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Chile: Starbucks Employees on Hunger Strike · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

In Chile, a cup of coffee at Starbucks costs more than the baristas’ wages for one hour of work. This is what the 3 union leaders [es] on hunger strike in Chile state through a handwritten sign in this video [es]. They demand Starbucks to comply with only 4 out of the original 25 demands [es]: adjusting their wages which have been the same through 7 years despite inflation, include a lunch subvention, provide employees with uniforms and assist with transportation costs for those who live far from work.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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China: Censorship pressure on Wenzhou train crash · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Qian Gang and David Bandurski from China Media Project discuss about censorship pressure faced by mainland Chinese media in the reports of Wenzhou train crash.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Hu Jia’s tweets · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Mainland Chinese activist Hu Jia had been imprisoned for 3.5 years under the charge of “inciting state sedition”. He was released on 26 of June 2011.  @WLYeung has translated Hu's tweets about his state of mind.


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China: Journalist Beaten by Police for Reporting on Riot · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

China Digital Times has a translation of a journalist, Lu Chaoguo's account of his experience when reporting the riot in Anshun, Guizhou province. The journalist was detained and beaten by local police.


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China: Music Video on Wenzhou Train Crash · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Some netizens have changed the lyrics of a popular rock song “Nothing to my name” by Cui Jian to comment upon the Wenzhou Train Crash. C Custer from China Geeks has the lyrics of the music video translated.


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D.R. of Congo: “Missing” Governor Jets Back · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Alex Engwete posts a video of “missing” Governor Moïse Katumbi of Katanga province and his family after they returned from his holidays spent at a still undisclosed location: “The millionaire governor had chartered what looked to me like a Falcon jet…Upon deplaning he was interviewed by the local press on a number of issue.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Gambia: Peace Corps Volunteer Visits Gambia After 38 Years · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“The first black US Peace Corps volunteer to come to The Gambia, in 1970, nine years after the founding of Peace Corps by former US President John F Kennedy in 1961, has arrived in The Gambia with his family, to share his experience as a peace corps volunteer,” Shout-Africa reports.


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Guinea: Censorship Lifted on the Coverage of the President Attack  · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Souleymane Bah [fr] annonces on GUINÉENS UNIS : “Guinea's National Council on Communication (CNC) has lifted on Thursday [July 28]  the ban imposed on July 25 to Guinean media on  the attack against President Alpha Condé private residence in Conakry.”

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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Japan: On Fake Glasses · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

Marxy at Neojaponisme gives an interesting insight [en] on the “lens-less frame” trend spreading in Japan.

author: Scilla Alecci


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Latvia: Arguing the Failed State Case · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Juris Kaža of Failed State Latvia? argues why he thinks that Latvia is a failed state lite, and provides historical and socioeconomic reasons for his case.

author: Vilhelm Konnander


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Lesotho: Discover Lesotho · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Watch a video of Episode 4 of Discover Lesotho: “In this episode of Discover Lesotho Palesa takes us to the Liphofung Caves of Butha-Buthe guided by Mohau. This place is one of Lesotho’s smallest but most intriguing national heritage sites. You can learn about the San people that have stayed in the caves and what the cave paintings mean.”


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Mozambique: Political Rapper Arrested · Global Voices
Janet Gunter

Mozambicans are reacting to what appears to have been the arrest yesterday of controversial and talented MC Azagaia. While there is no official news, some of his 4,600+ fans showed their support on Facebook and have created a “Free Azagaia” event. The rapper was questioned in 2008 by police, who suggested he encouraged rioters.

author: Janet Gunter


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Plank Vietnam · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A Tumblr account was created encouraging Vietnam netizens to post their planking pictures.

author: Mong Palatino


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Poland: Art of Travelling the Polish Way · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Michael Dembinski of W-wa Jeziorki instructs his readers on how to travel by night train in Poland and what to think of.


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Poland: Smolensk Report Blames Both Polish and Russian Sides · Global Voices
Kasia Odrozek

On July 29, 2011, Poland presented its final report (available for download in Polish, English and Russian) on the 2010 Smolensk plane crash, in which 96 people died, including the then president of Poland Lech Kaczynski.
While placing the majority of the blame on the Polish pilot's error, the report also pointed to defective lighting at Smolensk airport and Russian air controllers, who misinformed the crew about the altitude. Poland's Defence Minister Bogdan Klich stepped down [pl] in the wake of the report.
The Polish president and his wife, together with many leading political and military officials, were on their way to a memorial for the victims of the Katyn massacre when their plane crashed as it was trying to land in heavy fog on April 10, 2010.
The Russian report [.pdf], released in January, placed the full blame on Poland, which caused many controversies in the Polish political and civic circles. Back then Poland, while accepting some of the fundamental findings, said [pl] that the report was “incomplete” and started its own investigation. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the conservative opposition party PiS and the twin brother of Lech Kaczynski, had previously accused Prime Minister Donald Tusk‘s government of  being soft on Russia [pl]. Now, after the Polish report, Kaczynski critised Tusk [pl] again, saying Tusk didn't have the courage and honour to take responsibility for the crash and tried to shift the fault to his helpers.
Smolensk report caused many controversies among netizens. Photo by Flickr user bylemwidzialem (CC BY-NC 2.0).
The report has generated an avalanche of various opinions not only in the international press [pl], but also in the Polish blogosphere. Bloggers were focusing both on the report's conclusions about the fatal condition [pl] of the Polish air forces and the difficult relations with Russia.
Blogger Lukasz Foltyn thinks [pl] that the investigators – the so-called Miller's commission [pl] – were trying to find a diplomatic way out of the uncomfortable situation:
Miller's report gives the major blame for the catastrophe in Smolensk to the pilots and therefore to the military training system. And that's how Miller's commision found the “Solomon's solution” for who to blame in order not to blame the government on the one hand and not to charge Russia on the other, so the relation with this country won't be demaged as the current coalition wants to improve it…
Maia14 is positively surprised [pl] that the report doesn't give the blame to the president and the psychological pressure he might have applied on the pilots:
Yesterday the report was presented […]. A lot of deficiencies on the Polish and Russian sides were pointed out. Briefly: the eternal Polish improvisation overlapped with the Russian mess. In my opinion the report is reliable and identifies the most important issues […]. What is surprising – I have the impression that especially for the opposition – is that the report doesn't talk about blaming the then head of the state, about applying pressure on the aircraft's crew. On the contrary, it remarks that it was the crew indeed who – from the beginning to the end – made all the decisions and the main passenger let them decide freely what to do.
Kajetan Skalski writes this in his post titled “Trash, mess and recklessness”:
This situation [mess] is one of the costs of populism, which is the cost of democracy. You can find it everywhere, but in our country it is excesivelly high […]. It is little comfort that the Russians are even worse. Trash, mess, recklessness. The boorishness of the Russian report consisted of omitting the Russian share of responsibility for the crash. In the [Polish] Miller's report, it is included.
On her blog mojapolskadomowa, the blogger is indignant [pl] at the opposition's critics about the report:
Well, first they demanded the truth, now they talk about honour, and actually it is all about resignation of Donald Tusk from the PM post. I don't understand this position. Does the one and only truth always have to give evidence that the Poles are always right, don't make any mistakes and are always innocent? […] Let's be proud of the best that we have, but let's be able to admit our own mistakes. Avoiding the truth to defend honour is pathetic. In this very case it is less important that we win over Russia. It's not going to make a superpower out of us. What is much more important is to learn from our own failures and to make conclusions that will protect us from making the same mistakes in the future.
Further, the blogger complains [pl] about the surfeit of the Smolensk topic in the media:
Actually, I feel tired of this topic. For the past 15 months, PiS [the opposition party] has been playing the Smolensk card so much that it led to a total surfeit. […] To inflame emotions, they will surely expose the pictures of Maria and Lech Kaczynski or other killed politicians of this party many more times. The Smolensk fraction in PiS will have its five media minutes.
Indeed, the oppositon party released a very emotional election campaign spot with the presidential couple, titled “They are waiting for the truth”, uploaded on YouTube on July 29, 2011, by gazetapl [pl]:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyOX7VB7aVM'[/p]
A blogger going by the name niekatolik is outraged [pl] about the spot and calls it “scandalous”:
Of course, it is a contestation of the report's authenticity. In the spot it is said that Lech and Maria Kaczynski were living in a world of betrayal, among people without honour, people taking care of their own interests only. For me it is scandalous to lie through one's teeth like this, to use the death of the nearest persons for political games, to use the emotions of ordinary people. This is disgusting!
According to a survey [pl] ordered by the television channel TVN24, 24 percent of the Poles think that the report explains unambiguously the reasons of the Smolensk catastrophe, while 49 percent still think that the reasons remain unclear.

author: Kasia Odrozek


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Practicing legal profession in Vietnam · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Attorney Huynh Van Dong writes about the challenges facing lawyers in Vietnam. He reports that an increasing number of lawyers are now in jail for “expressing their own personal opinion.”


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Russia: US Support of Opposition? · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

LJ user grad46 (Maxim Petrovich) claims [ru] that several Russian opposition groups are funded by US-interests. Until recently an opposition activist himself, Petrovich publishes corroborating documentation, accuses several leading opposition activists of taking American money, and is interviewed [ru] on the issue by Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets.


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Somalia: Happy Ramadan · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Happy Ramadan wishes from Terror Free Somalia Foundation: “In the spirit of Ramadan, I pray that Ramadan gets into our hearts and minds and make us embrace all factions of Muslims without undermining their tradition and further pray that we treat every human on the earth with dignity, respect and care.”


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South Africa: WordCamp Cape Town 2011 · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Get ready for WordCamp Cape Town 2011: “WordCamp Cape Town is scheduled for 15th September 2011 and will serve as a platform for discussing the latest trends in WordPress, targeting developers and publishers alike.”


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Syria: Tanks Enter Hama on Eve of Ramadan · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.
On the eve of Ramadan, Syrian troops have entered the city of Hama, reportedly killing as many as 45 people by 11:00 am on Sunday, July 31.  The assault has particular resonance for Syrians, as the city of Hama was the site of one of the most horrific massacres in modern history.
Most tweets at this early hour are links to news, though many from within Syria, and abroad have condemned the killings, with some expressing anger at a perceived lack of international outrage.  Still others, such as deekelgen963, expressed doubt about the reporting from Hama.
Of the view original reports coming across the Twitter lines, one stands out.  Debkafile reports: “Water, power, phone lines cut for Hama's 400,000 inhabitants”.
Meanwhile, from inside Hama, a few videos have emerged.
One shaky video from the Shams News Network shows tanks entering the city:
Another video shows black smoke rising up from within the city:
BBC journalist Shaimaa Khalil pointed to live streaming video coming from Hama, the archive of which is available here.
Without the presence of professional journalists in Hama, reporting is reliant on activists and citizen journalists, for whom capturing images and videos comes with considerable risk.  As a result, news is often slow to trickle out, but some Syrian activists, such as @wissamtarif and @malathaumran are continuously tweeting news.
This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.

author: Jillian C. York


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U.S.A., Japan: The US Declares War On The Japanese Mafia · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

Investigative journalist Jake Adelstein reported  [en] that US President Obama has officially declared war on the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia, as it represents an “extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.” Japansubculture.com also published the text of the actual executive order.


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Vietnam: Resolving the dispute over Spratly Islands · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Vietnam Talking Points uploads an article by Thi Quang Lam, a former general in the South Vietnamese Army, who writes about the dispute over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea involving Vietnam, China, and other Southeast Asian nations.


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Vietnam: TEDx Mekong · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

TEDx Mekong will take place on August 18 in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. This year's theme is “Entrepreneurship in Vietnam”


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Afghanistan: Remembering the fallen strivers  · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Una Moore reminds the readers that Javaid Zeerak, brilliant Afghan aid worker, blogger and photographer, died in July last year. Very little is known about the accident, while grief and questions still linger.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Afghanistan: Suicide bomber murders Kandahar mayor · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Una Moore reports that a suicide bomber killed Ghulam Haider Hamidi, mayor of Kandahar town in Afghanistan, as the Taliban have reportedly claimed responsibility for the assassination.


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Azerbaijan: Eurovision in a non-free country? · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

A campaign to raise awareness of the plight of political prisoners and restrictions on freedom of assembly in Azerbaijan has been launched by four non-governmental organizations ahead of next year's Eurovision Song Contest to be held in the country's capital, Baku. A video in English detailing the campaign has been posted on Obyektiv TV and a Facebook page set up here.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Bangladesh: 40th Anniversary of The Concert For Bangladesh · Global Voices
Rezwan

Ever since Bob Geldof and Midge Ure arranged Live Aid, a dual-venue concert to raise funds for relief of the Ethiopian famine on 13 July, 1985, which was aired to 2 million viewers from 150 countries, such benefit concerts have become widely popular in the world.
But in the backdrop of this event was the Concert For Bangladesh, the two benefit concerts organized by musicians George Harrison and Ravi Shankar on August 1, 1971, a fact which is not known to many people. Bangladeshi bloggers celebrate the 40th anniversary of these events and tell the world why it matters for Bangladesh.
Naadir Junaid at Sachalayatan provides [bn] the background of that historical event:
১৯৭১ সালের আগস্ট মাস; এক ভয়াল সময় অতিক্রম করছে বাংলাদেশের অগণিত মানুষ। বিশ্বের বৃহৎ পশ্চিমী রাষ্ট্রগুলি বাংলাদেশে পাকিস্তানী সামরিক বাহিনীর গণহত্যা আর ধ্বংসযজ্ঞের ব্যাপারে সচেতন হচ্ছে না। বাংলাদেশের মানুষের যৌক্তিক দাবী দমন করার জন্য পাকিস্তানী সামরিক সরকার বেছে নিলো নির্মম সামরিক আক্রমণের পথ; অজস্র বাঙালী তাদের ঘরবাড়ি ছেড়ে, কেবল প্রাণ বাঁচানোর তাগিদে ভারতে শরণার্থী হিসেবে আশ্রয় নিলো। শুরু হলো বাংলাদেশের মুক্তিসংগ্রাম। অথচ ক্ষমতাধর মার্কিন যুক্তরাষ্ট্র বিশ্বের এই প্রান্তে নিজেদের রাজনৈতিক প্রভাব টিকিয়ে রাখার জন্য নতুন দেশ হিসেবে বাংলাদেশের আবির্ভাবের বিরোধিতায় ব্যস্ত। বাংলাদেশের শরণার্থীদের আশ্রয় দেয়ার জন্য, বাঙালী মুক্তিযোদ্ধাদের সমর্থন করার জন্য ভারতের প্রধানমন্ত্রী ইন্দিরা গান্ধী তখন নিক্সন প্রশাসনের চক্ষুশূল।
[..]
Album Cover
এমন পরিস্থিতিতেই ১৯৭১ সালের পহেলা আগস্ট বাংলাদেশকে সাহায্য করার জন্য বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধের প্রতি বিরূপ মার্কিন যুক্তরাষ্ট্রেই আয়োজন করা হয় এক অসাধারণ কনসার্ট, যা ইতিহাসে স্থান করে নিয়েছে বিভিন্ন কারণে। এর আগে কখনো একদল অসম্ভব খ্যাতিমান এবং বরেণ্য সঙ্গীতশিল্পী কোন দেশকে সাহায্য করার জন্য একসাথে কোন অনুষ্ঠানে অংশগ্রহণ করেননি; ইতিহাসে এমন কনসার্ট এই প্রথম। এই কনসার্ট অগণিত মানুষের সামনে তুলে ধরে সঙ্গীত আর শিল্পের শক্তি, যে শক্তি অতিক্রম করে যায় অনেক রাজনৈতিক শক্তিকেও। নিউ ইয়র্কের ম্যাডিসন স্কোয়্যার গার্ডেনে উপস্থিত হওয়া বহু মার্কিন তরুণ-তরুণী দেখতে পান তাদের প্রিয় সঙ্গীতশিল্পীরা তুলে ধরছেন মানবতা আর বর্বরতার পার্থক্য, আর তাঁরা সবাইকে আহ্বান জানাচ্ছেন অসহায়, অত্যাচারিত মানুষের পাশে দাঁড়াবার জন্য যখন তাদের দেশের সরকারকে বহু নিপীড়িত মা আর শিশুর ক্রন্দন স্পর্শ করছে না। রবি শঙ্কর কনসার্টে আসা অসংখ্য দর্শকদের উদ্দেশ্যে বলেন, “আমরা কোন রাজনীতি করতে আসিনি; আমরা শিল্পী। আমরা শুধু আমাদের অনুষ্ঠানের মধ্য দিয়ে একটি বার্তা পৌঁছে দিতে সমবেত হয়েছি। আমরা চাই আমাদের সঙ্গীত আপনাদের বাংলাদেশের মানুষের তীব্র বেদনা আর মনোযন্ত্রণা অনুভব করতে সাহায্য করুক”।
Album Cover of The Concert For Bangladesh
My friend came to me,
With sadness in his eyes,
He told me that he wanted help,
Before his country died,
Although I couldn't feel the pain,
I knew I'd have to try,
Now I'm asking all of you,
To help us save some lives
(Bangladesh: George Harrison)
Naadir remembers that the song ‘Bangladesh’ by George Harrison gave him shivers and inspired him, when he listened to it after 20 years and still got the same reaction.
Valobashar Deyal (Wall Of Love) [bn] pays tribute to the musicians:
সবসময়ের শ্রদ্ধা আর ভালবাসা থাকবে এই সব গুনী মানুষদের জন্য,যাদের প্রান কেদেছিল এই আমার মাটি আর মানুষের জন্য ১৯৭১ এর স্বাধীনতা সংগ্রামকালীন সময়ে। [..]
কেন জানি বিশ্বাস হয় সেই সময়ের কনসার্টে যারাই দর্শক হিসেবে অংশ নিয়েছিল তারা সবাই ই আমাদের দেশের শুভ কামনার জন্যই জড়ো হয়েছিল।
I believe that those who came to the concert had good wishes for our people.
Bangladesh, Bangladesh
Bangladesh, Bangladesh
When the sun sinks in the west
Die a million people of the Bangladesh
….
And the students at the university
Asleep at night quite peacefully
The soldiers came and shot them in their beds
And terror took the dorm awakening shrieks of dread
And silent frozen forms and pillows drenched in red.. (Joan Baez)
Some 40,000 peoples attended the Concert For Bangladesh and $243,418.50 was collected from the event and was given to Unicef for the war affected children of Bangladesh. The sale proceeds of the album and DVD continue to benefit the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Concert for Bangladesh, The George Harrison Fund for UNICEF is streaming the video of the entire concert HERE till 1 August, 2011 11:59PM EDT.
Image Courtesy Omi Rahman Pial
Omi Rahman Pial at Somewhereinblog reminds [bn] everyone of another forgotten benefit concert for Bangladesh, which took place in Kennington Oval in London on the September 18th, 1971. The advertisements for the event titled Goodbye Summer clearly stated that it was “A Rock Concert In The Aid Of The Victims Of Bangladesh”. The artists included The Who, The Face (vocal: Rod Stewart), America, Mott The Hoople etc.
Mosaddik Uzzal informs [bn] that the Bangladesh government will be awarding different merits to foreign friends who helped Bangladesh and Bangladeshis during the liberation war in 1971. The list includes musicians George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Pandit Ravi Shankar among many.

author: Rezwan


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Barbados: Crop Over 2011 – Hot or Wet?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Cheese-on-bread! says Barbados is abuzz on this “hot, long, festive weekend…as we move into the final phase of Crop Over”, but warns that “Kadooment Day revelry could be seriously hampered” by a tropical wave heading towards the island.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Belarus: Almost 30% of Belarusans Get Lower Salary Than Moldovans · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

LJ user Pavel Kuznetsov points to [ru] recent statistics showing that almost 30% of employees in Belarus earn less than in Moldova – the poorest country in Europe.


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Caribbean: Online Reactions to Guyana Plane Crash  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

When news broke early Saturday that a Caribbean Airlines flight had crash landed at Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Timehri, Guyana, the regional blogosphere sat up and took notice. Until the incident in its 71-year history, the airline (which ceased operations as British West Indies Airways in 2006, changing its name to CAL) had boasted an unblemished safety record – so despite the fact that there were no fatalities, the story was a big deal, especially since CAL is in the process of a merger with Air Jamaica.  Bloggers, after all, are also travelers.
Guyanese bloggers were the first to comment.  propaganda press! called the Timehri airport “a dangerous trap waiting to kill people”:
1. it does not have proper lighting
2. there are no services, equipment or trained personnel to deal with emergencies
3. it has insufficient power supplies…there was actually a blackout for the first couple hours of this accident
Demerara Waves published a series of updates on the accident, here, here and here.
Soon, other regional netizens started blogging about the event.  Barbados Free Press called the lack of fatalities a miracle, saying that the crash could have been much worse:
Thank God there was no fire because according to the reports nothing else went right just after midnight when a Caribbean Airlines 737-800 slid off the end of the runway in the rain and broke up while landing in Guyana.
The blog completely disagrees with the propaganda press! take on the readiness of Timehri Airport, saying:
Cheddi Jagan International Airport is not a bad airport as the region goes. With over 7,000 feet of runway in pretty fair condition, the CAL Boeing 737 should have been able to land safely no matter the weather. The runway has an excellent friction coefficient (the surface is rough and grips the tyres), great drainage during rain and the approach is easy compared with many major airports…
Instead, BFP makes the assumption that “cockpit culture” may have contributed to the incident:
It’s all about inertia and momentum and they lost. Did they try and go around too late or not at all? I don’t know – but Thank God there was no fire because the smoke eaters didn’t arrive until ten minutes after the aircraft ran off the end of the runway and broke up.
The post even goes on to publish the viewpoint of a reader, “Tom”, who is “a Captain for a small airline in the Caribbean” and makes a jab at Caribbean Airlines, under the headline: REDjet looking good!
Compatriot Cheese-on-bread! echoed the sentiments of BFP in terms of the crash not being worse than it was:
What could have been the Caribbean's worse air disaster since the Cubana crash in the 1970's was thankfully a simply a close call for over 160 persons travelling on a Caribbean Airlines flight from New York to Guyana on Saturday morning.
Repeat after me …. God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good!
From Jamaica, Girl With a Purpose mistakenly reports that there were two Caribbean Airlines crashes – the first in Guyana and the other in St. Barths.  The erroneous news was also being posted on a Facebook thread, until one user confirmed that the story was years old and about another air carrier.  Caribbean Airlines does not operate flights into St. Barthelemy.
Still, even while acknowledging her mistake, the blogger maintained her position on “Caribbean Airlines hiring and rehiring Jamaican maintenance crew, pilots and ground crew”:
I think it's a mistake for them to get rid of some of the best people who understand how to maintain and fly, 10+ year-old aircraft.
…Their safety record proves it.
The conversation has been continuing on Twitter, under the hashtag #CAL crash.


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Chile: Recent Clashes in Ongoing Mapuche Land Struggle · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

In Indigenous News Ryan Seelau reports on recent incidents in Ercilla, Chile as the Mapuche indigenous people of the area struggle to get their lands back from landowners.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Dominica: Paradise Lost?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Caribbean Man calls Dominica “a beautiful Caribbean island [where] you can live naturally”…but there is a long list of challenges.


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East Timor: Mysterious Shooting Incidents · Global Voices
Janet Gunter

Does East Timorese politics “use arms for competition (…) more than the competition of ideas”? Columnist with weekly Tempo Semanal Filipe Rodriguês Pereira questions [Tet] who was behind mysterious shooting incidents across the capital  Dili last month. They occurred just after the UN announced the end of  its current mission in 2012, also year of a Presidential election.


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Ecuador: President Rafael Correa Tweets From @MashiRafael · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has joined the ranks of Latin American presidents on Twitter. Latin America News Dispatch reports: “The account is named @MashiRafael, which means “Comrade Rafael” in the indigenous language of quichua, the president explained. The account remains unverified, but it was announced by Ecuador’s Office of the Presidency, which also mentioned the launch of Correa’s Facebook fan page.”


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France: The Forgotten Tunisian Refugees of #Botzaris36 · Global Voices
Anna Gueye

This page is part of our special coverage Tunisia Revolution 2011.
After several months of wandering, 30 Tunisian migrants are currently sleeping rough in a park in Paris. #Botzaris36 [fr] is the hashtag launched on Twitter to help them out both financially and legally, in what is a complicated legal and political situation involving France and Tunisia.
Support comes mainly from the Botzaris36 [fr] blog and the grass roots organization Action tunisienne [fr], including several French and Tunisian activists, such as Amira Yahyaoui (@Mira404), @menilmuche, Tunisian activist @Ooouups, @Pierrederuelle and Jérôme Godard (@leclown).
@actiontun tweeted in August under the hashtag #Botzaris36:
If I can't help with money, I can help with my arms or simply by  being there.
On May 31, 2011, after a long journey from Tunisia triggered by the fall of Ben Ali, the Tunisians migrants arrived in France via the Italian island of Lampedusa [fr].  Some had papers from the Italian government which allowed them to stay in Europe for several months.
Sophie  Lebrun,  who is involved in helping the group out on Twitter [fr], explains the migrants’ situation on Témoignage  chrétien [fr], as well as the origin of the hashtag #Botzaris36:
Some Tunisian migrants [have] taken over the “Tunisian Cultural Centre” located at 36, rue Botzaris, in Paris,  in order to have a roof over their heads, a place to put a mattress and to rest after an exhausting journey, weeks of wandering and days of battling – in vain – so that the documents given to them by the Italian authorities might be accepted in France.
36 rue Botzaris, "Annexe" of the Tunisian Ambassy in Paris. Image by empanada_paris on Flickr (CC license 2.0).
Blogger Menilmuche, who has been following the situation of the Tunisian migrants on his blog from the start, described the occupation of the Tunisian Cultural Centre [fr]  at 36 rue Botzaris on May 31:
Around 50 Tunisians from Lampedusa [fr] piled into the Tunisian Cultural Centre on Tuesday, May 31, on rue Botzaris, located on the outskirts of the  Buttes-Chaumont park in the 19th  arrondissement of Paris, asking for “a helping hand” from their ambassador.  This building has an extraterritorial status, comparable to that of an embassy.
The Tunisian Cultural Centre on rue Botzaris has revealed itself to be a sensitive point of the Ben Ali era in France.  In a post entitled “The neglected importance of rue Botzaris” [fr], Menilmuche explains:
This stronghold represents one of the bases from which the Tunisian regime control[led], repress[ed] and attack[ed] the Tunisian community in France.  It was from this place that Ben Ali's orders came, where attacks, intimidation tactics and slander against Tunisian refugees took place.
One of the entrances into 36 rue Botzaris, a Tunisian enclave in Paris – Photo by Fabien Abitbol, who authorized its reproduction
Blog Fhimt has provided a translation into French of a report by news channel Al Jazeera. This report outlines the discoveries made during their stay by the occupants, in the archives of this very strange building – a former meeting place of the RCD, dictactor Ben Ali's political party.
By order of the Tunisian authorities [fr], 36 rue Botzaris was evacuated by the French authorities on June 16. On  website Owni, Olivier Tesquest covered the legal and political implications of  this sticky dossier for the Tunisian and French governments.  On  June 17, he reported:
Within 72 hours, a third of the documents from 36 rue Botzaris disappeared, the police evacuated the building and the (Tunisian) ambassador reclaimed possession of the building.
Since the evacuation of 36 rue Botzaris, few polititians – aside from the MP of the Ardèche French constituency, Pascal Terrasse – have bothered to enquire about the Tunisians who are currently surviving in Buttes Chaumont Park.  However, François Hollande, a presidential candidate for the 2012 election, has responded to the appeal launched on Twitter [fr]:
@fhollande: #Botzaris36 je ne serai pas présent ce soir, mais je suis votre situation de près. Je viendrai dans les prochains jours. Je m'y engage.
Vincent PfRuner has posted a photo essay [fr] on the journey of the “Tunisians of Lampedusa”.
This page is part of our special coverage Tunisia Revolution 2011.

author: Anna Gueye


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Global Voices in Aymara: Preserving Indigenous Language Online · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

This post is part of our special coverage on Languages and the Internet.
One of the newest Global Voices Lingua sites is also its first in an indigenous language, Aymara. This native language is spoken by more than 2 million people across the Andes, especially in Bolivia and Peru, where it is among the official languages. There are also people who speak Aymara in parts of Chile and Argentina, as well as in the Aymara diaspora.
The first translation of Global Voices in Aymara was published in September 2009 and continued with intermittent publication for the next year. Once Victoria Tinta took the helm as editor, the site began to produce regular translations from Global Voices in Spanish to Aymara. In addition to proofreading and formatting translations, Victoria has been responsible for recruiting and coordinating the team of volunteer translators. In all, there are have been 21 volunteers who have contributed with a translation, and there is a core group of approximately one dozen who have produced regular translations.
Global Voices in Aymara Editor Victoria Tinta at the Brazilian Digital Culture Forum in São Paulo in October 2010.
The new site is an initiative of the Jaqi Aru project based in El Alto, Bolivia and aims to contribute to the availability of content in the Aymara language on the internet, as a way to promote and preserve their native tongue. Most of the translators and members of the Jaqi Aru project are students in the Linguistics Department of the Public University of El Alto [es] (UPEA for its initials in Spanish), and hold a passion for conserving the language for future generations. The partnership with Global Voices enables the group to provide valuable content in the Aymara language about current events and cultural issues from around the world.
While all of the translators are bilingual in Aymara and Spanish, and in some cases, multilingual, this translation project is still in its early stages. In many cases, words do not exists in Aymara for the text that appears in Global Voices articles. To help in such cases, there are projects such as Runasimipi that attempt to build consensus for the translation of a particular word, especially words related to technology. But in many cases, these translations are an individual's proposal for how something should be translated. This interpretation may vary from translator to translator, but beginning in this manner leaves room for discussion, thus helping each translator improve upon their work.
Members of the Global Voices in Aymara translation team.
It may be true that most readers of Global Voices in Aymara have no trouble reading Global Voices in Spanish instead, but the project is part of a larger goal of encouraging Aymara speakers, especially young people, to embrace the language of their ancestors. Making interesting content available on the Internet, is only the first step for the Jaqi Aru project and the Global Voices in Aymara translation team in hopefully setting an example for other indigenous and minority language communities around the world.
This post is part of our special coverage on Languages and the Internet.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Global Voices Podcast 2: Speaking Our Language · Global Voices
Jamillah Knowles

This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet.
Hello world!
In this edition of the Global Voices podcast we talk all about language. You can find many articles on this theme on our Languages and Internet special coverage page. The way we speak, write, gesture, code and communicate is such a rich topic for discussion that it was hard to pick what to go for in the podcast. Hopefully you’ll find food for thought in our conversations here.
Global Voices Podcast 2: Speaking Our Language by globalvoices
Updated tradition
To begin, our Managing Editor, Solana Larsen talks to Global Voices Israel author Dr. Carmel Vaisman about her new book Hebrew Online (available for purchase in Hebrew from Keter Books). It’s fascinating to hear about the origins of Hebrew, and how it has grown and evolved with with use over time.
Geography and tongue
Online or offline the languages we speak and write say a lot about who we are. A choice of official language for a nation can also reveal much more than just communication. Sara Moreira is Global Voices’ Portuguese Language editor. She told us about her journalistic patch that is not just geographical or topical but more closely linked to language.
Telling tales
It’s not just where we are talking of course but what we have to say that makes language so intriguing. Claire Ulrich is the editor of Global Voices in French site and the assistant editor for Francophone content. Claire highlights the prolific work of Global Voices translator Boukary Konate and his work communicating life in Mali. Claire tells us about some Tales from the Village that we could all learn something from.
Coded messages
Not all language is something we speak and write of course. It’s also something we use to make things online. Jeremy Clarke is the man behind the code and design of the multi-lingual Global Voices websites. To say the least he has a lot to do, and we can all thank him for making sure GV is here and that all contributors and readers can access it. We talked about what it is like to run such a big site with so many people, and how the language of code can also be political.
That’s all for this edition of the Global Voices podcast, but we’ll be back with more for you to listen to soon. Please feel free to leave us a comment or suggestion for next time.
Music credits
In the podcast you can hear lots of lovely Creative Commons music. If you want to find out more about these artists here are the links for you.
Thanks to Orb Gettarr for the atmospheric Return of the Atlanteans Lemurian Candidate, to Mark Cotton for his Spiritualized Homage, to Superbus feat. NS for Fujjad! Most of the music was found via OpSound.Org, The Free Music Archive or direct from the artists. Thanks also to all of the wonderful voice over performances and clips that help to glue the podcast together.
Thanks for listening and we look forward to sharing the next Global Voices podcast!
This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet.
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author: Jamillah Knowles


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Jamaica: BMW Brand Association  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamaica Woman Tongue (who, in full disclosure, drives a BMW herself), is still troubled by the circumstances surrounding the recent murder of a teen by the driver of a BMW: “The new association of the…brand with murder is an extension of the negative stereotypes the luxury vehicles attract.  BMW must take much of the responsibility for the classist way in which the brand is perceived.  When you define your car as ‘the ultimate driving machine’, you seductively invite your customers to think of themselves as the ultimate human being.  And that’s where the problem starts.”


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Jamaica: Emancipation Greetings  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Today is Emancipation Day; diaspora blogger Geoffrey Philp posts his greeting here.


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Kenya: “Create for Millions” Mobile Apps Contest Launched  · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Moses Kemibaro attends the lauching of “Create for Millions” in Nairobi, Kenya: “Yesterday I was at the iHub in Nairobi for Nokia’s launch of its local version of the “Create for Millions” mobile apps contest. The contest has both a local and global versions that aim to bring consumers and developers together to create applications for Nokia’s Series 40 mobile phones.”


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Kenya: Take Part in FeedKE Campaign · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Spare a meal to help others through FeedKe campaign: “A week ago I started this initiative of having Kenyans Sacrifice A Meal to help Feed Kenya!!! My initial TARGET was 10,000 Kenyans with atleast a minimum of 250/=Ksh donated to The Kenya Red Cross Society under #FeedKE Account Name. What amazed me is the response of us Kenyans – everyone who heard about it; shared it, talked about it and also some acted on it!”


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Lithuania-Austria: Continued Controversy Over Ex-KGB Man · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Albatros of Litauen blog discusses [ger] the ongoing controversy between Lithuania and Austria, after authorities in Vienna let go of an internationally wanted ex-KGB officer, who allegedly was party to the January 1991 Vilnius killings of Lithuanians by soviet troops.


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Mexico: Portrayals of a Culture… of Violence? · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.
Editor's Note: This post intends to show some of the topics exposed in our recent call for posts in our Blog Carnival: Mexico – Citizenry, violence and blogs and so serve as inspiration to Mexican bloggers who haven't yet decided on what they'll write about. There are many other angles to be tackled! (J.A.)
Even though other parts of the world are experiencing high levels of violence, Mexico's case attracts our attention with the apparent inability of the government and its institutions to face the epidemic. So, who else can step up to shoulder the responsibility of helping solve this violence problem? Do the media: mass and independent, have a part to play in this struggle?
In Latin America, many of us grew up consuming cultural products made in Mexico: movies, magazines, books, soap operas, television shows and music. With the arrival of different content distribution channels through the Internet, we complemented this massified cultural image with that which Mexicans were producing without the established media filters. From outside the problem and basing ourselves in this collective imaginary about Mexico, we realize that much of what we know about Mexican culture according to the media, is a culture of violence.
Science and history also show this violent side of Mexican culture: it is very hard to research Mesoamerican cultural history without stumbling on stories of genocide and human sacrifice. Many of the television shows or ‘historical’ movies showing Mayans or Aztecs not only include this aspect but make it the central focus of the story.
Some Mexicans have their doubts regarding historical records. Like this man [es], who in the following interview explains why he believes that the stories of large scale human sacrifices were simply a way in which uncultured conquerors could justify the killing of Mesoamericans.
Cultural influences
Gender violence is also a serious issue in Mexico. Ciudad de Juárez is sadly well known  for this. Some make the direct connection of male chauvinism to the image of the “Mexican macho” perpetuated by movies and media.  In this video [es], made as a psychology project by students at the Autonomous University of Mexico, we see some examples of advertising, movies and situations that could have caused men to think of themselves as “owners” of women, and to believe that force and violence are what makes them men.
Danny OldBoy [es], who has a series of videoblogs on the topic of sexuality, diversity and gender, goes beyond and singles out one probable suspect who has enabled not just violence against women who don't comply with pre-established roles, but also against men who don't measure up to “macho” standards: Mexican film star Pedro Infante. In the following sarcasm charged video, Danny OldBoy shows how the macho image perpetuated by this Mexican icon has done more harm than good.
http://youtu.be/Kjpb4T-tIy0
Pedro Infante is not the only Mexican male archetype. For Mexico is also the birthplace of El Santo, a wrestler who jumped out of the lucha libre ring to the movie screens to fight against supernatural forces.
A Mexican comedy series attempted to break these gender stereotypes by showing a man as a single parent of a young girl. However, this same character, in every single episode of El Chavo del Ocho, was slapped and ridiculed: thus, the new model of man/father became synonymous with loser.  In this next video we can see what are a YouTube user's favorite moments of the show: it seems that different types of violence are the one thing they have in common.
The telenovelas seem to be loaded with violence as well. A simple search on YouTube shows us that there's a whole category of  best fights and slaps in telenovelas so it doesn't seem to be chance that violence is included in the programming: we could assume that people like it and find it entertaining. Most of these fights are between women, and it seems that violence starts climbing out of the exclusively male territory. To be fair, this isn't a Mexican only phenomenon:  this next video [es] by Alejandro Hernandez shows two typical fight scenes in telenovelas, one Mexican and the other Venezuelan.
http://youtu.be/Y-pIEZ061c4
The female villain character seen in the first video has even become her own meme  and her phrases have become popular. The emotional and verbal aggression she inflicts has lost its strength and has become something of a joke.
Musical influences
Music is also a strong influence, and these past few years have seen the rise in popularity of the narco-corridos, northern Mexican folk music which speaks about the drug trafficker lifestyle. The cult to money, power and violence is what marks the difference between these ballads and traditional corridos.
They are not wholly new: historically, there's an  important place given to antiheroes, social bandits and the Robin Hood character who steals from the rich to give to the poor. In fact, one of the most famous heroes of the Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa, began as a fugitive from the law. Just like with soap operas, movies and series that discuss violence, narcocorridos also have an audience. As defensordlh writes in the description for the video History and culture of the narcocorrido [es]:
No pretendo hacer una apologia del narcocorrido, miintencion es dar los elementos para comprender su gran exito. No hay que interpretarlos con la moral establecida, porque si nos fijamos bien las fronteras entre el bien y el mal se borran. Es verdad que los narcocorridos son mandados hacer por los capos de la droga y son una apologia de sus hazañas. Sin embargo, tambien existe el auditorio que es el que le da vida. Es este segundo aspecto el que quiero resaltar en este video. El como las clases marginadas se identifican con su contenido, una forma de protestar ante los poderosos y los letradosque los oprimen y descriminan.
Are these Mexican products a reflection of the society which created them, an exaggeration or an invention? Is entertainment media part of the solution or only another instrument for this violence?
Don't hesitate to participate with your opinion in our  Blog Carnival: Mexico – Citizenry, violence and blogs.
This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.

author: Juliana Rincón


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Nepal: TedX Kathmandu · Global Voices
Rezwan

Nepal Blogs informs that the first ever TedX event was held in Kathmandu, Nepal on July 29, 2011.


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Pakistan: Generals And Democracy · Global Voices
Rezwan

Habib R. Sulemani opines that in Pakistan the military is calling the shots no matter who is in power in the country. He also opines that: “Members of the parliament are being terrorized by the secret agencies and they’re being used according to the wishes of the ignorant and vision-less bandmaster-like generals.”


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Paraguay: 7 Years Since Supermarket Tragedy · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Seven years ago today, on August 1, 2004, a fire in a supermarket killed over 300 people and left more than 500 injured in what the blog Interparaguay [es] calls the greatest civil tragedy in Paraguay.


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Peru: Reactions After Ollanta Humala’s Inauguration · Global Voices
Isabel Guerra

After a long wait, the Inauguration ceremony in Peru took place on July 28, 2011, as part of the official celebrations of the independence anniversary; Peruvians now have a new President, Ollanta Humala.
Comments and reactions in social networks have been filled with everything from faith and hope, to bitter criticism, irony and humorous remarks about the First Lady, Nadine Heredia's, dresses.
Humala's speech was moderate [es], relegating his initial leftist proposals, thus leaving unionists and businessmen [es] satisfied. He announced that the relationship State-Market will be “different to the failed extreme recipes [es] of an interventionist State or a minimal excluding State”.
TV transmission of President Ollanta Humala's speech. (Picture: Victor Mantilla)
The activity in social networks reached a peak during the inauguration ceremony [es] of Ollanta Humala, especially since Humala invoked [es] in his oath the “values and principles of “1979's Constitution” [es], that is not valid since 1993, when Alberto Fujimori enacted the current one.
This caused unrest among many, like Valeria (@Vale_muniz), who tweeted:
#tomademando no esta respetando nada si estan juramentando sobre una constitucion que no esta vigente, dictador!!
#tomademando [inauguration] is not respecting anything if it's being sworn over a non valid constitution, dictator!!
In the same line of thinking, MargOtt (@margott_cule) is displeased:
LAAA XUXAAAAAAAAAA JURO X  LA CONSTITUCION DE 1979!!!!  ahi esta pues, ese es su PRESI!! nos cagamos!! #cambiodemando
DAMN IT, HE SWORE OVER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1979!!!! There you go, that's your President!! We are f***!! #cambiodemando
Immediately opposition congressmen, lead by the fujimorist Martha Chavez, started a sounded protest [es], before the astonished eyes of foreign visitors [es], a deed that did not passed by unnoticed in the social networks.
Karen Arlett (@frecks_) tweets:
CALLEN A ESAS GALLINAS FUJIMORISTAS!!!!!!!!! #cambiodemando
SHUT THOSE FUJIMORIST CHICKENS UP!!!!!! #cambiodemando
Christian Rubio (@christian_rubio) points out:
Martha Chavez con la constitución del 93 en mano! que feo roche [vergüenza]npara las autoridades internacionales #cambiodemando
Martha Chavez with 93′ constitution on her hand! What an ugly embarrassment for foreign authorities #cambiodemando
Pedro Atuncar says on Facebook:
que vergüenza nacional la conducta de nuestros padres de la patria hoy en la toma de mando presidencial. Si asi son quienes nos representan , entonces como avanzaremos, un salon de Inicial [preescolar] era mas ordenado.
what a national shame was the behavior of our rulers today at the President's inauguration. If that's how people who represent us are, how are we going to progress, a kindergarten is more orderly.
The noisy and belligerent attitude started by congresswoman Chavez generated such an adverse reaction that a Facebook page was created under the name: “Martha Chavez: Vergüenza Nacional” [es] (Martha Chavez: National Embarrassment) and it passed 10,000 followers in only 24 hours.
During the change of command, there were many users happy with the new President, as we can read in comments like this one from Franz Morales:
Por fin asumio el Comandante excelentisimo sr Presidente Ollamta Humala sus funciones . Ahora a poner en orden la casa y fumigarla bien para echar las ratas y cucarachas
Finally the Honorable Commander, Mr. President Ollanta Humala was inaugurated. Now, it's time to put things in order at home and fumigate well to kick out all rats and cockroaches
Emmanuel André (@EmmanuelAmdreM) also celebrates:
Le ponen banda presidencial a Ollanta Humala. Ahora, es mi presidente, tu presidente, nuestro presidente #cambiodemando
The Presidential band was placed upon Ollanta Humala. Now, he is my President, your President, our President #cambiodemando
Alfonso Junior Samanez was also cheerful:
Bienvenido Sr. Presidente de la Republica del Peru Tnt. Coronel Ollanta Humala Tasso… el pueblo peruano esta contigo. Viva el Peru!
Welcome Mr. President of the Republic of Peru, Lt. Coronel Ollanta Humala Tasso… the Peruvian people are with you. Long live Peru!
Afterwards, the Peruvian celebrations included a great military parade [es], lead by the new President [es], during which comments [es] were abundant, like this one from Victor Pariona:
Ya empezo el desfile militar del peru con el presidente Humala y su revolucion viva el peruuu carajooo hoy se bebe y mañana tanbien que volada locosss $$$$$$$$
The military parade of Peru is on with President Humala and his revolution, long live Peru damn it, today we drink and tomorrow too, what a ride $$$$$$$$
The tweep Eucaris (@musa 1919) signaled:
#notis Ollanta Humala preside un desfile mientras se apaga la controversia por su juramento http://bit.ly/nrbVjP
#notis Ollanta Humala leads a parade while the controversy around his oath smothers http://bit.ly/nrbVjP [es]
From its Twitter account, the newspaper La República (@larepublica_pe) reported:
Presidente Ollanta Humala se encuentra emocionado, por ratos entona las canciones militares #paradamilitar http://ow.ly/5QCzb #celebraperu
President Ollanta Humala is excited; at times he chants military songs #paradamilitar http://ow.ly/5QCzb #celebraperu
Benji Evangelista (@1080i60) observed:
que bueno que Ollanta saludara a todos las personas que fueron a ver el desfile  militar de hoy, no como Alan o Toledo que saludaban poco =/
It's good that Ollanta greeted everyone who went to watch today's military parade, not like Alan or Toledo who didn't greet a lot =/
Cesar Mayta (@cesarmayta) asks himself:
Q sentira ollanta al ver el desfile militar, antes el habra desfilado?
Wonder what is Ollanta feeling while seeing the military parade, since he himself marched before?
And some others do not hide that they rather not see Humala as President, like Ricardo Lopez (@ratonmaton):
Que ironia ver a Ollanta Humala dar permiso e iniciar el desfile militar y ver a los policias que el mando a matar.
What an irony to see Ollanta Humala giving permission for the military parade to start and watch the cops he sent to kill
But also, many users, like Yolanda Figueroa, were not longer looking at the President but were excited by the festive mood among Peruvians:
QUE EMOCIONANTE EL DESFILE DE NUESTRA FUERZA ARMADA DE NUESTRO PERU
WHAT A RUSH TO WATCH THE MILITARY PARADE OF OUR ARMED PERUVIAN FORCES
The humorous note these days has been the great amount of jest comments dedicated to the dresses used by the First Lady, Nadine Heredia, who used a flashy red dress with lots of ruffles [es] on July 28, at the inauguration of her husband; and on July 29 she wore another dress of similar design in pink [es] that didn't go unnoticed, like @Primerafuente points out:
Buenos dias a todos, Nadine Heredia y su vestido “Mirenme a Mí Carajo!!!” Marcando un estilo rococo de Primera Dama…
Good morning everyone, Nadine Heredia and her dress “Look at me damn it!!!” Setting a rococo style as a First Lady…
Arturo Galagarza (@ArturoGalagarza) jokes about the phonetic resemblance of “fashion” and “fascism”:
Nadine no esta Fashion,esta FACHON jajaja #QueFeoVestido
Nadine is not Fashion, she is FACHON (Fascist-like) hahaha #QueFeoVestido [what an ugly dress]
Bruno Ortiz (@blogdenotas), Twitter user and journalist, joins the disapproval chorus and compares Nadine Heredia to the President of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner:
Recién me pongo a ver el desfile y veo a Nadine. Parece un virrey. Es  claro que quiere ser como Cristina K en lo fashion… no le liga [no lo logra].
I just sat down to watch the parade and I see Nadine. Looks like a viceroy. It's clear that she wants to be like Cristina K fashion wise… she doesn't pull it off
Alejandra Pachas (@Alezita87) comments on the pink color of the dress:
Nadine Heredia…representa a los algodones de azúcar del Perú ¡VIVA!
Nadine Heredia… represents the cotton candy of Peru, HOORAY!
Users like Erick Velasquez and Erick Santos (@Beatlerick_) make fun of how visually heavy the dresses were:
#FF para Tortas Gaby que hizo el vestido de Nadine. #desfilemilitar
#FF for Gaby Cakes who designed Nadine's dress. #desfilemilitar
Others, though, belittle the jeers against Nadine Heredia and ask people to focus on other subjects, like Milan (@Milanta) or Luis Murrugarra (@Luish910):
JAJA wtf en serio estan discutiendo los que se pone Nadine Heredia?? que importa eso! ni que fuera LadyGaga
LOL wtf are you really discussing what Nadine Heredia wears?? what does it matter! is not like she is Lady Gaga
Now that Humala has sworn in as President of the Republic of Peru, he will be facing the tough duty of leading a country that, in spite of its great economic growth, drags high poverty percentages, therefore the outcast sectors now have high expectations for his performance.

author: Isabel Guerra


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Portugal: Lusophone Communities “Have a Look” at the Center of Porto · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

The Portuguese cultural and artistic association 10pt has launched the initiative Olha Lá (Have a Look) [pt] aiming at “gathering an itinerant object through the Portuguese language space”.  The Lusophone communities in Porto are thus called to share and spread the perceptions of diaspora across the historic center of town through photography.

author: Sara Moreira


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Puerto Rico: “The Point Is” to Cross Borders and Facilitate Dialogue · Global Voices
Yarisa Colon

[El punto es = The point is]
El punto es… [es] was created by a group of Puerto Ricans who were fed up with having limited access to information, free from political manipulation, regarding what was happening in Puerto Rico.
In their letter thanking collaborators [es], they explain that the idea came about during the student strike at the University of Puerto Rico [en], when they had to turn to alternative media sources in order to follow the pro-public education protests and the cases of students being subjected to police abuse. For the publication's founding editors: Mariángel Gonzales Rodríguez, Auralís Herrero Lugo, Suset Laboy Pérez, Núria Net Costas, Gamaliel Ramos Oliver, Jeca Rodríguez Colón and Salvador Vélez Padilla, it all began from wanting to know what was really happening.
Since 2010, this group of talented individuals has worked on a voluntary basis to shape what has become a refreshing website, where the opinions of Puerto Ricans on the island, in the United States and in Spain can converge.  They anticipate expanding their network to “countries like Suriname, Greenland, the Netherlands – even Vietnam”.
Global Voices interviewed the team of the blog.
Global Voices (GV): How did El punto es… come about?
El punto es (EPE): The impetus for establishing El punto es… [es] came from our concern about knowing what was happening on the Island. Every time something happened, it seemed as if the only – albeit disorganised – way of finding out quickly was through Facebook. We believe this collective frustration drove us to act. So El punto es… was born. Now, although the idea was conceived in New York, it has taken shape on the Island and further afield. So much so, that the website was designed in collaboration with Puerto Ricans in Manhattan and Puerto Rico.
GV: How do you choose the text and images?
EPE: The content [of the site] is democratically approved by the editorial team. Having more than one person approving the contents helps us to maintain an open mind. We have learnt to publish articles that do not have the whole editorial team's approval; and to reject articles that we all agree upon because they do not adhere to our objective of sharing various points of view, without showing any bias. It is important to maintain a point of view that is free from geographical, political and social borders. The point is that there are many points, and we want to include points of view of all shapes and sizes. If the stories are related to Puerto Rico or Puerto Ricans, expressed respectfully and follow our editorial line, we share them with our audience.
GV: What stories have you published that have not been covered in the traditional press? What stories would you like to cover?
EPE:Traditional media on the Island is so focused on tabloid news and violence, that at times it can seem as if nothing positive is happening. Apart from publishing traditional news stories with a more personal and familiar tone, we publish stories about local initiatives such as the Food Department [es](a Puerto Rican business which distributes crops and ecological products) and the Concalma [es] bag collection.
We also provide a space for artists in Puerto Rico and in the diaspora and touch on issues regarding the Island's alternative subculture and we often discuss the theme of identity, but from a more cultural perspective. This focus is less concerned with status, which is a favourite of traditional media, and more to do with realities of identity.
We have recently published articles which, for one reason or another, have not been published by the press. We have also been publishing breaking news before traditional media. For example, we are publishing [an article] regarding racism in Puerto Rico [es] – considered taboo by many. We also drew attention to the Al Jazeera report [es] on the Island's economic and social crisis, 3 or 4 days before the local media.
We want to continue covering stories that deal with the reality, frustrations and joys experienced by Puerto Ricans on the Island and abroad. We want to continue doing this in the same candid way we have always had. One of the things we like about El punto es… [es] – and what our audience likes, too – is that we speak openly, honestly and informally. We are not afraid to interact and we speak to our audience across the spectrum. This is something that traditional media, for whatever reasons, do not tend to do.
Themes regarding identity, such as articles written by Nuria Net [es]and Suset Laboy [es] in response to the famous letter from Felipe Luciano [en] were well-received. The same happened with the article about one of our collaborator's battle against lupus [es]. Basically, stories about people are very popular. People react positively to them.
GV:   Reactions and feedback [to your work]? Unexpected links with other groups?
EPE: The consensus seems to be that we offer perspectives that make people think. We include things that we are not accustomed to reading in the news in Puerto Rico, the country where blood seems to pour out of newspapers.
People also react to our tone. Our stories are presented in a concise manner, they are straight-forward and confident. People appreciate that we are respectful of their time and are not asking for [them to contribute] articles as long as doctoral theses. They also appreciate that we give praise where it is due and recognise the good things that Puerto Ricans have to offer on the Island and abroad.
We are very lucky because we are launching at a time when alternative platforms are on the up in Puerto Rico. We respect everybody. For this reason, we maintain conversations and relationships with the other alternative media coming from, or focussing on the Island.
GV: “El punto es…does not adhere to a specific or predetermined line of political thought or opinion“: How have you detached yourselves from the vicious circle of party politics and political manoeuvring that pervades journalism in Puerto Rico?
EPE: The reality is that we detach ourselves from this vicious circle by taking perspective. Many members of the editorial team have one eye on Puerto Rico and the other elsewhere. By seeing things from afar, we can see that party politics and political manoeuvring do not solve anything. We try to distance ourselves from this. It is not always easy, but trying is one of the central premises of our project, so we always bear that in mind.
We publish stories with a great deal of respect, ensuring that we do not react to them mindlessly. The article on the McCain comments about JJ Barea [en] is the perfect example. Whereas much of the media quickly condemned the senator, we had to take a deep breath and probe more, even though we wanted to go crazy. This is how we were able to dispel the rumour.
We would be lying if we said that we are 100% impartial, but we are not lying when we say that we try to be impartial with every story we choose to publish. We want writers of diverse points of view to feel comfortable in our space, and we want to cultivate this same attitude amongst our readers, because to learn is to come into contact with many different points of view. Learning does not have to result in polarization, but in dialogue and growth.
GV: The future of El punto es is?
EPE: We are currently planning the official launch party to celebrate the success we have had… We also want to publish more political analysis, to open the doors to more collaborators, to cover more stories. Basically, [we want to] grow, grow and grow.

author: Yarisa Colon


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Ramadan Recipes: Feasting After Fasting · Global Voices
Maria Grabowski

The month of Ramadan marks a time of spiritual reflection and worship. Participating Muslims refrain from eating and drinking during daylight hours, but when the sun sets, the fast turns into a feast, the Iftar. During Iftar, people gather to break their fast together, traditionally starting with a date (the dried fruit). In addition to the date, a range of wonderful dishes are served. Here's a list of some of the favorites of Global Voices bloggers.
Happy fasting from Global Voices bloggers who have shared links!
Want to add your own favorite? Please do share it with us!

author: Maria Grabowski


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Russia: Medvedev or Putin for President · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Amid speculations on whether Medvedev or Putin will run for the Russian presidency in March 2012, Patrick Armstrong of Russia: Other Points of View argues that – judging from key official documents and speeches – Medvedev is the likely candidate of the two.

author: Vilhelm Konnander


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Russia: Opposition Tactics for Presidential Elections · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Kevin Rothrock of A Good Treaty sums up a recent discussion among Russian opposition bloggers on which tactics to use to avoid that Putin or Medvedev do not get re-elected in the March 2012 presidential elections.


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South Korea: Several Thousands Protested against Massive Layoffs · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

The “Hope Bus” protest took a place in Busan, the nation's largest port city, on July 31. About 3,5oo people from all over the country, including civic activists and labor groups, demonstrated against massive layoffs by Hanjin Heavy Industries. One of influential citizen journalists, MediaMongu tweeted [ko] photos of minor clashes between conservatives and progressives.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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South Korea: Volunteers out to Clean up Flood Damage · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Several days after the onset of one of the worst flooding and landslides in South Korean history,  efforts to aid those affected continue. Twitter user Sayqueen tweeted a photo of volunteers gathered to clean up water damage.


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South Korea: Web App Controversy Reignites Net Neutrality Debate  · Global Voices
Jae Yeon Kim

Net neutrality is a principal which does not allow Internet service providers or governments to restrict consumers’ access to networks or to discriminate traffic coming from different contents and sites. As more and more people use smart phones and tablet computers, thereby increasingly burdening wireless connections, this core principle of Internet governance is fast becoming one of the most debated issues in South Korea.
Kakao Talk Controversy
On May 26, 2011, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) announced [ko] that they would soon examine whether ‘Kakao Talk‘, a smart phone messenger application which has 14 million users in South Korea, follows net neutrality guidelines. The app allows mobile device users to send and receive messages for free.
Kakao Talk, leading Korean mobile messenger application. Image by Flickr user VoIPman.
The government sees Kakao Talk as a ‘free rider’ of Internet network services, and is considering ordering them to pay network service fees to network providers as a result of the heavy traffic it is responsible for. This decision has drawn immediate criticism from net users.
Blogger Nizad, who published “The Naked Apple” in 2010, blames [ko] the decision for jeopardizing the nondiscriminatory policy which is essential for Internet development:
본래 망중립성이란 쉽게 풀어쓰면 다음과 같다. 통신망을 이용하는 데이터는 그것이 음성이든 문자든, 인터넷 데이터든 차별받지 않고 공정하게 취급받는다. 망 사업자는 중립적 입장에서 망을 관리해야 한다. 이런 것이다. (…) 네이버나 다음, 구글 등의 대형 포털사업자도 트래픽을 많이 유발한다. 그럼에도 망 사업자가 따로 제한하거나 요금을 물리지 않는다. 유독 카카오톡에만 민감하게 문제삼는 것도 우습다.
Blogger Imagination factory owner takes [ko] a more comprehensive approach to this issue:
물론 서비스의 개선 문제에 대해서는 요금을 지불해야 하는 것이 맞긴 하지만 요금 지불을 한다고 하여서 현제 버벅거리는 서비스가 좋아질 것이라는 기대는 안하게 되는 게 국내 통신사들이다. […] 거기다가 각 통신사별로 망 개선작업(LTE, 3W 등)의 사업을 추진하고 있는 이 시점에서 이 저격의 의미는 조금이라도 투자비를 회수하려는 것 처럼 보여지기도 한다.
Blogger Ssangdoong Appa reacted similarly. He writes [ko] that even though it is understandable that network providers deserve the rights to demand an additional return from Kakao Talk, such a decision should be made carefully since it can cause a negative effect on small business start-ups:
왜냐하면 이전에는 이런류의 서비스가 없었으며 있다하더라도 그렇게 많은 트래픽을 일으키지 않았기때문에 이제는 정비가 필요한 것이다. 아쉽게도 이렇게 되면 신선한 작은 IT벤처회사들이 시장 진입장벽이 높아만 가니까 어려워질 것이다. 이런 부분을 국가는 염두하고 무조건 시장의 논리에 의해서만 대기업편을 들어줘서는 안 된다.
Blogger Yonggari comments [ko] that even though there are numerous Wi-Fi networks installed throughout the country, citizens still face difficulty in using them because of compatibility issues; Wi-Fi providers each have their own unique systems and policies. The blogger feels the need to urge the Korean government to better manage the Internet infrastructure the nation already has, and proposes a commons-based solution that could ease the current tension and enhance public interests:
Wi-Fi가 대중적으로 보급되었지만 정작 공공장소에서의 Wi-Fi를 사용하다보면 여간 짜증나는일이 아닐 수 없다. 현재 SKT, KT, LGT 등 통신 3사의 Wi-Fi정책은 전부 다르다.[…] 하지만 이렇게 제한도 없고 정책도 없이 난립되는 AP[Access Point]들 때문에… 결국 서로 간섭을 일으키고 통신도 제대로 되지 않는 지경에 이르게 되는 것이다. (기본적으로 Wi-Fi는 14개 채널을 사용하지만 채널 간 guard space가 없이 인접채널과 겹쳐서 주파수를 사용한다. 그렇기 때문에 간섭엔 특히나 더 취약하기 마련이다.) 적어도 공공장소에서만큼은 시민들에게 통신사에 구애받지 않고 Wi-Fi망을 제대로 이용하게 해줄 수 없는건가?
Recently, a group of Korean and overseas Internet companies and contents providers, including major market leaders like NHN and Google Korea, announced [ko] that they plan to form Open Internet Alliance (OIA) on September 2011. Their purpose is to protect consumer rights and to prepare themselves for the KCC’s upcoming decision on net neutrality in November 2011.

author: Jae Yeon Kim


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Trinidad & Tobago: Lights, Camera, Reality Shows!  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

From Project Runway to So You Think You Can Dance, MEP Caribbean Publishers notices that “Trinidad & Tobago is…ready for its close-up… on American television, at least.”


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U.S.V.I.: Potential Storm  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“The first disturbance of the [2011 hurricane] season…could possibly threaten the Virgin Islands: U.S.V.I. bloggers are carefully monitoring developments.


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U.S.V.I., Trinidad & Tobago: Best on Self-Knowledge  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A Nation or Nobody refers to a speech by the late Trinidadian intellectual Lloyd Best, noting that his “most important message is…that locally-based forms of knowledge are what all people should be striving to develop.  Just because the majority of the Caribbean’s people trace their lineage to somewhere else, doesn’t mean political and academic institutions don't need to be homegrown.”


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United Kingdom: #BlameTheMuslims Twitter Hashtag Spins Out of Context · Global Voices
Gilad Lotan

Sanum Ghafoor, who goes by the Twitter handle @Strange_Sanum, is a 19-year old Muslim student in the UK. Aggravated at how Muslims were immediately accused for any act of violence, especially following last week's Oslo attacks, Sanum let out steam by tweeting with the hashtag #blamethemuslims. With dash of satire and lots of sarcasm, Sanum posted the following tweets:
@Strange_Sanum: Here we go again… lets blame Muslims for everything that goes wrong in the world.
She continued on to post a number of tweets using the #blamethemuslims hashtag:
@Strange_Sanum: I don't have a job. #blamethemuslims
The hashtag was adopted amongst her friends and followers, reaching high levels of participation which eventually caused the term to trend locally in the UK, and later globally. As we tend to see with topics that reach such a wide array of audiences, it was wholly taken out of context, leading to a plethora of frustrated users.
Some users sent Sanum hate messages and even death threats, while others took the hashtag seriously, and posted accusations towards Muslims. Conversation spun out of control, keeping the topic trending, as more users posted their thoughts and frustrations.
On her blog, Clare Neruda describes the irony of how people misinterpreted Sanum's original motivation:
Unfortunately it seems as though rather a lot of people just aren’t getting the joke. There have been many calls for twitter to ban the TT (and a strange amount of people who consider twitter’s allowing of the trend to be particularly unfair in relation to the recent banning of #justinbieber) and a number of people have voiced fears concerning possible repercussions. However the majority of the people who have utilised the hashtag seem to have done so purely to vent their anger about the perceived racism of the trend, without researching its origins before forming an opinion. Irony upon irony; the very thing Sanum seems to have been satirising has been replayed by millions in their misguided attempts to rid the (twitter)world of an ‘evil’ that is no more than a product of misinterpretation.
And here's a quote from Nabeela Zahir‘s interview of Sanum:
Sanum articulated that the popularity of the trend highlighted an underlying need to discuss the way in which Muslims are portrayed, as well as the rising popularity of right wing extremism throughout Europe. The reporting around the Oslo attacks, were part of a wider trend of portraying Muslims as aggressors and religious fundamentalists
“After 9/11 there was a shift in the way Muslims were referred to in the media, and how they were reported on. It became an issue about Islam, rather than deranged individuals who justify violence with religion. It’s continued ever since.”
Sanum hopes through comedy and satire she is able to show that there is more to Muslims than terrorism, by showing that Muslims can be funny too she believes people can begin to overcome misunderstandings about Islam.
Twitter has become an indispensable tool for information dissemination. But as we talk about the need for information verification, we must remember that context, or lack thereof, is another critical attribute that can easily get lost. #blamethemuslims is an example of an information cascade that starts with good intentions, and ends up being counterproductive. That said, it did a great job at maintaining people's attention on the topic.
@Strange_Sanum: this trending topic is bigger than me. its highlighting a growing prejudice against the muslim community.
Keep posting hashtags. But whatever you do, think twice before you #blamethemuslims.

author: Gilad Lotan


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Uzbekistan: Business will pay for “exemplary mahallas” · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Abulfazal writes that the Uzbek government project on creation of so-called “exemplary mahallas” (communities) is turning into a campaign of forcing the local businessmen to finance infrastructure upgrades and renovations.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Barbados, Cuba: Two Different Carnivals · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Cheese-on-bread! and Havana Times write posts about their respective Carnivals: Barbados’ Crop Over and Santiago de Cuba’s “Proselytizing Carnival”.


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Belarus: Interpreting the Law on Freedom of Assembly · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

LJ user gabblgob lets [ru] a lawyer friend, LJ user redrok, take a look at the legal implications of changes in Belarus law on freedom of assembly, which are in stark contrast with the conventional meaning of the term.


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Bermuda, Barbados: Good Governance Laws  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Vexed Bermoothes and Barbados Free Press blog about their countries’ lack of anti-corruption laws.


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Brazil: The Heterossexual Pride Day is Announced · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Brazilian activist Alessandra Nane (@Lessinha_nane) informs [pt] that the City Council of São Paulo has just approved the Heterosexual Pride Day, a project led by evangelical leaders, to take place on the third Sunday of December. Nane ironically wonders when the “White Awareness Day”, among others, will also be approved.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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Caribbean: TS Emily  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Tropical Storm Emily has a few regional territories on the alert: bloggers [ES] in Cuba and the U.S. Virgin Islands post updates.


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Chile: 4 Years Since Aymara Woman Detained for Losing Son · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Katie Manning, a reporter for MiVoz.cl (which publishes 14 citizen journalism online newpapers in Chile), writes about Gabriela Blas, a 28-year-old Aymara woman who “spends her days locked up in the Acha Prison in Arica, a mid-sized city in the north of Chile. […] August 2, marks four years since police detained her for losing her 3-year-old son.”


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China: Chemical Vinegar  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A local report has revealed that 90% of vinegar in the market is produced by glacial acetic acid rather than grain.
According to the report [zh] in the First Financial Daily, the annual consumption of vinegar on average is up to 3.3 million tons and 90% is a chemical combination of glacial acetic acid,  water and other addictives. The term “Vinegar Mixture” (勾兌醋) has become another hot search term in the past few days.
Egugu forum user, Bean Eyes warns [zh] other consumers about the chemical vinegar mixture:
而国家规定勾兑醋必须用食用冰醋酸，但受利益驱动，一些个体经营者竟用价格便宜的工业用冰醋酸（1桶食用冰醋酸的价格约合2.5桶工业用冰醋酸）作原料。勾兑醋的制造工艺则非常简单——冰醋酸加上一定比例的水，混合后便可装袋。一些与食用冰醋酸勾兑的醋，并经过充分的蒸溜处理，理论上应该说是对人体无害的。但它除了有酸味之外，对人体没有什么好处。因此与其说它是醋，不如说它是“酸水”更准确些。
工业冰醋酸中还含有大量的铅和砷元素，还含有未被氧化的有机物如甲醇，接触和食用会引起人体多发性神经炎，导致视力急剧下降，失明，血液中毒，胃肠粘连，长期食用会导致肺癌，胃癌。
The edible glacial acetic acid has gone through the distillation process and is harmless. But it does no good to the human body, it is just acidic water, not vinegar. The industrial glacial acetic acid has heavy metals and methanol, which will result in polyneuritis and can cause blindness, blood intoxication, stomach and intestinal adhesion. A prolonged period of consumption would lead to lung and stomach cancer.
In Sina Weibo, the problem of “vinegar mixture” appears in a number of news threads today. Below is a translation [zh] of selected comments from the Global Entrepreneur Magazine news threads:
找乐子儿 一点不稀奇，在这个没有标准没有监管的体制下，在这个拜金主义盛行的社会中，我们怎么可能希望有安全不离谱的产品呢？如果前两个现状没有改观，只能是没有最离谱，只有更离谱！(1分鐘前)
李景利 早就不是行业机密了，只是，为啥没人出来管管呢？纳税都用来养狗了？(7分鐘前)
一念已至灵山 我们无法放心的吃任何东西，这是一个怎样的世界？我们的厨房是否应该变成化学实验室，所有的食品先检测一下再入口？(26分鐘前)
cao-min 怎么这么多东西都是勾兑出来的啊，其他国家的这些产品是不是一样？期待结果…(43分鐘前)
左晓兵 可不可以反过来：告诉国人什么东西能放心吃！！(46分鐘前)
Li Jinli: This is not a business secret at all. The problem is no one steps up to manage the situation. Our tax money is spent on feeding dogs.
Spiritual mountain: There isn't a single food we can eat with confidence. What kind of world are we living in? Probably we should turn our kitchen into a chemical laboratory and test the food before we cook it.
Cao-min: How come we have so much chemical food. I wonder if other countries are the same? Expecting enlightenment…
Zou Xiaobing: A reversed question: Can you tell us what else we can eat with confidence?

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Chinese Shanzhai Products · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Olivia from ChinaHush translates a local news story with photos comparing shanzhai or counterfeiting products with the genuine ones.


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Egypt: Scenes from Monday’s Crackdown on Tahrir Square · Global Voices
Thalia Rahme

This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.
The army suspended the sit-in by force on 1 Aug 2011. Photo by Maggie Osama on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA)
The Muslim holy month Ramadan didn't begin well for Egyptians on Tahrir square in Cairo protesting for the numerous still unmet demands of the revolution.
On Monday, 1 August 2011, the army evacuated them with an iron fist, leaving many injured and more than one hundred detained. The day before, more than thirty organizations announced they would suspend sit-ins that gained full force around 8 July for Ramadan and return after the holidays.
Meanwhile, several martyr's families and independent activists refused to leave. The consequences? The army intervened to remove the tents by force, which led to confrontations. On Tuesday night, the only people remaining in the square are Central Security Forces who broke fast there for Iftar.
Eye-witness scenes
On YouTube Kikhote shared this video of clashes on Monday:
AhHossam has this video of the attack:
Egyptian blogger and Global Voices author Lilian Wagdy, was in Tahrir during the crackdown, and wrote on her Tumblr blog what she witnessed [ar]:
Lilian's videos from the day can be seen here and here.
Egyptian blogger Hossam Hamalawy, also known as 3arabawy, has posted several videos from the crackdown as well.
On Twitter, there were numerous first hand accounts. Photographer and activist Jonathan Rashad was also in Tahrir when the army assaulted protesters. He tweeted:
@JonathanRashad: The army along with CSF are arresting many people here. They beat them up to death. #Tahrir #Egypt
Many more twitter reactions are collected by Asteris Masouras in Greece on Storify and can be found here.
As for photos, you can view those taken by Nora Shalaby  and Maggie Osama uploaded on Flickr.
The Front to Defend Egypt Protestors established a list of all detained persons [ar] on their blog, and there are also telephone hotlines for those who seek legal assistance (012 -062 – 4003) or medical assistance (017- 990- 1081).
Many activists are now urging for caution, including Gamal Eid, a lawyer and executive director of The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. On Monday, he tweeted:
This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.

author: Thalia Rahme


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Estonia: Defence Ministry Finances War Veterans? · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Kloty of Gedanken über Estland draws attention to [ger] information in Estonian media that the country's Defence Ministry is allegedly financing the controversial Waffen-SS war veterans’ organizations.


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Haiti: Fair Pay Needed for Honest Work  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Eighteen months after ‘bagay la’ (‘the thing’) brought Haiti to its knees, Haiti is still on its knees”: Dying in Haiti says that “there is much work to be done in Haiti and there are many Haitians to do the work. They need to be paid fairly for their work so they can feed their families.  This can't be so hard.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Iran: A new event named “Khezbazi” · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Several blogs published the photos from a gathering in Tehran where several young men and women dressed as villagers for fun. The event is called “Khezbazi”.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago: Flying High  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Two posts in the aftermath of the Caribbean Airlines crash: Jamaica Woman Tongue on “duppy” airlines and KnowTnT.com on the “political circus of BW523.”


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Latin America: Migrating to Another Latin American Country · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs Blog has published its third post in a series about immigration in Latin America. This time, COHA Research Associate Alena Hontarava looks at migration between Latin American countries.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Mexico: ‘Vivir México’ Interviews Spanish Translation Manager About Blog Carnival · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Vivir México interviewed [es] Spanish Translation Manager Juan Arellano about our current Blog Carnival: Mexico – Citizenry, Violence and Blogs.


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Moldova: Attack on Journalist Causes Online Debate on “Language Issue” · Global Voices
Diana Lungu

An incident of violence against a Moldovan journalist has brought about active online discussions regarding the long-protracted animosities between the Moldovan majority and the small Russian minority in the country.
The discord goes deep into history, as Moldova was once an integral part of the Romanian nation and later, during the Second World War, was occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union for almost 50 years. On August 27, 2011, Moldova will mark its 20th year of independence, but disagreements between the ethnic Moldovan population and the Russian-speaking minority flare up from time to time regarding the use of the Russian language.
On many occasions, representatives of the Russian-speaking minority have refused to speak the official language of the country [the official language in Moldova is Romanian (called Moldovan in the Constitution)] and commanded the local population to speak Russian. Russian is not an official language in Moldova, but is widely spoken by ethnic minorities, in particular in the unrecognized separatist region of Transnistria and in the autonomous entity of Gagauz Yeri. The political elite, busy with the ongoing domestic disputes, has not made attempts of bridging the inter-ethnic gap over the years and so far has not reacted to this case.
Journalist Oleg Brega from Curaj TV was attacked on July 29 at the Slavonic University of Moldova, where he was investigating the case of a student encountering problems with her request to transfer to another university. At the journalist’s insistence to obtain some answers from the university's administration, the executive director of the university, Andrei Babenco, demanded that the journalist speak Russian. The journalist said he understood Russian, but asked if Babenco could speak Romanian, and the latter replied that he couldn't and wouldn't speak Romanian, and then, all of a sudden, hit the journalist and his camera when Brega asked why he didn’t speak Romanian.
Brega was recording everything, and the attack on him continued, as the executive director and several of his colleagues continued to hit and insult him while also trying to take away his documents and make him stop videotaping (attack scenes at 1:36; 2:30). The journalist was also continuously threatened and prevented from leaving the premises of the university. He called the police, who then took control over the situation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCNKUtB2QyE&feature=player_embedded
Before the case was mentioned by the mainstream media, the online community had organised a flashmob at the university. On August 1, equipped with video-recording devices and extracts from the Constitution, youth activists came to the Slavonic University and started filming the university, to show solidarity with the harassed journalist. The young people were also attacked by the university employees, who appeared irritated by the fact that they were being filmed. As a result, one of the participants was taken away his camera by a university representative. It was again necessary for the police to intervene.
Oleg Brega, the attacked journalist, drew attention to the fact that the inter-ethnic divide should not be the sole focus of this case, which is, according to him, also a severe case of basic human rights violations. However, online debates have focused mainly on the use of the Russian language in the country.
Vitalie Cojocari felt humiliation. He wrote [ro]:
I felt once again the secular whip of the secular Russian whistling in the air and hitting me painfully across my cheek. Because that director did not only hit Oleg Brega. That individual, for whom prison is crying, has hit all Romanian-speakers from Moldova, regardless of whether they call it Moldovan or not.
He went on:
It is damn complicated to ask a Russian from Moldova to speak your language. Any such attempt is harshly sanctioned. Russians need to be respected, after all we are a multi-ethnic nation, so they have rights. But will no one speak about obligations? No. Why? Because if you ask Russians to learn Romanian you are called a “fascist pig.”
In another blog post, the same author ascertains [ro], as he comments on another issue (the autonomous entity Gagauz Yeri has demanded the Moldovan Government to issues their correspondence to the region in Russian):
[…] the Romanian language is again subject to a terrible pressure. It is like we are going back to before ’89 [on August 31, 1989, Moldova switched from the Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin script]. Damn situation! What the hell is happening with our little country, where no minority group, Russian, Gagauz, Jewish, Ukrainian, Armenian, speaks our language? We have ended up being a minority in our country. Where did we go wrong, brothers, that no one loves our language?
Tudor Cojocariu opines [ro] that the “ethnic conflict is still to be found at the roots of many aggressions and violence that are happening around us”:
And who knows how many such USSR-type situations of sad reminiscence and of [“thieves in law”] are taking place right in front of us and we just look down and lie to ourselves that tomorrow everything will be alright, while knowing at the same time that neither the Romanian Moldovan majority, nor the Russian minority will go anywhere. It all has to do with adaptation and it is clear that never the majority will adapt to the minority, even if the latter is imperial, frustrated and full of complexes, because they have ended up being a minority where once there was a false “big Soviet motherland.”
Another blogger, Denis Cenusa, wrote this [ro]:
Any hesitation or delay in discussing the status of the Russian language, the methods to integrate Russian-speakers into the society and the measures to efficiently and permanently interconnect the linguistic communities will, in the future, result in serious problems for national security, including the European path of the Republic of Moldova.
“20 years have passed. MOLDOVA, WAKE UP!”, concluded [ro] a blog entry of Andrei Fornea.
Moldovan media NGOs have issued a statement, expressing their concern regarding the incident at the Slavonic University and qualifying it as unacceptable for a democratic society.

author: Diana Lungu


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Poland: Anniversary of Warsaw Uprising · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Michael Dembinski of W-wa Jeziorki pays hommage to the 67th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising against the Nazis during World War II and reflects upon its historical and current significance.


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Russia: Exodus from LiveJournal Shows the Power of Networks · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

The latest Distributed Denial-of-Service attack (the second this year) on the most popular Russian blogging network, LiveJournal, has prompted a mass exodus of bloggers to different platforms and is significantly re-shaping the country's blogosphere. But will their reach be weakened?
The second attack
The DDoS attacks that triggered the first wave of virtual emigration, began on July 27, 2011. In his blog, Ilya Dronov, head of the LiveJournal (LJ) development team, reported [ru] a significant increase in hostile traffic. LJ's English-language blog said the outages were due to internal errors, but the blog post was later edited [ru]. This led some bloggers to accuse LJ of lying to its Russian-language users.
Frank, the symbol of LiveJournal, being choked to death, Illustration by Yelkin.
While the platform was out for several days, bloggers shared their theories on the origins of the DDoS. Yevgeniy Kaspersky, head of an anti-virus company, insisted [ru] on a non-political theory on the attack, saying that his company did not notice any serious botnet activity. However, this claim was rejected [ru] by LJ's leadership.
Anton Nossik noted [ru] that LJ's non-transparent and non-public position could be even more disastrous for the platform than the attack itself.
Andrei Malgin accused [ru] Konstantin Rykov, a member of ‘United Russia’ party and the creator of many pro-Kremlin portals, for setting up the attack. According to Malgin, during the previous attack, Vzglyad.ru (a propagandist site created by Rykov's team) published an op-ed [ru] by Alexey Andreev, where the main solution for stopping the attack was described between the lines as being: removing the blog of the infamous Alexey Navalny.
Malgin noted that, during the recent July attack, the article re-appeared on the main page of Vzglyad.ruBlogger exodus
Unlike after the previous April 2011 attack, bloggers are no longer convinced they need to remain on the LJ platform. Back then, there were a lot of bloggers who defended the platform, pointing out its unique features. Now, bloggers are considering the “escape hatch.”
This data graph, presented [ru] by Roem.ru, shows the recent increase in Twitter and Facebook use. It is important to note that Russian netizens have moved to these social networks, rather than blogging platforms such as Blogger or WordPress. It proves that LJ, a site that hosted the core of the Russian blogosphere, is more of a social network than simply a blogging platform.
The Russian Twittersphere emerged at the end of 2007, but it truly blossomed in 2010 and continued in 2011. Twitter users such as @Navalny [ru] (an anti-corruption blogger) and @Varlamov [ru] (a photoblogger) were already quite popular, so the resilience of the relations between them and their readers was unaffected. They were also the first to invite their audiences to try the new social networking platform Google+.
Due to the DDoS attack, LJ had to limit [ru] temporarily the length of messages to 2,048 symbols. This led Oleg Kozyrev [ru] and Anton Nossik [ru] (and probably, many more other bloggers) to move their longer-content posts to Google+.
Andrei Malgin, a blogger famous for his criticisms of the government, created a separate Facebook page [ru] and started a list [ru] of other bloggers who had moved their virtual presence to this social network.
The relocated bloggers have nonetheless complained about the alternative platforms they are now using. Habrahabr-user BobrTerminal summarised [ru] users’ comments on the Google+ user interface. Artemiy Lebedev, was perhaps the most precise in concluding [ru] the overall feeling:
Гуглоплюс – это отель. А ЖЖ – это частная квартира. Поэтому как только в квартире снова дадут электричество, поедем обратно.
Anton Nossik was more sceptical [ru] on the option of the return to “the personal flat,” alluding that SUP, LJ's management company was not interested in fixing it:
Когда у тебя в квартире чинят отопление или канализацию – можно оттуда и съехать на пару дней, но незачем всерьез думать о новом постоянном жилище, если нынешнее устраивает.
К сожалению, ситуация коренным образом меняется, когда ты узнаешь, что твой дом предназначен на слом, и бульдозеры уже в пути.
Although Google+'s requirement for user accounts to bear real names is disliked by many bloggers, it seems to be an good measure against bots and trolls (both serious issues with LJ). A blogosphere composed of only ‘real people’ would destroy the intrigue of anonymity, but would arguably also create more responsibility and trust. Yet, as Anton Nossik noticed [ru], even with more transparency, the issue of trolling is not resolved.
Strength of networks
After LJ experienced the serious outage (regardless of whether a DDoS-attack or ‘deliberate negligence’), the Russian blogosphere reacted instinctively to sustain itself.
Alexey Navalny, one of the top bloggers, was included in the Google+ “circles” of 13,000 readers after only a few days and was ranked #139 in the global rating of all Google+ users. Other popular bloggers who moved to Google+ have experienced high international rankings as well. Despite the fact that the bloggers’ audience on the alternative platforms is still significantly smaller than on LiveJournal (see Figure 1), the speed with which connections are being rebuilt in other digital environments is impressive.
Top bloggers' audience distributed on various platforms. Graph by Alexey Sidorenko.
The attack on LJ is a great example of the sustainability of network structures. As in the many examples that Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom provide in “The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations,” Russian bloggers behaved exactly like any ‘starfish’ organisation – by abandoning the platform, yet saving their relations.
Obviously, the untraceable DDoS attacks have done a lot of damage to the Russian language blogosphere, however, it does not seem likely that the destruction of the platform will spell the end for those communities created already.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Russia: Moscow’s Being Re-Paved · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Two photos of Moscow being re-paved – at Pictures of Moscow.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Syria: Can Tweets Prevent a Massacre? · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.
Following the worst day of violence Syria has seen since protests broke out across the country in February, Syrian opposition and their supporters around the world have begun an attempt to raise global awareness of events in the country, utilizing a hashtag, #RamadanMassacre, that was started on Sunday to keep track of reports from the city of Hama.
@nmoawad, from Lebanon, summed up the purpose of the campaign in a tweet early Monday morning:
Join us in raising awareness by tweeting using the hashtag #RamadanMassacre for #Hama | 2am Cairo Time
Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff depicts Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad atop a tank
Syrian Twitter user @LeShaque shared his thoughts:
I'll leave it to my Kurdish compatriots to provide you with a list of massacres they've suffered at the hands of Assads. #RamadanMassacre
@BachaarArnaout offered a tweet of support to Syrian protesters:
Since march, +2000 have been killed by #Assad in #Syria but the brave people are determined to topple the regime. #RamadanMassacre
An avatar in remembrance of Sunday's events in Hama, used by Twitter users
Utilizing an avatar created for remembrance of Sunday's events in Hama, US-based @ran00n95 posted in solidarity:
u will not silence us we the world know what u have done and we will not stay silent and let it continue #RamadanMassacre #Syria
@rallaf issued a call to Muslim readers, asking:
What did you have for Iftar today? #Hama residents had tank shells. #RamadanMassacre #Syria
But in response to a tweet from @zmossabasha that stated, “A tweet can prevent a massacre!!”, NPR journalist Andy Carvin asked, “Can it?”, echoing the sentiment of many who have suggested that, while social media can most certainly expand awareness, it may have little impact on events in countries like Syria, where the state clearly has the upper hand.
Nevertheless, the campaign continues, as Syrian opposition and their supporters attempt to get the #RamadanMassacre hashtag to trend on Twitter's trending topics list.
This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.

author: Jillian C. York


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Trinidad & Tobago, Bahamas: True Freedom  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Is Jamaican dancehall artist Vybz Kartel the “new face of freedom”?  Trinidadian Attillah Springer contends that “blackness is the prison that black people fear the most”, while Bahamian Nicolette Bethel says: “For true emancipation, we need to believe in something bigger than ourselves…something like truth, or honour, or service, or community. Something that makes the enslavement of our ancestors and their subsequent freedom worth all the suffering they endured.”


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Ukraine: Ten Little Politicians · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

LEvko of Foreign Notes discusses whether the political class of Ukraine is starting to realize anyone might be next in line to face prosecution, were former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko to be found guilty during her ongoing trial, and what they might do to avoid this.