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Pakistan: Gang Rape Of Nurse Causes Outrage · Global Voices
Sana Saleem

The gang rape of a trainee nurse at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), has caused outrage amongst Pakistanis. The fact, that the gang rape occurred in a government institution, has been strongly criticized and speaks volumes about the vulnerability of nurses and female staffs working in hospitals across the country. This video in YouTube by etribune shows a heart-breaking report on the incident.
Click image to watch the video in YouTube
Jamal Ashiqain commented in a blog post titled Wake-up! Rise To Stop VAW:
On the first day of the incident the news channels were so hyped-up that ignoring the basic ethics of journalism they ran the video footage on the loop every second of the minute showing the victims face, and clearly identifying her, so much that her face and name would actually be engraved in the minds of every other person watching the news channel at the time across the country.
Elaborating the issue further, Jamal quotes statistics from popular NGOs’ demanding policy makers to device proper laws in order to curb violence against women. Another blogger Nayyab questions the increase of incidence of rape cases:
The only reason is that there is no “law” a so called law which can punish these culprits and such heinous incidents could be controlled. But now it is not possible in Pakistan, the country is in grip of corrupt politicians who are liars and came to power on the basis of their fake degrees.
Furthermore, Nayyab questions the silence of religious clerics on the increase of such incidents. Accusing them of neglecting important issues such as these and rallying for political issues instead. On my own blog, Mystified Justice, I spoke about the loopholes in the sexual harassment laws and the need for better implementation of the Work Place Harassment Bill:
For the over 350 nurses working in ward 24 of JPMC, harassment is not a new phenomenon but it was this victim’s gang-rape which compelled them to protest and go on strike in solidarity. It is deplorable that such an incident has taken place in a state-run hospital(..)It’s devastating to learn that the victim had been complaining about being harassed by Memon long before the assault took place and she wasn’t the only one. But their pleas fell on deaf ears. Although, the Work Place Harassment Billhas been passed, her case is a classic example of how harassment in workplaces is hardly taken as a serious matter. Most of the times, such incidents are swept under the rug, which gives a freehand to the assailant and makes the victims vulnerable to such instances in the future. Institutions and companies prefer concealing facts to safeguard their reputation rather than taking a strong stance. Mere laws will not help solve the problem at hand, the only solution is for the organisations and institutions to ensure maximum protection for their employees. No laws or legislative can guarantee protection until those working within these places decide to take such matters seriously.

author: Sana Saleem


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Philippines: Bloggers’ Insights on the Peasant Problem · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

In the Philippine countryside, majority of peasants still suffer from ages-old feudal and usurious practices and rural underdevelopment as reflected in the lack of mechanization in the agricultural sector and deteriorated farm-to-market roads.
Image from the Photoblogger.
Last month, some Filipino bloggers joined a commercial tour to the mountainous parts of Cebu City in relation to the “Kumprahan Supermerkado,” a project by local business groups that aims to bridge the gap between peasants in the countryside and their affluent market in the city.
Aside from simply promoting and providing additional media projection to this project, the bloggers also got a small glimpse on the livelihood of the peasants of Sitio Cantipla, Tuanan, Cebu City. Crossroads, for instance, is fascinated by the thought of organic farming.
I kept on hearing the term “ORGANIC” while on our way and honestly, I had no idea what that word means as far as farming is concerned. When we were there, we were able to ask the farmers questions related to farming and stuffs. I was totally amazed with the place – lots of vegetables and root crops. The best part of that was the information I got.
Meeting with local vegetable farmers in Cantipla, Vernon Go frames the peasants’ problem in terms of the consumer-distributor relationship.
The problem… is that the product becomes too expensive after passing through “middlemen”. Even more disadvantageous is this model to the farmers which is why you come to wonder, “Why are farmers in the Philippines poor?” This whole new model of business is not really new, it has been adopted by other countries successfully, so why can't we? Through the Kumprahan SuperMerkado, it will help the farmers progress and also encourage consumers to purchase fresh Organic Vegetables in Farm Gate prices.
McCoolot.com describes the site of the farm tour.
Some people call it the little Baguio of Cebu City. I couldn't agree more – the place is cool even if it's already noon, fresh air and relaxing place away from home. Abundant in vegetables and crops.
And The Photoblogger comments on the poor state of the peasants’ means of production.
Image of farm implements from the Photoblogger.
One of the things I did notice about the farms is the usual traditional methods of ploughing the fields. I come to wonder if the farmers can learn new methods to improve their production. Philippines is supposedly rich in Agricultural resources. I do hope that the government could put a little investment in improving the methods of farming.
After braving the dilapidated and winding roads to the area, Maria Eleanor Valeros of The Freeman found out that peasant leaders themselves shared the same sentiment.
[F]arm leader Aladin Pagatpat of the 50-member SUFALTRAS mentioned that if only they could be provided with four-wheel tractors to aid contour farming in rolling terrains and a cold chain facility that would store lettuce, baguio beans, tomatoes and atsal (bell pepper), then that would be the next big help to look forward to in line with empowering farmers and invigorating the countryside.
“Sa handling gyod problema. If a cold storage is available, that would help prolong the shell life most especially of lettuce,” he added.
Even after more than half a century of formal independence, the Philippines remain a backward and agricultural country whose industrial enclaves as well as communication and transportation infrastructure are largely the result of foreign capital investment that are geared towards serving foreign demand rather than national needs.
Efforts like “Kumprahan Supermerkado” can surely help improve the lives of selected peasant communities. But the resolution of the issue of genuine agrarian reform and rural development on a systemic and nationwide scale remains to be one of the longstanding aspirations of the Filipino people.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Karlo Mongaya


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Philippines: Remembering the Abduction of Fr. Rudy Romano · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

A commemoration protest in the central Philippine city of Cebu leads In Between Columns to remember circumstances surrounding the abduction of human rights advocate Fr. Rudy Romano and fellow anti-dictatorship activist Levi Ybanez by military agents under the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.


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Puerto Rico: Condoning Corruption?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“My dad used to comment wryly, We're a ‘Don't confuse Me with the facts’ kind of people”: Gil the Jenius is convinced this is one reason that Puerto Ricans “are implicitly condoning corruption.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Russia: Leader of Khimki Forest Defenders Detained · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Yevgenia Chirikova, a civil rights activist and leader of the Khimki forest park defenders [EN] has been detained, infox.ru reported [EN]. More than 30 policemen came to detain her after she gave a press-conference in the Independent Press-Center.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Russia: Violence, Drinks and Love on Airborne Forces Day · Global Voices
Dmitry Davidov

LJ user zyalt decided to take a walk with a photo camera around Gorky Park in Moscow on the Airborne Forces Day (August 3). Here is his photo report.

author: Dmitry Davidov


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Sri Lanka: Profiting From Social Media Marketing · Global Voices
Rezwan

Rumbling Lankan discusses about the trend of social media marketing in Sri Lanka and how to profit from it.

author: Rezwan


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Sri Lanka: Western Media Bias Against Muslims · Global Voices
Rezwan

Dee at Ranting In Colombo comments on the bias of western media in portraying the Arab and Muslim world: “a head shawl doesn't mean you're conservative! There is a person underneath.”


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Tweeting Kenya’s Referendum 2010 · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Kenyans voted today in a referendum for a new constitution. Earlier today we linked to websites with live updates of this historic event. Kenyan twitter users have been busy posting tweets related to the referendum using hashtags: #uchaguzi, #kenyadecides, #referendum and #kuweniserious (“be serious” in Swahili).
A sample of tweets from #uchaguzi:
Tegan Bukowski reports:
An #Uchaguzi SMS report: “Woman goes into labour at Kabete polling station. Voters have pre-named the baby ‘Red Wafula Green” #kenyadecides
djxpect has a request:
RT this plz. Need an artist 2 draw up a pic of the viral constitution baby Red Wafula Green throwing up a peace sign
Locococomoco tweets:
Kenyans at Donholm still voting despite the fact that voting should be over by now (A result of earlier confusion)
RogerO_202 announces the closing of polling stations:
polls have now closed, tallying commences
Tweets from #kenyadecides:
wendohw:
Lady from Narok says she'z voting cause the govt says so, and that she don't need to read it!
Semhar:
RT @wsjafrica: Gorgeous pics of Voting in Kenya: http://bit.ly/dnCeHr
Locococomoco:
Tallying begins across the the country, within half an hour initial tally results start being broadcasted.
warothe:
@nymmoh Voting closed at 5pm. It was peaceful. Not heard of any security incidents. It was fast! I was in and out in 5min!
Rombokins:
kitui prison in kitui central first to tally votes. YES: 21; NO: 7 out of 38 registered voters. (from nationmobile)
Kenyan twitter users are also able to send reports to Uchaguzi website by using the hashtags: #uchaguzi or #kenyadecides. Uchaguzi is a site that monitors incidents related to the referendum.
You can also follow iHub live streaming of Kenya's referendum.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Advocacy Video Toolkit Feedback  · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

WITNESS is working on a Video Advocacy Toolkit and would like your input. With this information they would improve on the toolkits and make sure they cover most of the needs of people who work with or wish to work with video for advocacy purposes.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Anguilla: On Corruption  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Contrary to public opinion, most politicians are not engaged in making back-room deals and accepting under-the-table packages”: Corruption-free Anguilla thinks “it is the lack of transparency in our systems of government that causes so many of their actions to be wrongfully categorised as corrupt.”


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Bangladesh: Road To A Secular Nation? · Global Voices
Rezwan

Exiled journalist and blogger Saleem Samad questions in his post at E-Bangladesh “is Muslim majority Bangladesh poised to convert into a secular nation?”


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Bangladesh: Visitors Share Their Thoughts On Grameen Ventures · Global Voices
Rezwan

Grameen Bank Office in Dhaka. Image by Flickr user Rainer Ebert. CC BY-SA
Since its launch in 1976 as a research project in rural Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank has walked a long way to become what it is now, a microfinance organization and community development bank with affiliated ventures in many countries of the world. More than three decades later and boosted by many awards including the Nobel Peace Prize (jointly with its founder Dr. Muhammad Yunus in 2006), it has expanded into a family of social organizations.
Each year many volunteers and activists from the world come to visit the Grameen organizations to learn how they work and gather first hand experiences. This summer, eight students and faculty members from the Master of Public Administration program of the Northern Kentucky University (NKU) in Kentucky, USA are completing an internship in Bangladesh at Grameen Bank. They have made numerous field visits and are recording their experiences in their blogs using texts, pictures and videos.
Beth, the MPA program editor shares her experiences in her blog “They're taking me to Bangladesh“. It was hard for her to adapt to the rural infrastructure during field visits and she commented:
Being in the country at the villages is so much different than the city. It is greener. The air is less polluted and it definitely is much quieter.
A number of students are also blogging about their experiences. Mike posts some videos in his blog ‘Wait… this is how many miles away?!?!?!!’
This video contains the first visit of the NKU team to Dhamrai, the center meeting, etc.:
Brandi ventured to learn more about Bangladesh and she was able to attend a Bangladeshi wedding.  She is excited about her visit to  Grameen Shikhka (Grameen Education) and writes her experiences in two posts titled “I can never forget how blessed I am” and “Grameen here, Grameen there, Grameen everywhere”.
Tim elaborates about Grameen Shikkha and how children are having their education besides working to earn livelihood:
Yesterday and today we visited a school programs called Grameen Shikkha, a non-formal school program for slum children and initiative of Grameen which aim is to offer a basic education (English, Bangla, math skills, social sciences and the environment) so that when they grow older, their employment opportunities are enhanced. Odds are that without this program, these children would have no education opportunities. [..]
School runs from 2pm to 5 pm. Outside of these hours, all of these children work. Most get up early to work (around 6 am) in whatever their family business is – mostly tailoring – in this neighborhood. After class, they return and work until at least 10 pm. The work because the family needs them to as those who live in the slums earn very little (anywhere from $4 – $11 per day depending on what the children there told us their goods sold for) and need their kids to help. [..]
These kids work six days a week with this schedule. I will never complain about my workload again…can you imagine being a child and not having the time to play?
Grameen Shakti, solar powered electricity system for rural Bangladesh. Image by Flickr user Marufish. CC BY-SA
Lynne writes about her experiences in posts like Grameen Fisheries, Danone and Eye Care and  Poverty is Poverty and Smiles are Smiles. She is overwhelmed by the Bangladeshi hospitality.
Tori Ames posted a lot of pictures in her posts, e.g. about Grameen Fisheries and Social Business, street children and a government primary school. She writes:
I really love Bangladesh and its beauty. I am sure you can tell that from my posts.
Brandi writes in her last post:
Today is our last day in Bangladesh and I can’t believe the trip is coming to an end.  I’ve had such a wonderful time learning about Grameen Bank and the country as a whole.  There is so much that I will miss about this country that I am hoping I have written enough, taken enough photos, and committed enough to memory to not let the things I love here escape me.
Read the NKU student blogs to learn more about the Grameen Bank and Bangladesh.


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Brazil: Last day on protest by tribe trying to prove its existence  · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Jesse Lerner-Kinglake reports on the last day of the protest by the Awá, a Brazilian indigenous people, to try to prove its existence. “If anything, this week’s protest should prove to the developers and politicians alike that the Awá do indeed exist.” The blogger writes about the crisis facing this endangered tribe.

author: Paula Góes


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Cuba: Gallo’s Garden  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Havana Times features an outdoor art exhibition of installations and sculptures by an 86-year-old artist.


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Haiti: Saying “No” to Monsanto  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Monsanto has been a controversial company for some years now, mainly because it is a major producer of genetically modified seed (reportedly selling as much as 90% of the genetically engineered seed in the United States) and has a reputation for employing questionable methods (including powerful political lobbying, hard-nosed litigation and licensing agreements that are reportedly hurting small farmers) to ensure that it maintains its lead.
Enter Haiti.  With an already tenuous economy sent reeling from the effects of the January 12 earthquake, the country has been struggling to come to grips with its new reality; a reliable food supply is obviously a major concern and Monsanto has been trying to get a foot in the door, via “a donation of conventional corn and vegetable seeds to farmers in Haiti, to help increase food production and aid long-term earthquake recovery.”  The company's website acknowledges the ensuing outcry, dismissing it this way:
A small group, utilizing online media, protested. At first they claimed Monsanto was donating genetically modified seed. Then they backed off and attacked the donation of hybrid seed. Then they claimed it was some kind of effort to slip GM seed into the country.
Imaginative, yes. Accurate, no.
Our donation of hybrid seed to Haiti is about farmers, people and food.
Haiti’s farmers need good quality seed, because the better the seed, the better the chances for more food from the same land.
Haiti’s people need food — better quality food, more food and more nutritious food.
The site also posts other articles explaining how the management and distribution of the seed in Haiti would work.  But that has done little to assuage the concerns of Monsanto's naysayers – or Haitian farmers, for that matter – who, at the beginning of June, staged a protest against the “donation” and burned more than 400 tons of Monsanto's hybrid corn and vegetable seeds.  Haitians are about as receptive to these hybrid seeds flooding their local agriculture industry as they are to more aftershocks, bluntly referring to them as “a new earthquake”.
La Via Campesina (a website of a global confederation of farmers) reports:
According to Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, leader of the Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPP) and spokesperson for the National Peasant Movement of the Congress of Papaye (MPNKP), the entry of Monsanto seeds into Haiti is ‘a very strong attack on small agriculture, on farmers, on biodiversity, on Creole seeds… and on what is left our environment in Haiti.’
While Monsanto is known for being among the world’s largest purveyors of genetically modified seeds, the corporation’s spokespeople have emphasized that this particular donation is of conventional hybrid seeds as opposed to GMO seeds. Yet for many of Haiti’s peasants, this distinction is of little comfort.
‘The foundation for Haiti’s food sovereignty is the ability of peasants to save seeds from one growing season to the next. The hybrid crops that Monsanto is introducing do not produce seeds that can be saved for the next season, therefore peasants who use them would be forced to somehow buy more seeds each season,’ explains Bazelais Jean-Baptiste, an agronomist from the MPP who is currently directing the ‘Seeds for Haiti’ project in New York City.
‘Furthermore, these seeds require expensive inputs of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides that Haiti’s farmers simply cannot afford. This creates a devastating level of dependency and is a complete departure from the reality of Haiti’s peasants. Haitian peasants already have locally adapted seeds that have been developed over generations. What we need is support for peasants to access the traditional seeds that are already available.’
Netizens overwhelmingly appear to be saying that Monsanto's donation to Haiti may come with strings attached, with this post categorically stating:
Haitian social movements’ concern is not just about the dangers of the chemicals and the possibility of future GMOs imports. They claim that the future of Haiti depends on local production with local food for local consumption, in what is called food sovereignty. Monsanto's arrival in Haiti, they say, is a further threat to this.
Around the time of the planned demonstration against Monsanto, Twitter was abuzz – @RAMHaiti was especially vocal:
Big Day: Haiti peasant org Demonstrates against Monsanto today!!
Movement Paysan Papay organizes demonstration against Monsanto today in Hinche
Monsanto, what I've heard; genetically modified seeds, toxic pesticides, patents & lawsuits come w/ seeds, price increases @sbois76.
Haitian Peasant org is raising their voices today against Monsanto. Haitian GOVT is working with Monsanto
Google Monsanto. It seems they develop dependencies, then raise prices and bring lawsuits,Toxic pesticides, etc @Saramouche
I'm hearing 10 thousand people at Haiti's anti Monsanto demonstration
Another Twitter user, @HaitiRewired, posted a link directing tweeple to “some really interesting and informed conversation about hybrid seeds in Haiti”.
Bloggers were also putting in their two cents’ worth.  A Haitian woman, Elsie, who lives in Paris, comments on her blog:
Aux lendemains du tremblement de terre, toutes les stars y sont allées de leur petit chèque, un petit million par ci, deux par là, histoire de se donner bonne conscience et se faire une super promo aux yeux du monde. Puis, quelques jours plus tard, plus rien, tout le monde a oublié les habitants. A part peut-être la multinationale Monsanto, qui vient d’offrir 476 tonnes de semences aux agriculteurs haïtiens. Un geste solidaire et gratuit ? Vu le passé de l’entreprise, on se doute que non…
She goes one step further in this post, uploading a video and calling Monsanto's offer a “deadly gift”.  Post demonstration, she congratulates the Haitian farmers on their resolve and applauds everyone who supported them [Fr]; The Haitian Blogger, meanwhile, publishes a fact sheet about Monsanto's donation in a post titled “Haitian farmers’ epic struggle for survival”.
Diaspora blogger Ezili Danto puts it quite simply:
Colonization of Haiti food and seeds is not earthquake relief.
@RAMHaiti echoes her position, saying in a recent tweet:
Were Haitian farmers at the table when someone decided to change the Haitian economy? Are they at the table now?
The discussion continues on Facebook.


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India: Letting Go of Kashmir · Global Voices
Rezwan

Sujai at Desicritics provides a bold viewpoint which have prompted a heated discussion in the comments section. The blogger opines that the protests in Kashmir has become so intense and desperate as a freedom struggle that the Indians may consider to “let it go” to stop their hands being bloody as Kashmiris are being killed everyday.


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India: The Assam Conflict And The Role Of The Press · Global Voices
Rezwan

Aruni Kashyap at The Sun Rises Here informs that the debate on Assam's future continues to be ignored by the Indian national press and comments that it may lead to wrong decisions of the government.


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Indians In Singapore · Global Voices
Rezwan

Abhijit at Blowing In The Wind informs that the proportion of Indians in Singapore has increased to 353,000, which is about 9.2 per cent of the population.


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Indonesia: Labour rights violations · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

EngageMedia uploads a documentary which features the story of an Indonesian worker who lost his factory job after joining a union strike.

author: Mong Palatino


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Jamaica: Managing Dengue  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

YardFlex.com says that the government “is urging the public to co-operate with…health workers involved in vector control and other activities associated with the elimination of Dengue Fever.”


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Japan: Boat racing on Edogawa river · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

Lee at Tokyo Times documented through photos  [en] the annual boat race (kyotei)  [en] on Edogawa river, in Tokyo.

author: Scilla Alecci


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Japan: On A-Bomb Day, one minute of silence on twitter  · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

Some twitter users will observe a minute of silence [ja] in remembrance of the victims of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 65 years ago [en].
No tweets will be posted on Friday 6 at 8:15 a.m. and on Monday 9 at 11:02 a.m. (local time).


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Kenya: Kenya 2.0 · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

It's Kenya 2.0!: “Kenyans have today approved a new constitution in a landmark referendum vote. Thank you, fellow Kenyans! And welcome to Kenya 2.0!”


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Kenya: Welcome to Kenya 2.0 · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Kenyans have decided. Kenyan citizens have overwhelmingly voted “Yes” in Kenya's referendum on a new constitution. Leaders of the “No” camp have admitted defeat.
Kenyan bloggers are celebrating this unique moment in the history of their country. This roundup looks at conversations taking place at the moment in the Kenyan blogosphere.
Rafiki Kenya observes that the approved constitution is probably one of the best in Africa and adds, “And welcome to Kenya 2.0!”:
Kenyans have today approved a new constitution in a landmark referendum vote. Thank you, fellow Kenyans! And welcome to Kenya 2.0! This new constitution – which is probably one of the best in Africa, if not the best – is redefining Kenya and is indeed a very historic moment signalling a new dawn for East Africa's most vibrant economy. The wind of change has blown through our country, and we should all be ready to contribute to the building of a great nation, creating an example for Africa, and becoming an important and respected player in the world. This time for Africa, our time for change has come.
Ken Opalo analyses voting patterns:
In all provinces but the Rift Valley and Eastern, Kenyans voted overwhelmingly in favor of the document. Rift Valley saw the stiffest opposition to the new constitution, recording a 62% NO vote. This was however expected since the regional political supremos, William Ruto and former president Moi, had vigorously campaigned against the document. In Eastern Province vice president Kalonzo Musyoka was left exposed after a strong showing by the NO side in his backyard. The vice president campaigned for the document but faced insurgent local politicians who appear to have proved that Mr. Musyoka does not have as much influence in the region as he would have us believe. Given Kenya’s highly regionalized national politics, the poor showing by Mr. Musyoka in his own backyard will have interesting implications for the Kibaki succession politics.
Of interest later today will be the breakdown of how individual MPs fared in influencing the vote in their own constituencies. Sadly, outside of Nairobi and other major urban centres most voters did not vote for the new constitution on its merits but followed the advice of their representatives, or their opponents. The most vivid example of this was in North Eastern province where quite a few number of voters turned up expecting to vote in a general election. It might be time the government issued free radio sets to families in the arid north of the country.
In his initial observations of the referendum Chris notes, “And so passing of a new constitution is not the end. Rather it is the beginning of the long road to the Promised Land.”:
The desperate people who spread lies and used every trick in the book to deny long suffering Kenyans the best thing that has ever happened to them, are still very much around and scheming. And so passing of a new constitution is not the end. Rather it is the beginning of the long road to the Promised Land. In my book Kenya has NOT given birth to a new constitution, Rather Kenya is pregnant with it. With modern technology we already know exactly what the new baby is going to look like. But what is going to follow are a lot of discomfort. Morning sickness and so on. And then finally there will be the terrible pain of giving birth. And so while celebrating Kenyans should brace themselves for what is to come before we can see and actually hold the new-born. However the really good news is that this woman called Kenya who has been barren for decades is finally pregnant and that is great news!!
Kalonzo Musyoka’s political career is in serious trouble (did he not vow to resign as Vice president if his people did not vote for the new constitution?). If you doubt what I say, ask yourself a simple question; what will Kalonzo Musyoka bring to the table as his bargaining chip? Because if he promises anybody that he is able to deliver Ukambani then chances are that he will be laughed off the room. In my view although William Ruto is in a better position, he will still have similar problems because there was a spirited YES challenge in his own turf and that is despite the best efforts of both retired President Moi and himself.
The real winners of the referendum, says Abantu, are Kenyans who fought for independence:
The winners weren't really the YES and NO  proponents led by powerful forces that included sitting President Mwai Kibaki and his erstwhile Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the entire Kenyan Government machinery in the YES corner and former President Daniel arap Moi, equally powerful and vocal Minister William Ruto and the Church backing in the NO Corner! The real winner were the Kenyans who lost their lives over four decades and whose blood has redeemed our New Nation! The winners were the living Kenyans who peacefully trooped to the various polling stations in all the 210 constituencies straddles across Kenya and exercised their God given democratic right at the ballot box. The winners were the peace loving Kenyans who knelt and prayed for their Nation and held their shoulder high and refused to be coerced into violence!
I woke up this morning feeling more proud of my country Kenya and that feeling will never ever go away! We truly showed the World, as it waited for an apparent repeat of blood shed, that truly Kenya is ready to step into that place in history and deliver a constitution that even America and Britain and and first world state will be truly envious of!
Sue notes that the church in Kenya has lost its power over its members:
The church has been very vocal in opposing the proposed constitution mainly on the Kadhi courts and abortion chapters. The battle was then narrowed to state and the church. The church claimed that it commands 70% of voters are alleged to be Christians listening to the voice of the church. Then something went wrong the church faithful did not listen to the priests as it was thought it would happen. They read the constitution and make a decision; to pass the document into law.
What do we hear from all these. Is it that the church has grown in terms of reasoning that it no longer obeys ignorantly without reasoning? Are the church leaders aware of this change in the congregation that they lead? Will the people listen to the church any more after this in political decision making? Even those who voted No did that following the political calls not the church. Look at Rift valley, they overwhelmingly voted NO. Not because they are better Christians able to obey their leaders> They obeyed the political call not the church.
M.Pesa congratulates Kenyan media for the vigorous campaign in support of the new constitution:
Well done to our media for the vigorous and positive campaign of backing the proposed draft constitution. The result is a thundering YES victory from the majority of Kenyans who voted overwhelmingly YES.


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Kenya’s Referendum: Initial Observations · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Initial observations of Kenya's referendum on the new constitution from Chris: “The desperate people who spread lies and used every trick in the book to deny long suffering Kenyans the best thing that has ever happened to them, are still very much around and scheming. And so passing of a new constitution is not the end.”


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Laos: Protecting the tiger population · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A youtube video tackles the efforts of the Wildlife Conservation Society and Rare to raise the tiger population in Laos.


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Laos: Where are the locally-made garments? · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Vientiane-based twitter user Kelly Kidson asks: “Why with all the garment factories in Laos, do I never see any clothing labeled “Made in Laos?”


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Lebanon: Hiking from Rachaya Al Wadi to Ain Ata · Global Voices
Katharine Ganly

Rami at +961 details his hike with footprints nature club, a 4-hour cross-hill trek from Rachaya to Ain Ata, Lebanon. Read more and see photos in this post.

author: Katharine Ganly


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Morocco: Race and Racism · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Gnawa musicians, native to Morocco
Morocco, long at the crossroads of East and West, Europe and the Arab world, is a diverse country in many ways, and as such, Moroccans are in many ways tolerant of difference.  In other ways, as Smahane Bouyahia writes, foreigners have found the country to be inhospitable.
In Bouyahia's piece, the topic is, specifically, racism against Blacks in Morocco.  Morocco's Black residents include native Moroccans from the southern parts of the country, Saharawis, sub-Saharan migrants and students, and African-Americans and Europeans.  A diverse group in the country for varied reasons, Black foreigners often find themselves grouped together as a monolith, and treated differently from native Moroccans.  As Bouyahia writes:
For the majority of Moroccans, this anti-Black attitude is reflected in their behavior towards Black foreigners who either haven’t integrated with the general population or who aren’t Muslim. The underlying superiority complex dates back to Antiquity. At that time, there were thousands of Black slaves in Morocco. Some were part of the Moroccan military corps and the Civilian Guard, while others fulfilled various tasks given to them during the reign of Ahmed El-Mansour Eddahbi or even that of Moulay Ismail in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Bouyahia also writes about students, who come mostly from Francophone countries in Africa and often return home after completing their studies.  He quotes a Congolese student, who says:
In Morocco, cultural or religious differences are not accepted. A non-Muslim Black is regarded differently from a Black Muslim for example. It is the same with a Black Moroccan and a Black foreigner. I lived in France for 15 years and have been to Côte d’Ivoire, Togo and many other countries. I can say with confidence that integration is not the same here (…) We aren’t that many in Morocco but Moroccans seem to resent us.
In a recent interview for Talk Morocco and Togozine.com, a Togolese student named Christophe shares his experience of studying in Rabat, saying:
From my side, I can not speak of full integration. I still can not understand certain practices and habits not to mention racism that is unfortunately a reality in Morocco. This concerns foreigners in general and sub-Saharan Africans in particular. We do not hang around a lot of Moroccans. Some are very nice but others just want to take advantage of you.
Christophe also discusses the relationship between Morocco's many African students and its clandestine, or illegal immigrants:
Our relations are not particularly positive. Let’s say it is simply an entente cordiale. Clandestine immigrants are sometimes involved in illegal activities and the students do not take the risk by being friends with them for fear of being arrested. We’re not in Morocco for the same reasons. Our brothers live in hiding, waiting for an opportune moment to try to immigrate to the other side of the Mediterranean. The students are here legally. Moroccans do not make the difference. It distorts the idea they have of us.
Not all bloggers agree with the charges of racism.  Xoussef, in a piece analyzing Bouyahia's original article, writes:
I've been mulling this subject for some time now, trying to determine if Moroccans attitude toward black people is or isn't racism. That's obviously a sensitive issue, because you don't get around labelling people racists, that's a serious charge, and because I'm myself unsure how to differentiate between racism, xenophobia, ignorance and simple bigotry. It has also to do with my reluctance to indulge in stereotypes, actually asserting any opinion, when some 30 million people more or less are concerned. But when I read that article, I was literally itching to add my commentary, so here it is.
After having his say about each section of the article, Xoussef concludes:
I have always had excellent relationships with “African” students and co-workers, sometimes the only “whitish” dot in a group. I had all sorts of stories first hand from the nasty neighbour, the kids acting like stray dogs, the throwing of stones to the nasty lady at the resident card office. I herd the rumours, the nasty comments, the badmouthing and known a specimen of a true racist doubled by a hypocrite. Had I wrote anything about this topc, it would have been probably à charge. But I find this article with it's generalisations, superficial analysis, amalgamation of different topics and its single minded charge too quick to cry wolf when it's only a stray dog.
Had I wrote this I would have mentioned the giant Friday Couscous a neighbour prepares for the students, the Moul hanout (shop keeper) finding a way to tease his customers despite the language barrier, the Moroccan-Senegalese couple bringing their kid to the kindergarten every day and the crowded theatre at the African students festival. The Malian doctor who saw me come to this world (thanks doc)…
The original article by Bouyahia was also published on Morocco Board, and has generated a lively discussion there.
Photo of Gnawa musicians by eryoni available on Flickr and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

author: Jillian C. York


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Myanmar-India relations · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

WaZup! Asia identifies and analyzes the various trade and other economic agreements recently forged between India and Myanmar.


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Pakistan: Anger Mounts At President’s Apathy · Global Voices
Sana Saleem

Flood relief distribution in Pakistan, Ausgust 2, 2010. Image by Flickr user Globovisión. CC BY-NC
Over 1500 people have lost their live in the recent episode of torrential rains resulting in floods in various areas of Pakistan. Thousands have become homeless and many more are fleeing fearing hunger and death. According to the United Nations estimates over 4 million people have been effected by the recent disaster. While heavy floods have wrecked havoc in the northern areas of the country, target killing and ethnic clashes continue to haunt the metropolitan hub, Karachi. At least 62 people have lost their lives, in three-days of violence following the assassination of a politician. The grief turned in to fury as the President embarked on a foreign trip despite the abysmal conditions in the country and overlooking staunch opposition.
Many on twitter, including politicians, have joined in to criticize President's Europe Trip:
@ijazulhaq: The President continues his private vacation while the people are suffering. Leaders moving for photo opportunities.
@Naeem705: Welcome to pakistan! <zardari pvt limited>, we are a limited liability company! (taxes apply @ 10%)
@Amna_Saeed: Can't believe Zardari is chilling in Europe while our people are dying in these floods. Wth!? How does he sleep?
@bentusman: The New York Times, Telegrah, The Independent The Sun, The Daily Mirror +others reminded Asif Zardari to return to Pakistan #shame #pkfloods
@fbhutto: 32 killed in Karachi over MP's murder. 2.5 million affected by floods. President chilling in the UK. And begging. Mostly chilling though.
Needless to say Pakistan is going through a critical phase. With death toll mounting everyday the need for better disaster management strategy becomes crucial, may it be natural disasters or civil unrest. However, with the President being indifferent to the worsening situation, getting the situation under control has become tougher.
In a post titled “A Time For Governance” Naveen Naqvi emphasized on the importance of governance, with a tinge of anger:
The financial capital of Pakistan is made a ghost town with deserted streets, business at a standstill, and petrol pumps, offices and shops closed. It is not as though we could not have predicted the flare up of tension. After all, the target killings of MQM and ANP activists or the armed conflict between Muhajirs and Pathans has been continuing unchecked for a few months now (..) Where most Pakistanis have been complaining about the long wait for governance, here is yet another opportunity missed. An increasing number of people are questioning the sincerity of an already unpopular leader, Asif Ali Zardari. Why would the President cancel his visit to Europe? Why would he stay with his people at their hour of need and weather the storm with them? The answer that seems to come most readily is that he does not care.
Kalsoom Lakhani at CHUP reiterates the anger and frustration at the President:
Given this enormous devastation, [as well as the wave of targeted killings in Karachi that have killed 47 people after the assassination of MQM's Raza Haider], it is no bloody wonder that the country is pissed off at President Asif Ali Zardari, who is off on a jaunt around Europe while Pakistan is drowning. Regardless whether Zardari is needed to make decisions related to disaster relief or he is merely a figurehead, the decision to press forward with his tour comes across as callous and disconnected, and does not bode well for his already dismal popularity ratings.
Towards the end of her post Kalsoom makes a very valid point:
While this is certainly a time to be angry at our leadership, or lack thereof, it’s also a time to concentrate our energy towards helping the many people in need.
Perhaps what Pakistan needs the most now is to concentrate on helping those that have been effected by the floods and focus on the need to control the growing civic unrest. The title of Kalsoom's post is most apt – Pakistan needs to turn it's grief into action.


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Puerto Rico: Independence Activist Lolita Lebrón Dies · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The Puerto Rican independence activist Lolita Lebrón died on Sunday August 1, 2010. She was 90 years old. Lebrón commanded a group of Puerto Rican independence advocates who attacked the Congress of the United States on March 1, 1954 to denounce the Island's colonial situation under the US.
Lolita Lebrón
That day, nationalists Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irving Flores and Andrés Figueroa Cordero opened fire in the US House of Representatives and unfurled a Puerto Rican flag and Lebrón shouted “¡Viva Puerto Rico libre!” (Long Live a Free Puerto Rico!). Lebrón reportedly fired at the ceiling. Five congressmen were wounded but no one died. Upon being arrested Lebrón declared: “I did not come here to kill anybody. I came to die for Puerto Rico.” Lolita Lebrón spent 25 years in a federal prison in the United States. President Jimmy Carter granted her clemency in 1979.
Lolita Lebrón remained steadfast in her beliefs. In June 2001 she was arrested for performing non-violent civil disobedience to protest against the US Navy military presence in the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. After years of intense activism and massive civil disobedience acts, the US Navy withdrew from the island of Vieques which they had used as a military base and bombing range for 60 years. Later in her life, Lebrón publicly said that she had come to believe that non-violent methods were more effective than armed struggle [ES].
On the day of her death, last Sunday, Lebrón was honored by hundreds of people in a memorial service in the Ateneo Puertorriqueño. Hundreds of mourners assisted the mass in the San Juan Cathedral on Monday and her burial in the Old San Juan cemetery where other important independence fighters lie, such as the leader and President of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Pedro Albizu Campos.
Lolita Lebrón's coffin covered by the Puerto Rican flag enters the Ateneo. Photo courtesy of Verónica Rivera Torres.
Lolita Lebrón earned the respect of people from different political ideologies [ES]. But she still stirs controversy within some circles. For some she is a freedom fighter, while others condemn her for using violence. Most bloggers from Puerto Rico honored her memory. Feminist blogger Nahomi Galindo convened a group of women to write about Lebrón and then posted their texts in her blog Poder, Cuerpo y Género [ES]. One of the participants, feminist activist, journalist and scholar Norma Valle Ferrer describes Lebrón as a symbol of independentista women:
Lolita Lebrón ha sido la heroína emblemática de las mujeres independentistas de Puerto Rico durante décadas. Esto es así sin menoscabo de sus compañeras del nacionalismo, el independentismo y el socialismo, desde Mariana Bracetti hasta las lideresas universitarias de nuestros días. El desempeño de su tarea revolucionaria y la imagen pública de Lolita no fue mediatizada ni por el sexismo histórico ni por los medios de comunicación. No pudieron hacerlo. Su acto heroico y la foto que la convirtió en un ícono la marcaron como líder de un comando armado, como mujer a quien nadie calla, como decidida en la lucha por su patria.
In the same blog, lawyer and activist Eva Prados describes Lolita as human rights activist:
Lolita fue y será una de las grandes líderes femeninas de nuestro país. Ella nos (re)afirma el papel protagónico que han tenido las mujeres en la historia de éste pueblo, aunque nuestra historiografía oficial tienda a resaltar las figuras masculinas. Pero lo que la mantendrá viva por siempre en mi recuerdo fue su valor y entrega por el respeto a los derechos humanos de todos y todas con su lucha por la libertad y libre determinación del pueblo puertorriqueño, derechos humanos del más alto rango a nivel internacional, y el cual nuestra Lolita no renunció a reclamar hasta el final.
Liza Sabater, a Puerto Rican blogger who lives in New York and the founder of culturekitchen [EN], also honored Lolita:
One of the biggest mistakes people make in the United States is to say that Lolita was representative of a fringe group of Puerto Rican nationalists. To be a nacionalista in Puerto Rico is to believe that we as a country have the right to our own cultural identity on the way to winning our right to being a political and economic sovereign nation.
Nacionalismo in Puerto Rico is the social, cultural and political reaffirmation of our sovereignty as an independent culture, an independent nation and an independent country. I will be damned if you would find many Puerto Ricans willing to deny that they have those rights.
If you polled Puerto Rico and asked the simple question, “Do you consider yourself culturally a Puerto Rican or an US American?”, you would get a resounding Puerto Rican on that question because from a social and cultural standpoint we are all nacionalistas.
Lolita Lebrón wasn't an outlier in a sea of colonized Puerto Ricans chanting “Oh Hosay Canyu Sí”. Lolita was an outlier in terms of being willing to open fire on the US Congress and maybe die while doing it for the cause of Puerto Rico's independence.
And that's why she is a terrorist to many US colonialists while being a sheroe to many Puerto Ricans like me.
Feminist blogger and lawyer Verónica Rivera Torres remembers how her parents admired Lolita [ES]:
De niña, crecí escuchando la historia de cómo mi papá y mi mamá (antes de yo haber nacido) fueron a recibir a Doña Lolita Lebrón, cuando ella, Irving Flores y Rafael Cancel Miranda fueron liberados. Habían pasado más de 25 años en prisión por haber disparado en el Congreso de los Estados Unidos.
La esperaron en la Avenida Baldorioty de Castro y, en caravana, la acompañaron hasta la tumba de don Pedro Albizu Campos.
Hoy Lolita ha fallecido. Mi madre ha encendido dos velas en su nombre. Todas aquellas y aquellos que soñamos con otro país estamos de luto.
* First image: Lolita Lebrón by art project Dignidad Rebelde used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.
* The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times published obituaries of Lolita Lebrón.

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


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Revisiting Vietnam’s “hot bloggers” · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Thu An Nguyen Ha, writing for the Asia Digital Map, revisits the online profiles of some of the popular bloggers in Vietnam, one year after the closure of Yahoo 360 which was the most popular blogging platform in Vietnam.


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Russia: Pro-Kremlin Youth Movements Allegedly Forge Photos · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Blogger mr-bison posted a research [RUS] of photos published by two pro-Kremlin youth movements (“Nashi” and “Molodaya Gvardia“). He points out that all the photos of the pro-Kremlin activists where they “were fighting with wild fires” are forged.


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Slovakia: Charging for Online News, Cable TV Style? · Global Voices
Tibor Blazko

Times are changing. Even today in China there are people who, a few years ago, were laughing at the possibility of having to pay for toilet, and, who knows, maybe the next generation of worldwide netizens will consider it normal to pay for internet content.
You've probably heard about Rupert Murdoch‘s introduction of paid content for his online newspapers. Immediately after that, it was reported, for example, that The Times lost nearly 90% of its online readership, but owners are more interested in whether the change in their profits is negative or positive.
In the Slovak news, this event appeared in light version as “After payment introduction The Times web lost two thirds of readers,” ignoring the initial two thirds that were lost after the introduction of free initial mandatory registration. Another article informs that “readers of an American newspaper must pay for comments in discussions,” while in fact they had to pay a small amount once, to let the newspaper get their real identity via their credit cards.
According to a recent poll, “most Slovaks would not pay for news at internet portals.” This is not surprising. SME newspaper (present online since 1993, by the way) once established payment for their political comments, but after a while, due to readers’ ignorance, comments became free again as a “present for readers.”
One can wonder why Slovak newspapers are paying so much attention to paid news content introduced elsewhere in the world. For the more informed, it is not a surprise: something is going to happen.
Former SME editor-in-chief, 30-year-old Tomáš Bella, left his post and established his own company, where he works on introducing shared internet payment system for Slovak websites (and, in the future, those in other central European countries). He expects readers to pay 2.9 euros per month to be able to access premium content of this alliance.
“Conditions here are extremely good,” he was quoted as saying. “In such small markets as Slovakia and the Czech Republic, it is enough to be working with a few big publishers. Then the non-paying reader has no place to go. … It is similar to cable TV. If I have to think about every channel, I will have them much less… But when I think it is a small amount and I will get all for it, I do not care. … For years we have been trying to figure out how to make a payment system functional here, because there is not so much of exclusive content as, say, in the Wall Street Journal. That's why all previous independent attempts failed.”
“For psychological success,” Bella continued, “we must start with a small, symbolic price and one common package.”
[Note that currently Slovakia has one paid online publication – “.tyzden” weekly magazine – where readers only have to pay for the actual paper magazine content. To get it online, they can pay using their bank card or by SMS.]
What do Slovak netizens think about it?
http://www.strategie.cz/scripts/detail.php?id=478123
Jozef Kutej:
I would like to pay to be able to read articles that are of good quality and valuable for me and are not covered with animated advertisement or written as a hidden advertisement for product XY. What's missing in the article is whether flash advertisements in premium content will stay or not.
NewBigBrother:
One company will get monopoly access to preferences of millions readers and will know who and when was reading [an article], and for how long, and what [he or she] added to the discussion … There is just a step to improper usage of information for marketing purposes in the form of personalized advertisement.
Adam:
I strongly believe this will not succeed and Bella will be out of business [soon]!
http://ekonomika.sme.sk/c/5482589/citatelia-americkeho-dennika-musia-platit-za-komentare-v-diskusiach.html:
LoisG
[It's] a sad reality that the only content I would like to pay on SME are discussions, because with the quality of the articles here, one can get more from discussions than from the article itself.
http://ekonomika.sme.sk/c/5461225/prieskum-vacsina-slovakov-by-za-spravodajske-portaly-neplatila.html:
real name:
According to nextbig [Bella's company], there will be [paid] “added value” possibility to add comments to discussion and vote in polls. I guess this immediately will cause to appear some free of charge www.forum.sk/sme.html forum, with discussions starting with links to SME articles
bilbo:
[Pay] for quality content that I will not find elsewhere – why not? Already now I'm paying for access to tyzden.sk. But at the same time, I will not pay for SME. Most of their content is agency news.
vrtulka:
They should have [introduced all these changes] a long time ago already – at least, people wouldn't be wasting their time on stupidities.
silvercoin:
democracynow.org or therealnews.com, or mcclatchydc.com, salon.com, huffingtonpost.com – these are the sources I'm ready to pay for… Unfortunately, in Slovakia no such sites exist…

author: Tibor Blazko


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South Korea: Teenage Moms Quit Schools, Survey Shows · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

A survey shows most of teenage moms drop out of schools after got pregnant with babies, against their will to complete high school education. The Korean society started to address this largely ignored issue by taking a baby step forward by considering building state-run facilities and changing education law,  South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo reported.  But it is still far to go.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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South Korea: Twitter, Too Much Noise or Courageous Disclosure?  · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

In South Korea, not a few celebrities and businessmen have frequently gone under fire by their Twitters. Not only these special people who are still engaged in a bad relationship with Twitter which Twitter keeps hurting them but they still love it, but the ordinary citizen have gotten a bit of blast from unpredictably powerful Twitter and the aftermath it brings.
According to a social media consultancy, Clientopedia’s report from June, the Korean-language is the sixth most widely used in Twitter at 2.05 percent. Considering a tiny proportion of Koreans in Twitter user numbers (at 0.5 percent in the world), it shows how much Twitter is chased after by Koreans and the leverage it has in the country.
An image from Twitter Korea website.
The most recent incident that Twitter has played in, occurred few days ago. South Korea’s Hiphop legend, Lee Ha-neul had a rather boisterous bout with Korea’s major TV network. Lee, 38 year old rapper and 17 year music industry veteran whose hiphop group DJ Doc made numerous huge hits in Korea, opened a duel with SBS, Korea’s one of three major terrestrial TV networks via his Twitter. Lee wrote that SBS’s music show program ‘Popular Music’ has declined to feature his team because the team didn’t appear in SBS talk show ‘Strong Heart’ as SBS wanted, almost confirming a widely believed TV stations’ custom of giving singers a chance to promote their songs under the condition that they amuse the audience in the Networks’ talk shows. Some sarcastically named this custom a ‘1+1’ as in ‘buy one, get one free’ deal. SBS  denied Lee’s accusation and said they find a sudden drop of DJ DOC from the show quite baffling, since they were in the middle of solving schedule conflicts and added that the incident has nothing to do with the talk show.
This is what Lee tweeted :
누구를 위한 무대인가??강심장을 안 하면 자기네 방송에 출연 안 시켜주신다며 스케줄을 빼주셔서 고맙게도 널널한 주말 보내게 해주셨다. 가뜩이나 노래를 부를 수 있는 무대가 없어지고 있는 추세에 우리말고도 한번에 무대가 아쉬운 다른 선후배가수들이 이런 공갈압박을 받으며 활동하고 있다고 생각하니 기분 참 씁쓸하다… 음악방송pd를 향한 기획사들에 일방적인 짝사랑도 문제지만 지금은 잔뜩 어깨에 힘주고 가수들을 자기방송에 소모품 정도로 생각하는 pd들에 권위의식!! 토 나온다. 그런 방송 인기가요 우리 Doc는 안 하기로 했다.
Majority of internet users who believe in the show business’s secret deal, have lavishly praised Lee on his courageous comments, while some expressed that they are worried for his future in the show business. One blogger commented as while powerful singers like DJ DOC can afford harsh criticisms to TV networks, recently debuted singers whose face are not known to public would never be able to file complaints and lauded Lee’s act as invigorating.
Kim Mi-hwa, Korean comedy’s living history and who has been in the show industry for 27 years and often categorized as one of vocal ‘politainers(politics plus entertainers)’ was dragged into sensational controversy several weeks earlier as she tweeted about the alleged Blacklist in KBS (another major terrestrial broadcasting) which is believed to weed out the government’s critics from KBS’s programs. Now she faces a lawsuit filed from KBS side.
As this radical shift in the disclosure pattern is felt even to non-twitter users, which are still majority of Koreans, many are still feeling bit uncomfortable with this unfiltered messages shoot directly from each individual, not to mention conservative media bashing hard on Twitter. Conservatives and moderates are asking more discretion from twitterers and stressed that the social conformity which had been one of most treasured Korean values should be secured. The blogger Blogmania commented that this kind of full-out disclosure is unsettling and irrelevant, calling it a ‘noise’. The blogger reminded people that this newly acquired ‘petitioner’s drum’ can only empower certain individuals.
김미화의 블랙리스트 발언에 이어서 오늘은 DJ DOC 의 이하늘의 SBS 인기가요와 관련하여 트위터에 원색적인 비난을 하는 글을 올리면서 소통의 장이 되어야 할 트위터가 연예인들의 신문고가 되는 것이 아닌가 합니다…이 두건의 일들로만 보자면 힘없는 연예인들이 여론이라는 힘을 등에 없고 거대 기업(권력)에 도전하는 것처럼 보여져 또 다른 권력의 재 창출로도 해석 되어질 수 있기 때문입니다…앞으로도 자신이 부당한 일을 당하게 될 때마다 이런 일을 공론화하는 기능을 트위터가 맡을 것 같아서 그 결과가 어떻게 되든지 간에 그러한 일이 벌어질 때 마다 발생하게 되는 노이즈를 저와 같은 일반인들이 받는 것은 피치 못한 같아서입니다.
However, twitter is no longer irrelevant even to the non-twitterers. The unfiltered information poured straight from the Twitter has embarrassed numerous ‘irrelevant’ people, especially in case of Chung Yong-jin, vice-chairman of Shinsegae Group. Chung is a heavy twitter user and customers have been filing complaints about the Shinsegae owned E-mart’s petty problems like some bad behaviors of staff and fruit conditions (some claiming the water melon is not sweet enough), directly to the vice chairman without talking to middle men. Though the consumers may enjoy the swift reactions, the managerial level workers can be covertly blamed for the thing they don’t even aware of. The blogger Plusblog commented that the fast delivery of uncontrolled message and the unpredictable impact are the beauty of Twitter.
이런 가운데 트위터가 소통의 장으로 너무 트여있다라는 목소리가 일각에서 나오고 있는데요. 일단 트위터라는 서비스는 정보의 전파속도가 기존의 미디어보다 훨씬 빠르고 제제할 수 있는 수단이 없기 때문에 문제가 많이 제기되고 있습니다…검증되지 않는 내용의 정보들이 필터링 없이 빠른 속도로 대중들에게 퍼져나간다는 게 위험 할 수도 있는 것이 사실입니다. 하지만 검증이라는 함정에 빠지지 않고, 언론 조작이라는 더 위험한 현상들을 방지 할 수 있다는 점이 트위터의 장점이라고 할 수 있습니다.
Korean news articles are mostly focusing on the dysfunctions Twitter has and how it has affected famous peoples’ lives adversely. But it is the local journalists who have turned basically private and intimate Twitter pages into public space while they refresh Twit pages on hourly basis searching for scoops.


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Sri Lanka: Tamil.net Partially Accessible In Sri Lanka · Global Voices
Rezwan

ICT for Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace) reports that “Tamilnet.com, the controversial pro-LTTE site blocked by all ISPs in Sri Lanka since mid-2007, is accessible once more from SLT ADSL connections.”


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Taiwan: Slogans to Encourage Childbirth · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Micheal Turton translated some slogans, selected by the Ministry of the Interior, to encourage Taiwanese to have kids.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Thailand: 14th Thai Short Film & Video Festival · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal blogs about the 14th Thai Short Film & Video Festival which will open this month. In relation to the recent political chaos in the country, the festival will exhibit short films from other countries that deal with post-conflict stories.


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Why China’s “Left” Finds Favor in the West · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

CDT translated blogger-novelist Yang Hengjun's blog post explaining why China's leftist intellectuals find favor in the West.


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Anguilla: Freedom of Information · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Corruption-free Anguilla thinks that the Freedom of Information Act is an essential tool in helping governments be transparent, adding: “It is long overdue in Anguilla.”


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Costa Rica: Community Input on Creative Commons License Draft · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

The blog 89 Decibeles [es] writes that Creative Commons in Costa Rica is taking a more democratic route as the license draft and ongoing translations are posted as a wiki where users can discuss the translation and ask questions before the licenses go live.


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Dominican Republic: Long Lines at Santo Domingo University · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

In the Dominican Republic, students wanting to register and pay for their semester at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo must face long lines, as shown in a photo slideshow by Rull Fernández of Duarte 101 [es].

author: Eduardo Avila


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El Salvador: The Beatification Cause of Archbishop Romero · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

From El Salvador, the bilingual blog Super Martyrio [en/es] has been maintained by Polycarpio and provides “the inside track on the beatification cause of Archbishop Romero,” who was assassinated in 1980. Many of his followers are calling on the Roman Catholic Church to make him a saint.


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El Salvador: The Festivals Month of August · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

August is a month for festivals in El Salvador and blogger Tim Muth has a summary of some of the events, including the Parade of the Mails.


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Guatemala: Sustainability of Forests in Totonicapán · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Blogger Manuel Bolom of Semilla de Maíz [es] recently visited the indigenous community of Totonicapán in Guatemala, where he saw firsthand how they are using sustainable ways of maintaining their natural forests.


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Guatemala: The Ruins of La Recolección · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Rudy Girón has published images of the ruins of La Recolección, which stand untouched in Antigua, Guatemala as a testament of the 1773 earthquake the struck the country and remain as a sort of “time capsule.”


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Haiti: Wyclef & the Presidency  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As Wyclef Jean announces his bid for the Haitian presidency, The Haitian Blogger comments: “The man is not qualified for the office. Number one, his candidacy violates the Haitian Constitution.”


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Hong Kong: Cop-slapper · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Webb explains a recent cop-slapper scandal in Hong Kong. A woman cop-slapper with good family background received a 8000 dollar fine in her third conviction, while in another similar case, a guy was put into jail in his frist conviction.


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Hungary: A Controversial Interview With Former Communist Leader · Global Voices
Marietta Le

We already wrote about the controversial film, Guilt and Impunity, made by two Hungarian journalists, who interviewed the former Interior Minister, Béla Biszku. Since the transition of 1989, he hadn't spoken to journalists, but Fruzsina Skrabski and Tamás Novák, journalist-bloggers of Mandiner (HUN), managed to interview him by telling him they were from his native village, Márokpapi, and were preparing an almanac on the famous people born there.
The film, which Skrabski and Novák defined as a documentary, has raised many questions about the communist functionaries’ responsibility for their acts and about how to deal with Hungary's pre-1989 history. The method that Skrabski and Novák used to make the film has raised questions about journalistic ethics.
As the public discussion of Guilt and Impunity continues, it turns out that people are interested in learning about Biszku's acts and calling him to account for his role in organizing the retribution against those who participated in the revolution of 1956.
On Monday, public television channel Duna TV broadcast an interview with Béla Biszku (HUN). Before she began to speak to the former minister, Duna TV's journalist Kata Apáti-Tóth emphasized that “the interview had been conducted on the basis of a well-defined previous agreement.”
Béla Biszku repeated his statements made in Guilt and Impunity: he said he did not regret his acts and the decisions made when he was in charge. He still considers the 1956 revolution a counter-revolution and, according to him, all the aggression used by the government at the time was justified because they were defending the political system. He also told the journalist that he would help a board of historians if they launched an investigation into the provisions made before the transition by the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party.
After the release of Guilt and Impunity, the far right party “Jobbik” asked (HUN) whether Béla Biszku—who lives in a very wealthy quarter of Budapest (Rózsadomb)—was still receiving a generous pension from the state for the simple fact that he had been a leading politician. Biszku denied allegations that he was receiving a benevolent pension.
Kettős Mérce had commented on the film about Mr. Biszku, and wrote a post on Duna TV's interview as well. The text, titled “Comrade Biszku and prime time” (HUN), harshly criticized the fact that someone whose guilt is evident could explain himself in a public television program:
[…] Luckily, Hungary is different, here one may do anything. Here Béla Biszku, who was the Interior Minister in the former People's Republic of Hungary, the “fist of the party,” the “tough guy” in the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party's Central Board, this 88-year-old gaffer can appear on Duna TV to explain what the socialist dictatorship—which he helped to operate as well—meant to him […]. […]
In our country one may do anything. Here a person like him can propose to set up a board of historians to investigate what happened exactly, acting as if all the Hungarian historians haven't been doing just that for the last 20 years. I say, in our country it is permitted for comrade Biszku to express his opinion and admit with a grim face that his pension is only 240,000 Forints [approx. 1,134 USD]. […]
The point of all this is: nothing will be done again. The documentary was screened, Biszku walked into the TV studio and didn't feel like he wasn't right for even a minute. Surely, they called a cab for him, which drove him back home to Rózsadomb. […]
I don't know what Duna TV's reasoning was behind this production, but one thing is certain: we cannot call a public dialogue the broadcasting of a previously recorded interview as a “half hour of hatred,” and afterwards, hermetically separated from the previous interviewee, we're expressing our horror with some professionals for a quarter of an hour. Considering the proportions and the bottom line, this method is far from just.

author: Marietta Le


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India: Paid News Scandal · Global Voices
Rezwan

Offstumped compiles important tweets discussing the controversial report of Indian Press Council on “Paid News”.


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Jamaica: Independence Day  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Jamaica jumps to life with music and dancing as the island commemorates the anniversary of its independence, which took place in 1962″: Repeating Islands blogs about today's Independence Day festivities.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Jamaica: New Politics?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Girl With a Purpose reports on the formation of a new political party: “…its name?: New Nation Coalition.  It's based on Christian principles and promotes justice, peace and prosperity amongst Jamaicans.”


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Microblogs are crucial in China  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Hu Yong explains why microblogs are crucial in China in the China Media Project.


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Nepal: Bloggers Meet Online · Global Voices
Rezwan

Pradeep Kumar Singh informs that Dautari, a Nepali bloggers group is organizing an online meetup for Nepali bloggers on Saturday, the 7th of August, 2010.


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North Korea: Young Kids Suffering from North Korea’s Mass Games · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

North Korea proudly presents ‘Arirang performance’ is one of the world’s largest mass games, designed to promote its regime and earn dollars. More than 20 thousand young students mobilized for the show are forced to practice the routine intensively under directly exposed sunlight for hours and not a few have ended up with muscle ruptures, one even reportedly have died during the training.  South Korea’s Donga reported.


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Open Video Conference at New York City in October · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

The Open Video Conference at New York City in October 1st and 2nd, 2010 will explore the future of online video in different areas such as technology, creativity, business, public policy/law, education and activism.


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Pakistan: Stereotyping Hindus · Global Voices
Rezwan

The blogger at The life and times of two Indians in Pakistan blog writes about some incidents of  stereotyping of Pakistani Hindus as either Indian or Kaafir (infidel) and she was overwhelmed when some Pakistanis protested this treatment.


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Peru: Markarián Hired to Lead National Football Team · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón

Peruvians have not seen its national football team participate in a FIFA World Cup for the past 28 years. The team ended up as the last South American team during the qualifying rounds for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. In early July, the Peruvian Football Federation announced that Uruguayan Sergio Markarián has been appointed as the new coach. Peruvian bloggers react to the news of the man chosen to reverse the fortunes of the squad that had faced plenty of controversy in recent times.
Blogger Luis Vigil Dávila, from the blog Mejor Hablar de Ciertas Cosas [es] [It's Better to Talk about Certain Things], wrote about the coach's experience:
Como se recuerda, el popular ‘Mago’, que ya dirigió a Universitario y a Sporting Cristal, club que sacó subcampeonato de la Copa Libertadores en 1997, siempre estuvo en la mira de la FPF para reemplazar en el cargo de seleccionador a José del Solar.
As you may recall, the popular ‘Mago’ [The Magician], who already coached Universitario [Football Club] and Sporting Cristal [Football Club], with the latter as losing finalist in 1997 Libertators Cup, has always been a target of the Federation to replace manager José del Solar.
The blog Fútbol peruano – Fulbito y Fulvaso, whose author defines himself as a “common football fan who doesn't need to be an expert”, expresses [es] the ultimate hope every Peruvian football fan has with Markarián's appointment:
El flamante entrenador de la selección peruana de fútbol, Sergio Markarián, expresó que hará todos los esfuerzos por clasificar a Perú al Mundial Brasil 2014 y añadió que su deseo es que ese logro se convierta en el mejor trabajo de toda su carrera deportiva.
However, Markarian cannot accomplish the goal by himself, and he will have to count on the participation of the Peruvian players. He'll get his first chance on September 4th when the team faces Canada in a friendly match. The blog Otras Tardes [es] published the names of the players that Markarian has recalled for the game. From the group blog Alianza Lima Corazón [es], refers to the “foreign” players, which are the Peruvians who play abroad for international clubs:
El “Mago” expresó su entusiasmo por empezar a entrenar con la selección. “No quiero esperar más, quiero empezar con los jugadores que más o menos he visto y el tiempo lo dirá”. Markarián señaló que no se puede contar con los extranjeros en los entrenamientos. “En la tercera convocatoria recién vamos a contar con los extranjeros”, añadió.
Whenever a new coach is hired to lead a national side, it is inevitable the question about his wages will come up. Martín Beas Nuñez of the blog Pregunta [es] asks “why is Sergio Markarián going to earn US$760,000 a year?,” and readers answer:
Entiendo que el futbol sea un ambiente, donde las cifras de dinero son extraorbitantes, pero llendo (sic) más alla de eso, si la FPF le paga el sueldo a Sergio Markarian, quién aprueba este salario TAN SALIDO de nuestra REALIDAD ? (Si los impuestos de los peruanos no le pagan el sueldo, aún asi no estamos exagerando un poco ? )
With the amount of money being spent on Markarián, many believe that there will be high expectations. Javier Paredes (@javierparedes) has some realistic ones:
Mucha adulacion a Markarian, no quiero ni imaginarme q dira la prensa cuando Peru pierda 3 partidos seguidos
All in all, Peruvian football fans have great expectations with Sergio Markarian as the national team coach. Only time will tell whether this Uruguayan can be as magical as his nickname suggests.

author: Gabriela García Calderón


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Russia: a Blogger That Wrote to Putin about Wildfires Regrets Writing · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

Alexander Pochkov (aka LJ user top-lap), shares [RUS] his regrets about writing to Russian Prime Minister [EN] Vladimir Putin. He claims he may lose his job and Putin's response made him a joke in the blogosphere. It would be better, he says, if he avoided writing and went to fight the wildfires instead.

author: Gregory Asmolov


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Russia: Fires, Rynda and Putin Create Internet Meme · Global Voices
Vadim Isakov

Rynda. Image by Arek1979
The coverage of Russian fires on the blogosphere took a different – less pessimistic – turn when notorious Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin replied to one of the posts on LiveJournal, popular blogging platform in the country, and, inadvertently, created a new Internet meme called “rynda.”
The story started with a highly popular blog post by LJ user top-lap re-posted by Aleksey Venediktov, highly respected editor-in-chief of Russian radio station “Echo Moskvy,” on the radio station's website [RUS].
In an introduction to the post, Venediktov addressed Vladimir Putin:
Уважаемый Владимир Владимирович,
Знаете ли Вы, что народ негодует по поводу работы правительства по тушению пожаров в регионах РФ? В лицо Вам, конечно, никто не скажет, но Интернет полон критики и негодования.
В частности, многие жители пострадавших регионов в своих блогах весьма нелестным образом отзываются о том, что делается Вашим правительством.
Вот образчик одного еще не самого резкого выступления в Интернете.
Что бы Вы ответили этому человеку?
Venediktov continued with the copy of the full post by top-lap. Below are the excerpts of the post:
Знаете, почему горим? Потому что п**дец. […] В деревне при м**аках коммунистах, которых все ругают было три пожарных пруда, висела рында, в которую били если начинался пожар и о чудо была пожарная машина, одна на три деревни правда, но была. И вот пришли господа демократы и начался п**дец, первое что сделали – это засыпали пруды и продали эти места под застройку, пожарную машину тоже куда то дели, наверно инопланетяне с**здили, а рынду заменили на телефон (модернизация б**дь), только он ни х** не работает, потому что забыли подключить. Остался пожарник правда у него ничего нет кроме шлема и робы, которые остались еще от всех тех же плохих коммунистов.
Top-lap continued with describing how the lack of basic resources makes it impossible to put out the fires effectively.  Full with frustration and anger, the blogger asks questions:
У меня вопрос.
Куда уходят наши деньги? Почему мы с каждым годом все дальше и дальше скатываемся к первобытному строю общества? На х** нам какой то инновационный центр в Сколково, если у нас пожарных машин элементарных нет. Почему раньше были такие люди как лесники, которые предупреждали возгорание и оперативно доносили информацию до пожарных, тем самым не допуская огонь до населенных пунктов. Я не хочу телефон в деревне, я хочу пожарные пруды и мою рынду обратно, верните мне б**дь рынду и выкопайте мне пруд, я сам за ним следить буду и наполнять, если администрации района впадлу этим заниматься, просто выдайте мне место.
I have a question. Where does our money go? Why every year we slide further and further toward a primitive society? Why do we need a f…ing innovation center in Skolkovo [more about this project here [RUS] – GV] if we don't even have fire trucks? Why before we had such people as forest rangers who would warn firefighters about fires and did not allow those fires to spread and affect villages. I don't want a telephone in a village. I want fire ponds and my rynda back. Give my f…ing rynda back and dig me a pond. I will take care of the pond myself and I will fill it with water if a local administration doesn't want to do it. Just give me a place.
Criticizing local authorities and advocating self-government, top-tap proposes:
Освободите меня от налогов или просто уберите отчисления в пенсионный фонд, я все равно не доживу до пенсии по такой жизни, а на эти деньги куплю пожарную машину на три деревни и буду спать спокойно, зная, что ее уже никто не отберет ее у моего народа, моих соседей сельчан, потому что она сука будет наша и мы за нее убьем, если нужно будет.
Top-tap concludes with a cry:
Верните мне б**дь мою рынду, суки, и заберите свой телефон нах**.
This emotional and linguistically creative post could have stayed as one of millions of complains against the government in Russian blogosphere if radio station “Echo Moskvy” did not receive an official reply from Vladimir Putin:
Уважаемый пользователь,
Сегодня в конце рабочего дня, вдыхая, как и все москвичи, дым горящих подмосковных лесов, с большим интересом и удовольствием ознакомился с Вашей оценкой ситуации, которая сложилась в центральной России с лесными пожарами.
Справедливости ради, надо отметить, что таких высоких температур в России на протяжении 140 лет, а значит, и при коммунистах, не было.
That fact, according to Putin, partially eliminated that blame put by people on the government. Putin's reply finishes with positive outlook on the future and a promise to return rynda to the blogger:
Несмотря на все проблемы и трудности, надеюсь, до пенсии мы с Вами все-таки дотянем.
Все необходимые денежные средства на преодоление последствий стихийного бедствия и решение других неотложных проблем уже направлены из федерального бюджета на счета пострадавших субъектов Российской Федерации.
При наличии Вашего адреса рынду получите у губернатора незамедлительно.
Искренне Ваш, В.Путин.
Needless to say, Putin's unexpected and half-serious reply created a wave of jokes among RuNet users. Previously largely unknown word “rynda” became a new popular meme symbolizing the struggle against Russian fires and inability of current local administrations to handle the natural disaster appropriately. “Rynda” also became a subject of political cartoons:
“Abramovich? Hello! Listen, do you have a rynda on your yacht? See, the thing is… You have to return it.”
Apparently, the popularity of the “Echo Moskvy” website soared after Putin's reply. LJ user teh_nomad claimed [RUS] that 50,000 people visited the site withing the first two hours after the reply was published.
UPDATE: As of December 25, 2010, the LJ account of top-lap has been disabled. The cashed blog entries before the account suspension indicate that the blogger was complaining about Russian police threatening him. Apparently, he was visited by the authorities who took away his memory stick and hard drive. In the last entry he claimed that he was about being arrested and wanted to flee.

author: Vadim Isakov


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Serbia: Digital School Project · Global Voices
Danica Radovanovic

Efforts to implement the benefits of information and communication technologies in education in Serbia are not new. From the early 2000's onwards there have been several initiatives, mostly supported by international organizations and foundations: grant projects for education improvement, implementation of open source software for schools in Serbia, both in urban and rural areas.
Recently, the Serbian Ministry for Telecommunication and Information Society has launched a project for Serbia's primary schools – called Digital School (SRP). It is part of a bigger project, Digital Serbia, whose goal is to foster and improve the functioning of the information society. In their initial announcement and call for application (SRP), it is stated that the Ministry has allotted 650 million Serbian dinars (6 200 000 euros) for setting up digital labs and classrooms in primary schools by the end of the next school year.
The program will enable 1,100 primary schools in Serbia to be equipped with computer hardware, and each digital study lab will have enough space for up to 30 students. According to the Ministry's announcement, besides computer units for students, there will also be appropriate equipment for teachers, software, and computer connection in the classrooms where children take courses other than computer science.
The Ministry said they would help 40 most undeveloped municipalities to create adequate learning conditions, from electricity to internet installations. Teachers will be responsible for technical functioning of digital study classrooms, and, prior to the program's implementation, they would need to go through training to operate the computers. Belgrade region, for example, is seven times more developed than the Serbian south, but schools in both developed, urban, and underdeveloped, rural, areas are expected to benefit from the project.
As daily newspaper BlicOnline wrote recently,
[…] Implementation of this program allows each participating school to provide students across Serbia with the same conditions for interactive education as their peers enjoy in the European Union. […]
Serbian citizens, many of whom are frustrated by tough living conditions, do not seem particularly interested in these plans for educational innovation, and it remains to be seen how many primary schools end up applying for the program. Some think that computer classes would be of more use in high schools. One student left this bitter comment (SRP) to the article cited above:
…initially, we had multimedia classrooms that were useless, now they will go digital … and it will all be again left unused and empty … and the textbooks are getting thinner and thinner … I am taught computer science by someone who had learned about computers 20 years ago, and an average person who understands computers knows more than [this teacher]. We work on the old computers that date back to the times before Christ, and the new computers are stored in schools, and they don't allow students to work on them, they are there only for the showing off purposes … let them visit a few schools and see who, how and where teaches computer science.
In Serbia, 55.9% of the 7.3 million population are Internet users; the country has the highest Internet service penetration in the Balkans; 39.5% of the users have DSL connection, 29.3% still use modems to get online, and 23.4% use cable Internet (according to the latest data from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, SRP). However, speaking of overall adult literacy rates, according to UNDP's Human Development Report 2009 (.pdf file), Serbia is behind other Balkan countries.
Below are some of the challenges that have to be overcome for the Digital School project to succeed:
- The authorities need to address the lack of basic amenities in many primary schools in Serbia (e.g., electricity, sanitary needs, and other utilities for normal everyday functioning).
- Besides providing training for teachers in using computers and software, the curriculum for primary school students also needs to be adjusted. Educators who teach information and media literacy have to come up with new syllabuses that would be well-suited for the new environment, in order to motivate children to be creative and open for collaboration; new educational modules adjusted for human-computer interaction need to be created; otherwise, the hardware will stay unused.
- Teachers need to teach critical thinking to enable students to start right on the Internet. Being digital natives, children first learn how to play computer games (64% of the Serbian population use the Internet to play games), but are often unable to question the credibility of information found online. Promoting and practicing information and digital literacy should be among the requirements for collaboration between schools, libraries and educational program developers.
- It has to be decided whether the country is willing to spend money on buying new software or to use open source programs.
- Broadband or wi-fi Internet connection needs to be installed wherever possible, especially in rural or remote regions.
However, this and similar projects in Serbia or in any other country in transition are relevant for the development of the information society, but it is also very important that the authorities and educational institutions collaborate on developing educational programs, in order to efficiently use the hardware.

author: Danica Radovanovic


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Trinidad & Tobago: The Politics of Flooding  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

KnowTnT.com says that the country's recent floods, “while partly falling under ‘Act of God’ because of the rains, [are] largely government inspired”, while B.C. Pires, tongue in cheek, suggests ways in which “to profit from the floods we can't stop.”


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Africa: African movies I would like to watch · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Mighty African writes about new African movie he would like to watch: “First off…Themba is a South African movie with the tag line – A boy called Hope…Next up, we move to Kenya where we have a German-Kenyan collabo called Soul Boy…On to Bongo land [Tanzania], we have Lovely Gamble.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Armenia-Azerbaijan: Overcoming negative stereotypes in the South Caucasus · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

This post is part of our special coverage Caucasus Conflict Voices.
[This post by Global Voices Caucasus regional editor Onnik Krikorian was originally published on the World Bank's Conflict and Development blog. Hosted by the team working on the World Bank’s upcoming World Development Report 2011, Conflict, Security, and Development, to debate practical suggestions on how to address conflict and fragility at the local, national, regional and global levels, it can also be followed on Twitter at @wbconflict]
In the 16 years since a 1994 ceasefire agreement put the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed mainly-Armenian populated territory of Nagorno Karabakh on hold, peace remains as elusive as ever. The war fought in the early 1990s left over 25,000 dead and forced a million to flee their homes, leaving ethnic Armenian forces, backed by Armenia proper, in control of over 16 percent of what the international community considers sovereign Azerbaijani territory.
The situation, perhaps, is typical for many frozen conflicts, but what makes this dispute even more complicated is the almost constant rhetoric of hatred from both sides. Nearly two decades after the troubles broke out, new generations of Armenians and Azerbaijanis are unable to remember the time when both lived side by side together in peace. Armenia's last president, Robert Kocharian, for example, declared that the two were ‘ethnically incompatible’ while his Azerbaijani counterpart, still incumbent Ilham Aliyev, regularly threatens a new war.
Regional analysts fear that such threats are not merely empty words. Fueled by massive oil revenue, the Azerbaijani military is rapidly re-arming itself and the August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia was enough of a wake-up call for the international community to once again direct attention towards unresolved conflicts in the Caucasus.
In such a situation, perhaps, the possibility for reconciliation looks bleak, especially when the local media on both sides regularly perpetuates negative stereotypes of the other, often publishing little more than propaganda and in some cases even misinformation. “Without more accurate and unbiased information […] free of negative rhetoric and stereotypes, Armenians and Azerbaijanis will continue to see themselves as enemies without any common ground,” read a recent report on the local media from the Caucasus Resource Research Center.
Yet, in the past 18 months, unprecedented development in cross-border communication can be found on the popular social networking site, Facebook, where a new breed of young activists in both Armenia and Azerbaijan are now able to virtually cross the ceasefire line.
Although not intended at the time, the first tentative steps towards this happened through Global Voices, a citizen media site co-founded by Harvard University researcher Ethan Zuckerman and former CNN Tokyo and Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon. As Caucasus editor for the site, my own initial physical contact with Azerbaijani bloggers soon led to meeting many more online. Through a combination of email, chat programs, social networks and blogs, relationships were built online, setting the scene for future cooperation.
But the real breakthrough happened in July 2009 when two video blogging youth activists, Adnan Hajizade and Emin Mili, were detained and later imprisoned in Azerbaijan. Global Voices became the main online resource to continuously follow the case, and as some Armenians began to take notice, they also began to make contact with their counterparts on the other side. Indeed, if it was once unthinkable for such open communication to occur, it soon become something almost routine.
It was also then that I also began my own voluntary personal project, Overcoming Negative Stereotypes in the South Caucasus, in cooperation with bloggers and journalists from Georgia and Azerbaijan—and the idea was simple. Although the notion that Armenians and Azerbaijanis are unable to live together is commonplace, that is very far from the truth outside  the conflict zone. In neighboring Georgia, for example, ethnic Armenians and Azeris coexist in the same villages and towns. They speak each other's language and sometimes inter-marry.
Yet, the media in Armenia and Azerbaijan never reports on such stories, preferring to emphasize differences rather than similarities, and this is where blogs and social networking sites have stepped in. With Internet penetration still low throughout the region, the audience might still remain small, but they have started to fill a gap long left vacant. Indeed, even the very idea of a collaborative story on an ethnic Azeri village wedding in Georgia with an Armenian and Azerbaijani name side by side working together was once unthinkable.
By this time civil society organizations had also started to notice this work, with some desperate for contacts of young people on both sides to include in their own programs. Having largely failed to identify suitable participants through traditional means, especially in a climate usually more against cooperation than for, NGOs were now eager to involve those already communicating online. Since then, their numbers have significantly increased and Facebook has become a crucial medium for participants to remain in contact once they return home.
That's not to say that such tools are without their risks or faults either, of course. At a recent conference, Blogs and Bullets: Evaluating the Impact of New Media on Conflict, at the U.S. Institute of Peace, there was perhaps more criticism of how Facebook sometimes polarizes connections on national, social and political grounds. Even so, in the context of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations it has become an incredibly valuable resource — for now, at least. While once the Internet was used to perpetuate conflict, it is now also being used to promote peace.
As a result, and building on its coverage of citizen media during the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, Global Voices has since established its own special coverage page, Caucasus Conflict Voices, summarizing some of the new conversations taking place between Armenian and Azerbaijani bloggers. True, they might still be a minority, with the use of such tools still in its infancy, but until recently such communication never existed at all. It now remains to be seen whether these developments continue or if those opposed to peace also utilize them to drown out such voices.
This post is part of our special coverage Caucasus Conflict Voices.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Bahrain: Back to Ranting  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

After a three-year hiatus, Bahraini Rants announces he is back to blogging here.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Bahrain: CrowdVoice Video Out  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

CrowdVoice.org, a user-powered service that tracks voices of protest from around the world by crowdsourcing information, has a new video which explains how it could be used, announces Mideast Youth here.


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Bahrain: Election Indicators  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahrain is gearing up for its parliamentary elections in October. Mahmood Al Yousif shares some indications of the pending elections here.


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Bahrain: Expensive Vote Buying  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

With parliamentary elections planned in Bahrain for October, voters have upped the prices for their votes, reports a local newspaper. Mahmood Al Yousif comments on vote buying here.


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Bahrain: Watching Yusuf Al Siddiq  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

bint battuta in bahrain is pleased with an Iranian historical serial – Yusuf Al-Siddiq, which tells us the story of Joseph, son of Jacob, grandson of Isaac, great-grandson of Abraham, and which is dubbed into Arabic.


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Egypt: The Wonderful World of Kamel Kilani  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egyptian Baheyya introduces us to the wonderful world of Kamel Kilani, the modern Egyptian pioneer of children’s literature.


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Ghana: Translating constitution into local languages · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Nana discusses the idea of translating Ghana's constitution, presently available only in English, into Ghanaian local languages.


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Kenya: Don’t dismiss those who rejected new constitution · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Those who rejected the new Kenyan constitution should not be dismissed: “So one in every three Kenyans took issue with the new constitution to the extent that they voted to reject it.  As we who voted YES! celebrate, let’s not forget them or dismiss the concerns they expressed.”


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Kuwait: Rise in Suicides among Migrant Workers  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Over the past two months, there have been 23 reported cases of suicide or attempted suicide by migrant workers in Kuwait, meaning that about every 2.5 days a migrant worker commits or attempts suicide in Kuwait,” writes Fatima, at Mideast Youth.


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Nepal: Fourth Round Fails to Elect a Prime Minister · Global Voices
Rezwan

United We Blog! for a Democratic Nepal reports on the stalemate in the election for a new Nepali Prime Minister: “the fourth round of voting today in the parliament failed to elect a prime minister. Fifth round of voting is scheduled for Aug 18.”

author: Rezwan