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China: More Violence Over Salary Dispute · Global Voices
Don Weinland

A migrant worker from Hebei was stabbed Jan. 9, resulting in the loss of a kidney, after requesting withheld salary from a subcontractor in Beijing, reports the Yangcheng Evening News.
A migrant worker in Guangzhou, Tianhe District. photo by Don Weinland
The incident has been dubbed the “beg for salary, lose a kidney” incident by Chinese media sources.
28 year-old Gao Zhiqiang, father of three, had his right kidney removed after a subcontractor from whom he had requested seventy yuan in withheld pay, ordered his stabbing, reports the Yangcheng Evening News. A doctor has estimated Gao’s medical bills at around fifty-thousand Yuan ($7,300).
Gao’s case is by no means an isolated incident. In November of last year the “beating and humiliation” of Wang Hongli draws a connection between the requesting of withheld salary and violence. According to the Shanxi News Network, Wang Hongli, and husband Hao Shi, were beaten and humiliated by Wang’s employer and three other men in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province upon the request of back pay.
These incidents, while extreme, draw attention to the larger, more widespread problem of the unlawful withholding of migrant workers’ salaries. Terms such as “begging for salary” and “ill-intentioned withholding of salary” have become commonplace in the Chinese media.
Wei Bin, in an article at Jingchu Net, describes the struggle migrant workers often face in claiming the pay they have rightly earned and the social implications of such dilemmas.
近年来关于农民工采取诸如静坐、示威、游行、跳楼等极端方式讨薪的报道不断见诸于报端、网络。选择这些极端的利益表达方式，背后隐藏着无尽的辛酸与无奈，同时也反映出现存的维权渠道成本过高，成为农民工“无法负担之重”。
In recent years reports concerning a variety of methods migrant worker adopt in begging for their salaries, like staging sit-ins, demonstrations, marches, and jumping from buildings, have constantly appeared online and in newspapers. In choosing these extreme forms of expression, there is an underlying sense of unending misery and helplessness, while at the same time they reflect that the capital required of currently maintaining [worker’s] rights is too high. This has become a burden impossible for migrant workers to bear.
A Worker’s Daily report on the recent stabbing – which quotes the requested back pay at 140 yuan – reminds readers that while many suggest migrant workers take their case up with the Ministry of Labor, many among the migrant worker population are without work contracts and have no means of getting legal representation.
Instead, the article questions why such incidents have become common in China, and whether or not the social status of migrant workers has been devalued.
与提醒农民工法律维权、组织维权相比，我们更该反思的恐怕是，为什么包工头的恶意欠薪行为没有收敛，为什么包工头有如此胆量叫嚣“谁要钱，捅死谁”？包工头的淡薄法律意识，是不是就在于恶意欠薪没什么大不了，捅农民工一刀也有可能没什么大不了？
In contrast to reminding migrant workers of legal and organizational maintenance of rights, I’m afraid what we really should be considering is why ill-intentioned withholding of salary by subcontractors hasn’t been restrained, or why subcontractors so boldly clamor: “We’ll stab to death those who want their money.” Is it the subcontractor’s vague legal conception that ill-willed withholding of salary is no big deal? Or that stabbing a migrant worker is no big deal either?
Article 50 of the People’s Republic of China Labor Law states:
第五十条　工资应当以货币形式按月支付给劳动者本人。不得克扣或者无故拖欠劳动者的工资。
Salary shall be paid monthly and monetarily to the laborer. The laborer’s salary shall not be subject to reduction or delay.
Chen Bulei, a researcher at the Labor Relations Research Institute of the People’s University, said in an interview with Shanxi News Network, that this law lacks the detail and clarity needed to institute an effective payment system for migrant workers:
缺乏一个很刚性的、明确的工资支付制度,在很大程度上依赖于用人单位的守法意识或者道德状况,依赖于雇主一些内在的约束,而法律给予的外在制度约束是不够的。
[Chinese Labor Law] lacks a clear and rigid system of salary payment and depends largely on the law-abiding consciousness and moral conditions within the unit of employment. It is dependent on the internal bindings of the employer; the external bindings of the system as granted by the law are not enough.
The Chaozhou Daily and Yangzhou News both report an increase in withholding pay to migrant workers as the Chinese New Year’s approaches. The Chaozhou Daily reports that the number cases concerning the withholding of salary in the city of Chaozhou, Fujian Province increases by ten to twenty a day as workers prepare to head home for the New Year’s celebration.

author: Don Weinland


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China: Twitter survey on a Google departure · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Someone estimated this week that despite being blocked, Twitter still has between 26,000 and 30,000 active users in mainland China.
When Google announced its presence in China was being deeply reconsidered, blogger Dupola began conducting a survey on Twitter on people's views regarding the possible departure of Google from mainland China. The survey is still underway, but Dupola has just released a summary of the results received as of January 15:
注：除“你的身份是？”以外，其他均为多选题，所以比例可能看起来有点奇怪。格式为：选项 — 票数 — 图表。
你的身份是？
中国人在中国 — 420 — 93%
中国人在外国 — 3 — 1%
其他 — 30 — 6%
如 Google 退出中国，你的态度是？
抱歉，这项没统计分析。
你认为 Google 此举是？
坚守自己“不作恶”的底线 — 384
商业策略失败，败走中国 — 44
一定是炒作 — 9
看不懂唉 — 67
如 Google 退出中国，你将会…？
用百度等国货 — 24
用Bing/Yahoo等外国货 — 73
翻墙 Google — 397
呼吁中国政府放宽审查，呼吁Google重返中国 — 206
对此，你认为中国政府是否应该负责？
很明显，应当负全责 — 373
不好说，可能 Google 不够强大或者沟通出问题了 — 82
当然不，中国政府无须负责 — 5
你认为此事会对其他在华外企构成什么影响？
无影响，照旧 — 144
坚守自己的商业道德底线 — 123
重新审视自己的道德操守并努力执行 — 211
干脆退出中国 — 73
你认为此事会对中国企业有何影响？
无意识，照旧 — 219
无影响，照旧，外加鄙视Google总部 — 106
重新审视自己的道德操守并努力执行 — 83
有意识有努力，苟延残喘 — 140
Dupola goes on to point out that while Twitter users only comprise a fragment of China's online population and this survey only reflects a portion of those, it is better than the alternative of nothing.
The ongoing survey can be found at http://u.dupola.net/19
The latest results can be accessed at http://dupola.net/post/337
The statistical summary can also be downloaded in XLS or PDF format.
Regarding the survey, Twitter user @xdp1999 comments:
这个统计结果提示在互联网上人们趋向于与自己观点相近的群体。
For more views on Google, see Key's post at ChinaHush, ‘Chinese netizens say goodbye to Google with Google doodles’
“How happy we are. To have friends come from afar!”- Confucius

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: John Kennedy


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Costa Rica: Blogger Awarded National Culture Award for Journalism · Global Voices
Jenny Cascante Gonzalez

Alternative media is taking important steps in Costa Rica.  The Pío Viquez National Award for Journalism was granted this year to Cristian Cambronero for his achievements in alternative journalism.  Cristian has been publishing in his blog Fusil de Chispas [es] since 2005 encouraging the participation of readers on topics from politics and social media, to culture and music among others.  He also had actively participated and promoted activities such as the First International Encounter of Citizen Journalism [es] and similar initiatives, which its main objective is the enhancement of technology with traditional broadcast.
Photo of Cristian Cambronero and used with permission.
The National Culture Awards [es] have been celebrated since 1961 by the Ministry of Culture.  They look to recognize the efforts and accomplishments that people, groups and organizations make in Art, Science, Popular Traditional Culture and Journalism. This is the first time that digital media has been taken into account as part of the nominations.
The good news was quickly spread through social networks and twitter. Some bloggers were inspired by the announcement of a colleague receiving such an important honor. Alberto González points out in his blog Por Escrito [es]:
Internet ha venido sacudiendo los cimientos de los medios de comunicación tradicionales desde su incepción, y a través del periodismo del Fusil podemos ver los signos de ese cambio inexorable: Un periodismo participativo, subjetivo.
Luis Diego Molina writes on Habla Costa Rica [es]:
Esto recalca la importancia que la web y los medios ciudadanos están alcanzando en nuestro país y en la formación de una opinión pública más democrática.
Julia Ardón expresses her feelings towards the announcement [es]:
Su blog ha sido una de las más frescas contribuciones al ambiente de la comunicación en Costa Rica. Un trabajo, donde, como él mismo lo dice “La Pasión va primero”
Cristian leaves a thankful note in his blog Fusil de Chispas [es]:
De momento lo realmente claro es que la naturaleza misma de un blog lo haría perder su esencia si fuera unidireccional. Es la participación lo que ha hecho que el Fusil funcione, y sirva para algo. El más honesto agradecimiento para todos los que pasan por aquí.

author: Jenny Cascante Gonzalez


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Ethiopia: Cultures collide in Ethiopian blogosphere · Global Voices
Andrew Heavens

What happens when cultures collide? One of the best places to find out is the Ethiopian blogosphere, with its writers spread across the Ethiopian Diaspora, from China, through Europe to the United States of America.
Bloggers spent the past few weeks writing posts inspired by the differences between Ethiopia and the far-flung nations which many Ethiopians now call home.
Zewge A. Assefa, the writer behind Negere Ethiopia, was unnerved when he first moved to Norway as a student. At first, he wrote in First impression is not always the lasting one, everyone seemed so quiet and reserved. When he got up the nerve to talk to his fellow students, he had to overcome other cultural barriers:
I do not … mean to underestimate the difficulty for me as an African  and in particular as an Ethiopian to give a proper picture of the place I  call home. Many people seem to have a thick background reinforced with  terrible images of war, famine and overall poverty…
Personally, I do not feel rejected. Neither do I feel fully embraced. I still  live with the situation where more often than not, people prefer to sit by  people of their color type even when I am sitting alone.
The writers of Mitmita got into the Christmas spirit “basking in the double consciousness that is our Ethiopian hearts and western habits”. In The Mitmita Girls’ Naughty Or Nice List they wrote:
First  comes the depravity of the European Christmas, followed by the more sober and  deliberate “Gena” celebrations – after all everyone knows that Jesus hails from Nazret, Ethiopia and was born on January 7th!
Ethiopian orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7.
Bernos writer Elle B, who described herself as a “black American”, shared her experiences dating an Ethiopian man in the United States in the post Cross Section of Addis & Georgia:
I was not prepared for the tightly knit nature of the habesha [Ethiopian] culture. When I met and fell in love with a habesha man, I was not ready for  the frustration that would ensue. I was not ready for the remarks from  habesha women that were along the lines “why did I take a good one?” because  my boyfriend had a great paying job. I was not ready for the disgusted stares  that would come from the habesha community as we walked down the U street
corridor.
I would come home at night and ponder how some members of the habesha  community could be so against one brown person loving another brown person. I  wasn't angry, but frustrated.
She soon discovered that racism was not just an issue of black vs. white:
Although he didn’t believe the stereotypes of Black Americans, I am sure it was in his subconscious mind. I would call him African – he would say “I am habesha.” I would tell him that those countries [Ethiopia and Eritrea] were in Africa and he would say “we were told that we were different, but I know that we are in Africa”…
My boyfriend walked outside of a grocery store and it happened. What Black Americans know and never forget…that it lives…and it rears its head in the  nastiest of ways sometimes. My habesha boyfriend walked out of the grocery  store and mistakenly walked behind a car that was trying to pull out of a  parking spot. The enraged driver said “Nigger!!!!” He came home and told me  the story and said “but I wanted to tell her that I wasn't a nigger, I'm habesha.” I shook my head and let it drop into my hands in pure frustration.
In a multiple cultural crossover, Don't Eat My Buchela(s)! showed what an Ethiopian-American-Chinese-French Christmas looked like in French Restaurant Santa in China.
Arefe from the blog I Was Just Thinking wrote about Ethiopian artist Elias Sime having his work chosen by an American director for use in an Australian production of Oedipus Rex by Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky.
Looking at crossovers from another direction, British economist Owen Barder wrote about importing a cutting-edge piece of American culture into Addis Ababa in the post The Kindle in Ethiopia:
In Ethiopia the wireless does not work (presumably Amazon does not have an agreement with the Ethiopian mobile phone company, ETC).  So periodicals do not arrive automatically, and you cannot browse for new books on the Kindle itself.  But it is very easy and quick to download the latest edition of a newspaper or to get a new book from Amazon on a computer connected to the internet (it takes about 30 seconds to download today's edition of the FT) and then to transfer it via USB cable to the Kindle.

author: Andrew Heavens


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D. R. of Congo: The hazards of neglect · Global Voices
Fred

Congoblog is a marvel. Every post deserves a mention, but here are some of the more arresting posts to have appeared so far in January:
From Kisangani, Boyomais laments the ‘disastrous’ conditions in his country's health clinics, where “the order of the day well known to all is: no money, no care”.
by Luba for Congoblog.net
The wife of one patient complains that:
Nous avons du mal à fermer l’œil la nuit tellement il y a des moustiques. Mon mari a des problèmes d’estomac mais, dans ces conditions, il n’est pas surprenant qu’il soit atteint de la malaria dans cet hôpital. Les moustiquaires que nous avons trouvé ne servent plus à rien car il a des trous partout.
From the capital, Mwana Kin reports on a lethal hazard arising from disrepair:
Au fil des années, les câbles de la SNEL sont sortis de terre et arpentent les rues des principaux quartiers. Les jours de pluie, le mélange explosif entre le non fonctionnement du système d’évacuation des eaux et la présence des câbles dans la rue fait plusieurs victimes.
As the prospect of elections in 2011 looms, Cédric Kalonji observes that:
La majorité des promesses électorales à la veille du scrutin de 2006 ne sont pas sortis de la boite à discours pour se matérialiser. La population se rend progressivement compte qu’elle a été roulée. Loin d’être dupes, honorables et excellences pensent déjà à la suite. Tous les moyens sont bons pour conserver une place au chaud, à l’abri de tous les tracas auxquels les congolais ordinaires font face au quotidien.

author: Fred


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Georgia: Plans for the largest airport in the Caucasus · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Georgian International Media Center says that the largest airport in the South Caucasus might be built near the Black Sea port city of Poti. However, it notes, the idea is not without its controversies, and not least the fact that any development would take place near an environmental reserve and also involve a Middle Eastern Emirate already with significant economic and political power in the country.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Haiti: “Our hope has not died”  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A truly inspiring update from The Livesay [Haiti] Weblog: “The reports of violence – we don't get those. Have not seen it. Have not experienced it. Nothing even remotely close. People are helping each other and are warm and kind and humble. I only know one thing – Our hope has not died, it is not buried in that rubble” – observations that are reinforced over at HAITI, Land of Freedom: “NOT ONCE have we witnessed a single act of aggression or violence. Haiti can be proud of its survivors. Their dignity and decency in the face of this tragedy is itself staggering.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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India: Plastic Bag Ban Not Effective · Global Voices
Rezwan

Raja Basu at Potpourri informs: “despite a ban on its use in India, plastic bag is very much in use in India.”

author: Rezwan


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Japan: QT is a Variation of ReTweet · Global Voices
Tomomi Sasaki

Satomi Uchimura explores the meaning of QT (Quoted Tweets), which is used in some parts of the Japanese twittersphere.

author: Tomomi Sasaki


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Korea: Cell phone information belt · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Ask a Korean! translates an article that explains how NGOs obtain information from North Korea via cell phone imported from China.

author: Oiwan Lam


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USA: Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 and became arguably the American Civil Rights Movement's most prominent advocate and speaker.  In the United States, he is honored by a national holiday, observed the third Monday in January of each year.  Today, many bloggers in the United States are honoring his memory with dedicated posts, linking his legacy of social justice with issues of today, demonstrating that 42 years after King's assassination, his words are just as relevant.
The Color Line is a blog focused on the sociology of race, ethnicity, and immigration in the United States.  Blogger C.N. asks how close we are to fulfilling Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream:
Many Americans thought that Barack Obama’s election was the culmination of Dr. King’s dream and concrete proof that we have evolved into a “post-racial,” colorblind society. Unfortunately, as I and many other sociologists and commentators have argued, even in this past year, we have seen numerous incidents that illustrate just how prevalent racial distinctions and racism still are in American society.
Following the discussion of numerous examples of racial issues in the United States, the blogger concludes:
Ultimately, the best way for us to work toward achieving the ultimate colorblind ideal is to recognize, accept, and understand that racial distinctions still matter and that they are still the basis for continuing discrimination and inequality in American society today. Only by doing so will we move forward on achieving Dr. King’s final ideal — true racial equality.
Global Voices’ own Lova Rakotomalala, who is from Madagascar but resides in the United States, wrote a post entitled “Lesson from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Madagascar,” in which he said (in reference to the events in Madagascar last year):
Leadership matters. Real leaders give speeches and then walk the talk, in front of the line.
Leaders do not vanish in a sheltered place when they know things are about to get dangerous and let protesters walk in harm's way to serve their agenda.
The only thing we know for sure about what really happened in Madagascar a year ago is that we could have used a Dr. King back then.
US-based blog Immigration Impact drew parallels between the civil rights movement of the 1960s and immigration today, writing:
Now, more than ever, it’s important to remember Dr. King’s message that all men are created equal—not just for Hispanics and African Americans, but for all people who come to this country in search of the American Dream.
The blogger behind Preventing Homelessness reminds us that honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. means service:
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A day for all of us to work to improve lives, bridge social barriers, and move our nation closer to the “Beloved Community” that Dr. King envisioned. Today is a day of service, but we don't have to stop there. We can resolve to make this a year of service and make a real difference in our community!
And last but not least, the anti-racist blog Racism Review leaves us with a thought about heeding King's lessons:
This Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I hope and pray we will learn the lessons Dr. King taught us. Regardless of what the majority of people say, progressive American rhetoric remains miles ahead of its deeds (see King’s brilliant sermon “Paul’s Letter to American Christians”) and gradualism is not the answer. Only collective action, creative and sustained civil disobedience, and mobilization of people of color and poor–for whom cooptation and/or cessation are not viable options—are the only potential means for achieving and sustaining real and systemic change.

author: Jillian C. York


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Morocco: A Case for the Moroccan Sahara · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

American blogger in Morocco Eatbees makes a case for the Sahara to remain Moroccan.


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Morocco: Blogging About Blogging · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Moroccans, as usual, are blogging, only this time it's about…blogging!  This year, two awards are being offered in the blogosphere: the third annual Maroc Blog Awards, which has garnered significant media attention in recent years, and the brand new Best of Morocco Blog Awards (or BOMBies).  The Maroc Blog Awards are currently in the voting stage and will be for another week, while the BOMBies are still taking nominations until January 21, 2010.
“Are you the BOMB?”
Two-time nominee The View from Fez writes of the BOMBies:
The voting has begun for The Best of Moroccan Blog Awards. There are five categories: Best Overall, Travel, News, Culture, and Personal.
Who will win the first annual BOMBies? Are you the BOMB?
Eatbees, an American who lives in Morocco, mentions his nomination, and says of blogging in the kingdom:
When I started in 2006, there were just a handful of bloggers writing about Morocco in English. Now there are culture blogs, travel blogs, personal blogs, blogs about news and politics — both by Moroccans and others by lovers of Morocco.
The Good Life in Morocco and The Elephant Cloud have also blogged about their BOMBie nominations.
The logo of the Maroc Blog Awards (which reads "Maroc Blog Awards: an annual online event" in French and Arabic)
The Maroc Blog Awards
Robin des Blogs is the winner of last year‘s “Blog of the Year” award in the Maroc Blog Awards.  This year, he has been nominated again; speaking of the honor, he says [fr]:
Je suis reconnaissant à tous ceux et celles qui ont voté pour moi l’année dernière, et ceux qui ont l’intention de le faire cette année aussi. Ce témoignage d’amour est une fierté pour moi, car il s’agit d’abord d’amour et non de compétition, puisque ceux qui nous choisissent nous rendent une partie de ce qu’on a partagé avec eux, dans un geste de reconnaissance.
Eljadida.com and Blogipedia, among others, blogged about their nominations for the Maroc Blog Awards.
May the best blogs win!


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Morocco: Moroccan Blog Mashup · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Bill Day points to a Yahoo Pipes mashup he created of English-language Morocco blogs.


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Morocco: Tips for Women Travelers · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Evelyn in Morocco writes up a list of tips for foreign women traveling in the kingdom.


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Paraguay: The Chaotic Ciudad del Este · Global Voices
Belen Bogado

Not far from one of the most beautiful touristic attractions in the world, all kinds of illegal activities are taking place: money laundering, cigarette smuggling, drugs and arms trade. However, there is no reason to avoid visiting the Paraguayan city of Ciudad del Este (City of the East), as this city also attracts thousands of tourists around the world for its unmatchable appeal.
Photo of Ciudad del Este by dckf_$êr@pH!nX and used under a Creative Commons license.
The city is located at the triple border with the Brazilian city Foz do Iguaçu and Argentinean city Puerto Iguazu, and is only minutes away from the Iguazu Falls. The proximity of these other cities make it easy to compare the three. While Ciudad del Este is known for its chaotic downtown traffic jam, the opposite is true of its neighbor Foz do Iguaçu with its well-designed and organized surroundings. In terms of size, Puerto Iguazu only has 1/10 of the population of its other two neighboring cities.
Ciudad del Este is very popular among tourists for its reputation that anything can be found there, from counterfeit Viagra, pirated CDs, exotic pets, and AK-47 rifles.  Paraguayan Blogger Muna Annahas blogs about how shocking the landscape of Ciudad del Este can be for a tourist:
On the way I saw all kind of things like people with babies and small children in motorcycles without helmets, teens jaywalking and crossing the route, small booths on the side of the streets selling all kinds of fruits and other small items.
I honestly hate the route, there is absolute not respect for the other drivers, its a no law route…
It is a small growing city that most of its income comes from goods sold to the Brazilians, in Ciudad del Este you can find all kind of goods, huge malls with all kinds of stuff you can ever imagine, from original to counterfeit…from delicatessen to car accessories, from perfumes to laptops parts…everything you can possible imagine, you can find there.
One of Ciudad del Este’s most profitable activities is cigarette counterfeiting.  Blogger and journalist Marina Walker Guevara, Mabel Rehnfeldt y Marcelo Soares write about it on the blog Ciperchile [es]:
Paraguay se ha convertido en uno de los mayores productores mundiales de cigarrillos de contrabando, con más de US$ 1.000 millones desaparecidos anualmente en el mercado negro. Aprovechan las facilidades de la Triple Frontera, por lo que los negocios se han expandido hacia las mafias brasileñas. Hoy fabricar cigarrillos en Paraguay es aún más barato que hacerlo en China y se han confiscado cajetillas paraguayas en lugares tan lejanos como Irlanda.
Desde allí, durante años, los cigarrillos se contrabandeaban al Brasil en furgonetas, camiones y hasta autobuses a través del Puente de la Amistad (…) Brasil intensificó los controles en la frontera en 2005 de manera que los contrabandistas mutaron de las carreteras al agua. A partir del atardecer, lanchas de motor parten de cualquiera de los 300 muelles improvisados a lo largo de la periferia del lago Itaipú.
Paraguay has become one of the major producers of contraband cigarettes worldwide, with over one billion dollars disappearing annually on the black market. The smugglers take advantage of the ease of movement on the triple border to expand the businesses into the Brazilian mafias. Producing cigarettes today in Paraguay is cheaper than producing them in China, and Paraguayan cigarettes have been confiscated in such distant places as Ireland.
For years, cigarettes have been smuggled to Brazil in vans, trucks, and even buses through the Friendship Bridge that links Ciudad del Este with Brazilian Foz de Iguazu. (…) When Brazil intensified the controls in the border in 2005, the smugglers went from the roads to the water. During sunset, boats sail from any of the 300 improvised piers along the Itaipu lake.
Ciudad del Este now the second largest city in Paraguay, with a population estimated at 320,782 in 2008. The city grew in population during the building of the Itaipu dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant located on the Paraná River.  Many of the employees hired to work at the dam during its construction, continue to work there as technical staff today.
The city also has its charm, a result of the green landscape and the cultural mix that take place in a border city. Victor Ortiz blogs about it on Catarsis Heuristica [es]:
Lo que nunca olvidaré son los árboles. Cientos de ellos (alejándose del centro de la ciudad), rodeaban las rutas y caminos. (…) Tampoco olvidaré lo poco que estoy acostumbrado a escuchar hablar el portugués (o portuñol). Ellos (los brasileños) dicen que el español es un portugués mal hablado. Para mí el portugués es un español mal pero muy mal hablado.”
Ciudad del Este is also a popular location for tourists who want to visit the Iguazu Falls, the waterfalls of the Iguazu River located on the border of the Brazilian state of Paraná and the Argentine province of Misiones. The Iguazu Falls are one of the most impressive and beautiful falls in the world, with 275 falls along 2.7 kilometers (1.67 miles) of the Iguazu River, some of the falls reach up to 82 meters.
Photo of Iguazu Falls by ewanr and used under a Creative Commons license.

author: Belen Bogado


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Qatar: Did Doha finally get a Wal Mart? · Global Voices
Shabina Khatri

Hopes soared and then crashed in Doha on Monday as news that a Walmart has opened here spread throughout the Tweetosphere.
@WeirdWeb writes:
RT @dohanews Doha, Qatar opens Wal Mart http://is.gd/6uUUh
It quickly become known, however, that Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, was not responsible for the new store.
On Here, There and Everywhere, the source of the breaking news, commenter adiamondinsunlight said:
love it! and love that the Qatari authorities approved the name (when the owner registered for limited liability status)!
To which intlexpatr, who reported the news, replied:
LOL – you think they really got permission?
Back on Twitter, @ExpatCookie mused:
do you think they have similar shoppers to the US walmarts? http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/ :)
Sure honey, I’ll go get the car for you. That long walk could be detrimental to your health.
Probably.

author: Shabina Khatri


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Russia: Story About Paid Bloggers Appears On TV · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Paid bloggers became a topic of a segment [RUS] in a popular Russian TV program “Vesti.” The story depicts mechanism of blog marketing and shows interview with a popular paid blogger in Russia sholademi.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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South Korea: Woman worker’s promotion grief · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

71% of the South Korea working woman believed that the promotion systems at their companies placed women at a disadvantage. (via James Turnbul's Grand Narratives)


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Trinidad & Tobago, Haiti: Emergency SMS · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Know TnT.com sees the value of emergency SMS: “It could save lives and improve the quality of life of people. And it would work best if it's set up beforehand instead of afterward.”


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Turkey: Third anniversary of Hrant Dink assassination · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Three years ago today, Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was gunned down outside the office of the Argos newspaper he edited in Istanbul, Turkey. Often ignored, loathed or detested when he was alive by nationalists on both sides for his message of tolerance and reconciliation between Turks and Armenians, Dink was a moderate voice and a man of peace that Ianyan compares to Martin Luther King Jr.
[…] He strongly held on to his unconventional beliefs and made no apologies for them. He was someone who understood that  communication was the only way to understanding and peace. He was the one who poignantly declared that “Turkish-Armenian relations should be taken out of a 1915 meters-deep well.”
He, unlike a majority of Diasporans lived and breathed and worked among Turks. Here was a man who tried to bridge the gap between two groups with an unfortunate history, a man who suggested that diaspora Armenians free themselves of the deep seated hatred against Turks without never stopping to fight for  human and minority rights. To Dink, hatred and violence were not synonymous with recognizing discrimination. To him, they were counterproductive to it all.
[…]
[…] Thank you for making such an enormous, progressive contribution to this collective culture. You, not the uncompromisable, flag yielding, blind masses are one the many reasons why I am proud to call myself Armenian as well as a journalist.
Meanwhile, Journalist in Turkey remembers where it was that fateful day and also reflects on how the investigation into his death has been conducted to date.
[…] where do we stand? Has the murder been solved, have those responsible been punished? Not by a long shot. Hrant Dink’s lawyers published a report drawing the conclusion that they are exactly where they were three years ago. Only the actual killer, Ogün Samast, is behind bars. Everybody knows who neglected intelligence reports about the threats against Dink’s life, but even though at first they were investigated, the cases against all these guys have been dropped. They all still have responsible jobs in, for example, the police force. What can we conclude, other than that inside the state apparatus, nobody gives a damn about justice in this horrible murder case.
May Hrant rest in peace.


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Afghanistan: Youth Find Outlets Amid Ongoing Violence · Global Voices
Juhie Bhatia

Last year was the deadliest one for Afghanistan's civilians, including children, since the American-led war began in 2001.
Children have increasingly become victims of the conflict — Afghanistan Rights Monitor recently showed that about 1,050 children died in 2009 in war-related incidents and there were at least 2,080 cases of grave violations of child rights, such as recruitment of kids as suicide bombers and foot soldiers and forced labor. Three decades of conflict has also had long-term repercussions on the country's youth, many of whom are disfranchised and lack educational and employment opportunities. Literacy and secondary school enrollment rates are also low. The situation for Afghan girls and women is particularly concerning; a December report shows that they suffer high levels of violence and discrimination and have poor access to justice and education. Afghan girls are also under traditional pressures to enter early marriage and early pregnancy.
The Youth Parliament blog, based in India, elaborates on the situation:
“Possibly one of the biggest roles in the process of restructuring Afghanistan can be played by the youth of Afghanistan. 68% of the Afghan population consists of people who are under the age of 25 years. However, the long period of war has deprived many of them of their youth and childhood. Categorized as the ‘lost generation’ of Afghanistan, the socially imposed silence and lack of education has suppressed large sections of the Afghan youth. Moreover, the youth is hardly seen as a direct mechanism for peace building, but only as possible recruits for various terrorist organizations.”
Despite the circumstances, efforts are being made nationwide by and for youth to maintain their health and education and to empower them. The Youth Parliament blog continues:
“The youth has been able to overcome some of these barriers in the recent past to play a more active role. This is evident from the existence of a number of youth organisations spread over the entire country which have undertaken the task of promoting non-formal education, increasing awareness, promoting volunteerism for peace and development of the country and most of them have got integrated in the government or working of other NGOs.”
Examples of youth involvement range from a teen training to be midwife to help combat the country's high maternal mortality rate to young women protesting against a law restricting their rights to a young woman nurturing Afghan girls through soccer. In Kabul, another sport is being used to get kids off the street and stay active — skateboarding. Skateistan teaches boys and girls how to skateboard, among other skills such as skateboard instruction, literacy and computer skills. Skateboarding offers a rare opportunity for Afghan girls to participate in a public sport, helping break down traditional barriers, as this video documents. The blog I Skate, Therefore I am provides background on the initiative:
“Skateistan started two years ago in a dried-up fountain in the heart of the Afghan capital, when two Australians with three skateboards started teaching a small group of fascinated kids. It is now Afghanistan’s (and the world’s) first co-educational skateboarding school. The school engages growing numbers of urban and internally-displaced youth in Afghanistan through skateboarding and provides them with new opportunities in cross-cultural interaction, education, and personal empowerment programs.”
The bright lines discusses the opening of Afghanistan's first indoor skateboarding park and its significance:
“On October 29, 2009, Skateistan will be opening the largest indoor sports facility & skate park in Kabul. It’s incredible how this team of instructors is engaging young folk in the art of skateboarding, in a place where the social opportunities for them, especially young girls, is limited because of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. The goal is to bring indoor & outdoor skateboarding facilities to Afghanistan. There’s going to be separate classes for young girls.”
Some young women are also finding an outlet for self-expression, healing and outreach via writing.  The Afghan Women’s Writing Project is a blog started by novelist Masha Hamilton that connects Afghan women, between the ages of 18 and 28, with writing instructors in the United States. Its goal is to allow Afghan women to have a voice that isn't filtered through male relatives or the media. The young women's writing covers issues ranging from the joy of playing basketball to death threats from the Taliban to breaking the silence.  In this post, an anonymous blogger talks about how she is being forced into a marriage and in desperate need of solutions:
“After my father died, the responsibility for me fell to my brothers, who grew up under the Taliban government and were influenced by it. Now I live with three Talibs and I must obey what they say. I am not like a girl in the house, but a slave. When I was at third year at the university, the owner of our house demanded higher rent. My family decided they would leave Kabul and go to a province where housing was cheaper. But I didn’t know how I would continue my studies in that case, so I gave up my transportation money to help pay for our rent, and I go to the university on foot.
Still, at the beginning of this year, my brothers said: “It is time for you to marry.” They arranged a marriage to my first cousin, my mom’s brother’s son, who lives in a province where most of the people are Talib. My cousin is about 40 years old and uneducated. His family has a business and a big house. Their women are required to wear burqas and are responsible for cooking, cleaning and caring for the animals. Most have eight or nine children. They can’t go outside the house—even when they are sick, they aren’t allowed to go to the doctor.”
Many of the young women also express their sentiments through poetry. In these segments of a poem, Shogofa shares her story:
“I am from long line of women who have walked alone …
From a land that smells of the blood of innocent people
From a people who have lost everything in war – sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers
From a people feeling hopeless
…
I am from long line of women who have walked alone…
I know now how to enter society
And find my answers though I’m alone
Learn from my experience though I have failed many times
I never give up
I find my way and learn nothing is impossible to achieve
I ignore those things that destroy my mind
I learn that no one can help me except me
I accept reality and I’m ready to face any problem
Now I have ambition to achieve my goal
To help my people bring peace to the next generation”
Others also remain hopeful about the future of Afghanistan and the role youth can play in bringing peace and security. Mozhdah Jamalzadah, blogging on Afghanistan Through My Eyes, says:
“One thing that impressed me very much about the younger generation in Afghanistan, at least from what I’ve seen so far, is that they are so eager to learn, and they strive for success. Even with the lack, and low standard of education these kids try to gain as much as they can. They are incredibly intelligent. In North America where education system is absolutely amazing, most kids will do only what they have to in order to get to the next level. Most are not passionate. I believe if you give the same opportunities to these Afghan youth who are so hungry for knowledge, who knows how far they can take it. The sky is the limit.”
Photo of Afghan children by isafmedia, U.S. Air Force TSgt Laura K. Smith, on Flickr, Creative Commons.

author: Juhie Bhatia


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Armenia: Prominent opposition figure sentenced · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Armenian Observer comments on yesterday's sentencing to 7 years in prison of Nikol Pashinyan, an outspoken opposition figure and newspaper editor. The blog condemns the judgement by the court, but also says that the action against him was as a result of his political activities and not for his work as a journalist.


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Azerbaijan: 20th anniversary of Baku pogrom and Black January · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

This post is part of our special coverage Caucasus Conflict Voices.
Today marks the 20th anniversary of Black January, the day when the fledgling independence movement in Azerbaijan was brutally suppressed by Soviet troops ostensibly to curtail inter-ethnic tensions between ethnic Armenian and Azeris living in the capital, Baku. A week earlier, following an anti-Armenian pogrom in Sumgait which left at least 32 people dead in February 1988, dozens of ethnic Armenians were killed.
Last year, Global Voices Online summarized the chronology of events as well as reaction to the 19th anniversary.
As stories of mutual violence between the two ethnic groups continued to circulate, the situation quickly escalated, and on 13 January 1990 another anti-Armenian pogram broke out in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku. Figures vary, but anywhere between 48 and 66 — or possibly more — ethnic Armenians were killed.
By 19 January, most of the city's Armenian minority had fled, and the next day Soviet tanks and thousands of soldiers had already moved in ostensibly to stem the ethnic violence which had reportedly subsided. Until this day, questions linger as to why it took so long for Moscow to react, but Human Rights Watch alleges that the military incursion had been planned long before.
With at least 130 people killed as a result of the Soviet incursion, the week of 13-20th January 1990 remains etched in the hearts and minds of both Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Given the war over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh that it would soon usher in, and the independence that ethnic conflict would soon define, both sides naturally recount events selectively.
Armenians, for example, allege that more of their ethnic kin died while believing that the crackdown by Soviet troops was for their protection. Azerbaijanis, on the other hand, see the intervention only as a means to prevent their country from seceding from the former Soviet Union and rarely, if ever, mention the anti-Armenian pogroms which preceded it.
Blogs by foreign travelers with experience of the region, however, set events arguably in their proper context. Changes and Colours, for example, notes the violence that spared no one and left many caught inbetween.
[…] Twenty years ago when the movement for independence from the Soviet Union was gaining momentum, a wave of nationalistic pogroms erupted in the country. In a city once known for its multinational culture people turned on each other “man against man, neighbor against neighbor.” Some chose to become hunters, some, not given a choice, became hunted. People were killed and those who weren’t fled the city. On the night from the 19th to 20th of January 1990 Soviet troops entered Baku and again innocent people were killed. […]
Twenty years have passed but the memories of those days are still throbbing. One woman told me how she and her small kids huddled in the bathroom close to the floor because so many people were killed by stray bullets. “I still remember the crack running in the center of my tiles,” she said. The other told of the painful realization that people whom you knew could so easily turn against you. “We were neighbors, you know,” she kept repeating, even after 20 years shaking her head in disbelief.
Whenever I listen to people talk about those days – I inevitably notice the faraway look of souls lost in the past and when after a pause they return to conversation, they say, “Let’s not talk about it, it was so long ago” and then there is silence.
These selective interpretations and accounts of January 1990 from Armenians and Azerbaijanis, however, are not only perpetuated through the local media, but also carried through on blogs. Of course, the loss to both sides was painful and this is perhaps to be expected. Marika, for example, marked the 20th anniversary of the Baku pogrom simply.
[…]. It was on January 13th 1990 when «cleansing» of Baku from Armenian population statred and resulted in 400 Armenians killed and 200 thousand exiled.
Meanwhile, the blog of the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy doesn't mention the pogrom at all and instead concentrates only on the Soviet intervention, using the anniversary to also talk only of reported ethnic violence against Azerbaijanis by Armenians.
It was 20 January 1990 and it was time to respond Azerbaijanis. The response became the expected horror – violence! 26.000 Soviet troops were sent to Baku. Not for settling the conflict. Because the conflict was occurring in Garabagh.
Meanwhile, Yerevan Journal quotes media reports on violence and attrocities against ethnic Armenians in Baku while Window on Eurasia analyzes events and says that, as in Armenia, January 1990 represented the “Karabakhization” of internal politics in the country.
[…] it is a reminder of the continuing sensitivity of the events of a generation ago in the Caucasus now, an impact that any who are seeking to address the problems there must not only acknowledge but also face up to, all the more now because these feelings have been allowed to fester so long.
Even among young bloggers in Azerbaijan, barely old enough to remember the events of those days, Black January remains an event stuck in their consciousness. Fatalin's Blog, for example, admits that it was too young to remember much, but those days appear alive enough to warrant an extended post.
It’s been 20 years since the tragedy, and I’m not a four-year-old who knows what bullets were used on January 20th anymore. But I know for sure, that I wouldn’t want my kids to know what is tracer bullet at the age of 4, to watch their mom edit scary footages of tragedy, or hear their dad calling from the KGB, war zone, or a demonstration.
[…]
It’s been 20 years since the tragedy of 20th January, which killed 130 and injured around 700 people.
Allah rehmet elesin.
Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines also feels the same.
It was the middle of the night, January 19th 1990, tanks started passing by our house… I remember… My mother screamed so loud that I still hear the sound of her voice in my ears every time I think of that night… I was standing by the window, trying to make out the huge machines that were coming… Back then I didn't know what was going on, I was only 7 but I knew it was not good. My mother's concerned face wasn't good. She was afraid and so were many others that night.
That night Soviet troops crashed barricades storming the capital. There was shooting everywhere.
Yet, if Azerbaijanis fail to mention the anti-Armenian pogroms which gave Moscow what Human Rights Watch alleges was an excuse to intervene, and while Armenians inflate the death toll and fail to mention the pogroms as part of a mutual downward spiral into inter-ethnic violence, one regional expert and analyst considers both the Baku pogrom and Black January to be part of the same tragic event.
[…] Thomas de Waal has called this pogrom the first part of “Black January” a tragedy with about 90 Armenian victims. According to him, at first a large crowd collected in the Lenin Square of Baku, and at nightfall different groups separated from the Azerbaijani Popular Front demonstrants, and started to attack Armenians. […] Several eyewitnesses told Helsinki Watch/Memorial that they “approached militiamen on the street to report nearby attacks on Armenians, but the militiamen did nothing”.[10]
With the onset of independence for the two South Caucasus countries stained with blood, The Armenian Observer instead criticizes both Armenians and Azerbaijanis, implying that that a selective or subjective account of history does nothing to ease the pain or resolve an ethnic conflict which still continues to this day.
Twenty years ago today seven-day pogroms broke out against Armenians in Baku, with various sources citing a death toll of 48 to 400. Tens of thousands of Armenians, or, according to some Armenian sources, as many as 200 thousand were exiled from their homes. Baku was effectively cleaned of Armenians. Evidence suggests, that the action was organized by Azerbaijani authorities, as the attackers had lists of Armenians and their addresses.
This is one of the many bleeding wounds caused by the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. And as with most other ongoing conflicts, Armenians and Azerbaijanis try to distort history and tilt it in their own favor. Quite expectedly, Armenian media is full of articles today about the pogroms. Some have gone so far as to liken the pogroms in Baku to the Genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman empire.
This approach, however, is not acceptable to me. Pogroms of Armenians in Baku were most tragic events. Fuss, lies, exaggerations and attempts to score political points here are completely inappropriate. Stating bare facts is so horrible, that there is no need to exaggerate anything. And I don’t see the point in pressing the wound so hard – it doesn’t heal that way. Let’s just prey in silence. RIP
Unfortunately, however, few other bloggers on both sides appear to agree with one Azerbaijani blogger writing over Skype that accounts are determined only by what is taught in schools or published in the local media. For now, at least, it is perhaps therefore understandable that most blogs continue to toe the same line.
This post is part of our special coverage Caucasus Conflict Voices.


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Barbados, Haiti: Power of Love  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Yes, there is good emerging from the horror in Haiti, a very great deal of it. If it could, that power – the all-encompassing, ominpotent power of love – would end suffering” – and, blogging from Barbados, B.C. Pires is quick to remind us that “it comes unbidden from human hearts.”


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Caribbean: Ready for another earthquake? · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

The stories and images of devastation pouring out of Haiti since the 7.0 earthquake on 12 January have shocked many citizens of neighbouring Caribbean countries. Many have joined relief efforts, and some have engaged in serious soul-searching about Haiti's history and the role the Caribbean should play in long-term reconstruction. And inevitably there has been discussion and debate about whether, and to what degree, the wider Caribbean is prepared for future major tremors, given that most of the region is earthquake prone. (Repeating Islands has posted a list of major historical earthquakes in the Caribbean, from the 17th century to the 20th.)
A 5.8-magnitude tremor in the vicinity of the Cayman Islands on 19 January and the 6.1-magnitude aftershock in Haiti on 20 January only added fuel to the discussion. Many bloggers — such as Yardflex — have linked to media reports discussing the ongoing risk, or suggesting that the Caribbean is “due for” another major tremor. As @anniepaul (Jamaica-based writer Annie Paul) remarked on Twitter after hearing of the Caymans tremor: “we must be next!”
Two days after the Haiti earthquake, Living in Barbados noted:
Most of us in the Caribbean think of our disasters in terms of weather-related events, such as hurricanes. But earthquakes are different. They cannot really be predicted with much accuracy, though one can know of their likelihood because of where the Earth's fault lines are…. they do not happen with equal frequency and do not have seasons. When your country's last experience of something is 100-200 years ago, it's hard to expect people to know what to do.
A few days later, Canada-based Jamaican writer Pamela Mordecai asked, “Can we avoid catastrophes like the earthquake in Haiti?”:
The ideal thing … would be to know when the earthquake is coming.
There is one famous case where the successful forecasting of a quake led to the saving of many lives. In 1975 Chinese officials ordered the evacuation of the city of Haicheng (population one million) mere days before a quake that had a 7.3 magnitude. Only a small portion of the population was hurt or killed…. The observation of animal behaviour was in part what led to the prediction of that earthquake….
It's hard to imagine that listening to the dogs and cats might have spared Haiti.
Bahamian Womanish Words reflected on the element of chance, or luck:
We in the Bahamas are as vulnerable to quakes and tsunamis as any other place, and I never really knew it until now. The window is full of calm, a silent, still night is coming down, Haiti is crying, and I am stunned by the thought of all that we know and love around us, swept away in one terrible moment, that it happens to people all the time, that it is only luck so far that has saved us.
And Trinidadian Coffeewallah wondered if recent natural disasters were part of a wider pattern:
It has become increasingly commonplace for Mother Nature to get even with us humans. Drought, flooding, earthquake, Tsunamis, we’ve seen a lot of activity…. Humans have grown to expect that we are at the top of the food chain and think we will always have it our way, perhaps Nature has other ideas for us or at least we must acknowledge that it comes with a price.
Other bloggers were pragmatic. Islas Bellas in the Cayman Islands, noting that “there's nothing like a few tremors to bring out the terror in people,” posted ten earthquake safety tips (and explaining that familiar advice about standing in a doorway during an earthquake isn't such a good idea). Trinidadian Taran Rampersad, writing at KnowTnT.com, argued for the implementation of emergency SMS (short message service) systems, to make communications easier in the event of a disaster:
Imagine being trapped under some rubble with only a mobile phone for company. You could be hurt, bleeding, hungry, dehydrated or any combination of the above. If the mobile infrastructure is even partially intact, calling people on the phone would be limited by the likely overload of the mobile system. But SMS messages get queued. They also drain less battery life which, if you're stuck, could be very important in saving your life or the life of someone you love….
The technology exists. Unfortunately, the concern never seems to exist until afterwards.
kid5rivers wrote about the importance of enforcing construction standards in Trinidad and Tobago:
…the drive must begin … with the massive public housing sector, where, for too long, shoddiness has been allowed to rule. For the life of me I cannot understand why inadequately reinforced buildings are permitted to be erected and or occupied.
And Now Is Wow Too simply decided to sign up for a Red Cross first aid course: “Not being ‘negative’, just practical,” she wrote. “Whether injuries are as a result of ‘simple’ daily mishaps or natural disasters, it's good for us to have these basic skills.”
As if to reinforce the sense of urgency about preparedness, Repeating Islands posted an article by geologist and tsunami expert Brian McAdoo, who analysed the Haiti earthquake and declared:
This earthquake should be a wake-up call for Kingston [Jamaica]. Should the 1692 earthquake happen today, Kingston would be devastated, albeit not to the same degree as Port-au-Prince. If these strong-shaking events occur in regions with poor construction, after the earthquake is done wreaking its havoc, the tsunami will finish the job, leaving little hope for those stuck in the collapsed buildings.
Global Voices’ Special Coverage Page on the earthquake in Haiti is here.

author: Nicholas Laughlin


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Cayman Islands: Earthquake Safety  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As earthquake tremors are felt in the Cayman Islands, Islas Bellas posts a few safety tips.


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China: Another Cell Phone Registration System in the Works · Global Voices
Don Weinland

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has announced a plan to enforce a “real-name” registration system for mobile phone users.
The announcement comes four years after the Ministry of Information Industry—which subsequently became the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology—drew up the framework for similar legislation.  Despite much talk of enforcement, the 2006 plan failed to meet the final approval of the State Council.
The new plan for mobile phone registration has materialized as the second phase of a “porn sweep” carried out by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.  According to a People’s Postal report, due to the increasing instances of pornographic material accessed on 3G cellular phones, the ministry hopes to pass a stipulation by the end of 2010 requiring the registration of name and ID number upon purchase of mobile services.
The plan has met with both praise and criticism.  According to an article at the Legal Mirror, cell phone users in China see the measure as a “fundamental cure” for junk text messaging and the notorious “single ring” scams in which a user’s phone rings once and, upon calling the number back, is charged or hit with an advertisement.
A program at Youku.com discusses a registration stipulation in May of last year awaiting State Council approval in Guangdong Province.  The program cites a netizen’s affirmation of the system:
。。。有啥可怕，如此一来，利用手机短信犯罪的肯定少了，警方管控和打击“信息犯罪”的难度也大为降低。
…What’s there to be afraid of?  Since [the introduction of a real-name registration system], those committing crimes through text messaging have certainly been reduced.  The level of difficulty for authorities to control and attack ‘information crime’ has also been greatly reduced.
Yet some investigative journalism conducted by the Legal Mirror’s Wang Shaoyan has revealed some possible shortcomings in the system.  Although a registration system has already been enforced in Beijing, Wang had no problem purchasing mobile phone service from multiple phone card distributors without an ID.
记者对几个手机号码代售点随机调查。一家出售手机卡号的小店，门口纸板上写满了出售的手机卡号。记者表示没有带身份证后，店主称没关系，随后他拿出了一张用户登记表让记者填写，但记者所登记的姓名、身份证号是否真实则明显不关心…在问及是否知道明年底要推行实名制时，店主连连摇头：“不现实，我们这里没法查验，而且我也不可能要求客人给我看身份证，这不是自断财路吗？”
This reporter randomly surveyed a few phone card distributors.  One shop selling phone card numbers had a bunch of card numbers written on cardboard at the door.  When the reporter said he hadn’t brought his ID card, the shop owner said not to worry about it and pulled out a user registration form to be filled out.  But [the owner] obviously didn’t care if the reporter’s name and ID number weren’t real…When asked if he was aware that a registration system would be enforced at the end of the year, the owner shook his head: “It’s not realistic.  We don’t have any way of inspecting [ID] here, and I can’t ask my customers to let me see their ID.  Wouldn’t I be putting myself out of business?”
An article at Tongxin Chanye Post not only called the system inefficient but claimed the collection of personal information required to carry out registration was a risk to consumer privacy:
通信市场越发达，运营商及其分销渠道就越错综复杂、难以管控。谁来负责用户信息的保密性？姓名+年龄+户籍地址+手机号码：多么完整而宝贵的数据库营销资源。
As the communications market develops, mobile network operators and distribution channels become more complex and harder to manage.  Who will be responsible for the confidentiality of user information?  Name, age, place of origin, phone number: What a complete and valuable collection of sellable information.
Chinese cell phone users will have to wait and see whether the stipulation is approved nationwide.  If approved, the level of enforcement and degree of efficiency in handling mobile phone scams and pornographic material is still under question.


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China: Avatar ordered to make way for Confucius? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

DANWEI blogs about SARFT's response to the rumor that the mega-hit Avatar has been ordered to stop its run early in order to make way for Confucius. Meanwhile, workers in Guangzhou started using Avatar as their protest slogan.


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Colombia: Hard to Tell the Good Guys from the Bad · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

My Camera by Marcin Wichary
Through citizen videos, different Colombian organizations share their unique perspectives on crime, violence and armed conflict, where it's hard to tell apart the good guys from the bad.
First, mothers and family members show up to march against the armed forces impunity on the deaths of young men due to what has been called False Positives. In the latest false positive situation, it seems that military lured young men with promises of work to rural areas where they were then assassinated and passed off as guerrilla members killed in action. However, the 17 accused members of the military were released when the trial deadlines were not met.
The second group is the Nasa indigenous community, who through their YouTube channel have the opportunity to tell a side of the story usually avoided by mass media. In this case, the mines, mortar shells and other weapons left on their indigenous preserve, which is in the middle of the disputed areas between legal and illegal armed groups. The indigenous security service has to frequently “sweep” the area, including houses, to dispose of these weapons left by both the national army and the guerrillas. In the video, they ask the armed forces to please stop laying landmines and to at least come and pick up the unexploded ammunition before the members of their indigenous community stumble upon them.
In this third example, a neighborhood newspaper interviews the police to ask for the end of the year balance. In the interview, titled “Watch out for the bad neighbor” the officer mentions an incident where members of a criminal gang lived in a well-to-do apartment building much to the surprise of the neighbors, smuggling out weapons inside duffel bags designed to transport tennis raquets. But what is surprising is the recommendation the officer has for anyone: keep an eye on your neighbors and if you see young men with lots of money living on their own, eating out most of the time and bringing attractive young women into their apartment, particularly if they look like call girls, they might be members of the mafia.
Do you know of any other communities and organizations who are using video to tell stories not covered by mass media or to share different perspectives on the stories making the news? Please share them with us through the comments or write me a note!

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Egypt: Detained Bloggers Tell their Tales · Global Voices
Marwa Rakha

More than 20 Egyptian bloggers, who were on their way to pay their respects to the families of the victims of the Coptic massacre, were arrested when their train arrived in the village of Naga Hammady in Upper Egypt. They were released shortly afterwards and they are now telling us their side of the story.
Dr Mostafa Al Naggar, the mastermind behind the visit, is stressing once again the purpose of the trip:
Before the trip he got a call:
Upon their arrival, they were circled by the police and the following conversation took place between the officer and Dr Al Naggar:
To discuss the massacre and the unlawful arrests, Mahmoud Saber posted a link to his blog and on Facebook announcing the
Ahmed Badawy posted some pictures here and  shared his experience  saying:
Sherif Abdel Aziz blogged his testimonial:
Wa7da Masrya posted a picture of the officer who arrested them and complained of his uncalled for rough treatment:
Meanwhile, Amira El Tahawi posted pictures from within their cell. They stumbled upon a graffiti signed by El Kamony, who happens to be one of the shooters in the massacre; it said
Mohamed Adel (Ameed Meit), posted pictures of the bloggers upon their release and Amira El Tahawi posted a picture on Facebook that sums up bigotry:
The photograph is of two pieces of news from Al Naba'a Newspaper – one (left) refers to the Christians who died as “victims” while the other (right) refers to the Muslim who died as a “martyr.”
Like everyone else, Sandmonkey is wondering What Happened There!
So, the government decided to finally release the detained activists on Saturday, and they arrived on Saturday night back to Cairo, unharmed and all. There was no beating, there was no torture, unless you count having to spend a whole day and night in a small room without anything to lay or sit on torture […] The next morning, the order for the release of the activists was made, and they chose not to tell them. They just left them there till noon, and then went and gotten them out of their cells, put them in Mini-buses, and sent them back to Cairo. They are all safe, sound and exhausted. They still got no explanation as to why they were treated this way, and they never got to reach the families of the victims to offer their condolences. Having muslims consoling the families of Christian victims of muslim hate-crimes, well, that's just too much of a risk apparently. It might lessen the hate or something, and we can't have that!

author: Marwa Rakha


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Haiti: A website to help locate survivors · Global Voices
Suzanne Lehn

A website, Survivors of Haiti's earthquake, has just been set up “to help to locate survivors of the earthquake that hit Haiti”, and is available both in French and English. The website allows an easy registering of a missing person (with description and picture), enables safe people to make themselves known, recognize a missing person or convey information. It gives a list of useful links and Twitter feeds dedicated to missing persons posts. French Ministry of foreign affairs and the NGO involved have been requested to feed the website with their data. Over 23.000 people have been registered so far.

author: Suzanne Lehn


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Haiti: a week after the earthquake · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Relief efforts are under way in southern Haiti, exactly a week after the country was devastated by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake. As many desperate Haitians flee the capital, Port-au-Prince, for what they hope will be relative safety in other towns and rural areas, and as growing numbers of relief aid workers and foreign troops arrive, bloggers and Twitter users continue to report on local developments, make pleas for emergency assistance, and comment on the government and international response to the crisis.
A handful of frequent Twitter users have been invaluable sources of information over the past week. Musician and hotelier Richard Morse, tweeting as @RAMhaiti, had a great deal to say today about the pace and effectiveness of relief efforts:
Is the aid really going 2 get 2 the people?. We're looking 4 live bodies..”Did you bring food??” Can u blame someone who's hungry 4 looting?
I don't get the feeling that there's a plan…I hope “THE PLANNING COMMITTEE” isn't the “same ol’ folks”..been there,done that.
No sense of who is going 2 lead this next phase.There had better be some changes.Better figure out how 2 get food and water 2 ppl real qwik
He warned:
A hungry man is an angry man. a hungry mob is an angry mob.
One of my staff has been here since Tuesday working day and night..left 10 minutes ago..just came back.”the streets aren't good…thieves”
But he still managed to crack a joke:
Even with all this earthquake trauma, I still get spam mail from Nigerian bankers.
Journalist Carel Pedre (@carelpedre) has been another frequent tweeter. On the morning of 19 January, he shared the good news that a couple of supermarkets in Petionville had reopened for business, and struck a note of optimism:
I love haiti! I see hope and smile on so many faces today!
Photographer Frederic Dupoux (@fredodupoux), on the other hand, made an urgent call for help in the Fontamara area west of downtown Port-au-Prince:
In fontamara 27 there is no aid, no medical team no water in sight. #haiti #help #SOS
Just spoke to a 5 y-o girl a block fell on her head its an open wound and there's no help around. People around just gave her amoxiciline.
Please send some help here.
Religious charity workers have been among the most regular on-the-ground bloggers. From Port-au-Prince, Troy Livesay gave a status report on the afternoon of 19 January on the ad hoc medical clinic his Heartline Ministries organisation has set up:
We've become a hospital, in that many patients cannot be treated and released. I may not have the accurate count, but I believe we're keeping 14 right now. We're rolling with it….
Via Twitter (@troylivesay), he passed on news from the town of Leogane, close to the earthquake's epicentre:
Eyewitness acct f/ Past. Henri-‘Compared to Leogane, Port au Prince is beautiful.’ It must be really,really bad there.
In Jacmel, Gwen Mangine paid tribute to her colleagues helping to organise the distribution of airlifted supplies from the town's small airstrip, but she also shared a story of unexpected selfishness in the time of crisis:
We've been trying to locate oxygen for a team of doctors that came in. They need it before they can operate. We located a supplier in Jacmel…. He has oxygen. He had tanks. He wouldn't give us the tanks. He said unless we have empty tanks to exchange we cannot have oxygen. I told him that we need it for surgery. He told us than we better get some tanks. I said I would pay him whatever he wanted. Anything. Just ask and I will pay it. He refused. I told him that people were DYING because they need surgery and we cannot do the surgeries without the oxygen. He said he didn't care. I asked him again, “So you're telling me that you want me people to die rather than give us the tanks?” He said, “Yes.”
Meanwhile, in the rural village of Fond des Blancs, Canadian charity worker Ellen in Haiti was far removed from the zone of immediate crisis, but expressed the shock and sorrow of many Haitians experiencing the ripple effects of the disaster:
…we are not seeing much of the physical suffering, but it is still difficult.  The stories are hard.  Everyone I know has lost close relatives. Fred, a university grad who had recently been at St. Boniface for a work experience, showed up yesterday.  He lost two brothers and everything he owns.  He had nowhere else to go….
As time goes by, the realization of how much things have changed is sinking in.  The whole world is different.  Any plans anyone had for the future here have changed.  People have hope, but they realize that even the smallest things may never happen or need to be put on hold indefinitely.
In Les Cayes, Pwoje Espwa posted photos of the traffic congestion caused by people fleeing the capital:
People are arriving from PaP and many are trying to get out to the provinces where they have family…. Some gas and some medicine have come into town which has alleviated the crisis a bit. Much more is needed so we are hoping that what we read on the net about supplying the countryside will happen.
And the blog of the Konbit Pou Ayiti organisation gave reports from several areas of the country today. The civil society group KOFAVIV, the Commission of Women Victims for Victims, gave an account of conditions in Chanmas, a Port-au-Prince neighbourhood:
…many women are sleeping in Chanmas in bad conditions, in the damp night air, where the sun beats on them, rain falls on them, damp air hits them, many of them lost a lot of their family, we can say, many of them already did not have anything to their name, now hunger almost kills them
Konbit Pou Ayiti also posted a report from a SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods) staff member, who gave a glimpse of the situation in the Champs de Mars, a city park where many homeless people have taken refuge:
…amongst the swarms of displaced people there was calm and solidarity. We wound our way through the camp asking for injured people who needed to get to the hospital. Despite everyone telling us that as soon as we did this we would be mobbed by people, I was amazed as we approached each tent people gently pointed us towards their neighbors, guiding us to those who were suffering the most. We picked up 5 badly injured people….
Back in Jacmel, students of the Ciné Institute have continued to post video from their town at the institute blog. Today that included a report (by Lesly Decembre) from a makeshift refugee camp, and footage of the first aid vessels arriving at Jacmel's harbour.


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Haiti: aftershock effects · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Early this morning, at approximately 6.00 am local time, many people in southern Haiti were alarmed by a strong aftershock (measured at 6.1 magnitude), with an epicentre near the town of Petit-Goâve, west of Port-au-Prince. This was the strongest in a series of aftershocks since the major earthquake on 12 January which devastated the capital and surrounding areas. (Many Haitians whose houses are standing but damaged continue to sleep outdoors as a precaution.)
Online reactions came almost immediately, starting on Twitter. “Strong aftershock! Danm!” wrote @carelpedre (radio journalist Carel Pedre) in Port-au-Prince. “Major aftershock just now…felt like a five,” wrote @troylivesay (charity aid worker Troy Livesay), almost simultaneously.“Guess we don't need an alarm when the earth shakes and wakes you up as if you were late for an urgent meeting,” commented @olidups (Olivier Dupoux). It was also reported by @bibinetallez (Fabiola Coupet) in Petionville and @yatalley (blogger Yael Talleyrand) in Jacmel.
@RAMhaiti (musician and hotelier Richard Morse) was more voluble:
Another one!! Good Morning. last night I went to bed wondering why I was still sleeping outside.This morning I found out why.
Yes there was another Quake. Not as long,not as strong.It was like your mother giving you a little shake in the morning to get you out of bed
People screamed in the background..I heard what sounded like a building come crashing down.
The photographers went of into the city to document what may have happened..They've all started sleeping inside..don't know why
Later in the morning, reports of new damage began to appear. @troylivesay wrote: “More houses and buildings came down in this morning's aftershock. Many more people out in the streets again this am.” @RAMhaiti added: “A journalist friend went 2 Carrefour Feuille area after this AM quake;says that what I thought was 1 building falling was several small ones”.
There were also reports of disruption to Internet access, though unclear whether this was caused by the aftershock. @troylivesay remarked “internet is out”, and @JoyInHope (a charity organisation in Jacmel) reported: “AccessHaiti internet out in #Jacmel but we have iChat through satellite with the ground.  Info will be slow and spotty today.”
Bloggers on the ground in Haiti also described the aftershock and its effects on people's nerves. Ellen in Haiti, a Canadian charity worker in the village of Fond des Blancs, wrote:
It's 6:15 am and everyone is out in the yard.  We just had a very strong aftershock of 6.0 that lasted about 10 seconds. As usual, our thoughts go straight to Port au Prince where everything is so unstable.
I was sitting at the kitchen table writing emails, and felt it start, expecting another small aftershock. It increased in intensity and didn't stop, so I yelled for Nancy and we ran outside.
People had just started to relax yesterday, working back indoors, sleeping indoors.  Now they will be outside again.
BuxmanHaiti, another charity worker in Port-au-Prince, expressed an anxiety many must have felt:
I am so weary. So afraid this second Earth Quake did more damage and caused more deaths. I am sure the clinic is be very busy today…. This morning during the Earth Quake I jumped out of bed and ran screaming “get out get out” like everyone did not know to do that!
At The Livesay [Haiti] Weblog, Troy Livesay commented:
It was the strongest aftershock we've felt yet. I looked on line and see that they are saying it was a 6.1. I cannot begin to describe how totally afraid everyone here is … these aftershocks stir everything back up to the surface. I would have to imagine that lots of buildings that were hanging close to collapsing may have now collapsed. This aftershock lasted about 15 seconds. The original 7.0 lasted a good 45 seconds. Every time someone opens the front gate (makes a large noise) we all jump to our feet to get out of the house.
But before too long, he reported on new efforts to bring injured people to the medical clinic his organisation is running. For many people in Haiti, jitters over this morning's aftershock have already been overtaken by the drive to survive and recover from last week's catastrophe.
Global Voices’ Special Coverage Page on the earthquake in Haiti is here.


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Haiti: Communities · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“As we consider the rapid militarization underway in Haiti and the prospect of a long-lasting U.S. or U.N. military presence in the country, there is growing concern about supporting local Haitian organizations who could lead the nation into an independent recovery attentive to local needs”: Repeating Islands posts a list of local organizations that aim to meet community needs.


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Haïti: No haste about adoptions! · Global Voices
Suzanne Lehn

Haïti, après le séisme warns [Fr] about the evacuation of children waiting to be adopted : “To act in haste would be disastrous”. Facing adopting families’ growing impatience and lack of understanding, the NL, U.S. and French governments are taking different stances. From Canada, Secrétariat à l’adoption internationale, as well as Unicef, recall the priority to check if the child is alone in the world.


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Haiti: Restoring Communications and Local Media Networks · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Haiti's communication infrastructure was seriously damaged after a 7.0 earthquake devastated the Island on January 12. Since day one, Global Voices has been intensely curating and amplifying the voices of local citizen journalists and activists. It can be very empowering for people in Haiti to be able to narrate their stories in their own words, on their own terms, and in their own voices.
With this in mind, Feminist International Radio Endeavour (FIRE), an Internet grassroots feminist radio station based in Costa Rica, has joined efforts with the NGO's Colectiva Mujer y Salud (Women & Health Collective)  and Center for the Investigation on Feminist Action (CIPAF), both based in the Dominican Republic, to open the Feminist International Solidarity Camp Myriam Merlet next week on the Haitian-Dominican Border. The camp will have a Communications Center from where media activists will help coordinate local media efforts. The solidarity camp is named after Myriam Merlet,  renowned Haitian feminist activist and past Chief of Staff of the Haitian Ministry of Women, who died when her house collapsed after the earthquake.
In the following video, feminist writer Eve Ensler, remembers Merlet.
Democracy Now interviews Eve Ensler
Feminist activist María Suárez Toro, co-founder of FIRE, explains that the International Solidarity Camp will have a Communications Center that will help coordinate and restore women's communication networks:
That will include radio transmissions via Internet by FIRE (Feminist International Radio Endeavour), as well as blogs, and electronic networks organized by women’s communication networks throughout the region, such as Alianza Mediática Continental, SEM/LAC, CIMAC, Cotidiano Mujer,  Red de Mujeres de AMARC, amongst others.
The camp will also include a Resource Center that will coordinate efforts to send resources “directly to the women of Haiti” and will work with Human Rights activists from Haiti to “monitor, denounce, and demand legal action regarding violations of human rights”. There will also be a Health Center to “help deal with the grief, injuries, illnesses and traumas” caused by the earthquake.
The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) has also called on community broadcasters to support Haiti.
The earthquake has caused extensive damage to communication systems and other vital services. Among the many people directly affected are community media workers and their families.
AMARC is conducting an urgent assessment of the status of community broadcasting in the areas affected and is working to mobilize resources and technical assistance. AMARC estimates that at least 12 community radio stations are located within the zones that have suffered the most severe earthquake destruction. The full extent of the impact is not yet known.
AMARC is calling on community broadcasters to support the international relief effort by organizing airtime appeals and other activities, and to provide direct assistance to community broadcasters affected by the earthquake, including equipment donations and financial support.
Even before this catastrophic disaster, Haiti faced enormous problems of transport and communications infrastructure, access to electricity and high rates of illiteracy. Community radio has developed, since 1992, as an essential part of Haiti's communications landscape, reaching the poorest communities and enabling their participation in development.
AMARC has created a list of community radio stations in Haiti.
Map of community radios in Haiti. Republished with permission of AMARC.
For more information about the Myriam Merlet Feminist International Solidarity Camp you can write in English to FIRE oficina{at}radiofeminista{dot}net, or in Spanish to Colectiva Mujer y Salud colec.mujer{at}codetel{dot}net{dot}do.
Please visit our special coverage page on Haiti.

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


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Hong Kong: Media harassment of activist · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

tj_legg blogs about the dirty act of a local magazine in publishing student activist Christina Chan Hau-man's bathroom pictures in the cover. The blogger interprets the dirty tactic as a mean to silence Chan.


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India, Pakistan: Cricket Diplomacy · Global Voices
Rezwan

The Acorn comments that “it was wrong to leave Pakistani cricketers out” of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the IPL international players’ auction.


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Japan: Blogosphere Opinions on “Climategate” · Global Voices
apeescape

This article is a little late to the fray, but “Climategate” was also a topic of interest in Japan. Although the controversy was not as strong say compared to the U.S. or U.K., many Japanese bloggers voiced their opinions.
“Climategate” in brief is the highly controversial issue where a thousand plus emails across 13 years, derived from the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia were illegally stolen and posted on the interwebs. It was timed right before COP15 for subsequent use for strong allegations made to the climate scientists for cooking data, preventing disclosure of information and interfering with the peer review process towards the support of anthropogenic global warming.
Finalvent from Far East Blog (極東ブログ), who was named an Alpha blogger in 2004 [ja], focuses [ja] not on how the hacked emails influenced the climate change discussions, but on how it gives a peak into how scientists are occasionally vulnerable to subverting the scientific method.
重要なのは、これらのまとめが、なんら地球温暖化の知見には寄与してないことで、どうやらクライメイトゲート事件自体は、地球温暖化懐疑論とは独立していると見てよい。
What's of importance that's discussed here is that the whole “Climategate” scandal does not contribute to the knowledge of global warming and thus, should be kept independent from the arguments of the anthropogenic climate change skeptics.
Noted blogger/economist/reporter Nobuo Ikeda (池田信夫) brings up [ja] the famous hockey-stick model as an example of how scientists are prone to constructing models to fit their intuition.
このように「初めに結論ありき」で研究が進められることは珍しくない。特にIPCCのように一つの大学に数億ドルの補助金が出るような大プロジェクトでは 「結果を出す」ことが求められるので、なるべく温暖化が起きているようにデータを解釈するインセンティブが生じるが、このホッケースティックのように意図的に原データを改竄するのは、科学的な論争のルールを逸脱している。
Like the hockey-stick model, it is not uncommon to see research progress with a preferred conclusion on hand. There's a lot of pressure to get results for a research project like this one, where an inordinate amount of funding for one institution is involved. In this case, there was incentive to show that anthropogenic global warming was occurring. Biases due to incentives can occur anywhere but when raw data is altered like in this “Climategate” scandal, it goes beyond what is acceptable for scientific arguments.
Japanese climate scientist Shinji Ayanami (綾波シンジ) refutes [ja] Ikeda's argument that the hockey-stick model was found to be erroneous (or even unethical) and therefore, removed from the IPCC report. Ayanami lists the relevant conclusions of the National Academy of Sciences synthesis report on surface temperature reconstructions that mention subsequent studies that robustly vindicate Michael Mann's (creator of the hockey-stick) results with caveats of his admitted uncertainties and limitations of the original model.
He states that Ikeda is making an ironical leap of faith to conform to his own intuitions that the IPCC is biased by assuming the hockey-stick was unethical by taking two data points, the National Academy of Sciences study and the removal of the hockey-stick in the IPCC report.
…「雨が降り、洗濯物が濡れた。」と書いてあっても、実際には「雨が（外で）降り、（洗濯機で洗濯を始めたので）洗濯物が濡れた。」という話であって、因果関係は書 いていない…
Someone could write “it was raining and the laundry got wet” when in reality “it was raining (outside) while the laundry got wet (in the washing machine)”. There is no mention of a causal effect in the original sentence and the implication that the rain made the laundry wet can only come from intuitive interpolation.
Blogger himaginary sees similarities [ja] of the “Climategate” scandal with the Tsukuba University Plasma Research Center‘s data fabrication incident. Read this Japan Times article for more details on the Tsukuba University incident.
…筑波大プラズマ研究改竄事件となんか似ているな、と思ったので、以下に気が付いた共通点を思いつくままに挙げてみる。なお、あくまでも素人による感想レベルの比較であることはお断りしておく。また、だから何なんだ、と問い詰められても困るが、巨大科学のスキャンダルにおける構造をアネクドート的に探る手掛かりくらいにはなるかもしれない、とは考えている。
I've listed some similarities between the two incidents, although I must say that I am an amateur with respect to my impressions of either incident. I just thought this might be an important exercise that will give a clue on how structural corruption happens on large-scale science projects.
Emori Seita (江守正多) of the National Institute for Environmental Studies (国立環境研究所), possibly the most famous climate scientist in Japan, delves into some misunderstandings [ja] of temperature reconstructions. He subsequently argues [ja] that while academia (nor IPCC) isn't perfect, it is the best tool we have for understanding scientific issues and incidents “Climategate” stray away from this process.
…実は、IPCCの報告書の原稿自体も、世界中の専門家と政府担当者から、合計３回の査読を経て作成されます。そして、少なくとも温暖化の科学に関する部分（第１作業部会）に関しては、すべての査読コメントとその１つ１つに対する執筆者の応答が、インターネット上に公開されています。つ まり、これまでもIPCCは相当程度に自覚的に、評価の過程を透明にすることに努力しているということです。そのせいかどうかはわかりませんが、主流に対 して批判的な論文も、必要なものは引用されています。ここからもわかるように、一部の研究者が恣意的にIPCC報告書の内容を大きく変えることは不可能で しょう。
IPCC's reports and manuscripts go through three rounds of peer review by expert scientists from around the world. At least for the first working group, all of the peer review comments and its corresponding responses are available to the public online. That is, the IPCC is making a conscious effort to make the process as transparent as possible. Possibly due to this, papers that contradict IPCC's consensus are frequently cited. Therefore, it would be impossible for one group of researchers to arbitrarily change the consensus in a major way.

author: apeescape


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Japan: Tokyo as example for how to rebuild Haiti · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

palmsundae comments on New York Times’ story about post-war Japan's experience in rebuilding Tokyo. The blogger provides more background on the idea of “user generated-cities”.


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Russia: Yandex Released Most Popular Search Queries in 2009 · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Russia's most popular search engine Yandex.ru published [RUS] top 10 search queries in 2009. Those are “New Year”, “Eurovision 2009″, “homework”, “GTA 4″, “High School Diploma exam”, “International Women's Day”, “Long Night of Museums”, “Swine Flu”, “The Sims 3″ and “Defender of the Fatherland Day.”


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Sri Lanka: Pre-Election Surveys · Global Voices
Rezwan

C A Saliya at Groundviews discusses various pre-election surveys for the upcoming presidential election in Sri Lanka. The surveys are showing conflicting outcomes.


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Sri Lanka: The Tamil Votebank · Global Voices
Rezwan

Indrajit Samarajiva at Indi.ca discusses how Sri Lankan Tamils will vote and whether they will vote or stay out of the impending presidential election of Sri Lanka.


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Taiwan: Relevance of right-wing · Global Voices
David Reid

Dixteel argues that the KMT in Taiwan doesn't really fit the definition of right-wing.

author: David Reid


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Trinidad & Tobago, Haiti: Supporting Citizen Media  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Anything I can say about Haiti is going to sound like a platitude, so I’ll spare you those having to do with human misery and direct another one at myself instead: I have no idea what to expect and am not sure my imagination can prepare me”: Global Voices’ Managing Editor is headed for Haiti “to encourage and support the continuance of the burgeoning citizen media activity the earthquake has occasioned.”


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Turkey: Solve the Hrant Dink case… · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Erkan's Field Diary comments on the case of Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian journalist who was assassinated in broad daylight in Istanbul, Turkey, three years ago this week. The blog says that if the authorities actually solved the case completely they would also solve that of another — the controversial Ergenekon case.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Ukraine: Bloggers Discuss Presidential Election · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Ukrainians went to the polls on Sunday, Jan. 17, to choose their president from the 18 candidates running for the post this year. According to the election commission (UKR), opposition leader Victor Yanukovich received 35.32% of the vote, while prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko is in second place, with 25.05%. As neither won 50% of the vote, they face a runoff vote, scheduled for Feb. 7.
Serhiy Tihipko, a politician and a banker, who, among other things, served as Yanukovych's campaign chief in 2004, came in third, with 13.06% percent of the vote, while former parliament speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk won 6.96%.
Incumbent president Victor Yushchenko came in fifth with 5.41%.
Voter turnout was approximately 67%.
Below are some of the reactions from the Ukrainian blogosphere.
In the comments section to LJ user dali_bude‘s post, LJ user otar (Ukrainian journalist Otar Dovzhenko) initiated this quick discussion (UKR) of the outgoing president's future:
otar:
A [full stop] in the Yushchenko theme: .
cytadel:
It's up to him. [Yanukovych] recovered from [the 2004 election] like Phoenix, even though [no one then expected him to]. So let him [Yushchenko] now show “the role of an individual in history.”
[…]
otar:
[…] During the re-vote of the second round of the 2004 election, Yanukovych received 44.2% of the votes. In some regions he had over 90% of support. To “recover” from such a result is somewhat easier than from Yushchenko's 5-6%.
[…]
fistashok:
Each one is the maker of one's own happiness, so, with all due respect, there's no point feeling sorry for Mr. President. We should feel sorry for ourselves, because of [having to chose in the election when there is no choice].
LJ user shorec quoted a Russian online media piece (RUS) that claimed that Yushchenko was preparing to emigrate to Canada following the election and had already started to evacuate his antique items and other property to Toronto. The blogger wrote (RUS):
He won't go away right after the election, because [the parliamentary election is right around the corner].
[…]
Even with his [world record result] [of losing votes], Yushchenko is still quite capable of making it into parliament with a party and have a faction there with some 30-35 MPs.
Subsequently, parliamentary immunity and an ability to trade votes on important issues will secure him a peaceful and affluent old age.
LJ user chapaye quoted (UKR) another view on the post-election opportunities available to Yushchenko, posted by user roman (UKR) at infoporn.org.ua, a political and social news and opinion portal:
[…] If [Yushchenko] fails to get himself settled here, he'll go to the United States to do lectures on democracy. […]
On his own blog, LJ user otar wrote this about the outcome of the first round of the election (UKR):
Ukraine has made a totally predictable choice. Why it happened this way – we can spend a long time discussing it, but let's not, and instead let's just agree that we deserve it. […]
LJ user grebeniuk did a survey of sorts on the eve of the election, eavesdropping on and talking to “young people.” He shared his findings in this post in the ua_politika LJ community.
[…] A couple of typical opinions as examples:
1) A guy is trying to prove to his mother that Tymoshenko is bad. His argument: “Yulia came and the crisis and unemployment started.”
2) I especially liked how a young CD vendor answered my question, “And who are you for?”
HE: “For [Tihipko]. He's a [handsome man].
I ask him, “Is this all?”
HE: “No, it has nothing to do with orientation, he is also a [beautiful] politician… And Yulia is [beautiful] too and she talks [well].”
Dead serious. […] Deep analysis.
[…] This is how people are choosing. Such an approach to the [election that happens] once every five years – it gives hope, doesn't it? :)))
And political advisers, marketing and advertising specialists don't even have to bother! Comb your candidate, do the makeup, and go ahead! It's funny and sad :). […]
Tihipko is now one of the former candidates whose votes both Tymoshenko and Yanukovych hope to pick up in the runoff. Within minutes after the polling stations had closed down on Jan. 17, LJ user roman_sharp looked at the results of the four exit polls and commented (RUS) that “all Yanukovych has got to do is offer Tihipko the post of prime minister.” On Jan. 20, Tymoshenko did just that.
LJ user kireev – Aleksandr Kireev, founder of the bilingual Electoral Geography website – has a steady flow of blog posts about the Ukrainian election and its geography, and there is also a special page on Ukraine's elections since 1991 on his website, as well as a section devoted to the current election (ENG). Below is what he wrote (RUS) about Tihipko's phenomenon on his blog:
Tihipko's success once again made me ask the question that I had already asked in conversations many times before: how could they have [missed] a ready-made presidential candidate in 2004? […] It's just that I'm still surprised that choosing between two people, one of whom is clearly a good public politician, energetic, with a presidential character, behavior, speech and even the looks, while the other one lacks [all of it], they managed to choose the latter. Even the demographic characteristics of those who voted for Tihipko show that he would have been a much more inconvenient rival for Yushchenko than Yanukovych: he attracts votes of the more centrist, urban, educated, young electorate, and doesn't repel [voters in Ukraine's central] and even [western regions]. But they decided that it would do the way it was and were punished for this mistake.
LJ user shorec re-posted LJ user igordudnik‘s map of regional distribution of this election's runners-up (a slightly updated map is here), and wrote (RUS):
You can see that most of Serhiy Tihipko's voters are based in the regions that traditionally vote for Yanukovych. Thus, the transition of the majority of this electorate to Yulia Tymoshenko is highly unlikely. Approximately one third of them will vote for Yanukovych in the second round.
It is possible that many will not show up for the election. Tihipko's Volyn [region's] electorate and Ukraine's [central regions] might vote for Tymoshenko. Thus, Tihipko's voters will not have impact on the elimination of the gap of votes [between Tymoshenko and Yanukovych].
LJ user kotyhoroshko was confident (UKR) of Yanukovych's defeat in the runoff; in response to LJ user otar, who wasn't so sure, he wrote
What I count on is that the orange electorate will at least have a choice of “voting against [Yanukovych]” after “the absence of choice” in the first round.
That's why I count on a bigger turnout, as well as on a consolidated position :)

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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