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Trinidad & Tobago: Hops Recipe · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A staple of the Christmas menu in Trinidad and Tobago is “Hops and Ham” – TriniGourmet warmly remembers Hops Bread as an integral part of her childhood and posts a helpful recipe.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Jack Warner cleared · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Manicou is incredulous over FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner's slap on the wrist regarding the alleged resale of 5,400 World Cup 2006 tickets, saying it “not only highlights FIFA‘s condemnations as being capricious, but shows that there are loopholes through which tickets could scalped.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Uganda: public transport in Kampala · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

How many Ugandans does it take to get a shared minivan from Kampala to Entebbe? Jackfruity has the answer for you: “three to load the back of the vehicle with bags of grain and sacks of live chickens; two to strap foam mattresses to the top; one to yell at those strapping mattresses to the top about the way in which they're strapping mattresses to the top; six to get in, properly position (read: cram into every available nook and cranny) their baggage, get settled, then change their minds….”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Vietnam: Xmas Spirit in Vietnam · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Antidote to Burnout blogs about the Vietnamese getting into the Christmas spirit. “My neighbors are playing Christmas tunes (some in English) on their karaoke players.  All of the stores are pumping out Christmas tunes.  The traditional greetings “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” (in English, which is unusual in Viet Nam) are posted everywhere at the entrances to office buildings.”

author: Preetam Rai


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Voices from Central Asia · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Anara – by teokaye
Anara is one of the ‘youth at risk’ that took part in the weekend trip. Instead of going to school, she supports her family by collecting plastic bags at Dordoi bazaar, a massive clothing market made up of thousands of containers.
Kyrgyz-US relations
The killing of an ethnic Russian driver by an American soldier is likely to put a strain on Kyrgyz-US relations, says Tolkun at neweurasia. Kyrgyz Report also comments on the story and thinks that the Bakiyev administration might use the incident to put pressure on the US to tone down its criticism towards the Kyrgyz government. This piece of news comes at a time when Kyrygz politicians voice their disillusion with “US-style democracy”. However, as Nathan reports, there is not a lot in Kyrgyzstan's political systems resembling the US form of government. Readers also offer their two cents.
Kazakhstan: back to business
With the Borat controversy ebbing from the blogosphere, it seems to be time to talk about the important things again. The decision over Kazakhstan's 2009 chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has been postponed by the foreign ministers of the 56 member states for one year. Several bloggers offer their comments: KZBlog is skeptical that Kazakhstan should be automatically given the chairmanship so that hard-liners loose part of their influence. After all, real change is already under way and unstoppable, even without the merely prestigious post. Nathan of The Registan wrote a great background post on the politics of the chairmanship and notes that Kazakhstan might actually withdraw its bid in case chances become too slim. On neweurasia, Adam Kesher provides coverage in Russian, saying that postponing the decision by one year means that the OSCE expects real reforms to happen now.
Another interesting story that got discussed in the blogosphere relates to the recent nomination of a well-known British businessman as the chairman of a state-owned holding company. Sir Peter Evans will, among other managerial tasks, make sure that several of the companies held by the state get listed on the London Stock Exchange. Sean Roberts, on his Roberts Report blog, notes that this state capitalism reflects President Nazarbayev's admiration for the East Asian ‘Tigers’, but that the nomination of a controversial figure as the head of the holding also bears interesting parallels to a corruption scandal in the 1990s. At neweurasia, Ben also comments on the story, saying that by creating this holding company, the state is cementing its hold on the economy – and sending out clear signals against the free market and transparency.
No electricity in Tajikistan*
The construction of a new hydroelectric power station led to electricity cuts in almost all parts of the country this week. On neweurasia, Rahmon has some apocalyptic thoughts (RUS). Winters in Tajikistan are severe and this year is no exception. Why not do the construction work in the summer? Vadim says that in warmer seasons it is not possible to do the construction due to excessive amount of water in Vakhsh river. Myspace user Cole is describing the situation in Khojand where he is currently living and working. He regrets that he went to Tajikistan because the lack of electricity cuts him off all goods of modern civilization. He is not able to work in his office and his days are spent sitting in the cold darkness because on average he gets about one hour of electricity in the morning and one at night. Here what he thinks of Tajikistan:
When God was making Tajikistan he thought to himself, “Why don’t I create a barren mountain outpost in the middle of the largest landmass in the world, give it frigid winters, and endow it with leaders who are too corrupt and inept to provide the barest of essentials to its people, namely electricity, water and gas.”
Which road for Uzbekistan?
A recent and rather bleak International Crisis Group report on long-term prospects for Uzbekistan prompted a critical comment by Vilhelm Konnander. While he agrees with the main tenets of the report, Konnander asks whether a more refined and realist view on what stability means in the Uzbek context could change our perception of the situation, especially in the complicated regional context of Central Asia:
By now, it would appear a well-established fact that democracies are stable but democratisation is shaky. Therefore, one might, contrary to ICG's argument, assume that the US is quite happy with the current situation.
Meanwhile, the results of a rather dubious public opinion poll were published. Nathan of Registan reports that, according to the findings, the overwhelming majority of Uzbeks are content with their constitution and the rule of law in their country. A news outlet now speculates whether there exists another Uzbekistan somewhere on the face of this planet. While the results of this particular poll are questionable, more independent and neutral ones have found that Uzbeks are really on average happier with their lives than other people from the former Soviet Union, as was reported some while ago on neweurasia.
*This section is taken and adapted from Vadim's excellent roundup of the blog posts about Tajikistan, posted fortnightly on neweurasia. For more roundups on the region, check Leila's bi-weekly Voices from Kazakhstan on Global Voices as well as Yulia's Kyrgyzstan update.

author: Ben Paarmann


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What the Saudis are Talking About · Global Voices
Global Voices East Asia

So far, the topic of “woman driving” has resurfaced, a rape case sentencing made headlines, women doctors were asked to leave a lecture hall while men doctors were allowed to stay, and bearded men raided a stage. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
On the case of woman driving, Ahmed (a.k.a. Saudi Jeans) says that “when asked about issues such as women's driving and providing more entertainment outlets for youth, some decision makers here [in Saudi Arabia] say: this is not a priority for us in the present time,” and thinks “that some officials use prioritization as an excuse to ignore, avoid, or delay taking decisions.” A recent survey has shown that 50% of females do own cars, but they can't drive them.
In recent news, a rape case in Qatif, Saudi Arabia, has triggered a debate about Saudi Arabia's legal system. In a post that talks about the sentencing in the case, OT said that he “cannot see how this could be religiously correct!” In another post, Aya thinks that “punishing the victim is a specialty of Saudi courts” and went as far as calling the Saudi legal system “a rapists’ best friend.” Riyadhawi has also addressed the matter in an Arabic entry.
Moving to another topic, a group of women doctors, attending a medical conference in Riyadh were asked to leave the lecture hall since a male speaker — Dr. Yousef Al-Ahmed, PhD on the teaching staff at King Saud University — refused to address a group consisting of both men and women. Eventually, they did leave. Ahmed disagrees, in a post, with those who say that “the female attendees are to blame for leaving to the request of the organizers, who are the only to be blamed for this ridiculous incident.” Aya said that the case reminded her “of the struggle for civil rights in America.”
Rasheed revisits another Saudi Arabian human rights case, this time in American news; Homaidan Al-Turki, who was sentenced to 27 years in jail in Colorado on Aug. 31 for sexually abusing and enslaving his Indonesian maid:
A top Saudi official told me that he believed Al-Turki was guilty of abusing his maid, and that the Saudi government was only helping him because he was a Saudi citizen and not because they necessarily sympathized with him.
And for sure, Al-Turki is not a nice person. According to his indictment, he enslaved his Indonesian maid for four years in his Boulder, Colorado home; kept her locked in the basement; sexually abused her; took her passport away and failed to pay her regularly for all of that time. He and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, settled a lawsuit by the US Department of Labor by paying their former maid $64,000 in back wages.
Now moving to education, Crossroads Arabia has published an article about Saudi universities’ disturbingly low positions on a Global Ranking of World Universities:
There's no question that Saudi Arabia, for many reasons, is simply not up to global speed on the use of the Internet. That includes the merging of Internet technologies with higher education, of course.
Dodi said she “had higher expectations.”
In an interesting post, Aya talks about a very recent incident in which a group of bearded men stormed the stage of a play at Al-Yamamah College in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The post was updated recently with videos. If you were ever interested in viewing Saudi Arabia through the eyes of a foreigner, I recommend reading the blog “An Englishman in Saudi Arabia;” Margrave is a married Englishman who has recently moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I also recommend reading “S as in Saudi,” which is a blog published by a Swedish woman who recently moved to Khobar, Saudi Arabia.
Finally, to wrap up, Rimyoleta documented her encounter with a real Saudi prostitute, Ahmed posted about Ruby Tuesday's grand opening in Jeddah, Mohammed wonders (in Arabic) why his bank is not “paying him to wait in line,” DemonEyes compares Saudi graffiti to its counters worldwide, Nzingha is concerned about the amount of TV her kids watch, and both Aya and Rasheed have posted about the recent Human Rights Watch visit to Saudi Arabia.

author: Global Voices East Asia


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Zimbabwe: passports in short supply · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Can you believe this?: “We have had fuel shortages, forex shortages and now – passports! One wonders what’s next? I was thinking aloud what would happen if there was a shortage of condoms,” reports Kubatanablogs. This is the country whose currency has an expiration date!


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Africa: thoughts on African blogosphere · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Grandiose Parlor weighs in on Black Looks’ post, Technorati Bomb for Africa.


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Arabisc: Imprisoned Egyptian Blogger Lost in Legal Wrangle! · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

In my last post, I translated excrepts from a post written by Egyptian blogger Abdulkareem Sulaiman, who is being held in custody for articles he wrote online, describing the unhealthy conditions he is being forced to adapt to behind bars.
Well, his saga seems to continue, in a legal tangle and a tug of war game with authorities, who are ensuring that Kareem is punished even before he goes on trial for the list of allegations against him – which extend from writing blasphemous articles against Islam to defaming the President of Egypt.
Fellow blogger Jar Al Qamar  reports a minute by minute breakdown of the eventful day he went to the Public Prosecutor, along with Kareem's lawyers and representatives from human rights groups, to hear what the judge had to say. Surprise, surprise..Kareem was no where to be seen!
With the lawyers, Al Jazeera television camera crew and a journalist and other activisits waiting in one court, Kareem seems to have been sent to another place for his hearing.
And you would think there would be some good news from this wild goose chase? Think again!
But Jar Al Qamar tries to keep a straight face in reporting this saga – which I cannot translate fully here for obvious reasons – and even attempts to end his post with what I could not so reluctantly call a disclaimer.
Still  in Egypt but moving on to another disgruntled blogger, Radwa Osama celebrates her 25th birthday by contemplating on political and personal dreams.
From Egypt, we move to Bahrain where Layal has an interesting post.
The list goes on and on but certainly shows how much she means to those around her and how they care for her.
Meanwhile, just like in every blogging community, there is always a site run by a computer geek, which offers the latest breakthroughs, information and tips in computer technology.
This position is held by Abdulla Al Mehairi, who runs Serdal, from Abu Dhabi, in the UAE. I am not sure whether he really is the supremo, but from what I had read in other blogs, Abdulla (born in 1979) seems to be very popular.
This week he comes down to Earth and shares with his readers the joy of having designed a page from scratch - without any mistakes from the first go!
بعد ساعتين من العمل أنجزت الموقع، قمت باختباره لكي أتأكد أن صفحاته لا تحوي أخطاء HTML أو CSS ولم أجد أي خطأ، قمت باختباره على متصفح إكسبلورر 6 و7 ولم أجد أي مشكلة، وبالتأكيد ليس هناك أي مشكلة في فايرفوكس لأنني طورت الموقع لكي يظهر بشكل صحيح في فايرفوكس.
قمت بكتابة كل شيء بنفسي، بمعنى آخر لم أستعن بأي برنامج يساعدني على كتابة الصفحات، المحرر النصي الذي استخدمته هو محرر نصي عادي، مثل Notepad الذي تجده في أي نسخة من ويندوز، لم أستخدم أداة غيره، مع ذلك استطعت أن أنجز الموقع بدون أية أخطاء أو مشاكل ومن أول مرة.
But if you think Abdulla was boasting when he wrote this, then think again.. for he had a more noble goal in mind.
ما أريد أن أصل إليه بهذا الموضوع هو قناعة لدي بأن من يريد تعلم أي شيء وممارسته سيفعل ذلك بدون إثارة الكثير من الضجة، قبل ثلاثة أعوام كان مجرد طرح فكرة تعلم تطوير المواقع بالمعايير القياسية تثير ضجة ويعترض البعض بشدة لا بل يحاربون الفكرة، والآن هناك الكثير من المواقع العربية التي تستخدم المعايير القياسية، وبعض المنتديات افتتحت أقساماً لمناقشة مواضيع استخدام المعايير القياسية وهناك عدة مواضيع تسأل عن كيفية ظهور الموقع بشكل صحيح في مختلف المتصفحات، هناك فرق كبير بين اليوم والماضي.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Armenia: Earthquake Anniversary · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Onnik Krikorian marks the 18th anniversary of the 1988 Armenian earthquake that killed 25,000 and continues to impact northern regions of the country.

author: Nathan Hamm


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DRC: Tshisekedi Supporters Arrested · Global Voices
Alice Backer

UDPS Liege announces (Fr) that 5 supporters of party leader Etienne Tshisekedi were arrested in the Matonge neighborhood at a demo on Wednesday. The blog provides four names: Passy Mutombo, Jean Robert Bongeye, Kelly Mukendi  and Pepe Lokaso.

author: Alice Backer


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Egypt: Bloggers open the door to police brutality debate · Global Voices
Sameer Padania

‘Extraordinary rendition’ has passed into common parlance over the last year as human rights organisations have accused the US government of exporting suspects to be tortured in regimes like Egypt, Morocco and Syria.  But while cases involving international suspects get the headlines, these countries are regularly cited by human rights activists as having a major domestic torture problem, with the police in particular seeming to act with total impunity.
Now in Egypt, bloggers have struck a blow against police torture, by publicising videos shot by police officers of their colleagues beating suspects, and of police cadets receiving training.  Add to this articles in the independent press and protests by civil society organisations, what's fast becoming a national campaign is gathering momentum.
Demagh Mak and Wael Abbas writing in Arabic, and others writing in English, such as Hossam e-Hamalawy, have consistently sought out and brought to light videos of incidents of police brutality on their blogs over the past few months.  It's videos like this one – uploaded by Wael Abbas – that appear to be shifting the debate:
As reported by Hossam el-Hamalawy, an investigation has been launched into the conduct of the officer shown slapping the suspect in the above video, although it has now emerged that the officer in question has not yet been suspended from duty.
The brutality of Egypt's police is not a new story – Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights have regularly documented and condemned police brutality in briefings and reports.
But sustained pressure from the bloggers, and the publication of an investigative piece into the police torture video in the independent Egyptian weekly newspaper, El-Fagr, have forced the story into the mainstream. On 27th November 2006, El-Fagr published an expose on violence against suspects in the country's police stations, identifying the officers in the video above, and describing a second, much more brutal video.
That second video (which I won't show here) shows a group of officers torturing a suspect – handcuffed, stripped from the waist down, and on the ground – by inserting a stick into his anus.  Now Wael Abdel Fattah, the journalist who wrote the 27th November piece in El-Fagr, has published the names of the officers who carried out the torture, and tracked down and interviewed the victim, a bus driver.  Sharqawi and Hossam el-Hamalawy cover the story and relay the victim's account of how he came to be arrested, and of the horrific acts of torture perpetrated by the police.  Both bloggers publish the victim's name, which, although it's in the public domain in El-Fagr, has caused debate, with one blogger, Elijah Zarwan, wondering at The Skeptic, whether this was the right thing to do.
With Ikhwan (the Muslim Brotherhood) now alleging police torture of one of its activists, and lawyers threatening a national strike in protest against police harassment, the anti-torture campaign in Egypt is growing in confidence and pace.
One YouTube user has now posted a video tribute to the bloggers here (3'42):
If bloggers like Wael Abbas, Demagh Mak, Misr el-Horra can continue to cover and make unignorable the stories that the traditional media find harder to publish, as with the Eid sexual harassment incidents, then it may open the door for the media to enter the debate – which might finally make Egypt's Interior Ministry take the problem seriously.

author: Sameer Padania


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Global Voices launches new search function! · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Global Voices co-founder Ethan Zuckerman and tech guru Boris Anthony have put together a new “Global Voices Web” search using the new Google Co-op platform which enables you to create your own search engine.   Check it out – it's in the yellow search bar near the top of the page right under the “tag cloud.”
In addition to being able to search all of Global Voices or all of Google, now you can also search “the Global Voices Web.”  Right now, that includes about 4,800 blogs that our Regional Editors follow each day, and from which they select their “Daily Links”.  In other words, when you use this search function, you are searching all the blogs that we regularly link to or which our editors have found worth following.
GV doesn't cover North America and Western Europe because we believe the views of people from those parts of the world get disproportionately more attention on the world wide web and in the global media than people from all other regions. GV is meant to be a small effort towards counter-balancing that imbalance. Thus the search includes few blogs from N.America or W.Europe except for blogs by members of various diasporas currently living in the West. The point is to have a search that covers the same footprint of citizen media that GV covers.
This new “Global Voices Web” search was constructed by Ethan and Boris using Google's Co-op search, with a bit of help from some people at Google who responded to their requests for changes.  When Ethan and Boris started putting it together, Ethan blogged about the lack of results on some terms in a post titled “What Google Coop Search Doesn't Do Well.” The folks at Google eventually read his post and fixed the problem. Google engineer Vrishali Wagle wrote about the fix on the Google Custom Search blog and says he encourages people to give more feedback. Ethan is now much happier.
Note that our search is still very very “beta.” Because it was constructed by importing the feeds from editors’ aggregators, we had to weed out a bunch of non-blog and off-topic feeds (news sites, U.S. tech blogs, and things like that). If you try it out please let us know if there are any non-blog or off-topic sites we've failed to weed out or if there appear to be glaring omissions. We're sure it is far from perfect at this stage which is why we need as many people as possible to test it out and let us know what's wrong.
As Ethan explains in his blog post about this new search function: “a future version will include all the sites we link to on GV, which should expand the collection quite a bit. And an even further off version will integrate with the giant aggregator we’ll be offering on the site next year, which will let you look at new posts from all the countries we cover, as well as offering suggestions for feeds we should be watching – the blogs covered by that aggregator will be the same blogs tracked by the search engine.”
Please help us make it better. We are already discovering things we want to improve and would like to know your requests and concerns.

author: Rebecca MacKinnon


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Kazakhstan: Czech Musician · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Leila writes about a Czech musician eager to learn about her roots in Kazakhstan.


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Madagascar: Alafia · Global Voices
Alice Backer

L'Odyssee de Tattum  just discovered the band  Alafia of which she writes (Fr): “With more than 300 concerts in tow, Alafia is a presence at numerous festivals … Alafia's sunny sound is partly inspired by malagasy rhythms such as Malesa and Salegy, but it is first and foremost a melting pot, both human and musical.” You can sample the group's music in the post.


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Russia: Anti-Fascist’s Murder Deemed ‘Hooliganism’ · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sean's Russia Blog writes about a strange verdict in the antifa activist's murder case: the murderers have been convicted for “hooliganism.”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: Deadly Hospital Fire · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Andy Young has relaunched Siberian Light, a blog on Russia, and reports on a deadly fire at a Moscow drug rehabilition hospital, which killed 45 women last night.


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Russia: Female Bodyguards · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Copydude writes about Russian female bodyguards.


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Russia: Litvinenko’s Case · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Attempts to untangle the details of Aleksandr Litvinenko's poisoning, from different perspectives: by a reader at La Russophobe – here, and by Copydude – here, here, and here.


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Russia: Moscow Subway · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Turkish Invasion writes about the Moscow subway: “It is just like being married… You can't do with or without it.”


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Russia: The “New Cold War” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Step At A Time links to Edward Lucas’ piece on the “new cold war.”


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Senegal: Migrants to Spain Repatriated · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Le Pangolin provides an update on the status of Africans who have migrated to Spain on rafts in the thousands in the past year (Fr): “Spain, which in an initial phase had decided to welcome them under pressure from France and the UK, just changed its position and has hardened like the other countries. The last week of September 2006 marked the return of migrants to Senegal. The return is implemented on special planes (like animals). Many thousand Senegalese have been repatriated that way in exchange for a minimal sum given to the government to reinforce maritime control in Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal.”


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Senegal: Wade & Mandela · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Blog Politique du Senegal writes (Fr): “If Wade was as wise as Mandela, he would retire …”


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Senegal: Youth Crisis and Cultural Revolution · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Le Pangolin blames (Fr) the mass emigration attempts of the young in Senegal and Africa  and increasing prostitution among young women on a crisis affecting this majority age group.  The blogger lists nine causes of the crisis including the lack of services for youth and for young women specifically, the failures of politicians in training and ceding leadership to youth, lack of nutritional and sanitary security, growing materialism and an inferiority complex. He concludes: “Africa needs a cultural revolution.”


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South Africa: a house in five minutes · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Afrigadget writes about a foldaway house in South Africa: “Rajan Harinarain, a South African entrepreneur and inventor has come up with a temporary foldaway house for use in emergency situations complete with electrical wiring and fittings, doors and windows that can be erected by a small team in 5 minutes.”


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Turkmenistan: Death in Exile · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

At neweurasia, Peter notes the death in exile of an early victim of purges in Turkmenistan.


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Uzbekistan: Social Protection · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Registan.net reports on the Uzbek president's Constitution Day speech, in which he announced the theme for the new year.


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Cambodia: The Cambodian Land Grab · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

ki-media links to Australian television story on the land grab taking place in Cambodia. After the Khmer Rouge was ousted, the Cambodia Goverment allowed anyone who occupied a piece of land legally for five year to become the de-facto owner of the land. As the land prices are growing, the government is ignoring its own laws. MM, writes a comment “are there any activist proposing a boycott movement of businesses that are buying these stolen land? someone with hands-on information should post a website or something – i would not want to go to Cambodia and shop at a location where land was grabbed from people illegally. Nor would I want to buy something here in the US that is associated with that business.”


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China: I have no legs · Global Voices
John Kennedy

A lump of coal would actually come in handy for the cold souls in Petitioner Village this winter, judging from the stories told in The China Next Door, a photo montage posted at Beijing-based journalist Huang Zhangjin's Bokee blog, since deleted, but safe at his Bullog.cn space.
当你翻到本页时，相信你的眼光一定会在这里长久停留。这里的人你一定见过，当你急匆匆走过地下铁的通道，当你到某个政府办公楼去办事，也许某个角落就有他们的身影，他们在你不经意的余光里，在你匆匆的惊诧里。
他们是长久哀怨、悲愤的一群人，他们因某一意外而改变了人生轨迹，奔波于故乡和大都市，顽强地追逐一个说法、一个公正的梦想。他们是固执而又乐观的人群，他们日复一日地失望，年复一年地坚持，始终坚守着我们民族几千年来对”青天”和”人间自有公道”的一线信仰。
也许１０年后，或者２０年后，他们将悄悄从我们身边消失，然后，不在历史中留下任何痕迹，甚至有一天，我们不会记得还存在”上／访”这个词。
历史永远是主流人群的记忆。而上／访者无疑是这个社会最彻底的失败者，他们踏上漫漫路，便被从泥土中连根拔出，他们辗转于陌生的城市，在命运的泥水中被抽打。苦难、委屈和仇恨是他们的动力，而韧性往往只是增加他们的挫败和悲苦。
每个在肉体和精神的苦难中挣扎的上／访者，都不会参与历史的叙事，他们的故事和心愿无法形诸文字进入我们的视野，不会成为文献而进入历史。虽然，他们对任何愿意倾听的人絮絮叨叨，对任何表示同情的人都寄以无限信任。
可我们很忙。
But we're very busy.
我们需要知道每个成功者的坚辛与光荣，我们需要关心每个公众人物的怪癖和爱好，在一个渴望成功的年代，我们热心关注的一切，历史最终都会慷慨地预留足够的篇幅。如果有一天，我们忘记了上／访者这个群体的存在，也许真就意味着他们不曾在世界上存在过。
他们离我们很远，与我们的生活没有交集，看到这一页的每个读者，直系亲属中应该都不会有上／访者吧。他们离我们很近，我们每个人的故乡都有这样的人在上路，我们生活的每个都市，都不难看到他们的身影。我们打拼奋斗在中国的光明处，他们挣扎在时代的溃疡里。
有人说，他们是中国高速成长背后的代价和牺牲。但并非所有世界的成长背后都有这样的一群人，都需要付出这样的代价和牺牲。
但愿若干年后，我们国家不会再有这样一个特殊部落。如果历史要为中国今天的辉煌成就保留若干辛酸的细节做小小的注脚，也许我们该感谢杜斌这样的人，这位供职于《纽约时报》的记者，几年来一直用镜头跟踪上／访者，留下他们的影像，记录了一个与我们平行的世界，——他们与幸福、安宁、甜蜜、成功、美满无缘，他们与中国经济高速增长带来的繁荣与富裕无关，他们生活在一个我们陌生的世界，我们隔壁的中国。
作者简介：
杜斌，生于1972年。山东省郯城县人。先在中国传媒做摄影记者，后为自由职业摄影师。曾在美国《纽约时报》（New York Times）、《时代》（TIME）杂志、英国《卫报》（The Guardian）、德国《明星》（Stern）杂志等知名媒体发表新闻图片。现为《纽约时报》签约摄影师，供职于《纽约时报》北京分社。
1
“我是个冤死鬼。”
时间：2002年12月2日
地点：黑龙江省哈尔滨市街头
上／访者：黑龙江省伊春市44岁的教师张永印
他哭诉警察霸占了妻子，打残了他的双腿。上／访抗议时，他就穿上自己缝制像鬼穿的白衣，上面写着他在人间的屈辱。
2
183次托生为人
时间：2002年4月
地点：北京村
上／访者：孙传明，81岁
因儿子在1983年的”严打”中被处决，认为儿子被冤杀的孙传明20年来京上／访183次，先后被北京一个信访办强制收容152次。滞留北京时间最久、上／访村资历最老的他说，”官司打不赢，北京就是我的娘胎。”
3
“请你帮我跟美国政府要一个USA国籍”
时间：2006年6月16日夜
地点；北京上／访村
上／访者：刘藩恩（左三），68岁。
42年前他退伍回乡时发现户籍被人顶替，1991年他的父亲在为他上／访途中被杀害。探访他的是两届普利策奖得主、《纽约时报》专栏作家Nicholas D. Kristof（左一）。
4
陈光诚和他的盲人兄弟
时间：2002年8月2日
地点：山东省临沂市沂南县农村
32岁的盲人代表陈光诚（戴墨镜者）以及一群农民残疾人。
5
“见谁都想跪”
时间:2003年4月
地点:北京市朝阳区一家报社门前
上／访者：甘肃省下河清农场吴秀英。
56岁的寡妇吴秀英生来几乎就是给人练手用的”靶子”。20年的上／访史，是饱受毒打、收容、遣送、拘留、扣押、刑求、罚款和性骚扰的屈辱史。吴的胸、肋骨折断过若干次后”有些拽不起身子”；她的膝盖下跪过若干回后”见谁都想跪”。在拍摄此照片前她刚刚在最高法院门前遭打。
6
盐腌的证据
时间：2002年12月1日
地点：黑龙江省伊春市某山林
5年来，清洁工于振洋（右一）每周都要若干次到山林中妻子尸体秘密的掩埋处撒食盐和浇盐水。他的妻子在1987年被警察传讯后死在离派出所15米远的男厕所坑池里。法医称是自杀溺死。因为妻子尸体上多处伤痕，于怀疑妻子是被谋杀。
于振洋以食盐将妻子的尸体腌着，悄悄埋到山林内作为证据储存。”即使我到死，我知道，我的儿子将继续上／访的责任，”他说，”直到他也死。”
7
国家赔偿
时间：2002年4月
地点：北京村
上／访者：孙偕文
1982年以来，他惟一收获，是在上／访中捡来老婆和3个孩子。”老婆和孩子跟摆在屋前这排鞋子一样，都从垃圾堆里捡来，”他说，国家对他还算不薄。”好像是国家对我冤狱多年的赔偿。”
8
两对父子
时间：2002年11月
地点：北京村
上／访者：李伟（左），于泉（右）
他们都来自黑龙江省铁力市，因为各自不同遭遇，这两对父子在北京上／访村相遇。
9
一个人的冤墙
时间：2004年1月
地点:北京最高法院信访办
上／访者：无名、无年龄
来自地区：四川省南充市
10
上／访的终点
北京上／访村上／访者墓地
他们一次次往返于故乡与北京之间，虽然他们的愿望未能实现，但这一次，他们终于不用再奔波，可以停下来永远休息。
From another blogging Chinese journalist comes a look at Greenpeace‘s Green Electronics Guide, which every three months ranks electronics companies on their environmental impact policies, namely their share of e-waste (electronic scrap), and came out last week. Coming in first is Nokia, which occupies the China cellphone market, and in last place Apple, reflecting the company's share of the computer market in the PRC. If only China's waterways had that much going for them. Thoughts on the report from Shang Jin at Mindmeters; photo from the Greenpeace website.
绿色和平组织绝对是个充满偏执思维，且不管权贵的机构。从在8月份出台过一次电子巨头的环保指数，在12月初，他们第二次发布了这个数字，似乎苹果电脑成为了一贯的落后分子。其实商业企业与环境的关系，是一个很值得深入研究的话题，绝不仅仅是社会责任和商业道德那么简单。
我最感兴趣的是，摩托罗拉如何从第一次的1.7跃升到了6，要知道这些巨头没几个自己制造产品，统统使用OEM和ODM，这其中管理的透明性，以及生产商的控制学问，绝对只有亲身经历者知道内涵的。
Liu Yang at Xici Hutong's Reporter Home makes note of an increasing trend of big-name Chinese journalists leaving traditional media behind for their online counterparts:
12月6日，消息人士透露前《新京报》总编辑杨斌，将于明日正式到财经网站和讯网上班，担任网站总编辑。网易科技此前的报道曾经提到，刘峻在其博客中透露，将有一位”重量级的媒体人士”，接替他在和讯网的工作。
两年以互联网为代表的新媒体在中国发展迅速，为资深的传统媒体人制造出新的机会，在杨斌投身新媒体之前，已经有不少国内有影响力的传媒大佬放弃传统媒体，纷纷加入到新媒体。
前《环球企业家》总编李甬，加入网易担任副总裁/总编；前《南风窗》总编辑陈菊红加入腾讯网担任总编；《新京报》前副总编，王跃春加入搜狐担任常务副总编；计算机世界前副总裁/总编王超，加入广源传媒担任总裁。经济观察报社前社长何力，加入阳光媒体担任投资大中华区CEO。
杨斌是《新京报》前任总编辑，后调任南方日报驻北京记者站负责人。据称他近日已经从南方日报集团办完离职手续。
杨斌毕业于武汉大学，1996年底加入《南方都市报》，历任编辑、采访部主任、深圳记者站站长、编委、副主编。2003年11月，任《新京报》常务副总编辑。2004年7月，任《新京报》总编辑。2005年年底从《新京报》离职，后担任南方日报驻北京记者站负责人。
From Guangzhou-based Yangcheng Evening News webmaster/MSN Spaces blogger Wen Yunchao's latest weekly web news roundup comes good news for those who have ever been to a Chinese bank, but bad for overspenders:
兴业银行与腾讯公司达成合作，推出了国内首张虚实合一的信用卡——QQ秀信用卡，将面向腾讯QQ秀一族提供包括虚拟卡支付、财付通还款、在线申请、电子账单通知、即时消息提醒等多种网络服务。据介绍，”由于有了这一新的支付手段，QQ一族将可以享受一定的透支额，并且有50天的免息期，而且不需要年费。”此前，招行与腾讯合作推出了QQ一卡通（借记卡）。此举无疑将人们加剧对Q币”黑市货币”的疑虑，不少家长也担心孩子滥用透支功能而收到巨额帐单。

author: John Kennedy


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Iran:Arash Sigarchi,jailed blogger got cancer · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Arash Sigarchi, jailed blogger and journalist who was released recently from jail,says he has cancer [Fa].

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran:Your step by step guide to look like a fool as a nation! · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Mr.Behi with irony talks about current political situation in Iran.The blogger writes about next week election for City and Village Councils of Iran:to prevent the party of Ahmadinejad to invade all our hopes for reform, I guess we need to vote for reformists to win at least this. We are already like a fool having a constitution with this much flaw but at least we should not keep kidding ourselves!


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Japan: organic architecture · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Verena in pinkmag writes a feature story on organic architecture by Patrick Blanc, where plants can grow vertically into a garden building.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Japan: wealth · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Alexpappas in Japundit puts forward a local report about the distribution of wealth: Japan is home to a fifth of the world’s richest 10% of adults in terms of global household wealth…


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Malaysia: Unimpressive Medals · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Tony P at Education in Malaysia blogs writes why he is not impressed by the tally of five gold and five silver medals that a Malaysian University won at a recent exhibition in Europe.


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Myanmar: Perspectives from North East India · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

The North Eastern States of Myanmar lie adjacent to Myanmar and there is a growing interest there in Myanmar. The New Mandala blog links to a report on a Myanmar related conference held recently in India.


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Myanmar: Write in English to be Google Friendly · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Myath Thura explains why the posts on the blogger's Burmese blog always has a translation in English. “Whether you are writing a web site, or writing a Blog, it is not very Google friendly to write it in Myanmar (Burmese). Google doesn't understand Myanmar, and doesn't index web pages in Myanmar. So, it is always a good idea to write every article in both Myanmar and English.”


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Russia: A Letter to Putin · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

It's a letter-writing season in Russia.
LJ user yashin posted an appeal (translated here) to the judge who had given a harsh sentence to an activist for placing a banner saying “Putin, go away on your own” on Hotel Rossiya in Moscow.
LJ user aneta_spb has come up with a letter (RUS) to president Vladimir Putin himself, and for a while, it was one of the highest-ranked posts at the Yangex Blogs portal. Below is a rough translation:
Here, I've written a letter to the president.
Gospodin [Mr.] Putin!
Or, Gospodin President of [the Russian Federation].
I, a rank-and-file citizen of the Russian Federation, Gavrilina Svetlana Dmitrievna, have started writing this letter to you and became puzzled right away.
For some reason, addressing you the way I did is considered impolite. The polite way is “Vladimir Vladimirovich.” Or “[dear] respected Vladimir Vladimirovich.” This takes aback right away. Because I can use the first name and patronymic to address an uncle twice removed or an old high school teacher, etc. But when I'm writing to the head of the state – that is, to a person who is not related to me in any way personally, but is placed in this position by the will of the people and lives on the people's money, and I'm part of this people (even though I didn't vote for this character)… In Great Britain, I wouldn't write “dear Tony,” right, or in the States, “dear George”? And in the times of the Czar, so beloved by many of your brothers-in-arms, they didn't write “Nikolay Aleksandrovich” or “Aleksandr Nikolaevich” – but “Your Majesty” or “Sovereign.” Title, function…
In any case, there is something in the word gospodin… But we're talking about a form of address here – wouldn't fit to call you tovarishch [comrade], right?..
Whatever, done with the addressing part, sort of. Now, on to the essence.
As I've stated above, I didn't vote for you. But it absolutely doesn't matter. Let's have flies and cutlets separately. Those who vote or not, those who [make big money] or not, those who [get their salaries from the state budget] or work for private [entities] or for themselves – in any case, we are the tax-payers. We buy a loaf of bread – [and pay a value-added tax]. And if not a loaf of bread, then a piece of meat, [clothing], a fridge, a tram ticket, a cell phone operator's services… Everyone has the right to vote or not vote. Because we are all humans, alive, and for now it is not up to you to deprive us of the right to live and breathe.
Anyway, since you've been installed into your position on our money, I'm writing you. Because in a normal country, it would have been enough for me to address a municipal elected official with the issues I'm concerned about. But [you know] what a farce has the so-called local self-government turned into.
[…] I actually this that you impressed the great Russia with, above all, your pure, St. Petersburg, pronunciation, without hek-ing and ok-ing, after all the previous Leonid Ilyichs [Brezhnev], Yeltsins and [Chernomyrdins]… Though, at one point, [Andropov] conquered many weak souls with the same thing, too. Ah well, [I digress] again.
Here's why I'm writing to you. I find you annoying. Not really you, the person, but all this disgusting pharisaism, improprieties and the lies that literally get under one's skin – and everywhere, there's corruption of society worse than during the Soviet times.
I live in the city of St. Petersburg, at [Okhta].
And here, they are going to dig a tunnel and build a skyscraper. Your faithful […] [Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko], has once again totally ignored the city residents’ protest. […] They are going to worsen the people's life quality, which is already not too good. I'm sorry, but I don't believe that you aren't aware of it. One reason [I don't believe it] is because you haven't yet refuted the rumors that for a while, after you've installed the “successor,” you're planning to have some rest at the post of [Gazprom]'s head…
This is really interesting. Excuse me, are you an expert in gas extraction? A professional? Or is there a putsch going on now, invisible to the world, when this Gazprom is basically seizing power in the country? While the majority of the villages are not equipped to receive gas?
Do you know what people are talking about? They are saying that the government's goal is to just destroy the population, because they don't need so many people to serve the pipe… Some people, out of stupidity, see [non-Russians] behind it, others see “the hand of America,” but despite this, people do have intuition.
You know, I left the big politics a long time ago. I'm not interested in the party hustle, I'm a modest person and have never been too interested in my own career. And if they didn't try to get me right by the door of my own apartment, I'd be quietly reading good books and listening to good music.
But I'm annoyed by the billboards at the St. Petersburg-Moscow highway: [UNITED RUSSIA] TOGETHER WITH THE PRESIDENT! ([I'm annoyed] because it's like “Long live the [CPSU]!”) I don't like it when there's a public transportation paralysis in my favorite city. I don't like it when [towns and villages] in the European part of the Russian Federation are cut off from the civilized world – roads are broken down, phone connection is terrible, and there is no internet whatsoever… I don't like the disgusting bootlicking in the media. Do you really think that people pray to you as they do in front of an icon? If every type of official has your portrait in his study, it doesn't mean that your portraits hang in people's homes… If you find one idiot like this, I think all the central media would show up and do stories…
Do you think that people pile up in big cities voluntarily? Deprive themselves of fresh air and nature? Look into the federal laws that you've signed – and then you'll understand why only thanks to autostores […] there's still some life out there… And the money being thrown into the construction of the tunnel and Gazprom-City would suffice, for example, to build a new bridge in Veliky Novgorod and to mend the roads in the north-west…
I understand perfectly well that all my questions and exclamations are rhetorical. […] Because […] in the first years of your rule, I was still trying to find a compromise… And thus I learned all the mechanisms and the style of your regime.
…And also, your rhetoric drives me mad. The theme of the “czar” and “master” is being beaten into the country's conscience. […]
Things like this don't end well, I'd like to remind you. […]
Anyway, leave us alone with your Gazprom. You're a person of age [Putin is 54]. Lenin was already a “dedushka” [old man] at your age. It's time to think of your soul.
I end this halfway through. Please note that I haven't used the words “democracy,” “human rights,” “free enterprise,” etc. Because it's not nice to use the words unfamiliar to the person you're talking to.
Here are a couple comments:
mgtverskoy: Svetlana, “dedushka” Lenin didn't survive to this age. He died before turning 54, and VVP has already passed that.
Are we sending this by regular mail?
aneta_spb: I emailed it. Would be too much honor to bother about an envelope.
[…]
lgdanko: You are wonderful in your genuine naivete or naive ingenuousness. I'll distribute this. Even if the Colonel [Putin] doesn't read it – let the people read it.


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Rwanda: African Bloggers on Kagame Judgment · Global Voices
Alice Backer

French Judge's Arrest Warrant
From Cameroonian Diaspora Blogger Sanaga Peregrinations:
Un bref résumé des épisodes (récents) s'impose pour ceux qui n'ont pas suivi.
1. Le juge antiterroriste français Bruguière, clôture son enquête sur l'attentat du 6 avril 1994 et qui fut le declencheur du genocide qui couta la vie a pres de 1 millions de personnes. Il accuse l'actuel président rwandais Paul Kagamé d'en être responsable et recommande des poursuites a son encontre. Parallèlement, des mandats d'arrêt internationaux pour “assassinats” ou “complicité d'assassinats” sont émis contre neuf proches du président Paul Kagamé.
2. Fureur de Kagamé et rupture des relations diplomatiques entre la France et le Rwanda le 24 novembre dernier.
3. Contre-attaque et contre-accusations de Kagamé. La France est impliquée dans le génocide, et il n'y a aucun doute là-dessus. Personne ne peut avoir de doutes, mais sur l'étendue, sur les degrés de l'implication, les personnes (…), la manière dont les institutions françaises sont concernées, ce sont des aspects qui seront examinés par la commission ” [d'enquête].
1. Antiterrorist French judge Bruguiere closes his investigation on the April 6th 1994 murder that unleashed the genocide that cost the lives of at least a million of people. He accuses the current Rwandan president Paul Kagame of being responsible and recommends that he be brought to justice. Simultaneously, international arrest warrants for “murder” and “complicity to murder” are issued against nine in President Kagame's circle.
2. Kagame is enraged and ends diplomatic relations between France and Rwanda on November 24 of this year.
3. Kagame proffers counter-attacks and counter-accusations. France is implicated in the genocide and there is no doubt about that. No one can have doubts, but the extent, the degrees of implication, the people (…), the way in which French institutions are involved, are aspects that will be examines by the investigating commission.”
Flashback: France and the Genocide
Says blog L'Afrique, Cap sur le Changement,
Au moment où le génocide commence, le 7 avril 1994 à Kigali, au moins 25 officiers français, plus probablement une cinquantaine, sont présents parmi les troupes rwandaises, dont Emmanuel de Saint-Quentin, basé à la Garde présidentielle qui, la première, arrive sur les lieux du crash de l'avion du président Juvénal Habyarimana et qui, très vite, assassine les principaux responsables de l'opposition. Pendant le génocide, les livraisons d'armes se sont poursuivies.
Skeptical about France's Sincerity and Motives
From Senegalese blog Chroniques de Ndoumbelane:
Bruguière lance des mandats d'arrets contre des responsables au sommet de l'état Rwandais et demande la tête de Kagamé !!! … Quelle Justice, que la française!
A quel titre ? A propos de l'attentat qui en 1994 à coûté la vie à Juvenal Habyarimana (cet événement servit de déclencheur au génocide rwandais nous dit-on au passage). Le pilote de l'avion était français et sa famille a saisi la justice.
En effet, ces mandats d'arrêt ne viennent pas de n'importe quelle Justice, majestueuse, impartiale et aveugle, mais de la Justice Française, c.a.d. de la justice d'un pays qui est accusé, avec un dossier accablant à l'appui, d'avoir pratiquement aidé et soutenus les génocidaires.
En effet, le rôle dans la France dans cette affaire là a été immonde jusqu'au bout. D'abord longtemps soutien d'un régime dictatorial (une vieille habitude sur le continent), elle a conservé son appui politique à ce régime aux vélleités génocidaires jamais lointaines, et gardé à l'armée soutien logistique et encadrement tout en laissant commettre quelque petits massacres par ci et par là et préparer le grand en toute tranquillité.
France's role has been murky to no end. First, longtime support of a dictatorial regime with genocidal tendencies and logistic support and training of the army  while letting them commit little massacres here and there while preparing the big one in peace and quiet.
Ensuite, …la France est enfin intervenue dans le cadre d'une operation turqouise … [pour] ralentir les rebelles et d'offrir protection et extradition à des responsables du génocide.
Un juge de ce pays là, quel qu'il soit, peut il ensuite décemment prétendre instruire contre les dirigeants issus de cette rébellion là qui était son ennemie hier?
Can a judge from that country, whoever he may be, decently pretend to preside over proceedings against the leaders of that rebellion who were their enemies yesterday?
Happy to See France Defy Kagame
From DRC-based   Prince du Fleuve du Congo Philippe Liondjo:
La France a osé défier Kagame, et ne plus céder au chantage que lui fait Kagame depuis douze ans en brandissant l'ombre du génocide.
Les mandats d'arrêts contre ses acolytes sont lancés. Evidemment Kagame de rétorquer que la France a participé au génocide!!!
Mais aucun officiel n'a réagi à ça et on le laisse parler, les autres n'osent pas lever la tête. De toute façon le Rwanda est un enjeu tellement minime que je ne vois pas pourquoi ils se bougeraient le cul à prendre le risque d'être traités de révisionnistes pour si peu.
Enfin,Kagame finira par payer, c'est sûr. D'autres pays finiront par suivre le mouvement, petit à petit. Ceux là ne pourront pas être taxés de génocidaires. Et là Kagame n'aura absolument plus aucune excuse.
Moi je rêve du jour béni où Kagame finira au TPIR! Il arrivera c'est certain. Le truc c'est qu'il faudra être patients trèès patients pour voir cela.
Arrest warrants against his acolytes have been issued. Obviously Kagame is countering that France participated in the genocide!!!
But no official dared to react to this and they are letting him talk, others are not even raising an eyebrow. In any case, Rwanda is such a low stakes interest that I don't know why they would set themselves up to be accused of revisionism over so little.
Kagame will end up paying, that's for sure.  Countries other than France will eventually join the trend little by little. It will not be possible to accuse them of genocide. And then Kagame will have absolutely no excuse.
I actually dream of the blessed day when Kagame will end up in TPIR! That day will come, I'm sure. But we will need to be patient until it does.
Top Photo: Hotel Rwanda Poster in Avignon, France by Phil Gyford.
Bottom Photo: Rwandan Man by Simon Taylor.


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South Korea: racist foreign beauty programme? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Robert Koehler blogs about a TV programme, entitled The Beauties’ Chatterbox, which is considered to be racist by many viewers.


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South Korea: spy case · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Robert Neff at Ohmynews reports on the recent spy charge with a focus on a Korean American suspect.


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Taiwan: election outcome · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

ESWN blogs about the gaps between public opinions and election outcomes in Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoral elections. Michael Turton picks up the discussion.


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Arabisc: An Arab in Toronto and Arabs and Civilisation  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Emirati blogger Osama is in North America..a place he never imagined he would ever travel to  as long as George W Bush is the president of the US.
However, a business trip now lands him in Toronto, Canada, where he is learning how to enjoy a cosmopolitan society and cope with the cold winter.
From a trip to Canada, we move to a walk across part of an Egyptian town to a bloggers’ meeting, which gave Shamseddeen the opportunity to see up, close and personal the sorry state of roads and the woman's prayer quarters in mosques.
According to the directions she got, Shamseddeen and another blogger had to take the metro and then catch a bus to the venue.
But it wasn't a smooth walk as the road conditions she described were “unsuitable for human beings or even cars.”
On the way, they stopped by a mosque to perform prayers, and the women's prayer room didn't score brownie points with her too.
Meanwhile, Tunisian blogger Mohammed Marwan Maddah posts an insightful entry on how he views today's Arabs, along with his advice to them.
According to Maddah, Arabs fall into several categories such as those still living in the glory of previous eras, those who despise their type and others who are totally Westernised, to name a few.
After criticising all the other categories, Maddah reserves his special praise to the group which prefers to work in silence.
And our last stop is with Talasim, from Jordan, which posts a hilarious sign posts, banners or pictures daily. Today's pick is a picture of an advertisement which reads: “For Sale: A rocket, 70s model, classic, champagne colour, leather seats and automatic windows.”
Sad to say, there wasn't a price tag for that fancy rocket!


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Bahamas: Case Update · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Nicolette Bethel refers to Lynn Sweeting's update about the case of the woman that the Bahamian police took into custody without allowing her to put on any clothes.


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Bangladesh: Human Rights and Health · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Drishtipat Group Blog on health issues in Bangladesh. “And finally there is a lack of appreciation of the gravity of the issue as a gross violation of basic human rights of the overwhelming majority.”

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Barbados: Anti-Corruption Legislation Needed · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Integrity In Public Life Bill and The Prevention Of Corruption Bill have been tabled for discussion in Grenada's Parliament and Barbados Free Press sees the need for similar measures at home.


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Bermuda: Christmas Boat Show · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A Limey in Bermuda deems the island's 2006 Christmas Boat Parade “a little disappointing” with a few exceptions – and posts a video clip of one notable boat.


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Bolivia: Summit of the South American Community · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Miguel Buitrago at the closing of Cochabamba's big international event: “The II Summit of the South American Community is over and here is the balance. In few words, it can be said that the summit was NOT successful, even though the government, for logical reasons, might have an opposite view.”

author: David Sasaki


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Chile: Reaction to Pinochet’s Death · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

On hearing of the death of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, Maegan la Mala notes that Chilean reaction has been “ranging from jubilation to mourning” and that “protests in the streets…have been met with water canons.”


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China: A Giant Power or Not? · Global Voices
Frank Dai

China used to be one of the mightiest empires and oldest civilizations in the world in human history, but its modern history, starting from the middle of 19th century, was full of disgrace, disorder and chaos as perceived by Chinese people, who has aspired to revive its historical glory in decades of efforts. Only with economical boom during recent years, which was built upon a huge yet cheap labor market, did China manage to become an influential force in international playing ground. However does it mean that it is the Renaissance of Chinese Culture, consequently as a result of economical growth? Given the prevailing attitude of overheating nationalism and outspoken patriotism among Chinese people,  is the resurgence of powerful Middle Kingdom a down-to-earth course we should take, or only a daydreaming public illusion?
Obviously the answer would be blowing in the wind since the changing of China is so rapidly that even the most genuine effort to foresee its future seems to be like fortune telling. Each interest group gave their version of prediction, only making the matter more confusing. Indeed no one dare to say what China is going to be exactly in next 20 or 30 years. All that we can be sure is that, this generation of Chinese, grown up in market-oriented value without threat from hunger and war, truly wished their country to be more powerful, peaceful and influential.
Recently a documentary series was aired by China Central Television, the official TV network in China, named “The Rise of Giant Power“(“大国崛起”), which has been a key subject for discussion on the Internet and traditional media alike. The 12-episode documentary started its narration from the 15th century when the Age of Discovery brought prosperity to Spain and ended with the rising of latest modern empire: United States. With up-to-date techniques like interviews, reconstruction of historical scene and computer-generated special effect, it tried to teach China and its people, a rising nation-state, on how to learn from the experiences of has-been giants on the world. (See excerpt video here)
For those liberal-minded people, who stick to the principle that the government should take the benefits of its citizens as top priority, the true and wholehearted wishes for Great China should not be manipulated by the government as an excuse to ignore basic and fundamental rights of its people. Lianyue, one of the most popular bloggers in China, wrote a post titled “It Should be the Rising of Giant Citizen Instead“:
无论大国小国，国民的幸福感受是第一位的，把国民压到最小，把国家放到最大，这种斯巴达式帝国，早就证明了是泥足巨人，行之不远。大国与小国并不重要，重要是要有大国民：他们的幸福是放在第一位的；他们不幸福了，就有资格抱怨、不满、用选举把做不好的人换下来。也正是因为这点，最大多数人的最大多数幸福，才是一个政府及一个国家的最终追求。不幸福的人多了，你连存在的合法性都会受到质疑。
让国民觉得幸福，有长远的诚实方法，让他们吃得饱、穿得暖、读书看病不至于破产、有房子住、财产与生命不受威胁、思想得到尊重、观点得以表达，那么容易满足的国民一般就会觉得幸福——至少我认为中国人会觉得满足。短视一点的做法是让人相信从吃饱穿暖到思想观点都不重要，没有这些一样可以很幸福，不过没有被逼急的人一般不会采取这种下下之策。
中国很大，这二三十年也迅速积累了财富，这提供了足够的多面性，150万户家庭占据了中国百分之七十的财富，按每个家庭辐射20人来统计，这三千万人多数是幸福满溢的，只看到他们的话，当然觉得中国是大国。如果想到其他十多亿人只有的那百分之三十，又觉得我们离最大多数人的最大多数幸福还差得远，在数量庞大的贫困人口（数字从三千万到一亿，各种版本都有，不太确定）与远远超过贫富差距警戒线的基尼指数之下，谈单个国民的重要性，谈国民的崛起（如果一定要用这个词汇的话）可能才是当务之急，不然”大国”谈得多了，云里雾里的，就会觉得拖了国家后腿的穷人们不懂事、不争气，在自觉不自觉当中就会忽略他们以成就大国梦想，那样的大国，要来做什么
China is also a complex which are quite difficult to penetrate single-handedly. The foreign correspondents and businessmen who are flying over Beijing and Shanghai, like Thomas Friedman, will never truly understand this country for its diversified and even conflicting moral, ethical and cultural agenda. How about the natives? Can Chinese themselves understand its homeland without barrier and prejudice? A post titled “Rising of Giant Power, Blind Men and Elephant”
不错，中国的经济数据很漂亮，而且越来越漂亮，但大家不能不看到，中国是一个奇怪的复合两面体：既是奢侈品消费力最高的国度之一，又是少有的内需市场十年几无起色的经济快速增长国家；既是近年来法律法规出炉最多的国家，又是公认的法制建设亟待完善的国家；既是最大的高度中央集权单一制国家，又是地方保护主义猖獗、土政策土法规多如牛毛的国家。在这个国家里，某些地区和另一些地区的发达程度差异，并不比美国与苏丹间的差异小多少；在这个国家里，社会保障和医疗保障体系之苍白让绝大多数国民惴惴不安，城市和乡村间的户籍鸿沟至今毫无缩小的迹象；在这个国家里，一纸赞住证如老兵般不死，一个”油改税”的改革近 20年寸步不前……中国是个大国，从来都是；但一个存在如此多问题和隐患的大国，也是前所未有。
外国观察者目光所及，通常只是这头大象的体形、外表，无法探知肌理脏腑，他们望闻问切，发表着对这头巨象得各种观感心得，但这些或铿锵、或悠扬的大哉之言，却只能是盲人摸象得来的体会罢了
As for the segment of Chinese people who has been synchronized with globalized lifestyle and enjoying their social status quo, what did they think about their homeland? Is it already giant power as our Chinese banks are breaking IPO records or Beijing will hold Olympics in 2008? Economically, yes; culturally, probably not. Wang Xiaofeng, another opinion leader in Chinese blogosphere:
现在不是大国崛起这个话题时髦么，大国乃至超级大国的标志是什么？首先你经济实力要强，国民生产总值至少要占全世界的一半。不好说美国现在是否占到一半，但他们在最强大的时候确实超过了一半，所以对全世界经济有”控股权”，所以就有话语权，所以他们就有制定游戏规则的权利，所以他们说宋祖英是世界音乐她就是世界音乐，说宋祖英是说唱你也得听着。这就叫霸权逻辑。
我觉得，美国那边有点什么风吹草动，我们这边都心神不宁，一个破奥斯卡，逼着张艺谋拍了一堆烂大片。一个破格莱美，也整天让我们念念不忘。现在的中国吧，一个貌似大国却与一帮穷光蛋为伍，正卡在嫌贫爱富的裤裆上，什么判断都别别扭扭的。中国在世界上似乎有制定游戏规则的投票权，但却又没有最终裁判权，所以我们老产生幻觉，看云的时候很近，看你的时候很远。就这样被弄得乎乎悠悠的，干什么都不那么理直气壮.

author: Frank Dai


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China: chinese police · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Lyn Jeffery at Virtual China blogs about a special section in a citizen journalist website, Molive/Moobol(zh), which collects both positive and negative on-the-scene photos of policemen


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Colombia: Chats and Global Orgasm · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Juan Plata of blogsColombia tries to stimulate his fellow bloggers [ES] into taking advantage of the blogsColombia chat client as well as partaking in Global Orgasm – “to cause a change of vibrations on our planet.”


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DRC: Kabila’s First Challenges · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Now that newly elected President Joseph Kabila has been sworn in, Sanaga Perigrinations  says he has 3 main challenges (fr): “Pacify the country … Rebuild and develop the country … Learn Lingala! It is sad that this swahili-speaking president by birth does not know the main language in the west of the country and in Kinshasa the capital.”


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Egypt: Suiciders on the street · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

“You're a street vendor in Cairo. You're 23 years old, unemployed, and selling merchandise such as clothes and fruits is the only way for you to survive. You can't afford to have your own shop and you don't have a place to display your goods. So what do you do? You sell on the streets,” Big Pharaoh said.

author: Haitham Sabbah


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Fiji: Safe for Tourists · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

David Stanely at the South Pacific Travel Blog is critical of Australia, New Zealand and the United States for issuing a misleading travel advisory on Fiji before the coup. The author writes that Fiji is still safe for tourists. “Tourism is Fiji’s biggest industry, accounting for over a quarter of the gross domestic product. Even before Laisenia Qarase lost control of the country, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and many other so-called “friends” of Fiji imposed sanctions on this industry by issuing highly misleading travel advisories warning against visiting the country. To date, all reports say that Fiji is perfectly calm and safe for tourists.”


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Global Voices Delhi summit – only a few days to go! · Global Voices
Rachel Rawlins

The last details are being put together for the Global Voices annual summit being held in Delhi on Saturday 16 December. But the physical location shouldn't make a difference – please join us online from wherever you are! You can join via Internet Relay Chat (IRC). The IRC address is irc.freenode.net/#globalvoices and there are instructions about how to join an IRC chat-room here. Alternatively you can just click on our browser-based web chat link. All the day's events will be available to listen to live via streaming audio, and the link to that will be posted nearer the time.
We are building up a number of linked resource pages about the summit on the Global Voices wiki which will be available from this central page. It will include feeds of material written about the summit as long as it has been tagged with the summit tag: gvdelhi2006. Please, if you blog / write / take pictures / record audio or video or otherwise generate content about the summit don't forget to tag it so your views will be more easily found and more widely distributed.
So what exactly are we going to discuss? The major themes this year are activism and outreach: we want to look at the best ways of bringing more voices into the global conversation and explore new and better ways to amplify them. The packed programme is laid out below. (Please note that all times are local Delhi times (UTC +5 hours 30 mins). There's a useful form where you can enter the time in Delhi, click the button and it gives you the corresponding time in a large number of other locations around the world.)
9.00 – 10.00  – Overview
GV's work so far – a review of the year and a look at moves being made to take us ahead.
10.00 – 10.10 – very quick coffee
10.10 – 12.00 – Outreach
In this session we will explore ways of expanding blogging and online/mobile citizens’ media from being an activity of the elites to include the voices of the less privileged and rural communities. We'll start by looking at the situation in India and move on to compare it with outreach efforts in other regions.
12.00 – 1.30 Lunch
1.30 – 3.00 – Language and Translation
Even if you have access to the internet and blogging tools one major factor that limits global conversations are language barriers. We shall look at what could be the best way to translate back and forth so that people writing/speaking in one language can be read and heard by speakers of other languages. We'll look at what has worked so far, what hasn't, and explore ideas for future action to promote more communication across language groups.
3.00 – 4.30 – Tools and Tech
In many parts of the world the desktop computer is not the main way of accessing the internet. So what technologies and tools are most suited to bringing a more diverse range of people – ethnically, linguistically, economically and geographically – into the citizens’ media community? And also what tools are needed for people who want to speak but whose governments try to prevent them from doing so?
4.30 – 5.30 – Wrap-up
A summary of the day
So that's the plan. Make a note in your diary and check out the local timings of the sessions you're interested in – we really look forward to meeting as many people as can make it, both online and in the room.

author: Rachel Rawlins


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Guyana: Giving Thanks · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

GuyanaGyal is thankful for a variety of things, not the least of which is her voice.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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India: Adverts and Displeasure · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

An advert displeases some, and the editor of the magazine, also a popular blogger may find herself in trouble says the Bullshit Press.


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India: Annamalai in the Nilgiris · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Windy Skies remembers a trip to the Nilgiris. “A bloated belly of a hungry land, bereft of the edges, notches, valleys and ridges characterizing the Nilgiris elsewhere in the Annamalai wildlife sanctuary.”


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Iran:Students disrupted Ahmadinejad’s Speech · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

According to Alpar, students in AmirKabir University in Tehran, disrupted Ahmadinejad's speech.The blogger says students chanted slogans such as ” down with dictator“[Fa].


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Israel: A multi-interfaith-feast next week · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

“Next week there are a ton of things to do in Jerusalem if you are into the Interfaith thing,” Leah said.


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Lebanon: Possible Breakthrough! · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Mohamad Masri says: “Don't hold your breath for a possible breakthrough,” commenting on the breaking news reporting that Hassan Nasrallah and Hizballah have accepted in principle a 7-point proposal brokered through the Sudanese envoy for the Arab League when he was in Beirut last week. “I have a feeling it is one that will compromise the extreme demands of both sides which is a good thing if you are with the March 14 and not-so-good thing if you are with March 8. Or not,” he said.


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Malaysia: Aboriginal Rights · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

The recent ruling party UMNO's convention in Malaysia made a lot of noise about Malay rights in a multi-cultural Malaysia. Some Malay leaders feel that the rights of the Malay community are under attack in Malaysia. The Malaysian writes that UMNO seems to have forgotten about the rights of the original inhabitants of Malaysia.

author: Preetam Rai


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Nicaragua, Venezuela, Argentina: Ortega, Chavez, Bush · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Roberto Bobrow, an Argentine illustrator for Miami Herald columnist Andrés Oppenheimer gives his own bilingual thoughts about US foreign policy towards Latin America.


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Palestine: Divide and Rule · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

“A strange phenomenon has been taking place over the past few years. Israel has been carrying out a systematic plan to try and separate Gaza from the West Bank. Little attention has been given to this effort separating people – and a country – using administrative measures,” Daoud Kuttab said.


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Poland: Iraq Exit Strategy · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The beatroot writes about Polish troops in Iraq.


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Senegal: Justice and Class · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Blog Politique du Senegal writes (Fr): “A newspaper announces that a court clerk was accused … of usury, fraud and issuance of fake checks… Verdict: 2 months. To think that stealing goats  can get you 2 years!”


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Singapore: Bus Handle Design · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

AEN Direct (via Tomorrow.sg) analyzes the standing passenger's support in a public bus in Singapore and says it fails in meeting the needs of passenger. The blogger conceptualises a more optimum design and urges the bus company to implement it.


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Somalia: race between war and peace · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The Head Heeb writes about the brewing regional conflict in the horn of Africa describing it as a race between war and peace.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Sri Lanka: Conflict in Trinco · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

GroundViewsSri , a citizen journalism space reports on the conflict situation in Trinco. “From my visit to Kantale I can say that Sinhalese people from Seru Nuwara Division are facing human security problems due to artillery and motor strikes from LTTE-controlled Vaharai area.”


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Student Protest, Election and USA-Iran Talks · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

According to the mainstream media and bloggers thousands of Iranian students demonstrated on the 6th of December in different Iranian universities around the country. The main slogan was “University is Alive”. University students and academics have gone through a very difficult time since last year. During this period some student activists were banned from studying, student associations were closed down and many academics were either fired or forced into retirement. Some call this new governmental policy a second cultural revolution. Bloggers covered this event in detail and sent photos of the demonstrations around the world.
University is Alive
Arash says about 16 Azar ( 6th of Dec) is an important day in Iranian history. The blogger says
Today is Student’s Day in Iran, for paying respect to the three students killed by the Shah more than thirty years ago. In the last decade this day has always been the day when the students show their passion for reform and their anger against the Islamic Republic. Adding Ahmadinejad, and his populist strategies, to this boiling pot it was predictable that the students would have much more to shout against this year.
Kosoof, a leading photo blogger whose site has been filtered by the authorities, says that security guards failed to stop students entering the university. He has published several photos of this event.
15 azar blog reports on the demonstration moment by moment [Fa]. The blogger says the security forces could not stop students from going inside Tehran university. The blogger also reports that in different cities such as Mashad and Mazandaran hundreds of students protested. The main slogan was University is Alive. The students chanted different slogans such as “down with the dictator”, “free political prisoners” and “freedom of women is freedom of humanity”. They supported women and workers movements in country.
Chapno (New Left) explains some of the Students’ Movement's goals and objectives [Fa]. The blogger says
While some bloggers are reporting events, some others try to have an impact on a coming political event, the Council election in which Iranian reformists will try to get back into power.
Bloggers talk with Reformist Candidates
According to Alpar about 130 bloggers met with some reformist candidates for the upcoming City and Village Councils election.
For Jomhour who traveled from the Southern part of country to the meeting, the event was positive and bloggers could be seen and heard [Fa].
Hanif says bloggers presented their requests to candidates and candidates came to know about the media that bloggers have at their disposal. The blogger adds this fact that we could bring together 150 bloggers show a good potential for future [Fa].
USA-Iran Talks
Some bloggers have looked beyond Iran's borders and discussed the possiblity of future USA-Iran talks. Even before the Baker-Hamilton report on Iraq crisis recommended that USA government should start direct talks with Iran and Syria, Iranian bloggers wrote on this very subject. Opinions were divided, as usual.
Winston proposed to write a letter to the USA President and ask him not to negotiate with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The blogger writes:
I think a few people/bloggers should come together and write a letter to President Bush advising him to help the people of Iran get rid of this regime and use his influence and power to accelerate this process.
Maziar Bahari,an award-winning journalist from Iran put forward a contrary idea on the Washington Post blog, post Global, and backed talks between the two countries:
As I watched President Bush standing under a gigantic statue of Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam the other day I was thinking to myself, “Why should it be so far-fetched to imagine an American president standing under a portrait of Ayatollah Khomeini in the Iranian parliament?” After all the Vietnamese killed more than fifty-thousand Americans. For some ridiculous reason the animosity between Iran and the U.S. has remained the only constant in the tumultuous Middle East region in the past three decades. As the American people showed in November 7 elections, they are ready for a change. It is time for the American government to give up the idea of regime change and start talking directly to the Islamic government without any preconditions. Mr. Cheney and company may really like to topple the Ayatollahs. Many Iranian men also would like the newly-divorced Britney Spears to convert to Islam and marry them. For the record, neither is on the cards.


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Sudan: Janjaweed identity · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

An aid worker in Sudan blogs about Janjaweed identity in Darfur.


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The ‘Aerial Blackout’ in Brazil · Global Voices
Jose Murilo

Ten weeks have passed since the mid-air collision that produced Brazil’s worst air disaster, but the issue is still bouncing around many levels. As the investigations progressed, the blame game amplified by the media has triggered many reactions. The most widely felt effects have come from a movement among air traffic controllers, who began following regulations to the letter, significantly slowing operations and causing delays in airports across Brazil. The movement is seen as a response to the attempts to identifying possible human failures on the part of the controllers who were on duty during that tragic September 29th afternoon. The politics of the resulting chaos is being widely discussed and Brazilians, as usual, have labeled the crisis with a buzz word  — this time it's the ‘aerial blackout’ (apagão aéreo).
Are the flight controllers right? Sure. Weren't they accused even of failure in the Gol's plane accident? Unjustly and foully they were so charged, without any doubt, because despite their work overload, they, day in and day out, still strive for putting some order in the skies. If someone should be blamed for this horror taking place in our airports this someone is the federal government, which since the Fernando Henrique's era keeps cutting the budget set aside to meet the air traffic growth. In the last three years, 3 billion reais (US$ 1.4 billion) ended up being reallocated, that is, they were never appropriated.
Brazil, Don't Blame the Air Controllers, But the Man Where the Buck Stops – Brazzil
A crise do setor aéreo já se tornou o “apagão elétrico” do governo Lula, E mostra muitas coisas. Primeiro, que Lula e Fernando Henrique Cardoso são filhos da mesma forma. A arte de governar, para ambos, é administrar pressões imediatas. No caso da aviação civil, FHC adiou o quanto pode a criação da Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil (ANAC), para não criar atritos com os militares. Para o Ministério da Defesa Lula indicou gambiarras com o mesmo propósito, Ministros sem força, conhecimento e sem vontade para não criar atrito.
A arte de procrastinar – Luis Nassif Online
The political debate over the crisis has created a situation where every new fact arrives as fuel for dispute among Brazilian minds. Sometimes we are presented with technical arguments, other times there are contentions about political decisions on infrastructure matters, and it even gets down to details about air controllers daily activities. All this and more are being openly discussed in the blogosphere. As a result, Brazilians are getting an education about an otherwise specialized issue, which until recently could only be found in highly restricted forums.
Last week a new major event fueled the crisis, when all takeoffs from three major airports were canceled after an air traffic communications system broke down, making it difficult for controllers to communicate with pilots and creating air travel chaos. The possibility of sabotage was mentioned, but yesterday a sargent confessed that the breakdown was due to an error while doing maintenance work on the system.
O maior apagão da história da aviação brasileira foi causado por falha humana. Aos prantos, um sargento assumiu ontem ter colocado de forma invertida uma placa que ligava os sistemas de comunicação via rádio do Centro de Controle de Tráfego de Brasília (Cindacta-1), o que causou uma pane inédita no sistema, na terça-feira. Com o apagão de rádio, seguiram-se a suspensão de todas as decolagens e o caos nos aeroportos de Brasília, Congonhas (SP) e Confins (MG). O sargento, cujo nome está sendo mantido em sigilo, garantiu que cometeu o erro involuntariamente, por falta de treinamento. Com isso, o governo praticamente descartou a hipótese de sabotagem nos equipamentos, embora a Polícia Federal continue investigando o episódio..
Apagão aéreo foi causado por falha humana – PTlhando
A investigação sobre a pane do sistema de rádio de Brasília, que causou o maior caos da aviação civil nesta terça-feira e teve reflexos nos dois dias seguintes, aponta falha humana como a causa do problema. A Aeronáutica já indentificou um técnico de manutenção como o responsável pela falha de comunicação que causou atrasos e cancelamentos de vôos em cascata, possivelmente devido a um erro involuntário. O sargento teria desviado algumas freqüências para a central de áudio reserva, mas só depois teria percebido que o equipamento estava inoperante, em manutenção. Segundo fonte da Aeronáutica, o programa de computador do sistema não permite que a operação seja revertida. Com isso, teria ocorrido a pane de todo o sistema.
FAB responsabiliza técnico pelo Apagão Aéreo – Aerominas
Onde estão os mordomos da Aeronáutica para responder pelo apagão aéreo? Ontem, foi a vez de culpar um sargento, que teria cometido um erro na manutenção. Vejam só: nem Lula, na Presidência, consegue parar inteiramente o Brasil. Mas ficamos sabendo que o direito de ir e vir pode ser extinto pelo erro de um sargento. Não há como o governo, a Defesa e a Aeronáutica se cobrirem mais de ridículo nessa história toda.
Apagão aéreo: a Aeronáutica não tem um mordomo? – Reinaldo Azevedo
The use of the term ‘blackout’ (apagão) to label the recent aviation crisis in Brazil has its own political motivation. One of the main crisis in the government of former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso was a problem with the country's energy supply, which became known as FHC's blackout. During the recent electoral campaign, Lula managed to exploit the issue, reminding voters about what happened then. Indeed, the use of the term in relation to the aviation crisis may not be so obvious, but the intention is to show that Lula also has problems dealing with infrastructure matters. The issue is also pushing into the never-ending debates over the class struggle in Brazil.
Peralá. Esse negócio de chamar de “apagão” o que está acontecendo nos aeroportos brasileiros já passou do ponto. Não se pode comparar o que está acontecendo agora ao apagão que efetivamente aconteceu no governo de FHC. São coisas muito diferentes. O chamado apagão dos aeroportos atinge apenas os que se utilizam de avião. O apagão verdadeiro, aquele da energia elétrica no governo de Fernando Henrique, atingiu todos os brasileiros. Além escuridão, vieram os alimentos perdidos nas geladeiras e freezers, a paralisação das indústrias, do comércio, da iluminação das ruas, do controle de tráfego etc. Com isso, não estou querendo livrar a cara do governo Lula. A situação dos controladores de vôo é absurda, e os riscos a que todos os que utilizamos os aeroportos nos submetemos é inadmissível. Mas daí a comparar uma coisa com a outra vai uma distância enorme.
Sobre o tal apagão nos aeroportos brasileiros – Blog do Mello
Toda classe média está histérica com o cáos aéreo que surgiu no Brasil. Não é para menos. As senhoras e senhores de bons préstimos e impostos pagos a sociedade estão as neuras por causas do seus doces minutos perdidos nos aeroportos. Mal eles sabem o que é pegar um ônibus para ir e voltar da cidade tiradentes, todos os dias. Perder horas, dentro da cidade, ficando de pé, dividindo o metro quadrado com 6 pessoas. E sem ter a quem reclamar, apenas pagar.
O apagão aéreo serviu para informar a classe mérdia e os Ricos o que passamos nos ônibus – tijolos sobre tijolos, sem construir uma casa
A situação do (des)controle do tráfego aéreo é muito grave e só não é pior porque muitas viagens têm sido canceladas e porque ainda não aconteceu outro acidente como o do vôo 1907 da Gol. Será que Lula vê o apagão aéreo como uma evidência de que seu governo não se preocupa com as elites e sim com o povão? Será que ele ainda vai dizer que dormir no aeroporto é fácil, que difícil é vir do nordeste num pau-de-arara?
Apagão aéreo – Blog do Hélio Pimentel
In the midst of all the accusations, there are a few commentators focusing on the real solutions to the crisis.
Para Gabeira, o governo tem sua responsabilidade para reorganizar os vôos e horários mas empresas aéreas devem ser chamadas a contribuir para amenizar o sofrimento dos passageiros. Como? “No aeroporto, o poder está no microfone. O passageiro precisa receber informação, sempre. O problema de todo mundo nessa hora é saber o que aconteceu com seu vôo. Se atrasou, quando vai sair. Se foi cancelado, quando haverá uma substituição. Em caso de imprevistos, quais são seus direitos. Até hoje, essa informação é controlada por uma visão militar, de quem acha que as pessoas não precisam saber de nada. E elas precisam saber de tudo.” Outra idéia é criar serviços nos aeroportos para evitar a tensão e o desgaste nas muitas horas de espera que, em alguns casos, são previsíveis e inevitáveis – seja em Guarulhos ou em Cingapura.
Gabeira e o apagão aéreo – Paulo Moreira Leite
And yet, there are some who see the situation as an artificial and politically motivated amplification.
Com a experiência de ter viajado de avião, no período de um ano, 39 vezes, sendo a maioria dos vôos para o Rio, Brasília e Foz do Iguaçu, todos partindo de São Paulo (Congonhas preferencialmente), posso afirmar por experiência própria: o sistema de tráfego aéreo brasileiro nunca funcionou. Fico me perguntando o quanto desse “escândalo” atual é frescura da classe média ou exagero da imprensa. Os aeroportos são o caos. Os atrasos sempre foram uma constante. E, principalmente, as companhias aéreas são grosseiras e despreparadas para atender a demanda, ainda mais depois da quebra da Varig – que, é bom enfatizar, também era uma grandissíssima porcaria. Já tive minhas malas extraviadas, já perdi vôos porque a atendente da Tam deixou minha carteira de identidade cair no chão, já tive de sair de Congonhas e pegar vôo em Cumbica e a Gol só liberar passagem da Ponte Aérea partindo do Galeão (detalhe, não me reembolsaram o táxi). Isso, deixo bem claro, era o normal, o corriqueiro. Agora, depois do “apagão aéreo”, a coisa só ficou explícita e atacou todo mundo, mas eram constantes, sempre foram.
O apagão aéreo – Como sentir calor e suar alguma metafísica
Segundo os jornalões, Waldir Pires no ministério da Defesa tem os dias contados. Vai espatifar-se no chão duro da política, conforme a previsão de uma charge de Chico Caruso publicada em O Globo ontem, dia 6. Confesso que a charge não faz bem ao meu espírito, mas isso é o de menos. Conta mais outra questão, crucial, se me permitem. Ou seja, em meio à tempestade provocada pelo caos nos aeroportos, vem à tona, com prepotência, a insatisfação militar pela presença de um civil no ministério da Defesa. Quer dizer, o quartel de Abrantes continua o mesmo. Civil na Defesa é absolutamente normal em democracias mais ou menos autênticas. Temos aí a enésima prova de que o Brasil está longe disso, haja vista o comportamento dos jornalões, todos empenhados em acompanhar sofregamente o rumo do furacão, na linha de Tasso Jereissati e ACM, que uivam da tribuna. É, sempre e sempre, o golpismo à espreita.
Um civil na defesa – Blog do Mino

author: Jose Murilo


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Trinidad & Tobago: Fair Trade  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Taran Rampersad is pro-coffee and the principles of fair trade and shows where the twain shall meet.


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Ukraine: Kyiv’s Mayor · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Ukrainiana writes about Kyiv's new mayor: “If true, that would make Chernovetsky and Yanukovych two of a kind. The “Better Living Today” they promised turned out to be a “Big Lying Tease.” Both did a great job of teasing pensioners for personal gain: Yanukovych — with an impermanent pension increment; Chernovetsky — with humanitarian aid packages. Regardless of who you voted for, if Mayor Chernovetsky goes on unchallenged, it’s payback time for all of us.”


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Ukraine: Missionaries · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

From Ukraine With Love runs into the head of a baby cow lying in the middle of the street and writes about Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Hare Krishna and Baptists in Ukraine.


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Ukraine: More In-Fighting · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Yet another update on more “political re-arrangements and in-fighting” in Ukraine, at Foreign Notes.


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Ukraine: Vodka · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

All you need to know about Ukrainian vodka – over at Ukraine List.


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Yemen: Arranged Marriage to Counter Terrorism · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

A newspaper report said that the Yemeni government fights terrorism by arranging marriages for the captured terrorists. Yemeni official confirmed that this is proving an effective counter terrorism technique because marriage provides the terrorists with the familial and social stability that they need in order not to return to their old bad ways. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Amal don't know if she should laugh or cry. “Nothing like a wife to break a man,” she said.


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Anguilla: New Anti-Corruption Blog · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Anguilla has a new blog dedicated to speaking out against corruption and Adam applauds the effort, saying, “It's challenging to engage in conversations about changing public life when you're on a small island.”


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Bangladesh: Going to RIS · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A bengali in TO is rather tongue-in-cheek about suggestions for those going to an event for Muslims called Reviving the Islamic Spirit. “Some women will be without hijab. Such women do exist. Deal with it. The hair of a woman is a beautiful thing. Meanwhile, some men will pray with their jeans covering their ankles. It is not a sign of arrogance. It is a sign of buying cheap jeans at Walmart.”


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Belarus: Kozulin’s Hunger Strike · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

News on Aleksandr Kozulin's 53-day hunger strike over at TOL's Belarus Blog.


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DRC, France: Dear Pascal Sevran · Global Voices
Alice Backer

In response to comments about Africa, Africans, African penis size and its relationship to famine on the continent made by French TV personality Pascal Sevran in a recent book, Congolese-origined blogger Alain Mabanckou writes (Fr):”Dear Pascal Sevran, Africa does not need your diagnosis. Must we remind you that a sane man would have thought twice before “spewing” such insanities?”


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East Timor: Native Ceremony · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Dili-gence gives us a glimple into a native ceremony in East Timor. “One part of the ceremony involved the symbolic killing of a pig.  Probably in deference to the large foreign presence, the actual kill was carried out away from the Palacio but body parts from the pig are presented to various leaders – eyes to those with a vision for the country etc. etc.  At the same time, a “matan dook” (witch doctor) reads the pig entrails.”


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Fiji: Bringing Tourists in after the Coup · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

The Invest in Fiji blog talks about an group being set up to encourage tourists to spend their holidays in Fiji. The tourists may be staying out because of a recent coup in Fiji.


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Guadeloupe: Commemorating First Africans’ Arrival · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Convention Pour Une Nouvelle Guadeloupe writes (Fr): “In November 1673, the first Africans arrived in Guadeloupe which was still populated by Amerindians. That was the beginning of the slave and triangular trade. It lasted until around 1870.” The blog asks Guadeloupeans to consider that bit of history as part of their cultural heritage, to commemorate it every November and to remember the importance of their history.


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Guyana: Manners Matter · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Living Guyana reprints an article from The Stabroek Scene, which calls for an end to “fish market behaviour”.


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Haiti: Preval’s Prostate Cancer and Healthcare  · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Reacting to recent news stories and speculation about President Preval's prostate cancer and his  trip to Cuba to receive treatment, JoJo at Collectif Haiti de Provence  reflects on healthcare for the everyday Haitian (Fr): “What Preval forgot to say … is to detail his plans so that all Haitians can get cured properly in Haiti … Today the indifference of health policy actors reaks of a reckless exclusion which rears its ugly head everytime a government official must go abroad for health services that all other countries in the region provide at home.“


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Hong Kong: star ferry demonstration · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Inmediahk.net has a citizen report (with pictures) on how citizen demonstrators successfully stop the demlition of star ferry yesterday (zh).


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India: Free drugs for the HIV positive · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

myHimachal on steps taken by the government in Himachal Pradesh to combat HIV/ AIDS. “The Himachal Pradesh Government would be providing free medicine to the HIV affected people, besides reimbursing the traveling charges of the patient alongwith an attendant to visit antiretroviral centre for checkup and treatment and also provide financial assistance for the studies of the children of HIV/AIDS affected parents as also orphaned children who had lost their parents due to the disease.”


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India: Suicides in Kerala · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

“Dog's Own Country?” on the high suicide rate in Kerala. “It is a sad fact that Kerala has the highest suicide rate in India. A friend of mine once speculated that the Malayalee is a unique creature prone to caving into peer pressure which forces people to resort to extreme measures in desperate times.”


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Iran:Student Protest Movement in 35 Photos · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Jomhour has published 35 photos, all showing student protest movement during Ahmadinejad's speech in Amir Kabir University.For the first time he faced a strong protest group who burned his photos and chanted slogans against him.


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Jamaica: Encourage Entrepreneurship · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Fwade cites entrepreneurship as a critical contributing factor to Jamacia's economy:  “The truth is that educating another lawyer, doctor or accountant is unlikely to contribute much to our GDP. Narrow technical abilities are admirable, but nowhere near as vital to countries in which the large mass of people cannot afford to use them.”


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Lebanon: Demonstrations, Demonstrations · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

A series of anti-government or opposition and pro-government protests and demonstrations are literally taking the country by storm. Lebanese bloggers are, as expected, expressing their positions, whether pro, con or independent through opinions, analysis, sarcasm, art, etc. The posts quoted here are, as usual, not all inclusive. All the other interesting blogs could not be mentioned for lack of space and time. As the events are accelerating in Lebanon, a lot more is expected from the bloggers, so be sure to check back for updates. Meanwhile here is a sample of posts from some blogs. It is left to you to decide where each blogger stands.
The demonstrations and the reactions to them inspired the following painting by Ibn Bint Jbeil. He also wrote:
What do you see?
Fellow human beings?
or faceless crowds that you can easily dismiss as wrong, irrelevant, peasants, misguided, unworthy, untrustworthy, different, heretical, decadent, uncivilized?
Then there is this letter from Beirut from a friend of Pierre Tristam who will not partake in any demonstration:
No, I won’t take to the streets. Not now, not again. Not for this cause or the other. Every time we take to the streets and for whatever reason, we’re exploited for personal, not Lebanese, volitions. Today’s demonstration isn’t different from yesterday’s. It’s led by the same willful warmongers. I don’t buy that option “against corruption, etc.” Bullshit. I don’t believe in a National Unity government. It never worked in the past and nothing has changed since.
The shortcomings of the leaders of the “Cedar’s Revolution” are the reasons behind the momentum of the anti-government protest according to Charles Malik in this lengthy analysis.
Sophia points out that there are lessons that the Lebanese can learn from Canada’s multiculturalism and also states that:
I have affirmed that the new divide in Lebanon, the economic divide brought upon a traditionally prosperous country by the civil war and by the disastrous management of the state by Hariri, is helping bridge the sectarian religious and ethnic divide. March 14th is the movement of the rich and the few who profited from the new economy while March 8th is the movement of the disgruntled and the numerous left behind by the new economy.
I believe that March 14th deceived the Lebanese and lost the popular support and the political capital it was sitting on since the assassination of Rafik Hariri as much as Bush has deceived the Americans and lost the political capital it was given by the American nation after 9/11.
The media was mocked by Bech at Remarkz for its bias and shortsightedness during the covering of the opposition's protests :
shame on the media that does not understand that the people who are on the streets are not there for “sectarian” reasons but because they're fed up of a government that is incompetent, corrupt, and dangerous.
Shame on the media that twists information according to where the paycheck come from.
Shame on the media that is itself sectarian, replicating the confessional discourse that, we as Lebanese, are guilty of having supplied during the past decades.
Shame on the media that replicates another demon the Lebanese have created in order to stay divided the Syria-bashing Syndrome. Again us Lebanese are so guilty. We have fed the media with our fears. And our fears are now traveling the world as an biased account of the social reality.
Abu Kais has this apocalyptic view of the events occurring in Lebanon:
It has been gradual but was bound to happen. Hizbullah’s people are turning other Lebanese into enemies.
Angry mourners chanting “death” to Premier Fouad Saniora buried Tuesday a young Shiite man killed in riots pitting supporters and opponents of the Beirut government.
Mourners marching behind Mahmoud's coffin, while beating their chests to express anger, chanted: “Shiites’ blood is boiling.”
Shia blood has been “boiling” since Khomeini kidnapped Shia Islam and Hizbullah started farming humans in Lebanon.
“Death to Israel”, “Death to America” and now “Death to Siniora”.
And if you are wondering whether these protests will end soon then read this post at Jamal’s Propaganda Site:
If anyone is counting on the Pro-National Unity Government protestors(known as Pro-Syrians in the American press) to get bored and go home, they better rethink their strategy as the entertainment options Downtown are never ending. (A new strategy might be to shoot at people to keep them from expressing themselves.) Some of the protestors are having more fun than they've ever had, even though they still haven't made it past the velvet rope at Buddha Bar and Asia. Kaak, Corn on the Cob, Concerts, Ice Cream Trucks, and Fortune tellers line up the open areas of Downtown Beirut. The opposition is prepared to squat for a long time. No one can question the Lebanese abilitites at squatting as only our southern neighbors can rival us in that department.
In one of her very witty post, ADB writes about the reports of violence, spies and the protests in Beirut:
At the sit-in downtown, I bumped into an elderly American woman sporting a plethora of Hezbollah scarves around her neck, a Hezbollah baseball cap on her head and other Hezbollah paraphenelia attached to the travelpouch around her waist. The travelpouch and white sneakers were a dead giveaway. She was eating something that resembled greasy chunks of pork and wiping the fat on her pants. A friend of mine had described an American woman who attended the “International conference in support of the resistance” a few weeks ago at the UNESCO Palace. She fit the description. He had left the conference after she railed on and on about how much she loves Hezbollah and how Americans love Nasrallah. I stopped to talk to her.
Regular conversations are manifesting the grave schisms in the Lebanese community according to Sietske in Beiroet :
Friends come to me and tell how other friends have insulted them, because they talk of ‘those animals down at the zoo in downtown’. Others come and complain, and say they never knew that so-and-so was such a hard liner, because have you heard what he said …? Some friends are afraid, saying that this is no longer their Lebanon, and that they are disgusted by it all, but in the meantime, they do not sit with so and so anymore, because he said that she said, and you know, he is a maronite, after all. Well, you all know about them, don’t you?
In Lebanon, demonstrations are given nick-names. The opposition's demonstrations going on these days are dubbed the “Foooooool Revolution” by Anarchorev, in contrast to the “Cedar’s Revolution” that was called the “Hummus Revolution”, both foul (fava beans) and hummus are types of foods from Lebanon:
OK, so we went down to the street, and it was packed, and diverse, and yeah I loved the sound effects and music… but seriously, “national unity government”? Come on. Let us get real, what is this “national unity” government supposed to be about? “You’re thieves but we’re OK with joining hands with you to ‘build’ Lebanon if you give us our share [based on what? sects?]”? …. no thanks. But hey, as long as you can topple this government all the more power to you.
Finally this is a quote from a lengthy analysis on the nature of the opposition-protests from Marxist From Lebanon:
From the other side, 8th and 14th of March racism is escalating to new clearer framework. For starters the accusations are viewed by each other exactly what the accuser accuses the accused. In this sense, 14th of March supporters regard 8th of March as Iranian – Syrian puppies who want to integrate Lebanon into the arms of Damascus while versa the supporters of 8th of March regard the 14th of March crowd as Zionist-US traitors who want to serve the West. Such claims are furthering wider the gap between both camps.

author: Moussa Bashir


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Pakistan: Morality and Students · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Metroblogging Lahore on Pakistani students caught cheating. “Last week, a friend of mine sent me this email about an embarrassing situation in Swedish universities where the number of Pakistani students involved in cheating cases is alarmingly increasing every year.”


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Russia: Anti-Estonian Protest · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Itching for Eestimaa writes about a recent protest in front of the Estonian embassy in Moscow.


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Serbia: Political Diet and Political Killing  · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

East Ethnia writes about Vojislav Seselj's “diet” and Slavko Curuvija's “political killing” seven years ago.


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Singapore: Youtube Video Leads to Firing of a Temp Employee · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Themediaslut writes about an ISP/Mobile provider in Singapore who fired a temp worker for putting up a video on youtube that featured him and another employee playing around in the office. Analyzing the company's response to the press story on this incident, the blogger says “Right now, Starhub is being seen as that company that doesn’t allow youtubing. It is ironic because its a telco that sells mobile phone with cameras and where do u think this videos usually end up?”


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South Asia: Muslims and Christmas in the UK · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Pickled Politics points to an article by one of the authors in the Guardian. “That is, erm, me in a short article in today’s Media Guardian having a sarcastic dig at the tabloids for their annual idiotic headlines that proclaim ‘Muslims want to ban Christmas!’” Watch out for the 187 comments for the post!


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South Korea: demand apology regarding racist programme · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Michael Hurt has written an open letter to demand an official apology from Korean T.V station (KBS) regarding their earlier Global talk show programme which is considered as “racist and sexist stereotyping of foreign people”.
Marmot's Hole also blogs about NGO statement on the issue.


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South Korea:  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Robert Koehler at Marmot's Hole blogs about the National Human Rights Commission's decision on not to look into human rights abuses occurring in North Korea.


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Thailand: Arab Street in Bangkok · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Doodee's Thailand takes the reader on a trip to the Arab enclave of Bangkok – Suhkumvit soi 3.