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Niger: Niger back in the news? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Is Niger back in the news because of reports of famine? Not really:  “Niger isn’t in the headlines. It’s barely ever been in the headlines. It got a couple of weeks of coverage in mid-2005, courtesy of a BBC camera crew who visited an MSF feeding centre in the east of the country and snapped some shots of a few skeletal children…”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Nigeria: An American woman begging in Nigeria? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Africa is a Country comments on the video showing an American woman begging in a market iin Lagos, Nigeria: “If this is meant to be satire, it seems to me to fall particularly flat. It doesn’t help that the video was, as far as I can tell, posted without context or information…”

source: news-globalvoices

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


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Oman: Spot the Omani Car · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Living in Oman posted a sketch detailing how to spot an Omani car.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Puerto Rico: The Art World Finds a Space · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

In Puerto Rico, the art blogs have become vital spaces of discussion,  debate, deliberation, critique and information. Blogs like Carlos  Antonio Otero's El Naufragio de  las Palabras [ES], Pedro Velez's Box  Score [ES], Arnaldo Roman y Lilliam Nieves’ Trance Líquido, Abdiel  Segarra's Conboca [ES],  Carmen Olmo Terrasa's Donde Veo Arte [ES],  Javier Martinez's Autogiro [ES],  Teo Freytes’ MSA Xperimental [ES] and  Karla Marie Ostolaza's Fractal [ES] are forums  for discussion, interchange and exposition of contemporary art. They  have obtained what other virtual entrepreneurs anxiously desire: to  convert their spaces into necessary references and centers of a type of  information that you simply can't find in any other place.
Following  is an interview with the artist, blogger and reporter Carlos Antonio  Otero, who started his blog in 2008. This interview – in an abbreviated  version – was originally published in Diálogo,  the University of Puerto Rico's monthly.
Global Voices (GV)- Why did you start an art blog? What do you write about in your blog?
Carlos Antonio Otero (CAO)- The idea came up after interviewing the artist Teresa López for a newspaper report about contemporary art and she asked me if I had a blog about my pieces. I said no, and then she asked me why I didn't use this platform to channel my interest in documenting part of the contemporary art scene on the Island. My principal interest is to show which artists are doing the most work in the country, narrate their histories, and present and talk about their works of art. The restlessness is owed to the fact that the traditional communication media are not documenting the contemporary art scene, in terms of the new proposals and the emerging and non-emerging artists. There's a very particular emphasis on the established artists, and even inside this group, very few are talked about. Always the people are the same, and when one converses with people who don't necessarily know art, they think that art is what the media present about this or that artist, and they don't know about a whole world that is much bigger and much more diverse, even in our Island.
GV- When did Puerto Rican art blogs begin to proliferate?
CAO- The first effort to document the local cultural scene on the Internet arose in El Cuarto del Quenepón, created in the beginning of the 90's by María de Máter O'Neill. The actual facility of a blog didn't exist, but she worked hard; she had collaborators and broke with the traditional media to divulge information that she didn't find space to diffuse elsewhere. That effort lasted some years and with the arrival and proliferation of blogs other “sites” came up… El Naufragio is one of the most recent and has gotten a satisfactory acceptance because people have recognized the seriousness of the work that it does. Practically, we became a network because we all know each other, recognize each other's work, and make references to the information that we publish in our platforms. And above all, it's about a voluntary nonprofit effort. That's very important, because we don't review exhibits and elaborate about the work of one or another artist in exchange for something. It's simply a commitment to give voice to a scene that's there and even the connoisseurs of art on the Island refuse to recognize.
GV- Why do you think the art blogosphere in/about Puerto Rico has grown so much?
CAO-It's an unstructured movement in which we all agree, and it has proliferated precisely because of the need to tell the contemporary history of art that isn't being told anywhere else. And there is a need for this information; if not, we wouldn't exist. We have a generation of artists who have not experienced the formal critique of art; we don't know where our critics speak or write. We don't see that reflection, and the academy seems to produce mutes. So the blogs and the different platforms of the web have become the alternative. Even with their defects and virtues, even with their limitations, blogs are a serious and valid alternative in the majority of cases.
GV-What has the Internet offered art bloggers as a communication platform?
CAO-The Internet is the most viable, efficient and cost-effective platform for art bloggers, and bloggers of any other subject. We can't make a newspaper or magazine for the same cost, and neither can we make a television or radio program. So the Internet offers the possibility of communication and diffusion, and the public has all these alternatives to choose whatever they like or whatever fills their needs. Because of the diffusion, you can read anything in any part of the world. El Naufragio has followers in the United States, Spain, London and Latin America, and the same thing happens with the rest of the blogs.
In the art world there's this interesting blog dynamic that we haven't seen in other areas in Puerto Rico. There are also various interesting literary blogs. I haven't heard if anything has happened in sports, and in news reporting I haven't seen anything similar either. In the case of news reporting maybe we're used to the media validating us, which is a very traditional structure or dynamic. And perhaps this is because we're used to news reporting being done by salaried professionals. In the case of art, as artists you make your way and make your space, and you don't paint, you don't draw, you don't make sculptures or videos, or whatever it may be, necessarily because someone is paying you. In art there's a necessity to release creativity, to share a proposal, to make a commentary, and it's done because it's done. And this moves you to do things, sometimes against all obstacles – obstacles that stem from economic limitations, from lack of support, from anonymity.

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


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Saudi Arabia: Covering the Rain  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Saudi Arabia's citizen media community pulled all the stops to cover torrential rains which struck Riyadh today.
A dedicated blog was set up in hours to aggregate content from Twitter and YouTube, featuring Twitter updates and videos uploaded on to video sharing site YouTube. The blog is entitled The Riyadh Rain Catastrophe.
This video by s123ssa shows flooded roads and cars manoeuvring their way through the floods, with onlookers cheering the brave drivers:
People wading through the ‘lakes’ formed by the rain can also be seen.
Hamodhamad filmed the rain, and the floods it created here:
This video also shows cars making their way through the ‘rivers’ as well as several stalled cars, which did not survive the experience. In one clip, a truck is speeding through the water, trying to overtake a Land Cruiser.
This video, by flv.2, shows drenched neighbourhoods:
For more videos, check out the blog above.
Saudi Jeans‘ Ahmed Al Omran has also uploaded several excellent videos showing the extensive damage and flooding caused by the storm.
Among them is this video, by sssuuuwww, which shows students rescued from a bus, which ‘sunk':
Al Omran writes:
It is raining heavily on the capital Riyadh at the moment, and the situation looks disastrous. From what I can see, it is a scary reminder of the Jeddah floods. People are stuck in highways and streets around the city, especially in the north and east. Major roads are blocked. At least one person is dead. The Civil Defense and the Ministry of Health have announced a state of emergency. You can follow the news on Twitter in real time using the hashtag #riyadhrain. You can also use RiyadRain.com, which aggregates content from Twitter. People in Riyadh are advised to stay home as heavy rains are expected to continue.
Saudi Arabia: When it rains in Riyadh, it pours


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Saudi Arabia: When it rains in Riyadh, it pours · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

It's raining in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, and Twitter users and bloggers are using the opportunity to cover the ‘chaos’, and complain about their local Press.
At Khaled Rambles, Khaled A. writes:
It’s raining heavily in Riyadh at the moment and everyone twitter has agreed to use the following twitter hashtag #RiyadhRain. Since the old media has failed covering this.
EchoDepiction gives us a thorough description here of how it started:
As I am typing this I can hear ambulances in the distance and helicopters flying overhead.   Around 2 o’clock this afternoon,  a very strong rainstorm began its downpour in Riyadh.  As the clouds became more condensed and all sunshine disappeared from the sky making day appear to be night, rain began to pour down rapidly while very strong winds blew sand, trash, trees, and anything it could carry into the streets.  Parents and children leaving school were stranded in the rain and shielding their heads and eyes with scarves, umbrellas, and plastic sacks.
Soon enough:
Within minutes, rain water was running down the roads and into drains in a river-like fashion.  To give you an idea of how strong the wind was,  my car was being moved by it at a stoplight!  Driving past Tamimi supermarkets,  shopping carts and water bottles were rolling down the road.  The first downpour  continued for  at least 20-30 minutes non-stop.
As for damages, EchoDepiction reports:
It has been reported that Al-Faisaliah Tower’s garage has been flooded and one man was trapped down there and drowned.   There have been more than 23 accidents on the Eastern and Northern ring roads, and Korais road going south, as well as exits 9 -11, has been closed.  Several homes and shops have been destroyed from the rain in Dariyyah, Akik, and Ra’id neighborhoods and nearby areas.
The blogger concludes:
People have been warned to remain at home as a stronger rainstorm is expected within the next few hours.   Just turn on the T.V.  The roads have become RIVERS!  Some people are swimming; others are helping direct traffic with a grin on their faces.  Although some people are suffering from this rain, MANY are loving this unusual chaos.  I have never seen Riyadh like this before!
Ebrahim H., meanwhile, posts photographs of the ‘chaos’ here. He also contemplates:
I am still wondering what would happen if Riyadh was Rio De Janeiro, and these corrupted contractors  implemented their projects just similarly to these in Saudi? Disaster!
Rio De Janerio was brought here as a comparison example because Brazil is considered as a third world country similarly to Saudi.
And Little Pink Strawberries also posts photographs of flooded roads and other rain damage and remarks:
Sadly though Riyadh is not equipped for rain what so ever. Anytime it rains you see cars tore up all over the place and the streets are flooded. The city has no drainage system what so ever.
She adds:
So today as the rain started pouring so did my house. Yes I am flooded as we speak. Rain started pouring in from the windows and the air conditioners. I threw blankets, towels, clothing and everything I had to stop it but nothing worked. It was just pouring in like crazy from all the rooms. My furniture is sitting in water.
Rob.in.Riyadh also writes about the storm saying:
This afternoon, as I’m writing this, there are rains and strong winds. I can barely see the outside from my office window. But from what I can see, the streets also have remnants of hail – hailstones being swept away by rain water flowing like a river on the streets. The winds as they blow, sound like howling.
If this is not freakish weather then I think this is the result of  changing weather patterns.
Meantime, the underpasses quickly became flooded and traffic promptly got snarled. I can hear a lot of horns being honked.
Moving on to Twitter, a dedicated hashtag, #RiyadhRain, to cover the rain and comment on it was started. They also have a logo:
The Riyadh Rain Logo
The caption [Ar] reads:
Abdulelah Al-Sabban, who tweets @Lubbaz, comments:
In a follow up tweet, he writes:
And Rami Taibah announces:
I hereby announce the old gaurd of Saudi media is dead. Twitter's coverage of #RiyadhRain trounces anything on TV & probably tomorrow's NP
And last but not least, Ismaeil posts those pictures, showing the traffic and floods – including entire cars immersed in water –  on Picasa and de.caf posts more pictures on Flickr here.


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Spain: Mexicans Blogging to Feel at Home · Global Voices
Andrea Arzaba

There are many Latin Americans who migrate to Spain in order to get more opportunities, which they feel they cannot reach in their own countries. Focusing on a specific group of Latin American immigrants in Spain, are Mexicans. According to the site Mexicanos en España [es], there were 15,593 Mexicans living in Spain in 2009, of which the largest group can be found in Madrid, with approximately 4,675 living in the capital city. However, the number is a rough estimate, and many place the number to be even greater.
The vast majority of Mexicans in Spain are students with 4,919. The others are working in Spain or have become a part of what some people call the “pink migration” for those that fall in love with a Spaniard.
There is a blogging community of Mexicans residing in Spain, which gives them an opportunity to express themselves, to stay in touch with their loved ones, and to network with other Mexicans that are living in the same region.
At the blog De Piratas y Otras Historias [es] (of Pirates and Other Stories) the author, Elizabeth Hernández Quijano, describes her everyday life combined with poetry:
Esta blog es libre y hablaré de temas diversos. Tiene enlace a mis otros blogs y a los que comparto. Mis escritos son la unión con la gente que tengo lejos. Es espacio de poesía, de relatos, de literatura; mía y de escritores amigos o que me gusten. Por supuesto esta blog es para compartir amistad. Una bitácora para salir del mundo cotidiano, un diario personal abierto.
Another interesting blog is México Lindo y Querido [es] (Beautiful and Beloved Mexico), where the author gives different perspectives on Mexican traditions celebrated in Spain and in Mexico.
For example, the Día de Muertos or Day of the Death is a Mexican celebration where people have fun, laugh and celebrate the memory of the dead loved ones, with food, flowers and altars. Mexicans in Barcelona celebrate it in a very similar way than they do back in Mexico, as it is shown in the blog:
Photo by Martha Ines Sanchez Navarro and used with permission.
In the blog Chido Guey – Madrid [es], Mexican design is shown through clothing. In the blog, news about exhibitions in Spain related to Mexican art are announced.
Lluvia Morales is a Mexican PHD student in Madrid, and the author of My Sweet Lluvia [es] (My Sweet Rain), where she writes about her every day life and she makes comparisons between the situations of both nations:
Aqui en España muchos niños comen en la escuela y cada escuela tiene su nutricionista que se dedica a balancear la comida diaria. Que les encantan la cerveza y las tapas? Si, pero con moderación. Se toman dos o tres copitas y un bocata, no se atascan tres litros o mas de cerveza en una noche y se comen todos los tacos y el pozole que les es posible.
Blogs have become a very important part of the society; as it helps to inform and keep in touch with certain groups of individuals, or like in this case, people from one country that live in another. For example Mexicanos en España [es] is one of the biggest and most useful online communities for Mexicans residing in Spain. Apart from announcing events related to Mexican culture in Madrid, they announce job opportunities, show links to Mexican media like newspapers, tv-shows, magazines, etc; and even give different tips on Mexican recipes.
In other words, these blogs are examples of the online revolution Mexicans in Spain have been living in the last couple of years, as these blogs have had the power to unite people, inform them, and make them feel at home, even if they are miles and miles away from their beloved nation.

author: Andrea Arzaba


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St. Lucia, Haiti: Talking to Dauphin · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

St. Lucia's Caribbean Book Blog interviews Haitian writer Lili Dauphin.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Sudan: Nobody will ever know who really won the election · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

President Omar Al-Bashir was declared winner of the first multiparty elections in 24 years in Sudan. However, Muawia Abdel Karim argues in his blog post at Making Sense of Sudan that nobody will ever know who really won the election.
And Maggie Fick of Enough Project reports that the potential for post-election violence in South Sudan
remains.
Muawiaexplains why we will never know who really won the historic elections:
The counting of votes has been so chaotic that it is simply impossible to find out the true number of votes cast for each candidate. Every single check and balance that should be in place to allow the election observers to see which results are genuine and which are fraudulent have been bypassed. We don’t know how many books of ballots were distributed to each polling station, how many were used, and which voting tallies accord with which station. Most of the NEC staff who are tallying the votes are untrained, recruited just days ago with no experience at all! Some of them have to ask the observers for assistance because the observers know their job better than they do. The sheets with the totals have one number written in, rubbed out, overwritten again, time and again! It is so chaotic it is shameful! Every day the NEC instructs that there has to be another shortcut so that they can announce something. No wonder the Chairman of the NEC has washed his hands of all the thousands of complaints and told everyone to go to court instead. Anyone who harboured any doubts that the results are 100% set by political interests only had to see how Malik Agar won the Blue Nile for the SPLM! One day he was losing the count and telling the NCP that if he lost he would go back to war and demanding a recount. The next day the top brass of the NCP flew to Damazin and suddenly some forgotten ballot boxes appeared and Commander Agar suddenly was declared the victor! Those who had rigged the election in the first place shamelessly counter-rigged the next day.
Commenting on Muawia’s post, Khalid Yousif says:
Dear Muawia Abdel Karim,
I agree with you that the international community got the commodity of the 2011 referendum and the Sudanese paid the price. since the beginning the NEC was designed a tool to be manipulated by the NCP and intentionally it was set to be blamed as scape goat for the rigging at the end under the disguise of inexperience, technical problems and ill-preparations.
For the fist time since 1989 Khalid Yousif agrees with President Omar Al-Bashir:
Once Al-Bashir said if the US is pleased with what you are
doing thenthat means you are on the wrong track. This is the first time that I agree with him since 1989.
Another reader, Abd al-Wahab Abdalla, argues that Sudanese elections should remind us that the West is not an impartial referee:
Equally this election should at long last bury the canard that the western world is some kind of impartial referee, upholding universal standards. This is a kind of right-fetishism dearly nourished by those who have lost touch with the realities of power and the demands of political mobilization. This referee can blow his whistle as much as he likes and wave yellow cards to his heart’s content (he has no red cards) but the only one who will be fooled is the player who is flat on the pitch while play goes on. The western countries have their interests and they pursue them, and those who believe that they will set aside material and political objectives for the sake of a few slogans deserve only the wake-up call that has inexorably occurred.
Maggie Fick in a new field dispatch highlights political tensions underlying four races in South Sudan:
Ballots have been cast and counted in South Sudan, but the
potential for post-electoral violence still remains. The results of several hotly contested races for state governor have the potential to spark local violence and even broader conflict in the near future.
“If democracy was born in the West, it had certainly been buried in the jungles of Southern Sudan,” writes Black Kush:
In the election, the battle ground states were Central
Equatoria, Westen Equatoria and Unity States, where the independent
candidates were more popular than the SPLM candidates. People fee that
the SPLM official candidats are being force on them, and they turn to
show their disatisfaction by vooting for the independent candidates.
However, things have not turn out as expected. In Central Equatoria,
the incumbent SPLM Candidate got through as well as in Unity State.
The initial results show that the independents were leading, but due
to pressure, the State election officilas have to succumb to pressure
and announce the incumbents winners. Too bad for a fledgeling
democracy, if you can call it that. The SPLM seems determined to
ensure that their candidates get the positions, like their partners in
the North.
The citizens of Central Equatori feel that they have been robbed of a
leader, one who will safe them from misrule and corruption of the
incumbent. They will only have to look at their neighbour's luck with
longing.
South Sudan Info links to Election Statement released by the Sudanese Group for Democracy and Elections (SuGDE) and the Sudanese Network for Democratic Elections(SuNDE):
Together, SuGDE in the north and SuNDE in the south,
received more than 13500 reports from over 4300 trained and accredited
election observers who were deployed to over 2000 polling stations
across all of Sudan’s 25 states. Their observations are revealing and
are helpful in understanding the election process in both northern and
southern Sudan.
Hafiz Mohammed describes the area of South Kordofan as “the next electoral challenge” for Sudan:
According to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), and its Three Areas Protocol, which covers South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Abyei, ‘Popular Consultations’ in the first two and a referendum in the third, are supposed to be conducted in the last year of the interim period to determine the future status of those areas. While the Abyei referendum involves all residents casting their votes as to whether the district belongs in the north or the south, the ‘Popular Consultations’ are conducted by the two state legislative assemblies, on the question of whether the existing arrangements for a special,
quasi-autonomous status within northern Sudan, should continue. This provision is both weak and imprecise. In Blue Nile, the SPLM candidate Malik Aggar managed to win the governorship position of the state after a long drama, but the SPLM lost the State Legislative Assembly by winning just 18 out 48 seats, and that makes it difficult for them
to succeed in the Popular Consultation which will shape the future the state. The SPLM in South Kordofan succeed in getting a concession from the government which delayed the elections of the governor and the state legislative assembly, pending holding a new census and establishing a new voters register.
Finally, following the victory by Al-Bashir and his party, Oscar Blayton notes that the US foreign policy maybe coming into focus.
He argues that the US foreign policy favours an independent South Sudan:
A narrative in the U.S. media seems to be coming into focus. A narrative which I believe is intended to justify an “American Intervention” into the oil rich Southern Sudan in not too many years distant. It seemed curious that in the weeks prior to the election mainstream media in the U.S. began to concede Bashir’s probable win and to publicly state that the win would be legitimate “de-facto” if not “de-jure.”
The prevalent argument was: “Bashir will most certainly cheat in the election, but he would probably win without cheating.” This argument establishes Bashir as a “bad leader” while at the same time acknowledging that he is the people’s choice and nothing should be done in order to try to improve the fairness of the elections. Now that Bashir has won, the New York Times and other leaders among the Western media are announcing that his win has paved the way for a North / South split in Sudan. The argument has been spun in such a way as to declare: “Who can blame the Southern Sudanese for wanting their own country, the April elections were not fair.” A simple Google of the words “Bashir” and “split” will bring up several articles written in this tone.


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Technology for Transparency: The South Asian Story · Global Voices
Namita Singh

He’s permitted to go into the antechamber. It has doors which lead on farther, barriers which can be passed, if one has the courage. For me even this antechamber is utterly inaccessible.
Franz Kafka, The Castle
South Asia one of the world’s most populated areas, it has faced several military coups, dictatorship, civil wars, monarchies, and has had a long colonial history. The whole of the South Asian region has had a tumultuous history, and the frustration of its citizens with the ‘system’, has only increased over the years. Its systems of governance have been shaped by its turbulent political past, and for many in the transparency movement, Kafka's statement is not far off. There has always been a hide-and-seek relationship between information sought, and information provided – with citizens often left in the labyrinth of bureaucracy and outdated processes.
There are several dimensions that affect the current context. Firstly, the region has seen strong people’s movements, public protests and social campaigns taken up by citizens to hold their governments accountable. For instance, the Right to Information movement in India lead to the passage of the Right to Information Act in October 2005. There have been efforts by some governments themselves to make information publicly accessible. The Bangladesh Government set up a series of websites in 2003 to enable a more consistent information flow from government agencies to citizens. Civil society has also been active in facilitating citizen information and demanding that governments be held more accountable. For instance, the Democratic and Election Alliance, Nepal is dedicated to spreading citizen awareness about their democratic rights, and monitoring elections with on-the-ground observers.
South Asia is experiencing major changes – with several challenges, successes and, understandably, failures. There are the promises of a Digital Bangladesh, and then, there are the efforts to impose Internet censorship in Pakistan.
ICT (Information Communication Technology) has become a buzzword in South Asia in policy debates, newspaper op-ed's, and in government circles. In India and Bangladesh, governments have placed special emphasis on ICT. In fact, Bangladesh's ‘Vision 2021’ envisages a ‘Digital Bangladesh’ with a strong focus on participation, transparency, and accountability. The Government of India came up with a National e-governance Plan in 2003. Pakistan’s Government set up a National ICT R&D fund in 2007. Such initiatives reveal a trend among South Asian governments to place an emphasis on technology.
Now, in the ‘Technology for Transparency’ movement, the other part is transparency, which is a highly contested sphere in South Asia. A quick glance at the political history of South Asia reveals that democracy has not been stable in most countries in the region. In fact, India and Sri Lanka happen to be the only countries with a stale track record of democracy since independence, and even India has resorted to emergency rule while some Sri Lankan activists claim to live in a psuedo-democracy. The political history of South Asia has been peppered with coups, like those in Pakistan, Maldives and Bangladesh. Sri Lanka’s past has been marred with conflict, and in Bhutan a ban on the Internet was lifted in 1999 and parliamentary elections took place for the first time in 2008.
The government is an abstract entity for most people, especially in the rural areas. An entity that holds a power, which most people find impossible to fathom and challenge. The ethos of self-governance or good governance has been conveniently missing. This feeling was reiterated in almost, all the interviews, especially with Kiirti.
South Asia's long colonial history followed by a hotly contested political space has affected how the region's transparency movement has taken shape. The movement in South Asia started roughly at the turn of the century, when the use of the Internet increased significantly. Undoubtedly, the spread of technology not only provided the citizens with tools, but also the impetus, to pressure their governments to become more transparent and accountable. The beginnings of the movement can be traced to blogs, which started as personal online diaries, but increasingly informed opinions and affected the news agenda. Today, there are several more methodical initiatives that are developing new tools, connecting citizens to government agencies, mobilizing communities, organizing action, and more.
As the case studies will demonstrate, a strong ‘technology for transparency’ movement has started in these countries, in spite of – or because of – their political conditions. The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence in Sri Lanka is an illustrative example. In Pakistan, the ‘Don’t Block the Blog’ movement fights against government censorship to create an atmosphere where free speech and government reform activists can operate without fears of reprisal. For Sanjana Hattotuwa of the Center for Policy Alternatives, election-related violence in Sri Lanka highlights the reason to work for greater transparency and accountability. Their maps of electoral fraud and violence spread more awareness about the need to ensure safer elections for democracy in Sri Lanka to remain credible.
South Asian technologists have developed new tools to facilitate interactions between citizens and their governments. Kiirti is one example of a layer between citizens with complaints, civil society organizations. “Though a first glance it appears to add another layer to the system already in place and may seem like a ‘less than ideal’ approach,” writes Aparna Ray in her review of the case study, “citizens may actually welcome this buffer which facilitates engagement and gives visibility, weight to their complaints and issues/ cause(s).”
Civil society organizations that have worked in similar areas before without using online technologies are now beginning to realize the potential of online tools. For instance, iJanaagraha was founded on the experiences and conclusions of the online campaign ‘Jaago Re!’ by its more traditional parent organization Janaagraha. The Center for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) in Sri Lanka began in 1997, but only went online two years back.
Early responses by governments in the region to these projects are encouraging. “We have received tremendous support from the Election Commission of India,” says Velu Shankar of iJanaagraha, for example. In fact, the governments themselves have started several e-governance projects in India and Bangladesh to encourage civic participation and to make information available online.
Technology has certainly provided an impetus to the transparency movement, and has provided a powerful tool in the hands of citizen participants. From the initial stages of blogging by just a few individuals about issues, it has matured to more concerted and organized efforts. These projects are now able to provide information that has never before been accessible to citizens. The effort by Mumbai Votes for example, to provide a ‘Promise Vs Performance Analysis’ is the kind of information a voter would need to make an informed decision, but it was previously never available. CMEV mapped out election violence, while ‘naming and shaming’ the perpetrators openly, so that citizens could discover the information in a clear, visual way. Praja, provides information on MLAs, MPs, Corporators, and complaints that have been filed in local wards on civic issues. It also has a forum to help citizens, establish a dialogue with their local representatives and follow up.
Vote Report India asked citizens to send reports on election through SMSs, emails, photos, videos etc. The citizens did what conventionally ‘journalists’ do – report. This was an instance of ‘citizen journalism’ and probably, for the first time, the citizen had the opportunity to collaborate in monitoring the election themselves. However, we also recognize that the first implementation of Vote Report India only attracted the participation of a core group of volunteers. Wider participation in future years will depend on forming more partnerships with civil society organizations – as Cuidemos el Voto has done in Puebla, Mexico – and organizing voter education workshops, such as VoteReportPH has done in the Philippines.
The question still remains, if these efforts are bringing about any substantial changes, if they are able to point to greater accountability and increased transparency as a result of their work. Gaurav Mishra of Vote Report India, has noted that widespread voter registration campaigns and transparency initiatives did not increase the voter turnout in the previous election, though it did manage to lay ‘a foundation in engaging India’s urban middle-class youth in serious civic issues.’ He also mentions that maybe, they weren't able to reach out to the people who actually experienced problems while voting. He points out that technology has its limitations in monitoring elections.
Sanjana Hattotuwa, from CMEV, almost has a similar view, “…these exercises alone, including my own, have little chance of really strengthening democracy. Technology alone then is no guarantee of cleaner elections. But technology can be part of the solution.”
From Kiirti’s perspective, the project has in fact held the government more accountable. Civic issues which took months to get resolved or were never really expected to be, were suddenly resolved overnight in a few cases. According to Kiirti's founder, Selvam, “…it was a dramatic incident – it made a big difference in the mindset of the people – that there’s an easy way for them to report, and then to effect a change.”
As the initiatives experiment with technology and assess their own impact, they are also learning in the process. For instance, Jasmine Shah of the ‘Jaago Re!’ campaign, said in an interview that they realized some people couldn’t follow the online process of voter registration very well, and they were therefore thinking about enabling voter registration via mobile phone.
In most South Asian countries there are two major challenges. One is access to the Internet. In 2008 the World Bank estimated that only 5% of Indians were Internet users. Internet use is heavily skewed toward urban centers, and is often not available in rural areas where there might not be electricity. Inaccessibility of the overwhelming majority of the population to technology poses a barrier to technology for transparency projects that rely on internet access.
In spite of this, the existing projects have managed to make a considerable amount of offline impact given under the circumstances. In fact, most of them have focused on offline impact. Kiirti, for example, maintains that its measure of success depends on the number of issues reported by the citizens compared to those that actually get resolved. It also believes, this offline impact will slowly increase their user-base, as people begin to realize their ability to effect real change.
Second, is the political situation itself. The extreme conditions in many countries do not allow citizens to either use technology freely or to openly question the government. Hence, some citizens who want to initiate or participate in certain kinds of projects might be held back. “Electoral reforms… have not taken place in Sri Lanka (and is an obstacle in our work),” says Sanjana Hattotuwa of the Center for Policy Alternatives.
Direct communication with government agencies and officials varies widely from project to project. CMEV’s election violence monitoring reports are consulted seriously by the government and have even led to new elections. Velu from iJanaagraha said that they lobby local governments to create more representative urban, self-governance systems. During the Jaago Re! Campaign, they were in constant touch with the Election Commission of India.
Kiirti decided to stay away from issues related to serious corruption, unless they find the right, experienced NGO that is already working on the issue to partner with. Vivek Gilani of Mumbai Votes mentions that the political establishment still sees the transparency movement as a threat instead of an opportunity to showcase their achievements.
Mumbai Votes, Kiirti, the Center for Monitoring Election Violence, and iJanaagraha are only a few case studies from the South Asia region. There are many more initiatives that are providing momentum to the technology for transparency movement. The number of bloggers is increasing, more people are raising civic and electoral issues through online platforms, new online projects are developing to mobilize people to start taking collective action. It is apparent that the voice is getting louder and clearer.
There is a huge emphasis on voting and elections in most of the South Asian countries. All the South Asian countries are comparatively young democracies, and these efforts are clearly to help them evolve into mature ones, where there is increased civic participation, political representation, political accountability, and transparency in the way that government functions.
The importance of maps in technology for transparency projects is also evident. Kiirti provides multiple instances of Ushahidi on a single platform. CMEV is looking at using tools like, Ushahidi and FrontlineSMS in the near future for better monitoring. iJanaagraha feels that interactive maps are effective ways to visualize information.
Most of the initiatives are by citizens themselves, or by the civil society organizations. This shows an increased awareness and involvement by citizens in governance issues in South Asia. The technology for transparency movement in South Asia is only in its infancy, but there is a clear momentum to take it further. There will be a definitive increase in such initiatives as technology – and access to it – spreads. But to encourage more participation and to create a greater offline impact these initiatives should hold more offline events with citizens and government officials to agree on how government agencies should respond to online governance-related activities by the citizens they represent.

author: Namita Singh


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Trinidad & Tobago: You Know Who  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

KnowTnT.com‘s Edmund Gall compares Calder Hart's expected return to Trinidad today “to be formally charged with perjury” (which is apparently accompanied by an “ex parte gag order”) to J.K. Rowling's reference to the evil Voldemort “as ‘He Who Must Not Be Named'…”


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Tunisia: Anti-Censorship Facebook Group Formed  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Tunisian bloggers have formed a Facebook group  [Ar] entitled: Censorship tarnishes my country's reputation.


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Armenia-Azerbaijan: New media and conflict transformation · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Oxfam blog reports on the recent Social Media for Social Change conference and Social Innovation Camp held last month in Tbilisi, Georgia, and particularly comments on the work of Global Voices Online's Caucasus editor and the blogger behind Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines in using new and social media in Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict transformation.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Bermuda: Healthcare Revolution?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Bermudian bloggers are unconvinced of the government's ability to “revolutionise healthcare” on the island.


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Blogs on the Catholic Churches In Bangladesh · Global Voices
Rezwan

Bangladesh, Canada And Beyond lists some blogs and websites on the catholic churches in Bangladesh.

author: Rezwan


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Brazil: Internet use for accountability, transparency and civic engagement: What is civil society doing? · Global Voices
Manuella Ribeiro

Brazil's 1988 constitution presents possibilities for citizen control and government transparency. In the last two decades, Brazilians have seen several experiences of the use of this power to demand better governance, such as the calls for impeachment of President Fernando Collor de Mello in the early 90s which forced his early resignation. In 2010, the Ficha Limpa movement was created to guarantee that politicians with court convictions cannot hold public positions. At the same time, the Mensalão’l and corporative card scandals have caused a greater lack of confidence among citizens, especially toward the Congress.
Despite – or perhaps due to – the lack of credibility of the Brazilian government, the past two years have seen the creation of a number of grassroots projects that use the Internet to promote accountability, transparency and civic engagement. The founders of these projects report that a number of problems face Brazil in its search for greater social control, transparency and civic engagement. These include a culture of passive engagement, a difficulty in understanding the technical jargon used by governments, the lack of access to government data, and limited civic participation outside of the election cycle. To overcome these problems, Brazilian citizens have created online tools that encourage citizens to demand greater government transparency and citizen participation.
Adote um Vereador (“Adopt a politician”) encourages Brazilian citizens to blog about the work of their local elected officials in order to hold them accountable. They suggest that each citizen adopt a local politician and write about his/her activities on a blog so that politicians know that they are being watched – and also to create a bridge between their work and online users who may ask questions or leave complaints as blog comments. Zanella, the founder of the wiki, believes that the main obstacles to its success are both cultural and technical: “Brazilian people are not used to the democratic process. For most Brazilians, governance is a synonym of elections, which happens only every 4 years. In the meantime Brazilians have little participation in the political agenda, even if they have a very local problem that involves the government. Usually, when some public problem happens people think it is a problem of the politicians, not them. So, Brazilian citizens don't see a way to construct and solve local public problems policies for themselves.”
He also stresses that most Brazilians still do not know how to use the tools of the internet – such as blogs and wikis – to publish information about their politicians. A wiki was created to group and coordinate participants who adopt politicians. They also plan workshops to teach citizens how to use Internet tools to become involved in the project.
Another experience is Cidade Democratica (“Democratic City”), which enables Brazilians to document and discuss municipal problems and come up with solutions. The main problem for founder Rodrigo Luna is culture: “Brazilians wait for someone else to solve their problems. This passivity cannot help us build the country where we want to live.”  he content published on Cidade Democrática is organized by category, user-defined tags, city, and neighborhood. Registered users can: 1) document problems and propose solutions 2) support proposals created by other users; 3) comment, question, and discuss problems and proposals; 4) publicize a proposal and/or problem by email; and 5) create a profile to follow particular topics and places of interest. Despite its short time in existence, the site already has already yielded some results. A discussion about the city of Jundiai, which revealed that there was no public hearing to discuss the municipality's Master Plan, led officials to schedule a public audience later this year.
Other project leaders interviewed in our research emphasized the difficulty in accessing and understanding the government data in Brazil. The website Congresso Aberto (“Open Congress”) tracks, visualizes, and analyzes official data from Brazil's Congress. The objective is to provide official data in a more accessible way in order to promote more transparency in Brazil's Congress. It also includes academic research and basic statistics about the behavior of politicians, such as their voting records. But the founders have had problems in sustaining the site's content because they cannot access the necessary data not centralized on the congressional website. Cesar Zucco, one of the founders of the initiative says, “We have to search the information from all the government’s sites. We hope that when Brazil has a Freedom of Information Law, we can more easily access the data that we need. Our idea is that the basic activities of the site will be automated, and that nobody will need to update it. Our effort would be in favor of increasing the amount of information and to improve our analysis of it in Congresso Aberto.”
Another website that promotes more transparency in Congress is called VotenaWeb (“Vote on the Web”). In this site the bills are translated in a simple and objective way to encourage citizens to participate in the daily life of the Brazil's Congress. Besides simply monitoring the bills, users can interact with the political landscape by symbolically voting for or against each bill. The result of their votes is displayed in simple and easy to understand graphics. Furthermore, it is possible for users to compare their votes among themselves, and also with politicians. Project coordinator Priscila Marcenes says: “Only people who are already politicized can use government data as it is currently shown: visually unattractive, and in a very complicated and bureaucratic language. We created the site to work with data to promote a form of transparency that is accessible to all citizens without exclusion.” The project leaders struggle to keep up with the time-consuming task of translating bills into a simple and accessible language, and also to simply keep up with the volume of legislation that appears weekly in Congress.
The Brazilian experience in the technology for transparency movement is recent; most projects began less than a year ago. The oldest is the Adopt a City Councilman who was released on January 8, 2009. One challenge in this research is to analyze the impact of these experiences given the short time of their existence. It is also important to note that none of the projects we reviewed represent all regions and municipalities of Brazil. The map of the Adopt a City Councilmember, for example, has 32 municipalities with bloggers that have adopted a councilman in a country of 5564 municipalities. Vote on the Web and Democratic City have, respectively, approximately 3000 and 1233 registered users.
The four projects we reviewed use various Internet tools such as Twitter, Facebook, wikis, email and others. Typically they use more than one tool simultaneously. They all have twitter and email accounts. The Projects Adote um Vereador – Adopt a politician – and Congresso Aberto – Open Congress – are supported only by volunteers. ‘Vote na Web’ and ‘Cidade Democrática’ have elements of institutional support; by Webcitizen and the Seva Institute respectively.
Three of the four projects highlighted the lack of a Freedom of Information Law in Brazil. This presents an obstacle to ensuring information on their respective websites. In early April the Chamber of Deputies approved  bill n.5228, known as the Freedom of Information Law, which will regulate access to government information as required by Brazil’s Constitution. Although the bill is subject to approval in the Senate for its passage, Brazil will soon become part of a group of countries adopting laws to ensure transparency and access to public information. Cesar Zucco, professor of political science at Princeton and a founder of the Congresso Aberto, hopes that the freedom of information law will facilitate access to data on the behavior of Brazilian deputies, to save the team from time-consuming research so that they can focus on more analysis on the policies in Congress.
All projects have identified as next steps: financing (especially for the volunteer projects); increasing the number of participants (especially during the 2010 election year); and attracting more technologists to help improve the functionality of their websites.
In addition to enhancing functionality of the Cidade Democrática website, Luna and his team will also launch another website to discuss how the internet is being used in relation to Brazil's public sphere. Called Webcidadania (“Webcitizenship”), the site will also examine the projects in Brazil that promote accountability, transparency and civic engagement, such as Vote na Web, Adote um Verador and others:
In this, the ‘Cidade Democrática’ came to create this channel so that governments know what citizens really need. The movement webcidadania is a space that is being created for a number of organizations that work with on strengthening citizenship on the web. With this insight we start talking on Twitter. Those who use twitter can find follow ‘@webcidadania’ and find several issues and proposed actions that are being planned.
Project leaders agree that it is neither technology nor financing that pose the biggest challenge, but rather cultural obstacles in Brazil to transparency, participation, and accountability. The issues raised here – and in the four case studies – are not only technological problem, but political. The Internet, like any other technology, cannot be considered disconnected from the social and political processes in which it operates.

author: Manuella Ribeiro


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Dominica: The Whale Whisperer · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Dominica Weekly profiles the island's “whale whisperer”.


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Ecuador: Social Groups March in Celebration of Labor Day · Global Voices
Milton Ramirez

Workers and social groups alike marched in Ecuador to commemorate International Worker's Day, which originated in memory of what happened in Haymarket Square, Chicago, back on May 4, 1886. Representatives and committees of different social groups in this country walked through the streets throughout Ecuador.  President Leonidas Plaza signed into law on April 23, 1915 which recognized Labor Day celebration as an official holiday every May 1st.
In Ecuador, Labor Day has been a rallying point to help the fight to establish the eight-hour work day and to push for better working conditions. Although labor movement were able to establish the 40-hour workday, some workers still are not paid the overtime and they struggle for better conditions in the place of work, as well as better salaries. This May they took the opportunity to remind the government that workers are still debating about the promised total substitution of the old labor law signed in 1938. [es]
Ecuadorian railway workers by Flickr user FERROCARRILES DEL ECUADOR EMPRESA PÚBLICA FEEP and used under a Creative Commons license.
Twitter user Rosa María Torres (@rosamariatorres)  was able to take pictures in all three marches in the capital and said that there were 3 marches on the day. One organized by the major labor organization in Ecuador and in opposition to the government, the FUT (United Labor Front) comprised of different social groups, and the third, organized by the government.
Pablo Arciniegas of the blog Voces del Sur [es]  explains why he thinks the labor movement in Ecuador is divided. He attributed it to “labor flexibility” that helped led to its downfall:
Hoy nuevamente fueron masas caminando sin conciencia política, sin motivación rebelde, sin sentido de clase; simplemente fue una demostración más del grado de desmovilización que sufre el movimiento obrero en nuestro país.
(…)
Este primero de mayo entonces nos deja muchos sinsabores, dudas, y preocupación por el nivel de organización de la clase trabajadora; deja la percepción de que las relaciones capitalistas de producción, contrarias a los intereses de de la clase trabajadora, están incólumes, vigentes; y que con los niveles de conciencia y de movilización de las masas de trabajadores, tienen todas las condiciones necesarias para seguir gozando de buena salud.
Today, they were just walking masses without political consciousness, without rebel-like motivation, without sense of class; it was simply one more demonstration of demobilization that the worker's movement suffers in our country.
(…)
This May 1st leaves us many with a bad taste, doubts, and concerns about the level of organization of the working class, leaving the perception that capitalist relations of production, contrary to the interests of the working class, are intact, current; and with those levels of awareness and mobilization of the masses of workers, they have all the necessary conditions to continue to enjoy good health.
All in all, public officials, teachers, grassroots organizations, the indigenous sector, unions, cultural groups and pensioners are still struggling for increased rights on Labor Day.

author: Milton Ramirez


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Haiti: Aftershock discussed on Twitter  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Twitter was abuzz yesterday as another aftershock hit Haiti.


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Images from Japan’s Largest Slum · Global Voices
Tomomi Sasaki

The DJMICK blog posts select images by photojournalist Androniki Christodoulou of Japan’s Largest Slum in Kamagasaki, Osaka.

author: Tomomi Sasaki


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India: Much Ado About Covering Up · Global Voices
Rezwan

“Women and their creative desires are collateral damage in a war to control visual pleasure. Its all about what is pleasing to the male eye,” comments Outlandish Musings from Mumbai, India.


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Jamaica: Strike · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Girl With A Purpose reports that Jamaica's teachers are on strike, protesting the government's “inability to pay them the $4 billion in retroactive salaries owed…”


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Kenya: Kenyan poet/blogger releases a book · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Kenyan poet, blogger and Global Voices Online author, Njeri Wangari, has released a book titled Mines &Fields: My Spoken Words.


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Nepal: An Appeal To The Maoists · Global Voices
Rezwan

Democracy For Nepal has an appeal to the Maoists stating what they can do to resolve the current political crisis in Nepal.


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Nigeria: Nigerian online classifieds · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

StartUps Nigeria discusses online classifieds in Nigeria: “While we think that some of these sites are tapping into the shortcomings of the leading classifieds sites, Craigslist and Kijiji (perhaps some are copying Craigslist), we wonder how they hope to make money.”


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Pakistan: Internet and the challenge of language · Global Voices
Ivan Sigal

This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet.
Pakistan today would seem primed for rapid growth in internet use. The country has had explosive growth of FM radio, satellite and cable TV set in motion by regulatory changes that allow non-state ownership of  mass media. Cell phone use has also skyrocketed, with over 90 million subscribers. With a growing middle class that numbers some 30-40 million in a country of some 180 million people, Internet use should also see similar growth.
However, there are several constraints that mitigate that expansion, both structural, as in chronic electricity shortages, and social, particularly focused on language. Literacy hovers at around 50% in Pakistan, but while most people understand Urdu, Pakistan’s national language, less that 10% of the population speaks and writes it as a native. Provincial languages such as Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto, and Balochi, as well regional languages such as Seraiki and Kashmiri are native languages for the majority of the population, and English is the official language of governance.
This language fragmentation has consequences for internet use. No one Pakistani language effectively serves both the reading and content creation needs of Pakistan’s netizens. As a consequence, English remains the popular choice online. In an interview, Adnan Rehmat of Intermedia Pakistan says that English is an “aspirational” language, a marker for education and access to resources, and because English provides access to a global linguistic community. Additionally, several regional Pakistani languages such as Punjabi are primarily oral languages, without strong literary cultures.
Fouad Bajwa, writing on Internet’s Governance, describes the problem further:
A key pressing issue with relevance to both the local Internet and Mobile Technology scenario in Pakistan has been availability of local content and making the local content widely accessible to the community at large across Pakistan and the entire world using a variety of currently available technology platforms.
There have been few concerted efforts to create Unicode fonts for Pakistani language scripts. Nastaliq, the popular font for Urdu, is not yet widely adapted in Unicode. Online writing in the main either uses an Arabic font, as with the relatively popular BBC and Google fonts, or it uses image files pasted into text.
There is not yet a broadly accepted font in use for either mass media of citizen media production. Many mainstream media still use image files, which requires that the text be composed on another platform, and discourages hyperlinking, as with a recent issue of the Daily Jang online.
Screenshot of Daily Jang ePaper, May 2010
The Pakistani government has provided little policy guidance for language use. In an interview Ahmad Shahzad of Bytes for All notes that the National Language Authority of Pakistan lacks resources, knowledge of digital issues, and a sense of urgency or policy priorities for Pakistani language expansion online.
There are a number of projects that have been working to fix this problem over the past decade. Perhaps the most comprehensive comes out of the Centre for Research in Urdu Language Processing, at Lahore’s National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences (CRULP). The Centre’s director, Professor Sarmad Hussain, has been working to support Nastaliq in Unicode since 2002. They describe their objective to ”conduct research for the evolution of computational models of Urdu and Pakistan’s other regional languages.” Their projects develop standard character sets, localize popular software and online applications, such as Microsoft Word, Firefox, and Open Office, and script processing for fonts that can support all Pakistani languages.
They are also working on optical character recognition and speech processing  tools such as screen readers for the illiterate and blind users, and language processing tools such as spell checkers and machine translation. CMS platforms in Nastaliq, as well as mobile scripts.
Additionally, CRULP’s PAN Localization project is working to develop local language computing capacity in a dozen Asian languages, including Urdu, Pastho, and Bangla. The project seeks to develop tools to facilitate the use localization of advanced applications.
These scripts and their wider promotion, as well as the availability of content management systems in Urdu and language processing tools, has gone some way to making Urdu a functional language of content creation.
Other tools now available facilitate the shift from English to Urdu, including Google’s Urdu transliteration tool and the Dynamic Language Tools Bookmarklet, which supports transliteration of Urdu to both English and Hindi. Syed Ghulam Akbar, the bookmarklet’s creator, describes his motivation in a post on the Pakistani science blog STEP:
The main inspiration behind this tool development was not actually Urdu writing. In fact, there are many existing tools and applications which let users type Urdu either using a special keyboard layout or by using roman script transliteration. What actually inspired me to develop this tool was to provide a way to easily convert the roman content on all the existing web-pages to Urdu script so that it is more readable.
Together, the advancement of scripts, applications, and platforms in Urdu will go some way to advancing a culture of online production in Urdu. The relative lag in their availability does, however, highlight the general sense that English will continue to be the language of choice for many in Pakistan’s online world.
This lag can be addressed in several ways, including wide promotion of available tools and their application, support for both mass media and citizen media communities to discover, learn about, and implement creative use of these tools, and support to build bridges and networks among communities. For this reason, Fouad Bajwa is seeking to build an Online Urdu Encyclopedia:
It will create a converged environment overtime for presenting updated knowledge that is usable through reading, listening and visuals for both social and economic awareness, education, knowledge application in various fields, higher education, competitive exams, expert resources and endless Urdu language options.
At present there is no Urdu Wikipedia community, and few Urdu-language blog aggregators, such as http://urdublogs.co.cc/, capacity among mainstream media to produce searchable-text, Unicode-based online media, and a lack of mobile telephony platforms and applications for Urdu.
This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet.

author: Ivan Sigal


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Paraguay: State of Emergency to Fight EPP Guerrilla Group · Global Voices
Belen Bogado

Military troops and police have been deployed in northern Paraguay after a terrorist band spread fear with a series of kidnappings and murders in the region. Congress gave President Fernando Lugo the power to declare a 30-day emergency for five departments following the killing of a police officer and three workers at a farm by alleged members of the so-called Paraguayan People's Army (EPP for its initials in Spanish). This state of emergency and counter-offensive is believed to be one of the more drastic actions to halt the EPP.
Recently, the group also kidnapped Fidel Zavala, a wealthy rancher and freed him two months later after a ransom was paid.
A private security guard in Pedro Juan Caballero. Photo by Eliel FJ and used under a Creative Commons license.
The group EPP had been active during previous governments; one of their most notorious crimes was the 2004 kidnapping of 32-year-old Cecilia Cubas, daughter of former president Raul Cubas, who was found dead in 2005.
Blogger Boz posts about the need for the South American region to unite and support Lugo in his fight against the terrorist group as he faces opposition from many sectors of the government and citizens in general as well:
The president is sensitive to criticism that he has not done enough to counter violence or that he might be linked to radicals in the country (…)
The region appears to be quiet on the recent developments. The fight against the EPP seems like the sort of issue that would be good for UNASUR or the SADC (or the OAS) to discuss. I would think the region would be unified in backing Lugo and strengthening his government against violence on one side and political criticism on the other.
However, it has been evident that members of the government are not uniting in support of Lugo. Vice-President Federico Franco questions whether Lugo is doing enough to capture members of the EPP, and wonders whether the state of emergency was just a “farce” [es] just to show the people that he is trying to do something against the EPP.
Lugo’s real intention by declaring a state of emergency has been questioned even by the Vice-president Federico Franco. He said that there is no real attempt to catch EPP.
Franco’s statements have raised criticism from many, including Paraguayan blogger Jose Angel Lopez Barrios who posts on his blog:
Bien harían los señores de la política en acompañar el gobierno de Lugo hasta que termine su mandato, las divisiones en tiempo de crisis solo nos debilitan doblemente y le prestan un flaco favor a la población…..
Mientras tanto el EPP a desatado en el norte de nuestro país una vorágine de “ajustes de cuentas” en el que ya empezaron a destacarse senadores y diputados, los mencionados parecen ser ahora el blanco de los sicarios del narcotrafico.
Por ahora parece que el gobierno esta abocado ardorosamente a desarticular el EPP y espero que tenga éxito, porque otro resultado nos traería mas sufrimiento y delito por mucho tiempo.
It would be a good thing for politicians to accompany Lugo’s government until his period is over, the divisions in times of crisis only weaken us double and do not favor the people….
In the meantime, the EPP has been “getting even” in the north of our country, in which deputies of the lower house of congress and senators have began to be targeted, they now seem to be the target of drug traffickers’s hitmen.
It seems like the government is now ardently devoted to disintegrate the EPP and I hope they succeed, because any other result would bring us more suffering and crimes for a long time.
Before becoming President, Lugo was a priest and bishop in the rural parts of Paraguay, where it was uncovered that a former altar boy in the parish became one of the kidnappers of Zavala. There are some people trying to make the connection between the two and want Lugo to clarify if there are any links or relationships. Journalist and blogger Benjamin Fernandez Bogado writes:
Es además el tiempo de la sinceridad del presidente de la república con el país; él debe decirnos no solo que no tiene nada que ver con estos grupos, que si lo fuera, no solo sería escandaloso, sino razón para desalojarlo del poder inmediatamente; además debe explicarnos cuánto conocía a estos dirigentes de sus tiempos obispales y cuánto coincidió con sus métodos. Mientras no lo haga, ni militares y menos aun los desmoralizados y quebrados policías harán nada ni en 30 ni 60 días.
A week after the state of emergency was declared no suspects were captured.

author: Belen Bogado


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South Africa:2010 FIFA World Cup theme song raises interesting views  · Global Voices
Richard Wanjohi

As is the norm with any major tournament especially the World Cup, the 2010 World Cup has its song out approximately a month to the event. The song features world renowned Latino female singer Shakira along with South Africa’s own Freshly Ground.
WorldCupBlog has nothing against Shakira but why should the song be sung by a Colombian?:
Shakira featuring Freshly Ground – Waka Waka(This is Africa) Source: World Cup 2010 Theme Song
…I’ve nothing against Shakira. But does it seem odd to anyone else that the official song for the World Cup in South Africa will be sung by a hot Colombian lady? True, she’s backed up by South African band Freshlyground, but it’s very much Shakira front and center here.
It continues and gives us a brief history of the original track, Zangalewa by group formerly known as Golden Sounds now known by the title song which made them famous across the continent
Apparently, the song does not fit the event:
The only problem is that the catchy part – the chorus – is borrowed from the popular song ‘Zangaléwa’ by the Cameroonian band originally known as Golden Sounds (who later changed their name to Zangaléwa because the song was so popular). The band was apparently made up of ex-Cameroonian military who were fond of dressing up and acting silly. Apparently the lyrics are in the Fang dialect of Cameroon, and the key refrain of ‘zangaléwa’, translates as ‘who sent you?’ Which is at least fitting for a World Cup. Some further (but not much further) interpretation comes from the Latino music blog Guanabee. The song, music historians say, is a criticism of black military officers who were in league with whites to oppress their own people. Or at least, some of it was. Some of it, as far was we can surmise, is gibberish.
KennyNaija, a blogger from Nigeria, captures the controversy the song brewed in South African radio stations:
The song hit radio stations last week, with Johannesburg locals responding with comments like “It's horrible” and “How is Shakira going to sing the African part of it?” (My guess is with her voice, but a Speak & Spell could be a fun choice, too.). The Colombian singer collaborated with South African band Freshlyground on the track, which borrows from a Cameroonian song called “Zangalewa.” But the fact that the anthem for South Africa's World Cup is not being sung by a South African is the sticking point for the critics who aren't just opposed to the new tune itself.
Martin Myers, a blogger, DJ and publicist, discusses FIFA and Sony Music Entertainment announcement of the song as the official song:
FIFA and Sony Music Entertainment today announced that Waka Waka (This Time For Africa), written and co-produced by global superstar Shakira, has been chosen as the Official Song of the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa. The song will be performed by Shakira together with South African artist Freshlyground at the Closing Ceremony before the FIFA World Cup™ Final on July 11 in Johannesburg Soccer City Stadium. All proceeds from the song will benefit FIFA’s Official Campaign of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ “20 Centers for 2010.
He also captures Sepp Blatter’s thoughts of the song as well as Shakira’s comments on the honour of getting selected to do the song:
The Official Song is as much awaited by the fans as the Mascot or the Logo. It is part of the identity of the world’s most exciting sport’s event. This song is the personification of the African rhythm and identity and sets the pace for this unique event. I am looking forward to hear the song throughout the tournament and watch it performed by Shakira and Freshlyground at the Final”, said Joseph S. Blatter, FIFA President”
“‘I am honored that Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) was chosen to be part of the excitement and the legacy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup,’ said Shakira. ‘The FIFA World Cup is a miracle of global excitement, connecting every country, race, religion and condition around a single passion. It represents an event that has the power to unite and integrate, and that’s what this song is about.’ Shakira continued, ‘African music is so inspiring and is poised to take its place on the global pop culture stage. I was proud to be able to work with one of South Africa’s most acclaimed groups, Freshlyground.’ The song was co-produced by Shakira’s frequent collaborator, John Hill
Brown Shuga of JustCurious, an entertainment blog, says he loves the song but has a problem with the official video:
I had to listen to it about 3 times before I decided I liked the song…I love the song, but if this is the official video then I have a problem… where are my boys?
He takes us through the history of the song:
Zamina” or “Zangaléwa” is a 1986 hit song, originally sung by a makossa group from Cameroon called Golden Sounds who were beloved throughout the continent for their silly dances and costumes. The song was such a hit for Golden Sounds that they eventually changed their name to Zangaléwa, too.The song pays tribute to African skirmishers (a.k.a tirailleurs) during WW2. Most of the band members were in the Cameroonian Army themselves and used make up, fake belly and fake butt for comic relief. The song is still used today by soldiers, policemen, boy scouts, sportsmen and their supporters, usually during training or for rallying. It is also widely used in schools throughout the country as a marching song and almost everyone in the country knows the chorus of the song by heart.

author: Richard Wanjohi


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Trinidad & Tobago: CRB Online  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“At long last the trail-blazing online version of the Caribbean Review of Books is on stream!”: Trinidad and Tobago's Pleasure calls this “a very, very pleasing development.”


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Trinidad & Tobago: Early Days  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinidadian bloggers are on election watch.


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Uganda: Reports from the Call Uganda meetings · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Sokari links to published reports on the Call Uganda prayer meetings: “The rhetoric was as expected and The Call founder, Lou Engles’  press release last week that he was not  anti-homosexual were simply untrue.  Behind the Mask reported on  Engle’s  who claimed the West were using “Ugandan NGO’s to promote homosexuality.”


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Bahrain: Goodbye Al Waqt  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahraini newspaper Al Waqt shut down on World Press Freedom Day following financial troubles. Fans formed a Facebook event – and visited the newspaper premises to bid it farewell.


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Bahrain: London and Bank Holidays  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahraini Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid Al Khalifa tweets: “Never liked being in London on a bank holiday .. Most noteworthy places (food, shops)are closed.”


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Bermuda: Isn’t it Ironic?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Vexed Bermoothes points out some ironies about his island, one of which is that “the Bermuda Department of Tourism personnel never seem to wear Bermuda shorts”; fellow blogger Beach Lime calls it a missed opportunity.


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China: Apple hexane poisoning  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

SCAOM has a report on a poisoning incident at a subsidiary factory of Wintek Corporation, which is an Apple Computers contractor in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. The incident is believed to be related with the chemical, hexane, used for cleaning the touch screen of i-Phones

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: School killing incidents and policy implications · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Stan Abrams from china/divide writes about the social and political implications of the recent school killing incidents happened in several Chinese cities.


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Guyana: Searching for Freedom  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“I learn that within freedom we must have discipline. I don’t think of that discipline as censorship. I think of it as putting brain into action before switching on motor-mouth”: The closing of Google China gets Guyana-Gyal thinking about freedom and responsibility.


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Haiti: For Sale?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Haitian Blogger draws attention to “the plan [by an energy company] to ‘buy’ the island of La Gonave…yet a public disclosure of the status of any agreements is unknown outside of the principles involved.”


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India: Couples Doing Business Together · Global Voices
Rezwan

Indian blogger Jaya Jha shares her personal story of how an entrepreneur couple faced challenges doing business together.


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Iran: 126,000 Fans Cheer Mousavi’s Opposition Facebook Group  · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Leading opposition leader, Mir-Hussein Mousavi‘s Facebook boasts 126,000 fans and has been an important platform to communicate Mousavi‘s messages to his Green Movement supporters and the world at large.
Mohammad Sadeghi, founder and head administrator of Mir Hossein Mousavi’s and Zahra Rahnavard’s (Mousavi's wife) supporters’ Network on Facebook, shares with Global Voices his views on citizen media and the role of social networking, its impact and the challenges it faces in Iran today.
Please tell me when and why Mousavi's Facebook group has been launched and what has been your role?
The page has been launched the day before the inauguration ceremony of Barak Obama on January 19th 2009. I founded this page as I had personal sympathy for Mr Mousavi since long time ago. As one of the most efficient political figures in the history of the Islamic republic, he has had one of the best track records in terms of management abilities handling the most difficult times and tasks of the and his unique position as a “conservative reformer”. The period where he has had the position of Prime minister, Iran was experiencing one of the hardest times facing the 4th biggest army of the world. Eight years of resistance was foremost and above all a question of logistics and management of scarce resources.
During this time, he had worked with the most famous political figures who later on have been known as “reformers”. For instance, former reformist president Khatami has been the minister of culture and Islamic guidance in his cabinet. I considered him therefore as the best chance for basic reform in Iran.
Even during his time of silence, he has always spoken out strongly in critical situations such as for the flop of the bill of press law reform and fraud evidences in the 9th presidential election five years ago. In each of the last four presidential elections, he has been asked by key reformist figures to stand as a candidate but he always refused. Considering all these facts, it was obvious to me that in case he stands up, Iran is going to stand up with him, even those who might not know about his track record. The only question then would be that of an effective system of media communication for his campaign.
Why do you think the Iranian government decided to let Iranains have access to Facebook, YouTube and several other sites before the election?
The middle class turned out to be the greatest problem of the populist government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The think thank of his government has targeted the lower classes of the society who indeed have been disregarded in terms of being effectively addressed by the previous governments.
Since the beginning of his first period of office, he began the systematic destruction of the institutional fundamentals of democracy like non-governmental organisations, as well as planning and controlling authorities, trying to monopolize the political system and eliminate political competition. The most important rival of this group have been the representatives of the middle class as his fiscal policy dominance weakened the private sector and caused a remarkable rise of inflation. As a result, the economic existential ground of the middle class has been seriously threatened by this government.
One of the only ways to keep the middle class busy and quiet was to carefully allow them creep into virtual platforms with the least potential of mobilizing. At that time, the power of these platforms as a mobilizing tool was not yet proven. The short history of virtual networks at that time did not include any kind of effective social activities and other than commonplace and sometimes trite entertainment. I think that the access to Facebook, YouTube and similar virtual platforms was a part of a multilateral policy aiming to humiliate and distract the middle class from real social participation and politically relevant interconnection.
A process innovation
What is the role and impact of Mousavi's Facebook group in the Green Movement so far? Do you think citizen media activities slowed down in recent months?
I would summarize the impact of Mousavi’s Facebook group as a “process innovation” to incorporate existing social network platforms into the Persian language media bandwidth. The Persian language media, which was limited to printed media and voice/motion picture broadcasters controlled by political authorities, experienced the first revolution during the time of the 1979 revolution. Inspired by the nightly newspaper movement during the time of the constitutional revolution in Iran (1905-1911), the Shah’s opposition movement exhausted the capacities of the printed media to the extent of wall writings. Presuming a central leadership, organized labor intensive “opposition” voices disempowered the capital intensive propaganda machine of the regime. In the late encounter of the centralized opposition and the centralized regime, this media system overturned the regime position by mobilization social forces into deviant opposition “disobedience”.
The second revolution in my opinion has been initiated by Mr Mousavi who called for “citizen staffs” and hence the automatized use of a wide range of suppressed potential for fundamental change. This decentralized campaign had the opportunity to exploit a wide range of communication methods – as the very tool of a campaign- while working out a consensus for a model of change. The Facebook page initiated and evolved the process of information by transforming the campaign into a non-political atmosphere of social networks.
The most important added value was the development of an international staff framework for media activities in social networks by linking and incorporating other virtual tools and initiating a broader virtual accessibility to the virtual –not necessarily political- society inspired by the weblog movement which during the previous time of reform under Khatami and developed independently leading. Alongside Balatarin, which has successfully been the first and by far strongest virtual knot of the weblog movement incorporating a wider range of different audience, Facebook became another complementary model of the new media movement.
Especially in the event which took place after the election, this combination has shown not only its impact in the field of information but also its power of mobilization based on a horizontal network structure with a minimal reliance on central leadership. Mousavi’s page on Facebook which has been the first online staff and his official page during the election created a framework for the fulfillment of the agenda of citizen journalism and citizen staff in Facebook, which has also inspired others and led to the creation and establishment of other active virtual groups, both national and international, with the aim to raise awareness of the events happening in Iran, be it in terms of empowering the circulation of information or in terms of mobilizing for rallies and to reach out to international mass media both inside and outside Iran.
These activities have not slowed down but rather matured during the time of the development of the Green Movement. Due to the horrible crackdown and permanent use of the state authority- which is the most obvious sign of dictatorial states- the true face of the current coup regime in Iran is unveiled and as a consequence, the showdown of the opposition movement has become harder and most costly. This cause the movement which is based on non-violence and civil disobedience tactics to reorganize and remain in a state of halt in terms of mobilization. I think an objective answer to this question can be given on the anniversary of the Green Movement on June 12th. Green Movement leaders have called for demonstrations on this day.
30% of our audience are non Iranians
You have more than 126,000 fans. How many of them are non Iranians? Do you think Mousavi's Facebook page is a bridge between non-Iranians and the Green Movement?
Due to the translations provided by our translation team as one of the most relevant activities of this page, we have many non-Iranian fans. But the real number cannot be detected as many of our fans which are in Iran have changed their profile settings, most importantly their location in order not to be tracked by the coup regime and to increase their security. My estimation based on different statistics is that about 30% of our audience are non-Iranian.
Yes, but it has been foremost a bridge between the Iranians inside Iran and those outside. There has always been a gap between Iranians inside Iran and those who live abroad in many aspects but foremost in terms of their “political” position. While the Iranians inside Iran were mostly either politically neutral (Embarrassed) or Pro-regime, the Iranians outside of Iran has had mostly radical opposition tendencies or affiliations.
After the coup in Iran’s 10th presidential election, a clear line has been drawn between people who have been robbed of their basic civil rights and those who stole it. This change caused a new mix of social forces and a rearrangement of the opposition.
The green movement has integrated many previously neutrals, pro-regime and opposition groups into one united social force. In this process, social networks in general provided an international platform for this new social force to define itself and to communicate. Mousavi’s Facebook  group has been an early part of this process and an implementation example, initiator and supporter.
Leaders do not use virtual platforms directly
Mousavi and Karoubi use You Tube to spread their messages. What is about other services such as Twitter or blogs. Does the opposition use them? How?
These platforms is not used by them directly. They have sent out messages as a web compatible format. It was then the job of citizen media to spread them which they did through many different means, both on the web on different platforms and even outside the web through the real world extensions of these “citizen” networks. This decentralized media system of the Green Movement which I previously explained has spread to nearly every online platform, including Twitter and blogs. Also, the blog movement has been fundamental to the Green Movement and its system of media and therefore an experienced tool for activists. Twitter‘s role has been very significant during the first period of the protests where people in Iran sent out short messages about what is going on in Iran and were able to reach out to the world despite the desperate attempt of the coup regime to wall off Iran from the rest of the world.
Facebook and other citizen media tools are used more by city dwellers right? What about rural and/or less educated masses? Can citizen media/social networking have an impact on them?
Perhaps not a direct impact. Although many of the city dwellers have someone in their close family who is studying at some university. Nowadays the universities in Iran have spread to many small cities and districts and as the life of a student is directly coupled with the use of internet, hence internet in Iran is not limited to the city. Students therefore play a key role as intermediates between the internet and people who do not have access to it, especially in rural communities.
In general there is always a very strategic group of people who intermediate between the virtual world and the real world, carrying the information in and out. For instance they have been the main source during the first weeks after the election providing the mass media with information and video/photo material and also afterwards playing a crucial role in mobilizing for the governmental protests which has been overwhelmed with the presence of the Green Movement by using all sorts of old ways to spread the message, from wall writings to printed messages, as well as SMS and Bluetooth.  These people are the engine of the Green Movement network media connecting the virtual world to the people who cannot access it.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran: Tennis Competition in Tehran · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Zohre has published several photos from a Tennis competition in Tehran. You can see players and different hair style.


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Iran: Who steals bronze statues? · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

It seems Iran is the land of surprises and there seems to be no end for them. International and Iranian media report that religious motives appear to be behind the recent theft of 11 bronze statues of Iranian national heroes.
These statues include  Mohammad Moin statue, a prominent literature scholar, (photo, right, from Mehr news site) and Sattar Khan‘s statue, a key figure in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution , (photo, left, from Mehr News) that have been stolen from the capital's public parks.
Mokhtasatehonar, says  [fa] with irony that:
stealing statues in such numbers is becoming an ordinary thing and people started to get used to that…Mayor officials instead of stopping this robbery explaining to media and reporters that it is a group of thieves with high ability and planning…as if Iranians did not understand that stealing a 400kg statue in daylight is not a work of ordinary thieves.
Another blogger, Ebhamlink, has published the photographs of the statues that have not been stolen yet.
And Noghrei Nevesht writes [fa]
probably these statues have not been stolen but a religious leader ordered they got collected from public spaces. If they wanted to do that in a transparent way, people will probably protest and riot. Now it is done in the name of robbery.
The blogger wonders whether they have been stolen or made to “disappear.” Either way, it is a sad story.


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Jordan: Basketball Practice for Young Hashem  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Queen Rania of Jordan tweets: “My Hashem just back from basketball practice.. Not Michael Jordan, but from Jordan! http://twitpic.com/1kcham”


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Lao New Year 2010 · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Lao Voices uploads a video of the celebration of Lao New Year 2010

author: Mong Palatino


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Lebanon: Disabled Access  · Global Voices
Katharine Ganly

Joeysbox praises a new restaurant that has caught his eye: Ice Beirut, one of the first premier restaurants in Lebanon with full disabled access.

author: Katharine Ganly


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Lebanon: Lebanese Bloggers Convention · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

“Discussing the impact of blogging on the freedom of speech in Lebanon and the effect of blogging on the Lebanese society and culture” is one of the topics on the agenda of The First Annual Lebanese Bloggers Convention that is planned to take place at the American University of Beirut on May 19, 2010. Its goal is to encourage students to express their ideas and opinions using personal blogs.

author: Moussa Bashir


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Lebanon: Questionable flag · Global Voices
Katharine Ganly

Beirut Chronicles travels to the village of Bteghrine, north of Beirut, to follow up on rumours of a German flag bearing a swastika hung in the main square. The blog shows us a picture of the building from which the flag is hung, and discusses the issue in this post[Fr].


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Mexico: Citizen Journalism in the Middle of Drug-Trafficking Violence · Global Voices
Miguel Castillo

In the last months, the violence stemming from drug-trafficking organizations reached a peak in the Mexican state of Nuevo León, the metropolitan area of Monterrey and the North. There are constant battles in public spaces with firearms [es] and grenades [es], and“express” kidnappings [es] (known as “levantones”). There have also been cases of executions and decapitations both of members of drug cartels and authorities [es], blockading of streets and avenues [es] (known as “narcobloqueos”), and even the death of two students caught in a crossfire [es] outside the campus of the most important private university of the country.
The violence in Nuevo León is part of a wave that affects the northern region of Mexico, including cities of Reynosa (border-city with the United States) and Tampico (with a port to the Gulf of Mexico). This violence can be attributed to violent confrontations of two main drug organizations: the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas, as shown by this map of BBC news.
According to the newspaper El Diario de Coahuila, in the first months of 2010, there were 121 deaths related to the organized crime [es] in the state of Nuevo León, surpassing the total of drug-related deaths in 2007. In March, the “narcobloqueos”, or public blockades of streets and avenues by the drug cartels, exceeded 30 in one weekend for Monterrey, with a result of 7 deaths as explained by newspaper Excélsior [es].
Because of the rise in violence, in March the government of United States issued warnings to stop traveling to Mexico [es] during that country's Spring Break. Furthermore, Mexican military and Marine corps are present in Monterrey intervening in the confrontations, and have targeted local authorities implicated in drug-trafficking [es].
Mexican bloggers and twitter users in the region provide their thoughts on the delicate situation in their region.
In his blog, blogger Sinful sums up the history of the confrontation between the two main drug cartels [es], the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas. He writes about an specific type of robbery that happens in the implicated cities:
Los Zetas siguen robando camionetas en Nuevo León para llevarlas a pelear, camionetas de pasajeros son las ideales, el Cártel del Golfo le pone pegotes a sus camionetas con sus siglas, CDG, o bien una X en la parte trasera, andan uniformados estilo militar del desierto.
Although the violence in the affected zones is extraordinary, citizens have reported that mainstream media (including both newspaper El Norte and Milenio) have kept silent regarding many of the battles in the city, as user RagePerez noted [es]:
hahaha la noticia de la balacera de anoche ya esta en el norte hahhaha pero no dice NADA pff
Under the hashtag #balacera [es] (“shooting”), Twitter users of Nuevo León and Tamaulipas inform each other of the events in real time, as user ArtG0n [es] did with another shooting near the Monterrey Technology University:
Llegando del Tec de Monterrey después de que no nos dejara salir la gente de seguridad porque se registró otra #balacera por garza sada.
Among the citizen media, Blog del Narco [es] reports from their Twitter account [es] about the “narcobloqueos” or blockages in streets and avenues:
NarcoBloqueo en salinas, saliendo de #Monterrey http://tweetphoto.com/20530881
Users also share their testimonies of the events. Student and blogger M1zAr [es] was on the campus of the Monterrey university when two graduate students were killed as result of a shooting between the military and narcotraffickers. In her personal blog, she narrated the situation outside the campus [es] and how she used Twitter to navigate in the confusion:
Empecé a twittear lo que había oído, más gente preguntaba que sabía y luego empezaron a twittear que había gente en el tec encerrada en biblioteca y que no los dejaban salir. Pasó más tiempo, ya eran casi las 2, y se empezaron a escuchar carros, la calle empezó a tener tráfico como si fueran las 10 de la noche, y les dije, miren ya los están dejando salir, igual y ya me puedo subir. Nos asomamos a la cochera otra vez, y vimos carros y carros pasar, rumbo a Garza Sada. Después empezamos a ver carros en contra, cuando se supone que Luis Elizondo es de un solo sentido. Entonces puse más atención, vi que había pasado un chevy, después un malibú, y en eso, veo que en sentido contrario pasan el mismo chevy y después el malibú. “Hey se están regresando. No quieren salir por Garza Sada de seguro” ni terminé de decir la frase, ya eran las 2am y se oyó otra serie de balazos. Obvio corrimos adentro, esta vez no duraron tanto como la primera.
After the detailed post, blogger M1zAr received anonymous warnings from her readers [es], regarding the protection of her privacy in order to avoid any harassment from the drug organizations:
Linda, te sugiero cambiar tu perfil, quitar fotos, etc. ya embarraste hasta a tu novio con fotos y direcciones y todo sobre tu identidad, ahora eres vulnerable.
Dios los Bendiga…..
Dear, I suggest you should change your profile, take out pictures, etc. you already put your boyfriend in danger with photos and everything about your identity, now you're vulnerable.
God bless you…..
In the independent news agency SDP Noticias, Marifer Durán also tells about what she experienced [es] the day of the Tec de Monterrey shooting. She comments on the growing insecurity in the city and how it has affected her daily life:
¿Díganme que ruta ya no está literalmente mortal? Está muy mal esto la verdad, la libramos por segundos. Yo ya dejé de ir a antros, lugares masivos, y ¿ahora qué? Ya no puedo ni ir a casa de mis amigas. Ahora creo que viviremos encerrados, porque otra… yo no me arriesgo.
Diego Enrique Osorno, journalist with published works related to Mexican drug trafficking, shared from his Twitter [es]:
¿Qué predomina en los periódicos: lo que se dice o lo que se calla?
In his blog for newspaper Milenio Osorno has shared a three-party story called “El origen del Narco” (“The origins of Narco”) that begins from a newspaper drug story in the state of Sinaloa in 1920.
In MtyBlog [es] a press release from the State Government of Nuevo León in April was criticized  after the governor Rodrigo Medina was quoted saying that “the security subject is not a priority of the government”. Followed by a screen capture after its removal, the author of the blog commented:
Era inverosimil pensar que en nuestro estado alguien, quien sea, piense que la seguridad, la cual se ha perdido, no sea tema prioritario. La duda que a lo mejor nunca aclararemos es…¿Error de dedo o triste realidad?

author: Miguel Castillo


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Nigeria: Petition against Senator’s marriage to 14 year old girl · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Jeremy posts a link to a petition against Senator Ahmed Yerima and his ‘marriage’ to a 14 year old girl.

author: Ndesanjo Macha