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Armenia: Corruption · Global Voices
Liana Aghajanian

With Armenia ranking 123 out of 178 countries in a 2010 Transparency International report measuring corruption, Life in the Caucasus, a blog maintained by a Peace Corps volunteer in the country,  notes that bribery take place at all levels of society and in every sphere of life.

author: Liana Aghajanian


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Armenia: Uproar Over Head of Church’s Remarks · Global Voices
Liana Aghajanian

Just days after news reports alleged that Karekin II, current head of the Holy Armenian Apostolic Church and the nation's spiritual leader, said he had nothing to do with the monasteries and churches located in the mountainous regions of the country, angry Armenians have mobilized a social media campaign to oust the Catholicos [title used for head of church in some Eastern Christian traditions] with a Facebook event entitled ‘Karekin II, Leave! Church is Not a Business.’
The controversy began when historian Samvel Karapetyan was quoted as saying he had suggested that the Catholicos allocate funds for repairing the Sanahin Monastery, a 10th century monastery located in Lori province and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to Karapetyan, the Catholicos responded by saying he did not have anything to do with the site even though it is the property of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
The dilapidated medieval Sanahin Monastery at the center of the controversy. Image by Flickr user Rita Wilaert (CC BY 2.0).
The Facebook event suggests that a meeting be held by July 31, 2011, with word being spread via social media, so that the group's complaints can be heard by the Catholicos. Similar pages have popped up, including ‘HERACI-Garegin II,’ [hy] which translates as ‘Leave Garegin II.’ The page is calling for his resignation or removal.
Heriq exav duq mez xaytarak aneq!!! Heraceq!!!
With 254 ‘likes,’ the page ‘Պահանջում ենք Կաթողիկոսի հրաժարականը,’ (We demand the resignation of the Catholicos) has the most support, while a personal profile called ‘Գարեգին Հեռացի,’ (Garegin, leave) [hy] has also been created.
At time of writing, a Facebook Question asking people if the Catholicos should leave the Armenian Apostolic Church has also attracted the support of well over 2,500 people who selected ‘Yes.’
Calls for his resignation are also making appearances on other social networking and micro-blogging sites such as Twitter.
@HimaKaren: Thousands of Armenians demand the impeachment of the spiritual leader of #Armenia Garegin 2. Impeachment!
The Catholicos was elected in 1999, succeeding his Holiness Karekin I, and earlier this year was the center of more controversy when he sought medical treatment outside his native country, leading some blogs such as Unzipped to speculate as to his distrust of the medical profession in Armenia.

source: news-globalvoices

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


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Azerbaijan: Release Jabbar Savalan Campaign · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Amnesty International has launched an online campaign calling for the release of Jabbar Savalan, a young activist in Azerbaijan who made calls on Facebook for pro-democracy protests in the oil-rich former Soviet republic. Those wishing to join the campaign can sign an online petition here.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Barbados: Legal Battle over Wetlands · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Barbados Free Press recounts the falling out between a Canadian philanthropist and the government over the latter's alleged action of “dumping raw sewerage into the Graeme Hall wetlands and other violations of various treaties and agreements”, saying: “The truth is that Peter Allard has been a better friend to ordinary Bajans than our own leadership.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Cape Verde: Blog Tears Down Statements on Climate Change · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

“Droughts  are a well known fatality in Cape Verde (…) long before CO2 started rising”, argues the blog EcoTretas (EcoBullshit), while tearing down alleged misinformed statements from Al Gore's The Climate Reality Project.

author: Sara Moreira


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China: Bring Your Books to Rural Villages · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

This post is part of our special coverage Global Development 2011.
Yu Jianrong, a prominent Chinese scholar on rural development and grassroots social resistance, launched a flash mob action to deliver secondhand books to rural villages in early May.
The flash mob action is coordinated through a Weibo account @随手送书下乡 [zh], the meaning is “bring your books to the villages”. Below is a call [zh] for volunteers on May 4, 2011:
现招募全国各城市活动志愿者负责人，职责是：组织该地区志愿者利用节假日收集爱心人士捐赠的图书，分类登记并公布书名目；接统一调度发送图书；指导和监督接受捐赠的组织或个人管理图书；组织网友到农村去开展读书活动；关爱留守儿童。有意者请私信。
Within two days, the Beijing contact point had received three packages of books:
To save transportation expenses, @bring your books to the villages urged its supporters [zh]:
大家好：十分感谢大家的支持，为了节省图书邮寄的费用，是否可以在各地建立随手送书下乡的联系人，1 收集本地的图书， 2 在本地农村的联系有意建立读书室的朋友，3联系本地随手送书下乡活动的志愿者。大家感觉这样可以吗？
Very quickly within five days, a number of contact points have been set up: Beijing [zh], Chongqin [zh];  Changsha [zh]; Guangzhou [zh] and Wuhan [zh]. Volunteers also set up a number of QQ groups [zh] to coordinate local book collection and delivery.
The netizen group @bring your books to the villages then made [zh] its first flash mob call to delivery books to Dabei town, Shunping county, Hebei on 15 May. More than 30 volunteers participated in the flash mob action. @Sesehou is one of them.
Here is a photo [zh] showing the reading room in the village:
Wang Qiang posted a group photo of the first book delivery activity in his Weibo:
Soon after the first book delivery action, @bring your books to the villages made another flash mob call [zh] to collect books between May 21-22 at a hotel in Beijing. The group collected 1,600 books [zh] in two days:
Apart from making a flash mob call, @bring your books to the villages also set up a bank account [zh] for collecting donations for building libraries in the villages. Every single income and expense item has been reported back to the community via the official Weibo account.
Since the official Weibo account was set up on 3 May,  @bring your books has coordinated flash mob book collection and delivery action in different parts of the country almost every weekend. In less than three months, the netizen group has set up 33 contact points [zh] for book collection and 11 libraries [zh] in the rural villages.
The group's July 2011 financial report shows that it has so far received a total of RMB 87,858.38 in donations [zh] from netizens.
This post is part of our special coverage Global Development 2011.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Colombia: Challenges of the Victims’ Law · Global Voices
Julián Ortega Martínez

Paula Delgado-King writes about some of the challenges the recently approved Victims’ Law faces: “the process needs to provide loans and credits, guidance for which  crops and animals are most suitable where, and access to markets,” and that “the law has no accompanying truth commission to create a national conscience of what has happened.”

author: Julián Ortega Martínez


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Cuba: Activists Under Pressure · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuban bloggers report on several arrests and attempts at intimidating independent journalists and activists, here, here and here.


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Cuba: Approaching “Adulthood” · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As her son approaches the age of majority, Generation Y says, “without maternal excess, that they are too young, too fragile, to face the burden of being considered adults by a legal system that does not correspond to international norms.”


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Grenada: Justice Isaac Dies in Canada  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Caribbean Camera acknowledges the passing of “the honorable Julius A. Isaac, Canada’s first black Chief Justice”, who “ironically…died on the eve of one of the festivals he helped formulate – Caribana.”


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Guatemalan Women Misrepresented by Guatemala’s Tourism Board · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

“Please help me comprehend what’s wrong with our indigenous women that Guatemala’s Tourism Board hires light-skin ladinas and white women to represent our women? I need help understanding what’s wrong with the other 45% of the population? Don’t mestizos, ladinos, blacks and whites fit the ‘Guatemalan profile'?” asks Rudy Girón in AntiguaDailyPhoto.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Guatemala’s DipuKids: A New Generation of Candidates for Congress · Global Voices
Renata Avila

The Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996) killed or exiled many of the country's promising young leaders and academics, leaving an empty space in the political arena. Since the signing of the Guatemalan Peace Accords of 1996, the number of young  parliamentarians has remained extremely low, and people with good academic profiles were too scared to participate in politics. Until now.
A new generation of politicians under 30, dubbed the ‘Dipukids’, are causing controversy, after political parties released lists featuring young candidates with good chances to fill a seat in the next Congress for the 2012-2016 period.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHXh5M46_3Q&feature=player_embedded
DipuKids on You Tube by Veneno Cruz
Congreso Transparente [es], a new initiative to make the Guatemalan Congress open and closer to the people, provides information on some of the young candidates – in their twenties, from different political parties but with similar backgrounds – exercising their citizen right to be elected.
Most of them are in their early or mid twenties, were born after the war, enjoyed exclusive, high quality private education and have traveled the world – a privileged life, quite different from the average Guatemalan.
Some of the candidates top the lists, reflecting their good chance of getting elected. Most of them are young professionals such as Julio Hernandez [es] (25) (@jfhernandezgt) who has a degree in international relations; Diego Calvo [es] (26), Eduardo Smith [es] (26), and Hugo Morán [es] (26), all three with law degrees; and Elisa Stahl Biener (@ElisaSBiener) with a degree in public communication. Ana Lucía Mazariegos [es] (20), Juan Diego Asturias @judias9 (21), and Joan Godoy [es] (23) are still studying.
Here you can see Ana Lucía Mazariegos in action:
Nepotism is not absent from the ranks of the Dipukids: the son of a former president and current Mayor of Guatemala City, Alvaro Arzu Jr. is running for a seat in Congress. Alejandra García, the daughter of a prominent Congresswoman, also running for re-election, is listed as candidate of the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN).
Under the title ‘How young is too young?’, British Ambassador Julie Chapel discussed the issue in her institutional blog:
“Dipukids” – it’s a catchy phrase! But is it fair? As someone who has occasionally been called the “Kid Ambassador”, I hope you don't mind me contributing a few words to this debate. The article of 10 July refers to the importance that British systems place on age and experience. It is true that the average age of a diputado in the UK is 50. Many work their way up the political party system as researchers, speech writers and interns. However, it is also true that all the major parties in the 2010 UK elections put forward candidates under the age of 24. The youngest candidates were only 18 and the youngest to be elected only 26. My Foreign Minister first made a name for himself speaking at the Conservative Party Conference aged only 16 for the passion that marked him out as a leader over 30 years ago. So while experience is undeniably important, so are fresh ideas, energy and seeing things from a different point of view. “
However, not all opinions are as open and refreshing. In the blog Political Candidates 2011, under the title ‘Young candidates for Congress‘ [es], the author questions how someone so young is financing his/her campaign, since it costs around US$70,000.00 to finance a campaign for Congress. The author also questions the young candidates’ commitment to serve the interest of the general public, since many of them come from the Guatemalan upper class.
Veteran journalist and political analyst Jorge Palmieri in his article ‘Youth is not enough‘ describes how Guatemalans involved in politics since their youth have reshaped the destiny of the nation, quoting examples of famous Guatemalan author and thinker Mario Monteforte Toledo, who was elected for Congress at the age of 26, and other high profile figures.
Furthermore, for blogger Ensabanable the Dipukids represent the ‘instrumentalization of youth‘ [es].
Javier, in his blog Kaotic storm of ideas, writes the post ‘Political games or toy politics?‘ [es]:
… introducir un enorme grupo de personas con cero experiencia en leyes,  tanto su creación como su ejecución y análisis, es, para todas las  intenciones y propósitos, algo realmente estúpido e inaudito.  Se  pretende enmascarar la inexperiencia de estos postulantes y vendernos la  idea de que la juventud es una característica lo suficientemente  importante como para que ignores su falta de capacidad.  ¿Cuántas veces  se han escuchado quejas porque gente no preparada, irrelevante de su  edad, se encuentra en el Congreso?  ¿Acaso el que estos sean jóvenes los  hace inmunes a esta misma queja?
Guatemala has nearly 6.7 million people under the age of 18; half of them are indigenous and more than two thirds are poor. Less than 30% of Guatemalans complete high school. Only a privileged minority enrolls in universities, and even less finish their degree.
If elected, the people who the Dipukids will represent are radically different from them, and face needs and challenges that are far from the reality surrounding the young candidates. Let's hope that if they are elected, this new generation of politicians will not forget the very diverse youth they will represent.
The thumbnail comes from a screenshoot from DipuKids on You Tube by Veneno Cruz

author: Renata Avila


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Is Russia’s Political “Black Hole” About to Reach Tipping Point? · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011.
In December 2011 Russian voters will elect a new parliament, and then in March 2012 a new (or perhaps, not-so-new) president. The Russian blogosphere is the most significant arena of public discourse about the elections.
Bloggers have actively discussed the inauguration of billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov as the leader of the Pravoe Delo party (considered by many as a pro-Kremlin liberal party spoiler), as well as Putin's engagement in the People's Front, (a new political movement actually copying the ruling party).
But is the Russian Internet (RuNet) able to play any significant role within Russian elections? Marina Litvinovich suggests it is still far from this point. Recent political developments, however, provide a new angle on this issue.
The crisis of liberal representation
Leader of Russia's Pravoe Delo party, Mikhail Prokhorov, also owns the New Jersey Nets basketball team. Image by Flickr user NBANets (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
On June 22, 2011, the Russian Ministry of Justice refused to register PARNAS, the People's Freedom Party (an independent liberal party led by prominent opposition leaders with over 46,000 members) on the grounds of formal procedural violations.
According to [ru] election expert Alexander Lyubarev, the story is yet more proof that the law which regulates founding new parties has just two points: (1) No party can be registered without approval from the Kremlin, and (2) any party can be closed if the Kremlin wishes it.
Leonid Volkov, a member of Ekaterinburg Duma and regional leader of PARNAS, wrote [ru] that the Kremlin was too scared to allow any non-systemic opposition.
The story of PARNAS’ denied registration has revealed a deep degree of frustration within the Russian online community regarding the Russian political system, due to its lack of representation for people with liberal attitudes. Blogger Aldevot wrote [ru]:
Остаемся с Партией жуликов и воров Путина, Народным фронтом под командованием того же Путина, Народным ополчением Зюганова и его сталинской партией, набившей оскомину ЛДПР да  невразумительно-сомнительным “Правым делом”. Какая тоска… И этот убогий “цветник” нам будут теперь выдавать за конкурентноспособные САМОСТОЯТЕЛЬНЫЕ партии..
Kmartynov, however, claimed [ru] that even PARNAS’ registration would not solve the problem of representation. There are millions of those who share liberal values but there are just hundreds that believe in the current assortment of liberal leaders, the blogger wrote.
Still, most bloggers consider the case as a problem of the Russian political system. As Ilya Yashin concluded [ru] in his blog: “That means that in December we will have again elections without an option to elect.”
As a result, some people, such as Andrey Govorov, have decided [ru] to ignore the elections. Popular blogger Anton Nossik stated [ru] that he will vote for Mikhail Prokhorov and Pravoe Delo. Since nothing can be changed in 160 days before the elections, Prokhorov is the most liberal option available.
Oleg Kozyrev, on the other hand, said [ru] that since “all the official ways to express the opinion of majority are totally blocked, the only way of change is the mass peaceful citizen protest”.
Leonid Volkov has summed up [ru] the effects of the Ministry of Justice's decision:
Выталкивание такого количества политически активных людей за пределы политического поля – это “раскачивание лодки” по высшему разряду. В целом по стране речь идет про десятки тысяч людей, которые поверили в то что, может быть, есть шанс переменить направление развитие страны мирным путем, есть какое-то окошко возможностей для политики, компромиссов, поиска решений. […] В каком формате продолжать деятельность в условия отсутствия формальной регистрации – предстоит обдумать и решить. Ясно, что это будет целиком и полностью деятельность в параллельном пространстве; этого государства – не существует, оно уже распалось. Через некоторое время его придется переучреждать полностью заново, к этому и надо сейчас готовиться.
Mikhail Dmitriev, head of the Center for Strategic Research, talking in Barnaul. Photo by Gregory Asmolov.
“The Internet Party”
The current feelings of bloggers have been reflected by research that was presented recently by Mikhail Dmitriev, a leading Russian analysts and head of the Center for Strategic Research.
In a recent presentation made in Barnaul, Dmitriev argued that economic development is causing rapid growth of the Russian middle class. These people do not have any representation in the current political sphere, and therefore do not see the current Russian political elite as legitimate.
Dmitriev has suggested that such a group, an “irremovable political detonator,” will not only grow but would gradually become increasingly active and radical. “Russian society outgrew the current political system,” concluded the expert, since the system has no time, capacity, or the will to adapt to a new electoral reality. Therefore the political vacuum and the gap between the current political system and the people's expectations, that Dmitriev calls “the political black hole” will grow.
According to Alexey Levinson, a senior expert with the Levada Center, unlike in the past, there is higher probabiliy that people will not tolerate mass falsifications in elections. During the election campaign and following the elections the degree of illegitimacy will significantly increase, engaging a wide audience and reaching a tipping point.
As a consequence, Dmitriev suggested that one of the most probable scenarios is that the political crisis will happen after election. The only solution is the creation a new type of party, what he calls an “Internet type.” These parties will focus on big city audiences, they will not require well-developed regional organizational structures and, most importantly, these parties will have to ”work through the Internet in online regime, with fast update of content.”
Can such Internet parties fill Russia's political “black hole”? Especially, when Russian legislation has impracticable requirements for political parties.
Vicktor Korb, a blogger and a political activist from Omsk, argues [ru] that the political future rather belongs to civic movements and self-organized structures than to traditional political organizations:
Никакая партия не может выдержать современных требований прозрачности гражданских связей, свободного движения гражданских инициатив. Точнее, могут, конечно, быть организации, удовлетворяющие этим требованиям и называющиеся партиями, но по сути это не партии, а движения или сетевые ассоциации.
According to Korb, the old type of political system has survived so far because many political activists are still focused on traditional electoral schemes and continue to engage people that are primarily interested in “making politics,” but not achieving results.
Korb suggests that the decision of PARNAS to make an effort to participate in the classical political system was a soft type of collaborationism, that “distracted significant resources from much more effective forms of confronting the regime.” From this perspective, the refusal to register the party can be perceived as a positive development since it will lead to the boost in the civic non-party participation, while those who are interested in making politics due to their own political interests will stay in the traditional party structure.
The Internet and the new political system
The traditional Russian political system is unable to establish network-based relations. Protest against Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov in Moscow. Photo by Andrey Chernyavskiy, copyright Demotix (21/09/2010).
The role of the Internet goes way beyond just creating a critical discourse. In 2010 the RuNet was the scene of increasing civic activity not affiliated with any political force and without any ideology (as was reflected in “RuNet Echo” articles, e.g. here).
At the same time, according to the “Mapping the Russian Blogosphere” report by the Berkman Center, the public discourse in Russian blogs tend to be more oppositional.
The inability of the current party-based system to represent interests of wide social groups prompts the situation wherein they turn to the Internet in search of alternatives. Actually, the nature of the current party based political system in Russia is an imitation of a real parliament-based system.
The possible emergence of the new type of political system is a response to increasing exposure to this imitation, and attempts to fill the vacuum that exists behind it. The new system would include new types of online institutions and a new type of elites.
The two options – the traditional political system and the emerging network-based one – can co-exist within the same country, but this co-existence can not survive for long. At some point the traditional system will not be able to ignore the growing power of the new system, whilst the new system would not want to tolerate the lack of accountability of the ‘old one.’
The “black hole” described by Dmitriev might reach a tipping point when this dual existence of the two isolated worlds can no longer be sustained. This point can be reached after the election, but also after any other type of crisis, for example, a natural disaster, etc.
At this point of confrontation, the old political system will have two choices: To go through a rapid process of adaptation towards a new reality, or to restrict the power of the new political system through radical online regulation and further repression. The first scenario requires from the political system a high degree of flexibility and the capacity to adapt – both features are quite doubtful. The old system can suggest (and is already suggesting) various types of collaboration modes that can mitigate the fragmentation and isolation, but these measures would not be enough to avoid increasing dissatisfaction due to lack of representation.
The second scenario might have unpredictable concequences, but as we have witnessed in the recent events in the Middle East and North Africa, attempts to restrict the Internet will just increase the political power of the network society.
At the same time some experts, such as Vladimir Gelman, claim [ru] that the network-based political system is also another type of  imitation that prevent the engagement of potentially active people in real  politics.
The dynamics of networked revolutions
"For the Samara Time!" Russian regions protest against changing the timezone. Photo by Misha Denisov, copyright Demotix (11/12/2010).
The analysis of the Russian case, makes it possible to suggest general tenets for the role of networks in future politics.
Firstly, the less the government is accountable and relevant, the more the network society is powerful.
Secondly, the stronger the degree of isolation between the traditional political system and the network-based one, the more probable their confrontation.
Thirdly, confrontation will lead to crisis when the government has the choice either to adapt and collaborate with the new political system or restrict it.
The soft scenario of gradual political change of a traditional system is certainly more peaceful. But it also includes a danger of collaboration without significant political change that would just postpone the crisis, while making it inevitable and even stronger. The hard scenario of confrontation can be violent and lead to various types of revolutions or increase in authoritarian nature of the government as an effort to control, restrict, and diminish the alternative network-based political system.
This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011.

author: Gregory Asmolov


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Jamaica: BMW Owner Charged  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Active Voice reports that the man who owns the BMW involved in a teen's killing has finally been charged by police, adding: “This case will go down in history as the one that completely exposed the fecklessness of Jamaican media.”


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Malaysia: The Economist print edition censored · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

uppercaise reports that the latest print edition of The Economist was censored by Malaysian authorities. The government said it only ‘blackened’ the ‘false and misleading’ parts of the story on the Bersih protest.

author: Mong Palatino


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Nepal: Riding Bicycle To Prove A Point · Global Voices
Rezwan

Dr. Divas has started to ride a bicycle and he wants to prove a point to the people of Kathmandu that regardless of social status you can ride a bicycle and still be a respectable citizen of the country.

author: Rezwan


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Pakistan: Killing Karachi · Global Voices
Rezwan

Faisal Kapadia is lamenting on the recent political violence in Karachi and how the situation is affecting the lives of the people living in the city.


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Pakistan: Motorbiking From San Francisco to Lahore · Global Voices
Rezwan

Sonya Rehman writes about the journey of 24-year old Moin Khan, who has embarked on a motorbike tour from San Francisco to Lahore. Moin will be updating his Facebook page and Twitter account regularly to share his travel experiences.


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Philippines: Internet and social reform · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Philippine legislator and activist Teddy Casino reminds Filipino netizens not to be limited to being “clicktivists in the virtual world but activists in the real world.”


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Portugal: “Junk” National Debt Rating Provokes Online Demonstrations · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

All links in this post lead to Portuguese language pages.
The “junk” rating given to Portugal’s ability to pay its public debts by independent American financial analysis corporation Moody's, has “provoked a strange, national commotion”. This is being reflected in various different displays of revolt and indignation online: multiplying numbers of Facebook pages and events; the organization of a mass simultaneous accessing of the institution's website with the objective of crashing its server (over 80,000 people responded they would “attend”); email and telephone attacks; the creation of various videos, among other things.
There was no lack of originality in the protests, as you can see in the images that illustrate this post.
Instructions on the sending of trash to Moodys from the site LixoParaAMoodys.com (Trash For Moodys).
Meanwhile, the Portuguese blogosphere is filled with critical analyses of the ins and outs of the analyst's classifications, and many have questioned the apparent superficiality of the more emotional reactions to the “ratings saga” given the economic crisis the country is going through.
The international financial “bailout” by the Troika – formed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission (EC) – is underway and based on a first loan of the value of 78 billion euros to balance public accounts.
For Carlos Mesquita, from blog O ClariNet:
Não  há nada como uma campanha publicitária para adormecer o povinho, a  partir de agora é só não fazer ondas e cumprir patrioticamente o que diz  a troika.
But economist Vitor Bento, of the blog Sedes from the Associação para o Desenvolvimento Económico e Social (Association for Economic and Social Development) believes that “wasting time arguing” about an “inconvenient decision” has no “consequence”.
A decisão da Moody’s é inconveniente? É. Suscita uma sensação de injustiça, quando o governo – e não só – se mostra totalmente empenhado em cumprir e ultrapassar os objectivos acordados com a Troika, tendo já mostrado esse empenho através de decisões difíceis? Sim. Mas centrar a discussão nestes aspectos e maldizer as agências de rating por estas consequências é atirar ao alvo errado.
Jurist and University of Coimbra law professor Vital Moreira agrees in part and comments with irony that “it is exactly as if, without anything having changed, actually everything has changed”:
Antes, a crise da dívida pública portuguesa era só nossa e as agências de rating eram só mensageiras de más notícias de que o único responsável era o Governo português. (…)
Agora que o Governo é de direita, passámos subitamente a ser vítimas da situação grega e da falta de determinação da UE em responder à crise do euro, e as agências de rating são cavilosos agentes encartados do mal, apostados em aniquilar os virtuosos esforços de Portugal!
The political music group Homens de Luta made an online game to "destroy the Moodys trashcan".
On the blog O Albergue Espanhol, Luís Menezes Leitão points to “reactions of the highest level leaders of the State to the Moody’s decision [as] completely inopportune” and quotes Prime Minister Passos Coelho, elected on June 5, saying it was like having “been punched in the stomach”, as well as the Portuguese Head of State, Cavaco Silva, who considered the classification “an American conspiracy against European countries, in obvious contradiction of earlier statements it made on the same topic”.
Jurist Tomás Vasques, from the blog Hoje há conquilhas, Amanhã não sabemos, adds that the political crisis and the fall of the government at the end of March “dizzingly accelerated the increase in interest rates of those loan sharks protected by these [rating] agencies and made access to credit, which we need like bread in our mouths, more difficult”:
Envoltos na espuma dos dias, já nem sequer nos lembramos que, em Março, os juros dos empréstimos a três anos estavam nos 6% e hoje estão nos 19%. Como, também, não nos interessa lembrar que uma outra dessas agências de notação nos desclassificou cinco níveis, em Abril passado, empurrando-nos, então, perigosamente para o que eles classificam como lixo. Nessa altura, ninguém tugiu nem mugiu, como se isso se encaixasse num plano de descrédito do anterior primeiro-ministro.
Moody business
To Moodys: From Portugal, with Love. Video on Youtube by Cronicas dos Sabichoes
With the mission of providing investors with a rating of risk related to borrowers, in order to advise them on the best investment decisions, the “business” of the ratings agencies is sometimes confused with the “ratings agenda” as Economics Professor Pedro Pita Barros at the New University of Lisbon explains:
A vida (e sobrevivência) das agências de rating faz-se pela prestação de informação. As classificações atribuídas servem para que os investidores de todo o mundo não tenham que analisar em detalhe todas as emissões de dívida que ocorrem. Se cada investidor tivesse que olhar com minúcia todas as emissões de dívida, haveria uma duplicação de esforços e desperdício de recursos em comparação com uma análise única e depois facultada a todos os outros. O propósito último da agências de rating é fornecer informação aos investidores. E apenas enquanto fornecerem informação útil e credível aos investidores terão possibilidade de sobrevivência. Há investidores especulativos que aproveitam essa informação? Certamente. Mas também os investidores que não tenham objectivos de especular o fazem.
David Silva, of the blog Criticamente Falando, calls attention to the power of influence which the ratings agencies – which he classifies as a “Dangerous Mafia” – wields over investors:
"A hacker supposedly was able to enter the Moody’s site, and inserted content which can be seen in the image above." Image from the blog of André Benjamim.
Uma das maiores críticas dirigidas às agências de rating resulta do potencial conflito de interesses nas suas atividades: são pagas pelos investidores para avaliar terceiros. O mercado da avaliação de risco de crédito é dominado (95%) por três agências norte-americanas: a Fitch, a Moody’s e a Standard & Poor’s. Não existe uma agência de rating europeia, o que impede com que a europa tenha alguma arma de ataque face às gigantes dos outros países.
Concluding, Vitor Bento, reminds of the impunity of “irresponsible investors of the past” :
“seria de toda a justiça que os credores fossem chamados a pagar parte da factura, já que a sua irresponsabilidade creditícia também contribuiu para a presente situação”. Mas as agências de rating não se pronunciam sobre justiça (moral). Pronunciam-se sobre riscos de investimento e é um facto que o risco de perda destes investimentos aumentou (o que não quer dizer que esse risco se materialize necessariamente).
The main image of the post was taken from the video Uprising to Downrating fom IamFromLx on Vimeo.
This article was written together with Ana Vasquez.


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Puerto Rico: Perform & Get Paid · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

All jokes aside, Gil the Jenius wonders why not pay according to performance when it comes to lawmakers?


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Sri Lanka: I Am Sri Lankan · Global Voices
Rezwan

Indrajit Samarajiva  is collecting and posting videos of Sri Lankans on how they perceive themselves as a Sri Lankan national. This is a personal effort to try and break the perception that Sri Lankans are only defined by race and war.


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Thailand: How media handled story on the impounded Thai plane in Germany · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Saksith Saiyasombut blogs about how the local media handled the story on the impounded Thai plane in Germany. The plane allegedly belongs to the Crown Prince.


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U.S.V.I., St. Kitts: On Belonging  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A Nation or Nobody “wonder[s] about the place of writers like Phillips within the Caribbean literary community, and what they might be able to tell us about belonging and diaspora.”


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Venezuela’s Football Team and Unity: A Partisan Talking Point? · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

“The lazy point to make about La Vino Tinto’s [Venezuela's football team] exhilarating run at the Copa América this year is that it’s a rare, exciting moment of National Unity – fútbol as the one last bastion of non-polarization in a politically fractured nation” writes Francisco Toro in Caracas Chronicles; but argues that “celebrating the “unity” La Vino Tinto has brought about has become a partisan talking point: only the opposition goes there, the government never does!”


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Africa: Start-Up Cafe Africa launched · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Start-up Cafe Africa launched: “The platform seeks to offer resource support to all businesses springing from within Africa through Weekend Start-up Cafe’s, Start-up Seminars, Web and Mobile portals.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Bangladesh: Popular Theatre For Social Change · Global Voices
Rezwan

Popular Theater is a simple and live theater initiative by BRAC which is enacted by members of many Bangladeshi villages. These grassroots productions provide specific commentary on common social issues such as healthy parenting, the environment, hygienic practices and gender-based violence, to name a few.


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Barbados: Still Waiting on Integrity Legislation  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

According to Barbados Underground, “it is only naïve Barbadians who expect politicians to proclaim integrity legislation in this century or the next.”


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Bermuda: Nickels & Defecit · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Every nickel of deficit translates to more debt.  The costs of the PLP Government are a noose around the Bermuda economy’s neck”: Vexed Bermoothes points out what he considers to be the elephant in the room.


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Cuba: “The Lion of the East” Passes On  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuban bloggers mourn the passing of Archbishop Emeritus Pedro Meurice Estiu, who died in Miami at the age of 79.  Uncommon Sense calls him “a Cuban patriot and a true man of God”, while Babalu remembers him as “a fierce and unrelenting critic of the Castro dictatorship”; Generation Y honours his “more-than-proven bravery in the face of the arbitrary and authoritarian.”


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Czech Republic: Rise of the Sovereignty Party · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Dr Sean's Diary takes a closer look at the Czech Sovereignty Party, Suverenita, and its policies.

author: Vilhelm Konnander


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Georgia: Diversity in motion · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Unable to visit each other's country because of the still unresolved conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, Reader in Baku comments on meeting with Armenians on neutral ground in the Georgian capital and suggests others from both sides do the same.


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Eastern Europe: Dairy Farming in Fashion · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Matthew Rojansky at Scraps of Moscow follows the lead of  “The Cynical Dairy Farmer's Guide to the New Middle East” by constructing a dairy farmers guide to the Former Soviet Union.


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Ecuador: President Correa Wins Libel Case · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Jim Wyss, in Inside South America, explains the latest developments in a libel case involving President Rafael Correa and newspaper El Univero. Monica Medel also reports on the case at the Knight Center's Journalism in the Americas blog: “Ecuador sentences newspaper directors to jail and millions in fines in president's libel suit”.


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El Salvador: Educating About ‘Machismo’ · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Olivia blogs about ‘machismo’ in her blog She Responded, saying she will never get used to “the culture of sexism and objectification of women” she sees every day in El Salvador. She also describes a workshop on gender equality she led with a local social worker.


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Factory Closing in South China · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Steve Dickinson from China Law Blog explains that the factory closing phenomena in South China is part of the government's plan to upgrade the manufacturing sector.


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Guatemala: Femicides During and After the War · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

On the Issues magazine features an article by Yifat Susskind, Executive Director of MADRE, on the femicides that took place during Guatemala's Civil War and that still go on today: “Across Guatemala, nearly 5,000 women have been killed in the past decade, attacked for the simple fact of being women.” She also looks at grassroots groups working to “roll back shameful gender damage”.


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Haiti: Wikileaks & Fr. Jean-Juste  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Father Gerry Jean-Juste, a Haitian priest, was a friend of…mine.  For those who follow Haitian politics, the rest of the Father Gerry story is known”: Now, Dying in Haiti republishes Wikileaks cables that “[reveal] how the Haitian Interim Government and the US Embassy were very involved with the fate of Father Gerry.”


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Hungary: Acquittal of Accused War Criminal · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Eva Balogh of Hungarian Spectrum writes about the trial against and acquittal of Sándor Képíró, accused of the 1942 Novi Sad Massacre, in Serbia during World War II.


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India: Being A Muslim In Mumbai After The Terrorist Attacks · Global Voices
Rezwan

Azad Alam shares a personal story of facing consequences as a tenant of a Mumbai housing society after wearing a Islamic cap.


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India: Resolving The Mumbai Potholes Problem · Global Voices
Rezwan

Ugich Konitari at Gappa has a solution to the pothole problem on Mumbai roads.


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Iran: Global Day of Action for Dr. Arash Alaei · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Physicians for Human Rights launched a global action day and an oline petition to Dr. Arash Alaei who is in jail in Iran. Arash and his brother, Kamyar, two Aids physicians were arrested in 2008. Kamyar was released recently and moved to the USA.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Jamaica: Suspect Charged in BMW Murder  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Active Voice is disappointed with the Jamaican media's lack of information about Patrick Powell in the wake of his being charged in the “X6″ murder; she provides an update on the case, here.


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Malawi: Majority Not Happy To Be Called Satans · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Most Malawians are not happy to be called satans by Malawi's presidet: “According to an opinion poll conducted late last night on 21st July by a Faith Based Relief and Development Non Governmental Organizations in Bangwe Township, in the outskirts of Blantyre, over 90% of the citizens interviewed felt the public address by President Bingu wa Mutharika was empty.”


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Malawi: Malawi On The Brink · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Malawi on the brink: “Contrary to stereotypes about the docility and peaceful nature of Malawians, Malawi has a long history of mass protests going back to the colonial era including the struggles against the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland that saw the demise of the federation and the country's independence in 1964.”


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Romania: Ceaucescu’s Repressive Machinery · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Nelson Duque at The View East discusses the repressive role of the security service, Securitate, in Ceaucescu's communist Romania.


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Russia: Beer Considered Alcohol · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Kyle Keeton of Windows to Russia turns attention to a new Russian law that finally defines beer as alcohol in the country.


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Russia: “Double-Entry Bookkeeping” in Moscow State University · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Blogger Vladimir Varfolomeev writes [ru] about strange occurrences during the entry exams to the prestigious Journalism Department of the Moscow State University. Varfolomeev brings up a story of the entrant who received the highest possible mark for the interview. After the interview, however, the mark was significantly reduced by a mysterious and non-transparent “expert selection commission,” which led to disqualification.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Russia: Envisioning the “Cloud Democracy” Utopia · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Cloud Democracy [ru] is the title of the new book written by Leonid Volkov [ru] and Fyodor Krasheninnikov [ru], two political bloggers from the Urals region of Russia. Cloud Democracy addresses a wide audience of readers “who, despite everything, believe in progress and democracy” and displays the authors’ vision on how a system of ‘future’ democratic governance can be built with the help of online tools.
The preface of the book says [ru]:
We believe, that we witness the new era in the history of mankind – the era of limitless direct communications, which would enable the existence of fair, transparent, and just political system.
Leonid Volkov at Yekaterinburg city council, photo by ekburg.ru, courtesy of Leonid Volkov
The first chapter discusses current issues of democracy (and Russian democracy, in particular), the second chapter dwells on technology and available technological solutions for ‘cloud democracy.’
The most interesting part – in which the authors propose the setup for the digital governance utopia contains several key ideas:
Global Voices contacted one of Cloud Democracy's authors, Leonid Volkov, and asked him few questions about the idea behind the book.
Leonid Volkov, Ph.D, is a 30 year old Russian politician, blogger, developer, and activist. Since 2009 he has held the chair of the deputy of the Yekaterinburg city council (independent). With 13 years experience in IT-development (resulting in the launch of a digital company start-up incubator in 2010), Volkov combines technical and political perspectives.
Global Voices (GV): How did you come up with the idea of the book?
Leonid Volkov (LV): It all started with eRepublik online game. Me and Fyodor played in it for year and a half two years ago or so. One of our friends had dragged us in. It was the period when lots of people from Russia were joining the game, and Russia became one of the leading political forces – it was the period of “habraboom” [a reference to “habra-effect,” a Russian analogue of the digg-effect, when someone posts a link a the popular IT-community habrahabr.ru].  Russia had reclaimed Urals from e-Hungary, a successful war with e-US started…
The reason of the success of the game is obvious: due to the absense of the real politics people tended for any outlet they could find. And the life was very active in this game, as well; Fyodor was publishing a quite popular newspaper, while I was a regular player, a farmer and a soldier, and wasn't really engaged in the political life. But I was very interested in the observation of the socio-political processes in the virtual reality.
So we remembered eRepublic (which we neglected soon afterwards) very clearly when we started to write our book – we were sure that if we describe the model of e-Democracy (and then to implement it) – people will be using it. I don't clearly remember when exactly the idea of the book appeared, it was somewhere around the fall of 2010, right after our unsuccessful campaign against the removal of the direct elections of Yekaterinburg mayor. Then, we finally understood that all possible windows of opportunity in the real politics were closed.
GV: In the debate on the role of the Internet in social change, which side is closer to you – “cyber-pessimist” or “cyber-optimist”?
LV: None. We're cyber-realists. Internet – is, first of all, means.
GV: At the end of 2010, Alexey Chadaev, political technologist of  the”United Russia”  party proposed “direct Internet-Democracy.” What's the difference between your project and Chadaev's proposition?
LV: “Direct Internet-democracy”  is something we're not interested in discussing. This is the extreme. What we propose is a really working model, where everyone's voice can be taken into account.
GV: People more and more think in technological terms. To “Like” a politician, to vote online. We've witnessed something similar in Perm. Is it a national trend? Or is it just a Urals regional trend? Or it's the IT-specialists way of thinking?
LV: Everything is very simple – people that work in IT and that are interested in politics like to apply technology to politics. They like to think how the mashups of the politics and technology would look like. We see that the contemporary politics choke with the technologies of the XVIII century: all these paper bulletins, ballot boxes, bureaucratic letters, etc. This is all outdated. And we don't see any real reasons, except some strange traditions, not to introduce new methods in this process. There's nothing specifically regional. Maybe there's just more freedom of thought here. But, most importantly, it is the IT way of thinking.
GV: You mention DalSlovo.ru [a crowdsourcing portal to track politicians’ promises and monitor if they are fulfilled]. Is it your project? If yes, could you tell few success stories of this project?
LV: I'm one of the co-creators of the project and its investor. The success of DalSlovo.ru is the fact of its existence. Given the fact that there's no advertisement or any special promotion, the project grows and the database of the politicians’ promises grows as well. We hope we will be able to create a project people will listen to.
GV: A lot of crowdsourcing projects have been launched recently. Do they have influence or do they just appear and have no real impact on society?
LV: So far, the critical mass haven't been reached [by such projects], but very soon crowdsourcing projects will be much more influential. The presense of such projects (and success stories inside them) makes people believe that they can change something. And this involves the people into activism. And there's no (or almost) no way back being socially active.
GV: In the system you described in the book, all the inner mechanism and the laws are thought through. But who will be controlling the creators of such system?
LV: First of all, the code of the system will be open – and this is very important in terms of control. Second, the architecture of the system will be flexible, it will be constantly changing. The system will provide the ability for the users to vote for the change of the default settings.
GV: Do you plan to translate the book into English?
LV: Yes.


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Russia: To Join WTO Or Not? · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Russia's considerations whether to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) or not is addressed by Julia at The Pipeline, and by Democratist.


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South Korea: Women-Only Subway Car Meets Strong Opposition · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

The subway is one of the fastest, safest and most convenient ways to commute the busy streets of Seoul, South Korea's capital city. With subway sexual harassment on the rise, especially during rush hour and late at night, Seoul's municipal authorities have decided to launch a women-only subway compartment to curb sex crime rates, a move which has prompted fierce debate online.
Seoul City announced on 20 July 2011, that it will implement a women-only section on subway Line No. 2 starting in September. If it receives positive feedback from citizens, the City will expand the project.
According to a local report quoting the subway police [ko], 550 sexual crimes were reported during the first five months of 2011, which represents a 22 percent increase from last year. Another local report revealed [ko] that the number of sex offenders in 2010 reached 1,192.
Netizens’ doubts
Subway carriage, Seoul, South Korea. Image by Flickr user Matthew R Lloyd (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Most netizens, doubting the idea's effectiveness, have strongly protested against the new system. Seo Yong-hwan (@a2n5) who runs an online women's shoe store tweeted [ko]:
[…]전 지하철 타면 성추행으로 오해받을까봐 최대한 조심히타는데 이건 역차별일 수 있네요 그리고 출퇴근시간에 여성전용칸에 타려하는분이 많을까요??아니면 환승이 가까운 곳에 타는분이 많을까요??
Kang Hyun-ju (@nymphtintin), a female university student, tweeted [ko]:
지하철 여성 전용칸은 진짜 무리수.노약자 임산부 전용좌석도 안지켜지는데.
It is not the first time that the idea of a women-only subway car has been tried out in real life. In 1992, a similar system was applied to subway Line No. 1, but was soon scrapped after people failed to stick to the rule. When it came to busy students and workers, the matter of catching the right subway train was much more important than sitting in the right compartment.
Gender segregation
In South Korea's most active public forum, Daum Agora, net user RaphyRyu wrote [ko] that the segregation can hardly be a solution to the sexual harassment:
여성전용칸의 시행 목적은 여성을 범죄로부터 보호하는 것일 겁니다. 그렇다면 여성에 대한 범죄를 예방하고 범죄자를 강력하게 처벌해야 할것이고, 이를 위해선 지하철 내 치안을 강화하고 처벌규정을 강화하는것이 옳은 일이라고 생각합니다 하지만 여성전용칸을 만들어 여성을 한 군데로 모아 격리시키는 것은 얼핏보면 범죄 자체를 원천적으로 방지한다고 볼 수 있습니다만 결국 문제를 해결할 능력이 없어서 문제로부터 도망치는 것밖에 안됩니다. 거꾸로 생각해서 여성전용칸이 아닌 다른 칸이나 여성전용칸을 시행하지 않은 시간대의 지하철을 탄 여성에 대한 보호는 전혀 고려하지 않은 제도지요.
Many net users, such as Min-goon, reminded [ko] others of the 1997 subway fiasco when the women-only car was implemented, only to be abandoned right away.
Men, potential sex criminals?
Net user Green note who introduces himself as a 20-year-old college student who takes the subway on almost everyday wrote [ko]:
집에서 나와 버스를 타고 잠실역에 도착하면 정말 사람 많습니다. 지하철을 타는 사람들이 길게 줄을 늘어서 있을 때 그 지하철을 타면 이런 생각이 먼저 듭니다. “오늘도 편하게 가기는 글렀군.” 왜냐하면 불필요한 신체접촉이 발생할 가능성이 농후하기 때문입니다. […] 여성 전용칸을 만들자고 하는 것에 찬성한다는 것 자체가 모든 남자들을 (성추행범으로 보지는 않더라도) “암묵적” 성추행범으로 보는 것입니다.
Most of the online responses to the new system have been negative. However, there are still a few people defending the system. Dong-hyun (@Beautiful_KWON) tweeted [ko]:
[…] 가족이나 여친을 생각한다는 말은 결정적이다. 찬성에 한 표!!
A previous online vote [ko] which was made several weeks prior to the City authorities’ decision, showed in fact that South Korean net users initially liked the idea as it could prove beneficial to both sides: women could feel much safer, while men would be able to escape any unnecessary misunderstandings deriving from the inevitable accidental close encounters that occur within the crowded subway system.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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South Korean Twitterers Mobilized As East Sea(Sea of Japan) Conflict Intensifies · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

The ongoing territorial dispute over the Dokdo(Takeshima) island has flared up as the Japanese Foreign Ministry instructed a boycott against Korean Air for hovering over the island located in the disputed water. Korean Twitterers have set up a special website, IssueTok [ko], to plan a mass tweet-protest in several languages.


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Sri Lanka: Anti-Government Websites Will Be Blocked · Global Voices
Rezwan

Freedom Of Expression In Sri Lanka reports that a special operations unit has been set up in Sri Lanka with the aim of controlling and banning anti-government websites.


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Sri Lanka: Double Standards · Global Voices
Rezwan

Ratmale at Serendipity wonders why many in Sri Lanka engage in anti American rhetoric and at the same time desperately want to send their kids to Universities in the US.


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Ukraine: History of a Building · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Leigh Turner, British Ambassador to Ukraine, sketches the history of the building in Kiev where the embassy is located.


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Zambia: Football Icon’s Facebook Account Faked · Global Voices
Gershom Ndhlovu

Kalusha Bwalya is probably one of the most recognised Zambian faces because of the outstanding services he has rendered to the country through football for close to three and a half decades. However, when it comes to Facebook, it is difficult to tell whether an account in his name is genuine or not.
Photo of Kalusha Bwalya that appeared on the fake Facebook page.
Kalusha currently heads the Zambia Football Association (FAZ) as its president, a position that has enabled him sit on the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) committees.
As a footballer, Kalusha helped the national soccer team demolish a star-studded Italian team 4-0 for the 1988 Olympic qualifiers and for many years while playing professional football in Europe, he helped Zambia win a lot of games. Dissapointingly though is that Zambia never won any remarkable trophy in regional or continental football but many a time they lost in semi or final games.
In 1993, Kalusha missed a flight which saw a team of 22 Zambian players and eight officials on its way to a world cup qualifying game in Senegal perish in a plane crash off the coast of Gabon. After that tragic event, he never turned his back on the national team but became an integral if not inspiring part of the new team.
With the coming of social networking sites such as Facebook on which many celebrities are opening accounts, the name Kalusha Bwalya did not raise any eyebrows. It naturally attracted a number of people who wanted to be friends with the Zambian soccer icon and soon, the number of followers swelled to over 2,000 within two months.
The story was broken by Zedleaks:
Leaks in have revealed that an imposter has been running a social network facebook page pretending to be Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) president and soccer legend Kalusha Bwalya for the last 2 months. The account called KALUSHA BWALYA has a picture of the actual Zambian former football player. Within a few weeks of opening the account, nearly a 2000 unsuspecting friends were attracted to the account and have been interacting with the imposter thinking it was the actual 1988 African Footballer of the year.
The page, which is currently unavailable, had a status post that simply read:
My people talk about foot ball”, gave the game away, literary. It immediately raised suspicion by those who know Kalusha’s speech mannerisms of never using “I, me, or my” but rather the collective pronoun “we”.
FAZ, through its own Facebook page, issued a statement denying that the “Kalusha Bwalya” page did not belong to the soccer legend:
FAZ President Statement: “Dear all, please note that I do not have a personal facebook page. Therefore, all facebook pages with my names KALUSHA BWALYA (and my photo) are not genuine and not updated by me or an agent appointed by myself”
Donald Njekwa, upon realising that he was following an imposter, wrote:
Pipo wake up n stop being fooled by da ghost fake kalu.kalusha denied ever openin a fb account.
Another observant Facebooker Michelo Victor Chijikwa had this to say:
There r more than 50 comments on this status but this so called Kalu has (not) said anythin constructive apart (from) ”avans brazil”. Shows hw lil he knws abt the game he once ruled. Fake mambala (crook).
Commenting on the supposedly real FAZ Facebook page (which can be accessed from the FAZ website an incredulous Webster Shabusale wrote:
I hope Fooball Association of Zambia(FAZ) is not another fraudstar.
Some prominent Zambians including President Rupiah Banda have had  Facebook accounts created in their name. It took State House to issue  a statement that the Zambian leader had finally created a page of his own. The  statement, however, did not refer to other  Rupiah Banda accounts.

author: Gershom Ndhlovu


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Argentina: 17 Years After AMIA Attack, Case Remains Unsolved · Global Voices
Laura Schneider

July 18, 2011, commemorates the 17th anniversary of the attack on the Asociación de Mutuales Israelita de Argentina [es] (Israelite Argentinean Mutual Aid Association), better known as the AMIA [es], where a vehicle loaded with explosives crashed against the building killing 85 people.
Previously, in 1992, the Israeli Embassy in Argentina also suffered a similar attack where the building was completely destroyed causing 29 deaths.
Memorial to victims of the 1994 attack, AMIA, Buenos Aire. Image by Flickr user andysternberg (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
The AMIA [es] web page tells what happened in the building:
18 de julio de 1994. 9:53 hs. Una fuerte explosión, seguida por un gigantesco hongo de humo y polvo, destruyó 85 vidas, 85 historias, 85 familias.En cuestión de segundos arrasó con la sede de la organización judía más emblemática de la Argentina y todo lo que estaba a su alrededor.Pánico. Ambulancias. Gente corriendo. Vidrios rotos cayendo de las ventanas de los edificios, cubriendo toda la calle. Gritos que surgían de la multitud mezclaban historias milagrosas y trágicas casualidades del destino.
Blogs de Tea y Deportea [es] also shares the story:
Más de 1000 viviendas y comercios cercanos quedaron destruidos, la pérdida de gas en la zona fue de gran magnitud, la onda expansiva arrasó con toda la cuadra , lanzando autos, arboles, carteles y personas por los aires; los vidrios de las ventanas de las viviendas y negocios estallaron hasta seis calles a la redonda.
While to date the investigations continue, after 17 years no one has claimed the attack nor has anyone been found guilty. Carlos Braverman [es], an Israeli political scientist and psychologist, writes in his blog:
Este 18 de julio se cumplió un nuevo aniversario del atentado contra la AMIA y la impunidad miserable sigue envolviendo en un sentimiento de impotencia a los familiares de los 85 muertos y más de 300 heridos por el mayor ataque terrorista que vivió Argentina.
The commemoration was attended by national authorities and among them President Cristina Fernandez. The President of the AMIA  [es], Guillermo Borger, in his speech called for justice. Perfil comments on fragments of this speech:
También criticó que no haya nuevos avances en la causa judicial por el atentado. Es que a más de dos años del fallo de la Corte Suprema de Justicia, que promovió un nuevo juicio contra los responsables de la denominada conexión local, no hubo todavía “un solo nuevo imputado, ni pistas ni pruebas” en tal sentido.
En su discurso pronunciado en la puerta de la sede de la mutual judía, su titular agradeció la presencia de la presidenta Cristina Fernández, pero dijo que la comunidad judía “necesita justicia”.
With respect to the AMIA case, a 800 page report supported by the Argentine Supreme Court implied a request for the international arrest of eight Iranian officials. The blog El Rejunte.il [es] comments on the steps that followed:
En el 2006, el fiscal Alberto Nisman tomó la causa AMIA. El 16 de julio del 2009, presentó un dictamen de 800 páginas donde está demostrado judicialmente que la República Islámica de Irán financió, organizó y perpetuó el atentado a la mutual judía. Este informe fue abalado por la justicia argentina y posteriormente por Interpol, que emitió un pedido de captura internacional para 8 funcionarios iraníes actualmente protegidos por Irán.
In September of 2007, the former President Néstor Kirchner denounced in front of the United Nations the lack of support on the part of Iran to clear up the case. The web site for Channel 3 of Rosariorio [es] informed:
“Esperamos que la República Islámica de Irán acepte y respete la decisión de la Justicia y colabore eficazmente”, aseguró y reclamó a la comunidad internacional que “interceda”. “Estamos pidiendo que Irán cumpla. Nada más, pero tampoco nada menos”, sostuvo.
Following the statements of the former president, the Iranian diplomatic corps warned with regard to this issue, according to the newspaper El Litoral [es]:
La decisión del mandatario generó una fuerte advertencia de Irán a Argentina, a cargo de Moshen Baharvand, encargado de negocios de la embajada de Irán en Buenos Aires y máximo representante diplomático de Teherán en el país sudamericano. “Es posible que, en caso de que el presidente Kirchner acuse (por el atentado) a Irán, muchos países interpretarán que la Argentina está a favor de la guerra”, afirmó Baharvand.
Recently the Argentine Chancellory received an official communiqué from Iran that announced its decision to cooperate in the clarification, ratifying innocence. The online journal Juventud informada [es] republished the words of the Argentine Chancellor Héctor Timerman:
Reconoció que lo tomó “totalmente por sorpresa” el comunicado oficial de Irán en el que si bien se ratifica la responsabilidad sobre el atentado terrorista que sufrió la Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), “tiene una novedad: dice que está preparado para sentarse a negociar con la Argentina un acuerdo de cooperación con las investigaciones para que se encuentren los culpables”.
The response of Attorney Nisman that follows the case was immediate. The Cordoba chapter of the Zionist Organization of Argentina [es] reproduced part of the communiqué:
“Si los iraníes y su Gobierno están dispuestos a cooperar que lo hagan de una vez por todas y de la única manera posible: entregando a todos los acusados de este terrible accionar terrorista que le imputa la Justicia argentina y dejen de efectuar declaraciones de vacías de contenido que nunca condujeron a nada”
AMIA suggested image for Facebook profile picture campaign.
The web page Atentado al Olvido [es] organized a Twitter campaign inviting users under the hashtag #tweetdeluto [es] where people can recall the victims of the deplorable act with a black band as Teresita Ferrari, Osvaldo Bazan , Sandra Empereur , Cristina Gianferrari y  Emanuel Rebollo have done among others.
Meanwhile Patricia Terranova [es], whose father died in the attack, writes a few words [es] on the Facebook page commemorating July 18th [es]:
Sigue doliendo como hace 17 años atras..Te extraño!!
And she continues further on the same site:
Este es un homenaje a mi padre que dejo la vida en la puerta de la AMIA…Su ejemplo y amor hacia su familia y su pais es lo que me mantiene aqui , dando mi memoria a la Justicia.

author: Laura Schneider


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Kenya: Ex-Minister Records Rap Song · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

From politics to music and back to politics in Kenya: “Suspended Higher Education Minister William Ruto donned a new hat, that of a recording artistes and hit up the Click Track studios with rappers Juliani and Emmanuel Jal on July 10.”


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Kenya: Kenyan Poet Podcasts · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Kenyan poet invites readers to her new project, KenyanPodcast: “Hi, for those who were on twitter yesterday, I announced about my pilot podcast; the first in many to come which seeks to bring the blog to life for the followers to have something they can take away with them and listen to.”


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Russia: Medvedev’s Judicial Reform · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Gordon M. Hahn of Russia: Other Points of View argues that, despite the Khodorkovsky case, the Russian legal system is improving as a result of President Medvedev's judicial reform work.


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Serbia: Government Officials and Social Networks (Interview) · Global Voices
Danica Radisic

No sooner had the original satirical Twitter account @vookjeremic mocking Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vuk Jeremic, been shut down by Twitter administrators at the behest of Serbian authorities, than more fake accounts bearing the Minister’s name and those of other Serbian government officials, began popping up and spreading through the microblogging site like wildfire.
New phenomenon
The online edition of Serbian daily newspaper Blic has covered this new phenomenon [sr] and sparked comments from influential members of the online community, as well as politicians active in social media, most of whom have similar advice to offer those like Minister Jeremic.
Nebojša Radović, an Internet marketing consultant and probably one of the most popular regional Twitter users in general, explained that there are ways to verify and label an account instead of shutting down fake accounts and was quoted as saying:
… This freedom is precisely the beauty of the Internet, the censorship of which represents the carrying of habits of other media [into this medium] and a particular kind of inquisition toward all those who disagree with the system. Thus, the criticism directed at the Counter-Organized Crime Service (SBPOK) and the general disatisfaction of the local Twitter community isn’t surprising. – Radović explains and adds that criticism is a good thing and that politicians should be listening, instead of censoring.
Oliver Dulic, Serbian minister of Spatial Planning and Environment, who is as of recently another avid user of the social network, gave an interview on this subject to the popular Trojka portal, titled ‘All Significant Politicians on Twitter Soon‘ [sr], in which he says:
I believe that since I’ve been using Twitter I am much better informed as to what is happening in society. Instead of opening Internet sites I now have all this information in one place. Aside from that, it’s a pleasure to be able to communicate directly with people, even those that have an issue with my work.
Minister Dulic experienced his own fair share of online criticism and uproar when news leaked several months ago, that the site for one of his Ministry’s campaigns had cost around 26,000 euros, or the equivalent of some 75 average Serbian monthly salaries.
Criticism on the matter was continued recently on Twitter and Minister Dulic not only engaged in conversation with other Twitter users, but accepted the idea of publishing the details and specification for said site [sr], which he then proceeded to do on the Ministry’s official site www.ekoplan.gov.rs and published to Twitter, saying [sr] “I am at your disposal for more information…”.
Interview with Serbian Minister of Telecommunications, Jasna Matic
Among the first Serbian government representatives to be highly active on social networks were two women – Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Gordana Comic, and then Minister of Telecommunications and Internet Society, Jasna Matic.
While Ms. Comic is a regular at community conferences and events, Ms. Matic was even the organizer of the first tweet-ups sponsored by a Serbian ministry last year. Matic is on a first-name basis with many members of the community and, when asked to give a statement to Global Voices, she offered instead to meet for coffee and give a face-to-face exclusive interview.
Jasna Matic talking to Serbian high school girls interested in pursuing careers in ICT.
Global Voices (GV): By taking a look at your tweets from just the past month or so, I can learn that you like Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Alicia Keys and Jay-Z, you seem to spend most of your days working or traveling for government related matters, the airline you flew to New York and back with lost your luggage twice and you enjoy being around people. That’s quite an open profile for an active politician and member of government. Today I’d like to talk about the matter of satirical, or “fake”, Twitter accounts of politicians and other public figures. Global Voices, as have many others, has covered the story of the fake Vuk Jeremić account that the Minister requested be shut down. We couldn’t help but notice that you, knowing this was a fake account, exchanged a tweet with said account saying: “@vookjeremic Because @jasnamatic doesn’t feel the need to blend in. And because the point is to be cool in the summer and hot in the winter :)”. It would seem you feel this was all in jest and were having fun with it, like others on the network?
Jasna Matic (JM): I didn’t really know that there was a Twitter account with that name and at first I was upset with his tweet to me, then looked at it and realized it wasn’t a real account and thought “Why not? Let’s have fun with it.” Clearly, to some extent I can sympathize with Vuk Jeremic and you can’t always react the way you otherwise would when you’re a public figure.
GV: In a very recent interview on this matter with the online edition of the Serbian daily Blic, you were quoted as saying: “I am of the opinion that the Internet allows us to return to direct democracy, such as existed in ancient Greece, where all citizens participated and voted on what was to be done. The advantages of this should be exploited.” Isn’t that a rather idealistic way of looking at both the image of democracy in ancient Greece, which wasn’t always so pretty, and an idealistic way of looking at use of the Internet that many believe does need laws and regulation?
JM: That is clearly not, as they say in courtrooms, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but it is what the Internet brings. It does bring a voice to everyone and that is how I think it should be used.
GV: There are currently two Twitter accounts other than your own bearing your name, but both are inactive and we can’t tell whether they were meant to impersonate you in any way. Other than that, the local online community seems to be satisfied communicating with you directly, or not, rather than mocking you and you have several tweets to this effect: “I thought it might be a good thing when people can approach politicians and talk to them. Or, if they choose, ignore them. I could be wrong…” Why do you think that is, that the vast majority of your online audience is willing to talk instead of mock?
JM: I generally think, and it might be inappropriate for me to quote Obama and his team on this, but I do believe that when you treat people as adults, they behave as adults. That has been my experience and I try to do that. If anything, I think that applies to the online community. I’ve been in government for over ten years and have communicated with thousands of people. This [open communication] applies especially to the online community which is often more passionate, rational, opinionated and open. Whatever you give them, they will give twice as much back.
GV: We also ran into this tweet of yours: “So different than my everyday life: I do different things,talk to different people,think different thoughts, I feel like it's a different me.” Was it in reference to social media and being a part of the local online community?
JM: [smiling] No, it was in reference to me being somewhere else where nobody knows me and being in a situation where I wasn’t being viewed, analyzed and criticized. For three weeks I was able to enjoy the freedom and anonymity that it allowed. I decided to share that with my Twitter followers because it felt so good.
GV: And finally, how do you see the role of social media and the Internet in the economic, political and cultural development of Serbia and the region? What would your advice regarding that be to your peers, both in politics and business?
JM: I think it’s like any new technology. It provides a lot of opportunity, but you need to invest in it. I think it’s more difficult here than in other countries because we don’t have the habit of being that socially active. There is a very small percentage of people that enjoy being that active online. The Digital Agenda is working on that, trying to make the Internet more popular and more beneficial to everyone.
I think we all want to reach out to the people we serve (and I actually do believe in that – we serve) and this is a good platform to use for that. I use it with joy and satisfaction. There are good points and advice to be heard from various people that I otherwise never would have had the opportunity to interact with.
We thank Ms. Matic for giving her time for this interview.

author: Danica Radisic


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Zambia: Facebook Group Leads 2011 Poll Debate · Global Voices
Gershom Ndhlovu

Can a Facebook group, ‘Zambian People’s Pact‘, tip the Zambian elections due in the next few months against the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD), which has been in power for 20 years now?
The group has been in existence for the last few months and has members ranging from the son of Zambia’s first president Kenneth Kaunda, Lieutenant-Colonel Panji Kaunda, himself a former member of parliament, to little known Musamba Chama Mumba who has only come to prominence as one of the group administrators. She probably never even experienced life as an adult under Dr Kaunda’s leadership.
Zambian President Rupiah Banda. Photo released by Antonio Cruz/ABr under Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5)
Political debate within this group comes thick and fast with up to 800 and 1,000 posts and reactions per day. Frankly speaking, it is difficult to follow every thread, but the posts are never short of acrimony between members of the group.
Below is the Zambian People's Pact's description:
It is very important to clarify from the outset that the Pact comprises of three parties. The first party, and the most important for that matter, is the people of Zambia. This party is composed of the majority of Pact supportes. Its membership is diverse- the young, old, professionals, peasants, politicians, and so on from diverse backgrounds and interest groupings. Thier central objective is to unseat the MMD government through the elections of 2011 for for gross incompetenece and impunity in the management of government affairs.
Most of the group members happen to be opposition Patriotic Front (PF) supporters whose leader, Michael Sata seems to be favourite to win this year’s elections. Known as King Cobra because of his abrasive nature, Sata has contested every presidential election since 2001 when he was by-passed by the then President Frederick Chiluba who had to give up his fight for an unconstitutional third term of office, a move which was resisted by Zambians from all walks of life.
MMD national secretary, the party’s chief executive officer and Minister Without Portfolio, the third highest ranking cabinet position, Sata made sure that all possible contenders for the party presidency which leads to automatic republican president candidature were expelled from the party a few months from the elections. Some of the expelled members included the then republican Vice President Lieutenant-General Christon Tembo and party Vice President Brigadier-General Godfrey Miyanda who went on to form their own respective parties.
President of the main opposition party in Zambia, Michael Sata. Photo source: Patriotic Front website.
Sata went on to form PF which has been growing from strength to strength since, narrowly and controversially losing the 2008 by-election which was called after the death of President Mwanawasa, two and a half years into his second term. Then Vice President Rupiah Banda who acted as president, won the election by less than 35,000 votes.
Sata’s support this time around is overwhelming in most parts of the country but even more so on social networking websites such as Facebook. Apart from being a Facebook group with over 5,000 members, the Zambian People’s Pact also has physical branches around the country.
A few of the group members are also members of MMD, opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) which was at one time in a pact with the PF, and National Restoration Party (NAREP) and passionately and steadfastly stand for their parties.
One of the Facebook debates a few days ago went like this:
Terence Siansalama quoting a Lusaka Times story kicked off the debate:
ushitasha mwana wandoshi! [He who does not appreciate is born of a wizard] Zambia has reserves of over US$2.5 Billion! Wow. Thats great. Congrats Mr President. RB is doing something at least and all opposition parties must appreciate the efforts. What is our positive take on this?
The story quotes President Banda extolling his government's achievements:
PRESIDENT Banda says the US$2.5 billion (about K12trillion) in national reserves is a sign that Zambia’s economy is growing.
Mr Banda said Government will remain committed to ensuring that Zambia becomes a middle-income country by 2014.
The post sparked a debate, which at the time of writing, went up to 63 reactions.
Alinuswe Mwamulima commented:
An increment of what from last year?220million usd.an increment of just under 10%.Good.
We are in a once in a life time econmic boom.Copper price is through the roof.Are we doing enough with it?
Lets compare with countries in the region whose economies are experiencing growth fueled by these same high commodity prices.
-Tanzania with the gold-3.687 billion December 2010
-Botswana with their diamonds-7billion
-Namibia-2 billion
-Angola with oil-16 billion!
Not much you see.average amount and performance.Unless we want to compete with agrarian countries like Malawi with 500usd in reserves,or former almost failed states like Zimbabwe 350mil usd and Congo 1 billion usd.
So forgive me and alot of those that think like me who are not jumping up and down going delirious with glee over unexceptional performance.
Terence Siansalama responded to Alinuswe's observations:
Alinuswe Mwamulima, cousin, its nice that you have seen that we are one of the top in the region. We cant be comparable to Angola as you rightly put it, there oil makes them be above board. So we are doing fine.In the world we are one of the 10 top countries with a growing economies. So need to appreciate that we are doing fine as a country and thanks to His Excellency Rupiah Bwezani Banda for the improvements. Its no joke. It takes alot of planning my brother.
The exchange continued.
Lawrence Mindela:
Guys reserves are not in any form or shape an economic indicator. Pit that against the national debt and see where we stand. We have borrowed massively over the past 4 years. If we have building our reserves forgetting that what we really need to build is a competitive educational system which leaves no one behind regardless of their family income and background. That will be the eventual path to sustained prosperity. Our growing economy is on paper, tell me the rate of poverty and by how much has it declined in the past 5 years. How many people has your government moved from being poor to middle class? Unless you have no clear understanding of political economics then you will think RB is manna from heaven.
One contribution is not exactly kind to purported MMD supporters:
Zambian Youths:
This is a very educative debate and it seem most of you people are very competent. However, it seems our friends in the MMD and theirs cadres are still using ‘stone age tools’ to measure economic performance. The world over or serious economies not longer look at reserves but the number of people the economy employs to determine performance. The great number of people out of employment, the greater the poverty levels and as such we can't look at reserves as a way to determine success. In fact, having reserves in the face of high unemployment and poverty is as silly as a starving man with capital who does not know were to invest his money.
Another post that attracted some debate was a post from the Zambia News Features, quoting Information and Broadcasting Services Minister, Reverend Liuetenant-General Ronnie Shikapwasha on ZNBC’s biased coverage of political stories in favour of the ruling party. The minister had been reacting to a story quoting Law Association of Zambia President Musa Mwenye challenging the national broadcaster to abide by the law setting out its operations.
ZNBC, as other state owned media organisations, is at its lowest ebb in terms of popularity because of the manner it is used by the ruling party, only covering opposition parties negatively.
Andrew Sakala:
shikapwasha denies anything and everything. if instructed he can even deny that his name is shikapwasha
Both the minister of information who happens to be the chief government spokesman and the national broadcaster are derided:
Martyn Mulenga Malauni:
The honourable Minister of Info lives in a utopian world. For him to have said what he said to ZANIS [Zambia News and Information Service] in defence of ZNBC [Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation] popularly called Zambia Nonsense Bragging Cheats in some circles is not shocking to some of us because he appears to see everything in reverse. As to whether he is a true man of God, i leave it to his congregation that is assuming he has one.
Social media observers like myself will be waiting to see if the results of the 2011 tripartite  elections—presidential, parliamentary and local government—to be held on a date yet to be announced by President Banda will be influenced by the use of social media.


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China: Outrage at High-Speed Train Crash · Global Voices
Andy Yee

A collision between two high-speed trains in China in the evening of July 23 killed at least 35 people and injured over 200. C. Custer at ChinaGeeks has written about the government's cover-ups of the tragedy and railway safety issues, and the outrages that are pouring in China's online community.

author: Andy Yee


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Colombia: 201 Years of Independence · Global Voices
Cati Restrepo

As we announced in a recent post, Colombia commemorated its day of independence this past July 20.  The Internet, as expected, was the scene of many opinions and events that varied from pride of having been born in said country to political criticism, even including Anonymous’ actions on the social network accounts of many politicians (including current President Juan Manual Santos).
Twitter opinions
Despite the fact that the country's complex realities are not unknown, there were many who declared “Happy Independence Day” to one another and made their pride of having been born in Colombia public. This was the case for Nicolás Paz Velasco (@npazvelasco) and Erika Mora (@iitamora), who posted:
y a estas alturas solo puedo decir: “yo no elegí nacer en Colombia simplemente tuve mucha suerte” otro #diadelaIndependencia que ya termina!
María T. Gonima (@Mategonima), points out Colombians’ ability to smile:
#I♥Colombia pq a pesar de los problemas, nunca dejamos de sonreír.. #diadelaindependencia
And Cristhian Rojas (@CristhianRojasG) says, euphorically:
Que hoy se quiebren los floreros y se grite INDEPENDENCIA! Que suene el Himno Nacional de la REPÚBLICA DE COLOMBIA. #DIADELAINDEPENDENCIA RT
Nevertheless, many also took advantage of the occasion to post the things that confront them in the country.  Pilar Dique (@Pililu) asks:
Me pregunto, ¿cuál independencia? si lo que parece es que cambiamos de dueños. #diadelaindependencia.
Santiago Rodríguez (@sruls), invites this reflection:
El #diadelaindependencia debería ser un momento para reflexionar si de verdad somos independientes y si después de 201 años hemos avanzado
Michelle Pineda (@MickeyPineda), comments:
Se acabó el #díadelaindependencia, hoy hace 201 años, los que sí eran héroes ya podían dormir sabiendo que una gran parte ya estaba hecha.
And Juanita Cortés L (@JuanitaCortesL), says:
en el #diadelaindependencia los colombianos deberíamos exigir nuestros derechos, luchar por hacer un lugar mejor
A flag in reverse
Many tweets surfaced like those of @MiltonTrujillo, who published an image, via Twitpic, of a flag waving in reverse:
A house with a reversed flag, by @Milton Trujillo and used with permission
Actions by Anonymous
As noted in the beginning of this post, Colombian independence was not a trending topic on the Internet solely on behalf of the citizens in the days surrounding the occasion, but also through the actions of the group Anonymous on the accounts of the country's politicians’. The current President's Facebook account was hacked, as was that of ex-President, Álvaro Uribe on Twitter [es]. On both occasions, the group left a video [es], which according to Adictos Geek's [es] references, they affirm:
Anonymous no pretende desvalorar la acción de los libertadores, pero sí hacer caer en cuenta que celebramos algo que nunca hemos obtenido de una manera totalitaria y que si no hacemos algo no podemos cambiar el pensamiento arcaico que aún tenemos. El 20 de julio Colombia no debería celebrar, debería exigir sus derechos y libertades en todo ámbito”, son las ultimas palabras del mensaje.
The event generated a Trending Topic under the hashtag: #Uribepenetrated. Nonetheless, this was not all, Anonymous later attacked the page of the National Police Force and revealed databases with personal information of police force members.  Given the climate of insecurity and violence that continues to live in certain Colombian zones, many Twitter users have labeled this action as irresponsible:
For more opinions on Twitter, follow these hashtags: #independencia, #Díadelaindependencia,#MasColombianoque.  (#independence, #IndependenceDay, #MoreColombianthan.)

author: Cati Restrepo


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Egypt: Clashes in Abbasseya · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.
Yesterday, Egyptian demonstrators marched from Tahrir Square to the Ministry of Defense demanding the trial of Mubarak and his former regime and asking their military rulers to speed up reforms, as well as the cessation of military trials for civilians. Some chants called for an end to the country's military rule as well.
A drawing by Carlos Latuff. showing the Supreme Council of Armed Forces using the media to tell people revolts are treacherous.
The exact number of protesters is not known, yet there were various speculations. Ahmed Gharbeia – who was in the protest – commented [ar]:
الأعداد كانت معقولة بالنظر إلى اليوم و الوقت و الحشد المضاد ال كان الجيش بيعمله قبلها بيومين. في أقصى حجم لها في الثلث الاوسط من شارع رمسيس المسيرة المسيرة كانت حوالي 5000، لكني كنت باسمع من الناس حولي تقديرات من نوعية 10 آلاف و 30 ألف
All was peaceful till the protest reached Al-Nour Mosque in Abbasseya where the army cordoned protesters, blocking the street with military wagons and fire trucks. The number of protesters then appeared to be much less than that at the beginning. After a while people in nearby streets and on rooftops started throwing stones and molotov cocktails at the protesters. It's not clear whether the attackers are thugs or residents of the Abbasseya district who fell prey to the ongoing propaganda against the demonstrators. Gigi Ibrahim – who was in the protest – wrote today on twitter:
@Gsquare86: The people in Abbasya fighting us were both police thugs and neighbourhood [people] who were told we are coming to destroy their shops & attack
@Gsquare86: Last night's battle was so unneeded cuz after all we were fighting brainwashed people not even police (until the end) nor military police
Zeinobia was expecting the whole thing to happen and wrote about how she urged people on Twitter to cancel the march as it might not be their best move now:
I have expected this attack since the morning and unfortunately when I shared my concerns and asked the people to cancel the march, I was being attacked and accused of being Mubarak’s regime and being a coward, etc. Already I did not like the idea of the march and going to the ministry of defence, again the army is not the police and the majority of  Egyptian like the army and do not like the police, if you claim otherwise then you do not know the real Egyptian people and live in illusions.
We should have new strategy and tactics , one of the major generals in SCAF once said that they do not act except if they see millions in Tahrir Square and other squares then this should be our primary focus. We have to be united again, we are divided now and no longer united .
The night before, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) issued two official statements after an earlier smaller march that had also headed to Abbasseya which came after clashes that took place in Suez, Alexandria and Ismailia. In the first statement, SCAF accused April-6 movement of contaminating the relation between the people and the army, and turning them against it.
SCAF then in the following statement thanked the citizens that formed a cordon between the military police and the protesters in yesterday's march to the Ministry of Defense; it also blamed some websites for turning the people against the army.
Esraa El-Taweel also tweeted earlier [ar] warning the protesters that people in Abbasseya are preparing themselves to defend their district from what they think are thugs. But what made the residents believe the protesters are thugs? Hossam El-Hamalawy – who was there – wrote here how the district was prepared to this attack:
The army has been inciting against our march already for days on the state-run channels, accusing the Tahrir protesters of being “thugs, foreign agents” bla bla bla. The army also, according to Abbassiya residents I spoke with, has been going around in the neighbourhood since the previous night, telling people in the neighbourhood that they “will be attacked by foreign paid thugs” the follow day. Those “foreign paid thugs” were of course, us.
Those who attacked us yesterday included criminal thugs from the Waily district, but also some residents of Abbassiya who did buy the army’s lies. The army was already on the roof tops before our arrival, the same roof tops Molotov cocktails and rocks were showered at us from.
He then continued.
The army stood silent, watching the battle ground, hoping the thugs and the residents would finish us off, while the police was more than happy to join in by throwing rounds and rounds of tear gas. We managed to return to Tahrir in small groups via the neighbouring hospital late at night.
Dalia called what happened [ar] a trap set by the SCAF. Ahmed Gharbeia had a different point of view, and he wrote that it was clear that the attackers were not thugs, but were residents told to defend their district. And that's why he believed they – the protesters – had to follow a different strategy instead of attacking back and throwing stones back on the attackers:
هل حدث أن ناس اندفعوا في البداية المبكرة المناوشات من الشارع الجانبي الملاصق للجيش بسلاح أبيضو هددوا المتظاهرين و استفزوهم و ألقوا عليهم زجاجات بلاستيك: أيوة حصل.
لكن الحل في رأيي كان أن المتظاهرين يمتصوا الاستفزاز، و يعلنوا أنهم مش جايين يتخانقوا مع أهالي المنطقة و يصروا على سلميتهم تجاههم، و يبدأوا مفاوضات معهم. لكن القلة سريعة الاستفزاز هي ال سيطرت
The Egyptian blogger El-Azul wrote that activists now have to stop being disrespectful of those that disagree even if they do so violently, and to start thinking about how they can win the hearts and minds of the people. Zeinobia also wrote:
We are losing the Egyptian street more and more , anyone tells you that other that or says that we do not need the Egyptian street , please remind him that the revolution , real revolution in those 18 days would not see the light the Egyptian street. Revolutionary arrogance is a deadly sin along with revolutionary romanticism.
Another blogger, Sharif Abdel-Aziz, believes it was the Abbasseya resident's right to defend their district and the SCAF against those revolts who are ruining their lives [ar]:
سكان العباسية ليسوا بلطجية بل مصريين سئموا من البلطجة باسم الثورة …وسئموا ” العيشة واللي عايشينها ” وعلي النخبة ان تفهم ان الجيش هو اكبر خط احمر ..وان المجلس العسكري وطني يحمي مصر من الانهيار …حان الوقت لطي صفحة البلطجة باسم الثورة والتمحك في دم الشهداء .
In times like these, it is normal to have different points of views, even those who were there each have his own interpretations, and that's why Salma Said wrote the following [ar]:
اوحش حاجة في احداث زي امبارح ان كل حد عنده نظرية لتفسير اليوم يتعامل مع الباقي كاغبياء, كلنا كنا هناك والامر كان مربك. بطلوا خناق مع بعض بقى
And finally, Al-Masry Al-Youm published a video from the protest, and She2i2 summed up the number of reported injured so far and also wrote about the abduction of Ahmed Ghareya's brother, Amr Gharbeya, who was later released:
Some 200 activists, and dozens of local residents/thugs, were injured in these clashes. Several protesters were reported to be arrested; along with the abduction and disappearance of Activist/Blogger Amr Gharbeia.
This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.

author: Tarek Amr


text:
Guinea: Guinean Music Mourns Manfila Kanté · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

The passing of Manfila Kanté, a Guinean music star, has been announced via the Facebook  account La Presse  guinéenne en ligne [fr]. Aly Cherif  (Prince Cherif) wrote [fr]: “The Guinean cultural scene is in mourning. Manfila Kanté died in Paris this Wednesday, July 20, following a long illness. A huge loss for Guinean and Mandingue music.”

author: Abdoulaye Bah