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Cabinda: Black Gold of Angola · Global Voices
Vania Negrao

Surrounded to the north, east and south by the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cabinda, Angola's 18th province is waging an ancient struggle for its independence.
With its dense, wet forest, Cabinda was always the most disputed of all the provinces in a country whose territory is located far away from the province. The oil extracted in the enclave represents nearly 70% of the crude oil exported by Angola and corresponds to more than 80% of Angolan exports, putting the country in second place in the production of oil in Africa, just behind Nigeria.
The borders of the nation
The majority of the Angolan population says that Cabinda is part of Angola, but others defend the opposite position.
In 1885, the Portuguese rulers resolved to integrate Cabinda as a protectorate of the colonial Crown, and in 1920 the territory began to be considered as an integral part of Angola. Following the Revolution in 1974 in Portugal and with the process of decolonisation, the political interests obliged Cabinda to remain Angolan territory. Since that time, opinions on whether Cabinda is Angola have been divided.
Construction of a road between Cabinda and Malongo, “land of oil” [pt]. Photo by mp3ief on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
International relations expert Eugénio Costa Almeida defends the position that [pt],
Cabinda é parte integrante da República de Angola, mas também tenho sempre afirmado que, pela sua especificidade cultural e económica, Cabinda deve gozar de um Estatuto especial dentro da Pátrio angolana. Ganharíamos todos, sem qualquer dúvida.
Cabinda is an integral part of the Republic of Angola, but equally I have always affirmed that, due to its cultural and economic specificity, Cabinda must enjoy a special Status within the Angolan motherland. We would all benefit, without a doubt.
The journalist Orlando Castro, who has published several works on the territorial dispute, such as the 2011 book “Cabinda – Yesterday's protectorate, today's colony, tomorrow's nation”, and a tireless defender of Cabindan rights on his blog Alto Hama, believes that, just like East Timor in the past, Cabinda is an oppressed territory and one which has a right to independence:
Cabinda é um território ocupado por Angola. E, tanto a potência ocupante, como a que o administrou (Portugal), pensaram, ou pensam, em fazer um referendo para saber o que os cabindas querem. Seja como for, o direito de escolha do povo não prescreve, não pode prescrever, mesmo quando o importante é apenas o petróleo.
Cabinda is a territory occupied by Angola. And, both the occupying power and that which governed it (Portugal) thought, or are thinking, about holding a referendum to find out what Cabinda's inhabitants want. Be that as it may, the people's right of choice does not lapse, cannot lapse, even when the topic in question is just oil.
The pro-independence movement Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), continues to fight [pt] for a solution to bring independence to this oil-rich territory. In an interview for Deutsche Welle, Stéphane Barros, representative of the FLEC in Portugal, declared:
O povo de Cabinda não está interessado numa pacificação militar. O que se pretende agora é uma solução política que passe por um processo internacional, credível e democrático, porque a vontade do povo de Cabinda deve ser ouvida e respeitada”, defendeu o representante da FLEC em Portugal
The people of Cabinda are not interested in military pacification. What they intend now is for a political solution to be achieved by an international process, credible and democratic, because the will of the people of Cabinda must be heard and respected”, the FLEC representative in Portugal advocated.
During the elections in August, the Cabindan National Movement, one of various organisations which is fighting for independence from exile, entertained the idea of boycotting the elections. For Bartolomeu Capita, one of the movement's representatives, “there was no advantage whatsoever for the people of Cabinda to get involved in these elections. They don't concern us, we are not Angolans and we don't want to be”.
The party in power, MPLA, managed however to guarantee its re-election in the province with 59.4% of the votes [pt], a victory which Stephan Baptista, on Club-k.net, attributes [pt] to various reasons, including the fact that the majority of the population is based in the periphery, Maiombe, and is favourable to Angolan sovereignty, while the intellectuals of the “docile opposition” are a minority and are in the city, as well as the strong presence of “members of the defence and security forces, the majority party's lifeline in Cabinda”.
Images of Cabinda
Woman in Cabinda. Photo by Dom Bosco Angola on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
While “speaking about Cabinda today is something which displeases the political powers in Angola and Portugal, as well as national and global economic strength”, as Orlando Castro maintains, on the other hand the Angolan state press describes the province as a vision of paradise.
The surroundings of Cabinda are characterised by an abundant vegetation and views over the Atlantic Ocean. It is not known exactly how many inhabitants this Angolan province has, as no census has been carried out to date, but it is estimated that the population is around 400 000, with a particular culture which has lost some of its traditions in recent years.
Few pages have been created on the social networks to publicise the reality of the humble people who give life and joy to this mysterious region, but those which do exist, such as the Facebook page created [pt] by José Sambo, give a glimpse into Cabinda's beauty.
A video-report [pt] shared on the blog Cidade de Cabinda presents various traditions, practices and costumes of the province. In Cabinda, a number of dialects are spoken, including Fiote, Ibinda and Kikongo and the official language is Portuguese. Cabinda is the territory of a people who feel foreign in their own land and who are still fighting today for their independence.
As universidades e os hospitais não dispõem de instalações condignas. A cidade e as vilas sem água potável, sistemas de esgotos, drenagem e saneamento de água contrastam com o renascer das cidades angolanas e as mansões, moradias, participações privadas, obras feitas e contas chorudas e prédios de luxo que crescem como cogumelos em Luanda e no estrangeiro.
The universities and hospitals do not have the appropriate facilities. The city and the villages without drinking water, sewage systems, drainage and water treatment contrast with the renaissance of Angolan cities and the mansions, villas, private interests, completed building projects, accounts full of money and luxury apartment blocks which are sprouting like mushrooms in Luanda and abroad.

author: Vania Negrao


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Chile: Interview with Poderopedia Founder · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Jessica Weiss from IJNet interviewed Miguel Paz, founder of Poderopedia [es], a data journalism project which seeks to reveal links among members of Chile's elite:
Poderopedia's team will collect and verify data from an array of sources, including news sites, public databases and information disclosed by other companies and institutions. They’ll use the Poderopedia platform to analyze and find patterns in the information, and display the results visually.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Silvia Viñas


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Japan: Anxiety Over Human Rights Commission Bill · Global Voices
Keiko Tanaka

The Japanese government decided to submit a bill to set up a Human Rights Commission in a cabinet meeting of September 19, 2012, according [ja] to the Japan Broadcasting Corporation. However, the move has been met with opposition from different parties.
The bill aims to set up an independent commission for human rights violation such as bullying, descrimination, and slander on the Internet, as an extra-ministerial committe of the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice hopes to submit the bill in the next session of the Diet legislature.
This video uploaded to YouTube by user 8888yuriko8888 on October 17, 2011, when the bill was first proposed, explains some of the problems with it [in Japanese]. The video became popular in the forum 2ch, where right-wing leaning commentary is disproportionately represented and a lot of hate speech takes place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23Rq1BUcj9Q
「この法案では『人権侵害とは、不当な差別、虐待その他の人権を侵害する行為をいう。』ってあるの」
「差別、虐待、そのほかの人権侵害なんて　すごいあいまいだよね！」
「それがね　この法律　報道機関には関係ないんだよ
報道機関は　自主的に人権侵害しないよう心がけてね　ってだけ」
This bill says “human rights violations are an act of unfair discrimination, abuse or other human rights infringement.” This is very vague!
This bill has nothing to say about broadcasters and it only encourage them to independently bear in mind not to violate human rights.
User sensen3091 [ja] commented:
選挙権のない学生がなんで法律反対の署名とかしてるのw
バカ丸出しだな、このネトウヨ動画w
This video depicts students without the right to vote signing a petition against the bill. These right-wing rednecks are full of ignorance.
Another [ja] commented:
これはなにも知らないオタク共にいいですなw
This video is good for uneducated Otaku [geeky] people.
This reaction come via a popular bulletin board [ja]:
名前：ハムスター名無し 2012年09月09日 22:35 ID：biMiSb0L0
オタクだけど女なのでこの手の絵がらに嫌悪感が……エロゲみたいで
もっとオタク受けするにしても汎用性があるものにしてくれないかなあ
Post by: anonymous user , Posted on: September 9, 2012  22:35 ID：biMiSb0L0
I'm Otaku [a geek], but as an woman, I feel disgusted by this type of anime [cartoon video]. It looks like a porn-game.
I know you want this to be popular among otaku [geeks], but couldn't it look more versatile?
The United Nation's Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has long shown concern (since its 2010 report [en, ja]) regarding the human rights situation in Japan, such as hate speech and racist propaganda on the Internet, the lack of concrete information about the media and integration of human rights in television and radio broadcasting, and the absence of legislation to give full effect to the provisions against discrimination.
While the video was well noticed among rather xenophobic 2ch users, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) also released a statement [ja] saying that the possibility of concurrent posts could endanger the commission's independency expected by the so-called Paris Principles.
On Twitter, some users overreacted on the misinterpretation that this bill would give the commission authority to arrest. Twitter user @21remon commented on September 10 [ja]:
フォロワーさんからの情報を元にまとめると、自殺した松下金融担当大臣は【日韓スワップ協定の延長停止】【外国人参政権反対】【人権救済法案反対】の立場の方で、特筆すべきは『明日、可決予定の人権救済法は、一人でも反対の大臣がいれば見送られるが、松下金融相は唯一の反対者だった』という件。
According to my followers, the Minister for Financial Services Matsushita, who committed suicide, was asking for them [Stop Renewal of Japan-Korea Swap Agreement, Against Right of Foreigners to Vote, Against Human Rights Relief Bill]. And most notably “A bill to set up human rights commission is expected to pass tomorrow will NOT pass if one minister opposes, and Minister Matsuhita was the only one who was against the bill”.
This was retweeted more than 8,000 times, even though the tweet contains wrong information since the bill is not even submitted to the Diet yet.
Another user [ja] carefully looked at the bill, and commented:
もしかしたら科料と過料を間違えて人権救済法案を「逮捕される」みたく必要以上に恐れてる人がいるのかもですね。条文にあるのは過料で、これは刑罰じゃありません 過料と科料の違いの参考 → http://www.nishino-law.com/column_familiar/post_763.html …
Probably people took “Non-Penal fine” for “fine” , and unnecessarily fear that the Human Rights Relief bill will arrest people. In the bill it says Non-Penal Fine which is not a penalty. Refer this for distinction between Non-Penal fine and fine.  http://www.nishino-law.com/column_familiar/post_763.html …
Human rights advocacy groups have not yet made any statements over the bill, however the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Information Center initially published a critique back when the 2005 draft Human Rights Protection Bill was proposed.

author: Keiko Tanaka


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Japan: Petition to Release Violin from Frankfurt Customs · Global Voices
Keiko Tanaka

Yuzuko Horigome and her violin. Photo used with permission from Change.org Japan.
On August 16, 2012, German customs officials at Frankfurt Airport seized a Guarneri violin from Japanese professional musician Yuzuko Horigome when she failed to present correct documentation. They demanded that she pay nearly US$ 500,000 in order to get it back.
Some 5,400 people signed a petition on Change.org asking Frankfurt Airport Customs to release the violin without requiring any payment.


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Madagascar Struggles to Control Domestic Instability  · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

This post is part of our International Relations & Security coverage.
A monthly zebu market in Ambalavao, Madagascar (2006) by looking4poetry on Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Following the deaths of around a hundred people in southern Madagascar in clashes between zebu cattle rustlers (“dahalo”) and farmers, the government has decided to take special security measures to restore order. The violence is a symptom of the growing political instability in Madagascar that is affecting urban centers as well as rural communities.
People’s Justice in the South
Thefts and armed attacks are a recurring problem in Madagascar and have been growing more and more frequent since the political crisis in 2009. To overcome this problem, a national counter-instability plan [fr] was formally introduced in April 2012. The government has now mobilized the armed forces in the capital as well as in areas particularly affected by cattle theft.
However, initial attempts at stabilizing the southern region were far from successful. As Alain Rajaonarivony explains [fr]:
La campagne militaire menée dans le bush du grand Sud contre les Dahalo au mois de juin et juillet 2012 avait été un désastre. Outre l’avantage du terrain, ces derniers étaient aussi bien équipés que les forces de l’ordre, et le manque d’hélicos s’était fait cruellement ressentir. Les militaires se sont surtout fait remarquer, non pour leurs prouesses au combat mais pour leurs exactions, en brûlant les villages susceptibles de servir de base de soutien aux Dahalo.
The military campaign carried out against the dahalo in the bush of the great south in June and July 2012 was a disaster. Not only were they more familiar with the local terrain, the dahalo were also just as well equipped as the government forces – and the lack of helicopters was sorely felt by the latter. The government forces were especially noted not for their combat ability but for their atrocities, when they burnt villages that could serve as support bases for the dahalo.
Faced with the inability of government forces to curb the actions of dahalos, villagers in southern Madagascar have decided to take justice into their own hands. Recently, a group of villagers killed 67 people that they suspected of being involved in the cattle thefts.
Alain Iloniain on AllAfrica describes the additional security measures [fr] taken by the government following these tit-for-tat encounters, including mobilizing several elements of the armed forces in different parts of the country. However, before there can be order, it will be necessary to identify and apprehend and convict the dahalo. Citoyenne Malgache explains why this will not be an easy task [fr]:
Self-defense or not, the real question is who should we be defending ourselves against? As Dinan’Anosy mentioned, thieves are part of the community and are known to the population. But the thefts are often organized by underground smuggling networks. Those with large herds collaborate with the robbers one way or another to protect their own flock. And even if fokonolona is able to locate the stolen cattle, those who are then charged with having received them are quickly released. With the recent resumption – after 10 years of prohibition – of live cattle exports, you have to expect an increase in organized crime.
One person in particular seems to epitomize the ineffectiveness of the actions taken against the dahalo to date. A man named Remenabila has achieved a quasi-mythical status [fr] through his ability to escape government authorities. He is more than 70 years old and has been wanted by the police since June. There is even a €35,000 bounty on his head “dead or alive”. But nobody has yet dared to arrest him, leading to suspicion that he is protected by senior political officials.
A portrait of Remenabila taken from a mock Twitter account created in his name: https://twitter.com/remenabila (with permission)
Widespread instability
The south is not the only region living under the specter of instability. Foreign embassies are alerting their expatriate nationals about thefts, physical attacks, robberies or even kidnappings. While many crimes seem to be targeted at foreigners, the criminals are not as easy to identify.
On Madagascar TV, Marc A. notes the surprising circumstances [fr] of one theft at Ivato airport where a Chinese national claimed 4,000 Euros were stolen from her luggage while she was frisked by security personnel. None of the guards were apprehended for the theft after a senior security official intervened.
The rest of the country has not been spared according to analysis on Afrik.com [fr]:
Il ne se passe pas une semaine sans que les journaux ne relatent des faits de violences dans la capitale Antananarivo. Toutes les couches de la population, des plus aisées aux plus modestes, sont victimes de ce fléau. Meurtres, agressions, vols à mains armés sont monnaie courante depuis trois ans, date de l’éclatement de la crise politique.
A week does not go by without more stories, in newspapers, about violence in the capital, Antananarivo. All segments of the population, from the most to the least privileged, are victims of this scourge. Murder, assault, armed robbery have been commonplace in the last three years.
So what answers might there be to this instability? Andry Rajoelina, President of the Transitional Authority since Madagascar’s former president was ousted in 2009, has made claims that the daholo problem in the south is an orchestrated attempt at political destabilization [fr]. Meanwhile, Mathieu Pellerin, a researcher at the French Institute for International Relations, believes that financial incentives take precedence over political interests:
While possession of a zebu is traditionally synonymous with power, zebu theft by politician-sponsored organized gangs is motivated by pecuniary interests arising from the resale and export of cattle.
This post and its translations to Spanish, Arabic and French were commissioned by the International Security Network (ISN) as part of a partnership to seek out citizen voices on international relations and security issues worldwide. This post was first published on the ISN blog, see similar stories here.

author: Rakotomalala


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Why Mali’s Army is Hesitant about Foreign Intervention in the North  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Tiékorobani goes to great length explaining why Captain Sanogo and the Malian Army are hesitant about foreign intervention [fr] in Northern Mali. He argues that Sanogo fears that he will lose control the global military operations and that in turn, his officers might rebel against him because of his loss of power. The Malian government has formally asked the UN to intervene [fr] in Northern Mali at the UN General Assembly.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Mexico: Scientist and Activist Disappears, Family Fears Authorities’ Involvement · Global Voices
Andrés Monroy-Hernández

Aleph Jiménez, an activist and a scientist at one of the leading research centers in Mexico, has gone missing since September 20, 2012. According to a statement [es] released by the Jiménez family, Aleph was fearing for his safety after having been arrested and later released for participating in a protest on September 15 along with other members of the #YoSoy132 student-led activist movement. Jiménez and his colleagues held a press conference [es, video] denouncing police repression days before the disappearance. Furthermore, in an interview, Aleph's father stated that he believes the authorities are involved in the disappearance of his son.
The Director of the local Human Rights Commission, Raúl Ramírez Bahena, issued a report [es] about the forced disappearance of Aleph Jiménez, where he positions the case in the context of other violent events against members of the same movement in other parts of Mexico and the disappearance of a prominent blogger. Also, the Jiménez family reports that the bodies of two of his son's colleagues from the same research center were found in the past two weeks. At least one is being investigated as a possible murder [es].
The disappearance of Aleph Jiménez generated a lot of attention on social media yesterday. His name was one of Mexico's top trending topics on Twitter, for example. Furthermore, netizens are using the hashtag #AlephJiménezDóndeEstá [es] to call attention to his case and share information.
The family seems to have set up a Facebook Page [es] and a Twitter account (@FamiliaAlephJ) [es] to help spread the news and find more information about Aleph. Similarly, the research center where Jiménez worked has issued a statement [es] asking the authorities to solve the case promptly. The #YoSoy132 activist movement is preparing demonstrations.
Image of Aleph Jiménez posted on the family's Facebook page

author: Andrés Monroy-Hernández


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Russia: Writers Put Down Pens to Stand Atop Soap Boxes · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

This post is part of our special coverage Russia's Protest Movement.
There is a famous, if a bit navel-gazing, line by the Soviet era Russian poet Evgeny Evtushenko:
Поэт в России – больше, чем поэт.
A poet in Russia is more than a poet.
Evtushenko wrote the line in the 1960s, and was referring to the way Russian poets and writers have often taken metaphorical approaches to say what other people could not say in a totalitarian state. He was also quite charitably referring to himself — after all, we all would like to write our own reviews.
Several Russian writers have recently been active in the public sphere: penning the odd op-ed, signing the occasional petition [ru]. Some have spoken at rallies, and helped organize opposition marches. Others have been party activists and even candidates for political office prior to becoming famous. So it appears that at least some Russian intellectuals have taken the phrase to heart, also taking it perhaps a step further than was Evtushenko’s original intent (although he himself became an elected Soviet deputy, towards the end of Perestroika.)
Dmitry Bykov at a “Control Stroll” protest in Moscow. 13 May 2012. Photo by Evgeniy Isaev, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Now, nine people who self-identify as writers are running in the (chiefly online) elections for the so-called “Coordinating Council of the Russian Opposition,” and a tenth strongly considered registering as a candidate before ultimately dropping out. Bearing in mind that writing is not the most popular of professions, this is a hefty proportion of the total (which includes just over 200 men and women). Of course, some of these “writers” are just barely so.
For example, Oleg Kozyrev [ru] is first and foremost a popular opposition blogger [ru], currently ranked 59th [ru] in the Yandex rankings. Konstantin Krylov [ru] may have written science fiction under a pseudonym, but he is mainly a nationalist political philosopher, publicist, and also blogger [ru]. Then there are the minor poet [ru], the newspaper columnist [ru], the promoter of cloud democracy [ru], and the lawyer [ru] –- writers all.
Three are heavy hitters, however. One of them, Dmitry Bykov [ru], doesn’t even call himself a writer in his candidate profile -– he just lists his various literary awards. He’s got quite a few, including two “National Bestsellers” [ru] and one “Big Book” [ru]. Bykov is a professional writer: a novelist, a biographer, a dabbler in poetry, and a household name. Over the past year, he attended most of the opposition rallies, sometimes as a headline speaker.
As it happens, Bykov criticized the Coordinating Council elections in his Facebook on September 15, two days before he registered in the same elections as a part of Ksenia Sobchak’s coalition of candidates [ru]. He wrote [ru]:
Во-первых, никаких стопроцентно авторитетных и перспективных лидеров они не выявят. […]  Вторая причина относительной неважности будущих выборов заключается в том, что выбирать, по сути, некого
Firstly, [the elections] won’t identify any absolutely authoritative or high-potential leaders. […] The second reason for the relative unimportance of the coming elections is that there is really no one to choose.
On September 17, when Bykov did register, he did so beside Sobchak and several public intellectuals, one of whom was Lyudmila Ulitskaya [ru], the second major writer on the list of CC candidates. Ulitskaya has a low profile on the RuNet and does not blog much, but still has name recognition as an internationally acclaimed writer. Maybe her candidacy will lend weight to the program statement [ru] of Sobchak’s block:
Мы не политики и никто из нас не считает своей личной целью борьбу за власть.
We are not politicians and none of us considers struggle for power a personal goal.
While Ulitskaya and Bykov fall solidly into the “liberal” camp, Russia’s radical left has its own representatives among the literati. When Sergey Udaltsov announced that he had a strong showing of leftist candidates, two of the names were Sergey Shargunov [ru] and Zakhar Prilepin [ru].
Both men are established writers with leftist views, both edit the online publication Free Press [ru], and both have a prior political history. Prilepin, now an award-winning writer, used to be an active member of Limonov’s National Bolshevik party. Much of his writing deals with his experience as an antigovernment activist.
Shargunov is also a literary award finalist, who from 2005 to 2007 was the leader of the youth wing of a now defunct party, Dmitri Rogozin’s Rodina. At that time, he regularly updated his blog [ru], which these days is pretty much empty of new content. When Rodina closed shop and transformed into Just Russia in 2007, Shargunov at first was included in the party’s list of candidates for the parliamentary elections. Soon thereafter, however, he was kicked out of the party, presumably for radical views.
The not-at-all penguin-like Boris Akunin. 14 March 2012, photo by Pavel Samokhvalov, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Since Shargunov and Prilepin are not members of the usual protest “tusovka,” both would be welcome additions to the opposition “shadow government.” In the end, although Prilepin did consider running [ru] for the Coordinating Council, only Shargunov registered as a candidate. Maybe Prilepin was swayed by his old party boss Eduard Limonov, who wrote the following [ru], just prior to registration closing:
Удальцов сегодня похвалился, что левые будут “мощно представлены”  на выборах в КС. Он назвал помимо себя и  Ильи Пономарева  таких “левых”, как писатели  Сергей Шаргунов и Захар Прилепин. Я очень не советую моим друзьям Прилепину и Шаргунову  участвовать в  легитимизации  буржуазных вождей оппозиции, хитрые буржуи хотят вас использовать.
Today Udaltsov bragged that the leftists will have “massive representation” to the CC elections. He named besides himsef and Ilya Ponomarev such “leftists” as writers Sergey Shargunov and Zakhar Prilepin. I strongly discourage my friends Prilepin and Shargunov from participating in the legitimatization of the bourgeois leaders of the opposition. The crafty bourgeoisie simply wants to use you.
Another writer is conspicuous by his absence from the list of candidates. This is Boris Akunin, historian and mystery novelist, and another ubiquitous face at last winter's opposition rallies and protests. In a blog [ru] post titled “Political Ornithology,” Akunin called on people to participate in the elections -– as the electorate.
He employs a laborious bird-based metaphor to explain his reasoning, using a poem by Maksim Gorky as a jumping off point. Essentially he distinguishes between “seagulls” (political activists), “loons” (the politically aware but largely inactive people), and “penguins” (the unaware, dark and unwashed masses). According to Akunin, this election is about “seagulls,” while he is a “loon,” and so will not participate. I’m sure this cleared it up for a lot of people.
This post is part of our special coverage Russia's Protest Movement.

author: Andrey Tselikov


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South Korea: Presidential Nominee Stumbles Over Unresolved History · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

South Korea's ruling conservative party’s presidential nominee has suffered a major setback after she made an offensive remark about a notoriously unfair trial made under her father’s authoritarian rule.
Former President Park Chung-hee is one of the most polarizing figures in South Korean history. The country achieved tremendous wealth and rapid development under his rule, but his era is also remembered as the darkest time of Korean democracy.
After he declared a state of emergency, numerous political rivals, activists, journalists and irrelevant citizens were jailed, tortured and even sentenced to death without proper trials, often under the false pretense that they were spies dispatched from North Korea. Even for conservative people who feel nostalgic about the ‘the good old days’, it is often referred as the ‘scary time when people disappeared for no reason’.
A parody of Park Guen-Hye uploaded by Twitter user @fishnote. The image mocking Ms. Park as a princess holding a poisoned apple with her father's face on was originally a poster created by a South Korean Pop Artist, Lee Ha. Lee faced a light penalty for violating the election law for posting this image in several places.
This year, former President Park’s eldest daughter, Park Guen-hye has decided to run for presidency. With only few months left before the December presidential election, Park’s rating has plummeted.
Reasons vary from strong rivals such as Ahn Chul-soo, and a call for change [ko] in provinces that usually support the conservative party, but net users have pointed out that her vague attitude toward her father’s dictatorial rule is to blame.
Recently, when a radio talk show host asked [ko] Park whether she was willing to apologize for the InHyukDang Incident (or People's Revolutionary Party Incident), a trial that sentenced eight innocent citizens to death and executed them within 18 hours, Park avoided giving a direct answer and said ‘there are two verdicts’ and ‘the history will judge the case’.
The victims family released a statement [ko] and the law students on national scale filed a petition [ko] expressing concerns over the presidential candidate's ignorance and flawed historical understanding.
Park hurriedly said [ko] she would “clear/resolve all the historical issues” and held a press conference [ko] on September 24, 2012, apologizing for her father's rule. However, it was not convincing enough for voters to change their minds.
Before the press conference, Twitter user @newsrtist wrote [ko]:
박근혜씨가 내일 기자회견을 통해 ‘과거사를 죽 한번 정리'하신답니다. 지가 무슨 쪽집게 과외선생인가… 지금까지 한 짓이 있는데… 말 몇마디로 덮겠다고?!
Ms. Park said she will ‘go over all the historical issues’ in tomorrow's press conference. Is she one of those private tutors teaching a crash course on history? You really think you can put all the issues aside just by making some comments?
@thezoker commented [ko]:
과거사 문제로 사과 기자회견을 하겠다는 건 남은 대선 기간 동안 역사관 검증 공세에 “사과했잖아요?”라고 회피하며 빠져나갈 구멍을 만들기 위한 일종의 보험입니다. 오히려 검증자가 네거티브 공세하는 걸로 비춰지도록 하기 위한 꼼수죠.
The reason Ms. Park apologized throughout the press conference was to create a loophole that enables her to escape future attacks. It is like paying an insurance to prepare for time when people raise questions again on her historical perspective during the vetting process. By saying ‘but I apologized!’ she could make the one who is questioning look like (a bad guy who is) launching a negative campaign attack.
@mindgood accused Park of [ko] lacking sincerity in her apology.
과거사에 대해 눈시울을 붉히면서까지 사과했다면 하루 정도는 자숙하는 것이 기본 도리. 그럼에도 곧바로 희희낙락하면서 말춤을 춘 박근혜. 이러니 유족들이 진정성이 없다고 비판하는 것.
If you apologized for the past historical tragedy to a point your eyes turned red (because of tears), it is natural to maintain that apologetic tone and lay low through out that day. However, Park, right after the press conference, laughing and giggling, did the jockey dance [Psy's horse-riding dance]. That is why the victims’ families criticize her for lacking sincerity.
@dolmen85 rightly pointed out [ko] the dilemma Park is facing:
[…] 아빠의 시대를 부정하자니 그 시대의 좀비들이 울고, 아빠를 계속 두둔하자니 설자리가 없고. 눈물이 앞을 가린다.
When she denies her father's era, zombies of that era cry. And if she continues to defend her dad, there is no (political) ground left for her to stand. What a tearful situation.
@cds0741 warns of too much skepticism [ko] in responding to Park's apology:
박근혜의 사과문은 있는그대로 받아들이면 된다.진심인지 아닌지는 일주일도 안되 그녀의 행보와 말속에 담겨져 나올것이다.그동안 새누리당의 면면으로 볼때, 소나기는 피하고 보자는 심산일것이니 너무 앞서 폄하 하거나 비난 한다면,오히려 역공의 빌미 만 줄것이다
Why dont we just take Park's apology as it is. We will eventually learn whether it was true or not in less than a week by observing her words and actions. Based on what Saenuri [:the ruling conservative party] had done in the past, I can easily guess this stunt is to escape a bigger fire. But still, don't lambaste or denigrate her message in advance. It will only give them an excuse to attack us back.
@kktpaul wrote [ko] it is nearly impossible for people's minds to change:
박근혜의 사과는 표 얻기위한 사과이지 진정한 사과가 될수없다. 수십년에 걸쳐 뼛속까지 새겨진 역사관이 어떻게 하루만에 바뀔수 있단 말인가? 어제 김재원 새누리당 신임 대변인이 “박근혜는 아버지를 위해 정치한다”는 말이 진정한 박근혜의 속마음인 것이다.
Park's apology was made to appeal voters. It is not genuine. How can a person's historial view which formed over several decades and engraved to the individual personality to the core, can change in a day? Yesterday, Kim Jae-won, a new spokesperson for Saenuri party commented that “Ms. Park is ‘doing politics’ [direct translation] for her father”, which I believe is (a correct observation of) the mind set of Park.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Ukraine: Localized ‘Yes-butno’ Meme Highlights ‘Most Popular Stereotypes’ · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Yes, I am Russian. No, I do not do ballet.
Yes, I'm from New Zealand. No, that doesn't mean I'm Australian.
Yes, I am African. No, I do not speak ‘African’.
These are just a few random (or almost random) selections from the huge Yes-butno collection, launched by Christine Chen on Tumblr in April 2011. On Facebook, the project's description reads:
Yes-butno was created to break assumptions and stereotypes that everyone makes about various cultures, genders, sexualities, etc. Find something that you can relate to, or learn something new. :)
The newest Yes-butno addition is Ukraine.
On September 19, 2012, Rost Tatomyr, a Lviv-based Facebook user, asked his “international friends” to name “the most popular stereotypes about Ukraine”:
[…] Or just impression which is very common in your country. Feel free to offend me :) It's just for one of my small graphic project. Thank you.
A few people responded, and five days later, on September 24, Tatomyr presented a set of nine Yes-butno items, which went viral on the Ukrainian segment of Facebook right away (more than 1,265 ‘likes’ and 4,080 shares in the first 12 hours since posting):
Rost Tatomyr's Ukrainian take on the Yes-butno stereotype-breaking meme.
Much of the discussion of the Ukrainian Yes-butno's is rather serious and heated, with many users focusing on the “language issue” brought up by Tatomyr (“Yes, I'm from Ukraine – No, Russian is not my language.”). Below is a small selection of such comments:
Olesya Dumendyak:
Yes, I'm from Ukraine, and Yes, my language is Russian! let's be honest half of Ukraine speaks Russian as native
Alisa Zagranichna:
Those of us whose native language is Russian don't have to be sorry to speak our native tongue. In fact we are bilingual and can speak Ukrainian fluently, which is a must for everyone living here. We are the patriots of our land no less than those whose native tongue is Ukrainian. But I will never be ashamed of my ancestors or my language. And my kids will speak both languages as well as English.
Christina Vasylkiv:
I have never seen a country in a whole world, where people, would say: “Yeh, I am French, but I speak Spanish and I am proud if it”. or Have you ever seen a German being a proud speaker of English? It is so damn difficult to explain to an American or any other person that is not familiar with “the Ukrainian linguistic phenomena” that there are Ukrainians that have never spoken Ukrainian in their life and are proud speakers of Russian. Where is a fucking logic in that???History?complicated relations?-get the fuck out of here. It is total absence of self-respect and sickly low self-esteem.
Lenka Gorbenka:
@Christina: so what? yes they re proud why not? why can't they be proud if they was taught russian since they were born and never even heard ukrainian but on TV? I am sure person who lives in Ukraine must know ukrainian- their state language, but lets face the truth – do u know the lever of ukr lessons in for example Donetsk? Lucky u u had a chance to learn ukrainian, but don't be that much proud of it – 50% of that is just the fact u were born in right place.
Myroslava Gongadze, journalist Georgy Gongadze‘s widow, responding [uk] to Gennady Shpak's comment about Ukraine's “misplacement” problem (“No, it's not in Asia. It's in Africa!”), writes [uk]:
Ukraine, by the way, is sometimes called “the white Africa” due to its corruption levels.
On a lighter note, Eugene Schyrba suggests this addition to the Ukrainian stereotype list:
YES, I'm from Ukraine. YES, our president is a vegetable.
And Juan Miguel Ropero adds this one:
YES, I'm from Ukraine. NO, my eyes aint beautiful

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Venezuela: Electoral TwitCam · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Journalist and Global Voices contributor Luis Carlos Díaz [es] is streaming “Electoral TwitCams” to discuss the upcoming Venezuelan elections. You can watch the first video stream [es] and tune in today [es], at 8:00pm local time in Venezuela, for his second live stream [es].


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Algeria: Calls for Anti-US Protests Fall on Deaf Ears · Global Voices
Salah Ziad

[All links forward to French sources unless otherwise stated]
Western embassies were targeted by protesters in many Arab nations after an anti-Islamic movie trailer was published online. Yet calls for protests in the capital of Algeria, Algiers, went mostly unnoticed. Here follows a review of the reactions online from the Algerian blogosphere.
This title of an article published by algerie1.com summarizes the current situation:
L’appel sur Facebook pour un grand rassemblement devant l’ambassade US à Alger s’est avéré être un pétard mouillé.
The Algerian press, with the exception of one Arab-language publication, echouroukonline.com, has given very little attention to the event, or to its failure, to be exact. Such was this elwatan.com headline:
Tentative de marche avortée à Alger.
On the same subject, the publication revealed that about 100 protesters had denounced the film in question at Oran, the second most important city in the country. In fact, running into a very strong police presence, dozens of protesters at Oran were happy to just hang up a banner depicting a slogan they had adopted from broadcasts by Arab satellite television channels.
The other important French language news sites such as liberté-algerie.com, preferred to focus on the events unfolding in Cairo, Tunis, Sanaa, and Khartoum, while paying no attention to attempts to organize marches specifically in Algiers and Oran. Echourouk, a website known for its Islamist sympathies, stated approvingly that:
Les algériens se sont levés pour venir au secours du prophète.
On Thursday, 16 September, the site had practically taken over the calls that circulated on the web for protests against American diplomatic presence in Algiers. This publication, which has the highest circulation in Algieria, at about half a million copies per day, also stands out for the number of comments that are made by its readership. More than 200 readers shared their opinion on this subject alone, some going so far as to join law and order groups that were trying to prevent protests against Israeli forces prohibiting Palestinians from accessing the path to El Qods mosque in Jerusalem each Friday.
Furthermore, the warning issued by the United States Embassy in Algiers to US citizens to avoid travel in Algeria has attracted the attention of some newspapers, including those online. TSA (tsa-algerie.com) queried the silence of Algerian authorities concerning this alert.
Samir Allam wrote the following:
Depuis mercredi, les critiques à l’égard de la position algérienne se multiplient dans les réseaux sociaux et la presse. L’Algérie a réagi via le ministère des Affaires étrangères. Mais contrairement aux autres pays, ni le président de la République Abdelaziz Bouteflika, ni son Premier ministre, n’ont commenté publiquement l’affaire.
In the same article, the newspaper reported that Ali Bel Hadj, number two of the now dissolved ISF (Islamic Salvation Front) [en] attempted to protest before the US Embassy headquarters in Algiers, which resulted in him being pulled in by the police.
Protests against anti-islam trailer in Kouba Algeria via Anis /New Press with permission
The website dna-algerie.com has focused on the attack on the US Embassy in Tunis and the fire at an American school in the same city, while not saying a word about the attempts to hold demonstrations in Algiers and elsewhere. This is also the case for algeriepatriotique.com which, on covering the clashes that took place in Tunis, addressed the issue with the help of a specialist who in turn compared the extremes back to back.
Sonia B added to the calls for demonstrations:
Les Algériens ne sont pas tombés dans le piège de la violence qui ne fait que ternir davantage l’image du monde musulman. De leur côté, plusieurs imams ont dénoncé les manifestations violentes qui secouent plusieurs pays arabes et musulmans
There is bickering on social networks between those who have called to occupy the streets and those who instead advocated moderation and self control. The Facebook page 123 viva Algeria, which distinguished itself in January 2011, taking a stand against what would be named the ‘Arab Spring’, yet again assumed the role of firefighter.
At the same time, other Facebookers have attempted to mobilize to get citizens on the street. It should also be noted that all the mosques of Algeria tried to calm Muslims during Friday prayer and called for restraint.
Is it the fact that the streets Algeria are not aligned with those of Benghazi, Tunis, Cairo and Khartoum which allows us to invoke ‘the Algerian exception’, loudly proclaimed during the Arab spring? That is a whole other debate.

author: Salah Ziad


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Armenia: Reflections on Homosexuality and Fascism · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Unzipped: Gay Armenia reflects on Brotherhood, a 2009 Danish film about homosexuality and fascism, in the context of the neo-Nazi firebombing of D.I.Y., a gay friendly bar in Yerevan, earlier this year.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Colombia: Chronicling a Mugging · Global Voices
Julián Ortega Martínez

Santiago Ardila Reyes blogs [es] about the mugging he suffered in front of his house for his smartphone, describes how he feels about it, and wonders about the causes of the increasing reports of muggings and murders in Colombia.

author: Julián Ortega Martínez


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Guinea-Bissau: Impact of Tourism in the Bijagós Islands · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

Tourism doesn't always mean wealth and development for the Southern countries.
The statement comes from a report [pt] on “Dynamics and impacts of the expansion of tourism in the Bijagós islands”, a protected sea area in Guinea Bissau. Cape Verdean blog Morabeza shares [pt] the study by CETRI (Centre Tricontinental) with Portuguese NGO IMVF and Tiniguena.

author: Sara Moreira


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Hungary: Parliament Forced to Take Domestic Violence Seriously · Global Voices
Marietta Le

According to NGOs fighting domestic violence [hu], about 70 women are killed by their partners or ex-partners every year in Hungary.
Domestic violence is an extremely severe problem in the Hungarian society, and Hungarians struggling to raise awareness of the issue were outraged when it turned out that a public proposal to put it on the Hungarian Parliament's agenda was deemed so unimportant that the parliamentary discussion was scheduled to take place in the middle of the night.
Facebook page ‘Bring attention to the issue of domestic violence in the Hungarian Parliament’ wrote on Sep. 6 [hu]:
Between March 1 and May 1 of 2012, a total of 103,159 signatures were collected to stop domestic violence. A total of 50,000 valid signatures were needed to make the Parliament to schedule the debate about incorporating domestic violence as a separate offence. The result of the unprecedented cooperation is that the Parliament will hold the debate on penalizing domestic violence on Sep. 11 at 3 o'clock in the morning.
The Hungarian MPs did debate the public proposal (they ended up starting early, before 10 PM), but some of their comments caused public outrage. Especially remarkable were the comments of MP István Varga from the governing Fidesz party.
Eva Balogh of Hungarian Spectrum shared his overall ‘bests':
The learned member of parliament opined: “The most important calling for women and ladies, especially for young ladies, is to give birth. It is obvious that if everybody gave birth to two, three or four children, a gift to the fatherland, everybody would be happy. After that task is over, every woman can fulfill herself and may work at different jobs.” And if that weren’t enough, Varga proposed that “if three or four or five children were born, members of the family would respect each other more and then the question of violence within the family wouldn’t even come up.”
Kettős Mérce shared a collection [hu] of the best remarks in Hungarian. The day after, HVG.hu news site reported [hu], a spontaneous rally was organized on Facebook against the Parliament's decision, which rejected the proposal, and against Mr. Varga's remarks. The organizers of the demonstration wrote [en]:
Last night at 2 am the parliament rejected a people's proposal on the criminalization of domestic violence. Istvan Varga, Fidesz MP in Parliament, discussing whether domestic violence should be a distinct criminal offence in the Criminal Code [following a petition signed by over 100,000 people making it mandatory for parliament to discuss it]: “the Criminal Code cannot prevent domestic violence. maybe mothers should return to raising kids instead, have 2-3 or rather 4-5 chil dren and then it would make more sense that spouses respect each other more and domestic violence would not even come up.” He then said it's all because of emancipation that women have forgotten to have kids, so there are fewer and fewer Hungarians now. We contest the misogynist discussion that represented women as incubators, against the idea that domestic violence is a consequence of women's emancipation and against the attempt of boycotting the public opinion due to the late night parliamentary discussion.
X Communications Centre, which is using methods of communication to generate positive changes in social, ethnic and democratic issues, started a viral campaign with a video featuring Hungarian celebrities and politicians, titled “A real man wouldn't hurt a woman.” A rendition of this slogan – “A real woman wouldn't hurt a man” – also went viral, observing the fact that men can also be victims of domestic violence. (X Communication Centre'sFacebook photo album with people holding placards with their slogan is here.)
Following the significant public pressure (as well as plenty of memes with Mr. Varga's words), the Parliament was eventually forced to treat domestic violence seriously. After the ruling Fidesz party changed its position, a week later, the retake of the initiative was supported by 366 deputies in favour, none against, with ten deputies abstaining, reported [hu] Politics.hu news site.

author: Marietta Le


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Kyrgyzstan: Virtual Farming, Real Harvest · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

You can now grow real organic vegetables and raise livestock online. Caravanistan reports about a new project [ru] in Kyrgyzstan which allows users to purchase a plot of land or an animal on a virtual farm. The proceeds then go to real farmers who do the work and supply the users with vegetables and meat.

author: Alexander Sodiqov


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Peru: Young Woman Killed After Participating in Reality Show · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón

On Saturday July 7, 2012, 19-year-old Ruth Thalia Sayas Sanchez became the first participant on the newly launched reality show ‘The value of truth’ (El valor de la verdad) on a local Peruvian TV network [es].
The show consists of 21 questions previously asked to the participant, whose answers must match what a lie detector machine deems as true. These 21 questions are divided into six levels, with increased difficulty. The highest amount a participant can win is 50,000 Peruvian soles (about US$19,200). The participant has the choice to quit every time the questions go to a higher level. Furthermore, the participant can take three companions that have one possibility of pressing a button when they feel the question is too sensitive, delicate, or intrusive. If the participant lies when answering, he or she doesn't take home any money.
‘The value of truth’ – TV Show
Ruth Sayas took her parents and Bryan Romero Leyva, whom she introduced as her boyfriend, to the show. She answered 18 questions, including the confession that she worked as a dancer in a night club and not for a call center, as her parents believed, and that she had had sex in exchange of money. She quit the game with 15,000 Peruvian soles (about US$5,700).
At the end of the show cameras caught a crying Ruth Thalia kneeling in front of her mother, evidently asking for forgiveness.
Almost two months after that date, her family reported that Ruth Thalia was missing. They accused Bryan Romero, claiming he was demanding that Ruth share with him part of the prize money. They also accused Romero of sneaking into their house and taking money and some belongings from Ruth's bedroom.
Then the public learned that Romero had been Ruth’s boyfriend, but that the relationship ended before the show; and that Ruth had promised him a part of the money, but at the end, she gave him less than offered.
More than a week later, a body was found and the police suspected it was Ruth Thalia’s body. When it was confirmed that it was actually her body, the news grew even more grim: Romero and two other accomplices had kidnapped and eventually killed Ruth for money.
Bloggers and Twitter users are abuzz about this terrible news.
Gustavo Faverón, on his self-titled blog, talked about gender violence [es]:
Mientras Ortiz [presentador del programa] fabricaba el siguiente episodio de El Valor de la Verdad, Ruth Thalía estaba muerta y precariamente enterrada por su asesino en Jicamarca [en las afueras de Lima].
La mayoría de quienes comentan el tema señalan la responsabilidad de Frecuencia Latina, del programa El Valor de la Verdad y del conductor del programa.
[…]
La razón por la cual existe el femicidio [sic] pero no está tipificado el homicidio de hombres, la razón por la cual nuestra sociedad comprende que hay femicidio [sic] pero no persigue como casos especiales el homicidio de zurdos o personas que pasen del metro noventa, es que no hay nada en la estructura de la sociedad que propicie el asesinato de hombres zurdos o de personas que pasen del metro noventa, pero sí hay algo en la estructura de nuestra sociedad que propicia el asesinato de mujeres.
While [TV show host Beto] Ortiz was putting together the next episode of El Valor de la Verdad, Ruth Thalía was already dead and precariously buried by her killer in Jicamarca [in the outskirts of Lima].
Most of the people who comment on the topic point to the responsibility of [TV network] Frecuencia Latina, of the show and the show’s host.
[…]
The reason why there is gender violence crimes against women, but male homicide is not categorized as crime, the reason our society understands there is gender violence crimes against women but doesn’t criminalize as special cases the homicides of left-handed men or men over 1.90 mt, is because there is nothing in the structure of society that encourages the murder of left-handed men or of men over 1.90 m, but there is something in the structure of our society that encourages the homicide of women.
Meanwhile, the group blog De la Selva Su Web On reflects on Peruvian society and the media [es]:
Al margen de criticar o poner como culpable al programa de TV, lo que me preocupa es la salud mental de la población peruana. Creo que en nuestra mayoría no estamos acostumbrados a conocer la verdad, o casi nunca aceptamos la verdad y preferimos engañarnos. Una mentira desvalorizada es más valiosa que una verdad dura.
Es cierto que el Tv se ha convertido en una herramienta nociva para la conciencia colectiva del país, pues aparte de destruir las culturas locales, embrutece a las nuevas generaciones […].
La prensa peruana sólo zombifica la sociedad.
Besides criticizing or blaming a TV show, what troubles me is the mental health of the Peruvian population. I think most of us are not used to knowing the truth, or we almost never accept the truth and rather be fooled. A devalued lie is more valuable than a hard truth.
Certainly, TV has become a damaging tool for the country’s collective conscience, because aside from destroying local cultures, it stupefies the younger generations […].
Peruvian press just zombifies society.
Twitter users shared their opinions using the hashtags #ruthsayas [es] and #EVDLV [es, for the name of the show]:
Fiorella Danitza (@PlanetaFiorella) [es] plays with the idea of truth and lies, the TV show's format:
@PlanetaFiorella: Creo que la única VERDAD es q @malditaternura guardó un frío silencio ante la desaparición d #ruthsayas y la MENTIRA es q la tv es solidaria
@PlanetaFiorella: I think the only TRUTH is that @malditaternura [TV show host Beto Ortiz] kept cold silence about #ruthsayas‘ disappearance and the LIE is that TV is supportive
Raquel Chávez R. (@RaquelChavezR) [es] separates the crime from the TV show, using legal terminology:
@RaquelChavezR: hay conductas moralmente sancionables, pero no por ello justiciables. No veo relación jurídica entre #EVDL y el homicidio de #RuthSayas
@RaquelChavezR: There are morally punishable behaviors, but not necessarily justifiable. I don’t see a legal relation between #EVDL [the show] and the homicide of #RuthSayas
Meanwhile, journalist Patricia del Río (@padelriol) [es] indirectly addresses some colleagues:
@padelriol: Lo peor que le podría pasar a la memoria de Ruth Sayas es que su muerte sea el pretexto para una ombliguista guerrita entre periodistas
@padelriol: Worst case scenario for Ruth Sayas’ memory is that her death become the pretext for a selfish little war between journalists.
User Csar™ (@Ccsarr) asks [es]:
@Ccsarr: cuando durará este caso #RuthSayas ???? simple hasta q salga otro pior [sic]
@Ccsarr: How long will the case of #RuthSayas last???? Simple, until something even worse surfaces.
Finally, columnist El Búho (The Owl) [es] reflects:
Que de esta tragedia se saque conclusiones positivas, sobre todo para las jovencitas que no les importa degradarse y avergonzar a la familia, haciendo lo que sea con tal de ganar dinero fácil. Yo me saco el sombrero al ver a chicas […] que estudian y trabajan a la vez. Por 600 o 700 soles mensuales.
Esos son ejemplos de una juventud con afán de superación, que luchan decentemente por alcanzar logros en la vida. Esos ejemplos se deben promover. No todo puede ser escándalo y miseria en nuestra televisión. Apago el televisor.
May we all come to positive conclusions after this tragedy, above all for those young ladies who don’t care about degrading themselves and embarrassing their families, doing whatever it takes to earn easy money. I applaud those young girls […] who study and work at the same time. For 600 o 700 Peruvian soles [about US$230-270] per month.
These are examples of a youth full of desire for self-improvement who strive decently to accomplish things in life. Those are the examples we must encourage. Not everything has to be scandal and misery on our TV. I turn the TV off.
There are several Facebook pages dedicated to the memory of Ruth Thalia, such as Justice for Ruth Thalía [es] and Ruth Thalia Sayas Sancez RIP [es].

author: Gabriela García Calderón


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Tajikistan: Power Plant as a Symbol · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

Blogger Temur Mengliev argues [ru] that Tajikistan should complete the construction of the Rogun, a controversial hydropower plant criticized by its neighbors, for symbolic reasons:
Wouldn't this facility, featuring the world's tallest dam, become the most important symbol of our republic? Wouldn't it characterize us, as a state, better than a monument in [the country's capital] Dushanbe or the flag on the world's tallest flagpole?


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A Ghanain App at TechCrunch Disrupt · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Erik writes about a Ghanaian tech team that pitched at TechCrunch Disrupt event:
Saya is an app for texting. That mixes SMS, Facebook chat and hyperlocal findability to get in conversations with those near you. They’re on Android, Blackberry and waiting for their iPhone app to be approved.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Armenia: A New Response to Hate Crime? · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Unzipped: Gay Armenia comments on news of an attack on transsexual sex workers in Yerevan, the Armenian capital. The blog notes that not only did the victims report the crime, but that the police formerly accepted it as such while also using ‘acceptable non-discriminatory wording.’ The blog implies that if the culprits are arrested, charged and prosecuted, this would represent significant change in the country.


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Chad: Challenges to Freedom of Expression as Social Protests Grow · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

[All links forward to French articles unless otherwise stated]
The recent arrests of three union officers and the editor of N’Djamena Bi-Hebdo (an independent, bi-weekly newspaper) are symptomatic of a disintegration of freedom of expression in Chad. These arrests are the result of protest movements against the impoverishment of Chad’s population and the privatization of the country’s resources.
Reporters Without Borders condemns the sentence against Jean-Claude Nekim, the editor of N’Djamenda Bi-Hebdo:
a été condamné à un an de prison avec sursis et à une amende d'un million de francs CFA (1.500 euros) pour “diffamation”, pour avoir rapporté une pétition contre le régime du président Idriss Déby.
[He] was given a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of one million CFA francs (1,500 euros) for “defamation” for having covered a petition against the administration of President Idriss Déby.
Redistribution of oil profits in question
Chad is an oil-rich country but one whose population has been slow to realize how others are benefiting from their exploitation. The Chad-Cameroon Pipeline, completed in 2003, enables the transport of oil from the Gulf of Guinea and the exploitation of oil sources by a consortium made of ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Petronas.
Following a loan deal with the World Bank to help achieve this pipeline, Chad’s government agree to devote 70% of its total budget to programs fighting poverty [PDF in English].
Cartoon on the impact of oil exploitation in Chad- via Tchadonline.com – Public Domain
The effects of these deals have not yet been felt by the majority of the population and people are now demanding more transparency around the revenues of oil production. The Union of Trade Unions (UST) has launched an appeal to the public sector workers to strike against poor governance.
Gali Gatta explains the context of the strike:
Les grévistes réclament le respect par le gouvernement des engagements pris par le Président de la République au début de l'année pour mettre fin à la grogne sociale. Aucune solution n'est en vue. [..] La gestion des ressources du pétrole n'est pas transparente alors même que les champs exploités gagnent du terrain. La nation ne sait pas combien rapporte cette ressource au pays, depuis 10 ans l'Assemblée Nationale n'a pas reçu de loi de règlements. [..] Alors que l'Etat doit avoir la maîtrise de toutes ses ressources pour faire face à tous ses engagements (dettes, salaires, dépenses de santé et d'éducation, etc.), ces ressources sont privatisées, détournées au profit de la famille et du clan.
The strikers are demanding the government respect commitments made by the President of the Republic at the start of the year to quell the social unrest. There is no solution in sight. […] The management of oil resources is not transparent, even though the scope of the drilling is expanding. The nation does not know how to profit from its natural resources; in ten years, the National Assembly has not passed a law regulating their use. […] While the State must have control over its resources in order to fulfill its obligations (debts, salaries, health and education spending, etc.), these resources have been privatized, diverting profits to family and clan.
Freedom of expression weakened
The Chadian League for Human Rights reports on the events surrounding the arrests of the union leaders François Djondang, Michel Barka, and Younous Mahadjir:
Le 18 septembre 2012, la Chambre correctionnelle de citation directe du Tribunal de première instance de N’Djamena a condamné MM. Djondang, Barka et Mahadjir à 18 mois de prison avec sursis et une amende de 1,5 millions de francs CFA (environ 2 290 euros) pour « incitation à la haine ethnique ». Cette condamnation fait suite à une pétition de l’UST datée du 1er septembre 2012 qui protestait notamment contre « la cherté de la vie » et « la paupérisation de la population » [..] Le 5 septembre 2012, le Bureau exécutif de l’UST a reçu une convocation écrite du procureur de la République et relative à la pétition mentionnée précédemment. Ils ont été auditionnés par la police puis par le procureur de la République le 10 septembre. l’UST est à l’initiative d’une grève réclamant l’application d’un décret promulgué en novembre 2011 suite à un protocole d’accord portant sur les grilles salariales dans le secteur public.
On September 18, 2012, the criminal section of the Tribunal of the First Instance of N’Djamena sentenced Djondang, Barka and Mahadjir to 18-month suspended prison sentences and fines of 1.5 million CFA francs (about 2,290 euros) for “inciting racial hatred.” This sentence follows a UST petition, dated September 1, that protests against “the high cost of living” and “the impoverishment of the population” […] On September 5, the UST executive board received a summons from the State’s Attorney relating to the aforementioned petition. On September 10, they gave a statement to the police and then to the State’s attorney. The UST initiated a strike demanding the application of an order given in November 2011 following a memorandum of understanding on public sector salary levels.
The reactions to the union officials’ sentencing were heated. Benoit Bemadji reports:
Me l'avocate Delphine Kemneloum Djiraïbé [affirme que]: « C’est une parodie de justice et nous ne pouvons pas prendre part à un tel procès. C’est pour cela que nous avons quitté la salle. La déclaration du Procureur discrédite même les magistrats et c’est une honte pour notre justice». [..] Pour avoir éclaté de rire après le verdict, M. Mbaïlaou Gustave a été séance tenante arrêté dans la salle pour être jugé et condamné à trois mois de prison ferme pour [outrage à Magistrat].
Lawyer Delphine Kemneloum Djiraibe [affirms]: “This is a parody of justice, and we cannot take part in such a process. That is why we left the room. The prosecutor’s declaration discredits even the judges and it is a shame for our justice.” […] For having erupted in laughter after the verdict, Mr. Mbailaou Gustave was immediately arrested inside the courtroom and was condemned to three months in prison for contempt.
Reporters Without Borders also was concerned with the hasty trial:
Le mauvais climat entre le pouvoir et la presse franchit une nouvelle étape avec ce verdict. Interrogé par Reporters sans frontières, un journaliste tchadien ayant assisté à l’audience a affirmé : “C’était un procès expéditif. Le procureur n’a pas prouvé la diffamation. Les avocats de la défense ont quitté la salle en signe de protestation. Ce procès ressemble à un règlement de compte
The tension between the government and the press reached a new stage with this verdict. Interviewed by Reporters Without Borders, a Chadian journalist who attended the hearing said, “It was a quick trial. The prosecutor didn’t prove defamation. The defense attorneys left the room as a sign of protest. This trial resembles a settling of scores.


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China: Intraparty Democracy · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Qian Gang from China Media Project reviewed  the discussion and development of Intra-party democracy within the Chinese Communist Party through the so-called “open nomination and direct election” in the election of grassroots representatives.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: University’s Stability Maintenance Instructions on Diaoyu Islands Dispute · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Anne Henochowicz from China Digital Times translated a stability maintenance instructions from within an university from Shaanxi province which demands teachers and staffs from various departments to monitor students’ sentiment on the Diaoyu Islands disputes and prevent “rumors” from spreading.


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Colombians Cautiously Optimistic About Peace Talks with FARC · Global Voices
Julián Ortega Martínez

This post is part of our International Relations & Security coverage.
Demonstration against FARC (2008) by xmascarol on Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Despite President Juan Manuel Santos’ wish [es] for discretion, news broke [es] in late August that the Colombian government was to begin negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). This was finally confirmed by Santos on September 4 during a televised speech that outlined that the government’s negotiations [es] with FARC would seek an end to the armed conflict and drug trafficking. Both sides will also discuss victims’ rights, rural development and the participation of FARC in Colombia’s democratic process. Fearing a repeat of the last round of failed negotiations in 1999-2002, Santos also said that no amnesty would be granted for FARC leaders and that military operations would continue. Minutes later, FARC’s leader, Timoleón Jiménez (‘Timochenko’) appeared in a broadcast from Havana, Cuba and declared that FARC is truly committed to a “civilized dialogue” that would end the decades-old conflict.
Violence will persist
On Distintas Latitudes, Lucas Peña analyzes the differences and similarities with past processes, not only with FARC but also with other armed groups. In conclusion, he asks for more realism, since even a successful process with FARC would not bring an end to violence in Colombia:
Lo cierto es que la dejación de las armas de las FARC es una condición para la paz pero no la única, pues existen actores asociados a la criminalidad organizada que siguen ejerciendo la violencia, que pueden incluso surgir luego de la eventual desmovilización de las FARC, como se demostró tras la desmovilización de los paramilitares. En Colombia solemos llamar a estos nuevos actores ‘bacrim’ “bandas criminales al servicio del narcotráfico, los ejércitos de los carteles mafiosos.
The truth is that FARC's abandonment of arms is one, but not the only condition for peace, because there are other actors associated with organised crime who will still engage in violence, some who may even emerge after the eventual FARC demobilisation, as it was shown after the demobilisation of the paramilitaries. In Colombia we call these new actors ‘bacrim’, criminal bands servicing drug trafficking, the armies of mafia cartels.
Government in the lead?
On Revista Posición, Alberto Bernal is very critical of the ongoing process, but praises the choice of government negotiators:
Una buena noticia es que el equipo de negociación que nombró el gobierno es un equipo de negociación de lujo. Nada diferente se puede decir de Villegas, Pearl, o de Mora, para nombrar solo tres de las personas que estarán permanentemente en la mesa. También me parece importante recalcar el hecho de que la decisión de no decretar un cese al fuego le conviene al gobierno, pues el gobierno lleva la delantera en la guerra, así las FARC hayan incrementado sus ataques contra la población civil últimamente.
On piece of good news is that the negotiation team appointed by the government is first class. Nothing different could be said about [Luis Carlos] Villegas, [Frank] Pearl, or [retired Army general Jorge Enrique] Mora, three of the people who will be permanently seated at the table. I also find it important to highlight the fact that the decision not to declare a ceasefire is convenient for the government, because it is leading in the war, regardless that FARC lately have increased their attacks against civilians.
On the blog Tras la Cola de la Rata, Juana Galeano says [es] the inclusion of the military in the process is brilliant:
Hay que admitirlo, la inclusión de miembros del Ejército como negociadores es una jugada maestra. Incluir a los militares, darles voz, los coacciona e impide que torpedeen el proceso más adelante.
I have to admit it: including members of the Army as negotiators is a masterstroke. Including them, giving them voice, co-opts them and prevents them from sabotaging the process later on.
Most Colombians seem to support the peace process with caution. According to polls 77% favour the talks, but 72% oppose an eventual participation of FARC in politics, and 78% do not approve an amnesty with no jail terms for guerrilla commanders.
FARC leaders Raul Reyes, Manuel Marulanda and Ivan Rios in Bogota, Colombia by bixentro on Flickr (CC-BY-2.0)
Though former President Álvaro Uribe has become a staunch opponent [es] of almost everything related to President Santos (his former defence minister), some non-governmental organizations have voiced concerns about a legal framework [es] for FARC passed by the Congress last June.
Santos imposed a June 2013 deadline to reach landmark advances, but it seems that this will be a long process, especially since FARC increased their attacks before the announcement.
Learning from past mistakes [es], improving security all over the country and strengthening trust [es] between the negotiating parties should be important steps towards the success of the talks.
This post and its translations to Spanish, Arabic and French were commissioned by the International Security Network (ISN) as part of a partnership to seek out citizen voices on international relations and security issues worldwide. This post was first published on the ISN blog, see similar stories here.


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Documentary on Salvadoran ‘Guerrilleras’ Turns to Crowdfunding · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Photographers Rebecka Bíró (Sweden/Spain) and Victoria Montero (Argentina) have teamed up to create ‘Guerrilleras‘ a documentary and photography project about the experience of women in the guerrilla during the Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992). Bíró and Montero are using crowdfunding website Verkami to raise funds to cover their living expenses while they finish their project in El Salvador.
They describe their goals for the documentary on Verkami:
We seek to find answers to some questions: How was the women's experience in the war, what was their role in the guerrilla, how did they struggle to survive and protect their families, how did it change the women's paradigm within a patriarchal structure in a traditionally male chauvinist society, what were the consequences and how do they continue their struggle today.
Guerrilleras primarily seeks to be a tool to preserve the historical memory. A material to help and understand the recent history of El Salvador in the context of the armed conflict. An instrument to reflect on the identity of women in the civil war. A sample of the past that is always present and requests not to be forgotten by its’ protagonists.
Bíró and Montero explain that during their visit to El Salvador in 2011 they didn't “discover the best beaches in the world, nor the highest mountains,” but they met a lot of Salvadorans who “filled [their] hearts”:
We met many war victims. The cruelty of their stories, especially considering how little attention they have had in the media, motivated us to pursue a work that emphasizes female identity, the defense of human rights and the recovery of the memory of the people fighting for their emancipation.
Read more about their project on the Verkami website and follow ‘Guerrilleras’ on Facebook.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Georgia: A Caucasian Abu Ghraib · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Eva Anderson, a Senior Analyst with Transparency International, examines the recent prison abuse video scandal in Georgia as the country prepares for crucial 1 October Parliamentary Elections. The blog post in particular looks at the penitentiary system and the urgent need for reform.


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Guatemala: Profiting from Catastrophes · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Kevin from the Guatemala Solidarity Network blog points readers to an article by Danilo Valladares published in Inter Press Service about “‘big disaster business’ – profiting from catastrophes.”
In a country as vulnerable to natural disasters as Guatemala, a “state of public calamity” is frequently declared – to the joy of contractors, which find a good opportunity to line their pockets.


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Iran: Eight Years of Deception · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has released a short video “demonstrating and highlighting systematic cover-ups accompanying the marked rise in human rights violations over the eight years of his presidency”.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran: President Ahmadinejad’s Men in Trouble · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Havaar, source:facebook.com/HavaarForJustice
While Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the U.N. General Assembly on September 26, 2012, that he has a vision for a new world order that would be absent of the “hegemony of arrogance”, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, his press adviser was arrested in Iran, and Ramin Mehmanparast, the foreign ministry spokesperson, was attacked in New York.
Ali Akbar Javanfekr Source: Sahamnews
In November 2011, an Iranian court convicted Javanfekr, who headed the governmental IRAN Magazine, of “publishing materials contrary to Islamic norms,” and also banned him from journalism activities for three years.
The charges against him included insulting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran. Javanfker appealed the case and has been under pressuresince then. His office has also been attacked by security forces. Now he is in prison.
Javanfekr used to blog too, and would comment on the political rivalry in Iran. Last November, he wrote about his problems in his blog, Shahed:
… People ask themselves, how is it that Javanfker who never had any file in the judiciary system [faced no trials in court], has 15 files against him in country's judiciary system, the moment he is appointed as head of the Iran institution?
New York, not safe for Ahmadinejad's men
Meanwhile, a group of protesters confronted Iranian Deputy Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast near the United Nations in New York on Wednesday, September 26. New York policemen escorted him to safety. Protesters punched him and spit on his face.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew1voX0wnew
And here:
On Balatarin, a link sharing site, users have linked a  photo from The Wall Street Journal, writing “you can see fear in Mehmanpart's eyes”.
Darzarehbin writes that spitting on somebody's face or punching them is dishonorable even if the guy is Mehmanparast.
The blogger Farvartish Rezvanieh writes [fa]:
…the group that attacked Mehmanparast are Mujahedin of People‘s supporters who try to present themselves as “New York based angry Iranians.”
Demonstrations
In recent days, Iranians in New York protested against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and human rights abuses in Iran.
Havaar, an Iranian initiative against war, sanctions and government repression, protested in New York. Havaar used an illuminator to “occupy” walls in Manhattan and displayed political prisoners’ photos (above).
Mean time Mujahedin of People organized several demonstrations in New York.


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Jamaica: In Whose Image?   · Global Voices
Matthew Hunte

Whose conception of Jamaican identity resulted in the decision to market our country in this colour-coded way?  Why are we still rubbing out black people from the big picture?  Or, at best, downplaying blackness?  Which Jamaica are we selling?  And who to?
Professor Carolyn Cooper writes about class, colorism, branding and ethnic identity in Jamaica.

author: Matthew Hunte


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Jamaica: Storm Saulter on Film & New Media in the Caribbean  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The 2012 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival continues this week and one of the most high-profile regional attendees is Storm Saulter, the Jamaican director whose first feature film, Better Mus’ Come, received critical acclaim upon its release in late 2010.  The film, which centers around the country’s political violence in the 1970s – specifically the Green Bay Massacre – made quite an impression at last year’s Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival and heralded a new era in Jamaican cinema, which had never quite been able to match the celluloid accomplishments of The Harder They Come, a ‘70s crime film classic starring Jimmy Cliff.  This year, he and his team at New Caribbean Cinema, a collective that Saulter started with St. Lucian filmmaker Michelle Serieux, has a compilation of short films in the festival, each with its own title but collectively dubbed Ring di Alarm.  I sat down with him to talk about filmmaking in the Caribbean and how new media is helping to change the landscape, both technically and creatively…
Global Voices (GV):  Let’s talk about Better Mus’ Come, which has really done its part to revive filmmaking in Jamaica.  How did you get interested in telling this particular story?
Jamaican filmmaker Storm Saulter
Storm Saulter (SS):  I’ve always been interested in politics, in the Cold War and espionage, so I found out about Jamaica being on the front line of the Cold War, not in a direct way, ‘cause they never taught that in film school.  I found out about it by doing research on the proxy wars happening all around the world.  I [also] started to research through the Jamaica Gleaner archives and I’d read Council on Hemispheric Relations reports and speak to people that were around at the time and gradually piece together the environment of the 1970s.
GV:  But it seems that type of environment still exists.  There was a similar situation in 2010 with ‘Dudus’.
SS:  Right; exactly.  It’s a cycle of violence that’s coming from a certain place and if we don’t get a bit more understanding of the origins of it and deal with it…it’s like people on the street talk about politicians…but to really present it in a visual and powerful format…to cement that…no-one had really been thinking of doing it.
Tivoli Gardens [Dudus’ territory], funny enough, was the centre of the underworld, but it was also a really good place to live for a garrison community, but it was a sub-economy supported by this gang and they became the government ‘cause there was no government.  And they became their own mini-state and that’s why they had to be crushed so brutally.  So it’s art imitating life; life imitating art because we made Better Mus’ Come before the Tivoli situation. And in Green Bay, 6 men were killed; between 70 and 80 were killed in Tivoli.
GV:  In contrast, what is Ring di Alarm like?
SS:  The films come from slightly dark humour, very art house stuff, to somewhat surreal stuff.  Certain themes arose over and over.  Like morality – a lot of the films are morality tales, people put in a situation where you test their morals and they have to make a choice.  We have films taking place in the Blue Mountains, we have a film taking place entirely in a church, another film taking place on the coastline of Negril, another one in the ghetto, very radical…
Nile Saulter, Michelle Serieux and Storm Saulter of New Caribbean Cinema
GV: So you think we’re finding our voice.  Because for a long time we didn’t see ourselves.
SS:  Very much so.  We didn’t think we were worthy and we thought we had to pattern it off of Hollywood.  What we need to make in the Caribbean is universal stories and we wrap them in our culture, in our language, in our environment, in our experience.  That’s the goal and that’s how we’ll succeed.  It’s about ideas and execution.
GV:  New media has revolutionized the industry because tools are accessible – and cheap compared to film.  You can also use new media to promote.  How is it changing the landscape of filmmaking?
SS:  Well, for example, I’ve never had a publicity budget for Better Mus’ Come. So all of this has come directly out of creative marketing, use of Facebook and Twitter and we did a few guerilla things like in Jamaica during Fashion’s Night Out, we got a bunch of students from the drama school – 'cause during Fashion’s Night Out there’s swarms of people in the town – we got the students to dress up in Better Mus’ Come shirts and we figured this out like the day of.  I got [placard] board and cut it out and painted it myself and we had them walking out like a protest group saying, ‘Better Mus’ Come!’
GV:  So onlookers actually thought it was a real protest.
SS:  Yes, because it was coming up to an election as well, but when they looked at the placards, it was like release date, Facebook address, Twitter handle…it cost us hardly any money, some paint and some wood, we gave 10 tickets to the kids to go to opening night and people are still talking about it.  So using that and then capturing that and then putting the captured version of the video of that onto Facebook and you just keep building content, because content is king.
So for example, you have a film coming out, so what we’d do is interview the actors and create all this content around it so you create a culture around the actual piece and then by the time the piece comes, people are already involved.  They already want to see it ‘cause they’ve gotten to see this guy talk and it didn’t cost much; it’s very self-sufficient and very lasting.  In terms of new media and how creative the storylines can be, I love it!  I used to do video art.  What I love about the whole new media environment is that you’re kind of breaking that down.
GV:  Yes, because people can reach it.
SS:  People can reach it and I find that the work that tends to be labeled under new media is very experimental, it’s video art and kind of that blend between video art and proper filmmaking.  And then transmedia is another thing, where you’re telling stories on multiple platforms.  So you have a story where there’s episodes playing on television and then part of the story is not shown on television, so you have to join their online presence to see that.  And then usually they build into the plot user-generated elements so it’s interactive.  This is like the new, new wave of multi-tiered storytelling.  And that’s a new world where Caribbean people really haven’t gotten a grasp on it yet, but with all these tools, you can tell multi-platform.  For example, there’s a story called The Truth about Marika, in Sweden, I believe.  It was the major, breakthrough new media thing.  It was like Lonely Girl 15 which was on YouTube.  In the Marika story, there was an investigative journalist that was following the disappearance of this high-society woman and…people got really interested and started to follow…and discovered this woman was brought into this…secret society that was running things in the underground.  It was a created story but they did interesting things where they would put the logos of these firms that were associated with the secret society – [for example] they branded a security van and had it drive around major cities in Sweden and people who were following the story would see the vans and start taking pictures and uploading them.
A still from Nile Saulter's short “Coast”, part of the new film “Ring di Alarm’
GV:  Basically bringing fiction into real life.
SS:  Exactly.  It’s really crazy.  So you’re telling stories in the natural environment and you’re placing characters in their natural environment and once you get enough of a following, that’s going to start to interact and there’s this great opportunity to make money off of branded entertainment because if you have a lot of followers and you have advertising…so that’s a new, new frontier that I think we need to get into as well.
But I love the experimentation of what they’re doing here with the new media.  I love video art.  Art is at the forefront of everything. That’s the rawest of the raw and I wish the Caribbean had a big art-appreciating community.
Another still from one of the films in “Ring di Alarm”
GV:  But who gets to decide what the narrative of Caribbean art or literature, for example, should be – and do we now have the same conundrum with Caribbean film?  Does it always have to be gritty or conversely, sun, sea, sand and sex?
SS:  It doesn’t and it’s funny, because after making ‘Better Mus’ Come, I’m not interested in making another ghetto film right now.  My next film that I’m probably going to get off the ground first is a film called Sting Ray, which is basically an uptown love triangle happening on the back of a boat on an island off Kingston, happening in one day.  It’s a study of race and class…this underlying racism [and classism] that permeates everything.  So I am trying to tell a broad spectrum because I am trying to change the narrative.  Ring di Alarm does play with that imagery.  It’s totally varied and beautiful and folkloric and risqué.  That’s what I love about [the film] as well, it’s an insight into something else besides gangsterism.  I think we have an obligation to change that image.  And people may say it’s funny that I’m saying that because I just made this breakout film, based in the ghetto, but that story had to be told properly.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Jordan: Inkitab Group to Hold Second Used Book Fair · Global Voices
ميّاسي

After the success of their first event [ar], held in the Jordanian capital Amman on January 6, 2012, the Inkitab Group [ar], which works to promote reading, will soon hold their second used book fair. The fair has been named ‘Noon’ and is aimed at encouraging people to exchange used books and working towards making a culture of reading more widespread across all sectors of Jordanian society.
After the resounding success [ar] of the first fair, it is hoped that there will be a greater number of titles available at this second event on October 1 in Amman's Gallery of Culture.
The organisers describe the initiative [ar] on their Facebook page saying:
“نون – معرض انكتاب للكتاب المستعمل هو مبادرة غير ربحية تعمل على ترسيخ ثقافة تعنى بمشاركة المعرفة وتمكين الأشخاص محدودي الدخل من اقتناء وقراءة الكتب.
جاءت الفكرة بإيحاء من مجتمع انكتاب المصغر من المتحمسين للقراءة ومضمونها تمرير الكتب التي انتهى الناس من قراءتها لآخرين بأسعار رمزية تتراوح بين العشرة قروش والدينارين، مما يتيح لشريحة أكبر فرصة القراءة والتعلم ويساعد الناس على التخلص من الكتب التي لا يرغبون بالاحتفاظ بها في بيوتهم والإفساح لكتب جديدة ربما لتحتل رفوف مكتباتهم الشخصية”.
Noon- This used book fair is a non-profit initiative working to establish a culture where knowledge is shared and people with limited incomes are empowered to own and read books.
A small group of Inkitab reading enthusiasts had the idea of passing books that people had finished reading onto others in exchange for a very small amount of money, ranging from ten qirsh to 2 dinars, to make it possible for more people to read and learn, and to help people get rid of books they no longer wish to keep, freeing up space on their bookshelves so they can acquire new ones.
The ‘Noon’ book fair logo. From the event's Facebook page
The first fair was enthusiastically received by the reading public and Jordanian bloggers such as Naser, who wrote this on his blog under the title “The people read, my dear Yahya Abdullah” [ar] [Yahya Abdullah is a Libyan filmmaker who made a short film about people not reading]:
“وصل عدد الكتب حتى يومين قبل الموعد 2700 كتاب، باللغتين العربية والإنجليزية بشكل رئيسي بالإضافة إلى العديد من الكتب بلغات أخرى. توقّع المنظمون أن تكفي الكتب المعرض من الساعة الرابعة وحتى التاسعة مساءً، وهو الموعد المعلن عنه، إلاّ أن المفاجأة كانت عندما بدأ الناس بالتجمهر والتجمّع منذ الساعة الواحدة والنصف، ينتظرون تحت أشعة الشمس ليكونوا أوّل الواصلين ليضعوا أيديهم على كتبهم المفضلة، وعندما دقّت الساعة الرابعة، اجتاح دوار باريس مئات المتحمّسين، من شتى الأعمار والفئات والتوجهات، وقد قدّر عدد المشاركين في المعرض بأكثر من ألفي شخص على مدار بضع ساعات، فالمعرض لم يستمر للساعة التاسعة، لأن واقع الحال وضع المنظمين أمام حقيقة أن 80% من الكتب قد نفدت في غضون ربع – نصف ساعة، وهناك من اشتكى من وصوله متأخراً في الساعة الرابعة وخمسة دقائق!”.
Two days before the start of the fair, the number of books was estimated at 2,700, written mostly in Arabic or English as well as many other languages. The organisers expected that the fair would last from 4:00 in the afternoon until 9:00 in the evening, the advertised times, however they were astonished to see that people began to gather from 1:30, waiting under the hot midday sun so that they would be the first to get their hands on their favourite books. As the clock struck 4:00, hundreds of avid readers of all ages and backgrounds swept Paris Square and within a few short hours, it is estimated that more than 2,000 people came to the fair. The fair did not, therefore, last until 9 as the organisers had to accept the fact that 80% of the books had gone within the first 15-30 minutes, and some people even complained about having arrived late, even though they had arrived at 4:05!”.
It seems that the people looking forward to the second fair are no less enthusiastic than those that came to the first. Yara had this to say on his Twitter account:
@The_YaraZ: مين قال نحن شعب لا يقرأ! شوف هالمبادرة ما أحلاها معرض انكتاب للكتاب المستعمل #عمان #الأردن http://www.facebook.com/#!/noonbookfair”.
@The_YaraZ: Who said that we are a people that doesn't read! They should look at this initiative and the wonderful Inkitab used book fair #عمان # [Jordan] الأردن [Amman] http://www.facebook.com/#!/noonbookfair
Heidal had this to say:
DedeYaseen@:  عندكم كاب قديمة حابين تبيعوها ؟ معرض نون للكتب المستعملة من #انكتاب.
@DedeYaseen: Do you have old books you want to sell? The #Inkitab noon used book fair!
Areej Ibrahim, a volunteer with the initiative, added this:
@Ajeejo: عم بدخل قوائم من كتب معرض نون / كتب بتفتح النفس من عناوينها قيمة وبسعر يا بلاش يا نيال القارئ صاحب النصيب :) #Inkitab #معرض_نون
@Ajeejo: Checking out the book lists in Noon's exhibition, the titles are very interesting and valuable at an excellent price! I envy the readers of those books! #Inkitab #معرض_نون [Noon book fair]
Mazruq encouraged people to attend the fair saying:
@MahdMarz: إن كنت في الأردن وتشجع القراءة عليك تابع نون حدث جميل يستحق المشاركة فيه.. وكذا إنكتاب رعاة الأمل بالقراءة
@MahdMarz: If you are in Jordan and love reading, it is well worth getting involved with the wonderful Noon event. Inkitab supports hope through reading
You can follow the Noon used book fair on Twitter and Facebook. See this video for footage of the first fair.

author: ميّاسي


text:
Kenya: Safari 7s Rugby Tournament Excites Fans · Global Voices
Richard Wanjohi

One of the biggest sporting events in East Africa came alive between 21-23 September, 2012, in Kenya's capital city, Nairobi – the Safari Sevens, a rugby seven-a-side tournament which started in 1995 but has grown into a fixture in the Kenyan sporting calendar.
This tournament has honed the skills of Kenyan rugby players and seen them become one of the most attractive Sevens team in the International Rugby Board Sevens Series circuit. Fans and bloggers alike shared their thoughts about the tournament as follows:
Chronicles in My Head in a post done by @JoyDoreenBiira – a Ugandan TV personality – on her experience at (her first) Safari 7s;
I do love sport events for the mere yet strong fact that they bring people together. It is at sport events that tribe, social status, political affiliation and all other such like differences are left behind… It is there, that team support is expressed to the maximum and pristine love for the game is put first before anything else. So, I spent most of my Sunday September 23, 2012 at the Nyayo National stadium in Nairobi; first to support both Team Kenya and Team Uganda, second was to feel the experience but also social-network with fans of the game as I enjoyed every other moment at the stadium. It was absolutely the kind of fun what would expect from any passionately attended sport…. And definitely a good place to network with the young corporates.
Nyayo National Stadium during 2012 Safari Sevens – Image by www.mythoughtbar.blogspot.com
Another blogger, Pitzevans in his blog, Area 51 had this to say about his experience of the tournament:
Safaricom Sevens was billed as being the biggest sporting event to hit the country this year. After the dismal performance of our Kenyan Olympic team, the country could do with some excitement and potentially, some much needed silver ware. But I’m sure everyone by now knows the performance of our team and the major powerhouses that visited our beautiful nation and stole what should have been left in our dusty trophy rooms. I shall not go there, I am not a sport commentator and neither I’m I a big fun of rugby. What I am and I’m sure I identify with most of you here, is an event addict, a socialite who thrives in the company of friends in any forum that relies on liquor as a conduit of enhancing friendship. A merry maker who can’t miss any opportunity to have fun and get intoxicated while engulfed in a blanket of camaraderie and shared interests.
The Blodwyn World also had his thoughts about the tournament billed as the biggest sports event in the country:
The 17th edition of Safaricom Sevens was a success. I'm not particularly too big on rugby but 7s is a must attend. The sights and sounds are simply unbelievable. If possible, I'd make the event one of the country's National symbols. Never before have I felt so… Kenyan. As a fan sitting in the stands and watching Kenya play while thousands of like minded fans help you cheer your country on… Its… Simply amazing. And that is from a fan's perspective. I can't even begin to imagine how it feels to actually be on that field and actually be the one being cheered on as you represent the country. Prodigious.
SportsKenya also spoke of the significance of the tournament in the last 17 years it has been held:
Well for Kenya Rugby Union's prized possession in Safari Sevens or better #Safari7s, this will be the 17th edition of the biggest 3-day rugby tournament in East Africa. For those not particularly familiar with the shorter version of the game, it happened on the scene a little into the 1990s and Kenya was quick to adopt it and has borne fruits albeit with mixed results. Not to underestimate Kenya's contribution to the game but our very own Humphrey Kayange was part of the team that rooted for the inclusion of the 7s version to the Olympic Games sports. This shall debut in 2016 in Rio, Brazil. Back to #Safari7s, this year the tournament will be used once again to gauge the national team's players preparedness for the 2012/13 season. It shall also mark the national team's head coach Mike Friday's first ever outing with his charges and what better way than right here at home in front of the Kenyan crowds.
Those on social media website Twitter also had quite some interesting take on the event. Using the hash-tags #Safari7s and #Safaricom7s here are some samples of their comments:

author: Richard Wanjohi