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Lebanon: Anxiety and Cautious Optimism · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

Most of the posts in the Lebanese blogosphere reflect the atmosphere of anxiety, pessimism and mistrust that is the general mood of the Lebanese nowadays. Here is a summary of some of the posts. An attempt has been made to include one or two light posts with brighter outlooks, but they did not drown the overall disposition mentioned above. Anyway, here we go:
Let's begin by mentioning Lebanon's loss of Joseph Samaha, a very prominent columnist and political analyst, last week. Many bloggers posted about the man and his works. Jamal Ghosn wrote a post about Samaha which he began with:
Life Goes On, but it must not go on dumber, less informed, mentally poorer. We were privileged to have our collective minds enriched on a daily basis by a ten minute read each morning that encapsuled decades of knowledge, a philosophical library, and a strategic eye that saw beyond all horizons. No single pen can replace these lines. We, each of us, must make up a little of this loss on our own.
It may be difficult to imagine that the Lebanese could be in the mood for love songs after hearing the news coming out of Lebanon, but that is not the case according to this post at A Diamond's Eye View of the World, whose observation may lead us to imagine Beirut as a city enveloped in a cloud of music:
Lebanon is musical in the sense that wherever one goes, one hears music – in cars driving past, restaurants, and wafting down from apartments. My favorite musical moments come in the early mornings, as I pass soldiers stationed at various points around the city. They play music on their mobile phones – the latest Arabic love songs and the latest US hip-hop tracks. Each man I walk by is enveloped by his own little cloud of song. Men break into song here – phrases of old ballads, choruses of old love songs – when women walk past on the street. Much, much, much nicer than any catcall, or even than such memorable New York phrases as “God bless you and the mother who bore you”.
Moving on to politics,  Sophia sees that the New US Foreign Policy ‘Turn’  to stabilize Iraq, by convening a conference, is taking its closest allies in the ME by surprise. After a lengthy analysis of the subject, she states that:
There is no turn in the recent moves we are witnessing in US foreign policy. What we are witnessing is an administration weakened abroad and at home, trying to pursue its belligerent policy by other means, even if it means doing so on the expense of the stability of the entire ME.
A new wave of optimism, albeit mixed with pessimism, is spreading in Lebanon because of the Iranian–Saudi summit as well as the forthcoming Arab summit. Abu Kais elaborates on the apparent alternatives that the parties have in case the summits fail:
A wave of cautious optimism struck the Lebanese political scene in the days preceding the Iranian-Saudi summit in Riyadh. Reports of an impending settlement to the “Lebanese file” before the March 28th Arab summit have invaded the Lebanese media. However, both parties to the conflict are waving a “plan B” should the Saudis and Iranians fail to agree on the details. […] I think we're looking at a de-facto partitioning of the country and collapse of the army, and one or two governments claiming legitimacy.  Chaos is the best anti-dote to rule of law, and the Hariri tribunal.
The Grateful Arab sheds light on the current state of affairs in Lebanon via a historical perspective, and in addition to suggesting solutions to the problems he describes Lebanon today as:
a huge Labyrinth, and all of us are lost in it, especially those who pretend they are not because of their strong convictions. We are unable to reach the center, wandering aimlessly instead, trying to find our way. Some of us become discouraged and head for the exit never to return. Others get tired after a while and decide to just stay in the dead end they have reached, either ignoring or fighting people stuck in different dead ends.
Some of the Lebanese leaders are visiting the U.S.A. and meeting with president Bush and other U.S. officials. They have been promised help by these officials, but Leila comments on these promises and on other “CIA black ops” in Lebanon and in the region:
America's current leaders are sick, deluded and foolish, and any Lebanese who believe that such people will protect them or help them are just delusional.
Finally, Angry Anarchist describes the city she loves in a hilarious, critical and why–do–I–love–to–hate–Beirut post. Here are two samples of the reasons:
1– The Beirut of (the dead) Arabism whose inhabitants insist that Arabism is alive and kicking while chanting “Allah, Hariri, Tarik Jdide” or “Allah, Nasrallah, wl Dahiye kella” or “Aounak jeyi min Allah?” etc etc. Lest you think we are not diverse, we also are home to a sizeable population of clowns who insist Beirut is (not was) Phoenician, and that Lebanon is god's chosen country. Not only did these people prove that god exists, they also know that it is god's chosen country. Tell me, how, how? can one not love this city?
2– The Beirut of racism. “I got me a Sri Lankan maid today”, “I retrieved my escaped maid today”, “dirty Syrians”, “dirty Palestinians”, and the latest trend but definitely not a new phenomenon, “dirty Shi'ite”.
Stay well and see you next week.

author: Moussa Bashir


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Malaysia: Blogger Asked to Stop Blogging · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

A Malaysian blogger is ordered by the industrial court to stop blogging about his wife's troubles with her employer.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Preetam Rai


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Nepal: On Modernity · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Nepal Monitor discusses the meaning of being modern. “The term ‘modernization’, however, has a complex web of meanings. People in different communities understand its nature and characteristics in different ways. Those who practice modernization have different experiences about its consequences to their lives. Those who prefer to prevent themselves from the process of modernization have their own interpretations. In the context of Nepal, modernity still remains a dream, a quest of life and an unavoidable destination of history.”

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Palestine: Film on Benghazi Aids Epidemic  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah links to a video highlighting the plight of a Palestinian doctor and a group of Bulgarian nurses accused of inflicting more than 400 children with the deadly Aids virus in Ben Ghazi, Libya, here. “Injection is the real-life story of six health care workers falsely accused and jailed by the Libyan regime, the deplorable conditions that all led to their arrest, and the simple solution that might have prevented not only this injustice, but millions of needless infections,” he says.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Romania: Illiterate Politicians; Irrational Policies · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Blog Bucharest writes about one of the country's top politicians whose knowledge of the Romanian grammar is shamefully poor. Also, Romania's capital may soon cease being a destination for budget airlines – no sooner than it has become one.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: Another Journalist Dead · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Vilhelm Konnander writes about yet another outspoken Russian journalist who died under mysterious circumstances.


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Russia: Interview With Mike Averko · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Mike Averko doesn't like La Russophobe, La Russophobe doesn't like Mike Averko – Andy of Siberian Light interviews them both.


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Russia: Kadyrov’s Human Rights Event · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Last week, a number of Russian and international human rights organizations boycotted the human rights conference in Chechnya's capital, reports A Step At A Time.


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Russia: Lenin, More Lenin, and the Old-Guard Democrats · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Darkness at Noon follows a Lenin look-alike from Lubyanka to Red Square; buys two old Soviet posters of Lenin and listens to what an elderly Russian selling them has to say about an imminent world war; and observes a bunch of “the original Russian democrats” during a speech given by Mikhail Khodorkovsky's lawyer.


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Russia: More on Putin’s Munich Speech · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Somewhat belatedly, the Russian Dilettante shares his opinion of Vladimir Putin's Munich speech: “The problem with Putin's speech is Putin.”


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Russia: Sochi News · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sochi Travel reports these city news: On March 8, Sochi is hosting this year’s finals of the Missis World 2007 beauty contest; the average monthly salary in Sochi in 2006 was $350; 47 students took part in the Armenian literary language competition; avalanche kills a 10-year-old at Krasnaya Polyana ski resort.


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Russia: Theater Jams Cell Phones · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

St. Petersburg’s Alexandrinsky Theater “has installed equipment to block mobile phone signals in a desperate attempt to force patrons to stop taking calls during performances,” Russian Spy reports.


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Sierra Leone: refugee all stars · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Belgian Mission in Sierra Leone posts a YouTube video about Sierra Leone, “A movie to give you already a small impression about Sierra Leone and the influence of the war. We will tell you more about this horrific war later.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Sierra Leone: Think Build Change Salone Initiative · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Sweet Sierra Leone writes about The Think Build Change Salone Initiative in Sierra Leone, “The Think Build Change Salone Initiative came out of an assessment of the 177 registered NGOs in Sierra Leone. Though there are several organizations that focus on youth and vocational training, there are no organizations that focus on professional skill and career development in formal educational settings. And except for a handful of private companies that employ one or two interns a year the concept of interning is for the most part none existent in Sierra Leone.”


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South Korea: reactions on illegal migrant center fire · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Matt puts up with a detailed article on the reactions on the illegal migrant center fire broke out in early Feburary which left 9 migrant workers dead and 18 injured.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Sri Lanka: The minorities and Muslims · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

groundviews on the impact of the ethnic conflict on the Muslims in Sri Lanka. “If you were to go by the international headlines, the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict appears to engage only the two main communities, the Sinhalese and the Tamils. Yet when the conflict exploded into war in 1983, and in the more than two decades following, it was not just the two communities locked in battle that suffered. The impact of the internal war on the island’s Muslim community has been massive – and severely overlooked.”


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Sri Lanka: Why is Child Sexual Abuse not a problem? · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Manshark's Random Rants finds that Child Sexual Abuse Tourism is still not seen as a serious problem in Sri Lanka. “People are still, on the whole, unaware of the problem or are happy to look sad to 2 seconds when the topic comes up before moving on to “let’s talk how to resolve the national problem”. A problem that continues to traumatize and destroy whole future generations is not an issue that is national enough?”


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Tajikistan: Blogosphere Roundup · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Vadim rounds up the latest goings on in the Tajik blogosphere.

author: Nathan Hamm


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Thailand, Russia: Two Females Shot · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

White Sun of the Desert had returned from the Thai resort of Pattaya right before two Russian female tourists were shot to death there.


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Touring Libyan Blogs: Italian freedom fighters, niqab, road safety and the Libyan bloggers! · Global Voices
Fozia Mohamed

Abughilan – who has incidentally become one of my favourites haunts – surprises us with yet another beautiful lesson from the rich history of Libya. It is the story of an Italian soldier from the colonialist era who joins  Omar Mukhtar's fighters, learns Arabic, becomes Muslim and marries a Libyan woman – Tibra Mussa Almejbri.
“When he was a teenager he had a dream troubling him many nights and told his mother who called the village priest. He told the priest that he dreamt that he saw himself at the edge of a mountain and being transformed into a great bird, and when he was ready to fly a great serpent jumped at him and while he was struggling with the serpent he woke up. The priest told him not to worry, that at sometime in his future he would become something else and his struggle with the serpent is the eternal struggle between good and evil.[..]”
To read the epilogue of what happened to Yousel Almuslmani go to Abughilan's blog here.
Libyan history needs more exposure as there are literally hidden treasures.
AngloLibyan had a rundown with a niqabi woman and her husband at the supermarket in the UK..
“the lady in Niqab was standing in front of me in the car park, she was staring at me, I looked at her I just saw her eyes and immediately realised that she was a white English convert, I continued walking when suddenly she started shouting at me what are you looking at? she repeated it few times but I chose to ignore her, actually I chose to do what she wants the whole world to do that is to ignore her and treat her as a non entity, obviously she has problems and hang ups about her Niqab or she would not have shouted at me and what for? for daring to look her in the eyes! Few minutes later as I was loading the shopping in the car, her husband came over to me, looked at me I looked back at him then he went back to his precious wife and probably told her that he sorted me out,”
The thing is the number of niqabi women has risen  in Libya as well and that is a recent phenomenon which I'm still trying to analyse its origin.
Beacon  who blogs about road safety on Tripoli nights, has made a high impact post lately. Beacon is spearheading a drive on his blog to educate Libyans about road safety because car accidents are some of the highest killers in Libya.
“In Libya, the problem is that most people seem to take accept this reality and they accept it as part of life and its to be expected, I think every one has a responsibility towards their and other peoples safety. The government has a huge role in this and I hope that they begin to adopt the modern scientific methods in counteracting this huge killer.[..] Again, I apologise for posting the above picture if it has offended any one, and I hope we can learn from it and this tragic death which repeats its self more than 2500 times a year in Libya (and increasing) and more than a million times a year globally.[sic]” read more.
Braveheart who is studying in Britain and blogging from Birmingham went to the ‘stop the war’ demonstration that took place in London last week. It is so refreshing to read all these Libyans with minds of their own, especially that he was not daunted when his classmates did not go with him. Do check his photo essay here and drop him a line.
In Libya we celebrate children's day on the 21st of March,  tears welled up in my eyes when I saw what the Libyan bloggers were preparing for this year  following the success of last year's programme at the children's ward in Tripoli medical center.
“Participate with us on putting a smile on the faces of the children on
the 21 march as we did last year on the 21st of March Kids day
the same program shall be repeated this year after the success and
satisfaction of the last year's program […]
the program shall start after one o'clock in the afternoon , and will
include
three Plays act by the members
Decoration of the Units and adding a joyful environment
simple competitions for children and prizes
teling old stories by one of the members
simple gifts for each child on that day
short presentation of selected cartoon
Playgrounds put at each unit for daily entertainment for children
Light candies, snaks and Juice
puppets, Members wear to entertain the children [..] We were supposed to get financial support from one of the oil companies [ note from Fozia it is Shell company you can read it in the original Arabic leaflet here ]. But it appears that the company stated avoids the question of support. after the absence of its representative on the first meeting.accordingly we need to collect part of the money by ourselves , everyone can contribute with the amount he can and we will make it work inshallah and buy only the things we can afford.[sic] “
Bravo A.Adam and Libyano. Those two are planning a blood donation event with Khadijateri. I'll make sure to update you about it when it takes place.
To counteract the negative picture offered by the female pickpocket in this earlier report of mine about Khadijateri's experience, I would like to highlight the circumstances in which Trabilsia recovered her purse a few days after it was lost. A wonderful story about inherent human good and how this spirit is well and alive in Libya thank God. It is a story which makes me proud of my Libyan brethren and with which I chose to end today's post.
“What happened was that in my purse was no number of mine but medical receipts, so they phoned the clinic to have them phone me. The receptionist gave me the man's number and I phoned him.
When I phoned him he said that a manual labourer had found it and gave it to him as he was his boss Bab Bengashier, near Al Fateh University. Anyways he came to our centre and presented me with my lost purse ,nothing was taken, money (LD80 ) and all was intact !! The young chap said that as I was his mum's age(1955) he thought of it as his mum's purse . The young chap had grey hair and was slightly bald I CERTAINLY AM GETTING OLD I thought to myself and Tarek wasn't wrong. I offered to give him the money to which he completely refused, I asked him to give it to the labourer who found my purse , again a complete refusal. He only asked one thing which was to pray and say a good DUA for him !
I am very grateful for getting my purse back, money wasn't my major concern,but the id and drivers licence were ,due to living in a very bureaucratic country,the endless queues, etc……..
What do you all think ????
We are very lucky to still have decent people in this country of ours.”

author: Fozia Mohamed


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U.S., Russia: Paul Joyal Shot  · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Siberian Light writes on the shooting of Paul Joyal, which some consider to be the Kremlin's revenge: “There are plenty of those who are critical of Vladimir Putin, and the current Russian government. The KGB would have a hard time silencing them all…”


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Uzbekistan: Blogosphere Roundup · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Tolkun Umaraliev rounds up the Uzbek blogosphere.


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Uzbekistan: How to Drink Tea · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Uzbeks drink tea all the time. At neweurasia, “Girl of the Sands” explains how tea is made and drank.


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Zimbabwe: cracks, fissures and discontent all around · Global Voices
Zimpundit

Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe turned 83 a week ago.  While he celebrated at a lengthy gala in Gweru, which was forced on residents and school children there, police issued a repressive ban on rallies and demonstrations in Harare.  The ban, the regime's latest measure at calming an incessent tide of anger, is evidence that there are deep cracks and fissures in the nation's foundations as Eddie Cross notes;
The situation in Zimbabwe has deteriorated sharply in the past few days. The government has imposed a ban on public meetings, the strikes are continuing with the State run hospitals now completely paralysed, Doctors and Nurses refuse to go back to work. The Universities are due to open on Monday but staff is on strike and there are no signs of compromise. Students plan to join the strike on Monday in support of their lecturers and demanding attention to the stark conditions under which they are living. The ZCTU has announced a national strike in a month’s time and the State Security Minister has threatened them with dire action.
Now a form of curfew is being imposed on the high-density townships across the country in an effort to bring the situation under control. These are clearly signs of panic in the realms of government.
Tomorrow should be the start of a 4-month freeze on prices and wages – however I understand the proposal has been abandoned as being simply unworkable. No statements are forthcoming from the authorities and to say the least, there is considerable confusion in business and Union circles. The Governor of the Reserve Bank speaks of a ‘Social Contract’ but none exists.
However, the most serious indicator of collapse is in the open market price of foreign exchange. Driven by the frantic efforts of people to buy foreign exchange in any form for a variety of needs from education fees to water chemicals for the Cities and those who want to externalize or even protect their assets. No one wants to hold local money – and the options are the stock market, foreign exchange and assets such as property or simply business stocks.
The ruling party, ZANU-PF, is not in a much better state than the country they have pillaged for so long as This is Zimbabwe finds in their analysis of ZANU-PF since their last congress late last year,
In reality, for Zanu PF and for Robert Mugabe in particular, this was a political defeat of the same magnitude as the result of the referendum on the new constitution in the year 2000, when the electorate served notice that the days of an effective one party state were over and henceforth the MDC was a force to be reckoned with in the land.
Mugabe himself knows that he is at the helm of a seriously fractured party; he also knows – and it must provide precious little consolation – that he is in some ways the only glue that holds it together. Indeed he could well say with the famed Madame de Pompadour (favourite of Louis XV of France) “apres nous le deluge” (”after us the deluge”). From the country’s perspective, the aging dictator is at the centre of the ultimate Catch 22: He himself is the main obstacle in the way of resolving the severe economic crisis, but because of the lack of consensus on who will succeed him, he is still needed by his party.
The only thing left to happen that hasn't happened yet, is the melding of all the discontent into one insurmountable tidal wave.  Bev Clark at Kubatana Blogs wonders,
We’ve had so many strikes recently, I’m left wondering why there hasn’t been a convergence of all this discontent? Something like the mother of all strikes – a National People’s Strike.
My answer? Maybe as more and more of ZANU-PF's rotteness is exposed for all to see, Zimbabweans will direct their mutual discontent at the true source.  If this is a sign of things to come, we are not too far from the “mother of strikes.”

author: Zimpundit


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Afghanistan: Coverups and Collateral Damage · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Safrang says that unless the US takes steps to prevent the death of civilians in its military operations in Afghanistan, the fight against the Taliban will be slowly lost as legitimacy fades.


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Arabisc: An Open letter to the Saudi Labour Minister · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Saudi Arabian blogger Raed Al Saeed has written an open letter to his Labour Minister Dr Ghazi Al Gosaibi, who is also a distinguished writer and diplomat, and posted it online.
The letter, whether it made it to Dr Al Gosaibi's office or not, is available on the worldwide web for all to read and calls for treating local and expatriate workers equally. The issue of expatriate workers in oil rich Arab countries is a sticky one. While on the one hand they are a boon to their local economies back home, remitting to the tune of $14 billion to their countries from Saudi Arabia alone annually, the questions of abuse and discrimination are routinely raised when addressing how the the Kingdom treats its six million-strong foreign workforce.
And while expatriate workers agree to do menial jobs which many Arabs from oil-rich countries look down at, there is still talk among nationals of foreigners competing to take jobs from them – something difficult to gauge I presume amid conflicting reports on unemployment figures!
In this letter, Al Saeed writes:
Al Saeed argues that enforcing Saudisation rates is unrealistic, especially since his country is keen to catch up with the rest of the world and sign the much-coveted Free Trade Agreements.
The solution, explains Al Saeed, is setting up a Saudi Employment Bureau, which registers Saudi job applicants and which binds Saudis to the jobs they were selected for.
Sounds like we have a plan!


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Argentina: Buenos Aires Stencil Graffiti · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Robert Wright continues with his ever-entertaining narration on stencil graffiti in Buenos Aires.

author: David Sasaki


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Argentina, Venezuela, Iran: Nuclear Reactor  · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Miguel Octavio takes a look at an explosive threesome theory which contends that an Argentine-made nuclear reactor arrived in Iran with Venezuela's participation.


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Bahrain: Journalist Fined  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif is livid that a Bahraini journalist has been fined by a court for writing about a fight, without naming those involved in it. “If this is the motive behind these continuous harassing techniques by the public prosecution or the government in general, then let’s not waste time with all of this and start a “Writers Kitty” where every writer pays a subscription of a set amount per month and be done with it!” he writes.


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Bahrain: Satan Worshippers Rock at Concerts · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif goes on a rampage against a local newspaper for publishing an article on Satan worshipping amongst students who attend rock concerts, “based completely on unsubstantiated rumours, fear mongering, discriminatory allegations and all based on fourth hand accounts.” “What you and your editors have done to allow this kind of unsubstantiated rubbish to be printed reveals the desperation that the paper must be in. You and your paper should be ashamed of yourselves. You have betrayed the trust placed in your paper and your readership,” he adds.


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Bangladesh: On South Asia, Literature and Identity · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

black and gray in conversation with author Sikeena Karmali. “I do believe that English has become a part of the South Asian linguistic identity in that South Asians have very much taken the language and made it theirs so that today, the English of South Asia has its own distinct identity much as American, British or Australian English. I also think that English has given South Asia an advantage in the international arena over other Asian nations such as China for example, particularly on the business and economic front.”


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Bolivia: Exporting Coca, Not Cocaine · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Drug War Chronicles and Bloggings by Boz both look at efforts by President Evo Morales to export coca-derived products despite U.S. claims that coca cultivation will lead to an increase in drug trafficking.


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Bolivia: How the Constituent Assembly Works · Global Voices
David Sasaki

“Now that the Constituent Assembly is on track again, it becomes important to know who is working on what issues,” writes Miguel Buitrago who goes on to explain in detail how the assembly will go about crafting a new constitution.


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Central Asia: Security & Defense News · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

neweurasia summarizes recent defense and security news from Central Asia.


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China: different versions of Tianhou · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Maryannodonnell explains the different versions (official and unofficial, urban and rural) of Tianhou's legend and cultural practice in Chiwan Tianhou Temple in Shenzhen.


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China: please forget Lei Feng · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Joel Martinsen from DANWEI points to survey about Chinese school-children's knowledge of Lei Feng; and translates Chi Li's article arguing that: If you truly want to do good works, please “forget Lei Feng”


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China: spring travel photo essay · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Lung have a photo essay on spring travel with rural migrant in China, telling the hard life of peasants (zh).


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Cuba, Colombia: Meeting Gabo · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

On the occasion of the writer's 80th birthday, el Cubano de la isla meditates upon (es) a fleeting encounter between Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez and Ernest Hemingway in Paris: “The sad thing is that when wake up tomorrow, I'm not going to be in Paris, but in Havana, and in spite of how fond García Márquez is of this city, it will be difficult for me ever to happen to run into him on a street corner. . . “

author: Georgia Popplewell


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East Timor: Chinese Interest · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Trevor Loudon in New Zealand is concerned about the growing Chinese interest in East Timor.


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Egypt: Pro-Israeli heads Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The new head of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, one of the finest cultural centre dedicated to the Arab world in the world, is Dominique Baudis, a prominent figure of France’s pro-Israel movement, announces Issandr El Amrani in The Arabist.


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Egypt: Reading Material about the Muslim Brotherhood · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Want to catch up on reading about the Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood). The Arabist lists a number of reading resources here.


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Egypt: The Perils of Succession · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egyptian blogger Baheyya gives us an insight to the perils of succession in Egypt. “With Hosni Mubarak’s rapidly advancing senility and Gamal Mubarak’s incremental supremacy, the moment of power transfer is imminent and its direction appears clear. But there are so many wild cards and possible eleventh-hour developments at this juncture that the only certainty is that extraordinary uncertainty will accompany the process of succession,” she writes.


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Eritrea: political persecution · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Tear of Eritrea writes about political persecution in Eritrea, “Suppression of Political Dissent and Free Expression Governing party and government leaders and journalists arrested in 2001 as alleged traitors, spies, and foreign agents continue to be held incommunicado in undisclosed prisons. In 2006 a website issued a detailed but unconfirmed report asserting that 31 prisoners, including the leaders and journalists, were being held in isolation cells in a remote jail built expressly to hold them. The report claimed that nine of the 31 had died in captivity (one by suicide).”


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Global Voices is seeking an Outreach Director · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

Global Voices is seeking a full-time Outreach Director. The outreach director will coordinate Global Voices's efforts in promoting blogging, podcasting, videocasting, photoblogging and other forms of citizen media throughout the world. This will include responsibility for managing a grants program that will support innovative outreach efforts with microgrants, compilation of curiculum for blogging outreach and coordination of speaking and teaching engagements for Global Voices bloggers around the world. (For more on how Global Voices views outreach, see these notes from our December meeting in Delhi.)
Suitable candidates will have a strong understanding of the international blogosphere, journalism or technical writing experience, excellent management and leadership skills, and strong experience as a public speaker or technical trainer. Strong spoken and written English is a must – skill in other languages is a strong plus. We are very unlikely to consider candidates who are not active bloggers – links to the blogs you participate in are a key portion of a cover letter or resume for this position. Active involvement in the Global Voices community is a strong plus.
Global Voices expects that the Outreach Director will focus 40-50 hours per week on the position, with a great deal of schedule flexibility. Some international travel is required as part of the position, including attendance at the Global Voices annual meeting (travel funding will be provided.) The Outreach director reports to the acting managing director of Global Voices, and later to the executive director – she or he will be an active part of the Global Voices senior management team.
This position does not require relocation. All Global Voices jobs are virtual – people work from their home countries and connect with other Global Voices staff via the Internet. This job is open to residents of any nation. Salary will be based on experience.
To apply, please send a letter of interest along with CV or resume to ethan@globalvoicesonline.org

author: Ethan Zuckerman


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Haiti: Goat on a Plane · Global Voices
Alice Backer

New Haiti-based Haitian blogger (and published author) Nancy Chapoteau of Notedor.com writes about her strange encounter with a strange plane fellow on a flight from Cap Haitian to Port-au-Prince [Fr]: “My son's reaction [to the billy-goat] was as funny as could be: ‘Was the goat wearing his seatbelt?’ Instead, the poor thing ended up joining the luggage in the space reserved for that because he certainly didn't have a seat .”

author: Alice Backer


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India: The budget and the media · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Ultrabrown on the depth and length of media coverage devoted to the Indian Budget exercise. “So the wall-to-wall media attention to the Indian budget last week struck me as bizarre. New Delhi released the budget last week to 20-page special sections in mainstream newspapers about taxes on gram and cement and Anna Nicole-like coverage on TV. The minutiæ of spreadsheets got more coverage than 9/11.”


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Iran:8 women activists released,24 on hunger strike · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Accordng to Khorshidkhanoum, Eight women’s rights activists who were arrested in the peaceful demonstrations in front of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court Sunday were released today.The 24 women who are still in section 209 of Evin Prison have started a hunger strike in protest to their illegal confinement.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Jamaica: Dub poetry documentary · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

At Geoffrey Philp's blog, filmmaker Mikey Jiggs writes about the experience of making a documentary about dub poet Malachi Smith.


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Kazakhstan: The President Wants Halal Meat · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Leila Tanayeva notes that Kazakhstan's president has called for the country to develop halal industry in its food sector. She asks though whether or not Kazakhs really care if their meat is halal.


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Kuwait: Phone Number Changes · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Kuwaiti blogger Error is outraged that phone numbers in Kuwait will soon become longer. The blogger says because of this change, Kuwait will never be the same again!!


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Lebanon: Israeli Armored Vehicles to Iraq · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

An Israeli state-owned corporation has won a contract to supply the U.S. Marine Corps with state-of the-art armored vehicles for use in Iraq, the latest in a long line of Israeli defense sales for use in the war, writes US-based Lebanese blogger As'ad AbuKhalil.


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Malawian Musings: Diaspora, Internet-based Radio, Nigerian Movies, Stray Dogs, Silicon Valley dreams, and Muluzi’s comeback · Global Voices
Steve Sharra

The Malawian blogosphere has been abuzz with news of Malawian initiatives involving radio broadcasting and the Internet; Malawians in the diaspora; personal narratives about dislikes, trips and city issues; and the political comeback of former President Muluzi who is said to be planning a return to contest for another term after the constitutional termination of his two earlier terms as president.
Radio program and Internet radio for Malawians in the Diaspora
Victor Kaonga, a Malawian radio broadcaster studying in Sweden, writes on his blog Ndagha about a new radio program he has initiated, called AMalawi Kunja kwa Malawi (Malawians in Diaspora) aired on TransWorld Radio. The program, launched on January 10, 2007, follows a successful Christmas special which had initially been slated for 30 minutes, but ended up running to 90 minutes. Victor writes:
The programme is a platform to let Malawians in diaspora share with listeners in Malawi something about their lives, their work, studies, stay and the countries they are living in. Malawians abroad are interviewed to share personal experiences as well official positions on issues that affect them where they are and at home.
Victor continues to share news about a new Internet-based radio for Malawi, the second one in six months.
It is now amazing to me how though slowly Malawians are utilizing the Internet for radio. It was only last year in August that the first internet radio ran by a Malawian started broadcasting. Radio Yako made news and still is considered the pioneer. Another internet radio Kwacha FM has just started doing a similar thing. I hope no one will raise questions at the names! I am wondering a bit about the “fm” extension! I would say to both kongilachuleshoni!
Elsewhere on his blog, Victor wonders aloud about the killing that goes on in the world, Malawi’s first Internet radio, RadioYako.com going live, and describes how he keeps in touch with friends and family for healthy relationships.
Late blogger would have been 26 this week
Another Malawian blogger, Nyumbazi, reminds us on her blog Mangaliso’s World 2, a blog dedicated to Mangaliso Jere, the Malawian blogger who passed away on January 18 this year, that this week would have been the 26th birthday for the late Mangaliso:
Today since the 1st March 1981, we annually celebrate my small brother’s birthday Mangaliso Robert Samuel Jere (aka Mangaman). Though on a sad note this year due your sudden and tragic death. Any way in the meantime I call out your name with pride, you are the Captain of the Ndinda’s as clearly shown by your intelligence and skills, not only steering us to what we are today both economically and intellectually.
Are dreadlocks Malawian? and a booming Malawian cyberspace
The one Malawian blogger who blogs mostly in Chichewa mixed with some English, M’Malawi KuTheba, based in an unnamed part of the Malawian diaspora, is forced to pose a question as to whether Malawians have a culture they can call Malawian. The blogger is forced to ask the question upon seeing a colleague whom he/she considers highly mannered and religious, sporting dreadlocks, in a foreign land:
Funsoli ndikufunsa chifukwa chakuti sabata yapitayi ndinali ku tchalitchi ya chimalawi, ndiye kumeneko ndinakumanako ndi “m'bale” (brother in christ) yemwe kumudziku anali mkulu wampingo, ndiponso anali bwana ndithu komwe amagwira ntchito. Koma nditamuona “m'baleyu” ndi zomwe anapanga tsitsi lake I could not believe what i was seeing, “m'bale” ali muma dreadrocks.
In another posting M’Malawi waku Theba comments upon the common practice by Malawians to copy each other’s ideas for commercial businesses, leading to the proliferation of local telephone bureaus, businesses selling doughnuts, second hand clothes, etc. The blogger sees the same trending happening with the Internet in Malawi:
Ndiyetu pa internet pano ndayamba kuziwona, meetmalawi, emalawi, Portlait, nyasa times, Daily News, Nation online ndi Daily times online. Kwaife ofuna kuwerenga nkhani zakumudzi ayi zabwinobwino. Ngakhale masaitiwo atafika mazana mazana!
Music at an early age
Meanwhile, Cryton Chikoko, currently working and studying in Britain with his wife, and very actively involved in their local church there, admires how British children learn how to play musical instruments from a very young age, adding that musical instruments in Malawi are too expensive and unaffordable by most Malawian parents:
Back to the English: what I learned later is that English kids are obliged to learn one music instrument or sporting activity during their secondary education. All this is to prepare the funny loving Brits to enjoy life to the full when old. Fantastic! I wish that was the case home. I was also informed that playing music instruments helps children to learn to focus. Their mental ability get enhanced. Their brains get sharpened spilling the benefits to their studies. Of course to learn how to play a guitar, drums or keyboard for school kids is unthinkable in Malawi. The fact is that most of our children in Malawi even to be alive is a miracle. There is untold deprivation in our community so much that to think of buying music instruments is total madness. I have my private dreams on that.
Nigerian movies and Lilongwe's stray dogs
At the just ended African Film Festival in Burkina Faso, a Nigerian movie, Ezra, won the top prize. This news probably doesn’t excite Austin Mandinga’s Big Mouth, who uses a recollection of a road trip he took two years ago from Malawi to South Africa to express his displeasure with Nigerian movies:
Now am not one to watch a west african movie but the view of the dense thicket outside the window was not that exciting either. Coupled with all the shouting and screaming associated with Naija movies, I was forced to watch. Now check this out, the Mozambique stretch is some 3 – 4 hours and I tell you the movie dragged through all this time until we got to the Zimbabwe border where the film seemed to end. After the border formalities we left and guess what? The hostess slotted in a movie conveniently titled Billionaire's Club Part 2!!! SOMEONE PLEASE SHOOT ME!!!!
In another posting Madinga writes about how stray dogs in Malawi’s capital city Lilongwe have become a nuisance, observing that it has been almost a decade since he last heard once common radio announcements that used to alert the public about veterinary officials who went around shooting stray dogs. He believes the veterinary department no longer does this, as evidenced by the increasing numbers of stray dogs nowadays:
They are everywhere in large numbers too. They will either be a large group following a female dog. Or they will be fighting and chasing each other. The other day I found one taking a crap right in the middle of the road!! How cheeky!! He was bloody lucky my car does not have a bullbar, I would have knocked some sense into him.
Former Malawi president poised for comeback
The current top political story in Malawi at the moment is the news that potential contenders for the presidential candidacy of the United Democratic Front, for the 2009 elections, are standing aside and pulling out of contention in order to accommodate a possible comeback for former president Dr. Bakili Muluzi. Muluzi served as Malawi’s president for two terms between 1994 and 2004, before campaigning for Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, the current president. However soon after being sworn in, Mutharika turned against his benefactor, Muluzi, and today the two are at loggerheads. Malawian newspapers as well as the Malawian cyberspace is awash with discussion of whether the Malawi constitution allows a president who has served two consecutive terms, to return and stand again for the presidency, as Muluzi, popularly known as Atcheya (The Chairperson) is said to be planning to do. Blogger Isaac Cheke Ziba, based in Scotland, makes clear his opposition to the move:
[L]et me make it clear that I am one of those who think and deeply so that a comeback of Atcheya onto the Presidency in Malawi is not, not even in the least sense, a good thing for the country…I can not think of anything positive that is motivating the “UDF's grassroots” into drafting Atcheya again, an idea Atcheya seems to be buying into… The idea, Ambuje, is to push home the fact that the Law is double edged.
Malawian blogger ends visit to Bay Area, USA
And finally, Malawian blogger Soyapi Mumba has been so enjoying himself at the 2007 summit for Non-profit Software development, in the Bay Area, San Fransisco, USA, that he hasn’t even noticed that he has failed to visit his dream places around Silicon Valley, just two hours away:
I never thought I would be in the Bay Area, which is within 2 hours from the Silicon Valley, for almost one full week without seeing my number one tourist destinations: the Googleplex and Yahoo offices. Ooh, and if time permits Live.com offices.
But somehow I did and it was worth it.

author: Steve Sharra


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Namibia: the color of farming · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Namibia Notes writes about Namibia's government policy limiting the sale of live, on the hoof, animals to feed lots and abattoirs in South Africa, “The Namibian Government put the limits in place to promote local abattoirs and feed lots, and thus add value to a basic product. The curse of being a former colony means that your valuable resources are extracted in their most basic (and least profitable) form so the colonizing country can gain both from the use of that material and from the wealth created by turning it into a usable form.”


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Nepal: Going Abroad · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Deepak's Diary on youth who go abroad to support themselves and their families. “Twenty four year old Chandra is leaving for Malaysia very soon. He is one of hundreds of Nepali youth who toil in the foreign soil, somewhat pompously called Diaspora.”


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Pakistan: Kite Flying and Crimes · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Light Within on those punished for breaking kite flying rules. “What is the point here? Whereas big guns can get way with almost anything, it is most dreadful for any poor to commit a crime. A nightmarish chain of even starts for the entire family when some one is caught and taken in police custody. Allah bless us all and keep safe from unseen, I pray.”


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Panama: Being Selective · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Panamanian web designer Jorge Arango is a fan of This American Life. After watching an interview with the show's host, Ira Glass, on the art of storytelling, Arango applies some of those same lessons to the business of small scale web design.


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Peru: Fresh and Clean Design · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Carlos Chang congratulates [ES] fellow Peruvian blogger Luis Alarcón whose website was selected by Smashing magazine as one of “45 Fresh, Clean and Impressive Designs.”


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Puerto Rico: Arecibo lighthouse · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

imagonovus has a lovely Flickr photoset devoted to the lighthouse in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Among them is a beautiful image of this weekend's lunar eclipse.


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Russia: Moscow in FT · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sean's Russia Blog reads a piece by FT's Moscow correspondent, a Russian repat looking for “some semblance of his past” in today's Moscow.


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Russia: “Torture by Visa” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Darkness at Noon shares several near-horror stories on getting and maintaining a Russian visa: over the years, the purely bureaucratic beast tormenting the blogger has metamorphosed into “the academo-bureacratic beast.”


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Singaporeans Blog about Indonesian Earthquake Tremors · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Singaporeans has an extended lunch today as tremors from the earthquake in nearby  Indonesian island of Sumatra resulted in precautionary evacuation of several buildings. There no news of casualty in Sumatra as of yet but some damage to buildings, power and telecom links were witnessed. Singaporean blogged about their experience
EU writes
I was in the editiorial meeting when I felt that my chair shook when it was near noon. The shake was hard.
Tremor!
Earthquake?
OMIGOD!
We brought our belongings along and left the building.
Mr. Brown writes
Wife just called from Beach Road and said her colleagues and many from her building (Shaw Tower) have evacuated and are waiting on the first floor. She said the tremors lasted quite long and they felt it quite a bit. Made her giddy.
Discontent has more on the evacuation
Received a few excited calls from friends and colleagues from various places over Singapore, including Ang Mo Kio and the Alexandra area. I’m located on the 2nd floor of our office here in the Northern part of the island, and felt only very minor tremors lasting only 1-2 seconds. Apparently, people are streaming out of the taller offices in the area. Sounds like pretty bad news if central areas like Ang Mo Kio can feel the tremors.
Starrysky85‘s  was not so lucky
i was in office during e tremors, n my table was shaking very badly… at 1st, i tot it's e construction site or our neighbours trying to do something to their office tt caused the tremors…. so my colleagues n i ignore it… bt at abt 12.00pm, my boss's frenw (whose office was at suntec) smsed to sae there were earthquake in indonesia n they had evacuated fr their office… bt we still remain in e office (cos e tremors had stopped for quite sometime) n continued to do wat we r doing…
Beconfused writes
I was sitting comfortably on my chair when it started to vibrate a little. It thought the Gundam robots are here. My elephant behaved differently too, it used to be balanced on my round CD compartment, it sort of fell onto the ground. I heard that there is an earthquake in Sumatra or something. The tremors stopped already of course.
Jenna writes
It just happened like 10 mins ago.
I was doing my work, and was concentrating, when i suddenly felt dizzy and unsteady
I tried to shake away this dizziness. But the thing is: i don't feel sick, i don't see any stars…
Then Lakshika and Jo walked out of their rooms, and commented that the whole building is moving!!! And everyone left in the office seems to agree.
And it's been that for like 20 secs!!!
Everyone felt that, that means it's not just me. (-_-)”’
Deliriously happy prays for people in Sumatra. Sumatra has suffered from multiple natural disasters in the last few years, the most destructive was the tsunami in 2004.
when i felt my table moving, i thot it was just a result of over-mugging.
there was another earthquake in indonesia..
must really suck living on Sumatra island.
Hope there weren't many casualties..
*silent prayer*


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South Asia: Holi, Wedding excess, Bollywood, Snow, Bus etiquette, ordination of children · Global Voices
Rezwan

Happy Holi to our readers. The Hindu Spring festival of colors is one of the most popular traditional festivals in India and Nepal. South Asia Biz reports that the Indian Cricket team, now in the Caribbean for the Cricket world cup celebrated Holi with the local Indian communities.
We also have other assorted topics discussed in these South Asian blogs:
Bangladesh:
Nazia Hussein of Adhunika blog highlights the tradition of excess expenditure in weddings, which becomes burden for the family. She contemplates where to draw the line.
Recently a Dhaka highrise caught fire causing five deaths and much panic and people witnessed dramatic rescue scenes. Drishtipat Blog posts eye-witness accounts of the terrible incident and critics the absence of safety measures to avoid this kind of tragedy.
Bhutan:
Ugyen of Visit Bhutan in 2008 shares a breath taking video of the Landing of the Druk Air, Royal Bhutan Airlines in Paro, the Only Airport in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.
Lost at Kuzu-Bhutan Weblog describes the advantages of the use of Bhutanese language in webchats.
India:
Shivam VJ writes a detailed article showing the chemistry between the Indian blogosphere and the Indian media. Kiruba Shankar features blogger Amit Agarwal's column in the Hindustan Times where the leading Indian Podcasters were highlighted.
Bollywood is turning truly Global. Steven Baker writes in Desicritics his personal accounts of new Bollywood film releases in three continents.
Nepal:
Kathmundu witnessed its first snow after 62 years. Dinesh Wagle of United we Blog describes the reactions of the Nepalis.
Dr. Gaury S. Adhikary is optimistic about the future of Nepal. Although the Nepali politics is at the cross-roads, he is confident that with their resilience and wisdom the Nepali people will bring the Nepali politics back to where it belongs: at the Center!
Pakistan:
Pakistan's popular Basant festival or the festival of kites marking the advent of spring is back this year. Shirazi of Light Within and Hasan of Lahore Metblogs have details of the celebrations. The kite flying laws of the authorities could do little damage to the enthusiasm of the people of Pakistan.
Adil Najam of All Things Pakistan lists some popular books on Pakistan.
Sri Lanka:
Scourge discusses Sri Lankan Bus etiquette.
Pass the roti on the left side informs that there are reports of abductions and disappearances of Children in Sri Lanka. These Children are said to be used as fighters.
Lanka Libertarian discusses the ordination of children by the Buddhist Monks and the claims of human rights violation.

author: Rezwan


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Sri Lanka: Children and Religion · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Dilispeak responds to some bloggers by asserting that children taking to the religious order as monks is not entirely negative. “What i think both of them forgot is that there actually are little children who really actually do want to become monks from a very young age.Because they like what they see, and are impressed by it.”


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Trinidad & Tobago: Shoot the moon · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Nicholas Laughlin didn't manage to watch this weekend's eclipse from a mountaintop, but he invites anybody who watched it from “a strange or interesting location” to leave comments and share links to their photos at the Caribbean Beat blog.


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Tunisphere:  Mauritania’s elections, Super shield and Mohammed Abbou. · Global Voices
samsoum

Mauritania's presidential elections were almost ignored on the Tunisian blogosphere. Only Nadia From Tunis brought attention to this historical event in this country, a member of the UMA (Arab Maghreb Union). In this article, Nadia talked about all the miraculous decisions made by a military who took over using force in this region of Africa where leadership is never taken away peacefully. The post is somehow alluding to the current situation in the rest of the Maghreb and African countries:
Le 11 mars, regardez vers l'ouest
La Mauritanie, vous savez le petit pays qui fait partie de l'UMA, là-bas juste en dessous du Maroc. Mais si! Le pays ou tout le monde s'appelle Oueld quelque chose ? Vous voyez de quoi je parle ?
Bref, dans ce petit coin perdu qui n'a jamais notre attention, on s'apprête à vivre un évènement historique. Le 11 mars prochain, des “élections présidentielles”, des vraies, vont avoir lieu! (pour ceux qui ne sauraient pas ce que cette expression veut dire, restez sous votre bouclier, c'est mieux) […]
Le CMJD organise un référendum constitutionnel qui entérine notamment la réduction du mandat présidentiel à 5 ans et son renouvellement à une seule fois, ainsi que des élections municipales, législatives et sénatoriales. Il abroge un texte de lois qui restreignait les conditions d'associations, de réunions publiques et d'expression, gracie des opposants emprisonnés et permet le retour au pays des autres, met fin au système de censure et libère la presse et l'audiovisuel, réforme le statut de la magistrature pour garantir la neutralité des juges, met en place des procédures pour réduire la corruption, renforce le dossier des finances publiques, et réduit la dette extérieure. La meilleure reste quand même le miracle suivant: après 19 mois à la tête du pays, le colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall “se retire” pour laisser la place à son successeur, qui sera élu en mars, et martèle la nécessité de préserver la neutralité totale des dirigeants en cette période décisive[…]
**Nadia here made an implicit reference to another excellent article she wrote this week, about how the country (Tunisia) lives under a super shield that protects us from all the bad stuff. She was alluding to the editorial line of our national press, and the official state of the country as depicted by the government.
Quoi? Vous n'êtes pas au courant ? Mais si je vous dis, il y a un Super Bouclier installé juste au dessus de la Tunisie. Naturellement, il épouse parfaitement les contours du pays, on a utilisé des cartes très précises quand on l'a installé !
[…]
Le Super Bouclier protège des idées extrémistes. Même quand certains individus mal intentionnés ont réussi à franchir les frontières, ce n'était évidemment pas ici qu'ils avaient tout appris, car ici tout ce qui se dit est pur et pacifique, pas de manipulations, pas d'endoctrinement, pas de misère, donc pas de danger. Et puis de qui se moque-t-on? un tunisien n'est par définition pas si crédule pour se laisser faire!
[…]
Le Super Bouclier protège des crises économiques. Dès qu'ils atteignent le Bouclier, les chiffres gonflent, les profits se multiplient, les avancées deviennent tellement énormes que les autres pays de la région sont admiratifs de notre succès.
Le Super Bouclier protège de la connerie humaine, tout citoyen tunisien est tellement intelligent qu'il sait absolument tout sur tout, qu'il a des certitudes sur chaque chose, parce que le Bouclier attire et filtre pour lui toutes les connaissances dignes d'être acquises, pas besoin de lire, de s'informer, de faire autre chose que profiter de la présence de cet outil miracle qui nourrit son esprit.
Par contre, le Super Bouclier a un inconvénient. A force de perfectionner ses filtres, on y a malencontreusement introduit un “bug” : un filtre contre la “conscience” …
[…]
The super shield protects from extremist ideas. Even when some ill-intentioned guys had succeeded in crossing our borders, it was not obviously here that they learned it all, because here, all what is said is pure and peaceful, no manipulation, no propaganda, no misery so no danger. And then, who are we mocking?   Tunisians are not that credulous to fall in the trap.
[…]
The super shield protects from financial crisis. As soon as they reach the shield, the numbers got exaggerated, profits increases by folds, the progress becomes so huge that other countries in the region become admiring of our success.
The super shield protects from human foolishness, every Tunisian citizen is so smart that he knows it all, certain of everything he knows, because the shield attracts and filters in all the knowledge worth to have. No need to read, learn nor doing anything besides taking advantage of this miraculous tool that feed our soul.
Nonetheless, the super shield has an inconvenient. By keeping perfecting its filters,   a bug got unintentionally introduced”: a filter against the “conscience”…
Another event that did not get enough coverage on the Tunisphere is the second anniversary of the imprisonment of Lawyer Mohamed Abbou from Tunisia. He was convicted on fictitious charges because he was critical to the president in an article published on the internet. Zizou from Djerba mentioned it briefly in his blog.
Une petite pensée pour Maitre Mohamed Abbou. Il a été condamné a 3 ans et demi de prison et il vient aujourd'hui d'achever sa deuxieme année sous les verrous.

author: samsoum


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UK, Trinidad & Tobago: Half-caste · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

London-based Trinidadian blogger Sinistra posts part three in her “Young and black in Babylondon” series. In this installment, she's asked whether she's “half-caste”.


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Ukraine: A-ba-ba-ga-la-ma-ga · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Olechko writes about A-ba-ba-ga-la-ma-ga, a Ukrainian publishing house that produces wonderfully-illustrated books “for kids from 2 to 102″ years of age.


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Ukraine: “Pidmanula, Pidvela” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Ukraine List posts a comprehensive entry on the extremely popular Ukrainian folk song: Pidmanula, pidvela. Links to video and audio of the song's various performances, as well as the lyrics in English and Ukrainian, are included.


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Ukraine: Yulia in the States; Re-privatization · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Foreign Notes translates a piece on Yulia Tymoshenko's recent visit to the United States and writes about the possible re-privatization of the Mariupol Metallurgical Plant.


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What Salvadoran bloggers are saying —  about murders in Guatemala · Global Voices
Tim Muth

Recent events involving the murder of four Salvadorans in Guatemala have dominated the blogosphere in El Salvador. On February 19, three members of the Central American parliament (PARLACEN) from El Salvador's ruling ARENA party were found murdered in Guatemala along with their driver. The group had been traveling to a working group meeting of PARLACEN. The bodies were found in a rural area outside of Guatemala City, in the burned out shell of the vehicle in which they had been driving. Among the dead was Eduardo D'Aubuisson, son of the founder of ARENA.
Initially the reaction in the Salvadoran blogosphere was to call for restraint[ES], avoiding a rush to judgment, and calling for an in depth investigation[ES]. Jjmar wrote that no one should seek to take advantage of the murders[ES] for political gain, whether to further the political polarization in El Salvador or to gain a benefit in the 2009 election campaign.
Fears of a political motive were largely eliminated when four Guatemalan police officers were arrested for the murders three days later. The arrested police officers included the head of the organized crime unit within the Guatemalan national police. Yet there was to be another twist. On February 25th, the four Guatemalan police officers were executed in their cells in a high security Guatemalan prison. Most reports indicated that gunmen “stormed” the prison, passing through eight locked(?) doors to get to the suspects and kill them. The executions coincided with a riot within the prison, and the some Guatemalan authorities are still suggesting that the suspects were killed by rioting gang members. The discussion in the blogosphere now turned to organized crime and narco-trafficking and its hold in Central America.
Ixquic* wrote a post[ES] looking at the impotence of the Salvadoran and Guatemala states. Each has emerged from bloody years of civl war during the 1990s. In each country, the arrangements following the civil war created new civilian police forces, yet each had elements left over from earlier years contaminated with the bad habits of those times.  Each country had a history of armed paramilitary groups, death squads and guerrillas, whose members had to find something to do. The post-war years saw a dramatic growth of organized crime in the countries which now controls trafficking in drugs, trafficking in persons, and kidnappings. In both countries, organized crime operates with near impunity against the impotence of the two governments.
The murders brought Soy Salvadoreño out of retirement[ES] on his blog. He had been watching the Academy Awards where the Best Picture award went to the The Departed, a movie about organized crime. In Spanish-speaking countries, however, the film is titled “Los Infiltrados.” or “The Infiltrated.” The parallels of organized crime infiltrating its way into the police struck him.  As he learned about the execution of the suspects within the locked doors of a high security Guatemalan prison, Soy Salvadoreño wondered if truth was stranger than fiction.
The impunity with which organized crime was acting led Soy Salvadoreño to bemoan:
48 horas fueron suficientes para que la mafia (¿guatemalteca-salvadoreña?) planeara y ejecutara a los arrestados con la ayuda de los “infiltrados” de la policía y autoridades de Guatemala y de El Salvador …. No hay quien nos ayude, no hay quien nos proteja. No hay justicia. Vivimos en la selva
The question in El Salvador is what are the links in El Salvador to these murders. The Hunnapuh blog is running a poll[ES] asking its readers whether drug traffickers have infiltrated public officials in El Salvador and whether any particular party is more likely to be connected to drug-trafficking. Hunnapuh also made sure to remind his readers[ES] that, although US president George Bush had offered condolences for the “three gentlemen who were murdered,” referring to the ARENA politicians, there were in fact four Salvadorans murdered that night. The driver of the car, Gerardo Ramirez, was also murdered, and he had been often overlooked in the press coverage of the murders.
The events of the past two weeks have also put a strain on relations between Guatemala and El Salvador. Patrick Hall at the Guatemala Solidarity Network points out “Guatemala-El Salvador relations haven't been this frosty for a long while.” Government officials in El Salvador have been intimating that high government officials in Guatemala have connections to the crime. Meanwhile Hall also notes that journalists covering the case have been receiving death threats.

author: Tim Muth


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Yemen: Teachers Stage Sit-in · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Yemeni blogger Said Jane reported that teachers in Makalla staged a peaceful sit-in. “It's amazing how brave and determined some people are in the peaceful fight for their legitimate rights. They are modern day heroes and give hope to the world,” writes the blogger.


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Afghanistan: Cut Off · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Part of Afghanistan are all but cut off from the outside world due to heavy snow, says Safrang. The author says that better transportation links would massively improve the situation.


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Afghanistan: Ethnic Separatism · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Afghanistanica explains why ethnic separatism is not a problem in Afghanistan.


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Africa: China-Africa billboards · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Africabeat writes about China-Africa billboards, “At the Delhi Hibiscus meeting in December I remarked how the billboards – which featured photographs of pyramids, Kenyan safaris, and scantily-clad Africans – showed just how little the Chinese know about Africa.  Here, you can see some of them for yourselves.  Apparently one billboard features an “African native” who is actually, Jeremy Goldkorn tells us, from Papua New Guinea.  But he has brown skin so that counts, right?”


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Argentina: Buenos Aires Blog Roundup · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Alan Patrick rounds up the Buenos Aires blogosfera and finds a list of free wi-fi hotspots and a guide to “understanding Buenos Aires women.”


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Bahrain: Bahraini in Alaska in Florida · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahraini blogger/doctor Haitham Salman has escaped the Alaskan winter to Florida – where at least his wife can walk outdoors “without getting frozen.”


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Bolivia: Constituent Assembly Debates · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Miguel Buitrago continues his coverage of the Bolivian Constituent Assembly with a summary of some of the topics being debated.


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Brazil, Kenya: World Social Forum · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Brazilian photographer Tatiana Cardeal was at the seventh World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, where she captured this incredible photograph of children playing in Kibera.


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China: livejournal dead · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Several reports about China has blocked livejournal and Onemanbandwidth has a up -to-date summary of blocked blog hosting sites.


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China: multi-dimensional news report · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Zhang rui writes a letters to his reporter friends and suggests to adopt a multi-dimensional news report method for avoiding monopoly of news angle by big news company (zh).


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China: water issues · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Dan Washburn at Shanghaiist puts up a map indicating areas in China that have water issues (such as dam construction, shortage of water, etc.)


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Cuba: Hunger strike in Camagüey · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Marc Masferrer writes that the Cuban independent news site Payo Libre is reporting that 18 inmates, including 10 political prisoners, at the Kilo 8 prison in Camagüey, Cuba, have embarked on a hunger strike.


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Dominican Republic: Humpack whales · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Flickr user Simon T posts some breathtaking photos of humpback whales in Silver Banks, a whale sanctuary 80 miles north of the Dominican Republic.


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Ecuador, Chile: Kitsch Goes for Cash on YouTube · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Is there any method to the madness of who becomes a celebrity on YouTube? Should there be? Should the Hollywood stars of the global, digital era consist of an overweight adolescent falling into a creek, two guys arguing on a bus, Darth Vader shopping in a super market, and, of course, the infamous Numa Numa dance? What does it say about the world's netizens – lauded by Time magazine and by each other for circumventing the old media gatekeepers – if their most recognized representatives are recognizable for … well, for what?
Nothing is more fun for a 20-year-old Wikipedia-know-it-all to mock the laughable sincerity of a graying newscaster who is worried about the contents of Anna Nicole Smith's refrigerator or the most recent blonde teenager to go missing in the tourist town of your choice. But, then, can anything be taken seriously? Behind figureheads like Sacha Baron Cohen, Steven Colbert, and Jon Stewart, has irony finally triumphed even the internet as the true all-pervasive medium of how the 21st century world interacts?
More than just lampooning the ridiculous commentary allowed onto network television, this unshakable cult of cyber-satiricism is equally fond of making heroes out of the truly horrible. And such is the strange psychology that has launched Ecuadorean singer and lyricist Delfin Quishpe, better known simply as Delfín, to cyber-stardom.
Alberto Precht, a 25-year-old recent law graduate of the University of Chile is now the director of a network of citizen journalism sites operating throughout the country. He helps us get acquainted with Delfín, the net phenomenon.
Te invito a conocer a Delfín Quishpe, el ya hace unas semanas que es el furor de internet, con su tema Torres Gemelas, controvertido para algunos, divertido para otros, sentido para algunos ecuatorianos que viven en el exterior. Gracias a este tema Delfín se ha trasnformado en un personaje de culto, su Blog, es sumamente visitado sobretodo por chilenos, que ya han elanborado una petición formal para que Delfín venga al Festival de Viña (¿una broma o una realidad?), mi opinión personal es que un personaje así la reventaría en nuestra Quinta Vergara, para mi sería un imperdible.
Other bloggers are less diplomatic about Delfin's musical talents. PorLaPuta – with the tagline “killing your best neurons every day” – says of Delfin's most famous song:
Esto es mas que el peor homenaje a las victimas del atentado a las torres gemelas. Es patético de pies a cabeza. Esto apesta en tantos niveles que es imposible creer que es real. Con ustedes desde ecuador, latinoamerica te canta…. delfiiin!
From the Argentine weblog Poco al Pedo [ES]:
Noooooooo, este video lo vi en un programa de Tv y casi me muero, porque es malasssoooo, pero es uno de los videos mas vistos, justamente por eso, por lo malo, ja, el Cantante es un Ecuatoriano que se hace llamar “Delfin” y le canta un tema a su novia que fallecio en el atentado de las Torres Gemelas, no se lo pierdan… causa gracia..!
Andres Santos Kunze, a popular Ecuadorean blogger, responded with a two-sentence post titled “Delfin Quishpe, What in the Hell?“
Delfin Quishpe canta “Torres Gemelas” en un video musical que me deja mal parado como ecuatoriano. Saquen conclusiones ustedes mismos.
Following the YouTube video, over 130 readers left comments. Some examples:
Juan Fernando Pacheco: “This is called a serious embarrassment.”
Jose Soto: “This is the worst of the worst. I've never seen anything so bad. It's almost reggaeton it's so bad.”
Sebastian, a Chilean in New York: “A question for those friends in Ecuador … is this guy well known there or is he just a freak who appeared on YouTube out of nowhere and made himself famous for being so ridiculous? I remember that when I saw the video, how I was in shock, how I wanted to laugh (well, I did laugh, a lot), but I felt bad for this poor crazy guy … In any case, Ecuador is grand!
Jaime: “Where can I download this hit? Please, it's life or death. This guy deserves a grammy, I want to see him on MTV.”
Pablo Bastidas: “This guy is really bad, I still don't understand how he made himself so famous.
Without stalling any further, here is Delfín's it's-so-bad-it's-good superhit:
Nowhere is Delfín's cult stature more elevated than Chile, where over 5,000 fans signed a petition to bring Delfín to the established Viña del Mar International Music Festival. They were almost successful – in the end, Delfin played shows in Valparaiso and Santiago. And as Chupame un Coco (“Suck my Coconut”) describes, he was also a guest on the the evening talk show Así Somos:
Después de grandes espectáculos en Santiago y Valparaíso, el rey ecuatoriano de YouTube “Delfín” fue invitado por el programa alternativo (Así Somos) de Chile … En cuanto a la entrevista, no fue muy seria, muchas veces los mismos panelistas se reían del invitado, en mas cuando delfín canto su canción “Torres Gemelas” Juan Manuel Astorga (actual panelista de pollo en conserva) mostró una ligera sonrisa, pero después de todo Delfín (el respetable), no se vio complicado, en mas, estaba muy relajado. Después de responder algunas preguntas, Delfín anunció su nuevo tema que saldrá próximamente en Internet, y habló de su nombrado estilo Tecno Folclórico. En cuanto a nosotros, esperaremos a que un fanático suba el video, lamentablemente no lo pudimos grabar.
Of course, several fans uploaded videos of the interview. Here is part one:
And part two:
Delfin's faithful following wouldn't stop there. YouTube is now full of Delfin tribute songs where young Latin American men record themselves crooning with acoustic guitars in dorm rooms and dark apartments. Examples include a duet on guitar and keyboards, Cristobal from Chile, “Twin Towers – the acoustic version“, and my personal favorite, a smiling techno bash from Valencia, Spain.
No dummy when it comes to publicity, Delfin also has his own blog, Delfin hasta el fin [ES] (“Delfin until the end”) which serves as a sort of digital treasure chest of Delfin memorabilia, including this truly frightening tribute by two ten-year-old girls and a cleavage-filled YouTube advertisement for the official Delfin cellular ringtone.
If you've made it all the way down this far, then you're surely a Delfin fan yourself. Fortunately, you're able to download the original music video, an mp3 of the song, and the popular remix version.


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Ecuador: Human Smuggling · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Milton Ramirez, himself an Ecuadorean immigrant from Loja, takes a look at the lucrative business of human smuggling and how authorities are cracking down.


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El Salvador: Rufina Amaya Passes Away · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Hora Cero [ES] and Tim Muth on the death of Rufina Amaya, the sole survivor of the 1981 El Mozote massacre which claimed over 1,000 lives.


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Estonia: Post-Election Picture · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Vilhelm Konnander reviews the chief players in Estonia's post-election politics.


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Francophone Bloggers on Oscars and Césars · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Hostess Valérie Lemercier performs a Guadeloupean zouk hit from the 80's at the Césars awards.
Blogger reactions to the recent film award ceremonies in France and America are quite varied.  Congolese Alain Mabanckou is happy with the attention Africa is getting in Hollywood. In particular, he is pleased with the best actor trophy Forest Whitaker received for playing Idi Amin Dada. He contrasts American attention to Africa to what he perceives to be France's snubbing of the continent from Algeria southward at the Césars, its version of the Oscars.  Martiniquan InternetRapide.com on the other hand, celebrates the choice of a Guadeloupean zouk song in Creole to open the French show.
Alain Mabanckou, a California-based Congolese award winning author and  blogger writes:
Quelque chose est sans doute en train de se passer à Hollywood depuis ces dernières années : le regard des producteurs se pose de plus en plus sur le continent africain. Cela donne des films appréciés aussi bien par la critique que par le public et nous fait découvrir au passage de nouveaux talents africains ou africains-américains.
On se rappelle enfin que cet acteur … a fait son chemin seul avant de devenir aujourd’hui une star. Et tant mieux si ce couronnement lui vient grâce à un film dont l’Afrique est le sujet. Idi Amin Dada doit se retourner dans sa tombe ou murmurer dans les oreilles des autres fantômes dictateurs que sa dictature à lui aura au moins servi à quelque chose !
En peu de temps donc les producteurs américains ou anglais nous ont donné des films sur l’Afrique, avec parfois des acteurs de premier plan qu’on a pu voir entre autres dans “Totsi” …; Hôtel Rwanda qui … bouleversa toute l’Amérique et eut plus d’impact que n’importe quel reportage sur la question ; Le Dernier roi d’Ecosse qui revient sur les atrocités du régime ougandais d’Idi Amin Dada à qui on impute l’extermination de plus de 300.000 de ses concitoyens ; Amazing grace qui repose la question de la traite des Noirs, avec une apparition de Youssou N’Dour ; Blood diamonds qui nous montre bien que tous les diamants sont éternels, mais il faut y mettre le prix et le sang ! Faut-il en conclure que tous ces sujets sont gênants pour la France au point que celle-ci, par le jeu des subventions, choisit et détermine quel type de regard porter sur le continent africain ?
Au fond, la France aurait tort de ne pas prendre ce phénomène au sérieux, car Hollywood a vite pris la mesure d’un besoin grandissant du public mondial d’aller vers ce continent. La France, elle, a un véritable probleme à resoudre avec l’Afrique qu’elle regarde comme une patate chaude. Pas Hollywood. Regardez d’ailleurs le palmarès des Césars remis le samedi 24 février …: une hostilité, une surdité criardes aux rumeurs du monde – au point qu’un film comme Indigènes – présenté aux Césars d’Hollywood sous le titre de Days of Glory, film algérien – n’a rien eu en France (oh, disons qu’il a eu le prix du “scenario original”). Doit-on conclure que dans ces trophées parisiens, aucune des réalisations africaines francophones ne pouvait au moins être citée ? Quid de Cissako de la Mauritanie ? Quid d’Haroun du Tchad ? Oh, ils ont leur Fespaco de Ouagadougou, diraient certains !  N’aurait-il pas été utile, pendant la remise des Césars, de rendre hommage au cinéma du monde – donc du continent africain aussi ? C’est pourtant ce que les Américains, eux, ont fait ce dimanche 25 février en remettant leurs fameux Academy Awards (les Oscars). Deux étrangers (Catherine Deneuve et un japonais dont le nom m’échappe) sont venus rendre hommage au cinéma du monde, et on a pu voir défiler des images venant et de l’Espagne, de l’Algérie, de l’Inde, de l’Afrique du sud… et de la France !!! Sans compter que, pour l’Afrique, l’incontournable et vedette du moment Djimon Hounsou était aux premiers rangs non loin de Di Caprio (ici en photo tous les deux).
Interestingly, InternetRapide.com has quite another perspective, so happy is he that the Césars’ hostess opened the show by breaking into a Guadeloupean zouk song from the 80s :
L'effet de surprise fut total…La maîtresse de cérémonie de l'édition 2007 de la Nuits des Césars s'est lancée dès la déclaration d'ouverture … dans un Zouk endiablé, véritable invitation à la fête et au voyage.
Fantastique reprise chantée et dansée du tube de Zouk Machine…qui est resté dans les mémoires depuis 1989, après 9 semaines à la première place du TOP 50 français.
Comment remercier Lemercier de ce grand moment de télévision, de cet hommage à l'outre-mer ? Valérie, viens donc nous voir “a kaz”… “Nou ke Ba'w manjé, ba'w lanmou E pou vous nou ke fey an chantant”…
When it comes to the Césars, were the two bloggers watching the same show?


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Georgia: The Best of YouTube · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Joshua Kucera offers up the best YouTube videos from Georgia.


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Ghana: Ghana turns 50 · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ramblings of an African Geek posts links related to Ghana@50, “For those of you not in the know, Ghana became the first black African colony to gain its independence on the 6th of March 1957. That will be 50 years on Tuesday. We’ll get to my own thoughts on what has happened in the last half-century – especially the 27 years of it I’ve been around on Tuesday. For now though, I’ll put up some very interesting links.”


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Ghana: Ghana@50 · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Oluniyi Ajao writes about celebrating Ghana@50, “Well, how am I celebrating it? I will be at the Independence square tomorrow, to witness the National Parade. I will also take some photos at the event.
Just last week, I was at the forum organized by busyinternet – a part of cyberseries, titled: Ghana @ 50, ICTs @ Whats?”


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Hong Kong: migrant worker · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A citizen report on migrant workers’ life in Hong Kong and their feelings for this society, translated from inmediahk.net to interlocals.net.


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India: On Denotified and Nomadic Tribes · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Indian Muslims on the plight of Denotified and Nomadic Tribes. “Denotified and Nomadic Tribes are defined as tribes whose people are “addicted to the systematic commission of non-bailable offences.” It is a classic example of “collective guilt”, how it has been endorsed by law, and how people are made to believe that it has indeed been created in public interest. In simple words, anyone born into such tribes is considered a criminal, not just by authorities, but by the average person on the street too.”

author: Neha Viswanathan


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India, Pakistan: Triggering Musharraf’s Dopamine · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

More than just tongue-in-cheek at Varnam, on triggering Musharraf's dopamine system. “This also explains why India is not able to get Musharraf to budge on anything. Every time there is a Pakistan sponsored terrorist attack in India, all we do is re-issue previous warnings with just a change in the time stamp on the documents. Then there is the usual accusation/counter accusation new cycle and all goes still till the next terrorist attack.


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Iran:Silent protest in front of Parliament · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

According to Agha Bahman[Fa],tomorrow for one hour between 14h and 15h, protestors to recent repression against women activists, will come together in front of Parliament.The blogger says it will be a silent protest.Nobody will chant slogans and nobody carries placards in order not to be arrested.


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Israel: Haram Al Sharif Dig Video · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Israeli blogger themiddle links to a webcast  put up by the Israel Antiquities Authority showing the dig near Temple Mount in real time. “It’s really quite boring, unless you’re someone who believes the Jews are destroying the Haram al Sharif compound, in which case this will be very exciting for you. Stop believing the agitators, they’ve been agitating like this since the 1920s,” writes the blogger.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Israel: New Must Read Book  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Israeli blogger Danya Ruttenberg says Virgin: The Untouched History is the next must read book! The book, which even has its own blog, has “lots of commentary about virginity-related issues in the contemporary world (think honor killings, abstinence education, Virgin Mary sightings, etc)” says the blogger.


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Israel: Palestinian Children Starving · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Israeli blogger Desert Peace links to a Christian Science Monitor article which says that Palestinian children are starving here.


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Jamaica, Ghana: The trans-national book that might still be · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Half-Jamaican, half-Ghanaian poet Kwame Dawes posts a lovely and atmospheric meditation on the occasion of Ghana's 50th anniversary of independence: “A more responsible poet, a genuinely nationalist writer, would have planned the publication of his next book to coincide with this date. He would have written an epic poem with a central character called Quackoo who will turn fifty tonight, and who carries in his body the narrative of a nation, its promising birth, its giddy childhood of sudden and dramatic growth, its turbulent preteen years of juvenile delinquency. . . “


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Jamaica: New photoblog · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Jamaican blogger Stunner has started a photoblog called My World My Lens.


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Japan: distorting report on anti-Japanese painting · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

James from Japan Probe points out a report from local Kyodo News about Anti-Japanese painting goes on display in China. He double checked with official press release, the painting is about an anti-Japanese street drama about 918 incident (Japan's invasion of China): A painting of a young girl acting out an anti-Japanese street drama, but an “Anti-Japanese painting?” Come on, Kyodo News, you can do better than that.


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Japan: North Korean residents protest · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A few youtube video at Japan Probe showing the weekend protest of North Korean residents in Tokyo against human rights abuse.


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Kazakhstan: Myths about Foreigners · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

At neweurasia, Aiman writes about myths about foreigners that Kazakhs believe.


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Kenya: WordPress blocked in Kenya? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

WordPress blocked in Kenya?, “But then after reading the comments on this post I thought to myself, what if someone was blocking access to WordPress.com making it impossible for anyone on a Kenyan IP address to view the site? Luckily there are quick ways of checking this.”


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Kyrgyzstan: Self Immolation · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Kyrgyz Report says that self immolation is becoming a more common occurrence in Kyrgyzstan because desperate members of society have realized that this form of protest draws attention.


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March of the censors: France, Turkey and China clamp down on freedom of speech · Global Voices
sami ben gharbia

Two weeks ago, the French blog AgoraVox, one of the leading European citizen media blogs, warned against what it termed the gradual “berlusconisation” of the French media and the threat posed by the rise of Nicolas Sarkozy, French Minister of the Interior and conservative party head, to freedom of speech in the country.
Yesterday, France’s Constitutional Council passed the Sarkozy law [Fr] (  Loi sur la prévention de la délinquance  – Law on the prevention of criminality), which criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. During the parliamentary debate, government representatives said the law is meant to target a practice known as “happy slapping”, defined in Wikipedia as “a fad in which an unsuspecting victim is attacked while an accomplice records the assault (commonly with a camera phone or a smartphone).”
In France, therefore, the filming and broadcasting of acts of violence such as the riots which took place in the Paris suburbs during the month of October and November, 2005, will henceforth be the prerogative of accredited journalists only. Under this new law, any other eyewitness who records acts of violence, or anyone who makes the content available online (the operator of a web site, for instance) could face up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of nearly US$100,000.
In an ironic twist, the law was announced on March 3, 2007, exactly 16 years after amateur videographer George Holliday filmed  African-American Rodney King  being beaten by Los Angeles police officers (see the video on YouTube). The officers’ eventual acquittal in 1992 sparked off riots in the city.
Bientôt la Corée du Nord sera un paradis de liberté comparé au camp de concentration à ciel ouvert du Frankistan.
said Doug on his blog.
“Whipping out your phone and recording footage of someone setting a car on fire – or getting pummelled by police for that matter – could subject you to a five-year prison term and nearly $100,000 in fines,” noted Andy Carvin yesterday.
So “If you’re reporting in France, you’d better get yourself an official press pass”, said David Kaplan.
One has to wonder now what the next move by the French Republic, in its fervor to “prevent criminal behavior”, will be. Will it be the banning of video-sharing sites like YouTube and the France's Dailymotion, which were widely used by young citizen journalists during the “émeutes de Paris” (Paris riots) two years ago? And will music videos like “Paris Brûle” (“Paris Is Burning” — seen below) be forbidden in France?
Yet it seems like France is not the only country having trouble coming to terms with the tools and trappings of modern technology and the explosion in video-sharing that is empowering citizen journalists. Last year, Jack Straw, the UK's former home secretary, openly supported a plan to impose controls on YouTube: “There is a very serious issue how such videos should better be controlled,” he said.
And just yesterday, word came from Turkey that the country's largest telecommunications services provider, Turk Telekom, blocked access to YouTube, following a court decision deeming that videos appearing on the site were insulting to the father of modern Turkey, Kemal Atatürk, and to the Turkish people. The ban was imposed despite the fact that the video was removed from the site ahead of the court’s decision.
“We are not in the position of saying that what YouTube did was an insult, that it was right or wrong,” Paul Doany, the head of Turk Telekom, is quoted as saying. Users of the country's leading ISP, found this message when they tried to access YouTube: “Access to www.youtube.com site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2007/384 dated 06.03.2007 of Istanbul First Criminal Peace Court.”
“I’m very sorry that my country will cause such a bad reputation by these censorships, but we are happy to fight against them. I’m running a blog network (the largest and the only one) in Turkey. We are starting a campaign and going to write against these censorships in our blogs until they correct this huge mistake,” said Mert Maviş.
According to Reuters, however, the Istanbul court issued a second ruling lifting the block after YouTube removed the video from its service.
On another continent, in China this time, the online diary and blogging platform Livejournal seems to have been blocked.
“Users who are wondering if the block is on our end can be told “no, we still love you; take it up with your ISP if you have further questions””, said an announcement on the Livejournal community forum.
In an interview with Wired reporter Quinn Norton, the Chinese dissident and founder of China Digital Times Xiao Qiang said that “It could be one of the blogs in Livejournal has the content they want to block.”
Norton's article notes that SixApart — the company that owns Livejournal — claims that China has blocked “roughly 1.8 million of its blogs,” and that it is not the first time that the Chinese government has blocked Livejournal. They did it in March 2004 and again in June 2005. As Xiao Qiang says, “You never know when they are going to block it again.”

author: sami ben gharbia


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Pakistan: Naked wires · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Metroblogging Islamabad on the menace of naked wires. “The Blue Area commercial district is a good example of the seriousness of the problem. Wires tangled in rows of electricity meters greet people at the entrance of almost every building. Like artwork, it welcomes those who enter to the thrilling journey ahead. However, most people don't realise it as a threat, until some accident happens and then they curse their fate, and the government, burn tires and block roads.”


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Russia: “Hell’s Coat Check” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Hell is… To Darkness At Noon, it's “the intersection of bureaucracy and academia that is the Russian university”: “Today I had to enter the fifth circle (reserved for the wrathful and slothful) for a meeting. As hell has not yet frozen over, it is still necessary to check one's coat at the entryway to the large academic building before plunging into the inferno.”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: Snail Mail · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

It takes roughly ten hours to travel from Moscow, Russia, to Kyiv, Ukraine, by train. But a letter sent via Air Mail from Moscow will most likely reach Kyiv in ten days.
LJ user valkorn – whose nostalgic postcard tour of Moscow was featured here in November 2006 – offers a graffic comparison (RUS) between Russia's highly inefficient postal service and its overseas counterpart, the United States Postal Service:
The logos of these two organizations provide a clear reflection of the way they work:
[image slightly altered to fit the GV format]
It becomes obvious right away why it takes three days for a package from the States to reach Russia, and then a month to reach the addressee in Moscow.
And here are some of the comments:
valkorn: I've heard a cute hypothesis: that the Russian Postal Service actually exists for distribution of bills and election campaign leaflets, and the rest of the traffic is comparatively small and receives the leftover attention.
darkcjc: I've not only heard but know firsthand about the practice of pushing back all orders and a complete switching to printing campaign materials on the eve of the election by virtually every printer… Perhaps, the post is used for this, too. Well, and also to deliver draft notices to draftees [povestki].
pinwizz: Beginning last fall, draftees get their draft notices for the following years right at the draft center. It's more reliable and faster than USPS. I recommend it to everyone.
ghost_deep: Do you think it's worth trying to [send letters] through the military? ^_^
[…]
spinka: One of my LJ friends received her full Sex and the City edition from the American Amazon.com after half a year of waiting. During this period, they managed to send her a replacement set =)
[…]
alyonka: Subconscious pushes itself outside during the creation of a logo, and the creators are expressing not what they would like to express, but the truth :) Symbols…
[…]
kitaycev: If I'm not mistaken, it takes no less than 2-3 days to receive a letter sent within Moscow.
2007-03-06 04:48 am none (UTC)
[…]
__mixa__: Once I got a package from London to Khabarovsk in four days. It's sad that that was an exception, not a rule, and that usually packages shake their way to us on trains for two to three months :(


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Russia: Student Sentenced for Anti-Semitism · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Moscow law student is sentenced to 150 hours of community service for sending an anti-Semitic SMS to a live television program, Russian Spy reports.


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Russia: What Kind of “Other Russia”? · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

VeryRussianTochkaNet posts someone's YouTube video of the opposition rally that took place in St. Petersburg this past Saturday and shares his doubts: “We made a leap of faith in 1991 that was worth the risk. Back then, we had Yeltsin, the white-blue-red flag, and a pre-1917 revivalist spirit that blended well with Westernesque aspirations. Since then, the West has been instrumental in showing us that the world is a jungle and you won’t be respected unless you’re feared, as well as showing us how one shiningly progressive ideology is so like another.”