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Azerbaijan: Activist blogger trial resumes, delays persist (updated) · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Although not its official birthday, Global Voices Online made its first ever post on threats made against Iranian dissident blogger Hossein Derakhshan, aka Hoder five years ago today. And in the same week that Threatened Voices, an online project to map bloggers under attack worldwide was launched, Derakhshan marked the first anniversary of his incarceration in prison.
Today is also notable for another event — the continuing trial of detained video blogging youth activists Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli in Baku, Azerbaijan. The last court hearing was adjourned because witnesses did not turn up. Media Helping Media comments on the latest developments in what many consider to be a politically motivated case to silence dissent in the country.
The trial of Adnan Hajizade and Emin Abdullayev (also known as Milli) was adjourned ten days ago after a brief appearance by the two on hooliganism and violence charges.
[…]
Those campaigning for the release of the two men suspect that there may be political reasons behind the delays.
Media freedom groups have been protesting about the arrests and detention and claim it is part of an effort to limit freedom of expression.
Two days ago, Emotions on Air, Mind Mute, a newly launched English-language Azeri blog, reflected on the the case against the two young activists.
I started to intensely think about Emin and Adnan. I came to be proud of their parents,teachers and elders. I became curious about books they have read. I got jealous of friends they have, as they were lucky to know these great men personally.
Now it hurts very much that they are in prison. Their great time of lives has been stolen. Their summer has been taken away. Their parents spend sleepless nights. They have been deprived to enjoy their work, make mistakes, hang out with youth and talk to them. Their email inboxes are flooded with messages and run out of extra space.
But they keep on inspiring youth. They are hoping and planting seeds of liberty. They are spiritually free despite that their physical freedom is limited.
[…]
I think of my future now. How will it be? Will it come at all given the society I live in. Will I be arrested one day? My kids I will have.. if ever. […]
All I know is I want them to be hooligans like Emin and Adnan.
Nevertheless, many of Hajizade and Milli's supporters remained resigned to more delays.
As it was, the hearing was held although witnesses displayed selective memories. As usual, friends and supporters of Hajizade and Milli used new and social media such as Facebook and Twitter to update others.
The fact that key witnesses and the alleged victims themselves were unable to provide testimony prompted one supporter to hope that the trial might now end.
However, although it was proven that the two activists had reported an incident of physical assault against themselves, missing key evidence soon gave many reason to fear the worst. [Update: Eurasianet has since reported that the phone records were ruled inadmissible by the judge]
Amidst criticism that the authorities are stringing out the trial indefinitely, their fears were probably well founded. Despite calling a break, the hearing was not resumed.
Yet, while the action against Hajizade and Milli looks set to continue in a trial considered by the international community and local civil society organizations to be highly flawed, perhaps the last laugh went to Hajizade and Milli's supporters who noticed the irony when the two activists were taken away.
Also somewhat ironically, the date set for the next hearing will coincide with a roundtable discussion on the case at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.
Hooliganism or Freedom of Speech? The case of two bloggers detained in Azerbaijan
On July 8, 2009, two bloggers and political activists, Andnan Hajizade and Emin Milli, were arrested in Azerbaijan on charges of “hooliganism”. The bloggers were detained shortly after posting a video on YouTube mocking the Azeri government's purchase of donkeys from Germany. After nine trials, the two bloggers (both without prior criminal records) remain imprisoned. The four presenters will form a panel discussion to speak about this particular case of the bloggers and what it means for freedom of speech in Azerbaijan as well as the greater Caucasus region.
Present for the event will be Parvana Persiani, Hajizade's girlfriend and a senior figure in the OL! Azerbaijani youth movement, who will also be attending next week's World Blogging Forum in Bucharest, Romania.
Global Voices Online hopes to interview her there and Persiani will also feature in a live Internet interview on Kosmoshow.
Full coverage of the detention and trial of Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli is available in the Azerbaijan section of Global Voices Online and on the OL! Blog (in English and Azeri). The hashtag #EminAdnan is also used on Twitter.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Barbados: Dead Man Walking? · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Barbadian bloggers are all over the story of a man claiming “he woke up in the morgue of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital after being declared dead”: Barbados Free Press: “It would be nice if Barbados reporters started asking some questions instead of ingesting and regurgitating whatever garbage is tossed their way”; Barbados Underground: “The bigger point to this story is to recognize the power of the media to excite its public.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Belarus: Webmaster and Politics · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Andrei Khrapavitski reports on problems faced by a Belarusian political party following the election of a new leader: “According to the Belarusian blogosphere, a webmaster, loyal to the previous leader, is refusing to pass passwords and website requisites to the new team. Thus they can’t update the party website. […] What if Bush web team refused to pass control to Obama’s team over whitehouse.gov?”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Bhutan: The Purpose Of Saving The Earth · Global Voices
Rezwan

Bhutan is a low emission country but its progress and the increase of standard of living risk more carbon emissions. “Why protect our environment if it comes at the cost of economic development?”, questions Di at On The Job   blog while discussing about how Bhutan can progress. She argues: “between humans and the environment, humans must always be the priority.”

author: Rezwan


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Cameroon: Africonline sponsors BarCamp Cameroon · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Africonline has become the official sponsor of BarCamp Cameroon: “Along with ,Ringo,Google and a few others – Africonline is now an official sponsor of BarCamp Cameroon ! Africonline is a newly formed African Centered design and development Group.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Cameroon: BarCamp Cameroon · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Blitz writes about BarCamp Cameroon: “We’re counting down the final hours to Cameroon’s first BarCamp! The event is sold out with more than 200 attendees registered. If you’re unable to attend in person, don’t worry. We’ll live blog the presentations here and on the official blog with CoverItLive…”


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Caribbean: French Literary Prizes · Global Voices
Fabienne Flessel

This week, two of the most prestigious French literary prizes were awarded to two French-speaking authors of African descent: The French-speaking Caribbean blogosphere has been buzzing over this double satisfaction, in this post from Haiti, this one from Guadeloupe and this one from Martinique [Fr].

author: Fabienne Flessel


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CEE: Social Networks and the Media · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Information Policy links to a BusinessWeek/TOL article on social networks and the media in Central and Eastern Europe.


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Ghana: Ghana highlights part I · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Gayle's first part of Ghana highlights: In Ghana, every region has something to offer. Culture, history, beaches, flora and fauna, you can sample it all over the country, from the tropical jungles of the south to the savannah plains of the north. If you’re a beach or history lover, you’ll enjoy this tour along the coast.


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Guyana: Internet Copyright  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Copyright violation is still a troubling one on the internet”: Signifyin’ Guyana explores the issue.


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Hungary: Genetic Research on the Origin of Hungarians · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Hungarian Spectrum writes about genetic research on the origin of the Hungarian people.


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India: Deliveries Up To The Mountain · Global Voices
Rezwan

Mridula at Travel Tales From India posts a photo showing how international refreshment brands are delivered to a tea shop at Ilaka glacier in Triund near Dharmashala, Himachal Pradesh.


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India: Interview Of TED India Fellows · Global Voices
Rezwan

Geetha Krishnan compiles a list of interviews of some TED India fellows taken by a bunch of Indian bloggers.


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India: Old Time Photos · Global Voices
Rezwan

Piyal Kundu from Naihati, West Bengal, India posts some vintage Indian photos in his blog “Old Indian Photos” and some of them date back to the 1850s.


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Israeli and Palestinian youth use video to understand the conflict · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

Two different organizations in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories are using video tools to help both Arabic and Jewish youth to understand the conflict and bridge gaps between them,  creating spaces for interaction and communication where they can share their dreams, concerns and thoughts regarding the complex situation they live in.
One of the initiatives is Sadaka Reut, and this is what they say about their program:
With the majority of Palestinian and Jewish youth physically segregated from one another (in separate communities and schools) and fears, racism and prejudice the result, we look to build alternative models for interaction between the two groups. The ‘Building a Culture of Peace’ program seeks to create a space in which both Palestinian and Jewish youth may feel equal, respected and recognized as individuals and as national collectives.
The members of their program have also been participating in the One Minute Video Project, where they learn about video activism during a one-week workshop. Here are some of the results, and you can see the rest by clicking through to their site:
Arab:
AM/FM:
Few Love Singing:
Another initiative is the Windows for Peace project, which started back in 1991 as an effort to produce a bilingual and bicultural magazine for youth as a way for them to connect and learn about the conflict, promote equality and empower youth. However, it hasn't been easy, as they explain on their site:
It is no simple task for Israeli and Palestinian youth to overcome the vast amount of misinformation and stereotypes they are taught about one another. The limited availability for interaction, a result of living in mostly segregated communities and exacerbated by the ongoing violent political conflict, perpetuates the historical fears, prejudice, and hatred that divide the two peoples. Windows is therefore dedicated to fostering large scale change in the way Israeli and Palestinian youth see themselves, “the other” and the conflict. Participants in Windows programs go through experiences that promote conflict transformation among both peoples, towards a peaceful reality with which both sides can live.  We believe that a just and lasting peace must be based on democratic values, human rights, and mutual knowledge and acceptance of “the other.”
They are also working on a new initiative called Through the Lens, where 15 to 17 year old youth who “graduate” from the magazine continue developing skills to create short films, news pieces and other video productions to further “productive, peace-building dialogue and positive interaction”.
Here is a video where the participants of Windows speak about their experience in the group and how they have dealt with the challenges it represents to get out of their comfort zone and speak about difficult topics such as the conflict between Israel and Palestine:
As the children in the video state in so many words: they may have a hard time dealing with many of the opinions and perceptions other children express, but having the space to discuss issues in a safe and secure manner helps them understand the world they live in with a possibility to interact, learn and share with other children and youth and even change these perceptions.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Kosovo, Hungary: More on the Tisza River Tragedy · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Fistful of Euros discusses the story of tragic death of 15 Kosovo Albanian illegal immigrants, who were trying to cross the Tisza River into Hungary and the EU. More about it – in Marietta Le's Oct. 28 GV post.


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Maldives: Vanishing Lifestyles · Global Voices
Rezwan

Photo Blogger Ahmed Zahid posts some pictures depicting the easy going lifestyles of the islands of Maldives which are under threat from the sea level rise.


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Morocco: Ech Chenna Wins 2009 Opus Prize · Global Voices
Hisham Almiraat

Aicha Ech Chenna, founder of an organization in Casablanca, “Solidarité féminine,” which takes care of unmarried mothers, has been announced as the winner of the $1 million 2009 Opus Prize, as reported by online Moroccan news website, Hespress [Ar].

author: Hisham Almiraat


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Pakistan: No More Rolling Blackout · Global Voices
Rezwan

The 15 year old blogger at Living In Pakistan informs that the “Pakistan Electric and Power Corp. (PEPCO) has announced that there won’t be any load shedding in the country”, at least for now.


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Poland: Graffiti · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Polandian writes about and posts photos of the Polish graffiti.


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Russia: Calling Abkhazia Via Russia · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Eternal Remont reports that “as of November 16, Abkhazia will adopt Russian area codes for telephone service. This means than everyone trying to reach Uncle Bagrat in Gagra will have to call Russia and not Georgia.”


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Russia: Major Search Engine Closes Its Blog Rating · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Yandex.ru, Russian most popular search engine, announced on November 3 that it would close its blog ranking service Yandex Blogs Top (YBT) [RUS] by the end of the month. A spokesman for Yandex.ru said the reason for closure was that the blog rating “had become a specialized media platform.” Bloggers accused the company of giving in to political pressure from the Russian government.
Anton Volnukhin (aka Ya.blogs user Antonme), a spokesman for Yandex.ru, wrote on the company blog [RUS]:
We noticed that service, which had been initially created as a mirror, a reflection of the blogosphere, became an amplifier, a media tool. The effect of a positive feedback took place: many bloggers started to write, comment and include links with a purpose to “bring a post to the top.”
Just about everyone started to use this tool – from the disseminators of the links “please help collect money” to radicals of any kind. As a result, radicals of one kind started to accuse Yandex of helping radicals of another kind and vice versa. Journalists got into the habit of looking through the blog ranking, bringing posts to the top became a paid service and now the authorities perceive the ranking as vox populi.
Transformation of the blog ranking  into a specialized media platform doesn't allow us to develop this service as a part of Yandex portal. We don't see any perspective to make it a mass service – and the development of Yandex is mainly focused on mass services. This is why we decided to stop supporting the service and, at the same time, simultaneously provide everyone with the technical ability to create their own ranking of popular blogs, their own version of the answer to the question “what do popular bloggers care about?” Similar rankings already exist on different sites of RuNet. We hope that the usage of data from Yandex Blog Search will create many similar services and will help everyone find a suitable ranking.
Artemiy Lebedev (aka LJ-user tema [RUS]), one of the most influential and controversial personalities of RuNet, is the first who started using Yandex Blog Top RSS on his Web site [RUS]. Lebedev claimed that the ranking was shut down due to the reasons not mentioned in the official statement from Yandex:
Well, to be short, Yandex got completely fed up with complains about the blog ranking which has always been the most crystal clear and honest rating in the world.
This is why rating will continue to exist on the Web site of Artemy Lebedev's Studio…
Because it is written in the studio charter that politicians and priests can f…k themselves, the director of the company will not hesitate to tell any politician or pries to f…k themselves.
First, let f…k themselves […] anyone who is not OK with the fact that the ranking is created by a robot on the basis of objective parameters.
The other version of Yandex Blog Top RSS also appeared on the site Whoyougle [RUS].
Yandex.ru has bigger audience than many cable TV-channels in Russian (20 million visitors in September 2009 [RUS]). Bloggers used the popularity of the site to bring many controversial topics to the attention of the Russian audience by including links and adding comments to the posts. Some believe this led to political pressure resulting in the elimination of the blog ranking.
Habrahabr user SSE [RUS] claims [RUS] that political pressure on Yandex wasn't a secret:
It became known as early as in October that someone “at the top” wasn't very happy with the free ranking of alternative points of view.
Andrey Malgin (aka LJ-user avmalgin[RUS]) explained [RUS]:
A pleasing picture that we saw in  TV newscasts was very different from the things that bloggers, especially politicized ones, were writing about. Now this has been ended…
Roman Ivanov (aka LJ-user kukutz [RUS]), Yandex “chief Lulz officer” (Yandex virtual spokesman), argues [RUS] that the Yandex blog ranking did not attract a large audeince and had only 7 thousand visitors a day. At the same time, the amount Yandex Blog Search monthly visitors  in September 2009 was around 2,5 mln visitors in September 2009 [RUS] or 12,5 percent of the total monthly visitors of Yandex.ru. Many RuNet users strongly disagree with this statistics and claim that the blog ranking was much more popular than Yandex officially announced.
Additional info
Yandex.ru dominates Russian search engine market. According to Vedomosti newspaper [RUS], it is accouned for 54,5 percent of the Russian search traffic. In July 2009, ComScore research [ENG] stated that Yandex is among top 10 world's search engines with 1,5 percent of the world search traffic.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Russia: Markelov’s Alleged Killers Arrested · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Russia Blog reports on the arrest of the alleged killers of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasiya Baburova.


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Serbia: Sinisa Boljanovic Wins Climate Change Blogging Contest · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sinisa Boljanovic, a GV author and Lingua Serbian editor, became one of the winners of Round 1 of TH!NK2: CLIMATE CHANGE blogging contest; here's Sinisa's winning entry: Black Point of the Danube Basin.


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Sri Lanka: Going Green · Global Voices
Rezwan

Beyond Borders  writes about the launch of Project Act, an environmental initiative in Sri Lanka “to promote a sustainable, environmentally-friendly ‘green’ living community”. The program consisted of a clean-up of Wellawatte beach, and a demonstration “showing Sri Lanka’s support towards effective policy changes on climate change in Copenhagen, December 2009″.


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Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados: Yuh Lie! · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As Trinidad and Tobago's National Security Minister makes an inaccurate statement about the processing time for machine-readable passports, B.C. Pires is irritated that the media did not ask questions: “I’ve seen Trinidadians in action so I understand ‘boldfacity’. I don’t understand the people on the other side going along with the lie; because they are then themselves dishonest.”


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Trinidad & Tobago: Flag It! · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinidadian bloggers continue to weigh in on the exorbitant cost to taxpayers for a massive national flag: “The point is not only the credibility of the cost of the monster-flag and associated concrete but the reason we need a monster-flag during a recession and a white collar crime wave.”


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Ukraine: “Political Flu” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Today's updates on the flu situation: Greetings from Kyiv chronicles Day 5 and Day 6 of the epidemic; Chernobyl and Eastern Europe writes about the precautions taken at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant; Foreign Notes, What's up, Ukraine? and Wu Wei discuss president Yushchenko's address to the nation and other political aspects of the epidemic.


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Vietnam: Too many ads in an airport · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Charvey notices an unusually big number of ads in a Vietnam airport

author: Mong Palatino


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Algeria: 50 Top Algerians  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Looking for the 50 top Algerians? “Jeune Afrique has run an nice special on the 50 people who make Algeria what it is — politicians, policemen, generals, business people, cultural luminaries, and others,” writes Alle, at the Maghreb Politics Review.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Azerbaijan: Chess victory · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Sheki, Azerbaijan comments on Azerbaijan's recent victory in the European Team Chess Championship. The blog says that it is proud of the achievement and hopes for more victories.


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Azerbaijan: Reaction to yesterday’s blogger trial · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

As the trial of video blogging youth activists Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli continues in Baku, two English-language bloggers from Azerbaijan react to yesterday's aborted court hearing. Both seem pessimistic and unhappy with how the trial has been conducted to date, but nonetheless say they will continue to fight for the two men's release.
In particular, L4L shares his observations from yesterday's hearing, and specifically on the decision not to enter phone records in Hajizade and Milli's defense into court.
During today’s hearing of “Wild-beating-taekwando-champions-bloggers-Adnan-and-Emin” case I was able to enter courtroom for the first time. Mixed feelings of what was happening. I saw Emin and Adnan, saw how strong they are. And this made me happy and proud. I had dozen or so rounds of laugh in the expense of “victims” Vusal and Babek. I was annoyed as hell.
Azercell answered to enquiry of the court and gave reports on calls made on July 8 by “victims” and Adnan. […] reports of Adnan’s calls shows that he was in the 39th police station. This little fact demolishes the case of the prosecutor. This shows that Adnan and Emin weren’t brought to police station handcuffed. […]
[…]
Then Vusal showed that he is “real Caucasian man” with valor and strong feeling of “qeyret”. He asked judge not to give Azercell’s report on his calls to defense. “I don’t want them to disturb my relatives and those close to me”.  […] naturally, judge is “real Caucasian man” too, so he understood Vusal’s tender feelings and was with him on that.
Anyways. Amnesia. Adnan and Emin answered few questions after Vusal and Babek and they were so clear and accurate, contrast was almost scary. […]
[…] People like Emin and Adnan who made their choice and are proudly standing by it. Who will not back off.  We should help their case. Only this way this nation will shake its AMNESIA.
Meanwhile, Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines remembers events to date, but also looks to the future.
Its been 4 months since Emin and Adnan's arrest- time goes by but somethings simply don't change. […]
[…] happiness and sense of victory slowly disappeared as in July, two youth activists- Emin Milli (30) and Adnan Hajizada (26) were arrested and charged with “hooliganism” and are now facing up to 5 year of imprisonment. They didn't do anything- they were attacked by two men who are now treated as “victims” and are set free while Emin and Adnan are spending their time behind bars. But they are keeping their chin up. […]
[…]
Looking back it makes one wonder will there ever be a change? Will people actually enjoy their lives rather than worry about making extra money to feed their families? Will our youth be able to study in corruption free universities and actually get a descent education? Will people be happy again? For now, there is only one answer, time will show so let it go by but be patient and hopefully we, or our children, or our grand children will see that change…
Incidentally, the date set for the next hearing (11 November) will coincide with a roundtable discussion on the case at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.
Hooliganism or Freedom of Speech? The case of two bloggers detained in Azerbaijan
On July 8, 2009, two bloggers and political activists, Andnan Hajizade and Emin Milli, were arrested in Azerbaijan on charges of “hooliganism”. The bloggers were detained shortly after posting a video on YouTube mocking the Azeri government's purchase of donkeys from Germany. After nine trials, the two bloggers (both without prior criminal records) remain imprisoned. The four presenters will form a panel discussion to speak about this particular case of the bloggers and what it means for freedom of speech in Azerbaijan as well as the greater Caucasus region.
Present for the event will be Parvana Persiani, Hajizade's girlfriend and a senior figure in the OL! Azerbaijani youth movement, who will also be attending next week's World Blogging Forum in Bucharest, Romania.
Global Voices Online  will interview her there and Persiani will also feature in a live online interview on Kosmoshow.
Full coverage of the detention and trial of Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli is available in the Azerbaijan section of Global Voices Online and on the OL! Blog (in English and Azeri). The hashtag #EminAdnan is also used on Twitter.


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Azerbaijan: Traditions · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Sheki, Azerbaijan makes two posts on specific traditions practiced in her home country. In the first post, the blog explains how the shoes of visitors to homes are paired outside the front door, and in the second it looks at pickling white cucumbers.


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Bahrain: A New Old Love  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Alia Almoayed, from Bahrain, has reconnected with her new old love. Click on the link to find out what it is.


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Bahrain: An American Soldier  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

A picture speaks a thousand words. Mahmood Al Yousif, from Bahrain, is full of praise for the series of An American Solider, which follows in the footsteps of a soldier for 27 months from induction to training to combat and back home.


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Bahrain: For the fear of dogs  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

From Bahrain, Suhail Algosaibi posts a vlog on how he helped his son get over his fear of dogs – and how he made his own fear of dogs worse.


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Bangladesh: Mobile Phone And The Teenagers · Global Voices
Rezwan

An Ordinary Citizen argues that mobile phones are changing the lifestyles of the younger generation in Bangladesh. This is affecting the students, who “are more interested to be unnecessary indulged in useless gossip/chat for hours together, keep themselves aloof from the family and immediate surroundings”.


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Cuba: Details of the Sánchez detention emerge · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

The detention, beating and subsequent release of bloggers Yoaní Sánchez, Claudia Cadelo and Orlando Luis Pardo by Cuban state security on November 6, is receiving widespread coverage in both the mainstream media and the blogosphere and twittersphere. Yoaní has written (es) about the incident on Generación Y, her blog, and English-language blogs like Babalú Blog, Repeating Islands and Uncommon Sense are following the story. An audio interview (es) with Sánchez about the incident has been posted to YouTube.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Egypt: Max’s thoughs on Azaan  · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

Max Strasser, a journalist living in Cairo,  wrote his thoughts on government plans to sync the call to prayer in every Cairo mosque to a radio broadcast.

author: Tarek Amr


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Egypt: Praise for Threatened Voices  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egyptian Ibn Al Dunya, who writes at Fustat, praises a new Global Voices Online project – Threatened Voices, which tracks the suppression of online free speech.


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Libya: Islamists Rising  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

At the Maghreb Politics Review, Alle takes a look at Libya's internal politics and the emerging role of Islamists.


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MENA: H1N1, Vaccines and Conspiracy Theories  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Many countries have introduced vaccinations to help combat the spread of H1N1, or swine flu. As the sickness toll increases, so does the buzz online.
Saudi Arabia is gearing up for the Haj season, where millions of Muslims will converge to Mecca to perform pilgrimage. At Crossroads Arabia, John Burgess writes:
With Haj due to start in just a couple of weeks, the Saudis are really bearing down on the issue of an outbreak of swine flu. Saudi Gazette reports on a conference of Saudi medical emergency experts to make sure that plans are locked down. The article notes that residents of Mecca and Medina will be among the first Saudis to be offered swine flu vaccines. This would help to establish a sort of fire-break in the case of a rapid spread of the disease.
In Turkey, the situation isn't as acute. Turkish blogger Erkan  admits that he was more afraid of previous pandemics:
I did not have a single moment of panic, I declare. I do not know why. I was more worried with crimean congo hemorrhagic fever or bird flu.
However, there is a low level panic feeling about swine flu now here in Istanbul, too. What is promising is that many ordinary people are in fact following authorities and try to take measures as much as they could. They are not fatalistic and they sure are not as indifferent as I am.
Meanwhile, at Memories Documented, Jordanian Qwaider shares a conspiracy theory:
A friend of mine, is one of those believing in every possible conspiracy that involves pharmaceutical companies. She would argue for hours on how vaccines are bad, and how the companies are deliberately taking actions to “reduce the human population” starting with the young, the weak and the ill.
He adds:
I think people are scared, and when people get scared they create demons, and feel afraid and threatened by them. When people are afraid many stick to the norms that they are comfortable with.
But diseases might require a person to go out of their regular routine to get better…
I'm not sure, but I believe in science… I really do, and I would take the words of doctors and pharmacist over the words of any conspiracy theorists no matter how hard they tried to convince me.
And The View from Fez, from Morocco, has the following update on H1N1:
Forty-two new H1N1 cases were confirmed on Thursday in the cities of Casablanca, Tanger, Marrakech, Fès, Benslimane, Oujda and Meknès, the health ministry said.
This takes the total of confirmed cases to 592, including 297 cases in schools, the ministry said in a statement.
All the patients are receiving home care, with medical check-ups, said the ministry, adding that none of the cases is complicated. The ministry made clear that no case of death was documented in the country.
Moving on to lighter observations, Jordanian Hareega writes:
I understand how terrible H1N1 can be, but if you smoke 3 packs of cigarettes and enjoy a ginormous seder of mansaf (Jordanian rice dish) everyday don't worry much about H1N1. Something else will get you faster.
In the same post, Hareega adds:
Seven Jordanians died of H1N1 so far. Ten times that number died while watching our football team lose to UAE 3-1. We need to set our priorities straight. Before vaccinating the nation send our football players to jail.


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Morocco: Clinton in Morocco · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Annouss has been keeping track of Hillary Clinton’s visit in Morocco,” notes Alle, from the Maghreb Politics Review.


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Pakistan: Devoted To Pomegranate · Global Voices
Rezwan

Owais Mughal at All Things Pakistan celebrates Pakistan's important fruit species pomegranate and its influence on art, literature, language and poetry.


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Peru: One Hundred Years of Writer Ciro Alegría · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

One hundred years ago, Peruvian writer Ciro Alegría was born in the Northern Department of La Libertad, and who wrote novels such as The Golden Snake (1935) and The Hungry Dogs (1939). Alegría's works often centered on indigenous Peruvians, and their way of life, which was often characterized by their oppression and hardship. However, he also also took great pride in indigenous culture and was a supporter of social justice for this population.
The blogger at Postre Literario [es] writes about this focus, “To talk with Ciro Alegría is to feel the pride in the indigenism that we have in our blood and that makes us different, unique, grand because of our history.”
Perhaps, Alegria's best-known work is Broad and Alien is the World (1941), which according to the La República newspaper, is “brilliant from the beginning. The novel Broad and Alien is the World takes place in a mountainous community in Northern Peru, troubled by the resistance of its residents and its wise mayor troubled by the plundering by the political bosses, the Holocaust, and the emigration by the victims.”  The novel was awarded the Grand Prize for Continental Novel in 1941. The blog Desafío Perú [es] summarizes the work:
la aldea de Rumi, auténtica protagonista de la novela, cuya vida se describe maravillosamente, es objeto de la codicia del terrateniente blanco; destruida, sus habitantes se dispersan: unos mueren, otros son reducidos a esclavos o marchan a las grandes ciudades. El mundo es ancho y ajeno es así un gran cuadro épico de las luchas de una arquetípica comunidad indígena contra los tres poderes que quieren destruirla: la oligarquía terrateniente, el Ejército y el Gobierno al servicio de los intereses estadounidenses.
The village of Rumi, the true protagonist of the novel, whose life is marvelously described, is subject to the greed of the white landowner; destroyed, its residents are dispersed: some die, others are reduced to slaves or leave for the big cities. Broad and Alien is the World is an epic portrait of the archetypal struggles of an indigenous community against the three powers that want to destroy it: the oligarchy, the military and the government in service to the interests of the United States.
Gonzalo Espino of the blog La Alforja de Chuque [es] writes the following in an analysis of the book:
Un aspecto descuidado por la crítica es la singularidad de lo maravilloso -lo mágico maravilloso- que aparece a lo largo de la novela. Se trata de pasajes que resultan extremadamente sospechosos, por que cuestionan nuestro esquema de realidad, y aun siéndolo, los ubicamos como aspectos extremadamente ficcionales. Pongo, aquí solamente dos casos: el de la comunidad Muncha allí donde no hay agua, pero sin embargo una joven tiene “macetas de claveles” que crea esa sensualidad olfativa en medio de la sequedad o el otro caso, es el diablo que atraviesa los andes y que en el relato sabemos que es el Mágico.
A critical aspect is neglected by the singularity of the wonderful – the wonderful magic – which appears throughout the novel. It involves passages that become extremely suspicious, because they question our scheme of reality, and they still remain, placing them as extremely fictional aspects. I place here two examples: in the Muncha community there is no water, yet a young girl has “pots of carnations, which creates a sensual scent amid drought, another example is the devil that crosses the Andes Mountains and in the story we know that he is Magic.
Eduardo Jiménez of the blog El Observador [es] takes stock of his writing and notes that his other works did not reach the level than his most famous book:
siempre me pregunté porqué llegó Alegría a un silencio casi total luego de la publicación de El mundo es ancho y ajeno. Siguió escribiendo, sí, y publicando uno que otro libro desperdigado en el tiempo, pero sin llegar jamás a esa cúspide que significó El mundo… Sólo queda la especulación para dar una respuesta. Posiblemente sintió que ya había llegado a su límite, a ese non plus ultra que los escritores de verdad reconocen en su fuero interno y ser conciente que lo publicado después no estaría a la misma altura. Con El mundo es ancho y ajeno terminado y publicado, su pathos ya estaba agotado, salvo que hubiese repetido fórmulas, lo que un escritor auténtico jamás haría.
Alegría spent a large part of his life in exile in Chile, the United States, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. As a member of the APRA political party, he was also jailed twice. It was here where he developed ideas for his novels.  Writer Eduardo González Viaña tells an anecdote in his blog El Correo de Salem [es]:
Cuando lo conocí, varias décadas más tarde, Alegría me contó que allí, entre sueños y en medio de las cuatro paredes carcelarias, había visto a Rosendo Maqui y a los diversos personajes de su épica novela “El mundo es ancho y ajeno”. “Me moría de ganas de salir de allí para escribirla”.-me dijo. A Ciro le fue conmutada la pena de muerte por una prisión que padeció algunos años para luego exiliarse en Chile.
There were several events honoring the life and works of Alegría, such as a ceremony at the San Marcos Cultural Center on November 4, according to the blog La Torre de las Paradojas [es]. In addition, in the city of Cajamarca, the IV Gathering of Peruvian Storytellers “Ciro Alegría.”  More information can be found on the event's blog [es].

author: Juan Arellano


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Tunisia: Blogger Fatma Arabicca Detained  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Tunisian blogger Fatma Riahi, who blogs as Fatma Arabicca, has been charged with defamation on her own blog and is now being detained. A group has been formed on Facebook in support of the 34-year-old blogger, who is also being accused of blogging on Debat Tunise (Tunisia Debate).


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Ukraine: Flu and Politics · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Jamestown Foundation Blog and Ukrainiana – on the politics around the flu situation in Ukraine.


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Yoaní Sanchez & other Cuban bloggers detained, beaten · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

On the evening of November 6, Babalú blog linked to a post by Penultimos Dias (es) reporting that a number of prominent Cuban bloggers, including Yoaní Sánchez and Global Voices contributor Claudia Cadelo, were detained by state security forces. An update from Penultimos Días reported that Sanchez and Orlando Luis Pardo were “verbally abused and severely beaten”.


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Cuba: Yoani Sanchez & Other Bloggers Seized  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Perhaps it was only a matter of time, but Yoaní Sánchez, Cuba's most famous blogger, who has received countless international awards for her activism, was detained briefly and beaten by Cuban authorities on November 6, along with fellow bloggers, Claudia Cadelo (a Global Voices contributor) and Orlando Luís Pardo Lazo. The three were on their way to an anti-violence march in the Cuban capital, Havana.
Spanish blogger Rosa Jiménez Cano, who works at the Spanish news daily El País, reported that she received the following SMS text meessage from Yoaní around 2am Madrid time:
Fui detenida junto a Orlando L. Pardo y  Claudia Cadelo nos llevaron a la fuerza estilo siciliano. Golpes. Nos dejaron tirados en una esquina.
The morning after the events, Yoaní posted the following account on her blog:
Cerca de la calle 23 y justo en la rotonda de la Avenida de los Presidente, fue que vimos llegar en un auto negro –de fabricación china– a tres fornidos desconocidos: ‘Yoani, móntate en el auto’ me dijo uno mientras me aguantaba fuertemente por la muñeca. Los otros dos rodeaban a Claudia Cadelo, Orlando Luís Pardo Lazo y una amiga que nos acompañaba a una marcha contra la violencia. Ironías de la vida, fue una tarde cargada de golpes, gritos y malas palabras la que debió transcurrir como una jornada de paz y concordia.  Los mismos ‘agresores’ llamaron a una patrulla que se llevó a mis otras dos acompañantes, Orlando y yo estábamos condenados al auto de matrícula amarilla, al pavoroso terreno de la ilegalidad y la impunidad del Armagedón.
Me negué a subir al brillante Geely y exigimos nos mostraran una identificación o una orden judicial para llevarnos. Claro que no enseñaron ningún papel que probara la legitimidad de nuestro arresto. Los curiosos se agolpaban alrededor y yo gritaba ‘Auxilio, estos hombres nos quieren secuestrar’, pero ellos pararon a los que querían intervenir con un grito que revelaba todo el trasfondo ideológico de la operación: ‘No se metan, estos son unos contrarrevolucionarios’. Ante nuestra resistencia verbal, tomaron el teléfono y dijeron a alguien que debió ser su jefe: ‘¿Qué hacemos? No quieren subir al auto’. Imagino que del otro lado la respuesta fue tajante, porque después vino una andanada de golpes, empujones, me cargaron con la cabeza hacia abajo e intentaron colarme en el carro. Me aguanté de la puerta… golpes en los nudillos… alcancé a quitarle un papel que uno de ellos llevaba en el bolsillo y me lo metí en la boca. Otra andanada de golpes para que les devolviera el documento.
I refused to get into the bright Geely-made car and we demanded they show us identification or a warrant to take us. Of course they didn’t show us any papers to prove the legitimacy of our arrest. The curious crowded around and I shouted, ‘Help, these men want to kidnap us,’ but they stopped those who wanted to intervene with a shout that revealed the whole ideological background of the operation, ‘Don’t mess with it, these are counterrevolutionaries.’ In the face of our verbal resistance they made a phone call and said to someone who must have been the boss, ‘What do we do? They don’t want to get in the car.’ I imagine the answer from the other side was unequivocal, because then came a flurry of punches and pushes, they got me with my head down and tried to push me into the car. I held onto the door… blows to my knuckles… I managed to take a paper one of them had in his pocket and put it in my mouth. Another flurry of punches so I would return the document to them.
Yoaní's post goes on to describe further brutality inflicted on herself and Orlando, and their eventual release:
Nos dejaron tirados y adoloridos en una calle de la Timba, una mujer se acercó ‘¿Qué les ha pasado?'… ‘Un secuestro’, atiné a decir. Lloramos abrazados en medio de la acera, pensaba en Teo, por Dios cómo voy a explicarle todos estos morados. Cómo voy a decirle que vive en un país donde ocurre esto, cómo voy a mirarlo y contarle que a su madre, por escribir un blog y poner sus opiniones en kilobytes, la han violentado en plena calle. Cómo describirle la cara despótica de quienes nos montaron a la fuerza en aquel auto, el disfrute que se les notaba al pegarnos, al levantar mi saya y arrastrarme semidesnuda hasta el auto.
At the time of writing, Yoaní's post had attracted 1,412 comments.
Claudia also quickly entered her version of the incident on her blog:
We refused to get in the car, there were three of them and they threatened us:
‘Get in the car, now.’
‘Let us see your documents, or bring a policeman.’
Orlando had his cell phone in his hand. ‘Pardo, don’t record,’ said the one in the orange shirt, and I got my cell out. Nobody noticed me, I sent the first Tweet… In less than three minutes a patrol car came up with a couple of cops—a woman and a man—completely dumbstruck by the scene. They carried out their orders almost in slow motion, the woman told me:
‘Don’t resist.’
‘They are undocumented,’ it occurred to me to enlighten her.
Yoani was clinging to a bush, I was clinging to her waist, and the woman was pulling me by the leg. They had already dragged Orlando off, outside my field of vision. A man at the bus-stop looked on with an expression of terror, people didn’t say a single word. The officer, very young, got me in an armlock that immobilized me. I could have kicked a little but I was too astonished at seeing Yoani’s legs sticking out the rear window of the State Security car.
Her post goes on to relate the chain of events in great detail, but she ends on a triumphant note:
Then the first call came, with a 00 international prefix, and I knew nothing had been in vain, even if we had all been arrested and the march suspended. When, later, I saw the video that Ciro brought me, I knew for certain: They lost; it's the countdown.
Commenting on the incident, diaspora blogger Uncommon Sense expresses some surprise, since “those of us overseas who presume that because Yoani, Claudia and the others are so well known, the Castro dictatorship would never dare arrest them.”  Yet arrest them they reportedly did.  He continues:
Of course, we should never be surprised at what the regime does when it comes to trying to silence its opposition on the island.
And we should never underestimate the importance of the protection we provide every time we read one of their blogs. Obviously, it doesn't provide them absolute immunity, but it is conceivable that someone like Yoani Sanchez would have a long ago been locked away in the Castro gulag were it not for the fact that she is so well known.
What you provide them with each click is the moral support vital for their continuing struggle for freedom.
Meanwhile, Babalu Blog, after publishing the story as breaking news, kept updating the post as more details became available, including an 8:15 am entry showing evidence of physical abuse via a photo that was sent to Penultimos Dias by Orlando Luis Pardo.  Cuban American Pundits‘ John R. learned of Yoani's detention from Babalu and goes on to comment:
It can only be said that the Cuba Governement is afraid, and that these heirs to Cuba's future are extremely brave.
The blog also searched mainstream media sites to determine how big the story was and was disappointed to learn that “the only thing CNN is covering on Cuba is how Miller Beer and Haagen Dazs ice cream may be sold in Cuba — for a premium nonetheless. As Cuban citizens are sequestered and beaten for their exercising of free speech, Chicago Foods (and other companies) are negotiating how beer and ice cream are to be sold on the island.” (CNN eventually went on to cover the story of the bloggers’ seizure.)  The post goes on to comment on the U.S. economic embargo against the island, saying:
For those who claim that a new era has dawned on Cuba should take a close look at the incident that happened with a peaceful group of Cuban bloggers. Nothing has changed. Oppression remains in the cities while luxury and freedom exudes in the resorts.
I don't know about you, but I'm no longer eating Hagen Dazs ice cream nor drinking Miller beer.
Oswaldo Payá of the Movimiento Cristiano Liberación issued a statement expressing solidarity with Sánchez and other victims of repression. My big, fat Cuban family is also standing in solidarity with her Cuban sisters:
I have the supreme luxury of writing about anything that excites or amuses me at any given time. And I do.
Today I want to make you aware if you're not already, of a group of dissident bloggers presently under fire for blogging in Cuba.
Unlike me, they write about the everyday indignities of living in castro's gulag. You understand, of course, that in a communist country, dissension is not just discouraged, it is oftentimes attacked.
Yet these brave bloggers persist…Tonight, Yoani Sanchez and a group of dissidents were picked up, harassed, detained and beaten as they prepared to attend, ironically, a demonstration against the use of violence.
They knew and called her by name and forced her into a car where she figured that this was a kidnapping  which would end in her execution. Although she and her dissident companions were beaten severely they were subsequently released.
Her safety lies here. On blogs like mine.
Along the Malecon gives some background to the incident and firmly believes that “the legend of Yoani Sanchez grew Friday after Cuban authorities snatched her off the street, shoved her into a car and roughed her up before freeing her”:
Luis Eligio, of the counterculture group OMNI-Zona Franca, and two rappers organized the march. On Oct. 20, Sanchez was one of more than 10 bloggers who staged a ‘virtual protest’ using Tweets, cell phone text messages and blog posts to call for the release of political prisoners. All this puts the socialist government in a tough spot. The more force authorities use, the easier it will be for opposition activists to recruit followers. These incidents also help galvanize international support for Sanchez and other bloggers. This support grows at an exponential rate, colonizing cyberspace and making it difficult for the Cuban government to effectively counter.
In a separate post, the blogger highlights the views of those who are a tad sceptical about the whole event, one of whom is Cuban journalist Vladia Rubio Jiménez, who writes in her blog:
Francamente, me resulta bien oscuro el asunto. ¿A partir de ahora seremos testigos de “espontáneas” marchas de protesta? ¿Contra qué violencia estaban pronunciándose esos muchachos con sus abstractos carteles? ¿Sería contra la que está ocurriendo en Afganistán, Honduras,  o contra lo acontecido en la más importante base militar norteamericana donde un enloquecido disparó y dejó muertas a 13 personas y varios heridos?
She continues:
Por lo que leo, parece haber sido una manifestación organizada sobre todo a través de algunos blogs, entre ellos Octavo Cerco; y también me asombra ver las posibilidades tecnológicas de que disponen: teléfonos celulares, rápidas conexiones a Internet que incluso les permiten subir los videos… En ninguna parte dice con claridad quién convocó esa marcha.
Yohandry's Weblog echoes her sceptisicm:
Pero bien, Claudia Cadelo dejó este vídeo en su blog. No comprendo cómo pueden subir sus videos a Youtube tan rápido, pero allí está. Ella misma por Twitter dijo que no había llegado hasta el performance, además de que explicó que estaba detenida.
Cómo pudo hacer Twitter detenida, cómo subió el video desde un carro de la policía?
Entra en acción Yoani Sánchez.  Ahora bien, Yoani Sánchez cuenta a las siempre listas agencias y emisoras que tienen la misión de cubrir sus actividades lo ocurrido con ella y otros bloggers que se encaminaban al performance, quizás con el objetivo de provocar, nadie sabe.
Les dejo la grabación, ¡esos medios tan ágiles al servicio de Yoani! Adelanto que cuenta que ella tiene celular, computadora y seguirá haciendo Twitter, cosa que no acabo de comprender, cuando ella misma dice que no tiene libertad para trabajar en Cuba.
Y yo esperaré ahora  la otra versión de lo ocurrido. Como dice el dicho, siempre hay un ojo que te ve.
How could she have been on Twitter while she was detained? How did she upload the video from a police car?
Yoani Sánchez enters the scene. Well, lets see, Yoani Sánchez tells the agencies and stations, whose mission is to readily cover her events, what happened to her and to other bloggers who were going to the performance. Maybe with the intention of provoking. No one knows.
Here is the recording. These media act so rapidly to service Yoani! I must say that she has a cell phone, a computer, and she will keep on using Twitter, something I simply cannot understand when she says that she has no freedom to work in Cuba.
And I will wait for the next version of the incident. Like the saying says: there is always an eye that sees you.
Social media users are certainly keeping a close eye on developments.  Even as Claudia tweeted about the incident, apparently while it was happening – “Estoy detenida about 22 hours ago from txt” was her first entry – her Twitter followers have shown their support, with one user calling her “muy valiente” (“very brave”).


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Afghanistan: Security deteriorates, says report · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Nick Fielding reviews the most recent report on the security environment in Afghanistan, which says that the situation has deteriorated since 2005, affecting all aspects of the reconstruction operations.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Afghanistan: UN withdraws from Kabul? · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Sailani says that in response to continuing threats to the foreign staff in Afghanistan, it now appears that a decision has been made to withdraw about six hundred UN international officers from Kabul.


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Afghanistan: Who are the leaders of Taliban? · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Nick Fielding reflects on the the question of who is running the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and who are the members of the so-called the Quetta Shura, the Taliban's leadership.


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Bahamas, Cuba: Woman Power  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco


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Barbados, Jamaica: Debt Downgrades  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Jamaica's government kicked up a terrific stink with Standard and Poor's (S&P) after the rating agency again downgraded the country's debt”: Living in Barbados wonders how “Barbados’ normally more polite and circumspect politicians” will react to more downgrades.


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Cuba: Facebook Support for Yoani · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Along the Malecon reports that supporters of Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez are “hoping to start a trend” by “using the blogger's photo as their profile picture on Facebook in a show of solidarity.”


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Honduras: Blog of Historial Photos · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Memoria Gráfica de Honduras [es] is a blog that publishes historical photos from Honduras, with accompanying background information.  Some of the photos include old maps, and photos of the city of Comayagua.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Kazakhstan: Jumyr Kylysh or Two Warriors · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

KZBlog tells about the new album of the Kazakh band Ulytau and says that their style can be described as classical/rock/prog-rock/electronic pop fusion music, influenced by Yes, Metallica, and Bach, coupled by the Kazakh influence.


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Kazkahstan: The Arrival of Kazakhbashi? · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Alexander Visotzky writes about the opening of a monument in Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan, where the authorities uncovered a 15-foot high bronze statue of incumbent president Nursultan Nazarbayev.


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Kyrgyzstan: Is democracy too early for Kyrgyzstan? · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Ahad Abdurahmon reflects on the issue why democracy is failing in Kyrgyzstan, a country which was so promising?


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Latin America: Photos of Cemeteries in Ecuador and Peru · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

In commemoration of the feast of All Saints, which is a holiday across Latin America where family members honor their deceased relatives, Natalia Cartolini posts a series of photographs she has taken of cemeteries in Ecuador and Peru [es].


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Mongolia: New Prime Minister · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Bilguun watched the change of the government in Mongolia, starting from resignation of S.Bayar under health reasons, nomination of Su.Batbold (then Minister of Foreign Relations) and his instatement.


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Mongolia: Swine flu update · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Bilguun reports that the total number of confirmed cases of H1N1 in Mongolia has reached 632, of whom 514 are in the capital city of Ulaan Baatar.


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Saudi Arabia: A Blogger’s Praise Of Britain · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Maram Meccawy is a Saudi writer and blogger, currently living and working in the UK. She recently wrote a post called “Why am I ready to defend Britain?“
Maram starts by saying:
Maram goes onto to describe attending a recruitment event at Oxford University with the oil company she works for. During the event some protestors started demonstrating about what they argued the oil company had done in various parts of the world, accusing it of having acted criminally. Security guards started to remove the protestors, but a company official agreed to let them have their say for five minutes, saying that he respected their right to freedom of opinion. However, after the five minutes were up the protestors would not allow the official to continue, and kept heckling. Despite the disruption, the company official was disappointed when one of the protestors was finally carried away by force; he said that Britain was a free country and no one should be thrown out because he or she disagreed with the company's activities.
The second event that caught Maram's attention was a particular episode of the weekly BBC television programme Question Time, in which a panel of politicians and others face questions on current issues from a studio audience. Controversially, Question Time had allowed the chairman of the rightwing British National Party and Member of the European Parliament, Nick Griffin, to be part of the panel for this programme. Nick Griffin has previously been convicted of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred.
After setting the scene, Maram describes what happened on the programme:

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Taiwan: Issues of identity · Global Voices
David Reid

Catherine at shu flies responds to an e-mail questioning how she identifies herself. Michella at Alive and Kicking! who was also a subject of the e-mail  describes her own multi-cultural background. Catherine also follows up with a post on why she calls herself a Taiwanese-American.

author: David Reid


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Trinidad & Tobago: Flagging  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Another monument to fiscal indiscipline by our government is installed in the name of national pride”: KnowTnT.com still can't get over the cost of the flag in the National Stadium.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Trinidad & Tobago: Mind Your Own Business  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Secret Blog of Patrick “Patos” Manning writes a post about the leak of an alleged sex tape of a Trinidad and Tobago-based celebrity: “The most disturbing aspect of the situation, however, is the manner in which I’m hearing this horrific breach of privacy took place.  It gives me chills to think that some idle geek in a computer company could copy these things and spread them around…”


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Uzbekistan: EU lifts Uzbek sanctions · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Dafydd reports that the EU has lifted the arms embargo on Uzbekistan. Reasons given are abolishment of the death penalty and release of political prisoners.


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Uzbekistan: Thank you, cotton-growers!  · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Musafirbek says that the president of Uzbekistan officially thanked the cotton-growers for gathering the harvest of this strategic product for Uzbekistan. However, those who sweat away, collecting this cotton (including children) were not mentioned in the president’s address.


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Angola: The high cost of living in Luanda · Global Voices
Clara Onofre

The capital of Angola, Luanda, is a very expensive city. Both for Angolans as well as for foreigners. If you are here, you are well aware. Basic services, like food, education and housing are priced on par with some European countries. The main difference is that the salaries in Angola are simply laughable when compared to their European counterparts, which leads to daily battles to secure basic needs.
Obviously this battle is not fought by those with money who, for reasons obscure or not, are protected with bank accounts that would make mere mortals envious. According to a survey conducted in February by an English company, ECA International – Luanda ranks first among the most expensive cities in the world.
In his blog Mundo da Verdade [pt], Miguel Caxias writes:
“Só para terem uma ideia, o custo por noite no hotel em que estou é de 170 USD (quarto individual, com casa de banho e pequeno-almoço mesmo muito sofrível). Estamos a falar de um hotel que deve ter se tanto, duas estrelas. Para um europeu, não só por costumes alimentícios mas também por costumes de segurança, não se arrisca a comer em qualquer botequim de esquina, obviamente. No restaurante onde temos feito as nossas refeições, o custo médio de uma dose é de 30USD (junte-se a isso bebida, sobremesa, entradas e o preço salta logo para 40/45 USD de despesa individual).
Luanda está numa fase de construção massiva. Junto à Marginal existem apartamentos a 1 milhão de USD. Estão todos vendidos!!!”
Luanda is undergoing massive construction. Near the Marginal [bay front area], some apartments are listed at one million dollars. And they have all been sold!!!”
The high cost of living in the country is paradoxical, since it does not correlate to a high quality of life, at least not for those faring worse economically. Angola registers high development indicators that, unfortunately, are not reflected in the finances of the majority of Angola's citizens. Excessive demand coupled with scarce supply make things rather difficult.
The Brazilian author of the blog Diário de África [pt] provides a quick analysis of what happens in Angola.
“Não são apenas os alugueres (habitação) que custam caro. Tudo é caríssimo. Um quilo de tomate pode sair por 20 USD. Uma bandeja de uvas pode custar 30 USD o quilo. Um bife com batatas fritas pode custar facilmente, 50 dólares. Um cano furado pode sair por 1000.000 USD. Tapar um pequeno furo na tubulação do ar-condicionado do carro e colocar o gás para enfrentarmos o calor luandense custa 200 USD.
Precisa de electricista? Ele não vai sair da sua casa sem ter tirado pelo menos 100 USD de você. Mesmo que só tenha trocado uma lâmpada. Porque é tudo tão caro?”
Need an electrician? He won't leave his house without getting at least $100.00 from you. Even if it's just to change a light bulb. Why is everything so expensive?”
According to this blogger, the answer is simple and, once again, harks back to the war that robbed the country of more than 30 years of development.
“O atabalhoado processo de independência e a guerra acabaram com tudo. Primeiro, a independência. Em 1975, pelo menos 300 mil portugueses abandonaram Angola. Médicos, dentistas, advogados, empresários, encanadores, mecânicos, burocratas, professores. Em questão de meses, Angola ficou sem quadros. Não havia quem soubesse gerenciar as finanças do país. Depois a guerra. O esforço de guerra sugou o dinheiro que deveria ser investido na saúde, na educação, nas infra-estruturas do país. Agora multiplique essa situação por 30 anos. O resultado chama-se Luanda.
Com a alta no preço do petróleo nos últimos anos, os fretes subiram e por tabela, o de todos os produtos. Chegou-se a uma situação tal que mesmo os itens produzidos em Angola podem custar mais que os importados. Porquê? Os economistas que me corrijam, mas parece ter algo a ver com a tal lei da oferta e da procura. Quem quer agora, tem de pagar mais.”
O país não tem indústrias. Tudo é importado. Vem de navio. No porto, não há espaço. Os navios ficam dois, três meses atracados em alto-mar, aguardando autorização para descarregar. Só agora é que a agricultura começa a dar os primeiros passos. Mas só nas áreas em que não há minas terrestres. O último número que ouvi era de que mais da metade das terras cultiváveis do país estava cheia de minas. Enquanto o terreno não estiver limpo, nada feito. Portanto, até a comida precisar ser importada.
With the high price of gas in recent years, transport costs have also risen and, concurrently, so have all products. The situation has become such that even items produced in Angola can cost more than imports. Why? Economists please correct me, but it seems to have something to do with the law of supply and demand. If you want it now, you have to pay more.”
The country has no industries. Everything is imported. It is shipped in, and there is no space at the port. The ships are anchored two to three months in the high seas, waiting for authorization to unload their goods. Only now has agriculture begun to take its first steps, but only in areas where there are no land mines. The latest statistics I heard were that half of Angola's arable land is rife with mines. As long as the land is not cleaned, nothing is done. Therefore, even food needs to be imported.
A piece of goat costs 600 KZ ($7 USD). Tweetpic by @bethinagava

author: Clara Onofre


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Cameroon: Bloggers discuss Paul Biya’s 27 years in power · Global Voices
George Esunge Fominyen

On 6th November 2009, President Paul Biya of the West African state of Cameroon celebrated his 27th anniversary in power by writing a letter to his citizens. The letter was issued to Cameroonians via daily newspapers in the country of nearly 20 million inhabitants.
Paul Biya‘s message to his compatriots stressed the importance of the country's peace and stability in a generally turbulent continent as a major achievement. But Voice of the Oppressed did not quite fancy this argument:
Without much  to showcase to languishing Cameroonians, Biya had no choice but to hide under the canopy of   inert and sometimes  illusive concepts like peace, unity and democracy to present as his hallmarks for the past 27 years, as if a hungry man knows peace or the thwarting of the constitution to enable him rule ad infinitum was a democratic precedence.
The fact that he highlighted the deprivation of basics like food, health, shelter, and education to a majority of Cameroonians, confirms the intensity of the failure of Biya and his Stale Deal policies. He just didnot want to belabour the points on persistent power cuts, water shortages, bad roads and dilapidating infrastructure, which are characteristic of his failed policies, aggravated by the extreme egocentric manner in which he and his associates embezzle state funds
However, Christopher Ambe Shu in a post on the blogzine –the Entrpreneur – thinks it is unfair to dismiss Mr Biya’s 27-year stay in power as wasted years because “his successes in the political, social, economic and diplomatic domains are there for any person of good faith to appreciate”:
Politically, to begin with, when he assumed the presidential office on November 6, 1982, the country was a one-party system. Democracy was barely practiced within the party. But in March 1985, he transformed the lone party – the CNU – into CPDM, introducing democratic reforms within the party. He reintroduced multi-party democracy in 1990, against protests from some learned Cameroonians.
Today, Cameroon has over 200 political parties, with citizens free to belong to any of their choice or even to form more. With the multiplicity of parties came greater freedom of expression. Cameroonians under former President Ahmadou Ahidjo did not actually enjoy freedom of expression.
Since 1992 elections – notably presidential, municipal and parliamentary – have been organized for Cameroonians to democratically choose their leaders and representatives. It is true complaints of electoral fraud and rigging have been alleged by mostly loser-opposition parties such as the SDF, but the Supreme Court has always adjudicated on such complaints.
As if to buttress Christopher's views a Cameroonian who claims to a supporter of Mr Biya's ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) party, posted some of the President's achievements since 1982 as a comment on Gef's Outlook:
“When president Biya took over in 1982, the coffers of the country were depleted. Thanks to his reasonable foresight and sharp economic acumen, Cameroon pulled herself from the grim situation majestically. In the BEAC regional block, we have the highest standard of living. Citizens of neighboring countries flock to our shores because the country is economically buoyant.
(5)President Paul Biya took over the leadership of Cameroon with very few all the year roads. But today, even the most far off lands like Akwaya are being dis-enclaved.
(6) On the diplomatic front, President Paul Biya used his great diplomatic prowess to secure an invaluable piece of real estate for the country, the Bakassi Peninsular. This is wonderful. He has instructed his legal team which, I am a member to sue the Biafras, for the return of the Obudu Cattle Ranch as well. We go for peaceful solutions even though we are tough as the lion.
(7) Cameroonians are freer and more secure within and beyond their borders than before. This is a real achievement.
But his views were countered by Louis who had a direct reply for the President:
“Dear Mr President,
I do appreciate your efford as president of the Republic of Cameroon. But your effords have consistently been proven not good enough. 27yrs of leadership is more than enough time for Cameroonians to be smiling instead of knocking heads. Your leadership and management skills are way below the bottom line of a development framework. Mr president, we all love our country more than you are telling us in your letter to.
All what we want is a leader who can motivate us by applying the values of leadership, management and governance. A leader who can build the “yes we can” spirit among us. Many cameroonians living abroad including myself are very willing to come back home and do something remarkable and benefitial for the country, but lawlessness and insecurity are big hindering factors.
Sorry Mr president but leadership and governance has been proven not to be your descipline. Give up men! If you really love us, then consider this crucial moments as the perfect time to sacrifice power for the happiness of your fellow citizens.
Thanks
Lou »
Present day Cameroon was created in 1961 by the unification of two former colonies, one British and one French. The country’s official languages are English and French but over the years many voices among the minority Anglophones have accused the Francophone majority of marginalization and this has since led some Anglophones to call for a separation of the country.
The debate over Paul Biya’s letter on Gef’s Outlook mutated into passionate, (sometimes) harsh arguments exposing the latent Anglophone versus Francophone quagmire in the country:
Reacting a comment describing Anglophones as nonentities Rene Mbuli commented thus:
Mr Alain Dipoko I have been following your interventions on this network with keen interest and I must commend your consistency in backing the FAILED REGIME of Mr Biya and his veteran team of incompetent, corrupt and uninspired officials. How i wish your intelligence and dedication could be used for a much better course like the Independence of Southern Cameroon which devoted SCNC members like us are reflecting and battling upon. As a devoted supporter of the Anglophone cause , i must tell you that Anglophones are not “nonentities” and we are not being “tolerated” by the regime.We are actually the regime's nightmare. The desire by the Biya regime to ignore the Anglophone problem is a silent tactic to limit the rippling effects of its recognition.
The above presidential address sounds like a broken CD. In order words, its a deja vu version of the 1985 in-glorious memories and a lamentable attempt to recoup the disintegrated particles. We are sorry for this dying dictator who tries to gain currency by selling dreams of what he still hopes to do , while on a dying bed. As a piece of advice . which probably could help the rest of the Francophone people who are tired of their Beti brother but who lack the bile to air their views like the Anglophones; Biya needs to start making a balance sheet of his confused years in power and try to groom a successor who will do the image cleansing instead of hoping to squander more years at the helm of La Republic du Cameroun.
Alain Dipoko responded as follows:
Mr. Mbuli Rene, why are you people so evil? Why do you take delight in showing ingratitude? Mr. Biya has ruled Cameroon with diligence and conviction. We are a respected country every where in the world. You are able to write fine English better than an African Americans in America, the richest country in the world because, schools are free in Cameroon and they are not in the US. What else do you want?
You express yourself openly than Americans do in America because the Patriot Act forbids them to do so. What do you really want? I have written a letter to the leadership of the SCNC, that moribund, focus less, and mundane assembly of TrollVille illusionists trying to sell the Federal System to them but I am yet to receive a feedback.
Let me warn you Mr. Mbuli, you the Anglos are stretching our patience. Did you hear what happened in Guinea? You want that to happen to your wretched lives here? It is easy to do it. We are sick and tired of these ungrateful brats. Let me make myself absolutely clear, if you the Anglophones don’t like it here then go to the Biafras. You shall spare us the inconvenience of squandering our money on ungrateful sycophants like you.
Paul Biya is Cameroon's second President. Cameroon's parliament in April 2008 passed a controversial amendment to the constitution scrapping limits to the terms in office. This means Biya can run for a third term of office in 2011. He succeeded late Ahmadou Ahidjo who resigned on 4 November 1982 after nearly 25 years in office.
Cameroon’s foremost blogger Dibussi Tande chose to take visitors of Scribbles from the Den down memory lane with video images of the peaceful handover of power that was quite uncommon in Africa at the time.

author: George Esunge Fominyen


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China and Hong Kong: Is Dialogue Possible? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Roland Soong talks about the inward-looking character of both Hong Kong and Mainland bloggers and discusses the thesis on whether or not cross-border dialogue is possible.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Protest against government “hook” by chopping little finger off · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Xujun Eberlein from Inside-out China blogs about a 18-year-old man Sun Zhongjie's act of chopping off his little finger off to protest against the Shanghai Traffic Management Bureau's “hook” on “black taxi driver”.


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China: Teachers’ strike · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Husunzi from China Study group blogs about a recent teachers’ strike from three privately-owned primary and secondary schools in Chengdu, Sichuan. The strike was against the government's taking over the management of one of the schools.


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Colombia: Preserving Afro-Colombian Culture in San Basilio de Palenque · Global Voices
Cati Restrepo

The village of San Basilio de Palenque, a small village in northern Colombia, was one of the first communities of escaped African slaves during the Spanish Colonization. The descendants of these African slaves are now working on preserving their cultural heritage, as well as the Palenquero language, a Spanish-based Creole language estimated to be spoken by 2,500 people.  Through stories of the slavery passed along from generation to generation, as well as the musical traditions being kept alive, this village appears to bring the African continent to this corner of Colombia.
Photo of San Basilio de Palenque by Royale_With_Cheese and used under a Creative Commons license.
The blog Azadón de Palo [es] interviews M. Elena Salgado, a resident of the village and answers the question, “What is it like to live in San Basilio de Palenque?“
Es un lugar pequeño, donde todos nos conocemos. Somos generaciones de todas las familias, desde las primeras que se refugiaron en los Montes de María (así se llama la zona que rodea a San Basilio). Nuestras casas son humildes, hechas con material que nos da la naturaleza; tierra, bahareque, tapia y cemento a la vista. Nuestros techos son de palma y lata, que ayuda a refrescar y soportar el calor.
Musical group Las Alegres Ambulancias that hails from San Basilio de Palenque. Photo by Troskiller and used under a Creative Commons license.
In the homes, the sounds of Afro-Colombian resonate, and in which many sectors of society want to claim. The essence of that concept takes strength and it is in that way that the blog Colombian Passport [es] publishes the following paragraph about this history:
Lo que bien se sabe acerca de los colombianos negros es que son las personas descendientes de los que fueron traídos como mercancía, forzados por las compañías negreras europeas entre los siglos XV y XVIII a todo el territorio de las Américas.
Patricia Quintero Barrera of the blog Etnicográfica [es] writes:
La Afrocolombianidad o Identidad étnica Afrocolombiana es el conjunto de aportes y contribuciones, materiales y espirituales, desarrollados por los pueblos africanos y la población afrocolombiana en el proceso de construcción y desarrollo de nuestra Nación y las diversas esferas de la sociedad Colombiana. Son el conjunto de realidades, valores y sentimientos que están integrados en la cotidianidad individual y colectiva de todos nosotros y nosotras. La Afrocolombianidad es un patrimonio de cada colombiano(a), indistintamente del color de la piel o el lugar donde haya nacido.
Finally, on Asabbagh's channel on YouTube, there is the trailer of a documentary that shows what San Basilio de Palenque is like now, a community that was not declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in vain.

author: Cati Restrepo


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Egypt: Free Kareem Rally in DC  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Supporters in Washington DC, US, stage a rally in support of jailed Egyptian blogger Kareem Nabil Sulaiman, or Kareem Amer. Free Kareem has more.


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Egypt: Swine Flu Update  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

From  Egypt, Zeinobia brings us an update on H1N1 or swine flu.


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Featured Author: Maryna Reshetnyak · Global Voices
David Sasaki

As Global Voices Russian Language Health Editor, Maryna Reshetnyak spends most of her time covering the Kiev-based Rising Voices grantee project, The Drop-In Center. She also blogs on Global Voices about discussions in the Russian-language blogosphere related to health, most recently about the swine flu hysteria in Ukraine. In this video she describes her first meeting with Rising Voices grantee, Pavel Kutsev, and recalls her life as a graduate student in Delaware, USA.
Transcript
I am Maryna Reshetnyak and I live in Odessa, Ukraine.
David: And what do you do for Global Voices?
Maryna: I am the Russian Language Health Editor for the Rising Voices project. Basically, I cover the Drop-In Center project. This project unites a group of people who are leaders in the Ukrainian harm reduction movement. They are living with drug addiction themselves. They are on substitution therapy so each day to live a normal life they need to take methadone. And they blog about this. They blog about the problems they have. And actually the blog helps them to lobby and advocate to the health care authorities in government and I cover this project.
David: Today, for the first time, you met Pavel of the Drop-In Center … this blog that you've been translating for almost a year now, right? What was it like to meet in person for the first time after you had met him online?
Maryna: Surprisingly, when I met him, I met the person I expected to meet. It seems that by reading everything that he writes, it allowed me to know him very very well. It seems like, you know, that I met an old friend. I spent two years in the United States of America doing my Master's program in Public Administration at the University of Delaware. So I spent two years of my life in the fantastic place of Delaware which I miss a lot. Also I spent three months doing my internship in Washington D.C. And I also like this place a lot.
David: So when you were living in America, what were some of the impressions that Americans had of Ukraine?
Maryna: They have the impression that it is very cold. I don't know why, but everybody though that it is very cold.
David: It is very cold!
Maryna: One pretty educated person … asked me once if I miss the northern lights. I was like, no. I live in Odessa. It is really warm there and we have nice beaches. Yeah, this is the only think they knew about Ukraine is that it is very cold but I did my best to explain to them that Ukraine is also a very beautiful country full of culture.
David: What are your impressions of Global Voices?
Maryna: Well, it's a fantastic project. It's really great to feel myself to be a part of a network of more than 200 people from all over the world doing the same job. And I'm really proud to be a part of that team. It means a lot to me.

author: David Sasaki


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India: Barring Foreign Journalists · Global Voices
Rezwan

“In barring foreign journalists from going to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh to report the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama’s week-long visit to the northeastern State which China off and on claims as its own, has the Manmohan Singh government thumbed its  nose at India’s great democratic traditions?” asks Sans Serif.

author: Rezwan


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India: Sharing Expenses And Gender Equality · Global Voices
Rezwan

Nita J. Kulkarni at A Wide Angle View Of India raises a debate on whether a working couple should share the financial burden equally. She comments: “I believe that this issue of women being reluctant to share their income is more about personalities rather than anything else.”


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Jordan: Nidal Malik Hasan · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Arab American Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire at a military base on the US, killing several people. Jordanian Hareega comments on the incident in this post.


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Kenya: Mwai Kibaki and Odinga must co-operate with ICC · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The Partnership for Change has issued a statement calling for Mwai Kibaki And Raila Odinga to cooperate with the International Criminal Court and ensure The Special Tribunal Bill in Kenya is passed and enacted into law within two weeks.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Kyrgyzstan: Satanized  · Global Voices
Tolkun

Shairbek Zhusuev, leader of political party ErK (Erkin Kyrgyzstan – transl. Free Kyrgyzstan), shocked many Kyrgyzstanis stating that the capital of Kyrgyzstan Bishkek city has been satanized for many years, as it has a big sign symbolizing demonolatry. Zhusuev says that he found out about it while surfing Google Earths and learning Bishkek from high up. According to him, Panfilov park located in the heart of Bishkek, next to the Parliament and White House, was built in a form of Pentacle (aka Pentagram) widely used as a religious symbol by Satanists.
24.kg quotes Zhusuev saying [ru]:
I came accross very interesting picture – the park after Panfilov from high up represented pentagonal geometric figure known as a pentagram: a sign of Satan or also known as the “Sigil of Baphomet” – the official symbol of the Church of Satan. It is absurd to say that the pentacle accidentally appeared on the map of the city or it is simply the star of the USSR. Since the figure has a perfect proportion of angles to the poles of the Earth.
Leader of ErK Shairbek Zhusuev thinks it is high time to clear Bishkek from such religious symbols, as they are not traditional religions of Kyrgyzstan. Prior to Zhusuev, the party ErK was headed by Tursunbai  Bakir uulu, former ombudsman of Kyrgyzstan, who is well known for his pro-Islamic public statements. It was Tursunbai Bakir uulu, head of Muslims Union of Kyrgyzsan and member of ErK, who earlier this year burned down Israel's flag in the center of Bishkek as a form of protest against Israeli actions in Gaza sector.
Kyrgyz internet users started actively discussing the news about the biggest Satan symbol in Bishkek. Users of internet forum Diesel are the most active in debating over this topic.
Alx. says pentacle is a common symbol and does not necessarily mean religion [ru]:
It is difficult to comment on this nonsense. They [party members] do not have anything else to do! Such satanic symbols are on the shoulder straps of each policemen. And the fact about the perfect corners – it is just the easiest way to draw a star. It is unequivocally the legacy of the Soviet era.
photo.kg accuses the party leader of not working on more serious issues, but glad that he is a computer literate [ru]:
I think the leader of the Erk party to has to do nothing  else… I am glad that the party members are learning the computer literacy and Google Maps, instead of spending time playing computer solitaire and surfing porn sites.
Don.Speekenglish thinks that Shairbek Zhusuev must better learn the history of Bishkek city [ru]:
Mr. Zhusuev apparently is not aware that this park was originally called “Star”. The park was named after Panfilov after the World War II.
CAJAX! ironises the situation with interesting fact [ru]:
By the way! The Ferris Wheel in the park is called the Satan's Wheel (Rus. Чертово колесо). It explains everything! Thats why the park attracts kids and youth – people with a fragile psychology. Elite houses with swimming pools and a casino [in parks territory] in staggered order will correct the situation.
Talking about symbols. Kyrgyzstan is still full of visible Soviet era symbols and signs, including pentagram stars, statues of Lenin, hammer and sickle symbols, etc.
Also posted on neweurasia.

author: Tolkun


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Nigeria: Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Chidi Opara remembers Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Nigerian writer, environmental and minority rights activist who was executed on 10th November, 1995 by the then military rulers of Nigeria


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Russia: Officer Exposes Police Corruption Using the Web · Global Voices
Vadim Isakov

On November 6, a police officer at the Department of Internal Affairs in Novorossiysk used his personal Web site to address Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and talk about numerous problems police officers face in Russia.
In his video address available on www.dymovskiy.ru and YouTube (part I and part II [RUS]), Aleksey Dymovskiy is calm and meticulous. He talks about diminishing police honor, bribes, corruption and low pay that poison lives of many police officers in Russia.
I think many people will understand me. I want to work but I am fed up with fictional plans when we are forced to investigate crimes that don’t exist. I am fed up with fictional plans when we are told that we need to imprison certain people. I am fed up with staged crimes designed to put some people in jail.
Continuing with his revelations, Dymovskiy admits putting an innocent person in jail under the pressure from his supervisor:
The director of the Department of Internal Affairs awarded me rank of a major, which I received in May, because I promised him to put an innocent person in jail. I’m not afraid to say that. I understand that it can be punishable. But it is the truth and I admit that.
Dymovsky also appeals to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urging him to investigate those problems and put an end to the widespread corruption in the police.
The video hit a “viral” stage within hours after its publication with several hundreds of thousands of clicks on YouTube. It was widely covered by the Russian mainstream media and discussed on the countless blogs. It is one of the first examples when Russian citizens successfully deploy new media platform to draw attention of the government toward hot issues in the country.
The novelty of “citizen video addresses” in Russia is best indicated by a cautious comment from one of the most popular bloggers in the country dolboeb:
A monologue with enormous force. I won’t be surprised if it turns out to be a viral marketing. The character is too out-of-this-word.
Another blogger marchenk writes:
None of us is an angel… I wouldn't admire him [Dymovskiy] as an honest policeman and the lover of the truth (he admits himself that he received the rank of major for putting an innocent person in jail). […] However, sincere respect for bravery. There are honest police officers after all. Because of them, it makes sense to push forward police reforms.
I hope to God his publicity gives him protection and honest consideration of his situation.
On Sunday, November 8, Rashid Nurgaliev, the Russian minister of internal affairs, announced the audit of police forces in Novorossiysk. Meanwhile, Dymovskiy has been fired “for libel and actions that damage the honor” of the police.
In his interview to Russian radio station “Ekho Moskvy,” Dymovskiy said he had been followed and was considering sending his family to Moscow for security reasons.

author: Vadim Isakov


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Pakistan: Shanaakht Festival · Global Voices
Rezwan

Faisal Kapadia attended the Shanakht Festival in Karachi and writes: ‘I would recommend all of you to hurry and catch a glimpse of a side of us not often on show, plus its totally free folks!!”


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Russia: Bloggers Discuss 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall not so numerous Russian bloggers remember, celebrate and discuss the historical event that some call “the most important event in the history of the 20th century.” For most of the Russian bloggers ‘The Fall’ is a memory from childhood/adolescence, an act rather mythical than real.
Some bloggers use the date to remind their readers about the current political situation, some practice their cynicism, but most of the bloggers ask themselves: “Why no one talks about this date? Why it is not publicly celebrated?”
Former Advisor of the President Andrei Illarionov (aka LJ-user aillarionov [RUS]) writes [RUS] on his blog:
Today, 20 years after, the world celebrates “the most important geopolitical event” of the end of the 20th century – crash of the totalitarian communist dictatorships in Europe. It is celebrated in many countries.
But not in Russia. And not in the dozen of other post-Soviet states that are not only stuck but also got deep into new authoritarianism.
Russia's demonstrative neglect of this very important event of the whole epoch emphasizes the scale of the new wall that took a place of the destroyed one.
This wall is invisible but nonetheless effective in trying to isolate citizens of our country and our brothers in grief from the rest of the world.
Ilya Faibisovich (aka LJ-user faibisovich [RUS]) is also surprised [RUS] by the lack of publicity:
It's really incredible […] that “Echo of Moscow” [a liberal radio station], “Lenta.ru”, “Gazeta.ru”, or any decent Russian “news portal” (even “RIA Novosti” or “Interfax”) did not have “something” that is present on the Web sites in the rest of the world. And this mysterious “something” has a lot to do with Russia. And now it seems that it doesn't have anything to do with it. But there is lots of news (depending on your taste) like “dead Soviet actors”, “how much trains does Kim Chen Ir have,” some cop who learned how to use a videoblog [link to GV material [ENG]], and Ginsburg's [Nobel Prize winner] obituary.
Another blogger, SynthThesis, considers the event as a loss rather than a win:
As someone “born in the USSR,” I have a pretty specific attitude toward this topic. I think there are lots of people to “spit around” about it even without me.
[…]
Now the illusion that everyone can really decide for herself is put into [our] brains by the actions of all those paid truth-lovers better than in any computer game.
Some bloggers used pictures to commemorate the event.  LJ-user Amelito posted a collection of photos [RUS] of the dismantlement of the Wall. LI-user Sotvoryaushij Miry [RUS]  shared 17 photos [RUS]. Privet-user Gernov51 [RUS] posted the chronology of the events of 1989 that led to the end of the Cold War [RUS].
Additional Info
According to the survey taken by Levada Center on October 2009 [RUS], 63% of respondents consider the Fall of the Wall as a positive/rather positive event while 11 percent see it as a negative one. The Fall of The Wall is the second popular answer (24 percent) to the question “Which events of 1989 you find the most important”; 50 percent of the respondents name the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan as “the most important” event of that year.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Saudi Arabia: The Houthis, Iran and Saudi Arabia  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

John Burgess at Crossroads Arabia connects the dots between the Houthis in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Southern Madagascar Hit Hard by Severe Drought and Toxic Spill  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

While the political direction of Madagascar remains mired in total uncertainty since the coup d'etat in March, in Addis Ababa, the international community is again trying to mediate an agreement between the various political movements. The president of the African Union and one of the mediators present in Addis Ababa, Jean Ping,  opened the meeting by stating:
“The reality as you know it on the ground in Madagascar is characterized by fatigue that is felt by the people of Madagascar, people who are hoping the crisis will come to an end. A crisis to which, after all, they are the hostages. Whereas the socio-economic situation in your country is getting worse day by day. The people of Madagascar deserve better destiny and that depends completely on you”
This sentiment seems to be shared by a large portion of the blogosphere who focused their attention on the other challenges affecting Madagascar. Several provinces are currently plagued by the cumulative disastrous effects of a severe drought, the toxic spill of a ship wreck that poisoned the livelihood of thousands of fishermen and the ecological disaster of illegal logging of the rain forests.
(Update: A power sharing agreement was signed by the 4 political movements over the week-end (BBC) where Madagascar will be led by 3 co-presidents. More analysis can be found on this political breakthrough on Reuters and Madagascar Tribune (fr) )
The ecological scandal of the Gulser Ana toxic spill
The Gulser Ana was a Turkish freighter transporting Phosphate that sunk off the coast of Madagascar, spilling toxic waste in the process and killing migrating whales and causing illness among the fishermen community.  Although the disaster has been reported in a few media recently, the ship started to sink  two months ago as Malagasy bloggers signaled on their blogs back in early September.
Tomavana wrote on his blog (fr):
En plus d’écarter le drame écologique du Sud de l’île des actualités nationales, la controverse politique autour de ces nouvelles nominations pose la question du suivi de ce dossier sensible
Joan asks simply: “Have you heard of the Gulser Ana ?”. In the comment section, Capt Collin Smith explores the possible causes of the grounding:
The only explanation which can exculpate the Captain and Officer of the Watch of this vessel is mechanical breakdown. Anything else is human error, and therefore incompetence, if not recklessness. How can a ship go aground in perfect visibility if the OOW and Captain are paying attention and properly trained? [..] Another practice to save money. The Captain and OOW should have been arrested when they got ashore, and held.
Mialisoa reports on her blog that (fr):
les habitants « souffrent de problèmes respiratoires, et de maladies cutanées et diarrhéiques ». Car non seulement ces personnes ont été exposées aux déchets toxiques, mais le nettoyage des zones polluées s’est fait sans vêtements de protection et sans équipements adéquats
The lack of report early on  in the media prompted this reaction from Tomavana on twitter:
“@fanjakely j'ai l'impression que les habitants Sud #Madagascar sont des malgaches de 2nde zone. J'entends nos beaux discours mais nous sommes pas #Solidaire”
Ship wreck via http://mialisenfout.hautetfort.com
Unfortunately that was not the only source of worry in the region.
Severe drought
Rain has been very scarce  in the Southern region. According to the Guardian, the unseasonal dry weather caused by climate change (10% increase in temperature)  has prompted a severe drought and warning signs of famine for the past six months.  Tovoheryzo Raobi Jaona explains how climate change has affected the south (fr):
“Avant, il y avait une sécheresse tous les dix ans. Or, depuis 2000, il y en a eu quatre”
Féroce Remanongona, an elected official goes further as to say (fr):
Nous prions le Grand Dieu que le cyclone passe chez nous. Même s’il détruit nos maisons, c’est mieux que subir la sécheresse
This is a powerful statement when one recalls how the recent cyclone devastated the majority of the region.
The Panos Insitute recently published a series called “Pushed to the Edge” about the effect of climate change on the Malagasy population in the Southern region. Here is a testimony from the report by Bruno:
I noticed that the weather had changed from our usual predictions, and the rainy seasons were starting very late… Not only was rice production affected, but also sweet potatoes and cassava. It was getting hotter and hotter, which made planting cassava challenging… When I harvested it, I discovered that the roots had become smaller, compared to my previous harvest. In terms of rice, I used to collect three to four large baskets and now I can harvest only one small basket. The change is so obvious that it makes me ask the question, “What is happening to the climate?”
A recent academic paper for the American Political Science Association by Richard Marcus illustrates the challenges of water resource management in the Ambovombe-Androy region. The paper states that
“Rural communities are suddenly faced with having to pay exorbitant costs for water. They are ill-prepared to carry out their municipal functions and unable to raise the level of user-fees or community taxes necessary to fund infrastructure development”
Stephane, a blogger from Foko Madagascar attended the UN conference on climate change in September and blogged about the challenges facing developing countries like Madagascar.
Finally, a resolution to condemn the plundering  of natural resources in Madagascar has been introduced by Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) at the House of Representatives. Illegal logging of precious woods from the rain forest has been increasing with the political turmoil. Courier International and l'Express de Madagascar also reveals that the government allowed for exportation of precious rosewood in late September (fr). More details on the illegal logging of the rain forest are available here (fr) .

author: Lova Rakotomalala