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Rwanda: Foreign aid workers who live like kings · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Foreign aid workers in Africa and elsewhere are often criticized for living far removed from the populations they are supposed to serve. How can people who spend their time zipping around in air-conditioned SUVs, tinted windows rolled to the top to shut out the noise and the dust and the people hope to be effective, the argument goes. Les aventures du Civiliste Guillaume writes about the legion of aid and relief agencies station in Rwanda, finding reasons both to criticize and defend those who have come to help.
Le Rwanda est le pays des ONG et des acronymes : WFP (World Food Program), UNDP (United Nations Developement Program), ONUSIDA (ça s’explique tout seul), Right to Play, Human Rights Watch, USAID (United States Agency for International Development), CARE, PRI (Penal Reform International) … ajoutons à cela les programmes d’aide au développement d’un nombre considérable de pays, toutes les associations rwandaises, etc, etc, etc, … Pour une liste (non-exhaustive, cliquez ici).
Rwanda is a country of NGOs and acronyms : WFP (World Food Program), UNDP (United Nations Developement Program), ONUSIDA (ça s’explique tout seul), Right to Play, Human Rights Watch, USAID (United States Agency for International Development), CARE, PRI (Penal Reform International) … add to that the development and aid programs of a considerable number of countries, all the Rwandan associations, etc., etc…For a list (non-exhaustive, click here).
Les ONG, il y en a de tous styles. Des grandes, des petites, des internationales, des locales, des africaines, des européennes, des états-uniennes, sans doute quelques chinoises, des ONG où l’on trouve plus de rwandais, certaines où l’on trouve plus d’européens (quoi que, le gouvernement demande la parité).
NGOs come in all shapes and sizes. Big ones, small ones, international ones, local ones, African ones, European ones, American ones, without a doubt a few Chinese, NGOs were there are more Rwandans, some where there are more Europeans (whatever the case, the government demands parity).
Civiliste Guillaume shares the perspective of two of his French friends:
Au Rwanda nous avons quelques amis qui travaillent dans des ONG ou aux Nations Unies. Il vivent plus ou moins comme des rois, loin de la population, la journée ils sont le plus souvent dans des bureaux… Mais comment peuvent-ils espérer comprendre la réalité que vivent les personnes qu’ils veulent aider en vivant eux-mêmes de cette manière ?!? Ce n’est tout simplement pas possible. Quand on discute avec eux nous voyons bien à quel point ils ont du mal à comprendre les gens qu’ils sont sensé aider. Ce n’est pas par mauvaise volonté, c’est parce qu’il ne sont pas dans un cadre qui le leur permet. Je ne dis pas que nous, on comprends tout, loin de là, mais c’est sûr qu’en vivant au quotidien avec des enfants qui sont considérer comme des moins que rien, on ressent, plutôt qu’on ne comprend, un certains nombre de choses, sur leurs “problèmes” mais aussi sur leurs “rêves, projets et envies” pour l’avenir.
In Rwanda, we have some friends who work in NGOs or at the United Nations. They live more or less like kings, removed from the population, they spend most of the day at the office…But how can they hope to understand the reality that the people you want to help when they themselves live in this way?!?  It's simply impossible. When we talk with them we clearly see the extent to which they have problems understanding the people they are supposed to help.  It's not by any ill will on their parts, its because they are part of an organization that does not let them. I'm not saying that we understand everything–far from it–but for sure living everyday with children who are considered less than nothing, we feel, rather than understand, a number of things about their “problems” but also about their “dreams, projects and desires” for the future.
Civiliste Guillaume thought as his friends do when he first arrived in Rwanda, but his views have since changed:
En Suisse, j’entends le même discours. L’impression que certains de ces gens sont déconnectés. Qu’ils ont la vie facile, un peu d’aventure et des salaires inconvenants.
In Switzerland, I hear the same discourse. The impression that some of these people are disconnected.  That they live the simple life, a little bit of adventure and unseemly salaries.
En arrivant au Rwanda, j’ai eu le même genre de réaction. Ce que l’on voit en premier, c’est les grosses voitures, les beaux bâtiments, les bureaux. Des gens qui ont l’air d’être dans un monde à part.
Upon arriving in Rwanda, I had the same kind of reaction. What you see at first is the big cars, the beautiful buildings, the offices.  People who seem to be living in another world.
Et puis j’ai rencontré “ces gens là”. Ceux qui travaillent pour l’ONU, ceux qui sont dans les bureaux plus que sur le terrain. J’ai appris à les connaître. J’ai découvert leur travail. J’ai passé des soirées avec eux, des Après quelques mois, j’ai changé d’avis.
And then I met “those people.”  Those who work for the UN, those who are in the office more than they are in the field.  I learned to know them.  I discovered their work.  I spent evenings with them, and after several months, I changed my mind.
Oui, l’ONU a une armée de grosses Toyota Prado, mais pas plus que les autres. L’EPR a les mêmes. Oui, certains travaillent dans des bureaux, et ne croisent que rarement les populations les plus nécessiteuses. Mais un job de bureau peut lui aussi être important. L’approvisionnement d’un camp de réfugiés ne se prépare pas seulement sur le terrain. Et surtout, aucun de ceux que j’ai rencontré ne reste dans son monde. Tous les expats que j’ai croisé ont des amis rwandais. Certains plus que d’autres.
Yes, the UN has an army of big Toyota Prados, but no more than others.  The Presbyterian Church of Rwanda (EPR) has the same. Yes, some work in offices, and only rarely cross the paths of the people who are most in need.  But an office job can also be important.  The supplying of a refugee camp doesn't begin only on the ground.  And above all, none of those I met stay in their world.  All the expats that I've come in contact with have Rwandan friends. Some more than others.
Et surtout, tous sont touchés par ce qui se passe autour d’eux. Tous essaient de faire un petit quelque chose pour créer un monde meilleur.
Above all, they are all touched by what happens around them. They all try to do a little bit to make a better world.
Loin de moi de dire que la situation est idéale. Bien sûr, quelques “huiles” ont des salaires disproportionnés (mais à côté de cela, combien de stagiaires payés au lance-pierre). Bien sûr, on peut trouver de gros disfonctionnement dans les grosses ONG. Bien sûr, la taille implique une certaine lourdeur et une certaine bureaucratie. Mais derrière tout cela, n’oublions pas qu’il y a aussi des gens. Et qu’eux aussi méritent un petit bout de respect.
I am far from saying that the situation is ideal.  Of course some “bigwigs” have disproportionate salaries.  Of course you can find major dysfunction in the big NGOs. Of course size implies a certain slowness and a certain bureaucracy.  But behind all that, don't forget that there are also people. And that they deserve a little bit of respect.
*   *   *
Editor's note: I've just arrived in Kigali on my first trip to Rwanda.  If there are any Rwandan bloggers out there, I'd love to hear from you.  Je suis arrivee a Kigali hier l'apres-midi. Si vous etes un bloggeur rwandais, contactez-moi.

author: Jennifer Brea


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Saudi to License More Radio Stations  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Saudi Jeans says his country may soon allow more new FM stations.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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South Asia: Doctors in the UK · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

With doctors in the NHS being connected to the terror plot in the UK, The Daily Rhino on the politics of healthcare and NHS.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Sri Lanka: Free Media · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A Voice in Colombo on the state of free media in Sri Lanka, and if it really is free.


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Suggestions for a Better Kuwait · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

RayBoy from Kuwait has a few suggestions for the Kuwaiti government and law makers here. They include building solar power farms, a jungle in the desert and a monorail linking Kuwaiti towns.


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Tamil Blogosphere: The Cheroot Store · Global Voices
Mathy Kandasamy

The Cheroot is a cylindrical cigar with both ends clipped during manufacture. Since cheroots do not taper, they are inexpensive to roll mechanically, and their low cost makes them particularly popular. The word cheroot comes from French cheroute, from Tamil curuttu/churuttu/shuruttu – roll of tobacco. This word could have been absorbed into the French language from Tamil during the early 16th century, when the French were trying to stamp their presence in South India. The word could have then been absorbed into English from French. [Source: Wikipedia]
Veyilaan talks about a person who worked in a Cheroot manufacturing plant in South Tamil Nadu, India.
சுந்தரம்! ஏன்யா இன்னும் ஒக்காந்திட்டே இருக்குற?
வீட்டுக்குப் போவேண்டியது தான?
போணும் மொதலாளி! கெளம்புறேன்!
சுருட்டுக் கடை மொதலாளி மட்டுந்தான் ‘சுந்தரம்’னு பேரச் சொல்லிக் கூப்புடுவார். மத்தவங்களுக்கெல்லாம் அவர் ‘செட்டியார்’ தான்!
Sundaram! Why are you still here? You should be home already.
Yes boss. On my way.
Only the ‘Cheroot Store’ owner would call him ‘Sundaram’. For the others, he is ‘Chettiar’.
Chettiar with bulging belly dressed in tobacco stained torn under-shirt and dirty lungi could always be seen near the ‘cheroot store’ doorsteps. He would be there until the store closes. Sometimes even afterwards.
The ‘cheroot store’ is not really a ‘store’ per se. It was a company manufacturing cheroots.
‘Danushkodi Vilas Suruttuk Kampani'(Tamil) – Danushkodi Vilas Cheroot Company.
The company could have been called ‘Cheroot store’ because some smokers buy their cheroots here.
If anyone smokes a cheroot, people could smell it four doors down the lane. If a single cheroot could be smelled that far, imagine a ‘Cheroot store’.
‘The Cheroot Store’ used to be the landmark for people. Even people asking directions would base their questions on ‘The Cheroot Store’. At one time 40-50 people used to work at ‘The Cheroot Store’. Now barely ten people work there.
Sundaram Chettiar used to work there too. He might have worked at ‘The Cheroot Store’, but had never ever smoked a cheroot.
Chettiar would do all the work at the ‘Cheroot Store’. He would seperate the tobacco leaves packed in a bundle. Wash the tobacco leaves in a tub. Dry them under the sun. Cut the dried tobacco into small squares. Roll the tobacco squares. Stick labels. Pack them a dozen to a pack and wrap them. Chettiar would do all the work at ‘The Cheroot Store’.
Chettiar's job was quite sedentary most of the time and he started developing a tummy because of that. And as he got older, Chettiar's work got affected because of the big belly.
The Cheroot Store owner called him up one day and said that he was not quite active and told him to stay at home. But, Chettiar could be still be seen sitting on the steps of ‘The Cheroot Store'!
One day I asked Chettiar, “Why are you sitting here always, Chettiar”? He replied, “I've been working here for years and am not able to break my habit’.
I kept on asking Chettiar whenever I saw him.  Chettiar hesitantly opened up, after my persistent questioning.
Chettiar said, “I'm so used to this damn Tobacco. I'm not able to stay at home without breathing in its aroma. I did try as much as I could to stay at home. But, am not able to do anything. I don't know how to talk about it. That's why I'm sitting here every day breathing in the aroma”.
“What do you do at night”?
“Even at night, before going to bed, I would open up a cheroot by my bedside. Only then, I'm able to get a good night's sleep”.
“Did you do this when you worked at ‘The Cheroot Store”?
“No no. Then, even after coming home my body would smell of tobacco. Even my clothes”.
Only then, I knew why Chettiar had been there at the Cheroot Store's doorsteps all day long.
I visited my town a few days ago. And came to know that Chettiar had succumbed to the disease that comes to smokers.
DON’T MAKE IT!

author: Mathy Kandasamy


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Trinidad & Tobago: The Police  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Now is Wow blogs about the police (no, not the band) in Trinidad and Tobago.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Ukraine: Buying Art · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Olechko writes on buying art in Ukraine.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Ukraine, Russia: Sochi and Visas · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Ukraine Today congratulates Sochi with winning the 2014 Winter Olympics bid and writes: “Ukraine should seek to encourage Russia to free up its visa requirements for short term visits bringing Russia's visa's system in line with Ukraine and other Eastern European Countries. Russia's current visa requirements are holding back tourism in the region including Ukraine.”


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Ukraine: Yalta European Strategy · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Ukrainiana writes about a Yalta European Strategy (YES), a get-together of “a loose alliance of ‘friends of Ukraine’ among Western political elites,” sponsored by Victor Pinchuk, ex-president Kuchma's son-in-law.


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US Independence Day: Afghan Edition · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Afghanistanica retells a story told to him by an Afghan friend about a recurring dream that turned out to be a distant childhood memory about the Soviet invasion.

author: Ben Paarmann


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Uzbekistan: Youth celebrations · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Afisha posts a report along with pictures about recent youth celebrations outside Tashkent, Uzbekistan's capital. About 130 of the most active young folks from all corners of the country invaded a sanatorium usually inhabited by elderly people [RU].


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Venezuela: What Went Right and Wrong in the Copa America · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Venezuela News and Views writes about the good, the bad, the ugly, and the ugliest about the Copa America tournament currently taking place.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Yemen: Arabs Oblivious to Climate Change  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The Arab world seems to be oblivious of climate change and the fight against it, writes Omar Busawad from Yemen.


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Afghanistan: Rebuilding telecommunication · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Afghanistan's telecommunications infrastructure is likely to be rebuilt now that the World Bank has announced it will support investment in the sector, says Bonnie Boyd.


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Argentina: MIT Student Has Little Faith in OLPC · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Luciano Tourn of Un Argentino en MIT [ES], an Argentine attending MIT, does not think that the One Laptop Per Child will end up working.


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Argentina: Travel Blog in Clarin · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Jorge Gobbi and his Blog de Viajes [ES] was recently featured in the Travel Supplement of the Buenos Aires newspaper Clarin.


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Armenia: Fields of gold · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Notes from Hairenik visits a farm in the Armenian Ararat region, where a resilient farmer is growing golden wheat but has to fight with irrigation problems.


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Armenia: RFE/RL Update · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Onnik Krikorian explains why the Armenian parliament rejected new media bills that would have put the broadcasts of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty at risk of being shut down. He also warns of complacency now that the immiment threat has waned – the government might find yet another reason to take the independent broadcaster off-air.


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Bahamas: Triumph over Slavery  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Rick Lowe of WeblogBahamas.com visits Nassau's Pompey Museum for a reading tour called Lest We Forget – The Triumph Over Slavery and shares his impressions of the visit.  Posted with a link to the virtual exhibition.


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Bangladesh: Policy and the Poor · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Unheard Voices writes favourably about the World Bank's document on improving living conditions for the Urban Poor.


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Central Asia: The week in the news · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

For all news junkies out there, Central Asia Now features a comprehensive roundup of last week's headlines.


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China: Forms of Protest · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Alan Baumler from China History blog introduced Ching Kwan Lee’s book Against the Law: Labor Protests in China’s Rustbelt and Sunbelt, which discusses about labour protest forms.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Internet control after Xiamen protest · Global Voices
sami ben gharbia

“Under a new city regulation, online users would have to use their real names when posting messages on more than 100,000 Web sites registered in Xiamen”, a Southern Chinese city where citizens used blogs, chatrooms and SMS to organize a protest against a planned construction of a toxic chemical plant.

author: sami ben gharbia


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China: Xiamen to kill off anonymous posting · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Joel Martinsen from DANWEI has translated some local reports about Xiamen Bureau of Industry and Commerce's preparation to implement the use of real names on the Internet.


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Czech Rebublic: Celebrating Jan Gus · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

NvB: Bored in Brno? celebrates the Czech holidays by playing Czech music at a college radio station in the U.S.


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Guyana: Healthy Eating  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A book by Michael Pollan gets GuyaneseMark thinking about how lucky he is to be in Guyana, “where my only choice when buying produce and meat is to look at local, all-natural producers. It denies the capitalist consumer in me to search for the better price for food at the expense of health, nutrition, and larger moral-political ethics.”


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Hong Kong: Refugee · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Ivy Chang reported on a photo exhibition about the life of refugee in Hong Kong (zh) at inmediahk.net. Since May 2006, the UN refugee agency had stopped giving financial support to refugee in Hong Kong.


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India: N Ram and China · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The Acorn rips to pieces an opinion piece in an established newspaper – which appears to favour Chinese policies and doubt the Dalai lama.


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India: Stripping on the street · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

To Each Its Own on a woman who had to strip down to her undergarments to ensure cops took notice of her grievances related to dowry demands from her husband and in laws.


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Iran: Media under Pressure · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Iranian authorities stepped up the pressure on Iranian media last week. Ham Mihan (Compatriot), a pro reformist journal was banned on 3 July.
Iranian Labour News Agency, Ilna, that covered news about strikes and unrest in universities has also been suspended temporarily and its director resigned.
Many bloggers are talking about the growing censorship in country. Some were journalists for Ham Mihan and share their feelings.
Painful, but no surprise
Jomhour regrets [Fa] that tomorrow will be a day without Ham Mihan, a mature, tolerant, and brave journal that criticized the government’s positions. It was shut down on the order of Iranian authorities.
Hanif  refers [Fa] to the continuous close-down of journals in Iran, and says we should be used to hearing this kind of news, but are still surprised to hear that Ham Mihan was banned.
Ghomaar says [Fa] if a journal in this country survives more than a year you can be surprised. A journal being banned is ordinary here. He reminds us Ilna is under pressure too. Its management got changed and probably it will be shutdown too.
Maryam Sheybani, a journalist who wrote for Ham Mihan, says [Fa] it was very, very difficult to say good bye to our journal. We published just 43 issues – but we tried too hard to be different from the others. We succeeded, and that is why were not tolerated and got shut down.
Let's sell cigarettes
Varesh says [Fa] with irony, that it is better if kiosks just sell cigarettes instead of journals. Nobody is going to punish you to make people smoke.
Sanjaghak says [Fa] did you see how they shut down a journal and the next day everything was normal. I ask myself why I study journalism? If it is for my personal interest, then OK, but I can not count on it for a career.
Mahjad has published [Fa] a photo of several banned journals. The blogger says the government wants to force some leading journalists out of the media because the Islamic Republic hates people who think, and make others to think.
What people ask me about Iran?
Internet filtering and censorship has limited Iranian access to free information. But it seems Westerners also only get a partial image of Iran in Western media. Some bloggers try to create a bridge to fill this information gap.
View from Iran says the first questions people ask her in the West when they learn she comes from Iran is:
Is there a chance there will be political change? – Iran changes all the time. There is change in Iran today! There will be change tomorrow. There was change yesterday. Iran's path is unclear. It's future is unclear. The regime seems to think that the only way to guarantee its survival is by making sure young men and women don't hold hands in public, and that women wear black and men take the gel out of their hair. I am being a bit facetious, but sometimes it really does seem that way to me.
Most people do not want another revolution (it seems)… they want slow change for the better, not the worse.
Trusting USA?
Anthony Loewstein is a writer and blogger who recently went to Iran to discover Iranians’ point of view on different issues. We read in his blog:
Their view of Washington and its intentions are uniformly negative – a variety of journalists, editors and bloggers are openly fearful of a US strike on their country’s nuclear facilities. As leading female journalist and blogger Azadeh Akbari told me, “how can we trust anything America says when we see what they’ve done to Iraq and Palestine?”

author: Fred Petrossian


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Jamaica, Grenada, BVI, USVI: Focus on Tobias Buckell · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Geoffrey Philp profiles Caribbean-born speculative fiction writer Tobias S. Buckell.


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Japan: Defending Kyuma · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

DeOrio at Trans-Pacific Radio has posted a detailed essay defending former Defense Minister Kyuma Fumio's infamous remarks regarding the U.S. A-bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WW2. DeOrio writes that Kyuma's “departure from the Defense Ministry and replacement by Yuriko Koike can only be a benefit to the Ministry and to Japan. Nevertheless, he deserved to be hoisted on his own petard, not pushed out by lame sound bite politics.”

author: Chris Salzberg


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Korea: Offensive foreigners · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A bunch of foreigners who decided to make a drunken scene in a Seoul subway, included singing a song that degraded Korean (and Japanese) women.  And then posting a video of their adventure on Youtube (all removed). Robert Koehler from Marmot's Hole was very angry and speechless towards the scene. While Michael Hurt questioned: Is this typical of foreigners’ behavior in Korea?  If not, and by definition, is it particularly newsworthy?


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Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome · Global Voices
Salam Adil

There is a lot on the menu in my post today. Reactions to the Iraqi bomber in London, the siege of Adhamiya, stories of exile and a little politics. And Chikitita borrowed a camera this week and took some snapshots of her daily life. I'll be dotting these around my post for added colour.
Laith saw a sight that he found really funny.
I was in the car waiting for our turn to be searched… when we heard sound of explosions…
The funny things was watching the Iraqi and other foreign officials running towards the bunkers while their bodyguards trying to protect them… I really felt I want to laugh and cry at the same time.
He explains his mixed emotions:
I wanted to laugh because I saw their majesties the officials running away and afraid. Their guards were following them… I wanted to cry because I remembered the poor Iraqis who died only three days ago in one of Baghdad intersections. 78 poor civilians were killed, most of them were burnt to death. They didn’t have the chance to go to any close bunker…
I wish the officials taste the pains of the poor civilians. I wish they drink from the same glass of pain that we drink from everyday. I wish they live in fear just like we do. I wish them the worst and may God make my wishes true.
It turns out that one of the people who smashed a burning car into an airport in the UK was an Iraqi and a doctor. Naturally, this shocked a few Iraqi bloggers. Not least of which is one who is also living in exile in the UK, and just happens to be a doctor. A&E Iraq gives us his unique perspective. He remembers Nada, another young Iraqi doctor who failed to get asylum in Britain:
Like many others, Nada thought about seeking asylum here, and like many others also, she was informed that, they’ll not accept her as that means, they failed in Iraq!
Thinking about Nada; I just remembered a group of Hijackers ten years ago who kidnapped an airplane from Sudan and brought it to London; two years later they all were released from prisons as they claimed being oppressed by Saddam! Before the war, they tried to show the whole world how human they are, and how horrible Saddam was. Nowadays, they’re also human, so they have to protect Iraqis from each other by staying in their country.
What hypocrisy is this, could any stupid believe this? Did they care about us when were suffering the Embargo?
He concludes:
Yesterday they arrested two Arabic doctors, should we believe that they’re terrorists…
The only fact is the game is over; Iraqis are no more useful so they don’t want them, and the ones who are already here are enough to be arrested by the name of fighting terrorism. They have the right to invade and destroy our country but we don’t have the right to live in their countries!
like Iraq and every Iraqi, Nada has to choose the way she wants to die, she can stay here and wait to starve or to be arrested by their police or she can go back to be killed by their solders or by someone supported by their intelligence system.
They’re always nice, always democratic, even when they kill!
Dreamer, another Iraqi living in the UK, is despondent:
With the updates of today that there were Iraqi and Jordanian doctors suspected of their involvement in this mess, our hearts reached the low of the lows. These people have completely tarnished our reputation. They perform these acts out of desperation, thinking that this will bring them satisfaction and rivalry over whoever has sabotaged their life. Do they once think of all those others that will be put under scrutiny and be undermined due to their selfishness? The media will most definitely exploit the fact that they are from Middle East and Muslims.
It was inevitable that something like this would come out of Iraqis, considering the state Iraq has turned into. However, neither I, nor do I think anyone else has expected it of highly educated, most likely from a mannerly and modest families, to commit such a deed…
What future awaits me and hundred others? Should we still be hopeful?
And Neurotic Wife, who happens to be in London,  is appalled:
Its pretty upsetting to find out that an Iraqi would get involved in such horrid events. That just invigorated me more, because it means that the countries that were willing to take on the Iraqis who really are innocent and who really are suffering in Iraq, will back out. Thats it, all those coworkers of mine who are dreaming of a better live, of a second chance will no longer get their dream. Its gone, gone forever because of a stupid, selfish man.
As an Iraqi, Im appalled. Appalled at what these doctors were thinking. Why??? Why do this to the country that gave you a chance? Why do this to the people that extended their hands out to you and opened their arms and took you in??? WHY? What for???To hurt the government? Or to make a change in foreign policy??? I dont get it, I really dont. You cant achieve a thing by violence. Instead you are creating more havoc, more havoc and more hatred. And hatred, thats the last thing we need at the moment.
Two bloggers gave accounts of the day that the wall around Adhamiya was completed. Something that has been poorly reported in the media. Nabil posts photos and a video of his walk to the border of Adhamiya. He gives a day-by-day account of a battle with American soldiers:
Day 1:
Thursday 10 am, an American tank gets bombed by a roadside bomb and 9 soldiers were dead, then huge battle starts between American soldiers and unknown (or as I may say no one), ending up on destroying the main underground water pipe which supplies the whole street, and destroying high tension electricity wires which went down laying on the street and electrifying the drowned street.After the shootings from the American side, while the American tank was still burning, two patrols of ING comes to back the American patrol against again “no one”, and continue to shoot with them randomly and destroying more stuff and ruining the surrounding houses.
Then after about 30 continueous minutes of shooting arrives a fire
fighters team of the civil defense and extinguishs the burning tank.then shooting stops and silence finally is reached, two hours later the ING leaves, and the American patrol remains, I assumed they were still gathering the pieces of the blown up soldiers. finally at around 6 pm,
the American patrol leaves and the street was opened again, people went out and headed to the explosion scene to check out the damages. Some of the remaining piece of the dead soldiers were still there, Alqa`eda members diffuse to the street and gather around the scene and start to take pictures of their achievement.
10 minutes later a huge number of American heavy tanks and hummers come back to the scene again and arrest all the people who were standing in the scene but bad luck as I heared alqa`eda members has already left the scene, as I heared the arrested individuals were driven to an unknown destination and never been seen after the arressment.
Read on here.
Mohammed of Last-of-Iraqis lives near Adhamiya and posted his own account of the events. He concludes:
They blocked all the streets about and I mean all the streets , some of my relatives were at work and couldn't get back home , it was impossible for any one to walk a single yard in the street , my wife's uncle was trapped two blocks from his home and couldn't reach it!!!this terrible situation continued till 6 p.m when my relatives reached their homes , and I don't think they will be able to leave there homes any time soon to go to work or college , what a situation , no water , no shops , no food supplies , no medications , it's obvious they want NO LIFE in Adhamyia . Why didn't the media cover these acts? why did they build the Adhamyia wall? the simple short answer is to mask the crimes they do , it's a big new Abu-Gharib where a new torture and killing methods will be used……
All the trees in our garden, though functional for cooking, look ugly. The gardener who used to take care of them was displaced and they were all abandoned, because none of my family is so keen on taxing chores. So I have no tree to show off but this marvelous palm tree next door. I just love it!”
Its one of those tame-sounding terms, like “collateral damage” that covers the true horror of life in a war-torn country. People are forced to leave their homes at the threat of one criminal gang or another. Many times without time or ability to even gather some basic belongings. This phenomenon is is certainly on the rise in Iraq and here are some of the bloggers stories about this.
Chikitita is still in Baghdad and talks of good-byes and being forgotten by young nephews. She writes:
I could hear the tears she was trying to stifle on my end of the phone. I had nothing to say but we will meet someday, not so sure of course, but I had to say something. My friend is one of those people, to whom the idea of leaving has always been out of the question… The last straw was the attempt on her dad’s life, only then she realized this is no longer home and it was about time to leave.
I have always hated goodbyes. All the friends and family members who knew every detail of my life seem to be trickling out of the country. On my sister’s last day in Iraq, she begged me not to cry… It dawned on me that my nephew and I will no longer be friends and my predictions have become reality. Yesterday I bowed and scraped for His Majesty to talk to me on the phone, he was too shy to do it. I felt so crestfallen; I’ve become the faceless stranger who sends him presents, not the “Tita” who used to watch animated movies with him, or the ugly auntie who’d yell at him whenever he came near my textbooks and pens. I have become just a voice from a place called Baghdad, whatever that means.
When my favourite aunt was forced out of her house and chose to leave Baghdad for good I told her it was too risky for me to come say goodbye. It was not the risks I was trying to fend off, I didn’t want to tell her that I missed her already…
…places may wax an awful lot of nostalgia, but it is the people around that make the places we are attached to what they are.
Ali talks of a neighbourhood lost:
I remember my days back home. I remember my neighborhood, the school that I went to. I remember my friends often… Zaid and Fadi, who are Christians, Haider who is a Shiite, and Hamad who is a Sunni….
Now that I’ve left the country, all I can do is to keep in touch with them. Hamad is in Syria because he and his family didn’t feel secure enough to live in that neighborhood. Fadi fled to Syria too with his family, but he went back to Baghdad to go to school and he is living with his grandmother now. Haider is still living in Baghdad but he is not going to school anymore because it is dangerous to drive all the way from where he lives to school.
I was talking with Zaid on the phone the other day and he told me that the neighborhoods where we lived and went to school fall in the territory of what is called “The Islamic State.” His family was threatened to leave their house within 30 minutes or they’d be killed. They couldn’t take anything out, not even his books that he was reading to prepare for the finals. He said that there are no more Christians or Shiites that can live Amiriya, Ghazaliya, Khadraa and Jamiya.
It was very hard to listen to Zaid talking about what had happened to my city. In those neighborhoods there were Shiite and Sunni mosques and there were Christian Churches. We all lived with each other. We all were friends. I was mad when I heard the news. I was mad because that is what I loved about Baghdad; that we all lived with each other and sects were not an issue . Sect wasn’t an issue when I made friends.
Now I look at the pictures from my neighborhood and remember all the people who lived there and I cry because now I can’t have the same days that I had. I know that my neighborhood is not the same place it used to be. I know that Baghdad is not the same Baghdad. I know that Iraq is not the same Iraq.
But I know that this is not the way my family and my friends and most Iraqis want Iraq to be. And I know that one day we will all tell the world that we are not Shiites, not Sunnis, not Christians, and not Kurds, but we are all Iraqis and we all will live on the land of peace.
And Sunshines writes about the displaced doctors who have no where else to sleep but in the hospital in her city, Mosul:
Mama suggested a great suggestion to prepare lunch for the doctors who had to leave their governorates and stay in mosul ,they live in the hospital, grandma and I liked the idea but dad didn’t !, so it was canceled.
I went with my mom to her work last Wednesday , to have another night-guard (I have bruxism ), I had so much fun there, they thought mama and I were sisters , no one believed that I am her daughter!!! And one of the doctors thought I am the new dentist !!!.
There were doctors from Baghdad , Faluja , Hadeetha , and other cities, they had to leave their cities because of the bad situation
Iraqi Pundit tells us a joke going around between Iraqis:
Saddam Hussein orders some men to dig up the grave of his mother. Once they do, Saddam spits in what remains of her face. He then orders the men to bury the dead woman again. The men, of course, follow his orders. They also very meekly ask why he would violate religious rules and disrespect his mother in such a way. He tells them he's just following her wishes. He said that before she died, his mother told Saddam: “If you ever turn out to be a good man, dig me up and spit in my face.”
He explains:
To Iraqis, this makes a lot of sense. Even Saddam's mother knew how unlikely it was for her son to turn out to be a good man. Unfortnately, with the way things have been in Iraq, more and more people are saying life under Saddam was better. To Saddam's mother, that means her son has finally turned out to be a good man.
Iraq the Model looks beyond the current US military surge in Iraq and calls for wide ranging political reforms:
from holding local elections to choose new and representative district and city councils to amending the general elections law to allow voters to choose their representatives directly instead of the current slate system. It might be also a good idea to adjust the federalism law to allow turning each province into an individual region within the federal state to avoid the sensitivities that could arise from forming regions on sectarian and/or ethnic basis.
A US congressional group, last week, produced a report that said the Pentagon “cannot report in detail how many of the 346,500 Iraqi military and police personnel that the coalition trained are operational today,” and that they “have no idea what our $19 billion  [spent on training and equiping the Iraqi Army] has gotten us.” Well, 24 Steps to Liberty has an idea:
Do we know what the Iraqi army is equipped with? I do:
AK47 rifles, pistols, 7.62 mm PKMS (BKC) Machine Gun, M16 [recently given to some soldiers] and less than a 100 humvees.
Do Iraqi soldiers have armored vehicles? No.
Do they have flack jackets? No.
Do they have night vision goggles? No.
The report also said that the US has spent $19 billion in recruiting, training, equipping and building training facilities.
What training? This is the army that fought eight years with Iran, invaded Kuwait, oppressed the Shiites in the south, killed the Kurds in the north, failed coups in the west and protected a dictatorship for more than 30 years. Train it to do what?
And who got the money? American contractors, right? [in Iraqi we say Hasna Jabata… Hasna Akhthata, roughly translated: Hasna brought it and Hasna took it back.]
While Hammorabi sees the weakness of the Iraqi army as a deliberate policy:
America under [George W Bush] not only weakened the Iraqi forces and left the country without army and security but they imposed a fragile and weak government though by kind of election but based on sectarian and ethnic divisions. Moreover the USA interferes with every thing in Iraq including the protection they offer for the criminals, the terrorists and the corruptors… It started of course from Paul Bremer who dissolved the Iraqi army and left the country to struggle in weakness.
One of the most important thing is the so weak Iraqi government that can not do anything for the country and this may suite the GWB policies in Iraq, at least this is what most of the Iraqis believe.
We think that the Iraqi government should be a strong one whether it is elected or not and it should have a strong army or at least to call the Iraqi army to get back and armed without interferences from the USA. In fact if the USA would like to achieve a better relation with the Iraqis for the future they should help in building up this army as soon as possible as it took long time just to create few weak and inefficient units.
Now that Hometown Baghdad has finished their project to document daily life in Iraq one of their member has gone on to use his video skills for greater good. Mike writes:
Hometown Baghdad viewers should know that when Saif isn’t booby-trapping his house with barbwire, smoking shisha, or talking about his beautiful wife Noor, he is playing guitar. And so he has decided to make a series of instructional videos for people wanting to learn how to play in a variety of styles… subscribe to his youtube channel.

author: Salam Adil


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Pakistan: Attempt on Musharraf’s Life · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Metroblogging Islamabad on the attempt to assassinate President Musharraf.


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Pakistan: Lal Masjid and the Media · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Whisk feels that the media could do a better job of covering the Lal Masjid issue by exploring other angles.


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Poland: Illogical Censorship · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Boo is perplexed by what gets censored in Poland and what doesn't: “That Paul Coelho book with a cover that shows a baby's finger pointing at a nipple […] has a big black box over the nipple on all the posters around Warsaw. But, the magazine that has the terrible twins suckling, one on each of Merkel's breasts (nipples just visible) has been left alone.”


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Poland: The Kaczynskis’ Follies · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Economist's Edward Lucas writes that the Polish leaders’ “logic is based on misunderstandings” and that “they risk making Poland as Greece used to be: unpopular, expensive and, most dangerously, marginal.”


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Reuters Africa wins Diageo Africa Business Reporting award · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

The team here at Global Voices were overjoyed this morning to receive the news that the groundbreaking  Reuters Africa web site won the best site award at the Diageo Africa Business Reporting awards (read the Reuters report here). The award was announced at a ceremony in London yesterday evening.
This award has special meaning for us not only because Reuters is one of the principal sponsors of our project, but also because Global Voices content is featured quite prominently on Reuters Africa‘s country pages (see the “BLOGS” section at the top right-hand side of any page). We were very excited when Reuters approached us earlier this year with the idea of incorporating our RSS feeds into their new project. As Rachel Rawlins wrote in an article announcing the Africa site launch back in February 2007,  “it. . . . demonstrates the increasing value placed by news organisations on the ability of authentic voices to provide perspective, background and context to the events they cover.”
Congratulations, Reuters — we're absolutely thrilled that you've won this award, and extremely proud to be a part of the Africa Reuters project.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Russia: Archives · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sean's Russia Blog posts a very interesting entry on the Russian and Soviet archives.


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Russia: Cheerleaders · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Accidental Russophile attempts to sound “intellectual” as he posts pictures of the Russian cheerleaders. Siberian Light points out in a comment that some of these cheerleaders “haven't quite figured out where to put the kneepads yet…”


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Russia: Soviet Sports and the 2014 Winter Olympics · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Vilhelm Konnander wonders what Russia will be like in 2014, and what the Winter Olympics will do to it and Sochi, and also writes about sports in the Soviet Union.


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Slovenia: Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Glory of Carniola posts a new Best of the Slobs roundup.


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Trinidad & Tobago, Antigua: Stanford & WICB?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

West Indies Cricket Blog links to a story on the proposal made by Antigua-based billionaire Allen Stanford to the West Indies Cricket Board.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Catching a Vapse  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Elspeth at Now is Wow speculates on the origins of the Trinidadian expression “to catch a vapse”…


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Turkmenistan: Less festivities, more democracy? · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Merdjen wonders whether the lack of festivities in honour of Turkmenistan's new president is a sign of democracy coming to town.


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Ukraine: News Roundup · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Orange Ukraine posts an extensive review of the news from Ukraine, including election-related survey results.


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Uzbekistan: Law and order · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Rowan Wagner reports that, strangely, Tashkent's taxi drivers have suddenly become law-abiding traffic participants. Is the police finally doing its job?


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Uzbekistan: Power parallels · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

On neweurasia, Ali Said evaluates Uzbek president Karimov's options once the next presidential elections will have taken place in December.


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Algeria: Why Terrorism? · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“What drives upstanding young Muslim professionals to the point of terrorism?” asks Algerian blogger Nouri.


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Angola: introduction to Angolan music · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Szavanna interviews Angolan blogger, Koluki, about Angolan music: “I am having fun with these interviews – it’s actually amazing how many exceptional people are out there blogging – Koluki is one of them. Her beautiful blog is a great selection of music & art and a lot more – I have asked her a few questions to find out more about her and of course music – this time from Angola.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Bahrain: DJ Tiesto’s Performance Fiasco  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Abadi from Bahrain gives us his take on why DJ Tiesto did not perform in the country.


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Bahrain: Wearing Hijab Part-Time · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

There is one subject that unites everyone living in Bahrain: traffic congestion. In the last few years, the roads on the island have become clogged by the weight of traffic, and roadbuilding to relieve that congestion in the long term is making it far worse in the short term. Every single person has a story of frustration to tell. Ammar recently posted about a typical experience:
It gets very annoying…when it takes you almost 2 hours to drive home in an island that's just a little over 10km wide.
The traffic problem has gotten to the extent that, if nobody at the department of planning (oh wait, I forgot, we DON'T have a department of planning) does anything, it will soon start to reach catastrophic levels. And by catastrophic, I mean me having to buy a DVD player and screen for my car, to watch movies and TV shows as I wait to get home, instead of buying them for the normal reason everyone else buys them (ie, to show off).
Khalid from The Drivel of 2 Bahrainis reports on a recent survey of professionals in fourteen different cities in the Middle East, regarding the time it takes them to get to work:
Average Commute Time Per day:
Total Return Journey (To and From work) by Place of Work
Dubai –> 1 hour 45 minutes (Sharjah to Dubai –> 2 hours and 44 minutes)
Cairo –> 1 hour 33 minutes
Sharjah –> 1 hour 8 minutes
Doha – –> 56 minutes
Dammam –> 55 minutes
Beirut –> 55 minutes
Kuwait –> 55 minutes
Amman –> 53 minutes
Riyadh –> 49 minutes
Abu Dhabi –> 48 minutes
Muscat –> 48 minutes
Manama –> 48 minutes
Khobar –> 47 minutes
Jeddah –> 46 minutes
Khalid gives his opinion on the results of the survey:
Now coming over to Manama, given the average commute times of other cities, this isn’t that bad, but knowing Manama inside out and the size of that place, this is terrible. I know there are plans for new flyovers and roads, but from what I’ve seen, the new flyovers or roads just move traffic from one place to another. Good example is the Lulu Roundabout flyover.
Concerned Citizen X is also concerned about traffic, but has been thinking about possible solutions for the Kingdom:
Isn't it time for a Railway System here in little old K.O. Bahrain?
He continues:
There would be a lot less demand for continuous usage of cars; the roads would be less congested, exceptions would be for very long distances not covered by the railway; usually trips to be taken abroad via the Saudi Causeway and later the Bahrain Qatar causeway, the latter may not really necessitate your own personal car as the talk going around is that there will also be a train system built onto the bridge.
Ooh, I can just dream of such a day, it would be a huge leap for our country. Sadly, my biggest fear is this may only remain a dream and never a reality, taking into view the fact that a few weeks back, the newspapers indicated that the Government hand a long term Roads Transport System modification plan that goes past 2020. ??
What the hell is that? If we take their word for it, then the projected date for an online fully functional up and running system would be 2080.
I don’t believe I’ll be alive by them, you never know.
BuZain had a close call when traveling this week:
I flew out of Glasgow Airport few hours before the burning car attack. I can't believe it!! I was standing inside the terminal in close proximity to the place the car burst into flames. I was looking at the monitors and waiting for my airline gate to open while Zain was playing beside me with her doll. The thought that my precious Zain and UmZain could have been there at the moment of the crash keeps haunting me since I heard the news earlier today.
Damn you terrorists! Killing me, my family, and loads of innocent people would have given you a free ticket to heaven, you say. I say to HELL all of you Islamic fanatics.
Munther at The Drivel of Two Bahrainis also has something to say about the airport attack:
I’ve been wanting to write this ever since it happened 3 days ago but everytime I set to do so, words failed me! I am talking about the Glasgow Airport bombing. What I don’t understand is why would someone do such a thing to the Scots? I’ve lived there for 5 years and never in my life was I treated badly while there, to the contrary, I’ve been treated as if I was one of them and felt that I belonged there, felt at home and still do consider it my second country !
Still on the subject of cultural openness and awareness, TechZ has been chatting to an American online, and is disappointed with his/her ignorance:
I don’t normally mention where I am in the world, but the topic of taxes and jobs came up…so I said I lived in the Middle East. The following typical stereotype of life here was immediately mentioned to me:
-It’s a dangerous place to live
-Since I’m not an American contractor, I feel safe
-The only reason we exist is because of American/European help…i.e. the oil revenue
-We have nothing to offer but oil
-It’s the US soldiers who are only suffering in Iraq
Ammar is feeling frustrated with Bahrain's MPs:
I thought MPs were supposed to be a group elected to represent the people of a country. Unfortunately most of what we have seen is them working for their own agendas; not necessarily working to benefit themselves (although that has been the case a number of times), but generally fighting in what THEY believe in and not what they think the people believe in, whether it is a strong religious/political belief or otherwise.
MPs, please get the point here; we didn't choose you to make your own decisions regarding these subjects. We chose you to get our requests out in the open. Get more involved with the members of this society, go places, meet people, see what our problems are. Hopefully with a little bit of this, maybe the real issues we have will finally start to see the light.
Concerned Citizen X has some advice for the electorate:
The first year we elected the good for nothing MPs we got diddle, all they achieved was to fattening their pockets and of course continue to benefit from the gifts bestowed upon them, tokens of appreciation from the Government … They exercised a blind eye and were deservedly kicked out by the end of the first term.
So what did we then go out and do? … Poor misguided and ignorant us, we went out and elect another bunch of good for nothing MPs.
[…]
The only way out of this #$*% hole is to elect intellectuals and highly educated Economists, Doctors, Engineers, Professors and Scientists; no religious fanatic, no wolves in sheep’s clothing and especially no Government stooges.
Ashish Gorde at Eureka Express has a story about a professional who is doing the wrong job:
Rao had come to Bahrain as a qualified pharmacist but he came on a construction worker visa, and his sponsor refused to give him a release unless Rao pays him a huge amount for ‘services rendered’ or some such #$*%. Rao had taken huge loans to purchase this visa and as a result had no extra money for the ‘release'… and so what does he do? What else? Keep his pharmaceutical dreams on hold, and ends up working as a mason even though his professional skills were meant for some other job.
It would be easy to blame the ‘free-visa’ and ‘sponsorship’ system for Rao's predicament, but I guess, the problem is a lot more complicated than that. Of course, it goes without saying that if Rao was not so dependent on his ‘sponsor’ and if he was not a victim of the insane ‘free-visa’ system, his professional life might have taken a different turn, and Bahrain wouldn't have lost a pharmacist to the construction industry. That's one way of looking at things.
But it still doesn't answer why a pharmacist – of all people – have to go and do construction work?! … (And it) doesn't alter the slow-motion death of Rao's dreams and desires.
Butterfly tells us about an encounter with a colleague outside of the workplace:
Khalid Qambar has discovered something that he believes could only happen in Bahrain:
We finish with Yagoob, who gives us what he thinks are the ten signs of summer's arrival in Bahrain:
1. Blackouts at the most unholiest hours of the day
2. Despite #1, you end up paying more for your electricity bill at the end of the month
3. When you find an ‘Al-Waseet’ (for weekly classified ads) lying around, you look for swimming pools to rent.
4. Wherever you drive you will likely see at least 3 or 4 kids learning how to drive… on every main road from 7 am to 6pm!
5. You hear that your friends are either going to Makkah, Dubai or Thailand for their holidays
6. Every week your family are invited to at least one wedding or ‘Henna’.
7. You can’t touch your car’s steering wheel when you first get in the car.
8. You realise a bit too late that your car’s A/C gas has run out
9. Turning on the hot water tap to wash your hands because it is actually much cooler than the supposed ‘cold water’
10. Seeing kids riding their bikes and preparing to play football in the neighbourhood at 3 am!
Summer is indeed here… Back with an update next week.

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Bangladesh: Political reforms · Global Voices
Rezwan

Reform is the buzzword in recent political debates in Bangladesh.
The state of emergency imposed in the country refrains people from active politics. But talks are being held at the party levels to cleanse (from corruption) and reform the politics in Bangladesh and establishing democracy within the parties. Rumi of In the Middle of Nowhere claims it is happening apparently under the direction and patronage of the people enforcing the state of emergency.
An ordinary citizen lauds the Election Commission's statement that “there will be no dialogue (for preparations of the upcoming election) before reform of the political parties”.
So what forms of reform people are talking about? Rumi has details:
It mostly proposes removal of current leader by imposing a term limit, establishment of a joint leadership, implementation of accounting transparency etc.
Angelmorn criticizes the alleged minus two formula which deducts both the leaders of AL & BNP, the two major rivals, who are blamed for the current situation.
Its a National Debate now on whether the Two Ladies (ex Prime Ministers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia) of our country should give thought to retiring. Suddenly it seems that everyone in Awami League and Bangladesh National Party want a fresh face to lead them.
Shall we let Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina retire from politics without questioning them for their past activities ?
The looming storm is the battle of the Two Ladies with their reformist colleagues within their parties.
Dhaka Shohor slams a reform proposal by Suranjit Sen Gupta, a senior leader of Awami League labeling it a Pepsi or Coke situation.
He seems content to transfer us from a Prime Ministerial dictatorship into a Presidential one without a hint of “checks and balances”.
Suddenly every major parties are coming up with reform proposals for their respective parties. Angelmorn wonders:
What surprises me and all is although “In house” politics is all banned from the day State of Emergency was declared and yes which still seems to be ongoing, not many seem opt to be following it.
Rumi says:
What is being shown like a reform strategy for now, is, in my opinion, is a shrewd exit starategy. This government ….know very well that their back skin is very much vulnerable if AL or BNP under current leadership returns to power. And they do not want to make the mistake of handing over power to any of these parties.
There are widespread speculations about what is to happen in near future in the political arena. All are anxiously waiting for the overdue election which is promised sometime in the mid of next year by the incumbent Caretaker Government.

author: Rezwan


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Blogging for social change: Interview with Jeff Msangi  · Global Voices
J. Nambiza Tungaraza

Jeff Msangi is a Tanzanian blogger based in Canada. He is also a columnist for a Tanzanian daily, Tanzania Daima. He has been a blogger since 2005. He blogs in Swahili at Harakati and in English at Proud African. His Swahili blog is mainly about development, politics and social activism. Jeff, a pragmatic optimist, strongly believes that blogging and other Internet tools can influence social change in the developing world. Jeff was interviewed recently by J. Nambiza Tungaraza.
Tungaraza: When and how did you start blogging?
Jeff Msangi: I started blogging in August 2005. My first blog post was titled Africa ni nchi moja?, which in English means “Is Africa a country”? Ansbert Ngurumo who used to be the editor for the Tanzanian Daily newspaper (Tanzania Daima), which I was a syndicated Sunday columnist for, also a blogger himself, is the one who introduced me into blogging. It happened that he had posted one of my articles in his blog and invited me to read it. I loved the idea that my work could now be available on the Internet and I fell in love with blogging idea almost immediately.
Tungaraza: How would you describe your blog?
Jeff Msangi: My blog is mainly a social awareness blog.  It constantly tries to awaken reader’s minds by pointing out what is wrong (in the socio-political system in Tanzania and Africa) and whenever possible offer a workable solution. Since I live in Canada, I also try to inform people back in Tanzania and Africa in general about what the Western world is like, what is real and what is not. It is an information blog in that sense.
Tungaraza: As you mentioned before, you were a columnist for some Tanzanian newspapers before you started blogging. Is writing on your blog different from writing in a newspaper?
Jeff Msangi: There is a difference in terms of “being in charge”. As a blogger, I have control on what I want to say and how I say it. In other words, I feel like I have maximum freedom of expressing myself as opposed to how it is done print media where editors’ reflections and thoughts are final. In most cases, you have to think of two people at once, your editor and your audience. Of course, there is no freedom without limits and responsibilities and therefore I am still cautious of what and how I write.
Moreover, in blogs you have what we now call “two way traffic.” Our readers can now challenge, correct, ask questions, and sometimes express their deepest feelings about a particular subject almost immediately by leaving comments.
Tungaraza: Is the participatory nature of blogs one of the advantages of blogs for journalists or columnists like you?
Jeff Msangi: One most significant advantage of blogs is that of bridging the gap between a columnist or a reporter and his or her readers. Through blogs, a columnist gets to know what his readers think about particular subjects, which brings a very good working relationship in terms of information exchange.
Tungaraza: What are some of the negatives, if there are any, you have encountered since you started blogging?
Jeff Msangi: So far I have no regrets other than the fact that the more you blog about issues, the more conscious you become about them and therefore you always wonder what can you possibly do to correct or improve the situation you are blogging about. You carry a heavy social burden through blogging, which is generally not a bad thing if you know your limits.
Tungaraza: How has your blog been received by the readers?
Jeff Msangi: Fortunately, my blog has been received very positively. In most cases, my readers agree with what I write and offer remarkable suggestions on what can be done to improve or correct our socio-political conditions. Of course there has been a few times when I have not been understood or had to remove some readers’ comments that I found offensive and destructive.
Tungaraza: There are more Swahili bloggers these days compared to when you started blogging in 2005. What do you think about this growth of Swahili blogs?
Jeff Msangi: I find this growth very stimulating. You know, information is power and therefore the more Swahili blogs out there, the more influential we become as Swahili bloggers. I anticipate, as a result of blogging, we will see true social change through debates and dialogue, which will ultimately re-shape social, economic and political policies. However, we need to clearly define our vision and mission and believe that blogging is a tool for social change. It is my hope that with the formation of the Tanzanian Bloggers Association, we will be able to achieve that goal sooner than later.
Tungaraza: Let us get this right. Do you really think that Swahili blogging community will bring about change in the society that it speaks to?
Jeff Msangi: As I said, yes, beyond any doubt I believe that Swahili blogging community can bring enormous changes in our society. We are actually already witnessing changes following what started as a simple online blog discussions. Moreover, I anticipate seeing citizens, through tools like blogs, participating in writing, planning and executing national social, economic and political policies. That will be a dream come true for me.
Tungaraza: Do you have any other ideas to share with us?
Jeff Msangi: Apart from congratulating you for an excellent job you are doing for blogging communities across Africa and elsewhere, I would like to see you taking the initiative of introducing blogging in schools. Real change starts from grassroots and, therefore, if you start fostering those young minds now, we will see a lot more from them in the near future.
Tungaraza: Lastly, what kind of advice can you give those who think about starting their own blogs?
Jeff Msangi: First of all I would absolutely support and encourage them. Blogs are not only a good source of information and knowledge but also a social networking tool. Above all, I would recommend them to write and speak their minds without fear so as to help build fearless and courageous communities.
Tungaraza: Jeff, thank you for your time.

author: J. Nambiza Tungaraza


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Cameroon: the rise of Cameroonian film industry · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

In an African Minute introduces his readers to the film industry in Cameroon: “The most ambitious project Zigoto has undertaken is to create a Cameroonian film industry out of thin air. Cameroon's neighbor, Nigeria, is famous for producing more films that any other country besides India, but no other Sub-Saharan African country (besides South Africa) has made inroads into the industry. Zoomer's Pictures, Zigoto's company, envisions the Cameroonian film industry as the ‘art house’ of West African film making, focusing on high quality, thought provoking pictures instead of exclusively on commercializing their content.”


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El Salvador: Videos of Recent Protests · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Tim's El Salvador Blog links to YouTube videos of recent protests and police actions.


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Iran:A worker activist in danger · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

According[Fa] to Karrgar blog, Mahmoud Salehi, a leading worker activist has been in jail since April and his life is in danger.Iranian authorities do not send him to hospital.


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Iran:Cyclists for peace · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Thanks to Homeyra,we learn that 14 Iranian cyclists traveled city by city across Italy,Germany,France,Uk and USA to communicate the pacifist message of Iranian people to other nations around the world.You can watch photos here.They arrived to New York a couple of weeks ago.


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Iraq: Passing Exams · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Aunt Najma from Mosul, Iraq, has passed her exams with flying colours!

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Jordan: Summer Activities · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Lina Ejeilat from Jordan gives us a break down of summer activities in her country here.


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Korea: Advantages for Servicemen in Civil Service Exams? · Global Voices
Hyejin Kim

As I wrote in an earlier posting, military service is a sensitive issue in Korea. Recently, a lawyer became a hero in Korea through his outspoken comments about these two issues.
Recently, the government considered adding two points to civil service exam results for those male candidates who had gone through normal military service (two or more years of military service). This suggestion made some people angry. Women’s associations were especially unhappy about that. They asked why men should have more benefits and why women do not get any points for giving birth.
There was a TV panel about this issue and hot arguments among panelists. One participant was a male lawyer, Jeon Won-chaek. He spoke out how fair the system is (actually, two percent is not enough according to him). What he said in the panel became material for a collection of quotations on the internet. Many people have been applauding him for ‘scratching an itch in society,’ and he is called Jeon Geo-seong (in reference to an outspoken comedian).
A blooger, dolba, summarized Jeon Geo-seong arguments.
상황 1)
남윤인순 : 가고 싶은 군대를 만들어야 합니다.
전원책 : (격렬하게) 나 참. 말씀을 그렇게 하시면 안되죠? 이 세상에 가고 싶은 군대가 어딨습니까? 군대가면 자도 자도 졸리고, 먹어도 먹어도 배고픈 곳입니다.
남윤인순 : …..
상황 2)
사회자 : 전 변호사님 흥분을 가라앉히시구요.
전원책 : 흥분을 안하게 생겼습니까 지금.
상황 3)
전원책 : 자꾸 여성분들은 군복무가 안된다거나 간호장교 쪽들만 생각하시는데, 제가 봤는데 요즘 여자도 특전사 많이 갑니다. 하는거 봤는데… 잘해요~~!!!
상황 4)
송호창 : 군대가면 인간이 되서 나온다고 그러셨는데, 어떤 인간이 되서 나오느냐가 중요하죠.
전원책 : (미친듯이 분노하며) 송변호사님 말씀이 너무 지나치십니다. 미국 법률로~~~ (어쩌구 저쩌구 청산유수~~~) 그리고, 군대에서 학점이수 뭐 어쩌구요?? 그거 다 보기 좋으라고 그러는겁니다. 하루종일 힘들게 고생해서 저녁에 무슨놈의 학점이숩니까? 취업교육이요?? 다시 한번 말씀드리지만, 군대는 폭력을 가르치는 폭력집단입니다. 학점이수 운운하는 국방부장관 있으면 정말 국방부장관 자격이 없는겁니다.
상황 5)
전원책 : (무슨 이유에서 나왔는지는 모르겠지만…) 라이언 일병 구하기 보셨습니까? (후략)
상황 6)
전원책 : 토론하시러 나온 양반들이 자료하나 정확히 못 가지고 나오십니까. 군대 실정을 몰라도 너무 모르시는 것 같습니다.
그외의 발언 내용
“군대는 폭력을 가르치는 집단입니다.”
“가산점을 사기업까지 확대해야하고 2%적습니다.이 번 법안 5%로 수정해서 올리세요.”
미필자 참석자에게 “군대 가보셨습니까?”
자.. 이제 각 발언에 대해서 냉정하게 생각해보자. 왜 수많은 사람이 그의 발언에 대해 호응하고 찬성하는지…
Some bloggers, like hi8001, took it as a sex battle.
굳이 나야 현역으로 나오지 않았으니 별 달리 할말은 없지만 정말로 현역으로 2년을 군에서 복무한 사람들의 박탈감은 있을듯 싶다. 문제는 국가는 그 사람들을 기억해 주지 않는다는 것이다. 뭔가 해 줄려고 하면 꼭 여성단체같은 곳에서 태클이 걸린다. 물론 여자는 아이를 낳는다라는 말을 할수도 있다. 그런데 말이다… 출산은 의무가 아니지 않은가? 출산은 선택이다. 그러나 남자의 군복무는 의무다.
Another blooger, solsolsiryo, said,
유치원도.. 초등학교도.. 중학교도.. 고등학교도.. 대학교도.. 직장도..
모두 남녀모두 다니고 있습니다.
하지만 시간만 버리고 정신상태 안좋아지는 군대에는 남자는 가고
이런 기회를 살려 공부도 하고 연애도 하며.. 임신 등들을 하는 여자는 안갑니다.
꼭 군대가 아니라도 좋습니다.
여자도 군대처럼 꼭 의무적으로 가야 하는곳을 만들어 의무적으로 교육받게 하는건 좋지 않나 생각해보네요.
뭐 어떤것이라도 평등하지 않지만 맞춰나아가도록 노력해봅시다.
As a matter of fact, this is not the battle between men and women. A blogger talks about this.
병영혜택문제를 가지고 전원책변호사의 의견은 남성을 대변하기에는 그 보다 더 좋을 수는 없겠지요.하지만 이를 자꾸 남성과 연결시켜 부각시키려는 언론은 얄밉습니다. 마치 이간질 시키는 느낌을 지울 수가 없어요.
Another blogger takes this issue more objectively.
지금 당장은 찬반으로 나뉘어져 여러 의견이 오가고 있지만 분명 군복무 가산점은 인정되고 말것입니다. 군복무 가산점에 대해서는 남/녀의 이분법적인 생각보다는 다른 방법으로 접근해야 옳다는 것도 저 역시 동감합니다.
남성은 군대를 가는 대신 여성은 출산을 하지 않느냐?
여자도 군대를 갔다오면 평등하다.라는 유치한 생각을 가지신 분들은 없으리라 믿고 있습니다.
불과 몇년 전입니다. 태어날 아이들의 병역기피를 목적으로 해외에서 출산을 하는 원정출산이 붐이었던 적이 있습니다. 지금 당장은 군복무를 하는 남자들이 대부분일지는 몰라도 원정출산이 붐이었던 세대가 군대를 가야할 나이까지 성장한 때가 오면 대한민국에 사는 남성들이라도 군대를 가지 않는 남자들이 많아질 날이 올껍니다. 그때가 되면 소수의 군복무를 마친 남성들에겐 어떻게든 보상을 해 주어야겠지요. 그들은 사회적으로 많은 불이익을 받는 세대일테니까요. 다른이들보다 2년이나 늦게 사회진출을 하게 되는데요.
In order to avoid military service, some women go abroad to give birth. Even though most men go to military service at present, when this new generation comes across military service, there would be a lot of men who do not go to military service. If the time comes, the government should give some rewards for the men who finish military service. They will be the generation who should put up with the disadvantages in society because they can step into society two years later.

author: Hyejin Kim


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Kuwait: Summer Is Officially Here · Global Voices
Abdullatif AlOmar

Summer has officially started in Kuwait – schools are out, summer courses have started and summer activities are a top priority for all bloggers.
yo_ghurt over at stillkuwaiting found something to do this summer.
If you feel the need to cool down for an hour or so (and who doesn’t in Kuwait at the moment), there are various places along the Corniche offering jetski hire (or even jetsky, as it says here).
More summers activities are suggested by Zdistrict, who visits a new location in Kuwait.
The Sahara Golf Club really doesn’t feel like it is something available in Kuwait, it is a very well done Golf Course which caters to its members. You have to be a member to play there, but there was nobody to ask questions. They had other services, I like the whole design and the application of the wood in the interior but I felt the rooms themselves were a bit tacky. Overall I think it is heaven for any Golf play and if they had good food then people would like eating there as well.
Also let's not to forget the old Kuwaiti favorite past time in the summer – fishing ! Mjkout over at  Q8i.org writes:
These are some pictures from our trip to 3oha island in Kuwait was a nice trip we had fun, on the way back i took some pictures of Kuwait City, Kuwait Towers….
Check the flower at the back of the Trash car.. NICE
Speaking of where to go in summer Hugs from Kuwait wonders about safety at the local theme park.
All of these tragedies have made me wonder just how safe amusement parks are in Kuwait. And I am guessing they are not very safe. We went to Entertainment City a few weeks ago. I saw a ride operator allowing a 2 year old child go on the mid-size roller coaster with her parents. She was so small that there was no way to buckle her into the seat. Her idiot father simply held onto her as the ride progressed. And there was a height chart right at the gate and of course the little girl was too small to go on the ride.
Of course it is hot in Kuwait – real hot – and some people even leave Kuwait to enjoy their summer vacations abroad but Zaydounover atKUWAIT UNPLUGGED does not agree.
You know what..it doesn't matter how bad the weather is in Kuwait. At least it is better for us to have it bad in our country than it being bad in the country we travel to.
Here you can avoid the bad weather by either staying home or at work but where is the fun in traveling to a place with nice weather and cleaner streets and when you reach there after all the hardship in travel and spending money to discover heavy rains and gloomy dark clouds that do not stop for weeks and prevent people from going out. What kind of vacation is that?
Qias at io81 wonders where did the advertisements go  and asks whether their disappearance has anything to do with summer.
Everyday while i drive back home from work, i listen to the only 88.8 and look at the ads on the road. Most ads out there suck, but at least its something to look at and mock :p. So today as i drove back home ! there were no ads ?!

author: Abdullatif AlOmar


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Kuwait: The Closet Dilemma  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Shopaholic Q8eya from Kuwait explains to us the closet dilemma here.


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Malaysia: Bloggers Protest Religious Policing · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Malaysian bloggers are irked this week with the treatment an young singer Noor Idayu Abd Moin received from a state religious department tasked with the enforcement of islamic law (Shariah). Shariah laws are enforced at the state level and not at a federal level in Malaysia and they only apply to Muslims in this multi-religious country.
Journalist Nuraina A Samad explains
On Tuesday, after her performance at an entertainment outlet in Sunway City, she was among Muslims caught by the Perak Religious Department (JAIP) when its officers carried out a raid.
She was singled out because she was wearing a sleeveless top which the officers found to be indecent.
According to Siti Noor Iday, JAIP officers accused her of exposing her body and encouraging immoral activities. The officers refused to touch her id card, calling it  unclean. They ridiculed her about her occupation as an entertainer.  They also gave her a breathanalyzer test to prove that she was consuming alcohol but the test came out negative.
Nuraina adds
If the religious authorities continue to humiliate people they have rounded up, they can be sure that they are making it so easy for people — Muslims and non-Muslims alike — to think so poorly of Islam and the enforcers of the Syariah.
Malaysian expatriate Unspun, currently living in Indonesia, says these kind of behavior by the authorities is one of the reason why some Malaysians  “choose to live away from Malaysia“
Shanghai Stephen is urging the  crown prince of Perak state to step in. The royals in Malaysia are largely ceremonial  but they are widely respected in Malaysia.
I seriously think my good Raja Muda of Perak, His Royal Highness, Raja Dr. Nazrin Shah, quickly step in and stop this “wanton judgement passing” by these self-appointed “saints”. Chill JAIP….this is 2007 and correct me if I'm wrong, and with all due respect, is this the “dark age of Islam”?
Ahiruddin Attan at Rocky's Bru writes about the double standards with moral policing
Did Siti Nor Idayu (pic) expose her body and encourage immoral activities? I wasn't there so I won't know. But I am tired of this Apartheid. Some Muslims in this country derive pleasure from shaming other Muslims and you'd note that these happen only to the lower caste Muslims. They are never going to order the Muslim directors in Malaysia Airlines to appear before the Syariah court for allowing liquor to be flown and consumed on board, for example. Or are they?
Desidereta writes a comment on Ahiruddin's above post and warns Malaysians  against giving a free reign to religious authorities interfering in people's lives
if malaysians of all creeds, colours and ethnic origins are not careful, certain self-APpointed groups will one day rush into our living rooms to conduct a house search in the name of local council's rules and regulations. Malacca started off with CM-snactioned Mat Skodeng, FT Religious Dept followed with similar cloned snoops in Putra Jaya; now the Little Napoleons in this little episode “bullying a singer” are again testing te waters to seek out less-privileged Malaysain strata society to victimise.
The term Mat Skodeng here refers to undercover spies recruited by the religious departments to inform on offenders.

author: Preetam Rai


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Morocco: Summer Heat and the Heat of Debates · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

So far, July has been a scorcher in Morocco, with average temperatures reaching well into the 40s. Although perhaps not as hot as last year, it seems that Moroccan residents (particularly foreigners living here) are truly suffering.  Evelyn in Morocco, a Fez resident, laments the heat, saying “It is now very, very hot in Fes. So hot it feels like a weight is upon you when you go outside.”
Rabat is apparently a bit cooler, according to Braveheart-does-the-Maghreb, who says:
I was going to talk about how hot it is here, but then I saw this and decided perhaps not. I am so fortunate that even on the hottest days; the sea breeze has been blessedly cool, and even chilly at night. We are still sleeping with a blanket, so nothing much to complain about eh?
Along with the summer heat comes the heat of debate. A recent Reuters article questioned whether Morocco's dialect, darija, should be the official language of Morocco, despite it not having a precise written form. The official language is in fact Modern Standard Arabic (aka “Fus'ha”), while French, the language of Morocco's colonizers, is used for business and economics, as well as many magazines and newspapers.  The View from Fez was the first in the blogoma to break the story, asking its readers for their opinions on the article.
xoussef was the first to respond, saying:
there is a need to make Darija a written language. in other countries, to know how to read and write is enough to access a large selection of material and information, like news paper, the written language is more or less the same as the spoken. for a Moroccan in order to read a news paper, you need to learn a hole new language, not only an alphabet.
now, is there any intention to make it a written language? clearly no.
Blogger بْلا فْرَنْسِيَّه(ar), whose name means “without French,” responded by saying:
I am not against using Darija in communicating with the masses; this is what a dialect for. However, turning Darija into a written language, a language of science is a plain joke. This call is coming from those who didn’t go to public schools and never learned the formal (or standard) Arabic and those who have Arabic as their second or third language…. Unsurprisingly, they are all francophone…
The Morocco Report also blogged the article:
So what can Moroccans do? Last fall, Nichane, a sister magazine to French-language TelQuel, was released and immediately shut down (on unrelated charges), though it is now back and running – it was the first magazine to be published in darija. Singers, rappers, those of the spoken word – all produce their material in darija. Radio is often in darija, 2M is often in darija, and as the Reuters article states, there is now a book of poetry in darija. Darija is the language of the Moroccan heart.
Finally, KEP from Four Continents shares with us a fun summer activity in Fez – going to McDonald's!  The blogger says:
McDo is kind of an upscale, cool place to hang out in Fez. No, I don't get it either.
Moroccan families also take their kids’ pictures with Ronald.
Photo by KEP of Four Continents

author: Jillian C. York


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Oman Community Blog · Global Voices
Riyadh Al Balushi

Omani bloggers united in launching a new community blog.

author: Riyadh Al Balushi


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Palestine: Palestinians Celebrate Alan Johnston’s Release · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

This week we start with a tragic story of a woman – Taghreed Abeaed – who has died at the Rafah crossing in the south of the Gaza Strip. Dew tells the story:
A 31 year old Palestinian mother passed away today after being stranded in the Egyptian side of Egypt – Gaza border (Rafah Crossing) for more than 20 days. The poor woman (a mother of 5) was suffering from cancer, and went to Egypt seeking medication, as Gaza is very poor with medical expertise. Her parents and family are calling all medias so they can receive her body and give her a proper burial…
More than 6 thousand palestinians are stranded in Egypt, waiting to get back for their families and homes, in very difficult conditions, the weather is so hot, that the temperature exceeds 40 degrees, and some of these people haven't any money left, a palestinian father had to sell the presents he bought for his children in order to pay for the hotel's charges. Another palestinian ran out of money and is spending his nights in coffee shops or wondering around to find a proper place to shut his eyes, even for just a couple of hours..
Travelling is a pleasure all over the world, but here, in Gaza, it's a journey of agony, fear and pain…
But for once there was also good news coming from Gaza this week; the release of the BBC journalist Alan Johnston prompted many posts. Samaher expressed her happiness:
Dew, who is in Gaza, is also pleased:
Today I woke up at this wonderful news… at last and after 115 days of abduction.. Alan Johnston was finally freed :)…”i am so glad to be free” was his first words to the media, the poor man didn't even have the slightest hope that he will ever be freed..
[…]
I just got the news that Alan has left Gaza and heading home, he has stated that he will take a LONG vacation, and then he maybe consider coming back to Gaza… personally, I don't think he will ever come back ;)
The details of the deal that led to freeing Alan weren't announced, maybe they will be announced later, but what really matters is that the reporter is now heading home, with a little smile on his face, waiting to see his family and loved ones
Finally Alan, your dreams will come true… take care and goodbye ;)
The bloggers at Meanwhile in Palestine and Iraq report Johnston's words before leaving the Gaza Strip:
Now, Johnston left the Gaza Strip, and looked behind his back before he crossed the Eretz Crossing gate remembering 114 days he spent in captivity and fear, yet he also remembers good moments he expressed when he spoke in Arabic and told the reporters; “I thank God, I am happy, I have been through a very harsh period, I want to thank the Palestinian people, thank you, thank you”.
Philip Rizk in Gaza gives his opinion of Hamas’ role:
Last night I was visiting my friend Abu Joudat and his family, who live right next to the Doughmosh clan, some of their members were the ones holding Alan. I got to Abu Joudat’s house after 10pm and the street was full of checkpoints, and masked gunmen in some areas. … Abu Joudat predicted to me he expected this to be the night Alan would be freed. At 6:30am he called and confirmed his prediction.
[…]
Alan's freeing is incredible proof of Hamas’ ability to ascertain law and order, Fatah and no one else was ever able to do the same. Sadly I doubt this will change international leaders’ relations with Hamas, who are calling for both negotiations with Fatah’s new emergency government as well as with Israel. Neither is replying. I am pleased that Hamas have made Gaza a much safer place to live in again. Radio stations in Gaza aired many callers who were relieved and overjoyed at Alan’s release. Today Gaza loses a true friend, who lived in Gaza for three years as the only international journalist to be stationed here full-time, telling of the plight of the Palestinians.
The fact that beaches have been packed over the past weeks is proof of Hamas’ ability to bring security. For many in Gaza the beach is really the only distraction, the only escape from the unemployment and poverty.
Source: Tabula Gaza
Asad al Nimr in Ramallah is also thinking about Hamas, but in less positive terms:
Everyday that passes, I realize more and more how powerful Hamas has become.
Everyday I find myself wondering whether Hamas can stretch his long arms, and get into Ramallah like it has got into Gaza.
And sadly I feel as if this day is not far away. I believe that Hamas has enough power to come and change Ramallah, like it has already changed Gaza.
Away from politics, Mona, a Palestinian Canadian, has decided she is ashamed of being an Arab:
I don’t want to act like an Arab or even want to be one. Here I admit it. I finally admitted it. The whole concept and word rebellious is due to my dislike of being one! However, I am not 100% ashamed of being one, I like the culture, but I don’t like the mentality. I don’t like how Arabs use and abuse the word “Arabic” for their advantage and to ridicule others with that word. I don’t like how parents shield their children to the point where my generation or even younger is trying to escape it so badly and resort to living a double life. Life has changed, but they didn’t. Arabs don’t change their mentality easily. Yet, we live here in North America and things did not change. It's gotten worse. … How can you change some of the most stubborn and reserved cultural groups that move here?
Mona gives her reasons here.
And Soul Blossom, a Palestinian Jordanian, asks a question about the headscarf:
What happens when Hijab and work do not work well together?
I was talking to my friend Abeer and she sounded pretty upset. She has recently witnessed some cases of discrimination against veiled women. She has also come across an article about Hijab and work not mixing well.
[…]
Apparently, veiled women are being stereotyped. Societies are judging women based on their looks rather than on their knowledge and skills. I might be able to understand how Hijab is unwelcome in France for example, even though I still do not agree with it. However, facing problems for being veiled in Jordan -or any other Arab country for that matter- is simply silly!
Jordan is an Arab, Muslim country. Veiled women have been part of the society forever. Yet they are being discriminated against. Some people do believe that veiled women are neither productive nor effective. It makes me feel angry and sad at the same time that some women have to suffer due to their religious beliefs.
We end with an extract from a poem by Majeed Al-Barghouthi, describing his experience of learning more than he expected from an English teacher:
You do not know who Mr. Martins is;
But you will; as this is not a quiz.
“When your homeland is occupied
Your first human right is to fight; so, fight!”
Those words are his
Ringing inside and outside the class;
Mr. Martins is a real English professor,
Teaching us English Literature,
But he comments on any world event
Explaining what he exactly meant
[…]
In Arabic, “literature” has many connotations:
Politeness, good manners and moral interpretations,
In addition to literary writings
And “English” to us means many things:
Lord Balfour’s Declaration and Lord Byron
Battles and British mandate and romance!
[…]
When I want to make both words look right
“English” and “Literature” shall read under a new light.


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Peru: National Team Survives and Moves on to Quarterfinals · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Photo of Peru Vs. Bolivia taken by ®Dave and used under Creative Commons license.
After an favorable debut by the Peruvian National Team in the Copa America 2007 (when they beat their Uruguayan rivals 3-0), then a poor showing against Venezuela (they lost 2-0) and then another poor game against Bolivia (miraculously tying 2-2), which could have meant Peru's elimination from the Copa, the bloggers gave their opinions and here are some of the posts about this topic.
I'll start by citing a recently opened blog that has two elements that have made it very popular: it is part of a group of blogs that the Lima newspaper El Comercio sponsors and its author is Juan Carlos Oblitas, who is the current coach of Sporting Cristal. In his blog La Mirada of “El Ciego” [ES] (The Blind One), he was very careful with his criticisms, but also said: We played the worst game:
Estamos en cuartos de final de la Copa gracias al jugador más criticado hasta este momento en nuestra selección: Claudio Pizarro. Los dos goles convertidos por él nos dieron el empate en un partido en el que fuimos superados la mayor parte del mismo, y gracias a esas dos acciones individuales logramos el primer objetivo. Pero esto no nos puedehacer dejar de lado una verdad irrefutable: jugamos el peor partido de lo que va del torneo.
We're in the quarterfinals of the Copa thanks to the most criticized player of our team: Claudio Pizarro.  His two goals gave us the tie in a game where we were outplayed for most of the game.  Thanks to his individual plays, we achieved our first objective.  However, this does not put aside a irrefutable truth: we played the worst game of any in the tournament.
In reality, this is a generalized opinion and the blame goes to the coach Julio Cesar Uribe. This is what Slayer_X [ES] said in his post “Peru Qualifies with Anguish [ES]”:
Uribe va a ser vapuleado a diestra y siniestra, espero que cuando declare sea hidalgo y reconozca que se equivocó de cabo a rabo. Gracias a su improvisación lo mas probable es que tengamos que enfrentar al candidato mas serio al título, nada mas y nada menos que Argentina.
Uribe will be heavily criticized, I hope that when he speaks that he will be humble and admit that he made a mistake.  Thanks to his improvisation it is most likely that we will have to face the candidate most likely to take home the title, nothing more than Argentina.
Rosa de Paz [ES] is with the same point of view and mentions in what Uribe erred from the post “And Acasiete?  Peru Without Desire in the Copa America 2007 [ES]“
Bueno Pues… Perú aún sigue en el juego.. espero que Uribe abra los ojos… porque realmente ¿que paso con ACASIETE? es un hombre clave… Uribe realmente hizo mal.. y si perdian no era tanto por los jugadores si no por el técnico que no sabe colocarlos bien en la cancha…
Well, Peru still is alive, I hope Uribe opens his eyes because what happened with Acasiete (footballer Santiago Acasiete)?  He is such a key player. Uribe really made mistakes and if they would have lost then it was not so much the players, but the coach, who does not know where to place the players on the field.
There is a lot of agreement that Acasiete should have played, as Blog de Notas [ES] writes, who also provided analysis on what the coach tried to in the entry, “Peru Tied with Bolivia and Qualified [ES]”  Here are some of the observations.
La alineación que presentó Uribe fue totalmente insólita. En los días previos a este partido escuché en diversos medios que se le pedía al técnico un cambio de táctica. Jugar con cuatro al fondo y fortalecer el mediocampo, pues era hasta el momento el punto débil del equipo. Uribe dio el gusto a todos aquellos al presentar una línea de cuatro al fondo… ¡¡pero sin Acasiete!! Uno de los baluartes de la zaga peruana relegado al banco. … Perú ha clasificado a los cuartos de final de la Copa América. Ojalá que el técnico haya tomado nota de todos los errores cometidos durante esta primera fase y pueda (y sepa) corregirlos en lo que se viene. Porque Perú tiene con qué, de eso no ha quedado duda.
Uribe's lineup was completely unusual.  In the days before the game, one could hear in various media sources that there was a call for a change in tactics.  Playing with four in the back and strengthening the midfield, as that was the weakest part of the team.  Uribe pleased everyone by presenting four in the back, but without Acasiete!  One of the bastions of the Peruvian defense was placed on the bench.  Peru qualified for the quarterfinals of the Copa America.
Hopefully the coach made note of all of the mistakes committed during this first round and can (and knows how) to correct them in the future. Because Peru can, and there is no doubt of that.
There is no doubt in the errors committed by the coach and the players.  Bloggingsomnio [ES] in his entry “Group A Closes Play [ES]” relates:
Bolivia aprovechó que no teníamos nada en la volante y nos comió en el medio campo. Uribe en sus declaraciones dice que el segundo tiempo se mejoró los errores del primer tiempo…¿que partido vió? ¿estuvo en el estadio? Hemos pasado por el floro de Maturana y Autori, que no nos venga a meter ese cuento. Perú jugó mal los 96 minutos del partido y si se empató fué porque no se podía perder ante Bolivia y por el temperamento, sin embargo eso no nos ayudará ante equipos como Paraguay o Argentina (posibles rivales para cuartos). Es irónico que el que salvara el partido sea el jugador más criticado, Pizarro. Tener en cuenta que el segundo gol de Pizarro está en posición adelantada.
Bolivia took advantage of the fact that we had nothing in the attacj and we dominated us in the midfield.  In his statements, Uribe said that the team corrected some of the errors from the first half.  What game did he see?  Was he even in the stadium? We survived through Maturana and Autori, and please don't try to tell us that.  Peru played poorly for the 96 minutes of the game and they tied because we could not lose against Bolivia and for the temperament.  However, that won't help us against teams like Paraguay or Argentina (possible rivals in the quarterfinals). It is ironic that the player that saved the game is also the most criticized player.  It must be noted that the Pizarro's second goal came from an offsides position.
Pura Finta [ES] recalls those exciting moments when the Peruvian team qualified. He writes in his entry Peru and Venezuela Await Their Rival in the Quarterfinals [ES}.
De un milagro, le cometen otra falta a Perú, en el mismo lado, solo que en segundo tiempo. Otra vez centro de Mariño y Pizarro de cabeza marca el segundo para Perú. El grito eufórico de los peruanos, los aplausos, los mensajes, las llamadas y un “sí se puede, carajo” se escuchó en las calles de Lima. Era el empate y la clasificación de Perú. Bolivia no tenía nada que hacer. Con ese gol nos aseguramos el pase. Término del encuentro y gracias Pizarro porque por fin apareciste, gracias.
Miraculously, another foul is committed against Peru, and only in the second half.  Another cross by Mariño and Pizarro heads in the second goal for Peru. Euphoric cheers by the Peruvians, the applause, the messages, the calls, and a “Yes, we can, dammit!” could all be heard in the streets of Lima.  It was the tie and a qualification by Peru.  Bolivia could do nothing. With that goal, we punched our ticket.  The game ended and it was all thanks to Pizarro, who finally showed up.  Thank you.
Claudio Pizarro did in fact, show up, and when he was most needed.  He gave us the qualification and the joy after the suffering.  Cuaderno de Borrador [ES] writes:
Y ahora los niños admiran mucho más a Pizarro. Hoy no sólo fue el buen jugador que se luce en Europa, hoy también fue el buen jugador y el buen capitán que siempre necesitó la selección. Y que sigue necesitando. Claudio, la de hoy, repítela hasta el último día que te pongas la rojiblanca.
Sufrimos. Nuestros hígados, estómagos, pulmones y corazones sufrieron. Masoquistamente nos enganchamos 90 minutos a América tv, y sufrimos. Sufrimos de rabia, de nervios, o de indiferencia. Y comprobamos que la suerte y los milagros existen, porque otra explicación a este resultado, no le podemos encontrar.
The children now look up even more to Pizarro.  Today he was not only a good player that plays in Europe, but today he was also a good player and a good captain that the national team always needs.  Hopefully he continues to be that until the last day he put on the red and white jersey.
We suffered.  Our livers, stomachs, lungs and hearts suffered.  Masochistically, we watched America TV for 90 minutes and suffered.  We suffered by frustration, nervousness or indifference.  We tried our luck and miracles do exist, because any other explanation for this result we cannot find.
Boca de Jarro [ES] also includes criticisms of Uribe, but he is also grateful to Pizarro for the qualification:
me parece que lo importante es convencer a Uribe que los experimentos que hizo ayer son irrepetibles, que fue bastante irresponsable su planteamiento y que hay que mejorar bastante para impedir que lo del domingo sea peor que lo de ayer.
Siempre he creido que la prensa está para desenmascarar y poner las cosas en claro, nunca para adular y vender falsas expectativas. Perú debería ser eliminado el domingo, y lo digo antes, arriesgo antes, no me subo al carro después.
It is important to convince Uribe that yesterday's experiment is unforgivable and that it was completely irresponsible to present that lineup.  It is important to improve to prevent that Sunday be worse than yesterday.
I always thought that the press was there to uncover and shine a light on things, but never to praise and sell false hopes. Peru should be eliminated on Sunday and I'll say it before, I won't get on the cart later.
Fútbol Reportes [ES] provides similar analysis in the entry “We don't expect anything more [ES}“
Por tanto no nos ilusionemos más de seguir avanzando en esta copa. Ya se cumplió con la meta trazada de llegar entre los 8. Que nos haya sirvado esta copa para ver nuestro real nivel y para ver que hace falta más trabajo para poder tentar una clasificación a la próxima copa mundial de fútbol.
We don't have any more expectations to advance in this tournament.  Our goal has been completed by entering into the final 8.  What good it served us to see our real level and to see that we need more work to try and qualify for the next World Cup.
To finish, I'll leave you with Oblitas’ recent post about our next rival: Argentina.  Here is the final paragraph, where after analyzing the Argentine team, places his faith in the red and the white (colors of the Peruvian national team):
Por el lado de Perú, ojalá que las dudas hayan quedado de lado, luego de la actuación con Bolivia. Todos debemos estar conscientes de que enfrentamos al rival más duro del torneo, que necesitamos el mejor equipo que se pueda presentar y sobre todo de una concentración total en lo que dure el partido. Si comentamos anteriormente que esta copa le iba a servir al técnico para encontrar el equipo base para las eliminatorias, qué mejor examen podemos tener, que es el de jugar con este fuerte equipo Argentino.
In respect to Peru, hopefully the doubts have been cast aside after the game against Bolivia.  We should all be conscious that in facing the hardest rival of the tournament, that we need the best team we can place on the field and above all, total concentration that lasts the entire game.  As we commented earlier, this tournament will help the coach find the core team for the World Cup qualifiers, and what would be a better test than to play against the strong Argentine team.
I'll leave you until next time, and not before recommending the Copa America Venzuela 2007 blog [ES], where there is analysis of the various participating national teams.

author: Juan Arellano


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