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Bloggers React to Gunfights and Change in Government in Madagascar · Global Voices
Mialy Andriamananjara

On May 20, Antananarivo was the scene of deadly gunfights between 21 FIGN elements, the elite National Gendarmes Intervention Force (FIGN), and the soldiers of the governmental EMMOREG. As reported by Voice of America :
“Officials in Madagascar's capital say one person was killed and five others wounded when rival security forces exchanged gunfire Thursday.
Witnesses say shooting broke out when army and military police (gendarme) forces confronted members of an elite police unit that was reported to be protesting abuses by their superiors.
Military police Colonel Richard Ravalomanana said 21 members of the unit were involved in the clash and remained holed up in their barracks.  He said the man killed was a military police officer.”
The FIGN had intended to protect an anti-Rajoelina rally, during which the HFM would be present. The day before the gunfights, the FIGN had called for people to come attend the rally, saying they would ensure manifestants’ safety.
Citoyenne Malgache was on the scene :
“
On regarde les mouvements des véhicules et on écoute les échanges de tir. On voit la voiture du FIS qui revient (un autre coup de feu pour intimider) avec une 4×4 et une ambulance, et remontent à Antanimora. Contrairement à celle de la Croix Rouge qui était déjà là, cette ambulance en question montera jusqu’au premier barrage (une personne importante à évacuer ? Serait-ce Lylison ? ) puis redescendre avec la 4×4.
De notre poste d’observation, on a vu la 4×4 s’arrêter au carrefour et les militaires qui étaient dedans sont descendus avec leurs armes à lacrymogène… pour disperser les gens, puisqu’apparemment ils craignaient surement une autre attaque à coup de briques. Je ne sais pas de quoi nous avions l’air sur notre poste d’observation, mais les malins, ils nous ont visés !
La bombe est tombée juste à côté, sur le balcon d’une maison dont les occupants ne s’attendaient sûrement pas à être enfumés ainsi. (cette maison n’est même pas au bord de la route).”
Freshly arrived from the Global Voices Summit in Santiago, Avylavitra and Jentilisa report on the event.
Jentilisa thinks the mutiny was doomed.
“Hitako fa tsy nivonona ho amina tolona fifampiarovana mahery vaika ny mpandala ny ara-dalàna nanaraka ny HMF. Tsy tokony ho navela hiasa irery ireo mpitandro ny filaminana niaro ny mpitolona fa nampiana tosika avy taty ivelany. Mitoetra hatrany ilay tsy fananana rindran-damina tokony ho nanaovana izany.”
Avylavitra took pictures.
The soldiers’ infighting was long in coming. The FIGN had found themselves at odds with Andry Rajoelina's Haute Autorite de la Transition (High Authority of Transition), the current de facto administration, which got in power last year, after a coup by Andry Rajoelina, supported by the FIS , routed elected President Marc Ravalomanana  out of the country. The FIGN's revendications were the disappearance of 500 million Malagasy ariary, financed by Marc Ravalomanana. This they argue was never redistributed. Another source of contention was the repression by the HAT of any public manifestation on any other space than the parking lot of Ravalomanana's looted and ravaged grocery store.
“The mutinous group argues that General Bruno Razafindrakoto failed to redistribute some 500 million Malagasy ariary allocated to their garrison by Marc Ravalomanana in 2009. They also claim that on May 5, the FIGN had called for the replacement of the transitional government by a “military committee” which would be open to all political parties.”
An investigation to determine the fate of the 500 million Malagasy ariary was promised but got nowhere.
To Ndimby, a blogger, the sources of the armed forces conflict are even deeper :
“Les manœuvres de Didier Ratsiraka, l’incompétence dans le domaine de l’armée de Marc Ravalomanana, le tout parachevé par les manœuvres de déstabilisation de Rajoelina pour pouvoir nourrir ses ambitions : nul n’est besoin de revenir sur tout ça…Face à une armée déjà fragilisée par des décennies de gestion artisanale par les politiciens, Rajoelina a introduit auprès de certains militaires les germes du sacrilège : faire croire à des officiers et des soldats qu’on pouvait désobéir et n’en faire qu’à sa tête, sous prétexte de prendre ses responsabilités ; enseigner à la classe politique que la manipulation de groupes militaires pour soutenir un combat politique était non seulement permis, mais en plus rentable. Dans ce cadre, aujourd’hui, la discipline est-elle toujours la force principale des armées ? Et les forces tiennent-elles depuis un an plus de l’ordre ou du désordre ? Comment expliquer tous ces actes délicteux auxquels des militaires sont rattachés ? Pourquoi le sinistrement célèbre FIS, sans existence juridique jusqu’à ce jour de l’aveu de son ancien chef le lieutenant-colonel Charles Randrianasoavina, n’est pas démantelé alors qu’en plus certains de ses membres sont associés à des faits bizarres pour des forces dites de l’ordre ? En vertu de quoi le civil Alain Ramaroson se promène-t-il avec autant de militaires sous ses ordres ?”
This clash between religious leaders and the army was predictable. Protestant Ravalomanana had taken care of Protestant churches during his presidency and many had resented this privilege, viewing that separation of State and church had been violated. There is no better illustration for this than the surprising scene of a mass being held in proximity of the FIGN barracks while gunshots were being exchanged, and supporters’ cheering in the background.
The consequences of the gunfights on the scheduled second talk of negotiations in Pretoria are still unclear. Rajoelina's HAT did not waste time in pointing fingers to Ravalomanana :
“The events witnessed in the capital are proof of former president Marc Ravalomanana's desire to escalate the situation,” said a statement issued by Rajoelina's office. “Marc Ravalomanana is attempting to sow civil strife,” the statement said.
AFP
Former Mozambican president, Joachim Chissano, who is facilitating the Pretoria talks, was not spared :
“The statement from Rajoelina's office also accused former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano, the chief foreign mediator in the Madagascan crisis, of serving Ravalomanana's interests.
Several mediation attempts have already failed but Chissano has proposed a new round of talks in Pretoria with Rajoelina, Ravalomanana and two other former presidents.
Ravalomanana has already expressed his willingness to resume negotiations but Friday's statement by Rajoelina's office was unequivocal, accusing Chissano of “meddling” in the island's affairs.”
AFP
Three days after the fighting, Andry Rajoelina has dissolved yet another government and reformed a new one, with the military holding some of the posts.
“Madagascar strongman Andry Rajoelina reshuffled his government on Monday, adding five more military men, in the latest move in Indian Ocean island's protracted political crisis.
Rajoelina, who grabbed power in an army-backed coup in March 2009, appointed generals as head of the armed forces and police, with military men also taking the health, fishing and environment ministries.
Prime Minister Camille Vital, a retired general, remains at the top of the government.”
Another victim of the fighting is freedom of speech. Consistently during this crisis, radio stations have been closed, journalists harassed.
Last Friday was not an exception : Radio Fahazavana, a radio sympathetic to the ousted Ravalomanana and belonging to Reformed Protestant churches, has been closed down. Radio Fahazavana's journalists have been arrested. A week before, Radio Frequence Plus had been savagely attacked by people in civilian clothes and the opposition leaders it was interviewing have been arrested and are still languishing in jail. The Newspapers La Gazette de la Grande Ile's offices were attacked.
The Committee to Protect Journalists protests :
“We condemn this brutal raid on radio station Fréquence Plus,” said Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “For too long, Malagasy journalists have been the victims of political feuds. The government must clarify who was behind this raid and compensate the station for all damages.””
Once again investigations have been promised, and accountability demanded.
The simple Antananarivo citizen has been living since December 2008 in mayhem and chaos. As Mpakavato, a blogger testifies:
“Mampalahelo ny zavatra miseho satria ny Malagasy samy Malagasy no mifamono. Noho ny fitiavan-tena sy voninahitra. Anjaranao ny miheritreritra!! Mbola mipetraka ho baraingo hoan'ny rehetra ny ampitso sy ny hoaviny Firenena. Mbola hisy indray ve ny fifampitifirana? Manao ahoana ny mety ho fidangan'ny vidim-piainana? Marim-pototra ve ny vaovao voaray? Maro ireo tsaho miparitaka,iza no Marina? Mihorohoro sy mandry ivoho ny antsy ny mponina eto Iarivo.”
“It is sad that Malagasies kill each other. For selfishness and power greed. The future for all of us and the Malagasy nation is in jeopardy. Will there be more gunfights? How high will cost of living get? Can one believe the news spread? There are so many rumors, what to believe? Terror and anxiety are the lot of Antananarivo.  “
The final tally of dead has been revised up since. Among them, Yvon Ranaivo Arison, a Pastor of the Reformed Church (FJKM) who was shot in muddy circumstances (reportedly shot in the back), and buried on May 25, attracting a large crowd of mourners. Jentilisa posts pictures .

author: Mialy Andriamananjara


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Bolivia: Autonomy Transition · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Miguel Centellas of the blog Pronto* writes about some of the issues behind the transition to departmental autonomies and the conflict that some of the new governors are having with the central government.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Eduardo Avila


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Chile: Suggestions from Tourists · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

In the city of Arica, Chile, blogger Tomás Bradanovic says “we should listen to the tourist [es],” because he has been receiving emails from tourists visiting and who have plenty of suggestions on how to improve visitor services, including providing vegetarian options, improved web presence for the hotels in the area, and impartial tourist information.


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China: English Language Blogs · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Kai Pan from china/divide takes his readers for a tour around different kind of English language blogs about China.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Colombia: Presidential Election and Campaigning in Citizen Media  · Global Voices
Julián Ortega Martínez

The race to the May 30 presidential elections in Colombia (with a run-off on June 20 if no candidate manages to get more than 50% of the votes) has been marked, among other issues, by the use of internet social networks such as Facebook and Twitter (and video platforms as YouTube) by the campaigns and the supporters of most candidates (and even by those who do not support any of them).
Even though there are 9 presidential candidates [es], most of the attention has gone to Juan Manuel Santos, the candidate of the pro-Álvaro Uribe Party of the U (officially, ‘Social Party of National Unity’), and Antanas Mockus, candidate of the centrist Green Party, whose surprisingly good results on the parliamentary elections of March 14 boosted his aspirations on his race to the Casa de Nariño (the same day he won the internal election of his party, and later centrist candidate and former Mayor of Medellín Sergio Fajardo became his vice-presidential running mate). Santos has never ran as President, while Mockus (Mayor of Bogotá in two occasions) has been presidential candidate in 1998 and 2006.
Antanas Mockus and Juan Manuel Santos participating on the World Economic Forum in Latin America, May 2010 ()
Mockus’ campaign, focusing on issues such as “democratic legality” (which would be in contrast to President Uribe's “democratic security“), education, ethics, and the “sanctity” of life and public resources, has captured the attention of mostly urban young adults. They, using mainly (but not only) internet social networks, started the so-called “green wave” (ola verde) to show their support and have been trying to convince others to join and vote for the “eccentric” former director of the National University and son of Lithuanian immigrants. The strategy has been successful: Mockus started to jump in the opinion polls, by early April he was second [es] (beating Conservative Party's Noemí Sanín) and by the end of the month he became the frontrunner [es]. The campaign is even capturing the attention of those outside the country, and has been discussed by bloggers like Charles Lemos of the blog Direct Democracy writes that, “I suspect given the enthusiasm I am witnessing with the polling to support it that many if not most  Colombians think I do that now is the time for a complete and radical  departure even if it's not really radical what Antanas Mockus is  proposing.”
Not everyone shares these views about the Green candidate. Blogger Noel Carrascal writes [es]:
El principal problema de la falta de legalidad es que la justicia está  politizada, no que los Colombianos somos pillos. Como con la  superioridad educativa de sus lecciones, en legalidad Mockus suena como  auto-proclamado autoridad moral–se necesita más que ser honesto para  llegar a ese nivel. El problema de Mockus no solo es identificar el  problema sino encontrar la solución ¿Como piensa Mockus quitarle a las  cortes esa ambición de poder que se hace evidente en sus prepotentes  decisiones y sus intromisiones en los otros poderes? La Corte Suprema  dobla las leyes para entrometerse en temas muy politizados como los  procesos contra algunos congresistas y la elección del fiscal. Las  cortes de Colombia están llenas de legalidad, pero también de  injusticias. […] El problema principal de la legalidad no está en los colombianos, está en la forma en que se imparte justicia y como unos pocos abusan de esta.
This led the Santos campaign to relaunch [es] their strategy in early May. It dropped the orange colour they had been using so far, returning to the Party of the U's visual identity, and hired Ravi Singh to lead their youth team which now focuses on the social networks. Santos’ stronghold is the rural Colombia, since more of it had benefited from the hard policy on armed groups (specially FARC and ELN guerrillas) by President Uribe, which Santos claims he will continue.
Controversy arose when it was learned that Venezuelan political marketing guru J. J. Rendón was joining the Santos campaign, because he is perceived as a “dirty politics” expert. Rumours, such as people being paid COP$40,000 a day (US$20) for leaving comments in the fora of news websites, blogs, Facebook pages and groups and Twitter, soon appeared [es] (denied by the campaign and hard to prove, despite the apparent “evidence”). When asked about a radio spot [es] which used an impersonator imitating President Uribe's voice, Santos told the media the ad “brings playfulness, joy and humor to the campaign.” [Santos used the Spanish word picardía [es], which beside ‘playfulness’ or ‘prank’ can also mean ‘mischief’ or ‘knavery’]
In the wake of these remarks, @donAlvar asks some “rhetorical” questions about the ‘mischief’ of the Uribe administration and his allies (Santos was Defense Minister between July 2006 and May 2009).
Jaime Restrepo complains about the “dirty politics” [es], which is not exclusively against Mockus:
Esta campaña presidencial ha sido una patética muestra de la aplicación de estrategias propagandísticas malintencionadas para golpear al adversario: las vallas en Villavicencio contra Mockus, o los miles de mensajes e imágenes contra Santos, evidencian la poca altura que tiene el actual debate y el predominio del impacto publicitario sobre las propuestas y el análisis de los discursos de los candidatos.
[…]
Curiosamente los ahora furibundos detractores de la publicidad negra, o promovieron o guardaron silencio frente a la constante campaña de desprestigio contra el Presidente y en este momento quieren mostrar al sujeto de culto —Antanas Mockus— como víctima exclusiva de la propaganda negra.
A muchos les irrita J.J. Rendón, pero son benévolos y hasta complacientes con los “voluntarios” de la campaña del Partido Verde… ¡Qué coherencia!
This presidential campaign has been a pathetic show of the use of ill-intentioned propaganda strategies to hit the opponent: the billboards in Villavicencio against Mockus, or the thousands of messages and pictures against Santos, are the evidence of pretty low current debate and the predominance of the advertising impact over the proposals and the analysis of the candidates’ speeches.
[…]
Interestingly, current angry detractors of the dirty politics advertising, either promoted or kept silent regarding the constant smear campaign against the President [Uribe] and right now want to show their cult object —Antanas Mockus— as the exclusive victim of this dirty politics.
Many are upset by J.J. Rendón, but are lenient and even complacent with the “volunteers” of the Green Party campaign… Such coherence!
Still, it seems that Mr. Santos’ “counter-attack” worked, because in the polls published late last week (the last ones before the elections), the candidate of the ruling coalition recovers his first place, though followed very closely by Mockus. According to these surveys, there will be a run-off on June 20 and that Mockus will defeat Santos.
Besides, some remarks and clarifications by Mockus have turned beneficial for his opponents, especially Santos and left-wing candidate Gustavo Petro. Marsares writes in the blog Equinoxio [es]:
Cada día que pasa, cada entrevista, cada opinión del profesor Mockus  muestra a un hombre abstracto y dubitativo, que comienza a gastar a  manos llenas el inmenso capital político que los colombianos le  entregaron
Todos tenemos derecho a equivocarnos, pero cuando esas equivocaciones  son reiteradas, comienza la preocupación. ¿De verdad Mockus está  preparado para gobernar un país violento y corrupto como éste o tiene  razón el jubilado que lo calificó como el mejor gobernante pero para un  país de ángeles?
[…]
En las últimas semanas, una tras otra, les dio la agenda a sus adversarios para que le dañaran el caminado. Extradición de Uribe,  ateísmo, Chávez y alianzas. En los cuatro temas trastabilló  lamentablemente […]
Every day, each interview, every opinion by professor Mockus shows an abstract, doubtful man, which starts to waste the huge political capital delivered to him by the Colombians.
Everyone has the right to make mistakes, but when those mistakes repeat over and over, concerns begin. Is Mockus really prepared to rule a violent, corrupt country like this one or is he, as a retiree who said, that [Mockus] he was the best leader for a country of angels?
[…]
In the last few weeks, one after another, he gave the agenda to his adversaries to attack him. Uribe's extradition, atheism, [Venezuelan president Hugo] Chávez, and [political] alliance. In the four issues he stumbled in a deplorable way […]
Later, Marsares explains that even though Mockus is neither an atheist nor an enemy of President Uribe, and also does not admire but “respect” Chávez's “legitimacy”, “he is so convoluted, tries so hard to explain a single thing, and to top it all is so honest that ends up creating a chaos in the message he intends to send.” Nevertheless, he criticizes Mockus for shutting the doors [es] to possible alliances with conservative Noemí Sanín or left-wing Gustavo Petro for the run-off. Liberal Party's Rafael Pardo or centre-right Germán Vargas also could ally either with Santos or Mockus.
There are dozens of Facebook groups and pages, official and unofficial,  supporting or bashing the candidates, some of them with such  ‘unconventional’ titles as Prefiero el Parkinson de Mockus a la gonorrea de Santos (“I prefer Mockus's Parkinson to Santos's gonorrhea”), Yo no como Mockus (“I don't eat Mockus”, a pun with Spanish word mocos,  “boogers”), Las  inconsistencias de Mockus (“Mockus's inconsistencies”), A que esta inerte barra de carbón consigue mas fans que Juan Manuel Santos (“I bet this inert carbon bar gets more fans than Juan Manuel Santos”), A  que esta mosca tiene más seguidores que Noemí Sanín (“I bet this fly has more fans than Noemí Sanín”), Los  Verdes: la nueva derecha hippie-chic (“The Greens: the new hippie-chic right-wing”), etc.
Twitter has also being used as a political tool. Though in Colombia presidential candidates started using social media in 2009, as La Silla Vacía‘s Juanita León notes [es], “they realized the investment in virtual time did not compensate efforts in the real world,” and soon dropped or campaigned less due to the low penetration of internet in Colombia (despite official figures [es] published late April). Nevertheless, this proved wrong after Mockus’ success, as written above.
Among the Colombian twittosphere, since late 2009 overtly fake profiles [es] of politicians and other influential figures have appeared, mocking them and making ironic comments about their scandals or mistakes. The list not only includes candidates as @ElFalsoPositivo (Santos) or @AnterasMickus (Antanas Mockus), but also @JOBMontesinos (former presidential adviser José Obdulio Gaviria), @Proc_Marianito (Inspector General Alejandro Ordóñez), @JJ_Rendon (J. J. Rendón), @trollbarreras (Senator elect Roy Barreras), and, of course, @myPresident (President Uribe, whose real account is @AlvaroUribeVel).
We will publish a separate post about common Twitter users “commenting” the elections.
Mainstream candidates are not the only ones using the internet for their campaigns. For example, La Voz de la Consciencia's (sic) Róbinson Devia (who started a hunger strike in protest for the poor coverage and attention by the media to his campaign) has a comprehensive website [es] on their proposals. Devia managed to collect a million signatures for his movement and was the first candidate to sign up [es] early February. Former magistrate Jaime Araújo Rentería [es] and Apertura Liberal's Jairo Calderón [es] also have set up their websites, which include Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook accounts. Devia, Araújo, and Calderón appear with less than 2% in the opinion polls and are routinely not invited to televised debates.
Even though the campaign for the Colombian presidency started quite late because of the court ruling denying President Uribe the possibility of a third term (and his influence on the election has been waning), only the results of the elections will tell if the internet had something to do with the success or the failure of the top candidates. There is some skepticism, of course, as Messtiza points out commenting [es] a “radiography” of the candidates in cyberspace (mostly using Google Trends) by La Silla Vacía:
Muy interesante, pero en Colombia hay digiVOTOS?  En la realidad el top  hashtags es Pobreza, desempleo y Uribe que ha sido el top de los top  durante 8 años. El top de las fuentes es la radio, porque es el medio de  mayor cubrimiento en el territorio Colombiano. Para los ciudadanos que  tienen conque comprar la prensa o pueden pagar n acceso a Internet la  fuente principal es el Tiempo, periódico pro Santos. En la TV es  Caracol, su noticiero es pro Santos. Desde la semana pasada no  transmiten noticias de Noemí Sanín. En la vida real no hay buscador, no  hay google que valga. La mayoría de la gente está en el país del  rebusque no en el político.

author: Julián Ortega Martínez


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Costa Rica: Salary Increase for Congressional Deputies · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

Dean Córnito in his blog Switzerland in Central America [es] does not, like many other Costa Ricans, expresses his outrage for the 100% salary increase for incoming Congressional deputies. Instead, he tells his readers why they should vote for him during the next elections so that he, too, can have such a high salary for doing little work.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Egypt: Rima Fakih – What does religion have to do with it? · Global Voices
Marwa Rakha

Rima Fakih, an Arab Muslim immigrant, won the Miss USA Pageant. There are those who considered her award an Arab victory, those who considered her a Muslim disgrace, and others who dug up her past.
Playing with her name (Fakih means religious jurist in Arabic), Hassan El Helali called her
He comments saying:
Zeinobia wrote a post about Fakih saying
I do not know if this is the result of the Obama effect or Arizona law effect but due to the fact that in 2002 after the 9/11 incident we got Azra Akin as Miss World and Hammasa Kohistani as Miss England after the 7/7. Also we should remember former Miss California and Miss USA Carrie Prejean’scontroversy of last year. I am expecting a lot of controversy and media following Fakih and already TMZ has decided to give her a little bit of their royal treatment and comments in news and blogs are full of racist negative remarks about her origin and religion. “I can’t wait to see the reaction of Fox and Friends !!”
It does not surprise me that an Arab girl or even a Muslim girl participates in a beauty pageant contest , as any community and society we got different views and different faces like any society in this world. Of course I do not put much hope on a girl that depends on her external beauty and fabulous body to change a bloody stereotype about the Arab and Muslim community yet regardless of whether Rima Fakih is a silly shallow girl who dances on a pole and wishes for a world peace or not , this young girl has become another Arab American Muslim icon.
Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs shared pictures of Rima's stripping contest and commented
Here is an icon for the advent of modernizing the Muslim world. She embodies everything sharia and the Islamic world deplore — free women. Burn those burkas, baby, and come on in. The water is just fine.
Given some of the comments and emails I've been getting about this post, it seems necessary to explain that I do not think Miss USA is some kind of role model for American girls or for American culture. What I find positive about Rima Fakih is that she goes against everything Muslims want women to be — and with all the ways that Islam oppresses women, free will, free women, free people. what could be wrong with that?
Yusra of Muslimah Media Watch wrote: Haters Gonna Hate: the Backlash Against Miss USA
She beat out four blondes and set off a whirlwind of media coverage stemming  from her  “stripper” past to her Shi’a  background.
On the positive side, one idealist commenter compared her to Barack Obama. Another went so far as to say her  win shows the “real face of Arab Americans, not the stereotypes you hear about.”  Ah, yes, not the burqa–the bikini! Trading one stereotype for another is not  progressive, but whatever.
Many in Arab-American community, as well as many  American Muslims, supported Fakih’s win. While some Muslims voiced their concern  over the message it sends, ironically, it’s the American Christian right who’s  angriest.
Conservative blogger Debbie  Schlussel calls her Miss Hezbollah and says terrorists financed Fakih’s win.  She spun this incredible story while calling Donald Trump a “dhimmi,” whining  that Miss Oklahoma was unfairly set up by liberals who don’t know  what’s right for America.
Ahmed Rehab, the Executive Director of the Council of American-Islamic Relations  in Chicago, asks a better question: why must a Muslim person’s faith come up the moment that person  breaks through the mainstream in any conceivable way, regardless of  relevance or context? Comedian Dean Obeidallah offers a sober explanation over  at The Huffington Post: some  on the far right love to hate us more than they love the ideals of this  country.

author: Marwa Rakha


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Estonia: “A Green Light to Join the Euro” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Edward Lucas, Itching for Eestimaa and AnTyx comment on Estonia's likely adoption of the euro on January 1, 2011.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Ethiopia: EU monitors release preliminary findings · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

David posts the executive summary of the preliminary statement of the European Union Election Observation Mission, which observed the 23 May 2010 elections to the House of Peoples’ Representatives and State Councils in Ethiopia.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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India, Bangladesh: Unicode Adoption For Bengali Language · Global Voices
Rezwan

Golam Mortuza Hossain at On a trail less travelled analyzes the progress of Unicode adoption for Bengali language in West Bengal, India and Bangladesh.

author: Rezwan


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India: The Legend of Goopy And Bagha · Global Voices
Rezwan

Greatbong at Random Thoughts Of A Demented Mind pays tribute to  Tapen Chattopadhyay, “the Bengali actor famous for playing the role of Goopy Gyne in Satyajit Ray’s Goopy-Bagha trilogy for children”.


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Jamaica: Bloggers Look at the Lighter Side · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

West Indians have a saying, “If you don't laugh, you'll cry.” Certainly, the current wave of violence in Jamaica – centered around the government's agreement to extradite Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke to the United States to face drug and arms trafficking charges – is no laughing matter.  Bloggers have been earnest in their attempts to disseminate information responsibly in order to get the word out to both their compatriots and the international community about what the situation on the ground is like under the existing state of emergency.  But after days of sobering news in which police stations have been set on fire and defense force personnel, gang members and ordinary citizens have reportedly been killed, bloggers clearly needed to seek out the amusing aspects of an otherwise untenable situation.
It started when @anniepaul tweeted:
CNN about to feature Jamaica, Rick says they sent one of their best correspondents and he arrived in Kingston today.
Shortly afterwards, she retweeted @cucumberjuice's amusement over the reporter's pronunciation of Dudus’ name:
i know, too funny re CNN newscast RT @cucumberjuice: DWL @ the pronunciation of “Dudus” it came out as “Dooodaas”
cracking up in Barbados! RT @cucumberjuice: Stop it! LOL RT @MsRaine: #QUICKQUESTION  Uh, CNN, who the hell is Doodas?
Then, in response to @cucumberjuice's tweet about the network's profile of the Top 5 drug lords, @anniepaul quipped:
Doodus not one of dem RT @cucumberjuice: CNN showing the top 5 drug lords
The one-liners continued:
Q: What do Tivoli residents use to screen their windows? A: SHOWER curtains…
…a reference to the name of the gang that ‘Dudus’ allegedly operates in the Tivoli Gardens area of Kingston.
@Fledgist, a fellow blogger who knows that @anniepaul has been in Barbados attending a conference, got in on the fun by linking to a Barbados Free Press post bemoaning the fact that a hand painted sign in support of ‘Dudus’ “was seen…on the left-hand side of Collymore Rock Road going towards Wildey from Bridgetown”:
@anniepaul Annie, I know you didn't do this! http://bit.ly/cokbT9
@persephone101 was also on the ball, linking to an On The Ground News Reports update that stated:
Rogue elements in neighbouring Barbados support Dudus as his supporters in Western #Kingston challenge Jamaican security forces who are trying to arrest him. #Jamaica #Barbados
She tweeted:
@anniepaul How come you didn't break this first? I thought you were the roving reporter! http://bit.ly/cRsGWV
…to which @anniepaul replied:
LOL i'm losing it
Then came the news that the Jamaican government issued a statement “blaming users of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter for spreading what it says is ‘inaccurate and misleading’ information”.  Instead of reacting angrily to the accusation, bloggers simply laughed:
@LabrishJamaica: LOL! Government blames social networks over Tivoli http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Government-blames-social-networks-over-Tivoli
@DiWaltham: The ppl on twitter said #blameBruce, but now Bruce blaming the people on Twitter. #blameTwitter
@endzoftheearth: I think it was the 2 days of silence and precious little communication with the country, not social media that is to blame!
Finally, in response to concerns that Jamaica's international image, so critical to its tourism industry, is taking a beating, @Gordonswaby made it clear:
Jamaica's image is not tarnished. Usain Bolt just needs to break some more records. We're counting on you Bolty. Lol

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Kuwait: Plans Underway to Ban Blackberry Messenger Service  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

(Probably) taking the cue from Bahrain, “Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior plans to disallow the BlackBerry Messenger service < " tweets Sultan Al Qassemi, from the UAE.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Latvia: May 9 in Riga · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Arnis Balcus posts photos from the May 9 celebrations in Riga and writes: “In Latvia 9 May is more than just a victory celebration, it is also an expression of collective identity for local Russians.”


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Latvia: Neo-Nazi Cleared of Hate Speech Charges · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Free Speech Emergency in Latvia reports that the Latvian Supreme Court has cleared a neo-Nazi of hate speech charges.


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MENA: To Draw or Not to Draw Muhammed · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

May 20 has come and gone, but the fire ignited by the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day on Facebook, is still raging, fueled by discussions on freedom of expression, freedom of religion and beliefs, and the standards – or double standards – employed by Facebook.
While Pakistan is up in arms over the controversy, with a court order to block Facebook, and shut down even more sites, reactions in the Middle East have been slow. Only Saudi Arabia and the UAE have reportedly blocked the ‘offensive’ Facebook page, which calls on people around the world to draw Prophet Muhammed and post their pictures online, in a stark reminder of the Danish cartoons controversy, whose dust is yet to settle.
Israeli Yael shares her opinion on the day and writes:
So I went over to check out the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day
page and was surprised to see that there were quite a lot of muslims
taking part, arguing that just because something may offend some
people, be vulgar, in poor taste, and so forth, this is a free speech
issue and people have the right to act in poor taste, they have the
right to say, write and draw offensive things. I agree with this
position. Because others have the right to use their free speech to
condemn such acts, to call them vile or offensive etc.
She further explains:
Offensiveness, is, however, all in the eye of the beholder. Some
people find depictions of scantily clad (or totally unclad) people
offensive –should all such images be banned? Some people, for instance
here in our ultra-ultra (really really ultra) orthodox communities find
the depiction of women AT ALL offensive and so they ban all pictures of
any sort with a female in them from their newspapers and magazines and
have tried to get billboards and so forth that depict women in them
banned from gracing our highways, buses and so forth. Once you start
saying, “no you can’t say, or write, or draw, or show images of X,”
then where does it stop?
And who decides?
Global Voices Online‘s Morocco author Jillian York writes from Boston, US, adds:
Following Pakistan’s block on Facebook today, I decided to take a look at the blog to see what the reaction was.
Front and center, on the blog’s header was that now-infamous depiction of Mohammad wearing a turban-shaped bomb.  The Facebook group was full of nastiness: depictions of the Prophet as a dog, slurs about Muslims and Islam, etc.
Now, in the case of the Mohammad cartoons, four years ago when it
happened up till now, I will defend the cartoonists’ right to draw what
they please, no matter how repulsive I personally find it.  In that
same vein, I defended Iran’s Holocaust cartoon competition.
York continues:
With that in mind, I’m incredibly disappointed with this new
campaign.  Rather than calmly and peacefully defend free speech by
whimsically portraying the Prophet as a teddy bear or a toaster, the
group and blog’s admins have chosen to provoke, thus alienating plenty
of supporters of free speech who might otherwise have backed them.  The
project is a work of immature Americans who feel that asserting their
right to free speech–by any means necessary–is more important than
showing an ounce of respect (and for that matter, dignity) by finding a
middle ground.
In a comment on her post, Mahmud writes:
The bigger question is WHY ????….why at the first instance initiate an
act which has intimate feelings by another group…Im positive there are
numerous subjects available in the world which can prove freedom of
speech and liberty….JEWS all over the world react to denial of
holocaust ..a stance which is accepted by the world…so why not apply
similar format for muslims…what really is intended to be achieved from
this act or where the quality of life will improve…in actual it will
fuel anti west sentiments and make the task of moderate muslims
difficult in containing militancy….
And Tarek Amr, from Egypt, shares his ideas on the initiative in this post (Ar). He writes:
ربما الجديد هذه المرة أن فريق الأغبياء ألف قرر تخصيص يوم عشرين مايو من كل عام لرسم الرسول الكريم. و في الواقع فمن شكل دعوتهم و من كم السخافات الموجودة في قسم التعليقات هناك, فمن الواضح أنهم يودونها ان تكون رسوم مسيئة فقط.
Stupid Team A decides to draw the Prophet in an inappropriate way. Stupid Team B responds with threats, so Stupid Team A continues with its stupidity and Stupid Team B heightens the tone of its threats, and the audience continues to clap their hands and laugh.
What may be new this time, is that Stupid Team A has decided to mark the 20th of May as the annual day to draw the Prophet. In reality, from their call, and the amount of ridicule and insults in the comments section, it is obvious that they want the drawings to be insulting only.
Amr continues:
The blogger ponders on the choices bystanders have saying:
لذلك نحن أمام أحد الخيارين, إما أن ننضم لفريق الأغبياء باء, أو أن نتجاهل كلا الفريقين و نتركهم لغبائهم فهو خير عقاب لهم.
Amr, however, devises another plan:
I realise that my idea will not see the light of day and will be met with a fatwas and swear words, and this may be why I called it a crazy idea.
And crazy solution or not, others seem to embrace the thought. Khalid at The Bahyeldin Dynasty writes:
My solution? What this wise young Muslim man has said: Muslims should participate in this event, and should support a cause as well. Watch his video.
Here is another perspective from Chicago by a Muslim, Qasim Rashid.
Meanwhile, some bloggers took the high road and quit Facebook  in protest against leaving the page up. Among them is Syrian Ahmed Zaidan, who writes:
When the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority shuts Facebook, following a Pakistani court order, this is an important development – one which respects the feelings of the Muslim people, not only in Pakistan, but across the world. It is a step which the Arab and Muslim judiciary should follow, because the tensions caused by Facebook and similar sites, will only create more animosity between people.
Egyptian Engineer, who also quit Facebook, writes:
دا غير إن الفيس بوك بيآخد وقت كتير و فوائده قليلة مقابل طوفان من الكلام اللي ملوش لازمة بالنسبة لي
غير إن الفيس بوك بيستهبل و لغى كذا جروب إسلامي كنت مشترك فيهم فلقيت إن البقاء فيه تضييع وقت
Facebook takes a lot of time and its benefits are few, when compared to the flood of words which are useless to me. Also Facebook is acting up and they have deleted a number of Islamic groups I was a member in so I realised that staying there is just a waste of time.


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Pakistan: Netizens Protest The Blanket Ban Of Facebook And Other Sites · Global Voices
Rezwan

After the ban of Facebook, Youtube and several other sites in Pakistan, the netizens of the country are outraged by the decision. It all started when Lahore High Court ordered the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block the entire Facebook.com domain in Pakistan till 31st May in response to a petition seeking a ban on Facebook, which hosted the Draw Mohammed Day page created by some users.
In Pakistan this issue has been hijacked by vested groups to gain political mileage. The pro ban campaigners are spreading rumors that Facebook will lose a huge amount of money because of this ban which is not true.
Many of the netizens explained that their standpoint is to protest the blanket ban but they do not support the promotion of blasphemy as in the said Facebook event. However they felt that with that ban the government has taken their right to protest against these offensive cartoons.
It might be noted here that Saudi Arab and UAE also banned the specific page for the same reason – not the whole Facebook domain.
Ahmad Nadeem at Pak Tea House calls this ban “a death of collective wisdom“:
Just because there was ‘one page’ out of millions, set by a silly American kid to make cartoons of  Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The same could have been blocked instead, but things work differently in Pakistan. A decision has to be popular rather than sane, the illiterate bearded men on streets with sticks and guns ought to be satisfied.Just because there was ‘one page’ out of millions, set by a silly American kid to make cartoons of  Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The same could have been blocked instead, but things work differently in Pakistan. A decision has to be popular rather than sane, the illiterate bearded men on streets with sticks and guns ought to be satisfied.
While Pakistan Federal Union Of Journalists (PFUJ) appreciates the punishments of 2.5 million for someone else fault,  what will be its reaction if Hindu minority demands ban over ‘cow slaughter’, will they be treated in same manner as constitution guarantees ‘equal treatment before the law’?
Usama Khilji at Chowrangi explains why should there be no ban on Facebook in Pakistan:
The Facebook event ‘Draw Muhammad Day’ indeed came as an offensive shock not only to Muslims around the world; but to all those who believe in tolerance and respect of others’ beliefs.
In Pakistan, the courts reacted by blocking access to Facebook on May 19, and to YouTube on May 20, owing to the presence of blasphemous material on these mass sharing and communication portals.
The Facebook event has been made by a private Facebook user, and is not endorsed by the Facebook administration. The event can only be seen if searched for, or if one is invited to it.
Another movement titled ‘Boycott Facebook on May 20’ was also initiated that encouraged users not to use Facebook on May 20 in protest of the ‘Draw Muhammad Day’ event. This was a viable option as users could boycott the page upon their own discretion, but a ban on access to page in the entire country becomes too imposing and borders draconian.
Faraz Rana, a lawyer based in New York provides this logic that Muslims should not react so vehemently on this issue:
Depictions of the Prophet (pbuh) are banned in Islam so people (presumably, Muslims) don’t idolize the images. The lawyer in me will tell you that a non-Muslim drawing a similar image, especially in jest, will not violate that rationale. Nor will Muslims ever confuse a cartoon with a serious depiction.
The blogger also asserts that  it is not the duty of the authorities to dictate what is morally acceptable to the population of Pakistan.
Cafe Pyala asks:
Why, oh why, does everything in Pakistan boil down to banning this or that?
The blogger is of course not a ‘draw Muhammad’ type freedom of speech fan either:
Why? Because I personally think it is entirely hypocritical. There are laws in many parts of Europe for example [..] which make any questioning of the scale of the massacre of Jewish people during the Nazi era, a jailable crime. You simply cannot even say anything that goes against officially sanctioned history and a number of people have been jailed for writing books that have been deemed to be a denial of the Jewish Holocaust. There are also laws (in Europe) that make blasphemy a cognizable offense, with the caveat that blasphemy is considered to be only against Christian beliefs.
The recent events regarding the Facebook page also raised eye-brows. By the 21st of May, 2010 the controversial page no longer appeared in Facebook. It was subject to criticism by some group and they explained that they had nothing to do with the removal. However on Saturday the page was up again with explanations that one of the moderators deleted the page after his account was hacked.
People are questioning that such an offensive page full of hateful comments remains without moderation while many other pages are being removed quoting violation of Facebook terms.
Saad Warraich at Teeth Maestro tells how he tried to test Facebook by creating a page named ““H | T L E R”. The page was soon disabled by the Facebook administration quoting ‘violation of Facebook Regulations’. To test how Facebook values freedom of speech, the “Everybody Draw Mark Zuckerbergs Mother” Facebook page was deleted only after 18-likes so it seems freedom of expression ends much closer to home.
Jehan Ara at In The Line of Wire writes that instead of speaking up in a civilized fashion Pakistan authorities are acting in a bizarre way:
Instead we do what people have come to expect from us. We stifle our own voices by banning a social networking site where 2.5 million Pakistani could have been heard. We hide our head in the sand like ostriches. We react like little children do – closing our eyes and pretending that if we don’t see it, it doesn’t exist.
Jehan Ara expresses her feelings with this poem:
I think I have the sense (as do most Pakistani users)
To decide what is offensive to me
And to deactivate my membership if i so wish
Or to counter the offenders with my own viewpoint.
Then why the blanket ban of so many sites?
And why the nasty & disgusting threats
Against those who condemn the offensive page
But want the right to deal with it in their own way?
When will we learn tolerance?


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Palestine: No Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Sherine Tadros, whose location is listed as Jerusalem/Gaza, tweets: “The israeli army head responsible for #gaza just told me there is ‘no humanitarian crisis’ in the strip. 80% poverty apparently not a cr…”


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Peru: Bribes, Cops and Video · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

The following video published by inkawalk shows  a pair of policemen apparently receiving a bribe in an undisclosed location in Peru.


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Peru: Film “Octubre” Wins at Cannes Film Festival · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Following the success of the Peruvian film “La Teta Asustada,” another film called “Octubre” won a Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival notes the blog Marcamasi [es].


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Russia: Another Top Blogger Hacked · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Site of one of the top Russian bloggers Maxim Sviridenkov [RUS] (#16 in Yandex rating [RUS]) had been hacked today, Vladimir Pribylovski reported [RUS]. The site was defaced and the content deleted. This is the second [EN] top blogger hacked this year.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Russia: Explosion in Stavropol · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Miriam Elder reports at GlobalPost on the explosion in Stavropol, which took place next to a centrally-located concert hall shortly before a Chechen folk dance troupe was to perform there. LJ user dimazelensky, whose office is inside the concert hall building, wrote (RUS) that the police had cordoned it off some 40 minutes before the blast. Twitter updates (RUS, ENG) are here: #stavropol; a Stavropol city forum discussion (RUS) is here.


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Russia-USA: Like father like son · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Windows to Russia turns attention to the only American soldier in the second world war serving in both the US and Soviet armies, who allegedly was also the father of current US ambassador to Russia.

author: Vilhelm Konnander


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Secularism in France from a Foreigner’s Perspective · Global Voices
Suzanne Lehn

Art Goldhammer, from French Politics blog, links to Eric Fassin‘s article in Le Monde (fr) and the NSAE's blog  quotes in extenso from the article that describes French secularism in the style of the  Persian Letters (fr).

author: Suzanne Lehn


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South Africa: The World Cup is Coming to Grahamstown · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

The South African town of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Municipality of Makana, may not be hosting any of the matches of the 2010 World Cup, but its residents are equally excited about the upcoming tournament. During the month-long event, the city will also host its annual National Arts Festival, as well as provide a Public Viewing Area (PVA) at the local Miki Yili Stadium for its residents and other visitors.
Grahamstown, South Africa by Pierre Nel and used under a Creative Commons license.
Participants in the Grocott's Mail's citizen journalism program called My Makana have started to write about how the World Cup will affect their country as a whole, as well as about the impact on their local community.
One such citizen journalist, Thozamile Fana is a bit skeptical about what the World Cup will mean for the country:
A lot of promises were made with regards to how the upcoming soccer world cup will benefit the South African nation. However, other than the stadiums, which are likely to be white elephants if the authorities do not have tangible plans outlining how the infrastructure will be used after the tournament, there seems to be little hope that the locals will benefit from it.
Closer to home, many of the citizen journalists wrote about these public viewing areas, of which Grahamstown will be 1 of 6 towns in the Eastern Cape to provide a place for people to gather and watch the games and where the Makana Municipality has spent approximately 100,000 Rand (approximately US$13,000) on the project. A part of the project is the invitation to local artists to submit a proposal to perform in the PVA. However, citizen journalist Mziyanda Bulani notes that there has been very little information distributed by interviewing some of these artists:
According to Mathews Nontyi, a local performing artist, the P.V.A is a waste of money. He argues that the event is less than 20 days away but they know nothing about the PVA's programme. “It is an event for only the connected artists and the majority of local artists will be left out of it.”
Like any big event, local organizers have had to place restrictions on the sale of alcohol, ensure that there is enough water available for patrons, provide ample security, and organize sufficient traffic control.
The timing of the World Cup that coincides with the expanded Arts Festival was expected to provide an economic boom for the local area. Even though the activities planned by the local organizing committee have created jobs, their duties will end in August after the programs wraps up, notes citizen journalist Pumelelo Frans. However, these events also have disrupted the work of others in the informal sector because more restrictions have been placed on their operations. Frans spoke with one local resident, who is ” worried about hawkers who have been driven off the streets in town arguing that some of them are bread winners in their families.”
The streets of Grahamstown by caribbeanfreephoto and used under a Creative Commons license.
Opportunities for local volunteers was also expected to be made available, writes citizen journalist Luvuyo Gcule. However, the local agency that was to have recruited volunteers had to close due to funding difficulties.
The tourism industry in Grahamstown has been preparing itself for an influx of tourists to participate in the Arts Festival and take in the World Cup atmosphere at the PVA.  Citizen journalist Natasha Plaatjes spoke with several hotels in the town to find out about any change in the amount of business. Some have reported that there have been a lot of inquiries, but not an equal amount of bookings. While other hotels like the Victoria Mews is fully booked, but the manager Dumisani Banda says that the guests are their regular customers and unrelated to the World Cup festivities. Banda is positive that:
tourists will show interest in Grahamstown as it is only an hour- and-half from the Port Elizabeth world cup stadium. According to Banda, Grahamstown and the surrounding areas has a variety of facilities to offer tourists.
“A public viewing area (PVA) has been set up with a big screen TV at Miki Yili stadium in the township,” said Makkink. The PVA is meant to create a world cup stadium atmosphere for those who do not to afford to buy world cup tickets.


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South Korea: Critical discourse on North Korea · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

K. M. Lawson from The Korea History Blog criticized South Korean concerned scholars (the Alliance of Scholars Concerned About Korea) on the lack of critical discourse on North Korea when countering the mainstream media report on the Korea crisis, in particular sinking of the South Korean vessel Cheonan.


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South Korea: The sinking of ROKS Cheonan · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Ask a Korean! addresses the issue of the sinking of ROKS Cheonan by answering what you need to know and what you need to think about the issue.


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Sri Lanka: Vanni One Year After War · Global Voices
Rezwan

Ruki at Groundviews visited Vanni, the war torn city in the North of Sri Lanka, and analyzes the situation there after one year since the end of the war against LTTE.


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Trinidad and Tobago: Election Landslide · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

On 9 April, 2010, Prime Minister Patrick Manning surprised many citizens of Trinidad and Tobago by requesting the dissolution of Parliament and triggering a snap general election, barely halfway through his government's current term in office. (Under the country's Westminster-based constitutional system, each Parliament has a maximum term of five years, but the prime minister may call elections at any time.)
Manning's party, the People's National Movement (PNM), won a comfortable majority in the previous general election in 2007, after the opposition vote was split between the United National Congress (UNC) and the Congress of the People (COP). But in the past two years, the Manning administration faced growing public anger about its spending on mega-construction projects, alleged corruption by senior state officials, a rising crime rate, the government's apparent deafness to public opinion, and the prime minister's own reputation for arrogance.
With pressure from the media, the Opposition, and the general public mounting earlier this year, Manning's announcement of the early election was seen by some as an attempt to win a fresh mandate for the PNM government, and by others as a play to head off a motion of no confidence in Parliament. Manning may have been counting on another split in opposition votes. But the main opposition party, the UNC, under its newly elected political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, instead negotiated with the COP and other parties to form the People's Partnership coalition. On election day, 24 May, when the votes were counted, the People's Partnership won a total of 29 seats in the 41-member House of Representatives, with the PNM reduced to 12 seats. Trinidad and Tobago found itself with a new government.
During the campaign and on election night, as vote tallies were announced, some of the most outspoken commentary on the two political parties appeared semi-publicly on Facebook, with bloggers and tweeters also sharing their opinions. For some, the big story was the election of the country's first female prime minister. “Woman is boss in Trinidad & Tobago” wrote Islandista, quoting a popular 1988 calypso. Mauvais Langue posted a link to Persad-Bissessar's victory speech, commenting: “We ask for Change and we got Change!”
Others were more cautious, looking ahead to the challenges facing the new government and the nation, or trying to analyse the new political landscape. On Twitter, Kevon Foderingham (@kevon82) wondered, “Is it just me  or did Manning want to lose the  election? Something is fishy with the  PNM.” Blogging from Barbados, Trinidadian writer and journalist B.C. Pires wrote:
You have to be glad, this morning, that the people bootsed out Mr  Manning last night. If, over the last two years, Mr Manning treated the people, the  Constitution, the Treasury and the natural resources of Trinidad &  Tobago as so many personal pools into which he could dip to whip out whatsoever he  fancied … what would he  have done, had he be given what he might interpret as a mandate last  evening?
But he added (referring to the newly elected People's Partnership leaders):
The first responsibility [Trinidad and Tobago] has is to do its best to try to make  sure it doesn’t have to boots out Kamla, Jack, Winston & Co in a few  years, and put in Keith Rowley’s side, just to stop another  haemorrhage.
Blogger Jumbie's Watch expressed major reservations about two People's Partnership MPs rumoured to be in line for Cabinet posts. Now Is Wow Too, on the other hand, offered this advice:
Let us all be patient and understanding as the new order takes over. There's a lot of work to be done and, as our new Prime Minister rightfully keeps saying, we have to do it together.
Guanaguanare urged continued civic involvement:
Our work has not ended. Be vigilant, be vocal, participate.
We can leave nothing completely in the hands of others, especially those who try to convince us that we must. We should know this now if we didn't before.
gspottt, the blog of the sexual orientation rights group CAISO, expressed similar sentiments, asking readers to “Get ready to work with your new Government and Parliament to move our issues forward.” And Twitter user Anthony (@anthonycbis) remarked: “I hope that the press will continue to do its job  and remain critical of the sitting government at all times.”
Many online commentators reacted to the defeat of Manning and the PNM with humour and sarcasm. “I suppose Manning and accomplices must be wondering what to do with all the victory food and drinks they ordered for the victory party,” wrote This Beach Called Life. On Twitter, David Wears (@De_real_dwears) announced:
30 ppl waiting outside PM @meetmanning residence, waiting to ‘assist’ him in MOVING OUT!!!
And Fake Patrick Manning (@patrickmanning), who remained relatively quiet during the campaign, issued a stream of satirical comments:
Setting up a wiki to crowdsource the text of my  concession speech. Link coming soon!
Realised I don't know how to set up wiki to  crowdsource concession speech. Could 1 of the schoolkids who's getting a  laptop from Kamla help?
What's the opposite of a holiday? That's what I  feel like declaring today.
Adding, in a telling reference to events unfolding in Jamaica:
Hey, things could be worse. I could be Bruce  Golding. #silverlining #trinidad #election

author: Nicholas Laughlin


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Trinidad & Tobago: Seeing Sue  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Sue, the 67 million-year-old-Tyrannosaurus Rex, is currently visiting our shores”: MEP Caribbean Publishers thinks “this is a great opportunity for the public not only to learn more about this dinosaur, but to see and experience the size of this ancient predator in person.”


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UAE: An Encounter with a Camel  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

If you tell anyone you live in the Arabian Gulf, two things come to their mind – oil and camels. Noora Nasrallah, who tweets as PurpleNano, describes her encounter with a camel in the UAE a series of tweets today.
In her first tweet, she says:
Haha we're all stopped on Emirates road toward #RAK by cops cuz there's a camel walking on the side of the road :D
The follow up tweet brings more news on the distraught and probably lost camel:
Poor camel!! He's running along the road looking scared :S
And finally the police save the day and rescue the camel:
Haha camel was successfully moved to the other side of the road. Bravo cops! http://tweetphoto.com/24014216
On Tweetpic, PurpleNano posts the following picture:
Police rescue camel
A happy ending for one camel, I suppose.


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UAE: Dubai Road Stunt Enrages Bloggers · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bloggers in the UAE are outraged after a video was posted on YouTube showing young men driving in a reckless manner in broad daylight on one of Dubai's busiest streets.
In the video, which has since been “removed (from YouTube) due to terms of use violation,” a ‘gang’ of young men are seen cheering on reckless drivers, meandering though rush hour traffic at full speed, doing ‘doughnuts’ and wheelies. One 4×4 is seen being driven on two wheels for a stretch of the road, being cut off by a pick up truck spinning like a top on the highway.
A new video surfaced, with the same clip, and can be found here.
Readers wrote in angry letters to The National, a UAE daily, which broke the story. One reader, Rashid alfalasi, from Abu Dhabi, blames the lack of an arena for those young men to show off their stunts for the incident:
I think if those kids were allowed to do their stunts in special places
like what it is done in Qatar. They won't do these stunts in main roads
and put others lives in danger. In Qatar they have a special circuit
where young drivers can go and do their stunts with safety measurements
with police and ambulance presence and they are opened every weekend
and on special events like eid holidays and soccer team winning a title
etc.
Tim Craig, another reader from Abu Dhabi, posts:
These are the future leaders of the  UAE.  So, What direction are the Emirates headed for ?
If you value your life, DONT DRIVE to DUBAI. It is worse than you can
imgine and the locals are having fun laughing at the danger and fear
that they inflict on innocent good people.
Moving on to blogs, Grace, who blogs at Sandier Pastures, adds her two cents:
I’ve written my dislike for driving in Dubai roads before, in dealing
with mental drivers who sadly are aplenty. Now the news today took this
dislike to a whole new level. A video had been posted in YouTube
showing young drivers performing road stunts on Dubai’s main SEVEN LANE
highway, Sheikh Zayed Road. A pick up truck intentionally spins and
skids across the road while a 4×4 zigzags across six lanes of traffic
(cars running at 100kmh) balanced on ONLY TWO WHEELS. This isn’t a show.
She continues:
The images are shocking to say the least and without an arrest as of
this writing everyone knows the nationality of these reckless drivers.
Where are they now? Somewhere in Dubai waiting to kill people! See the
whole .. maddening story via The National.
Driver of those two vehicles: you stupid, incredibly selfish, bored, spoiled twat!
Seabee, who blogs at Life in Dubai, describes the stunt as “life threatening lunacy.”
He further adds:
There's a new film on YouTube showing innocent motorists’ lives being endangered by a bunch of brainless morons.
Seabee posts a number of stills from the video, including the one below, which shows a man dangling out of the window of his 4×4 and another 4×4 being driven on two wheels along the six-lane highway, in traffic!
Dubai driving stunts outrage bloggers
Like many bloggers, he wonders:
Identifying the idiots in the clip should take the police about five minutes.
Deliberately putting other people's lives at risk like this deserves a lifetime driving ban, a lifetime ban on owning a vehicle and a lengthy jail term. And I mean lengthy.
The obvious question is whether they'll be arrested. Cynics will doubt it and will talk about wasta (influence)…
Dubai Police were soon on the case, and news reports say that two drivers have been arrested and charged with endangering the lives of others. The National reports that the two Emiratis in their early 20s face up to three years in prison and fines if convicted.
Reacting to the news, Seabee explains:
It's a start, now we'll have to wait to see how justice is applied.
As I said in the earlier posts, I think it deserves nothing less than a
life ban on owning or driving vehicles plus a lengthy jail term for
deliberately endangering life.
But I don't for one moment think that's going to happen.
And apart from the the drivers doing the stunts there was a convoy of
hangers-on accompanying them, cheering them on and filming them. They
need to be arrested too, charged with aiding and abetting the offences.
What the eventual outcome will
demonstrate is just how serious the authorities are about stamping down
on dangerous, irresponsible driving and in promoting road safety.
So far it seems to have been a half-hearted campaign without much
success, a couple of weeks emphasis here and there on specific things
such as tailgating, child seats or mobile phone use. I've seen no
reduction in any of those offences, in fact with mobile phone use it
seems to me to be on the increase.
So this will be an interesting one to follow because it's such a serious, deliberate
flouting of the laws that could have had disastrous consequences for
innocent drivers caught up in the lunacy.
And Fake Plastic Souks adds a new dimension to the controversy – that of blocking sites in the UAE. Alexander McNabb reports:
It would appear that the UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Or TRA to you an’ me) has blocked YouTube's age verification screen.
The problem was highlighted on Twitter yesterday when a link to the now infamous ‘Sheikh Zayed Road Madness’ video was shared – the link came back with the blocked splash screen on both Etisalat and Du networks. A good link is, BTW, here.
Although the first assumption is that the block was because of the nature of the content, which is a group of nutters endangering the lives of motorists on Dubai's busiest road by pulling doughnuts and the like, this was not in fact the case
So what really happened? According to the blogger:
What had happened was the video had been flagged for age restriction (you can't actually tag a video with an age limit on YouTube when you post it, it has to be ‘flagged’ and a YouTube staffer will review and age restrict the video) and therefore viewers were sent to the YouTube Age Verification Page.
And THAT is the bit that had been blocked. One can only assume that ‘if you need to be asked, the answer's no’ is the policy in place here.


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Uganda: Freedom of press under attack · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Freedom of press in under attack in Uganda as Richard Kavuma of Katine Chronicles reports.


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Ukraine: Interview With Kyiv Post’s Editor-in-Chief · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Part 1 of an interview with Brian Bonner, editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Post – by David Brauer, at MinnPost.com's Braublog.


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Ukraine: Russia’s return or political pragmatism? · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Andrei Kolesnikov at openDemocracy analyzes relations between Russia and Ukraine after Russian president Medvedev's visit to Kiev last week.


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Bahrain: Abu Dhabi’s Gold ATMs  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Gold dispensing machines? Ammaro, from Bahrain, discusses Abu Dhabi's new flashy Gold ATMs in this post.


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Bahrain: Blocking of Sites Gains Momentum  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahraini Mahmood Al Yousif comments on the blocking of sites around the world – and the excuses given for that.


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Bhutan: Such Is Life · Global Voices
Rezwan

Jeans at Kuzu-Bhutan Weblog shares an anecdote of life in Bhutan's capital Thimphu.


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Brazil: Bloggers React to Iran-Brazil-Turkey Nuclear Deal · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

On 17th May Iran announced a new agreement with Brazil and Turkey concerning the issue of uranium enrichment included in the country's Nuclear Program. For several weeks the USA had been unsuccessfully trying to negotiate a similar atom deal while pressing Iran to change its policies on reporting sensitive enrichment and reprocessing activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The agreement says that Iran has to send 1.2 tons of uranium to Turkey that will enrich it at 20% for medicinal purpose and that Brazil, as a mediator, must make sure that the deal is respected. Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan travelled to Teheran in order to convince President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to accept the deal as a last chance to avoid the UN sanctions suggested at the April's Nuclear Security Summit.
Natanz Nuclear Facility in Iran, by Hamed Saber. Under CC
Much of the criticism arising in the Brazilian blogosphere concerns not the Brazilian choice itself – though a few bloggers have criticized the position of President Lula for being an amateur [pt] – but the role of the USA and the UN as well as whether Iran is to be trusted or not. Nevertheless, the main idea behind the arguments is not new.
As Dolphindiluna, from Mobilização BR [BR Mobilization, pt], states:
O acordo assinado pelo Irã e intermediado por Brasil e Turquia não  difere muito daquele apresentado pelo grupo dos 5+1 – Estados Unidos,  Reino Unido, França, China, Rússia e Alemanha – no final do ano passado e  mediado pela AIEA (Agência Internacional de Energia Atômica).
Brazilian blogger Maria Frô has a very strong opinion over the matter and describes the deal signed by Iran, Brazil and Turkey  as…
[…] a maior vitória  diplomática dos  últimos tempos
So far, the United States did not waive the right to propose sanctions in the UN's Security Council and, because of that, is the target of many criticism [pt] by Brazilian bloggers who mostly disagree that imposing sanctions would make any difference and consider that the U.S. simply want to take over the UN. As Polivocidade adds [pt]:
Várias ocasiões na história nos remetem ao despeito, e ao mesmo tempo ao  grande mando que os EUA exercem sobre a ONU. Basta lembrar aqui a total  indiferença da ONU a respeito da invasão dos EUA ao Iraque, e tantas  outras medidas econômicas que constrangem e prejudicam a soberania de  outros países no mundo, realizadas pelos EUA, onde a ONU não faz valer  sua autoridade institucional.
Net-citizens also extend their skepticism to the intentions of Iran and on the health of such agreement. Gustavo Chacra, on his blog De Beirute à Nova York [From Beirut to New York, pt], writes:
Alguns dizem que o objetivo de Teerã é ir empurrando com a barriga a  questão nuclear até atingir a capacidade de produzir um armamento, sem  necessariamente fabricá-lo. Eu tendo a concordar com esta teoria. O  mesmo ocorreu com a Coréia do Norte. Mas, desde ontem, Brasil e Turquia  passaram ser fiscais.
Radio Active by Acewill, used under CC
On the Brazilian role, professor José Flavio Sombra Saraiva writes for Mundorama blog and believes that Brazil shouldn't have got itself on the middle of such problem:
O  nó não se desata. E o Brasil se meteu no meio dos interesses cruciais   dos gigantes, ambiciosos na conservação do controle tecnológico do   ciclo nuclear completo. É poder a ser conservado. Valeu o esforço  da  diplomacia nacional em seus propósitos de diálogo. Mas o mundo  é bem  mais complexo que o voluntarismo da política externa do Brasil  no  capítulo nuclear, embora em outras áreas tenha obtido avanços   relevantes nos últimos anos.
Andre Kenji from Dissidência blog [Dissidence, pt] also criticizes the Brazilian role on the conflict, which he considers may simply be an opportunity for a diplomatic ‘playhouse’:
Certo, há o Brasil. O país tem um poderio militar fraco, não muito  melhor ao do Irã e nunca conseguiu ter uma força diplomática forte nas  pendengas envolvendo seus próprios vizinhos. Mas sempre se enxergou como  uma espécie de Estados Unidos tropical, e certamente precisava  exercitar isso de alguma forma. Certo? Então, nada melhor que um  teatrinho diplomático.
Chico Barreira, in a post titled ‘The Ecological Dead-Lock‘, from blog Novas Ideias [New Ideas, pt], relates to the own sovereignty of the country claiming that Brazil is defending its own nuclear industry:
Logo, ao defender o direto  do Irã e de qualquer outro pais  de acesso à  tecnologias nucleares, o  Brasil defende essencialmente os seus  interesses estratégicos e  comerciais. Isto, pela boa razão de que  possuímos mais de cinqüenta por  cento das reservas  naturais de urânio  do Planeta e estamos em vias de  ingressa no seleto grupo de apenas seis  países que controlam o  processo  integral de enriquecimento do  desse  minério.
Finally, Leandro Fortes, from the blog Brasília, eu vi [Brasilia, I saw, pt], analyses the role of President Lula and the Brazilian diplomacy and praises the independence and professionalism of the Foreign Minister Celso Amorim. Brazilian mass media is talking about the possibility of a Nobel Prize for President Lula as his presidency comes to an end. Leandro Fortes  sarcastically tells them what he believes to be behind all foreign affairs and Nobel itself, stressing the effort made by the government to reach an agreement:
O sucesso da diplomacia brasileira nesse episódio criou um paradigma de atuação profissional do Itamaraty até então considerado impossível. De forma pacífica e disciplinada, a operação que resultou no acordo foi conduzida com extrema leveza, a caminhar sobre os ovos de aves agourentas distintas que se odeiam desde as primeiras luzes. Incorporou à biografia de Lula essa aura dos que lutam pela paz, requisito fundamental para a seleção dos premiados do Prêmio Nobel da Paz. Mas, antes que isso aconteça, a mídia brasileira vai finalmente descobrir que o milionário Alfred Nobel inventou a dinamite.
O resultado concretamente político dessa ação no Oriente Médio, apesar da bem sucedida pressão da extrema-direita americana sobre Barack Obama a favor de sanções contra o Irã, foi a desconstrução do discurso conservador da diplomacia brasileira, todo ele montado sobre as teses de alinhamento automático aos Estados Unidos, reação acrítica de atos de barbárie cometidos por Estados ocidentais e a submissão pura e simples às regras financeiras ditadas pelas nações ricas. Nesse aspecto, a história do chanceler Celso Amorim será extremamente mais relevante do que a de seus antecessores, torcedores vibrantes pelo fracasso do ministro com ampla visibilidade nas matérias e programas de entrevista da velha mídia nacional.
The success of Brazilian diplomacy in this case has created a new paradigm of professional performance of the Foreign Ministry which would be considered impossible until now. Peacefully and orderly, the operation that resulted in the agreement was carried out with extreme lightness, walking on the eggs of noble ill birds who hate each other since the beginning of times. It added to Lula's biography a kind of aura of those who struggle for peace: a basic requirement for nominees of the Nobel Peace. But before that happens, the Brazilian media will finally discover that the millionaire Alfred Nobel invented dynamite.
The factual political result of this particular action in the Middle East, despite the successful pressure from the American extreme-right over Barack Obama in favor of sanctions against Iran, was the deconstruction of the conservative discourse of Brazilian diplomacy, all of it built on the theory of automatic alignment with the United States, as well as the uncritical reaction to acts of barbarism committed by Western states and the pure and simple submission to the financial rules dictated by the rich nations. In this regard, the history of Foreign Minister Celso Amorim will be extremely more relevant than its predecessors, vibrant supporters for the failure of the minister with broad visibility in the field and talk shows from the old national media.
Given the current deal reached by Brazil and Turkey with Iran, the latter steps ahead on a potential peaceful way to the imminent conflict and to seek a different path on the confrontation with the western countries. Whether or not Iran is to be trusted is a different subject. As Brazil and other countries have the right to possess atomic weapons or even nuclear energy, it is now time to reflect on the requirements for any other country that lacks natural resources to diversify their energy sources, and which sanctions, if any, should be imposed and by whom.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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Brazil: Exchange Student Victim of Racism at the University · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Kadija Tu, an exchange student from Guinea-Bissau, was severely beaten inside the campus of UFPB [Federal University of the State of Paraíba] on May 24th, reports Eugenio Cruz from the blog Quase nada sobre quase tudo [Almost nothing about almost everything, pt]. Witnesses  say she was called ‘dog-nigger‘ (Negra-Cão) by the aggressor. Juvanira Holanda, the delegate in charge of the investigation, who considered that the aggressions had nothing to do with racism, has already been put away from the case.


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Causes of Hatred in the Russian Blogosphere · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Lj-user blondycandy received [RUS] more than 400 comments on the question “Why there's so much hatred in the Russian blogosphere”? Evgeny Gorny summarized [RUS] the most often suggestions: general ‘offline’ unhappiness, inferiority complex, impunity, lack of education, envy, specific ‘Russian mentality’ and so on.


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China and Hong Kong: Responses to Cheonan sinking incident · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The release of the international investigation report on sinking of Cheonan in May 20, 2010, concluding that the South Korean warship had been bombed by a North Korean torpedo has alleviating the tension in Northeast Asia region. South Korea suspended all trade and investment with North Korea while Pyongyang denied its responsibility for the March 26 incident and called the investigation a “fabrication”. The U.S government urged for global response but the Russian government did not support to raise the issue in the U.N Security Council until it gets 100% proof that the ship was sunk by North Korea.
How about Chinese government's response?
Up till now, the Chinese government's position has remained ambivalent, as chinesesky notes:
在中国当代外交史，这次危机独一无 二。以往不是出现敌对一方进行双边挑战，就是有多边讨论需要中国调停，鲜有天安号事件这样，双方都希望逼中国作出鲜明、带有实质行动的表态，而双方都不能 不算是中国朋友。历史上，最接近的案例有两个，一个是1971年的孟加拉独立战争，当时孟加拉一方积极争取中国，以为基于「被压迫人民」的身分，会得到毛 泽东支持，但由于孟加拉要求脱离的巴基斯坦，是中国铁杆盟友，最终中国站在巴基斯坦一边，放弃「世界人民」。另一个是 2003年的伊拉克战争，中国在暧昧多月后，终于说站在反战的法德俄一方，但其实两面不讨好。
Baijiajiangtan thinks that the Chinese government has to adjust its strategic position:
当朝鲜以偏激方式屡屡突破国际社会的容忍极限时，既有的战略 影响力没有转化为有效的实际制约能力，这表明中国长年奉行的战略定位不再适应整个现实的变化，也意味着对朝关系新思维已成为一个不容回避的急迫命题。
一个高度集权、封闭、贫穷而又无视国际准则的朝鲜政权的存在，不符合当今中国的战略利益，甚至对某些重大利益产生冲击。近二十年来，朝鲜核 问题一再挑动国际社会的敏感神经，六方会谈折冲樽俎的结果，竟是朝鲜基本一步步成为“有核国家”。如果朝鲜弃核的可能性被彻底打破，日、韩势必加入核竞 赛，东北亚将成为全球拥核国家最密集、安全形势最严峻的地区，这是中国无论如何都不能接受的。
反之，一个统一、繁荣和民主的韩国，未必不符合中国的战略利益。朝鲜半岛的分裂现状，是冷战时代的政治延伸。冷战的终结也意味着，不管会经 历多少波折，半岛的统一都是大势所趋。…统一的韩国将为中国东三省带来空前的市场和经济机遇，东北亚经济圈将真正成型，为这一地区带来繁荣和活力。
Conspiracy theory
However, Baijiajiangtan's aspiration to end the Cold War is too idealistic to others. In fact many immediate reactions still follow the Cold War conspiracy theory:
@虫小柒 from t.sina said:
虫小柒：唇亡齿寒，朝鲜一灭，矛头接着就对准中国，到时候俄罗斯岌岌可危，所以爸爸出面了，妈妈垂帘听政，这一战，想打，困难～ 《俄将派人赴韩了解天安号事件》 http://sinaurl.cn/hkfzA
@寒正 from t.sina also doubted the credibility of the South Korea investigation:
寒正：关于朝鲜击沉韩舰的问题不可轻信韩方，爆炸的弹药包括韩国在内很多国家都有使用，关于碎片金属材料更是多国所有，至于发现的朝文，如果是秘密攻击的话，怎会这么轻易留下把柄？南朝鲜拒绝北朝的检查团又是意欲何为呢…。这一事件未尝不会是韩美日的阴谋
Another Korean War?
Whether or not there would be another Korean War and whether China would be dragged into the chaos is always a common concern:
@ 新华龙  says:
新华龙：朝鲜是 敢打的，一是有后盾（中俄）；二是不破不立，不打日子难过，打了说不定能捞到点什么的。韩国不会轻易开火，他的人值钱一点一般犯不着和夯货去拼命，但国内 的大选需要“外乱”，只能走险棋。只怕是开腔容易，开枪难，开了腔而不开枪，犹难。 有点担心这个小老弟，再把我们拖出一个“志愿军”来。
Thaidick from Discuss Hong Kong, however, does not think China will enter into the dirty water:
中國同北韓的關係
今非昔比
中國搞開放改革, 要發展經濟, 走向世界
點會被金仔拖落水?
This article is co-authored with WingLok


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China: Hebei’s “Great Leap Forward” · Global Voices
Don Weinland

More than 1000 residents of Hebei Province will be subject to forced evictions before June 5, in a government development project online opinion has dubbed a “Great Leap Forward.”
Guangping County, an impoverished area in southern Hebei, will see 2 billion yuan ($293 million) invested in new building and development in 2010, Southern Daily reports. The project, officially known as the “11168 Engineering Goal,” calls for the demolition of 330,000 square meters of housing and the eviction of more than 1000 of the county’s residents.
No concrete form of compensation has been drawn up for the evictees. In a semblance of transparency, or possibly confusion within the Guangping government, Southern Daily quotes a county development official as admitting “there have fundamentally been no eviction or relocation agreements made with the residents.”
Online opinion has called the plan another example on the growing list of illegal evictions in China. Some have likened the development project to the Great Leap Forward of 1958, a disastrous and ill-planned development scheme responsible for anywhere from 14 million to 43 million starvation deaths.
In a Southern Weekend editorial, Xiao Shu calls the plan a regretful yet common phenomenon. He says when it comes to land procurement, city governments and investors come out on top, while compensation to peasants only amount to 5–10 percent of the profits made off the land.
Xiao says the expenditure of 2 billion yuan in a county with an annual budget of 130 million yuan ($19 million) represents the wrong kind of development. “Development is my development. It has nothing to do with you. You must leave unconditionally,” he writes sarcastically.
The numbers have attracted attention online. Luo Shibin questions the financial logic of the plan in a blog entry:
为什么没签订补偿协议、没对群众进行妥善安置？这是很值得商榷的问题。广平县是个贫困县，而整个改造工程却是个大手笔，需要雄厚的财力才能支撑。但该县去年的财政收入仅1.3亿元，那么计划的20多亿元的改造资金从何而来?
In a blog entry, Dou Hao says that Guangping county has failed to learn from the mistakes of the past:
如果用“大跃进”这样的说法，来形容广平县正在大刀阔斧进行的拆迁工作，应该是名符其实的。可“大跃进”给国留下的是痛苦的记忆，还有深刻的教训。因为这种脱离实际的所谓发展，违背了客观规律，自然要被规律惩罚。奇怪的是，广平县怎么就犯上“好了伤疤忘了痛”的错误，继续着这种不合时宜的拆迁形象工程呢？
Gaoyuan-Zhixing writes in a blog entry that although they have disregarded the will of the people, these county-level officials are only answering to higher instruction from Handan City, the jurisdiction to which Guangping County belongs.
对于广平县的领导在不调查研究，不把群众利益放在工作的出发点上而盲目地迎合上级的意图，不顾及损害群众利益违的法行为我们不值得同情，而且非常愤恨。但，把所有的过错都怪罪于广平，所有板子都打在广平的屁股上倒是真有点怨，因为至少人家是在执行上级的命令啊，是在完成上级制定的目标任务啊，其实问题的根源不在广平，而在上级邯郸市。

author: Don Weinland


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Ghana: Our first batch of refugees · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Togo's Security Minister is quoted by the BBC saying that 3,500 refugees have crossed into Northern Togo from Ghana following ethnic conflict and land disputes. Ghanaian blogger and journalist Ato kwamena Dandzie discusses the issue in his post titled Our First Refugees.
He argues that Ghana has successfuly produced first batch of refugees:
After years of proclaiming to the world that we are the most “peace loving” people on earth, we have ‘successfully’ produced our own batch of refugees. News reports suggest that hundreds of Ghanaians fleeing tribal strife in the northern territories are being housed in refugee camps in Togo.
It’s a big shame, isn’t it?
He is suprised that the news went to London first before getting back to Ghana. He writes, “We are here in Ghana and the news passed us by, went to London before finally getting piped back to our bosoms through the BBC”:
First, it’s quite sad that the sad episode of our refugee movements only came to our attention through the BBC.
We are here in Ghana and the news passed us by, went to London before finally getting piped back to our bosoms through the BBC. Even government officials were unaware of the refugee movements. That’s what you get when your intelligence agency delights in acting all stupid, scaring iced block sellers to death – like they did last week at the BNI offices.
Instead of bowing their heads in shame for their shortcomings (failing to restore law and order to the strife-prone communities and being unaware of the refugee movements) government officials are rather blaming the BBC for exaggerating the refugee numbers.
One of his readers, Felix Mawulolo Amegashie, wonders how investigative journalsits, bloggers and regional reporters in Ghana missed this story:
27 May 2010 | 10:07 AM
Isn't it a shame , that we have investigative journalists, bloggers, regional news reporters, and media men all over Ghana who take interest in political commentary than in social issues as this?
How come the refugess eluded all of us and had to take the BBC to break the news?
In any case , why blame govt alone for this mess? Was it govt that created the disturbances in that area?
Its a failure on the gate-keepers (the media) to report this for all of us instead of a foreign media throwing the dirt at us.
This is an indictment on the quality of the media Ghana has.
At, ur attempts to lay the blame at the doorsteps of the President is very myopic.
Historical and cultural records tell us that borders are just imaginary lines. There are Ghanaians all over the world running away from either poor working conditions, conflict, bad governance, political persecutions, poor education, terrible infrastructure and are living in enclaves.
Do we classify them too as “refugees”?
Does it matter how many refugees went to Togo?, Ato asks:
But government’s tango with the UN refugee agency and the Togolese authorities over the number of Ghanaian refugee in Togo points to one of the causes of the backwardness in our society – dwelling needlessly on trivialities!
The question is does it matter the number of refugees?
Even if there are six Ghanaians seeking sanctuary in unstable Togo of all places, it should give government cause for concern. Now is not the time to argue over the inconsequential. This sort of shameful, inexplicable denial makes a laughing stock of our nation. The earlier it stops the better.
He advises the government to stop ethnic violence first before encouraging the refugees to go back to Gahana:
But the people fled their communities for a reason. They didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to take a hike to Togo with their mattresses and TV sets on their heads. They’ve had enough of the senseless violence and they feel the only way for them to live in peace and tranquility – even if without dignity – is to become refugees. Until the violence stops it wouldn’t make sense for government to encourage or gently prod the refugees to return to their communities.
I heard the deputy information minister, Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, saying that government believes it’s better for the refugees to be on our side of the border than on the Togolese side.
Really?
The refugees will most probably not agree with him. If he went to Togo and told them that they’d pelt him with balls of kenkey – or whatever they are being fed with by the Togolese authorities.
It’s better for the refugees to be where they feel safe. And if it’s in Togo, so be it. Instead of taking panic decisions, government should carefully think things through and it would come to the realization that this is perhaps a great opportunity to finally resolve the conflicts that have sent our compatriots scurrying into foreign territories for refuge.
Mus Dee, Ato's reader, thinks that the refugees must be left alone to find their own solution:
27 May 2010 | 10:16 AM
Infact those people knew the consequences they would be facing having this useless conflict within their communities, why then do they flee from their homes to Togo as refugees. Ato, infact we must leave those people for them to find their own solution. Since when has the government being confronting them. Enough is Enough.
Another reader, Kwesi, says:
27 May 2010 | 04:29 PM
Talk is cheap and its really cheap in Ghana. Is Ghana getting better or bitter?
The last Northern refugees that moved to Accra are mostly living at Kokomba Market now called Sodom & Gomorah, visit that place and you will weep (if you have a heart). Its a pity and shame in this mordern times to have our own people living like sub-humans in their own country, yet we could give $3,000,000.00 to Haiti. Let's our leaders be serious for once and set their priorities right,charity begin at home.
Just watch,very soon NDC will begin to blame NPP for the refugee problem in the NORTH.
WHEN WILL THE PETTINESS STOP? ITS SAD……..Oh God free us from egoism,lust,greed,anger and hatred and fill our hearts with LOVE so that we live in PEACE & UNITY.


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Hungary: Bloggers’ Photo and Video Reports on the Flood  · Global Voices
Marietta Le

The floods of the past weeks affecting Central and Eastern Europe are not over yet. MTI, a Hungarian news agency, reported that since May 15 temporary flood protection arrangements had to be implemented on 930 km of riverbanks, using 3.6 million sandbags and asking for more from EU civil protection mechanism. Hungary has been offered 2.12 million sandbags by Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.
Bloggers took photos around their homes in areas affected by the natural disaster. One of them was Basesoft from Szikszó, a town in northern Hungary. He wrote in a comment (HUN) on his blog (HUN) that the photos did not show the worst situation since they didn't have the time to take photos then.
Photo courtesy of Basesoft
Zsolt Szentirmai posted a series of photos on the flood at Sátoraljaújhely, also in northern Hungary, close to the Slovak border.
HL from Heréd (HUN) posted three times (HUN, here, here and here), adding photos on the flood and the flood protection works.
This piece also shows pictures and short videos, reporting in the first part that in the area called Transdanubia and the mountains in the north of the country it rained 20 to 60 mm, at some places reaching 86 mm. The short videos show areas in the country that are the most affected by the recent floods. Bantabas, who made the video, added in the description and on some images that those who see the video should help anywhere they can.

author: Marietta Le


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India: Controlling Export Of Cotton · Global Voices
Rezwan

Offstumped blog criticizes the recent decisions of the incumbent Indian government to control export of Cotton using steps like ban on export to a license based red tape system.


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Iran: “Democracy is only the beginning” · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

“Democracy is only the beginning” is the name of a short film created by Franklin Pham and Arya Ghavamian. Several Iranian bloggers including Kamangir encouraged [fa] Iranians to vote for this film in Democracy Challenge site.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Jamaica: Dudus, Security & Seaga · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

In the Tivoli Gardens area of Jamaica's capital city – home turf of alleged drug lord Michael Christopher “Dudus” Coke and epicentre of the unrest that has gripped the Caribbean nation for the past several days – the loyalties are clear, at least from those who care to be vocal about them.  @KyleMacpherson tweets:
People scream “freedom!” and “no bruce” [Golding, Jamaica's Prime Minister] #tivoli
Residents of Tivoli and neighbouring Denham Town got a taste of freedom yesterday as state security forces allowed them to move about in their communities more easily than they have been able to since the state of emergency was implemented.  As for the second part of their request, Prime Minister Bruce Golding seems to want to have as little to do with them as they with him.  Tensions appear to be easing around ground zero: both local and international journalists have been allowed access, although the Jamaica Observer reported that the visit yielded little new information.
But the same security forces that allowed them access are themselves the target of growing concern. Blogger Chez Hsia writes:
An article in the NY Times yesterday reported 73 dead and 500 detained in Tivoli, and only 6 guns found by security forces. 6 guns. 6. After 3 days of scouring the neighborhood, restricting access to the media, the security forces weren’t even able to rustle up enough seized weapons to make it look like a justifiable incursion, even during a State of Emergency. Instead, it looks like a massacre, a slaughter. And there are indications that the numbers of dead will rise further – some are estimating as high as 150. Folks in Tivoli are talking about bodies being buried in nearby May Pen cemetery, without having been accounted for by the government, let alone family and friends.
Twitter users have also been commenting, against the backdrop of Amnesty International's call for “a thorough investigation into the deaths of dozens of people in. . . Kingston during a security operation to arrest an alleged drug dealer,” and this video, posted on YouTube by news daily The Jamaica Gleaner, which highlights the voices of Tivoli Gardens residents, some of whom claim that atrocities have taken place.
@roleli says:
in 2001 when the residents accused the police of shooting indiscriminately people did not beleive until the saw the television footage..
@marxshields counters:
I get idea that if it's not negative news re security forces it's either false, biased or worthy of derision. Just remember how we got here.
They are far from perfect. I continually acknowledge that but without them we'd be in a place called hell on earth. So much to put right.
@roleli eventually sends out a message of support to the security forces:
Security forces keep strong and do the right thing Remember “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”
As of late yesterday, the civilian death toll stood at 73:
Latest toll: 73 civilians dead, 26 civilians injured. 3 (2 JCF, 1JDF)security personnel dead, “dozens” injured. #Tivoli #Jamaica
Some Tweeple felt that under the circumstances, perhaps the state of emergency should be extended to other parishes. @ArnoldKer asks:
While our attention was focused on West Kgn, gunmen killed approx 21 persons in Spanish Town. Where is the outcry????
Still, most Jamaicans agreed that the situation unfolding in one of the city's most legendary garrisons is merely a symptom of a wider malaise:
Amen RT @xyoni: Tivoli is a symptom, not the cause, of what is wrong with us. Let us look within to ensure a better Jamaica tomorrow.
This hope for a better tomorrow may have been on the mind of former Prime Minister Edward Seaga as he gave an exclusive interview last night; Jamaicans were very interested in his perspective on the situation; comments on Twitter were coming fast and furious:
Anyone see the preview, With Seaga getting choked up and begging DUDUS to give himself up ? watch TVJ 9:30 tonight
Seaga throwing Bruce under the bus…scratch that, under a convoy of 18 wheelers
I never thought I'd hear Seaga speak of Bruce Golding in that light… Do I smell vengeance? #interesting
RT @owillis: @ChrysalisCEO isnt this also probably a little payback for NDM? « I didn't get that impression; he seemed genuine. Passionate.
Oh Seaga, Seaga, Seaga
No sah! Interview of the decade! Tears and all! #seaga
Thanks Mr.Seaga for calling a spade a spade,I totally agree with you , the atrocities of TG has to be laid squarely at the feet of the PM.
Will there be a part 2? I guess thats wen Mr. Seaga will admit his role in the process. TG did not become wat it is overnight.
To those asking for an overview of the Edward Seaga interview; he was passionate re Tivoli Gardens; emotional…(Cont)…#Seaga wants to give to his family, what he never gave to them during his public life — his time (teared up); but said, he had to speak out…#seaga also said the entire extradition, and #stateofemergency  was botched; “The buck stops with the leader”. Bruce is the leader.
All this has led citizen media to ask another pressing question: Where is Dudus?  Jamaica Salt speculates:
Well the man had nine months to think about what he should do and where he should go when the Americans come for him.  So there must have been a lot of planning before the day finally arrived.
Reports that he has been negotiating a handover directly to the US authorities are very interesting and show how scared he must be that the same fate that befell his father may also happen to him.  This also indicates that he might be feeling scared about what Golding’s govt and the police want to do with him – certainly there must be a lot of anger directed towards him right now.
Some people think he’s moving around Kingston, others that he’s in South America (given his reported contacts there), but I reckon his forthcoming surrender is imminent.
Questions were also being asked on Twitter:
I can't. RT @andremumbles: @ChrysalisCEO Can anyone confirm if he's being caught?
Someone asked a very pertinent question: “Why there is no reward for info leading to the arrest of Dudus?” (RT @marlonperry) #jamaica
The answers continue to be elusive; as Chez Hsia suggests:
I’ve heard rumors of an underground tunnel system in Tivoli, some hypothesizing that all the gunmen ran away once the fighting began. But where, then, were the caches of weapons amassed by this fearsome drug smuggler? Where is the rumored Grizzly Big Boar 50 caliber sniper rifle that had the police quaking in their boots? Hard to believe that they could be hidden so well so as not to be found by untold numbers of soldiers, looking hard.
As a plot twist, it’s brilliant: could it possibly be that Dudus deliberately removed the guns from Tivoli, creating a PR nightmare for the government? If so, the human toll is staggering and sad. And it suggests that he alone is outwitting the government, a shrewd tactician, who will not easily be found.
Thumbnail image – screengrab from video posted on YouTube by JamaicaGleaner