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Egypt: Romanian Netizen Lavinia Dieac Shares her Egyptian Experience · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

Romania and Egypt are two distant countries. They have many differences and many things in common as well, such as the fact that they both had revolutions against dictatorships. Romanian netizen Lavinia Dieac, who lives in Cairo, tells us more about her life in Egypt, particularly the days of the revolution.
Lavinia in Giza Pyramids
Lavinia Dieac is a Romanian digital marketing professional, currently living in Cairo. She has been living in Egypt for the past two years ago. Lavinia likes to blog and regularly tweets about her experience as an expatriate living in Egypt. She has also had three articles published in the Egyptian English language newspaper Al Masry Al Youm.
Following is my interview with her.
Hi, can you please tell us more about yourself? What do you do? How long have you been living in Egypt? Who do you normally blog about?
Hello Tarek, it is an honour to get the chance for this interview, hello everyone. I came to Egypt more than two years ago for a three to six month internship that has become a real job since then. I work in digital marketing and I spend a big part of my time looking into the human nature and at the cultural differences between the people in this part of the world and the one I come from.
The blog started out of the will to share these experiences, so I am trying to write about issues that influence my thinking or my world view.
Have you been to different parts of Egypt? Which parts of it do you like most?
I’ve visited Siwa Oasis, White & Black Desert, Abu Simbel, Luxor, Aswan, Dahab, Ras Abu Gallum, Alexandria, North Coast, Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada and of course the Cairo touristic places and I’ve yet to see much more.
They all offer such different things (different types of desert, oasis, temples, historic places, snorkeling and diving, sea side chilling, clubbing, fresh fish dishes, camping in the desert vs. luxurious hotels, Bedouins vs. Russians), all very enjoyable, but the most I liked was the desert and the oasis (Siwa, Black and White Desert). Actually it is hard to not include Ras Abu Gallum too.
I like them the most because they very much represent Egypt and its people now, and they are not super touristic like Sharm El Sheikh. Also, it was charming to camp in the desert over night, sleep in such openness under the clear sky, listen to the Bedouin songs, enjoy their food, tea and stories, do sand boarding, bath in the cold oasis during a super hot day and in a hot spring at night, visit the temple of Oracle of Amun Ra, see the white formations and climb the volcanic mountains, walk for an hour along the shore of the Red Sea in the shadow of the rocks of the Ras Abu Gallum National park and then snorkel to see the amazing corals.
You usually tweet about the cultural differences between your country and here in Egypt. Can you please tell us more about those differences?
This could be a long story with many examples about differences.
For me, this world here is many times upside down compared to what I’ve got to know back home: the way people live, work, sell, walk on the street, celebrate, dress, the way they relate to religion, not to mention the way they drive! And the men-women relationship is really different too!
An embarrassing moment was in my first three months since I was here before leaving to Romania for vacation I wanted to say bye to a close male colleague at work by hugging and kissing, as we do in Romania usually. He pulled himself back and kind of said “no-no”, which shocked me and embarrassed me so much. Right away I remembered a similar story shared by another foreigner and I quickly remembered that some people choose to limit the physical contact with people of the opposite gender, some of them during Ramadan only. I didn’t think it was the case with my colleague. I guess that shocked me the most, you never know who is open to this kind of interaction and who is not. This incident made me decide for a while to not even shake hands with guys any more. The decision didn’t last long though cause it is against my natural behaviour.
The gender segregation here makes everything much different than how it is in Romania. The experience of walking on the streets is greatly different. Besides the lack of side-walks and pedestrian crossings, there are the looks and the harassment. I usually like looking at people’s faces on the streets, smiling at them sometimes, but here I have to put on the bad, tough kind of face and walk straight ahead, fast to avoid looking at anyone because I most of the time find them observing me, starring, ogling or harassing. During my recent vacation in Romania I was looking at people on the streets but couldn’t find anyone looking at me as every one was minding their own business. This is funny, but it felt weird I don’t have any more the ‘attention’ I usually get on the streets here. Jokes aside, it felt well actually.
The public display of religiosity is another key difference. In Romania, religion is somewhere in the background; you don’t hear much about it; you don’t see it around too much. It never attracted my attention to it and to its insights as it did since I have been here, where I could observe it everywhere, in all aspects of life, with most of the people. It is even so embedded in the culture that some religious practices are now just cultural practices.
Then, there is the part about being late. I had meetings for which people were late even one and half hours. Imagine that! It is hard to handle it. But it is part of the Egyptian culture, as they themselves proudly say.
But at the end of the day these differences are the ones making the experience here more interesting, and nurture my self-discovery.
Sometimes you tweet about stuff like not being able to eat in public during Ramadan. And not having the choice to tell a taxi driver to switch the Quran recitation off. Is this also a part of the cultural difference? Do you think the Egyptians are more or less acceptable to other religions? Or do some Islamic traditions became a cultural part of the country, such as saying Inchallah (if God wills), you have no problem with them being used, especially that Copts do use them too?
They are part of the cultural difference, because these things define how life is here. The level of acceptance towards differences and diversity is part of how people are.
I am not sure if you ask me to compare this level between Romania and Egypt. Unfortunately in many parts of the world people’s level of acceptance towards other religions or other types of differences is not very high.
From some studies I read, youth in Romania are quite racist against Jews, Muslims, and gypsies. In Egypt, there isn’t a high level of acceptance either, in my opinion. Just the fact that it is not accepted that girls here wear short skirts or sleeveless tops on the streets says a lot about the acceptance towards diversity.
I could also notice many times double standards and hypocrisy, especially when people here say that foreigners coming to Egypt should respect the traditions and culture, but when they themselves go abroad they don’t respect the traditions and culture of the place they go to, they still keep their own and expect the foreign country to accept them.
Have you been to other countries in the Middle East other than Egypt? How different, and how similar are they to Egypt and Romania?
I have been to Lebanon before. I loved the mix of Arabic and European flavour there, and the variety: both ladies wearing veil and wearing short skirts, both places that sell alcohol or pork and ones that don’t, beautiful.
I know you refused to leave Egypt during the revolution, although some foreigners might have been afraid with all the attack the media made on them then and calling them spies? How were your feelings when Mubarak stepped down?
I did stay in Egypt all the time during revolution but strongly felt like leaving when people were divided between agreeing or not with Mubarak to stay until September and to call the protests off.
I wasn’t going to stay if Mubarak would’ve been let to stay because I didn’t trust it would be safe and also because I was feeling that I won’t be able to work with and accept people around that let go of their main goal “down with the regime”. Happily the protests continued and finally Mubarak stepped down.
I stayed in the house in down-town during all that time, for 18 days, just went out twice: once during the bloody Friday when I quickly noticed things are not alright and hurried up back home to see in 30 minutes on TV the camels and the horses attack on Tahrir (goose bumps). The second time was during a peaceful day in Tahrir.
I was following every detail on Twitter and on Al Jazeera and being very close to Tahrir I could experience the reality from my balcony too: seeing the protesters and the police up and down the surrounding streets, been hit by tear gas and been terrified by the gun shots and gas bombs (A video I shot from the balcony).
My mom would tell me over the phone to leave Egypt, and to take care of my health, to sleep and to eat well. I would assure her that I am fine, and that I am just staying in the house, following the news online and watching TV, so it is not a big deal. I didn’t realize until Mubarak stepped down, when I cried for half an hour, that I was under a big amount of stress and emotional pressure during the 18 days, so mom was right about taking care of my health. The crying was of happiness and relief, of surprise that Mubarak was finally out.
As a Romanian, you witnessed a similar revolution more than 20 years ago. And now you are living the one taking place here in Egypt. Can you please compare the two revolutions?
I was only five years old when the ’89 revolution happened in Romania, and we didn’t study much about it in school in the upcoming years, at least until 2003 when I graduated from high school. They say that the truth about what and why it happened will be released after 50 years, when no living people could be directly affected by truth any more.
In Romania, there weren’t this communication tools that Egyptians had, the turmoil started in the west of the country with a small incident in a neighbourhood and took a while to spread across the country, only some big cities were greatly involved in protests, and more than 1,000 people were shot (not commonly agreed yet who shot at people back then – the army or foreign forces).
I am no specialist in politics and history, but from my experience I can say that the two revolutions are quite different due to the foreign interests and due to the communism factor (Romania had closed borders, people had money but didn’t know what to spend it on, had to stay for hours in line to get bread, meat, milk and other commodities, sometimes not getting them even because they were finished), but alike due to the dictatorship.
The revolution ended with the Ceausescu couple being executed by the army after having a brief trial and with an immediate transition to civil rule, unlike in Egypt. The ones taking over were ex-communists indeed, and this lasted for many years with high levels of corruption.
After 1989, Romania started transforming greatly with the introduction of privatization and foreign investment. In a few years it became a country under development with lots of economical potential. There have been improvements registered since, less corruption for example, but now Romania is facing other types of problems and democracy has not really been achieved.
As a marketer, how do you view the spread of graffiti in Egyptian streets after the revolution? And don’t you consider it the revolutionaries’ way to market their ideas, and also artists’ way to market their skills? Can the same thing be applied to those musicians who used to sing in Tahrir as well?
I admire people's use of graffiti to express their revolutionary ideas, and I see it as a communication channel competing with state TV. If only we could have more and more graffiti! Besides that, it brought color to streets and improved the look of many walls.
Indeed some graffiti is very artistic, and much appreciated, but I’m not sure if the artists that made them have any consequential benefits out of it.
Photo by @lisang
On the other hand, we have seen companies and media producers making use of the revolution to market their goods or movies? How do you see this?
There has been an exaggerated point of using the revolution as a marketing theme. It all became unnatural, while the graffiti and other forms of art seem always genuine and natural. Take a look at what may be the most shameless capitalization on the Egyptian Revolution: January 25 Monopoly.
One of the subjects that is being discussed a lot in Egypt is the Palestinian Israeli conflict. I know you have your own opinion about how it occupies a significant part in people’s daily discussions on and off-line. There has been demonstrations in front of the Israeli Embassy lately, add also Dr. Norman Finkelstein came to Egypt right after the revolution to give a lecture in the American University in Cairo about the same issue, which you were not very pleased with. Can you please tell us more about all this.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a very important matter, for all humans, not only for the involved parties, including Egypt, as it has a complex mix of situations that don’t respect human rights which we shouldn’t turn our views away from.
But what bothers me is to notice this naïve, deep hate towards Israel, and a naïve support for Palestine without being aware that the situation is not just black or white, and before being preoccupied with the urgent matters Egypt is going through first. It is like trying to help someone else before helping yourself first.
Egyptians can’t really help Palestinians if Egypt itself is weak. I thought it is very inappropriate to talk about Israel around 16th of May when Egypt’s situation was problematic enough to give all our attention to, instead of giving it to Finkelstein and to his speech at AUC.
It is also interesting how Egyptians choose to unite under the idea “Israel is our enemy”. I think it is a very thin line between supporting the Palestinian cause and being racist towards Israelis. I find many Egyptians that hate Israel, and they are actually racist too.
One final question, can you compare the ongoing parliamentary elections here to the ones you had in Romania right after the fall of your dictatorship? You think elections is the right thing to be done now, or are there any tips or cleansing to be done first to ensure better democracy? Did you suffer for example for the remnants of the former regime entering the the parliament after you got rid of your dictator?
First of all, I’ll repeat that ‘theoretically’ Romania is a democratic country, but on the ground democracy has not been really achieved. Romania unfortunately has been moving really slowly in the past 20 years, hasn’t achieved much and not many significant improvements can be noticed. In return, it seems that few people got really rich and politicians were corrupt while corporations benefited from Romania’s rich resources.
Secondly, of course there will be remnants of the old regime in the new corridors of power. In Romania we had it too.
I am not sure about how the electoral process in Romania went through in ’89-’90, but it is important to move fast. In Egypt there was a dictatorship (Mubarak’s) changed with another one (military); it is good to see Egyptians not settling for it! That says a lot about how they will accept things to be like in the way forward! I wish them the best with getting a civilian government as soon as possible and am keeping an eye on what they do with the country’s potential. Peace!

author: Tarek Amr


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Egypt: Trafficking of Refugee Organs in Sinai · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

This post is part of our special coverage on Refugees.
International human rights groups, including those in Israel, have made serious allegations that African refugees are being held for ransom, tortured, and also fall victim to trafficking. The Israeli Physicians for Human Rights, for example, reports that “Hundreds of refugees are still being held captive in the Sinai” and “experience physical abuse, torture, systematic rape and even death, all with the objective to obtain tens of thousands of dollars in ransom money in exchange for their release.”
Of particular concern, however, is a recent CNN report that says an illegal trade in human organs is also flourishing. The investigation quotes a tribal leader as saying “organ trade is the second most profitable trade behind only weapons trade. It brings in more money than drug dealing and prostitution.”
[WARNING: Graphic video]
israel matzav comments on the news:
There is organ theft in our region and it goes on along the Egyptian-Israeli border. You knew it all along, didn't you? Oh wait – you didn't because you listened to Carl Bildt and Donald Bostrom and you thought it was the Jooos who steal organs. Well, it's not. It's the Arab Bedouin residents of the Northern Sinai peninsula. And they're stealing organs from African refugees.
As does The Jewish Daily Forward:
Egyptian Bedouin smugglers are reportedly killing African migrants who are attempting to infiltrate into Israel for their organs. More precisely, the Bedouins are drugging migrants who cannot pay their high smuggling fees, opening them up, harvesting their organs, and then leaving them to die in the Sinai.
[…]
The Jerusalem Post refers to a CNN report quoting a source that said that mobile clinics with advanced equipment come from a private hospital in Cairo and conduct examinations on the migrants to determine which would be the best sources for healthy organs. Then the surgery is performed on the spot in the middle of the desert. The doctors pay $20,000 and up per organ to the Sawarka tribe.
Jerusalem Diaries:In Tense Times is one of many blogs which has published what it says is a letter from an Israeli reservist serving on the border with Egypt:
Several years ago, a trend started of African refugees crossing the Egyptian border from Sinai into Israel to seek asylum from the atrocities in Darfur.  What started out as a small number of men, women and children fleeing from the machetes of the Janjaweed and violent fundamentalists to seek a better life elsewhere, turned into an organized industry of human trafficking.  In return for huge sums of money, sometimes entire life savings paid to Bedouin “guides,” these refugees are promised to be transported from Sudan, Eritrea, and other African countries through Egypt and the Sinai desert, into the safe haven of Israel.
We increasingly hear horror stories of the atrocities these refugees suffer on their way to freedom.  They are subject to, and victims of extortion, rape, murder, and even organ theft, their bodies left to rot in the desert. Then, if lucky, after surviving this gruesome experience whose prize is freedom, when only a barbed wire fence separates them from Israel and their goal, they must go through the final death run and try to evade the bullets of the Egyptian soldiers stationed along the border. Egypt’s soldiers are ordered to shoot to kill anyone trying to cross the border OUT of Egypt and into Israel. It’s an almost nightly event.
Rebel With A Cause, an Egyptian blog, is also alarmed:
Egyptian human rights organizations have raised concerns about torture, rape and human trafficking of African refugees in Sinai before, but officials didn’t want to admit it or take any actions.  The situation seems to continue as it is and our government doesn’t want to intervene to stop this tragedy.
Unfortunately, we have a bad history in dealing with refugees in Egypt. Refugees leave their countries running away from wars, prosecution or dire economic conditions to face other hardships in Egypt. […]
[…]
This tragic situation cannot continue any longer. Immediate action must be taken from the government to stop those grave violations. It's horrible that those men, women and children flee their country to save their lives and find themselves in equally dangerous conditions or worse.More attention should be directed to refugees and their situation to end the dire condition that they suffer from.
Protesters in front of the USA embassy demonstrate against illegal trafficking of Eritrean refugees allegedly killed while crossing the Sinai. Image by carlos van as, copyright Demotix (25/11/11).
A petition to Stop Organ Trafficking of Refugees in Egypt is online here.
This post is part of our special coverage on Refugees.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Onnik Krikorian


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El Salvador: Remembering El Mozote Massacre 30 Years Later · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Tim's El Salvador Blog will publish a series of posts on the El Mozote Massacre, which took place 30 years ago on December 11, 1981: “All but one of the civilians taking refuge in the small village of El Mozote, more than 800 men, women, children and babies, were brutally killed by the Salvadoran army.” His first post presents basic facts of this “tragedy the world must never forget.”

author: Silvia Viñas


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France : Strike against the RFI – France 24 merger project · Global Voices
Suzanne Lehn

The blog Écrans, published on the online version of the daily French newspaper Libération, explains the issues [fr] of the merger of the RFI radio and the TV channel France 24 [fr] and its impact on the French public broadcasting system for international news. The RFI staff, worried about the radio station survival, extended the strike that begun on the 28th of November.

author: Suzanne Lehn


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Francophone Africa: The Important Literary Contributions from Former Colonies · Global Voices
Suzanne Lehn

The Genevan blog of Rémi Mogenet, Le Savoyard de la Tribune, explains with supporting examples that  [fr]: “Mythological African traditional stories have made a remarkable entrance into francophone literature”. He quotes the Mandika epic tale of Soundjata, written and published in French by Guinean D. T. Niane, as well as, for Cameroon, Au Pays des initiés by Gabriel Mfomo and La Marseillaise de mon enfance by Jean-Marton Tchaptchet, without forgetting  L’ Anthologie nègre by Blaise Cendrars.


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Ghana : No juridical basis to ban homosexual marriages · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

According [fr] to West Africa online Radio, “The attorney general of Ghana, Ediké Amidou, recently said to a local radio at Accra that the Ghanaian law about sexual unions doesn't make provisions for homosexuality. As a result, consented relationships  between two adults wouldn't be criminally punished.”

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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Honduras: Culture under the Ministry of Culture, Art, and Sports · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Honduras Culture and Politics asks, “So what is ‘Culture’ in Honduras these days?” in a post that reviews the activities of the Ministry of Culture, Art, and Sports.


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Jamaica: Political Futures · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Girl With a Purpose makes a few political predictions, here.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Kuwait: A New Prime Minister and Detainees Bailed Out · Global Voices
Mona Kareem

From Right: Kuwait's New Prime Minister, Head of Parliament, and Resigned Prime Minister
Political tension has reached its peak in Kuwait after protesters stormed the parliament more than two weeks ago. More than 20 of those who took part in the action were arrested or have handed themselves in to the public prosecution in solidarity with those arrested. The Cabinet then resigned a day before thousands protested last Monday in Erada Square, demanding the release of detainees and the departure of Prime Minister  Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed, who is accused of corruption. At last, by the end of November, the Amir of Kuwait chose not to reappoint Sheikh Nasser for the eighth time and instead appointed the resigned defense minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak as the new prime minister; a decision that was welcomed with feelings of victory on one side and with worries and disappointment over the appointment of Al-Mubarak, on the other side.
Detainees Hunger-Strike
The 31 detainees
On the 25th of November, those detained for storming the parliament entered a hunger strike protesting the refusal of public prosecution to let them be bailed out until their trial dates. The author of this post has published the English version of the detainees’ statement regarding their hunger strike which lasted for five days. On December 1, the detainees were bailed out after the appointment of the new prime minister. In the statement, the detainees listed six points to explain their decision:
First: Fixed and false accusations have been charged against all, reaching up to 13 charges to some detainees that could carry a total of lifetime sentences.
Second: 14 different detainees have been accused of stealing the same parliamentary gavel belonging to National Assembly Speaker Jassem Al-Kharafi.
Third: We are currently being held in prison cells that lack the most basic human requirements.
Fourth: One of the detainees needing immediate medical attention was transferred to Mubarak Hospital cuffed by hands and feet, as a provocative act by officials.
Fifth: Our attempts  in trying to contact family members has been denied keeping us cut off from any news about them and their situation.
Finally, since the interrogation has already been completed by public prosecutors, and since we are accused and not convicted, and since we are Kuwaiti citizens having no reason to flee, and since we willingly and voluntarily turned ourselves in, we declare that it is unlawful and cruel to deny us bail, therefore we announce the start of a hunger strike.
As detainees were on hunger strike, people gathered in front of the court (Justice Palace) for several days demanding their release. In the sit-in, protesters carried a huge hammer in a sarcastic gesture against the head of parliament Jassim Al-Khurafi who submitted a complaint against those who stormed the parliament accusing them of stealing his hammer.
Monday Erada Protest
Last Monday, the day after the cabinet submitted its resignation, thousands gathered in Erada Square to demand the release of the detainees and the departure of the Prime Minister. Through Twitter, there were four groups responding to this protest:
1) A group that already protested against storming the parliament and in favor of the government.
2) The ‘grey’ group that refused to protest as the event was led by those they saw as corrupt and fundamental opposition MPs.
3) The ‘orange’ group that used the hash tag #3an_nafsi (on my behalf) to state that their refusal to let those MPs represent them, yet they will protest for the freedom of the detainees.
4) The ‘yellow’ group which included people who have been protesting against the prime minister despite the crowd attending or leading it. It also included people who sympathized with detainees and wanted to leave politics aside until they get released.
Kuwaiti tweep Danah Taqi designed this avatar for the orange group
In comment on Monday's protest, Kuwaiti blogger Dahem Al-Qahtani wrote [ar]:
Another blogger called ‘what's up‘ wrote a post about the rallies in front of the Justice Palace and the one held in Erada Square last Monday [ar]:
The New Prime Minister
After the appointment of the new prime minister, bloggers and Twitter users expressed their opinions about the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. Blogger Hamad wrote a post to thank those who have been protesting over the past two years against the resigned prime minister. He emphasized the importance of  keeping up the struggle [ar]:
The following video shows the moments the detainees were released on bail, after the appointment of the new prime minister:
Professor of political science Kristin Diwan (@kdiwaniya) wrote in her Twitter account pointing out the value of replacing Kuwait's prime minister:
@kdiwaniya: Replacement of Kuwaiti PM due to popular pressure is a milestone in forcing political accountability in the GCC.
Kuwaiti doctor Fawaz Farhan (@FawazFarhan) actively participated in different protests against the former prime minister and for the freedom of detainees. Despite being secular, Farhan attended political rallies against the prime minister despite the fact some of them were led by Islamist or conservative members of the parliament, a number of them accused of corruption. He refuses their acts and criticizes liberals as well and their absence in the late political scene but at the same does not mind Islamist presence if brought by ballots.
Hamad Aljudai (@hamadmj) is one more young man who protested against the prime minister. He wrote many comments about the way he sees this developing and in one of his tweets, he talked about the clash inside the ruling family:
Abdullah Alsadoun (@AbdullahAlsadon) stated the obvious regarding the appointment of Al-Mubarak as the new prime minister of Kuwait:
Columnist Ahmad Al Essa (@ahmadaleisa) was one of those who formed the ‘grey’ group refusing to participate in protests led by corrupt opposition figures. He comments on “the new era” saying:
Lawyer Bassam Alasousi (@Bassam_Alasousi) was also from the grey group and he was critical of the confusion that liberal politicians had in the past days. Alasousi believes the winner from all of this is Muslim Brotherhood, as he wrote in criticism and sarcasm:

author: Mona Kareem


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Kyrgyzstan: President Inaugurated Amidst Ruling Coalition’s Collapse · Global Voices
Chris Rickleton

Almasbek Atambayev being sworn in. Image is official publication.
On December 1, 2011, in a ceremony replete with medieval references, Almasbek Atambayev was sworn in as Kyrgyzstan's fourth president, with cannons sounding a peaceful transition between two heads of state for the first time in over 20 years of independence.
That his predecessor and political ally, Rosa Otunbayeva, left office to the noise of ceremonial artillery rather than automatic rifle-fire is in itself a marker of political progress in the country. But as Atambayev kissed the Kyrgyz flag and spoke warmly of Manas, the horse-riding, sword-wielding hero of Kyrgyz folklore, question marks over the country's future loomed large.
Will Atambayev be a knight or a dragon? That was the puzzle posed by MP Tursunbai Bakir uulu, in an obtuse, open letter addressed the new president:
You were talking a lot about knights who defeated dragons, but later they all became dragons. The knights couldn’t resist the gold in the dragons’ dungeons. I sincerely don’t want You to become a new dragon in the history of Kyrgyzstan.
A former ombudsman, Bakir uulu is an eccentric, pious personality famous for swearing his own oath as a lawmaker on the Koran, rather than the Kyrgyz constitution. Moreover, in Kyrgyzstan's fraught political landscape, he is one of a number of prominent southern politicians unhappy with Atambayev's recent electoral victory, a victory tarnished by accusations that the former prime minister used administrative resources both in the build up to, and during, the vote on October 30.
With the ever-present threat offered by Kyrgyzstan's regional divide, Atambayev, a northerner, would do well to befriend Bakir uulu, as well as significant others who have yet to offer any formal recognition of his victory.
Urging unity
Perhaps in lieu of this, the veteran politician urged unity in the face of ethnic schisms and factionalism during an upbeat inaugral speech. But with the gap between good words and good deeds a commanding feature of Kyrgyz politics, EurasiaNet blogger Nate Schenkkan wondered whether or not he could “make good on this half extended olive branch.”
Crucially, some things may prove beyond Atambayev's direct control. This blog has already noted the animal spirits involved in Kyrgyz coalition-building, and that torturous process is set to start over, with the three-party government collapsing [ru] the day after the new president took his oath.
According to Kyrgyzstan's constitution, a document many analysts argue is destined to be short-lived, three attempts to form a coalition may be made before parliament is dissolved and fresh parliamentary elections are announced. With two of those having  ended in failure, the pressure to create a viable alliance is now on, with the Ata-Meken socialist party playing powder-keg politics by issuing a vote of no-confidence in the house speaker, southerner Akhmatbek Keldibekov.
Whether Atambayev will be able to use his limited powers to influence the situation in the fractured legislature remains unclear. What is more certain is that regional support for Kyrgyzstan's parliamentary democracy is limited, as evidenced by the conspicuous absence of high-ranking Kazakh and Russian officials at Atambayev's inauguration.
Bishkek's relationship with Russia, in particular, is the subject of hot debate in domestic society. Currently the country is committed to entry into the Customs Union, a Moscow-led organization that promises to impose formidable tariff barriers on non-members, including China, currently Kyrgyzstan's biggest source of imports.
When the author of this Global Voices post interviewed Osmonakun Ibraimov, Secretary of State under Kyrgyzstan's first president Askar Akayev,  for an article on Eurasianet, Ibraimov was unflinching in his assessment of what he called the potentially “economically suicidal” decision to enter the union, which currently comprises Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
“If Atambayev decides to enter the Customs Union, and the cost of cheap Chinese goods at [major wholesale markets] Dordoi and Kara-Suu rises, there will be a third revolution,” he said ominously.
But Bishkek is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't. As observed in an engaging piece on Eurasia Review by Robert Hernandez, any move to ignore Russia's rogueish charms could have disastrous consequences for a country the size of Kyrgyzstan:
In the first world we usually do not equate gasoline tariffs with revolution…but those in Kyrgyzstan know too well the effects of trade when it is used as a political weapon. While it may sound farfetched, it is widely accepted that the punitive Russian gasoline export tariff, implemented in the spring of 2010, was the main instigator which lead to the ouster of Kyrgyzstan’s then president Kurmanbek Bakiev.
Free Trade or Survival?: A Hobson's choice indeed.
Still, if a tumultuous, powerful parliament, a fragile economy, and an inability to attract foreign investment may eventually combine to drive  poor Atambayev to the drink [ru], then he should at least enjoy the here and now of being the top dog. That, at any rate, is the message of Bishkek's English-language tourist magazine the Spektator, who produced a moving poetic tribute to Almasbek in celebration of his inauguration:
Almas, Almas, in power at last!
The vote was rigged, the dye was cast,
The shyrdak came out royal blue,
Your rivals said it wasn’t true,
But who are they, and who are you?
Not for them the robes of state,
And while Tashiev’s brothers eight,
Will whine about you in his ear,
You’ll serve your own kin well (I fear),
But maybe that’s a smear.
And Madumarov is mad you know,
We’re glad you saved us from his throes,
To ballot-stuff – not such a crime,
Compared to murder and rapine,
It’s rather fine – the throne is thine!
But lo, behold the troubled realm!
And now it has you at its helm,
I wish you strength to smite your foes,
They’re not so patient – you should know,
They rally, roar and overthrow
Then perilous, this neighbourhood!
That Karimov is not so good,
And Russia’s touch – too much like glue,
While China wants to swallow you,
Or so says all the news….
Yet these are pains for other days,
When bells will toll and troubles weigh,
When second wives will make demands,
And younger sons will tie your hands,
For now you are the man – the man!

author: Chris Rickleton


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Lusophone Heritage of “Portugality” Around the World · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

A Facebook group and a mapping website called “Portugality” have been created to explore the cultures that result from the “global cultural  fusion started by Portuguese  navigations of the XVth. century and  lasting to this day in places  like Brazil, Mozambique, East Timor or  Malacca”.

author: Sara Moreira


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Russia: Election Day DDoS-alypse  · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011.
Election day in Russia has come. And with it, DDoS attacks and falsifications.
Oppression before the elections
The crackdown on independent websites began several days before the elections. Part of the campaign against the Election Violation Map, DDoS attacks began against LiveJournal, Golos.org (an election monitoring association) and KartaNarusheniy.ru (a crowdsourced election violation map). Up until late night of December 3, 2011, these websites were functional, but on election day, December 4, their defenses were broken.
On December 2, Alexey Sochnev, an editor of Besttoday.ru (a site that accumulates blog posts, tweets, and social media) was arrested. The police broke in without a court order, arrested Sochnev and searched his apartment. Sochnev was also a representative of Eduard Limonov‘s campaign headquarters. On December 11, Limonov had been planning to announce his decision to run for president of the Russian Federation. Several other people were arrested along with Sochnev: Nikolay Avdyushenkov, Andrei Gorin, Nina Silina, and Maria Zinchenko. They were all accused under Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code – “Incitement of National, Racial, or Religious Enmity.” Marina Litvinovich, head of Besttoday.ru tweeted [ru] that the police had also searched the apartment of the website's chief programmer.
Late at night on December 3, Lilia Shibanova, head of the association Golos.ru was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. Border security service would not let Shibanova out for 12 hours, until she finally agreed to surrender her laptop, which was suspected to contain “a dangerous piece of software.” Twitter followers recommended changing all passwords immediately, but expect to eventually see the contents of Shibanova's inbox on some “-leaks” website.
Not only members of the Russian opposition were affected. The website of a pro-Kremlin showman Sergey Minaev was hacked [ru] and its content deleted. Kommersant.ru, the website of a popular daily newspaper, was hacked and defaced [ru].
"Their time is over. People's rally against fake elections." Screenshot by roem.ru
DDoS Day
It turned out these were just the preparations for a massive DDoS attack against most of the digital platforms seeking to provide independent coverage of the elections.
One by one, they fell. A wave of requests with traffic of more than 10 gigabytes per second swept the blogosphere:
The DDoS-wave was over several minutes before the end of the elections in central Russia (where most of the voters live):
An Echo of Moscow reporter Vladimir Varfolomeev wrote [ru]:
А вот и сайт Эха вроде заработал. Сразу после окончания выборов. Конечно, это совпадение, правда, Владислав Юрьевич?
Ilya Sachkov, director of a cybercrime investigation company, IB Group, described [ru] the nature of the attack against Echo of Moscow:
Атака ведется с крупного ботнета, рассредоточенного по всему миру – множество атакующих компьютеров находятся на территории США, Китая и других стран. Российских IP-адресов мало. Мы также фиксируем нечто похожее на атаку в адрес “Голоса”, но здесь преимущественно российские IP-адреса и адреса стран ближнего зарубежья
Silencing “The Voice”
The persecution of Golos.ru (‘golos’ means ‘voice’ in Russian) and Gazeta.ru did not end with election day.
On December 4, Mikhail Kotov, editor-in-chief of Gazeta.ru (a media partner of the Election Violation Map) was invited [ru] to Roskomnadzor, a Russian regulatory body for the mass media, for a talk about their map, during which Gazeta.ru was accused [ru] of illegal electioneering and a biased attitude towards the United Russia party.
In the middle of the day a fake twitter account, @goIos_org, was launched in order to confuse readers. At 19:47, Twitter user @deniskin reported hashtag spamming for #охотанажуликов (‘crooks hunt’) and #наблюдатель (‘observer’). Both were being used to coordinate the work of election observers.
This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Russia: No Violation of Election Violations · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011.
Despite the many independent websites down due to DDoS-alypse, bloggers were able to share information on elections violations.
The overall feeling online was expressed [ru] by @yar0slav:
Фальсификация выборов проходит без серьезных нарушений.
Paid voting and pens with disappearing ink
The association Golos has shared links to the Google spreadsheets where it reported violations (1, 2). Numerous violations were reported by many twitterers (it is important to note that many bloggers had signed up as volunteer observers, which is evidence against the assertion that bloggers in Russia are passive cyber-hedonists).
One of the best examples of fraud prevention was made by the journalist Konstantin Yanauskas. Below is the video where he calls the police to block the exit for three people involved in paid voting. The video was uploaded by user vbros2011:
Another video [ru] featured pens with special ink that can be later erased. Such pens were distributed in one of the electoral commissions in Moscow. Uploaded by user yupych:
Blogger and journalist Radulova assembled [ru] a collection of violation videos. @anticarusel [ru], a special team that helped to stop election manipulation, focused on voting by people paid from other regions. It was created by two Moscow activists, Georgiy Alburov and Vadim Korovin.
Election mathematics
Errors in the Russia 24 (federal TV channel) representation of the electoral outcome have become the reason for numerous jokes. In the Rostov region, the sum of voting for all parties reported by the TV channel was 146.47 percent. An hour after the screenshot [ru] from the broadcast became public, bloggers created a graphic that showed the TV host in front of the TV screen and asked: “146.47 percent and how many times did you vote?”
146.47 and How Many Times Did You Vote? Demotivator from Demotivators.me
@KermlinRussia shared a similar picture from Voronezh with the sum of ~128 percent. The jokes on TV errors have a sad origin: people from the Chechen Republic returned a suspicious 99.48 percent of votes for United Russia. Other national republics also returned numbers that do not mesh with the quite controversial political situations in those regions, such as Dagestan, where voting for United Russia reached 90 percent. (Dagestan has the highest number of terrorist acts in the country).
The fake account of Igor Sechin (Deputy Prime Minister and a Darth Vader of the Russian politics) wasn't surprised:
А в законе написано, что проценты обязательно должны складываться в 100?
By the end of election day several credible bloggers reported [ru] that the Central Electoral Commission had turned off the GAS voting system. As @KermlinRussia ironically tweeted [ru]:
Система ГАС-выборы в Петербурге отказалась нарушать законы математики и сломалась.
Dazed and confused
Exit polls gave United Russia between 46 to 48.5 percent. According to the Central Electoral Commission, after counting 89 percent of the ballots, United Russia results were higher: 50.05 percent. Moscow bloggers were especially dissatisfied, asking hypothetically: “Who voted for United Russia? I don't know a single person who did.”
The questions examplified the degree of difference between Internet-based human networks and those who watch TV in Russia.
The blogosphere's feeling of anger, distrust and confusion of the election results can be well described by the replies [ru] to President Dmitry Medvedev's tweet: “Thanks for supporting United Russia.” Some of these replies would be cause for a criminal investigation in many countries, as they include harsh and vulgar language.
Disagreeing with the election outcome, Communist leader Gennadiy Zyuganov called [ru] people to go out to the streets: the rally is to begin on Pushkin Square in Moscow at 18:00. Other parties followed suit: another rally, to be held at Chistye Prudy, is scheduled for 19:00 [ru].
The Golos election monitoring association was brief [ru]:
Выборы нелегитимны. Спокойной ночи.
This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011.


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Russia: The Revolt of “Net Hamsters” · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011.
The day after the elections, Russians got together to rally against election fraud. Even though the United Russia party, according to preliminary results, is to lose some 77 seats compared to the previous Duma, most of the protesters considered the election to be neither fair, nor free (see our previous reports on the web crackdown and massive violation reports).
After the polls closed on Dec. 4, Solidarnost movement invited protesters to Chistye Prudy metro station in Moscow, while the Communists, also unhappy with the election results, organized their rally at Pushkinskaya square. Solidarnost movement represenatives, most of whom have no political arena except street actions and the blogosphere, managed to bring thousands of people together (while crowd estimates vary significantly, the most balanced assessment seems to be from 8,000 to 10,000 people).
Chistye Prudy
People began gathering for the Solidarnost event at around 19:00 MSK. Georgiy Alburov posted a picture of the line to the site of the rally:
Line to the Chistye Prudy rally. Photo by Georgiy Alburov
British journalist Shaun Walker tweeted [ru]:
Thousands out in cold/rain baying for free elections, Putin to be sent to prison. Never seen anything on this scale. Definite change of mood
The overall coverage was chaotic as the mobile Internet stopped working in the area and people couldn't upload videos and pictures. LiveJournal kept the chronology of the events here [ru].
Only later in the evening people were able to upload videos [ru] from the rally and particularly the speech [ru] by Alexey Navalny, who was among the most popular politicians of the event. His speech probably best describes the essence of the current events:
Alexey Navalny shouted:
“We have our voices. We exist. Do we exist?”
The crowd replied: “Yes!”
And then: “They can call us microbloggers or net hamsters. I am a net hamster! And I'll bite [these bastards’ heads off.] We'll all do it together! Because we do exist! […] We will not forget, we will not forgive”
The reference to ‘net hamsters’ (a pejorative term for politically-engaged Internet commenters) and their political will to change the country has destroyed the myth of the slacktivist nature of political engagement online. Navalny has specifically emphasized ‘forgetting/forgiving’ to show that netizens do not necessarily have a short attention span often ascribed to them.
On to Lubyanka
After several speeches made by the opposition politicians, the crowd moved on towards Lubyanka Square, where the head office of the Federal Security Service is located. The video [ru] uploaded by user bigvane depicts Muscovites moving to Lubyanka and chanting “Free elections”:
Most of the activists, however, were soon stopped on their way. Ilya Barabanov tweeted a picture of the blocked road:
Blocked road. Photo by Ilya Barabanov
Twenty minutes after the aforementioned photo was made, Alexey Navalny was detained by the police. Ilya Barabanov was detained three minutes after Navalny. (See this great photo report made by ridus.ru correspondents here [ru].)
But even the detention didn't break the rebellious and quite positive spirit of the protesters. Navalny, while sitting in a police bus together with other activists, shared an instagram photo of the cheerful detained protesters:
‘I'm sitting in a police bus with all the guys. They all say hi.’ Photo by Alexey Navalny
Another video, also shot inside a police bus, showed protesters discussing the salaries of police officers, laughing a lot.
The Hamster Revolution
The most interesting part of the post-election rebellion is not its peaceful manner (also an important feature compared to violent nationalist riots), but its new demographics. Tvrain.ru field reporter said that the crowd consisted mainly of the “intelligentsia, hipsters, and young people.” “It is a fashionable rally,” said the reporter. Later, these observations were added: the age of the protesters was between 16 and 33 and for many of those who were detained this was the first street action experience. As Vera Kichanova tweeted:
Леша Никитин пишет, что он единственный из 16 человек в автозаке, кого задерживали раньше. Остальные вышли на митинг впервые!
***
Meanwhile, levada.ru, the site of Levada Center polling and sociological research organization, has been DDoSed [ru] and the contents of epic-hero.ru were removed [ru] by the hosting provider.
This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011.


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Saudi Arabia: Netizens Use Online Activism to Draw Attention to Qatif Protests · Global Voices
Mona Kareem

The month of November marked the return of protests to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia in 2011, as the people of Qatif took to the streets to demand reforms, equality, the release of their detainees, and political freedom as many of their slogans and chants have expressed. So far, four protesters have been shot dead by security forces as a result.
One of the signs held in Qatif protests. Photo credit: Crowd Voice
The regime justified its acts saying protests in Qatif are plotted by a foreign agenda, hinting on Iran since the Eastern Province is inhabited by a large number of Shias.
The youth of Qatif used YouTube, Facebook and Twitter as their platform to spread the news from the protests by posting videos, pictures, and updates.
It was clear that the world and in specific Arab mainstream media supported the protests in just the same way the Bahrain protests were treated, especially when they first started back in February 2011. Following in this report are some of the videos posted from the Qatif protests.
Western media have reported four shot dead, however, through social networking, users from the Eastern Province claim that there were at least ten killed so far throughout November, including a seven year old girl, but they have not provided any evidence.
In this video, posted on 25 November, 2011, by YouTube user The Qatifi, protesters chant “We will not give up”:
Protesters chant against member of the Al Saudi Royal family Mohammed Bin Fahad, who is the Governor of the Eastern Province, as they get shot at in this video, uploaded on YouTube by Revolution2East:
In this video, posted on the 21 November, we can see anti-regime graffiti on the walls. The video was uploaded on YouTube by user NesrinMusaNM. In this video, the protesters are chanting: “We will only kneel to Allah (God).”
This next video shows a small group of men from Qatif marching and chanting against the regime. They have covered their faces to protect them from prosecution by the Saudi authorities, as protests and all forms of dissent are banned in the Kingdom. In this video, uploaded on YouTube by Revolution2East, the protesters are chanting: “Al Saud Out Out! The Arab Peninsula is Free!”
Here's a montage video [Warning: GRAPHIC. Viewer discretion is advised] of the protests, showing security forces shooting, and footage of a killed man before his burial.
On November 20, Qatif witnessed the shooting of its first protester. The authorities are said to have refused to hand his body to his family. His name is Nasser Al-Mheishi and he was only 19 years old. In reaction, protesters took to the streets again on November 21 and another young man called Ali al-Felfel was shot dead.
This video, posted on the 23 November by YouTube user NesrinMusa NM, shows footage taken from the funerals of both martyrs:
In the demonstration that followed on Wednesday, two more protesters were killed – Munib Al-Adnan and Ali Qarayrees. This video [Warning: GRAPHIC] shows the bullet in Al-Adnan's head.
Here, in this video uploaded on YouTube by AwamiaTV, the people of Qatif mourn Al-Adnan:
And in here, in this video uploaded on YouTube by YaShaheed33, they mourn Qarayrees:
In reaction, this video, posted on the 26 November by YouTube user Al Watani Al Hur, shows Bahrainis protesting in solidarity with the people of Qatif. The protests took place in the village of Nuwaidrat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF_Jni7YluI
The protests also moved to Istanbul, Turkey, where this video, uploaded on YouTube by Mashe Hossein, shows angry Turkish protesters chanting against the Saudi royal family and burning pictures the Saudi monarch King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud:


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St. Kitts & Nevis: Poor Credit Rating  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Abeng News Magazine notes that “the credit rating of St Kitts and Nevis…took a hit when it defaulted on a bond payment the end of November”, adding: “Maybe because there isn’t an Occupy movement in Basseterre, or because the people of one of the most indebted nations in the world aren’t like Greeks ‘behaving badly’, the news didn’t cause a stir in the region.”


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St. Lucia: Poetic Preaching  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Caribbean Book Blog profiles a local priest who “has just published a book of narrative prose and poetry”, which he describes as ” a Caribbean-centric “theological reflection on the social, historical, economic, religious, political, and national consciousness.”


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Trinidad & Tobago: Celebrating Christmas · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Outlish offers some advice on what not to say if you're “liming” in Trinidad and Tobago for Christmas.


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Africa/Caribbean: Vote for the YoBloCo Awards · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Public evaluation is now open for the “Youth in Agriculture Blog Competition” (YoBloCo) : “We received more than 90 entries for the competition, among which we shortlisted a total of 36 blogs for the Individual Category and 16 blogs for the Institutional Category.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Bermuda: Polling Season  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Politics.bm reports that the governing party is conducting “a robo-poll…testing whether the Premier should go to the polls right after Christmas” and quips: “A better question would have been which politician will you let kiss your ass under the mistletoe? That would sum up the mood of the country better.”


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Brazil: Video-debate on Belo Monte Dam · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Brazilian journalist and blogger Lino Bocchini published [pt] the video of a debate on the construction of the Belo Monte Dam, in the Amazonia rain forest. Journalists and experts on the matter participated in the debate, which was livestreamed on the self-managed and participatory online channel #posTV [pt].

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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Brazil: Five Cities Without Mobile Phones · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Although Brazil has, today, over 231 million mobile lines for a population of around 191 million people, there are still five isolated cities without any mobile signal for connection, reports [pt] the journalist Eduardo Marini.


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Brazil: Picture of President Dilma Sparks “Low-level” Debate · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Brazilian journalist Marco Antônio Araújo criticizes [pt] the “low level” political debate that followed the recent release of an unprecedented picture of President Dilma Roussef. The “powerful picture” shows Rousseff during the dictatorship, at the age of 22, under interrogation by military who were hiding their faces. “Shame?”, Araujo asks.


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Chile: Communist Party Asks for Pablo Neruda’s Exhumation  · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Lillie Langtry, from the blog Memory in Latin America, comments on the petition by the Chilean Communist Party to exhume the remains of poet Pablo Neruda “due to allegations that he may have been poisoned.”


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China: Beijing Air Pollution · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

On December 4, Beijing’s PM 2.5 reading soared to 522, or “beyond index” on the scale of 500. Ministry of Tofu has translated some local reports on the situation of air pollution in Beijing.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Chengdu Artist Luo Fahui · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Tabitha from Chengdu Living introduces a Chengdu based artist, Luo Fahui and his artworks to the readers.


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Cuba: A Christmas for the Children  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Pedazos de la Isla blog about an initiative by a “young Cuban exile”, which “aims to send presents to those Cuban children to add a bit of happiness during this time of the year which, in majority of countries around the world, is celebrated with lots of joy.”


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D.R. of Congo: Half-Hearted Democracy Promotion · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ben Brockman discusses half-hearted democracy promotion in the Democratic Republic of Congo: “Would the international community seek a power-sharing agreement like in Kenya in 2007 or Zimbabwe in 2008 to quickly end the crisis in the name of stability?”


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DR of Congo: Congolese Citizens Find a Way to Circumvent SMS Ban during Tense Electoral Count · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

While observers apprehend the post-electoral period as allegations of fraud surface, Congolese citizens have found a way to circumvent the general ban on SMS [fr] that was imposed by the government after violence flared up [fr] in Kinshasa.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Ecuador: Analyzing President Correa’s Twitter Habits · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Christian Espinosa, from the blog Cobertura Digital, analyzes [es] President Rafael Correa's Twitter habits, concluding -among other things- that the Ecuadorian President (@mashirafael) [es] has a high level of interaction with his followers, compared to other Ecuadorian politicians on Twitter.


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Egypt: Remembering Khaled Said for a World Without Torture · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) has recently released a 15 minute film titled World Without Torture that focuses not only on the importance of preventing torture, but also the importance of documenting it and providing rehabilitation for torture survivors.
The film features the case of Khaled Said. His death at the hands of state police – and the attempt to cover it up through the official autopsy report – sparked massive protests in Egypt in the run-up to the  revolution that led to the toppling of Hosni Mubarak’s oppressive regime.
The film is in English and is available with subtitles in Arabic, Spanish and French.
Credits: Joel Sames / courtesy of From Here to Fame
Global Voices has followed the Egyptian people's reactions and their search for justice in Khaled Said's case, from musings on the murder and reactions to the first allegations against Said, to the birth of the website in his honor.
One year after Khaled Said's death, bloggers remembered him as one of the reasons for the revolution. It took more than a year for his trial to reach the courts. After delays, the two secret service policemen who beat him to death were sentenced to seven years in prison, and netizens made their displeasure with the veredict quite clear.
What the death of this young man managed to do for Egypt was much more than raise awareness on torture and its victims: he became the face of the revolution, a figure with whom Egyptians could identify. The We Are All Khaled Said website has declared itself to be “Against torture in Egypt and inhuman treatment of Egyptians in their own country” and it has been following up on other cases of torture by the Egyptian police forces.
This next video is of a song titled Too Scared to say it Loudly, edited, uploaded and subtitled in English by We are All Khaled Said and focuses on the importance of changing society and making torture stop:
Khaled Said was posthumously awarded the Human Rights Award 2011 in Berlin on September 19, 2011, and his sister, Zahraa Said Kassem received the award in his place. His face can be seen in countless graffitti around Egypt as a symbol of the revolution, so to honor him in Berlin, Author Don Kar in collaboration with The Dudes Factory (Freedom Park) & Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation decided to paint his face on a piece of the Berlin Wall:
“They broke down the Berlin Wall for freedom and unity. Kahled Said got killed for the same reason, for freedom and democracy. Khaled would be very happy if he was with us today. We will not forget you Khaled and we will bring your rights back. And we will bring every Egyptian's right back. We are all Khaled Said!” Zahraa Said Kassem
Following is a video documenting the painting of the mural, and the background music is a rap by Khaled Said himself:

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Egypt/Libya: Questions on Minorities Freedom After the Revolution  · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.
Adherents of the Shiaa sect in Egypt have been prevented from commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussein bin Ali, the grandson of Prophet Mohammed, in Cairo's Al Hussein mosque. Many of them were also arrested. In neighbouring Libya, Soufi mosques and shrines have been destroyed by Salafis. Those attacks on freedom of religion in countries which ousted their dictators, have raised questions among netizens.
As a Muslim minority, Egyptian Shiaa, as well as Shiite expatiates living in Egypt were not allowed to to celebrate their events in Egypt during the Mubarak regime. This year, and after the fall of Mubarak, they decided to commemorate the event of Ashura freely for the first time in Egypt [ar].
One of the participants said [ar]:
Not really optimistic about the level of freedom in Egypt now, Tarek Galal commented on the news:
Later on, the same newspaper published [ar] that the mosque and shrine of Al-Hussain, where about 1,000 people gathered to commemorate the event was closed, and some of those commemorating the occasion were arrested. Netizens commented on the news and it's relationship to the level of freedom they are looking forward to have in the country now [ar].
@Psypherize: Egyptian Shiites arrested while celebrating #Ashura in front of Al-Hussein Mosque. And you think you're free? #Egypt #Tahrir
@SalmaIhab: Ok seriously! People didn't allow the Shiite in #egypt to celebrate ashoura. Come on! Thought this was a new era and all..oh boy!
@SarahZaaimi: Feels outraged! They arrested many Shia in #Egypt today trying to commemorate #Ashura in Al Hussein!
Some others were astonished to know there are Egyptians practicing the Shiaa sect of Islam in Egypt.
While others have a different opinion, like @ahlalsunna2, who warned [ar] about what he called a “Shiite cancer in Egypt”, and that of a commenter on the news in Al-Ahram Gate [ar], who said:
The detainees were release after five hours of investigations [ar].
In Libya, a neighbouring country where another revolution took place this year, there have been news of attacks on Sufi Mosques and Shrines in the county [ar]. The National Transitional Council and Libyan officials condemned these acts [ar], which drew mixed reactions on Twitter.
Salah Fadhly notes:
And iAmaal adds:
Is freedom of beliefs going flourish after the revolutions in the Arab World, or will some extremists impose intolerance and sectarianism?
This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.


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Haiti: Business Wins, Haiti Loses · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Haiti Grassroots Watch has been looking at the issues surrounding the inauguration of an industrial zone in the north of the island, and finds that “once again, Haiti’s government and her private sector – and their international supervisors – are pitching sweatshop level salaries as a key ‘comparative advantage.'”


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Iran: Another female blogger was arrested · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Human Rights News Agency reports [fa] Bahar Alinia, afemale blogger and student, got arrested upon her return to Iran and was transferred to Evin prison. A couple of weeks ago, Rojin Mohammadi,another female blogger, was arrested in Tehran's airport.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran: US Virtual Embassy for Tehran · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Faryad Azadi reported[fa] that USA has launched a virtual embassy for Tehran.


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Jamaica: Election Date Set  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Jamaican Prime Minister has announced the date of the country's next general elections; Girl With a Purpose comments: “Interesting days are ahead!” and encourages her compatriots to vote.


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Macedonia, Greece: Reaction to International Court of Justice Decision · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Blogger Effo was the first to comment on the verdict [pdf], in which the Hague International Court of Justice found that the Greek obstruction of Macedonia's NATO entry in 2008 was in violation of the 1995 Interim Accord. He demands [mk] that Macedonia stop the negotiations about the name issue altogether, because he expects Greece to continue along the same “illogical” lines.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Macedonia: Is Skopje Really the Most Polluted City in the World? · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

‘Greetings from Skopje’ – postcard design by Kosta Stamatovski. Reprinted with permission by the author.
Unlike the authorities, social media users are reacting to empirical information about high levels of pollution in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia.
As part of the reforms for joining the European UNion (EU), Macedonia is required to start measuring and improving its environmental indicators. The EU progress report for 2011 [pdf] stated diplomatically by basically repeating the 2010 report [pdf] (indicating stagnation or reversal instead of real progress):
Some progress can be reported in the area of air quality. Transposition of the acquis continued with adoption of some implementing legislation. Three more Protocols to the CLRTAP were ratified. Some progress was made in developing the system of air quality monitoring. The administrative capacity remains insufficient at central and local levels. Preparations in this field are moderately advanced.
For a decade, key environment stats have been missing from the EU progress reports, since they were not supplied by the Macedonian government. (Click to enlarge the screenshot)
During the last two and a half weeks, an air quality measuring station called “Skopje Breathing”, which was installed in the busy city center to publish its data online in real time, has provided a new dimension for citizens and some journalists from Skopje.
The portal PlusInfo.mk started covering this issue in detail, and is also providing real-time numbers for the amount of sharing via social media. The article [mk] from Friday, December 3, compared the “shocking” level of pollution with the WHO air pollution database:
According to the World Health Organization data [from September], the most polluted city in the world is Ahvaz in Iran with 372 micrograms of PM10 dust per cubic meter. At this time the City of Skopje website “Skopje Breething” says that the prevalence of this type of dust is 433 micrograms per cubic meter.
The WHO limit for PM10 is 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air.
This article received over 1,432 Facebook shares and at least 19 tweets, leading to over 22,185 readings by the time of closing of this post. Other articles on this topic also received significant social media attention, especially the one on the temporary unannounced shut-down of the measuring and reporting system for six hours the day after. Other media [mk] also continue to follow the measurements, which on December 4 were 488.99 micrograms per cubic meter. The governmental bodies in charge of environmental protection either kept silent or offered the usual excuses – not within their competence, will investigate, etc.
While comparing the current (daily) measures with the WHO annual averages is questionable from the viewpoint of methodology, no official expert has provided retractions or scientific explanation about the comparison and the actual pollution. The annual mean PM10 for Skopje is 80 micrograms per cubic meter, according to the WHO database. The current metrics show a somewhat lower level than the “world record,” which nevertheless remains dangerously high.
A screenshot of 'Skopje breathing' for Monday, Dec 5. The air quality is designated as very unhealthy.
Tumblr user Stamatovski responded by creating a new postcard for Skopje (main photo of this post), which also received quite a few reposts and re-tweets.
Stamatovski wrote [mk]:
Alright everybody, after “the postcard” incited so much interest – which I did not expect – let me remind you that we are all responsible for what it represents!
Also, this is nothing new, nor is it going to change in a couple of days! Let us all stop driving in our cars alone, let's not use our cars to go even to our kitchen, let us not insist on parking 3 millimeters from our destinations, and generally let's all become more aware of the environment.
And let us all wish for some snow ASAP. :)
On the other hand, Dejan Spaseski criticized [mk] the excessive reactions to the news about the pollution via his Personal Development blog:
For a long time, everybody has known about air quality in Skopje. The only difference is that now we have a higher awareness. We also have a way to click and receive the current information immediately. This has made a huge difference.
[…]
My personal philosophy is that you have to do everything step by step, according to the interest effect principle… Everything needs time, it is enough to start doing something to change the current situation. This is a great start for me and we are moving in the right direction.
Some of the [social media] reactions made me laugh… Most of the initial comments were accusations that this is a result of the constant building and rebuilding in Skopje, new high-rises, cutting of the [Vodno] forest, building of Porta Vlae and Kapishtec apartment blocks, to the point that we don't need Skopje 2014. Most of the people complained that the Central Government or the Skopje Mayor haven't done a thing about this in years.
Some people claimed that they wouldn't get outside until the fog lifts, until the air quality returns to the limits of world standards – like in the big metropolises. If they sit at home, would they breathe cleaner air, or just feel better? Others said they wouldn't go out until Skopje is no longer the first in pollution. I cannot fathom why they feel relieved if there's another, more polluted city? Maybe the feeling that they are not victim number 1 but victim number 2 worldwide?
[…]
People rebel about pollution, but they all like to come and live in Skopje. I am very revolted by those who constantly keep saying they can hardly wait for Friday so they could leave towards their birthplace, or have a weekend in [Ohrid] or [Krushevo]. To get away from the stench. So why are they [coming back on Monday]?
It is not loyal to spit on the city we live in. The city that has offered us existence. In return, think about how you can help improve it. Now that you know about air pollution, ride a bus instead of driving your car. It would be cheaper and less damaging to the environment…
It is naturally easier to spit and blame. It makes things easier. Instead, try to act and think differently…
[…]
To bring the city into such a state, it took several decades. It would take as much time to repair the situation.
While the apologetic attitude towards the responsible authorities received counter-criticism [mk] on Ping.mk, Twitter user Gjorgji Taskovski responded to a far more concrete aspect of the text:
Why do the people who want to “get away” from Skopje over the weekend revolt you? I'll use a personal example: I have two kids, born 2005 (male) and 2006 (female). They prosper, except that the boy has runny nose all the time. Every season we made allergy tests with no results. The responsible physician, who is also a friend, advised us to move to the Radishani [a suburb on the slopes of a nearby mountain]. And now you say I should be ashamed to run away from Skopje over the weekend (even though I was born here). [For the sake of my children] I will run, what do I care! My wife is from [Kriva Palanka] and her parents returned to the village of their birth a year ago… When the kids are there, the change is amazing: no running nose, they eat [like wolves]…
I agree that pollution [in Skopje] has been high for years. Solution: the same as [Ljubljana]. Restrictions on moving into the city from other towns, relocation of jobs by relocating factories, possibilities for studies outside of Skopje and, above all, a developed rail network. Anyone who has lived in Germany or England or anywhere else in Europe would grasp the importance of this [Macedonian railways are infamous for their inefficiency and low mileage]. Removal of older trucks from Skopje is another super option – they are used in construction business, but that's not my problem. And above all, we have to admit that we live in a city with catastrophic urban planning, which spreads only longitudinally [along the Vardar river], and that building of new sports terrains, Vero supermarkets, cinemas etc. are not the only precondition for high quality of life. […] I say “Big deal!” to organizing swarm festivals, the great night life, or the [awesome Zoo]. Try to raise kids in this city, you'll change the way you think.


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Macedonia: Satirical Blog Blames Name Dispute for Greek Bankruptcy · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Sead93, a renowned Macedonian blogger and one of the country's most influential Twitter users, has published a satirical article which, in a way, sums up many of the local jokes about the Greek financial problems and the political situation in Macedonia.
Parodying the sensationalist style and clichés overused by the local media, he wrote [mk] about a “scandalous” revelation:
High diplomatic sources confirmed for the “Copy Paste” news portal and the “Google Translate” press agency that high political functionaries from Macedonia are behind the bankruptcy of our Southern Neighbor.
According to these sources, who, understandably, asked to remain anonymous, the last phases of the plan to bankrupt Greece, crafted and carefully implemented by Skopje, are underway. Unlike other political actions, this has been done in coordination with the opposition. The chief “ringleader” and conspirator of this plan is the first Macedonian president [Kiro Gligorov]. He has held a grudge with Greece since the 1990s due to the economic embargo, but he has especially bad blood with the [Papandreou] family, i.e. with Andreas Papandreou, the father of the recent Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou.
The plan was to suck up Greece to spend extraordinary amounts of funds in the name dispute and the battles related to this issue. One of the key strategies were the operative activities of the special unit labeled “Traitors” whose members offered their services to Greek interests for high amounts of money. The high number of such Macedonian operatives who lead the Greeks to believe they work for them, and the associated expenses, in fact bankrupted Greece, claim informed sources.
They also add that the Skopje 2014 Project was part of this plan. Its purpose was to defocus the attention of the Greek side from the true goals. While the Greeks thought that the whole resistance and resources of the Macedonian side were being spent on this megalomaniacal project, the plan for gradual Greek bankruptcy was underway. Greeks incurred additional expenses with various activities related to lobbying against the Macedonian side, starting from the United Nations, to international beauty pageants, to various websites such as livescore.com, which have been paid off to avoid using our constitutional name.
In the conclusion of the article, Sead93 juxtaposed the photos of Savo Klimovski [mk], legal expert and former speaker of the Macedonian Parliament, and Lucas Papademos, economics expert and the current Greek prime minister.
Savo Klimovski and Lucas Papademos. Collage by Sead93.
The final phase of the plan is appointing “our man” as the head of the Greek Government, who – according to the well-informed sources – would “get the job done.” At this time, there are speculations that this task has been undertaken by Savo Klimovski, former speaker of the Parliament and Skopje Law Faculty professor. With mild corrections of his face, Klimovski has been “planted” as a “savior” of the Greek economy and state – while he in essence is a key player of the Macedonian side. […]
After this post was published, scores of social media users applauded it, sharing the link via Facebook and Twitter. It was listed within the selection of the most impressive blog posts for November [mk] on the website Krigla Pivo [Beer Mug], which, its authors think, shows the renewal and improving quality of the Macedonian blogosphere “after a longer period of abstinence and stagnation.”
However, not everybody from Macedonia was able or willing to appreciate the irony and the humor of the post, or the mentions of the excesses of the regime, according to the prevalent logic “if absolute praise is absent, then it must be an opponent.” Some comments in the post descend to ad hominem attacks.
The government's favorite pundit Milenko Nedelkovski, a perpetrator of the Brussels incident, infamous for public use of hate speech [mk] with impunity (including demands to “liquidate” “the traitors” from lists he drafts in his TV show), posted the link on his Facebook page with a comment suggesting the post is a part of some anti-Macedonian conspiracy.
Nedelkovski is thought to be part of an inner circle of several media personages close to the leadership of the country who serve as their mouthpieces or testers of ideas. His closeness is demonstrated by the fact that he accompanied the Prime Minister (a frequent guest star of his TV show) on state visits to Singapore and Japan.
When that news became public [mk], the government issued a retraction [mk], claiming that “the journalist… covers the visits at his own expense.”


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Mexico: Free Webinar: ‘Strategies to Reduce Risks When Covering Organized Crime and Violence’ · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

On Friday, December 9, 2011, at 9:00am Mexico City time, the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas is hosting a free, two-hour webinar on ‘Strategies to Reduce Risks When Covering Organized Crime and Violence’. The webinar will focus on “threats to freedom of expression, reduction of risk when covering a community, security protocols, and digital security tools.” Registration is open through Friday, December 9 at 7:00am Mexico City time.


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Nepal: Increase In Remittance  · Global Voices
Rezwan

Chandan Sapkota reports that Nepal was sixth highest remittance receiver (share of GDP) from migrant workers and diaspora in 2010.

author: Rezwan


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Nepal: Would Flat Tax System Work Better? · Global Voices
Rezwan

A Libertarian in Nepal weighs in whether a flat tax system in Nepal would stop the massive Value Added Tax (VAT) evading scams by the private sector of Nepal.


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Nigeria: On Same Sex Marriage Bill 2011 · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Sokari reacts to the passing of the Nigerian “Same Sex Marriage Bill 2011: “The rationale behind the Same Sex Marriage Bill and its proposed counterpart in Uganda, is a huge deceit being spread by secular and religious leaders that decriminalising LGBTI persons would be an imposition from western imperialists and moral decadents.”


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Nigeria: Portraits of Kalakuta Queens · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Vanessa shares James Petrozzello‘s portraits paying tribute to Fela Kuti's queens: “The first time I saw his ‘queens’ I was struck by their radical style. I wanted to make these photos to pay homage to their beauty and to bring attention to the women who contributed so much to Fela’s life.”


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Peru: Netizens Denounce Police Repression During Protest in Lima Against Conga Mine · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Peruvian netizens are denouncing police repression during a protest held in Lima on December 5, 2011, against the Conga mining project in Cajamarca. Juan Arellano links [es] to several citizen media reports, including blog posts, photos and videos.


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Reactions to SlutWalk Singapore · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

This post is part of our special coverage SlutWalks 2011.
Hundreds gathered in support of SlutWalk Singapore on 4 December, 2011, and it generated a lively response in the cyberspace. The organizers issued this invitation to the public
One does not need to identify as ‘slut’ to be a part of SlutWalk. We are asking you to join us for SlutWalk, to make a unified statement about sexual assault and victims’ rights and to demand respect for all. You do not have to wear your sexuality on your sleeve, we just ask that you come gather with us. We are not asking for you to “vamp it up” either, as that would be falling into the traditional stereotype that we are working hard to break. SlutWalk Singapore is asking you to COME AS YOU ARE — whether in t-shirt and jeans, in fishnets, in a sari, in a jacket, or in a tudung. No matter how you visually identify, we are welcoming ALL those who feel that prevailing attitudes as to why sexual assault happens need to change.
A Wolf's Tale saw more than 600 people in the park:
The organizers actually planned for 300, but 600 turned up, many with their spouses or partners with them. In a way, I am glad to see allies supporting the event. The rain didn’t dampen spirits, but it did drive away some of the participants. I love the energy though – we had music, Muay Thai, talks and yummy drinks. Meeting new people and talking to them. I love it!
Slutwalk Singapore. Photo from Irene Ma
Curious to know what the SlutWalk movement is, Shawn Bryon Danker participated in the event:
I, as a man who is both appalled by the lack of progressive thinking within our society and the overall callous attitudes of the trolls against this movement, went to see for myself on Sunday what the Slut Walk movement was all about. I wanted to lend my support for what I saw as a continuation of the old civil rights movement, a call or a gentle reminder if you will, for the renewal of tolerance and acceptance within our society – something I think many of us have forgotten about in these modern times.
rrrett explains her reasons for joining the cause:
I believe it now, and here's where the shame stops. With SlutWalk in mind, I'm going to stop being ashamed a little more every day. And if that means speaking up about issues I've never told anyone, then let's do it. Because if I believed when I was 16 what I believe now, I would have spent a lot less time out of the past 8 years being ashamed, and a lot more time being outraged and working towards a solution.
For me, for us, for every girl who has had it far worse and lives with painful secrets, this is the plan and it begins with SlutWalk Singapore: More Talk, Less Shame.
But there are bloggers who raised several questions and issues about the SlutWalk. The Lycan Times cites the weakness of the activity:
…no one asked how is Slutwalk going to prevent more women from coming to harm from sexual predators. Sure, it maybe helpful to the victims by not accusing them of having brought misfortune upon themselves, but is Slutwalk teaching women how to protect themselves at all? It would appear to me that it had completely ignored the risks of behaving or dressing in a certain way. That is utterly irresponsible. Are the organisers of Slutwalk even aware of the undesirable impression that they now appeared to be nothing more than just a bunch of people who simply refused to act responsibly, even to themselves?
LCC cautions women to be more prudent about their clothing:
And indeed, perhaps we should educate men to treat women with proper respect, regardless of how they are dressed and we should focus our effort on trying to come up with permanent structural solutions that will eliminate sexual crimes once and for all. Yet, such an approach will not be realised anytime soon in the foreseeable future. Hence, meanwhile, it will perhaps be prudent for women to be wise about their choice of clothing to guard against unwanted male attention and if they have to don attire that may attract sexual criminals, it will be prudent for them to adopt other precautionary measures, for example: be vigilant, carry around a defensive tool which can scare away criminals and et cetera.
Musings from the Lion City thinks the organizers shouldn’t use the name ‘SlutWalk’:
Now I have no problem with having a “SlutWalk” in Singapore but the “SlutWalk” over the weekend isn’t really a “SlutWalk”. From the picture I saw in the papers, women arrived at the “SlutWalk” in long-sleeve T-shirts and jeans. Yes, I know the organizers said that the idea was not to be provocative or “vamp it up” but to protest against violence against women. If that’s the case, then they shouldn’t use the name “SlutWalk”.
Kirsten is disappointed with the uninformed objections to SlutWalk:
As to be expected, SlutWalk has generated rather heated debate in Singapore, and there are many, many people who object to it for various reasons. I respect that some people have their personal reasons for not wishing to support SlutWalk, and that’s fine. No one is saying that everyone in Singapore has to participate in this event, or start promoting the message if you don’t wish to.
However, it just gets annoying when people’s opposition to SlutWalk stem from ignorance or close-mindedness, or when these people resort to hurling abuse at the organisers and supporters of SlutWalk.
MsDemeanour Singapore writes about the success of SlutWalk Singapore:
SlutWalk faced up to their critics and sceptics, and triumphed. Those who did not think sexual violence was an issue in Singapore and that SlutWalk Singapore was purely jumping on the bandwagon. Those are the usual people who do not seem to recognise or want to recognise problems in their own back yard. But even if this was not an issue in Singapore, since when should we stop empathizing with serious issues happening in the rest of the world, just because we perceive it to be not happening on our doorstep?
Twitter hashtag #slutwalksg was used to document the event.
This post is part of our special coverage SlutWalks 2011.

author: Mong Palatino


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South Korea: Anger Over Free Trade Agreement and Media Silence · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Rallies have been held daily in the South Korean capital of Seoul for two weeks now, protesting against the country's Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, which was ratified by the National Assembly of South Korea on November 22, 2011. Citizens have expressed deep discontent with the government and the ruling Grand National party, for ramming though the agreement despite strong public opposition, as well as a distrust of the mainstream media who rarely report on any anti-FTA protests.
Reports on the protests
The most recent protest on December 3, gathered several thousand protesters [ko] across the country. One of South Korea’s most influential citizen journalists, Media Mongu (@mediamongu), tweeted [ko] a photo of the protest:
Image of Anti-FTA protest by @mediamongu
#noFTA lockerz.com/s/161589038 광화문광장으로 향하던 한미 FTA 반대 시민들의 행렬이 청계천 동아일보 앞에서 경찰에 막혔습니다.
The Media Workers Union (@mediaworker) tweeted [ko] a video and photos of the protest:
Anti-FTA protest by @mediaworker
종로1가 대로 경찰병력에 고립. 경찰 사방에서 해산경고 방송 중. 사거리 일대 시민들 가득 지켜보고 있음.pic.twitter.com/yyfK9pf8
Kwon Soo-hee (@tkawlsdlftls) tweeted [ko] that although the authorities blame the protest for causing traffic jams in the busy streets of Seoul, it is in fact the police and their over-reaction that is creating the problem:
교통체증도 경찰이 먼저 도로를 점거하고 버스를 줄줄이 대니까 그렇지요. 버스를 타고 지나가다 보면 버스에 타고 있는 사람들도 FTA반대집회에 참여는 못하고 있지만 경찰 욕을 엄청 합니다.
As intense protests continue and are unlikely to die out soon, net users have been sharing tips [ko] on how to stay safe and how to respond to police investigation. Bak Chan-hong (@mindgood) tweeted [ko] the public defenders’ phone numbers in each province.
For and against
Although the government, the ruling Grand National Party and most mainstream media claim the FTA with the United States is crucial for the export-dominant South Korean economy, some liberal media, citizen journalists and activists stress that it profits only the few huge corporations directly related with the export, whilst negatively impacting small local businesses.
They have also expressed deep concerns over toxic clauses in the agreement, such as the investor-state dispute (ISD) system, which permits an overseas investor to sue the country via an international dispute settlement agency.
The majority of normal citizens are voicing strong opposition and silent elites have started speak out too. Judges who usually take conservative sides and rarely express their opinion in public have criticized the deal. Last week, one senior judge's long Facebook post [ko] criticizing the current president and the free trade agreement with the United States came under fire. The Supreme Court has decided to refer him to the ethics committee for violating political neutrality.
Warning the agreement could undermine the nation’s judicial sovereignty, about 170 judges have signed a petition [ko] requesting the Supreme Court form a task force to re-negotiate the deal, which they plan to file soon. Bak Chan-hong (@mindgood) sided [ko]with the judges’ decision:
판사들의 한미FTA재협상 요구가 거세지자 외통부는 충분한 이해가 없이 발언했다고 반박했군요. 그런데 외통부는 수백건이 넘는 협정문 번역오류로 국제망신을 당했지요. 이 정도면 이해부족보다 더한 자질부족이지요.
Well-known movie directors have publicly denounced the deal and lampooned the authorities. After the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade commented “if stepping on me [an expression of strong determination that they would do anything to make it work] would help end controversies surrounding the trade deal, let them do that”, famous movie director Jang Jin said [ko] on the South Korean Saturday Night Live television show, “Many people wish to know the exact location and time [for the literal ‘stepping on’]. We encourage participation from our audience.”
Mistrust of mainstream media
The mainstream media’s silence has further fueled public anger, with many people looking to international media for reports on the deal. One group has translated a long New York Times analysis [ko] from English to Korean and one net user posted a Japanese scholar’s analysis on online citizen media via the WikiTree site with Korean subtitles.
South Korea’s most popular satirical podcast show, ‘I'm a Petty-Minded Creep’ (Naggomsu – read a Global Voices article about the show) has become more popular then ever, reflecting South Koreans’ deep mistrust of the mainstream media.
Image of the Naggomsu Concert in Seoul, Twitter picture by @ddanzi
On November 30, Naggomsu held a open-door talk concert in Seoul, as a way of protesting the trade deal and lampooned the president and political heavy-weights with allegations. Over 50,000 people showed up. The police, however, estimated the number of crowds at around 16,000 people.
Net users, such as Kim Seung-gyu, negates [ko] the police's claim. (See this fantastic photo of the talk concert that shows how large the event was, from South Korean grassroots online media outlet, OhmyNews)
내 회사퇴근하고 칼퇴근하고 거기갔소 추운날씨에 정말많이 왔소[…]내 숫자를 잘몰라 세어보진 못햇지만 그게1만6천이면 내 확신컨데 한국인구는 2000천만정도일거요. 내 좌파는 아니오만 좌파라치고 이번엔. 거리로 나가야하오.
Well-known professor and vocal critic of the president and the ruling party, Tak Hyun-min (@tak0518), was the concert director and he issued an embargo on journalists and reporters from mainstream conservative media, including Dong-a, Chosun, Joongang and Yonhap. These media companies have became extremely unpopular over the years for allegedly feeding people with biased, pro-government views on almost every issues.
Mr. Tak tweeted [ko]:
제가 기존언론사들과 몇개 찌라시들을 공개적으로 취재금지 선언하는 것은 당신들의 한계와, 의뭉스러움과, 거짓말을 알기 때문이고, 그걸 알고 있는 내일의 관객들이 맘상할까 싶어 미리 막는 것입니다. 그냥 공연을 보세요.. 그건 환영이니까.
Naggomsu may hit a snag soon as the government tightens its control online. On December 1, the Korea Communications Commissions pressed through a bill that forms a new censorship task force team for filtering messages on social media and mobile applications.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Sri Lanka: Make Over Of Bandarnayake Airport Required · Global Voices
Rezwan

Dee has some recommendations on how to revitalize the Bandarnayake International Airport, Colombo.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Plot Suspects Released  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jumbie's Watch and Guanaguanare comment on the release of 16 detainees in the alleged assassination plot against the Prime Minister.


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Ukraine: Public Hospital Pioneers Social Media Usage · Global Voices
Tetyana Bohdanova

Founded in 1798, Dnipropetrovsk Regional Clinical Hospital [ru, uk] – named after Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov –  is one of the oldest hospitals in Ukraine. It is also one of the first state medical institutions to use social media.
The person behind the creation of the country's first public hospital Twitter (@MechnikovaBoln [uk, ru]) and Facebook [uk, ru] accounts, is a tech savvy epidemiologist and blogger Mykhailo Sukhomlyn (@mvsnotes [uk, ru], mvsnotes.blogspot.com [uk, ru]).
However, this is not his first attempt at running a social media account for a state medical institution.
Social media enthusiasts
Sukhomlyn and his wife – programmer Tetyana Cheshko (@tvnotes [uk]) – used to work at a regional sanitary and epidemic department. Both being social media enthusiasts, they set up [uk] the institution's Twitter account, which was used for timely internal exchange of information amongst the department's staff. Mykhailo and Tetyana also admit [uk] that they are frequently approached by Twitter users with health and medical questions.
After becoming Dnipropetrovsk Regional Hospital's Chief Information Officer, Sukhomlyn decided to apply his successful experience there and launched [uk] its social media accounts to share news about the hospital, including events, employment vacancies, arrival of new equipment, etc.
Mykhailo Sukhomlyn (first from the right) and Tetyana Cheshko (third from the right) with medical information systems specialists, photo by Dnipropetrovsk Regional Hospital
In an interview to Dnipropetrovsk TV Channel 9, Sukhomlyn explained [uk, ru] that the administrators use the hospital's account to tweet about the services provided by the institution, while encouraging Facebook uses to discuss their quality on its official page. For instance, one of the first issues raised by the patients included long waiting lines at the hospital.
Other medical personnel at the institution are also using Twitter. Last month, the hospital shared [uk] their Twitter list and encouraged others to follow:
Рекомендую наших лікарів, твітерян-початківців – @Tolubaiev @Oxanalivshits @DrMedvedev @IhorKyrpa @SokolovMD #ff #sledui #раджу
Doctors of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Clinical Hospital named after Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, photo by Dnipropetrovsk Regional Hospital
While their activity may be pioneering for Ukraine, there is an international directory [en] of the most influential doctors on Twitter, which currently contains 1,327 names and is updated on an hourly basis.

author: Tetyana Bohdanova


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Venezuela: Government Opponents’ Twitter Accounts Hacked · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

For months now, social and mainstream media in Venezuela have reported a wave of expropriations of Twitter accounts belonging to users who openly criticize President Hugo Chávez. Netizens haven noticed how certain Twitter users, well known for their critiques of the government, have all of a sudden started posting messages of wholehearted support for the “Bolivarian Revolution“, or confessed to be followers and admirers of President Chávez.
The Twitter accounts affected include those of artists [es], politicians, journalists, writers, and scholars [es] who openly criticize and oppose the government.
Two months ago, the group N33 published a press release (available here through Taringa [es]) and took responsibility for the expropriations made during that time. They confirm that they are followers of Chávez followers and that they share his ideals, but that neither he nor his government are not to be linked with their activities.
According to the group, the opinions expressed by the people whose accounts were hacked could be seen as abuses of freedom of speech and defamatory speech against the President and the State's institutions. They also claim that they are not linked to Anonymous, a group they consider “pro-imperialist.” Daniela López, comments in La Gente Dice [es]:
"I was hacked for saying what I think! @Leonardo_Padron" via Twitpic
¿Tendrá que preocuparse Anonymous por este nuevo grupo de hackers? Aparentemente no, porque N33 los considera un grupo “Pro- imperialista” y lo que ellos buscan es hacer justicia por los atropellos cometidos contra el presidente Chávez y su gobierno en Twitter
The author of the blog Ay Caracha [es] scolds the group:
Al autor del ataque a la cuenta de Berenice, realmente lamento que gaste su inteligencia para destruir un medio que muchos de nosotros utilizábamos para entrar en contacto con los personajes de un programa de radio que tenemos derecho a escuchar.
Carlos Bolívar [es], in his post “Unreliable citizen media” says:
Cada [día] sale una nueva mentira, un nuevo hackeo, entonces el día que salga un tubazo por Twitter vía @globovision o @chavezcandanga ¿QUIÉN LO VA A CREER?.
On Twitter, Jose Manuel da Silva (@chacazulu451) [es] suggests the possibility that the national company in charge of telecommunications, CANTV, could be linked to the attacks:
Adivina, adivinador!! RT”@NoticiasVenezue: Yo pregunto: el hackeo de las cuentas twitter no viene de dentro de la CANTV? #Venezuela
Also @CelesteAcosta [es] points at a very ironic happy ending:
Solo en mi Bello Pais! #venezuela bien por Luis!!@laureanomar: Para informar que@luisvicenteleon hackeo al hacker y recuperó su cuenta…
Finally, Luis Carlos Díaz, in his post “The hacker's check” [es], comments and reflects:
En estos meses se realizaron denuncias ante los organismos competentes que se mantienen aún en proceso. El resultado es que los delitos aumentan y el silencio oficial continúa. No ha habido pronunciamientos para deslindarse de estos actos viles contra la libertad de expresión. Quizás porque es similar al retiro de concesiones de radio, la prohibición de circulación temporal de diarios, o aquella insólita resolución que censuraba las noticias y fotografías de sucesos en la prensa nacional. ¿Se recuerda eso?

author: Laura Vidal


text:
Bangladesh: E-Asia 2001 Concluded · Global Voices
Rezwan

Badruddoza reports that the 3 day long e-Asia 2001 conference, Asia's one of the biggest ICT event has successfully completed in Dhaka, Bangladesh.