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Colombia: Reward for FARC Guerrilla for Killing His Commander · Global Voices
Carlos Raúl van der Weyden Velásquez

On March 7th, 2008, it was revealed that guerrilla commander José Juvenal Velandia, aka Iván Ríos, had been killed. Ríos was a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Secretariat, whose number two in command, Luis Édgar Devia, aka Raúl Reyes, had been killed earlier in the month, unleashing a diplomatic crisis with Ecuador, Venezuela, and Nicaragua (Reyes died in a camp inside Ecuador).
First it was thought that the Colombian Army had killed Velandia, but as the afternoon passed, the truth came to light: it turned out Pedro Pablo Montoya, aka Rojas, one of his bodyguards, had murdered Ríos to get a reward from the Colombian government:
Montoya […] shot his boss Rios with a single bullet to the head, and then killed Ríos's girlfriend. He then cut off Ríos's right hand to take to the security forces to prove he had killed the rebel leader, a member of FARC's seven-man secretariat.
One week later, and after a controversy, on March 14, the government decided to pay Montoya and another guerrilla member a US $2.5 million reward, for the “information” which allowed Iván Ríos to be found. But according to weekly news magazine Cambio‘s March 13 issue, a former guerrilla gave the information which allowed the Colombian Army to infiltrate FARC's Central Bloc and, through the help of the informant, who was in contact with Rojas, to instigate the latter to kill his commander.
At the digital magazine equinoXio [es], Marsares says:
Al dificultarse su captura, se le da instrucciones para que lo mate, como efectivamente lo hizo, convirtiéndose en instigador del crimen el propio Gobierno que se coloca por encima de la ley. Sencillo. Si no puedes capturar a tu enemigo, ¡mátalo!
A Ríos se le acusaba de haber cometido delitos de lesa humanidad, crímenes de guerra y delitos comunes, es cierto, pero según la Constitución, debía comparecer ante los jueces de la República para luego de ser oído y vencido en juicio, imponérsele una pena. Su ejecución extrajudicial no diferencia al Gobierno de las que hace la misma guerrilla, porque ambas carecen de legitimidad y violan nuestro ordenamiento jurídico. Al gobierno sólo le compete la labor de capturarlos, salvo un enfrentamiento armado que determine su muerte.
When his capture became difficult, they [the Colombian Army] instructed [Rojas] to kill him, as he indeed did, making the Government, who puts itself above the Law, the instigator of the crime. It's simple. If you can't capture your enemy, kill him! Ríos was accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and common crimes, that's true, but according to the Constitution, he should have appeared before the judges of the Republic to be, after being heard and defeated in trial, sentenced. His execution outside of the law does not differentiate the Government from those perpetrated by guerrilla, because both lack legitimacy and violate our legal system. The Government has the duty to capture them, unless there is an armed confrontation which determines their death.
Liberal Colombiano [es] seems to agree with Marsares in his blog:
No se pueden lograr buenos objetivos con malos medios. No se puede mejorar la seguridad y alcanzar promoviendo y pagando por asesinatos. La política de delaciones esta bien para DELACIONES. Nunca para asesinatos. El estado no debe pagar por el crimen de “Ivan Ríos” a menos que de verdad se demuestre que fue en legítima defensa. El derecho a la vida es inviolable e inalienable. […]  Ojala que lo sucedido con Rojas lleve a algunas personas a la reflexión sobre los límites de la acción estatal.
La pregunta de fondo siempre será: que le esta permitido al Estado?
You can't achieve good goals through poor means. You can't improve security by promoting and paying for murders. The tip-off policy is fine for TIP-OFFS. Never for murders. The State should not pay for Iván Ríos’ crime unless it's really proved that it was in legitimate defense. The right to live is inviolable and inalienable […] I wish what happened to Rojas leads some people to reflect about the limits of State action. The bottom question will always be: what's the State allowed to do?
Bloggings by Boz summarizes the debate. These are the pros:
Rojas did bring an end to a top FARC commander (which is the reason the reward exists), possibly saving lives in the process. Additionally, the government wants to create the incentive for other FARC combatants to desert and turn over information about their commanders, and failing to give Rojas the reward could harm that effort. This reward has the added bonus of possibly creating internal dissent within the FARC.
And here are the cons:
Most of the reasons not to give the reward focus on the fact Rojas was a FARC combatant for 16 years and confessed to murdering his commander. Private citizens murdering other citizens does not help the Colombian government's overall goal to enhance the state's legitimate authority across the country. Rewards are meant for citizens to provide information for the government to act on, not for them to act as a mercenary.
At the end, Boz finds himself
tempted to support giving the reward because I want to see the reward program work and I want to see more mid-level FARC commanders desert and turn in information about their superiors. However, a democratic state should not offer mercenary payments. It's a tough rule, but the Colombian government is not going to win back control of the state by taking short cuts.
Finally, Ricardo Buitrago Consuegra is overtly supportive of the payment [es]:
Nadie cuando se instauro la política de recompensas, previo este caso, como nadie, alcanzo nunca a imaginarse, la degradación a la que llegarían  los grupos al margen de la ley y la misma sociedad. La recompensa debe pagarse. No hacerlo, seria un pésimo mensaje a miembros de la guerrilla susceptibles de delación de que el estado no cumple. Se constituiría en un retroceso en la aplicación de la política de recompensas, que ha sido fundamental, en el quiebre que ahora se vislumbra en la organización guerrillera. ¿Si el país entero se alegra por la muerte de delincuentes, cual es la razón de privar de la recompensa a quien propicia la alegría? Por lo tanto, o dejamos de ser hipócritas y aceptamos la degradación de nuestros principios, o nos convencemos que en guerra, el pago de este tipo de recompensas se mira desde otro contexto. En ambos casos, a pagar se dijo.
When the reward policy was established, no one could ever imagine to what point the illegal armed groups would go and where Colombian society would reach. The reward must be paid. Not to do it would be a dreadful message to the members of the guerrillas willing to tip-off that the State does not carry out their agreements. It would become a step back in the application of the reward policy, which has been essential getting a glimpse into the guerrilla organization. If the entire country is pleased with the death of the criminals, what's the reason to stopy the reward to those that provide that joy? Therefore, either we stop being hypocrites and accept the degradation of our own principles or become convinced that, in a war, the payment of this kind of rewards can be seen from another context. In both cases, it's time to pay.
On Wednesday it was learned that Rojas will have to answer for other crimes [es], such as “conspiracy for drug trafficking, terrorism, and multiple homicide” relating to massacres he allegedly helped to perpetrate, according to Colombia's Attorney General Office. This should keep the former FARC guerrilla in jail for a while. At the moment, Rojas is staying in a military facility in Risaralda Department, Western Colombia.

author: Carlos Raúl van der Weyden Velásquez


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Cuba: Limitations on an Internet Cafe · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Potro Salvaje [es] provides details on an internet cafe in Havana, Cuba with plenty of limitations such as, “It is not possible to use any item to store or transport data (CDs, diskettes, flash memory), the line to use a PC can take more than two hours, there is no privacy while you write, you must give your name and I.D. number.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Eduardo Avila


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Cuba, USA: Obama’s Speech  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuban blogger 26th Parallel has another take on US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's speech on race.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Egypt: A Lebanese in Egypt – From Occupation to Liberation  · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

Layal El Katib, is a Lebanese Blogger who lived in Egypt for a while, and here are her experiences as a Lebanese living in Egypt:
I used to speak Egyptian there, in fact nobody would know I'm Lebanese unless somebody tells them, my Egyptian accent was (and still is) flawless!
So, I didn't experience any kind of problems! it was very normal and it felt like home..At school, I made great friends, we were a family, you know hanging out with the same friends everyday for several years, the bond becomes stronger than the family blood because you get to choose your friends! I used to love the first day at school just to meet the new people! I've always loved company and I never had a problem to blend in ANY kind of groups.
But one day, a single incident at school really affected her:
Anyways, years passed by and I'm in an Arabic period in Grade 6. I don't remember what the teacher was talking about but I remember him saying “And Of course, We all know that Lebanon is being occupied now by Israel…”. I wasn't shocked by what he said, I was shocked by the whole class's reaction! It was nothing but a big “BOOOOOOO” accompanied by fingers pointed at me! I can't describe how it felt! But it was so weird and shocking that I didn't do anything but smiling! In the very same day, during the recess, I remember bursting into tears on my best friend's shoulder!
I didn't cry because of the occupation thing, I didn't cry because the teacher said that the whole Lebanese soil was occupied and that he was wrong, I did because it was the first time I felt like a stranger, a minority or an intruder!
Then a few years later:
So I'm still in Egypt, still at the same school, same friends, same street…etc. It's the year 2000, the year when the Zionist army finally left the Lebanese Soil (except for Shebaa farms) because of the amazing Lebanese resistance.
She continues:
We went out later that day, I can't remember where. But I remember that when we reached the apartment's door, a guy approached us and said “Mabrouk, Rafa3to Rasna” (Meaning Congrats, You honored us). I can't describe how I felt. It was simply amazing.
That stranger and few (1 or 2) close friends probably were the only persons who congratulated us. My friends were happy for me when I told them about it. It didn't bother me really that they didn't call, and it doesn't bother me even now. We Arabs are weird! They're the same friends who BOOed, and I'm the same person who cried!!! It was still Egypt, and it was still Lebanon. Isn't it logical for the BOO to become a YAAY?

author: Tarek Amr


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Moroccans Celebrate Eid el Mawlid en-Nabaoui, the Prophet’s Birthday · Global Voices
Lydia Beyoud

Eid el Mawlid en-Nabaoui, or the Celebration of the Prophet Muhammed's Birth took place yesterday in Morocco and throughout much of the Sunni Muslim world. It's an official holiday in Morocco, celebrated with street processions and other festivities.
Blogger Agharass writes this day about the first moments of the Prophet's life:
Le Prophète était encore dans le ventre de sa mère Amina quand son père Abdullah Ibn Mouttaleb mourut. Amina donna le jour à Mohammed (SAW), paix et bénédictions sur lui, le 12 de Rabi’-Al-Awwal. Elle envoya dire à Abdul Mouttaleb (grand-père du nouveau-né) qu’il venait d’avoir un garçon. Le vieil homme en fut submergé de joie. Il se hâta pour prendre l’enfant dans ses bras, puis l’emmena à la Ka’ba et le prénomma Mohammad. Ce prénom était déjà connu mais n’était point répandu dans les pays arabes.
Bensoltana Mohammed, a blogger and student in the northern Moroccan city of Salé, published photos of the Dour Chmaa, or the “Procession of Votive Candles” which took place the day before el Eid and has been celebrated since the thirteenth century; he also included an extract about this parade from the official site of the Ministère des Habous et des Affaires Islamiques [Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs].
Le moussem des cierges est l’un des moussems les plus suivis par le peuple marocain qui est fidèle à ses traditions authentiques, qui sont toujours vivantes malgré les mutations de notre temps. A Salé, par exemple, la procession des cierges anime encore les rues de la cité pour le plus grand plaisir des Slaouis qui affectionnent tout particulièrement cette fête, qui reflète la couleur de la vie, dans un envoûtement auquel il serait folie de résister. Une fête annuelle populaire, une fête de couleurs, une fête de chants soufis et de transes, de magies musicales et de ritualités révélatrices de l’âme profonde du peuple marocain.
La ville de Salé a le sens de l’événement, ses traditions, vivaces, déploient leur allégresse et leurs couleurs. Empreinte de foi et de ferveur, Salé, ville sainte est une cité où le sacré se manifeste à travers le grand nombre de mosquées et de zaouïas que compte la ville. Salé est aussi le berceau de l’importance confrérie de la Chadilia qui a ses adeptes à travers tout le Royaume. C’est là en effet que se trouve le mausolée du quotb Sidi Abdallâh Benhassoun patron de la ville de Salé vénéré par les Slaouis, où se tient chaque année le moussem des cierges à l’occasion de la fête du mouloud qui attire des milliers de pèlerins et draine d’innombrables touristes nationaux et étrangers amateurs de rêverie au pays des corsaires légendaires. Il est de coutume que la ville de Salé organise la procession de ses cierges la veille de la fête du mawlid, qui a lieu le 11 rabii de chaque année.
S. Ali, an American Fulbright scholarship student in Tangier writes about her own experience of the day on Move It Or Lose It:
In honor of “Eid Al-Nabi” I spent an hour in a taxi last night trying to find a mosque open late, and even the cab-driver was astounded that we couldn’t find even a one. Since I am currently working through a complex that God is trying to keep me out of His house, this was not the best situation, especially because mosques after hours tend to be where the creepiest people hang out. Not necessarily dangerous, just decidedly creepy. Without entering any of the four mosques we stopped at, I was kissed and hugged and followed and made to recite obscure short surahs to prove that I was not just playing dress up, with my bangs escaping my hijab every chance they got. We ended up finding one light at the end of the tunnel near Mohamed Al-Khamis that was decorated with flashing red and green lights, and half of the women entering were not wearing hijab, and dressed in their fanciest Qaftans and spiky heels. I spotted several obnoxious children roaming free and sulked at their not-being-cows. I declined entry, retreating home to my non-family. This is what holidays tend to be. And anyway, I was taught that we are not supposed to party on the Prophet’s birthday.
As often occurs on important holidays, the Moroccan head of state, King Muhammed VI granted a royal pardon to 566 people, now freed from prison (including the now world-famous Fouad Mourtada).
Samir, who blogs at The View From Fez, describes how the king's presence in Fez to pray and speak at the al-Qaraouine Mosque resulted in a full stop of traffic through the city's medina.
The King was in Fez for the Prophet's Birthday (Id Al-mawlid) and the celebrations and security brought parts of the Medina to a standstill. With Mohammed VI going to the Kerouyine Mosque for evening prayers, people lined the streets as far back as Bab R'Cif. The genuine love of the people for their king was evident as crowds were gathering and the excitement building hours in advance. Trying to get from one end of the vegetable souq to the other, a stroll that usually takes about ten minutes – took almost an hour. Visitors to Morocco must have been counting themselves lucky to see the festivities and witness the streams of people, all in the best outfits, making their way into the Medina. Troops of singers in fine cream djellabas, businessmen in smart Parisian suits, soldiers and police all dressed in their finest.
He also gave details on the royal pardon:
As is usual on these occasions, some 566 people were granted royal pardon on Wednesday on the occasion of Id Al-mawlid , including the commutating of the death penalty to life imprisonment for four convicts. The King granted total pardon to four convicts, while 466 inmates had their sentenced reduced. Another 30 convicts had the remaining of their imprisonment terms annulled or reduced and 10 people had their prison terms annulled, with the maintenance of the fine.

author: Lydia Beyoud


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El Salvador: Accidents on the Roadways · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Holidays are often deadly places on the roads of El Salvador.  It is no different during Easter Week writes Hunnapuh [es] and much of it can be attributed to drinking and driving, and a poor control by the police.


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Haiti: Discovering Jacmel  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Blog de Port-au-Prince invites us to discover Jacmel, “the cultural capital of Haiti”.


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Iran: A New Year Begins · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Yesterday, marked the first day of spring and the Iranian New Year. Nowruz or Norouz is celebrated in Iran and several other countries such as Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Several bloggers celebrated the day and shared their wishes and ideas on this occasion.
Some, like Raze No (meaning “new secret”) added photos of festivities and spring to their blog (as above).
1Pezeshk (meaning “one doctor” in Persian), a creative blogger, asked several bloggers to express themselves on Iranian New Year in a podcast [Fa]. Seven Iranian bloggers and one Afghan blogger answered his call, and the result was a joint podcast.
Khabgard writes [Fa] with irony that the Iranian government, in the final days of last year, gave Iranians another gift: “Nine magazines were shut down!” The blogger adds that the government has delivered so many surprises, that Iranians can no longer predict what the future holds in store for the new year, let alone tomorrow!
Falosofah writes [Fa] about the difficult situation for writers and translators in Iran. He says:
The first idea crossing the mind of writers and translators is the following: “Can I keep living at the same standard as I have in the past 10 years, or will I be forced to move to smaller cities or emigrate? Each time a society faces political and economic troubles, the most affected people are the ones involved with culture and science. If you talk with a publisher or a bookstore owner, they will tell you that the prices of all other goods they sell have increased enormously, while book prices, like for other cultural products, have decreased.
Azadi Barabary blog has published [Fa], a message from Kaveh Abbassian, a left wing student leader. He says that some of his best friends are still in prison, and that students in all universities are under pressure, and freedom of speech and free association are under attack. He adds:
Despite all the pressure we say: We are present! We stand up! We don't negotiate our will to defend freedom and equality. We are stronger and more determined than ever.
Jomhour called  [Fa] President Ahmadinejad's message for New Year unrealistic. The Iranian president praised economic, cultural and political achievements in last year. The blogger says the government's mismanagement created high unemployment rates and inflation. He says maybe we should change the meaning of the word ‘achievement’ in the dictionary.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran: Iranian New Year and history · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Kourosh Ziabari calls Iranian new year, a celebration of love and peace and talks about its history.


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Iraq: Five long years … most of them in tears · Global Voices
Salam Adil

For me the whole story of the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war can be summed up one post. One post that says nothing about the past five years but implies everything as well. We can talk about the lack of security, the number of deaths, the failure of the occupation, but all this talk has become as meaningless as glib phrases like “Collateral Damage.” What really matters is how the war is affecting people's lives. Sunshine's life this week has been rocked by death threats against her father and the deaths of friends and neighbours. She writes of the thoughts and emotions that go through her mind:
we were threatened by terrorists who wanted to kill my dad, I spent the whole nights thinking, and crying, I was in shock, and terrified…I kept wondering with tears in my eyes, what will happen next? Will they Kill my dad? Kidnap one of my family members? Why ? we're not rich, don’t belong to any political party, very simple family, and never harmed anyone, what do those terrorists want? Money? Or they just want to terrify us? … I suffered from horrible headache and insomnia, I want my dad to see me publishing my first book, graduating from the best collage, being successful person in my life, and more important I want to be so nice to him and make him forget everything, every disparity we had, & every time we argued, I hope he'll forget those memories.. and be proud of the girl he raised, although he tells me he’s proud but I want to make him even more prouder..
She concludes:
X sent me a message saying I lost my brother, my brother died, It's devastating, there isn't any family in Iraq who hasn't been threatened, or lost a son, father, daughter, or a friend, there isn't any family that didn't see the house they live in damaged, we are all hurt, but we'll continue praying to see a light at the end of this dark tunnel. In this week three big explosions happened near my school and the roads were blocked, and we hear explosions the whole time..
I don't cry easily, but I spent those two weeks crying most of the time, I am depressed, terrified, sad, and in this moment I have no hope..
most of them in tears..
so many have left Home…
the lucky reside in Tombs..
at least some still live
though without a Soul..
I wonder how much more to go?
would I be buried at Home?
by Zappy Corleone
The Good
Laith tries to list the good points of the new Iraq although his tongue may be firmly placed in his cheek on this one..
For this great anniversary, I want to count some great democratic changes that happened during the five years of freedom and democracy…
Reducing the CO2 and the other gases in Iraq. We have big fuel crisis and people couldn't uses the kerosene heaters in winter and they cant use the propane gas all the time because of the big shortage and the high prices.
Reducing the casualties of the electrical shocks. The ministry of electricity supply most of the Iraqi governorates for less than three hours a day which forces the families to pay attention to every single ampere…
Most Iraqis became fit again and they started practicing compulsory the walking sport because either of the curfews or the sudden blocking of the streets. Now we have less angina pectoris or myocardial infarction.
Of course, I must not forget that these great changes would not be done without the big support of the US administration to the Iraqi government.
The Bad
You can find no better review of the last five years than from Last of Iraqis. He writes:
During these 5 years I have experienced everything, two of my relatives kidnapped, 6 of the people I know closely including relatives and close friends have been killed, I can't count the number of people that I know who were murdered, my niece who is 7 years old girl died in an explosion, most of my friends and relatives have left the country, I watched my teachers and college professors being killed or kidnapped one after the other, I have been near an explosion countless times, I have witnessed uncountable number of dead bodies and crying families taking their dead beloved from the forensic medicine building, I have seen 3 men at different times being shot to death in front of me, I have been through militias checkpoints several times. Me and my wife have been targeted by a national guard sniper for a reason I didn't know till this moment, I have seen dead bodies left on the side walk and no dares to bury them…
I'm just one Iraqi and I have such loses, imagine 28 million ones like me, how much looses does the Iraqis have?
Correspondent Hussain compares Iraq now to before the war. He summarises:
Shortly, in the last five years, Iraqi people get suffering more than the 24 years of those during Saddam's regime. In the past, we have the mass graves hidden while nowadays we can see them in open streets. In the past we had Saddam and his security forces who caused that catastrophe while now we have the Qaeda , the gunmen, the guards of the foreign security companies and Iraqi officials , criminals and the USA troops who can cause death to anyone and anywhere in Iraq
Neurortic Iraq Wife remembers relatives who argued in favour of the war five years ago and makes a statement to them and all the war's supporters:
Im just gonna say this to Ali and all the likes of Ali, especially Bush and rumsfield. I hope and pray to god that you will find forgiveness from all the women that got widowed. Forgiveness from all the children that got orphaned. Forgiveness from every Iraqi that suffered. Not only Iraqis, but all the soldiers that died. Died due to your selfishness. Its one thing to want freedom for Iraqis, its another thing to want people to die in the name of the so called freedom. Saddam was evil, But I never imagined that there were people as evil as he was. I guess I was wrong!
BlogIraqi measures the results of the war and comes to a conclusion:
Those five years were nothing but another episode of suffering. With some new types of suffering, I must admit. If we look into facts of what this war has accomplished in five years, and I mean the accomplishments to the simple Iraqi person who does not have “Democratic” dreams, you can simply say, NOTHING.
And Layla Anwar thinks that bloggers are secretly thinking that Saddam may not have been so bad after all.  So she gives a few points in his favour:
Under the former dictatorship our trees were still producing fruits and not razed to the ground. Under the former dictatorship music was still allowed, so were films.
Under the former dictatorship we had no drugs, no poppy fields, no drug addicts and no drugs peddlers and traffickers. Under the former dictatorship we had no pedophile rings, no professional killers, no professional drillers and no professional rapists…
Under the former dictatorship, we had no over 100,000 detainees with no trial, no children sodomized in prisons and no women gang raped in exchange for freeing their loved ones…
Under the former dictatorship, our artists, poets, writers, singers, journalists (233 killed since 2003) were not abducted, kidnapped or assassinated…
Under the former dictatorship we had no 2 million widows, 5 million orphans, 4 million wounded, an X number of disappeared, we had no mass graves of a million plus murdered by Democracy.
Under the former dictatorship we were not considered the second most corrupt country in the world and the FIRST most dangerous country on earth…
Under the former dictatorship, we had a country called Iraq. Under the former dictatorship we had a Life. Under the former dictatorship, we were Free.
And to the Point
If you really want to know what happened, nadia n can tell you in one paragraph:
What the US did is not only overthrow Saddam – that's a byproduct -it destroyed the Iraqi state, which is something that took eighty-five years to build, all of its institutions and everything. That was not all the product of Saddam. Saddam was a latecomer. What the United States did is destroy an entire state, entire infrastructure, all of the institutions, so that there, you know – so, of course, life was better when you had a system that was functioning.
As for the noise of all the Iraqi bloggers still cheering the war on? You can just make out the sound of one hand clapping..

author: Salam Adil


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Japan: Rokkasho nuclear reprocessing plant fuels debate · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

Like many other small towns in Japan, the village of Rokkasho (六ヶ所村) in Aomori prefecture, situated in the north of Japan's main island Honshū and just south of its northernmost prefecture Hokkaido, hosts a nuclear facility. And like other nuclear facilities in Japan, while fueling the local economy, the plant's main function is not to generate energy for local inhabitants of Aomori but rather to power the country's larger urban centers, whose need for energy drives and maintains Japan's nuclear industry as a whole.
The nuclear facility at Rokkasho is different from others in Japan, however, in a critical respect: it is not, strictly speaking, a nuclear power plant. It is something very different, referred to as a reprocessing plant (再処理工場). Blogger charider37 explains:
再処理工場とは、原子力発電所で出た使用済み核燃料を文字通り再処理して再び使用可能な燃料にするための工場のことです。
この使用済み核燃料の再処理技術は世界的に見てもフランスと日本にしか存在せず、本来はゴミであるものからエネルギーを抽出できるという点に関して非常に注目されているものです。
しかし、一方でマイナス点も多く、この再処理工場で再加工される際に発生する高レベル放射性廃棄物をどうするのか。そもそも、そんな危険なものをどうやって扱うのか等等･･･
特に怖いのは、万が一事故が起こったときに漏れ出す放射性物質(放射能を出す物質)です。特に、日本は地震大国のため工場自体の破損は正直言ってあると思います。
そんな時に一体どうするのか･･･下手をするとチェルノブイリのような惨事を日本にも招いてしまう虞さえあります。
One of the convergence points for discussions of the Rokkasho reprocessing plant is a documentary film entitled Rokkasho Rhapsody, directed by Kamanaka Hitomi　（鎌仲ひとみ） [ja] and reviewed  in English by students at the University of Chicago “Popular Culture In/Out of Japan” blog here and here (and with its own blog).
Blogger charider37 continues the above entry with a reference to Rokkasho Rhapsody:
正直な所、僕はこの再処理工場に関しては賛成でも反対でもありません。
何故ならあまりにも知識が少なすぎるためです。賛成派の意見を聞けば納得できるし、反対派の意見を聞いても納得できます。
また、今回の監督のコンセプトが「反対、賛成はともかくとにかく多くの人にこのことを知ってもらいたい。まずは『再処理』という単語を広めること」ということなので、これに則って今回の旅の中で考えたこと、感じたことなどをつづす綴っていきたいと思います。
Fears of the possible damage caused by the Rokkasho reprocessing plant to the local and global environment have sparked local fishermen, environmentalists, and other concerned citizens to mount various campaigns [ja] against the plant. Following  on events held in earlier months, on March 16th protests took place in Shibuya [ja], Tokyo, and in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. Blogger, translator and singer Suzuki Satomi (鈴木里美) wrote in her blog about the Sendai event:
今日、青森県六ヶ所村の使用済核燃料再処理施設をSTOPしよう！というイベントが仙台で開催されて、私も参加してきました。ドキュメンタリー映画をみて、さまざまな分野の方々のお話を聞いて、そのあとみんなで仙台の街中をピースウォークしました。いろんなことを感じましたし、いまも感じています。放射能がたれ流されるのは、やっぱり嫌ですね！海に流れれば薄められるとか、空に流れれば拡散されるとかいうまえに、そういう施設から放射能を一切放出してほしくないですね。それができるまでは稼働して欲しくないです。
Along with the intricate artwork of a flyer handed out at the Sendai event (above), a group called No Nukes More Hearts put together an assortment of creative designs on display at the Shibuya demonstration:
Blogger Watase Yoshitaka (渡瀬義孝) meanwhile emphasizes the scale of the Rokkasho reprocessing plant in this post:
この再処理問題、実は日本の将来にとって取り返しのつかない重大な意味を持つ。
日本人の健康や食の安全にとって、再処理工場は最大の脅威だ。
中国産食品の汚染問題どころではない。
再処理工場から出る放射能は、1日で原発1年分。
つまり六ヶ所では３６５基の原発が稼動することと同じ放射能汚染が起きる。
しかも、原発では環境中に排出する放射能を規制しているが、なぜか再処理工場ではほとんど規制なし。金をかければ取り付け可能な除去装置も設置していない。
その結果、再処理工場の煙突からは大気中に、排水口からは海へ、大量の放射能が流される。
世界でも有数の漁場である三陸の海は、確実に放射能で汚染されていくだろう。
あの有名な大間のマグロなど、美味しい魚やカキなどに体内濃縮された放射能は、私たちの食卓に忍び込むことになる。
フランスのラ・アーグやイギリスのセラフィールドの再処理工場周辺では、小児白血病の発症率が全国平均をはるかに上回り、深刻な健康被害が生じている。
しかし、日本のマスコミはこの問題についてほとんど報道しない。
最大のスポンサーである電力会社の圧力を恐れているからだ。
商業メディアの限界は明白。

author: Chris Salzberg


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LiveJournal: Bloggers Protest Basic Account Cancellation · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Yet again, LJ users are in distress. Unlike the previous times, however (more on that here and here, as well as here and here), the current situation involves both the Russian-language and the English-language segments of LiveJournal.
It all began when LiveJournal's owner Sup (“an international online media company […] founded […] with Russian seed capital”) announced that no account created after March 12, 2008, could be turned into a free-of-charge and ad-free Basic Account.
Sixty-eight pages of comments (5,000 of them, the maximum number allowed) on a March 13 item (part explanatory, part conciliating) posted by theljstaff on the LJ News page is a good example of just how overwhelming the English-language bloggers’ response has been.
Many more posts and comments on the unpopular changes can be found in the LJ Speaks and No Opt In, No Ads LJ communities (both in English). An informative post on Sup's other ill-received initiative – “censorship of popular interests” – was posted on InsaneJournal, an alternative platform, by Stewardess, here.
Cancellation of Basic Accounts seems to have brought the English-language and the Russian-language LJ bloggers closer together. (The initial lack of common ground was highlighted in the comments section to this post on Sup's acquisition of LiveJournal back in Dec. 2007.)
On March 16, U.S.-based LJ user beckyzoole announced her decision to go on “content strike” and called to other bloggers to join her:
The one-day content strike is on for this Friday, March 21, from midnight GMT to midnight GMT.
For 24 hours, we will not post or comment to LJ. Not in our own journals, not in communities. Not publicly, privately, or under friends-lock.
This is a protest that will have long-lasting effects, showing up forever in the daily posting statistics.
This is a protest that will not harm LJ in the long run, as leaving LJ might do.
This is a protest that will demonstrate the power of community, as all users unite to support Basic users and the concept of adfree space.
This is a protest that will educate the new owners that LJ is driven by user-created content. […]
On March 17, she further explained the goals of this initiative:
[…] We are holding the Content Strike because all of us, Paid, Permanent and Plus users as well as Basic, want to demonstrate our solidarity as a Community of Users. We do not consider Basic users to be freeloaders, we consider them to be valuable content-providers and Friends. […]
On March 18, Russian LJ user corpuscula posted a translation of LJ user beckyzoole‘s appeal and asked her readers to “Spread the Word!”
The word did spread, and a number of posts about the upcoming strike made it into the Yandex Blog portal's Top 30.
LJ user samoleg (Oleg Kuvaev, best-known for his cartoon creation, Masyanya) is one of the Russian LJ users on strike today. In the entry announcing his decision to join the silent protest, there's a drawing of Masyanya holding up a sign that reads (RUS): “LJ is all of us!”
Another blogger who supports the one-day boycott, LJ user rimona (Rimma Polyak), wrote this (RUS):
[…] We don't come to LJ as if it's a store, we – the LJ bloggers – are creating it by writing our blogs here. Sup is nothing without us. LJ is the bloggers, not Sup. […]
Some Russian-language bloggers have chosen to take a more radical path, proposed (RUS) by LJ user lleo (Leonid Kaganov), who is highly critical of LJ user beckyzoole‘s initiative:
[…] The American thinks that the whole world will support her. In fact, 3 percent will join in. Sup will notice a 3-percent drop in traffic. And then what? […]
On March 21, I'll go to this page:
http://www.livejournal.com/accountstatus.bml
and will change my status to “deleted.” That is, I'll delete my journal. A wonderful form will appear on the screen then: ay, oy, […] let us know what has made you delete your journal, and what we have to do to improve our service? In this line I'll write: “Return Basic Accounts.” That's the real statistics that Sup is going to get. It is well-known that deleting a journal this way is pure formality, because it is possible to restore the journal in a second in the next 30 days, losing absolutely nothing. And so the following day, I'll go back to that page and change status to “active” (or not, I'll think abut it). But while my journal stays in the “deleted” mode for a day, it will not only keep me from writing in it (or comment on its behalf), but everyone around will also see that my journal has been deleted. Because this (unlike “outraged silence”) is highly conspicuous and effectual. And if we want to do a protest flash mob, this is the only way to do it. […]
If you try accessing LJ user lleo‘s blog now, you'll will not succeed: it has indeed been deleted.
LJ user corpuscula, the one who broadcast LJ user beckyzoole‘s silent protest appeal to the Russian-language bloggers, seems to have temporarily deleted her blog, too.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Mexico: The Passion of Christ Photography Exhibit · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

A photography exhibit in Mexico City called, “Pasión de Cristo en Iztapalapa” shows some of the ways that the Passion of Christ is recreated by actors and actresses writes Dfinitivo [es].


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Moroccan Blogosphere on Fouad Mourtada: Finally Free · Global Voices
Lydia Beyoud

Today marks the celebration in Morocco of the Prophet Muhammad's birthday, Eid el Mawlid. On the occassion of big holidays such as this, prisoners are often are granted a special pardon from the king; and this is just what happened over the past few days for 566 people, including the young engineer Fouad Mourtada.  Fouad caused a scandal earlier this year when he was sentenced to jail for creating a Facebook profile of the king's brother, Moulay Rachid.
Not only are bloggers throughout cyberspace thrilled about the news, but this event also means for them that an international grassroots collective has been able to push for a resolution to what most deemed a stiff sentence to trumped up charges; in short, the Moroccan blogosphere views Fouad's liberation as a step in the right direction towards improvement of personal freedoms in the Kingdom.
Jamal Hafsi behind “Comment vous le dire” blog writes:
Le jeune ingénieur aura ainsi passé 43 jours de détention. Il a été condamnation en première instance à 3 ans de prison ferme et à une amende de 10.000 dhs. Lui était reprochée l'usurpation de l'identité virtuelle du prince Moulay Rachid sur le site Facebook.
Je suis content que cette affaire se termine ainsi. Faut oublier tout ça !
I'm glad this affair is over. We need to forget about all it!”
On Blogoma Research, the statement:
J'ai été surprise et ravie d'apprendre que Fouad a été libéré. À mon avis, la Blogoma et la solidarité affichée ont jouées un rôle énorme.
At Myrtus:
Oh my gosh, I'm at a loss of words…..I'm all choked up and teary eyed!
Your highness, I can't even begin to tell you how much this means to me.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Barakallahu fik!
The blogger at Maroc Culture writes on a celebratory note:
Enfin une bonne nouvelle concernant cet affaire absurde.
Hier soir, le 18 Mars , Fouad a été libéré de la prison Oukacha par une grâce royale.
C'est cool, ça fait plaisir et je suis très heureux pour lui et ses proches!
On va pouvoir recommencer à sourire en pensant au Maroc. ( non ?)
This is cool, it makes things better and I'm very happy for him and his family and friends. Now we'll be able to smile again when we think of Morocco (right?)
Blogger Larbi writes at greater length in a post entitled “Fouad Libre: Quel Soulagement!” [Fouad Free: What a Relief”] on Comme une bouteille jetée à la mer!, expressing how the Moroccan blogosphere did it's part to keep Fouad at the forefront of public concern, and what remains to be done:
Allez.. il ne sera pas dit qu’on a laissé tombé Fouad. Il ne sera pas dit qu’on a laissé l’arbitraire judiciaire frapper les internautes. Il ne sera pas dit qu’on ne peut pas changer les choses.
Sans jouer le rabat-joie, il existe bien évidemment d’autres Fouad , d’autres anonymes, condamnés pour d’autres motifs arbitraires, dans d’autres circonstances dramatiques. Ils n’ont pas le chance d’avoir des gens qui se mobilisent pour eux. Ils dormiront encore ce soir et les prochains mois dans les prisons du Royaume. Il faut le rappeler , il faut s’en souvenir. Merci à tous ceux qui pourront quelque chose pour eux. Un jour viendra le Maroc grandira et plus personne ne sera victime de tels procès. Ça ne va pas être fait demain ou après-demain, ça ne va pas être facile d’ici qu’on y arrive, mais voilà ne jamais perdre de vue une chose: on peut y arriver ! Nous en avons le devoir ! Et nous en avons le droit !
Ah les braves gens! Quel soulagement et quel bonheur que Fouad M. soit libéré ! Il faut s’en réjouir , et je m’en réjouit. Content pour Fouad . Pour sa Sœur Amina (quelle abnégation et quelle force cette fille !), pour son frère Ilyass , pour ses parents et pour toute sa petite famille. Mais aussi pour toutes celles et tous ceux, du Maroc et de l’étranger, ont soutenu Fouad sans le connaître, et ont formé ces dernières semaines en quelque sorte sa deuxième famille. Et quelle formidable famille !
Astrid Girardeau at Actu4You summarizes statements made by several Moroccan bloggers and noted figures in a post entitled “Fin du cauchemar” [“The Nightmare's End”]
On indiquait à l’époque que la situation, jugée globalement absurde — car sans plaignant — et disproportionnée, mettait mal à l’aise la police et la justice marocaine. La semaine dernière, dans un article de la BBC sur le mouvement pour la liberté de Fouad Mourtada, Khalid Naciri, ministre de la communication et porte-parole du gouvernement marocain confiait : « sur un plan personnel, cette sentence me semble bien lourde. » Alors, Mohammed VI aurait-il flanché face à la pression internationale ? Ce n’est pas l’avis de Rachid Hallaouy du site Yabiladi qui penche plutôt pour « le geste d’un “homme” qui a utilisé son pouvoir pour donner une seconde chance à un jeune citoyen. »
De son côté, Laurent Pervas de Casaweves, estime que cette affaire montre les contradictions du Maroc :« il n’est pas possible de faire cohabiter longtemps corruption et ouverture économique, décisions de justice arbitraires et démocratie. » Pour résumer la situation, il cite l’un des commentaires du blog d’Ibn Kafka : « excellente nouvelle même si j’aurais préféré que la décision émane de la justice — pour que ça fasse jurisprudence… Et non d’une grâce royale qui ne règle rien. Notre pays a pris un sacré coup en terme d’image et ça démontre la déconnexion d’une certaine classe dirigeante avec le progrès technique, technologique et démocratique auquel aspire chaque marocain. »
For his part, Laurent Pervas at Casawaves thinks that this affair shows Morocco's contradictions: “it is not possible to make corruption and economic liberalism, arbitrary judicial decisions and democracy coexist for very long.” To summarize the situation, he cites on of the commentaries from Ibn Kafka's blog: “good news even if I would have prefered the decision to come from the judiciary -to turn this into jurisprudence…And not from a royal pardon which settles nothing. Our country's image has taken a big hit and it shows the disconnect between a certain elite class and the technical progress, technology and democracy to which every Moroccan aspires.”


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Palestine: Divine Calling to Stalk Britney Spears · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Maytha at Kabobfest is surprised at the revelation made by a Britney Spears paparazzi – that he got his calling to follow the star while on pilgrimage to Mecca!

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Peru: Following Fujimori’s Trial · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Fujimori on Trial [en/es] is a bilingual blog that will follow the developments regarding the trial of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori.


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Peru: Inflation Affecting Consumers · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Inflation is beginning to affect the pockets of Peruvian more and more.  Silvio Rendon of Gran Combo Club [es] writes about the rise in prices and whether president Alan Garcia “does not want to see this reality.”


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Russia: Tandemocracy · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Scraps of Moscow reviews the terms used to describe Russia's current political system and its leaders: Tandemocracy, DIMAcracy and more.


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Taiwan: Performance Via Video Blog · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Ta-sha has a personal channel at I'm Vlog for sharing and performing songs that she likes.

author: Oiwan Lam


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UAE: Labour Riot · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The Emirates Economist links to several news sources about a massive labour riot in the United Arab Emirates, over the increasing cost of living.


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China and Tibet: Anti-CNN.com · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A Chinese website has been launched to counter western media report on the Tibet uprising. The website pointed out that many reports have mixed up Nepal police with Chinese police [zh].


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Guide: Bloguer pour une cause ! · Global Voices
sami ben gharbia

We are pleased to announce the translation into French of Blog for a Cause!, the Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy thanks to Claire Ulrich from Global Voices en Français. Blog for a Cause! has already been translated into Spanish; the translation into Arabic, Chinese and Bengali is on the way.
The guide outlines easy-to-follow tips on how to use blogs as part of campaigns against injustice and features successful examples of advocacy blogs from around the world. It is divided into five sections:
Please download Bloguer pour une cause ! (PDF file) and help us translating it into your language.

author: sami ben gharbia


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Lebanon: Presidential Election and Foreign Intervention · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

Lebanon is now in its fifth month without a president. The chairman of the parliament has postponed the election date for the 15th time so far. In Lebanon, the parliament, which is made up of 128 elected representatives, should meet to elect the president of the republic. This has not happened yet.
The chairman of the parliament has declared that the government is unconstitutional and can not be present at any parliamentary assembly. The government, appointed by the president, as the constitution stipulates, was made up of 30 ministers who represented most of the political groups.
Five ministers from the opposition resigned months ago but their resignations have not yet been officially accepted. These, in addition to the assassination of Minister Pierre Gemayel, rendered the government short of its original political representation.
The prime minister has refused to acknowledge the calls by the opposition to resign and has declared that he will do so only when a new president is elected. With both the opposition and the government being supported by opposing regional and international powers, no solution seems possible until these powers agree to a solution or a compromise.
Political bickering between different parties has reached dangerous levels to the extent that there is a genuine fear of civil strife among people – especially since street fights are breaking out every now and then between supporters of various groups.
Two bloggers have written about the foreign intervention and influence on the presidential election:
In the Middle of the East writes about the visit of Samir Geagea, the president of the Lebanese Forces Party, to the United States and sees that he may be the White House’s new choice for a Lebanese president:
Samir Geagea, leader of the extreme rightwing christian Lebanese Forces, convicted for 4 separate assassinations including a Lebanese prime minister and rival christian leader Danny Chamoun, whose entire family was wiped out with him, is a man with probably more assassinations and war crimes on his conscience than anybody else in this country where war criminals are not exactly lacking. Yet when he visited the ‘you’re either with us or with the terrorists’ crew at the White House, he was warmly received by everybody on the Middle Eastern department there, all the way up to Rice. One man’s terrorist seems to be another man’s freedom fighter indeed.
[…] Franklin Lamb makes a lot of this visit (here on Counterpunch), and implies that Geagea might be the White House’s new favorite for the presidential post.
Jeha’s Nail worries at the sight of the Lebanese politicians going out of the country to get support for their political pursuit from regional and international powers. A support that will make them pawns in the regional chess game:
It is a worrying spectacle to see our local politicians travel the globe, scurrying around to meet the great and (not so) good of the world, and earn their support. The worry has to do with our country's current dynamics…
In normal countries, all this travelling and visiting is carried out “in house”. In their quest to reach ultimate “Alpha Male” status, politicians jaw-jaw with local power-brokers, shake a few hands, talk up some ravenous crowds into frenzies of support, or smooch a few uncooperative babies.
In Lebanon, their traveling and visiting is carried out “extra muro”. In their quest to reach ultimate “Alpha Male” status, Lebanese politicians jaw-jaw with regional power-brokers, kiss a few hands (or worse), bribe some local ravenous crowds into frenzies of support, or display a few dead babies.
[…] In the absence of a stabilizing effect of the state, someone has to pay to maintain the country’s internal power equilibrium. Yet, since the Zombies of the “Inner Parties” have little value economically, the “Proles” cannot afford to fund such social parasitism.
So the support can only be external, and each leader has to find patrons to support this political addiction. To a certain extent, all our politicians become pawns in the regional chess game. They can at best try to be opportunistic.

author: Moussa Bashir


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India: Between Tibet and China · Global Voices
Kamla Bhatt

Over the past few day the focus of the international community is on Tibet and Chinese Government's handling of the uprising, but over in India there has been quite a bit of debate over China's actions in Tibet and the role of Tibet in India-China relationship. What should India's stand be on the issue of Tibet? The Tibetan Government in Exile headed by the Dalai Lama is in “Little Lhasa” or Dharamsala in India. The Dalai Lama fled from Tibet to India in 1959 and has continued to live there since then. Additionally, there is a sizable population of Tibetans who have continued to live in India since the 1950s.
Raman's Strategic Analysis draws our attention to the role of the Tibetan Youth Congress in the current uprising and writes:
It has made the Tibetan people in Tibet and Sichuan rid themselves their fear complex and assert their rights in their homeland. ‘Tibet for the Tibetans” is its policy…It (Tibetan Youth Congress) differs from His Holiness’ policy of genuine autonomy and calls for total independence. It is not against the Beijing Olympics.
A quick survey of Indian blogs shows that quite a few of them have questioned India's stand on Tibet and wonder if India needs to take a stronger position vis-a-vis China. Acorn; draws our attention to Tibetan leader Tenzin Tsundue's attempt to lead a peaceful march from India to Tibet and writes:
The only reason for this was to save the Chinese government from the embarrassment of having to deal with the situation (most likely, having to turn them back).
Sudharshans argues in his blog that India needs to take a stronger position. He writes:
Come on, India. We need to support the Tibetans in their quest for freedom. The easiest thing India can do is make a statement by boycotting the Olympics…I do not understand why we are trying to tango with China. Are we worried because our kids cannot play with cheap toxic toys? I would not be surprised if the Govt. is pissing in the pants that the politburo would withdraw its support to the center for acting against their comrades in China.
Brahma Chellaney, a security analyst has a pretty incisive article about Tibet and its role in the India-China relationship and points out that India cannot afford to overlook what happens to Tibet because it has strategic long-term implications for India. Chellaney argues that the time has come for the Indian government to evaluate its policy.He points out:
They cannot grasp the simple fact that between appeasement and confrontation lie a hundred different options. A false choice — pay obeisance to Beijing or brace up for confrontation — has been used to block any legitimate debate on policy options.
Chellaney outlines three things that India needs to do with reference to Tibet one of them being that India should stop referring to Tibet as part of China. He quite correctly points out a major change in the tone of the relationship during the recent visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to China. He writes:
Last January, Manmohan Singh became the first PM to return from Beijing without making any unwarranted reference to Tibet to please his hosts. The ‘T’ word is conspicuously missing from the joint communiqué — a key point the media failed to catch.

author: Kamla Bhatt


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Armenia: Independent Media Concerns · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Armenian Observer reports on an arson attack on a car belonging to the president of a media association in the second largest city of Gyumri. The attack is seen as being linked to the Asbarez Club's attempts to defend a pro-opposition local TV station which is currently under pressure from the authorities.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Armenia: Police Violence · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Blogian comments on concerns raised in some quarters that a video allegedly showing soldiers firing directly at protesters during a post-election riot on 1 March has been edited inappropriately giving grounds to question its authenticity. However, the blog says, the fact that seven protesters and one policeman died during the clash as well as new reports of isolated cases of police violence is cause for concern.


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Armenia: State of Emergency Ended, Protests Continue · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Armenian Patchwork posts some excellent photographs of a silent demonstration staged to mourn the eight people killed during the recent 1 March riots in Yerevan now that the state of emergency in the country has officially ended. My Armenia Election Monitor 2008 also has photographs and a report of another demonstration staged the following day.


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Blogger of the Week: Abdulrahman Warsame  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Today's Blogger of the Week series features yet another global voice – Abdulrahman Warsame, who amplifies the reactions of Somali bloggers on Global Voices Online. A Somali born in Saudi Arabia, educated in Egypt and Australia, and currently working for Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar, as a Senior Analyst in New Media, Warsame shares his thoughts on blogging in his country and the rest of the Arab world.
At his personal blog, Warsame, who graduated from Monash University in Australia in Information Systems, focuses on politics.
“My blog is mostly a commentary on politics, journalism and culture but certainly politics takes a bigger space. Being an Arab and African, I focus on them most. I'm excited when I see young Arabs and Africans using the web – among other means – to bring about positive change: Egyptian bloggers exposing police torture or Kenyan bloggers rallying together to fight tribalism and create projects like Ushahidi.com to help those who need help. I get annoyed by the lack of time, I would like to write a lot more but I don't seem to be able to get the time. My co-blogger Hanna Ali makes the blog tick, with her intelligent comments on politics and Africa,” he says.
For Warsame, although the role between a blogger and a journalist are distinct, there are many meeting points.
“Blogging is simply a tool, so a journalist could be a blogger and so can a doctor. Blogging is closer to activism than journalism, but bloggers sometimes do some journalism (i.e. bloggers from Myanmar, Egypt and Iraq committed acts of journalism). But there are also journalists who blog, like Andrew Heavens,” he explains.
A relatively newcomer to GVO, Warsame hopes to be able to amplify what Somali bloggers are writing about and possibly encourage more of them to blog.
“I hope to introduce Somali bloggers to the readers of GVO and hopefully encourage more Somalis to read and write blogs. The Somali blogsphere is still relatively young and very diverse. Most Somali blogs, until now, are in English and are written by young Somalis in the North America, UK, Middle East and Africa. Forums and chat rooms are still big but as blogging catches on there would be more Somali blogs written in Somali language.”
Besides blogging, Warsame devotes “a large chunk” of his spare time to reading.
“I also like photography so I do it whenever I get my hands on a decent camera (planning to buy a pro camera in the near future). Socializing and drinking tea (at least 5+ cups a day) is another hobby.”
The father of a five-month-old son, Ibrahim, is also dismayed at the lack of interest in reading among some of his Arab compatriots – and blames the ‘system’ for it.
“Having been through Arab schools and speaking to students and teachers here, I think the education system is largely to blame for the lack of interest in reading books (people read newspapers). There are less books published in the Arab world (than Iran for example), there are few public libraries or national programs to encourage reading from you age. There was no decent public library in Cairo when I lived there, and it's the same here in Qatar (though they're building one now). It's a crisis and unfortunately no one is doing anything about it,” he notes.
And are Arabs making the most of online technologies?
“Some are and some aren't. I don't think anyone understands the dynamics yet though. Iraqi bloggers like Riverbend and Healing Iraq have done very well and online news sites like Morocco's Hespress are very successful. Forums and chat rooms are still bigger though. Governments, public institutions and companies are very much behind: most of their websites are out of date and have little information about anything. They assume people wouldn't be looking at them,” says the blogger, who is fluent in Somali, Arabic and English and has a bit of Chinese (Mandarin) and Farsi under his belt.


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Brazil: Blogs Blog this! · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Wagner [pt] recommends a new “joined ownership” blogging platform for blogs in Portuguese. “BlogueIsso! Blogs is a “condominium” of blogs, a network currently made up by 18 of them, covering various subjects in many different styles and points of view of the world”.

author: Paula Góes


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Brazil: Enjoy the sea but look after the planet · Global Voices
Paula Góes

“Right now in this Hallelujah Saturday, thousands of people are on the country's seasides enjoying the wonders that the sea provides, without worrying about the waste they produce, about the type of stuff they consume in the beaches (disposable glasses, plastic and polystyrene packaging), about the waste of drinking water, about the sewage that their summer homes throw in the sea or in local rivers”, blogs O Escriba [pt], in the World Water Day.


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Brazil: Here comes the PIG · Global Voices
Paula Góes

PIG is an acronym for Coupist Press Party [in Portuguese Partido da Imprensa Golpista] which has been coined to describe the Brazilian media that serves to a political interest, that is biased and rely on censorship. The latest victim of PIG, according to some bloggers, is the journalist Tutty Vazquez, who has been sacked from the Veja magazine team. “I think Veja loses much more and Tutty Vasques wins a lot. And we do not miss a thing: to read the acute, precise and well humored Tutty's verve, click here“, blogs Roberto Maciel [pt].


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Brazil: Politicians own the media · Global Voices
Paula Góes

“271. This is the number of Brazilians politicians that are partners, owners or directors of radio and TV broadcasters, which is against the law. Harassment of politicians on the media is much greater if we take into consideration the printed press”, comments Rogério Christofoletti [pt] on a recent research by the Communication Studies and Research Institute (Epcom).


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Brazil: The end of the Burning of Judas · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Once one of the most popular Easter-time rituals  in Brazil, the ‘Burning of Judas‘ is disappearing from the streets of Rio de Janeiro, as noticed Jorge Alberto [pt].


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Czech Republic, Slovakia: Whipping Girls and Other Easter Traditions · Global Voices
Elia Varela Serra

Easter is a very important celebration both in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, called Velikonoce – from Veliké noci or Great Nights. Although the religious connotations of Easter were suppressed under the communist regime, nowadays Czechs and Slovaks are again aware of the strong Christian background of Easter, although they regard it as mostly fun times. Many traditions are still observed, especially in villages. Several bloggers have been describing some of them.
Easter by Nic Hyland, used under a Creative Commons Lincense.
Green Thursday
The Thursday before Easter is the day of the last supper, when Jesus Christ feasted with the apostles on lamb with bread and wine. Because of that, it is usual to bake lamb for Easter, but now real lamb often gets replaced with gingerbread lamb replica. The Journeys of Captain Oddsocks explains that Green Thursday is so called “because of the long green robes worn in church and the spinach and cabbage traditionally eaten on the day.” He also describes the customs of the day:
… customs include the boys’ game Chasing Judas, and the baking of twisted spiral buns representing serpents, the symbols of betrayal. In some villages there are processions led by a captive Judas in a straw suit which is ceremonially burnt at the end of the day. When sprinkled into a clean jug of water, the ashes of Judas were believed to have special powers including the abilities to guard against fire and protect the health of livestock for the coming year.
Easter Sunday
The Journeys of Captain Oddsocks describes Easter Sunday as “the big day”:
The day that Christ rose from the grave, the day of new life cleansed of suffering and victorious over death. The morning is for attending church services, (the bells having returned from Rome) and the early afternoon is set aside for a great feast. After the meal it’s time to visit relatives, and in some places to ride in a horseback procession through the countryside with blessed twigs to ensure fertile fields for the year ahead. While the men and boys are out gallivanting around on horses, girls are at home decorating eggs in preparation for the following day.
Egg Time by Semmi, used with permission.
Easter eggs are called kraslice, from the old Czech word krásný, meaning red, which was the most common colour used for dying. The designs are usually very intricate and, as The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia points out, “some eggs are even decorated by using a drill and hollowing out portions of the shell”. In fact, the techniques used to hand-paint and decorate them are truly an art form, and there are even competitions for the best kraslice and a museum dedicated to the craft.
During the weeks preceding Easter, Czech and Slovak cities have street markets selling kraslice, gingerbread lambs and other Easter items, such as the one in Prague's Old Town Square, photographed by My Czech Republic Blog.
Red Monday
Easter Monday practices, involving boys pouring water over girls and lightly whipping them with braided branches, are the most controversial of Easter traditions. As The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia explains, “if you are not Slovak and didn’t grow up around these traditions, you might find them at best—odd, at worst—barbaric.”
What? by Laura Appleyard, used under a Creative Commons license.
So what happens exactly on Easter Monday? The Czech Daily World explains the pomlázka whipping tradition:
Throughout the day men (usually in groups) visit their female relatives and friends and spank them with special whips. […] These whips are hand-made from willow rods, the length ranges from 50 centimeters to two meters. There are ribbons at the end. There used to be a tradition that women would add their own ribbons so the whip would say how many women the particular man has already visited but this seems to fizzle out. And women are chased around (if they decide to make it interesting or to play along), or they just stand motionless and the male visitors would spank her butt. However, it should not hurt. Or at least not throughout the whole procedure.
The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia explains why willow branches are used to make the pomlázka (which is called korbáč in Slovak): “It is the first tree that ‘wakes’ in spring and, according to folk tradition, the fertility and vitality from the branches were thought to flow into the woman during this act.”
Czech Mate Diary explains the exchange taking place during the whipping:
If you were one of the first houses the mob visited, you were lucky: the guys are still kind of sober, kind of polite and kind of mellow. You let them into the living room – or better – just a hallway, give them some refreshments, offer them more vodka and let them “spank” you. If they still have their egg baskets, you would also stuff couple of eggs in them and if you are lucky they leave afterwards.
Pomlázka whipping in the village of Hříchovice, near Pilsen.
Tischler's in Prague posted an article from the Prague Daily Monitor on an American woman's reaction to the tradition:
…men and boys […] go door to door singing Easter carols, demanding “treats” (eggs, chocolate, liquor, or a peck on the cheek) and the right to beat the women with their pomlázka whips for good luck. While my female students said they generally enjoyed decorating Easter eggs and preparing Easter sweets, none seemed too fond of the pomlazka or gendered traditions.
[…] Being both female and a foreigner, I presented a problematic situation. Should our hostess offer me chocolate eggs and liquor as she did her male friends? Should she offer me nothing? In the end, I was given a warm welcome and a glass of red wine.
In addition to whipping, Easter Monday also involves dousing. According to The Journeys of Captain Oddsocks, in some regions the girls get their revenge on Tuesday when it’s their turn with the whips, while in other regions they return the rejuvenation with a bucket of ice-cold water. In Slovakia, however, it seems that it's the girls who get watered on Easter Monday. The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia explains the ritual:
…it’s customary for the girls and women to stay at home while the boys and men, usually dressed in nicer clothing and sometimes even in kroj – traditional costume, go from the residence of one relative to another, bringing greetings and intending to oblievat’ – to “water” the female relatives present. Water is the symbol of life and the pouring of water is a gesture meant to bestow year long health and beauty. Some use a spray of perfume instead of water, or both.
Isn’t that nice? The women folk get watered and whipped while the men get fed and given drinks, and the little boys are given money or chocolate in exchange for their work of the day. Just so you know, being watered can range from having a teaspoon of warm tap water dribbled over you (my personal experience), to a bucket of frigid well water thrown at you.

author: Elia Varela Serra


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Dismissal of Brazilian Blogger: Censorship or Just Business? · Global Voices
Jose Murilo

The abrupt dimissal of the journalist Paulo Henrique Amorim — or PHA as he is referred too — from his anchor-like position at the IG portal has fueled this week's blogs debate. The humorous and opinionated style used by PHA in his ‘Conversa Afiada‘ blog to attack what he called the ‘PIG’ — an acronym for Portuguese words meaning, ‘the party of the coup-plotting mass media’ — was an outlet for ‘left bloggers’, and many posts were quick to denounce IG's surprising move as censorship.
O site de Luiz Carlos Azenha informa que Paulo Henrique Amorim foi demitido do IG nesta terça-feira. Por fax. O que chama a atenção, de cara, é a intempestividade da medida do portal de internet. Se não fosse o Azenha, estaríamos acessando o site do PH sem conseguir, e sem saber por que… Fica praticamente impossível deixar de especular sobre as possíveis injunções políticas do fato. Aguarda-se uma explicação do IG. Enquanto não vem, permite especulações e preocupação de que pode estar começando uma caça às bruxas jornalística, promovida sob as ordens de grandes empresas de mídia e de políticos que todos sabem quem são e que têm ascendência sobre tais empresas.
Demissão de PHA – Cidadania.com
It is important to mention that IG differentiates itself from the rest of the big Internet outlets by its sympathetic approach to the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. This perspective adds intrigue to the plot, as it is not so easy to identify the forces driving behind PHA's release.
Não há UM ÚNICO BLOG “DE DIREITA” DENTRE OS DESTAQUES DO IG. Repito: NÃO HÁ UM ÚNICO, UM MÍSERO, UM COITADINHO QUE SEJA. Mas bastou PHA zarpar do portal que já falaram naquelas bobagens de “PIG” e outros bordões ridículos e adorados pelos semoventes. Se houve alguma interferência política, foi a maior idiotice do planeta ou um movimento digno das jogadas de Kasparov. Ou então, tcharã!, não foi nada disso e o contrato foi rescindido pelos motivos mais prosaicos, mesmo.
MITOS SOBRE A RESCISÃO CONTRATUAL DE PAULO HENRIQUE AMORIM – Imprensa Marrom
IG has an Ombudsman, who has a blog. He's been posting the opinions of the portal users and readers on PHA's dismissal, mostly they are negative. He has also managed to pull out an official statement from the portal's press office:
Em atendimento a pedido de leitores que cobram uma manifestação do iG no caso Conversa Afiada, reproduz-se abaixo a posição divulgada pela assessoria de imprensa do portal:  “O contrato com o site Conversa Afiada foi rescindido de forma unilateral a partir do dia 18 de março, respeitando todas as cláusulas contratuais. Haverá multa e o jornalista está sendo indenizado. A decisão de rescindir foi feita por conta de um processo de reestruturação de contratos de colaboradores do iG, que já começou há algum tempo. O site Conversa Afiada era altamente desvantajoso para o modelo de negócios do iG, principalmente em função da baixa rentabilidade provocada por poucos anúncios”.
As explicações do IG – Blog do Ombusdman
The late official explanation was fine, but not enough. So bloggers kept speculating.
Paulo Henrique Amorim tinha um salário alto no iG – bem lá para cima das dezenas de milhares de reais. Devia ser o blogueiro mais bem pago do país. Mas, para tentar imaginar os motivos de sua demissão, ninguém deve pensar apenas no valor de seu salário. Há mais aí no meio além de sua conhecida baixa audiência.
Paulo Henrique Amorim demitido do iG – Pedro Doria Weblog
PHA has himself expanded the story line with new elements reported at his newly created website:
O CITI ME DEMITIU? Em lugar de responder a uma pergunta, o Citibank prefere cercear a liberdade de expressão. Reproduzo abaixo M&M que publiquei no Conversa Afiada, quando ainda estava no iG: “BrOi”: DANTAS CHANTAGEIA CITI. Para a “BrOi” sair, o Citi precisa fazer um acordo com Dantas. O que significa retirar da Justiça de Nova York a ação de US$ 350 milhões que move contra Dantas. Para obrigar o Citi a fazer o acordo, Dantas entrou na Justiça – neste processo que o Citi move contra ele – com um documento que Dantas obteve de forma criminosa… . Porque o Citi, depois de ir à Justiça contra Dantas, não pode ser cúmplice de uma patranha: apresentar em juízo um documento roubado.
O Citi me demitiu? – Conversa Afiada
When the news that PHA's blog had been dropped started to spread through the blogosphere, many readers turned to other IG bloggers in order to check on what was going on. There was Mino Carta's, a senior journalist known from his major editorial posts in national magazines, who decided to end his blog at IG because of what he felt like ‘echoes of unacceptable situations that he and PHA have known very well’. But there was also Luis Nassif, maybe the most reputable on-the-scene blogger at this time, who came to the rescue of IG's reputation in front of the blogosphere.
1. Há dois meses estou enfrentando o esquema mais barra-pesada que já atuou na imprensa brasileira. Nesse período todo, não houve nenhuma pressão da parte do iG. Em nenhum momento sofri qualquer espécie de veto ou restrição. 2. Houve um rompimento unilateral do contrato do iG com o Paulo Henrique. As duas partes têm sua dose de razão nas reclamações recíprocas, embora a forma como se deu o rompimento tenha sido desastrosa e deselegante. 3. Desejo todo sucesso do mundo ao Paulo Henrique – que, alias, me ligou hoje de manhã agradecendo a nota que coloquei sobre sua saída, assim como a menção ao novo endereço do seu site. Da parte do iG recebi ligação também informando que nada muda na liberdade com que o Blog tem atuado. 4. De modo algum o episódio pode ser interpretado como vitória do jornalismo de esgoto ou perda de espaço da blogosfera independente. O iG continua um espaço democrático. E Paulo Henrique sai bastante fortalecido com o episódio e as demonstrações de solidariedade e apoio que recebeu. 5. Aos leitores fiéis peço paciência e esforço para baixar a fervura.
De Volta – Luis Nassif Online
A more credible version has cropped up:
Ao que este blog conseguiu apurar – e não foi muita coisa ainda – a motivação do rompimento do contrato foi a postura firme de Paulo Henrique contra a fusão da Brasil Telecom com a Oi (a tal “Broi” de que ele tanto fala). Como a Brasil Telecom é controladora do iG, a versão faz sentido. E, a ser verdadeira esta versão, a recisão é, do ponto de vista do iG, compreensível.
Os motivos do rompimento – Entrelinhas
An almost obvious comment from a typical blogger comes as a good advice.
A situação, embora não seja uma regra sem exceções, que sirva de exemplo e peso nas discussões sobre parcerias entre blogs e a mídia tradicional, seja ela um jornal pequeno de pouca circulação ou um mega portal como o próprio iG: independência pessoal, tão valorizada em blogs, nem sempre combina com interesses empresariais.
Paulo Henrique Amorim e blogs em portais – Prensa 3.0
PHA's ousting from IG will continue to raise partisan controversy in the blogosphere, but the censorship thesis has lost ground to a collectively formed view that is able to identify such events as adjustments in the development of a new media ecology. Indeed, changes are happening everywhere, and spreading fast.
The blog world is seeing more change right now than I’ve seen in years. Mike Arrington is close to those changes, and reports on some of them (money, linking, and cliques). Mark Cuban caused a bunch of noise a few days back by writing that newspapers shouldn’t call their blogs “blogs” because it destroys their brand. Hey, I agree with that. FastCompanyLive is really my videoblog, but I don’t call it that. Cuban followed it up with another post that’s very astute. Says what matters is why you do what you do.
The changeosphere – Scobleizer

author: Jose Murilo


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Georgia: Hunger Strike Continues · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

TOL Georgia reports that a hunger strike by the opposition in Georgia continues with several people now in a critical condition. The blog examines the background to the current standoff between the authorities and the opposition in the immediate aftermath of the January presidential election and just before the May parliamentary vote.


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Georgia: Independent Media Concerns · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

TOL Georgia details the continuing saga of Imedi TV, a station critical of the authorities which was closed down during the recent state of emergency in the country. The blog says that the station remains closed and ownership has been transferred to a U.S. citizen of Georgian descent. The opposition has failed to realize the importance of protesting the situation of the station, the blog concludes.


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Lebanon: Easter Morning · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

Diamond in Sunlight shares with us her Easter Morning in Beirut.


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Lebanon: On Affiliation · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

Tantalus shares his sarcasm about the “Lebanese tradition of affiliating with anything but [their] country…”


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Liquid assets: Bloggers on World Water Day · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

(This article would not have seen the light of day without the collaboration of Paula Góes, Amira Al Hussaini and Lova Rakotomalala. Many thanks!)
It's known as the universal solvent, Adam's Ale, government juice, council pop, H2O, dihydrogen monoxide, hydrogen hydroxide, has a ton of different names in Arabic and yesterday (March 22) the world was called upon to pay it special attention.
World Water Day 2008 marked the start of the fourth year of the UN International Decade for Action on Water that began in 2005, and to mark the occasion portals like ih20.org aggregated stories and videos while bloggers weighed in with insights and commentary from various corners of the world.
Madagascar blogger Malag@sy Miray posted a striking print advertisement (pictured above) from the Global WASH Campaign and noted that
A Madagascar, moins de 15% de la population disposent de l’eau courante dans leur logement et les ménages qui en ont se trouvent en majorité en zones urbaines [..] Or avec le taux de croissance démographique en vigueur actuellement à Madagascar, il serait faux de croire que ces buts seraient atteints par le seul équipement en réseau d’eau courante, sans une rapide prise en compte de la nécessité des mesures adéquats d’assainissements.
In Brazil, dozens of bloggers rallied around the appeal by the Faça a Sua Parte [Do Your Part, pt] blog, which sought to draw international attention to the critical lack of clean, safe drinking water worldwide, and remember that in Brazil, the world's richest country in terms of freshwater availability, forty million families have no access to drinkable water. Brazilian bloggers expressed the view that the country has an important role in preserving drinking water and are doing their bit to raise awareness about the importance of managing their precious water resources. Bloggers like Denise Rangel [pt] reminded readers that individual attitudes make a big difference to the planet:
Você já imaginou o quanto de água é desperdiçada no simples ato de ensaboar as mãos com a torneira aberta? De acordo com a Agência Nacional de Águas (ANA), são gastos cerca de sete litros! Não é mais admissível que ainda haja pessoas que se recusam a mudar pequenos hábitos que, além de trazer economia para seus próprios bolsos, proporcionam um grande bem ao meio ambiente e à vida de outras pessoas. O combate ao desperdício deve ser um hábito estimulado pela família inteira. Basta fechar a torneira ao ensaboar as mãos, ao escovar os dentes ou tomar um banho mais rápido.
Sérgio Coutinho [pt], on the other hand, expressed the view that it is necessary to stay ahead from the myth that if everyone makes a little effort the planet will be saved:
Seria interessante que o desperdício industrial de água, com centenas de litros jogados no lixo para a produção de uma só mercadoria (20 litros por frango, por exemplo) também sofresse com a regra “da parte de cada um”.
In the Middle East, Tel Aviv-based Yael K was woken up (by her cats) in the middle of the night, only to find that her thoughts turned almost immediately to water:
What?  Doesn’t everyone else think about this issue in the wee hours of the morning?
For those of you who don’t know, our region is in the midst of a quite severe drought that has been going on for the past 4 years. We’ve had way less rainfall and snowfall than we generally get and far far less than we need in this arid desert region. For those who don’t know, right now the mid-west in the U.S. is getting far more rainfall and snowfall than they usually get and far far more than they need –in fact, they are being seriously flooded with lots of loss of life and damage to property and so forth occurring. The U.K. also got hit with severe flooding this year.
So my 4 a.m. thoughts ran something like this: Such a shame that those poor people are being flooded and us poor people are water-deprived. They’ve gotten more water in the last 2 weeks than we’ve gotten in a full year. All that lovely water is running amok in people’s houses and then will eventually drain out to the sea and become salty and even of less use than when it is destroying property and washing out roads. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were some way to move all that water from places it isn’t needed to places that it is? If our global warming trends and climate changes continue, at some point water will be worth more than oil and will go for a pretty penny. Then I fell back asleep.
Carl, in Jerusalem, recalled a post he wrote nearly a year ago considering the implications for Israel's water supply of any land-sharing arrangement with Palestine or Syria, and expressed concerns about the near future:
With warm temperatures hitting this weekend (temperatures are expected to hit 29 degrees Celsius today and 31 tomorrow), the winter rains are likely finished for the season. Unfortunately, we did not have enough rain this winter, and if the water levels run too low, the aquifers that supply our water may be irreversibly polluted. The existing desalination facilities are insufficient. We have a major problem that could potentially hit full force as soon as this summer.
The WITNESS Hub, meanwhile, presented the the other side of the argument, posting the first “chapter” of “Drying Up Palestine“, a 28-minute documentary by Rima Essa and Peter Snowdon which describes itself as “a film about what it's like to try and live with less than one raindrop out of every ten”.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Maldives: Living with contaminated groundwater · Global Voices
Nihan Zafar

As the world observed World Water Day on March 22, issues concerning sanitation and access to safe water were discussed and debated in the media. This year’s theme for WWD is sanitation as 2008 is the International Year of Sanitation.
Maldivian bloggers have brought water and sanitation issues to the forefront of discussion in the country. It has emerged that the groundwater in several islands of the Maldives is contaminated with sewage.
It began with the death of 5 young people in a water well on March 3. They were part of a construction team working to bore a hole in the well when toxic gases caused the death. When there was no news of two persons, another person climbed in for rescue, and this cycle repeated till five people were in the well. The well was used to supply water for the Fish Market in the capital Male’.
When the accident took place, the eyewitnesses alerted Maldives Police Service. However, in such emergencies it is the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) which has to be alerted. The hospital ambulance which arrived did not have paramedics as in the Maldives ambulances are no more than simple vans which carry patients in stretchers. The MNDF rescuers who arrived to the scene did not give CPR to the victims.
The Maldives Medical Watch blog examines the failures of emergency services to respond to this accident and gives recommendations on improving the medical rescue services.
We asked some of our friends about who they would contact in a similar event. The answers we got were not surprising. Most of them said that they would contact MPS or IGMH. The MNDF Fire and Rescue services were mentioned by only one of the 25 people we contacted. This maybe a biased assessment but this highlights one issue. The general public have not been made aware of what emergency service they need to contact in which kind of incident.
This brings us to our argument for the need for a common Emergency Services. Why can't we organize an emergency response service that has teams from various fields (Fire, Rescue, Police, Medical Services) that could be contacted by calling an umbrella Emergency Service?
International practice is to have a single body responsible for Emergency services. They will be comprised of the different teams that will be mobilized to respond to an event. It would them be easier for the common people to know which number to call in an emergency. Much like the 911 service we see on Reality TV.
We also note that the information conveyed at the time of calling the rescue service is vital. If details were not provided by the caller, the person receiving the call should have the sense to keep him or her online and to gather more information till the rescue services could reach the site.
Another issue that has been raised is how unprepared workers are when they are at high risk work. With inadequate safety regulations and laws to make it mandatory for employers to provide safe working environments, many workers in the Maldives are facing work-related risks while accidents at work are common.
The blogger Hamdun examines the issues concerning work safety in the Maldives.
The state in any country bears the burden of legislating and implementing laws to serve and protect its citizens. Legislating Rules and Regulations on workplace safety standards also falls on the government’s shoulder in making work sites safe for the people who work in them and also the general public from those work sites. It is also the government’s responsibility to monitor the workplaces to ensure the state of the workplaces are with the workplace safety standards, and penalise those who fail to adhere to it.
Poor workplace safety Standards and poor monitoring of the standards is equal to inviting tragedy with open arms. The Bopal tragedy in India serves the best example of this. The state of Madhya Pradesh was aware of the poor workplace safety observed in Bopal plant but decided to ignore the issue on the ground that it provided much needed employment and income for the locals. Then, on the night of 3 December 1984 tragedy struck, when a reaction in one of the storage tanks resulted in leaking more than 40 tones of Methyl Isocynate (MIC) gas into the air killing 3800 people instantly and more than 30000 people to date. Should the Maldives wait on for proper workplace safety standards till we experience a similar tragedy? Obviously no, if a Workplace Safety Standard means saving a single life it is definitely worth it. Thus, it is time for the government to introduce tighter Workplace Safety Standards and develop a monitoring mechanism to ensure that the standards are well observed within worksites and no more lives are lost to poor safety conditions.
It was the work safety angle that the mainstream media picked up immediately after the deaths of the five people. However, Bluepeace blog examined the reasons as to why toxic gases were built up in the well and came up with a shocking conclusion: the groundwater in Male’ is contaminated with sewage. Male’ Water and Sewerage Company (MWSC) providing sewerage services has built a sewerage system which discharges effluent without any treatment.
Unlike other inhabited islands in the Maldives hardly any household in Malé sink effluent (sewage and waste water) into the ground using septic tanks. Household effluent is collected in catch pits and transferred to MWSC’s Central Sewage System. If this is the case, why is the groundwater in Malé contaminated with sewage? For more than a decade, sewage manholes have been causing sewage infiltration into groundwater because of defective manhole housing. In addition, the poor design and construction of catch pits used in households have lead to further infiltration of sewage into groundwater. In order to reduce the pressure from sewer gases in manholes and thus reduce infiltration, MWSC erected sewage vents in Malé, some of them located in public parks.
The use of septic tanks and the primitive sewage systems in the rest of the country causes equally alarming problems. Sinking of effluent into the ground has caused contamination of groundwater in several islands of the Maldives. Unlike Malé, in the other islands the people use groundwater for washing clothes, dishes and for bathing, as piped desalinated water is not available. When rainwater is depleted, during dry spells, the people drink groundwater in several islands. In fact, 25% of the people of the Maldives depend on groundwater for drinking according to State of the Environment Report 2002.
After the issue was raised by Bluepeace blog, mainstream media picked on the issue and newspapers started running articles on it. Another interesting revelation that came in the wake of this debate is that Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) was aware that contaminated water was used to clean fish at the Fish Market but did not intervene to stop it, as Bluepeace blog reports.
According to Miadhu, the Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA), which has been established in 2006 to centralise the setting of standards relating to food and drugs in Maldives, has carried out a groundwater testing in the Fish Market area in January 2008. The tests carried out by the MFDA indicated presence of “considerable amounts of hydrogen sulphide and ammonium in that area”.
What is amazing to learn is that even the MFDA, while being scientifically aware of the high concentration of deadly gases in the groundwater of Male’, much prior to the deaths on Youth Day, had failed to take measures to stop the use of contaminated water to wash fish and the Fish Market’s floors.
After the tragic death of five young men on Youth Day in the Maldives, the various government agencies are involved in a game of pointing fingers and blaming one another. Meanwhile the public has been made more aware of water and sanitation issues through blogs and other media outlets. An increasing number of people have stopped buying fish from the Fish Market although contaminated water is no longer used to clean the fish. However, Maldives Water and Sanitation Authority (MWSA), the regulatory body on water and sanitation, has so far not responded to the circumstances surrounding the recent deaths, and have not issued any statement. With irresponsible authorities in charge, a large number of Maldivians live in islands with contaminated groundwater, leaking toxic gases, and sewerage systems discharging untreated effluent.
As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in his message on World Water Day, the biggest culprit in failure to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015 is the lack of political will.

author: Nihan Zafar


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Russia: Two Dagestani Journalists Killed · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Ilyas Shurpaev, a 32-year-old TV journalist and blogger (LJ user shurpaev), was found strangled in the apartment he was renting in Moscow Friday. (More detailed English-language media accounts of the murder are here.)
A native of Dagestan, Shurpaev had been based in Makhachkala until very recently, covering the Caucasus region for the state-owned Channel One. (A Sept. 2007 Global Voices translation featuring his observations on the situation in Ingushetia is here.) He transferred to Channel One's Moscow office a month ago.
Timur Aliev – LJ user timur_aliev, a journalist and Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov's aide – wrote this (RUS) about Shurpaev:
[…] He was an excellent guy – witty, communicative. Lots of fun stuff on his blog – yesterday, by the way, he wrote a lot there. We knew each other mainly through LJ. Though we did run into each other once in real life – at a seminar in [Nalchik]. And for the New Year's, he sent us some gifts, through friends from Makhachkala. It's been hardly a month since he moved to Moscow, and we were congratulating him in LJ on the new job location. He had been covering all kinds of things in his native Dagestan (explosions, terrorist acts, warfare) and nothing had happened to him. And in Moscow, he got killed…
Oleg Panfilov – LJ user oleg_panfilov, director of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations – wrote this (RUS):
Ilyas had a book in him. And, perhaps, even more than one. He was very talented, his blog was, I think, one of the best ones in my . I recommended it to many people, although sometimes I had a problem with his loose style and “salty” words…
Most likely, they attempted to rob him, but they didn't take his laptop. I don't think it was a work-related murder, because Ilyas was a rare journalist who did the most serious stories solidly and neutrally. Sometimes, when we got together in Makhachkala, we talked about propaganda, and Ilyas, who understood perfectly well what kind of place he was working at [state TV], was making it clear that he was trying hard to avoid propaganda cliches. And he was successful in doing that…
The following exchange on Shurpaev's professionalism (RUS) took place in the comments section to Panfilov's post:
z_ari_n:
[…] he… was… a good journalist. […]
dinrid
Then what was he doing at Channel One if he was a good journalist? In Russia, it is now practically impossible to be an honest journalist if you don't have your work published in the oppositional mass media.
oleg_panfilov:
This opinion, of course, is legitimate, too, but, first, the oppositional media also frequently have problems with objectivity, and second, the number of honest journalists and “honest” media is not the same.
z_ari_n:
I'm sorry, but this doesn't mean anything. To be a good journalist, it's enough not to be a frenzied journalist. Basically, a good journalist can work practically anywhere, as long as [he/she] is considerate and diligent.
Here is a comment (RUS) Shurpaev made on March 3 about his work and the Russian presidential election, which took place the previous day:
Watched our programming yesterday. I'm so happy I'm here in Abkhazia now, on a work trip, and am not taking part in this bacchanalia. Thanks for your attention.
Shurpaev's last blog entry (RUS) has received much attention both in the Russian blogosphere and in the media. In it, he wrote that he'd been “blacklisted” by a Dagestani newspaper critical of the republic's president:
Here we go! I'm a [dissident] now! Not sure if I should laugh or cry. I already wrote here that there's a battle going on at one Dagestani paper between its journalists and founders. The latter, according to the journalists, wanted to use them as informational killers. The potential killers [the journalists] rebelled. But all this business is way too serious and I don't understand it. But here's what blew me away. The founders came up with a list of people who it's forbidden to publish in this paper, mention them or […] even interact with them in the newspaper's building. And there I am, in the front row! Heading the list! The funniest thing is that I've never written anything subversive for this paper – only notes on my travels, in which I did not touch upon the political situation in Zimbabwe, but just describe where I'd been, what I'd eaten and who I'd seen. I haven't taken part in the political life of the republic [Dagestan] or even of my region, because I'm lazy and, in general, I had to go to the gym and take my daughter to the movies and to the playground. And then boom! Such a turn of events… Perpaps the [newspaper's] founders know something about me that I do not know myself? Maybe I should do the “suitcase-train station-Israel” thing, so as not to become a second [Khodorkovsky]? Anyways. Matilda [a frequent anonymous addressee of Shurpaev's blog postings]! Knit me some woolen socks. Just in case. The size is 43 1/2. […]
Among other individuals on the newspaper's “black list” was Gadzhi Abashilov, head of Dagestan's state TV. Around 8 PM on Friday, Abashilov was shot dead in the republic's capital, Makhachkala.
Timur Aliev posted some thoughts (RUS) on this murder as well:
The second murder of a Dagestani journalist in two days – now, following Ilyas Shurpaev (in Moscow), Gadzhi Abashilov has been killed in Makhachkala.
I don't know whether these two murders are connected. But here's one version (I do not possess any insider information whatsoever). Abashilov was a pro-government journalist, a media bureaucrat – head of the “Dagestan” [State TV and Radio Company]. Ilyas [Shurpaev] could have also been perceived to have ties with the government – because he worked for [state-owned Channel One] – the main federal channel. Both were on some list of journalists who had been banned from being published and mentioned in an independent (and, lately, more of an oppositional) Dagestani newspaper. Thus, they were both identified more like pro-government people.
This leads to two conclusions (of course, only in case these two murders originate from the same source) – either the opposition is retaliating, or someone wants to compromise the opposition – namely, [Suleiman Kerimov] (who has been mentioned as the newspaper's sponsor). […]
According to media reports on the ongoing investigation, the killings of Shurpaev and Abashilov are not connected.


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author: Adil Nurmakov


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