hear what I’m saying!?” +Shevchenko said in a video recorded on a mobile phone by someone at the meeting and later leaked to REN-TV. +Speaking to the newsroom, Shevchenko also said that someone by the name of “Evdokimov” telephoned the director of 1OBL in a rage, complaining about the news segment. +REN-TV believes she was referring to Vadim Evdokimov, Chelyabinsk’s lieutenant governor who manages the city’s public affairs. +When REN-TV called Evdokimov to ask him about his relationship with 1OBL, he evaded the question and hung up. +After REN-TV began contacting various officials in the Chelyabinsk government, Zalevskaya and Sverchkareva say they started receiving anonymous, threatening phone calls. +In response, Russia’s Federal Council and the Russian Journalists’ Union have reportedly agreed to help the two journalists defend their jobs. +1OBL journalists Nadezha Zalevskaya and Svetlana Sverchkareva. +Photos: Vkontakte +On Vkontakte, Russia’s most popular social network, the 1OBL newsroom has been largely silent about the scandal. +Nadezha Zalevskaya and Svetlana Sverchkareva aren’t even “friends” on the website, and only the former has posted anything publicly about her problems at work. +Of the 29 Vkontakte users registered as employees at 1OBL, just two other people have written anything publicly about the controversy. +In both instances, fellow young women in the newsroom shared REN-TV’s story about the crackdown and added short, supportive messages addressed to their colleagues. +Newsroom chief Oksana Shevchenko, who could scarcely contain her anger at this week’s 1OBL staff meeting, hasn’t posted anything publicly since December 4, when she shared a collection of Soviet holiday cards featuring squirrels, bunnies and bears. + +Who Is Duterte? +Into the Deep Podcast · Global Voices +He’s called the Pope a son of a whore. He’s called US President Obama a son of a whore. +He's been compared to Trump. +He’s cracked jokes about rape and is open about being a womanizer. +His war on drugs has killed thousands of alleged drug dealers and addicts in four months. +But that’s only half of the story when it comes to the President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte. +In this week's episode of Into the Deep, a new Global Voices podcast that digs deep into one issue that isn’t getting the media coverage it deserves, Global Voices contributors Mong Palatino and Karlo Mongaya help us unravel the other side of Duterte. +In this episode, we featured Creative Commons-licensed music from the Free Music Archive, including songs by Blue Dot Sessions called Ray Gun – FasterFasterBrighter and Under Suspicion by Lee Rosevere. +The feature photo in this story is a screenshot from the popular mobile game Fighting Crime. + +Is Nepal No Country for Women? · Global Voices +Nepalese woman thinking at Durbar Square, Bhaktapur, Nepal. +Image: Flickr by Elmar Bajora. +CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 +In September 2015, still recovering from devastating earthquakes earlier in the year, Nepal adopted a controversial new constitution, accepting discriminatory provisions against two of Nepal's most vulnerable groups: women, ethnic Madhesis and Tharus living in the country's southern belt, known as “the Terai.” +Demarcating land unfavorably for these southern populations, and introducing new discriminations against women on the pretext of national security, Nepal's new constitution remains highly divisive, a year later. +Renown writer Manjushree Thapa burned the constitution in protest, saying: +I’m through with being abused by my own country. +I can’t accept the constitution’s privileging of the male bloodline over the female, of semen over ova. +I can’t accept the empowering of the male body and the negation of the female body, the erasure of women’s agency as full human beings. +A year later, Thapa hasn't budged: +It's 2016 & Nepal is refusing to grant women the same citizenship rights as men. +There's no mystery as to why the country is suffering. — Manjushree Thapa (@manjushreethapa) December 3, 2016 +The "world's best constitution" discriminates against 51% of our fellow citizens: #Women. #Nepal https://t.co/aXZ05LIV4p via @subinmulmi — Dorje Gurung (@Dorje_sDooing) December 13, 2016 +.@manjushreethapa 93% of countries give women equal rights to transmit citizenship. +Discrimination in Pictures +Artist and educator Supriya Manandhar created a series of infographics that explain the law with regards to citizenship. +Infographic by Supriya Manandhar. +Used with permission +You can find more infographics here. +The new provisions fail to follow longstanding principles of non-discrimination and equality accepted by Nepal as a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). +The constitution has complicated the way Nepal grants citizenship, and Amnesty International has urged that the government void new rules that discriminate against single mothers. +Citizenship should be granted with consideration for both parents, Amnesty International argues, to avoid stateless children. +The new constitution has harmed children of single mothers and mothers who do not reside permanently in Nepal (including trafficked women, migrant women, and others). +This has also affected mothers whose husbands are foreigners. +While this distinction between men and women may seem arbitrary, it is a part of a long historical narrative. +The 'Indian' Element +A writer at one of Nepal's main newspapers, Republica, explains: +Equal citizenship right for women was a key agenda of all major political parties during Constituent Assembly elections. +But when it came to granting such rights they offered the excuse of “open border with India” and “possible risks on nationality” to continue with discriminatory provisions against women. +The proposed amendment, which has sparked protests in parts of the country, has also talked about citizenship. +The amendment proposal has relaxed the provision to provide citizenships to non-Nepali women married to Nepali men. +But no such provision has been proposed for non-Nepali husbands of Nepali women and their children. +Manjushree Thapa also explains the legacy leading up to this: +Nationalism beats, as a final refuge, in the hearts of Nepal’s Hindu patriarchs. +Incredible as it sounds, they are ruled by a deep-seated xenophobia, a fear that Indian men will marry Nepali women, and the children—born of Indian seed!—will populate Nepal. +Nepal will then no longer be Nepali; it will be Indian. +“We agree with you,” Nepali feminists have been told. +“But you have to consider our national identity.” +If women are to be loyal to Nepal, we must accept unequal citizenship rights. +Nepal's leading women's advocate, and present Justice of the Supreme Court, Sapana Pradhan Malla, denounces this justification: +Geopolitics, national security and the open border with India can no longer be used as justification for the continuation of systematic state discrimination against Nepali women. +This is a bogey raised by those who wish to perpetuate patriarchy in Nepal! +Acknowledging Limited Progress +Still, the new constitution has yielded some positives for women: Violence against women has been criminalized; There are special provisions for socially and culturally disadvantaged women; Women have an equal right in family matters, as well as in property inheritance; and Political parties have to ensure that at least 33 percent of their members in the central parliament, upper house, and state parliaments are women. +Currently, three women are in high leadership positions: the president, the speaker of parliament, and the supreme chief justice. +For many, though, this is mere tokenism: +Tokenism to the max-Nepal has women as president, chief justice and head of parliament but has a conservative and sexist constitution. — Erisha Suwal (@erishasuwal) July 11, 2016 +Patriarchy: An Undisputed Part of Nepal? +As a southerner, a Muslim, and a woman, Mohna Ansari is triply marginalized. +She's also the first such person in Nepal to become a lawyer. +She says she is aware that much remains to be done: +having women heading the top state posts does not mean the end of patriarchal values and structural discrimination against women. +There still lies a long battle ahead to bring real change in the lives of the ordinary women in Nepal. +Ansari says “keen observation and patience” are needed to be heard in a patriarchal society. +Only then "will know how to intervene and change the system in favor." +In the meantime, people in Nepal continue to call for changes that would repeal the constitution's discrimination against women, Tharus, and Madhesis. +Some individuals have even resorted to poetry: + +These Short Films by Young Cambodian Men Aim to Stop Sexual Harassment · Global Voices +A recent campaign challenged young male filmmakers to reflect on sexual harassment and the urgent need to stop it. +The result is the production of more than a dozen short films exposing the scourge of sexual harassment and its negative impact on victims and society at large. +Behind the campaign was CARE, an international NGO that does advocacy work in Cambodia. +CARE launched #WhyStop activities across Cambodia encouraging men to understand why sexual harassment must stop, and that they have a direct role in ending violence against women. +CARE chose 16 short films made by filmmakers aged 16 to 29 that send a clear and powerful message about stopping sexual harassment. +Here’s a preview of some of these films. +'7 colors underwear' +'One touch' +'The day it happened' +'Your 7 reasons' +'Pain' +'Oudom' +'If she's your sister' + +What Christ Is Born Among Us Today? · Global Voices +Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Luc-Olivier Merson, 1879, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. +IMAGE: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons +These are meant to be days of glory, the day of the birth of Jesus Christ—the God of love, justice and peace. +But what manner of Christ is being born in our world today? +If Jesus were to come to us today we would spend a long time wondering about the scarf covering Mary’s head; we would close our doors in the face of the poor man and his pregnant wife. +It would be from our houses that Jesus would be turned away, and we the ones who cause him to be born in a cave. +If Jesus Christ were to come to us today we would spend a long time questioning his profession. +Merely a carpenter from the Middle East! +A nobody, unable to speak a foreign language. +And he wants to change the world? +How naive of him. +If Jesus were to come to us today we would accuse the Three Wise Men of bias, and the shepherds would have been arrested before being able to spread the good news. +Maybe you would have stood a little in solidarity with them, or maybe not. +If Jesus were to come to us today, escaping from Herod, we would believe Herod’s version of the story, or we would debate and write articles, asking what if Herod were right to want to kill the Christ Child? +What if Jesus were to some day become a threat? +Or we might simply speak in generalities and fall back on familiar phrases such as “it’s complicated over there.” +But still we celebrate. +Today our Christmas trees are bigger, and even bigger still are our statues of the Virgin Mary before whom we pray, crying and begging Her to forgive us for forgetting the Mary curled up in some refugee camp only meters away. +But we celebrate. +Our streets are filled with sparkling lights, to help us forget that today’s Good Samaritan is a non-for-profit organization obsessed with writing the success story of the wounded man he just saved, in order leverage that success to increase the number of beneficiaries. +Yet we don’t have time for a smile. +Yes, we are Christians, but we don’t want a Christ that doesn’t look like us. +The Christ we want is stylish. +One who doesn’t carry his clothes in a bag or roam around in torn sandals. +One who speaks very good English and who would, preferably, before preaching about love, provide warrants to defend himself against the charge of terrorism. +Yes, we are Christians, but we are afraid of Jews, Muslims, Arabs, Afghans and all who are not “us”. +You see love is selective, based on class and affiliation. +But for some reason Jesus Christ neglected mentioning those things, and spoke of love for all. +Yes, we are Christians, but if prophets were to travel the world today to deliver their messages to us they would be drowned at sea, or shot at a border, because they would be suspicious, of course. +What Christ is being born among us today, when all the “brothers” about whom he will question us on judgment day are besieged, trapped and killed in the camps? +We hoard our talents in the bank so that we can one day go on vacation and take many pictures that we post on social media to tell the friends whom we don’t usually have the time to love how happy we are. +What Christ is being born among us, when we want to “follow” everything except for the star that leads to the manger? +If the Christmas tree we put up in our houses every year is the symbol of new life, what life are we, the grieving, hoping for in our daily death? +Today I am a refugee who doesn’t have a place I consider home enough to celebrate in, or to put up a tree in and await gifts. +And in a few days my home town will be gone forever. +Once I smuggled a Christmas tree into Eastern Aleppo. +It was a symbol to defend my identity against ISIS. +The friend who helped me smuggle it was Muslim. +He lives today under bomb fire. +They were all Muslims, the friends who helped me decorate the tree. +Today they are all besieged and threatened with summary execution. +I had a Christmas tree that I liked to think of as a symbol of the Annunciation in the heart of destruction. +Today it became, like everything back in Syria, the symbol for a grave. +It is painful even to attempt to hope and write new year’s resolutions. +It’s painful that the greatest of your Christmas wishes is the forced displacement of those whom you believe have a just cause. +Those now in Aleppo, fighting for freedom and dignity, are the salt of the earth. +If they are besieged, bombed and murdered, how will the earth be made salty again? + +International Fact-Checking Day Celebrated Worldwide: #FactCheckIt! · Global Voices +Artwork for International Fact-Checking Day by Gianluca Costantini, used with permission. +See more at bit.ly/factcheckit. +While April 1 celebrates jokes and white lies, April 2 has become a day of sobering up and fact-checking. +As of this year, truth-seekers around the world introduced their own holiday — International Fact-Checking Day. +April Fool's Day celebrations possibly have their roots in the Roman Saturnalia, a carnival time when social roles were reversed, and when normally forbidden activities like gambling were allowed. +Two thousand years later, it still takes the form of masquerades and a reversal of moral norms, allowing for pranks and harmless lies. +International Fact-Checking Day is promoted by the International Fact-Checking Network, founded by the Poynter institute in partnership with dozens fact-checking organizations around the world. +International Fact-Checking Day is not a single event, but a diverse range of activities aimed at raising public awareness about the importance of facts — and fact-checking — in politics, journalism, and everyday life. +Bill Adair, Professor of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University, and the creator of PolitiFact, tweeted: +Ten years ago there were a handful of fact-checking sites; today, the world’s 115 sites celebrate Intl. +Fact-Checking Day. +People celebrating the International Fact-Checking Day use the hashtag #FactCheckIt to promote activities which range from public events and workshops to a fake news sprint conducted by PolitiFact. +We celebrate the international day of Fact-checking. +Tonight, we check foreign politicians. +Alexios‏ Mantzarlis, the director of the International Fact-Checking Network, has been using his Twitter profile to document and inform about many of the activities related to the day around the globe: +In Braamfontein, @AfricaCheck got students to "vote with their feet" on whether a news story was fake https://t.co/9m9KiklBa1 #FactCheckIt pic.twitter.com/015S20lEOP — Alexios (@Mantzarlis) April 2, 2017 +In Rio, at @agencialupa's workshop, journalism students said fact-checking should be in the curriculum https://t.co/0ZrhKzOh78 #FactCheckIt pic.twitter.com/Q8DTl7BiZl — Alexios (@Mantzarlis) April 2, 2017 +In Milan, @factcheckers_it is holding 4 back-to-back hands-on fact checking workshops with high school students #FactCheckIt pic.twitter.com/YjGH910aoF — Alexios (@Mantzarlis) April 2, 2017 +Taking into consideration the pressing need to incorporate media literacy and especially fact-checking into the educational system, the members of the fact-checking network prepared a free lesson plan, which has already been translated into 12 languages, with more translations on the way. +Introduce your class to the basics of fact-checking, and help them navigate through an ocean of information, rumors, hoaxes and lies with our lesson plan. +The lesson plan was designed by fact-checkers and endorsed by instructional designers. +It is conceived for students aged 14-16 but can be used with students of other ages too. + +Indian Techies Work to Detect Fake WhatsApp and Facebook Messages · Global Voices +Mozilla L10N Hackathon in Punjab, India. +Photo by Subhashish Panigrahi via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) +Two Indian coders are building a website that helps detect fake messages shared widely on WhatsApp and Facebook. Known as check4spam.com, the site relies on both the research and investigation by the check4spam team along with volunteer users. +The group hopes to expand the portal's capabilities to provide certain services through technical tools. +They describe the project as follows: +We verify any known posts with the below actions: +1. +Contact the person/organization mentioned in the post +2. +Do an extensive search (online and offline) to find any further fine information about the news - How We Work, check4spam.com +(SPAM) Top 10 Corrupt Political Parties in The World 2017 by BBC https://t.co/wb2yJxHYpn pic.twitter.com/hlisxbmPTA — check4spam (@check4spam) March 22, 2017 +India is seeing a rapid increase in Internet use, even among the elderly. Many of the new users do not yet know how to differentiate between authentic sources and fake or malicious ones. +And there are threats of click bait, hoaxes or Trojan horse-style software built to steal information from the user’s device. +Bal Krishn Birla and Shammas Oliyath who created the website are two seasoned techies based in the Indian city of Bengaluru. +With a vision of "unconditional Service for humanity" and a mission to "make life easy for the common man and life trouble for the spammers," they have embarked on to educate people in India that fall victim to fake messages on social media, and help circulate those messages. +A typical certification. +Image via Check4Spam Website. +They have set up a WhatsApp number in August 2016 for people to send in the messages for fact-checks. According to Shammas, they get as many as 100 messages a day for verification. +Shammas reads the messages during his hour-long lunch break and starts researching the leads. +Check4Spam is a self-funded project. It gets some revenue from ads on the site which goes into its operation costs, including promotional posts on Facebook. +#Check4Spam +1 Add +9035067726 on your phone. +2. +Copy the content you doubt. +2 WhatsApp them. +They'll tell you if it is fake or not. +The check4spam.com currently supports messages that are text-only, image-only, and contains both text and image. +They are also crowdsourcing spam message detection by asking people to report the spam messages that the users find out themselves. +Currently the detected messages are categorized under internet rumours, accidents, jobs, medical, missing, government initiatives, and promotions. +The site gets half a million page views a month. + +Burundi's Political Instability Is Worsening the Country's Food Crisis · Global Voices +Marché de Bubanza, Burundi. +17 August 2014. +Credit: Sara, via Wikimedia. +Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International +In recent months, East Africa has been hit with a serious food crisis. +Extreme and erratic weather, related to the "La Niña-El Niño" weather phenomenon, has led to stock shortages and sent food prices soaring in several countries, including Kenya and Tanzania. +Aid agencies are ringing the alarm, calling for immediate action to avoid any repeat of Somalia’s disastrous 2011 famine. +In some cases, however, political instability is compounding the problem. +In Burundi, unpredictable weather patterns, characterised by heavy rains and long droughts, have hit crops. +The resulting food shortages have affected school attendance and has even led to starvation-related deaths. +In January, humanitarian agencies and the government investigated and called for international assistance, although ministers refuse to describe the situation as being a result of 'famine' preferring the term 'deficit' of agricultural production instead. +According to Olucome , the government should call for international solidarity to alleviate the famine +Around a quarter of Burundi's population — about 3 million people — now reportedly need food assistance. +Food shortages have contributed to displacement, with over 400,000 people becoming UN-registered refugees and an estimated 150,000 internally displaced. +Officials argued the crisis over food is the only reason for the displacement. +Yet, in March, the UN’s Radio Okapi in the Democratic Republic of Congo reported on new refugees who were fleeing the country because of political insecurity. +Some have returned, but Burundians exiled in Uganda remain sceptical of the government's call to return home, saying that they still opposed President Pierre Nkurunziza's third term. +Ruyigi : the maize harvest to be poor due to bad weather +President Nkurunziza's 2015 decision to stay on in power after the end of his two terms in office sparked a political crisis, characterized by "violence, fear, socio-economic decline and deepening social fractures” as International Crisis Group wrote in May 2016. +The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said that, while extreme weather has contributed to food-access problems, Burundi’s political insecurity exacerbates it. +Reports of shortages and inflation –13.8% in 2016 – in basic goods have been more common, and banknote shortages further complicate everyday exchanges. +The depreciation of the Franc, Burundi's currency, has affected imports, adding to lower production and incomes and hitting many with lower food availability and affordability. +The Famine Early Warning System Network noted, though, that a better upcoming harvest could hopefully stabilize “atypically high” prices. +Highlighting the everyday impact, blogger Bella Lucia Nininahazwe described a child’s hardships, going to school hungry, unable to buy everyday items: +“Lord, my shoes are already worn out, and I already see my mum’s expression cloud over when I go to tell her I need new shoes. +I already know her answer: “You know that the prices are rising quickly my girl, today I can barely find what you’re going to eat, wait for me to find some money and I’ll buy you some beautiful shoes”.” +An increase in malaria cases – linked to climate changes and insecurity – has added another challenge affecting millions, according to the World Health Organization. +Burundi's Health Minister declared a malaria epidemic on 13 March. +Iwacu newspaper also reported on inflation and shortages making everyday medicines inaccessible to many. +'What sovereignty for a country where ¼ of the population needs food aid?' +Burundi is among the poorest countries in the world, and as such it generally has less resources and infrastructural capacity to respond to and recover from natural crises. +Aid restrictions, as result of the political crises, have created budgetary shortfalls that have impacted the government's response to the food shortage. +The country also suffers from corruption – it is ranked 159/176 in Transparency International’s 2016 Corruption Index – which undermines governance. +Some believe resilience to shocks is part of economic independence, as Twitter user Emmanuel highlighted in response to Burundi Minister Alain-Aime Nyamitwe discussing diplomatic relations: +Ikihiro: Important interview: "Burundi is sovereign and Belgium would be the last to know it" Emmanuel: What sovereignty for a country where ¼ of the population needs food aid? +International response +Some argue climate change is responsible for the crisis and that the famine should not be used to score political points: +The famine that has hit Burundi is due to climate change and has hit the whole region. +Nobody should exploit it politically +Relations between Bujumbura and international partners have unfortunately deteriorated since 2015. +In late 2016, Bujumbura deepened its isolation, reducing cooperation with the International Criminal Court and United Nations Refugee Agency among others, while international divisions have also blocked a coherent response to the crisis. +The country also rejected a UN Security Council mandated police force to help with stability. +Recently more dead bodies have reportedly been appearing, and prominent NGOs are calling for targeted sanctions. +A report by the new UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the UN Security Council in February expressed concern for continuing rights violations and political repression. +He was also troubled by indications that President Nkurunziza would run for a fourth term, which could further deepen tensions. +In response, Vice-President Gaston Sindimwo asked the UN to remove all its Burundi-based staff, complaining that the criticism was misinformed. +Officials have also accused Rwanda and the West, especially Belgium, of plotting its overthrow. +An effective short-term response to assist those in urgent need depends on governments, international organizations, and NGOs overcoming or at least working around these tensions, before addressing longer-term issues. +Otherwise, many could face grave health risks and further displacement due to ongoing political insecurity now overlaid with serious food and medicine shortages. + +What the Resistance to Trump Can Learn From Latin America · Global Voices +Photo: Emergentes. +Used with permission. +This article was written by written by Jeff Abott originally published on Waging NonViolence under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. +It is hard to deny the authoritarian tendencies that Donald Trump has shown in his first 100 days as president of the United States. +These tendencies have drawn comparisons to the classic image of a Latin American dictator, and more specifically the caudillo—or strongman leader—by commentators from across Latin America. +From his taste in decor and his adversarial relationship with the media, to what critics say is his fundamental assault on human rights, the similarities are hard to contest. +Americans' neighbors to the south have a long history of resisting authoritarian and fascist regimes, which often were supported by the U.S. government. +They were able to survive under difficult situations and, thanks to social movements, move the region in a more progressive direction. +After decades of struggle, here are four lessons that movements in Latin America can teach those in the United States organizing against their own authoritarian leader. +1. +Defend public services +Today, as Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos move to dismantle the public education system further and impose a neoliberal model of education, the Chilean mobilization against the U.S.-imposed dictatorship offers a guide for the defense of public services in the United States. +In 1973, the CIA sponsored a coup d’état led by General Augusto Pinochet against the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende. +Following the coup, led by economists who studied under Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago, Pinochet began to implement the first neoliberal economic reforms to the economy, privatizing public institutions like education, healthcare, and pensions. +María Loreto Muñoz Villa was just a year-old baby when Pinochet seized power. +By 13, she became the president of her class, and eventually participated in the student movements of the 1990s. +Today, she continues to work to challenge neoliberalism in Chile. +“Neoliberalism creates an illusion of well-being that is really not there. +In Chile, the debt and the long work hours require that people mobilize,” Muñoz Villa said. +However, it's difficult for people to “mobilize because of debt, because if they stopped working, they couldn’t pay their debts. +Since 2000, the movement has worked with people to see this as the product of neoliberal politics.” +Pinochet's neoliberal reforms led opponents to organize around certain slogans, such as free education. +In 2011, tens of thousands of students took to the streets to demand a free public education. +The movement challenged the privatized educational system that was established by the Pinochet dictatorship that denied an affordable quality educational system to the majority of Chileans. +Chile’s student movement has produced concrete changes in Chile’s educational system, as well. +In 2013, socialist Michelle Bachelet won the presidential election and delivered free higher education for half of the country’s poorest citizens, funding the program with a 25-percent corporate tax. +Faced with increasing poverty, pensioners and other community activists also began organizing during Bachelet's administration to demand an end to the Pinochet-era privatized pension system, arguing that the current system provides very little to pensioners, while the companies that manage the pensions earn massive profits. +Massive protests drew hundreds of thousands of people into the streets, prompting the Bachelet administration to announce recently that it will begin overhauling the pension system. +These campaigns and movements all arose from a shared understanding that neoliberalism is at the root of social inequalities in Chile. +According to Muñoz Villa, the rise of Trump means that movements must organize against both his more overt repressive policies and the social impacts of neoliberalism. +Efforts to defend public services like education are already well established in the United States. +Teachers of the Chicago Teachers Union have led the charge to protect the public education system, and their movement has grown stronger thanks to connections with teachers in Mexico and South America. +These relationships need to be stronger still, and they need to spread more across the U.S., as the struggle to defend public services heats up in the coming months. +2. +Build territorial autonomy +The historic dispossession of indigenous lands and territory in the United States has continued into the 21st century. +In just the first few weeks of his administration, Trump systematically dismantled legislation to protect the environment from extractive industries. +He has also repeatedly expressed his interest in expanding mining activities, pipelines, and hydro energy, which will continue to threaten indigenous land. +These assaults on indigenous territory in the U.S. reflect similar trends in Latin America, where indigenous communities have spent the past 30 years building movements across the hemisphere to defend their lands from the expansion of mega-projects. +These indigenous communities are empowered through international agreements on the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples, such as the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169, as well as the United Nation’s 2007 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. +These accords have galvanized the resistance of indigenous communities to the expansion of extractive industries. +The defense of territory has also generated new means of communal power and fueled major social changes. +Groups in South America, such as the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil, have worked to create autonomous, horizontal forms of education within their communities' classrooms. +Other movements, such as the Zapatistas in Mexico, have utilized their territorial autonomy to construct an autonomous educational system, as well as healthcare systems that incorporate ancestral medicinal practices with modern medicine. +The movement at Standing Rock began to build bridges to many of these communities. +At the height of the encampment, indigenous leaders from countries like Guatemala and Mexico traveled to South Dakota to share their experiences and lessons from their movements. +Indigenous leaders stressed that communities in the U.S. and throughout Latin America share the same struggles and enemies. +Despite the camp’s destruction in February, the foundation for sustained resistance to protect indigenous lands is now in place. +3. +Build new means of labor organizing +Politics as usual has failed most rank-and-file workers in the United States. +Despite the support that Trump received from the working class, his election means disaster for workers and organized labor. +Trump’s war on unions has included nominating an outspokenly anti-union lawyer to the National Labor Relations Board, and putting forward a number of anti-union candidates for Labor Secretary. +As neoliberalism continues its assault on workers, the lessons from South America can also provide organizers with another means of how to organize in the workplace at times of crisis. +The 2001 economic crisis in Argentina that forced millions out of work and led to the collapse of financial services triggered the piquetero, or picketer, movement. +This mobilization brought together vast numbers of impoverished unemployed workers to demand and obtain a sustainable livelihood. +They were forced to construct alternatives to the neoliberal capitalist system. +Protesters adopted the slogan “Que se vayan todos,” or “They all must go,” and sought to replace the corrupt political system that led to the 2001 crisis. +In the course of two weeks, four presidents were forced to resign due to the popular protests. +Furthermore, the movement contributed to the emergence of direct democracy on street corners, where neighbors would come out and work together to resolve problems within their neighborhoods. +“The piquetero movement did not only resist neoliberal politics, it created productive ventures,” said Raul Zibechi, a Uruguayan journalist, author, and social-movement analyst. +“They ended their dependence on the state, and began working on autonomy — not an ideological autonomy, but a practical autonomy.” +Employees recuperated their workspaces when they returned to work and found locked doors and shuttered businesses. +Following the crisis, workers formed more than 180 cooperatives. +By 2014, this number reached 311 businesses employing 13,462 workers. +The rise of this movement eventually helped Néstor Carlos Kirchner win a narrow presidential victory in May 2003. +His administration’s first steps were to renegotiate the country’s debt, and to break ties with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. +4. +Move beyond political power +Argentina's history also serves as a warning to Americans fixated solely on winning electoral battles, without also building alternative forms of power beyond the state. +Zibechi argues that the rise of Kirchner led to the decline of the piquetero movement and is an example of how a movement can be co-opted by politicians seeking power above all else. +“Kirchner’s policy consisted of simultaneously enacting strategies to integrate, co-opt, and discipline the piquetero organizations,” wrote sociologist Maristella Svampa. +Kirchner spoke out against popular protests, stating that the piqueteros should use more traditional democratic means, such as voting, rather than blocking roads and picketing. +Furthermore, many middle-class voters, who made up many of the neighborhood associations, were taken in by the Kirchner campaign, believing that it was an anti-neoliberal administration. +But his administration never led to a move towards a social and economic alternative. +The failure of the subsequent administration of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to transform the political situation led to the eventual return of the neoliberal influence in Argentina, and the election of right-wing politician Mauricio Macri in 2015. +A key lesson from the piquetero movement in Argentina and the movements against neoliberalism in Chile is that finding a means of constructing new forms of social relations outside the neoliberal and traditional political structure is a necessity for those organizing against Trump. +These local solutions can provide communities with the means to build sustainable movements to resist the draconian policies of any government. + +Kazakhstan's Great Alphabetical Distraction · Global Voices +Kazakhstan's latin script, as used under the Soviet government prior to the switch to cyrillic. +The languages has also been rendered in Arabic script in the past. +Public domain image from 1924. +As Kazakhstan's 76-year-old authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbayev battles with his own mortality and a pronounced economic slowdown, he has become increasingly fond of making grand announcements and issuing legacy-shaping decrees. +This was evident most recently on April 12, when he ordered authorities to begin preparing for the switch from the Cyrillic alphabet to a Latin based script. +The switch will begin by the year's end and should be finalised by 2025. +The initiative is part of Nazarbayev's strategy to make Kazakhstan one of the 30 most developed countries in the world. +In his article published in the Kazakh state newspaper "Егемен Қазақстан" (Independent Kazakhstan) he wrote that switching to the Latin alphabet has "deep logic" and will help adapt to "contemporary technology and communication as well as scientific and educational developments in the 21st century". +Some laud the switch as a means of developing Kazakhstan's Turkic-based language, which is often overshadowed by Russian in public life. +Facebook user Tolegen Baitukenov, for instance believes that Latinisation is better suited to Kazakh, and will help non-speakers learn it more easily: +It's good if we switch to Latin alphabet as Kazakh language is very different from Russian. +The Latin based script will help non-Kazakh speakers to learn Kazakh faster by realizing that it's a foreign language as it's very different from Cyrillic Russian. +Others see it as a drift away from what Russian President Vladimir Putin rather presumptuously calls a “Russian World” (Русский мир) that includes countries such as Kazakhstan, something Putin ally Nazarbayev has insisted is not the case. +But many see instead of both these things a massive waste of scarce budgetary resources. +Nazarbayev's long time opponent-in-exile, fugitive banker Mukhtar Ablyazov summed up this view in a post liked by almost 500 people: +I see that many are concerned with this news of switching to Latin script more than corruption among high-ranking officials, low living standards, or police and judicial lawlessness in Kazakhstan. +There are so many problems in the country that should be immediately addressed. +Billions of dollars will be spent for restructuring the education system. +How can changing the alphabet solve the problems in our education system? +All languages of the world are already integrated into the modern computer — even hieroglyphs. +Chinese, Japanese and Koreans are not going to change their script to better adapt to contemporary challenges. +Look the other way, now! +Ablyazov, who has made no secret of his desire to bring down the government, and who is being tried in absentia for massive-scale fraud in Kazakhstan, also noted in his post that the government regularly uses announcements such as these "to distract from more current problems" in the country. +Kazakh social media users know that strategy too well. +As recently as March, an MP in parliament — not for the first time — raised the issue of renaming the capital Astana and "other important state objects" after Nazarbayev, just as the government was preparing to divert $3.4 billion to the country's struggling banking sector. +The MP's comments became a key talking point, while news of the bailout slipped into the background. +In this vein, Facebook user Zhanara Akhmet wrote that the long-planned alphabet-switch might have been sped up in order to divert attention from another unpopular government initiative. +Specifically, Akhmet noted that lawmakers had begun discussing once more a controversial land reform bill that was shelved after anti-government protests of unprecedented scale. +Elsewhere in Central Asia, the region's two most autocratic countries, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, long ago made the switch from Cyrillic to Latin, with few obvious benefits. +Uzbekistan-born journalist Daniil Kislov, who edits the popular Central Asia-focussed Fergana News website called in a blog for Kazakhstan “not to repeat the same mistake" already made by his homeland's government: +The said transition period is going to be long, expensive and painful, as it will consume so much in terms of financial, emotional and intellectual strength from society, that the historical and cultural effect of the Latin script could be rendered completely ineffective. +Those words will likely fall on deaf ears, however, such is the pace with which the legacy of a man declared 'Leader of the Nation' in 2010 is taking shape. +With his contribution to the country's development already constitutionally acknowledged, and with parks, schools, a university and films and books dedicated to his honour, the name 'Назарбаев' is already firmly inscribed in Kazakhstan's history. +Now the wily strongman is determined to see it is written 'Nazarbayev', instead. + +Five Years on, Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi's Family Repeats Call for His Release · Global Voices +One of Amnesty International's campaign posters for Raif Badawi. +Source: Twitter. +Activists are calling for the release of Saudi activist Raif Badawi, who has completed five years of his 10-year sentence in prison. +In 2013, a criminal court in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia sentenced Badawi to seven years in prison and 600 lashes on a charge of "insulting Islam through electronic channels". +Badawi was prosecuted for creating the blog “Saudi Arabian Liberals”, an online forum he launched in 2008 debating the role of religion in the conservative kingdom. +In 2014, his sentence was increased to 10 years and 1,000 lashes. +The most recent campaign was launched by Amnesty International. +The human rights group worked with Ensaf Haidar, Raif Badawi's wife, and their three children who live in Sherbrooke, Canada, to help free Raif. +They published a video of his three children demanding the release of their father. +10 years. +1000 lashes for writing a blog. +Today marks 5 years since Raif Badawi's arrest. +- Ten years in prison, 100 lashes, for writing words for peace. +- It’s not fair that our father is in prison. +He’s not killed anybody. +- We’ve had enough. +- He just created a blog. +- That’s not illegal. +- We’ve waited too long. +- We need to see our daddy. +- The thing I miss most about my dad… +- is his infectious smile. +On Twitter, Amnesty International's Gulf account invited its followers to tweet directly at Saudi Arabia's King Salman, asking him to free Raif. +.@Raif_Badawi has already spent 5 years in prison. +Just for blogging. +Tell @KingSalman that’s 5 years too many – he must #FreeRaif now! pic.twitter.com/mSfbBjtv8P — Amnesty Gulf (@amnestygulf) June 17, 2017 +Raif's children also shared additional messages for Raif through Amnesty's website. +"When we left to Canada, I thought you’d surprise us at the airport. +But you weren’t there. +I remained angry," 14 years old Najwa writes. +"For the longest time, I thought you had left us. +I thought you didn’t love us anymore or didn’t care. +For the longest time, I was worried sick about Mom. +What was going to happen to us without you?" +Miriam, 10 was a four-year-old the last time she saw her father. +She wrote: "I try to remember you. +Your voice, your hugs, but I can’t. +I was tiny, clinging on to Mom when we left you and ran away." +The then 32-year-old was also ordered to pay a one million riyals fine (approximately US$266,600). +In January 2015, he was flogged 50 out of the scheduled 1,000 lashes. +His second flogging has been postponed due to Badawi's poor health. + +A Czech Nuclear Plant Held a Swimsuit Contest to Choose Its Next Female Intern · Global Voices +A collage made of the cover photo from the Facebook page of the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant Info Center and a screenshot of the removed photo album about the competition for intern. +Czech Temelín Nuclear Power Plant became the target of worldwide backlash over a publicity stunt that saw several young women posing in swimsuits and hard hats as part of a supposed competition to win an internship. +The largest nuclear power station in Czech Republic invited Facebook users to select their next intern by "liking" their photo, but accusations of sexism soon followed. +After Germany's international broadcaster Deutsche Welle published an article about Temelín's competition, it was picked up by numerous international media. +While posting photos of the girls, the UK's The Sun newspaper also reported on the international outrage, while American tech news site CNET used the case to show that "sexism has become quite the topic in the tech industry." +The plant eventually removed the photos of the high-school graduates, declared that all participants had won the internship, and apologized: "The purpose of the competition was to promote technical education. But if the original vision raised doubts or concerns, we are very sorry." +Czech experimental blog rychlofky, which documents social media content, took a screenshot of the apology post and commented: +Temelín become famous! +Their somewhat sexist competition of girls in swimsuits was featured on Time and CNN... +On their Facebook page (@ICTemelin), they somehow misplaced the competition, and instead there is something like a halfhearted apology. +Moreover, they do not seem to understand that "looking good in a swimsuit" is a poor "qualifying criterion" for internships. +The plant's decision to take down the album not only removed the photos from Facebook, but also from media coverage that had embedded the album in their article instead of relying on screenshots. +Not all reactions to the controversial competition have been negative. +A German company which is a supplier to Temelín power plant tweeted out one of the photos that also shows some of their products: +So beautiful, nice construction, perfect skin. +I talk about the #IBS penstocks on the left! +While the swimsuit competition put Temelín in the global spotlight, the plant has relied on the beauty of young women as part of its promotional strategy before. +They are one of the main partners of the competition "Female High School Graduate of the Year". +As part of the preparations for this beauty pageant, the teen finalists get to visit the power plant, as shown in the following video: +This year's internship competition was done in cooperation with the "Female High School Graduate of the Year," as shown in the byline and title of the Facebook photo album. +It is, in fact, a version of a similar competition from 2016, although it's not immediately clear who the winner of that contest was (if there was a winner at all). +A screenshot of the Facebook page for Female High School Graduate of the Year 2016 - Temelin Nuclear Power Plant Intern Competition. +(Click to enlarge) +There are some major differences however. +Even though they are shot in modeling poses, the girls of 2016 did not wear swimsuits. +The 2016 album has 40 likes and 3 comments. +Compare that to the much-criticized 2017 album, which generated 901 likes and 697 comments by the time it was removed. +And while the comments on the 2016 photo album are quite favorable, ranging from "there are many beautiful girls in our high schools" to "will you publish more competitors?" +Google Cache shows that the comments on the erased 2017 album were mostly disapproving, like the following from a Facebook user named Martine Jenah: +What a joke! +Do we make men pose in swim suits to get hired as interns? +Still the same sexist bullshit in 2017!!!!! +Your company is a joke! +Women are not bodies to be leered at. +They have brains and knowledge, you morons!!! +Some international media have noted that the origin of the name of the bikini swimsuit actually comes from Bikini Atoll, a nuclear bomb testing site. +They attempted to draw some sort of meaningful connection between this bit of trivia and Temelín as part of the nuclear energy industry. +Others have drawn comparisons with a 2015 contest for flight attendants in China, which required the candidates to pose in swimsuits too. + +Myanmar Military Cracks Down on Independent Media, Arrests Three Journalists · Global Voices +Myanmar protesters call for the release of journalists facing criminal charges filed by the military. +Photo courtesy The Irrawaddy's Facebook page. +Media groups and activists are calling for the immediate release of three journalists who were arrested by the military in Myanmar's northern Shan State on June 26, 2017. +The Irrawaddy and DVB are among the few independent media organizations that reported on political issues when Myanmar was still under military rule. +The Irrawaddy is a content partner of Global Voices. +Lawi Weng from The Irrawaddy, and U Aye Nai and Ko Pyae Bone Naing from the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) have been charged under the Unlawful Associations Act and could face up to three years in prison if convicted. +A colonial-era law that criminalizes membership in an "unlawful association", the Unlawful Associations Act punishes any person who "contributes or receives or solicits any contribution for the purpose of any such association" with up to three years in prison. +After Myanmar’s military-backed party lost power in the 2015 elections, the former opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) took control of the government, under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi. +This inspired hope that media freedom would be protected by the new ruling party, which had struggled for many years to restore civil liberties and democracy in Myanmar. +At the time of their arrest, the three reporters were in an area controlled by the ethnic armed group Ta’ang National Liberation Army, gathering information about drug operations in the state. +Tensions between the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the federal government have long run high and turned violent in late June. +The TNLA which is fighting for more autonomy for the Ta'ang ethnic group, has not signed the government’s nationwide cease-fire agreement. +Myanmar has more than 100 ethnic groups, some of which are armed and actively assert a right to self-determination. +The armed conflict has lasted for several decades, and intensified during the nearly five decades of military dictatorship. +The new government, which assumed power in 2016, has pursued a national reconciliation and peace process, but has encountered difficulties in many areas, including Shan state, where the TNLA is most prominent. +Despite losing power, the military continues to wield strong influence in the bureaucracy and parliament through the constitution it drafted in 2008. +Ko Tha Lun Zaung Htet, a member of the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, a local group, insisted that the military committed a mistake in arresting the journalists: +Press members must have the right to do their job anywhere. +What is important is to report fairly with no bias…It makes no sense to arrest journalists for doing their job and gathering information. +An NLD official questioned the presence of the journalists in the conflict area, arguing that ethnic armed groups should seek the permission of Myanmar's Peace Commission before inviting journalists to cover their activities. +The charges that the journalists face are unrelated to such permissions. +Aung Zaw, the founding editor-in-chief of The Irrawaddy, asserted that it is not illegal for journalists to visit a conflict zone: +It has been frustrating to witness authorities’ lack of communication or assurance of the safety of our reporters, and it is absurd that security forces are using outdated laws to silence and punish journalists who have committed no crime. +This must be categorized as an unlawful arrest and detention; under media laws in Myanmar, reporters are allowed to gather news in conflict zones. +Kyaw Zwa Moe, editor of the English edition of The Irrawaddy, warned that the arrest of the three journalists could have a chilling effect on society: +The arrest and charges demonstrate that either Myanmar’s military leaders don’t understand the nature and purpose of the media, or that this was a deliberate act intended to frighten journalists away from covering sensitive issues that could lead to criticism of the armed forces. +If the military arrested Lawi Weng and two DVB reporters due to what they describe as a connection to ethnic armed rebels, they would have to arrest hundreds of journalists who work for independent media across the country. +I am sure that nearly all Myanmar journalists have made contact at least once with members of “unlawful” ethnic armed groups, as all publications across the country have covered the peace process—one of the most important issues facing the nation. +Moe's column was accompanied by a cartoon, drawn by Kyaw Thuyein Lwin, that depicts the military arresting the press, while former pro-democracy leaders who are now part of the ruling party are doing nothing to stop the attacks: + +Can Facebook Connect the Next Billion? · Global Voices +Print advertisements for Free Basics in India, from 2015. +Images shared widely on social media. +In 2015, Facebook rolled out a plan to help bridge the digital divide in developing countries with a mobile app called "Free Basics". +The Free Basics program aims to bridge the digital divide by creating an “on ramp” to the Internet through a closed, mobile platform that gives users free access to a handful of online services, such as Accu Weather, BBC News and Wikipedia. +Now active in 63 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Free Basics has become a part of Facebook's ascent to becoming the most popular and powerful social platform on earth. +Thirteen years after going live, Facebook now has two billion monthly active users, more people than the total population of China. +And the company has worked especially hard over the past two years to make its products popular and easy to use in developing countries. +Free Basics is an important piece of this strategy. +On their promotional website for the app, Facebook rationalizes that " introducing people to the benefits of the internet" they will help justify the cost of mobile data and thereby “bring more people online and help improve their lives." +So how well does the app serve local interests and needs? +In spring 2017, a group of Global Voices tech and digital rights experts in Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan and the Philippines set out to answer this question. +We conducted a series of case studies in these countries where we used the app and tested it against usability and open internet benchmarks that we developed in consultation with experts from the ICT and internet policy world. +Read the full report. +With this research, we aim to increase public awareness, as well as digital rights and Information Communication Technology sector knowledge about the utility of Free Basics in the countries where it has been deployed. +Our key findings: Free Basics might not speak your language: Free Basics does not meet the linguistic needs of target users. +No version of the program tested in our study adequately served the linguistic needs of the local population. +In heavily multilingual countries including Pakistan and Philippines, the app is offered in only one local language. +Free Basics features little local content, but plenty of corporate services from the US and UK. +Free Basics includes a relatively small amount of content relevant to local issues and needs, lacking public service sites and independent news sources. +It also does not include an email platform. +Free Basics doesn't connect you to the global internet – but it does collect your data: Facebook collects unique streams of user metadata from all user activities on Free Basics, not just the activities of users who are logged into Facebook. +The company collects information about which third-party sites Free Basics users access, when, and for how long. +Free Basics violates net neutrality principles: Free Basics does not allow users to browse the open Internet. +It offers access to a small set of services and prioritizes the Facebook app by actively urging users to sign-up for and log into the service. +Free Basics also divides third-party services into two tiers, giving greater visibility to one set of information over another. +Some internet is better than none — but not on Facebook's terms: Global Voices research findings suggest that most of the content offered via Free Basics will not meet the most pressing needs of those who are not online, and that the data and content limitations built into Free Basics are largely artificial and primarily aimed at collecting profitable data from users. +About the research +We measured Free Basics against collectively-developed benchmarks of usability, quality of connection, language and accessibility, content, and privacy/data policies. +Each researcher used and evaluated the app in their home country, and wrote a brief case study summarizing their findings. +Our full research report reflects our collective findings and analysis. +Appendices to the report include our methodology, a selective list of third-party services provided by Free Basics and a collection of screenshots of each version of the app. +We encourage curious readers and researchers to explore all of these materials and consider using them to conduct their own research or analysis. +Full research report +Colombia case study +Ghana case study +Kenya case study +Mexico case study +Pakistan case study +Philippines case study +Appendix 1: Methodology +Appendix 2: Selected list of Free Basics Services +Appendix 3: Screenshots Research Team +Kofi Yeboah is a Ghanaian blogger and communications strategist with a deep interest in internet freedom. +Kofi is an active contributor with Global Voices and served as the research coordinator for the Free Basics in Real Life project. +Monica Paola Bonilla is a linguist who has collaborated Global Voices since 2015. +She has worked on projects of language documentation and localization of software to native languages spoken in Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador and Peru. +Her areas of interest are applied linguistics, digital literacy, digital inclusion, free software, computer science and native languages. +She serves as the Mozilla Rep for Colombia, leads Mozilla Nativo Club and works for an open and accessible web for all people. +Mahnoor Jalil is an intern at Mindmap Communications. +She works with Karachi Youth Productions, and has participated in more than twelve Model UN Conferences. +She is looking forward to beginning her Bachelor's degree in Media later this year. +Faisal Kapadia is a writer, blogger and co-founder of Mindmap Communications, a digital media agency in Pakistan and the UAE. +An author with Global Voices since 2007, co-produced a podcast that Google Pakistan named best of Pakistan in 2010. +He currently writes a weekly column in the Daily Times. +Faisal has a Bachelor's in Management Information Systems and is an experienced trainer in digital media and content. +Mong Palatino is the Southeast Asia editor of Global Voices. +He is also an activist based in Manila, Philippines. +Giovanna Salazar is an internet researcher who focuses on information controls and digital activism in Latin America. +She holds a Masters in Media Studies from the University of Amsterdam and serves as the Advocacy and Communications Officer at SonTusDatos.org, a Mexican NGO focused on privacy and data protection online. +She is also a regular contributor for Global Voices' Advox and Latin America teams. +Njeri Wangari Wanjohi's work lies at the intersection of the arts, technology and media. +As one of Kenya’s blogging pioneers, she has run kenyanpoet.com for over ten years and is one of the founding directors of Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE). +She is also a published poet and author of Mines & Mind Fields: My Spoken Words. +With a background in ICTs specializing in systems support, in 2014 Njeri founded AfroMum, a leading online publication for women in Africa, to focus on family, technology, and other issues affecting women. +She is a contributing author with Global Voices, Mail & Guardian Africa, Kenya Monitor and The Nairobi Garage Newsletter. +Njeri is currently the Marketing Manager at GeoPoll, a mobile survey platform. + +Learn Amazonian Languages With Apps Made in Iquitos · Global Voices +It is hoped that these applications can serve "as an instrument to be used in order to ensure that cultural identity is not lost and, above all, to teach and to strengthen the Amazonian languages." +Screenshot of the promotional video for the applications that can be watched below. +When we think about the Amazon, images of lush jungle and rivers as wide as seas usually come to mind. +If we know something about the issues in the region, it is probably about deforestation, poverty, and the fact indigenous peoples there are facing a struggle to preserve their languages and cultures. +But hardly ever do we think about the Amazon as a source of cutting-edge technology. +However, this is precisely what is happening in the Peruvian Amazonian city of Iquitos. +On June 20, the Peruvian Amazon Research Institute (IIAP) launched five applications for mobile phones and tablets (with Android operating systems), so that "children aged three to five years can acquire, through images and sounds, basic knowledge (alphabet, numbers, animals, body parts, etc.) in the Amazonian languages Tikuna, Kandozi, Quechua de Lamas, Huitoto Murui Bue and Kukama-Kukamiria." +As mentioned in the video, the apps are designed for children to learn the language, so that its preservation be ensured for at least one more generation. +It is important to note that several of the 43 identified Amazonian languages are severely endangered. +Moreover, in addition to boosting the Amazonian languages, ICT development can also help improve food security, access to health services, education, disaster prevention and environmental monitoring in the Peruvian Amazon region. +Nevertheless, progress in these areas will not be possible without strong support from the various institutions of the region and of the country. +Engineer Isaac Ocampo presenting the use of the ICT in the Peruvian Amazon. +Screengrab of the video about the presentation of the apps in Amazonian languages. +The language-saving initiative is being spearheaded by the IIAP through the SITEC project of the Bioinfo program in collaboration with the Faculty of Computer Science at the National University of the Peruvian Amazon (UNAP), while Isaac Ocampo Yahuarcani (IOY), an engineer known for his blogging and activity on social networks as well as the development of information systems in the city of Iquitos, is the creative force standing behind it. +Global Voices contacted Ocampo to find out more about these apps for learning the Amazonian languages. +GV: Is this apps project for learning Amazonian languages ​​part of a larger effort on the part of the IIAP or is it an initiative of the team that you lead? +IOY: It is promoted by the IIAP and our goal is to include all the Amazonian languages ​​of Peru (43 official languages in total) by July 2021. +I carried out research and found there is no digital educational material in the Amazonian languages. +There are about 10 faculties of computer science in the Amazon area and another 70 throughout Peru. +For the time being, we do not have any financial resources, but what we want to show is that when there is commitment, many things can be achieved. +This is a proposed development model which raises the point that real social inclusion means bringing many kinds of services (health, market access, e-government) to the Peruvian Amazonian communities. +What our civilisation has given them thus far is only pollution and the poisoning of their land. +Let's use telecommunication networks and the increasing availability of mobile phones. +For example, in the communities from Manacamiri (Kukama), Padrecocha (Kukama) and Centro Arenal (Huitoto), six out of 10 families have cellphones (even more than one). +Three of them have smartphones with Internet access. +Ochoa (Huitoto Murui Bue) family from Centro Arenal, at the delivery of the software. +Photo courtesy of Isaac Ocampo /IIAP. +GV: How long has it taken to develop these apps and how was the team in charge of them put together? +IOY: The first (Huitoto) took four months, the other three took one month each. +I am the creator of the forms, the structures and all the other aspects. +That is, I am the director. +Let's say I the owner of the concept and its use. +Then, there is Rodolfo Cardenas, a systems engineer and video game programmer. +Also, a group of students: Franz Chuje, Lelis Saravia, Lina Vasquez who ensure digitization and sound arrangement, graphic design and coding. +Then, there is the group of speakers: Zoila Ochoa (Huitoto), Maria Cuje and Toribio Amasifuen (Quechua). +The information regarding the other speakers can be found in the video. +GV: Do you hope that the local population will also have a real interest in this, not only the scholars? +(IOY): We hope this interest will arise, but this is important to my working group: to develop methods for the benefit of populations through telecommunications and content. +We want to bring fish breeding techniques of the IIAP to the indigenous peoples, we want them to take advantage of the use of cellphones. +Telecommunication development has been proven to increase the quality of life for populations, and we want our people to benefit from this potential. +The work of the IIAP is to research, and the result may possibly serve to modernize the bilingual education system, to link these populations to the market, so that they have access in their own languages ​​to justice services and communication with the government. +In summary, this is a proposal for the development and sustainability of peoples through ICT. +A Kukama teacher recording his voice to be used in the apps. +Photo courtesy of Isaac Ocampo / IIAP. +The struggle for the preservation of the Amazonian languages as well as the development of ICT skills has thus taken an interesting turn in Iquitos, even if it still has a long way to go. +The apps can be downloaded via the following links: 1. +HUITOTO MURUI BUE 2. +TIKUNA 3. +KANDOZI 4. +KUKAMA 5. +QUECHUA + +Syrians Fleeing the War Seek Refuge in Brazil Where the Assad Regime Has Some Powerful Supporters · Global Voices +The Brazilian flag with the revolution's flag in the center. +Mixed by an anonymous blogger for Global Voices. +Syrians fleeing the country's civil war are finding a place in Brazil they can call home. +Between the start of the Syrian revolution in 2011 and 2015, 3,340 Syrian nationals have applied for asylum in Brazil. +Of those, 2,298 had their refugee status recognized. +Syrians make up the largest proportion of recognised refugees in Brazil which, as of April 2017, stands at 9,552 people. +Most have been granted refugee status in the past five years, when the country saw a sharp increase in asylum applications — it spiked from only 966 in 2010 to more than 28,000 in 2015. +After a decline in 2016, when just over 10,000 asylum seekers applied, Brazil is seeing another surge of refugees in 2017, this time primarily by Venezuelans crossing the border to flee the economic and political crisis in their country. +Most migrants benefit from Brazil's "open door" policy: anyone who applies for asylum in Brazilian territory are eligible for documents like a social security number, passport and an employment record book, which allows them to freely reside and legally work. +For Syrians, there is an additional advantage: the National Committee for Refugees, CONARE, created in 2013 a special humanitarian visa for those escaping the Syrian conflict, which can be obtained in Brazilian embassies prior to departure. +According to an LA Times report, 8,450 of such visas had been issued as of June 2016. +Indeed, to many, it is cheaper to fly to Brazil than to be smuggled into Europe, which is also notoriously dangerous. +Meanwhile, a new migration law approved in May this year will further expand the rights of refugees and migrants in Brazil. +The new law, which came to replace the military dictatorship-era "Statute of the Foreigner", will allow foreign nationals to take part in political activities, ensures easier access to paper work and regulates migrant's rights to humanitarian visas. +However, President Temer vetoed several provisions of the new law, like the general amnesty to all undocumented migrants. +Syrian Refugees in an Old Syrio-Lebanese World +Starting around 1870, Syrio-Lebanese refugees, born in the then-Ottoman territories that are now Syria and Lebanon, fled to Brazil to escape the turmoil and decay of the Ottoman Empire. +In the early 1900s, they began to open shops in São Paulo's March 25th street setting the stage for what would become one of the most iconic shopping thoroughfares in the city. +In the 1930s, the Syrio-Lebanese community was organized around cultural centers with many members associated with doctors and lawyers. +These ties have continued up to the present. +An often-cited symbol of this elite status is the renowed Syrio-Lebanese Hospital (Hospital Sírio-Libanês). +In 2010, Syrian president Bashar Al Assad visited the hospital during an official visit to the country and awarded its director, Dr Riad Younis, with the Syrian Order of Merit. +This allows us to view the context which recent Syrian refugees found themselves in. +As they flee to Brazil, the new wave of Syrian refugees might find that the already-established Brazilians of Syrio-Lebanese descent may not all be opposed to the Assad regime. +Syrian activist Ehad al Tariri, speaking with BBC Brazil in 2012, said that around 40% of the Syrian-Lebanese community in Brasil is against Assad, but that any estimate is no more than speculation. +Lawyer Eduardo Elias, a grandchild of Syrian migrants, is a long time member of Club Homs, one of the most traditional clubs in Sao Paulo, founded in 1920. +He is also the current president of the Federation of Arab Entities in São Paulo who was part of a delegation of 14 prominent Brazilians of Syrian-descent that visited Bashar Al-Assad in Damascus in September 2016, only two days after an airstrike in Aleppo hit a convoy of Red Crescent trucks carrying UN-supplied food, killing 12 aid workers. +The delegation donated seven ambulances and 150 wheelchairs to the Syrian regime, funded by contributions of Syrian-Brazilians. +Speaking to Al Jazeera in 2012, Elias described a meeting with Assad in 2010: +When Assad came here to Sao Paulo, he made a speech, and he gave us a big responsibility. +He said, 'each one of you is an ambassador to Syria, be good citizens to make Syria bigger.' +I had a private conversation with him, and it didn't seem to me that he was evil or the devil that everyone now is making him out to be.” +While these issues have complicated the lives of many Syrian refugees, it is also true that many Syrian refugees are calling Brazil home, with many finding established communities helping them integrate. + +How Not to Have Six Horrible Months in Uganda · Global Voices +We are not allowed to be complex, like any other society." +Downtown Kampala by evening. +PHOTO by Zahara Abdul, used with permission. +Every now and then we are forced to have this conversation. +A conversation that many who reside in parts of the so-called Global South can relate to. +Usually, it's a story about someone's adventure in one of the countries with all these "beautiful people" and exotic landscapes. +For me, there's a signifier that alerts me to these stories. +It happens when I log on to Facebook and see a post shared by a friend with just the word "Eh!" accompanying it. +In Uganda, this one little sound can encapsulate the entirety of someone's feelings about something. +So when I saw this "Eh!" response to a recent story carried by the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, I just had to click. +The piece, headlined My travels in Uganda, like life, were not as perfect as the pictures, is by a young woman who comes to Uganda to intern at a microfinance initiative and ends up experiencing six months of horror—which teaches her the lesson that the world is not full of nice people. +Leaving aside the notion that social media images aren't necessarily a full reflection of people's lives, this "special dispatch" by a certain Justina Li "discovered" mostly the savage side of life in Kampala. +Her account includes a robbery, a bus driver who leaves with her money and fake friendships of all kinds. +She feels personally targeted as a result of her skin colour, and writes about the discrimination she experiences as a result. +While it's true that all these things happen in Uganda—as in other parts of the of the world—Ms. Li narrates these anecdotes with a twist of melodrama which The Globe and Mail apparently thinks makes good fodder for their audience. +The writer then travels to Rwanda and writes of experiencing fear at the border, without qualifying where her fear comes from. +You would be forgiven for thinking the Uganda-Rwanda border and Ms. Li's fear of being detained there is a scene from Trump’s America or most of Fortress Europe. +Nowhere in her narrative does she interrogate where her fears might come from, especially as one rarely hear of arrests of travellers at the border. +Binyavanga Wainaina long ago reminded folks that when writing about Africa, you shouldn't forget to mention beautiful landscapes and beautiful children. +And Ms. Li's article fulfils this requirement well, with mention of "an incredible jungle trek and a beautiful sunset." +Screenshot from Justina Li's article in the Globe and Mail. +She later writes, however, that she "ached to belong. +I stuck out like a sore thumb in the local community." +An extraordinary statement, if you ask me. +It assumes that one can come from Canada, hit the road in Uganda and voilà, you "belong". +She recounts her attempts at "belonging", such as wearing a local dress and getting an "African hair" style, but is surprised that those things don't give her enough street cred to confer a sense of belonging—something that takes time, a lot of hard work, understanding and compromises in many cases, in addition to a degree of comfort in your own skin. +"I went to a new country, believing that the majority of people in the world were trustworthy, with good intentions. +I left, defeated," writes Ms. Li. +Sorry about that, but you travelled thousands of miles to another country to do an internship at a microfinance initiative where 77 percent of the population are below the age of 30 and face over 22 percent youth unemployment. +In fact, for those between 15-24, the unemployment rate is at 83%. +Have you thought about why that internship was given to you, and not to one of the thousands of Ugandan youths looking for such opportunities? +Throughout the article, questions kept coming to me. +Did Ms. Li ever stop to think that the people around her might grapple with preoccupations similar to her own? +Did she ever ask what she herself brought to the place? +Why did she expect us to serve her on a silver platter with opportunities and knowledge? +Did she evaluate her own place in the context, like why a "voluntourist" like her was sent to gain skills in a part of the world where over 2,000 others who could use the same opportunity do not? +Wouldn't a little research about the place have helped? +And was there no one you worked with whose name you could remember? +Perhaps a lady who served you the lunches you said you ate alone? +Someone who welcomed you to the microfinance office in your first days? +Was there no act of kindness shown to you in your whole time in Uganda that is worth mentioning? +Or perhaps now you get to be one of the Africa specialists we see popping up all around us due to your "good understanding of other cultures" gained during your brief stint in the "motherland"? +To help you answer these questions, I urge you to take a look at the post "Your White Savior Complex is detrimental to my development" by TMS Ruge. +Ruge says his nickname is "Educated Angry African", and I guess I am one too. +You are operating within this complex regardless of your ethnicity. +Yes, you had a horrible time, but I suggest you take a hard look at The Reductive Seduction of Other People’s Problems by Courtney Martin to understand why. +Ms. Li's piece ends on a familiar note. +After laying out her run-ins with nasty Ugandans, she concludes her post with this sentence: "Uganda is a beautiful country with beautiful people with incredible stories who gave me so many opportunities." +Yet the article never talked about any of these "beautiful people", nor their incredible stories. +And apart from being "beautiful"—which is an all too common cover-up used by outsiders who would rather avoid talking about the realities—we are never allowed to be other things. +We are not allowed to be complex, like any other society. +Isn't a view of a people that veers between beautiful, on the one hand, and fraudulent, on the other, detrimental to the development you claim to have come here to work on? +One hopes Ms. Li will ponder on that. + +Indonesian President Jokowi Leads Citizens in Condemning Donald Trump's Jerusalem Declaration · Global Voices +The West Bank seen from Jerusalem, Israel on March 31, 2014. +Photo by D. Myles Cullen. +Public Domain. +Defense Imagery Management Operations Center, US government work +United States (US) president Donald Trump's recent statement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel surprised many across the world. +While it was praised by Israeli President Netanyahu, some leaders from the Middle East region and other countries with Muslim-majority populations criticized Trump's decision for "violating the rights" of Palestinians. +Israel and Palestine both claim Jerusalem as their capital. +Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population in a country, counted itself among dissenters deploring Trump's announcement, with President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) leading his people in expressing support for Palestine and condemning Trump's announcement. +Indonesia strongly condemns the United States' unilateral acknowledgement of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. +Such move violates the Security Council resolution and UN General Assembly. +I and the people of Indonesia are consistently supporting the people of Palestine in defending their freedom and rights. +Meanwhile, the US embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, clarified that Trump's statement affirmed support for both Israel and Palestine: +When President Donald Trump announced yesterday that the United States acknowledges Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and its center of government, President Trump also publicly affirmed that the United States supports the status quo at the Temple Mount or Haram al-Sharif. +As stated by President Trump in his announcement, "Jerusalem is today and must remain a place where Jews pray at the Western Wall, where Christians walk the stations of the cross, and where Muslims worship at Al Aqsa Mosque." +The President emphasized that the United States remains committed to reaching a lasting peace agreement between the Palestinian people and the Israelis; including support for a two-state solution, if agreed by both parties. +Indonesians protest Trump's Jerusalem declaration +Protests erupted in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta and nearby provinces in the aftermath of Trump's declaration to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. +Protesters burned US flags and an effigy of Trump in front of the US Embassy in Jakarta. +A McDonald's branch was targeted by protesters in South Tangerang, a municipality adjacent to Jakarta, infamously known as the hometown of Islamic State Indonesian cell leader Bahrun Naim. +Nadhlatul Ulama, the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia accused Trump of exacerbating global conflict. +Political analyst and author Dr. Dina Sulaeman called Trump's move 'sloppy' and an act of desperation to gain validation from his Republican financiers. +The evangelists care more about the Zionist regime and ignore the fate of the Palestinian Christians. +For your information, the Patriarch and local church leaders in Jerusalem have written an open letter formally calling Trump to rescind his decision. +Sulaeman emphasized that defending the Palestinian people is in accordance with the Indonesian constitution (Undang-Undang Dasar 1945 or UUD '45). +UUD '45 mandated the Indonesian nation to actively take part in establishing world peace and eradicate colonialism. +The swift and firm reaction from President Jokowi to reject and condemn Trump's move should be supported. +The Indonesian Twittersphere erupted with reactions: +Busy day for US ambassadors around the world. Indonesia has summoned ambassador to hear its condemnation of @realDonaldTrump Jerusalem statement. — Adam Harvey (@adharves) December 7, 2017 Wearing a Palestinian scarf, foreign min Retno Marsudi tells #BDF10 that #Indonesia gov ‘condemns’ US recognition of #Jerusalem as capital of Israel pic.twitter.com/xCY6j0mHL1 — Simon Roughneen (@simonroughneen) December 7, 2017 +Trump made an error sternly avoided by all US presidents for the past 70 years: declaring Jerusalem as capital of Israel. +Trump is dragging USA and the world to the frontline of religious extremism. +I always believe that the source of Middle East problem is the USA. +Today, Trump made Jerusalem the capital of Israel. +This policy will torch Middle East and the Islamic world (issue) even further. +Indonesia has consistently called for the recognition of the state of Palestine. +Despite having business and tourism ties, Indonesia and Israel have no formal diplomatic relations. + +Portnoy Zheng: The blogger who inspired the world to talk together · Global Voices +He is too humble to agree with me, but I'm in no way exaggerating when I say that Portnoy Zheng was the inspiration behind Global Voices' Lingua project, which has made selected Global Voices' articles available to a real global audience of Arabic, Bangla, Chinese, Farsi, French, Japanese, Malagasy, Portuguese, and Spanish speakers. +It all started back in 2005, when Global Voices was still taking off the English speaking ground. +Portnoy fell in love with the idea and soon after started to translate and publish on his Chinese blog posts from GVO. +The project soon found its own home and later he recruited some Chinese speaking volunteers to help translate Global Voices content into traditional and simplified Chinese, the third language on the blogosphere. +Now people from Madagascar can hear voices from Korea, and the Arabian blogosphere can echo a story from China. +It is the surpassing of GVO's language barrier, thanks to a system inspired by Portnoy's initiative, hard work and motivation. +There are also German and Hindi sites coming out, and the more websites set up, the more the world converses and people understand each other. +Portnoy began collaborating as a volunteer translator for Lingua in June 2006 (after having translated more than 100 posts on his own) and soon after became a Global Voices author, reporting on the Taiwanese blogosphere, which is focused mainly on travel and technology, and some politics. +And now that he has a tiny bit more time after finishing the mandatory 18 months military service required for all Taiwanese young men, he is planning to start up a very interesting project. +Read on! +New Year's celebrations in Taiwan +Happy New Year, Portnoy! +What are your wishes for the Year of the Rat? +I have a lot of wishes. +I wish all the GVO companions good fortune and good luck in the New Year, wish GVO keeps on doing marvelously and wish all people in the world have more freedom of expression. +I also wish my Dad good health since he is a 70-year-old boy who never follows medical prescription. +Could you tell us how the new year celebrations in Taiwan are different from those in mainland China? +Is there any special flavor to it? +In Taiwan, people celebrate lunar new year in many ways. +Family members will gather together at the Eve of New Year for a hearty dinner. +Elders give youngsters "red envelopes" with money inside as a symbol of good fortune for the coming year. +At midnight, fireworks and firecrackers light up the street and the sky although most of them are illegal. +On the first day, people start to visit or call or message or email all their friends to wish them happy new year. +On the second day, married daughters will come home to visit their families.... +However, the atmosphere of celebration is losing quickly with each year's passing. More and more people just take new year as a usual 5 -day-long vacation. +No dancing dragons and lions on the street anymore. +No special TV programs except for re-airing Hollywood films and reality shows. +Actually, if you are not shopping in a department store, you might not aware of that the New Year is here. +I have no experience in mainland China during New Year's period, but I guess the feeling of New Year should be stronger there. +There are still a lot of people (and travel business) trying hard to restore the feeling of New Year in Taiwan or simply recreate it. +However, I haven't got a chance to visit these sites, so...well, I hope there is new flavor for me this year, because I am planning to visit one of the traveling site. +Let's get to business. +How long have you been blogging and why? +I started blogging in January, 2005. +I was in my first year of Master degree in Telecommunication and Journalism then and I found blogging issues spreading quickly on the Internet, therefore I began to dig into these issues and wrote reports on blogging. +Later I thought I should start a blog by myself since I was researching it. +Gradually I found blog is a very powerful tool to know the world and to let the world know me. +I learned a lot of knowledge about our society, our politic chaos, and activists who try to make some change. +You will never access these knowledge on Taiwanese mainstream media. +And I now also become an activist myself working with many social groups or NGOs to help them spread their ideas. +What do you blog about? +How would you describe your blog in Chinese to someone who can't read it? +The main theme of my blog is media, especially new media (theory, business, guideline and experience). +I also blog about my thoughts on politics, technologies, news, and life. +Sometimes I just put funny and crazy videos from video sites to make my readers happy. +I am an online activist dreaming of world peace-and I believe my blog reflects that. +You haven't updated lately Working Man, your 'hyperpersonal blog in English'. +Is it just a matter of finding the time? +Actually, I spend most of my leisure time updating my Chinese blog or playing with new web 2.0 services in order to find out the missing link between high-tech and low-democratic level in Taiwan, so TIME is a big problem. +The minor problem is that I don't want to blog the same old topics that were in my Chinese blog already on my English blog....I guess I just have to stop Chinese blogging to initiate English blogging. +Could you tell us a bit more about these attempts to find the missing link between high-tech and low-democratic levels in Taiwan? +What is it about? +People probably know that Taiwan is one of the countries (or economic entities if you don't think Taiwan is a country) that enjoy highest level of free expression in the world. +And Taiwan is also the most important 3C (computer, communication, consumer electronics) producer in the world. +We scores high on the ranking of e-commerce and e-government. +We have very high broadband penetration (about 70 per cent) and maybe the highest cell-phone penetration in the world (above 100 per cent for many years). +We have more than ten local 24-hour news channel broadcasting on cable and digital TV platform. +But, the result of the combination of all these is that we have a lot of consumers but no citizens, at least not enough. +Many bloggers like me have been doing experiment of citizen journalism for years, but our achievement is rather small comparing to the chaos created by our MSM and politicians. +There seems to be a bottleneck, and that is what I am trying to figure out. +As a researcher in Citizen Journalism, how would you describe the difference it is making to Taiwan? +How reliable is mainstream media there? +Citizen journalism in Taiwan is facing two obstacles that might sound creepy to others. +One obstacle is that our mainstream media have cultivated Taiwanese too deep that they don't know what to trust and therefore treat news as entertainment. +Yes, people here in Taiwan love watching news channels because they love entertainment and entertainment is the only thing they get, in fact. +People don't treat news and journalists seriously so why would people try to do journalism on their own? +The other obstacle is that mainstream media doesn't treat citizen journalism seriously, too. +So the idea of citizen journalism isn't propagating that fast as in other countries with similar democracy and Internet penetration. +Are the any other problems that bloggers face in Taiwan, such as freedom of speech? +I know that Chinese bloggers can not access Taiwanese blogs... +Freedom of speech is not a problem to Taiwanese bloggers. +There are some legal restrictions such like "no alcohol and cigarette promotion are allowed", "websites containing contents only for adults should put a sign onto themselves"....nothing really serious and nobody is taking these restrictions seriously. +Most of the Taiwan BSPs are over-blocked by GFW of China because the most part of blogosphere is about life , traveling, emotion, funny jokes and cartoons... as the situation in every blogosphere elsewhere in the world. +It is a great pity that bloggers across the strait cannot embrace full connection through the web. +However, it is completely OK for Taiwanese blogger to visit China blogosphere (if it is not blocked in its own country), so I encourage Taiwanese bloggers to access more China bloggers more often and to make some friends with each other. +I personally get acquainted with many bloggers based in China in this way. +Considering that Taiwan gets only little media attention in the international press, how important is it for the Taiwanese blogosphere to show the world a little bit more about their country? +Taiwanese are worrying about this very much. +Our international status is suppressed by China government. +We are prohibited from being apart of U.N., W.H.O., and all the global organizations that need an ID as a country. +Taiwanese people always feel sad and sometimes anguished because Taiwan is never mentioned by international press except when there is a new bloody fight happening in our Congress. +But Taiwanese news media is also responsible for this situation since they don't educate their audience about the world. +Our commercial news channels are sometimes even more limited than what international press does to Taiwan. +So, many Taiwanese bloggers shoulder that responsibility to tell their readers much more about the globe-in Chinese. +Most of these bloggers are students, travelers, immigrants, and social activists. +However, few bloggers are doing the opposite-to tell the world what Taiwan really is. +Actually I don't know any Taiwanese blogger outside Chinese lingua team who is doing such work. +There are several English native speaking bloggers with Taiwanese ID or studying in Taiwan doing great jobs like Michael Turton, but the communication between the two Taiwanese blogospheres is very limited because of language restrictions I guess. +What is your most memorable blogging experience? +I would say that the last election period of Taipei city council in Dec, 2006 is my most unforgettable blogging experience. +Several blogger friends and I (most are Chinese Lingua translators and supporters) start a volunteer election campaign for Green Party, a very small political party for environmental and social justice. +We gathered almost every A-list blogger in Taiwan to support Green Party's candidates publicly on his or her own blog. +Although the result is disappointing, that is the first web 2.0 campaign ever in Taiwan political history. +I thought you were going to say that it was translating GVO posts! +What motivated you to do it? +I fell in love with GVO at first sight. +But then I haven't got the idea to translate it. +I just read it and hoped more and more Taiwanese netizens would get to know it, because I believed that as long as more Taiwanese know more about the world, the people of the world, the thoughts of these people, they will be freed from the cage built by creepy MSM in Taiwan and therefore growing compassion and happiness like what I had experienced. +One day, a prominent blogger, inertia, wrote about GVO in his blog, gave me this idea of translation. +I am an easily motivated person so I just began translating. +And from your idea, the Lingua arm of GVO was born. +What do you think about the project and what are your expectations for the Global Voices translated sites? +I won't say that Lingua is my idea. +I am merely a man who want more people in my community to know GVO. +This is a simple and direct thought that everyone could have think of. +Lingua is born with the power and diligence of those great people I met in Delhi-Ethan Zuckerman, Rebecca MacKinnon, David Sasaki, Alice Baker...etc.-They make my dream come true. +I love Lingua as it is right now. +However, I would like to see each Lingua site become the axis of citizen journalism in each language community. +Maybe Lingua would work closer with Rising Voices project, or other citizen journalism project in different regions. +Is it true that English and Taiwanese blog communities are largely independent of one another? +Are there other bridge blogs that could be of interest to our public? +The fact is: yes. +I am always expecting and encouraging more bridgebloggers to show up. +I am also expecting myself to be one. +However, that is not easy. +There are still a lot of lessons for me to learn from the GVO community. +Now you have just finished the military service and have more free time, are there any interesting projects up your sleeve? +I am lucky to find a job right after I finished my mandatory military service. +So I'll be digging into it for some time to get accustomed to it. +However, I am still a easily motivated blogger (ha), so I am going to start a new blog project called "Blue Camp" which focus on Information policy and digital solutions. +The Presidential election of Taiwan is heating up and I want those candidates to give me and all the people who care about these topics their answers to them. +Will they really care about blogger's ideas? +I don't know, but I am just going to do it. +Portnoy speaking at a citizen journalism conference in Taipei, Taiwan + +Locals Rejoice as Restart Planned for Nuclear Power Plant · Global Voices +Oi genpatsu. +From Fukui Shimbun official YouTube page. +On Tuesday, June 6, Kansai Electric Power Company restarted Reactor No. 3 at its Takahama nuclear power generating facility in Fukui Prefecture, about 75 kilometers north of Kyoto in central Japan. +This was the second nuclear reactor to be restarted at Takahama, and brings up to five the number of reactors restarted across the country after being shut down following the the "triple disaster" (earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster) that struck Japan in March 2011. +Earlier in May, a sixth reactor in Oi, a municipality neighboring Takahama, was also given the green light to restart. +The reactor restarts in Fukui are welcome news to small, geographically and economic isolated host communities. +However, residents in one of Japan's most densely populated regions just to the south are fearful about the potential for another massive nuclear accident. +When a massive tsunami on March 11, 2011, set off a nuclear crisis in coastal Fukushima prefecture, 54 nuclear reactors were shut down across Japan. +The meltdowns and release of radioactive isotopes at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima exposed flaws in Japan's disaster management protocols. +As nuclear installations were inspected one-by-one, some, such as the plant at Hamaoka, on Japan's Pacific coast, were shut down due to danger from tsunamis or because they have been shuttered over active earthquake faults. +Still other nuclear power plants remain closed because of court challenges by citizens concerned about the catastrophic consequences of another nuclear accident. +An injunction that kept the Takahama nuclear complex closed was overturned by a higher court in 2016, paving the way for this month's restart, while the neighboring Oi plant still faces another court challenge aimed at keeping it shut down. +For now, some Oi residents are happy the power plant will resume operations. +In a May 25 article with the title "Oi Approval: 'We're On the Road to Getting Our Old Lives Back,' Say Celebrating Local Residents," local paper Fukui Shimbun captures a few of the local responses to the news of the reactor restarts. +Araki Kazuyuki (63), head of the Oi Township Chamber of Commerce said, "This is one small step forward", and expressed his happiness about the restart decision. +"I hope this helps local hoteliers and other small businesses that are part of the local economy." +He hopes for an increase in customers in the region. +The shutdown of all reactors across Japan was devastating for many local host communities where nuclear power plants are the backbone of the economy. +In coastal communities such as Oi and Takahama in Fukui Prefecture, there is no other industry. +The development of nuclear power plants over the past fifty years has generated a number of secondary industries. +Construction companies are needed to maintain the nuclear power plants, and privately operated dormitories and other lodgings have grown up to cater to the armies of workers at the plants. +On top of that, nuclear power companies pay the equivalent of billions of dollars in tax revenue and subsidies to local governments. +The sudden decline in revenues for host communities has been devastating. +As a result, according the Fukui Shimbun, some residents of Oi are happy that the nuclear power plant will restart: +A housewife in her sixties said, "We invited the nuclear power plants to our community (forty years ago) to revitalize our economy. +It makes no sense to keep them idle." +Fifty years ago, when the power plants were first planned, the region, known as the "backside of Japan", lacked most of the basic infrastructure built up during Japan's economic miracle. +For many, the nuclear power plants represent progress and jobs: +A man in his seventies, when asked about why Oi originally invited nuclear power plants to be established here, said, mentioning roads that were built, that, "Our town has been totally transformed because of the nuclear power plants. +If they restart (the Oi plant) I hope they start hiring again." +Unhappy neighbours +Despite this, not everyone is happy. +Mikazuki Taizo, the governor of Shiga Prefecture, parts of which lie within a 30 km evacuation zone covering five nuclear installations in Fukui Prefecture to the north, said in a statement: “Considering that the people of Shiga are still deeply worried about the safety of the nuclear plant, conditions are not set for us to accept its restart.” +Shiga governor: "Conditions are not set for us to accept its restart." +Oi No. 3, No. 4 reactor restarts. +It is not just the problem of evacuating residents of Shiga Prefecture that worries Mikazuki. +Lake Biwa, which supplies drinking water to Shiga residents as well as nearly 15 million people in Japan's densely populated Kansai region, would likely be polluted by any nuclear accident — in the days following the March nuclear disaster in Fukushima, the damaged reactors released radioactive cesium isotopes across the communities surrounding the power plants. +Location of nuclear reactors near Lake Biwa and the densely populated Kansai region of Japan. +Yellow dots indicate nuclear facilities; the city of Kyoto is in the center of the map, with Kobe and Osaka below. +Image widely shared on social media. +One resident of Shiga Prefecture tweeted that he couldn't understand the need to restart the nuclear power plants. +He pointed out that electricity consumption has actually declined in Japan over four successive summers, when electricity usage should be highest because of the need for air conditioning to deal with Japan's torrid summers. +Are they really going to restart the nuclear power plants? +Kansai Electric Power Company doesn't have to restart the power plants-we have enough electricity. +The power plants at Takahama and so on are quite close to the Shiga-Kyoto area where I live. +I'm opposed to them. +Article title: Kansai region powered by nuclear for the first time in four years. +However, there seems to be enough electricity (without nuclear power). +He also pointed out that millions of people are put at risk because of the nuclear power plants. +If an accident happens at the Takahama nuclear power plant, Lake Biwa will become polluted and it will be a massive blow against the population here. +And it won't be just residents of Shiga Prefecture. +People in Kyoto and Osaka who rely on Lake Biwa for drinking water will be affected. +Since we have enough electricity without nuclear power, I don't understand why we need the reactors to restart. +I think it's just to benefit special groups. +Politician Fukushima Mizuo, of Japan's Social Democratic Party, also weighed in at the end of May, following the decision to restart the Oi reactors: +I'm in Shiga Prefecture. +I spent a night on the shores of Lake Biwa. +It's truly a lovely lake. +It restores my spirit. +Whenever I come to Shiga my thoughts go to Lake Biwa, so I believe we must abandon nuclear power with all my heart. + +Palau Visitors Are Now Required to Sign a Pledge to Respect the Environment · Global Voices +Palau visitors are also shown an inflight video which narrates the story of a giant who was taught by children to respect the environment. +Photo from 'Palau Pledge' website +In order to promote environment awareness, the government of Palau now requires visitors to sign an eco-pledge on their passports before being granted a visa upon arrival. +The program, known as "Palau Pledge", is reportedly the first immigration-related reform in the world that is intended to protect the environment. +Palau is a small archipelago located in the western side of the Pacific. +It has a population of about 20,000, but more than 160,000 tourists visit the island nation each year. +On December 6, 2017, Palau President Tommy Remengesau issued a decree directing immigration officials to use the "Palau Pledge" on visa stamps. +The decree cited the negative impact of “unplanned tourism, climate change, and other modern threats” on the environment of the country which compelled the government to design the pledge in the promotion of “conscious tourism”. Below is the text of the pledge stamped on passports: Children of Palau, I take this pledge, as your guest, to preserve and protect your beautiful and unique island home. +I vow to tread lightly, act kindly and explore mindfully. +One of those who expressed support to Palau’s program to save the environment was Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Proud to support the #PalauPledge, a new conservation initiative for visitors. +Written with the help of Palau’s children, every visitor must pledge to heal & secure the natural environment for future generations. +Learn more at https://t.co/UE96LkATZ6. pic.twitter.com/Gxjonhlkx8 — Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) December 9, 2017 +The "Palau Pledge" was hailed in various news reports as an innovative program. +President Remengesau hopes other countries will also adopt a similar initiative. +He added that the response of tourists was positive: +We have been monitoring the airport, surveying the feedback from them, and everyone is saying we didn't know that this information or facts were there before. +A Twitter user wanted the program to be sustained by other activities that would create greater impact on the ground: +This is amazing! +Yes to the #PalauPledge. +I wonder how it will be implemented on the ground though - a pledge is great but is there education alongside it?https://t.co/ZmGLKX0Hs7 — Cecily Spelling (@cecilyspelling) December 15, 2017 +The concern is valid as Palau is considering the launch of a new curriculum for students that will “help build eco-awareness in tomorrow’s leaders and conscious business principles within the tourist sector.” +Also, Palau has identified a 500,000-square-kilometre marine sanctuary in which commercial fishing and oil drilling activities are banned. +The "Palau Pledge" is not only for tourists arriving in the country. +Internet users can sign the pledge on the program’s website. +As of this writing, 18,598 people have virtually signed the pledge, including this author. +Palau Pledge, signed by Mong. + +'The Educational System Has Failed Us': The Grief and Frustration of Jordan's Unemployed University Graduates · Global Voices +The Clock Tower, a landmark at the University of Jordan. +Photo by Yousef Dahdouh. +Used with permission. +The year of 2017 brought with it an unfortunate rise of unemployment in Jordan, hitting a peak of 18.5%. +The future does not look so bright either, with 2018 promising an even bigger rise. +For university degree holders, the situation is worse than that of the general population: 23% are unemployed. +Of those graduates who are jobless, 27% are men, while 68% are women. +Tuition fees have skyrocketed in recent years, but those who manage to pay aren't guaranteed a decent living at the end of the academic road. +Graduates who Global Voices spoke with complained that while at university they had to navigate politics and confusing government job advice, and afterward they have found themselves stuck with menial and underpaid work — or no work at all. +“My education has, if anything, hindered my employment," Lara Mohsen, a former student at Al-Balqa Applied University, told Global Voices. +The education that Lara and many more are referring to is that provided by public and private universities. +Since the form of government in Jordan is a parliamentary monarchy, the students have to deal with ever-changing admission policies, with each government either building on or completely changing the policies of the one before it. +Moreover, students often find themselves witnessing dangerous tribal clashes on campus since tribal rule is predominant in Jordan and the inner problems of tribes can often find their way into educational institutions through youth. +Yazan Bahbouh, who graduated as an accountant from the University of Petra, told Global Voices that he couldn't see the benefit of his degree: +I graduated as an accountant from the University of Petra, and I got offered a job at a private company almost immediately. +I was above the clouds, since it is uncommon for a recent graduate to land a job so quickly. +The first day on the job, I realized I would be counting boxes for inventory. +A job that I would be performing alongside high-school drop outs at the very same company. +I resigned only a few weeks after. +I couldn’t handle getting paid even less than my colleagues who drive the vans, given that they make more on tips than I, a person who has spent 4 years of his life getting an education. +Dana, a pharmacy graduate, told Global Voices that she was exploited at her job to do extra work that is not in her job description: +After five years of college, I graduated as a pharmacist. +I found a job at a local pharmacy that had a vacancy and started working right away. +One week into the job, I found out that I must take turns with my other colleague who has the night shift to wipe floors, and dust shelves. +I thought ‘great, I really needed continuous four-hour lab training lectures for this’ and left the job immediately. +The story of Yazan and Dana are not unique. +University graduates often refuse jobs that they consider beneath their level of education, but with 100,000 new graduates looking for jobs every year, the positions that Yazan and Dana refused could easily be filled by many others desperate for them. +The difficulty of navigating the market's 'continuously changing' needs +Taima, a graduate in translation from Yarmouk University, said that she gets paid as much now as she did during her freelancing years as a student: +I used to work as a freelance translator while I was still a student. +A lot of translation bureaus would demand a degree in translation, so I would revert to translating for individuals who just wanted a one-time kind of service. +I thought that once I graduated I would be able to land those bureau jobs and make a better living. +You would be shocked to find that I now make the same amount as I did as a student. +She continued: +A bureau once told me that there is an ‘overflow’ of translation and language graduates. +Later on, I realized I should have contemplated more carefully what to study, since the market needs are continuously changing. +Jordan's Civil Service Bureau issues annual reports on the specializations needed most in the job market, and what sectors of the market have reached full employment. +The agency also sends advice to the Ministry of Higher Education as to what majors are not needed in the market and thus should be shut down, and what majors should accept lower student numbers. +However, universities and students are often skeptical of such reports, given that they are issued by the government, which many view as being responsible for the unemployment problem to begin with. +The reports often advise universities to exterminate majors that are not required in the public sector (such as psychology), even if there might be demand for them in the private sector. +Moreover, a specialization might not pay off in Jordan due to the current state of the economy, but could be lucrative elsewhere. +For example, take Rawan, a dual citizen of Jordan and the US. +After graduating from the Jordanian University of Science and Technology with a degree in veterinary medicine, Rawan was left unemployed for about a year, and has now decided to move back into the US: +I love my country, and I love living here , but I also cannot stay without work forever. +I really thought I would move here for good, but the circumstances are not in my favor. +And there are other holes to be found in the bureau's advice, such as the fact that many people choose to avoid studying a major, whether it's officially recommended or not, that would require them to open their own businesses, as the trade policies that the government makes have been proved as ineffective. +The University of Jordan recently created a new major within its foreign languages faculty, a move which goes against the bureau report, which advised that universities decrease the number of students accepted into the specialization over the next five years. +The new and competitive program at the University of Jordan charges 60 Jordanian dinars (85 US dollars), which is three times the amount of any other in the faculty. +Opening a new major with triple the charges in a faculty whose degree is said to be redundant by the government is quite the opposite of abiding by the report's findings. +The consequences of Jordan's nationality law in higher education +Jihad, the son of a Jordanian mother and a Yemeni father, faces an even bigger problem. +Born and raised in Jordan, Jihad is still considered Yemeni because the law in Jordan only allows Jordanian nationality to be passed down through the father. +Therefore, he is required to enroll under the international program at the University of Jordan. +Although he passed the national Tawjeehi (the general secondary examination that grade 12 students must take in order to apply for university admission), he is still required to register as a foreigner, and pays 500 US dollars per credit hour while his colleagues enrolled in the competitive program pay 45 Jordanian dinars (63 US dollars). +Jihad works a job at a local medical center, earning 550 Jordanian dinars per month (500 US dollars). +At that rate, he would have to work for approximately 22 years to pay for his education (that is, of course, only taking into account the official credit hours of the program, and excluding the cost of books, allowance, and added registration fees). +“I could open a whole hospital with the 132,500 US dollars that his education is going to cost me,” Jihad’s dad joked. +Luckily for others, new regulations issued in 2017 would give the children of Jordanian mothers and foreign fathers the same higher education privileges as Jordanian citizen, although that won’t be of much use to Jihad and the others whom have applied for universities before then. +Moreover, Syrian refugees and non-Jordanian passport holders who were born and raised in Jordan (people who migrated to Jordan from Gaza in the 1948 and 1967 Israeli-Palestinian wars, for example) are excluded, and thus still have to enroll in the international program. +Discrimination against people with disabilities in the job market +The stories of students who struggle with unemployment are abundant, but some face additional challenges like disabilities. +Hakeem is a short-sighted student who studied finance at the University of Jerash. +After struggling through high school and university, he finally graduated with a 3.2 grade point average in 2015. +He remains unemployed until this very day, as companies would prefer hiring one of the many candidates who do not have a disability to deal with. +Hakeem's childhood friend, who has himself regularly switched jobs ever since he graduated, told Global Voices that he hoped an education would help his friend: +I wanted to get an education because I believed that he and I would have an equal chance to both study and work, but the educational system has failed us. +These stories paint a picture of joblessness in Jordan as experienced by university graduates, who invested money into a degree that they thought would bring them gainful employment, but that instead left them with disappointment in the real world and consequently in one’s country and self. + +The tulip bubble burst, the tulip market crashed, tulip mania ended and it took the Dutch government years to recover from the shock. + +Photos of Japanese Soldiers in the Trenches During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 · Global Voices +"Japanese water guard protecting the camp's supply from contamination." (source) +Recently, the excellent blog Public Domain Review shared just a small selection of colorised images depicting Japanese soldiers and camp life during the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905. +The colorized stereographs provide a fascinating glimpse into a war that in many ways was a precursor to the events of the 20th century, including trench warfare that resulted in massive numbers of casualties thanks to the incorporation of advanced technologies on the battlefield. +The stereographs were captured by American photographer T.W. Ingersoll, who in 1904 traveled to Port Arthur (now Lyushunkou, a district of Dalian in northeastern China), the scene of a long and bloody battle during the Russo-Japanese war. +Ingersoll, who is mostly remembered today for his stereographic scenes of the United States at the turn of the last century, managed to document daily life behind Japanese lines in a series of about one hundred images. +The stereographs, while appearing to be mostly staged, document the challenging conditions faced by soldiers forced to deal with trench warfare, including finding and protecting sources of clean water, getting enough to eat or being cared for after being injured. +Ingersoll's images have now entered the public domain, with no known copyright, and are hosted online by various institutions, including Boston Public Library, Monash University and the Skillman Library at Lafayette College. +The Lafayette collection is particularly interesting because images are accompanied by explanatory captions that appear to have been written by Ingersoll himself. +"Japanese Recruits Just Off the Transport." (source) +The futile assault on the fortress lasting from August 9th to August 26th cost 25,000 men. +The transports were kept busy bringing fresh troops to Dalny. (source) +"A Japanese trench guard at mess." (source) +The men were not allowed to leave the trenches for any purpose. +Here they had to watch and wait, eat, sleep and drink. +The filth was sickening, the cold intense, and a bursting Russian shell might at any moment maim or kill them, while it was certain death to show a head above the protecting wall of the trench, only fifty or a hundred yards from the muzzle of a Russian sharpshooter's gun. (source) +"Manchurian Merchants on Market Day in Dalny." (source) +On May 25th Dalny was occupied, and became the base of the besieging army. +Manchurian merchants flocked here in great numbers and did a thriving business. (source) +"Japanese soldier washing his camp dishes." (source) +Every Japanese soldier carried what he called his "panican" which somewhat resembled the American workman's dinner pail. +It had several compartments, and in these the soldier carried his "iron" ration of rice, dried fish, bacon, salt and sometimes a pickle or a little sweetmeat. +It is the belief of European and American physicians that the marvelous power of recovering shown by the wounded Japanese soldier was due to their simple diet. (source) +"Scene in the Japanese trenches." +(Source) +The Japanese during the siege dug over eighteen miles of these , not counting the zigzag approaches from one parallel to the next. +The trench shown in the picture is one before redoubt "P" that was taken in the so-called third grand assault from October 29th to November 1st, retaken at night by the Russians and again retaken by the Japanese. +It was here that one regiment, ordered to storm the redoubt, refused to obey, and was promptly sent behind the firing line, while the ninth regiment was led forth and covered itself with immortal glory by taking the redoubt (source) +"Japanese Wounded Entering Hospital at Dalny." (source) +Many of the Russian government buildings and store houses were used for hospital purposes, to make room for the thousands upon thousands of wounded who kept pouring in. +The hospitals were so full at times that new arrivals had to be deposited in the street, where they staid until a place could be provided for them. +Unlocking Breech of an "Osaka Baby" (source) +The enormous coast defense guns which the Japanese brought over from Japan to use against Port Arthur were christened "Osaka Babies" by the war correspondents. +These guns were designed to defend the coast of Japan against a naval attack, and were not expected ever to be moved from the foundations on which they rested. +But when it became evident that the Russians had taken the heaviest naval guns from the useless warships in Port Arthur and had mounted them on their posts, it became necessary to have weapons of equal power to combat them. (source) +Recreation in a Japanese Army camp. +Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) (source) +The Japanese have a wonderful way of acquiring Western ways. +They investigate everything, and whatever they think will improve their way of living or working they readily accept. +They even had a commission examine the advantages of Christianity over their own religions, but the commission reported that the Japanese were much gentler and more honest and moral people than any Christian nation as a whole, and that the Christian zealots and hypocrites had no counterpart in Japan. +Our picture shows Japanese private soldiers dancing a quadrille under the instruction of an American war correspondent. +The Osaka band is playing and these soldiers are practicing with an earnestness as if all Japan had their eyes on them. +Their pastimes were all innocent sports with nothing rough about them, games like fox and geese, and occasionally the low singing of an endless victory-hymn by General Fukishima, who fought under Marshal Oyama. (source) +More images can be found at the Boston Public Library collection on Flickr, in the Monash University collection and in the Skillman Library at Lafayette College collection. +All images from Boston Public Library official Flickr account under license Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0). +Image captions by T.W. Ingersoll, retrieved from Lafayette College Libraries and other sources, public domain (no known copyright). + +Russian Newspaper Closes After Years of Tense, Often Violent Confrontation with Security Services · Global Voices +Igor Rudnikov, editor of Novye Kolyosa, with a broken arm after a violent interrogation by Russia's security services // Igor Rudnikov's Facebook +Novye Kolyosa, an independently-run newspaper in the Western Russian city of Kaliningrad, will close after 23 years in circulation. +In an April 4 announcement on Facebook, its acting editor Yuri Grozmani wrote: +The independent weekly paper Novye Kolyosa, founded in May 1995 by Igor Rudnikov, a journalist and a regional Duma representative, will cease to exist today… The newspaper, which through its 23-year history inspired a whole generation, is leaving our lives. +Along with it a whole era is coming to an end, a vocal era of post-Soviet unfettered societal progress and free media. +The trajectory of Novye Kolyosa is emblematic of the many political and financial challenges — and creative solutions — that come with operating an independent media outlet in a post-communist country. +Launched in early-'90s, primarily as an advertiser for a booming local used car business, the paper was originally named Kolyosa, or "The Wheels." +Located on the Baltic coast, Kaliningrad oblast is Russia’s westernmost port and became a hub for imported cars, a sudden luxury after the fall of the Soviet Union. +A former first lieutenant in the Soviet navy, Rudnikov used his experience as a reporter for the navy newspaper Strazh Baltiki (The Baltic Sentinel) — and resources from the naval offices — to found Kolyosa in 1993. +Two years later, the (now Russian) navy, which still owned the editorial resources Rudnikov had used to start the newspaper, decided that it needed this fast-growing revenue stream to itself. +Rudnikov resigned from both the navy and the original Kolyosa and founded Novye Kolyosa, or "The New Wheels". +To beat the competition, Rudnikov took the ad sheet for the used car market and turned it into a general interest tabloid. +Novye Kolyosa’s reporting focused on organized crime, of which there was no shortage in port towns like Kaliningrad during the '90s. +Their journalists, the paper’s offices and Rudnikov himself were physically assaulted on multiple occasions. +Rudnikov himself survived a near-fatal stabbing incident in 2016. +But he would never relent, publishing incisive investigations into local crime bosses’ dealings with corrupt police and security services officials. +At the same time, Rudnikov enjoyed a highly successful career in local politics. +In 2016, he was the only independent candidate to beat a United Russia (Russia’s ruling party) contender at the polls. +But where the mafia failed to intimidate Igor Rudnikov and his loud, sensationalistic and almost suicidally brave tabloid, the Russian security services seem to have finally succeeded. +In November 2017, Novye Kolyosa’s offices were raided by FSB, Russia’s main domestic security service, and Rudnikov himself was brought in for questioning. +After an interrogation — which left him unconscious and with a broken arm — Rudnikov was charged with extortion of a government official. +He has been kept under arrest in a Moscow detention facility ever since. +Despite the arrest of its founding editor, Novye Kolyosa kept on kicking until the eve of its 592nd issue, which was to feature a story on a local police brutality case which made the national headlines. +The Arrest and Death of Alexander Zakamsky +In March 2018, a Kaliningrad FSB assault squad arrested Alexander Zakamsky, 25. +The motives for his arrest are still unclear, but local media have speculated it might have had something to do with Zakamsky's involvement in amber hunting, a major cottage industry in the region. +His wife Elizaveta has publicly stated that the last time she saw him, Zakamsky was handcuffed and bloodied. +According to his own statement, he was later taken to an unidentified location where he was beaten and tortured for several hours to extract confession of his alleged involvement in drug smuggling. +On March 8, his deceased body was found in his cell hanging on a strip of bedsheet. +Elizaveta Zakamsky refuses to accept that her husband’s death was a suicide and accuses the FSB of torturing him to death. +On March 29, Novye Kolyosa’s latest edition was about to hit the local newsstands. +On its cover page were photographs naming two specific FSB officers, along with evidence that they had taken part part in torturing Alexander Zakamsky. +The cover story called them “sadists” and described in gruesome detail the treatment Zakamsky was subject to, including severe beating and electrocution. +But the paper never reached the newsstands. +Novye Kolyosa relies on printing shops outside the country because local printers won’t touch them out of fear of retribution. +But this final issue of the newspaper, while en route from a printer in Lithuania, was seized by the FSB and destroyed. +A PDF version is still available. +Kaliningrad is located in a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea. +Image via Google Maps. +In an op-ed announcing the newspaper’s closure on its website, the acting editor in chief Yuri Grozmani said he had little hope for domestic prosecution of FSB officers complicit in the act of censorship. +Instead, he promised to campaign for external pressure on Russian law enforcement officers implicated in abuse of their authority: +We have chosen a different path: we are sending letters to all human rights organizations, foreign embassies and consulates, as well as foreign ministries of EU countries, asking them to BLACKLIST THESE PERSONS. +Let their Schengen visas be cancelled, for god’s sake! +So that none of them can ever leave the borders of the Russian Federation. +Let them love their Motherland from their homes, not from the French Riviera. And let them spend money earned in Russia not in Europe, but in our own Svetlogorsk . +Igor Rudnikov has been in detention for five months now and was recently declared a prisoner of conscience by Russia’s Memorial human rights center. +In a statement on their website, the organization pointed out a number of discrepancies in the prosecution’s case and called the case against Rudnikov politically motivated. + +Korea:Is Sexual Harrassment just for Women? · Global Voices +While sexual harassment is regarded as the worst scenario that would happen to women and the weak, a male blogger insists that men also run into harassment in their daily lives through his and his friends’ experiences. +His post has received a lot of responses especially from young bloggers. +It shows a part of Korea. + +Women March in Indonesia for Equality and Justice Amid Legislative Attacks on Rights and Freedoms · Global Voices +Participants of the Women's March 2018 in Jakarta. +Photo by Women's March, used with permission. +Over a thousand people joined the Women’s March in more than a dozen Indonesian cities calling for justice and protection of women’s rights. +The simultaneous marches took place on March 3, 2018, a few days before International Women’s Day on March 8. +The Women's March has eight demands addressed to the national government: +Abolition of discriminatory laws and policies that perpetuate gender violence Pass laws and policies that protect women, children, indigenous people, people with disabilities and gender minority groups from discrimination and sexual violence More accessible justice and rehabilitation for gender violence victims Stop the state and society's intrusion against a person's body and sexuality Abolition of stigma and discriminations against a person's gender, sexuality, and health status Abolition of the practice of violence in courts, schools, and workplaces Ending economic and financial depravation against women especially those working in factories, transwomen, sex workers and domestic workers. A more proactive society in abolishing unfair practices and culture of violence existing in various institutions +Among the issues raised in the rallies was the approved amendments to the Indonesian criminal code (RKHUP) which would criminalize criticism of members of the House of Representatives (DPR). +Participants also denounced the passage of legislative measures that outlaw adultery as well as the sharing of information about contraception and sexual education. +Indonesia has a Muslim-majority population and boasts the promotion of a moderate view of Islam that celebrates a diversity of beliefs to build a harmonious society. +However, in recent years, hardline clerics have been pushing for the strict interpretation of Islamic teachings and their application in many aspects of governance. +Indonesia’s Women’s March was first organized in 2017, conceptualized to mobilize people from all walks of life to defeat patriarchy's influence on all aspects of society. +Participants cited the persistence of feudal concepts like the old Javanese thinking that women are only good for “macak, masak, manak” (looking attractive for her husband, cooking for her family, and bearing children). +Marchers called for unity and public support for women’s rights while using the hashtag #LawanBersama (#FightTogether) on social media: +Privileged & humbled to march with so many inspiring & awesome women this morning at #womensmarchjkt #LawanBersama #jakarta #intersectionality pic.twitter.com/UA2ap0nsJC — Victoria Forsgate (@VictoriaFors) March 3, 2018 I made this poster. #tolakRKUHP #tolakRKUHPngawur #womensmarchindo #womensmarch #womensmarchjkt #lawanbersama +Instagram caption reads: "At the Women's March this morning. +A post shared by 📷 (@_devinamartina) on Mar 4, 2018 at 7:51pm PST +Instagram caption reads: "Women's March Kupang for a more humane Indonesia." +Posters in the image read: "Mama, my womb isn't ready to give birth" and "Mama, I still want to go to school." +The Women's March on March 3 was just the first of several activities scheduled for the month in Indonesia. + +Family-run movie theater in northeast Thailand survives decades of changes · Global Voices +The Det Udom Theater has gone through several changes in its six-decade-long history. +This edited article by Jirasuda Saisom is from The Isaan Record, an independent news site in Thailand, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement. +A wave of chain movie theaters hosted in shopping malls has swept away most of the independent movie parlors once found in almost every city of Thailand's northeast. +But in the region’s smaller towns, stand-alone cinemas like the Det Udom Theater in Ubon Ratchathani Province continue to draw a loyal audience. +Located in the town of Det Udom, about 30 kilometers southeast of Ubon Ratchathani City, the family-run theater has been operating for almost 60 years. +Its original wooden theater hall was built in 1959, even before Thailand’s movie theater construction boom took off in the mid-1960s. +The Isaan Record talked to Kittiphong Thiamsuvan, the owner of the Det Udom Theater and a former member of parliament, about the theater’s history and how it survived the competition from large cinema chains. +Can you tell us about the history of the theater? +The movie theater opened its doors in 1959. It was originally named Det Udom Movie Theater. +In 1987, I took over the management from my father and changed the name to Det Udom Mini Theater. +As we adopted digital movie screening in 2013, we took on a new name again: the Det Udom Theater. +The original movie theater was a wooden structure with corrugated steel walls. +The screening halls hosted 800 seats on two floors. +There was also a stage for music performances. +Back then in 1959, tickets sold for one baht. +In 1997, we demolished the old theater and build a new concrete one with two screening halls. +Each hall has 170 seats and tickets used to sell for 30 to 40 baht. +When we moved to digital screenings in 2013, the ticket prices went up to 50 to 80 baht . Back when admission was still one baht, we had about 100 to 500 viewers per screening. +Around 1987, the average numbers were even higher but today we don’t get more than 100 people for each screening. +Why have the numbers of cinema goers dropped in recent years? +The economic situation is not good, and the government hasn’t been encouraging people to visit movie theaters. +For example, in the past, the government offered free screenings like the King Naresuan movies and films about Buddha. +Whether they offer free screening or not always depends on the ideas of the government leaders of each period. +Kittiphong Thiamsuvan inherited the family-business from his father, and took over the management in 1987. +How have you managed to survive amid the competition of large chain cinema companies? +We have been around for 59 years, people know us and we are in a good location. +We are the only movie theater in Udom Det District. +The next theater is 54 kilometers away; it’s one of the Major Cineplex theaters in a mall. +We have always been adapting to people’s changing tastes. +That’s why we redesigned the theater three times. +Our business is family-run and our employees are mostly relatives. +They can take on different duties at the same time so we don’t have to hire many employees. +That’s very economical and we almost don’t have any hiring expenses. +How do you advertise your theater and the movies you screen? +We use advertising boards made of wood and painted with watercolors because they are reusable. +Once you’re done with one movie, you can just paint over it for the next one. +We don’t like these vinyl banners because they are expensive and get tossed away after. +We can’t reuse them. But for very popular movies like Pee Mak Phra Kanong,we do print vinyl advertising banners. Apart from that, we have trucks driving around with advertising boards and loudspeakers promoting our movies in the villages nearby. +Are you thinking about who will take over the theater after you? +Oh, I don’t think about it. +Because when the time comes, the good deeds I have done will show their effect. +I graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture at Kasetsart University, and I have been helping people without asking for any compensation. +The land here is worth almost 100 million baht. +If we want to develop it further, we could build a new movie theater. +It wouldn’t be difficult, and we could possibly use it for another 70 years when the next generation takes over. +But the old cinema still has value, although it wouldn’t sell for much. +If you ask if it still is of any benefit: Of course it is! +It’s just that Thailand doesn’t care much about old things. +If the country survives these times, people will have to think hard. +The leaders will have to think about ways to provide opportunities to the people, and not promote how to go begging for opportunities. +That’s because the leaders live off people’s taxes + +Rising star footballer is among more than a million Uyghurs sent to Chinese 're-education' camps · Global Voices +Football player Erfan Hezim took a selfie with Lionel Messi weeks before he was detained in a re-education center. +Image via FifPro. +With World Cup 2018 underway, all eyes are focused on the game. +But many people are unaware of what — or who — is missing on the field. +The Fédération Internationale des Associations de Footballeurs Professionnels (FIFPro), the worldwide professional football players' union, issued a statement on June 13, 2018 calling for the release of Erfan Hezim, a 19-year-old Uyghur football player who has reportedly been detained in a “political re-education camp” in China's western Xinjiang province since February 2018. +Hezim was detained soon after he returned home from a football trip to Spain and Dubai. +Despite his status as a rising star in local football, Hezim's fame did not exempt him being sent to a re-education camp. +According to local sources for Radio Free Asia, Hezim was detained for “visiting foreign countries”, though his trip was mainly for football training and matches. +Hezim is among the estimated one million Uyghurs in Xinjiang who have been sent to re-education camps for unlearning and correcting their religious and political views. +What happens at re-education camps in Xinjiang is not widely known, but testimonies from ex-internees reveal that the camps — which are operated at county, township and village levels — are secured with barbed wire, surveillance systems and armed police. +Ex-internees said they were sent to the camps without trial and while there, were forced to convert their beliefs and pledge loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). +Shawn Zhang, a law student, used satellite imagery to visualize the scale of the camps, shedding some additional light on the issue. +Re-education Camp in Shufu county (Kashgar Konasheher), Xinjiang. +Image by Shawn Zhang, via Medium. +There have also been claims that Muslim internees were forced to eat pork and drink alcohol in order to prove they are no longer “extremists”. +Uyghurs with overseas connections appear to be among the top targets of this type of political detention. +In March 2018, just one month after Hezim's detention, Ablajan Awut Ayup, a prominent Uyghur musician who bridges Uyghur and Chinese audiences with his bilingual songs, went missing too. +His fame, in this case as a cultural icon, also failed to save him. +Guligeina Tashimaimaiti, a Chinese-Uyghur PhD student at the University of Technology in Malaysia (UTM), has been missing since January 2018. +According to the Scholars at Risk network, Tashimaimaiti returned to her home city of Ghulja in December 2017, in order to search for her missing parents. +Her sister, who is also studying in Malaysia, confirmed that Tashimaimaiti was sent to a re-education camp. +Ugyhurs who reside overseas use Twitter to advocate for the release their relatives back home. +Halmurat Harri, a Ugyhur-Finnish medical doctor who was born in the Turpan city of Xinjiang, called for his parents’ release: +My parents always taught me to love. +They are in China’s re-education camps. +I hope that good will win over the evil, I hope that all this suffering will end. +I don’t seek revenge, but justice. +Love what is Good, hate is evil; cling to what is good. +@Uyghurspeaker, who has been keeping track of the detention of Ugyhurs in Xinjiang, recently translated a Uyghur-Canadian's post about his mother’s death in a re-education camp: +Uyghur-Canadian Abdulaziz learned today that his mother Adalet (from Pichan) died in chinese concentration camp/prison on Mar. +Her body wasn't returned to the family (believe to be cremated). +She was taken on Aug,2016 right after her trip to turkey. pic.twitter.com/sqUbFYi5BP — Uyghur from E.T☪ (@Uyghurspeaker) June 23, 2018 +Some Uyghurs from Western countries have taken action, calling for public attention to be placed on these Chinese concentration camps: +About 100 Uyghurs demonstrated in front of 🇺🇸 ambassador in Nederland for demanding USA 🇺🇸 to put pressure on China to close the concentrations camp where one million Uyghurs has been detained. pic.twitter.com/EvmKU3lvqF — Nijat Turghun (@NijatTurkistan) June 22, 2018 +Beijing has mostly avoided commenting on the re-education camps to the outside world — but internally, state and party news outlets say the camps are part of a battle against Muslim extremism. +During the Lunar New Year in February 2018, Zhang Chunlin, the Party Deputy Secretary of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, had an exchange with university students in Yarkant county. +When Zhang asked one university student to comment on his family members being sent to the re-education camp, the student answered: +This is a party and government policy to cure the sick and save my relatives from being punished by law. +I completely understand the measure and hope that they will be converted into people who are good for society. +Outside of the official discourse, one seldom sees comments or discussions about the issue on Chinese social media. + +A Team of Women Is Unearthing the Forgotten Legacy of Harvard’s Women ‘Computers’ · Global Voices +Curator Lindsay Smith Zrull places a glass plate photograph of a section of the sky onto a lightbox. +Smith Zrull recently discovered boxes of notebooks belonging to early women astronomers who studied the glass plates as early as 1885. +Credit: Alex Newman/PRI +It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices. +In a cramped Harvard University sub-basement, a team of women is working to document the rich history of their predecessors. +More than 40 years before women in the US gained the right to vote, women labored in the Harvard College Observatory as “computers” — astronomy’s version of NASA’s “Hidden Figures” mathematicians. +Between 1885 and 1927, the observatory employed about 80 women who studied glass plate photographs of the stars, many of whom made major discoveries. +They found galaxies and nebulas and created methods to measure distance in space. +In the late 1800s, they were famous: newspapers wrote about them and they published scientific papers under their own names, only to be virtually forgotten during the next century. +But a recent discovery of thousands of pages of their calculations by a modern group of women working in the very same space has spurred new interest in their legacy. +Surrounded by steel cabinets stuffed with hundreds of thousands of plate glass photographs of the sky, curator Lindsay Smith Zrull shows off the best of the collection. +“I have initials but I have not yet identified whose initials these are,” Smith Zrull says, pointing at a paper-sized glass plate crowded with notes taken in four different colors. +“One of these days, I’m going to figure out who M.E.M. is.” +A dozen women computers hold hands in this 1918 photograph, which Smith Zrull calls the "paper doll" photo. +To the far right is Edward Pickering, who hired the women computers. +Credit: Courtesy Harvard College Observatory, Plate Stacks +Each glass plate is stored in a paper jacket and initialed to show who worked on it, but for decades no one kept track of the women’s full names. +So Smith Zrull started a spreadsheet about 18 months ago and adds initials when she discovers new ones and then tries to locate the full names in Harvard’s historical records. +“I’m slowly starting to piece together who was who, who was here when, what they were studying,” she says. +Smith Zrull has about 130 female names and about 40 are still unidentified. +Not all are computers. +Her list has grown to include assistants and, in some cases, astronomers’ wives who helped with their husbands’ work. +Curatorial assistant Anne Callahan inspects a plate before it is cleaned for scanning. +She makes sure the metadata from the paper jacket is properly entered into the computer before the plate goes to be wiped down and then scanned. +Credit: Alex Newman/PRI +“We know there were at least 80 women who worked in this space on these glass plate photographs, which is a pretty amazing number considering women were still trying to get social approval to go to college, let alone work in the sciences,” Smith Zrull said. +In the Plate Stacks at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics — the modern version of what was once called the Harvard College Observatory — Smith Zrull oversees a digitization project to make the glass plates available to the world. +Since 2005, a custom-built scanner has been making its way through the collection of more than half a million plates from 1885 to 1993. +The team scans 400 plates per day — they’re at about the halfway point now — and Smith Zrull estimates about three years of scanning remains. +‘People forgot they were there’ +Last fall Smith Zrull turned her attention to about 30 notebooks in the plate stacks belonging to the women computers. +“I started to realize a lot of these books were missing,” she says. +“I started doing a little bit of digging and eventually came across some proof that we might have boxes in storage off-site, which is very common for libraries around Harvard.” +Smith Zrull found 118 boxes, each containing between 20 and 30 books. +Inside were more notebooks from the women computers and notebooks from astronomers who predated photography and made hand-drawn sketches of planets and the moon. +“People didn’t know they existed when they were in storage,” Smith Zrull says. +“As different curators came and went here, I suppose people forgot they were there. +Now that we know they exist, we can make them accessible to the public, they can be cataloged in a library so people can come across them.” +The books had moved from one library to the plate stacks to another library to a book depository, essentially lost to history until Smith Zrull began looking for more information on the women computers. +To resurrect their legacy, she enlisted the help of librarians from the Wolbach Library in the Center for Astrophysics. +The librarians prepared to manually go through the boxes and begin the labor-intensive process of cataloging them. +Project PHAEDRA (an acronym for Preserving Harvard’s Early Data and Research in Astronomy). +‘OK, we’ve hit pay dirt’ +Then Smith Zrull made another discovery in the plate stacks: a handwritten catalog of the books from 1973. +“At some point in 1973, someone who we assume is named ‘Joe Timko’ went through all of these boxes at an item level and recorded as much information as he could find,” says head librarian Daina Bouquin. +“We have no sense of why this was done or what became of the person who did this, but we thought, ‘OK, we’ve hit pay dirt.’” +This is the envelope Smith Zrull found in the plate stacks that included a handwritten catalog of all of the women computer's notebooks. +A person named Joe Timko painstakingly went through the collection in 1973. +Credit: Alex Newman/PRI +Then someone found a typewritten version of the 1973 catalog, adorned with a Post-it saying “Finally done! +Rachel.” +On the very last page was a handwritten path to a computer file, a spreadsheet on a Harvard server that hadn’t been accessed since 2001. +The discovery sped up the digitization project by months, if not years. +“We went from having absolutely no metadata, like 30 characters on each box, to having item-level, machine-readable, type-written metadata that we could then edit and clean up and turn into real records,” explains Bouquin. +“Thank you Joe Timko and possibly Rachel, wherever they may be.” +The library has completed transcription of about 200 volumes. +Right now, notebooks from two women are listed on the Smithsonian Transcription Center website. +There are many more to come — nearly 2,300 out of a total 2,500 books — but the work has begun. +Bouquin hopes the public will help transcribe the books, but anticipates it will still be years before everything is readable. +“You’ll be able to do a full-text search of this research,” Bouquin says. +“If you search for Williamina Fleming, you’re not going to just find a mention of her in a publication where she wasn’t the author of her work. You’re going to find her work.” +Bouquin, left, and Smith Zrull, right, hold up an original image of Williamina Fleming posing in the plate stacks in a 1891 photo that was the first photo used in bestselling author Dava Sobell's 2016 book, "The Glass Universe." +Smith Zrull says they know the 1891 image is posed because a window is closed and the tool Fleming is using to study a plate only works with window light. +Credit: Alex Newman/PRI ‘She’s the one who really found it’ +Fleming is the first famous woman computer. +Fleming emigrated to the United States from Scotland in the late 1870s. +While pregnant, she was abandoned by her husband and found work as a maid in the home of Edward Pickering, the observatory director. +In 1881, Pickering hired Fleming to work in the observatory. +She would go on to discover the Horsehead Nebula, develop a system for classifying stars based on hydrogen observed in their spectra and lead more female computers. +Wolbach Library unveiled a new display case in early July showcasing Fleming’s work. +The case includes pages from her diary as well as her work on the plates showing the nebula and the log book containing that discovery. +The display case in Wolbach Library includes pages from a journal kept by Fleming; a portrait of her that librarians chose because she describes buying a hat (but not necessarily the one pictured) in the diary; and one of the recently-discovered logbooks, opened to the page where she noted the Horsehead Nebula for the first time. +Credit: Courtesy Daina Boquin, Wolbach Library +“When the was discovered, it was just a little ‘area of nebulosity in a semi-circular indentation,’” says librarian Maria McEachern, who has helped the team sort through the notebooks to find the more interesting pieces. +“That’s how it was described at the time. +It wasn’t until years later that it became known as the Horsehead Nebula and one of the male scientists at another institution who named it was the one who got credit for it. +It wasn’t even until recently that people have been doing more scholarship and finding out that, yes, she’s the one who really found it.” +But Fleming was just the first of many to become famous. +Pickering hired Henrietta Swan Leavitt in 1895. +She was tasked with measuring and cataloguing the brightness of the stars. +Her major discovery: a way to allow astronomers to measure distance in space, now known as “Leavitt’s Law,” an attempt to give her credit for her work. +Annie Jump Cannon joined the observatory in 1896 and worked there until 1940. +Cannon created the Harvard Classification System for classifying stars, which is the basis of the system still in use today. +Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin came to the Observatory in 1923 and earned a doctorate from Radcliffe in 1925, but she struggled to get recognition from Harvard. +For years she had no official position, serving as a technical assistant to then-director Harlow Shapley from 1927 to 1938. +It wasn’t until the mid-1950s that she became a full professor and later, the first woman to head a department at Harvard. +Payne-Gaposchkin’s notebooks will be the next set scanned and submitted for transcription. +(Leavitt and Cannon’s notebooks are in the process of being transcribed.) +‘They’ve always been there’ +“I like to think resilience goes a long way, but I think some of these women go a little above and beyond what we think of when we think of overcoming things,” Bouquin says. +Both Bouquin and Smith Zrull said they want to give young girls more role models like the Harvard computers — role models who weren’t well-known when they were young. +“Yes, look at Sally Ride, look at modern women who people associate with the space-based sciences, but go back further,” Bouquin says. +“They’ve always been there. +As long as they could be, they were there.” +Smith Zrull — who hated history as a teen — said she struggled to find women who encouraged her. +“It really took me a long time to start to find women who I felt were like me, who did important things,” Smith Zrull said. +“I think more women need to know, you’re not alone, you can do it.” + +After years of silence and denial, Assad regime issues death certificates to ‘disappeared’ prisoners · Global Voices +Satellite image shows the notorious Saydnaya military prison. +Source: Google Earth. +After several years of waiting for news and updates, hundreds of Syrian families were able to confirm the death of their disappeared loved ones through certificates issued by the government. +Since July 2018, the government has been updating the civil registry records of the governorates of Damascus, Damascus suburbs, Homs, Hama, Lattakia and Hassaka where hundreds if not thousands of forcibly disappeared citizens were already identified as dead years ago. +At least 82,000 Syrians were forcibly disappeared by the Syrian regime between 2011 and 2018, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), among whom at least 13,066 allegedly died under torture. +The city of Daraya alone, an agricultural city near Damascus besieged by the regime for four years from 2012 to 2016, saw around 1,000 of its citizens on that updated list of dead persons. +Imagine a town anywhere in the world, where the government detained thousands of young citizens and years later, mark 1000 of them as “dead by torture.” +This happened in #Daraya, a suburb of Damascus. +This is the new #Syria - no more hiding war crimes, now they just brag. — Lina Sergie Attar (@AmalHanano) July 27, 2018 +“Most of the arbitrarily detained were not brought to trials but only a few were sent to three kinds of courts: the court of terrorism cases, the military court and the field court," Noor Alkhateb, the director of the detainees department at SNHR told Global Voices (GV). +SNHR's report condemned the Syrian regime and held it responsible for the deaths of thousands in its custody. +The report also emphasized that 90 percent of the detainees have suffered torture "using the most horrendous methods of brutality". +The Shurbaji brothers +Yehya Shurbaji (known as “The Man With The Roses” or “Abu Al-Ward” in Arabic) and his brother Mohammad (known as Maan) were two of the first Syrian activists in the anti-Assad demonstrations in Daraya in 2011. +The brothers participated in the coordination of peaceful demonstrations in 2011 in the early months of the Syrian revolution. +In September of that year, Mohammad was arrested by a Syrian intelligence officer, who forced him to call Yehya and drive him out of Daraya, claiming that he is injured and needs urgent medical care. +Six hours later, Yehya drove to Sahnaya town along with Ghiath Matar, another prominent Syrian activist. +Read: Daraya, Symbol of Non-Violent Revolution and Self-Determination, Falls to the Syrian Regime +However, what they found there was an ambush by Syrian intelligence forces. +Ghiath was injured and passed away a day later. +Yehya was thrown in jail. +GV spoke with Ahmad Shurbaji, Yehya and Mohammad's brother, who spoke about Yehya's role in nonviolence resistance to the Assad regime: +Yehya was well known in Daraya. +He believed that freedom and democracy must come through a peaceful struggle. +He kept calling the demonstrators to avoid violence. +The Shurbaji brothers were held in Saydnaya prison, the prison now notorious for its mass hanging of up to 13,000 people between 2011 and 2015 alone. +Amnesty International described it as "the human slaughterhouse". +Over the last seven years, relatives of the Shurbaji brothers couldn't get a visit or even an official statement regarding the fate of the two, Ahmad told GV. +A year ago, they received unconfirmed reports that Yehya was executed in Saydnaya years ago and that Mohammad passed away due to illness and lack of medical care in prison. +Ahmad was able to confirm this last July 2018 when he asked one of his relatives in Damascus to retrieve the birth certificates of his brothers from the civil registry. +They found out that Yehya was declared dead on January 15, 2013 while Mohammad was also listed as dead on December 13 during the same year. +No reason for the deaths was written in the documents. +Birth certification for Yehya Charbaji with his alleged death date. +Source: Ahmad Charbaji, used with a permission. +Ahmad told GV that Yehya was first arrested in 2003 and remained in detention for two years: +Mohammad was a football player who played in the Damascus-based 'Union football club' Yehya was well known through his history of struggle against the regime. +He was arrested in 2003 for two years and stripped later of his civil rights. +Ahmad recounted Yehya's role, along with Ghiath Matar, in giving out flowers and bottles of water to Syrian regime soldiers, a now-iconic moment of the early months of the Syrian revolution. +Yehya proposed in the beginning of the Syrian Uprising an idea of giving the Syrian security in the demonstrations roses and a bottle of water, as a symbol of peace. +Therefore, people started calling him "The Man With The Roses", he added. +But even for a guy like Yehya, demanding freedom was an unforgivable sin. +This our revolution +This #daraya the town of 1000 under torture martyrs pic.twitter.com/12c9JSDGRA — Afraa.hashem (@3fra2_hashem) July 27, 2018 +Islam Dabbas +The name of Islam Dabbas, a young Syrian activist described as shy with a funny personality, was also among the confirmed names in the updated list of the dead. +Dabbas participated in demonstrations and coordinated them along with prominent lawyer and activist Razan Zaitouneh. +Zaitouneh and three other activists - called the 'Douma 4′ - are widely believed to have been kidnapped by the rebel group Jaysh Al-Islam in Douma, Eastern Ghouta. +Read: The fall of Syria's Eastern Ghouta +On July 22, 2011, Islam was demonstrating near Al-Imam mosque in Daraya city with hundreds of other Syrians demanding freedom and political reform in the country when they were attacked by state security forces. +The attack was carried out despite the non-violence tactics used by Islam and his fellow activists who were holding roses and bottles of water. +Islam was surrounded by security forces who took his rose and bottle and beat him before arresting him. +He was taken from one security branch to another and ended up in Saydnaya prison. +Islam's sister, Hiba Dabbas, who is in exile in Egypt, told GV that: +We visited him twice and paid a bribe of 75,000 Syrian Pound (approximately 170 USD) to a military officer in order to see him for three minutes. +The second time we visited him after many attempts was in November 2012. +He didn't seem to be tortured and his was in good health. +He seemed as we used to know him. +During the last time they saw him, Islam said that his trial is scheduled on January 2013: +He told us that he has a trial in the next January, but when the jailer heard that he hit him on his back. +Islam told him I didn’t say anything wrong, but the jailer answered 'We'll see, we'll see". +And that was the last time Hiba and her mother saw him. +News about Islam was cut off later and for around six years they heard nothing about his fate. +Hiba was afraid that he would suffer the same fate of the detainees in the 1980s when hundreds were forcibly disappeared during the fight between the Syrian Army and the extreme group ‘Fighting Vanguard’ in Hama. +One of their relatives in Damascus went to the civil registry after she heard that the records have been updated. +That's when they found out that Islam was also written as dead on January 15, 2013 although the relative couldn’t extract his death certificate. +"As long as Assad remains in power, there will be no justice for Islam and his friends," Hiba said. +Many Syrian families have paid huge bribes, sometimes reaching millions of Syrian Pounds, to Syrian officers in the hope of finding out about the fate of their beloved ones, although they rarely get accurate information. +Human Rights Watch (HRW) described it as a 'bureaucracy of death'. +With the continuing expansion of pro-regime forces across Syria, it seems that the Assad government doesn't fear any repercussion from the release of these death notices to the public. +"It's obvious that the Syrian regime saw that it did so many violations in Syria and can now acknowledge that thousands have died in its prisons without accountability or consequences", Sara Kayyali, a Syrian researcher for HRW told GV. + +Chinese mobile phone cameras are not-so-secretly recording users' activities · Global Voices +Graffiti art of surveillance camera. +Published and labeled for reuse on Pixabay. +It has been widely reported that software and web applications made in China are often built with a "backdoor" feature, allowing the manufacturer or the government to monitor and collect data from the user's device. +But how exactly does the backdoor feature work? +Recent discussion among mobile phone users in mainland China has shed some light on the question. +Last month, users of Vivo NEX, a Chinese Android phone, found that when they opened certain applications on the phone, including Chinese internet giant QQ browser and travel booking app Ctrip, the mobile device’s camera would self-activate. +Different from most mobile phones, where a camera can be activated without giving the user any signal, the Vivo NEX has a tiny retractable camera that physically pops out from the top of the device when it is turned on. +Vivo NEX retractable camera. +Photo by Vivo NEX, via We Chaat. +Though perhaps unintentionally, this design feature has given Chinese mobile users a tangible sense of exactly when and how they are being monitored. +One Weibo user observed that the retractable camera self-activates whenever he opens a new chat on Telegram, a messaging application designed for secured and encrypted communication. +While Telegram reacted quickly to reports of the issue and fixed the camera bug, Chinese internet giant Tencent instead defended the feature, arguing that its QQ browser needs the camera activated to prepare for scanning QR codes and insisted that the camera would not take photos or audio recordings unless the user told it to do so. +This explanation was not reassuring for users, as it only revealed the degree to which the QQ browser could record users’ activities. +After the news of the self-activated camera bug spread, users started testing the issue on other applications and found that Baidu’s voice input application has access to both the camera and voice recording function, which can be launched without users’ authorization. +A Vivo NEX user found that once she had installed Baidu's voice input system, it would activate the phone’s camera and sound recording function whenever the user opened any application — including chat apps, browsers — that allows the user to input text. +Baidu says that the self-activated recording is not a backdoor but a “frontdoor” application that allows the company collect and adjust to background noise so as to prepare for and optimize its voice input function. +This was not reassuring for users — any microphone collecting background noise would also unquestionably capture the voices and conversations of a user and whomever she speaks with face-to-face. +How does camera snooping affect people outside China? +These snooping features have not just affected people from mainland China, but all of those from outside the country who want to communicate with friends in China. +As the Chinese government has blocked most leading foreign social media technologies, anyone who wants to communicate with people in China has little choice but to install applications made in China, such as WeChat. +One strategy for increasing one's mobile privacy when using Chinese-made applications is to keep all insecure applications on one device and assume that these communications will be recorded or spied upon, and to keep a second device for more secure or "clean" applications. +When using an encrypted communication application like Telegram to communicate with friends in China, one also has to make sure that their friends’ mobile devices are clean. +Baidu has been notorious for snooping into users’ private data and activities. +In January 2018, a government-affiliated consumer association in Jiangsu province filed a lawsuit against Baidu’s search application and mobile browser for snooping on users' phone conversations and accessing their geo-location data without user consent. +But the case was dropped in March after Baidu updated its applications by securing users’ consent for control over their mobile camera, voice recording, geo-location data, even though these controls are not essential to the application's functionality. +In response to public concern about these backdoor features, Baidu and other Chinese internet giants may defend themselves simply by arguing that users have consented to having their cameras activated. +But given the monopolistic nature of Chinese Internet giants in the country, do ordinary users have the power — or the choice — to say no? + +What happens when women report sexual assault in Japan? · Global Voices +"Chikan (groping / sexual assault) is a crime. +There is no tolerance for chikan." — poster in a train station in Tokyo, Japan. +Image source: Tokyo Times Flickr account. +License: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. +One Canadian woman's recent experience of sexual assault on a Tokyo train, including the way the police responded, has prompted discussions on Twitter about Japan's ongoing problem with 'chikan' (痴漢 or train-gropers in Japanese). +The documented sexual assault experience resembles recent high profile cases in Japan involving journalist Shiori Ito, a blogger known as Hachu and stage actress Shimizu Meili. +In July 2018, a woman who goes by the name 'Jenna' on Twitter began sharing a series of tweets that described being stalked and groped by a man on a train in Tokyo, and then what happened when the groper was arrested and she filed a report with the police. +In a series of tweets, Jenna reports: +About 20-15 or so minutes from Omotesandō a large man approached me from my left side. +He was staring at me in a very lecherous way. +He came right up against me and whispered "kirei" which means "beautiful" in Japanese. +I ignored him and looked around at the people in the seats, some noticed his strange behaviour... +Generally, incidents of groping by 'chikan' are prosecuted by police under Section 176 of the penal code as “forcible indecency” (強制わいせつ). +According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, 1,750 cases of groping or molestation were reported in 2017. +More than 50 percent of groping cases occurred on trains, the report says, with a further 20 percent occurring in train stations. +However, survivors of sexual assault in Japan often lament that such cases are difficult to prosecute. +Jenna continues to describe her personal experience with train-groping throughout her Twitter thread: +...The Japanese man sat down when a seat opened up, and continued staring at me, mainly my face and my thighs (I was wearing a skirt). +I felt quite uncomfortable, but honestly I've experienced similar things before, and was okay... ...He stood up again after a couple of minutes and came up to me again and asked me where I was going (in Japanese.) +I said "huh?? +What??" +And he just stared at me... +In the same Twitter thread, Jenna said she considered getting off the train early to wait for the next train, but was afraid the man would follow. +"I didn't really see any options and felt uncomfortable," she explained in one tweet. +As her stop approached, Jenna got up and moved toward the carriage exit doors: +...I noticed the Japanese man looking up and noticing me at the door, he suddenly shot upright and practically ran up behind me, standing behind me and slightly to my left. +I was quite scared at this point, and panicking about what to do, he was clearly going to follow me off the train. +This all happened within a few seconds, and within 10 seconds of him placing himself behind me, I felt his right hand touch my left butt cheek and squeeze hard, twice. +Jenna describes an adrenaline surge that prompted her to turn and strike her assailant, who then attempted to flee. +She chased him onto the train platform, grabbing at his clothing while shouting in Japanese that she had been sexually assaulted. +Station staff intervened and police arrived shortly thereafter. +Reporting a sexual assault to police in Japan +According to her Twitter thread, Jenna was driven to a nearby police station for what would become nearly seven hours of questioning, but her frustrating experience with the police began in the car: +The driver made some, in my opinion, condescending comments about how I couldn't possibly know he groped my butt because I don't have eyes in the back of my head. +At the police station, after her cell phone, passport and other ID were taken from her, Jenna reported that she started to feel scared: +I was scared being alone with a bunch of possibly power hungry men with no phone after what just happened to me. +Eventually, police wheeled in a partition to provide privacy, but Jenna explained: +...Almost 10 male staff members decided to go around it and hang out in the doorway to my room listening to my story anyway. +A male translator was put on speaker phone, and during the time I was explaining the story to him, those nosy men were talking and laughing so sometimes I couldn't even hear or explain properly to the translator. +After telling her story, Jenna says police recommended that she not press charges because her alleged assailant was apparently still a minor. +Undeterred, Jenna said she still wanted to press charges. +The police measured and photographed Jenna's body in a process that took more than three hours. +Pressing charges also meant having to perform a reenactment, a common requirement when reporting a sexual assault in Japan: +We go into the Hall and there's a mannequin with a brown wig, plaid skirt and white shirt. +That's me. +They have a staff member acting as the chikan. +They have to set up/reenact and photograph every moment that happened on the train. +And I have to be in the photos pointing at the situation to confirm I agree that's what happened I guess? +Protocol they say. +Jenna noted that no potential witnesses had been contacted and that the police would make the final decision about pressing charges or not (in Japan, police refer criminal cases to a prosecutor). +They returned Jenna's cell phone and other belongings. +Nearly seven hours after being sexually assaulted on the train, she was free to go home. +They ask if I want to get a drive to Omotesandō station or home. +I pick home obviously, they groan, it's an hour drive. +But damn if I don't at least get a drive home out of this, I don't want to pay $15 just to get groped and waste 6.5 hours in the police station. +After the grueling experience at the police station, Jenna concluded: +If this happens again I will feel more powerless knowing there's probably nothing I can do, and nothing the police will do. #groping #chikan #japan #sexualharassment #police #痴漢 +Japanese Twitter responds to Jenna's story +In the days that followed, Jenna's tweets were shared and discussed by many people around the world who mostly showed support. +Some Japanese Twitter users also shared their own experiences with harassment and sexual assault in solidarity: +Hi, I've read your tweets. +I'm so sorry that you had to go through this. +I wish I could put a curse on him! +Absolutely unacceptable 😡😡I used to be harassed by 'Chikan' almost everyday as a kid. +I'm angry that abuse against women/children is never taken seriously in Japan! — 鮎を止めるな！ (@KellyPaaBio) July 27, 2018 +One Twitter user created a Twitter moment of Jenna's tweets: +As I tweeted about your experience, some Japanese guys criticized that it must be fake story. +So I translated your all tweets into Japanese, regarding to groping. +Here is the link of the translation. https://t.co/XxZZY646nD — dia feliz (@diafeliz_latin) August 7, 2018 +Police ask the survivor to delete her tweets +By late July, Jenna's assailant had reportedly confessed to groping her, but the police did not take further action. +Jenna tweeted that police had finally made the decision to put the assailant's case on record and hoped this would be enough to deter him from groping in the future. +When Jenna announced that the police suggested she take down her tweets, her story was shared more than 2,000 times: +Lmao the Japanese police suggested I delete the posts I made about my sexual assault. +Real nice Japan, try to hide your shitty treatment of me — Jenna (@Jennamaryellen) August 1, 2018 +Jenna later clarified the request: +Ok now the police are saying they wanted me to delete it for "my safety" not because they wanted me to hide anything. +I don't know if that's true or they're just trying to conver their butts, but I can protect myself, since clearly they won't — Jenna (@Jennamaryellen) August 1, 2018 + +No More Selling or Drinking Alcohol in Public After 10:30PM in Singapore · Global Voices +Cartoon by Andimoo Studios, used with permission +Singapore has passed a law that bans the buying and selling of alcohol, including the drinking of alcohol in public places, from 10:30 p.m. until 7 a.m. +The Liquor Control (Supply and Consumption) Bill, which was approved by the Parliament on January 30, 2015, will take effect in April. +First-time offenders will receive a fine of up to S$1,000 (about US$800), while repeat violators will be detained for up to three months and a fine not exceeding S$2,000 (about US$1,600) can be imposed on them. +The government said the measure is necessary after receiving numerous complaints related to drunken behavior. +But journalist Bertha Harian reminded the government that there is already a law (Miscellaneous Offences Act) that is supposed to deal with the problem. +She asks: “Why wield a sledgehammer when you already have a specific weapon dealing with drunken behavior?” +For Ariffin Sha, who writes for the independent news website The Online Citizen, the law “is a potent manifestation of the Government’s Paternalistic top-down approach towards its citizens.” +He adds: +We may have one of the best, if not the best, education systems in the world and the highest number of millionaires per capita in the world, but we still need our Government to play the role of a nanny. +Chan Joon Yee fears that small traders will suffer because of the new regulation: +I don’t sell alcohol, but it’s not difficult to imagine how such regulations will affect our poor, struggling shopkeepers. +Switch to dried goods and vegetables? +Are these folks serious? So how much rent are the shopkeepers paying? +Can you survive selling vegetables and dried goods at such locations? +For those who want to have a picnic in the park or a party in a public place, they need to secure a permit if they want to offer alcohol during the event. +Gavin Khoo, who writes for news website Coconuts Singapore, believes this can cause inconvenience to many people: +Picture this. +Romantic night out with the one you love, sitting by the waterfront, maybe watching the fireworks on New Year’s Eve – it’s the perfect time to pop the question. +Somehow, a bottle of effervescent grape juice just doesn’t cut it. +In response to critics, the government said that based on its own survey, four out of five (81 percent) people are supportive of the new alcohol restrictions. +Audrey Kang is one of the Singaporeans who are in favor the law: +I can see the benefits of the law, even if I hate it on the sole basis of having to pay more for alcohol or finding alternative places to drink…It is the anti-social behavior that the Bill is seeking to curb. +Many believe that the measure was introduced in response to the “Little India” riot on December 2013 that involved foreign residents and the police. +The government said that alcohol use was a contributory factor that led to the riot. +But it was the government which insisted that the riot was an isolated event and it should not be used to discriminate against foreigners. +The government should heed its own appeal since the Liquor Control law seems to be discriminatory as it defined foreign-worker dormitories as a public space. +It means that while Singaporeans can drink alcohol in their homes, foreign workers living in dormitories are banned from drinking, even during their non-working hours. +Worse, the law empowers the police to search any establishment or public space suspected of violating the provisions of the law. +No wonder some Singaporeans are criticizing the law for being biased against the low-paid foreign workers. +But there is a way for Singaporeans to drink in public without being caught by the police. +Alvinology gave this humorous advice: +Drink just outside your doorstep Within your door is your private space right? +If a policeman comes, step back inside. +When they are gone, put one foot out and you are living life dangerous once again, illegally drinking in public. + +Go sightseeing in Japan, right on YouTube · Global Voices +Glover Garden in Nagasaki. +Photo by Nevin Thompson. +Unlike many commercially-oriented channels that upload videos about tourist hotspots, the kappa2700s channel one distinct feature: it has no commentary. +Instead, the video features quiet strolls around popular tourist landmarks. +What makes the videos especially useful for travelers or anyone who has an interest in Japan is that each video includes annotations in English, with time stamps, of what particular sightseeing spot is on screen. +Eastern Kyoto +Maizuru and Amanohashidate +Located on the isolated and largely rural Japan Sea coastline of Kyoto Prefecture, Amanohashidate (the "floating bridge of heaven") is another popular tourist spot that is still largely undiscovered by tourists from outside of Japan. +Kurashiki +Matsuyama and Dogo Onsen +Located on the northwestern tip of the island of Shikoku, Matsuyama is home to probably the most famous hot spring in all of Japan, Dogo Onsen. +While the town takes center stage in Natsume Sōseki's 1906 novel Botchan (坊っちゃん), one of Japan's most famous pieces of literature, the main public bathhouse at Dogo Onsen has inspired the bathhouse in animated movie Spirited Away. +Nagasaki +While the Kyushu city of Nagasaki may be best known outside of Japan for being the site of the second atomic attack that ended World War II, this port city has a long and rich history thanks to its historical connections to Europe and China. +Visit almost every part of Japan from YouTube + +The artist 'Headache Stencil' uses graffiti to criticize military rule in Thailand · Global Voices +Headache Stencil posing in front of a portrait of Thailand's prime minister shaped in a maneki-neko cat. +Source: Headache Stencil, used with permission. +Through street graffiti and murals, the masked artist Headache Stencil has been depicting Thailand's ongoing clamor for democracy and reforms. +When the military grabbed power in May 2014 and subsequently drafted a new constitution reinforcing a military-backed government, they vowed to restore elections and civilian rule, but this has yet to be realized. +Headache Stencil started making graffiti after the 2014 coup. +In an interview with Art Whore, a website documenting underground pop art, he explains how he got started: +really do 'art' on the day military made coup in Thailand. +Really angry of soldier on that day. +Then go out to make graffiti. +In another interview with Hong Kong-based newspaper South China Morning Post, he explained why he chose the name ‘Headache Stencil’: +I’ve called myself Headache for a reason, bro...I want to give some people a headache. +If people see my work and start noticing that things aren’t fair, I’ve achieved my aim. +He believes Thai artists have a duty to reflect the deterioration of life under Junta rule. +In an interview with The Nation, Thailand’s major English-language daily, Headache Stencil said: +My art reflects dictatorship, corruption and the loss of freedom in our society. +It’s the artist’s most important role to mirror society’s illnesses and tell the world what Thailand is now facing under military junta rulers. +Early this year, he said he was hunted by the police for his graffiti mocking the country’s deputy prime minister who was exposed of possessing more than a dozen Rolex watches: +Headache Stencil used the familiar icon of the alarm clock to contrast it with the luxury watches of the deputy prime minister. +It also symbolizes the extended time of the army as head of the government and the necessity to be 'alarmed' with the situation by ending the dictatorship. +Source: Headache Stencil, used with permission. +His ‘Black Panther’ graffiti trended in the news after authorities whitewashed it. +The graffiti refers to a report about a prominent tycoon who was caught poaching wild animals, including a black panther. +Headache Stencil drew a panther on a wall and a mute button symbolizing the concern of many that the case will be eventually disregarded by the government: +'Black Panther' by Headache Stencil, used with permission. +Below are some of Headache Stencil’s street artworks highlighting the prolonged military rule and the repeated cancellation of open elections: +"Fourth year of Thai Military rule. +Where is democracy? +We miss you." +Image and caption by Headache Stencil, used with permission. +"How long u will be government huh? +Wanna postpone the election again???? +Please... this is too long." Image and caption by Headache Stencil, used with permission. +Headache Stencil created this poster below after the government banned the distribution of a Time magazine edition which featured the story of former army leader and the incumbent Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha: +Image by Headache Stencil, used with permission. + +‘Bien Chabacano’ blog preserves and promotes Asia's only Spanish-based creole language · Global Voices +Zamboanga City Hall in the Philippines. +Flickr photo by JC Tuclaud (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). +Chabacano, one of the Philippines’ 170 languages, is widely spoken in the southernmost city of Zamboanga and stands out as Asia's only Spanish-based creole language. +To preserve and promote Chabacano, ‘Bien Chabacano’ blog was created as an online resource for Filipinos and non-Filipinos interested in learning the language: +It's all about the Chabacano de Zamboanga. +Bien Chabacano is the first and only blog designed for Chabacano language enthusiasts which discusses and analyzes Chabacano word origins, Chabacano grammar, and vocabulary, and so much more! +Jerome Herrera, the ‘Bien Chabacano’ blog creator, explains his inspiration for initiating the project: +Bien Chabacano seeks to instill pride and improve proficiency in the Chabacano language among the young Chabacano speakers by talking about its rich and colorful history and demystifying its grammar's many intricacies and nuances. +As a creole language, Chabanaco is a mixture of Spanish and indigenous languages that evolved from a history of colonial interactions between Spain and the Philippines. +It is estimated that there are more than 600,000 Chabacano speakers in the country today. +The Philippines was a colony of Spain for more than three centuries from 1565 to 1898. +But unlike other former colonies of Spain, the Spanish language was not taught in the Philippines. +Instead, Spanish friars and officials introduced Christianity and ruled the country by studying the Phillippines' indigenous languages. +Spain subjugated the entire Philippine archipelago but encountered fierce resistance among some indigenous groups. +In the southern island of Mindanao which used to have a Muslim-majority population, Spanish troops established a garrison in nearby Zamboanga that was subsequently used as a base to attack Mindanao's Muslim settlements. +However, Spain never completely established control over Mindanao throughout its colonial occupation of the Philippines. +The city of Zamboanga health office featuring its slogan: "Nuestro deseo un ciudad sin enfermedad" (Our desire is a city free of illnesses). +Photo and caption from Bien Chabacano, used with permission. +Professor John M. Lipski of Pennsylvania State University in the United States studied the colorful history of Chabacano and its origins in Zamboanga: +Chabacano is the product of a rich cross-fertilization that could only have occurred in a region in which both great linguistic diversity and considerable overlapping areal features predominated. +Chabacano is a manifestation of linguistic and cultural resilience, a language which continues to grow in number of speakers and sociopolitical impact. +The blog ‘Bien Chabacano’ teaches readers basic words and phrases in Chabacano. +It features popular songs and short stories, and even a Chabacano translation of the Little Prince book. +Here is the Chabacano translation of the first paragraph of the Little Prince. +Notice its similarity with the Spanish language: +Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book called True Stories from Nature about the primeval forest. +It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. +Here is a copy of the drawing. +Image of a Zamboanga City bookstore advert written in Chabacano which roughly translates to: "The perfect place for you is appearing soon." +Photo and caption from Bien Chabacano, used with permission. +The blog directs readers to websites and social media pages where Chabacano is being used such as radio programs, television news reports, and government announcements. +The blog provides a brief background on the history of Chabacano, its different accents across the Zamboanga province, and the impact of migration and a modernizing economy on its development. +It also laments a lack of concerted efforts to promote Chabacano: +The state of Chabacano today is lamentable. +Let me sound the alarm bells as early as now! +Unless more aggressive preservation efforts will be implemented, the day will come when Chabacano will only be spoken inside the home. +This prediction is bleak but it is not without merit. +Through online platforms like ‘Bien Chabacano’, it is hoped that it will spark more enthusiasm in the Philippines and inspire students and netizens to learn, embrace, and continue to develop the Chabacano language. + +Chinese artist Badiucao sends 'Make Wall Great Again' hats to Google, in protest of company's return to China · Global Voices +'Make Wall Great Again' cartoon by Chinese political artist Badiucao. +The original version of this post was written by Holmes Chan and published on Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) on October 19, 2018. +The republication is based on a partnership agreement. +Chinese political cartoonist Badiucao sent a package of red baseball caps with the words “Make Wall Great Again” to Google headquarters in China, to protest the company's tentative plans to introduce a censored search engine there. +Badiucao — a Chinese-born artist and activist who now lives abroad — told HKFP that he sent about a dozen red caps to random Google employees. +He also left another dozen on sculptures around Google’s United States headquarters and sent a package of 50 caps to Google’s visitor shop. +Badiucao said the caps were a response to the search giant’s potential re-entry into China: +“I want to know it is a mistake to collaborate with China’s censorship. +It is as shameful as Trump’s wall, only this time it is an invisible wall online — the great firewall.” +Google left the Chinese market in 2010, citing human rights concerns. +But since August 2018, leaked internal documents, audio recordings, and sources from inside the company have indicated that Google is preparing to launch a search engine tailor-made for China. +Code-named "Dragonfly", the search engine would automatically identify and censor websites like Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, BBC, Global Voices and many others that are currently blocked in China, and remove search results that government officials deem sensitive. +Google CEO Sundar Pichai said on October 16 that “it was important to explore” the possibility of running a search engine in China, marking the first time that Google executives confirmed the project’s existence, despite multiple leaks. Pichai said the project was able to serve over 99 percent of search queries and still comply with Chinese censorship laws. +When Google left the Chinese market years ago, a lot people its principle of defending free speech. But now, with the Dragonfly program and its CEO defending the program, it only left deep disappointment and fear of the consequences of this super submission to a brutal regime. +Badiucao first created the caps as part of a cartoon, with the cap's wearer bearing a distinct resemblance to Sundar Pichai. He later had the cap made into physical merchandise. +He said he also tried to interview Google employees about the project, but most declined to comment and would not accept the caps. +However, he said he spoke to some Chinese employees at Google who appeared to support the censored search engine. +He added: +I hope will receive the message. +If Google wants to help China or Chinese people, it should help us to fight and defeat the censorship system instead of becoming a part of it. +As for the message on his cap, Badiucao said he decided on “Make Wall Great Again” because of its double reference: first to China’s censorship system, nicknamed the great firewall, as well as to Trump’s slogan. +For me the Trump cap is the crown of shame… Giving something similar to Google is the best ironic thing I can do in the USA. +HKFP has reached out to Google for comment. + +Terrifying folk rituals from Japan added to UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list · Global Voices +Traditional namahage demon costumes from different villages in Akita prefecture, Japan. +Photo by Douglas P Perkins Douglaspperkins/CC 3.0 +Together with Jamaica's reggae, Irish hurling and traditional Georgian wrestling, Japan's "visiting deity" folk rituals (来訪神, raihoshin) were added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in November 2018. +The rituals were added to the UNESCO list for a variety of reasons, primarily because by performing the rituals "local people — notably children — have their identities molded, develop a sense of affiliation to their community," according to UNESCO in its announcement. +Visiting deity rituals are performed in rural communities all over Japan, typically at the end of the year, or when seasons change, especially at summer's end and the start of fall, and the traditional end of winter — according to Japan's old calendar — and the start of spring. +The rituals and deities are based on folk traditions with far older roots in Japan than Buddhism or even Shintoism. +According to UNESCO: +Raihoshin rituals take place annually in various regions of Japan — especially in the Tohoku, Hokuriku, Kyushu and Okinawa regions — on days that mark the beginning of the year or when the seasons change. +Such rituals stem from folk beliefs that deities from the outer world — the Raihoshin — visit communities and usher in the new year or new season with happiness and good luck. +While the rituals differ from region to region, the visiting deities are best known as namahage, a kind of ogre or demon. +The rituals generally involve men or women dressed as namahage demons or other raishoshin using crude costumes and masks — and sometimes armed with knives. +Often the demons enter homes to scare children until placated with sake, beer or a similar offering. +In other variations of the ritual, the demons chase children through the streets to scare them. +In this video from Kumamoto, on the southwestern island of Kyushu, a man dressed as a namahage enters a home during setsubun, traditionally the day before the start of spring and now observed each year on February 3. +In some parts of Kumamoto, a namahage visits the household, terrifying the young children. +Part of the setsubun tradition all over Japan involves children throwing roasted soybeans at a family member wearing an ogre mask, but in Kumamoto children can throw beans at someone wearing the full ogre costume from head to toe, appearing to be the "real thing": +There are variations on the tradition throughout the Japanese archipelago. +The island of Miyako, in the far southwestern reaches of Japan, performs the Paantu ritual. +The local men who play the role of visiting gods wear crude masks and cover their bodies with mud and vines, and then lurch around towns smearing mud on people for good health and fortune for the next twelve months. +The ritual, of course, frightens the wits out of local children: +Akita Prefecture in northeastern Japan is perhaps most famous for visiting deity rituals, and there is a museum devoted to the namahage demons at the base of the Oga Peninsula. +After failing to get Akita's namahage ritual added to UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list several years ago, Japan decided to submit all visiting deity rituals as a single group in 2018 and was successful. +Japan's persistence at listing various cultural assets and practices with UNESCO has not gone unnoticed by some observers. +