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Palestine: Objecting the ‘t-word’ · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Writing at KABOBfest, Carlos argues for the non-biased application of the term ‘terrorist’ following the bulldozer attack in Israel. “Would Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post use the ‘t-word’ to describe Israelis who use the same type of machinery to destroy dozens of homes in East Jerusalem?” he asks.


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Palestine: Viva Palestina arrives in Egypt  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Kalash reports on the progress and politics surrounding a 100-vehicle convey from the UK – Viva Palestina – that is slowly edging its way towards Gaza, which is now in Egypt.

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Poland: “Sexiest Female Politician” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Polandian is holding a vote for Poland's “sexiest female politician.”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Romania: European Parliament Salaries · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Kosmopolito reports: “On June 7, Romanians will go to the polls to vote for the 33 MEPs who will be representing them in Brussels for the next five years. […] Unlike the current MEPs, who get paid the same amount as the members of Parliament in their respective countries, the MEPs to be elected in June will all receive a basic monthly salary of around 7000 €. While that is not exactly good news for representatives of countries like Italy or Germany, for the Romanians this represents a huge increase from their current salary of around 1200 €. Moreover, this seems to constitute the main reason behind the ‘war of candidates’ that is taking place within the main Romanian parties.”


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Russia: Second Trial of Khodorkovsky · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Updates and background on the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev in Moscow – at Robert Amsterdam's Blog: here, here, here, and here.


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Russia: Two New Blogs on Economy · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Siberian Light introduces two new blogs on Russia's economy: The Parallax Brief and CrisisCrunch.


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Russia, U.S.: Policy Suggestions · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Streetwise Professor writes that “[a] little more realism, and a little more poker savvy, would be welcome in dealing with Russia.”


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Sierra Leone: Giving women and girls sense of hope · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Amie Kandeh, the IRC’s gender-based violence prevention coordinator in Sierra Leone, talks about how her team works to give thousands of women and girls back their sense of hope, belonging and self-respect.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Trinidad & Tobago: Fact Checking  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As some mainstream media broadcast a story about children being found in containers at the port of Port of Spain, which allegedly turned out to be a rumour, 5am at Mango Media Caribbean says: “Without journalists, democracies don't function and in our new social media world the role of an editor to corroborate, fact check and verify is crucial.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Trinidad & Tobago: Welcoming President Obama · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

President Obama has confirmed his attendance at the upcoming Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, prompting This Beach Called Life to write him a letter of welcome and The Secret Blog of Patrick “Patos” Manning to write a creative post on “Mr. Obama’s late RSVP”.


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Ukraine: A Visit to Chernobyl Exclusion Zone · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

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.”


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Ukraine: Riot Police Attack Crimean Tatar House · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Ukrainiana describes a tragic incident that happened in Crimea, when riot police stormed a house by mistake, using noise/flash diversionary device and severely injuring people who were inside: “That’s the way police works in Ukraine, and particularly in Crimea. In fact, Crimean law enforcement appears to be bent on inciting a civil war.”


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Ukraine: “Touring Ukraine’s Economy” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Petro of Petro's Jotter posts his observations on business and life in Ukraine, and on the effect that the financial crisis is having on the country's citizens, as he is traveling by car from Kyiv to Kharkiv, and from Kharkiv to Donetsk.


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USA: Blogging from Prison · Global Voices
Hoa Quach

Reading books, playing cards, or learning new skills, are some of the tips on how to deal with going to jail offered by former inmate Sam Stanfield on Ezine @rticles. But for the 1 in 100 adults in prisons across the USA, another pastime can now be blogging – at least via someone on the outside with access to a computer.
Blogging from prison is becoming more and more widespread.
Shaun Atwood, a former prisoner, now maintains a blog titled, Jon’s Jail Journal, in which he posts letters from imprisoned Americans.
Shaun Attwood
Late last year, he received a letter from “lifer” Renee, who was sentenced to 60 years in an Arizona prison when she was only a teenager. Renee writes that she works and goes to school, and also describes other prison happenings.
“You asked what I think of chow. Oh that made me laugh. I can not eat in the kitchen. I’ve seen them pull a cockroach out of the soup and keep serving it. I’ve seen the trays on the yard and the pigeons eating out of them. Raw chicken lying about not covered up. It grosses me out.”
Also in Arizona, is Shannon Park, a writer and human rights activist. Park writes on his blog, Persevering Prison Pages, that his prison complex is lacking staff.
Shannon Park
“Contrary to popular belief and information provided to Arizona's lawmakers and tax-payers, filled COII positions in the ADOC are lacking. Enough so that guards must be pulled from other units to keep the minimal number of guards needed to keep a unit running. And lawmakers are currently in the process of reducing the number of COII's in ADOC by 614. Being short staffed while over-crowded can be very harmful. Especially in a place riddled with drugs, frustration, hunger, animosity and addicts who believe they have nothing to lose.”
Park goes on to describe some of the activities of other cell members including use of heroine and other drugs. He says monitoring is lacking because of diminished staff.
On the blog, Friends of Prisoners, a recent post asks readers to become pen pals with four prisoners who are mentally ill. One is James Schmeisser from Wisconsin who writes that he is isolated.
“Hello to those who are caring, loving and understanding. I am at this time under considerable duress due to my current situation. I’m isolated for 24 hours a day 3X a week and 23 hours 4X a week. I have no family support, moral support, friend support etc. As most people I have made mistakes and my kids and I have suffered and I actually don’t know what to do. The devil has been actively destroying everything in my life. Including my attempts to be a better man, my back is up against the wall and truly I am suffering mentally, emotionally and physically.”
Activism is also alive in prison with a group called SHAC7, who were imprisoned for “campaigning to close down the notorious animal testing lab, Huntingdon Life Sciences.”
One of the group’s members, Josh Harper has a self-titled blog. In his latest post, he writes that he continues to fight, and refuses to consider the prison his home.
“As of today the state has stolen the last two years of my life. On November 16th of 2006, I walked into the nearby Federal Detention Center, was stripped naked, given a jumpsuit, and thrown in a cell for advocating controversial tactics to shut down an animal lab.
The first inmates I met gave me some advice— try to forget you are here. Don’t think about the time. Do your best not to remember the outside world. What awful advice! Although it might make my life harder, I’m relieved that I still bristle at incarceration. I never want to be one of the fully domesticated folks who slowly stop seeing the bars and razor wire and start to consider this place home. I hate prison with a passion. That lets me know I’m still sane.”

author: Hoa Quach


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Brazil: Uproar over newpaper’s editorial on “mild dictatorship”  · Global Voices
Paula Góes

On February 17, Folha de São Paulo newspaper assessed Hugo Chávez's victory in a referendum allowing indefinite re-election in Venezuela in an editorial called the “Limits to Chávez”. In this piece, Folha put Hugo Chávez, Alberto Fujimori and the 1960s/1970s South American military dictators in the same lot. The newspaper then called the Brazilian military dictatorship Ditabranda, a neologism that would sound, in English, something like “dictatormildship”, suggesting that the period following the 1964 coup d'état was mild. The op-ed says [pt]:
“(…) Mas, se as chamadas ‘ditabrandas’ – caso do Brasil entre 1964 e 1985 – partiam de uma ruptura institucional e depois preservavam ou instituíam formas controladas de disputa política e acesso à Justiça -, o novo autoritarismo latino-americano, inaugurado por Alberto Fujimori no Peru, faz o caminho inverso. O líder eleito mina as instituições e os controles democráticos por dentro, paulatinamente”.
There were countless reactions on the blogosphere to this op-ed, a petition gathered over 7,500 signatures in a week, and this Saturday the protest went offline. Bloggers from São Paulo and other parts of the country, some of whom travelled up to 20h by bus to get there, demonstrated in front of the newspaper office. The event was organized and spread by online word of mouth over a a week. During the 3 hours rally, the protestors live blogged directly from there through a linux and open source based wi-fi network. As the start time drew close, Guto Carvalho announced on Twitter:
Check the live aggregrator [pt] to see all the activity. Economia Solidária [pt], one of the participating blogs, notices the power of the blogosphere:
Alguns dias atrás o google pouco acusava se pesquisado “ditabranda”, hoje já são 172.000 resultados.
Here is the first photo, by gutocarvalho via TwitPic. And @joildo re-tweets and comments:
“A materialização de um protesto organizado a partir da internet”
The blogosphere talks – and it is not mild chat
Eduardo Guimarães [pt], one of the organizers of the protest and the mastermind blogger behind the NGO “Medialess Movement”, has posted a number of articles about the use of the neologism. In one of them, he says that the readers’ reactions to his other posts have made him realise that Folha's op-ed sent chills down many people's spines. He asks: “Was it out of nostalgia or a ‘project'?”
Todos nos arrepiamos porque faz sentido, ainda que inconscientemente, entender que, quando todas as opções para retomar o poder pelas vias democráticas faltam, esses que já engendraram ditaduras, defenderam-nas e com elas colaboraram, não custa muito para terem novas idéias do tipo.
Quando se fala em imprensa golpista, muitos entendem que é porque ela tentou derrubar Lula com o escândalo do mensalão, mas não é. A razão é bem outra. A razão é a de que essa imprensa já derrubou vários presidentes no decorrer da história, alguns tendo sido “derrubados” naquele sentido que os traficantes de drogas costumam dar ao abate de seus desafetos.
It sent chills down everyone's spine because it makes sense, even if unconsciously, to understand that when those who have engendered, defended and cooperated with dictatorships lack options to return to power by democratic means, it does not take much for them to come up with similar new  ideas.
When we talk about a media coup, many people believe that it is because the media has tried to overthrow Lula with the Mensalão scandal, but this is not quite it. The reason is quite different. The reason is that the press has already toppled several presidents in the course of history, some of them have been “overturned” in the same way that drugdealers often slaughter their enemies.
Many bloggers have published the image below, a charge drew by Latuff especially for the protest, showing Vladimir Herzog dead, drinking caipirinha and the caption: “The Brazilian military dictatorship, as per Folha de São Paulo”. Herzog was a Brazilian Jewish academic and journalist who was tortured to death by the state's repressive apparatus in 1975. At the time, the military had been in power for over ten years. Pinto [pt]  says:
Fixo-me na imagem. Um jornal dos que o subvencionam e já se disse “o das Diretas” logrou este impensável: subverteu um ícone dos Anos de Chumbo e o tornou objeto de escracho não contra quem o produziu, mas contra quem deveria combatê-lo antes de qualquer coisa. Compreenda-me bem. Não me incomoda o escracho em si. À memória do Vlado dano pior fizeram os milicos. Tento aceitar, embora seja difícil, que justo um jornal tenha sido a força-motriz dessa guinada semântica.
Celso Lungaretti [pt] has noticed that the paper did not acknowledge correctly all messages of complaint about the op-ed in its Letters to the Editor section. In the first week, the broadsheet gave a proportional amount attention to the letters it received, 13% of which were related to the “ditabranda” case. But this did not last into the week after:
Já na semana de 22 a 28 de fevereiro, a proporção de mensagens sobre a “ditabranda” até cresceu, para 20%. O que diminuiu foi o interesse da Folha em destacar uma discussão que se tornava cada vez mais indigesta para ela.
Portanto, dentre as 69 notas que saíram no Painel do Leitor, míseras quatro (5,8%) abordavam o assunto que, para o público do jornal, era o mais importante do período, à frente até do “Governo Lula” e da “crise econômica”, sobre os quais apenas 6,4% e 5,3% dos leitores, respectivamente, sentiram-se compelidos a escrever à Folha.
Therefore, out the 69 letters published on the Letters to the Editor, only four (5.8%) addressed the most pressing issue of the period according to the newspaper's public, ahead even of the issues of the “Lula government” and the “Economic crisis”, about which only 6.4% and 5.3% of readers, respectively, felt compelled to write to the paper.
The total number of complaints over a 10 day period from February 17 was 174.  Despite the fact that an ombudsman's work does not comprise opinions published by the newspaper in op-ed pieces, the newspaper's Ombudsman, Carlos Eduardo Lins da Silva, also says that Folha's response has been less than acceptable in the first week:
An editorial referring to Brazil's former military regime provoked letters published in Letters to the Editor. A response by the newsroom to two of them on Friday was outside the standards of cordiality which I believe are essential for the newspaper to hold its readers.
Folha has lost at least one reader. The newspaper's attitude has made Idelber Avelar [pt] take the decision to cancel his subscription to the group's online service. He has also confirmed his thesis that mainstream media staff have no clue of the importance of readers, who can now participate and have a loud voice. Now that the Internet is the key platform for protest, “they blame the thermometer for the temperature”. He says:
Todas as fontes confirmam que o impacto do episódio fez com que se batessem muitas cabeças na redação da Folha de São Paulo. Sem saber muito bem como lidar com a grande repercussão, sem ter a dignidade de se desculpar, desprovido da transparência de repensar a sua colaboração com a ditadura, o jornal embarcou numa sequência de emendas que pioraram muito um já péssimo soneto. Publicaram umas poucas linhas de Benevides e de Comparato, sem resposta injuriosa mas sem retratação. Escalaram um colunista, Fernando Barros e Silva, para “discordar” do editorial num texto cuja ênfase maior era uma bizarra comparação entre a metáfora usada por Comparato – de que o jornal deveria se desculpar ajoelhado em praça pública – e os métodos da Revolução Cultural chinesa (haja liberdades com as metáforas alheias!). O coroamento foi um post de Marcelo Coelho que afirmava que “há pelo menos 30 anos, a Folha reprova o autoritarismo”, omitindo a simples matemática de que em 1979 a Folha já tinha 15 anos de leais serviços prestados à ditadura militar.
Suggested reading:
Torture in Brazil – A Shocking Report on the Pervasive Use of Torture by Brazilian Military Governments, 1964-1979, Secretly Prepared by the Archiodese of São Paulo, in translation by Jaime Wright.
On Global Voices: Brazil: Light on the dark dictatorship days
Update: 08/03/2009
In this Sunday's issue, Folha has apologised at last. They have also covered the protest. Antônio Melo [pt] says this is still not enough:
A pressão fez a Folha recuar. Hoje o jornal publica nota em que o diretor de Redação e herdeiro do jornal, Otavio Frias Filho, reconhece que foi um erro chamar a ditadura brasileira de ditabranda. Menos mal. No entanto, Otavinho, como é conhecido, insiste em atropelar a realidade ao fazer interpretação literal de uma carta do professor Fábio Konder Comparato, e, pior, volta a ofender o professor e a professora Maria Victória Benevides, chamando-os de “democratas de fachada”. Com isso ele consegue corrigir-se no essencial, mas, como um legítimo neocon, cai atirando. Sua expectativa com a nota é tentar transformar o mea culpa a que se viu obrigado de uma “quase derrota” em uma “quase vitória”. Erra novamente.

author: Paula Góes


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Egypt: A tour in a palace · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Nerro, who recently visited Abdeen Palace in down town Cairo, takes us through a quick tour inside the palace with her camera in tow.

author: Eman AbdElRahman


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Egypt: Cairo, a divided city · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

The Arabist posted a comprehensive video discussing the contradictions and new divisions in Cairo.


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Egypt: Hijacked Ship Released · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

With no clear details, its been announced that the Blue Star ship, that was hijacked  by Somali pirates since September 2008, has been released. Zeinobia comments on the development.


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Egypt: The AUC Gestapo · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Socialist revolutionist and Hossam El Hamalawy wrote their concerns over the relocation of American University in Cairo (AUC) from downtown Cairo to the desert. They also highlighted  the story of the six workers who died during the four years it took to build the new campus, based on an article published in March edition of Caravan –  a student-produced news magazine of the AUC.


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Europe: Obama’s Upcoming Visit and Quotes · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

U.S. president Barack Obama is planning to visit Great Britain, France, Germany and the Czech Republic next month, during his first trip to Europe since taking office.
In a post titled “They all want to meet him,” P O Neill of A Fistful of Euros writes this about the upcoming visit:
An interesting wrinkle for those who care about summitry: Barack Obama’s visit to Europe in April will include Prague for what is being billed as the annual EU-USA summit.
[…]
Thus it’s going to be a big show, but presumably at the expense of getting much done with 28 heads of state/government and the Commission in attendance. It will get in a lot of “grip and grin” handshake photos for Barack Obama. Is this the format that the Obama team wanted to make worthwhile a visit to a “small” state?
Obama's words about Poland and the Czech Republic have caught attention of Taras of Ukrainiana:
[…] I also remember Obama referring to the Poles and the Czechs as “fledgling democracies.”
But this quote knocked me off my feet:
Russia needs to understand our unflagging commitment to the independence and security of countries like a Poland or a Czech Republic. On the other hand, we have areas of common concern.
[…]
Because I’m a smalltime Ukrainian who lives in a smalltime country that gave up the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal for chicken feed, I view Obama's remarks as a Bittergate. […]
Obama's mention of Hungary has also ruffled some feathers.
Pestiside.hu wrote:
OMG! OMG! Barack Obama mentioned Hungary – by name. If you don't believe the front page of Index.hu, just go to this transcript of the O-mighty's news conference yesterday and keyword search for, well, duh. Yes, his first public reference to Hungary while in office didn't go exactly the way we might have planned (he basically said we're a bunch of psycho losers who need serious help before we hurt someone). Still, he's knows who we are!
And here's a more serious – as well as economy-focused – take on it by Eva Balogh of Hungarian Spectrum:
[…] Others also blame Barack Obama who after meeting with Gordon Brown, prime minister of the Great Britain, said the following: “One of the things that Prime Minister Brown and I talked about is how can we coordinate so that all the G20 countries, all the major countries around the world, in a coordinated fashion, are stimulating their economies; how can we make sure that there are a common set of principles, in terms of how we're approaching banking, so that problems that exist in emerging markets like Hungary or the Ukraine don't have these enormous ripple effects that wash back onto our shores, and we're providing them with some help in a coordinated international fashion, as well.”
Well, that did it in Hungary. How does Obama dare to compare Hungary to Ukraine! No wonder that the forint started to fall even more rapidly after that speech. Moreover, it takes gall, these people say, to talk about problems that “will wash back to our shores.” After all, where did this whole mess start? Not in Hungary. Hungary is the victim of irresponsibility in the American banking system. […]


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Iran:Questions for Founder Iran Inside Out · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Pars Arts has published an interview with  Shaghayegh Azimi, Founder of Willow Films and Iran Inside Out. Her project aims to open up opportunities for the hundreds of talented and passionate young filmmakers in Iran.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Kenya: A video of a police officer who witnessed killings · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A video confession by a Kenyan Police Officer who witnessed extra-judicial killings of 58 suspects by his colleagues under orders from their superiors. The confession was taken by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights on June 25th 2008.


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Kyrgyzstan: No Rest For the Internet · Global Voices
Elena Skochilo

The head of the State Patent Department [en] Ulan Melisbek told [ru] that this department will try to take control of the service registration of domain names in the .kg zone.
Ulan Melisbek is sure that the .kg zone represents the national interests, and its administration should be under state control, rather than a private company. Currently, the right of registration of domain names in .kg zone belongs to the private company “AsiaInfo” [ru].
AsiaInfo appeared at the right time in the right place, when our government didn't understand well the role of the Internet, and had no relevant experts. AsiaInfo managed to get the right to administer .kg zone. Kg and turned it into a business. National .kg zone shouldn't belong to the private company. It should be under the supervision of the state, Ulan Melisbek said.
What are the Internet users saying?
As usual, forum users were the first who reacted to this news. The topic has quickly grown to 13 pages [ru], there were involved about 60 users in a discussion.
The creation of the integrated register of domains, and the attraction to the domain service the various organizations – this is good! And if Ulan Melisbek begins to maintain badly, our task will be to explain to him how to do it properly,  user praktikant suggested [ru].
Some users consider the initiative of the Patent Department will bring the corruption into the domain name registration service.
And what about the increase of the level of Kyrgyzstan and a struggle with corruption? If the state has the right to register and control the domain names, it will only develop the corruption, user Crazyman told [ru].
A number of the forum users would agree with Ulan Melisbek. They consider that the company-domain-registrar shouldn’t be a monopolist. If the company didn’t have the exclusive right to register the domain names, it would help to develop competition and decreasing of the prices.
I think, Ulan Melisbek is right. AsiaInfo has the great incomes from the registration and support of the domain names. Because of the high prices, our local Internet content doesn’t develop quickly. Firstly, I would deprive the exclusive right in this area. Only the honest competition can bring the prices decrease for the registration and support of the domain names. The state should have only the regulative functions, but not the prohibitive. IMHO, regulation of the registration and support of the domain names in .kg zone will help to organize the .kg zone. I consider that Ulan Melisbek won’t control the Internet-content. I think he is sure that it is impossible. Only some dumb politics still want to try to control the internet content with the help of the state, user Tarantino considered [ru].
Opinions of the professionals
Aleksey Bebinov, the coordinator of the IT-projects of the “Civil Initiative on Internet Policy” supposes that the change of the company-registrar won’t give any positive results. Moreover, such initiative can affect to the quantity of the domain names in .kg zone. Aleksey Bebinov also doubts that the state structure as the registrar of the domain names will be the objective and unbiased in the domain name politics.
There will always be a risk of the state pressure, even if the head of the Patent Department will be equitable towards the clients. I doubt that the Patent Department has enough specialists to support and serve the root servers of .kg zone. Besides, I am sure they won’t decrease the prices significantly. The present price is an equal price. It consists of the set of the costs for the service and support of all infrastructure and the staff to keep up the usual work of the servers and other business, Bebinov explained special for Neweurasia.
The head of the non-government organization “Civil Initiative on Internet Policy” [en] Tattu Mambetalieva expressed her anxiety in the official letter to the Patent Department. She stressed in the letter that the functions of the administering of .kg zone were transferred to the AsiaInfo company by the ICANN [en] organization. ICANN coordinates role of the Internet’s naming system. To change the registrar the special procedure is required. This procedure is set up by the American organization IANA [en], which is responsible for the global coordination of the DNS Root, IP addressing, and other Internet protocol resources. Moreover, the consent of the AsiaInfo and the opinion of the Internet society are required to start the transfer the right of the domain name registration to the other company. As a rule, the change of the company-registrar will start if the company doesn’t follow the special rules of domain name system structure and delegation (RFC 1591) [en]. The evidence of the rule violations is also required.
The control of the Internet sites from the state structures violates the main rights and freedoms of the people and contradicts the Kyrgyz Constitution and the international commitments of Kyrgyzstan. Such control can lead to the legalized censorship in the Internet, said in the letter.
The author of the podcast for the programmers [ru] Oleg Puzanov noted that the decreasing of the price of the domain names would be the important factor for the business.
In one hand, that initiative can increase and give a stimulus for the SME in the Kyrgyz Internet . But in other hand our state because of the lack of the experience in the Internet-business can create very difficult procedure for the registration.  In that case even the drop of the prices won’t help to the local businessmen to buy a domain in .kg. zone, Oleg Puzanov told special for Neweurasia.

author: Elena Skochilo


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Myanmar: Withdrawal of Currency Notes in 1987 · Global Voices
tan

The blogger Niknayman had written a blog post about the withdrawal of newly-replaced currency notes such as “25 Kyats” “35 Kyats” and “75 Kyats” in 1987, which later became a reason for the 1988 protests to begin.
On September 5, 1987, under the regime of General Ne Win, (U) Sein Lwin, The Secretary of Union Council signed an order that dissolved the bills issued by The Bank of the Union of Myanmar, which are: 25 Kyats, 35 Kyats, and 75 Kyats.
Niknayman wrote:
That September 5th was a Saturday. The time when Myanma Radio announced the withdrawal of the bills was at 11am. Since it was a Saturday, the people were out on the streets to visit places, friends or to go shopping and the people who had been preparing hastily to go out all froze in place when the news was announced on the radio. Within a couple of hours, everyone just stopped. The streets became empty, and it was as if some terrible fate had fallen.
After the withdrawl of those currency bills, the new currency bills of 45 Kyats and 90 Kyats were released. However, the government made no motion of exchanging the bills that had been abolished.
The new currency bills (45 Ks. and 90 Ks.) were divisible by 9, and that no. 9 is considered lucky for General Ne Win. Also, the pictures of Sayar San and Thakhin Phoe Hla Gyi (two Burmese revolutionists during the colonial era) had been placed on the bills, instead of pictures of General Aung San (whose pictures had been on all 3 abolished bills).
Niknayman wrote about the plight of people and the citizens:
The poor citizens, middle-class citizens, government workers, and private companies suffered a great loss because of this currency abolishment while the people and the families who were closely associated with the government and the families of the ministries were notified about this secretly, so they went ahead to exchange their cash money with gold and jewels, and also went ahead and bought rice, cooking oil and cooking necessities and stored them. It was only the ordinary citizens of the country who had to suffer from the affects of this currency withdrawal.
Young students, who came (to Yangon) from all around the country and lived in dormitories, faced a blockade of financial aid from their parents, and faced difficulties in paying tuition fees and living expanses. The eradication of currency bills without a solid explanation was just like robbing from the people created many problems for the people and also for the students. These reasons were why the people and the students were highly dissatisfied with General Ne Win's regime, and participated enthusiastically in 1988 Revolution.
The quotes mentioned in the post are translations done by the author. The original quotes are written in Burmese language.

author: tan


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Thailand: Web director arrested for “allowing offensive comments” · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Prachatai web director Chiranuch Premchaiporn was arrested by police yesterday for “disseminating lese majeste content on the website.” To put it in another way, she was arrested for allowing comments on the website which the police deemed as offensive to the monarchy. Chiranuch is now out on bail.
Prachatai is an independent and popular website in Thailand. It is an important source of alternative news in Thailand. The website has been censored many times. More than 20 pages on Prachatai have been blocked by authorities in the last five months. The arrested editor has been summoned by the police for eight times already to answer questions about the content of the website.
In Thailand, there is a “draconian” computer crime bill that states that any service provider who deliberately let a third party post anything that violates the law is also subject to the same liability as the person who committed the offense. Excerpts from the 2007 Computer Crime Act which the Prachatai editor allegedly violated:
Article 14. If any person commits any offence of the following acts shall be subject to imprisonment for not more than five years or a fine of not more than one hundred thousand baht or both:
(1) that involves import to a computer system of forged computer data, either in whole or in part, or false computer data, in a manner that is likely to cause damage to that third party or the public;
(2) that involves import to a computer system of false computer data in a manner that is likely to damage the country's security or cause a public panic;
(3) that involves import to a computer system of any computer data related with an offence against the Kingdom's security under the Criminal Code;
(4) that involves import to a computer system of any computer data of a pornographic nature that is publicly accessible;
(5) that involves the dissemination or forwarding of computer data already known to be computer data under (1) (2) (3) or (4);
Article 15. Any service provider intentionally supporting or consenting to an offence under Section 14 within a computer system under their control shall be subject to the same penalty as that imposed upon a person committing an offence under Section 14
Thailand has been very strict in implementing the lese majeste law. It jailed an Australian writer for “insulting” the Thai King who is the most beloved figure in the country. A Bangkok-based academic recently fled the country to escape prosecution (and “unfair trial”) for the same crime. Almost 5,000 webpages have been blocked since March last year because they contain content deemed insulting to the royal family.
What are some of the comments of internet readers and bloggers?
Hobby believes the arrest will worsen the political climate in Thailand:
They are just making things worse for themselves – will they never learn? It might have been possible in the old days to have the total control they want, but those days are long gone – unless they want to be like Burma or North Korea, in which case they can kiss the tourism golden egg goodbye!
Bob notes that the arrest was made on the same day the Prime Minister vowed to honor press freedom:
How ironic that on the same day that Thailand's most active and informative news website is being threatened and its editor arrested, the Prime Minister is simultaneously making a speech in Bangkok about increasing Press freedom in Thailand
Asian Human Rights Commission believes this is part of the government agenda to intimidate critics:
There can be little room for doubt that this raid is part of the systematic ultraconservative agenda since the 2006 army coup to intimidate and silence critics, human rights defenders and social activists in Thailand. In fact, the odious law under which the raid and arrest warrant have been issued is one of the main planks in the platform designed to be built over the heads of dissenters in Thailand that was given effect by an assembly of military appointees in 2007.
FACT – Freedom Against Censorship Thailand accuses authorities of stifling freedom of thought in the country:
Thai authorities want to stop freedom of thought, freedom of opinion, free discussion and free expression in Thailand, whether voiced on the Internet or through books, news, opinion and editorial articles, films and broadcast media. What kind of society can be have without being able to freely dialogue with one another?
Teeranai Charuvastra suggests that the real target of the police is the web commenter, not the editor:
It has been suggested that perhaps the real reason behind this raid is that the police want to get hold of a certain webboard user, hence the explanation for why the Computer Crime law was used – not the infamous Lese Majeste – and the fact that only Ms. Chiranuch, who’s the webboard administrator, is arrested.
Anyway, I have no clue how to deal with this. Any protest won’t turn out fruitful, you know the Thai media.
Siam Report blames the vagueness of the law which allows authorities to use it against perceived enemies of the state:
It seems the lack of clarity creates conditions rife for political manipulation and abuse. I suppose if it is clearly defined, then I could be guilty for ignorance of the law.
Breaking Tweets gathers reactions from Twitter.

author: Mong Palatino


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Ukraine: Foreign Minister Fired, Naftogaz Office Stormed · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

This has been a pretty turbulent week in Ukraine: on Tuesday, the parliament fired Volodymyr Ohryzko, Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister, and on Wednesday, riot police stormed the Kyiv headquarters of Naftogaz, the Ukrainian national energy company.
Ukrainiana wrote this about the foreign affairs minister situation:
The Verkhovna Rada Tuesday fired Volodymyr Ohryzko, Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister, who had recently reprimanded Russian ambassador Viktor Chernomyrdin for meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs.
The move gathered 250 votes: 174 from the Party of Regions, 27 from the Communist Party, and 49 from the increasingly pro-Russian BYuT.
[…]
Tymoshenko resented Ohryzko’s direct reporting relationship with President Yushchenko. “As Minister, Ohryzko radically did not suit me. It's a person that is not professional, a person who systemically engaged in provocations against the government.”
To hell with political correctness! It's about time Tymoshenko appointed Сhernomyrdin Ukraine's foreign affairs minister!
LEvko of Foreign Notes had this explanation for the Naftogas office siege situation:
[…] It is not unreasonable to conclude yesterday's SBU raid was pay-back for BYuT's assistance in ousting the president's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Volodymyr Ohryzko, in parliament earlier this week, and just a further round in the war of attrition between the president and PM. […]
Ukrainiana provided some background, calling what happened “an interesting Yushchenko-Firtash v. Tymoshenko-Putin episode, featuring Ukraine’s elite counter-terrorist unit Alfa”:
[…] On Wednesday, Alfa stormed the Naftogaz head office in Kyiv to seize Tymoshenko’s gas agreements and to prevent the alleged theft of the so-called “technical gas.”
Background: It was the gas that Firtash had lost to Tymoshenko when he had lost Putin’s support in January. Then-customs chief Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, who has a business relationship with Firtash, refused to finalize the transaction, deeming it illegal. As a result, some 11 bcm of RosUkrEnergo’s gas have changed hands a few times between Naftogaz and Gazprom. Tymoshenko then fired Khoroshkovsky, and Yushchenko appointed him deputy director of the SBU.
[…]
It also reminds me of how Yushchenko and his team clashed with members of the Kuchma-Yanukovych regime in the Central Election Commission in October 2004.
Times have changed.
Today, it's Yushchenko and Tymoshenko who are clashing with each other, with special interests on both sides. […]
More background and analysis can be found at Tetyana Vysotska's What's Up, Ukraine? blog:
[…] Anyway, the most interesting thing is not a scary picture, but the reasons of the scandal. As every contemporary problem in Ukraine, it has origins in the struggle for power between the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko and the Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko. […]
James of Robert Amsterdam's Blog began his post about the Naftogaz siege this way:
The disintegration of Ukraine continues. […]
Eternal Remont also had a Naftogaz siege post and seemed to be of the same opinion on the state of things in Ukraine:
[…] Given: Ukraine is falling apart. […]
Kyiv-based Abdymok, who appears to have been near the Naftogaz building at the time of the siege, chose to post a tranquil photo from “around the corner”:
right around the corner from naftohaz, where riot police touting automatic assault rifles were being pushed around by parliament deputies belonging to prime minister yuliya tymoshenko’s eponymous bloc, workers lined up flower boxes to be hoisted up to the window sills of kyiv’s city administration headquarters on the capital’s main thoroughfare khreshchatyk. (kyiv, march 4)
In another post, Abdymok posted this comment about the conflict:
[…] property rights are not enforced in russia and ukraine, countries with disfunctional systems of jurisprudence. what matters here is size, strength, gall, ruthlessness, cunning, desire, hatred, etc.
While the foreign affairs minister and the Naftogaz crises dominated the media and the blogosphere this past week, the financial crisis received its share of coverage, too.
Adrian Blomfield, the Daily Telegraph's Moscow correspondent, posted this Twitter note from his trip to Ukraine:
Bankers I've met in Kiev have been surprisingly upbeat about the sector and the economy in general. Do they believe their own rhetoric?
Petro of Petro's Jotter traveled by car from Kyiv to Kharkiv and from Kharkiv to Donetsk, and posted his observations on the life, business and politics in Ukraine. Here's an excerpt from Petro's first post:
[…] The general topic of conversation is how everyone has stopped spending money and is waiting for something to change. There is no credit money. Banks are failing. Then on to a conversation about the Tax inspectors, corrupt local politicians and so on. I felt like I had traveled back in time to 1995 Ukraine. […]
And another excerpt, from the second post:
[…] At the edge of Kramatorsk, I stop at the “Art Nirvana Café” for a cup of coffee. It’s an empty, formal restaurant with table cloths and all manner of fancy napkin folding in the glasses on the tables. Intimidated by the pristine table tops I sit on one of four bars stools by the small bar in the back. Anton appears happy to have a task to do as the Saeco coffee maker loudly grinds the exact portion of coffee beans required.
“Have you felt the impact of the global economic crisis?” I ask.
“Not really, business at the restaurant is the same,” replies Anton.
“What about the plant? How many people work there anyway?”
“About 45,000. I haven’t heard of any layoffs. There are several other plants in Kramatorsk as well.”
I sip the 14 Hryvnia coffee and ponder its value. Last August $2.80, last month $2.00, and now judging from the rates I saw at an Obmin leaving Kharkiv, less than than $1.40.
“So I imagine you are a Yanukovych, Party of Regions fan?” I ask. […]
“Sure am. Kramatorsk voted 99% for Yanukovych,” says Anton proudly.
I recall the allegations during the O.R. that factory workers were instructed to vote a certain way – or the factory may shut down.
“Who knows, maybe he’ll become president while Yushchenko and Timoshenko fight each other,” I speculate.
“That would be great.” […]


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Ukraine, Georgia, Russia: Relations With NATO · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Eternal Remont posts a cartoon on NATO's complex relationship with Russia – and with Ukraine and Georgia.


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Armenia: International Women’s Day · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Global Voices Online's Caucasus editor posts photographs and an account of how some civil society groups marked International Women's Day in Armenia on the Frontline Club blog. In a country known for its traditional and patriarchal tendencies the day was observed not without its incidents.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Bangladesh: YouTube And Esnips ban confirmed · Global Voices
Rezwan

Mash at Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying reports that “Bangladesh has blocked YouTube and some other file sharing websites after audio of a meeting between the Prime Minister and a large gathering of army senior officers was leaked and posted on YouTube.” Quoting news sources the blogger confirms that a government official defended blocking of YouTube and eSnips.

author: Rezwan


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Bangladesh: YouTube and File Sharing Sites Blocked · Global Voices
Rezwan

Internet users in Bangladesh are not able to access YouTube since Friday (March 6, 2009) evening. Soon people discovered that other Social Media and file hosting/sharing sites like Esnips, mediafire etc. were also not accessible. Apparently these are blocked by the firewalls at IIG (International Internet Gateway) as these can be accessed by proxy.
Torpon appeals to the Bangladesh government not to takeaway the freedom of internet after providing some proofs of the filtering:
ঢাকায় ইউটিউবে ঢুকতে গিয়ে টাইম আউট হয়ে যাচ্ছিল দেখে অনেকে ভাবছিলেন যে ইউটিউবের সার্ভারের সমস্যা । এরপর দেখা যাচ্ছিল যে ইস্নিপস্ এও ঢোকা যাচ্ছে না । তখন সন্দেহ করা হলো যে সমস্যাটি অন্য কোন খানে । কোথাও ডেটা ব্লক হয়ে যাচ্ছে । প্রমাণ ছাড়া সরকার কে দোষ দেয়াটা অযৌক্তিক । কিন্তু অল্প কিছু সময়ের মধ্যে অভিজ্ঞ বাংলাদেশী নেটওয়ার্ক ইঞ্জিনিয়াররা বিভিন্ন জায়গা থেকে জানালেন সরকারী কোন সার্ভারের ফায়ারওয়ালে ইউটিউব সহ অনেক গুলো সাইট ব্লক করা হয়েছে।
Screenshot courtesy – Torpon
বাংলাদেশ লিনাক্স ইউজার গ্রুপের সার্ভার থেকে গুগল, ইউটিউব এবং ইস্নিপসের সাইটে ট্রেসরাউট কমান্ড দিয়ে দেখা গেছে, গুগল ঠিকই পৌছে যাচ্ছে গুগলের সার্ভারে কিন্তু বাকি দুটো আটকে গেছে বিটিটিবির ফায়ার ওয়ালে ।
Mango and BTCL (formerly BTTB) are the official IIGs (International Internet Gateway) in Bangladesh. Starting last April, by regulation, all Bangladeshis ISPs have to route their international traffic to either Mango, or BTCL, who send the traffic over either the submarine cable or the vsats.
The YouTube ban was confirmed [bn] by a Bangla Newspaper Prothom Alo. Twitter user Mahay Alam Khan reports on the ban on more sites:
mahayalamkhan: youtube, eSnips, midiafire, filefreak, upload-mp3 are banned or blocked in Bangladesh. Please, re-twitt.
Russell John speculates why the ban was executed:
Why did the Government do this? It's because of an audio recording that could “damage” the reputation of our great Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. For now they blocked YouTube and eSnips, but in the future there might be more sites. Maybe Facebook too? People shares a lot of stuff there.
After the recent BDR mutiny and massacre of army officers in Dhaka the Prime Minister met the aggrieved army officers in a confidential closed door meeting at Shenakunja where no press or outsiders were allowed. The conversions in the meeting and cellphone video recordings were leaked out, uploaded and shared using  many file sharing sites including E-snips and YouTube. Unheard Voice blog discusses the issue of the leaked audio files which are being used by some quarters to create some political bickering and malign the army and the Prime Minister.
Dark ocean needs a lighthouse says:
If Bangladesh Govt thinks Internet is like Cellphone service then they are living in fools’ paradise. There are many ways people can bypass the blockage. [..] In this particular case anyone can use Anonymous proxy and bypass firewall!
Youtube, eSnips etc are very common and useful services. If Bangladesh Govt think any particular Audio and Video harmful for our society they could directly request Youtube to remove them. Such wild blockage is not only stupidity but also raises question about Govt's intention.
Some bloggers like Kayes Mahmud are providing proxy links so that others can access the blocked contents. Razon Sun points out that the contents of the meeting at Shenakunjo have already been published in a local newspaper [bn]. So there is actually no logic to block the internet. It may be mentioned here that Bangladeshis outside Bangladesh can easily access to these contents, which can be downloaded and shared by email.
Sushanta says:
প্রচারনা বন্ধ করার আগে দেখেন কিভাবে এটা রেকর্ড হলো? প্রথমে কোন সাইটে এটা আপ্লোড হয়েছে। সেনাকুঞ্জের সভার ভিডিও টা দেখেন ভালো করে কোন সেনা কর্মকর্তা মোবাইল হাতে চুপেচাপে রেকর্ডিং করছে। এটা ধরা তেমন কঠিন কাজ না।
Russell vents his frustration:
What's ironical is that it's the same Government that talks about “Digital Bangladesh” all the time. We now know what Digital Bangladesh is like.
Now the question is how to unblock YouTube and other file sharing sites in Bangladesh. We have seen in previous cases that the authorities do not recognize that such bans were carried out in the first place  shifting the blame to technical glitches. In the absence of ‘Right To Information Act’ it is hard for a common citizen to ask why it was done. We hope that the authorities will unblock all these sites to prevent more controversies and bad publicity for the government.


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Brazil: Introducing the Web, a “Digital Baptism” · Global Voices
Paula Góes

A “Digital Baptism” brought digital inclusion to Belo Horizonte, the capital of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. The event this Saturday, organized in a partnership between local Government, Public Ministry and the Lan House Association, had the goal of promoting digital inclusion and on-line entrepreneurship. This was the first time the Digital Baptism took place in Belo Horizonte, although the event had already happened sporadically in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro since 2005.
Under a big tent in one of the capital's squares, there were 50 computers connected to the web and during the whole day 100 facilitators helped people of all ages and backgrounds on the online ladder. There were two main types of workshops: the Digital Baptism 1.0, for those who had never had the chance to operate a computer to learn the basics and surf the Internet for the first time, and the Digital Baptism 2.0, for more advanced users who wanted to delve deeper into the world wide web and investigate new tools. Fábio Santos reports on Twitter:
Twitter user @fabiosan also tells us the story of the 67 year old lady who had never used a computer before and decided to attend the Digital Baptism so that she could learn new ways of communicating with her already connected sisters, who live in another state:
This post from the event's blog contrasts new “baptised” users by age. The top picture is by Flickr user pvilla:
Todas as idades passam por aqui!
This one introduces the new Twitter users from Belo Horizonte:
Com auxílio do Rosalves, os novos agentes aprenderam a Usar o Twitter!
Below is a video of the event posted by equipeteiamg. Some more videos can be accessed via the event's aggregator.
The event was lived blogged and streamed through a website that collected all reactions on Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and blogs, among others, tagged with the hashtag #bdigitalmg.


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Egypt: Blogger Mohamed Adel Released · Global Voices
Marwa Rakha

Egyptian blogger Mohammad Adel who runs the blog Maeit (already dead!) and who has been detained since November 21, 2008, has been released.
Ahmed Abdel Fattah announced here and Arabawy announced on his blog that Maeit will be released.
Karim Beheiry wrote:
More on Mohamed Adel's arrest could be found here, here, and on this facebook group.

author: Marwa Rakha


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Egypt: Diigo Fever  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Diigo fever grips Egypt. Hossam El Hamalawy explains.


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Egypt: Poster to Mark International Women’s Day · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egyptian Leftist posts this poster to mark the International Women's Day.


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Egypt: State Security following you on Twitter?  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

You are checking your emails. You get a message which reads: “State security is now following you on Twitter!” Egyptian Moftasa offers an explanation here.


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Egyptians Against Ugliness: Online Campaign Against the Maadi Billboards · Global Voices
Nermeen Edrees

A new online campaign is in the making.
Maadi is one of Egypt’s most distinguished districts, known for its exquisite greenery and serenity – not to mention the exceptional Nile Corniche, which attracts many nature lovers and felucca passengers.  Last year, Maadi's governance was moved to the Helwan governorate instead of Cairo – a decision which upset many of the district’s residents. Yet they soon figured that nothing could be done about it.
A few days ago, Maadi residents woke up to find glimpses of hideousness have already crept on to their surroundings.
In his blog Soberhigh Mohamed M. Radwan tells us the story:
Overnight, and while the residents of Maadi were sleeping unaware, the first of the symptoms of the Helwan take over appeared so grotesquely all over Maadi’s urban landscape.  At all the districts’ entrances, which are considered the urban gateways of Maadi; suddenly and out of the blue, these humongous billboards sprung out, as if made overnight by some evil work of demons
Mohamed then decided to place his anger against ugliness in the right channel and created a Facebook group named: Maadi: Helwan Governer, please bring these billboards down
According to Mohamed, the group:
Advocates for bringing these outrageous monstrosities down and the implementation of  strict outdoor advertising regulations. And going further in calling on the banning of the construction of new billboards in all Cairo suburbs and regulating the use of the billboards that already exist in a way that would protect the visual environment of Cairo
We request that the government would issue a more strict building code regulating billboards all over the capital and form a Legislative and Regulatory Center to control outdoor advertising
In the Facebook group, Mohamed and many of  Maadi residents, lovers, and enthusiasts carried out the campaign aggressively to appeal to the head of district of Maadi as well as the governor of Helwan, to bring down the billboards.
Mohamed addresses the campaigners and says:
If you are concerned for Maadi, and Cairo raise awareness and raise your voice. We are preparing an email template to be sent to all relevant governmental offices and institutions and media outlets.  We will email the media, talk about it in talk shows (radio and TV) and voice out our objection

author: Nermeen Edrees


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Jordan: Demo For Arab Technology Innovators · Global Voices
Mohammad Azraq

Last month I attended the launch of Arab Crunch Demo, an event organised by Arab Crunch Blog, a professional blog dedicated to promoting technology start-ups in the Arab World, in co-operation with Queen Rania Centre for Entreprenuership (QRCE), at the Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT).
It was invigorating to see young Arab technology entrepreneurs take initiatives and realise their dreams. Companies such as, e-space and Al-khawarizmy from Egypt, Ishki and MailPacks from Jordan, and a few others took the stage and demonstrated their projects to an enthusiastic audience.
(Courtesy of Arab Crunch)
Ghaith Saqer, the editor of Arab Crunch, wrote:
The first version of ARABCRUNCH DEMO was a one day event which concluded on Monday 23rd Feb. 2009 in princess Sumaya University, Amman, Jordan. The event is the only free launchpad platform for newly developed technology products and services in the Arab world. Besides startups’ demos, the event included keynote sessions by regional and world class experts from companies ranging from e-marketing, venture capital, and IT.
In the event Ishki from Jordan, also demoed its website, which is the first Arabic website that enables people in Jordan to share complaints or concerns online and search for solutions. The websites seeks to be the voice of normal citizens regarding public, private or business problems. Ahmad Kharbat cofounder of Ishki said “We will add channels for each company that is operational in the Arab world, so people can voice their concern and feedback”. He also promised to add more local versions of the website for more Arab countries.
Hamdy Khalil co-founder of eSpace from Alexandria, Egypt showcased weNear a location based framework that competes with Yahoo’s Fire Eagle, the platform is geared towards developers in order to use its API so they can develop location aware mobile applications in a range of devices including iPhone, Android and Symbian.
The event also featured well-established entrepreneurs such as; Sumaya Kazi, the founder of the Cultural Connect, and Khaled Jabasini, the founder and CEO of the Dubai-based E-Marketing.
The young and driven was the last Keynote speech delivered by Sumaya Kazi Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief at The CulturalConnect, and Senior Social Media Manager at Fortune 500 company Sun Microsystems. She spoke about her experience in starting CulturalConnect. Sumaya showcased intentional successful entrepreneurs who started successful startups along with other social entrepreneurs she had interviewed before.  She shared 8 tips for startups among them were “Surround yourself with people smarter than yourself and People sit on great ideas, Don’t be one of them”
The event, which attracted over 300 participants, was concluded with excitement and enthusiasm by both the startups and the audience. At the end of the event Saqer said he plans for another version of the demo event in the coming months or next year, he promised that the next event will be bigger and would open greater opportunity for outstanding technology startups in the Arab world.

author: Mohammad Azraq


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Jordan’s “shameful reaction”  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Jordanian Naseem Tarawnah is incensed with his countries “shameful reaction” towards Israel's plans to demolish 180 homes in East Jerusalem and evict 1,500 Palestinians. “[T]he reaction from the Jordanian state has been, as usual, quite horrendous, offering no more than a “denunciation” of Israel’s actions. Even the masses aren’t allowed to express their outrage,” he writes.


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Korea: Layoff · Global Voices
Hyejin Kim

A cold story. People are laid off due to economic downturn. Netizens share their experiences of being laid off or their fears. A blogger put a post on why companies reconstruct organizations and choose layoffs of their employees and what kinds of people are laid off.
구조 조정의 시즌이 도래했습니다. 직장을 다니시는 분들은 모두 현재 불안감을 동반자로 여기고 계실 겁니다.
1. 정리해고는: 비용 축소? (X) 투자 축소(O)
단기 유동성 문제에 봉착한 특히나 소규모 기업의 경우는 당장 비용을 줄이기 위해서 정리 해고를 단행하긴 합니다. 하지만, 경기 하락으로 수익은 줄어들기는 하나 회사 유동성과 자본에 여유가 있는 대부분의 경우, 특히나 관리/영업/연구직에 대한 인원 조정은 기업의 투자 축소입니다.
두가지 염두에 두어야 할 점은
– 구조조정,정리해고 자체에도 비용이 들어갑니다.
– 추후 인원 충원 및 신규 인원 교육, 적응에도 비용이 들어갑니다.
따라서, 기업의 입장에서 정리해고를 단행한다는 것은 단순히 비용을 줄인다는 개념이 아니라, 투자를 축소한다라는 것이며, 기업 규모를 줄인다라는 것입니다.
그런데, 기업의 투자 축소는 이런 것을 의미합니다.
– 장기 전망이 나쁨
– 중기까지 투자 확대 계획 없음
2. 개인의 능력, 자질이 동아줄이 될 수는 없다.
관계를 중시하는 동양사회에서는 좀 다르지만, 작년 거래하던 모 글로벌 업체에서 이런 일이 벌어졌습니다.
“스미스, 같이 진행하던 A 프로젝트 말이야. 왜 이리 진전이 없어?”
“크리스, 미안해. 나 지금 짐싸고 있어. 회사 구조조정으로 사업부 전체가 날라갔어. 350명 전원 퇴직통보 받았어. 남은 처리는 다른 사업부에 이관될거야.”
‘그냥'입니다. 당신이나 내가 잘못한 것이 아니라 말입니다. 그런데, 이런 경우는 오히려 공평합니다.
3. 정의는 실현이 희박하기에 갈구되는 것이다.
정리해고의 칼바람에서 살아남게 되는 경우는, 평소의 그 사람의 업무 성과, 능력 등보다는 정치적인 입장, 인맥에 의해 좌우되는 경우가 허다합니다. 회사의 공로 분배나 진급에 있어 불평등, 불만 요인으로 작용하던 것이 이 때에도 적용됩니다.
“저 사람 잘리면, 그 돈으로 직원 몇명이나 고용할 수 있는데…”
“저 인간 없으면 회사가 훨씬 잘돌아갈텐데…”
그러나, 그 사람은 살아남고 일 잘하는 영업부 김대리, 자금팀 미스리가 잘리는 경우가 다반사입니다.
4. 누가 잘리는 것이 합리적인가?: 급여 높은 사람? 낮은 사람?
급여 많은 사람을 해고하면 더 많은 사람을 살릴 수 있을 거라 간단히 생각들 하실겁니다. 그런데, 회사 입장에서는 좀 틀립니다. 그 사람에게 급여를 많이 주는 것은, 그 사람이 그만큼의 일을 하기 때문이라 생각합니다.  그래서, 아래 사람들의 바램과는 달리… 급여가 낮은 사람이 먼저 잘립니다.
1. layoff: decreasing expenses (X) for decreasing investment (O)
In case of small enterprises that have problems of short term mobility, they conduct layoffs in order to decrease expenses. However, profits of companies due to economic downturn would decrease, but in the case of companies that can afford capital and fluidity, reorganization especially in management/administration/research is to decrease investment.
Two parts we should acknowledge is
-reorganization and conducting layoffs also cost money.
-supplementing more members later and educating new employees also cost money.
Therefore, conducting layoffs mean not only decreasing costs, but also decreasing investment and company scale. Decreasing investment means
-long term prospect is not good
-no plan for enlarging investment in the mid-term.
2. Individual’s capability and talents can’t be a guarantee anymore
Maybe Asian companies, which take networks seriously, are a little bit different. This is a story from a global company last year.
“Smith, why isn’t there more progress of project A, whichwe worked together?”
“Chris, sorry about that. But I’m packing my stuff now. Due to reorganization, whole department is gone. All 350 employees received layoffs. An other department will take care of the rest of the project.”
What I’m saying is it ‘just’ happens. It’s not that you did something wrong or I did. Actually, this case is not that bad.
3. Justice is rare in reality.
How to survive in such a cold time depends on your political behavior and network rather than on your working achievements or abilities. Regarding bonus and promotion, inequality and complaints are also applied to this situation.
“If that person is fired, we can hire several more employes with his or her salary…”
“If we don’t have that person, the company will be better…”
However, as usual, that person survives and other people are mostly fired.
4. Who should be fired for the company’s sake? high salary employee? low salary employee?
We simply think that if the high salary person is fired, more people can survive. However, companies don’t think like that. The reason why they give high salary to the person is because he or she works better than anyone else. Therefore, compared to others’ wishes, lower salary people are fired first.
정리합니다.
– 비용이 작지만 축소 시 바로 비용절하로 연결되는 시급직, 비정규직 해고가 아니라… 정규직에 대한 대단위 정리를 감행하는 것은: 기업이 시장과 사업전망을 어떻게 보는지에 대해 알려줍니다.
정리 해고 된다는 것은: 자질이나 능력 문제가 아니라… 재수가 없는겁니다. 그냥 세상이 그런겁니다. 나무 자책하지 마십시오.
A response:
구조조정에 대해 정답을 제시하셨군요. ^^ 기업 입장에서 사람 내보내는건 향후 2년간은 몸집을 키우기 힘들다는 얘기고 그건 중기 사업 전망이 좋지 못하단 얘기죠. xrith님 말씀대로 사원의 재교육에는 상당한 비용이 들어갑니다. 그만큼 중기적인 전망이 안보이니 일단은 있는 인원으로 때우던지 하는겁니다. 아니면 위의 글로벌 기업 사례처럼 사업부, 부서 하나를 통째로 날리는 일은 아예 그 사업이 돈 안된다고 생각하는 겁니다. 노키아같은 경우도 통으로 날리는 경우가 비일비재하더군요
Here is a different story from a blogger who witnessed layoffs of many employees.
[…]참 재밌는 것은 (또 다행스러운 일은) 그 세명중 한명은 정리해고된지 2주가 채 되지 않아 다른 그룹의 같은 포지션으로 새롭게 채용되어 우리 팀과 같이 일하는 관계가 되었구요. 저희와 농담을 주고 받던 위의 팀원은 한동안 일자리를 찾으며 고생한다고 들었는데 (경력이 비교적 짧은 Junior 맴버였습니다) 오늘 회사에서 마주쳤는데 이 팀원 역시 다른 팀에 채용되어 오늘부터 다시 일하기 시작한다고 하는게 아니겠습니까. 더군다나 이 친구는 저희 팀에서는 Junior 급이였는데 부서도 틀려지고 Junior 급에서 벗어나 오히려 승진을 한 케이스 입니다. 게다가 그 친구가 옮긴 부서는 제가 준비후 옮기려고 계획했던 부서인지라 겉으로는 많이 축하해주었지만 속으로는 솔직히 조금 부러웠습니다. 또한 원래 정리해고 된 직원이 다시 돌아올 경우 Severance Package 는 회사에 돌려주어야 하는데 이것 역시 그냥 봐주기로 했다고 합니다. 결과적으로 두어달 쉬면서 그 몇배에 해당하는 보너스를 받고 더 좋은 자리로 승진하며 컴백한 것과 다름이 없습니다. […] 이래서 세상일은 참 모르는 일인가 봅니다. 정리해고 된지 두어달만에 팀원들이 다른 부서일지언정 같은 회사로 다시 돌아오고, 그중에 어떤 이는 승진 케이스로 돌아오기까지 하는걸 직접 눈으로 보면서 정말 재밌는 세상이구나, 또 이렇게 공석이 많이 있었다면 애시당초 왜 그렇게 수많은 사람들을 해고시켜야만 했는지 회사의 결단 그리고 그 실행방법에 의문을 갖지 않을 수 없습니다.[…]

author: Hyejin Kim


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Libya: Berber Archive to Close · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Lameen Souag reports at Jabal al-Lughat that a valuable online resource will soon close, possibly for political reasons: “Tawalt is a nine-year-old Libya-focused Amazigh/Berber website with a remarkable collection of audio recordings and resources for some of the least well documented Berber languages – those of Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt…If you have any interest in Berber linguistics, I suggest looking around now before it disappears…“

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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MENA: Clinton Does the Middle East · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Hillary Clinton wrapped up her first visit to the Middle East as US Secretary of State, with stopovers in Sharm El Sheikh, Israel, the West Bank and Turkey.
In Egypt, she attended an aid conference for the reconstruction of Gaza, where she also met with Arab leaders. In the West Bank, she expressed support for Palestinian Authority president Mahmood Abbas,  lashed out at Iran for “promoting terrorism” and Israel for its “unhelpful” demolition plans of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem. And in Israel, she reassured Israelis they have no greater ally than the US. She also courted Syria by sending two envoys there and has also visited Turkey.
Bloggers from the region discuss Clinton's visit in this post.
Writing at Looking for Change, Kalash doesn't mince his words when describing Clinton's visit:
If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: Barack Obama could not have picked anyone worse than Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State.  In her first official trip to the Middle East, Bill's wife showed her true colors when speaking about Gaza and Hamas. Like her boss, she continued to spew Bush-era talking points without shame. She spoke to reporters Monday after a Gaza “reconstruction” conference in Sharm El Sheikh. Her demeanor was unpleasant as usual.
The blogger further adds:
Hillary Clinton has long been a ‘friend’ of Israel so nobody should be expecting any surprises from her. If Obama plans to make things better (he doesn't) he'll fire her (he won't). Sadly, there is little hope for improvement with Hill-dog in charge of diplomacy. She will make every effort to stifle any meaningful negotiations by ensuring Israeli interests are never  compromised.
While Obama at least pretends to be reaching out to Iran, his Secretary of State is already signaling that such efforts will be in vain. Surprisingly, she managed to shake hands with Syrian FM Walid Muallem… it's too bad he didn't twist her arm.
TurkeyTalk discusses Clinton's visit to Turkey saying:
As part of her trip to the Middle East, followed by Brussels and NATO, the new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will make a stop in Turkey. Most likely to assure the nervous Turkish government that the U.S. will continue its policy towards Turkey, of treating Turkey with kid gloves.
I am sure she will tell Turkey what it needs to hear; that Turkey is still strategically relevant, that it needs to be a part of the EU, and that it is a great Islamic democracy for others in the region to emulate.
All great sound bytes. And possibly with great intentions. But not because the U.S. (government) actually endorses them for the reasons that Turkey thinks it does. All with the sincerity of a predator seen toying with its captured prey waiting for the right time to act on its inevitable instincts.
The U.S. government still doesn't want to deal with a Turkey not ready for a reality check. But nor is the U.S. ready to demand it.
Will, over at KABOBfest, takes issue with singling out Iran for its interference in Palestine. The Palestinian American blogger notes:
Both U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and PA head honcho Mahmoud Abbas echoed each other's sentiments: Iran should stop interfering in Palestinian affairs. This came after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for
“resistance” against Israel.
I do not seem to recall Abu Mazen telling the United States or Israel to stay out of Palestinian affairs — perhaps because their interventions always benefited him and kept his ailing political project afloat, even as Israel postured as his enemy.
This is not to say that Palestine is a rightful Iranian issue or that it really seeks to defend Palestinian rights. Palestinians are more often used as a strategic token by the region's powers, including the United States. To say Israel uses them as such is an understatement. The Palestinians are Israel's existential pacemaker.
Meanwhile in Israel, Yisrael Medad takes note of Clinton's new buzz words for the Arab-Israeli conflict. He writes:
Well, is “vigorous” Hillary Clinton's key word/buzz word for the Arab-Israel conflict?
Or is it “engaged”?
With Condi, it was “robust”.
And Yael is pleased that a proposal is on the table at the US congress to link the $900 million pledged to Gaza in exchange for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped three years ago. She writes:
I send a personal heartfelt thank you to Rep. Shelley Berkley of Nevada who drafted a petition to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which demanded that the financial aid be delayed for as long as the rocket fire continues and Gilad remains in captivity.
It should not be the case that we are the only ones placing pressure on Hamas. It should not be the case that the world is willing to simply look the other way while rockets fall daily, many times daily, on our civilians and Shalit is held in captivity and reward a terrorist region and allow them to act with impunity.
And finally James Buck points that not all the money will go towards Gaza:
Turns out that while ‘$900 million is aid to Gaza’ is the figure/phrase that is tossed about, only $300 is actually headed for Gaza; $600 goes to the West Bank.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Palestine: Book Based on Gazan Blog · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Posts from the group blog Moments of Gaza are part of a new book: “Maximilien Le Roy [Fr] from France, showed his kind support to Gaza and its victims through art. He recently made a book [Fr] that includes quotes from this blog and drawings inspired by the events on the ground.”


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Palestine: Documentaries of Gazan Lives · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Gazan blogger Lina Hesham, writing at 360 km2 of Chaos, praises a series of documentaries by Al Jazeera English about life in the Gaza Strip.


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Palestine: Gazan Blogger to visit UK · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Gazan blogger and photojournalist Sameh Habeeb is on his way to London to start a speaking tour: “I'll be speaking at the parliament, touring at colleges and universities to bring more awareness about Palestine and the last war launched against Gaza.”


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Palestine: Life in Shuafat Refugee Camp · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Ruba Anabtawi writes about life in the Palestinian refugee camp of Shuafat – which is within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem [Ar].


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Palestine: Visiting Gaza’s Bath-house · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Louisa Waugh, writing at the New Internationalist's Gaza Blog, describes a visit to Gaza's only Turkish bath-house.


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Palestine: Welcome to Hebron · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Mo-ha-med introduces a documentary about Hebron: “While I found absolutely repulsive the horror the Palestinians live in, what shocked me the most was the normalcy of it all.”


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Qatar: The nature of exploitation · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Qatari blogger ALFARES writes a thoughtful post [Ar] about self-interest, and the tendency of most people to exploit others.


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Qatar: Zeidi’s Brother Speaks Out · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Ammar Talk [Ar], in Doha, Qatar, interviews the brother of Iraqi Monthadar Al Zeidi, who threw his shoes at former US President George W Bush during a Press conference in Iraq late last year.


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Saudi Arabia: Women can ride horses  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Susie, an American married to a Saudi and living in Jeddah, takes her son to a riding school and notes: “Although there are many things that women cannot do here in Saudi Arabia, horseback riding is not one of them. Private equestrian centers are places where women are free to take off their abayas and uncover their hair.”


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Sudanese Bloggers React to ICC Arrest Warrant for President · Global Voices
SudaneseDrima

It's been more than two days since The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir making him the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The charges are based on the conflict in Darfur. In this post, we delve into the reactions of the Sudanese blogosphere to this historic event.
While all bloggers are no fans of the Sudanese President, most if not all, aren't too happy about the ICC's decision as they suspect it will only worsen an already terrible situation.
First, let's check what Nesrine Malik who lives in London thinks of this at the Comment is Free group blog of The Guardian newspaper:
Toothless and badly-timed as the indictment of Sudan's president may be, morally we cannot afford not to support it.
… The timing was unfortunate. Many in the Arab world are still reeling from the recent incursion into Gaza and governments are continuing to capitalise on anti-western sentiment. The ostensible hypocrisy of targeting Bashir when apparently Israel and the west are impune renders his martyrdom on the altar of international double standards convenient for Arab or African heads of state living in their own glass houses.
Second, we have Sudanese Optimist, a student in the United States, who isn't too happy and shares with us what the pragmatist in her wonders:
Every media outlet is giving a voice to a plethora of self appointed political pundits, common-sense-loathing activists, and confused citizens of the earth, all trying to make sense of the International Criminal Court’s issuance of a warrant for the arrest of Omar Al-Bashir.  However, the one voice that seems to have been muffled by the pandemonium surrounding the issue is that of the Sudanese citizen. I ask: what about me Luis Ocampo?
(…)
… the pragmatist in me is questioning the effectiveness of the ICC’s decision, and the extent of ‘justice’ it will provide for the victims of the Darfur conflict. It could be too early for the man on the street to speculate, but I sincerely hope that Luis Ocampo and the ICC have a follow-up plan to assuage the commotion caused by the indictment of a sitting head of state. Does the ICC consider this the end result, or a starting point in the quest of peace and justice in Sudan? This question remains unanswered.
Now, let's see what AK, also a student in the United States, has to say.
The first thing that I noticed was the fact that the Court only charged him on two of three accusations, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The prosecutor did not get his third request for the crime of genocide. This is very telling. Both the first two crimes can be very easily proven and linked back to Al-Bashir, however, the third accusation (of genocide) cannot be as easily proven or linked back to the President.
… Also, the ‘Save Darfur‘ crowd in the United States cannot be happier. In fact, they are using this opportunity to raise funds, as if this arrest warrant is all due to their so-called “advocacy.” This is a snapshot of their website's home page taken after the arrest warrant was issued.
(…)
Here is a clip of the scenes from Khartoum today:
AK also posted this video of Sudanese ICC supporters and Bashir supporters clashing in NYC.
At about 1:30 in the clip, you can see the clashes between the Bashir and ICC supporters.
Next up, we have Mimz with her thoughts and an important observation on what the ICC's decision could mean to this year's planned elections in Sudan.
I am not a big fan of El-Bashir, in fact I despise the man (would be an understatement) for what he has been putting our country and our people through for the past god knows how long. But the ICC just could not delay this decision, which we all knew was coming, and felt the need to make it today and ignore the fact that the first democratic elections in more than twenty years are expected this year.
Finally we have Path2Hope who isn't joyful either.
Now the warrant has been issued and exactly what this means for Sudan I do not know. But what I do know is that expelling the activities of 10 of the aid agencies does not help either. Hasn't the average Sudanese suffered enough? Now that these agencies can no longer do their work – who will step in and fill the gap? I am so angry at not only this reaction in Sudan but by the idiotic ruling of the ICC in the first place.
On a related note, here are Rob Crilly's latest Twitter updates directly from Darfur where he is right now.
10:07 AM Mar 5th # NGO staff held at gunpoint in Nyala on way to airport to leave. They were stopped by national security, very people kicking em out 7:07 AM Mar 5th
# Tired, smelly. Out of anti-perspirant. Word is Bashir coming here on Sunday but I need a drink 8:18 AM Mar 5th
# aid workers now stuck in Khartoum. Must wait for exit visas – the final irony 9:07 AM Mar 5th
# Unamid staff now being allowed out of base to go home after 48hr lockdown. All calm in El Fasher 2:10 AM Mar 6th
# three aid vehicles burned in Khartoum last night 3:01 AM Mar 6th
# Aid workers staying in khartoum for now as negotiations continue. No-one holding much hope. 6:00 AM Mar 6th
See past coverage of Sudanese blogger reactions to the ICC arrest warrant on Global Voices.

author: SudaneseDrima


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Syria: Anti-LGBT Campaign Sparks Heated Debate  · Global Voices
Yazan Badran

This weekend the Syrian blogosphere warmed up for a new confrontation. A group of bloggers launched a campaign against the spread of blogs advancing LGBT rights, and the response came quick. LGBT is controversial everywhere, but within a society that is conservative in its majority, the topic gets much more sensitive and hotly-debated.
The campaign has not officially begun yet, and all the responses were to the mere declaration of such campaign. It was first published on Mohammed‘s blog with the following objectives:
While a number of bloggers have stated their support for the campaign and their intention to share their ideas about the issue when the campaign starts next week, the initiative has also prompted a series of harsh responses from other bloggers.
Abu Fares responded quickly to what he called the “latest bigoted outcry” by saying “Live and Let Live“:
What are they to do with all these non-conformists? Leave it to these religious tartuffes and they are likely to replace us with a bunch of brainwashed zealots, ardent celibates, devout cretins, faithful crusaders, pious robots and godly agitators who will teach those who are left of us how to live. What to do and what not to say. How to look down and how not to laugh. Why we die and why we should lead austere lives all the way to the grave.
Thanks but no thanks. The fanatics, the fomenters, the hypocrites, the bigots, the knaves gave me no choice but to defend a Syria of multiplicity and to protect my own freedom of choice.
Mr. Blonde in his blog also criticized the language of the statement and the declared objectives of the campaign:
On the other side, Jabs from Arabian Camel gives his own views on why this is a “necessary debate”:
Religion regulates our lives, it reminds us of what is right and what is wrong and what is healthy in a society and what will corrupt society therefore religion maintains the integrity of a society. In most religions, especially in Islam, the society as a whole is always more important than the individual but that does not take away the rights of the individual. When an individual is seen to be practicing something that will lead to a corruption of society they are punished, and the punishment varies today from one Islamic country to another, from being fined to capital punishment as is the case in Iran. However in Islam and the Islamic law, the Sharia’ah, a person accusing someone of homosexuality (or any other crime punishable under Sharia’ah) is not something easy to go on about. In order for a person to be accused of homosexuality there needs to be four witnesses that can bear witness that the person accused has committed sodomy, in the case that one fails to be a legitimate witness all four witnesses are punished.
And finally, Dubai Jazz, mentions a study about a pair of “gay” penguins, and provides us with his own analysis, in a rather witty way:
Roy and Silo are gay bastards. They are having a same-sex affair without our consent. We should probably seek to either destroy them or straighten up their behaviour. I am not sure how do we do that though? as homo-sapiens we are capable of inflicting our desires on our fellow humans. But it's ironic, isn't it? I mean the leaders of Moral Legions would always cite animals as the ultimate proof of the deviatory essence of homosexuality, they'd say “if it's natural, then why animals don't do it?”. I am not sure how would they react to findings of such study as above, they'd probably write it off as a Zionist/Crusaders conspiracy, or they'd call it a test from the higher powers to see whose faith would wither at the sight of fornicating birds, and whose faith will hold. Or maybe they'd brand it as optical illusion.
We will keep you updated as the campaign kicks off next week, stay tuned!

author: Yazan Badran


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Taiwan: Women still seeking labor rights · Global Voices
David Reid

On International Women's Day Letters from Taiwan notes the gap between government rhetoric and actual practice on women's rights.

author: David Reid


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Turkey: Pictures from Istanbul  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Travels in Turkey shares some photographs from Istanbul in this post.


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Video: Celebrating Women on their International Day  · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

A Cactus Flower for Capt. Suresh by http://www.flickr.com/photos/kkoshy/
International Women's Day has been celebrated since the early 1900s: at first as a reminder of all the wrongs done to womankind and the long hard row necessary to achieve equality and fight for women's rights. However, for the past few years, many of the original points of dissention have been resolved and right now the  day is used to celebrate the positive improvements instead of a reminder of the bad events. And through poetry marches and songs, we'll see how people around the world do just that.
The Chilean Planning Ministry is venturing online for their Women's Day Campaign, and for today, they bring us a poem read by several women. The poem is Ode to the Washerwoman by Pablo Neruda, which paints us the image of a woman washing laundry for a living at night, with a lit candle and the moon as company:
La nocturna
lavandera
a veces
levantaba
la cabeza
y ardían en su pelo
las estrellas
porque
la sombra
confundía
su cabeza
y era la noche, el cielo
de la noche
la cabellera
de la lavandera,
y su vela
un astro
diminuto
que encendía
sus manos
que alzaban
y movían
la ropa,
subiendo
descendiendo,
enarbolando
el aire, el agua,
el jabón vivo,
la magnética espuma.
In Peru, women members of the Colective Canto a la Vida marched in Lima, demanding the respect of women's rights as well as sexual and reproductive rights: the right to therapeutic abortions, against forced sterilizations and for access to the Day After Pill.
Peruvian women are not the only ones marching. Nepalnews.com an online Nepali news channel also tells us about a walkathon organized by women in the capital city of Kathmandu:
And last but not least, Bielorussian singer Dmitry Koldum, an Eurovision contestant for 2007, uploaded a video of himself singing a song for “all the girls in the world”, on their day:
To all women in the world, happy Women's Day!

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Anguilla, Jamaica: Student Safety  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Will draconian measures actually increase security and comfort, or will they destroy our sense of community and undermine security?”: Corruption-free Anguilla wonders if increased security at one particular school will help students learn better, while Long Bench is appalled at the negligence involved in the schoolyard death of a child in Jamaica.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Antigua & Barbuda: Upcoming Election · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Abeng News Magazine notices that “the first significant general election in the English-speaking Caribbean in the post Obama campaign era is showing that it has learnt a lesson from the great North” – using the power of the Internet to reach potential voters.


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Bangladesh: Role Of Media In Covering The BDR Mutiny · Global Voices
Rezwan

An Ordinary Citizen analyzes the role of media in covering the recent BDR Mutiny in Bangladesh. The blogger acknowledges that the “electronic media tried to convey the real-time phenomenon to the viewers,” and the citizen journalists expressed their opinion unhindered and made the whole process participative.


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Barbados: Blogging as Journalism?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Blogging has become very popular around the world, Barbados no exception”: Barbados Underground says that “the fact that the traditional media in Barbados continues to regard bloggers as nincompoops maybe more a reflection on them than the blogs.”


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China: Banning Shanzhai Culture? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Ni ping (倪萍), a famous CCTV host actress and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) put forward a suggestion for banning “Shanzhai phenomena” （山寨現象） in the recent CPPCC meeting.
The term Shanzhai becomes popular last year when a netizen, Lao Meng, decided to hold a Shanzhai Spring Festival Gala online. However, because of unknown pressure, the venue booking for the event was cancelled and the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) demanded all media stop reporting on Shanzhai Gala.
However, Shanzhai culture continues to move on. As the CCTV Consumer TV program, March 15 Gala (3.15 晚會), is approaching, a Hunan rights activist, Zhang Hongfeng (張洪峰）, has decided to hold a March 15 Shanzhai Gala. Zhang said that he will release a people's investigation on fake consumer product in the Shanzhai Gala. (via people.com.cn)
Ni Ping's proposal to block Shanzhai culture and phenomena seems to provide more official legitimacy for blocking the above initiatives. In the past few days, Ni's proposal has become a hot topic and drawn a lot of debate and discussion in the past few days.
The term Shanzhai has several meanings various from armed mountain village, to small home-based factory, to copycat production. Ni Ping stressed that she referred to Shanzhai as copycat production, however, since she has been acting as the host of CCTV's Spring Festival Gala, her definition of copycat is in question (as Shanzhai Gala is far from a copycat production). Moreover, as recent anti-smut campaign has turned into political censorship, anti-Shanzhai campaign can become another threat to online free speech and expression.
According to local news report, Ni Ping has put forward 7 suggestions to stop Shanzhai's culture in the CPPCC meeing, and she said (via Tianya forum):
我是坚决反对山寨文化的，我认为法律上应该对此有明确规范。现在的年轻人都被所谓的‘山寨文化’影响得很厉害，认为这就是‘草根文化’的代表。但到底什么是真什么是假，什么是真善美什么是假恶丑，我们应该给年轻人更健康的教育。
“山寨”这个风刮得太猖獗了，网上到处都是，遍地泛滥，尤其很多未成年人都能上网，他们不知道哪个是真的哪个是假的。“山寨文化”假的多、复制的多、盗版的多。最可怕的是所谓的“山寨”都打着民间文化与草根的旗号，但干的完全不是一样的事情，很多都是盗版、造假。
明星被“山寨”不是最重要的，关键是“山寨”中有很多盗版，所以要反对“山寨”文化和“山寨现象”，要从法律上和行政上采取手段，立法制止，同时从舆论上给予制止。
Below is a selection of reactions in the Tianya's post:
Gongzhoufu:
倪大妈还是管管自己刚割的‘山寨双眼皮’吧！
Kylelove:
这就是屁眼当代表的表现之一啊,保就业?她就不知道中国的山寨商家养了多少人,明显的两个相反的提案也好意思往上提.
kewell2002:
呵呵~~山寨和盗版明显是两回事~~
封杀ADIDSA容易~~封杀山寨春晚难哦~
好江山的人 Great country people:
倪萍呀,你别担心呀,从来就不会有人山寨你呀!
百家争鸣,百花齐放的道理都不懂吗?
你太CCTV了!
你很低俗 You are vulgar:
我们山寨了西方民主，不过西方民主也山寨了我们周朝的共和。我们山寨了洋牌手机，我们山寨了核武器，但是我们不能山寨春晚。
春心曉夢 Spring morning dream:
现在的代表呀，把吃饭拉屎的屁事都提了，可没有一个够胆提议如何惩治贪污腐败的问题，不知道他们代表的是谁？！
xxhujun:
当年国军是正规军，共军是真正的“山寨”军哦！
百萬夢想 million dreams:
封吧，以后不叫山寨，叫牛寨，或天寨，换个称呼罢了

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Most wanted fugitive now blogging? · Global Voices
Bob Chen

Road to the most wanted fugitive
As the mastermind of the largest smuggling ring ever, whose enterprise amounts to 10 billion dollars, Lai Changxing is a legendary criminal, also a controversial public figure in China. Before he fled to Canada when the central government was determined to root out his kingdom, he is indisputable the most powerful man in Xiamen, a rich coastal city. He has smuggled in numerous luxury cars and tanker-loads of oil. In 1997, one single year, 10% oil the entire China consumed was imported through his enterprise. More than that, cigarettes, cooking oil, TVs and many other items are on his smuggling list as well.
Though only with grade school diploma, he overawed, corrupted and controlled almost the entire local bureaucrat, particularly the custom system.
It is rare in China that a businessman's power can override that of the government, But Mr. Lai seems to be an exception. The amazing wealth and his “generosity” is the key. He used to claim, that “I fear no government cadres, what I fear is that the cadres have no desire.” As long as a man has desire, in Lai's mind, he is subject to manipulation.
He owns a mysterious building called “red chamber”, which is actually a luxury club where he makes the cadres feel like in paradise. In a few years, Lai has managed to weave so strong a network of umbrella, that in the investigation, 700 officials, including Li Jizhou, the Deputy Minister of Public Security in Beijing, and Lan Pu, the vice mayor of Xiamen, were found bribed by Lai. If it were not a phone call from one of his friend in Public Security, Lai would have been captured and sentenced to death, rather than being a fugitive now in Canada.
Since then, he has been threatened by extradition all the time. His staying in Canada has become a sensitive point of China-Canada relationship. Losing his aura, how is his life like today?
TIME has interviewed him, showing his no-more-dazzling life in a unfamiliar foreign country; however, recently it seems that he himself is going to stand out to tell his own stories. He starts to blogs.
Lai blogging?
In KDNET, a popular discussion board, a post named “Lai is blogging, what is he trying to say?” showed up on March 3, which quickly draws great attention.
The name Lai Changxing itself is enough to be a headline. In 1999, stories about him almost filled newspapers everyday. Depicting him as an unforgivable sinner, however, it seems that the dark side of the Chinese bureaucrat is also relentlessly exposed.
In the post, a link directs people to a social networking website, like facebook, called That'sMetro. Named Fat-Xing, the blogger's first post is about his early life, which is completely consistent with that of Lai.
His second post is now more well-known, which is like an apology, also an accusation of the larger corruption and injustice ongoing  in today's China.
He talks about smuggling
再说说走私。我理解的走私是把外国的好东西运到本国来，坏东西是没有人要运的(或者说走私的)。10多年前或者20多年前，走私的汽车也好，设备也好，电脑也好，只要走私的就代表高质量的。联想集团的柳大哥，你们公司是不是也是走私起家的？如果世界上没有贸易壁垒，能有走私吗？这就是我说的制度的漏洞。这种贸易壁垒，各个国家都有的，不过，西方国家抓到走私的，一般罚款为主，即使判刑也很轻的。因为走私没有损害他人的基本生存权利，没有剥夺任何人的生命权，最多是把财富进行再分配….
Let me talk about smuggling. My understanding is that smuggling is just to bring the good things from abroad to China. Nobody wants bad things. About a decade or two ago, all that is smuggled are of high quality. Mr. Liu (boss of Lenovo, the largest computer company in China), isn't your company also founded on smuggling? If there is no trade barrier in the world, would there  still be smuggling? That's the loophole of our system.
In western countries, mostly smugglers are simply fined, because they doesn't hurt anyone's fundamental rights. It doesn't threaten people's life. At most it is a redistribution of wealth….
说到剥夺人的生命权，这不得不提及一个人，他就叫牛根生，蒙牛公司的老板。牛老板的生意就是杀人，剥夺人的生命权，老人不放过，年轻人不放过，特别是从娃娃杀起。
Here, he alludes to the melamine crisis not long ago, which kills several infants due to the illegal addition of chemicals in infant formula. In addition, Meng Niu was accused of using MOP, another chemical that is potential to cause cancer.
A unforgivable smuggler, or a businessman born in a wrong time?
The authenticity of the blog is not yet clear. There have been claims that the website is not trustworthy, because when the decapitation murder in Virgina Tech happened, the killer's blog is also said to be found there. Therefore, people doubt the blog is faked just for advertising for the website.
However, it is the comments left that are interesting. The unpardonable sinner  in 1999, after 10 years’ fugitive life, seems to have changed his impression on public's mind, becoming more and more amiable. A handful of comments express their deep compassion with Lai.
有隆奶大 says:
星哥，阮专程注册来顶你。但愿你身在他乡能幸福过日子，不再受迫害
牛逼党主席 said,
以前天天听老大的大名。终于有机会来回帖子。
一梦醒来，发现自己以前被愚的厉害
同样发现很多国人被渔民的厉害
肥仔，继续写博，偶们支持你的自由。
快乐大灰狼
2000年我正好在厦门，每天都要经过那幢你曾经引以为豪的大厦（可惜没完工），那时候每天听到最多的就是你的传奇故事，还有些有的没的传闻。不过我听到的90%的厦门市民对你都是有好感的…
I happened to be in Xiamen in 2000. I passed by the Red Chamber everyday, hearing all about your legend and anecdotes. I have also heard that 90% Xiamen citizens think you did good to them.
One of the reasons that Lai, a criminal supposed to be despised by the country but nevertheless favored by the public opinion now, is the low price of oil he used to bring about.
A dialogue blogger 百草止水 noted down in his blog reflects why a cab driver thinks Lai contributed to the oil price that used to be affordable, by competing with the state-control monopolies,  CNPC and CPCC.
The oil price just started to climb up at the time. I was in a taxi chatting with the driver.
百草止水：师傅，现在油价上涨，您的油钱多开支不少吧？
司机：谁说不是呢，我们辛辛苦苦赚的钱，很大部分都送给石油公司了。
百草止水：其实石油公司也多赚不到多少钱，他们的炼油成本也涨，利润增加不了多少。
司机：你不懂，国际油价上涨，他们就立即上调油价；国际油价下跌，他们要延迟许久才会把油价降下来。这里面道道很多，他们怎么说都有理，老百姓搭不上话。
Hearing that, the blogger curiously mentioned that the two leading oil companies, CNPC and CPCC, have always been grumbling that the gap between the domestic and international oil price make them suffer from deep deficit. According to the complaint, they buy dear oil in global market, have it refined, and then sold petroleum products in a restrictively low price to Chinese people. The driver shot out a snort of disbelief.
司机：你想啊，如果国内油价比国外低，走私能赚钱吗？只有国内油价远远高于国际价格，才会有人甘冒杀头的危险去走私。赖昌星通过走私赚了数百亿元，钱从哪里来？不就是国内油价高出国际价格的部分吗？
Therefore, the driver concluded,
司机：所以啊，我们司机都非常喜欢赖昌星，中国有十个赖昌星，汽油价格非剧烈下跌不可，也就不会像现在这样昂贵了。
走私油冲击了国内燃油市场，从而迫使燃油掉价，老百姓就能得到实惠。
Blogger One-point-five‘s article echoes the argument, decrying the leading oil companies as shameful:
去年，中石化在实现净利润396亿元的情况下，同样借助炼油部分亏损向政府一次性“领取”补助100亿元。
Last year, CPCC, regardless of its 39.6-billion net profit, asked for 10 billion compensation from the government, claiming that it bought crude oil in high price while sell low in product oil.
The logical fallacy is that, if Lai can smuggle from abroad and earn enormously, there is no reason that the domestic oil price should be lower.
That's why on the internet, a post widely circulated is boldly named:
怀念赖昌星，怀念一元多油价的日子

author: Bob Chen


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China: Seven Possible Fates Of An Internet Post · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

ESWN translated an article from Southern Metropolis Weekly on “Seven Possible Fates of an Internet post“.


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DRC: “We have to stop believing in Santa Claus” · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Musengeshi Katata at Forum Realisance [Fr] calls Africa Must Reclaim Her Destiny, published by Harmattan in Paris, a “must read”.  Katata writes, “We have to stop believing in Santa Claus and take destiny in our own hands.”

author: Jennifer Brea


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Egypt: Mostafa Hussein shreds the Honor Legacy · Global Voices
Marwa Rakha

Honor, honor crimes, female genital mutilation (FGM), and virginity are deeply rooted concepts in the Egyptian culture. Call them heritage, legacy, or traditions , Mostafa Hussein brilliantly feeds them into the shredder.
The headline of his post says it all:
Men are never sure who is the real father of their offspring. This created the legacy of honour.
I have written previously here about the four anti-child abuse laws and how they were aborted and here about the call to mutilate more women when
Deputy Mohamed Al Omda dragged his three little girls and his mother to the People's Assembly street where they demonstrated silently against the new children's law. MB representative Dr. Abdel Hameed Zaghloul and some other ladies joined them and they all held banners and signs warning against the new laws.
Ami Isseroff commented on both issues saying
The “moderate” Muslim Brotherhood fought the good fight, but owing to the undemocratic nature of the Egyptian government, they were unable to block laws that forbid female genital mutilation and will not register marriages to minors.
ISIS wrote about Facebook honor killings
A Saudi woman was beaten and shot by her father after being caught while chatting with a man on Facebook. This is a typical case of honor murder whereby a woman, discovered to associate with another man, is murdered by her family members as punishment for “denigrating the honor of family.” Punishable acts, once limited to offline relationships, such as having a kiss, sleeping together, and sharing a table, have now expanded to online relations.
ISIS also tackled how FGM Kills here after a little girl lost her life:
The interesting thing about this incident is that the doctor who agreed to perform the surgery is the one taking all the legal blame… The girl's family are getting tons of support from the Childhood and Motherhood Council, which is headed by Tante Moushira Khattab. The doctor who agreed to perform the operation coincidently happens to be a woman. She's taking all the blame! and after the issue of FGM got a lot of attention because of this incident the health minister issued a decree outlawing the procedure completely… The previous law allowed for the procedure for ‘cosmetic’ or ‘medical’ reasons… The new law supposedly puts a complete ban on the procedure rather than just take measures against it… The one that is liable is the one performing the surgery, be it a midwife or a physician. Excuze me!! But who took the girl to the doctor in the first place? Isn't the family considered an accomplice?
Back to Mostafa Hussein who said that he was no expert on that issue but common sense lead him to conclude that
Females have a critical advantage over males because they own the means of producing offspring. They are always sure that their kids are theirs. That their offspring carry their own genes. Both, however, are not programmed to care much about who was responsible for the other half of the genetic load carried by their child.
Fish don't care much about their offspring. A male fish will fertilize the eggs by spraying some sperm over a collection of fish eggs. A male fish will be proud of its fatherly duties for a second or so.
Then he introduces the concept of honor
Honour, that is women's virtue and chastity, is, in my opinion (I am sure this is not a new thing), an invention by men to make sure they are not raising children that are not their own.
How can they control it?
From dress codes to the acceptability of honour killings. Moral mechanisms were put forward by religious people, politicians and law makers across history.
For example
A modest dress or a dress that will not be revealing to a woman's body will, supposedly, be inviting for other males thus increasing the chances that women collectively, in a given society, have a higher risk of being impregnated by someone else. This idea is concealed in a mixture of both honour, religion and acceptance.
Mostafa also talked about FGM, virginity and honor killings describing them as
mechanisms [that] are more twisted, suppressive or bloody.
Finally
Men decided to be unmoved about men who kill their own wives while she was in an act that ‘disturbs the fabric of society’ to, indirectly, warn women of how a society ruled by men will not tolerate kids that are not their own.
But he thinks that
these futile mechanisms (they are futile because men will still not be really sure that the kids are theirs) are more common in societies that find raising a child more costly and ruled by men.


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Estonia: A call for devaluation · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

A Fistful of Euros presents economic statistics on Estonia, all pointing in one direction – towards a devaluation of the Estonian currency, the Kroon.

author: Vilhelm Konnander


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Guatemala: Easy to Understand Demographics · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Mafaca breaks down the demographics of Guatemala's population [es] in easy to understand terms.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Guatemala: Will the New Anti-Smoking Law be Enforced? · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Claudia Navas of Ordinaria Locura [es] is pleased that the new anti-smoking law is now in effect in Guatemala, but lists some of the arguments by some why it won't be effective such as that no one will follow the law and that the police and other public officials will benefit from bribes.