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Haiti: Waiting for water · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Nearly six days after the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti, despite a global outpouring of concern and the mobilisation of an immense relief effort, there is a severe shortage of potable water in Port-au-Prince. As a New York Times op-ed piece by Steven Solomon explains, at the best of times “nearly half of all Haitians lack satisfactory access to clean drinking water”. With supply routes into Port-au-Prince disrupted by damage to infrastructure, recovery efforts are being hampered by the unavailability of this crucial resource. An article in the UK Guardian gives more details:
Four US ships carrying desalination equipment capable of producing up to 25,000 litres of water a day will not arrive for several days. The USS Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier already at the scene, can produce 35,000 litres a day. But the problem is how to get the water to survivors.
Stephanie Bunker, of the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in New York, said: “Some bottled water is en route but it is a very small amount. There has also been some distribution of purification tablets. Water is water. You can't last long without it.”
At the blog of the aid organisation KONPAY, a relief worker described the problem at an ad hoc triage hospital in the Delmas neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince:
We have teams in the Dominican Republic with truckloads of supplies, but they were stopped at the border and were not allowed entry. The situation here is desperate and getting restless. The John Hopkins Students who were visiting Rights based Haiti and AMURT when the earthquake hit, have been doing surveys and assessments of the clinics and refuggee camps in the nearby zones.  The surveys that they conducted two days ago show that none of the people in the camps had food or water to last them more than a day.
The frustration felt by many on the ground is also expressed in a series of updates by Twitter users. Musician and hotelier Richard Morse, posting to Twitter as @RAMhaiti, noted on the morning of Saturday 16 January that some doctors were “selling water”. That night, @fredodupoux  wrote: “@carelpedre can u get CNN to give adress of God's Littlest Angels Orphanage to see if we can send them water.”
After sending out several appeals on behalf of the orphanage, @carelpedre remarked: “It's sad! It's Been 4 days now and we're begging for some water on twitter!”
One reader outside Haiti who took notice was Jamaica-based blogger Annie Paul. She commented on her blog the following morning:
This stark tweet reminded me of the gap between virtual reality and the REAL, constantly reminding us that no matter how empowered we feel by the new technologies there are too many people out there at the mercy of nature, without so much as the crudest tools at their disposal to withstand its ravages.
By Sunday morning, @carelpedre was able to report that “The[y] are fillling water gallons up in petion-ville. In front of scotiabank! Pass it on!”
And other more positive news has been sporadically appearing. The Livesay [Haiti] Weblog mentions (with no other details) that
Water purification in the form of a safe chlorine product is being made around the clock and will be distributed for people to add to their dirty water source and be able to make it safe to drink
how can they hear, the blog of a religious aid group in Jacmel (on Haiti's south coast), reports that “We just bought over 60 gallons of safe drinking water today. That should cover us for about a month to 6 weeks.” The Republica Inaguantable blog notes that one relief centre in the Dominican Republic has collected one thousand bottles of drinking water to send to Haiti.
Donors in many parts of the world have collected bottled water and purification equipment to send to Haiti, but getting these into the country and into devastated areas remains a major problem. Without an efficient supply network, disease and dehydration threaten to add even more casualties to the immediate toll of the earthquake.
Please visit the Global Voices Haiti Earthquake page for more coverage of the event.

author: Nicholas Laughlin


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India, Bangladesh: Transit Rights And Opportunity For North East India · Global Voices
Rezwan

Sandeep Bansal calls India's recently concluded accord with Bangladesh on the transit rights for North East India as a historical opportunity for this region.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Rezwan


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India: Demise Of An Icon · Global Voices
Rezwan

Abhijit at Blowing In The Wind compiles media reactions on the death of the veteran communist leader and ex-chief minister of the West Bengal state of India, Jyoti Basu.


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Iran: Helping Haiti · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Dosieh, an Iranian blogger, proposes [fa] that Iranian opposition starts to help Haiti's surviviors.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Is France letting Haiti down? · Global Voices
Suzanne Lehn

French collective blog Etats du Lieu has a rant against what they feel as  an abandoning of Haïti by the French government. So far, says the post, it has handled the issue with not much more than an emergency phone number, 100 fire fighters and a few million euros, whereas Haïti shares with France a mostly dramatic history and has been a founding member of francophonie [Fr].

author: Suzanne Lehn


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Japan: For Haiti it may be too little, too late · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

The city was like a battlefield. Houses had collapsed, bridges had toppled over, overpasses had fallen to pieces as the ground beneath literally turned to liquid. Thousands died, hundreds of thousands were left homeless. Like refugees in a war zone, the inhabitants of the fallen city scavenged through the rubble of their homes to find the bones of their relatives, to little avail.
This was not Port-au-Prince circa 2010, however. This was Kobe, circa 1995.
Photo from the Great Hanshin Earthquake by Flickr user mah_japan
In an odd twist of fate, the worst earthquake to hit Haiti in two hundred years has erupted within days of the 15th anniversary of Japan's worst earthquake since the second world war: the Great Hanshin Earthquake, which hit the city of Kobe on January 17, 1995. Given the timing of the catastrophe, along with Japan's reputation for expertise in earthquake disaster response, one might have expected a strong Japanese presence in Haiti.
In truth, however, the opposite was the case. In an entry titled “Japan's absence from Haiti – a signal of ‘mulfunction'?“, Japanese blogger, ENOTECH Consulting CEO and Tech Mom in Silicon Valley Michi Kaifu explains:
3 days after the severe earthquake hit Haiti, Japanese rescue team has just arrived in Haiti.  TV has been showing Obama talking about Haiti every day, and showing the international rescue effort, not only from the neighboring countries, but also from far places such as China and Taiwan, as well as European countries.
I am aware that ports and airports are destroyed and logistics is tough now.  I am aware that all these countries have at least *some* amount of diplomatic/political agenda in providing help.  But I have been a bit concerned about the total absense of Japan from the scene.
In her Japanese blog, Kaifu went into more detail about what she saw of the Japanese presence from her home in the U.S.:
それに比べ、日本は全く米国メディアで言及されていない。日本のメディアでも扱いは小さく、被害についての報道だけで、日本の関与については最近まで報道されていなかった。（ようやく、救援部隊が着いたという報道が出たらしいが）されていなくても、きちんとやることはやってるんだろう、と半ば希望的観測として信じていた。インドネシアの津波のときも、9/11のテロのときも、それなりに迅速に対応して人も派遣されていた。だから、たとえ政権党がなんであっても、やるべき部署の人が地味にちゃんとやっているに違いないと思っていた。
In contrast [to these other countries], Japan hasn't been mentioned at all in U.S. media. Likewise, there has hardly been any coverage of Haiti in Japanese media, with reports only on the extent of the damage, and until just recently nothing about Japan's contribution. Even though there were no reports of it, I had been expecting somewhat wishfully that they were doing something. (*) After all, Japan responded and dispatched forces relatively quickly after the tsunami in Indonesia and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. So, regardless of the political party in power, I was sure that the people in the department in charge would quietly do what they were supposed to do.
(*) Note: There was apparently a report that Japanese rescue forces have at long last arrived.
Later in her blog entry, Kaifu highlights the damage Japan's failure to respond will cause to its image abroad:
ハイチそのものの重要度だけの話ではない。ハイチに利害関係を持つアメリカのメディアでは、国民のこういったものに対する反応は敏感なので、「日本もちゃんとやってます」というぐらいは一応言っておかないとまずいんじゃないか。別に無理してスタンドプレーをする必要はないし、やったからといって日本が取り上げてもらえるわけじゃない。日本なんてどうせ無視されてんだから。でも、だからこそ、こういった国際社会での「日本ブランド」維持のため、たとえ目立たなくても、日ごろから最低限のおつきあいはきっちり「タイムリーに」しておかないといけないんじゃないか。インターネット時代だからこそ、やっておけば誰かがどこかに必ず痕跡を残してくれる。たとえ主要メディアが書かなくても、「神様」ならぬ「ネット上の誰か」が必ず見ていてくれる。
This is not just about the importance of Haiti itself. People in the United States, a country in which Japan has a significant stake, are sensitive to the response to this kind of thing, and when there is nothing mentioned in the media even on the level of “Japan is also doing this and that”, it looks really bad. That doesn't mean Japan needs to overdo it and grandstand or something, and just doing something doesn't mean that Japan will be covered in the media either. Japan will be ignored regardless.
But for precisely that reason, even if it doesn't stand out or anything, Japan needs to make a minimal effort in a timely way to support the “Japan brand” on the international stage. This is the Internet age, so if you make the effort, someone somewhere will take note of it. Even if mainstream media don't write about it, somebody on the net is sure to notice.
災害への迅速な対応が適切にできるかできないか、ということは、一般国民に対する政治家や国のイメージの上で、思わぬ重要度があったりする。ブッシュが本格的に落ち目になりだしたきっかけは「ハリケーン・カトリーナ」だった。阪神大震災のときの村山首相もその後悪い印象を残した。オバマが「え？そんなにおおごと？」と思うほどの対応をしているのは、その教訓があるからだろう。言うまでもなく、別にオバマ本人が全部やってるわけじゃなく、しかるべき人が権限の範囲でやっているのだが、そういう人がちゃんといて、そういう機能を政権として備えているということの証拠ということだ。
In the last line of the English blog entry, Kaifu suggests the failure of Japan's response in Haiti may reflect a weakness of the new administration of Yukio Hatoyama:
In general, the new Hatoyama – Domocratic party government has been less effective in foreign affairs.  Is this case signifies another evidence that they don't pay attention to the things outside of Japan?  That they are too domestic minded?
Blogger shwartz0000 agreed with Kaifu, and went further in their criticism of the lack of response:
報道が四川大地震のときとは大違いだ。単にマスコミがぼけているだけで、国はちゃんとやっているんだろうと私も思っていた。多くの国民もそう思っているだろう。「ああ、マスコミがまた馬鹿だから、小沢疑惑ばかり報道して」とかなんとか、思っているのだろう。私も思っていた。
だが、違うらしい。外務省も官邸も、この記事が正しいのであれば、数十万人が死傷している災害が起きているわりには、実に小規模な対応だ。
なんというか、心の底から思う。
俺の払った税金返せ。
What a huge difference between the news reports this time and those during the Sichuan Earthquake. I had also assumed that it was just the incompetence of the mass media, and that the government was actually doing what it ought to be doing. I suppose a lot of Japanese were thinking the same thing. “Ah the mass media are so stupid, that's why all they're reporting are suspicions about [Ichiro] Ozawa” — that's I guess the kind of thing people were thinking. That's what I was thinking too.
But apparently we were all wrong. If this article is correct, then both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Kantei only managed a minimal response even as a disaster with hundreds of thousands of casualties was taking place.
From the bottom of my heart, all I can say is this:
Give me back my tax money!
Bookmark comments on the Japanese blog entry provide some other views on the Japanese Haiti response. This comment by kobecco328 was strongly supported:
全く同感です。報道もなっていない。ハイチを支援せずに阪神淡路大震災を語るのは変だ。
usataro also agreed, writing:
確かに日本の動きの無さは異常に思った。こういうのはニュースが飛び込んできた瞬間に何らかの政治的なコメントを発して対策を指示すべきだと思う。
On Twitter, meanwhile, comments about Haiti have been pouring in. yuko_moon writes:
スーパーでハイチへの義援金募金箱が置いてあったので、とりあえず持ち合わせの小銭を入れた。そんなことしかできない。
Osaka city council member Yoshitaka Tsuji [辻義隆] reflected on the Japanese response and coverage in the media:
CNN見てる。米国による人種差別に蹂躙された国ハイチ。民主政権ができたとたんに大惨事。米国の突出した支援は、そういう経緯を踏まえたオバマ大統領の決断。こんな大変な時に日本の対応は十分なのだろうかと心配になる。ハイチ報道はやはり少なすぎる。
Finally, regardless of everything else, there were moments of hope. erikinha216 delivered this message to her followers:
ハイチ震災でまた1人生存者が発見！！ 72時間以上たったけども、今も救助を待ってる生存者は沢山いるはず！頑張れ！！祈ることしかできない私がなんだか情けないですが…祈りを捧げ続けたいです。

author: Chris Salzberg


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Japan: Remembering the Great Hanshin Earthquake · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

As images of the devastation in Haiti circle the globe, people in another earthquake-prone part of the world are today remembering an earthquake which wreaked havoc in their own country 15 years ago to the day. On January 17, 1995, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit Kobe and surrounding areas, killing over 6400 people and causing an estimated ten trillion yen in damage. 15 years after Japan's Great Hanshin Earthquake, we today give voice to those who experienced the disaster.
Hanshin Earthquake Memorial. By Flickr user PapiGiulio
Blogger Bokuwakuma describes what they saw:
当時、「ぼくはくま♪」は団地の５階に住んでいました
のでその揺れ方は大阪でも半端じゃなかったですよ。
余震も何日か続いていたことを覚えてます。
しかしその日は会社の仲間でやっていたサッカーの
朝練習日だったので集合場所の公園にとりあえず行った
誰も来ていないだろうなって思ってたら１０人程度集まっていました。
まだテレビではあんな神戸が悲惨な状況になっているとは
全く知らずのんびりサッカーの練習とは・・・・
そして「ぼくはくま♪」の人生でもターニングポイントとなった
初のボランティアの経験
At the time, I was living on the 5th floor of a housing complex, and I could feel violent oscillations even from where I was in Osaka. I remember that the aftershocks continued for a few days. On that exact day, my colleagues and I had decided to play soccer in the morning, and the first thing I did was to go to the park where we were supposed to meet. Only 10 people came, and I wondered why other people weren't showing up. We kept on playing anyway, because we didn't know anything of the tragedy that was happening in Kobe, as was later shown on TV…
That was a turning point in my life. My first experience as a volunteer.
Blogger Onezero was also a witness:
私も震災直後、弁当と水筒を持ち、親族の家に行きましたが、電車は途中まで、道路はビルや家の倒壊でふさがれていて、歩いて１０時間かかって現場に着きました。親族の家は全壊していて、みなさん、運よく助かり遠い親戚の家に避難したあとでした。近くに傾いた１０階建てのマンションの入り口で老人夫婦が配られた水を上に運ぶのに難儀していましたので、運んであげました。
Soon after the earthquake hit I took my lunch box and water bottle and went to my relatives’ house, but the streets were blocked because buildings and houses had collapsed. The train stopped at a certain point and I arrived only after 10 hours walking.
My relatives’ house was completely destroyed, but luckily, everybody had already found shelter in the homes of other relatives.
I remember there were a couple of old people at the entrance of a 10-floor building. They were finding it hard to bring the water upstairs so I helped them.
「こんな傾いたマンションに住んでいるんですか？」と聞くと、「行くところがないんです」と哀しそうに言いました。
途中で見た光景は一生忘れないでしょう。いずれの家も、まともに建っている家などないのですから。
“Are you living in this building? It looks like it's going to fall over!” I said. “We don't have anywhere else to go!” they said, with sadness in their voices.
I cannot forget the spectacle I saw that day. There were no houses left intact.
Great Hanshin Earthquake. By Flickr user mah_japan
Blogger Sakanayaraku writes of their experience:
当時 神戸のホテルに勤めていて震災を体験した一人なので今回は当時の様子を書きたいと思います。
あの日は自宅で寝てたら突然凄い地響きがして、体が宙に浮いた後、ものすごい横揺れ。
どこかに隠れるなんて考えてる間もないほど揺れの大きさに恐怖でパニックになりました。
幸いにも怪我もなく、建物も無事でしたがしばらく大きな余震が続き生きた心地がしませんでした。
自分が住んでた場所はあまり被害がなく、しばらくして仕事場のある三ノ宮に車で向かいましたが、崩れ落ちたビルに潰れた家そして寒い中パジャマ姿で道端で座りこんでる人々
As someone who experienced the earthquake myself, working as an employee at a hotel in Kobe, I'd like to tell you a bit about what the situation was like at that time.
When the earthquake hit, I was at home sleeping, and suddenly the ground started to shake violently. My body was yanked around, and I started getting pulled from side to side. The tremors were so strong that I completely panicked, and didn't even have time to think of a place to hide.
Fortunately I made it out alive and the building never collapsed, but at the time I really didn't think I would survive the violent aftershocks.
The houses in the area where I lived were not damaged, so after a while I got in my car and drove to Sannomiya, the district where I worked. But all I could see were collapsed buildings and houses, and people sitting by the roadside in the cold wearing only their pajamas.
[…]
仕事場のホテルも幸いな事に無事 ですが電気、ガス、水道全てストップしばらく営業出来ない状態になり、地震の後すぐに沖縄に戻る事にしました空港に向かう車の窓から 壊れた街並みを見て凄く寂しい気持ちになった事を今でも思い出します。
あれから１５年、すごい早さで復興し神戸の街もすっかり変わったそうでいつか変わった神戸の街を見てみたいもんです。
The hotel where I worked was intact but there was no electricity, gas or water, and since it was going to be out of service for a while I decided to go back to Okinawa. On the way back to the airport, from the car window, I saw a city in ruins, and I can still today remember the horrible sadness I felt.
15 years have passed, and with surprising speed the city of Kobe has been rebuilt. They say it's changed a lot. One day I'd really like to see what it's like today.
Another blogger published pictures of Kobe right after the first shocks of the earthquake. Flickr user mah_japan has also posted a set of photos, see Great Hanshin Earthquake (1995/01).
Finally, while it may not seem that way from their government's actions, many Japanese today are taking the opportunity on this day of remembrance for those who died in Kobe to address words of solidarity to the people of Haiti.

author: Scilla Alecci


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Jordan: Bloggers Take On Controversial Court Ruling · Global Voices
Ebtihal Mahadeen

Following the recent Jordanian Cessation Court’s decision to subject electronic websites to the Press and Publication Law, the Jordanian web has been overflowing with reactions to the court ruling which many Jordanians see as a step back for freedom of speech in the country.
Awen Al-Meshagbeh, writing for Mideast Youth, gives an example of the Jordanian governments’ treatment of an online writer, Mr. Salah Momani. Al-Meshagbeh has this to say about the governments’ various methods of censorship:
Relying on a mix of indicators such as detentions, regulations, and intimidation to crush any peaceful and generally loyal opposition, the Jordanian regime has now emerged as one of the leading online and print media oppressors in the Middle East. This is evidenced by the outright and clear violation of the fundamental principles put forward by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) to measure a society’s tolerance of free speech; these principles include but are not limited to: governments’ use of filtering, monitoring, and regulation (Arab Times newspaper and its online version is an example); authorities’ use of imprisonments; and other forms of legal harassment to deter critical journalistic writing (Mr. Ahmed Al-Abbadi is another example).
Parallel to these efforts, BamBam goes over the list of things that may no longer be discussed in the Jordanian web:
Anything that goes against national responsibility
Anything that goes against Human rights
Anything the goes against islamic and arabic sensibilities
Anything concerning the Jordanian armed forces or security apparatus unless otherwise authorized
Anything ridiculing any of the religions or sects recognized by the constitution
Anything that harms the national unity and incites on committing crimes
Anything that promoted deviancy and corrupts morals
Any information related to the secret session of the national council
Any non-disclosed government documents
To further illustrate the gravity of the court decision, Gaith Saqer over at Arab Crunch quotes Basil Okur, one of the founders of Ammon News, a Jordan top-ten site according to Alexa as saying that “according to the court order, a publication definition is any thing published, meaning anything circulating online: forums, Tweets, blog posts and comments, Facebook wall comments and email.”
Other blogs, like La Sharaf Fil Jareemah (No Honour in Crime) which is dedicated to combating honour crimes in the country, takes part in the ongoing discussion of the new ruling by providing a list of relevant coverage of the news in myriad sources ranging from local and international news papers to news websites and blogs. Yet others only half-jokingly mock the new situation, take Kinzi for example, who writes:
Guess I’ll have to keep most of my drafts unpublished, and that the ————— ooops, can’t go there. And the —– oops, can’t go there either. I hope complaining about local driving doesn’t fall into these categories.
The general feel in the Jordanian blogosphere, however, seems to be one of defiance. Several bloggers are pushing for an active challenging of the court rule, like Razan Khatib who maintains that:
amongst other freedoms we don’t enjoy in Jordan, this is something we actually know what it tastes like, something we love so dearly, we nurture and are leaders in our region because of it. So this time around, we will not let that freedom be taken away from us so very easily!
Urdun Mubdi3 (Creative Jordan) contributor Zeid Abu-Odeh echos Khatib's sentiment, as he writes under the title “In Defence of Freedom of Speech and the Internet“:
This is a golden opportunity for us all to fight together for a decent life. Let us make our voices heard for the whole world, and preferably in Arabic so we could be taken seriously for once.
While several news websites are actively publishing stories about the new restrictive ruling, Naseem Tarawnah at The Black Iris advocates a thorough inspection of the new situation. He says in reference to recent reactions:
Some are jumping to conclusions and some are launching various campaigns, and I just feel we don’t have the right information at this point, which in itself is a problem the Jordanian government has created – but that’s nothing new.
In the meantime, Eyas Sharaiha's bilingual article on 7iber “Websites and Publication Law“ is an attempt at analysing the possible ramifications of said law. Sharaiha holds that:
Extending anti-defamation laws to the internet is natural, and does happen in European countries and the United States (albeit with minor stipulations). It is based on the simple expectation that what you do in the “cyber world” is entailed by what you do in the “real world”.
Reserving individuals’ rights for protection against false claims and attacks on reputation in the internet is highly important. However, such protection of rights should not be done in the frame of media, press, and publication legislation, as that would hinder the openness of the web as we know it.
The article has generated quite a flurry of responses, many discussing the nature of censorship and others differing on what can be considered defamation under the Jordanian Press and Publication Law, and which now extends to websites and electronic media more generally. If the responses generated on 7iber and other Jordanian websites are anything to judge by, this is one discussion that won't die down quickly.
Interestingly, the court's decision corresponded with Freedom House‘s publication of its Freedom in the World 2010 report in which Jordan was downgraded from Partly Free to Not Free. Jordanian bloggers have not missed the opportunity to comment on the ironic correspondence, and MommaBean concludes “after all, without a voice, without a presence, without a dialog, where does that leave this wonderful, vibrant country of ours? Apparently it leaves us sad, silenced, and lacking critical reasoning.”

author: Ebtihal Mahadeen


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Senegal offers free land to Haitian earthquake survivors · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

President Wade, pictured here at the 2002 World Economic Forum, wants to grant Haitian earthquake survivors free land in Senegal (image source: Wikipedia)
In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, politicians and citizens around the world have scrambled to join the global outpouring of solidarity for Haiti, and poor countries, including many in Africa, are no exception.  Rwanda, Liberia, South Africa, Gabon, Nigeria and many others have already pleged financial aid.  However, it is the 84 year-old Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade, who has been making headlines.  Wade is offering free land to any Haitian earthquake survivors who wish to “return to their origins,” according to a spokesperson.  Online, the proposal has been received with almost universal ridicule.
Although Blog Politique au Senegal has yet to comment on either Wade's offer or the earthquake, it did post this commentary by Dr. EL Hadji Malick Ndiaye [Fr] on the importance of “South-South” solidarity, published before Wade's announcement:
Il arrive des moments dans l’histoire d’un pays où les citoyens ont l’occasion de donner une leçon d’éthique à leurs élites. Il arrive des moments qui sonnent comme des opportunités pour un peuple de montrer sa grandeur morale. Nous ne pouvons pas nous complaire dans le fatalisme et la position de l’eternel assisté. A nous seuls, le Sénégal, nous ne mettrons pas fin aux souffrances du peuple haïtien. Cela ne nous dispense pas d’agir, cela n’excuse pas notre indifférence en acte. En ce moment même en Haïti des gens sont en train de crever et c’est cela réalité profonde de ce tremblement de terre. Tous les discours de solidarité sont bien dérisoires à cet instant, si on ne fait pas notre possible pour nous rendre utiles. Donnons un peu au reste du monde, car nous avons déjà beaucoup reçu du monde et nous en aurons peut-être besoin un jour. Les citoyens des grandes puissances qui se tournent aujourd’hui vers Haïti, au-delà de la simple valeur éthique de leurs actions, nous donnent une leçon de plus sur le sens de l’intérêt collectif. C’est moralement indigne de prétendre être un peuple magnifique, avec des valeurs magnifiques, un peuple prompt à fustiger les tares de l’Occident, à brandir les valeurs de solidarité religieuse, et de ne jamais lever le moindre petit doigt pour diminuer arithmétiquement la souffrance du monde.
However, offering to emigrate landless Haitians is not the kind of material solidarity many envisoned.
Serigne Diagne, who has been closely following Senegal's response to the earthquake, had this to say about the scheme (edited from the original English version):
…Dakar, which has trouble taking off and solving its many problems related to sanitation and urbanization, whose suburbs are wading in flood waters from years past, by what means can she accommodate a population or a whole country at the other end of the world?…[Without explaining where the funding will come from] Abdoulaye Wade, in a [gesture] of solidarity and pan-Africanism, proposes to depopulate Haiti, thereby forgetting that charity begins at home…
…[It must be assumed that] Abdoulaye Wade, very nostalgic [of] the 19th century, believes that Marcus Garvey is still alive, and that the “Back to Africa” movement is still valid. One day, he will eventually tell us is that[it was] the Ku Klux Klan who made the earth tremble in Haiti…each country has its own calamities. Haiti has its own, which generate a lot of compassion, and we have ours, which do as much damage as an earthquake, such as statements by a president who has trouble staying above the fray, and whose[record] is a source of controversy. The Haitian people, as was said and reiterated by the President ¨”Are entitled to the African soil”. The question remains, if they want it.
PascaleBoulerie, a reader at tak2.00221.info writes:
C'est une idée bien stupide, parce que le Sénégal souffre aussi de manque de terres cultivables, de surpopulation * et d'émigration.
Phillipe Souaille, coming on a post at the Tribune de Geneve, writes:
Cher Gorgui, j'ai le sentiment que ton président a perdu une occasion (de plus) de se taire. Je ne crois pas que les Haïtiens crèvent d'envie de se réfugier en Afrique. La solution est forcément de trouver le moyen et les moyens de les aider à prospérer chez eux. Au moins pour parvenir au même niveau de vie que celui des îles voisines, tout de même supérieur à ce qu'il est en moyenne en Afrique, Sénégal inclus.
Une telle réflexion est même carrément effarante en ce qu'elle révèle des capacités d'analyse, de proposition et de réalisation pour le moins émoussées du bonhomme. La sénilité n'est-elle pas en train de faire son oeuvre? Il est temps qu'il laisse place à la relève, s'il n'a plus d'autres solution à proposer à un peuple qui souffre que l'abandon et l'exil !
Dear Gorgui, I have the feeling that your president has (once again) lost a chance to keep quiet.  I don't believe Haitians are dying to seek refuge in Africa.  The solution is to find a way to help the prosper in their own country.  So that they can at least achieve the same standard of living as their neighboring islands, which is at any rate higher than the average in Africa, Senegal included…
…Is this not the work of senility?  It is time that he makes way for a replacement, if he has no other solution to offer to a peole who suffer from abandonment and exile!

author: Jennifer Brea


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St. Lucia, Haiti: Role of Social Media  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“It is at such times of large-scale catastrophes that we get a true sense of the incredible power of the Internet and social media”: St. Lucia's Caribbean Book Blog on the Haiti earthquake.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Trinidad & Tobago, Haiti: Aid  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinidad and Tobago's Pleasure blog posts a poem in honour of the Haitian earthquake victims.


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Trinidad & Tobago, Haiti: Blame the Alcohol · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“As thousands in [Haiti] were trapped under rubble and were wailing for their lives, our politicians…decided to go ahead with the ceremonial opening of Parliament.  Prime Minister Patrick Manning…left the day’s proceedings early, promising $6.3 million in aid to Haiti. Then…he hosted…a ‘media appreciation’ event…there was not a single press release or press conference on the Haitian catastrophe”: Trinidadian blogger Andre Bagoo blames it on the alcohol.


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Turkmenistan: New way out for the natural gas · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Elina Galperin writes that Turkmenistan lainched a new Central Asia-China gas pipeline, and wonders if there is going to be enough gas for Nabucco and how will China affect Central Asian politics.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Africa: Free Kiswahili synthetic voice for Freedom Fone · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Brenda writes about free Kiswahili synthetic voice for Freedom Fone, a project of Kubatana in Zimbabwe: “In recognition of the competitive mobile phone tariffs prevailing in east Africa and the willingness of organisations there to experiment with information on demand voice services, we will create our first localisation of the Freedom Fone GUI for Kiswahili in February 2010.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Armenia: Blogging prime minister · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Unzippedblog tweets that the Armenian prime minister, Tigran Sargsyan, has set up his own blog [AM].

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Brazil: Viewing the Haitian earthquake from without and within · Global Voices
Diego Casaes

Brazilian bloggers are united in solidarity with its neighbor Haiti, after a devastating earthquake struck the country that has tragically left a huge death toll, and many people displaced and in need of aid. Many United Nations peace-keepers, among them 14 Brazilian State Military Police officers, have been found dead [pt] after  a severe earthquake hit Haiti, and the country is also mourning the passing of Nobel Peace Prize-nominated paediatrician and aid worker Dr. Zilda Arns Neumann, founder of a Catholic pastoral care for poor children.
In addition to paying homage to those who lost their lives, Brazilian bloggers have been discussing the extent of the event. Some expatriate bloggers report from Haiti, whereas back home discuss diplomatic relations between Brazil and the Caribbean nation. At the same time, the whole blogosphere is in uproar after comments made by the Haitian consul in Brazil, George Samuel Antoine, and getting together to help as much as they can, as shown toward the end of this article.
On [the lack of] diplomacy and humanity
Bloggers quickly stood up against unfortunate comments that the Haitian consul in Brazil George Samuel Antoine made, unaware that he was being recorded by the TV Network SBT. The news piece containing the moment in which he states the earthquake brings visibility to his consulate is now on YouTube [pt]. The consul says: “The disgrace there has become a bliss for us here, for us to get known”; he blames the country's  predominantly African religion for the tragedy: “I think it has to do with messing so much with voodoo, I don't know what it is ….” […] ” the African himself has a curse. Everywhere there are Africans it's f*****”.
In another video, the consul regrets his comments and blames his poor command of the Portuguese language for the misunderstanding. Despite this, bloggers have launched a petition demanding him to be ousted from the consul position in São Paulo [pt]. In an open letter to George Samuel Antoine, DiAfonso at the Terra Brasilis blog [pt] explains why he supports the petition and compares the consul's comments to the more commendable attitude of a Brazilian UN official in Haiti, who decided to stay in the country after sending home her children, who were among the few people who survived the collapse of the hotel they were spending holidays:
A brasileira Eliana Nicolini, funcionária da ONU, poderia seguir com seus filhos de volta ao Brasil e esquecer a tragédia que se abateu sobre o país que o sr. representa como cônsul-geral: o Haiti. Mas ela, sr. George Antoine, não o fez. Resolveu ficar por lá e honrar a missão que foi a ela delegada. A decisão de Eliana Nicolini nada tem a ver com “visibilidade”. A missão dessa grande mulher tem sintonia com ajuda humanitária e respeito aos que estão sendo duramente castigados por um fenômeno natural, aliado a problemas de ordem política, econômica e social. A missão dessa grande mulher, sr. George Antoine, não se relaciona à autopromoção. Essa mulher não esboçou nenhum juízo de valor nefasto, como o sr. fez. Ao afirmar, categoricamente, que ESCOLHEU A MISSÃO E VAI FICAR, ela mostrou ser digna e solidária. Os filhos dela estão bem, mas muitos haitianos, NÃO ESTÃO. Eis a razão da grandeza dela.
However, the Haitian consul was not the only figure of international diplomacy to leave bloggers shocked by their unkind remarks. A group of Brazilian aid workers and researchers made homeless after the earthquake had an unpleasant reception by the Brazilian ambassadress at the Embassy in Port-au-Prince, where they had gone to seek support and shelter so that they could stay and help. The group left the place embarrassed:
Ela não nos perguntou nada. Não sabia quem éramos, ou o que fazíamos aqui. Quando soube que de um grupo da Unicamp se tratava, não titubeou: “A EMBAIXADA NÃO TEM NENHUM COMPROMISSO COM A UNICAMP. O EMBAIXADOR PROIBIU QUE FOSSEM HOSPEDADOS EM NOSSAS DEPENDÊNCIAS. ELE É O EMBAIXADOR, ELE MANDA; SE HOSPEDAMOS VOCÊS TEMOS QUE HOSPEDAR TODOS”.
E seguiu, com pérolas: “A EMBAIXADA NÃO VAI EVACUAR NINGUÉM PORQUE EU NÃO VOU SAIR DAQUI. VOCÊS DEVEM VOLTAR PARA O BRASIL COMO VIERAM. VOCÊS SABEM ONDE FICA O AEROPORTO, COMPREM PASSAGEM; VOCÊS SABEM ONDE FICA A RODOVIÁRIA, DE LÁ SAEM ÔNIBUS PARA A REPÚBLICA DOMINICANA”. E prosseguiu com a máxima: “NÃO TEMOS NENHUMA RESPONSABILIDADE SOBRE VOCÊS. VOCÊS ESTAVAM NO LUGAR ERRADO NA HORA ERRADA, SINTO MUITO”.
[…]
O que o Haiti pode esperar de embaixador e embaixatriz que atuam desta maneira? O que aconteceu conosco não tem a menor importância. Só é revelador do lugar que o Haiti parece realmente ocupar no universo de nossas relações internacionais.
Otávio Calegari Jorge wonders in the post “Haiti: We Are Abandoned” what the UN and the Brazilian Military, member of the MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti), have actually done for the country over all these years of peacekeeping occupation:
O que presenciamos ontem no Haiti foi muito mais do que um forte terremoto. Foi a destruição do centro de um país sempre renegado pelo mundo. Foi o resultado de intervenções, massacres e ocupações que sempre tentaram calar a primeira república negra do mundo. Os haitianos pagam diariamente por esta ousadia.
O que o Brasil e a ONU fizeram em seis anos de ocupação no Haiti? As casas feitas de areia, a falta de hospitais, a falta de escolas, o lixo. Alguns desses problemas foram resolvidos com a presença de milhares de militares de todo mundo?
What have Brazil and the UN done during six years of occupation in Haiti? The sand houses, the lack of hospitals, the lack of schools, the garbage. Have any of these issues been solved by the presence of thousands of military from all around the world?
Reports from the ground
La Citadelle [pt], a blog kept by the University of Campinas researchers, brings reports of their situation just after the earthquake. On January 13th, in one of the first blog posts on the subject in Portuguese and from Haiti, Werner says that the population is not being helped enough:
A situação está se complicando: saindo às ruas em busca de água, o pessoal viu muitas pessoas feridas na rua, mortas, casas desabadas e pessoas retirando os escombros, além de briga por comida, saques, um tiroteio, e o pior, aparentemente, tudo isso sem a presença de nenhum tanque, carro ou oficial da ONU nesses primeiros momentos de pavor a população. Apenas soubemos que as tropas estavam removendo os escombros do Hotel Montana, um dos hotéis da alta classe, onde deveria estar personalidades da ONU. Torcemos para que as tropas já presentes no Haiti, e outras que devem ser enviadas imediatamente, não demorem a agir no seio da população, orientando-a na organização do socorro, antes que tal população tenha um acúmulo ainda maior de frustração e de pânico.
There are over a thousand members of the Brazilian Military currently living in the country. On the Missão de Paz blog [pt], Lieutenant Couto publishes a touching email testimonial:
Foi literalmente a pior sensação que ja senti em minha vida, pois me senti totalmente inútil sem poder fazer nada diante da grandeza daquele fato.
E acompanhado disso um sensação de desespero que tive que controlar por ter sido de certa forma, preparado para isso como Policial Militar.
And following that, a feeling of desperation that I had to contain because I had been somehow trained for this in the State Military Police Force.
Helping out
So far, the Brazilian government have sent more than 10 tons of food to Haiti, as well as relief and rescue teams to work on the ground. A third of the amount of money promised by the Brazilian President Lula da Silva, R$5 million ($2.8 million), has already been released to the UN Emergency Fund to assist the country. Additionally, Voluntários Online provides tips [pt] for Brazilians who want to go to Haiti to give relief assistance.
VivaRio, a Brazilian NGO for social development working in the slums of Port-au-Prince since 2004 has started a fundraising campaign in Brazil to help the victims of the earthquake. On the third day after the earthquake, the donations from Brazil had surpassed R$110,000.00 (approximately US$62,000):
Desde 2004, o Viva Rio desenvolve projetos sociais voltados para a segurança, o desenvolvimento e o meio ambiente no Haiti. Os nove brasileiros que trabalham no projeto estão bem. A sede do Viva Rio em Bel Air sofreu apenas rachaduras e está abrigando milhares de vítimas.
Faça a sua doação na conta:
Banco do Brasil
Agência 1769-8
Conta 5113-6
CNPJ: 00343941000128
Para doações efetuadas de outros países, informe o código BRASBRRJRJO.
A group of independent journalists have started the Haiti.org.br [pt], a project giving news content, articles and analysis about what happens in Haiti, focusing on citizenship, politics, human rights, economy and culture. They have also shared information on how to donate to the victims of the earthquake. For more information in English, please check this pdf file.
Please visit the Global Voices Haiti Earthquake page for more coverage of the event.

author: Diego Casaes


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Canada: Aboriginal Youth Suicides Hit Crisis Rate · Global Voices
Juhie Bhatia

When the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games kick off next month, an Aboriginal symbol will be representing the event. The Games’ logo is a contemporary inukshuk, a stone sculpture used by Canada's Inuit people as directional landmarks, which organizers say symbolizes friendship and hope. But hope is one thing many Aboriginal youth in Canada appear to lack, as suicide continues to occur at alarming rates, leading to crisis-like situations in some communities.
Suicide rates have declined in Canada through the years but not in Aboriginal communities, though there is great variation among communities. Suicide rates are five to seven times higher for First Nations youth than for non-Aboriginal youth, and rates among Inuit youth are among the highest in the world, at 11 times the national average. Some spectulate that the problem is actually worse, as stats don't usually include all Aboriginal groups.
Many factors may be contributing to these high rates, including isolation, poverty and lack of adequate housing, health care, social services and other basic amenities. The blog Sweetgrass Coaching, written by Richard Bull, also blames the pain and helplessness that resulted from colonization:
“You can’t understand Aboriginal suicide without looking at colonization. We, as Indigenous people, must realize that we did not have sky-high suicide rates before the European invasion (contact is too clean a word for what actually happened).
When Canadian society says we’re sick that’s like a psychopathic killer complaining to someone he’s tried to strangle repeatedly that she should do something about the marks on her neck and see a psychiatrist about her recurrent nightmares and low self-esteem.”
Specifically, some bloggers point to Canada's residential schools, a federally-funded system run by churches that removed Aboriginal children from their families and communities to help them assimilate into Euro-Canadian cultures. From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Aboriginal children were required to attend these Christian schools. It was later revealed that many of these children endured physical, emotional and sexual abuse. In June 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized on behalf of the Canadian government and its citizens for the residential school system.
Anishinawbe Blog by Bob Goulais says the multi-generational effects of residential schools must not be underestimated.
“Many residential school survivors and their families have no identity beyond their church and what they learned in school. With no identity and without acceptance, they are banished to the margins of society. Although this generation might be more accepting – with access to more social programs and numerous political, legal and rights-based victories – the damage from the past generations has been done. Parents don’t know how to be parents. Families don’t know how to Love…
…For far too many youth, suicide is the ultimate way out. We’re seeing that more in more in remote, northern communities. This is truly the saddest commentary. I can’t imagine how bad life must be for a twelve year-old Cree boy to hang himself at the recreation centre swing-set. To not have the Love he needs… to not have hope. To know that he hasn’t been the first and he won’t be the last.”
To help combat suicide among Aboriginal youth, the Web site Honouring Life Network, funded by Health Canada, was launched in  April 2008. It contains resources for youth and youth workers, a blog and personal stories from Aboriginal youth, among other things. In this personal story a young man talks about how his older brother's death led him to contemplate taking his own life.
“On the second anniversary of his death, I just couldn’t feel like missing him anymore. I got up really early in the morning and was walking to the picnic shelter by the lake. This other guy had hung himself there not long before. I felt like I wanted the lake to be the last thing I saw.
My neighbour was out though and started talking to me and I guess he could tell something was wrong. He kept talking to me and talking to me and then he woke up my parents. I never actually told them what I was going to do but they knew somehow. It was a big shock to all of us and it woke us up.
We started to get into the traditional healing; like my dad and I will do a sweat lodge with the other men. I’m not going to talk about that because it’s private. And my mom does the whole thing with burning sage and sweetgrass, which kind of stinks up the house but that’s okay I guess because she’s more like my mom again.”
Last fall, the Honouring Life Network announced a video contest, where Aboriginal youth were encouraged to submit a short video related to suicide prevention and awareness. The entries can be viewed on their YouTube channel; the winning entry is entitled “Choose life”:
Other youth are also working to help fight this growing problem. In 2006, Steve Sanderson, an Aboriginal youth cartoonist, wrote and illustrated a comic book called “Darkness Calls” to highlight suicide among Aboriginal youth. Revolving around a teen named Kyle, the story is also available as a video. In the blog Stageleft, the blogger discusses 12 other Aboriginal youth who are making a difference, and were rewarded for doing so, including his daughter Charlotte:
“I feel very safe in saying that not one of the 12 people on the stage lived the lives they have lived, or did the things that they have done, so they could get an award…Charlotte has been concerned with Aboriginal youth suicide rates, the rate of suicide in the Aboriginal community is many times higher than the national rate, and the rate of suicide within the Inuit community is the highest in Canada. To help bring attention to this she, and 4 other Aboriginal youth, walked from Duncan BC to Ottawa speaking at community centres, youth detention facilities, friendship centres, municipal councils, and to every politician that would listen to them.”
A 2009 UNICEF Canada report on Aboriginal children's health states that suicide intervention and prevention can only be successful by taking into account the interconnected relationships between culture, community and environment. Whatever the approach, the blog Rebel Youth says Aboriginal youth, like all Canadian youth, deserve a future.
“Over 50% of Aboriginal people are under 23. Canadian youth justified by being deep enraged by treatment of Aboriginal peoples by the Canadian ruling class; the attack on Aboriginal youth is an attack on all youth.
Aboriginal youth need a future. A future free from racism, a future with a good paying job, a future with land or proper compensation for land use. A future with rights to universal education right up to and including post-secondary education. A future with good housing. A future without racist police brutality and racial profiling. A future with a dream. A future that is a reality.”
Photo of Inuit Child by  wili_hybrid on Flickr, Creative Commons.

author: Juhie Bhatia


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Chile: Sebastian Piñera is the Next President  · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

The center-left coalition party Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia said goodbye to 20 years of ruling in post-dictatorial Chile. For the first time after democracy was reinstituted in Chile with the end of Augusto Pinochet’s regime in 1990, a right-wing candidate – Sebatián Piñera Echeñique, was pronounced president-elect.
Sebastián Piñera's Campaign Symbol-This How We Want Chile, by Comando de Sebastián Piñera and used under a Creative Commons license
With 51.61% of the votes [es], Piñera from the Coalición por el Cambio (Change Coalition), a coalition of center-right leaning parties, defeated the candidate presented by the Concertación, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, in a runoff election held on January 17.
This historic election has been on bloggers’ radars for months. For some, like Monserrat Nicolas at Curvas Políticas [es] this election was more of the same:
Con cada ciclo electoral, la Concertación saca del closet “el pasado” y machaca el tema de la “dictadura” ante lo cual la Alianza responde con la “corrupción eterna” y su elevada postura moral. Todo porque le es oportuno para captar votos.
But Sergio Correa Espinosa from the blog Política Ficción [es] shows a more positive take on this election:
Independiente del candidato que salga victorioso, Chile ya no será el mismo a partir del lunes. Esta elección, mas que todas las anteriores de los últimos 20 años, marcaran con toda seguridad un antes y un después. El desgaste de la Concertación, la aparición de nuevas fuerzas políticas, la posibilidad cierta de que la derecha gane la elección y el empoderamiento ciudadano, hacen que independiente de cual sea la coalición ganadora, el mapa político chileno se reorganice después del domingo 17.
Photo of jubilant Piñera supporter by Sopapos and used under a Creative Commons license.
Espinosa’s analysis and enthusiasm about Chile’s democracy was one shared by many other bloggers and Twitter users—even when their preferred candidate was nor the winner, as Chileans quickly voiced their opinions through these tools.  Rodrigo Maragaño [es], creative director of doop.cl, posted a phrase on Twitter that was enthusiastically re-twittered by Frei supporters and anti-Piñera Twitter users:
Con respecto a estas elecciones, acá va mi opinión: Chile necesita pasar por un Bush para elegir un Obama.
On the other hand, Professor of Political Philosophy Gonzalo Bustamante Kuschel wrote positively about Piñera on his blog [es]:
Triunfó, seamos claro, el candidato que tenía más condiciones […] Si hay algo que tiene el nuevo presidente es energía, aguante e inteligencia.
However, for many voters who can only remember a dictatorial rule from the right, Piñera presents a big question mark: How will a right-leaning president rule in today’s Chilean democracy? Left-leaning blog Chile Liberal [es] tells the president-elect:
El país le dijo NO a la dictadura en 1988, y ha repetido la misma respuesta por más de 20 años. Señor Piñera: no crea que ahora Chile cambió de opinión. Actúa como estadista y consciente de que escribes la historia del país […] Limítate Tatán a dar estabilidad para que la sociedad dialogue. El que manda es el pueblo, no tú. Tu función es administrar las cuestiones de Estado, y no dártelas de no sé qué cosa.
Other bloggers, like lawyer and journalist Héctor Soto [es] see this election as a positive step in the right direction toward the country’s reconciliation after the Pinochet dictatorship, and after the 20 years of ruling by the “transition” government:
El triunfo de Sebastián Piñera pone fin al veto de dos décadas con que el electorado castigó a la centroderecha por su falta de sintonía con los tiempos y por su colaboración con el gobierno militar […] Si Piñera hace de Chile un país más eficiente, cumplirá la promesa. Pero sólo sorprenderá si hace un país más equitativo y mejor
Chileans were not the only ones attentive to the elections; Twitter users from other Latin American countries, especially Venezuela, expressed their admiration for Chile’s democracy and electoral process, like Venezuelan Gisela Carmona [es]:
Que envidia Chile, su democracia, sus elecciones, sus candidatos, sus discursos, su civismo… Viva la democracia
Sebastian Piñera will assume power at La Moneda (the seat of the President) on March 11, 2010. He will serve a 4-year term, and in accordance to Chile’s constitution, he will not be allowed to run for a second consecutive term.

author: Silvia Viñas


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China: Speculating the future · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

ESWN translated Han Han's blog post on his wild speculation of the future of Chinese Internet. The blog post was removed by sina blog hosting.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Elects New Head · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

The Muslim Brotherhood has elected a new supreme leader – Mr Muhammad Bedei.
Muslim Brotherhood blogger Abdel Monem Mahmoud wrote about the election of the new leader at Ana Ikhwan saying:
He then continued:
Abul Maaly Fayek, who blogs at Lokmet Eish, wrote about the new leader's appointment, and how this is the first time a new leader is elected while the former one is still alive:
But it seems that, Cat of the Desert, has a different point of view:

author: Tarek Amr


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Egypt: Natural Disasters and the NDP  · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Alkhan posted a new comic strip which compares the catastrophic impact of natural disasters to the effect of being governed by the National Democratic Party ruling Egypt.

author: Eman AbdElRahman


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Egypt: Rain in Luxor · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Jane Akshar, a British expatriate living in Egypt, comments on having rain in Luxor for the first time since 2007.


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Georgia: Patriotic military classes · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

In the latest edition of Caucasus Watch, a bi-monthly feature of the blog-based Evolutsia, Inge Snip takes exception to a proposal from the Georgian president to introduce patriotic-military classes in schools. Although the blog recognizes the importance of a country such as Georgia being able to defend itself, it says that such a move more resembles the tactics used by authoritarian countries where nationalism is spread to indoctrinate the masses. Evolutsia concludes that Georgia should instead seek to strengthen its democratic credentials rather than take what it considers to be a step back.


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Graffiti and Urban Art: Voices from Latin American Streets II · Global Voices
Issa Villarreal

Editor's Note: This is the second in a series of posts about graffitti and urban art around Latin America. To visit the first series, please click here.
In public spaces, street art (or urban art) represents the voice of the community, marginal groups, and young people that strive to be heard, often defying the notion of private property. Latin America is not an exception for this. Some of Latin American street art is distinct from what is created by the hip-hop movement, focusing on political messages and stories of struggle that speak directly to the viewer.
Through the lens of bloggers, Flickr users and communities, and contributors on YouTube, we offer you an online tour of the art of the streets that communicate secrets and passions at every turn.
Cuba
As in any organized community, graffiti has its own rules. Graffiti’s primary medium of creation is aerosol paint (or spray). Experienced graffiti writers use different sizes of spray valves to control the spread and pressure of the paint, and refill the cans to save money. Thus, it is not uncommon to find artists that consider street paintings that use other medium or techniques (like acrillic paint, brushes, and such) as not part of the graffiti community. These type of paintings might be considered more “art-oriented”, as Guatemalan artist NEARsyx from Hemisferio Urbano expressed in part I of this article. In other words, the variation of medium in graffiti is usually related to the term “street art”.
However, the case of Cuba stands in the middle of this, as shown in a short documentary film called “Havana Bombings” (created and shared by Camila Fernández) about the Cuban graffiti:
One of the interviewees explains a unique characteristic of Cuban graffiti:
Por las características de la economía, se hace muy caro. Lo que supuestamente se hacía con spray porque el resultado es barato, aquí es todo lo contrario. Aquí el spray se encarece mucho. Se usan recursos alternativos. En el  festival de Alamar, Rudolfo Renzoni, que fue el creador del festival internacional de rap, la gente, los graffiteros, decían “¿cómo vamos a hacer graffiti si no tenemos spray?”. Y él decía que no, para hacer graffiti no necesariamente necesitas spray.
The documentary features artists Ink (César Rojas) and NoNo12 (Yanelis Valdés) using paint brushes to create their work on murals.
Another video (provided by user vadebike) shows a gathering in Alamar, one of the cities where the movement has higher activity, with urban artists that use these “alternative” means to create graffiti.
Chile
There are many reasons behind doing street art. One of them deals with bringing public spaces back to life with community art instead of commercializing it, as it happens with abandoned lots and murals. Following a similar aesthetic approach to the street art is blog KELP [es] (“kultura en la pared” / “kulture on the wall”), which focuses on graffiti as way to enhance urban design in Chile. Its statement reads:
KELP.cl busca explorar y promover el trabajo plástico del graffiti, casi desde la perspectiva disciplinar del diseño. Su postura no es reaccionaria ni violenta. Rechazan el vandalismo. Tampoco profundizan en la ideología o el conflicto social que hay tras de muchas de estas expresiones. Eso les permite centrarse principalmente, en la propuesta estética, por lo que generalmente escogen los mejores ejemplos mundiales
Earlier this year, the author of KELP profiled Grin, a Chilean artist [es] who has been active for more than a decade. Grin combines his passion for graffiti with another urban discipline: architecture. He practices both in enormous murals that play with depth and texture, and sometimes they merge with the structure of the building itself:
Photo by KELP. Used with permission. Taken from www.kelp.cl
Browsing through the large pools of photos of the streets of Chile of Street Art Valparaíso, Chile*stencil or Los Muros Nos Hablan, it is easy to find other creative examples on how urban buildings and colored fantasies live in the same space harmonically:
Photo by justin fain. Used following a Creative Commons license. Taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/fainspawn/2769790038/
Latin America Region
Graffiti suramericano [es], South American Graffiti and SMNR [es] are some of the Flickr groups that collect street art works for the region. Blog network Murales Políticos [es] dedicates one blog for several countries of Latin America to display an interesting gallery of political-oriented murals.

author: Issa Villarreal


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Haiti: Mobile phones bring news of missing relatives · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

In Port-au-Prince, @guyadams , the Independent's L.A. correspondent, tweets: “People finally able to get mobile signals. Sadly, that means they're only now finding out about dead relatives…Our host just found out that three of his cousins are dead. Don't know what I can say to console him.”


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Haiti: Online Maps Shift from Charting Damage to Targeting Aid · Global Voices
Marc Herman

Here are some maps that humanitarian aid responders are using to communicate the evolving situation in Haiti’s earthquake zone. Nearly a week after the disaster — and aftershocks equal to major temblors — the maps and satellite imagery are proving some of the most reliable information available.
The Ushahidi Network has created a very detailed interactive map overlaying information on threats, people needing assistance, medical care, food and other aid availability by type. The map is being updated as information is received via the Ushahidi network, Twitter and Web form.  Ushahidi's Erik Hersman, in an email message, said the system was processing mostly web and Twitter communication in the first days after the quake, because cell networks were down in much of southern Haiti. That's changing and cell service, which is more widely distributed, “is bringing in a lot more reports.”
Crisis Commons, a network of technology professionals that creates tools for humanitarian relief response, has announced that it has undertaken a similar project to map relief efforts and to generate a crisis-specific baseline map of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, for relief agencies to use as planning reference. The project has just begun.
In New York City, the New York Public Library has a series of maps online showing camps where survivors are finding shelter. A second set identifies damaged areas and buildings. They are being edited and updated.
Most other imagery is not interactive, but arguably gives a broader overview of the situation. This image from the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information measures distances from the quake’s epicenter to where people lived in southern Haiti pre-quake. It’s color-coded to reflect population density.
According to the map, the Hatian state of Leogane, though it has not been identified by name in many news reports, was the quake’s epicenter, and contains several heavily-populated areas. Carrefour, a large suburb of Port-au-Prince, is on Leogane state's border. The city of Jacmel, on the coast, is also in Leogane and badly damaged. As of late yesterday, broken roads and bridges were still cutting off the area, which is closer to the epicenter than Port au Prince is, from receiving aid.
The US Geological Survey has put information into a very easy to read chart of cities by population, color-coded by the quake’s intensity. The result is a very fast way to understand just how many people were living in the places hit hardest by the disaster. USGS has also posted a map of the earthquake reports it has received by phone. It shows perceptions from people phoning the USGS to tell them what they saw.
The NYTimes has created a three-dimensional map that is extremely useful for understanding where Port-au-Prince lies in relation to Haiti’s geology. It shows the city in a coastal plan at the foot of a range of mountains that complicate aid delivery. The Times’ map also explains very clearly the location of several neighborhoods where medical aid and food distribution has begun, and shelter has become haltingly available.
Direct satellite imagery is available here. Orbital images taken as recently as yesterday are being compared to images of Port-au-Prince and the environs before the quake, like this one.
The satellite view can determine damage and needs in areas that still do not have reliable communication. In theory, night imagery should be able to tell us something similar about electricity, the availability of light, and perhaps fuel. But if those images are in use, they haven’t been made public yet.
For more on the earthquake in Haiti, visit our Special Coverage page.

author: Marc Herman


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Haiti: Updates from outside Port-au-Prince · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Six days after southern Haiti was devastated by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake, international attention continues to focus on the situation in the capital city, Port-au-Prince. But charity aid workers and others based in towns elsewhere in the earthquake zone continue to post information online about other communities, as well as appeals for help.
In Fond des Blancs, a village about 65 miles west of Port-au-Prince, Canadian Ellen in Haiti works with the St. Boniface Hospital Foundation. She has been using her blog to share information on behalf of the hospital. On Saturday 16 January, she posted a message from the director:
In Fond des Blancs, we have a functioning operating room, but need an orthopedic surgeon, supplies, gas (diesel and gasoline) and water as soon as possible. If anyone has contacts with the military, they can feel free to land by helicopter at a field within a ¼ mile of the hospital and deliver what is needed, so that we can start operating.
The following day, she reported:
… we heard wailing and lamenting start from the Adventist church across the road.  A body had just been brought back from Port au Prince.  As we walked home, we passed the Catholic church, where a funeral was just ending.  There will be many funerals here in the coming days.
People are walking out of Port au Prince, and walking many miles to get to villages where their relatives will offer them shelter.  We are sending our trucks and ambulances in and picking people up who are heading to Fond des Blancs.
The news from Petit Goâve, on the coast west of Port-au-Prince, seems worse. Konbit Pou Ayiti posted a report, dated Sunday 17 January, from an aid worker on the ground:
Many buildings collapsed during the earthquake in Petit Goave; at first it appeared as though every brick building in town crumbled. The buildings still standing are very dangerous and we need engineers to come in and check the structures to see which are safe. We have not yet had any relief efforts from outside come to TiGwav, so the first priority is the urgent need for a medical team on the ground as soon as possible.
The report goes on to ask for tents and bedding, a forklift, and electricity generators.
In Jacmel, on the south coast, charity worker Gwen Mangine said on 18 January that members of her organisation, Joy in Hope, together with staff from the Hands and Feet orphanage, had “become airport administrators” at the town's small airstrip:
They are directing planes where they need to go, handling the flight manifests, checking passports, it's insane. INSANE. Why do you ask? Good question. Because there are flights coming in and there is NO ONE ELSE to do this. They mayor has turned over the airport to us….
Once the flights are done for the day we have to get all our sorted/inventoried items into the hands of the people that need them. And pack up our “mobile” command center– which I speak of VERY loosely because it includes an 800 lb generator.
Some hours later, via a newly set up Twitter account, @JoyInHope reported:
Unloading the 4th plane today in Jacmel, Haiti! Sending supplies to Christianville via helicopter. Crazy busy at the airport.
Mangine's colleague Leann Pye, who blogs at Pye's in Haiti, posted photos of a relief plane being unloaded and supplies being delivered to doctors.
And students of the Jacmel Ciné Institute continue to post video footage of earthquake recovery efforts, recorded using equipment salvaged from the ruined institute building. The latest video, “Les Handicaps” by Vadim Janvier, shows an agitated family trying to secure proper burial for an earthquake victim, and scenes at the makeshift emergency treatment centre established in the grounds of Jacmel's ruined hospital.
With Canada's earthquake response team assuming responsibility for Jacmel, as reported today by the CBC, there are hopes that relief operations in the town will now move more quickly. As @RescueJacmel put it on Twitter:
Joy in Hope and Hands and Feet work together with Canadian military in #Jacmel. Supplies finally coming in!

author: Nicholas Laughlin


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Hong Kong: The Siege of Legco · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

DM from Learning Cantonese has a very detailed account of the protest against the government finance plan of the world's most expensive Express Rail Link project on Jan 16, 2010.


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Japan: Shifted Stances in News Reporting · Global Voices
Tomomi Sasaki

In a post titled ‘Media Shifts Make Japan A Harder Read‘, the Shisaku blog describes the changes in the way major news outlets have been reporting news since the establishment of the new administration and why “the world is relying more and more on unfiltered retransmission what Japanese media outlets are producing”.

author: Tomomi Sasaki


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MENA: A bad weekend for ME bloggers · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Michael Collins, the Middle East Institute blog editor, thinks that the past weekend was bad for bloggers and social networkers in the Middle East, specifically in Egypt, Jordan and Iran.


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MENA: Does Rain Bring Happiness or Misery?  · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Many bloggers and Twitter users from Egypt and different parts in MENA region reported rain and some dusty storms today. Depending on their circumstances, some welcomed the drops of rain with joy while others braced themselves for the storms, flooding and heartbreak.
From Syria:
@mulanrady : مطر غزير يعم سورية كلها. دائما هناك ارتباط بين المطر والخير. عندما تمطر تصبح وجوه الناس اكثر سعادة. وتصبح العيون أكثر بريق.
From Saudi Arabia:
@alfarhan : عواصف ترابية رهيبة تضرب جدة. الرؤية جداً متدنيه. نفسي نلزق موضوع العاصفة بأمانة جدة بس ماني عارف كيف ؟
@sfatani : Jeddah Dusty and stormy #jeddah
From Jordan:
@mkhawaja : مطر مطر مطر
From Egypt, more rain was monitored in Alexandria and downtown Cairo:
Zeinobia was commenting about rain in Egypt.
@Zeinobia : raining in Mohendessin crazily I have not seen rain like this for years
@Ssirgany : It was a mix of light rain and sunshine on my way to the office (Salah Salem from Helio), but now it's cloudy & raining heavily in Dokki
@EngyG : it's raining in mohandessin sporadically, bas it is! ;)
@maggieosama : it's raining here alot in Garden City
Andrew who lives in Katameyya also confirmed rain!
@andrewheiss : Rain! This is crazy!
In Alexandria, as always, it rained heavily and small snow flakes have been observed:
@linuxawy :  it was raining heavily in alex, and we got small ice too.. but it just stopped
@Sarah_ElShafie : Cloudy Some Rain No Storm…. Alexandria, Egypt:)… Looks like the sun will come up now..
Sadly Cat of Desert noted a sad event that happened due to rain in Sinai:
@catofdesert : مصرع مواطن وفقد أخرين في سيول جارفة بوسط سيناء
At Egyptian Chronicles, Zeinobia has more information on the Sinai floods. She says:
Today the weather was bad in Egypt , some areas were lucky enough to avoid heavy rains like for instance Cairo but some areas were unlucky as the heavy rains turned in to flood and this is just the start according to weather forecast.
Officially 4 citizens have been killed , hopefully I will get a better information later today.
Aswan , North Sinai and South Sinai have the bigger share in losses because of the rains that turned in to floods since the morning.
The news gets even worse:
A British tourist has died in accident in the Nile because of the heavy rains in Aswan today. I feel sorry for him along with all those who died today.
There are rumors that the Egyptian and Israeli forces on our borders searching a missing group of Israeli tourists. Already the citizens in Sinai found themselves in front of an Israeli jeep brought by the floods in the morning !!
Also I read a tweet that the Sharm El-Sheikh airport was badly damaged in the rains !!
Back in Sinai, Zeinobia says the situation is dire and help is needed:
Things in Sinai are not that great at all and it needs urgent help , I hope that the army will save the day as usual. The people in Sinai are praying that the rains do not destroy their houses and kill them.
It is worth mentioning that residents of Luxor in Upper Egypt also confirmed heavy rains – the first in two years.
A side small talk happened between Egyptian bloggers Embee and Tarek Amr, with the latter on the opposite side of everybody else, and didn't want rain to fall.
@embee : let's hope the #rain gets here SOON
@gr33ndata : Oh no, please not, I hate #rain, I hate it so much.
@embee : but #rain cleans the streets.. And the trees! How could you hate it?
@gr33ndata : Rain cleans there everywhere but not here in Egypt. Here it makes them even dirtier. #Rain
Yasser Ahmad concluded saying:
@YasserAhmad : Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain!


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Mexico: The Choir of Acteal Sings for Peace and Justice · Global Voices
Andrea Arzaba

The Choir of Acteal is a unique group of indigenous singers in the south of Mexico, from the “tzotzil” region of Chiapas. This is a very extraordinary way of communication, since indigenous voices in Mexico are not heard very often, as most of them live in a reality that has to do with poverty, hunger, and discrimination, which are topics reflected in the songs that they sing.
“The message was the search/quest for peace, for justice and tranquility of our town and in the entire world”. Elena Gomez Santis, one of the indigenous women that sang in the chorus, said in a personal interview. She comes from a little town called Naranjatic Bajo, a place that in the region of “Los Altos” (The Heights), that the blog One Lucky Life [es] describes as “a town surrounded by mountains with different tones of green, where the clouds are so close that you can touch them with your hands.”
The Church of the tzotzil town Naranjatic Bajo taken by Andrea Arzaba
According to Jorge Sifuentes [es], a journalist for the national newspaper La Jornada, explains that the choir began as a religious way of commemorating that the Bible was translated from Spanish to “tzotzil”, their dialect, back in 1996.
However, the chorus took on another purpose after the Acteal Massacre. In 1997 in Acteal, another town that was part of the same “Los Altos” region, 45 indigenous people where killed inside a church by Mexican paramilitary forces. After that massacre, the choir started singing and asking for justice to the government with their own songs, this was also a way of raising awareness about what was happening in their area. To this day their case has not been resolved.
Blogger Leobardo Alvardo attended a commemoration in San Cristobál de las Casas, which was attended by survivors and relatives of those killed in the massacre. Also, in attendance was the Choir of Acteal at a Mass:
Al terminar la primera oración, el coro de Acteal conformado en su mayoría por mujeres y sólo cinco hombres, suben a la escalinata de la iglesia. Antonio anuncia su participación. Es un canto singular, atractivo. En el claman por los hombres y las mujeres masacrados. La estrofa es rica en ideales, sin metáforas.
A part of the song:
Yo no puedo callar,
No puedo pasar indiferente,
Ante el dolor de tanta gente,
Yo no puedo callar,
No, no puedo callar,
Me van a perdonar amigos míos,
Pero ahora tengo un compromiso,
Y tengo que cantar la realidad
I cannot be silent,
I cannot be indifferent
With the pain of so many people,
I cannot be silent,
No, I cannot be silent,
You will have to forgive me my friends,
Now I have a commitment
And I have to sing about reality
The choir continues to demand honesty and fairness in order to gain respect for indigenous rights in Mexico. Voices that are willing to cross borders, wanting to be heard and supported by the national and global community.

author: Andrea Arzaba


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More websites banned in Myanmar. Global Voices banned too · Global Voices
tan

Bagan ISP, one of the two internet service providers under MPT (Myanmar Post and Telecommunication), has started banning more websites, including blogs with their own domains.
Some of the newest addition to the ban list includes twitter, wordpress (and its subdomain blogs), and Global Voices.
Screenshot of Global Voices website being banned in Myanmar
Htoo Tayzar, one of the bloggers who has his own domain, wrote:
Actually, this is not the first time (that my site has been banned). Since 2007, Bagan (MTP) has banned the entire blogspot.com. At that time, I was still writing in blog, and when I refreshed the page, I first saw that it was banned. At that time, MPT's side is still open. So I moved to the cyber-cafe that uses MPT connection. That didn't last long. After about 2 weeks, MPT has also banned (Blogspot). After that, I bought my own domain.
However, Htoo Tayzar wrote that in the beginning of 2009, he saw his domain being banned, so he sent a request to the ISP to open it back. After about 2 days, his website, including the other 5 websites he included in the mail was re-opened. Today is the second time that it has been banned. It's banned only in Bagan connection but open in MPT.
The ISPs have banned Blogspot and its subdomains since 2007, so some of the bloggers who were blogging in Blogspot bought their own domains so that their readers can easily view them.
Nyi Lynn Seck, one of the bloggers who bought his own domain wrote:
I am sorry. My blog has now been banned by Bagan ISP. I bought my own domain with my own money, and redirected it so that the readers can easily view my site when they (ISP) started banning Blogspot and WordPress. Now, I can't do anything anymore. However, I have been writing in my blog since 2005, and I will continue to write here. No matter how blogs are banned, because there is Mail to Blogger system, where I can e-mail the posts from any address, I will continue to write in my blog. I value my life as a blogger, for every post I had written, I had put a lot of effort in writing my experiences,
There are currently two service providers –  Bagan ISP (Myanmar Teleport) and MPT ISP. Some of the websites that has been banned in Bagan ISP are not yet banned in MPT ISP and vice-versa.

author: tan


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Nepal: Saraswati Puja · Global Voices
Rezwan

Alisha at Pour Les Femmes writes how Saraswati Puja (Basanta Panchami) is celebrated in Nepal.

author: Rezwan


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ONE petitions to cancel Haiti’s debt · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

The ONE campaign is trying to collect 100,000 signatures for a petition to cancel Haiti's debt.

author: Jennifer Brea


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Pakistan: Remembering The Graffiti Activist · Global Voices
Rezwan

Teeth Maestro pays tribute to the Graffiti activist Asim Butt (1978-2010) who was renowned for his graffiti used in activism.


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Russia: Company To Pay $300K For Illegaly Taking Forbes Domain · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Russian cybersquatter company “Landmark VIP Service” will have to pay $300,000 penalties for illegally taking domain Forbes.ru, forbesrussia.ru reports [RUS] . It is the largest fine for cybersquatting in the history of RuNet.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Saudi Arabia: Ban men from selling lingerie · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Eman Al Nafjan writes about the second phase of a campaign that started in February 2009 by Reem Asaad, who is asking all women to boycott all lingerie shops that employ men, starting from the 13th of February, 2010, and continuing for two weeks.


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Sri Lanka: Impressions Of Jaffna · Global Voices
Rezwan

Indrajit Samarajiva visited war ravaged Jaffna recently and writes about his impressions of the capital city of the Northern Province in Sri Lanka.


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Syria: Is one man really worth two women in Islam? · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Syrian blogger Maysaloon argues whether one should still accept the saying that a man is worth two women in Islam or should it be interpreted differently now a days? He then lists reasons to validate his argument.


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Syria: Journalist Maen Akel Still Detained · Global Voices
Anas Qtiesh

Maen Akel, a Syrian journalist, was arrested on November 11th, 2009, by the Syrian Intelligence Department (State Security) in Damascus. Within 48 hours of his arrest he was also dismissed from his work at Al-Thawra, a state owned newspaper. The reason for his arrest remains unknown.
Akel is known for his aggressive and often sarcastic style of writing, criticizing governmental corruption and the hardships affecting the life of the average Syrian citizen. It should be noted that he was a political prisoner for nine years because of his membership in the Communist Labor Bond.
Ever since Akel's arrest, his friends have created and maintained a blog [ar] dedicated to him. In one of the posts, Ali Diob is quoted saying [ar]:
الصحفي عار، كعري كل أحد آخر، و كل شيء، في سورية، أمام سلطة عارية هي الأخرى أمام خوفها، الذي عكست صورته في شهوة مذعورة للتحكم الاستبدادي، حتى بالأموات.
In a different post Mazen Darwish comments [ar] on the ability of individuals in Syria to push the reform process:
أخطأ معن حين صدق , كما صدقنا , و كما صدق الكثيرون . . . أنه رغم قانون الطوارئ من الممكن إحداث فرق ايجابي في الحياة السورية عندما يتعلق الموضوع بالمصلحة الوطنية
Syrian blog حركشات (Harkashat) published an article by Mazen Kom ElMaz in which he said:
ما نزال بانتظار التهم التي ستوجه لمعن , كي نتمكن أكثر من فهم أين يقف معن اليوم من كل ما قاله بالأمس ومن حياته الجديدة ومن سجانيه ومما سيمكنه ( أو لا يمكنه ) أن يكتبه في الغد, لكن ما يبدو حتى الآن أننا أمام رجل انتهى إلى السجن لأنه اعتبر بيوت الفقراء التي فتحت أمامه أبوابها جزءا أصيلا من عالمه, تماما مثل بيته الخاص , لأنه لم يستطع التخلص منهم كجزء من أسرته الشخصية, لذلك يستحق معن منا تنهيدة عميقة, يستحق قلق انتظار صديق حميم

author: Anas Qtiesh


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Tunisia: Bloggers Against Student Imprisonment  · Global Voices
Lina Ben Mhenni

The recent trials of a group of Tunisian students and their sentencing to prison terms ranging from six months of three years after organizing a sit-in in a university accommodation to claim the right of girl students in housing  prompted bloggers to launch  a support campaign calling for their freedom.
A Facebook group, entitled No to Students Imprisonment  and a blog: Free Jailed Tunisian Students were created. Tunisian bloggers wrote about this story.
Foetus explains :
Tunisian Students were jailed from 6 months to 3 years for protesting against the housing problem they are facing. I completely disagree with this sentence, the trial is a political trial that was disguised. Please spread the word and protest against the tunisian dictatorship.
Carpediem blogged about the issue and said:
Quoi de plus légitime et normal quand on est jeune, étudiant et doté d'un minimum de conscience que de se sentir concerné par l'amélioration des conditions de logement et d'études des dizaines de milliers de jeunes tunisiens inscrits à l'université. Et quoi de plus pacifique comme action de protestation que d'organiser des sit-in dans une résidence universitaire pour faire entendre ces revendications?
Et pourtant…Ce qui est considéré sous d'autres cieux moins répressifs comme une demande légitime et un engagement plutôt sain est systématiquement puni par de lourdes peines de prison en Tunisie, ce pays qui continue de se targuer d'être à l'initiative du programme onusien “2010, année internationale de la jeunesse”…Quelle hypocrisie!
And yet … What is seen in other places less repressive as a legitimate request and a rather healthy commitment  is systematically punished by heavy imprisonment in Tunisia, a country which continues to claim to be at the origin of the initiative, the UN's 2010 International Year of Youth “… What hypocrisy!
Au Quotidien adds:
Parce que leur place n'est pas en prison, parce que leurs activités syndicales sont un droit absolu, parce que nous refusons l'emprisonnement pour les opinions politiques,les blogueurs Tunisiens se mobilisent pour soutenir et venir en aide aux étudiants détenus!!
Un groupe de soutien aux étudiants détenus a été crée sur Facebook, rejoignez-le!!

author: Lina Ben Mhenni


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UK: Twitter joke led to Terror Act arrest · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Sharpe's Opinion reacts sarcastically to the news of the first arrest in the United Kingdom over a Twitter joke:  “Round of applause of the police there. Keeping us safe from those dangerous terrorists who go round advertising their intentions on public social networking websites.”

author: Paula Góes


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Announcing the Technology for Transparency Network · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Internet technologies give governments an unprecedented ability to monitor our communication, internet activity, and even the microphones on our cell phones. The Internet, however, also empowers citizens with new tools and tactics to hold their elected officials accountable, increase transparency in government, and promote broader and more diverse civic engagement.
Rising Voices, the outreach and citizen media training initiative of Global Voices Online, has launched a new interactive website and global network of researchers to map online technology projects that aim to promote transparency, political accountability, and civic engagement in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, China, and Central & Eastern Europe. Over the next three months eight researchers and eight research reviewers will document at least 32 case studies of the most innovative technology for transparency projects outside of North America and Western Europe. By thoroughly documenting and evaluating each project with a standard methodology we aim to come to a better understanding of what tactics, tools, and tips are most effective in 1) making government information accessible to the general public in a meaningful way, 2) holding political and corporate leaders accountable to the rule of law and their campaign promises, and 3) promoting civic engagement so that a wider and more representative portion of citizens are involved in policy making and political processes.
Over the next three months we hope to find concrete answers to the following questions: Can technology for transparency projects be evaluated individually for impact, or should they only be seen as part of a larger accountability ecosystem? Does citizen participation in such projects lead to greater overall citizen engagement and more widespread demand for accountable public institutions? Do public institutions change their policies and behavior based on the input from citizen-led initiatives? To what extent does the usage of technology tools drive action around transparency?
As of January 19, U.S. cellphone users have donated more than $22 million in text-message donations alone. In fact, roughly one-fifth of the $112 million total that the American Red Cross has so far raised for Haiti has come via text messaging. Technology has clearly had an impact on global giving for humanitarian relief efforts. The priority right now is that the money gets to Haiti quickly and is spent as effectively as possible to save lives, and provide medical care and shelter. But in the longterm, as billions of dollars of aid money flow in to help rebuild infrastructure and entire industries, how can both Haitian citizens and donors hold institutions accountable so that development programs are run properly and without corruption?
As traditional media companies are forced to cut their budgets because of falling advertising revenue, investigative journalism and international coverage are the two most common areas to be disappear. David Simon, in his testimony before Congress about the death of the newspaper industry, said that with a vacuum of investigative journalism, “it is going to be one of the great times to be a corrupt politician.” Meanwhile, Transparency International's 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index reveals that corruption is still a severe and worldwide problem.
However, there is also growing enthusiasm about the use of social media as a powerful tool in promoting transparency and fighting against corruption. But how does the use of technology to promote transparency differ across regions, cultures, and types of governance? What skills and expertise are missing from the current technology for transparency projects? What types of relationships have they formed with media, government, and civil society organizations to increase their impact? We will document in-depth as many technology for transparency projects as possible to gain a better understanding of their current impact, obstacles, and future potential.
Global Voices has long been reporting about uses of digital media and technology to improve governance and fight against corruption. Several veteran Global Voices contributing authors are joined by leading transparency activists around the world to make up our team of researchers and research reviewers. We are also fortunate to count on the experience and insight of a board of advisors made up of the leading thinkers in the field of transparency and good governance.
For those of you on Twitter we have made lists of our researchers, reviewers, and advisors.
As of today you are able to read three case studies documenting projects based in Jordan, Chile, and Kenya. Ishki.com is a complaint brokerage which collects and organizes complaints from local citizens about the public and private sector. Vota Inteligente uses technology to provide Chilean citizens with more information about their elected officials. Mzalendo tracks the performance of Kenya's Parliament by documenting votes, publishing records, and providing analysis and context.
Over the next two weeks these three case studies will be joined by eight others. In addition to publishing at least 32 case studies over the next three months, we will also facilitate 16 discussions on Global Voices that provide more context and background information about the state of transparency, accountability and civic engagement in specific countries and regions. We are also building a toolset of the most effective tools used by the projects that we document. Click on any of the tools and you will see which projects have incorporated it as part of their strategy.
We realize that these are busy times and that few readers will be able to read all of the thorough case studies, background discussions, and tool profiles that we publish. For this reason we have created a weekly podcast that will feature five-minute interviews with leaders of some of the most interesting technology for transparency projects that we come across. You can click on this link to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. So far we have interviews with Waheed Al-Barghouthi of Ishki, Ory Okolloh of Mzalendo, and Felipe Heusser of Vota Inteligente.
At the beginning of May we will also publish a traditional PDF report which highlights the most innovative and effective tools and tactics related to technology for transparency projects. The report will make recommendations to funders, activists, NGOs, and government officials regarding the current obstacles to effectively applying technology to improve transparency, accountability, and civic engagement. It will also aggregate and evaluate the best ideas and strategies to overcome those obstacles.
Our research will complement – and collaborate with – the work being done by like-minded mapping, discussion, and toolset projects including ParticipateDB, Participedia, the International Association for Public Participation, the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation, ePractice, MobileActive's mDirectory, and LocalLabs.
This is a collaborative research project which is open to the participation and input of anyone interested in the intersection of technology and good governance. If you have suggestions for case studies that we should document and evaluate please get in touch via our contact page. If you are interested in contributing as a volunteer researcher you can register for a user account.
You can subscribe to our RSS feed for newly published case studies and   to our podcast for interviews with leading doers and thinkers in the field. Please follow us on Twitter and become a fan of our page on Facebook to receive extra updates about daily news and information related to technology for transparency. Finally, if you would like to engage in debate and discussion about the application of technology to improve governance in countries outside of North America and Western Europe, please subscribe to the Transparency for Technology mailing list.
For years now there has been an ongoing debate about whether the Internet is good or bad for democracy. But we have few case studies and even fewer comparative research mappings of Internet-based projects that aim to improve governance, especially in countries outside of North America and Western Europe. Hopefully the Technology for Transparency Network will lead not only to more informed debate about the Internet's impact on democracy, but also to more participation and interest in projects that aim to empower and improve the livelihoods of citizens who were previously excluded from political participation.

author: David Sasaki


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Armenia: Opposition editor jailed · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Unzipped comments on the sentencing to seven years in prison of outspoken newspaper editor and opposition figure Nikol Pashinyan. The blog says that the judgement against Pashinyan is evidence of ongoing human rights violations in Armenia and notes that the sentence was passed down on the third anniversary of the murder of Hrant Dink in Turkey.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Bahamas, Haiti: Here to Help  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Nicolette Bethel compiles a list of what Bahamians are doing to help Haiti.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Bangla blogs: Grieving for Haiti and Lessons Learned · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

As Haiti struggles in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that has brought in its wake unimaginable loss to life, property and infrastructure, Bangla bloggers have joined the rest of the world in grieving for Haiti and gearing up to lend a helping hand.
The header on the community blog Amarblog reads as follows:
হাইতির আর্ত মানবতার প্রতি জানাই গভীর সমবেদনা
“How can we help?” This is a topic being discussed in many Bangla forums and blog posts such as these: 1, 2, 3.
At the same time, blogger Salim6251 also warns netizens to be cautious when donating money online as they could become prey to scams.
Shikkhanobish writes in a blog post at Sachalayatan:
…কিছু সময়ের জন্য বিভেদ ভুলে গিয়ে সবাইকে একসাথে হাইতির পাশে দাঁড়াতে হবে। রাজনৈতিক স্থিতিশীলতা নয়, সাংস্কৃতিক স্বাধীনতা নয়, এখন কেবল তাদের বাঁচার অধিকারটুকু প্রতিষ্ঠা করার সময়। জীবন-মৃত্যুর সন্ধিক্ষণে থাকা মানুষগুলো যেন নিজেদেরকে একা মনে না করে…
In a touching poem, blogger Naharmonica expresses her anguish at the colossal damage that the earthquake has unleashed on Haiti.
কবে হলো এ পৃথিবী মানুষের গ্রাম!
ক্ষ্যাপাটে মাটির রাগে রাজবাড়ি কাঁপে, দমবন্ধ স্কুল,
আবদ্ধ মায়ের হাতে শিশু ছিটকে গেলে
নিষিদ্ধ ত্বক ফেটে রক্ত আসে বাস্তুহারা সাপ।
At the same time, some of the bloggers also discussed and debated the lessons learned from the Haiti disaster.
Aditya at the community blog from West Bengal – Coffeehouser Adda rues:
হাইতি ! তুমি আমাদেরকে খুব বেশি দুশ্চিন্তায় ফেললে…আমরা কিভাবে ঠেকিয়ে রাখবো আমাদের ব্যাঙের ছাতার মত একটির সঙ্গে লাগা আরেকটি ভবন?…খুব দেরি হয়ে গেছে। এখন কারো দোহাই মানবে না এই প্রকৃতি। পৃথিবী তার কক্ষপথে ডানে কিংবা বামে..উত্তরে কিংবা দক্ষিণে সামান্য সরলেই বরফে ঢেকে যাবো আমরা কিংবা খরায় মরুভূমি হবে এই সবুজ জমিন…পৃথিবী তুমি একটু আড়মোড়া ছাড়লেই কুপোকাত আমাদের পনের কোটিসহ ঝুঁকিপূর্ণ শত কোটি মানুষ…কোথায় যাবো আমরা ?
Sheikh Nazrul wonders what kind of preparedness Bangladesh can show to mitigate natural calamities so as to avoid a fate similar to Haiti. He offers some suggestions to this effect.
বাংলাদেশ বর্তমানে ভূমিকম্পপ্রবন এলাকা হিসেবে চিহ্নিত হওয়ায় দ্রুত জনসচেতনতা বৃদ্ধি ও দুর্যোগ মোকাবিলার ব্যবস্থা নেয়ার পাশাপাশি বহুতলভবন ডিজাইন ও নির্মাণের ক্ষেত্রে যথাযথ নিয়ম মানা অবশ্যজরুরি। বিশেষকরে বিল্ডিং কোড অনুসরণ করা দরকার। ভূমিকম্পপ্রবণ এলাকা চিহ্নিত করা সম্ভব হলেও তার মাত্রা যেহেতু নির্ধারণ যায় না সে ক্ষেত্রে দুর্যোগ সম্পর্কে জনসচেতনতা ও নিরাপদ বসবাস পদ্ধতি অবলম্বন করারও কোন বিকল্প নেই। তবে অবশ্যই ভূমিকম্পপরবর্তী উদ্ধার ততপরতার পূর্বপ্রস্তুতি থাকতেই হবে।
Blogger Faruk Wasif at Muktangan agrees. He writes:
হাইতিতে যা ঘটেছে, তা ঢাকাতেও আচানক ঘটে যেতে পারে। ঢাকা ও চট্টগ্রামের অবস্থান ভূমিকম্পপ্রবণ এলাকার মাঝে। ঢাকা তেহরানের পরে সবচেয়ে ভূমিকম্প ঝুঁকিতে থাকা নগরী_ পৌরাণিক জতুগৃহ। ঢাকার আবাসন ও ভবনের গঠন হাইতির মতো না হলেও নাজুক…হাইতির মৃত্যু তাই খুব দূরে নয়, মৃত্যুপুরীর পাগলা ঘন্টা ঢাকা শহর থেকেও শোনা যায়।

author: Aparna Ray


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Barbados, Haiti: In for the Long-Term?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Allegiance thinks that “Barbados should develop a long term foreign policy with respect to Haiti.”


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Barbados, U.S.A., Haiti: Business as Usual? · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Barbados Free Press harshly criticizes a cruise line for proceeding with business as usual in the midst of disaster as its passengers “continue to enjoy themselves at the ‘five pristine beaches’ leased from the Haitian government.”


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China: A policeman shot two farmers dead · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

ESWN collected and translated a local news story about two farmers in Pogongpai town, Guizhou province, shot dead by local police station vice-director on January 12.

author: Oiwan Lam