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Venezuela: Second Annual Blogstock · Global Voices
Luis Carlos Diaz

Over the course of two days, the Venezuelan blogosphere [ES]  gathered for the second year at a site far from the capital to celebrate with musical bands and alcohol. Blogstock is “the” party.  There are no lectures or symposiums to define the digital world, nor some conclusion reached for the use by internet users.  It was all about a celebration of a gathering of digital camaraderie and it was a party on full-blast [ES].
In its second consecutive year, Blogstock gathered dozens of bloggers, Twitter-users, Flickr-users and other forms of information citizens (infocitizens) for a night of concerts, drinks and food, Venezuelan-style.
The event was streamed online for those that stayed at home.  There was also a Flickr tag to tell the whole story.  “You are not ready for this,” was the slogan that gathered people by the initiative of “Los Guaraos” (aka the “disorganizers), who summarized the event with videos [ES].  The event also counted on a meme to list of things to bring to the event, to avoid contigencies, such as the items shown by Impulsos y Sentidos [ES].
David Luna, the photographer, said that the gathering was [ES]:
Una noche bastante divertida, entretenida, llena de muchas anécdotas, de compartir con personas que solo leemos de vez en cuando y ponerle rostro a la mayoría de los nicks que abundan en la blogosfera.
It was a fun and entertaining night.  It was full of stories shared by people that we read from time to time, we were able to put faces to the nicknames that are abundant in the blogosphere.
This takes place in Venezuela?  This could be asked of those who follow the political happenings in the country.  Inti of Equizopedia [ES] provides the answer:
Mientras el mundo exterior piensa que Venezuela va hacia el socialismo más “extraño” y “extremo” jamas visto, mucha gente aquí no se toma las cosas muy en serio. La mejor virtud del venezolano (a su vez el peor defecto) es que aquí la gente es feliz. Pocos habitantes del planeta tierra viven tan contentos, como los nacidos en la patria de Simón Bolívar. Quizás el petróleo, la (fuera de toda regla y estadística) cantidad alucinante de mujeres bellas, la cerveza o el ron, ayudan en definitiva a que la vida acá sea increíblemente más “relajada” que en el resto de los países. Y hasta en la pasión vertiginosa política que nos tiene atrapados actualmente, buscamos la manera de seguir viviendo, riendo, disfrutando y rumbeando. Y como en todos lados, hay gente más y menos responsable con sus actos. Algo tiene este desenfadado país, que es difícil de copiar, y más explicar.
While the outside World thinks that Venezuela is heading for a “stranger” and “extreme” form of socialism never seen befote, many people here don’t take things so seriously.  The best virtue of a Venezuelan (also his worst defect) is that here the people are happy. Fewer people on the earth live as content than those who were born in Simón Bolívar’s homeland.  Maybe it’s the petroleum, the incredibly beautiful women (more than statistics), beer or rum, helps make life incredibly more “relaxed” than in other countries.  Even with the dizzying politics that currently has us trapped, we look for ways to continue to live, laugh, enjoy and party.  And here as in other places, there are people who are more or less responsible for their actions.  This uninhibited country has something that is difficult to copy and even less, explain.
The Venezuelan blogosphere continues its way with necessary joyful rituals and distractions, for the good of personal tranquility.  Hopefully it will take place again in 2008 or next Christmas.

author: Luis Carlos Diaz


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Afghanistan: Another Bad Winter · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Bboyd reviews some statistics on the troubles that aid workers are having in delivering food and services in Afghanistan: murders, abductions, attacks.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Antigua & Barbuda: Cricket Great Honoured · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

West Indies Cricket Blog congratulates former West Indies fast bowler Andy Roberts, on receiving a Grand Cross of the Most Illustrious Order of Merit in Antigua and Barbuda.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Armenia: Scandinavian Invasion · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Armenia and me posts an account and photographs of what is a rare sight indeed — 150 Scandinavian running through Yerevan's Victory Park as part of a World Wide Orienteering Promotion. Arriving in the country from Iran, the blog reports that local onlookers were at first shocked to see so many foreigners racing through a public space, but soon warmed to the idea. “The concept of tall blond Scandinavians in tights seemed to be quite attractive,” concludes Trygveu.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Azerbaijan: Halloween · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Veemo in the Azerbaijan, a Peace Corps blog, reports on this year's Peace Corps Volunteers Halloween party. The blogger says that it was a perfect opportunity to introduce local Azerbaijanis to American culture, updates readers on teaching English in the former Soviet republic, and says that despite the recent failed attempt to stage a terrorist attack on various government and diplomatic missions, Azerbaijan still feels as safe as the U.S.


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Bahamas: After Noel · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

WeblogBahamas.com gives an update on the aftermath of Tropical Storm Noel.


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India: Bangalore – Infrastructure and Barcamps · Global Voices
Kamla Bhatt

Bangalore is the focus of this post. Bangalore is the capital of the southern state of Karnataka and and is often referred to as the Silicon Valley of India. Once known as the “garden city” of India, the city has morphed into a sprawling metropolis with poor infrastructure and a government that seems to change every few months. A few weeks ago the current state government was dismissed and President's rule was imposed. Churumuri has an excellent post outlining the current political status of the state:
The yo-yo, on-off-on politics in Karnataka would defy Mr Ripley, if he hasn’t given up already. But the key question after Saturday’s developments—when the JDS and BJP once again seemingly came together—is how long will the second honeymoon last? Will it last the full course of 19 months? Will it last less than a year? Will it last between three and six months? Or will it tumble within the first three months?
Alok Mittal, who is into venture capital, shares his experience in VentureWoods on what it is like to make a flying visit to the city.
I was in Bangalore on wednesday for BangaloreIT.in event, and it took 4 hours to go and come back due to traffic and demonstrations. At the evening, it took more than an hour and a half in the security queue at the airport!
It is not surprising that technology and IT tend to be a dominant theme of bloggers from Bangalore. The city probably leads other Indian cities when it comes to hosting Barcamps, the unconference phenomenon that started a few years ago. The next barcamp is slated to be held in mid-November. Rajiv Poddar of Wireless Utopia writes that he has lost interest in barcamp and probably will skip the next one. He writes:
To my mind, BCB3 was the peak and the decline has started. One of the most attractive aspects of Barcamp was its simplicity. It was easy to find who was attending and who was talking about what. With each Barcamp it got progressively difficult to do so. With BCB4 it was impossible to get a quick snapshot and I dont expect BCB5 to be any different.
Jace wonders about Rajiv's line of thinking about barcamps and writes:
That focused events are reducing Barcamp’s significance is indeed true. What Rajiv appears to have missed, though, is that as these communities gain traction and find their focus, they will want to move on and manage themselves, leaving Barcamp to newer communities seeking similar exposure. The collective format is designed around encouraging this.
Bangalore is also home to quite a few major IT companies and their research labs. I recently interviewed Jonathan Donner of Microsoft Research India about the missed call phenomenon around the world. You can listen to Jonathan talk about missed calls in India, Rwanda, Kenya, Jamaica, Philippines and other places.
From technology we move to wine. John and Don of Bangalore Monkey have been reviewing various Indian wines in their blog posts. For instance here is what they have to say about Seagrams Nine Hills Chenin Blanc:
Actually, we think its sweetness might not even work for many appetizers — this would probably be nicest as a dessert wine, or something to sip with a biscuit. It would be a good wine to drink on most occasions when you'd be drinking champagne.

author: Kamla Bhatt


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Bangladesh: Squatters, Media and Goons · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Mash on the media giving in to the pressure of the “unelected unaccountable military government”.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Barbados: Routine Maintenance · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Notes From The Margin thinks that “Government is very good on building new buildings but is terrible on maintaining the buildings once they are built” – and shows how this eventually contributes to Barbados’ rising national debt.


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Belize: Land Victory for Mayans · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Survival reports on a landmark court ruling that “recognises the rights of Mayan communities to the ownership of their land.”


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Bosnia & Herzegovina: Genocide Denier; Dutch Peacekeepers · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Srebrenica Genocide Blog writes about Srebrenica genocide denier Milivoje Ivanisevic and the former Dutch peacekeepers visit to Srebrenica.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Bosnia & Herzegovina: Political Crisis · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

TOL's Balkanizer writes about political instability in Bosnia and Herzegovina.


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Bulgaria: Q & A · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Balkan Yankee answers questions about Bulgaria: its technological development, its roads, police, and the people.


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Central Asia: Journalists In Danger · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Joshua Foust provides an overview of the recent alarming developments in the sphere of mass media in the region of Central Asia, listing the cases of journalists being murdered over the past few years.


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Chad: French NGO Adoption Scandal · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Zoe's arc, “your love is choking me!”
Le blog du Prési!, written by a French-Cameroonian blogger, comments on  a recent scandal involving a French NGO that tried to rescue 103 children from the Chadian-Sudanese border–supposedly Darfurian refugees–from “certain death” by adopting them to France.
Six members of the charity L’Arche de Zoé (Zoe's Arc) were arrested in Chad and charged with “abducting minors for the purpose of changing their civil status,” i.e. giving them new parents. The punishment is five to 20 years of forced labor.
Zoe's Arc has denied wrongdoing, saying that the children were orphans from Sudan.  But according to reports, UN officials and French diplomats said that many of the children had parents and were Chadian, not Sudanese.  Neither country allows international adoption.
To make matters worse, Chad's president Idriss Déby has been speculating that the charity, which was charging a 2,400 euro adoption fee, planned to sell these children to pedophiles or harvest their organs.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy is not pleased.  This incident has raised tensions in the two country's relations just before the planned deployment of a French-led EU peacekeeping force in eastern Chad and northeastern Central African Republic.
Le blog du Prési! comments: on the Zoe affair, celebrity adoption, and a love that chokes, whatever its good intentions:
…pour sauver quelques malheureux petits africains de la mort, l'Arche de Zoé (AdZ) a flotté dans les airs, roulé dans le désert pour leur venir au secours, au Tchad. Objectif, ramener un 103 d'enfants et surtout les remettre à destination à des familles en attente. Coût de l'opération, 2400 euros par famille d'adoption en France.
Tout était si bien reglé, jusqu'à ce vol retour, mais voilà, les autorités Tchadiennes s'en mêlent, en découvrant le pot-aux-roses et le debut des poursuites pour “enlèvement de mineurs tendant à compromettre leur état civil et escroquerie”. Et bien sur l'indignation des membres de l'ADZ, eux qui voulaient sauver le monde, sauver ces enfants de la mort. Et on apprend que ce n'étaient pas des orphelins, que ce n'étaient pas des ressortissants du Darfour, supercherie sur toute la ligne.
Il y a quelques mois, c'était Madonna qui à grand renfort de dollars adoptait -pour ne pas utiliser un autre verbe- des petits Nigerians. J'ai beau cherché, mais je n'arrive pas à trouver de différence entre un enlèvement humanitaire et une adoption bradée. Et donc j'attends, des gens et médias, la même indignation qu'il y a quelques mois.  Et ce serait au tour de la très médiatique Paris Hilton d'en faire autant avec des petits rwandais. Que ca se fasse, je suis pour! Au moins comme ca, l'état de délabrement sera vraiment bien établi et on pourra dire “on fait le bordel et on le fait bien!”.
Deux méthodes, le même resultat, peut-être pas les mêmes buts, mais que d'interrogation! Les familles d'origines ont-elles vraiment besoin de cet humanisme forcé? Et meme cet eldorado promis à ces enfants, est-il si important au point de justifier le mérpris de toutes les structures familiales, d'origine et de destination?
Et si une fois arrivé en France, ca se passait mal en terme de procédure d'adoption, ou pire de vie de famille, on aurait peut-être vu déversés dans la rue 103 tchadiens, comme 101 dalmatiens, livrés à la merci de l'Intérieur.
Zoé, ton arche avec, ton amour m'étouffe!

author: Jennifer Brea


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China: Illegal Content Check · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

There is a website for checking illegal content of your website (Chinese only). Hegelchong has a checkup and finds a list of illegal words such as CCP, repression, independent, strike, protest, demonstration, sex, etc. (zh) The check-up website is a mockery of the Great Fire Wall.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Yahoo Apologizes on Shi Tao Case · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Andrew Lih has an update about Yahoo!'s apology on Shi Tao's case.


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Croatia: Football and Politics · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Balkan Baby writes: “The football scene in Croatia, and for that matter all across the Balkans, has for a long time been a remaining bastion of tasteless nationalist sentiment, the border post where one can cross over from patriotism and passion to offensiveness and blind stupidity.”


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Dubai: Money and Crime · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Secret Dubai Diary discusses money, crime and punishment in the UAE in this post.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Eastern Europe: Diary of a Correspondent · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Edward Lucas reposts his diary from a recent trip to Estonia and Poland and the Czech Republic. Itching for Eestimaa comments on a few of the points made by Lucas.


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Europe: Karadzic’s Whereabouts · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Finding Karadzic posts a translation of an Italian newspaper article on the war criminal's possible whereabouts.


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Georgia: Former Defense Minister Seeks Treatment Abroad · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Ahead of today's planned opposition rally in Tbilisi, TOL Georgia reports that former Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili has left the country. Okruashvili as arrested last month after he accused the Georgian president of corruption and conspiring to have political opponents killed. His supporters claim that his release came only after he retracted the accusations under duress. TOL Georgia wonders if his departure to receive medical treatment abroad isn't linked to such suspicions.


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Georgia: Evolution Not Revolution · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

TOL Georgia reports that Badri Patarkatsishvili has officially joined the Georgian opposition. As promised, the influential businessman handed over his shares in Imedia to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and is said to favor evolution over revolution. TOL Georgia concludes that new blood and, more importantly, money, is necessary for the Georgian opposition.


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Guyana: Wicked Dessert · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Guyana-Gyal invites you to take a taste of a dessert with “a name that connote ruckshan-ness…that is, bad-girl-ness”…


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Honduras: Depressing News · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Aaron Ortiz of Pensieve highlights several fear-inducing incidents that recently took place in Honduras, including the kidnapping of the brother of a footballer playing in the UK.

author: Eduardo Avila


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India: No Toilets · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

India Daily on how 80% of people in India have no access to a toilet. A sobering thought considering the World’s 7th World Toilet Summit is going to be held in India this week.


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Japan: Hatoyama Kunio once an American spy · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

Rumor has it that Japanese Justice Minister Hatoyama Kunio made another slip-up after his recent admission that his friend's friend is an al-Qaeda member. In Japanese blogs, web news sites, and forums [Ja], people are now reporting that on Oct. 31st he declared that he once worked for the Pentagon as a U.S. spy. [Note: Information on this story is scarce and the story may be untrue.]

author: Chris Salzberg


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Japan: NOVA Solution? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

There are several proposals to solve the NOVA crisis. The Union proposed to teach for food; another proposal is the taking over of Nova by a corporation (via David Markle from Japan Probe).


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Japan: Two Degrees from Terror · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

These days, particularly since the events of 9/11, a latent fear of “terror” has come to lurk in the hearts of many a concerned citizen. In a place like Japan, though, “terror” is still far away, disconnected from the events of everyday life. But how far away are the terrorists, really? How many degrees of separation are there between you and them? Certainly at least a few, most would answer; in the case of a high-ranking public official, no doubt more. And what about an elected cabinet member? Well, no one could be further from the terrorists than that.
But networks are funny things, and they connect people in unexpected ways. This week in Japan, the unexpected nature of networks suddenly dominated the headlines [Ja] when Justice Minister Hatoyama Kunio [Ja], only recently appointed to his new cabinet position, revealed in an off-hand comment that a “friend of a friend” of his belonged to the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. Although he later apologized for the statement [Ja], many were not satisfied. While some were calling it the dumbest remark of the month, and others awarded it the “foot in mouth” award, still others were not so gentle in their comments [Ja].
The “degrees of separation” idea, however, was also picked up and discussed by a handful of bloggers in more general terms. Blogger shumpei remarks that:
mixiなどのSNSに見られるようなスモールワールド的な考え方をすれば、6ディグリーズということで、だいたい、「友人の友人の友人の友人の友人の友人」で、だいたい世界の人々とつながるらしい。政治家であれば、「知人の知人の知人」で、だいたい日本の人たちとだいたいつながれるでしょう。芸能界の人間関係図を見ていたりすると、これまた、すごいことになっているわけです。
Blogger zarathustra1883 elaborates:
複雑ネットワーク研究でよく引き合いに出される「６次の隔たり」の事例だな。
「６次の隔たり」とは、６人の知人を間に介すれば、世界中のほとんど誰とでも繋がる、という仮説で、俗に「世間（世界）は狭い」ということと対応する。
Seems like a case example of the oft-cited “six degrees of separation” [idea] from research in complex networks.
What is called “six degrees of separation” is the hypothesis that nearly everybody in the world is connected to anybody else through [a chain of] six acquaintances, which corresponds to [the expression in] common speech: “It's a small world.”
まぁ、この場合は、立場が立場なだけに、多少事実関係をよく質す必要はあるが、それほど奇異なことではあるまい。私から小沢一郎や小泉純一郎までだって「友達の友達の友達」くらいで到達するんだから。（そして、これは別に珍しいことではない。）
But why did Justice Minister Hatoyama even make the statement in the first place? Blogger amata wonders:
鳩山法務大臣のあの「私の･･･友人の･･･友人が･･･アル○○○で、ございまして。」の喋りの間が絶妙で、どうしても笑ってしまうあの傑作な発言VTR。
結局あれはナニが言いたかったのか？という疑問がおのずと湧く。
テレビではそのへんが全然判らなかったので新聞で読んだら、あの発言は『問題の友人の友人が髭をつける変装をして何回か日本に来てるので、（空港チェックとして）指紋を取ったほうがいいのではないか。』という発言の中の前半の一部だった。
Finally, blogger iio at CLASSICA Japan follows the implications of the “friend of a friend” statement to their logical conclusion:
●鳩山法相：「友人の友人にアルカイダ」。前に「六次の隔たり」ってのを書いたけど、アメリカの社会学者スタンレー・ミルグラムによれば、友達の友達の……と6人を介すると、みんな世界中の誰とでもつながるんである。ワタシとロナウドだってちゃんと6人でつながったし、中村俊輔にいたってはわずか4人でつながった。だから友人の友人くらいでアルカイダにつながったとしても特に驚くことはない気もする。ていうか、そのアルカイダのメンバーは当然ビン・ラディンとも友人であろうから、法相的には「友人の友人がアルカイダ」ってのは「友人の友人の友人がビン・ラディン」と敷衍することも可能なはずで、そんなふうに発言したらさらに物議を醸したかもしれん。国会で追及されたりしたら大変だ。
●「友人の友人の友人がビン・ラディンなどという人物に大臣を任せられるでしょうか！」
「いや待て、そう言うあなたは大臣の友人ではないか。つまり友人の友人の友人の友人がビン・ラディンというあなたみたいな人間に追及する資格があるのか！」
「だがそういうあなたも友人の友人の友人の友人の友人がビン・ラディンということになるのであって……」
みたいな無限ループとか。なわけないか。
“Can we trust a person who is a friend of a friend of a friend of Bin Laden to be in the position of Cabinet Minister?”
“No wait, aren't you a friend of the Minister? In other words, does someone like you, whose friend's friend's friend's friend is Bin Laden, have the rights to pursue?”
“Yes, but if you think that way, then you are also the friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of Bin Laden……”
It's this kind of endless loop. No?


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Jordan: Facebook Vs White Pages · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Can you believe they’re now Facebooking pictures they like rather than resorting to the white pages?” asks Roba Al Assi from Jordan.


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Libya: Funny Pictures · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Libyan blogger AngloLibyan brings us funny pictures (Ar) from Egypt.


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Pakistan: Politics and Silver Linings · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Red, Black and White comments on the current political turmoil in Pakistan and wonders if there's a silver lining at all.


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Pakistan: Women and Stereotypes · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

All Things Pakistan comes up with a witty but telling list of female stereotypes that a “male middle class Muslim” perceives.


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Palestine: Bitter October Harvest · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Palestinian blogger Umm Khalil sheds light on her country's ‘bitter October harvest’ in this post.


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Romania: Corruption · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Transatlantic Politics writes about corruption and impunity in Romania: “If the current trends in the Romanian justice system are kept, the EU might very soon deal with one great failure of the enlargement process: a member state with a dysfunctional rule of law and ramping corruption.”


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Russia: In Moscow, “Subway Forever” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

LJ users dolboeb and nl have an office with a view, and on Nov. 1, each posted a beautiful photo of a hopeless traffic jam on the Garden Ring, a routine occurrence in Moscow: here and here (RUS). One of the readers commented: “Subway forever.”


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Russia: Togliatti Bus Explosion · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

On Oct. 31, a bomb exploded on a bus packed with morning commuters in the southern Russian city of Togliatti, killing eight people and wounding 50.
LJ user kotenok_suz wrote (RUS):
[…] I'm scared. I'm scared to death, just like [the majority of people] in Togliatti. Today Death has settled in our city. Watch out as you walk around. It's close…
LiveInternet.ru user anfisa yop wrote (RUS):
And they won't call my favorite city a village anymore. Because in a village, all is quiet and calm… […]
LiveInternet.ru user Omar4ik wrote (RUS):
Today, I guess, has been the most nervous day in my life. My child (the older one) sets out for the institute at THIS VERY time and from THIS VERY [bus] stop (30 meters from the intersection), [to get there] by 8:30 AM. She leaves home at 8 sharp, it takes 5 minutes of walking to reach the [bus] stop, she crosses the street at THIS intersection. So it's a matter of minutes. We learned about the blast in 20 minutes or so, started calling right away. She wasn't picking up the phone! I wasn't too worried at first – […] she usually turns down the phone's volume when she's in class, and if the phone is in the pocket of her jacket, she doesn't even hear the vibration. Then everyone started calling – relatives, sisters, aunties, friends, etc. I began to get nervous! My daughter didn't respond till 11:30 AM, when the big break began and she turned the phone back on.
Turns out she was at the [bus] stop at the time of the blast and heard the sound of it. People started screaming, ran to the site of the explosion, but she had to go to the institute. She waited till the bus arrived from the other street and left for her classes. […] It's good that she didn't go to the bus [that exploded] to take a look. The daughter of my colleague at work witnessed the incident, and she got so hysterical that her mother had to leave the office and take her to the doctor. My younger one has also spent the whole day at school crying so hard she got a headache.
Anyway, all's well that ends well. Unfortunately, not for everyone: eight people died, among them children, students, a teacher. All in all, 14 students from my daughters institute were hurt (one from the group she's in). God, receive the souls of the dead and cure the wounded.
LJ user baobabka was incredulous (RUS) on hearing the news of the blast:
And that was when I read about Togliatti… It made me numb. It's not happening in my world. Or, I am elsewhere.
A reader offered an explanation:
aazz:
Why are you surprised? The elections are real close.
baobabka:
Explain what you mean.
aazz:
Somehow, in our country, similar crap always takes place on the eve of the elections. A submarine, an apartment building, or even a war…
It does not seem uncommon among Russian bloggers to tie the Togliatti bus blast to the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in Russia, but the strangest connection – though not the most obvious one – has been through LJ user casualmente‘s blog.
Two months ago, its author, Inna Smbatyan, became one of the two official blogger-representatives of Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC) in the Russian LiveJournal-sphere, as a moderator of the izbircom LJ community, “an informational bridge between the CEC and bloggers,” there to “provide information about the election, and election campaign as a whole, in a language that is easy to understand.” Such an innovative initiative of the CEC received lots of blog coverage at the time.
On the day of the tragedy in Togliatti, Smbatyan reposted a selection of ten extremely gory photos of the victims of the blast (http://casualmente.livejournal.com/193353.html – WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC CONTENT). This post of hers, which I choose not to link to directly, topped Russian blog rankings on Oct. 31 and has received 681 comments so far. Two subsequent – explanatory – posts have received nearly a hundred comments each already. Many of Smbatyan's readers were enraged by her decision to run these highly disturbing images – and here's one of her attempts (RUS) to justify herself:
[…] What did I want to achieve? – for people to see what [the line] “eight people were killed” means, instead of turning their eyes elsewhere: “ah… [just] eight…”
Here is part of a related – and a rather typical – discussion at another blog (RUS), whose author, LJ user pantherclaw, also chose to reproduce the horrible photos:
gibor:
To publish pictures like these means being a jerk just like the one who blew up the bus.
pantherclaw:
Explain your position.
igorilla:
You aren't a jerk, obviously. But I think that publishing someone's photo on which [he or she] is depicted in a [repulsive] way – and you wouldn't deny that a person torn into two pieces is [repulsive], would you? – means to dishonor him [or her]. Those who died are your fellow citizens, and I think that out of civil solidarity, it's wrong to put up pictures of the fallen for everyone to view. It's better to publish photos of dead enemies – the sight of a dead enemy is more pleasant that the sight of a dead friend.
pantherclaw:
The thing is, the enemies are still alive. While the ones who have died no longer care.
dobriy_cheburek:
Yes, yes, of course. Let's show nothing but “flowers” – the way [the state-controlled TV channel] ORT does.
konoplyaeva_n:
[This is the only way to get] our people to understand what's going on.


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Saudi Arabia: King Greeted with Protests in UK · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Cheers to all the Brits who showed up outside the Queen's palace to protest the visit of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia,” writes Or Does it Explode..


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South Korea: E-Land and its Conflict with Temporary Workers · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Jae Young Lee from Ohmynews reports on E-Land, a company specializing in the fashion business and distribution industry, and its recent conflict with temporary workers.


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South Korea: Samsung Bribery Fund Scandal · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Mins0306 from Marmot's Hole blogs about Samsung's scandal of bribery fund.


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Sri Lanka: Weaning  · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

aljuhara on “Weaning Sri Lanka” – getting off the dairy-dependency.


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The Balkans: More on the Language Issue · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Balkan Anarchist responds to Balkan Baby on the issue of the language(s) spoken in the Balkans.


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Trinidad and Tobago: Election Picong · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Voters in Trinidad and Tobago are preparing to go to the polls on Monday 5 November, in the long-anticipated general election to choose 41 MPs for the House of Representatives. The party that wins a majority will form the next government, but as campaigning politicians and political analysts alike point out, there's more at stake. Special majorities of two thirds and three quarters of the votes in the House are required to amend specific sections of the Trinidad and Tobago constitution. The current ruling party has promised that constitution reform will be high on the agenda if it is re-elected; opposition parties and civic groups fear a new constitution that concentrates power in the hands of the executive and weakens legislative and judicial checks and balances.
Traditionally, political parties in Trinidad and Tobago have attracted support along more or less ethnic lines. The People's National Movement (PNM), which currently forms the government under political leader and prime minister Patrick Manning, has its main power base among urban Afro-Trinidadians. The United National Congress (UNC), fighting the election under the controversial co-leadership of former prime minister Basdeo Panday and financier Jack Warner, has its core support among rural Indo-Trinidadians. Complicating the picture is the Congress of the People (COP), led by former government minister Winston Dookeran. Originally a splinter group of former UNC members, the COP — fighting its first election — has managed to attract support from disaffected members of both other parties, from “floating” voters, and from the country's disenchanted mixed-race middle class.
In Trinidad and Tobago's first-past-the-post electoral system, third parties have rarely fared well. Recent opinion polls have been highly contradictory; some suggest the COP may win more votes than the UNC and even run neck-and-neck with the PNM. But with the race coming down to a handful of marginal constituencies, it's entirely possible the COP could win a third of the popular vote nationwide and no seats in the House. Three days ahead of the election, it's still too close to call.
This situation — compounded by a baroquely complicated sequence of scandals, corruption accusations, and political floor-crossings in the last seven or eight years — has led to a highly recriminatory campaign season, with unprecedented spending on campaign advertising. Many bloggers have responded with frustration to the high jinks and low blows. Both The Manicou Report and Ramblings and Reason expressed dismay that the PNM and UNC have attempted to court younger voters not by addressing their serious concerns but by staging expensive concerts often featuring foreign performers. As Manicou puts it:
I cringe when I think of the meeting where this decision was made. Yeah, why don't we hold a “Youth Vibes Rally” with a lot of reggae stars. I hear the kids like that kind of thing”…. Is that their perception of the youth? Partiers and limers who have no interest in issues?
Trinidad Media Arts & Culture has been posting a series of angry, outspoken analyses not just of the parties and their campaigns but of media coverage — which, he argues, has consistently downplayed the groundswell of support for the COP:
The sick thing is, this is the strongest, most rational party in terms of all the standards the public claims to desire: incorruptibility; technocratic knowledge; and proven competence, yet it's the least visible and most vulnerable of the three.
Meanwhile, Taran Rampersad, who emphasises that he has no political affiliation, worries that “people are simply following the pointing fingers from one side to another with what appears to be almost no critical thinking involved”, and offers two recent conversations as evidence. Jonathan Ali argues that the party leaders should engage in a televised debate: “Imagine what that could mean for our politics.” And after seeing what she describes as “the latest episode of T&T’s political soap opera”, in which the UNC appeared to trivialise a domestic violence accusation to score a political point, Francomenz is left speechless: “I’m so stunned I can’t think of a single witty thing to say.”
But finding witty things to say under any and all circumstances is a classic Trinidadian trait (and coping technique), and perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the online coverage of this campaign has been the emergence of satirical blogs deploying good old-fashioned Trinidadian picong — a kind of relentless, merciless backtalking banter.
It seems to have been sparked off by the launch in late August of The Secret Blog of Patrick Manning, supposedly offering a glimpse “inside the mind of Trinidad & Tobago's Prime Minister”, with occasional interjections from his wife Hazel Manning, the current minister of education. The “Manning blogger” has offered tongue-in-cheek takes on the new multi-million-dollar prime ministerial residence, the ousting of longtime PNM MP Kenneth Valley, and the prime minister's alleged makeover at the hands of Cuban doctors. Soon the blog was attracting attention from the mainstream press; GV's own Georgia Popplewell even scored an interview with the “Manning blogger” but didn't manage to penetrate his (or her?) anonymity.
Soon The Secret Blog was getting comments from readers purporting to be other political figures, and before long the “Manning blogger” had a rival: The Extra Secret Blog of Basdeo Panday, replete with manipulated photos and even an audio parody of senior UNC politician Kamla Persad-Bissessar (who many party members had expected to lead the UNC into the elections, until she was out-manoeuvred at the last minute). The “Panday blogger” even promises to host a live election night chat.
Also contributing to this parody trend: a new blog called The Real Fake News in T&T, which was launched in October, offering satirical news reports, fake newspaper front pages, and doctored political ads.
Other bloggers have been getting into the fun-poking act. Trinidad Media Arts & Culture posts cartoons commenting on “the complacent electorate” and what he calls “A Word from God: The Shiva Poll”. The Manicou Report has started a “twelve days of elections” series. And Jumbie's Watch manages to find a photo of Patrick Manning bowing before an image of himself: “Doesn't it look like he is bowing before a dictator???”
The parody blogs aren't having fun for fun's sake. Political commentators have argued that, even without a possible future amendment, Trinidad and Tobago's constitutional and electoral systems tend to produce a House of Representatives that does not always actually represent the majority of citzens. A sizable part of the populace can feel effectively shut out of the political process. Under circumstances like these, satire becomes an especially powerful tool, and the laughter it provokes has a sharp edge.

author: Nicholas Laughlin


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Trinidad & Tobago: The Thing About Elections  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Nicholas Laughlin thinks that Trinidadian journalist BC Pires has succinctly summed up “everything we need to know about this election in one sentence.”


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Tunisia: is Youtube blocked? · Global Voices
sami ben gharbia

Several Tunisian bloggers are reporting today not being able to access the popular video-sharing site Youtube.
If it turns out to be true, Youtube will be the second video sharing site blocked by Tunisia. Since September 3rd, 2007, Tunisia is still blocking access to Dailymotion.

author: sami ben gharbia


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UAE: French Boy, 15, Raped  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

i, Bobo posts news coverage of an unsettling story in which a 15-year-old French boy was kidnapped and raped by locals in the UAE.


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Uzbekistan: Official Warns Against “Interference” · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Bboyd reports that Uzbekistan’s Permanent Representative Mr. Alisher Vakhidov warned the international community not to interfere in Uzbekistani affairs under the “pretext” of human rights concerns.


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Afghanistan: Updates on Fightings · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Afghanistan Watch informs that coalition forces continue to fight on two fronts this week against Taliban offensives in both Kandahar and Farah provinces of Afghanistan.


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Armenia: Bonaparte’s Return · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Armenian Libertarian-Socialist Movement discusses the return of the first president of Armenia, Levon Ter Petrosian, and his nomination for next year's presidential election. The self-proclaimed anarchist site questions whether the former leader represents an alternative to the present authorities although counters several criticisms made of Ter Petrosian's rule.


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Armenia: Open Letter · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Following on from an Open Letter to the Armenian Diaspora by Turkish writer and blogger Mustafa Akyol on the subject of the Armenian Genocide, Raffi K at Life in Armenia responds in kind with his own addressed to Turks. Believing that the events of 1915-17 were Genocide, the blogger writes that it is time to resolve this outstanding issue once and for all so that Armenians and Turks can move on and “finally live at peace with each other.”


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Armenia: Traffic Hell · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Ex patria says that while there were relatively few cars on the roads of the Armenian capital a year and a half ago, the situation has now dramatically changed. Combined with alleged corruption ahead of next year's presidential election resulting in multiple construction works to make the situation even worse, the blog says that driving in Yerevan is very definitely something to be avoided.


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Cambodia: Cambofest · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Details are Sketchy points to Cambofest, a film and video festival for regional and international independent film makers to be held in Cambodia.

author: Preetam Rai


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Caucasus: Coming Out · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Unzipped: Gay Armenia details and analyzes recent examples from Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia of gay men “coming out” about their sexual orientation, as well as cases of others “outing” rivals in entertainment and politics.


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Indonesia:  Why is Indonesia Better · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Parvita, from a point of view of a young Indonesian professional, talks about why she doesn't want to leave  Indonesia to work in a foreign country.


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Korea: Punishments at school · Global Voices
Hyejin Kim

What is the best education? A series of recent incidents in Korean schools reflects the difficulty of striking a balance between the demands of teachers, students and parents.
Teachers’ qualifications are always an important issue when school scandals emerge.
선생님들 체벌을 하세요 폭력을 휘두르지 마시고
최근 선생님들과 관련된 정말 씁쓸한 기사들이 올라옵니다.
어제는 초등학교 1학년이 바지에 소변을 보앗다고…
마를때까지 서있으라고 해서 문제가되었는데…
그선생님 정말 생각이 잇으신지…
학교에서 절대 그냥 넘어가면 안됩니다.
학생이 얼마나 수치스러우겠습니까?
그선생님은 그러시겠죠.
똥 밟았다고….
다른선생님들도 잘못하는데 왜 내껏만 인터넷 뒤집히고 뉴스에 나냐고..
초등학교 때 부터 일만 터졌다 하면 그런선생님들 1년에 몇분 씩은 접해왔습다.
오늘 다음에 영상이 올라왔습니다.
전주 모 고등학교에서 선생님이 학생에게 폭력을 휘두르는 영상.
이유가 보충을 빠져서라고는 하지만 사실 학생이 그보다 더 큰 잘못을 햇을지는 모르는일이죠.
보충을 빠졌건 아니면 그보다 더 큰 잘못을 했건.
어쨌거나 일차적인 잘못은 학생에게 있습니다.
하지만.
영상속 선생님의 모습은 학생을 가르치기위해 체벌을 하는게 아니라
폭력을 휘두르는 그야말로 난폭하고 무식한 그냥 사람의모습이었습니다…하지만 영상속 그 선생님은 더이상 선생님의 모습이아니었습니다.
그저 끓어오르는 화를 주체하지 못하고 학생에게 폭력을 휘두르는…
그냥 폭력을 휘두르는 무식한 사람이었습니다.
분명히 말하지만 체벌과 폭력은 다릅니다….
아마 저 학생의 몸은 지금 멍 투성이 일겁니다.
몸뿐이겠습니까?
마음도 멍투성이이겠지요….
영상속의 선생님 처벌 받아야 합니다.
마땅한 처벌 받아야 합니다.
학생도 잘못이 있다면 그에 맞는 처벌 받아야 합니다.
초등학교 중학교 그리고 지금 고등학교…
지내오면서 늘 느끼는 것이지만.
학교에 계시는 선생님들 정말 좋으신분 많습니다.
저만해도 정말 좋은 선생님들 많이 만났으니까요.
하지만 그런분이 다는 아니라느거?
고1짜리한테 항상 모의고사 공부하라며 자습을 주는 선생님.
공부도 안하고 수업들어와서 모르는거 얼렁뚱땅 넘어가는 선생님.
수업준비 안하고 항상 답지 펴놓고 문제 풀어주는 선생님.
학교 교무실 자기 자리에 앉아서 야동보는 선생님.
학교 교무실 자기 자리에 앉아서 인터넷 쇼핑몰 구경하는 선생님.
잘사는 아이 못사는 아이 차별하는 선생님.
그러니까 니가 공부를 못하는 거야라면 대놓고 말해서 아이 마음에상처주는 선생님.
시험문제 문제집이랑 똑같이 내서 재시험치게 하는선생님..
그래놓고 내년에 또그러는 선생님..
그리고 영상속 선생님처럼 무식한 폭력을 휘두르는선생님..
정말 이런선생님들 정말 문제잇는거 아닌가요?
제발 제가 성인이 되어서…
아이를 낳아서 기를 때쯔음에는 정말 진짜 자격없는 선생님은 없었으면 좋겠습니다.
Recently there are several bitter news about teachers. Yesterday, a first grade student at a primary school accidently urinated in the middle of class and the teacher forced him (or her) to stand for three hours as the punishment. What did the teacher think at that time? The school should not let it be as nothing. Think about how humiliated the student was.
The teacher could think this dispute is not fair. She could think – other teachers are also doing that and why not me? Why is my case in the news and internet everywhere?
There was another video clip showing a teacher at a high school beat a student. The reason was the student skipped after-school classes, but maybe he did something worse. No matter what it is, the first mistake was from a student.
But,
The teacher on the screen didn’t punish him for the purpose of teaching the student. It was the scene of a violent person using his physical power…. The teacher on the screen was not a teacher anymore. He was an ignorant person who couldn’t control his anger and used violence.
Clearely speaking, the punishment and violence are different…. The student must have so many bruises on his body, not just on the body, but on his mind….
The teacher on the screen should be punished. If the student committed mistakes, he should be punished as well. Going through primary and secondary schools, there have been good teachers. I myself encountered nice teachers. On the other hand, there are teachers who let students study themselves for examinations all the time, teachers who don’t study and eventually don’t teach in classes well, teachers who teach questions without any class preparation, teachers who watch internet porn or internet shopping in teachers’ lounges, teachers who discriminate against students depending on poverty and wealth, teachers who hurt students’ confidence with their test scores, teachers who make the same test questions several times… Aren’t these kinds of teachers problematic?…
When I become an adult and have children, I hope that there are no disqualified teachers anymore.
When these kinds of school scandals bring criticisms toward teachers, related issues also come up.
최근 올라온 “여중생 70명 엎드려뻗쳐 논란’ 기사 중
-매니큐어를 바르고, 치마를 잘라 입거나 파마를 하는 등 용모 불량으로 지적받았으며..
-평소 학교 측의 단속에 불만을 품었던 일부 학생은 교실 유리창을 통해 이 장면을 휴대전화로 촬영하고 경찰 지구대에 신고까지 해..
하루 이틀 일이 아니다만 학생이 선생을 신고하고 고발하는게 이젠 아주 일상이다. 말로 훈육하거나 벌을 세워봤자 머리 좀 굵은 놈들이 씨알도 안 먹힐게 뻔하고, 마땅한 제재수단도 없는 마당에 면학분위기를 해치는 녀석들 참다 참다 못해 회초리 들면 바로 동영상 찍어버린다. 휴대폰 금지를 내리면 또 그것대로 논란이 되고, 그냥 놔두자니 앞뒤 분간 못하고 설치는 녀석들을 막을 길이 없다. 어쩌란 말인가? 그냥 내버려두고 무시하면 상책인가? 그럼 또 이런 일이 벌어진다.
“‘우리 애만 차별한다’ 학부모 수업중 교사 폭행’ 기사 중
…수업중인 교실에서 학생들을 가르치는 교사를 폭행하는 어처구니없는 일 역시 어제 오늘 일이 아니다. 실제 아이를 차별한 사실이 있는지 없는지도 모르겠지만 설령 그랬다 하더라도 가당키나 한 일인가? 아이들의 인성이 중요하고 보호해줘야 한다고 말하면서 아이들이 보는 앞에서 폭력을 행사하는 말도 안되는 짓거리는 전혀 지탄의 대상이 되지 않는가? 위 기사에서 한가지 더 짜증이 났던 것은 분명 교사가 피해자임에도 불구하고 … 은근슬쩍 학교와 교사를 욕하고 있었다는 사실이다.
학부모에게 거슬리지 않게 아이들 하나하나 전부 신경쓰고, 또 아이들 한명한명 사고치지 않게 다독이고 구슬리는데 신경쓰면 정작 교사 할 일 못한다. 학생 인권? 물론 중요하다. 그러나 인권만큼이나 학교 안에서의 규율도 중요하다. 한명의 인권을 보호하기 위해 규율을 무시한다면 다른 여럿의 권리가 침해되는 경우가 발생한다. 자신의, 자신들의 권리가 소중하다면 다른 사람의 권리도 소중함을 알아야 한다.
It’s not fresh news that students seek to sue their teachers. Punishing physically grown-up students with words doesn’t work well. But those students distract classes and teachers finally use rods. Then those students record them as video-clips. If the school prohibits celluarphones, disputes rise again. What can the school do? Just ignore it? Then these kinds of scandals will happen again.
Among a news article “the teacher discriminates against our kid” and the parents beat the teacher in the middle of class…this is also not a shocking news anymore. Even though teachers in fact discriminate against students, how come this violence in the class is possible? We say children’s personality is important and should be protected, but committing violence in front of children doesn’t make sense at all. One more thing I was annoyed about this article, even though the teacher was the victim,… the article indirectly criticizes the school and the teacher.
In order not to annoy parents, teachers take care of each child and suck up to each one. Then they can’t focus on their own duty. Students’ human right? Of course it is important. But as equalling to human rights, regulations at school are important too. In order to protect one person’s human rights, if the regulation is ignored, it means that others’ rights will be infringed upon. If their rights are so important, they should know others’ rights are also important.
Parents’ qualification has been questioned by many netizens.
교사 폭행사건… – 아이에게 가장 큰 선생님은 부모입니다.
요즘 갑자기 학교 그리고 선생님에 관한 기사가 넘쳐 납니다.
그제는 바지에 오줌을 싼 아이를 교실앞에 3시간을 세워둔 사실을 확인한 아이의
엄마가 그 내용을 자신의 미니 홈페이지에 올렸다가 그것이 기사화 되어 전국의
많은 학부모들을 끓게 한 사건…
그리고 어제는 자신의 아이를 차별대우한다는 이유로 수업중인 교실에 아이의
할머니와 어머니가 난입하여 선생님의 머리채를 쥐어 흔들고 그것도 부족 해
선생님의 머리를 칠판에 머리를 쳐 박기까지 하고…
정말 가관인 교육 현장입니다.
하긴 요즘 선생님이 아이들에게 좀 강하게 체벌을 하려 하면 웹 사이트에 올린다
하면서 휴대폰 동영상 촬영을 한다 난리를 치기도 하고 또 뻑하면 아이들이 112에 신고를 하기도 하는 세상이니…
정말 일선학교의 선생님들 그 노릇도 하기 힘든 세상입니다. 이런 현실에서 과연 어떤 선생님이 자신이 진정한 교육자라는 자부심을 느낄 수 있을까요?
세상에 자신의 자식을 이뻐하지 않는 부모는 단 한사람도 없습니다.하지만 그 자식을 예뻐하고 사랑하는데는 다 나름의 방법이 있지요….
전 지금 이시간 선생님을 폭행한 그 아이의 어머니나 할머니가 행한 그 방법에 대해서 참 많은 아쉬움을 가집니다. 일단 싸우려면… 아니 죽어도 선생님을 폭행해야 했다면 그래도 수업이 마친 후 아이들이 교실에 없을 때 해야지요.뭐가 그리 급했을까요? 자신의 자식은 중하고 타인의 자식은 소중하지 않다는 이기심 아닐까요? 그 선생님도 집에 들어가면 그 선생님의 소중한 부모입니다. 솔직히 자신의 아이가 차별대우를 받았다면 그 해결 방법은 여러가지가 있습니다. 정식으로 관계 기관에… 그것이 힘들다면 학교의 교장선생님께 항의를 하든지 그것이 개선되지 않으면 다른 학교로 옮기면 될 일입니다.
부모가 학교를 믿지 못하고 선생님을 믿지 못하면 어떤 위대한 분을 선생님으로 모신다 하더라도 절대 제대로 된 교율을 할 수 없습니다. 교육이란 먼저 신뢰를 우선하여야 하는 것이니 말입니다. 학교가 부모님과 학생들을 믿고… 아이가 선생님과 학교를 믿고 부모가 학교와 선생님을 믿고 학교가 선생님을 믿을 수 있어야 제대로 된 교육이 가능한 것이 아닐까요?
Due to discrimination, a kid’s mother and grandmother attacked the classroom and beat the teacher…. It’s unbelievable in places of education …
If teachers punish students, students instantly post the scene on the internet with their cellularphones or report it to 112…. It’s hard to be teachers. In this reality, what kinds of teachers will feel pride as educators?
There is no one who doesn’t care about his or her children. But how to love their kids is important.
The kid’s mother and grandmother should have had fights at least after the class, if they wanted to fight… at least after children left the classroom. Why were they so hasty? Is it from selfishness that their own kid is important, but other kids are not? The teacher is also a parent when she goes back home. There are several solutions if they think their kid receives discrimination. Officially, they can report to an appropriate organization… if it is hard, they could talk about it to the principal at that school. If it doesn’t cause any change, they can move to another school.
If parents don’t trust the school and teachers, any great teachers can’t provide right education. Education should start from trust first. School believe parents and students… children believe teachers and school, parents believe schools and teachers, and schools believe the teachers… wouldn’t it be the right education?

author: Hyejin Kim


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Myanmar: Internet Down Again · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

The Internet link to outside of Myanmar is down again.


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Pakistan: Emergency Declared – No News, No Internet. · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

President Musharraf has declared a state of emergency in Pakistan. According to news sources, among other things this means “The Fundamental Rights of the citizens are now suspended. All the news channels have been taken off air and mobile phone signals and Internet connections jammed.”.
A thriving discussion at All Things Pakistan gives us a glimpse of what the reactions in the blogosphere are like.
The Pakistan Policy Blog states that the army has taken control of the Supreme Court, surrounded the buildings of major news stations, and arrested or detained many politicians. The blog comments on the proclamation text.
In his proclamation of emergency (full text below), Musharraf — identifying himself as chief of army staff, not president — cites the rising violence in the country as the basis for his imposing martial law. However, the text holds the judiciary most culpable for the rise in violence. It lambastes them for allegedly encroaching upon the territory of the legislative and executive branches, stating, “Whereas some members of the judiciary are working at cross purposes with the executive and legislature in the fight against terrorism and extremism, thereby weakening the government and the nation’s resolve and diluting the efficacy of its actions to control this menace.”
RedDiaryPk writes on what this confirms – the intentions of the current regime and the consequences of a military rule.
The blatantly off-handed, treasonous, and unconstitutional attacks by General Pervez Musharraf on the judiciary, media, and people of Pakistan have brought the true dictatorial character of the present regime into the lime-light. It has now been proved beyond doubt that Pakistan can never progress into any form of democracy without getting rid of the military from politics. All attempts to enter into any ‘compromise’ or ‘deal’ with the military can only hinder the struggle for democracy.
SAJA Forum is running some comments on the post, including – “They say on Indian TV that this is more than a state of emergency. It is declaration of martial law because the country's constitution has been nullified.”. Some others confirm that news channels are off the air in the country.
Chapati Mystery on what the state of Emergency means.
Next up? Martial Law. More bombings. And the eventual drain of all that capital that had accumulated in the country in the past 8 years. Zimbabwe, here we come. Unless, US and China can come to their senses and do some actual diplomacy. The status is bleak. Let us say that Musharraf resigns and leaves. The Supreme Court declares an election date, the new government solves the Baluchistan issue, th US redeploys significant troops to Afghanistan (and keeps them there), the Pakistani military combats within cities and mountains of Pakistan. War. Chaos. Uncertainty. And this, my gentle readers, would be the best case scenario. A more likely option is a military state somewhere between Mugabe’s Zimbabwe circa 2005 and Gandhi’s India circa 1976. I must be proven wrong.
Comments and discussion at Metroblogging Lahore, Pickled Politics and Metroblogging Islamabad. KO writes on what it is like to “return to dictatorship”.
This is a bit of a oxymoron. Pakistan has been run by a military dictator for the last 8 years, but the dictator kept some of the trappings of democracy around, like a free press, an opposition, of not just politicians but private armies belonging to anyone who cared, like the Taliban, roaming around the country, and so on.
Over at Comment Is Free, Ali Eteraz writes on the context of the emergency.
Traditionally, a PCO is an order which suspends the constitution and dissolves all fundamental rights as well as legislation and judiciary, installing martial law. Except that Musharraf's PCO only dissolves the judiciary (for overstepping its limits and interfering with the war on terror) while leaving the Assembly intact. The limited scope of the PCO means the current situation is something less than martial law. Yet it cannot rightly be called an emergency either, because that does not involve a PCO. This in-between situation is being called “emergency plus”.
And yes, it's time for the Society Against Internet Censorship in Pakistan to be active again. Dr Awab Alvi sets the ball rolling by suggesting that international bloggers be given the right to blog on their behalf.
I think it's time that all Pakistan based bloggers should stop blogging and be careful since it's being confirmed that martial law is in effect we all have to play it safe – hand over reigns to international reporters and bloggers to help report – we cannot risk it here.
As an example I have handed over my blog posting rights to a free speech
activist Ange Embuldeniya and will start live reporting
I know how much we want to report but please this is a MARTIAL LAW.
The international blog community is at the moment rallying for Pakistan and
we should hear sounds from them very soon.
Awab Alvi's blog, being run by Ange currently can be found here, with regular updates on the situation.


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Palestine: iArabs Site a Blast · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Palestinian blogger Rebellious Arab Girl  points us to a new site – iArabs.


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Philippines: Artists Cry Censorship Over Altered Mural · Global Voices
Tonyo Cruz

Members of the Neo-Angono Artists Collective are protesting alterations to a mural they made as commissioned artists of the National Press Club.
The group has posted the original mural in their website:
Titled “press freedom”, the 8 by 32 feet mural is now displayed at the NPC with the alterations.
A news report features the two conflicting sides, with an NPC official admitting that:
He said some of the changes suggested by Mabasa concerned “leftist leanings” in some of the images. This included the removal of the name of missing activist Jonas Burgos in the final artwork and the alteration of the headline identifying him as the son of a press freedom fighter.
He said the group also decided to remove the IFJ statement in the central image but said that it was the artist who decided to put the picture of a “bird-monster in a cage.”
The controversy however has spurred Filipino bloggers’ interest,  with some expressing surprise that the NPC, a journalists’ organization, resorted to censorship or changes in the original work without informing the artists first.
According to Blue Pencil Chronicles, the original mural was:
a very compelling representation of the past and current state of Press Freedom here in the Philippines, what with freedom fighters Chino Roces, Marcelo del Pilar, Ninoy Aquino, Eugenia Duran-Apostol, Letty Jimenez Magsanoc and several others depicted in the painting.
The artists’ petition — which spoke about the artists’ “outrage, revulsion and protest” over the alterations — has been reposted in a growing number of blogs like: Pitong Pulgadang Produksyon,  Glenn in progress, StudenStrike, The Phoenix, Listen to the beat, and the Tinig.com online magazine.
mackybaka also reposts the petition but adds that:
Ka Antonio Zumel (who was NPC President when Martial Law was declared and escaped arrest by swimming the Pasig River) must be rolling around his grave if he ever hear of this downright desecration of the freedom of expression and of the press.
Zumel was an activist journalist who became president of the NPC and is considered an icon of press freedom and progressive journalism.

author: Tonyo Cruz


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Philippines: Pardoning Estrada · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Allecoallende says pardoning former president Estrada “does not win for Macapagal-Arroyo more supporters, but it does ensure that more Filipinos will be fed up and disgusted with her government’s hypocrisy”


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Russia: Bloggers’ Perspectives on Xenophobia · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Wherever you click in the Russian blogosphere these days, you always seem to end up reading posts on nationalism, ethnicity, xenophobia, ethnic violence and other related subjects.
In October, apart from discussing the famous DNA scientist's race comments and the U.S. president's DNA comments, Russian bloggers dealt with at least two xenophobic attacks – one that took place in Spain, and the other one domestic.
LJ user drugoi, a top-ranking Russian blogger, highlighted the case of Sergi Xavier, a 21-year-old Spaniard accused of assaulting a 16-year-old Ecuadorian girl on a commuter train in Barcelona (see video of the attack here).
Below are some of the readers’ reactions (RUS) to drugoi‘s post:
golovorez:
>a young man sitting nearby pretended as if nothing was going on.
Spanish commuters resemble Muscovites on the subway so much!
***
stulchik:
Funny, when they are beating someone on our commuter trains, no one sees anything, too, even if the leg of the attacker flies by right next to your nose.
Only there [in Spain], trains look better, while ours are so very cold. […]
***
wunder_bar:
The guys who is sitting looks like an immigrant, too. Maybe his turn [for the beating] was next.
fresquete:
Yes, he's an immigrant, most likely from Peru.
la_campanilla:
From Argentina, they reported it on Radio Cadena COPE. […]
***
anastassia_jm:
That's how the police should be working! They found the criminal within a couple days, and moreover, the police did all the work. Without multiple appeals, requests and demands from the victim.
***
racoon_defender:
Why scream about some Spanish jerks for the whole world to hear? We've got enough of folks like this in Russia.
***
donna_lita:
I know for sure from my own experience – in Moscow, they'll be beating you, and the passer-by will be passing you right by. And it doesn't matter if you're a girl or a boy, it's enough that you look different. In the subway, even the cops don't risk getting involved.
Here's what I've recalled, by the way – [National Bolsheviks] used to entertain themselves this way on the subway: […] you're going down the escalator, they approach from behind, put their hands on the handles, push their legs up and hit you on the back. I myself once saw an Asian girl fly down [the escalator] on Frunzenskaya [subway station]. But those were two boys of around 14, they were yelling something about the yellow… [-skinned] who have flooded Moscow, and I was with my husband and two of his friends, and we caught these guys and took them to the police room, and I was helping the girl they attacked… No case was opened, the cops were trying to get it off their shoulders as quickly as possible.
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rdp4v:
Well, here it goes. Spain, Spain. And here's Russia for you. A comrade lovingly gathers reports on killings and beatings of non-Russians. His [identity] is perfectly known, and he's not really trying hard to hide. But he's not pushing himself into the open, either. Instead, he is doing a constant, painstaking and inspired job of cultivating the feeling of ethnic and racial hatred. Any expert would be forced to deem half of his blog posts as pertaining to Article 282 [of the Russian Criminal Code: Incitement of National, Racial, or Religious Enmity]. And so what happens? Nothing. […]
http://white-patriot.livejournal.com/323384.html
The last comment in the selection above refers to an extremely intolerant discussion of the recent attacks on non-Russians in Moscow, which resulted in the deaths of at least two people: a 46-year-old chess champion from Yakutia and a 23-year-old ethnic Armenian drummer.
LJ user mike67 posted this analysis of the situation (RUS):
Not just the disgusting orgy of the “white patriots” following the murder of the Yakut chess player, but also the attempts of certain brave people […] to argue with them, show how little understood is the essence of what's going on. Stories of the kind of “‘aliens’ are humans, too,” arguments about economic advantages of migration, calling to common sense and other feelings in general – all this doesn't make sense, because the problem of nationalism goes a lot deeper than nationalism itself.
The problem is the formation of well-organized gangs that regard ethnic purges as nothing but an accidental kind of occupation. In a megalopolis, especially on the outskirts, we've got armies of idle teenagers, who gather in large groups to fulfill their age-specific need to assert themselves. Modern means of communication transform the usual gangs of hooligans that control the neighborhoods into mobile extraterritorial entities – the real gangs, that is, whose analogue in the youth circles exists only among football fans.
But fan groups are constructed according to the “predator-predator” model, which keeps the system from further growth. Transferring aggression onto foreigners creates the “predator-victim” model, whose growth has no limits. Competition among groups demands more daring “feats” – and this is why it is logical that the attackers have gone from beatings to killings in the past few years.
It's important, but is not taken into account, that Nazism for them is an excuse, not the reason – the most convenient way of expressing themselves rather than part of a static worldview. This indeed is a competition between groups – and that's why they regularly record their “actions” on video and actively discuss them on forums. Hence, the attacks not on those who have the most competing interests, but on the most “conspicuous” representatives of the “aliens”: it's obvious that the ideological explanation of the attacks through the necessity of “cleaning up the space” for Russians is absolutely inapplicable to the regular attacks on [black] students. That's why it's pointless to try to convince these young people that they wouldn't replace the Tajiks at construction sites.
All this was very evident in the discussion of the killing of the Yakut – who had been mistaken for a Korean (this is literally how many critics of the Nazis were asking, “What for if he was one of ours [a Russian citizen]?). The following statements (I'm quoting from memory): “What, do you expect them to ask him to show his passport?”, “The main thing is for the guys to learn how to kill, and the material [on which to practice] is irrelevant.” […]
***
For a foreigner's view on racism and xenophobia in Russia, please visit MoscowThroughBrownEyes, an English-language blog. Here is an excerpt from one of the recent entries:
[…] one of Beyonce’s dancers, identified only by his first name Cliff, was attacked at a restaurant on Tverskaya after being subjected to racial slurs. The incident took place just after the victory of Russia’s football team over England. Apparently, a drunk Russian took Cliff for an England fan and began to ridicule his supposed country and skin color. […]
Before we start thinking that all Russians are raving racists, the thread on this incident at the Russian-language fan site InDaRnB reveals a fascinating discussion on what the attack on Cliff tells us about racial politics here […]:
mib: That’s it, Beyonce is never coming to Moscow again. For real, these football fans are goats. [Note: that sounds harsher in Russian.]
…
Tania Mega-Popa: Fu, I hate these fans. They don’t have one gram of brains. It’s not just Beyonce who won’t come to us anymore, but many more. It’s shameful.
[…]
Vladimir: [In response to Irreplaceable] You have too low of an opinion of Russia. Racism is present everywhere and among us no more so than in America.
Li Key: Yeah, what's there to say. I think that it doesn’t depend on the country, but on the up-raising. Everywhere has its defectives, though it looks like we have a larger share… I feel bad for the dude.[…]
And here is another relevant snippet, from an earlier post by MoscowThroughBrownEyes:
“I hate the Chinese.” She leaned in. “Tell me, what people do you hate?”
I dodged, “I hate rude people.”
“But what people [narod] do you hate?”
“I can’t really think of any people as a whole that I hate.”
Then I tried to allow her some room to back-pedal, “Do you mean that you hate the policies of the Chinese government, not the people?”
“I have no problem with the government. It’s a good government. But there are so many Chinese! They are intent on Siberia, you know.”
I couldn’t help but poke back a little at this point, “Nu, what’s the problem? You have a demographic crisis, they have some people who want to work in Siberia—the solution seems obvious.”
“But they don’t assimilate. And they will destroy our culture.”
Apparently more than a few Russians share the “concerns” of the Muscovite I was talking with a few weeks ago […]


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Singapore: Developing Venture Capital in Singapore · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Bernard Leong proposes a model to develop Venture capital in Singapore that takes some inputs from the Israeli model.


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Singapore: Facebook Invasion · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Ginette at Asiacount network talks about a social network that is currently the rage.


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State of Emergency in Pakistan · Global Voices
Kamla Bhatt

Earlier today President Musharaff of Pakistan declared a state of emergency and bloggers have been busy trying to get a handle of the latest political developments in Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto, who left for Dubai is reportedly back in Pakistan.  President Musharraf is expected to address the nation sometime soon. (It is 11.44 pm on Saturday at the time of writing this post.)
Manan Ahmed of Informed Comment, Global Affairs writes:
The move is hardly surprising considering the chaos engulfing Pakistan at the moment – from political (Supreme Court deliberations on the fate of the “election”) to military (the tribal/militant conflict has spread to Swat and Peshawar) to ideological (Baluchistan) to international (Rice has decided she wants democracy).
According to the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) declaring emergency, the steps were taken because of the recent terrorist attacks, the release of terror-suspects by the judiciary, the lack of oversight of the judiciary and the low morale of police and army in the nation. See the text here [pdf].
Free Pakistan blogspot has video clips about the current situation in Pakistan and here is a link about the army's invasion of Pakistan's supreme court.
Metroblogging Karachi has an account of how and when emergency was declared in Pakistan.
After binary-zero's instant reporting on private TV channels being taken off-air around the country amid speculations of emergency rule in the country, the rumour has been confirmed as true.
Even, the state media including Pakistan Television Network (PTV) has confirmed the news and has announced that General Musharraf will be adressing the nation sometime tonight.
Media and judiciary have been the first targets under emergency-rule as almost all major private channels still remain off-air and according to one TV channel, the army has entered the Supreme Court building.


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Syria: End Repression Call  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“End Repression of human rights activists!” cries out Golaniya, a blogger from Syria.


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Tajikistan: Arts and Culture · Global Voices
Vadim Sadonshoev

This week Firuz at Tajik-Tajik blog neweurasia shared the story of a handicraftsman from Istravshan (northern Tajikistan) who was involved in leather working since childhood and for almost 60 years. He inherited this skill from his father and his father from his father. This tradition is inherited from father to son for many centuries.
The handicraftsmen say that the leather working is a very difficult and painstaking work. Process of a fell of one cow requires the effort of three men in ten days.
Meanwhile, the cultural life in tajik cities seems to be far less creative than the traditional arts legacy. A new author on Tajik-English blog neweurasia C offers some thoughts on the Tajik music scene. He thinks that people in Tajikistan are so isolated from big music events  happening in the world that they are ready to go to local concerts even if they are fed up with them.
Whatever place you go you see the same faces on the stage as well in the auditorium. And it seems that faces that I see in the auditorium come not because they are extremely interested in the concert or in the group, they come because they are starving for cultural events.

author: Vadim Sadonshoev


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Tajikistan: Corruption and Energy · Global Voices
Vadim Sadonshoev

Perhaps the main discussion on the Tajik blogosphere this week was caused by the reports that the head of the new State Financial and Corruption Control Agency, Sherhon Salimov,  only earns $300 USD a month, and that the salaries of others who work in this agency are even lower. This sounds so absurd, because low salaries for state officials are one of the main reasons for the Tajikistan's high level of corruption, which often leads to non-transparency of the state-level decisions.
In this sense, lack of public expertise may sometimes result in serious consequences in various areas, including environmental one. Economy of Tajikistan reports on the visit of the head of RAO Unified Energy System of Russia Anatoly Jubais who proposed to built a hydroelectric power station on the natural dam in Sarez lake. The author of the post is concerned that this initiative may lead to catastrophe in the whole region.
I heard about the ideas of building a hydroelectric power station in Sarez lake, but none of them were reasonable. This time the same thing happened. The Tajik Academy of Sciences represented by its head Ilolov said the proposal will be taken for consideration but no more than that.


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Tajikistan: Travelogue Impressions · Global Voices
Vadim Sadonshoev

There is interesting story of an American woman who travels around Tajikistan and writes a travelogue. It seems like she is not really happy with the service in this country but she loves to talk to people and know about their life and traditions. In two days she had so much to say…
Another tourist, drysdales visited Hissar. He went to a museum and looked at old costumes, footwear, earthen wear and even the chain mail and sword of a warrior. There was a paved courtyard with many small, off shoot rooms. Some of the embroidery work was in interesting and colourful designs. The doors leading into the museum were wooden and carved with detail.
Dan and Audrey visited Khorog and they are telling us about their flight from Khorog to Dushanbe. In they post they have some good photos and a video with the first 30 seconds from the taxi and takeoff of the previous day’s flight and next 90 seconds are mid-air.
Also the past two weeks there were made some good shots by people who visited the country: TrekEarth (Saghirdasht pass) and babasteve who never gets tired of photographing.


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Turkey: No Electrcity and Water · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Idil Jans, from Turkey, writes about electricity cuts and water shortages in this post.


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Turkey: Republic’s 84th Anniversary · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Turkey celebrated its 84th Republic Day and Metroblogging Istanbul shows us aspects of the celebration in this post.


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Uzbekistan: Outdated Agriculture · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Joshua Foust reports that Uzbekistan’s embassy in London has angrily denounced the stories that children are being used (or forced) to pick cotton, and says that the legacy of authoritarianism – inefficiency, environmental disaster, and the abuse of the innocent – seriously hampers the country's development.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Africa Environment: Conservation Efforts, Carbon Footprints and Land Rights · Global Voices
Juliana Rotich

In several posts from Africa, we get a glimpse of conservation efforts in the different countries, hindrances faced in some countries and success in at least one. The countries we read from are South Africa, Zambia and D.R Congo in regards to conservation, and from Kenya and Uganda regarding carbon footprints and land rights respectively.
Roydon posts in the Environment.co.za forum about conservation efforts in a nature reserve located in the eastern cape of South Africa, and the recurring problem of a mining company reapplying for a mining rights in the Dolerite rich area. Dolerite is commercial rock often known as ‘Black Granite‘.
The problem is that
a) the government owns the Minerals & Energy Rights
b) we as the landowners does not have the final say, we may only object to such applications
c) Should the government find your ,objection not strong enough or valid for any reason they might award such rights to any mining company applying for it even though it might not be part of your future strategy
In our case the specific applicant has applied a number of times and has been denied a number of times but continuous to apply over and over again despite the fact that we show no interest.
We have offered the applicant many other alternatives on other farms where the farmers are willing to discuss mining opportunities with the applicant
Each time an application is made the process has to take its course and it is timeous, stressfull and very frustrating.
The post also mentions that this detracts from the conservation and education efforts of the nature reserve. The dilemma faced is illustrated by the observation
We feel that there should always be a willing buyer and willing seller in order to make such an application work.Our objection is only considered on the potential impact a quarry can have on the environment and not our business strategy which is just as important.If we cannot motivate strongly enough what negative impact such a quarry can and will have on the environment the application to mine might be granted.This is quite a dilemma we face and I am sure we are not alone. This like a hostile takeover of your land over which you as the landowner have no control. It has already cost us thousands to fight this application, money that we could have spend on the environment now have to be spend on legal battles.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, war continues to affect the animal conservation efforts of wildlife Direct. The rangers Innocent and Diddy write of their frustrations at not being able to protect the mountain gorilla.
Last time we were prevented from doing our job was in mid-December 2006, for about a month. It was the same problem as now: fighting between rebels and the army. The same rebels as now. But the fighting was at Bikenge and Jomba, so we could still do some patrolling at Bukima, albeit limited.
Today is worse because all of the Mikeno Sector is overrun. In fact today feels worse than all the other security situations we have ever known.
They also reminisce on a Gorilla family called ‘Rugendo’ which was almost decimated in July.
In Zambia, there is good news from the blog Zambian Forests on the cancellation of a 99 year lease that covered a section of the West Mvunye forest.
The Luembe Conservancy Trust and the Trust soon to be formed in Mwape, will now be able to resume their attempts to manage the area for the benefit of the community and the forest itself. And we will continue to resist any attempts to de-gazette the forest.
The background on the land saga can be found in a post from August, also on the same blog, showing that the land in question was being hived off from protected forest land.
In Kenya, Phil of Kenya Environment News posts a two part article that sums up Kenya's stand on carbon footprints, as delineated by the National Taskforce on Horticulture of Kenya. The articles shed some light on the ongoing debate whereby Kenyan organic food exports faced the threat of a ban (now rescinded) from the UK. At issue is Carbon miles/ greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the Air freight of organic produce to the UK, which is the only way to transport the perishable food. Part I of the article includes background information on the debate, some statistics of the UK market and the status of organic agriculture in Kenya. Part II includes more information and an appeal that reads in part…
Our appeal, Trade not Aid
In Kenya, production and export of horticultural produce is labour intensive and creates a lot of employment of skilled and non-skilled labour, both at the rural production areas and at the pack-houses. Small-scale farmers and out-growers depend on money they earn from horticultural crop business to manage and afford the up-keep of their families, afford good food for their health, education of their children and to meet other domestic and household needs towards reduction of poverty in the country.
In Uganda, the lawyer and Journalist Moses Sserwanga looks at the legalities and politics surrounding the land act in Uganda.
For starters, its not true that Uganda’s decades long land problem is a creation of the judiciary or judicial officers as president Museveni and his government purport it to be. Rather the Land problem is a creation of the political elite in the successive governments the country has had since independence.
The political bourgeoisie have continued to play the populists card to hoodwink the peasantry (the majority of whom are landless) by deliberately sidestepping the legal parameters that recognize the lawful registration of land as the only means through which both citizens and non citizens can lay a claim of right to land.
He goes on to examine the importance of the Judiciary in arbitrating land issues, and other factors important to land ownership in Uganda.
From the South African blog The Empire collective, we end with an interesting billboard.

author: Juliana Rotich


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Armenia: Homeless · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Armenia, the blog of an ethnic Armenian from the U.S. volunteering in the country, reports on a family she encountered that will soon be homeless this winter. The blogger writes that the family will not be the only one to find themselves on the streets this year.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Armenia: Regional TV Under Pressure · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Armenian Observer reports on a visit by various media organizations to support the embattled GALA TV in Gyumri. After broadcasting the speech of former President Levon Ter Petrosian, the station finds itself under the scrutiny of the local tax authorities.


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Bahrain: If You’re Arab And We Know It… · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Bahrain's bloggers are facing hard times this week, with two being denied entry to Kuwait, another subjected to racial profiling in Japan, and a fourth traumatised by a change in Dairy Queen's menu…
Turned back
Two of Bahrain's bloggers were denied entry to Kuwait this week, though for different reasons. Maroon Al Ras drove with some friends from Bahrain through Saudi Arabia, but was stopped from entering Kuwait at the border:
Maroon recounts the conversation with one of the border officials:
After a long wait Maroon was finally told why the situation had arisen:
To read the whole story of Maroon‘s encounter with Kuwaiti border bureaucracy, see here.
Funaki, who is not a GCC citizen but lives and works in Bahrain, also tried to enter Kuwait overland:
I made a plan to visit Kuwait for some shopping and stuff with some friends of mine. Go to saudi embassy and get a transit visa without any hitch. Went to kuwait embassy the teller tells me that i dont need a visa to get into kuwait because i have a managerial visa and its validity is more then 6 months. Confirmed multiple times.
Comes Saturday, wake up at 4 wait for my friends to come pick me up and off we go. 2 Hours or 3 hours drive through Saudi and we reach khafji Border, cross it and go into Kuwait. Now this is where all hell breaks loose. The teller on Kuwait border tells me i cant enter because my managerial visa is fake and to prove that its real i need to show him some university degree.
One particular official was giving Funaki a hard time, and he was forced to ask his girlfriend in Bahrain to fax through documents – but even after three hours of arguing the official was adamant, even though his manager agreed that the documents were legitimate:
After arguing with him for over 3 hours, i told him that i’ll make sure he is the one who stamps my exit from kuwait. Drive all the way back to bahrain cursing the fat ass under my breath, take a flight to kuwait. At the airport they didnt cause any problems they were courteous and it took only 5 minutes to process everything, i did my shopping and all waited till next morning and went back driving to the kuwait border to Saudi. The fat ass was there at the counter and he was surprised to see me, i waited for him to finish the queue that he had even though the other counter was empty but it felt nice when the fat ass stamped my exit and i was on my way.
The look on the guy’s face was priceless and driving back for 3 hours was totally worth it.
Picked out of the crowd
Hasan, a Bahraini studying in Japan, also has a tale of discrimination to tell:
One of the most difficult phases of my life was being a Middle Eastern student in a post-9/11 United States. I felt terrible for the victims of the terrorist attacks of that sad day, but I also felt terrible about the reactions faced by others of Middle Eastern descent in the United States. I considered myself lucky for living in a community that was very understanding. I was personally never a victim of any form of hate crime.
I was deeply hurt when the whole racial profiling issue came about. I did not enjoy having to go the INS building down town to “register” – as all Middle Eastern (with the exception of Israelis, of course) and Muslim males between the ages of 18 and 45 of age were forced to – to have my fingerprints and photographs taken and to go through a degrading 45-minute interview that dealt with things I had no connection with. This left me with the feeling of being unwelcome and of less standing than everyone else in the society I was living in. […] I decided that it was for my best interest to return to my home country after obtaining my Bachelor’s degree from the United States, especially after the War on Terror decided to take an extended detour through Iraq. I just wanted to go back home and live with people who come from the same background as I do, which would make life a lot easier.
I later got the chance to continue my graduate studies in Japan. A big part of the reason I thought Japan would be a great place for me to go to for my education was because it was not involved in “ethnic profiling” practices at airports as in the United States.
This year, however, things have begun to change. In my most recent flight back to Tokyo after a vacation in Bahrain, I was in for an unwelcome surprise.
To find out what happened to Hasan, see here.
That's it! (Well, almost…)
The Observer seems to be in two minds about blogging. Despite announcing a departure from blogging in September, he has continued to post, and he explains why he writes:
Just chill…
We end with Farah Mattar, who is not happy with the change of menu at Dairy Queen:
I hate Grill and Bloody Chill. I miss Dairy Queeeeeen!!!! Who's bright idea was it to change the damn menu? Okay I understand you needed to put lovely new slate tiles and cosy stone cladding on the walls to give us that nice ski lodge look, but did you have to change the chicken burger? Why? It was one of mine and many other people's favorite treats at DQ. The only chicken sandwich in all of Bahrain's fast food joints, which actually felt like all its parts belonged together. All the others were slippy, slidey and ill-fitting, like there was just something which wasn't quite right. Not the Chickee Chicken, the McChicken, nor the KFC chicken burgers had the lovely harmonious cohesion of the DQ chicken burger. It fit together as one, the crispy tender fillet was just the right size, nestled lovingly in the sesame bun, the lettuce dignified, chopped and not too overwhelming and there was none of this crappy let's include tomatoes for .0001 grams of lycopene. I'll skip the nutrients….that's why I'M AT DQ, FOR BLOODY HELL'S SAKE. Besides, did you know tomatoes are close cousins of tobacco? So thank you, since smoking is soooo late 90's, I'd like no cigarettes in my sandwich!
To find out what happened when Farah tried to order her chicken sandwich the way she likes it, see here.
More from Bahrain in a week!

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Cambodia: Phnom Penh Street Images · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Cambodia based photoblogger mythicaldude is back after a hiatus with some images from the streets of Phnom Penh.


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Malawi: Fairer cyberwaves, female journalist bloggers · Global Voices
Steve Sharra

A recent phenomenon in the Malawi blogosphere has been the growing presence of women journalists setting up blogs. Not too long ago a search on Blogger.com for Malawian blogs turned up virtually no women bloggers from Malawi. That has since changed. In this write-up we follow four Malawian women journalists who are establishing a cyber presence for themselves, writing about matters that matter not only to themselves but to many other Malawians as well.
The journalists are Eunice Chipangula, the erstwhile highest ranking woman at Malawi’s state broadcaster, Pilirani Semu-Banda who writes features for InterPress Services News Agency, (IPS), Penelope Paliani-Kamanga who writes for The Daily Times, and Stella, a first-name-only blogger working at an unnamed radio station.
Eunice Chipangula and two Malawian firsts
In February this year Eunice Chipangula started her blog, named Standing Upon God’s Promises. Chipangula inaugurated her blog with an entry introducing herself. She wrote about being the first Malawian broadcaster to win a British Chevening scholarship, which enabled her to go and study for a Masters degree in journalism at the University of Wales, Cardiff. Chipangula returned to Malawi, and rose through the ranks to become the Deputy Director General of Malawi’s national broadcaster, the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation. She was the first woman to assume the post in the history of MBC. Chipangula also mentions in her first post how she was transferred from MBC in January of this year, without an explanation, first to the Ministry of Foreign and International Cooperation, and later to the Ministry of Labor as Deputy Secretary.
What may come as a surprise to Malawians not too familiar with Chipangula is that she is, in her own words, “an ordained Pastor of the Oasis of The Lord International Ministry, overseeing Malawi.”
Since February Chipangula has published 9 posts on her blog, nearly all of them describing gender inequality and sexual harassment in Malawian homes and in the public sphere. Two posts are on topics outside gender; one on widening the provision for legalized abortion in Malawi, and the harmonization of labor policies in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region to deal with illegal immigration. A number of her posts are commenting on new changes suggested by the Malawi Law Commission, which held a constitutional conference in April 2007.
On the labor immigration issue Chipangula writes:
“The bottom line here is therefore that a lot needs to be done in terms of harmonization of national policies, legislations within and among states if the region and the world are to effectively manage migration and reap benefits for both migrants and states that will result into successful integration. Since cross-border labour migration is one of the most visible forms of migration, it requires significant attention within and between states in the region. Regional structures, mechanisms need to be put in place to manage or regulate labour migration between member states through a joint collaborative regional initiative or bilateral and multilateral arrangements.”
Chipangula adds that laws, policies and regulations for SADC states address labor and migration separately, and that no country has a harmonized approach to labor migration. She concludes her post by suggesting that SADC “and the world over need more and better migration policies- not more and better controls and policing.”
Semu-Banda and Malawi’s marginalized
Another female journalist peopling the Malawi blogosphere is Semu-Banda. In fact Ms. Semu-Banda started her eponymous blog in 2005, but only posted a profile and photos for the next two years. Starting in March 2007 Ms Semu-Banda has been posting on her blog some of the articles she writes and publishes for the African section of the InterPress Services News Agency, (IPS).
Unlike Ms. Chipangula, Ms. Semu-Banda has not provided an introduction as to who she is and what she does. Arguably Malawi’s best known feature writer outside of Malawi, Ms. Semu-Banda’s signature style is to write about Malawi’s poor and marginalized and their daily struggles. In a March 2007 posting, she wrote about two Malawians whose diminishing profiles exemplify the relentless poverty that is trapping many Malawians, despite adulatory praises coming from the International Monetary Fund, Jeffrey Sachs, and other high profile economic interlocutors.
Semu-Banda’s feature on poverty focused on Grace Kafere, an administrative officer who was laid off and was quickly reduced from above-poverty affluence to one-meal-a-day desperation, and Jackson Malire, a night watchman who has had to sell his bicycle and now walks long distances to work and other errands as his personal finances keep losing their economic power. Writes Semu-Banda:
“The dismal experiences of Karefe and Malire are not confined to their neighbourhood. Most Malawians are struggling in similar ways as poverty has worsened in Malawi, according to the most recent Human Development Report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).”
Semu-Banda goes on to point out how Malawi slipped from the 10th to 11th poorest country in the world, from 2005 to 2006. “The country is ranked 166th out of 177 countries on the UNDP’s Human Development Index.” A decade earlier, Semu-Paliani says the country’s rank was only slightly better, at 161 place, indicating a slippage of five digits in the last 10 years.
A case of gender marginalization that Semu-Banda writes about is that of Chanju Mwale, a young female lawyer working as legal officer for the Malawi Defence Force, the first female to hold the rank of captain since the Defense Force opened its gates to women officers in 1996. Semu-Banda writes about how in 2004 Captain Mwale was severely beaten by a male officer, a lieutenant, junior in rank to Mwale, after Mwale rebuffed the lieutenant’s sexual advances at an end-of-year party. According to Semu-Banda, Mwale was dissatisfied with the way the Malawi Defence Force handled the assault, awarding her a miserly US$72 as compensation. Mwale took the matter up in the courts, and was still pending as of March 2007. Semu-Banda quoted Captain Mwale explaining the gendered nature of the assault she suffered:
“The problem is that the army is a male-dominated institution which does not take kindly to women being in high positions. The Malawi Defence Force was used to being an all-male team until 1996 when women were allowed to join the army. They just cannot accept that a woman is capable of working as hard as they do.”
Captain Mwale expressed her determination to fight from within, rather than quit, telling Semu-Banda:
‘‘People thought I would leave the army following the assault as I was badly injured and got little support from my superiors but I am staying. I will work at changing the perceptions. I know it is an uphill battle but I will not tire.”
Semu-Banda’s other features on her blog explore matters of human interest to ordinary Malawians, such as dwindling fish supplies from Lake Malawi, turning human waste into fertilizer, and the real, lived consequences of the seemingly eternal wrangle between Malawi’s former president, Dr. Bakili Muluzi, and current president Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika. From her posts we learn quite a few things of relevance about Malawians’ dietary needs. She informs that 1.6 million Malawians depend on the fishing industry, out of a population of 12 million, and that “fish provides Fish provides over 60 percent of the dietary animal protein intake of Malawians and 40 percent of Malawians’ total protein supply.
In another posting Semu-Banda describes a new initiative by farmers to turn human waste into fertilizer, observing that “faeces and urine, combined with wood ash and soil, are serving as a replacement for chemical fertilizers. This came as farmers who could not afford the standard fertilizers went in search of alternatives to increase the size of their yields.”
Even when she writes about Malawi’s politics and its leaders, it’s the ordinary people she trains her eye on. In addition to the Muluzi-Bingu rivalry causing a commotion in parliament during which then Speaker of Parliament Rodwell Mnyenyembe collapsed and died days later, in June 2005, the national budget has been held ransom to the never-ending quarrel, and several court cases have been pushed aside while the judiciary system handles political cases arising out of the duel of the “elephants.”
Coming to America: Paliani-Kamanga and her American dream
Penelope Paliani-Kamanga, our next subject, is another Malawian female journalist who has also set up shop in the cyberworld. Paliani-Kamanga’s blog, creatively named “PP COOL JAY cooler as the swimming pooler”, appeared on August 1, 2007, a month after her arrival in the United   States to participate in the International Center for Journalism Exchange Program.
She is able to confirm her long-held picture of the United States as a glamorous and dream-achieving place, before encountering a side of the United States that would only be understood by a personal presence. Paliani-Kamanga writes the following about her first impressions:
After going through marathon daily boardroom briefings about a whole range of aspects of life here in the United States, I have come to revisit my perception of America. This is not merely the land of great opportunities, but the land of the free and the brave.
She finds that the American press is “free and is protected by the first amendment no one at all can create rules on how the press should operate.” She contrasts this, perhaps too stereotypically, with the Malawian press, saying “I feel if the media back home had such freedom there would be chaos. I am mesmerized by the way the press here stick to ethics despite the absolute freedom.”
A little later, reality begins to sink in, and she starts to observe, almost reluctantly, hidden aspects of the United States of America. Some of her perceptions begin developing question marks. “When I came here I could not imagine that some people in America are homeless or living on government support.” She finds that the United States “still battles with ethnicity and racial tensions on the individual and social levels, something one would consider Africans.” She also learns of crime in American cities: “Crime I am told is still rampant in most cities of America, as it is in Africa. Drug trafficking and gangs are major causes of insecurity amongst the African-American neighborhoods.”
Paliani’s blog has other entries, on how men in other countries are turning on the gains made in gender equity and claiming that men too are victims also, a new vaccine against cervical cancer, and another posting on men and gender.
Smile; you’re still on air
The last subject of this write-up is a Malawian female blogger introducing herself as Smiling Stella, who names her blog “Nambewe”. Her lone entry, dated October 6, 2007, takes readers into a frustrating day when Stella, a broadcaster, is forced to wing it, so to speak, on a live radio show after a computer malfunctions.
Learning everyday. Yes we learn everyday and anytime especially when we are stuck. I was on air some minutes ago and then one computer programme went off. Since I am new to the software, I did not know how to proceed. This made me to do the next live radio programme without help of the text messages. I know I angered the listeners who expected me to read their text ,messages. I can only say sorry. I have not yet fully figured how the software works. I hope to know that next week. Uh, lessons, lessons and lessons. What a day!
Besides journalists, there are several other Malawian women pitching up tents in cyberspace, who will be covered in forthcoming write-ups. For now, the female journalists are taking to cyberspace with a prominence that male Malawian journalists are yet to match.

author: Steve Sharra


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Iran:A cartoon about journalists · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Nikahang has published a new cartoon about the Iranian journalists and their difficult economic situation.The only persian word in this cartoon means “fired”.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran:A top Iranian musician in Norway · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Javid Afsari Rad Born in Isfahan, Iran, Javid Afsari Rad began studying the Santur and the traditional Persian Radif at the age of sixteen.In Norway, where he has lived since 1986, Javid is known as an innovative performer and an ingenious composer.You can listen to his music here.


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Iran:Activist Woman in Imminent Danger · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Kamangir reports that Delaram Ali, woman’s rights defender was sentenced to 2 years and 10 months prison term (which must be served in full) and 10 lashes, for her participation in a peaceful protest.


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Iran:Art and Prostitutes · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Homeyra presents us Khosrow Hassanzadeh's paintings.You can watch a collection of this painter's “Prostitues” here.


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Iran:Do You Think 52 Percent of Americans Support War? · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Omid Memarian,blogger and journalist, says a new Zagby survey shows that 52 percent of Americans support war with Iran.He adds I can imagine what the mainstream media has done with the public opinion during the last years.


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Iran:Iranian Defense Contractor · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Pars Arts informs us about Diomil,”an Iranian site where you can buy the weapons.”