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Philippines: TV Host Accused of Child Exploitation · Global Voices
Julius Rocas

Controversial TV host Willie Revillame from the Philippines has once more stirred a hornet's nest, this time drawing the ire of concerned citizens who used the Internet and social media to organize efforts in addressing what they believe was a case of child exploitation on prime time TV. The incident occurred on the March 12 airing of his game show ‘Willing Willie’ at TV5 network wherein a six-year-old Filipino boy was a contestant in one of the show segments where it was routine to do a song or dance performance before the game itself.
When a Snoop Dogg hip-hop tune was played, the 6-year-old boy did a provocative dance pretending to be a ‘macho dancer’ in a night club. Willie Revillame didn't appear to be bothered by the dance which is unusual to be performed by minors and instead he cheered on the audience to applaud the boy. All the while, tears were running down his cheeks as he repeated the macho dancer routine every time the song was played.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YRCxh9q64w
Definitely Filipino denounces the incident as child exploitation:
This is entertainment?  The child was obviously humiliated the first time he had to do it, but performed the dance several times upon the inducement of Willie himself, his staff and with the encouragement of the people in audience — some of whom can be seen brought to tears in laughter.  This is not funny at all.  The ‘performance’ should have been allowed only once to qualify for the ‘talent’ portion of the contest,  and that should have been the end of it.  The child’s father was also ridiculed by Willie for owning a parlor, seemingly trying to coerce the child into revealing the sexual orientation of his father.  What is wrong with trying to make a decent living by cutting people’s hair? Straight or homosexual, so what
Dennis believes that a line has been crossed and it's time for concerned citizens to act:
It’s time the silent majority stood up and stated in no uncertain terms exactly what it feels about the TV show.
It’s time to refuse to let an egoistic celebrity and his misguided group of TV executives dictate what our moral standards should be.
Dennis Sy scores the kid's parents for teaching him the provocative dance:
For the parents of this boy who pimped their kid to come out of national TV – shame on you. No loving parent would force their kid to do this.
Ramblings of Adam and Eve zero in on how TV host Willie Revillame takes advantages of such situations:
While it’s true that Willie may have helped a lot of people already, it’s also true that he helps himself while he’s helping these people. Besides, it’s not Willie himself who helps them, it’s actually the sponsors of the show. Willie’s just doing his job and is actually earning a lot from it. But money can’t buy class, intelligence, taste and sensitivity. Too bad for Willie because maybe he thought he could.
Trisha appeals to the show's producers and the boy's family:
When I watched this video, I felt really really uncomfortable.  The show should rethink what their show really wants to achieve.  To Jan-Jan's father and aunt, I don't know why you chose that dance move to teach him.
Prayers for the boy, his family, and the audience are offered by Better Filipinos so that they may see the error of their ways:
I'm praying for that this kid will be blessed to have his mind protected by the corruption being instilled by his guardians. I am praying that Janjan's parents will understand soon enough that they need to love their child more and that this way of milking money from this child is not God's way. I am also praying for the audience – laughing and approving this vicious thing to this child – to realize and repent from this way of life.
Patricio Mangubat points out that the powerful men behind TV host Revillame will also be dragged into this new mess:
What I am surprised about is that this man is being supported by big businessmen, like Manny Pangilinan and Manny Villar. These people are supposed to be the shakers and movers of this Nation. These men are supposed to be of high integrity.
Do these businessmen realize that their names are also being dragged as protectors of Mr. Revillame, every single time this man gets caught with a misdemeanor or a crime?
On the other hand, Katrina Stuart Santiago posed a crucial question to Revillame's critics:
when I say ngayon lang, I mean this concerted effort to stand up for little boy Jan-Jan and the perceived abuse he suffered on the show. when I point out this fact of public outcry happening only now, I mean what of those countless — countless! — times that these Willie Revillame shows have offended, are offensive, which is really pretty much most of the time.
bakit ngayon lang tayo na-offend? is a question that is not about forgiving Revillame or his show. it’s a question that’s about figuring out how these current conditions with regards Jan-Jan are different from the five years of Wowowee and the less than a year’s existence of Willing Willie. or maybe it isn’t different at all, we just got this one on a youtube video. in which case what does this really say about us?
…..
we are farthest from the point. our anger towards Willie and Willing Willie will barely scratch the surface of possibility of both being cancelled out of local TV. in fact at this point it’s almost something they can shrug off, and something to use against us. because here we are shooting from the hip, angry and disgusted, in the process revealing our social class. we forget that Willie will know to see this for what it is: the class divide at work, one that we refuse to deal with, one we will deny, and ultimately one we will not put out P10,000 pesos for. even if we could.
As of this writing the Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development has sent communications to TV5 network which airs the “Willing Willie” show about this incident while the the Commission on Human Rights and the MTRCB have also taken notice. Bloggers and netizens continue to debate the issue and organize support for the 6-year-old boy. Clearly, things are far from over.

author: Julius Rocas


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Poland, Lithuania: “The End of the Romance” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Polandian offers “a quick review” of the Polish-Lithuanian relationship over the centuries and notes on the recent changes.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: A Riot Police Officer’s Twitter and Blog · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Good Treaty writes about an anonymous Moscow riot police (OMON) officer, who started tweeting in January (@OMON_Moscow, RUS, over 3,000 followers) and also has a blog (LJ user omon-moscow, RUS): “While the fact that this blogging activity is tolerated by the police force likely constitutes evidence that the top brass endorses the spirit and content of OMON_Moscow, this blogging project remains fascinating as the initiative of one scorned cop, driven to action by an apparent dissatisfaction with the common perception of who he is and what he does.”


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South Korea: Application for Radiation Levels Checkup · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

As minuscule amounts of radioactive iodine and cesium have been detected in South Korean atmosphere, intensifying the already heightened fear over Japan's nuclear crisis, South Korean web developers debuted an Android application enabling citizen to check updated information on radiation levels in the country. Wiki Tree posted [ko] screenshot images of the app.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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St. Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago: Bocas Shortlist  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“A Nobel laureate, a MacArthur ‘genius’ fellow, and a first-time author are finalists for the 2011 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature”: Caribbean Book Blog has the details.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Syria: Complexity Behind the Protests · Global Voices
Antoun Issa

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.
Unrest in Syria enters its second week, as anti-government protests continue in their bid to oust President Bashar al-Assad.
Death toll figures vary between 60 to 300, with hundreds more detained, after two weeks of clashes between protesters and security forces in Deraa, Latakia and other towns.
Syrian protesters have posted a large number of video clips on YouTube of the violent repression by Syrian security forces. Warning: Video contains graphic footage showing protesters shot in the head Here's one, uploaded by Islam1tv, showing protesters shot in the head.
More videos and information (Arabic) can be viewed on the Facebook page “Youth Syria for Freedom“.
The Damascus Bureau has created a list of those detained during the protests to ensure their plight is not forgotten.
Solidarity in Milan for civil unrest in Syria, 26 March, 2011. Image by Flickr user Milano 26 marzo 2011 (CC BY-ND 2.0).
Internal dynamics
Whilst it may seem that the unrest in Syria is a natural progression of the Arab revolution spreading throughout the region, there are unique dynamics in Syria that distinguish it from other Arab states.
Syria is a multi-confessional and ethnic state on similar lines as its troubled neighbours Iraq and Lebanon, with a history of sectarian violence.
The Assad regime belongs to the minority Alawite sect – an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam – who number roughly 15 per cent of the population. Christians and Kurds also form sizeable minorities, each constituting approximately 10%. The remaining majority are Sunni Arab.
Consequently, a sectarian undertone exists to the current crisis in Syria.
Late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, father of Bashar, infamously  slaughtered thousands in the city of Hama in 1982 to crush a rebellion  by the Muslim Brotherhood.
With the exception of the Kurds, Syria's minorities generally favour Assad due to his secular political stance, and fear a potential Islamist emergence to power.
Syria expert and blogger at Syria Comment, Joshua Landis, has been covering the events and offers the following background:
The Dara’a protests prompted Alawites in the coastal  city of Latakia  to gather in large numbers in a central square, Dawwar  az-Ziraa, to  show support for their embattled President. Many have  changed their  Facebook profile images to a picture of Bashar. Syrian  Christians and  other religious minorities that together make up a  further 13% of the  Syrian population have also shown broad support for  Assad, who has  defended secularism. Many have worked themselves into a  panic about the  possibility that political upheaval will empower  Islamists, as  happened in Iraq. Almost 1 million Iraqi refugees live in  Syria, their  presence a cautionary tale of regime change that has gone  wrong.
Key to a successful revolution is splitting Syria’s elites, which   comprise the Alawite officer class of the security forces and the great   Sunni merchant and industrial families, who preside over the economy as   well as Syria’s moral and cultural universe. If those elites stick   together, it is difficult to envisage widespread but scattered popular   revolts overturning the regime. But an Alawite-Sunni split within the   elites would doom the regime. The cohesion of those elites, though, is a   question of social class as much as of confession.
The centrality of Dara’a in the uprising may have limited its appeal  to  the urban elites. The dusty border city marked by tribal loyalties,   poverty and Islamic conservatism may inspire Syria’s rural masses who   suffer from poverty, a prolonged drought and joblessness, but mass   demonstrations there have frightened Syria’s urban elites. Even those   who share anger at repressions and hope for liberation with their rural   counterparts still fear the poor and the threat of disorder.
Counter demonstrations in support of Assad have been held in a number of Syrian cities, highlighting the anxiety of some minorities. Below is a YouTube clip of a pro-government rally in north east Syria, uploaded by ELIEELIAS187. It shows protesters chanting: “With our soul, with our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for Bashar”:
Landis received this eye-witness account from a German friend who attended the pro-Assad rally in Aleppo, disputing claims that anti-government protests were held in the city:
There was and still is a big demonstration in progress in Aleppo  today (Friday 25th), pro-regime of course. There was apparently a small  one of some 200-250 people early this morning, basically in support of  the wage hikes announced yesterday, and around 12h30 a bigger one  started brewing around Sa’d Allah al-Jabiri place, which just kept  growing throughout the afternoon. Now (21h00 local) it’s spread out into  the residential areas; Mogambo place is absolutely packed with people  dancing and a band standing by. I’d send you pictures except that  internet is so terribly slow that I can’t upload anything at home.
Obviously it’s orchestrated to some extent, the usual slogans, the  usual underclass youths, the usual black leather clad security guys  watching from a distance. But everyone we’ve talked to in the last weeks  seems genuinely pro-regime, and now doubly so in light of the reform  announcements. Guys I was watching Al Jazeera coverage of violence in  Sanamayn today were only muttering “kazzab, kazzab” [lies, lies] under  their breath.
The Kurds are of course a different matter; the Ashrafiyya and Shaykh  Maqsud suburbs were completely sealed off last Monday (21st,  Nawruz)–but that’s true every year and nothing special happened this  year to my knowledge. Otherwise every one here that I’ve been able more  or less to gauge is delighted over Egypt, Libya, you name it, but sees  no parallel to Syria, invokes arguments you already know (Dera’a is  being led by families with older antipathies to the Asads and allies of  Khaddam), and wouldn’t remotely think of calling for Bashar’s removal.
On your blog today you mention reports of demonstrations in Aleppo,  by which I understand are meant anti-regime demonstrations. Do you have  more information on this, like where exactly they were? Certainly didn’t  see anything and have trouble imagining it.
Another Syrian friend in Aleppo wrote to Landis stressing that President Assad enjoys significant support:
As an addendum to yesterday, I can certainly understand  why a lot of Syrians are upset with foreign coverage of the crisis  (going so far as to besiege the Al Jazeera studios in Damascus). The  events in Deraa, Latakia and elsewhere are indeed critical and deserve  wide attention.
But for maybe 90% of the Syrian population, the reality they are  living is the sort of pro-regime support that was witnessed yesterday in  Damascus, Aleppo and other cities. The festivities in Aleppo, Syria’s  second largest city, lasted a good 12 hours and involved I would guess  in the low tens of thousands of people–but this was not covered or even  mentioned by a single news outlet that I have seen. This isn’t to say  that all those people are diehard Bashar fans; it was a beautiful day  Friday and there were many families out just to see what was going on.  That these demonstrations are “organised by the regime” is kind of a  cliché, however, seeing that any thinkable civil group involved (unions,  youth clubs, etc.) is tied to the regime on some level; but  “fabricated,” as a recent comment posted to your blog suggests, they  most certainly are not.
Landis himself writes a detailed piece revealing a Syria dividing between pro and anti-government camps, with a silent majority yet to make its decision:
Syria is dividing into sides – those that will fight the state and  those that support the president or fear revolution. The silent majority  is still sitting on the side lines, but they will not be able to do so  for long if order collapses. The army is sticking by the President, a  main difference with Egypt or Tunisia. So long as the army remains  united and obeys the President, it will be hard for the opposition to  take over parts of the country or bring down the regime.
There were pro-Bashar demonstrations in many cities yesterday, such  as Hassake, Homs, Latakia, Damascus in several places, and Aleppo, but  there were equally anti-government demonstrations in a number of places,  which are now increasingly calling for an end to the Baath Party and  the fall of the regime – isqat al-nizaam. I have spoken or corresponded  with people in Latakia, Aleppo and Damascus today. Aleppo and Damascus  are calm. Latakia is not. The Republican Guard and the army have entered  the city to end violence. The people were cheering them on from the  balconies in the Sunni neighborhood, I am told.
My wife’s family in Latakia is divided over what is going on. Her  mother claimed that although they had not been able to go down town, she  insisted that she was very confident in the wisdom of the Syrians. She  said they would never be dragged into civil war. She said that in most  parts of the city yesterday, people had been out and about.
My brother-in-law, Firas, who lives in American, a Christian  quarter near Shaykh Dahr, the downtown area where the demonstrations  and shooting took place yesterday, has left the city with his Christian  wife and children. He was very anxious when we spoke to him in Latakia  this morning at his work place. He said that all the Sunnis who work in  his company were saying that there were foreign Sunni elements in town  that no one recognized. He believed that they were involved in the  fighting yesterday in center city. A number of Syrian military and  police were taken to the hospital, having been shot. Firas said that  they did not have arms because they were not supposed to shoot at the  demonstrators due to the President’s orders. The opposition had arms.
Pro-government people believe that there is an organized and armed  opposition that came into town to start a fight and spread false rumors  about Alawites from the Mountains coming into town to attack Sunnis,  etc.
See the Facebook site:   بلدي حبيبي … ممنوع الفتنة …ويلو اللي   يعادينا ؟  In order to see how people are talking about the “Mukharabiin,” the  foreign intruders who no one recognizes in Latakia. They say that the  unknown intruders entered both Sunni and Alawi neighborhoods and yelled  about how the opposite sect was coming to destroy them and “burn them  down.” They claim that there was an organized effort to stir up  sectarian distrust and violence.
In Jableh, a mixed city just south of Latakia on the coast, there was  a big demonstration made up of the entire city (`an bikrati abiiha) on  Saturday night. They chanted: “wahid, wahid, wahid, Sunni wa Alawi  wahid.” “One, one, one – Sunnis and Alawis are one. ”
Another Christian friend from Latakia – no relation – said that there  was a much more organized opposition in town and a lot of sniper shots  going on still. There is a fire at the prison, he said. He pooh-pooed  the notion that a foreign element was in town, but said that the  organized opposition was home grown.
The comments section of Landis’ blog is indicative of the split and cynicism among Syrians. Whilst it may appear to the West that the protests in Syria are largely driven by pro-democratic ambitions, for Syria's minorities it is an anxious fear of an Islamist undercurrent.
SOURI said:
I read repeatedly on revolutionist websites calls from  Wahhabis to the revolutionists to attack ammunition depots and steal  them. Those Wahhabis are not peaceful demonstrators, they are attacking  security, military, and government buildings. They have been burning  Assad’s portrays. This is not peaceful demonstration, it is an organized  Wahhabi-led rebellion.
The war time has not come yet since that the demonstrators remain too  few. However, should the Islamists pour in large numbers into the  streets, the war plan must be implemented without hesitation. No  surrender. Surrender means the end of Syria, and the end of Alawis  before anybody else.
This is not a “democracy revolution,” it is a sectarian insurgency  launched by Wahhabis. This is what we have been saying all along and I  am glad that some American diplomats have the courage to say things as  they are.I just don’t agree with some of the details they mentioned, especially those related to the Kurds and their potential state.
Shami said:
Let them here leo ,Souri’s comments sound the same than to  those of the regime.(and similar in one way or other to Dr Landis’s last  comments)
The “’salafi,ekhwani,israeli,cia ,kurdish ,wahhabi’” plots of the regime do not work anymore .
They even used this trick when they killed their enemies like Sheykh al Khaznawi.
One commenter questioned the motives of detained Egyptian-American tweep @Battuta:
Solitarius said:
I’m surprised by those who go out of their way to claim that this Egyptian man is innocent (twitter acount: Battutta)
Being neutral and objective means just that.. it doesn’t mean that  you should automatically side against the government just because it has  a bad history. Really as Jad asked, what is an Egyptian American who  passed by Israel doing in Syria taking pictures in times like these? I  personally wouldn’t dare take pictures and go anywhere.. Hell even in  normal circumstances i wouldn’t take any pictures if i’m close to any  government, police or Baath building
clearly there are people who are over doing it in terms of their  humanism to the point of being ridiculously naive. People wake up.. It’s  that governments lie.. but governments also recruit people and send  spies all the time.
Another lashed out at anti-government protesters for undermining the social fabric:
Jad said:
The anonymous rebels are now all defencive and talking about  how good, intelligence, patriots and not sectarian they are and that  everybody should trust them!
How about telling us and those young Syrians who paid their lives for  their call of ‘who the hell are you’, what are you planning to do after  destroying the social fabric of Syria and how and what are the ’saving’  plans you propose for poverty, corruption, unemployment, economy,  policies (domestic and international) and how are you going to free  Jolan?!
They also sound a bit desperate and begging everybody to send Aljazeera millions and billions and zillions of messages.
I guess if they stop spreading sectarian language,  be honest and have  welcoming national and rational language and have names, ‘maybe’ they  will convince more people otherwise what they are doing is using the  blood of Syrians for keeping the violence circle running full speed.
An Israeli commenter argued that Israel also fears the emergence of an Islamist state should anti-government protests succeed, oddly placing Tel Aviv in support of its old foe Assad:
Shai said:
It really does amaze me how dependent some people are on Israel.  How  even now, when the Arab World is experiencing an awakening never before  seen in the history of the region, Israel has some “role” to play in  all this.  Every development in the region, according to some, is a  function of Israel.
While Israel does indeed more closely resemble KSA and Iran than  Syria, I can assure you that neither are deemed “friends”.  Those same  Wahhabis in KSA preach far worse against Jews (not Israelis) than any  Syrian ever could.  They are far more dangerous to us Jews in the region  and worldwide, than any Mufti in the secular-Arab world.
Syria is at a crossroads, with high stakes for regional stability. Anti-government protests appear to be polarising the country, with many – including regional powers – fearing the lingering presence of the Muslim Brotherhood. All the more reason why US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has opted to stay out of this potential revolution, labeling Assad a “reformer”.
This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.

author: Antoun Issa


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Taiwan: Anti-Nuclear Protesters’ Lonely Quest  · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

A fourth nuclear power plant is currently under construction in Taiwan, in Gongliao town, just 40 km away from the capital Taipei.
In 1988, eight years after the Taiwan Power Company first decided to build the plant, locals in Gongliao  held the first meeting of what became their anti-nuclear organization. In 1994, they even held their own referendum [zh], which revealed that 96% of locals were opposed to the plant's construction.
Nevertheless, the government disregarded such opinions and took steps to suppress these voices.
A protest against Taiwan's fourth nuclear power plant in 2010. Image by Alvin Chua (CC BY 2.0).
In 1991 [zh], after protesters put up structures on land planned for the future nuclear power plant, police tried to tear down them down.
10月3日，因警方違反協議拆除棚架並毆打自救會會長引爆激烈衝突，衝進圍籬的箱型車因撞到柱子翻倒而意外壓死一名保警，史稱1003事件。郝柏村內閣趁勢聯合媒體抹黑自救會和支持反核者，開車的反核義工林順源被判無期徒刑、自救會執行長高清南被判十年徒刑。
In 1999, after the Atomic Energy Council approved the license for construction of the fourth nuclear power plant, the government revoked the fishery rights [zh] of locals in Gongliao without notice. Locals refused the compensation [zh] offered by the government and went to the Executive Yuan to protest against this decision.
憤怒的漁民把經濟部逕自撥給漁會的兩億多元補償金支票立刻退回，集結到立法院門前高喊：「還我漁業權！」「我們要給子孫代代吃，不是要給我們吃而已！」
In 2000, these anti-nuclear activists rode a rollercoaster after the Democratic Progressive Party candidate took office. The ruling party decided to suspend the construction of the fourth nuclear power plant. However, because political conflict [zh] between the ruling party and the opposition party could not be resolved, the ‘cancellation’ itself was voided in 2001:
亞洲金融風暴的後座力到2001年在台爆發，佔立法院多數席次的國民黨把經濟衰退的帳「理所當然」地推給核四停建，民進黨則反手把黑鍋推給貢寮鄉民。
After more than 20 years of protests against the nuclear power plant, construction has resumed, leaving locals to deal with their own fear without hope [zh]:
「看核電廠距離我家那麼近，當然馬ㄟ驚啊！」坐在澳底仁和宮前看年輕人表演的貢寮老人嘆氣說，但都快要蓋好了，你能拿政府怎麼辦？
In Japan, there are also some lonely protesters opposed to nuclear power plants there. The residents (less than 500) in Iwaishima (祝島) [zh] have protested against the local nuclear power plant for more than 28 years:
儘管平均年齡已65歲，這群阿伯阿母、阿公阿嬤仍不放棄對抗蠻橫的國家機器，「我們不想千年流傳下來的海被污染」。
Protest against the fourth nuclear power plant in 2010. Image by Alvin Chua (CC BY 2.0).
After the greatest earthquake in the recorded history of Japan took place this month, there was worry over the type of fuel used in reactor unit 3 of the country's damaged Fukushima I nuclear power plant:
However, not many people know that six months ago a concern group [jp] formed by Japanese elders (福島老朽原発を考える会) for the Fukushima I nuclear power plant traveled all the way to Tokyo to protest against the Tokyo Electricity Power Company and the use of MOX fuels:
運転開始34年の老朽炉に10年以上前の古い燃料を使うという無茶をするのに、県民への説明は一切なしというのはどういうことか。
止まらぬ燃料漏えいへの対処、電源喪失事故の原因究明、格納容器の耐震強度問題等々、危険なプルサーマルの前に東電には対処すべきことが山積している。東電にプルサーマル炉の運転を任せることなどとてもできない。
Roodo blogger Summerlake, after seeing the photos [zh] of the elders’ protest in Tokyo, said:
孤單的幾個人站在熱鬧的街頭上，顯得突兀，沒有媒體願意傾聽，沒有社會大眾願意相信，他們微弱而真實的聲音。貢寮鄉親在台北城街頭的身影，突然那麼令人難過。大家在哪裡？

author: I-fan Lin


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Trinidad & Tobago: Carnival is Over  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinidad Carnival Diary offers tips on how to “fill the void between now and another Carnival…”


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Tunisia: Bloggers Angry at Interim Interior Minister Sacking · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

This post is part of our special coverage of Tunisia Revolution 2011.
Tunisian bloggers are outraged over the sacking of Interim Interior Minister Farhat Rajhi today. In a surprise move, he was replaced by Hbib El-Seed.
During the protests that had swept the country from mid December last year, demonstrators chanted “The Interior Ministry is a terrorist ministry.” When Rajhi was named Interior Minister, contempt towards the ministry started to ease. Indeed, during the two months he was acting as the Interior Minister, he managed to gain back the trust of the people with his transparency, his efforts to respond to the demands of the people and his humorous character.
In his first days in office, Rajhi fired 45 corrupt high-level officials. He also responded to two key popular demands – the dissolution of both the RCD, the former ruling party associated with repression and corruption, and the Secret Police. He then helped bring order and stability after the state of anarchy Tunisia was thrown in following the ouster of former Tunisian president Zeine Al Abedine Ben Ali. Despite Rajhi's achievements popularity as an Interior minister, it remains unclear why he was dismissed.
Bloggers Praising Farhat Rajhi:
Bloggers received the news with shock and confusion as the mystery of why Farhat Rajhi was dismissed continues.
Nizar Toumi was very mad at the interim Prime Minister Beji Caed Sebsi for taking the decision to dismiss Rajhi. He writes:
He adds:
و لمّا جاء “هيبة الدّولة” منعه من المبادرة و من الاتّصال بوسائل الإعلام بدعوى أنّ النّاطق باسم الحكومة هو الوحيد المخوّل له الإدلاء بالتّصريحات ، و منع من اتّخاذ أيّ قرار منفردا و وقع إلزامه فقط بتطبيق قرارات الحكومة “هيبة الدّولة” ، ثمّ طُلب منه القبض على ناشطي الفيس بوك … و لم يفعل … فوقعت إقالته ، فرحات الرّاجحي كان بمثابة الجلد بالنّسبة للجسد ، الحاجز الأوّل لحمايته من الجراثيم
Merkhi Souhail  says:
Je croyais que le président provisoire n'avait pas le pouvoir de limoger un ministre ! En tout cas c'était ce que j'avais cru lire dans les articles de notre feu constitution.
He adds:
Le profane que je suis ne peut trouver de bonnes raisons pour démettre cet homme simple de discours et qui avait démontré une efficacité jamais vue dans notre gouvernance. Ces deux qualité lui ont valu un grand respect et une popularité qui ferait mourirde jalousie nos politiciens en paille .
Facebookers United with Farhat Rajhi:
On the Facebook page  “Tous Unis Avec le Ministre de l'Intérieur Farhat Rajhi” ( All United with the Interior Minister Farhat Rajhi), Sinda Boukhari  writes:
tous unis bech nraj3ou Mr farhat rajhi ministre de l'interieur
Before becoming an Interior Minister, Rajhi was a magistrate.Another Facebook page was launched. The page attracted more than 3,000 fans in less than 24 hours and it is called:
كلنا مع رجوع الراجحي كوزير عدل و يا السبسي يزي مالظلم نحن نقرر
This post is part of our special coverage of Tunisia Revolution 2011.

author: Afef Abrougui


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Azerbaijan: BBC Azeri & the potential of social media in the South Caucasus · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

whatwaswritten, Stealing news from Azerbaijan since 2011, translates and summarizes part of what was the last traditional radio broadcast from the Azerbaijani service of the BBC. As a result of cutbacks, BBC Azeri will now only be available online and its final program solicited various opinions on the potential of new and social media in the region from BBC Central Asia and Caucasus Service head Hamid Ismailov, Global Voices Caucasus editor Onnik Krikorian, and previously imprisoned video blogging youth activist Emin Milli.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Bahrain: Prominent Blogger Mahmood Al-Yousif Arrested · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

This post is part of our special coverage of Bahrain Protests 2011.
Shortly after 3am local time, prominent Bahraini blogger Mahmood al-Yousif was arrested in his home.  Before leaving with police officers, the blogger tweeted:
Police here for me
Al-Yousif is an influential blogger whose writings of late have been in favor of unifying Bahrainis.  On March 15, he wrote:
Mahmood Al-Yousif, giving a speech at a local event. Image by Flickr user Rotary Club of Adliya (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
[I] choose to come back [to Bahrain] to continue to espouse sanity and tolerance. To continue to try to show people that regardless of their beliefs, status or wealth, our destinies as Bahrainis are intertwined and it behoves us to find equitable ways to live together and ameliorate our differences.
I don’t want to point fingers nor am interested in apportioning further blame. I favor the recognition of the root causes of this strife in order to move on, no matter how painful that exercise may be.
Al-Yousif has long been the administrator of a site called JustBahraini, a unity campaign against sectarianism.  He wrote recently of a campaign supporter being threatened by police.
His arrest was confirmed by his brother, as well as his son, who tweeted:
Police just came to my house and arrested my father, Mahmood Al-Yousif. @BahrainRights @OnlineBahrain
This post is part of our special coverage of Bahrain Protests 2011.

author: Jillian C. York


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Bangladesh: Is USA Doing Excess On Yunus Issue?  · Global Voices
Rezwan

US Astt. Secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs Mr. Roger Blake recently visited Bangladesh and discussed with government about the recent disputes with the Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus. An Ordinary Citizen wonders  whether USA is playing excess on this issue.

author: Rezwan


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Bangladesh: Online Payment Options · Global Voices
Rezwan

In Bangladesh, Paypal is not available and international online payment/receipt via credit card is restricted, which is a problem for the startups who want to sell products from Bangladesh and receive payment. T solve this problem Hasin at “The Storyteller” writes about merchant account providers, who helps users to charge their clients as well as work like a virtual bank account.


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China: Disappearance of human rights activists · Global Voices
Andy Yee

As the world’s attention is focusing on the Middle East and North Africa, crackdown on human rights activists in China is continuing unabated following online calls for ‘Jasmine Revolution’. C. Custer at ChinaGeeks documented a list of people who have disappeared last month, and Geng He, wife of missing lawyer Gao Zhisheng, called for the international community to speak up against China’s abuse of human rights in The New York Times.

author: Andy Yee


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China: Panic buying continues · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Following panic buying of salt earlier this month, the last few days have seen residents of Shanghai buying up laundry detergent, soap, toothpaste and shampoo out of fear that companies are about to raise prices for those and other similar goods. This photo from angry Shanghai microblogger Yin Zhuonan shows that many domestic laundry detergent are selling out the quickest.

author: John Kennedy


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China: Red flag on Wall Street · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Co-founder of Chinese fund management firm CDH Investments Wang Gongquan stopped by the New York Stock Exchange building today to snap a picture of the flag of the People's Republic of China, flying over Wall Street to mark popular Chinese online security company Qihoo 360 Technology‘s IPO. Wang was mocked by many commenters on Weibo, but comments on a similar picture from Qihoo chairman Zhou Hongyi have been more supportive.


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Colombia: Fractal, a Sci-Fi event in Medellín · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Juan Diego Gómez posts in his blog about Fractal'11, an event about fiction, art, science and technology that will take place in Medellín, Colombia, on April 8-9, 2011. Juan Diego introduces [es] some of the speakers: awarded Science Fiction writer Kij Johnson (@kijjohnson), cyborg anthropologist Amber Case (@caseorganic), researcher Johanna Blakley (@Mojojohanna), creative technologist James Alliban (@jamesalliban), and musician Sam Pool aka SPL (@SPLSamuel).

author: Juan Arellano


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Colombia: The Lady of Colombian Television Dies · Global Voices
Cati Restrepo

The blog Portal Vallenato reviews the death [es] of Gloria Valencia de Castaño [es] (1927 – 2011) from respiratory failure on March 24. Valencia pioneered radio and television projects in Colombia. She was known as “the lady of Colombian television” and as a major figure (as host, image and voice in commercials) since 1954 when she founded, along with her husband, one of the first radio channel Colombia: HJCK.

author: Cati Restrepo


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Cote d’Ivoire: Open letter to Not on Our Watch · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Eliza writes an open letter to Not on Our Watch, a charity founded by George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Jerry Weintraub and David Pressman about the political situation in Cote d'Ivoire.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Egypt: Demo to Free Mohamed Radwan · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Egyptian blogger The Traveler Within writes about a demonstration in support of journalist Mohamed Radwan, arrested by Syrian security forces.


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Ethiopia: Jazz in the garden · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Jazz time in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: “This last weekend music lovers in Addis converged for the 2nd annual installment of the acacia jazz fest for two days of jazz appreciation. True to its promise, the fest offered the best fusions of jazz elements and contemporary music from established and exciting new talents.”


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India: Online Solution To Help Save On Medicines · Global Voices
Rezwan

Living in the Past has a brilliant idea – to launch an informative website (with SMS based service), which will provide information about cheap medicine with identical compositions to help the poor in India.


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Lebanon: Exploring the Video Artistic Scene, Featuring Ziad Antar · Global Voices
LIBALEL

Who are the contemporary Lebanese artists?  The preparation of a web-documentary about the young art scene in Lebanon is under way, with its companion blog, Libalel [fr], introducing the artists, like video producer Ziad Antar.
Ziad Antar (Source : blog Libalel)
Ziad Antar was born in 1978 in Saïda, Lebanon and today works in both Saïda and Paris.  Initially he assisted several video producers and directors in Lebanon  (Akram Zaatari among others), and spent a lot of time with the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut (in English) where he met the artist Jean-Luc Moulène.  In 2003,  he was artist-in-residence at the Pavillon du Palais de Tokyo in Paris and took the research program,  La Seine, at the ENSBA (Fine Arts). He has exhibited at a number of venues including the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the Biennale of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
The Libalel blog [fr] was interested in Ziad Antar's approach :
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } His work is based on this conviction:  the image is an idea.  For him, it’s not about searching for a way to transform ideas into images;  the video is the subject of the idea.  Ziad Antar says he has “no specific theme, [his] principal concern is the video as a medium”.  He has developed a very particular way of working, using self-imposed constraints:  “I set up restrictions to transform very simple things into videos.”  The restrictions are derived from the technical field of video and photography – a static shot, a sequence shot, no editing.  They produce a point of view, a reflection, an image, an idea.  The camera work and the act of filming are more important than the subject.
One of his first videos, TOKYO TONIGHT, produced in 2003, illustrates this approach:
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } A strict methodological framework was arranged beforehand:  a maximum duration of three minutes, little or no camera movement, only one sequence, sometimes only one shot.  Another constraint was that of the title which comes from the residencies in Japan in which he participated that year.  In the style of a road-movie set in a pastoral landscape in southern Lebanon, he invites us to three stops, three meetings with shepherds addressing us with the single word “Tokyo”, that is, three sequences placed end to end.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Music has an important role in the work of a video producer.  In all Ziad Antar’s videos he uses music in the form of a song or repetition of sounds, and sometimes he tries to be aware of the ‘image’ of the music.  This can be seen in the video Turkish March (2006) where Mozart’s famous composition is played on a stringless piano, where the sound of fingers hitting the keys is like a military march.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The  video Wa (2004) presents his niece and nephew performing a song they composed.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } In videos of a few seconds each, sometimes in only one sequence, he captures the small things of life, always with the same objective:  to question the language of video. In the video Mdardara (2007), a lentil dish filmed in Super 8, the artist shows what hard times he lived through during the war of 2006.  He tells us that in the besieged zones people cooked huge dishes of lentils and rice “that provide energy and are simple to make”.  In SafeSound (2006) also, he filmed the daily life of a Lebanese family shaken by the war.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Two links to interviews with the artist and his photo gallery:
Audio interview [fr] with the video producer at his exhibition in “Où” gallery in Marseille.
Interview in Zenith Magazine, an online magazine dealing with art and culture in the Arab world.
And his photos.

author: LIBALEL


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Macedonia: Early Elections Scheduled for June 5 · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

The biggest Macedonian opposition party announced [MKD] today that they will participate in the early elections in spite of the failure of negotiations with the government on the conditions that would ensure fairness. About two hours later, the Prime Minister responded [MKD] that the ruling party would suggest to the Parliament to schedule the elections for June 5, 2011.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Mexico: Drug Trafficking in Mexican Media vs. US Media · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Gancho argues that “The contrast between the pessimism and obsessiveness of media coverage of drug trafficking in Mexico with the relative ignorance of the same in the US is striking. Especially with regard to American media–the Mexican outlets often seem to do a better job scanning the news wires for drug arrests in the States, which makes the bilateral balance a little more event.”

author: Silvia Viñas


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Morocco: Atlas Mountaineering · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

The View from Fez shares tips on mountaineering in the High Atlas.


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Pakistan: Life Without Cellphone · Global Voices
Rezwan

The proliferation of cellphones in Pakistan has reached a new high and Mohammad Yusha at Chowrangi asks “is not having a cell phone weird”?


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Pakistan: Liveblogging India-Pakistan Cricket Match · Global Voices
Rezwan

Ahsan Butt  is liveblogging the electrifying semifinal match between India and Pakistan at the Cricket Worldcup 2011 being held in Mohali, India now.


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Russia: Blogger Translates Articles on Alexey Navalny · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

LJ user vadda translates from English into Russian two recent texts about Alexey Navalny, a prominent Russian anti-corruption activist: one text, by Andrew E. Kramer, appeared in the New York Times on March 27 (the Russian translation is here; 266 comments); the other, by Julia Ioffe, was published in the New Yorker (translated here and here). The New Yorker is hosting a live chat with Julia Ioffe about Navalny on Thursday, March 31.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: Mapping Bribery Online · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Anton Nosik shares [ru] a link to RosKomVzyatka (‘Russian Committee for Bribes’), Ushahidi-based platform that allows users to map bribes (both given and taken) anonymously. It's another transparency project after rospil.info, gdecasino.ru, otmenta.ru, and others that crowdsource crime/injustice reporting.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Russia: Online Media 2010-2011 According to Yandex.ru · Global Voices
Dmitry Davidov

Transmediale Electroboutique, photo by Marius Watz
New Yandex.ru report [ru] “Media sphere of RuNet. September 2010 – January 2011″ suggests that Russian online media are growing but still have a long way to go to become a truly developed reporting platform.
Unlike several years ago, Russian have much wider selection of news on the Internet. Russian  online media publish around 50,000 news pieces on a weekday. But  the news agenda remains pretty narrow with only 20 percent of online media  outlets generating 80 percent of the stories. Russian best-selling  tabloid “Komsomolskaya Pravda” [ru]  is the most “productive” outlet in this regard with 900 news articles per  day. The Internet provides almost infinite space for all sorts of news stories and doesn't impose many limitations on the type of information that can be published. That is why the selection of stories available on the websites of traditional media outlets is much wider than the amount of news in their conventional forms of broadcast (radio, TV, newspaper, etc.). Along with “Komsomolskaya Pravda,”  big information agencies also lead in the amount of of daily news.  They publish 300-400 articles a day.
According  to comScore, an Internet marketing research company,  monthly audience of Russian online media is 40 million.  The whole 30 percent (12 million) of people reading Russian news are  located beyond the country’s borders (mainly in Europe). This makes sense since Europe hosts several largest Russian communities.
The  report also showed that Russian online media are still far from practicing multidimensional reporting. Only 39 percent of the outlets use pictures  in their stories and disappointing one percent use audio and video. This goes against the main reason (beyond an economic one) for traditional media outlets to go online: expand their opportunities for reporting with a wide selection of multimedia tools to enhance the presentation of news and provide opportunities for better and deeper understanding of different issues in a society.
Unfortunately, the speed is also not the strongest characteristic of Russian online media.  It takes 20-30 minutes for breaking news to appear online. Less  important but still pressing events become available to online audience  after several hours. Of course, the report doesn't cover the tools “designed” for speedy presentation of the information (Twitter, forums, blogs, etc.) and, as GVO reported several times in the past, traditional media usually take the information about breaking news from those online platforms.
One  forth of all online news contain links to other sources of information.  Ten percent of those are exact copies of the original articles  published somewhere else. This became one of the main characteristics of Russian online media. As popular newspaper “Kommersant” wrote [ru] last year, “At the present turn of its development, the media, particularly online, seem ready to drown a reader in the sea of information. However, this is just an illusion. In fact, there is no more information online, and the lion's share of the content fed to consumers is nothing more than repeatedly rewritten stories or just an information void.”
The  most cited and “plagiarized” media outlets are information agencies RIA -Novosti,  Interfax and ITAR-TASS. This is very different from traditional media  that, according to company “Medialogiya”  mostly cite “Kommersant” newspaper, “Forbes” magazine and radio “Echo Moskvy.”
On media consumption front, the reports says that 38 percent of online news consumers go directly to the websites  without using links or search engines. It is an eight-percent increase  from 2008. Yandex.ru explains that people are getting used to finding  about news online and bookmark or memorize their favorite news sites for  quicker access.
There is also a trend of social networks playing  their role in news distribution. Almost all online media have incoming visits – although only one percent of all traffic –  from  social media consumers. Vkontakte.ru, the most popular social network in  Russia, and Livejournal.com, the most popular blogging platform, lead  the trend.
As can be seen from the report, Russian online media, in a lot of ways, are still in their infancy. Many traditional media outlets in the country are supported by external funding (be that Kremlin-friendly oligarchs or the Kremlin itself) and, so far, do not need to worry about economic media crisis like their counterparts in the United States and some European countries. But as more and more people go online and abandon traditional sources of information, we will probably see how Internet media mature and begin using the full potential of online world.

author: Dmitry Davidov


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Russia: Real Life Super Hero From Chelyabinsk · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Metkere.com shares [ru] a video-address of a real life super hero calling himself “The Avenger.” (see his Vkontakte fan group [ru]) The avenger, a man in a black costume with a green letter “M” (apparently M for Mstitel’, the ‘avenger’ in Russian) on it and a black mask, says he is patrolling the streets of industrial city of Chelyabinsk and prevents petty crimes against its citizens. Green Hornet or Kick-Ass have nothing to do with it, no.


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Serbia: Gaddafi’s Cyber Army Oppose Rebels and NATO  · Global Voices
Sasa Milosevic

This post is part of our special coverage Libya Uprising 2011.
A Facebook page entitled “Support for Muammar al-Gaddafi from the people of Serbia” has become a show of support for the controversial Libyan leader, with over 62,500 members. Libyan opposition activists have also reported cyber attacks on opposition websites coming from Serbia.
The cyber war has been initiated by pro-Gaddafi Serbian citizens, recruited mainly from Serbian ultranationalists, has been reported in the international media.
Over 60,000 people in Serbia have joined a Facebook group to publicly support Gaddafi's regime. Credit: 'Support for Muammar al Gaddafi from the people of Serbia', a Facebook group
The news has panicked the Libyan Youth Movement (@shabablibya), a “group of Libyan Youth both in and out of Libya inspired by our brothers and sisters in Egypt and Tunis.”
Mohammed al-Sabah, a Libyan Youth Movement representative, said [sr] to the Serbian media:
Hiljade internet korisnika iz Srbije svakodnevno napada i obara naše sajtove ili ih toliko zagušuju sa anti-NATO i EU parolama, da su potpuno neupotrebljivi. Ne tvrdimo da su svi oni hakeri, ali je jasno da se radi o organizovanoj akciji. Ukoliko se nešto uskoro ne preduzme, stvari će postati sve gore po nas
According to Milan Kovacevic [sr], a web administrator and author of the book “Cryptography in Electronic Banking,” Serbian hackers are not independent in their actions, but are a part of international groups:
U pitanju su dve hakerske grupe „C1337ORG“ i „Crna ruka“. […] Dobar deo napadača su zapravo stranci, koji se kriju iza internet adresa običnih korisnika iz Srbije…
He adds that it is possible that among the Libyan rebels there are insiders who are informing Serbian hackers where and how to attack.
The administrators [sr] of the most popular Serbian Facebook page deny any connections with ultranationalists, explaining the essence of support for Gaddafi:
Ako se neko pita zašto podržavamo Gadafija evo odgovora.
Gadafi je slao naftu nama dok smo bili pod sankcijama.Gadafi nije priznao nezavisnost Kosova i prvi se pobunio.Gadafi je posle bombardovanja '99 slao pare za oporavak nase države.Gadafi je zapošljavao naše ljude kad’ ovde nisu imali šta da jedu.Gadafi se bori protiv ljudi koji su nam uništili detinjstvo.
Zato smo uz njega!
Pukovnice,pobedi zbog svih nas!
Gaddafi was sending oil to us when we were under economic sanctions. Gaddafi did not recognize Kosovo's independence. After the bombing in 1999, he sent money for Serbia's recovery. Gaddafi was providing employment to our people while they had nothing to eat here. Gaddafi is fighting against the people who have destroyed our childhood.
So we are with him!
Colonel, win for all of us!
Daniel Vidal wrote in a comment to this statement:
I heard that Gaddafi gives €2500 to each student who wants to study outside Libya. He also gives them a car…
Milan Veris added:
Gaddafi is a living legend. Twenty years ago, this man built the most modern plumbing in the world. He brought water to Libya directly from the Nile.
(Because of this desert irrigation project, Belgrade's private Megatrend University awarded Gaddafi an honorary doctorate in 2007. Some of Gaddafi's opponents in Serbia however, considered the move a marketing trick to attract Libyan students to this university in the Serbian capital.)
Gorica Pukmajster wrote:
I am one of those whose family was fed by Gaddafi's salary, which, back then, was ten times what I was making when I worked in Belgrade.
Below are some more Facebook comments from the “Support for Muammar al-Gaddafi from the people of Serbia” page.
Dusan Duda Stevanovic:
An army of monkeys led by a lion worth more than an army of lions led by a monkey.
Pathos Ydoni:
To the east of Libya, in cities that are controlled by the rebels, mobs and gangs, according to several human rights organizations, are virtually committing a crime against humanity. […] Rape, murder and torture are normal for rebels…
Trese Babe Oraje got this information from friends in Libya:
The rebels intercepted four buses from Tripoli to Benghazi, with people who started the peaceful protests in support of the Libyan army and stopping the NATO aggression. They took them hostage, and they beat even the women.
The NATO action in Libya has caused some young Serbs, who still live with the memories of the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, to react with hatred.
Burek Pekaric:
These are the disturbed minds, and I really think to go to the French and Italian embassies and kick them with empty beer bottles on their heads. Monsters.
Ljubomir Popovski suggested this:
First, it should start from the dead. All French soldiers should be dug out from the New Cemetery and sent to France in cattle wagons. Second, all French monuments from Kalemegdan should be removed. Third, the French embassy in Belgrade should be closed and turned it into a museum of the NATO aggression.
Will exchange Tadic for Gaddafi. Credit: Vujaklija.com
The most rigorous critics are those Serbs who are disappointed with the decision of the Serbian president Boris Tadić to publicly distance himself from Gaddafi's government, “washing his own hands” of the long-term arms trade with Libya.
Vladimir Speed Savic urges:
Gaddafi, take from Tadic the Persian carpet you gave him last year for the Day of the Libyan revolution. And the honorary medal… Let Sarkozy weave him a new one at his own expense…
The administrator of the group posted a video uploaded to YouTube by Radio Television Vojvodina of the time when the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affair paid a visit to Gaddafi, thanking him for not recognizing Kosovo. Foreign minister Vuk Jeremić and his group performs a deep bow for Gaddafi in the clip.
Some of the Facebook page's members warn that the Serbian police and the Serbian Inteliigence Agency (BIA) are monitoring online activities in the well-known dictatorial style.
Marko Nikolic posts this alarm:
Twenty of them from BIA are here in this group and they are posting messages to the wall.
Jebes Chuck Norris, Gaddafi ujedinio Srbe reveals:
We welcome the night shift of MUP [Ministry of the Interior] that monitors our group with fake profiles.
Bloggers on Vujaklija.com also offer public support to the “defiant” Libyan leader, as the Western media describe him.
Cho-Seung Hui says:
The president who would welcome us to free ourselves forever from joining the European Union, democracy, the rule of human rights, privatization, globalization, capitalism and other disasters that have befallen us after the October 5, [2000].
As_basket_player_5 concludes:
Until a few days ago, a totally irrelevant figure in our lives, and now a hero in Serbia. Nobody knows why.
This post is part of our special coverage Libya Uprising 2011.

author: Sasa Milosevic


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Sudan: A road accident does not cause a revolution · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Can a road accident cause a revolution? “Recent demonstrations in Sudan’s capital Khartoum over road conditions and traffic signals have led some observers in the West to speculate about the possibilities of a Egypt-style revolution there”


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Syria: Reactions to President Assad’s Speech · Global Voices
Anas Qtiesh

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.
President Bashar Al Assad finally made a speech on Wednesday 30 March, 2011, at the Syrian Parliament after days of postponement and anticipation. The president's arrival at the Parliament was met with thundering applause and chanting by the Members of Parliament, and his speech was often interrupted by an MP reciting poems of praise.
Billboard showing Syrian President President Bashar Al Assad, July 2010. Image by Flickr user sharnik (CC BY-NC 2.0).
Twitter users did not receive this well. @syrianrebels tweeted:
الشعب يريد إسقاط مجلس الشعب
and Al Jazeera's Muhammad Basheer added:
الشعب يريد إسقاط النفاق
Wael Alwani, a Syrian student in Saudi chimes in:
للأسف أشعر بالخزي من مجلس الشعب هذا … انا سوري و هذا المجلس لا يمثلني … مجلس نفاق
Ayman, a Syrian expat, announced his first hope for the anticipated reforms:
I hope reforms starts with sacking such an embarrassing Parliament
Syrian blogger and twitter user Sasa (@syrianews) offered suggestions to improve the situation:
4 things: stop chanting, STOP. stop blaming al jazeera. stop blaming foreigners. start announcing something, #basharspeech
Shadi Hamid tweets a short version of Assad's speech for those who missed it:
Short version Bashar speech: reforms maybe. Foreign conspiracies definitely. Satellite channels are bad #Syria
@AnonymousSyria commented:
A regime of resistance against reform, it's our responsibility to fix it, on Friday, not within 10 years like he's said! #Syria
And as the speech ended without offering any tangible reforms, Twitter users proceeded to express their frustrations and disappointment. Syriancitizen said:
فعلاً يابشار كنت خارج التوقعات جميعها. كنا نتوقع أن ترمي بالفتات وإصلاحات شكلية. أما مجرد خطبة عصماء وكفى!!!!!! #syria
Dina Jaffary agrees with the general sentiment of people who watched the speech, she said:
surprisingly the one speech that should have been perfect among all his great speeches is the only bad one…#basharspeech
And Seleucid adds:
I am Syrian. My Country always makes me proud, especially when their leaders don't.
RevolutionistSY was fed up, he tweeted:
شباب انا رايح اسمع سميح شقير .. يا حيف بس يا حيف .. اكتفيت من هالمهزلة .. تصبحو ع وطن #Syria #15March
He was referring to a song called O shame, dedicated for the martyrs of Daraa. The song is by Samih Shqeir, a Syrian singer renowned for his patriotic songs. The song is in the video below available with English subtitles (click on CC icon to display them).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEUdnpMp8xw
This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.

author: Anas Qtiesh


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USA: Al Jazeera’s Future · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Sana of Arab-American blog KABOBfest remarks on a new academic paper that looks at Qatari channel Al Jazeera's future in the United States.


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Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Receives Press Freedom Award in Argentina · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

In response to the recent press freedom award given to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in Argentina, Greg Weeks at Two Weeks Notice writes: “I would like to propose that governments impose a moratorium on  granting awards to people from other countries, particularly when those  people show evidence of doing the opposite of what the award is  supposedly celebrating.”


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Zimbabwe: Exhuming bodies for votes? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Using the dead to win votes: “The beleaguered ZANU (PF) political party is at it again, now by trying to buy political mileage out of the discovery of bodies in the Mashonaland region, yet they continue to neglect the massacres carried out in Matabeleland in the 1980’s.”


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Bosnia & Herzegovina: Towards Partition · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

At OpenDemocracy.net, Bedrudin Brljavac writes about the situation in Bosnia & Herzegovina: “Fifteen years since the end of the war, ethno-nationalist leaders continue to pursue political agendas leading to the partitioning of Bosnia rather than membership of a united Europe. And yet, without the prospect of the EU, it is hard to imagine how Bosnia could ever move on.”


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Brazil: On Opening the Archives of the Dictatorship · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

The military dictatorship in Brazil lasted exactly 21 years, from 1 April 1964 (April Fools’ Day in Brazil, which is why the military point to the previous day, March 31 as the day of the coup) until January 1, 1985. During this time of heightened political repression, 380 people were killed [pt] (a substantial part of leftist anti-dictatorship guerrillas, but many students or simply people who did not support the regime), among which 147 are still missing and nothing is known about the fate of their bodies.
Thousands of Brazilians were victims of systematic torture and arbitrary arrests, including [pt] pregnant women, and in some cases children, while sons and daughters of political prisoners attended [pt] the sessions of torture.
Cartoon by @tonoise, under license CC 2.0
On August 28, 1979, the then dictator, João Figueiredo, enacted law number 6683, known as the Lei da Anistia [Amnesty Law, pt] that virtually excused civilians and the military associated with crimes committed during the period, anticipating the near end of dictatorship and the possibility of lawsuits being brought against the criminals.
Colonel Coronel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra [pt] was the only military personnel to be prosecuted and convicted [pt] on October 9, 2008, officially becoming considered a torturer, even if the penalty would not require payment of a fine or imprisonment, but was only declaratory.
But after 25 years of the end of dictatorship, to date no-one has been punished and military records covering that period remain closed, preventing the families of the 147 missing persons to bury their loved ones and know the truth.
Based on this, a collective blog was organized [pt] in February to demand the opening of the archives of the dictatorship, taking into account that the President of the Republic, Dilma Rousseff, was herself a victim of torture during the period and fought in the guerrilla war against the authoritarian regime.
Niara de Oliveira, from Pimenta com Limão [Pepper with Lemon], creator of the collective blog, gave the reasons [pt]:
Para que mais nenhuma mãe/pai morra sem saber o fim que a ditadura  militar e o Estado brasileiro deram ao seu filho/a, que os arquivos  secretos sejam reclassificados como públicos já e que seus torturadores e  assassinos sejam identificados e punidos.
Afinal, não se constrói uma democracia plena com tantas ossadas  escondidas dentro do armário.
So that no father/mother dies without knowing the end that the military dictatorship and the Brazilian government gave to their child, that the secret files be now reclassified as public, and that the torturers and assassins be identified and punished.
After all, one cannot build a full democracy with so many hidden skeletons in the closet.
Gabriel Pinheiro commensts [pt] on the expectations of Dilma Rousseff:
No dia em que foi empossada como Presidenta do Brasil, Dilma Rousseff  emocionou-se ao lembrar de seus companheiros de luta que “tombaram  na caminhada” contra o regime militar. Além disso, convidou  ex-colegas de cárcere para a posse. O simbolismo presente na eleição da  ex-militante é claro: ela também é hoje comandante suprema do Exército.  Por esses e outros motivos, grande parte de seus eleitores, este que vos   fala incluído, depositaram em Dilma a confiança de que uma postura   diferente seria tomada com relação aos arquivos militares e   investigações de crimes cometidos pelo Estado durante aquele período.
Leandro Parteniani sees no reason [pt] in continuing to keep the archives censored:
[…] não faz sentido nenhum, 25 anos depois da redemocratização, ainda termos  documentos do período militar classificados como secretos,  ultra-secretos ou restritos. Permitir que esses arquivos continuem  fechados, longe das vistas da população, é negar à sociedade um direito  fundamental e, portanto, inibir o avanço democrático. Afinal de contas,  se as pessoas não compreendem exatamente o que aconteceu no seu passado,  que valor darão à democracia? Como se espera afirmar um sistema  democrático que esconde da sociedade parte de sua História?
He also advocates the establishment of the Truth Commission, as done by Brazil's neighbouring countries:
Vale lembrar que, dentre os países envolvidos na Operação Condor  (aliança de vários regimes militares da América do Sul, como Brasil,  Argentina, Chile, Bolívia, Paraguai e Uruguai, para coordenar repressão a  opositores de extrema esquerda), apenas o Brasil ainda não adotou uma  Comissão da Verdade.
A man in a Pau de Arara, cartoon by Carlos Latuff, under CC
Ediane Oliveira reminds us [pt] that the Court of Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS) ruled the Amnesty created during the military regime illegal [pt], and that Brazil did not care about the decision:
A Corte dos Direitos Humanos da Organização dos Estados Americanos (OEA)  reconheceu a importância de se  identificar e punir os torturadores da Ditadura Militar,  decidindo que a manutenção da Lei da Anistia fere acordos internacionais  assinados pelo Brasil. Mas, infelizmente, o governo brasileiro segue  ignorando a decisão.
[…]
A tortura está institucionalizada no  País porque não é possível punir tortura tendo anistiado os maiores  torturadores de nossa história e nem sequer identificá-los.
The Court of Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS) recognized the importance of identifying and punishing the torturers of the military dictatorship, ruling that the maintenance of the Amnesty Law hurts international agreements signed by Brazil. But unfortunately, the Brazilian government keeps ignoring the decision.
[…]
The torture is institutionalized in this country because you can not punish torture after having pardoned the biggest torturers in our history and not even identify them.
Thiago Beleza compares [pt] the relationship between the torture of the past and today's torture, at police stations:
A não punição dos assassinos e torturadores de ontem, é a  certeza da  não punição dos assassinos e torturadores de hoje. O Estado é conivente.
Rodrigo Cárdia contrasts [pt] the situation of Brazil with Argentina, a nation that has tried military criminals:
A Argentina, é verdade, sofreu uma ditadura muito mais violenta que o  Brasil. Em apenas sete anos, foram mais de 30 mil mortos e  desaparecidos. Mas isso não faz com que os 21 anos de regime militar  brasileiro mereçam ser esquecidos. Pois aqui também se prendeu,  torturou, desapareceu e matou.
Amanditas is clear [pt] about the rights of victims and their families:
Essas famílias atingidas pelo “regime” não podem ser ignoradas, tratadas  como se tivessem morrido juntamente com o “regime”. As famílias não  acabaram: elas estão aí, querendo ter o que parece ser um privilégio: o  direito de contar suas próprias histórias.
Finally, Luka clarifies [pt]:
Abrir os arquivos da ditadura militar  não é apenas honrar aqueles que tombaram naquela época, mas também  mostrar que não  aceitaremos mais ficar anos sem notícias de desaparecidos neste país.
Pau de arara nunca mais.
To open the archives of military dictatorship is not only to honour those who perished at the time, but also to show that we will not accept to spend more years without news of missing persons in this country.
Pau de Arara no more [see cartoon above].
The Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil (OAB – Order of Brazilian Lawyers) has an online petition to request the opening of the archives, and has released the National Campaign for Truth and Memory, with actors playing famous left-wing militants dead and missing.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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Bulgaria: Protest Against Belene Nuclear Power Plant · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Komitata and Simo Ivanov wrote in Bulgarian and in English, respectively, about their participation in the protest against continuing the construction of Belene Nuclear Power Plant that took place in Sofia on Wednesday.


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China: Crackdown on Activists and Opinion Leaders · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The Chinese government's crackdown on human rights activists and opinion leaders continues. Samuel Wade from China Digital Timeshas compiled information from all sources to update on the situation.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Exporting Women · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

China Hush translated an article from a local forum concerning the imbalance in the “importation” and “exportation” of women in China where the gender ratio has already been distorted which results in a “shortage of women”.


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China: Inflation and Fear · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Foreseeing the rocket raising inflation, Chinese people are storing up daily necessities, such as Laundry Detergent, at home. Fauna from ChinaSMACK has captured the situation and translated netizens’ response to the inflation fear.


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China: The Interrogation (A Tale of AI and Revolution) · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Stainless Steel Mouse is perhaps best known for being one of the first ‘netizens’ in China to be sent to prison. Today, she remains under house arrest while recent weeks have seen authorities use the call for Jasmine protests in China as a pretext to arrest or arrange for the disappearance of many of her peers. She also remains a huge Sci-Fi geek, and today published a short story that builds off some of her recent tweets, The Interrogation:
（本文纯属虚构，如有雷同纯属巧合）
审讯者：茉莉花革命是谁策划的？
犯人：我不知道，不是我。
审讯者：怎么有人举报说你跟他们讲过要在秘密树洞发推，号召网友聚集呢？我们有理由认为这事就是你干的。
犯人：这话不止我一个人讲过，很多人都讲过，英雄所见略同。至于树洞发推的，确实不是我，你们也没有证据证明是我发的。
审讯者：还有谁讲过？
犯人；这个我不能告诉你。
审讯者：好吧，既然你说不是你发的，那你知道是谁发的吗？
犯人：这个我确实不知道。
审讯者：那好，我们这样来说吧：如果让你猜的话，你猜是谁发的呢？
犯人：我对自己的猜测不负法律责任。
审讯者：当然，你随便说，我也不记录。
犯人：要是我猜的话，我猜“没人”在树洞发推。
审讯者：你这是什么意思？
犯人：我认为发推的不是人。
审讯者：那是什么？
犯人：比如，可能是一个AI
审讯者：AI是谁？艾未未？
犯人：AI就是人工智能，也就是一个程序，就像病毒。
审讯者：你是要我相信是一个程序给我们制造了这么多麻烦？
犯人：这个程序要做的无非是在秘密树洞发消息，然后汇集和发布有关消息，并且根据网友的反馈做出修改，并不需要有多聪明。至于麻烦，其实是你们自己给自己制造的。不是你们大批抓人、重兵把守闹市区、殴打外国记者，根本就不会有什么麻烦。
审讯者：胡说！革命肯定要有幕后黑手在组织，不可能是一个程序就把那么多人忽悠上了街。
犯人：确实不能说是一个程序把大家忽悠上街的——程序只是发布消息，得到消息的人按自己的意志行事，并不需要有人来组织。
审讯者：你确实是在胡说，我们知道一些海外民运人士在做茉莉花革命的组织工作。
犯人：其实那些人和上街的网友一样，都是事情发生之后才参与进来的。茉莉花行动有不止一个主页和推特帐号，而且彼此之间意见并不一致，经常发生分歧和争吵；他们也没有指挥网民的权力，相反，是网民在用自己的行动来选择他们的建议。可见茉莉花革命并不是有哪个黑手在组织，纯粹是每个人按自己的意志行动的结果。其实你们的行为也是在给革命推波助澜，但并不是革命的组织者命令你们这样做的，你们也在按自己的意愿行动，但效果是帮助传播了革命的信息。这就是茉莉花革命的逻辑。
审讯者：一个社会怎么可能没有组织者？那还不乱套了。
犯人：社会可以有许多组织者和行动者，但是并不需要一个核心的组织者。社会是自下而上演进出来的，是所有人行动的结果。无论多么强大的统治者，都无法让社会完全按自己的意志发展。
审讯者：不管怎么说，就算是个程序也要有编程的人，他要对整个事件负责。
犯人：程序不一定是人编写出来的，程序也有可能是进化出来的，这就像人的意识不是上帝的造物，而是进化的产物一样。一个庞大而复杂的程序，可能在多年的进化中逐渐产生了意识，就是它发动了这次的茉莉花革命。
审讯者（咆哮）：你到底在说什么！！
犯人：我说的是GFW，也就是Great Firewall。


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Colombia: Indigenous Communities Protect their Food Security · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

This post is part of our special coverage Indigenous Rights and Global Development 2011.
Indigenous communities in Colombia are taking steps to protect their food security. Not only are they educating their communities to eat what they grow on their vegetable gardens instead of buying expensive food brought from outside but they are also protesting new laws and regulations limiting their access to milk.
Products grown by the indigenous communities
This first video (in Spanish) shows a community gathering at the indigenous reservation of Huellas Caloto where different townships were invited to bring food made out of ingredients they grow on their own plots of land. Pumpkin juice, porridge, corn cakes and other products were used as delicious examples of how their diet doesn't have to depend on imported or purchased goods, but on local and traditional ingredients.
In these next two videos (also in Spanish) we can see  the indigenous Misak community who among others marched to the capital city of Bogotá to protest a new law that would make selling raw milk illegal. In their communities, where they buy milk from neighbors and supplement their diets locally, putting a restriction on raw milk would mean that they would have to buy processed milk at much higher prices, affecting both milk buyers and sellers.  The videos are titled “Milk in Cans doesn't Kill, Hunger Does”
Part 1
Part 2
Water security is also an important issue: in the following video the Communication School of Northern Cauca shows us two separate cases of water issues and how to solve them. In the first case, a woman is washing clothes in the river, and a neighbor comes up to her and kindly tells her that because she is washing clothes in the river, downstream they are getting soapy water. She apologizes and admits that she wasn't aware that her actions were affecting someone else negatively but that she'll ask at home if they can build her an area to do washing where she doesn't contaminate the river. To this, the neighbor replies that they'll gladly give her a hand in figuring out a solution, and help them build it.  The second scene shows tourists near the river bank, where they have a picnic but leave all their trash behind them. A member of the indigenous community comes along afterwards and complaining about the littering, picks up the trash.
You can follow these and other activities of the indigenous communities in Colombia through their website in Spanish.
This post is part of our special coverage Indigenous Rights and Global Development 2011.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Communities in Limbo on Honduran-Salvadoran Border · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Voices from El Salvador's Weblog writes about the communities affected by an ongoing dispute on the Honduran-Salvadoran border, and argues that the governments from both countries “must take immediate action to ensure that those residents in limbo are granted citizenship so that they may have the rights that everyone else does.”


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Cuba: Meeting Carter  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Cuban Triangle summarizes former President Jimmy Carter's visit to Cuba, while Generation Y blogs about their meeting and the symbolic gift she gave him “in the name of several bloggers and other Cubans.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Debate about China Model · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The China Media Project has translated two articles written by Zhang Weiwei, a CCP think tank and Yang Jisheng, an experience retired reporter on their understanding of China Model.


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Ghana: Best Blogs Awards for Ghana · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The Tripbase Travel award is only given to the blogs that are the top of their respective class and are some of the best in the field. Here you will see the best blog awards for Ghana.


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Haiti: Monsanto’s Agenda · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Haiti Grassroots Watch takes “a closer look” at Monsanto's seed distribution in the wake of last year's devastating earthquake.


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Honduras: Security Forces in Denial Over Human Rights Violations · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

RNS in Honduras Culture and Politics reports that “security forces in Honduras continue to be in denial about their trampling on the human rights of Hondurans.” RNS concludes: “Until there is a recognition on the part of the police and military that they are violating the human rights of the Honduran people, the problem will persist.”


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Jamaica: Enquiry No Laughing Matter  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As the Manatt Dudus Enquiry is extended for the third time, GWAP comments: “A Commission that should have cost Jamaican tax payers JMD $37 million has now skyrocket[ed] to JMD $78 million!”, while Pray, Laugh, Grow thinks the whole debacle is anything but funny.


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Jamaica: The Sea & Radioactivity  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“The news out of Japan gets grimmer by the day”: Labrish Jamaica is concerned.


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Japan: The Tsunami, God and Man · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

This post is part of our special coverage Japan Earthquake 2011.
έΑεThe tsunami was a punishment from Heaven.έΑζ Who said this? A European representative of the Catholic Church or a foot-in-mouth Asian politician? Both actually!
A few days after the disaster that killed more than ten thousand people, Italian vice-president of the National Research Council (CNR) Roberto De Mattei and Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara left the Italian and the Japanese blogosphere astounded when they declared that the catastrophe occurred as a manifestation of GodέΑβs will.
Tsunami devastation in Sendai's Wakabayashi district, Japan, 14 March, 2011. By Flickr user robertodevido (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Hosting a radio program broadcast on Radio Maria, the VaticanέΑβs radio channel, professor De Mattei commented on the earthquake and tsunami quoting (in the present tense) words that an Archbishop of a small town in southern Italy said at the beginning of the 20th century.
[…] osserva l'arcivescovo di Rossano calabro, le catastrofi sono talora esigenza della giustizia di dio, della quale sono giusti castighi.
E un giorno […] ci accorgeremo che per molte di quelle vittime che oggi compiangiamo il terremoto ├ρ stato un battesimo di sofferenza che ha purificato la loro anima da tutte le macchie anche le pi├╣ lievi, e grazie a questa morte tragica, la loro anima ├ρ volata al cielo dio ha voluto risparmiarle un triste avvenire.
On the other side of the world from the Vatican, in Japan, a similarly έΑαsensitiveέΑβ Tokyo Governor. Ishihara, renowned for his often racist and homophobic gaffes, said [ja] that the disaster was necessary to restore the Japanese spirit. He later apologized for his remarks.
όΙΣόυ▓ήΒτύ╕δήΓΚήΓΝήΒοόΦ┐ό▓╗ήΓΓήΔζήΔΦήΔξήΔςήΓ║ήΔιήΒπήΓΕήΒμήΒοήΒΕήΓΜήΑΓήΒζήΓΝήΓΤΎ╝Ιό┤ξό│λήΒπΎ╝Κϊ╕Αό░ΩήΒτόΛ╝ήΒΩό╡ΒήΒβί┐ΖϋοΒήΒΝήΒΓήΓΜήΑΓύσΞί╣┤ήΒθήΒ╛ήΒμήΒθόΩξόευϊ║║ήΒχί┐ΔήΒχήΒΓήΒΜήΓΤ […] ϋλτύΒ╜ϋΑΖήΒχόΨ╣ήΑΖήΒψήΒΜήΓΠήΒΕήΒζήΒΗήΒπήΒβήΓΙ
Dismayed by such cynical words pronounced both by an authority in the Italian scientific world and an authority in the Japanese political scene, bloggers from both countries reacted.
An online petition to demand National Research CouncilέΑβs vice-president resignation began circulating.
Chiediamo al Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche le dimissioni del Prof. Roberto de Mattei, vicepresidente del CNR per l'evidente incompatibilit├ι con l'incarico conferitogli e le sue affermazioni che lo pongono al di fuori del pensiero razionale e esperienza e comprensione del mondo mediata dal metodo scientifico.
Blogger Giovanni Boaga, in favor of the petition, said prof. De Mattei can personally believe whatever he wants but should be conscious of the responsibilities related to his public role.
La preoccupazione ├ρ grande e chi di noi, nonostante tutti i tentativi demolitori messi in campo dallέΑβattuale classe dirigente, guarda alla cultura scientifica come al solo strumento efficace di navigazione e orientamento nel difficile mare di questi problemi, si aspetta che dagli esponenti di punta della ricerca italiana venga una ventata di razionalit├ι e intelligenza che spinga la barca delle nostre traballanti convinzioni nella direzione giusta.
Si rimane, quindi, letteralmente senza fiato nellέΑβascoltare le parole del vicepresidente del CNR Roberto De Mattei che, ai microfoni di Radio Maria, ha commentato le terribili notizie che arrivano dal Giappone. Con voce calma propria di chi sembra riflettere prima di parlare, apparentemente consapevole del ruolo centrale che il Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, la pi├╣ grande struttura pubblica con compiti scientifici nel nostro paese, ha nella societ├ι italiana, De Mattei ha ritenuto di non dover affrontare le questioni scientifico-tecnologiche legate alla tragedia giapponese. Ha preferito non parlare delle soluzioni che la comunit├ι al lavoro sotto la sua direzione ├ρ in grado di fornire per assicurare allέΑβItalia un approvvigionamento energetico con rischi limitati e ai cittadini di questo paese gli strumenti per non rimanere vittime delle conseguenze di un terremoto. Certo De Mattei non parlava dai microfoni di Radio3 Scienza, ma poteva essere lέΑβoccasione, comunque, dέΑβinformare un pubblico sempre piuttosto digiuno di questioni scientifiche.
Also a priest and university professor of theological anthropology, Marco Statzu, expressed disbelief.
in effetti le parole di De Mattei hanno fatto rivoltare anche me…
Similar comments on how natural disasters are divine warnings have been said also by personalities like American TV host Glenn Beck  but many Japanese people who are strangers to the concept of divine punishment in the Christian doctrine were surprised to hear the same rhetoric  coming from a politician in their own country.
Some said that Ishihara's words have been misunderstood but nonetheless he managed to anger many bloggers who said a man in his position should weight his words very carefully, especially in a period of national sorrow like this.
Ichinose, for instance, said such statement hurts those people who are struggling to survive.
ίνσύ╜░Ύ╝θ
ήΒψήΒΒ!?
ήΒΛήΒ╛ήΒΙϊ╜ΧόπαήΓΕήΒφήΓΥήΑΓ
ίδ╜ό░ΣήΒψύΟσίΖ╖ήΒπήΓΓϊ╕ΜίΔΧήΒπήΓΓήΒςήΒΕήΓΥήΓΕήΒηήΑΒήΒ┐ήΓΥήΒςί┐Ζόφ╗ήΒτύΦθήΒΞήΒοήΓΥήΒφήΓΥ!!ήΒΛήΒ╛ήΒΙήΓΚήΒχύ╡οόΨβήΒρί╛ΖώΒΘήΒτίνγήΒΠήΒχύ╜ςήΒχήΒςήΒΕίδ╜ό░ΣήΒΝϊ║κήΒΠήΒςήΒμήΒοήΓΜήΓΥήΓΕήΑΓ
ήΒΜήΓΠήΒΕήΒζήΒΗΎ╝θ
ήΒψήΒΒ!?
ήΒΛήΒ╛ήΒΙήΒΝήΒζήΓΝήΓΤϋρΑήΒΙήΓΜήΓΥήΒΜΎ╝θ
ύλ║ήΒΜήΒτί┐ΔήΒΝϋΖΡήΒμήΒθήΓΙήΒΗήΒςϊ║║ώΨΥήΓΓήΒΕήΒθήΒΜήΓΓύθξήΓΝήΒ╕ήΓΥ
ήΒπήΓΓϊ╜ΧήΒχώΨλϊ┐ΓήΓΓύΕκήΒΕήΑΒήΒθήΒιί╣╕ήΒδήΓΤόΚΜήΒτίΠΨήΓΞήΒΗήΒρώιΣί╝╡ήΒμήΒοήΒΕήΓΜϊ║║ήΒτήΓΓίΡΝήΒαϊ║ΜήΒΝϋρΑήΒΙήΓΜήΓΥήΒΜ!?
Another blogger said the survivors are Japanese and working for the same Japan Ishihara criticized.
ύ╜ςήΓΓήΒςήΒΕύεθώζλύδχήΒςόγχήΓΚήΒΩήΒ╢ήΓΛήΒπήΒΓήΒμήΒθίνγήΒΠήΒχόΨ╣ήΑΖήΒχί░ΛήΒΕίΣ╜ήΒΝύΛιύΚ▓ήΒτήΒςήΒμήΒθϊ╗ΛίδηήΒχώεΘύΒ╜ήΑΒό┤ξό│λήΒπήΒΓήΒμήΒθϊ║ΜήΒψϋς░ήΒπήΓΓήΒΝίχ╣όαΥήΒτίψθήΒΩήΒΝήΒνήΒΠήΒρήΒΥήΓΞήΒπήΒΓήΓΜήΑΓ
ήΒΥήΒχήΒΛύΙ║ήΒΧήΓΥήΒχόΑζϋΑΔίδηϋ╖ψήΒψήΒσήΓΥήΒςϋρΑήΒΕϋρ│ήΓΤήΒΩήΒοήΓΓύΡΗϋπμίΘ║όζξήΒςήΒΕήΑΓ
ίΡΝόβΓήΒτήΑΝϋλτύΒ╜ϋΑΖήΒχόΨ╣ήΑΖήΑΒήΒΜήΓΠήΒΕήΒζήΒΗήΒπήΒβήΓΙήΑΞήΒρϋρΑήΒμήΒθήΒζήΒΗήΒιήΒΣήΒσήΑΒήΒζήΒχϋρΑήΒΕόΨ╣ήΓΓήΑΒήΒ╛ήΓΜήΒπϊ║║ήΒΦήΒρήΒπήΒΩήΓΘήΒΗήΑΓ
ήΓλήΔ│ήΓ┐ήΒΝήΑΒήΒζήΓΥήΒςήΒΛήΒΦήΓΛήΒθήΒΜήΒ╢ήΒμήΒθύβ║ϋρΑήΓΤήΒΩήΒοήΒΕήΓΜώΨΥήΒτήΓΓήΑΒϋΘςίΙΗήΒχίΣ╜ήΓΤίΚΛήΒμήΒοήΒ╛ήΒπήΓΓήΑΒόΩξόευήΒρόΩξόευϊ║║ήΒχύΓ║ήΒτί┐Ζόφ╗ήΒπώΩαήΒμήΒοήΒΕήΓΜϊ║║ήΒΝήΒΕήΓΜήΓΥήΒιήΒηήΑΓ
Finally, Hideaki Matsunaga, demanded the resignation of the governor of Tokyo.
ύθ│ίΟθώΔ╜ύθξϊ║ΜήΒΝϋρΑήΒΕήΒθήΒΜήΒμήΒθήΒΥήΒρήΓΤόεΑίνπώβΡίξ╜όΕΠύγΕήΒτόΟρό╕υήΒβήΓΜήΒρήΒΩήΒοήΓΓήΑΒήΒΥήΒΥήΒπίνσύ╜░ήΒρήΒΕήΒΗϋρΑϋΣΚήΓΤϊ╜┐ήΒΗί┐ΖϋοΒήΒψίΖρήΒΠήΒςήΒΕήΒΩήΑΒίχΝίΖρήΒτϊ╕ΞώΒσίΙΘήΒςύβ║ϋρΑήΒπήΒΓήΓΜήΑΓήΒΥήΒχίν▒ ϋρΑϊ╕ΑήΒνήΒιήΒΣήΒπήΓΓϋ╛ηϋΒ╖ήΒΩήΒοήΒΩήΒΜήΓΜήΒ╣ήΒΞίνπίν▒ϋρΑήΒιήΑΓήΒζήΒΩήΒοήΑΒήΒΥήΒχήΓΙήΒΗήΒςϋρΑϋΣΚήΒξήΒΜήΒΕήΒΩήΒΜήΒπήΒΞήΒςήΒΕήΒρήΒΕήΒΗήΒχήΒπήΒψήΑΒϊ╜είχ╢ήΒρήΒΩήΒοήΓΓώΔ╜ύθξϊ║ΜήΒρήΒΩήΒοήΓΓϊ╕ΞώΒσόι╝ήΒπήΒΓήΓΜήΒχήΒ┐ήΒςήΓΚ ήΒγήΑΒϊ║║ώΨΥήΒρήΒΩήΒοήΓΓίν▒όι╝ήΒπήΒΓήΓΜήΑΓ
This post is part of our special coverage Japan Earthquake 2011.

author: Scilla Alecci


text:
Kenyan Bloggers Form an Association; BAKE · Global Voices
Njeri Wangari

On Friday 25th March, several Kenyan bloggers held a meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, under the newly formed  BAKE ( Bloggers Association KEnya). The meeting was the 4th in an initiative by some of Kenyas veteran bloggers.
There have been numerous complaints, accusations and in some instances, outright battle of words simmering  between the blogger community and the mainstream media with cases of plagiarism, copyright infringement and a general lack of appreciation by the mainstream media on the impact that blogging has had in generation and delivery of news and information content in Kenya. This standoff has been aptly covered in a recent blogpost by Jacque Ndinda titled, WriteThinking: Plagiarism-masters of copy paste.
Her main bone of contention is in how the mainstream media owners are downplaying this as the culprits when exposed through numerous emails to the editor do not receive any disciplinary action. More often than note, a simple “we are sorry”, is offered to the blogger with no discussion on compensation or acknowledgment.
Kenyan Bloggers at a previous Barcamp. Photo source: Njeri Wangari
This, among other issues, as well as opportunities for bloggers were some of the items in the agenda at the Friday meeting.
The turnout was quite impressive with more than 20 bloggers in attendance. Most were attending for the first time as the original members had been caught up in other matters.
A blog post by Kachwanya, one of Kenya’s most prolific bloggers, laid out the full agenda as well as the aim and objectives of the association.
Our aims will be primarily
1.Create and promote high quality online local contents and innovations
2.Create viable online Marketing channel for the Kenyan companies
3. Have fun online
One of the things that received a lot of emphasis was the need to build a community where bloggers supported each other and worked closer together to achieve a common objective which is to provide relevant and useful local content online.
During the discussion on revenue generation which most bloggers didn’t view as an incentive to their blogging quest, most admitted that despite signing up with international online advertising companies, there was very little to show for it with most eventually withdrawing from the service. Thus the association will among other things, come up with a more realistic and relevant ad platform that will involve local advertisers.
This, it was noted, would be more effective and would earn bloggers that extra penny which though not sought desperately, would afford bloggers some stipend.
Wanjiku, one of Kenya’s veteran bloggers, announced that she had registered the domains www.bake.co.ke and www.bake.com for use by the BAKE community.
Some of the activities that BAKE is organizing are:-
Activities
•	Bloggers expo after every three months.
•	Bloggers meet up or happy hour every month.
•	Blog competition on topical topics with huge rewards at the end for the winners
•	Blog Awards at the end of the year
Bloggers in attendance were informed that Collins Mbalo who runs the blog ‘A Nairobian’s Perspective’ and a fellow Global Voices author, would offer his advice on legal matters like plagiarism and copyright infringement among others.
Many agreed that this is a great initiative and that it was about time that Kenyans bloggers started speaking in one voice.
We thus look forward to see a lot of good things coming forth in the days to come. There was already some rumors that a large corporation is in negotiations with BAKE for the sponsorship of the first Bloggers Expo. Let us hope that this will spur growth in not just blogging but also in the relevance of the content.

author: Njeri Wangari


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Macedonia, Bulgaria: Facing Hate Speech · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Two NGOs, Media Development Center from Macedonia and Broadcast Training Center ProMedia from Bulgaria, published an analysis of the Macedonian-Bulgarian hate speech in the traditional and new media.
The analysis was published in the book “Hate Speech in Bulgarian and Macedonian Media: Examples, Causes and Solutions”, which resulted from a project supported by OSI's East-East Program; it is available for free download as a .PDF file, in Macedonian and English.
Illustration by Filip Stojanovski, CC-BY
The book informs about the national legal frameworks, provides analyses of the traditional media discourse by various media experts in July-August 2010, around the anniversary of the 1903 Ilinden Uprising, and of use of the new media for hate speech by influential Macedonian blogger and social scientist Anastas Vangeli. According to him:
The collisions between Macedonian and Bulgarian cyber-haters have escalated with the boom of the Macedonian blogosphere ever since 2004/2005 and the establishment of the most popular Macedonian blogging platform “Blogeraj” (www.blog.com.mk, later www.blog.mk) in 2006/07. What has been striking from the beginnings of the blogging platform, is the intensity of the Macedonian-Bulgarian feuds. Due to the language proximity, Macedonian and Bulgarian blog wars have been going on with a very high frequency, very often occupying the front page of the platform, and eventually leading to the departure of many bloggers who refused to participate in that kind of communication. Often, the Macedonian-Bulgarian feuds on the platform have inspired various bloggers, primarily Macedonians (as they constitute the vast majority of the platform users, compared to the minority of Bulgarians, but also because the platform is conceptualized as “Macedonian”, so they act as hosts), to address the rest of the community to action to solve the problem. Sometimes, this urge takes the form of clear, hateful anti-Bulgarian hate speech, and sometimes it takes the form of public address to the editors of the platform to ban Bulgarian users.
These requests have been ‘justified’ as a reciprocal measure, since Bulgarian blogging platforms have been banning Macedonians. However, except in cases of clear violation of laws, such as publishing child pornography, Blogeraj management refuses to ban any users or moderate content, as part of their policy of supporting freedom of speech.
Vangeli, who has an MA in nationalism studies, continues:
Finally, there have been various “appeals to boycott” the content and comments produced by Bulgarian commentators, in order for the self-proclaimed patriots and online defenders of the nation not to lose their nerves. Others attempt to promote a peaceful and down-to-earth reasonable rhetoric. Mecheto Ushko, a Macedonian blogger [whose nickname is the Macedonian translation of the name of a Polish cartoon character Miś Uszatek or Teddy Bear Floppy-Ears], has recently reflected [MKD] on the topic, labeling it destructive and unreasonable:
On this blogging platform […] there are continuously new guys who don’t do anything else except spreading hatred and chauvinism through pejorative slang sentences towards Bulgaria and its citizens. I bet that […] the ones that are on this platform since its foundation will remember that destructive post that caused irritation even in Bulgarian media […]. They probably also remember that most commented post ever, containing more than 15 thousand comments on the Bulgarian nation and state. […]
The hate speech between Macedonians and Bulgarians manifests primarily as an extension of the existing historical feuds, but also the mutual stereotypes – Macedonians label Bulgarians “Tartars” or “Mongols” (which is an example of orientalist rhetoric, in which Asian features are considered traits of backwardness) who look like horses, and whose women are very promiscuous especially with Macedonian men; Bulgarians denounce Macedonians as semi-retarded, brainwashed people who have been manipulated by the Communists. Needless to say, both of the rhetorics besides nationalistic, are machoistic, homophobic and highly sexist. For instance, the ones who engage in hate speech, often post pictures of homosexual intercourse, which in the value system of the radical nationalist subculture is seen as an utterly negative phenomenon, and aims to insult and emotionally harm the one to whom it’s addressed.
For paradigmatic examples of hate speech by Macedonian bloggers, see the so called LogBlog whose motto is “Death for pro-Bulgarians, freedom to the world” and features an image of Adolf Hitler and says in German “Forbidden for pro-Bulgarians, sectarians and dogs”). Another blog that often utilizes hate speech against Bulgarians is Darvel. On one occasion in a post titled “Tartars… Thieves, what else (they could be)?” [MKD], Darvel argued that the authors of Bulgarian Wikipedia have stolen an image of his personal collection by stating the following:
“I can’t believe what kind of bastards these Tartars are… First, they are stealing our national history, then they are stealing my family history, and now they are stealing my photographs. Damn you Tartaric bastards, couldn’t you at least crop this picture? […]”
Another blog entry, by Lavot [The Lion],  discusses the historical role of the Bulgarian Exarchate as primarily negative. The entry is titled “Tartars are only Tartars!” [MKD] and goes on to quote the  [Teodosij Gologanov] [updated: see comment bellow – F.S.] who argues that the Exarchate attempted to culturally assimilate the people of Macedonia more than a century ago (it was founded in 1870 and was active in Macedonia up to 1912). This is a very vivid example of how sometimes (mis)interpretation of historical documents can lead to using offensive words and slurs. An exchange of hate speech in the comments goes on:
A Bulgarian commentator says the following in English, using the adjective “FYROMIAN” as a slur word, and thus implying that Macedonian is not a human language; [“FYROMIAN” derives from FYROM, a shorthand for the provisional name that the Republic of Macedonia accepted for use within the UN, but which is considered offensive by Macedonians because it fails to mention the word “Macedonia,” present in the long form, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia]:
I don’t speak FYROMIAN:(((
[…]
Do you speak any human languages???
Like English, Bulgarian???
A Macedonian commentator replies in Macedonian, playing the homophobic card:
You can easily see that all Bulgarians are fags by soul and heart and they can read and see only what they want to see, but not the things that do not fit their perception. You Tartar whore, the solution for you is only Hitler to come back and to exterminate all whore-souls like you.
Further on, after several exchanges of insults and hate speech, a Macedonian commentator calls to arms:
It was enough silence [by the Macedonians] and this is the case with all of our neighbors. If we do not start [the war, conflict or similarly], then we will have to defend ourselves and only after that attack with our full force. By the way, I found out why the Bulgarians are so mad at us… we have f*cked the Bulgarian women too often, in the past for a very cheap price and nowadays just for fun […]
Recent examples of blog posts that fit the descriptions above include gloating [MKD] over the news about Bulgarians who were caught stealing potatoes in Greece, or wishing [MKD] there were no “frustrated” Bulgarians on Blogeraj who bother with name-calling based on the acronym FYROM.
Vangeli also noted that other social media have been used for politicized hate speech, from YouTube to Facebook groups, and concludes:
What remains an open question, is how to tackle this obviously seething problem? One positive aspect is that at least the hate speech now is not hidden under the carpet, but becomes publicly visible through the new media. However, the challenge of how to solve the issue will inevitably open a debate on possible censorship, tighter regulation and sanctions for the ones who engage in acts of hate speech. Yet, one must not forget that the new media contents are a mere copy of our everyday life. Sanctioning  hate speech online will not prevent the individuals to hate and to say hateful things away from the keyboard, and in the long run will not solve the problem. Therefore, the problem of hate speech in the new media is primarily a problem of the existence of hate speech itself. Civil society and media campaigns, as well as mutual actions might have better odds in combating it. In the attempts to influence the culture and the attitude of the online community, a Macedonian blogger writing about everyday life in Sofia, or a Bulgarian blogger writing about everyday life in Skopje will certainly have a better chance than a strict censoring policy.