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Israel: Stories and Personal Opinions on Obama’s Visit · Global Voices
Gilad Lotan

Obama's recent visit to Israel was certainly a hot topic across Israeli media, which acknowledges the Democratic candidate for taking all necessary steps to mark his stance – clearly showing that he will continue to be a close friend and ally to Israel. In his meeting with Olmert Obama promised that if he is elected, he will coordinate his policy on the topic of Iran with Israel, and will not act “behind Israel's back”.
Obama visited Yad Vashem, gave a speech in Sderot and stopped to place a personal note in the Wailing Wall. Yair Raveh elaborates on the latter event, and describes the blunt violation of privacy by journalists who published Obama's personal wish:
Yesterday before he took off to Germany he visited The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the only remaining relic of the ancient Temple of David, and the most sacred spot for Jews. As customary, he placed a note in the cracks of the stones. It is believed that a wish or a prayer stuffed in the cracks gets fulfilled by God. Obama, in what seems like a last minute improvisation, wrote a small prayer on his hotel stationary (nice product placement). Journalists then promptly stormed the wall and ransacked his note and had it reprinted in “Maariv” (it’s a big faux-pas from a Jewish traditional point of view and I’m quite certain that if Obama were Jewish no mainstream reporter would’ve dared violate his privacy so bluntly).
But, although this whole thing – the note, the reprint – might’ve been staged it made me like Obama all the more. Not only for his respect for tradition but also for his great handwriting and his touching prayer: “Lord – Protect my family and me. Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.”
Several threads continue to discuss this topic. A good one can be foundhere: The Kotel's Rabbi sends his apologies to the Democratic candidate.
In his visit to Sderot Obama expressed deep empathy towards Sderot's residents whose lives are overshadowed by the constant threat of qassam missiles. “The first job of any nation state is to protect its citizens. And so I can assure you that if — I don't even care if I was a politician. If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that.”, claimed Obama. “And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing”.
Below, a picture from Obama's speech in Sderot. Notice behind him, the mound of Qassam missiles.
The Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs emphasizes the importance of highlighting the central reason behind the continuing turmoil in the Middle East when meeting Obama:
The biggest challenge facing Israel is to persuade American factors, including Obama, that the Israeli-Palestinian problem is an outcome of an Iranian threat and its extensions – Hamas and Hezbollah – but not the central cause behind the turmoil in the Middle East.
The question if and how Obama will be affected in his visit is connected to the problem that the Israeli cabinet has many opinions: Olmert claims that Israel has never been this close to reaching an agreement with the Palestinians – an agreement that includes a promise to give back at least 90% of the West Bank… In his meeting with the opposition leader, Binyamin Netanyahu, Obama will hear the necessity of having defensible borders and a united Jerusalem.
One thing is clear – Israel must not isolate the Iranian threat as solely a nuclear-ballistic threat. It is necessary for the State of Israel to illustrate the threats on its borders from Hezbollah in the north to Hamas in the south, and the central threat of the short range missiles. These make it necessary for Israel to maintain an area in the West Bank in order to keep the threat away from the big cities, and in order to hinder the activities of Iranian agents like the Islamic Jihad and the El-Aqsa Brigades, who are present in the West Bank and are prevented from carrying out attacks because of Israel Defence Forces presence.
It is clear to everyone that Obama is after votes from the American Jew population. Assaf Carmel mentions a clip that has recently been shot for the Internet in which a number of prominent Israelis express their faith in the commitment to Israel of presumptive U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Among the public figures to appear on the clip, which is to air in three weeks, are former Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, former MKs Roman Bronfman and Naomi Hazan, Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken and the actor Moshe Ivgi. The clip, a creation of Alma Harel – an Israeli living in Los Angeles – is yet to be released.
In his post, Omer Carmon contemplates reasons for Obama's lack of support by the American Jews:
Amos Shoken turns to American Jews: “I believe in Obama's commitment towards the security of Israel. We do not need another George Bush in the White House”. In addition, Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, Roman Bronfman, Naomi Haza and the actor Moshe Ivgy have all endorsed the Democratic nominee.
But American Jews are worried.
Barack Obama's situation within the American Jew community is far from simple. The majority of Jews in the US who previously voted for the Democratic party, are still worried from the fact that his father's Muslim connections affecting his stance towards the Palestinians and dialogue with Iran.
What must Obama do in order to gain these votes? Danny Blushtein describes his notion of how the candidates must “win over” the Jewish American votes by aligning their viewpoints to that of the Israeli Right-wing Likud party:
I read today that “a series of charicatures in the Arab media is presenting the two American candidates as puppets controlled by Israel and the American Jews”. These Charicatures were described by the league against slander as “antisematic”.
To the best of my knowledge, saying the truth is not “slander”, and a truthful statement cannot be claimed as “antisematic”. I do not know if Barack Obama or John McCain are in the Israeli or the American Jew's pocket, however I do know clearly that they are both doing everything they can to make this impression.
Obama with his “Jerusalem united” statement, and McCain with similar statements, do not sound like balanced global leaders, but as candidates to lead the Likud party. My impression is that in order to win the elections in the US it is necessary to be backed by the Jewish community, and in order to win those votes, it is necessary to align with Likud's dogma.
And on a final and more personal note, Itay Engel describes his optimistic prospects for better global relationships if Obama is chosen:
I often visit countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon for my work using my American passport, so that my Israeli identity is not exposed. In the past seven years I have learned that as an “American”, more and more doors are closing for me. In Africa as well as Latin America, people don't hide their “anti” when I present this passport, and this reaches its peak in Europe. The European disgust with US foreign policy and the fear from the American perception of the world has affected the way US citizens are looked upon.
And here comes Obama, a man whose views and interpretations of world issues are similar to theirs (EU). How is it possible that such a man, who is also black, with roots in Africa and links to Muslim heritage, carries away this same nation that has been categorized as racist, dark and lacking any future hope?
If this is true, all the definitions and categorizations on the Americans as they were frustratingly set by my friend Ihsan from Najaf (Iraq) along with other friends from Afghanistan, Congo, Argentina and the UK, will have to be reworded. If Obama is elected, people around the world will give the United States and its citizens a new opportunity. This means a real change in the relationship between the US and the rest of the world.
* This post also appears in Voices without Votes.

author: Gilad Lotan


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Jamaica: Blog Deletion?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Who would have thought that Google would have reached out to a quiet corner of the Internet and threaten deletion? And yet, it happened to me”: Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp explains.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Japan: Blogger takes FCCJ to task over WaiWai editorial · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

Blogger Aki at Fusou Note takes the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan to task over misinformation in an editorial on the recent WaiWai controversy, pointing out misrepresentations and outright mistakes. Aki describes the FCCJ editorial as “a desperate attempt to cover up the harmful nature of the WaiWai column”.

author: Chris Salzberg


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Japan: Toyota’s Just-In-Time System and the Akihabara Killings (Part 2) · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

(Note: the translation in this post was a collaborative effort by blogger and translator nofrills, blogger and GV author Taku Nakajima, user Saifis, and GV editor Chris Salzberg.)
In the first part of this two-part series, we translated the first half of a blog entry [ja] by blogger boiledema [ja], who presented a very personal perspective on the Akihabara massacre on June 8th. In the blog post, boiledema described conditions in the factory where Tomohiro Kato worked, information that he received from his father, who has worked for decades at the exact same factory. This information from his father conflicted in a number of ways with the reports in the mainstream news.
In this second half, boiledema elaborates further on Japan's temp worker industry, expresses his frustration at Kato's actions on June 8th, and provides further details about Toyota.
Toyota's Kanban System, Applied to Humans (Part 2)
(Japanese title: 人間までカンバン方式)
The half of the post starts with a passage that boiledema asked to be inserted in this translation, in order to emphasize the way the blogger feels about Kato's actions. This passage begins:
また、無差別殺人の背景には、それ以外にも生い立ち、学校生活、関自以外の職場でのストレス、その上未熟な人間性など、さまざまなものがあるだろう。犯人の心の裡は犯人にしか分からない。
どんなに孤独だろうが、どんな心の裡があろうが、
当然、他者の命をゴミのように扱った犯人は人でなしのクソヤローだ
そこは何度強調しても間違いではない。
また、当たり前だが、製造系派遣労働者は犯罪者予備軍ではない。私の問題提起が、派遣労働者＝犯罪者予備軍としての新たな差別意識を招いてしまうなら、それは本意ではない。
工場の中で、アイツ等人殺すかもしれないしな、という眼差しで見られるようになるなら、より孤立を深めてしまい、本末転倒である。
だが、少なくとも犯人にとって関自での環境は、表面張力ギリギリの憎悪をあふれさせる大きな最後の一滴だったとはいえないか。
無論、大きくてもそれは一滴であり、そのほかの様々な要因がなければ、他の人間はあふれさせることはない。
また、ここ最近、若年層の雇用の不安定さ、中でも製造系派遣の悲惨さについて訴え、改善を求め地道に活動してきたガテン系連帯などの人たちがいる。
だが、こういう地道で、正当な方法に則った勇気ある行動ではなく、彼の道ならぬ残忍な行為によって派遣労働に目を向けるのはあたかも、テロに屈しているような、口惜しさもある。
The post then continues:
関東自動車でも他の会社と同様、派遣労働者を積極的に活用しはじめたのは、今から大体１０年ほど前だと思う。
それまで、期間工として補充していた枠を派遣に変わるようになっていた。
父から聞いていた話だと、派遣会社によって賃金も待遇もバラバラで、おおむね期間工よりも賃金は安い。しかも雇用形態はきわめて不安定で、いつクビになるか分からない。
父からも、子供がいて派遣だけでは食べていけないから、工場労働の後に土方のバイトをしている人の話を聞いたことがある。
非常に優秀な人なのに、地元に職がない、学歴が無いなどの理由で派遣労働しか選択肢がない、わずかしか給料がもらえないなどの現状に父なりに歯がゆさを感じたらしい。
一方で、職に対するこだわりの無い派遣を見下しているようなところもある。
ロスジェネ真っ只中の私も現在デスクワークの派遣だが、自分の会社の派遣の待遇を見ているせいか、ずっと正社員になれと言っている。
[…]
今回の犯行について、樹海に入っても誰にも気づかれず死ぬのは嫌だった。
己の存在で社会に爪あとを残したかった。そう思うなら、こんな選択肢にはまりこんでしまった彼の愚かさを呪う。
貧困の問題に対して、５重の排除というものがある。教育、企業、家庭、公的福祉、そして最後が自分自身からの排除だという。
どうしょうもない絶望に追い込まれた人は、自分の不甲斐なさを呪い、自分を追い詰めてしまうという。理由は本当は外にもあるのに。
ほとんどの人が絶望を前に勝手に一人で死んでいるのだ。
絶望の背景を他者に見出すことができたなら、それをなぜ別の手段に訴えられなかったのか。歯がゆくて悔しくて、悲しく憎らしい。
ああ、まったくお前はバカだ。バカすぎる。
トヨタと言って思い出す話がある、３月まで一緒に働いていた人がかつて、銀座でホステスをしていたという。
今は足を洗って派遣なのだけど、そのときの顧客にトヨタの幹部がいたそうだ。
銀座で湯水のように金を使い、ある日幹部は彼女にドレスを送ったらしい。ベルサーチの豹柄のダッサイやつ。だけど値段だけはやたらする代物だったそうだ。
高級な銀座では、アニマルプリントは着ないけれどVIP中のVIPなので仕方なく着たそうだ。
ここ数年、大企業幹部の収入は増え、一般労働者の収入は減った。
各地の工場で派遣労働者が買い叩かれるその一方で。
安易な手段に訴えても、嗤う奴は嗤ったまま素通りするのだ。
それからもう一点、ここ数年盛り上がってきた派遣労働をめぐる運動について、非常に悔しい点がある。
関東自動車は最初に述べた通り、派遣労働をすべて切ろうとしている。親会社のトヨタそのものがそういう意向である。
派遣労働をやめてしまうことで、派遣問題そのものが無きものになってしまう。
無論、国内需要が減ってしまったのも原因だが、コストがかかって組合とかが絡んでウルセー派遣使うなら、海外に移転してしまった方がいいと思われてしまったかもしれない。
派遣はなくなるが、日本の雇用そのものが空洞化し、国外に移転する。
派遣がなくなった代わりに、失業者が増えてしまう。プレカリアート運動を密かに応援していた私としては
「お前らが余計なこと騒ぐから」と後々言われないか心配でもある。
Another note was added to the translation by boiledema:
また、このような許されざる犯罪をもって、派遣労働の問題点を語ることは、元々労働運動に忌避感を抱いている人にとって、
あいつらは自分達の売名のために犯罪者さえ担ぎ上げると、より不信感を抱かれる原因になりはしないかとも思っている。
The post then continues:
最後に亡くなられた方のご冥福をお祈りいたします。
随分犯人に同情的な話になってしまいました。無論、犯人は許されてはなりません。その点は強調しておきます。
会社から近いから秋葉に線香あげに行って来ようかな。
Saifis, nofrills, and Taku Nakajima contributed to the above translation. The author (Chris Salzberg) however takes full responsibility for the contents of this article.


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Jordan: Warning to Travellers to the US  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“You don't even need to be a suspect of wrong doing, or an American Citizen. Your laptop, hard-drive, flash drive, cell phone, iPod, memory cards are ALL subject to seizure and examination by Department of homeland security agents. They may also be held indefinitely!” warns Jordanian blogger Qwaider.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Lithuania: Romuva Religious Renaissance · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Vilnius Blogs writes about a visit to Moletu, homestead of the Lithuanian pagan religion Romuva, which is currently experiencing a renaissance.

author: Vilhelm Konnander


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Pakistan: Another PM? · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

All Things Pakistan on the rumours that the current Prime Minister – Gilani may be on his way out of office.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Pakistan: The IT Sector · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The Pakistani Spectator on the challenges faced by the IT sector in Pakistan.


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Palestine: No Peace for Ahmed Moussa in Life or Death · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Mourners waited by the thousands for the funeral of Ahmed Moussa, the young boy killed early this week by Israeli soldiers during a protest in Nilin.  A peaceful funeral for the young boy was not to be, however; as Palestinians shouted words of mourning and profanities at the Israeli police surrounding the scene, they were hit by canisters of tear gas.  As Haaretz so aptly put it, “the funeral no longer belonged to the family.”
Apartheid Again, who works for a women's peace group in Palestine, attended the funeral and asks:
Why did the soldiers have to come to Ni'lin today? Could they not have left the area just for one hour or even stood 100 metres further back and just let it be? Could they not have let Ahmed's family and friends mourn without lining up as if to goad them and gloat that they had murdered him? I simply cannot understand what I see here.
The blogger also posts this account from a colleague (an Australian living in Palestine who blogs at Live From Occupied Palestine):
As our car, which was about half way through the funeral procession, came to the highway, we could see the Israeli occupation forces had blocked the road and stopped Israeli plated cars from continuing. This sight was a relief. Soon we, along with the Palestinians mourners and other internationals poured out of the vehicles on to the highway. However, as we approached the entrance of Ni'lin we could see the Israeli occupation forces had also setup another barricade at the far side of the village entrance.
This was a clearly provocative act on the behalf of the Israeli occupation forces. They could have easily set up the barrier (as the road lead to TelAviv) 50 or 100 or 200 metres or more away. Placing the barrier where they did meant they would be confrontation, as emotions, tempers and anger at the killing and death of Ahmed spilled over.
It was not to be a peaceful day; later that afternoon, a young attendee of Ahmed Moussa's funeral was shot by Israeli soldiers and fell into a coma.  The young man (aged 17 or 18), Youssef Amira, fell into a coma and was later declared brain dead.  Chroniques du Palestine shared photos of the young man in hospital.
My Window to the World calls on us to remember the two youths:
I have read many discussions and opinions about Ahmed’s death. Many trying to justify the murder or place blame on the family for “letting” a child be in a place where there are weapons. Well, the murder of a child can never be justified. This murder was so clearly intentional that there are no arguments in the world that could ease the blame on the soldier pulling the trigger. Secondly, there is no safe place for children here. The weapons are everywhere, and they are in the hands of the Israeli soldiers. The occupation is by Israeli. The wall and road blocks preventing people from moving are done by Israel. Soldiers come into villages, people’s houses, schools, playgrounds, how can you keep a child safe from that?
The blogger concludes:
I don’t know what to do in this. I don’t know what to think. I have tried to think about the soldiers here as people, like the rest of us. And I have met many which are polite and nice, like any other 18-20 year old. Seeing soldiers like the ones in Ni’ilin makes me give up all hope of humanity. Can we all be turned into this? Can we all put aside our ability for empathy? Can we all be killers?

author: Jillian C. York


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Paraguay: Nobel Prize Winner Stiglitz Wants to Advise New President · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

The winner of a Nobel Prize in Economy, Joseph Stiglitz will be in Paraguay later this month to participate in the inaugural events of incoming president Fernando Lugo.  He will take advantage of his time by participating in a debate in the Paraguayan congress. In fact, he also indicated that he is very excited at the possibility of advising the new head of state [es].  In order to do this, he must receive a full report of the current state of the economy.
Pepa Kostianovsky of De Pe a Pa [es] wonders what Stiglitz will say after seeing where things stand:
Supongo que no le va a extrañar demasiado que una sociedad que sale de soportar más de cuarenta años de dictadura, para continuar por casi dos decenios gobernada por el mismo grupo que acumuló riquezas a la sombra del tirano, no haya logrado encausar su economía hacia un panorama más equitativo, sino que por el contrario se haya agrandado la brecha. Es natural que los ricos consideren su condición como un derecho adquirido.
No creo que lo sorprenda demasiado el que la clase empresarial haya optado por la especulación, en lugar de la inversión, y preferido el comercio de triangulación a la industrialización de materias primas, por ejemplo.
I suppose he won't find it so strange to find a society that has gone through 40 years of dictatorship, and that has been governed for nearly two decades by the same group that accumulated wealth under the shadow of tyranny, to not have moved its economy towards something more equitable, but instead seeing the divide has grown.  It is natural for the wealthy to see their status as something as an obtained right.
I don't think he would be surprised to see the business class having opted for speculation, instead of investment, and its preference for triangulation commerce instead of the industrialization of raw materials, for example.
Michel Quomo of Zoopolítica [es] has high hopes for the economist, but hopes that others are not disappointed:
Ojalá en serio esté interesado en nuestro caso, y pueda darnos una manito para organizar las cosas en el país. No sólo porque el tipo la tiene muy clara, sino por la llegada que tiene entre los progres que revolotean alrededor de Fernando Armindo.
Lo único que espero es que cuando el tipo les cuente que en realidad las críticas son hacia ciertas estructuras de poder mundial, y no contra al capitalismo en sí, y que al final la economía de libre mercado ES la solución, los cuervos (que sólo lo conocían de nombre, por haberlo visto de reojo en Rebelión) no salgan volando espantados diciendo que el tipo “se vendió al Sistema”.
Hopefully he is seriously interested in our case, and that he can give us a hand to organize things in the country.  Not only because the guy understands things, but because the influence he has amongst the progressives that flutter around Fernando Armindo (Lugo).
The only thing  that I hope for is that when the guy tells them the reality that the criticisms are against certain global power structures and not against capitalism itself, and that in the end, a free market economy IS the solution, that the crows (that only knew him (Stiglitz) by name, by seeing him in Rebelión)(an alternative website) that they don't become frightened saying that the guy “sold out to the system.”
Stiglitz has also mentioned that should he work with the new government that he will not charge for his services [es] .

author: Eduardo Avila


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Russia: Academic Politization? · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

LJ user fesstagere claims (RUS) that Moscow State University (MGU) – the biggest in the country – is becoming increasingly politicized to serve the interests of the ruling United Russia party.


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Russia: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Gulag Archipelago, has died on Sunday. He was 89.
Reactions to Solzhenitsyn's death are already beginning to appear in the Russophone blogosphere, and here's one post on the writer's legacy (RUS), by LJ user markgrigorian:
Solzhenitsyn has died
This kind of news always comes unexpectedly. He was 89 years old.
For me Solzhenitsyn began from the kitchen radio set. Week after week, every evening, my grandfather listened to The Gulag Archipelago being read. I was listening, too, understanding little of Solzhenitsyn's text, but catching episodes that [were so powerful they left one breathless] – due to the facts, eyewitness accounts and the sequence of events [presented in them].
Of course, I couldn't have known then the already famous story with [One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich], [Novyi Mir literary magazine, which first published Solzhenitsyn's story in November 1962], [Aleksandr Tvardovsky, editor of Novyi Mir]…
For a long time, Solzhenitsyn was mainly and only the author of The Archipelago for me.
This feeling grew even stronger when photographer Misha Kalantar spent several nights photographing page after page of The Archipelago text, printed in Paris, and it was then that I could see – see but not read – a fat pile of photo pages of this book.
I read it later. By fits and starts, because you could only borrow the book “for one night.” And how much can you manage to read in one night? Even though [I'm a fast reader], I was overwhelmed by emotions, had to put the book aside, catch my breath, wait before diving into the documentary description of the horrible Soviet camps, into the ruthless systematic description of the murders and crimes of the System.
Then there was [Cancer Ward], and then [The First Circle].
I liked the deliberately old-fashioned style and the solidness of his texts, the “pre-Soviet” heavy weight of the composition, the leisurely pace of the narrative.
Soviet readers used to begin their acquaintance with Solzhenitsyn from One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and Matryona's Place, but for me these works supplemented what I'd already read and knew.
His essay on How to Make Russia Better repelled me immediately. I couldn't – and still can't – accept that open nationalism that was revealed in that little text. Though in 1990, the first phrase – “The clock of communism has stopped striking.” – read like a literary, artistic summary of what had happened. What had finally happened.
Around the same time, I began to understand that Solzhenitsyn represents the nationalistic wing of the Soviet dissident movement. And it somehow became clear to me that having to choose between him and [Andrei Sakharov], who stood for democratic values, I've chosen Sakharov's direction.
[The Oak and the Calf] – I read it as an example of uncompromising struggle of an individual against the System. Even though there are flaws in this book, it's an easy read. Which means it is written well.
[The Red Wheel] was already beyond me.
Solzhenitsyn's [Orthodox Christian/patriotic] direction is something completely not mine. [August 1914] I perceive as the gradual loss of literary taste and writing skills.
But, leaving aside my inner rejection of the philosophy and, at times, the [literary style] of Solzhenitsyn, I'd still like to say that his Gulag Archipelago was a true feat. In the Soviet conditions, having to fight censorship and persecution, despite searches, Solzhenitsyn managed to collect the unique material, systematize it and convey it in form that's absolutely striking in its clarity.
This should not be underestimated. The Archipelago is a great book.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: Faithful Hackers? · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Russian-Cyberspace.org writes (GER) about a hacker attack on a Russian Orthodox website, where religious content has been replaced by pornography, and interprets it as an attack by religious hackers supporting a competing church communion.


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Russia: Impressions of Astrakhan · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Photography & Life posts pictures and impressions from Astrakhan – a city combining the retinues of depressing soviet charm with an air of the East.


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Russia: More Russians Go Bankrupt · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

LJ user dragspapa (RUS) calls attention to the fact that an increasing number of Russians are forced to go into personal bankruptcy.


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Russia: Moscow Fairy Tale Museum · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Windows to Russia! writes about a museum in Moscow dedicated to teaching children Russian folk tales and their historical roots.


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Russia: State Internet Monitoring · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Information Policy reports that the Russian government is creating a special agency, based on Federal Security Service (FSB) Internet resources, to monitor and analyse contents published on the Internet.


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Ukraine: Political Optimism After Flood Disaster  · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Ukrainiana comments on the optimism over flood disaster reconstruction expressed by Ukrainian President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Timoshenko, and interprets it as influenced by the upcoming presidential elections.


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Sudan: YouTube Blocked · Global Voices
SudaneseDrima

YouTube has been partially blocked for internet users in Sudan for reasons that are still unknown. Some Sudanese in the country report being able to access YouTube without any problems, while others report being sent to a page with the following message:
“Sorry, this page has been blocked by National Telecommunication Corporation.”
Too Huge World, a western aid worker in Sudan took a screen shot of the page and reports this:
In a fatal blow to our already lackluster sources of entertainment, the Sudanese government has blocked access to YouTube, the online video sharing Web site.
Over at The Sudanese Thinker (which is my blog), commenters dropped their thoughts in reaction to my post about YouTube's blocking in Sudan. The comments indicate that the blocking is being implemented by some ISPs and not others.
No Angel on 						July 26th, 2008 1:03 pm
hey,i wonder how that rumour got started?!
drima i could assure you that youtube is not blocked,im in Sudan,khartoum i read your post typed in youtube.com and surprise surprise ITS WORKING..
so what are you guys going to spread exactly?
Sudan on 						July 26th, 2008 4:26 pm
Youtube is working fine in Sudan, Drima.
digital on 						July 26th, 2008 4:44 pm
No Angel, Sudan……
What ISP’s are you on??
Cause on Sudani and Zain mDSL it is currently blocked??
Are you guys are on Sudatel?
Sudan on 						July 27th, 2008 1:36 pm
Youtube is working on Canar ISP
digital on 						July 27th, 2008 4:19 pm
Well Canar do have their own cable….
DZA on 						July 27th, 2008 4:28 pm
yes canar have its own network .. youtube is blocked on NTC networks
At Black Kush‘s blog, a short but good conversation took place about this issue too. It sheds more light on what's going on.
The Sudanese Thinker reports that Youtube has been blocked in Sudan. Just wanna let you know that I still have access to Youtube, through the Canar ISP. Maybe it has not yet been blocked.
Here is a screen shot.
In response to the post, Amjad shared his opinion on the matter, which prompted a reply from Black Kush.
Amjad said…
This only means/proves that Canar ISP is not regulated by the Sudanese National Telecommunication Corporation, which is a shock to me.
The block as reported was from NTC and not specific ISPs. So supposedly all ISPs regulated by NTC have YouTube blocked and they can't do anything about it. But YouTube being working fine on Canar only means that Canar is not regulated by NTC which I still find hard to believe.
Either ways, I think Canar subscribers are lucky, aren't they?
Black Kush said…
I still don't know how this came about, because other sites are blocked by NTC, showing that famous notice.
Canar users are lucky, for now!
From the above, one can safely assume that those in Sudan using Canar as their ISP have no problem accessing YouTube for now, while those using other ISPs experience the blocking.
Facebook group
In line with what's looking increasingly like a trend, Sudanese flocked to Facebook to voice their concerns in a group dedicated to the matter. The group is called “Unblock Youtube In Sudan Now” and at the time of writing it has 476 members.
Over at the group, numerous members have commented that people shouldn't get too panicked since YouTube can still be easily accessed via proxy software or sub-domains such as uk.YouTube.com
Speculations on the reasons
The reasons behind this block are still vague.
Initially, some bloggers speculated that YouTube had been blocked because it features some indecent, sexual videos of Sudanese girls, but the videos in question had only few views, and are also circulating by mobile phone.
In a press release on AllAfrica.com, The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information say:
YouTube has recently become a key tool for political activists. A number of video clips have been posted with footage of Sudanese security personnel beating and torturing minors, who were arrested and detained following the 10 May armed attack on the capital, Khartoum, by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebels. Mass arrests in Khartoum of perceived supporters of the Darfur rebel group followed the attack.
This leaves us with the other possible and more probable reason behind YouTube's blocking in Sudan by the National Telecommunications Corporation.
ZoulcolmX shares his opinion on this.
I think it's just another attempt to suffocate freedom of speech, especially in times like these, with the international court after Omar, they don't want someone with the opposition to [interfere with] the official story about how every Sudanese citizen supports Omar. They don't want us to see the documentaries that have been posted lately about the “ghost houses” created to torture individuals who didn't support the “salvation revolution”, and with the elections coming, they don't want any anti-kizan* campaign, which is something not allowed on local newspapers, and the national TV is on their side 24/7, but YouTube, Facebook, and blogs give a free space for the truth, and this is what THEY fear the most.
This is not a moral issue, it is political. They have always profited from ignorance, and web 2.0 is against ignorance and those fascists really hates it, so I won't be surprised if they blocked Facebook or MySpace next. If they did, we'll have to do more than just creating a group on the web.
… * Kizan is a nickname for the National Islamic Front and the ruling party the National Congress members.
YouTube's blocking in Sudan has captured a good amount of attention which is a good sign indicating that people value the internet. Unfortunately, right now, there are many facts missing but with time, more of them will surface.

author: SudaneseDrima


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Angola: A month to go to the polls · Global Voices
Paula Góes

The electoral campaign in Angola starts officially today and Wanderley Ribeiro [pt] is motivated: “Angolan brothers, let us all be prepared and united to choose the party that we will help in the development of Angola”. The first parliamentary poll since 1992 takes place next Sept 05. Presidential elections are scheduled for 2009.

author: Paula Góes


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Arabeyes: Are Arab-American Men Losers? · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Are Arab-American men really losers?” wonders Asoom, a young Arab-American woman – or are the parents of potential brides out of touch with reality when it comes to selecting a suitable son-in-law?
According to Asoom:
Many adults take the handful of guys in my small tiny community as representative of Arab Americans all over the US and have decided that there are just no eligible guys for their daughters. They’ll say it's unfortunate their daughters are going to marry someone who grew up in different country and doesn't speak fluent English but there's just no other option because Arab American males are losers. It's hard to find someone who’s a practicing Muslim, educated, good career, and raised in the US. The cultural barrier will be a small compromise she’ll quickly get over.
Such a situation, says the blogger, is unfortunate as it reflects how out of touch with reality such mothers are.
It's like “lady have you been to the Middle East lately???” It's not exactly a land of young prince charmings piling degrees, accumulating assets, and observing the 5 pillars of Islam all while waiting for your daughter to make her appearance and complete his life.
She reasons that the problem for the lack of eligible suitors for Muslim American-Arab women is because girls are more ambitious and qualified than men – arguing that the trend is not restricted to the US only but includes the Arab world.
Guys are generally less ambitious than they were a generation ago, and girls are more. If anything, I would say this is more pronounced in the Middle East than it is in the US. In Jordan, I used to joke around with my cousin whose in her last year studying engineering that she better pull together and secure a classmate before she graduates, or else she’ll end up with someone in the military who chain smokes and curses a lot.
Asoom also narrates an experience with an Arab mother, she has come across, who has actually sent her daughter packing back to the Middle East to land an appropriate suitor.
I was frustratingly trying to explain this to an acquaintance of my mom's at a ladies lunch who kept going on and on about how she's been trying to convince her daughter (whose not even 20) to look in the Middle East because in the whole US of A there's “no one”. She’s even admitted to sending her daughter to spend this summer in Jordan and Dubai with relatives with the main purpose of introducing her to some “qualified” guys.
The blogger stands up for the defence of Arab-American men. She goes on to describe Arab-American men as follows:
There are a lot of great things about American culture and society that's not as much of a common denominator in the Middle East and other Eastern countries. Guys that grew up in the US, as a result of being exposed to a diversity of lifestyles and norms, tend to be more calm, patient, and balanced. The struggles involved in growing up as a minority breed men that are open-minded and sensitive. Those that choose to practice Islam will even have a deeper level of faith and understanding than those that grew up in a largely Muslim environment.
Arab-American girls too get a share in Asoom's post, when she writes about why an Arab man raised in the Middle East would find it difficult to deal with them.
A common denominator amongst girls that grew up in the US compared to girls that grew up in the East is they’re more sensitive, spoiled, and curious. We like to ask “why?” a lot and sometimes rebel just for the sake of rebelling. Girls with such qualities can encounter much difficulty with a guy that grew up in the East who was exposed to a narrower set of experiences and lifestyles growing up. Western raised guys are NOT BETTER than Eastern raised girls, but they are generally better for Western raised girls.


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Bahamas: Quality Teachers  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Economic growth closely depends on the interaction between new knowledge and a country’s ability to learn”: Guest blogging at Bahama Pundit, Ralph Massy stresses the importance of attracting quality teachers in order to improve education standards.


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Brazil: A campaign to give investors control over Amazon · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Sérgio Coutinho [pt] blogs about an US video showing an Arkhos Biotech campaign to give international investors control over the Amazon rainforest. “It is impressive how the viewer's intelligence is underestimated in the name of personal wealth.” Visit the blog to see the video in English.


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Brazil: Do your bit and don’t wait for the media · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Daniel Florêncio [pt] comments on the rallies demanding investigations into Gilmar Mendes,  the president of the Brazilian Supreme Court, over allegations of corruption. “If you take part, take photos, make movies, talk to people who went there and write in your blog on the issue. Publish all the material and send the link to your contact list. Don't expect TV Globo or any shity-paper to show what is going on. Echoe it yourself through your network”.


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Brazil: The cost of the cybercrime bill · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Sérgio Amadeu [pt] argues that the cybercrime bill proposed for Brazil will put DHCP protocol networks at risk because it enables free and anonymous surfing, the same for wireless networks which allow free public access. “(Senator) Azeredo will create a new cost for Brazil: the cost of digital communication”. Meanwhile this online petition against the bill has gathered over 100,000 signatures so far.


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Cambodia: Blogging on Genocide · Global Voices
Geoffrey Cain

Elena Lesley, a Phnom Penh Post reporter and Fulbright scholar, jots her ideas on The Tribunal Report.
After graduating from Brown University in 2004, the articulate, cunning Elena Lesley was awarded a Henry Luce Scholarship to Cambodia to write for The Phnom Penh Post. With a long-time interest in Asia, it seemed like a good match. But knee-deep in a society scourged by years of civil war and gut-wrenching poverty, the experience quickly proved eye-opening.
She vowed to return.
Elena then spent three years in the U.S. reporting for St. Petersburg Times in Florida, but found herself frustrated at the lack of news coverage of Cambodia outside the country. Hearing that Cambodia's genocide tribunal was underway, she returned to Phnom Penh on the ultra-prestigious Fulbright grant to blog for the Post.
Now, she speaks with Global Voices author Geoffrey Cain about her blog, the tribunal, and the challenges it faces.
From your personal observations as a journalist-blogger, what challenges does the Khmer Rouge Tribunal face in bringing the perpetrators to justice?
Of course, there’s the issue everyone keeps raising: age. Since most of the defendants are in their 70s and 80s and not in particularly good health, there is a great deal of concern that some could die before trials begin. This is probably what worries most of the Cambodians I have discussed the tribunal with. While a trial for torture chief “Comrade Duch” could begin as early as September, any predictions for the other defendants are somewhat uncertain at this point.
Part of the ambiguity stems from the relatively complicated nature of the cases against the four other defendants. I’m certainly no expert on the minutiae of each case, but Duch’s is apparently more straightforward – after all, he has cooperated with the court to a certain extent.
There is another issue at play in “bringing perpetrators to justice,” and it involves the scope of the prosecutions. When the United Nations and Cambodian government were negotiating the tribunal’s creation, Prime Minister Hun Sen (himself a former member of the Khmer Rouge) insisted that only a handful of the most senior leaders be tried. Critics of the Prime Minister have claimed that he intentionally narrowed the scope of prosecutions so as not to implicate any former Khmers Rouge who now hold high positions in his government.
When you think about all the people who were involved in planning and implementing Khmer Rouge policies, five defendants seems like a very small number.
Is the tribunal addressing these challenges effectively, or is complete justice a lost cause 28 years after the atrocities concluded?
Well, what do you mean by “complete justice?” Or even “justice” for that matter? I don’t think the tribunal is a lost cause, but I do believe it is somewhat symbolic and abstract.
If you look at it for what it is, literally, the tribunal is a punitive process for a very small group of people. However, there are many organizations that are using these legal proceedings as a jumping off point for discussion and education, both of which are sorely needed in Cambodia.
Supporters of the tribunal often argue that it can set a new standard for the Cambodian judiciary and help end the country’s “culture of impunity.” Both are very ambitious goals, and while I hope the tribunal helps move Cambodia toward a more just and accountable society, it’s impossible to predict how much impact it will have in these areas.
Which is why I believe educational and outreach efforts related to the tribunal are of primary importance. Many Cambodians have never truly come to terms with their experiences under the Khmer Rouge. At the same time, around 60 percent of Cambodians were born after the Pol Pot era and have little knowledge about the period. While younger generations may not realize it, the legacy of that disastrous social experiment is still very much alive in their country.
The court, along with various other organizations, has been coordinating outreach efforts, but it’s a tall order. Accessibility, both practically and theoretically, is problematic. The location of the court itself is hugely inconvenient. At least a 40-minute drive from central Phnom Penh, the judicial complex’s remote location is no doubt a deterrent for many who would otherwise attend proceedings. In terms of the substance of the court’s work, concepts and arguments are highly abstract and during this phase, the “investigative” portion, little information is made available to the public. Trying to engage a largely agrarian population – many of whom are just struggling to survive – under these conditions is, to say the least, difficult. Which is why, in my opinion, more resources should be devoted to such efforts.
In addition to what the tribunal can do for Cambodia, there’s also the issue of setting a precedent for the international community. As one Khmer Rouge survivor told me: “It is very, very important to put these people on trial as an example to other dictators. You cannot abuse people this way and get away with it – even 30 years later.”
How do you tread the line so tactfully between blogging and journalism? Do you blog about the tribunal differently than, say, writing for a traditional newspaper?
Writing for the blog is definitely different from writing for a newspaper. The tone can be a lot more casual and each entry doesn’t require a traditional “news hook,” as an article might. So there’s much more flexibility and posts can range from pretty standard news updates to anything international-justice related that I find interesting.
Of course, in the blog I’m also able to inject some of my own thoughts and opinions. To be honest though, I try to keep this to a minimum. My main goal is to convey tribunal developments and issues surrounding the court to an international audience – not necessarily to weigh in on all of them.
Some say professional journalists and bloggers operate in separate worlds. Do you think journalists should embrace blogs more enthusiastically for reporting? Can blogging enhance traditional journalism?
Definitely. It’s silly to say professional journalists and bloggers operate in separate worlds because, really, a blog can be whatever you want it to be. It’s just a question of format. Many people seem to be under the impression that blogging is somehow inherently different from mainstream journalism and that blogs are synonymous with personal musings and ranting.
They can be used for these purposes, and that’s totally legitimate. However, they can also be used simply to report news or to supplement what appears in a publication’s print version.
Do you think blogging has potential as a “new face” of interactive journalism, in our age of Web 2.0, interactivity, and social networking websites?
I certainly think blogs are a convenient format for conveying news and ideas. Whether they will serve as spaces for valuable online interactivity and analysis, I’m not sure. We’ll have to wait and see how much substantive discussion they can foster.
Elena's musings can be read at The Tribunal Report.

author: Geoffrey Cain


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Cambodia: Pictures of wildlife sanctuary · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Alison in Cambodia visited the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Sanctuary in Phnom Penh. She posted pictures and video clips of the animals in the zoo.

author: Mong Palatino


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China: Considering the Olympics with an open mind · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Highly recommend you read this post from media psychologist Pamela Rutledge which would have Chinese bloggers doing countless push-ups if they (could) read it. On the recent terrorism incidents: “I can’t imagine the hoopla in Homeland Security if the U.S. had been getting the amount of terrorist threats that China has.  Is there a color above ‘red alert’?  … [C]an you imagine the global outrage if terrorists were to succeed in creating havoc during the Olympics?”

author: John Kennedy


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China: Tibetan protesters raise flag outside Olympic stadium · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Still waiting (updating below) for more details, but Qik.com vlogger Noel Hidalgo is at the scene and giving updates via Twitter. Here's a video he took just a few minutes ago not far from the Olympic bird's nest:
Noel has just finished uploading a second video, in which he reports that Chinese firemen have taken down one protester and one appears to be coming down the other pole; no sign of the third protester who was stationed on the ground as seen in the clip above:
Tweet timeline (Beijing time):
6:38am @noneck:
Shoeed west away from tibetan protesters climbing polls outside of nest
6:42am @noneck:
There is now a tibetan protester climbing a western poll. Moving to att pim for qik
7:14am @noneck:
Wow! The locals are hot and bothered. Heading back to the hotel.
7:28am @noneck:
Now i'm being followed by a little old lady who told the last cab driver to kick me out. On foot looking for other followers.
7:33 @noneck:
Found a cab and now i'm heading for some coffee to chill for a bit.


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Croatia: Anniversary of Operation Storm  · Global Voices
Sinisa Boljanovic

On the 4th of August 1995 the largest European land offensive since World War II started in Central Croatia, in the area of Krajina. Until then Croatian Serbs were the majority population there, but a few days later there were no Serbian families left in this area. For that reason it was called Operation Storm (Operacija Oluja). Ante Gotovina, a General in the Croatian Army, led the operation and the International Criminal Tribunal for The Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted him for war crimes.
The news portal about the Balkans BalkanInsight published an article last June titled “Ex – US Envoy: Croatia expelled Serbs” that stated:
Up to 800 ethnic Serb civilians were killed and some 250 000 fled Croatia when in 1995 Croat forces crushed the rebel Serb breakaway state that occupied up to a quarter of the country’s territory since it declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
Drago Kovačević, one of the bloggers at the Serbian news portal B92, who at the time was the mayor of Knin, the main town in the Krajina region, reposted an extensive text he wrote in 1996 on the occasion of the anniversary of Operation Storm. He detailed the political circumstances in Krajina at the time and also described the beginning of the offensive:
[…] [Krajina] was assaulted at the crack of dawn on August 4, 1995. Knin was showered with very many rockets. In the hospital there were tens of people dying. The lights have gone out. Radio Knin has become silent. There was smoke and fire around. Columns of civilians have already started to leave Knin early in the morning towards the only remaining direction, towards [Lika]. The bombing lasted almost non-stop. There was no pause. In particular around the nearby TV station, the Police station and the northern barracks were fired systematically […]
According to the aforementioned article from BalkanInsight, Peter Galbraith, former U.S. ambassador to Croatia, accused Zagreb last June of plotting and sanctioning the exodus of Croatian Serbs in 1995 to create an “ethnically clean” country. Speaking at The Hague war crimes trial of three Croatian generals (Ante Gotovina, Ivan Čermak and Mladen Markac), he said that the leadership headed by late President Franjo Tuđman used ‘Operation Storm’ to ‘cleanse’ Croatia of Serbs. His testimony came as a surprise, since when he testified at the trial of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milošević in 2003 Galbraith had said Croatia was not responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Serbs.
Jasmina Tešanović, Women in Black activist, reposted in her B92 blog a Women in Black‘s statement (SRP), issued under the title “Anniversary of one more mass war crime”:
Thirteen years have passed since the Storm, the military-police action that caused the mass expulsion of the Serbian population from [Republika Srpska Krajina] region. During this action and immediately after it, members of the Croatian military and para-military formations killed many hundreds of civilians, mainly older people. The Storm is one of the biggest war crimes on the space of former Yugoslavia.
The protagonists of this operation, that were apparently directed to carry out ethnic cleansing, did not live to face justice. Today in The Hague there are trials that arise from command responsibility for some of them who are still alive such as Ante Gotovina. We are hoping that these trials will not end like some others and will not additionally discredit the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) as a deliverer of justice, we are warning that the International Community was also responsible for war crimes committed during the Storm, whose representatives were passively watching the killing of people, the burning of houses and the looting of property of the residents.
Holding all innocent victims in esteem, we have to mention Slobodan Milošević's regime and his satellites from Republika Srpska Krajina as well as Serbia's intellectual elite who were spreading propaganda for years about Serbs not being able to live with others nationalities and then, shortly before the Storm, they hypocritically renounced the project named Republika Srpska Krajina and left their people to be victims of ethnic cleansing. And then their false patriotism was shown. We, Women in Black, were meeting columns of refugees on the borders and were giving basic assistance (food, clothes and medicines) to them. Later we were visiting them in the refugee camps. The big usurper patriots were not to be seen anywhere. They showed up only when refugee men were to be arrested and transfered into the [Arkan]'s military camp in Erdut or some other similar places.
Let the Storm be one more warning for us about how terrible the consequences of false patriotism based on financial and political interests can be in spreading hatred that leads regular people into tragedy, while at the same time making the criminal and intellectual elite wealthy.
Belgrade, August 4, 2008
Women in black, Belgrade
Serbia's network of Women in black
In his post titled “Which war crimes get prosecuted?”, Paul D'Amato analyzed the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. He wrote:
While it is true that the conflict in the region developed out of the ambitions of Slobodan Milosevic for a greater Serbia, uniting the Serbs of Serbia with those living in Bosnia and Croatia, Croatia’s nationalists under Franjo Tudjman were no less ruthless in their efforts to create a “greater Croatia,” based on the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from the Krajina and Serbs and Muslims from parts of Bosnia.
Paul D'Amato continued:
[…] From the start, there was the complicity of the Western powers in creating the conditions that made war and ethnic cleansing inevitable. As Phil Gasper wrote:
“In the end, Germany’s recognition of Croatia’s independence–without any guarantees of the Serb minority’s national rights in Croatia–made the outbreak of war and the disintegration of Yugoslavia inevitable. The same holds true for Bosnia. Germany and the U.S. recognized Bosnian independence even though the majority of Bosnian Serbs and Croats–about 51 percent of the republic–had rejected it. By doing so, they put their seal of approval on Bosnia’s descent into war.” […]
He added:
[…] There is the direct complicity of the United States in the greatest single act of ethnic cleansing that took place during the war–Operation Storm in August 1995. […]
Jonathan of the web site Belgrade Foreign Visitors Club looked back on Peter Galbraith's testimony at the trial of Ante Gotovina:
[…] Galbraith then addressed one of his previous testimonies, where he said the expulsion of some 250,000 Croatian Serbs did not qualify for ethnic cleansing, “although there had been crimes, committed either on the orders or with the tacit approval of the Croatian leadership, in the presence and with the participation of the military”. […] Galbraith […] said that he and other American officials had information months before Operation Storm that there would be a military attack on the Serb Krajina. […] But the U.S. never green-lighted the operation, he contended. However, since the U.S. administration knew the assault might be launched, “it expressly warned the Croatian authorities and president Tuđman of their obligation to protect the Serb civilians and prisoners of war. The atrocities like those committed in the [Medak Pocket] in 1993 were not to be repeated.”
In the first days after the arrival of the Croatian Army in Knin, Galbraith recounted, the reports of the U.S. embassy personnel indicated there were widespread killings of Serb civilians and destruction of their houses, “thus confirming that the situation in the field was exactly what the U.S. administration wanted to prevent.”
In Galbraith’s opinion, this happened “on the orders or with the tacit approval of the Croatian leadership, in the presence and with the participation of the military”. […]

author: Sinisa Boljanovic


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Croatia: Interview with Dubravka Ugrešić · Global Voices
Elia Varela Serra

Balkanikum [French] posted an interview with Croatian writer Dubravka Ugrešić, published by H-Alter on the occasion of the publication of her latest novel in French, Baba Yaga a pondu de oeufs (not yet published in English).

author: Elia Varela Serra


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Cuba: Getting Productive  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Cuban government proposes “the handing over of idle land to those who want to make it productive”, causing Yoani Sanchez to “peruse (her) city looking for everything that is useless.”


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Cuba: Hunger Strike  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“It is a small action…it has not made the international press”: Ninety miles away…in another country reports on a hunger strike undertaken by four political prisoners in Cuba.


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Cuba, Venezuela: Sound Familiar?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuban blogger Babalu thinks that the latest decrees by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sound awfully familiar…


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D.R. of Congo: Biomass Charcoal · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ethan blogs about biomass charcoal in Eastern Congo.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Estonia: Review of the Singing Revolution · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Babel Tallinn posts a review of the recent documentary The Singing Revolution (Laulev Revolutsioon) about the period 1986-1991, when Estonia – along with Latvia and Lithuania – gradually reconquered its independence.


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Georgia: Church-State Relations · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Talks with Diana posts a paper written by the blogger on Church-State relations in Georgia. The paper concludes that the tendency for the Georgian Orthodox Church to be used by local political forces poses a threat to democratization in the former Soviet republic.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Guinea-Bissau: Parliament is dissolved by the president · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Duarte Figueiredo [pt] echoes the piece of news that the President of Guinea-Bissau, Joao Bernardo “Nino” Vieira, decided on the dissolution of the National Parliament today, “given the serious institutional crisis” that the country faces. Elections take place on November 16.


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Guinea-Bissau: With no magic wand, we need good will · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Désiré Elisée [pt] on Guinea-Bissau's economic, socio and political situation, which, according to him, doesn't get any better. “There are no good fairies, or magic wands, but there must be good will, technical competence and sense of state not to be up a “gum-three”.


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India: Abortion, Parents and the Indian Law · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A recent court case has brought focus on the abortion laws in India. According to the current laws in India, abortions are not permitted after 20 weeks of pregnancy, unless the pregnancy is determined to be dangerous to the woman's health. In this particular case, a couple, whose foetus was diagnosed with a congenital heart block, missed the 20 week deadline, and appealed to a court in India to allow an abortion. The court however did not allow for the abortion procedure. The case has sparked a debate on abortion.
an orange cat questions the ethics behind the court's decision.
If abortion can be allowed upto 20 weeks, why not beyond it? …
Abortion beyond 20 weeks is allowed when the mother's life is in danger. But regardless of how seriously defective a foetus is, aborting it after 20 weeks is illegal.  Is it really ethical to  give birth to a baby, knowing that it will never have a normal life?Every parent wants his/her child to grow up healthy. Who would want to see their kid on pacemaker and life support from the moment of birth, dependant on them for everything?
At an MSN forum, the question of abortion as a parental choice provokes a lot of responses. One commenter compares abortion to murder and says
In this case it is mercy killing. Just a point think, would one approve abandoning a life if such a defect was known later after birth? If we can trust the medical report why can't we trust the medical science for the cure too?
Another commenter responds
Aborting a child is a painful decision for any woman (and her partner) to take. If the mother-to-be is not emotionally and financially  able to handle the needs of her child-to-be, it would be better to abort than to bring forth an un-wanted child.
Sameer Agarwal asks what the consequences will be on the child who will later find out that he or she was not wanted in the first place. Maami's Weblog has a post that has a lot of commenters expressing sympathy for the parents, and for the child who might be born with a severe disability. Chennai Television explores the idea of science and religion playing a role in abortion laws.
The other aspect to this issue is that the couple did not opt for an illegal abortion, and instead sought permission from the courts. Mumbai Metblogs says
First it is not that we have hundreds of Nikita’s walking in every day asking for court’s help to abort a child. Secondly the one person who has faith in the laws and wanted to go about the right way has been bowled out. After this I don’t think that people will have any hopes of receiving the justice to any issue. The moral of the story is such incidents will make the people loose faith in law and justice.
The other issue that emerges is the potential misuse of a law that allows abortions beyond 20 weeks, which might increase the already existing problem of sex-selective abortions. However, the court does not seem prepared to make any exceptions to the law, which hasn't been changed in years.
As Dr. Datar later said, this legal battle shall help in increasing awareness about the lacunae that exist in the present laws and the need for making amendments to Section 5 of the MTP Act, 1971. The issue of the quality of life after birth, still rages on. The law needs amendment, and the legislators need to get their act together quickly.


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Indonesia: Olympics TV broadcast · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Unspun is wondering why there is little information about which station would be carrying the Olympic broadcast in Indonesia.


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Iran: A journalist and blogger was executed · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Varesh, an Iranian blogger, reports [Fa] that according to several news sites, Yaghoub Mehrnhad, an Iranian journalist, blogger and civil society activist,was executed in Zahedan. He was accused of collaborating with a terrorist group. The blogger says it was a shocking news for Iranian civil society and Iran based news sites did not mention that Mehrnahad was a journalist.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Jordan: Noor and Muhannad T-shirts Unacceptable  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

From Jordan, Tololy finds it unacceptable that t-shirts for children are on sale, featuring the actors in a popular Turkish soap opera, Noor and Muhannad, that has been dubbed into Arabic. More on the story can be found here.


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Kenya: Digital Storytelling Project · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Kenyan Pundit writes about a project using blogs   to give street children in Kenya a space to express themselves.


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Kenya: No tourists, no money · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Video Journalist Africa blogs about the 24-years-old Sharif Osman who survives on letting tourists in Kenya take a ride on his camel.


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Laos: From street kids to Lao cooks · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Lao Voices blogs about a project which helps Vientiane street kids by training them to be Lao cooks.


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Laos: Vientiane online map · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Apocalypse Lao endorses an online map of Vientiane


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Latvia: Constitutional Amendments Despite Failed Referendum? · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Following the failed referendum in Latvia on constitutional amendments, Baltic reports that President Valdis Zatlers and – so far – the Civic Union party (PS) are instead putting forward their respective proposals for constitutional amendments to an extraordinary session of the Latvian parliament – the Saeima.


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Latvia: Failed Referendum · Global Voices
Elia Varela Serra

As blogger Julian Frisch said, “there are still referenda in the European Union that are not EU-related”.  On the 2nd of August a referendum took place in Latvia, on amendments to the Satversme -Latvia's Constitution- that would make it possible for the people to initiate the dissolution of the Saeima -Latvia's Parliament. This referendum is the result of a long process that was put into motion a few months ago for the first time in Latvian history. Asier Blas, a Spaniard living in Riga, explains it in his blog Cartas del Este [Spanish]:
El primero es reunir unas 10.000 firmas. Posteriormente, estas son comprobadas por Comité Central Electoral, y si estas son verificadas de forma satisfactoria, el Gobierno letón pasa a hacerse cargo de la recogida de firmas habilitando lugares de recogida de firmas en todos los pueblos y ciudades del país para que la gente pueda firmar a favor de la propuesta del referéndum. Si en un mes, el 10% del censo electoral firma, el referéndum se celebra. Al respecto, no está de más recordar que en Letonia hay aproximadamente 500.000 personas de origen ruso o descendientes de rusos que no tienen ciudadanía letona y por lo tanto, no tienen derecho a voto en ningún tipo de elección.
Those 10,000 signatures were collected during the fall and winter of 2007, during the demonstrations against corruption. The blog All About Latvia described one of those protests in a post from October last year titled “We've forgotten we're a democracy”:
Foreigners here observed that to make Latvians come out in such large numbers, you have to really piss them off.
And people are pissed.
When the government played political intrigues in the run-up to presidential elections and people protested outside the parliament and their calls fell on deaf ears, the people patiently took that in.
When the government have ignored signs of overheating economy from the Latvian Central Bank, international credit agencies and local macroeconomic experts, the people patiently took that in.
When the government decided to deal with the Loskutovs factor, attempting to circumvent the law regulating the anti-corruption agency that have been successfully fighting corruption, they’re pissed and they want blood.
Pēteris Cedriņš of the blog Marginalia was one of the 213 000 persons that signed in favor of amendments to the Constitution last April during the one-month signature gathering by the Electoral Commission. He justified it with the following words:
I signed… because I trust our people — our nation — a lot more than I trust our so-called elite. When the Government threatens us with “chaos” — the only response can be that the Government has long been dragging us into a half-light oozing lies and sinister lucre. As Laila Pakalniņa suggested, we — the people — could at least have an instrument with which to respond in extremity.
However, he expressed his concerns about such amendments to the Constitution:
… the proposed changes are risky. As experts in the law and politics have pointed out, rallying the people to “throw the bums out” will probably always be pretty easy. The next time we choose from our 60-odd parties in a flurry of kompromat, slick advertising and shady financing, assuming that the people are given this power, it's possible that someone can fund a “throw the bums out” campaign the next day. In this country, smaller than many a city, “political technologies” can be employed like shots in the dark, from guns without serial numbers.
A few days ago Veiko Spolitis of the Baltic blog wrote a post about the pros and cons on the referendum, from a newspaper article that asked several politicians to give their views on the matter. He concluded by saying:
…so called political elite in this country with rather few exceptions really think that their voters are stupid, and thus the politicians are locked into their imaginary power bubble.
However, in spite of the general excitement about the referendum and the hopes that many Latvians had put into the positive change in the political scene of their country that it was supposed to bring, it ended up being declared invalid because of an insufficient turnout. For a referendum to have validity in Latvia, no less than 756,000 registered voters must take part in it, while only 627,530 voters came to the polls on Saturday. Vitaliy Voznyak of the blog The 8th Circle commented on the disappointing results:
The low turnout, around 40%, doomed the grassroots effort.
Nevertheless in a country with 1.5 million eligible voters when 607,901 of its citizens so directly register their discontent with political behavior of their politicians, those in Saeima better straighten out.
Even if they did not succeed, Latvians have laid out an example for others in the Baltic region and beyond on participatory democracy, an example that hopefully will be followed elsewhere.
Pēteris Cedriņš of Marginalia attributed the low turnout to the sunny weather:
Summer in Latvia is short and sweet, not conducive to traipsing to polling stations — many people head for the countryside on the limited number of balmy weekends. Still, with 995 of 998 precincts reporting, 608 202 persons voted in favor of the amendments, 18 831 against.
That means, however, that the “servants of the people,” as our Members of Parliament so love to describe themselves, can relax and return to misrule unhindered
A few weeks ago All about Latvia had already predicted the turnout dilemma:
…the August 2 referendum, when Latvians decide for what they care more – their country or their summer holidays. For holiday-loving Latvians, it’ll be a tough choice to make.
For Baltic Features, the sun helped avoid the worst case scenario for the government:
Thank god it was a sunny day on Saturday, which persuaded enough people to have a day at the beach instead of a day kicking the administration out.
Why? Because whoever is at the helm for the next few months is going to preside over the most painful period in Latvian history since independence was won back in 1991. Unemployment will soar, homes will be repossessed, prices will continue to rise and it’s now too late to do anything about it thanks to the government’s dithering.
[…]
It’s not pleasant to want the worst case scenario to unfold – real people will experience real pain – but unless it happens there’s a nasty chance the usual suspects may have been able to rehabilitate themselves by the time the next general elections come around.


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Malaysia: Consumer grievance campaign blog · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Edward Skading, a senior citizen in Malaysia, has been blogging his complaints against a consumer company in Malaysia.


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Mideast Youth: Voices without Votes Podcast · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Amira al Hussaini, GV's Middle East and North Africa editor, talks with Mideast Youth‘s Esra'a about GV- and Reuters-sponsored project Voices without Votes.


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Nigeria: Forex Trading · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

NaijaEcash writes about Forex Trading in Nigeria asking, “Who makes the money?“


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Philippines: Catholic Bishops on You Tube · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The Philippine Catholic Church has launched a channel in You Tube to spread the gospel via the internet


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Philippines: Tobacco promotion through concerts · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Fans of a popular disbanded local rock band in the Philippines have set-up a protest blog to dissuade tobacco companies from sponsoring a reunion concert.


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Russia: Ingushetian News-Site Silenced? · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Dzutsev's Weblog reports that one of the few websites presenting independent news on Ingushetia, ingushetiya.ru, probably will have to be closed because its editor has had to seek refuge in Western Europe due to political persecution.


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Syria: Red Carpet Reception for Muhannad · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Mohammad Online [Ar], from Syria, is annoyed with the red carpet reception a visiting Turkish actor has received in his country. For more on this story, click here.


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Western Sahara: Three Cups of Tea  · Global Voices
Renata Avila

Blogger Recuerdos del Sahara invited us to share not one but three cups of tea because, as people say there:
El primer te es amargo cómo la vida. El segundo es dulce cómo el amor. El tercero es suave cómo la muerte.
The first cup of tea is sour as life. The second cup is sweet as love. The third is soft as death.
Eva Moreno, who lives in El Aaiun, describes the whole experience of trying to make some Sahrawi tea:
“La primera vez que intenté prepararlo me salio fatal, bueno, la primera y la segunda y la tercera… No es que sea muy difícil pero hay tener maña para calcular bien la cantidad de té y azúcar y para hacer la espuma: se vierte el té de un vaso a otro desde cierta altura, y es fácil que se salga fuera y ponga perdida la bandeja. Se prepara en brasas (“jmar”) de carbón vegetal (“fajar”). A muchos les gusta añadirle hierbabuena, cominos y otras plantas cuyos nombres no recuerdo ahora. La bandeja con patas se llama “tabla”, la tetera “berred” y los vasos “kisan”. El té sienta muy bien cuando hace calor; en el mes de Ramadan, al ayunar se tiene a veces dolor de cabeza, sobre todo si la noche anterior no se tomó el té y se tiene esa costumbre, a eso se le llama “tener la cabeza de té”.
“The first time that I tried to prepare a cup of tea was terrible, well, the first time, and the second and the third… It is not that difficult but you must calculate precisely the quantity of tea and sugar and make the foam: You have to pour out the tea from a certain elevation, and then it easily spills out and makes a mess of your platter. You should prepare it on a grill (“jmar”) made of charcoal (“fajar”). Many people enjoy it with some mint, cumin and other herbs that I cannot remember now. The platter with posts is called “tabla,” the teapot is “berred” and the cups “kisan”. The tea is pleasant when it is hot. During the month of Ramadan [the Muslim month of fasting], when you are fasting sometimes you have a headache, especially if you forgot to drink your tea the previous night and you are used to it. You are then said to “have a tea head”.”
As with many cultures, people in Western Sahara have developed rites and a social scene around tea and we can imagine the desert, a cloudless sky at night, a full moon and a cup of tea (or two, or three)! Enjoy!

author: Renata Avila


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Trinidad & Tobago: Unchained?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Here every creed and race find an equal place but there is no solidarity. Only the Africans celebrate the fact that they are free. Only the Indians celebrate the fact that they arrived. What is the point of being cosmopolitan if we can’t even be bothered to share our triumphs and our failures?”:  One hundred and seventy years post-Emancipation, Trinidadian blogger Attillah Springer is “still trying to make sense of freedom.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Ukraine: Hacker Target? · Global Voices
Elia Varela Serra

Pawlina of the blog Nash Holos comments on an article about internet hackers in Russian forums hackers calling for a large-scale attack on the computer networks of government institutions in Ukraine because of its NATO aspirations.


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Africa: Big Brother Africa III · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A Nairobian's Perpectives writes about Big Brother Africa III, which is set to begin this month.


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Albania: Tourist Boom? · Global Voices
Elia Varela Serra

A Nevada Yankee in King Zogs’ Court comments on the increase in tourism this summer in Albania.


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Arabeyes: Mauritanian President Ousted in Military Coup d’état · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Army commanders ousted Mauritania‘s first freely elected president in two decades, President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, in a military coup d'état Wednesday after political feuding over the firing of the country's four top generals.  Military commanders announced the formation of a new state council and its leader,  General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz (one of the four fired generals), on state radio and television stations.  General Abdel Aziz was also involved in a 2005 coup d'état in Mauritania.
Algerian The Moor Next Door has been blogging the story intensively and reports:
Talking to informed Mauritanians, some of them saw the coup coming during the summer (as it did), in the autumn, or not at all. My sense was always that the coup would come this summer (I never wrote this expressly but I expressed this view in discussion and refrained from commenting on the crisis (1) because Western Sahara Info. covered it well and there is not point in competing when you’re one of two or three bloggers paying attention to it, (2) I wanted to make sure that if I “predicted” it I would not be wrong; I could have said, “by the end of May/June/July/August Sidi’s government will be no more” and been wrong; I’m no weather man, and (3) I’ve yet to encounter a Mauritanian that had positive things to say about Sidi beyond his golden personality). One of the major pressures that forced Sidi to act the way he did towards the end was the threat of a commission being formed to investigate the financial side of his wife’s foundation, which would surely have done him in ever more deeply. The commission might even have made his administration’s ridiculous personal expenditures public. For instance, I am told that his air travels alone cost the state some $2 billion, on chartered jets, his family, full entourage, and various other luxuries. He was between a rock and a hard place: Either he would be forced to step down (a la Olmert) in total shame, or he would be impelled to dissolve parliament and reorganize his government, which would precipitate a coup such as today’s, allowing him to save political face. Flanked on both sides, he moved in desperation and met his fate.
Western Sahara Info has been blogging the crisis from its outset, and today provided up-to-the-minute information on the coup, including a brief analysis:
Quick analysis, which I may regret: a tragedy for Mauritanian democracy, on the one hand, but that didn't stand much of a chance anyway; but more importantly, a giant setback for the country's broader chances of political development. While President Abdellahi and his cronies aren't exactly angels, Generals Ghazouani and Abdelaziz represent the very worst military-parasitic element of the Mauritanian regime, and their refusal to let the civilian side of the regime settle down in power threatens to undo it completely in the long run. If the last coup, in August 2005, could be met with cautious understanding by the international community, having unseated President ould Tayaa, and eventually with praise as it led to a real transformation, this time around it is different. What happened in 2005 was that a military-personal-tribal dictatorship was overthrown and the chance arrived to replace it with a civilian semi-authoritarian structure that respected most democratic norms most of the time, and which made sensible moves towards national reconciliation, refugee return and economic development; not heaven, but infinitely better. This change is now being reversed. The putschists — even though they are some of the same people as acted in 2005 — must be condemned and the result of the coup overturned if possible; Mauritania had a golden opportunity to break its vicious circle, and it is now slipping away.
Roads to Iraq, in a post entitled “American orchestrated coup in Mauritania,” reports the news as well:
Things are happening rapidly in Mauritania, started with a coup this morning, issuing the “statement no 1” on the Mauritanian TV, changing the Head of the TV because he refused to cooperate with the army chief who staged the coup, and announcing a new military junta.
In Egypt, Bella [Ar] says what happened in Mauritania proved that Arabs weren't cut for democracy.
يبدو أن الممارسة الديمقراطية لم تُخلق لشعوب مثل شعوبنا لاتستطيع التنفس خارج الحكم العسكري
It seems that democracy wasn't made for people like us – who cannot breathe outside military rule.
After giving us a brief history of Mauritania's young democracy, Bella writes:
وهكذا ياسادة لم تكد موريتانيا تنعم بممارسة الديمقراطية في تجربة رائدة كنا جميعا نغبطها عليها حتى عادت ريما لعادتها القديمة وتدخل العسكر وحدث الانقلاب
This way, Mauritania, which was just about to reap the fruit of democracy in a pioneering move which the entire region was eyeing with excitement, things return to what they were originally, and the military intervened and the coup happened.
Kuwaiti Wild Il Deera poses a few questions about the coup. He asks:
ما هو موقف جامعة الدول العربية من قادة الإنقلاب؟
ألم يكن الرئيس الموريتاني رئيساً منتخباً من الشعب؟
كيف لمؤسسة سياسية مثل الجامعة تطلب أن تُحترم عربيا و دولياً أن تقبل بحدوث إنقلاب عسكري على نظام أحد دولها الأعضاء!
What is the stance of the Arab League from the leaders of this coup?
Wasn't the Mauritanian leader elected by his people?
How can a political group, like the Arab League, which demands that it is respected in Arab and international arenas allow such a military coup to take place in one of its member countries?
Prolific Moroccan blogger Larbi [fr] linked to a news article, remarking:
On peut le dire : l'Afrique est un continent maudit !
His post garnered significant response.  Citoyen commented:
Il est vrai que les putschs sont imprévisibles en Afrique…mais je me demande, quand même, si cette fois-ci encore, les services marocains ont été pris de court comme en août 2005 ?
It is true that coups are unpredictable in Africa…I wonder, though, if again, the Moroccan services have been caught short as they were in August 2005?
Finally KABOBfest, always one to inject humor into every situation, remarks somewhat facetiously:
Whereas coup culture in a lot of countries is a thing of the past (e.g., Syria ain't had a coup in a few decades) some countries like to kick it old skool, harking back to when it seemed like there was a coup-a-week somewhere in the world. While Mauritania isn't Fiji, they are keeping the tradition of pointless coups alive and well in the Arab world.
The Arabdemocracy blog also has an excellent “obituary” for the young democracy that was.


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Armenia: Blogger Bank Boycott · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Armenian Observer reports that following the closure of a branch in the self-declared Republic of Nagorno Karabakh, some Armenian bloggers are urging a boycott of the Russian-owned VTB Bank. Central to the problem is that Nagorno Karabakh is recognized internationally as a part of Azerbaijan, and the bank is making a bid to acquire a bank in a country which is technically still at war with Armenia over the disputed territory.


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Armenia: Corruption · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Armenian Observer commends the new prime minister, former Central Bank Chairperson Tigran Sargsyan, for what appears to be genuine efforts to combat some of the corruption that has infested government structures and skyrocketed since the early 1990s. Even so, the blog notes that the radical opposition led by Armenia's first president is less than convinced although stop short at singling out Sargsyan for blame.


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Armenia: Minority Education · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Armenia: Higher Education & Sciences comments on a program to develop leadership skills among the country's ethnic minorities. Although not a specific area of focus of the specialist blog, it then goes on to discuss the various issues relating to minority education in Armenia.


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Armenia: New Transgender Blog · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

As the LGBT community in both Armenia and the Diaspora continue to adopt blogs in order to communicate in what otherwise remains a media vacuum, Unzipped: Gay Armenia announces the establishment of Transgender in Armenia. The blog, written in Armenian and Russian, is based in Yerevan and Unzipped: Gay Armenia says it represents another “important sign that LGBT Armenians are becoming more active in making their voice heard.”


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Armenia: Turkish Football Fans · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Ahead of September's historic football match between estranged neighbors Armenia and Turkey, Unzipped comments on rumors circulating in Yerevan that as many as 10,000 Turkish football fans might descend on the capital. The blog notes that “football diplomacy” might yet represent a real possibility for a breakthrough in relations between two countries which currently have no diplomatic relations.


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Azerbaijan: A Political Lunch & Blogs · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Thoughts on the Road, the blog of an American journalist in Azerbaijan, recounts lunch with an economic and political figure in Sheki, but also reports that the blogging component of a local media training course went very well indeed.


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Azerbaijan: Corruption · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Thoughts on the Road says that it raised the issue of corruption with a group of Azerbaijani students who determined that both the government and citizens were responsible for fighting against the phenomenon. However, the blog notes, such a reality is first of all dependent on their being the political will to combat corruption from the authorities and in Azerbaijan that is sadly lacking.


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Balkans: “The banality of journalistic evil” · Global Voices
Elia Varela Serra

Gray Falcon writes a detailed critique of a recent article by Dan Bilefsky published in the New York Times titled “Hero to Some, Butcher to Others”, about fugitive Ratko Mladić. In it he complains about what he calls “the Good versus evil, black-and-white, typical coverage of Bosnia (and the Balkans in general)”.


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Belarus: Lukashenka and God · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Malishevsky analyses (RUS) Belarussian President's Alyaksandr Lukashenka, relationship to God from his frequent invocations of higher powers in speeches and public appearances, especially when it comes to foreign relations.

author: Vilhelm Konnander


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China: Darfur activist has visa revoked · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Twitter user and Team Darfur spokesperson Emma Stone Mackinnon has just tweeted: “China revoked Joey Cheek's visa just now…no links yet, press release just went out.” More on Joey Cheek at Wikipedia.


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China: Increasing City Size · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Fons Tuinstra from China Herald blogs about the Shenzhen city government's policy in increasing the city size by revamping the registration system and allowing floating population to settle in the city.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Olympic Blocking and Unblocking · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Many websites, such as Radio free Asia, have been unblocked in China during Olympics, however, Liu Xiaoyuan pointed out that many local blog posts are still blocked. The unblocking is selective deal to political pressure, while blocking is still set as default policy. Citizen media such as inmediahk.net in Hong Kong is still blocked.


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China: Photos from morning Tibet protest · Global Voices
John Kennedy

After getting a global scoop with streaming footage of the Olympic Stadium Tibet protest this morning, vlogger Noel noneck Hidalgo has now uploaded to Flickr some photos taken at the time which better illustrate how the situation was handled.


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China: Tips for Internet Ads · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Hu ge gives some tips[zh] for making internet Ads successful.


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China: Where’s Our Nest? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Tiger temple interviewed construction workers of the Olympic stadium, “Bird nest”. They have built the nation's nest but themselves remain in a nest-less state. The citizen journalists will post his series at my1510. Part I and Part II.


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Costa Rica: Olympics Blog · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Vuelta en la U [es]  launched a special blog providing coverage of Costa Rica's participation in the 2008 Olympics.


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Croatia: The Death of Dinko Šakić · Global Voices
El Hud

For most people outside the Balkans, the name, Dinko Šakić, the location of Jasenovac, and the group named Ustaša will have little meaning.  For Croatians though, these names keep coming back time and again to replay on a national and international level.
In explaining the importance of this, it's best to start with the Ustaša.  This was the name of the ultra-nationalist, fascist group that seized control of Croatia during WWII and acted as a puppet government for the Nazi regime with Ante Pavelić as head of state.  They had the distinction of proving that they were not only just as brutal as their Nazi counterparts, but actually even more so.
Such an example was the creation of the Jasenovac Concentration Camp which the Croatian regime used to imprison, torture, and kill Jews, Serbs, Roma, Partisans (Croatians fighting against the Ustaša regime), and just about anyone else that they found to be an enemy.  It is difficult to ascertain the exact number of prisoners killed at this Croatian version of Auschwitz, but the official and generally accepted figure is approximately 70,000-85,000 people with other estimates in the past putting the number as high as 500,000 (higher figures have been discredited as being inflated).  The commander of the camp was a man named Dinko Šakić, who managed to flee Europe to hide in Argentina once the Ustaša regime fell in 1945.
Marko of the blog Greater Surbiton summed up the legacy of the Ustaša:
The history of the Ustasha movement, in other words, was utterly shameful – not only from the moral, but from the patriotic Croatian perspective. Nevertheless, ever since the Communist regime in Croatia fell in 1990, there have been those Croats who have sought to perpetuate the disgrace by their loud statements upholding the legacy of the former Ustasha regime.
In 1998, Šakić was found in Argentina and shortly after extradited to Croatia to stand trial for his term as commander of the Jasenovac prison.  He was sentenced to 20 years in jail, which it turns out he would only serve half of as he just recently died on July 20, 2008.  His death was a minor event given that he was 86, but his funeral has caused a great deal of controversy in Croatia and with Jewish people at large whom he directed the extermination of at Jasenovac.
His funeral called for him to be buried in his Ustaša uniform.  When taken out of this Croatian context and transposed on another setting, many people would find this ludicrous as was pointed out by Matthew on the Serbian news portal B92:
Could you imagine such a funeral for the commander of Auschwitz?
As if that wasn't enough, as stated by Marko of  Greater Surbiton:
…at his funeral the presiding clergyman, Vjekoslav Lasic, said that the ‘court that convicted Dinko Sakic convicted Croatia and the Croatian nation'; that the ‘NDH  is the foundation of the modern Croatian homeland’, and that ‘every honourable Croat should be proud of Sakic’s name’.
Bear in mind that this is not an opinion shared by every Croatian, but these words carried far with their meaning.  On both a national and international scope, those who were effected by the killings of Šakić's command of Jasenovac were outraged by these events as was relayed by LimbicNutrition Weblog:
Vice-President of the Jewish Community Jasminka Domas claimed “the disgraceful events that occurred at the funeral of Dinko Šakić in Zagreb insult the memory of all the victims of the Ustasha regime, and besmirch the Republic of Croatia's good name.”
Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem Efraim Zuroff has written to Croatian President Stjepan Mesić to express his anger at the way Šakić’s funeral was organized and at the priest’s speech.
Ari Rusila of BalkanPerspective also commented on the issue by quoting what Shmuel Meirom, the Israeli ambassador to Croatia said of the funeral:
“I'm convinced that the majority of the Croatian people are shocked by the way the funeral of the Jasenovac commander and murderer, dressed in an Ustasha uniform, was conducted,” ambassador Meirom said in a written statement to the state news agency Hina. “At the same time, I strongly condemn the inappropriate words of the priest who served at the funeral and said that Sakic was a model for all Croats” Meirom said.
And indeed Zoran Oštrić of Zelena Lista (The Green List) [Croatian] is one of those Croatians who is against the honoring of such a man as Šakić and laments how the popular culture of Croatia is holding him to be a Croat worthy of respect:
It is unfortunate, that when Croatia convicted him ten years ago that whether from the urging of their grandfathers or on their own that his name [Šakić] was chanted at soccer matches by many of the youth.
Why do these people become cultural icons despite the hard facts that they have murdered countless people?  The simple answer to this is that it is much easier to forget about such figures in history as opposed to actually coming to terms with the actions that they did at the bequest of the government at the time.  One sentence on Ljevica (the Left Hand) [Croatian], an otherwise very left blog states:
They convicted him because he was a person with the pistol who killed forty detainees and ordered the hanging of 22 prisoners of war, but now this is not important.
While an admission of the crimes that he committed, it has been seen that those who were directly affected by the killings ordered by Šakić do not agree that just because he is now dead that what he did no longer matters.

author: El Hud


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Czech Republic: The Smallest Coin Must Go · Global Voices
Elia Varela Serra

The Czech Daily World reports that as of September Czechs won’t use the CZK .50 (50 heller coins). He adds, “after 116 years of existence of heller coins Czechs will only have ‘crown’ coins”


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Dominica: Rascaly Rabbits  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Steve's Dominica writes an amusing post about “the annual Rabbit Festival in Cochrane.”


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Environment: Oil Prospecting in Uganda · Global Voices
Juliana Rotich

Omar of Safarinotes looks at Uganda's quest for Oil, saying
“Environmentally, while prospecting for oil, Uganda has to take great care in protecting its other great natural resources: water, land and wildlife. The oil industry has been known to be one of the most merciless and damaging to the environment.”

author: Juliana Rotich


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Environment: Pros and Cons of Energy Saving Light Bulbs · Global Voices
Juliana Rotich

Faced with increased electricity costs in Kenya, the blogger Intelligentsia considers the benefits and considerations to keep in mind when switching to CFLs (Compact Flourescent  Lamp or Light bulb)


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Environment: Recycling Beach Waste  · Global Voices
Juliana Rotich

Karen Chernick writes  at the Green Prophet blog, about the initiative to clean up the beach and recycle plastic waste, an initiative of major beverage companies in Israel.


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Haiti: Black Chopin  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

AfriClassical profiles Ludovic Lamothe, “one of Haiti's most renowned classical composers”, whose méringue Nibo won a municipal contest in Port-au-Prince and celebrated the coming end of the U.S. Occupation in 1934.


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Hong Kong: Green Olympics and Black Soul · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

William Sin criticized Greenpeace's press release on Beijing Olympics for supporting hard handed environmental policy. Hevdevil in respond to the Greenpeace's post at inmediahk.net said that Greenpeace Hong Kong should change its name into GreenHarmony Hong Kong, as the organization has been harmonized.


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iSummit2008: The Japanese-English divide · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

The 2008 iSummit in Sapporo, Japan ended last week after three days of keynotes and lab sessions on open content and open culture. Blogger Shinya Ichinohe (shinyai), who attended the event, reflected on his experiences in a blog post entitled “End of iSummit 08: The Division between Japanese-language and English-language sessions” (iSummit 08終了：日本語セッションと英語セッションの分断). While grateful for all that he learned in the sessions and keynote presentations, shinyai also regrets the division which emerged at the summit between Japanese-language and English-language tracks.
In the post, he writes:
札幌で開催されたiSummit08が終了した。迷いに迷ったが、3日間参加してよかった。最後のモエレ沼にもいきたかったが、飛行機の時間の関係で、参加できなかった。
非常に実りがあったし、新しい知見も得られたし、なによりポジティブで明るい人たちが多く、楽しい時間を過ごせた。主催側の交流を促進する努力もすばらしかった。僕はまだまだ、ある種の興奮状態にあるような気がする。
iSummit についての参加前の理解は、Creative Commonsのイベントで、法律家や技術者が集まり、クリエイティブコモンズの未来について語ったり、あるいはＣＣライセンスのコンテンツのワークショップが行われたりするイベント、というものであった。中核部分の理解としては間違っていないと思うが、実はもっと射程は広く、「文化」という切り口で、グローバルな社会の発展について議論するという場所と理解したほうがよさそうだ。たとえば教育のLabでは、Freeな教育コンテンツをいかにして世界中で共有して、各国の教育の改善に寄与するかが、話し合われていた。Labはワークショップ形式なので、参加者では議論に参加し、議論をまとめていくものが多く、日本人は（僕も含めて）ついていくので精いっぱいという人が多かったように思う。
一方 Keynoteやパネルは、日本語のもの、英語のものがそれぞれあり、同時通訳があったりなかったり。Labsなどの小部屋のセッションが並行している時間帯が多いので、同時通訳のない日本語のセッションは、国際会議なんだけど日本人だけが集うという、妙な状態になった。僕は日本語のセッション、たとえば、著作権政策についての田村善之先生や津田大介さんが登壇するセッションとか、いくつか非常に興味のあるセッションをあえてスキップして、わからないながらもあえて英語のLabに参加するようにした。
僕自身まだいろいろな消化不良があって、内容については、これからブログや紹介された各プロジェクトのページなどを見て、勉強しようと思っている。が、何よりも印象的だったのは、この日本語空間と英語空間の分断だった。実は日本語のセッションも英語のセッションも、その多くは、いかにしてコンテンツを円滑に流通させるかという話なわけで、そこらじゅうで話はシンクロしている。しかしシナジーがほとんどない。「ニコニコモンズ」も「初音ミク」も角川の「お墨付き」の話も、うまく英語で説明すれば、きっと多くの人が興味を持ったのかもしれないが、これらは（角川歴彦氏のプレゼンには通訳があったけれど）日本語で語られたので、日本語のわからない参加者にはほとんど何も伝わっていないと思う。
逆に日本人は日本語のセッションに集い、自分たちのコンテキストだけで話している人が多かったし、すでに出ているCNETやInternet Watchの記事も、日本語のセッションのことばかりが扱われている。英語のセッションのことを日本語で紹介するプレス関係者は、おそらくいなかったのではないか。
しょうがないと言えばしょうがないのだが、この分断された状態は、非常に残念だった。最後の日本語のセッションで、伊藤譲一さんが角川やクリプトンに対して、海外動向についてのキーノートの話を引用しながら、CCの利用を呼びかけるという場面があった。非常に面白いやり取りであり、日本でのＣＣをめぐる状況が、ほかの国からの参加者とも共有できそうな、すごくいい場面だったのだが、そこにいたのはほぼすべて日本人であった。
Global Voices Online、Asiajin、Techcrunchの日本関係の記事、Joiito Blogなど、日本のことを英語で書いているブログは、この「ボトルネック」状態にあって、非常に重要な役割をはたしているということを、あらためて感じた。僕の英語力では、それらに匹敵するような役割はまだ果たせないけれども、それに準じる何かを、やっていこうと強く感じた。

author: Chris Salzberg


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Jamaica: Connecting with Memories  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Francis Wade makes a trip out to his late grandfather's home and realises that one reason he moved back to Jamaica was “to give up the rootless and drifting feeling of not belonging that I always felt in America. I am able to piece together parts of my grandfather's memory from others. It connects me to him, and to them, in a way that I find edifying…”


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Jamaica: War on Crime · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As a Superintendent of Police is detained on charges of corruption for the first time in Jamaica, Kadene Porter at Abeng News Magazine asks: “How serious are the authorities in this war on crime and violence?”


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Japan: CNET article on Mainichi scandal sparks huge response · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

An article [ja] by former Mainichi journalist Toshinao Sasaki has sparked a huge response from Japanese Internet users, scoring a whopping 23643 votes on CNET and nearly one thousand bookmarks on Hatena, as well as many blog reactions [ja] and forum discussions [ja]. In the article, Sasaki quotes from anonymous sources within the newspaper and advertising industries, explaining that public reaction to the recent WaiWai controversy has struck fear not only within Mainichi itself, but within the newsrooms of other Japanese newspapers as well.


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Kenya: Google funds Mobile Planet  · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Emeka reports that Mobile Planet, a company that develops voice and data applications for mobile devices, has received funding from Google.


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Latvia: President Scolds Parliament · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Baltic comments on the continued political drama in Latvia, as the country's President today scolded parliamentarians after the failed referendum to give people the right to declare non-confidence in the Parliament – the Saeima.


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Lebanon: Calling Gaza and the West Bank · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

“…people in Lebanon can now make calls to +970 lines in the West Bank and Gaza,” reports a Diamond in the Sunlight about the recent decision by the Lebanese government to allow direct phone links between Lebanon and Palestine.

author: Moussa Bashir


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Lebanon: On Bulldozing and Israel’s “Moral Superiority” · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

UrShalim discusses the role of the bulldozer as a weapon in Palestine and Israel.

author: Jillian C. York