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Trinidad & Tobago: Visa Teaser · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Applying for a South African visa gets Caribbean Free Radio thinking about international travel and visa restrictions – and she is determined that “the country (she) plans on founding one day” will be different: “From a passport page-hogging stigma signifying ‘our country deems people from your country deeply suspect and liable to violate immigration laws’, the visa will evolve into a badge of well-travelledness and sophistication.”


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Ukraine, Russia: Crimea · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Steve Bandera of Kyiv Scoop writes about Russian citizens and Russian ships in Crimea – as well as about Boris Yeltsin's role in stopping the Crimean separatism in the mid-1990s.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Ukraine: Russian-Georgian War Fallout · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Foreign Notes writes about some of the developments in Ukraine related to the Russian-Georgian conflict.


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Venezuela: No Gas to Cook · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

RomRod [es] writes that Venezuela is a petroleum state, yet he does not have gas in order to cook.  The cost of gas is inexpensive, but it is difficult to obtain.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Angola: Electoral campaign fails to excite voters · Global Voices
Clara Onofre

Angola has been enjoying a taste of  the election campaign atmosphere for almost a month now, but the truth is that there is little or nothing happening on the streets of  Luanda, the capital city, that could attract the electorate's attention, and since its very first day the campaign has proved to be lukewarm. As the blog Eleição 2008 attests [pt]:
Quase não há campanha nas ruas. Ninguém que chegasse hoje a Angola diria que se está à beira de eleições.
There is virtually no campaigning on the streets. Nobody who sets foot in  Angola today would say that we are on the verge of elections.
“Angola is changing for the better” says MPLA advertising. Photo kindly provided by  José Manuel Lima da Silva, Flickr user Kool2bBop
The most prominent political parties are UNITA and MPLA and it is possible to see these two political groups’ banners attached to walls, trees, yards, and cars. However, the air time provided on the Public Television of Angola (TPA) demonstrates the profile of all parties and their lack of ability to grab voters. Their arguments are bleak and so are their electoral programs. Nelson Morais [pt] asks when the parties will turn themselves towards people's desires:
Nos últimos dias a imprensa tem comentado que … as eleições que se realizarão no mês de Setembro,não será mais um fiasco…. porque o povo aprendeu com os erros cometidos no passado. Deixo aqui um comentário: será com esta movimentação dos partidos políticos cheios de preocupação para obterem um resultado satisfatório, haverá alguém que está verdadeiramente empenhado em ouvir e procurar ajudar este povo?!!!!
Over the last days, the press has commented that the elections to be held in September will no longer be a total failure… because people have learned from their mistakes of the past. I would add a comment: with all this movement and political parties fully concerned to achieve a satisfactory result, will there be someone who is truly committed to listening and seeking to help these people ?!!!!
Given the expectation generated from the beginning of the election campaign and the seemingly peaceful environment in which people live nowadays, a question springs to mind. What differences are there between the explosive elections of 92 and the voting of later this year? Luísa Rogério, general secretary of the Union of Angolan Journalists and a reporter covering the elections back sixteen years ago, makes the following comparison [pt]:
Não se pode comparar com o ambiente vivido em 1992. A campanha para as eleições de 5 de Setembro já começou e há a impressão que não está a acontecer nada no país, exceptuando uma ou outra bandeira, um ou outro slogan e os espaços que os partidos políticos ocupam na rádio e na televisão.
Em 1992 sentia-se a campanha política não só em Luanda, como no país inteiro. Ficava-se com a impressão que o país vivia em função da campanha e a campanha eleitoral marcava profundamente a vida do cidadão ao contrário do que acontece agora. A actividade dos partidos é quase inexistente, não se vêem grandes manifestações, não se sente o clima de campanha.
You can not compare [today's] with the environment experienced in 1992. The campaign for September 5 elections has already begun and there is the impression that nothing is happening in the country, except one or another flag or slogan and the air time used up by the political parties on radio and television. In 1992 the political campaign was felt not only in Luanda, but in the entire country. There was the impression that the country lived according to the campaign and that the election campaign profoundly marked the citizen's life, contrary to what happens now. There is almost no party activity, there are no big events, we don't feel the campaign climate.
“The sun smiles for everybody” says UNITA advertising. Photo kindly provided by José Manuel Lima da Silva, Flickr user Kool2bBop
In the absence of strong political activity in this election campaign, it may be safe to state that Angola will not repeat the violence of 92. However, some political parties such as UNITA have come forth to say that there is a lack of money to support the planned activities and to denounce intolerance from forces close to the MPLA – the political party in power. The National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) also accused the media of bias saying that they favor the MPLA. Feliciano J.R.Cangüe [pt] agrees and says that the TV and Radio do not “provide a quality service for the Angolan people”:
Todos aqueles que acompanham as notícias de Angola, devem ter ficados horrorizados com festivais de editoriais repugnantes que certos órgãos oficiais vomitaram. Foi uma verdadeira guerra entre Sansão e Golias. A imprensa oficial apontou sua artilharia pesada contra o presidente do maior partido da oposição. Essa gente quer o quê?
All those who follow the news of Angola must have been horrified at  the carnival of repugnant editorials that some official bodies have thrown up. It was a real war between Samson and Goliath. The official press  pointed their heavy artillery against the president of the largest opposition party. What do these people want?
Having just over two weeks to go to the big day, the most striking moment of democracy may be slipping away almost unnoticed in the Angolan capital. But there are hopes for a good turn out of voters, and, above all, that the elections will bring a better future whatever the result is, as  Carlos Lopes dreams:
No décimo terceiro dia, os eleitores continuam a abraçar os partidos que caminham com a corrente da mudança até ao dia do voto, porque a partir do dia 5 de Setembro, a mudança torna-se uma realidade e o povo Angolano irá renascer com a esperança numa vida melhor e digna.
On the thirteenth day [of campaigning], voters continue to embrace those parties that go with the flow of change up to the election day, because from September 5 the change will become reality and the Angolan people  will be revived with the hope for a better and dignified life.
“Never give up the fight even if you are too old and tired!”. Photo called Freedom, kindly provided by José Manuel Lima da Silva, Flickr user Kool2bBop
Originally written in Portuguese, translation into English by Paula Góes

author: Clara Onofre


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Bangladesh: Where is the gold medalist?  · Global Voices
Rezwan

In the 2002 Commonwealth Games in shooting category, this years Beijing Olympic gold medal winner Abhinav Bindra of India won the silver medal and Asif Hossain Khan from Bangladesh won the gold.  “Where was Asif in Beijing?” asks Mezba and finds out the sad truth.

author: Rezwan


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Barbados, Antigua: Peter Pays for Paul?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Barbados Free Press is not convinced that the CARICOM arrangement is beneficial, referring to an article about the recent double-murder in Antigua to make their point: “The ‘Caribbean Brand’ for tourism…was a disastrous policy created…as part of the effort to prop up the pretense and phony benefits of CARICOM.  According to the article, we’re all the same in Caribbean – violent, bloodthirsty savages – and that includes Barbados.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Barbados: Crop-Over Culture · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Although the recent Crop Over celebrations were well attended, Barbados Underground thinks that should not be the only criterion for measuring success: “Cultural development and expression are important to the well being of any nation.  While the fete element in Crop Over seems to be flourishing, we are concerned that the Bajan identity which originally branded the festival has receded in recent years.”


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Barbados, Jamaica, China: Mistaken Identity  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A case of mistaken identity in China courtesy a newspaper that could not distinguish between images of Usain Bolt and Dwain Chambers – Barbadian blogger Jdid is not taking the mix-up lightly: “No distinct similarities except skin color you mean. The really sad thing about it is you know almost every black person can relate to this incident too.”


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Bolivia: Bloguivianos 2008 · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

The 2008 version of the national bloggers conference called “Bloguivianos [es]” will be held in La Paz and El Alto, Bolivia on August 29 and 30.


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Bolivia: No Strike in Yapacani · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

The blogger Idolo from Yapacani, a province in the department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia writes that “there is no stike here [es]” and that the majority of his town did not join the strike called by the president of the civic commitee in support of civic leaders of the departmental capital.


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Cameroon: The story of Francoise Mbango Etone · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Angler's Rest favorite story from the Olympics is Francoise Mbango Etone, the Cameroonian winner of the gold medal in the women’s triple jump.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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China: 500 Foreign Capital Enterprises Closed Down · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Nightrain from the East in Guanjia reported that between January and July, around 500 foreign capital enterprises were forced to close down in Dongguan because of deteriorating business condition.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Checking up on Olympics uncensorship · Global Voices
John Kennedy

A post from sw at the OpenNet Initiative blog looks at results of tests carried out during the first week of the Olympics and finds that while in fact not many websites have been unblocked for the Games, those that are can now be accessed all throughout Beijing and possibly even the country.

author: John Kennedy


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China: Cheering for the race traitors · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Those thin-skinned cyber-mobsters must have heatstroke; Chinese coach leads US women's volleyball team to victory against China and gets dissed by a chess grandmaster, then: The majority of the netizens disagreed with his view.  The American team led by Lang Ping was received with warm cheers of “Coach Lang, we love you!” More confusion from Roland Soong at EastSouthWestNorth in Four Persons, Twenty Years


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China: The Beijing Bay · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Via TorrentFreak, on the IOC's takedown notice sent not to p2p network The Pirate Bay which was hosting torrents of Olympics footage, but Sweden's Minister of Justice: “We were going to ignore the Olympics, but now we’re loading our cannons. Our weapons of mass distribution are pointed towards China.”


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China: Truth or Lie? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Immusoul said that he could not believe in Liu Xiang's explanation about his withdrawal yet, as there weren't any independent / third party evidence supporting his explanation yet. Moreover, up till, most of the decisions made during the Olympics were related with “interest”.


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China: Watching women’s volleyball · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Thanks to Bill Bishop at the MarketWatch Olympic Blog, we are given a recount of a day at the beach watching the US, Brazil and China's women's volleyball teams in the semi-finals. Not just that, Bill points us to a link that shows what the Beach Babes cheerleaders had to wear all day.


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Cote d’Ivoire: Didier Drogba’s autobiography · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Théophile Kouamouo [Fr] reviews C'était pas gagné , an autobiography of Ivoirian football star, Didier Drogba.

author: Jennifer Brea


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Egypt: Parliament on Fire · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egyptian bloggers are in a daze, after the country's iconic Parliament Building, went up in flames earlier today. And while an official reason has yet to be announced for the cause of the fire in the 19th century palace, which houses the Shura (consultative) council, bloggers are seething – though not lost for words.
News portal Horytna [Ar] provided readers with up to the minute developments on the fire-fighting operation, with witness reports from the site and the Muslim Brotherhood website Ikhwan Online posts a complete album of the building burning.
Bakri Hassan, describes the fire as an Egyptian scandal and calls for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to resign. He writes:
رمز مصر يحترق
الان يحترق رمز مصر
تابعوا احدث فضائح مصر المدوية
الدولة المصرية عاجزة حتي الان عن  السيطرة علي حرق رمزها
وصلنا الي النهاية سيادة الرئيس
سيدي الرئيس استقيل قبل ان تحرق البلد كلها وليس رمزها فقط
تابع علي الفضائيات والمواقع حريق مصر
Egypt's icon is on fire
Right now, Egypt's symbol is burning down
Follow the news of Egypt's scandal
The Egyptian state is not able to control the fire in its symbol
This is the end of the road Mr President
Please resign before you burn the entire country and not only its symbol
Follow news of Egypt's fire on satellite channels and the Internet
And Amr Ezzat charges that Egyptian authorities have banned newspaper Al Baleed from publishing its second edition because of its coverage of the fire. According to the blogger the daily newspaper's headlines said that important documents were lost in the fire.
Meanwhile, Tahyyes feels not enough was done to control the fire.
رياح ايه اللي بيتكلموا عليها؟
هي فين الرياح دي؟ طب انا عايزة حد يحلف لي على المصحف ويقول انشالله يعمى بعنيه لو حس باي رياح
انا شايفة بعيني اتنين بيطفوا الحريق في التلفزيون
اتنين…..اتنين يا بشر
ده لو الناس اللي ملمومة تفت على مجلس الشورى اللي بيتهد دلوقت كانت طفت
What wind are they talking about?
Where are those winds? I want someone to swear on the Holy Quran and say that I pray he becomes blind if he feels any wind.
I am watching television and see only two people trying to put out the fire.
Two .. only two.
If all the people gathered there spat on the Shura Council, which is about to collapse now, they would have put out the fire.
And while the fire was raging, Egyptians were exchanging Twitter messages on the developments. On the cause of the fire, Wael Khalil writes:
الغلطة غلطة المبني-قديم وكله خشب
It is the building's fault – it is old and made out of wood.
Malek complains about the smell from the fire:
ولاول مره اشم ريحة الحريق من ساعة المجلسين ماولعوا,الريحة سيئة فعل
I am smelling the fire for the first time since the two chambers went up in flames – and the stench is really bad

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Estonia: Olympics Champion; Song Festival · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Itching for Eestimaa writes about an Estonian Olympics champion Gerd Kanter and last night's song festival that “served various functions”: “Ostensibly, it was a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the major events of the Singing Revolution. But it was also a celebration of independence on the eve of the 17th anniversary of the restoration of independence, as well as a show of solidarity in light of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Georgia.”


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Fiji leader won’t do a Musharraf · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Going against the advice of the military council, Fiji leader Frank Bainimarama refuses to step down. Raw Fiji news also reported that the leader was disturbed by the resignation of his coup-hero Musharaff in Pakistan.

author: Mong Palatino


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Grenada, Anguilla: Integrity Legislation · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The new Grenadian Prime Minister announces his intent to “set up an Integrity Commission to ensure integrity in public life”.  Corruption-free Anguilla comments: “If he is really serious, then one of the most corrupt, failed states in the West Indies may yet be turned around. If it is just empty promises…then we shall have been betrayed by our leaders once again.”


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Grenada: Blog Action Day  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The theme of this year's Blog Action Day is poverty and Grenadian Blah Bloh Blog is getting involved: “I hope some of my fellow Caribbean bloggers will sign up as well. Poverty, poverty relief and poverty elimination is especially significant for us here in the third world.”


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Guyana: Embracing Your Heritage · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Guyana Providence Stadium visits The Guyana Heritage Museum, calling it “one of my most enjoyable experience every time I visit the homeland.”


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Hong Kong: Tai Kok Tsui’s Photo · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Tai Kok Tsui is an old district in Hong Kong and is now undergoing urban renewal (demolition of old buildings). Kursk spent a Sunday taking photos in order to record the old city landscape.


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Hungary: Pál Schmitt · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Hungarian Spectrum writes about Pál Schmitt, the head of the Hungarian Olympics Committee.


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India: Matchmaker of the outsourcing industry · Global Voices
Rezwan

A Time to Reflect bumps into a marriage portal for the Indian BPOs (business process outsourcing employees), ‘a place to find your BPO soulmate'?


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India: Stopped trains in Kerala leave passengers stranded · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

happy harthal 2 by challiyan
The following video uploaded by YouTube user peshaku shows irate commuters at the Angamali railway station in the southern Indian province of Kerala after they have been stranded due to a particular type of protest where workers cease operations. This phenomenon is called Harthal (Hartal) and it has become a constant problem in Kerala.
Back in February 22nd, blogger praveennair complained in Hartal the complementing factor of Kerala:
Well if you are a Keralite or are frequently in touch with Kerala, or your relative or friends live in Kerala then you may have heard many a times the word Hartal (Strike) from them. This term has been a prime element of Kerala, and sooner or later has some how been in news at least once in every two months. With so much of such hartals Kerala is also gaining a new name, the land of hartals.
The situation has become so grim that the lives of the normal man have been put to unrest every time such strikes get going.
There is a difference between a hartal, which is supposed to be non-violent, and bandhs, when strike-breakers can be attacked, as the website Harthal.com explains. On another blog, Hartal Watch, readers can be informed of when and where the following Hartals will take place.
Kerala Views’ post Kerala to be paralysed for the nth time also shows impatience with yet another strike, and provides an alternative reason for the nation wide hartal:
After around 60 local and Statewide hartals this year, Kerala would be paralysed for another day as part of the nation-wide general strike.
This time, the organisers would not be content with blocking road traffic. They would picket trains in all districts through which a railway line passes.
None can dispute the right of workers to go on strike and the farmers to support such an action. However, the strike is obviously politically motiviated. Little doubt that it is being organised with an eye on the coming Lok Sabha elections.
More information on the motivation behind the strikes can be read at newindpress.com

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Iran: Iran bans a top actress from leaving for Hollywood · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Golshifteh Farahani, an Iranian actress who recently palyed  in Ridley Scott's latest movie “Body of Lies”, was banned from leaving Iran. Iranian blogger, Atighe says[Fa] that she is our national pride.[Update: She left Iran in early October to present the film in New York. Watch her photos]

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran: Two student activists are out of jail · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

According to[Fa] several bloggers including Akhbare Jahan, two student activists, Bahare Hedayat and Mohammad Hashemi,were released, after being in jail for more than one month. They were accused of acting against “national security”.


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Iran:”Stop war on Iran” · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Stop war on Iran informs us that demonstrators in different cities in the USA asked Bush administration not to attack Iran.


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Iran:Yahoo mail finally adds the name of Iran · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Yahoo mail website had removed Iran from the list of world countries in its signup page for several months. Kourosh Ziabari informs us that Yahoo mail added Iran again to the list.


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Jamaica: Bolt Wins 200m · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamaica's Abeng News Magazine is thrilled to report that lightning does indeed strike twice as Usain Bolt cops the Gold – and sets a new World Record – in the 200m event.


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Jordan: 100,000 Bloggers on Jeeran  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Arabic blogging platform Jeeran [Ar] announced that there were 100,000 blogs affiliated to it. The post also claims that 70 per cent of Egyptian bloggers use Jeeran to blog.


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Jordan: Olympic Art  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Jordanian blogger Roba shares with us some Olympics art in this post dedicated to ‘colour lovers.’


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Kenya: Report on post-election violence · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Kenyan Pundit posts the report on post-election violence in Kenya.


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Kuwait: The Ugliest House Ever  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Kuwaiti blogger Z District announced that he has found the ugliest house in Kuwait – and posts pictures to prove it.


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Kuwait: Why People Neglect Each Other? · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Fajr Al Layaly from Kuwait wonders why people neglect each other. “It is an amazing thing what neglect does to people..You know when you see those couples or in families you see people being nasty to one another. I always used to wonder why?” she writes.


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Maldives: The real concern  · Global Voices
Rezwan

“A few millimeter rise in sea level could submerge most of Maldives,” and yet “Maldives has become a political battleground for it’s parties. Everyone is busy playing their part in this battle. No one is concerned about anything else.” complains Naxeem in the post ‘Save Maldives today‘.


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Morocco: Early in Oued Mgatel · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

French transplant to Morocco Près du puits explains why she's always an hour early in her small town of Oued Mgatel.

author: Jillian C. York


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Morocco: Mourning Darwish · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Laila Lalami laments the passing of Mahmoud Darwish, and a missed opportunity to hear him read.


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Morocco: Noor vs. The Olympics · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

BensoBlog v2.0 [fr] jokes about how the television show Noor has surpassed the Olympics in popularity.


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Morocco: Tragedy Strikes · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

The View From Fez reports the tragic story of a family that drowned near Tangier, Morocco last week.  The accident occurred when two young girls were playing near the dam and were sucked in.  Three family members who tried to rescue them also drowned.


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Nicaragua: Otakus, the Community of Fans of Anime · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Nimrod of Y ahora ¿de qué vamos a hablar? [es] thinks that the recent article in La Prensa is a positive step forward for the growth of the community of fans of Anime called “Otakus” in Nicaragua.


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Pakistan: Fighting economic downfall  · Global Voices
Rezwan

The Fiscal year 2007-08 saw a economic downfall in Pakistan including a double figure inflation rate. In Chowrangi blog Ambreen Kazmi has some suggestions for the government showing how to counter all these challenges.


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Russia: What Women Want · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Anna Ershova uses Google to find out what Russian, Ukrainian, Mongolian, Finnish and American women aspire for.


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Serbia: Belgraders Greet Milorad Cavic · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Byzantine Blog reports that “more than 50,000 Belgraders gathered on Tuesday, August 19, in front of the City Parliament building, to greet Serbian swimming champion, the Olympic medalist and record-breaker Milorad Cavic.”


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Silencing online speech in Tunisia · Global Voices
sami ben gharbia

Tunisia: More than just censorship
Three more blogs have been blocked in Tunisia this week. These blogs, Mochagheb (Disturber), Ennaqed (The Critic) and Place Mohamed Ali have all been particularly active in providing news of the struggle of The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), and especially about the latest social unrest in the southwestern phosphate mining region of Gafsa, where two people have been killed. One was shot dead by security forces and the other was electrocuted inside a local electric generator.
I asked the Tunisian blogger Ennaqed about the censorship of his blog in Tunisia. He said:
I think that the main reason of banning my blog is crossing the “red lines” that are constraining the media in Tunisia by talking about issues that are completely ignored by mainstream media. Last year, I was seriously engaged in covering the hunger strike of three Tunisian secondary school teachers who were expelled from their jobs for political reasons, and my blog was blocked temporarily. And like the rest of the Tunisian bloggers, I was blogging about the revolt in the mining region and recently about the prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbullah, and the remains of eight Tunisian men handed over by Israel. But, honestly, I think that the most direct reason for banning my blog might be my last blog post about the participation of an Israeli delegation in the 31st Congress of the International Geography Union (IGU) that is taking place in Tunisia. What I actually did is copy and re-post a press release about a group of Palestinian geographers who are boycotting the aforementioned conference because of Israeli participation.
On June 21 the censorship passed beyond all reason and banned the first and only podcasting Tunisian blog Radyoun (Radio) run by a group of Tunisian bloggers dedicated to discussing social and cultural topics. Apparently, the podcast debate about the sporadic protests in the poor mining region of Gasfa and about the freedom of expression led to the banning of the blog.
This is a non-comprehensive list of blocked blogs in Tunisia. Please keep in mind that the list does not include blocked websites:
Despite the fact that Tunisian authorities have permanently blocked access to both popular video-sharing websites Dailymotion and YouTube, on 3 September, 2007 and 2 November, 2007 respectively, Tunisian netizens have still managed to access these websites to either watch or share videos. And while the Tunisian government worked hard to ensure that the polished image of a “secular, modern and democratic” state would not be marred by any “negative” information disseminated by opponents on the web, Tunisian video activists and bloggers kept the spotlight on the Redeyef revolt exposing harsh repression and flooding both banned video-sharing websites Youtube and Dailymotion with footage of demonstrators, protesting against unemployment and nepotism, clashing with the police. And when the official media remained silent about the death of two demonstrators, videos of the victims, the wounded and the use of firearms against civilians, were smuggled out of Tunisia and posted on the video-sharing websites.
Interest in online censorship in Tunisia has never been higher since the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis in November 2005 when a hardcore group of Tunisian bloggers and activists supported by sympathizers, organized a successful online campaign around Yezzi Fock Ben Ali (Enough is enough, Ben Ali) a “Freedom of Expression in Mourning!” campaign, the entire field of the online battle for freedom of speech has changed. The transformation owes to the growing number of bloggers, video and Facebook activists who are walking down the path of digital activism that was gradually and patiently traced by the first pioneers of the Tunisian online free speech movement who brilliantly used web 2.0 tools (videos, mash-ups, photos, etc.) to protest the crackdown on online free speech.
There is a growing number of blog posts and comments talking and/or protesting censorship. According to the advanced search engine of the recently launched North African Blogs aggregator, Berberus (Beta), of the 274 blog posts containing the word “censure” (censorship), 165 are Tunisian.
And of the 256 comments containing the same word, 98 were left on Tunisian blogs.
Compared with other North African Internet users, Tunisian Netizens seem to be much more interested in censorship than their counterparts in Algeria and Morocco. This trend is confirmed by the following graphs, generated by Google Insights for Search:
Back to April 2007. Following the ban on Dailymotion, Tunisian bloggers and activists from Nawaat.org launched the “Unblock Dailymotion campaign” in order to draw public attention to the aggressive online censorship policy adopted by the Tunisian regime. Cybversion.org blog was created to protest the ban of the Dailymotion and has since evolved into a group blog documenting censorship, anti-censorship and digital activism in Tunisia.
Fifty-one Tunisian bloggers are now running a new anti-censorship blog campaign launched on June 20 that encourages the local blogsphere to republish posts from censored blogs as part of the campaign to sensitize the public to the issue of online free speech. The blog campaign has received a lot of media attention from the Arab world and has been featured on the official website of Al Jazeera and the Qatari “Al-Arab” newspaper.
Badges and a headline widgets that use the free Feed2JS service displaying headlines of the anti-censorship blog campaign have been designed to build community around the blogs and help Tunisian bloggers stay updated about newly published content.
July 1st, is now “I blog for freedom of expression” day which Tunisian bloggers celebrate by blogging about free speech and/or by displaying a badge. Meanwhile, from time to time, Tunisian bloggers carry out ad-hoc campaigns to protest the banning of specific blogs or websites like the Blank Post Day that has been organized twice: the first time on 25 December 2006 and the second on 25 December 2007.
On the social networking websites, Facebook, several groups protesting online censorship in Tunisia have been created.The most important one has so far gathered more than 620 members. Other groups have been created requesting the ATI (The Tunisian Internet Agency, which oversees Web distribution in the country) not to block Facebeook, which, unfortunately, seems to be blocked since yesterday by at least two of the country’s largest ISPs (Globalnet and PlaNet), as reported by several Tunisian bloggers and Facebook groups who were faced yesterday with the famous Tunisian 404 block page that states that the requested Web site could not be found.
Blocking web 2.0 websites (Youtube, Dailymotion, Facebook) and barring access to local outspoken websites and blogs is the most obvious way of cracking down of the online free speech in Tunisia. It should be emphasized, however, that this is only one tool in the regime's hand. Tunisia has adapted to the web 2.0 revolution by developing a broader strategy composed of a wide range of instruments including:
Punishing and persecuting outspoken online writers, bloggers and dissidents:
Between 2001 and 2008 more than 12 people have been arrested and/or sentenced because of their online activities:
As is the case of China, creating a strong atmosphere of fear and a climate of intimidation has led Tunisian citizen to in general adopt a low profile vis-a-vis freedom of expression. During the last 7 years, most internet users and bloggers were censoring themselves by avoiding to raise their voices to address political topics or write freely bypassing the strict state censorship. Only a handful of activists, cyber dissidents and bloggers, usually the same men, are leading the free speech movement on the Internet, going well beyond these limits and even organizing an online anti-propaganda machine to the official one.
Almost every single Tunisian opposition website and self-hosted blog has been the victim of one or more hacking incidents. While there is no solid evidence that the Tunisian regime is behind attempts to take down opponent websites, there is quite a strong feeling among Tunisian opposition figures that the government is carrying out cyber-attacks, given their frequency and the nature of the targeted websites and blogs.
Moncef Marzouki, one of Tunisia's most prominent human rights defenders (former President of the Tunisian League for Human Rights and leader of the banned opposition party Congrès Pour la République) openly accused the Tunisian regime of orchestrating and waging these destructive attacks against the opposition Web: “In a week my website was hacked four times (…) All of this, of course, happened simultaneously with the hacking of web based email accounts that the Tunisian police is carrying out against Human rights advocates and political opponents.“
What we have seen more recently is that the attack on collective blog Nawaat.org (deleting of the database and ftp files) happened simultaneously with the hacking of the personal blogs and email accounts of the activists running Nawaat. According to a press release issued on 16 June, 2008, Reporters Without Borders stated that:
The Tunisian news and blog wesbite Nawaat (http://www.nawaat.org/) yesterday suffered its most serious hacker attack since its creation. Its database was erased and its home page was modified (see photo). Blogs by human rights activists Sami Ben Gharbia (http://www.kitab.nl/ ) and Astrubal (http://astrubal.nawaat.org/) were also affected. Their blogs continue to be inaccessible and their databases have been badly damaged. The websites have been restored although some dysfunction continues.
This is a non comprehensive list of blogs and websites targeted:
As reported earlier by Reporters Without Borders and some Tunisian NGOs, Tunisian human rights defenders are having trouble reading their emails on the three important web based mail clients: Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail:
Reporters Without Borders is also surprised by the problems Tunisian Internet users are having with their email. Messages sent to them by human rights organisations such as the International Association for Supporting Political Prisoners (AISPP), the Tunisnews website or Reporters Without Borders are illegible on arrival.
Several sources said the messages can be seen in the inbox and can be opened, but often there is nothing inside. Once opened, they disappear from the inbox. “It looks like badly concealed filtering,” a specialist said.
It is worth noting that the issue does not affect “fresh/new” webmail accounts and it only happens when you log in to these accounts from within Tunisia. I have personally run a test, from The Netherlands with Tunisian lawyer Abdel Wahab Maatar and Tunisian blogger, activist, and former political prisoner Abdallah Zouari. I logged into their email accounts and was able to read their emails normally. The content I saw displayed was not the same they were reading. Here are two screenshots of the test. The first is from The Netherlands where I'm base and the second from Tunisia:
So it seems the email accounts of some Tunisian Internet users are being monitored by Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) without their knowledge. DPI is a technology that has the ability to monitor the online activity and filter the traffic on the network by removing “unwanted” material from the actual body of received emails.
Recently, I asked Robert Guerra – a Toronto-base technologist who helps NGOs with data privacy, secure communications and information security about this. These are his comments:
At first glance, seems that there's some realtime interception of webmail and possibly other traffic is taking place. In a way, it looks like there's a network neutrality issue… Perhaps Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) is being used. If indeed DPI is taking place, it might be worthwhile to raise it on the numerous DPI discussions that are taking place. The discussion in Canada  is quite active, one where activists could use the Tunisian example to help their case.  (…)  it might be that existing accounts have been compromised in some way. Should ask if the accounts that are being affected were accessed at public (ie. net cafe) pc's . if so, passwords might have been captured.

author: sami ben gharbia


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Slovakia: New Euro Coins · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia reports that “the state mint located in Kremnica began minting Slovak euro coins” this week.


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Strong storm in north Philippines · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Classes are suspended in north Philippines because of a strong storm, as twitted by amazingpig.


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Trinidad & Tobago: I Blog, Therefore I Am  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“It seems blogging is an inevitable part of our evolution since one characteristic of being alive is to be noticed in as many ways possible”: Blogging from Trinidad and Tobago, This Beach Called Life thinks that blogs “will be our main legacy until something better comes along.”


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Uganda: Disappointed with the president · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Gay Uganda is disappointed with the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, for supporting the Church of Uganda's crusade against homosexuality.


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Africa: Twitter’s global failure · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

White African explains what Twitter's global failure means for Africa. Twitter SMS service is no longer active in Africa.


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Bahamas, Guyana: Host Nation  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“It’s a very frustrating job, hosting this event…and at the same time dealing with Caribbean governments, all of which appear to operate in a similar inefficient fashion”: Bahamian blogger Nicolette Bethel files a Carifesta update from Georgetown, Guyana.


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Bangladesh: Shab-E-Barat festivities  · Global Voices
Rezwan

Dhaka Dweller Shahnaz describes how the Muslim ritual Shab-E-Barat (night of forgiveness) is celebrated in Bangladesh and posts pictures and narratives of the traditional food culture it entails.


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Chile: Campaign Propaganda Out of Season · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Elections are fast approaching in Chile, and Marcelo Aliaga of Bloggeando La Vida [es] is noticing the ways that candidates are getting around the regulations for the dates in which campaign propaganda is allowed.


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China: Earthquake 100 days · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Aug 19 is the 100 days of Sichuan earthquake, Wang Ning posted photos of Beichuan earthquake zone for memorizing the deaths.


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China: Free Wu Dianyuan And Wang Xiuying! · Global Voices
John Kennedy

On the arrest and sentence to one year of re-education labor for housing activists Wu Dianyuan and Wang Xiuying, aged 79 and 77 respectively, David Seth at Daily Kos writes: We need to call on China to free Wu Dianyuan And Wang Xiuying, and everyone else they are holding to keep Berlin Beijing and its Olympics beautiful.


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China: Gay Olympics · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Shanghai Fag Hag from Shanghaiist wrote about Gay sport competition in Shanghai hosted by an organization called Rainbow League.


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China: Hua Guofeng · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

DANWEI has a sum up on mainstream report and blogosphere commentary on the passing away of old communist leader Hua Guofeng.


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China: Only Gold Medal Matters? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Luqiu Luwei from my1510 criticizes the Chinese mainstream media for giving too much attention to the gold medal winners as if other medal winners or participants haven't been performing good enough to be proud of.


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China: Sportswear Sponsor · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Xueyong noticed that Liu Xiang's withdrawal from Olympics has resulted in the loss of 3 billion yuan for his sportswear sponsors. The blogger pointed out that the focus on one or two sport stars reflected that the development of sport in China is driven from the top, not from public participation.


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Colombia: Narcotours in Medellín · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

In Medellín, Colombia, “narco”-tours are being offered for foreigners to visit sites associated with the drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, writes Jorge Gobbi of Blog de Viajes [es].


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Cuba: Corrupt Survival  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“At his young age, he already understands that it doesn’t matter how many times you cross the line of illegality as long as you keep applauding.  For him, if they let him continue to line his pockets, socialism could well be eternal”: Yoani Sanchez blogs about corruption and its strong link to survival in Cuba.


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Cuba, U.S.A.: Watching the Games  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Cuba is a sports-loving country, and interest extends beyond the island’s participation, to that of athletes from other latitudes”: Circles Robinson writes about the experience of watching the Olympics from Havana, adding that “there could be nothing more diametrically opposed than Olympics sports coverage in Cuba and the United States.”


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Czech Republic: “Memories of the Russian Invaders” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

“Memories of the Russian Invaders” – at The Czech Daily Word.


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Egypt: Parliamentary Fire Reactions · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

People's reactions here are really confusing … ehm … and amusing as well. Ok, believe it or not, but some people here were really happy that a fire has destroyed Egypt's iconic Parliamentary building.
Zeinobia  describes how some people felt here:
They are happy seriously happy in a way you can’t imagine , of course today the fire of the Shura Council is still the talk of the town , most P190808_19.46[01]of the Egyptians did not see the grand fire of Cairo 1952 , so to see this one like this live on TV screen till the hours of the morning was something new. The people are feeling that they are suppressed and can’t take it any longer . They are so angry and pissed off this government and regime
The people who were gathering in the street were watching the scene in joy ,I felt , they did not put in consideration the historical value of the building , I do not know if this is because of cultural ignorance or 7areeq6 the hate of every thing that represents the regime , I think it is more the second option
Even on Facebook, a new group was created under the name: “Anybody else is happy for what happened to the Parliament!”.
El Motamangeh on the other hand writes here about the government's failure to put out the fire:
سؤال يطرح نفسه : الدولة التي فشلت في تأمين برلمانها ضد الحرائق ثم فشلت في اخماد حريق بسيط في مبني من 3 أدوار، كيف ستنجح في تأمين حدودها الشرقية؟
A very important question: A government that failed to protect its own Parliament building and then failed to put off the fire in the three-storey building – so how can it protect its eastern borders?
Some other bloggers voiced conspiracy theories as to what caused the disaster. Politikia, for example, writes here about the rumours which surfaced in the aftermath of the fire:
Rumors say that the fire can be an intentional one, to burn documents related to some recent important incidents (related to corruption) Like Mamdouh Ismail Salam 98 case for example.
Other bloggers are really saddened as the Shura Council building possessed an historic value. Nawara  writes here about how sad she is for what happened:
زعلانة قوي
ليه كده؟ للدرجة دي؟ عايز ياخد ورق ياخده باي طريقة، ده تاريخنا، دي بلدنا
مبنى الشورى بينهار، ده مش زي احتراق الاوبرا، ده مجلسي الشعب والشورى، دي فلوسنا
I am really sad.
If they really want to destroy those documents, they sure have other options. It's our history, and our country. The Shura Building is falling down, it's not like what happened to the Opera House (more than 50 years ago). it's our parliament and our own money.
And finally, this incident didn't stop Egyptian Leftist from showcasing his sense of humor. He   mocks a popular telecommunication's giant advertisement here . The banner says “Seeing a Cigarette Butt”, as cigarette butts are always the usual suspects when it comes to intended fires meant to destroy some documents

author: Tarek Amr


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Environmental concerns a priority for Pacific Island bloggers · Global Voices
John Liebhardt

Outside of denouncing military rule in Fiji, environmental concerns top the agenda as South Pacific leaders gather this week in Alofi, the capital of Nieu. Fiji’s so-called interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimara boycotted this year’s 16-nation meeting.  Other members of the conference threaten to impose travel bans on Fiji’s leaders until the government reverses a recent decision to cancel March 2009 elections, which would have restored the country’s participatory democracy.
As regional leaders try to turn up the political heat on Fiji’s government, bloggers have been voicing worries that global warming and other environmental issues are now causing economic hardship for Pacific island states.
The Langa Langa Information Portal out of the Solomon Islands, reported Toke Talegi, Premier of Nieu and host of the 39th Pacific Islands Forum, said with international attention now focused on climate change, the time is ripe to secure assistance for affected island nations, especially when per capita international aid has barely risen during the past ten years.
The environmental issues for these islands, which are scattered along wide stretches of the Pacific Ocean, are numerous. With virtually no petroleum and ineffective hydropower, most island nations have problems creating electricity. Importing oil is expensive because their populations are often small and isolated, creating a minor economy of scale that drives up prices.  Very little petroleum storage exists on many islands, making stockpiling difficult. Development levels and population growth vary from nation to nation, as does access to electricity.
On top of that, many islands remain vulnerable to climate changes and the potential for severe storms and rising seas. Papua New Guinea recently had to resettle more than 2,000 residents of the Carteret Islands that are slowly being inundated by water. Two uninhabited Kiribati islands were swallowed by the sea in 1999.
While the heads of state discuss political and environmental issues, bloggers in Fiji have been searching for solutions to their nation’s energy problems, which were illustrated this week when the Fiji Times reported a regional hospital has been without power for six months.
Importantly, Fiji's well established tourism industry is getting involved. The writers at Diving in Fiji link to an article about green diving. Ben Keene, a young British entrepreneur and a friend took the idea of establishing a social networking site and transplanted it onto Fiji's Vorovoro Island, where they worked with locals to construct an environmentally friendly tourist facility, replete with wind and solar generators, compost toilets and housing visitors in traditional Fijian architecture. By their count, the enterprise has provided contracts to more than 150 villagers to keep the place running, like purchasing food from farmers and fisherman, renting ground and water taxis to transport tourists and hiring staff to run the resort. The group, Tribewanted, has been long-listed for a Responsible Tourism Award for “Conservation of Cultural Heritage” and post a detailed overview of the project here.  Finally, there is also an entire blog dedicated to organic gardening and farming as a means to supply food to country's numerous resorts.
The blog covering sustainable development, Energy for All, reports on the use of cutting-edge technology at the local level.
One community in the northern province of Macuata on the second largest island of Fiji Vanua Levu , has just moved into the era of efficient lighting. A women's group in Visoqo village ,Macuata Soqosoqo ni Marama (Macuata Women’s Association) with the help of GEF,Canada Fund and International Women's organization(IWA-Shikha is a member ),Suva raised funds to install several Solar Home Systems within the community.A local company CBSpowersolutions did the installation of SHS systems.
Small portable solar lanterns are a great substitute for hurricane lamps and ordinary torches.Photo below shows such a lantern ( Solar Navigator) recently introduced here in Fiji. It is a compact lantern with a 9W CFL, a built-in solar panel and a 6V battery. The battery can be charged by solar energy or any electrical outlet.This is a very well designed product and comes with a radio or a motion sensor.My students are currently running some tests on these lanterns as part of their mini project-…
Philippe, from Voice of Melanesia, follows a story about using bio-fuel from locally sourced raw materials. Blog Pacific Islander quotes a speech five decades old that predicted the end of the fossil fuel age while arguing nuclear power is a plentiful resource with the ability to create much energy from a small amount of material.
Here’s the blog’s analysis of the issue:
It is now too late to make the required adjustments to a post-carbon economy (an economy in which fossil fuels are no longer abundant or cheap) without some pain, perhaps much pain. Indeed, we are beginning – a little – to feel it already. But the longer we bury our heads in the sand, the worse it will be going forward. We can't say we weren't warned. I hope we are ready to listen to this speech, and take it to heart, even if we are 51 years late…
A blog called in Invest in Fiji, written by two local businesspeople, called on the government to begin devoting more resources to energy from the sun.
I keep wondering why the electricity officials do not allow us to start using solar panels in our homes to supplement or even fully supply our home/office energy needs.
In recent years, our import bill has risen with one of the biggest components being oil imports.
Recent governments have tried to provide incentives for businesses that operate in the area of alternative energy production, however, not much effort has been done to fully encourage businesses to enter or operate in the area.
Local research into alternative fuels, including solar energy, is relatively non-existent with not much emphasis given by education planners to encourage anyone or firm to conduct research in the area.

author: John Liebhardt


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Georgia: A War Diary · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Natalia Antonova links to a war diary by George Lashkhi, commentator on Georgia’s Channel 1, published at GlobalComment.com.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Georgia, Russia: The Names of the Dead · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

An ongoing initiative (RUS) to compile a list of “those who died in the war of 2008, whose names are found on the web” – by LJ user hunu: “The list is incomplete, of course. […] I've placed the names of the dead on the same page – of civilians as well as of the armed participants of the war from all three sides. Some people may not like it, but I don't see any other way of doing it.”


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Ghana: Oil exploration with a plan · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Sokari writes about plans by the government of Ghana to embark on oil exploration arguing that it looks as if they have learned some lessons from Nigerian and Gabon.


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India: All about a block of ice · Global Voices
Rezwan

Indian Muslims Blog provides an insight into the ongoing agitation in Jammu region in India telling that its “all about a block of ice“. The blog also posts some pictures of a protest in Kashmir.


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India and Olympics  · Global Voices
Rezwan

“Could India host an impressive Olympics?” asks mbjesq in Desicritics blog.


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Jamaica: “Lightning” Strikes Twice at Beijing Olympics · Global Voices
Skye Hernandez

Jamaica's Usain Bolt continued his phenomenal run at the Beijing Olympics with a record-breaking win in the men's 200m Wednesday. His 19.30 sec time shaved two-hundredths of a second off American Michael Johnson‘s record made in Atlanta in 1996. In so doing, Bolt became the first man to win both the 100m and 200m at the same Olympics since Carl Lewis‘s feat in 1984. Not to be outdone, the Jamaican women also made the Caribbean proud, with Melanie Walker making a new Olympic record in the women's 400m hurdles.
Among the first to comment on Bolt's win was Trinidadian blogger Sitting at the Coffee Wallah who summed it all up by saying “Jamaica has certainly made these Olympics his own and here in the Caribbean we are all celebrating again tonight, we have the gold and silver in the 200m as well.” She takes issue with all those who've criticised Bolt's exuberant displays of dominance, however, and especially retired Trinidadian Olympic medalist-turned NBC commentator, Ato Boldon, who deemed Bolt's celebrations “too cocky”:
For years we've had to endure the sight of Americans grandstanding, beating their chests, hurling shoes into the stands, even Ato's bare chest as he hauled his running kit down after every race. Honestly, you get used to sportsmen behaving like a**holes when they do something so you overlook it as the emotion of the moment. Bolt, at 21 is pretty self assured, not a bad thing to be if you're the fastest man in the world. And he just set another world record. Folks, if he wants to do his “lightening bolt”, dance, brush his head, so what.
Or, put another way by Trinidadian blogger Nicholas Laughlin in response to a New York Times article on Bolt's win:
To everybody who disapproves of Bolt's “showboating”: when we in the Caribbean want to show the world how strong we are, we don't mobilise armies. We sing (Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, the Mighty Sparrow, Rihanna), we write poems (Derek Walcott, St.-John Perse), we paint (Wifredo Lam), we run and swim and score runs and goals (Arthur Wint, Hasely Crawford, Merlene Ottey, Ato Boldon, Asafa Powell, George Bovell, Learie Constantine, Garry Sobers, the Three Ws, Viv Richards, Brian Lara, Dwight Yorke, the entire West Indies cricket team in the 1970s and 80s, the Jamaican football team in 1998, the Trinidad and Tobago football team in 2006, etc etc etc) — and we go like lightning. Our athletes have always punched way, way above their weight, considering the size of our populations and our national economies. And they do it in style.
The man could dance! So let him dance. Today, all of us here dancing with him.
OwenSoft and Stunner's Afflictions‘s described the excitement in Jamaica, with people in the streets and offices crowding around television screens and waving the yellow, black and green flag of their country. YardFlex and Living in Barbados added to the growing catalogue of information on Bolt by naming the dancehall moves he put down after his historic win.
Raw Politics Jamaica Style uses the classic poem by Louise Bennett-Coverly “Colonization in Reverse” as a starting point to discuss recent successes of Jamaica and the Caribbean in track and field and the phenomenon of the small axe felling the big tree. By shutting out the Americans, he says “the wily Jamaicans give new meaning to being ‘likkle but (wi) tallahwah!’
Raw Politics‘ post is a belated celebration of Bolt's 100 m win and the achievements of the women's team as well. But even in celebrating the Jamaican men and women, he spared a thought for Asafa Powell, the powerful sprinter who was expected to shine in Beijing too, but who instead lived up to his reputation of being unable to perform in the biggest theatres of sport. He calls Powell a “trailblazer” who paved the way for Bolt and others:
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has aided the process by taking a decisive step in leveling the playing field in some way, it is now up to us to carry the baton all the way to victory. I am confident we will! Powell’s loss poignantly counterpoints Usain’s victory and underlines the twinned paradox of life in Jamrock.
The international media is perplexed by the rampant new sprint champions, but the fact that Jamaica and the Caribbean are on top of the world in athletics is for Bajan Global Report a sign of the times—a diet of ground provisions instead of steroids may well be the Jamaicans’ secret weapon.

author: Skye Hernandez


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Japan and China: Angry ‘Olympic Ojisan’ leaves Beijing · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

James from Japan Probe highlights the mainstream media reports about the early departure of Olympic super fan, 82-years old “Olympic Ojisan”.


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Japan: Ikeda on Everything is Miscellaneous · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

Well-known Japanese blogger Nobuo Ikeda (池田信夫) reviews [ja] the recently released translation of David Weinberger's book “Everything is Miscellaneous” (インターネットはいかに知の秩序を変えるか?), translated to Japanese by Rei Kasiwano (柏野零).

author: Chris Salzberg


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Jordan: Ants and Soda  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

From Jordan, Moey found ants in his soda.


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Jordan: Uranium Anybody?  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“I just stumbled upon this on Amazon! Believe it or not, you can actually buy some good old radioactive Uranium Ore from Amazon.com. yes, its true,” writes an excited Bakkooz from Jordan.


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Kenya: Software developers need support from ICT Board? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Al Kags discusses software development in Kenya. He asks,”Do local software developers need support from ICT board?”


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Korea: Selling Tourism · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Robert Koehler from Marmot's Hole summarized a local magazine's discussion over the lack of selling points regarding Korean Tourism.


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Korea: What You Know vs How Much You Know About It · Global Voices
Hyejin Kim

A blogger introduces a graph and talks about what knowledge means and how you can build up the knowledge.
넓게 알기 vs 깊게 알기
주어진 시간과 능력이 유한한 인간인지라 모든 것을 깊게 아는 것은 애초에 불가능하다. 위 그림에서 가로축은 얼마나 깊게 아는가를 세로축은 얼마나 넓게 아는가를 표시한 것인데 오른쪽으로 갈수록 깊게 아는 것이고, 위쪽으로 갈수록 넓게 아는 것을 의미한다. 재미나게도 “박사(Ph.D.)”에 해당하는 오른쪽 아래의 검은 점을 보면 지식의 범위가 학부생보다 그리고 석사보다도 좁아지고 대신 자기 분야만 깊게 안다는 것을 통렬하게 비꼬아 보여주고 있다.
위 그림을 아주 러프하게 수식으로 표현하자면 이렇다.
a (범위) + b (깊이) = c
(여기서 a>0, b>0 그리고 c는 상수, 가끔 음수가 되기도 한다. ^^)
사람에 따라서 a, b, c 값이 달라지게 된다. 주어진 a, b에서 아는 범위가 커지면 깊이가 얕아지게된다.
그런데 c의 중요성을 깨달을 필요가 있다. 만약 c 값이 크다면 당연히 범위와 깊이가 동시에 클 수 있다는 것에 주목하자. 우리가 공부하고, 세상에 대해 생각하면서 자신의 “능력”이 커질 것이다. 이것은 단지 한 쪽 분야에 대한 지식이 깊어지는 것만을 의미하는 것이 아니라 결국 더 많은 것들을 고려할 수 있는 “커패시티”가 커지는 것을 의미한다고 본다. c 값은 시간과 노력의 함수이며 시간을 들여 정성스레 노력하면 그 크기가 커지기 마련이다. 어느 한 분야를 깊게 공부했더니 결국 다른 분야까지 이해할 수 있게 되었다는 이야기가 가능한 것은 결국 c 값이 커졌기 때문인 것으로 나는 이해한다.
I would like to explain this graph as one formula.
a (scope) + b (depth) = c
(Here, a>0, b>0 and c is a constant number. Sometimes it could be a negative number)
Depending on people, the numbers of a, b, and c are different. If the scope of knowledge goes bigger, the depth is getting thinner. But we have to be aware of the importance of c. If the number of c gets bigger, the scope and depth can be of course bigger. While we study and think about the world more, the ability will be bigger. We don’t only get knowledge of one field, but also the capacity that you can consider will be bigger. The value of c will be answered by time and efforts. If you make efforts, the value will be larger. You study one field. Owing to it, you could understand other fields in the end. I understand that this is possible because it means that the value of c becomes bigger.
너무 공감합니다. c를 키우려고 노력해야 하는데, 요즘 들어 이것저것 보고 있으면 자꾸 a만 커지는 기분입니다.
넓게 앎과 동시에 자신의 분야에 대해서는 깊게 아는 것이 중요하지 않은가 하는 생각이 듭니다. 넓게 알면 그만큼 자신의 분야를 이해하는 것도 다양한 관점에서 볼 수 있지 않을까 하는 생각이 들어요.

author: Hyejin Kim


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Latvia: Soviet Murals · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Three photos of Soviet-time murals in Latvia – at Arnis Balcus’ Photo Blog.


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Mexico: Attempt to Close Radio Ñomndaa · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Notilibertas [es] posts a video about the attempt by federal police to close Radio Ñomndaa, an indigenous radio station in Guerrero, Mexico.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Mexico:  Videos raise awareness of kidnapping crisis · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

Mexico has seen a steep rise in kidnapping for ransom cases this year, and a group of videobloggers have decided to take a stand and make videos proposing solutions for this problem.
According to the Analisis a Fondo blog, according to the Dutch NGO Pax Christi and local authorities, Mexico has surpassed Colombia in the number of kidnappings, which take place mostly in the capital and neighboring areas. According to official statistics, in the first half of 2008 there were 323 kidnappings in Mexico City, and these numbers could be higher, since families of victims are afraid to contact the police, who have been proven in the past to be connected with kidnapping rings.
In Solution to Kidnapping in Mexico, bunnymango proposes citizens to stop paying taxes until the government takes care of the kidnapping situation. The text in Spanish on the video says:
In the first 5 months of this year, in Mexico more than 232 kidnappings were reported. However, this number is uncertain, many are not reported due to mistrust in authorities. With our taxes we are maintaining corrupt politicians and murderers and kidnappers in jail.It is the duty of our government to provide an educational system, social security and support to prevent crime and give people opportunities. Lets stop paying taxes, until they respond and we see results. If we don't have the courage to demand the authorities to act we will be kept waiting and this won't change.
The latest high profile kidnapping was of 14 year old boy Fernando Martí, whose father owns a major chain of sportswear and equipment. Even after paying a hefty ransom equivalent to 500 000 USD, the boy appeared murdered inside the luggage compartment of a stolen and abandoned car. What has shocked Mexicans is the fact that it seems that high ranking officers and ex officers were responsible for the kidnapping and murder of the boy and his two bodyguards during a fake police checkpoint where they were intercepted.
In El Justo Reclamo, Fernando Martí and the plebeyan blood, Martín Velez writes about how the media and government seem to have been blind to police abuses until now, and provides a possible reason for this:
El asesinato de Fernando Martí parece ofrecer una respuesta: La situación se ha degradado a un punto tal que inclusive la casta empresarial se ha vuelto vulnerable, eso es lo que hace singular este homicidio que es tan lamentable como los otros veinte de hoy y los veinticinco de mañana.
The assassination of Fernando Martí seems to bring an answer: The situation has degraded to such a point that even the business caste has become vulnerable, that is what makes this homicide unique, although it is as deplorable as the other twenty that happened today and the twentyfive of tomorrow.
The following video was made by Jocelyn Negrete, the text reads:
Mexico is the latin american country with the highest risk of being kidnapped. Mexico has the second place in the number of kidnappings. In the country between 3 and 4 kidnappings take place each day.Sometimes we need something to happen se we can reflect about our reality. Kidnappers have among their main targets businessmen and people in the middle class. In 2007 there were a total of 297 kidnappings. Most of the victims don't survive the abduction. Victims suffer physical abuse or the amputation of parts of their body.Fear, family suffering, pain, mourning, psychological trauma… are some of the consequences from being a kidnapping victim. DON'T KEEP QUIET!! Lets demand the renewal of the police forces since most of the cases are committed by the police. Lets work together.Lets fight to strenghten the offices in charge of public safety. Together we can accomplish great changes. For a better future!


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Morocco: China in the Olympics · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Innocent Whispers remarks upon China's role in the Olympic Games.


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Morocco: Olympic News Flash · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

The View From Fez is providing continuous updates on Morocco's Olympic success.  The latest news: Bitissam Lakhouad and Siham Hilali have qualified for the first round of the women's 1500m.


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Nepal: New government, new challenges  · Global Voices
Rezwan

Bhupendra Khanal has some suggestions for the new Nepali government in United We Blog.

author: Rezwan


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Nigeria: Celebrating Nigeria’s first gold · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Jeremy celebrates Nigeria's first gold and asks, “Just think how well Nigeria would do if sport was taken seriously in the motherland.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Pakistan: Musharraf’s complicated legacy · Global Voices
Rezwan

Five Rupees analyzes Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf's complicated legacy and comments “it is crucial that the Pakistani public and media demand from the newly elected civilian leaders the same standard of accountability that they did so vociferously against Musharraf.”


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Peru: On Being Peruvian · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

The blog Choledad Privada [es] publishes the fifth post in a series that attempts to humorously unveil the pure essence of being “Peruvian”, however, not everyone agrees.

author: Juan Arellano


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Russia, Georgia: Oil and War · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Window on Eurasia writes about the oil factor in the Russian-Georgian conflict.


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Russia: Three Anniversaries · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Window on Eurasia writes about “the lessons of three anniversaries”: “Today is the 10th anniversary of Russia’s default on its international financial obligations and the 17th anniversary of the launch of the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev that precipitated the end of the Soviet Union, and tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, an event that marked a low point in the Cold War.”


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St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Barbados: UWI Sued  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A Rhodes Scholar sues the University of the West Indies for failing to give him first-class honours and Abeni from St. Vincent and the Grenadines says: “I really do not know what to make of this.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica: Olympic Inspiration  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Caribbean Librarian is inspired by the Olympic performances of the Jamaican sprinters: “What have we learnt? When faced with innumerable problems (our economies, lack of infrastructure, lack of resources etc.), we CAN ACHIEVE!!”


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Uganda: How Internet access fuels development · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Siena posts a link to an article she wrote about how the Internet access fuels development in Northern Uganda.


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Uruguay: 2nd Ceibal Jam for the XO Laptop · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Pablo Flores announces the 2nd Ceibal Jam in Montevideo, Uruguay [es], which is an informal get-together of programmers in order to develop open-source applications for the XO laptops.


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Afghanistan: The Road War · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Joshua Foust examines the dual-use nature of national infrastructure projects in Afghanistan, and wonders how that might affect the counterinsurgency there.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Afghanistan: The Unfortunate Consequence of Militarizing Aid · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Joshua Foust sees some of the violent consequences of the U.S. blurring the lines between military and humanitarian aid.


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Algeria: Closer Look at Mauritania’s Former First Lady · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Algerian blogger The Moor Next Door takes a closer look at Khatou mint El Boukhari, the wife of Mauritania’s former president, has been blamed by many for her husband’s downfall.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Algeria: Focus on Russo-Syrian Relations  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The Moor Next Door, from Algeria, discusses Russo-Syrian relations in this post.


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Bahamas, Cuba: Inconvenient Truths?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“The Bahamas standard of living reflects the effect of free trade and a relatively limited government. Citizens here are still far better off than in many countries in the region and the world.  However, every now and then The Bahama Journal editorialises about the virtues of Cuba. And frankly this turns my stomach”:  Rick Lowe at Weblog Bahamas explains.


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Bahrain: Celebrating the Imam Al-Mahdi’s birth · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

In the middle of the Islamic month of Sha’aban, the month before Ramadan, festivities take place all over Bahrain celebrating the date of Imam Al Mahdi’s birth. The occasion is called Nasfa [Ar], and it is not just a Shiite religious feast, but an event celebrated by Bahrainis of all communities.
The Twelver Shi’a believe that the Imam Al Mahdi is the twelfth Imam and the ultimate saviour of humankind; they believe he is currently in hiding or occultation and will one day return to bring justice to the world. Rayyash marks the Imam Al Mahdi’s birth date:
‘Nasfa’ comes from the word for ‘half’, and it is similar to the festival which takes place halfway through Ramadan called Girgaoun (in fact many people call this month’s festival Girgaoun, too). Children visit houses in the neighbourhood wearing traditional outfits, and are given sweets and money. One blogger, Ali, believes that something has changed in recent years, though:
Photo credit:Maitham Al Mubarak
If you visit a traditional neighbourhood on the night of Nasfa you will see brightly coloured bunting and lights everywhere. Music is played, and stalls are set up to serve food to passers-by. People in cars are not forgotten; boys and men stand in the middle of the road and hand out snacks, drinks and toys to each passing car. But Ali thinks there is a negative aspect to this too:
For bloggers’ reports on Nasfa last year, see here.

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Bangladesh: Anti-corruption drive halted  · Global Voices
Rezwan

An Ordinary Citizen reports that the much discussed corruption cases against the politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats in Bangladesh have been halted at the corridor of the High Court.


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Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana: Winning Ways · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“I feel that a lot of people misinterpreted Bolt's gestures, for innocent or malicious reasons. There may be more than one level of culture clash at work–race and class, being obvious, but also the aspirations and motivation of the modern athlete”: Living in Barbados takes no issue with Usain Bolt's winning ways, while Guyana Providence Stadium thinks that the “IOC president should keep his trap shut shut in regards to Bolt.”


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China: Athletes / Soldiers · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Laowiseass noticed Chinese state-run media had applied a troops-athletes metaphor in their report about Olympic victory. The blogger also pointed out that many Chinese regard the soldier-like training of athletes as universal normal practice.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Beijing can’t find itself on Google News · Global Voices
John Kennedy

They haven't been call the SchizOlympics for nothing (that piece is serious though, and worth a second read), and now Google News is behaving oddly; read all about it at Danwei: “The absence of China from news searches does not appear to be a Net Nanny phenomenon or at least it does not resemble the usual blocking and filtering.”

author: John Kennedy


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China: He Kexin and “babygate” · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Imagethief picks up the debate on the age issue of He Kexin, the golden girl of Chinese gymnastics, and notices a cold-war double standard in some of the mainstream media report with a story plot of Ours=plucky, heroic achievers. Theirs=manufactured robots/slaves/dopers.


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China: iTunes is blocked and it’s Apple’s fault · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Silicon Hutong blogger David Wolf notes that the iTunes Music Store is now blocked in China, assumes this was due to the release on iTunes of a Tibetan music album, assumes Apple chose to release it during the Olympics as an act of “passive-aggressive panda-punching,” and then advises Apple choose between building a market in China and displaying this kind of bi-polar behavior.


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China: Protesters’ Trap · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Two 80 years old protesters was sent to labour education camp as they insisted to demonstrate in the Olympic protest area. Zhongoutese was very angry and said that the Olympic protest area was a trap for dissents.


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China: Victims of Sport · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Xueyong traced the fate of two sportswomen, Guo ping and Zhou Chun-Lai, both were medal carriers and suffered from hardship after their retirement in early age. According to statistic, 40% of the retired sportsman couldn't find a second job.


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China: Where the world’s e-waste goes · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Academic-blogger Bill Chameides at The Huffington Post looks at the issue of e-waste in China, noting that 70% of it worldwide ends up there: “Even though the Chinese government has banned the importation of e-waste, the stuff continues to find its way in.”


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Egypt: Taking Down Sexual Harassment · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

A national campaign to fight sexual harassment in Egypt is making waves. Faith from the blog Muslimah Media Watch discusses a new campaign, entitled Respect Yourself, launched to fight sexual harassment on Cairo's streets.
She says:
Sexual harassment is a problem that affects women in all societies. Muslim societies are no exception. Where there is patriarchy, there will be sexual harassment. In both Muslim and non-Muslim societies, the “solution” to sexual harassment has always fallen on women. “Don't dress in revealing clothes, don't flirt, don't stay out alone, etc.” Even at my alma mater, the rape and sexual harassment prevention posters are in the women's bathrooms only, and the focus is on women's behavior instead of men's. The Los Angeles Times recently did a profile of a group (pictured to the right) in Egypt that is taking a different approach to sexual harassment. The volunteer group is sponsored by the Egyptian youth magazine Kelmetna. One of the great aspects of this group is the focus on men's role in stopping sexual harassment. The slogan of the group's campaign is “Respect yourself: Egypt still has real men.” I love this slogan for two reasons. The first is that it challenges one of the core values of traditional notions of masculinity: sexual power over women. Harassing women is not a sign of masculinity; it's a sign of cowardice. It's great that Muslims are beginning to recognize this.
She further explains:
Another reason I love this slogan is because it brings the responsibility for sexual harassment back on men. For too long, sexual harassment has been considered the responsibility of women. “Real men” take the responsibility in treating women with respect and sexual autonomy and they also take responsibility in stopping other men from disrespecting women's sexuality. This is why the campaign not only focuses on getting men to stop sexually harassing women, but to also stop other men from doing it, too. This is especially important when a lot of sexual harassment in Egypt takes place in public.
The focus on making men responsible also challenges the view that women's dress will prevent sexual harassment. The Los Angeles Times article cited a survey of Egyptian women which showed that 83% of Egyptian women reported being verbally and sexually harassed. Of these women, 70% were veiled. Nour Hussein, a volunteer with the group who wears hijab, was pushed to join the group after being sexually harassed. About her experience, Nour said “That was a month ago. I felt very insecure and this pushed me hard to join the campaign. I used to hear about harassment but thought that it only happened to non-veiled girls; I never thought it could happen to me.” Stories like Nour's only further validate that message of the campaign: harassment is not the fault of women; it is the fault of the man. Recognizing that is the first step in taking down sexual harassment.

author: Eman AbdElRahman


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Grenada: Thinking About Poverty · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Letters from Grenada blogs about everything from education to land use as part of Blog Action Day 2008.


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Guyana: Carifesta Preparations · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Both Living Guyana and Propaganda Press provide updates on the last-minute rush for Carifesta.


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India: Mumbai Pride · Global Voices
Rezwan

Sakshi Juneja posts some pictures of the recently concluded Queer Azadi LGBT pride march in Mumbai, India.


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Indonesia: Olympic gold and Independence Day · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Double celebration for Indonesia last week after its badminton players won a gold medal in the Beijing Olympics; and just in time for the commemoration of the country's Independence Day.

author: Mong Palatino


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Indonesia: Reflections on Independence Day · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Indonesian bloggers therrysays and Rima Fauzi ponders about the essence of independence (or the lack of it) in contemporary Indonesian society.


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Iran: First Gold Medal in Olympic games · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Iranian Olympic title-holder Hadi Saei won his second Olympic taekwondo gold medal.Ebtekar Sabz,Iranian blogger, writes [Fa] that Iranian champion has said “I play for the heart of people.”

author: Fred Petrossian


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Jamaica: Campbell-Brown Wins Gold · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“The U.S. team will return home without a gold medal in the individual sprint events for the first time since they boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics”: YardFlex.com congratulates Jamaican sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown on her “impressive gold in the women’s 200 meters.”


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Jordan: Al Aqsa Mosque Picture · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Jordan's Jazarah posts a 39-year-old photograph of “Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Palestine after an Israeli attack that caused a big fire, leading to major damage in the Mosque.”


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Kazakhstan: Kazakh perspectives on the Russian-Georgian War · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Ben opines on the implications of the new Caucasus conflict for Kazakhstan and says that Kazakhstan’s president Nazarbayev has been the first CIS leader to make a statement on the conflict during a meeting with Putin in Beijing.


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Kazakhstan: Re housing construction under Soviet Union · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Marat posts some statistics about housing construction and the affordability of housing in Kazakhstan in Soviet times.


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Kazakhstan: Re international relationships · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Marat opines on the state of international affairs and Realpolitik around Kazakhstan.


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Kuwait: Missing romance · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Kuwaiti blogger Shopa reports on a surprising conversation with her mother about romance.


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Kyrgyzstan: American Basketball Players to Visit Kyrgyzstan · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Elena reports that American basketball players will visit Kyrgyzstan to participate in a series of sporting events.


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Malaysia: Avril Lavigne is too sexy? · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The youth wing of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party is urging the government to cancel the scheduled concert of singer Avril Lavigne in Malaysia because the singer is deemed too sexy. Blogger My Little Sanctuary is angry.


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MENA: Refused Gaza Fulbright students speak · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

A few weeks a group of students from the Gaza Strip who were due to go to the United States on Fulbright scholarships had their visas revoked at the last moment. Two of the students who were denied the chance to pursue their studies have since written heartfelt letters pleading their case.
Haitham Sabbah, a Palestinian blogger based in Bahrain, posts a letter written by Fidaa Abed, a student who had been accepted at the University of California San Diego on a Fulbright scholarship – only to be turned back on arrival in the US:
Last week, I landed in Washington, D.C., brimming with optimism. Upon arrival, I was whisked into a separate room. An American official informed me that he had just received information about me that he could not reveal. However, it required him to put me on the next plane home. I was shocked. And I was taken aback at the cruelty of snatching away my educational dreams at the last possible moment. My mistreatment was particularly unexpected because in late May, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice learned that I and six other Fulbright students were being stripped of our Fulbright scholarships, she leapt to our assistance. One by one, Israel let other Palestinian Fulbright scholars out of Gaza, and they made their way to American universities. Then I was mysteriously singled out for last-minute denial based on “secret evidence.” Two others had their visas canceled on account of secret evidence before they could even leave Gaza. (Originally published in The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Haitham asks:
“Secret evidence”… hah? Maybe his “beard”?!
Robin, a commenter on Haitham’s post, thinks she knows what the ‘secret evidence’ that led to the revoking of Fidaa Abed’s visa:
It’s really pretty easy to trace the source of the “secret evidence” which caused the US to revoke Fidaa’s visa. That would be to one Congressman Mark Kirk, Republican Christian Zionist, Illinois, who champions himself as Israel’s best friend in Congress, who himself is a member of the Fulbright Association. Some might remember Mark Kirk from this incident:
“On November 5, 2005, while speaking at Northwestern University, Kirk was asked how he felt about stricter visa policies applied to Arab foreign nationals seeking entry to the United States. Kirk answered: “I’m OK with discrimination against young Arab males from terrorist-producing states. I’m OK with that. I think that when we look at the threat that’s out there, young men between, say, the ages of 18 and 25 from a couple of countries, I believe a certain amount of intense scrutiny should be placed on them.” So, now that your memory has been jogged about who he is, it should be no surprise that he went on the rampage to do what he could to stop these Fulbright scholars. The New York Sun reported that he wrote a letter to the Inspector General of the State Department, Harold Geisel, with “evidence”. This evidence was that (I don’t know about the other two, but this applies for sure to Fidaa) Fidaa had attended Gaza’s Islamic University.
Jerry Haber, an Israeli-American blogger writing at the The Magnes Zionist, has more information about one of the other students who was not allowed to travel – a high school student on a special programme:
The boy in the picture above, proudly displaying his diploma for learning English, had his visa revoked last week by the United States, while waiting in Amman for his plane to America.
Ahmed al-Mughari (in my post a few days ago I spelled it Ma'ari, following English press accounts) studied English in Gaza for two years as part of a program administered by AmidEast, “a private, nonprofit organization with a mission of strengthening mutual understanding and cooperation between Americans and the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa.” Talented students from Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem, as well as Yemen, Kuwait, and Egypt, etc., are nominated when they are about 13 or 14 years old to participate. The students study about 150 hours of general English language, 40 hours academic writing, 30 hours, conversation, and 20 hours public speaking. Classes are on Fridays [the weekend] or during vacations, and are in addition to the students’ regular schooling. … It is a year long program, but Ahmed was lucky and was allowed to spend a second year in the program. When Ahmed finished his second year, he applied to AmidEast to study in America and to live with an American family.
Jerry Haber adds:
The world pictures Gaza as a dysfunctional, overpopulated, hellhole, run by fanatical Muslim fundamentalists, with armed thugs and terrorists roaming the streets. Maybe this is too detailed a picture; most Israelis, if they think of Gaza at all, see it as a miserable place where terrorists who are trying to destroy Israel live. That somebody like Ahmed could grow up in a place like Gaza seems incomprehensible to many Israelis. That Gaza could be home to doctors, lawyers, and university professors, seems as incomprehensible. Such is the power of prejudice and stereotypes.
Then he presents a letter he received from the young student:
Dear sir
I'm very appreciated for you and your huge efforts in seeking to give me a last chance in order to come back to my program. My name is AHMED AL MAGHARI. I'm 16 and I'm Palestinian as you know. At first, I'm going to provide you some details about my program (YES program), YES it is abbreviation for (Youth and Exchange Study). It's a global program for exchange students all over the world for bridging cultures and building understanding among the people in the world. I succeed in this program believing in my self and believing a better education and a better place to live in, but unfortunately, they destroyed my only hope for a better future, however I still insist to travel in any way. In addition, this problem effected me in a very negative way, I felt that I disappointed all my friends and my family's hopes. Moreover, a lot of hard decisions that I took based on studying in America simply destroyed. Any way, thanks a million for you and all the honest people like you and I hope that the problem will be solved in a quick way
AHMED AL MAGHARI
Jerry Haber finishes with a request to his readers:
So what can I say to Ahmed? How can I explain to him what the Shin Bet will not explain to him – why they told the US that he is a security threat. And why did he became a security threat only after the US had granted him a visa. And what is a security threat? Does he have a relative that is suspected of being Hamas? Is there fear that he will want to revenge a martyr? Is it difficult for the Shin Bet to trump up charges – even convincingly — against anybody they want to? If you an American citizen, I ask you to contact your representative in Congress, or senator, and bring Ahmed's case to their attention. You may think that this is a lousy time to do something – Congress is or will be soon in recess; the world is paying attention to Russia's invasion of Georgia and the Olympics. If one young man can't travel to America, is this such a big deal? For me, it is an enormous deal. To save this young man's belief in himself, and in the importance of education, is to save an entire world. Keeping Ahmed in Gaza is a vindictive, spiteful act that says more about Israel's desire to save face with the US than with anybody's security. How ashamed we all should feel.


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Morocco: Blogosphere Citizenship · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Eatbees, a foreign member and upstanding citizen of the Moroccan blogosphere, shares a piece of his interview with blogoma researcher Rebecca Robinson.

author: Jillian C. York


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Morocco: Changing the Mentality Toward Traffic · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

A Moroccan About the World Around Him shares an interesting tale of two youth trying to make a difference in the Casablancan mentality toward jaywalking.


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Morocco: Rural Life · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Près du puits, in a post entitled “Two Kids, Twelve Cows, and a Swing,” shares the trials, tribulations – and entertainment – of Morocco's rural poor.


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Oman: Car-less in Muscat  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Omani blogger Muscati is car-less. Click on the link to find out why.


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Pakistan: In tears again · Global Voices
Rezwan

All Things Pakistan is in pain after yet another suicide bomb blast in Pakistan that killed more than 70 people: “In what continues to be war on and in Pakistan, Pakistanis continue to die. Pakistan continues to cry.”


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Pakistan: Who is the next president?  · Global Voices
Rezwan

CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan is analyzing the reports and rumors that Asif Ali Zardari, the Co-Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the widower of the assassinated ex Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto may be the next President of Pakistan. Chowrangi also weighs in on this issue.


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Peru: Government Attempts to Halt Protests in the North · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

The news media has started to provide more coverage of the protests taking place in Northern Peru.  The newspaper La República writes that the commission headed up by Environmental Minister Antonio Brack did not accomplish much.  More and more indigenous groups are joining the cause and guarding important state petroleum and hydroelectric companies.  In addition, the federal government declared a state of emergency in the area, which calls for an imposition of order.  However, the protests continue.
Very few bloggers from the capital city of Lima have been commenting on the matter, and as the blogger Desde el Tercer Piso [es] writes, “For those of us who live in Lima, it is difficult to understand why such a serious social conflict is taking place in our country's jungle.”  He points to the Treaty signed by Peru years ago that calls for the state to consult with indigenous groups regarding their lands. The recent legislative decrees modified these agreements, and thinks that the Constitutional Tribunal should decide the matter.  He adds that in addition to the possibility of unconstitutionality, there might be environmental concerns.
The blogger Milanta [es] also posts an analysis of the Legislative decrees that are affecting the indigenous communities.  Susana Villarán [es] publishes a note about the dynamics of the dialogue between the indigenous groups and the government:
Los indígenas que se oponen a los DL recientemente dictados al amparo de las facultades delegadas por el Congreso quieren que el jefe de Gobierno les de la cara. Son jefes de sus Pueblos. Quieren al Jefe del gobierno. Allá o acá en Lima. Tienen razón. Me pregunto, sin embargo, por qué no va a Santa María de Nieva, a San Lorenzo el presidente García y les explica su punto de vista acerca de los supuestos beneficios que obtendrán los Pueblos Indígenas de los Decretos Ley que promulgó con tanto júbilo? ¿Tiene tiempo para los empresarios e inversionistas pero no para los indígenas en cuyas tierras se orienta la inversión? ¿Acaso los convocó a su Palacio antes de promulgar los DL para conocer su opinión y escucharlos y convencerlos o convencerse?. La concertación no es su fuerte y menos, el escuchar a quienes siempre han sido postergados y discriminados.
The indigenous that are opposed to the Legislative Decrees want for the head of the government to show up.  They are heads of their communities.  They want the head of the government.  There or here in Lima.  They are right.  I ask myself, why doesn't President García go to Santa María de Nieva and San Lorenzo to explain his point of view regarding the supposed benefits that the Indigenous Communities would receive from the Decrees that he signed with such joy?  He has time for businessmen and investors, but not for the indigenous whose lands are targets of the investment? Did he call them to the Palace before signing the Legislative Decrees in order to hear their opinions and try to convince them? Compromise is not his strength, and less hearing from those who have always been marginalized and discriminated against.
The blog El Útero de Marita [es] writes that there are other characters that may be involved in this conflict:
Cuidado, por ejemplo, con la presencia del humalista Víctor Isla, uno de los mayores sospechosos de la depredación de la selva, que está merodeando a las organizaciones indígenas alzadas. De hecho va a querer jalar agua para su molino. Por suerte, en la protesta también está el hermano Paul Mc Auley, fundador de la Red Ambiental de Loreto, y antagonista jurado de Isla. Lo increíble es que la PCM, según Correo, está tramitando ¡la expulsión del país Mc Auley! Eso sería no saber cómo se manejan internamente las cosas en la Amazonía. Sería ver, una vez más, las cosas en blanco y negro.
Be careful with the presence of Humalista (follower of Ollanta Humala, ex-presidential candidate), Víctor Isla, one of the chief suspects of pillaging the jungle, and who is prowling around with some indigenous organizations [es].  Surely he wants to take advantage of the situation.  Luckily, also involved in the protest is Brother Paul McAuley, founder of the Environmental Network of Loreta and sworn enemy of Isla.  Incredibly, the Council of Ministers, according to Correo, is working towards  the expulsion of McAuley from the country! [es] This shows that they do not know how things work internally in the Amazon.  It would be seeing things, once again, only in black and white.
Finally the blog Agencia de Noticias Spacio Libre [es] posts a video of the Army training in Iquitos in hopes of “reestablishing the public order.”


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author: Jennifer Brea


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