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Pakistan: Blog-o-coma · Global Voices
Omer Alvie

Well, it happened. I got side-swiped by a colossal Boredom Truck while riding my trusted Vespa Scooter on the internet highway, surveying for relevant blogs to highlight for this post.
I hate to admit it but the accident was my fault. Driving through the drivel of insufferable sites that litter the internet highway, I found myself drifting off to dozy land and swerved onto another lane. The resulting accident has caused me to fall into a coma-like trance. Before my avid fans (yes, both of them) shout out, “what is the point of living any more?!” I must clarify the status of my condition that things do look hopeful. At least, that is what the doctors are saying. So please try not to worry.
Fortunately, I talk in my sleep and the doctors were able to jot down a few interesting links that I happen to blurt out for this week's post. So, without much further ado:
Teeth Maestro comments on the Ode to President Bush; Windmills highlights the incomprehensible; The Fountainhead paints a very disturbing picture with his latest post: Opinionated Voice writes about Tookie Williams; Venial Sin preaches to the choir; and finally, I wrote about my chinwag with Strep Throat.
I better go now, as the doctors have me scheduled for the latest “Mallet On The Head” treatment in order to revive me from my deep slumber.

author: Omer Alvie


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South Korea: The Meaning of Footwashing · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

The Asia Pages wonders why Koreans keep asking her if her boyfriend, who she thinks is great otherwise, also washes her feet. She asks readers to explain the emotional significance of footwashing in Korean culture.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Jose Manuel Tesoro


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Uzbekistan: Creative Marketing · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Vseuznii Blog has an example of creative marketing in the Uzbek ISP business. (Link in Russian, but photo text is in English.)

author: Nathan Hamm


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Armenia: Earthquake Remembrance · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Blogrel marks the anniversary of the 1988 earthquake that killed 25,000 in northern Armenia.


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Hungary: Doctors Bad For Health · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

The Northern Irish Magyar reports that deaths due to poor care and mistakes are common in Hungary's hospitals.


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Kazakhstan: Election Roundup · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

neweurasia continues to comment and round up analysis on Kazakhstan's recent presidential election.


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Kenyan Sphere Blog hopping  · Global Voices
Juliana Rotich

The Kenyan Open blog launched recently, the idea behind it is to “be able to track and trace issues that are of relevance to the Kenyan blogosphere or being debated in the wider Kenyan blogosphere.”
Could this open blog, along with inititiaves like Nchi Yetu Daily be moving the kenyan blogosphere along on the 3 part model of social engagement?(collecting information, comment and debate, and action – For more on that, check out Ethan Zuckerman's paper on “Making room for the third world in the second superpower”) Please pardon the brief digression, now back to the Kenyan blogosphere.
Following the referendum held a fortnight ago, Kenya was without a cabinet for two weeks when  President Kibaki prorogued parliament and dismissed all cabinet ministers. He has now reconstituted the cabinet. Noticeably absent in the new cabinet are the leaders of the Orange Democratic movement, who still wield power as evidenced by the referendum vote. Mental acrobatics observes that whoever has been advising President Kibaki hasn't been doing too good lately.
It has to be said the craziest person in Kenya today is whoever is advising Kibaki at the moment. Wrong move after wrong move after wrong move. Watching Kibaki is like watching a heavy metal fan trying to break dance.
At the time of writing this roundup, 3 ministers and 17 assistant ministers declined their posts assigned by President Kibaki. On this, mental acrobatics notes that we would like to think that they are doing so out of a sense of national duty, but indications point to party interests instead.
kibara's  take on the new cabinet?
I believe that Kibaki made the best decision for Kenya , to select people loyal to his to his cabinet. I don't understand for the life of me where dudes decided one day that all politicians have to be in one party. We need opposition in Kenya for our nascent democracy to thrive.”
he also adds that Kenyans in 2007 should have more choices, stating
… there should be one or two major parties for Kenyans to choose their president. Here is what I can see as the parties in Kenya come 2007 and beyond. Kibaki and the NARC Kibakistas, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and KANU. That is quite good. No need for some stupid Government of National unit as far as I am concerned.”
Kenyan pundit who is attending a global voices conference in london,  points to an editorial about the lack of women in the new cabinet.
M takes a story book approach to the cabinet lineup, complete with puss in boots, cinderella and the dwarves…
Kenyan Pundit in her informative style asks “What is ailing Kenyan Journalism?”
Kenyan Prodigal daughter says that there is a slowness to how things are done at a certain copy center, contrasting it with the bustling nature of nairobi.
Bankelele reports that an ice skating rink will be opening December 16th in Nairobi, and has listings of (non-cabinet) jobs. Earlier in the week he also reported on the tremor that rocked Nairobi (There was an earthquake in Tanzania)
As the year draws to a close, Maitha on his swahili blog – Mawazo na Mawaidha, will be reflecting on the highlights of the the past year, the good and the bad, and invites others to share their ‘top ten’ for 2005.
I will be off to Kenya for a couple of weeks, i might not have as much access to the internet,  may i take this opportunity to send holiday greetings to the Global voices team, readers, and visitors,  the vibrant Kenyan sphere and the global blogosphere at large. See you in '06!

author: Juliana Rotich


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Mongolia: The Wrong One · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Mongolia Matters notices that some folks are confusing Mongolias.


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Panama: Mother’s Day Recipe · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Melissa of Cooking Diva offers a special recipe to celebrate Mother's Day in Panama.

author: David Sasaki


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Russia: What works in Europe… · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Russian Marketing Blog points out that advertisements that work in Europe are hard to understand in Russia.


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The week in the Caribbean blogosphere · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

I'm starting to write this on Wednesday 7 December, as tomorrow I leave for London to attend the Global Voices '05 Summit, so apologies in advance for not including anything posted in the latter part of this week.
A couple of days ago  I posted the meeting agenda at Caribbean Free Radio, soliciting input from my fellows in the Caribbean blogosphere. Tyndale, a journalist with many years’ experience under his belt who has only recently started exploring the idea of blogging, left this thought-provoking list of predictions:
Predictions:
1) Journalists will not become great bloggers. They will concentrate on places where they get paid to write/talk.
2) Journalists will however come to see good blogs as additional resources, and will start to pick up and report (maybe even quote) material from them (e.g. the celebrated Baghdad Blogger).
3) Bloggers can become journalists by writing the zillions of stories professional journalists don't get to, don't care about, or are told by their editors not to touch.
4) Lively bloggery develops fastest in societies where there is plenty going on but conventional journalism is repressed, self-censoring or slack; and which are not so small that everyone already knows everyone else's business.
5) One big problem is going to be a surfeit of bloggers and a shortage of bloggees: i.e. more people writing than reading. How to direct international attention to blogs that are consistent, accurate, thoughtful, interesting and useful?
And here's what some of the other Caribbbean bloggers had to say:
Aruba
Arubagirl posts this week in Papiamento, the local language of Aruba.
Bahamas
– Nicolette Bethel proposes that the Bahamas become a federation, and decries Bahamians’ ignorance of local history.
– Sir Arthur Foulkes tackles the subject of proportional representation for the Bahamas.
– Larry Smith wonders what impact the rapid development of New Providence will have on life.
– Lynn Sweeting waxes poetic about wanting a woman prime minister.
Barbados
– Titilayo notes that December 8 is Cuba-Caricom day.
Belize
– Melody reports that the Belizean Defence Force is training an elite Special Forces Unit.
– Escribbler unveils the Belize Jungle Dome web site.
Bermuda
– The Bermudan government wants to ban smoking in company cars: the Limey wonders what next. The Limey supports random drug testing in sports, but believes “it's none of an employer's business whether their employees like to smoke a spliff or snort a line of coke every now and then – as long as it's not affecting their job performance”.
– Valentine Michael Smith skewers reports  “naming Bermuda as the best place in the world for women to find a mate” by imagining the response of government bureaucrats.
Grenada
– Carsten and YingYang report that Hurricane Epsilon brought some bad weather to Grenada this week.
Guyana
– “Hope we get low tide so them city council people can pump out the water,” says Guyana Gyal, writing about one of the realities of life in on the Guyanese coast. And don't miss her primer on how to talk like a Guyanese.
– Michiyo's house has flooded as well.
– Living Guyana disagrees with the suggestion that crime reporting should be removed from the front page of the daily newspapers and takes issue with the term “men who have sex with men”.
Haiti
– Yon ayisien wonders what has happened to the web site of the CEP, and takes to task pundits who find South Korea's election-time donation to Haiti insufficient.
Jamaica
–  “Starting in 2004 and carrying over into 2005 there has been a major shift in Jamaican music,” says Charles Matheson identifying song of the year contenders from Damian Marley, Gyptian and Jah Cure.
– Kingston Girl notes certain peculiar features of an oldies concert at Heineken Startime, but has a good time anyway.
Trinidad & Tobago
– A new web site for  “The Republic of Cedros” attracts the attention of both Jacqueline Morris and Hassan Voyeau. Jacqueline notes that in spite of the “joke” (Cedros, for the record, is not a republic, but a coastal community in south-western Trinidad), the site “is quite serious with regard to the development and community action suggestions for the Cedros area”. “Hassan also raises the topic of the aluminum smelter which is to be built in Cedros by ALCOA with the blessings of the government. “Most of the residents of Cedros are opposed to such a plan,” he says, adding that “www.nosmeltertnt.com goes into some detail why this is not a good idea.” The versatile Hassan also posts photos of the “Magnificent Seven”, the seven historic buildings which line the western side of Port of Spain's largest public park.
– Sungoddess discusses the value of an oral family history.
– Taran Rampersad and Jacqueline Morris both attend the CARDICIS meeting in the Dominican Republic.
Podcasts
- Carib World Radio posts Part 2 of “Bob Marley: Soul Rebel”.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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The week that was in the South African blogosphere · Global Voices
Bronwyn

Jonty at The Fishbowl comments on the findings of a new survey showing that Afrikaners have experienced the “most radical change in political outlook” of all groups since the 1994 elections.
“This is probably understandable, given that by fair assumption that Afrikaners had the furthest to move politically after the fall of apartheid. In saying that though, I am in no way meaning to diminish the positive nature of that development. Afrikaners could very easily not have embraced the new rainbow nation, and we would be sitting in a far worse position as a country than where we are right now.”
Daan at In my Nes brings up the ongoing debate of whether a white person and an Afrikaaner can be an African.
“Aha, yet another post on the Afrikaner identity crisis, and now I add another term, African, to the mix…Ha, but try and explain this identity to a black person (or a foreigner for that matter), most often in my experience it would illicit seriously mixed reaction. Interesting, maybe because they are mostly completely and utterly unprepared to deal with such an idea, or maybe they view it as a threat to their ‘New South African’ identity. I don't know, but it's not going to stop me from being, and calling myself an African.”
Bilal's Blog notes the profusion of exclusive golfing estates in South Africa, and comments on how as in other capitalist countries, only the rich can afford to experience some of the country's most beautiful places.
“I found myself at the Hartebeesport Dam- really beautiful place! There's something about water that attracts people- even dirty, green water like what we find at the Zoo Lake! But like a true capitalistic nation that we are, prime natural spots like that have been heavily inflated so that only rich, bourgeoisie can afford to live where previously poorer people have been displaced! All in the name of premium golf estate living!”
Vas Lube questions South Africa's foreign policy move towards strengthening ties with Iran.
“ZA policy in this regard with Iran is unacceptable and counters to ZA’s liberal values which Iran regime is opposed to. ZA will be better off if we moved closer ties with US than those countries like Iran, Cuba, et al. ZA fingers will be burnt very badly. I find this events very unsettling and disturbing.”
One of the big events being reported on in the media this week is that gay marriage became legal in South Africa- although gay people will still have to wait another year while the Constitution is amended to reflect this. Moral Fiber contrasts the South African situation with that in Cameroon where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by up to five years in jail.
“It is painfully ironic that South Africa is one of the most progressive countries in the world in regards to equal rights, while so many countries on the continent are completely backwards when it comes to equality. One would have thought that centuries of struggle against colonialism and racism would have bred some sort of tolerance among Africans for people who are different. It really isn't surprising that many of the continent's anti-gay laws were actually put on the books by the colonial oppressors of yesteryear. One wonders what the African Union is doing about human rights.”

author: Bronwyn


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Turkey is Typing… · Global Voices
Deborah Ann Dilley

…not very much this week…which is rather surprising, but one thing about the Blogosphere is that the conversation ebbs and flows…
Maybe everyone is like me, madly working on exams and projects….or maybe everyone is listening/reading about the London 2005 Global Voices Summitt…
Here is what I found in the Turkish Blogosphere this week:
Metroblogging: Istanbul posts about the change of the seasons in Istanbul and about an online community that focuses on the local art scene of various cities in Turkey.
The White Path posts about Turks praying for German hostage in Iraq.  While this post is interesting, check out all the links/discussion on the comments of this post as it addresses the nature of violence in Islam.
Idil from Ignore me if you can posts about how the Turks get a bad rap about their prisons, but that we need to remember that the US has CIA prisons.  And she also addresses the New Years/Christmas mania in Istanbul.
Talk Turkey writes about Recep Ceser the Istanbul based tailor that has made the suits that Saddam Hussein has been wearing in his trial.
Mavi Boncuk has a translation of an Atilla Ilhan poem.
And Amerikan Turk has an non-nonsense post about a recent comment made by the President of Iran saying that Israel should be moved to Europe.
Unfortuately, there are no interesting finds of the week (my time was limited) but I will try to make up for it next week!  Till then, kendini iyi bak! (Look after yourself!)

author: Deborah Ann Dilley


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Presidential election in Chile; second round to take place on January 15 · Global Voices
Rosario Lizana

Today was a very exiting day for Chile, in which more than 6 million Chileans voted for president, senators and representatives.
At the end of 6 years of Ricardo Lago´s government, Michelle Bachelet  (both of the “La Concertación” coalition) won the first round for presidency with 45.87% with a lead of 1 million votes over Sebastian Piñera with 25.48% Joaquin Lavín at 23.25% (both from the “Alianza Por Chile” coalition). Tomás Hirsch,  also from “La Concertación,” which gained a majority in both the Seante and the House of Representatives, received 5.37% of the vote.
At 10:00 PM, one hour before the final vote count, president Lagos, in a televised public speech, thanked to Chilean population for the voting turnout.
President Lagos also noted that the current binomial voting system is not entirely democratic. In the current system, senators and deputies must achieve at least double the vote of their competitors in order to win an election.
Nevertheless, for the final results for the presidential election, to know who will govern for the next four years new period, we will have to wait for the second round of voting on the 15th of January 2006.
These results correspond to the 96, 72 % of the total votes, for detailed figures click here.
Start of Flickr Badge
End of Flickr Badge
Here is a summary of the post-election opinions of a pair of other Chilean bloggers.
Rafael IV agrees that the results were as expected, but as only two candidates will stand for the second round, that it is not obvious which way the votes previously for the other candidates will be cast. He also emphasises that the candidate Hirch won in the Antarctica.
The blog “El Pehuen” shows more quantitative details regarding the election results, details of the campaign, the costs including candidate Pinera´s investment map, and some of the future campaign changes (such as the elimination of the binomial system).

author: Rosario Lizana


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· Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Mzansi Afrika reports about  the policy of evictions in African urban centers – this time in Lagos Nigeria….”Police broke down the gate of a huge housing complex to oust thousands of civil servants and their families last Friday in the latest mass eviction by a government struggling to gain control of its chaotic and crowded cities. Police officials were not available for comment on the evictions, but Umma Muhammed, a spokeswoman for tenants of 1 004 Residences, said the move followed a decision by the government to sell off several of its properties in a privatisation scheme. Authorities have not provided the estimated 8 000 residents with other accommodation.”

author: Sokari Ekine


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Africa: trade not aid · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

African Unchained writes that Africa needs trade not aid……”The best thing that America and Europe can do for Africa is not to give it handouts but to reduce trade barriers and buy the products that Africa is capable of producing competitively — not just agricultural products but also labor-intensive manufactured goods such as textiles…Africa has the trade routes and the potential to industrialize through export-oriented manufactures, but it still faces many formidable difficulties”.


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African women’s blogsphere this week · Global Voices
Nish Matenjwa

Black Looks writes about an interesting development in the Central African Republic which has banned the media from  broadcasting or writing misogynistic music and articles following the Communication Minister’s directive and hopes  ‘other countries will follow his lead’.
Nyakehu writes about a question she was asked at a job interview concerning how to ’wean African women from dependence’ which she says is still ‘beating a drum in my mind’.
Back to blogging after a hiatus, Wambui is excited about a recent life-changing trip to Rwanda which has challenged many of her principles and brought to the fore various questions regarding her perceptions of ‘working for a human rights organisation’ especially those she ‘really did not want to answer’.
Bronwyn writes about a spate of shocking rapes in South Africa and in particular one concerning a 13-month old baby and asks  ‘when will this stop?’
One African Woman writes about the joy and sense of pride that arises from belonging to a group of compassionate women who have supported each other along the years.
After the recent earthquake in East Africa, Spicebear is riled by remarks made by an expert who implied that the affected areas did not have much to destroy although the quake could have created considerable damage. She wonders whatever happened to
‘…worrying about loss of life and the possible destruction of people's livelihoods? They may be poor and disadvantaged but that does not mean that what they have is unimportant and insignificant’.
Soul has posted some great pictures on her blog after her recent visit to Abuja.
Kenyan Pundit has turned two. Or rather her blog has and she takes the opportunity to send out a special request for volunteers to wishing to ’make our politicians more accountable’.
A final year at college resolution was to try different things and in her recent post, Cute_angel writes about this and the trials and tribulations of mentoring a troubled teenager.
Kwame Nkurumah, Ghana first president, proposed an 11-point proposal for Africa’s liberation in 1957. Helenism emphasises some achievements with regard to the proposal such as the establishment of the African Union and the African Development Bank.
Molara Wood invites Nigerian readers to nominate their best book of 2005. Deadline is December 15.
AfroFeminista  writes an amusing rant about cyclists in the streets of Nairobi whose ‘macho, criss-crossing in front of my car every morning’ she says are the  ‘the bane of my existence, the cause of my tension headaches when driving’.

author: Nish Matenjwa


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Argentina: What Kirchner is Up To · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Robert Wright has a three
part series on how Kirchner is (mis)using his political capital and what forces lie behind the scenes.


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Bahamas: On the Attractiveness of Exile · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Nicolette Bethel, considering the prospect of life abroad herself, makes the provocative argument that the Bahamas’ lack of cultural export is rooted in its artists’ tendency – unlike other Caribbean islanders – to stay put rather than live in exile.


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Bangladesh: Why the violence · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Rezwan on the spate of violence in Bangladesh and its likely impact on the next elections.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Chile: Covered in WiMax · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Pablo Bastidas (ES) and FayerWayer (ES) both comment on Entel‘s recent announcement to blanket 14 of Chile's biggest cities with WiMax internet access.


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China: Summit Reaction · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Fons Tuinstra compares the GVO summit in London and the new media conference in Hong Kong.


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Ethiopia: Pro Meles website · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Redeem Ethiopia reports on a new “propaganda” website called “Himbasha Commentary” which they believe is an online outlet for the EPRDF (Meles Party) in Ethiopia….”We are convinced that the intended audience for this website is groups who are already supporters of the present ruling class in Ethiopia. The article foot notes seem to have the purpose of explaining to this audience what the significance of the selected articles is and how to understand them”.


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From the Gaza-Egypt border · Global Voices
Mostafa Hussein

Nora visits the newly reopened border crossing between Rafah and Gaza strip. She takes several photos and writes in Arabic about her experience. She documents the frustrations of people trying to get into Gaza. Notices the excessive video surveillance by Israel.  She then explains who can cross the border; Palestinians with a passport who live in the Palestinian territories. In addition to that only people above 40, female, registered as a student in a university across the border or has a document that proves s/he is seeking medical treatment. Egyptians may not cross.

author: Mostafa Hussein


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Hong Kong, China: ESWN Revealed · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Hong Kong's Next magazine prints a profile of Roland Soong, the blogger behind the indispensable China blog EastSouthWestNorth.


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India: Sitting MPs and Ducks · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

DesiPundit collates various links to the latest bribery scandal that has been unveiled by a sting operation. The sting involves sitting Members of Parliament accepting bribes to raise questions in the Parliament.


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India: Urban spaces · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Trivial Matters has an excellent collection of photographs on the open spaces in Bombay (also known as Maidans).


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India: Women’s War  · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Anthony talks of Nupi Lal (or Women's War), an occassion that celebrates women who were involved in an uprising in the early 1930s when food prices shot up in Manipur.


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Iranian Hezbollah Goes Blogging · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Iranian blogosphere is very diverse with thousands active blogs. Among these blogs, we can find both many pro democratic, liberal blogs and pro Islamic Republic ones. Most of these Pro Islamic Republic blogs call theselves Hezbollah blogs. If we like them or  not, they are a part of blogosphere and represent a fraction of population. When we say Hezbollah in Iranian context is completely different from Lebanese Hezbollah. In Iran, from beginning of revolution pro Islamic Republic forces called themselves Hezbollah without organizing a political party.
Hezbollah blogs are active, diverse and more and more organized. Let’s look at some of them to understand better what they are talking about:
Muslim bloggers committee  (Persian): Several pro Islamic Republic bloggers and site editors such as Pasdar (Persian) and Esteshhadi (Persian), have launched this Muslim bloggers committee to fight against secular bloggers and promote their ideas. To become a member of this committee you must be a  Shiite Muslim and you must believe in Republic Islamic. Muslim bloggers committee is a blog/site to regroup Muslim bloggers and present different sections: Among its sections we can read Jihad, Justice, Hamas, Hezbollah, clerics, Literature and so on. This blog/site will include a discussion forum in coming weeks.
Pasdar and Hadid haker promote filtering in country and their slogan is (Persian):
We demolish security of the dirty data to unravel evil’s program
If we go to Hezbollah blogs (Persian) page, a blog itself, we can find links to more than 150 Hezbollah blogs which are divided in two groups Men and Women. Many of these blogs don't write about politics. In Mano Deltag  (Persian, a female Hezbollah) you just read poems. In many of them you find prayers to God or to Saints.
Like secular (pro democracy) blogs Hezbollah blogs are diverse and don’t follow a common path. Most of images used on these blogs recall us first years of revolution.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Japan: Sushi Documentary · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Making the rounds on the blogs is this spoof documentary on how to eat sushi. It's funny but also surprisingly informative.


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Kenya: Blogs unlimited · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

MentalAcrobatics introduces the new Kenyan Unlimited Open Blog – “There have been waves in the Kenyan blogosphere with the launch of the KenyaUnlimited Open Blog. This Open Blog is an experimental blog featuring contributions from the members of the Kenyan Blogs Webring. Through these contributions you will be able to track and trace issues that are of relevance to the Kenyan blogosphere or being debated in the wider Kenyan blogosphere.”


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Kenya: Lazy press · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Kenyan Pundit comments on the amnesia of the Kenyan Press….”I think the Kenyan press is no less complicit and it is time that they should be taken to task. For instance, why were Kenyans overseas complaining that they were not getting a good sense of things on the ground from the press during the referendum when the Kenyan press had the resources to do more than just an orange-vs-banana story? Why aren’t we reading more honest and well-thought out stories? How can we complain about mediocre coverage by the West when we are doing a pretty abysmal job of telling our stories”?


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Lebanese Bloggers Outraged at Journalist Slaying · Global Voices
Mustapha

(Artwork, Beirut Spring)
Today, a prominent anti-Syrian politician and Journalist was killed in a car-bomb explosion in Beirut.
The Lebanese bloggers were quick to show their disgust, shock and fury.
Rampurple explains what Gebran Tueni meant to her:
Gebran Tueni was the person who gave me hope through his editorials, through his interviews, and through his speeches. He did not lead a political party, he wanted the youth of Lebanon to get out of the ancient structure of Lebanese political structure and to think on their own. He did not want the Lebanese youth to follow warlords but to be united… just like they were on March 14th, Christians, Muslims, and Druze all united for the cause of Lebanon.
Lebanon.Profile from Lebanese Political Journal writes an obituary of the man and thinks he knows why he was killed today:
That Tueni was targeted is not surprising. However, the timing of the attack does draw attention. The UN Commission just turned in their report on the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq al Hariri. The report is due to be made public soon.
Raja and Doha from The Lebanese Bloggers are both very upset. Raja shouts: “The Damn Syrians! DAMN SYRIANS!!!! They don't know how to do anything else.”. Doha is rather mellow:
Another lamb slaughtered before the altar of Lebanon's bloody path to freedom and liberty from servitude. Another one leaves us, another martyr, another set of tears and sorrow.
Desmond from A View From A Bar Stool In Beirut concludes eerily:
It seems that the attackers feel they have nothing to lose and that only spells disaster for Lebanon

author: Mustapha


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Liberia: Illegal mining continues.  · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Black Star Journal writes  on a Global Witness report which states “An upsurge in illegal diamond mining and logging by ex-combatants in Liberia is undermining international efforts to promote good governance and stability in the worn torn West African country, and could fuel a return to warlordism.”


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Malaysia: World in Asia · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

As the inaugural East Asia Summit approaches in Kuala Lumpur, Competitive Malaysia finds similarities between certain Asian countries and western countries. Find out why he thinks Singapore is the Switzerland of Asia or Thailand is its Norway.


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Mexico: Día de la Virgen · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Happy Día de la Virgen. Calypso MX has a description while photographer Carlos Bravo offers his own contribution, which resonates wide amongst the Flickr community.


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Nepal: Communist Party meet · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Samudaya.org has photographs of a huge meet organized by the Communist Party of Nepal.


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Nigeria: plane crash · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Grandiose Parlour reports on yet another plane crash in Nigeria which killed 101 people half of whom were children……….”The incessant and unnecessary loss of lives in Nigeria is nothing but appalling. This is a nation where thousands die each year from preventable causes like poor access to health care, and traffic accidents such as these airliner crashes. Just as it is with land travel in Nigeria, the aviation facilities and airliners in use are poorly serviced, or too old to be put to any save use”.


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Pakistan: Kite Flying · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Festival of kites in Lahore remembered with much fondness by Shirazi.


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Singapore: Too Small for Democracy? · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Yawning Bread grapples with the idea that Singapore's population can only afford one viable political party.


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Sudan: Darfur children · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Passion of the Present writes on a UNICEF project to provide safe places for refugee children to help them overcome trauma and malnutrition…..UNICEF is supporting 46 ‘child-friendly spaces’ in five refugee camps in eastern Chad, where families have fled the fighting in the neighbouring Darfur region of Sudan.


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This Week in Palestinian Blogs: Remembering The Forgotten Faithful  · Global Voices
Shaden Abdulrahman

The past week witnessed Palestinian calls for the release of the four CPT and ISM hostages who were abducted on the 29th of Novemeber in Iraq. Demonstrations were held in Nablus, Hebron and Ramallah. Press conferences  were held and statements were made by the different Palestinian political parties demanding the immediate release of the International volunteers who stood by Palestinians in the face of the occupation and preached nothing but peace. All Palestinians united in their call, please don't let their voices pass unheard
News of the Blogsphere:
Global Voices 2005 Annual Summit took place in London on the 10th of this month, December. Our lovely AquaCool and Haitham Sabbah were among the attendees.  Haitham was given only two minutes  to speak, ranking third while a fellow geek broke the record taking only 30 seconds to finish his speech. How did I know? well, I have my reliable sources . Haitham took some pictures for your entertainment too.
The prison's gate had closed on The Bethlehem Ghetto declaring it a ghetto for real. Bethlehem Bloggers appeal to the World, on behalf of every Palestinian, to stand with the people of this city. The Holy city of Bethlehem needs friends now more than ever, please visit and help spreading the truth.
Photo credit: Bethlehem Bloggers
Khaled Mishaal, top Hamas official in lebanon appealed to Palestinians and the PA to stop the bloodshed between two big Gazan families who reside in Beit Hanoon, north of Gaza. Earlier, Mishaal announced that the ceasefire truce between Hamas and Israel will not be renewed. Rafah Pundits as well, Israeli navy opened fire on a group of Palestinian fishermen killing two and leaving three more critically injured.
Isreal military forces carried out arrests in the last four days in the West Bank. In a single day, that is 24 hours, 35 were arrested in Al-Khalil (Hebron). In Baqa'a Refugee Camp also, B'Tselem demands that Shaul Mofaz interfers to stop the demolishing of Palestinian houses. While at it, after three months have passed since the evacuation of Gaza City (although the air raids and assassinations never stopped), Israeli authorities still hadn't cleaned the rubble of demolished Isreali settlements, hindering with any progressive projects planned.
Non-violent resistance in Palestine continues by Palestinians and International activists despite of everything. Mean while, more demonstrations were held in Ramallah calling for the release of the four CPT hostages in Iraq.
If there is such thing as cute news, this must be it, Imaan of Living in Gaza City says her little cute daughters pray…before they do some dancing
What we talk about:
peacepalestine posts another letter from Vanunu asking for your support as his trial, scheduled on the 6th of January 2006, is approaching.
From peacepalestine too, a new national group called the American Council on Middle East Policy (ACME) announces its formation, and talks about its very first project: a petition against Senator Hillary Clinton's support of the Apartheid Wall.
Mazin Qumsiyeh lists 10 critical changes in Palestine-Israel, pointing them out for activists urging them to do more than hoping for the best.
The little things that matter…
umkahlil posts about Gannit Ankari, an Israeli art history professor, who apparently gets it. Gannit had an interview with Al-Jazeera. Gannit admirably devotes an English-language book to the Palestinian art which was ignored by the west.Israel had done the needful to spread a myth that art did not exist in Palestine prior to the establishment of Israel in 1948.
International Solidarity Movement organizes a conference against The Wall in Bilin, Al-Khalil (Hebron) from 20-21 February, 2006. Please stand by peace and non-violent resistance in the face of oppression and injustice. Read an abstract of the conference here
Zaytoun partnered with War on Want to give farmers a thoughtful gift, help them out.
Via Zaytoun again, a fundraising event is held for Bethlehem Children with Disability and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign  in the Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church 235, Shaftesbury Avenue Central London . London Fenzi Consort will be performing Christmas choral music from 15th Century to the present day, they will also lead the audience in traditional carols. There is going to be poetry reading by Andy De La Tour and Susan Wooldridge too. Rmember the “forgotten faithful” by buying a ticket and help treating the phsycially and psychologically ill young people, help sponsoring day cares for children and a lot more.
Nablus came to its twin city Dundee to know for the first time what does it mean to be in an unoccupied country. You can return the visit any time between the 12th to 19th of March, 2006.  Contact Olive Cooperative for more info or dial 01382-550210 and speak to Andree.

author: Shaden Abdulrahman


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Uruguay: Made in America · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Rosario offers a Uruguayan's perspective on Bill Bryson's book, “Made in America.”


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Venezuela: Podcast on Venezuelan Politics · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Radio Open Source invites political science professor, Daniel Hellinger, Venezuelan ambassador to the United States, Bernardo Alvarez, and bloggers, Miguel Octavio and Daniel Duquenal to hash out Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution after last week's low vote turnout in support of Chavez's parties. Comments following the post have been lively.


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Zimbabwe: WOZA · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

This is Zimbabwe - reports on WOZA – Women of Zimbabwe Arise – who took to the streets of Harare on Saturday 10th December which was Human Rights Day.  During the demonstration women were assulted by security forces and some of them arrested….”By noon five women from the Harare protest were in custody at Harare Central Police station. They were assaulted with open palms and baton sticks whilst in detention by officers, including one called Mhondoro. Due to a combination of this assault and refusal of access to lawyers, the women decided to negotiate the payment of ZD $25,000 admission of guilt fines. They were released on this basis at 16:45 pm”.


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Bahrain: Justice Victory · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Mahmood is happy for Bahrain. Happy for seeing justice taking place. Happy for the Bahraini family who have successfully sued the most feared ministry in Bahrain and succeeded in getting justice.

author: Haitham Sabbah


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Bangladesh:  Wiretapping · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Unheard Voices  on the wiretapping law, and if it was something the Government had already put into practice but introduced at a time when the outcry was likely to be low.


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El Salvador: Who do Salvadorans trust? · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Tim's El Salvador Blog looks at a recent study by the University of Central America, which asked participants where they placed their confidence. Churches and political parties were far apart.


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Ghana: Traffic systems · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

The Trials and Tribulations of a Freshly Arrived Denizen writes about an ICT conference in Accra. One of the displays is a new traffic system to be used in Accra….


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Global Voices Summit: Emergence of a Conversation Community · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

(photo by Beth Kanter)
Thanks to everybody who participated – both in person and online to make our Global Voices London Summit such a stunning success!
The conversation was so intense that few people noticed a movie star sitting quietly in the back of the room, listening intently to what bloggers from around the world had to say.
A full, real-time transcript of the meeting has been posted on the GV05 Conference Blog, courtesy of SJ Klein (who typed), Angelo Embuldeniya (who posted and edited) and others who helped.
(photo by Georgia Popplewell
MP3 audio files of the full meeting will be posted soon. (UPDATE: FULL AUDIO OF THE CONFERENCE IS NOW POSTED HERE.) Brendan Greeley of Radio Open Source and Ben Walker of the Theory of Everything also conducted some wonderful one-on-one interviews with many of the bloggers present. We hope to post those as podcasts over the coming week or two.
Meanwhile, the blog posts about the conference – by people in the room as well as by people who followed the discussion online – are popping up like mushrooms around the web. You can track them on Del.icio.us, on Blogpulse,  the Technorati “globalvoices” tag, the Technorati “global voices” search, and on Flickr.
As many pointed out, one day was too short. It was really just the beginning of a conversation that needs to continue over coming year.  We have three main online spaces in which to continue this conversation:
(Photo by Enda)
The e-mail list-serv: This will be used as a place to start conversations, make announcements and provoke discussions which can be continued on:
The post-conference brainstorm wiki: I have created several links for subjects people clearly have an issue in pursuing: translation, “bloglogue”, outreach, etc.  Feel free to add more. When you add major ideas or want to get discussion going on these pages, please send and email to the list and ask everybody to join you there.
IRC: The globalvoices IRC is open 24/7 at irc://irc.freenode.net/#globalvoices  If you haven’t been there before, click  here for instructions on how to get on it.   People can email the list and schedule “meeting times” to discuss specific issues, then post the transcript and follow-up summary notes on the wiki so we have a record of what was discussed and planned.
(Photo by Enda)
Above all, the important point here is that Global Voices will become what the community makes of it. GV’s future is not within the control of me, or Ethan, or our Regional Editors, or the Berkman Center Reuters, or any of our other sponsors or funders. We are really just trying to facilitate, support, enable, and draw attention to the conversations people want to have. The more initiative you as a community member take in shaping and contributing to GV, the more it will become what you want it to be.
Coming out of the 2005 Summit, it appears that commitment to our core mission – enabling and amplifying voices that otherwise wouldn't be heard – remains strong. But I learned something important on Saturday: Global Voices really is a Conversation Community, not a media organization in any sense that a conventional  journalist or editor would recognize. GV exists as much to serve the interests of the contributors and their blogging communities as it does for our “viewers” or “users.” People may look at the website, hear about its 300,000 viewers per month, and think of GV as another form of media in the conventional producer-to-audience relationship. But that is to miss out on a great deal. Here's how I break things down, at least initially:
CROSS-BORDER DIALOGUE:
As Ethan points out, when this group of amazing people start to interact with one another, powerful things happen. Like a soul-searching dialogue between a Palestinian-born and Israeli blogger. These are two very influential voices in their communities. The fact that they have established a personal relationship will have long-lasting, positive impact on a lot of people who do not blog and who do not read GV.
As Curt Hopkins points out, powerful things can also happen when bloggers from vastly different parts of the world interact, even when their communities are not in conflict. Curt writes:
Global Voices Online (GVO) should encourage more conversations between groups that are not commonly seen as conversing. The Chileans and the Chinese, say. There is an implicit notion that a Chinese blogger involved with GVO and a Chilean who is involved may speak to one another via GVO. But what about encouraging direct, back-channel conversations, events, conferences, online actions? GVO is primarily a facilitator. It should attempt to facilitate these conversations overtly, then step out of the way.
I agree. We should help to enable conversations beyond the exchanges begun at or through GV.
FROM TALK TO ACTION:
In some countries (but not in others where it's too politically dangerous) people want tools like Pledgebank that can help them take action on issues they have been passionately blogging about. In other countries, the act of merely speaking is tremendously courageous. We must continue to support bloggers in such countries with the tools (like Ethan's anonymous blogging guide) that can enable them to continue speaking out despite governments’ efforts to stop them.
OUTREACH:
Bloggers recognize they are early-adopting elites – and that the conversations happening on the blogs in most countries are not representative of the population as a whole. There was great interest expressed on Saturday in doing outreach to communities that currently have some internet access but are not currently blogging. People feel the need for better training materials and guidelines for outreach so that they can spread the blogging gospel more easily and efficiently.
There is also a recognition that many people simply are never going to blog, but may be talking online in other ways. Offline speech in lectures, on radio call-in shows, etc., should also be collected and connected somehow. Farid Pouya hopes to develop his bloglogue idea toward this end.  We need a lot more discussion of how discussions on blogs can better interact with conversations going on in otuer mediums.
Maybe in the third world where a lot more people access talk radio than the internet, Radio Open Source can be used as a model for how you get offline people interacting in conversations with online people?
THE LANGUAGE GAP:
As somebody pointed out, the most difficult barriers to communication between people are not national borders but language. How can GV help break down the barriers? Does the answer lie with some distributed translation system like Blogamundo or with various non-English versions of GV – which don't just translate GV material but which would aggregate content from a particular language's blogosphere, then make perhaps highlights available for translation and summary into English and other widely-spoken languages beyond the original?
RELATIONSHIP WITH MSM?
A number of people, especially several bloggers observing the proceedings from afar, expressed cynicism and skepticism about the fact that Reuters sponsored the conference and will sponsor parts of GV, and that we may be on the verge of turning ourselves into some kind of cheap stringer network. I think the discussion above shows this is not the case. Reuters will certainly gain new information and perspectives by being connected to the Global Voices conversation. It will also be able to offer its audience the ability to connect to that conversation, and I hope also to join the conversation. In exchange for this Reuters is giving us some modest financial support. I personally feel this is a fair exchange that will enable us to do more towards accomplishing the goals articulated above, and which is intended to benefit members of the community. I would not be in favor of the partnership if I didn't feel strongly that the people who will benefit the most from it will be bloggers themselves.  (UPDATE/NOTE: I should also point out that we also get support from other institutions such as the MacArthur Foundation. The partnership with Reuters does not prevent the interaction of our community members with other media organizations. GV members have been appearing with growing frequency on the BBC, for instance, and there is no reason why that shouldn't continue.)
“CONTENT” IS ONLY THE MEANS TO AN END
Put it this way: for a conventional media organization, “content” is the end goal and “content creation” is the primary activity. For a Conversation Community like Global Voices, “content” and “content creation” are means to a larger end: conversation and dialogue. The first step towards conversation is having one's voice heard around the discussion table. By linking to people's blogs, our editors and contributors are in effect inviting people to the discussion table and moderating the conversation.
Nobody has ever done this before, so we're sure to make lots of mistakes. You don't learn any other way. In the coming year we will be working to figure out how best to bring more people to the conversation table, how to ensure that their voices are heard and not drowned out, how best to structure the conversations so that they can be meaningful, and how to maximize the impact of these conversations. It's an exciting project. Please help us figure it out!

author: Rebecca MacKinnon


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Hong Kong, South Korea: Protest Blog · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Looking forward to the usual WTO demonstrations? Here's a new blog (in Korean and English) by Korean-Americans documenting and accompanying Korean farmers’ protests at the trade meet in Hong Kong.

author: Jose Manuel Tesoro


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India: Expat money · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Varnam on the trend of expat money accounting for a large part of India's foreign exchange, and the phenomenon of people from Kerala working in the Mid-East to send  money back home.


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India: Household Potential Index · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Zoo Station links to an article on household potential index, a new methodology to determine the affluence of a household and the ranking of various Indian cities.


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Iran: Who Killd Judge Moghaddas · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Shahram Kholdi says that Islamic Republic's Intelligence services are under pressure to declare who assassinated Judge Moghaddas. Judge Moghaddas, once presided over many journalists and intellectuals’ cases in the Islamic Revolutionary Court.


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Iraq: Call for Humanity! · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

This letter can't go unnoticed. A Citizen Of Mosul posts a letter he received from a Swiss citizen medical therapist who is asking for any link to useful sources or information regarding the 43-year-old German archaeologist Susanne Osthoff, who was taken hostage in Iraq along with her Iraqi driver on November 25. If you have any, please do not hesitate to contact the guy.


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Japan: Remembering Ronin · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

David Weber at Japundit writes about the Dec. 14 commoration in Japan of the deaths of 47 ronin — an annual tribute to the samurai way.


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JIB Awards 2005 · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

The 2005 Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards has begun. Hosted by Israellycool with the involvement of the Jerusalem Post!


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Kenya: Book reviews · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

African Bullets & Honey posts some critical reviews of  “Okri, Naipaul and Arundhati” by one John Dolan and basks in his (Dolan's) particularly unpleasant bushwaking of the three writers..


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Kenya: personal reflections · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Feminist African Sister publishes some personal reflections on her life at present…….My body has shut down, essntially saying that this December the brain and soul are on their own. My body is on strike! But in the meantime, the following thoughts have been running through my brain. Not all at once. They are just there”


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Kenya: Poetry · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

ThinkersRoom gets into some melancholy poetry…. “The Rain of Tears“….


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Kyrgyzstan: Crippling Credit · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Sasha reports on Kyrgyzstan's credit system.

author: Nathan Hamm


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Kyrgyzstan: Economics & Migration · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

neweurasia's Baktygul discusses economics and migration in Kyrgyzstan.


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Lebanon: Personal grieving for Gebran Tueni · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Rami writes; Gebran Tueni is not responsible for sectarian divisions in Lebanon. His entire platform was built around unity, a unity that he partially embodied. Those who decry his words are those that stand against a unified Lebanon. To substantively engage what he has said and to call him out for his transgressions is one thing, but to so vituperatively cheer Tueni's death is to express the true evil in the human soul.


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Liberia: Weah · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Yebo Gogo writes about the appalling behaviour of George Weah who refuses to concede defeat to Mrs Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf…..”Fellow partisans, revolution is a noble cause. We must fight to obtain it,” Weah said. “It is our right to seek justice, and we will use all means to obtain that,” he said to a cheering crowd. “I know one day we will be free.”


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Nepal: Municipal Polls · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Legal news from Nepal reports that the Supreme Court has rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) demanding an order to the government to stop the procedures for upcoming municipal polls.


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Nigeria: Book review · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Musings of a Naijaman reviews a book by Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela called “Coloured Lights”


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Nigeria: Housing sell off · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Chippla's Weblog voices his disgust at the latest privatisation of the housing sector in Nigeria…..”Welcome to the Nigeria of the future where the government will continue to sell off its interests in public companies. And such interests include its holdings in housing infrastructure in the commercial capital of Lagos………Yes it sounds great. It sounds great if you are rich and have the money to rent the apartments or purchase UACN shares on the stock market. For the hundreds of residents of the1004 Housing Estate who are now forced to pack up and leave, it is nothing short of a nightmare”


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Pakistan: Earthquake on 13th · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Ahmed Bilal on the earthquake (magnitude 6.7) that hit Hindu Kush region today.


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Philippines, Singapore: Blog Race · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

theory.isthereason follows the race between Singapore's sexy celeblogger Xiaxue and not-as-sexy Mr. Brown for the title of Best Asian Blog: “While such blog awards help us recognize the most popular bloggers on the Internet, these sort of awards technically perpetuate the popularity of the select bloggers.” Commenting on the same contents, the Philippines’ Manuel L. Quezon III shares his views on “popularity v. intelligence.”


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Russia: False Vodka Advertising · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Russia Marketing Blog reports that the government is taking steps to stop the marketing of vodka as such things as candy or mineral water.


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Russia: The Revolving Door · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Scraps of Moscow reports on the revolving Russo-German door–in which Gerhard Schroeder has taken a position with a major (Russia's) Gazprom-led gas pipeline project shortly after leaving office.


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Russia: Volgas · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Carpetblogger reports the demise of a beloved (well, by some people anyway) Russian automobile, the Volga.


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Singapore: Mr. Wang on Marriage · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Mr. Wang picks apart the reasons why younger Singaporeans say they don't want to get married.


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South Africa: Spying in Zimbabwe · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

The Fish Bowl reports on the arrest of a South African spy  for running an espionage ring in Zimbabwe! ciommenting “If that's the only thing we, and the people of Zimbabwe, get out of quiet diplomacy, it really has been a waste of time..”


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South Africa · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

South Africa provides some “food for thought” on South African media.…Four major newspaper groups – Independent Newspapers, Johnnic Communications, Naspers and CTP/Caxton, dominate the South African print media market.


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Southeast Asia: Skeptic’s Constitution · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

After Southeast Asian leaders signed a pact to write a regional constitution, Rajan Rishyakaran claims he has an early draft — a skeptical, darker version that describes the realities both the region and its charter would have to answer.


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Uzbekistan: Embargo · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Nick reports on efforts by some to enact an embargo on Uzbek cotton at neweurasia.


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Vietnam: Hair Ban · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

At the Saigon-based art blog diacritic.org, a post bemoaning the  year-and-a-half-old law from Vietnam's Ministry of Culture prohibiting radical hairstyles.


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Air Plane Crash: Anger & Sorrow · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

A military transport plane crashed in a residential district in Tehran, at 6th of December, killing more than 100 people including many journalists and reporters who were air plane passengers.
Iranian government tried to blame pilot and American embargo as reasons for this tragedy but voices raised among bloggers, journalists  a few pro republic Islamic sites such as Baztab ( I will talk about it below) and even some deputies in parliament against goverment’s negligence and irresponsible act. A new blog was created by brother of one of the victims to follow all news concerning this crash and to see where investigation leading us. Thanks to a Persian blog new reporter I came to know this blog: A Throat full of blades (Persian). Blogger says after all these days military reponsibles did not apologize yet. On his posts he has replaced the  word  comment by cry/shout. Let’s see why people are so angry with Iranian government:
Is sanction against Iran one of the causes of the last plan crash in Tehran Tuesday?  asks Omid Memarian, journalist & Blogger. He answers
“Some of the Iranians bloggers have mentioned that US is responsible for the plane crash in Tehran and some of the others believe that’s the Tehran officials who don’t care about the health of the people in different ways…..I think both are true. There is no doubt about that Iranian government does not care about the health of the citizen. Tehran has been for two days off because of the air pollution. Is it the American sanction effects? Many people die during the year time because of the air pollution. Iran has the most died number of the road accidents in the world as the statistics indicate. Are Americans involved in that?….So, mismanagement and bad governance which is all over the country affected the people widely“.
Why this trip to Chahbahar was so important that a second pilot was found to send all these journalists to that place? Zeytoun asks.  According to this blogger, They(journalists) were send to film a military demonstartion of followers of leader and arriving late could be considered as an insult to Leader. She thinks is why they were send at any price to that place.(Persian)
Why Clerics are silent asks pejvake khamoush a reformist cleric & blogger based in Qom. Our planes are out of order and both pilotes and passengers are responsible. He says why clerics don't talk about it to stop this kind of tragedies.(Persian)
Shahram Kholdi, UK based blogger says:
“There are rumours that when the IRIAF Hercules C-130 attempted emergency landing, the landing was delayed by the Mehrabad control tower because a “high ranking official's” plane was about to take off at the same time“.
Kossof , journalist blogger, writes:
“Thousands of mourners flooded central Tehran on Thursday for a funeral ceremony for at least 108 people killed in Tuesday's plane crash that the families of victims have blamed on poor safety procedures“.
According to Bazatb,  (an Iran based popular  conservative news site), many experienced managers and specialists in air industry were recently replaced by new faces without any experience. Baztab continues that this changing in industry can create more insecurity and risk for airplanes. (Persian)
May be we can conclude with Iran based blogger, Mr Behi, that air plane crash in Tehran: He says
“The level of negligence of Iranian authority is so ridiculous that only Iranian would believe it”.


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Argentina: Buenos Aires in Film and Photo · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jorge Gobbi takes out his video camera to “show you a part of the city that usually doesn’t appear in documentaries or brochures.” Robert Wright takes out his digital SLR to continue documenting the city's stencil art.


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Argentina: Music – Ram Venus · Global Voices
David Sasaki

ZonaIndie highlights Argentinean quartet, Ram Venus. Their entire 2004 album, El Universo es un Lugar Maravilloso (the universe is a wondeful place) can be downloaded for free.


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Bangladesh: Understanding Terrorism · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

More on understanding Terrorism in the context of Bangladesh and the targets for the violence at Mac's Savoury Chorchoriz.


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Bangladesh: Zionism · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Razib on the case against Zionism by examining the issues, and in light of a recent statement.


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Brazil: Director Gets Golden Globe Nomination · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Made in Brazil congratulates Brazilian director, Fernando Meirelles on his Golden Globe nomination for the movie The Constant Gardner. Andrew, a missionary living in Juazeiro do Norte is critical of locals devoted to Padre Cicero who lived during the late 1800's and early 1900's.


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Brazil: Sao Paulo Forum and Lula’s Recommendation for Morales · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Luís Afonso Assumpção explains why he was not one bit surprised when Brazilian president, Lula da Silva gave his support to Bolivian presidential candidate, Evo Morales.


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Chad: firing on children demonstrators · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Aqumada writes that  yet another African Government has opened fire on children demonstrating.………The world has sat and watched similar recent atrocities in Ethiopia and Uganda…. This has clearly given the Chadian government the green light to go ahead and do the same. This is precisely why the spineless African Union has failed to put out strong condemnation of the atrocities committed by the Ethiopian government. These so-called leaders are turning the African Union into a support group for dictators.


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Chile: Election Repetition · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jonathan has a laugh at the repetitive campaign signs around Santiago as Piñera and Bachelet head into the final swing of the presidential elections.


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Chile: Presidential Elections … 2000 · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Boz recalls his experience during Chile's 2000 presidential Elections.


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China: Consuming China · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

danwei directs our attention to a recent survey showing how Chinese women may drive China's future luxury consumption.


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China: Death in Jilin · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

ulywang of Non-Violent Resistance discusses what he calls the eerie silence of domestic media on the suicide of Jilin's deputy mayor, after that town suffered a hideous chemical spill that made international news. He says: “The deeper, still evolving story behind it underscore the fact that the drama is far from over in the northeast. “


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China, Singapore: Singapore in China · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

rwillmsen has some thoughts about the Singapore-ization of Chinese cities: the scrubbing of character in favor of controlled sterility.


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Costa Rica: Undecided Voters · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Costa Rica Blogs says that nearly one-third of all Costa Ricans are still undecided with presidential elections just three months away.


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Dominican Republic: Capital Punishment · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Though both angry, Annie Sánchez from the Dominican Republic and Jason Shattles from the United States offer two very different reactions to the death of California former gang member, Stanley Williams.


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Ethiopia/Sudan telephone link · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Friends of Ethiopia writes that plans are underway to build a telephone fibre optic link between Ethiopia and Sudan...”Ethiopia and Sudan, two of the world's poorest and least-wired nations, want to expand information and communication technologies coverage to the respective country in the future”


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Hong Kong: WTO Coverage · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

The Hong Kong Standard has set up a website gathering coverage of the ongoing WTO meeting in Hong Kong. Check it out: Curbside @ WTO.


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India: A woman and a journalist · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Sakshi has a post on women being journalists in India, their feats and the challenges in working in South Asia.


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India, Nepal: For the migrant community · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

International Nepal Solidarity Network reports that  a three days campaign on safe migration and HIV/AIDS among the migrant Nepali community is being held at different locations in Delhi from 17th to 19th December.


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Indonesia: Going Nuclear · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Indonesia is going nuclear! Well, not that way — read about Indonesia's first nuclear power plant at Indonesia Today by Yosef Ardi.


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Iran: TV & Public Opinion · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Haji, a cleric blogger, thinks that TV in Iran is canalising public opinion. During last weeks of Khatami,TV always talked about inflation but now it has become not even a secondary issue. (Link in Persian)


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Jamaica: Politics, Economics, and First Dates · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Owen tries to figure out why he should learn anything about Jamaican politics or economics when he wants to be an IT professional. At the very least, he probably could have gotten his classmates’ phone number.


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Jamaica: Remembering Steve Harvey · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Andrés Duque argues that The Jamaican Observer made the wrong editorial when claiming that murders of homosexuals in Jamaica are indicative of a larger crime problem rather than a homophobia problem. Duque also offers form letters which can be sent to the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations and Prime Minister P.J. Patterson regarding both the editorial and the death of gay activist Steve Harvey on World AIDS Day.


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Morocco – Gnawa and Clichy-sous-Bois · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Africa's favorite music blog, Benn loxo du taccu returns to Clichy-sous-Bois (Paris riots!) to watch a Gnawa concert by Moroccan musician Hmida Boussou.…”The point of the trip was then two-fold: to check-out this place so badly portrayed in the media as a centre of racial hatred and burning cars, and to listen to some great live gnawa music from down in Essaouira.”


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Nepal: Media Ordinance · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Legal News From Nepal points to a release by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) that has said that Nepal's Media Ordinance is in violation of Nepal's international human rights obligations and the Nepali Constitution and called on the Government immediately to repeal the Ordinance.


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Nigeria: Internet convention · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Oro announces the Third Nigerian Internet Convention which runs this weekend on Friday and Saturday.


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Nigeria: soyabean production · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Timbuktu Chronicles reports that Tofu is proving to be a big earner for women entrepreneurs in Nigeria which last year produced 500,000 tons of soya beans.  Nutritionally the soyabean is a perfect food as it carries ” twice the protein of meat or poultry and contain all eight essential amino acids needed for childhood development…”


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Rwanda: Living and working with HIV · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

On Safari with El Jorgito writes about meeting with a Rwandan woman called Marie who he describes as being “exceptional woman, indicative of the resilience and strength of people (and women in particular) in this country.”


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South Asia: It’s about the race · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The Chinese buy Black Man Toothpaste, the Americans want patterns made on Brown hands and the Indians want caucasian skin. The black, brown and white – and we're just selling race. Sepia Mutiny.


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Sri Lanka: Remember Tsunami · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Indi.ca points to   webhamuva.org which was set up to collect firsthand reports from the camps after the Tsunami struck last year in Sri Lanka.


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Travels in the Kurdish Blogosphere · Global Voices
Deborah Ann Dilley

Welcome back to the Kurdish Blogosphere!
Originally announced on the Kurdistan Bloggers Union was the creation of the  Kurdistan Blog Count this week. Modeled loosely after the  Iraq Blog Count, it intends to monitor and catalog the Kurdistan blogs out there in the world wide web. Other items announced on the Kurdistan Bloggers Union is the creation of a new KBU badge available for download.
Charles from the Is-Ought Problem has an excellent post about what happens when you use the “wrong” term in reporting about Kurdistan. The topic of Kurdistan in general is sensitive to say the least, and critisim about terminology used is given from all sides of the movement. As subject to this critisim often as your weekly author, I have come to the conclusion that if I anger someone, I anger them, but I try not too. Objectivity in this topic comes at a price, and with the excellent work that we have seen in the two-three weeks on this particular blog, I hope that Mr. Chapman does not give up his quest.
In honor of Human Rights Day, Bleak Blogorrhea gives us a link to a report done about the Human Rights violations in Eastern Kurdistan (Western Iraq). The report was submitted by the Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan, which nicely has their website translated into English if you are interested in reading the report.
Roj Bash! posts about a purported dispute between the Kurdistan Regional Government and Amnesty International, they promise a more detailed analysis on the subject soon.
Vladimir From Holland to Kurdistan has reports about the upcoming Iraqi elections. The first is an article from Ara Alan on why he is voting for 730. The second is a report about the Kurdish expat voing in Holland.
Rasti is a relatively new Kurdish blog. The author has been quite proliferic with his writing since he began to write. He has an interesting commentary on the state of the PKK in Turkey at the moment, and how no matter what is done the Kurdish Question in Turkey will always be tied to the PKK. He also has some very cogent analysis on the history of the PKK involvement in Turkey.
Pearls of Iraq posts about Islamic peacebuilding programs in Iraq and types about the rural building being done in the small town of Kalar in Northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan).
The last two bloggers on our list for this week have something in common, they are both giving detailed information about the upcoming Iraqi elections on December 15th (tomorrow!): Hiwa Hopes and the Iraqi Vote. Either later this evening or tomorrow at the lastest you can expect an detailed analysis of the Iraqi elections from the bloggers persceptives. Hiwa has been covering the elections from a Kurdish Iraqi POV, from party manifestos to allegations of who will be and will not be allowed to vote. The Iraqi Vote‘s coverage is a bit more holistic, and for the purposes of the post on the Iraqi elections, we will be drawing heavily from the information from that particular blog. The Iraqi Vote poignantly addresses the importance of the upcoming elections:
On December 15, 2005, the people of Iraq will vote for the first, permanent, democratically-elected government ever. This government has the most grand task of completing the skeleton that we call a constitution. As a result of the October 15th vote, the constitution was passed, but what kind of a constitution is it? Almost every article in the constitution says that it will be made permanent by a law, a law that will likely be voted on by the next government and the next government will be formed as a result of a general election due in only six days.
It is possible that this election will be the last one that matters because Iraq is likely to become a decentralized, federal state in which regional politics will be far more important than national politics. This fact is already evident in the absence of one of Iraq's most powerful politicians, Mr. Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government.
In the next four years, Iraqi politics is likely to shift from a national to a regional focus where elections in the regions would become more important than the national elections. However, that remains to be determined and it is wholly dependent on the results of next Thursday's vote.


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Uganda: Jewish community · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Mzansi Afrika has a post on the Jewish community in Uganda..”I had no idea that Uganda is home to a small ethnic Jewish community. They live in the  eastern Ugandan town of Mbale and are known as the Abayudaya, which is the Luganda word for Jews.The community was founded by a warrior called Kakungulu, who was used by the British to help conquer Uganda.”


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Uruguay: New Music Label · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Sonic Walker announces the creation of Uruguay's first electronic music label.


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Voices from the Horn of Africa and Sudan · Global Voices
Vandu

Our look at what bloggers in the Horn of the African continent and Sudan are saying begins in Darfur and with some good news. Sleepless in Sudan is reporting that the ban on commercial traffic in one of the refugee camps called Kalma has been lifted. In its own words:
“…there's some more good news from Kalma camp this week – the ban on ‘commercial traffic’ between the camp and Nyala town (which lies around 15km to the North-West of Kalma) is about to be lifted. The aid agencies who work inside Kalma camp have been struggling to get this result for months – since the governor of South Darfur first instituted the ban seven months ago, it has created a lot of problems for the people of Kalma camp.”
But not all news from Darfur is good news. Sudan: The Passion of the Present quotes an International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (ICRC) report which states the Darfur remains a volatile region:
“Over the past two weeks, armed clashes have occurred near Al Geneina (Western Darfur) and Gereida (Southern Darfur), where the situation remains precarious. ICRC operations in the west of Western Darfur remain suspended in the wake of recent security incidents that have targeted the organization and continue making it difficult for its staff to go about their work in safety.”
Ethiopian bloggers seem focused on the ruling government of their country, with a lot of disapproval, that is. Ethiopundit in an article entitled “Washington's Lethal Delusions of Stability” appears angry with Western nations for their supposed bias towards the ruling party of Prime Minsiter Meles Zenawi which it (Ethiopundit) has no love for. Ethiopian Paradox comes out even harsher against Mr. Zenawi’s government in a thought-provoking piece called “SOS Ethiopia: 115,000 political prisoners at a Nazi-style concentration camp” where it states:
“Almost four weeks after the popular revolt in Addis Ababa in November of 2005 in which more than 100 people were killed according to human right groups, shocking news is slowly emerging indicating that more than 43,000 political prisoners have been detained in open air prisons (read Nazi-style concentration camps) in the Dedessa valley of South West Ethiopia”
Meskel Square takes a look at corruption in Ethiopia, which has for the first time being included in Transparency International’s annual Global Corruption Barometer, and appears surprised at the “relatively high figures that came up in some of the corruption categories for” Ethiopia. The author of Meskel Square had always seen Ethiopia as only marginally corrupt compared to other African countries, yet finds solace in the Transparency International report which shows that both Ethiopia and Nigeria are making some good progress in tackling corruption.

author: Vandu


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Voices From Zimbabwe Plus · Global Voices
Zimpundit

With the elections gone and the country firmly in their grip, the ruling ZANU-PF unravelled their newest  ploy to silence hostilities from their own citizens.  Trevor Ncube, the publisher of two of Zimbabwe's independent newspapers The Independent and The Standard, and leading South African titles the Mail and Guardian, had his passport seized at the Joshua Nkomo Airport in Bulawayo last week.  News reports speculate that the government has put together a list of 64 opponents and critics whose passports must be withdrawn immediately upon detection by border enforcement officers.  Human rights activists and Civil rights leaders have however pointed out that the specific constitutional provision enabling the government to curb the travels of citizens whose travels “pose a threat to national security” is yet to be ratified by parliament making a law.
Meanwhile ZANU-PF is holding its’ People's Congress in Esigodhini, a small town in Matabeleland where they've failed to mobilize any grassroots support.  This is Zimbabwe notes how unusual it is for the people of Buluwayo to have the presidential motorcade commandeering city streets in the nation's second city.
“People in Bulawayo just aren’t used to motorcades.
On the way home tonight, friends were forced to veer off the main road into the lane for oncoming traffic. rgm had a fabulous day of ranting at the zanu thug congress in Esigodini and the mob were on their way home.”
Agathon Rwasa is furious at the UN Burundi office  for having nothing to say on International Human Rights day in light of the fact that several FNL leaders were captured with UN uniforms in their posession a month ago.
Sahara Sara reports an earthquake in eastern Congo that didn't get much coverage in MSM.
Adventures of a Retired Armchair Traveler contemplates the culpability of a DRC citizen convicted in Australia of spreading HIV, making this crucial distinction,
“In this story, there is not enough information to know whether the man that was jailed did what he did intentionally. Knowingly is not the same. Knowingly means that he had received a positive diagnosis and subsequently had unprotected sex with the two women mentioned in the article. Intentionally was how our character was infecting sex partners, which is much more insidious and scary.
Mike of Hacktivate reports  on Malawi's first blogger meet up.

author: Zimpundit


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Zimbabwe: passport seized · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

The Bearded Man from Zimbabwe writes about a man who is appealing to the High Court for the return of his passport which was siezed by the government.…”He cites that the confiscation was “made in disregard of rules of natural justice, procedural and substantive fairness.”


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AFrican culture and development · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

African Unchained agrees that “African culture should be factored in the continent's development process in order to make the continent's development holistic and closer to Africans because of the long-running damages and distortions done by colonialism”


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Algeria: President Health · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

According to Hale and quoting IslamOnLine (12/13), Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's condition is ‘critical’, and that was supposedly confirmed by his brother Mostafa, a physician who accompanied him to Paris. The news, as reported, did not sound favorable for a good outcome of his hospitalization, saying that if he fully recovered, he might not be able to continue his duties as President of Algeria.


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Argentina: Email Flood to Save Argentina’s Hotel Bauen · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Ben Dangl spreads the word of a planned email flood today in hopes of preventing the eviction of a worker's cooperative currently occupying the space.

author: David Sasaki


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Armenia & Azerbaijan: Reality of a Nonexistent Country · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Life as I see it carries an essay about the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region on the realities of a nonexistent (in a legal sense) country.


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Armenia: Blogging in Armenia · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Onnik Krikorian discusses the state of blogging in Armenia and how he came to be hooked on blogging.


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Armenia: Child Trafficking · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Onnik Krikorian reports on a documentary drawing attention to the trafficking of children from Armenia.


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Bahrain: Fanatic Muttawa · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Mahmood is very upset after the Bahrain Ministry of Information, encouraged by the parliament, decided to ban any live musical shows at the only good, family oriented, non-alcoholic, non-shisha-smoking entertainment restaurant in Bahrain. The newly opened restaurant coasted the foreign investor more than $ 4 million, as he claims and he is now thinking of closing all his business in Bahrain and shifting it to some other Gulf country.


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Bahrain: HRW Appeal to UN · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Zainab Alkhawaja reports that a group of Human Rights activists went to The United Nations building in Bahrain to protect themselves from what they claim as continuous harassments of the government but the Head of the United Nations office in Bahrain, Mr. Alloush, considered this an invasion of a governmental building and called for security forces to remove them by force.


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Bangladesh: A terrible history · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The 3rd World  View on the occassion of Martyred Intellectuals Day in Bangladesh
December 14 is the day of martyred intellectuals, who were brutally killed by the Pakistani occupation army and their cohorts in 1971.


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Bulgaria: Painful Holiday · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Nomad Notes reports that, in order to cut down on fireworks-related injuries on New Year's, national radio is airing clips asking people to be safe this year.


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China, Hong Kong: Bridge and Ladder Blogs · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

EastSouthWestNorth talks about how a “ladder blog” had just helped a post climb over the Great Firewall of China: by translating into English a post in Chinese at a blocked Hong Kong blog, which was then retranslated into Chinese on a mainland China blog.


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Ethiopia: Meles  and Jackie Brown · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Ethiopundit puts Jackie Brown to the test against Meles and his gang, the violence in Ethiopia and the European Union.…”The obvious point is of course that like the cops in the movie, the EU is far more interested in defending the helpless of any kind than Ordell or Meles are. If you think we are stretching this point take a look at another scene from the movie”


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India: Outsourcing and India · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

If the argument against business process outsourcing is only about American jobs, then why isn't there more of an uproar when the job is outsourced to Ireland wonders Blame India Watch – a blog dedicated to busting myths of Indians taking away American jobs because of outsourcing.


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India: Race riots in Australia · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The recent race-riots has an Indian expat in Australia – Cowlick, wondering about the dynamics of who-came-first that seem to determine ownership of a country, and the dynamics of minority communities.


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Iran: Ahmadinejad & Israel · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Hoder, a Toronto based blogger, says Ahmadinejad and some other conservative personalities like Keyhan (persian) newspaper's editor are following an anti Isareli line for following reasons: 1- Ahmadinejad is trying to distract his base from the promises he'd given about improving people's living standard and distributing the oil revenue equally among the populous. 2-Ahmadinjead is a populist and his advisers have shown him how to manipulate unsophisticated public opinion in Arab countries when it comes to Israel. 3-Ousting moderate diplomats.


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Kenya: going home · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Moving Back Home (to Nairobi) is still learning and observing life in Nairobi for the 20 and 30 somethings…”did i mention that i LOVE nairobi. i LOVE nairobi. something about this place that allows you to simply be.”


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Mexico: Videoblog Contest · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Eduardo Arcos writes that yesterday morning there was a press conference (ES) held by Intel and RocketBoom to announce a competition for best Spanish-language video blog related in some way to Mexico. Arcos himself will be a judge and entries will be accepted between January 15th and February 28th.


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Morocco: Blasphemous Cartoon · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Foulla says that Al-Azhar, the highest seat of religious learning in the Sunni world, vowed to raise the issue of the provocative caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September, with the UN and international human rights organizations.


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Morocco: Open Skies · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Zany says that the “open skies” deal, which ends restrictions and limits on flights and national airlines operating between the EU and Morocco, will help Rabat bring the additional travelers it needs to boost its tourism industry.


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Nepal: Kingly Peace · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Democracy For Nepal spots two articles in Indian Newspapers about the King's moves towards peace in the region and has its own opinions.


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Nepal: SC on student leader · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Legal News From Nepal on the Supreme Court ordering the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) to produce a detained Maoist student leader before the apex court.


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Nigeria: aviation sector · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Chippla continues is expose of the Nigerian aviation industry……”Sosoliso Airlines, which was involved in a recent crash and Chanchangi Airlines. The fact that Chanchangi Airlines had remained flying all this while is nothing short of shocking. Without a doubt, it would easily earn the unenviable title of being ‘the most unprofessional airline in Nigeria’. I proceed to explain why.”


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Nigeria: Credit · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Timbaland of Nigeria writes about the newly available credit to Nigerian citizens..…”The Nigerian economy is fast becoming an advanced one with the inevitable e-commerce boom coming up soon and the consolidation exercise, the outlook of the future is bright. Extending credit to the general Nigerian populace would have been looked upon with a lot of skepticism but to my amazement, I got an advertisement in my mailbox about an organization (CreditRegistry) doing just this.”


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Nigeria: GV 05 · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Soul on Ice blogs on last Saturday's GV summit with some “cool” photos!  (Had to put this one in) “I had the honour and privilege last weekend of attending the Global Voices 2005 London Summit thanks to the Sokari Ekine (okrasoup/black looks). Great Lady and an inspiration. To say it was an incredible affair is an understatement. I've never attended anything like it.”


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Peruvian Blogs Recently · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

La versión original de este artículo está disponible en español.
These days have been active, politically speaking, as various bloggers have posted frequently about recent happenings and among them all, the one that called my attention the most was written by “La Morena” about the candidate of the ruling political party: De Guatemala a Guatepeor con los Chakanos in which reading it, we discover that, for Morena, simply being a successful business man isn't enough to be a good candidate. In any case, past news items make it clearnthat not everything is said aloud, not even in the estates of the “Perú Posibilistas.” One problem is that the comments don't appear to be complete, but you can see them here. In the blog Peruvian Culture, Gustavo Garcia presents us with a list of candidates and possible candidates for the upcoming presidential elections: “Ensalada de Candidatos in 2006” and ends the post with a “congressional reggaeton” alluding to the absurdity of the “Patriotic Fathers.” The bloggers of Perú Político post a summary of the most important news from the past week: Crónica semanal (30 de noviembre al 6 de diciembre) and in Página Libre, Fernando Cáceres reflects about democracy and our political class in “El Peru en su propio laberinto (Peru in its Own Maze). Finally, in a post entitled “A la Plaza,” Angelo laments a decision by Lima's “Comuna” to not allow Plaza San Martín to be used for political meetings.
In other aspects of the Peruvian blogosphere, Ecoperú posts about the ecological problems being caused by the gas pipeline of Camisea: “Machiguengas vs Camisea. Juan Carlos Luján of Sin Papel, in a post titled “El mensaje que no trascendió en la CADE 2005,” informs us of the exposition at CADE 2005 – a conference for the political and business classes of Peru – of León Trahtemberg who “garnered applause from the audience by analyzing the relationship among the social sectors, the authoritarianism in the schools (where “plagiarize, march, and keep quiet” is the common denominator), and the candidates that charm the masses with easy speeches without receiving skeptical questioning.
From the Southern city of Puno, Eland Vera of Comunicación y Desarrollo Peru, in the post “Puno's Bloggers of the National University of Altiplano,” tells us of his teaching experiences using blogs. And, speaking of blogging, Nauta posts “Blogs con rostro (Blogs with Faces)” which favors the option of identity over anonymity when blogging. FutbolPeruano.com informs us of recent news in Peruvian sports in the post, “Copa Libertadores 2006: Lottery Did Not Favor Peruvian Teams.”
Discussing music events, Germán of MusicBlog / M&S offers his impressions of a recent performance by the salsa group, Niche in “Crónica de un concierto anunciado (I) y (II). Enrike who writes at Cámara de Gas shares his experiences at the concert of heavy metal band, Napalm Death, in “Napalm Death en Perú” and later tells us that the group liked Peru and the good vibes at the concert.
Related to culture, Seycko of Réplica posts “Fotos de Magda” about the first solo exposition of photographer Magdalena Sangalli. Juan Carlos Bondy of Lado B tells us about the  publishing delay of a prizewinning collection of poetry and short stories in “Winners and Finalists of the 2002 Copé Award.” And Javier Agreda writes about a recent book by Peruvian author, Luis Hernán Castañeda in a post titled “Hotel Europa.”
Among the more personal posts, Fernando Lozano writes about friendship and being Peruvian in “Cuando pienses en volver, Daniel (When do you think you'll return Daniel?).” And Sergio of Idioteca recounts his weekend in “Lights, Music, Beer, Bloggers, and Graffiti.” And with that, I'll see you the next time.

author: Juan Arellano


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Philippines: Done with the Bishops · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Edwin Lacierda of San Juan Gossip Mills Outlet discusses his disgust with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, which had in the past distinguished itself by criticizing the state when no one else would.  “Were it once was the harbinger of decisive action, it is now the voice of indecision. Were it once kowtowed to no one, it is now a servile serf.”


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Podcast: Global Voices Summit Session 3 Part 1 · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Audio of the Global Voices 2005 Summit is now available in podcast form!!  Each audio file is being posted as a separate entry so that everything can be captured by your podcast-reading software.
Click here to listen to Part 1 of Session 3: What makes a successful blogosphere? (25MB, 52 mins)
Why is it that some countries have developed vibrant local blogospheres (Iran, Jordan, Cambodia etc) while others haven’t? What conditions are required and what outreach can be done by the Global Voices community to help enable and encourage blogging in communities that could greatly benefit from this new citizens’ medium?
Led by Ethan Zuckerman, with input from Roba Al Assi (Jordan), Ory Okolloh (Kenya), Neha Viswanathan (Global Voices South Asia editor), Sokari Ekine (Sub-Saharan Africa editor), Iria Puyosa (Venezuela), Bun ThaRum (Cambodia), Enda Nasution (Indonesia), Andy Young (SiberianLight), Hossein Derakhshan (Iran)
NOTE: There were some microphone problems which made the recording inaudible at a few points. Those parts have been edited out.  (Audio courtesy of Benjamen Walker.)
Follow the live-blog of Session 3 here. (Courtesy of Angelo Embuldeniya and SJ Klein. )
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Podcast: Global Voices Summit Session 3 Part 2 · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Audio of the Global Voices 2005 Summit is now available in podcast form!!  Each audio file is being posted as a separate entry so that everything can be captured by your podcast-reading software.
Click here to listen to Part 2 of Session 3: What makes a successful blogosphere? (19MB, 40 mins)
Why is it that some countries have developed vibrant local blogospheres (Iran, Jordan, Cambodia etc) while others haven’t? What conditions are required and what outreach can be done by the Global Voices community to help enable and encourage blogging in communities that could greatly benefit from this new citizens’ medium?
Led by Ethan Zuckerman, with input from Roba Al Assi (Jordan), Ory Okolloh (Kenya), Neha Viswanathan (Global Voices South Asia editor), Sokari Ekine (Sub-Saharan Africa editor), Iria Puyosa (Venezuela), Bun ThaRum (Cambodia), Enda Nasution (Indonesia), Andy Young (SiberianLight), Hossein Derakhshan (Iran)
NOTE: There were some microphone problems which made the recording inaudible at a few points. Those parts have been edited out.  (Audio courtesy of Benjamen Walker.)
Follow the live-blog of Session 3 here. (Courtesy of Angelo Embuldeniya and SJ Klein. (NOTE: this recording starts in the middle of the transcript, picking up where Part 1 Session 3 left off.)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS


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Podcast: Global Voices Summit Session 4 Part 1 · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Audio of the Global Voices 2005 Summit is now available in podcast form!!  Each audio file is being posted as a separate entry so that everything can be captured by your podcast-reading software.
Click here to listen to Part 1 of Session 4: The future of the Global Conversation (21 MB, 45 mins)
How can Global Voices and potential partners in professional and citizens’ media work to build a more democratic, equitable Global Conversation – a conversation in which all people who want to speak not only have a safe and accessible way to do so, but also a chance of being heard? To what extent are the solutions technical (software, etc.) and to what extent is it a question of human efforts, methods and organization? By popular demand, the second half of this session will focus heavily on translation issues.
Led by Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca MacKinnon, with input from Ahmed (Saudi Arabia), Haitham Sabbah (Middle East/North Africa Editor), Farid Pouya (Iran), Kevin Wen (China), Jordan Seidel (Polblog), Pat Hall (Blogamundo), and Chris Ahearn (Reuters)
NOTE: There were some microphone problems which made the recording inaudible at a few points. Those parts have been edited out.  (Audio courtesy of Benjamen Walker.)
Follow the live-blog of Session 4 here. (Courtesy of Angelo Embuldeniya and SJ Klein. )
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS


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Podcast: Global Voices Summit Session 4 Part 2 · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Audio of the Global Voices 2005 Summit is now available in podcast form!!  Each audio file is being posted as a separate entry so that everything can be captured by your podcast-reading software.
Click here to listen to Part 2 of Session 4: The future of the Global Conversation (24 MB, 51 mins)
How can Global Voices and potential partners in professional and citizens’ media work to build a more democratic, equitable Global Conversation – a conversation in which all people who want to speak not only have a safe and accessible way to do so, but also a chance of being heard? To what extent are the solutions technical (software, etc.) and to what extent is it a question of human efforts, methods and organization? By popular demand, the second half of this session will focus heavily on translation issues.
Led by Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca MacKinnon, with input from Ahmed (Saudi Arabia), Haitham Sabbah (Middle East/North Africa Editor), Farid Pouya (Iran), Kevin Wen (China), Jordan Seidel (Polblog), Pat Hall (Blogamundo), and Chris Ahearn (Reuters)
NOTE: There were some microphone problems which made the recording inaudible at a few points. Those parts have been edited out.  (Audio courtesy of Benjamen Walker.)
Follow the live-blog of Session 4 here. (Courtesy of Angelo Embuldeniya and SJ Klein. )NOTE: this recording starts in the middle of the transcript, picking up where Part 1 Session 4 left off.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS


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Podcast: Global Voices Summit Session1 · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Audio of the Global Voices 2005 Summit is now available in podcast form!!  Each audio file is being posted as a separate entry so that everything can be captured by your podcast-reading software.
Click here to listen to GV05 Session 1: The state of Global Voices. (23MB – 49mins): Overview of what we’ve done so far, and plans for projects in the immediate future. We will also outline the Global Voices model that we’ve pioneered so far, and try to document it for others to use.
Led by: Rebecca MacKinnon and Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices Co-Founders, with input from Regional Editors Haitham Sabbah (Middle East/North Africa), Neha Viswanathan (South Asia), David Sasaki (Americas) and Sokari Ekine (Sub-Saharan Africa), and Web Architect Boris Anthony.
NOTE: There were some microphone problems which made the recording inaudible at a few points. Those parts have been edited out.  (Audio courtesy of Benjamen Walker.)
Follow the live-blog of Session 1 here. (Courtesy of Angelo Embuldeniya and SJ Klein. )
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS