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COP16: Conclusions from Young Trackers · Global Voices
Andrea Arzaba

Young “trackers” from the Adopt a Negotiator Project blogged throughout the United Nations Climate Change Conference; these are some of their concluding statements and thoughts on what happened at COP16 in Cancún, Mexico. (Read the first Global Voices article on this tracking team here)
COP16 Negotiator Trackers from Canada, India, South Africa, Australia and Brazil working at COP16 / Picture: Andrea Arzaba
Anna Collins, the United Kingdom tracker, wrote on her latest blog post about the doubts that came to her during the last moments of COP16:
Coming away from Cop16 I seem to have more questions than answers.
Should we be happy with the progress made at Cop16?
Why do I not feel behind Bolivia, our seemingly champions in this process?
Did the chair violate the rules of consensus?
What are the rules of consensus?
If this did happen is it for better or the worse?
Because if one country is able to block an agreement does this effectively give the Saudis or the US the same powers?
If this is true is there any hope for this process?
What does this really all mean for the climate, for our beautiful world and a better future?
As we leave one Cop behind and hurtle towards another. As  governments, media and civil society alike around the world praise the  success of Cancun. As it already fades into a distant memory, I sit and I  ponder my questions.
Questions I cannot yet answer.
The final moments at COP16 were marked by a key country: Bolivia. Italian negotiations tracker, Andrea Cinquina, wrote about it [it]:
Il COP e COP/MOP ha visto una lunga battaglia andare avanti tra la  Bolivia e la presidenza, con la Bolivia reclamando per il fatto che la  presidenza ha dichiarato la decisione presa. Secondo il paese sud  americano non può esserci una decisione in quanto non c’è il consenso,  strumento fondamentale nelle Nazione Unite. La Espinosa taglia corto  dicendo che uno solo non può porre il proprio veto se c’è il consenso di  altri 193 paesi.
The COP and COP/MOP have seen a long struggle unfolding between Bolivia and the presidency, with Bolivia complaining because the presidency confirmed the previous decision. According to the South American country, such a decision requires instead a general consensus, a fundamental tool in the United Nations procedures. Espinosa cuts short saying that just one country cannot impose its own veto if the other 193 countries agree on that decision
Indian tracker Leela Raina, posted her latest article on India's final position at the climate negotiations:
With the conference closing today, India has constructively given face  to the solution at Cancun. It has bridged differences between the  various heterogeneous groups within the G77 and China negotiating group  by standing up for the more vulnerable countries. In its press  conference earlier this week in behalf of the BASIC group of countries  comprising of Brazil, India, China and South Africa it categorically  identified three nonnegotiables: The first one was for keeping the  second commitment period of the Kyoto protocol since it is currently  important to concentrate on the protocol, which is the only legally  binding treaty on climate change. Its future is uncertain since several  countries want to abandon it.
Alex Stark, tracking the United States delegation, posted on the unusual North American position at the last moments of the negotiations:
Maybe the negotiators are just overtired,  or the plenary hall was overcrowded, but at the informal plenary meeting  that just wrapped up, the entire room was given over to giddy  enthusiasm.  Aside from interventions from the usual crowd (Bolivia,  Cuba, etc.) that cautioned that there is still work to be done on the  draft text, every other country offered a rousing endorsement of the  text and commendations for the Mexican presidency’s efforts to lead a  transparent and open negotiating process.  Every single intervention was  followed by an intense round of applause.  Even Todd Stern, usually a  levelheaded speaker, declared “let’s get this deal done.”  Although  there are several meetings still to go this evening, we are now feeling  more than ever that country parties will be able to reach a consensus on  a balanced package outcome.
It’s hard to explain how exciting it felt to be in that room.  We may  not be making the deal here that saves the planet, but in the world of  UN climate negotiations, near-unanimous agreement between developing and  developed countries, applause and even spontaneous cheering are really  quite unprecedented.  For the first time since the Copenhagen conference  one year ago, I’m genuinely confident that this process can prove to  the world that it can be successful.
Press Conference for the UN Foundation at COP16 with Canadian and Mexican Trackers, in the middle Joshua Wiese, Adopt a Negotiator Project Manager /Picture: Andrea Arzaba
Finally, Andrea Arzaba, Mexican tracker and Global Voices Online blogger, finished her latest post from the UNFCCC event hoping that the words declared by Mexican negotiators will become a reality:
De verdad espero que lo prometido por  los representantes de México pueda cumplirse, y estaré siguiéndoles la  pista a estos negociadores y figuras clave que se han mostrado  excepcionales en su trabajo durante las últimas dos semanas. Porque ahora si, después de las pláticas llega el verdadero trabajo.

author: Andrea Arzaba


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Côte d’Ivoire: Online Campaign for Peace and Candlelight Vigil  Launched  · Global Voices
Julie Owono

Responding to the call of Diaby Mohamed for a brainstorming on the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire, Ivorian Internet users decided to take action for peace in their country. The Facebook group “For Peace, nothing but Peace in Côte d'Ivoire”  was created to promote “Opération Bougie et symbole blanc pour la paix“(fr) (Operation Candlelight  and white symbol for peace) from December 22-24.  Nnenna writes that 450 people joined in less than 3 hours.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Julie Owono


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Cuba: Making a Difference  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Diaspora blogger Uncommon Sense continues his list of the Top 10 Cubans who made a difference this year.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Guatemala: International Commission Against Impunity Extended to 2013 · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

In Central American Politics, Mike writes that “the United Nations General Assembly agreed to extend the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala's (CICIG) mandate another two years until September 2013. […] Colom requested the extension because he did not believe that the justice and security sectors would be able capable of standing on their own by September 2011 when the current extension expires.”

author: Silvia Viñas


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Guyana: Making Connections  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Guyana-Gyal is convinced that everything is connected.


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Honduras: Human Rights Watch Releases Report on Abuses After 2009 Coup · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Bloggings by Boz reports: “Human Rights Watch released an important new report yesterday on abuses in the post-coup environment, including excessive  use of force, arbitrary detentions and violence against journalists and  civil society. Particularly troubling is the level of impunity for  abuses and the lack of resources and judicial independence in  prosecuting those abuse.”


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India: Life at Thirty · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Aritra Ganguly at Just Like That – At Any Point of Time ponders about life at thirty and decides that he loves it anyway.

author: Aparna Ray


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India: Photographs from a Winter Morning · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Anil Advani at Anil's Space On The Net shares some beautiful pictures from Delhi, captured on a winter morning.


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Malawi: Citizens’ take on vice-president’s dismissal · Global Voices
Steve Sharra

In early 2009 Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika was fighting for his political life with an opposition that frustrated his every move in parliament and looked strong enough to unseat him. The majority of Malawians were very impressed with the president’s economic and infrastructural development, and were very sympathetic to his pleas to re-elect him to a second term. The president picked a woman, then Foreign Minister, Joyce Banda as his running mate.
For the first time in Malawi’s history, the country had a female Vice President. The honeymoon was shortlived, however. Nineteen months later, on December 11th 2010, President wa Mutharika chaired a party meeting at which the Vice President, Joyce Banda, was removed from her position as Vice President of the party, and expelled from the party’s National Governing Council. To the disbelief of many Malawians, and to the delight of her detractors, she was expelled from the party itself, the Democratic Progressive Party.
The President spoke at nationally televised event a few days later and said Mrs Banda was being insubordinate and had formed parallel structures behind his back. He said no organization would tolerate such insubordination; not even the churches and the Non-Governmental Organizations which had criticized the expulsion. Many Malawians suspect the real reasons for firing the vice president from the party have to do with succession plans for the next elections in 2014.
The president’s brother, Professor Peter Mutharika, a Yale-trained legal scholar, left a chaired professorship at an American university and ran, successfully for parliament in Malawi. He entered his brother’s cabinet and took up a cabinet position, first as Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, and currently as Minister of Education, Science and Technology. It is widely believed that President wa Mutharika is paving the way for his brother to succeed him in 2014, hence the move to remove his own Vice President from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. Joyce Banda remains the country’s vice president, but it remains to be seen how she can continue on in that role having been expelled from the very party on whose ticket she was elected together with the president.
It has been called a political earthquake and Malawians have been reacting on social networking sites and forums. The reactions have expressed shock and disbelief, with some calling for Malawians to reclaim Malawian democracy. A new group, calling itself Friends of Joyce Banda, was announced in the days following her firing, with a website and a Facebook group. Another Facebook called Joyce Banda is the 2014 Answer has existed for some months now. This write-up quotes several reactions on social networking sites, and ends with a sharp, insightful analysis provided by blogger and journalist Kondwani Munthali.
An early reaction appeared on Twitter from Chiume:
I have choice words for DPP. This Peter Mutharika guy should not be shoved down people's throats.
Kondwa wrote:
Recent developments of the differences between VP Joyce Banda and President Bingu Wa Mutharika, also are rooted upon the same resentment.
Joyce Banda is one heartbeat away from the state house:
Mai Callista, Joyce Banda is numbala 2, one heartbeat from presidency. You must spend sleepless nights!
Below are messages left on the wall of Joyce Banda is the 2014 Answer Facebook group:
@Dumbo,a need to be patient enough & later cast no vote 4 him coz they r takin Malawi as a stone they can easily throw
The director of women affairs and her fellow ladies are behind JB [Joyce Banda],COME 2014
The ruling party is falling:
The 2014 journey continues, as DPP [the ruling party} fall apart….indeed the signs of the times!
Dadakim discusses the comparison between President Bingu wa Mutharika and Hastings Kamuzu Banda:
There has been some comparison lately between President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi and the former dictator, Hastings Kamuzu Banda. The comparison doesn’t emerge from thin air: Mutharika’s government has attacked critical Catholic clergy (the same civil society group that challenged Banda to transition to multiparty democracy in the 1990s); he continues to push for the ruling party’s next presidential nominee to be his brother, Peter; and Mutharika recently fired his Vice President from the ruling party (but not from office) — the last of these causing MPs of the ruling party (the DPP) to resign from the party.
Add to that a new fight between the President and the Malawi Law Society over procedures the government claims to be part of an audit of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC).
Joyce Banda undecided on 2014 presidency, Zacchimalawi reports:
Fired Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) First-Vice President, Rt. Hon. Joyce Banda, reveals being pestered by people to stand for president in 2014.
But Banda told Zachimalawi in a brief telephone interview she is yet to make up her mind on the issue.
“When the time comes, I will issue a statement,” said Banda.
She, however, said she would continue to serve as State Vice-President, adding that her new status (as a non-DPP member) will not “affect my political career”.
It was left to Kondwani Munthali, a blogger and journalist, to provide a historical analysis of a pattern of ambitious politicians being thwarted by leaders. He pointed out that it was only posterity that would distinguish truth from falsehood:
Posterity is the most powerful element in human history as it tells the truth from lies. Greed from reall public interest.
Jump to Bakili Muluzi's era, after the death of all UDF strong men in the likes of Alufeyo Chilibvumbo, Colin Chizumila, Edward Bwanali, Wenham Nakanga and Shaibu Itimu, lies and concotions played a party in dismissals of people like Brown Mpinganjira, Peter Chupa and Cassim Chilumpha.
Mpinganjira, told parliament on 18th December 2001, that he was “accused of being ambitious” that he wanted to run for presidency. Ambition is not allowed in politics- especially in Africa. In other worrds, you must wake up and follow the tune.
Vice President Justin Malewezi went into an ordeal of insults about his illness, his veichles withdrawn and later was almost pushed out of any confort. Posterity has judged him well. His tormentors now suffer the consequences of their laughter.
Cassim Chilumpha has a treason casee, he is the first Vice President to use the police black maria, be bangled in a cell of a common criminal. Seven years later he is still in parliament and fighting off treason charges.
Some of the most vocal Ministers like Patricia Kaliati and Khumbo Kachali, today languish outside the confort.
Today, it is Joyce Banda, one woman who could not mince words in defence of Bingu.

author: Steve Sharra


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Pakistan: Protesting the (mis)handling of a Gang Rape Case · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Sana Saleem at Mystified Justice, furious at the insensitive media handling of a recent gang rape case (that led the victim to withdraw her case against the rapist),  writes an open letter to Sharmila Farooqui – protesting the manner in which the Information Advisor handled the media briefing pertaining to the case.


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Panama: Remembering the United States Invasion, 21 years later · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

In Contrapunto [es], Global Voices author Ariel Moreno [es] remembers the United States invasion of Panama that he experienced as a child on December 20, 1989.


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Puerto Rico: A Charming Podcast with Plenty of Bite · Global Voices
Alfredo Richner

A podcast about nothing… or so the ladies (and guy) voicing Kitty Kitty Dinosaur [es] would have you believe on their website. Named after their favorite cat ladies (@dianadhevi @sumares) and resident dinosaur lover (@veedot), Kitty Kitty Dinosaur began as the (mostly) female answer to #EnProfundo, another Puerto Rican podcast known for its media critique and spirited conversations.
The members of Kitty Kitty Dinosaur come from all walks of life: some work full-time jobs on media related projects, others pursue graduate degrees, or work full-time retail jobs as struggling artists, or are writers with (and without) teaching jobs, and there's also an Occupational Therapist in the group. @dianadhevi, @veedot, @amypunchline, @amparoarrebato, @arsenic447, and @dr_zu try to take some time off their busy schedules every two weeks or so to record their observations and opinions on the current media climate and state of affairs in Puerto Rico.
@dianadhevi describes their work as:
…a podcast about nothing in particular, yet if you listen close  enough you'll realize it's the voice of a generation of women that has  been hidden for a long while behind a curtain of skepticism. We're not  exactly the mothers of the next generation, nor are we the sexual  feminazis taking back the dick that's rightfully ours. We're Plain Janes  vying for our respect as human beings. Oh, and there's @arsenic447, of  course.
We sent the group some questions regarding the podcast and its place within Puerto Rico's online community. @dianadhevi consulted with the other members of Kitty Kitty Dinosaur and sent the following replies our way.
Global Voices (GV): How did Kitty Kitty Dinosaur get started and what motivated you to begin sharing a podcast with the Puerto Rican blogosphere and general online community?
@dianadhevi: We were mostly inspired by what the crew of #EnProfundo [es] was doing, but we also felt that something was missing: that extra estrogen shot. So we tried our first podcast out. If you've heard it, you will agree it was deliciously disastrous. Not ones to be discouraged, we kept at it … and here we are (sixteen episodes later). A podcast gives you the opportunity to put yourself out there, which is exciting and intimidating. It's exciting to know that people will hear what you have to say -even if they don't agree with it- but it's intimidating because of how vulnerable you are. We share very personal things, we make mistakes, and it's there recorded for posterity.
GV: What topics are the most interesting to the group and how do you decide what to cover for each episode?
@dianadhevi: I think we are a diverse group with some common interests that unite us. Topics that interest all of us are politics and pop culture. We used to choose 3 to 4 broad topics to talk about, and we brought our personal perspectives about each. These topics were chosen out of suggestions we shared via email with each other during the week – stuff we thought was interesting. Now the format has become a little bit more like #EnProfund, more news oriented. We try to keep an eye out for interesting and relevant pieces of news.
GV:  Are you involved in the Puerto Rican blogosphere and social media sphere in other ways besides the podcast? What do you think of those online communities?
@dianadhevi: Most of us are more or less active on Twitter, which can be turned into a Puerto Rican micro-environment if you let it. Myself and @dr_zu have collaborated in other media blogs (I covered Mad Men's fourth season for  [es], for example, and we've both contributed to Puerto Rico IndieVortice Online [es]), while @amypunchline is intensely active in independent media (she's the most active of all of us, working in Frecuencias Alternas [es] and Música Realenga, among other projects). @amparoarrebato has forsaken cybernetic presence for personal presence instead (that you barely hear from her doesn't mean she's not around). @veedot has her own Tumblr account in which she uploads her works of art (some of them are available for sale too). @arsenic447 isn't as active in social media, but that's due to his intense love for Pokemon.
Of the online communities we're currently aware of, Twitter is the one in which most of us spend more time. It's a double-edged sword: you can get a quick feel for what people are saying and thinking about current events, but you can also be drowned by a sea of inconsequential bull. It's up to the individual user to sift through the sand to get to the pellets of gold [in knowledge] lying underneath.
Other blogs we're aware of (Vortice Online, Puerto Rico Indie, 80 Grados [es], Rojo Gallito, etc) are true proof that conventional media is being swiftly rendered unnecessary. There are progressively less and less people who will take a newscaster's “word for it” without double-checking online. Not to say “this is it,” because it would be foolish to think that tech-oriented folk are a majority, but “this is BECOMING it” one baby step at a time. We're also glad that there are young people out there taking matters into their own hands, seeking the truth, the data, the news. It was about damned time that the other side of the coin was shown in plain view and with equal opportunity!
GV: How are female and gay voices represented in traditional media? Is it the same online?
@dianadhevi: The female voice in traditional media has improved, but it sometimes fears to push the envelope. You have Joy Behar and Christiane Amanpour, who shine, but aren't as blatant and witty as Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert. Both of these men have brilliant female writers, but why is it that traditional media can't sell the idea of a woman being the face of this type of show? Gay voices in traditional media have been stifled or limited: they use the LGBT movement for ratings on talk shows and made-for-tv movies. But to give them space to really talk about anything and everything outside of a special allotted time? We don't see it happening yet.
Now, if we took into account only local Puerto Rican media, this becomes a very disheartening answer. Puerto Rican traditional media has kept itself shielded from any real progress: women are still widely regarded as talking sex symbols (at best), and gay people are still the butt end of jokes. In the most serious end of the spectrum, these are stones best left unturned. The issues at hand are still ignored or made light of.
“Online” is a whole different game, and maybe that's why there's a large portion of Puerto Ricans who don't know how to deal with the change in dynamics. We're learning, though, to be more tolerant of dissenting voices. “Online” is a whole different playground, nobody is really “shut up” since, when a voice is censored somewhere, it may sprout up at another spot and start broadcasting again. The “force” might be in numbers, but it is also in the validity of the wielded argument and the logic in reasoning. That's why it IS different online, inasmuch as we're dedicated to sticking to our points and views. Until now, it has worked pretty well.

author: Alfredo Richner


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South Korea: Anti-War Protests in Seoul · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

As tensions in Korean peninsula intensified by yesterday's military drills, protesters in Seoul went out to the streets to demonstrate various anti-war performances, with slogans like ‘Peace to Korean peninsula’ and ‘Halt the vicious cycle of violence’, Catholic magazine ‘Here now’ posted photos of protests.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Trinidad & Tobago: Carnival Fete List  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“I personally still think that fetes are too expensive…prices will certainly determine which ones I will make it to”: Trinidad Carnival Diary is making a fete list and checking it twice.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Give Peace a Chance  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

How is Trinidad's capital city connected to John Lennon?  aka_lol explains.


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Armenia-Azerbaijan: Culture that unites rather than divides · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Ararat Magazine features a post by Global Voices’ Caucasus editor, co-penned with a Global Voices author and Lingua translator, on ethnic Armenian and Azeri coexistence in Georgia. The post is made up of other guest entries originally written as part of a new media project to amplify alternative voices on the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Azerbaijan: Children and Peace · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Sheki, Azerbaijan looks forward to 2011 and says that it hopes the New Year will bring peace. Every child has a right to such an environment, the blog notes, while also reminding readers that lives were lost despite a ceasefire agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan in their conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh.


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Azerbaijan: Let them eat cake… · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

As the birthday of the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, approaches, the Önər Blog [AZ] reminds readers of how residents in the country's second largest city of Ganja marked it last year. The blog sarcastically says that while the city is indeed famous for its giant pastries, baking a 48-metre long cake to celebrate the president's 48th birthday was perhaps a little too sycophantic when there are still significant problems such as a lack of constant drinking water.


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Bahrain: A Bloody Ashura! · Global Voices
Dareen Al Saad

chowderchunk shares with us a video of bloody Ashura processions in Bahrain. [Warning: Video contains graphic images.]

author: Dareen Al Saad


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Bermuda: Government Inspiration?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Vexed Bermoothes suspects that the government has sent him an inspirational postcard, saying: “Sending a post card won’t change the tone of Bermuda politics, halt the gang warfare, and or make us nicer people.”


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Bhutan: Memories of Kolkata · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Dorji Wangchuk from Bhutan visits Kolkata with a sense of nostalgic anticipation since he had first visited the city in 1977 with his father.


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China Blog Network · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A new website, China Blog Network, has just been launched today. It is a platform for blogs about China to connect to one another and for readers to discover new sources of China-related content.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Gold farming couple handed down heavy sentence · Global Voices
John Kennedy

In contrast to Cory Doctorow's recent novel For the Win, which made gold farming appear liberating and focused on the players, a court in Shanghai earlier this month chose to take aim at the two operators of a gold farm, one of many across the country, plotted between Nanjing and Shanda‘s Mir 2 servers in Shanghai.
With all the means, notes Shanghai blogger Ruan Yifeng, who has been following [zh] the trial since it began in 2007, available to a company as large as Shanda in dealing with things like power-levelers, game bots and mods, nobody expected that the court would go so far as to sentence the husband and wife team who ran this gold farm to six and three years in prison, respectively, with RMB 1.6 and 1.4 million in fines, and an additional four years probation for Dong Jie's wife, Chen Zhu, who suggests she was pregnant for most of the ten months during which the farm was in operation.
It is, Ruan writes
…我国迄今第一起因为使用外挂（并非制作外挂）而判刑的案件，大概也是判得最重的一起。
国家司法机关如此保护大公司的利益，创造出对资本家有利的司法解释，将没罪的人送进监狱，真是令人发指。
有了这个判例，从今以后，网游公司赚钱就更容易了，谁敢用外挂，就把他送进监狱！面对滚滚财源，谁还在乎小人物的权利。董杰和陈珠的人生被毁掉了，没关系，只有这样才能让其他的小偷感到害怕。再说谁叫董杰和陈珠昏了头，竟敢在老虎身上拔毛？
It's loathsome to see the state judiciary serve to protect the interests of a company in such a way, and to issue a judicial interpretation which benefits Capital and sends those who haven't committed any crime to prison.
Now, with this judicial precedent, it'll be far easier for Internet game companies to profit as anyone who dares use a mod can be sent straight to jail! Faced with such roaring profits, who will care about the rights of the little people? Dong Jie and Chen Zhu have had their lives destroyed, but who cares if, this way, we succeed in putting the fear in other thieves? In any event, nobody forced Dong and Chen to lose their heads and go start plucking the hairs off a tiger.
Among the news articles and court documents relating to the case and Shanda's war against gold farmers going back to 2006 that Ruan has collected is a letter sent to him by Chen herself. In it, she notes that in addition to the couple's fine of RMB 3 million, 90 desktop computers and RMB 80,000 were seized separately on the grounds that they had been illegally obtained, as well as a range of items including bank cards, phone cards and bank books to access previous wages and property income, leaving the couple destitute; she adds:
指控我有罪的证据，仅仅是我招聘过1个人，以及业务用的QQ是我和老公共用的。就这样判决我三年有期徒刑（缓刑四年），罚金140万，太牵强了。还说我参与对账，那账本在哪里呢？还是我口头对账？为什么没有一点证据就能定我也有罪？
作为一个孕妇，我从不去工作室，那些做代练的小孩从来也没有到过我的卧室，证词里有人说我也会到网上银行查询每天的收入情况，我问是这个人看见的吗？还是他个人以为呢？法院叫我这些话到二审的时候提出。
我今天质问法官很多，法官不回答我任何问题，只叫我上诉。很让人绝望，就象掉入很深的黑洞，法官只说判决不是他们自己能决定的，我不知道到底是谁能决定，他们说是上面决定的，那上诉还用吗？
As a pregnant woman, I never went into the work area, and the kids doing the gold farming never came into my bedroom. In the testimony, someone claims that I would check the bank accounts online every day to keep track of how much was coming in, but I ask, did that person actually see me do this? Or did they just suppose I had? The court just told me to wait until a second hearing to bring this up.
I had many questions for the judge today, but the judge wouldn't answer a single one of them, telling me just to appeal. I'm so disappointed, it's like I've fallen straight into a deep, black hole. The judge just says that the verdict isn't decided by them, so I have no idea who to talk to. They say the verdict gets sent down from above, so then what's the point of appealing?
Chinese MMORPG Tian Long Ba Bu, from Flickr user SimoneKaczmarz
Back to Ruan's blog, the text of the final judgment goes into detail regarding the scope of the couple's gold farming enterprise, from the name of the mod (Legend of Freezing Point) which was custom-adapted for the venture, how much customers were charged and gold farm hands paid, and the QQ (chat transcripts included), bank and broadband accounts used to process the nearly RMB 2 million that was earned over ten months.
It also gets into the technical details of how Legend of Freezing Point functioned, confirming that it was in fact a mod, that it circumvented standard client-server protocol for Mir 2, tampered with systems for identifying users, and disrupted normal operation of the game, leading to numerous complaints and Shanda's inability to properly operate the game, all violations of Mir 2 terms of service.
Public prosecutors argued that, with multiple instances of Legend of Freezing Point running on each computer in the gold farm, considering the scale on which Chen and Dong were able to power-level for customers, and that ‘Freezing Point’ relied on decrypting intercepted packets and intruding servers, among other things, the actions of the gold farm constituted disruption of financial transactions for Shanda, making this a violation of national law, a criminal act.
Lawyers for Chen and Dong, on the other hand, argued that at most the actions of their clients violated administrative regulations surrounding computer and network security and, possibly, the operation of a business without a license, warranting fines, not felony convictions.
The court, it seems, went with neither argument, and instead ruled that Chen and Dong's gold farm, specifically with the distribution of ‘Freezing Point’, definitely constituted operation of an unlicensed business, and cited major violations of China's laws concerning Internet publishing and digital rights, as well as of Shanda's copyrights.
So, does the punishment fit the crime?
Ruan's post has already received nearly 200 comments, here are a few:
是否损害运营商或者开发商的利益我不关心。
但外挂代练确实损害了不用外挂不代练的普通玩家的利益。
我花钱玩网络游戏，这里面包括了一个公平的游戏环境。
很多年以来，我一直觉得厂商可恶，没有能力维持公平环境，
而最可恶的就是这些外挂代练垃圾人，利用人性的弱点，谋人钱财害人时间。
I'm not really concerned about harm done to the interests of providers or developers.
Gold farming, however, truly does harm the interests of average players who don't rely on power-leveling.
I pay to play online games, and that includes having a fair playing field.
For years, I thought game owners were the bad guys, lacking the ability to maintain an equal playing environment, but even worse are these trash who take advantage of people's weaknesses, scheming to make money and wasting people's time.
楼上的,我怎么有一种智商的优越感
使用外挂是应该谴责,但是说要判刑七年,就……..,最多是民事,怎么成了这样
在这片神奇的土地上
You seem to have a sense of intellectual superiority
Use of gold farms should be criticized, but come on, seven years? At most this is a civil case, so how could this happen?
法律的公正性何在？贵国的法律似乎早已沦为权势集团欺压民众的工具了。求助于媒体就能解决问题吗？我看贵国的媒体也好不到哪儿去。
2L的，外挂代练固然违法，但你不觉得这种判罚太重了吗？？如果你不这么任务，那我只能说我也认同3L的看法。
Where has justice before the law gone? It seems that the law in this country has long since turned into a tool for the establishment to use to bully the public around. Does turning to the media solve any problems? I don't see much use in our country's media these days.
问题的关键是当事人应负民事责任还是刑事责任？是违法还是犯罪？是商业违规还是商业欺诈？
The key question here is whether those responsible ought to be dealt with under civil or criminal law. Was this merely illegal or was it a crime? Was it a commercial violation or was it commercial fraud?
当官的有钱的要干谁就能干了谁 悲
Officials have money, they can take down whomever they choose. Tragic.
我觉得可以向盛大施加压力，无利不起早，如果盛大没有进行过公关活动，法院不可能这么主动的审判同时还这么重的判罚，盛大肯定在里面动了手脚，在对法院质疑的同时可以对盛大施加压力。
I think we should put pressure on Shanda. People only hustle when their interests are at stake, and I think that if Shanda hadn't done any PR over this, there's no way the court would have been so forthcoming in bringing this to trial, and at the same time delivering such a heavy sentence. Shanda definitely stuck their fingers into this, and at the same time that we're raising doubts about the court, we should also be putting pressure on Shanda.
盛大是杀鸡儆猴啊，不知道有没有刑事附带民事诉讼。如果没有的话，盛大貌似也拿不到钱。
我看了判决书，觉得定罪的依据很成问题。法院说这个外挂程序属于“非法出版物”，这个非法出版物扰乱了市场秩序，所以触犯了法律。关键是普通的程序怎么就一定要说出版物呢？我自己随便写一个软件，放到网上 供人下载，也是在做非法出版吗？
Shanda just wants to make an example out of this. I'm not sure if criminal proceedings can arise from a civil suit, but if that's not possible, then Shanda wouldn't have made any money from this.
I read the verdict, and there seem to be some problems in the evidence used for the conviction. The court said that the mod used constituted an “illegal publication”, and that this illegal publication led to disruption of the market, therefore was in violation of the law. The key is whether standard applications can be said to be publications. If I write some random piece of software and put it online for people to download, does that also count as an illegal publication?

author: John Kennedy


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Colombia: During a Harsh Winter, President Santos Proposes Creation of New Cities · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

“President Juan Manuel Santos proposes the creation of new cities for that population that lives under risk, as we have seen this 2010 winter in Colombia. It is a great proposal and a very expensive project, of course, but it is more expensive to continue like we are: every raining season with thousands of families affected by floods in low lands and landslides on the mountains:” Albeiro Rodas at Colombia Passport.


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Cuba: “The Year of Zapata” · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Uncommon Sense has declared 2010 “The Year of Zapata”.  Read the blogger's full Top 10 List of Cubans who made a difference this year, here.


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Egypt: Sacred Sinai Peninsula  · Global Voices
Dareen Al Saad

The following narrative on the Sinai Peninsula by Nick still exhibits people's eternal interest and curiosity in sacred places.


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Haiti: Behind Cholera · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Cholera is a disease of the poor, of the disenfranchised. Poor people in poor countries. Cholera thrives where there is no clean water, where there is inadequate sanitation, where there are poor health systems”: Haiti Grassroots Watch takes an in-depth look behind the cholera epidemic.


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Haiti: Post-Election Update  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Two weeks after the preliminary results were announced, the streets of Port-au-Prince are calm, but the situation is just as confusing and worrying”: prophet N gives an update.


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India: Judging a Book by its Cover · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan of Selective Amnesia wonders why different books often have very similar looking jackets.


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India: Travel tales from Ooty · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Blogger and travel writer Charukesi visited Ooty recently and tells a tale of a not-much widely-known Ootea festival through her camera lenses.


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Lebanon in the eyes of an Iranian photo-blogger · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Mohmmad Reza Hassani is an Iranian professional photographer and photo-blogger who has lived and worked in Lebanon since 2009 . His photo blog has become a source to discover Iran-related affairs in Lebanon, from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent visit, to the exhibitions and concerts of Iranian musicians.
Waiting for Mahmoud
In October, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a trip to Lebanon that highlighted Iranian sway in Lebanon.
Listening to a golden voice
In August 2010, Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Iran's most famous protest singer performed a concert in “Beit al dine” in Lebanon.
Colourful life
The Iranian photo-blogger's camera does not only see celebrities, but life in motion too.
Visit the blog at http://mohammadrezahassani.com. All photos copyright Mohmmad Reza Hassani, reproduced here with permission.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Macedonia: Scholarships for African Students · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Ivana Dimitrovska published online her letter [MKD] to the editor of Utrinski vesnik daily, objecting discriminatory overtones in an article [MKD] about several scholarships for African students provided by the Macedonian government, blaming this program for a lack of scholarships for locals.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Pakistan: Being Smart About the Blasphemy Law · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Teeth Maestro feels that Pakistan needs to be smart about its Blasphemy Law and that what is required now is to improve the law and, more so, to make its implementation more effective and impartial.


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Russia: Newspaper Announces Its Partnership with Wikileaks · Global Voices
Dmitry Davidov

Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta known for its critical stance toward Russian authorities announced today its official partnership with notorious Wikileaks. This came as a punch toward less-known magazine Russian Reporter that, until now, claimed to be the official partner of Wikileaks.

author: Dmitry Davidov


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Saudi Arabia: Tips for Expatriates · Global Voices
Dareen Al Saad

American Bedu, an American living in Saudi Arabia, shares with us her tips on what makes a good expatriate in Saudi Arabia.


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Sudan: Happy holidays and a peaceful referendum · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

This post is part of our special coverage South Sudan Referendum 2011.
According to the 2005 Naivasha Agreement between the central government in Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Southern Movement, Southern Sudan will hold a referendum on whether or not to remain part of Sudan on 9 January 2011. Abyei, an area with a “special administrative status” will hold a separate referendum on whether to become part of South Sudan.
Here's a roundup of latest blog posts about Southern Sudan Independence Referendum 2011. Blogging from Southern Sudan, Maggie Fick wishes Southern Sudanese a peaceful referendum:
I’ve haven’t heard many carols this year, but something spirited is certainly in the air in the Southern Sudanese capital this holiday season. It’s the referendum. The south’s independence vote is looming larger here every day, in many ways.
There’s the towering and hard-to-miss digital countdown clock in one of Juba’s most hectic roundabouts. There’s the massive quantity of pro-separation paraphernalia blanketing the city (I received an email a yesterday from a pro-separation activist saying that “100,000 Referendum T-Shirts, 100,000 Caps, 100,000 Paper Flags and 200,000 Posters,” which he called “referendum awareness material,” had been delivered from Nairobi by a civil society group called Countdown to South Sudan Referendum 2011; I will post photos of the t-shirts etc. soon). And more than signs and shirts, there is a pervasive feeling of excitement, anticipation, and uncertainty among Juba residents, from the East African motorcycle taxi drivers I know to everyday southern citizens working in markets, schools, and clinics, to aid workers to diplomats to journalists…the referendum is the unavoidable topic of conversation, but given its huge import internationally and even larger impact here in Southern Sudan, why would anyone want to discuss anything else?
In “From Cairo to Canberra to Kansas: Southern Sudanese say “Referendum Oyay”” she discusses the decision to allow Southern Sudanese to vote in eight countries around the world:
Not far from my hometown, in Seattle, Washington, there’s a voter registration center open at 608 Maynard Ave. S., from 9 am to 6pm Monday through Saturday and from noon until 5pm on Sundays. Nope, my fellow Washingtonians are not prepping to participate in some ballot initiative or another. The registration center is for Southern Sudanese people who live in Washington state and who want to participate in determining the future of their homeland.
The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) is organizing “Out of Country Voting” in eight countries, so that Southern Sudan’s undeniably far-flung (think Australia to California to the UK) diaspora population. Kudos to the people who organized this effort.
It’s a startling contrast to think of voter registration happening in rainy holiday-season Seattle and at the same time under a tree in villages without electricity in various corners of Southern Sudan. But there you have it: the south’s self-determination vote is historic, and its impact will be far-reaching not only within the borders of Sudan and in its immediate vicinity in the region, but all over the world, where Southern Sudanese are getting the chance to exercise a hard-won right.
Laura Heaton describes the job of the “identifier” during the referendum:
As with most elections seen around the world, prospective voters in South Sudan’s referendum had to produce some sort of identification to verify that they were legally eligible to register for January’s vote. In a region long plagued by war, where people have often been on the move, and state capacity and reach minimal, one might anticipate some problems verifying South Sudan’s voters.
But remarkably, verifying the identity of southern Sudanese for the January 9 referendum may have been one of the easier parts of the process, thanks to women like Catherine Paul…
At each registration booth, two elders from the community were selected to serve as identifiers. If someone came to register who didn’t have an ID, the identifier’s job was to verify that he is who he says he is and that he meets the eligibility criteria. Asked whether there had been an instance when she didn’t know a person, Catherine shook her head. “Never.”
Alex Thurston writes, “Sudan: More trouble in Abyei”:
Three days ago, I wrote about fears of renewed civil war in Sudan. I focused on two problem areas: ambivalent rhetoric from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) about whether it would accept the results of an imminent referendum on Southern Sudanese independence, and continued tension in Abyei, a border region whose own referendum was recently postponed. The NCP’s rhetoric appears to have softened – an assistant to President Omar al Bashir, Nafie Ali Nafie, gave a statement yesterday on the (big) referendum that seemed to be “the first acknowledgement from the northern elite that the south would likely secede after a looming referendum” – but the situation in Abyei remains chaotic. Trouble in Abyei means trouble for Sudan.
The Repatriates to Abyei: a Denied Past and an Uncertain Future:
Thousands of people have packed up their luggage and returned to Abyei, the small spot between the North and South which has become the Achilles heel of the Naivasha Agreement. Some have come hoping for a better future, but what awaits them is extremely disappointing. Abyei, though rich in oil, is poor in everything else.
Ashoul Paul is a 55 year old widow whom I met when she was helping her sons take their baggage off the huge truck that transported them to Abyei. Although she is old, she has very high morale, and actively works like a twenty year old girl. Her children and grandchildren gathered around me asking to take photographs next to the luggage, while Ashoul started to sing a traditional Dinka song talking about homesickness, according to the interpreters who were with me.
Ashoul tells how she came from Wadi Halfa, thanks to the voluntary repatriation program. She used to work in river navigation. Her husband died, leaving her with eight boys and girls. She worked hard to raise them by herself thanks to her ongoing work. “I am now in my homeland which I left when I was a little girl. I will cultivate our land, and my older sons will help me raise their younger brothers and sisters. I am not afraid of the future”, she adds.
Where will South Kurdufan fall if Southern Sudan separates?: South Kordofan: Political Stillness Prevails
Finally, the approach of the referendum and its expected consequences of splitting the country into two halves put everyone on high alert and under severe pressure, let alone the demarcation State of South Kordofan, which lies exactly on the fire line between North and South.
The two states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan joined the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) during the civil war. The CPA has assigned the mechanism of “Popular Consultation” to the two states as a compromise commensurate with their status as demarcation states.
Considering the details of the “Popular Consultation” according to the text of the CPA, it is clear how much it is open to various interpretations, starting with the right to self-determination according to SPLM's vision and ending with making it a mere plaint mechanism. However, it is indisputable that its procedures are long and complex, and pass through several agencies and levels before reaching the final form, even though they are governed by accurately specified times that do not exceed three months in total.
Finally, follow Sudan Vote Monitor website from 3 January 2011 for real-time referendum related reports:
The purpose of Sudan Vote Monitor is to support the independent monitoring and reporting of the referendum process by Civil Society Organizations, the media and the general public. Sudan Vote Monitor will receive reports via text message, email and through its website. All reports will be mapped by our volunteers and posted to our website in real time. We will also produce a daily summary blog post of the reports we have received.
Reporting will start on Monday January 3, 2011
At the moment, we are busy trying to secure a shortcode. A shortcode is a 4-letter phone number that people can text messages to. Once we have our shortcode, we will be publicizing it as widely as possible, so that anyone from the public can send us a report describing their experience of the referendum.
This post is part of our special coverage South Sudan Referendum 2011.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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UAE: Sensational Fountains  · Global Voices
Dareen Al Saad

Do not miss the sensational fountains of Dubai which bristolg shared with us in the following video.


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Uruguay: Gay Rights in Uruguay · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

In the blog for Ola Uruguay, Jane McDevitt writes about Gay rights in Uruguay: “The current president’s much publicised liberal political ideology is being put to the test, as pressure increases from gay rights activists and human rights groups to legalize gay marriage, in a country where church influence on political issues has increasingly waned.”


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Venezuela: Hugo Chavez Granted Special Powers for 18 Months · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

On December 17, Caracas Gringo wrote that President Hugo Chavez “was granted special powers to rule by  presidential decree until June 2012.” An Enabling Law that Venezuelan Analysis reports was passed “in order to bring rapid relief to 130,000 flood victims and to further engrain 21 Century Socialism in the nation’s legal structure.” But according to Juan Cristobal in Caracas Chronicles, “Chávez had absolute power before, and he has absolute power now. There is little in these laws that changes that.”


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Yemen: Idyllic Perspectives · Global Voices
Dareen Al Saad

kemo898989 shares with us a completely different perspective of an idyllic Yemen in the following slideshow.


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Argentina: Buenos Aires Food Writers · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Maria Carra from Buenos Aires Foodies provides an English and Spanish version of a list of her favorite food writers in Buenos Aires, with a brief description of each blog.


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Bangladesh: The Finance Bubble – Will it Burst? · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

J. Rahman at Mukti observes the sharp twists and turns of the Bangladesh stock market and comments on the country's monetory policy.


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Belarus: More on the Post-Election Situation · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Democratist and Jamestown Foundation Blog discuss the post-election situation in Belarus; Information Policy writes about the hijacking of “independent media sites” during the election.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Caucasus: The Year in Review · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

With another year almost over, the annual review of events in the three countries making up the South Caucasus can be considered surprisingly positive in comparison to previous years. 2007 ended with a state of emergency declared in Georgia after opposition street protests, for example, while 2008 saw one also declared in Armenia after 10 people were killed following a bitterly disputed presidential election. The year ended with the albeit short-lived Russia-Georgia war, and 2009 was marked by the imprisonment of two video blogging youth activists in Azerbaijan.
So, what did 2010 hold in store for the South Caucasus? Well, with the first deployment of new and social media in elections in the region, to the pioneering use of online tools in conflict resolution and cross-border cooperation and communication, as well as an especially positive story towards the end of the year, read on.
Ethnic Armenians in the village of Tsopi, Georgia, co-inhabited with ethnic Azeris © Onnik Krikorian
To begin with, the first post of 2010 on Armenian-Azeri coexistence in Georgia was also to set the main theme for the whole year, with many blog posts and analytical articles on the role new and social media could play in regional conflict resolution and transformation to follow. Both also formed the basis for participation on a panel and expert's working group at the U.S. Institute of Peace as well as a guest post for the World Development Report 2011.
Contacts formed in Armenia and Azerbaijan as a result of this work also saw Global Voices’ Caucasus editor engage in outreach to potential participants from Armenia and Azerbaijan for the region's first ever Social Innovation Camp held in Tbilisi, Georgia, in April. And, with local NGOs and international donors slowly starting to follow this lead, a special coverage page, Caucasus Conflict Voices, was launched and will continue throughout 2011.
Another interesting development in 2010, however, was the increasing use of new and social media for non-politicized purposes. As with LGBT issues in Armenia, one example of that could be found in the form of challenging some of the more taboo subjects in the region. In particular, this meant sex, not only in general, but particularly in Georgia.
Perhaps the most buzzing topic in the Georgian social media scene was not politics, elections, sport, crisis, earthquakes or catastrophe. Instead, one of the most discussed topics was actually about a new television show, Ghame Shorenastan. Shown on Imedi TV, the title translates as Night with Shorena and covers topics about sex.
Nevertheless, tragedy also struck in Georgia earlier this year when  luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died in accident just hours before the opening of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. Twitter users commented on the incident, while a month later bloggers were critical of a fake news report which panicked a nation still recovering from its 2008 war with Russia.
On Saturday 13 March, the Imedi national television broadcaster aired a mock news report stating that Russian tanks had invaded Georgia and that the president was dead. Aired at 8pm, the usual time slot for daily news, the nation's most trusted broadcaster […] offered its audience the worst possible case scenario of what might happen a week after municipal elections scheduled for the end of May in the country's capital, Tbilisi.
Of course, with another Genocide resolution under consideration in the U.S. Congress, politics did briefly rear its head, but otherwise all three countries would soon be concentrated on something else — the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo, Norway. Moreover, unlike previous years, the international music competition was largely held without any major scandals involving acts from the Caucasus.
True, politics were to materialize again soon after, but if in previous years that had been through largely politically polarized posts from government or opposition activists, the May local elections saw the serious deployment of both new and social media to monitor them.
[…] Considered another test of Georgia's fledgling democratization process, both deployed and relied on online and social media technologies to monitor the vote perhaps as never before during any other previous election held in the country or, indeed, the region.
For much of the remaining part of the year, however, online activity continued to be defined by the non-political use of online tools. A grass-roots movement to prevent the demolition of a Soviet-era cinema to make room for the reconstruction of a church successfully used new and social media as well as traditional canvassing in the Armenian capital, for example.
And, despite having the slowest and most expensive connections in the region, videos uploaded to YouTube of hazing in the Armenian military as well as of physical abuse in schools also resulted in forcing the authorities to act. A campaign to stamp out domestic violence in a fairly patriarchal and traditional country also went online.
The issue of domestic violence in Armenia is well known, albeit rarely spoken about openly. However, a video interview with the family of a young woman who died of injuries sustained after being beaten by her husband and his mother has shocked and angered many.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Azerbaijan, the erection of the world's highest flag might have made headlines the world over, but it was bloggers that were to report and comment on what happened next.
[…] while major international news outlets such as the BBC and Euronews covered the inauguration of the multi-million dollar project, the fate which befell the flag was not widely reported. Even the world's highest flag, beating the previous record holder in North Korea, was unable to stand up to Baku's strong wind.
YouTube, DailyMotion, Facebook and blogs instead told and commented on the story. One was d'Effektiv which posted video of the flag two days after it was hoisted and damaged, sarcastically noting that a replacement flag also met the same fate.
The same month, albeit outside of the official campaign period, a number of candidates for parliamentary elections to be held in the oil-rich country started to use social media for outreach ahead of the November vote. Interestingly, however, and as is increasingly happening in Armenia and Georgia, a new media event in Azerbaijan also highlighted the use of such tools for non-political and especially commercial purposes.
Regardless, the parliamentary election played out as expected, with anti-Armenian propaganda used against some candidates, and allegations of unlawful harassment  and other electoral code violations before election day itself.
Overall, however, the year was marked by an increasingly mature use of new and especially social media tools. In Armenia, for example, bloggers also reacted on reports that police were targeting teenagers who dressed differently from the norm, while their counterparts in Azerbaijan were concerned, on the basis of individual freedom rather than religious conviction, by the introduction of a ban on the hijab in schools.
Emin Milli (left) reunited with Adnan Hajizade (right) after their release this week. Photo via @leylanajafli on Twitpic.
But as the year ends with Wikileaks the center of international attention, and even though quite a few headlines centered on cables from the Caucasus, perhaps the most significant event of 2010 was its most positive. Detained and sentenced in Azerbaijan last year, video blogging youth activist Adnan Hajizade was conditionally released from prison in November.
The following day, so too was his friend and associate Emin Milli. The two Amnesty International Prisoners of Conscience later made a video thanking supporters and international organizations who lobbied on their behalf in what most observers considered to be a politically motivated attempt to silence the two men.
Having continuously covered their case since the outset, Global Voices was mentioned alongside others in the credits.
What will happen in 2011 is anybody's guess, but 2010 was certainly marked by the popularity of social networking sites over blogs, especially for activism. Nevertheless, even if increasing, Internet penetration remains low. Examining the number of users on Facebook, now the most popular online social network in the region according to Alexa.com, is perhaps indicative of that.
At time of writing, and according to Facebook's own advertising reach tool, Armenia has 106,500 users on the social networking site, Azerbaijan 276,680, and Georgia 425,540. Whatever does happen, however, you can be sure Global Voices will cover it. In the meantime, its Caucasus section wishes readers Happy Holidays and all the best for 2011.


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China: Legal action threatened over #netfreedom violation · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Sina blogger Wu Fei has written a letter to Tencent CEO Ma Huateng threatening legal action over the company's specific practice of filtering from QQ one term protected by the constitution and used across the Chinese Internet, government websites included: “freedom of speech”.


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China: South-North Water Transfer Project  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Yin Mingwan, a senior engineer at the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, explains in China Dialogue that the South-North Water Transfer Project won’t solve Beijing’s chronic water shortage without managing water consumption.


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Cote d’Ivoire: Electoral Fiction · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Koranteng writes about what he calls “electoral fiction”: I write this of course after watching events in Côte D'Ivoire over the past few weeks. The initial emotion was bemusement and indeed laughter – how can one not laugh at the spectacle of someone literally tearing up election results to prevent them from being declared.


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D. R. of Congo: Ben Affleck wants to make movie about Congo · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ben Affleck would like to make a movie about the Democratic Republic of Congo: “With the success of DRC Congo’s star singer Fally Ipupa during the MAMAs, now Oscar-winning screenwriter, actor, director and now Africa advocate Ben Affleck wants to make a movie about the troubled eastern Democratic Republic of Congo but has found no Hollywood taker yet.”


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El Salvador: Spread of Drug Cartel Violence Feared · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Commenting on a recent news report about the fear of Mexican drug cartel violence spreading to El Salvador, Tim writes: “If drug cartels were to establish greater operations in El Salvador, beyond the mere transportation of drugs, it would pose another serious threat to El Salvador's already overwhelmed police and security forces.”


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Ghana/Kenya: Ghanain Producer in Nairobi for Film Workshops · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ghanaian actor and director Ruffy Samuel is in Kenya for a series of film making workshops in a joint collaboration between the Kenya government’s Ministry of Youth and Sports and Unicef.


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Christmas Recipes in Global Food Blogs · Global Voices
Maria Grabowski

Christmas cookies by Photolinda on Flickr (CC-BY-NC)
Christmas means ‘coming home’ to many people – but when that isn’t possible, preparing a magic meal can be a consolation. Bloggers of many continents have shared their favorite holiday recipes. With these you can dream yourself back home or even visit a place you’ve never been to before. Where are you celebrating Christmas this year, and what are you serving?
Local specialties and secret family recipes for Christmas food are exactly what you need to create just the right feeling – whether it’s Brazilian breakfast rabanada, American sour creme coffee cake or Bulgarian pastry, banitsa.
Bon appetite and merry Xmas from Global Voices bloggers who shared links!
South Africa  – ‘ms_kamini’ blogs on Deelishuss! and shares a recipe for an alternative eggnog that serves good in warm weather.
Tanzania – Make a traditional Pilau with guidance from Miriam Rose Kinunda on A Taste of Tanzania.
India – Both picture and text on Goan Food Recipes explain how to make Goan sweets specialties.
Indonesia – Indonesian food blog, Cooking and Baking Laboratory encourages beginners to try the Manado speciality, coconut soufflé Klapertaart.
Azerbaijan – Christmas is catching up among the youth in Baku, though not widely celebrated in Azerbaijan. Aygun Janmammadova recommends a filo strudel for mushrooms and cheese lovers and more Azerbaijan cuisine is shared on AZ Cookbook.
Bulgaria – Hit the Road Travel Blog promotes Banitsa – a popular pastry with the choice of pumpkin, cheese or spinach stuffing. Other recipes available in Bulgarian at Yellow Kitchen.
Ukraine – Try Veggie Prairie Girl Gerda’s version of the sweet wheat porridge kutia, or challenge yourself with the twelve-dish Christmas Eve supper described by Yasmin Coles on Friends Eat.
Estonia – Red cabbage and beets are part of the holiday season recipes on food-blog Nami Nami.
France – In Alsace the Christmas cookies, bredela, are prepared weeks in advance and go well with hot chocolate or spicy tea. Find your preferred version in French blogs Plumes d’Anges or La peau d’ourse.
Denmark – The online food community Friends Eat list the best of Danish Christmas dishes and include a video demonstration of the traditional Ris à la mande. EU Mom blog explains the traditions surrounding the food.
Latin America – The forum Intermaniacos shares great Latin American Christmas dishes: Hallacas from Venezuela, Colombian buñuelos con natilla, vitel toné from Argentina, tamal de puerco from México and Peruvian panetón.
Mexico – Freelance writer Lesley Téllez recommends ponche, a traditional Mexican Christmas punch.
Peru – Learn how to make a Peruvian classic, tamales, with this video of mom and daughter cooking duo.
Puerto Rico – The passionate cook, Elba, shares a complete YouTube videography demonstrating Puerto Rican Christmas dinner.
Trinidad & Tobago – Sarina Nicole aka. Trini Gourmet finds Trinidad's pastelles to be the seasonal delight.
United States – Kentucky based Joi's Get Cooking, provides recipes for both Christmas cookies and Christmas doughnuts.

author: Maria Grabowski


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Hong Kong: Class relations and the democracy movement · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Hu Sunzi from China Study Group introduces and comments on sociologist HF Hung's recent writing on the class relation and democracy movement in Hong Kong. The article contextualizes the political movement in the colonial history.


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Hungary: New Media Law and Censorship · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

BloggingPortal.eu and Hungarian Spectrum (here and here) discuss Hungary's new media law. According to BloggingPortal.eu, “[u]nder this new law, a National Media and Communications Authority (NMHH) will be set up – a body that Reuters reports will be ‘dominated by people loyal to the ruling Fidesz party.’ Members of this new authority (all appointed by the government) will oversee all media in Hungary – including group blogs – opening the door to politically motivated censorship.”


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India: Chakrata in Pictures · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Anil Yadav travels to Chakrata in Uttarakhand, India and tells a story of rural life through pictures.


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Japan: Celebrating the Emperor’s Birthday · Global Voices
Tomomi Sasaki

Today is a national holiday to celebrate Emperor Akihito's birthday. Bruce Meyer-Kenny at Demotix posted some images from the celebration at the Imperial Palace. The Emperor is now 77 years old.

author: Tomomi Sasaki


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Kenya: Of Drug Barons, Rogue Envoy and Poisoned ICC  · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Of Drug Barons, Rogue Envoy and Poisoned ICC in Kenya: “Only in Kenya do you find the title Honourable before the name of a drug baron. And the Kenyan voter love them while the Diaspora applaud the bling bling MPs as hard working. Woe unto you envious, lazy mortals for questioning the source of their wealth.”


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Kenya: Remember When Former Kenyan Minister Topped Twitter List?  · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Do you remember when former Kenyan Minister of Education topped Twitter list?: “William Ruto was among the top three trending list with the hash tag #Rutoplaylist. Ruto is receiving a lot of attention on the social site, he comes a close third after tweets about Lil Wayne’s release from prison with the hash tag #weezysfirsttweetfromjail.”


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Lebanon: Where the “presidency” checks your Gmail · Global Voices
Layal Al Khatib

Lebanese blogger Mir was surprised when she was alerted by Gmail of an unusual activity in her account; where an IP mapped to presidency.gov.lb accessed her account at 3am. She shared her story and a screen shot in this post.

author: Layal Al Khatib


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Michael Anti: Blogging the gap between China and Japan · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

At the end of a three-month stay in Japan as a visiting fellow at the University of Tokyo, Michael Anti, the Chinese journalist, researcher, media activist and blogger, talked to GV Japan about his current mission: facilitating understanding between Japan and China.
Real China, according to Anti, is the one that shows through the Chinese blogs, bulletin boards and independent Internet media whose authors are often professional journalists, and it has nothing to do with the one propagandized by the government through the “standard” media.
But the Japanese media has yet to understand the lesson.
Stuck in their old (almost obsolete) system, they don't trust the Internet media, and of course they would never rely on bloggers to get their news. And there's the rub! You cannot think to report on what really happens in China unless you turn your attention away from propaganda to people's voices.
And vice versa. The Chinese people will understand Japan only when they stop reading biased bulletin boards like 2channel and visit Japan.
With wit and humor, Michael Anti explained to us why the Chinese and Japanese bloggers are the diplomats of the future.
Michael Anti
What was the purpose of your trip, and what did you accomplish?
As a result, I talked to many people in the media, many politicians, and all the “big” bloggers and Japanese people. I think I changed some of their ideas. Now, we will do some more activities in the next year; for example, inviting Chinese bloggers to visit Japan. And there will be other initiatives like this to give more chances to both sides to understand each other better.
Is there anything that disappointed you, coming here?
Was there something that surprised you?
How about China instead?
What do you think Chinese should know about Japan, that they can’t know because, as you said, the Japanese mainstream media?
Now that you’re going back to China, if you had a conference right now, what would be the first message you give to your audience?
What would be your advice to Japanese media to improve the connection to Japanese civil society?
Do you think things will change?
Will you miss Japan?
Michael Anti tweets in Chinese at @mranti.

author: Scilla Alecci


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Nigeria: Stop the auction of stolen Benin mask · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Help stop the auction of Stolen 16th Century Benin Mask, which were looted from the palace of the Benin King, Nigeria by the British Expeditionary Force.


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Russia: List of Regional Governors’ Online Tools · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

“Vedomosti” newspaper, published [RUS] a detailed list of online tools of Russian regional governors. The list includes links to personal websites, blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook profiles, and even YouTube channels.

author: Gregory Asmolov


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Russia: Media Coverage of Manezh Riots · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Good Treaty posts a detailed review of the Russian press coverage of the Manezh riots in Moscow.


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Sri Lanka: A Rational Approach to Re-settlement · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Blogger Ratmale at Serendipity hopes that there will be rational and consistent approach taken in the re-settlement of the 150,000+ people currently living in Colombo, who will be re-settled as part of the Colombo Redevelopment Plan.

author: Aparna Ray


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Sudan: My Juba Diary · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

This is Grains of Masala's Juba Diary. Juba is the regional capital of Southern Sudan: “Interesting ride; I love taxi drivers! They are such a great source of the most amazing stories. My driver was a Ugandan who came to Juba 4 years ago…I bully him a little, and ask him if he has a second wife in Juba, he laughs and says its too expensive to have a wife or a girlfriend in Juba…”


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Tunisia: Unemployed Man’s Suicide Attempt Sparks Riots  · Global Voices
Lina Ben Mhenni

This post is part of our special coverage of Tunisia Revolution 2011.
An unemployed Tunisian set himself on fire in protest against his joblessness, sparking a wave of riots on the ground and solidarity and support on social networking platforms.
While the fate of Mohamed Bouazizi, aged 26, from Sidi Bouzid, in southern Tunisia, remains unclear, Tunisian netizens ceased the incident to complain about the lack of jobs, corruption and deteriorating human rights conditions in their country.
From Facebook to Twitter to blogs, Internet users expressed their solidarity with Mohamed, who had graduated with Mahdia University a few years ago, but could not find a job. Being the only breadwinner in his family, he decided to earn a living and with his family’s help, he started selling fruit and vegetable from a street stall. His venture gave him very little, enough to guarantee the dignity of his family. But city hall officials were on the look out, and have seized his goods several times. He tried to explain to them that what he was doing was not his choice that he was just trying to survive. Each time, his goods were confiscated, he was also insulted and asked to leave the city hall premises. The last time this happened, Mohamed lost all hope in this life and decided to leave it forever. He poured gasoline on himself and set himself on fire.
On Facebook, several groups were created to denounce what happened. Mr President, Tunisians are Setting Themselves on Fire (Ar) is such a group. In less than 24 hours, the group attracted 2,500 members, and today boasts more than 10,000 fans. In less than 24 hours, it has also been censored by the authorities, who have clamped down on the Internet with an iron fist.
Here are two screen images, the second showing what Tunisians see when they try and access the page:
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Some bloggers wrote about what happened and expressed their anger. Writing in a Tunisian dialect, Boukachen wrote a post entitled The Sidi Bouzid Holocaust:
الحكاية يا جماعة ميش جديدة، عندها سنين حالة المناطق الداخلية ميزيريا تتحد في تسليطها على الناس الظروف المناخية و تهميش هالمناطق بكل لامبالاة و فرح دائم و طحين مستمر. اما الحكاية ما تاقفش هنا، لأنو الاعلام المنحط متاع بلاد العم بوكشان يمارس تعتيم كامل عالحكاية،…
Tunisian Girl added:
Dernièrement , les immolations par le feu se sont multipliées en Tunisie .Les acteurs de ces actions sont généralement des citoyens tunisiens qui ont perdu tout espoir en une vie descente . Chômage et pauvreté  sont au rendez-vous et  ont envenimé leur existence.
The Tunisian government did not find another solution  but to censor the websites disseminating the story and imposing a blockade on the city of Sidi Bouzid, where people are expressing their anger by protesting in the streets.
On Twitter, the furor is also continuing, with the hash tag #sidibouzid trending among Tunisian users.
This post is part of our special coverage of Tunisia Revolution 2011.

author: Lina Ben Mhenni


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Zambia: 1964 Independence Agreement Threatens to Split Nation · Global Voices
Gershom Ndhlovu

Zambia has in recent weeks been faced with clamours of secession by one of its regions with which it merged at independence from Britain in October 1964 to form a unitary state.  The region now known as Western Province (formerly Barotseland) was an autonomous region before independence headed by the Litunga, king of the Lozi people.
The people calling for secession have alleged that successive Zambian administrations from the first president Kenneth Kaunda who signed the Barotseland Agreement five months before Zambia attained independence, to Frederick Chiluba, to the late Levy Mwanawasa, and now Rupiah Banda, have ignored the spirit and letter of the agreement.
It appears the secessionists were emboldened after the Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) made submissions to the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) draft constitution, demanding the acknowledgment of some provisions in the Barotseland Agreement of 1964 in the new constitution. The Constitutional Conference refused to acknowledge the agreement.
This, however, is not the first time that Lozis have raised the issue of the agreement. In 1994, just over three years after Chiluba took over from Kaunda, a group of prominent Lozis gathered in Lusaka to discuss the issue which somehow fizzled out until this year.
The issue has generated varying emotions from a cross-section of Zambians, with some agreeing with the secessionists’ sentiments and others against and, as usual, the debate is quite intense in the blogosphere. Following the assault of an opposition leader, Charles Milupi, who is also an MP in the area for singing the Zambia national anthem at one of his rallies, readers at Lusaka Times had this to say:
Kamuyongole Manyekaela wrote:
This matter just wont go away, had I been Banda, I will sit down with all stakeholders to find a solution before the country break outs into civil strife.
bwezani said “those idiots” should be arrested:
let us arrest all those causing trouble in this province. if this is true then find those idiots and arrest them.
MALIKOPO wrote:
BAROTSELAND IS PART OF ZAMBIA SO WHY BEAT THIS MAN MR MILUPI FOR SINGING THE ZAMBIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM.THE IG SHOULD SWIFTLY ARREST THE CULPRITS OTHERWISE MORE INCIDENTS LIKE THIS ONE WILL HAPPEN AGAIN. LETS HAVE A PEACEFUL ZAMBIA .
MrK asked, “Who is really behind this barotseland secession movement?”:
When a national politician cannot sing the national anthem in Western Province, I would say things have gone far enough.
Who is really behind this barotseland secession movement? Do they have any better intentions for the people of Western Province that the national leadership? Or are their intentions worse?
This is why I am generally against devolution from national government to provincial government, because of the chance of simply exchanging a national elite for a regional elite.
Decentralize power to the district or even better local council level, and a lot of problems will go away. Including the idea of secession for Barotseland.
What Zambian must be asking themselves is whether they are any different from other Africans living under civil wars, said Kamuyongole Manyekaela:
Every civil war has its ‘story’ – the personalities, the social cleavages, the triggering events, the inflammatory discourse, the atrocities etc. What Zambian must be asking themselves is whether they are any different from other Africans living under civil wars. Like, are there structural conditions – social, political or economic – which make Congo, Sierra Leon etc more prone to civil war than Zambia? Might it be that the same inflammatory politician, playing on the same social cleavages, and with the same triggering events, might ‘cause’ war under one set of conditions and merely be an ugly irritant in another? The evens unfolding in Barotseland clearly shows we are equally prone to these conditions. We are basically at war brothers and sisters – mark my word.
The Lozis should be given their freedom, argued Inkuba @ TI:
I think the Lozis must be granted their freedom instead of hanging around with corrupt,thiefing so called leaders.Western province is very province and is best managed traditional land for interest of community not individual exploitation.I personally admire the Lozis’ unity,intelectuality,moral uprightness.Keep it up guys.reject the sarogates,hynas who want to feast on other regions’s riches in the name of one nation having failed to manage and invest in their own regions.
Pukuchwe Munyelela Siliba wrote:
A story is told of a jackal that urinated and defacated in the well after it drunk from it, forgetting that on its way from this long journey, it will need to refresh from the same well. We all know what happened to it. The people who urinated and defacated on the Barotse agreement after the signing of this agreement brought the independence of Zambia will have themselves to blame when this country is set alight. The blood of innocent people who will perish from such a civil war will surely cry on their heads. Remember that Zambezi River from which Zambia got its name flows through the Barotseland territory. it would be wise for the current politicians to sit with the people of Barotseland and other stakeholders and resolve this issue amicably.
Mulozi asked why the Zambian government is ignoring civil war in the making:
Why is govt ignoring this potential civil war in the making. All ring leaders should be hunted down and locked up on treason charges. These characters are embarassing us real lozis. They dont even understand what they are fighting from. For more than 50 years before zambian independence, barotseland benefitted from financial support from the british mornachy; how much of it trickled down to lozis who are not members of the royal family? Nothing! The royal family monopolised all the wealth and sent their kids to US and UK university while the rest of barotseland wallowed in poverty. We dont want to return to such nonsense. Arrest these fools pliz and save us all this embarrassment.
Below are citizens’ opinions following a story in the Zambian Watchdog in which the minister of information and broadcasting who is also chief government spokesman, Ronnie Shikapwasha, warned a group of Barotseland Agreement sympathisers against printing and distributing copies of the document (The site does not have permanent link to individual comments):
Kelly Walubita wrote:
Why is government trying to prematurely burry this matter? This is an issue which had been takled and presented before our authorities since 1960s. This year we saw the Lozi people reinforcing it again in the draft constitution so that it wud be become law. Our forefathers taught us, guided us, led us and still their spirits are drilling us to take action else we remain stagnat.
Shikapwasha will bear the blood of the Lozis who will perish in any blood shed because we are not prepared for war but dialogue and our plight recognised.
Her Ladyship advised:
Lozis, please listen to SHIKAPOPO though he has no brains he is part of the current government until we vote again. Circulating material considered as seditious is very dangerous. Further, how sure are you that what you are circulating is the genuine Barotse agreement of 1964? I urge all Lozi speaking people to remain calm and I also implore the MMD government to call these people to the table and discuss, dissect and agree wayforward concerning the BA. Ignoring them is what is infuriating them and the unfolding of this Barotse saga is another proof of the failures of the NCC to which this document was presented but taken with the same casual approach they had for the 50% plus 1 and the bill of rights!
Tatila wrote:
… let people have the knowledge of the barotse agreement, why so foolish after you’ve read the truth you decide to hide it from ohter people, Malanga hao NJOKO TUWEEE…. YOU don’t even know what sedtious means, afterall you donnot fit to be information minister,…Leave Mutangelwa along that person is innocent. circulating those copies does not mean war but education to ordinarly citizens so that they can have light in everything ,which greed people like you enjoys alone fool. Utuele bu kuba nja tuwee….idiot.
Emmanuel wrote:
“Government orders Bartose secessionists to stop re-printing 1964 agreement”….BARTOSE? Please check spellings before posting, especially in headlines.
Now, let’s imagine the agreement is restored today. In short, all Lozis will cease to be Zambians forthwith. We’ll ask them to return to Barotseland and apply for visas to cross to Zambia. We’ll most likely deny them visas. Then all Zambians in Barotseland will be kicked out and head back home to Zambia and take over jobs left behind by Barotse natives; All lozi ministers and ambassadors will lose their jobs. It will be interesting to see Barotseland import food from Zambia. Of course we’ll have to import fish.
Bottom line is: if the agreement is genuine, then the right thing to do is to restore it…put Army trucks on stand by to ship Lozis back home; Rid off the military of all Barotse natives, etc.
I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THIS COME TRUE.
You can read the text of the agreement from a post published in June, 2009 by Namakando Nalikando-Sinyama and another one in Zambian Watchdog.
Barotseland is a Facebook group where discussions are going on about the Barotseland Agreement. Nshinka Lupupa wrote:
Let's reject tribalism. The Barotseland Agreement was not meant to create another country, I have shared a link to the full Agreement. Please take your time to study it before promoting matters you do not understand. http://www.zambianwatchdog.com/2010/11/02/full-baratseland-agreement-of-1964/
Paletsa Nasilele wrote:
its bin long cnc [since] i witnest a viva. Barotse guys ar mekin it hapen in mongu. VIVA BAROTSELAND, VIVA BAROTSE FIGHTER!!!.
Last year, Nalikando posted a full text of UK parliamentary debates on Barotseland Agreement:
Rhodesia (31 Oct 1975)
Sir Ronald Bell: …, and we got none. Indeed, I was involved in the negotiations for the independence of Zambia at the time of the break-up of the Federation, because I was professionally instructed on behalf of Barotseland. Dr. Kaunda and all those with him made it clear that if we sought to impose conditions which they did not like they would sweep them aside as soon as they obtained their independence….
Oral Answers to Questions — Commonwealth Affairs: Zambia (13 Dec 1966) See 3 other results from this debate
Mr John Biggs-Davison: asked the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs what communication he has received from the President of Zambia about the modification of the Barotseland Agreement 1964.
Zambia (26 Jan 1967)
Sir Ronald Bell: Has any recent communication from the Government of Zambia to the Prime Minister referred to the unilateral abrogation by that country of the Barotseland Agreement of 1964? If so, what representations has the Prime Minister made in reply?
Aden (19 Jun 1967)
Mr John Lee: …untouched. We know what is happenning there now. We tried to do the same thing in Uganda and there was the rift between Buganda and the rest of the country. We attempted it to some extent in Rhodesia, with Barotseland, but this attempt was squashed. We are doing exactly the same thing with the High Commission Territories in South Africa. We have given independence to undemocratic Lesotho…
Whatever is the case with the Barotse Agreement, the Zambian government has a duty to sit down and discuss this issue with all parties concerned before Zambia in particular, and Africa in general, is plunged into yet another needless and avoidable conflict.

author: Gershom Ndhlovu


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“In the beginning was the Word”: Blogs by Bible translators · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet.
Computer support for Bible translators in Nairobi
This week Christians (apart from those following the Julian calendar) will celebrate the birth of Jesus. Christianity appears in many forms around the world and has around 2.2 billion adherents. In this post we take a look at the blogs of the people trying to make sure Christian scripture can be understood in as many languages as possible – Bible translators.
According to the figures provided by one major Bible translation partnership, there are about 350 million people who do not have any of the Bible available in their own language, and there are currently more than 1,900 active translation projects. An “Audio Bible ministry” has recorded the New Testament in 500 languages – such as Chamacoco in Paraguay, Pangasinan in the Philippines, Bodo in India, and Kupsabiny in Uganda. In the Peruvian Amazon, a group of tribal churches is working on translating the Bible into native languages. In Ethiopia a local church is involved in Bible translation projects within the country, and in sending missionaries to Asia and to other parts of Africa.
Answering a need
Last year David Roberts, who blogs as Cornish Man in Africa was happy to learn that a project he helped to set up had just published Genesis in Lama, a language spoken in Togo, Benin and Ghana. He quoted a man who was delighted by the book:
“I couldn’t make it to the dedication of the book of Genesis last Saturday, but I spent the whole of the following day reading the copy that my neighbour had bought. Later in the week, I cycled over from my village to Kanté, a round trip of about twelve miles, just so that I could buy my own copy. I’m so impressed with it. French is difficult for me, but it is so clear in Lama. Even if I die today, I can say that I was able to read the first translated book of the Old Testament in Lama. I’m grateful to God for that.”
David Ringer quotes Novethan Shanui, a pastor in Bambalang village in Cameroon, where a language called Chirambo is spoken:
“The people will know and will believe that Christianity is their thing when they see it in their language. In the past — and I think still now — many think that Christianity is the white man’s religion. And I think part of it is that they don’t have it in their language. And I think that, truly, if it was also their thing, why is it not in their own language? Why did God not also speak in their language? So, I think that having the Bible in their language will make them feel that Christianity also is their thing.”
Challenges
However, translating the Bible is not a simple task. David Frank wrote recently at the Better Bibles Blog about his experience overseeing a translation project in an African country (whose name he doesn’t mention):
I recently returned from Africa, where I was working with a translation of the Gospel of Luke into a language that has had no previous Bible translation and a culture that has had very little contact with Christianity. I was not responsible for producing the translation into this language, but I was responsible for evaluating the translation. This was a very isolated language group, geographically and culturally. […] As to be expected, there were some translation challenges when it came to certain terms for flora and fauna and geography. Though there are sheep and cows, this group has no donkeys or camels, and no words for them. […] This brings us to the verse in Luke that reads, in this language, “It is more easy for a hippo to pass in the hole of a needle than a rich person to accept that God can be king over him.” This is the English backtranslation of Luke 18:25. Interesting! Is this legitimate, or, for the sake of accuracy, do you have to insist that a word for “camel” be borrowed into the language to translate this verse? I have a hard time saying that the translation is not accurate and legitimate. I kind of like it, really. Now, obviously, if you were looking for a match for the Greek word κάμηλος, this target language word backtranslated as “hippo” wouldn’t seem to be a good match. But if you widen your perspective a bit, and don’t just look at words but rather at meanings in context, then in this particular context, a target language word for “hippo” is arguably a good translation of Greek κάμηλος.
Philip Hewer is working with a team of translators to translate the Bible into Kasem, a language of Ghana:
In Jeremiah 48:17 we have the exclamation:
“How broken is the mighty scepter, how broken the glorious staff!” (New International Version)
“How the mighty scepter is broken, the glorious staff!” (New Revised Standard Version)
[…] Of course, the translation of “sceptre” in Kasem is not straightforward, but a chief has a ceremonial walking stick which is a symbol of office. This comes close to the “glorious staff” of the second line, which is parallel in meaning to “sceptre”. Added to which, the “sceptre” and the “staff” are themselves symbols of power and rule, and some English versions express this meaning, rather than the symbolism:
“Its powerful rule has been broken; its glory and might are no more.” (Good News Bible)
In Kasem, in order to maintain the two-line parallelism of the Hebrew poetry and also to fill out the symbolism with its significance we currently have:
“See (how) the chieftaincy walking stick is now broken! Moab no longer has power!”
In the following video, we see translators of the Bible into Babanki (spoken in Cameroon) using software called Adapt It:
A learning process
At Kouya Chronicle, Eddie Arthur (Director of Wycliffe Bible Translators UK) thinks about what a translator gains:
It is a fundamental truth noted by many authors that the process of taking the Gospel across cultures inevitably changes the person who carries the message. This is especially true of translators. The struggle to express the truth God’s revelation within the bounds of a new language and culture inevitably opens up the translator to new insights and understandings about the nature and character of God. […] One example of this might be my experiences trying to understand the nature of the atonement in Kouya culture [of Côte d'Ivoire]. The Kouya see salvation as primarily a deliverance from spiritual powers; a transfer of allegiance from the kingdom of darkness to God’s Kingdom. Their understanding of the atonement does not deny penal-substitution, but it adds a depth and breadth of understanding that is absent from much Western commentary.
Is translation destructive?
In another post, Eddie Arthur raises the question of the effect of Christian mission work on local culture, responding to this article about the Bible being translated into Mali's Dogon language. Critics argue that indigenous cultures and languages are being changed by the introduction of Christianity – while many involved in Bible translation would argue that they are assisting the preservation of local cultures by making communities literate. Eddie asks, “So does Bible translation change culture or preserve it?”
There are three things that need to be taken into account when we think about the Gospel and Culture. Firstly, the Gospel does not belong to any culture.  You can be a British Christian and stay British or a Dogon Christian and stay Dogon. […] Secondly, the Gospel will change the cultures it comes into contact with. No culture is perfect and the Gospel will confront those aspects of culture which don’t line up with what God wants; be that the rampant materialism of Western Society or Dogon blood sacrifices. […] Thirdly, culture is not a static thing, anyway. All cultures are changing all of the time. There is a false idea that some cultures are pristine and unchanged and Christians get nervous about accusations of changing culture. But even the most isolated cultures evolve over time and exposure to very different cultures makes them change more quickly.
All this being said, it is true that Bible translation and literacy work can be a wonderful tool for helping to preserve aspects of culture.
More than translation
Some Bible translators are trying to encourage cultural development. David Ker writes:
What is “Vernacular Literature Development”? This is about developing “literature” in “vernacular,” that is local languages. This is in contrast to translation of materials from other cultures, including Bible translation. Bible translation is a good thing. No doubt about it. But I'm interested in the writers, editors and educators who make a thriving vernacular possible.
Who is the translation for?
One question all translators must consider is who their audience is. Are Bible translators translating texts for existing churches, or for people as yet unfamiliar with Christian scripture? The United Bible Societies have focused on translating for church groups, while the Wycliffe Bible Translators have a missionary focus. Eddie Arthur considers the issue:
The Christian faith knows nothing of monolithic conformity – it started in a joyous explosion of variety and difference and continues to diversify as it spreads across the planet. One piece of fallout from this explosion of variety is that people (whether in churches, or unreached people groups) are able to understand the Gospel clearly because it is expressed in their own language. […] Where resources are limited, all translation organisations have to make choices about which communities they are best able to serve. However, whether we work with established Churches or unreached people groups, Bible translation is about joining with God in his great mission to call a diverse multi-lingual, multi-cultural people to serve and worship him in this world and the next. We do Bible translation because that’s the sort of God we serve.
This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet.
Photo by David Ringer, reproduced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Generic licence.

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Barbados: Fave Christmas Carols  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Ever wondered which Christmas songs put Barbadians in the festive spirit?  Cheese-on-bread! lists the Top 25 faves of her countrymen.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Brazil: Act in support of WikiLeaks · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

The video of a debate in support of WikiLeaks, with the participation of its Brazilian representative, Natália Viana, and many cyberactivists, is available at the blog Maria Frô [pt]. The event was promoted by Intervozes [pt] – an organization advocating for freedom of expression  and  the  democratization  of communication.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia