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Philippines: Popular dancing videos · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Global Voices has featured several dancing videos from the Philippines. The most famous video is still the Dancing Prisoners from Cebu featuring inmates dancing the Thriller song of the late Michael Jackson.
A dancing video can also be a protest action and this was proven by the Dancing Filipina Maids in Hong Kong. They were protesting the plan of politicians led by the Philippine president to amend the 1987 Constitution.
This month, budget carrier Cebu Pacific surprised passengers when female flight attendants began to dance while giving airline safety instructions.
The video of the dancing flight attendants became popular worldwide but it also generated controversy when women groups denounced the stunt as sexist. This didn’t stop the company from coming up with a new dancing video; but this time, only male flight attendants were seen dancing
Cebu is the queen city of the southern part of the Philippines. It is famous for its white sand beaches, dried mangoes and now, dancing videos. But before the dancing youtube videos became a global hit, Cebu officials often welcome arriving dignitaries by dancing in airports.
There is a new Cebu dancing video which features the city’s tax collectors. The aim is to encourage citizens to pay their taxes on time and to thank honest taxpayers. Here is the video of the Dancing Tax Collectors
Gogol Da Blog provides links to various dancing videos from the Philippines. Aside from the videos mentioned above, there are also dancing videos of traffic enforcers, nurses, engineering students, workers, soldiers, SWAT, doctors, cops, and port workers.
Here are some twitter reactions:
levimak: amusing, the phlippines becoming world's dance capital, dancing inmates,dancing flight attendants, dancing tax collectors,then tax evaders?
sassymaco: Wow. Everybody's dancing in the Philippines: inmates, gasoline boys, traffic enforcers, tax collectors, etc.
mysiRYAN: On my way to terminal 3 going to gensan via cebu pacific. Hopefully I'll see that dancing FA's.
jen_thebitch: @gurushivaker i dont like the dancing flight attendants. prng eeewww.. :)
On Facebook:
Caselle Legaspi Ilano Dancing flight attendants, dancing inmates and now, dancing tax collectors….I just love Cebu! I'm wishing for dancing traffic enforcers next?
Joma Punzalan puro nalang dancing…inmate, tax collector, policeman….eh kung bumbero kaya…sasayaw muna bago bumomba…..me matuwa kaya? (will people laugh if firemen will dance too)
Recipes for Distraction does not like the idea of forcing employees to dance
I hate it when employers force their employees to do things they would otherwise not do.  Especially dance.
Are we really a dancy nation? Is this the message we want to get across to the rest of the world. Is it just all about the trembling joy of uploading the video to YouTube, getting a million hits after a week?
Me, the only group of peeps I'd like to see dancing on the job are elevator operators.  Kidding.
Laiza Penaranda cites modern technology for the popularity of the videos
Filipinos have always been getting in the world’s limelight for quite a time. And for almost four years now, the dancing Filipinos never got to fail in catching the attention of other races around the globe.
Modern technology really helped to raise the popularity of the said “dance groups”. Our country that is known to have a variety of colorful traditions, from delicious foods to well-designed clothes, from scenic places to lively fiestas, we can now be called The Dancing Philippines


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Russia: Post-Emergency Sustainability of Crowdsourcing Projects · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

The Help Map [ENG] was the first use of Ushahidi in Russia to coordinate assistance between victims of this summer’s wildfires and citizens who wished to help them. Almost 200,000 people visited the platform and left more than 1,600 messages. When the emergency situation passed and the wildfires were stopped (rather by rains than by firefighters), the interest in the platform significantly decreased. The motivation of its participants decreased as well. Everyone was back to normal life.
This brought a number of questions. Do we need Ushahidi at all after the situation has normalized and, if yes, how to make Ushahidi-based projects sustainable in the post-emergency period? And, more generally, how to maintain a volunteer-based organization in the long term?
Ethan Zuckerman suggests a Virtual-Person to Person-Virtual (VPV – “virtual, person to person, then virtual again”) model for development of networked projects:
People discover the community online, and connect based on their sense of shared identity and values with the people already participating. They come together, face to face, either at the biennial meetings we run or at the other people’s conferences  That, in turn, builds the trust and relationships we need to survive working together for the next months or years until we see each other face to face.
Most of the people who joined to the Help Map project knew each other only from Google Groups and Skype discussions. At the end of September 2010, a meeting took place in the center of Moscow. The meeting was a move from the first “V” to “P” in expectation of further “V”-based cooperation. The participants discussed the past and the future of the platform and brainstormed ideas about continuation of Help Map, as well as about other possible uses of Ushahidi that the core team could support.
Help Map team meeting. Photo by Gregory Asmolov
At the same time, it was clear that Ushahidi-based projects could not be sustainable based only on the core team of Help Map. Therefore, meeting the colleagues in person was only the first step. The second step was looking for new partners by introducing the project to new audiences and engaging them.
One of the best partners could be students and universities. A lectures about social and political aspects of crowdsourcing and Help Map as a case study were presented at the political science departments of Moscow universities – the Moscow State University and the Higher School of Economics. The discussion was focused on a question of whether ICT could create new platforms for governance and civil society. Another type of discussion about Help Map took place at the Department of Psychology of the Moscow State University. This time the lecture was focused on the evolutionary role of ICT and crowdsourcing as tools that can facilitate network cooperation and mutual aid.
Lectures at the universities were not only the opportunity for a discussion but also for finding partners for future projects, both on an institutional level and among students. Universities can be a place for creating experimental platforms that will make possible the students’ engagement in crowdsourcing projects and research.
Not only universities expressed interest in Ushahidi and Help Map. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, a governmental body that incorporates leaders of various civil society organizations, held a special meeting devoted to “options for coordination of volunteer activities based on the case study of an Internet project Help Map.” Representatives of the chamber, leaders of NGOs who took part in firefighting and volunteers attended the meeting.
One of the major questions that was asked at the Civic Chamber meeting was if Help Map would like to create its own non-profit organization that would continue to work on crowdsourcing platforms for facilitation of volunteer activities. The issue of whether a network-based project could be facilitated through the creation of an organizational structure is controversial. Projects such as Help Map are powerful because they are based on self-organized networks, and trying to transform them into organized structures might threaten their networked nature. Another threat that could be caused by this type of transformation is the bureaucracy that every non-profit organization in Russia has to deal with.
Later on, another aspect of this question was raised during meetings with people from the e-government community. Should the government support development of crowdsourcing projects for emergency situations? Can the resources, cooperation with government structures, and outreach assistance make projects like Help Map more efficient? Or, the other way around, will it threaten the independent self-organized people-to-people nature and reduce the motivation of volunteers to take part in it? There are no evident answers to these questions so far. It’s clear, however, that it depends on a political context and the degree of trust between the government and its citizens.
Meetings such as the one at the Civic Chamber contributed to raising awareness of the role of IT in general and crowdsourcing in particular in emergency situations. The official summary of the discussion that was published by the Civic Chamber was titled “Help Map will continue to develop”.
Another channel for cooperation are local NGOs. The Help Map team met with the local environmental groups. The discussion was focused on the possible transformation of Help Map for wildfires into a map that would collect information about any forest-related issues (e.g., monitoring of violations, coordination of restoration). At the same time, it would improve preparedness to provide help in emergency situation in the future (according to forecasts of the Russian environmentalists, wildfires next summer can be even worse than the ones this year).
Ushahidi has already caused some chain effect in Russia. A prominent Russian blogger Alexey Navalny is working on a project aimed at monitoring problems with the roads and forcing the authorities to fix these problems. One of the NGOs is considering launching a platform that would monitor violations in regard to military service in Russia. Another group is working on a platform that would collect information about various types of citizens’ rights violations.
Yet another possible direction is the incorporation of crowdsourcing practices within e-government. Despite some concerns and skepticism, we may still hope that platforms such as Ushahidi can play a role in bridging the gap between the government and citizens. The Russian e-gov efforts have already showed a few interesting and inspiring projects like rosspending.ru, which, in a user-friendly way, tell people about the public procurement and main government contractors.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Gregory Asmolov


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Saudi Arabia: Genie in Court · Global Voices
Haifa Alrasheed

“I was under the influence of a genie” is the latest excuse for administrative corruption in Saudi Arabia. According to the Saudi newspaper Okaz [Ar], a judge in Al Madina was accused of corruption, taking bribes and taking over real estate. His defense was: “It was not me, I was under the influence of a genie!” It is therefore no a surprise, when Saudi netizens decided to have fun with the story. Soon enough, the hashtag #jinni -which refers to genie in Arabic- started trending on our Twitter timelines. Here are some of the reactions.
Ahmad Bagadoodexplains why he crossed the traffic light:
Fouad Hassan calls for the genie:
Khalid or @Mashi9a7 made a few remarks on this:
Wajd announces a new movie:
As a follow up,  Okaz published a story [Ar] about a religious man named Fayez Al-Gothami who has made the genie “talk” to him in a setting attended by some members of the religious police. According to Al-Gothaimi, the court's judge Fahad Al-Muhaimeed, asked him to prepare a letter explaining all the details of the interrogation and the corruption scams the “genie” had confessed to.
Yaser Alrefai justifies the genie's confessions:
Shaker AlSufyani thinks of taking advantage of the situation:
:P
Essam Al-Zamel remarks on Jeddah's crises:
wasazib would like to improve his work situation:
يا جماعة أبغى أزبط مديري الجديد….أحد يعرف جني فاضي من هنا و لا من هنا؟ #jinni
Feras Aalam asks to take a serious position on this regard:
Bader (Abu Jehad) talks about the release of a new book:
Okaz [Ar] then published a story saying that the religious police denied witnessing the “genie's hearing session.”
MsSDigitaL writes:
Finally, Manal Fahmy comments:
Good Saudis are celebrating #halloween this year in their special way #Jinni

author: Haifa Alrasheed


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South Korea: Protesting with Flowers and Pink Placards · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

In South Korea, a female protester made a change in the conservative education sector, a feat no burly protester with a Molotov cocktail has succeeded in achieving over several decades.
Cha Young-ran, 28, studied for about four years for the Teacher Certification Examination, a national test required for those wanting to become educators.  Just one month before she was scheduled to take the exam there was avshocking announcement from the Ministry of Education: there was not a single job vacancy in the Korean public school system for integrated social studies and the integrated science that school year. Cha was planning to take the exam on integrated social studies and the last-minute notice meant that years of work could be rendered meaningless.
Last year, there were 32 job openings in social studies and 34 vacancies in 2008. Enraged over the inconsiderateness of the administration, Cha, dubbing herself “the Noryangjin girl” (after  the district in Seoul where institutes offering Teacher Certification exam courses are heavily concentrated), stepped up to urge the Ministry of Education to compel every education sector to notify the public of available vacancies prior to the exam.  A petition was circulated, and gained 3,500 signatures.
Images of the letter, placard and photos from Cha's blog. (Used with Permission)
Last week, Cha staged a solo protest in front of the Education Ministry, holding a bunch of flowers and a pink placard that read “a date request for Mr. Lee” (the minister of education). Within 30 minutes, Cha, in her black suit and with her long straight hair swinging in the wind, was invited into the ministry building. Several days later, the ministry announced that notification on job vacancies six months prior to the teacher certification test had been made compulsory.
이주호 교과부 장관님 ^^ 데이트 신청합니다. 먼저 제 소개부터 드리면…요즘에 인터넷 상에서 ‘노량진녀'로 통합니다. 이번 주 토요일 10월 23일 날 1차 시험인데 왜 교과부에 나와서 장관님께 데이트 신청을 하는지 궁금하시겠지요? 네이버 검색에 ‘노량진녀'를 치시고 동영상을 보시면 그 이유를 대충은 알 수 있으실 겁니다…그 동안 모든 걸 다 끊고 도서관과 집만 왔다 갔다 하며 오직 임용고시 하나만을 바라보며 지내왔습니다…오락가락 졸속행정에 이리치리고 저리치리는 힘없는 예비교사들을 대신해서 이주호 장관님께 짐심으로 데이트를 신청합니다…***-****-**** 연락 기다리고 있겠습니다.
On the web, lavish praise was heaped upon Cha for her courageous move. Blogger Ssmile260 thanked her for standing up against the social injustice with innovative ideas.
사회의 불합리를 개선하려는 잔다르크 같은 “노량진 녀”가 많이 나왔으면 한다.
Blogger SeriousMethod, who was once in the same situation, lauded Cha for taking action in an area that no one dared to touch:
저도 사범대 출신인지라 그녀의 입장을 누구보다 잘 압니다. 저는 전공이 영어인지라 영어교사는 매년 뽑아 다행이었지만…저도 대학시절 참 불합리한 제도라 생각했지만 사실 생각에만 그치고 행동으로 실천하지 못했습니다. 교직사회라는 곳이 참 보수적인 곳인데 그런 사회를 앞에두고 이런 용감한 시위를 벌인 그녀에게 박수를 보냅니다. 그녀가 꼭 임용시험에 합격하여 훌륭한 교사가 되길 바라겠습니다.
Sungkyoung25 reminded others that this was a long overdue reform. Education remained the only government sector that did not give potential exam-takers prior notification on job vacancies:
모든 국가고시는 선발 인원을 먼저 공고하는데 유독 교사는 명퇴교사 파악이 필요하다고 시험보기 한 달 전에야 선발 인원이 공고된다. 그런데 올해, 공통사회 공통 과학 같은 경우에 선발인원이 전국 0명이었던 것. 1년 동안 공부 열심히 한 수험생들은 정말 하늘이 무너지는 심정이었을 것… 그런데 문제는 임고 준비생 중에서 1년 공부한 사람보다는 2년 3년 심지어 5-6년 까지도 시험 준비를 했던 사람들이 있었을 거다…그래서 노량진녀가 총대를 메고 나선 것이다. 불합리한 제도 개선이 시급함으로. 공무원들이야 자신들의 행정 처리를 내고 발표를 하면 그만이지만 그 공고를 기다려왔던 수많은 사람들은 한 순간에 나락으로 떨어지고 마니까…정말 안이한 내 자신이 부끄럽기도 하고 그녀의 그런 열정이 부럽기도 하고 실천하는 지식인의 필요성을 다시 한 번 느끼게 되었다.
Cha's request for change was a demand that anyone with a social conscience could have made. However, Cha was the one who actually took action and with a zest of fresh ideas, a rare change was made in one of the most rigidly bureaucratic areas of Korean life.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Thailand: New book on Lese Majeste · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

David writes about a new book that tackles the rise of lese majeste cases in Thailand. Between 2006 and 2009, at least 765 persons were prosecuted for lèse majesté.

author: Mong Palatino


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Ukraine: Dog does Parkour · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

This video is once again making its rounds internationally, adding a twist to the usual parkour video. In it,  a  Staffordshire Terrier can be seen running up walls, trees and jumping from obstacle to obstacle.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Africa: Engaging Francophone/Anglophone divide in researching Africa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“Engaging Francophone/Anglophone divide in researching Africa” is a panel that invites contributions that attempt to map out specific areas of the Francophone-Anglophone polarisation in African studies as sites of knowledge production that create both opportunities and constraints for research in and on Africa.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Armenia-Azerbaijan: Online campaigns for the return of casualties of war · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

A campaign represented as being organized by ‘Armenian bloggers’ has been established to demand the return of the body of Manvel Sarinbekyan, an Armenian who reportedly hung himself while in detention after crossing the border with Azerbaijan.The campaign has been launched in both Russian and English. Meanwhile, and as the conflict between the two countries over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh continues to claim lives despite a 1994 ceasefire, some Azerbaijanis are also demanding the return of the bodies of two dead soldiers held by the Armenian side. Campaigns and support groups demanding the return of one, Mübariz İbrahimov, are particularly present on social networking site Facebook as well as blogs and forums, but actual involvement by online users and bloggers in both countries appears to constitute a minority.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Armenia: Domestic Violence petition submitted · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Following the recent outrage expressed by some Armenian bloggers following the death of a 20-year old woman at the hands of her husband and mother-in-law, Blogian says that the petition it set up to lobby the government to pass a law on domestic violence was signed by 3,196 individuals before it was closed. Armenia is the only country in the region not to have passed such a law.


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Armenia: Prolific blogger suspended on LiveJournal · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Kornelij Glas [RU] details the case of Pigh, an Armenian blogger prolific in the mutual tit-for-tat online information war with Azerbaijan and Turkey. Speaking to Global Voices, Pigh says that his blog on LiveJournal was suspended on 8 October after some Azerbaijanis made complaints to the site's administration which included allegations of hacking activities, a claim the blogger denies. Having managed to download his old posts and comments despite the suspension, he also says that he will upload them and start posting again on a new blog probably from next week.


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Bangladesh: Images Of Durga Puja · Global Voices
Rezwan

Sri Lankan photoblogger Chulie De Silva visits a Durga puja festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh and posts a photo essay.

author: Rezwan


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Barbados: A Nation Mourns  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Barbados – along with the rest of the region – is in mourning following the untimely death of Barbadian Prime Minister David Thompson, who passed away yesterday from pancreatic cancer.  At 48 years old, he was one of the youngest Caribbean heads of state, having led the Democratic Labour Party to victory in Barbados’ hotly-contested general election in January 2008, winning by a landslide against the incumbent Barbados Labour Party.  Bloggers across the Caribbean archipelago are paying their respects…
Barbados in Focus laments the loss of “a son”:
No matter your political affiliation, religion, economic standing, or social position, please join me in sending condolences to family of the late David John Howard Thompson, the sixth Prime Minister of Barbados. He will be missed by the nation of Barbados, and by people throughout the Caribbean.
Barbados Free Press republishes the late Prime Minister’s final letter to his St. John constituents and adds:
He fought hard, with courage and with the dignity that was always part of his character in public and in private…it is a mercy that he had time to prepare himself, his loved ones, his friends and his beloved Barbados for his passing.
Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Mara, and his three daughters Misha, Oya  and Osa and David’s mum, Margaret Knight.
In a later post, the blog uploads a musical tribute to Thompson.
Boyce Voice‘s post takes on a personal tone:
I first met David at Combermere when I entered that school back in 1974.
I remember David in the hallowed school hall of “Waterford University” participating in “mock” parliamentary debates; it was the beginning of his potential as a debater and orator of great skill.
I remember David as a lawyer…there were several times throughout the years where our cultural objectives would be endangered by some nefarious anti cultural villain and we would call out to David, he would swoop down like a caped legal crusader and save us from certain artistic demise.
I remember David as a Prime Minister, the first PM to come forth from the University of Waterford, I had the privilege of working with him during the campaign. I remembered after the last elections and my telephone rang and I answered “Hello Mr Prime Minister” for that was the first time a PM had ever called me…
Such was the measure of the man, Gone but never to be forgotten; may he Rest in Peace, I remember PM David..
Caribbean Lionesse shares how she felt when she heard the news:
Call me foolish but I really was shaken when I got the call around 5 a.m. this morning. It felt like it had been so long that he had been ill that I had started to convince myself he would hold on and be in that small sliver of those who survive pancreatic cancer.
Like most Barbadians home and away I am saddened. It really is a personal tragedy writ large. He's not even 50. His children aren't even done raised yet. It truly is unfair and makes you wonder why.
The Bajan Reporter, meanwhile, publishes a series of posts highlighting various messages of sympathy from public figures.
In the midst of grieving, Barbados Underground thought it appropriate to welcome “the seventh Prime Minister of Barbados” to his new post:
The government will join Barbadians to mourn the passing of Prime Minister  David Thompson in the coming days before being expected to settle down to the business of navigating the raging global economic storm.
Prime Minister Stuart is not unfamiliar functioning in the role of Prime Minister albeit in the shadow of the events caused by the illness of former Prime Minister  David Thompson in recent months. Barbadians will have high expectations of Stuart now that he has assumed the position of Prime Minister in his own right.
Bloggers from other nations are also offering their condolences; Jamaican diaspora blogger Dennis Jones, who lived in Barbados for many years, writes:
At the tender age of 48, he died from pancreatic cancer a few hours ago. His family, friends and the whole country will mourn his passing. A young national leader is a rarity in the Caribbean, and as one of those sometimes termed the ‘Independence generation’, he was a shining star. Whatever his political opponents may think or say, his leadership was not complete and will be now hard to judge. He took his post during one of the most difficult of economic times and his efforts to chart a way through were never going to meet universal approval. His death may provide a moment that helps turn Barbados towards finding a unity that may be more important than ever in helping solve its economic problems.
Barbadian diaspora blogger Jdid says:
My condolences to his family and the nation. Every one has their appointed hour but some go earlier than we would like.
My prayers also go out to the new PM Mr Fruendel Stuart and his cabinet as he embarks on steering Barbados’ course. Is not an easy road bredren by any means especially in the present economic climate but stay the course.
Finally, Abeni, blogging from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, recalls two occasions on which her paths had crossed with the late Prime Minister's:
For close to half an hour I sat quietly and thought about David Thompson, his family, his political journey, his illness and his death.
I didn't know David Thompson beyond a chance meeting in Kingstown…the thing that struck me most about that encounter was his approachable, no frills, down to earth manner.
Slowly the tears came. Tears of anger that cancer had once more wreaked havoc and taken yet another life. Tears of dismay that a cure still seems so distant.Tears that a young vibrant man had been cut down just when he had finally attained his dream of leading his country…I wish to express my heartfelt sympathies to his family, close friends and the nation of Barbados…

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Bhutan: Increase In Social Media Users · Global Voices
Rezwan

“There are more than 32,000 users of the social networking site in Bhutan,” informs Yasmin Lee Arpon.


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Gambia: Harrasment of Women Defenders · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Sokari posts a press release by Coalition for Human Rights in the Gambia concerning the arrest of Dr. Isatou Touray, the Executive Director and Amie Bojang- Sissoho, Programme Coordinator for the Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices (GAMCOTRAP).


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Georgia: Teach and Learn English · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Dream is Destiny [GE] posts the addresses of the blogs established by some of the 350 native English-language speakers documenting their stay in Georgia as part of the new official policy to have English replace Russian as the second-language spoken by its citizens.


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India: Community-scale Water Solutions  · Global Voices
Rezwan

“Hopefully, one day the soul of India will be rejuvenated with clean drinking water across all of its 638,000 villages,” says Pooja Bhatia.


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Maldives: A New Twitter Directory · Global Voices
Rezwan

“#tunaeffect is a Maldivian twitter directory and a platform for Maldivian twitter users to come together as a community,” informs Rhipha.


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Panama loses hosting rights of Bolivarian Games · Global Voices
Clotilde Castillo

Last May, the Bolivarian Sports Organization (ODEBO) [es], named Panama the host of the XVII Bolivarian Games that will take place in 2013. This was great news for the country, which has not hosted the event since 1973 [es]. However, this week the organization removed Panama from hosting the event. On October 20, The Panama Digest  published:
The Bolivarian Sports Organization voted five-to-one not to host the Bolivarian games in Panama after all.
The reason given is that Panama “was not going to act or deal appropriately to integrate the Organizing Committee or carry out their responsibilities without interference or intervention of agencies and groups outside the Olympic movement. ”
Image by Flickr user M0n3d4 used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license
In a report by Kathyria Caicedo in the website of the Telemetro News Channel [es], she explained that:
Dicha decisión se remite a la existencia de dos Comité Olímpicos en Panamá, uno que consta con personería jurídica y otro no, la Odebo estaba exigiendo el reconocimiento de la organización dirigida por Miguel Sanchiz. Sin embargo, este es un caso que se encuentra en las esferas jurídicas de Panamá.
The news and the reactions from the authorities are being covered by Panamanian traditional media, as well as by some websites at the international level; however, there are already reactions from Twitter users, who are spreading the news and also to reflecting on how this situation has made them feel. Carol Carito (@carolcarito) commented:
Qué mala noticia lo de la sede de los juegos bolivarianos #fail :((( #panama
Noel David Ortega (@noelpty) said:
Enterandome q le quitaron la sede de los bolivarianos a #Panama…. es por gusto q haga un coment, estos ineptos q tenemos por dirigentes :@
User Sr Criticón (@SrCriticón) offered a different point of view:
Mejor q nos hayan quitado la sede de los Bolivarianos. Inviertan ese dinero para obras sociales y cosas que realmente necesitamos. #Panama
Panama needed to make important infrastructure investments in order to serve all the needs that the event requires.  Last August, in an article by Rogelio Adonican, Panama America [es] published “What would Panama win with the games?,” where he summarized the benefits that, according to the organizers, hosting the games would give the country, infrastructure being one of them. The article also mentioned the benefits for the tourism industry and the experience that Panama would acquire by managing an event of this magnitude.
It is easy to understand Yadisel Buendia's feelings (@yadiselbuendia), who said:
#Panama ha perdido tanto al perder la sede de los #juegosbolivarianos. Todo x diferencias absurdas e intereses egoistas. Super #fail

author: Clotilde Castillo


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UAE: Are Taxi Fares Fair? · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Fake Plastic Souks, from the UAE, discusses taxi fares in the United Arab Emirates and how taxi drivers are faring.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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UAE: Ban on Flickr Lifted · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The United Arab Emirates has lifted a ban on photo sharing site Flickr, writes the UAE Community Blog. “According to a report in The National, the TRA has lifted the Flickr ban.  Good news for UAE internet users and photographers.  Apparently, it's been made possible by Yahoo utilising the same content filter that they are using for Singapore's Flickr access,” says nzm.


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Afghanistan: Another Taliban official involved in peace talks · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Nick Fielding informs his readers that Afghan Taliban deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Barodar after having been released from custody in Pakistan, is at the centre of peace efforts, amidst the spread of instability into the North.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Bahamas: It’s Time  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Nicolette Bethel thinks “it’s time to build our own declaration of democracy”.


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Bangladesh: Islamic Financing Is A Recent Development · Global Voices
Rezwan

Mezba at A Bengali in T.O. has some interesting questions regarding “Islamic” financing.


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Bangladesh: Land Grab And Protests · Global Voices
Rezwan

The population of Bangladesh is increasing and there is a growing demand of land mass for housing. As it is already considered a densely populated country, finding empty lands for development of housing complexes can be a tough ask. Political and business powerhouses grab government and private lands and the security forces or the law can barely do anything to protect the rights of general people.
Shahjahan Siraj describes in a podcast report at Panos London how land owners are turning beggers because of land disputes:
Disputes over land are the biggest single cause of court cases in Bangladesh. It’s usually the rich and powerful who win.
Recently in the Rupganj Upazilla near capital Dhaka Bangladeshis saw another kind of land grab. Protests of land-owners turned deadly as  more than 50 people were injured and one person died (three more reported missing) from the clashes with the security forces. At least 10000 people were demanding cancellation of the government decision to acquire about 5,000 bighas (appx. 1653 acres) of land in Rupganj for an army housing project. The police has brought charges of vandalism against approx. 4000 people as they torched an army camp.
According to media reports [bn] the army had established 4 camps in Rupganj Upazilla 6 months ago and were carrying out the land acquiring tasks from there. Locals said that the personnel from these camps were forcing them to sell off their land very cheaply.
The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a press release alleged that a vested group has instigated landowners and local people through spreading ‘hostile’ and ‘fearful’ rumors against army and the army housing project in the area. They denied about the existence of army camp naming them temporary offices manned by army officials to facilitate the project.
Map of AHS project. Image courtesy Dinmojur blog
Some bloggers are reacting with anger over this incident. Blogger Dinmojur at Somewherein Blog writes in details about the army housing project (AHS) and how the army approached with the difficult task of acquiring so much land (1653 acres) for the project:
জমি কেনা বেচার সামান্য অভিজ্ঞতা যার আছে, তারা সহজেই বুঝবেন, একসাথে এত জমি কখনই সেচ্ছায় মানুষের কাছ থেইকা কিনা যায়না। ভিটাবাড়ি, পারিবারিক কবরস্থান এবং টিকে থাকার একমাত্র অবলম্বন কৃষিজমিটুকু কে-ই বা স্বেচ্ছায় বেচতে চায়! [..]
ফলে আর্মি তেরছা রাস্তা ধরলো। [..] ইউনিফর্ম এর জোর দেখায়া তারা ২৪ টি মৌজায় সব ধরণের জমি কেনা বেচা বন্ধ কইরা দিল। তাগো সাফ কথা, জমি যদি কেউ বেচতে চায় তাইলে সেনাবাহিনীর কাছে বেচতে হইব। আর জোর জবরদস্তিই যখন করতেই হইল তখন আবার ন্যায্য দাম কিসের?
So the army took the hard path. [..] Showing their power of uniform they stopped all buying-selling of land in 24 Moujas. They had only one demand – if anybody wants to sell land then they will have to hand it over to the army. And as they had to assert power why buy at a fair price?
The blogger posts evidence that the formal approval for the project from the land authorities is still pending. But the AHS project has already received payment of installments from potential buyers – many army officers for this project. The blogger also points to the advancing business interests of Bangladesh army. A recent BBC documentary showed how Bangladesh army has become a big conglomerate.
However, blogger Osthir Prithibi has questioned the hyped criticism and negativity against the army and requested not to jump into conclusion without much information.
Blogger & journalist Maskwaith Ahsan at Somewherein Blog vents his frustration on the politics behind the incident and the blame game:
এখনো আমরা চালাক মানুষরা ভাবছি,আগুন লেগেছে রুপগঞ্জে। আমাদের কী। আগুন কতো দ্রুত আপনার চৌকাঠে আসতে পারে তাতো জানিনা আমরা। আমাদের বালিতে মুখ গুজে দেশপ্রেম বিলাসের নিষ্কর্মতায় আমরা নূরহোসেন, রিসিল, জামালদের লাশের অংক কষে যখন ব্রেকিং নিউজ দেখছি,
তখন যুদ্ধাপরাধীরা রুপগঞ্জের ঘটনাকে কীভাবে ঘোলা করে যুদ্ধাপরাধীদের বিচার পন্ড করা যায় তার রেসিপি তৈরী করছে।বিএনপি এখন ত্যানা পেচিয়ে আওয়ামী লীগকে অজনপ্রিয় করে তুলবে। কারণ বিএনপির শয়নে সপনে জাগরণে শুধু ক্ষমতায় যাওয়া। দেশের চেয়ে দল বড়। মানুষের চেয়ে জমি বড়।
Then the war criminals will try to exploit this incident to stop the trial against war criminals, BNP (opposition party) will try to shed some popularity of Awami League (ruling party). Because the only goal of BNP is to come to power again. The party is greater than the country. And of course the land is greater than the people.
Mustak Khasru at Somewhere In Blog writes [bn]:
ষোল কোটি চৌচল্লিশ লক্ষ মানুষ যে দেশে বসবাস করে সেই দেশে ভুমি অধিগ্রহনের জুজুটি আইন করে বন্ধ করে দিতে হবে। [..] কৃষি নির্ভর দেশের আবাদী জমির পরিমান জ্যামিতিক হারে কমছে তা এখনি বন্ধ করতে না পারলে সামনে মানুষ মানুষের মাংশ খেতেও দ্বিধা করবে না।
The protests of Rupganj perhaps has made Bangladeshis realize that the lower middle class has overcome the fear of army in this democratic country but the weary middle-class has to wake up.


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Bangladesh: Long March To Protect Natural Resources · Global Voices
Rezwan

A number of Bangladeshi citizens started a long march from capital Dhaka to North-Western district Dinajpur in a bid to protect the country’s natural resources. ShahidulNews posts photos and videos of the long march.


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Benin: How to help flood victims · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

How to help flood victims in Benin: “So people are homeless, kids aren’t going to school, and disease is rampant. What can we do from our armchairs? I checked with the USAID director and several other international donors to find out what they’re doing. The relief effort is being lead by Caritas, who works in partnership with the Beninese government to get supplies and support to areas affected by the flooding.”


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Brazil: changes made to digital crimes bill · Global Voices
Marta Cooper

Jomar Silva, of blogging collective Trezentos [pt], speaks out against recent changes [pt] made to a controversial draft bill on cybercrimes in Brazil. The bill, which would require web users to provide identification for online transactions, such as setting up a blog or downloading files, may now see content service providers being ordered to divulge user data. Although the bill aims to discourage hacking, netizens fear it will severely limit Internet freedom.

author: Marta Cooper


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Chile: Natividad Llanquileo, voice of the Mapuche hunger strike · Global Voices
Paulina Aguilera Muñoz

In September, her name exploded on the net: Natividad Llanquileo, the spokesperson of the Mapuche prisoners at El Manzano prison in Concepción, Chile. She is 26 years old and a law student. The blog Ukhamawa [es] describes her:
Hasta  antes de asumir como vocera, Natividad sufría de pánico escénico. Y hoy  son pocos los que creen que se ruborizaba cada vez que tenía que hablar  en público o daba una prueba oral en su carrera, la que congelara a  causa de la huelga de hambre. ‘Pero de un día para otro se me acabó la  timidez’, confiesa. Esto, luego de que se vio enfrentada a participar en  foros, vociferar con megáfono en diversas marchas, dar entrevistas y  negociar de igual a igual con ministros y subsecretarios.
On Facebook, she has a group of men and women following her, “Yo también admiro a Natividad Llanquileo” [es] [I also admire Natividad Llanquileo] and recently a Twitter account was opened (@NATIVIDADLLANQU), where she thanks all the people following her and reports on the Mapuche situation [es]:
Gracias a todos los que han solidarizado con nuestros hermanos, sus familiares y sus comunidades. Natividad Llanquileo.
As soon as the images of the Mapuche hunger strike were published, cyberspace responded quickly.  Media outlets and social networks from several different countries have been moved by this girl's image and her steady voice that explains the hunger strike, the demands of the prisoners and the dignity of the Mapuches.  An enormous image of her appears in the digital Cuban newspaper Juventud Rebelde [es].
Natividad Llanquileo. Photograph by Miguel Méndez, flickr account Méndez_vision, used with permission.
In the midst of the strike tension,  voices such as Ulises de Laire's (@udelairep) began to show up:
si me permiten una frivolidad, que guapa es Natividad Llanquileo, la vocera y hermana de algunos de los chicos mapuches en huelga de hambre.
Felipe Morales (@washingmaquina) declares:
Con todo respeto, un proceso tan complejo como el mestizaje puede ser explicado con una sola persona, Natividad Llanquileo. Que guapa!
Natividad Llanquileo had two incarcerated brothers during the strike, Ramón in the Concepción prison and Víctor in the Angol prison. But the history of activism in her family is even older: her father, passed away three years ago, joined the indigenous movements of the 1970s, during the government of Salvador Allende.
Her history is one filled with struggles and reflects the reality of thousands of young Mapuches [es].   After finishing high school, Natividad moved to Santiago in order to find a job and earn money.  Observatorio Ciudadano [es] describes her story like this:
“Yo creía que Santiago era más bonito y amable  de lo que realmente es -recuerda Natividad Llanquileo-. Encontré trabajo  como empleada puertas adentro en una casa particular. Cuidaba niños,  hacía la comida, el aseo… Una vez a la semana tenía un día libre y me  iba a casa de una hermana en Lo Espejo… Me levantaba todos los días a  las 6 de la mañana para hacer el desayuno. Y la hora de acostarme nunca  se sabía, a veces a las 2 ó 3 de la mañana, cuando los patrones volvían  tarde. Es lo que pasa con la mayoría de la nanas”. También le costó  aprender el funcionamiento de los aparatos electrodomésticos, adaptarse a  los sistemas de transporte público y dominar las tecnologías que  encontró en la ciudad.
Image by Camilo A. Riffo, @camiloriffo, used with permission
The adjectives on the Facebook page in her honor, some tending to be over the top, describe her as “a fighter true to herself [es]” “A smart and beautiful girl is a difficult combination to find. Her struggle and bravery are to be admired. [es],”   “She has a profound look in her eyes that is able to reflect something special… it inspires courage and strength[es].”  On twitter, @mxmg says that Natividad is “admirable.”
She is considered part of the “new mapuche generation” by Revista Que Pasa, reported by Prensa. Chile: asuntos indígenas [es]:
Cuentan que cuando niños cuidaban  animales y vivían en rucas. Hoy estudian en la universidad. Admiran a  Lautaro y no a Prat. A diferencia de sus padres, aprenden mapudungun y  juegan palín. Están organizados y pretenden convertirse en dirigentes.  El conocimiento winka es “una herramienta” para sus fines. Porque,  definitivamente, no quieren ‘chilenizarse’.
Magnetic, hypnotic are some of adjectives used by Patricio Hidalgo in El Quinto Poder [es]:
A diferencia de casi todos los políticos y opinólogos de nuestra  patria, habla preciso, justo, ahorrándose los fuegos de artificio y las  citas provocadoras. Hay algo de magnético, de hipnotizante en su  fortaleza sencilla, en su tono de voz macerado, en su mirada huidiza. El  contraste es notable: la pantalla es saturada por políticos que  “denuncian” que los comuneros están comiendo, personas que hacen  gárgaras con la “amenaza terrorista”, con la atrocidad de “atentar”  contra la propia vida, y la respuesta viene simbolizada por una cara  lozana, sencilla, inolvidable,
From Youtube the thin but powerful figure speaks with clarity about the rejection of the prisoners’ families from the negotiating table, as it was proposed by the government:
With the same clarity she came to the negotiating table, according to an interview [es]:
En una reunión, la primera, al ministro Larroulet lo apunté con el dedo y  le dije fuerte: “Usted dijo que nosotros somos terroristas y ahora dice  que no. Entonces ¿qué es lo que está pasando?”. En ese sentido, no  porque sea ministro hay que tratarlo de otro forma, porque yo soy igual  con todos. A quien veo con mucho respeto es al obispo Ezzati. Su rol en  este tema ha sido muy importante. Si no hubiese sido por él, tal vez el  gobierno hasta ahora no se hubiese sentado a conversar con nosotros.  Además, para negociar con el gobierno, debíamos tener un facilitador,  que a la vez es un garante, porque si no, no era negociación. Porque  ¿quién nos asegura que el gobierno firme o no firme los papeles? Sin  garante, una negociación no sirve.
Today, the tales of Natividad's brothers, Ramón and Víctor Llanquileo, from start to finish, are known, whether cheered or criticized.  Natividad says that her father always taught them to never feel less than equal. An important lesson that begs the question: If everyone were taught the same thing, how many Llanquileos, how many young men and women of frank gazes and steady voices, would Chile have?

author: Paulina Aguilera Muñoz


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China: Protest over “Mandarin only” education program · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Angry Chinese blogger looks into the recent protest in Qinghai by Tibetans against  the introduction of “Mandarin only” education program.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Rare earth · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

George Chen blogs about the international and domestic debates over China’ exportation of rare earth.


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Global Voices seeks a Deputy Editor · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Global Voices seeks a Deputy Editor to help manage daily content flow in English. Global Voices in English is a central focal point for more than 400 bloggers and translators around the world who work together to report on blogs and citizen media everywhere, with emphasis on voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media. We are a global, virtual organization led by a team of part-time editors who work with volunteer authors around the world across multiple time zones, communicating primarily by email and regional mailing lists.
The Deputy Editor must possess professional and personal skills to help the site maintain and expand its role as the leading website for translating, contextualizing, and amplifying international citizen media.
The Deputy Editor will be responsible for the following:
- Working with the Managing Editor to oversee the content on the website on a daily basis
– Working closely with the Regional and Language Editors to provide support for volunteer authors
– Managing the sub-editor volunteer team, and sub-editing articles as needed, reviewing all articles for style, copyright errors and other detail work
– Ensuring that content meets editorial standards prior to publication
– Moderating comments on the site
– Overseeing and updating the style guide and other editorial procedures
– Managing internal mailing lists
– Working closely with the Technical Director to manage and maintain meta data, tagging, linking, and information work flow on the site
– Tracking visitor traffic statistics for the site
– Scheduling and running regular editorial meetings in IRC chat room
The Deputy Editor will report to the Managing Editor.
We are seeking a candidate with the following qualities:
– Experienced editor and writer, with native English capacity and appropriate educational background
– Strong leadership skills
– Experience managing a multilingual, multicultural team
– Strong technical skills and experience with citizen media, including blogging, podcasting, and digital video
– Basic ability to edit and source digital photos
– Ability to lead team in improving headline keyword and linking standards across the site
– Familiarity with open source software and open content communities
– Ability to work independently and to produce results in a timely manner
To work effectively with our community, we would prefer that candidates:
– Have experience living and working internationally, or have traveled extensively in the developing world
– Are active bloggers or creators of online media
– Are multilingual, with fluency in English and at least one other language
– Have experience working in diverse, multicultural environments
– Are strong communicators and facilitators
– Have experience in a professional newsroom setting targeting a global audience
The ideal candidate must have a passionate commitment to the values and goals of Global Voices. He or she will be joining a well established team of editors and authors who are dedicated to amplifying the voices of world. There is no geographic requirement associated with this position; Global Voices has no office or physical headquarters. Substantial travel is likely. Candidates must have access to broadband internet connectivity and be comfortable working in a wholly virtual environment. We strongly welcome candidates from outside North America and Europe, and encourage people currently working on the Global Voices project to apply.
The position is full-time, but should be treated as a freelance contract.
To express your interest, please send a cover letter and CV to “editor AT globalvoicesonline DOT org”. The deadline for applications is November 8 , 2010.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Israel: Controversial Loyalty Oath Undermines Democracy · Global Voices
Gilad Lotan

In the past week, the Israeli cabinet approved by a 22-8 vote the proposed amendment to Israel's Citizenship Law, which would require all those seeking citizenship to pledge allegiance to Israel as a “Jewish and democratic state.” To become law, it must pass three Knesset votes in the upcoming months.
Attempts to enforce recognition of Israel as uniquely Jewish have been deeply controversial, particularly among Israel's Arab citizens, who make up a fifth of the country's population. Some claim Bibi Netanyahu is playing straight into the hands of Avigdor Lieberman‘s nationalist party doctrine. Other logic seems to be “we must demand from ourselves what Israel is asking others to recognize”, referencing Israel's request from the Palestinians to recognize it as a Jewish nation-state. Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni condemned the cabinet's approval, describing it as “politics at its worst” and “political horse-trading”.
In a blog post about the topic, Orit Kamir reminds us that such laws were previously banned:
There are Democratic countries that request a loyalty oath from new citizens; immigrants asking to receive citizenship. There are countries that request new citizens to study their culture, history and language. These are fair and desired requests. The State of Israel does not do this, because it provides automatic citizenship to Jews, not asking them for anything except their religion.
Historic reminder: In the 80's, Meir Kahana called against the declaration of the state, requesting to cancel the section boasting equality (‘a State for all its citizens’), to leave only a zionist, religious and non-democratic declaration. His party was outlawed, and he was publically condemned. What happened that 20 years later we don't see the latent danger in precisely this move?
The following Facebook group has been gathering Israelis to rally against the law. Following is an excerpt of a conversation between Israeli group members and Israeli opponents:
Dean Michaely writes:
You guys don't accept Israel as a Jewish and democratic state? You don't accept the Israeli declaration of independence? So leave this place.
Because all we're doing, like every country in the world, especially a country in such critical state as ours, is requesting a loyalty oath from our citizens. The reason is simple – people receive citizenship here and then blow themselves up or shoot in public, and claim that they don't accept this country's right to exist. We we can do here is initial filtering, for the benefit of accepting our country and its nature – Jewish and democratic.
Barak Granot adds a sarcastic response:
When was the last time that you saw someone blow up or shoot here? Baruch Goldstein was a long time ago. Also the Rabbi Uzi Meshulam. Maybe you mean the underground crime organizations that blow up cars? Or maybe you're talking about Eden Natan Zadeh who started shooting in an Arab-Israeli town? But wait… these are all wholly Israeli citizens. So what exactly are you claiming?
Daniel Oz adds:
Its Bibi & Lieberman who don't accept Israel as Jewish and Democratic, otherwise they wouldn't propose this fascist law, that conveys a lack of confidence in Israel's Jewish nature and is, in effect, an attempt to cancel the democracy in order to support a national-racial Jewish population.
Ziv Gur-arye writes:
We have a country with many people (not only Arabs) who do not recognize it and are loyal to those who are currently enemies of the State (although we'd be thrilled if in the future they will change their ways, even though the chances are tiny given the complete control of Hamas in Gaza).
Only those who see themselves as Israeli should live here. The State of Palestine will rise in the future, and there all those who see themselves as Palestinians will live. In the USA and other countries people must declare their loyalty to the state. Why are there extremists that are against this proposal?
If you are really devoted to preserving the democracy, you need to respect the oath and request to apply it to every Israeli citizen, regardless of sex or race.
Dean posts an additional response:
Barak you are wrong about many things. Israel was given to the Jews and Palestine to the Palestinians. The reason that Arabs stay here is the fact that government stipends are excellent, much more than they'd receive in any other Arab state.
Daniel Oz – this is not a fascist law proposal. It exists in many other countries that are not fascist. This is a democratic, Jewish country – not democratic muslim. This is the nature of the country if we like it or not.
And by the way, the proposal passed a democratic vote, just like the cancellation of the Turkish constitution… Please welcome Bibi for the democratic nature of this proposal.
Following are two posts from Twitter:
assiazar writes:
Without loyalty, there's no citizenship. We will pay for this sentence.
Irwunsch retweets a post by sethacohen33:
Bradley Burston compiles a list of things you can do to help prevent the law:
The law must have the support of the Likud [27 seats] and Labor [13] in order to pass. Write to Prime Minister and Likud Chair Benjamin Netanyahu and to Defense Minister and Labor Chair Ehud Barak to urge them to bar the bill from passage. The individual e-mail addresses of all Likud MKs may be found by clicking their names on the Knesset website. Senior Likud MKs Benny Begin, Dan Meridor and Michael Eitan, as well as Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin have already spoken out strongly against the Loyalty Oath. Others are believed to have serious reservations, and may be persuaded to abstain or work to keep the bill from reaching the Knesset floor.

author: Gilad Lotan


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Jamaica: Farewell to the “Cool Ruler” · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamaican reggae icon Gregory Isaacs, popularly known as the “Cool Ruler”, died this morning at this home in London, after a long battle with cancer.  Possessing one of the most soulful voices in the reggae genre, Isaacs was probably best known for his song “Night Nurse” (from the 1982 album of the same name).  The Jamaican blogosphere has been active upon hearing news of his death, as have been social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, with fans paying tribute to his life and music.
On the Ground News Reports‘ Facebook status, which is copied to the group's Twitter account, posts this update:
Confirmed: News of the death of the legendary Reggae artiste Gregory Isaacs has seen him become the top trending topic on Twitter with almost 20 tweets per minute being posted of him.
Tweets about the late musician can be found under the hashtags #Isaacs, #RIP Gregory, #Night Nurse and #RIP Gregory Isaacs.
YardFlex.com calls Isaacs “a true Jamaican icon”, saying:
He has done a lot in waving the reggae flag. We wish his family, friends and fans the strength to go through this difficult time.
Antilles, the blog of The Caribbean Review of Books, notes that:
Isaacs was once described as “the most exquisite vocalist in reggae, his pliable baritone equally at ease with silken ballads and slinky dance grooves.”
The Wickedest Time finds it hard to say goodbye:
It's so sad for me to announce that another reggae icon has left us this morning at the age of 59.  It's always a sad day when you lose greatness and we, his fans, feel it too.
Reggae music lost another legend. Rest Peacefully Gregory Isaacs, we love you!


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Kazakhstan: Education System Flaws · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

KZBlog refects on the classc post-Soviet problem that school teachers in Kazakhstan are too often treated like members of an office staff, and their loyalty is more important than their being able to be productive.


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Kazakhstan: Fake repatrates scandal · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Albika reports that several thousand ethnic Kazakh repatriates have never existed, but the government spent 300 million tenge for their benefits in result of the massive fraud.


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Kyrgyzstan: Assassination or provocation attempt? · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Marat Sartpaev writes about the post-electoral scandal in Kyrgyzstan as the currently leading parliamentary party’s member said he was allegedly attacked by “the armed spec-op officers”, who, though, were “defeated” by unarmed guards at his house.


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Kyrgyzstan: Parties Get Down to Coalition-Building · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

With no clear winner in Kyrgyzstan’s parliamentary election, the five parties that gained seats have immediately plunged into a race to build a ruling coalition with the right to choose the next prime minister, Dina Tokbaeva writes.


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Mexico: Thirteen residents executed at Tijuana rehabilitation center · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Gancho reports that, “Thirteen residents at a Tijuana rehab facility were executed yesterday, in apparent retaliation for the seizure of 134 tons of marijuana last week. […] This is not the first time rehab center residents have been targeted (often, rehab centers are said to double as gangs’ centers of operation) […]”

author: Silvia Viñas


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Mozambique: regulations on text messaging services · Global Voices
Marta Cooper

Observatório do Direito à Comunicação [pt] reports on the regulations placed on text messaging services in Mozambique, after several protests were organised via SMS during September's ‘bread riots’.


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Paraguay: Immigrant to Spain shares her experience in guaraní · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Camino al Paraguay [es] posted a video of a Paraguayan woman talking about her experience as an immigrant in Spain in guaraní.


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Peru: Bills on wiretapping, explained and analyzed · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Miguel Morachimo writes [es] for Blawyer about two bills presented to the Peruvian Congress that relate to the interception and media broadcast of private conversations.


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Puerto Rico: Second Blog Day Against Violence · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Bloggers Nahomi Galindo Malavé and Verónica RT convened bloggers in Puerto Rico to express themselves on violence against women and the media for the Second Blog Day “No More Violence Against Women.” [ES]

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


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Puerto Rico: Student Blog Continues Coverage · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The student blog Desde Adentro [ES], an alternative online paper created during the recent 60 day student strike at the University of Puerto Rico, is covering the mounting tensions between the students and the administration at the main campus.


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Russia: Online Activism Success Stories · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

While Internet analysts across the Atlantic are busy arguing if the use of technology brings about social and political change, bloggers in Russia add their humble contributions to the debate, probably unaware that the debate is taking place at all. Their victories are few and small and their impact can easily be attributed to statistical error – but they certainly are out there.
The Russian blogosphere's success stories of the past few months have one thing in common: leveraged by the online media, the stories have resulted in executive decisions that helped people defend their rights.
Fixing Obscenity and Injustice
In May 2010, 44-year-old Difgat Khantimerov, head of the Yermekeevo district of Bashkortostan, was captured on video ordering schoolchildren on a school volleyball team to kiss his feet while doing push-ups. Such a “creative” approach to physical education attracted bloggers’ attention and within several months the video posted by YouTube user ermekeevo2010 had almost 300,000 views:
It took three and a half months for the video to reach the mainstream media. One of the reasons it took so long was that Khantimerov, outraged by the uncontrollable distribution of the video, ordered [RUS] the local Internet Service Provider to cancel any works on the development of broadband in Yermekeevo district.
Another reason was that none of the humiliated kids wanted to draw publicity to what happened in the school's gym. At the end, however, Khantimerov didn't escape responsibility. As soon as the mainstream media (such as lenta.ru and rg.ru) took the initiative from bloggers, the president of Bashkortostan ordered [RUS] to dismiss the official. Later on, Khantimerov apologised [RUS] to the humiliated kids.
Lilia Gumerova, the children's ombudsman in Bashkortostan and the woman who brought the whole story to the masses, wouldn't have achieved even a small part of this without a mobile phone camera, YouTube, and the shocked viewers.
Investigative Crowdsourcing
The story of Anna Buzilo (Vladivostok) shows how investigative crowdsourcing can be more efficient than the police. 25-year-old Anna disappeared on June 14, 2010. Three days later, user Kripton fromVladivostok forum drom.ru started [RUS] a thread asking the fellow netizens for help. On June 18, blogger LeRoN posed [RUS] a trivial question:
Кстати, она со своим парнем не ссорилась?
Only in September, when Anna's murderer was found, did LeRoN realize how close to truth he was when he asked that question.
Later on, over 500 drom.ru users joined Anna's friends and relatives in search for her, her murderer or kidnapper. Blogger Bedaan set up [RUS] a voluntary fund to pay for gasoline for those who were involved in looking for any traces of Anna. Other bloggers were disseminating leaflets with basic information about the woman. Some users took police dogs to search in the remote places of the city, others used private channels to retrieve her cell phone logs [RUS] from the phone company.
Three months after Anna's disappearance, Pavel, her boyfriend, said he had kidnapped her and asked for $130,000 ransom. He was immediately arrested. According to the interview [RUS] with one of the participants of the search, forum users considered this version as the main one. After some time, Pavel confessed to a murder and showed where he had left Anna's body.
Without forums like drom.ru, Anna's case would have never been investigated as thoroughly.
Another story happened in Yekaterinburg region, where three cars were terrorizing local drivers, while being ignored by policemen. In one of the incidents, drivers of the “three black cars with Tyumen [a neighboring region] license plates” vandalized a random car. LJ user pilgrim-67 analyzed [RUS] the case. He used the observations [RUS] and photos [RUS] of the local forum to identify the license plates of the cars, found the names of the owners of these cars and found the owners’ accounts on Odnoklassniki.ru, a Russian social network. He successfully retrieved full personal information of the offenders. Moreover, he discovered that these road bandits, who had operated with such impunity, were connected to the “United Russia” party members in Tyumen region.
After pilgrim-67‘s investigation of the case, the police launched a criminal case and arrested one of the offenders. Again, the social media have played two roles, that of an investigator, and a pressure-maker.
Exposing Corruption
Previously, GV covered the role of LiveJournal communities as a transparency tool. The impact of individual bloggers, like Alexey Navalny and Ivan Begtin, has become even more important in the past few weeks: they have prevented stealing $1.8 million.
On October 15, 2010, Yevgeniy Lerner (LJ user evgeniy1001) published a post titled “55 mln rubles in 16 days? – a social network from the Ministry of Health,” in which he pointed out a strange tender issued by the Ministry of Health. The tender foresaw spending $1.8 million in nearly two weeks. It was evident for every IT professional that the task formulated in such a way was impossible to implement within the stated amount of time.
Alexey Navalny, Ivan Begtin, and other bloggers launched [RUS] a blog campaign, raising awareness about the suspicious conditions of the tender, which resulted [RUS] in resignation of the official responsible for issuing the tender, as well as the cancellation of the tender.
The case inspired Navalny so much that he offered [RUS] IT specialists all over the country to evaluate all upcoming government IT projects and check whether they looked suspicious. After this call, two more tenders were immediately canceled. Navalny admitted [RUS] that, unfortunately, he no longer believed there were any non-suspicious IT tenders whatsoever.
All these cases prove one point: the new media are making a difference in the areas where nothing could be done before.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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South Africa: Musings on Inequality vs. Poverty · Global Voices
Eremipagamo Amabebe

Andries du Toit muses on inequality vs. poverty in South Africa: “The central and most urgent issue facing South Africa is not poverty but inequality… our economy, while generating wealth for a few, is also a poverty machine, perpetuating and exacerbating steep and deeply rooted inequalities that threaten the basis of social stability and growth.”

author: Eremipagamo Amabebe


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South Korea: A Repairman Won the Nation’s Biggest Singing Contest. · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Hur Gak, is a stout, homey-looking repairman who took home the trophy of the nation's biggest singing contest, “Superstar K,” Korean version of American Idol. Hur won around 177 thousand USD, a car and the opportunity to release his own album. He is now referred to as Korea's Paul Potts. Video of Hur singing, taken by a blogger.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Tanzania: Mobile Phone in Zanzibar Elections · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The Zanzibar Electoral Commission is going to run a service whereby, on the days running up to the election, people can find out exactly where the polling station they have been allocated to is, though the service costs TSh 300 (approximately 2 cents – which means that this service could also be an earner for the Government).

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Tanzania: The Opposition Can Win Presidential Election · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Chambi Chachage thinks that the opposition can win the presidential election in Tanzania: “It is quite clear that Dr. Wilbrod Slaa’s decision to run as a presidential candidate has tilted the balance of power. Now the debate is no longer about whether the ruling party’s candidate will get a landslide victory – as in the previous election. Rather, it is about by how much that victory will be cut.
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Tanzania: Where To Get Tanzania Election News · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Where to find Tanzania election news online: “A few weeks ago we told you we started TZelect, an Ushahidi-based platform that aims to collect and discuss reports from East African youth about election events. Recently we were contacted by a few organizations who have put together a similar platform, Uchaguzi Tanzania, which allows for reports to be sent in via SMS.”


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Trinidad & Tobago: “Anansi Antics” · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Is not policyholders we bailing-out, is the richest, smartest characters in the country”: Afra Raymond is tired of the “Anansi antics” when it comes to the CLICO bailout and says he expects better from the country's “elected rulers”.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Odd Choice of Decor  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“JUST ABOUT when you thought there was little more that could be said about the million-dollar Port-of-Spain National Academy for the Performing Arts, the building’s unusual decor this week raised eyebrows”: Tattoo explains.


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Uzbekistan: Facebook blocked · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

The authorities of Uzbekistan have banned Facebook, possibly in an attempt to block Uzbek users from the opportunity to read the content of the banned independent websites via the social network, Abulfazal reports.


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Zimbabwe: Blackbook Launches a Shout Box · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Zimbabwe blackbook has launched a shout box, a web page were people can say their opinions, debate, ask a question and say what they want in addition to make their views recognized.


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Zimbabwe: When Will Zimbabwean Diaspora Return? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“When will Zimbabwean diaspora return?,” Glow asks: “…there is a niggling part of me that wonders how real change can come in Zimbabwe when such a large part of its wealthiest, most skilled and educated populace live and invest in faraway places.”


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Africa: African Science Cafes · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

On expanding African science cafes: “Science cafes are slowly and steadily spreading across the African continent. Regular cafes are being held in South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Ghana, and Morocco.  It began in 2007 at a workshop on African Science Cafes in South Africa supported by the British Council.”


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Bahamas: The Time Is Now  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Weblog Bahamas‘ Sidney Sweeting says: “The time has come to take the gloves off and let Government get real serious about crime in the country or everything else will be for naught.”


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Barbados: Make Your Mark  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jdid takes issue with comments suggesting that the late David Thompson's “focus on being prime minister led to his demise”; on the contrary, the diaspora blogger says: “I hope the youth take note of his work and strive to make their mark like he did.”


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Bhtan: Biggest Fire Disaster · Global Voices
Rezwan

Passu reports with broken hearts about the biggest fire disaster of Bhutan, which took place today.


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Brazil: the prospect of a female president · Global Voices
Marta Cooper

Veteran women's rights activist Rachel Moreno looks at [pt] what having a female leader would mean for Brazil if Dilma Rousseff succeeds in the second round of presidential elections on 31st October.


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Costa Rica: Young Professionals Work to Make San José Bike Friendly · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

The Tico Times Blog writes: “A group of young professionals calling themselves ChepeCletas [es] is poised to transform San José into a haven for bikers, and they are doing it one ride at a time. The group’s eventual goal is to make the city bike friendly.”


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Flooding disaster in Thailand · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

More than 40 people are now confirmed dead due to rising floodwaters in the northeast and central parts of Thailand. Parts of Bangkok, the country’s capital, are now flooded too. This is the country’s worst flooding disaster in almost half a century.
Using the #thaiflood twitter hashtag, here are flood reports
Photo from twitpic user sresuda
freakingcat: RT @richardbarrow: Paknam Market in Samut Prakan had about a foot of water at high tide. Less than normal for this time of year
freakingcat: RT @richardbarrow: Flood warning for Bangkok: King High Tide at 9:09 a.m. this morning. Some flooding already reported #thaiflood
veen_NT: Water has reached footpath level on Songwaad Rd: small vehicles should avoid using the route. via @fm91trafficpro #thaiflood
Pataraporn_TV: RT @tukky_nt: Flood center expected water level in Chao Phaya BKK will rise the highest at 2.3-2.4 m. at 9.09 am.#thaiflood Via Matichon
tukky_nt: Flood center expected water level in Chao Phaya BKK will rise the highest at 2.3-2.4 m. at 9.09 am. Keep monitor!!#thaiflood Via Matichon
Twitter reactions and government relief efforts
Pariwat: RT @an_Angeltree: Today's message : #Thaiflood, Tomorrow's message : (may be)#bkkflood..Who knows? < < IndeedTulip_Oum: Over 2,200 UbonRatchatani's locals have been evacuated, 1m-hi flood expected, Warin & Muang r most concern. / @satien_nna #ThaiFlood
Pruris: While I'm having a mineral milk bath, lots of flood victims even don't have a house to stay. I just pray for them. #Thaiflood
juarawee: Transport Min 2 propose ฿5Bln flood relief budget, Commerce 2 propose ฿1bln 4 agricultural products today @ Cabinet/@wannasiri_tv #thaiflood
This blogger witnessed how citizens are helping and uniting to prevent more flooding casualties
Photo from yfrog user anavat's stream
It was wonderful to see the community getting together to protect their belongings. Around 20 people teamed up to make sandbags, women folding and sewing, the men and children piling sand into the bags, and every so often a vehicle coming to move the bags to where they were needed
Political Prisoners in Thailand notes that many people are dissatisfied with the government response
The current flooding in Thailand is a disaster. The death toll is reportedly more than 35 and millions are said to be impacted. Some areas are completely cut off and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has said that some places may be inundated for weeks or a month.
Criticism of the government’s response are rising, like the waters

author: Mong Palatino


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France: Youth against Pension Reform · Global Voices
Gael Brassac

*All links are in French unless stated otherwise.
October 19 was the seventh consecutive day of nationwide demonstrations in France against the pension reform bill [fr]. Similar demonstrations have been taking place since early September, but these have been isolated actions carried out by private or public sector workers from various fields. On October 12, the strike took on a new dimension: trade unions decided that the strike would be renewable each day by a vote of workers. So France has shifted into lower gear. Oil refineries have been blocked, the SNCF railway and mass transit lines have been affected by the protests, and striking air traffic controllers are causing paralysis in plane departures. In the halls of Parliament, the 1200 amendments filed by opposition parties of the Left are slowing down Senate procedures as they continue to be debated.
In addition, some new players took the field in early October alongside the demonstrating workers—high school and university students. The UMP, the party in power defending its pension reform, is reminding them however that this reform was made to meet their needs and that most of them have not had a job yet. So why are so many of them taking part in these demonstrations, with such energy and determination?
Manifestation à Marseille – photo Marcovdz sur Flickr- licence CC NC 2.0
Debate on Youth Participation
On September 25, the student union UNEF called on students to protest and to increase their participation, as did SUD Etudiant and the FSE (two university student unions), as well as the high school unions UNL and FIDL, who called for the organization of general assemblies in late September for the strikes in October. Prior to the October 12 strikes, there were very few high school and university students involved in the protests because they had just begun their school year and the strikes were taking place only sporadically. But since October 12, when the strikes became renewable, students have been having no trouble blocking their high school or university. As a result, on October 19, between 379 and 1200 high schools and between six and 20 universities were disrupted or blockaded.
The debate took a significant political turn after Ségolène Royal, member of the major opposition party, the Socialists, spoke on TV on October 11. The next day, the opposition turned against her, pointing to the swarms of young people now entering the fray and accusing her of inciting youth to take to the streets for a reform they don’t understand. Shmilblick also joined in:
Like most high school students (and we’ve all been there), they are sheep manipulated by high school officials who are trying to get media attention in order to carve out a space for themselves within a political party in a few years (examples abound), it’s true that at that age, they like to take part in these demonstrations and tell themselves that they are part of something.
But in reality, it’s ridiculous to go demonstrate against work when you haven’t even begun to do it, particularly since the longer the reform takes, the more young people will suffer from it in 40 years, only in France do they not understand that.
In his blog, La boîte de Guillermo (Guillermo’s mailbox), Guillermo plays down Ségolène Royal’s role while knocking her down at the same time:
People are still wondering today. Why are high school students striking? For retirement? It can’t be, three-fourths of them don’t even know what trade they’ll be in later on.
There was a time when they listened to Ségolène Royal. She held political meetings and fought Nicolas Sarkozy for the presidency. At that time yes, young people were behind her (I’m speaking about well-adjusted young people, of course; other youth followed Nicolas. But all you had to do was look at how they dressed and listen to the way they talked to understand that those young people were already very old). But what high schooler listens to Ségolène Royal now?
So I’m shocked by everyone who was proclaiming loud and clear yesterday that Ségolène Royal was a has-been, and by everyone today saying with disappointment how shameful it is that she’s having a harmful effect on youth.
A strike at a high school is a little like having vacation come early, especially when it’s nice out. You start out in a procession, you finish up at a café with a cup of cappuccino and a group of friends. With a bit of luck, you can even get to know that gorgeous brown-haired guy who’s been looking at you in English class, or the beautiful blonde who always sits at the table near the window in the library.
The Demands
Thus many people think the students’ motivations are weak. However, they have the right to express their objections to this reform, especially since they will be in the labor market very soon. A charter published on the blog révoltescolaire and signed by numerous political trade unions, as well as high school and university student unions, lists young people’s demands:
The increased duration of an education and an increase in the average age of entry into stable employment (age 27) are causing young people to start contributing to pension funds later than in the past. We demand:
• validation of years devoted to studies and training in calculations of years of pensionable service leading to eligibility, so that every young person is guaranteed the ability to study without being worried about his future, no matter how far off;
• validation of internship periods, integrated into a real and binding regulation (compensation at 50% of minimum wage starting with first month, recognition and coaching during training);
• validation of periods of forced inactivity, and consideration of the circumstances of young people who have found an occupational placement but for whom successive internships, limited-term contracts, part-time employment, temporary work, or unemployment lead them to accumulate very partial retirement benefits
Beyond the effects of this reform, it is the frustration that these young people are feeling about their present and their future that is being expressed: schooling that takes longer and longer and grows more and more expensive, problems of access to housing, an increase in unemployment (employment rate of 31.4% for ages 15-24, in 14th place in European Union), professional insecurity, decrease in purchasing power, widening gap with upper classes…the pessimism of French youth is ubiquitous.
Guilaume Erner sums it up in his blog:
The youth of France no longer believe in the future, this feeling has an activating force, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, a belief that is actually translated into fact. Pessimism among the young is leading the age group that should be the most adventurous, the one that is supposed to symbolize risk-taking, to act cautiously, precisely the behavior that inhibits society where they should be shaking it up. At this rate, we will soon be able to say, “Keep running old folks, the young people are right behind you.
Outbreaks of Violence
Demonstration in Paris – Image by CastorJovial on Flickr CC NC2.0
Faced with a sense of not being heard, young people are becoming radicalized. And the youth can be frightening,   because they are capable of gathering spontaneously in varying degrees of organization via social networks (example of a Facebook message here). The police are no longer hesitating to hold back the demonstrators. On October 12, a young demonstrator received a serious head wound; on October 14th, in Montreuil, a high school student was seriously wounded in the eye by a flash-ball. As soloon predicts in a commentary on the article:
We have all the ingredients for causing the protest movement to harden its position. The generation gap is over, all united in the face of the same enemy who spreads terror with its armed thugs in uniform
I’d like to extend my warmest thanks to the police officers who shot at high school students with flash-balls, without that monumental gaffe, it may not have been possible
From that day on, each day of demonstration saw violence, orchestrated by individuals mixing in with the demonstrators at the protest sites (particularly around high schools), all across France. October 18 and 19 were particularly violent, especially in Lyon and the Paris region. Thus people are pointing a finger at the student movements and marginalizing them, accusing them of not guiding their movement properly, while the students themselves criticize an excessive police presence. That, at least, is how the foreign press is reporting this social conflict, broadcasting mainly images of urban guerilla warfare and giving very little press to the reasons and motivations of the demonstrators.
Questions to parliament: the highlights!
Uploaded by LCP-AN. – News videos from around the world.
We will see how this conflict develops, with the government remaining inflexible in its desire to pass its reform bill, despite the disapproval of the majority of the French. As for the student demonstrators, the vacation period beginning on October 23 may remove them from the demonstrations.

author: Gael Brassac


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Guatemala: Photo Essay: ‘K’iche’ People Reject The Exploitation of their Natural Resources’ · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

James Rodríguez begins his photo essay reporting that, “On a historic day, residents from the municipality of Santa Cruz del Quiché – one of Guatemala’s most important hubs and the birthplace of the Maya K’iche’ people – unanimously rejected the exploitation of natural goods and resources, in particular through mining and hydroelectric activities.”


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Haiti: MINUSTAH · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

An experience during a recent protest against the UN peacekeeping mission prompts Mediahacker to say: “Makes you wonder how ordinary Haitians are treated, day in and day out, in places where there are no cameras.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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India: Ayodhya Verdict And Secular Conscience · Global Voices
Rezwan

The six-decade-old Ayodhya dispute has been “acknowledged as one of India’s most divisive and contentious issues which have flared up repeatedly to polarize the country along religious lines by instilling a stream of dangerous ideas deep inside a devout Indian society, ” comments Words From Solitude.

author: Rezwan


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India: Goodbye Bluline Bus · Global Voices
Rezwan

Raja Basu at Potpourri welcomes the announcement of the Delhi city government to withdraw Blueline Buses from December 14, 2010 because of its poor service records.


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Jamaica: More Tributes to Isaacs · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Regional bloggers continue to pay tribute to the late reggae legend, Gregory Isaacs, with Annie Paul noting: “Times like this you realize not just the breadth but the depth of Jamaican music…”


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Lebanon: TV Shows on Homosexuality Create Buzz · Global Voices
Katharine Ganly

“A gay killer has the passion of a woman and the aggression of a man,” states Zaven Kouyoumjian, Lebanese host of Siree Wenfatahet, a program broadcast by Future TV and  one of the highest rated TV shows in the Middle East.
Last week's show focused on “gay crime in Lebanon”, stating its intent was to explore the reasons behind the “increase of gay emotional crimes” occurring in the country.
The show, however, has been not been well-met by the queer community, due to the nature of some of the pronouncements, like the one above, and the  sensationalism of the subject.
Beirut Boy addresses a letter to Zaven – who claimed in his show to be ” breaking gay stereotypes “- stating:
Dear Zaven,
You are not breaking any stereotypes. In fact, you just created a new stereotype!
Instead of talking about gay crimes happening in Lebanon (crimes where gay men and women get killed just because they’re gay), you chose to talk about a crime committed BY a gay man.
You should have talked about gay stereotypes and broken myths about gays.
How is the murderer’s sexual orientation of any relevance to you? He was gay and he happened to murder someone. Do you have to do a whole show about “murderous gay men and women”?!
Are you ****ing insane? I can’t believe your show is watched all across the Arab world.
Whilst the The Lebanese LGBT Monitor has collated a number of reader comments left on Zaven's Facebook fanpage which show the same disappointment.
Hasan writes:
While العميد (the brigadier) said he saw only 5 cases of “homosexual crime” in his past 10 years, you made a whole episode about this very rare topic, further alienating and stereotyping LGBT people. LGBT people get bullied and blackmailed in Lebanon on a daily basis, do you believe this warrants an episode on سيرة وانفتحت Siree Wenfatahet? Or does this not sell well in the media?
and Gay Middle East asks:
How about addressing homophobia and challenging stereotypes about sexualities in one of your near future shows?
Commenter Omar adds:
I think you could have learned a thing or two from a “better” journalist, Riyad Kobeisi who had a show about homosexuality the same night at the same time. Watch and learn
Indeed, another program, Mithy Mithlak, aired its first episode on New TV last week. This two-part program has been generally better received, as it provides a broader exploration of sexuality and sexual difference.
Myra Abdallah gives a brief summary about the two TV shows on Lebanese LGBT Monitor  [AR], where she states:
She continues:
Online queer Arab magazine Bekhsoos features an http://www.bekhsoos.com/web/2010/10/what-did-you-think-of-the-ntv-and-ftv-shows-on-homosexuality-in-lebanon/”>article  calling for readers’ opinions on the two programs.
One commenter, Phoenix states:
pfff Zaven Kouyoumdjian is such a typical sucker for ratings.
a sensational slut.
he only used the title to attract audiences when his show was a waste of time as it always is when he uses enticing titles such as “awal zawaj li thakareyn fi loubnan” [first marriage between men in Lebanon] in which a woman had “male” instead of female on her id card and she was married with children.
as for the New TV’s show, it was a a wonderful step from him to talk to Helem and the people involved in it. He had an objective take on the subject showing different points of view and I’m looking forward to watch the second episode of his show.
It seems the two shows could not have been met with more different reactions. In response to Beirut Boys post, Gay Middle East tweets:
and a commenter adds:
Mr Zaven and the Future TV should applogize. The program is so shameful and definitely not up their standards!
We can only wonder if after all of the offense caused, said journalist and network will…

author: Katharine Ganly


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Myanmar: Cyclone Giri death toll rises · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

More than 30 died or have been declared missing when Cyclone Giri struck the western coast of Myanmar. The state media claimed that government officials visited the affected region but other reports also mentioned the failure of the government to respond to the relief offer of the international community.


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Myanmar’s new flag and new name · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Myanmar's new flag was unveiled for the first time last week. According to a pro-government media site, the event was held at the State Peace and Development Council Office and was attended by Prime Minister U Thein Sein.
Independent media group The Irrawaddy provides more information about the new flag
The new flag, designated in the 2008 Constitution, has a central star set against a yellow, green and red background.
The old flags will be lowered by government department officials who were born on a Tuesday, while the new flags will be raised by officials born on a Wednesday.
One million flags have been made by textile factories, according to sources within the Ministry of Defence.
The green color of the flag officially represents peace, yellow solidarity, and red valour. Myanmar also has a new name: It is now officially known as the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. It was previously known as the Union of Myanmar.
What are the reactions of Myanmar netizens? dawn_1o9 doesn’t like the new flag
Just received news that our country's flag has changed officially. And I say this here, and I say it loud: I DON'T LIKE THE NEW FLAG!!!
I feel no patriotism when I see this. And the color scheme is the same as Lithuanian flag minus the star, though the hue is different.
I am not the only one who feels like this though. Many are outraged. Personally, I feel like it is an insult.
“looks like a cheap amateurish crap that came out from MS Paint” – my friend's words: not mine.
This is the old flag. Blue stands for peace and stability, red stands for courage and bravery, 14 stars for the 14 states and divisions, the pinion stands for the work force of the country, and the rice stalk stands for the farmers in the country. I love this flag, and it will always be the flag of my country, no matter how much they change it
An interesting conversation in her blog about the topic
awoolham: Yellow stands for than shwe (author’s note: the leader of Myanmar), green stands for cash, red stands for blood of the people.
ei_angel: What the!!…They can't change it yet.  Man I hate that flag. Looks like Ethiopian flag or Ghana flag.  So the name has changed to RUM (Republic of the Union of MM) too?  I thought it would only be changed after all the 7 step has taken place.  And that's after the parliament's been called.
dawn_1o9: @cafengocmy – It looks like a lot of African nation's flags too. With the flag before, Taiwan was the only country whose flag looked like ours. Now, it's about 3 or 4 flags: Ghana, Ethiopia, Lithuania, etc.
awoolham: so good at plagiarism, including copying flags. Maybe the inspiration came from one of the drawings of the grandchildren who was testing the crayons. Just a thought.
The commenter’s reaction about the premature unveiling of the flag was the same sentiment of the opposition. The flag is supposed to be released only after the conduct of the November 7 elections. The opposition accuses the Myanmar military leaders of violating their own constitution. Min Lwin of the Democratic Voice of Burma adds more information
According to opposition politicians, Burmese law states that the 2008 constitution must come into force before any new flag is raised. This shouldn’t happen until after the controversial 7 November elections.
Yu Yu Din, another blogger from Myanmar, is disappointed with the new flag
Myanmar's old flag
All the old flags will be burnt. My guess is, the government is so anti-American that even having the same colors, albeit having socialist ideals, isn't going to work.
And in a couple of weeks, we will be voting. Some of us, for the first time in our lives. I voted two years ago at the consulate in Kolkata for the new constitution, in my late 20s, after growing up mostly in democratic countries.
Who will win? The government of course. Now that they're all civilians — emperors in new clothes, with their new flag. They're going to have the country, too, one way or another. No matter what the people say, do, or think let alone the rest of the world. It doesn't matter what I write here or what you comment, tweet, or who you share this with.
At the comment section of The Irrawaddy, the conversation continues about the new flag
yarzar: Than Shwe run out of idea.
The new flag is look like exactly the same as the Shan State flag apart from the star instead of white circle inside.
What a shame Than Shwe copied another flag.
Trev: I like the new flag: party time!
Clever move by the junta. It'll look great on T-shirts if tourism ever takes off, and who can really be angry with laid-back rastafarians?
But is the Irrawaddy going to recognise it? Or will “Burma” retain its flag as it fights to stay afloat in the march of history?
Indre: I'm sorry, but why did the government snatch Lithuania's national flag (yellow, green and red) and crossed it so curiously with Vietnam's (star in the center)?
Chindits: This flag does not represent the country at all. A star?? You know That big white star is also the only star on the colors of Myanmar's tatmadaw, navy, air force and police force. This flag represent only the armed forces.


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Peru: Thousands of Indigenous People Block Rivers in Protest · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Globalizado reports [es] that thousands of indigenous people in the Amazon are blocking the mouth of rivers Marañon and Tigre. The communities are protesting the constant contamination of the rivers by oil company Pluspetrol, which they accuse of neglecting those affected by a recent oil spill [es] and of not keeping the promise to offer education support.


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Poland: Krakow · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Polandian follows the construction of Krakow's new pedestrian bridge and reports on the process in this photo post. Greetings from Kyiv visits Krakow, finds the city “gorgeous” and posts some pictures – here and here.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Puerto Rico: Reactions to the Tax Reform · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

“Twittericans” use the hashtag #mensajegobernadorpr to react to governor Luis Fortuño's message on the tax reform.


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Slovenia: Dr. Peter Bossman, First Black Mayor · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Adventures in Wheelville is “celebrating” the election of Slovenia's “first black mayor” – Dr. Peter Bossman.


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Taiwan: Foreign wives and citizenship · Global Voices
David Reid

Sinocentric looks at the place of foreign wives in Taiwanese society. The number of foreign wives in Taiwan, mostly from China and Southeast Asia, has increased significantly in recent years.

author: David Reid


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Trinidad & Tobago: CLICO Policyholders · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Bloggers continue to comment on the CLICO bailout…aka_lol thinks that the policyholders are “trying to flex its hot-air inflated muscle[s] to bully the rest of the citizens of the country to get back all the toys it freely loaned to Clico to play with”, while Plain Talk has a “simple solution”: “If the total and combined liability of CLICO/CL/HCU is twenty billion, the Government as intermediary and caretaker should issue twenty billion shares to these ‘new owners’ of the empire…”


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Trinidad & Tobago : Fix the Floods · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Undisputed Truth thinks it “laughable” that taxpayers’ money has been spent on things like summits “when we have such stupid problems, i.e. 20-30 mins of rain and the entire capital city is crippled.”


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Trinidad & Tobago: On Homophobia · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Outlish suggests that homophobia “prevents us from maturing as a society, and taking responsibility for our actions, or the lack thereof”, while gspott urges readers to resist “the war on love”, here, here and here.


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Ukraine, Serbia: Food, Libraries, Dwellings · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Crimean Tatar wedding feast and fall's bounty at a Kyiv farmers’ market – at The Pickle Project; an initiative to help a library in the Ukrainian town of Konotop – at Jud Dolphin Adventure; the Modern Village exhibit at the Pyrohiv Museum of Folk Architecture and Life just outside Kyiv – at The Uncataloged Museum; and traditional Serbian rural architecture – at Nothing Against Serbia (more sketches and notes – here.)


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Zambia: Zambian Singing Sensation · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Bling introduces Zambian singing sensation Salma Dodia: “Salma Dodia's big break came when she featured on JK's Kapiripiri which has been a major hit in Zambia this year.”


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Zimbabwe: Minister of Commerce and Industry Uses Twitter to Air Frustrations · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

On October 22, 2010 Zimbabwean blogger Hope noticed a series of fast twitter updates coming from Professor Welshman Ncube, the Zimbabwe Minister of Commerce and Industry and the MDC Secretary General.
In a blog post appearing in Sokwanele: This is Zimbabwe titled, “Professor Welshman Ncube uses Twitter to air his frustrations,” Hope wrote:
The snippets I saw were intriguing enough to prompt me to visit his twitter feed page to read more. I saw then that he’d been posting for two hours, all his tweets amounting to an online statement.
He posted some of updates appearing on Prof. Ncube's feed:
For those of you who don’t use twitter, I’m copying them here below, in the snippet format as they appeared on his feed, in chronological order:
We as a party (MDC) have, acted faithfully to our values in every respect. As the MDC we have not been wrangling over positions
To us it is not about positions but rather about what we can do to improve the lives of ordinary people
We r frustrated that our partners have slowed the full GPA implementation over issues including the appointment of Gono, Tomana and Bennett
Those are not appointments that we believe should stop us implementing all the other things we have agreed on
We have argued the point that these issues should not stop us from fully implementing at least all the other matters on the GPA
Unfortunately both MDC-T and ZANU PF have chosen to use these matters as bargaining tools to fight for their partisan interests
Regarding the split, we were greatly disappointed that the talks to reunify the MDC broke down. We had an agreement with the MDCT to reunify
it broke down when the day we were to make the announcement the MDC-T refused to accept the terms of negotiation and added further demands
So the reason we do not have a united MDC is because our partners refused. This is on record
Below are some of his recent tweets.
Cabinet meeting:
At Cabinet today!!! Never a dull day!
On constitutional ammendent:
I would not support an amendment to the constitution in order to keep some of us in our current positions as (cont) http://tl.gd/6llaq5
On violence:
Violence is our nemesis. Over e past 6 months, cooperation among the political parties has been undermined, especially by ZANU #randomquote
On thieves:
With thieves, they start with stealing a sweet and by the end are committing armed robbery.
On the need for consultation in coalition government:
In the event that there is ambiguity, it is natural for parties in a coalition arrangement to consult each other before making decision
On Mugabe's actions against the spirit of coalition government:
The reappointment by President of the Governors in our view is contrary to the spirit of G.P.A and accordingly we do not recognize such
Hope is delighted at seeing a Zimbabwean politician on Twitter but…
I have to say though that my delight at seeing a Zimbabwean politician use twitter, doesn’t mask a deep deep concern; namely, if the GPA breaks up, where does that leave Zimbabwe?
No one can say we’re well on the road to peace, and nor can anyone argue that the critical instruments for free and fair elections and a stable democracy are in place yet.