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Azerbaijan: Blogger response to University massacre · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Information about the tragedy which occurred in Baku at the end of last month, shocking many worldwide, was slow to emerge, and even more than a week later, there are still many questions left unanswered. However, what is known is that on the morning of 30 April 2009, 13 people were killed in a terrifying shooting spree at the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy.
But, with very little local reporting on the incident, many such as 27 months in Azerbaijan were at first unsure what exactly had happened.
There was a shooting at a university in Baku today. The only thing that I’ve heard that seems credible is that there was a Georgian who was ethnically Azeri that entered the school and started shoot at people as he made his way up a staircase before turning the gun on himself. […]
I’ve heard rumors of up to 50 people dead and up to three gunmen, but I’m not sure what to believe at this point.
Indeed, the media in the country failed to report on the incident until hours after the international media had, as Jessica P. Hayden is off the map pointed out.
[…] while the murders were taking place with police rushing to the scene the television channels all continued to broadcast their midday talk shows. (Think very, very low budget Oprah or Ellen.) No cut away to breaking news. No updates. One woman I talked to seethed that she got better information from internet message boards than from any official news sources. […]
Some students shot video of the horrific scenes inside the university with their mobile phones as they were evacuated.
A week after the tragic events, Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines remembers first hearing the news.
30th of April, I am in Istanbul, heading to work, seems like just a normal day, the weather is finally sunny. But everything changes once I arrive to my office, a colleague tells me if I have heard what happened at one of the Baku's Universities […]. I turn on my computer and check the news- 22 students died (the actual number was 13 according to the latest news that day) in tragic shootings at Azerbaijan's Oil Academy. First comes the shock, then comes sadness, followed by anger.
I frantically check the news every 15 minutes- nothing much, still the same, x number of people dead, x number of people wounded. I check my Facebook, news are everywhere- all my friends’ upload the latest numbers.
[…]
But still no precise news about the perpetrators, the reason behind the shooting and the true story. […]
Writing for the Frontline Club, Global Voices Online author Ali S. Novruzov raises some questions now being asked by many in Baku, as does Side-Talks Azerbaijan.
As we sympathize with the families of those who have lost their love ones, it is wise to put some questions in perspective. It could be anybody, but why is there no concrete news as to what actually happened? Why is there still no defined motive for the killings? Who were those involved? And to what extent has investigations revealed other “assumed” accomplice?
Meanwhile, Sheki, Azerbaijan sums up the shock felt by everyone in the country that day and says the tragedy will be remembered for years to come.
Unfortunately 30 April 2009 in memories of many families in Azerbaijan will stay as the day when their children went to university and never returned home. Today gunman shot to death at least 13 people in Oil Academy of Azerbaijan in Baku and many are heavily wounded. We don't know the reasons yet…and no reason will return those innocent victims (Allah rəhmət eləsin – Peace be with all victims).


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China: Car racing incident · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

On 7 of May, around 20:05, a 25 year-old young man Tan Zhuo (譚卓 see thumb nail photo) was hit and killed by a racing car when he was walking in a zebra crossing at Wen E Si road in Han Zhou. According to witnesses, the car was racing with another two cars in extremely high speed and Tan was thrown 5 meters upward before hitting the ground. The driver was an undergraduate student of a local university, Hu Bin, with rich family background. There were no tire-mark in the scene, and Tan's body was landed 20 meters away from the spot he was hit. Below is a T.V report on the incident:
70 km car speed only
Police report on the next day quoted from the driver and his friends’ side of the story and stated that the car speed was only 70 km when Tan was hit. And the police said that they were yet to confirm whether Tan was in the zebra crossing. Even the reporters were outraged by the one-sided story presented by the police and challenged the police during the press conference:
No more reports!
However, local propaganda department has issued notice to all media organization in Han Zhou demanding that there should be no more follow up report on the car racing incident. Meanwhile netizen were outraged by the attitude of Hu and his racing gang. A photo showed that they didn't show any remorse after the accident.
Uptill now there are more than 1.3 million visits to a single Tianya's post with more than 15,000 comments, below is just a selection of some:
Outraged netizens
清风匝地123　2009-05-08　09:07:53
支持人肉,简直无法无天
伤心的马甲12　2009-05-08　09:15:04
这个帖子点击快四百了，却没人回复。
我觉得这种帖子就应该顶起来，制造社会舆论压力。最好能上门户网站，各大报纸，因为不是这件事就算了，杭州这边不管是城西还是滨江，这种人很多。我身边朋友很多都碰到过，不严打，难保又要出人命。
稻草玩偶　2009-05-08　09:18:53
只要不是无照驾驶，交通事故中就不会有太大的问题，撞死人比撞伤人省下很多麻烦，甚至赔的钱更少。这帮子富家公子是败类，那些撞来撞去的司机是畜生。
他们这种情况只要不是无照驾驶连刑事责任都不用承担，所以才能笑得出来，不当回事
Driving with a license do not need to take up criminal responsibility, that's why they can laugh like this as if nothing serious has happened.
走过路过人生　2009-05-08　09:21:04
申明我不仇富，但我仇视，毁掉别人生命还如此猖狂的人。说句不好听的，这般小孩就是欠教育，对生命都如此冷漠，以后还能指望他做出什么有意义的事来？他们这行为跟故意杀人罪的社会危害性没区别了。。。
东元的KK　2009-05-08　09:22:09
还有，去年杭州滨江还发生过更惨烈的悲剧，一对小夫妻，孩子才几个月，吃过晚饭，在江边散步，一个开快车的马六把夫妻俩撞飞，肚肠都出来了，直接死亡。
wlvlb　2009-05-08　09:27:32
这就是中国了，习惯就好
空水氤氲　2009-05-08　09:46:01
这种无良祸害
强烈要求修改中国这方面的法律
这不就是 杀人吗 他们明明知道市区道路人多
还开这么快 撞死人是必然的
虽然撞死谁是偶然的
Human flesh search engine
Human flesh search engine decided to do the justice themselves and dig up all the information concerning Hu Bin, including his parent’ identity, his I.D card number, photo, mobile phone number, QQ number and even password (which is his car license number). Moreover, human flesh search engine also found out that the same car had two records in exceeding speed limit and the car's engine has been modified.
As online discussion about the incident has been harmonized (critical and emotional comments were deleted), two websites have been set up to collect information and update about this car racing incident: http://70km.org and http://70yard.com.
Candle night vigil and open letter
Tan's family, friends, fiancee, alumni, teachers and colleagues organized a candle night vigil on the next day and jointly signed an open letter to the city mayor asking for a thorough investigation on the case.  Today (May 10), there will be another commemoration gathering at the city mortuary. For those who cannot attend the vigil can sign up here.
Below are photos about the candle night vigil in May 8 (via  and 70yard):

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Oiwan Lam


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Ecuador: The Plight of the Andean Condor · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Worried about the reduction in the habitat for the Andean condor in Ecuador, La Voz de Guamote [es] writes about the critical situation for this national symbol in danger.

author: Eduardo Avila


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El Salvador: A Broke Government for Funds · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

When incoming president-elect Mauricio Funes takes office in the beginning of June, he will inherit a Salvadoran government without any money writes JJmar of Hunnapuh [es].


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Global: Happy Mother’s Day! · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

If one thing is true of all humankind, it is this: we all have mothers.  And in many parts of the world, it is customary to celebrate our mothers with a special day: Mother's Day. Although the date varies, many countries are celebrating today, the second Sunday of May.
Flowers in Xela, Guatemala by Erik++ on Flickr
From Denmark to Dominica, Peru to Pakistan, the United States to Uganda, bloggers of all ages are calling, visiting, or otherwise honoring their mothers today.
One such blogger is Santa Cruz Barillas of the Guatemalan province of Huehuetenango, who writes of a traditional celebration of Mother's Day:
Feliz día de la Madre. Como ya es tradicional en nuestro querido municipio, el día de hoy 10 de mayo, desde las 2 de la mañana han salido diferentes grupos de organizaciones como iglesias, la Municipalidad y grupos de jóvenes a darle Serenata a las madrecitas de todas las zonas.
Mahesh, from Bangalore, India, is also blogging about today's holiday.  Of mothers, he writes:
In every culture Mother plays the most important role in bringing up kids. But at times I do feel in urban India children [i.e. grown ups] are slowly drifting away from parents :-( We will pay a heavy price for this sin down the road. It would be best we thank our Mothers (and Fathers) on a daily basis instead of on a ‘yearly basis’.
The blogger behind American blog “Plan A” is a mother herself, and is celebrating two special lives today: those of the mothers of her two adopted children from Uganda.  The blogger writes:
Did you know ~ Mother’s Day is not just an American holiday but is celebrated in many other countries across the globe, including Uganda. Today, I am very aware that there are two women out there who birthed two little boys back in 2006 and 2007. There is no way for them to know what happened to the sons they last saw so long ago. Since maternal death is a primary reason for children becoming orphans in the first place it is very likely that they are no longer living. But, even though we will never know their stories – today I am deeply grateful for the two African women who birthed my two youngest children.
The Filipina Mom in Denmark marks the occasion with this short and sweet message:
Because Moms were once daughters and without our children we wouldn’t be mothers! Happy Mothers Day (2009) !
Finally, Manfred Elfstrom, blogging for Labor is Not a Commodity, takes the time to remind us to appreciate all women, and not just our own mothers:
With Mother’s Day and the less-well-known World Fair Trade Day approaching, it’s worth thinking about a sector that employs a large number of women and is singularly unfair.   This is the electronics industry—not the industry of Silicon Valley creative types on bean bag chairs, but the industry that makes the actual MP3 players and laptops we use.  While some jobs in the sector are skilled and pay reasonable wages, many require long days of repetitive, minute tasks, tasks that cramp backs and cause workers’ eyesight to wear out at an early age, all for low pay, sometimes lower than the local minimum wage.

author: Jillian C. York


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Global Health: “Swine Flu” In Images · Global Voices
Juhie Bhatia

Though concerns over the “swine flu” outbreak have eased, the virus continues to spread throughout the world. Also called the H1N1 virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that there are now 4,379 confirmed cases of the virus in 29 countries, with 49 deaths from the sickness.
The United States and Mexico still have the most cases of the virus, though it has now been found on most continents. This map shows all confirmed cases and deaths globally from the H1N1 virus. Images from around the world are capturing the disease's impact and people's reactions.
This photo was taken in Mexico, where the virus has been the most deadly. The WHO says that Mexico has reported 1,626 confirmed cases of the infection, including 45 deaths.
Photo by Guerry on Flickr
In response to the swine flu outbreak, which was detected in Mexico in April, the country's government immediately ordered the closure of all schools, museums, libraries and theaters in Mexico City. This image shows the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, which was closed. Universities, churches and museums did reopen last Thursday, as did cinemas, restaurants, and sports venues. But younger kids won't be going back to school until this week.
Photo by Chupacabra on Flickr
Meanwhile, many schools closed across the United States, where the WHO now reports 2,254 confirmed cases of swine flu, including two deaths. This photo shows a school in Fort Worth, Texas, that was closed due to the H1N1 outbreak. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now advises that schools should reopen because the virus is milder than originally anticipated. Still, about 468,000 students around the country had already been affected by these closures.
Photo by 19melissa68 on Flickr
When H1N1 was initially detected and started spreading in Mexico City it caused panic, said the photographer of this image. This photo shows empty shelves in a supermarket in the east part of Mexico City. The photographer added that authorities have stressed that there will be no shortage of food and medicine, which has slowed down hoarding.
Photo by Enea on Flickr
From Mexico City to New York City, people in closed places such as the subway have been using face masks to try and avoid getting swine flu, since the virus is mainly spread between people through coughing and sneezing. But there's been much debate over whether these masks are actually effective.
Photo of New York City by Swerz on Flickr
Photo of Mexico City by Enea on Flickr
Still, many people have used face masks to protect themselves, particularly when traveling, be it airline crew members or passengers. In this image, members of a flight crew wear masks as they wait for their luggage in an airport in Bogota.
Photo by laimagendelmundo on Flickr
This image shows the panic that also hit the U.K., which has 39 confirmed cases of swine flu. In response to the outbreak, Britain's Health Protection Agency announced last week that they have sequenced the full genetic code of the H1N1 virus, the first step in producing a European prototype of a swine flu vaccine.
Photo by donebythehandsofabroken artist on Flickr
This image shows an elevator in Hong Kong that is sterilized regularly to prevent swine flu. Though there's only one confirmed case in China so far, the country has taken strong measures to prevent the spread of the virus. For example,   on May 8 Hong Kong lifted a weeklong quarantine on a hotel where a Mexican swine flu patient stayed, releasing around 280 people who had been isolated in the building.
Photo by David Bailey MBE on Flickr
Finally, in this image people gather at the Metropolitan Cathedral Mexico City. The photographer said that they were praying for the sick, the government and the rest of the society, hoping “they make ‘good decisions’ against the swine flu epidemic in our country.”
Photo by Sarihuella on Flickr

author: Juhie Bhatia


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Indonesia: Parliamentary election results · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Official election results in Indonesia have been released already. Nine parties were able to get enough votes which gave them the right to clinch representation in the Parliament.

author: Mong Palatino


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Indonesia: Waste of election campaign funds · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Youthful Insight from Indonesia thinks that having too many parties compete in the elections is a waste of election campaign funds.


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Iran: A blogger and social activist was arrested · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Change for Equality reports that six members of One Million Signatures Campaign were arrested during and after a peaceful demonstration on Friday which was held in Tehran to celebrate May 1st. One of them is Nikzad Zanganeh, an Iranian blogger.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran: Presidential candidate’s painting · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Mir Hussein Mousavi, former Prime Minister and one of leading candidates in Iranian presidential election is a painter too.In Setadnet blog you can see some of his paintings.


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Iran: Three publishers were banned · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Aknoun, Iran based blogger, writes [fa] that Akhtaran,Ageh and Jamedaran are three Iranian publishers that were banned from participating in Tehran Book Fair. The blogger adds this means that each of these three publishers will lose a significant part of their revenue this year.


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Iraq: Organised ‘crackdown’ on homosexuals · Global Voices
Katharine Ganly

In the past few weeks there has been an increase in the persecution of homosexuals in Iraq, due to an organised ‘crackdown’ based on a religious decree for their death, reports UAE- based media network alarabiya.net.
There has been a spate of deaths resulting from a previously unheard of and particularly gruesome torture method being employed against homosexual men. Iraqi human rights activist Yina Mohammad told alarabiya.net that:
ميليشيات عراقية أقدمت على شكل جديد من التعذيب لا سابق له ضد المثليين وهو استخدام مادة لاصقة قوية جداً توضع داخل مؤخراتهم لإغلاقها كلياً
She adds:
المادة اسمها الصمغ الأميري، وهو صمغ إيراني يؤدي للصق الجلد ببعضه بحيث لا يمكن فتحه إلا بعملية جراحية، وبعد الإغلاق يتم إعطاؤهم مادة مسهلة لشربها ويحصل إسهال بلا وجود منفذ، وهذا يؤدي للموت، وتم توزيع هذه الأمور في كليبات قصيرة على أجهزة الموبايل في بغداد
This news comes after reports of an increase in the killing of homosexuals by militia groups and death squads, as a form of القصاص, or ‘retribution’.
One militia group, calling itself أهل الحق or “The Righteous Ones”  is reported to have been posting lists of names of alleged homosexuals in Sadr City, and threatening to persecute them. At least three murders last month are presumed to have been caused by the publishing of such lists, according to Iraqi Streets.
Iraqi Streets asks the militia:
بأي حق نصبتم أنفسكم أهلا لهذا الحق وأنتم لا تملكون أي ذرة حق-حيث علقت قوائم بأسماء مثلي الجنس في مدينة الصدر وعثر على ثلاث جثث لهم ملقاة في الطريق بعد قتلهم رميهم بالرصاص وعليهم أثار تعذيب حيث كسرت أيديهم وأرجلهم
In response to a comment asking why he is defending homosexuals, Iraqi Streets states:
السؤال الاهم لماذا الأن هاجموا المثيلين في العراق ؟المثيلين موجودسن منذ مده لماذا اليوم بدأت حرب ضدهم؟
Indeed, the recent murders add to the growing list of men targeted for their actual or perceived homosexuality, a phenomenon that has been increasing over the past few years.
According to IraqiLGBT, over 400 homosexual men have been killed since 2003. The incidents against homosexuals appear to be increasing in frequency, with over 25 men killed in the last month, due to an increase in the proliferation of death squads and militia groups, some of which, according to IraqiLGBT, appear to have the backing not only of religious figures but also the Iraqi authorities.
Ahmed al Sa'dawi on Iraqi media network Niqash reports that:
Homosexuality is largely frowned upon across Iraqi society and it seems that sympathy for their deteriorating plight is non-existent. Gay people are perceived as violating social norms and threatening the society with “moral decay.” An eyewitness who saw an attack against a young man said: “The dog got what he deserved.” This perception has legitimatized attacks on them.
According to Iraqi law all breaches of social or religious custom can only be dealt with by the judiciary. There is no room for religious law and yet since 2006 militias have been attacking gay people with the religious backing of a number of Islamic clerics.
In light of the current situation, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) sent a letter last month to the Iraqi Minister of Human Rights, Wijdan Salim, requesting specific measures be taken to protect LGBT Iraqis against hate crimes and persecution. The letter can be seen here.
According to the IGLHRC many of the attacks against homosexuals do not receive proper investigation, and the perpetrators too often go without punishment. There have also been reports coming from alarabiya.net and the blogs that some homosexuals are denied treatment when seeking help at hospitals.
It is clear that some kind of change needs to take place to counter the rise in such atrocities. While foreign support groups and outside pressure have positive impact, for the gay Iraqi living in fear, these groups have little effect on their daily struggle.
In Shams Al-Ma7aba, a couple writing from Bahrain, sum up the frustration experienced by homosexuals deprived of their basic rights:
مايحصل للعراق اليوم … و يصل لأي أحد فينا ..
العربية تعد تقريرا عن المثليين بالعراق وهناك منظمة بالخارج تدافع عنهم ولكن المعروف بأن التغيير يأتي من الداخل وبالثورة والنضال لان الحق ينتزع ولا يعطى أو يهدى !!

author: Katharine Ganly


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Japan: Motion graphics videos · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

GilCrows suggests  that motion graphics is drawing attention on the Japanese video sharing website Niko Niko Douga [ja].
In the post, also a ranking of the best videos uploaded to NND. (The movie Ukiyo Hakkei (浮世捌景)is also available on youtube)

author: Scilla Alecci


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Kenya: World Renowned Elephant Matriarch Dies in Amboseli · Global Voices
Samuel Maina

The Unforgetable Echo
World renowned Amboseli National Park elephant matriarch, Echo, has died from what the Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE) believes to be a combination of old age and the long 3-year drought that has left this southern Kenya wildlife preserve dry and with little to offer in terms of food.
Echo died at 2pm on Sunday, 3 May 2009. She had collapsed on Saturday morning and had remained down for more than 24 hours, unable to get up, until she eventually died. “ATE staff Katito and Robert stayed with her the whole time”, Cynthia Moss, who learned of Echo's death while on a fundraising trip in the US, told WildlifeDirect on Monday, 4 May. Moss has suspended her US trip to travel to Kenya to be with the sorrowful staff at STE and to observe how Echo's family will deal with this sudden loss.
When Moss identified Echo for the first time in 1973, the elephant's family consisted of 7 members. At the time of her death, 36 years later, Echo was the leader of a family of 40 elephants that roamed the Amboseli plains in the shadow of the majestic Kilimanjaro.
Echo is perhaps the most famous wild elephant in the world after her appearance in various films the most memorable being her 1993 debut in the film Echo of the Elephants produced by the BBC Natural History Unit and narrated by world famous elephant researcher Cynthia Moss with BBC's Martyn Colbeck behind the camera. Echo appeared in the films sequels now popularly known as the ‘Echo Trilogy’.
The ‘Echo Trilogy’ includes Echo of the Elephants (1993), Echo of the Elephants: The Next Generation (1996), and, the most recent, Echo of the Elephants: The Final Chapter (2005). Most recently, Echo has appeared in the film about Martyn Colbeck's work called An Eye for An Elephant.
According to Moss, the loss of Echo will be very disturbing for her elephant family.
“For all of them, except for her sister Ella, Echo was the only leader they have ever known”
says Moss in a communication to WildlifeDirect also posted in the ATE website. Moss will be observing how the elephants handle the transition from Amboseli, Kenya.
Echo was of great value to science. Moss says
“For us on the Amboseli Elephant Research Project she has been an invaluable research subject providing us with insights into elephant behavior, leadership, communication, social relations and intelligence”. But Echo was not just a research project. “She was more than that. She was a daily presence, almost a companion to all of us. She gave us joy and filled us with wonder”
For all those who knew Echo, this is indeed a great loss. Dr Paula Kahumbu asked readers of the blog Baraza to light a candle for this magnificent mother, while Joyce Poole and Peter Granli remembered the moments they spent with Echo while studying elephant vocal communication on their blog at Elephant Voices.

author: Samuel Maina


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Madagascar: Behind the Scenes of Foko Ushahidi SMS Alert System · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

A growing community of bloggers in Madagascar have been helping a global audience understand the political struggle between a former mayor and a president that recently drove their country into national disarray.
A new initiative led by Malagasy bloggers captures witness accounts of social unrest via SMS text messages and Google maps using the Kenyan web interface, Ushahidi.
They have been interviewed widely by world media, and many have applauded their efforts.
Tahina
One of the bloggers working behind the scenes in this effort is named Tahina. About a year ago, he was invited to start blogging with Foko Madagascar, an organization co-founded by the Malagasy bloggers Andriankoto, Lova, Mialy and Joan to empower Malagasy citizens to work for their own environment and economic development.
In 2007, Foko received a micro-grant from Rising Voices for The Foko Blog Club which has trained several dozen bloggers around the country. They have developed a community that encourages citizen journalism at a time when mainstream media is lacking or unreliable at best.
The country, not the movie
When a devastating cyclone hit Madagascar last year destroying thousands of homes, online news searches for “Madagascar” were still more likely to turn up news of a Disney movie about animals escaped from a New York zoo.
Tahina named his blog Madagascar not the Movie, because his main objective was to show an English-speaking international audience that life in his country has nothing to do with the movie of the same name.
“It can change how people from outside see Madagascar,” says Tahina. “I try to find things that can be related to Malagasy people's daily lives, what problems they encounter and so on,” he says.
But over the past months, his blog and Twitter stream became an almost blow by blow account of a political struggle that he himself worried could lead to civil war. “I didn't really want to blog about politics, but since there is this turmoil here I feel that I have to say something about what is going on,” says Tahina.
SMS alerts to the world
Foko's newest initiative is the launch of an SMS citizen reporting and online mapping tool. It is based on a system called “Ushahidi” developed by Kenyan bloggers in 2007 to map post-election violence in their own country. The software has since been used in many other news and crisis projects. On the Rising Voices blog, Rezwan has written of the dramatic events that led to Foko's adaptation of Ushahidi's platform.
Screenshot of Foko Ushahidi in May 2009
With Foko Ushahidi, ordinary citizens can now upload reports of unrest around the country and have them added immediately to an online map. Tahina installed the system himself with technical help from abroad and is in charge of managing the hub through which the SMS messages pass.  A team of bloggers, including Lalatiana and Stephane (known as Pakysse), check reports for accuracy after they have been posted.
Technical challenges
Tahina describes Foko Ushahidi as “a kind of platform where everybody is invited to submit reports. The main objective is to find real facts, and to distinguish rumors from truth.”
Q: What has Foko done to promote this platform to citizens?
Tahina: We are just starting the promotion. In fact, we just set it up and tested it during the last few weeks. The plan is to promote it within Foko first. Later, Lova plans on getting in touch with the mainstream media here.
(Update: Madagascar-Tribunen ewspaper has already published a story.)
Q: What have the challenges been in getting the system up and running?
Tahina: Our main problem was finding the right phones that could work with the Frontline SMS software employed by Ushahidi. We really wanted to use SMS because it doesn't require an internet connection. But FrontlineSMS needs a type of phone that is not easy to find in Madagascar. Plus all mobile shops were closed due to the unrest. Pakysse and I both went from shop to shop to find a phone, and tested and tested. Lova backed us up from the USA.
In the end we couldn't get it to work. So Ken Banks and his team at FrontlineSMS suggested we try IntelliSMS gateway as a way to send and receive SMS via the web. FrontlineSMS hurried a new version of their software to help us out with our issue, and for that we are very grateful.
The internet connections here make it a little slow – it can sometimes take 15 minutes for the message to reach the Ushahidi platform. You can either upload a message via the web, or send a text message to a UK phone number (+447800000197) that gets relayed by email to the system. Here is a chart that shows how it works.
We also got help getting #madagascar Tweets listed automatically on the Ushahidi website, which has substantially increased our ability to gather data.
Q: Why do you think using a system like Ushahidi is necessary?
Tahina: We need it to offer more details about the things citizens see themselves. There will be lots of information here that you can't find anywhere else. Just like with any citizen media. Frankly, mainstream media is not reliable here. They are really biased. The reality is, they often end up misinforming people. Foko has a lot of bloggers based on each corner of the island who are ready to report, and we think they'll do a great job with Ushahidi.
We're also going to keep the platform open for other types of crises because unfortunately, cyclones and environmental disasters are recurring events in Madagascar and we can also benefit from a crowd sourcing type of data collection in these cases.
Q: How does the Foko team plan on organizing the “verification” of messages?
Tahina: As I said we have bloggers on the ground and will be counting on them. But we will also use all media – newspapers, television and radio to help verify. We also have Twitter now, where we can compare and contrast information. We won't verify reports unless we are sure of them.
It's going to be a lot of work, but we like challenges!
See Global Voices special coverage of Madagascar's power struggle in 2009.

author: Solana Larsen


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Malaysia: “Death of democracy” in Perak · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Blogger ktemoc from Malaysia writes that the forcible removal of the Speaker of the Perak State Parliament by unidentified outsiders is “deplorable, disgraceful and deceitful in a democracy.”


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Mexico: Economic Costs of the H1N1 Virus · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

The economic cost of the H1N1 virus is outlined by México Para Los Mexicanos [es] who adds that poverty can help explain the number of deaths attributed to the virus.


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Mexico: Elvira Arellano To Run for Congress · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Elvira Arellano, a migrant and activist woman who had been deported from Chicago back to her native Mexico has decided to run for Congress representing Baja California writes Franc Contreras of Mexico Monitor.


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Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi health condition · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is reportedly suffering a low blood pressure and dehydration. The leader is still under house arrest.


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New bill to increase oversight of American mining companies in DRC · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Congolese blogger Alex Engwete writes about a new bill in the U.S. Senate to increase government oversight of American companies with mining interests in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
On April 23rd, Republican senator Sam Brownback introduced the Congo Conflict Minerals Act of 2009 , cosponsored by senators Russ Feingold and Dick Durbin, which would require American companies mining coltan, cassiterite, and wolframite to report annually to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency that regulates American financial markets, “to disclose the country of origin of the minerals to the Securities and Exchange Commission. If the minerals are from DRC or neighboring countries, companies would have to also disclose the mine of origin.”
According to a release on Senator Brownback's website, the act “calls on the United States to support multilateral efforts to investigate, monitor, and stop activities involving natural resources that contribute to illegally armed groups and human rights violations in eastern Congo.”
Engwete is hopes this oversight will result in real changes on the ground:
Espérons qu’après la signature de cette loi par Obama on ne verra plus des bandits transformer l’autoroute de Walikale en aérodrome de fortune.
Il y a un mois, un reportage de TV5MONDE avait établi que des éléments armés pillaient systématiquement la cassitérite à Walikale avec la complicité de Kinshasa. Pis, ces éléments armés avaient réduit à l’esclavage les villageois creuseurs de ce minerais en leur imposant des taxes fantaisistes, des droits de péage, des « droits d’entrée » dans les mines artisanales et des prix arbitraires du kilo du minerais extrait — et ce, au nez et à la barbe du chef de division des mines terré à Goma.
Let's hope that after Obama signs this act into law, we won't see any more bandits transforming the Walikale highway into a makeshift airstip (see photo here).
A month ago, TV5MONDE found that armed elements were systematically pilliaging cassiterite in Walikale [a territory in North Kivu] with the complicity of Kinshasa.  Worse, these armed elements had reduced to slavery the villagers who dig these minerals by imposing on them ludicrous taxes, tolls, and “right of entry” into traditional mines and arbitrary prices–and this right under the nose of the head of mines stationed in Goma.

author: Jennifer Brea


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Pakistan: Fighting The Taliban · Global Voices
Rezwan

The Pakistan government has long been criticized at home and abroad for not taking a tough stand against the Taliban insurgencies, which has been growing like a plague in Pakistan. The Taliban rebels had been active especially in the North-West Frontier Province and have consolidated their position in the Swat valley region. After fierce fighting between the Pakistani army and the pro-Taliban groups, the Taliban truce deal of last March was an effort to minimize tensions. But this deal was much debated because it allowed pro Taliban groups to establish their hard line form of Islamic rule as law.
The truce deal was supposed to put an end to violence in this region. But this was proven wrong as  Pak Tea House reported:
Two weeks after the Pakistani government capitulated to Islamist demands and imposed Islamic law throughout the Swat valley, armed militants are patrolling the streets of the district capital and masked gunmen have taken control of outlying districts, where they’re terrorizing residents and using intimidation to close girls’ schools.
The Pakistan army started to fight back to take control from Taliban and the fighting has escalated ever since.  Chowrangi reports:
Military operations are taking place in three districts that stretch over some 400 square miles (1036 square kilometers), but most of the fighting has been in the main town of Mingora, which before the insurgency three years ago was home to around 360,000 people. The military claimed to have killed more than 147 militants in Swat and the neighboring Buner region. Officials have said nothing about civilian casualties. But those fleeing the region bore tales of families wiped out by stray shells.
More than half a million Pakistanis have been displaced due to the fighting and this has become a humanitarian crisis. And this is not going to end anytime soon. After the recent tripartite talks between Afghanistan, Pakistan and USA, Pakistan’s Prime Minister vowed for “elimination” of militants, as CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan reported.
However, the claims of the Pakistan army may not be hundred percent true. Teeth Maestro posted first hand news from Buner:
The military is targeting the civilian population instead of hideout of the militants which resulted the casualties more than 100. ISPR’s reports are false. Their claim of killing 80 Taliban is totally baseless. All the killed people are commoners. Journalists are not allowed to enter the areas while local journalists are either in Peshawar or not writing or telling the truth due to the fear of both Taliban and Military.
This poses the question “who is winning the war“?
This time around there is less local sympathy for Taliban. But Adil Najam at All Things Pakistan points out:
It should not be a surprise, then, that at least some, probably many, and possibly most, “non-liberal,” “non-elite,” Pakistani Muslims would be against the Taliban and the war they are waging on Pakistan, Pakistanis and on Pakistani Muslims. The tragedy is that too many Pakistanis remain agnostic on the Talibanization threat and even more who are afraid of or reluctant to raise their voices against them.
All things Pakistan also tells that “Taliban are NOT the core issue. Effective policing and access to justice is“:
We need to fight the battle in NWFP. However, fighting a battle without a strategy for winning the war is another fanciful enterprise. That containing the Taliban will somehow cause the people of Pakistan to be more satisfied with their grievous lot is silly.
Jahane Rumi dispels some myths about the Taliban so that people can face the truth:
The terrorist activities going on in Pakistan are not jihad, or targeted to enforce sharia. These are criminal acts of violence killing thousands of innocent citizens and security forces of Pakistan in order to gain power and control over our land.
In the same post some suggestions by Amankaar Tehrik (peace movement) in Pakistan were highlighted:
Now the question is “can Pakistan's deep pluralist culture stop the Taliban infestation”?

author: Rezwan


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Paraguay: Experiences of an Immigrant in Rosario, Argentina · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Elizabeth Gonzalez writes about her experience as a Paraguayan immigrant in Rosario, Argentina at the blog Somos Paraguayos [es] (We Are Paraguayans).  She adds that many refer to her not by name, but by the nickname “Paraguas” which is often used in a disparaging manner.


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Russia: More Coverage of Moscow Fire · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Some more blog coverage of the fire in Moscow: A YouTube video by Andrei Kharlanov, who is also posting updates (RUS) and photos on Twitter – @andreikharlanov; LJ user q-u-a-t-t-r-o (lives 1.5 km away from the fire, reports from as close as 600 meters), LJ user eparhial, LJ user unter_dem_meer, LJ user just-koka, LJ user logra, LJ user erofeeva.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Sri Lanka: British Journalists Arrested · Global Voices
Rezwan

In Mutiny reports that three British TV journalists, who reported  the grim situation from the Sir Lankan IDP camps for Channel 4 News, have been arrested and will be deported shortly.


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Afghanistan: Civilian Casualties Problem · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Joshua Foust reports that the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has ordered an investigation into a reported massive civilian casualty strike and adds that some commentators unacceptably blame the civilians themselves for being caught in the middle.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Afghanistan: Opium Eradication Campaign · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Joshua Foust reflects on how actually affective is the opium eradication campaign in Afghanistan.


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Armenia: Transgender video blogging · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Unzipped comments on news that transgender blogger Hye Trent will be video blogging his physical transformations during surgery and other procedures. The blog says the move is unprecedented and brave.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Bahrain: Activists Blogs and Sites Blocked  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahraini activist Ghada Jamsheer, who blogs at Bahrain Eve [Ar], links to a statement from the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), which reports that her blog is being blocked by the authorities in that country. The report says that the ANHRI site is also blocked there.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Bahrain: LGBT Blogs Blocked  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

From Bahrain, LGBT blogger Shams Alma7aba [Ar] lists a number of LGBT blogs which have been blocked in that country following a recent crackdown on the Internet.


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Bahrain: MPs Vote for Alcohol Ban  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“It's official. Bahrain is regressing – MPs voted for a blanket ban on the sale of alcohol anywhere & everywhere,” writes Sam Mahmood, on Twitter. The motion is yet to be approved or rejected by the government.


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Bangladesh: Improving Customer Service · Global Voices
Rezwan

Shehzaad Shams at Bangladesh Corporate Blog points to the lack of culture among Bangladeshi companies for valuing customer feedback and opines that its high time they should “apply Mystery Shopping techniques to evaluate and improve their customer services standards”.


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Barbados: More on CLICO  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“The expected deal between CLICO Holdings Barbados Limited and Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited seems to have gone off the boil”: Barbados Underground and Barbados Free Press closely follow the latest developments with the failed regional conglomerate.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Bolivia: Early Poll for December Elections · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Miguel Buitrago of MABB analyzes one of the first surveys for the upcoming December general elections that indicate that 41% of Bolivians would vote for Evo Morales, and the next candidate comes in at 7%


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Brazil: When climate change meets cyber-activism · Global Voices
Diego Casaes

On the Tuesday May 5th, Salvador, the original capital of Brazil, experienced moments of desperation with the strong rain that overran the whole city. Hundreds of incidents were reported to the Civil Defense, which had recorded 392 requests for emergency care by 7pm of the same day. In addition to collapsed houses, fallen trees and landslides, there were also massive traffic jams which brought chaos to drivers and commuters.
Deaths were reported in areas where houses are condemned due to lack of infrastructure and the imminent risk of collapse, three of them in the neighborhood of Pirajá. Also, a mother and a daughter fell into a canal and were dragged away by the strong current. The mother's body was found on Wednesday morning, the daughter's only one day after, on May 7th.
The event, which was considered a catastrophe by the population, is another case of the type of natural disaster that in the past used to hit the city with less magnitude. In addition to this,  it reveals a lack of proper housing and urban planning in the biggest Brazilian cities, as local authorities neglect the unrestrained growth of houses and shanty towns on the slopes, further exposing residents to the risk of accidents and even death.
Photo by twitpic user @danielvbo
The North and Northeast regions of Brazil have been battered by heavy rain for some days. Thousands of people have been made homeless and many casualties have been reported. Wander Veroni, author of the blog Café com Notícias (Coffee with News), denounces [pt] the state of emergency. He says:
“Ao lembrarmos da tragédia das chuvas de Santa Catarina parece que a situação do Norte e Nordeste é ainda mais grave, principalmente no interior. Só no Ceará, centenas de famílias estão completamente ilhadas na zona rural e sem acesso à água potável, devido a adutora que foi destruída pela enxurrada. Já no Piauí, o governo estadual pediu ajuda ao Exército para socorrer a população atingida pela chuva.”
Edigarde Rodrigues (Edigarde Rodrigue's Blog, pt) argues critically about the situation. After highlighting that the population and the government have paid no attention to the North and Northeast states, he says:
“As regiões Norte e Nordeste do Brasil, que estão sofrendo com as fortes chuvas nas últimas semanas contam com 20 mortos e mais de 700 mil desabrigadas. Dos dez estados atingidos pelas enchentes o Piauí é o mais afetado com 50 mil desabrigados e 40% do seu teritório comprometido pelas enchentes. O mais intrigante é a indiferença da população do resto do país que ao contrário do que aconteceu no ano passado com os estados do sul ainda não fizeram nenhum tipo de campanha pública para angariar fundos de auxílio aos desabrigados.”
Photo by twitpic user @danielvbo
Liberdade Digital (Digital Freedom), on the other hand, wrote a post dedicated to the rains in the Northeast, calling for help from social network users to spread information about the situation and ask them to help those who were affected by the flooding:
“Esperando mais uma participação em massa da blogosfera brasileira, o L.D. faz um apelo: se você tem um blog, um site, uma lista de e-mail, participa de alguma rede social, ajude na divulgação desta informação. É fundamental que as empresas de transporte ajudem. É preciso sensibilizar também as companhias áreas e empresas de táxi aéreo para que emprestem helicópteros.”
During the floods in Santa Catarina, in the last months but especially in November 2008, Brazilian blogs had an important role in covering of the disaster. Reporting on the number of victims, floods, disappearances and how to assist those who needed help, news was updated constantly on many blogs. This time, the same kind of reaction has been scattered throughout the blogosphere and amongst Twitter and other social networks.
Journalist Sarita Bastos has recently published a map on Google Maps with information on the floods that includes ways to help the local population. The idea of the map consists in promoting collaboration among users of this technology and for each one to write testimonials of what they know about the events.
Fundraising to help people has also started. “Balada Solidária” (Solidarity Party, pt), promoted by Cynthia Costa with the aim to direct part of the profit of bars and restaurants in the Piauí State's capital Teresina into the acquisition of food and donations is a highlight among the initiatives currently in place.
The Observatório do Clima blog (Climate Observatory, pt) has emphasized in a recent post the lack of infrastructure that makes cities unable to prevent disasters like this:
“[…] medidas concretas para um programa de adaptação consistente não existem no Brasil. No mês de abril,  Ivone Maria Valente, diretora de Minimização de Desastres da Secretaria Nacional de Defesa Civil, afirmou em entrevista à Agência Brasil que o país não está preparado para lidar com fenômenos extremos ocasionados pelo clima. O máximo que se ouviu falar em repercussão sobre o assunto é que a Câmara dos Deputados voltou a discutir o estabelecimento de um Fundo de Catástrofes, mas sem grandes avanços e sem que esse esteja relacionado a uma Política Nacional de Mudanças Climáticas.”
On the rebound, the state of Santa Catarina, in the south of the country, where the population suffered from the floods and landslides of last year, has now been hit by severe drought. James Pizarro, from the Antes que a Natureza Morra blog (Before Nature Dies, pt) adds to the information made public by Civil Defense agency. He says:
“A estiagem que castiga as regiões oeste e meio-oeste de Santa Catarina levou 31 municípios do Estado a decretarem situação de emergência, sendo que 11 deles em abril – Santa Helena, Maravilha, Princesa, Presidente Castello Branco, Seara, São José do Cedro, Descanso, Chapecó, Coronel Freitas, Sul Brasil e São João do Oeste. Todos esses municípios enfrentam problemas de seca desde o final do ano passado, mas a situação se agravou e as atividades agropecuárias estão bem prejudicadas, segundo informou a Defesa Civil.”
Photo by twitpic user @kingars
Reader and blogger Catarino, from Blog do Catarino (Catarino's Blog, pt), in answer to the post from Café com Notícias [pt], describes his indignation at the losses caused by climate change happening now in Brazil. According to him:
“As variações climáticas estão causando mais prejuízos para a população do que a crise econômica, pois são cidades inteiras em calamidade. Aqui no Rio Grande do Sul é a seca que acaba com as plantações e com o gado. Nesse ritmo logo a vida vai se tornar muito difícil em nosso planeta.”
Twitter: Collaborative journalism and social networks
In Salvador, during the rains that flooded the city, Twitter had its chance to shine as a social network tool that would help to show a detailed perspective of what really happened on that day, followed by a few local radio stations. In the opposite direction, mainstream TV stations and news websites – babbled brief news to the designated TV schedule only.
Whilst the mainstream media dedicated attention to a superficial coverage of the daily issues, the twittersphere was quick to act [pt] drawing the news profile in a collaborative fashion. News on traffic jams, landslides, robbery of drivers who were stuck in the gridlock, alternative ways to avoid flooding, in addition to pictures of flooded areas all over the city were a sample of the cyber-activism provided by the social network Twitter.
André Lemos, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Communication and Coordinator of the Cyberculture Center at UFBA (Federal University of Bahia), reported the experience as an “alternative media show” and as a “sample of how mass media is losing influence” in his blog (Carnet de Notes, pt). He states:
“Fui ver alguns jornais online locais mas não achei nada muito…informativo, ou algo que me servisse imediatamente e localmente. Abandonei e voltei ao Twitter, muito mais intenso, rápido e detalhado. E não tinha mesmo como ser diferente. No Twitter, acompanhando a tag #chuva e #salvador eram inúmeras pessoas escrevendo em tempo real […]”
Ana F. (Ana's Blog, pt) commented in Jornalismo de Bolso (Pocket Journalism, pt) her first hand account in following the hashtags #chuva and #salvador on Twitter:
“[…] ilhada como fiquei em casa, pude acompanhar e participar da cobertura em tempo real proporcionada pelo Twitter. Como comentei em outro blog: hoje, sites e jornais de nada me serviram. As decisões tomadas o foram graças à interação no Twitter.”
Photo by twitpic user @ksuella
The speed of the information on Twitter has exceeded the mainstream media coverage. In a sample of Collaborative Journalism, social network users made the headlines that would be seen on the news on TV later. Yuri Almeida, who also participated in the discussions on Twitter, posted [pt] on his blog Herdeiro do Caos (Chaos’ Heir, pt):
“[…] os tuiteros de Salvador conseguiram mapear os principais problemas de alagamento, engarrafamento, arrastão e outras informações sobre o problema da capital baiana. O melhor: de forma colaborativa (textos e imagens), dialógica e auto-organizada. A turma atendeu aos pedidos e os tweets marcados com as hashtag #chuva e #salvador, o que resultou em uma memória informacional do fato. Não há dúvida de que a cobertura via Twitter [pt] foi a melhor da tragédia da cidade do Salvador.”
The photos above illustrate the chaos that the rain has brought to Salvador, taken by Twitpic users and are a sample of what is going on in the North and Northeast regions of Brasil. In addition to the photos, some residents uploaded footage of the city after the rain to YouTube. EdTitoBa sent a piece of footage of the Itaigara neighborhood that shows how the water stream flooded one of the avenues in Salvador:

author: Diego Casaes


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Cuba: Internet Access Restrictions  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Generation Y visits a Cuban hotel to determine whether rumours of increased Internet access limitations for locals are true.


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Cuba: Swine Flu Reporting  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuban diaspora blogger Uncommon Sense links to a story in which he learns that “the Cuban secret police was a wee bit hypersensitve last week when officers arrested Cuban photojournalist Sandra Guerra Pérez after she reported on swine flu outbreaks around the world and advised her neighbors on how they could protect themselves.”


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Ecuador: Lawsuit Against Oil Company for Environmental Damage · Global Voices
Milton Ramirez

The court case Aguinda vs. Chevron, which started 16 years ago had received a lot of attention among the international media.  including a recent story in the United States news show 60 Minutes.  The multinational petroleum company Texaco, and its parent company Chevron have been sued by lawyers representing the local communities located in Nueva Loja or also known as Lago Agrio in the Ecuadorian Orient.
At the center of the lawsuit seeking 27 billion dollars for the pollution and environmental damages is whether the company, which turned over exploration of the area to the state company Petroecuador in 1992, is still responsible for the damage. Some critics of the lawsuit claim that the government is trying to dip their hands in the “deep pockets” of the petroleum company and denying their own role in the environmental pollution.
Debris left by Texaco over one of the Nueva Loja rivers. Picture used under Creative Commons by http://www.flickr.com/photos/00rinihartman/
The case has attracted the interest of journalists who have visited the region of Lago Agrio, a province of Sucumbíos, to see the area firsthand.  One of these journalists was Greg Palast of the BBC visited the Cofan indigenous community after a canoe ride to reach the remote location and wrote, “I know this is an incredibly simple story. Indians in white hats with their dead kids and oil millionaires in black hats laughing at kiddy cancer and playing musical chairs with oil assets.” Another, Hannah Dahlstrom of Upside Down World interviewed Emergildo Criollo, who represented the Cofan community, as well as other groups like the Kichwa and Secoya.  The recent airing of the piece on 60 Minutes also caused Geoffrey Styles, a former Texaco employee and blogger at Energy Outlook to add his thoughts about the piece:
My purpose here is not to make their case or to suggest that Texaco operated the Ecuadoran fields in the 1960s, '70s and '80s to the standards that prevail today, decades later. But I do feel the need to point out that there is another side to this story that you didn't see last Sunday, and it is not remotely the black and white tale of a big corporation behaving badly that “60 Minutes” portrayed. I am disappointed that CBS allowed itself to be used to paint such a one-sided picture, sullying the reputation of a company I knew inside and out, and of the tens of thousands of fine, responsible people who worked there–not a gang of environmental criminals. I know “60 Minutes” can do better.
The suit gets complicated due to Texaco's payment of $40 million for the damages and after the Ecuadorian Petroleum Ministry signed a “final release” indicated that the company had fulfilled its duties in regards to their role in the environmental pollution.  However, a new law was passed in 1999 allowing any individual to sue for environmental damages and led to the lawsuit led by the Ecuadorian lawyer Pablo Fajardo.
Several Ecuadorian bloggers have written about the lawsuit and the two sides to the argument. Luis Alberto Mendieta of Política y Sociedad [es] cites Diego Delgado, a recent presidential candidate about the history of multinational companies operating in Ecuador, which usually meant profiting from the natural resources leaving very little benefit for the host country.
Ecuadorians in the Orient are not happy with what Texaco left behind. The company is among the top 7 seven most irresponsible companies and is reported to have left contamination of soil, groundwater, and surface streams that is said to have caused local indigenous and peasant settlers to suffer a wave of mouth, stomach and uterine cancer, birth defects, and spontaneous miscarriages.  Emma Dish a traveler to Nueva Loja, writes a long post in her blog Where in the world is Emma Dish? where she publishes photos of the area and speaks with local residents:
Hands down, the scenes I saw and the stories I heard yesterday made for the most horrific day of my life. I cried all the way back to Quito. I´m close to tears now.
She also spoke with Emergildo Criollo, who is an activist and talked about the health problems of the community:
He talked of the illnesses that came with petroleum, the wrenching stomach and head pains, blistering skins, widespread cancer that, for the first time in the histories of their people, could not be cured by their Shamans.
What an utter blow to the lifestyle for these people, to their culture, their traditions and their identities. Puff the Magic Dragon skulked back to his cave to morn the pile of scales at his feet.
At no point did ANYONE inform them of the dangers of continuing their relationship with their water ways as they always had. No one suggested the stop bathing in, washing in, or drinking their former life streams that were rapidly becoming contaminated with dangerous petro-chemicals. Somehow it never occurred to anyone to mention to this nation of fishermen not to consider the dead fish they found along the river banks a blessing. All the while their people were dying of cancer 8 hours and unimaginable sums of money away from the nearest hospitals (particularly difficult for a people whose livestock and lively hoods were fleeing with the fish) and their women were giving birth to children with yams where two fingers should be.
Even Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has come out in favor of the residents and their lawsuit. However, the company is alleging that the government is interfering with the court ruling to be taken by a judge in Nueva Loja by applying pressure to rule against the oil company. J Major [es] agrees with the U.S. company:
Este respaldo a la demanda puede hacer al presidente más popular (si cabe) pero no le hace bien a los demandantes. Si llegara a haber una sentencia en contra de Texaco, la petrolera internacional podría argumentar que el fallo se debió a la presión política que el juez habría de recibir.
Pañacocha lagoon at canton Shushufindi, Sucumbios-Ecuador. Photo used under Creative Commons by http://www.flickr.com/photos/30265396@N06/
With the decision yet to be made, Chevron is fearing a multi-billion dollar award to be given to Ecuador and they have started a public relations campaign. One member of that campaign is former CNN journalist, Gene Randall who has worked on a video that presents the side of the petroleoum company. The Chevron Pit writes:
Apparently frustrated by the news reporter's irritating habit of independently investigating what they report, Chevron has hired and paid a former CNN news anchor, Gene Randall, to produce a pro-Chevron video that has all the appearances of an actual, independent, news story that is blatantly designed to mislead observers into thinking that it is an actual independent look at the dispute in Ecuador.
Chevron is also questioning the role of Richard Cabrera, a court-appointed expert on the lawsuit. As a geological engineer, his technical report can be seen here. However, Cabrera has been accused of improperly collaborating with the plaintiff. Chevron says they have photo evidence on its Flickr account of his technical team receiving logistical support from Amazon Defense Coalition, a civic group that backs the plaintiffs and that would receive and disburse a portion of any payments.
With the lawsuit expected to be completed by the end of this year, the communities in the affected region are seeking some resolution to their claims that the health and environment have been drastically affected by this industry.  Chevron knows that public opinion is stacked against them and have been using public relations campaign to show their side of the story.

author: Milton Ramirez


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Egypt: New blog for human rights · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Ramy Raouf started his new Egyptian blog for human rights (EBFHR) [Ar]. The blog monitors the development of human rights especially in Egypt, as well as the Arab world in general.

author: Eman AbdElRahman


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Egypt: No Longer the Admin for the Queen Rania Facebook Fan Page  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egyptian blogger TripleM writes about his efforts to create a fan page for Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, which he can no longer access or manage.  “I was surprised to find out that I’m no longer the admin of the Queen Rania’s fan page on Facebook. The page I created two month ago, attracted more than 17 thousand fans and it has one of highest hit rates among Fb fan pages,” he writes.


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Fiji: Bloggers debate media censorship  · Global Voices
Michael Hartsell

As reported here last week, Fiji’s government extended for another 30 days its “emergency regulations” that, among other things, controls public gatherings and forbids the media from printing stories that “undermine the Government and the State of Fiji.” These rules allow the Permanent Secretary of Information the ability to place censors in newsrooms, accompanied by plainclothes policeman.
Fiji’s government says the 30-day extension was “highly necessary,” and the censorship will “help the country’s progress towards democracy.” “The people of Fiji are now experiencing a remarkable change from what used to be highly negative and sensationalized news to a more positive, balanced and responsible reporting by the media,” said Government and Military spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Neumi Leweni.
Prime Minister and military commander Frank Bainimarama told a Fiji-born journalist now living and working in Australia, that he hopes to mold Fiji into a smaller version of Singapore, where keeping the peace ranks higher than freedom of expression.
In a post at Raw Fiji News, a writer called fijidemocracynow2009 doubts the government’s claims of reforming the country’s race-based electoral code and moving Fiji to a post-racial society.
The dictator says censorship is necessary for his regime to push ahead with reforms without the hindrance of media opposition.
That is a big lie. The dictator has no intention of relinquishing power, which is exactly what he would have to do if there were to be reforms that eventually led to elections.
The truth is that the comprehensive censorship of our media is designed to cover up Frank Bainimarama’s criminality.
The information blackout is supposed to prevent us and the rest of the world from watching the dictator consolidate his one-man rule for the long term.
He doesn’t want journalists reporting the ongoing intimidation of the regime’s critics or questioning actions such as the release of the convicted killers of Sakiusa Rabaka and Nimilote Verebasaga.
No, he wants a clean shot at turning Fiji into Bainimaramaland.
But, thanks to Fiji’s Freedom Bloggers his movements are being closely monitored and faithfully reported. So censorship is NOT working!
So far, at least two local journalists have been detained for allegedly breaking the emergency regulations. Most recently, Coup Four And A Half reports, two more journalists, this time from the website Fiji Live, were taken into custody 3 PM Saturday, May 9 for allegedly reporting and publishing an article regarding the early release of members of the country’s security forces who were jailed for manslaughter after being convicted of torturing and killing three civilians in early 2007. These alleged detentions have not yet been confirmed.  Police have confirmed they are questioning the two reporters.
The government of Fiji has also deported three foreign journalists in the previous two months.
In other news, Netani Rika, editor of the Fiji Times, discussed media freedom at the Pacific Freedom Forum XIX, supposed to take place in Fiji, but the country’s political climate forced organizers to change the venue to Apia, Samoa.
Rika’s speech marked the first time a Fiji-based journalist spoke of working conditions under the new rules. He reported that since the Emergency Rules were introduced April 10, the number of censors have increased in newsrooms. Other than the worries of self-censorship practiced by journalists, Rika said one of the problems facing Fiji’s media is the inconsistency of rules that exist between different censors. The Fiji Times newspaper continues to report on political events, he said, much of those stories are cut from the newspaper. However, some censors are stricter than others. Which stories make the paper remains at the discretion of the censor on duty.
From Rika’s speech at the Pacific Freedom Forum event, published in Coup Four And A Half:
To say that Fiji’s media has been under fire since December 2006 is no exaggeration.
We have been threatened, bullied and intimidated. Our cars have been smashed, our homes firebombed.
Despite this, our staff have remained committed to the ideals of a free media, telling the stories that must be told, exposing the weaknesses in State policies and also covering human interest assignments.
It is because of their commitment and refusal to detract from the cause that the interim government has been forced to gag the media.
It is important in these trying circumstances for senior journalists and managers to maintain a brave face and communicate constantly with their staff, offering support and protection.
It is also imperative that we offer guidance and direction and stress the importance of the role of a vibrant, free press in a democracy.
Offering a rebuttal, Real Fiji News, a new pro-government blog, said it was “amazing that [Rika] went all the way to Samoa to tell the audience this piece of useless information.”
Ok, so lets not forget this Netani, you had been warned several times about biased reporting, no one was stopping you ‘telling the truth’. It is unfortunate that you are  blinded by your own self loathing of the IG. If you actually reported correctly you wouldn’t have been censored.
Stuck in Fiji M.U.D. says that journalists are missing the region’s larger story while sticking to story of media freedom in the Pacific.
Ironically, while those journalists were enjoying their well-endorsed junket in Apia, oblivious to the fact that media freedom is not the central story.
It seems that, the diplomatic negotiations to the Pacific Free Trade Plan (PACER Plus) and the detrimental effects of this Trans-Tasman lobbied treaty; has somewhat not registered highly on their list of priorities; despite the notion that those negotiations affect all Pacific Island states.
Is the lack of coverage on those trades negotiations, a clear demonstration that most news published in the Pacific, is viewed through the prism of their Australian or New Zealand Publisher or Editor?
The funny thing about these Pacific media Forums is that these journalists, really don't focus much on Pacific trade negotiations with EU, US or Australia or New Zealand or even in-depth coverage of their own industry and the future trends of their profession based on the current global events like the changing landscape of the news paper business.
It's just that Freedom of the Media, is a story that elevates sales and elevated sales mean elevated circulations. SiFM fills in this lack of analytical and balanced coverage.
New Zealand-based journalist and academic David Robie, who attended the meeting, has a similar line of argument. He reports that Fiji’s problems sometimes overshadowed other regional issues at the meeting.
From Café Pacific:
PACIFIC media freedom advocates meeting in Apia, Samoa, this week did their best to keep the Fiji censorship problem in proportion and give other regional issues a good hearing. But it was tough. The Fiji challenge kept bubbling to the surface, leading to a spirited debate on the future of [Pacific Islands News Association] at one session and feisty calls for the regional news service Pacnews to get out of Suva at others. Fiji dominated all the speeches on the opening day with several of the region's media freedom heavyweights giving the regime a hard time – but they also warned that the young generation coming through into the industry should not be seduced by government freebies.
A bit off topic, but only a bit. Loyal Fijian criticizes international media organizations for allowing parachute journalists to briefly land Fiji and report on rumors and hearsay and then wonder why the reporters are asked to leave.
And so, we have a certain so-called journalist who thinks he has a god given right to jet in and out as and when he wishes.
We are a small country sir, but we are a sovereign nation. The citizens of this country expect our authorities to maintain law and order.
If a journalist does their job to report fairly and with balance, that's a different story. But what about someone who is publishing a blog filled with rumour , speculation and innuendo aimed at humiliating senior public figures and even inciting unrest and mutiny.
There is a story being peddled by this NZ based self-proclaimed journalist that the Commander of the FMF had an attachment with the Chilean navy ages ago and then goes on to very mischievously suggest that this somehow has a bearing on what's happening in Fiji now.
I-War 101. The Big Lie Theory! Dont let the truth get in the way of a good story…
whats next? Accuse an FMF officer who has been through the American officer training facility in Hawaii (a highly rewarding experience, we are told) of being complicit in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo?
What hypocrisy and rumour mongering!
That's where this bloke crosses the line. Using bits and pieces of hearsay to try and conjure up an image in order to achieve a political objective.
That's not journalism, that's propaganda.
When the current government of Commodore Frank Bainimarama dissolved Parliament and ousted the Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase in December 2006, they instituted roughly six months of similar emergency rules, but with no censors in newsrooms. However, journalists complained of “working in an environment of fear, of persecution and
harassment” because of actions by members of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces.
These most recent Emergency Rules began shortly after April 9, 2009 when judges ruled that Bainimarama came into power illegally, forcing him to step down and the country’s president to appoint a caretaker government to lead the country to new elections. The president argued he had no such constitutional powers. Instead, he annulled the 1997 constitution, fired the entire judiciary and eventually reappointed Bainimarama’s government to a five-year mandate, claiming elections would be held in 2014.

author: Michael Hartsell


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Global: The polyglot internet and translation exchange · Global Voices
Ivan Sigal

gmapGlobal Voices has recently been awarded a grant by the Ford Foundation to support our work with Lingua, our translation project, and to research and develop a project to investigate how we might design and support an online translation exchange community.
We began discussing the implications of the polyglot internet several years ago, after translators spontaneously began translating the Global Voices site into Mandarin. Translators from other language communities got together to form Lingua after Global Voices’ 2006 summit in Delhi. Lingua today translates Global Voices content into 15 languages, with another five languages in testing. For a thorough overview of the project, see Lingua co-Director Leonard Chien's timeline, and Chris Salzberg's excellent slideshow presentation and paper.
The Lingua initiative, driven almost entirely by the enthusiasm, creativity, and the efforts of volunteer translators, demonstrates the capacity for a community of like-minded translators and writers to bridge language barriers to share stories and information, based on a simple, nontechnical platform. Lingua points to the value of human effort and the importance of culture and community in choosing what to translate. It has also demonstrated the value of distributed human translation as a means of quickly translating a large quantity of current and topical information.
The idea for a translation exchange as a parallel and complimentary project to Lingua began in response to the larger challenge of the polyglot internet: that, with over 1.3 billion Internet users, any one of us is only seeing a small slice of existing content, based on our language capacities. The issue was addressed during our 2008 Summit in Budapest, both in presentations by members of the Lingua team (see http://globalvoices.blip.tv/file/1070249)  and in numerous conversations on the side. Ethan Zuckerman captures the phenomenon in this post – and in its English translation.
We have at present notional ideas about how a translation exchange might work and how it would fit with the existing, loose and innovative community that is Lingua. Our first challenge is to ask a lot of knotty, interesting questions about translation communities and culture, the economics of distributed production, and the nature of demand for translated news and information for a variety of media sources, and then, to see if we can make something interesting out of the answers. Our hunch is that we'll be working mostly on building communities, rather than making tools.
We want to work on simple, participatory, web-based “translation memory” systems, that would allow us to do things such as store past translations of complex phrases and maintain a common translated vocabulary. There are some good tools out there  to facilitate translation, such as World Wide Lexicon and dotSub, so we'll be asking how to integrate tools into communities of practice.
We also want to see whether an exchange platform can provide easier connections between the best of citizen media stories and media who might be interested in commissioning translations of specific subjects. For instance, whether the good folks at New America Media would find an exchange helpful in providing content for their 2000 ethnic media partner publications, to get them content from around the world in appropriate languages.
What's clear is that there is space for projects that work in the gap between existing information content providers in many languages, and the possibility of a translation exchange that could help open up a lot of content that was previously not accessible because of language barriers, and a lack of access to efficient and inexpensive translation. This includes information providers looking for new ways to get news from other language communities, development organizations seeking to ensure information about their issues are available in multiple languages, and probably lots of other uses we haven't considered because there's no platform like this at present.
We're at early stages with this initiative. Here's a link to an announcement for a project manager – some of you might be interested in applying! Our intention is to build a community of interest around the project – as with all GV projects, we recognize that the best ideas often come from practice and collaboration. Some of us will be gathering at Open Translation Tools 2009 in Amsterdam to kick off the discussion (registration open). We're also gathering initial ideas and inviting conversation on the Global Voices wiki – feel free to join in!

author: Ivan Sigal


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Global Voices is seeking a Project Manager for Translation Exchange · Global Voices
Ivan Sigal

Global Voices is launching a new project! We're seeking a half-time project manager.
The project: Global Voices is launching a project to research, design, and build a translation exchange to facilitate the flow of information globally, with an emphasis on developing world, citizen media, and ethnic media content. The project seeks to match translation resources to the needs of media partners, for the purpose of facilitating the flow of news across multiple languages, and from local to global news contexts.
The goal of the project is to facilitate flows of news and information across multiple languages to support the polyglot Internet – read this post by Global Voices co-founder Ethan Zuckerman for background. The specific objectives are to research and develop a translation exchange mechanism to match supply and demand of translated news and information, and to pioneer a new mechanism for distributed translation of content and repurposing across a network of sites.
The Lingua translation exchange project will initially be a one-year initiative to identify opportunities and challenges, convene partners and interested parties, and determine feasibility. A second stage, to design a model for the exchange, and oversee its creation, may also occur in year one.
The job: The program manager for the Lingua Exchange initiative will manage the project, from inception to completion, including the following:
-oversee research on translation memory tools and work with the GV translation community to explore how to integrate these tools into GV projects.
-oversee research on technical, editorial, legal, and marketplace challenges of setting up a translation exchange for Global Voices and partners, as well as for a broader community.
-work closely with technical staff to identify technical solutions and challenges to integrate or link a translation exchange into existing Global Voices initiatives.
-manage collaboration with interested partners and the online translation community; represent this project and Global Voices at relevant forums.
-set up and work with an advisory board, members of which will include interested organizations and experts in translation communities.
-manage the workflow and communications with GV staff and community, and organize and run any meetings and work outputs that further the goals of this project.
-track the work flow against the stated goals of the project.
As Global Voices is a virtual organization, the project manager will not be expected to relocate. However, he or she needs regular access to high-speed internet connectivity and will be expected to travel. Salary and other compensation will depend on the candidate’s experience. Start date: as soon as possible.
Our ideal candidate will:
-have a combination of relevant expertise in online media, translation, and project management.
-have the ability to work independently, in an unstructured work environment, and to work with a virtual community.
-be computer literate, comfortable working with programmers and technical language. Programming/HTML knowledge not required but strong familiarity with the use of online social media tools (blogging platforms, aggregators, use of RSS feeds, and tagging) is important.
-speak and write English fluently, and be highly proficient in at least one other language; polyglot speakers highly desirable!
Interested candidates please send CV and Letter of Interest explaining why you'd be a good candidate for the job to: editor AT globalvoicesonline DOT org.
Update (June 18, 2009): Applications for this position are now closed.


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Guyana: Saving the Rainforest  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“When ordinary folks talk, nobody don’t listen. When celebrities talk, everybody care” – which is just fine with Guyana-Gyal, as long as they keep talking about saving the rainforest.


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India: Decision Time Approaches · Global Voices
Rezwan

As the results of the Indian elections become due by the end of this week, Sunday Posts reminds that: “the union of India will become a more untenable concept if the political class can not reinvent the idea of India yet again, and show the citizens value of their vote and their voice”


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Iran: Ahmadinejad’s supporters launch online grassroots campaign · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has registered as a candidate for the June presidential election. Like his rivals, he now awaits official approval to run in the election from the Council of Guardians. Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad's supporters have launched a multi-media campaign called Dar Emtedad Mehr (meaning, “Following Kindness”) covering social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and other online media.
There is no “About” page on the site, so the true identity of the creator(s) is unknown, but the titles of 80 blogs that support Ahmadinejad are listed prominently. The website is very interactive and provides different opportunities for Ahmadinejad's supporters to be involved in the campaign and receive information.
The site offers news updates of Ahmadinejad's speeches and visits to different cities on YouTube via Twitter, Facebook, or SMS messages. So far less than 15 people have “followed” the Dar Emtedad Mehr campaign on Twitter.
Some of the videos on the site are very emotional with music, like one where Ahmadinejad visits a poor family in Ardebil. We learn that the father of the family is still suffering from injuries from the Iran-Iraq war.
Ahmadinejad supporters are invited to get involved with the campaign by sending SMS messages, making phone calls and attending physical campaign events.
Volunteers who wish to participate in grassroots activity can fill in a form choosing between 3 places where they plan to promote Ahmadinejad's candidacy: 1-schools, 2-mosques, 3-public places.
Bloggers are also invited to place Ahmadinejad's election logo in their blogs.
While Ahmadinejad's supporters have become active on different virtual fronts, the Iranian president has not updated his own blog for about a year.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran: Roxana Saberi freed · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Mohmmad Mostafai, an Iran based lawyer informs[fa] us in his blog that Roxana Saberi, Iranian-American journalist was freed on Monday in Iran.


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Iraq: Meeting Sarah Palin  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Iraqi Raed Jarrar has concluded a speaking tour in Alaska, where he was welcomed by the “one and only” Sarah Palin. “And yes, her voice is as annoying in person,” he notes.


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Jamaica: The Road Most Traveled  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Universities are supposed to provide hope that at least the coming generation will be better and brighter than the one so corrupted now”: The Phoenix in a Gas House is disappointed that young academics “opted for the ignorant draconian approach” when faced with a burglary incident at Jamaica's Mona campus.


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Japan: Business models of social media · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Fumi Yamazaki looks into the various business models of social media in Japan.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Japan: Virtual consolation service · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Serkan Toto from Asiajin introduces a virtual consolation service in Japan. The website would praise the user according to their profile information.


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Jordan: 11th Honour Killing this Year · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Kinzi from Jordan recounts the 11th honour killing in Jordan this year: “Mother of six, stabbed 18 times by one brother, 4 by another, for telling them her whereabouts were ‘none of their business’.” This last crime claimed the life of the mother's 20-week-old fetus as well.


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Kazakhstan: Draft Law on Internet Censorship · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Slavasay says that a small victory in the Kazakhstani Internet community’s fight against repressive draft law on Internet regulation may turn out to be a sign of defeat


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Kazakhstan: Euro Standards for Fuel · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Zara reflects on the introduction of the environmental standards for fuel “EURO-2″ in Kazakhstan and also on the quality of fuel in the country.


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Malaysia: Massive arrest of activists · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A black T-shirt caused the massive arrest of 116 opposition members by the Malaysian government. Chong reports on the recent suppression of oppositional party in Malaysia at interlocals.net.


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Mongolia: Ulaanbaatar Children’s Park · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Axel writes about and posts pictures of the newly built Children’s Park close to the city centre of Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.


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Morocco: Blogging tools  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Moroccan blogger Mohammed Saeed Hjiouij [Ar] shares 10 popular tools and services which come in handy to bloggers in this post.


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Pakistan: Help The IDPs · Global Voices
Rezwan

Chowrangi blog appeals to the world community to help the 500,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Pakistan and posts ways to help them.


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Paris court investigates three African leaders · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

“In Africa, you never look Presidents in the mouth.  They are, as it is said in popular language, groundnut roasters.  And you don't look a groundnut roaster in his mouth.  Because then he will definitely throw in some grains.” (Ivorian blogger Denis Zado)
Earlier this week, a Parisian judge ordered an inquiry into alleged corruption and embezzlement on the part of three African heads of state: Denis Sassou-Nguesso of Congo-Brazzaville, Omar Bongo of Gabon, and Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea.
Teodoro Obiang has been president of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea for thirty years.  His luxury apartment and collection of cars are alleged to have been bought with misappropriated funds.
The investigation comes following a complaint filed by Transparency International in December accusing Sassou-Nguesso, Bongo and Obiang of “concealing misappropriated public funds.”  Each keep several luxury residences in Paris, thought to have been purchased with money that rightly belongs to their people.
Bloggers from each of these countries, and francophone Africa more generally, have long criticized Françafrique, France's neocolonial legacy of cozy relations with resource-rich, African dictators.  French president Nicholas Sarkozy has failed to end this legacy, despite early promises.
At last!
The French court's decision was greeted by many as a welcome surprise, one that may mark a shift in French attitudes toward Africa.
Congolese (DRC) blogger Musengeshi Kata, writes on Forum Realisance:
Enfin pourrait-on dire, l´occident, après des décennies de surdité, en vient lentement à combattre ce fléau criminel économique qui gangrène autant le développement de l´Afrique qu´il engraisse l´illégalité fiscale en Europe et de par le monde. Une contradiction flagrante à la justice, au bon sens, à l´Etat de Droit…et particulièrement à la maîtrise de la crise économique actuelle qui exige de se défaire rapidement de ces contradictions nocives et injustes pour tout le monde.
Denis Sassou-Nguesso has ruled the Republic of Congo for decades.  According to The Guardian, he and close relatives have more than 100 French bank accounts and more than 20 properties.
The AFP article on the judge's decision, reprinted on the Congo-Brazzaville web portal congopage, had more than 140 comments at the time of this post's publication.
One reader congopage reader, Ngoma, posts a link to a Google Map which lists apartments in Paris belonging to Bongo, Sassou, and N'Guesso.
Boukaka:
Esperant que cette fois ci ,Sarkozy ne fera pas Obstacle a la justice…Sarkozy avait promis la rupture avec des Assassins alors nous attendons ce moment la avec impatience.
Dolisie:
Bravo au juge desset qui a su mettre l’intérêt des peuples avant les mic-macs économiques…la France doit se laver de son passé de chien de garde pour dictateur, d’argentier de conflits ethniques et de coups d’état ; la France que nous respecterons, est celle qui rendra aux peuples africains ses biens qui sont les leurs !
Le Répresentant Du Peuple:
Je demande à Mr SARKOZY de laisser les mains libre à la justice de son pays pour que vérité soit faite. Le sang de nos freres noir a coulé pour avoir denoncé le vole à grande échelle par ces présidents impis dont le goût de la luxure est son gêne.La France,le monde(les pauvres du monde qui considere votre pays comme un pays des droits et des libertés vous regarde)les chefs d’états africains ont enrichis la plupart des états d’europe par leurs avoirs placé dans les banques européennes,les africains le savent.Aux juges,nous savons que vous subirez la pression de nos voleurs d’états par des cadeaux allant audéla de votre revenu mensuel habituel.Honnorez votre profession.
Alors la je dois reconnaitre que cette juge a de sacrées couilles non je dirais plutot trompes,car vu d’un congolais comme moi plus habitué à assister impuissament aux pratiques criminelles de nos dirigeants on fini par croire et accepter par la force des choses que le droit à l’impunite est absolu et inviolable pour ces derniers.en meme temps que cette decision à reveillé un certains espoir…
Dolisie:
Denis,
Quand on fait des conneries, on les paye tôt ou tard ; même lorsque l’on se croit au dessus des lois. Mamère disait à ce propos : ” Le président premier des citoyens ne peut être un citoyen au dessus des lois”…
Dolisie
Denis,
When you screw up, you have to pay soon or later; even when you believe yourself above the law.  My mother used to say: “The president, first among citizens, cannot be a citizen above the law”…
Dolsie
By what right?
Not everyone is happy about Africans being investigated in France.  The ruling inspired nationalistic feelings.  Some pointed out the hypocrisy of the French government prosecuting African leaders, when leaders on both sides are guilty.
Also on congopage, UN CONGOLAIS DE SANG writes:
crois tu que un français peut etre jugé au congo,alor pourquoi laisserons nous un congolais president de son etat etre jugé par la france, le vold’argent s’est produit au congo pas en france…un français qui tue un congolais au congo ne seras jamais jugé au congo,un français fait des degats a congo la france va le protegé…
Altesse responds:
Si la justice Congolaise fonctionnait parfaitement OUI BIEN SUR un français qui commet des délits au Congo peut(doit)-être jugé au Congo, rien ne l’interdit à ce que je sache. Mais comme il n’ya pas de justice ou plutôt elle s’achète facilement, on peut se poser la question.
Dada Maloba, also commenting on congopage, is skeptical the French government's motives have really changed:
Croyez-vous vraiment que c´est la France qui va faire sauter sassou ? …Ils veulent continuer leur colonisation. La France peut dire ceci cela, c´est leur politique. Pour moi c´est les résultats qui va compter. Nous tous Africains noire dans n´importe quel pays. Rentrez dans le mouvement  BLACK PANTHERS, BLACK POWER. De lá nous allons voir les resultats nous cherchons. Faire sauter Denis Sassou Nguésso le traître.
Do you really believe that it's France that will overthrow Sassou? …They want to continue their colonization.  France can say this or that, that's their politics.  For me, it's results that count.  All of us black Africans, in no matter what country, join the BLACK PANTHERS, BLACK POWER movement.  That's how we will see the results we seek.  Down with Denis Sasou Nguesso, the traitor.
Ivorian blogger Denis Zodo asks “Why these Presidents?” (and not any of the others from the long list of African dictators cozy with Paris).  Zodo wants to know who is really behind the lawsuit.  Are they Africans from these three countries or is it Transparency International?:
Si ce sont des Africains, ils doivent revoir leurs copies. Nous ne sommes pas pour la gabegie au sommet de l’Etat. Mais, ce n’est pas cette solution qui va arranger les choses dans nos pays africains. Il faut nous-mêmes militer pour le changement au niveau de nos gouvernants, mais également au niveau des mentalités. C’est seulement le changement dont il est question là, qui bouleversera la donne.
Si c’est Transparency international qui s’est auto-saisie dans cette affaire, il lui faut laisser pour une fois, les Africains retirer la gangrène de leur corps. Pourquoi c’est à eux de toujours prendre ce genre d’initiative à notre place ? C’est pourtant l’Occident qui favorise une telle attitude de prédateurs chez nos gouvernants africains.
If it is Africans, they should reconsider.  We are not for messes at the pinnacle of the state.  But this is not a solution that will fix things in our African countries.  We have to campaign for change at the level of our governments, but also at the level of our mentalities.  That is the only change that will break the deal.
If it's Transparency International take this upon themselves, they should let Africans remove the gangrene from their body.  Why is it always up to them to take this kind of initiative in our place?  It's the West after all who encourage the predatory attitude of our African governments.
Omar Bongo has been president of Gabon for more than forty years.  He and his family own several apartments in the richest neighborhoods in Paris.
On the blog of UPG-Gabon, a Gabonese opposition party, some readers also left comments critical of the court case:
Que gagne un patriote Gabonais de voir son Chef d'Etat sali dans la presse étrangère par le simple bon vouloir des étrangers?…C'est tout le Gabon qui est humilié au delà de toutes autres considérations.
Nze Mba, also on UPG-Gabon, responds:
je tombe des nues , en constatant que chez nous le vol est devenu une institution qu'on ne peut même plus le combatrre. Les puissants sont tellement assis sur des fortunes et, sur la justice que tout recours et toute poursuite au pays est quasiment impossible.
Peut on et doit on se rejouir que ce soit la justice d'un pays étranger qui s'en occupe? Assurément oui car ce n'est pas au GAbon ni au Congo que l'on verra la justcice porter atteinte à nos présidents, de peur de se retrouver mort, ou sans emploi le lendemain.
I am flabbergasted, witnessing how theft has become an institution in our country that we can't even fight anymore.  The powers that be are sitting on fortunes and on justice so that all recourse and all legal action in the country is virtually impossible.
Can we and should we rejoice that the legal system of another country is getting involved?  Most definitely, because it is not in Gabon or in Congo that justice will reach our presidents, for [our] fear of being found dead, or unemployed the next day.
Finally, and also on congopage, reader Hamburger offers satire:
Un juge d´instruction CONGOLAIS vient d´ouvrir à brazzaville une enquête contre un certain nombre d’hommes politiques français pour leur complicité avec un certain nombre de multinationales occidentales dans le pillage des ressources naturelles congolaises. Parmi les personnes visées par la plainte qui a été déposée au parquet de B/ville par l’association congo libre figurent Jacques-Chirac, Nicolas-Sarkozy, Charles-Pasqua et bien d’autres encore. Il s’agit d’une 1 ère dans l’histoire de la justice ; un chef de l’Etat français en fonction est poursuivi pour les biens mals acquis au congo à travers le “patrimoine pétrolier et minier”de la france au congo.
To which an anonymous reader replies, tongue in cheek, “Who's leading the investigation?”


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Peru: Flooding in Iquitos · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Floods continue to be a major problem in the city of Iquitos, Peru with the rise of the Amazon River and its tributaries. Juan Arellano of Globalizado [es] has photos of how the water is affecting houses built in flood-vulnerable areas in the Punchana district.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Saudi Arabia: Saudi Jeans Marks 5th Anniversary  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Today marks the fifth anniversary of Saudi Jeans. What I started as place to have fun and improve my English has become one of the most well-known blogs in the Middle East,” writes Saudi blogger Ahmed Al Omran.


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Saudi Arabia: Why are they better than us?  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

After a visit to the the UK's capital London, Saudi blogger Prometheus [Ar] asks: “As I was looking at all those monumental achievements, I asked myself: Why don't we have similar things? We aren't any less than others. We have immense wealth which, if it was used properly, our conditions would have been a 100 times better than they are now.”


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Sri Lanka: Helping The IDPs · Global Voices
Rezwan

Sarvodaya, the largest and most established NGO in Sri Lanka, has been at the forefront of helping the IDPs in the Sri Lanka's war ravaged north. Learn more about their efforts from their blog.