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Guatemala: Police Kill Peasant With Tear Gas Canister · Global Voices
Renata Avila

This post is part of our special coverage Indigenous Rights.
Land distribution patterns in Guatemala are of the most inequitable in Latin America and the World: 2% of the population owns 70% of all productive farmland, and most of the owners are not exploiting it.
Most of the Guatemalan poor are indigenous peoples living in rural areas and working in agriculture. They face an alarming 49% of malnourished children, growing signs of famine, and a lack of effective rural development policies, as the blog Gestión Territorial [es] points out.
Peasants preparing corn, by Alberto Arce (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)
Latifundio owners are dedicating lands that were once used to produce food for locals to biodiesel crops or sugar cane, due to the rising price for these crops and the low tech and low number of peasants they require for cultivation, as the blog El Polvorin [es] explains. This is risking the food security of thousands who live below the poverty line.
Indigenous families live on a very humble diet, as described by the blog Mayan Families:
Most of the indigenous families have tortillas as staple in their diet.  Often when families do not have anything else to eat, they can always  have tortillas with salt, but now, even that is threatened by the  shortage of corn and the rising cost of what is available.
As a survival mechanism and due to the lack of job opportunities and  public policies to assist them, many families are using small portions  of the underused productive lands (where they were born and have always  lived) to produce the food their families need for their survival: corn,  beans and some vegetables.
This is increasing the number of land disputes, as owners want peasants out of their private property and often use the help of armed forces and violent means to evict them. Human casualties from these evictions are often under-reported by the media.
That was the case last week, when a peasant was murdered by security forces during a land eviction in Retalhuleu, near the Guatemalan Pacific coast. There, Sergio de León, a 31-year-old landless peasant, father of five, was killed when the police fired a tear gas canister directly to his heart. Independent video journalist and blogger Alberto Arce [es] filmed this eviction (WARNING: graphic images):
For an English-subtitled version of this video visit DotSub.
In the article “Yet another peasant killed in a land dispute” [es] Plaza Publica [es], a new digital media outlet unveiling corruption and defying the traditional self censorship of the Guatemalan media, describes the Sergio de León tragedy and the dilemmas the poor face in Guatemala to survive.
On one side peasants fight and risk their lives to defend the land that will provide food for their children, the land where they were born, where their parents were born, where their whole family has worked all their lives. On the other side poor and under-trained police and members of the army have to follow the orders to shoot and use violence against peasants – as poor as they are, from common origins –  as a way to keep their jobs, to feed their families. The third player in this conflict is a government unwilling to solve the growing number of land conflicts and inequality in land distribution.
Death is the solidarity of the current government, according to the Popular Front  [es] blog:
El saldo ha sido un campesino ejecutado extrajudicialmente, tres campesinos más  con heridas, viviendas campesinas destruidas, además del trauma causado  especialmente a los niños quienes grabarán de por vida la respuesta que el  “gobierno de la solidaridad” les ha propinado. Fuerza armada ante la  demanda de tierra y de fuente de trabajo. Estado, al servicio del capital, en  contra de la clase campesina. Esa es la respuesta y esta es la realidad  histórica que se confirma. Nunca fue una política pública, una alternativa laboral, una solución negociada, ya no digamos una transformación de la  estructura agraria. Siempre fue la defensa del régimen de propiedad que nos ha  privado de todo y del modelo económico para continuar acumulando por  explotación, por desposesión y por exclusión de las grandes mayorías.
Land conflicts and unequal distribution of wealth, which have increased due to economic crises in the last two decades, were core topics of the 1996 Peace Agreements. Poorly trained police serving the interest of the powerful is the other problem; De León's murder is not an isolated case. As different blogs mention, there have been several cases of excessive use of force while performing evictions, like in Nueva Linda [es], Salvador Xolhuitz [es], Bella Flor Community [es] and in other areas near the Polochic river, always with police assistance, always with human costs [es] on the peasants’ side.
In the official blog of ‘Global Visionaries’, in the article “Landlessness, Hunger and Social Change in Guatemala” Camron McDonald describes an eviction which took place earlier this year, describing similar abuses from armed forces:
On March 15, 2011 more than 1,000 police and soldiers showed up in the Polochic Valley of Northern Guatemala.They were there to evict more than 3,000 Q’eqchi Maya Indians living  on land claimed by a Guatemalan agribusiness firm.  Many of these  families have been living on and tending to this land for thirty years.According to Danilo Valladares, writer for the Inter Press Service,  security forces burnt or bulldozed the peasants’ shacks and destroyed  their subsistence crops with machetes and tractors. One young man was  killed in the scuffle and many others were injured. Now, close to 800 families have been left homeless and without access to the land they need to grow food to eat.
He also adds:
At this point, you might be asking, how did it come to this?  Unfortunately, this tragedy is only one of hundreds of cases similar it  that have taken place throughout Guatemala’s history. Repeated calls for land reform over the years have been met with  little real change. Today, the wealthiest 5 percent of the population  owns 80 percent of the land. A lack of political will and a lack of  clear laws regarding land tenure often lead to long drawn out disputes  that usually end in favor of the wealthy and powerful. Meanwhile, landlessness has been identified as one of the leading  causes of the wide-scale poverty and hunger that continues to plague the  country.
The Chief of Police who gave the orders to evict Sergio de León was neither arrested nor sanctioned. The policeman who used a non lethal weapon (tear gas) with lethal purposes (shooting at the peasant's chest) was not arrested either. The community returned to the occupied land as they do not have anywhere else to go, but the police might return at anytime. And this is only one of approximately 1360 land disputes [es]. A different policy and a different way to solve land conflicts and eradicate hunger is not only necessary but urgent.
This post is part of our special coverage Indigenous Rights.

author: Renata Avila


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Honduras: Judge Issues Arrest Warrants for Journalist and Environmentalists  · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

“A Honduran judge issued arrest warrants for a journalist and 16 environmental leaders for allegedly opposing a forest management plan in the town of El Porvenir, in central Honduras, reported the Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre in Spanish)”: writes Monica Medel for the Knight Center's Journalism in the Americas blog.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Silvia Viñas


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Jamaica: Art Supporter Dies  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

National Gallery of Jamaica Blog pays tribute to art collector and dealer Guy McIntosh, who passed away yesterday.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Japan: Perspective on London Riots scale in relation to Tokyo · Global Voices
Tomomi Sasaki

To get perspective on the geographical scale of the London Riots, @c50cub96 mapped a comparison to the greater Tokyo area.

author: Tomomi Sasaki


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Kenya: Kenyan Book Adapted to Film · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

From a book to a movie in Kenya: “Last  Sunday afternoon as I went to the Kenya National Theatre to watch a play, I came across a poster on an upcoming acting workshop. Upon reading further, I could not believe what I was seeing! The Classic Novel ‘My Life in Crime’ by John Kiriamiti was being adapted to a Film by none other than Neil Schell.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Libya: Humanitarian Conditions Continue to Deteriorate this Ramadan  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

This post is part of our special coverage Libya Uprising 2011.
Libyans continue to suffer from dire humanitarian conditions as the war in their country rages this Ramadan. From food to water to fuel and power shortages, to burying their dead and the lack of reliable information on what is happening in their own backyard, this month of fasting is proving to be a hard one.
Breaking the fast by candle light in Libya
From Facebook, ChangeInLibya shares the following photograph showing a Libyan family breaking its fast this Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, in the dark.
@ChangeInLibya: Tripoli's blackouts… people trying to cook food and break their Ramadan fast without electricity #libya http://fb.me/1clc8E4RH
Lebeeya confirms:
@Lebeeya: Electricity out for 3 straight days in Al Saraj RT @live2Tripoli: #Tripoli: Power outages are reaching 8 hours long and are sporadic.
Mohamed Sharif Arouk tweets [ar]:
Bent Benghazi (Daughter of Benghazi) adds:
@BentBenghazi: Water and Electricity cut off in #Zawiya #libya #feb17 #gaddaficrimes
And Ivan Watson, CNN‘s reporter in Tripoli, tweets:
@IvanCNN: Saw entire neighborhoods in central #Tripoli, pitch black without electricity. People eating iftar dinners by candlelight. Spooky. #Libya
@IvanCNN: Power outages in #Rixos Hotel, mandatory home in #Tripoli for most visiting journalists [we need permission to set foot outside]. 1st time.
Meanwhile, The Libyan One reminds us:
@TheLibyan1: Just because the people can't fill their tanks doesn't mean Gaddafi can't fill his.
And bint_tarhouna asks:
@bint_tarhouna: So Gaddafi was selling gasoline abroad when my family in Tripoli spent most of the past week w/ less than 3 hrs of electricity daily #Libya
If the power outages and lack of water and fuel was not enough, homes are being bombarded this Ramadan.
17022011libya shares the following video on YouTube, which shows a damaged home in Jalu, which was allegedly bombed by Gaddafi's troops:
Displaced Libyan shares some of the tragedies she had had to go through since the war started in her country. She notes:
@DisplacedLibyan: 6 months of #Libya war and I lost 4 family members and hundreds of neighbours, not counting people in prison
@DisplacedLibyan: 6 months into #Libya war and I have already been displaced in 3 cities
@DisplacedLibyan: 6 months of #Libya war and there are still some supposed friends on Facebook on insists on endangering your life with insensitive questions
Danya B Mohammed wonders:
@ceoDanya: Wondering how many mother's have lost their sons, how many sister's lost their brother's &how many wives lost their husbands. #GaddafiCrimes
And last but not least, Noon Arabia, from Yemen, shares a prayer for both the people of Libya and Syria.
@NoonArabia: God bless Libyans who are on the front lines fighting for freedom in #Libya & Syrians in #Syria's cities under terror and fasting #Ramadan
This post is part of our special coverage Libya Uprising 2011.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Palestine: Israeli Bulldozers Blamed for Cutting Off Gaza Telecoms  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Reports are appearing online of a total communication blackout in Gaza. On Twitter, users are blaming Israeli bulldozers for the outage. Here is part of the conversation.
Egyptian Mohamed El Dahshan was among the first to break the news in a tweet:
@TravellerW: BREAKING – Israeli bulldozers break cables, sever ALL COMMUNICATIONS- mobile, landline, internet -from Gaza! http://t.co/ASIIQ1W #Palestine
JalalAK_jojo clarifies:
@JalalAK_jojo: Note: It's been almost 6 hours since Gaza went into a sudden communication blackout due to Israeli bulldozers communication networks.
And Israeli journalist Joseph Dana is confused:
@ibnezra:  According to reports on twitter, communications from Gaza have been cut off. Unclear if it is Israel which cut them off
From Jordan, Ali Abunimah checks if any of his Palestinian friends can read his tweets:
@avinunu: Friends in Gaza can you read this? Report that Israel has cut off all phone/internet communications
Benjamin Doherty posts similar concerns:
@bangpound: I’m checking up on my Gaza tweeps and none have said a thing in the last hour or so…
And Andy Carvin, NPR's senior strategist, replies:
@acarvin: @bangpound Twitter proximity search around Gaza. Not much posted. https://twitter.com/#!/search/near%3A%22gaza%22%20within%3A10mi
From the US, Darryl Li tweets his attempts to contact multiple landlines in Gaza, without much success.
@abubanda: Have tried dialing multiple landlines in #Gaza via skype, including UN offices, getting error messages — not even ringtones.
He continues:
@abubanda: So far, mobiles in #Gaza I have called have been giving me standard non-service messages
And half an hour later, he adds:
@abubanda: Still not getting any ringtones in #Gaza, except in one high-level UN office (sep network?). Have tried >30 numbers, landlines & mobiles
Meanwhile, Leila is angry and calls for action:
@LSal92: Unbelievable! Israel is trying to completely shut off Gaza from the rest of the world. Stop your silence! Speak up! #Gaza
In a short news article, Maan News also blames (Ar) Israeli bulldozers cutting off cables for the outage.


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Poets from the World · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The blog Tejedor de Palabras [es] presents audio interviews of poets from different cities across the world.

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


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Puerto Rico: Monologue Instead of Dialogue · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The satirical online publication El ñame (The Yam) comments, with their typical parodical style, on the recent dismissal of the director  [es] of the University of Puerto Rico's monthly newspaper Diálogo [es] (Dialogue in English), which recently won a journalistic award for their multimedia coverage of the student strike [es]. El ñame even created a new “logo” for the newspaper with the word “Monologue” instead of “Dialogue.”


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Puerto Rico: Old San Juan in Photos · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Yésica Isabel has posted a beautiful set of photos of the route to her house in Old San Juan.


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Puerto Rico: Reasons for Riots  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

B.C. Pires and Gil the Jenius comment on the riots in London, with the latter saying, with regard to Puerto Rico: “It [the cause of rioting] boils down to two basic factors: a population that feels dissatisfied with its government and a government trying to suppress the populace. Oppression can only be taken so far…so where's Our rioting? Where's Our ‘Enough is enough!’ moment?”


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Puerto Rico: Threats to a Secular State · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Feminist blogger and activist Amárilis Pagán reflects on recent news [es] that demonstrate how religious fundamentalism is threatening the advancement of human rights in Puerto Rico.


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Russia: Learning Russian Via Social Networks · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Tips on learning Russian through social networking sites – at Russian Language Blog.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Slovenia: A Comment on the U.K. Riots · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sleeping With Pengovsky comments on the riots and looting in the U.K.: “But I must say I got the heebie-jeebies when I heard on the BBC that some people were thinking of bringing in the army. Please, don’t. […] I come from the part of the world where there was – not so long ago – plenty of army on the streets of its own accord. […] The army, no matter how well meaning, doesn’t play by civilian rules. And it’s much easier to bring it to the streets than to take it off of them.”


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Spain: The Importance of the McBride Report · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Journalist and blogger Nubia Esmeralda Rojas offers an in-depth analysis of the famous McBride Report (1980) and its relevance in the age of the Internet and social media.


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The Balkans: History, Politics and Ethnic Identities · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

At OpenDemocracy.net, Milan Marinkovic writes about history, politics and ethnic identities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At Balkan Anarchist, Alan Jakšić writes about his own Croatian Serb identity and some of the political issues related to it.


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The Balkans: Travel Blogs · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

At Balkan Travellers, Sarah Hucal writes about Yugo Yoga performance that took place on a makeshift stage at Belgrade's Museum of Yugoslav History in July 2011; more of Hucal's Balkan travel writing and photos are at her blog, Solo in the Balkans. Jana Orsolic's Istria Week travel photos and journal [sr] are here, here, here, here, here and here. Piran Café‘s latest entry on the June 2011 trip to Sarajevo (plus links to earlier posts) is here; the blogger also links to the New York Times’ recent travel piece on Slovenia, Slovenian Rhapsody.


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Togo: 8-Digit Telephone Numbers · Global Voices
Claire Ulrich

Le blog de Toussine reminds readers that as of August 8, 2011,  Togo telecom have switched [fr] to 8-digit landline and mobile telephone numbers.  “A modification that requires updating contacts in Togo.”

author: Claire Ulrich


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Togo: Journalists Rally to Protect Free Press   · Global Voices
Sylvio Combey

On August 6, 2011, journalists in the West African country of Togo rallied in the streets of capital Lomé  [fr] to protest against the threats that their colleagues received recently.  The rally was launched on August 3, by the association ‘SOS Journalistes en Danger’ (SOS Journalists in Danger).
Banner of the 'SOS Journalistes en Danger' Association in Togo
The week prior to the event, several media professionals in the association warned against threats sent to a group of Togolese journalists that were believed to be “critical of the power in place.”
According to Ferdinand Ayité, the president of the association, the threats originated from the ANR, the National Intelligence Agency. The details of the threats, are reported on Fabbi Kouassi ‘s blog as follows [fr]:
..porter atteinte à l’intégrité physique des journalistes, notamment  par les moyens d’accidents déguisés, les empoisonnements, et des affaires montées de toute pièce.
According to leaders of the association, the threats were later confirmed by an anonymous letter, presumably written by an agent of the ANR and addressed to the journalists who already were targeted on July 21.
The rally was supported by human rights advocacy group, unions, some political parties and various local newpapers.
In a joint statement, the UJIT (Union of Independent Journalists of Togo), the CONAPP  (National Council of Press Writers) and the OTM (Togolese Media Observatory) have called upon CNDH, the National Comission for Human Rights, to open an investigation on the matter and encourage their threatened colleagues to go to court so that light can be shed on the issue.
Print media in Togo via Godwin Afedo
On Togoforum,  a review of the past events [fr] details the timeline of the issue   and the procedure that the association followed:
Les responsables de l’Union des Journalistes Indépendants du Togo (UJIT), le Conseil National des Patrons de Presse (CONAPP) et l’Observatoire Togolais des Médias (OTM) ont rencontré :
– Dans la journée du Mercredi 27 Juillet 2011, le Ministre de la Sécurité et de la Protection Civile et celui de la Communication
-Dans la journée du Vendredi 29 Juillet 2011, le Président de la HAAC au siège de l’Institution,
-Dans la journée du Lundi 1er Août 2011, le Président de la CNDH, le Ministre de la Communication une seconde fois, la Ministre des Droits de l’Homme, de la Consolidation de la démocratie et de la Formation Civique et le Directeur de la Communication de la Présidence de la République du Togo à leurs bureaux.
[..]
Ces responsables ont au cours de ces différentes rencontres exprimé leur inquiétude sur les menaces qui pèseraient sur certains de leurs confrères avant d’inviter les Autorités à réellement s’impliquer dans la sécurité et la protection de tous les journalistes.
[..] During these conversations, the leaders expressed their worries regarding the threats aimed at their colleagues and invited the authority to commit and do more for the protection of all journalists
The objective of the rally was to denounce the clear abuse against the freedom of press. They intend to organize more rallies in the coming days to ensure the protection of free press in Togo. In addition to this issue, the ANR has been implicated in a wave of other human rights violations.

author: Sylvio Combey


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Trinidad & Tobago, St. Vincent: “Blogaversaries” · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Two regional bloggers mark the anniversaries of their blogs – Abeni, from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who says: “Back then I had no idea where I was heading but it [blogging] seemed a pretty cool thing to do”, and T&T diaspora blogger Afrobella, who writes: “Creating this blog taught me so much about my own abilities, my own power, and the strength of my ideas and my talents.”


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Trust in China’s new media era · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The China Media Project has a translation of Chinese scholar Zhang Ming's article about trust in China's new media era.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Ukraine: Party of Regions’ “Prejudicial Statement” on Tymoshenko’s Case · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

LEvko of Foreign Notes quotes “a highly prejudicial statement [in goofy English],” posted on the Party of Regions’ website, to explain why “western observers call the Tymoshenko trial a farce, a bad joke, a pantomime, etc. etc.”


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United Kingdom: London Burning (Videos) · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

Anger over the police killing of a 29-year old man in Tottenham, north London on August 4, 2011 fueled by racial tension, has spiralled into rioting and looting by youth across London and other cities in the United Kingdom.
On Twitter, the hashtag #LondonRiots is constantly being updated with new comments, links, rumours and eye-witness reports. Showing hope that the rioting will soon come to an end, the #RiotCleanup hashtag is used by citizens organizing volunteers to help clean streets and repair damage.
The violence began on Saturday, August 6 after a protest outside Tottenham police station demanding “justice” for the victim, Mark Duggan. According to the BBC's timeline, the protest began peacefully but ended with cars, buildings, and a double-decker bus on fire.
This time-lapse video by Prokopi Constantinou shows the blazing fires and rising smoke over north London on the early morning of August 7 (music by Dogtanion):
Journalist KC Wildmoon has been keeping a Storyful liveblog of events as the riots spread across London on Sunday and Monday to Enfield, Dalston, and Brixton.
This map by radio futurologist James Cridland  (@JamesCridland) shows just how far the riots have spread. A full view of the map shows incidents as far away as Birmingham and Liverpool.
Citizens have doing their part to track the violence in videos, photos, and maps.
On Monday morning, Global Voices blogger Janet Gunter set up  “Brixton Incident Map” using Ushahidi's Crowdmap.com tool to track riot reports in her south west London neighborhood.
At the end of the day, there were 22 reports of looting on the website and only one of “good news” when a local bakery handed out free cupcakes. Among the videos posted on the site is one by @subedited and @emmareyn that shows the looting of a T-Mobile store on Brixton Road (the main commercial street) from start to finish. Next door at H&M, looters exit with arms full of clothes.
In east London neighborhood Bethnal Green, a video shows youth smashing bottles and store front windows, as outnumbered police move towards them with raised shields.
Citizen news website Blottr.com has crowd-sourced reports and photos from across the UK.
But why?
As the destruction continues, public patience with rioters is running very low.
Echoing many comments on Twitter, @OxfordGirl says:
@OxfordGirl: There is no rioting, no protesting, no demands or slogans, this is just looting and destroying London. Heaven help us all #LondonRiots
Songwriter and MC, Casey Rain set up a Tumblr blog about Birmingham riots with photos and updates. On Monday he shared a personal comment urging people to have some compassion for rioters:
It’s easy to dismiss the rioters as “scum with nothing better to do” but there are much deeper problems here. As a young, male, ethnic minority in the inner city myself, chances are, I probably know some of these people. I can relate to the feelings of helplessness. I’ve been fortunate enough to be successful as a musician myself and been able to create my own positive future, but these kids rioting don’t see themselves having a future at all. They have been failed by society as a whole, they’ve been failed by the government cutting arts funding and closing youth centres, unemployment is rife to the point where even the ones desperately trying to seek work simply can’t find it, and the boiling point to all this (Mark Duggan events) is a situation that is VERY REAL.
The Guardian News Blog has continuous live updates. Among several Facebook groups tracking news of riots, are “London Riots 2011″ and “London Riots”.

author: Solana Larsen


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United Kingdom: Making Sense of the London Riots · Global Voices
Marta Cooper

Communities across London woke up to a wave of destruction on Tuesday morning, following another night of anarchic rioting and looting. At least 560 people have been arrested and over 100 charged since rioting began on Saturday, August 6, 2011. In the most recent developments, the violence has seen its first fatality, as a man shot in Croydon on Monday night died after being admitted to hospital.
It has also been confirmed that Mark Duggan, the man whose death last Thursday sparked the riots, did not open fire on police before he was shot – as police first claimed – but did draw a weapon. A post-mortem revealed that he died from a single gunshot wound to the chest.
Earlier today, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that 16,000 police officers will be deployed in London tonight — up from 6,000 yesterday — in an attempt to control new outbreaks of violence. With the capital's resources stretched, reinforcement police are being brought in from around the country. Shops across the capital have also been ordered to close early and board up their storefronts.
Damaged window of Primark store in Peckham, south London. By J@ck!' on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Explosive footage of the violence has spread online relentlessly through the day. Images circulated of looters stealing anything possible — from footwear to rice – setting properties ablaze; of crowds clashing with police; residents fleeing danger; rioters being chased; and also of a leaflet found in Dalston, east London, advising rioters how to avoid identification.
This disturbing YouTube video also shows an injured youth being helped from the ground and subsequently robbed by a group of young men in London (exact location unknown).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gex_ya4-Oo
A shopkeeper in Peckham shared her experiences of Monday night's violence on Londonist.com:
As shopkeepers who live above their shop we felt in equal measures relieved that we were there to keep an eye on things, and terrified – for if they had broken into the shop what, precisely, could we have done about it? There came a point where I was standing behind our shop shutters, in the dark, with looters just one metre away. I questioned whether our shutters would hold. I prayed they’d move on. I hoped they wouldn’t spot me, skulking there, transfixed. I started shaking a little bit. To see such utter contempt and rage so close, on the snarling-yet-gleeful faces of the perpetrators, makes you question what it is that makes up a human being.
On the Going Undergound blog, Annie Mole wrote that last night's looting made her feel “ashamed to be a Londoner”:
I have no solutions. I have only shock, horror and a slight edge of fear. I have no idea when this inexplicable behaviour will stop. I have no idea how it could have happened in the first place. This is a London that could possibly be changed forever.
More comforting news came in the form of a mass clean-up operation in the capital this morning. Aided by social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to organise volunteers and share information, communities across London mobilised to clean debris.
The scenes have been ones of solidarity: this afternoon, volunteers raised their brooms in unison at one clean-up in Clapham Junction, south London. In Peckham, locals stuck post-it notes to a boarded-up Poundland shop descrbing what they love about their neighbourhood.
In between the two extremes of discord and morale, the country now finds itself trying to make sense of the events, which have highlighted deep tensions in the relationship between political leaders, the police and the communities they aim to serve.
While condemnation of the violence has been widespread, many say they are unsurprised at its occurrence, arguing that social exclusion, disenfranchisement and tensions between police and communities in the riot areas had been at the boiling point for decades. On the Huffington Post, Lola Adesioye argues that racial tensions are at the core of this exclusion:
The underlying issues – in particular a sense that black Britons are routinely ill treated by the establishment, the police especially – still have not been resolved. Tensions between black youth and the police in the inner cities have not dissipated. On the contrary, suspicions are endemic. Black leadership is desperately lacking, and the country refuses to tackle these major challenges in any substantive way.
Another blogger, journalist Doug Saunders disagrees with the notion that racial tension gave way to this week's violence:
Tottenham was the site of the terrible Broadwater Farm riot of 1985, which also began with a protest over a police shooting – but that was another London, deeply divided along racial lines, with a furious and socially excluded Caribbean community battling an all-white and explicitly racist police force. This week, by contrast, both the rioters and the police are multicoloured.
For British writer Kenan Malik, this week's protestors lack a concrete political motive, unlike those of the 1980s:
Those [1980s] riots were a direct challenge to oppressive policing and to mass unemployment. They threatened the social fabric of Britain’s inner cities and forced the government to rethink its mechanisms of social  control. Today’s riots may have made the Metropolitan police look inept, revealed politicians as out of touch and brought mayhem to some  parts of London, Liverpool and Birmingham. But there is little sense that they pose a challenge to social order.
He added:
It’s precisely because of disenfranchisement, social exclusion  and wasted lives that these are not ‘protests’ in any meaningful sense, but a mixture of incoherent rage, gang thuggery and teenage mayhem.
Youth worker Symeon Brown opined:
@symeonbrown: It is true these young people do not have a manifesto but if their actions are not political then clearly we need a new word for ‘political’.
Many, including the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, predicted that the government's controversial austerity measures were a recipe for political and social unrest.
Writing at Brand Republic, Hugh Salmon said:
[The Coalition] have failed to look back over their shoulders  and consider the people the cuts affect.
And, because they don’t understand people, and have no feeling for how human beings behave, they have failed to realise that if you cut jobs and, at the same time, you cut benefits then you create the tinderbox for the fires we have seen on our streets this week.
Demotix have photo galleries of the aftermath of looting incidents, while the Guardian's Data Blog has mapped verified riots across the country, as well as key facts and figures. Freelance journalist Neal Mann (@fieldproducer) has also compiled a list on Twitter of London-based reporters covering the events.

author: Marta Cooper


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United Kingdom: Time for #RiotCleanup in London? · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

Hackney riot aftermath, by StolenGolem (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
After extensive looting and rioting across London and other cities in the United Kingdom since Saturday night, ordinary citizens are now looking for ways to help their cities heal.
On Tuesday morning the hashtags #prayforlondon and #riotcleanup have overtaken #londonriots on Twitter, showing the conciliatory mood of all those eager to move on.
The #prayforlondon hashtag is a nod to the #prayforjapan hashtag that became hugely popular after the March earthquake in Japan. World citizens (including teenage superstar Justin Bieber who has 11.6 million followers on Twitter) are using it to show solidarity with citizens of London.
Inspired by other recent crises, there is now also a London Riots page on Crisis Commons, a wiki website mapping technology use in disasters.
Helping hands
The #riotcleanup hashtag has information about meeting places for Londoners who want to help local businesses with the cleanup effort.
Riot clean-up team in Peckham. Photo © Emma Jane Richards (used with permission)
Dan Thompson (@artistmakers), an arts magazine editor and promoter of putting empty stores to creative use, initiated the effort, and it has since taken on a life of its own.
@artistsmakers: #riotcleanup is not political; it's just twitter people being nice. It needs to happen tomorrow as a symbol that London won't stand for riot
Referring to the website Riotcleanup.co.uk (currently offline) and Twitter account @riotcleanup, Thompson says:
@artistmakers: Thanks to everyone who helped me get the #riotcleanup sorted out – have no idea who's set up the website and twitter account, that's not me
There is a public Google spreadsheet that has some of the meeting times listed.
@artistmaker: Hearing from Camden, Lewisham, Hackney that clear up is well underway; we have volunteers ready to help any business that needs #riotcleanup
Thompson's feed also shows evidence of ample press interest with notifications of televisions camera crews meeting volunteers at different locations.
On Facebook, people are also actively seeking ways to help on the pages Post riot clean-up: let's help London , Reclaim London, and the smaller, Riot Cleanup.
Labour party MP Richard Burden from Northfield, Birmingham, heard about a local cleanup on Twitter. Using AudioBoo, GetGood recorded his statement to the crowd.
Shell-shocked and looking for reasons
Journalist and award-winning blogger Penny Red (@pennyred) wrote a post late on Monday night describing how she felt as she watched London burning on television from her living room. It's being shared and linked widely, and already had over 150 comments on Tuesday morning.
These are the final paragraphs:
Riots are about power, and they are about catharsis. They are not about poor parenting, or youth services being cut, or any of the other snap explanations that media pundits have been trotting out: structural inequalities, as a friend of mine remarked today, are not solved by a few pool tables. People riot because it makes them feel powerful, even if only for a night. People riot because they have spent their whole lives being told that they are good for nothing, and they realise that together they can do anything – literally, anything at all. People to whom respect has never been shown riot because they feel they have little reason to show respect themselves, and it spreads like fire on a warm summer night. And now people have lost their homes, and the country is tearing itself apart.
Noone expected this. The so-called leaders who have taken three solid days to return from their foreign holidays to a country in flames did not anticipate this. The people running Britain had absolutely no clue how desperate things had become. They thought that after thirty years of soaring inequality, in the middle of a recession, they could take away the last little things that gave people hope, the benefits, the jobs, the possibility of higher education, the support structures, and nothing would happen. They were wrong. And now my city is burning, and it will continue to burn until we stop the blanket condemnations and blind conjecture and try to understand just what has brought viral civil unrest to Britain. Let me give you a hint: it ain’t Twitter.
I’m stuck in the house, now, with rioting going on just down the road in Chalk Farm. Ealing and Clapham and Dalston are being trashed. Journalists are being mugged and beaten in the streets, and the riot cops are in retreat where they have appeared at all. Police stations are being set alight all over the country. This morning, as the smoke begins to clear, those of us who can sleep will wake up to a country in chaos. We will wake up to fear, and to racism, and to condemnation on left and right, none of which will stop this happening again, as the prospect of a second stock market clash teeters terrifyingly at the bottom of the news reports. Now is the time when we make our choices. Now is the time when we decide whether to descend into hate, or to put prejudice aside and work together. Now is the time when we decide what sort of country it is that we want to live in. Follow the #riotcleanup hashtag on Twitter. And take care of one another.


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Yemen: Pressing Humanitarian Needs and Deteriorating Economic Situation · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

This post is part of our special coverage Yemen Protests 2011.
The United Nations Security Council just issued a statement expressing grave concern about the situation on the ground in Yemen – and the pressing humanitarian needs and deteriorating economic situation following months of protests calling for the overthrow the Ali Abdullah Saleh regime.
US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice tweeted:
@AmbassadorRice: Today, I told the SecCouncil that an immediate, peaceful & orderly transition is in the best interest of the people of #Yemen.
Meanwhile, on Twitter the discussion continues on the future of the country and whether Saleh, who was being treated in Saudi Arabia for wounds he sustained in a bomb attack two months ago in the capital Sanaa, would return to Yemen or not.
Pro-democracy protesters in Yemen on the first Friday in Ramadan. Image by Luke Somers, copyright Demotix (05/08/11).
WomanfromYemen cautions:
@WomanfromYemen: dont trouble urself w/whether #saleh will return or not, the real Q is will the ENTIRE system remain the same or will there B change? #yemen
Yemen Updates notes:
@yemen_updates: Whether #Saleh returns or stays in #Saudi forever, he now knows by heart the majority of #Yemeni hate him. They've had it, khalas. (Enough!)
And Dima Khatib wonders:
@Dima_Khatib: Saleh is going home, Saleh is not going home, Saleh is going home, Saleh is not going home! #Yemen
Ibrahim Mothana concludes:
@imothanaYemen: Vagueness and ambiguity at its peak in #Yemen
The humanitarian and economic situation, meanwhile, continues to burden Yemenis. On her blog, Woman from Yemen, writes on August 7 that she has 22 hours of no electricity at home during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. She says they break their fast (Iftar) by candle light:
Iftar under the candle light sounds great, but it's not. It's one thing to enjoy iftar under the candle lights for one night, it's completely a different story if it's something constant, which it is. Since the start of the holy month, with the exception of today, we have lacked electricity for 22 hours of the day. We devour every minute of that hourly electricity we're getting. We often have so much to do during that previous moment. When the heavenly lights turn on, we jump with excitement. One of us quickly steps outside to turn on the water pump and the other gets the vacuum cleaner. Some days we both just turn on the computer and pray that internet connects quickly before electricity shuts again. Before we sleep my husband and I make sure to charge our two phones, two computers and of course our re-chargeable small lamp. At least if we charge those when electricity is cut we're able to use [Microsoft] word for work or watch a movie on the computer to entertain ourselves.
Woman from Yemen says the security situation is also leaving her jumpy:
Sensory Overload for the past week, I've been on edge, with ears as strong as satellite antenas. I hear EVERYTHING and anything that sounds remotely close to a gun shot or an explosion I stop and think about it. I then turn to get a confirmation from my husband or anyone near by that what we heard was NOT an explosion. Given that we are having DAILY random fireworks and lots of thunderstorms, it's often hard to differentiate between thunder, fireworks and explosions. This is making me on edge with every little sound and making my husband really irritated by my constant questions.
Living expenses are also on the rise. She writes:
Need a salary increase please $$$$ To go to our favorite cafe it used to cost us 250 Yemeni Riyal one way by taxi, now it's at least 500 YR. Fuel prices used to be 1,500 YR per dabba (20 liters), when fuel shortage occurred it went up to almost 9,000 YR in the black market. It now went down to 3,500 YR and it is widely available (hence the traffic jams). While the prices has doubled from the original 1,500 to 3,500 YR I'm surprised that people are not complaining and in fact happy that we at least have fuel.
Unlike the ghost town that Sana'a became for a short while, traffic jams are now back. The worry I have, and what seems very likely is that these price increases in fuel, transportation, and basic food items will stick even if prices are reduced.
This post is part of our special coverage Yemen Protests 2011.


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Zimbabwe: Connecting to God Through Airtime Recharge Card · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Lenard discusses Zimbabwe's Pastor Makandiwa’s innovative idea of getting linked to his followers through recharge airtime card: “Pastor Emmanuel Makandiwa…recently launched an airtime recharge card called Christian Spiritual Link. With this recharge card one can communicate directly to the prophet by calling him to get over-the-phone prophecies and spiritual messages. The airtime card can be found in denominations of $3 and $6.”


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Chile: August 9 Protests for Education Reform · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Katie Manning from citizen news site Mi Voz reviews the August 9th student protests in Chile. She concludes: “Today their effort gained momentum globally. Chileans took to the streets of Paris, France, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, to show their support for the students’ cause.” Furthermore, Pepe Díaz (@pepe_black_diaz) has uploaded several videos (1, 2, 3, 4) of the day's demonstrations.


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Chile: Demonstrators Thwart Hooded Violent Protestors · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

Chilean students protesting for educational reforms have been rallying since April and in this video shot and edited by David Vega we can see how they stop a group of masked people who wanted to make barricades and light them on fire.
Even as the would be arsonists tried to convince them that violence was the only way, the students through reasoned arguments and chants told those who hid their faces and turned to violence that they should leave.
MANIFESTANTES DETIENEN A ENCAPUCHADOS from Cinefilia on Vimeo.
It is in the students’ best interest not to give the government or military reasons to act violently towards them, as they have done these previous days. The students have been forcefully controlled with water cannons, tear gas and even being wrangled like cattle by armed forces on horseback.
Many Chileans are upset at this show of brute force against students asking for necessary changes in their educational system, made even more relevant as the London Riots make people rethink youth unemployment and education. Support for students is being shown not only through social networks but also on the streets with “cacerolazos”, pot banging demonstrations scheduled for every evening at 9:00pm. We can see the August 4, 2011, cacerolazo in this other video:
Cacerolazo 4 agosto 2011 from Jonathan Bravo on Vimeo.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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China: Discount train ticket for the disabled · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A weibo user account, wishing-for-half-price-ticket-for-the-disabled, has been set up with a photo of a disable person protesting outside the MInistry of Railways demanding half-price discount train ticket for the disabled.


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China: Rural migrant workers self-bury protest · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A number of rural migrant workers buried themselves in a construction site to stage a protest against their employer over back pay. (via Weibo Dahebao [zh])


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Colombia: Head Coach of National Football Team Resigns Over Scandal · Global Voices
Lully Posada

author: Lully Posada


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Cuba: Bloggers Comment on Attacks vs. Activists  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

More on the attacks against activists that took place this past weekend: a statement from The Coalition of Cuban-American Women, a video “of victims who got away with minor injuries”, and reports of two other incidents, here and here.


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Cuba: Nyad’s Failed Attempt  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As athlete Diana Nyad gives up her attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida, Generation Y says: “Her laudable intention was to highlight the closeness between the Island and its neighbor to the north, to help reconcile both shores. But the Straits of Florida is also part of our national cemetery, the graveyard where lie thousands of our compatriots. The omission by the athlete of such an important characteristic did not appeal to me.”


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Egypt: The Unspoken Languages of the Streets  · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet
We as humans have a unique ability to communicate via spoken languages. However, in a crowded and loud city like Cairo, we sometimes need more than a spoken language to communicate.
Crowded streets of Cairo – Photo take from mileusna Flickr account under Creative Commons license
Lyndall EL Masry, an expatriate living in Cairo, noticed that people who use shared taxi micro-buses use certain hand signals to communicate the locations they want to go to:
I find the micro and local buses a bit daunting sometimes – the loud and fast Arabic – the hand signals that have a meaning for a particular destinations.
Those hand signals make it easier to communicate between the drivers and those who are waiting for the micro-bus from a far distance in noisy streets. Ashraf Hamdy – an Egyptian caricaturist – tried to document those hand signals and their meanings in his blog. Here is an image to explain the various hand signals:
In fact, the use of sign language is common in hearing communities wherever speech is not practical or permitted, such as among scuba divers, or footballers, and in television recording studios  and stock exchange markets. It's also clear for those who speak Arabic that the above hand signals used in Egyptian streets are more like a mime compared to the linguistics of more complex sign languages, whereas signs have a visual relationship to what they refer to.
The use of car horns
Another form of communication – but it's an audible one this time – is the use of car horns. Dr_ElSioufy wrote a post [ar] in an online forum about those forms of communication. He said:
He then continued to describe each part of the car and its own vocabulary.
الكلاكــــــــــس :
ضغطتان متتاليتان بالكلاكس كل واحدة منفصلة معناها شكرا
.علي الصحراوي لو فاديت ترلة وكلكستلوا معني كدة انك بتحييه وهو لو عنده دم او صاحي مش نايم هيكلكسلك.
ضغطتان بالكلاكس كل واحدة منفصلة عن الأخري، وتتبعهما ضغطة طويلة تعني في لغة السيارات الجديدة بحبك.
استخدام الكلاكسات بطريقة ثلاث ضغطات متتالية يتتبعها ضغطة طويلة تعني «الشتيمة» تاتاتا تااااااته.
المساحات الخلفيه :
لو بتشد مع واحد و عديته تشغل المساحه الخلفيه , معناها باي باي
Car horn:
Two consecutive and separate beeps mean thank you.
When passing a truck on highway you beep to salute him, and he should beep back to you if he's not asleep.
Two consecutive and separate beeps followed by one long beep means in new-car-language “I love you”.
Three consecutive and separate beeps followed by one long beep is a swear word, beep beep beep beeeep [Son of a bitch]
Rear wipers:
When you are racing with someone, and passed him, use the rear wipers to wave him good bye!
I thought the use of car horns for communication is an Egyptian thing, until I read about the students in UC San Diego’s Cognitive Science Department  who wrote about the presence of the same phenomenon in India too on their blog, where they wonder whether there are any studies about this.
In my recent trip to India I noticed extremely liberal use of the car horn from my own driver and everyone else on the road. Unlike in the United States, the horn was not used in anger or frustration but as a form of communication. There might be a good opportunity to study the linguistics of this single sound communication. Any thoughts on what kind of study should be done? What else could a study of car horn use inform about human cognition? Let us know in the comments!
Gary Runn also compared the culture of horn honking in the United States, Italy and India. The Jamaicans too have their own car horn honking language with its own set of vocabulary. Such form of communication can be linked to smoke signals and drums used by our ancestors thousands of years ago. And since we use car horns for communication, isn't it possible that they should reflect their owners’ personality too? BBC published an article about research claiming that car horns sound is another big factor in car buyers decision.
Prof Van Leeuwen, an expert in the semiotics of sound at the university's Centre for Language and Communication, said manufacturers were paying more attention to the sound of the horn, which can be a deciding factor for potential car buyers. He argued that more car companies were matching the sound of the horn to the “personality” of the car.
Finally, isn't it interesting that no matter how advanced the means of communications we have nowadays are, we sometimes revert to ancient forms of communication? The following SMS sent between lovers [ar] summarizes the fact that even when having a mobile phone in our hands we might sometimes choose to use it the ancient way for economical  reasons.
This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet
The one in the top right corner says “Pyramids Street” (you can notice the pyramid shape there), moving down you will find the second sign saying by the end of the bridge, then the following one says same street, then the fourth one down says next U-turn, and the one at the bottom says from Faissal to Boulack.
The first one on top of the left column has different meanings depending on where you are, so if in Faissal it says Tahrir, while if anywhere else it says straight forward or down the same street. The one after it says Giza, then the third one down says seventh and eighth district (the signs resembles the numbers seven and eight in Arabic respectively). The fourth one says Dokki (a district in Cairo, whose name sounds like the word hammering or knocking in Arabic, that's why the sign), and finally the one on the bottom refers to an area called El Tawabeq (The Levels, and was originally known as The 3 Levels).

author: Tarek Amr


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Ethiopia: Let’s Code for Ethiopia · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“Let's code for Ethiopia,” says Ethiopian blogger and programmer: “I came  across a project initiative in the United States called code for america. The leaders of technology companies had a video where they ask the programmers to code for a change and it is a kind of social service. I thought about the issue for some time and it came to my mind what we can do for Ethiopia.”


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Haiti: Jobs Needed for Progress  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Love Haiti suggests that “the hardships facing Haiti today may be compared to the Great Depression of the United States”, explaining: “The point of this analogy is simply to state that school/education should not be at the top of Haiti's agenda, a country confronted with a housing crisis, an unprecedented unemployment dilemma, a cholera epidemy, and a rampant insecurity. Instead, job creations or employment should be priority number one…”


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Israel: Protests for Social Justice Sweep the Country · Global Voices
Gilad Lotan

What started as a local protest against the skyrocketing housing market in Tel-Aviv has escalated into the largest public uprising that the state of Israel has ever witnessed. The movement for social justice spurred tent cities in major metropolitan hubs across the country, mobilizing over 4 per cent of Israel's total population (one out of every 20 Israelis took to the streets in last week's massive protest).
While the Israeli economy is strong, unemployment is low, the shekel is powerful, foreign investment high and economic growth steady, Israelis from across the board have come together in protest against a higher ideal – not political and not necessarily demanding for a change in government.
This is a protest against what Israel has become, in the name of what it once was. It is an effort by the young Israelis to recapture an older, more egalitarian, more idealistic country that their parents lost. – Michael Walzer
Social justice protest, Tel Aviv, Israel. Image by tamirsher, copyright Demotix (06/08/11).
The J14 movement was initiated by a young Israeli woman named Daphni Leef who pitched a tent in the center of Tel Aviv three weeks ago (July 14th) in protest of the unaffordable cost of housing. It is one of the first prominent movements in recent times, that manages to bridge across political gaps within Israeli society. Ran cohen explains in a Tweet:
#j14 is a collective process of examining, discussing and challenging power structures within Israeli society.
In the following video Dafni is seen preaching to an enthusiastic crowd, at the early days of the protest. (translation from Hebrew below)
You (directed at Bibi/Israeli gov't) made this Facebook generation who sits on its ass all day, come out to the sizzling streets. We will make sure that this summer you will also feel the heat like in Spain, in Madrid. And if you won't be careful, we promise to protest like in Cairo. You can still fix. If you will not fix and continue to ruin, as far as I am concerned, you are fired. Friends, let's be strong, united and full of hope. We came to take our country back!
Israelis from all walks of life took to the streets too. Main narratives focus on restraining capitalism, and shifting the country back to a welfare state. Many claim that they give so much to the country without seeing returns.
Israelis chant: "Bring back the welfare state."
Elizabeth Tsurkov:
“Bring back the welfare state”. Many of the chants tonight called for a return to Israel's socialist days http://yfrog.com/z/h83w8kaj #j14
Although started by a group of politically left-leaning youth, its leaders are making an effort that the protests maintain a non-political character. Michael Waltzer offers a different perspective:
The uprising is a collective effort to escape the constraints and divisions of the Israeli debate about security, the nonexistent “peace process,” and the occupation. When the emerging leaders of the uprising insist that their protest is “non-political,” they mean that it's not about war and peace. They know, of course, that everything is connected, and that the difficulties they are experiencing are partly caused by massive state investment in the occupied territories. But they have their own dream of Zionist normality: they want to focus on their own lives and on the quality of domestic society…
The movement prides itself in its peaceful nature. We've seen little to no violence, which in the leader's opinion, highlights the power of the public involved. @ASoldiersMother posts:
I glory in the protests in Israel because they prove our democracy. Hundreds of thousands – no violence; police there to protect
There's been growing criticism against the movement for not having concrete demands. Social justice represents a multitude of issues, and one of their biggest struggles has been to come out with a clear, united voice. The following snippet is taken from a video interview where Dafni describes the movement's initial motivation:
We are left without homes. The goal is to bring prices back to the right proportions so that people can afford to rent or buy. This is not only an issue in Tel Aviv.
This is an optimistic protest. We want to be here. Don't want to leave the country. But its become impossible. At this rate, only the wealthy can stay here.
With the exponential growth in support across Israeli public, the J14 movement has utilized the social web as a means to host a public discussions. The main J14 website has updates and media from protests across the country, while its sister site, ohel.org.il is an interactive platform that encourages people to submit and vote up proposals and solutions. A variety of Facebook event pages send updates on current events, as well as a number of Twitter handles: @TLV_Revolution in Hebrew, @j14ar in Arabic, and @J14eng in English.
As a dual US-Israeli citizen, Idan Gazit shares his perspective:
Next time a Republican tells you about how the free market sorts everything out, next time they try to sell you on the evils of governmental “interference” in ensuring that no part of society ends up impoverished, tell them to look at Israel: it is their crystal ball.
There is nothing unpatriotic about thinking that our government should make sure that the lowest standard of living in our country is a standard that people can live with. There is nothing that says we must choose between what we have now and the 50+ percent tax rate of true socialist countries like Sweden.
Israel was born a socialist country, and to this day, we still enjoy vestiges of socialism in the form of universal healthcare which costs less every month than what I pay for my internet. The past decade has seen Israel's leaders discarding that legacy and importing the worst of America: materialism, unchecked capitalism, power as a function of money. I remember when cable TV first brought the outside world to Israel. I am old enough to have seen the changes wrought by Israeli's thirst for “America.”
This is the result. A government which is peopled with the worst criminals and liars our society has to offer, one of the fastest-growing, largest gaps between the wealthy and poor in history, and a population burnt out on the adrenaline jitters of a steady parade of security crises.
Sound familiar, right-wing America? Your crystal ball. We are it.
The following video montage includes scenes of the tent cities and protests sweeping throughout Israel, overlayed with the crowd chanting: “the people demand social justice”:
Finally, two Tweets worth highlighting:
David Harris-Gershon:
The question everyone on Twitter seems to be asking: how long can the #j14 protests go without explicitly addressing settlements/occupation?
Elizabeth Tsurkov:
Signs from Jaffa. Other chants: “Arabs & Jews refuse to be enemies” & “Arabs & Jews oppose house demolitions” http://yfrog.com/z/h8k2zwdj #j14

author: Gilad Lotan


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Lebanon: Royal Air Force Uses Beirut Scene to Recruit   · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

“It's a recruitment video to get young British men and women to join the Royal Air Force.” But the UK Royal Air Force uses exaggerated scenes of Beirut with none of the images taken in Beirut, writes Jad Aoun here.

author: Moussa Bashir


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Liberia: Visiting a Country of Many Firsts in Africa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Dr. Sipho Moyo visits Liberia, a country of many firsts in Africa: “Liberia was Africa’s first republic, colonized in 1822 and declared independent in 1847. It is also home to Africa’s first female president: President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. I met with her last week at the Executive Mansion in Monrovia during a ONE listening and learning trip.”


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MENA: Can a Hashtag Spread Hatred? · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

Over the past few days, more than 250,000 Israelis have protested in the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities over the rising costs of housing and food. The protesters there borrowed much from the Arab Spring. They even carried banners that read “Leave, here is Egypt” in both Arabic and Hebrew, and used the well known Arab Spring chant where they kept the first part of it in Arabic and added a Hebrew part to it to become “Al-Shaab yurid Tzedek Chevrati” (The People demand Social Justice”).
Tel Aviv, Israel – 7 August 2011
On Twitter, Egyptians followed the protests, using a derogatory hash tag that makes funny analogies [Ar] between the events the took place during the Egyptian revolution, and imaginary similar events using names of Israeli officials and mock characters instead. However the name of the hashtag #ThawretWeladElKalb, which literally translates to “Sons of Dogs Revolution,” sparked lot of debate on both sides.
Israeli Elizabeth Tsurkov noticed the hashtag and tweeted her disappointment with it.
@Elizrael: Heartbreaking, coming back from the demo to twitter and seeing Arabs tweeting about #j14 with the anti-Semitic tag #ThawretWeladElKalb
She also added:
@Elizrael: While we chanted for equality and an end to the occupation, Arabs on twitter are calling #j14 “the revolution of sons of a dog”. Sick
On the other side of the border, people were divided. While some defended the hashtag,  others found it inappropriate.
Palestinian Abla Awadallah asked people to dig into history before criticizing the hashtag, while Nabil Kabalan mocked what he saw as people protesting in a land that is not theirs:
@cold0shoulder: An Israeli exclusive: protesting in someone else's occupied land!
Comr4da – who agrees with Ramy Zreik  [Ar] that such protests might only lead to building new settlements on occupied land – said:
@Comr4de: الى المعاتيه اللى بيأيدوا مظاهرات الصهاينه.الحل الوحيد لمشكلة السكن اللى هى سبب التظاهر هو سرقه أرض جديده لبناء مستوطنات
Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff also tweeted:
@CarlosLatuff: Egyptians don't be fooled. Protests in Israel have more to do with middle class living costs than against occupation
From Tunisia, Marwan-el-Tounisi added:
@Marwouantounsi: I am Tunisian and I support this: #ThawretWeladElKalb 10000%, Die Zionists.
On the other hand many others opposed the hashtag. Sara Abdelazim believes that generalization is bad. She added:
@Lujee: So for years ppl complain that nobody in Israel speaks up against what their government is doing and when they do, they get insulted for it?
Differentiation between Jews, Israelis and Zionists in daily Arabic language is sometimes not that clear. So, Nada Iskandar – who believes the hash tag is racist – tweeted that we should pay attention to such differences. Essam El-Zamil also decided to stop using the hashtag since some of the participants in the protests are Arabs. Ahmed Saker and Amr El Gohary found the hashtag childish and non-constructive respectively.
Despite how the education systems in both sides raises hate, Kuwaiti blogger, Mona Kareem, blogged against the hashtag.
I do not hate Israelis (although the Arab educational system raises you up to hate Jews automatically, and to feel superior towards others in general) but I definitely oppose and hate the crimes done by the state of Israel, just the way I do with our Arab dictatorships (keeping in my mind that Israel has been acting way more merciful with its own citizens, unlike our almighty police-state regimes). On the other hand, I also have the same feelings towards Arab suicide bombers who kill people in a night club or a school bus. I believe killing a human cannot be justified what so ever, regardless of the ideology, identity, or religion of the victim and the victimizer.
Mona then added how the peaceful protest of Arabs in their Arab Spring shouldn't be stopped there.
Arabs cannot give up the peaceful path they chose, just when the subject comes to their “classical enemy” Israel. Arab revolutionaries should act more responsible not to contradict themselves and clearly understand what Gandhi once said “an eye for an eye makes the world blind”. They should give up their long heritage that is filled with epics about revenge represented within heroic frames.
Arabs should also understand that their revolutions will only stand up truly when they strongly believe that the revolutions are not only against figures of their regimes but also revolutions to reconstruct their cultures and root out all forms of discrimination because simply discrimination can never be justified and verbal abuse only makes you look worse. Arabs cannot label every Israeli as a criminal, and ironically enough, they do not know that people who protested recently in Israel come from different backgrounds including anti-occupation activists and Arab-Israelis.
Another Israeli blogger, The Elder of Ziyon, wrote saying that the reference of Jews as dog is historic.
The tag is #ThawretWeladElKalb, which means “Sons of Dogs Revolution”. The reference of Jews as dogs is of course a popular motif in Arab history.
In fact, calling someone a dog is also one of the most common swear words in Egypt. It is so common that it is one of the few swear words that are not censored in movies. Recently there was a debate in Egypt on whether a political reform should come first, or the rights of the poor; and an Egyptian blogger wrote a post under the name “It's the poor first, sons of dog [Ar]“, attacking those who care about political reform and constitutional changes more than social justice. The blog became so popular so that many people used to quote its title in their discussions on and off-line.
And finally, Ahmed Kamal suggested an alternative hashtag.
@ahmed_virgine: Thawret Welad El3am ,,,hom mesh bany admen zayena ….wallahe alsho3oa 3'albana al7okam homa wlad elkalb.
Further reading:
Israel: Protests for Social Justice Sweep the Country


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Nigeria: Did Halima Abubakar Deserve Award for Best Actress? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Noble does not understand why Halima Abubakar received Nigeria's Best Actress Award 2011: “Relatively new actress to the Nollywood scene, Halima Abubakar, took home the trophy for Best Actress of the Year at City People Awards. From all the movies I've seen her in, I can say for sure that I don't get why she won. I've never seen her playing a leading role, so it's just weird…but o well.”


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North Korea’s Emerging Wealthy Class · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

The North Korean Economy Watch wrote about the North Korea's growing entrepreneurial class. The post, quoting Andrei Lankov's anecdotal evidence and a taxonomy, defines the North Korean new rich as a group consists of high-level officials who have gained wealth through illegal means or from their  business activities encouraged by the  regime.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Russia: New Decrees Push for More Government Openness Online · Global Voices
Dmitry Davidov

On August 10, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed several decrees obliging 19 government agencies (including  country's secret services) to put timely information online about their activities, Bloomberg reports.

author: Dmitry Davidov


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South Korea: Severe Rains and Storms, Evidence of Climate Change? · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Steven Borowiec from the Asia Sentinel suggested the recent weeks’ torrential rains and storms in South Korea could be evidence that the  climate is changing and commented that the country must adjust to a hotter,  wetter, more volatile weather.


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Sudan: Coup Against Public Liberties · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Osman Shinger examines the uncertain future of media freedom in Sudan: “Journalists and rights activists have expressed concern about diminishing press freedom in Sudan. Reporters attribute their pessimism to what they call a “coup” against public liberties. Chief among their concerns is the press freedom that was stipulated in the 2005 peace agreement, whose duration concluded with South Sudan’s independence that took effect on 9 July.”


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Sudan/South Sudan: Can the Issue of Ngok Dinka Citizenship be Resolved? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Hassan Barakya explains why the issue of citizenship for the Ngok Dinka of Abyei is so complex: “Now that South Sudan is independent, the Ngok Dinka are in legal limbo. While their stated loyalty has always been with the south, the geographical region they inhabit along with migratory groups officially belongs to the north.”


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Trinidad & Tobago: A Patriot Passes On  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Kenny always struck me as an unlikely environmentalist. His contribution to the environmental movement in Trinidad and Tobago is huge, and he inspired many people to work for conservation”: Ian Ramjohn bids farewell to Professor Julian Kenny, who passed away yesterday.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Trinidad & Tobago:  Apple App Access  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Ever since Apple announced that 33 additional countries – including Trinidad and Tobago – would have access to their app store, TECHTT was “curious to see what was available if [he] signed up for an apple id with a trinidad address and credit card and accessed the iTunes store.”  Check out his findings, here.


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Angola: “Angolanization” of the Workforce · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

Feliciano Cangue, on his blog Hukalilile, presents several definitions of “angolanization” [pt] and writes about national versus expatriate workforce in Angola.

author: Sara Moreira


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Australia: Malaysia No Solution to ‘Boat People’ Politics  · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

This post is part of our special coverage on Refugees.
The Australian government’s attempt to take a hard line on people smugglers and asylum seekers arriving by boat has hit a major snag. In December 2010, approximately 50 asylum seekers were drowned at Christmas Island when their boat was smashed on the rocks. A legal challenge has postponed a swap of the surviving refugees with Malaysia.
Amber Jamieson’s Malaysia deal in disarray summarises the latest situation for online media site Crikey:
The challenge, led by QC David Manne on behalf of 42 recently arrived asylum seekers (including six unaccompanied minors), focuses on human rights surrounding the policy and questions what protection Malaysia will offer to asylum seekers sent by Australia.
…Sixteen of the men were due to fly out to Malaysia yesterday, the first of the government’s new refugee swap deal with Malaysia, which will see 800 “boat people” swapped with 4000 refugees from Malaysia.
The plan has had some limited support in the blogosphere but has been criticised by both those wanting a stop to the so-called ‘boat people’ arrivals and those with concerns about human rights.
Laberal who claims to be ‘bored with trying to find the differences between the two parties, the Labor Party and the Liberal Party’ (the two major parties) presents his view in cartoon form:
Image from Laberal blog
Ian's cartoon harks back to the former Howard government’s Pacific solution of sending boat arrivals to Nauru, a policy that the current Gillard government has rejected.
In Border fantasies out of control, Kim of group blog Lavartus Prodeo looks at some disturbing poll figures that may help to explain the government’s tough stance:
Still, if the poll is right and fact would lower the number of “very concerned” Australians from 43% to 33%, it’s still a rather stunning figure. The beast seems to have taken on a life of its own.
Charitably, one might assume that at least some of this concern might be around a desire to avoid such horrors as happened near Christmas Island around Christmas last year.
Legal Eagle at Skeptic Lawyer is no fan of the latest solution:
I must confess to being sceptical from the beginning about the Malaysian “solution”. Deporting people to far flung islands or other countries does not provide much of a “solution”. There needs to be a total paradigm shift. The real problem, as I’ve said before, is about the perverse incentives our law sets up for asylum seekers — it’s easier for a person to get a visa once they are here on our soil than it is when they are off our soil, even though the asylum seeker’s circumstances have not changed one iota.
In Christians cannot accept Malaysia solution Rob Benson of iDigress ‘Musings of an antipodean contrarian’ looks at the issue from a moral standpoint:
The federal government’s so-called “Malaysia solution” looks like decisive action, but it’s abhorrent from a human rights perspective, and at odds with a balanced Christian view of justice and compassion.
The policy will send a message to prospective asylum seekers and people traffickers, but it is simply the wrong thing to do.
Peter’s Aussie Views News is primarily concerned with the children, especially those not accompanied by adults:
I do not know under what degree of anguish and suffering a mother might send her child in a small boat to a foreign land. But I do know what degree of callousness is required to send an unaccompanied child in a plane to Malaysia. It remains to be seen whether Australia will abandon its international responsibilities and any claim to the concept of “fair go” and send the recently arrived unaccompanied children to Malaysia.
John George has Had Enough at Had Enough. He neither supports the government or people who he calls ‘illegals’.
So the Malaysian Solution looks doomed; another Gillard debacle. We are now going to open the doors to 4000 so-called refugees regardless of whether any of our illegals are transferred to Malaysia. I mean the deal was lop-sided in the first place but now it is worse. I mean does this lot have a licence on stupidity or what?
Why on earth Gillard & Co have to be so darned stubborn as to turn their backs on the Naru Solution just because they might be seen as supporting a Howard Initiative is beyond me.
Prominent lawyer and human rights advocate Julian Burnside implores Australians to reflect on our national character:
So here we are: Australia in 2011. For convenience we have forgotten our origins, our good fortune, our blindness and our selfishness. In place of memory we have constructed a national myth of a generous, welcoming country, a land of new arrivals where everyone gets a fair go; a myth in which vanity fills the emptiness where the truth was forgotten.
Or perhaps it's not a myth after all. Perhaps our national image is true, but our politicians have forgotten what it is. If we value who we are, we should remind them. Because our true character as a nation is being reshaped each day by what our politicians do in our name. Tell Canberra we are better than that, lest we forget.
Whatever the result of the legal action, the issue of asylum seekers is not going away in a hurry, especially while there is no consensus between the political parties on how to deal with it.
This post is part of our special coverage on Refugees.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Barbados: Jamaicans Plead Guilty to Drug Smuggling  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As eight Jamaicans plead guilty to smuggling marijuana into Barbados, BFP says: “Drug mules are the Privates. Who are the Generals?”


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Bermuda, Jamaica: London Burning · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamaican diaspora blogger Grasshopper Eyes The Potomac and Bermuda's Respice Finem blog about the London riots.


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Chile: International Support for Students Seeking Education Reforms · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Movimiento Revolucionario Calle 13 (MRC13), a movement that aims to bring Latin America together “with the theme ‘education is the new revolution'” is uploading pictures to the group's Facebook page of people around the world showing their support for the Chilean student movement.

author: Silvia Viñas


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China: Tweets Didn’t Start the Fire · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has followed up its attack last week on microblogs with another one set against the backdrop of riots in London and English cities, putting the blame squarely on social networking sites (SNS) such as Twitter and Facebook. Or was that British Prime Minister David Cameron?
Many Chinese netizens, meanwhile, are sounding off like Americans (“Guns don't kill people…”), defending Sina Weibo, China's largest microblog service, as a platform which brings forth more truth about China than CCTV does. One can even imagine that if sites like Twitter and Facebook weren't already blocked, CCTV anchors might be responding to the backlash right now and sounding a lot like Cameron at it.
CCTV: Social networking sites and microblogs are fanning the flames as riots spread beyond London
Not that they'd need to, Chinese authorities have been casting the Internet as a national security threat since ethnic riots took place in Xinjiang in 2009. News from the UK now that Facebook and Flickr are being used to track down looters isn't really news [zh] to Chinese netizens, although People's Daily found it useful.
From a thread on Weibo [zh] in response to the news that English police have also begun arresting people on suspicion of using SNS to provoke rioters:
左5右4 要不要把咱的GFW借给他们
不知道我朝会不会也以此为借口来干掉微博这个眼中钉呢？
安思文 警方终于聪明起来了。。。。
我是发条是我 建议英国警方向中国政府学习维稳方法！
Turning back to CCTV and its easy-on cosmetic remedy for social unrest, discussions elsewhere [zh] on Sina Weibo have gotten into whether or not the broadcaster sees microblogs as the competition, or if something else is at play, but don't offer much in the way of a response to CCTV's charges. Sina Weibo's rumor problem is well-documented and things have only gotten worse since the Jiang Zemin non-death debacle early last month.
李允翔 哎！微薄传播真相的能力太大！个个地区的政府部门这一阵又丑事百出。
Juny徐 转发此微博:这些都是托词是借口。因为有关部门已经注意到了微博传播真相，发掘真相求真相的巨大威力。他们怕了。于是在一切都还可控的时候狠狠政治微博，免得老是让他们日子过的不安稳，数钱不痛快……
怒海争疯001 靠，原来都是推特，脸谱搞的事！强烈建议万恶的英帝学我天朝的GFW
莲篷子 这套伎俩太熟悉了，估计会变换花样，反正不管从什么角度来黑微博的，绝对都是相关部门干的。
There don't seem to be many supporters of CCTV's position to be found on Weibo currently. Perhaps they're self-censoring.
Instead of pinning fault for the riots on Twitter's inability to deliver effective community services, UK-based journalist Pin Lu grants [zh] that racial tension and economic disparity are factors to consider in trying to determine what fueled the Tottenham riots, but ends with:
这次骚乱的直接导火线是伦敦警方枪杀一名黑人青年Mark Duggan，星期六死者家属朋友到 Tottenham Hale警署门口和平示威，到了晚上却演变成了打砸抢，同时警方只在街道一头组成人墙拦截，对于几十米远的犯罪活动却不介入阻止。这样的画面整个晚上都在电视上，显然鼓励了其他人第二天照样学样。
警方不主动出手制止犯罪活动，一方面是警力薄弱，一方面是缺乏决断。伦敦警方目前处于群龙无首的状态，警察总长和负责反恐的副总长刚刚因为窃听手机留言案辞职，其它高层都在渡假。同时伦敦市长、内务大臣、副首相、首相都在海外渡假。对于这一突发事件，本来就没有准备，发生之后恐怕也没人拍板迅速处理，指望骚乱者自行散去。结果却是刚好相反，两天之内暴力蔓延，警方处于手忙脚乱、左支右拙中，更加无法对付骚乱者，于是鼓励更多人参与打劫，陷入恶性循环中。
在英国的政治环境中，对付这样的骚乱本来应该是保守党政府的强项，但是这次骚乱却让联合政府措手不及，卡梅伦迟了一天回国，就对他的声誉造成了很大影响。如果不能立刻平息骚乱的话，卡梅伦的首相位置恐怕就坐不长了。

author: John Kennedy


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Colombia: Indigenous People March On Antioquia’s Independence Day · Global Voices
Lully Posada

Today, August 11, is independence day in Antioquia. More than one thousand Indigenous people are marching through the streets [es] of Medellín to reach [es] the Alpujarra [es] where the local government is located. They are calling for the right to life because in less than 3 months 16 of them have been killed. They are also [es] commemorating 18 years the Declaration of Indigenous Human Rights [es] in the world.


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Costa Rica: Metropolitan Cathedral will be Surrounded by Sluts · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

This Sunday, the Costa Rican SlutWalk will come together in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral in the capital city of San José. The walk comes as a response to the statements made by a Catholic Bishop and visiting Cardinal during Costa Rica's Patron Saint ceremony on August 2nd, where they asked women to dress modestly to avoid being dehumanized or objectified, to refrain from doing manly tasks and to keep to their house and home, reports InsideCostaRica.


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Cuba: What is a Terrorist Organization? · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Osmany Sánchez from La Joven Cuba responds [es] to a post written by fellow blogger Miriam Celaya, which has stirred a tremendous debate in the Cuban blogosphere. In his response, Sánchez assures that some bloggers in Cuba have connections with terrorist organizations from the Cuban exile community.

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


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Ecuador: Newspapers Protest With Covers ‘For Freedom of Expression’ · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

“Major Ecuadorian newspapers ran the same cover today [August 10] — “For Freedom of  Expression” — to protest President Rafael Correa’s increasing verbal and  legal attacks on the independent media. The President devoted 42  minutes to his State of the Union speech today to criticism of the  press”: Adam Isacson reports in his Tumblr blog, where he also shares images of the newspaper covers.


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Guinea-Bissau: Films From Guinea-Bissau · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Kris introduces his readers to films from Guinea-Bissau: “As African cinemas go, Guinea-Bissau is not well researched and there’s not that much about written about its history in film. I submit to you some of the films I’ve seen and some of the links that might be useful.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Iran: Remember Omid Reza MirSayafi · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Iran's Freedom of Expression site has conducted  [fa] an interview with Omid Reza Mirsayafi's close friend about his death. Omid Reza Mirsayafi, a blogger, died in a prison in Iran more tahn two years ago. if Omid had survived the prison, he would have been released two days ago.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Is North Korea Planning to Kill South Korean Defense Minister? · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun


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Israel: J14hackers build SMS-Twitter Gateway for Protests · Global Voices
Gilad Lotan

The hacker collective J14hackers put together an SMS-Twitter gateway which enables easy content publishing from a local phone to Twitter. Users in Israel can send an SMS from their phones to 052-5635053, and the content of their message will be posted on the @J14Mobile Twitter account.


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Japan: Chaos at Chitose Airport on March 11 · Global Voices
Takashi Ota

On March 11, 2011, a Delta airplane pilot approaching Tokyo airport described his experience of an emergency landing in an e-mail (see below). It was such a vivid description that his record rapidly spread across the blogosphere.
Here is an excerpt:
Suddenly ATC comes up and gives us a vector to a fix well short of Chitose and tells us to standby for holding instructions. Nightmare realized. Situation rapidly deteriorating. After initially holding near Tokyo, starting a divert to Nagoya, reversing course back to Tokyo then to re-diverting north toward Misawa, all that happy fuel reserve that I had was vaporizing fast. My subsequent conversation, paraphrased of course…., went something like this:
“Sapporo Control – Delta XX requesting immediate clearance direct to Chitose, minimum fuel, unable hold.”
“Negative Ghost-Rider, the Pattern is full” < << top gun quote <<<
“Sapporo Control – make that – Delta XX declaring emergency, low fuel, proceeding direct Chitose”
“Roger Delta XX, understood, you are cleared direct to Chitose, contact Chitose approach….etc….”
Enough was enough, I had decided to preempt actually running critically low on fuel while in another indefinite holding pattern, especially after bypassing Misawa, and played my last ace…declaring an emergency. The problem with that is now I have a bit of company paperwork to do but what the heck.
As it was – landed Chitose, safe, with at least 30 minutes of fuel remaining before reaching a “true” fuel emergency situation. That's always a good feeling, being safe. They taxied us off to some remote parking area where we shut down and watched a half dozen or more other airplanes come streaming in. In the end, Delta had two 747s, my 767 and another 767 and a 777 all on the ramp at Chitose. We saw to American airlines planes, a United and two Air Canada as well. Not to mention several extra All Nippon and Japan Air Lines planes.
Post-script – 9 hours later, Japan air lines finally got around to getting a boarding ladder to the plane where we were able to get off and clear customs. – that however, is another interesting story.
The meme was translated into other languages, and an aviation fan BUTA_NEKO responded to the meme [ja] on his blog in Japanese, to tell the other side of the story. It so happened that he was at New Chitose Airport at the same time as the Delta’s emergency landing, taking photos and listening to the airband radio.
This post has been partially translated with the blogger's permission.
このパイロットの記述に関し、大いに理解はするし心情も察するが、3月13日に『新千歳空港　ダイバート』という記事を掲示した様に　偶然だが、その時千歳にいて写真を撮りながら航空無線を聞いていた者として　いくつか気になった点に関して補足させておいて頂きたいと思う。
が、先にお断りしておくけれども　私はこの手記の筆者であるパイロットに文句を言いたいのでは無い　それと、空の上も大変だったろうけれども、空の下にも事情があって大変だった事を併せて読者に御理解を願いたいのだ。
He starts by examining this conversation:
“Sapporo Control – Delta XX requesting immediate clearance direct to Chitose, minimum fuel, unable hold.”
“Negative Ghost-Rider, the Pattern is full”
このやりとりがされた時の新千歳空港は　いくつかの事情で混乱していたのだ。
それは、有感地震が発生すると　新千歳に限らず、どこの空港でもランウェイ・クローズ（一時的に空港閉鎖を宣言して離着陸を禁止する）して　ランウェイ・チェック（滑走路に亀裂など問題が発生していないか確認する作業）を行う。
ランウェイ・チェックにより閉鎖される時間は5～10分だが、新千歳空港の民航機の離発着量では　そんな僅かな時間でも数機が着陸待機を命じられ　この時は北風だったからポイント・ムカワでホールド（旋回待機）となる。
At this time, there were a few things going on at New Chitose Airport that was causing confusion. Once a noticeable quake happens, airports normally close their runways. This means declaring the airport as temporarily closed and prohibiting landings and take-offs to check if there are defects such as runway cracks.
This check may take five to ten minutes but considering the amount of Chitose’s civil aviation, it means that several civil aircrafts will be ordered to delay their landings. Those aircrafts had to hold at Point Mukawa against the northern wind at that time.
ランウェイチェックに要する時間を含めて、滑走路に問題がない事が確認されれば、普通であれば30分ぐらいで旋回待機していた機体はすべて着陸し　いつもの何事もない新千歳空港に戻れたはずなのだが、この時は　私が知っているだけでも本震の他に３回の結構な揺れの余震が　それも間の悪い事に地震－ランウェイチェック－地震－ランウェイチェックという様なタイミングが繰り返され　大凡だが、１時間近くランウェイ・クローズ状態が続いたから　それだけで、相当な数の旋回待機状態の民航機が苫小牧以南の太平洋上におり、それらの中にも「燃料が残り少ない…」と訴える機が数機生じており、さらにその中の千歳をよく知るのであろうパイロットの一人は「ランウェイ01（民間側）ではなく、36(自衛隊側）もダメですか？」と、通常では考えられない事を聞いてくる者もいたぐらいに切迫していたのだ。
第２に　新千歳と呼ばれる民間側とは別に隣接した千歳基地側の滑走路では
「規模が大きい津波が接近しているようだ」
と、通常は領空侵犯対処の為に待機しているF-15が4機　それぞれ別個の海岸線を津波や被害の確認にスクランブルしたり、T-4や救難隊のU-125も上がり　海上保安庁も同様。
Delta's B767 approaching New Chitose Airport. Licensed under CC-BY by BUTA_NEKO
上の写真は　3月11日のまさにその記事のデルタ航空の767が千歳に着陸するところを撮影したもの
この機体が着陸してきたのは写真の撮影時間を見ると16時42分　　記憶に間違いがなければエマジェンシー云々のやりとりが無線でなされていたのは16時前後だったと思う。
11日14時46分頃 三陸沖 　震度7
11日15時06分頃 三陸沖 　震度5弱
11日15時15分頃 茨城県沖　　震度6弱
11日15時26分頃 三陸沖 　震度5強
15時から15時半頃には東北沿岸に津波は到達していた…という時系列を念頭に置いていただければ御理解頂けると思う。
Tremor timeline is described as:
(Seismic) Scale 7 at 2:46 pm, Mar 11, centered off the coast of Sanriku
Scale 5-lower at 3:06 pm, Mar 11, centered off the coast of Sanriku
Scale 6-lower at 3:15 pm, Mar 11, centered off the coast of Ibaraki
Scale 5-upper at 3:26 pm, Mar 11, centered off the coast of Sanriku
Also, tsunamis reached Tohoku coasts between 3:00 and 3:30 pm. This timeline helps to comprehend the situation.
ゆえに、『本当の緊急事態になるまで30分の燃料を残していたが、』という一文を　他の航空機も含めて無事に何事も起きずに終わった今となっては　ある意味「それは良かったね」と看過すべきなんだろうとは思うが、あの時の管制官達の置かれた状況と奮闘を思うと「なんだそれ？」って気さえ若干ではあるがする。
Thirdly, he examines this portion: “9 hours later, Japan air lines finally got around to getting a boarding ladder to the plane where we were able to get off and clear customs.”
この文だけ読むと　あたかも「管制塔の指示で9時間待たされた…」という風に読む側には受け取れるが、それは違う。
着陸した時点で　本来の目的地である「成田」には直ぐに行けないと判断した機（例えば、アメリカンやエア・カナダのそれぞれ1機ずつ）は　比較的早くに乗客を降ろしていた。想像も含めて言わせて貰えば　とりあえず給油だけ済まし、成田がランウェイ・オープンするようであれば即離陸しよう…という風に考え様子見をしていた機は　その後、続々と降りてきた国内線の定期便が　特に羽田や成田の滑走路閉鎖に伴い折り返し便が欠航となった事もあって　それらの機体のスポット移動などが混乱し待たされたのである。
Flights that were deemed not possible in reaching their original destination of Narita Airport (for example, an American Airlines flight and an Air Canada flight) were actually able to get their passengers to the ground  relatively quickly.
I would venture to say that many of these aircrafts were hoping to refuel and take off as soon as Narita opened their runways. However, domestic flights started landing at Chitose one after the other, especially after runways at Haneda and Narita closed down and return flights were canceled. Spot reassignments of these crafts caused confusion and a long wait time.
それと、慣れない空港に降りたためか　国際線ターミナルに向かうタクシーウェイ上でしばらく立ち往生の様にとどまっていた某外国航空会社の機体が　もしかしたら混乱に拍車をかけていた様な気さえもする。で、重ねて申し上げておくが　私はこのパイロットの手記を非難したいのでは無いし、怒って記しているわけでも決して無い。たまたまだが、偶然にその場に居合わせたマニアの一人として　ちょっとだけ記してみたいと思っただけなのだ。

author: Takashi Ota


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Japan: “Plutonium is safe,” they say · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

Youtube user tokyobrowntabby has translated into English the video clips of three Japanese nuclear researchers who claimed safety for plutonium in a TV show.
A blogger at EX-SKF – who nicknamed the researchers the “Three Plutonium Brothers” – posted the transcript [en] of their speeches.

author: Scilla Alecci


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Kenya: Mocality Launches Daily Deals and Mobile Apps. · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Watch a video of Moses Kemibaro's interview with Joshua Mwaniki, the Country Manager for Mocality in Kenya, on the impending launch of Mocality Deals: “In addition to the deals, Mocality recently also launched mobile apps for both Apple’s iOS (i.e. iPhone, iPad and iPod devices) on the App Store and Google’s Android on the Google Market.”


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Lebanon: Cellphone Cameras for Crowd-Sourcing · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

A crowd-sourcing campaign was launched in Lebanon titled: “Cheyif 7alak” [Arabic for “Do you see yourself”]. It calls on people to use their cellphone cameras (or any others) to shoot any wrong doings they encounter everyday, posts the Lebanese Inner Circle.


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Mauritania: Discrimination Plagues Census · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

adrar-info.net publishes an article on Mauritanian demonstrations in Paris and Mauritania, related to the current population census in Mauritania. Black Mauritanians apparently have a difficult time getting their name registered [fr]. According to Haimout Ba, the Paris based representative of  UFP (Union of Forces of Progress, an opposition party), “they are requested to show their parents and grandparents’ identity documents, and asked if they know  this or that person, of Arab origin. They are even quizzed over the geography of the country!”

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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Poland: NGO Helps Looking for Missing Persons · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Polandian writes about ITAKA: Centre for Missing People (en.zaginieni.pl), a Polish NGO that helps tracing missing persons.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Poland-Russia: Haunting Memories of Afghanistan · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Leoš Tomíček of Austere Insomniac reports that Russian ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, is asking whether Polish Foreign Minister, Radosław Sikorski, killed soviet soldiers in Afghanistan during the 1980s, when working as a journalist there with Afghan guerilla fighters.

author: Vilhelm Konnander


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Portugal: Petition For Galicia to Enter the Lusophone Space · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

The association MIL – Movimento Internacional Lusófono (International Lusophone Movement) [pt] – has written an open letter [pt] to the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paulo Portas, addressing the “inflection of the Portuguese State's position towards Galicia”. MIL considers the Spanish region of Galicia as an integral part of the Portuguese language space.


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Puerto Rico: Comment from ex Director of Diálogo  · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Marcos Pérez, the former director of the University of Puerto Rico's monthly newspaper Diálogo, briefly comments on his recent dismissal, in the online publication 80 Grados [es].


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Puerto Rico: State Funding of Religious Campaigns · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The site of the online radio station Bonita Radio [es] publishes an interview [es] with members of the  feminist coalition Movimiento Amplio de Mujeres de Puerto Rico [es] about the recent state funding of the US based religious campaign Promise Keepers, which purports to fight against domestic violence.


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Russia: A Psycho-Neurological Patient’s Photo Stories · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Pasha Kyshtymov, a lifelong patient of a psycho-neurological internat on the border of Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk regions of Siberia, cannot communicate through speech, but had no problems learning to express himself through photography.
Russian photographer Oleg Klimov, who visited the internat with colleagues earlier this summer and took some photos there, has documented on his blog [ru] the poignant impromptu experience of teaching Pasha to share his worldview with others:
[photo]
It is natural, perhaps, that a person who cannot speak is looking for other ways to communicate. Visually, through images, for example… At the psycho-neurological internat in Siberia, I noticed one patient's amazing way of catching other people's peculiarities – he was showing them with his hands and facial expressions, thus explaining what he wanted to say. This is how I understood that “making circular movements with one's thumbs” denoted the internat‘s director. The director is always doing it when he is talking to somebody or is very nervous…
This perceptive person's name is Pasha. He is approximately 30 years old, he [suffered a brain injury at birth, when his head was being pulled with forceps, according to his health record) – and this resulted in a pinched “speech nerve”… It means that Pasha is only capable of saying “Daaa” [yes] and “Nyeee” [no], while the rest of the sounds are hard to comprehend. What exactly he understands, how he feels – in most cases, he is the only person who understands it. He cannot write and he cannot read. He can only observe, make some conclusions of his own, based exclusively on his own experiences, because no one has ever taught him anything. “A pure mind to teach photography!” I thought.
The idea was to quickly and efficiently teach Pasha to take photos. I was sure that with the help of photography, his language would become more “communicative” and I'd be able to understand him better. “Do you want to tell me about a flower?” – I'd ask him, – “Take a photo of a flower and show it to me… Photography is also a way of saying something…” […]
[…] While taking photos, Pasha did not aspire to fame, did not want to get rich through photography, he did not have lofty ambitions of an artist and a limitless faith in his own genius – he wanted nothing but express himself and communicate with the people who surround him. He wanted to tell people so, so much. He was just happy with the camera in his hands. I was laughing when Pasha was making shots that were absolutely like the ones that smart-looking photography school students make, or, which is worse, the ones that “established photo artists” make […]. […]
[photo]
In a very short time, Pasha became a member of our “experimental expedition.” We were walking together, taking pictures together. Together, we were drinking tea in our hut outside the internat, drinking village milk, eating cheese and excellent chocolate. I bought him a hat that was “almost the same as photographer Syomin's hat,” taught him to fasten a tie, which he preferred to wear like some of the “Kremlin pool” photographers did. In other words, we accepted him as our own and were happy together with him.
[photo]
But when we came to dinner at the internat, Pasha wasn't allowed inside the dining hall with us. They said we couldn't enter together with the patients. Only separately. We didn't have to explain anything to Pasha. He took off the camera and passed it to me. He wanted to return the hat as well, but I told him it was a present. He waited for us in the street nearby, while we ate our dinner in the official dining hall and were then able to go take photos again…
[photo]
This “system” is monstrous in its imperfection, the internat‘s director told us – an amazing person, open-minded and principled. A child, whose parents had given him up right upon birth, has practically no chances to get out of this “system,” regardless of whether he has some psychiatric deviations or not, regardless of whether he is capable of living in the society with these deviations or not. This is the “system” that “strictly forbids entrance to outsiders” […] – […] and forbids exit as well…
[photo]
When we were leaving, we couldn't give Pasha “an extra camera.” And he didn't really have any hope we would. I promised him that we'd find a camera for him, that we'd gather money and buy a new one. Or perhaps some colleague would find an old and unneeded one. And the director promised us that he'd be downloading [Pasha's] photos onto his computer and thus would save them until our next visit. And this way we will learn what Pasha wants to tell us about… […]
[a selection of photos taken by Pasha Kyshtymov]


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Russia: Arctic and the Northern Sea Route · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Mia Bennett at Foreign Policy Association writes about an ongoing international conference, hosted by Russia, about the future of Arctic resources and the opening of sea routes in the Norhtern Sea.