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Pakistan: The Veenagate Controversy · Global Voices
Faisal Kapadia

Veena Malik at Lux Style Awards. Image by Arun Reginald. CC-BY-SA-3.0
When Veena Malik, an aspiring Pakistani starlet joined the cast of characters on the Indian reality show  Big Boss, not many heads turned in her direction. Most did not believe that she will survive at the show beyond a couple of weeks at best. However she made it through the preliminary rounds and became a household name in India when she was finally ousted in the last round of this spectacle. Back home the hardliners were already sharpening their knives to teach her a lesson for her alleged obscene antics in the show and now she comes back to face the music. She stands outspoken and defiant though, as on a recent talk show on Express TV she was accused by Mufti Abdul Qawi (a religious scholar) of insulting Pakistan and Islam.
Ayesha at Sharp Perceptions blog lauds Veena's courage:
Kudos to Veena for standing up for herself; for giving words to the feelings of those countless people who fear to speak out in public even on real issues faced by our society.
Raza Rumi at Pak Tea House notes:
“In a nutshell, Veena Malik has challenged the middle class morality embedded in the Urdu press and, by extension, its electronic counterpart. The mere fact that a Pakistani performer is prancing around in western clothes and playing to the Indian viewers’ gallery by indulging in mock-romance with a ‘Hindu’ actor has alerted the guardians of public morality also endearingly known as the ghairat brigade. The imbecile notion of ghairat largely focuses on controlling women and regurgitating militant nationalist narratives through state and non-state actors. Anchor after anchor has prodded hostile commentary on Veena Malik and declared her short of wajib-ul-qatl. This is not too dissimilar to the public floggings of the Taliban variety.”
Sana Saleem at the Dawn blog wrote about the inequality existing in Pakistan created by the edict preachers:
“It is true, no one would have dared to speak in such a way to a man, call him names or even questioned his character or his activities on national television. Not that they should, but has anyone ever questioned Atif Aslam, Ali Zafar, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan or the numerous others who have worked in Indian films, produced music and music videos in India?  Has anyone ever scrutinised their actions? We have never discussed if any of their videos merit Islam or our culture. Yet, we consider it our right to slander a woman and make her look like the sole custodian of the country’s ‘honour’. Those who believe such vehement reactions are justified need to rethink their definition of ‘honour and dignity’. Honour that gets disrupted because of a woman’s appearance on a reality show but remains unscathed when over a 1,000 infants – most of them girls – are killed or abandoned to die. This is nothing short of hypocrisy”
Rumaisa Mohani at her blog little things noted the rise of a different segment of Pakistan in the light of recent events:
“In Pakistan, there seems the rise of a new large segment in our society —> Semi-Liberals or they may be called Semi-extremists (Neither Rightists nor Leftists) .. They are coming out in the open media and expressing their concerns about their image of being Muslims & Pakistanis being manipulated and projected in the most unwarranted ways”.
Not all however even some amongst the moderate Pakistani blogsphere hold the same views on this:
Reebs at Spring Of Autumn blog thinks that the show Big Boss should be banned in Pakistan:
“Moreover, Indian also media played a wonderful tact to gain maximum profit by deciding to involve Pakistani celebrities in BIG BOSS 4. Veena Malik is the most conflicted and a disliked personality of Pakistan. She knows how to stay in the media and gets everyone’s attention. In big boss 4 too, she has committed serious crimes, if judged according to the ethics and values of the culture/religion she belongs to. As she is a Pakistani contestant, the show big boss is getting very famous in Pakistan, therefore the cable TV channels and Pakistani satellite channels ARY are broadcasting all the episodes. It is a source of corrupting the young generation as well as hurting the family values. Big boss is allegedly creating bad taste in the prime time of family.“
Speak Your Mind blog not only comments on the issue but reveals a view of Veena Malik which is less than flattering:
“We have seen Veena Malik from the good old days. She is one of those faces who never got any recognition in the industry. She is spontaneous and open about her real life, surgeries, opinions, love life and anger, I feel Veena Malik is more of an attention seeker and hypocrite.”
Currently Veena Malik faces not just public criticism on her appearances on Bigg boss but has also been charged with “Immorality” in court in Lahore as reported by Frontier India  & Allvoices:
“The petitioner pleaded that actress Veena Malik committed immoral and un-islamic acts during her recent performance in an Indian reality show and the same was also reported in local press”
All the views above, whether for Veena or against her, seem to further cement the fact that Pakistan now stands divided amongst its conservative and liberal forces, both vying for power and not willing to budge an inch on their views.

author: Faisal Kapadia


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Pakistan: Wake Up Before Its Too Late · Global Voices
Rezwan

“Pakistan’s quasi-democracy might be the nation’s last chance, before a tide of part real, and part manufactured extremism engulfs the country,” opines Raza Rumi.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Rezwan


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Russia: Bloggers Choose RuNet Events of 2010 · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

LiveJournal administration published [RUS] list of the most memorable events and personalities of 2010 chosen by bloggers. The winners: Wikileaks, Moscow mayor's resignation, wildfires, riots on Manezhnaya square, investigation of corruption in Russian pipeline company “Transneft”. Ilya Varlamov (Zyalt) has been chosen as the best blogger, and the photo of the year has been shot by Igor Podgorny.

author: Gregory Asmolov


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Russia: Domodedovo Airport Blast · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A bomb exploded at Moscow's Domodedovo airport, at least ten casualties reported. An avalanche of Twitter items here (RUS) and here (RUS, ENG). @ann_mint, who works at Domodedovo, was one of the first Twitter users to report on the blast; “There're victums in #domodedovo Pray for us,” she wrote (ENG) a few minutes ago.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: First Twitter Reports of Domodedovo Suicide Bombing · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

A  deadly explosion killed at least 35, and wounded as many as 70 people in the Moscow airport Domodedovo. Early reports assert (ru) that the attack was a suicide bomb. Information has been coming in from many sources. Twitter is experiencing an explosion of tweets with the hashtag #Domodedovo. At the moment the information flow is extremely intense; the hashtag is receiving about 100 message per second. LiveJournal has been less mobile in reflecting the news not to speak of TV channels that were at least half an hour late with covering the disaster.
Initial reporting
The first news came from Twitter-user Ilya Likhtenfeld (@likhtenfeld). Below is the selection of his tweets:
16:44: В домодедово теракт! Страшный взрыв в здании аэропорта! Десятки тел разорваных людей! Звоните близким. RT
16:48 @emenschikova у меня там бизнес, много сотрудников
16:57 По оценкам моих сотрудников около 70 погибших! Сергей вынес 15 человек раненых!
17:14 У людей находящихся рядом с Домодедово начинаются перебои с сотовой связью.
17:16 Сейчас в новостных лентах ничинают занижать кол-во погибших
17:28 Не можем найти сотрудницу, которая была на смене. Нигде её нет
17:34 Всем отвечаю: у меня там более 100 сотрудников работают! Вся инфа от них! Фото и видео скоро будут!
17:48 НАЧАЛИ ГЛУШИТЬ СОТОВУЮ СВЯЗЬ! постоянные перебои в разговорах с людьми, которые там находятся
17:54 Уже двоих сотрудников не можем найти. Ещё одну девочку увозят на скорой
17:56 Погибших не менее 70! Это говорят несколько человек, который были прямо там. Раненых много больше 100
17:56 Всё оцепили никого не пускают.
18:07 Это не багаж! Бомба была на человеке, который стоял среди встречающих. Рядом с Азия-кафе.
User @stas_grigoriev uploaded series of videos at his twitvid channel:
User Djem79 uploaded this (unverified) video:
Issues and reactions
As information sources have diversified, differences in reporting have started to appear. One of them is the reluctance of the major TV channels to cover the event. Oleg Kozyrev wrote:
центральные каналы не прерывали вещания из-за теракта
по России 24 долгое время была только строка, тогда как мировые каналы уже дали выпуски новостей из Домодедово
Раша Тудей единственный, кто вещает постоянно только об этом
+ молодцы Пятый канал – сделали экстренное прямое включение-сюжет
VicorBad wrote: RT @S1monenko: Медведев из твиттера узнал, что творится в #domodedovo и собрал экстренное совещание. это же хер пойми что,а не страна.
Another issues was a taxidrivers that raised the prices for their services.
@MashaDrokova:
позор:( RT @vol1oleg: Опять таксисты в #domodedovo взвинтили цены до 10-20 тысяч рублей
As the problem was described, volunteers showed up:
@mrzff:
Снова нужны #freetaxi в #domodedovo
The hashtag #freetaxi was used during the bombings in April 2010, when a similar problem appeared.
At 18:04 (MSK) a new hashtag #dmdhelp was set up to organize help with transport. As though following the information about the price gouging of taxi drivers, at 18:43 Aeroexpress (an express train that connects airport and the center of Moscow) introduced free transportation for everyone.
The first Twitpics have also begun appearing. User @liktenfeld posted an image of bodies.
This apparent terror act, the first in 2011, has showed an important new feature of the Russian media space. If a year ago Russians were just experimenting with new media tools (and, especially Twitter) during the emergencies, in 2011 they faced this disaster better prepared. Twitterer's quick reaction bore an Twitter anecdote, that even the president found out about the event from his Twitter feed. At the same time, Twitter-mobilization against the escalated taxi rates led to self-help organization and a decision to remove the train tariff for passengers.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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South Africa: Meet students for humanity · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A group of inspiring young (15-18) South African students from poor, underprivileged areas; ‘townships’ around Cape Town, share about their life and communities online.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Taiwan: Greenpeace member arrested · Global Voices
Portnoy Zheng

Tipsuda Atichakaro, a Thai member of Greenpeace's flagship Rainbow Warrior, was arrested in the first protest in Taiwan during the ship's East Asia tour to protect the ocean. Taiwan environmental activist wobblies67 tweets that “…a member was arrested by the police and is now under investigation at District Prosecutors Office. Our lawyer friend says that if she is not released on a bail, then we are going to act upon it”. You can read the organization's demands and watch live video of the protest from their campaign page.

author: Portnoy Zheng


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Turkmenistan: Iranian Turkmens Make Contact · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Annasoltan investigates the life of ethnic Turkmens in Iran reaching out to their compatriots across the border, covering the historical and political context as well as the current situation.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Uzbekistan: Uzbek president’s visit to Brussels condemned by civil society · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov is meeting with European Union officials in Brussels on a visit that human rights are describing as a secretive affair, neweurasia’s Mirsulzhan writes. He also posts an open letter of the civil society activists to the EU.


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Africa: Queer Africa: Pre-Writing, Writing, Re-Writing · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

On Queer Africa: …when I am asked to write on “queer Africa” or think about it, (the invitations rarely come, so this is hypothetical), I am asked to do “something” “impossible.”


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Arab World: Palestinian “Abed Raboo goes for the Qatari Jugular” · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The Palestinian Papers, a leak which contains more than 1,600 internal documents on a decade of peace talks with Israel, created a furore online, after being released by Qatar-based Al Jazeera.  The controversy continues as Palestinians deny the leak's content and context and wage a full scale attack on Qatar.
Palestinian Abed Raboo launches a full scale attack on Qatar
The documents, which cover memos, e-mails, maps, minutes from private meetings, accounts of high level exchanges, strategy papers and even power point presentations and which date from 1999 to 2010, are being released in batches, and reveal new details about:
* the Palestinian Authority’s willingness to concede illegal Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, and to be “creative” about the status of the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount;
* the compromises the Palestinian Authority was prepared to make on refugees and the right of return;
* details of the PA’s security cooperation with Israel;
* and private exchanges between Palestinian and American negotiators in late 2009, when the Goldstone Report was being discussed at the United Nations.
Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas’ senior aide Yasser Abed Rabbo held Press conferences in Ramallah to address the leaks, which were followed closely by netizens from across the region. In particular, tweeps took note of Abed Rabbo's attacks on Qatar, the home of Al Jazeera.
From the United Arab Emirates, Mishaal Al Gergawi notes:
Abed Raboo goes for the Qatari jugular.
Fellow UAE writer Sultan Al Qassemi followed the press conferences closely, quoting Rabbo. In this tweet, Abed Rabbo is quoted accusing Qatar of “splitting the Arab world”:
Abed Rabbo “And how His Highness the Emir of Qatar is splitting the Arab world through different sects” #PalestinePapers
In another tweet, Al Qassemi adds:
Abed Rabbo is launching an indirect attack on the Qatari government with his referrals of “those behind Al Jazeera” “& those who finance it”
Jordanian Ali Abunimah notes:
PA's Abed Rabbo is now launching a full-scale attack on Qatar and its Emir, who have nothing to do with #palestinepapers
Abbas Al Lawati, from Oman, agrees:
Abed Rabbo is getting personal with Qatar #palestinepapers
Palestinian @Falasteeni exclaims:
Silly Abed Yasser saying Aljazeera took everything out of context…um, idiot, the entire documents are available online for all to see
Egyptian @3arabawy remarks that Egyptian singer Tamer Hosni would have fared better:
Tamer Hosni would have performed much better than Abd Rabbo on that occasion. I mean, u need someone who can move & shake. #palestinepapers
And @draddee adds:
PASpox: We'd like Qatar's amir to show transperencey by uncovering Qatar's role in collaborating w/ Israel & Iran & spying on Arab neighbors
Following accusations from the Palestinian Authority that the documents have been taken out of context, Egyptian @fustat quips:
One might wonder what the right context of the #PalestinePapers would be according to Yasser Abed Raboo, Saeb Erakat et al?
For more on the Twitter conversation, follow the hashtag #PalestinePapers
Photo credit: Sultan Al Qassemi

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Argentina: Experimenting with Natural Dyes · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Jade Scully blogs about the experiments with natural dyes that are taking place in The Argentine National Institute for Industrial Technology (INTI).

author: Silvia Viñas


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Brazil: Belo Monte Dam returns to the spotlight · Global Voices
João Miguel Lima

This post is part of our special coverage Forest Focus: Amazon.
Dilma Rousseff‘s government has just begun and it's already facing a virtual mobilization against it – and the issue is the environment. On January 7, the minister of Mines and Energy, Edison Lobão, declared the construction license for Belo Monte Dam would be “moved forward”, in order to start construction in February. Ibama's (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Natural Renewable Resources) position is that the ministry still has to provide proof of the project's environmental viability. Days later, on January 12, Abelardo Bayma, president of Ibama, resigned from the position he had occupied since April 2010, claiming personal reasons. However, the blog Político, hosted by Época magazine, published a post about what could be his true motive [pt]:
Em reuniões com a diretoria da Eletronorte há dez dias, Abelardo se negou a emitir a licença definitiva para a construção da usina. Ele argumentou que o IBAMA não poderia emitir o documento porque o projeto ainda está cheio de pendências ambientais.
Blogger and journalist Leonardo Sakamoto considers the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, which is set for the Xingu river, state of Pará, “perhaps the most controversial project within the Program to Accelerate Growth (PAC, which stands for Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento, in Portuguese)” – one of the government's main programs. He comments on the post [pt] published on Político and criticizes the project:
De qualquer forma, o ponto é o seguinte: Belo Monte será um grande gerador de impactos sociais e ambientais. Por exemplo, o Ministério Público Federal avalia em cerca de 40 mil o total de atingidos – incluindo populações tradicionais e indígenas.
Mobilizationa and online petition
As soon as this new controversy arose about the dam's license, the online petition website Avaaz launched a petition, urgently calling out for signatures. On January 17, five days after the petition was created, Avaaz proudly announced the goal of 150,000 signatures had been reached. On that day, the petition surpassed 275,000 signatures, which can be partly attributed to the mobilization on Twitter. Users tweeted the same message several times in the last few days:
Assine a petição contra Belo Monte: impeça este desastre ambiental na Amazônia! http://avaaz.org/parebelomonte
Avaaz also generated an English version of the Twitter message:
Sign the petition to stop the Belo Monte dam in the Amazon! @Avaaz http://bit.ly/StopBeloMonte
Among those users, Andréa (@AndrelBarbour), expressed her interest in knowing more about the dam:
Aproveitando pra ler mais sobre a questão de Belo Monte.. É importante q a gente saiba direitinho o q ta acontecendo, diz respeito a tds nós!
Header of Avaaz petition to stop the hydroelectric dam of Belo Monte
On the other side is the blogger Alexandre Porto, who wrote the post “Eu não assino petições contra a Belo Monte” [pt] (which translates as “I do not sign petitions to stop Belo Monte“) on his blog. Despite the environmental impact, he believes the project provides positive aspects. He adds that the mobilization to stop the dam is an example of what he calls “sanctuary environmentalism”, which is more concerned with protection than with the socio-economic situation. On his post, he refutes each paragraph of Avaaz's petition:
Já os pouco mais de 500 índios, que moram a jusante da barragem principal, onde o volume de água diminuirá no período de chuva, poderão ser realocados em nova aldeia, vizinha aos canais ou ao próprio reservatório principal.
[Belo Monte] […] envolve danos sócio-ambientais é óbvio, mas em alguma medida qualquer fonte energética pede seu preço. Produzir uma média segura de 4.000 MW durante o ano, com picos de 11.000 MW, é complexo para qualquer matriz, mesmo as aparentemente mais brandas.
Infographics showing the dams and reservoirs, projected for a region known as Volta Grande, along the Xingu river. The image was posted on Alexandre Porto's blog; the original source is the newspaper O Liberal, of February 3, 2010.
Repercussions of the Belo Monte Dam
Highlighting the project's impact on indigenous and traditional populations along the Xingu river, Elisa Thiago wrote about Belo Monte Dam for Global Voices in Portuguese, in October 2010. Elisa highlights that these populations’ resistance in fact originated a long time ago:
Behind the government’s official talk of “normality”, people have been organizing themselves into social and environmental resistance movements [pt] against the construction of the dam since the 1970s. They are made up of Indians and river dwellers whose present way of life and means of survival will suffer a disastrous impact if the dam is built.
Belo Monte attracted attention repeatedly throughout 2010. On April 20, 2010, Greenpeace Brazil performed an incisive act opposing the project, when activists dumped 3 tons of manure in front of the National Agency of Electric Energy (Aneel – Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica), in Brasilia, with the message “Belo Monte de… problemas” (in English, “Beautiful Mountain of… problems”).
On September 2010, the Movimento Xingu Vivo Para Sempre (MXVPS – which translates to “Xingu Forever Alive Movement” ) launched [pt] a petition opposing to the dam, which has so far gathered more than 5,000 signatures. It also launched a video [pt], which has been widespread on the blogosphere ever since. The video presents a simulation of how the dam and the water reservoir on the Xingu river would affect the region's natural dynamics.
Telma Monteiro, on her blog TelmadMonteiro, made public [pt] in late December 2010 the result of a study [pt] which she was involved in for the organizations Amigos da Terra – Amazônia Brasileira and International Rivers. The research analyzed possible risks for investors, and what the results indicate is evident in the report's title:
O relatório “Mega-projeto, Mega-riscos” vem em bom momento, como um alerta inequívoco de que Belo Monte é ainda um mega-projeto que pode se transformar em mega-obra com mega-riscos para a sociedade.
The report presents data indicating the loss of billions of reais [Brazilian currency] invested in building the hydroelectric facility, even by selling the energy produced over a period of 10 years. It also indicates a reduced rate of energy production, since the expected production of 4,420 MW corresponds to 39% of the 11,233 MW in installed capacity. To get an idea of the scale of Belo Monte, if built it will become the world's third-largest hydroelectric dam in installed capacity, behind the Chinese Three Gorges dam, and Itaipu Dam, shared by Brazil and Paraguay.
For the record, Abelardo Bayma is not the first one to leave amidst pressure for the energy facility. The deadlock over Belo Monte's socio-environmental viability is considered the reason for former Environmental Minister (and candidate in the 2010 presidential elections) Marina Silva stepping out of office in 2008, and for the departure of Roberto Messias [pt], Ibama's former president, in April 2010. Just like Mr. Bayma, Mr. Messias had linked the granting of the construction license to the fulfillment of environmental viability requirements.
Planned in 1975, the hydroelectric project on the Xingu river was reconsidered during former president Lula‘s administration and has been supported by president Dilma since she was a member of the former administration. While the Brazilian government is concerned about self-sufficient energy production, Brazilian citizens use the blogosphere and Twitter to question the socio-environmental impacts of the energy source chosen – Belo Monte has proven itself cause for a powerful tug-of-war.
This post is part of our special coverage Forest Focus: Amazon.

author: João Miguel Lima


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Brazil: Micro Grants for Transparency Hackers · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

Esfera  [Sphere, pt] has launched the second round of micro grants for transparency hackers in Brazil. Find out what they are looking for and apply until February 5.

author: Sara Moreira


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Brazil: Neo-Colonialism in Africa · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Leonardo Sakamoto  refutes [pt] the  statement of the foreign affairs adviser to  the  Brazilian presidency, Marco Aurelio Garcia, that  “A  neo-colonial relationship  is  only established if neo-colonizer and  colonized  are in agreement.” For him, it is  necessary  to examine the complicity of  local  elites and the situation of colonized countries instead.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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Brazil/Tunisia: Cartoons on the Tunisian Revolution · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Provos Brasil [pt] shares a series of cartoons by the Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff on the Tunisian Revolution, in two blog posts: The Fall of the Dictatorship in Tunisia and Cleaning Tunisia.


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Cambodia: Blogspot still blocked by one ISP · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Blogspot is still being blocked by one ISP even if it has been “unblocked” by other networks in Cambodia. The government was accused of ordering the networks to block Blogspot to shut down an anti-government blog.

author: Mong Palatino


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Cambodia: Garment Worker Open University · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Anne Elizabeth Moore blogs about the Garment Worker Open University project in Cambodia. It aims to unite factory workers in Phnom Penh and inform them about their legal rights


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Cambodia: TEDx Phnom Penh · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Preparations are ongoing for TEDx Phnom Penh which will take place on February 5.


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Cambodian Children Books Project · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Cambodian Children Books Project is a collaborative effort of a team of Cambodian writers/artists to create reading books in Khmer for Cambodian school children in Cambodia.


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Caribbean: Walcott Wins T.S. Eliot Prize  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“He has won almost every other poetry award he’s eligible for, and this evening in London it was announced that Derek Walcott has won the 2011 T.S. Eliot Prize for his latest book, White Egrets”: Caribbean bloggers are thrilled at this latest literary accomplishment.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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China: P2P service down for copyright compliance · Global Voices
John Kennedy

When leading Chinese P2P website VeryCD was shut down in 2009, it was back online the next day. This time, it appears the network won't be back up until all copyrighted materials are removed: ‘The days of “free” movie downloads for Chinese users,’ writes [zh] tech blogger William Long, ‘are over.’

author: John Kennedy


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China: Robot animation for the holidays · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Robot planet Haven sees its worst energy crisis in a millennium. Only “chosen one” superboy Molin holds the keys to restore balance, but will he succeed? “Legend of Molin” is a new 3D animation which will run in the prime time slot on CCTV-1 throughout Spring Festival; part one aired yesterday, and the 26-episode series trailer is here.


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Colombia: A Trip to a Spanish Inquisition Museum in Cartagena · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

In Raising Miro on the Road of Life, “A single mom & son's travel blog & podcast,” Lainie writes about their visit to the Palace of the Inquisition in Cartagena, Colombia.


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Colombia: Inspiring videos · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

@coloresmari posts in her blog [es] that she feels inspired when she watches videos by @juancanola and says: “I see people from different communities and regions in Colombia really working, taking advantage of the possibilities that digital media gives them.”

author: Juan Arellano


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Cuba: Marta’s Victory  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Crossing the Barbed Wire blogs about the experience of Marta Diaz Rondon, who was reportedly imprisoned and beaten by “men who claim to be patriots and protectors of Cuba’s security.”


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Cuba: Old Age in Cuba  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Hands shaking with Parkinson’s offer sugary snacks at bus stops, wrinkled faces offer razor blades for only five pesos”: Generation Y says that the system the elderly helped to build “cannot provide them with a dignified old age.”


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Egypt: The January 25 Demonstrations in Photographs  · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.
A picture is worth a thousand tweets, especially when Twitter is blocked in Egypt in order to halt the transfer of information about the ongoing demonstrations in Egypt today.
Egyptian blogger, Zeinobia, decided to take her camera and go down to the streets and take some photographs and upload them to her Flickr account. Here are some of her photographs:
This photo is taken by Zeinobia, under creative commons license.
Today is a national holiday in Egypt. The streets were empty. Yet the security forces had their own plans to control the flow of protesters, especially when the usual traffic jams in Cairo's streets are not there to do the natural control of the flow for them.
This photo is taken by Zeinobia, under creative commons license.
Rassd New Network published a stunning photo of the protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo down town on their Facebook page (Update: This photo appears to be a copyrighted Getty image, visit Washington Post to see).
In the evening, the number of the protesters in El-Tahrir Square became really huge. Midan El-Tahrir or El-Tahrir Square has been the site for numerous major protests and demonstrations, including in March 2003 when people came out to protest the War in Iraq.
Twitter was reported to be blocked in the afternoon. Before that, some people had the chance to upload photographs to services like twitpic. @M_Na7as uploaded the photograph below on his twitpic account showing how the protesters outnumbered the security forces in the city of El-Mahalla.
Photo taken by @M_Na7as
Also outside Egypt, people recorded the demonstrations with their cameras. @MafazAlSuwaidan shared the picture below of a protest taking place in Toronto, Canada.
Photo taken by @MafazAlSuwaidan
Last by not least, @TheOnlyWarman shared a photo showing trucks filled with soldiers in the calm district of Maadi. Some of the trucks seen in the streets of Cairo, were in fact coming from less tense governorates in order to offer hand to the local forces. And @alasmari shared a photo of torn pictures of the Egyptian president in one of the billboards on the streets.
Meanwhile, Lebanese web developers Layal Al Khatib and Mirelle Raad developed a new photo aggregator to collect photographs shared by netizens for the protests under one roof.
After completing the project, Layal tweeted:
It was gr8 to work with @migheille for a great cause #jan25. Photos posted through twitter are now here> http://abaadblogs.com/imagefeed/
And Mireille added:
let the world see, so far 423 picture from the #jan25 egypt demonstration on http://goo.gl/diwO8 plz share handles of ppl live tweeting pics

author: Tarek Amr


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Egypt: Tweeting the Day of Revolution  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.
From reports of small gatherings to those of thousands of demonstrators marching across different cities in Egypt, Twitter is ablaze with reactions.
Protesters from today's demonstration by @monasosh
This nationwide “Day of Revolution” coincides with Police Day and brings together people from different walks of life and a wide political spectrum to protest against President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.
Tweeting from Mohandesin, @monasosh notes:
If u r not here, u r missing a lot. Down wt mobarak . Mohandesin #jan25
In another tweet, she chants:
in reference to Zein El Abidine Ben Ali's escape from Tunisia, after its people's uprising.
As the gatherings get bigger, some find it difficult to catch up. Ahmad Khalil tweets:
An ariel view of demonstrators gathering in Ramsis by @basboussa1
In another tweet, he sums up the mood:
Soon enough, tweets of police repression start pouring in.
Sandmonkey reports:
Police just arrested everyone in cilantro. Took their ids and phone. We barely got out.” #jan25
Wael Abbas adds:
And in another tweet says:
A crowdmap, prepared by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, is already in place for people to report the protests, arrests, police harassment and where people and police are gathering.
Crowdmap to report demonstration updates
And in an expected or not so expected move, reports are also surfacing of the censoring of internet sites.
Mohamed ELGohary notes:
Now http://dostor.org and Bambuser.com are blocked in Egypt #NetFreedom #Jan25
And Alaa Abd El Fattah tweets:
Egyptian ISPs seem to be illegally blocking websites again, collaborating with police despite no laws allowing internet censorship #jan25
Meanwhile, Mona Eltahawy notes:
In past 8 days at least 12 #Egyptians set themselves on fire out of desperation: unemployment, poverty, corruption. #Jan25 #Egypt protest
For more reactions, follow the hashtag #Jan25 on Twitter.
Stay tuned for more coverage from Egypt.
Photocredit:
1. @monasosh
2. @basboussa1


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Egypt: Twitter Blocked as Demonstrations Continue · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.
Egypt has just upped its war on the Internet, and cut access to mobile phone communications, in areas where thousands of protesters are reportedly gathering in today's Day of Revolution. The aim seems to be an attempt to control the flood of protesters and strangle the movement.
The blocked Twitter page Egyptians get when they try and access Twitter
Demonstrations have sprung across the country today, with calls for the end of President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule, corruption, economic failings as well as other grievances. Word of the protests and gathering points have been announced on social networking sites, including microblogging site, Twitter, which has been blocked by the authorities.
Such censorship has sparked the anger of activists, especially since it is the first time in Egypt's history that such heavy-handedness is used to silence people online. The move is a stark reminder of the iron fist with which ousted Tunisian strongman Zeine El Abidine Ben Ali clamped down on the Internet, in neighbouring Tunisia, whose uprising has inspired millions of Arabs.
From Cairo, Eman Hashim tweets:
mubarak regime is blocking internet access to us. keep spreading the word. we are being trapped #25jan
She adds:
Twitter is banned now from home DSL and soon from mobiles. we r being trapped
Mohamed ElGohary adds:
TWITTER IS BLOCKED IN EGYPT #Jan25
And Alaa Abd El Fattah is livid and screams:
reminder THERE IS NOTHING IN EGYPTIAN LAW THAT ALLOWS FOR BLOCKING WEBSITES. not a single clause, the ISPs are responding to illegal orders
Rami Raoof suggests a way of by passing the block:
netizens in #Egypt- if you want to access Twitter.com & Bambuser.com download TOR from http://torproject.org #Jan25
Phone lines seem to be jammed too.
Sally Sami reports:
Just left tahrir square. Tear gas being bombed and all mobile lines not working mostly #jan25
And adds:
Mobinil lines present in tahrir square have been disconnected #jan25
And news sites are also being filtered, to stop news of the protests from spreading.
Jordanian Tololy notes:
Dostor.org (independent news website covering #Jan25 protests live) blocked for the 2nd time in #Egypt #ArabProtest
And Suad Al Subaie adds:
Pictures of Husni Mubarak have been torn down in public. 100+ arrested. 3 Major news channels prevented from covering #Egypt #jan25
For more on the developments in Egypt, follow the hashtag #Jan25


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India: Government Official Burnt Alive by Miscreants · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

In a gruesome incident, an additional district collector was burnt alive   today  – allegedly by petrol and diesel mafia while investigating fuel related irregularities. The government officer was from Malegaon and the incident took place in Manmad, in Maharashtra's Nashik district. As the news broke, netizens reacted with shock and outrage.
Blogger Urmishtha wrote on her blog:
It was a shocking news to watch sometime back about Additional DC Yashwant Sonawane's brutal murder! The First Additional DC of the Malegaon District in Nashik was burnt alive by the oil mafia while he was on duty.
Something is terribly going wrong with the mindsets and attitude of people, and especially with the law and order situation of not only any state but the entire nation. Cities which were known as  the faces of their cultural, economic, traditional heritage and  progress; are gradually losing their identity and are now gaining a  status for all the wrong reasons. Nashik is now a city popularly known as home for the oil and kerosene mafia of the state!
Yashwant Sonawane, who was on his way for a meeting to some other place, sensed someting fishy goings-on at a place somewhere 10kms away from Manmad. He  immediately went to check at the spot and saw the oil marketeers involved in adulterating. The magnitude of this racket seems to be so  strengthened and their conscience so dead, that they burnt alive this officer!
An officer of such stature, when is on his way to  perform his duties, was brutally murdered in broad daylight! And, it is a shame that such an incident should occur just a day before when we are all set to celebrate the biggest day of our democracy – our 61st  Republic Day!
Indranil Khan at World of 22.com wrote the following:
Yashwant Sonawane has conducted raids in the petroleum black market flourishing in Maharashtra and had to pay for his honesty by sacrificing his life while raiding the oil depot. The incident has spread shockwaves across the nation. In a country where corruption is at large and the government struggling to cope with black marketeers, an act of honesty and dedication in work is met with a cold-blooded murder- a painful one.
Twitter was abuzz with shocked reactions:
@Saurabh_jo: Additional DC of Malegaon burnt alive while conducting a raid on black marketeers in Manmad. Shocking
@Ajithlodha: heart is bleeding for DC of malegaon. How could any soul be so ruthless that they could burn a human alive.
@AmbaniParody: Additional DC of Malegaon burnt alive by black markeeters, while conducting a raid. Moral: Honesty kills you in India
@rohitvvv: What an inhuman act, malegaon Additional DC burnt alive.
@RuchirKhare: Hope that culprits are caught and punished.
@neetakolhatkar: RIP Yashwant Sonawane addnl collector who had courage to take on kerosene mafia in Manmad, malegaon region. Salute
@sanjaysuri: What's our country come to, additional DC burnt alive in Malegaon. #shocked
@ranvirshorey: Hope the Malegaon goons are caught quickly and justice is exemplary.
@indiacor: If the corrupt can do this to a senior govt official, think of what they will do to you, WAKE UP INDIA!!!!
The irony that the inhuman incident had occurred just a day before the Republic Day celebrations was not lost on some of the netizens who expressed their feelings through tweets such as these:
@venkatananth: What shame on R-Day Eve!
@anubhabhonsle: How are we going to hoist the national flag in manmad, malegaon where yashwant sonawane is burnt alive ? #shame
Some also remembered others like Shanmughan Manjunath and Satyendra Dubey who had also lost their lives trying to fight corruption.
@kshitijb: Yashwant Sonawane faces the same destiny as Satyendra Dubey. Tragic.
@ananyadg: horrifying-another manjunath. additional district collector, malegaon burnt alive. yashwant sonavne went to raid black marketing of petrol.
@m2shooter: India didn't forget manjunath murder by oil mafia, now ADC malegaon burnt alive by kerosene mafia. Honest India facing threats of crime gangs
The police have been quick to pursue the case and though a couple of people have been detained, the police say it is too early to blame the fuel mafia for the incident. Government officers in Maharashtra have called for a day-long strike on January 27th to protest their colleague's gruesome murder.

author: Aparna Ray


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Kenya: How developers can make money with Safaricom · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Bankelele looks at how Kenyan developers can make money with Kenya's leading mobile phone company, Safaricom: “One of the unintended effects of Airtel’s price wars with Safaricom in Kenya is that it has made Safaricom more responsive to Kenyan developers in terms of collaboration on products, services, platforms etc.”


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Kenya: Sue: The Kenyan prostitute building a brand online · Global Voices
Collins Mbalo

The Kenyan blogosphere has just recently been graced by not your usual blogger and not your usual genre: a street prostitute's experience and opinions including how the blogger allegedly escaped arrest by the police. The Blog is Nairobi Nights written by a self confessed Kenyan Prostitute under the pen name “Suzy”.
I had the privilege of interviewing her online. In this interview she reveals more about her blog, some issues of concern to Kenyan prostitutes including security, legalization and what drives her to blog. here's her take on these issues :
This is how she describes herself:
My name is Sue. I practice along Koinange Street, Nairobi. These are thoughts, observations and experiences from my prostitution world. Nothing of the soft, sympathy seeking topsy turvy kind. But straight talk, hard facts and real anecdotes. They are worth something.
Koinange Street is a major red-light district in Nairobi, Kenya.
At the time of writing, she had published 12 episodes with titles such as “Of Coming Out Of The Closet”, “The Spiritual Role Of A Prostitute”, “When Sex Is No Longer Sin” and “Just Call Me Malaya [Malaya means a prostitute in Swahili]”.
1. For how long have you been blogging?
For about three weeks now
2. What is it that prompted you to come up with the blog “Nairobi Nights” and to document your experiences online?
I have been writing one or two things, some sort of diary about my work..But a close girlfriend of mine encouraged me to start a blog.
When i started writing my experiences and thoughts just started
flowing. And talking about my experiences and thoughts gives me some sort of relief.
3. I see in the blog you have hardly revealed any information about your identity  and prefer going by the pseudo name/title “nairobi nights”. What has prompted this? Any particular reasons?
I am not sure how people would react if they knew I am a prostitute. I have family, parents, brothers and sisters. I fear they would get hurt.My parents if they got to know would feel I have let them down. I also don't see any benefit of giving my real identity.
A road sign that reads: Attenzione Prostitute. Photo source: Adam Crowe's Photostream on Flickr
4. When i first read you blog, my attention was captured by your use of words, composure and manner of writing. I am sure many readers of your blog and the general audience would like to know what led you specifically to the trade? Correct me if I am wrong, is it a social misconception that the well educated and/or enlightened would get involved with this type of trade?
Sure and I have written about what society expects a prostitute to be. To some extent it is true. But interaction with prostitutes is so  business like and at times in not sober circumstances. This does not provide room for men to gauge the prostitute intellectually. Even the ‘not read’ prostitutes have their experiences and views, but don't necessarily get to talk about to them to clients or friends.
As to why I got into it, I would say its a little complicated but I am planning on writing about it soon. I have started writing about it, but after the first paragraph, I found myself not wishing to write about. My strength and will were gone. But I know very soon I will be over it and write.
5. Often when people leave prostitution they ascribe having been drawn into the trade due to financial difficulties, family problems, rape etc. Is this always the case in your opinion?
Not necessarily, there could be many other reasons. Some with nothing to do with poverty but circumstances which shape a person's character.
6. I have just read your latest post on legalization of prostitution in Kenya. Whats your take on this issue? Do you think that this may be possible in the present “conservative”  Kenyan/African environment?
I think  there are advantages and disadvantages of legalization. For instance, police and city council harassment would stop if it's legalized, but then there might be so many locational or client restrictions, which may affect things like our income. Same way with the new alcohol laws. Its possible  for prostitution to be legalized, but not any time soon. After the passing of the alcohol bill, the country, right or wrong, seems to be moving towards some sort of ‘morality’. But it may change in the future.
8. Do you have a lobby group or support group that perhaps is assisting you in pushing forward this agenda?
Lobby group? No and I wouldn't want to be working for such. I speak for myself. If I work for a lobby group I would be speaking for all of us. I have no right to do so.
9. Do you think that prostitution has many inherent dangers as was exhibited in the latest case of the suspected Kenyan serial Killer Mr Philip Onyancha? What are the greatest dangers facing “street” prostitutes  at the moment? [Phillip Onyancha is a Kenyan serial killer who is known to have killed people in his pass time]
The constant danger is you can never be sure what will happen when you go out with a man. Rape, death, drugs, non payment, lost of public respect. You can never know.
10. Do you believe that the present Kenyan laws accord prostitutes appropriate human rights, dignity and protection?
I cant exactly blame the law until prostitution is made legal. Maybe we could have some  partial legalization. Maybe freedom to operate within certain areas at particular times, or something of the sort.
11. Back to your blog, what normally prompts your post?
I write what is inside me. An experience will come up and I will write about it..Some are more fresh or provoked by ‘last night’ happenings so I write about it.
12. Where do you see your blog at in the next few years to come?
I started the blog simply, with no really big ambitions. Some readers are  encouraging me to be more serious about it but at the moment i have no major plans. I even don't know for how long I will write.
13. I had someone read your blog and they doubted that the blog is being written by a prostitute who plies the streets, if anything  perhaps an upmarket call girl in some plush residential place in Nairobi: What is your response about your genuineness?
There is not much difference between the ‘upmarket’ prostitutes and some of us on the streets. I don't find it necessary or with an obligation to prove my  genuineness to anyone at the moment. But time will answer the question about my genuineness, and very soon. When I sort out my conscience I will meet some of the readers who have asked to meet me.
14. I see you have advertisement on your blog, are there problems for you getting advertisers? I  am assuming that some might not like to be associated with your content.
The one advertiser I have on the website approached me. I haven't gone out there seeking for ads. I am exactly sure whether I will do it and how advertisers would react. Its not a priority at the moment.
When people pay they will expect something from you, I will be under pressure to satisfy them and my thoughts wont flow as naturally as they do now. They might also be tilted towards making people happy. I did not want that at all. I want to get something out, not necessarily please or answer to someone.
15. You had a subscription model before on your blog, why did you change it?
When my girlfriend who encouraged me to start the blog read some of my pieces, she suggested I should make people subscribe, after a day or two, I felt its not exactly the thing I wanted. I want to write without any pressure.
Thank you Suzy for your opinion and perspectives revealed on this interview
You are welcome.

author: Collins Mbalo


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Latin American Presidents to Follow on Twitter · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Christian Espinosa in Cobertura Digital [es] ranks the top 5 Latin American presidents with the most followers on Twitter. He also shares other information on the use of Twitter by different Latin American administrations.


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Nepal: A Traveler’s Critique  · Global Voices
Bhumika Ghimire

Andrew Hyde, an American traveler blogs about a different kind of Nepal, far from the notion of Shangri-La most people fantasize about. He describes the country's grinding poverty, alarmingly high pollution in the capital Kathmandu and the sad reality of child labor. Certainly not something the Government included in its official promotions for Visit Nepal 2011 campaign.

author: Bhumika Ghimire


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Nepal: Panel Discussion On Case Discrimination · Global Voices
Rezwan

Bhumika Ghimire moderated a panel discussion on case discrimination and Nepali women where Dr. Drona Rasali and Ms. Sushma Barakoti, two influential members of Nepali diaspora, were present. You can listen to the discussion in her blog Bhumika's American Adventure.

author: Rezwan


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Philippines: The ‘Big Bad Blogger’ controversy · Global Voices
Julius Rocas

What other journalists tagged as an article to be ignored as it is a badly-written one, Margaux Salcedo's story about an irresponsible blogger who is allegedly in cahoots with a public relations firm in an extortion racket targeting an unnamed restaurant owner has caused a great stir among Filipino bloggers.
In her article entitled “Please Don't Give Blogging a Bad Name” which was published in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine last January 23, Salcedo shares the story of how an anonymous restaurant owner was victimized by a so-called “Big Bad Blogger” and a PR firm that offered to make the former cease from writing negative reviews about her restaurant for a hefty price.
As a result, the anonymous restaurateur has become weary if not scared of bloggers and PR firms, fearing that another extortion gimmick might be pulled on her again.
It turns out that the so-called Big Bad Blogger has been around for a long while, Juned at Baratillo.net recalls:
There have been stories going around the Big Bad Blogger for months and perhaps years now. Unfortunately, most of the time the affected restaurants would decline to pursue it further because they would often claim that it would affect their business. No one was willing to come forward.
Now that it seems that someone has finally come forward, some bloggers have expressed dismay over the actions of the Big Bad Blogger and the PR firm.
Naturally, food bloggers have come out in defense of their niche. Chuvachienes gives a warning to the Big Bad Blogger and the PR firm that their time of reckoning will soon come:
So, for your sake Big Bad Blogger – Ms. Salcedo may not have mentioned or identified who you are – but time will tell.  And for the PR firm?  You will be exposed from the shadows as well and believe us “bloggers” when we say – this is not the end of this story.
Dementia the Elitist Blogger reaffirms that not all food bloggers are like the Big Bad Blogger:
I can only guess who this Big Bad Blogger is but that person is giving us a bad name. I am not a big name when it comes to blogging but I know my conscience is clear. I do get invited to some blog events, mostly food-related events, and I make sure that my blog posts about such events clearly express that I was there on an invite. In addition, I write an honest review as I could, whether I was invited or not.
I started this food blog because I love food and I want to share my foodie experiences to those who would read this. I have never been paid nor will I ever accept payments to write a positive review. Why should I? I have money to wine and dine in any restaurant I want. Sadly, some bloggers were not brought up with good principles and will stoop so low for a couple of measly GCs or even a free meal. I find it really disgusting. This Big Bad Blogger, and other bloggers like him/her, should be banned from ever blogging again and that PR firm should be reported to some regulatory board.
However, there are some that have taken Salcedo's article with a grain of salt given that it has failed to measure up to journalism standards.
Danilo Arao dissects Salcedo's article over at The Lobbyist:
A single-sourced article like Salcedo’s, not surprisingly, presents only one side of the story, important details of which are even wanting. There was no effort, for example to get the circumstances behind the restaurant owner’s reaction to the alleged negative review written by BBB.
Unlike some bloggers who argue that the article puts blogging (especially food blogging) in a bad light, I would rather reserve my judgment until more details are provided. While I share their assertion there are indeed irresponsible bloggers in our midst, I don’t think a badly-researched journalistic article like Salcedo’s serves as evidence of this.
Carlo Ople takes a cautionary step and asks questions before making a stand:
Did the blogger really know that the PR Agency is “representing” him? For all we know the PR is just using his name and he really just did write a glowing review for the first restaurant and a bad one for the next. I strongly recommend that the restaurant and the writer of the article give the name of the blog because that would only be the fair thing to do.
Rowena Wendy Lei also joins on the side of caution:
What if, just what if… someone is out to ruin this PR firm? Maybe someone is out there indeed making these extortionist offers and then using the PR firm's name to do it. It has occured to people that maybe PR firm is using BBB's name to get some business via extortion, but what if it were the other way around? Maybe someone is using PR firm's name without them knowing it.
Others have taken it a bit further, putting to task Marguax Salcedo for an article that, as mentioned in the beginning, falls short of journalism standards.
Salinlahi opines:
The writer nonetheless decides that it is news worthy not recognizing that it would affect the Philippine blogosphere as a whole even if she sought to defend it. That ‘bloggers’ and ‘blogging’ in general would suffer the blame until the people involved are revealed. And so I hope you dont fault me when I say that the first problem here is the writer.
Clearly, this incident of an alleged blogger misbehavior, with a PR firm involved, has brought back discussions about imposing or following a prescribed set of conventions for bloggers to follow, like Tim O’ Reilly (O'Reilly media founder) proposed the Blogger's Code of Conduct.
This idea is welcomed by IT Pinoy who sees value in imposing or adopting such guidelines:
although regulating blogs might raise questions about freedom of speech, having these rules if it would help would be good esp to those who abuse this medium and thus give blog a bad name.
Until more details about this incident surfaces, everything would just be side comments, second-guesses and the worse, fear, mistrust and divisions in the Filipino blogging community.

author: Julius Rocas


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Puerto Rico: More Arrests and Civil Disobedience · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The student blog Desde Adentro [es] and the monthly Diálogo [es] are offering live coverage of the most recent round of arrests at the University of Puerto Rico. About 30 students and protesters have been arrested today for engaging in civil disobedience against the imposition of a special tuition fee. Journalists and photojournalists [es] covering the protests were assaulted by the Police.

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


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Russia: Internet Industry Stays at Home · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

Emma Barnett, digital media editor at “The Telegraph“, summarized reflections from her recent trip to Russia and explained “Why the Russian Internet doesn't need the West.” According to Barnett, the Russian Internet industry is “self-contained and self-sufficient” and it has no “ambition for the foreseeable future to expand internationally.”

author: Gregory Asmolov


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Russia, Ukraine: Playwright Anna Yablonskaya Killed at Domodedovo · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

“Playwright Anna Yablonskaya is among the dead at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport today,” writes Natalia Antonova. “We heard it from her family.”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Taiwan: Dacheng Wetland, not a wetland? · Global Voices
Portnoy Zheng

Citizen journalist Zhu Shu-juan(朱淑娟) reports that even though all reviewers from the Wetland Review Committee of the Ministry of Interior suggested Dacheng Wetland in Changhua County to be listed as national or even international wetland, due to resistance from local politicians and consortia who support petrochemical project to be built there, the wetland was not listed and therefore there is an obvious empty field on the map of Important Wetlands in Taiwan(zht).

author: Portnoy Zheng


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Tanzania: Tanzania’s First Gay Movie · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Last week Kenyan Gay came across a gay movie produced and shot in Tanzania, which will premier on 4th February 2011.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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

From terrible driving to the lack of innovation, Coffeewallah vents some of her frustrations about living in Trinidad and Tobago.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Young People Die in Car Accident  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

On the heels of a horrific car crash in which two young people lost their lives, KnowTnT.com blogs about “three elements that cumulatively share in the complicity of this tragedy.”


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Tunisia: Keeping a Tab on Dissidents  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Mauritanian blogger Nasser Weddady translates a document which shows how the former Ben Ali regime of Tunisia kept a tab on its dissidents abroad.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Vietnam: State of Social Media One Year after Facebook Block · Global Voices
Huyen Chip

When Vietnam blocked Facebook, everyone was talking about a smaller China. One year after the government's endeavor, Facebook Vietnam tells another story. Not only does Vietnam remain on the list of 10 countries with the fastest growth of Facebook users, Facebook marketing is enjoying a boom in this country with Facebook marketing agencies mushrooming all over Internet.
Why do Vietnameses till use Facebook even after the government blocked it? The answer is simple: Because they can. If users in China have to pay for a VPN and go through a painful process to gain access to Facebook and other blocked websites, people in Vietnam just need to change their DNS settings and enjoy a full Internet experience for free.
According to FBMan, a tool built by Nguyen Thanh Long, ePi Technologies’ VP of Marketing, to track the size and growth of Vietnam's Facebook fanpage using Facebook API, the largest fanpage in Vietnam currently has 484,000 likes. For a market of 1.7 millions users (and growing), the number means that this page has reached to almost 30 percent of Vietnamese Facebook users. Imagine this ratio worldwide, we would have a fanpage with 100 millions likes. The fanpage was developed by s2sFacebook, an agency specializing in Facebook marketing. They also manage a bunch of other pages with the fan base up to few hundreds of thousands.
Vu Phuong Thanh, aka Gao, is arguably the most popular Vietnamese on Facebook. This blogger-turned-author moved to Facebook after the shut down of Yahoo! 360 has now had 90,000 “likes” for her page. She is now working with a Vietnamese talent agency headed by actress Ngo Thanh Van as its PR manager. They are preparing for the launch of a boyband called 365. Even though the band hasn't launched the debut single, it has made it to many national and local newspapers as “the hottest band on the Internet”.
Gao shared that social media, Facebook and YouTube, accounts for 60% of their marketing plan. Facebook is where people get to know about 365. She doesn't want to use Zing Me () or other Vietnamese websites:
“It's like swimming in a stagnat pond. The environment and connections there are too limited.”
Zing Me, owned by VNG, is the largest social network in Vietnam at the moment with 5 million users. VNG was formerly known as VinaGame – an online game giant in Vietnam.
Vo Thanh Cuong, 8x-generation CEO of Click Media, said over an interview on Yahoo! Messenger, still the dominating chat client in Vietnam:
“We have tried some campaigns on Zing Me, but the results weren't very good. Most of Zing Me users are under 15, and many of them log in Zing Me just to play Nong trai (a game similar to Facebook's Farmville). There are not many activities outside games”.
Earlier this year, they ran a campaign for Sony Ericsson Vivaz where they used Don Nguyen, an American Vietnamese comedian famous in Vietnam for his lip synching to popular Vietnamese songs, to post a video on YouTube. The video, supposedly recorded by Sony Ericsson Vivaz, attracted 800,000 views. Don Nguyen himself has more than 50,000 likes on his fanpage. Click Media’s latest campaign was for Vietnam Idol. They use many channels including Facebook, forums, Zing Me, Nhac Cua Tui – a music sharing website, Yume – a local social network. However, “Facebook is still the most effective despite its being blocked, both in term of interaction and conversion rate”, said Cuong. When talking about conversion rate, he meant hits to website from Facebook. In any conversation with marketers in Vietnam, Go.vn – Vietnamese government's response to Faceobok – is pretty much out of the picture.
“100% our customers are international brands. Social media is still new here, local companies don't allocate budget for it. But I think from next year there will be more Vietnamese companies interested in social media. Advertising agencies now understand the efficiency of social media, and they are the ones who advice and allocate budget for brands.” Cuong hopes so.
However, after overcoming the government's barrage, marketers have to face another obstacle, this time from Facebook itself. It's Facebook's policy to block the publishing rights of large generic pages “due to a violation of the Pages Terms of Use.”
“It happened all the time when we first started: whenever a page reached 10000 fans, Facebook blocked it.”, shared Cuong. “But now it's ok. We have established an exclusive relationship with Facebook SEA.”
I can imagine his wink over the square screen of his laptop, with Facebook opening on top.
For those who don't enjoy that exclusiveness, what they have to do is to create a whole new page like what Gao did with 365 fanpage. “It's risky to use Facebook”, said she. “But once people start knowing you, they will follow you whenever you go. It's true with 365.” 365's news fanpage, 365daband has had more than 7000 likes after 3 weeks.
Still, marketers in Vietnam have something to hope for. Last October, Facebook put up a message on its Career Page that they are looking for someone that has
“experience in government relations work and navigating government agencies along with an extensive network of contacts in the government and the technology space”.
The recent visit of Javier Olivan, Facebook's Head of International Growth at Facebook, to Vietnam suggested that Vietnam will be soon taken care of. “They should”, said Cuong. “Vietnam is not a small market at all.” With a population of 90 millions and Internet penetration rate of 27.5%, Vietnam is definitely not small.

author: Huyen Chip


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Bahamas, D.R.: Fish Poaching · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Bahama Pundit‘s Larry Smith notes that “a recent report…has confirmed that poaching by commercial fishermen from the Dominican Republic is the greatest single threat to Bahamian seafood resources.”


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Bangladesh: Superiority Between Judiciary and Parliament  · Global Voices
Rezwan

Judiciary or parliament, which is superior in Bangladesh? An Ordinary Citizen sheds a light on the recent controversy involving judiciary and the parliament.


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Caribbean, U.S.A.: Contemporary Art Exhibit  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“It includes work by thirty-six artists from twelve Caribbean countries and the international diaspora”: Antilles blogs about an exhibition of contemporary Caribbean art that is now on show at the Museum of the Americas in Washington, DC.


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Chile’s “Green Revolution”: Fighting Coal Mining in Isla Riesco · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Daniel Arellano [es] writes about Chile's “Green Revolution”: Environmental activists and concerned citizens are trying to raise awareness about 5 coal mining projects and the effects they would have on Isla Riesco, an island in the southernmost region of Chile.

author: Silvia Viñas


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China: A Subversive New Years’ Video Card · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

C. Custer from ChinaGeek translates and analyses a subversive New Years’ video card, “Little Rabbit, Be Good!”. The video addresses most of the social conflicts happened in the past few years, such as poisonous milk, forced demolition, and etc.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Chengdu graffiti artist · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Charlie from Chengdu living posts his interview with Chengdu's most prolific graffiti artist, GAS.


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China’s Campaign Against Corruption · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Steve Dickinson from China Law Blog looks into 2 reports published by the PRC National Audit Office that address the corruption problem of government officials.


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Egypt: After Twitter, Facebook Now Blocked  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.
Egypt today blocked access to Facebook, as part of its clampdown on the transfer of information, following yesterday's protests. Also, yesterday, it blocked access to Twitter, jammed mobile communications in areas protesters were gathering in, and banned access to live video streaming site Bambuser.
The demonstrations, held simultaneously across different cities and towns, followed a call on Facebook for a Day of Anger in protest against unemployment, corruption and rising prices and call for economic reforms, among other grievances. News reports point that the Internet blockade was “pre-planned,” in order to “block those websites which activists use extensively to coordinate their efforts.”
Despite this, netizens were able to break the blockage, streaming thousands of tweets, images and video recordings showing thousands of people chanting anti-government slogans and calling for an end to corruption and the President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.
The blocking of Facebook, which is estimated to have 5 million users in Egypt, drew outrage on Twitter, which netizens were able to access using proxy services, in a clear defiance of the government imposed ban.
Daila Ziada reports:
Ops! I can't access #Facebook any more! Now Twitter and Facebook are blocked! #Jan25
Lasto Adri confirms:
Facebook is now blocked in Egypt. #Jan25
Ahmad Essam laments the death of freedom of expression:
RIP freedom of expression. #Jan25 #Egypt
An Egyptian foresees more protests:
Wael Abbas exclaims:
RT @waelabbas Mubarak is Gaggaing Egypt! hear our screams world!!!
Gue3bara adds:
dear followers from all around the world the regime is blocking our internet please show solidarity with spreading out words #jan25
And Alaa Abd El Fattah notes:
He advices:
ok folks in Egypt start installing Tor now, your government decided Egypt is another tunisia indeed
And Ahmad Gharbeia follows suit:
Forward via SMS to your friends the short URL of the proxy service/software you use and know how to support #25jan
Walora adds:
@25Egypt ثورة تونس نجحت ليس فقط بالفيسبوك ولكن برسائل المحمول .. يجب على الجميع ارسال رسائل لكن من يعرفون .. أنشرها للجميع #Jan25 #Egypt
Wael Khalil confirms:
Mona ElTahawy asks:
and she continues:
#Facebook #Twitter r tools. #Egyptians most effective weapon vs #Mubarak  is their courage. Can't block that. #Jan25 Yalla #Egypt!
Makanoo agrees:
RT @makanoo: I guess blocking facebook and twitter will result get people more angry.. #jan25 #fail
Meanwhile, Marwa Rakha sources and posts links to different proxies people can use to bypass the blockage.


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Egypt: Anonymous Strikes Again · Global Voices
Layal Al Khatib

Egyptian blogger and human rights defender Ramy Raoof shares screen-shots of Egyptian government websites after they were taken down yesterday (25 of January) by Anonymous.
This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.

author: Layal Al Khatib


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Egypt: Continuous Coverage of the Protests on Facebook  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

A continuous coverage page is available for the January 25 protests on this April 6 Youth Movement Facebook page (Ar). Reports surfaced today that Facebook was blocked in Egypt.


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Egypt: January 25 Protests in Videos · Global Voices
Hisham Almiraat

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.
Demonstrators took to the streets of Cairo and many other Egyptian cities on Tuesday, January 25 which coincides with a national holiday, “Police Day”, to protest against the 30-year autocratic rule of President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak. Emulating the Tunisian protests that led to the toppling of now-former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali a couple of weeks ago, protesters used social networks like Facebook and Twitter to coordinate their actions. Tonight, news networks speak of tens of thousands of Egyptians camped in the main Cairo plaza, El-Tahrir Square, and demonstrations are set to continue Wednesday.
Many observers noted the lack of coverage of the protests by mainstream news networks. Aljazeera's coverage in particular was remarkably sparse. Citizen journalists have been feeding netizens with loads of videos from inside the demonstration.
People aggregated by the hundreds in several public squares and gradually amassed to form large groups of marchers who succeeded in breaking police cordons as shown by this video posted by lukasjakubicka:
Protests started peacefully as demonstrated in this video (broken audio) posted by ramzyam who comments:
Very Civilized and protected by the Egyptian Police Forces.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCvFVJ46P_o
This other video, posted by no2again, shows more protesters peacefully chanting among other slogans: “Down, down with Hosni Mubarak!”, “State security? State security? We have no state, and no security!”:
Riot police were reportedly deployed in Cairo, the capital city in an apparent attempt to intimidate protesters as shown in this video posted by motherofthetribe:
Soon news of clashes with riot police started emerging. This video was posted by Midogonpapa:
In the following video, posted by MFMAegy, a young man stands in front of a water cannon armored truck, à la the Tiananmen Square tank-man, barring it from chasing protesters:
This video, posted by MrPeopleNews is reminiscent of that of Tunisian protesters tearing down portraits of their president:
The same scene is repeated in many neighborhoods in Cairo, as shown in this video posted by Ba7ary:
Later in the day, protesters gathered in the main El-Tahrir Square in Cairo, surrounded by cordons of anti riot police. They chanted “The people want to bring this regime down” as captured in this video, posted by nadiaharoun:
Late at night, news arrived of violent clashes between riot police and protesters who refuse to leave El-Tahrir square.

author: Hisham Almiraat


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Egypt: Night Falls, After Day of Rage · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.
As the night sky extended over Egypt, protests in Cairo and around the country continued. News was dominated by events in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where police dispersed a sit-in with tear gas, rubber bullets, and water canons leaving many people wounded. In Suez, three people were reported dead. In Alexandria, a sit-in of thousands began amidst arrests. In El-Mahala, a large industrial and agricultural city, there were reports on Twitter of police thugs destroying public property in El-Shoon square and of further clashes between citizens and police.
@Alaa tweeted that doctors were badly needed in Tahrir Square:
Try to move ppl to hospitals instead, doctors need medicine & equipment ♻ @husseinelsaid: @alaa doctors needed at Tahrir DESPERATELY pls RT
Earlier today, the Egyptian government blocked Twitter, and also cut mobile phone coverage around Tahrir Square, leaving protesters with no means to communicate with the outside world. This led to a spontaneous act by residents in the neighborhood to remove the passwords from their wireless routers so protesters could go online:
@Mohrad
المواطنين والمحلات لغوا باسوردات شبكات الوايرلس والمعتصمين في التحرير يستطيعون الآن التواصل مع الناس#Jan25 #fb
Also, nearby shops began offering protesters food and water.
@Mohrad
من التحرير: هارديز طلع ساندوتشات صغيرة للمعتصمين والأمن منعهم وطلب منهم يقفلوا ويمشوا ورفضوا يقفلوا ومشاركين الشباب
A few celebrities joined the protests, and were updating their Twitter accounts. Actors Amr Waked and Khaled Aboul Naga, a female television presenter Bouthayna Kamel, director Amr Salama, and politician Ayman Nour.
Amr Salama and Khaled Aboul Naga, wrote wrote an update from the protesters to all Egyptians:
رسالة من المعتصمين: كلنا موجودين في ميدان التحرير مش هنتحرك، و هنبات و هنكمل مظاهرتنا بكره الصبح رغم كل اللي بيعمله الأمن، اللي يقدر منا ينزل للناس دي ينزل، و اللي يقدر يجيبلهم مية أو أكل يجيب، و اللي مايقدرش ينشر الخبر دا و مايصدقش اللي بيتقال عن إنهم هيمشوا أو هيتحركوا من مكانهم… قوم يا مصري
It was around 10:00PM local Cairo time when Farouk tweeted from Tahrir Square.
@farokadel:
من التحرير المعنويات مرتفعة بس الامن بيجهز هجوم تقريبا
@Sandmonkey noted:
Fun fact of the day: not a single girl was sexually harassed today. Everyone acted with utter respect. #jan25
However, the mood changed abruptly around midnight when police began dispersing protesters in Tahrir Square by force.
@Mohamed_A_Ali tweeted from the location of the sit in:
الضرب اشتغل الحقونا
According to well-known female politician, Gameela Ismail, at least 40 people were arrested by the police and taken to an unknown place, including her son Noor, Dr. Mostafa El Nagar, the general coordinator for the Campaign for Change, journalist Mohamed Abdelfattah, and AbdelRahman Ayyash, an engineering student who was scheduled to take an exam tomorrow in his faculty.
There are calls for more protests in different public squares of Egypt tomorrow, but whether demonstrations will actually continue or not in the morning still remains to be seen.

author: Eman AbdElRahman


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Eritrea: The Tunisian revolution cannot be replicated in Eritrea · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Yosief Ghebrehiwet explains why the Tunisian revolution cannot be replicated in Eritrea:”the wholesale eviction of the adult student population from the cities and the overall low development level of the nation make it impossible for the kind of uprising that we are witnessing in Tunisia to be emulated in Eritrea.”


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Gabon: Opposition Leader Takes Oath as New President · Global Voices
Julie Owono

This post is part of our special coverage on Gabon Unrest 2011
The double presidential power struggle in Côte d'Ivoire seems to have inspired Gabon's political opposition as well.
This afternoon on January 26, 2011, former candidate for the Gabonese presidential election Bruno Ben Moubamba announced on his blog that André Mba Obame, another candidate who is regarded by many as the probable winner of the 2009 election, has taken oath as president and formed his own government [fr].
André Mba Obame swears himself in as 'President' of Gabon. Image by Jean-Pierre Rougou.
Opposition 'President' André Mba Obame (center right), his 'Prime Minister' Raphaël Bandega-Lendoye and Gabon's 'unofficial' government. Image by Jean-Pierre Rougou.
The news of Mba Obame's self-appointment was heavily commented upon on Ben Moubamba's page on social networking website Facebook, which more than 1,000 people have subscribed to ‘like’. On the page, Daniel Engo writes:
Il ne faut pas diviser notre Gabon comme la Côte d'Ivoire
Philippe Ludovic Tassy thinks the opposite:
Felicitations M. LE MINISTRE DES AFFAIRES ETRANGERES. Nous voulons la fin de cette françafrique et la dissolution de cette monnaie de singe qu'est le FCFA
In the same afternoon, Mba Obame and his supporters marched towards the United Nations (UN) building in Gabonese capital Libreville to demand official recognition of the country's new ‘president’.
André Mba Obame and his supporters marching in Gabonese capital Libreville. Image by Jean-Pierre Rougou.
Ben Moubamba currently resides in France and has been appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation for the new ‘unofficial’ government. He is a former journalist and a prolific user of social media. He has more than 650 followers on his Twitter feed, although he is said to be at odds with the instant update service after claiming his account has been hacked.
He is currently being sued by the Agence France Presse (AFP) for libel [fr].
Ben Moubamba was contacted by the author of this article via Facebook and he agreed to give his first interview as ‘unofficial’ Minister of Foreign Affairs. Here is the conversation:
Julie Owono: The results of the presidential election in Gabon were published in August 2009, and already at that time, voices were protesting against irregularities. Why has Mr Mba Obame only taken his oath as Gabonese President today?
Bruno Ben Moubamba: Like President André Mba Obame said whilst taking his oath, the Gabonese society has been in crisis since the anticipated presidential election  of 2009. When his father [former long-standing President Omar Bongo] died, Ali Bongo [current official Gabonese President], who was at that time the Minister of Defense, set up the conditions for an electoral coup. The death of President Omar Bongo was an opportunity for Gabon to start from scratch after more than 40 years of an autocratic, unproductive regime. Gabonese people mobilised to manifest their will for change. Ali Bongo stopped the counting of the papers vote by the Electoral National Permanent Comity (CENAP) and had the Minister of Interior proclaim fake results. Those results were then confirmed by judges of the Constitutional Court whose mandates had been expired for three years! President Mba Obame, our party the National Union and the Gabonese people, found ourselves in a situation in which staying silent became unacceptable.
Why today? Because as seen with the elections in Haiti and Côte d'Ivoire, the international community seems to say  that it will not accept self-proclaimed  election winners anymore.
JO: On December 28, 2010, the Gabonese parliament adopted a constitutional modification. What are the concrete political consequences of this modification?
BBM: Considering the state of crisis of the political authority's legitimity, the confiscation of power for more than 40 years, and regarding the current political tension in Gabon, the constitutional reform should have been a great moment for affirmation and protection of political and civic liberties for the Gabonese people. Much to the distress of the Gabonese people and the international community, this reform leads to the instauration of a de facto presidential monarchy: the Parliament has been depossessed of its core prerogatives to the benefit of the ruling power.
JO:  Will you ask for international recognition of André Mba Obame's Presidency?
BBM: Yes… soon steps will be taken to this effect. I will soon make propositions to the Council of Ministers for the international recognition of the legitimate President and Government of Gabon.
JO: Do you think you can have support and recognition from other countries or international organisations?
BBM: The international community has now a new look on credibility of elections. We have recently seen this in Côte d'Ivoire and in Haïti; the international community now subordinates its recognition to a democratic imperative. It thus can't have double standards. It has to be consistant if it wants to be taken seriousely by dictators of the world. We have no doubt concerning our international recognition.
JO: Official President Ali Bongo could be sued by the French Justice in the ‘ill-gotten gains affair': you published on your blog the report of the American senate on the misappropriations and embezzlement. Do you ask the freezing of Bongo's assets, like it is now the case for President Gbagbo and his close aides in Côte d'Ivoire?
BBM: Politically the Congress or the White House have to follow up on the Senate report on corruption which accused Ali Bongo over 70 pages. It seems to me that American authorities have all the information to act for protection of their interests and those of the Gabonese people. We will follow up on this issue and we assume that American authorities will make political decisions in accordance with the conclusions of the report.
JO: Talking about Côte d'Ivoire, what conclusions do you draw for Gabon on the position taken by the international community after the presidential ballot of November 2010 ?
BBM: I draw no conclusions. If there is a similarity, it consists of the implication of the international community in the Côte d'Ivorian electoral process as a referee for democracy, who scrupulously makes sure no one changes the rules to their own profit. The Ivorian precedent, if the latter leads to the winner recovering his rights gained through the ballot boxes, should reinforce democracy in Africa. But this will not be obvious. It will need commitment and determination of African democrats to seed the Ivorian Case Law.
JO: Thank you Mr Ben Moubamba.
BBM: Thank you.
This post is part of our special coverage on Gabon Unrest 2011

author: Julie Owono


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Ghana: GMT means Ghana Man Time! · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Do you know Ghana Time?: “Jokes abound about lateness – GMT stands for Ghana Man Time – and there is an assumption that nothing will ever start on time. And yet sometimes I wonder whether things don’t start on time because people are late, or because the attendees know that it won’t start on time.”


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Guyana: End of Relationship, Not End of Life  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Guyana Groove is concerned about “the extremely high rate” of domestic violence, especially “in those cases in which one or both of the partners left the relationship.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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India: Storytelling Program with Kids at Hospitals · Global Voices
Rezwan

Uday Foundation reports that every Saturday its volunteers and friends visit various hospitals in Delhi, India for storytelling to the kids admitted there to cheer them up.


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Iran: A blogger’s life in danger · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Hrana, human rights activists news agency, reports [fa] that Hossein Maleki Ronaghi ‘s life is in danger and he needs urgent medical care. Hossein Maleki Ronaghi has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Hussein Rongah Melki (also known as “Babak Khoramdin”) was one of the key cyberactivists behind Iran Proxy against web filtering. He used to blog about human rights and civil society.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Mexico: Indigenous Rights Advocate, Bishop Samuel Ruiz, Dies · Global Voices
Andrea Arzaba

Bishop Samuel Ruiz  Garcia died in Mexico City  on January 24th; he was known for his work among the poor and the indigenous Mayan people in Mexico. InfoChiapas [es] reported:
La mañana de este lunes falleció en un hospital de la capital del país, el obispo emérito de San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Samuel Ruiz García, a causa de complicaciones provocadas por la hipertensión y diabetes que sufría desde hace 10 años.
On January 24 a ceremony was for Bishop Samuel Ruiz in Mexico City. His body would later be taken to San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. Image by Jesús Villaseca P. used under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license
Mexican bloggers quickly reacted to the news of his passing. Blogs from other countries also mentioned how important Samuel Ruiz was to his country; this is what Opinionated Catholic posted:
A very important and indeed controversial Mexican Bishop has passed  on. That is Bishop Samuel Ruiz who was Bishop of the “Mayans”.
Samuel Ruiz worked mostly in southern Mexico, in the state of Chiapas, where the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (in Spanish, “Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional” or EZLN) delcared “a war against the Mexican state” in 1994. The movement has a lot of support from the indigenous people in the state, since their struggle resonates with the history of the marginalization of indigenous peoples. Samuel Ruiz García defended and actively supported the rights of indigenous peoples in Chiapas; Ángeles Mariscal explains the bishop's role in this conflict [es] in the blog Animal Político:
En 1988 fundó el Centro de Derechos Humanos “Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas”, instancia que hasta la fecha es uno de los organismo humanitarios más importantes de Chiapas, a través del cual los diversos sectores sociales denuncian las violaciones a sus derechos humanos.
Cuando estalla el movimiento armado de 1994, los gobiernos federal y estatal desplegaron una campaña contra el obispo Samuel Ruiz y su Diócesis, acusándolos de ser los causantes del conflicto y de resguardar armamento en las instalaciones de la catedral.
Sin embargo, ese 1 de enero de 1994, en un pronunciamiento público para fijar su postura respecto al alzamiento, los tres obispos de Chiapas, entre ellos Samuel Ruiz, cuestionan el uso de la violencia, pero refieren las palabras de Juan Pablo II, cuando señaló que la pobreza “es amenaza constante para la estabilidad social, el desarrollo de los pueblos y la paz”.
In 1988 he founded the Center for Human Rights “Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas,” one of the most important humanitarian organizations in Chiapas today, through which various social sectors denounce violations of human rights.
At the outbreak of the armed movement of 1994, federal and state governments waged a campaign against Bishop Samuel Ruiz and his Diocese, accusing them of being the cause of the conflict and of safeguarding weapons in the premises of the cathedral.
However, on that January 1, 1994, in a public statement to determine a position on the uprising, the three bishops of Chiapas, Samuel Ruiz included, questioned the use of violence, and mentioned the words of John Paul II, when he noted that poverty is a “constant threat to social stability, the development of indigenous peoples and peace. “
Mariscal continues her post explaining [es] that Samuel Ruiz was frequently confronted by the conservative population of Chiapas, landowners, farmers and authorities from the Mexican government.
El 3 de noviembre 1999, al cumplir 75 años de edad, de acuerdo a los  cánones de la iglesia católica, Samuel Ruiz firma su renuncia como  obispo de la Diócesis de San Cristóbal.
Mariscal explains [es] that After leaving Chiapas, Samuel Ruiz moved to other parts of the country as he continued his labor with the Catholic Church, but he always returned to Chiapas from time to time:
Samuel Ruiz continuó llegando esporádicamente a Chiapas, invitado en algunas celebraciones, como sus 50 años de ordenación episcopal (enero  2010), o para presidir las reuniones del consejo del Centro de Derechos  Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas.
En todo momento reivindicó la causa indígena y la aportación que tuvo  el alzamiento armado de 1994. En una de sus últimas entrevistas dijo:  “A pesar de no haberse resuelto el conflicto en sus causas, el esfuerzo  por construir la paz con justicia y dignidad, en el que los actores han  sido múltiples y diversos, es un patrimonio común de toda la nación y ha  aportado nuevos avances y logros y nueva conciencia”.
Samuel Ruiz continued sporadically coming to Chiapas, he was invited to several celebrations, like his 50-year episcopal ordination (January 2010), or to preside over meetings of the board of the Human Rights Center Fray Bartolome de las Casas.
At all times he vindicated the indigenous cause and the contribution of the armed uprising of 1994. In one of his last interviews he said: “Although the conflict has not been solved in terms of their causes, the effort to build peace with justice and dignity, in which the actors have been many and varied, is a common heritage of the whole nation and has brought new developments and achievements and a new awareness.”
After knowing about the death of Samuel Ruiz, the indigenous people's organization Las Abejas (The Bees) published a letter saying goodbye to the bishop in the blog Las Abejas de Acteal [es]:
Nuestro Formador, te han llamado a descansar,  porque ya hiciste lo que tenías qué hacer. Jtotik Samuel, aquí quedamos  todavía tus hijos, tus hijas. Nosotros seguiremos caminando, nosotras  vamos a seguir luchando por nuestros derechos, por la paz y la justicia.  Claro, si no nos hubieras enseñado, si no hubieras vivido con nosotros y  nosotras, no sabríamos defendernos. Si no hubieras venido aquí a  Chiapas, seguiríamos viviendo como esclavos, ciegos y subordinados por  el mal gobierno.
Gracias Jtotik Samuel, que nuestro Papá-Mamá Dios te regaló 86 años de  vida. Dios te dio un alma y corazón grande. Nunca te dio miedo luchar  contra los poderosos. Nunca le tuviste miedo a las armas. Los obstáculos  que te pusieron los poderosos, pudiste todo superar.
Te vas al lugar donde Dios Papá-Mamá te llamó; pero tu espíritu, todo el  trabajo que nos enseñaste y compartiste aquí se quedan en nuestras  comunidades y en nuestro pensamiento y corazón.
Our Creator, our Maker, called you to rest, because you already did what you had to do. Jtotik Samuel, we are still your children. We will keep going, we're going to keep fighting for our rights, for peace and justice. Of course, if you had not taught us, if you had not lived with us, we would not know how to defend ourselves. If you had not come here to Chiapas, we would be living as slaves, blind and subordinated by the bad government.
Thank you Jtotik Samuel, our Father-Mother God gave you 86 years of life. God gave you a big heart and soul. You were never scared to fight against the powerful. You were never afraid of weapons. The obstacles the powerful put in front of you, you beat them all.
You are going to the place where Dad-Mom God called you, but your spirit, all the work that you taught us and shared is staying here in our communities and in our thoughts and heart.
In Vivir México [es], Pepe Flores concludes his post on the passing of Bishop Samuel Ruiz declaring:
A pesar de pronunciarse en contra de medidas como el matrimonio homosexual, sobrevive su legado como defensor de los derechos de los pueblos indígenas de México y de América Latina. Samuel Ruiz es, sin duda, un personaje crucial para entender dos décadas de tensas relaciones entre los gobiernos federales y las comunidades indígenas del sur del país.

author: Andrea Arzaba


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Namibia: I am an African goddess · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Big Ear Records, Production label and new management from South Africa is releasing the much anticipated new super dance album, I am an African goddess, of the Namibian Superstar LadyMay.


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Nigeria: The new face of politics · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Robinson Tombari Sibe shows how the Nigerian President has changed the face of Nigerian politics: “President Jonathan has enlarged the political workspace in Nigeria by not only playing by the rules but also encouraging perceived opponents in their quest to unseat him.”


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Peru: Discussing Gay Marriage During a Presidential Campaign Year · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Carlos A. Quiroz discusses gay marriage in Peru in a video in his blog Peruanista [es]. Peruvians are debating equal marriage in the wake of this year's presidential elections.


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Puerto Rico: Best Culture Blog · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The Coalition of Artists of Puerto Rico gave the award of best cultural blog for the month of January to El Naufragio de las Palabras [es] maintained by Carlos Antonio Otero.


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Puerto Rico: “The Love of My Life” · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Blogger and lawyer Verónica RT looked up the Facebook status [es] of Zacha Hernández Alemán, a recent victim of domestic violence in Puerto Rico. It said: “I am engaged with the love of my life…”


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Puerto Rico: Working with Needles · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

El Faktor [es] posts a video portraying the work of Puerto Rican tattoo artist Krystel Ivannie.


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Russia: Students Launch Online Map of Illegal Gambling · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

Students of Saratov University of Technology launched gdecasino.ru, a crowd-sourcing website dedicated to map illegal gambling sites. A representative of Russian police said [RUS] to “Komsomolskaya pravda” newspaper that the website has already helped to close few illegal casinos.


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South Korea’s Most Retweeted Story: Newspaper Ad Against Unfair Layoff · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

South Korea's Hongik University laid off its maintenance workers who formed a labor union. This has sparked mass online protest, prompting citizens to buy a newspaper ad proposing the Dean to have frank talks. South Korea's citizen media, WikiTree announced[ko] it the most retweeted article (around 2000 times) in its Twit history.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Trinidad & Tobago: Independent Mas  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Alice Yard blog is excited about Coalition, the 2011 independent mas band offering which “will provide potential masqueraders with a variety of design components they can use to decorate their costumes themselves — a practice similar to elements of the sailor mas tradition.”


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Wanted: More Babies Needed in Singapore · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Singapore’s total fertility rate has decreased to an all-time low at 1.16 percent. To increase population, the government proposes to increase the number of foreign workers and residents in the prosperous city state. What are the reactions of bloggers?
The baby incentives or bonuses need to be overhauled, according to Singapore Notes
The Children Development Account (CDA) is good only until your child turns 6 years of age. From year 7, you're on your own. Don't bother with the mathematics – the university fees for a 4 year course alone will wipe out the most generous of the financial incentive packages
My Little Corner explains the contradiction between increasing feritility and the demand to be more productive in the office
There is no way that you can increase productivity and fertility at the same time. They contradict each other.
The key to a healthy family environment is always your family. Does it help that both the husband and wife have to work late hours and sometimes even over weekends, stuck in the drive for the “increased productivity” that is forced upon them?
How will this “increase productivity” affect your child? Will your child even treat you as family since you are perpetually at work and they see others more than you?
Gerald Giam criticizes the “mismanaged” immigration policies of the government
Young Singaporeans cite a variety of reasons for not having more children: Too busy at work, cost of living too high, education system too stressful for children (and their parents), cannot find a place of their own to stay.
Many of these reasons are linked to overcrowding and steeper competition, which are, to a large extent, the result of the mismanaged immigration policies of this government.
Using humor, groundnotes suggests the adoption of breeding techniques in zoos
It’s time we look to the experts. And I don’t mean cheap dating agencies or waste-of-money Singapore Dating Network. I’m talking about the real experts – the zoos!
The best zoos around the world have good animal breeding programmes with high return rates. Exotic and endangered animals are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity but, hey, if they can raise the number of American Condors, there may be hope yet for Singaporeans.
The Lycan Times reminds the government to bring down the cost of living to increase the fertility rate
In short, the best way to raise the fertility rate is to give us real affordable housing and bring down the cost of living. All of this will require some hard work and far reaching policies that will take time to be effective
Kelvin Tan has a similar proposal
As for the middle group of income earners in the workforce, they need drastic reductions in cost of child birth and upbringing. Singapore needs to spend generously on child delivery costs, school costs etc. Parents with kids should be given weekly allowances. In other words, it should become highly attractive to have children. Indeed it will be a costly policy but the returns are higher than what is required to pay for this policy.
My Singapore News writes that the government should consider subsidizing the needs of kids
If the problem is social and financial cost, then the problem needs to be addressed at the national level. If young couples find it prohibitive to raise children, whose fault is it? Many young couples are thinking people and know how costly it is to raise kids in this high cost hot house. How about the govt taking over the role of bringing up kids, only the financing part?
Cloudywind lists the reasons why married couples are not having children
Because more married couples are put off by the idea that they have to queue up over-night for their kids’ place in a kindergarten.
Because more married couples are still saving up for the medical costs to give birth.
Because more married women want to keep their promotions.
Because more married women want to keep their jobs.
Because more married couples are busy working OT to be Cheaper, Better, Faster.
Because more unmarried couples could not find a reasonable flat that is affordable.
Because more singles could not find a Singapore-born Singaporean boyfriend/girlfriend.

author: Mong Palatino


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World: Free and open source software for academics · Global Voices
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Dan Edwards from Screening China introduces director Jiang Wen's recent movie, Let the Bullets Fly. The movie has recently broken the record of domestic box office.


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Cuba: Fariñas Arrested & Released  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Uncommon Sense has been following the recent arrest of Cuban independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas and calls his detainment a “We told you so” moment. He has subsequently been released.


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Ecuador: Blog Competition Focusing on Public Safety · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Ecuadorian bloggers are encouraged to participate in a Blog Competition [es] organized by the Guayaquil Canton to, “encourage the use of blogs as a platform for expression of ideas by discussing proposals related to public safety in the canton.” Visit the site [es] for more details and follow the competition on Facebook and Twitter.