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Trinidad & Tobago: A Miracle for Judah  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Plain Talk chronicles the experience of young Judah Lovell, a burn victim who has suffered through the local health care system and deserves “his over due happily ever after.”


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Trinidad & Tobago: Silencing the Media  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Fazeer Mohammed is a writer and broadcaster in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. Last Saturday he was fired from the Caribbean New Media Group, a STATE-RUN media house in T&T”: The Undisputed Truth finds it curious that “his removal came right after a little confrontational interview with government Minister Dr. Suruj Rambachan.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Uganda: Do you need to stay in power after 24 years? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Evelyn discusses the decision by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to seek another term: “Many think 24 years is enough time for any able minded President to bring forth the agendas that you had for a nation and therefore move on and let others hold the candle from where you leave it!”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Uganda: Does gender matter in social change?  · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Maureen blogs about the Digital Natives: My bubbles, My space and My Voice workshop taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa:  I cannot stop thinking about yesterday’s morning session on “Keyword paring”. This was an exercise that required each participant to describe their practices, policies and ideologies in one word which would be paired up with another participant’s one word description to form a topic of discussion.”


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Uruguay: First Blog Competition for University Students · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Gabriel Budiño [es] shares information on the first blog competition for Uruguayan university students, which seeks to promote debate and is open to any university student from Uruguay.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Zambia: Reversing domestic violence · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Steps to be taken to reverse domestic violence in Zambia: “The second change is the need for special domestic violence courts. It appears that our courts may not fully realise the special nature of some of these cases, especially the cultural and economic angles. We need to experiment with tailored judicial proceedings.”


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Africa: What drives unsafe abortion in Africa? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

What drives unsafe abortion in Africa?: “In our view two key factors ultimately sustain the persistence of unsafe abortion in Africa:  the first is criminalisation of abortionwhich was inherited from colonial times, despite the fact that abortion has since been decriminalised in the “mother countries”, beginning with the United Kingdom in 1967. The second is the limited or lack of access to adequate abortion services.”


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Barbados: Government-Media Link · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Barbados Free Press makes “some observations about this ‘special understanding’ or ‘working relationship’ between the ‘professional’ Barbados news media and the government that results in the news media intentionally withholding news from the public for days.”


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Brazil: why does the media fear debate? · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

On his blog, Ricardo Kotscho asks himself [pt] why Brazil's mainstream media is so afraid to debate new regulation of the sector. Meanwhile, Rogério Tomaz Jr, from the blog Conexão Brasília Maranhão, discusses [pt] the need for greater social control of the media in order to promote democracy.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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China: 360 VS. QQ: What about privacy and user rights? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

An unintended consequence of a battle between instant messaging applications Tencent and Qihoo 360 has been increased awareness among Chinese internet users regarding averse effects of Tencent‘s industry monopoly and the significance of protection of user privacy and rights.
Although Tecent has a monopoly position in the Chinese Internet business market, its reputation continues to decline amid the controversy. Well-known writer and microblogger Zheng Yuanjie launched a poll on Sina‘s microblog platform about the battle. As of 10am on November 10, around 70% (10,218 votes) of replies support Qihoo 360, with 21% (3,021) of voters having chosen to support neither party.
Why are Chinese internet users supporting Qihoo 360 in this public relations fight?
Privacy and user rights
One description being used to promote the Sina microblog event which condemns Tencent QQ's strategy of forcing users to remove 360 software helps shed some light on public opinion. The event brief reads:
软件和电脑是我的私人财产，我有权选择如何使用！我们希望大家帮我一起呼吁给这个赚了我们钱，又要限制我们使用我们自己财产的商人！请各位留言并转发此活动链接。让更多的人一起参与呼吁正常使用我们私人财产！
QQ's market monopoly
Qihoo 360 CEO Zhou Hongwei also addresses the user rights issue on his Sina microblog:
以前，是君让臣死，臣不能不死。360不信邪，就要在夹缝中找出一条路来。3Q之争，本质上不是360和腾讯的斗争，而是互联网创新力量和垄断力量的斗 争，360在垄断力量挤压下找到一条生路，也是为其他互联网创业公司找生路。那就是，跟垄断力量斗争，绝对不能伤害用户利益，反而应该以增加用户利益为目 标。
Founder of BlogCN Fang Xindong also comments:
QQ和360事件，应该站在产业和用户利益的高度，给予相应的处理。我个人认为，假如给360打一个板子，那么给腾讯起码要打十个板子。主要理由在 于：360主要是对腾讯利益有损害，而腾讯举措给数亿用户造成了损害。腾讯以用户为弹药，是基于其垄断地位的自信，没有绝对的垄断，没有公司敢于作出这样 的举措。
Timeline of the battle
For those who have missed what has transpired in the battle between QQ and 360, Jason Ng at Kenengba has reconstructed a timeline:
January 25, 2010: Tecent launches “QQ doctor” in second and third level cities. The antivirus and system protection functions offered by “QQ doctor” resembled those of Qihoo 360.
May 26, 2010: A blogger writes in his blog that the QQ application is scanning users’ hard drives and accessing their private data.
May 31, 2010: QQ upgrades “QQ doctor” to version 4.0 and changes the name of the software to “QQ computer housekeeper”. Its functions increasingly resemble those of ‘360 security guard’.
July 24, 2010: Computer World magazine publishes the front page story “Bastard Tencent” (see the cover image below). The article criticizes Tencent of stealing other people's innovations and murdering startup businesses. It claims that Tencent is the common enemy of Chinese internet users.
September 22, 2010: QQ users find that their “QQ doctor” and “QQ housekeeper” have been automatically upgraded without any notice.
September 27, 2010: 360 launches its privacy protection software. It openly states that QQ has violated users’ privacy by automatically scanning their hard drives.
October 29, 2010: 360 launches “KouKou Bodyguard”. It removes certain QQ applications and protects QQ users’ privacy.
November 1, 2010: A truce in the battle as both parties bring the case to court. Tencent claims that 360's KouKou Bodyguard is an illegal application while 360 contends that QQ has invaded users’ privacy.
November 3, 2010: Tencent issues an official statement demanding that users remove all 360 software and browsers, or face being unable to run QQ on their computers. The action enrages many QQ users and 360 condemns Tencent for violating user rights. 360 launches a web-based QQ client so that QQ users will not have to remove 360. That website is immediately blocked by the Tencent browser. The same day, 360 withdraws its KouKou Bodyguard and urges users to boycott QQ for three days. Tencent proposes a resolution by demanding 360 cease running the privacy protection program and apologize.
While it seems that QQ has the upper hand in the battle, well-known tech blogger William Long points out that as technology continues to advance, QQ may stand to lose its market:
作为即时通讯只有在适合的人之间建立起来才算是合理。假设我们500多个QQ好友都在MSN，为什么还有留在QQ呢？我是个淘宝卖家，我的买家、顾客同行都在旺旺，我也没必要再开个QQ吗？而当我们处于一个情景的时候我们真的需要即时通讯，而且即时通讯既可以让我只使用一个账号来登录，同时也可以保护我 自身信息的隐蔽，让我在多种身份间切换。如果可以满足这些需求，起码理论上可以让我们抛弃对QQ的依赖。
将来，各种电子产品的工作效率大幅提升后，一个浏览器内就应该能承载所用的功能，而智能的匹配也可以帮我们找到我们需要的人，并且屏蔽掉不需要的信息。那时，通讯只是众多互联网功能的一种，那我们还需要QQ这样客户端吗？
In the future, as our computer applications continue to become more and more efficient, we will be able to utilize all functions in just one browser and artificial intelligence will help us find the people we need to find and block the information we don't. Communication is just one of many Internet functions. When the time arrives, will we even still need QQ clients?

author: Oiwan Lam


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Cuba: Castro on Twitter  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Along the Malecon thinks one of the reasons that Hugo Chavez has more Twitter followers than Fidel Castro is because “Internet use in Cuba much more restricted and expensive than it is in Venezuela.”


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D.R. of Congo: Criminalising Homosexuality · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Criminalising homosexuality in the Democratic Republic of Congo: “The DRC parliament is presently debating proposed in the process of discussing legislation which will criminalise homosexuality. There are a number of major difference between the DRC Bill and legislation proposed in for example, Nigeria and Uganda which have proposed similar legislation.”


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Haiti: Cash for Work   · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Is it a good thing that the sidewalks are jammed with people selling mostly imported goods and cast-off clothing and shoes from overseas?”: Haiti Grassroots Watch investigates whether cash-for-work programs help or hinder the country's recovery from the January 12 earthquake.


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Haiti: Tweets on Cholera Outbreak  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Twitter updates on the cholera outbreak: @carelpedre gets news that the disease is spreading, while @MissionMANNA tweets a quote from the director of Haiti's health ministry suggesting that the situation is “now a matter of national security.”


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Hong Kong and China: Cross-border shopping · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

George Chen points out that with the inflation in China, many mainland Chinese travel to Hong Kong to buy daily necessity product over the weekend as the price is much cheaper.


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Iran: Inflation for dummies · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Azarakan has published two photos of a package of mushrooms in four days. The price rose about 30 percent. The Iranian blogger says [fa] here is the meaning of the inflation for some who try ignore it.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran: Pro democracy student was lashed 74 times · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Pejvak,an Iranian blogger, writes [fa] that Behrouz Javid Tehrani, pro democracy student was lashed 74 times in prison in Tehran. He has been in prison for 8 years.


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Jordan: Tweets Cover Parliamentary Election Flaws · Global Voices
Betsy Fisher

Jordanians went to the polls yesterday. A total of 763 candidates, including 143 women, vied for 120 seats in parliament.  As the voting continued, Twitter user Naseem Tawarnah provided up-to-the-minute updates of allegations of violence and voting fraud.
He began in the morning:
Arrests of 40 people in Madaba and 10 in Jerash where fights have broken out on #JOelections day http://is.gd/gRnKP #JO
The posts continued:
Armed men block voters from getting to polls in Mafraq. More forged ID cards found in Ramtha. Oh Joy. http://is.gd/gRnRz #JOelections
Before noon, the pace of tweets picked up, and Tawarnah was adding timestamps to his posts.
11:37am: Supporters shoot up the car of a rival candidate in Madaba. No injuries. http://is.gd/gRrUi #JOelections
He reported violence in Ma'an, Madaba, Amman, Mafraq and Tafila, respectively.
11:48am: Police arrest 4 men armed with AK-47s in Ma'an, one of whom is the brother of a candidate. http://is.gd/gRsDp #JOelections
11:57am: Drunk driver rams car into polling station. Injures 2. Police arrest 30 knife/axe-wielding citizens http://is.gd/gRrUi #JOelections
12:01pm: Police clash with Amman 5th district candidate who questioned the integrity of the voting process http://is.gd/gRrUi #JOelections
Fight breaks out between 3 candidates in Mafraq. Polling station committee chair beaten up & his cell stolen http://is.gd/gRrUi #joelections
Police use tear gas in Tafieleh 2break up crowd of supporters attempting 2 block voters of another candidate http://is.gd/gRrUi #JOelections
Later, Tawarnah reported with irony,
12:33pm: Minister of Interior blames low Amman turnout on “pampered” residents who wake up late. Priceless http://is.gd/gRrUi #JOelections

author: Betsy Fisher


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Kazakhstan: LiveJournal Suspends Oppositioner’s Account · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

LiveJournal has suspended account of Rakhat Aliev, Kazakh opposition politician and a former president Nazarbaev‘s son-in-law, LJ-user Dolboeb reports. Previously Kazakhstan blocked entire LiveJournal in order to silence Aliev. At the same time, it is the second suspicious suspension in LiveJournal – on November 3, 2010 Russian opposition blogger pilgrim_67 had been suspended, too.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Kenya: The Kenya I Live In · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

This December 2010, Kenyan literary magazine, “Kwani?” will publish the top five entries of their “The Kenya I Live In” Short Story Competition. (Over 500 entries were received, the judges read 65 of these and announced the winners in February 2010.)


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Lebanon: Jismi, One Day, One Struggle · Global Voices
Layal Al Khatib

Lebanon-based groups Nasawiya, Helem and Meem launched a new website named “Jismi” (Ar) (My Body) dedicated to the annual “One Day, One Struggle” campaign, a unique effort to underscore the joint struggle against the violation of sexual and bodily rights in Muslim societies.

author: Layal Al Khatib


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MalawiSoc: Tracking Malawian blogs and news · Global Voices
Victor Kaonga

Clement Nthambazale Nyirenda is a final year PhD student in the Hirota/Sakurai Lab in the Department of Computational Intelligence and Systems Science at Tokyo Institute of Technology and a lecturer, researcher and consultant in Electronics and Computer Engineering at the Malawi Polytechnic. He is the founder of MalawiSoc, a social bookmarking site devoted to news and blogs about Malawi. He recently agreed to participate in an email interview with Global Voices Online.
How did the idea for creating MalawiSoc come about?
Generally speaking, social bookmarking is a method that enables Internet users to organize,  store, manage and search for bookmarks of resources online. It  also enables Internet users across the web to collaborate with one  another by sharing their bookmarks.  Because of  my blogging activities, I have been a social bookmarking sites, such  Digg, Redit and StumbleUpon, for the past few years. My experience with  these sites inspired me to create a similar site specifically devoted to  blogs and news about Malawi.
Who are the other founders of MalawiSoc?
I am the only founder. But I am trying to bring in a few other Malawians so that we can together further develop this service. It is based  in Yamato City, Japan. Yamato is a small city, one hour train ride away from Central Tokyo. The site itself is hosted by siteground.com, who have their main office in Panama.
How helpful is it to Malawians in particular?
There are a number of advantages for Malawians:
What one success would you like to share?
Because  the site is still less than three months old, I do not have any  successes to share as of now. I am currently busy promoting the site.
What are the biggest obstacles to your success? If any, how do you plan on overcoming those obstacles?
The  biggest obstacle, as of now, is that I am working alone. I mainly do  this work during my leisure time. There are many improvements that I  would want to make but time is a problem, especially now that I am in  the final year of my PhD studies. As I mentioned before, I am already  talking to a few friends to join me in this adventure. I hope that  together we will be able to make the site more user friendly and  exciting.
Clement Nyirenda, the founder of MalawiSoc. Photo courtesy of Clement Nyirenda.
What skills and expertise would be of assistance to your project?
Skills and  expertise in the following software and technologies would be of great  assistance: Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, CSS, xHTML and HTML, PHP,  Mysql. In-depth knowledge of the Internet and Search Engine Optimization  (SEO) is also very important.
How do you plan on sustaining your project financially?
I am also appealing to all well-wishers out there to  make donations towards this project. Those who want to help can get in  touch with me through http://malawisoc.com/contact. I used some of the money that I made through adverts and some affiliate  programs on my blog to register the domain and secure hosting space at siteground.com for the first two years. I am hoping that in two years time, the  adverts that I will be running on the social bookmarking site will  provide enough money to pay for all the costs.
How do you think MalawiSoc contributes to transparency in Malawi?
Because the  site is user driven, in the sense that users provide the news  articles, summaries and comments and also vote the articles, I believe  that it greatly contributes to transparency in Malawi.
How does the information published on your website turn into offline social/political change?
I  think it may be premature for me to say anything on that for the time  being. But as the site continues to grow, it will provide the best  resource for summaries and links for the hottest news and blog articles about Malawi. The ease with which important information will be obtained  by members and the resulting comments and private messages have the  potential of causing significant offline change.
How many hours a week do you personally spend on the project
I take approximately 8 to 12 hours. The most time consuming tasks involve playing around with HTML and PHP codes to improve the functionality of the site.
How many visitors do you get on MalawiSoc?
Because site is still in the initial stages, I think it is premature to share this information at this time.
What do you find unique about MalawiSoc?
Well, the unique thing is that it is the only social bookmarking site devoted to Malawian content on the web. It attempts to allow Internet users who  interested in Malawian issues to help in the aggregation and rating of Malawian content on the web. It also helps to increase the visibility of Malawian content on the web
What licenses do you use to publish own content and their code (if you develop any tools).
This site is  built on the Hotaru Content Management System under the terms of  the General Public License v.3, which implies that we have the liberty to modify it, mainly by using plugins, to suit our needs.
Is MalawiSoc on Twitter?
Yes. Our readers can follow us on this address:
Where do most readers come from?
Almost 35% come from Malawi and about 20% from UK. USA ranks third at 10%. The target audience is Malawians and all folks interested in Malawian issues. Content submitted to the site is not re-posted elsewhere.
What metrics do you use to judge your own success?
As  long as there is enough activity (submissions, comments, voting,  private messages etc.) on the site and we are able to pay for the  operational costs without any problems, that will be okay.
What else would you like to share with me.
I would like to thank you for granting me the opportunity to be interviewed.

author: Victor Kaonga


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Nigeria: Oil War Resumes · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Nigeria's oil war resumes: “Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the main umbrella body of Nigeria’s Niger Delta region militants who rejected the amnesty granted to militants who surrendered arms and renounced violence by the government last year, have resumed hostilities after what seemed an initial ceasefire.”


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Nigeria: Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Sokari remembers Ken Saro-Wiwa: “Today marks the 15th anniversary of the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa by the Nigerian state under General Sani Abacha on November 10th 1995. I still remember the day, a Friday.”


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Russia: Soccer Hooligans Might Be Involved in Assault on Oleg Kashin · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Investigative blogger Anticompromat re-posts [RUS] a new version of attack on Oleg Kashin. He quotes LJ-user cleric_r saying that the assault might be connected with soccer fan groups. Kashin knew way too much about the relations between soccer fan groups, pro-Kremlin youth movements, and President's Staff. LJ-user semen_f19 adds [RUS] some background on soccer fan organizations.


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Serbia: Netizens and Media Report on the Kraljevo Earthquake · Global Voices
Sasa Milosevic

Who is next? Darker colors indicate areas where new devastating earthquakes can be expected. Source: Vecernje Novosti
Hundreds of earthquakes will shake Serbia in the next few months, but none of them will be nearly as powerful as those that occurred on the night of Nov. 2-3 in and around the town of Kraljevo, warned the experts from the Serbian Republican Seismological Bureau.
A 5.3-magnitude earthquake with the epicenter near the village of Vitanovac was felt in almost all parts of Serbia. The ground was shaking in the whole area of Sumadija, western Serbia, Raska region, Kosovo, and even in most parts of Vojvodina. Milder earthquakes were felt in the neighbouring Republika Srpska and Croatia. In the Serbian capital Belgrade tremors also disturbed the residents.
Following the initial shock in the vicinity of Kraljevo, about 70 minor earthquakes were recorded, said Branko Dragicevic, deputy director of the Republican Seismological Bureau, in an interview with Blic.
Two people were killed and more than 50 injured that night. Natalija and Sinisa Stasic from Grdica died in their sleep when the ceiling of their house collapsed on them. Their son Ivica Stasic, 33, survived by sheer luck: he stayed up late that night on the ground floor watching television, while his parents were in their bedroom on an upper floor.
An elderly woman from Mrcajevci, a village near the Kraljevo, died of a heart attack most likely caused by the fear of earthquakes, according to the statement from her family members.
The Serbian media described the dramatic scenes in Kraljevo. People were out in the streets, in panic and fear.
Stefan Petrovic, 22, from Kraljevo recalls that night:
I was coming from my friend's place at the time of the earthquake. Everything started shaking. For a moment I lost my balance, so I squatted on the ground. It was horrible. Although it was just a few seconds, it seemed like it would last forever. As if the earth had opened up…
Dragica Stankovic, a housewife, still remembers the earthquakes in Bucharest in 1977 and the one in Montenegro in 1979, but that experience wasn't as “horrible” as the one last week in Kraljevo:
It was horrible, as if it was the end of the world. I was asleep and then it began to shake so much that I immediately jumped out of bed. I immediately tried to call my daughter, but I could not get to her on the mobile. Thank God, she was fine […].
Veljko Vasic and his wife Sanja, in their panic, almost lost their 4-year-old son Nikola, who survived after an attic panel struck the bed on which the little boy was asleep:
As usual, we put him to bed early. We went to bed, and then the roar woke me up. I opened my eyes and realized there was an earthquake. It seems to me that I yelled to Sanja to get herself with the kid into the door frame. I was thinking that he was with her. He was still in bed – I heard some small weeping and him calling us.
The parents managed to rescue Nikola from under the heavy concrete blocks and mortar. The boy was not injured, but is still afraid of each new shaking. The Serbian media proclaimed him a “little hero.”
Vladimir and Nebojsa Andric from the village Donja Sirca near Kraljevo in just one minute lost their family house, which was damaged to the extent that both of them and their four children had to move urgently to a shelter. With tears in his eyes, holding his head, Vladimir Andric says:
All that my wife and I have earned in life we invested in this house, so that we could create normal living for our children. And now all of that is dust and ashes!
The most dramatic moments were witnessed by the patients and employees of the Kraljevo Maternity Hospital. According to the statement issued by the medical staff, none of the 27 babies who were on the ward at the time of the earthquake was hurt, though the local authorities did not show up to help with evacuation:
Brave nurses from the maternity department organized evacuation of mothers and babies, of which some literally counted the first minute of life.
They were moved from the flooded hospital room into the hallways. The flooding was caused by the bursting of pipes. The ward's chief doctor, Dragan Jovanovic, said that fifteen minutes before the first and the strongest earthquake, he had performed a Caesarean section on a young woman.
Serbian national TV channel RTS ran a story about the medical staff of this maternity hospital, calling them “the heroes of Kraljevo.”
Ivica Dacic, Serbian Interior Minister said:
The earthquake in Kraljevo has damaged up to 4,000 buildings.
Dacic also announced that employees of the police would donate one day's pay to their colleagues in Kraljevo, whose houses had been damaged in the earthquake.
Over a hundred volunteers from ten cities in Serbia came to Kraljevo to assist in clearing up the consequences of the earthquake. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management has ensured, through donors, about 50 tons of sugar and about 28,000 gallons of oil. People from Loznica took an action to collect aid in construction materials.
Aleksandar Martinovic, a representative of the Serbian Radical Party, proposed to the Serbian Government to invest 10 million euros in Kraljevo. The money would be donated from the governmental fund established to pay the award to those who submit information on the war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic.
The Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic donated his monthly salary (1,000 euros) to help Kraljevo citizens. The same thing was done by the Serbian Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac.
In a comment to the article about these donations, user Van_Halen was cheering:
Bravo to the ministers! …Bravo to anyone who wants and can help!
Zox asked ironically:
Bravo to the ministers…? Are you normal people…? The earthquake has destroyed half the city and they allotted only 50,000 euros for assistance… […] We have a lot of stupid brothers, which is a greater disaster than the earthquake…
Orlando Antoni, the Vatican Ambassador to Serbia, and the Belgrade Catholic Archbishop Stanislav Hocevar visited the Catholic church in Kraljevo, which had been badly damaged in the earthquake and declared unsafe to use. Antoni and Hocevar also visited the Orthodox monastery Zica, which had also been damaged. Ambassador Antoni said:
I come from the city of Aquila in the Italian province of Abruzzi, which was hit by a disastrous earthquake a year and a half ago. Because I know how you feel now, I sympathize with you…
The Pope will invite believers from around the world to help Kraljevo, said Archbishop Stanislav Hocevar in Belgrade.
The first reports about the Kraljevo disaster were published on online social networks. Twitter users were well organized in a group of online reporters, filing under the #zemljotres (“earthquake”) hashtag. Young Serbs relied on this source of information rather than on reports by the mainstream media outlets. On the other hand, Twitter’s standard 140-character messages were very helpful to the mainstream media as a source of information, especially in a situation when phone connection with reporters on the site was disrupted.
Twitter has also been used as a “call centre” for volunteers willing to help with the clean-up in Kraljevo.
@Milicevic_J:
Sutanovac [Defence Minister] calls those who sit in the cafes to assist in cleaning
Individual experiences shared on Twitter during the night of the earthquake reflected the drama reliably.
@Cudovistance:
I thought there was a party in the neighbourhood.
@Mandarinaaa:
It was not so horrible. We are shaking a bit. The parrot woke us up…
@Mooshema:
I saw pictures of my sister's home in Kraljevo. Sad…
@neshasr:
If the end of the world must begin in Serbia, just let it not start from my village!
@Lidijabera:
For me the parrots are indicators – and now they are relaxing, and the dog Eddie sleeps.
Facebook page “All of us who felt the earthquake” got over 3,500 members in six hours. The members’ status updates indicated whether they felt the earthquake and what their impressions were.
According to the Seismological Bureau, it was not possible to predict the earthquake in Kraljevo, though the seismological stations in Serbia had registered 41 earthquakes in Kosovo and Metohija from Oct. 6 to Oct. 12.
Unlike the official seismological institutions, some religious persons had “predicted” the earthquake as a punishment for a prodigal life that, in their view, is being increasingly practiced in Serbia.
Jelena Hia Markovic on her Facebook profile recalls the words of the Serbian Orthodox Monk Father Joil Bulatovic, who said this before the Belgrade Gay Pride Parade:
If the parade is going to take place in Belgrade, earthquakes will hit Belgrade and Serbia.

author: Sasa Milosevic


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South Korea: Unicef T-shirt Guy Blocked From Entering G20 Venue · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

As G 20 Summit kicks off tomorrow, the summit venue is under maximum security. The government's ‘too much security’, though understandable, has drawn public annoyance online. Twitterer @michaelPARK83 tweeted that he had been blocked [ko]from entering the summit venue only because he was wearing a T-shirt with certain words on, which was ‘Unicef’.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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St. Lucia: No Bananas · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Repeating Islands notes that St. Lucia's banana industry “could take up to eight months to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Tomas.”


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Taiwan: Reporting on Autumn Struggle 2010 · Global Voices
Portnoy Zheng

The Annual Autumn Struggle(秋鬥) was held on 11/7 this year, more than 1000 people from various minority groups and social activists organizations-migrant workers, indigenous tribes, HIV+ patients, sex workers, environmentalists, and farmers deprived of their lands-joined the march together. CivilMedia's video report summarized demands from different groups[zht] while Coolloud's photo report captured conflict scenes between the police and protesters[zht].

author: Portnoy Zheng


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U.S.V.I.: No-Smoking Legislation  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Department of Health neglected to hold enough committee meetings to make the no-smoking law a reality; Live De Life hopes that despite the delay, “the bar and restaurant owners choose to go ahead and put this in place now before the start of tourist season.”


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Video: It Gets Better for Queer Youth · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

The It Gets Better Project was started by Dan Savage as a way of preventing gay teens from committing suicide through videos explaining what gay adult life could be: lots better.  And from different corners of the world, other people are also sharing their stories.
Dave talks about growing up to a family of religious missionaries in Israel, how he even came to think that exorcism would be a solution to his problems and about his efforts to try and make sense of his faith in regards to his sexual orientation.
From Finland, a group of people share their experiences growing up queer. The video was presented in the TedXHelsinki conference. It is subtitled in Swedish and English:
Bashar Makhay speaks about the process of accepting his identity as a middle eastern gay man, or as he calls himself, a “Gay Chaldean Iraqi American Christian Progressive Man”. Video has English subtitles if you press the cc button:
A gay Muslim youth speaks about growing up in a very religious Shi'a Muslim Pakistani household: how he dealt with harassment, his religious beliefs and his family's take on his his sexuality:
From the Spanish speaking community there are several videos found under the title “Todo va a Mejorar”. One such video was uploaded by
Constantino from Guatemala who currently lives in New York City. He speaks about growing up in a chauvinistic society, his doubts and how just hanging on and following your dreams can go a long way: He is currently living his dream.
As a first generation immigrant from Greece, greekcub tells of the importance of being true to yourself, despite the traditional cultural norms that may seem incompatible with happiness, and at the end, he records a special message for any queer Greek teens going through rough times:
And finally, Kelly Kim explains in ASL how it was for him to grow up being picked on for being deaf and being bullied, afraid for his Korean family's reaction to his sexual identity until he finally decided to come out of the closet. The video is captioned in English:
There are many more videos both on the It Gets Better Project website as well as on YouTube. And hopefully, any teen being bullied because they are different will be able to find support and inspiration in these videos and stories.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago: Illegal Monitoring  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As news breaks that illegal interception of private conversations was taking place within Trinidad and Tobago's National Security Ministry, Barbados Underground wonders whether the same thing could be happening in Barbados and asks: “Who is guarding the guards?”


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Brazil: An Interview about Citizen Media in Peripheral Communities · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

Journalism in the Americas blog published an interview with Brazilian journalist Bruno Garcez [en, pt, es], the creator of Mural [The Wall, pt], a citizen journalism project about news from peripheral communities in Sao Paulo.

author: Sara Moreira


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Chile: Globalization, Not Just About Big Macs and Pizza Hut · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Greg Weeks from Two Weeks Notice: A Latin American Politics Blog, briefly talks about Chile and globalization: “Globalization in Chile is not just about Big Macs and Pizza Hut.”


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China: Gunshot incident · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

ESWN translated a local news story about a gunshot incident caused by the death of a woman during child delivery in a hospital in Huilai, Guangdong province.


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China: Rising prices and rooftop gardens · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Following news of rising prices in China and Shenzhen shoppers traveling across the border to Hong Kong for cheaper goods, another recent trend, according to Shenzhen-based NetEase photoblogger CS Yilao, has seen people saving money by growing their own produce on rooftops:
在深圳，因为近期物价飞涨，港元对人民币连续贬值，部分深圳市民赴港购生活必需品。我们可以比较一下深圳和香港地区的生活日用品价格差距：在深圳卖2块钱一包的食盐，香港超市卖1.1港元，折合人民币才9毛多；红富士苹果深圳已卖到6块钱一斤，平均一个都要4块钱，而同样大小的苹果在香港10港元能买四个；深圳的鸡蛋已经涨到9毛钱一个，差不多大小的鸡蛋在香港惠康超市23港元就能买30个，折成人民币一个还不到7毛钱；10卷装的维达卫生纸，深圳的超市卖32.5元，香港超市才卖28港元；750毫升装的飘柔洗发水深圳超市卖39块钱，香港61港元就能买两瓶……
近期，因为深圳菜价飞涨，最低菜价也在4.5元以上.大多数在深圳工作的外来工又不像深圳户籍人口那样拥有多次香港往返证.到香港去买菜,蛇有蛇路,龟有龟途.天无绝人之路.虽然过不了海关,但上房顶是可以的.本清爽宽敞的屋顶,闲置着可惜.咱们把这闲置空地利用起来.花点力气,挑上几担土,建成一个又一个小菜园.自已动手,丰衣足食.只要不来折房子,偶们就一直将菜种下去.
One morning I got up early and went out onto the balcony, where I noticed something off about all the rooftops surrounding me. I got out my binoculars and looked around carefully, then I noticed that I was looking at rooftop gardens.
Gardens in each corner; here this homeowner is watering his sprouts.
These two neighbors look like they're sharing gardening tips
Everyone has their own plot and they help each other out, give and take.
Here the planters have been put aside and are about to be reseeded.
They're even using greenhouse technology.
These people are well prepared, bringing up all that building material. Looks like they're going all out.

author: John Kennedy


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China: River crab banquet · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Rachel Marsden reports on Ai Weiwei's river crab banquet on November 8.


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Czech Republic, Slovakia: “Teapartismus” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Dr. Sean's Diary writes about the Tea Party movement in the United States and the reported emergence of “Čajové dýchánky or teapartismus” in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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D.R. of Congo: Letter from the capital of rape · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

I am writing these words from the world capital of rape. I’m not the one who named it that way, but Margot Wallström, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations, with regard to violence against women. So you understand, I am in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country where women face the cruelest and most brutal violence in the world.


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D. R. of Congo: The New Universal Mantra · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The new universal mantra in the Democratic Republic of Congo: “These people aren't taking any chances. They've already launched a presidential bid on behalf of Kabila and it's very ambitious: “To ensure the reelection of the Raïs in the first round of the presidential election of 2011.”


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Deforestation Is A Threat In Nepal · Global Voices
Rezwan

Bhumika Ghimire informs that Deforestation is a growing problem in Nepal with only 29% of the country's forests remaining.

author: Rezwan


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El Salvador: Organized Crime and State of Prisons · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Tim's El Salvador Blog: “One of El Salvador's most intractable problems is the state of its prison system. The high crime rate has filled the prisons to three times their capacity. Conditions are deplorable. Gangs control large areas inside the prisons and direct their criminal networks outside the prison walls.”


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Food From Northern Laos blog · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Authors of The Boat Landing Cookbook have set-up a blog to promote the food and cultural diversity of northern Laos

author: Mong Palatino


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Haiti: Abuse of Power?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

HaitiAnalysis.com republishes an article from a grassroots community development organization which wonders whether stabilization is actually a euphemism for subordination.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Hillary Clinton Gets Aussie Salute · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

When Hillary Clinton arrived in Australia last week, she was welcomed by Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on twitter:
RT @KRuddMP: Welcomed Hillary to Oz at Melbourne Airport. Because of the flies I introduced her to the science of the great Aussie salute.
Her visit seemed to charm the media and her audiences:
She swept from a breakfast among power women to an ABC-hosted forum at Melbourne University and on to Pixel House, billed as the world's first carbon-neutral office building, where she conceded that America still had big challenges with climate change since the Republican rout had left President Barack Obama without a policy. Soon she was off to the Port of Melbourne where she extolled shipments of American tractors, giant mining tip-trucks and Harley-Davidson motorcycles as symbols of trade ties, and on again to the Shrine of Remembrance to place a wreath.
Hillary shows why she's a 24/7 politician
So much so, that there was surprisingly little criticism in the Oz blogosphere. Nevertheless, a number of diverse themes were raised by Australian bloggers.
A sleeper issue with an improbable connection was raised by Dan Cass:
When asked why the US wants access to military bases, Mrs Clinton answered that climate change will create security threats in the region.
This was not just rhetoric. As I have written before, American liberals are successfully starting to reframe national security in environmental terms.
Hillary Clinton, climate security and Australia-US military discussions
US born academic, Harry Melkonian, currently works and blogs in Australia. In a post for the ABC’s Unleashed he heaped praise on Clinton:
…the success and smoothness of her visit cannot be entirely separated from the mauling the Obama administration took at the polls last week.
…She has all the ease of a politician working a crowd and is not cowed by academics or experts because she knows that she is every bit as bright as anyone else. In short, she understands people and power even in the elevated world of foreign ministers.
American asset: Clinton's hidden talent
Rollo, at Horse – Intelligent Commentary for a Stupid World, is concerned that Barack Obama has not shown the flag here yet:
Ms Clinton seems to think that the United States and Australian relationship is somehow one of the US's “core partnerships”. Something however doesn't quite add up here thought. Namely, why is it that Hilary Clinton of all people is the one to say that the US-Oz relationship is a “core partnership”? If it really was so important, wouldn't it have been the President himself to say that?
Hillary thinks that the US and Oz is a “core partnership”
This criticism of Obama’s absence came after Hillary denied any ambitions to run for the Presidency in 2012 or 2016 during her New Zealand stopover. Kevin Rudd also copped flak for appearing too Prime Ministerial.
Meghan Lodwick, a Master of Global Communications student at La Trobe University,  is co-editor of upstart . Upstart is a ‘site for emerging journalists’. Her report on Clinton’s forum with young people focused on social media.
Outlining an agenda for forward deployment in response to natural disasters, Clinton believes a global network will help in relief as ‘disintegration is matched with integration.’
Perhaps the key to that is connectivity and the importance of young voices entering the public through platforms like social media or the town-hall style meeting Clinton conducted in Melbourne last Sunday morning.
Hillary Clinton addresses social media
A video of the forum is here.
It will be fascinating to see the reception Barack Obama gets from the Australian blogosphere when he finally visits down under.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Jamaica: Dancehall and the Law  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Reggae icon Buju Banton is finally out on bail; Girl With a Purpose calls this latest development “a small victory” and notes that “in the meantime, two infamous Jamaican Dancehall artistes…Vybz Kartel and…Mavado were listed as persons of interest” by Jamaican police.


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Nepal: Police Arrest Muslim Man For Selling Cow Meat · Global Voices
Rezwan

XNepali criticizes Nepalese authority's decision to arrest a Muslim man from Eastern Nepal on charges of selling cow meat.


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Obama’s Indonesian Homecoming Charms Residents · Global Voices
Catherine Lewis

Barack Hussein Obama at University of Indonesia, November 10th 2010. Photo from @FadylWiraadiPutra via Plixi
Barack Obama thrilled the crowd of over 6,500 excited Indonesians who came to hear the U.S. President address their nation at the University of Indonesia on Wednesday morning.  Peppering his speech with the Bahasa Indonesia language he learned while living in Jakarta as a child, Obama made the crowd roar with excitement as he kicked off his landmark speech with the statement:
Indonesia bagian dari didi saya. [Indonesia is a part of me].
First thanking the people of Indonesia for their hospitality, the U.S. President then gave a special nod to Jakartans:
… to the people of Jakarta, pulang kampong nih [I’m coming home!].
Cultural references to food, such as sate and besok [satay and meatball soup], charmed the millions of listeners tuning in via television across the country and became instant soundbites with mainstream media.
Reactions from Indonesia’s Twittersphere—recognized as one of the largest in the world–were equally as complimentary, as many claimed Obama’s speech bolstered feelings of national confidence and pride in a way that their own leaders do not:
pritya:do you think #ObamadiRI speech at UI would be able to remind SBY of his homework as president? repair relationships, make us 1 country again
desianwar:I hope our leaders cld learn how to deliver a speech like @BarackObama – connected, inspiring, riveting
dila_tri: Obama shows his leadership, humbleness, smartness … Truly inspiring for us, Indonesia next leaders .. #obamadiRI
AlandaKariza: I admired how he convinced that combatting corruption is the key to make Indonesians feel they have a stake in the country.#ObamadiRI
ardansyahreza: Yes, It's true that Indonesia is a potential key player in the global market due to its growing market. #ObamadiRI
cellacea: It isnt coz he's d prsdnt of d US.I dont care if Bush come here.But Obama's stories always inspiring me that nothing's impossible #obamadiRI
desianwar: Pres @BarackObama greeted like a star … We love you Barry!
DanielZiv: Obama today looks like a rock star who happens to be politician rather than a politician who happens to be a rock star.
rayafahreza: Geezus this guy is winning hearts. Goddamn he good at this.
The President's speech focused on development, democracy and religious tolerance–three factors that are written into Indonesia's secular constitution and, according to Obama, can be used as the foundation on which to forge ties between the two democratic states.
The speech lauded Indonesia for its recent democratic reforms that have propelled the country forward on the global stage:
…that spirit of tolerance that is written into your Constitution; symbolized in mosques and churches and temples standing alongside each other; that spirit that’s embodied in your people — that still lives on. Bhinneka Tunggal Ika — unity in diversity.  This is the foundation of Indonesia’s example to the world, and this is why Indonesia will play such an important part in the 21st century.
Focused on repairing and cultivating U.S.-Muslim ties, Obama acknowledged that much more work must be done to overcome the “years of mistrust” between the United States and Islam.  In addressing the world's most populous Muslim majority country, Obama's speech has been labelled the President's second largest attempt to engage the Muslim world since his address in Cairo of last year.
Dubbing the speech “Cairo II,” some American mainstream media outlets have argued that the speech was lacking, and was merely an addendum to Obama's first engagement with the Muslim world.
But, CogitAsia, the blog for the think-tank Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) , points out that religion was just one factor of the President's 3-pronged speech. Addressing Indonesia–a country with over 17,000 islands and other dominant religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity–can not be labelled as addressing the whole of the Muslim community. The article states:
Nor should the President have given a Cairo II in Jakarta– because Cairo is not in Indonesia. Though Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, it is not a center of the Islamic world. Its national leadership has often declined to take a leadership role in the Islamic world, and has regularly refused earlier American suggestions that it trumpet the coexistence of Indonesian Islam and Indonesian democracy in its conversations with Middle Eastern countries. President Obama understood this sensitivity and addressed it carefully in his speech.
Despite the small media criticism, Barack's short visit to Indonesia was generally hailed as a great success, with Indonesians receiving the U.S. President with the fanfare usually set aside for rock stars or celebrities. Local blog Dances in My Mind remarks that despite religious lines or political affiliations, most Indonesians were merely giddy to play host to the one they call their adoptive son.
But Indonesians, mostly Jakartans, went giddily gaga like teenagers watching [a] concert of Glee casts featuring both Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. Former school friends appeared on talk-shows, while students of his former elementary school rehearsed an especially-penned song just in case President Obama managed to swing by.

author: Catherine Lewis


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Paksitan Needs Tax Reform · Global Voices
Rezwan

“Pakistan needs serious tax reform,” opines Adil Najam at All Things Pakistan.


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Panama: November, A Month of National Celebration · Global Voices
Clotilde Castillo

Stars and Quarters.  Image by Laura, Flickr user photine used under an Attribution non-Commercial-non Derivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons License.
November is the month when Panamanians celebrate important moments of their history, specifically on the 3, 4, 5, 10 and 28th. To honor these days, the country get dressed in red, white and blue; the drums sound in the streets and the mornings wake up to the rhythm of the Dianas [es] – music traditionally performed at dawn by bands from schools and fire departments. At the same time, Panamanian bloggers also share their feelings and love for the country, their vision about their identity, and what it means to build the nation.
the opportunity that we have of being an independent country, a young nation that slowly continues to build its future. Hopefully within another one hundred and seven years the future has stopped being a word for political campaign slogans and instead it becomes a reality and that we can look at our history with our head high because we have justified our reason to be a country, our reason to be Panama.
From the interior of the country, Milciades Pinzón Rodríguez, in his blog Sociología de Azuero [es], writes that since its early days two countries were being forged inside one Panama:
De una parte el Panamá Transitista que respondía a interés foráneos, expresado en el eje colonial de Nombre de Dios-Portobelo-Panamá y, esa otra parte que por algún motivo se denominó el Interior Panameño; vale decir, las circunscripciones administrativas ubicadas al oeste de la Ciudad de Panamá, a las que debemos añadir, el Darién histórico, hacia el este.
Plantear la situación ístmica de esta manera supone reconocer implícitamente la existencia de dos mentalidades. La una mercurial, directamente dependiente de la economía mundial y, la otra, menos cosmopolita, más rural y forjadora del alma cultural del panameño; la que tendrá que cargar con la cultura nacional, material e inmaterial, que a la postre forjará la panameñidad.
On one side is the Transitory Panama which responded to foreign interests, represented by the colonial center of Nombre de Dios-Portobelo-Panama and, the other side which for some reason was called the Panamanian Interior; in this respect, we should mention the administrative regions located to the west of Panama City, to which we should add, the historic Darien, to the east.
To explain the isthmic situation in this manner comprises the acknowledgment of the existence of two mentalities. One mercurial, directly linked to the worldwide economy and, the other, less cosmopolitan, more rural and the forger of the Panamanian cultural soul; the one that would have to carry on the national culture, material and immaterial, which at the end will forge the Panamanian identity.
The author makes reference to Panamanian history to describe the differences between the Transitory Panama and the Interior of the country, as well as to explain how this duality and the mix of cultures and interests have formed the current Panamanians and their challenges.
Last year, Yohel Amat from the blog Así es mi País [es], also shared his feelings about these celebrations and how the meaning of what is the motherland changes with the years:
Solamente el paso del tiempo y la madurez que viene con él me han enseñado que la Patria es algo más que cantar el Himno los Lunes en el patio del colegio.
La Patria es ese sentimiento de pertenencia; de arraigo; de satisfacción de saber que no vagamos cual seres ingrávidos por el éter, a diferencia de muchos que han tenido que abandonar la tierra que los vio nacer.
Only the passage of time and the maturity that comes with it have taught me that the Motherland is something more than just singing the national anthem on Mondays at the school.
The Motherland is that feeling of belonging; of rooting; of satisfaction for knowing that we are not like lonely souls in the ether, different to many who have had to leave the land where they were born.
Yohel goes on and lists those elements, which in his opinion, represent what the Motherland is: beside that feeling of belonging, he includes that the Motherland is our children, our responsibility to the environment, our human capacity to overcome obstacles and still contribute to the country, it is the love from our mother and our consideration toward others, among other things.
Some bloggers also use literary resources to refer to those things that make Panama a special place. Nelva Arauz Reyes, from the blog Escritores de la Libertad [es], writes about a legend, where the architect of the world gave to the country its particular characteristics:
El ingenio del arquitecto no tuvo límites y creó todo lo necesario para que aquel lugar fuera realmente privilegiado y gozara de un toque de magia que pudiese enamorar a todo aquel que pisara su suelo, de modo que existieran no una, sino muchas razones para que quien lo conociera lo llevara siempre en su memoria y quien naciera allí no le quedaran ganas de irse.
The ingeniousness of the architect had no limits and created everything that was necessary to make that place a really privileged one and to enjoy a touch of magic that could enchant all those who step in its soil, so there was no one, but many reasons to carry it in the memory and for those who were born there, to never have desire to leave.
Panama has definitely been in Panamanian's thoughts during these days. Each one with their own style and concerns, acknowledges the good things as well as the weaknesses of the country, but the one common point is that they care about what has been, what is and mainly what will be the future of Panama.
In Contrapunto [es], Ariel wrote:
Creo que el verdadero patriotismo radica en reconocer el balance que hace a mi país ser mi país. No es su perfección, no son sólo las cosas buenas, son también aquellas cosas que nos molestan e inclusive la que nos avergüenzan.
I believe that the roots of real patriotism are in acknowledging the balance that makes my country be my country. It is not its perfection, neither only the good things, but also those things that bother us and even those that embarrass us.
In Así es mi País [es] Yohel Amat expresses with singular pride what is maybe the feeling of many about their own land:
Patria es nunca perder ese sentimiento de que hemos venido a éste mundo a cumplir un propósito; a llenar un vacío; a cumplir con una misión, pero siempre sin olvidar y sin dejar de agradecer el privilegio de haber nacido en la tierra mas hermosa de nuestro planeta: ¡Panamá!
Motherland is to never lose that feeling that we have come to this world with a purpose; to fill a gap; to fulfill a mission, but always without forgetting and being thankful for the privilege of being born in the most beautiful place in the planet: Panama!

author: Clotilde Castillo


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Puerto Rico: Government Solidifies Grip on The Supreme Court · Global Voices
César Santiago

Before 2008, control of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico was a prize that had long eluded the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (NPP). Since 1952, it had been in the firm grasp of the pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party (PDP).
The Constitution of Puerto Rico originally set the number of judges in the Supreme Court to 5, but it does enable the tribunal to change the number of sitting judges if it deems it necessary. This prerogative has been exercised in the past, with the tribunal having reached a number of 9 judges by the 1970’s. However, in 1976 the members of the court decided to lower the number to 7 judges, citing that a lower case workload did not justify 9 judges anymore.
It was this decision that denied the incoming governor for the pro-statehood party (which favors that Puerto Rico become a state of the US), Carlos Romero Barceló, the opportunity to nominate replacements for the 2 outgoing judges. This would cost the party dearly as by the early 1990’s the PDP (which favors Puerto Rico's actual commonwealth status) would come to hold a 6-1 advantage in judges [es]. In 1994 pro-statehood Governor Pedro Rosselló González proposed in a refererendum to change the Constitution and set the number of judges to 9. This change would have given the NPP the judges it needed to control the court [es]. However, the measure which was heavily opposed by the pro-commonwealth party, was defeated by voters.
"Statue of Justice" by Nick Bramhall.*
The 2008 election turned out to be the NPP’s golden chance to take over the court. Three spots had opened up from 2004 to 2008, but the pro-commonwealth Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá did not submit any nominations knowing that the NPP controlled Senate would never confirm his nominees. The NPP had good political reasons to block these nominations as these 3 openings represented its chance to take over the Supreme Court if it prevailed in the 2008 elections. A post from July 2008 by Francisco Ortiz Santini in the blog Soy de Borinken [es] underscored the importance of the coming election:
Esas elecciones decidirán también si será el estadolibrismo, o de lo contrario el anexionismo, el movimiento ideológico que controlará el voto mayoritario en nuestro Tribunal Supremo, durante los años por venir. Por ese solo hecho, estas elecciones son las más importantes desde la fundación del Estado Libre Asociado en 1952.
As it turned out, the NPP’s gamble worked as it obtained a crushing victory over the PDP in the 2008 election. As a result, the winner for the pro-statehood party, Luis Fortuño, was able not only to fill the 3 vacancies with NPP affiliated judges, but also to nominate a fourth judge due to the retirement of the senior judge Efraín Rivera, giving the party a 4-3 majority in the court and control of the 3 branches of government for the first time in history. The grip the NPP has on the tribunal was solidified last week as the court voted 4-3 along partisan lines to increase the number of judges to 9, which would give the NPP a solid 6-3 majority in the court for years to come.
Hiram Meléndez Juarbe, of the blog Derecho al Derecho [es] has been highly critical of the decision and characterizes it as purely political [es]:
En esto a uno no le gusta tener razón pero, lamentablemente, es incuestionable.  No le puede caber duda a nadie, que hoy la Rama Judicial se gradúa como una rama política, como todas las demás, y pierde irreparablemente la confianza pública necesaria para fungir como el garante de derechos y árbitro imparcial de controversias sociales y políticas.
In a response to Torres [es] (as well as on a post on her own blog [es]), Érika Fontánez Torres, from the blog Poder, Espacio y Ambiente [es] brings up the question “why not 9?” and urges to look beyond politics in the discussion:
…más allá de una discusión sobre ‘si hacen falta 7 o 9 jueces’, mi invitación sería a pensar (repensar, tal vez?) si después de todo el número 9 es o no un mejor número, aún en estas circunstancias. Lo dejo a manera de provocación para discusión…
Luisa Burgos, of indymediapr.org [es] observes that despite the claims that this is a blatant politicization of the court, this is by no means anything new:
Contrario a lo que se nos enseña, el Tribunal Supremo no es una institución apolítica que ahora se está politizando trágicamente. Sus miembros llegan allí mediante nombramientos políticos del partido en el poder, y en todo caso siempre han defendido el estatus quo y a los sectores poderosos, con pequeños remiendos aquí y allá para que no se desestabilice demasiado la cosa. El papel de víctima que asumen ahora los jueces nombrados por el PPD no les queda.
Meanwhile, the Center for Investigative Reporting [es] has just published that as a representative of Puerto Rico in the United States Congress from 2004 to 2008, Luis Fortuño introduced two measures and co-sponsored a third one condemning Venezuela’s president [es], Hugo Chávez, for increasing the number of judges in Venezuela’s Supreme Court from 20 to 32 to solidify his power in the courts. When questioned about the comparison, Governor Fortuño responded [es]:
Me siento muy orgulloso en cuanto a mi proceder en Puerto Rico, del respeto que he tenido por las otras dos ramas de gobierno.
*Photo by Nick Bramhall taken from Flickr and republished under CC License Attribution-SA-2.0.

author: César Santiago


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St. Lucia: French Passes On  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Caribbean Book Blog acknowledges the passing of St. Lucian playwright Stanley French.


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Sudan: Abyei is not a shared area · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Maggie writes about a new sign in Juba that reads, “Abyei is not a shared area. Nothing more to be compromised.” She writes: “…but a new sign in Juba speaks to the hardened sentiments surrounding this strategic border zone.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Sudan: Photos from Miss Malaika 2010 · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Photos from the preliminary round of Miss Malaika 2010, a beauty pageant in Juba, Southern Sudan:  “It was an enjoyable evening–in my view not because of the cat-walking and high fashion, but because it was a celebration of Southern Sudan’s diverse cultures.”


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Technology for Transparency: Five New Cases, With More to Come! · Global Voices
Rebekah Heacock

The Technology for Transparency Network is thrilled to announce the start of the publication of our second phase of research.  Beginning with five cases — Accountability Initiative in India, Amatora mu mahoro in Burundi, Democrator.ru in Russia, Excelências in Brazil, and Mam Prawo Wiedzieć in Poland — we will be posting approximately 30 new cases over the coming weeks.
We're also excited to announce a new feature on the Technology for Transparency site: over the summer, we've revised the way we categorize our case studies to make exploring the site and browsing the interviews more engaging.  The projects we interviewed are complex and multifacted: for example, Dinero y Política (Money and Politics) in Argentina focuses on campaign finance; however, because of the type of technological tools it uses and its approach to financial data, it could also be considered an example of budget monitoring.
Our new categorization system lets visitors to the site explore the case studies through four different lenses:
The “Quick Look” section at the top of each case study lists the categories for that case — have fun clicking around to see what other projects fall into those categories!
The Quick Look feature at the top of each case study lets you browse our case studies by multiple categories.
We welcome your feedback on these cases, and the cases we'll be publishing throughout the month.  Please feel free to leave comments on individual interviews, to message us on Twitter (in @techtransparent in English; @transparentech in Spanish/Portuguese), or to drop us a line on our Facebook page.  We look forward to hearing from you!
Next week: new cases from India, Russia, the Philippines, and East Africa!

author: Rebekah Heacock


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Technology for Transparency: Government Accountability in India · Global Voices
Renata Avila

Corruption is a global threat.  It affects developed and developing countries, the private and public sectors, and nonprofit and charitable organizations. The Transparency International 2010 annual report recently pointed out that governments need to integrate anti-corruption measures in all spheres to fight corruption. It is evident that the world needs more than ever before a holistic approach to fight corruption, including battling its the causes, like poverty and weak governance.
As the Technology for Transparency Network has mapped different transparency projects around the world, we have been excited to discover how enthusiasm for a more ethical and transparent society is flourishing everywhere, both with the increase use of technologies and with a growing awareness that corruption should not be tolerated by citizens.
A protagonist of these changes is India, the largest, most diverse democracy in the world. India is a pioneer in open government and open access strategies with an exponentially increasing innovation in technologies. It is not a coincidence that the country that is producing the cheapest laptop in the world is also partnering with other countries such as the United States to foster open government initiatives:
India is at the vanguard of figuring out how to exploit technology and innovation on behalf of democratic accountability. U.S.-based groups, as well as those throughout the developed and developing world, could learn an enormous amount from these efforts. And India may well become a kind of “city on the hill” that other countries look to for lessons on not only how to pull millions of people out of poverty, but also on how to strengthen democratic accountability.
— US Open Government Blog
Important to mention is that India is a federated state with a diversity of languages and realities.  That is why many of the initiatives are focused on local transparency and how to hold local authorities accountable, such as the Accountability Initiative, the first case of our second round of global case studies.  Project Director Yamini Aiyar shares the project's mission to improve public service delivery:
Our big vision is to promote an informed and accountable public delivery system. We do this in two ways. For such a system to exist, the government system has to exist in a form that is transparent and responsive to citizens’ needs, and citizens must be empowered with information so they can place their demands and push for greater accountability. All our work is to pull these two threads together. PAISA and Expenditure Track are examples of that. The second aspect of our work is to generate debate on the accountability issue.
Visit the Technology for Transparency website to explore other technology for transparency projects from India.

author: Renata Avila


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Thailand: Newspaper “awards” Roberto Baggio with Nobel Peace Prize · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The Nation, a major broadsheet in Thailand, made the mistake of naming football legend Roberto Baggio as one of the winners of this year's Nobel Peace Prize’. It has since then corrected the inaccurate news item but netizens have already documented the mistake.


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Thailand’s forest monks · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Paul Garrigan blogs about the forest monks of Thailand. These Buddhist monks left the temples to wander in the forests and live like ascetics.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Fazeer’s Firing  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Bloggers discuss the firing of talk show host Fazeer Mohammed – KnowTnT.com: “If the first premise of a national media house is to promote government's agenda then it is their right to hire agents who will work towards this…”; Lisa Allen-Agostini counters: “If it is government policy to usurp the editorial autonomy of CNMG stations…then there should be a clear statement iterating that. If not, CNMG staff should be left to do their jobs without fearing they will be downsized if they step on the wrong toes or imply anything but complete support for the government of the day.”


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Trinidad & Tobago: Unreasonable Bailout · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“The unstated assumption is that if someone has to stand the bounce…that someone must be the taxpayer.  That could never be the correct position”: Afra Raymond wants the facts of the CL Financial collapse and bailout.


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Uganda: President’s Rap Song · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ugandan President's own rap music: “In the case of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the bright yellow of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) is accompanied by a song that has become a national hit. It seems to be boosting his popularity among the youth…”


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Zambia: Community Entrepreneurship · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

An example of community entrepreneurship in Zambia: “Four of our entrepreneurs started a community store with their loan money. By combining their loans, they were able to hire another member of their village to build them a shop – now not only are our entrepreneurs benefiting off this co-op, but Steven (the builder) was provided with a job as well.”


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Africa: Learn how to make Jollof rice · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Do you want to know how to make Jollof rice?: “Jollof rice is a very popularly eaten rice dish in West Africa. It is rice cooked in a spicy tomato sauce and is usually served with meats and sometimes a side dish of fried plantains, or moi moi and a basic side salad.”


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Bangladesh: Fire Destroys Chakma King’s Palace · Global Voices
Rezwan

Wasfia Nazreen at Unheard Voices reports that the Royal Palace of Chakma Circle Chief, Raja Devasish Roy, was burnt to the ground last Wednesday. The Chakmas are an indigenous community that inhabits the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh and the North-East region of India.


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Blog “Words of Resistance” Gives Voice to Teens from Small Town in Mexico · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Chantal Flores teaches at a middle school in Zapotitlán Palmas, a town in Oaxaca, Mexico with a population of 1184 and high rates of migration to the United States. She created the blog Words of Resistance (in Spanish, Palabras de Resistencia [es]) to publish the poems, stories, letters and short essays her students write for her class.
School Telesecundaria where Chantal teaches. Image by Chantal Flores, used with her permission.
A native of Monterrey, Mexico, at age 18 Chantal went to study Professional Writing and Communication Studies in Toronto, Canada, graduating in 2008. Her last internship was at The Nation magazine in New York:
After that realized I wanted to write my own stories, and to do that I wanted to travel. And also, I was going through this existential crisis: I was away from Mexico almost for 6 years, and I guess that I really try to fit into the societies I live in, and I was losing myself. I was confused, so I decided to come back to Mexico, to travel a little bit and write stories. I always wanted to come to Oaxaca. Supposedly I was only going to be two months in Oaxaca and then two months in Chiapas and then two months somewhere else, but I’m still in Oaxaca.
Five years ago, Chantal developed a literary workshop for young kids and proposed the program to an NGO in Toronto; they liked the idea, but they didn’t like that Chantal was only 21. The project was never implemented, but her experience at the Zapotitlán middle school rekindled the idea of a literary workshop for children.
I spoke to Chantal about the blog Words of Resistance, her students and the idea behind taking their work to the Internet for the whole world to read.
Global Voices (GV): How did Words of Resistance start?
Chantal: I developed this course for a four-week period, and it was a course about teaching kids to express their reality through words. I was going to work with just three or four literary genres, but when I got to the school it was just another world. I saw all these kids who are from 13 to 15 years old and they have an intellectual development of a kid in elementary school. So I would give them a poem and they wouldn’t understand anything, and they barely knew how to write. Now they are writing these stories that are talking about issues that not even some adults will go through in their lifetime.
“At night, there are only scandals. The streets are now filled with unscrupulous people, in the corner there are 30, in the other 20. Kicks and blows, blood here and blood there like a hose destroyed by pain, anger and depression. What will we do? This town has no future. If people continue living with this fear they will die, and die without speaking out and without justice. Children are involved in the gangs; drugs and beer get into the body. Basta! Enough is enough. I can’t do this anymore; let us join our hands and fight. Guadalupe, 13 years old.
Checking their homework at the beginning was really hard for me; I would end up crying from reading their stories, and they would write a note at the bottom of their homework asking me for help. So that’s how I came up with the idea of the blog: that maybe just providing a space and letting them know that someone else is hearing their stories will have an effect on them, and even after one week since we created the blog I could see a change. They are bringing me stories and poems and they are always asking me if I’m going to publish them. They are motivated. They can’t believe we got like 500 visits in one week.
GV: Why the name “Words of Resistance”?
Chantal: To be honest, I was a little hesitant about the name because of two things. One, because people would think that it is something leftist; and second, because “resistance” is such a cliché word. But it just felt right. These kids are writing these stories to resist all the bad things that life is bringing to them. It is also an easy phrase to translate. It would be the same thing in Spanish and English. I just felt like that was a good name.
GV: How did they react to the idea? Did they like it or were they hesitant about having their work published online?
Chantal: They liked the idea but they didn’t believe me. They told me “You are crazy! That’s not going to happen! No one is going to read our stories,” and to be honest deep inside I was a little bit scared too because they were getting excited and I thought “Please God –I don’t even believe in God— help me out!“
One issue that we have is that it’s hard for them to have access to the Internet, so not everybody has seen the blog, and it’s so different when you see the product.
GV: What are some of the issues affecting the community that your students write about?
Chantal: Migration is a big one. In fact, we are working on creating posters and they have to choose a message that they want to transmit to the world. One group chose the subject of migration and I told them, “Write the phrase for me and I’ll tell you if that is OK for the assignment.” I thought they were going to give me a phrase that would say something like, “We don’t want our parents to leave” or, “We don’t want people from our community to leave us,” and when I read the phrase it was something like, “We want the government of the United States to create a law for our parents to work there because here we don’t have any jobs.” It was so well written that I was shocked. I would love for President Obama to read that.
Some family members go in search of work, others to be with their  family, but here the story begins. Everybody get on trains, jumping from  car to car, and when they reach the limit, some die, others are killed,  women are raped and abducted. But they still keep looking to cross to  the other side to be able to live peacefully with their family even with  the pain in their hearts to have lived through such an ugly experience   that  all immigrants from different countries or states go through. Brandon, 12 years old.
Poster with message "spend time with your family" by group of students. Image by Chantal Flores, used with her permission.
In the community there are more women and old people than men, and right now a lot of people are coming back from the US because of the situation over there. But it’s weird because these kids are starting to live with their parents after seven or ten years, so the whole family dynamic is changing.
Also, in the community there is this issue of women –wives– who are being left behind by their husbands. They feel abandoned, they are depressed, and they have no stability in their life. So I have found a lot of children who do not have a good relationship with their mother.
My mom cries every night. I don’t ask why anymore, I know well why she does it. Don’t worry, I’ve taken good care of her for all these years. We talked about many things the time we spent together and we still have plenty of things to talk about. I know that day will come soon. Mom is very happy because I already achieved what she wanted and what she wanted was that one day you and me would spend time together. Luis Gerardo, 15 years old.
One of the biggest issues is loneliness and frustration of not being able to change their reality. These kids want to change. One big issue is that they don’t have any dreams, or they do but they don’t believe that they can do something to leave the town or have a career.
GV: What do you want to accomplish with Words of Resistance?
Chantal: That’s a hard question. I’m realizing that it’s going to be a very slow process. My purpose with this project is to let them know that people are listening to them and that people care about them; and that they can change their own reality.
One of the reasons why I decided to come back to Mexico was because when I was working with The Nation I realized that magazines, newspapers and in general the American media were transmitting only two narratives about Mexico –not only Mexico, Latin America in general— and one was about Latin America as this awesome place for social movements, revolutions and all these leftists visions. The other narrative was Latin America as a place for corruption, poverty and all that. Everyone is forgetting the other reality of Mexico; they are focusing on the war on drugs, but they are forgetting about all these other realities and issues that exist in Mexico. So I decided to come back and find another narrative.
GV: You are publishing the stories, letters, and poems they write about their life; but you are a writer, why not write the stories yourself?
Chantal: Now that I came to Mexico, I was talking to all these people, especially immigrants. I didn’t want to write stories about immigrants, but for whatever reason I was running into immigrants and I asked myself, “Who am I to write their stories?” That’s how I remembered the course that I developed 5 years ago and I thought, “Well, it’s better for them to give them a space to write their own stories.”

author: Silvia Viñas


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Bolivia: Site Shows Life of Bolivians Living in Spain · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

The online citizen newspaper Ahora Bolivia [es] introduces the site Bolivia Magazine TV [es]: “The life of Bolivians in Spain,” a project that “tries to strengthen the positive image of Bolivians, showing different cultural activities that take place in Spain.”


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Brazil: fires and racism · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Eduardo Guimarães, from Blog da Cidadania (Citzenship Blog) compares [pt] the increasing and frightening number of  fires in the slums of São Paulo with the outbreak of racism that affects the city. He accuses the government of failing to properly investigate the cases, and questions if the fires are in fact the result of racist policies and prejudice.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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China: AIDS support group pressured by tax authority · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Chinese AIDS activist Zeng Jinyan disclosed in Twitter on Nov. 11 that she was under pressure from tax authority to close AIDS support group, Beijing Loving Source. More info from Under the Jacaranda Tree.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Inflation and social instability  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

George Chen blogs about the inflation problem in China: in short, high inflation is equated with social instability and that's definitely the last thing the Communist government wants to see.


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Colombia: Discrimination Against LGBT Community · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Bitácora [es] shares a video report created by university students on the discrimination against the LGBT community in Colombia.


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Colombia: Peaceful Protests to Violent Events in Medellin · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

The University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia was once more the center of a three point struggle between the government's police units, insurgent groups and the students, where the students scored a victory of sorts when they stood up for their right to study in a violence-free environment by expelling the riot police from their campus.
Pablo Rendón was there when it happened and used his cell phone to stream live video of the events as they unfolded. The video is choppy and the audio breaks, but during the events, it was one of the main sources of information of what was happening in the university:
In the audio Pablo Rendón (@prendon on twitter) explains how the students decided to gather together and try to push out the riot police from the campus through songs and chanting in what he considered was a peaceful demonstration.  On Thursday evening [es] he will also make an appearance on the WebShow TodoloqueHay [es] to talk about the situation at the University of Antioquia.
The University has undergone a tense situation in the past months related to guerrilla activity and drug trafficking inside the campus and security measures were taken to prevent this. It seems these actions were not popular with certain armed groups and on Tuesday, November 9th, a group of  masked people, allegedly members of the FARC went inside the university and damaged equipment and left an explosive device in one of the bathrooms. This caused the government to deploy riot police teams and to lock down the university.
This video shows the masked students destroying the security camera on the library. According to the video description they also threw pipe bombs and destroyed a couple of laptop computers used at the entrance  gates to check students’ IDs. One of the masked people at the end of the video can be seen smashing what could be one of the laptops on the ground:
It seems students got fed up with the situation where they can't study freely, there are strikes, budget cuts and violent events inside the campus and on top of that they have to deal with the armed forces on a daily basis as they are posted all around the university, but there is no resolution to the problems.  The teachers wrote a press release, published on Facebook [es], where they discussed Tuesday's events and declared:
La tensa calma que venía imperando fue rota por esta acción abrupta a la cual respondió el Esmad cuyo cerco sobre el campus ha sido permanente, aun a pesar de la posición de la Asociación de Profesores en el sentido de rechazar toda forma de violencia venga de donde viniere y de invocar canales dialógicos y de construcción de acuerdos
On Thursday morning there was a ceremony organized by the administration to censure the violent events. The riot police was posted outside when an explosive device detonated inside the campus. This is what Pablo (@prendon) wrote:
Manifestación en contra de la violencia. Suena una papabomba. Asistentes aplauden. Absurdo. #udea
Another video is also making its rounds, this time from the University's digital news site De la urbe digital :
On the Facebook Album  of Que Pasa UdeA  [es] many pictures of Thursday's events can be seen, where the students face the riot police or Esmad, and the comments tell a lot about the feelings felt around these events. Ju Carvajal disagreed with the idea that the Esmad was pushed out of the university “peacefully”:
A mi no me parecio que los rechazaran de “forma pacifica” los que lideraban ese movimiento estaban exageradamente alterados, vi a uno de ellos, como un gallo de pelea, a alguien que le dijo algo, parecia que le queria pegar, y los insultos a los del esmad, tampoco son de forma pacifica, ojala se enfrentaran asi a los capuchos.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Cuba: A Call to Keep Up the Pressure  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Uncommon Sense re-posts “an extraordinary interview” with one of the Damas de Blanco, who “calls on the international community to pressure the Castro dictatorship to free her husband and 12 other prisoners who have refused forced exile as a condition of their release.”


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D. R. of Congo: Is there a future for young people?  · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Is there a future for young people in the Democratic Republic of Congo?: “Just under of half the population of Congo is under the age of 14, meaning that there are millions of youth growing up in the eastern region knowing only a life surrounded by violence. There are estimated to be over 800,000 orphans as a result of violence and its consequences…”


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Djibouti: Djiboutilicious · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Djiboutilicious is a Djibouti Cookbook celebrating culture and cooking in a country as hot as your oven.


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Djibouti: Two evenings in Djibouti · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

James Ferguson blogs about his experience while working in Djibouti: “‘The Beverley’ is a place which is a very tiny elevator ride four floors above some kind of eatery, or convenience store, or pharmacy – I'm not sure which – that has very mysteriously, and misleadingly, borrowed it's name and logos from ‘Planet Hollywood’.”


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Haiti: Cholera Challenge · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Livesay Haiti Weblog is “praying for mercy and miracles” with the country's cholera epidemic.


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India: A Social Bussiness Plan Competition · Global Voices
Rezwan

Think Change India blog informs that Banaras Hindu University is launching a business plan competition to encourage young people to become social business entrepreneurs and contribute to the world. You can learn about it here.


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Iran: Female political prisoners under pressure · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Jahnezan (means woman's world) and several reformist sites reported [fa] that most of female political prisoners moved to a small cell where they have no contact with outside world. According to [fa] some reports 17 of them are moved to a 28 square meter cell.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Japan: I now pronounce you friend and friend · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

For those who take note of social categories a new one has been created: that of ‘marriage mates’.
The tomo-fuhfu (where literally tomo means ‘mates or friends’ and fuhfu ‘married couple’) is the new term coined by writer Megumi Ushikubo to indicate those couples who have grown apart from each other and have in common only a marriage in name, sometimes with children, but nothing more. The married ‘friends’ may not see each other for an extended period of time, don't spend time together and certainly don't have sex.
This new category first appeared in Ushikubo's latest book Tada Tomo-fuhfu no Riaru (The reality of the ‘just marriage mates’), where, basing her observations on interviews with  dozens of Japanese couples, she investigates the marriage condition of those who decided to get married for convenience to someone who is more like a friend than a soul mate or a lover. The book also recounts the collective experience of many husbands and wives who ended up being simply ‘married friends’ because their love vanished or perhaps had never really existed.
By Mr Hayata. CC license
A blogger commented on some findings in the book and said she lent it to her husband.
読んでいて、ドキっとしたのは・・、
出産後、3年以内に夫への愛情がなくなる
う゛う゛・・。
育児中、夫が役に立たないと思うことがある、
むむむ・・。
夫がこども返りをする。
あ゛あ゛ぁ〜・・。
3年以内といわずに３ヶ月ですでにそんな兆しがあるんだから、笑ってもいられないけど。
In recent years, many like Ushikubo (who is also the author of a book on ladylike men [en]) have tried to give names to social trends that have mushroomed in the Japanese society: heterosexual men less interested in the opposite sex have been categorized as “herbivore” [en] and expressions such as “marriage hunting” [en] has entered the daily vocabulary.
Tomo-fuhfu seems to be another   convention  that only time will decide whether it's just something that sells books and brings consulting companies customers or is actually a sign  of a transformation in the deeper levels of society.
According to yomo this new conception of the married life is something that belongs to the newer generation, where equal opportunities are taken for granted and one's own space  and time is a must.
婚姻関係のある夫婦であるのは間違いないのですが、冷蔵庫の中身は夫と妻で所有権が別。すなわち食料品に名前が貼ってあります。
同じ地域に住んでいても住居は別だったりします。いわゆる週末婚という奴で、休みの日はどちらかの部屋で過ごしたりしてるみたいです。
理由は、趣味の邪魔をされたくないとか、お互いの自由を束縛したくないとか諸々です。
ただ、仲が悪いかと言えば決してそうでは無く、どちらかと言えば仲の良い夫婦だったりする訳です。
これはどうも、男女間の考え方の変化に基づいた非常に合理的な考えなのではと書いてありました。
By Naoya Fuji. CC License
Discussions on married friends or marriage mates often raise comment on surveys on the sex life of the Japanese married couples and the low birth rate of the country.  A blog, for instance, reports [ja] that one third of the married couples do not have sex, while another quotes [ja] a survey by condom maker Durex  which says that in 2008, Japan was the least sexually active country in a 26 country ranking.
Although it seems quite difficult to have precise statistics on the matter, ayikes said that a lack of sexual drive is one of the characteristics of the tomo-fuhfu.
これ、どんな夫婦かっていうと
・一人の時間をお互い大切にする夫婦
・夫婦でいつでもどこでも一緒とかありえない
・帰省はそれぞれの実家にばらばらに帰る
（子供がいても）
・週末婚、通い婚、別居は多いに歓迎
・夫が草食系イクメン率が高い
（イクメンとは育児に積極的な男性のこと、らしい）
・夜の営みとかそんな生々しいことは子作り目的以外はしません
・当然夫婦共働き
・同居の場合は夫領域と妻領域が分けられている
Even if a couple fitting one or more of the criteria above may be considered ‘cold’, the blogger continues, such interpretation of the marriage relationship is a response to specific social needs.
ただ結婚は日本において、社会的に非常に便利＆有利な要素だ結婚してるだけで信用度があがり社会的な立場も保障される（世間では結婚してれば正常という判断が一般的に下される）
世間の目も違うし、両親をはじめとする、家族や親戚、友人、会社の上司・同僚、どうでもいいご近所さんから
「結婚しないの？」「なんで結婚しないの？」「できないの？」等のどうでもいいことを聞かれることはなくなり、また、そんなアホなことを理由に気を使われることもなくなる。
だけど、そんなことのためだけに結婚なんかしたくない、って思うからこそタダ友夫婦がベストという結論に至る
「○○じゃなければいけない」という縛りがただ友夫婦には圧倒的に少ない。
ずっと「君だけが好き」なんて呪詛は不要だって友達だし
養ったり奉仕したりする必要はないだって友達だし
夫がこうあるべきで妻がこうあるべきで・・・なんていう古典的ルールはないだって友達だし
同じ立ち位置で気兼ねなく相談したり話をしたりできるだって友達だし
お互いの趣味を尊重しつつ、時間に都合がつけば一緒に遊んだりもできるだって友達だし
家の雑事は当番製だって友達だし
怪我や病気になればお互い様、看病するし、されるしだって友達だし
どうですかね？悪いことないでしょ？

author: Scilla Alecci


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Mexico: Data on Femicides, 2006-2008 · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Diego Valle-Jones provides data on femicides in Mexico from 2006 to 2008, pointing out that “As a consequence of the drug war Chihuahua has the highest levels of femicides.”


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Nepal: Flaws In Human Development Report? · Global Voices
Rezwan

Blogdai claims that there are flaws in the recent Human Development Report published by the UN, which shows fake progress in Nepal.


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Pakistan: Not My Destiny · Global Voices
Rezwan

Rickshaw Diaries writes about a new phenomenal blog called “Not My Naseeb” where the author shares excerpts from messages she receives on matrimonial sites.


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Russia: Bloggers and Watchers · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Good Treaty translates a “friends and enemies” Russian LJ blogger list allegedly posted by a pro-Kremlin activist. The Kremlin Stooge rates the Russia watchers Anglophone blogging “pack.” Siberian Light posts the latest Weekly Russia Blog Roundup.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: Commentary on Oleg Kashin Beating · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A roundup of the English-language reports and commentary on the beating of journalist Oleg Kashin (as well as the cases of Mikhail Beketov, Konstantin Fetisov and Anatoly Adamchuk): Julia Ioffe at Foreign Policy and The Moscow Diaries (here and here); Miriam Elder at GlobalPost; Natalia Antonova at GlobalComment; Poemless; Sean's Russia Blog; The Russia Monitor; OpenDemocracy.net.


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Russia: Interview With @KermlinRussia · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Good Treaty does a short interview with @KermlinRussia (RUS), who “regularly posts acerbic, ironic tweets mocking news stories about Russia’s leaders”: “For instance, hours after news emerged that journalist Oleg Kashin was savagely beaten and put into a medically-induced coma, Kermlin tweeted the following: ‘Today’s beating of oppositionist journalist Oleg Kashin was unquestionably to our credit. Before, we could have killed him.'”


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Russia: Khodorkovsky’s Final Statement; Kuril Islands Dispute · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Moscow Diaries, Robert Amsterdam, and Siberian Light reprint Mikhail Khodorkovsky's closing statement delivered in a Moscow courtroom on Nov. 2. Vadim Nikitin and Anatoly Karlin discuss the Khodorkovsky case and the Kuril Islands dispute – here, here, and here.


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Sri Lanka: Heavy Rain Caused Flood · Global Voices
Rezwan

Cerno informs that the recent heavy rains triggered floods in Colombo which reminded of the floods in the early 1990s.

author: Rezwan


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St. Lucia, Antigua & Barbuda: A Different Literature  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

On the 8th anniversary of the passing of Tim Hector, whom Caribbean Book Blog describes as “one of the Caribbean’s undisputed intellectual giants”, the blog thinks it fitting to republish one of his articles, especially because “new literary developments in the region seem to be re-energising the Caribbean literary community.”


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St. Lucia: Hurricane Relief Efforts · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Sun, Rain, Or… provides updates on the good, the bad and the ugly of relief efforts post-Hurricane Tomas.


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Sudan: Referendum preparations in jeopardy · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

As Sudanese and international actors scramble to pull together preparations for a vote that could allow South Sudan to secede, a quiet chorus of U.N., U.S., and Sudanese voices has emerged in the last month to raise awareness over the lack of funds for the important exercise.


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Taiwan: The Na’vi in “Avatar” Join the Fight against Petrochemical Plant · Global Voices
Portnoy Zheng

The native blue giants “Na'vi” who fought with colonization armies from the earth in the blockbuster movie “Avatar” has become the spiritual symbol of young environmentalists and students in Taiwan who stand against the Kuo-Kuang Petrochemical project in Changhua County. A march against Kuo-Kuang will take place on 11/13, and the “Na'vi” ask President Ma to join to march[video, zht], as reported on Civilmedia.tw.

author: Portnoy Zheng


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Trinidad & Tobago: Marching for Children  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

gspottt reports that the Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation (CAISO) will be marching next week to “raise awareness of the prevalence of child abuse in T&T lobby for justice in several unresolved cases; and advocate for a modern and effective child welfare system.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Ukraine: FEMEN Activists Protest Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani’s Death Sentence · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A group of female activists from FEMEN protested the death sentence given to Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani in front of the Iranian Embassy in Kyiv on Nov. 3 (a YouTube video) and at the opening ceremony for an event promoting Iranian culture on Thursday (photos of the topless protesters by Sergei Svetlitsky, at FEMEN's LiveJournal blog; RUS).


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Venezuela: Expropriations ‘eating up’ Venezuela · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Juan Cristobal from Caracas Chronicles criticizes recent expropriations by the Venezuelan government. He writes that, “Like a monster from a 1950s B-movie, Hugo Chávez has gobbled up major food distributors, a glass factory, milk distribution companies, newly-built shopping malls, and entire rows of apartment buildings.”


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Online Video Contest on Responsible Consumption has Winner · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

The 4th International online short film contest for Responsible Consumption Culture has its winner. This contest, organized by ECODES and the General Direction of Consumption for the Government of Aragon, called for entries in Spanish from short film producers from Spain and Latin America. A Colombian short was selected as the winner from the 10 international finalists.
The 10 finalists were from different regions of Spain, Brazil and Colombia. Following, the winning video: The Recicleta  shows how not living within our ecological means can result in drastic but necessary actions.
These next videos were some of the other finalists’ entries. This next video is titled Plastic and comes from Zaragoza, Spain. It playfully shows us how the simple plastic shopping sac can take over our home. In an apartment we can take our bags elsewhere, but on the planet, we can't move them out anywhere else:
From Brazil,  Individual Choice was also running for the award. It shows how all the decisions we make on a daily basis can be improved or changed to be more environmentally responsible:
You can view the rest of the videos and learn more about the concepts behind them and their creators on this page.


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Côte d’Ivoire: New song for presidential election · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Museke posts a video of a new song “Voter” written specially for Côte d'Ivoire Presidential Election. The song is performed by Le Griot-Guére, Jackivoire, Soro Solo, and lead guitar by renowned Congolese guitarist Huit-kilos.


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Ethiopia: Legendary Ethiopian Athlete Abebe Bikila’s Biopic · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Legendary Ethiopian athlete Abebe Bikila’s Biopic: “Running the streets of Rome in 1960, an unknown, barefoot Ethiopian man stunned the world by winning Olympic gold in the marathon.”


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India: Branding Through Social Media · Global Voices
Rezwan

Dina Mehta shares 10 tips on branding through social media for startups and small businesses.


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India: Typical Indian Character · Global Voices
Rezwan

Ram Bansal at India In Peril criticizes the ‘know-all’ syndrome of the average Indians and the practice of advising others without concentrating on his/her own works.