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Togo: Women and Adolescents Embrace Technology for Development · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

On June 17th, the third panafrican conference on best practices in ICT in francophone Africa opened in Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso [fr]. While the conference focused on strategies to curb cyber-criminality, the Togolese blogosphere is embracing the potential of information technology for development, especially women and young people.
Reflecting on the conference, Sylvanus Abano, blogging at togo-presse-liberte, reports that Hamadoun Touré, SG of l’Union internationale de télécommunication [UIT]  warned against the danger of cyber-criminality [fr]:
« la cybercriminalité coûte 1000 milliards de dollars chaque année, nous sommes plus vulnérables que nous ne le pensons».
Togozine, an influential Togolese online platform, interviewed Roger Kpakote, an informatician and CEO of RTK Groupe in Lomé on the development of ICT in his country [fr]:
Mr. Kpakote crée avec ses amis de l’Organisme pour la Promotion de l’Internet et du Mobile (OPIM) au Togo. [..] OPIM a pour but de promouvoir l’utilisation des outils technologiques par toutes les classes sociales du pays. Il souhaite aussi voir se créer au Togo un pôle d’excellence de compétitivité internationale dédié au rayonnement de la Biotechnologie et des Technologies de l’information. De nombreux projets sont en cours de préparation tels que le 1er Barcamp au Togo.
Togolese High School Students via Paul-W on Flickr-CC license < http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-w-locke/ >
On the OPIM blog, Mr Kpakote describes his recipe for success in the field of information technology [fr]:
il faut réunir les trois acteurs-clé que sont : les possesseurs de contenus (dont les journalistes), les entrepreneurs et les développeurs [..] La recette consiste à être présent sur le Net, être utile à un maximum de personnes pour récolter les fruits après. Des conditions qui, pour le moment, ne sont pas réunies en Afrique.
Muriel , a student in Lome, thinks that, despite the early challenges, there is hope for Togolese women in the field of ICT [fr]:
Les femmes ont intégré ce nouveau monde malgré toutes les difficultés d’adaptation. Ceci reste un grand enjeux pour la société africaine en particulier et par conséquent pour les femmes africaines qui doivent donc œuvrer activement en saisissant toutes les opportunités que leurs offrent ces nouvelles technologies.
Claudine Assiba Akapko writes at length about the role of women in sustaining peace in Africa [fr]:
Les femmes et les enfants représentent plus des trois quarts des 40 millions de personnes déplacées à la suite de crises ou de violents conflits sur notre continent. Les femmes africaines ont un rôle particulier à jouer. Il est nécessaire de les impliquer dans les processus de négociation et de construction de la paix [..]
Comment mieux impliquer les femmes au processus de paix ?
1. Appuyer la participation des femmes aux négociations de paix car les femmes rencontrent beaucoup d'opposition quand il s'agit de participer aux négociations de paix officielles.
2. Accroître la participation des femmes aux règlements des conflits et à l'élaboration des décisions; notamment en mettant les femmes aux postes décisionnaires liés aux négociations de paix et à la réconciliation nationale.
3. Former les femmes aux techniques de négociation
4. Une éducation plus juste et meilleure pour les filles : Le renforcement des capacités des filles par l’éducation est une nécessité.
Young people are also starting to made forays into the world of blogging. On the Médias Jeunesse et Développement Blog, Marie discusses the importance of reaching out to less privileged children when it comes to new media [fr]:
Dans les pays africains, on peut distinguer deux catégories d’enfants : les lettrés et les illettrés. Souvent, les lettrés sont issus des familles riches bénéficiant d’une éducation. Par contre, les pauvres n’ont pas souvent cette chance [..] L’intégration des enfants dans les clubs médias leur permettra à travers des émissions de témoigner de leur situation et désormais défendre leurs droits.
On the same platform, Détogra Jérôme also weighs in and the advantages of getting children to participate [fr]:
Leur participation leur permet de donner leur opinion sur la résolution des problèmes de leur milieu pour permettre l’évolution de leur communauté. Le plus grand succès qu’ont connu ces initiatives, c’est que les enfants peuvent imaginer et passer leurs idées par les médias.[..] Il faut souligner qu’au début, nos parents n’étaient pas pour cette participation, mais par la suite, en nous voyant produire, ils ont compris que c’est notre avantage

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Trinidad & Tobago: More Than She Can Chew?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Plain Talk is unhappy with the recent actions of T&T's new Attorney General, as well as the Prime Minister's decision to appoint Jack Warner as Acting PM: “One cannot help but notice that the People's Partnership is failing at the task of Governance…has Kamla found out to her and the country's peril just how big a bite she bit off for herself?”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Ukraine: #KyivRain Photos · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Heavy rains cause flooding in some of Kyiv's neighborhoods. Twitter hashtag is #kyivrain (RUS, UKR); photos by @mrija – here, here, here and here; by @woofer_kyyiv – here; by @meua – here. Some more photos from various sources – at LJ user solar-side‘s blog.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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China: Strong country, poor people · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The state broadcaster CCTV revealed in June 28 that China is expected to receive 8 trillion yuan ($1.18 trillion) in financial revenue by the end of 2010. Such figure will turn China into the second-largest country in terms of revenue income after the United States. It seems that China has realized its dream of being a strong country, however, netizens have been rather skeptical about the news because of the uneven distribution of wealth.
“Great Leap Forward” in financial revenue
Online current affair commentator, Hou Jinliang, says that such kind of “Great Leap Forward” is unbearable.
财政收入飞增，就像一个人吃了激素一样猛 长，外表很好很强大，很光鲜，可实质上是孱弱的。中国基尼系数超过国际警戒线，贫富差距日益拉大，劳动者之间分配不公…
…财政“坐火箭”， 一飞冲天，拿下了老二的位子，而民众的收入还在“骑蜗牛”。国际货币基金组织在2010年4月21日发布的数据显示，中国2009年的人均收入世界排名第 109位。可见，财政“大跃进”并不是一件值得吹嘘的事情，反而值得好好反思！
…now that our finance revenue is riding on a rocket and becomes the second in the world. On the other hand, people's income is riding on a snail. The IMF's data on April 21, 2010 showed that Chinese people's average income in 2009 ranks 109 in the world. It reflects that we should not boast about the “Great Leap Forward” of finance revenue. On the contrary, we should reflect upon the current situation.
Blogger, 1741596507, elaborates further on the relative deprivation feeling among ordinary people:
我国政府财政巨大的收入与老百姓的低工资收入、低福利待遇、低社会保障、低医疗卫生条件、低教育投入，以及老百姓超高生活消费、天高的房价消费、极高的税收负担等等形成了巨大的反差。
Strong country, poor people
Bai Yen concludes that China is a strong country, but its people remain poor:
整个国家，富的越来越富，穷的越来越穷。官员们越来越富，老百姓越来越穷。
国家财政收入增加了，又可以多办几届超豪华的奥运会世博会，又可以长长我国政府的脸面了。
如果我国国民收入分配不公的格局不改变，那么国家财政收入增加再多，对咱们普通老百姓来说也毫无意义。
Local governments in debt
swlonging points out that the local governments are also poor:
地方政府基本上也归属于我们这些穷民一类了，欠下一屁股债，日子实在 不好过。要知道，1994年分税制度的改革，虽然客观上加强了中央政府的财力，但是却削弱了地方政府的财力… 另一方面，地方政府还要承担大量的公共事务支出，没有多余的财力实现城市发展和基础设施建设，政府要实现这一部分功能，贷款是非常重要的一部分。在2008年底经济刺激政策下，地方融资平台设立和贷款受到鼓励，政府甚至发文要求下级县按要求设立融资平台。各地政府做出了一致的选择——贷款开展项目建设。
6月23日，审计署公 布的报告显示，地方债务总体规模较大，存在风险，一些债务风险较为集中的地区债务余额超过本级财政可用财力的100%…
Yeh Kai has a number of constructive suggestions for improving the situation:
1、  适度降低政府财政收入在GDP中的比重，还富于民。…
2、  建立更透明的财政收支监督管理体系。加大财政信息公开的力度,大力提高财政收支透明度。…
3、  优化财政支出、压缩行政办公费用、加大民生投入。民间对财政收支疑问颇多，其实关键还在财政收入的使用去向。如果财政收入的大头都切实的投向民生，民众是 欢迎的。但是，我们的财政收入中的相当部分却作为各级政府的行政办公费用，具体多少无从查考，但从庞大的公务员和事业编制、豪华的行政办公楼、以及各级官 员乘坐的车子来看，民众的疑问是有道理的。从另一方面，在社会保障、医疗、教育等方面的投入仍然不足，突出的表现是看病难、上学难、退休养老难。…中央政府有必要出台统 一性措施，硬性规定社会保障、医疗、教育在政府财政收入中的占比，并逐年提高，只有暂时采用强制性措施，才能切实加大民生投入，压缩行政办公费用，增进社 会的和谐稳定与健康发展。

author: Oiwan Lam


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D.R of Congo: Remembering Kimpa Vita · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“Today is the anniversary of the death of Kimpa Vita who together with her baby (Kembo Dianzenza va Kintete) and her boyfriend, were burned to death on July 2nd 1706 by the Catholic church,” writes Sokari at Black Looks.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Ghana: Football has never hurt before · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Yngvild on the end of Ghana's World Cup dreams: “Football has never hurt before. Unless it was a ball kicked in my face or something. Yesterday's Ghana-Uruguay match was torture.”


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Ghana: We will be back · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Sarpong reacts to Ghana team's elimination from the World Cup: “I will make this as short as possible. Ghana is sad. Africa is sad. Football lovers are sad!…But we leave with one bold message: WE WILL BE BACK TO PUSH HISTORY ONCE AGAIN”


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India: Tackling The Maoist Threat · Global Voices
Rezwan

A tribal village in Chattisgarh. Image via Flickr user Pixel_monkey, used under CC license BY-NC-NA
The relentless Maoist attacks have become India's biggest security threat as Maoist separatists have inflicted another deadly blow on Indian security forces. According to reports Twenty-six personnel of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed in a Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district on the 29th of June, 2010. Only in last April 76 less equipped CRPF personnel were killed by Maoist attacks. Netizens analyze the cause behind the Maoist onslaughts and discuss ways to tackle the threat.
There are many theories to interpret the Maoist problem, which has a long history. While some like Raunaq Pradhan think that it represents a freedom struggle, others suggest that it is a form of class struggle.
Aju Basil James at The Viewspaper discusses the reasons behind the Maoist insurgency:
The basic problems, many experts proclaim, are the age old ones of poverty and unemployment. The Maoists are concentrated in the forests of Chhattisgarh, Jharkand and Orissa, the area popularly known as the ‘Red Corridor’. These areas are primarily inhabited by tribals and indigenous people. Even as India achieves high growth rate figures and climbs up the ladder in international circles, these people have received next to no benefits of the economic prosperity seen in the big cities. They are still oppressed by bureaucrats and exploited by politicians. If anything, they have only faced the negative side of the liberalised economy – land grabbing by private companies, exploitation of natural resources and a further apathy from governments.
Prerna Suri at The Asia Blog reports that neglect is one of the reasons behind Maoist terror:
They say all this violence is in retaliation for years of neglect. Although Chattisgarh is among the richest states in India, having large desposits of bauxite and iron ore, the state has seen little or no development in years.
Royden D Souza at Despatches And File Notings analyzes the strategy of the Maoists:
The Maoists have gained influence over more than 200 districts over the last 40 years, by a strategy called oil spot strategy. Their approach was to gain control over a small area and then increase their control in the surrounding areas like an oil spot that spreads on the water surface.
Indian philosopher Vishal Mangalwadi thinks that Maoists’ war is against India's criminal capitalism:
The Maoist case against Hindu Capitalism is simple: A significant number of our miners, industrialists, democratically elected politicians, Gazetted officers (Administrative and Police), and their un-’holy’ godmen have joined hands to become criminal mafias. Their power is reinforced by official militias called “Special Forces” and unofficial militias such as Selwa Judum that started the present round of tragic violence.
And why is Maoism flourishing? The get compassion from the poor by promising an egalitarian, exploitation free society. Shantanu Dutta quotes Vishal Mangalwadi in analyzing the Maoists popularity – the Maoist leadership chooses to “identify with the landless, the displaced and the marginalized tribals.” So they make better image bearers among the poor and the oppressed.
From Kolkata Nila-kantha-chandra writes in his blog Cuckoo's Call:
From what I see around me, living in Calcutta, it seems we are living under the shadow of looming violence. A civil war, where the have-nots finally turn against the haves. Once something like that erupts, we are in for successive rounds of ever more ferocious blood-letting. No good will come of all that, and India's future as a pluralist democracy would be under severe risk. Life in India would become like what life is like now for people in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But the question is, can the necessary changes that must take place in India, which have NOT taken place in the 63 years since India's independence – can such change happen, before the destructive violence erupts? Things like education, healthcare, housing, drinking water, sanitation, public transport. Equal opportunity for all irrespective of their socio-economic circumstances.
I do not see that on the horizon, quite the reverse actually. Neither the govt, nor the private business sector has any such inclusive vision. The civil society is weak and fractured, and divided by caste and religion.
The Indian government is looking for strategies to tame the Maoists. The government has gone on the offensive against the Maoists with police and special forces which changed things little. There are talks about deploying army in Maoist hit areas. India’s intelligence officials are unable to decipher encrypted data sent on Blackberry handset or intercept calls on Skype to get intel on the Maoists. The thoughts of banning these services sound more like cutting the head to cure a headache.
Naveen James at My Country My Views discusses who should bear the responsibility for the unwanted killings and how these can be stopped:
Naxalism or Maobadis cannot be rooted out overnight.This has to be dealt with lot of sense of purpose and a firm policy. No government till date has shown great hunger to deal with this and now this looks like the greatest internal security threat the country has ever faced. Lack of strong political will is putting hundreds of innocent jawans on the line of fire.We cannot afford to loose so many soldiers/jawans to this mindless killings. We also have to ensure that exploitation of the tribals is stopped and economic development happens.
The government of the day is not doing enough and who should be blamed for this? “We The People” should take the blame. We have elected this government to work and if they don't then it is our responsibility to see that they act or perish. The media can play a very big role in this by being the voice of the people. But unfortunately the media tends to go after, rather chase only that news which can make a sensation and get them eye balls& TRP's. The people, Media, Intelligentsia, administration and who & who's of this country must join hands and get the government to act. No country can afford to sacrifice so many of its dedicated forces.
Unless efforts like the above are not taken up India will face a looming catastrophe as per Vishal Mangalwadi:
Maoists are not the only ones gearing up against India Inc; most of the poor are being radicalized, whether by Islam, Hindu godmen, or Maoist guerillas.
The government of India has acted wisely in not sending the military against the Maoists. For the military may soon be needed to defend our metropolis from the downtrodden who are finally rising up against India’s Criminalized Capitalism.

author: Rezwan


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Mexico: Alex Causes Flooding in Monterrey  · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Perla Cristal Gomez [es] writes about the flooding in Monterrey caused by storm Alex.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Pakistan: State Of Denial Continues · Global Voices
Rezwan

Raza Habib Raja criticizes Pakistanis for their state of denial and apologetic defense of the homegrown terror by pointing fingers at the USA for the attacks at the holy shrine in Lahore.


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Somalia: View from a photojournalist’s blood-stained lens · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“On Tuesday, several journalists were wounded when missiles were fired on a press conference in the battlefield of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu,” Mariama Keita reports.


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USA, Russia: Discussing ‘Spies’ 2.0 · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Anna Chapman, picture from her Facebook account
The June 29 arrest [EN] of 11 individuals belonging to a network of alleged Russian spies (named in the FBI report as the “Illegals” [EN]) became the topic of the week on the Russian Internet. The personality of Anna Chapman [EN], a 28-year-old “venture investor,” attracted most attention. The online discussion went into several directions: mocking both the “spies” and the US officials; analyzing the consequences for the US-Russian relations; discussing Chapman's online data and pictures; and the future of covert operations under conditions of total virtual “transparency” provided by the new media.
Although the topic was popular, the sources of ongoing reporting on the story were scarce: only the Voice of America Russian Service provided live coverage with reports from the courtroom [EN] via their LJ community (golos_ameriki) and Twitter.
Bloggers’ initial reaction: irony
One of the first bloggers to react to the arrests was LJ user nl, who posted scans of an FBI complaint document and entitled his post “With spies like these, who needs enemies?” The blogger mocked both the confessions of FBI agent Amit Kachhia-Patel, comparing the text to a low-quality sequel to the movie “Spies Like Us,” and the technological backwardness of the alleged spies.
fyysik continued [RUS], referring to the process of encoded message transmission via transformed images [EN]:
Не исключаю, что специалисты ФБР оказались не менее продвинутыми, чем агенты СВР и в 2005-м году научились извлекать EXIF и прочие высокоценные вещи из джипегов.
Думаю, следующим шагом в технологическом соревновании спецслужб будет разработка по помещению и извлечению текстовых тэгов в mp3-шки.
It may well be that the FBI specialists turned out to be as professional as SVR agents, and in 2005 learned how to extract EXIF [EN] and other valuable things from JPG's.
I think the next step in the secret service technological competition would be a research in including and extracting text tags into MP3.
The surreal nature of the “spy” process and especially its details reminded [RUS] some bloggers of a 2006 case, another “spy ring” detection in Moscow, the so-called “Spy Stone story” [EN].
Another trend of mocking was to refer to Stirlitz [EN], a fictional World War II Soviet spy in Nazi Germany. LJ user e-dikiy came up with a contemporary development [RUS] for this popular story:
Штирлиц зашел во френдленту и глубоко задумался. Нет, про поездку в Швейцарию писать лытдыбр сегодня, пожалуй, не стоит.
Discussions of the political aspect of the arrest
One of the bloggers who discussed the consequences of the arrest [RUS] was Ivan Kurilla, a historian of the U.S.-Russian relations, (aka LJ user alliruk):
Вопрос: зачем арестовывать их 1) громко и публично и 2) сразу после визита в США Д.Медведева?
[…]
Вывод один: в США есть влиятельные круги, решившие испортить атмосферу российско-американского сближения. Раньше такие попытки были более заметны с российской стороны. Сегодня мы убедились в существовании американских противников сближения.
Вполне вероятно, что до России этим людям дела нет, – их цель – Барак Обама. Компрометация его достижений на российском направлении есть удар по президенту.
[…]
There's only one conclusion: there are influential groups in the United States that have decided to spoil the atmosphere of the U.S.-Russian rapprochement. In the past, such attempts were typical of the Russian side. Today, we have received proof of the existence of American opponents of the rapprochement.
Probably, these people have nothing to do with Russia, – their main target is Barack Obama. Discrediting his achievements on the Russian direction is a strike at the president.
Attention to Anna Chapman
Anna Chapman, something of a ‘star’ of the whole spy scandal, became an object of various speculations, hatred, and even adoration. A LiveJournal community “Free Anna Chapman” [EN] has been launched (although it didn't attract too many fans).
LJ user feeling_of_void analyzed the popularity of Chapman's website domdot.ru, a real estate search portal. According to the open statistics, domdot.ru is a relative failure, with the daily audience of about 1,000 unique users, which is incomparable to any competitors in this field in Moscow. The blogger suggested that all Chapman's online ‘venture’ projects were a hoax.
‘Spies’ 2.0
The case of Anna Chapman and her ‘colleague’ Mikhail Semenko is a representation of the new type of “spies” – “spies 2.0.” Both used social networks (LinkedIn (Chapman's profile [EN], Semenko's profile [EN]), Facebook, Odnoklassniki), both led an open virtual life and were sharing quite revealing pictures [EN] of themselves. In the comment to Chapman's YouTube interview [RUS], user Slinqshot asked:
Зачем профессиональному шпиону светиться во всех соцсетях, где только можно?
The question illustrates the change of a paradigm of the covert operations in the environment of the social media. As philosopher Alexander Morozov (aka LJ user amoro1959) put it [RUS], referring to the aforementioned Stirlitz (a symbol of a Soviet/Russian spy):
человек, не имеющий присутствия в сетях, – ЯВНО ПОДОЗРИТЕЛЕН.
Наверное, “шпион”.
Иначе говоря, имейся во времена третьего рейха ЖЖ – Штирлиц, несомненно, вел бы дневник. О птицах. Как энтомолог-любитель. Допустим. А уж как любитель раритетных автомашин – это просто наверняка.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Ukraine: UK Visa Application Process · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Leigh Turner, the British Ambassador to Ukraine, writes that “in the busy summer months from May-September, you should if at all possible start the visa application process 5-10 weeks before you are due to travel.”


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Azerbaijan: Clinton meets bloggers · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

In Mutatione Fortitudo comments on U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's meeting with youth activists and bloggers in the oil-rich authoritarian country. Although reportedly raising the issue of imprisoned video blogging youth activists Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli with the Azerbaijani authorities just days before the first anniversary of their initial detention, the blog is nonetheless disappointed with comments from Clinton linking dissent in the country to concerns over the possible rise of Iranian influence in the secular republic.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Bangladesh: Extra Judicial Killings · Global Voices
Rezwan

Syeed at Unheard Voice writes about the gruesome torture of a father in front of his 7 year old son by Bangladesh police, who was later found dead. This is one example of numerous extra judicial killings by the security forces in Bangladesh.


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Belarus: Conscientous Objectors Demand Introduction of Alternative Service · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The story of Belarusian conscientious objectors to compulsory military service and their struggle for introduction of alternative civilian service – at BelarusDigest.


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Belarus, Ukraine: Chernobyl Evacuations, Exclusion Zone · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Chernobyl and Eastern Europe writes about the Polesie State Radiation Ecological Reserve in Belarus, and cites Soviet-time evacuation documents, listing numbers of people who were evacuated from the areas close to the Chernobyl Power Plant following the disaster of April 26, 1986.


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Bosnia & Herzegovina: 18th Anniversary of the Bikavac Fire · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Café Turko writes about last Sunday's commemoration of “the 18th anniversary of the Bikavac fire, in the town of Visegrad in Eastern Bosnia”: “On the night of 27 June 1992, around 70 persons were locked in a small house on the Bikavac hill, after which the house was set on fire. The crime was meticulously prepared, to make sure that nobody would survive to tell the story.”


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Brunei: World Cup-free country? · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Brunei was listed in an MSN article as one of the World Cup-free countries. The Daily Brunei Resources writes that it is a wrong description of Brunei.

author: Mong Palatino


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Caucasus: Blogs & Bullets · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Global Voices Caucasus Regional Editor Onnik Krikorian will take part in a panel at a public conference, Blogs and Bullets: Evaluating the Impact of New Media on Conflict, at the U.S. Institute of Peace on 8 July. Co-sponsored by the George Washington University Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication, the conference will also involve other Global Voices representatives, including co-founder Ethan Zuckerman, as well as representatives from the U.S. Institute of Peace, George Washington University, U.S. State Department, Google, Facebook, and others. Global Voices’ coverage of the use of new and social media in the context of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations and the conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh can be found here.


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Guinea Bissau: Unfair Trading Promotes Poverty · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

A mini documentary titled Quem Paga? [Who Pays?, pt] featuring the production of cashew in Guinea Bissau – one of the five poorest countries in the world – unmasks the cycle of poverty being fueled by Western consumers, while demanding fair trade to put an end to poverty.

author: Sara Moreira


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India: Tribals Tell Their Stories Via Podcasts · Global Voices
Rezwan

“Swara, an initiative of former journalist Shubranshu Choudhury, enables the tribals of Chhattisgarh to tell their version of stories, in their language and through a medium accessible to them…” informs Indian Tribals blog.


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Japan: Hashima Island, the abandoned island · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

Craig Schmeizer at Make A History wrote a post on Hashima Island [en] (also dubbed Warship Island), a small island in the south of Japan that was abandoned in 1974. According to the blogger, it was “a center of a major mining complex owned by Mitsubishi Corporation” until it was depleted in the '70s. A short documentary video [eng sub] is attached to the post.

author: Scilla Alecci


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Japan: Party leaders campaign for upper house election · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

Buddhika Weerasinghe uploaded pictures of Japan’s main party leaders  [en] addressing speeches ahead of an upper house election, that will be held on July 11.


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Japan: Tech-savvy freelancers break down the monopoly in information · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

While in many countries around the world ordinary citizens learn to take advantage of the new technologies to make their voices heard, in Japan it's the free-lance journalists who take up the battle against establishment media from which they are determined to remain apart.
Because, here, the flow of information has so far been controlled by the mainstream media through a system called ‘the kisha club’.
CC by mxmstryo.
Kisha clubs [en], literally means reporters’ club or press club and is best defined as ‘news gathering associations’ present in almost every public institution such as ministries, police, and corporate bodies etc. Among the clubs tasks is the management of the press conferences of the institutions they cover.
As is detailed in their  charter  [en]:
In an era when accurate information backed up by serious news gathering based on media ethics is increasingly being sought, kisha clubs assume the social responsibility of checking the exercise of public power by officials and seeking the genuine disclosure of information from public institutions. Kisha club members and conference attendees are required to fulfill such important roles.
Only journalists working for a few mainstream media organizations are allowed to be members and, accordingly, to participate in the news conferences organized by the kisha clubs.
Free-lance journalists and, often, foreign media are excluded. Whenever they are allowed to attend, they may not ask questions.
On February 13 Takashi Uesugi [ja], one of the most popular independent journalists, who calls for the abolition of the kisha club systems [en], tweeted [ja]:
上杉隆「ツイッター、ユーストリームが一次情報を独占する記者クラブの壁を超えた。それ以前にこの記者クラブのシステムが日本人に知られていない。公権力の匿名は許されないというのが当然のジャーナリズムのルール」7:45 PM Feb 13th TweetMe for iPhoneから
Hirakawa Club, the Liberal Democratic Party kisha club. CC by tomo honeycomb.
In a change of direction, some representatives of the government elected last year  decided to open their news conferences  [en] to all professional journalists. Those working for online media seized the opportunity and immediately began to attend press conferences with their equipment to be able to broadcast the events live.
Last September Tetsuo Jimbo [en], veteran video journalist plus editor and CEO of videonews.com reported on the novelty: a minister's press conference open to all professional journalists.
まず大方針は「原則として、記者クラブ所属報道機関以外の全てのメディアにも解放する」（岡田氏）です。
[…] これまでは、仮にその団体の加盟社の記者でも、社を通じてそれぞれ当該の記者クラブに入会していることが必要でした。それぞれの報道機関の社内ポリティックスなどの事情で、新聞協会加盟社の記者であれば誰でも会見に出られるというわけではなかったということです。
それが、これからは基本的には、上記の団体に加盟している社の記者であれば、誰でも会見には出られることになるので、例えば朝日の別の部署の記者が、朝日の記者クラブの記者に気を遣って会見に行けないとか、NHKのクローズアップ現代の記者やNスペのディレクターがNHK報道局の外務省霞クラブ所属の記者に会見の出席や撮影を妨害されるというような馬鹿げたこと（これが本当にあるんですよ。）もなくなります。
Ustream, in particular, has been serving as an alternative media source to circumvent the mainstream media filter on the flow of information.
Well known is the case of the popular video sharing website Nico Nico Douga who since last year have been providing a live broadcast service to its users [ja]. Their staff now regularly attend the weekly foreign minister's press conference, allowing their audience to interact directly with the presenter. Not only they can watch the event live but also type questions onto the web-page which will be picked up by Nico Nico Douga staff and asked directly of the minister. According to Nico Nico Douga website [ja], their users have been able to ask questions on the American military bases issue, Sea Shepherd's activists [en], Japan's aid to Afghanistan etc.
Blogger nob1975 commented  on the opportunity that citizens and netizens now have to watch their politicians’ news conferences before TVs and press edit and filters them.
国民が、一次情報に触れる機会が、いままでかつて、あったろうか？
政治家も、バラエティショーの一環としての「報道番組」、政治をネタにした完全なる「バラエティ番組」、司会者の仕切りがうざい「討論番組」から飛び出して、記者クラブも通さず、じかに、国民に向けて、情報発信できる時代。
素晴らしいと思う。
[…]
エポックメイキングな瞬間だったと思う。
Independent journalists like the above quoted Takashi Uesugi or award-winner Yasumi Iwakami [ja] have also made of Ustream a tool to create open debates specifically on the “kisha club system”, to raise awareness among the Japanese people on how the information they get is often biased and limited. An example is the debate between Uesugi and economist Nobuo Ikeda [ja] on “police leaks to media”.
Here is how Iwakami's profile reads at his Ustream page:
フリージャーナリスト・岩上安身が、どこにでも出かけて、誰にでも取材し、可能な限り、ダイレク トに情報をお伝えします。インタビュー、対談、記者会見、などなど。
Finally, Hiroshi Hirano, editor of the daily mail-magazine Electronic Journal, who criticizes monopoly in information, being it contrary to the principles of democracy, warns the dangers that the media's powers bring.
情報を自分たちだけでずっと独占していればそれは一種の利権と化し、政治家側や官僚側から利用されやすくなるのです。


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Myanmar: World Cup Reactions · Global Voices
tan

The 2010 World Cup craze is also felt in Myanmar. Football fans in Myanmar are cheering for their favorite teams and many are staying up late at night to watch the midnight matches. Bars, restaurants and tea shops are showing World Cup matches to attract customers.
Football fans living in Yangon are happy that electricity became more regular, so they were able to watch the football matches. However, some areas still faced electricity shortages. Maung, who had come back to Myanmar wrote:
While I was in Japan, I was able to watch the Group Matches daily together with my friends. However, just when more interesting matches were being played, I came back to Myanmar. I felt the urge to knock on the doors of neighbours who were running electric generators and request to watch matches there.
….
I sit down.. I stand up.. I curse. I've only been back to Myanmar for a day or two, and I am now experiencing how it feels like to live in Myanmar. Later, I got an idea, which is to go to downtown area, and watch football matches at a beer pub that were showing the matches.
Many Burmese females are also big fans of the World Cup. They followed match results, and posted them on social network sites such as Facebook. Thet Wai, a female Burmese living in Singapore, wrote in one of her posts:
The event that fans have all been waiting for, World Cup, will start soon. Not considering whether I will have time to watch or not, whether I will be able to watch or not, I registered to Singtel MiO TV channel, just like everybody else. Because of the early bird special discounts, I was able to get a S$24 discount.
…
Before registering at SingTel, my husband asked me whether I will really be able to stay up late and night, and watch the matches. As a person who is very interested in sports, I replied in jest, “I will watch it no matter what time. What I am interested in is school work and sports!”
Unlike Singapore, fans in Myanmar  were able to watch the live matches free of charge because football matches were aired on two state-owned TV channels: MRTV and Myawaddy.
“It is quite exciting to watch the Word Cup from the first match to the  final on my screen at home for the first time,” said a soccer fan in  Rangoon, reported by Irrawaddy Media.
However, Myawaddy channel was not able to show a few of the matches between June 18 to June 21st due to “technical difficulties“, angering many fans. So fans had to watch the matches that came on MRTV. The problem was resolved after June 22nd.
During the World Cup matches, a few weekly journals were allowed to issue a daily World Cup sports journals and were popular among fans. Premier Eleven Sports Journal also sent its Editor-in-Charge to Johannesburg for live coverage of the World Cup event, and Eleven Media launched a World Cup Special news site in Burmese language.
Many Burmese bloggers wrote World Cup-related posts such as 11 Dreams, who shared with his readers images of the 10 stadiums where World Cup matches are held. Many were overjoyed that there were 2 Myanmar females in Shakira's Waka Waka music video. Htoo Tayzar wrote:
I heard that there were Burmese people in the music video, so I watched it carefully. I read in the interview that there were 3 sisters in the video. Yes, that's right: you can see in the back, and at the right that they were wearing blue and purple. They were wearing Burmese traditional blouse and longyi.
Nay Nay Naing shared videos and lyrics of the World Cup theme songs, and wrote:
In the past, I rooted for a certain team, and hoped that certain team will win. How about now? Don't ask… I will root for the team that wins! :))
However, some will be waiting for the time when the World Cup is over. Sales of state lottery have fallen since last week, and Burmese traditional dance troupes had to postpone their shows until after the World Cup.
As Myo Thein wrote in Mizzima's editorial,
Those who have been claiming that they will enter the 2010 Elections are silent during this World Cup era. Because of the seduction of Jabulani World Cup ball (meaning “Rejoice” in Zulu), the minds of the people will be in South Africa until July 11.

author: tan


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Nuclear energy for Brunei · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Nuclear energy is being seriously considered in Brunei, an oil exporting country. The Daily Brunei Resources blogs about the prospect of adopting nuclear energy in Brunei


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Russia, Czech Republic: ‘Prague Watchdog’ Closing · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Step At A Time reports that “Prague Watchdog, the Prague-based North Caucasus human rights NGO and monitoring service, is closing down after 10 years of operation.”


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Russia: More on LGBT Rights · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Good Treaty writes more on the Russian opposition's stance on LGBT rights (the previous post is here), reacting to Oleg Kozlovsky's statement in response to Sublime Oblivion‘s question about why he feels “the need to forcefully disassociate Solidarity [movement] from support for LGBT rights in Russia.” Austere Insomniac interprets Kozlovsky's message this way: “Gays in Moscow are not having a hard time, I am sure they are having a lot of fun in the gay sauna.”


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Russia: Moscow’s “Celebrity” Cemeteries · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Dina Fainberg of The Dustbin of History posts photos and writes about Moscow's cemeteries “designated specifically for cultural and scientific elite and former leaders.”


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Russia: Oil Spills · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Grigory Pasko writes about oil spills in Russia at Robert Amsterdam's blog (a GV overview of oil spills around the world is here).


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Russia: RT’s “Peculiar” Russian Lessons · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Global Chaos writes about RT's “peculiar” way of teaching their audiences Russian.


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Russia, U.S.: More on the “Spy Ring” Story · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

More reactions to the “Russian spy ring” story (earlier posts are here and here): Craig Pirrong of Streetwise Professor – here and here; Julia Ioffe at True/Slant; Robert Coalson at RFE/RL's Power Vertical; Sean Guillory at Sean's Russia Blog; Clare Sestanovich at FP's Passport; Irina Filatova at the Guardian's Comment is Free; MoscowMom; Valery Dzutsev.


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Serbia: Expedition 206 in Belgrade · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Reports on meeting, greeting and hanging out with the three members of Expedition 206 in Belgrade – at Belgraded and Life in Retro(bel)grade (here and here).


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Slovenia: LGBT Rights and Politics · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sleeping With Pengovsky writes about homophobia in Slovenia and its political dimension.


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Thailand: Alternative care for migrants · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Brian Jungwiwattanaporn writes about how groups are adopting informal and alternative care for migrants in Thailand.


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Ukraine: Ceramics Festival and Farmers’ Market in Opishne · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

At The Uncataloged Museum, Linda Norris posts photos and writes about her visit to the National Museum of Ceramics in the village of Opishne in the Poltava region, and at her other blog, The Pickle Project, she posts a photo report on some of the produce sold at the local farmers’ market.


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Ukraine: Crimean Tatar Heritage · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Linda Norris of The Uncataloged Museum writes about her first encounter with the Crimean Tatars and their culture.


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Ukraine: Greeting Hillary Topless · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Ukrainiana posts photos and video of FEMEN's topless appeal to Hillary Clinton, who visited Kyiv last week: “Hillary, help! Hillary, help! No strong woman, no free country!”


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Global Voices Announces Investment from Omidyar Network · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

I'm thrilled to announce that the Omidyar Network has made a $1.2 million investment in Global Voices's work. Omidyar is a philanthropic foundation created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam to improve people's lives through “harnessing the power of markets”. Omidyar has supported some of the organizations we most admire – the Wikimedia Foundation, Creative Commons, Ushahidi, WITNESS – and we're particularly honored to be part of a “class” that includes UK-based transparency organization MySociety and Kenyan political satire troupe, The XYZ Show.
Omidyar is known for challenging their grantees to move towards financial stability, a path that we'd already made a high organizational priority. With support from Omidyar, we're planning to expand our readership online and via email, to enter into syndication agreements (like the ones we have with La Stampa and Reuters) with at least five new partners and to start creating original content in French and Spanish as well as in English.
Funding from Omidyar is also helping us shore up the infrastructures necessary to manage our complex and international team. GV editors and contributors are on every continent but Antarctica and our management team is scattered across the globe. While we're committed to being a virtual organization without offices or filing cabinets, we've got a lot of practical and administrative challenges to face to ensure we're able to continue amplifying and sharing citizen voices from around the world. Anyone who has worked in the nonprofit community understands that support for these unsexy sorts of activities is the hardest sort of money to raise – we're particularly grateful that Omidyar is making an investment in our whole organization and not just a specific project.
We're really excited about this new development and to working closely with our friends at Omidyar, especially Stephen King, Omidyar's Senior Director of Investments. Later this year, we'll be expanding our board of directors by two members, including Stephen and a third representative elected from our staff and volunteer community. Thanks to Omidyar – and all our wonderful supporters – for making this community possible.

author: Ethan Zuckerman


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Africa: Children Playing with Makeshift Football · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Ariniaina shares photos of children playing with a makeshift soccer ball in Antananarivo. The scene is reminiscent of the remarkable photo essay by Julius Mwelu at the road-to-2010 blog  about “the ingenuity of children to keep the joy of soccer alive”. [Additional photos  at africamediaonline]


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Arab World: Remembering Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Lebanon's Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a leading Shiite figure, has died at the age of 75 yesterday. The religious leader, with a huge following, was remembered by bloggers from across the region. Lebanon declared three days of mourning in respect.
Sayed Mohammed Hussain Fadlullah
Lebanese Dr As'ad AbuKhalil from The Angry Arab News Service shares some information he got first-hand from Fadulallah:
I am still in Doha and don't have time to write an essay about Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah. But much of the writings (not only in English) is missing many elements about his background and thought. In his early years in Najaf, where his father `Abdur-Ra'uf Fadlallah was a teacher, he was very much disturbed, as he once told me, by the strength of the communists in that country. The conflict with the communists affected his early readings and his manner of argument. This was during the time when the Iraqi communist party was the strongest party in Iraq and beyond.
Although described by the media as a mentor for Hizbullah, Dr Abukhalil notes:
His relationship with Hizbullah is always misunderstood and there is much about that relationship that is not known, by Westerners but also by some Arabs. The relationship with Hizbullah turned into conflict by the 1990s: Fadllalllah was giving a weekly sermon in Damascus and there he developed a new line of religio-political thought and he broke from Wilayat Al-Faqih. He once gave me a tape from the mid-1980s in which he explained how he moved from the Shura concept to Wilayat Al-Faqih. Well, he later moved away from Wilayat al-Faqih and developed a new liberal thinking especially on issues of personal status laws. He openly discussed female masturbation and ruled that a woman can fight back if she is a victim of domestic violence. He urged for a closer relationship between science and religion. Those views and others primarily on Wilayat Al-Faqih put him at odds with Hizbullah and with Iran, and an Iranian cleric specialized in responding to Fadlallah. Hizbullah urged that the matter of the conflict not be open and be discussed at the clerical level (I know about that conflict primarily from Hasan Nasrallah who once patiently answered my questions about the conflict with Fadlallah during that time). But all that changed by 2006: when the typically ignorant Israeli Orientalists still believed that Fadlallah was the “spiritual guide” of Hizbullah–as Western media and some scholars insisted that he was–and Israeli war criminals bombed his house and many of the institutions that he had built. That made Fadlallah a staunch ally of Hizbullah, and he remained so to his last days. This should be a topic of a PhD dissertation: to deal with the transformation of the religio-political thought of Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah. His influence extends beyond Lebanon and much of the donations to his organization comes from outside of Lebanon. Before people speculate about “religio-political inheritance” in Lebanon they should know that the marji`iyyah (supreme religious authority) can't be transmitted to heirs.
In conclusion, The Angry Arab adds:
His passing will only strengthen the position of Hizbullah and Sistani will continue to be emulated by those who don't agree with Khamenei as the object of emulation in Lebanon.
On Ya Libnan, readers mourned Fadlullah. Elias writes:
He was a good spiritual leader and a scholar. He wanted the best and a united Lebanon. He preached about having Islamic unity but also he wanted them to reach out to other non-muslims and be more open and forgiven to other religions. Lebanon have lost a great one and I hope many will follow in his footsteps. Rest in Peace and bless your family and Lebanon too.
Youssef adds:
We have lost a rare commodity, a spiritual guide who encouraged and promoted coexistence & unity. His actions spoke louder than his words. May his soul rest in peace and may God grant his family and loved ones the strength & patience required in this testing time. God bless humanity…. Peace
From Egypt, Zeinobia writes:
Fadallah was not only known for being a spiritual leader to Hezbollah since 1980s but also for his controversial religious opinions and fatwas (religious edicts). It is not only Lebanon that has lost one of its religious icons but also the Shiite Islamic world has lost one of its outspoken moderate figures.You can watch Al Jazeera documentary about Al Shiite to see him speaking about his sect's beliefs
Still in Egypt, Abu Al Maali Faeq notes (ar):
Young men mourn the death of Sayed Fadlullah in the Shia village of Bani Jamra in Bahrain
And finally in Bahrain, A Green Oasis reports that a march was held in the village of Bani Jamra in Fadlullah's memory. Click on the link for photographs from the march.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Armenia-Azerbaijan: Facebook war · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Despite the potential for new and social media to bridge the information gap between Armenia and Azerbaijan, two countries locked into a bitter dispute over the territory of Nagorno Karbakakh, The Armenian Observer  highlights yet another example of the arguably greater activity present in the use or manipulation of such tools for the opposite purpose. Engaged in a mutual tit-for-tat information war, the blog notes that hackers in Azerbaijan are currently using Facebook localization tools to continue the almost two decades long war between the two neighboring countries in cyberspace.


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Barbados: The PM’s Health  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“No matter our politics we all care for David Thompson the person and his loved ones – but does this mean that effective political debate in Barbados must stop…until the Prime Minister recovers?” Barbados Free Press looks at the effect that the Prime Minister's illness is having on the country.


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Belarus-Russia: PR campaign against Lukashenko · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Belarus Digest draws attention to the TV-movie “The God Father” – a documentary of Belarus under Lukashenko's rule, and sees it as a sign that Moscow wants to put pressure on Minsk.

author: Vilhelm Konnander


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Brazil: Critic to Vatican’s position on the death of Saramago · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Leonardo Sakamoto criticizes [pt] Vatican's position on the death of portuguese Nobel Prize winner José Saramago. He says that “there are people  celebrating the death of Saramago”, referring to an article which was published in Italy's main Roman Catholic  newspaper “L’Osservatore  Romano”.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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Brazil: Twitter Jokes on a ‘Red Card Player’ · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Considered by many the main  culprit for the elimination of the Brazilian team at the 2010 FIFA World Cup due to his bad behaviour in the football field, player Felipe Melo became the victim of a series of jokes in the twittersphere [pt].


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Brunei: Royal divorce sparks online buzz · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Last month, Brunei’s official television network, RTB, broadcasted a special announcement on the divorce of His Majesty The Sultan and Yang DiPertuan of Brunei Darussalam to his third wife Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim, a Malaysian.
Brunei Times provided more details
By command of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah, the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, the Chairman of the Council of Adat Istiadat, His Royal Highness Prince Haji Sufri Bolkiah yesterday announced that His Majesty has divorced Her Royal Highness Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim Mazhar.
The statement read: “His Majesty, for specific reasons (which were not disclosed), guided and ordained by Syara’ laws pertaining matrimonial matters, as well as in conformance with an extract of verse 229 of Surah Al-Baqarah in the Holy Quran, (which states) marrying in the proper way (Ma'aruf) and also dissolution of marriage in the proper way (Ihsan), on Wednesday evening (June 16, 2010) has (pronounced) talaq satu (first category of divorce) to His Majesty's spouse, Her Royal Highness Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim Mazhar”.
Effective yesterday, the terasul (royal title) as well as Brunei's Bintang Kebesaran (state decorations) and Pingat Kehormatan (medals of honour) that had been conferred on the former spouse were withdrawn.
Following the announcement, twitter and blogs went buzzing with the news. Many expressed their sadness and at the same time speculated on the reasons behind the divorce
Malaysian blogs such as Oh Bulan, Beautiful Nara, Roti Kaya, Noji and Faish carried out the above news but the commenters from Malaysia and Brunei were lively in their discussion on the marriage, accusing one another on who made the blunder in the marriage.
Roti Kawin blogged about the divorce:
Baca komen pembaca kami dari Brunei di’bawah, rata-rata mereka menyenangi pemergian Azrinaz Mazhar dari istana
Nasir, a reader of Roti Kawin, left this comment
TAK ELOK KITA DUA BUAH NEGRA NI BERGADUH SESAMA SENDIRI….. BERDOSA SALING MENUDUH DAN MENGHAMPIRI FITNAH PULA. JANGANLAH BERGADUH YA.


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China: Han Chinese unsuited to life in Tibet · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The Angry Chinese Blogger blogs about the recent discussion concerning various health problems Han Chinese face in Tibet.


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China: Why is Chinese football so weak? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Recently the New York Times posted the question on “Why does China lag far behind in soccer when it competes so aggressively in many Olympic sports?” and invited a number of experts to answer. Actually similar questions have been raised by Chinese netizens in various QA forums since the beginning of World Cup 2010 and below are a selection of ordinary Chinese people's answers.
Reality VS. Dream
In xncss.org.cn, a football fan asks: “Why is Chinese football so weak?” at the beginning of the World Cup. Below is the most satisfactory answer for his question:
中国足球为何烂泥扶不上墙？一个重要的原因也许是没有“市场退路”。由于没有“市场退路”，爱好者只能破釜沉舟，只能通过自己的努力，成为“猩猩”级人 物，才能杀出一条血路来，过上较为体面的生活。一旦失败，再回头已是百年身：青春期过了，先前百分百地投入足球运动，则百分百地影响了学习其他知识和记 忆，失败后的足球爱好者其社会谋生能力相当于一个小学生学历的成年人——因为市场不需要这些二三流的足球球员，他们就只能到足球以外的市场觅食！即是说足 球爱好者一旦失败，将陷入万劫不复的深渊，爱好足球风险之高可以以想见。
163.com uses a set of photos, “When can we show our pride in the World Cup?“, to show Chinese people's disappointment towards Chinese football. In the discussion thread, many people believe that the society is too poor to develop a vibrant football culture:
房价那么贵，物价老在涨，压力那么大，我没其他心思：没有心思被感动，也没有心思感动，我只想着能多挣点钱，因为在中国钱才是万万能的：能有住的，能有吃的，能有尊严，能养活亲人。我没心思踢球，梦想和现实的差距谁来买单？
Institutional problem
In SoSo, user Memories got frustrated about the football scene and asked a similar question:
中国足球怎么就这么差劲呢，连朝鲜都不如呢，我们这么大的中国，怎么就找不出22个踢足球好的人才呢？
The most satisfactory answer addresses the issue by referring to the institutional setting:
足球体制“`中国的足球 如果不改变现在体制 / 中国足球的现状大家都是知道的“““改变是很难的““只有从最基本开始改变“““中国足球的氛围到欧洲是很难的““`只有当足球成为中国的国球的时候““那时候才有可能的““`只有达到那种程度 才能一步一步考虑去争夺世界杯的冠军““否则都是扯蛋“““中国在国际的地位造成我们的球员很难出过门去踢比赛，很难有提高，不是来的外籍较量就能有提高，而是要自己的球员自己去提高的。
User, Wenwen family, elaborates on the institutional problem:
1、漠视现实，自以为是
中超联赛各队，除了某只不计成本的国企球队，实际都在亏损。中国足协却出台什么中超准入标准。什么盈利3000万等等。我 敢断言，中国球队没一只达到这些标准的。足协明知不可为，各队都是弄虚作假，偏偏定这么高的门槛。欧洲五大联赛的准入标准也没这么高，基本只有两条：1、 成绩合格 2、债务不超标
2、足协的“赌”
中国足协自2000年后就酷爱豪赌，先是豪赌世界杯，结果世界杯倒是参与了一 回，但中国足球却至少倒退了十年。2000年以前，好歹中国队还算是亚洲准强队，常年的亚洲老五。经此一赌，现在中国队充其量算亚洲2流，而且还是2流下 游。连8强赛都混不进去了。…
3、鲁能的“嘴”
山东足球扰乱市场 秩序，逆市而上，本无可厚非，谁叫人家是国企，不计成本呢。但鲁能从总经理到球迷都是能吹的了。动不动就中国最强队，中国皇马之类的言谈。今年四大皆空…中国足球之所以不好，就是山东这样好大喜功，不愿自我反省的人太多了。
4、体育总局的“令”
中国足球区别于其他国家最大的特点，就是足协并不能领导中国足球，足协上面还有体育总局这位大爷，没事就发一个莫名其妙的大令，足协的下官们，就德不管对错的执行下去。
7、政策的早令夕改
中国联赛的升降级改来改去就是明证。不知明年会不会再次宣布取消降级，可能性很大悠。以前联赛都快踢完了都敢改，何况明年联赛还没踢呢？
8、球迷的利益永远是无关紧要的
每年足协的政策都是先维护自己的利益，然后是俱乐部的利益。每次到最后都是损害球迷的利益。难道足协就怕球迷太多。
Culture, fate and others
Apart from institutional explanation, there are cultural perspectives. Wise guy believes the problem is related with the nature / culture of being Chinese:
因为中国人不有外国人那么有激情   体力没他们好    没有他们团结
In another QA thread in SoSo there are more answers to the question:
Sean Faris said:
进了世界杯，上帝就哭了，为了让上帝开心，所以就进不了
Dream talk makes 4 points:
1   中国   教练不行     没 别人那   经验  与 素质
2    中国     道德  品行 有 待  发展    黑哨太多     更别谈好的方面了!
3     球员  深入思想不够   且   踢球  并不尽全力去踢!
4      中国 足球的  长期 堕落  使得 国家 并不关心 中国 足球了!


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Colombia: 200 Years of Independence · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

The blog Realidades Colombianas [es] writes about the bicentennial of the independence of Colombia, thanking those who sacrificed their lives for the “new generations, meaning us.”


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Costa Rica: Congress Approves US Military Presence to Battle Drug Trafficking · Global Voices
Jenny Cascante Gonzalez

Strong reactions have been spread among Costa Rican blogs and social networks because of a controversial decision that the Congress availed last week. Under the premise of counteracting drug trafficking, the Costa Rican government has endorsed the arrival of a North American fleet to its shores. According to the announcement [es], the fleet could contain 7,000 soldiers, 46 warships, 200 artillery helicopters and some modern combat airplanes, all of them properly tested during the Gulf War.
Cristian Cambronero quotes an excerpt of the released statement and comments on it in his blog Fusil de Chispas [es]
“El personal de los Estados Unidos en Costa Rica podrá disfrutar de libertad de movimiento y el derecho de realizar las actividades que considere necesarias en el desempeño de su misión”… ¡¿Cómo?! ¿Cómo […] pasó esto? ¿Las actividades “que considere necesarias”? ¿A criterio de quién?
He adds,
¿Eso es lo que quiere Costa Rica? ¿Es el camino que decidimos? El mismo que adoptó México, el de la militarización y el choque armado. Desde 2006, esa estrategia fallida ha costado la vida de unas 20mil personas, mil policías o soldados, 59 periodistas. Justo esta semana se supo que el 95% de esas muertes, ¡ni siquiera se investigan!
Alfonso Palacios of Kaos en la red [es] questions the real interests behind the authorization:
Porque lo que es Costa Rica, Panamá y Colombia están rendidas ante los intereses norteamericanos en muchos aspectos. Y ello es parte de una estrategia geopolítica y militar claramente observable. Somos los tres países el ombligo de América. Además,  y ya habían tomado otras medidas militares, como la reactivación de la flota que ahora circula por aguas internacionales alrededor de América Latina.
Sathyr [es] wrote on his blog Cienpies [es]:
Nuestro país no es base militar de ningún país!!
Empezando por que no tenemos una propia, para que vamos a tener de otros países. (…) Esto es para mí una “invasión legal” por parte del gobierno de Estados Unidos.
Our country is not the military base of any country!!
For starters, we don’t have one of our own, why would we need a foreign one? (…) Personally, this is like a “legal invasion” by the Government of the United States.
As explained on Wikipedia: Costa Rica “constitutionally abolished its army permanently in 1949.”
The blog Conejitos Suicidas published a post questioning [es] these reactions:
He leído comentarios de gente que afirma que con la ayuda militar de los gringos, nuestro país se convertirá en el patio trasero de los yankis…yo les pregunto a estas personas si desean que entonces Costa Rica se convierta en el patio trasero de los carteles internacionales del narco, que de por si, ya nos tienen sitiados.
He goes on to say,
Mucho nos hemos quejado los ticos de la inseguridad en nuestro país, en la campaña pasada, fue uno de los temas clave. Con esta ayuda de los Estados Unidos, en algo se viene a ayudara paliar el problema y aun así más de uno se pone en varas. Despertemos, seamos realistas, nuestro país no está en capacidad de combatir el poderío de los grandes carteles de la droga; si otros vienen a poner el equipo y a exponer sus vidas en esta carajada, dejémoslos!
Y para terminar, a los opositores, más allá de mandarme a comer mierda por dar mi opinión, les invito a contestar la siguiente interrogante: Si mandamos al carajo a los gringos que vienen a ayudarnos a combatir el narco ¿qué soluciones proponen?
We have complaied a lot about the insecurity in our country, in the last campaign, it was one of the key issues. With this help from the United States, in some way it comes to aid in the problem and even then people reject it. Let's wake up, let's be realistic, our country is not capable of combating the power of the big drug cartels; if others come to provide their equipment and expose their lives for this, let's let them!
And to finish, to those who oppose this, more than telling me off for giving my opinion, I invite you to answer the following question: If we send the gringos home who come to help us combat drug trafficking, what solutions do you propose?
As he requested, many users responded to the blog post, like user Anonimo [es] who wrote:
Me parece muy acertado el punto de vista y lo comparto al 100%.
De verdad que los opositores a la medida y a la ayuda piensan que podemos contra el Narco, y eso no es cierto. Si no dejamos que nos ayuden Ciudad Juarez va a ser un parque de diversiones comparado a nuestro país donde la policia no podrá contra ese flagelo. Y no tenemos ejercito asi que mejor dejemos que ayuden porque sino la población honesta e indefensa es la que va a sufrir.
This point of view seems very accurate and I agree 100%.
Indeed, those who oppose the measure and the aid believe that we can fight against drug trafficking ourselves, and that's not true. If we do not allow them to help us Ciudad Juarez is going to be an amusement park compared to our country where the police cannot combat this scourge. And we don't have an army so we better let them help or else it is the honest and helpless people who are going to suffer.
Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla (@Laura_Ch) [es] twitted a message regarding the general disapproval:
No admitiremos la militarización de la lucha anti drogas. Minist. Tijerino y Comisionado Anti drogas aclarará lo del permiso legislativo.
Twitter users reponded to this Tweet by the president:
@sabross:
@laura_ch necesitamos combatir el narcotrafico y las leyes no ayudan , aceptemos la ayuda!!!
@iViS666:
@Laura_Ch pues haga algo! Yo no tengo que ver caminar x mi país soldados de otras naciones con permiso p hacer lo q quieran.
@JuanLuisNY:
@Laura_Ch Dona Laura muchos costarricenses si estamos felices de la presencia del rmy para ayudar a combatir el narcotrafico.
A petition against the measure circulates on social networks [es], as well as an appeal on the grounds of unconstitutionality presented by citizen Yeudy Blanco [es]. There is also a Facebook group [es] rejecting the militarization of Costa Rica.

author: Jenny Cascante Gonzalez


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Cuba: Fariñas in Danger  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuban bloggers continue to highlight the case of hunger striker and prisoner Guillermo Fariñas.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Japan: Decline of Students Studying in the U.S. and Overseas · Global Voices
apeescape

Photo by Flickr user Kawa0310
There was a recent online discussion at the National Bureau of Asian Research's Japan-US Discussion Forum about the marked decline of Japanese students studying overseas at U.S. universities [en]. Undergraduate enrollment has dropped more than 50% since 2000, while India and China has dramatically increased enrollment. South Korea's aggregate international enrollment to U.S. colleges used to be about equal to Japan in 2000, but now it is more than 2.5 times the amount (75 to 29 thousand). Only one Japanese undergraduate entered Harvard University the fall of 2009.
Japan still has a lot of students studying overseas relative to other countries [ja], but its number are decreasing and students permanently staying in their host countries remain non-existant [ja].
The following is the number of Japanese college students studying overseas for each country (source: tomorrow, Inc. [ja]). For comparison, I have also added the number of Japanese people living overseas (“expats”) (source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs [ja]), the number of Japanese visiting overseas (source: Ministry of Justice [ja]), Japanese high schoolers studying abroad for longer than three months (source: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology [ja]) and Japanese college students in a study abroad program (source: Japan Student Services Organization [ja]).
Despite the increasing number of people studying abroad via study abroad programs [ja], the overall rate of Japanese college students studying abroad seems to be decreasing across the board — even accounting for Japan's declining birthrate [en].
What is the cause of this remarkable decline? The following are a few perspectives.
Here is Toshio Onda, a journalist from Disco Corporation suggests [ja] that growing up in comfortable Japan gives a sense of security that make people risk-averse. Employers and educational institutions also do not take active steps to foster “hunger mentality.”:
世界における日本の位置づけなど日本にいては分からない。年々国際的地位が低下し、存在感を無くしているというのに、未だ経済大国の残像にとらわれ、変身をためらい、内にこもっている。若者に訴えたい。世界の優秀な人たちが集まる場所に出かけ、異なる文化を持つ人々と出会い、価値観をぶつけ合う中で、自分の価値観を磨いていくことがどれだけ大切なことか。目を開いて世界に挑み、世界に学ぶ貪欲さを持って欲しい。といっても若者の内向き志向を変えるのも難題だ。リスクを取って荒波にもまれた日本人留学生を企業がもっと積極採用するとか、ポスドクの欧米企業・大学への派遣を増やすなど政府も大学、企業も世界に羽ばたく人材育成に本腰を入れる時である。
An Assistant Professor of Statistics at a U.S. University, blogger Willy says the decline [ja] can be attributed to the lowered adoration of the outside world and the weakening of the economy relative to other countries. But more importantly, its simply not pragmatic to get an education abroad if the goal is to maximize domestic job prospects:
日本社会は博士号に対する評価が非常に低い。
理学系や社会科学系の博士など取ってこようものなら、
まともな就職すらままならない。
新卒一括採用主義（しかも原則２５歳まで）という
日本の特殊な雇用慣行が原因であろう。
上位３カ国の学生が、アメリカで就職しても良いし、
母国に帰ればかなり良い待遇の職を選べるのに対し、
日本人留学生は（一部の社会科学系を除き）コネがないと
日本での就職が厳しい、というなんとも不利な立場に追い込まれる。
この点に関しては、他国の留学生にはなかなか理解してもらえない。
また、米国での就職にしても、小学校から英語で勉強している
インド人等に比べた場合の語学力でのハンディはいかんともし難い。
こんな理不尽な状況では、留学生が増えないのは仕方ないだろう。
In Japanese society, the value of degrees in higher education is extremely low. If one has a doctorate in science, you can't expect employment at a respectable job. Japan's idiosyncratic Simultaneous Recruiting of New Graduates [en] (basically, people under 25) is probably a large factor.
Students from the top 3 exporters (India, China, Korea) have the luxury to get a job in the U.S. or return to their home country where a good job awaits. Japanese students who have studied abroad (with the exception of a portion of social science-types) in general have trouble obtaining a domestic job without personal connections. This situation is very difficult to understand for international students from other countries. The Japanese also have a disadvantage in getting jobs in the U.S., as other countries like India start their English training very early. Overall, it is an unreasonable situation for Japanese people and I don't wonder why more people don't choose this road.
Hideaki Morishima of IBM Japan notes [ja] that in the U.S., there is a [ja] high proportion of Japanese students enrolled in English learning programs (Intensive English Program), a high ratio of undergraduates to graduate students (high attendance in 2-year schools in particular) and the most popular subjects tend to be business, followed by the social sciences. He opines that companies, who are partially responsible for sending the youth abroad for an international education, have more leeway in breaking through the current gridlock instead of any legislation that may stall in Government:
日本の留学生は、もともと企業派遣か２年制短期大学への語学留学みたいなところが中心であるようだが、 その中でも「ビジネススクールなどでは、企業派遣の低下が近年著しい」というのが定説のようである。実際、私の日本人同級生でも、私を含めて9人中8人が自費であった。企業派遣が減った理由としては、最近の経済情勢に加えて、「留学帰りの社員はすぐ辞めて転職するから留学させない」という事情があるよう だ。そのため、学位を取れる2年コースではなく、わざと1年くらいに短縮した企業派遣や1-2週間のセミナーなら認めるという企業などもあるらしい。
企業側の人事部の都合もわかるが、これではあまりに了見が狭いという気もする。
そこで、提案だが、「個人での自費留学に関する費用を、必要経費として税金還付の控除対象とする」という施策はいかがだろう？
Many Japanese students that study overseas are sent by businesses or they study at 2 year university programs to learn the English language [ja]. In the former case, there is a remarkable decline in the number of students sent by companies. In reality, 8 out of 9 of my Japanese colleagues (including me) paid their own expenses to study abroad. The reason businesses are sending less people is partially because of the declining economy, but also because employees have a tendency to switch jobs upon their return. To prevent outsourcing of its workforce, many businesses limit the study abroad to one year so people don't receive a degree or 1-2 week seminars.
I can understand the human resource perspective on the corporate end, but I still have to call out its narrow mindedness.
Therefore, I have a proposal to the government. How about making self-payed overseas studying a tax deduction?
A student in Los Angeles, blogger Tatsuki thinks [ja] the lack of English skills by the Japanese combined with the inane financial investment one has to make to feel comfortable with English skills, prevent many from taking the significant step of going abroad. This is especially the case when lifestyle in Japan and its universities are of good quality relative to the other Asian countries:
日本で勉強してこなかったからか、語学学校＋ＥＳＬ地獄に飲み込まれ、お金と時間を無駄にする人が多い。基本的に留学生はいい鴨だから、英語力がなければ 語学学校とコミカレに高額な学費を払い続けることになる。私もカウンセラーにＥＳＬを取ることを強要されたが、強く拒否し、結局取らなかった。私にとって ＥＳＬは無意味だと思ったし、私の進路くらい私が決めたかった。噂によると語学学校とＥＳＬに日本人が沢山いて、そこから抜け出すことの出来る人間が極端 に少ないらしい。私が知っている限り、ＥＳＬには６つ以上段階がある。最初のプレースメントテストで良い点数を取らないと、ＥＳＬの底辺から始める事にな り、卒業までにとてつもない時間と費用が掛かる。語学学校も含めれば、７年近くアメリカに滞在している日本人もいるらしい。最低限の英語が出来ないと、留学してもお金と時間の無駄になるので、個人的に留学は考え直した方がいいと思う。
Overall, it seems like there is less merit for Japanese students to study abroad relative to other countries; also at least in the U.S., there is the additional barrier of language skills.

author: apeescape


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Egypt: On Khaled Said’s Murder  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egyptian blogger Mostapha shares his thoughts on the murder of Khaled Said, allegedly at the hands of two secret service policemen.


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Ghana: 7 reasons why Ghana is out of the World Cup · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ato identifies 7 reasons why Ghana soccer team is out of the World Cup: Players were thinking about lunch with Mandela, President Mills was not in the stadium, Other African countries brought ill-luck…”


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India: Tweets On Bharat Bandh · Global Voices
Rezwan

Offstumped rounds up a number of reactions in Tweeter on today's India wide Bandh (strike) by the opposition to protest inflation and price rise.


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Iraq: Caring for a Sick Grandmother · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Iraqi blogger Sunshine is now in Baghdad, caring for her sick grandmother.


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Iraq: Fixing What the Occupation has Destroyed will take Decades  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Iraqi blogger Faiza Al Arji is back in Iraq, working with an NGO serving women. She writes: “Iraq now is a postwar society,and it needs huge efforts to fix everything.
the occupation forces will pull out soon, and will leave Iraq in the middle of darkness and loss.we need decades to fix what the invasion has done to our country.”


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Japan: Bits of Beat Takeshi’s autobiography · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

In a post titled Kitano delivers a beat-down to today's Japan, Ryuganji translated some excerpts from an autobiography of director Takeshi Kitano [en], that will be released in Japan on July 7.


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Kenya: Twitter for Kenyan businesses · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Marvin writes about Twitter in the Kenyan business sector: “I am in the process of compiling a list of Kenyans businesses currently on Twitter. But prior to publishing that post, I thought it prudent to write a post on how Kenyan businesses can use Twitter in their businesses.”


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Kuwait: All About Mohammed Aljasem’s Case  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Kuwaiti journalist and blogger Mohammed Aljasem was released on bail after spending 48 days behind bars for allegedly defaming Kuwaiti Prime Minister Shaikh Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah. Supporters have set up this blog, in Arabic and English, to update readers on the case.


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Lebanon: Najwa Karam’s New Video Clip  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Hanitizer at Arab-American group blog KABOBfest  remarks on a new video clip by Lebanese signer Najwa Karam, which was produced with help from the Lebanese Army.


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Macedonia, Belgium: Endangered Democracy · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Macedonia in EU blog commented [MKD] on the article by Brussels-based journalist Tanja Milevska published in the Belgian [FRA] and Macedonian [MKD] press, advocating that with Belgian Presidency, the European Union must take active steps – primarily providing a date for the start of the EU membership negotiations – to counter the rise of eurosceptic nationalism and fear in Macedonia.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Nepal: Bleak Picture of Nepalese Economy · Global Voices
Rezwan

A libertarian in Nepal is irked by the recently reported bleak picture of Nepalese economy.


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Pakistan: Bloodshed In Lahore And The State Of Denial  · Global Voices
Salman Latif

Data Darbar – shufi srine in Lahore. Image by Flickr user Ikhaninc, CC BY-NC-SA
Pakistan faces yet another episode of terror as one of it's more revered shrines in Lahore, popularly known as Data Darbar, came under attack. According to media reports the shrine was attacked on Thursday by two suicide bombers who were able to sneak in and blow themselves up despite the security arrangements. Huge losses were incurred as the death toll rose to 45 with about 150 injured.
Immediately after the attack, the Pakistani blogosphere was fraught with posts filled with horror and anger. Most of them blame the serious lapse on security directly on the provincial government, who's official stance still stays far from admitting Taliban as the real enemies. In my own blog I wrote:
The worst part of the entire episode is the deluded denial the Punjab government still seems to dwell in. Sideeq-al-Farooq, the PML N spokesperson, openly defined the provincial government’s stance in a talk show on Samaa TV: that to them, Taliban are the good lot who successfully established a glorious rule in Afghanistan. He didn’t go beyond that. Nothing said on the show would stir him to admit that the Taliban were now the terrorists killing innocent people and are now a threat to national security.
Ahsan notes in his blog Five Rupees:
“It is this point which, for me anyway, is cause for the most angst and anger. If you picked a random person off the street from anywhere in Lahore, or even Pakistan, and asked them to name five potential sites for a terrorist attack in Lahore, Data Darbar would make most everyone's list. In addition, given Lahore's recent lapses in security — from the Ahmadi mosque attacks last month to the Moon Market attacks to assorted others — you would think that the shrine would be heavily protected, especially given the fact that just two days ago, the Interior Ministryhad informed the Punjab government of intelligence on an impending attack. But you would be wrong.”
The attack has also disenchanted those who believed Taliban would stay away from the shrines and other holy places. Clearly, to the militants, every thing different from their own version of Islam is a viable target. It is important to note here that Taliban belong to a rather puritanical faction of Islam, Deobandi which views shrine-going as an act of ‘shirk’ (worshiping someone other than God). Barelvis, on the other hand, are a faction that believe in shrine-going and many other rather unorthodox practices. The latter has a long history of peaceful existence, refusing, at all points, to resort to armed struggle.
Dr. Mubarak Ali, a famed Pakistani historian, cites in a BBC Urdu article that the Deobandis, the faction Taliban belong to, has been actively supported by Saudi Arabia. The translation reads:
“Barelvis didn't get any support from abroad. On the other hand, Deobandis and those belonging to Ahl-e-Hadees faction had Saudi support. Their madressahs were well funded and patronized by the Ahl-e-Hadees scholars. And because of this, Deobandis emerged much more powerful, politically and financially.”
A lot of other Pakistanis are also pointing fingers at petro-dollars for the virtually infinite funding that seems to be pouring into Taliban pockets. In a rather angry remark, Ale Natiq's facebook status reads, “its time all the Muslims in general and Pakistanis in specific stand against the Islamofascism exported by the KSA. Barelvis, Ahmedis, Shia, Sufi, Christians – who's turn now ?”
He also goes on to cite a number of research articles concluding sufficiently that the Saudi money, trickling down the Deoband madrasahs in Pakistan, has actively contributed towards furthering a much more radical, violent version of Islam.
While most of the blogs have expressed their angst over the attack, many of them have demanded the Punjab government to immediately come out of it's deluded denial and accept that Taliban are a reality, and a bitter reality for that matter. However, so far, the provincial government remains undecided as to whether or not take up the cause of eliminating the terrorist, evidently in fear of losing a part of its vote bank.

author: Salman Latif


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Palestine: Living on the Wrong Side of the Wall  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

On Mideast Youth, Lamiaa shares this poem and several photographs of the “apartheid” wall fencing the Palestinian territories.


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Palestine: Surviving with Portable Generators in Gaza · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

The only power plant in Gaza shut down temporarily on June 25, as fuel ran out due to a payment dispute between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah. The residents of Gaza are now suffering from power cuts for 12 or more hours a day, and have been forced to depend even more on diesel generators.
In 2006 the Israeli Air Force bombed the Gaza Power Plant (GPP), and since that time it has operated at reduced capacity, a situation exacerbated by the imposition of the blockade on Gaza in 2007. The European Union subsidised fuel for the GPP until the end of last year, but that responsibility then passed to the PA in Ramallah. Since that time fuel imports have been in decline, and officials in Gaza claim that the PA has deliberately been curtailing the supply. For its part, the PA has blamed Hamas for not making Gazans pay their electricity bills. (For a detailed report on the history of the electricity crisis and its impact on the humanitarian situation see this United Nations report [pdf].) After a weeklong shutdown, a delivery of fuel means that the power plant is now working at 50-60 percent of its capacity.
Darkness in Gaza, sourced from Free Gaza Movement on Flickr
Generators have become a essential part of life in Gaza. However, more than 100 people are known to have died from fires or carbon monoxide poisoning caused by generators, and earlier this year the international charity Oxfam launched an awareness-raising campaign about using them safely.
Gazan blogger Abu el Sharif writes at Shajar El ba6a6a:
Abu el Sharif continues:
One result of the widespread use of generators is the increase in pollution of various kinds. Lina Al Sharif, blogging at 360 km2 of Chaos, writes:
Gazans as always find their humble and often risky ways to cope up with the endless obstacles they face.  Power generators are problematic solution, while they solve some of the problems, they cause many others.
Most of the buildings have purchased a generator, Gaza has become like one giant factory. These power generators are risky; their choking gas emanations can cause many respiratory diseases. To add insult to the injury, their chugging-like noises are deafening.  Walking in the street has become torture: noise, pollution and the hot weather, you go home like you’ve been working as some chimney sweeper!
Many incidents occurred where people were killed or hurt because of these generators.
But it is hard now to imagine life in Gaza without these generators, though they are not human or environment friendly, they still make things a little bit easier for Gazans. Not to mention, it has become a thriving trade to many.
Lina concludes:
The only solution is considering those who are suffering from occupation, siege, and dehumanization, humans who deserve to live in dignity.
And so far politicians are failing to see the humanity of the Palestinians in Gaza.
At group blog Beyond our borders, Derar Mohamed writes:
“What! What have you just said?”… That was me; I was compelled to raise my voice, in an attempt to understand what my friend was trying to tell me few seconds rightly before crossing the street to another. By coincidence, the opposite street was out of electricity because Israel has prevented fuel, used for the electric-power station, from entering the Gaza strip. Therefore, all shopping markets had to turn on their electrical generators to high spot the dusty goods they sell during daylight and night. That scene is one of the most frequent things that occur in the blockaded city. Moreover, a harsh series of offensives and assaults affected, deeply, all aspects of Gazans’ life, from the war-torn infrastructure caused by lack of funds and needed equipments, to the damaged superstructure caused by the destructive Israeli military operations and thorough lack of building materials. But, the closed borders, the damaged facilities and the political tensions are all imposed realities on the people that have nothing to do with it.
He continues:
Since the end of the last Israeli offensive, a full wrong stereotype started to rise inside the global mainstream imagination about Gaza; death, explosions, landmines and destroyed buildings everywhere. With more clear words they used to say: the entrance of Gaza is poles apart from the exit. I tell them yes indeed, it is. You will enter Gaza with your thoughts about lack of security and the death moments. However, you will leave Gaza with much better views, friends and lovely memories. When you visit the historical town of Gaza, when you taste that hot Falafel from Gaza’s restaurants and when you take a picture side by side with a group of Gazan kids. You will definitely come back again, and if you were worried about electricity; don’t worry, generators will just be turned on. So, WELCOME TO GAZA.

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Palestine/Israel: Imagine 2018  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Imagine 2018 “is a multiplatform campaign that depicts visions by Israelis and Palestinians of 2018 if a peace agreement is signed versus maintaining the status quo or worse,” launched by OneVoice Movement.


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Peru: Visiting Puerto Pizarro · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Juan Arellano from Globalizado visited  Puerto Pizarro and posted some photos. He also visited a Cocodrilos  de Tumbe [es] breeding place, a crocodile in danger of extinction.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Puerto Rico: After the Protests · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Repeating Islands and Gil the Jenius comment on the fallout surrounding recent protests in Puerto Rico.


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Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan enter customs union · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

GUS-News reports [GER] that the presidents of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan today finally signed a long-awaited customs agreement.


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Russia: Pros and cons of motorist democracy · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

LJ user salut_doc discusses [RUS] the pros and cons of Russian car owners as a political factor for middle-class driven democratization.


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Russia: Restoring soviet statue of liberty · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Paul Goble of Window on Eurasia tells the story of the fate of the soviet statue of liberty – blown up by Stalin and failing to be restored by Khrushchev – taking the lead from [RUS] an article in Svobodnaya Pressa.


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Russia: Twitter talk of town · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Svetlana Gladkova of Profy discusses whether a Novosibirsk politician and twitterer @sapelkin has had his Twitter account suspended for political reasons, account abuse or as an election campaign PR-stunt.


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South Africa: Should we fly the flag after the World Cup? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Should South Africans keep flying the flag after the World Cup?:”Apparently buoyed by the ‘gees’ shown during Soccer World Cup 2010, there is an initiative to keep the flag flying after the event finishes next Sunday.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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South Africa/Ghana: Ghana helped South Africa lay its ghosts to rest · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ghana soccer team helped South Africa lay its ghosts to rest: “For a short while we:remembered that we are Africans; welcomed our brothers from Africa in the spirit of Ubuntu;celebrated when Ghana played like champions and despaired when those penalties failed.”


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South Korea: Keyboard Warriors Against Young Women · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

In the South Korean internet space, young women in their twenties have repeatedly been struck down by harsh virtual vigilantes who perceive them to be guilty of bad behavior. It has led to an online series of vicious attacks on individuals known as “rude girl”, “loser girl”, “dog shit girl” among others in the “-girl” series. The girls have usually not broken laws, but are instead judged and punished by angry netizens. Last week it was “cat murder girl”, who was targeted for killing a cat.
The cyber-vigilantism (or bullying) in Korea, is practiced mostly by men. More reasonable voices online have analyzed this phenomenon as modern witch hunting performed by belligerent netizens, in reaction to Korean women gaining more power while men struggle under heaping social and economic pressure. The ‘girls’ are everyday people who have been caught doing something annoying, mean or idiotic. But unfortunately, by ticking off vocal Korean netizens, it takes only a day for their lives to be mercilessly ruined.
The latest ‘Rude girl’ refers to a KyungHee University student who had a huge screaming match with an elderly cleaning lady and hurled curses at her.
The ‘Loser girl’ from 2009 is Lee Do-kyung, an Hongik University student who appeared in a famous talk show and said that every guy less than 180 centimeter (5 feet 11 inch) is ‘a loser’, turning a majority of Korean male population against her. It took less than a day for her personal information including her home address, cellphone number and photos be revealed and her Cyworld page (Korean version of Facebook)  bombarded with curses. It even led to a lawsuit as one guy who is reportedly 162 centimeters high (5 feet 4 inch) filed a complaint to the Press Arbitration Commission against the KBS (Korea Broadcasting System) who broadcast the show, asking for financial compensation for the mental distress caused from the inappropriate ‘loser’ comment.
The history of internet vigilantism in Korea traces back to 2005's ‘Dog shit girl’ case. A college student girl whose dog excreted in a subway compartment left the scene without cleaning the ‘shit’. Photos of the scene taken by a commuter were posted over the web and angry netizen tracked her down and exposed her full name, email, Cyworld page and photos of her. This public humiliation made her quit her college.
In cases like ‘Toenjang girl’ (Toenjang is a soybean paste in Korean, the origin of the word unclear) it does not point out a single girl but stigmatizes a large group of Korean women fantasizing about and imitating the ‘Sex and the City’ New-yorker lifestyle. The term has been used as a scarlet letter to demean young females, who behave as worldly snobs, wrapped in designer clothes and handbags and who never pay a single penny on a date, and judge people solely based on their appearance and their financial status.
A blogger Iro777 commented even though he cannot agree with the loser girl's comment because he is a 169 cm (5 feet 6 inch) tall loser guy, the pubic shaming went too far.
매번 요런 일이 있을 때마다 되풀이되는데. 너무 지나친 곳까지 와버린 게 아닌가 싶다.. 어떤 일이 생기든간에 상대를 완전 만신창이를 만들어 놓고 나야 놔 주는… 승냥이 떼와도 같은 키보드 워리어들의 태도 역시도 루저녀의 잘못된 발언만큼이나.. 아니 그보다 더 역겹다…마치 루저녀는 대역죄인인 것처럼, 숨어서 온갖 모욕과 마녀사냥을 다 당하면서도 참아내야 하고, 키보드 워리어들은 마치 자기네들이 정의와 진리의 수호자인양 나내면서 그녀의 모든 것들을 물어뜯어대는 현재의 모습은 혐오스럽다.
On the opposite side, stands the Keyboard Warriors, an aggressive group of net users hurling sarcastic, scathing but sometimes insightful comments on possibly every issue and the one judging these ‘girls’. Their victims scope wide from the government to young women and the quality of the comments are varied by each warrior's intelligence, while some are reasonable and witty (but still spiteful) and the others purely mean and hurtful.
An image of a ‘keyboard warrior’ circulating on the internet. The three sentences below Moses of the Bible say, “I can split up the sea from the keyboard. I am tall and fit by the keyboard. Even the President, I don't envy by the keyboard.” (rough translation)
The term, Keyboard Warrior was made around 2004 by an open debate between a vocal netizen who used to harshly criticized the government and a former Grand National Party’ spokeswoman Chun Yeo-ok. In a debate the netizen challenged, he was beaten down helplessly by the spokeswoman and the witnesses from the scene started calling someone who acts like a defiant warrior in the web but stay subdued in real life, a keyboard warrior. A blogger Netpen elaborated more on this ironical species.
각종 사이트의 게시판에 올라오는 댓글들을 보면 그야말로 입에 담기조차 어려운 내용들이 매우 많다. 아무리 익명으로 쓰는 글이지만 정도가 너무 심해 도대체 어떤 사람이기에 그런 글들을 거침없이 쏟아 붓고 있는가 하고 궁금해진다. (하지만 이들은) 알고 보면 실제 생활에서는 성격이 소심해서 남에게 실례를 끼치거나 함부로 욕을 하지 않은 착한(?) 사람들이다. 현실세계에서는 겁이 나서 파리 한 마리조차 죽이지도 못하지만 사이버공간에서는 전쟁터에 나선 전사(戰士)처럼 용감하게 행동하는 사람들이 바로 이들이다. 네티즌들은 이런 사람들을 ‘키보드 워리어(Keyboard Warrior)’, 즉 ‘인터넷 전사(戰士)’라고 부른다.
Women, especially Korean women have become a favorite target of these quarrelsome population as more women encroached into men's tuft.A female netizen commented that even though she admits some flaws Korean women have and the upper hands women took away from male, it is still the women who are being oppressed in Korea, if you have to name one.
솔직히 여자인 저도 인정하는건데 요즘 보면 개념없는 분들 참 많으시죠…자기 유리할 때를 골라 남녀평등, 레이디 퍼스트를 동시에 외치시는 여성 분들이 많으시니까요. 그러나 여성들이 사회 활동을 하고, 사회적 지위가 향상된 지 얼마 되지 않았기 때문에 이러한 이중적인 잣대들은 그저 과도기적 현상이라고 생각했는데… (아직까지는) 대한민국 남성분들은 역시 어느정도 가부장적인 가치관을 지니고 있고 사회 생활이라는 측면에서 여성보다 더 유리한 조건에 있는 경우가 많잖아요…제 생각보다 많은 분들이 남성VS 여성이라는 잣대로 편을 갈라 서로 쌈박질하는 걸 즐기시더라구요.
South Korea is changing from a men's exclusive territory to a women-friendly society in recent decade. Women have made into mainstream Korean society by passing bar exam and getting themselves into government posts and entering professional fields. This year's foreign service examination result shows 60 percent of the people passed the exam are women. This social shift occasionally created a weird scene like a charming lady with a lucrative job demands an expensive meal on a date to an unemployed man struggling to make ends meet or a situation of the responsibility and financial burden heaped on the husband for the sake of tradition even though the wife is earning more money. The anger from more of the financial stress and less of the privilege drove males into taking a violent actions. A blogger Nofta0907 commented that keyboard warriors are venting their angers to young women to release their stress and remorse.
젊은 여성은 언제나 이슈의 초점이 된다. 때로는 누군가의 의도된 상업화의 산물로, 때로는 분노의 대상으로, 때로는 누리꾼의 자발적 액션으로 세상에 드러난다. 그런데 왜 유독 젊은 여성에게만 인권해체를 강요할까. 하나, 젊은 여성에게는 이슈의 좋고 나쁨에 따라 상관없이 클릭수를 높일 수 있는 상업성이 있다. 둘, 현실에서 좌절된 욕망을 넷에서나마 풀어야 한다.셋. 만만하니까… 넷. 너의 부도덕성과 허영심을 한껏 꾸짖으면서 나에게 주어진 루저스런 삶을 잊고자 한다.
A blogger Ooljiana commented that the huge discrepancy between women's expectation from the men and the male's actual ability to make money under the current economic crisis is the cause of the internet terror attack on young women.
그런데 왜 하필 ‘00녀’일까? 흉악범죄는 남성들이 훨씬 많이 저지른다. 권력을 쥐고 나라를 이 지경으로 만든 것도 남성들이다. 하지만 주기적으로 공분의 대상이 되는 건 젊은 여성들이다…무한경쟁 속에서 남성의 처지가 점점 궁하고 다급해지는데, 남성에게 원하는 것은 점점 많아지는 여성들에 대한 원망이다. (…한국여성들은 돈을 안 내고, 남자의 외모와 재산을 따지고, 자기만 안다는 내용이었다…) 김옥빈이 아직까지 비호감녀로 찍혀있는 것은 할인카드 발언 때문인데, 그것은 남성들의 경제력이라는 역린을 건드렸다. 남성들의 외모 콤플렉스를 건드린 루저녀도 역시 매장 대상으로 찍혔다…(물론 남성들에게 즐거움을 주지 못하는 ‘오크녀’도 씹어 돌리는 대상이다.)
What is aggravating the situation is the society's obsession with looks, a criteria that only used on women are now judging men. A blogger Hellobit who jokingly introduced himself as a tall, thereby a winner guy, commented that Korean society's distorted culture of discriminating people by their appearance are the one that should be criticized.
키 작은 사람을 루저로 만드는게 그녀만의 잘못인지 난 잘 모르겠음. (참고로 말하자면 난 키 183cm의 위너다) 정상적인 사회 생활하면서 상대방을 키 가지고 안갈궈 본사람 진짜 손들어보라고 말하고 싶다…그리고 ‘키'를 가지고 그런 유머를 사용하는 것도 정말 일/상/적 이다…정리하자면 루저녀의 루저 발언은 그냥 정말로 ‘식상한’ 개그코드를 매우 자극적이고 센세이셔널하게 조미료를 쳐서 TV 방송에 떡하니 띄운 것에 불과하다. 물론 이런 식의 개그가 ‘식상하고’ ‘일반적'이라고 해서 정치적으로 옳은 것은 아니다. 나도 그런 개그를 치면서 낄낄대면서 뭔가 아니다 싶다는 생각을 할때도 있었고, 이번 이야기를 들으면서 문제는 문제다라고 생각은 했다. 근데 그건 그 루저녀가 문제라는게 아니라, 1)사람의 선천적 외모가 사람을 평가하는 주요한 대상이되는 점 2)상대방을 깔아뭉개는 개그가 오늘날의 메인 개그코드인 점이 문제인 것이다.
The rapidly changing society poses both threats and the opportunity to both sexes. The keyboard warriors can take the high road of venting their anger by making reasonable criticisms on current issues or take a slippery slope of witch huntings that will shrink the remaining highground where they were standing on.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Sri Lanka: Murder Of Beggars · Global Voices
Rezwan

Indi.ca informs that a number of beggars had been killed on the streets of Colombo in the past two months and the government response was rounding up beggars and sending them to rehabs.

author: Rezwan


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Syria: All About the Lebanese  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Syrian Maysaloon has a lot to say about the Lebanese in this post.


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Taiwan: Photos of Formosan Macaques · Global Voices
David Reid

The Daily Bubble Tea has some photos of Formosan Rock Macaques in Changhua County. The macaques are endemic to Taiwan and can often be seen in forest areas.

author: David Reid


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Trinidad & Tobago: Looking Good  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

This Beach Called Life thinks that female football fans may be on to something.


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UAE: The end of Emirates Business 24×7 · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Dubai-based Alexander McNabb, from Fake Plastic Souks, writes about the end of a newspaper – Emirates Business 24×7 – “the newspaper that managed to be as unwieldy and unattractive as its name.”


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Uruguay: World Cup in the 21st Century · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Gabriel Budiño [es] analyzes how new technologies like Twitter and Facebook have affected the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He cites the use of Twitter by Uruguayan football player Diego Forlán and the quick creation of a Facebook group [es] about the handball by player Luis Suarez against Ghana.


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Bahamas: national pride · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Nicolette Bethel reports on the recent popularity of Bahamas National Pride Day: “a step or two towards understanding ourselves and our country, the fact that we the people made the choice to celebrate our nationality and took matters into our own hands.”

author: Nicholas Laughlin


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Barbados: economic crisis? · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Barbados Underground posts an analysis of a recent speech by former prime minister Owen Arthur, on the current economic situation in the Caribbean. “In the midst of this economic disaster where are our leaders, where are the voices speaking to this unprecedented crisis, educating our people to its consequences?”


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Bermuda: water worries · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

“Water. It's hard to believe that this, the most basic of resources is still a major issue for so many Bermudians.” Tales from the Triangle's Tip worries about resource management and other social concerns.


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Cape Verde: Behind the Concept of National Branding · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

Bloggers from Cape Verde have been discussing the originality of the logo which resulted from a national tourism branding competition: some say it lacks quality, others question its link with the national identity. In response, designer Rafael Fernandes created a blog to explain the concept.

author: Sara Moreira


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China: Citizen statement on his detention at the police station · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Artists  Yang Licai and Wu Yuren was detained by police when they filed a report on the confiscation of electricity generator in the 798 art district by the property management. However, Yang was detained for 10 days while Wu remain missing. Yang describes what had happened in a citizen statement.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Computer Crime Act of Thailand · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Sinfah Tunsarawuth and Toby Mendel published a review of the controversial Computer Crime Act of Thailand which is used by the government to block thousands of websites.

author: Mong Palatino


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Côte d’Ivoire: Reporter Guy-André Kieffer Gone Missing for Six Years Now  · Global Voices
Anna Gueye

French-Canadian reporter Guy-André Kieffer went missing in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire on April 16, 2004. Blogger Ménilmuche who knew him personally has written a complete dossier on the matter  and provides  updates on the story [Fr].  Updated informations on Kieffer are hard to find  in the French mainstream media .

author: Anna Gueye


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East Timor: Concert against human trafficking · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Notes from Abroad posts pictures of a concert in Timor Leste which was organized to generate awareness about human trafficking


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Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania: Past, present, and future · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Veiko Spolitis of Baltic discusses the past, present, and future of governance in the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

author: Vilhelm Konnander


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France: A Concert in Support of Illegal Immigrants · Global Voices
Anna Gueye

« Rock Sans Papiers » a concert in support of illegal immigrants in France will be held in Paris (Bercy) on September 18, 2010 [Fr]. Many household names in the French music scene  such as Jacques Higelin and Abd Al Malick have committed to participating.