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Tuesday Global Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

We're always looking for new ideas and good stories to write about. If you have a story or a blog post that you think would be a good fit for our daily roundups, email us with the link and a short blurb about what it's about!
Central Asia
Hans from Kaukasus reports the news that travel to Georgia (the country, not the state) is now visa-free for visitors from the EU, the US, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, and Israel, and invites tourists to come and visit the scenic Central Asian republic.
Registan confirms that the Peace Corp has decamped from Uzbekistan. They also note a slightly odd story from Kyrgyzstan; apparently the acting president has decreed that all regional leaders have to take—and pass—a physical fitness test.
East Asia
Little Cart Noodles gets to tour the USS Nimitz when it makes a port call in Hong Kong and takes a whole series of neat photographs.
Over on the Korean Peninsula, the Marmot helpfully points to an article that discusses Kim Jong-Il’s favorite foods.
Photo by  noe0712
South-East Asia
Kenny Sia writes about the always touchy subject of racism in Malaysia;  he looks at the state-sponsored preferential treatment Malays receive over other ethnic groups and wonders if it’s gone too far.
The latest political imbroglio in the Philippines revolves around a tape of a telephone call that allegedly implicates President Gloria Arroyo in election fraud. Except that there’s another version of the tape that apparently proves that the first tape was doctored. Except that others believe that both versions of the tape have been doctored. The one thing that’s clear, according to The Sassy Lawyer, is that someone needs to be in jail… we’re just not sure who. Inside PCIJ has more background on the scandal.
Latin America
The big story in Bolivia is the resignation of President Carlos Mesa. Publius Pundit has a good general roundup of the situation, while Barrio Flores,   MABB, and Ciao! have immediate reaction posts up. MABB also has a more reflective post that worries that the country may be on the verge of breaking up, and Open Veins has photographs of some of the protests.
South Asia
Youth Curry reports that the growing trend of efficient discount airlines (think JetBlue or RyanAir) has reached India, and is changing the way Indians travel.
On the lighter side, Chien(ne)s Sans Frontières has a post covering the very latest in Bollywood rivalries, featuring two of the subcontinent’s biggest glamour queens.
Europe
In an only-in-Ireland stunt, a young man recently embarked on a Guinness-only diet for a week (well, Guinness with bread, and a pint of milk and a vitamin C supplement). This being the internet age, the natural thing to do was blog about the experience.
In the wake of the EU Constitution referendums in France and the Netherlands, Heiko Hebig thinks that he “should start referring to the Draft EU Constitution as the ‘Terri Schiavo Constitution’”.
Despite the fact that Finns are found to be very progressive and broadminded as a group, Phil at Finland for Thought is distressed that Finland is still listed as a “Tier 2” country in the United States’ report on human trafficking.
In Hungary, Vandorlo of Central Budapest notes that Hungarians are abandoning fixed-line phones, with only a third of them using them to place their calls.
Late-breaking Hungarian news: Pesticide.hu reports that Hungary has it’s third president of the post-communist era, though the parlimentary vote is not without controversy.
Africa
Mental Acrobatics asks: “What would you say the single most important event of the 20th century was for Africa/Kenya?”
Chanuka wonders why Africa needs more loans and more aid when its leaders drive around in lavish cars while ordinary citizens can barely afford a bicycle…


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Calling all Bloggers: Get Skyped!! · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Get your actual voice heard by a global audience. Introduce your blog and tell the world what it's like to be a blogger in your country.
If you don't already have Skype, please get it.
If you're interested in being interviewed for a Global Voices Skypecast,  please let us know your Skype handle, either by posting it in the “comments” section at the bottom of this post, or by emailing us at: globalvoices DOT online AT gmail DOT com.
We look forward to talking to you soon.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Rebecca MacKinnon


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Tsunami 6 months on: Blog it!! · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

It has come to Global Voices’ attention that a number of mainstream media outlets are going to be doing some special reporting looking at the Tsunami and its legacy 6 months on.
Given what a big role the blogosphere played in the tsunami coverage, it would be great to see the perspective of bloggers living in tsunami-affected regions.
How did the tsunami change your life, and that of the people around you? Do you know about efforts to improve evacuation and early warning systems in your area? Are people getting the aid they were promised? Are they getting the help they need? Why or why not??
Please let the world know in your blogs, podcasts, flickr photo feeds, and videoblogs!!
Please DON'T FORGET to tag your work with “tsunami” so that we will know about it!!


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Wednesday Global Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

We're always looking for new ideas and good stories to write about. If you have a story or a blog post that you think would be a good fit for our daily roundups, email us with the link and a short blurb about what it's about!
Europe
Mike Tyukanov, from Stroke of Key, reports that a long-overdue statue of Tsar Alexander the Liberator has been unveiled in downtown Moscow. Mike notes that that while Alexander battled the Ottoman Empire, he also integrated Muslims into Russian civil society, and many Muslim soldiers served in his campaigns against the Turks.
East Asia
Japanpundit reports that the Japanese government will soon require all foreigners staying in the country for more than 90 days to carry government-issued IDs with smart chips in them.
ESWN translates an Eastweek article that suggests that the Ching Cheong arrest was really about Taiwan. However, as ESWN notes, Eastweek sometimes gets their exclusive scoops wrong…
Photo by John Frankenstein
South Asia
United We Blog! has a long story about the aftermath of a government-forced dispersion of an unofficial refugee camp from a park in Katmandu.
Central Asia
Registan brings us the remarkable story that the Uzbekistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims that there is no internet blocking or filtering in the country. This claim was apparently met with knowing skepticism from the foreign press corp.
South-East Asia
Singabloodypore looks at the velvet glove approach the Singapore government is using to suppress speech on-line and finds it vastly superior to the Chinese and Iranian implementations. However, he worries about the iron fist underneath the velvet glove…
At Thai-Blogs.com, Richard has posted a quick guide to cultural do’s-and-don’ts in Thailand. While it’s geared towards teachers, it’s useful for anyone travelling to the Land of Smiles.
In our last roundup, we noted a political scandal brewing in the Philippines revolving around two different versions of taped phone calls that implicated President Arroyo in electoral fraud. Well, as PCIJ points out, a third version of the tape has emerged; it’s substantially longer than the other two editions and has a number of conversations not on the other tapes. PCIJ has transcribed  the missing minutes.
The irrepressible mr.brown points to a site that, at first blush, appears to be the blog of Yeo Cheow Tong, the Singaporean Minister of Transit… The moral of the story, is, of course, that not everything on the internet is what it appears to be.
More seriously, Brand New Malaysia points to the very real blog of Sharir Abdul Samad, a Malaysian MP. The MP’s blog is in Malaysian; while that’s a problem for us, since the Global Voices staff lacks a Malay speaker, it’s probably a net gain in communicating with his constituents.
Macam-Macam observes that the Sultan of Brunei has appointed a non-muslim to his cabinet,  the first time that a non-muslim has ever held such a high rank in that government.
Latin America
VCrisis translates a blog post that reports a troubling trend in Venezuela: the Foreign Ministry is only accepting applications from “those who are engaged in the revolution.”
Africa
The Zimbabwean Pundit notes that the Zimbabwean opposition has called for a national mass job stay away for Thursday and Friday. I’m no expert, but I’m guessing that “mass job stay away” is pretty much the same thing as a general strike.
Sesotho, the language spoken in Lesotho, requires use of the “š” character to write properly. Sotho, the blog, explains how to write that character for web pages properly.
The Middle East
A new blogger, Eygptian Person, write about the Saudi tradition of “summer marriage”.
Abu Aardvark covers two disparate topics: first, what can America and Americans do about Arab anti-Americanism; second, can Syria’s campaign against the Arab media revolution succeed in the face of overwhelming popularity? For the latter, he provides a pictorial comparison…
Islamsists in Jordan are apparently calling for an end to co-ed university trips; Natasha of Mental Mayhem politely suggests that they perhaps should focus on more pressing matters.

author: Paul Frankenstein


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Andrew Heavens blogs the violence in Ethiopia · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

A few weeks back, the elections in Ethiopia looked like a great victory for supporters of increased openness and democratization. Reporting on the apparent increase of the opposition from 12 seats to 174 in the 547-seat parliament, Abraham McLaughlin wrote in the Christian Science Monitor:
The campaign included surprising signs of openness: massive opposition rallies being allowed in the capital; coverage of the opposition in government-controlled media; and, for the first time ever, more than 300 international observers being invited in to watch the vote.
The increased openness demonstrated by Zenawi's government (he's been in power since 1991, winning three elections widely percieved as being rigged) doesn't neccesarily mean this election process is going to be a peaceful one. Students began rioting in the “Mexico” section of Addis Ababa on Tuesday, and taxi and bus drivers began a general strike on Wednesday. The government has responded by opening fire on demonstrators, killing at least 22.
Andrew Heavens, a freelance journalist based in Addis, has been in the heart of the situation, taking photographs for Reuters. His blog, Meskel Square, is currently filled with harrowing stories and images:
At one point a young man burst out of the morgue roaring with grief. He kept charging on the surrounding doctors, clenching his fists, desperate to find someone to take his grief out on. Seconds later he ran out of the room in tears.
Just for the record, I saw 11 bodies at the Black Lion and Zawditu hospitals, all with gun shot wounds, some to the head. As you know the official count at the moment is 22.
They all seemed to me to be in their twenties or at most their early thirties. Most of the protesters I saw earlier yesterday were much younger – see this picture of stone-throwing youths. The real worry is that this unrest will spread from the students to “street people” across the city, turning the protests into widespread unrest.
Andrew is posting his photos on Flickr. They include pictures of students protesting in the streets, youths armed with stones, and far too many photos of the wounded and dead.
The Ethiopian blogosphere is buzzing with speculation about whether Ethiopia is heading towards a Ukraine-style revolution. Opposition bloggers are especially vocal. Ethiopundit has a long post speculating that the election was stolen and arguing that the concession that the opposition had won seats in Addis was a smokescreen to disguise overall election fraud. Dagmawi favors statistical analysis, including speculation that record turnout favored the ruling party and indicates fraud.
Ethiopian Review believes that (opposition party) CUD spokesman Ato Lidetu Ayalew is being held without food and water by the government and asks people to contact the ICRC to ask for help seeking his release.
The Ethopian government appears to be cracking down on the independent press, revoking press permits for Deutchse Welle and Voice of America. Heavens is asking commenters on his blog to keep “comments moderate”, surely aware that his presence in Addis could also be threatened.
The Global Voices aggregator is following half a dozen Ethiopian blogs and may be useful to anyone interested in following developments as they happen.
Photo by Andrew Heavens

author: Ethan Zuckerman


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Thursday Global Blog Update · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

We're always looking for new ideas and good stories to write about. If you have a story or a blog post that you think would be a good fit for our daily roundups, email us with the link and a short blurb about what it's about!
Africa
The Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa has been hit with anti-government protests and a resultant government crackdown; news reports indicate that at least 22 protesters have been killed. Andrew Heavens, a freelance photographer for Reuters, has been covering the violence on his blog. Andrew’s Flickr feed has more photographs, including eerie images of armored vehicles in downtown, the wounded being treated by doctors. Ethiopundit suggests that perhaps Ethiopia is on its way to a Ukranian-style peaceful revolution; in a separate post, he suggests that the massive gain made by the opposition was actually a fig leaf designed to divert attention from even more massive electoral fraud. Global Voices’ own Ethan Zuckerman has a more detailed update on the situation.
Afrotecnik reports on a rural network of small, solar-powered community radio stations in Niger.
South Asia
A new cricket blog—that’s cricket, the sport that’s cousin to baseball, not cricket, the arthropod—called Fourth Umpire has arrived on the scene. Though the author is based in Manhattan, the blog focuses on cricket in the sub-continent.
Niraj points to a really informative post about the Biharis, a class of stateless people created when Bangladesh became independent in the early 1970s.
Photograph by Steve Evans
The Middle East
Gateway Pundit reports on a candlelight vigil in Cairo that protested violence by government-backed thugs during last month’s elections. In addition, Manal of Manal and Alaa’s bit bucket actually attended the protest; her report includes photographs of the protest.
Al-Ghad, an Egyptian opposition party, has circumvented the state’s control of the radio waves by launching a radio station over the internet, reports *The Arabist Network. The internet stream, which can be found here, seems to feature mostly talk shows with occasional musical interludes.
The biggest news in the Iranian blogosphere today is that Iran beat Bahrain in soccer and thus advanced to next year’s World Cup. What could be bigger than that? The fact that a group of about 30 women entered the stadium for the historic game and cheered their team on to victory. Hoder’s take includes pointers to pictures; Brooding Persian translates the Farsi statement of one of the women;  Under Underground celebrates both the soccer win and the advance in women’s rights.
In Iranian election news, Hoder reports that the reformist candidate Dr. Moin (also romanized “Moeen” by some) has the most to lose by a low turnout in the election. And a specialized Flickr group dedicated to the election has been created, featuring images of campaign posters, both en toto and defaced…
In Lebanon, The Lebanese Blogggers has a lengthy post about trust, governance, and it’s application to Lebanon particular and the Middle East in general.
East Asia
Asiapundit notes that the New York Times has picked up on the “China Requires Bloggers to Register” story.
Tokyo Times reports that Tohoku University has managed to develop a ballroom dancing robot. The robot itself seems like a bright pink vision straight out of Metropolis.
Latin America
In La Paz, MABB continues to follow the saga that is Bolivian politics; in its latest update, Congress has accepted President Mesa’s resignation but has not yet appointed a successor.  The post has a handy chart comparing and contrasting the three major candidates for the position. As a side note, the Bolivian constitution has a line of presidential succession laid out; the debate over the next president has more to do with the forces that forced Mesa out and less to do with following the letter of the law.


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Translations, and a new, shorter URL · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

The Global Voices Manifesto – a statement of our basic principles and beliefs, authored collaboratively by many of the people who joined us at the first Global Voices conference in December 2004 – is now available online in ten languages: Arabic, German, English, Spanish, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Swahili, as well as a “simplified English” version optimized for machine translation. If you're interested in helping translate the manifesto into additional languages, please feel free to join in on the wiki. If you haven't worked on wiki translations in the past, you may want to take a look at the Wikipedia translation tools page. You may also want to get in touch with Global Voices wiki maven SJ, who's been helping organize translations – sjklein AT hcs DOT harvard DOT edu.
In other notes, we've got a nifty new URL for Global Voices – you can now access our main page at www.globalvoicesonline.org or www.globalvoicesonline.com. No need to change your bookmarks, as we're not moving from our existing harvard.edu address – just adding this new address for your convenience.


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Friday Global Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

We're always looking for new ideas and good stories to write about. If you have a story or a blog post that you think would be a good fit for our daily roundups, email us with the link and a short blurb about what it's about!
Europe
Loic Le Meur is trying to get a rough handle on the size and shape of the European blogosphere. To help himself out, he’s set up a wiki page on the subject.
A Fistful of Euros notes that the PMs of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia are meeting to strategize in the wake of the French and Dutch rejections of the EU Constitution. It’s suggested in the comments that German PM Schroeder should join the meeting; this leads to a debate on just how welcome a ‘mitteleuropablock’ would be.
Heiko Hebig observes the 50th anniversary of the Bundeswehr.
Polbog got caught in a bomb scare that caused massive gridlock in Warsaw.
A Welsh View points to how to buy a pint of Guinness. I’m not sure why a Welsh site points to a Swedish site for instructions on how to order an Irish beer—perhaps we can blame globalization.
Photo by Computix
The Middle East
Global Voices can confirm that seminal Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan (a.k.a. Hoder) will be travelling back to Iran in the next few days. The news, originally reported on Jeff Jarvis’ Buzzmachine, has not actually made it to Hoder’s own blog.
Mohamed, who writes From Cairo, With Love, writes about attending two evening protests and then dining at a fancy hotel: “Sitting in that balcony, watching the beautiful Nile, the city lights and detaching from everything real in Cairo is just a breathtaking experience. … hearing those noises adds to your sense of isolation from everything filthy down below, easily forgetting how filthy some have to be to get up here.”
Iranian Girl on westerners who don’t understand the oppression of the hijab (headscarf): “I don’t know why this lady didn’t mention that if she had liked it this much, why didn’t she continue wearing it?!”
A Family From Mosul reports that to deter suicide bombers, authorities in Tikrit have ordered that only cars with at least two passengers are allowed to travel within the city.
Mustapha, from Beirut Spring, suggests that building a new Lebanon will be a long process with no magic shortcuts.
South Asia
Skypejournal has an interesting story about how Dina Mehta uses Skype to facilitate cross-blog communication and collaboration, particularly in the face of a crisis.
India Uncut has announced a time and place for the Bombay Mumbai Blogger Meet for June.
Latin America
Bolivia has a new President: Eduardo Rodriguez Veltze. Barrio Flores has a brief profile of the former Bolivian Supreme Court Judge, while MABB details the convoluted process that lead to his selection.
East Asia
In light of the recently announced registration requirements for Chinese blogs, T-Salon reflects on what privacy and anonymity really mean in the Chinese context. She also quotes liberally from a Taiwanese opinion piece about the restrictions.
Slightly ironically, The Longbow Papers announces that CCTV, the Chinese Government’s broadcasting arm, will be airing a segment about blogging in China. The TV segment will be focusing on We Observe the World, or WOW; it’s a group blog/ezine produced by the students of Beijing Foreign Studies University.
ESWN has two thematically related pieces up: first, he wonders why the Hong Kong English-language press has ignored a major corruption scandal that’s been splattered across the front pages of the Chinese press. Second, he examines a joint Sino-Korean-Japanese history book that tries to provide an unbiased account of modern east Asian history; most telling are the passages he uses to compare with a contemporary Japanese textbook.
Photograph by Nathan Nelson
South-East Asia
Bun Tharum uses the story of how he received, as gift, a Khmer dictionary that he’d just purchased for himself, to comment on the state of Khmer literacy. Also in Cambodia, Webbed Feet, Web Log posted a close-to-canonical  list of Cambodian blogs. Most of the blogs are of expats in Cambodia, but there’s some good stuff in there.
Australia
Rank and Vile has a lengthy post about Australian self-identity and the clash between image (Australia! Land of the bush!) and reality (Australia! One of the most urbanized countries in the world!).


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Interview with Alaa Adb El Fateh in Cairo · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

Alaa Abd El Fateh is an Egyptian blogger, open source advocate and democracy activist. Along with his wife, Manal, he maintains “Manal and Alaa's Bit Bucket”, a site hosts their blogs and the blogs of several Egyptian free speech and pro-democracy organizations. They also maintain an Egyptian blog aggregator.
Alaa has been active in the Kifaya movement – an alliance of student, human rights and other groups –  which is demanding democracy in Egypt, but protesting against recent moves by Hosni Mubarak for multiparty elections, on the grounds that the elections won't be sufficiently open to opposition candidates. (The word “kifaya” means “enough” in Arabic.) On May 25th, the day of a referendum on constitutional changes, members of the Kifaya movement staged a demostration in Cairo. They were attacked and beaten by Mubarak supporters. Several female journalists and activists reported being groped, or having clothing torn off by Mubarak loyalists and security forces.
Alaa, Manal and Alaa's mother, Dr. Laila Soueif, were part of the Kifaya demonstration on May 25th, and were attacked by pro-government forces. Alaa talks about his experiences at the hands of the protesters, about the history of Kifaya, the relationship between Kifaya and other opposition groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, and about prospects for democracy in Egypt. We also talk a bit about human rights blogging in Egypt and the importance of online media, like the radio station from opposition political group El Ghad.
It's a long interview – about 45 minutes – but really worth hearing. If I get a chance this weekend, I'll try to post a digested version for those short on time. But it's really worth a full listen (mp3, 45 minutes, 21MB)
Some links Alaa and I mention in the interview:
never forget – a collection of links and accounts of the May 25th protest violence and the “Black Wednesday” movement.
Misr Digital Online Newspaper
El Ghad online radio feed. (Has been down a great deal due to heavy demand.
Egyptian Blog Ring
Image: Lighting candles at a vigil in Cairo, June 8th, to remember the violence that occurred two weeks earlier on May 25th. From Manal at manalaa.net.
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Isaac Mao on China’s blog crackdown · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Note: due to problems with the way this post was originally configured, making it imopssible for the podcast enclosures to function properly, the content has been moved. Click here for the new permalink location..


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Skypecast: Isaac Mao on China’s crackdown · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

I spoke to Isaac Mao in Shanghai via Skype to get some clarification and detail about how the latest regulations requiring bloggers to register in China are actually being implemented – and interpreted.
The conversation was exremely interesting. As usual, the situation on the ground is complicated and full of ambiguity.
You can listen to the 32-minute (15MB) interview with Isaac Mao here.
The major takeaways:
How can people outside of China help Chinese bloggers who want to retain their ability to speak more freely? Adopt a Chinese blog on your server. In order to do this, you need to have a blog on your own server space, not one hosted on Typepad, Blogger, or similar. Interestingly, rather than having a centralized website that will broker and match up interested volunteers with Chinese bloggers in need of help, they're doing the matching through Technorati tagging. So Isaac says:  if you're interested in helping Chinese bloggers, write a post on your blog expressing your willingness to help and tag it as “adoptablog” with this code:
That will automatically enable Chinese bloggers to find you through this page.
Technical note: I called Isaac using Skypeout, which enables me to call a regular phone number via Skype. (We tried doing it Skype-to-skype but there was serious breakup and delay, probably due to a busy network at mid-day in China.) The whole half-hour conversation set me back about one whopping Euro in my Skypeout account.
The conversation was recorded directly onto the hard drive of my IBM Thinkpad using Hotrecorder. A $15 premium version enabled me to convert the audio file to “.wav” format. Did little trimming and normalizing in the free program, Audacity, then exported it to MP3, then uploaded it onto the blog.
The quality was not perfect – Skype emits a high-pitched buzz that I couldn't eliminate and Isaac's voice on the phone had a bit of an echo, but it's perfectly audible, especially if you listen through headphones.
TECHNICAL APOLOGIES: Sorry to those of you who had to click over from the original link. We're still sorting things out technically. I failed to format the enclosures properly in my original post, then the software wouldn't let me fix the situation once the post was published.
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Hoder returns to Iran · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Toronto-based Iranian blogger, Hossein Derakshan, aka Hoder has announced that he's returning to Iran next week, despite the possible risks.  He writes:
Despite the risks, I think this is the safest time for me to visit, because the regime is likely to behave more tolerantly right before the elections on June 17th. It's a small window of opportunity which may not open again for a long time. Especially because it's not clear who the next president will be and how the regime will deal with the internal and international pressure.
I miss my country and I am frustrated that I must have fears of going back simply because of the words I have written in my weblogs. (Read Sina Motallebi‘s account of his three weeks detention because of his blog postings.)
Hossein will be blogging, podcasting, and taking photos while on his trip. A big focus will be the Presidential elections on June 17th.   He is asking his readers to support him by linking to his blog posts from Iran and by donating funds through paypal to help finance the trip.
Hossein played a key role in enabling the emergence of a Persian-language blogosphere, and is a key “bridge blogger.” He is one of the bloggers who inspired us to create Global Voices.  Read this “Wired” magazine article about him, and  this article quoting him and other bloggers who attended the Global Voices conference last December. You can also listen to interviews with Hossein and other bloggers on Chris Lydon's Radio Open Source here: here and in this 20-minute podcast about the conference we created in December here.
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Bloggers of the world: help us find you · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

We've been hearing from some bloggers who feel that our Daily Global Blog Roundups have been missing things.  There's an easy way to help us improve: Please help us write the daily roundups.
When you come across blog posts you think we ought to include in the daily roundup, please email us with the link plus a sentence or two explaining where the blogger is from and what the post is about.  We'll always check this account before writing each day’s roundup.
Given the proliferation of blogs around the world, doing a daily roundup is no easy task. Most of the links are found through our aggregator, which tracks several hundred of the most active bridge blogs.  Check out the aggregator and see if your favorite blogs from your country or region – or places of interest – have been included. If they haven't please head over to the Bridgeblog Index and add them to the relevant country folder. For more detailed explanation of how to do tihs, click here and here.
Regional roundups and translations: One of the major limitations of the Global Voices is our inability to read every world language. To follow conversations in parts of the blogosphere where we don’t speak the language, we rely on contributors like Ndesanjo Macha, who translates posts from Kiswahili to English to help us understand what’s going on in East Africa. If you’re interested in helping us understand part of the globe better, please consider doing the following:
- Start publishing a roundup on your own blog, translating posts into English
- Let us know about it, so we can include it in the aggregator and index, and, if appropriate, talk to you about reposting it on the Global Voices blog.
We’re also grateful for help in translating key documents like the Global Voices Manifesto, which contributors have translated into Spanish and Kiswahili.
Please click here for more information about how you can be part of Global Voices.


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China Update: more on blog registration and censorship · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Microsoft has launched a Chinese-language version of it's Spaces blog hosting service, and guess what?  Users are banned from using the word “democracy” and other politically sensitive words to label their blogs – although it does appear possible to use those words within blog posts, for now. (As noted in my interview with Isaac Mao, people who set up blogs under this service don't have to register with the authorities because MSN is already obliging the government by policing their content.) But then, MSN is already in the censorship game even in the U.S., as Boing Boing discovered soon after the service's launch.
BBC commentator Bill Thompson argues that efforts by people in the West to fight censorship in places like China are often misguided and counterproductive. I'd be interested to know Chinese bloggers’ reaction to that.  He also got one thing wrong. He writes: “Now anyone in China who wants to blog has until 30 June to register or face criminal sanctions.” Actually, as we clarified with Isaac who invests in blog-hosting services, people who set up blogs within BlogChina or Blogbus or the Chinese version of MSN Spaces don't have to register. Just people who set up blogs on their own independent server. I hope the MSM will pick up on this distinction eventually.  So far none of them have, because few of the journalists writing the articles on this story actually understand the technicalities of blogging.
Chinadigitaltimes points to an excellent article by Robert Marquand in the Christian Science Monitor: China cracks down on Web and expats. He ties in the new requirement that bloggers and website owners must register with their own names to other developments: tightening of government controls over the Chinese mainstream media, and the geopolitical context in which other countries are feeling challenged by China's rise.
CHINESE LANGUAGE BLOGS:
Doubleaf (who has successfully registered his WordPress blog) responds to the adopt-a-blog efforts (led by Chinese working together from inside and outside China): “My blog doesn't need to be adopted by other people” (我的blog不需要别人收养).  He writes that even if his mouth were forced shut, he would not want to depend on the charity of strangers. A very interesting discussion ensues in the comments section.
The author of 24hour.blogbus.com reckons he has 238，000 words to write this year based on his current rate of writing. The blogger's spirit, he believes, is: “write till you die and don't be afraid of writing.” (Based on Isaac's explanation, he doesn't need to register because he's using the Blogbus service, which is required to police his blog along with all the others it hosts).   24 hour is best known for its eye-witness coverage of a murder last year.
Dingyong (who appears to be blogging on Blogger.com but actually isn't) compares the proposed use of fingerprinting for I.D. cards in Taiwan – which has created an uproar – with mainland China's website-registration regulations.  At issue, he believes, is when citizens relinquish basic civil liberties to their government in exchange for an alleged enhancement in public security and safety. Where do you draw the line and who draws it? His post reminds us that this is an issue for societies with democratically elected governments as well as authoritarian countries.
Keso's blog, “Playin with IT” weighs in on the debate about whether China should create its own internet.  He doesn't agree with that approach. While the “roots of the internet” are inherently un-Chinese, he believes that shouldn't stop Chinese people from adopting it, internalizing it, then eventually creating something new that is Chinese, and which others will want to adopt and emulate. 愿意学习就是好事，从被别人影响，到影响别人，从向别人学习，到成为别人学习的对象，这是个漫长的过程。
…which leads us to kzeng's discussion of the Chinese-ification of Drupal… at which point we're getting really geeky… :-)


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Interview with Patani separatist leader – Dr. Wan Kadir. · Global Voices
Mack Zulkifli

Dr. Farish Noor, prominent political writer and one of the leading expert in Asian Studies, recently interviewed the leader of BERSATU, a coalition of Muslim separatist organisations based in Southern Thailand that is made up of organisations like the BRN (National Revolutionary Front), PULO (Patani United Liberation Organisation), BIPP (Patani Islamic Liberation Front) and GIMP (Muslim Mujahideen Movement of Patani). Following the escalation of violence in the Southernmost provinces of Thailand since January last year, worldwide attention has been turned once more to Patani, a region that was swept by a wave of bloodshed during the 1970s and 1980s.
This article is a significant landmark, especially for blogging in Malaysia, as it is the first time that Dr. Wan Kadir, as the head of the coalition, has stated that Malaysia played no role in assisting or training the members of the separatist movement. This allegation has been a thorn in the Malaysian governments side for a long time, and this revelation is something that would be very welcomed. It helps debunk reports like these. Dr. Wan Kadir currently lives in exile in Sweden.
Read the full interview here, a first for a Malaysian blog, as Dr. Farish Noor, in a guest editorial, delves deep into the heart of the matter.

author: Mack Zulkifli


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Monday Global Blogs Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

We’re always looking for new ideas and good stories to write about. If you have a story or a blog post that you think would be a good fit for our daily roundups, email us with the link and a short blurb about what it’s about!
Lebanon
The Lebanese blogosphere reacts to General Michel Aoun’s stunning victory in the latest round of parliamentary elections: Across the Bay has a lengthy analysis of the results, framed in terms of politics-through-partnership, not politics-through-opposition; Beirut Spring suggests that this is the beginning of the end for Christian religious influence in Lebanese politics; “Guess what? We held them accountable,” says Pulse of Freedom; Lebanese Political Journal has a look at the very high voter turnouts in the election;  and finally Ramzi’s Blah Blah, tongue-in-cheek, salutes the General’s campaign strategy
Iran
In Iran, Hoder has landed safe and sound, though he notes that his website is inaccessible, making posting difficult. He also wonders why if Sean Penn can visit Iran with no problems, why can’t he?
Speaking of Sean Penn, Above The Wall has a photograph of the actor attending Friday prayer services, and Aref-Adib asks if Mr. Penn and Mr. Rafsanjani were separated at birth…
On a more serious note, Iran Scan wonders if Sean Penn’s visit as a journalist will be a serious visit, or if he’ll let his anti-Bush tendencies color his viewpoint.
There was an enthusiastic women’s rights demonstration in front of Tehran University that Iranian Girl participated in. Omid Memarian of Iranian Prospect notes that the Iranian feminist movement exemplifies the kind of independent civil society that the fundamentalists fear. Pictures from the demonstration can be found here, here, here, here, and here.
Iranian blogs have been wondering who’s been behind the recent bomb blasts in Terhan and Ahvaz: Mr. Behi wonders who would stand to benefit from the blast; Iranian Truth thinks that they might have been caused by Sunni Arabs connected with the erstwhile Saddam regime in Iraq; Zaneirani suggests that they were planted by Iranian hardliners, so they could blame the opposition and affect the upcoming election.. Another possibility could be that they were the work of separatist Arabs from Khuzestan.
As for the election itself, Iran Scan has a brief rundown of the major candidates. The candidate favored by the reformers and many of the Iranian bloggers is Dr. Moin (his name is also transliterated as Moeen, Moein, and Moien), who was only allowed to enter the election by decree of Ayatollah Khamenei. Iranian Truth notes while Rafsanjani is the clear front-runner, it doesn’t seem likely that he’d clear the 50% needed to avoid a run-off election; thus, the real race in the election is for second place.
Free Thoughts On Iran has a lengthy, thoughtful post from an engineer who is planning on boycotting the election.
It’s been noted by several bloggers that a campaign gimmick that Rafsanjani has employed in this election has been the spelling of his first name in Roman letters.    Hoder suggest that perhaps this is so “he can look more cool and Westernized this way, but to me personally, it’s so cheesy to use English letters for Persian words in Iran.”. One other possibility is that that the intended target are viewers in Europe and America.
The Committee to Protect Bloggers has news about two arrested Iranian bloggers: Omid Sheikhan was arrested last year and now faces an October court date without benefit of an attorney; the Committee is also attempting to gather 1000 signatures on a petition to free Mojtaba Saminejad, who was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison on a charge of “insulting” the Ayatollah.
Photograph by Hoder
The Middle East
OceanCreep notes that wireless internet is coming soon to Starbucks in Jordan. This will, no doubt, be a great leap forward for bloggers in the kingdom.
Annalysis on the effective use of metaphor in the marketing of Viagra in the Middle East.
Africa
Martin, who writes African Bullets & Honey, describes the rituals he goes through whenever he passes through immigration lines. The comments have similar ancedotes…
Ethiopundit on Pulp Fiction and African politicians.
A young Maltese expat was forced to leave her neighborhood and check into a hotel because of the ongoing unrest in Addis Ababa.
Australia
Tim Lambert uncovers a logging industry astroturf organization.
Latin America
Barrio Flores wonders what the future will hold for Bolivia's now ex-President Carlos Mesa.
Asia
In China, Bingfeng Teahouse wishes that his ISP would warn him—or at least regularly schedule—when they’re gong to ‘crack down’ on bloggers.
ESWN checks in with two stories: first, “banned” in China doesn’t mean “unavailable”, thanks to the underground press, and second, he provides a glossary of ‘new’ Chinese terms being used by kids these days (warning: link is mostly in Chinese).
The Economist is famous for its Big Mac Index; now, SimonWorld in Hong Kong is launching the Alternative Big Mac Index, which asks how long must a McDonald’s worker labor in order to earn enough money to buy a Big Mac. He’s also asking for research volunteers. Give your stomach up for research! This is also a good time to remind our readers that Simon keeps a daily East Asia roundup going.
Scribbles of A Lazy Geek points to an article that talks about Indian blogger meetups. Apparently, at least one couple has met and married because of these!
Europe
A Fistful of Euros notes that Gaelic will join the ranks of official EU languages in 2007.
Loic Le Meur updates us on the progress of his European Blogosphere wiki page.


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Tuesday Global Blogs Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Middle East
Hoder reports that the mood at the headquarters of Iranian presidential candidate Moin is quite upbeat in the wake of recently-released polls. He also asks that his visit not be blogged about in Persian for safety reasons.
More fallout from the recent Lebanese parliamentary elections: Beirut Spring profiles General Aoun, tagging him “a natural”; Raja at Lebanese Bloggers looks at the root causes of his victory.
Crossroads Arabia points to a BBC piece that interviews young Saudi women about their lives in the kingdom.
Omar from Iraq The Model talks about his brush—and subsequent disappointment—with the BBC: they interviewed extensively, by both phone and email, him for a piece called “One Day in Iraq”, yet subsequently failed to include him in the finished piece.
Photograph by Martin Sercombe
Africa
The Kenya Democracy Project posts a lengthy, illustrated analysis of the debt relief package that manages to tie Clint Eastwood westerns together with the work of economist Joseph Stiglitz.
South African President Thabo Mbeki fired deputy president Jacob Zuma today. The popular Zuma, who had been Mbeki’s heir apparent, had been implicated, though not charged, in a corruption scandal. South African blogs have been impressed and surprised by Mbeki’s decision. Commentary.co.za says “It was the smart decision as well as the morally correct one. And Mbeki deserves credit for it.”. Politics.za suggests that the firing was a message by Mbeki to the ANC membership.
Sokawanele has quietly collected a list of abuses and “assaults on freedom and dignity” in Zimbabwe, including police, in search of foreign currency, performing body searches on civilians. The blog also reports on the fuel crisis; apparently fuel tankers are not being allowed to drop off their cargo.
The Zimbabwean Pundit analyzes why the general strike called for last week flopped. He also asks who was worse: Mugabe or Ian Douglas Smith? The answer may surprise you.
Jangbalajugbu, a Nigerian blog, wonders why more Nigerians don’t blog.
East Asia
New Mongols analyzes some numbers on political rights and civil liberties worldwide and concludes that Mongolia is embracing western-style democracy enthusiastically.
Photograph by Robbed
South-East Asia
Bloggers.SG 2005, an upcoming mini-conference for Singapore bloggers, is looking for volunteers and panelists for the July event.
Thai Blogs, a group blog about Thailand, writes briefly about its history and what it’s trying to do. They also have a post about a young woman coming to terms with her place in Thailand’s long tradition of women warriors.
Inside PCIJ continues their muckraking work in the Philippines by assembling a list of the scandals that have involved the Arroyo administration. They also have audio files of the tapes at the heart of the latest scandal available for download.
South Asia
In Nepal, United We Blog writes about the important role that a free press plays in the political process, and why the Nepali royal family fears it.
Latin America
A Venezulean-oriented blog called The Devil’s Excrement has a pop quiz to “prove if you are a true Chavista”.
Europe
In Hungary, Pesticide.hu has a fun interview with Marton Bede, creator of a bomb-throwing Hungarian-language ezine called Matula Magazin.
Finland For Thought congratulates Michael Quarshie and Klaus Alinen, two young Finns who’ve earned NFL roster spots this fall.


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Congratulations RSF Freedom Blog Winners!! · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Reporters Sans Frontieres has announced the winners of the 2-month Freedom Blog Contest.  Chosen by popular online vote from around 60 nominated blogs who “each in their own way, defend freedom of expression,” the winners are:
ASIA:
Screenshots by Jeff Ooi of Malaysia. (English)
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST:
Shared Pains of Afghanistan (in Farsi)
Al Jinane of Morocco (in French)
EUROPE:
ICT lex of Italy (in Italian)
AMERICAS:
Pressthink by Jay Rosen of the U.S.A. (in English, obviously)
IRAN:
Mojtaba Saminejad, who has been given a two year prison sentence. (in Farsi)
INTERNATIONAL:
Netzpolitik, focusing on global open-source technology and freedom of expression (in German).


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How To Hack Chinese MSN Spaces to Use Banned Words · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Thanks to Bennett Haselton of Peacefire.org for the following public service instructions for Chinese users wanting to circumvent the word filters on MSN Spaces China to put e.g. “democracy” in the title of their blogs.
If somebody would like to translate these instructions into Chinese, please feel free to do so, post the translation on your blog or website, and please give us the link in the “comments” section of this post. Alternatively, if you don't have a blog or website, you can post the whole translation directly into the “comments” section.
UPDATE: The Working Man blog in Taiwan now has a translation.
ALSO NOTE: Doubleaf says he has tried using MSN China Spaces and the sensitive words are no longer blocked. Are other people out there having the same experience?
FURTHER UPDATE (9:15PM June 16th) – I just tried setting up a Chinese Spaces blog myself using the Chinese characters for “democracy” “human rights” and “freedom,” and got an error message telling me I could not use forbidden words.
Also, if  you're in China and try this, if you have problems, questions, or if it doesn't work, please also let us know in the “comments” section.
——————————————————————–
How to put banned Chinese words in the title of a blog on MSN Spaces China
WARNING! Even though you can use these instructions to insert banned words into the title of your Chinese blog, Internet access in China is still monitored and controlled by the government. If you use these instructions to post banned material, you should not publish your blog from an Internet terminal where your actions could be traced back to you personally, and you should not publish anything on your blog that could be used to identify you. You should also use a HotMail.com address that doesn't identify you by your real name (create a new HotMail.com account if necessary).
To use these instructions, you will need to create a new MSN Spaces account. Unfortunately these instructions cannot be used to remove the filter settings from an existing blog. If you have already created an MSN Spaces account using your MSN.com or HotMail.com address, you will also need to create a new MSN.com or HotMail.com address, since each existing MSN.com or HotMail.com address can only be associated with one MSN Spaces account.
To create  blog where you can post banned Chinese words in the title:
IF YOU SPEAK ENGLISH:
IF YOU DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH:
This will switch the interface back to Chinese. However, since you *created* the blog using the English interface, the Chinese word filter will still not be applied to the title of your blog.


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Wednesday Global Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

We’re always looking for new ideas and good stories to write about. If you have a story or a blog post that you think would be a good fit for our daily roundups, email us with the link and a short blurb about what it’s about!
East Asia
Doubleleaf has a roundup of recent topics of discussion in the Chinese-language blogosphere, translated into English.
Issac Mao writes about a new project he’s involved in called the Social Brain Foundation. They’re looking for funding now…
ESWN translates an article written by a man who was detained by Chinese security forces and interrogated about possible democratic collusion. The article is largely a transcript of the interrogation session, and gives interesting insight into the tactics used by the Chinese security apparatus (here’s the article in the original Chinese). ESWN also looks at three different newspaper reports about a flash flood in Heilongjiang province that killed 200 schoolchildren, and compares them and the different stories that they tell.
One of the most violent incidents of rural unrest in China occurred over the weekend, as hundreds of hired thugs attacked a group of farmers who were occupying land they were refusing to turn over to local officials in Hebei province. The land in question was to become part of a state-owned powerplant. China Digital Times points to videotape of the attack obtained by The Washington Post (warning: the video footage is unedited and disturbing). The Post has fuller coverage of the incident.
Danwei reports on China’s attempts to shut down adult-oriented websites in a posted optimistically titled “China Triumphant in War on Porn”.
The Middle East
Hoder passes on the news that two important vote boycott supporters have changed their mind and now support voting in the upcoming Iranian election.
Iranian Girl explains why she started blogging.
Iran Scan reports that several protestors were arrested and then released a few hours later at a protest for political prisoners in front of Evin Prison in Tehran.
Iraqi Expat notes that Saudi newspaper Asharq Alawsat has both an English section and a RSS feed (the feed seems to be English-only; I couldn’t find an arabic feed).
The Big Pharaoh reads a story in Time about an Islamic school in the US and is both amused and horrified at the same time.
The Arabist Network passes on the news that Egyptian President Hosani Mubarak will name a vice-president after Presidential elections in September. This move is generally considered to be a sign that Mubarak is considering the issue of presidential succession.
Iraq Rising puts it quite simply: “I feel sorry for Americans, I really do. When they liberated Iraq they never expected to find a population as insane and dysfunctional as the Iraqi population is. They never factored in the psychological damage that 30 years living under Saddam Hussain has done…”
Photo by Steve Evans
Africa
Friends of Ethiopia reprints an article that charges that the West, by using genetically-modified [GM] grain and seed in aid efforts, actually causes African famine.
Thinker’s Room notes that the Kenyan Tourism Minister recently gave a talk where he placed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Kenya. For the record, Mt. Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania and is unlikely to relocate to Kenya any time soon.
Europe
David McDuff, who writes the blog A Step At A Time, notes that June 14 is a national day of mourning in Estonia, as it marks the anniversary of the first Soviet-organized mass deportation of Estonians to Siberia. He also notes that a public effort is underway to try to obtain a pardon from Russian President Vladimir Putin for a political scientist who was convicted of espionage.
It’s not uncommon in the United States for employers to offer their employees commuting vouchers as a perk. Usually a portion comes out of the employee’s paycheck and a portion is paid for by the employer; the benefit for both is that the vouchers are tax-free. Clotilde Dusoulier, the author of the great food blog Chocolate and Zucchini, writes that the French have something similar, but for lunch: les tickets resto (which come with their own set of (often ignored) rules and regulations).
South Asia
Youth Curry looks at the shopping habits of the Indian middle class.
Kiruba Shankar announces a podcasting meetup in the Indian city of Chennai.
Photograph by Jessica Lim
Latin America
MABB points to the tale of a tourist who arrived in the middle of Bolivia’s recent upheaval.
South-East Asia
Bun Tharum looks at a Cambodian government public health initiative that takes the form of a prime-time television series.
The talk of the Singaporean blogging community recently has been l’affair SPG: a young Singaporean blogger, who writes under the pseudonym Sarong Party Girl [warning: her blog is Not Safe For Work in most workplaces], posted a (fairly tasteful) nude picture of herself on her blog, and The Straits Times promptly wrote an article about it. Mr.Brown has posted a very detailed roundup of internet coverage of the story.


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Skypecast: Freedom Blog Winner Jeff Ooi · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Over the coming weeks we are hoping to feature Skype interviews or online text chats (depending on what's posible) with the winners of the RSF Freedom Blog Awards.
(We may need help from other bloggers talking to the recipients who don't speak English. If you'd like to help, please let us know.)
Our first interview is with Jeff Ooi from Malaysia.  His popular Screenshots blog dishes out “tough love” to complacent government officials in Malaysia who have been getting off lightly in the Malaysian mainstream media.
Listen to Jeff Ooi here. (30minutes, 14 MB)
For more about Jeff, see our IRC online chat with him and another Malaysian blogger, Mack Zulkifli, back in March. He came to our Global Voices conference last December, and was a great inspiration to us all. You can read more about it here and hear more about it here (MP3).
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS


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New Features on the Global Voices site · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

You may have noticed that we've made a few small changes to the Global Voices side – we hope they help you use the site more effectively (and, in one case, we hope that they'll encourage you to help us out as well.)
There's now a search box on the top left of each page of the site. When you enter terms into the search box, you'll get posts and pages on the Global Voices site that cointain that term. Because these posts appear in the right side of the screen, where our posts normally appear, you may think you're not getting results. You are. Really. We promise. If everything works, the term you were searching for will be highlighted in those pages as well.
(The early feedback we've gotten suggests that the search system we've implemented is a little confusing. If too many people find the new search confusing, we'll replace it with a search that uses Google's site search tools.)
You can now subscribe to Global Voices and receive all our posts via email. We hope this will be helpful for people who want to keep up-to-date with Global Voices but don't use an RSS aggregator. Head to our email sign up page, enter your email address and we'll send you a confirmation email. Click on the link in the email we send you, and you'll be added to the mailing list. To unsubscribe, just visit the subscribe page, enter your email address and select the “unsubscribe” button.
Finally, we've added a form where you can let us know about breaking stories you think we should include in the daily blog roundup and blogs you'd like to see added to the Bridge Blog Index. Of course, you're still welcome to send us email with suggestions, or add blogs directly to the Bridge Blog Index.
We'll keep tweaking and tuning the site so that it works as smoothly as possible. If you've got any suggestions for features we should try to add, let us know, preferably in the comments on this post.


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Screenshots of Censorship · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Some Chinese bloggers have said that they were able to set up Chinese language MSN Spaces blogs using the “forbidden” political words. To clarify the situation I tried to set up my own freedom loving Chinese blog. I went into the MSN Spaces Chinese interface at: http://spaces.msn.com/?mkt=zh-cn, and tried to set up a blog titled 我爱言论自由人权和民主, which means “I love freedom of speech, human rights, and democracy.”
SCREENSHOT DETAIL:
I got the following error message: 您必须输入您的共享空间标题。标题不能包含禁止的语言，例如亵渎的语言。请键入一个不同的标题。Which means: “You must enter a title for your space. The title must not contain prohibited language, such as profanity. Please type a different title.”
SCREENSHOT DETAIL:
I guess Microsoft considers “human rights,” “democracy,” and “freedom of speech” to be profanity.
This censorship can be circumvented with Bennet Haselton's Freedom Hack Instructions.  Using the instructions I was successful in creating the Chinese blog called “I love freedom of speech, democracy, and human rights.”
Portnoy in Taiwan has translated the instructions into Chinese.
FURTHER UPDATE:
I played around with the freedom & democracy blog I created through the hacking instructions and was able to create posts with politically sensitive headlines like “don't forget June4th 1989″ and “Falungong” without trouble:
So the filtering of MSN Spaces China appears limited to the blog's title only. Titles of individual posts and within the body of posts do not appear to be filtered.


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Talking to Mr. Behi in Iran · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

On the eve of Iran's Presidential elections, I tracked down Mr. Behi in Teheran.  (For consolidated blog coverage of the elections from within Iran – including election coverage from Hoder – as well as analysis from without, Iran Scan is a must-read.)
Adventures with Mr. Behi is written by an anonymous man who says he is a recent university graduate living in Teheran, working as a consultant in the “science and technology field.” He does not want to reveal his identity given that some Iranian bloggers have recently gone to jail.  Despite the risks, he believes it's important to tell the English-speaking world to understand how Iranians like him see their country and the world.  The picture on the right is the “face” he shows on his blog… and he says it's also the mug he drinks coffee from while blogging.
Mr. Behi told me that by blogging he “can report events and ideas that are not actualy covered by regular media here. Media from Iran report what they want and what the government says. And reporters from different parts of the world who come to Iran occasionally, they can't really get a good sense of whats going on in the minds of Iranians sometimes. So I try to make my role in bridging this gap by getting people in the U.S. informed about regular people in Iran, how they think.”
We spoke briefly via skype but the dial-up phone connection made it hard. Some bits are hard to hear but here is  my brief skype chat with Mr. Behi (MP3, about 3 mins., 1.6MB).   We then continued the conversation through online text chat:
EDITED SKYPE CHAT TRANSCRIPT:
(Mr. Behi requested a few things be removed to prevent him getting in too much trouble.)
Rebecca MacKinnon says: how is the mood among you and your friends? are people going to vote or will a lot of people stay away?
Mr.Behi Himself says: there are many in doubt
they like reform but do not think they can change the spirit of the system
Rebecca MacKinnon says: but will staying away from the polls make future reform more or less likely?
Mr.Behi Himself says: I do not think we can see the huge turn out that we got for Khatami eight years ago
We were hoping that eight years ago
but the thing is that president has little powers
Khatami was badly defeated by the conservatives who are selected not elected
when most of the power is in the hand of the leader
and you can not even question him in your blog
what would be the reason for choosing some one minor
listen
last time we I voted
we voted
we hoped that Khatami with that much back up from people
can make the leader questionable
Continue on to read more:
Rebecca MacKinnon says: but you were badly disappointed.
Mr.Behi Himself says: and the selected powerful positions of the government, under control
yes
and leader, after that big turn out
appeared on TV and said again his words against “enemies of nation” and proudly presented the results of election and a manifestation of Iranian support for the system (him)
…
I LOVE the idea of reform
very much agree with the idea that we need gradual change rather than another revolution
very much like the reformist campaign these days and what they present
what makes me in doubt is that how this can materialize
Rebecca MacKinnon says: must be very frustrating.
Mr.Behi Himself says: indeed
but one thing is there that might force me to go and vote for the reforms anyway
Rebecca MacKinnon says: what's that?
Mr.Behi Himself says: My choices for movies, books, concerts etc
in the next fall
would be very much dependent on who will be president
Rebecca MacKinnon says: wow
…
Mr.Behi Himself says: the cabinet and they way they implement the Islamic notation
of the Islamic republic
It may look simple cause it is hard to understand how they can pressure you socialy with their own perception of the rules
Rebecca MacKinnon says: so which candidate is more likely to result in better cultural freedom and choice for young people?  Many bloggers seem to like Moin.
Mr.Behi Himself says: sure
I like him
his team is great
He is honest
and wise
I met him with other bloggers as you linked to that
yes that was a great post.
oh, you think so
glad to hear that:)
Rebecca MacKinnon says:  :)
Mr.Behi Himself says: The thing is that marching against the leader is a taboo
and Khatami did not have the courage doing that Moein does not look like being able to do so
Rebecca MacKinnon says: so i guess the question is whether he would have more or less power than Khatami did to actually change anything? Or whether Rafsanjani has more sway?
Mr.Behi Himself says: Mr.Behi Himself says: rafsanjani is a nasty lier
he is doing whatever these days to get more votes
things that he does not belive
and he proved it in his ruling time
his care for democracy is below zero
Rebecca MacKinnon says: yes the reports about girls on rollerskates helping rafsanjani  campaign are very interesting. but hoder was saying most of the young people working for him may not vote for him.
Mr.Behi Himself says: some people say that rise of Khatami was the result of his economic reforms
But that is big cities
I fear that in rural areas they may vote for the most common faces they have seen and rafsanjani is the most repetative ugly face we had the ad chance to see in our life time
:)
I am hopeful for Moeein
I hope he wins
by all the limitations that will be the only partly ok candidate
Rebecca MacKinnon says: it sounds like he has a better chance of winning if the people who were going to boycott change their minds and vote, right?
Mr.Behi Himself says: right
I think so
Rebecca MacKinnon says: so are people like you trying to convince their friends to vote?
Mr.Behi Himself says: I know that this number has risen in the last few days but not sure
This is difficult
see
I have freinds in University
old frieds from university time who were beated by the police in university dorm
Moeen was at that time the minister of higher education
his best action was to resigh
resign
and Khatami could not make his way to heal the pain
apart from his nice words
those who did that action (police and military militia supporting the leader) never apologized
and the leader pretended he did not know anything about it
how would you vote if you were like him?
Khatami was our hero
but he liked Islamic Republic more than his supporters
who are actually supposed to be the owners of the republic
Rebecca MacKinnon says: i can see why people would be feeling very cynical, and very resentful.
..and a little trapped.
Mr.Behi Himself says: kind of that is right
see
eight years ago, there were people who were aginst voting
and in support of revolution
but we were trying to convince them that reform is better
but I am not sure how we can do that today
I vey much hope that those not decided, will vote
I may myself
at least to takle hashemi
The fox
Rebecca MacKinnon says: If hashemi rafsanjani wins, what will that mean for your life in the future?
Mr.Behi Himself says: see
he was beated by the people of Tehran in sixth parlimentary election
the one before this one when reformists won the parliment
it wa vey humilating for him
people of the capital made him down
and he is rude enough to get president again
maybe just to heal himslef
that see I am back
Rebecca MacKinnon says: will he go for revenge or will he go for healing?
Mr.Behi Himself says: he is trying to heal himself
see. he is actually downgading himself from the position he is taking now
I do not think he can do much in case of human right improvment
cause he does not know what it is and is not really up to that
one sign that is he is not a good one
if you read his interview
with different papers
you will see that when he talks with conservative papers, he is in favor of the leader
and when he appears in reformists gathering, he talks about limiting him
his is economically very corrupted
Rebecca MacKinnon says: hmm… so if the next administration (whoever it is) ends up failing to reform much, like this one, will the frustration of iran's young people boil over into the streets at some point? will people totally lose patience?
Mr.Behi Himself says: they may
you can not say yes or no
one year before 1978, no one would say a revolution may come
Rebecca MacKinnon says: is there anything people outside iran can do to help you guys … assuming you don't want “regime change” assistance from certain countries?
;)
Mr.Behi Himself says: US should try not to help the oppositions in Iran for GOD sake
Rebecca MacKinnon says: yes that would taint the opposition, wouldn't it?
Mr.Behi Himself says: because here the first reason to go in jail is have US/CIA realation
Rebecca MacKinnon says: yep.
Mr.Behi Himself says: and this much pressure on Iranian government for this niclear issues
Rebecca MacKinnon says: does the nuclear pressure make the hard-liners stronger?
Mr.Behi Himself says: that is it
they make this a fact for national pride
and convice people that west is our enemy
Rebecca MacKinnon says: sounds like a vicious cycle.
Mr.Behi Himself says: One reason I blog
is to tell peole hey, we do not think as our goverment does
and this is not done in my word
republican or democrat are you?
Rebecca MacKinnon says: i voted democrat.
Mr.Behi Himself says: I hate Bush administration
and their way of thinking
they are similar to the conservatives here
our leader says US is devil and Bush calls us axis of evil
Rebecca MacKinnon says: extremism is flourishing around the world.
Mr.Behi Himself says: mixing religion with state is insane
and I like my country and yours get to be freed from it
…
Mr.Behi Himself says: That is my reason  in bloggoing
I was wondering first if anyone would even read that
…
Mr.Behi Himself says: there is one stupid idea I see that someone who does not like mullas in Iran and is pro-west in culture and way of life and likes democracy that means loving bush
I want to say this is not true
I do not like anyone who wants to build the world as he wants
I want people to decide
what is good for them
Rebecca MacKinnon says: many americans assume that if people in a country don't like their government, that means they like america and want the u.s. to save them from their government.
Mr.Behi Himself says: I do not like to look at the US as a savior
unfortunately many people in Iran are like that
Rebecca MacKinnon says: is that a large group?
Mr.Behi Himself says: I can not say exactly but I think many who are living outside are in favor of this
Once, the idea in the US government was to help anyone fighting the soviets
ehatever they do to their people was fine
and finding cheap oil and be friend with the owners regarless of the way human rights are observed with them
then finally, they got hit in 9/11 from the old friends and realized they need democracy to spread in the world
now they are imposing democracy and suggesting it
forgetting that democracy is a culture to be thought from the childhood
and when Bush says, you are with me or aginst me, he gives chance to enemies of democracy
to brainwash the youth of theri contry
Rebecca MacKinnon says: sigh…
Mr.Behi Himself says: I belived Iran is the country where the govenment is much more anti-american than the people
in contrast to friends of US in the region in which the govenrment is pro-US and people dislike it
Rebecca MacKinnon says: yeah. like in pakistan.
Mr.Behi Himself says: right
Rebecca MacKinnon says: so the challenge is to match up the government with the public opinion, which i guess you can only do with democracy.. but that democracy may or may not be pro-u.s.
Mr.Behi Himself says: then you should respect their opinion and prove to them that you are not their enemy
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Thursday World Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

We’re always looking for new ideas and good stories to write about. If you have a story or a blog post that you think would be a good fit for our daily roundups, email us with the link and a short description of the post!
Hoder notes that “[P]olls are usually not reliable when it comes to Rafsanjani. Best example was sixth parliamentary elections in which he was at worst among the top five, but ended up in 30th place.” As background, Rafsanjani is the clear front-runner in opinion polls leading up to Friday’s presidential election. In the same post, Hoder speculates that many of the young people promoting Rafsanjani’s campaign in the streets of Tehran may have ulterior motives for their ‘political participation’.
In other Iranian election news, conservative candidate Mohsen Rezai withdrew from the elections today, reports both Iranian Truth and Iran Scan. It is believed that the reason that Rezai, who was the former commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, pulled out was to consolidate the conservative vote in the election.
LATE UPDATE: Mr. Behi has a late night discussion with his wife about whether to vote. He finally decides he will, and will vote for Moeen.
The Arabist Network covers a small protest outside a mosque in Cairo. The interesting thing that the post observes is that the demographics of the Egyptian opposition are shifting; younger activists are joining the movement, but their motivations aren’t always the same as older activists.
Following up on the item in yesterday’s roundup about a Saudi newspaper that launched an RSS feed, Saudi Jeans notes that BBCArabic.com has launched their own RSS feeds.
Egyptian Person notes that there’s a decent chance that an agreement about the oft-discussed Egypt-Israel gas pipeline might actually get signed this week; he uses the news to ponder the state of Egypt-Israel relations. In order to reach a broader audience, Egyptian Person has started writing his posts in both English and Arabic.
Photograph by Joshua Stacher
Blog de Connard gets cable television in Kiev and discovers… a channel “that seems to show nothing but rebroadcasts of old Soviet television programs, including the news.”. Apparently it’s quite addictive.
Barcepundit points to more terrorist arrests in Spain.
Vandorlo, at Central Budapest, translates a Hungarian article that reports that a joint cooperative working agreement has been signed between Budapest and Beijing. I’m not sure what this means, much beyond a sister-cities-style agreement, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
Troubled times ahead for Sri Lanka? The Sri Lankan ruling coalition has disbanded over a plan to share tsunami relief in Tamil Tiger-controlled areas, and a large proteset march passed through downtown Columbo protesting the plan. Shandy’s Personal (Sri Lanka) Blog has an excellent summary of the situation. Niraj has another summary, while The Acorn provides political analysis of what this means. The Sri Lankan blog Nittewa has coverage of President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s speech addressing the crisis.
Chanakya at vichaar.org writes a slightly tongue-in-cheek letter to the people of Pakistan from Indian bloggers: “While we like Pakistani people, we don’t really like the dude who currently fancies himself as your ‘President’. Given that he was born in India, we feel sort of responsible and guilty in some weird way. If you guys want to send him back we’d probably have to take him (yikes!).”
Photograph by Philippe Tarbouriech
Working Definition reports on the news that Voice of America will start–or rather, resume–broadcasting in Uzbekistan in the Uzbek language.
Inside Somaliland covers a transport strike, and includes some good photographs of the event.
This is Zimbabwe has another disheartening story about “police” action in the cities of Zimbabwe.
Both Brand New Malaysian and Jeff Ooi have been following the curious case of Michael Soosai closely. In short, Soosai, who had been wanted by the police, fled to India a few years ago and faked his own death. Last December, a Malay national, who had thought that he had won an all-expense-paid vacation to India, was murdered while on that vacation, apparently by Soosai; the reason he was targeted was because his son had eloped with Soosai’s daughter. Now a website of unknown authorship, michaelsoosai.org, has appeared, alleging links between Malaysian police and Soosai. It’s a bit like a Raymond Chandler novel.
Jakartass reports that President Yudhoyono of Indonesia gave out his cell phone number and invited citizens to call him with complaints; unsurprisingly, the system crashed. Jakartass has a list of issues that might have been among the complaints clogging the President’s voicemail box.
Joi Ito posts some interesting statistics about internet usage in Japan. One highlight: a quarter of women in their teens and 20s have a blog.
Tokyo Times brings us a story about a 17.6-pound (8 kg) watermelon that sold for 280,000 yen (a bit more than US $2,500). That means that the watermelon—a special variety with a black rind—sold for about US $146 per pound, or more than 100 times the cost for regular green-skinned watermelon in the supermarket.


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Chinese Bloggers on Censorship, MSN, Etc. · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

At CNBlog, Isaac says: “Don't Use MSN Spaces, ” and creates a NoMSN Technorati tag for the boycott movement.
Kaihong posts a screenshot on Flickr showing results similar to what I found: the blog's title is filtered, but he was able to post sensitive words in the body of the blog.
Wangjianshuo (in English) describes the website registration process.  He says his site is “almost legal in China,” and that the process so far has been surprisingly easy.
Chinese bloggers respond to Microsoft's Robert Scoble:
Beijing-based (registered, blogging on WordPress) Doubleaf says that while Scoble may have met some Chinese who were critical of American style democracy, it's ridiculous to conclude that the Chinese are anti-free speech. “Chinese people are people too, how could we not like freedom and democracy? The words ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ are written in black characters on the white paper of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China.” He points out that even China's current governing bodies use the language of democracy. …  毫无疑问，中国人也是人，对民主自由等人类共同的财产有着天生的向往。”Without question, the Chinese people are people too, and have natural aspirations to things like democracy and freedom, which are common human property.”  Note that Doubleaf's blog is legally registered in Beijing, and he is using the terms “freedom” and “democracy” repeatedly on his blog. Note also that it's possible to use these terms while at the same time not saying anything critical of the current regime – something he does skilfully.
Hopesome (legally registered in Fujian) reprimands Scoble: “China doesn't have a single law or regulation saying that sensitive words like “democracy” and “freedom” should be forbidden.”  He continues: 而且，许许多多的中国人关于民主和自由的理解和世界上其它国家，包括美国，的理解并没有本质的区别。”What's more, there is no fundamental difference between the way in which many Chinese people comprehend democracy and freedom, and the way in which other people around the world, including Americans, comprehend it.” (Again note that Hopesome is blogging from within China on a Chinese server, on a legally registered blog.)
Li Dan (writing in English) points out that the words “democracy” and “freedom” show up in the State-run news site Xinhuanet quite frequently.
China's long-time problems with Microsoft:
One thing many people may not realize is that Microsoft has a long history of p.r. problems in China, and that the “anti-Microsoft monopoly” sentiment is very strong both in parts of the Chinese government bureaucracy (who don't want to be overly dependent on foreign software and thus prefer Linux-based systems for national security reasons) as well as amongst independent Chinese techies and bloggers who are concerned about the concentration of too much power in one foreign software company –  which many believe is stifling the emergence of a homegrown software industry.
We are reminded of this context in a long post on Klogs.org (in Chinese, hosted in the U.S.) , which describes how both Chinese bloggers and the Chinese government have had it out for Microsoft for a long time.  He points to an article posted on a blogger portal site complaining that MSN Spaces blogging service is illegal, because it hasn't adhered to the same registration procedures that all other blog-hosting companies have been required to go through.
He then points to the blog, Chinese Center for the Study of Blogs, which also argues that MSN Spaces is illegal My translation of a small excerpt:
The old saying goes: When in Rome do as the Romans do [loose translation of idiom]. If you're going to play the business game, you must follow the regulations.  If MS wants to play the blog game in China, it must follow the rules, right?
But MS has not followed the rules. The Chinese government regulations forbid foreign investors to engage in internet content services,  and MS has no right to develop a blog service as an internet content provider (ICP).  MS naturally is unwilling, on one hand it wants to get around this regulation by cooperating with a Chinese website; on the other hand it loudly proclaims and promotes MSN blogs, hoping that if it makes an assertive first move and pulls in a lot of web users, it will create a fait accompli. Their logic is just that simple, once it gets a large number of Chinese users, then MS's negotiating position with the Chinese government will be strengthened.
What does MS say in its negotiations with the Chinese government?
Isn't it about taking more software market share from Chinese-produced software?  Or is it about protecting China's information security?
Or about bringing down the price of Windows, so that they can make more money off of the labor of the impoverished people? Who knows.
Here is a similar argument written by an organization called the “Blogger Alliance to Oppose Microsoft's Monopoly” (反微软垄断博客同盟).  Here is the group's statement of purpose.  More stuff by the group here and here.
If somebody would like to volunteer to translate these things from Chinese to English in full, I'm sure that would help illuminate the whole context of the MSN Spaces p.r. fiasco.


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Ethical leadership · Global Voices
Luke Razzell

[Cross-posted from “weaverluke“]
Rebecca MacKinnon writes impassionedly about Robert Scoble's defence of his company Microsoft's collusion with the Chinese government to filter politically sensitive words out of the Chinese version of MSN Spaces:
In justifying Microsoft's filtering of politically sensitive Chinese words on MSN spaces, Microsoft's uber-blogger Robert Scoble writes:
“I have ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS forcing the Chinese into a position they don't believe in.”
He continues:
“I've been to China (as an employee of Winnov about seven years ago). I met with Government officials there. I met with students. I met with professors. They explained their anti-free-speech stance to me and I understand it. I don't agree with it, and I will be happy to explain to anyone the benefits of giving your citizens the right to speak freely, but it's not my place to make their laws. It certainly is not my right to force their hand with business power.”
I lived in China for nine years straight as a journalist, and if you add up other times I've lived there it comes to nearly 12. I don't know what students and professors Scoble met with, and what context he met them in. But to state that Chinese students and professors have an “anti-free-speech stance” is the biggest pile of horseshit about China I've come across in quite some time. And believe me, there are a great many such piles out there these days.
In my experience, most Chinese, like all other human beings I've ever met, would very much like to have freedom of speech. This goes for students, professors, workers, farmers, retirees, religious practitioners, and even many government officials. Many said so to me in on-the-record interviews. Many more told me so privately, in trusted confidence over beers (or something stronger) among friends.
What they don't want is to lose their jobs and educational opportunities by pushing too hard at the restrictions their government has placed on their ability to speak. They work within the bounds of the possible, and since people in China can say a lot more now than they were allowed to say 20 years ago, most take the long-term view.
It's very true, most Chinese hate it when foreigners lecture them about how they should change. They hate being patronized. Many view the common American attitude of “we're here to save you and make you free” as condescending and hypocritical. They'd rather continue living under their extremely imperfect political situation in hopes that eventually it will change, and that this change will be accomplished by Chinese people in a Chinese way. Only then will they have ownership both of the change and of the result. Otherwise, the change will be considered foreign-imposed, and the Chinese violently detest foreign-imposed anything. Even ones who privately and quietly detest their government.
I agree with Scoble: no outsiders, including Microsoft, can force China to change. But nobody's asking Microsoft to force China to do anything. The issue is whether Microsoft should be collaborating with the Chinese regime as it builds an increasingly sophisticated system of Internet censorship and control. (See this ONI report for lots of details on that system.)  Declining to collaborate with this system is not “forcing the Chinese into a position they don't believe in.”  Declining to collaborate would be the only way to show that your stated belief in free speech is more than 空话: empty words. If you believe that Chinese people deserve the same respect as Americans, then please put your money where your mouth is.
But let's not single out Microsoft for trashing on this point. As this Open Net Initiative report and this 2004 Amnesty International report will make abundantly clear, China's filtering, censorship, and surveillance systems wouldn't be what they are today without lots of help from a number of North American technology companies.  Businessman and author Ethan Gutmann wrote about Cisco's particular contribution in this 2002 article which later became a book chapter.
In the name of free enterprise, Americans so far have acquiesced in U.S. companies’ collaboration in the building and reinforcement of the Great Chinese Firewall. The Global Internet Freedom Act is being revived again in congress; but while the Act would allocate money to develop censorship-busting technologies, it makes zero mention of the U.S. companies whose technologies and software services are helping to strengthen this very censorship.
Scoble says it's better to be doing business in China than not, implying that this engagement is better for China and its freedoms in the long run. Don't get me wrong, I believe strongly in economic engagement with China. But nobody said Microsoft shouldn't be doing business there. It's a question of how you do business and in what manner.
I can tell you one more thing about the Chinese. They hear what you say, then they watch how you do business. From there, it's pretty easy to figure out what your real values are.
I couldn't agree more with Rececca's analysis. Microsoft is showing the same kind of failure of ethical leadership here (albeit on a rather larger scale and with potentially more damaging consequences) as coffee bar chains like Starbucks and Costa Coffee do in their refusal to match their Fairtrade posturing with a sales strategy designed to actually give people a straight choice between Fairtrade and “Unfairtrade” options at the counter.
In both cases, the companies in question are effectively saying “of course, we're in favour of the ethical outcome (free speech and Fairtrade respectively), but it's not our job to recommend that outcome to our customers (the Chinese government and coffee drinkers respectively). So long as they can make out that they are passive in the un-ethical decision, these companies feel that they have “done enough”. Well, that isn't enough for me—I want to deal with companies like Progreso, who have the commitment to an ethical vision to actually work with their customers and partners to seek to transform the status quo for the better.
And Microsoft, through Kim Cameron's visionary work on an inclusive and open digital identity meta-network that respects each individual human being's freedom of self-representation, now has an opportunity to transform itself into one such company.

author: Luke Razzell


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Friday Global Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Regime Change Iran has a story about the difficulties that US-based Iranians have in voting.
Mr. Behi has running coverage of election day. Highlights: “This [extension of voting hours] is always happens regardless the number of voters so make it look big.”
Hoder can’t believe that the western press is ignoring Dr. Moin’s rapid rise in popularity.
Free Thoughts on Iran says the voting situation reminds him of a old Lone Ranger joke.
Under Underground explains why he voted for Dr. Moin, despite some misgivings.
Nema at Iranian Truth has some advice for President Bush: “My advice to Bush, keep your mouth shut. You pick the worst times to talk.”.
Is Iran nearing a tipping point? Nasrin Alavi at IranScan seems to think so.
Responsibility for least some of the bombings in Iran earlier this week have been claimed by Arab seperatists, reports the Arabist Network. However, this does not address the issue of the bombings in Tehran, which appear to remain unsolved.
Silly Bahranini Girl attends a “massive rally” for constitutional reform. Apparently the government had ruled that the previous constitutional reform rally was, in fact, unconstitutional…
ThaRum’s Web has been keeping close watch on the kindergarten hostage situation in western Cambodia.
Jeff Ooi looks at a New Straits Times article about blogging in Malaysiaand notices that a certain prominent, award-winning Malaysian blogger is missing from the roundup…
Brand New Malaysian point to an article about a new proposed regional ASEAN airline. I’m guessing the model is similar to American regional carriers or European discount airlines like EasyJet or RyanAir.
Commentary Singapore notes that the CEO of NTUC Income, Singapore’s biggest insurance company, has started blogging.
Photography by KatieW
Babblogue Blog announces the time and date of the next Galway blog meet.
VCrisis has notes on the story that Citgo, the Venezuelan state oil company, managed to lose—as in misplace, as in cannot account for—more than $700 million.
In a post titled “The Last Soviet Generation”, Katy at Blogrel notes that the kids who are eligble to vote this year have never really known the Soviet Union.
Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan goes for a field trip into the country: “Although the curtain never fully closed on the genetic memory of the Kyrgyz during last century’s Sovietization, the re-emergence of their own culture plays out on an eerie stage…”
Meskel Square has the full text of the press conference the UK’s secretary for international development gave in Addis Ababa earlier this week. The highlight is that the UK is suspending a 20 million pound increase in aid to Ethiopia after recent post-election violence.
This Is Zimbabwe has a copy of Pope Benedict XVI’s address to the Zimbabwean envoy to the Holy See. It’s loaded stuff, particularly if you ignore the diplomatic boilerplate.
ESWN has a post about contemporary versions of the famous “No Chinese Or Dogs Allowed” sign.


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Iran election: bloggers disappointed · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

NOTE: this post will be updated as more reaction comes in.
The news is now out, Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad are the two top vote-getters and will contest in a run-off.   The bloggers’ favorite, reformist Dr. Mostafa Moeen, the only candidate with his own blog, did not do well.
After visiting Moeen campaign headquarters as the ballots were being counted, Hossein Derakhshan (Hoder) reported optimism that Moeen would advance to the run-off.  They were disappointed. Hoder observed that the strong showing by Ahmadinejad and another conservative candidate, Karrubi, was the result of “the widening income gap between upper and lower class. Voting for Ahmadinejad and Karrubi means a major dissatisfaction with their income.”
In his next post, once the results were finalized Hoder writes:
Even if Rafsanjani goes to the second ruond with Ahmadinejad the Khamanei voting machine will act again and will make Ahmadinejad the new president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The pro-reform youth are so dissapointed and depressed. Nobody knows what will happen next. But Khamenei is the biggest winner of this game. He now has both the big turn-out (plus a middle-finger to Bush), and a quasi-president who is only a cover for his excellency.
Mr. Behi points to this article at Commondreams.org. The article's first sentence: “Iran's most repressive clerics and the USA's most militaristic neocons share a common interest: They're very eager to see the failure of Iranian activism for democracy and human rights.”   Mr. Behi then writes:
This fantastic article by Norman Solomon is a must read for many Iranians who love Bush to come and rescue them. It is really sensible here in Iran and the last case was yesterday when the national TV was so excited about Bush recent speech against the election (I am not implying that the content of his speech was wrong) but it was the biggest gift Bush could give the conservatives who are always waiting for such speeches to call the United States a number one enemy of the nation by heating up and misusing the sense of patriotism among the people.
(See GV's recent chat with Mr. Behi here. )
Iranian Truth also thinks Bush's speech dismissing the election as undemocratic was used to fan voters’ nationalist sentiment.
Omid sees discrepancies between the Ministry of Interior and Guardian Council.
Iran Votes 2005 has running coverage.
More about Iranian election blogging:
Blogging Iran's Election at Opendemocracy.
Bloggers in Iran from The Nation.


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Petitions for jailed Iranian bloggers · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

The Committe to Protect Bloggers has  an online petition calling for charges to be dropped against jailed Iranian blogger Omid Sheikhan.  Click through to the links with more information on his case and offer your support if you agree with the cause.
The CPB also has a petition campaign for blogger Mojtaba Saminejad, who was recently given a 2-year prison sentence.  According to Reporters Without Borders:
He will appear in court again on 22 June to be tried on a charge of “insulting the prophets and the holy imams.” This extremely serious accusation could result in his being found guilty of apostasy, which carries the death penalty under article 512 of the Islamic criminal code.


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Declaration for a Free Internet · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Reporters Without Borders and the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) have just released a set of six recommendations which governments and corporations should follow in order to ensure a free internet.
Full text of the Declaration :
1. Any law about the flow of information online must be anchored in the right to freedom of expression as defined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
2. In a democratic and open society it is up to the citizens to decide what they wish to access and view on the Internet. Filtering or rating of online content by governments is unacceptable. Filters should only be installed by Internet users themselves. Any policy of filtering, be it at a national or local level, conflicts with the principle of free flow of information.
3. Any requirement to register websites with governmental authorities is not acceptable. Unlike licensing scarce resources such as broadcasting frequencies, an abundant infrastructure like the Internet does not justify official assignment of licenses. On the contrary, mandatory registration of online publications might stifle the free exchange of ideas, opinions, and information on the Internet.
4. A technical service provider must not be held responsible for the mere conduit or hosting of content unless the hosting provider refuses to obey a court ruling. A decision on whether a website is legal or illegal can only be taken by a judge, not by a service provider. Such proceedings should guarantee transparency, accountability and the right to appeal.
5. All Internet content should be subject to the legislation of the country of its origin (“upload rule”) and not to the legislation of the country where it is downloaded.
6. The Internet combines various types of media, and new publishing tools such as blogging are developing. Internet writers and online journalists should be legally protected under the basic principle of the right to freedom of expression and the complementary rights of privacy and protection of sources.
We encourage bloggers around the world to translate this Declaration into different languages. If you do so please let us know by posting the link to your translation in the “comments” section below.
RSF says it hopes this declaration “will provoke discussion in the run-up to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
UPDATE: Portnoy at Working Man has already done a Chinese translation.