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Children in the G8 summit website  · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The G8 summit website in Hokkaido, Japan features an image of a globe being carried by four children. Filipino politician and blogger Peter Lavina comments: “The children used in the website were mere decorations to lull us into believing that the world’s rich nations look after their care.”


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China: Great Wall of China now wheelchair-accessible · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Good news for wheelchair-bound sports fans, as written on Joseph Taggart's Blogspot blog: “In preparation for the Special Olympics in Beijing, an elevator was recently installed to make the top of the wall accessible to people in wheelchairs. I was excited to try it out.” Terrific photos, too.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: John Kennedy


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Cuba: The US and Cuban Oil · Global Voices
Skye Hernandez

An article on negotiations between Brazil's Petrobras and Cuba prompts The Cuban Triangle to consider the implications of oil exploration in Cuba's Gulf reserves.

author: Skye Hernandez


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Different types of durian · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Agnes Tan from Singapore lists the different types of durian. Filipinos describe durian in this way: “It smells like hell but tastes like heaven.”

author: Mong Palatino


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Ecuador: Government Seizes Companies for Debt Collection · Global Voices
Milton Ramirez

The Ecuadoran government seized hundreds of businesses, including three television channels, in a move that attracted national and international attention. Much of the media focuses on the fact that that television stations were targeted, however, the government says that it is a preventative decision in order to collect debts. The Treasury Minister, Fausto Ortíz resigned because he did not agree with the seizure, and was replaced by Wilma Salgado, who claims that this was an administrative measure that seems to safeguard the public interest.
Some are obviously concerned that television channels were among those closed, and may curb free speech.  Many others are trying to associate the incident with political issues in Venezuela, such as the closure of the RCTV channel.  However, many more seem to agree with the government's decision, not because of the seizure of TC Television, Gamavision, Satnet, but because of to whom these channels belong. The Isaias family are at the center of attention, and as a result of this seizure the country is in the process of recovering some of the 600 million dollars that they lost when Filanbanco went into bankruptcy, and which also belonged to the Isaias brothers, who are now living comfortably in Miami.
Let's see what bloggers are saying about these controversial seizures.
Gabby Salas [es], quotes the article from the Deposit Guarantee Agency (AGD), which outlines the circumstances for the seizure of 195 businesses and companies for illegal accounting practices for, “altering their balance sheets or collecting interest rates on interest to ensure their personal wealth with deposits from the financial institution.” As a result, the AGD may seize those assets property of those shareholders and transfered to a trust.
La Voz de Guamote [es], agrees that the seizure of the properties and companies from the Isaias family is legal.
La Federación Nacional de Periodistas del Ecuador y el Colegio de Periodistas de Pichincha consideraron que la incautación de los bienes y empresas del grupo Isaías, entre los que se cuentan tres canales de televisión, “está enmarcada en los instrumentos legales” y que  “nada tiene que ver con la ‘libertad de expresión’, que ha sido argüida por algunos sectores”.
The National Federation of Journalists of Ecuador and the College of Journalists of Pichincha believes that the seizure of assets and businesses of the Isaías gropu, which includes three TV channels, “is framed within the legal framework” and that “nothing has to do with ‘freedom of expression’, which has been argued by some sectors. “
Technodatum [es]  a blog that specializes on technology provides a roundup of what Ecuadoran bloggers are commenting about this important news:
Como comentábamos hace un mes, la concesión de las frecuencias radiales del sistema de emisoras Cadenar -a la que pertenece Radio Sucre- no fué renovada y fué clausurada a las 22h00 de ayer por la intendenta de policía.
As we commented a month ago, the granting of radio frequencies from the broadcast system Cadenar, which belongs to Radio Sucre-was not renewed and was closed at 22h00 yesterday by the chief of police.
La Alharaca [es], quoting a post from El Manaba, publishes the feelings and views of one of the employees of TC Television who argues the Isaias debt is not even close to 600 millions dollars.
…A lo sumo podria ser 1 millon o 2 pero no 600, porque te lo digo, el Banco Filanbanco quedo con liquidez, eso quiere decir que habia plata dentro del banco cuando el gobierno lo incauto, y despues de que el estado paso a propiedad del estado, el administrador del primer año revitalizo el Banco y dio “100 MILLONES de utilidades”, esto lo puedes confirmar con quien tu quieras y que halla trabajado en el Filanbanco, explicame como un Banco que esta perdido y que esta quebrado da 100 millones de dolares de ganancia al primer año de administracion estatal, y luego quiebra por una inepta fusion con el Banco “La Previsora” ese si quebrado.
… At the most, it could be 1 million or 2 but not 600, because I tell you, the Bank Filanbanco keeps its liquidity, which means there was money at the bank when the government seized, and after when the state transferred it to state property, the administrator in the first year revitalized the Bank by giving it  “100 million dollars of capital “, that you can confirm with whomever you want who worked in Filanbanco. Explain to me how a bank that is losing money and bankrupt, can record 100 million dollars in profit during its first year of state administration, and then later declare bankruptcy for an inept merger with”La Previsora” bank, which is bankrupt.
CronicaCero [es], asks its readers, are you with the thieves or with the justice system.  He also mocks how the Isiaís managed their business from Miami:
Los Isaías manejaban desde Miami, con testaferros, una serie de empresas y en Ecuador es como si nada pasaba… saben por qué PORQUE ERAN Y SON PARTE DE LA OLIGARQUÍA GUAYAQUILEÑA QUE ESTÁ ENQUISTADA EN EL PODER… Y LAS SORPRESAS VAN SALIENDO
The Isaiah managed a number of companies in Ecuador from Miami under different names, as if nothing happened … and do you know why? it was because they are part of the Guayaquil oligarchy that is entrenched in power…and the surprises keep coming

author: Milton Ramirez


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G8 Summit expensive menu · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Cambodia Calling is “disgusted” by the expensive menu in the G8 Summit in Japan


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Guyana: Carifesta X · Global Voices
Skye Hernandez

Signifyin’ Guyana looks beyond the challenges of life in Guyana, and celebrates Caribbean women writers, as she prepares for the regional cultural festival, Carifesta.


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Hong Kong: Sexy Photo Victim · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A Hong Kong netizen uploaded photos from the Edison Chan sexy photogate to an overseas server and linked it back to local forum was sentence to three weeks detention without bail while waiting for the sentence in the district court. Ip Iam Chong wrote a commentary at inmediahk.net, pointing out that the handling of indecent censorship is getting harsher as it is the defendant's first offense and the photos are far from serious obscenity.

author: Oiwan Lam


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India: Angry Hindus · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Indian Muslims Blog on the concept of an “Angry Hindu” who complains when concessions are made for Muslims on religious grounds, not quite realizing that Hindus receive similar concessions as well.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Jamaica: Why I Blog · Global Voices
Skye Hernandez

In a passionate post, Jamaican blogger Geoffrey Philp describes the five top reasons he blogs.


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Japan: Bloggers on food crisis feast, G8 over Skype? · Global Voices
Hanako Tokita

The G8 Summit at Toyako, Hokkaido [ja], ended on June 9th after three days of meetings, leaving a bitter aftertaste for some bloggers in Japan. With a total cost for organization and security estimated as enough to treat millions of HIV patients, and protests by thousands of farmers and activists from around the world, the event was not without its controversy.
Many bloggers questioned the high costs of the event, pointing out how environmentally unfriendly it was. Blogger gooorii, on the other hand, considered some of the outcomes of the G8 summit to have been positive:
何しろ討議する項目が山積しており、わずか3日間で各国のトップが話し合ってもなかなか纏まる話ではないと思うが、それでも「拉致問題」と言う文言が首脳宣言に載ったり、ジンバブエの不当な大統領選挙問題等にも共同声明のなかで、批判される事は国際的な見地から見た正しい意見として当事国にプレッシャーを与える事になり良いことだと思う。
今回の重要なテーマである、室温効果ガス問題では2日目のG8の中で討議され、福田さんは長期目標を2050年までに５０％削減を決めたい意向であったが、アメリカの提案では、「大量排出国（中国・インド・ブラジル等）抜きの討議は無意味だ」と言う意見で賛成が得られなかった様で、私も当然の事であると思う。
[…]
しかし、兎も角、削減努力に対する必要性は各国とも同じであるから3日目の会合こそ大量排出の当事国が、同じテーブルに就いて、話し合いが出来るスタートラインに揃ったところであると私は思うのである。
Blogger jg96aqkg, meanwhile, points out the irony of the G8 dinner:
環境問題、地球温暖化対策、原油高騰、食料危機、北朝鮮の核問題などなど話し合われたようですが凡人の私にはどのような実効性が有るのか全く分かりません。
あるメディアが食料危機の会議場で山ほど盛られた食膳に、あんなご馳走を食べて食料危機に餓えている人間の気持ちが理解できるのかと批判していました。
各国を代表して出席しているのだからどんな贅沢な食事をしょうがどうでも良いことだが世界各国一人一人の命の尊厳が図られる形になって欲しいものです。
Blogger mkj2 also picks up on the theme of the G8 feast, and writes:
各国の首脳が食べるディナーの話題。
地元の食材をふんだんに使ったメニューでカニだのアスパラだのいいもの使ってまっせっつー。
別に食い物にいちゃもんつけてるわけじゃない。
食い物に始まり、警備だのなんだのに多額の血税が使われる。
それはいい。
世界のＴＯＰが雁首そろえて諸問題を話し合うっていうんだから。
ただ。
頼むよほんと。
これだけの金かけて、手間かけて、ガソリンが安くならない、食品の値段が下がらない、なんてことになったらどう責任取るんだ。
Finally, blogger fookpaktsuen makes a novel proposal:
四国や九州からの警察の動員２万人余。……で地球温暖化が主要議題、ならこのサミット開催こそ「地球に優しくない」のが事実。もう国連活動に収斂されていいのでは？　テロ襲撃が危険視されるなら各国首脳が一同に介せずSkypeで会議すれば良し。会場からほど遠き農牧地帯で120名のサミット反対デモにデモ参加者上回る数の警官が防備。異常。
(For more pictures of the G8 protests, see pics at the account of Flickr user Powless.)

author: Hanako Tokita


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Malaysia: “Bloggers on strike” · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Malaysian blogger RantingsbyMM wants to go on strike. Rocky's bru will also join the strike: “I do solemnly and sincerely join Marina and my blogging bros in declaring utter disgust at politicians who are taking Malaysian politics and Malaysians down into the pits of shame in the name of their own glory.”


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Myanmar: Alter charges against blogger Nay Phone Latt · Global Voices
May Hnin Phyu

Mizzima news reported that the charges to blogger Nay Phone Latt was altered and a new charge has been applied. “Under section 32(b) of the Video Act, he is facing a maximum of six months in prison but now faces a maximum of seven years in jail under the new charge under section 5(j) of Emergency Provisions Act, if convicted.” minnyoon has  twitted with a link to Myanmar article as well.

author: May Hnin Phyu


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Myanmar: Salt Prices · Global Voices
May Hnin Phyu

New Mandala states that “25,430 acres of salt pans were submerged and 29,545 tons of salt damaged after the Cyclone Nargis. The price of salt has risen by three to six times in the last two months.”


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Pakistan: Biofuel and Food crisis · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The Pakistani Spectator on biofuel being on the of reasons for the worldwide food crisis.


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Palestine: Murder or terror rampage? · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Only Arabs are terrorists… reads the subject heading on live from occupied palestine‘s blog.  The blogger is referring to the headlines splashed across Israeli and foreign newspapers after Husam Taysir Dwayat, a Palestinian living in Jerusalem, drove a bulldozer down a crowded street in West Jerusalem, killing three and wounding at least 66 others.  Dwayat's spree ended when an off-duty Israeli soldier shot and killed him.
The headlines following Dwayat's rampage included “Bulldozer terror rampage in Jerusalem“.  They also focused on Dwayat's prior relationship with a Jewish woman with headlines such as “Jerusalem attacker once had Jewish girlfriend“.  Some articles even claimed that Dwayat yelled “God is Great!”
live from occupied palestine expounds on the question of why Dwayat is being labeled a terrorist:
So if Dwayat’s murderous act was not politically motivated, if he was not acting as part of a “sub national groups or clandestine agents”, why is he being labeled by the Israeli media, politicians and other state officials “a terrorist”? Why if he acted alone, in what Israeli security forces and police believe to be an unpremeditated act, is Dwayat being marked as a terrorist?
The answer is, of course, simple. Dwayat was a Palestinian Arab, so quid pro quo, he must be a terrorist. This fact and this fact alone is the reason for him being labeled a terrorist.
DesertPeace is also all to aware of the headlines, and remarks upon those drawing attention to Dwayat's relationship with a Jewish woman:
Truly an earth shattering revelation…. Used to be “All the news that fits, we print”…. Now it’s “All the news that sells, we print”.
Well, I for one ain’t buying!
Will of KABOBfest shares another perspective; the symbolism of the bulldozer in Israel and Palestine:
By killing three Israeli civilians, these acts of murder represent an ironic tragedy. While the shedding of no civilian blood is ever justified, how we talk about such acts is important. Rather than framing it as an isolated incident or as one more heedless Palestinian attack, we should really examine why construction equipment has become a tool of death and destruction in Israel-Palestine. For Palestinian, the bulldozer is a symbol of Israeli aggression. One assault with a bulldozer by a Palestinian does not change that. It only reminds us of the urgent need for a just peace.
Rima Abdelkader, in her Arabisto.com blog, helps readers understand the incident by explaining:
Another important fact left out in Wednesday’s coverage is that bulldozers, specifically Caterpillar, are in some cases used to demolish Palestinian homes.  One even killed American peace activist Rachel Corrie in March 2003 who risked her life to protest against the demolitions.  This bit of information is significant in discussing Wednesday’s turn of events since the attacker used a Caterpillar bulldozer to kill innocent civilians.

author: Jillian C. York


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Russia: The Day of Family, Love and Fidelity · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Day of Spousal Love and Family Happiness – July 8, Moscow, Russia (photo by Veronica Khokhlova)
Russia's got a new holiday: the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity, celebrated on July 8. In a post titled “From Russia With (Family) Love,” NBC news producer Yonatan Pomrenze has described what the country's newest holiday is about:
[…] The emphasis […] is not on falling in love, as much as keeping people in it. […]
A holiday post (RUS) by Moscow-based LJ user eprst2000 has moved quite a few readers to tears and made it into the Top 30 of the Yandex Blogs portal:
Turns out today is some kind of a special holiday, with a long name that ends with ‘fidelity.’ The Day of Family, Love and Fidelity. Or something like that.
[…]
All TV talk shows today solemnly featured families with many children. Some with nine, others with 11 kids. […]
And my mother (who works at a maternity ward) said today: “A woman at our hospital has given up her twins. Yes. She is 36. Already has an 8-year-old daughter.” My mother knows how to cure people who can't describe where the pain is because they are only a few days old. And my mother knows. Also, as the department's head, she's responsible for talking to women who are giving up their children. She has her own words and methods, which are hard to convey in text. “And I ask her, – my mother continues, – how can you give them up?” – “Well, you see, – says the woman, – I won't be able to provide for them. And someone will adopt them and bring them up in a normal way, will love them as if they are their own children.” My mother, again: “Do you know that normally they do not adopt two children at once? In 99 percent of the cases, a couple adopts one child. And according to the current law, twins cannot be separated. Especially if it's a girl and a boy. They may meet in the future and this may lead to incest. […]” The woman spent a few days thinking. And today she has still refused to keep the children. She said she thought that the man [children's father] would marry her, but he chose not to. He said: “These aren't my children! We've never had any twins at all in our family!”
I'm not saying anything as I listen to my mother. And she continues: “Recently, an 18-year-old girl gave up her son. I tried to talk to her in many different ways, but she looked at me and said: “Do you know that my father is the head of this and that region? And my mother works for this and that institution? They are well-respected people. You see, I just can't.” – “Do the parents know that you are giving up your child?” – “Mama knows.” – “And your papa?” – “…” – “So the two of you are afraid to tell your father. How come such a man's daughter had a child out of wedlock?” – “…” – “Just tell me one thing: why didn't you have an abortion?” – “Am I an idiot or what? It's bad for one's health. What if I can't have children in the future?”
My mother talks on. In her department, a girl has recently given birth. The girl is 25, she is mentally retarded. Her parents came, they are also her guardians. Mother is crying, father is moving his jaws so as not to cry. Normal, healthy people, it just happened that their girl was born this way. She attended a school for kids with special needs, met a boy there. Both are around 25, but their development is like in 10-year-olds. Everyone knew they were having a relationship. Doctors said that with their condition both were definitely sterile and there was nothing to worry about. Explain them about condoms, they said.
A boy was born. Not big, but healthy. There is a 90-percent chance that he has a similar condition as his parents. The new grandparents came. Crying. Filled out the papers certifying that they'll be giving up the boy. They're retiring soon, have been pulling her all their lives, ordinary people, aren't making thousands of dollars. The girl is getting only [about $100] as disability pension. Where else are they supposed to get the money from? When we die, who's gonna take care of these three? She can't even take the child into her hands, can't wrap him. It'll all fall on us again. And we've spent our whole lives like this!!!… How can we take him???
The ended up keeping him.
My mother said that initially they did sign the papers to give him up. And then the young mama showed up at the entrance to the newborns department – stood there, howling. She can't speak well, so she stood and howled. She got her breast milk coming in. Started nursing the baby. Wouldn't let him go. In violation of the rules, as an exception, they allowed the baby's father in. My mother said the two of them were standing over the child, touching him, saying something in their own language. Nurses were swallowing tears as they were coming out of the room.
[…]
When they were leaving the hospital with the baby, they presented all doctors at the maternity ward with a cake. A really huge cake. With these words on it: “May God bless you.” My mother said: “And how are you supposed to cut something like this?”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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South Korea: Anti Lee Myungbak Movement · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Newcham has written up a most elaborated report on the South Korean anti Lee Myungbak movement.


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Southeast Asia: Impact of high oil prices · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Filipino journalist Iris Cecilia Gonzales tackles the impact of higher oil prices in the Philippines, Laos and Cambodia.


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Sri Lanka: TV SouthAsia · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Moving Images, Moving People on a collaborative venture of commercial broadcasters in five countries of South Asia.


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Touring Libyan Blogs: Summer, Diplomacy, Data Protection and the Right to Privacy · Global Voices
Fozia Mohamed

The sprawling summer days in Libya have kicked in fast bringing with them the beach season, which for me carries wafts of childhood holiday memories and funnily enough watermelons.
As expected there were a few summer related posts on the Libyan blogosphere. After all with approximately 2000 km of coastline  it would have been strange if despite the relative  continuing quietness of Libyan bloggers no one mentioned swimming or the beach in relation to Libya.
“[T]he typical Libyan day at the beach” says Khalid Jorni
“[..]would start at eight o'clock Friday morning, when the whole family would get up, load the car with everything but the kitchen sink, and head to Garaboulli beach, we would arrive at noon because we had to stop several times to buy fruits, corns, bread, meat, etc
The first nightmare would be unloading the car in the mid of a baking-hot day, carrying the fridge, gallons of water, big watermelons, etc, along the way from the parking to the hut through the burning sands would make you hate your life altogether.
Then starts the process of eating, each time you think you could escape to the water you would be called back to share a meal, until you feel nine months pregnant, then you would realize that the time of reloading the car and going back home has come.”
This humorous description is self critical but so true and runs perfectly in agreement with my favourite Libyan cartoonist Elzwawi. His renderings of the Libyan social scene are uber-famous. You can check his day at the beach caricature among other things here.
Beach time fun unfortunately brings also its share of victims. Khadijateri, who is married to a Libyan and has been living in Libya for close to twenty years, has chosen this as the theme for her Libyan summer activities post.
“Every summer you hear of people drowning, usually because the person was swept out to sea by a strong current called a riptide. Most of these tragic events could be prevented if people were educated on how to save themselves from these powerful water currents.”
Both Anglo-Libyan and Khalid Jorni mentioned that dual citizenship holder Mercedes Farhat who recently took the name of Asmahan will be donning the Libyan colours at the upcoming Olympics.
However while Khalid Jorni was wondering ” will the Libyan fathers who live in Libya allow their daughters to be seen half naked in public?!”
Anglo-Libyan correctly highlighted that although we are proud that Libya's flag will be represented by someone but Mercedes was NOT the first female ever – as press releases have been shouting over the rooftops – who will compete in the Olympics swimming category for Libya.
On the other hand to add to Anglo's list and answer Khalid's conjectures I would like to mention as an example the 2007 Special Olympics Libyan aquatics competitors Fathia Saad and Radia Wadi along with their coach Nabila Taguri. There are probably others it's just that the PR in Libya is not as good as in America. I'll wait for someone to dig up more info.
At this point the first part of my Libya round up is completed. However the posts I brought up have controversial multiple facets as well which were further developed in their comment sections. The next paragraphs I hope will be taken as constructive criticism and learning points. So apologies in advance to you all and do not take it personally.
(1) Khalidjorni’s cracking representation of a day at the beach was a narrative comparison between western and Libyan typical beach outings.
“This weekly trip to Janzour will soon be replaced by one, involving the whole family, to Garaboulli beach, [..] where I won't have to close my eyes while performing Friday noon prayer. I found it rather outlandish that those Caucasians at Janzour beach don’t get hungry! […] food is not a basic part of those people's vacation, they spend the whole day staring at a novel or a magazine while tossing and turning on the sand, I think that’s what they are really hungry for, sunlight, they don’t even spend much time swimming!”
This immediately divided the comments into several broad camps: the you- are -retarded -if –you- don’t- act -like -the –westerners, the expected (Libyan) women-are-oppressed –cooking-all –day –at –the beach line and the this-is-our culture camp.
(2) Then he put up several photos of the relaxing tourists. Now, if I'm at the beach abroad I'd rather be asked before someone decides to immortalize me for posterity. I mean it is OK to be accidentally part of a photo when you are visiting museums, famous buildings and such because most people will be shooting the same thing. And even at the beach if a group of friends are taking a photo together and a stranger gets in the frame is fine  but having a gallery full of strangers does not seem right it kind of infringes on their privacy. I would not like a photo of me and my family at the Garabouli to appear on a blog unless I permitted it.
This reminded me of another great post by Khalidjorni which also gave me some concern. He spoke about  the gigantic construction field that Tripoli has become. But he also broached the Gargaresh sewage polluted beach which was obviously still used carelessly by Libyan children.
Raising civil awareness is fantastic and needed and pictures are certainly better than a thousand words but posting some of the children's photos even with their own consent does not seem right to me. The numerous photos of the scantily clad tourists and the close ups of the children constitute a clear encroach on privacy. I'm surprised no one mentioned that.
(3) Khadijateri's post though full of useful information about the riptides that endanger Libyans annually and probably good intentions also stirred up the same kind of trouble pitting Libyan vs foreigners.
“I always have found it weird that most Libyans have no idea how to swim, especially since Libya has such a long coastline on the Mediterranean Sea. Many will tell you ‘I know how to swim!’ and you find out that their idea of swimming is moving their arms and splashing about, all the while their feet are still firmly planted on the bottom. That is NOT swimming.”
In response to the above intro a snippet from a commenter was “Stop being so derogatory of our people“.
Yes we Libyans do not like criticism but the message could have been conveyed differently rising above pettiness to achieve greater impact and save more Libyan lives.
In my opinion diplomacy, tact and avoiding stereotypes is more productive both when blogging about Libyans and non-Libyans.
On the other hand I don't really know what the status on data protection and privacy laws is in Libya but there must be a way to market Libya without those types of photos and there must be a way to show social defects without compromising children identities. That is the next step I hope to see in internet journalism.
Obviously from comments and posts we have seen that many Libyans in Libya (female and male) do know how to swim and enjoy swimming, belying statements to the contrary and despite formal swimming lessons not yet being part of the national school physical education curriculum.

author: Fozia Mohamed


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Trinidad & Tobago: Support for Mugabe · Global Voices
Skye Hernandez

Ramblings and Reason comments on a roadside sign in Trinidad that salutes Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe.


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Underground Bangkok radio · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Gnarly kitty blogs about the UB Radio (Underground Bangkok) – “this is where you will get to hear Bangkok's top DJs mixing and doing their thing live through the virtual radio waves.”


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Nicaragua: A New Telecom Monopoly · Global Voices
GV Contributor

Just last week Carlos Slim, the wealthiest man alive, bought the biggest suscription TV provider in Nicaragua. That company, ESTESA, was already a de facto monopoly in its market, and now is part of the telecom empire Slim has built in Nicaragua.
At this moment, Slim owns ENITEL, with the brands CLARO (Mobile phone), Turbonett (Wireless internet access), AMNET (broadband and data transfer), ENITEL (the former state-controlled company that owns all conventional telephone lines in the country), and ESTESA.
However, the bigger they are the bigger they fall. For the last 10 days, there have been reports about problems accessing blogs hosted on Blogger.com while connecting via Turbonett. Some say it is a technical problem, like blogger Raúl Isaac Suárez of El Econoscopio [es], who believe that it is due to a  problem with an international ISP from the connection in Guatemala. Others have been trying to connect from different places, or as Y ahora ¿de qué vamos a hablar? [es] has been doing by trying shortcuts via proxy.
In a virtual telecom monopoly, not having the option to choose from different providers can be a really big problem when the only competitor in the market fails to provide. Some users have been promoting more “direct” ways to tell Slim's companies what they want.
Ramon's blog explains that bigger companies also mean that actual problems might just get harder to resolve.
… Cuando esta empresa comienza a brindar el servicio de Internet, en uno que otro lugar del país, hacen un mercadeo masivo que depués no saben que hacer con la demanda por que no dan a vasto, no actualizan las “centralitas” a tiempo, por supuesto que las personas optan por el servicio DSL por ser menos costoso que el inalámbrico, cuando pasa esto las personas quedan con su contrato en la mano y en espera a que algún día llegue el servicio, ahh y otra de las excusas es que nunca tienen modems además que tenes que esperar como tres meses si es que todo esta bien si no …….
… When this company begins to provides its internet services in the country, they will create such a demand that they will not be able to cope. They already have problems with inventory at local offices. Of course people will try the DSL service since its cheaper, but they leave people remain with contrat in hand, waiting for their connection, and they never have enough modems, sometimes making you wait up to three months just for it.
UPDATE
Just today the “Blogspot Bug” was corrected. Y ahora de que vamos a hablar [ES] recounts the damagges.

author: GV Contributor


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And here comes Global Voices in Italian! · Global Voices
Portnoy Zheng

Many of our dearest supporters have already heard the big news released on the second day of Global Voices Citizen Media Summit in Budapest, Hungary. We officially re-launched three Global Voices Lingua sites: Hindi, Macedonian, and Albanian, and introduced a brand new language to our global readers: “Global Voices in Italian“!
During a Summit session about Lingua and the multi-lingual web, Eleonora Pantò represented the Italian team and gave a speech that was quite short due to limits on time. Therefore, I would like to introduce Global Voices in Italian's three co-managers and welcome them on board.
Bernardo Parrella, the initiator of Global Voices in Italian, is a freelance journalist, translator and activist living in the United States, covering digital culture issues (mostly) for several Italian media outlets, and is involved in a variety of grassroots projects. Among his many translations are books by Turkle, Norman, Lessig, Stallman, and Jenkins.
Eleonora Pantò works in Torino as Knowledge Community Manager in a Research Organization called CSP, dealing since 1992 with projects related to ICT and education. She also published books and essays on the overall impact of ICT on education and working environments. Actively involved in promoting Open Education Resources, she also enthusiastically supports the Global Voices initiative in Italy as a tool to revitalize the (often too biased) local media system.
Lucie Marie Dorion Mengozzi is a Canadian freelance translator now living in Tuscany where she teaches English and French. She makes full use of today's e-learning tools with her students, teens and adults, starting with streaming audio and video podcasts to instant messaging and blogs. She also firmly believes in the integration of web-based material in the learning process as it offers access to a variety of content, both academic and general, but often a bit less mainstream and non conventional.
While attending the recent Berkman@10 at Harvard, Bernardo had the chance to talk with several people about the importance of spreading the Global Voices citizen media model and news, even in Italy. At that point Global Voices had Lingua translation groups in 14 different languages, but none in Italian. Bernardo contacted me and proposed himself as coordinator for that project, discovering that Lucie (already involved in French Lingua) was also looking for people to start an Italian Lingua group.
The Italian Lingua team ‘informally’ launched about a month ago, attracting media coverage and interest. They now have about 12 translators and publish at least two new posts every day.
The Italian team has great ambition to build upon Global Voices’ standing to develop a dynamic, motivated community (also aiming at the many Italians spread throughout the world), and to foster a productive relationship with everybody involved in Lingua and at Global Voices.
Let's welcome Global Voices in Italian and say ‘Ciao’ to Italian readers!
You can read more about the 15 current Lingua translation projects,here. We're always looking for new volunteers. Join us!

author: Portnoy Zheng


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Bangladesh: Image of a Country · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Unheard Voices examines the issue of Bangladesh's image as a country.


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Barbados: Tourist Trap  · Global Voices
Skye Hernandez

Barbados Underground questions whether the increase in the cost of a visitor driving permit from $10 to $100 would harm the island's vital tourism industry.


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Bermuda: Funding Dilemna · Global Voices
Skye Hernandez

Vexed Bermoothes is sceptical about his government's decision to subsidise the University of the West Indies. He says it “would make far more sense to simply boost the scholarship funds available to Bermudian students by the same sum.”


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China: Chinese Village Banquet · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Buxi blogs photos of a grand Chinese village Banquet in Shunde. How Big? Take a Look!


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China: Forum Language · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Xiao He 1120 posted some terms such as “brick” (means substantial article), “water” (empty words), “push” (recommend), etc. commonly used in Chinese forums for new users in clubcat.


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China: Olympic Bible Cover · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Rob from Black and White Cat blogs about the publishing of New Testament's “Special Edition for the Beijing 2008 Olympic game”.


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Colombia: Humane Group Protests Circus Animal Cruelty · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

AHURA, the Humanitarian Association for Animal Rescue, peacefully protested last Monday in Bucaramanga against the Mexican Circus, part of the Hermanos Gasca circus company who uses animals as part of their act. On their FaceBook cause page, they tell of how in Pereira, another city in Colombia, the protests achieved the liberation of a small elephant who will now be free of reported abuse and will stay in a zoo. Videos of circus animal abuse in the region have made their rounds on the internet, sparking protests and confusions as to what is really going on in the circuses that are visiting Colombia. The image is from Ivonne Garzón's blog, who wrote about protests they had last April.
Following, the 5 part video of the peaceful protests, where young adults standing in front of the circus can be seen proclaiming in the third part that “the animals have no choice, we make the decision for them”. The short videos can be found on YouTube, uploaded by the AHURA organization. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.
This following low quality video uploaded by YouTube user  nanisper shows protesters across the street from the Hermanos Gasca circus in Pereira and records a bit of ambient sound and circus animals when someone comes up to the camerawoman and threatens to beat her up if she continues recording, repeatedly threatening her to punch her face in.
Another group in Colombia tried to record through the fences a video showing the conditions the tigers and other animals were in, but circus employees covered the fence in tarps and the cages with cloths so the images couldn't be recorded, as the following video shows.
This protest against animals in circuses isn't new, and it isn't the first time the Hermanos Gasca circus has been in the limelight for animal cruelty. Not too long ago, a video with footage from an undercover agent depicting animal abuse in circuses [es] made its rounds in the Colombian blogosphere denouncing the Hermanos Gasca circus for animal abuse. Shocking images of monkeys getting stoned, an elephant being given a bath while the handlers strikes it in the face,  a dead giraffe being dismembered for its removal from premises to go unnoticed, lions in concrete and metal cages while it snows, and polar being snowed on and a polar bear in a truck with a fan as its only relief from heat moved the masses to protest. This, however turned out to be a mistake from the TV station, who apologized on the air, as shown on this YouTube video [es]excusing themselves for falling prey to sensationalism. The network had received footage under the premise of  it being breaking news from a Humane association overseas saying it was recorded at the Hermanos Gasca circus and they made a note with interviews on this, without noticing that the same images have been making their rounds on the internet already, and that it was a compendium of all possible abuses in circuses, not specifically the Hermanos Gasca's. That this program was recorded from the TV, edited and uploaded by someone else, giving the idea that the Hermanos Gasca circus was responsible for it all. However, the circus did admit that the elephant being bathed and beaten was recorded in their circus and that the handler was fired.
On the Animal Defenders International website there is a full report of the animal abuses they recorded in Colombia [en] both by the Hermanos Gasca circus and the Africa Beast Circus through undercover cameras in their study in 2006 and 2007., and their report, available for download on PDF format in English or Spanish tells the stories behind the images caught on this video, as well as other abuses in other Central American countries such as Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Cuba: Family Travel to Cuba  · Global Voices
Skye Hernandez

The US Congress has approved a 2009 fiscal spending bill containing a controversial provision that lifts family travel restrictions to Cuba. Uncommon Sense believes this would “restore some humanitarian sanity by helping break the barriers between Cubans who have been able to leave the country and loved ones they left behind.”


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Grenada: Election Upset · Global Voices
Skye Hernandez

The National Democratic Congress has won a landslide election victory in Grenada, Carriacou and Petit Martinique. Blah Bloh Blog reports on the results of the polls, which dramatically unseated the incumbent Prime Minister, Keith Mitchell, and his New National Party.


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India: Politician Blogging · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

After film stars, it is now politicians who take to blogging. The popular and controversial politician Laloo Prasad Yadav writes on the Indo-US nuclear deal.


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India: Studying in China · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

2point6billion on the trend of Indian students opting to study medicine in China.


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Iran: Anti war poetry · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Free Lantern, an Iranian blogger, writes that Without Border Association [Fa] has published a special issue against war which includes anti-war articles and poetry.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran: Bloggers try to save wetlands · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

According to Digiactive, several green bloggers in Iran have decided to inform people about the current situation of Iranian wetlands and the danger that threatens the ecosystem.


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Iran: Immigration and Iranian family · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Reza Kazemzadeh,an Iranian psychologist explains[Fa] in his blog about “immigration and Iranian family's challenges” in an interview with Radio Hambastegi.


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Iran: Traffic in Tehran · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Critical Distance blog has published a film about the traffic in the Iranian capital city,Tehran.


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Iran: World Heritage Sites · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Blogian comments on the inclusion of three Armenian monasteries in Iran on UNESCO's World Heritage list. The blogger says that while he is happy about the move, he is also unhappy because of inaction by UNESCO when Armenian sites in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan were destroyed.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Iran:Pictures do not Lie! · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Kamnagir, an Iranian blogger, points out  that a photograph published of the recent missile tests in Iran is from the same test that was photographed 2 years ago. Read more in View From Iran  and New Yrok Times blog.


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Japan: Apologize for Graffiti in Florence · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

James from Japan Probe wrote a sum-up on the Graffiti scandal in Japan: A Japanese teenager who was caught on video daubing graffiti on the Duomo in Florence flew back to the Renaissance city at her own expense to apologise.


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Mozambique: Creativity to face food crises · Global Voices
Paula Góes

O Silêncio de Kianda [pt] brings a good piece of news that shows people's creativity in face of food crises: bread made of cassava instead of wheat. “Nampula [a province of Mozambique] produces three million tons of cassava per year, which has proved to be enough to sustain the bakery business and consumption of the population”

author: Paula Góes


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Nepal: 2008 Gruber Women’s Rights Prize · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Nepal Monitor profiles Sapana Pradhan Malla, a Nepali lawyer and activist, who won the 2008 Gruber Women’s Rights Prize.


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Romania: Corruption · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

“The European Union conceals Romania’s backsliding on corruption,” report Edward Lucas and Valentina Pop.


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Soviet History: Politcal Jokes · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

One more review, by Edward Lucas, of the book on Soviet-time jokes – and one more joke from the book: “Who built the White Sea canal [Stalin’s single most murderous slave-labour project]?” “The left bank was built by those who told the jokes, and the right bank by those who listened.”


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Trinidad & Tobago: Is This Love? · Global Voices
Skye Hernandez

Trinidad blogger Why does the glass have to be half empty or half full? looks at family and love (the conditional type).


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Barbados: Mottley Declares Assets · Global Voices
Skye Hernandez

In the follow-up to Prime Minister David Thompson's first Budget Speech, Opposition Leader Mia Mottley declares her assets, becoming the first Barbadian politician to do so. De Standpipe and Bajan Global Report give the details of this surprise move.


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Barbados: Trini Invasion · Global Voices
Skye Hernandez

As Barbados gears up for its annual “Crop Over” carnival, Boyce Voice protests the inclusion of several Trinidadian performers as headliners in the festival's biggest event.


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Belarus: The Blast, the Arrests, and Bloggers’ Solidarity · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A week ago, a homemade bomb packed with bolts and screws tore through a crowd of thousands of people who had gathered for the Independence Day all-night concert near the World War II monument in central Minsk. The blast occurred around 12:30 a.m on July 4; some 54 people were wounded; Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko happened to be nearby when the bomb went off, but was not hurt.
Following the bombing, police interrogated a number of Belarusian opposition members and human rights activists and searched their homes and offices. On July 9, four people were detained: Sergei Chislov, Igor Korsak, Viktor Leshchinsky and Miroslav Lozovsky, all members of the White Legion, the youth wing of the Belarusian Union of Military Personnel, banned in 1996.
Andrei Khrapavitsky of the recently re-launched Belarusan American Blog has written (ENG) about the blast and the subsequent arrests – as well as about the Belarusian bloggers’ response:
[…] I guess there’s hardly a blogger in Belarus who hasn’t commented on the bomb blast. People are guessing what happened and what consequences it would have. There are lots of different versions, but I doubt there is much sense to recapitulate them here. One is for sure. This is the first major terror act in Belarus. Even if the regime itself is not involved (and most probably, it isn’t as many prominent analysts, like Silitski and Feduta, think), there’s a damn good pretense to use this bomb blast for intimidation of the opposition. The blast is especially handy for this matter, as it happened a few days after the parliamentary race had officially started in Belarus.
LJ user kabierac posted Martin Niemöller's poem “First they came…” on his blog and called Belarusian fellow-bloggers to use the emblem of the White Legion as their userpic image, to express solidarity with the four individuals detained in connection with July 4 blast. His post (BEL, RUS) has made it into the Top 30 of the Yandex Blogs portal.
Many Belarusian bloggers have supported the initiative. LJ user coipish is one of them; according to some reports (BEL), he has also been detained by the police. He wrote this (BEL, RUS):
What you see on my userpic now is the emblem of what used to be the White Legion, whose former members are now being blamed for the recent blast. I join the initiative to support them by at least changing my userpic. I really sympathize with all the victims of the terrorist act, but, unfortunately, the real perpetrators are not likely to be ever held responsible for it :((
LJ user z_hunter chose to use an alternative userpic image – with the same symbol but a different color scheme:
Here is why (a discussion in the comments section on LJ user coipish‘s post):
z_hunter:
A good emblem, but the colors are bad. Not our colors – black and red. I like the white-red-white variation better.
kostas14:
Traditional for the Belarusian culture and art. […]
z_hunter:
That's right. But red flag is also associated with some not very good periods in the history of the USSR and Germany. And all this had a very destructive and sad effect on our Belarus.
As for the reactions of the relatively apolitical Minsk residents, Kartina Mira (“Picture of the World”) blog, run by a Belarus-based Russian citizen, has this sketch (RUS), featuring a conversation overheard at one of the city's hairdressing salons:
[…]
- Oh, have you heard about the blast? A real terrorist act…
– Yes. Chechnya is way over there, and we are here. They are totally getting out of control.
That is, these events are so unnatural for Belarus that ordinary people come up with only one direct association for the blast: “terrorist act – Chechnya.”
The realities of the country I live in. Quiet, peaceful, nice, stable. Sometimes even boring. But it's so much better than what the neighbors have.


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Bermuda: Tourism Outsourced  · Global Voices
Skye Hernandez

News that the Bermuda Department of Tourism is retrenching workers at its New York office, and outsourcing to an unnamed US sales company, leaves Vexed Bermoothes asking a lot of questions.


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Bolivia: Long Lines at Pharmacies · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Dora Romero of Las Ideas Son Primero [es] is noticing many more pharmacies in the city of El Alto, Bolivia. She wonders whether long lines mean that more people are getting sick due to the cold weather or eating habits.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Caucasus: Russian Language · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Social Science in the Caucasus comments on data indicating the level of English and Russian language proficiency in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.


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China and Japan: Support to Earthquake Orphans · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Martin J Frid from Kurashi blogs about a Japanese non-profitable group, Ashinaga's initiative in helping earthquake Orphans. Recently the group helped bring Japanese earthquake orphans to Sichuan.


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China: Internet Commentators · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Woshiyangxue posted a list of professional requirements for internet commentators (the so-called 50 Cents gang). The blogger also collected some ads from various local media on recruitment of internet commentators.


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China: Support Yang Jia · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Although Yang Jia (楊佳) had murdered 6 polices in Shanghai, netizens in general showed sympathy towards Yang. Ai Wei Wei pointed out that the Shanghai police lied about the case and turned Yang into a cold blood murderer. Robert Mao supported Yang as he had been bullied by the police before and believed that there were hidden reasons for Yang's behavior.


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China: Uncle Tea · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Zhongguotese wrote a letter to uncle tea (national security guards) who like to invite netizens for a cup of tea (investigation). The blogger believed that they are just getting their job done so as to feed their family, he hope that they can try to do thing differently within their own capacity for the future of China.


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Ecuador: Book Fair in Guayaquil · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Nuestros Reflejos [es] invites all to the Book Fair currently being held in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and which she is helping to organize.


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Serbia: “Face to Face With Digitalization” · Global Voices
Sinisa Boljanovic

(An audio version of this post read by Vera Serkovic is also available. Please scroll down to the bottom of the page to access the audio player)
The Parliament of the Republic of Serbia elected a new government a few days ago. The basic goals now are for the new Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic to strive for European integration, defend Kosovo, strengthen the economy and social responsibility, step up the struggle against corruption and crime, and fulfill Serbia’s international commitments.
Bloggers paid attention to this event. However, one of them was also thinking about a very important issue for the government, something the new Prime Minister has so far failed to address.
Miroslav Jankovic, a B92's blogger, wrote this in his post titled “Face to face with digitalization”:
As time goes by, the significance of Internet as a source of information is growing. Just in Serbia the number of users has increased from 6% of the total population in 2003 to 16% in 2008. Because of that, governments are more and more interested in the information available on the web. Unfortunately, as an unavoidable consequence of this growth, there appears to be a desire of the governments to filter Internet content as well.
Some other countries around the world have already adopted laws that regulate freedom of expression on the Internet. In Serbia, this idea sounds like science fiction. Although the first impression of this statement is negative, maybe after all our position is not very bad at the moment. Maybe this can be an opportunity for us to put in order the behavior on the Internet which will not endanger the freedom of expression and media freedom, and human rights in general. Surely, not like in Saudi Arabia, or China, or Turkey, where there is, for example, censorship of YouTube and WordPress.
When legislators engage in this issue, they sometime intend to do a good thing. But, until they don't understand completely the whole complexity of Internet, their efforts can be unintentionally turned into a limitation of freedom of expression (at best), leading to excessive filtering and blocking of the web.
For example, blocking of some of the content that seems undesirable to them could lead to blocking of an entire web site or even an entire domain. However, “filtering” is the most frequent result in combination with excessive blocking, when more information gets blocked than planned initially. It has little effect, too, as such measures can be easily overcome by the average educated users of Internet. It is true that freedom of expression on the Internet cannot be unlimited: there is, obviously, some “illegal” content out there. I'll just mention child pornography or hate speech that appears most often on neo-Nazi organizations’ sites. Because of all that, it's quite a challenge to identify the difference between content that is illegal everywhere and always (such as child pornography) and content that is undesirable from the viewpoint of authorities and may be banned for political reasons.
There is one more dimension of the future of the Internet that attracts attention. Today, the Internet is considered as a kind of a supplement to the mainstream media. This situation will change soon. Digitalization of the media will decrease the influence of the national electronic media. The term “local media” will not be precise and correct anymore because of the immediacy that the Internet offers. Actual frequency distribution will be seriously shaken by alternative forms of distribution of information, such as the Internet. Also, it seems that blogs now have the power to transform the traditional ideas about ways of forming the public opinion. It forces on a question about a potential monopoly of Internet because of its lucrative feature. […]
In the comments section, dracena looked back at the following sentence from Miroslav Jankovic's post: “Digitalization of the media will decrease the influence of the national electronic media.”
She replied:
It is not clear to me what you mean by digitalization and about which media you are talking, but I have two absolutely different anticipations. More and more, there is a complementary relationship between the electronic media and the Internet. Developed countries are already using interactive TV, which, in other words, is a combination of TV and the Internet. And this medium right here – B92 – as you can see, it is going in the same direction. It is true that it will be very difficult for traditional TV stations to survive, but their competitors are modern TV stations, not the Internet. However, if you think about big national TV and radio stations, then you are probably right, because production and broadcast with modern technology is becoming cheaper and is available to many creative people.
Miroslav Jankovic believes that modern technologies, such as Internet, seriously endanger the traditional media. He explains what he meant when he used the term “digitalization”:
I’m thinking about a shift from the analog to digital media. That is something that all European countries should be finished with by 2015 and members of the EU by 2012, according to recommendation of the European Commission.
He adds:
I think that the new media, Internet, web presentations, multimedia, virtual reality will be pushing the traditional media (TV, radio, press) backstage more and more. So there will be a decreased influence of big national TV and radio stations, as you've guessed very well, and there will be increased influence of local (traditional) media. I think that will be a consequence of the transfer from the analog to digital system.
I don't read newspapers anymore. I exclusively use Internet as a source of information. Many of my acquaintances do the same…
Dracena, however, believes in compatibility of the mainstream media and Internet:
[…] If the print media are dynamic and inventive, they will not have damage from the Internet. They can also have an additional electronic form. […]
She also identified some issues that concern the Internet in Serbia:
[…] I think that the biggest obstacle to popularization of Internet in our country is the desire of many that everything published online should be lucrative, even those texts that have public importance, such as laws. Because of that many of them are not available online. Government should publish all laws and they should be free. Also, spelling and grammar of the Serbian language should be available online, because there are 33% of functionally illiterate people in Serbia. Generally speaking, the government should consider which content its institutions should be publishing on the Internet.
[…]
If we want to increase the use of Internet in Serbia, then “our Internet” will have to be useful to ordinary citizens. “Our Internet” is still empty now. Apart from companies whose sites are full of advertising, there is almost no other content, at least without subscription. When will we start to make the base of Serbian language? All European languages have already got software for translation. We are moving at a snail's pace because we have no electronic base of knowledge of the language. Internet is excellent, fast and useful, but it has to be “fed” smartly and healthily. […]
Miroslav Jankovic replies:
[…] Establishing the electronic form of the media instead of the print form will, above all, be important to the local media. Today local press is available in local areas. If they would be published on the Internet, they would be available all over the world. It is true, for now their topics have local character, but the Internet might be inspiration for them to engage in topics that are important beyond local areas. In this way, a strong competition will be created. That will be a challenge for the big media.
Jankovic is skeptical about law regulation. He says:
Law regulation requires too much effort and understanding of the complexity and I ask myself who will do this job if many of the mayors in Serbia have not got computers in their offices. […]
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author: Sinisa Boljanovic


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Guatemala: Was Antigua the Inspiration for the Little Prince? · Global Voices
Renata Avila

For a relatively small country, Guatemala's magnificent scenery can awaken one's imagination.  From the 37 volcanoes [es] that rise up from the landscape to the mystical Lake Atitlan, it is a country that has attracted intellectuals in the field of culture and arts, who may have been drawn to this magical land.  Visitors such as Simone de Beauvoir, Louis de Aragon, Pablo Neruda, Ché Guevara, even Aldous Huxley visited this land of Ceiba trees and roses.  One other author, Antoine De Sain Exupéry, who is best known for writing “The Little Prince,” also visited Guatemala by accident, and leads to the question: Was Antigua, Guatemala his Muse for writing about Asteroid B-612?
Bonjour Guate [es], a blog dedicated to the francophonie, tells us the introduction to our story:
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry conoció Guatemala por accidente. Uno que destruyó su avión y lo dejó malherido.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry visited Guatemala by accident. He had a plane crash in Guatemala, his airplane was destroyed and he was seriously injured.
And as Bonjour Guate  continues:
Han surgido teorías acerca de los lugares que inspiraron a De Saint-Exupéry a escribir El Principito: una de las suposiciones da cuenta de que el Asteroide B-612, la casa del Principito, es La Antigua Guatemala, donde el aviador se recuperó de los golpes de su percance aéreo
Enchiel, a Guatemalan blogger that enjoys The Little Prince, explores the theories connecting Antigua Guatemala, the city of Roses saying that was Antoine's muse [es]:
¿Presunción o no la de afirmar tal cosa? Quien sabe! Pero lo cierto es que hay detalles de su asteroide que coinciden con Antigua, ejemplo: el asteroide del principito tenía dos volcanes activos y uno inactivo. De todos los lugares a los que viajó Exupéry, ¿qué otro lugar sino sólo Antigua Guatemala tiene igualmente dos volcanes inactivos (el de Agua y Acatenango) y uno activo (el de Fuego)?
Blogger Jorge Palmieri has another theory, he met his widow in 1972, the Salvadoran Consuelo Suncín , and he asserts that she was the spoiled rose :
Consuelo era una mujercita sumamente coqueta y excesivamente generosa con sus amores. Sin embargo, a pesar de sus defectos humanos, es indiscutible su papel de musa que jugó para El Principito . Sus defensores argumentan que el volcán extingido del minúsculo asteroide es un guiño metafórico a El Salvador, país natal de su problemática consorte, donde pudo haber sido inspirado por el extinguido volcán Izalco para escribir sobre el volcán extinguido en el asteroide B 612 donde vivía El Principito y se dedicaba a cuidar a la rosa que era para él.
Consuelo was a tiny, flirty woman, excessively generous with her lovers. However, in spite of her human defects, no one can contradict that she was The Little Prince's muse. Her supporters argue that the volcano of the small asteroid was a metaphor mocking her country, El Salvador. He could have been inspired by the extinguished volcano Izalco and wrote about Little Prince's home, Asteroid B 612 where he took care of a rose.
It might be the correct theory since De Saint Exúpery said once: “I recall my wife's eyes again. I will never see anything more but those eyes. They question.”
One Guatemalan blogger living and working in Africa, Desde Kinshasha [es],  tells a small story about Baobabs, the famous tree in the book, paradoxically similar to the Ceiba, the national tree of Guatemala. Before coming back home, she was really sorry that she did not see a Baobab, but in the end she did see one:
Volví la vista a la derecha y a la izquierda y reconocí varios más. En ese último día de mayo en Kinshasa me di cuenta que siempre habían estado ahí, que los baobabs eran ceibas, y que, finalmente, no estaba tan lejos de casa.
I turned my eyes to the right, to the left and I saw many of them. On the last day of May in Kinshasha, I realized that the Baobabs were always there, and that they were Ceibas , and in the end, I was not that far from home.
Antoine de Saint Exúpery, the famous French writer of The Little Prince, the one who once said, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eyes,” saw our volcanoes, smelled our roses, and lived with our people before writing his master piece. He walked the streets of Antigua, loved a Central American girl, and spent time drawing while recovering from the plane crash. From there, hewent to New  York City with a lot of inspiration. Whether or not Guatemala was the true inspiration,  some accidents and random encounters with strangers have happy endings, like the book that I am holding in my hands.

author: Renata Avila


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India: HIV Testing · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

To Each Its Own on the role of law in the issue of pre-marital HIV testing.


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Iran: Balatarin, a successful citizen media story · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Mehdi  Yahyanejad is the founder of the very successful  Balatarin site. Balatarin (which means ‘the highest’ in Persian) is a community website through which users can post links to webpages of their interest, with an emphasis on the Iranian audience. The underlying idea is a mixture of reddit, digg, newsvine, and del.icio.us.
In less than two years Balatarin has become a valuable source of information and communication. In this interview Mehdi, who holds a PhD at Physics from MIT and is also currently co-founder and CEO of Adoptic.com, shares with us his Balatrin adventure.
Please tell us when you started Balatarin and how you evaluate its success. Any statistics?
I launched Balatarin on August 16, 2006. So far there have been 300,000 news summaries posted on the site. 5 million votes and 1 million comments have also been entered. I, however, evaluate Balatarin's success beyond its statistics: Balatarin is widely read by Iranian journalists and bloggers in and outside of Iran. As a result, the discussions taking place on Balatarin get coverage in multiple countries and platforms.
You used Digg as a model. Do you think an Iranian facebook will become popular too?
Yes. I think that having a Persian facebook that encompasses Iranian universities and high schools can be very attractive. Obviously, it depends on how well the site is designed.
How is the weight of bloggers in Balatarin?
Quite a bit. Most of the active users are bloggers. Balatarin is also the place for Persian bloggers to get wide coverage for what they write. Blog posts that are submitted to Balatarin often get more comments than the original posts on the blogs.
Balatarin was a leap forward for citizen media for Iranians. How you see the development of citizen media in the country?
Iran had a head start in citizen media by being one of the first countries where blogging became widely popular. However, it hasn't been able to follow up with the pace. Any type of citizen media, even if it's online, needs to be promoted by meet-ups and seminars as well as businesses which support its survival. This has not been the case in Iran.
Are you planning to launch an English version of Balatarin?
Not any time soon. At the moment, I am focusing on another project, Adoptic.com, which was inspired by my experience in Balatarin. The idea is to allow bloggers to promote their content by using their own and other fellow blog spaces. I am trying to create a very smooth way of content discovery and promotion. There are also a ton of cool algorithms being used in the process.
Any ideas to share with our audience?
I try to keep myself exposed to new ideas. It's very easy to be consumed with what we do everyday. Something what I do, is I buy a new and random magazine each time I fly. This exposes me to ideas from many different domains.


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Iran: Students support Tavancheh, a leftist student · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Abed Tavancheha, an Iranian leftist student and blogger, was sentenced to 8 months prison for his political activities. He has less than 3 weeks to request an appeal. More than 100 students signed a petition in Sos Tavancheh to support this leftist student.


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Jamaica: The Need To Take Responsibility  · Global Voices
Skye Hernandez

My View of JamDown From Up So uses recent international news events to illustrate how the Jamaican authorities and media may handle—or not handle—similar stories.

author: Skye Hernandez


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Japan: View from Ecuador on WaiWai “Child Hunt” · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

The story of the end of “WaiWai” has exploded on the English and Japanese [ja] Internet in Japan over the past few weeks, with no lack of Internet users expressing both outrage and support. For those who have not followed this story, WaiWai was a regular column in Japan's fourth largest newspaper Mainichi, published for many years on the English version of their website. Written by chief editor Australian Ryann Connell, WaiWai featured some of the most scandalous articles from Japan's weekly tabloids, translated to English with added “embellishments”. The authenticity of claims in the articles, which over the years increasingly featured sexual themes, was dubious to say the least.
Up until recently, WaiWai was virtually unknown to Japanese audiences, few of whom read the content on the English-language Mainichi website. According to reports, this changed when blogger Mozu wrote a post [ja] translating and commenting on a post in English at Neojaponisme entitled: “How the World Learns About Japan“. This discussion was later picked up on 2channel (Japan's largest bulletin board) and then by the news site J-CAST [ja], and from there it became a major news story, sparking protests that eventually made to TV news. A whole site devoted to the topic [ja], as well as a wiki [ja] with additional resources such as a full timeline of events [ja], have also been created.
Mainichi quickly removed the articles in question from the web and issued an apology, also announcing a third-party investigation of the WaiWai column, but this has not satisfied many in Japan. The situation has become so extreme that advertisers have pulled their ads from the Mainichi site [ja], where now only self-promotional ads [ja] to Mainichi itself can be found.
One of the most controversial articles in the former WaiWai column was entitled “Sex, rape & slaves inserted in sick holiday menu”, in which one passage reads:
In Ecuador, Japanese can, according to the men’s weekly, hunt for children in a different manner as they are armed with a rifle and permitted to track down a youth let loose in the jungle. About 10 Japanese have so far taken part in the tours, with only three getting a shot off at their target and no fatalities reported.
In all the uproar over WaiWai, one Japanese resident in Ecuador discovered this article and wrote a blog post at a blog entitled Nanmei (南瞑) that was heavily linked to and commented on, in which the blogger describes an email they wrote to Mainichi:
すでに、２ちゃんなどを見てる方はご承知でしょうが、毎日新聞のweb版コラムで、低俗極まりない虚偽情報を足掛け9年にも亘って英文で世界に発信していた、という事が報じられました。すでに毎日新聞社はこれについての謝罪文を掲載、関係者の処分を行ったと発表しています。しかし、忘れている事があります。すでに発信してしまった情報の処置です。すでにコラムは閉鎖、発信された情報のアーカイブも削除されていますが、世界を駆け巡る情報は、毎日新聞の手を離れ、世界の様々な処で、「毎日新聞発」という権威付けをされて、残存しています。
ところで、その発信された虚偽情報の中に「エクアドルで日本人が子供をジャングルに放し、それを銃で狩る」というものがありました。これについて、ネット上に存在するキャッシュを添付、毎日新聞社宛、問い合わせのメールを致しました。毎日新聞の問い合わせフォームを使い、丁寧に確認をお願いした次第ですが、残念ながら三日という余裕を提示したにも関わらず、その三日を過ぎても返信を戴けませんでした。以下に、私が問い合わせをしたメールを全文公開致します。
In the email, the blogger explains their concerns about the WaiWai article:
ご理解願えるかと存じますが、私はエクアドルに在住する日本人でございます。仮にこれが本当に御社により配信されたものであるとしましたならば、場合によっては当地在住の全ての日本人及びその家族に「生命の危険」がございます。何卒、事情ご賢察の上、早急にご返答願えれば幸甚です。
Later in the post, the blogger continues:
さて、エクアドルに在住する日本人であるところの私たちは、この毎日新聞社の発信した記事で将来の可能性も含めて、大変な一般生活上での危険を背負い込む事になりました。エクアドルの現状の治安状態を考慮すれば、相当に由々しき問題と言えます。この件は毎日新聞社が国内、国外に謝罪しただけでは済みません。エクアドルという国名を挙げ、そして、日本人と国籍を特定して、「子供を銃で撃っている」と書いたのです。これをエクアドル人が知ったなら、どういう反応をするでしょうか？その程度の想像力もこの新聞社の従業員には欠如しているのでしょうか？
このエクアドルには、少なからぬ日本人が住んで、それぞれに安寧な生活基盤を築き、平和に生活しています。毎日新聞社は、一体、どんな資格、権利をもって、私たちエクアドル在住の日本人の安全を毀損したのでしょうか？仮にこの記事の内容が事実だったとしても、それをもって、この国に在住する全ての日本人の安全を毀損して良いのでしょうか？ましてや、この記事に書かれた内容は、まったく信憑性のかけらすら無い、ゴシップとすら言えない「妄想」に近いものです。このようなもので、私たちエクアドル在住日本人が、その生命を危険に晒されなければならない正当な理由を、毎日新聞社は私たちに開示出来るのでしょうか？
The vast majority of comments and trackbacks to the blog post are supportive of Nanmei. Blogger r_o_k, for example, expresses this view:
英語ブログをつけたことのある人なら誰でもその影響範囲にびびった経験があると思う。もっとも最盛期は2、3年前くらいかな。今はコミュニティサービスが停滞期に入りブログも日本語が世界一になっているから、私の放置英語ブログもアクセスが激減しているけど、ニュースポータルやミニブログは未ださかんなようだ。つまり、こういう報道起因の英文ネタ情報は、細かく無数にコピペされ、もとが消えても痕跡が残り、時間をこえて残り話題にされつづけるのが今。
One comment at Nanmei however questioned the seriousness of the concerns:
少し気にしすぎなんじゃないの？
元の記事が配信されたのが2003年、それから5年、何も問題なく生活できてるんでしょ？
エクアドルで。
だったら、今後、あなたの言う「毎日新聞社の記事によって生命を失う危険に直面しています。」ような状態にはならないと思うよ。
あなたのことではないですが、2ちゃんねらーのなかにはどうも低レベルなマスコミ叩きをしたいだけの連中が多いようですね。
彼らの行動は、理解に苦しみます。
In a follow-up post, Nanmei responds specifically to this comment, explaining the situation in Ecuador:
このような国で、国名を特定し、国籍を明示して、「狩りとして子供を銃で撃つ」という行為している、という記事を、その真偽に関わらず、「新聞」と言う権威付けが行われた状態で一般に発信した場合、どうなると思いますか？おそらく、大半の人は、自分の経験に照らして、そんな事がこの国で行われているはずが無い、とすぐに気付くでしょう。しかし、ごく一部かも知れませんが、この記事を鵜呑みに信じてしまう人たちがいます。
この、ごく少数かも知れない人たちでも、銃器は所持できます。もちろん実弾が入った状態で。
多分、それが強盗だったなら、助かるかも知れません。強盗の目的はカネです。カネさえ盗れば、それで満足して撃たないかも知れません。でもそれが、意図して「日本人を撃つ」ためだったらどうでしょう。必ず撃たれます。この記事の問題は、「意図して日本人を撃つ」動機を与える事にあるのです。そして、その日本人とは、この記事に書かれた「ツアーで子供を撃った」日本人ではありませんし、記事を書いた豪州人でもなく、毎日新聞の記者でもありません。
2003年にこの記事が掲載されて以来、幸いな事に明らかにこの記事が動機となって殺された日本人はこの国では知られていません。それは幸運な事に、この記事をスペイン語に翻訳したものが無かったというのも理由でしょう。私が検索した限りでは、簡単に検索にかかるサイトでこの記事をスペイン語で書いたものはありませんでした。しかし、それは僥倖です。いつまでも僥倖に頼る訳には行きません。明日、この記事のスペイン語訳が新聞やwebサイトに現れたらどうなるのでしょうか？そして英語だからと安心するわけにも行かないのです。この国ではまともな学校へ通える子供達は6歳から英語を習うのですから。
Members of the GV team have searched for Spanish-language and Ecuador-based blogs mentioning the WaiWai controversy, but nothing seems to be out there. If any readers know of such conversations, please let us know.

author: Chris Salzberg


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Pakistan: Women and Jihad · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

CHUP! on women gathering at the Red Mosque in Pakistan.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Serbia: Arts Roundup · Global Voices
Elia Varela Serra

Here are some picks from the blogosphere on Serbian literature, architecture, design, film, music, visual arts and cuisine. Enjoy!
Literature
Semanario Serbio [Es] writes about the recent passing of Dejan Medaković, a writer and art historian who was the president of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts from 1999 to 2003. Quoting the director of a publishing house, Zoran Kolundžija, he commented on Medaković's contribution to Serbian arts:
Esta obra sólo hay que leerla, simplemente porque allí están muchas respuestas a nuestros problemas prácticos […] Durante su larga y fructuosa vida Medaković nos ha enseñado que lo más importante es seguir siendo fiel a tu pueblo, su cultura, a la afirmación de esa cultura y su conexión con el mundo.
Architecture
Sandra Drašković  of Demystifying Serbian Design informs of the results of the competition “Boathouse” that were announced last Sunday during the Architecture Week in Belgrade. The competition was open to architects and students under 35 and its goal was to “give a new development model, functional distribution and visual identity” to commercial floating structures on the river banks of the Danube and the Sava. Drašković  also posted several pictures of the winning projects, such as the one below:
(Photo of the winning project by Studio Poligon)
Nothing Against Serbia describes in a post full of photos the blokovi of New Belgrade, apartment blocks built in 1948 by the communist regime of the time. These blocks, which are home to 100,000 “socio-economically mixed inhabitants because most people in blokovi received their apartments through government-funded social programs,” have appeared in a number of Serbian movies, and have also been the protagonists of two documentaries in 1973-74 about the artists and intellectuals who used to live there, mostly on Block 45 and 70.
The blogger concludes by saying:
Although the blocks have an image of grayness and drabness (shown in movies like Rane, Apsolutnih sto, Jedan na jedan, Sutra ujutro, and Sedam i po), the reality is much friendlier than portrayed in the movies.
(Photo by Elia Varela Serra)
Music
In a later post, Nothing Against Serbia gives some examples of the artists inspired by the blocks:
From the 90's till now  also the belgradian Hip-Hop scene gets its inspiration from the “blokovi” where it's kind of standard to choose the blocks as a location for videos. (see for exemple “Struka feat. Demian – 1001 plan“).
Another rap artist got his name from the blocks and made is record label (carski rez) there: Blokovski. His entire image is built around New Belgrade's Blocks!
Speaking of 1990's Serbian music, Balkan File posted a music video from 1995 by a boy band called Beat Street (Bit strit), with the comment “Glad to see that British and Serbian 90s pop share the same awful dance moves”.
Film
The first post of the brand new collective blog Balkan Crew [It] reviewed the film Apsolutnih Sto by Srđan Golubović. The review highlights the very blokovi mentioned above, where a few scenes are set, as well as the disco-restaurants on the Danube river banks also mentioned earlier.
One of their latest posts reviews another Serbian movie, Zona Zamfirova by Zdravko Šotra, set in the southern town of Niš in the 19th century. The review quotes the director speaking of the film's success:
La nostra cinematografia da 10 anni si occupa di temi contemporanei, di questi giorni tristi, delle guerre, delle sanzioni. Il pubblico dice basta a questi film. “Zona” è una commedia romantica senza parolacce e scene brutte, una storia d’amore con un po’ di melodramma. Forse la gente voleva un po’ di serenità dopo le tante cose brutte successe, rappresentate in film carichi di violenza.
Visual Arts
Diario de una serbia [Es] introduces  her readers to Milena Pavlović Barilli, a Serbian painter and poet who lived between 1909 and 1945. She says that the style of her art is hard to define:
… en su obra coohabitan […] modernismo y realismo con las reminiscencias históricas en los retratos y pinturas de flores, el realismo poético o mágico están reflejados en sus retratos y composiciones de mujeres trajeadas; además existe el surrealismo que complica el tema, llevando a varios objetos a una relación irracional, liberando una misteriosa poesía de horror y aguardamiento en las pinturas con estatuas, sillas de hierro, abanicos, guantes, pájaros nocturnos, estrellas, chicas, cartas, actrices con trajes, viejas.
Cuisine
And to end this roundup on a sweet note, we recommend that you try the recipe for tulumbe, described by Marija Petrović in her blog Palachinka. She calls it “one of the most loved desserts in the Balkans, probably originally brought here during the Ottoman rule in this region.” Take a look at the picture below and see if you get inspired!
(Photo by Marija Petrović)

author: Elia Varela Serra


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Sri Lanka: Scarcity of Seed Paddy · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

GroundView on the farmers in Sri Lanka facing hardships as a result of the scarcity  of seed paddy for them to sow.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Survival Strategy  · Global Voices
Skye Hernandez

Trinidadian blogger, The Coffee Wallah, isn't impressed by the G8 leaders’ tree-planting exercise, and says our approach to the environment reminds her of a Hollywood action movie. “Are we really going to wait until we have four minutes to save the world?”, she asks.


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Albania: New UNESCO World Heritage Site · Global Voices
Elia Varela Serra

This year's UNESCO World Heritage Committee's meeting took place in Quebec City, Canada, on July 2-10, and, as a result, 27 new sites were inscribed in the World Heritage List, which now totals 878 sites. According to Stepping Stones blog, the town of Berat in Albania has made it onto UNESCO's list as well:
[…] The addition is an extension by the UN heritage committee, which added the city centre of Berat to the site of [Gjirokastra], which was put on the heritage list in 2005.
Stepping Stones also posted several pictures from her trip to Berat last year, such as the one below (you can see her whole Berat photoset here):
(Photo of Berat's old town by Kimberly Hakkenberg)
The Balkanforum Blog describes Berat, quoting the UNESCO report:
Berat was added as “a rare example of a well-preserved Ottoman town”, UNESCO said.
“Berat bears witness to the coexistence of various religious and cultural communities down the centuries,” it added.
The town of 64,000 inhabitants features a castle locally known as the Kala most of which was built in the 13th century, although its origins date back some 2,400 years.
The area includes many Byzantine churches, mainly from the 13th century, several of which contain valuable wall paintings and icons.
The town also has several mosques built under Turkish occupation which started in 1417 and several houses for religious communities, notably some used by Sufi brotherhoods in the 18th century.
(Photo of a Byzantine church in Berat by JasonRogers)
Tafik Jamjoun in his Balkans travelogue described Berat as follows:
This was a completely different style of architecture and town planning than we had seen before. The homes were built of field stones or some kind of white material with wooden roves and trimmings, much different from the Roman and Austrian influenced old cities we had seen to date. What also struck us about this site was the lack of any toursim whatsoever. This was a completely living city with not even a small stand selling drinks and postcards. Instead there were turkey and chickens and sheep roaming around… and of course, it had its fair share of Mercedes!!
(Berat from the top by the MaGe)
Note for those interested in viewing more photos of Berat: Flickr user MrSco has a very good recent photoset of the town.
As for the World Heritage List, blogger Hrag Vartanian has made an interesting observation:
I did some wiki-ing and discovered that the distribution of World Heritage Sites is a little lopsided:
* 49% are in Europe & North America
* 21% are in Asia & the Pacific
* 14% are in Latin America and the Caribbean
* 9% are in Africa
* 7% are in Arab States (why these are even separated out is beyond me since there is no such thing as an “Arab” state but a state with a majority Arab population)


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Bosnia & Herzegovina: Srebrenica Anniversary · Global Voices
Elia Varela Serra

Yesterday, on July 11th, Bosnia and Herzegovina commemorated the 13th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, which last year the International Court of Justice in The Hague referred to as genocide against the Muslim population of the area.
(Do not by Kitestramrt, used under a Creative Commons License)
As the blog Bosnia News reports, the remains of 307 newly identified genocide victims were buried during a ceremony held at the Potočari Memorial Center near Srebrenica, next to more than 3,000 others others already buried there:
The remains of 307 genocide victims, aged between 15 and 84, were exhumed from mass graves after the end of the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia and identified by DNA analysis.
After leading mourners in prayer, Head of the Bosnian Islamic Community Reisu-l-ulema Mustafa Ef. Ceric called on the European Parliament to proclaim July 11 a day of mourning across the continent.
YakimaGulagLiteraryGazett wrote about the day on her blog:
Hasan Nuhanović was on T.V. several times. As was a neighbor of mine she lives close enough to ride the same bus regularly. She lost a son and a husband in the massacre, her son's name was Nermin. I knew the lady's face was familiar. She was shown in ‘Cry from the Grave’ as well as another documentary shown last night.
Today is an official Day of Mourning for the victims of the massacre.
Several Facebook groups are devoted to remembering the Srebrenica genocide, such as Learn from History: Remember the Bosnian Genocide (with over 6,600 members) or Never Forget Srebrenica 11.07.1995 (with over 4,200 members). Yesterday, there was even an online remembrance organized on the social networking website.
The first Facebook group linked to all 11 parts of the famous 1999 BBC documentary, A cry from the grave (see part 1 here). The blog Bosna Muslim – Media recommends a follow-up film called Never Again, and also links to the videos to watch it:
This second film was commissioned as an attempt to judge what had happened since the massacre. Had any degree of reparation been made to those who had lost their families? Had it been possible to bring some of the offenders to justice? Did the world care to remember what had happened in the worst atrocity to be committed in Europe since 1945?
About a month ago the organization Mothers of Srebrenica, which represents 6,000 relatives of the victims, launched a civil suit against the Netherlands and the UN for failing to prevent Bosnian Serb forces from massacring some 8,000 Bosniaks. A day before the Srebrenica massacre anniversary, the Dutch court ruled that it has no jurisdiction to hear the case since the UN is protected by immunity – even though, as stated by Eric Gordy at East Ethnia, “the people the UN was obligated to protect were protected by nothing at all.” The hearings against the Dutch government, however, will proceed in September.
Commenting on the ruling, the blog Samaha wonders:
If an organization such as the UN cannot be held accountable for failing to yield its own conventions then what is going to ensure that they do enforce them?  If member states are able to use UN immunity as a scapegoat then what is going to ensure battalions will remain unbiased in conflicts?  What is going to keep another genocide from occurring when examples are being set that the UN is either hopeless or unwilling in fulfilling their mandates?


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Morocco’s Changing Bodies · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Obesity and body image are two topics rarely discussed in Morocco.  The country, still developing in many ways, seems to have always had a healthy relationship with food; Moroccan cuisine, well-known around the world, uses lots of fresh meat, fruits, vegetables, and olive oil.  That healthy relationship seems to be changing as in many other places in the world, as Morocco receives an influx of fast food chains and packaged products.  Though some studies have been performed, the subject has been rarely broached in the blogosphere, that is until now.
In a six-part series, Margot the Marrakesh Mystic looks deeper into how Moroccan bodies (and consequently, Moroccan body image) is changing.  In Part one, the blogger reflects on obesity and the increase of diabetes in Morocco:
According to the WHO Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition, “the percentage of overweight children in Morocco more than tripled between 1987 and 2004.” This is attributed to the dual trend of decreasing physical activity levels, and a shift in diets to include more fats and sugars. The trend of overweight children is happening far more in cities, and mostly among the middle and upper classes
I have a Moroccan friend who is an assistant in one of the classes at the local American School. Children in this school are mostly from the upper-middle and upper classes. I asked him, “Out of the 21 Moroccan children in his own class (foreigners excluded from the count), how many were overweight?“
He responded, “Five are quite fat, seven are rather chubby, but not yet obese; and the remaining nine are of normal weight.” So that means 57 percent of the class is overweight, or obese; while 43 percent are of normal weight.
While parts two and three deal with similar issues (namely, the increase in supermarkets and modern appliances in Morocco), part four deals with an interesting topic: the desire of young Moroccan women to gain weight.  In this post, the blogger shares an anecdote about her younger sister:
My little sister THINKS she is too skinny (at least she’s teased by the girls at school who say she is, but they are chubby, so it’s probably jealousy). So she wears four pairs of pants under her jeans. I ask her why she is doing this, especially when it is over 100°F outside! She says it’s so that the thigh area of the jeans will not look “loose,” but filled out, and tight all around, like her friends look in their jeans. All I can say is that I remember being this age (fourteen) and how important it is at that age to dress like your friends.
Part five deals with fast food restaurants in Morocco.  Interestingly enough, the blogger concludes:
There were no fast-food restaurants until recently. But in my opinion, they are NOT contributing to the problem of obesity in Morocco. Instead, they have enhanced our lifestyle considerably. We want these choices available here too, as they are available in the more developed countries.
Part six, which has not yet been released, will tackle the issue of diabetes in Morocco, something which, while not new, is a growing problem in the country.


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Russia: Foreign Policy · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

The Ivanov Report addresses factors forging Russian foreign policy under Medvedev.

author: Vilhelm Konnander


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Russia: Surkov on Joan Miró · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

IZO highlights an essay on Joan Miró, written for the Russian Pioneer magazine by Kremlin chief ideologist Vladislav Surkov – and re-published (RUS) by LJ user v_orlov. One reader asks (RUS): “What's next? An article by [PM Vladimir Putin] on [Mikhail] Bulgakov or [Fyodor] Dostoevsky? […]”


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Ukraine: “A Little Miracle” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Michelle Knisley of Scenes from the Sidewalk writes about her encounter with “a little miracle” – a 2-year-old boy who survived a fall from the seventh floor”: “His parents are drug addicts and they were high and had left a window open.”


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Ukraine: Victor Pinchuk & YES Summit · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Ukrainiana writes about Ukraine's second-richest man and his “self-promotional philosophy.”


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Africa: Summer Reflections (Thoughts from Mothers) · Global Voices
Paula Odhiambo

At what age should we begin to encourage compassion and giving in children? Isabella was shocked when one day, her daughter came home from camp and announced that she (Isabella) was a grandmother.
Obviously there was something I was missing, she could not have been pregnant and given birth while away at camp!! I could not guess how.
Well, it did not take too long for Isabella to find out what this grandmother business was about: together with a friend, her daughter had adopted a child. “His name is Miguel from the Democratic Republic and I am sure it must be the Congo”. When she did, she decided to support her daughter. “I was 6 years older than she is now when I had such dreams and there was not a soul to encourage me,” she says.
Ashe.Selah ponders talking about sex with her children, and gets candid about her own experiences.
We escaped to tell the truth another day.  And tell it we must, especially with all of our talks about honesty and how Mama and Daddy aren’t perfect.  But this scene took my mind back to those days.  Outta Mama’s house, on my own in college.  Boy, was I a trip.  Couldn’t seem to spell abstinence.  It was like I was on Soul Train at the scramble board arranging letters — the “i” was missing.  My approach to sexuality was both dangerous and unhealthy – to my physical and emotional well-being.
And, in closing, with joy in my heart, I announce: It’s another girl (with a ’fro?) for The Girl With A ’Fro! And, as she warns, it may take a while before we get another post from her…
I probably will have time to blog, but I’d much rather just sit and gaze at my daughter, inhale her beautiful heavenly baby scent and just marvel at the goodness of God in creating us the way He has :)
May God bless our mothers – their arms hold the future generation; their words counsel them; their eyes watch over them; their prayers keep them in check; their God protects and seals them!

author: Paula Odhiambo


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Angola: An unacceptable silence · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Brazilian expatriate, Menina de Angola [Girl from Angola, pt] comments about two separate cases of rape committed against Brazilian women in Luanda and criticizes the silence surrounding the issue, which according to her hasn't triggered any action from police, media or community: “I always thought the Angolan society was sexist, but I can not believe that violence against women is accepted with such normality”.


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Armenia: Genocide Literature · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Armenian Odar comments on a blog post dealing with literature on Genocide. In a second post, the same blog provides information on a book by a Turkish Human Rights Lawyer who discovered her Grandmother was actually Armenian and a survivor of the 1915 massacres in Ottoman Turkey.


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Armenia: Indian Students · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Armenia Higher Education & Sciences comments on a meeting between the country's new president and the Indian Ambassador. The specialist education blog wonders if the two discussed any real issues, especially as the number of Indians studying in Armenia has steadily declined since 2006 when one student died after falling from a window at a university dormitory.


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Armenia: Junior Eurovision · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Unzipped comments on Armenia's entry into this year's Junior Eurovision Song Contest. The blogger says he is impressed by 12-year-old Monika Manucharova whose family is homeless, but concludes that the song is not the best.


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Bahrain: Celebrating an Arabic blogging community · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Many bloggers in the Arab world use Arabic-language blog platforms such as Jeeran and Maktoob, and these sites have developed into large communities crossing national blogospheres. One popular Bahraini blogger, Shaima Al Watani, is celebrating her first year as part of the community of Jeeran bloggers.
Shaima, whose blog is called ‘Scattered clippings‘, tells the story of how she started:
However, some problems have occurred along the way:
But overall it has been a very positive experience:

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Brazil: Digital Crimes Bill approved by the Senate · Global Voices
Paula Góes

The Brazilian Senate approved this week its ‘Digital Crimes Bill’. Marcelo Träsel [pt] believes that the final version was slightly better than the original proposal: “For example, there won't be penalty increase by two thirds for libel, defamation and injury on the Internet. Some other terms were better defined, such as the article that would give scope to consider a copyright transgressor any person who assess a webpage”


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Brunei: Pencilnose campaign · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Brunei blogger and GV author Maurina invites everyone to join the pencilnosing campaign.

author: Mong Palatino


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China: The Upside Down Commemorative Notes for Olympics · Global Voices
Meng Zhang

The central bank, People's Bank of China (PBOC), has issued a commemorative currency note with a face value of 10 Yuan (about ＄1.46) to mark next month's Beijing Olympic Games. However, before most of the collectors had a chance to get it, a blogger named Naughty Lion (顽皮的狮子）pointed out a "mistake" in the backdrop of the special notes, which sparked new debate in the Chinese net world:
央行于08年7月8日发行的第29届奥林匹克运动会纪念钞,是世界上第一张奥运题材的纸币,也是到目前为止发行量最少的纪念钞,仅为600万张.  各地销售火爆,很多人排了很久的队都没有买到. 目前市场价已飙升到50倍以上.
和大多数人比起来,我真是幸运多了. 早上很早去办公室,跟北美倒时差刚刚开完会, 打了电话银行,说楼下网点就有卖! 赶紧,冲进电梯,直奔银行营业厅…. 流了很多汗, 挤得很痛苦, 可是很高兴,很兴奋–兑换到一张!!
对照着央行的第11号公告,欣赏着这张奥运纪念钞, 精美, 很多新颖的防伪技术,比鸟巢不干胶邮票技术含量高多了!
可是我最终还是发现了一处严重的失误, 心里愤愤地, 相关设计人员就不能仔细点吗!
The 29th Olympics commemorative note released by the central bank on July 8th, 2008, is the first Olympic-themed paper money in the world, and so far it is also the one with the smallest quantity of issue, with only 6 million notes. The sales are so hot across the country that many people cannot buy one after standing in the queue for a very long time. Now the market price has been rocketing up more than 50 times.
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Compared to most of the people, I was so lucky. I went to my office very early in the morning to attend a meeting according to the North American time. After that, I called the bank and learned that the branch downstairs was selling the notes. Immediately, I rushed into the elevator, straight up to the business hall of the bank… In spite of the pains of crowding and sweating, I am happy and excited—I got one!!
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Referring to the central bank's 11th Announcement, I appreciated this Olympic commemorative note, exquisite and innovative. The new anti-counterfeiting technology of it is much better than the sticker stamp of Bird's Nest!
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But finally I found out a serious mistake. It's so provocative. Can't the designers be more careful!
纪念钞正面的背景图案'天坛'的坛顶, 去哪了?—- 跑到鸟巢下面去了!!! 太不应该的失误!!!! 看看实钞扫描件.
Look at the backdrop of the front side. Where is the top of the Temple of Heaven ?—-  It's under the Bird's Nest!!! What a stupid mistake!!!! Have a look at the scanned image.
再看看样钞,也是这样的失误。
The sample note also has the same problem.
另外还注意到发行总量为600万张,但这张样钞的编号却为第一千万零九. 实际发行量是不是有一千万呢?
以上有待进一步确认.
央行发行奥运纪念钞的第11号公告及样钞
Besides, it is notable that there were 6 million notes released in total, but the serial number of the sample note is ten million and nine. Does the issue size really reach ten million?
All the things above are still to be determined.
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The central bank's 11th Announcement of the Olympic commemorative note and the sample.
Naughty Lion's detection also triggered a swift response of China's mainstream media, including Xinhua News Agency, which said the netizens’ complaint is fastidious, and in the meantime some people also retorted that the "mistake" is just a kind of anti-counterfeiting means, even though the official introduction of the commemorative note has never mentioned that.
The most interesting thing is, Naughty Lion's original post was forced to be hidden by blog.sohu.com, one of the biggest BSPs in China, while the top media are quoting the screen-shots of his blog and criticizing his "fussy discovery".
Xinhua's online report with Naughty Lion's blog screen-shot
The original link of Naughty Lion's blog article, which now appears to be "The article has been hidden"
Naughty Lion then republished the article that gets attention fully in his sohu blog and further indicated its standpoint in another post:
我昨天写博文< <奥运纪念钞惊现失误,很可能都是错币,待确定>>,指出奥运纪念钞正面背景图案'天坛'的坛顶跑到了鸟巢下面, 担心是一失误, 毕竟我们中国是第一次举办奥运会.  得到了大家的很大关注,很多媒体都作了转载,我切身体会到了大家对奥运的热情!  谢谢!
该博文被搜狐公司作了强制隐藏, 希望是暂时的.毕竟我是实话实说,也希望奥运钞没有失误.
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The post The mistake of Olympic commemorative note blasts out; still to be determined  I wrote yesterday pointed out that the top of the Temple of Heaven was printed under the Bird's Nest in the backdrop of Olympic commemorative note. I'm worried it's a design mistake; after all, it's the first time for China to hold Olympic Games. I appreciate that so many people and media have paid so much attention to my blog. I have truly experienced your enthusiasm about Olympic Games! Thank you!
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However, that post has been forcedly hidden by sohu company, which I hope is temporary. Anyway, I'm telling the truth and I also hope the Olympic commemorative note has no problem.
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author: Meng Zhang