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Portnoy Zheng: The blogger who inspired the world to talk together · Global Voices
Paula Góes

He is too humble to agree with me, but I'm in no way exaggerating when I say that Portnoy Zheng was the inspiration behind Global Voices’ Lingua project, which has made selected Global Voices’ articles available to a real global audience of Arabic, Bangla, Chinese, Farsi, French, Japanese, Malagasy, Portuguese, and Spanish speakers.
It all started back in 2005, when Global Voices was still taking off the English speaking ground. Portnoy fell in love with the idea and soon after started to translate and publish on his Chinese blog posts from GVO. The project soon found its own home and later he recruited some Chinese speaking volunteers to help translate Global Voices content into traditional and simplified Chinese, the third language on the blogosphere.
Now people from Madagascar can hear voices from Korea, and the Arabian blogosphere can echo a story from China. It is the surpassing of GVO's language barrier, thanks to a system inspired by Portnoy's initiative, hard work and motivation. There are also German and Hindi sites coming out, and the more websites set up, the more the world converses and people understand each other.
Portnoy began collaborating as a volunteer translator for Lingua in June 2006 (after having translated more than 100 posts on his own) and soon after became a Global Voices author, reporting on the Taiwanese blogosphere, which is focused mainly on travel and technology, and some politics. And now that he has a tiny bit more time after finishing the mandatory 18 months military service required for all Taiwanese young men, he is planning to start up a very interesting project. Read on!
New Year's celebrations in Taiwan
Happy New Year, Portnoy! What are your wishes for the Year of the Rat?
I have a lot of wishes. I wish all the GVO companions good fortune and good luck in the New Year, wish GVO keeps on doing marvelously and wish all people in the world have more freedom of expression. I also wish my Dad good health since he is a 70-year-old boy who never follows medical prescription.
Could you tell us how the new year celebrations in Taiwan are different from those in mainland China? Is there any special flavor to it?
In Taiwan, people celebrate lunar new year in many ways. Family members will gather together at the Eve of New Year for a hearty dinner. Elders give youngsters “red envelopes” with money inside as a symbol of good fortune for the coming year. At midnight, fireworks and firecrackers light up the street and the sky although most of them are illegal. On the first day, people start to visit or call or message or email all their friends to wish them happy new year. On the second day, married daughters will come home to visit their families….
However, the atmosphere of celebration is losing quickly with each year's passing. More and more people just take new year as a usual 5 -day-long vacation. No dancing dragons and lions on the street anymore. No special TV programs except for re-airing Hollywood films and reality shows.  Actually, if you are not shopping in a department store, you might not aware of that the New Year is here. I have no experience in mainland China during New Year's period, but I guess the feeling of New Year should be stronger there.
There are still a lot of people (and travel business) trying hard to restore the feeling of New Year in Taiwan or simply recreate it. However, I haven't got a chance to visit these sites, so…well, I hope there is new flavor for me this year, because I am planning to visit one of the traveling site.
Let's get to business. How long have you been blogging and why?
I started blogging in January, 2005.  I was in my first year of Master degree in Telecommunication and Journalism then and I found blogging issues spreading quickly on the Internet, therefore I began to dig into these issues and wrote reports on blogging.  Later I thought I should start a blog by myself since I was researching it. Gradually I found blog is a very powerful tool to know the world and to let the world know me. I learned a lot of knowledge about our society, our politic chaos, and activists who try to make some change. You will never access these knowledge on Taiwanese mainstream media. And I now also become an activist myself working with many social groups or NGOs to help them spread their ideas.
What do you blog about? How would you describe your blog in Chinese to someone who can't read it?
The main theme of my blog is media, especially new media (theory, business, guideline and experience). I also blog about my thoughts on politics, technologies, news, and life. Sometimes I just put funny and crazy videos from video sites to make my readers happy.
I am an online activist dreaming of world peace–and I believe my blog reflects that.
You haven't updated lately Working Man, your ‘hyperpersonal blog in English’. Is it just a matter of finding the time?
Actually, I spend most of my leisure time updating my Chinese blog or playing with new web 2.0 services in order to find out the missing link between high-tech and low-democratic level in Taiwan, so TIME is a big problem. The minor problem is that I don't want to blog the same old topics that were in my Chinese blog already on my English blog….I guess I just have to stop Chinese blogging to initiate English blogging.
Could you tell us a bit more about these attempts to find the missing link between high-tech and low-democratic levels in Taiwan? What is it about?
People probably know that Taiwan is one of the countries (or economic entities if you don't think Taiwan is a country) that enjoy highest level of free expression in the world. And Taiwan is also the most important 3C (computer, communication, consumer electronics) producer in the world. We scores high on the ranking of e-commerce and e-government. We have very high broadband penetration (about 70 per cent) and maybe the highest cell-phone penetration in the world (above 100 per cent for many years). We have more than ten local 24-hour news channel broadcasting on cable and digital TV platform. But, the result of the combination of all these is that we have a lot of consumers but no citizens, at least not enough. Many bloggers like me have been doing experiment of citizen journalism for years, but our achievement is rather small comparing to the chaos created by our MSM and politicians. There seems to be a bottleneck, and that is what I am trying to figure out.
As a researcher in Citizen Journalism, how would you describe the difference it is making to Taiwan? How reliable is mainstream media there?
Citizen journalism in Taiwan is facing two obstacles that might sound creepy to others. One obstacle is that our mainstream media have cultivated Taiwanese too deep that they don't know what to trust and therefore treat news as entertainment. Yes, people here in Taiwan love watching news channels because they love entertainment and entertainment is the only thing they get, in fact. People don't treat news and journalists seriously so why would people try to do journalism on their own? The other obstacle is that mainstream media doesn't treat citizen journalism seriously, too. So the idea of citizen journalism isn't propagating that fast as in other countries with similar democracy and Internet penetration.
Are the any other problems that bloggers face in Taiwan, such as freedom of speech? I know that Chinese bloggers can not access Taiwanese blogs…
Freedom of speech is not a problem to Taiwanese bloggers. There are some legal restrictions such like “no alcohol and  cigarette  promotion are allowed”, “websites containing contents only for adults should put a sign onto themselves”….nothing really serious and nobody is taking these restrictions seriously. Most of the Taiwan BSPs are over-blocked by GFW of China because the most part of blogosphere is about life , traveling, emotion, funny jokes and cartoons… as the situation in every blogosphere elsewhere in the world. It is a great pity that bloggers across the strait cannot embrace full connection through the web.  However, it is completely OK for Taiwanese blogger to visit China blogosphere (if it is not blocked in its own country), so I encourage Taiwanese bloggers to access more China bloggers more often and to make some friends with each other.  I personally get acquainted with many bloggers based in China in this way.
Considering that Taiwan gets only little media attention in the international press, how important is it for the Taiwanese blogosphere to show the world a little bit more about their country?
Taiwanese are worrying about this very much. Our international status is suppressed by China government. We are prohibited from being apart of U.N., W.H.O., and all the global organizations that need an ID as a country. Taiwanese people always feel sad and sometimes anguished because Taiwan is never mentioned by international press except when there is a new bloody fight happening in our Congress.
But Taiwanese news media is also responsible  for this situation since they don't educate their audience about the world. Our commercial news channels are sometimes even more limited than what international press does to Taiwan. So, many Taiwanese bloggers shoulder that responsibility to tell their readers much more about the globe–in Chinese.  Most of these bloggers  are students, travelers, immigrants, and social activists. However, few bloggers are doing the opposite–to  tell the world what Taiwan really is. Actually I don't know any Taiwanese blogger outside Chinese lingua team who is doing such work.  There are several English native speaking bloggers with Taiwanese ID or studying in Taiwan doing great jobs like  Michael Turton, but the communication between the two Taiwanese blogospheres is very limited because of language restrictions I guess.
What is your most memorable blogging experience?
I would say that the last election period of Taipei city council in Dec, 2006 is my most unforgettable blogging experience. Several blogger friends and I (most are Chinese Lingua translators and supporters) start a volunteer election campaign for Green Party, a very small political party for environmental and social justice. We gathered almost every A-list blogger in Taiwan to support Green Party's candidates publicly on his or her own blog. Although the result is disappointing, that is the first web 2.0 campaign ever in Taiwan political history.
I thought you were going to say that it was translating GVO posts! What motivated you to do it?
I fell in love with GVO at first sight. But then I haven't got the idea to translate it. I just read it and hoped more and more Taiwanese netizens would get to know it, because I believed that as long as more Taiwanese know more about the world, the people of the world, the thoughts of these people, they will be freed from the cage built by creepy MSM in Taiwan and therefore growing compassion and happiness like what I had experienced. One day, a prominent blogger, inertia, wrote about GVO in his blog, gave me this idea of translation. I am an easily motivated person so I just began translating.
And from your idea, the Lingua arm of GVO was born. What do you think about the project and what are your expectations for the Global Voices translated sites?
I won't say that Lingua is my idea. I am merely a man who want more people in my community to know GVO. This is a simple and direct thought that everyone could have think of. Lingua is born with the power and diligence of those great people I met in Delhi–Ethan Zuckerman, Rebecca MacKinnon, David Sasaki, Alice Baker…etc.–They make my dream come true. I love Lingua as it is right now. However, I would like to see each Lingua site become the axis of citizen journalism in each language community. Maybe Lingua would work closer with Rising Voices project, or other citizen journalism project in different regions.
Is it true that English and Taiwanese blog communities are largely independent of one another? Are there other bridge blogs that could be of interest to our public?
The fact is: yes. I am always expecting and encouraging more bridgebloggers to show up. I am also expecting myself to be one. However, that is not easy. There are still a lot of lessons for me to learn from the GVO community.
Now you have just finished the military service and have more free time, are there any interesting projects up your sleeve?
I am lucky to find a job right after I finished my mandatory military service. So I'll be digging into it for some time to get accustomed to it. However, I am still a easily motivated blogger (ha), so I am going to start a new blog project called “Blue Camp” which focus on Information policy and digital solutions. The Presidential election of Taiwan is heating up and I want those candidates to give me and all the people who care about these topics their answers to them. Will they really care about blogger's ideas? I don't know, but I am just going to do it.
Portnoy speaking at a citizen journalism conference in Taipei, Taiwan


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Qatar: Harassed while Walking · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

From Qatar, Doubtfire talks about how his British wife was harassed while out for a walk by a local man, who followed and took pictures of her.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Qatar: Salaries and Cars · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“I am curious to know what part of their income people spend on their cars,” writes Hashin, at Qatar Living.


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South Africa: Did Afrikaans journalists help end apartheid? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Anton Harber discusses the role of the Afrikaans press during the struggle against apartheid in South Africa: “I was asked to comment on Afrikaans journalists’ role in the downfall of apartheid. Do those who pushed for change not get the credit they deserve, as some argue? Or were they just cohorts of the National Party?”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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South Africa: Web startups to watch · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Charl's list of South Africa's web startup to watch: “I’ve tried to diversify the list with startups doing things in different markets, and while this is a list of the most promising startups they are by no means the best but are looking toward a bright future.”


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Spreading the word about indigenous rights in Republic of Congo · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

indigenouspeoplecongobrazza writes about efforts to educate [Fr] Congolese about the new UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights.

author: Jennifer Brea


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Afghanistan: Deadly Weather Conditions · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Mohammad reports that according to the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authorities, blizzards and freezing weather across the whole of Afghanistan have killed over 600 people since the start of the year.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Afghanistan: Feedback on Counter-Narcotics Report · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Barnett R. Rubin reviews feedback comments on the report, in which he was involved as a co-author, on “Counter-narcotics to Stabilize Afghanistan: The False Promise of Crop Eradication”.


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Afghanistan: Film banned by the authorities · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Sanjar reports that the Ministry of information and culture of Afghanistan has banned the import and exhibition of “The Kite Runner” movie on the fear of social consequences. The film is based on the novel by Khalid Husseini about the troubled friendship of two Afghan boys and “tells us a lot about Afghan government”, Sanjar says.


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Armenia: Media Concerns · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Armenian Observer points out some valid flaws in a recent study of the media ahead of the 19 February 2008 presidential election in Armenia. In particular, the blogger says that concentrating too much on the print media skewed assessment of the actual situation.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Bangladesh: Recognition from the West · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Bangladesh Corporate Blog on the pursuit of recognition from the West.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Barbados: Traffic Solutions · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“I do not believe that a country the size of Barbados, even with its high rate of car ownership, needs flyovers to deal with road congestion”: Living in Barbados has a few alternative suggestions.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Belize, Trinidad & Tobago: Something about Carnival  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“It is an awesome thing to witness for the first time, this egalitarian Carnival experience, this celebration that is collective and an expression of each one's most free and intimate self”: The Global Parish makes her first Carnival visit to Trinidad and Tobago.


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Brazil: Bahia Afro Film Festival · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Altino Machado [pt] says that everything is ready for the Bahia Afro Film Festival, which takes place in Salvador, Brazil from November 18 through 28. “The main goal is to spread the word, to integrate and to promote debates about the films and video production, on a national and international level, that have the African-descending nation as the main topic”. This year's theme is a wordplay with John Lennon's song Imagine: “Imagine All the Afro People”.

author: Paula Góes


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Brazil: The top 10 entrepreneurs of the Brazilian blogospgere · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Bombust [pt] has a list of the top 10 entrepreneurs of the Brazilian blogospgere, chosen because “their posts guide the readers’ steps in the direction their links point to and often also guide many other bloggers’ steps. They live at a newly-born but already significant body of web surfers’ best feed readers on desktops and notebooks”.


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Brazil: Tips for Campus Party starting today · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Graveheart [pt] has posted some humorous tips on how to get the best of Campus Party Brazil, which starts today in São Paulo. There will be 3 thousand people together for 7 days of talks, meetings, debates, games, conversations, ideas and, of course, networking.


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Central Africa Republic: Extra-judicial executions investigated · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

HDPT Central African Republic blog writes about investigations of extra-judicial executions: “Professor Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions visited the Central African Republic to inquire into extra-judicial executions in the recent past.”


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China: How to Get Pornographic Photos? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Beifeng shared with others on how he managed to get pornographic photos via P2P tools. In the debate about popstar sex scandal, he took the stand that he supports the browsing but opposes the sharing of the photos (zh).

author: Oiwan Lam


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Colombia: Day of the Journalist · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Colombia celebrated Day of the Journalist on February 9.  Juan David Escobar of Reticente [es] and Victor Solano of ¿Comunicación? [es] salute and write about the challenges for journalists in Colombia.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Colombia: English Version of equinoXio · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

The Colombian digital online magazine, equinoXio recently launched a version in English.


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Czech Republic: “A Bit of Slovakia” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Czech Daily Word writes about “a bit of Slovakia in downtown Brno.”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Czech Republic: Presidential Election 1 · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Dr. Sean's Diary writes about “farce and deadlock” of the Czech presidential election – here and here: “Then we get to voting proper – sort of. In the best Czech traditions, deputies and senators actually spend the next nine hours trying to agree procedural questions – whether they will vote in a secret ballot or openly, and how they should decide that (jointly or as seprate chambers). Finally, as evening wears on, they find a compromise and agree to vote in public.”


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Czech Republic: Presidential Election 2 · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

More coverage of the Czech presidential election – at The Czech Daily Word – here, here and here: “I swear, if we don’t have the direct vote by 2013, I will go and live naked in the bushes on U.S. Virgin Islands.”


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Czech Republic, U.S.: Visa Regime Likely to End · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Czech Daily Word reports – here and here – that the visa regime with the United States is likely to end this year.


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East Timor: President Attacked · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Diligence writes about the armed attack this morning in Dili in which the East Timor president was wounded.

author: Preetam Rai


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East Timor: President Wounded in Attack · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Bloggers based in East Timor wrote about this mornings attack on the president of East Timor, Jose Ramos Horta. The blogger at Diligence wrote
A friend who lives near the President’s home (about 5 kms east of the centre of Dili) called me at about 7am this morning to tell me that there was gunfire which had been going on for about 15 minutes. It appears the gunfight started at around 6:30am but perhaps the confrontation actually started earlier. Within 1/2 an hour, the security warnings apparatus came into play and it has been like that ever since.
Diligence has posted a map of the area where the attack took place.
Xanana Republic was the next blogger to mention the incident.
The ‘phones are ringing like billyo and SMS messages are ruling the airwaves right now. We heard about the attack at around 7.45am’ish, still then unconfirmed. As staff arrived we sent them home. Now we are getting ready for possible repercussions. If indeed Alfredo has been killed then we wonder how the boys in Dili, some of whom worship Alfredo as a freedom fighter, will react
The “Alfredo” Reinado that is blogger is referring was a high ranking soldier who has deserted the East Timorese army after 600 soldiers were sacked. The use of violence by the East Timorese military to quell a crowd of sacked soldiers and unemployed youth was cited as the reason for his desertion by Reinado. Reinado was arrested in July 26 but he escaped from prison a month later. An operation involving Australian commandos was launched in early 2007 to capture him. The manhunt was called off in April 2007 to facilitate dialogue with the rebel soldier.
Xanana Republic posted an update later in the day. The initial JRH refer to Jose Ramos Horta.
So far we have heard that JRH has been shot twice, with at least one round entering his abdomen. Apparently he underwent surgery here in Dili at the ISF hospital at the heliport. He will be/is being flown to Darwin for more treatment.
Re the attack on his house. As speculated earlier, it seems that the attack was carried out during JRH's normal morning walk/run. A friend who lives about 300 metres away reported a fire-fight occuring at about 0650 this morning. From various wires/radio sources it appears that two vehicles drove by and then opened fire. Radio Timor Leste is reporting that Alfredo Reinado was indeed killed in the shootout but rather than being an attacker he was in fact a guest at JRH's house and had been there for upto a week and ran out of the house during the attack to try and stop it.
The post also has an update on the ground situation in Dili, the capital of East Timor. The president is in an hospital in Darwin, Australia in critical condition.


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East Timor: Reinado’s supporters get ready for trouble after his death · Global Voices
Paula Góes

“The situation in Dili is calmer after the attacks against the East Timor's President and Prime Minister this Monday. However, there are rumours that Reinado's supporters are getting ready for trouble”, reports Timor Online [pt].


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Ethiopia: The opposition needs to change · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The opposition in Ethiopia needs to change to bring change, argues Enset: “In the last 17 years, the Ethiopian opposition has faced as much opportunities as it has faced threats, but despite the immense popular support; the opposition neither seized the opportunities nor avoided the threats. No political party that I know resolved, or managed conflicts and continued to exit as a unified entity.”


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Ethiopia: Zerihun’s Retrospective · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Addis Journal writes about an art exhibit in Ethiopia: “The Alliance  Ethio-Française is running a retrospective exhibition of  the works of Zerihun Yetemgeta, a renowned Ethiopian artist.”


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Ghana/Egypt: Egypt wins the Africa Cup of Nations · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Emmauel posts a photo from the Africa Cup of Nations final in Ghana: “digital camera capture of the President of Ghana John Kufuor awarding a member of the Egyptian team. Note the inscription on the back! It speaks volumes!”


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Ghana/Morocco: Africa Cup of Nations was hacked · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Soyapi Mumba writes about the hacking of the Africa Cup of Nations website: “Some angry ‘Moroccan’ has hacked the Africa Cup of Nations website after Morocco got beaten by Ghana, the hosts, 2-0 on Monday 28th January 2008.”


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Hong Kong: Netizen First Rally · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Yesterday, Hong Kong Netizen had its first rally against police abuse of power in the sex photo scandal. Erynnyes hopes that local netizens can slowly develop into a civic force (zh).


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India: Language and Identity · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Language, economic development and identity explored in the context of Hindi in India at E=mc^2.


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India: Religion and the U.S · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Indian Muslims Blog explores the issue of religion in the presidential election in the U.S.


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Israel: Two Sderot Kids Severely Injured by Hamas Missiles · Global Voices
Gilad Lotan

Every day the Hebrew blog portal Israblog hosts a discussion on a new topic, called the hot topic. This encourages bloggers to take part in the conversation around a specific topic. From politics to personal matters, submitting an entry tagged with the hot topic raises its readability, and places it on a relatively seen page; an incentive for people to participate.
The hot topic this week described the dire situation in Sderot, especially after the recent missile attacks which severely injured two Israeli children. This is how the topic was defined:
Ever since last week, the city of Sderot and other settlements near the Gaza border have been under heavy Qassam attacks, such that have not been seen for a while. An outstanding asymmetry between these settlements and the rest of Israel were prominent this past week when two kids aged 8 and 19 were severely harmed from a Qassam missile on Saturday, as the rest of the country was enjoying the blossom and sun. Today, outraged and angry residents of Sderot have blocked the main road leading to Jerusalem, aiming to gain attention to the situation in their city. They ask the government to raise the intensity of its response and to physically harm the leading political figures of Hamas.
What do you have to say.
Following are a variety of blogger's responses:
reaction1:
Its very easy to say: “if this had happened in Tel Aviv we would immediately react”. The truth is more complex. I imagine there are secret talks, intelligence information, secret activities in the depth of Gaza or some form of plan, on the government's desk. Perhaps there is restraint in order to finalize an agreement for Gilad Shalit's release. Perhaps we are waiting for the right time to react. Maybe this very moment a plan is crafted to attack which we are not aware of.
From being a primitive rocket that could only reach a short distance, the Qassam has turned into a concise missile, reaching relatively far, event harming a strategic factory in the north of Ashkelon. The blood is spilling and national morale becomes only a minor damage. Its time we stopped referring to these missiles as buzzing flies, and we provide the topic its deserved attention. Congratulations to these bands of terrorists! They have succeeded to wake us from our winter sleep…
The following blogger describes a personal story, when passing through the Honduras-Nicaragua border. He was stopped and interrogated solely for the fact that he held an Israeli passport. He describes feeling thankful for always having a home to return to – a country and family; a place he truly belongs to. He continues:
I am sure that every person who served in the army, or even just lives in Israel, understands what I'm writing about. Disgraceful treatment of soldiers towards residents of the occupied lands, belittling, destroying property and performing other actions not directly related to security measures. These are all a big shame for any country that defines itself a country. These complaints are not directed against our 18 year old soldiers, who are placed in a hostile, alienated environment, concerned for their lives, an so react accordingly. The address, obviously, is the State of Israel, in its entirety, which is not able to shake off a movement which started 31 years ago. A whole nation (referring to the Palestinians) cannot lead a respectful life, it has no authority to be called a state, and is constantly humiliated. This nation has no basic freedom, and cries out to us: Stop the Occupation!!!
reaction3:
Sderot is under fire and pressure, and the government does nothing. Everything is nonsense, dirty politician wordplay, spreading promises with no grounding. Everything else is more important; everything other than Sderot. International flights will not be postponed because one city down there in the south is in a state of war…
This post is hurtful and full of anger. But I still believe in the deep ideology of this country. Many will agree that the current situation is extremely bad, but this situation relates to all of us, and we all have to deal with it. The current lack of leadership should teach us the importance of education, and having good leaders.
reaction4:
What is happening to the world? Children's legs are amputated before they have a chance to taste life. Yesterday, news channels showed ambulance workers wiping children's blood off the street. Olmert should be the one wiping. What would the powerful nations have done if their children's legs were amputated because of their neighbors? They would not stop to think for a second. And we? Too scared of public opinion, we give up the lives of our residents…

author: Gilad Lotan


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Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, US Virgin Islands: American Politics · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“American Politics! Didn't I exorcise you back in College?” asks Jamaican Marlon James, while Trinidadian blogger Further Thoughts reports: “With almost 89.9% of the votes, Obama has swept the U.S. Virgin Islands primary.”


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Kenya: Bloggers hopeful of Kofi Annan mediation · Global Voices
Rebecca Wanjiku

When Ghana's President John Kuffour handed the peace batton to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, few people in Kenya had hope that there would be breakthrough in the negotiations. That was a month ago, when the political temparatures were so high and threatening to boil over to a full blown civil war. Kenyans were scared and at the same time continued with the violence. It was a contradiction.
But with a month of continued engagement, there is renewed confidence that there will be a lasting peace deal. This confidence in the streets of Nairobi is also reflected in the blogosphere.
Where Madness Resides sums up what many people are feeling about the soft spoken Annan:
Right now, I'm loving Annan so much that it's threatening to become a cult. I love his grit and determination, his “I'm not ready to contemplate failure. I'm not ready to give up now.”
Of all the people involved in this process, he's the only one I've been able to trust as not having come laden with a basketful of hidden agendas or worse still, having been lowered as a puppet into our circumstances by “vested interests.”
I'm the people, and I feel as though Annan is looking beyond the shenanigans of both sides of the political divide, that he sees me, and that he is using me as a true north, to navigate his way to the Kenya That Ought To Be from this desolate place called Kenya Today.
Kumekucha talks about the new foundation that the negotiations are laying:
Kenyans are far ahead of their leaders and we must seize this opportunity to shape our country into what we want. That is no premature celebration for the far sighted by any means. It is time to lay the foundation for corporate leadership and banish deceptive and selfish rulership – the NARC dream reincarnated.
KenyaImagine reported the breakthrough:
In a press conference Annan has said that warring parties have agreed to come to a political solution to end the current crisis in Kenya. Annan continued to say that the details of this agreement will be made public next week. Annan has also advised President Kibaki to convene parliament as soon as possible.
Former Tanzanian president, Benjamin Mkapa, who is part of the mediation team headed by Annan, has called onto members of parliament to meet with members of the mediation team on both sides.

author: Rebecca Wanjiku


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Kyrgyzstan: Quota for residence permits · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Ayan Dane discusses the quota that has been set up by state authorities for foreigners’ residence permits, saying that it will include ethnic Kyrgyz, their relatives, children and spouses. The quota will also include scientific and cultural workers along with qualified economic experts.


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Liberia: One giant leap · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Liberia Stories blogs about what she calls, “one giant leap“: As I drove past the Temple of Justice today, I saw something that made me gasp, shout, screech to a halt, and make a quick U-turn. I had to see it again. Could it be true? It was! The phrase I have detested ever since I could read was being hacked off the face of the building, letter by letter. LET JUSTICE BE DONE TO ALL MEN is, at long last, being rearranged to say LET JUSTICE BE DONE TO ALL.


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Mexico: Another Tie with the US · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

After a 2-2 tie with the United States, Bucéfalo [es] thinks the Mexican national football team would be better off with another coach due to the 0-8-2 results over the past ten years on the road.


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Moroccan bloggers call for education reform · Global Voices
Lydia Beyoud

When the World Bank recently announced that Middle Eastern and North African nations need to improve their education systems in order to reach their development goals and be competitive in a globalized market, it sent ripples through Morocco's Francophone blogosphere, prompting calls to improve the nation's ailing education system.
Loula la Nomade writes in her post “Let's save our education system”:
Taha Balafrej a lancé un appel aux bloggers marocains. Plus que tous les autres, cet appel m’interpelle parce qu’il est temps de cesser de sacrifier l’éducation des jeunes marocains et marocaines. Parce que comme il l’écrit si bien c’est beau les chantiers, les droits et libertés, mais il faut plus que sonner l’alarme, il faut se mobiliser pour que les enfants du Maroc puissent bénéficier d’un système d’éducation qui fera d’eux des citoyens, acteurs participant au vrai développement du pays, pas celui qui ne dessert qu’une minorité.  Je vous invite à vous joindre à cet appel.
Mr. Balafrej to whom Loula refers writes in his post “Basta! كفى” [“Enough!” in Italian and Arabic]
Oui, en effet, ça suffit!!! La situation devient intolérable!!!
C'est bien de lancer et de signer des appels pour la défense des libertés. C'est louable d'initier des mouvements et de créer des collectifs pour la démocratie et la modernité, ou pour la refondation de tel ou tel parti. C'est sain de mobiliser pour le respect des droits de l'homme et de la femme et pour la lutte contre la corruption…Toutes ces initiatives vont dans le sens de la consolidation de l'Etat de droit et de la mobilisation citoyenne.
C'est bien de tenir un blog et de l'utiliser pour exprimer des coups de gueule, partager des réflexions, diffuser des informations.
Mais pendant ce temps-là, les indicateurs du sous-développement du pays se suivent et se ressemblent. Vivant dans un pays qui est classé 126ème pour l'indice de développement humain et avant-dernier de sa région pour le système éducatif, les citoyens du Maroc peuvent-ils continuer à ignorer le fait que leur avenir est largement compromis. Les citoyens de ce pays peuvent-ils être tranquilles à l'idée que le système éducatif marocain est en train de sacrifier des générations entières.
Pouvons-nous accepter d'assister à la préparation et même l'exécution devant nos yeux de ce crime à l'égard de tout un peuple. A qui, à quoi serviront les autoroutes, les zones industrielles, les ports, les villes réaménagées, le TGV, si la majorité des marocaines et marocains de demain ne savent ni lire, ni écrire, et si la minorité des instruits n'a qu'un seul objectif, celui de quitter le pays pour d'autres cieux!
Yes, indeed, that's enough!!! This situation has become intolerable!!!
It's well and good to launch and sign appeal for the defense of personal freedoms. It's laudable to initiate [social] movements and to create collectives for democracy and modernity, or for bringing back such or such a [political] party. It's healthy to mobilise for the respoct of human rights and women's rights and to fight corruption…All these initiatives are going in the direction of consolidating the State of human rights and the mobilization of the citizenry.
It's good to maintain a blog and to use it to express your complaints, to share your thoughts and dissiminate information.
But during all this time the indicators of this country's underdevelopment are coming together and starting to resemble each other. Living in a country classified as the 126th in the rankings for human development and second-to-last in the region for its educational system, can the citizens of Morocco continue to ignore the fact that their future is in jeopardy? Can the citizens of this country be at ease with the idea that the Moroccan educational system is in the middle of sacrificing entire generations?
Can we go along with aiding in the preparation and even the execution before our eyes of this crime towards an entire people?
Who and what do all these highways, industrial zones, ports, reconfigured cities and TGVs [rapid transport system based on the French model] benefit if the majority of Moroccan men and women of tomorrow don't know how to read or write, and if the minority of educated people has only one objective, that of leaving the country for better horizons?!
Adam Bouhadma, a young Moroccan blogger feels directly concerned by this issue, writing:
Le système éducatif marocain est classé à la 126ème place. Ce n’est pas un scoop, je le sais, mais je ne pouvais pas passer devant une occasion comme ça pour écrire un billet – improvisé – et après tout je suis directement concerné par cette information puisque je suis toujours lycéen !
Je ne vais pas vous parler de réformes ni de projets ni de lois, je n’ai pas les compétences pour.  Je me contenterai de vous citer 4 exemples assez concret pour illustrer le plus possible ce que j’appelle “la catastrophe marocaine” :
1/ L’année scolaire est divisée en deux semestres, et à chaque année les bulletins du semestre premier ne sont disponibles que fin Mars, c’est à dire 2 mois  après sa fin.
2/ L’année dernière, lorsque nous avions passé l’examen régional, nous n’avions aucune idée sur la forme des examens. On savait seulement qu’ils seraient différent des précédents.
3/ Un décret a été envoyé par l’académie de Souss Massa Draa  à une date X. Il n’a été signé que 20 jours après par le directeur de l’établissement. Ce n’est qu’une semaine après que les professeurs furent mis au courant. Tout les dates des devoirs de classes ont été changé à la dernière minute !
4/  Depuis l’année dernière, un surveillant général s’absente presque toutes les après midi. Aucun rappel à l’orde !
C’est n’est bien sur qu’un aperçu des failles de notre système éducatif et qu’il y’a pire que ça.
The moroccan education system is ranked at 126th place. It's no scoop, I know, but I couldn't pass up such an occasion to write an -improvised- post and after all I am directly impacted by this information since I'm still in high school!
I won't talk to you about any reforms of projects or regulation, I don't have the capabilities for that. I'll just be satisfied with giving you four fairly concrete examples to best illustrate what I call the “Moroccan catastrophe”:
1/ The school year is divided into two semesters, and each year the first semester bulletins [report cards] are only available at the end of March, that is to say 2 months after its conclusion.
2/ Last year when we had to pass the regional exam, we had no idea what the format of the exams would be. We only knew that they would be different from the previous ones.
3/ A decree was sent out by the acadmey of Souss Massa Draa on X date. It was only signed 20 days afterwards by the establishment's director. It was only a week later that the professors were made aware of it. All the assignment dates were changed at the very last minute!
4/ A “surveillant général” [school monitor for when students are in study hall or elsewhare on campus but not in class] has been absent almost every afternoon. No [misconduct] warnings [from the school administration] at all!
Of course this is just a glipse at our educational system's flaws and there's much worse than this.
Blogger Fhamator responds with his usual wit to this week's announcement on Middle Eastern education with a post entitled “Passé composé and Future in disrepair”:
Selon le dernier Rapport de la banque mondiale (encore un), l’éducation marocaine serait en queue de peloton (encore une fois) des pays arabes aux côtés du Yemen, Djibouti et l’Irak (en guerre rappelons le).
Votre Fhamator s’est déjà largement exprimé sur tout le bien qu’il pense des différents rapports qui s’attachent à nous critiquer, mais encore une fois il ne peut laisser passer cette basse tentative d’outrage auplusbeaupaysdumonde.
Mais soyons pragmatique, je ne vais pas dénoncer le complot sioniste clairement affiché derrière ce rapport (c’est tellement évident). Je ne vais pas non plus me répéter, je vous avais déjà expliqué comment l’échec de nos étudiants au BAC est largement imputable à leur propre connerie.
Ce que je vais faire, c’est expliquer à ces ignorants de la banque mondiale, facilement manipulables, la logique implacable avec laquelle est menée brillamment la politique nationale d’éducation tout aussi nationale.
J’anones, tu anones, nous ânonnons :
*Restriction du périmètre pour éviter l’éparpillement (le programme et rien que le programme).
*L’apprentissage comme alternative à la compréhension.
*Sanction de l’initiative et de la réflexion.
Présenté comme cela, l’on est tenté de penser que la banque mondiale a raison. PAS DU TOUT.
Ces axiomes s’inscrivent dans une démarche volontariste visant la mise à niveau intellectuelle de nos étudiants avec le système politique de ce pays.
Imaginez un tant soit peu, si notre système éducatif s’évertuait à produire de l’intellect !!! Vous vous rendez compte de ce qui peut arriver si on développait les capacités logiques des citoyens ?!!!! on reviendrait à Blad Siba (anarchie) et ça c’est pas permis quand même.
Les axiomes de l’éducation nationale se trouvent être, par un subtil hasard, les mêmes qui permettent aux citoyens de survivre heureusement (certains diraient benoîtement) dans le plusbeaupaysdumonde.
Inadéquation avec le marché du travail :
Des filières aussi fréquentées que la littérature arabe ou française, la théologie ou même le droit peuvent paraître aberrantes au vu des débouchés réelles qu’elles permettent après l’obtention des diplômes.
Et bien encore une fois, les fonctionnaires de la banque mondiale ignorent totalement le contexte marocain.
According to the latest World Bank report (yet another one), Moroccan [national] education is at the back of the pack (once again) of the Arab countries with Yemen, Djibouti and Iraq (at war, don't forget).
Your Fhamator has already expressed himself at length on the worth he thinks of the different reports which strive to criticie us, but once again he cannot pass up this base attempt to affront themostbeautifulcountryintheworld.
But lets be pragmatic, I am not going to denounce the Zionist plot that's clearly behind this report (it's so obvious). I am also not going to repeat myself, I already explained how our students’ failure on the BAC [baccalaureat exames to obtain a high school diploma] is mostly attributable to their own stupidity.
What I am going to do is to explain to these idiots and the World Bank, so easily manipulated, the unrelenting logic with which the national politics behind the equally national education is so brilliantly managed.
I drone on, you drone on, we drone on:
*Perimiter restrictions to avoid scattering (the program and nothing but the program).
*[Rote] learning as an alternative to comprehension.
*Sanctions on initiative and reflection.
Presented in this way you may be tempted to think that the Worl Bank is right. NOT AT ALL.
These maxims are affiliated with the deliberate method aiming for bringing our students’ intellectual level up to par with the political system of this country.
Try to imagine if our educational system strove to produce intellect!!! Can you imagine what would happen if we were to develop our citizens’ capacities for logical thinking?!!!! We would go back to Blad Siba (anarchy) [the Dark Ages] and that cannot be allowed.
The maxims of the national education system happed to be, by a subtle chance, the same that allow citizens to survive happily (some might even say blessedly) in the mostbeautifulcountryintheworld.
Inadequacy in the job market
Such highly attended areas of study as French or Arabic literature, theology or even law may seem absurd considering the actual job opportunities that they allow after obtaining a diploma.
And once again, the bureaucrats and the World Bank are totally ignorant of the Moroccan context.

author: Lydia Beyoud


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Mozambique: Some more protests against the cost of living · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Carlos Serra [pt] reports that there has been some more protests against the cost of living in Mozambique, this time in Chokué, Bobole e Marracuene, areas nearby Maputo. “In Chokué there where clashes with the police one death and five wounded were reported”.


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Nepal: Opinion Journalism · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Nepal Monitor has an interview with he Kathmandu Post's leader page editor, exploring issues of opinion journalism.


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Pakistan: Along the N5 · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Light Within on a journey on Pakistan's longest highway – the N5.


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Palestine Blogs Golden Seals · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah has designed and launched the Palestinian blogs Golden Seal.


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Qatar: Apple and Facebook · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Wow! Never saw it coming this huge.. Facebook gets Free TV AD by Apple…well, it was more about the iPhone and its capability to keep tapping on your Facebook profile and friends…” writes Morad, who is based in Qatar.


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Russia, Ukraine: Bond Girls · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Siberian Light posts “a brief rundown of every Russian Bond Girl, ever” – which includes at least one Ukrainian girl.


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Saudi Arabia: Free Fouad DC Rally · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

A Free Fouad Rally was held outside the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC, writes Saudi Jeans. Fouad Al Farhan is still in prison after being detained by the Saudi authorities two months ago – allegedly for posts he wrote on his blog.


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Saudi Arabia: Kingdom of Inhumanity · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Saudi Jeans speaks out against the inhumane treatment of women in his country in this post.


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Singapore: Taiwanese Mocking Singapore English · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Xiong is unhappy with a Taiwanese TV show that mocks Singaporean English accent.


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Slovenia: Poetry, Green Views, Cuisine and More · Global Voices
Elia Varela Serra

Slovenia is a small country with a very healthy and sizeable blogosphere, which includes several blogs from expats. Here's a roundup of what some of them have been talking about in the last few days.
Feb. 8 marked Slovenian Culture Day, also known as Prešeren Day, in honor of Slovenia's most beloved poet, France Prešeren, who died on this day in 1849. To mark it, Ljubljana residents gathered before the statue of the national poet in the square of the same name and listened to a recitation of his poetry, including Slovenia's national anthem.
Dr. Filomena reported that those not able to attend the recital could follow it live through the website of Radio Kaos, one of the sponsors of the event.
For those that don't know Prešeren's work, Adventures in Wheelville has posted one of his poems titled Midwastes of Africa:
Mid wastes of Africa a wanderer sped:
He found no pathway; night was now afield.
Through clouds no stealthy glimmer was revealed;
Craving the moon, he made the grass his bed.
The heavens opened, moonbeams then were shed;
He sees where poison-serpents are concealed,
And where their brood of cubs the tigers shield;
He sees the lion upraise his wrathful head.
[…]
Photo used with permission of Jennifer Dorroh
Jennifer Dorroh reported that to mark the occasion of Slovenian Culture Day, Ljubljana’s museums offered free admission to visitors:
The National Museum, which was packed with families visiting a hands-on nature exhibit, even welcomed guests with bowls of candy and juicy Clementines. Learning is sweet.
Jennifer Dorroh also reported that Slovenia ranked 15th worldwide on the 2008 Environmental Performance Index, a list of countries rated on environmental indicators such as air pollution, water resources, biodiversity and habitat, productive natural resources, and climate change. Slovenia's ranking is lower than that of neighboring Austria (6th), but higher than the rest of the countries it has borders with: Italy (24th), Hungary (23th), and Croatia (20th). The United States ranked 39th, Jennifer added.
In other good news, Café Piran was pleased to see about a positive feature article on Slovenian wines that was published in the Los Angeles Times at the end of January, and which included tasting notes on some of the wines.
On a culinary note, Un argentino en Eslovenia [es] answered a reader's query and posted the recipe for ajvar, a red bell pepper spread that is popular all throughout the Balkans. He was also happy to find out that ginger is available in Slovenia (but not ground cumin), a discovery that he proved with a photo.
For those who read Spanish, Un argentino en Eslovenia is a blog full of sharp, humorous and ironic observations on the Slovenian way of life and the blogger's own culture shock. One of this blog's categories is entirely devoted to ‘bureaucracy’ and another one contains a series of “Unwritten Slovenian rules”. As an example, here's number 74:
Por alguna razón que se me escapa, aquí en Eslovenia es costumbre quitarse los zapatos apenas uno llega a casa, e intercambiarlos por unas pantuflas. Tal arraigada es la costumbre que en todas los hogares siempre hay disponibles varios juegos de pantuflas para los invitados… […]
Ahora bien, el tema roza lo ridículo cuando las famosas pantuflas son igual de exigidas cuando hacen 40 grados de calor, o cuando toda la casa está completamente alfombrada; evidentemente es más fácil lavar las pantuflas y la alfombra, que los pies.
In a later post, he even added a photo of the protagonists of what the blogger calls “Pantuflasgate” (“Slippersgate”).
Another Spanish-speaking Slovenia blogger, Una española/gallega en Eslovenia, writes about her life in Ljubljana, a city that she likes for being so green and with so many options for hiking. On Prešeren Day, for example, she described how she went on a city hike on a path called Pot:
[…] es un camino de 33 km que rodea la ciudad, donde la gente va a caminar, andar en bici, pasear al chucho o simplemente desconectar del asfalto de la ciudad. Aunque la mayor parte de las zonas están realmente en el centro de la capital, podéis ver en las fotos que parece que estemos en medio del bosque. Y es que es lo bueno que tiene Ljubljana: no es la típica capital donde no se ven árboles en kms a la redonda. Aquí se puede disfrutar del campo en el mismo centro de la urbe.
But it's not all hikes in Ljubljana, as Una española/gallega en Eslovenia recently had to go to a dentist to get a wisdom tooth removed and was very impressed with the treatment she received, which in her own words was even “better than in Spain.” However, she was unhappy to discover that the national health care system coverage that she got was very basic, and so she had to get additional policy:
En el país con forma de gallina, cuando consigues un trabajo consigues un seguro médico, por supuesto. Pero es un seguro médico básico […] Para evitar todas estas molestas situaciones, hay que hacerse un seguro médico adicional, o “Dodatna zavarovalna”. El sistema es simple: pagas unos 250 euros al año, y para hacerte más llevadero el atraco a mano armada de tener que pagar dicha cantidad, recibes un bonito paquete en casa que incluye: la súper camiseta “Jaz zate, ti zame” (Yo por ti, tú por mi), una megafashion carpeta para meter tus pólizas cada año y… atención!! Una bolsita de té Vzajemna con sabor a hierbas!! (legales). Pero aún hay más: un bono de descuento de nada más y nada menos que 20 euros!!
Pero qué suerte tengo!!
To finish this roundup, let me share another poem by Prešeren, posted by Scabiosa Trenta in her blog, titled Where Now?:
I drift in dark unrest and pain.
Where now? you ask, and ask again.
Ask the wild horses of the sea,
The scudding clouds’ wild company,
As they are whipped when winds ride high,
Scouring the plains of earth and sky.
Not one of them could answer where,
Or guide me out of my despair.
But this I know beyond surmise -
I'll never more behold her eyes;
Yet earth contains no hiding-place
In which I could forget her face.

author: Elia Varela Serra


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South Korea: Namdaemun Destroyed in Fire · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

South Korea's Grade One National Treasure Namdaemun was destroyed in fire last night. Korea Beat collects local news source on this suspected arson.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Making ‘Mas · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Mark Lyndersay posts a series of photos depicting the process of making costumes for Trinidad and Tobago Carnival.


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Trinidad & Tobago: On the Move · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinbagonian blogger Jumbie's Watch asks: “If people can leave their homes to move into a new neighbourhood, how long before they realise they can also depart the country for good?”


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Turkey is Typing… Turban or No Turban? · Global Voices
Deborah Ann Dilley

The “Turban” (or Islamic Headscarf) in Turkey has always been a hot-button issue within the Republic.  This week, the Turkish parliament approved a preliminary bill that would allow women to wear head scarves at University….the result of which has caused an outcry from many sections of Turkish society.  We'll look at the issue itself, whether or not the headscarf is a political or religious symbol, and discuss if the lifting of the headscarf ban a sign of a positive democratic process or the slow takeover of a religious autocracy?
The Issue
During the founding of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk took on a series of reforms that set Turkey apart from the rest of the Middle East.  One of these was setting a clear distinction between church and state.  Women are not allowed to wear headscarves in state institutions as the religious symbol of the scarf violates the secular nature of the building and its purposes.  Consequently, if you are a woman who wears the headscarf or turban, you must remove it before entering these spaces- this goes for primary and secondary schools as well as governmental buildings and universities.  From James in Turkey:
Not for the first time in recent Turkish politics, the headscarf is all anyone can talk about. That piece of fabric that Muslim women use to wrap around their heads has been banned in universities and public buildings de jure since 1980, and de facto since 1997, meaning that Turkish women wearing it are not allowed to work in most civil service positions. Many, including the president's wife, were given a place at university but were unable to go because of the headwear.
The issue has been raised very often over the last decade, in particular since the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK) came to power in 2002. But for all the fierce political debate, there have been few attempts to find a political solution. That is, until a couple of weeks ago, when one party took the initiative. Perhaps surprisingly, it was not AK who piped up. If they had, it surely would have triggered accusations of a hidden Islamic agenda faster than it takes to wrap a headscarf.
No, it was Devlet Bahçeli and his right wing Nationalist and Action Party (MHP) who first said some arrangement had to be made. AK officials jumped at the opportunity and now, two weeks later, we have a bill that would lift the ban on wearing the most basic form of headscarf in Turkish universities.
The changes involve modifying two articles of the constitution, which concern equality before the law and the rights to education, to say that no person shall be deprived of an education except for reasons openly laid out in the law. There is a more explicit revision to the law for higher education, which says: “No-one shall be deprived of their right to higher education because their head is covered, nor can any enforcement or arrangement be made in this regard. However, the covering of the head must leave the face open and allow for the person to be identified, and must be tied beneath the chin.”
This legal change, while on the surface has little significance in the grand scheme of Turkish politics, actually exemplifies the battle that has been raging between secularists and Islamists for decades.  Very little seems to have been said on whether or not this is an advance of Islamic women's rights, rather the debate has centered on whether or not the turban is a religious or political symbol. From Ignore Me If You Can:
The turban has been a polemic since the day AKP stepped foot in the parliament. They stood against all other parties, defending the rights of women all over Turkey to cover their heads in public places, universities and government buildings. They trampled all over the laws that Ataturk built the Turkish Republic with, hiding behind human rights and even suing the country when they didn’t get the results that they wanted. Women started wearing Turbans more and more, covering themselves from head to toe, claiming that it’s not a political statement but a religious one. We could say that this issue literally tore the country in two.
One could say that we nearly believed them.
Political or Religious
The White Path attempts to answer the question – Is it a ‘political symbol?’
Well, perhaps, but only in the eyes of its haters. Polls show that virtually all females who wear the headscarf point to “religious requirements” as their motivation. Those who insist on the “political symbol” idea note that “our grandmothers” wore more lax scarves, whereas the “turban” of the urban girls and women is tighter and actually a bit more stylish. The fact is that young girls cover their heads in a different way than their grandmothers did, simply because they don't want to look like old rural women. That's why some secular sociologists have argued that the “turban” is in fact a sign of modernization – as evidenced by Turkey's “Islamic feminists” who cover their heads yet call for an end to “male-dominated Islam.”
Moreover, if the headscarf really corresponds to some political view, who knows that it is “political Islam.” Actually surveys show that the majority of the covered females in Turkey are asking for a democratic state that grants religious freedom, not a “shariah state.”
Me and Others contemplates the beauty of a woman (especially a modern Turkish woman) in a headscarf before answering the political symbol question:
so, from aestethic point of view, and of course, from a male point of view, i like the headscarf. i think there are really very pretty girls who wear the headscarf in the supposedly islamic way and look fairly attractive. and you see, this is sort of paradox because they are not supposed to look beautiful, they are supposed to hide their beauties behind the cloth. what can i say, i guess, just like everything, another tradition is just losing the game against capitalism.
but of course, just because i enjoy a turban from a male point of view does not mean that i like it from political point of view. and while it is true that not all of these girls have a political agenda and it is their right to wear whatever they want, please dont pretend that headscarf is not a political symbol, because it is. and i dont like it.
Irregardless of the symbol the turban could or could not stand for…many secularists state that if this law is approved that it will lead the way for more pro-Islamic legislation.  From Amerikan Turk:
Does anyone take example from the failures and human rights issues of other Islamic states? At a time when we should be fingering Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and saying: “I never want Turkey to have those problems”, we are thrust headlong into conformance with the Islamic status quo. All it takes is baby steps.. A few ripples will swell into waves, and later into a tsunami of all the wretchedness which our Father of Turks saved us from in the first place.
Myopea reigns supreme.
Hey while we're at it, let's remove women's right to vote and make their court testimony worth 1/4 of a man's. And there's no sense making me suffer with only one wife to do all my cooking and cleaning. Why not let a few of them share the work? Go big or go home. Why only one little move in reverse? Oh yeah, because we're more easily fooled into taking metered doses of sugar coated bullshit. Would you like the red pill or the white pill, Neo?
In response, Idil from Ignore Me If You Can called the lifting of the headscarf ban as “sickening” sparking the following comment from a reader of hers:
What sickens me is that the both of you are all for freedom of speech (As am I) but against freedom of expression. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I find the ignorance the both of you share on this topic more of an impasse on Turkey than some chick who wishes to wear a headscarf to school.
From Spooky Sense by Garfucius on the subject of freedom of expression:
just a short note on the ongoing battle of the turks over the turban, first however, alllow me to congratulate murat altınbaşak, the amerikan türk, who commented on the contrast between the turks’ battle for their freedom to give up freedom, wrapping their selves up like a constant potential sexual obsession and the emancipationist bra burning protests of 30 years ago. let me take this occasion to repeat my protest of turkey's intellligentsia and the political community, for consciously ignoring that head (or body) covering can only be considered a freedom to the extent breast baring bra burning also is!
Is this Democracy or not?
Along with the question of whether or not this issue is about freedom of speech or freedom of expression comes the question of ‘is this democracy in progress or not'?  The White Path gives his answer:
These days it has become a mantra among secularists that the lifting of the headscarf ban amounts to a “regime change.” Even fellow TDN columnist Mr. Yusuf Kanlı, a most reasonable and articulate voice in that camp, was quite strong about this in his piece the other day. “Turkey is facing,” he argued, “the most important counter-revolutionary attempt in the republican era.”
I think he is right. But I also think that this is great news. Because in this country, what is dubbed as “counter-revolution” is actually democracy.
Actually my preferred term, and phenomenon, would be counter-evolution. I have never been a fan of revolutions, which violently disrupt the natural order and leave many scars and fault lines in societies. Societies should rather be allowed to evolve by their own dynamics, and social actors should try to influence, not dominate, peoples’ destinies.
That is one reason which makes me critical toward the Turkish (i.e., Kemalist) Revolution. Another one is its content, which took its principles from the radical secularism of the French Enlightenment and assimilationist nationalism of the French Republic. The former idea led to the oppression of Turkey's conservative Muslims. The latter led to denial of the Kurds.
Of course all revolutionaries say that their radicalism was absolutely necessary, and they rationalize this by depicting the pre-revolutionary era as a dark age. The Kemalists have done the same thing for the Ottoman past.
A comment on that post referred to the author as an “educated traitor” for these remarks.  Erkan's Field Diary states:
let me sum up my current position: being against the headscarf ban does not necessarily make one a democrat. But defending the ban makes one not a democrat for sure. despite all possible explanations, the headscarf ban cannot be supported by any conscious democrat.
Erkan's views sparked the following comment on his post:
You are so possessive of the word “democrat”;
implying that the rest of us have to be fascist hordes if we do not support the new constitution and headscarf freedom without any worry or question. Believe it or not, majority of those protesters would not object the headscarf freedom if things could be handled with care by the government, instead of pushing it with revanchist agenda. I do not understand
why “white Turks” get ugly all the time in your and other liberal democrats’ minds. These people are not the state, not the government; they just fear and feel their life styles
are being threatened. Do not they have the right to protest without being labeled fascist? Is this too hard to empathize for you? AKP has the presidency, the government, the parliament; and many state organizations are becoming to be under their control. Yet, they are still being victimized by those “ugly white Turks”.
If you are so obsessed with democracy no matter what, why did you not even bother
to point out the irony that there was not a single female parliamentarian involved in preparations of the new constitution, mainly just for headscarf freedom. Men decide about women's clothing and this is freedom!
Again, from James in Turkey:
Two major issues that exist in Turkey have been exposed by this latest debate. They are issues that will not be resolved anytime soon.
The first is the secular structure itself. Many in Turkey would have you believe that secularism is the country's most important principle. It supercedes everything else, they say, including democracy if necessary. The army chief, Yaşar Büyükanıt, frequently warns that “secularism is becoming a matter for debate”, implicitly suggesting that it shouldn't be. He is wrong.
Turkey's secularism is not sanctified, it should be justified. The concept of keeping apart mosque and state should be explored and debated, not committed to memory in endless platitudes. Part of the reason for hawkish generals and Ataturk statues is an intrinsic fear that the system could be lost. The way to prevent that is to talk about it rather than defend it with a gun.
As you can see from this post, there is no clear prevalent public opinion on the lifting of the headscarf ban in universities.  Yes or no? Right or wrong?  I agree with The White Path when he states that “To be sure, the whole scenery is not clear-cut between these two opposites.”  The debate will continue, and I hope that it does….so comment here and keep the conversation going…

author: Deborah Ann Dilley


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Turkmenistan: Turkmen Humanitarian Assistance · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

CXW takes a glance at Turkmenistan’s announcement that it is sending aid to Afghanistan – 1000 tons of wheat flour, 500 tons of diesel oil and 9000 tons of clothing for the people of Afghanistan to offer them some relief against the extraordinarily harsh and long winter.


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Ukraine, Russia: Yet Another Gas War · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Foreign Notes, Orange Ukraine and Ukrainiana (here and here) – on yet another Russian-Ukrainian conflict over gas.


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Uzbekistan: Same Old Game in Uzbekistan · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Steve LeVine says that Western human rights groups and U.S. State Department officials are saying that recent actions by Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov shows that sanctions against the country are working. But Karimov's record demonstrates a talent for making the leaders of bigger countries believe what they want.


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Uzbekistan: Uzbeks most attacked in Russia · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Jamiyat reports that Uzbeks are most attacked by organized groups of ultra-nationalists in Russia. Saint-Petersburg and Moscow remain the major hotspots of hate crime.


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Venezuela: Rafael Bolívar Coronado, Writer With Unorthodox Methods · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

El Alma Llanera (The Soul from the Plains) is Venezuela's second national anthem and the song used by most party hosts in this country to send their guests home. Its lyrics, well known by every Venezuelan no matter where they are, were written by Rafael Bolívar Coronado [es], a writer who should be known more for his brilliant works, but is often more recognized for the stunts and unorthodox ways to pursue a living.  The works, but especially these actions are alive in the Venezuelan blogosphere and internet forums.
Rafael Bolívar Coronado was born in Villa de Cura (Aragua, Venezuela) on June 6th, 1884. After a scholarship was granted by Juan Vicente Gomez's government, Bolívar Coronado pursued a very colorful and unconventional career in the literary arts (and all the while, he protested very openly against Gomez's government). Far from earning fame or glory for his writings, what Bolivar Coronado always looked for was a way to gain some money with his texts, as a way to survive. Literature to make ends meet.
Here is where things gets interesting. To be someone in literature, one must have a name. Maybe, Bolívar Coronado did not want to wait until his own name became famous…a man has got to eat right? So, in order to be published (and be paid), Bolívar Coronado believed it would be good to “lend” some of his works to authors already known, so the texts could be rapidly published and he could be paid better.  From Moleskine Literario [es]:
No solo escribió bajo seudónimo (tuvo 600 seudónimos reconocidos), entre ellos incluso críticos literarios que elogiaban la obra de sus seudónimos, sino que incluso endilgó artículos a nombre de escritores conocidos de la época, como Rufino Blanco Fombona. En 1920, su arte del timo llegó a mayores con la publicación de una antología de poesía boliviana para la cual se inventó a todos los autores (luego hará lo mismo, un año después, con los de Costa Rica).
Not only did he write under pseudonyms (he had 600 acknowledged names) he also used the names of certain literary critics that praised those works he wrote under pseudonyms. He even wrote under the name of famous writers of the time, like Rufino Blanco Fombona. In 1920, his artistic scams became serious when an anthology of Bolivian poetry in which he invented every author was published. (A year later he did the same with an anthology of writers from Costa Rica)
And it gets better… In his blog devoted to “language, literature, ideas, humor, politics, craziness and other nonsense,” called La duda melódica [es], Professor Barrera Linares tells us about one of his most curious anecdotes about the author.
A su propio editor, Rufino Blanco Fombona, lo parodió mediante diversos apelativos [véanse en el texto original] se cuenta que Blanco Fombona anduvo en busca del plagiario con intenciones de enviarlo a apropiarse de nombres de escritores del otro mundo. Afortunadamente nunca lo localizó. Y esto sin decir nada de los nombres de escritores extranjeros con que también se cubrió (Cervantes, Unamuno, Sor Juana Inés, Ricardo Palma, Amado Nervo…O del modo como parodió al cónsul venezolano en Barcelona, adulante de Juan Vicente Gómez, Alberto Urbaneja, quien lo persiguió incansablemente y acusó de conspirador ante las autoridades españolas de la época [véanse los sobrenombres de Urbaneja en el texto original].
He even parodied his own editor, Rufino Blanco Fombona with nicknames [see the nicknames in the original article-es] It as said that Blanco Fombona looked all over for the plagiarist, in order to send him to take over some names in the afterlife. Fortunately, Blanco Fombona never found him. And not even to mention the names of foreign writers that he also used (Cervantes, Unamuno, Sor Juana Inés, Ricardo Palma, Amado Nervo…or the way he parodied the Venezuelan consul, Alberto Urbaneja (Juan Vicente Gomez's flatterer) who accused him of conspiring in front of the Spanish authorities and tried to chase him tirelessly.   [see Urbaneja's   nicknames in the original article-es]
It seems that Rafael Bolívar Coronado hated the lyrics that he wrote for El Alma Llanera. A complete irony if we think of these lyrics , as his most famous work. At the end, this colorful character represents the rebel spirit of those who judge the ridiculous protocols and the importance of a name in the literary world, above the importance of the literary work itself.  Prof. Barrera Lineras continues [es]:
[Bolívar Coronado] a lo mejor, sin proponérselo, desveló para nuestra historia literaria el misterio de la importancia de la literatura para la vida pública: si no eres nadie dentro del mundo literario, poco puedes hacer para ser visto como escritor […”Como yo no tengo nombre en la República de las Letras, he tenido que usar el de los consagrados, porque yo no puedo darme el lujo de que me salgan telarañas en las muelas”. Es decir, o escribo con pomposos nombres ajenos o me muero de hambre. Y para corroborar tan sencillo argumento, asumió para sí la función de ficcionauta recurrente; sujeto social que vive por, para y dentro de la ficción. Una maravilla, pues.
Maybe it was not on purpose, but Bolívar Coronado brought the mystery to light of our literary history, and around the importance of literature in public life: If you're no one inside the literary world, you can do very little to be seen as a writer… “Since I don't have a name in the Republic of Literature, I had to use the name of those already consecrated. I can't afford to grow cobwebs in my teeth”. This means: either I write with pompous names that are not mine or I starve. And in order to back this simple idea, he took it upon himself the function of a constant fictionaut, a social person that lives for and inside fiction. What a marvel!
An interesting forum on the writer [es] was started by Bolívar Coronado's nephew.

author: Laura Vidal


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Afghanistan: Illegal to Speak Farsi in a Farsi Spoken City · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Mohammad writes that the Minister of Culture and Youth affairs, fired a reporter and sued two other staff from Balkh TV for using pure Persian words while broadcasting the news.


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Albania: Renovation of the Lead Mosque · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Living in Shkoder writes about plans to renovate the Lead Mosque: “Built towards the end of the 1700’s this is one of the few mosques that were not destroyed around 1967, when Enver Hoxha’s communist government declared Albania an “atheistic country” and banned all religious meetings and literature.”


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Albania: Trip to Shkoder · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Stepping Stones writes about her trip to Shkoder and posts some pictures: “No trip to Shkodra would be complete without a stop at the Venetian mask workshop where they are busy making almost 80% of the masks which are sold in Venice! Everything is done by hand here, the end product being a truly special piece of art.”


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Armenia: Blogging Competition · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Armenian Observer comments on a new competition to find the best blog post in the Armenian blogosphere. While the number of Armenian blogs increases, quality is deteriorating and the blogger suggests that such a competition might help the situation.


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Armenia: Heritage Supports Ter-Petrossian · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Blogian also comments on the latest development in the presidential race ahead of next Tuesday's vote in Armenia. However, the blogger warns that while the party's leader, Raffi Hovannisian, is considered an honest politician, his support for a former president considered synonymous by some with the “cold, dark years” of the early nineties might tarnish his reputation. Meanwhile, The Armenian Observer wonders what the party will get in return for its support.


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Armenia: Opposition Party Supports Former President · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Unzipped comments on news that the opposition Heritage party formed and led by U.S. born Raffi Hovannisian has decided to support the former president, Levon Ter-Petrossian, in next week's presidential election in Armenia. The blog concludes that the news is the most significant development ahead of the 19 February vote.


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Armenia: Political Assassination? · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Following accusations made at a recent pre-election campaign meeting by the radical opposition that the 27 October 1999 assassinations in the Armenian Parliament were linked to attempts to broker a peace deal with Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, Nazarian asks if the current president and prime minister were responsible for the terrorist attack.


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Armenia: Presidential Election Monitor 2008 · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

With the prime minister campaigning for next week's presidential election in Armenia, a significant opposition party declared its support for a former president running for the vote who reportedly paid a visit to Moscow the night before probably to drum up support for his bid to return to power. All in all an interesting day as reported on my Armenia Election Monitor 2008.


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Armenia: Spelling Bee · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Posts from Armenia, a Peace Corps Blog, reports on attempts to introduce Spelling Bee competitions in the country.


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Bahamas: Sexual Crimes · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Craig Butler blogs about sexual crimes in the Bahamas.


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Barbados: Music Industry · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“What does it say about the Barbados ‘music industry’ if the most successful performer to emerge from the island simply bypassed the entire industry?” asks Notes From The Margin after Rihanna's first Grammy win.


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Bolivia: Former Fulbright Scholar Provides Thoughts on Embassy Controversy · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Miguel Centellas of Pronto*, a former Fulbright Scholar in Bolivia, provides his reflections on the recent controversy involving a Fulbright Scholar and a US Embassy official, who asked the students to report on any Cuban or Venezuelan operating in the country and “that it was perhaps irresponsible for the scholar in question to make his report so public, without first pursuing appropriate channels


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Bosnia & Herzegovina: Rally Against Juvenile Crime · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Pure Intent reports that 20,000 people rallied in Sarajevo against juvenile delinquency that's “becoming an epidemic”: “This fact has been well known to our beloved government. They have been too busy fighting for their respective thrones to bother to notice the 26 violent crimes committed by underage boys in Sarajevo alone. All of them home with mom and dad, walking the same streets they terrorized whilst our ‘leaders’ fight for the hefty booty from BH Telecom, Elektroprivrede, and the abundance of national resources that they consider personal property.”


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Brazil: Live streaming from Campus Party · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Ricardo Cobra [pt] is going to live stream Campus Party Brazil at his blog. He has also met the mysterious blogger who sold her body (rather blogs’ adverts space in her body) to be able to attend to Campus Party.


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China: Shaking Hands With Premier Wen · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Zoula re-posted a citizen report from GuangXi which had been harmonized by major internet forums. The Citizen reporter was called upon by city leaders to perform in post office on disaster relief work and he managed to shake hands with premier Wen Jiabao (zh).


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Cuba: Student Fallout?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Cuban Triangle finds “two unusual elements in the story” of the Cuban student who questioned  Ricardo Alarcon at the recent university meeting, while Uncommon Sense, on learning that the student claimed he was never arrested, says: “The Cuban propaganda machine can be an impressive beast.”


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Dominica: Oil Refinery  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Chris at Dominica Weekly writes: “I strongly believe that most Dominicans don’t realize the dangers of an oil refinery and how it can destroy the livelihood of many Dominicans. It’s so unfortunate…”


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East Timor: Democracy under siege · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Yesterday's attempted assassinations in East Timor would presumably have been followed by a political and military coup. Today Acting President Vicente Gutterres announced a curfew and two-day state of emergency on a TV address this Tuesday, and 120 Australian soldiers and 70 federal police sent to help with security and peacekeeping began arriving in Dili the same afternoon.
Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta was wounded yesterday morning at his home and later transferred to Australia's northern city of Darwen for medical treatment. He remains in an “extremely serious but stable” condition. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao was unhurt in a separate attack soon after the gunfight at Ramos-Horta's home. Major Alfredo Reinado, one of the 600 mutinous soldiers dismissed by the government in 2006, was shot dead inside the president's residency, and according to his supporters an hour earlier the attack on Ramos-Horta.
Bloggers have been busy reporting on the situation on the ground, echoing news, trying to get extra information and worrying about the future of the democracy in the tiny island, which has only been declared an independent state in 2002. Margarida [pt] uploads a video from YouTube user rincondelucha which shows an interview with Major Alfredo Reinado, uploaded a day before his death, in which he says he was prepared to sacrifice his life for his people and country. The interview is in English:
Lena Lorosae [pt] leaves readers with a question for reflection:
A quem interessava “decapitar” o sistema político vigente em Timor, com o Presidente do Parlamento fora do país ?… Dá que pensar…
Who would be interested in “decapitating” the existing political system in Timor, with the President of Parliament out of the country? … It makes one wonder…
Timor Online [pt] adds some more questions that remain unanswered:
Quantos furos de bala tinham os três carros que foram emboscados da comitiva de Xanana Gusmão, depois do ataque a Ramos-Horta, incluindo aquele em que seguia, o tal que “foi completamente destruído”?
Quem alvejou Ramos-Horta, que foi encontrado de bruços, atingido pelas costas, na rua à porta da sua casa? Porque quando lá chegou, já Alfredo Reinado estava morto dentro de casa no jardim com um tiro no olho e outro na mão…
Perguntas difíceis de fazer?!
How many bullet holes the three cars that had been ambushing Xanana Gusmao's convoy had, after the attack on Ramos-Horta, including the car which followed him, the one said to “have been  completely destroyed”? Who fired on Ramos-Horta, found face down shot in the back on the street next to his front door? Because when he got there, Alfredo Reinado was already dead inside his home, in the garden, shot in the eye and  in the hand … Too difficult questions to ask?
Timor Online has been compiling pieces of news in both English and Portuguese about the incident. Among them, there is Lusa a piece on the criticism by former Portuguese ambassador in Indonesia and Member of European Parliament Ana Gomes about Major Alfredo Reinado, according to her “a criminal and unbalanced person” to whom Timorese, Australian and UN authorities were “too appeasing” in dealing with and therefore to be blamed for. She recalled that Reinado was the central figure in the political and military crisis in May 2006. A comment left on this post by H correia [pt] says she was a little bit too late to react to the actual political situation:
Durante cerca de um ano e meio, este e outros blogues,bem como muitas indivualidades timorenses andaram a dizer isto mesmo, perante o autismo irredutível de RH, XG, Atul Khare, comandantes australianos, e… o silêncio da Lusa, da imprensa portuguesa e da própria Ana Gomes. É pena só agora a Srª eurodeputada ter dito isto. Agora é tarde e é fácil ir com a maré. Devia ter falado há mais tempo, quando esteve tão calada perante as ilegalidades cometidas por XG e RH.
For about a year and a half, this and other blogs, as well as many  Timorese people, have been saying it in the face of RH, XG, Atul Khare, Australian commanders’  irreducible autism… and about the silence from Lusa, the Portuguese press and the very Ana Gomes. It is a pity only now Ms MEP have said that. Now it is too late and it is easier to go with the tide. She should have spoken earlier, when she was so quiet in the face of the illegalities committed by XG and RH.
(RH = Ramos Horta, XG=Xanana Gusmao, Atul Khare is the United Nations  Special Representative for Timor-Leste)
On publishing a piece of news that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will fly to East Timor this week after boosting Australia's military presence in response to the crises, Timor Online [pt] left a footnote:
Como será possível alguém acreditar que mais umas centenas de incompetentes de militares australianos e polícias federais, conhecidos pela sua falta de respeito às instituições timorenses, alvos de queixas e processos crime por desrespeito e desobediência ao sistema judicial timorense, vão resolver o que quer que seja?
How can someone believe that a few more hundred of incompetent Australian military    and federal police officers, known by their lack of respect for Timorese institutions, target of complaints and criminal processes  for disrespecting and disobedience to the Timorese judiciary, will address whatever problem there is?
Mane Kribas, from Timor Lorosae Nação [pt] is also sure that Timor does not need any help from Australia:
NÃO, NÃO PRECISAMOS DE MAIS MILITARES AUSTRALIANOS EM TIMOR-LESTE, precisamos, isso sim, de esvaziar substancialmente o seu domínio para que venham para Timor militares competentes de países insuspeitos de nos quererem fazer seu capacho.
NO, WE DO NOT NEED MORE AUSTRALIAN MILITARY IN EAST TIMOR, what we need, indeed, is to substantially undermine their domination so that only troops from competent countries that do not  want to make doormat of us will come to Timor.
Cláudio Francisco [pt], who used to live in East Timor when it was a former Portuguese colony, says it is time people woken up:
Os últimos acontecimentos em Timor não são de todo uma grande surpresa, pois algo estava na forja há muito tempo. A surpresa foi a magnitude das ações. Esta é uma opinião minha e formada a partir de detalhes conhecidos através da imprensa internacional nas notícias de última hora e que associei ao que de estranho se passou durante muito tempo com relação ao major Reinaldo. Afinal, foragido da Justiça e conhecido o seu paradeiro por muita gente importante, porque razão nunca se colocou côbro a essa situação esdrúxula? Será porque os australianos lhe davam cobertura?— Mas, se assim é, a gravidade da situação é muito maior, pois deduz-se haver conivência no que se passou agora. Muita coisa terá que ser descortinada e os timorenses teem direito de saber o que acontece no seu País.
The recent events in Timor don't come at all as a big surprise, because something like this was in the pipeline for a long time. The surprise was the actions’ magnitude.  This is my opinion made up from details known through the international media and in the last minute news, which I have pieced together with the odd things that have happened for a long time regarding major Reinaldo. After all, he was an outlaw whose whereabouts were known by many important people, why this freak situation was never put to an end? Is it because the Australian backed it? — But if so, the gravity of the situation is much greater because it can be concluded that there is connivance with what happened now. Much will be revealed and Timorese people have the right to know what happens in their country
Background
East Timor, a former Portuguese colony with almost 1 million people, is the Asia's newest nation after winning independence from Indonesia in 2002. Ramos-Horta, 58, won the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent resistance to the Indonesian occupation, campaigning in exile to highlight Indonesia's military rule. Previously, East Timor had been a Portuguese colony since the 16th century.
In March 2006, there was an outbreak of violence and political turmoil in Dili when security forces shot and killed five people, which in turn sparked more violence, rioting and looting for several days. More than 150,000 were displaced and 37 people died between April and May 2006 after clashes between factions within the East Timorese security forces.


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Ecuador: Small Anti-Correa Protest · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Danny Ayala Hinojosa of El Federalista [es] posts photos of a small protest against the president Rafael Correa in Ecuador.


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Georgia: Imedi Saga Continues · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

TOL Georgia asks what is happening to the independent Imedia TV following its closure before the January presidential election in Georgia. The blog also examines the continuing saga of the TV station.


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Georgia: Increased Tensions, Misinformation · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Steady State reports that increased tension in the breakaway territory of Abkhazia is reported daily, but says that reports aired by the Georgian media are often inaccurate or simply attempts to disseminate misinformation.


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Georgia: Political Culture · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Writing on his This is Tbilisi Calling, the BBC's Matthew Collin comments on accusations made by Irakli Okruashvili, the former Georgian defence minister wanted on corruption charges and currently seeking political asylum in France, that the newly re-elected Georgian president is wasting public funds by staging musical spectaculars in Tbilisi to boost public support.


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Guatemala: Reducing Poverty in Indigenous Communities · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Indigenous groups from various municipalities in Guatemala criticize the lack of progress in reducing poverty, which is especially prevalent in these communities, writes Democracia Multicultural [es].


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Guyana: Carifesta Comes Home · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Voice of the Taino People Online reports that this year's Carifesta celebration – “the region’s roving, multidisciplinary, mega arts festival will return to its birthplace – Guyana.”


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Hindi: Water, dowry, the stock market and others · Global Voices
Amit Gupta

Global Warming is something thats affecting us all. But even in this regard there are different camps. Some believe that its a very important concern and something should be done about it while some believe that its not as big or critical concern as is made out of it and there are also some who don't believe at all that this is a critical concern! Dr.Mandhata Singh reports that Kolkata(erstwhile Calcutta), an eastern port city of India and erstwhile capital of British India, will submerge into Bay of Bengal in next 30-100 years if global warming and melting of Himalayan icecaps continues at the current rate. He says that a similar fate is likely for the Sundarbans according to a social organisation NEWS (which is working for the welfare of the Sundarbans) and Marine Science department of University of Calcutta.
Gyandutt Pandey narrates an evening's incident as he returns from his office and his chauffeur tunes into a phone-in film music show on radio and on that evening a girl phoned in and is over the moon having had her call connected to the show. The hostess of the show asks about her studies and plans for the future but in her high the girl blurts that she's worried about her marriage! The hostess gets a bit uncomfortable unsure how to handle this and she gives an idealistic advice that the girl should focus on her studies and then her career and she'll get married when the time comes. Now the girl realized that by speaking her mind truthfully she'd unknowingly dissolved some tension in a film music programme. The chauffeur also feels a bit uncomfortable at this and turns off the radio while Gyandutt gets thinking that dowry issues are still very much present in the society, newly wed women are still being murdered by being burned alive just because their parents failed to give the demanded dowry. But when asked people say that they want a good daughter-in-law and not dowry. And he wonders then why the girl concerned was about her marriage??!!
Ravi Ratlami is telling everyone how commands in Hindi can also be given now to the computer. He says that till now this feature was available only in Unix and Linux but now its also available in Microsoft Windows using a tool called PowerShell from Microsoft. He says that commands are still in English and if one wants to use the Hindi commands then aliases will have to be created for the corresponding English commands and he illustrates this with an example of how to create an alias for opening Notepad and then opening it by issuing the Hindi command. Similarly other unicode languages can be used with PowerShell.
And as it seems, things are not going well in Stock Markets around the world and same is the case with the two major Indian stock exchanges; BSE(Bombay Stock Exchange) and NSE(National Stock Exchange). As Sauda Bazaar reports, Anil Ambani headed Reliance Power‘s share was listed on Monday but it sent shockwaves through the market as BSE's main index recorded its 3rd biggest and NSE's major index recorded its 4th biggest loss. Buyers, both who were left out in the IPO and those who wanted to buy more, were disappointed as Reliance Power's share opened at Rs.530 (it went for Rs.450 in IPO) and then came down after that throughout the day. Its sister company Reliance Energy also fell big as its share began the day on Rs.1965 and after going Rs.20 up it continued its downfall and at the end of the day it closed at Rs.1582.30. Overall except IT companies everyone saw a further drop in their stock's value and its expected that this slide in the market will continue this week.
Links courtesy: Narad

author: Amit Gupta


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Hong Kong: 6 Reasons Not to See the New Photos · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Moliuology listed out 6 reasons not to see the new photos concerning the sex photos scandal: 1. repetitive; 2. people's response is too hypocritical; 3. don't want to have too many friends; 4. weekend rally against the police abuse of power has delivered protest idea; 5. enough; 6. need to start reflecting why the photos had caused such a craze (zh).


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Hong Kong: A Most Chaotic Press Conference · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Bikiniinpink posted a short video clip showing the chaotic scene of the press conference (zh) in which Gillian Chung gave her first public response to the sex photo scandal.


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Hong Kong and Macau: Comparing CEs’ New Year Spending · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Macaopen compares the lunar new year PR news of Hong Kong and Macau Chief Executives. In the two PR news, HKCE Donald Tsang negotiated price in the night market and spent 700, while Macau counterpart Edmund Ho spent 52,000 (zh).


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India: Regional Identities · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Musings discusses the recent controversy in the state of Maharastra, India – where the issue of insider-outsider has brought up interesting questions of identity and economic contribution.