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Five years on from 9/11, the world remembers · Global Voices
Rachel Rawlins

The mainstream media in many countries have been preoccupied with events in the United States to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon on 9/11 2001. But the repercussions of these events have spread across the globe and people far beyond New York and Washington. Here the Global Voices team has gathered together a sample of citizens’ voices marking the anniversary.
We have samples of opinion from regions across the world (click on the link to go directly to individual sections): Africa, China, South East Asia, South Asia, the Americas and French language blogs as well as the Middle East.
We'll start in Africa where kenyanentrepreneur dives in to the most obvious consequence, the US invasion of Iraq, in her post Remembering 9/11:
It's amazing watching all the coverage about 9/11. I have yet to see any mention of the 100,000 innocent Iraqi civillians who have been killed in a war that George Bush started using false pretenses.
WMD's – none have been found
Sadam's links to 9/11 – Bush now says there were no links
Now, we are told the goal was to bring democracy to the Middle East. Let's see – you illegally invade a sovereign nation that has not attacked you, in total contravention of international law.. then, you turn around and claim that you are now going to impose the rule of law & democracy on the country that you have illegally invaded!!
…
The biggest threat to secular regimes in the Middle East are religious zealots like bin laden & Zawhiri, not America (just ask Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, who incidentally has never been elected)…If a free & fair election were held in Egypt today, mubarak would lose and he'd be replaced by religious fundamentalists. The only reason that regime survives is because of the billions of dollars in aid they get from America. Mubarak is an autocrat, but he is their kind of autocrat. He has said that he would like his son to replace him as president when he decides to retire. I will never understand how an idiot like Bush managed to manipulate the American People.
In a similar vein nakeel says I too remember 9/11
“Teach Bin Laden to be a terrorist, If you kill one person, you are a murderer, if you kill 2,900 people one morning, you are a terrorist, but if you go to Iraq and kill 330,000 people inthree years you are a democrat like President George Bush.”
At Grandiose Parlor Inmakoyi uses the anniversary to consider the effect of anti-terror measures on the foreign remittance-sustained economy of Somalia:
This system is driven by an informal money transfer system called Hawala, a system that has been in existence for generations in the Middle East and some Islamic nations worldwide.
But this system is about to slam into a brick wall put in place by the United States government. Why? September 11 and susbsequent fight to curb money laundry and terrorism.
In order to cut off funding to terrorist organizations, the regulatory agency in charge of foreign money transfer business now mandates and it enforcing stricter regulation of the industry. Unable to secure the required assistance from U.S banks and other financial institutions, the local money transfer system the Somalis have enjoyed for decades is gradually choking and may totally go into extinction, if alternative and workable modes of money remittance are not put in place.
Meanwhile in what he calls An ode to reality, Zimpundit exhorts people to remember the strength of shared human experience, not just the negativity:
In the billowing dust, the towering smoke, the piercing screams, and the harrowing sites from 9/11 America found this redemptive reality; that when all had been said and done, it was the basic notion of our mutual humanity that meant most to her people in their darkest hour…
In that, you stepped into the very souls of the valiant individuals who led the Civil Rights Movement. That very moment brought you into concert with enduring cries for a better world that ring from Auschwitz to Waterloo in antiquity; and through Bhagdad, Beirut, Darfur, Mozambique, Nepal, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe in modern times. In all those places; at ground zero, but most importantly in each every human heart resides an inextinguishable flame of an alternative to reality. And at it's core is the ability only human beings posses to see beyond the visual.
As you rise like the Phoenix from the flames of your toughest test America, don't forget the reality that saw you through your darkest depression. Hold fast to that reality of the mutuality of our humanity America; for when all else fails you know you can always hang onto that hope that only humans are capable of producing. Remember my dear friends that even though the toughest gap to bridge spans from your mind to mine; the toughest bond to break break runs between your heart and mine. And that America, is my ode to reality.
There's been a wide range of reaction from Chinese bloggers, from those like the writer at Garbled Text who was in New York five years ago:
九一一发生的时候，我在纽约，曼哈顿，正准备兴高采烈地开始我的学习生活。世贸大厦只从旁边走过一次，当时想，要在纽约待好几年呢，没必要跟游客们凑那个热闹，世贸大厦还能没了么？
结果，就没了。
五年，弹指一挥间，那天的纽约也向今天的北京一样，天气极好，天空极蓝，阳光灿烂。有那么多人，就在这样的一个好天儿，一瞬间离开了这个世界。
忘不了的是很多人的眼神，还有当天早上听到在学校楼道尽头办公室里面传出来的哭声，据说，是那个老师的爱人。
Then, they weren't.
Five years, in just a snap of fingers, that day in New York is just like today's Beijing; the weather is excellent, the sky is blue, the sun is shining. So many people, on a day just as nice as this, left this world in a flash.
What I'll never forget is the look in peoples’ eyes and the crying I heard coming from the office at the end of the corridor that morning. From what I heard, it was that teacher's lover.
From personal experience we move to Land LCJ's Sohu.com‘s blog which considers the wider effects on and of the American way of life:
五年过去了，世贸大楼的原地即将建立起三座新的建筑。有形的损失可以弥补，无形的损失乃至对整个美国价值体系的改变，却一发不可收拾了。
在庇护拉登的阿富汗，美国亲自率军推翻了自己曾经支持的塔利班；同样，在没有得到联合国授权的情况下，美国以存在大规模杀伤性武器为由，以反恐的名义攻入了伊拉克。而这次推翻的，也曾经是美国的合作伙伴萨达姆。出人意料的是，所谓的大规模杀伤性武器一直找了三年了，还是没有踪迹。一向强大的美军，武装到牙齿美军，在伊拉克游击队、伊斯兰极端势力等武装的袭击下，丢下了近3000具尸体。伊拉克人民期盼的民主和自由没有来到，相反，暗杀、路边炸弹、人弹、宗教派别的仇杀却接踵而来。强大的美国“找不到”敌人，有点象狮子和蚊子的寓言。
布什也有点烦了，直接把恐怖分子与伊斯兰划上了等号。这样的敌人，自然好找了。可是，真的是那么有效吗？英国最近破获的类911事件，欧洲恐怖分子成立新组织威胁袭击驻伊外国部队，这一系列的事件说明，恐怖分子不是那么简单定义与识别的。制造恐怖分子的，很大程度上与美国推行的自由、民主有关。世界是多样的，文明是多层次的，简单和单一地推行自己的价值关，必然会使自己惹火上升。
In the Afghanistan of bin Laden's shadow, America's own army has overthrown the Taliban it once supported; similarly, without having received the United Nation's authorization, America, using the existence of weapons of mass destruction as a reason and in the name of anti-terrorism, invaded Iraq. And overthrown this time is America's past collaborator, Saddam. On top of all that is that after three years of searching, a trace of weapons of mass destruction have yet to be found. All along the mighty American army, armed to the teeth American army, under armed attack from Iraqi guerrillas and Islamic extremist forces, have lost close to 3000 bodies. The democracy and freedom anticipated by the Iraqi people has yet to arrive. On the contrary, assassinations, roadside bombs, human bombs and religious factions’ killings have come in its places. That mighty America's enemies ‘cannot be found’ is a bit like the story about the tiger and the thorn in its paw.
Bush is also a little irritating, directly equating terrorism with Islam. These kinds of enemy are naturally easy to find. But, is it really that effective? Recently England has uncovered a 911 sort of incident, European terrorists have established new groups threatening to attack foreign troops stationed in Iraq. What this series of incidents goes to show is that terrorists are not that easily defined or identified. A large part of the process of creating terrorists has to do with America's pushing of freedom and democracy. The world is diverse, civilization is multilayered. Simply and singularly pushing one's own set of values will inevitably lead one into fire.
The writer of Xiao Yi 128zh's Sohu.com blog further analyses the American values at issue, and ascribes them to a poor grasp of history:
我们要关心受难的美国百姓,可对美国的统治者,美国的决策者我们有什么话说,利益至上是国家的宗旨,即使会有公正理念和道德的约束但却永难以驾权和改变,美国如此,中国如此,哪个国家都如此,可我们在911这一天,看到了太多关于对美国的破坏,对纽约的破坏,却对于为什么会产生这样的恐怖主义,为什么是针对美国,英国等,为什么不来炸中国,比如上海北京高楼也很多,还有很多国家,这里美国政府和美国人都的思考,他们的政府主张了什么,他们的人民是否对世界了解,很多事实都表明美国的教育对别国的历史文化和现状是不够重视,这是教育长期造成美国很多人不了解世界,就如我们中国人很了解美国及美国发生的事情,而美国人却大部分不了解中国,他们还认为中国是”文革”时候的样子,很可笑,同样美国人对于中东,对于阿拉伯世界一样不了解,他们按照自己的思维去思考世界,只要别人想得和他们不同,他们就认为别人是古怪的,是不科学的,所以他们想改变那里,想改变那里的世界和观念,结果矛盾的产生和激化,很多社会现象和行为表现自然而生,至少仇恨已在心里,
在表达自己的观念和利益时没有合理合法的途径时,人自然会想到非合理合法的途径, 仇恨美国的所作所为的人在没有正常途径表达自己的时候,就只能冒天下之大不韪,挺而走险,
911是一种给美国思维反抗的信号,想一下美国在宣扬自己的思维和利益的时候,找到一条合理合法的途径,在别国派部队,建基地,甚至敢于饶过联合国对伊拉克动武,推翻了一个国家政权,尽管反对的很多,包括联合国,照样不可奈美国何,还有很多追随者,对于受到攻击的国家和人民来说,又是一种什么样的心境和悲惨,他们又将该怎么办,合理合法的途径他们还有吗,他们的仇恨又怎样能的的到尊重,怎样得到抚平,理在人心,法是人定,理我们都知道谁对谁错,可法在哪里,法不在受到攻击的国家和人民手里,在美国等世界大国手里,换位思维可想,美国的种种行为何尝不是一种披着合法外衣赤裸裸的侵略,是一种明目张胆风雨无阻的恐怖主义, 911是一个让人痛苦的日子,是一个让人思考的日子,是一个从5年前就不在平凡的日子,是一个能让美国人必须要重新认识自己,重新认识世界的日子……
911 was a kind of signal in resistance to the American way of thinking. If you think about it, when America promotes its own way of thinking and interests, finds a reasonable and legal avenue to dispatch troops to other countries, establish bases, even going around the United Nations in attacking Iraq, overthrowing a country's regime, despite the many objectors, including the United Nations, leaving nothing to be done about America and the many of its followers. As for the countries and people who have been attacked, it's another frame of mind and tragedy of what sort? And what are they supposed to do. Are they left with any appropriate or legal avenues? How will their hatred gain respect or comforting? Truth is in people's hearts, and the law is set by people. The truth as to who wronged who we all know, but where is the law? The law isn't in the hands of the countries or the people who have been attacked, it's in the hands of America and the other large countries of the world. If you think about it from another perspective, many of America's behaviors usually just wrap a coat of legality around naked aggression, a kind of brazen, rain-or-shine terrorism in itself. 911 is a day which leaves one in anguish, a day which makes one think, a day which as of five years ago will never be normal again, a day which can force Americans to get to know themselves again, get to know the world again……
Qin Xuan is a Chinese Muslim and a journalist specializing in Middle Eastern affairs. Blogging at taras.blog he offers an analysis of the intertwining of American national self-interest and the avowed intent of combatting terrorism…
五年前911为美国乃至全人类不得不面对一个问题。这个问题并非是被简单概括为恐怖主义，因为恐怖主义自始至终存在。这个问题的实质是，基于伊斯兰原教旨主义且持恐怖袭击行动的恐怖主义活动已经成功地极大重创了发达国家的国家安全保障体系和国民的心理。
这五年来，以布什政府为首，所推动的就是对于这一问题的解决方式，简言之反恐。而同时所谓布什政府利用反恐保障美国利益，这其实是与反恐不同的问题。因为即使没有反恐，布什政府当然也会谋求美国利益，这是他分内应做的事情，是常规操作。
我们不能仅从美国表面的言行去一味认同他的反恐，或者坚决称其借反恐布局玩博弈游戏。因为，本来两者就是共同存在的，从阿富汗到伊拉克至今都是为了达成这两个任务，其一为反恐，其二为谋求美国利益。
问题是，正如开篇所说，布什反恐五年，作为一个阶段，其当年的反恐蓝图实现了多少。其当年所做的，对五年后反恐形势的预期，实现了多少。说得更本质一点，首先是，就恐怖主义引发的问题，解决了多少。美国的国家利益又实现了多少。其次是，反恐引发的新问题是什么？
此外，还要谈论的问题是，基于现状，基于五年来的经验教训，未来五年又如何？下一步当如何。
Further, another problem to be discussed, based on the present situation, based on the last five years of experience and lessons, what will the next five years be like? What will the next step be?
There were some in China who celebrated as the news of the attacks on the US came out. One such was the writer of XG-JF's Sohu.com blog, and it's a reaction which has not changed:
当时从电视上看到这一幕，宿舍的几个同事都高兴的蹦了起来，并且深更半夜跑到外面买饮料以示庆祝。那时后，中国南斯拉夫大使馆被炸，美国飞机在我国南海进行侦察，导致飞行员王伟的飞机坠毁，大家心中对美国有说不出的恨和厌恶。所以当时看到美国出事，无不幸灾乐祸，拍手称快。
事隔5年，对美国依然没有好感，这个国家穷兵黩武，以各种理由作借口在世界各地征战，打击对手。先是阿富汗，然后伊拉克，现在对伊朗也虎视耽耽，真是让人厌烦。对中国也用各种手段进行牵制，台湾依旧不能回归。心底十分期盼我们的祖国快快强大，把该收的都收回来，把该解决的都解决掉，那时才能太平。
Five years after the fact, there's still not much good feeling towards America. This country aggressively uses its might to start wars, using all sorts of reasons as excuses to look for battles all over the world, attacking its enemies. First it was Afghanistan, and then Iraq, now it looks like Iran's next. Really disgusts one. It's also used various methods to contain China, Taiwan still hasn't been able to return. From the bottom of my heart I really hope our motherland can quickly grow strong and large and take back what should be taken back, take care of what needs taking care of. Only then will there be peace under heaven.
The author of XT Kasuo's Sohu blog also wants peace, but not at the expense of more human suffering:
我就记得早上到学习我后面一女生问我家是不是在世贸大厦，问得我很奇怪。然后周围都开始讨论了，我才知道，原来美国被炸了。
然后上课了，每个老师都讲，我记得那时候我的老师们没一个高兴的。同学之中有几个高兴，说什么这下让美国人嚣张。可是我们当时的大部分人是挺悲伤的，因为感觉那些恐怖分子确实不应该那样做。毕竟那里有许多无辜的人。我也觉得我们不应该高兴，这不是对美国的惩罚，这是对世界和平的挑战。现在越来越多的人想和平，我真的认为这样做确实很欠缺考虑的。
Then in class, every teacher talked about it. I remember at that time there wasn't a single teacher that was happy about it. A few classmates were happy, saying that this would make Americans less arrogant. But at that time most of us were really upset, because we felt those terrorists really shouldn't have done something like this. Especially with all those innocent people inside. I also felt we should not be happy about this, that this wasn't punishment against America, but a challenge to world peace. Now more and more people want peace. I really feel that this way of going about it definitely lacks consideration.
There has been a more muted reaction across South East Asia. In Singapore Sparklette remembers what she was doing that day:
i was having my economics class back in ACJC. instead of discussing inflation and plotting price-quantity graphs, murmurs regarding the attacks were circulating around the class. at that point in time no one had fully grasped the gravity of the situation yet
Her post is headed by a pictorial tribute to the people of New York and she has this to say:
to the people who are still struggling to come to terms with the loss of their loved ones, please know that the world is with you! for those terrorists, did they seriously think that killing thousands of innocent people would bring them to heaven?
The theme of the fate of the killers, of all killers, is one taken up by the blogger at The Daily Brunei Resources who explains why the post, called Post 9/11, was published the day after the date in question:
Yesterday was 9/11 and much as I wanted to write about it, I thought of all the atrocities committed in the name of fighting the war against terror since then, I decided against it. I even refused to post about it on 9/11 but preferring today 9/12 as a small but token gesture against the current military incursions as even in the fight against terrorism, the end does not justify the means. The battle against terrorism will only succeed if economic development in the crisis regions is strengthened – countries need more economic help and not more military help. There should be respect for international law and respect for countries’ sovereignity and tolerance for other cultures.
I pray that the Al-Mighty have mercy on all those who have died since then and pray that whoever are the perpetrators of all these deaths receive their fair judgment in hell when they die. The world may be a changed place but it is not an excuse for any military incursions nor for any gratuitous deaths.
US-based Singaporean blogger Kevin Lim writes at theory.isthereason about an online project by Singapore's National Library called The September Project to commemorate 9/11 and also observes that the event might have marked the cultural birth of blogs. And having done so he finds many others who share his opinion and links to them in his post Why 9/11 truly gave birth to Blogs.
Indonesian blogger Asri Wijayanti was moved to verse on her blog a girl's stories…:
Many people condemn when they mourn
Many people are in enormous anger when they are in grieve
Some people plan to revenge when they cry
Some people can turn into a cruel creature when their hearts are broken
Many people gain their unpredictable power when they feel powerless
The survivors always remember how it felt to be the victims,
murders took place in the name of the deceased,
and many wars start just right after the funerals…
From South Asia we have the Global Voices roundup of responses from blogs in the Kannada language, and at  The 3rd world view Rezwan recalls some of the Bangladeshi victims:
Nurul Haq Miah and Shakila Yasmin was a Bangladeshi Muslim couple who used to work in the world trade center and was among the unfortunate ones. Nurul was in the 99th floor, attending a meeting when the 1st plane hit their office. Nurul used to work for Marsh & McLennan for about 15 years. Shakila's office was located in the 97th floor, just below. Shakila just started about one year ago six months after they got married on April 2, 2000.
USA honored them this year by renaming the southeast corner of the 3rd Avenue and Ovington Avenue of Ney York after Shakila Yasmin and Nurul Haque Miah, two Bangladeshi victims of the 9/11.
In the Americas there is a comprehensive roundup of Peruvian blogger reaction [ES] by Juan Arellano writing at BlogsPeru: Noticias y Novedades while Melissa De Leon Douglass has included responses from Panama in her blog roundup post.
And from the Caribbean. . . .  In his 9/11 post Andy Hunt, a Brit running an eco-resort in Belize, segues from a rant about “power crazy leaders like George Bush and Saddam Hussein” to one about corruption among the Belize goverment leadership. (Belize, Andy notes, marked 25 years of independence from Great Britain on September 10). A “former Charlton Athletic, Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion Striker,” Andy leaves readers the wish that “our competitive tendencies and primitive tribal urges can be satisfied on the field of sport and not on the field of war.”
Providence Stadium in Guyana remembers “the 23 Guyanese” who died in the 9/11 attacks, though his compatriot Larry H., who now lives in the US, says it was more like 43. “Some may look at the number and think it small,” Larry writes. “But coming from a nation that has population that's less than a million, and the fact that as a small nation most of our lives are interconnected in some way or the other, yes, it hurts. And I'm sure many of my fellow immigrants can agree with this.”
Barbados Free Press offered a “What I Learned from 9/11″ list, complete with point-by-point analysis and Jamaican novelist Marlon James (John Crow's Devil), who happens to be acquainted with “the last person to leave the building alive,” contributed a 1200-word essay which contains the following paragraph:
As a Jamaican I know full well the feeling of being powerless in the presence of my own government. . . . I'm just not ready to accept the American citizen as being as scared, angry and confused as I am. I'm not ready to accept the American as victim or even human. I remember the first time I came to the U.S. and was stunned that all the women did not looking like Farrah Faucet all the men didn't like Patrick Duffy. I was stunned that America was a land of people and not types and that it was people who died in 9/11. . . .  I'm not trying to give American a hug (well maybe new York), but I am looking for a conversation.
From the French language blogs we have the following pot pourri starting with La Reunion blogger Pierrot Dupuy, for whom 9/11 gave a chance to expose a local politician's carelessness with an important fact.  Deputy-Mayor Rene-Paul Victoria seems to have flat out lied in answer to the question “What were you doing on 9/11?” asked by local daily Le Quotidien, alleges the blogger.  To Victoria's contention that he was in his National Assembly offices on the mournful day, Dupuy counters (Fr): “the only problem is that he was only elected deputy June 16, 2002, i.e. 9 months later!!! That is called having a sense of anticipation… All right, I am going to be kind to Rene-Paul and show him that I know his schedule better than he does: on September 11, 2001, he attended a meeting a the Creolia Hotel in Saint-Denis. And it was his table mate who told him the news…”
In Martinique Le Blog de [Moi] reposts Slate's satyrical graphic interpretation of the 9/11 Commission report as well as cartoon on the quest for Bin Laden by French cartoonist Chapatte which she says (Fr): “captures the essence of the quest better than anyone.” In the cartoon, an American soldier shoots at his own Bin Laden-shaped shadow.
And Senegal's Seckasysteme commemorated in the following words (Fr): “The whole world remembers and stands in solidarity with Americans to show compassion for the tragic lot of thousands of victims of this tragedy, but also to condemn barbarism.”
There has of course been a great deal of response and analysis from across the Middle East. Jerusalem-based blogger DesertPeace sees hatred as the root cause of the attacks, and sees little having changed over the intervening five years:
What are the roots of such intense hatred that the slaughter of thousands of innocent people was the result? At this point in history I do not see the need to actually ‘catch’ the alleged guilty culprits, but rather to determine why it was done.
The United States has done things over the past decades to make many a nation look at them with suspicion, even hatred. The documented crimes against the people of the Congo, Japan, Ghana, Guyana, Cuba, Chile, Viet Nam, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, the list is endless, gives many a nation a motive. To say it was any one in particular would be wrong and would not accomplish a thing. Sadaam was blamed, Bin-Laden was blamed, both had a motive… but did they do it? I personally have great doubts.
What I do know is that hatred is an evil force that has to be erased from the face of the earth. The seeds of hatred that are continuing to be sown by the Bush Administration have to be destroyed before they sprout.
The world must come together as one race, the human race. We must learn about each other, we must learn to trust each other. Only then will we achieve world peace. Only then will there be a hope that hatred will die out and become a relic of the past.
Only then will there be a guarantee that horrors, such as those of September 11th, 2001, will never happen again anywhere.
We have to start the process NOW…. before it is too late.
From Syria, and In the Axis, expatriate American Brian Anthony has a similar point to make:
In the decade before the 3,000 innocents died on 9/11, over 100 times that many innocents died in Iraq through UN-imposed sanctions. Singular, and often solitary, US support for the Israeli apartheid state had destroyed countless thousands, perhaps millions of lives throughout the Middle East. These are not the years of the Raj, where you can just kill the ‘niggers’ (as the Imperial Brits called anyone a shade darker than paper) with impunity. The niggers got guns and bombs now. Someone would inevitably aim for revenge.
So perhaps a more introspective question, a slightly tougher one than ‘What were you doing on 9-11?’ is this: What were you doing, America, for the three decades leading up to 9-11, while other people's innocents were being killed? It's a question I was disappointed more didn't ask after 9-11. With the ‘Bring ‘em on, Cowboy’ approach failing miserably, and with terrorism getting worse, not better, and with over 200 killed for every victim of 9-11, and with American power and influence declining daily over this stupid war, that question needs to be answered now more than ever.
In counterpoint to this view Odog at Bethlehem Bloggers  says the victim “numbers game” misses the central point of our shared humanity:
An understandable reponse by many who suffer the consequences of American foreign policy is to minimise the event. Considering the death toll in Iraq or the atrocities perpetrated by Israel at the bequest of the US, the casualties America suffered back in 2001 is nothing in comparison.
However, all of this I think misses the point. If one can strip away the political rhetoric, human tradgedy is human tradgedy. Seeing two pillars of American capitalism crumble before your eyes might fill your heart with ecstasy or even the feeling that just retribution has finally reached the shores of America, but people were in those buildings all the same, people like you and me.
While the anniversary will inevitably be exploited by Bush and Co. to further thier case for more bloodshed in the name of “freedom”, September 11 can also be a means to send an alternative messege; a message in support of our universal humanity. As humans we are all equal and deserving of our freedoms. If one genuinly accepts this premise and not the view that “some are more equal than others”, then the finacial and political systems which entrech exploitation and oppression fundamentally come into question.
In Iraq Sooni remembers the attacks as A day to change history and urges the free world to keep up the pressure on “the criminals”:
What I hope is that the whole free world keep remembering this day because it’s the day that started the War on Terror. I know that the voices calling to stop the operations and pull back to the United States are rising more and more, I think they have forgot or at least started to feel safe, well they might be wrong, the hatred is still big and only small portion of it eliminated. If you stop now you will give them the chance to regroup again and soon you will see another attack in the United States and don’t forget what happened in England few weeks ago when the criminals tried to conduct a massive attack there. They are trying their best and you are trying to retreat leaving them more space to prepare themselves better!
At From Jerusalem with Love Matt examines the irony of unity in tragedy and wonders what humanity could achieve if similar energy now directed towards memorialising was devoted to solving current problems:
It's unfortunate that is takes commemoration of a mega-tragedy to bring people together and focus their thoughts on the same issue. I see the same process in Israel, when it's only during war that the country becomes less fractured and more united for a brief time. Imagine if modern societies were able to focus attention, energy and goodwill around things other than tragedy commemoration or self-defense.
Many millions of dollars and hours have been spent writing about 9/11, talking about it, depicting it, rethinking it, etc. I am not implying that the loss of thousands of innocent Americans to barbaric terrorists is not worthy of our grief and reflection for many years to come. The 9/11 “industry,” however, does make one think what our country is capable of when we're on the same page. What if we applied this passion to feeding our millions of below-poverty level children, or educating them, or fixing our troubled inner cities?
And we'll end this quick trip round the world with Moroccan US-based blogger Foualla, who writes at Refusenik. She posted a prayer To the victims… all over the world:
To those who died for no reason
To those who lived and still live through the pain
To the victims of hatred, injustice and tons melted steel not just under the sunny skies of New York, but also the sunny skies over Darfour, Baghdad, Ghaza, Madrid, Amman, Kabul, Riyadh, Bali, Beirut, Saida, Jakarta, Sour, London, Khobar, Mumbai, and Bint Jbeil.
Just a word of remembrance. And a prayer. And hope for a better day.
Amen.

author: Rachel Rawlins


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FSU: Ask Carpetblogger (About Crapistan) · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Carpetblogger introduces a new feature, Ask Carpetblogger, in which she'll be answering “questions about life in Crapistan.” The first question is this: “Carpetblogger, how can I tell if I am on a flight to, from or within the Former Soviet Union? How can I be culturally sensitive while on board?”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Guatemala: The New Order in Latin America? · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Patrick of the Guatemala Solidarity Network asks, “what is Guatemala's place in the new order in Latin America?

author: David Sasaki


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Haiti, Montreal: 2nd Annual Haitian Film Festival · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Collectif Haiti de Provence points to an Alterpresse article which highlights an important Haitian film event (Fr): “The second edition of the International Festival of Haitian Film (FIFHM) was launched Wednesday September 6 at the Canadian National Film Office (ONF) in the St Denis neighborhood of Montreal. This initiative of the Fabienne Colas Foundation is the most important festival dedicated to Haitian cinema on non-haitian soil. It will be held from September 15 to 24 and will offer Montreal cinephiles about 40 Haitian films made in Haiti, the USA, France and Canada. “

author: Alice Backer


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India: Satyagraha and 9/11 · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

While 9/11 appears to have the dominant connotation of a terror attack, Sepia Mutiny explores the other 9/11 – celebrating a hundred years of Satyagraha – or Gandhi's non violent resistance movement.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Indonesia: Funny English · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Merek, a blogger who is himself a non-native English speaker, is amused by Indonesian billboards.

author: Preetam Rai


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Israel: Altering Israel’s Moral Rudder  · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Liza is worried that Israel is losing her way. She said: “The more I hear about Israel's actions in the recent conflict in Lebanon, the more horrified and disgusted I become. How must the world perceive us? How arrogant are our politicians and our military? Our leaders claim to want peace, but sometimes I wonder. Actions speak louder than words, and when we say that our war was not with the people of Lebanon, but it is then revealed that our military may have dropped upwards of 1,800 cluster bombs (which apparently works out to approximately 1.2 MILLION cluster bomblets), it makes me more inclined than ever to question my government's intentions. I cannot imagine any possible scenario in this conflict that could justify such action, and it destroys any legitimacy there might be in Israel's desire to demolish the Hizbollah infrastructure.”

author: Haitham Sabbah


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Jamaica: Hormone plot? · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Afflictedyard posts two curious photos of slogans spray-painted on walls in Kingston, Jamaica, referring to what would appear to be a plot involving hormone therapy. “Hormone imbalance cause cancer and gay-ism lesbianism,” reads one of the signs.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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La Reunion, USA: Pondering American Employment Trends · Global Voices
Alice Backer

US-based La Reunion-origined blogger Sandy of Reunion-USA2 posts several cartoons illustrating that (Fr): “In the USA, the cost of living is so high that only a minority of lucky ones can afford to work only one job. Case in point, these two cartoons explaining that having multiple jobs has become par for the course.”


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Latin America: Costly Keywords · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Chilean web designer Christian Ocampo lists the most-paid-for advertising keywords in Spanish (ES) according to PRS Marketing, SL. “Hotels in Mallorca” ranks fifth, “English courses” is at number six, and “translation companies” squeezes in at number ten.


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Malaysia: Double Standards · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Nik Nazmi in Malaysia applauds his prime minister for urging to the United States that the two Malaysian detainees in Guantanamo Bay get a fair open trial. But the blogger also questions whether Malaysia would apply the same standards to its own detainees held under the ISA (Internal Security Act).


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Mexico: The Battle of the Gritos · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Eduardo Arcos informs his readers that López Obrador, who lost the presidential election to Felipe Calderón will give el grito [a ceremonious scream on independence eve] in Mexico City's zócalo (ES). The annual ceremony, to take place the night of September 15, has always been led by the president. According to Arcos, President Vicente Fox is also planning on giving el grito. Ana Maria Salazar has her own explanation of “The Battle of the Gritos” in English. Meanwhile, Michelle Dion explains her disappointment with how the election unfolded.


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Morocco: Blogs on the increase in Morocco · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Samir reports that a growing number of Moroccan Internet surfers have become bloggers this year due to cheaper Internet access, the general availability of ADSL and the launch of a number of local blog platforms. Current developments in the already diverse Moroccan blogosphere include the creation of an Arabic-language blog platform and an Internet portal combining news, a subject directory and a blog platform. Sadly English language blogs are still rare.


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Pakistan: 9/11 and Sarcasm · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The Olive Ream spins a sarcastic post ridiculing the government (in)action on September 11. “9-11 (nine hundred and eleven) also refers to the number of times Bush has read the book, ‘The Pet Goat’ since September the 11th, 2001. Laura admits that “he still doesn't get it”.”


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Palestine: Huda Ghalyia · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Mardi from Palestine Free Voice blog has an interview with Huda Ghalyia – the Girl who became the symbol of the Palestinian sorrow.


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Pana-Blogs Report · Global Voices
Melissa De León

#1: Rob Rivera.com remembers the 9/11 attack: "September 11, five years Later"
It was a Tuesday, if I’m not mistaken. I slept in that day, enjoying a prolonged sabatical… I don’t remember what happened minute by minute but I do remember the first moments of my day that morning being something like out of a movie; I woke up to my mom opening the door to my room and with this awe-striken look on her face, yellow rubber gloves covering her hands, staring at me to tell me that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center’s towers. I didn’t say a thing… the disbelief had me at a loss for words. I got up from my bed and walked outside to the kitchen where both my parents were, staring into this small TV mounted on a wall near the corner and in this TV the image of a skyscraper spewing smoke from its side was being shown as messages of “airplane crashes on the World Trade Center in NYC” while the newscasters speculated it might be a terrorist attack. Read the complete post…
#2: Miguel Rodriguez from Tras el sueño que no me deja dormir (ES), shares his memories from the 9/11 attack:
"I was in Dominican Republic, working for Verizon as a consultant. I remember I logged in to the MSN and the first thing a colleague from Panama tells me was the bad news about the attack. In that moment I didn't put too much attention to the subject (because I didn't know the magnitude of what was going on), but later on I began searching on line and couldn't have been more shocked. It was devastating to be in Dominican Republic at that very time, having that country a high rate of their people living in New York. It was the talk of the whole country, they were all worried about the safety of their relatives and friends living in that city. In the news, they didn't stop reporting on the people who died and the ones that were to be found. It was sad, really sad." Continue reading…
#3: Remembering the attack, Queen of Hearts (ES) writes "11 de Septiembre, 5 años después"
"What it hurts is to remember that five years ago there were thousands of people working in those buildings, which I didn't have the chance to explore last year. People told me the towers were majestic, a very impressive sight…But I didn't get there in time to see them. When I had the chance to visit the site, there was only one big empty space, a void, and a hair rising silence.
Yes, there you can listen to the "silence." Being in -ground zero- all you can feel is the smell of death and a silence that screams for the lost souls. It is like a giant open temple…" Read the post in Spanish…
#4: From The Cooking Diva "Remembering 9/11 and a Recipe to prepare Chicha de Maiz"
…Even today, five years after the 9/11 attack, I do not understand the reasons. There are no excuses for all the wasted lives. The whole world changed on that day, everyone's lives changed on that day. Now, five years later I am in Panama, but the remembrance of that black day would not be forgotten.
My heart goes to the families that lost their people, and to the souls that unanticipatedly left us …we send light and our prayers.
Stop the wars. Stop all that violence! Not oil, power, land or money justifies all the inhumane acts,  and the lives lost in the process.
#5: Tatiana's Blog reports on "Municiones no detonadas," (undetonated ammunition) or what she found, I am afraid to say…too often,  during a visit to Icacal, Colón, while she participated in a medical visit in that poor area of the Panamanian Atlantic Coast.
#6: Martin's Panama Weblog takes a tour of the Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal.
Let me give a short introduction first: Panama City lies on the shortest path (77 km) across the isthmus of panama. The canal consists of 2 artificial lakes which are higher than sea level. Due to that a lock system is needed which lifts the ships up to that higher lake level at the entrance and lowers them on the other side. 3 locks exist: Miraflores locks (where we've been) with a height difference of 16.5m, the Pedro Miguel lock (9.5m) and the Gatún locks (back down to sea level). The artificial lake between Miraflores locks and the Pedro Miguel lock is called Miraflores lake, and the lake between Pedro Miguel lock and the Gatún locks is called Gatún lake. Read more…
#7: Chiriqui Chatter reports on the new restaurant in town:  TGI Friday's is Set to Open!
I was walking home and noticed a commotion going on at TGI Friday’s in David. Being nosey, I went over to see what was happening. I got to meet the new staff of TGI Friday’s getting their orientation training. I asked when they were scheduled to open and was told September 12. Mark your calendars. I am hungry just thinking about it.Continue reading…
#8:  PanamaFAQ has prepared a great guide to  dance Salsa. If you are interested to get the scoop on how to do it right, read on "The 8 Step 3 minute Guide to Learning Salsa"
This post might be met by anger from various of the people who make a living in the world of teaching salsa dancing. However please bear with me for a minute or so to avoid being laughed at on a real Latin American dance floor and at the same time save some money.
: Forget about the steps, any teacher who tries to teach you fancy steps is trying to con you. It is very simple. This scam was invented as a way of fooling gullible people into paying for salsa classes. Salsa is about the feeling you have when you dance it. End of story. Continue reading…
#9: For all the bike riders and lovers, BMX Panama showcases a great deal of information, photos and videos of the techniques and events they organize. Do not miss their recent posts: Street BMX, and Tour Canal Administration Building.
#10: Heidibella in the Tropics cooks up a forgotten snack: "Monkey Bread"
I remember when Michelle and I would ask Mom on Sunday mornings if we could make monkey bread. Mom still had the original recipe she had gotten from someone when she lived in New York, written on an index card in black ink. It was faded and old, but there was something about it that brought you back to a time before the cooking show entertainment phenomenon, before Food Network, before Epicurious. It was a time when recipes were sacred, and when someone shared a recipe with you it meant you were special. Get the recipe now…

author: Melissa De León


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Poland: 9/11 Memorial · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The beatroot writes about the opening of a 9/11 memorial in a Polish town that saw a pogrom against Jews in 1946 – and about the effects of the 9/11 “media hysteria.”


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Poland: Socialist Realism · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The beatroot writes about Socialist Realism: “…mostly a patronizing celebration of all things ugly and pompous.”


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Romania: Journalism Education · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Owlspotting writes about journalism education in Romania.


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Romania, Russia: Movies · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Owlspotting writes about translating movie titles into Romanian. The Accidental Russophile gives advice on finding and watching Russian DVDs in the United States.


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Russia: Murder Over Foreign-Made Car · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Russia Blog writes about the tragic death of an Omsk journalist and his family: “Ruslan noticed a nice Mitsubishi car parked by a tent, with no potential witnesses around. Driving a foreign-made vehicle was his childhood dream. So he went to the tent and shot Aleksandr Petrov in the face and his wife in the back.”


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Russia: “Putin’s Presidential Pseudo-News” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Vilhelm Konnander writes on how the media treat Vladimir Putin's repeated assurances that he is not considering staying for the third presidential term: “Still, international media continues to report that Putin will leave power in 2008, in the anticipation that somewhere along the line he will change his mind.”


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Russia: Sakhalin Oil and Gas · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Russia Blog writes about oil and gas development on Sakhalin.


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Russia: “Solzhenitsyn vs. Khatami” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Russia Blog compares two Harvard speakers: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in 1978 and Mohammed Khatami this year.


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Russia: Sprats, Scam, Ripping · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Copydude writes about “a giant can of Baltic Sprats” sculpture soon to appear in a town near Kaliningrad; about German ads – possibly, a scam – offering “assisted resettlement package to Kaliningrad, including subsidised bills, free train travel, free phone installation, a chance to collect Russian and German pensions and dual citizenship”; and about Russian “ripping [as] a Pavlovian reflex.”


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Russia: World Toilet Organization · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Snowsquare.com writes about a bizarre event held in Moscow last week: the World Toilet Summit & Expo 2006.


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Saudi Arabia: Safe prayer areas for women in Mecca · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

With so many criticizing Saudi Arabia over different issues these days, Nzingha reads such news in different way. She says: “Are there good things in this country? Yes of course. Are there some great people? Yuppers. Maybe I should focus more on that on this blog least we forget that this country is a bit more diverse than it is given credit for. Now bravo to the leaders who rejected the proposal I do believe the voices of women were heard. Both in this country and abroad.” talking about a proposal for women's safe prayer Areas in Mecca.


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Sri Lanka: Religion and Domination · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Moju on the various dichotomies between religion and the politics of domination. “however, what cannot be explained, nor justified, is the frenzied nationalist who screams for sinhala domination and also calls himself a sinhalese buddhist.”


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Syria: Damascus Attack · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

The American teacher is Syria describe his first reaction to today's terrorist attack on American Embassy at Damascus. He says: “It was breaktime, and a group of students were refreshing my memory about the plot of the Julia Roberts classic, “Runaway Bride” when my student Ahmad broke in abruptly. “There was a battle,” he interjected. I probed my mind trying to recall that part, a battle. I had seen that film on my honeymoon so the particular details were lost amidst more important lifetime memories. “No,” Ahmad said, “I was outside having a cigarette and I heard explosions and gunfire.” We all went to the window and stuck our ears out, but heard nothing. We shrugged our shoulders and went back to our exegesis of “Runaway Bride”. A few minutes later, I got an SMS from my manager saying that the American embassy had been attacked.”


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Syrian Blogsphere in a Week · Global Voices
Yazan Badran

To start off this week, we have Brian Anthony‘s testimonial of what his reflections were exactly five years ago, September 11, 2001.
But as I was watching the towers explode over and over again, I couldn't really muster a sense of shock and amazement. And while I felt sickened and saddened for those who were in the towers and those affected by the attacks, I didn't feel any kind of patriotic rage. I felt kind of like one would feel when you hear that life-long party-animal two-pack a day smoker got hit with lung cancer. It's a terrible situation, but an altogether predictable one.
On to more Syrian-like politics, with Ammar Abdulhamid trying to answer The Question…
Can we really have both modernization and democratization as simultaneous processes that can reach an acceptable level of fulfillment in the span of a single lifetime to appeal to all those impatient souls out there?
Burhan Ghalioun, The well known Syrian intellectual, gives his feelings from Paris about the Crisis of Lebanon and the Middle East.
Israel may feel that it is besieged because of the hostility of the greatest number of the Arab States. But this feeling hides a fundamental inferiority complex and does not reveal the reality. The Israelis themselves say – and they are true – that they are able to crush all the arab armies gathered together. Thus, in fact, it is Israel that besieges the Arab countries, thanks to its unmatched military superiority and to the international unrelenting support that it is granted from the USA and Europe…Thanks also to the Arab situation breaking apart and to the collapsing of the Arab front.
Away from politics, to a more interesting subject, with Abu Fares describing how to give a real Bull-Head Tartoussi Feast.
It was my turn to host. I was asked to make it memorable. Some of them I will not see in years, leaving country and kin and heading out to Martinique, to the China Sea, to the Persian Gulf, to Italy, to unknown wharfs and beyond. What we all had in common, in addition to a life binding friendship, is our eternal love for Tartous.
“Something they shall never forget, that’s what they asked for, when I proposed the invitation.”

author: Yazan Badran


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Tonga: Homage to the King and Democracy in Tonga · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Wendy at Babasiga blog pays homage to the King of Tonga Taufa'ahau Tupou IV. The ailing King died on Sunday. In the comment, the blogger says “The Tongan people are in a quandery because they want to show respect for tradition but at the same time many want a fair go for ordinary people. The democracy movement there is persisting and eventually there will be a fairer outcome.”


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Trinidad & Tobago: Smelter protesters arrested · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

The Rights Action Group T&T blog, which promotes and documents the work of a group fighting against the construction of an aluminium smelter in south-western Trinidad, is reporting that two residents of the area, a member of the Rights Action Group and a university lecturer were arrested in the early hours of this morning. The report also states that “women are being pushed out of the way to allow workers from Alcoa and Bechtel” to enter the area.


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Zimbabwe, Human Rights, Labor, Protest, Politics · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Zimpundit writes a roundup of the nation-wide strike by the main labor union in Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Africa, South Africa, Technology, Media · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

While the critique of the Digital Citizen Indaba continues to flow, Mental Acrobatics has a  different take: The controversy is neither about the Indaba being “Internet Berlin Conference 2006″ or nor White blogging Africa…it is about the Princess of Africa!


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Africa, Telecommunications, Development, Technology · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Kenyan Pundit reports from the annual ICT conference in South Africa, Highway Africa,
about the workshop on the status of EASSY Project.


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Bahamas, Cuba: Bahamian friends · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Rick Lowe questions the motives of a group calling themselves “Bahamian friends of the Cuban Five”


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Barbados: Crime and boys · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Titlayo is more dismayed than usual at the news of the shooting of two young men in Barbados.


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Barbados, South Africa: Biko remembered · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Barbados Free Press remembers the murder of South African activist Steve Biko on September 12, 1977.


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Brazil: Ceasefire Campaign · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Tatiana Cardeal thanks her readers and devoted Flickr fans for their participation in the “Ceasefire Campaign.” Read the post and check out the Flickr community to learn more.


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Brazil: Resources of Pirates · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Brazilian music lovers, pirates, and thieves will be delighted by Daniella Thompson's latest post, “Where everything old is considered gold. Or, the joys of piracy.”


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China: the death of a teacher · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

ESWN continues to blog about the death of Dai Haijing and the implications of the resulted demonstration to Chinese society.
Rebecca also has some comments on the case.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Colombia: Most Internal Refugees · Global Voices
David Sasaki

According to Olga Gonzalez, Colombia beats out even war-torn African nations as the country with the most internally displaced refugees (ES).


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Czech Republic: Zlin · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

NvB: Bored in Brno? posts pictures and video from the town of Zlin: “The town is worth seeing, particularly if you're a fan of twentieth-century functionalist and utilitarian architecture. It turned out that my visit was on the weekend of the 13th annual Festival of Wind Orchestras and Folklore Ensembles.”


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Estonia: “The Only Post-Communist Nordic Country” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa explains the change of his blog's subtitle: “The world's only post-communist Nordic country.”


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Ethiopia, Development, Economics · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ethiopia on a knife's edge, via EthioBlog.


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Guatemala: Palo Ensebado · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Chapinadas explains the fascinating traditional dance of the Palo Ensebado in San Luis, Peten: “A week before this dance starts, five men go into the forrest to choose a suitable tree.  Before the tree is cut, the priests offer their apologies and ask for permission from the valerio tree to be cut.  When the tree is cut, the tree is carried by several men to a place to be debark and waxed.”


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Guyana: Jumbie intervention · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Guyana-Gyal is almost disappointed that it was she herself — and not a ghost — who pulled the phone line out of her computer.


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Haiti: Conflict of interest in journal study · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Erwin C. at The Latin Americanist links to a news item reporting that a study on Haiti published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, is being called into question because of the alleged conflict of interest of the of the co-authors.


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Honduras: The state of fast food in La Ceiba · Global Voices
David Sasaki

“La Gringa” on the state of fast food in La Ceiba, Honduras.


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Hong Kong:911 · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Chong in inmediahk.net writes about the spread of the sense of insecurity after 911, to the extent that when thousands of people died in Middle East, we lost our feeling and empathy(zh).


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India: Eternal Ganesha · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Kamla Bhatt interviews author Gita Mehta about her new book ‘Eternal Ganesha’. “Eternal Ganesha is an illustrated coffee table book that provides an updated and comprehensive story of Ganesha, along with the cultural and political underpinnings of the Remover of Obstacle’s role in Indian society.”


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India, Latin America: Business Relations · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Kamla Bhatt comments on newly created partnerships between Indian and Latin American corporations.


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India: Potholes all over · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Dateline Bombay on the potholes through the country. “And do our civic authorities not experience these terrible roads themselves ? Do they know not what a basic evenly laid out road is ? Did they study geometry in school ?”


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India: Voting in the US · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The South Asian population in the US is increasing, and that makes Sepia Mutiny wonder about the voting dynamics during elections.


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Jamaica: Philp book meme · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Jamaican writer Geoffrey Philp takes up the challenge of a book meme. Among the things he mentions is an e-book dedicated to bashing his first collection of short stories!


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Malawi, Development, Technology · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Soyapi Mumba writes about a new service introduced by the Electricity Supply Commission of Malawi, which enables customers to know how much they need to pay using SMS.


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Martinique: Expensive Tomatos · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Le Blog de [Moi] and all of Martinique are up in arms about the prohibitive price of local tomatos. She writes (Fr): “If I invite you to have dinner at my place these days and all I feed you is a tomato salad with a glass of water (because you better believe that at 10 Euros/Kilogram all you'll get is water), I want you to appreciate the value of the menu.”


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Martinique/Guad./Guyane: Skype Rates and Impact · Global Voices
Alice Backer

InternetRapide.com  is excited to offer (Fr) PC to mobile Skype Out rates from France to  Martinique, Guadeloupe and Guyane and suspects that Skype products will hinder local providers from successfully developing attractive internet telephony products for those countries.


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Mexico: Billie’s Blog · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Mexico in English introduces Billie's Blog, authored by a ” woman who has recently sold her home in Houston and gone to live with her husband in San Miguel Allende. She writes well and she takes lovely photos. Her powers of observation that make her a good photographer make her an interesting blogger.”


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Nepal: Police Brutality · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Democracy for Nepal on the right to peaceful protest and police brutality. “Is this what a grateful nation does to that community? The April Revolution might not have earned the Madhesis total equality yet, but it sure earned them the right to peacefully protest.”


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Nigeria, Arts and Culture, Music · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

These are places where Naija to the Core would really like to be this autumn.


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Peru, Spain: Rights of Peruvians Abroad · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Commenting on the story of 19-year-old Peruvian student Diego Segura Loayza, who was expelled on his layover in Madrid while on-route to the Czech Republic to study abroad, Ewing Jesús Falla Arévalo asks (ES), “where are the calls to watch over the rights of Peruvians in the exterior?”


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Peruvian Posts Between August and September · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Este artículo también está disponible en español.
In the time that has passed since my previous compilation of posts, the people of Perú Político have published three summaries of the weekly happenings, which have to do mostly with events from the government's political actors and the opposition. They are: weekly chronicle (16 to the 22 of August) [ES], weekly Chronicle (23 to the 29 of August) [ES] and weekly Chronicle (of the 30 of August to the 5 of September) [ES]. It really doesn't seem to me that so much time has passed, but so it has. Someone else who will be spending a long time, but locked up, is the member of the Superior Court of Justice that was captured after receiving a bribery, as Politikeando comments on in “Corrupt and Foul Judicial System”:
Hace unos días un vocal superior, Eduardo Palacios, fue descubierto aceptando un soborno a cambio de favores judiciales. Los medios, como es lógico, hicieron eco de la noticia y una vez más sale a la luz la podredumbre en que se encuentra el sistema judicial. Pero en realidad casos de corrupción judicial hay a diario, de todo tamaño y de todo precio, en el ámbito empresarial o civil, además a tarifas para todos los bolsillos.
This news is obviously still on the front page, because it appears that others were involved. What is also already a topic in the media is the beginning of the political campaigns for the next municipal and regional elections to be held on November 19. On this and the possibility of future acts of corruption it Comunicación y Desarrollo Peru reflects in the post Governing with friends: The advantage of collaborative power [ES]:
Sabemos que la mayoría de nuestros caudillos hace política para dejar una que otra obra coyuntural, egocéntrica y visible, para servirse y servir a “sus colaboradores” (amigos, amigotes, ayayeros y parentela). ¡Ah¡ y cuando no cumple con los “colaboradores” surge la división y la traición; pues se quebró el antiprincipio: poder para sacar provecho colaborativamente. Gobernar con los amigos es, como nos damos cuenta, otra marca descarnada de nuestra pervertida forma de hacer política, la forma colectiva que adquiere la corruptela en grupo, en clan, con el entorno.
Leaving the subject of politics, and perhaps with regard to the discussion stemming from the use of the Quechua in the Congress of the Republic, post Quechua and Aymara Online [in English!!] of the blog La Peña Linguística (“The Linguistic Club”) recommends some excellent sites with information, resources and debates on these two languages of the Andes. La Peña Linguística is maintained by Miguel Rodriguez Mondoñedo, a Peruvian linguist residing in the USA, just like Gustavo Faverón Patriau, who is responsible for the blog Puente Aéreo where he has recently published the post, “A book is not the news,” [ES] on the depressing state of literary criticism and book reviews in Peruvian journals:
Una revisión rápida de los espacios sobre libros en la prensa peruana nos lleva a una conclusión fácil: hay muchísimas personas capaces de escribir sobre libros, pero casi no existen los medios de comunicación que juzguen eso una tarea importante.
And as culture is something that the media does not privilege, the advances in Internet also are left to the side by our educative system altogether, and in general by most of the society, in spite of noble intentions and efforts that have been had. This is the subject covered by the post Weblogs: a revolution held up [ES] from the blog Psicosociales:
Son cerca de 50 millones (de blogs) los que hoy tienen la posibilidad de hacerse escuchar, hablar de lo que viven, sienten, sueñan, de lo que son testigos, de lo que otros callan o pretenden distorsionar cuando no pueden encubrir. Sin embargo, de esos millones todavía somos muy pocos en nuestra Sudamérica; al parecer aún estamos muy lejos del millón de bloggers, de usuarios de bitácoras. Brasil, con cerca de 45,000 blogs aproximadamente, encabeza la lista. En Perú aún no llegamos a 5 mil, y en Bolivia quizás no lleguen a los 2 mil.
Nevertheless, an example of what, with a little imagination and initiative, can begin to spread new technologies is that which is shown on the blog, Diario de un Blogfesor, of Thomas Ramirez, professor of the school Juan Pablo II from Arequipa city, where he teaches and motivates his students in the course “Education for Work.” Really no effort is small nor should be left aside, because one never knows which of the thrown seeds will plant and the less when it gives fruit. And Imagination and initiative, but poorly applied, is what is behind the post Blogs – No Oficiales by Perú: País de las Maravillas:
Un hecho que llama mi atención es el creciente fenómeno del “blog no-oficial” que, en su gran mayoría, son de autoría peruana: bloggers anónimos que toman el nombre de algún personaje o personajillo de los medios de información peruanos y elaboran un “espacio” acorde a la personalidad y estilo de su “admirado(a)”. Así, por ejemplo, surgen los blogs de Andrés Oppenheimer (no es peruano, pero su programa es televisado por un canal de cable peruano) Jaime Baily, Cecilia Valenzuela, César Hildebrandt (que cuenta con más de un blog no-oficial) Beto Ortiz (uno de los que sí está enterado de esto, lo que lo motivó a escribir una línea sobre el asunto en uno de sus artículos dominicales) entre otros.
And in a satirical vein, or “cachacienta” as we say around here, blogger Diego Avendaño decided to confess to us that he is not Diego, but someone else (and better) in the post Unofficial Blog [ES] in his blog Desde la Clandestinidad. Following with the trend of confessions, Mágico y misterioso Carlitos tells us he had to assassinate the she-blogger that he created in Resaca post-BlogDay [ES].
Regarding events in Lima, Polaroid de Locura says to us: Antanas Mockus in Lima… BRILLIANT! about the visit of the ex- Mayor of Bogota to our city. And Autobús informs to us into next artistic, musical activities in two posts: Urbe & Arte [ES] and Vibra [ES].
Finally, the image that begins this post corresponds to the celebrations of another anniversary of Santa Rosa de Lima, on the 30th of August, and was taken by the servant of circumstances who narrates here [ES].
Translation of original post by David Sasaki.

author: Juan Arellano


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Russia: Guerrillas in Ingushetia · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

David McDuff of A Step At A Time translates an article on the recent activization of guerrillas in Ingushetia.


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Russia: Madonna Visits Orphanage · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

English Russia re-posts pictures of Madonna visiting an orphanage in Moscow.


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Russia: Mushroom Season · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Accidental Russophile posts pictures of his friend's family picking mushrooms in the Komi Republic.


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Russia: Tear of Grief; Intro to Orthodox Culture · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

In Moscow, Zurab Tsereteli‘s works seem ubiquitous – and disliked by many. In New Jersey, his first one was dedicated on Sept. 11 in Bayonne: a gift from the Russian government, the 100-foot, 175-ton bronze monument “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism” – aka the Tear of Grief. High-profile guests at the dedication ceremony included former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Chair of the Upper House of the Russian Parliament Sergei Mironov; a note from President George W. Bush was read by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
LJ user larinax (Ksenia Larina, Radio Echo of Moscow host) has no kind words (RUS) about the monument and its creator – and the fact that Tsereteli used an outdated list of names of the 9/11 victims doesn't help: 43 names of those who were not killed have been carved into the monument's base:
What horror has Tsereteli [squeezed] into New Jersey! It looks extremely indecent. And this is what poor Clinton has hinted at unambiguously: “It's impossible to ignore Tsereteli's sculptures in Moscow.” Thirty meters tall, weighs 175 tons. All material, transportation, setting up and fixing has been funded from the Russian budget. He dreamed of [giving] this [monster] to New York, but the city turned around and ran from such a generous gift. He's messed all the last names on the mournful list on the [monument's] base (more than 40 have nothing to do with reality!) And he laughs loudly into the cameras. Shame for the whole world to see.
Bloggers commenting on larinax‘s post appear to be no less cynical and even more straightforward: some call the teardrop soplya, a snot, while others write that the monument reminds them of a female body part. LJ user ivan_agurov, however, thinks that the Tear of Grief will become part of the landscape eventually:
They'll get used to it. And in 200-300 years, tourists from faraway countries will be coming over to stare at “soplya.” Just like they stare at the Statue of Liberty and the [Eiffel] Tower in Paris.
***
LJ user larinax is also highly critical (RUS) of the inclusion of the compulsory Orthodox Christianity courses into school curriculum in Russia's four regions: Bryansk, Kaluga, Smolensk and Belgorod (in 11 more regions, Introduction to Orthodox Culture will be taught as an elective subject):
[…] Once again, good intentions turn ugly, just like everything else touched by the dumb, illiterate herd of our bureaucrats […]. Is there a need for a separate course on the history of religions and cultures? It's necessary to have one. In what form? As an elective, voluntary, without grading and exams, in the form of conversations and lectures. Who should be teaching it? Definitely not members of the clergy. Though… Do the current ones have the likes of [Aleksandr Men] in their ranks?
I've had a look at A. Borodina's OPK [Osnovy Pravoslavnoy Kultury, Introduction to Orthodox Culture] course. Openly xenophobic, semi-literate reading, stuffed with quotes from Dostoyevsky (torn out of context and thus acquiring horrendous meanings). [Joseph Goebbels] with his propaganda [cannot compare to this]. I feel embarrassed and [disgusted] when I read these simple thoughts addressed to Russia's schoolkids:
“People not familiar with the basics of Orthodox culture have many questions regarding the Russians’ attitude toward other nations and to the material world. Why do patriotism of the Russian people and their dedication to the [Orthodox Church] go so well together with tolerance of other religions and a certain indifference toward material losses? Why is it that Orthodoxy doesn't force anyone into converting into Orthodox faith – and is at the same time so open? Why is it that Orthodox Russians don't shut themself off from people of other nations and ethnicities, but accept them heartily into their church, state and civil community, even though it is not “profitable” more often than not? Perhaps, the Orthodox Church and the Russian people carry inside the ideals that are incomparably higher and more significant than the instantaneous profit, material values and earthly life. But it is only possible to understand it after studying the history of Christianity and the basics of Orthodoxy. The notions of “Russian” and “Orthodox Christian” used to be inseparable in [Russia] until the 20th century, and they shared one meaning: those belonging to the Russian Orthodox culture.” (A. Borodina)


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South Africa, Music, Language · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Chipla reflects on South Africa's lesson to the world: birds of not so much a feather can still flock together. And in so doing, they become one flock.


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Sri Lanka: Black July · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Nirmal Jayasinghe on a book ‘July’ set in the backdrop of Black July. “This was a very touching book. It’s mainly about a love between a Tamil boy and Sinhalese girl. Although their families are friends, they oppose their marriage due to caste, race and various other reasons.”


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Thailand: DIY Shoe Waterproofing · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

A Bangkok girl, caught in a flood, devices wateproofing for her shoes. Her friend at Gnarlykitty blog posts pictures of the invention. “Bow had enough. She couldn't risk getting fungi on her toes and liquidised dog poos on her Substance shoes any longer. She went inside a coffee shop and invented her own protective device”


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The Sitting Party: Cross-cultural Reflections on Social Relations in Vietnam · Global Voices
Mark Robertson

Recently there has been a very lively discussion in the English-language Vietnam blogosphere about the phenomenon of the self-proclaimed expat expert.  Kevin of What Happened to Your Hair? started it all off with a provocative posting on the Westerner who returns home after a short stint and adopts an authoritative attitude on his host country.  This discussion spread across several blogs including Ethnically Incorrect Daughter, VA to VN and Antidote to Burnout.   When the dust settled there seemed to be an agreement that cross-cultural insight is most fruitful when it is also accompanied by an awareness of what we do not understand.
An example of this kind of cultural dialogue is a discussion amongst Vietnam bloggers on the nature of Vietnamese social relations.  This strand began with several posts in Six Months in Hanoi about the contrast between Vietnamese and Western patterns of socializing.  In one post, HanoiMark describes a mixed party in which these patterns were in stark contrast: the fluid networks of Western expats vs. the family-like groups of the Vietnamese.  In another post he tries to understand the nature of “closed social networks” or “groups” among Vietnamese friends. While Western modes of socializing often involve mixing circles of friends and creating new acquaintances, the Vietnamese approach affords a spontaneity and intimacy between friends that is perhaps less common in the West.
Mel of Antidote to Burnout elaborates on some of these themes as he describes a typical social event with Vietnamese friends.  Many of the observations HanoiMark made of social dynamics in gay groups in Hanoi also seem to hold true in professional circles in Saigon. He also notices that introductions are rare in social groups even when new people appear.
Of course these sorts of cross-cultural comparisons also teach us much about ourselves.  In seeking to understand another culture, one comes to see the peculiarity of own's own point of reference.
Virtual Doug brought in a Vietnamese colleague into the discussion who was able to reflect on the differences in social relations he perceived when living in the US.  Duong Lam Anh contrasts the traditional Vietnamese “sitting party” which is about deepening existing relationships with the more Westernized “standing party” which encourages mingling, introduction and casual chit chat.  He also notes that the term “friend” has a very different meaning in the West and in Vietnam; Westerners may use this word for casual acquaintances, but in Vietnamese culture it implies a closeness and intimacy.
There can be profound differences in the way different cultures socialize.  It is far too easy to assume our own ways of interaction are natural and the result are misunderstandings and frustrations. Such dialogue helps foster cross-cultural understanding between expats and Vietnamese.

author: Mark Robertson


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The Week that Was – Bolivian Blogs · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Este artículo también está disponible en español en el sitio Blogs de Bolivia
A large part of Bolivia remained at a standstill last Friday, when four of the country’s nine departments called for a strike.  A major point of contention was that the Consitutent Assembly, which is given the task of rewriting the country’s Constitution, should respect the rule that any new article must be approved by 2/3 of the delegates.  The ruling party, MAS, believes that the articles should only be approved by simple majority, which they hold and only then, should 2/3 of the votes be needed to approve the finished draft.
Keeping the original formula as stipulated by the Convocation Law would mean “pluralism, diversity and consensus,” writes Carlos Hugo Molina in Agora (ES).  Keeping the fact that all articles must be approved by 2/3 would mean that the minorities in the country would be allowed to have input.
Molina’s son, Sebastian, who saw the strike firsthand in his native Santa Cruz wonders whether the strike should have been voluntary, instead of imposed.  As he writes in his blog Plan B (ES).
¿Para alguien está en duda la representatividad que puedan tener tanto los prefectos como los comités cívicos de los distintos departamentos que están llevando adelante este paro? Yo creo que si está en duda para alguien; para ellos mismos. Si no, no deberían tener ningún temor de hacer que este paro cívico se desarrolle de manera voluntaria y, justamente, cívica. O sea, sin obligar a nadie. Sin utilizar la violencia que están criticando del gobierno. Sin utilizar elementos típicos del autoritarismo -ese mismo que le están criticando al M.A.S.-, como el de los grupos de choque, por ejemplo
Does a doubt exist regarding the representativeness of the prefects and of the civic committees in the different departments where this strike is taking place?  I think someone has a doubt – themselves.  If they did not, then I don’t think there would be any fear that this strike would not be anything but fair and voluntary, or in other words, civic.  The strike would also not be under any obligation, without the use of violence, which has been criticized by the government and without utilizing the typical elements of authoritarianism – which is something that these groups are criticizing MAS for being –  and for the use of groups of confrontation, for example.
The irony in this situation is that the government is criticizing the strike and blockade, which was utilized by the current President in his struggles against the coca eradication issue.  “How much did Evo Morales’ blockades affect the country?  How many days did he leave Bolivia completely paralized, hurting the production of many farmers?” asks Martin Gutierrez, who writes at Vitrina de Realidad Boliviana (ES).
The divisions and polarization is causing many to question the current political climate.  “This situation appears to create the perfect condition for the creation of a third alternative, hopefully free of all of the “isms” that afflicts the current government’s politicians or of the current and past opposition (prebendalism, nepotism, populism, evoism, neoliberalism, etc),” comments Jaime Rubin de Celis at JCR’s Place (ES). He also adds that it would be very difficult that this third actor could be any worse that what is currently on the table.
As things continue to go the wrong way, Joup writes about a “pais enfermo” or “ill country”.  She continues on at her blog Este arcoiris se llama Joup (ES) with a series of rhetorical questions, such as “When will we leave racism behind?” and “How much longer do we need to live with resentment and hate?” Earlier that month, the government faced numerous problems, such as a transportation strike and teachers’ protest.  Hugo Miranda aka Angel Caido (Fallen Angel) pointed out that “Bolivia is returning to normalcy little by little…Bolivia continues to lose in football, in its economy, in its education, etc.  Someday we have to start winning.”

author: Eduardo Avila


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Trinidad & Tobago: Alcoa vs. Chatham · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Jeremy Taylor weighs in on the “ugly confrontation” taking place between the members of a community in south-western Trinidad and a big company attempting to construct an aluminium smelter in the area.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Galvanize · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

The blog of the Galvanize project, “a platform for presenting new work by visual, performing, and literary artists, and for provoking critical discussion of art practice and reception in the contemporary Caribbean,” announces that the programme's official launch will take place on September 14. The blog also features a schedule of events and statements of purpose from the artists’ involved.


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Venezuela: “The seams are beginning to show some rips” · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Explaining the etymology of his weblog, The Devil's Excrement, Miguel Octavio lays out his theory as to why Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution is “ripping at the seams.” Oil Wars, on the other hand, cites polling numbers from Venezuelan firm Datanalysis that “show that income is rising for Venezuela’s poor majority.”


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Africa: New publishing ventures · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Two publishing ventures in South Africa and in Nigeria aim to publish writings by Africans for local markets, reports African Women's Blog.


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Bahamas: Non-Aligned Movement · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

“. . . For the first time we have an ideologically driven foreign minister who appears to have some latitude to set policy, whether by default or otherwise. And that sometimes means playing international games that can get us needlessly into hot water,” says Larry Smith in a post warning Bahamians that they should pay attention to what transpires at this week's meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Havana.


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Bangladesh: Extremism in Pakistan · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

How I learned to stop worrying… on what brought terrorism and extremism to Pakistan. “The nation of Pakistan has its roots in a form of Islamic fundamentalism known as Deobandi. The Deobandi movement began as a reformist movement in India against British oppression. “


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Blogcamp Unconference in Chennai: Remains of the Day · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The last weekend saw BlogCamp being held in Chennai. Promoted as the largest unconference on blogging thus far in India, it saw quite a range of people attending the event. A cursory glance at the list of attendees here and topics discussed here. The blogsphere is buzzing with reactions on the BlogCamp. Even as the unconference was on, the IRC channel dedicated to the blogcamp was full of remote participants catching up with the live webcast.
Dina writes about an open session discussing some of the deeper issues of blogging.
In the closing session, before the quiz, Kiruba, Peter and I, with Veer's inputs thought we'd like to hold an open discussion with the whole group, on some of the deeper issues around blogging – responsibilities of bloggers, blogging as an addiction, Jace's neat insights into the overlapping of our public, private and secret selves as we blog, and on what popularity means. I thought that went off quite well and was happy to hear many many views.
Thejesh writes about some of the things he wished the BlogCamp would have covered.
We have people who blog about Bangalore and Mumbai once in a while but that is not the sole purpose of their blog. I think we need to have subject specific blogs to make the indian blogosphere more interesting. I would like more of Indian food Kitchen Blog, Mahanandi or Events Bangalore ( Blog about events in bangalore,by your truly).We still don't have an Engadget, TechCrunch or a Life Hacker). When will we have that quality blogs?
Recursive Hypocrisy on why while the concept of an unconference may be interesting, it may not always be effective.
In other words, the conference assumes the speaker earned the right to speak and is validated by a selection of speaker and the topic. For example, Sunil Gavaskar speaking to an audience is not an unconference. He speaks. We listen. Period. And, it's good. He's Sunny. He speaks well and makes his point. We already like him. So, even better.
Meanwhile, between the two days of unconferencing, quite a few appear to have had fun at a Beach House party. Venki on the idea of the Paper Wiki that helped put together sessions at the unconference. Scribez has notes from various sessions, including how the topics were arranged. Digital Inspiration compiles a list of quotes from various bloggers who have written or spoken about the event. Our World has a list of various people who contributed to the event. A mainstream media journalist who is also a blogger covered the event and had this to say.
There were bloggers who talked about pet fish and pandas, fashion (unrelated to the pandas), rural connectivity, disaster management, sleeping on the job while your blog earns for you, body shopping, blog journalism, podcasting, firewall skirting, how to avenge those that steal your content, how to increase your hitcount (I need to learn a thing or two), how to be likeable.


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Bolivia: The Point of View · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Patricia Vargas had abandoned her project El Punto de Vista (ES) which collects submitted photographs of the views from Bolivian's bedrooms, until she found out it was featured in one of the country's national papers (ES).


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Cambodia: Anti-corruption Campaign Blocked by Police · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Vutha writes that the authorities in Cambodian capital city Phnom Penh blocked the Black Box campaign. The campaign was organised to collect comments on corruption from the citizens.


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China: Art conversation · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Ye Ying in mindmeters blogs an art conversation conference in Beijing, participants are from all over the world. She quotes from a local Artist Ai Wei Wei: we need to know where we come from and what is the essence of our era; outsiders can't help us on this, this is a question related with our soul, and it can't be solved by building a few more museums.
Ai Wei-wei blogs the photos from the conference.


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China: Chairman Hu’s tear · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

ESWN blogs a Chairman Hu Jintao Cartoon: “For Whom Did The Secretary General Shed His Tears?” which was published at Guangzhou's XKB (News Express) on September 12. A Hong Kong based newspapers Sing tao points out that in the western world (plus Hong Kong and Taiwan), leaders like Bush, Donald Tsang and Chen Shiu-bian are often presented in drawings.  But in mainland China, it has been forbidden to do.
Bingfeng blogs another protrait on Chairman Jiang to give a contrast: “This is what we have before.”


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China: digg battles · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Lyn Jeffery in virtual China discusses how the mob culture in China destroys the development of digg.


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China: Government’s video-censorship foiled · Global Voices
Sameer Padania

When a young teacher is found dead outside her apartment building in Ruian, the police report concludes suicide, but her family and students suspect a cover-up.  Over a thousand people take to the streets in protest, and are met with police violence.  Protestors film the clashes on their cellphones, and upload the clips to Chinese video-sharing sites, but the clips are rapidly taken offline – only to re-appear on other sites, as respected English-language Chinese blog Danwei reported on Tuesday.  The Dai Haijing story – pieced together online by Roland Soong of another blog EastSouthWestNorth, or ESWN – is, despite the best efforts of the Chinese authorities, gathering pace online.
Since GVO’s own John Kennedy blogged about the disappearing protest videos, also on Tuesday, at least three have emerged on YouTube and on Photobucket, including the video below:
It’s clear why the authorities don’t want this footage to be seen.  Despite the low definition of the cameraphone, the video clearly shows police officers beating protestors.  ESWN quotes one commenter on bingfang.com as saying “Post those video clips and photographs onto international websites and let the world see the so-called democracy in China.”  The consequences of doing so are unclear – whoever uploaded the videos to YouTube has a blog, http://dhj2006.blogspot.com/, which now returns the message “Sorry! Blog temporarily closed!”  One US-based law professor's blog suggested that the authorities are sensitive because it reveals the lack of trust in public institutions.
It's more likely to be a question of timing.  Wen Jiabao was in the UK on Tuesday to talk climate change with Tony Blair, and this is a bad time for a story like this to be leaking.  The authorities have been concerned by the increase across the country in organised protests – against farmland seizures, corruption, pollution – of which the government said there were 87,000 in 2005, or around 240 per day.  The latest release from the Public Security Ministry a month ago showed a slight decrease in protests for the first half of 2006, to 39,000, still well over 200 a day – and well before the Dai Haijing case.
The Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders issued a statement Monday claiming an intensified crackdown by the Chinese authorities ahead of two Chinese Communist Party events and the 2008 Olympics.  The statement calls for the release of a number of journalists, writers, lawyers and activists arrested and imprisoned in the last month, and robustly states that:
“The ruling authorities appear not to appreciate that their conventional tactics of using harsh crackdown to tighten control in advance of major political or social events has become obsolete.  Rights consciousness is on the rise in China and grassroots activities to defend rights have been spreading rapidly.  Repression has contributed to a growing and more active community of human rights defenders.”
This series of posts at ESWN illustrates the challenges faced by bloggers trying to get stories like this out to a wider audience, but this doesn't just affect China's bloggers – we’d like to hear your stories, wherever you are, about how you make sure videos like these remain online when the authorities seem extremely keen to ensure they get deleted.
This section of GVO is a collaboration between WITNESS and Global Voices Online, and in the coming weeks we're going to be highlighting a wide range of footage filmed by citizens, as with these videos, or by perpetrators of human rights abuses themselves, as I wrote about last week. We'll be seeking out videos from cellphones and camcorders, depicting – as in today's post – protests and reactions to human rights violations, but also many other rights issues including gay rights, refugee rights, prisons, police brutality, and violations by the military as well as the economic, social and cultural rights like those to water, housing, and health and a host of other human rights-related footage. We'll also be looking for footage of survivors of violations speaking out about abuses.
If you come across videos of this kind, whether on video-sharing sites like Google Video, Photobucket, BlipTV or YouTube, via email, or via MMS, please do let us know, either through the comments facility below, or by email.
In the guidelines, you’ll find an outline of the kinds of footage we’re looking for, and here are instructions on how to upload the footage to websites securely, and so we can find it easily.

author: Sameer Padania


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China: Mao’s 30th anniversary · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Postive solution comments that the China Daily's “coverage” of the 30th anniversary of the death of Chairman Mao was a disgrace.


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China: media and the Judiciary · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

On september 12, the Supreme People's court announced a media spoke person system. Litianlun compares the announcement with the Madrid Media and the Judiciary Principle to show its potential impact (zh).


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China: “strike-hard” policy · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

On September 11, The China Youth Daily published a breaking story about 4 students being tortured by police for 100 days because of suspected minor crime. Ai chung gives more examples of the effect of “strike-hard” policy in criminal case and urges the government to give it up(zh).


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Croatia: Visit to Split · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Paul of Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar posts eight notes and recommendations from his trip to Split, Croatia: “5. Tourists are Tolerated … rather than appreciated.”


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Cuba: Oil find? · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Luis M. Garcia is skeptical about reports of large quanities of oil having been found off the coast of Cuba.


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Estonia: Upcoming Election · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Edward Lucas, the Central and East European correspondent of The Economist, posts his piece on the upcoming Estonian election and one of the candidates: “A Big Man From a Very, Very Small Country.” (He begins with a disclaimer: “I didn't write this silly headline.”) Giustino of Itching For Eestimaa writes about the same candidate's campaign tricks.


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Fiji: Tongans in Fiji Mourn the late King · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Gilbert Veisamasama, Jr in his Promoting Suva blogs writes about the Tongan community in Fiji mourning their late king. “More than 100 Tongan students at the University of the South Pacific and those working in Suva converged at the Oceania Centre for Arts, University of the South Pacific, to commemorate their late King. Women and men dressed in black with mats wrapped around their waists, looked solemn while attending the service.” King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV of Tonga died last week in New Zealand where he was undergoing treatment.


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India: In the News · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Greatbong talks of the coverage India gets in the international Media. “But what about Indians themselves ? Why do Indians, the moment they write for a foreign media outlet, start pandering to the stereotype rather than trying to puncture it? Why don’t they define their own vocabulary instead of talking in the language of condescension?”


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India: On being Macho · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Cuckoo's Call on what constitutes being macho. “According to a study done on the group from a northeast Mumbai slum, a “real man” is one who is “physically attractive, dominant, aggressive and sexually powerful”. And possibly like actors Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt, who most said were their “role models”.”


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Kenya, Film, Development · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“Let the record show – we have got more stuff together in Africa than the world would like to admit,” writes the Concoction, reflecting on a PBS documentary about a life changing experience of three African-American boys in rural Kenya, The Boys of Baraka.


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Kenya/South Africa: Differences in Banking · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Bankele, a Kenyan blogger attending a conference in South Africa, observes that “One significant difference between Kenya and South Africa banking is their (SA) recognition that banking is a necessary service which should be affordable.”


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Madagascar: Local Products · Global Voices
Alice Backer

At the request of a reader, Madagascar Croissance  provides (Fr) an illustrated list of Malagasy signature exports including coffee, vanilla, clove, seafood and specialty fabrics.


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Nepal: Grief and the Maoists · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

United We Blog! on the mistakes that the Maoists are making, causing much grief to those in Khatmandu.


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Nigeria, Books, War and Conflict · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A new book, Half of a Yellow Sun, prompts The World According to Adaure to remember the Biafran War in Nigeria.


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Pakistan: Progressive Muslims · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

ifaqueer on using the term “Progrssive Muslims”. “As to whether there is such a thing as a “Progressive Muslim”, and isn't there just one True Islam which, in its pure form is pretty darn progressive to start with, personally, I don't ever say “Progressive Islam” or “Moderate Islam” or anything; I always talk about Muslims.”


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Poland: 1,000 More Troops to Afghanistan · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The beatroot writes about homosexuality in Afghanistan and the possible alternatives to sending more Polish troops there.


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Poland: Polish President Briefly Meets U.S. Counterpart · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The beatroot comments on the brief meeting between George W. Bush and Jaroslaw Kaczynski during the latter's visit to the United States.


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Poland: Socialist Realism Award · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Drawing on a previous entry, the beatroot announces the Socialist Realism Award contest: “We aim to find the most ridiculous (and by definition, the most fantastic) piece of socialist realism art ever.”


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Poland: U.S. Entry Visas · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Chris Borowski of Traveling Life cites official documents confirming that Polish citizens should not expect visa-free travel to the United States anytime soon.


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Reunion: Mosquito Eradication · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Pierrot Dupuy wonders (Fr) why mosquito eradication to help fight the Chikungunya epidemic in La Reunion is not done like in Camargue on mainland France, i.e. by air. It would beat the current manual by-land model which he adds, is an onerous “sweating exercise” for the heavily costumed workers who implement it.


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Rwanda: Motorcycle Taxis ctd. · Global Voices
Alice Backer

A while back, ex-pat blogger Guillaume lamented the recent scarcity  of motorcycle taxis in Kigali.  Today he follows up with good news (Fr): “Officially, motos were reauthorized since last monday. In truth 3 different papers were needed from 3 different administrations. (…) Since last Thursday, you could see motos in town again. Today, the situations is almost back to normal. Yay!”