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Sri Lanka: Diaspora Dilemmas · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

V V Ganeshananthan at Sepia Mutiny analyses the present and future role of the various Sri Lankan diasporas in influencing the Nation's future. Should their role be limited to economic contributions only?

author: Aparna Ray


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Student condition in Indonesia · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

EngageMedia uploads a video featuring university students from Jakarta, Indonesia who talk about their education and the condition of students in Indonesia.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Mong Palatino


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Sudan: Southern Sudanese to vote in eight countries · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Southern Sudanese in eight countries around the world will be able to participate in Southern Sudan Independence Referendum: “The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) is organizing “Out of Country Voting” in eight countries, so that Southern Sudan’s undeniably far-flung (think Australia to California to the UK) diaspora population.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Thailand: Addressing youth sexuality needs · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Love Care Station and Teen Path, both based in Thailand, are online portals that provide sexuality education and counseling to young people in Thailand.


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Vietnam: BarCamp and EduCamp Saigon 2010 · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Around 500 participants attended Barcamp Saigon 2010 last December 12 at RMIT International University in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Saigon Educamp was also held in the same venue.
Photo from the Facebook page of Hendrik Beck
BarCampers received this introductory message
Welcome to BarCamp Saigon 2010, where we take the pulse on today’s Vietnam and Saigon, where technology is constantly evolving such as smartphones, developments in social networking, the rise in e-commerce, developing e-government, and recruiting and training skilled staff as a pathway to success.
This year we will address technology as well as teaching and learning (included as SaigonEduCamp).
We hope you have all come prepared for a day full of exciting sessions
What exactly is an educamp?
SaigonEduCamp is a free, open “un-conference” for anyone involved in education to meet, share ideas and collaborate.
Use the hashtag #barcampsaigon to read the tweet messages sent by the participants about the event. barcampSaigon also has an official twitter account. Photos of the BarCamp are already posted on Facebook by Triet Ho and Hendrik Beck.
Some of the twitter posts about the BarCamp Saigon which give a glimpse of what transpired last December 12 and the reactions and impressions of the delegates
barcampSaigon In the end around 480 people attended in total at #barcampsaigon. Thanks all for coming, sharing and particpating. And see you next year!
Vietnam720 The #BarCampSaigon committee is toying with the idea of holding the next one 3 months later. I wish for it to b monthly :)
ncouture come to think of it, the most frustrating thing about #barcampsaigon was the language barrier. what can be done?
prateekdayal Never expected #barcampsaigon to be this big and this awesome. There is a pretty good tech community here. Even more tempted to move here
caligarn I think #barcampsaigon should be held more often so that the community can build faster and we can build more idea momentum
myhieu this year, #barcampsaigon is a little bit boring : /
athanhcong great #barcampSaigon, met & talked w many new friends, thanks for sharing your idea. Special thanks to the new organizers also! see ya
saigoneducamp Thanks to everyone who participated in SaigonEduCamp today, we had a great turn out and interesting day! #BarCampSaigon
ngocvm Back from #Barcampsaigon Tons of fun ….and food hahaha
newbiettn just back from #barcampsaigon, more than my expectation
megnesium I see people here eating alll the time! #toomuchfood #barcampsaigon
Photo from the Facebook page of Triet Ho
Ngụy Đức Thuận is impressed with how the event was organized
This is the first time I attended it and I think the event is great in general.
Organization: My first impression is that although the event is free and open, it is very professional. It even provided free breakfast and lunch as well as a T-shirt for registered participants.
Participants: there were more than 300 participants and the diversity of the participants guarantee that every talk would have enough audiences. This gives me more courage to have a talk next year.
Topics: a wide range of topics were introduced at the event, individually as well as in-group. I was especially impressed by SkunkWorks company. They are not only a sponsor, but also brought up many well-prepared talks.
Timing: Some presentations took longer than the registered time and therefore overlapped to the next one. This caused trouble to the next presenter as well as audiences in arranging their attending sessions.
Alkimie notes the enthusiasm of the BarCamp participants
It was impressive not only in terms of size but also in terms of enthusiasm of its predominantly young participants.  The RMIT campus itself was beautiful.
The sheer size of the barcamp was pretty impressive. Something close to 800 registered, and more than that attended.
I thoroughly enjoyed this barcamp and will come again, schedule permitting.  There were a few challenges (the wireless internet was rather spotty), and simply navigating the city was a bit more difficult than other places in South East Asia, but these are minor quibbles
Hendrik Beck commends the speakers
I have never been to a Barcamp before and had high hopes for this event. In 2010 I had many opportunities to dive into tech communities in Saigon through similar events and I realized over and over again how much passion and determination there is around. Vietnam not only produces lots of tech talent, it also provides a fruitful ground for entrepreneurial minds. Barcamp seemed to be the ideal platform to meet, to share, to learn, and to boost the momentum that is already there.
I was more than impressed to see my expectations exceeded. Around 480 participants brought a lot of passion and participation, excellent speakers and presentations, and a noteworthy focus on entrepreneurship and startups. I’m happy to have participated, I’m sad that it’s over, and I’m looking forward to BarcampSaigon 2011.
The Wild Wild East Dailies shares his observations about the event
What a mess. And that's what we like about it. “My PowerPoint fucked up.”. Okay. “Geez, people kept walking in and out of the room.” Yes, com se, com sa. Shit happens? But sometimes good shit happens. And BarcampSaigon is the place for it. I saw no other advertising agency people at this event. May describe the death of dinosaurs while they're still walking – slowly, through the old rubble they used to make a living out of…


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Brazil: Indigenous communities reflect on using the internet · Global Voices
Chicoepab Suruí

This post is part of our special coverage Forest Focus: Amazon.
Photo by simpindigena, used with permission.
In the end of November, the city of Sao Paulo hosted the 1st Symposium On Indigenous Uses of the Internet [pt], an event organized by the Center for Indigenous History and Indigenous Studies at the Federal University of Sao Paulo to assess how indigenous communities were using the internet in Brazil.
Delegates of 16 indigenous ethnicities from many parts of the country attended the event, the majority of whom have already been using the Internet to seek improvements for their people. Bringing the experience of an indigenous people that has benefited most from digital technologies to promote political action, Almir Surui Narayamoga, leader of the Paiter Surui People, considered this debate of the utmost importance [pt] for everyone:
A internet tem grande importância na luta social e ambiental dos povos indígenas.
Almir Surui shares his experience with the web. Photo by the author.
During the three-day symposium, each delegate shared their experiences using the Internet in the villages, for many and varied purposes: to promote events, surveillance of their territories, distance learning, cultural exchange, birth registration, claiming national insurance benefits, communication with relatives, complaints, etc.
As expected, the event was covered by several bloggers from the audience. Daniel, representing the Baniwa people, one of the people living in the Amazonas state, summed up the first day of the symposium [pt] on the Baniwaonline blog:
Um momento bom pois tivemos a  primeira oportunidade de nos conhecemos e saber o que cada um estava  fazendo, como, onde, quais suas principais dificuldades, avanças,  projetos em execução e projetos futuros (sonhos), ações relacionados ao  uso de internet.
The event went on with the identification of the challenges to be overcome [pt], as detailed by the Indios Online team:
Existem no entanto vários problemas que foram levantados, como a  dificuldade de conexão, problemas com a antena Gesac, falta de  computadores, computadores quebrados, falta de manutenção desses  computadores, falta de qualificação para que nós mesmo façamos a  manutenção das maquinas nas aldeias.
Esperamos que unidos possamos estar minimizando estes problemas, que  nós da Rede Índios on Line conhecemos tão bem. A Internet nas aldeias  não mata a cultura indígena se o seu uso for consciente e com um  propósito definido. Hoje nós indígenas utilizamos esta Tecnologia que  não pertence à nossa cultura como uma ferramenta de buscar melhorias  para nossas comunidades e lutar por nossos direitos.
Several issues were raised, such as connection difficulties, problems with the antenna provided by Gesac [the government's program for social and digital inclusion], lack of computers, broken computers, lack of machinery maintenance, lack of training so that we carry maintenance ourselves on the computers in the villages.
We hope that together we can be minimizing these problems; we at Indios Online network know them so well. Having the Internet in villages does not kill the indigenous culture when it is used is a conscious manner and with a definite purpose. Today we, indigenous people, use this technology that is alien to our culture as a tool to seek improvements for our communities and to fight for our rights.
Everyone together, online and offline. Source: Indios Online. Used with permission.
At the close of the symposium, the participants agreed to advise the indigenous peoples or individuals who do not use the Internet yet to create their own blogs and websites, and decided on the creation of a special corner of cyberspace for indigenous communities. Baniwaonline summarises the last day of the event and highlights the decisions taken [pt]:
Dentre  os principais encaminhamentos,  foi decidido em unanimidade dos  participantes do evento, a necessidade de criar  “Rede das Redes dos  povos Indígenas”, usuarios (sites, bloogs, …), com a proposta de nome:  “Rede Digital e culturas Indígenas”, em que os internautas indígenas se  cadstrarão e divulgarão, neste site, os diversos conteúdos postados nos  sites e blogs hoje existente e o que virao a ser criadas de diferentes  lugares do Brasil. Uma forma de unir a força e trabalhar em conjunto em  prol da sociedade indígena, disseminando expericnias, noticias, cursos e  etc.
Last group picture. Source: Indios Online. Used with permission.
This future network of networks, which aims to bring all indigenous sites and blogs together into a single portal, is expected to be launched at Campus Party Brazil 2011 [pt]. The Indios Online website explains the goals of this new network [pt] and publishes the minutes of the symposium [pt]:
[…] a intenção é de dar visibilidade as ações digitais dos povos indígenas, e com isso mostrar para o mundo que nós indígenas temos sim capacidade e habilidade, de lidar com as diversas áreas do mundo digital.
This post is part of our special coverage Forest Focus: Amazon.

author: Chicoepab Suruí


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Côte d’Ivoire: Lessons for Africa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

This post is part of our special coverage Côte d'Ivoire Unrest 2011.
Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara  are locked in a power struggle as both claim victory after November 28 presidential election. The Independent Electoral Commission of Cote d'Ivoire (CEI) declared Alassane Ouattara winner of the second round of the country's presidential elections while the head of the Constitutional Council declared Laurent Gbagbo the winner. France and USA have threatened sanctions if Gbagbo does not quite. African leaders have asked him to leave power.
Salisu Suleiman asks, “So what are the lessons for Nigeria and the rest of Africa?”:
The most important message must be that there are no perfect democracies anywhere in the world. Even Western democracy, particularly the American presidential model, which is very often our reference point, has significant drawbacks. A critical factor in the democratic experience is the inclusion of as many citizens as possible in the electoral process. If, in the process, certain compromises like zoning or rotation of offices have to come in, it may be worth paying that price in the interest of peace and stability.
I am not an advocate of zoning, but If Ivoiriens had zoned the presidency to one region, the sharp ethnic and religious connotations in the aftermath of the elections would be less obvious. The contest between Olusegun Obasanjo and Olu Falae in 1999 is a case study. The same thing happened in 2007 when late president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua contested against Buhari and Atiku.
In the run up to next year’s presidential elections in Nigeria, the debate has assumed the discordant tunes of north/ south with a dangerous religious overcast. Every debate has been reduced to what the mother tongue of the president should be. At the moment, the undeclared battle between President Jonathan and former Vice President Atiku’s camps is degenerating to new lows. No prisoners are being taken. Every voice of reason is branded as being either ‘for us or against us’.
Alex Engwete discusses what he calls “instrumentalization of civilians”:
Once again, African civilians are paying a heavy price for their
politicians’ malpractice and turpitudes–this time around, in Abidjan,
Côte d'Ivoire (photo above).
Yesterday [16 December], northern politicians Alassane Draman Ouattara (recognized
by the international community as the president-elect) and his
PM-designate Guillaume Soro sent their “unarmed” supporters in the
streets to attempt and seize the buildings of the national television
station and of key ministries still being held by the “illegitimate”
regime of southern politicians led by Laurent Gbagbo who has total
military control of the south of the country.
The death toll was quite staggering: 30 dead demonstrators and bystanders.
Using civilians as human shield is a criminal act:
Firing at unarmed civilians is no doubt a horrendous state crime, but
instrumentalizing them and using them as cannon fodder or human shield
are likewise criminal acts. While Ouattara and Soro are sending people
to the slaughter, they are themselves holed up in the luxurious
precinct of Hôtel du Golfe under the protection of a 900-strong
heavily armed UN peacekeeping contingent…
Rebecca Sargent comments on Alex's post saying that international reports paint Outtara as an angel:
One of the more balanced views I've read from outside the country. I am soo frustrated with reading international reports that paint Ouattara as an angel and concrete “winner” of the elections or that speak of the rising price of cocoa with more concern than the people dying in the streets here. There may not have been mass slaughter in the streets today, but the local papers were awash with violent propaganda.
Dr. Gary K. Busch wrote a blog post entitled “France And The Ivory Coast-The Empire Strikes Back”:
After 46 years of independence, France still controls most of the infrastructure and holds its foreign currency reserves as part of the 14-nation Franc Zone. The airline, telephone, electricity and water companies, and some major banks, are French-controlled. ‘Accords de coopération’, signed after Independence by the late President Félix Houphouët-Boigny and France's then Premier, Michel Debré, are still technically applicable. France maintains a stranglehold of Ivorian commerce and currency which vitiates national initiatives towards independence.
This privileged position of France is confirmed by a report from the UN Commission: “The testimony we have assembled has also enabled us to see that the law of 1998 concerning rural property is linked to the dominant position that France and French interests occupy in Cote d'Ivoire
According to these sources, the French own 45% of the land and, curiously, the buildings of the Presidency of the Republic and of the Ivorian National Assembly are subject to leases concluded with the French. French interests are said to control the sectors of water and electricity.” The report only superficially touched the dominance of French interests in Cote d'Ivoire, but they are not hard to find.
Commenting on Dr. Gary's post Babs Olowo says the country should be split into two:
It will be better if the country is split into two. I know people will be yelling that is this a bad move and it will be sending bad signals, I do not see any sign of reconciliation here.
Similar faith applies in Nigeria, Sudan. Marriage of convenience by the colonialist. What is exacerbating the issue in this country is religion intolerance as well.
South and North should go their separate ways. They are different people. Can anyone out there tell what the North and South of Ivory Coast have in common?
Muhammad Nalys says Dr.Gary's analysis shows that he is a die-hard Gbagbo supporter:
A disappointing commentary indeed. It seeems the writer is a die-hard Gbagbo supporter and does NOT wish the Ivory Coast well. Yes, there are foreign troops but what was the genesis of their presence? It was precisely the spectre of Gbagbo's divide and rule tactits that led to the civivl war.
THE French and indeed most of the Western powers have had their own motives but the whole mess was the result of the ambitionsns of Gbagbo, that at least was clear from the start of the civil war.
It is puerile to argue that the elections were NOT fre and fair just because there are foreign troops in the nation. What led to the second round of voting that Gbagbo is disputing? Certainly if the elections were not reasonably fair he could have objected to the first round. To now turn around and carry out a military coup and blame some external forces is simply neither accptable nor fair. African countries must not be held to ransome by the blind ambitions of one man!
Alex Thurston posts a roundup of news reports, international reports and blog posts relating to the situation in Cote d'Ivoire.
Time line: Key developments in Ivory Coast since the disputed second round presidential election on Nov. 28:
This post is part of our special coverage Côte d'Ivoire Unrest 2011.


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Cuba: Mariela Castro Espín on LGBT Rights · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Vladia comments [es] on Mariela Castro Espin's –director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education, and daughter of President Raúl Castro– opinions and analysis on the future of LGBT rights in Cuba.

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


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Cuba: Ten Most Read Journalism Blogs · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Yohandry lists the ten most read blogs of journalists [es] in Cuba, according to the national Center of Information for the Press.


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Dominican Republic: 4% for Education · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Blogger and journalist María Isabel Soldevila supports the grassroots campaign [es] that is demanding the government to  invest 4% of the national budget in education.


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Dominican Republic: Fifteen Online Projects · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Blogger Joan Guerrero comments on 15 online projects [es] that appeared in the Dominican web in 2010.


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Dominican Republic: Two Bodegas · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The Dominican blogger from the diaspora, Dino Bonao, writes about the two bodegas [es] close to his apartment in New York City.


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Dominican Republic: Wikileaks cables released · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The ex ambassador of the United States in the Dominican Republic, Robert Fannin, said two ex Dominican public officers were “corrupt,” as stated in one of the 1600 cables released by WikiLeaks that mention the Caribbean island.  Blogger Rocío Díaz comments on the repercussions [es].


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Guatemala: Buñuelos, Comfort Food for December · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

AntiguaDailyPhoto  explains: “Guatemalan buñuelos are kind like round French toast and they are served with a lot hot syrup made from water, sugar, anís (anise), cinnamon sticks, all-spice just to name the main ingredients. Buñuelos are one of the most popular Guatemalan comfort foods for December.”

author: Silvia Viñas


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India: Churches in Kerala · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

In A Travel Blog of an Indian Backpacker, blogger & travel writer Lakshmi shares some interesting photographs of various churches in Kerala, India.


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Kosovo, Serbia: Kosovo’s PM Accused of Human Organ Trade · Global Voices
Sinisa Boljanovic

THE YELLOW HOUSE
Do you know what the “Yellow House” is? Have you ever heard about it?
The same year Kosovo declared independence, 2008, Carla Del Ponte, a former prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, published (in Serbia) her controversial book “The hunt: me and war criminals,” in which she described in detail how and where some soldiers and leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) committed terrible war crimes against ethnic Serbs, non-Albanians and “non-loyal” citizens of Kosovo in 1999.
According to Del Ponte, the “Yellow House” was a little apartment house in Ripe, a village near the town of Burelj in north Albania, where body parts of prisoners of war were being removed in order to be sold on black markets all over the world.
Many from the region, who then heard about the human organ trade for the first time, were shocked. The book and the information from it caused a lot of different reactions in Serbia.
Below is a selection of comments to an article on this issue that appeared on pressonline.rs on March 22, 2008.
Laza:
It’s terrible what happened and what is happening now, I believe there is much truth in the book. […] Is it possible that nothing was known about it, about the crimes, sufferings, mass graves? […]
Miki:
Surely. Ethnic Albanians did not do it, but their mentors from the West did.
Blek:
Only you, Serbs, have parents, brothers, sisters. Other people who were killed by you didn’t have anyone. How many organs did you sell when you committed the biggest crime after WWII in Bosnia and Herzegovina? […] Srebrenica.
zoran (Bec):
Reading different forums about this monstrous massacre against the kidnapped Serbs, as a man and as a Christian, I find everyone who committed the crime repulsive, those who knew about it but were silent, and who have recently heard about it but tolerate it. […]
Kosovo’s officials denied there had been human organs trafficking in Kosovo. Writing about the issue, the Guardian emphasized that some members of the international community had the same opinion, quoting a statement of  Bernar Kouchner, the French foreign minister and former head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, who said this during his visit to the Serb enclave of Gracanica earlier this year:
there was no yellow house, there was no organ trade. People who talk about things like that are bums and murderers.
DICK MARTY’S REPORT
Just two days after the general elections were held in Kosovo on Dec. 12, Hashim Thaci, the outgoing Prime Minister whose Democratic Party of Kosovo won the most votes on Sunday’s elections, was accused by Dick Marty, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly investigator, of organizing and committing the mentioned war crimes.
According to Marty’s report, which the Guardian published exclusively before its official presentation, Thaci, who is also the former head of KLA's “Drenica group,” is allegedly responsible for the kidnapping of more than 300 ethnic Serbs and others from Kosovo during the war, their transportation and murder in Albania, where their organs were extracted and later sold to rich patients in the West.
Below are some of the reader comments to a B92 article about Marty's report:
Polako, ali sigurno, pravda stize do cilja! writes:
[…] If it is proved that you are the culprits, and it will be so, you don’t need to be afraid of Serbs but of your own people who brought you to power.
Skorpion:
As an ethnic Albanian, I am happy that, God willing, all who committed the crimes are convicted. I hate them all and I don’t want to hear about them.
Ode sve u:
bbc, foxnews, reuters, the mirror, the independent, huffington post, the new york times… the whole Western world published the news… the dregs of society have the power in one country/territory in the heart of Europe.
Majna:
[…] CNN is silent, and it’s clear that a question will now be raised of who and why recognized the country that was built on the most monstrous crime in the history of the world.
Writing about the issue in her post titled “Trading organs and principles” (on the blog page of the daily newspaper “Blic”), Jelena Milic pointed out the double standards in Serbia’s official policy in regard to human rights, an obsolete policy that considers human rights a problem of individual states and not of international relations:
[…] Dick Marty’s report, which has linked Thaci to organs trade, has just been adopted in the committee for legal questions of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. It’s very important news in Serbia. For a reason. But. Serbia's [foreign minister] Vuk Jeremic has a shameful record of not voting for and supporting resolutions and declarations which the EU and the Council of Europe adopted and submitted to the General Assembly of the United Nations in regard to the human rights situation in Iran and other countries that do not recognize Kosovo's independence […]
The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton's Spokeswoman Maja Kocijančić has urged Marty to come forward with the evidence on Thaci’s involvement in these serious crimes. She said at a press conference:
“These claims are taken very seriously. If concrete evidence exists, we urge Dick Marty to submit it to the relevant authorities.
However, she avoided answering a number of direct questions on the EU's next steps regarding the issue.
Hashim Thaci rejected all accusations and demanded from the EU to investigate this case thoroughly.

author: Sinisa Boljanovic


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Malaysia: Anwar Ibrahim suspended from Parliament · Global Voices
Jerrenn Lam

A few days ago, a motion was tabled in the Malaysian Parliament to suspend Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim for six months for linking Prime Minister Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia concept to that of ‘One Israel’. Ibrahim had also alleged that global public relations firm Apco Worldwide was behind both campaigns.
On one hand, there are some who feel that the suspension of Anwar along with 3 other MPs (who were suspended as well after criticising the ‘parliamentary disciplinary probe’) was unjustified.
Ghkok said:
This is the result of 53 years of one-party rule. It breeds arrogance and oppression. It is like a disease. There is no respect for members of parliament who are legitimately elected by the rakyat, and who have brought up a legitimate issue in Parliament (where it should be brought up).
Khoo Kay Peng also believes that it was a decision that will not be beneficial for the country:
The motion to suspend opposition MPs Anwar Ibrahim, Karpal Singh, Sivarasah & Azmin Ali from parliament for six months is a prime example of abuse of parliamentary majority.
The motion would be passed effortlessly by Barisan's brute majority in the parliament. The consequence is severe and unfortunate for our parliamentary democracy.
The august house will now be inflicted by the Perak disease which has brought chaos to all sittings so far. Imagine what can a day long state assembly sitting can do to a healthy debate on important bills and budgetary decisions? Nothing.
However, there is also the sentiment that the Opposition (Pakatan Rakyat) is no different from the Barisan Nasional Government, like the one Charles Hector shared.
By suspending (a Member of Parliament), you deny the people of a particular constituency the ability to participate in the proceeding in Parliament/State Legislative Assembly…
Pakatan Rakyat should have been better than the BN (Barisan Nasional)- but alas they abused their power when they kept BN ADUNs (State Assemblymen) out of the proceedings of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly.
Blogger Biggum Dogmannsteinberg shares the same opinion.
The fact remains: Former-abuse-of-power-convict Anwar “Drama King” Ibrahim was allowed a week to present himself with evidence and substantiate his claims to the Parliamentary  Rights and Privilegse Select Committee for allegations on the ‘Apco-gate’. He vehemently refused to do so. Strong suspicions point towards him being his usual self  ’Politics of Hate’  strategy the past  twelve and quarter years: Throw baseless allegations and sensationalise it and whenever actions are taken against him, controversialise it via media especially the foreign based that he is a victim of ‘hegemony’.
Nothing new. We have seen it all.
The Opposition had also marched to the Malaysian Human Rights Commission to protest against the suspension, and plans to seek a judicial review over the matter.

author: Jerrenn Lam


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Pakistan: Debating Blasphemy Cases · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

An interesting conversation is underway at All Things Pakistan where Adil Najam expressed his concern that the arrest of Dr. Naushad Valiyani on charges of blasphemy was nothing if not an act of spreading personal and petty hatred.


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Puerto Rico: The Politization of the Supreme Court · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Law professor and blogger Hiram Meléndez Juarbe analyzes the institutional crisis the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico [es] is facing, and its recent decision to restrict the space and place of the protests at the University of Puerto Rico.


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Taiwan: Controversy over history · Global Voices
David Reid

At The China Beat Paul Katz writes about the controversy that erupted over an online poll to find the most influential figures in the hundred years of the Republic of China (ROC). The poll included Chinese Communist Party leaders such as Deng Xiaoping and Mao Zedong. The case raises key questions about the debate over history in Taiwan as the 100th anniversary celebrations of the ROC are set to commence next year.

author: David Reid


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Thailand: ‘Cyber Scout’ training · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Saksith Saiyasombut reviews Thailand's ‘Cyber Scout’ training programme which aims to form a network of volunteers to monitor any “threat to national security” in the internet and “to defend and protect the royal institution.”


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Ukraine: Blood in the Parliament · Global Voices
Tetyana Bohdanova

On Dec. 16, a fierce fight broke out (ENG) in the Ukrainian Parliament, sending at least four lawmakers to the hospital with injuries of various degrees of severity.
The conflict got out of hand late Thursday evening, after the pro-presidential Party of Regions stormed the parliament podium, occupied by members of Yulia Tymoshenko’s Block in protest of the criminal proceedings (ENG) against their leader.
Comments on the footage by TV Channel 1+1 (on YouTube – here), showing pro-presidential lawmakers swearing and throwing chairs at their opponents, express popular frustration with this event.
User Lola writes (UKR):
Гидко і страшно. І це еліта нашої країни! Матюкаються як не знаю хто… братва біля влади, тепер вони це регулярно демонструватимуть(.
User layer is also disillusioned with the MPs (UKR):
за що голосували- те й отримали це відео ще раз засвідчить Європі, яка в Україні “демократія”
Although this was not the first time MPs resorted to physical violence (see this GV post), the case seems to have set a new low with its degree of aggression and organization. Many MPs themselves were appalled.
Yulia Tymozhenko’s Block member Andriy Shevchenko (@ashevch) tweeted the following from the midst of the fight (UKR):
У Гнаткевича тиск 280 на 100. Реально шкода. Старший крихітний чоловік
Кріпко пом'яли старого Гнаткевича і Василя Кравчука
У Бондаренка перелом руки. Забрала швидка
Просто звірі. Обличчя всі ті самі. Наступний раз регіонали будуть штурмувати з ножами
Old Hnatkevych and Vasyl Kravchuk got beaten up pretty badly
Bondarenko’s got a broken arm. [He is] taken away by the ambulance
[They are] just animals. The faces are all the same. Next time the [Party of] Regions will storm with knives
In response, @privet_bank has suggested instituting a special law enforcement office charged with keeping order in the Parliament (RUS):
Уважаемый @ashevch, а почему до сих пор нету Парламентских Приставов в Раде? США такое проходили уже. Sergeant At Arms
According to media reports (UKR), the storming of the parliament podium was intentionally planned for 7 p.m., when most journalists would have left the building.
Opposition MP Volodymyr Aryev, who filmed deputies organizing for the assault with his mobile phone, reports (UKR):
Вони йшли по коридору ВР до сесійної зали, наче справжня банда на розборки. Ви би бачили ці обличчя… […] Жахливо і сумно, до чого докотилися ми, докотилася країна.
@ashevch‘s tweets from the session hall also suggest a degree of planning (UKR):
[…] Дуже темно. Перед штурмом погасили майже все світло
At the same time, Party of Regions member Oleh Tsariov, who participated in the assault, called the opposition’s injuries and consequent arrival of ambulances “theatrical” (UKR).
A journalist and blogger Oleksandr Hun’ko concludes by drawing a parallel between the physical violence in the Parliament and the aggressive rhetoric of government officials (UKR):
Нічого дивного в цьому нема. Такий у нас рівень влади. Президент не соромиться на погрози — “повідривати голови” чи “повідбивати руки”. Його слова тут же повторюють губернатори. […]
Слова мають здатність матеріалізовуватися. У квітні в парламенті так віддухопелили депутата Олеся Донія, що він кілька тижнів провів у лікарні, переніс операцію на спині. Нікого за це не покарали. У минулий четвер народні обранці знов зійшлися врукопашну в сесійній залі.
Words tend to materialize. In April, MP Oles’ Doniy was beaten up so badly that he had to spend a few weeks in a hospital and undergo a spine surgery. Nobody was held responsible for it. And so last Thursday elected officials again met fist to fist in the session hall.

author: Tetyana Bohdanova


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Belarus: Gmail, Twitter, LiveJournal, Facebook and other Sites Blocked · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Belarus government blocked all major social media (Gmail, Twitter, LiveJournal, Facebook) as well as opposition media outlets “Charter 97“, “Belarus Partizan“, and “Solidarity“, Lenta.ru reported [RUS]. The government decided to block social media in order to prevent mass mobilization after today's elections and following protests.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Belarus: Presidential Election Day Ends in Protests and Crackdown · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

December 19, the 2010 presidential election day in Belarus, ended in mass protests, arrests and violent clashes with the riot police in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
Aleksandr Lukashenko, who has served as the President of Belarus since July 1994, ran against nine opposition candidates, some of whom are now reported to have been attacked or arrested – or both. Thousands of people gathered in the center of Minsk to protest electoral fraud after the polls closed (some photos and video are here), but as they tried to storm the government headquarters and the central election commission building, they were soon dispersed by riot police. Dozens of protesters and a number of journalists, including a reporter and a photographer for the New York Times, were injured.
Problems with the internet and limited access to social media and opposition websites in Minsk were being reported throughout the day, too (see earlier GV updates by Alexey Sidorenko – here, here, and here). Evgeny Morozov (@evgenymorozov), who is currently in Belarus, tweeted that he couldn't “access anything using https.” In another tweet, posted Sunday afternoon, he wrote:
I also hear that since access to Gmail in Belarus is blocked, opposition sites can't use their mailing lists
Still, citizen media reports were being filed before, during and after the events in the center of Minsk.
On Dec. 18, Dmitry Rastaev (LJ user rastaev) commented (RUS) on the supposedly voluntary “early voting” – in which “23% of the 7 million registered electors” had cast their votes, and which is often considered “an instrument of vote-rigging for authorities“:
Talked with my [student] daughter [via ICQ] today, she said this: “In the dormitory, they are coming into the rooms with the Eviction Act and write down [the names of] all those who didn't vote early on this piece of paper, putting “for [creating insanitary conditions]” as the reason.”
And in the meantime, [Lukashenko] and his clique are barking on the TV about “unacceptability of forcing [people] to vote early.”
[…]
If on the 19th, this [bastardly] regime does not collapse, I don't even know… […] To tolerate this filth and these jerks for five more years – it is physically impossible by now!!!
LJ user adelka posted this report (BEL) after she returned from the rally:
We are home, alive and in one piece.
[…]
My husband, his brother and I carried out a woman covered in blood, [she had a head injury], there were two ambulances behind the government building […] – they were filled with people (6-8 injured people in each one), mainly women with head injuries […]. They were breaking people into groups and chasing them into “pockets” – and there, they were throwing them on the ground and beating them. They were even beating underage girls – […] beating them with their feet and sticks, and happily laughing as they did it. […]
The feeling is that there's a junta and fascism in the country.
[…]
I'll tell you honestly, I was scared. But I'm happy that the regime fears me and I'm proud of those who was there [at the rally]. Forgive me, but it's hard [not to sound pompous] after what I've seen with my own eyes. […]
LJ user aneta-spb, a St. Petersburg-based journalist who came to Minsk to cover the election, posted these updates (RUS) from the rally:
October Square, Minsk.
A lot of people on October Square, I'm in the crowd […], and can't count [how many] because of this. […] Most people are young, but there are enough mature people, and the elderly. People are calling their friends on the phone, inviting them to the square: “What are you afraid of, come over here, we can't live like this any longer.”
Riot police are pushing the people from the square […]
Fights with agents provocateurs had been provoked. Lots of riot police, a whole army [of them] – they are coming to the square from all directions, trying to push people out, but the people aren't leaving. […]
First, the people occupied the center of Minsk, then, riot police and the army.
[…] But it was powerful. Very powerful. […] Of course, it was a bit scary, too. […] The Belarusians [did great, truly great]. I'm proud. And the main thing is that the people came out not for the leaders. Which proves one more time that the leaders are [not of primary importance].
LJ user dabrahost wrote this (RUS):
I totally agree with Natalya Radina via EURORADIO: “Lukashenko has declared a war on his own people.”
From this, logically => his whole vertical – is in a state of war with the people => every official and cop deserves a Hague tribunal. EVERY OFFICIAL AND COP! Sooner or later, this will happen.
On Twitter, the #electby and #ploscha hashtags were and are being used on reports on the situation.
@euroradio (BEL):
Witnesses of the beating on the square: they were beating one guy, he fell, the riot police officer came back and [beat him some more, until he lost consciousness]. […]
@Feveray (RUS):
[…] The snow on the square in front of the government headquarters is red.
@jkirchick (ENG):
For the record: Belarusian spetznatz are jackbooted thugs […]
@chudentsov (RUS):
To stand between two columns of riot police as they are closing in on you, when you have only your smartphone as a weapon – isn't nice. My legs saved me. […]
@lucysd (RUS):
For the first time I've seen how riot police are beating people with sticks… During our [Ukrainian] orange revolution [of 2004] everything was like in a kids’ fairy tale compared to #electby

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Belarus: Tweets and Pictures of Another Post-Election Rallies · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Despite Twitter has been blocked in Belarus, the Twitter hashtag #electby is updated every second. Lots of photos of the Belarus events available at picfog at the same hashtag.


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Belarus: Users Are Redirected to Fake Opposition Websites · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Habrahabr-user webdew reports that Belarus users are being redirected to fake opposition websites: gazetaby.in, nnby.in, charter97.in, bchdd.in, belaruspartisan.in, euroradio.in, ucpb.in, svaboda.in. The design of all these websites is the same but the content is completely different from the original. All domains belong to “Belpak”, Belarus state-owned Internet provider.


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Chile: Prison Fire Sparks Debate on Social Networking Sites  · Global Voices
Paulina Aguilera Muñoz

Relatives of the prisoners died in a fire  in the jail of San Miguel, wait outside the Legal Medical Service for   DNA tests to recognize family members who died in the fire. Santiago,  Chile. 09/12/2010. Photo by Rodrigo Daniel Selles Ferres. Copyright © Demotix
Social network users have responded with anger to a fire in the San Miguel prison, in San Miguel, Santiago, Chile, in which more than 80 prisoners died and more than 20 were seriously injured when their cellblock caught fire.
Growing protests [es] and criticism [es] of insensitive press reports as well as strongly voiced opinions over prisoner conditions have stirred up debate over prison conditions and human rights.
Overcrowding and the violation of human rights
Chilean press reports state that the UN High Commission for Human Rights requested access [es] to prisons in Chile to assess prisoner welfare. Chile is one of five countries in the world with the highest number of prisoners per capita. The blaze at San Miguel prison has highlighted [es] the deteriorating state of Chile’s prison system.
Ahora todos sorprendidos con el nivel de hacinamiento en las cárceles en Chile, que onda? Cuando ha sido diferente?? #Carcelsanmiguel
Victor Madariaga (@vmadariaga)  p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }  comments on the “gendarmería,” the penal institution:
@halconmatinal con lo duro que parece, la fam de las víctimas de #carcelsanmiguel dicen la verdad respecto a la indiferencia de gendarmería
But Jorge Santander (@jorge_santander) has a different opinion:
Y ahora, los familiares agarran a piedrazos a carabineros, amparados en la desesperacion… patetico #carcelsanmiguel
The topic of overcrowding has resulted in a debate on social networking sites about the privatisation [es] of prisons in Chile. Blog de Hermongenes [es] states,
El sistema carcelario chileno es un “juego de suma negativa”, porque en él todos pierden.
Primero,  se dice que los presos “pagan su deuda con la sociedad”. No es verdad.  No pagan nada. Son castigados, es verdad, pero lo único positivo que  resulta de ello para la sociedad es un discutible efecto ejemplarizador  de la sanción, muy difícil de cuantificar.
The prison system in Chile is a losing game, because everyone loses out.
People say that prisoners “pay their debt to society”. But this isn’t true. They pay nothing. They are punished, that’s true, but prison only serves as an example to others and its effect is debatable and very difficult to quantify.
Ariel Zúliga in Violencia y Control Social [es] also comments on the case:
La fiscal de la Corte Suprema Mónica Maldonado, hace más de diez años  que viene expidiendo informes en donde se menciona que en nuestras  cárceles no existen las condiciones mínimas para el respeto de los  derechos humanos; se tortura de modo sistemático en nuestros penales.  Hace cinco años, a propósito de uno de estos informes y de denuncias  individuales el juez de garantía Daniel Urrutia clausuró la  penitenciaría de Santiago y ordenó que se liberara a los presos por  estar siendo torturados con las condiciones carcelarias; asimismo se  negó a encarcelar más internos pues los recintos ya estarían colapsados.
Critical of insensitivity
Carlos Ruiz Báez in the blog Obervatodo [es] gives his view on another side to this story:
Un panorama de una frialdad  increíble, y en muchos casos, derechamente de crueldad. En las redes  sociales el tema era ampliamente debatido, pero la tónica para muchos  era alegrarse de la muerte de estas 81 personas. “Eran puros flaytes [termino despectivo para personas de clase baja, vulgar o de poca educación]”,  “81 problemas menos”, “Lo siento por las familias, pero ellos se lo  buscaron”. La red estaba llena de este tipo de  comentarios.
Ignacio Bugueño V. (@ibugueno) calls for some sensitivity:
Dejemos de politizar las muertes porfa, aquí murió gente y hay que hacer algo para que no muera más gente. Listo. Nada más. #carcelsanmiguel
The blog, De La Republica [es] (@delarepublica) is self-critical, stating on Twitter:
Mientras nuestro  discurso sea que el reo se merece las penas del infierno y que sus  acciones no tienen contexto, lo de hoy se repetira.
Mª Fernanda Moraga V (@FitaBlu) says [es]:
Ahí quedó la solidaridad chilena que se vio n la Teletón. Ahora se ve n su esplendor c/ gente celebrando la muerte de otros #carcelsanmiguel
Image by Rodrigo Daniel Selles Ferres. Copyright © Demotix
The way the Chilean press reported on the incident has drawn both criticism and praise from social media platforms. Paulina Maturana (@PaliMaturana):
Como atacan a los periodistas por Dios, es la única forma de estar informados. Lo que hace la desesperación ! #carcelsanmiguel
Javier Venegas (@JavierVene) says  [es]:
horrible “el espectaculo” que esta haciendo la television sobre esta tragedia #carcelsanmiguel la entrega de infrmcon tiene q ser rsponsable
Carito Rojas (@publicarito) also comments [es]:
en fin, que lata por las familias, pero si no ubieran estado en la #carcelsanmiguel no tendrian nada que lamentar
However, Pablo Zúñiga (@pablo_zuniga) poses the question [es]:
me pregunto si la gente que comenta desde su burbuja conocerá a algún (ex) reo, si ya hablado con alguno de ellos. #carcelsanmiguel
Claudia Mancilla C (@CLauDia_CMC) asks how much television [es] is making from the tragedy:
En horario Prime Camiroaga (vestido de luto) entrevista a madre de 2 reos fallecidos en #carcelsanmiguel – “Todo por el Rating?”
Commentaries on the blaze keep on coming, more than just news, the fire at the San Miguel prison has shown a country not only at odds over order and human rights but also divided over what it means to be part of Chilean society.

author: Paulina Aguilera Muñoz


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Chile: Women in Chilean Politics · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

In El Quinto Poder, Danae Mlynarz writes [es] about the role of women in Chilean politics, saying that “political parties do not promote the incorporation of women in their boards, and they do not meet the quotas they have established for internal elections or elected positions.”


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Hal Roberts’ Commentary on Internet Censorship in Belarus · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Hal Roberts, Berkman Center censorship expert, comments on recent messages of extensive Internet censorship in Belarus. Besides, DNS-hijacking and filtering, Roberts also reports DDOS attacks on opposition websites.


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Iran: Ashura in photos · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Zohre has published several photos on Ashura ceremony in Iran.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran:Goudarzi, jailed human rights activist was released · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Aftab News [fa]  ,an Iranian site, reported Kouhyar Goudarzi, jailed blogger and human rights activist was released last week, after being in prison for one year.


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Japan: Woman sued Google Street View for pics of underwear · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

Again troubles for Google Street Views [en] in Japan. Reports said  [en] that a young woman sued Google for showing pictures of her underwear drying on the balcony and claimed about 7,000 USD for damages. A blogger at Gundam Nikki commented saying that such an action is exaggerated and due to an “extreme self-consciousness” of the plaintiff.

author: Scilla Alecci


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Venezuela: Farmers in Santa Barbara del Zulia Rebel Against Expropriations · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

The Devil's Excrement reports that farmers from Santa Barbara del Zulia have rebelled against the expropriation of 47 farms: “[T]he farmers and cattlemen and their workers have decided this time to  fight and began blocking the road, demanding the presence of the  authorities, blocking the National Guard from going through and saying  that they would stay there until the measure was revoked.”


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Africa: The Scandal of the “Ill-gotten Gains” · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

On November 9, 2010, the French Supreme Court of Appeals overturned a decision rendered a year ago by the Paris Court of Appeals, agreeing to hear the case brought by the French section of the NGO Transparency International [fr]  called “the ill-gotten gains” of the heads of state of Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinee  and members of their entourage.
It all begin in March 2007, when the Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Economic Development (CCFD) – Terre Solidaire  published a report on the  embezzlement of public funds by politicians of the South [fr].  It's title?  “Ill-gotten gains…too often bring profit: Dictators’ fortune and Western complacency.”
Focusing on domestic goods of the countries victimized by their leaders, the study by the CCFD – Terre solidaire [fr] revealed abuses at the national level:
« Par exemple, Mobutu a transformé Gbadolite, son village natal au Zaïre, en un « Versailles de la jungle », avec une cinquantaine d’hôtels, un aéroport international qui pouvait accueillir le Concorde et plus de trois palais. Quant à Denis Sassou Nguesso, président en exercice au Congo Brazzaville, il détiendrait, avec sa famille, la moitié de l’économie du pays»
A police investigation confirmed most of the allegations and uncovered the existence of many other goods [fr] in the form of both real estate and personal property (including cars and the dictators’ bank accounts).
Sassou Nguesso's house. Source: témoignages.re
The report alleged that the clan of Omar Bongo Odimba (OBO) of Gabon had appropriated 39 real estate properties, of which 17 of there were in the name of their leader.  Most of the properties were located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.  It also identified 70 bank accounts, 11 of them in OBO's name; and an automobile fleet of at least 9 vehicles whose total value is estimated at 1,493,443 euros.
survie.org reveals [fr] that, in addition to OBO's ill-gotten gains in France,
« En 1999, le Sénat américain a publié un rapport d’enquête sur l’origine de la fortune du président (gabonais). Ce document établit qu’Omar Bongo est devenu client de la Citibank de New York en 1970 et qu’il a ouvert de multiples comptes auprès de ses différents bureaux, à Bahreïn, à Jersey, à Londres, au Luxembourg, à New York, à Paris et en Suisse. …. Au total, le montant des avoirs du chef d’Etat, qui ont été placés sur ses différents comptes bancaires à la Citibank, à New York, de 1985 à 1997, serait d’environ 130 millions de dollars. La City Bank aurait expliqué « que l’argent provenait d’une allocation budgétaire, 8,5 % du budget gabonais – soit 111 millions de dollars – étant chaque année réservés au président ».
The report goes further.  survie.org adds [fr] that:
« C’est dans son hôtel particulier qu’il a ainsi accueilli pendant la campagne présidentielle française les candidats Nicolas Sarkozy et François Bayrou ainsi que la moitié du gouvernement Fillon lors de sa première visite officielle sous la présidence de N. Sarkozy. »
Another site, asso-sherpa.org revealed [fr] more proof of the abuses of the OBO clan:
“Edith  Bongo, alors épouse du Président gabonais, aurait ainsi fait  l’acquisition d’une Daimler Chrysler au moyen d’un chèque tiré sur un  compte ouvert auprès de la Banque de France par le Trésor Public  Gabonais.
Copy of the check for Chrysler purchase. Source: Asso-sherpa.org
Police services have also exposed the role played by various intermediaires (bankers, lawyers) in carrying out these various operations.
According to the report [fr] by CCFD-Terre solidaire, the fortune of Congolese President Denis Sassou NGesso and his entourage allegedly consists  of 18 properties; 112 bank accounts; and a fleet of automobiles, including  at least une vehicle worth 172,321 euros.
Nor is that everything.  The Congolese President and his clan‘s embezzlements
«  auraient commencé dès sa première période au pouvoir, de 1979 à 1992, en négociant la vente du pétrole en dessous du prix du marché en contrepartie de versements à son profit. A ce jour, la fortune de Denis Sassou Nguesso est estimée à plus d’un milliard de dollars. »
As for President Teodoro Obiang, who had closer relations with the United States than with France, the article titled “Biens mail acquis à qui profite le crime?” [“Gains ill-gotten: who profits from this crime?”] by Antoine Dulin and Jean Merckaert and found at ccfd-terresolidaire.org explains the extent of their illegal self-enrichment:
80% du revenu national serait monopolisé par l’oligarchie alors que 65% de la population vit toujours dans l’extrême pauvreté. ….. En 2003, ces comptes représentaient la relation la plus importante de la Rigg’s Bank, avec des versements totaux allant de 400 millions à 700 millions de dollars en une fois ! »
Furthermore, after the November 2009 elections in Equatorial Guinea, President Obiang formed a new government of 69 members, ousting practically all of the preceding ministers.  According to the site [fr] Africatime.com:
« En effet, dans le Gouvernement, il y a trois fils du Général, un frère, trois neveux, deux beaux-frères et trois cousins. »
In Cameroon, the authors of the CCFD-Terre solidaire investigation write that:
À peine devenu chef d’État (en novembre 1982), Paul Biya faisait parler de lui à propos de son patrimoine. Le 16 mars 1983, Le Canard enchaîné dévoilait deux acquisitions présidentielles en France : l’une avenue Foch à Paris, l’autre sur la Côte d’Azur, à Cagnes-sur-Mer. …. En mai 1997, L’Événement du jeudi estime que la fortune du président camerounais et de sa famille approche les 70 millions d’euros, dont des châteaux en France et en Allemagne, à Baden-Baden.
Despite all the evidence assembled by these investigations, it took until November 9, 2010 for the Supreme Court of Appeals to reach its decision.
In these times of troubling governance in Africa, the Ill-Gotten Gains affair can only reinforce the perception that government leaders are enriching themselves while their people live in misery.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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Bangladesh: Power Crisis – Facts and Figures · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Jyoti Rahman at Drishtipat Writers’ Collective offers some facts and figures pertaining to the ongoing power crisis in Bangladesh.


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Bangladesh:Discussing the Controversy Surrounding Dr.Yunus · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Badrud Doza, on his blog An Ordinary Citizen, discusses the recent controversy surrounding Dr. Yunus – Nobel laureate and founder of Grameen Bank.


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Bermuda: The 6 Billion Dollar Hole · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Vexed Bermoothes says that “Bermuda is in a bad squeeze” – 6 billion dollars worth.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Bolivia: Drought Kills Llamas  · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

This year, as in recent years, llamas are dying as a result of the drought affecting the Altiplano region of Bolivia. The blogger AngelCaido shares [es] news articles, photos and a video of the affected area.


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China’s top stories in 2010 · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

David Bandurski from China Media Project blogs the official list of top domestic story of the year and invites readers to fill in the gap by sharing their top stories in the comment section.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: The short life of GFW father’s microblog · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

China digital times explains why Fang Binxing's Sina microblog was shut down in three hours. Fang is the President of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications who is known as the “father of the Great Firewall.”


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Colombia: Gramalote Town Evacuated After Heavy Rains, Sentenced to Disappear · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Albeiro Rodas reports that “a Colombian village, Gramalote in North Santander, is being swallowed by the earth. Another chapter of the tragic 2010 winter in Colombia. […] Most of the houses of the town are damaged and others are already buried, said the minister [of interior Germán Vargas Lleras], so in a couple of days Gramalote will cease to exist. A hill that is next to the town, is falling on it.”


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Côte d’Ivoire: Ivorian Internet Users Fear a New Era of Terror in Abidjan · Global Voices
Julie Owono

This post is part of our special coverage Côte d'Ivoire Unrest 2011.
Since Thursday December 16th, the day Alassane Ouattara called for his partisans to march onto the national television RTI building, scenes of civil war have taken place in Côte d'Ivoire. According to the UN, 50 people died and 200 were wounded these last days. Although images of violences are rare in the traditional media because of of the censorship of dissident medias in Abidjan, some videos were shared on the Internet. The following video shows demonstrators being attacked by militaries during which at least one person was killed.
According to local eye-witnesses, the next video  shows Ouattara's partisans on their way to the Hôtel du Golf last Thursday, in the Riviera district of Abidjan.
Another Internet user posted series of videos where we can see a person dying after he was beaten up by armed forces.
This weekend the anti-UN and anti-Sarkozy rhetoric reached a new high when Gbagbo's Government asked for foreign forces to leave the country.
Saturday December 18h in Yopougon, the Minister of Youth, and chief of Gbagbo's Forces of Defense and Security (FDS) young Militiamen, Charles Blé Goudé, adressed the crowd with a radical speech against foreign forces, inviting partisans to get ready to sacrifice their lives for the cause :
“Sarkozy et l'ONU préparent un génocide en Côte d'Ivoire”
“L'ONU a un mandat souterrain, ils veulent enlever Gbagbo du pouvoir (…) Vous allez devoir en tuer beaucoup. “
The meeting was broadcasted on the Ivorian Radio Television (RTI), the national TV channel, and the commentator says at the end :
“Les patriotes sont prêts à faire le sacrifice ultime”
The situation in Abidjan is getting worse. R., an Ivorian Internet user interviewed via instant messaging, explains under the cover of anonymity :
“Des vidéos des violences existent, mais sur twitter on ne peut pas en parler parce que les menaces sont de plus en plus directes”
Many ivorian Internet users who were really active on the hashtag #civ2010 don't tweet anymore. Some are threatened :
“@Sanders225 jespère que vous qui tweetez a partir de votre pc vous avez installé des logiciels pour cacher votre ip #civ2010“
R. also denounces the tattling atmosphere that prevails now in the country against those who dare share pieces of information with the rest of the world :
“on est revenu à l'ere de la gestapo avec exécutions publiques”
Many Internet users mention the presence of Death Squads who don't hesitate to act after the curfew in districts where Ouattara's partisans live. Like @Sanders225 explains:
“Every single day, innocent people are killed during night time curfew in Ivory Cost. Death squads are back. #help#civ2010“
A rumor widely spread and relayed in Abidjan and on Twitter, reports the presence of Liberian mercenaries hired to back up Gbagbo's FDS: @Kanateecs informs that night exactions are perpetrated by those mercenaries :
“Abobo, koumassi, anyama yopougon, ces communes ou les gens ne dorment plus de peur d'etre tuer dans leur sommeil par les liberiens #civ2010“
This post is part of our special coverage Côte d'Ivoire Unrest 2011.

author: Julie Owono


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Cuba: Economics or People?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Laritza's Laws blogs about “economic readjustment…at the expense of the welfare of Cubans.”


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Cuba: More Top 10 · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Uncommon Sense continues his list of the Top Ten Cubans who made an impact in 2010, here and here.


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Guyana: Dispensable Lives?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Thinking about how things are in Guyana these days, particularly about how cheap human life has become”, reminds Imran Khan of a poem he penned a few years ago in “a poor attempt to speak to injustice and inequality.”


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India: How MSM is using Tweets · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Swathi Pradeep at Swathi-licious comments on how the Indian MSM nowadays is often mis-quoting tweets to strengthen their arguments on various current issues.

author: Aparna Ray


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Jamaica: Blog Awards · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Mad Bull is excited that Jamaica will soon be having its Blog Awards!


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South Africa: Bloggers’ take on Wikileaks · Global Voices
Muhammad Karim

Like much of the world of late, everyone has been affected by the revelations contained in WikiLeaks cables.  South Africa is no exception. Here's South African bloggers’ take on WikiLeaks.
“Ons fade nie, ons fokof” covers the Right2Know campaigns point of view on the matter:
The leaking of secret diplomatic correspondence by Wikileaks serves as a warning to all who wish to hide information from the public. As the South African Parliament considers passing the draconian Protection of Information Bill (POIB), they should stop and consider the lesson of Wikileaks: Technological developments with a democratic impulse have forever undermined the ability of states to keep secrets as they have in the past.
The keeping of secrets is a precarious business requiring increasing human and financial resources. The POIB it will have significant  financial implications for all spheres of government that the current Bill does not cater for.
As the Right2Know Campaign fights the battle against the Secrecy Bill that would shroud our society in darkness, we take note of another Wikileaks lesson: Governments which mire themselves in secrecy can quickly become enemies to their own people. There can be no doubt that publishing much of the information on Wikileaks is in the public interest – even if it is not in the interests of governments. It is for this reason that we continue to demand that the scope and definitions of South Africa's Secrecy Bill must be narrow in their remit.
The Times Live Blog asks the question as to whose interest does Wikileaks really serves…:
Does this information serve the American public interest? I don’t know, but to me the more important question, as I am not an American, is “does it serve anyone else’s”?
And that I think is going to be one of the great media freedom debates of the next century – now that we are in a world that is truly international, in which a news item can be read worldwide – who do we mean when we say “in the public interest”?
As journalists, which public’s interests are we supposed to be considering?
Web AddiCT(s) covers the best way to search Wikileaks documents:
250 000 new US Cablegate documents. These documents contain top secret information from
around the world and make for very interesting reading but the biggest problem Wikileaks has is
that it is impossible to browse this large database in the way they present it on their website.
Leaksearch.co.cc or http://locallist.co.za/leaks is a website that solves this problem, it allows you to search the cables quickly
and easily. It’s such a simple tool but would clearly make the lives of journalists much easier. Also
great if you’re just curious on different topics. Give it a go.
Africa is a Country covers an interesting comment on two other blogs, one supporting Wikileaks and the other not so much.
Both Biblical Paths and GalloZone cover the news of the soon to be launched “OpenLeaks” platform at www.openleaks.org.
2OceansVibe writes about Julian Assange winning this year’s Person of the Year poll as well as some very humorous advertising a female hygiene brand has come out using Wikileaks:
The man behind WikiLeaks has won the most votes in this year’s Person of the Year poll. Readers voted a total of 1,249,425 times, and the favorite was clear. Julian Assange raked in 382,020 votes, giving him an easy first place. He was 148,383 votes over the silver medalist, Recep Tayyip Ergodan, Prime Minister of Turkey
Another advert by the same company was covered by the OFM Blog.
Finally, on a more zeitgeist note, Memeburn talk about 2010 being the ‘year of Wikileaks’ in their post “WikiLeaks provides ‘Napster moment’ in evolution of web”.
If 1999 was the Year of Napster in the history of the internet then 2010 will go down as the Year of WikiLeaks.
Napster, the file-sharing renegade, upended the music industry and copyright in ways still being felt a decade later while WikiLeaks, for better or worse, is likely to have a similar impact on government secrecy and transparency.
For now, WikiLeaks has governments, institutions and individuals around the world searching for answers to difficult questions surrounding US policy, free speech, internet freedom, privacy, secrecy, transparency and the power — and dangers — of the Web.
WikiLeaks has argued that its release of hundreds of thousands of secret US documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the inner workings of US diplomacy exposes US military abuses on the battlefield and “contradictions between the US’s public persona and what it says behind closed doors.”
Its detractors denounce the release of the documents as a crime carried out by a disgruntled US soldier and abetted by a self-appointed truth-teller in the person of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
I recommend reading the full post on their site covering comments from prominent media and online media scholars and bloggers.

author: Muhammad Karim


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South/North Korea: A Review of 2010 in Keywords · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Image of Seoul's richest district, taken by Patriotmissile, Under Wikipedia Creative Commons
Satellite picture displaying the Korean peninsula at night. Almost No Lights coming out from North Korea, Created by NASA (Public Domain), Wikimedia Commons
From the Cheonan incident in March to the latest North Korean attack on Yeonpyeong island, Global Voices takes a look back at the year’s hottest keywords that have been widely circulated on Korean internet venues.
March: The Cheonan incident and conspiracy theories
A South Korean warship, the Cheonan, was sunk in the West Sea on 26 March by an alleged North Korean torpedo attack, killing 46 sailors. While the government was busy dealing with this tragic disaster, Korean bloggers raised various conspiracy theories and gave out different explanations for this mysterious incident. As tensions between the two Koreas intensified over the year, most rumors with their own versions of who attacked the Cheonan, have gradually disappeared.  (China and Hong Kong's Responses to the Incident, By Oiwan Lam)
June: North Korean ‘Face-girl’
A North Korean YouTube video of a pretty North Korean girl bragging about her high living standard made a hit in South Korea around June. The ‘North Korean Face-girl’, a nickname given to the YouTube girl by South Korean bloggers, praised its regime and leader Kim Jong-il for his generosity to her family and showed how affluent and happy her life is. But South Koreans, pointing out that a computer she uses is made by a U.S. company that North Korea despises, mocked this as the same old propaganda in a new fashion. (Read More)
July (Business/South Korea): Advent of Smartphones and Mega-Tweeters
The astronomical growth of Smartphones and Twitter in South Korea were game changers in the business sector. Samsung, one of South Korea's biggest companies, waged a fierce battle with Apple in smartphone markets. Many homegrown South Korean social networking services faced uphill battles against Twitter. As more than one million South Koreans became Tweeters, Mega-Tweeters who have more than several thousand followers sprang up and have started gaining power. (Read More)
July and August: North Korean Twitter- high risk with no gain.
North Korea opened its Twitter account, an irony in a notoriously reclusive nation. North Korean twitter account @Uriminzok (‘our nation’ in Korean) drew huge media attention worldwide, gaining more than thousands of followers overnight, as international media craved even a glimpse of the hermit kingdom. This instant interest was gradually lost as the regime's tweets proved to be no more than several-decades-old propaganda and blatant self-praise. South Koreans visited its twitter account less and less after the government blocked its page for security reasons. Many Koreans felt visiting the site by breaching the government guideline was an act with high risk but no benefit at all, since the site only contained lavish self-praise for its corrupt regime. (The account was accessible from the South Korean side only for few days.)
July: The 2010 FIFA World Cup and Jong Tae-se
The FIFA World Cup fever briefly thawed the inter-Korean tension among the public. Under the World Cup anesthesia, people focused on the North Korean people and players, rather than its regime. Jung Tae-se, a North Korean football player whose origin is in the South, gained a huge popularity in South Korea. However, after the game ended, a tragic story which many wished to be a rumor spread around local media that the North Korean national football team was reprimanded by its regime over their poor game results. (Read More)
September: Kim Jong-un, the ‘Son-Pig’
As Kim’s youngest son, Kim Jong-un was made the regime’s heir, numerous analyses and comments inundated online forums. The reaction to the news ranged from serious commentaries on how young and dangerously inexperienced Kim will rule the already devastated nation, to countless harsh jokes mocking Kim’s appearance, calling him ‘the son pig’.  (China's reaction to the succession, By Andy Yee)
October: Reunification Tax and Mt. Baek-du
Despite constant conflict with its northern counterpart, the South Korean government saw the reunification of two Koreas as a mission within its reach and went on suggesting a reunification tax, prompting widespread public discussion. One speculation that worries the Korean public has been the Mt. Baekdu eruption scenario raised by many geologists. Experts said that if North Korea’s highest mountain with an active volcanic core, Mt. Baekdu, were to erupt, the aftermath will be ten times more destructive than Iceland's eruption in April. North Korean experts said the eruption will trigger a rapid shift and meltdown of North Korea regime. (Read More)
November: The Yeonpyeong incident
North Korea attached Yeonpyeong island, a South Korean populated island near its western border with heavy artillery fire on 23 November. As the breaking news was heard, people tweeted madly on how they felt, what they should be doing in case of an emergency and future scenarios. The incident, which deteriorated the hard-earned South-North Korean relations, sent a wake-up call to young South Koreans who had become used to the peaceful situation. Read More: (The night of skirmish;  Reactions from Japanese side, by Scilla Alecci; and  Reactions from Russian side, by Masha Egupova )
November-December (Business/South Korea): Pizza and Chicken controversies that eclipsed the WikiLeak's case.
From November to December, people focused on the big chain stores encroaching on the territory of small businesses with low-priced products. The E-mart’s pizza and the Lotte Mart’s chicken came under fire for providing the same items with higher quality at lower prices, almost devouring local pizza and chicken parlors.
Bloggers who used to side with small business owners during the E-mart’s pizza controversy, leaned toward the Lotte Mart's chicken that disappeared a few weeks after its debut. The weird controversy and huge fuss created over the price of chicken, have swept the nation for several weeks now, even prompting the President to comment on the chicken's price. (Read More)

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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South/North Korea: Tensions Escalate in Midst of Live-Fire Drills · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

South Korean military exercises were underway today near the disputed waters with North Korea, who threatened Seoul to strike back, raising more tensions in the Korean peninsula. The Korean people, who have had one of the toughest days in recent weeks after the Yeonpyeong incident that killed four South Koreans, sighed with relief as the day came to a close without any conflict breaking out. Unlike the Yeonpyeong incident a month ago, people reacted more calmly to the situation and acted more strategically in the time of near-emergency.
It was a long day for Korean web users. In the early morning, they heard news that the South Korean defense ministry was to go ahead with a live-fire exercise near Yeonpyeong island, which North Korea saw as an act of aggression. (It had been previously scheduled to take place on December 18, but was delayed due to bad weather.) At around 11 am, it was revealed that Security Council negotiations to protract an agreement with North Korea on the shelling of Yeonpyeong had failed. The clock reached around 2pm and one piece of unexpected news surprised anxious Koreans. North Korea agreed with New Mexico governor Bill Richardson – who is meeting with officials in the North to try to ease regional tensions – to allow the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to its nuclear facilities. This turn of events, was, however, soon eclipsed by the military drill that started at 2:30pm, and continued until around 4pm. One of South Korea's most prolific Twitter users, @Narciman, wrote:
우리 군의 연평도 해상 포사격 훈련은 시작되었고, 이제 모든 이목은 북한의 대응 여부에 쏠려있군요…”세계가 지켜보고 있습니다…” [몇 시간 후, 다른 트윗] UN안보리 합의 도출 실패, IAEA 사찰단 북 핵시설 복귀 허용, 연평도 포격 훈련 실시…숨가빴던 하루가 끝나갑니다. 큰 판이 어떻게 돌아가고 있는지 모르는 국민들만 가슴 졸이며 하루를 보낸 것은 아닌지 씁쓸합니다…
Looming concerns over the ever-intensified tensions between two Koreas could be easily felt on Twitter. As the drill neared its end, Twitterers, remembering the Yeonpyeong incident, were worried abou what might happen soon after the military drill. On November 23, the North shot thousands of aritillery fire at a populated island after South Korea's military drill finished. @JunghoonYoon commented:
2시 30분 사격 시작하여 1시간 후인 3시 30분 사격 종료 예상. 지난 도발시 사격 종료 즈음에 북한이 도발한 것을로 보아 사격 종료 시점에 주의해야 할듯.
@MediaMongu, a Korean citizen media outlet, retweeted @elvisoon, a media professional:
갑자기 본부장님 사무실 PD와 작가, AD들 모두 한 곳에 불러 모음. “연평도 포격이 시작됐는데, 만일 무슨 일 터지면 휴대전화 안될테니 가족과 애인들에게 어디서 만날지 미리 이야기 해서 정해둬라”
The drill previously scheduled to take place on December 18 has drawn heated debates nationwide. One side urged the South Korean government to calm down and halt needless provocations, such as @heezukheezuk (@wikitree tweeted [ko] about the protest) who stood in front of the Ministry of Defense to protest against creating a near-war situation. Meanwhile, a majority of people defended the government's choice. Hong Jong-wook (@JongWookHong), one of South Korea's most notable politicians, responded to one Twitterer (@lejina5528), who argued that a political decision that merely raises tension would be harmful to the Korean public. Hong said:
저는 늘 대화를 주장했지만 분명 위기의 책임은 북한에 있으며, 지금은 당근을 쓸 때가 아닙니다. 응징과 확전방지란 힘든 목표를 위해 국력과 외교력을 총동원해야 합니다.
Still, whether they agree with the authorities’ decisions or not, many have expressed the fear over the impending danger. As the drill got delayed several times due to heavy fog, several Koreans, such @givenjoy, commented:
안개가 훈련을 못하게 하고 있다. 우리는 안개에게 감사해야 하는가?
Yeonpyeong islanders are probably the most hurt victims of today. Journalist @raburingo tweeted a photo of islanders and journalists who stifled their breaths during the drill while staying in a bomb shelter on the island, desperately waiting for the drill to end.


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Sri Lanka: An Open Letter to Sir Arthur C. Clarke · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Nalaka Gunawardene at Groundviews writes an open letter to the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke.


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Support Global Voices: Help make the world a more connected place · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

When we started Global Voices six years ago, we had a simple goal: to give our readers access to the wide world we were encountering online. Reading blogs from around the world gave both of us a perspective we weren't able to get from newspapers, radio or television: the voices of ordinary people using new technologies to share their perspectives, opinions and points of view about events big and small in their communities. So we built a simple website – Global Voices Online.
Six years later, our simple site has grown into an indispensable resource for anyone who wants to know what people are talking and thinking about from Cameroon to Cambodia. It's a labor of love produced by 400 people around the world who see citizen media in all its forms – videos, photographs, podcasts, Twitter posts, Facebook updates, blogs – as a powerful tool to build connections across barriers of language, culture and nation.
As Global Voices board member Rosental Alves recently put it, in the pre-Internet age the world's people faced information scarcity: an “information desert.” Now we all struggle with information overload: an “information rainforest.” The challenges of building a civilization in a desert are very different than the problems of building a civilization in a rainforest.
Global Voices is one of several – and we believe, vital – grassroots non-commercial efforts that are working hard to build a civilization within the new and rapidly-evolving global information rainforest based on values of free expression, openness, and mutual respect. If we have learned anything in the past few years, it's that just because the Internet exists, and just because anybody can now create media, that doesn't automatically mean the world will be more democratic or peaceful.
While many of us are enthusiastic users of various Google products, Facebook and Twitter, we don't believe that commercial Internet businesses alone will serve the interests and protect the rights of all the world's people. We – citizens living around the world who believe in our right to create independent online media  – need to make a concerted effort to build structures and systems that will nurture and sustain the kind of world we want to live in. Global Voices is a community of people who are acting like real citizens – not mere passive “internet users” – and who are taking personal responsibility for the future of our society.
The vast majority of the people involved with Global Voices are volunteers, like the two of us. The six people who work nearly full time on the project, and 20-plus who receive modest part-time compensation are far from getting rich off the work. Everyone who works on Global Voices is motivated by passion: for featuring voices that are rarely heard outside their own communities, for defending freedom of speech online, for building connections between people around the world.
Even with so much support from passionate volunteers, we need financial support to keep this project going and growing. Global Voices has become an incubator for important and innovative projects around the globe. When you donate, you're not just supporting the 20 websites we already produce (in 17 languages!) – you're making it possible for us to support innovation and experimentation to make sure that our projects can continue to adapt to a rapidly changing, increasingly mobile Internet.
If you believe the work we're doing at Global Voices is important for making the world a wider and more connected place, we hope you'll support us with a donation.
With our thanks and very best wishes,
Rebecca MacKinnon and Ethan Zuckerman
Co-founders, Global Voices

author: Rebecca MacKinnon


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Uruguay: Images of December in Montevideo · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Julio F has updated his blog Images of Montevideo and Uruguay with photos of December in Montevideo: the Matriz cathedral, the Harbor Market (in Spanish, “Mercado del Puerto”) and the Bella Vista dock.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Venezuela: What is the best Venezuelan movie of 2010? · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

In BlogaCine [es], Carlos Caridad-Montero asks his readers to vote for the best Venezuelan movie of 2010, providing a trailer for each movie.


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2010 Chinese blogosphere: Peace and conflict · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The top stories among Chinese communities in Northeast Asia in 2010 can be summarized in two words: Peace and Conflict.
2010 Nobel Peace Prize
On the Peace side, our top news was of Chinese citizen Liu Xiaobo being awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Liu Xiaobo is an intellectual who has advocated for political reforms in China since 1989. His most recent arrest was in June 2009 and Liu was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment under the charge of “inciting subversion of state power” after Charter 08, a proposal for constitutional reform, was published.
While the Chinese government tried to censor information related to the Peace Prize, netizens still managed to circulate the news through the use of microblogs and creative subtle expression in other spaces. As the Norwegian Nobel Committee explained, the 2010 Peace Prize is also dedicated to Chinese human rights activists who have risked their lives for social justice and peaceful political reform in China, such as the citizen investigator of tofu dreg school buildings Tan Zuoren, consumer activist and father of a victim of melamine-addled milk formula Zhao Lianhai, AIDS activists such as Tian Xi, democracy fighters such as Liu Xianbin and many more were also winners of this year's Peace Prize. Which is why most concerned citizens not only saw the news as encouragement toward their peaceful struggle for social and political changes but also found themselves overwhelmed with joy.
Internal conflicts
While the Chinese government saw the Nobel Peace Prize as a western conspiracy against China, in 2010 it became increasingly necessary for the state to address internal social conflicts which are the real sources of political instability. Forced demolitions and illegal land acquisition has resulted in many mass incidents across the country. The riot in Guangxi in October is just one typical incident. The country was horrified to see ordinary people have to resort to maiming themselves just in order to bring public attention to their suffering.
Yet, it also became clearer that public attention does not necessarily mean one can escape state violence. Even with world media's cameras zoomed in on Ai Weiwei, the government still had him under house arrest and his studio in Shanghai will soon be torn down.
We learned that for those whose father happens to be a ‘Li Gang’, you can even run over and kill a school girl with your car and not have to go to jail. Many accidents and disasters this year continued to be man-made. The abuse of power by government and the privileged brought endless human suffering and the lack of planning elevated the adverse effects of disaster, such as in the case of the Zhouqu Landslide. The tragic fire in Shanghai was yet another tragic reminder to the Chinese people that human values should come first in development.
Regional conflicts
The territorial conflict over the Diaoyu Islands intensified over the detention of a Chinese fishing captain. In China, the first battle was a war of words, followed by anti-Japanese demonstrations in major cities, followed then by the restriction on exports of rare earths.
The verbal conflict between China and Japan was just a minor issue when compared with the actual open fire of artillery rockets by the North Korean military at a South Korean Island near the end of November. Following the Cheonan sinking incident in May, Chinese netizens began questioning whether or not China should continue to support the Kim Dynasty in North Korea. The WikiLeaks cables further exposed that even Chinese government officials are reflecting upon official policy towards North Korea.
Censorship
Communication and rational exchange is the key to peaceful resolution of both internal and external conflicts, but 2010 has shown us this is much easier said than done. Instead of encouraging free flow of information for public deliberation, the Chinese government remained intent on maintaining social stability through the blocking of information. In early 2010, the government unleashed extensive censorship mechanisms over the Internet and mobile devices.
In January, Google made a public statement stating that it had been the victim of hacking efforts. Finally in March, Google decided to migrate its mainland China search engine to Hong Kong. In order to show their support for Google for upholding its “do no evil” principle, some netizens decided to deliver flowers to Google's offices in China. However, many found the company's cyber attack accusation against an ordinary technology school incredible.
Aside from further censorship mechanisms such as real name registration, netizens continued to face political and legal harassment. Many netizens were interrogated by national security police simply over criticism of certain government policies, even the handling of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. Recently, a Twitter user was sentenced to one year in labor re-education camp for retweeting someone else's bit of satire.
In spite of such harassment, Chinese netizens have refused to shut up and continue to criticize the government through humor and, even, public streaking.
Taiwan and Hong Kong
Under a relatively democratic system and free speech environment, civil society in Taiwan and Hong Kong were active in putting forward a social and political agenda through online media. In Taiwan, environmental groups and netizens joined forces in challenging the development of petrochemical industry and in favor of the preservation of wetlands. Instead of pursuing surplus GDP growth through the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), many have begun to explore alternative development models and could also be seen protesting against the destruction of agricultural land for the construction of science parks.
In Hong Kong, where local citizens are still struggling for universal suffrage, this year's 5-district referendum movement was one of the city's landmark attempts. While the central government's presence continues to grow stronger, civil society also continues to commemorate the June 4 incident and celebrated the Nobel Peace Prize both in person in Oslo as well as at home.


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Africa: (The Lack) of African ICT Research · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The lack of African ICT research: “It’s no surprise that most of the ICT research comes from South Africa, followed by Nigeria and Botswana. But even if you added up all the research done in all of Africa, it is only 9% of the research done in Africa is done by African institutions.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Australia: Asylum Seeker Boat Tragedy Shocks Nation · Global Voices
Antoun Issa

A boat carrying up to 100 Iranian, Iraqi and Kurdish asylum seekers crashed into sharp cliffs off Christmas Island in Australia on December 15 killing at least 30 people. Dozens of locals witnessed the shipwreck and tried to help drowning men, women, and children as they struggled against rough waves.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott had the campaign slogan 'Stop the boats' in the August 2010 election (via Political Tarot)
The tragedy throws back into light the hard-line policies of Australia's government towards asylum seekers in the past years, which according to critics teeters on xenophobic. The most controversial initiative is the mandatory holding of refugees arriving by boat in offshore detention centers.
Refugees were a major issue in the August federal election won by center-left Labor Party. A day before the boat crash, U.S. embassy cables released by WikiLeaks revealed that the U.S. was critical of Australia's politics regarding asylum seekers, finding the debate disproportionate to the numbers of migrants actually arriving this way.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard's refugee policy has come under harsh attack from both the right and left, with intense debate taking hold of the media and blogosphere.
Hoyden from Town pays tribute to the lives lost at sea:
I simply can’t process this very well. Those poor, poor people. Dozens dead and Christmas Island locals devastated by being unable to save more from the rough seas and razor rocks.
Of course the usual suspects are dusting off their usual lines. No matter how many asylum seeker myths are debunked by simple fact, the old adage remains sadly apposite: a lie can get around the world before the truth can get its boots on.
From Duckpond:
The Prime Minister blames the people smugglers for the vessel carrying about 100 refugees that smashed up on the rocks of Christmas Island.
That argument ignores the reasons that people take enormous risks getting onto, often unsafe vessels to make the last leg of their journey across the sea, which as this disaster illustrates can be treacherous. Most of these people are fleeing war zones in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, and who can blame them. Indonesia may be hospitable, but they are still prepared to throw the dice to leave.
Detention is intentionally punitive. The attitudes of the Gillard Government appear similar to those practiced by Howard without the cost of detaining refugees in Nauru.
Right-wing News Limited commentator Andrew Bolt was quick to respond to the tragedy, calling for Gillard's resignation and accusing her of having “blood on her hands” for not continuing as a harsh a policy against asylum seekers as her predecessor (it was later followed up with another column arguing the same). Bolt's strong remarks sparked a passionate debate in other blogs and in the comments to his article:
If we weren't such a mean spirited country and took a more active and safer approach to bringing these desperate people here this would not have occured. For those of you that support strict asylum policies these deaths are your fault.
Its Obvious! of Melbourne Posted at 8:47 AM December 16, 2010
A “compassionate” approach will only increase the flood of refugees-these people are not fleeing persecution but seeking economic relief. A persecuted person would seek the nearest available safe place-that is NOT Australia.Fact is, our asylum seeker welfare policies oil well-greased people smuggling rackets and these people wend their way to an unlikely place far away.This happens because we have an unlikely (highly promotable to the criminals that run the boat people trade ) asylum seeker policy and generous social welfare.Also helper networks here! This loss of life is terrible and people smugglers are to blame-along with soft government. By the way-lots of English lost their lives in shipwrecks all along our coast too!
I agree that any Prime Minister with “blood on their hands” should resign. John Howard should have resigned over the lies about Iraq war! A country where the majority of these asylum seekers are fleeing from!!! John Howard should have resigned over the lies aboot Tampa and “children overboard”. Hundreds of asylum seekers were demonised and made to suffer just so he could win an election! John Howard should have resigned over the $300 million of bribes paid to Saddam Hussein by AWB – under his very nose! This money was used by Sadam to kill and torture his people – Iraqis who pay evil people smugglers to escape the country because they feared for their lives! Yessiree – I totally support Prime Ministers resigning if they drectly or indirectly contributed to the deaths and injuries of innocent civilians! Don't you agree Mr Bolt and all your racist redneck supporters???
Several bloggers also discussed Bolt's piece. On Club Troppo:
… Bolt’s argument contains an assumption that continuation of the Pacific/Nauru Solution would have resulted in ongoing low arrival numbers. As I argued in my previous post canvassing abolition of universal mandatory detention, that assumption is highly dubious given that it only became general public knowledge shortly before the Howard government was defeated in 2007 that most of the Nauru detainees were being progressively granted protection visas and allowed into Australia. We can’t be certain that numbers of boat arrivals would have risen inexorably from that point irrespective of which party was in power, but it’s a reasonable suspicion that demagogues like Bolt fail even to mention let alone seriously consider.
(…)
Some of the axe-grinders who seek to mislead Australians that there is some magic solution to the asylum seeker issue may well be sincere, but they’re certainly not helping to engender rational debate aimed at achieving a workable if unavoidably imperfect policy.
Blogger Pure Poison slams Bolt's article as “repulsive and ghoulish”, saying:
The bodies are still being recovered, and at least one News Ltd columnist is already trying to capitalise politically on the Christmas Island tragedy
Pure Poison then updates the post with a link to a “spectacular comeback” to Bolt by Jack Marx in a blog on the Daily Telegraph. He quotes from the piece:
There are few postures quite as serpentine as that of the bully who disguises his cruelty as some kind of love. Sadistic teachers of old were fond of it – the furrowed brow and fraudulent look of regret as they caned you “for your own good” – and the history of xenophobia is rich with creeps who dolled up their barbarism as a humane sympathy for the very people they sought to oppress. The asylum seekers who drowned off Christmas Island last night had barely taken their last breaths when such ghouls began riding their waterlogged bones, boastfully declaring the tragedy a vindication of their own contemptuous beliefs, their allergy to foreigners camouflaged behind a sick exhibition of concern for the very lives they couldn’t give two $#@&s about.
Café Whispers lashes out at the right-wing for attempting to make political gains out of a human tragedy, while offering potential solutions to prevent the disaster from recurring:
Please cast your political loyalties aside. It is evident that Labor or the Coalition cannot come up with a workable policy that will stop boat people from coming to Australia. I have no issue with people wanting to flee to our country, but I do have issues with these people being used as political tools and I certainly don’t want to see these people die in their endeavours to reach our shores. I am particularly sickened by the extreme right wing media who have tried to gain political mileage for their chosen ones out of the recent deaths on Christmas Island. In my opinion it demonstrates the the worst of the Australian character.
Café Whispers then proposes alternative solutions including processing refugees in Indonesia and imposing harsher penalties on the human traffickers.
Asylum seekers continue to evoke the rawest emotions out of Australians. It strikes at the core of Australian society, and the contended self-perceptions of Australia as an either racist or humanitarian nation. As the US critiqued via its leaked cables, asylum seekers have been politicised for domestic gains, with neither side willing to, “calmly and rationally put the issue in perspective”.

author: Antoun Issa