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Panama: Fire in Youth Prison Sparks Controversy · Global Voices
Ariel Moreno

The Panama national police have written another controversial chapter in the administration of the current government of Ricardo Martinelli. The site Kaosenlared [es] reports what has happened:
7 menores recluidos en el Centro de Cumplimiento de Menores resultaron seriamente quemados, 5 de ellos de gravedad, en un incidente ocurrido este domingo 9 de Enero.
Los menores reclamaban que tenían más de 8 días sin agua, producto de la crisis del suministro de agua potable en la ciudad capital. Más de 8 días sin bañarse ni tomar agua.
Una de las celdas se incendia y los menores imploraban a los policías que los auxiliaran. Los policías no actuaban y hasta se mofaban del sufrimiento de los jóvenes.
The 7 locked-up minors in the correctional facility for juvenile offenders were burned seriously, 5 of them gravely, in an incident that happened this past Sunday January 9th.
The juveniles complained they went without water for 8 days, a by-product of the potable water supply crisis in the capital city.  More than 8 days without washing or drinking water.
One of the cells was set fire and the juveniles implored the police to help them.  The police didn't act and even made fun of the suffering of the young men.
The situation has caused all types of reactions, more still after the death of three of the young men. For its part the police are trying to defend themselves and explain what happened, and on the other side the Panamanian people are divided between those asking for heads to roll among the facility's guards and those that justify the police actions.
Gloribeth Sinclair (@glorisin) shares on Twitter:
NO puedo ser tan justa con mi opinion sobre los presos quemados (menores) si ellos NO son justos con las personas que han matado u robado!
For her part, Natasha Pineda (@natashaP12) shows her disgust of the police actions.
Aun no creo lo inhumanos que fueron esos policias con los menores de edad! Ya van 3 muertos y siguen en cuidados 4 mas ¿y el cambio?
Susana Merina Lezcano in her blog Sin mordazas [es] debates the same worry of many Panamanians, the idea that those boys weren't precisely saints as the families and media attempt to portray them, but that despite that, no human being deserves to be treated that way:
Los familiares de los reclusos dicen en televisión cosas como “el no era malo, solo lo agarraron con una metralleta”, como dijo la abuela del primer muchacho que murió tras este fuego. Es como si la realidad de estas personas estuviese tan distorsionada que no tienen consciencia de qué tan malos son los pasos que siguen sus hijos, o su entorno está tan podrido que para ellos es normal que un niño tenga un arma.
Susana adds to these thoughts that the same reasons that brought those young men to be in jail are the same ones that brought the police to the point that they acted the way they did:
¿Que los guardias del centro actuaron de forma inhumana? No podemos esperar otra cosa, si muchos de estos guardias provienen de los mismos barrios que los infractores que custodian, y al igual que ellos, crecieron influenciados por el mismo sistema corrupto donde un celular vale más que una vida.
Publio De Gracia (@PublioDeGracia) reminds Panamanians that those who died and suffered burns were also human beings.
escucho que algunos aplauden lo del centro de custodio de menores, xq no importa eran “maleantes”, CARAJO! eran seres humanos x Dios
Yadisel Buendia (@yadiselbuendia) joins the clamor of Panamanians that demand punishment and imprisonment for those that participated in this atrocity.
Nadie preso x crimen contra menores del C. Cumplimiento. Ya van 2 muertos! Reina la prepotencia e impunidad en mi país
There is nothing left that one can do apart from pausing, reflecting and reviewing the social causes of this situation in the country, this is what Miguelángel Moreno tells us (@mikemocast):
Que clase de agentes de la seguridad publica tenemos en (no todos); el caso de los menores quemados y ejecutados es de analisis!
It remains to be seen what will happen to the implicated police officers in this horrible situation. For the moment Panamanians hope that something like this will not happen again.

author: Ariel Moreno


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Poland: Initial Reactions to Russian Report on Polish Air Force One Plane Crash · Global Voices
Sylwia Presley

The Interstate Aviation Committee‘s report on the crash of TU-154M airplane near Smolensk on April 10, 2010, has generated an outburst of strong opinions about the validity and objectivity of the document, as well as the effect it might have on the Polish politics in 2011 (here is the IAC's report in Polish, in Russian, and in English). Most discussions in various social media are highly negative of the document's content, but gradually bloggers are beginning to elaborate on the topic.
The author of Kozi Dryngiel blog [PL] provides a really insightful analysis of the April 10 flight and landing conditions, pointing out some still unclear elements:
A detailed analysis of the “new” material published by IAC would take time. However, already now, after the first glimpse at the video reconstruction of the Polish plane's flight over the Russian territory, which is attached to the report, serious questions and concerns arise.
The new IAC report maintains the version that blames the Poles. It mentions the wrong decision to land in conditions that were not safe enough to approach the airport. It mentions crew activities that imply lack of experience and skills to maneuver the Tu-154M. It states that the crew reduced the altitude too quickly while approaching the airport, which made the maneuvering difficult. It also mentions pressure on the pilots exercised by their superiors, which was supposed to cause psychological tension and increase the stress level in this already difficult situation. […]
As we pointed out earlier (here i here) – the information provided by the controller to the crew was not detailed enough – […] the plane was further from the landing spot and higher than it was assumed from the tower's reports. […]
IAC also states that the accident was caused by the pressure exercised on the crew by the passengers, which cannot be directly proven. It has to be mentioned here that the fact that the controller provided mistaken information about the distance and height of the plane could have been a more crucial factor of the crash than the assumption about the superiors’ pressure. […]
Azrael Kubacki presents his views [PL] on the political context of this report:
The report on the Moscovian IAC, said to be international, de facto Russian, strongly embedded in the Kremlin's commission, did not surprise anyone who followed all the publicly available information and materials. Followed and analysed rationally, without reference to conspiracy theories, assassination, thermal bombs, interference of the plane equipment, or even using another plane and kidnapping the passengers. It does come as a surprise to those who assumed that the Russians would remain neutral and admit their own mistakes. Let's state this here and now – mistakes that were not the major factor of the crash of Tu-154M, but mistakes that allowed the Polish crew to fly straight down onto the swampy forest.
After listing all the mistakes that the Poles made, Kubacki continues [PL]:
All this does not allow the Polish side to stop questioning whether the Russians, their airport staff and the airport itself were ready to welcome the Polish plane. It looks like the Russian ban on the landing, closing down the airport before the arrival of the Polish plane, could have prevented the catastrophe. They did not do so, as their three controllers were also exposed to similar pressure as the Polish pilots. Just that they could pass the blame on to the Polish crew of Tu-154M – who could not do much about it but try to land. It is obvious that they are to blame for the crash – but can the Poles pass the blame on them? Not really?
Later on, Kubacki continues with the political context of this report [PL]:
The Smolensk case will dominate the political discourse and will remain the main topic of political games before the autumn elections – for Law and Justice party [PiS] and Jarosław Kaczyński for sure. Discussions and accusations will sharpen and polarise the Polish political life even more to the state in which only [PO] and PiS will matter. It's really bad for the Polish politics […], but it will last until the Polish commission's report of minister Jerzy Miller and until the investigation of the Polish prosecution do not end. This will not happen before the autumn elections.
As one of the commentators pointed out, the IAC report has opened a new chapter in the Polish-Polish war, this time under the Russian flag…
Rusofil publishes two blog posts. In his first one on the topic, he mentions this [PL]:
IAC has published the report on the crash of the Polish President's plane near Smolensk. For me its content comes as no surprise. It describes everything that took place during the flight and the reasons of the crash. Of course, it provoked a wave of disagreement in Poland, but I do not understand why. Only one fact is pointing to the Polish pilots causing the catastrophe. It is the lack of reaction to the command PULL UP. […]
The report raises a lot of questions and doubts, it also gives scope to many theories. This is its major fault, which also proves lack of communication between the Polish and the Russian sides. Discussions, disagreements and arguments will last for a while yet.
In his second post Rusofil continues [PL]:
Why does the IAC report not contain the remarks of the Polish side? It is an interesting question, which does not have a clear explanation. The statement that the Russians do not want to take the blame has its grounds, but I would like to point out that IAC is an independent international organisation, regardless of whether we like it or not.  Of course, I do not exclude the possibility of pressure on the committee, but I doubt it was the Kremlin. I would rather see the army's input there. […]
The question arises, why then did the Kremlin not put pressure on IAC in order to prevent international scandal? In my opinion they tried to, but failed. The endless power of the Kremlin and Prime Minister Putin is a myth propagated by Moscow and willingly copied by the Western media. In reality, the new fight for power begins, and the Smolensk plane crash case has became a part of it. It is worth mentioning, though, that from Moscow's point of view it is a secondary factor. In Poland, however, the noise around the report will give birth to political arguments (hopefully, not social ones), and gradually weaken the country. And this, sadly, is also somewhat beneficial for Moscow. […]
Some, like K. from Maccaroni blog [PL], see the report as shameful for Poland:
How should I put it… Regardless of the attempts to save the good name of the airport crew, the report is hitting us hard. […]
Another blogger, ndb2010, has more radical views [PL] :
To summarise initially: the report contains verbal accusations about pressure, but the factual bits related to the found parts, which we currently have access to, is so absurd that I cannot believe that Russians could publish this thing.
It's a pity that the Western press reports only on the Russian version.
The report is disgusting. Nothing new, basically the rule of the [Chicago Convention] has been broken, as it states that one cannot blame any parties, nor write a report which in any way affects individuals personally.
It contains a lot of untrue information. They feel they cannot be punished. They want to scare us.
The blog of the Catholic Radio Maryja posts speculations [PL]:
The report of IAC on causes of the Smolensk crash would make Radio Maryja happy under one condition. It would be enough if the Russians admitted conducting an assassination of the Polish plane, together with the government of Tusk. This did not happen, however, so the reaction of Father Rydzyk was predictable.
Kazimierz Maciejewski is very upset [PL]:
Well, yesterday I thought I could use this report as toilet paper, today I know I won't, as I would not spare my lower back for this rag.
Komandos1948 has different views, though, posted on his blog [PL]:
Blaming the Russians is embarrassing, to say the least. The pilot is to decide when and how to land (this time under pressure). We should rather stop with the IAC report, otherwise we will learn that we need to move the Kaczynski couple from Wawel to a less public place to rest, as they will be blamed for the death of many people. Because no president would ever allow so many high officials (the elite of Poland, one might say) to sit on one plane, travelling to such an important event. I openly put the responsibility for the crash on the shoulders of President Lech Kaczyński and his cabinet.
Andrzej Matys looks into the future of the Polish politics [PL]:
We can expect stormy discussion with tearing the clothes and judging each other's dignity and faith, since the IAC report on the Smolensk crash is a great prologue to the autumn elections. […] It is difficult to predict what the Prime Minister and the government will do now. Maybe it would have been wiser to announce a joint committee just after the crash? Maybe the government should keep us more up to date on the issue and its doubts related to the report? Maybe we should have expected more information and explanations from the Russians. Finally, maybe the Prime Minister should have returned earlier from his skiing holiday? His absence on Wednesday looked bad on him, as anyone could comment on the report but the head of the government. And, sooner or later, someone will use it to blame him. More so that the long-awaited by everyone (and one day late) analysis contained in the report did not work well for him. To put it nicely.
Marucha summarises it all [PL]:
We are free to believe what we want, but we will never know the truth. […] That is our only certainty.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Sylwia Presley


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Puerto Rico: A Blog for Local Talents · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The blog El Faktor [es] has a mission: to interview and display the work of talented people who are under the radar.

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


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Puerto Rico: Arrests for Acts of Civil Disobedience · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Dozens of students of the University of Puerto Rico and other activists have been arrested today while participating in acts of civil disobedience at the main campus in Río Piedras against the imposition of a special tuition fee. The student blog Desde Adentro [es] and the student radio station Radio Huelga [es]  are offering live coverage. The hashtags #huelgaUPR and #luchaUPR are being used to follow the conversation.


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Puerto Rico: First Mobile News Service Launched · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The first exclusively digital and mobile news outlet in Puerto Rico has just been launched: Noticel [es]. Reporters will be covering breaking news and features.


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Russia: Toxic River Caused by Sochi Olympics Development · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

YouTube-user Volf1959 posted a video [RUS] of a small river Dzyhra next to Sochi that is now covered with toxic layer because of the development of one of the infrastructure for the Sochi 2014 Olympics .

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Sudan: Southern Sudan Referendum: Africa (Dis)United? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

This post is part of our special coverage South Sudan Referendum 2011.
A referendum took place in Southern Sudan from 9 January to 15 January 2011 on whether the region should remain a part of Sudan or become independent. This is our latest roundup of referendum related posts.
Boboya Wudu reports that The Southern Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC) has assured referendum results will be successfully announced despite insecurity concerns and logistical challenges:
3.9 million Voters were registered to vote in the referendum. Out of 3.7 million registered in Southern Sudan, 3.1 million voters have cast their ballots. Out of 116,000 registered in Northern Sudan, 62,000 (53%) have voted, while in the Disapora 55,000 (91%) voted out of 60,000 who registered
Zeinab Saleh reports immense enthusiasm for independence amid a shocking humanitarian situation:
At Baibok camp, tens of citizens gathered around Ramadan Michael, the camp officer, in a small office to register their names to receive the food rations. Ramadan said to us that they distribute food rations on citizens after counting them and after determining the size of each family. SUDANVOTES noticed that the camp has no toilets and that citizens urinate and defecate in the open. However, Renk Governor Dinaq Akwai promised that outdoor toilets will soon be built with the help of some humanitarian organisations.
In spite of the challenges people are enthusiastic about the referendum and its outcome. Everyone who SUDANVOTES spoke to at the camp said they are in favour of separation in order to be independent from the North and establish their own state.
Renee Lambert witnessed the counting process:
Young Sudanese polling officials sat inside a small two room school, silently unfolding ballots while national and international observers looked on. It was just after 7 pm, the polls had closed 2 hours earlier. Outside the school the sun was setting, so the polling officials were counting by the light of small lanterns. Shadows of the young officials unfolding ballots bounced off the walls of the small room and goose bumps covered my arms as I realized the significance of what I was witnessing. My eyes had already welled with tears more times in the past week than could be counted on both hands, but this did not stop them from tearing up again. And I knew that what I was feeling wasn’t even a fraction of what the Sudanese polling officials and observers must be feeling.
The police official in charge of ensuring security at the polling station brought us a small bench so we could watch the counting process; then he proceeded to give us a play-by-play account of the process as we watched it in action. The first box of ballots was dumped in the center of the table; then 8 polling officials meticulously unfolded each ballot, placing them into tidy bundles. Once all the ballots were unfolded and organized the counting could begin.
One polling station posted preliminary results on a tree:
One station had already posted the preliminary results from their center on a tree outside the polling area. Sudanese citizens and journalists crowded around the tree, eagerly taking notes, while police guarded the ballot boxes as they were loaded into a lorry to be driven to a central place for final counting and confirmation. I imagined this same process taking place in all the other polling stations throughout southern Sudan and felt immense pride and amazement at what had been accomplished.
Dr. James Okuk offers his “advance billion congratulation” to Southern Sudanese:
I would like to exploit this jubilant opportunity to say in advance Billion Congratulations to the people of Southern Sudan, both inside and in the Diaspora. Now my nerves are getting relaxed and cool that we are done with our dignity far away from the injustice of Northern Sudan elites in Khartoum and elsewhere. I have no doubt that the counted results of the polling will  be over 80% in favor of secession of South Sudan when officially announced at the end of this month, January 2011.
The people of Southern Sudan should now focus on internal challenges:
Now after this best news we shall turn our eyes focusedly  into our own internal challenges inside South Sudan itself and its current or coming government leadership. I pray that we start the declared independence in July 2011 on a right footing in order to move forward progressively and catch up with other developing countries in a most positive mood; even if it is slow let it be sure.
AFRICA (Dis)UNITED: Africa and Sudan by Gez posted at Afroline.org
Leon Nyerere, a Sudanese based in Canada, believes that there is no rational justification for the separation of Southern Sudan:
No rational justification for the separation of South Sudan. It is widely expected that people of South Sudan will overwhelmingly cast their votes for separation. But most of the reasons that the people of South Sudan have given as to why they are voting for separation, from my vintage point, are valid.
However, these reasons are not rational enough to justify separation of the South from the north especially, when one considers political and social changes sweeping across the Sudan.
One of the theories that have been advanced to explicate why most African countries have remained economically stagnant is that African governments make irrational decisions. The decades of civil wars in Sudan, which have unfortunately resulted to the current situation taking place in Sudan as we speak, is due to irrational socio-economic policies made by the minority Sudanese Arab elites in the centre. Likewise, the decision, which is being taken by the South Sudanese and which is likely to lead to a creation of another nation-state in African, follows the same irrational path of reasoning.
The quest for separation, Leon argues, was informed by emotions than rational thinking:
South Sudanese decision to opt for separation is influenced more by emotions than by rational thinking. These emotions are based on years of suppression of Black Sudanese. For over half a century, Sudanese who claim Arab pedigree have ruled over Black Africans including the people of South Sudan. Sudanese who don’t claim Arab identity are treated as second-class citizens. Non-Arab Sudanese and Southerners in particular, continued to be called slaves. Although the so-called Arab Sudanese are also called slaves when they travel to the Middle East.
Second, South Sudanese have been denied access to the national wealth. Today, South Sudan has earned the title of being the most “underdeveloped” part of the world because of such inequality. Third, South Sudanese have been disallowed to practice their believes of choice in a non-judgmental free environment.
Fourth, during the civil wars, Southerners were massacred and up to date, they have not been given the justice they deserve. These are obviously gross injustices committed against Southerners and they ought to be angry. But is separation of the South from the North the best option for these past injustices? Will separation bring long lasting peace? I don’t think so.
When you ask South Sudanese why they want another nation, most likely you will hear these rehearsed answers that they have heard from their leaders without necessarily understanding the complexities of the topics they are discussing. Marginalization makes the top list of these answers followed by Islamization and Arabization.
Finally, listen to a podcast by SouthSudanInfo.net’s blogger, David Widgington, who spoke with a Montréal broadcaster about unresolved issues between Northern and Southern Sudan: 1) the border demarcation between north and south, including Abyie; 2) Sharing of oil revenue and infrastructure; 3) the management of the Nile floodwaters; 4) citizenship, right to return and security; 5) repayment of the Sudan national debt.
This post is part of our special coverage South Sudan Referendum 2011.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Taiwan: Don’t be a lousy traveler · Global Voices
Portnoy Zheng

Blogger Mochadango(抹茶糰子) who lives in Kyoto, Japan, condemns the ignorance and nearly-criminal acts(zht) of a Taiwanese traveler who recently took photos and videos of other travelers while taking a hot spring bath during his tour in Japan, though he claimed to have permission. The traveler(screen name:we5376301) uploaded the photos and videos to his blog and to Youtube, and then share them to Taiwan's most popular Bulletin Board System(PTT Sex). Mochadango immediately called to confirm with the hotel after seeing this post and refuted the traveler's claim. “I know that not every Taiwanese wants to be responsible for representing Taiwan, but as long as you are abroad, you are representing Taiwan” Mochadango warns, “You did one bad thing abroad, and sooner or later it will become ‘Ah, this is what Taiwanese do‘ “.

author: Portnoy Zheng


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Arab World: Copycat Self-Immolation Acts Should Not be Encouraged · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi burnt himself to death in protest against unemployment, sparking an uprising which brought down the rule of Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year-old regime in less than one month. Since then, up to 10 cases of self-immolation were reported in Mauritania, Algeria and Egypt, where people are protesting against unemployment, the rising cost of living and corruption, among other grievances.
This video, from YouTube user, mohsmedkhattab2004 shows one incident from Egypt:
Netizens from across the region are calling for an end to this practice, before it takes root.
@tatn  explains:
@weddady Self-immolation shld Not b referred as a “trend” as in fashion! It's a Tragic measure to call 4 socio-poli+eco. changes #sidibouzid
Saudi writer Turki Al Dakhil pleads with Arab young people:
From Qatar, Mohammed Bin Hamad wonders:
And when does the human being consider death to be a relief and living to be intolerable?
He continues:
..does life become so unbearable that you feel the need to set yourself on fire? At what point does “life” become so worthless?
And Sou Hammamet, from Tunisia, adds:
absolutely, suicide is HARAM (Islamically unlawful). it is a shame that it has been politicised.
To such sentiments, mashahed, from Egypt, responds:
Back in Tunisia, Dody G., from nomadlife, blogs about one of the Egyptian copycat self-immolation acts and notes:
Just because it triggered the Tunisian uprising, it doesn't mean this kind of action will trigger similar uprising in Egypt. The tension in Egypt has been steadily rising for the past days and there seems to be a giddy anticipation that something is going to happen. There's already an organizing happening on Facebook to do a demo on January 25 (Police Day) and almost 50,000 people have already confirmed attendance. Over 700,000 people invited still hasn't confirmed yet.
In a follow up post, he remarks:
Dammit. You can't replicate the spark just by replicating the method. Stop burning yourself.
Back on Twitter, Saudi Fouad Alfarhan says he is looking for new friends, after his contacts starting taunting him with a request:
Egyptian ANaje suggests that politicians start setting themselves on fire instead. He tweets:
Fellow Egyptian Mosab Ahmad adds:
Time: A Brief History of Self-Immolation
Foreign Policy: Suicide for a Cause

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Blogspot sites blocked in Cambodia · Global Voices
Sopheap Chak

As of today, blogspot sites in Cambodia have been blocked following an order from the Ministry of Interior to all Cambodia's internet service providers. The block has been confirmed by ISPs such as Cellcard, Metfone, and EZECOM.
The crackdown is apparently a government reaction to the KI media post in December which described key government officials as ‘traitors.’ KI Media is a prominent online media blog which is critical to the government.
This incident also led to the arrest of World Food Program staffer Seng Kunnaka who was sentenced to six months in jail for distributing copies of the controversial image from KI Media. While many share the idea that KI Media crossed the line of freedom of expression, the arrest of the WFP staff is seen as unjustified and it signaled the crackdown on freedom of expression and access to information.
As soon as the blogspot sites have been blocked, online reactions were sent through Twitter and Facebook:
ChrisInCambo (Chris Brown)  tweet:
Blogger.com has been blocked by all ISP's in Cambodia. Looking forward to hearing the reasoning behind it in tomorrows papers.
john_weeks (John Weeks) tweeted back:
@ChrisInCambo Current reports from IT community indicate Blogger ban ONLY enacted by ISPs EZEcom / Metfone. Time 2 use new ISP?
ChrisInCambo replied:
@john_weeks Blaming the ISP is like shooting the messenger. I'm sure they've not done it without being ordered to do so.
Ninaism (Nina Lamparski) tweet:
#Blogspot has been officially blocked by the Min of Interior as of today 10 a.m. Doing my thesis on e-censorship, perfect timing #Cambodia
In her article concerning the Blog Control 2.0, Nina wrote:
“Cambodia has so far remained relatively free of online censorship but the days of e-freedom could soon be over”
Though questions have arisen on the reasons behind such systematic crackdown on blogsites, these discussant tweeters may have already known the real reason for the order. John Weeks reacts to the blocking of KI Media:
@ChrisInCambo Not a big fan of KI-Media.But singling them out will only increase attention to their site as it did for Reahu.net.
Here are some reactions on facebook:
Cambodian Center for Human Rights, quotes a news report from the Cambodian Express News (CEN:
CEN: Ministry of Interior has ordered all internet service providers to block access to all websites with blogspot domains in an attempt to stop KI Media. Access from a few ISPs is not possible today while at least one is accessible.
Another facebook user, Cheng Samnang, wrote:
What will happen when government block all blogspot websites?! What I am going to do with my blogspot? Ops, forget that I still can access it outside Cambodia but my friends in Cambodia cannot access my blog anymore. Come on, man!!
Another facebook user stated:
“before another jasmine revolution? lucky stil have fb & twitter”
This may be too early to see what is next to happen after blogspot sites have been blocked since the decision may change as the case of the government plan earlier to have a state-run exchange point  to control all local internet service providers in order to strengthen  internet security against pornography, theft and cyber crime. The plan has been so far postponed due to popular opposition even inside the government.
Update: KI Media reported that their site has been unblocked already. The government also denied that it planned to censor KI Media.

author: Sopheap Chak


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China: CNNIC releases new Internet statistics · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Tech blogger William Long has parsed some key stats from a new CNNIC report: With 457 million Internet users, China now comprises 23% of the global online population and 55% of Asia's. Also now in China: 63 mil microbloggers, 49% more online shoppers than last year and a 41% drop in the total number of registered domains to just 1.9 mil.

author: John Kennedy


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China: Glenn Beck takes aim at China · Global Voices
John Kennedy

In case you missed it, Glenn Beck on Hu Jintao's US visit: Burger King kids meals are a Chinese plot for world domination, and so was Leonardo da Vinci. Turns out, it doesn't add up quite so neatly. Next week: the Chinese run Opus Dei, too.


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Cuba: Gay Club in Havana · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Paquito writes [es] about the first gay club in Havana. The restaurant El Sótano, in Old Havana, becomes a gay club during weekend nights when it hosts “La Fiesta de los Tuix.”


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Dominican Republic: WikiLeaks Revelations · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

In Ahiqueprende [es], José Ernesto Devárez hijo comments on the content of the cables revealed by WikiLeaks related to the Dominican Republic.


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East Timor: Start of budget deliberations · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

La'o Hamutuk blogs about the start of the 2011 budget deliberations in East Timor.

author: Mong Palatino


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Guyana: The Need to Go Green  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“I wonder if it is true, that there is a link between Styrofoam and cancer.  And if there is, then why we still using it in green land of Guyana?”: Guyana-Gyal is beginning to think that “nobody don’t give a damn.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Haiti: Time for a Change  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“I thought that after Duvalier left, things in Haiti were going to improve. What I never imagined was that the leaders who came after Duvalier were going to take Duvalier's concepts and use them to their own benefits”: Changing Perspectives republishes an interesting take on Haitian politics by Richard Morse (popular Tweeter @RAMHaiti).


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Haiti: What About Aristide?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Wadner Pierre wonders how come exiled dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier has been granted a diplomatic passport to return to Haiti while the country's former democratically elected President has not been extended the same privilege.


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India: All The Fuss About New Zodiac Sign Dates · Global Voices
Rezwan

Maddy writes in details about the recent rumor that the Zodiac signs will change.

author: Rezwan


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Jamaica, Haiti: The “Baby Doc” Blues  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamiacan diaspora litblogger Geoffrey Philp pens a poem for Haiti's reportedly “homesick dictator”.


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Laos: Hmong New Year 2011 	 · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Lao Voices uploads several video clips of Hmong New Year 2011 celebration through out Laos.


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Mexico: The “Sistine Chapel of Crystals” · Global Voices
Andrea Arzaba

The town known as Naica in the northern state of Chihuaha, Mexico, has been dedicated to mining since 1794; but the mine got its international reputation only a couple years ago when the so-called Cave of Crystals was discovered. Inside the cave, giant crystals known as “Moon Stones” give it an “out of this world” feel.
Gypsum v. Selenite. Image by Flickr user B. Tse used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license
As blogger Carlos Roque Sánchez explains in Blog de Superheroes [es]:
Ocurrió que realizando nuevos túneles de  exploración en búsqueda de más mineral, y estando a una profundidad de  casi cuatrocientos metros (400 m), por casualidad, se descubrió una  cueva repleta de enormes cristales de selenita (yeso), de unos diez metros (10 m) de longitud y alrededor de uno (1 m) de ancho.
Un espectáculo difícil de imaginar.
Ningún  hombre había visto hasta entonces algo igual. Una auténtica maravilla de  la naturaleza que se mostró a los sorprendidos ojos de los mineros de  manera serendípica, de forma accidental.
It occurred while making new tunnels for exploration in search of more minerals, and being at a depth of nearly four hundred meters (400 m), by chance, they discovered a huge cave full of crystals of selenite (gypsum), about ten meters (10 m) long and about one (1 m) wide.
A spectacle that is difficult to imagine.
No man had ever seen anything like this before. A true wonder of nature that was shown to the surprised eyes of the miners, in a fortunate accident.
Carlos continues his post, explaining the difficulties humans face [es] entering the cave:
Por supuesto no está abierta al público. Sus trescientos noventa metros (390 m) de profundidad, más de cincuenta grados Celsius (50 ºC) de temperatura y un aire saturado de humedad casi del cien por cien (100%), la hacen inhabitable para el ser humano.
En esas condiciones sólo se podría sobrevivir unos ocho minutos (8  min),  antes de deshidratarse, de “cocerse al vapor”. Un lugar diabólico   localizado por lo que llaman las coordenadas del infierno.
Of course it is not open to the public. Its depth of three hundred and ninety meters (390 m), more than fifty degrees Celsius (50 º C) temperature and moisture-saturated air of almost one hundred percent (100%), make it uninhabitable for humans
In this conditions you could only live inside for eight minutes, before you suffer dehydration, before you “steam yourself.” An evil place located in what is called the coordinates of hell.
The blog The Flysch Deposit adds:
A heavy steel door and Mexico law keep out miners and  other scavengers,  by crystallographers are concerned about the  elements. Without water to  sustain them, the crystals may bend and  crack beneath their own weight.  Now that they are open to air, carbon  dioxide and other gases will dull  their glory.
Carlos in Blog de Superheroes ends his post with a reference to Superman and kryptonite [es], and reveals the cave's popular nickname:
Y es que los enormes cristales semejan  haces de luz que inundan la cavidad. Una cavidad que nos ofrece unos  paisajes que parecieran salidos de otros mundos.
De ahí mi referencia a la kriptoniana fortaleza supermánica.
Una buena prueba de su singular belleza nos la da el sobrenombre que le han puesto: la Capilla Sixtina de la Cristalografía.
And the crystals resemble huge beams of light that fill in the cavity. A cavity that offers a landscape straight out from a different world.
That is where I got my reference to Superman's Kryptonian strength.
A good test of its unique beauty comes in the nickname it has been given: the Sistine Chapel of Crystallography.
Selenite Gypsum crystal from Naica, Mexico. At the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. Image by Julian Fong, Flickr user levork used under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license
To see images of this wonder of nature or to learn more about Naica, visit the Official Website of the Naica Project and National Geographic's photogallery and video.

author: Andrea Arzaba


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Pakistan: Earthquake In South West Pakistan · Global Voices
Rezwan

BRAC Blog informs about yesterday's 7.4 magnitude earthquake in South Western Pakistan: “there were no casualties or damage to houses or other assets.”


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Poland: More Reactions to IAC Report – on Microblogs and via Cartoons · Global Voices
Sylwia Presley

The Interstate Aviation Committee‘s report on the crash of TU-154M near Smolensk on April 10, 2010, has provoked many insightful posts from bloggers, but we have also found that microblogging platforms – Twitter and Blip.pl – have become good spaces for Poles to express their opinions, and that quite a few visuals criticising the report have appeared online.
On Twitter, users generally criticise the report and the Polish government's reactions.
@janpoplawski states [PL]:
Why is the government preparing an answer to the Russian government if the report was written by IAC – an international organisation
@tuskwatch refers [PL] to the fact that the Prime Minister was absent on the day of the report's publication:
It seems that Prime Minister Tusk considered his reaction to the report a success and went back to skiing. Shall we wish him happy holidays?
@gregorius74 speaks as if stating the obvious [PL]:
A discovery! This government does not seem to think. Klich: IAC report was supposed to discredit us http://bit.ly/gRTd3g
@radiomaryja, the Twitter account of a Catholic radio station, has this [PL]:
IAC report disappointed us http://bit.ly/eiS7lx
@brulion invites Twitter users to join a new Facebook page [PL]:
http://www.facebook.com/raportMAK group “I think the IAC report is outrageous”
Polish microblogging engine, Blip.pl, contains reactions of similar sentiment.
@jezykwkosmosie writes [PL]:
IAC was as delicate to Tupolew's crew in its report as possible. When we have the Polish report heads will roll, that's all.
@aimrumru also disagrees with the claim that the report is objective [PL]:
mistake after mistake of the Polish crew, plus mistake after mistake of the Russian controllers. so the IAC report is partial.
@wikploc is interested in the reactions of the public [PL]:
Here we go. The experts of airplane crashes from Nowogrodzka street prove how IAC twisted the report. I wonder if the “dark folk” will buy it.
@bukowskip states with cynicism [PL]:
IAC report did not surprise me at all. Even if they'd shot down the plane, it would turn out that the pilot collided with a rocket.
@jakubkowalski adds [PL]:
I hope that the Polish authorities will maintain the current approach, that the IAC report in unacceptable. […]
@bukol87 mentions this [PL]:
IAC report cannot be a common agreement. It has no responsibility to accept corrections. Game Over
Andrzej Krauze posts the following cartoon [PL]:
"Please inform comrade Stalin in kettle 17 that the IAC report was published in accordance with his instructions"
Krzętowski drew this one for Newsweek.pl [PL]:
"First of all, get it translated from Soviet into Polish"
The newly established Facebook page – “I think the IAC report is outrageous” – contains a few of these visuals, too.
Achmaja posts [PL] a pretty strong criticism of the Russian side:
"from russia with love, iac report"
TVN48 posts an old visual in a new context [PL]:
"Putin: Lick my shoes. /Tusk: "Let's talk compromise"
Tusk knew from the very beginning how one should relate to Russia. Not fighting with a sword, but with “the language of compromise.” That's what I call good foreign policy. And the results we've seen recently, for instance.
[graphics by Lach from 2 years ago]


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Puerto Rico: Second Round of Civil Disobedience · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The student blog Desde Adentro [es] is covering the arrests of approximately 30 students who were participating today in the second round of organized acts of civil disobedience to protest against the imposition of an annual special tuition fee.


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Russia: Analyzing Websites of Regional Administrations · Global Voices
Vadim Isakov

A group of volunteers analyzes [RUS] websites of regional administrative offices for openness and availability of information according to 16 criteria developed by the volunteers themselves.

author: Vadim Isakov


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Russia: Bloggers Discuss Possible Website of Collaborators of Authorities · Global Voices
Dmitry Davidov

Blogger welgar contemplates about how useful it could be  to create a website that would list all collaborators of Russian authorities who try to compromise the action of the opposition.

author: Dmitry Davidov


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Russia: Putin’s Palace Exposed on Ruleaks · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

The Russian Wikileaks website published photos [RUS] of what is allegedly known as Vladimir Putin's $1 billion-worth palace on the shore of  Black Sea . The story of the secret construction has been exposed [ENG] by Vedomosti newspaper few weeks ago.

author: Gregory Asmolov


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Russia: Social Network User Accused of Piracy · Global Voices
Dmitry Davidov

Russian Ministry of Interior reported [RUS] of the first criminal case against a user of the most popular Russian social network Vkontakte.ru. The user allegedly shared several copyrighted materials on Vkontakte.ru.


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“Showdown” between US and Bolivia over UN coca ban · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

J.F. String in Hemispheric Brief reports: “An international showdown between the US and Bolivia has officially begun. The matter under dispute: whether or not an international ban on coca-leaf chewing should be pulled from the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.”

author: Silvia Viñas


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Sri Lanka: Better Connected · Global Voices
Rezwan

Rohan Samarajiva, ex Director General of Sri Lanka Telecom reflects on the progress of connectivity in Sri Lanka in the past decade.


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Sri Lanka: The Devastation Of The Recent Floods · Global Voices
Rezwan

Indi.ca went to Polonnaruwa in North Central Province, Sri Lanka to check out the flood damage and here is what he found.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Proposed Constitutional Amendments · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Our new Government is seeking to amend our Constitution. It is not doing so to provide you with stronger guarantees of your rights as people of different sexual orientations”: gspottt explains.


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Tunisia: Serbian Tourists Refuse to Return Home  · Global Voices
Sasa Milosevic

Last week, eleven Serbian tourists spending their holidays in Tunisian resort towns of Sousse and Hammamet categorically refused to leave this North African country before Thursday, Jan. 20, which was supposed to be the final day of their tour. Because of the emergency situation, they had been offered to return to Belgrade with the last Jat Airways flight last week, but after they refused, the Serbian Embassy representatives told them they would be staying at their own risk, as the Embassy could not guarantee any flights out of Tunisia on the day of their scheduled departure.
Marhaba Palace, Sousse, Tunusia (Photo: Sasa Milosevic)
Although the resorts are located at some distance from the Tunisian hot points of political unrest, evacuation was recommended mostly because hotels were closing for safety reasons, slowly running out of food and water.
Milica Cubrilo Filipovic, the Serbian Ambassador in Tunisia, did find herself and her children in a truly dangerous situation, however: she said “bullets whistled from all directions” during the evacuation of her children. She had warned the Serbian tourists of potential risks that they were exposed to as foreign citizens in Tunisia.
The Embassy of Serbia helped to evacuate 11 Macedonian tourists, since Macedonia has no embassy in Tunisia. One Russian woman with two small children somehow happened to be among these evacuees.
Serbian tourists said to the Serbian media they were satisfied with how the Tunisians were protecting them. According to them, special forces were on the roof of their hotel, while plainclothes police officers walked around outside. The only problem they encountered was during their transfer to the Monastir airport, when a group of demonstrators threw stones at their bus. No one was injured, however.
Those tourists who agreed to return to Serbia were upset because their winter holiday was prematurely terminated. A retired Serbian couple Dara and Mihajlo Stancevic, for example, told a Serbian newspaper that they they had been spending their winters in Ben Ali‘s Tunisia for the past seven years and liked it there, not only because of the excellent climate, but also because the cost of living there was much lower than back home in Serbia.
Visitors on Forum “Krstarica” reacted critically to the behavior of their compatriots in Tunisia.
Vazdusasta wrote:
How selfish we have become… How insensitive we have become… A man says he did not want to return, but O.K, he will be fully compensated… a woman says that it was so great in the hotel, but she had to return… how people lose any empathy and compassion… if they are not concerned about their own safety, why not think what they could have caused Tunisians. If someone killed or injured them, Tunisia would be on front pages of all the world's media.
Describing the tourists’ mentality, she also explained :
You cannot tan this time of year in Tunisia. […] They do not want to return home because they sit in five-star hotels that they cannot afford in high season, so they go there off-season. This is the most terrible thing in the whole story. Some people desire so much a room at a luxury hotel that they would even risk their own life for it…
Donqihote wrote:
They think their hotel is safe, but tomorrow it may fall into the hands of some wild, armed hordes.
Jug Bogdan wondered:
Anarchy in Tunisia, and they want to be sunbathing.
Gost on Bundolo.org wrote sarcastically:
Poor tourists. A mob of hungry and “dirty” Tunisians ruined their enjoyment. Even the hotels were left without food for the hungry tourists and the water in the pools stays unchanged.

author: Sasa Milosevic


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Africa: Apply for Season 6 of Big Brother Africa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“The Naspers owned M-Net subscription-funded television channel in South Africa and proud organizers of the Big Brother Africa reality show are happy to announce the opening of applications for the Season 6 of the most watched reality show on the continent of Africa,” Mac-Jordan reports.


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Africa: Can white people be Africans? – Part 2 · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A number of South Africans have responded to Sentletse Diakanyo's post entitled “We are not all Africans, black people are!” We wrote a roundup of his post here.
Marius Redelinghuys, a political science lecturer at Midrand Graduate Institute who calls himself “Alternative Afrikaner”, blames Wikipedia and Google for Sentletse's Wiki’ed or Googled “original thought”:
I blame Wikipedia and Google which have instilled in some the
arrogance to think their Wiki’ed or Googled “original thought” places
them on par with leading academics in their various fields.
Sentletse's post reads like an excerpt from an apartheid-era history textbook:
The most recent perversion, near-rape, of paleoanthropology,
evolutionary biology and population genetics is done by none other
than our very own Sentletse Diakanyo. His latest rant entitled “We are
not all Africans, black people are!” reads like an excerpt from an
apartheid-era history textbook.
Marius notes that all modern humans have a direct ancestry linked to Africa:
All studies of global mtDNA divergence have shown that
African populations have the biggest mtDNA divergence (followed by
Asian and European populations). The fact that Africans have the
greatest mtDNA sequence variations proves they have amassed the most mtDNA mutations, providing compelling evidence for the idea of African origin of humankind because the population with the most diversity is almost certainly the ancestral population and all other population groups seem to be subsets of the diversity found in Africa, further buttressing the argument for an African origin.
He concludes by telling Sentletse that whether he likes it or not, we are all Africans:
Continents, countries and race are social constructions, and underneath it all, we’re all humans: humans who came out of Africa. We
are all Africans, Mr Diakanyo, whether you like it or not.
Jason van Niekerk, a lecturer in the philosophy department at Wits University, responds to Sentletse's post by discussing the problem with defining the term “African”:
There are a couple of problems here, but the essential one is that his argument rests on what’s called the fallacy of
equivocation, a sleight-of-word trick that takes a word with multiple
meanings, makes a point about one, then substitutes the other, like
this: the rich are the enemy of the people. Cheesecake is rich.
Therefore, cheesecake is the enemy of the people. In much the same
way, Diakanyo shows that “African” has at least one accepted meaning, picking out black people, then insists that this should be its only meaning in all contexts. But, of course, we use the term in many
contexts, and collapsing all of them to the racial one wouldn’t work
(here’s the party-trick reason: African Penguins are black AND white,
but African all over). As many of Diakanyo’s respondents have noted,
the sense in which some white people contend that they are African
seems to pick out some sort of relationship to Africa and Africans,
rather than an insistence that they be considered black.
Is it enough to use the term “African” in a geographic sense?:
….note that exactly the same fallacy shows up in the most common
white whine generated in response to Diakanyo’s claim: “I’m South
African, I was born in Africa, so I’m as African as anyone else born
here.” See the trick? We can use “African” in a geographic sense, so
that must settle the question of whether we’re African in all senses.
That’s the same fallacy Diakanyo used.
He says, “Note that this doesn’t necessarily mean that white people can’t be African, any more than my being a man necessarily prevents my being a feminist”:
But however much I subscribe to the radical notion that
women are human beings, however much Steinem and Sontag and Greer I read, being a man insulates me from the impact of women’s experience in a way that being a woman never could. Now, it may well be that I cannot, as a matter of principle, opt out of a commitment to feminism, even if it’s an option, but I’d be a bit of a whiny git to pretend I can’t see why being a man might make it harder to prove my commitment.
And in the same way, many white South Africans want to claim an
African identity not because they think they deserve it by default,
but because they really do care about Africa and Africans, because
they feel proud when this continent outperforms racist expectations,
and deeply hurt when it seems to embody them.
His conclusion:
So where does this leave us? White South Africans can’t
insist that they are automatically African, because that undermines
the value of a hard-won identity. But when black South Africans deny
the possibility of white Africans, they cut off the possibility of a
non-racist post-apartheid identity that millions of white people want
(so badly that they insist they already embody it). And nobody wins by
insisting on what African means, while others who have a stake in that
identity disagree, because this identity depends on mutual
recognition.
The way out is for South Africans, black and white, to try to work out
what our consensual understanding of “African” really is.
Chris Roper refutes Sentletse's argument that whites want to be classified as African. He says that white people merely want to identify with the ideological construct that is Africa:
This is a lie, of course. White people, and everyone else
who was born on this continent and loves it, for all its many faults,
have merely wanted to identify with the general ideological construct
that is Africa. Which means embracing its many contradictions, and
being willing to be part of the ever-evolving understandings of what
“Africa” means in the world.
The term “African” has always being ambiguous:
That's the point of these terms, they're always contested
by various interest groups seeking to use them for their own ends. In
your case, apparently to antagonise South Africans who are trying to
achieve some sort of commonality with their fellow citizens, both
national and continental, so that they can work together to build a
viable life.
Don't get me wrong — I'm also nauseated by people who claim to be
African when we're hosting a World Cup, but mysteriously become South African when asked to account for kids having their hands lopped off in Rwanda. It's bad enough being asked to believe in a country, but a continent? And there's nothing more irritating than some white oke who thinks that the Castle beer ad is “moving”, and who claims to love African music because he owns a Juluka CD.
His conclusion:Zombie Verwoerd stalks the Internet and the country. Hendrik Verwoerd was Prime Minister of South Africa from 1958 until his assassination in 1966.
The spirit of Hendrik Verwoerd still haunts this country and the
internet, a zombie stumbling around feeding off the grim life force
that is intolerance and racism. Every time we get bitten, or as in the
case of this column, take the bait, we create more hate-filled
zombies. Ah well, at least when we have all fed off each other's pain,
we can then, truly, say “We are all zombies”. But we won't be
human.
Sarah Britten, who has unfriended Sentlese on Facebook and blocked him on Twitter, worries about the attention the media gives him. She says, “He’s just a blogger and (let’s face it) blogging is not the same as appearing on the opinion page of the Sunday papers”:
Yes, it’s important to acknowledge a range of views, and
it’s important that they be aired so that they can be challenged. But
let’s be honest here: is Sentletse actually worthy of being quoted in
the serious media, the Mail & Guardians and 702s of this world? He’s
not an academic or a politician, and there’s no clear platform from
which he speaks. What exactly is the source of his authority? I don’t
see it. He’s just a blogger and (let’s face it) blogging is not the
same as appearing on the opinion page of the Sunday papers.
All this media coverage is serving less to promote debate and more to
create a potential monster. Knowing Mo, he is chuckling throatily
right now, enjoying every minute of it.
Sipho Hlongwane responds with a light touch congratulating “President Sentletse Diakanyo” who “battled a fierce and hostile media, courts, intellectuals and outraged white, Indian and Chinese people”:
He even battled against leaders from other countries in
Africa in the famous “Most of You Aren’t Really Africans” debate at
the 2012 African Union summit and reasserted South Africa’s position
as African Country Most Full of Shit.
He concludes:
The convenor of the Friends of Sentletse, Samora Castro
Afrika (who is now rumoured to have a R9 billion telecommunications
tender from the government) said they wouldn’t stop at changing the
Constitution. “If only black people can be Africans, it naturally
follows that only Africans can have any claim to African land. We will
not rest until it is only Africans who are allowed into African malls,
African gyms and African suburban swimming pools. Aluta continua.”
So, congratulations again, President Sentletse. Your wise and
effective leadership has finally laid to rest the ghost of our
un-African past. Long may you continue to define us.
Khaya Dlanga, an award winning blogger, says a white person can be an African:
What does the dictionary define an African as? “Noun:
African – A native or inhabitant of Africa.” Since we have established
the definition of an African perhaps we should also define what a
native is. “Noun: native – 1. A person born in a particular place or
country. 2. An indigenous person who was born in a particular place.”
What do we conclude from this? If a white person is born in a
particular country in Africa, that white person is a native of that
country. Since they happen to have been born in a country in Africa
that means they are African.
He says Sentletse does not define what an African is:
The writer of the blog doesn’t really define what an African is. His
answer is a simplistic “if you are black you are African”. There is no
acknowledgement of the complexities of blackness. He has not
considered the black people of Papua New Guinea for example. These
people did not really originate from Africa, yet they look as black as
Sentletse and me. The question then needs to be asked, are people from Papua New Guinea considered African? Scientists claim that these
people have their origins in South East Asia some 70 000 years
ago.
There is no such thing as pure race:
Scientists today claim that there is in fact only one
race, the human race. Separating ourselves by physical appearance has no scientific basis. In 1943, Ruth Benedict and Gene Wetfish published “Races of Mankind” in which they claim that there is actually no race because most people in the world have in-between-skin colour.
Therefore there is hardly any pure race if one wishes to use race.
Even Africans aren’t pure because of the mixing that has taken place
over time.
Following online reactions to his post, Sentletse Diakanyo wrote
another blog post entitled “The imagined threat of ‘die swart gevaar’”.
Swart Gevaar (Afrikaans for black threat) was a term used during the days of the Apartheid South African regime to refer to the perceived security threat of the majority black, African population to the white South African government.
He says that he was not surprised to see “the panic-stricken reaction” to his post:
It was actually not surprising to see the panic-stricken
reaction to the article I wrote that “We are not all Africans, black
people are!” People responded not to the salient features and actual
content of the article but to their own irrational fears of what could
be implied and the motivation behind whatever it is they imagined was
implied in the article. This is a problem with living in a paranoid
society that is still haunted by its demons of its racist past.
There was a deliberate intent not to discuss the issues raised in the
article, but rather to embark on mindless attempts at character
assassination in order to distract other readers who had full control
of their mental faculties and the ability to regulate their
emotions
He continues:
These hysterical respondents seem to believe that because racial categorisation was used in the past for nefarious ends, that because the apartheid regime enforced through brute force the
preservation of white privilege and entrenchment of white supremacy
and Afrikaner Nationalist ideology, these very same things would be
repeated by liberated Africans. Africans are not the “barbarians and
savages” they had been portrayed to be in the past through “die swart
gevaar” propaganda or through collective brainwashing of minorities
back then.
He argues that official documents in South Africa are clear in how they define Africans:
After all the noise, the kicking and screaming, the fact
remains what they were and what will continue to be in the near
future. The Broad Based Economic Empowerment Act and the Employment Equity Act is unequivocal in its definition of black people, who are “Africans, coloureds and Indians”. The mid-year population estimates by Statistics South Africa clearly distinguishes the population in terms of how it’s racially defined: Africans, whites, coloureds and Asians (Indians and Chinese). What’s with the hysteria?
Those who see their commitment to Africa as being defined by the
identity — “Africans” — should refocus their energy towards
understanding and embracing all that is African; closing the racial
gap and making a concerted effort to not merely tolerate other races
but be part of them. That today we still have the majority of whites
in South Africa who struggle to pronounce African names, never mind
speak fluently at least one African language, is a shame. It raises
questions about the claimed “Africanness”, commitment to national
unity and general patriotism.
In responding to Sentletse's second post, Marius Redelinghuys says, “We’re not all Africans, we’re Jews!”:
In his subsequent response it becomes clear that it in
fact is not a scientific discussion of human biological origins but is
instead, as I argued, an empty political argument that used “science”
as a crutch: “That today we still have the majority of whites in South
Africa who struggle to pronounce African names, never mind speak
fluently at least one African language, is a shame.”
So it’s really not about human evolution, but rather a political
statement about identity. Fine, I thought as much, so please leave
science out of it.
Beyond this lack of conceptual clarity there is the issue of cognitive
dissonance, selective reasoning and even inconsistencies in his
argument (which makes me wonder who is guilty of an emotional and
irrational outburst).
These inconsistencies are rather sad, considering the man on the one
hand held that white people are of Chinese origin, therefore not black
and especially not African. In his follow-up he switches from arguing
from science to arguing from legislation (which is not, by the way,
scientific or dependent on evidence) and informs us that “[t]he Broad
Based Economic Empowerment Act and the Employment Equity Act is
unequivocal in its definition of black people, who are ‘Africans,
coloureds and Indians’ “.


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Africa: Kabissa Network and Online Platform · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Learn about Kabissa online platfrom and network in Africa: “As of this writing, Kabissa has 1,558 approved organizations in the network, 215 of them new in 2011, that have been taking excellent advantage of Kabissa to showcase themselves and connect with each other for peer learning and information sharing.”


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Algeria: Algerians salute the courage of the Tunisian people · Global Voices
Mohamed Benderouiche

This post is part of our special coverage of Tunisia Revolution 2011.
After Tunisia, Algeria? Photo on Flickr by anw-fr, used under license CC BY
All Algerians saluted the resistance movement of the Tunisian people who brought down the despot Zine El Abidine Ben Ali [EN] after 23 years of unchallenged rule.   In every discussion forum,  blogs and Facebook, Algerians can no longer find the words to salute the  courage of Tunisians who have revolutionized their country by pushing  “their” president to flee the country.
The blogger R.Z, on the blog Mots de Tête [FR] has paid tribute to the Tunisian people [FR] for its grand mobilization. In an article titled “Oil or freedom?
Tunisians have made the choice … “ (a provocative title in connection  with the latest developments experienced by the riots in Algeria, whose  government has successfully reduced the youth revolt to  a story  of increasing oil and sugar prices), R.Z wrote:
Qui peut rester insensible à ce qui vient de se produire en Tunisie ? Le   peuple tunisien, par sa mobilisation  pacifique et sa détermination   arrache sa liberté. Mieux encore, à contraindre le dictateur Ben Ali à   quitter le pouvoir. Pis encore et humiliant pour lui : à  fuir son pays   penaud. Honni et vomi, le tyran sort par la petite trappe de  l'Histoire.  Il aurait pu se retirer autrement, «dignement». Cependant  sa soif  inextinguible du pouvoir, l'en a empêché. Manifestement, la  dignité  n'est pas l'apanage des dictateurs.
According to the blogger:
Les peuples opprimés ont leurs raisons que leurs dirigeants n'ont pas.  Soif de liberté, la rue, elle, avait tout  compris. Elle avait compris  que c'était le début de la fin d'une oligarchie. Même son soutien le  plus fort, celui de son ami Sarkozy, n'a pas accouru à son secours. Ben  Ali a compris, mais tardivement. La messe était dite.
“Who’s next?” That’s the question posed by another Algerian blogger, Fragments, after the announcement of President Ben Ali’s departure [FR].
Si l’information du départ définitif du président tunisien, Ben Ali,  venait à se confirmer, ce serait une grande étape de franchie pour  l’instauration d’un véritable État démocratique en Tunisie. Même si tout  reste à faire, il faut se réjouir de cet élan d’espoir né après des  années de musellement et de répression.
He concludes with this question:
Le départ précipité de Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fera-t-il des émules du  côté d’ElMouradia (siège de la présidence de la République algérienne) ?  En d'autres termes, notre tour viendra-t-il un jour ?
Will  the sudden departure of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali be emulated on this  side of ElMouradia (seat of the Presidency of the Republic of Algeria)?  In others words, will our turn come one day?
Commenting on the departure of the Tunisian despot [FR], an Algerian internaute in a discussion forum compared Ben Ali to a rat rather than a leader.
En préférant quitter le navire en pleine bourrasque, l'ex-président Ben  Ali s'est donné (pour la postérité des poubelles de l'histoire) l'image  d'un rat que celle d'un vrai commandant assumant ses responsabilités à  savoir mener à bon port son navire avant de le quitter.
He added:
Honteux destin pour un voleur , un criminel …..parmi tant d'autres de ses collèges
arabes et Africains.
A shameful fate for a thief, a criminal…among many of his Arab and African colleagues.
In an article titled “Tunisia-Algeria: similarities” [EN] published on his blog [FR],  the Algerian writer Makhlouf Bouaich, with a shred of pessimism finds  similarities between the events that have transpired in Tunisia and  those that Algeria experienced in the wake of the bloody riots in  October 1988.
Nous assisterons à un ‘retour à la légalité’ (en Tunisie), à un ‘retour  au calme’, à des arrestations de hauts dignitaires, à des rendements de  comptes, les islamistes qui (re) viendront au premier plan…Tout cela  donnera, à coup sûr, un peu de répit au régime pour se reconstituer.  Enfin, une certaine décennie à l’algérienne bis.
This post is part of our special coverage of Tunisia Revolution 2011.

author: Mohamed Benderouiche


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Arab World: Racism and the Slave’s Head Candy Controversy  · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

Are we – Arabs – racist? It's really hard to tell. Some might argue that racism is against our religion, and that people are never discriminated against because of their skin colour. On the other hand, other tiny aspects of our lives might prove that we are. It seems to be normal, for instance, to make fun of black people [Ar] in the cinema, and even call a candy “The Slave's Head” because of its colour.
Jordanian blogger Roba Al-Assi, wrote about the name given to the marshmallow chocolate in that part of the world.
I know that the word “slave” by no means has the same implications in Arabic as it does in English. Yet, I can’t be less amused by the name of the marshmallow chocolate “Ras ilabed”, literally meaning “the head of the slave”.
It seems that the candy producers had the same feeling like Roba. Hussein Wehbe wrote in his blog about Ghandour, one of the candy's producers who decided to rename their product.
Sambo, the new name for Slave Head. Photo taken from Roba Al-Assi Flickr account under Creative Commons license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Another producer of the same candy has also renamed its product. But Roba Al-Assi found the new name and package even more racist.
Lebanese blogger, Farfahinne, shares a story about journalist “Khaled Sagheya”, who wrote here about how they used to call a black woman who used to sell them toys and T-shirts with “Disney characters” and “The Smurfs” “the slave”.
It's hard to limit the issue of discrimination to skin colour only in the Arab world. It's normal for almost every region here to make fun of a part of it's own people. In Egypt, people make fun of those coming from upper Egypt, “Se'ed”. In Lebanon and Syria, the joke is on those coming from “Homs”. And here is a Moroccan cleric who preached against the celebration of the Yennayer/Amazigh New Year. The cleric didn't just stop at the new year's celebrations, but he also preached against the use of the Berbet/Tamazight language and called the Berber people as traitors working for the advancement of Israel and Zionism [Ar]. Finally, sometime the joking is international, like the case here where a couple of Egyptian movies poke fun at Yemeni or Filipino people. [Ar]

author: Tarek Amr


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Azerbaijan: Bloggers remember Hrant Dink four years on · Global Voices
Aygun Janmammadova

This post is part of our special coverage Caucasus Conflict Voices.
Wednesday 19 January 2011 marked the fourth anniversary of the murder in Istanbul of Hrant Dink, the renowned Turkish-Armenian journalist, editor of the Turkish-Armenian Agos newspaper, and human rights activist who consistently advocated for reconciliation and friendship between nations, and especially estranged neighbors Armenia and Turkey. This year, however, and quite unexpectedly, the anniversary was also marked by many bloggers from Azerbaijan.
Despite a still unresolved conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, quite a few Azerbaijani Facebook users updated their status lines while Twitter updates were dedicated to the memory of the slain ethnic Armenian journalist. On Facebook, an entry posted on the Önər Blog [AZ] was shared extensively.
Hrant Dink həm Ermənistan üçün, həm Türkiyə üçün mühüm tarixi əhəmiyyəti olan jurnalist idi. Onun ölümünü bütün dünyada azad jurnalistikanin aldığı ən ağır zərbələrdən hesab edirəm.
[…]
Mən bir bloq yazarı kimi, Hrant Dinkin ölümünü Türkiyə dövlətinin azad sözə qarşı cinayəti hesab edir və şiddətlə qınayıram. Həmçinin “hepimiz Hrant Dinkiz, hepimiz ermeniyiz” də demirəm, “hepimiz özgürüz” deyirəm.
[…]
Speaking as a blogger, I find that the murder of Hrant Dink is a crime that the Turkish government has committed against free speech in Turkey, and strongly condemn it.
And I don’t say, “We are all Hrant Dink, we are all Armenians” [the chant used by protesters at Hrant Dink’s funeral]. I say, “We are all free.”
When translated into Armenian, Unzipped re-posted it. The Armenian blog noted that it was this post that caught his eye more than any other and agreed with the sentiments expressed. Meanwhile, another Azerbaijani blog, Viva El Revolucion! Viva El Libertat! [AZ], remarked that politics should not get in the way of remembrance.
Azərbaycanlılardan kim nə deyir desin, amma millətçilik etməyin mənası yoxdur. Hansısa Robertlərə və Serjlərə görə bu insanı sırf erməni olduğuna görə təqsirkar bilib, onu hər addımda alçaltmaq və onu öldürənləri qəhrəman kimi qələmə vermələri həqiqətəndə ifrat millətçilikdən o tərəfə deyil […]. Hrant Dink heç kəsin tərəfin tutmurdu. Onun peşəsi jurnalistika idi […]. Ən sonda isə yaxşı bir erməni, həmdə yaxşı bir solçu idi. […]
SIMASIZ QULDURLAR BLOGU… [AZ] also contemplated the issue of nationality, concluding that speaking the truth is all that matters.
Hrant Dink milliyətcə erməni ola bilər. Həqiqətin isə heç bir milliyəti yoxdur. Həqiqətin milliyəti həqiqətdir. Həqiqəti erməni də, əfqan da, türk də dilə gətirə bilər! Buna görə də insanı öldürməzlər.  Hrant Dink də həqiqət axtarışında idi… Amma öldürüldü.
1+1=3 [AZ] agreed.
BəLi , o erməni idi …
BəLi , o bunu etiraf edir, təkzib etmir, hər zamanda fəxrlə bunu deyərdi….
O juranlist idi …
O insan idi…
Other Azerbaijani bloggers writing in English also commented on the anniversary, with Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines  shares not only its thoughts, but also a link to a video. Its writer and director, Ümit Kıvanç, has since given Global Voices the necessary permissions to enable embedding for this post.
[…] He was a man with ideas and dreams. He was a fighter. But what happened to things that Hrant Dink was fighting for so passionately- looking at relations between Armenia and Turkey, the two are more distant than ever and prospects for reconciliation are stuck somewhere between Turkey's and Armenia's weak foreign policy, Nagorno Karabakh and the rest of the world that talks so much […] but does too little to have any effect if any on the process.
From 19 January to 19 January from ümit kıvanç on Vimeo.
Another Azerbaijani, writing in English on Fuck Yeah, The Caucasus!, simply posted lyrics from a traditional folk song with a brief commentary.
Hrant Dink wasn’t Caucasian, he was truly and utterly Anatolian, but he is relevant to the ongoing conflicts in the Caucasus in terms of what he put forward during his life and what came out of his death. […] Hatred is taught everywhere, it makes people blind, and in their blindness people shed their reason and their conscience, their humanity. I want to think that hatred can be unlearned, not as easily but just as well.
Allah rəhmət eləsin. May he rest in peace.
Although there were likely many more posts from Turkish bloggers, what was interesting about this year's remembrance was that it was Azerbaijani blog posts, and specifically in Azerbaijani with the exception of the Armenian translation on the Önər Blog, that were shared more widely than in English, Armenian or Russian.
Meanwhile, in Turkey itself, thousands of people gathered in front of the Agos newspaper demanding justice for Hrant Dink and exclaiming “Hepimiz Hrantiniz, Hepimiz Ermeniyiz” (All of us are Hrants, All of us are Armenians).
This post is part of our special coverage Caucasus Conflict Voices.

author: Aygun Janmammadova


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Barbados: Thompson Wins Late Husband’s Seat · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Barbadian bloggers report that David Thompson's widow has won the parliamentary seat left vacant by his death.


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Brazil: Any questions for Julian Assange? · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Natalia Viana, WikiLeak's journalist in Brazil, invites [pt] bloggers and readers of her blog to formulate questions for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange until 6pm, on January 21. The most original 10 questions will be selected for an interview to be published next week.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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Brazil: The Brazilian who invented the radio · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Ricardo Kotscho reproduces [pt] a letter by Hamilton Almeida in which he tells the story of the inventor of the radio Roberto Landell de Moura – a Brazilian priest born 150 years ago (January 21, 1861). According to Almeida, though Landell “patented the radio in Brazil (1901)” it was Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the wireless telegraph, who obtained recognition.


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Brazil: Thousands on the street against price increase of the bus tickets · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Panópticosp posts a series of photos [pt] in the Brazilian Independent Media Center from the manifestation against the price increase of the bus tickets. On January 20, more than 3 thousand students went to the streets of São Paulo showing that they are not affraid of the police brutality seen last week.


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China: Falun Gong Tiananmen immolation incident ten years on · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Following up discussions over why China sees so many acts of self-immolation but none of the response seen in Tunisia, Stainless Steel Mouse notes [zh] that ten years have passed since five Falun Gong protesters led a deadly protest in Tiananmen Square: ‘it didn't lead to a Falun Gong uprising, so don't bother asking why China's many self-immolations haven't led to a revolution.’


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D. R of Congo: Obama’s invasion of DRC · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Why does Ann Garrison say that Obama invaded the Democratic Republic of Congo two years ago: “It makes sense because:1)  On his Inauguration Day, Obama became the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces. 2)   The Rwandan and Ugandan armies serve as the U.S. military's proxies in Africa.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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D.R. of Congo: UK listed companies want to drill oil in Virunga! · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Conservation blogger Samuel Maina is shocked to learn that two companies listed in the London Stock Exchange, SOCO and Dominion, plan to drill for oil in Africa’s oldest park, the Virunga National Park.


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DR of Congo : Discreet Commemorations of the 50th Anniversary of Patrice Lumumba’s Assassination · Global Voices
Julie Owono

Patrice Lumumba, photo Wikimedia
January 17th 2011 marked the 50th anniversary of Patrice Lumumba's assassination, first elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire. In 1997, with Laurent Désiré Kabila coming to power, this date has become a public holiday in the country. The irony of this morbid calendar is that January 16th 2011 marked the 10th anniversary of the same Laurent Désiré Kabila‘s assassination, head of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (ADFLC).
This confusion of memories has nevertheless not stopped the Congolese people and their diaspora from organizing some commemorations for the fiftieth year of Lumumba's death.
From the Radio Okapi website, one of the first Congolese Information radios, we learn that a mass was celebrated at the Cathedral of Our Lady, in Kinshasa. The peculiarity of this year is that the religious service also honored two companions of the hero of the Congolese indepedence:
“Contrairement aux précédentes commémorations, la messe d’action de grâce de ce lundi 17 janvier 2011 a été célébrée en mémoire de Maurice Mpolo et Joseph Okito, les collaborateurs de Lumumba tués avec lui.”
On the social network twitter, this day of commemoration was also the occasion to remember the last words written by Lumumba to his wife a few days before his death. JF Mikwa, as many others, has shared the link to the said letter.
Friends of the Congo, an organization based in Washington DC working on promoting good governance in Congo, organised this monday night, January 17th, in New York City, a screening of a documentary film on the former prime minister followed by panel discussions.
In Brussels, the blog Cheik Fita News, dedicated to online information of Congolese living in Belgium, reported that an organized march by the collective “mémoires coloniales” (colonial memories) occurred on January 16th 2011. We also learned that this same collective has started a petition untitled “Truth, justice and compensation to the the congolese people” requesting among other things for the Belgian government to ackowledge its responsibility in the assassination of the political figure:
“L'État belge et les divers acteurs de ces multiples meurtres doivent reconnaître leur responsabilité et les assumer”
MARCH FOR LUMUMBA IN BRUSSELS 20110116_144318
sent by CONGOLAISDEBELGIQUEINFO. – Current events in video.
Despite all these demonstrations, some may ask themselves about the extend of the tibute paid to Lumumba. Faraja Bm on Facebook, regretted that a real day of commemoration wasn't organized around this historical date in the African continent.
“This Guy should also have a day of observation… I mean real day of Observation!”

author: Julie Owono


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El Salvador: Court System Employees on Strike Demand Higher Salaries · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Court system employees have been on strike demanding raises for five days. Tim explains that, “As a consequence, more than a thousand court hearings have been cancelled, bodies have gone unidentified in the forensic medicine office, and more than 87 prisoners have been released for failure to have an initial hearing within 72 hours of being arrested.”


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Ghana:  Ghana Library website offers over 500,000 books · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ghana Library website offers students over 500,000 academic textbooks and literature spread across all subject disciplines.


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Haiti: Aid From Slovakia Blocked by Customs for Ten Months · Global Voices
Tibor Blazko

The Department of Home Affairs has confirmed (SLO) that a container with the second shipment of humanitarian aid from Slovakia has been blocked by the customs in Haiti for nearly ten months.
This problem, however, concerns not only Slovakia's shipment. As Vladimir Krčméry, Rector of the Bratislava-based St. Elisabeth University College of Health and Social Work, reports, hundreds of containers from other countries have also been detained by the Haiti customs – because “things that take a week to arrange [elsewhere], require a year” there. NGOs are often blamed for being slow, but Krčméry claims that only those that can bribe are fast, and that corruption is the biggest enemy.
The second shipment of humanitarian aid for Haiti contains nine tons of emergency quarters, nutrition and clothes, worth 177,300 euros. The first shipment had been sent ten days after the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake.
Below are a few readers’ comments to the SME.sk article on the humanitarian aid delivery failure (linked to above), which show how problems in disaster-stricken, faraway lands are seen from Slovakia.
veteranzkoreje:
The question is: who is going to notice such details when other voices are a lot more audible, e.g., “Actor Sean Penn: World has failed to help Haiti”
Mihole:
They work the same way as our customs work. They simply want customs duty. P.S. I've experienced exactly the same thing here.
Vladimir54:
Hell, why hasn't anyone creates a protectorate yet? … Let's say that an enlightened dictatorship on Haiti would be necessary at a time like this.
abc:
Let's not care about them, put that container on the ship and send it back home…
zaskakovací nožík (in reply):
but for that they already must give a bribe to let it return – they are trapped :-))
Ropp11:
fortunately, I did not send even a euro there, because something like this was likely to happen
hotfire6:
By the way, Britain sent them humanitarian aid, too, and because the Haitian customs officers didn't want to allow it in without bribes, it has been standing there for nearly one year already – I do not know if they have already shipped it back to Britain or not.
[…] What would happen after a disaster in a normal society? Neighbors help each other. On Haiti, they rob each other.
chech:
And what do you think would happen when someone from the EU sent humanitarian aid to Slovakia? … It would end up in the customs until someone paid tax and duty … All those customs gangs think and act the same way.
Maroš1967 (in reply):
[…] I believe that in such a case the [Slovak] government and its institutions would find a solution – any exception to allow those things be put to use…
homo-sapiens:
Also, we are given aid in the form of Euro Funds… And here this aid is stolen by those who have to distribute it. We are not better than the people from Haiti at all.
alter01:
I've always been saying this: Do not send them nonsense items like tents, dresses or toys for children! Send them money! It's best to send dollars, many of them! That you can carry through customs in a plastic bag.

author: Tibor Blazko


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India: A Public Park In Chennai · Global Voices
Rezwan

Vivek at Sepia Mutiny writes about Semmozhi Poonga, a newly opened public park in Chennai, India fulfilling demand of its citizens.


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India: Protecting Apatani Language · Global Voices
Rezwan

Dr. Hano Hailang at Arunachal Diary informs that Apatani language of Arunachal Pradesh in India has become endangered and a linguist named Nending Ommo is publishing a book on the sound systems of Apatani language to protect it.


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Jamaica: “Dudus” Enquiry Starts  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Caribbean Camera reports on the opening of the Commission of Enquiry into events surrounding the Christopher “Dudus” Coke extradition.


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Kenya: Don’t ask a prostitute where she sees herself in five years · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Don't ask a prostitute, “Where do you see yourself in five years?”: “In our trade on the streets; the opposite happens; Your value decreases as your experience increases.Quoting five years experience is a turn off. Many a girl gets to prostitution telling themselves they wont do it for more than a few months…”


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Korean Gov Enforces Its Privacy Regulations on Facebook  · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Faceboook has agreed to make adjustments on its privacy regulation in Korea as the company rules have failed to meet domestic internet laws. The change may mean more protection on users privacy, but any Korean Facebook users first need to consent to gathering and usage of personal information. South Korea's citizen media, Wiki Tree reported[ko].

author: Lee Yoo Eun