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More on Moldovans in Italy · Global Voices
Lyndon

A couple of months ago, I translated a comment on Alex Culiuc's blog which I found to be touching and revealing about the lives of Moldovan labor migrants.  Since then, I've been meaning to translate a follow-up comment by the same commenter (here's the original), Snejana, and I've finally gotten around to it:
…when I write about Moldova I get very emotional, because I don't understand why life is so difficult.  On every corner in Italy there are Moldovans looking for work which they hope will make them some money and allow them to pay off their debts and send some money home to their children.  Just today I was standing by a bank, and a strange woman walked up and greeted me.  She asked me just one thing:  “Do you know of any job at all, no matter what it pays, I'm sick of walking around outside and searching from morning until night,” and she got teary-eyed, then she got embarrassed and left.
It's difficult when there's nothing I can do to help, it's difficult when I hear hurtful words about us, but those at home should know that there are lots of us here who work very hard and aren't ashamed to say we're from Moldova, and to tell people about our holy places; we cook our national dishes, and we pray all the time for our motherland.
I know lots of people who say that they are sick of being someone's slave and have gone home to their villages, because it is psychologically very difficult to always be a foreigner.
My friend is an Italian, and he always wants to learn something about my country, I'm happy that at least Europe is interested in us because of our girls.  Because before, 10 years ago, no one even knew what side of the world we were from, but now, like they say, “whether they talk good or bad about you, at least they talk about you.”  […she describes differences between Moldovans and Italians…]
I'm still quite young, and I have time to choose my way in life, but now I want to tell the people who want to come here that the land where you were born will always be in your soul.  Best to you all, Ciao vi voglio sempre bene.
Another comment from Snejana, in which she summarizes an Italian's opinion and posts it in full (in Italian, which I can't translate and have omitted here):
Here are a few words from Italians who have visited Moldova.  I don't know if you'll understand Italian, but I'll translate the most important part, which is that those who have been there a few times say that the situation is getting better; I want to believe this, too.
So do I, although I'm not sure it's true.
Old and New on Str. Cosmonautilor – Chisinau, Moldova, August 2006 - photo by Lyndon Allin


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Myanmar: Cashing in on Kyoto Protocol · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Dawn describes the revenue model of the new company she just joined.  “Our company is just a newly formed company and we focus on gaining profits through CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) projects that will reduce global warming by projects that will reduce Greenhouse Gases (GHG). It's a brand new concept that hasn't yet been employed in Myanmar, and our company plans to persuade government and private sectors to develop such projects. Then we can get Certified Emission Reductions certificate which we can sell back to Annex I countries (developed countries that have obligations to reduce emission under the Kyoto Protocol) because they might not be able to reduce emissions, and they can buy these certificates to counter the fine they'll receive.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Preetam Rai


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Nicaragua: Increased Crime Against US Citizens · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

As a foreigner living in Nicaragua, Pensajes de Pamela  summarizes the latest news in Nicaragua, and writes “There have been several high profile deaths of Americans reported here in the last several weeks in Granada and Esteli, and while there is certainly no need to panic, the U.S. Embassy reports that petty crime and robbery against U.S. citizens is rising.”

author: Eduardo Avila


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Nicaragua: Where’s the Blogosphere? · Global Voices
GV Contributor

Second Blog Roundup for Global Voices Online. The first one can be found at Barricada and here Global Voices Online
Where's Nicaragua's Blogosphere?
From Florida
When we started collaborating with Global Voices Online, we thought there wasn't a real blogosphere in Nicaragua… and there isn't, but one does exists in the Nicaraguan Diaspora.
In this case, we'll talk about Martha Isabel Arana, a Nicaraguan resident in Florida USA, who writes in her introduction: “I'm interested in everything about technology, art, music, literature, and cultural interchange with other countries. As an immigrant living in the USA, one of my major desires is to promote the culture of my country for all the readers who want to know more about us.”
In her blog she publishes videos, poems, short stories and reports about Nicaraguan culture. In regards to this work Martha says [ES]:
Nunca pensé compartir al mundo mis planes, era más que todo un proyecto personal. No conocía el mundo de los blogs o bitácoras, ni la herramienta de comunicación tan importante y poderosa que representa. Después de “copiar y pegar” un par de leyendas vistas por allí, los primeros comentarios comenzaron a llegar. Me di cuenta que otras personas en diferentes partes del mundo estaban leyendo mis pequeñas historias y la necesidad de buscar una nueva leyenda para mi bitácora nacía apenas publicaba una anterior…. Me atreví a dar un paso mas adelante y quise recopilar nuevos testimonios. Los nicas me inundaron de vivencias y relatos y me enamoré de sus historias, sus cuentos, del tesoro que estaban poniendo en mis manos. De pronto habían 10, 20… 80 mil visitas de diferentes regiones del mundo leyendo las historias mágicas que nacen en nuestros ríos, explotan con nuestros volcanes y desembocan en el mar.
From Costa Rica
Mi Patria es Ticaragua [ES] (My homeland is Ticaragua*) is a blog edited in Costa Rica that tries to unite both Costa Rica and Nicaragua past any territorial or political differences between the two countries.
* Ticaragua = Is a combined word, from TICA, the short name Costa Ricans gave themselves, and RAGUA, for nicaRAGUA, Ticaragua.
Mi Patria Es Ticaragua posts news, opinion articles, and events which promote positive interchange between both countries. For example, they posted the concert of Nicaraguan singer/songwriter Perrozompopo (Ramón Mejía) and Esteban Monge (see event) or to listen to some songs by Elsa Basil, a Nicaraguan, at her MySpace page.
Nicaragua Actual [ES] compiled a bunch of mp3 songs (some by Nicaraguan authors) in honor to Mother's Day in Nicaragua. It calls itself the “Informative Magazine of the Nicaraguan Community in Costa Rica”.
Nicaragua y su blog
Nicaragua y Su Blog [ES] introduced itself in Barricada some months ago, on April 28 to be exact. We visited them again and we noted that their work had advanced.
Their objective “is the promotion of all the Nicaraguan blogs in the blogosphere. To succeed in this “mission” we'll write a little review of the Nicaraguan blogs that we find along the way and we'll also add them in our link area”.
Their blog began February 22, 2007, and have since published 46 posts to date, reviewing, indexing, and sharing videos or other blog matters relevant to Nicaraguan blogs.
About Barricada they wrote this:
Hoy le presentamos el blog de noticias de Nicaragua “Barricada”. Este nombre pertenecía a un diario que existio en los anos ‘80. Hoy, hablamos no del periódico, sino del blog que lleva su nombre, según ellos nada que ver con el periodico.
and more recently they reviewedour sister website, MarcaAcme.com:
Hasta el momento, después de Barricada, (Marca Acme) es uno de los blogs con diseño profesional y uno de los mas importantes en Nicaragua y porque no decir en Centroamérica
They have blogs we haven't listed yet in the Wiki Marca Acme, but we'll add them in the future.
Mother's Day
We cite three fragments for different blogs published in the month discussing Mother's Day, or by extension about being a woman and their difficulties.
Karla Castillo, from El Nuevo Diario [ES], published the text titled Freedom to Nurse
Hace poco, una conocida de mi familia dio a luz a una niña. Pese a que la madre tiene 38 años, era su segunda experiencia en la maternidad, y sin embargo, la criatura casi se le muere por deshidratación, tres días después del parto, porque los médicos le dijeron que si quería tener una hija sana, inteligente, con las defensas elevadísimas, sólo la alimentara con su leche y que en los primeros seis meses no le diera a beber ni siquiera agua.
El resultado fue catastrófico, aunque la pequeña sobrevivió, y no quiero pensar que la mujer intentó en algún momento someter sin necesidad a su hija a este tipo de carencias. Pero ¡Por Dios! reflexioné, si ella ya había parido hace algunos años, pecó de confiada, al creer todo lo que los médicos dicen sobre la leche materna.
Just a short time ago, one family friend gave birth to a baby girl. Even the mother was 38 years old, it was only her second time giving birth, but the little creature almost died of dehydration three days after birth, because the doctors told her that if she wanted to have a healthy and smart baby with powerful immune system, she should only feed the baby with her milk. During the first six months she didn't give the baby anything to drink but milk, not even water.
The outcome was catastrophic, even though the girl survived. I don't want to imagine this woman putting the baby through this kind of suffering. But… Jesus!, I said to myself, if she was already a mother, why did she trust the doctor's advice about the milk so blindly.
The post continued to examine various issues on this topic.
Therapeutical Abortion
A PDF file was transmitted trough various email chains with this text in it:
37 Muertes Maternas en el 2007, 80 niños y niñas sin madre
37 mothers died in 2007, 80 boys and girls are now orphans
and the next image counts the dead, which was a consequence of the banning of therapeutic abortion or the fear of the law.
The figures speak for themselves.
Mother is Merchandise is Marketing
Martha Cecilia Ruiz [ES] posted a sincere and straightforward blog entry on the celebration of Mother's Day in Nicaragua (May the 30th)
Mother to buy for, to sell to, to give birth to and to forget..
Otra vez el día de las madres. Nuevamente las rosas rojas anunciando la venta de electrodomésticos y los productos de belleza para que las madres cumplan de mejor manera con sus roles –dentro y fuera de sus casas. Con mayo, más que lluvias, caen torrenciales de propuestas comerciales para convertir a la madre “en reina por un día”, pues para servir, obedecer, callar y parir los hijos que “Dios mande” está el resto del año. Y por si alguien duda del mandato, ahí están las canciones que confirman los cánones que dicen que madre buena es aquella sufrida, resignada, con vida sexual solamente para la reproducción y que vive la maternidad como un apostolado.
Hernaldo Zuñiga, fan-blog
“Official” blog for the fans of Hernaldo Zuñiga.
Bio, discs, lyrics and news about Hernaldo… the great nica trovador
The blog is edited by Marcela, who she says: “I'm married with Jaime, and I have three sons: Jaime, Ignacio & Sebastián”. She lives in Chile and posts videos, reviews, concert dates, lyrics, news and song of the Nicaraguan author that lives in México working as songwriter. He recently released a new album called Nomada (2007).
The blog is part of a Yahoo! Group dedicated to Hernaldo Zuñiga. Visit the official website.
Why there is not a Nica blogosphere?
Actually, it exists, but not as blogosphere. Many users have accounts on social networs as Hi5 or MySpace, but the main space for dialogue in internet is in the forums.
Here we give account of some formums, somes with hundres of users, others with a few loyal visitors, and others dedicated to local audiences only
Foros Bacanalnica, it seems to be the biggest. 5 years working and more than 6000 users and 30 subforums.
Foros Rocknica, dedicated to local music scene.
Area 505, for the nicas in Miami.
Foros de Nicaragua en Skycrapercity, a Nicaragua community discussing developments in the construction and architecture fields in Nicaragua.
Foros de Computación de la UNI, used by ingeniering students, experts and open source communities.
Forums for local cities: Jinotega Life (Jinotega), DBakanal (León).

author: GV Contributor


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Pakistan: Censoring Television · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Censorship yet again in Pakistan. Pakistaniat.com has a post and an intense discussion in the comments space. “It happened while I was watching Dr. Shahid Masood’s Mere Mutabiq. Muslim League (Q)’s own Vice President Kabir Wasti was strongly criticizing General Musharaf, holding him responsible for the judicial crises when suddenly Geo News was shut down. I thought that its a temporary ban and transmission will be back as soon as Dr. Shahid’s program is over but its been several hours now and still no signs of Geo or Aaj coming back on my cable. A friend of mine sent me this SMS from Karachi that Geo News disappeared from most parts of the Sindh around 8 o clock too during Imran Khan’s interview in another program”

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Russia: Homophobia · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Bicyclemark is horrified by how homophobic Russians are after watching a Euronews video of what should have been a gay pride parade in Moscow.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: The New Times Money Laundering Text · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Robert Amsterdam posts a translation of the article that started the scandal of “alleged money laundering operation between the Vienna-based Raiffeisen Zentralbank (RZB) and Diskont Bank in Russia,” published in the Russian magazine The New Times on May 21.


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Slovenia: “Self-Absorbed Bike Lane-Parking Morons” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Outraged – and inspired – by Ljubljana’s “Self-Absorbed Bike Lane-Parking Morons,” Piran Cafe creates a Flickr group and encourages readers to get involved in some activism: “The idea is a simple one. Snap a pic of the offending self-absorbed bike lane-parking moron(s) with the license plate clearly identifiable –like this one, LJ D0-13A– note the time and location, post it to the group, and while you’re at it, send an email to your local police precinct. Join us! And spread the word!”


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South Asia: A Brown Doctor on the telly · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Sepia Mutiny on the slow increase of brown faces on American television. “I do realize that because of stereotypes about Asians we’re likely to see Asian representation on TV increase soon, but I want more than just parity for yellows and brownz. And yes, I do also realize that TV shows are fantasy not reality, but that’s precisely what bothers me. If the absence of minority characters represents the fantasy world of white viewers, then what does that tell us about them?”


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Sri Lanka: Sri Lankan Men · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Tiny Little Fractures on why Sri Lankan boys don't quite rock the list, and why that generalization too isn't very fair. “I personally have my doubts that this is a solely Sri Lankan attribute but I have seen a number of Sri Lankan guys who do fit the bill of controlling. They don’t like their girls dressing nice, going out by themselves, working, making more money than them or on some memorable occasions they attempt to hit you over the head with a pool cue for talking to them.”


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The Michael Jackson of Gabon · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Association des gabonais d'Amiens posts a video of the “Michael Jackson of Gabon.” [Fr]

author: Jennifer Brea


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Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana: JFK “terror” plot · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

As the news broke over the weekend that US law enforcement officials had uncovered a plot to bomb fuel tanks and pipelines at New York's JFK International Airport, bloggers in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana reacted with consternation. The alleged mastermind of the plot, Russell Defreitas, is a US citizen born in Guyana; two of his alleged co-conspirators are Guyanese citizens (one of them a former member of the Guyanese parliament and mayor of the town of Linden); and the fourth suspect is Trinidadian. As a result, international news media coverage of the alleged plot has branded the two south Caribbean nations as new “hotbeds” of terrorist activity.
Guyana-Gyal's response was “grief”: “we hear the news yesterday, take down we flags and hang we heads instead in shame and grief, stop this rain and let we tears rain down instead.” Elspeth at Now Is Wow said she was “unable to think anything but … why?“ And Allyuh.com posted some of the alarming graphics broadcast during the coverage of the story on Fox News.
The Manicou Report worried about the implications of having these two small countries implicated in the “War on Terror”:
You see, America, the Fox News Channel is up to it's old war-baiting sensational tricks again. It's reporting that Trinidad and Tobago is the “New Hotbed in the War on Terror”. Now hoooooooooooold on for a just a sec…. we would rather not have any part in your war on terror. A couple arrests doesn't make us a hotbed.
KnowProSE wondered exactly how the plot was discovered: “This is a country where they cannot find kidnappers and murderers; it seems somewhat strange that the people accused gave this information out so easily.” Other bloggers were more outspoken about their suspicions. “My country may not be the best, but it sure ain't no hotbed of terrorist activity,” said Outa Meh Head. “I think this whole thing was just an example of the US using the fear of its citizens to distract them from what's happening in Iraq.” Jeremy Taylor asked, “How serious could this thing really be?”:
Of course a really well-planned airport attack would be a nightmare. But this quartet had been infiltrated by the Americans since January last year, and all the FBI could produce as evidence was some banter about how big a deal it could all be to blow up JFK, the sort of conversation that must go on in a million places around the world every day.
And even as the Guyanese newspaper Stabroek News published a detailed summary of the evidence as reported by US investigators, Living Guyana made a few wisecracks:
If this guy, a hardcore Lindener and others were planning to take out the entire JFK then it might not be so far fetched that Osama might actually be hiding out in some spider hole in Buxton backdam.
The CIA better check it out.

author: Nicholas Laughlin


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Trinidad & Tobago: PR or News?   · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Most media houses are owned by corporate giants. Most media houses at some time or the other are thus obliged to report on their owner.”  Karel Mc Intosh refers to a post by The Manicou Report to make a point about corporate interests influencing the news.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Albania: More Car Crashes · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Two more posts on car crashes and reckless driving in Albania – from Our Man in Tirana and Stepping Stones.


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Algeria: Crackdown on Journalists  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Or Does it Explode reports the latest on the continuing crackdown on journalists in Algeria.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Americas: Recent Poll Numbers · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Bloggings by Boz returns with his regular installment of poll numbers from across the region. The summary post includes news from Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia, Ecuador and Argentina.


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Arabeyes: Saudis in Bahrain and Kuwaits and their Cars  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Today's translation of Arabic blogs takes us to Saudi Arabia, where a blogger takes refuge in nearby Bahrain to clear his head over the weekend; Kuwait, where Frankom  discusses the state of affairs in Arab countries and again to Kuwait, where Krakatoa ‘s car problems open our eyes to the unscrupulous practises of car agents.
Fresh Air in Bahrain
Faisal is a Saudi blogger who travels to nearby Bahrain whenever he needs fresh air.
Made in the Arab World
From Kuwait Frankom shares his ideas with us on the latest developments in the Arab world under the title: Made in the Arab World.
Car Trouble in Kuwait
Still in Kuwait, blogger Krakatoa narrates his experience when he took his car to the garage after he encountered problems with it.
انا هني سكتت وقلت خير ماشي توكل على الله ( بس قلب ناغزني) المهم دقيت على واحد من الربع..من اهل الوكالة وقتله السالفة..اهو طق على راسه..قال ليش هالمبلغ قتله وكالتكم وانتو اخبر..قالي عطني وقت واشوفلك الموضوع..قتله خير..بعد يوم دق علي..قالي ترى السالفة كلها خرطي..ومالك الا طيبة الخاطر والمبلغ يكلف 200 بس..بيني وبينكم ميتين اهون من 500 قتله زين ليش ضربني بالعالي..الشاب اللطيف..قالي اثول ومايعرف..قتله انزين جم مواطن مايعرف احد بالوكالة واضطر انه يدفع مبالغ التصليح وهو يضحك..هني سكت..قتله يابن الحلال الفلس الحرام مافيه بركة وهالفاحصين هاللي تيبونهم غيروهم ولا حطو عليهم ناس تراقبه ترى قاعدون يوكلونكم فلوس حرام
Here, I said it was OK and asked him to go ahead with the job but my heart wasn't happy with the decision. I called one of my friends, who owns the agency, and told him what had happened. He was surprised with the high quotation and asked me why the price was so steep. I responded that it was his agency and he should know better. A day later he called me back and said that it wasn't a big deal and that he will only charge me KD 200 (US $694). Between me and you, paying 200 is better than 500 but I still asked him why they asked for a high price. He said that the mechanic was stupid and didn't know what he was doing. I asked him how many people out there, who don't know anyone at the agency, would be paying out of their teeth while smiling. Here, he went silent. I told him to change those mechanics and bring more able ones because they were tricking people and charging them more. The money they make isn't blessed and they are making you eat from money gained out of sinful activities.


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Bahamas: Single Parent Homes  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“No one can blame our country's failing grade in education solely on the single parent issue but it is certainly a contributing factor in addition to the societal problems that it creates,” writes Sidney Sweeting at WeblogBahamas.com, as he addresses the taboo subject of single parenthood.


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Bahrain: Shawarma Heaven  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Shawrmas are little pieces of heaven right here on god’s green earth. The unique mixture of the animal fat, the greased slices of spiced and marinated beef or chicken, a slight touch of taheena, pickles, vegetables or even taboula wrapped in a thin slice of pita bread is just unmistakable. A true signature dish of the Middle East, our very own burrito sandwich!” writes  Bahraini blogger emoodz.


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Bolivia: Open Letter to Joseph Blatter · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Jaime Rubin de Celis of JCR's Place [ES] writes a heartfelt open letter to FIFA President Joseph Blatter after the organization banned international matches to be played a stadiums at high altitudes.  de Celis refers to a phrase found on FIFA's website that says, “Let's take football and the world passion to all of the ends of the planet..”  de Celis counters with, “the five cities in Bolivia and the other dozen cities in the world affected by this ban are part of this planet.”


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Cayman Islands: Dr. Kevorkian · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Cayblogger talks tongue in cheek about the release of Dr. Kevorkian and how he could potentially help the Cayman Islands health care system.


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Central & Eastern Europe: Gay Rights · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Vilhelm Konnander posts an overview of the “events related to LGBT-rights [that] have given rise to both concerns and hopes about the situation of homosexuals in Central and Eastern Europe.”


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China: SMS Livecast · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Beifeng, who has kept the world update on the Xiamen anti PX project demonstration by SMS livecast, wrote down his preparation, experience and reflection of the citizen reporting experience(zh).

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: the Death of a Domesticated Panda · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A domesticated panda was beaten to death by a wild panda upon returning to the wildlife. Bull felt that people were like the poor panda, having domesticated by education, authority, nation, and etc. (zh).


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Cuba: Today in Havana · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Henry Gomez at Babalu blogs live as he follows the unfolding of The Today Show coverage in Cuba.


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D.R. Congo: Four-Way Talks Discuss Security in the Great Lakes · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Kakaluigi writes that officials from Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and the DRC met this afternoon in Lubumbashi [fr] to discuss the security situation in the Great Lakes region and posts a photo from the Kaniola massacre.


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Egypt: Sleeping Arrangements in Dubai  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egyptian blogger Forsoothsayer was in Dubai for a visit. “I shared E's double bed while I was in Dubai, causing her house-mates and our friend International Playboy to indulge in dutiful eyebrow-raisings and sniggers. I am sure I.P. is not even the least titillated by the idea, but feels that it is his masculine duty to acknowledge that it's supposed to be hot,” she explains.


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Guatemala: Parking Restrictions · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Antigua boasts a high number of one-way streets.  As a result, parking is only limited to one side of the street, however, some pay no mind to these restrictions.  The site Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo shows what happens when a driver takes his/her chances and parks illegally anyway.


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Guyana: Another Brick in the Wall · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“This wall is new Guyana-style architecture…it got to be wide and broad enough so the door can swing out. It got to be high enough to prevent a small flood from invading we li’l foyer again…and low enough to step over.”  Guyana-Gyal has hit an obstacle.


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Honduras: Birding Blog · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Daniel Germer loves to “pajarear”, or “birdwatching” in Honduras.  His blog called Hondubirding [ES] is dedicated to this hobby and invites others to submit photos or inventories of spotted birds.


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Hong Kong: Eight Housing Right Protesters Arrested · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Eight housing right protesters were arrested from in the past three days. Plato who has been a researcher on housing right issue in Hong Kong for three years, changed his objective role and acted as a citizen reporter because he was outraged by the government official's arrogance and police selective prosecution (zh).


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Hong Kong: June 4 candle night · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Charles Mok blogs some photos of the June 4 candle night vigil with links to more photos and video resources.


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India: On hymens, virgins and women · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

An Anthropologist Wannabe on hymenoplasty. “But how do we turn our backs on these women who in all likelihood could be killed by their fathers, brothers or husbands (Honor killings) if it is found out that they are not virgins? Aren't doctors morally bound to help these women who could face certain death if they are discovered to be non-virgins?”


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India: Paddy Fields and Food Security · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Dog's Own Country comments on the Kerala Government's plan to reverse paddy reclamation projects. “Achuthanthan’s paddy project is inherently about his staunch belief that Kerala should produce its own food and his insecurity with free markets. According to our leaders, we should support rice farmers even if we have to pay more for their rice and create fields when there is no need for more. This irrational argument ignores the very basic fact that Kerala consumers are not restricted to Kerala’s products and should be able to choose from the larger Indian and world markets. The hype around “food security” also ignores Kerala’s ability to focus on more productive sectors of the economy so that it can create more wealth and its people can eat more than a daily plate of gruel.”


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India: Rickshaw Run · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Trivial Matters on the concept of a Rickshaw Run. “A Few months ago me and two of friends of mine got the crazy idea of volunteering ourselves into a race that involves driving over 3,750 km across India in the Monsoons over the Himalayas – if that wasn't harrowing enough we thought we'd do it in an mobile toaster on wheels – 3 wheels to be exact – yes we plan to ride an auto-rickshaw across India through torrential rains across the Himalayas.”


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Iran in the eyes of a Swedish Blogger · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Jonathan Lundqvist is a Swedish blogger who visited Iran a few months ago and shared his experiences with Global Voices in an interview. Jonathan has published several photos on his blog about censorship, daily life, tradition, and modernity in Iran without forgetting beauty of the country. Here are seven images which say much more than thousands of words:
Two first photos show us a glimpse of the censorship that occurs in Iran. Jonathan says the Nashravaran Journalistic Institute is the agency that handles all censorship. They also stamp all magazines with a stamp upon inspection. It’s mind-boggling to think of the people whose work it is to sit there with a giant felt-tip pen and cover up skin all day long.
In third photo Iranians need to go far and away to date and to have privacy.
Dating Iran style. A boy and a girl sitting by the winding river, enjoying their quite conversation. The mountains felt like a haven of sorts where once in a while you can even see women without scarves!
The fourth photo shows how western brands meet eastern dress.
Jonathan explains, “I saw this girl working in a sports clothing store in northern Tehran and became intrigued as to the logo on her wimple.”
The last four photos show an electronics shopping center, a beautiful park in Tehran, a fantastic bridge in Esfahan, and window in a mosque covered with Persian calligraphy.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran: Playing games with democracy is really risky · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former reformist vice president and blogger, says a referendum, held in Syria last Sunday, endorsed president Bashar Al-Assad for a second seven – year  with 97 percent of the votes.He adds president Bashar Al–Assad that the Syrian government had better to announce the result more reasonably in order to gain more legitimacy. Playing games with democracy is really risky and dangerous one.


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Iran:Muslim Bloggers · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Muslim Bloggers [Fa](pro Islamic Republic bloggers) met with each other to remember the anniversary of late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini's death.One of the goals of this meeting was to announce their support forAyatollah Khamenei,the Leader of country.


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Israel: Food for Thought and Thoughts of Food · Global Voices
Yaeli

Food, whether it be descriptions of a favourite nosh (snack) or something you'd really prefer to never pass by your palate again, places to consume or acquire particular food items, preparations of said items, and what was occurring while food was being eaten, prepared, or just thought about provide frequent food for blogging content within the Israeli blogosphere.
This week McDonald's featured in two bloggers’ musings.  Lisa Goldman, of On the Face provides a look at their newest commercial appearing in Israel and explains the premise:
So an American couple gets hungry during a long day of shopping and darbuka drumming in Jerusalem's Old City. Instead of making the obligatory stop at Abu Shukri for hummus-chips-salad-pita-falafel-who-cares-about-the-calories-we're-on-vacation meal, they run over to a taxi driver and ask him where they can get a real “local” salad.
Meanwhile, Lirun of East Med Sea Peace describes a scene he witnessed at his local McDonald's in Yaffo that is, as he notes, not at all uncommon, and inspired him to write about it in a post titled “McPeace“:
…a birthday was well underway.. a beautiful bunch of local kids was celebrating hysterically.. the 7-8 year olds were on the verge of a food fight but just about under the control of the 3 mothers supervising.. a closer look and listen clarified to me that these were Arab and Jewish kids although it was hard to tell who was who without listening to each kid's default language setting.. there were fair kids i expected to be Jewish that were Arabs including a very animated little blond girl and a very elegant and well mannered brunette.. and darker kids that surprised me with their Jewish accented Hebrew. An elderly lady with head covering walked in and saw the gathering and administered one hell of a tongue flick – middle eastern cry of joy..
He continues the story to the ending that is sure to put a smile on your face and concludes with the sentiment “we know how to laugh together.. surely we can do more..”
But in this region even food can be disputed and used as a point of acrimony as the folks over at Jewlicious point out:
I thought it both amusing and interesting that a mildly amusing article about Israeli passion for hummus, had commentators writing in the comments section that hummus was Palestinian food and the Israelis stole it, just as they did the land.
What is wrong with people?
Stephanie, writing for Israelity, points out that not all parts of the country are peaceful as well and in the south of the country, in Kibbutz Kfar Aza kindergarten children are attending school in the most unlikely but the safest place from the Qassam rockets that are being shot at the kibbutz from Gaza –the fortified Kibbutz pub.  In her post titled “Kinder Pub” she notes that life has become pretty warped “when you find humor in the fact that little kids are attending kindergarten inside a pub because it’s the safest place for them to be during school hours” and goes on to describe the scene of children sitting on bar stools across from shelves of bottles of Jack Daniels and Grey Goose as they play and put together Lego structures.
Returning to a lighter side of things, over at FiLi's World congratulations are certainly in order as he writes about being chosen to receive a 3-year scholarship to study International Business in Taiwan and his experiences at the Dragon Boat Festival Feast that was thrown for the current and previous scholarship winners in Israel.  He provides a few pictures of the “Philippine cooked Taiwanese food” served at the celebration and of the scholarship winners.
Other Israelis blogging about food and things related this week include Jameel at The Muqata who titles a post with what is obviously a truism in his life, “Mondays are for Waffles.”  Savta (Grandmother) Dotty doesn't mention a word about what was consumed at the weekly soup salon she hosts but she does detail how her Friday soup guests have pitched in to help her fix up her apartment at Cousin Lucy's Spoon.

author: Yaeli


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Israel: New McDonald’s Ad  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Israeli blogger Lisa Goldman  links to a new McDonald's ad, with a twist. “That is the silly-but-kinda-funny premise for the most recent McDonald's advertisement on Israeli television. Brought to you courtesy of Youtube. The punchline will make you smile, as long as you know your Middle Eastern foods,” she notes.


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Jamaica: ‘Tis Better to Give · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“While we have tremendous problems in the country with thieves, we seem to spend so much of our time beating a system that when something is offered at no cost, we have no idea what to do with it.”  Francis Wade has discovered that while the joy is in the giving, Jamaicans make it as difficult as possible.


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Japan: Shrimp Crackers QR code · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Edo from Pink Tentacle introduces a new marketing service called “QR Ebi-sen,” which allows companies and individuals to print QR code on shrimp crackers.  QR code is a popular two-dimensional code that connects users to mobile web content when they scan it with a QR code reader-equipped cellphone.


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Japan: The Battle of Okinawa Again · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

Jeff at Jeff's Okinawa Blog reflects on the poetry of Wilfred Owen, whose poetry about World War I Jeff connects with the Battle of Okinawa (Japan). Jeff writes: “if there was ever an example of a person being meant to do something, being born for it, this is the one.”

author: Chris Salzberg


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Japan: the Beginnings of Japanese Pop Culture · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Neomarxisme has an informative post on the history of Japanese pop-culture along the line of demographic changes, which accounts for the phenomena of “infantile capitalism”.


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Korea: To Live as ‘Samsungman’ · Global Voices
Hyejin Kim

‘Samsungman.’
That’s a priviledged title that puts a person among Korea’s elite. It brings up ideas like ‘good brain,’ ‘deep pockets,’ and ‘most qualified husband’ (I’m not sure about the female side because I have not heard about the term, ‘best wife’ so far).
In May, a Samsungman quit that great job. The job everyone wants to have. While he left the golden gates of Samsung within a year, he put the letter why he resigned on the company web-site. The long letter of his resignation has been spread over all blogs. I summarize it below:
1년을 간신히 채우고, 그토록 사랑한다고 외치던 회사를 떠나고자 합니다.
다른 직장이 정해진 것도 아니고, 공부를 할 계획도 없지만 저에게는 퇴사가 어쩔 수 없는 선택입니다.
회사에 들어오고나서 이해할 수 없는 일들이 참 많았습니다. 술들은 왜들 그렇게 드시는지, 결재는 왜 법인카드로 하시는지, 전부다 가기 싫다는 회식은 누가 좋아서 그렇게 하는 것인지,
정말 최선을 다해서 바쁘게 일을 하고 일과후에 자기 계발하면 될텐데, 왜 야근을 생각해놓고 천천히 일을 하는지,실력이 먼저인지 인간관계가 먼저인지 이런 질문조차 이 회사에서는 왜 의미가 없어지는지..상사라는 회사가 살아남으려면 도대체, 문화는 유연하고 개방적이고 창의와 혁신이 넘치고 수평적이어야 하며,제도는 실력과 실적만을 평가하는 냉정한 평가 보상 제도를 가지고 있어야 하고, 사람들은 뒤쳐질까 나태해질까 두려워 미친 듯이 일을 하고, 공부를 하고, 술은 무슨 술인가 컨디션을 조절하면서 철저하게 자기관리를 하더라도, 도대체 이렇게 해도 5년 뒤에 내 자리가 어떻게 될지10년 뒤에 이 회사가 어떻게 될지 고민에,걱정에 잠을 설쳐야 한다고 생각했는데, 도대체 이 회사는 무얼 믿고 이렇게 천천히 변화하고 있는지 어떻게 이 회사가 돈을 벌고 유지가 되고 있는지 저로서는 도저히 이해할 수 없었습니다. 인사팀 자신이 정한 인사 규정상의 업무 시간이 뻔히 있을진데, 그것을 완전히 무시하고 사원과의 협의나 의견 수렴 과정 없이업무 시간 이외의 시간에 대하여 특정 활동을 강요하는 그런, 신문화 데이같은 활동에 저는 좌절합니다.변혁의 가장 위험한 적은 변화입니다. 100의 변혁이 필요한 시기에 30의 변화만 하고 넘어가면서 마치 100을 다하는 척 하는 것은 70을 포기하자는 것입니다. 우리 회사 미래의 70을 포기하자는 것입니다. 더욱 좌절하게 된 것은 정말 큰일이 나겠구나, 인사팀이 큰일을 저질렀구나. 이거 사람들에게서 무슨 이야기가 나와도 나오겠구나 생각하고 있을 때에, 다들 이번 주에 어디가야할까 고민하고, 아무런 반발도 고민도 없이 그저 따라가는 것이었습니다. 하루하루 적응하고 변해가고, 그냥 그렇게 회사의 일하는 방식을 배워가는 제가 두렵습니다. 회사가 아직 변화를 위한 준비가 덜 된것은 사실입니다. 하지만 그 준비를 기다리기에 시장은 너무나 냉정하지 않습니까. 어제 오늘 일이 아닌 것도 사실입니다. 하지만 내일에 반복되어져서는 안되는 일이지 않습니까. 조직이기에 어쩔 수 없는 문제인 것도 사실입니다. 하지만 그말은, 정말, 최선을 다해서, 조직이 가진 모든 문제들을 고쳐보고자 최선의 최선을 다 한 이후에 정말 어쩔 수 없을때에야 할 수 있는 말이 아닙니까. 많은 분들이 저의 이러한 생각을 들으시면 회사내 다른 조직으로 옮겨서 일을 해보라고 하십니다. 하지만 저는 어느 조직을 가던 매월 셋째주 금요일에 제가 명확하게, 저를 위해서나 회사에 대해서나 해가 된다고 생각하는 활동에 웃으면서 동참할 생각도 없고 그때그때 핑계대며 빠져나갈 요령도 없습니다.남아서 네가 한 번 바꾸어 보라고 하십니다. 하지만 저는 이 회사에 남아서 하루라도 더 저 자신을 지켜나갈 자신이 없습니다. 또한 지금 이 회사는 신입사원 한명보다 조그마한 충격이라도 필요한 시기입니다. 제 동기들은 제가 살면서 만나본 가장 우수한 인적 집단입니다. 제가 이런다고 달라질것 하나 있겠냐만은 제발 저를 붙잡고 도와주시겠다는 마음들을 모으셔서 제발 저의 동기들이 바꾸어 나갈 수 있는 환경을 만들어주세요.
사랑해서 들어온 회사입니다. 지금부터 10년, 20년이 지난후에 저의 동기들이 저에게 너 그때 왜 나갔냐. 조금만 더 있었으면 정말 잘 되었을텐데. 말을 해주었으면 좋겠습니다. 하지만 저는 10년 후의 행복을 보장할 수 있는 유일한 근거는 오늘의 행복이라고 믿기에, 현재는 중요한 시간이 아니라, 유일한 순간이라고 믿기에이 회사를 떠나고자 합니다.
2007년 5월 2일
His letter divided bloggers into two kinds, those who agree and those who disagree.
Here is the opinion of someone who agrees:
삼성맨이 사직서를 냈다. 입사 1년차의 피가 끓는 심정으로 사직서를 냈을 것이다. 그러나 그 삼성맨의 이야기는 남의 이야기가 아니다. 나의 이야기였고, 수많은 젊은 청년들이 고민하는 주제일 것이다. 삼성에 입사하기 위해 얼마나 노력을 했을 것인가? 꿈을 꾸었을 것이고, 인생을 설계했을 것이다. 입사 1년차 때는 여러가지 고민을 하게 된다. 특히 사회초년생일 경우는 이제껏 살아왔던 환경과는 너무 판이한 문화에서 생기는 갈등과 고민을 수반할 수 밖에 없다. 그리고 그때의 시각과 시선은 정확하고 객관적일 가능성이 높다. 아직은 때가 덜 묻었기에…조직으로 보자면 어린아이의 눈이라고 볼 수 있는 것이다.  하지만 우리나라 대부분의 기업은 신입사원의 순수한 열정과 당돌함을 무너뜨리기 바쁘다. 신입사원 교육부터 기를 죽이는 교육이 대부분이다. 이놈들아 사회란 이런거야…조직이란 이런거야..그러니까 잘 적응해..뭐..대충 그딴 식이다. 겉포장은 화려하지만, 궁극적인 교육의 담론은 조직적응 훈련이다. 22세기에는 이런 교육행태를 굴종이라고 표현할 지도 모른다. 하지만 우리는 자랑스럽게 그런 교육을 받기 위해 너무나도 열심히 공부하고, 정성스레 머리를 다듬고, 예쁘게 얼굴에 화장을 한다.
입사 1년 후의 과정은 대부분 조직에 적응하는 시기다. 때맞추어 나오는 월급이라는 게 참으로 끊을 수 없는 유혹이다. 그리고 연애하고 결혼하고 애가 생기고…당연히 월급은 삶에서 가장 중요한 것으로 자리잡게 된다. 개인의 삶이 월급에 묶이는 것이다.
그렇다고 월급쟁이가  비겁하다는 이야기가 아니다. 우리들의 삶의 형태가 이렇게 되어 있다. 그것을 우리들은 너무나 잘 알기 때문에 알면서도 적응하고 사는 것이지, 몰라서는 아닐 것이다. 그리고 그런 삶이 무겁기도 하고, 때론 견디기 힘들기도 하다. 그래서 술을 퍼마시고,,40대, 50대에 돌연하게 횡사하게 된다. …
입사1년차 삼성맨의 사직서..당돌함이 마음에 들고, 용기가 마음에 든다. 젊은이답고, 패기가 넘쳐 흘러서 좋다. 조직에 너무 신이나서 적응하는 친구들, 그렇게 마음에 들지는 않는다. 적응하는 사람도 있고, 뛰쳐 나오는 사람도 있어야 한다. 그런데 우리는 너무 적응하는 친구들이 압도적이고, 그런게 당연한 문화였다. 아무리 삼성이고 판검사고 의사라고 하더라도 우리는 그 자리를 박차고 당돌하게 뛰쳐나오는 사람이 더 필요한 사회일지 모른다.
Dissenters, like resist75, are not a few either.
상사맨들 술 참 많이 마십니다. 하지만 그것을 탓하기가 참 힘듭니다. 상사맨들이 연구직이라면 상사맨들이 관리직이라면 술만 퍼마시는 조직에 대해 욕해줄 수 있겠지만 상사맨은 그럴 형편이 아닙니다. 접대문화가 달라져야 한다고요? 예 그렇죠 하지만 그것은 상사맨들에게는 적용 대상이 아닙니다. 상사맨이 바뀌어야 하는 것이 아니라 접대인들이 바뀌어야 하는 것이겠지요. 상사맨은 물건을 이리저리 파는 사람이지 사회 문화 변화를 주도하는 세력이 아니라는 것입니다.
그리고 어찌되었건 간에 위의 글에는 그런 모습을  자신이 바꿀 생각도 의욕도 없다는 것이군요. 자신이 자유롭기 위해 자신이 원하는 회사의 모습이 아니기 때문에 그만둔다는 것 아닌가요? 결국 이것은 조직부적응이라는 말 이상도 이하도 아닌 것입니다. 삼성에 입사했을때 TV에서나 보는 그런 장면들을 생각했었나요? 다른 사람은 모두 이상속에 사는 것 같은가요? 경찰은 범인을 잡기위해 스릴과 모험을 즐기는 것 같습니까? 소방관은 매일매일 힘들지만 인명구조를 위해 자신의 몸을 바치고 있는 것 같습니까? 그런것들은 그의 직업 인생에 극히 일부분일 뿐 대부분의 시간은 위의 삼성맨이 생각하는 별것 아니고 따분하며 변화없는 생활속에 있는 것입니다.
해서 저로서는 결국 자기가 할 생각도 없고 적응하기도 싫으니 난 회사를 때려 친다는 치기어린 생각을 그럴듯 하게 포장한 사례로 밖에 생각되지 않습니다.
Some bloggers, like wo3n, criticize his rash decision with one year working experience.
저는 그 글을 보면서 슬픔과 분노를 동시에 느꼈습니다. 글의 어떤 부분에서는 고개를 끄덕였습니다. 그 분이 몸 담았던 관계사만이 아니라 우리 사회 전체가 자각 없이 그냥 흘러가고 있는 부분에 대한 사회 초년생으로서 할 수 있는 지적이었기 때문입니다. 하지만, 인생에 쉬운 길만이 있지는 않을 것인데, 그 정도의 어려움에 너무도 빨리 뜻을 접고 만 것이 슬펐습니다.
분노를 느낀 것은 나 아니면 모두 틀렸다는 식의 태도였습니다. 퇴사하는 본인은 진흙탕이 싫어서 나가는 깨끗한 사람이고 남아있는 사람은 목구멍에 풀칠이나 하려고 현실과 적당히 타협하면서 그럭저럭 주어진 삶이나 살아가려는 ‘월급쟁이'에 불과하다는 것인지. 그가 소속되었던 회사를 윤리수준이 낮은 집단으로 정의해 버린 그의 글은 한때는 선배,동료였던 이들에 대한 모욕이라고 생각되었습니다.
판단은 정보를 기반으로 이루어 집니다. 큰 조직에서는 1년도 채 안된 신입사원에게 회사의 의도가 충분히 전달되지 않을 수도 있고, 전달되었다고 해도 이해되지 않을 수 있습니다. 그것은 가지고 있는 정보의 양과 깊이에 차이가 있기 때문입니다.

author: Hyejin Kim


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Moldova: Elections · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Public Policy Watch reports on the general local elections that took place in Moldova this past Sunday.


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Morocco: June Brings Blogging, Festivals, and a Reopening · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

As the month of June rolls in, so do many events across Morocco, and the greater Maghreb.  The first is Big Trap Boy‘s call for posts for a unified Maghreb – bloggers across the Maghreb were asked, on June 1, to make a post in favor of the Maghreb Union.  Youssef from Maghrebism shared his opinion:
The Maghreb for me doesn’t really exist. In name it does and there is an institution called Maghreb Union, but for me it is useless and a hassle.
All the Maghreb countries are still little children fighting over their toys and pulling each others hair out. Just like your normal dysfunctional family. The Union will do nothing to solve that.
Let us first grow up before we decide to marry into an union. Seriously, that union came way too quick and was actually more part of this low self-esteem of our elites who desperately tried to model everything to European standards. In the mean time they forgot that an union needs basic things like a working judiciary, healthy economies, good democracies etc.
Myrtus called for bloggers to breathe new life into the Union:
The good news is that the Maghreb blogosphere is now trying to come together to say “hey you slackers, enough of that”!  Let's all get together and breathe some new life into this Maghreb Union, who cares if it doesn't really exist, maybe we can make it happen ourselves if we try hard enough, even if it's just a virtual union on the World Wide Web.
While other bloggers were enthusiastic for a Maghreb Union, Xoussef explained why he wouldn't be blogging on June 1:
We, bloggers, always condemn maghrebi politicians for there hypocrisy. I dislike hypocrisy too, so i won't be hypocrite, i won't blog for a United Maghreb.
Let's be clear: i don't have anything against other north African countries, but i don't believe in that grand Maghreb Arabe myth.
Let's face it: Morocco is not ready. I can't talk about what i don't really know, so i will only talk about my country. we have to deal with a lot of problems including forging a national identity, Amazigh rights, sahraoui problem, representativity and democracy issues, let alone other poverty and economic problems. You can't give what you don't have, and until we reasonably solve these issues, thinking of building a big union is vain.
June 1 was also the day for a special concert in Meknes which benefited Bayti (which means “my home”), a local organization which helps children from all different circumstances.  This particular benefit not only helped the children financially – they were actually invited as well.  El Hafa reported on the event, saying “Another marvelous night, but this time it was in my hometown, in the French institute in Meknes.”
Finally, June 1 also brought the opening night of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, a prominent festival featuring performers of sacred music from all around the world, as Braveheart Does the Maghreb describes:
There are different bands from around the world all playing religious music. The theme this year is “Weavers of Peace”. In addition to the bands there are readings of Sufi poetry. On the program are listed musicians from Sweden, Iran, south Africa, Portugal, Brazil, France, Turkey, Pakistan, Mauritania, Spain, Benin, India, Syria, Lebanon, and Uzbekistan. The London community Gospel Choir from the UK will be performing the last evening. There are to be art exhibits and films as well.
Everything Morocco, a Fez resident, shared fears prior to the festival:
“So more than anything, I hope we will be left in peace to enjoy the festival, the chance encounters with strangers and the ambience that comes to place so full of excitement and anticipation. It promises to be a fabulous and memorable festival week.”
As the festival began, the blogger shared experiences from the festival, including a speech made by HRM King Mohammed VI:
First, the King commended the festival efforts to pursue a dialogue on coexistence between different cultures and civilizations and the bonds between the revealed religions and values we all have in common.
He went on to say he is not surprised that Fez is the location of a World Sacred Music Festival because, in his words, “…music has flourished only in places where man can forget about material things, embrace faith, and the Absolute in order to experience all the gifts with which the Almighty has endowed him, particularly his spirituality. Furthermore, music is a most powerful form of spiritual expression; it is also the medium most likely to bring humans together.”
He continued saying, “Islam is a faith based on reason and wisdom.” He cited instances where the Holy Qu'ran praises the mind and encourages reflection. There should be balance between the sacred and the modern because one cannot fully exist without the other. The sacred would wither and the modern would lack soul. A complement of these two concepts, sacred and modern, is what the festival aspires to with its message of hope, discernment and brotherhood.
Despite the sanctity of the festival, there was still room for celebrity sightings.  Queen Rania of Jordan and Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco were both in attendance, along with a different sort of special guest, reports four continents:
Surely enough, both Sir Bono and his band-mate the Edge are wandering Fes listening to sacred music this week – I'll snap a photo if I run into them somewhere light.
One last important June event occurred early in the morning on Monday, June 4.  The American Consulate in Casablanca, which has been closed since April (due to security concerns following suicide attacks near the building), reopened, according to The Morocco Report:
Regardless, the Consulate is now open and those applying for immigrant visas will be contacted by June 11 in order to reschedule their appointments.  The Consulate is also accepting applications for nonimmigrant and business visas again.
Photo by Hamza Daoui.

author: Jillian C. York


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Nepal: On Creepy Anticipation · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Nepali Netbook on the anniversary of a carnage and creepy anticipation. “If the elections are to be held on schedule, a modicum of law and order is what is really needed – not an arbitrary declaration of a republic. This can’t be news to Prachanda. Long before the premier, the Maoist chief had publicly acknowledged that a mere legislative declaration of a republic wouldn’t force the monarch onto the next flight out of the country.”


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Oman: No Ice Cream  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Omani blogger Devilish says he is ice-creamless this summer. “Baskin Robbins outlets around Muscat were mostly closed in the last few days due to ice cream shortage. Right in the middle of the summer when supposedly their peak season is. It is said their supply line from Canada got delayed,” he writes.


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Oman: Tropical Cyclone Gonu Hits Oman · Global Voices
Riyadh Al Balushi

The government of Oman declared a state of emergency as the country was hit today by the Tropical Cyclone Gonu, a tropical storm that has now reached a category 5 danger status. The storm is expected to run across the coast of the country over a period of three days. The Royal Oman Police has been making continuous announcements over TV and radio on how to deal with the crisis. ROP reported that they have evacuated the 7,000 residents of Mesirah Island, the first Omani state to be hit by the cyclone.
Though initially not taken seriously by many, the majority of the people are now seriously terrified as recent announcements state that the cyclone is moving towards the capital of the Oman, Muscat. Surprisingly, the Omani media has been doing a great job by proving coverage over TV and radio regarding the latest updates, but as the evening approaches now approaches, everything seems to cool down. OmanTV is now showing a drama TV series as if nothing has happened, I do not have access to a radio right now to hear what's going being broadcast there.
Blogger Sleepless in Muscat is keeping a constantly updated list of the major recent developments, these include airport and all commercial establishment closures. Sleepless also says that he will upload a video on the situation soon.
Another blog with excellent coverage is newsBriefsOman in which Sue posted several links to forecast resources illustrating the situation. However, she warns her readers saying:
[D]on't be distracted by the forecast track of the centre of the storm. It's the wind fields and the associated rain that you need to watch. At the moment, the forecast is that the area of intense wind and rain would take in all of northern Sharqiyah, the coast between Al Ashkhirah and Muscat and certainly as far inland as Nizwa.
Suburban posted a detailed survival guide sent to all employees of a certain Omani oil company. It is surely worth a read as she said:
This was forwarded to me by three different people who work for PDO, and I thought it was worth sharing. I think it's worth noting that PDO deserves credit for disseminating clear, concise, and useful information at a time when it's needed most. It's one of the many good services that PDO provides for it's staff and the community at large, the next time you see a PDO employee somewhere, tell them thank you.
There are no sources for instantaneous news updates regarding the cyclone in Oman. I think that visiting one of the Omani forums such as OmanForum and EnglishSabla can provide somewhat of a helpful guide on what is happening.

author: Riyadh Al Balushi


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Pakistan: Military Inc. · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A book named Military Inc. appears to have ruffled many feathers. At Individual Counts “All this because she has done an academic case study of the Army’s corporate interests which highlights the welfare work that the khakis are doing for their own admittedly at the cost of the tax payer. The book may be a “pack of lies” or it may not be. Why isn’t an open debate held over it ? “. Metroblogging Islamabad has more on the book “Milbus or the military economy, as the author terms it, is distinct from the defence budget. It does not fall under the ministry of defence and its profits accrue, without any accountability, to some individuals in the top echelon of the army, navy and air force.”


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Russia, Austria: Nabucco and Gazprom · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Transatlantic Politics writes about the news of Gazprom's involvement in the Nabucco gas pipeline project – which was originally supposed to be the EU's “attempt to build an alternative to the Gazprom-controlled, already-built natural gas pipeline-network”: “Can't own the pipeline? No big deal, we'll own the faucet.”


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Russia, Estonia: More on “Cyberwar” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Fistful of Euros interviews Gadi Evron, “a world expert on botnets,” on “what exactly happened with the allegedly Russian-orchestrated DDOS attack on Estonian Internet interests”: “However, many of the attacks were not by a botnet, but rather by a mass of home users using commands such as ping to manually attack Estonian sites. As they coined in Estonia, this was a riot, and not just in the streets. Many different Russian-speaking forums and blogs (the Russian blogosphere?) encouraged people to attack Estonia using crude commands or simple tools. Others used more advanced techniques.”


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Russia: LiveJournal DDoS-Attacked · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

LiveJournal's Cyrillic users are in distress again: for the past week or so, Russian bloggers have been experiencing problems when they tried to post their entries or leave comments.
Some claimed they were being censored.
LJ user insie wrote (RUS) about “political terror in LJ” on June 4:
Just a few hours it was impossible to post messages that contained the following links: “ru_nbp”, “nbp_ru” [NBP is the National Bolshevik Party], “ru_politics” и “dрni” [DPNI is the Movement Against Illegal Immigration] (the last one is written with the Russian “p” because Latin script is still not being let through). It doesn't matter what my attitude toward NBP or DPNI is. What's important is that a purposeful pressure on democracy is taking place and the citizens’ constitutional right of free access to information is being limited.
Since plenty of apolitical bloggers were also unable to use their journals, it wasn't easy to accept censorship as the reason for the blackout. But Russian politics is behind the current crisis after all.
Here's an explanation (RUS) from a representative of Sup, the Russian online media company running the “Russian-speaking” segment of LiveJournal in partnership with Six Apart:
[DDoS Attack]. Official reaction from Six Apart
According to the explanations we've received from Six Apart this morning, a powerful DDoS-attack is being carried out against the LJ servers in California since Friday, June 1. The source of the attack is allegedly located in Russia. Servers are receiving 50,000 requests per second. The attack's main goals are  dрni, ru_рolitics и ru_nаzbol communities. To resist the attacks, the LJ administration introduced filtration of incoming packages and limited access to the server for large blocks of Russian IP-addresses beginning last Friday. These are temporary measures that had to be taken. Technical services of Six Apart decide on the specific lists of words and addresses to be blocked, taking into account the analysis of incoming requests.
These filters make it impossible to post LJ entries and comments that contain the words “ru_рolitics,” “dрni” и “ru_nbр.”
[…]
Needless to say, there's an avalanche of comments to this post, dealing both with the political and technical aspects of the issue, but here's a translation of just one thread (RUS), which begins with a serious question and evolves into an absurdly comical exchange:
natias: I'm not a member of the communities and organizations mentioned above, but I'm still not able to post anything. When will this ban be over?
beri_llii: “When the oil runs out, and our president dies…” (c) [DDT, a Russian rock band]
Around that time.
v_katin: An “A”
supmaker [a Sup representative]: As soon as the programmers of Six Apart stop the attack. Otherwise, LiveJournal servers would've been dead for everyone.
welgar: Nowadays, it's not enough not to be a member of “these organizations.” You have to publicly renounce NBP, DPNI and ru-politics (only once, still, thank God), and the copy of your renouncement should be sent to this address: fsb@fsb.ru. Then they'll restore your LJ access, as well as NTV+ [satellite channel], and, possibly, even hot water. [Hot water is turned off for a few weeks every summer in most cities in Russia and Ukraine, allegedly to allow maintenance and repairs.]
natias: Thanks. I do have NTV and hot water =)
But why just once??? What if the copy doesn't reach the addressee)))
welgar: Renounce three times then and request a delivery confirmation for the letter.
grajo_che: And while doing that, don't forget to cross yourself three times in front of the portrait of Putin wearing a KGB lieutenant's uniform ))
heleknar: Damn! Are you sure they'll turn hot water back on? I'd renounce my membership in anything for hot water! :)
welgar: Well, that depends on how sincere you are in your renouncement…


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Russia: Prominent Roma Scientists · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

TOL's Romantic posts bios of two prominent female Roma scientists – chemist Natalia Pankova and biologist Lubov Pankova – and their father, Nikolay Pankov, famous for his translation to the Romani language of Aleksandr Pushkin’s poem “Gypsies.”


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Rwanda: Environmental Protection Prompts Relocation of Several Hundred Families · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Kakaluigi writes that the Rwandan government is relocating 364 families [fr] (1800 people) from around Lake Kivu in order to prevent a looming “ecological disaster,” apparently hastened by their presence.


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Slovenia: Blogres · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Blogres, the first official gathering of Slovenia bloggers, will take place Saturday, June 9, in Ljubljana, Michael M of The Glory of Carniola reports. His own presentation will, hopefully, follow this outline: “My first point will be to attack the foreign press like a runaway elephant for its generally sloppy and clichéd reporting on Slovenia. I will then use many curse words and will give many depressing examples (many never seen here) of how unprofessional many professional journalists really are. I will then suggest that blogs (with the notable exception of this one) are stepping into the gaping void left behind by the rampant closing of foreign bureaus. I will try to convince you that they have the potential of providing a truer image of the country.”


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Syria: Creative Forum Launched  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Writing at Syria Comment, Camille Alexandre Otrakji announces  the launch of Syria's Creative Forum.
‘For the Forum’s first monthly discussion topic, I invited some of the best Syrian bloggers and analysts to tackle the following question concerning the Golan Heights:
“If you could write a one page letter to an Israeli citizen who does not believe his country should give back the Golan Heights to Syria, what would you tell him/her?”‘ she notes.


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Taiwan: carbon dioxide emissions · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Michael Turton blogs about the outraging carbon dioxide emissions problem in Taiwan.


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Touring Libyan Blogs: The Bloggers who have Gone AWOL · Global Voices
Fozia Mohamed

While exams continue to disrupt a little the Libyan blogosphere both locally and overseas this week's post is dedicated to those Libyan bloggers who are ‘absent without leave’, we don't know why they stopped blogging and we miss them very much.
I'm sure most Libyan bloggers would join their voices to mine and ask them to come back or at least update us.
It is a strange fact how we become attached to our ‘virtual’ community and at one point it morphes into ‘our community’ and the internet becomes simply another means of communication.
The first blogger whose news I wish to know is : zizo ,  he stopped in March with this cryptic post :
“I am very thankful to that one of my ever best friends& the real dog& ayman ..for his help and sweet surprises that he keep getting to me all time & and even he has done a great mistake and did me wrong some day& even though ..I admit he is on e of few persons in this world who can understand me right…thank yo my homie..peace”.
The more mysterious one is  Unfettered Swallow, although not a regular blogger he did update from time to time. However, this month he deleted everything and simply  posted ” Sorry“.
Um Dania may be very busy with Dania, but hey not posting for the last two months?  We need to know how is Dania !
Smokeyspice has been missing in action for six months, her political analysis and wit are greatly missed too.
Nura our resident philosopher has been gone for the same period too maybe they are together? Although there is a rumour that Nura is in Libya for the summer.
The Lost Libyano's blog is no longer visible. I'm wondering if someone hacked it?
Controversial blogger Mindamir who writes in Arabic has not updated since February, I'm praying that he is OK.
Following his lesson on Fukuyama in April, Hafed has not been back, is he kept busy? or has he gone to study political science ? I do miss his satire.
Benghazeeya is still keeping me in suspense since March, so what happened has she gone to college in Libya ? Is she now married ?
Even dear Trabilsia has not been blogging for a while.
I'm sure my list is not comprehensive so if you know anyone else please tell us about him/her.
My advice to you all  when you want to go on a hiatus or have writer's block take the lead from American Libyan's ‘Dealing with personal issues’ notification – at least don't leave us in the dark !

author: Fozia Mohamed


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Trinidad & Tobago: Fourth Terror Suspect in Custody · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog reports that Abdel Nur, the fourth suspect in the JFK terror plot, has turned himself in.


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Tunisia: Guessing Game · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Tunisian blogger Subzero Blue invites you to take part in his latest game – Guess the Movie.


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UAE: Minister Launches Fragrance  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Economy Minister Sheikha Lubna Al-Qassemi, the first woman minister in the United Arab Emirates, has launched her own perfume with part of the proceeds going to charity, the Khaleej Times newspaper reported today. Sheikha Lubna unveiled the fragrance – “Mukhalat Sheikha Lubna” – at the Dubai branch of the luxury Saks Fifth Avenue store,” writes UAE blogger Fahad Al Mahmood.


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Ukraine: Okroshka · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Ukrainian recipe “perfect” for hot weather – okroshka, from Dave and Laura Nickel of Ukraine Update.


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Africa: end for the African despot? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

African Update discusses the impact of Charles Taylor's trial on African politics: “It is unlikely that the trial of former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor will make major headlines in many of the world’s newspapers, particularly given the fact that Paris Hilton was recently sent to jail and we have to have our priorities, right?   Many people, in fact, might have difficulty remembering exactly who Taylor is (or was).”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Africa: Google hires first African · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“Google hires first African employee,” declares White African: “Joseph Mucheru has been named the new site lead for Google Kenya. This was whispered to be happening, but at today’s Google lunch at TEDGlobal the position was made official by Francoise Brougher, Director of Google Business Opportunities.”


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Africa: roadblocks for Africa’s business women · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Benin Mwangi discusses roadblocks for Africa's business women: “There is a three headed hydra that over the weekend has been really eating at my being. It pertains to the ease of doing business in Africa, as an African woman. As I have read the blogs of African women over the past week along with some other readings, there are three things that I see when it comes to challenges faced by Africa's women entrepreneurs….”


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Africa: solar is the future of Africa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Afromusing writes about local solar and wind energy in Africa: “He had a powerful graph showing how 85% of Kenya (africa?) is not connected to the grid. The striking thing about Mr. Mwacharo’s company is the use of locally available materials and labor to create the systems. The inverters are made at a local university, the wiring and set up of the systems is done in his backyard. The fiberglass is locally cast though he imports the solar panels and magnets from China. His is a company that completely localizes renewable energy to provide power in a simple yet elegant way. Use of wind, complemented by solar and higher efficiency LED lights make this a very nimble system for off grid power provision.”


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Africa: speaking your own language · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ted Kidane came to the United States from Ethiopia twenty four years ago as a student, with $50 in his pocket. He starts his talk with a story about misunderstanding – he was visiting a tax preparer (which he found weird as, in Ethiopia, the government never gives money back to you), and then man said “Get out of here.” Kidane didn’t know he was joking, and ran out of the office. He offers this as a lesson in the importance of understanding language and communication,” writes Ethan Zuckerman from Arusha, Tanzania.


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Algeria: US Stance Towards Turkey ‘Ironic’ · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Algerian blogger Nouri finds  it ironic that US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday cautioned Turkey against sending troops into northern Iraq, as it has threatened, to hunt down Kurdish rebels it accuses of carrying out terrorist raids inside Turkey.


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Angola: Kitanda – A Gateway to the African “Lusosphere” · Global Voices
koluki

If you ever want to get your way into the African “lusosphere”, one of the best places to start is the blog “Kitanda” (“Marketplace” in Kimbundu, one of Angola's national languages).
Kitanda has become along the years, since its launch in 2004, an unavoidable reference in the “lusosphere”. Mainly dedicated to showcasing poetry written in Portuguese by authors from all lusophone countries, Kitanda also often offers a critical look at social and political events in those countries and internationally, all wrapped with evocative pictures, incidental music and, perhaps more importantly, a comprehensive blogroll of the “lusosphere”.
The attached post is just one example of its spirit. It presents the song “Luanda” and its lyrics, by Luanda’s hiphop group “Kalibrados”, expressing the sorrows and highs of Angola’s capital and its citizens. The song is particularly enriched by the use of a choral line from one of the pearls of Angolan music, “Monami” (“My Child” in Kimbundu) by a prominent Angolan singer, the late Lourdes Vandunem. Here’s the (possible) translation:
Fico malaíko com as cenas que constato
Queres ver Luanda, vê primeiro Ecos e Factos
Se água tem, energia não tem.
Se energia tem, água não tem,
nem tudo tá sebem.
A maioria não se importa é só tchillar
Sexta farrar,
sábado no bar,
segunda a kubar.
E Luanda vai morrendo lentamente.
Sem jovens para erguer uma capital diferente.
Se não formos nós, quem fará por nós?
O estrangeiro explora e foge
nunca querer saber de nós.
Não há estrilho, para tudo existe um prazo.
Nossa existência não é obra do acaso.
Digam de que forma a gente vai criticar,
vai relatar, não só Luanda,
Angola vai mudar.
Só a mudança para sarar minha ferida,
ua ué Luanda, amor da minha vida.
Essa é a minha, a tua, a nossa, vossa banda.
Essa é a minha, a tua, a nossa, vossa Luanda.
A preto e branco, como vês, nua e crua,
crua e nua,
conclusões efectua
O kimbundo? nana.
O português? Fala-se mal!
Não é normal,
em termos de linguagem, tá-se mal.
Luz, niente, água, niente.
É melhor eu me calar para não ser inconveniente.
O tempo da TPA, quase todo já foi-se.
Porque quase todos têm em casa, a Multichoice.
Channel O, MTV, KTV, CBC, SIC, Globo, RTPI.
Sim, a globalização tem força,
vemos outras culturas e esquecemo-nos da nossa.
Tu vês que eu não falo a toa.
Roulottes em Luanda é tipo cafés em Lisboa.
Reparem só, analisem com atenção:
sobre o preço da gasolina, sobre o preço do pão.
Sobe quase tudo, só o salário que não.
Bwé de makas, bwé de estrilhos, bwé de kilingas mayuya.
Mas mesmo assim, minha Luanda kuia.
Mas ‘inda assim, minha Luanda kuia.
Mas mesmo assim, minha Luanda kuia.
Mas ‘inda assim, minha Luanda kuia.
Bem-vindo a Luanda, a cidade que acontece,
onde todos são pausados, todos são kaenches,
onde há bwé de problemas, mas ninguém tá preocupado.
Muitos passam fome, mas tão sempre bem grifados.
Não há retalhos, problemas é a grosso.
Tá na moda formar grupo e dar com catana nos outros.
Tem dicas para rir, tem dicas pra chorar.
E o Luandense até nos óbitos, gosta de se mostrar.
Isso é Luanda, ninguém respeita nada.
Com conversa, não se entendem,
só se entendem com porrada.
Fico malaíko com o clima da cidade,
na porta da discoteca, todos são celebridade
Ninguém pode esperar, todo mundo quer ser visto.
“Hey brother, sou VIP”. Comé, brother, evita isso!
Esse mambo tá empestado de ilusão,
Luanda é uma selva onde todos querem ser o leão.
I get malaiko (dazed) with the scenes I get
You want to see Luanda, see first Echoes and Facts
If there’s water, there’s no energy.
If there’s energy, there’s no water,
not everything’s alright.
The majority doesn’t care, its just chill
Friday party,
Saturday bar
Monday kubar (sleep).
And Luanda is slowly dying.
Without young blood to build a different capital.
If it’s not us, who will do it for us?
The foreigner exploits and runs away
never cares about us.
There’s no trouble, for everything there’s a time.
Our existence is not by chance.
Tell us how we will criticise, report,
not only Luanda,
Angola will change. Only change can heal my wound,
ua ué (lament) Luanda, love of my life.
That’s mine, yours, ours, your banda (“hood”/place).
That’s mine, yours, ours, your Luanda.
In black and white, as you see,
nude and crude,
crude and nude,
affects conclusions
Kimbundo? Nope.
Portuguese? Badly spoken!
It ain’t normal, in language terms, we’re in bad shape.
Light, none, water, none.
Better I shut up not to be inconvenient.
All TPA (Angolan Public Television) time is almost gone.
’Cause everybody’s got at home, the Multichoice.
Channel O, MTV, KTV, CBC, SIC, Globo, RTPI.
Yes, globalization is strong,
we see other cultures
and forget about ours.
See, I don’t speak just for speak’s sake.
Roulottes in Luanda is kind of cafés in Lisbon.
Just look, pay attention:
to the price of fuel, to the price of bread.
Everything’s going up, only the salary not.
Bwé (lots) of makas (disputes),
Bwé of estrilhos (problems),
Bwé de kilingas mayuya (crazy stuff).
But even so, my Luanda kuia (thrills).
But still, my Luanda kuia.
But even so, my Luanda kuia.
But still, my Luanda kuia.
Welcome to Luanda, the city that happens,
where everybody’s paused, all are cool,
Where there’s bwé of problems, but nobody’s troubled.
Many go hungry, but are always designer dressed.
There’s no piecemeal, problems are in bulk.
It’s fashionable to form groups
and attack others with machettes.
There’s dicas (tips) for laugh, there’s dicas for cry.
And the Luandense even in mourning likes to show off.
This is Luanda, nobody respects nothing.
With talk they don’t understand each other,
only with fight.
I get malaiko with the city’s vibe,
on the club’s door, everybody’s a celebrity
Nobody can wait, everybody wants to be seen.
“Hey brother, I’m VIP”. How’s it, brother, forget about it!
That mambo (thing) is pestered by illusion.
Luanda is a jungle where everybody wants to be the lion.

author: koluki


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Arabeyes: Reversing the Greenhouse Effect in Egypt · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

What will you do if you could reverse the adverse results of the  Greenhouse Effect  and make your country at least 5 degrees Celsius cooler? Bent Masreya, from Egypt, addresses this issue in the following translation.
It can indeed work out only if people pooled in and donated money to grow forests. The trees, in turn, will absorb Carbon Dioxide and emit Oxygen, making the world a better place and summers more bearable. However, it is not as simple as it sounds, explains the blogger, whose name means Egyptian Girl.
المهم الدكتور ده كان بيتكلم عن خطورة الاحتباس الحراري، ما علينا مش هنقعد نشرح المصيبة اللى مستنية كوكب الارض وسكانه لما تزيد درجة حرارة الأرض، ولا التلج اللى هيدوب ومستوى المياه اللى هيزيد واليابس الى هيغرق ويختفى تحت سطح البحر – بما فيهم خمس جزر فى الهند راحوا خلاص بسبب الاحتباس، ولا هنتكلم عن تأثيره على بقاء حيوانات او حشرات بعينها ولا ان نوع الحرب فى المستقبل هتكون على المية وكده
I don't want to sound pessimistic but seriously, I hope we would be able to implement this solution and not exacerbate this issue by side problems such as the fact that we are a nation of people who don't have a culture of volunteering. I feel with a little bit of awareness, people will be able to contribute and instead of paying a Pound, they will pay 10 and instead of planting 10 trees, we will have a 100.
The second problem is that this project maybe launched under the patronage of the Agriculture Ministry or it may be responsible for it from the beginning to the end. This will be a real catastrophe because a project like this will be ruined – if not from thefts, then from bureaucracy. The best solution is for a society to be formed for this purpose – to grow trees around cities – and this could be its lifelong mission.


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Armenia: Katuner Concert Photos · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Follow The Way posts photos from a recent Yerevan concert by the band Katuner.

author: Nathan Hamm


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Bahrain: Smut on MTV · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Not that I’m complaining or anything.. but has anyone noticed how much smut has now made its way to dance music videos on MTV?” wonders Bahraini Rants.


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Bangladesh: What the country needs · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Tanvir on what appear to be urgent needs emerging in Bangladesh under the caretaker government. “I believe government is trying hard, but there is no short time solution of power crisis and high price. Where as I will be happy to see some initiative to alleviate the situation in future. but mostly I am not concerned about these things, these facilities have to be there if we have to bring the massive change in our life and be a developed country. What concerns me most now is the industrialization. We need to see more investment and employment.”

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Barbados, Suriname: New Amazon Species · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Gallimaufry reports on a study conducted by scientists from Conservation International, which found that there are “a couple dozen new species in the Surinamese highlands.”


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Bermuda: Housing Corruption Scandal  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

IMHO.bm is concerned about the corruption scandal surrounding the Bermuda Housing Corporation, while Politics.bm reports that the controversy has captured the attention of the international media.


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Cambodia: Taking Google to Cambodian Highlanders · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Tharum has pictures from a workshop on Google conducted in rural North-Eastern Cambodia.

author: Preetam Rai


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Chávez, Lula and the media: is it a samba or a waltz? · Global Voices
Jose Murilo

It was a funny week that passed by here in Brazil, in the wake of the implementation of the Chávez government decision not to renew the broadcasting license of Radio Caracas Television. The Brazilian Senate debated the issue in one of its sessions this week and decided to ask the Venezuelan regime to reconsider the decision. Chávez, in one of his more peculiar speeches, said Brazilian senators “are a parrot that repeats whatever Washington says”, and warned that “it's easier for the Portuguese empire to retake Brazil than for Venezuela to return the television license which finished with Venezuela's oligarchy”. As a result Lula decided to summon Venezuela's ambassador in Brazil to explain Chávez's comments, and that was the signal big media outlets were waiting for in order to spread the word about the much anticipated presidential clash. We should ask: what is the real line in this three partner dance between Chávez, Lula and the media? Brazilian bloggers tell us, from one side to the other, and in the middle.
A mídia hegemônica nativa está fazendo um enorme escarcéu com o desabafo do presidente da Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, que acusou o Senado Federal de ser “papagaio” dos interesses dos EUA por este ter aprovado resolução contra o fim da concessão pública à RCTV – os dois únicos votos contrários à moção foram dos senadores Inácio Arruda (PCdoB-CE) e José Nery (PSOL-PA). De todas as formas, tenta jogar o governo e a sociedade brasileira contra o processo revolucionário bolivariano. Defensora descarada do tratado neocolonial da Alca, derrotada nas ruas e nas urnas, ela usa todos os ardis para implodir o rico processo em curso de integração latino-americana. A mídia privada, partidária de golpes fascistas no passado, como em 64, e no presente, como na abjeta manipulação nas eleições presidenciais de 2006, agora tenta pousar de “democrata” e “nacionalista”. Dá nojo e asco! O presidente Lula, que inicialmente até resistiu à pressão midiática para que se opusesse ao fim da concessão da RCTV, acabou caindo na armadilha. Antes, insistiu acertadamente em declarar que “o Brasil não tem nada a ver com a concessão, que é um problema da legislação venezuelana”. Já quando o Senado emitiu sua nota, o governo preferiu não criticar a interferência desta casa legislativa na decisão soberana do país-irmão. Mas, diante da reação do presidente venezuelano e da feroz campanha da mídia, o presidente Lula acabou cedendo e “expressou o seu repúdio a manifestações que coloquem em questão a independência, a dignidade e os princípios democráticos que norteiam nossas instituições”. Era o que a mídia desejava para fazer alarde sobre o “racha” entre Chávez e Lula.
Chavez, o Senado, e a Mídia Escrota – Altamiro Borges in Blog do Rizzolo
Os internautas leram em um único lugar — aqui — que a reação de Lula às críticas de Hugo Chávez ao Congresso brasileiro eram conversa mole, papo-furado. Bingo! O Apedeuta deu uma entrevista à BBC e já disse que o ditador venezuelano é parceiro, e não um perigo para a América Latina, o que significa endossar, entre outras coisas, o que o vagabundo fez com a RCTV. Se a imprensa brasileira não estivesse corroída pelo servilismo ao PT, Lula seria tratado como o que de fato é: um aliado de Chávez, que só não repete aqui as práticas daquele porque as instituições brasileiras não deixam. Por enquanto ao menos. Mas “eles” já estão cuidando disso… Lula disse ainda algo aparentemente razoável, aparentemente racional: “Chávez tem suas razões para brigar com os Estados Unidos. E os Estados Unidos têm suas razões para brigar com a Venezuela. O Brasil não tem nenhuma razão para brigar com os Estados Unidos ou a Venezuela. Nós temos que aprender a respeitar a lógica legal de cada país. Eu não dou palpite nas políticas internas de nenhum país”. Disse o óbvio? Uma pinóia! Lula está igualando uma ditadura a uma democracia. Está dizendo que cada uma delas tem seus motivos. Se falasse sinceramente, seria só delinqüência intelectual. Com sabe que seu juízo é falso, está fazendo uma escolha: a Venezuela.
Lula volta a cair nos braços do ditador  – Reinaldo Azevedo (Veja)
Com toda a sua bandeira de desafio, Chavez tem alguns pontos frágeis : não está administrando bem a PDVSA, seu governo no geral é ineficiente, Chavez não tem um partido estruturado e nem tem um sólido grupo político, tudo depende dele, se amanhã desaparecer o chavismo tende a sumir e a Venezuela poderá entrar em convulsão. O Brasil está investindo bastante nas relações com a Venezuela, diplomàticamente e financeiramente. O BNDES tem emprestado muito à Venezuela, para financiar compra de produtos brasileiros e construções feitas por empreiteiras brasileiras (Odebrecht) e a Petrobrás está investindo alto diretamente e via Braskem. O risco é elevado. O problema dos regimes tipo Chavez e Morales não é o radicalismo, é a imprevisibilidade… O Brasil chegou ao limite nas relações com Chavez, daqui para frente há boas probabilidades de aumentarem os problemas e diminuírem as oportunidades. Governos deste estilo tem a necessidade de elevar o tom para criar permanente tensão interna, como forma de manter o controle político. uma característica do Governo Chavez desde o primeiro dia, ninguém pode se dizer surpreendido com o fechamento da RCTV, que é apenas parte de um processo continuado..
Chavez e a imprevisibilidade – André Araújo in Luis Nassif Online
Following the evening news here in Brazil, one could perceive the attitude shift in the headlines that auspiciously announced Lula's rebuke of the Chávez response to the Brazilian Senate. And in some headlines, as bloggers report, there were efforts to deliberately augment the number of opposition supporters at a demonstration in Caracas. Predictably, media corporations are trying to make their point and get as many supporters as possible in their crusade against Chávez, and President Lula would make the perfect ally. Brazilian bloggers complain about the absence of reliable sources in the media when the issue happens to be the Venezuelan president.
Given that corporate media and the Washington establishment are one and the same, it's no surprise that none of the major English-language news wires ran a story about Lula's position of non-interference in the RCTV case. AP didn't run anything about it. Reuters didn't either. And neither did any of the major U.S. dailies. Only the German wire Deutsche Presse-Agentur and the Chinese wire Xinhua reported the story. In other words, a story that doesn't fit the Washington establishment's divide-and-conquer strategy is curiously absent from the major English-language press.
Lessons in Media Manipulation: Lula, Chavez and RCTV – Latin America News Review
O correspondente da Folha em Caracas, de cujo nome não faço questão alguma de lembrar-me, relata em notícia que foi manchete de primeira página em seis colunas na edição impressa, que “vários milhares de estudantes” foram impedidos de sair às ruas por “uma barreira de dezenas de policiais de tropa de choque”. Além do fato, mais que risível, de ele não ter visto o absurdo que é falar em “vários milhares” detidos por “dezenas de policiais”, ainda que sejam da tropa de choque, a “reportagem” é tirada das páginas do “El Universal”, e não da experiência pessoal do jornalista, que deve achar mais imparcial escrever do seu quarto de hotel do que sair às ruas em busca de fatos.  Os “vários milhares”, aliás, parecem ser a única contribuição do correspondente aos “fatos”, porque  a reportagem da qual ele tirou as informações ,  (ou esta) não menciona em parte alguma qual seria o número de manifestantes barrados, mas precisa o número de policiais: quarenta. Ou seja, o número declarado com precisão transforma-se num vago “dezenas”, enquanto o número não declarado aumenta para “vários milhares”… E esta é a notícia publicada como manchete de primeira página pela Folha de S. Paulo. Até onde vai a falta de respeito pela verdade factual, e pela inteligência alheia?
Chavez e a imprevisibilidade – Tomás Bueno in Luis Nassif Online
A dificuldade de escrever sobre Hugo Chavez e a não renovação da concessão da RCTV é a ausência de fontes confiáveis. Vamos analisar, primeiro, em tese. Dentre todos os quatro poderes, o mais ágil, o mais influente é a mídia, porque ajuda a moldar consciências, a controlar as informações (e, por conseqüência, a capacidade de julgamento da opinião pública). Daí a importância de se ter uma mídia plural, objetiva, técnica e democrática. É o que a legitima como fiscal dos demais poderes.  A partir do momento em que abre mão de seu papel mediador, instrumentaliza as denúncias com o objetivo de derrubar presidentes, o jogo é outro. Na América Latina, após a redemocratização a imprensa conseguiu derrubar diversos presidentes, dentre os quais Andrés Perez, na Venezuela, e Fernando Collor no Brasil. Tornou-se poder maior, e com apetite para investir sobre os demais poderes, inclusive derrubando mais presidentes. As tentativas contra FHC e, mais agudamente, contra Lula, são exemplos recentes.  Foi o que ocorreu com a imprensa venezuelana algum tempo atrás, quando chegou a apear Chavez do poder, embora por pouco tempo.  Agora vem o troco. Para avaliar adequadamente o ato de Chavez, torna-se necessário dispor de duas informações fundamentais. A primeira, como vinha sendo a atuação dessa emissora nos últimos anos. Persistiu a intenção golpista ou não? A segunda, como tem sido a atuação da mídia venezuelana como um todo. A segunda questão é relevante para se avaliar se a decisão de Chavez desequilibra o jogo, em favor do Executivo, ou não.
 Chavez e a RCTV – Luis Nassif Online
In this battle of renditions, it is important to mention that the Brazilian Congress has veto power over Venezuela's ongoing application process for full membership in the regional trade alliance Mercosur and it could damage Chavez's continental plans independent of Lula's actual directions. Chavez faces the political constraint of having to “sell” Venezuela's membership to the Brazilian Congress as well as to the President.
Lula's most recent word on the controversy was given in an interview at BBC's HardTalk, where he offered a framework of tolerance combined with a faith that everything can be OK if countries are able to respect each other and their unique historical imperatives. He called for partnership in areas of agreement, respect in areas of disagreement and a combined effort to transcend the conflicts of the past for the benefit of all in the 21st Century.
On the other hand, Lula has certainly learned how to deal with the media, and he is surely toping his histrionic neighbor in this particular and important area. He seems to be more aware about the changes that the media ecology is going through, and appears confident that by maintaining openness as a pattern, the outcomes generally will be positive. In this three partner dance, Lula seems to be setting the rhythm by creating a form that  accepts diversity and improvisation, more like a samba than a waltz.
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author: Jose Murilo


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Chile: Oil Spill Affects Livelihood of Fishermen · Global Voices
Rosario Lizana

Three hundred and fifty liters of oil were spilled in Bahia San Vicente in Talcahuano. As Ecologia y Patrañas Diversas (ES) explains, the spillage happened when the ship New Constellation under the flag of the Marshall Islands and operated by Ultramar, while unloading fuel for the National Enterprise of Petrol, Enap. The accident happened on May 25.
To understand who were responsible for the accident, the Public Prosecutor's Office is working on the case. The online newspaper, El Ciudadano (ES) posts that the accident was due to a breakdown in the pipe on the property of Enap (ES), National Enterprise of Petrol.  In the meantime,  SAG (Agricultural and Livestock Service) is working to rescue, rehabilitate, wash, and relocate the birds to a safe area. More than 200 birds are being attended to at a clinic in the same location.
The environment and the fishermen in the area have been the most affected. As Sergio Leiva (ES) explains, the Enap company hired 50 fishermen to help with the labor of cleaning the area, because it is now impossible for the fishermen to work. Up until now, it is said that 85% of the area is now clean. The port authority developed a plan to recover the petrol and to build barriers to slow down the damage. Mauricio Barrientos (ES) wrote that the damage will remain for 15 years. Also, that there are some groups of students helping to clean the area.

author: Rosario Lizana


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China: Tea Market · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Bingfeng blogs a street banner that said: “it's better to deposit some Pu'er tea at home than to deposit money in banks“, as the prices of Pu'er tea increased 500-800% within a short peirod of several months.


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Cuba: Disappointed in “Today” · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Both Babalu Blog and Uncommon Sense are disappointed in The Today Show‘s coverage from Cuba: “For decades, the tendency by many in American media, academia and government has been to look at Cuba only in the context of what the United States has done or hasn't done…Regardless of whether any of that is accurate — and on one level, it is — it tells only part, the less relevant part, of the story.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Czech Rebublic: Defense Minister’s Song · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Voice of Europe reports that in order “to lighten up the negative campaign, which is accompanying the radar debate,” the Czech defense minister records a song for George W. Bush.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Debating Darfur: Bloggers question Sudanese ambassador to U.N. · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

“What does Sudan want?” “Who do you think are arming the rebels?” These deceptively simple questions were posed to the Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations by members of the panel at a Reuters Newsmaker event in New York on 24 May, 2007. His answers were evasive, and the debate was full of awkward moments. The ambassador even blamed the violent conflict in Darfur on climate change at one point. The other panelists disagreed.
Global Voices’ Sub-Saharan Africa Editor, Ndesanjo Macha, live-blogged the event  and was invited to pose questions directly from Sudanese bloggers in the Q&A session.
There was a quiet gasp from the audience of journalists and opinion-makers when they heard where the questions were coming from. New York is very, very far away from Darfur. Somehow it brought the room closer to the tragedy to know someone in the region was listening.
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Here is the second question Ndesanjo asked, right before the end:
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At the last Reuters Newsmaker event there was a live webcast which made it easier for bloggers to listen and ask questions while it was happening. This time, the full audio recording of the event has been added to the Reuters website later (here) and video clip (here). Just click to see how depressingly far from any resolution the conflict is.
The speakers represented the US Department of State (Lauren Landis), the United Nations (Mia Farrow), the International Crisis Group (John Prendergast), and NBC News (Ann Curry).
“Will you say yes to peacekeepers?” asked the moderator. The ambassador hesitated. “Yes, for African Union peacekeepers supported by the United Nations,” but it was a conditional response. He said he only wanted peacekeepers, after durable peace was established (good luck).
“It’s their policy to destroy that rebellion by killing the supporters. They don’t want witnesses. They don’t want an effective peacekeeping force,” said Prendergast. He called for sanctions against individual senior leaders. And he called them war criminals. “Until there is a cost for continuing to arm militias they will continue the killing in the villages. They will continue bombing civilian targets,” he said.
I blogged the event on openDemocracy's blog. And here's the Reuters account.
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author: Solana Larsen


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Fiji: Academics ask the Military to Stop Bullying the Students · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

The intelligentsia blog posts a letter written by two lecturers from the University of the South Pacific. The letter, addressed to the military authorities, is asking them to stop intimidating the students for contributing content to blogs.


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Hong Kong and China: Communication Failure · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Seechuen blogs about his experience in communicating with a mainland teacher on June 4 incident. The biggest gap is in the understanding of the relation between people and nation, which should come first (zh).

author: Oiwan Lam


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Hong Kong: Oppression of Housing Right Activists · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A report at interlocals.net on the oppression of housing right activists in Hong Kong based on various Chinese reports written by plato at inmediahk.net.


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Hungary: Famous Magyars · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Pestcentric writes about famous Hungarians – which the newly-elected French president Nicolas Sarkozy is not: “The French can have him. And if he turns out to be a disaster, […] let’s be glad he doesn’t consider himself a Magyar.”


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Hungary: “Panel Houses” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Pestcentric writes on the ubiquitous Soviet “panel houses” that “greet” you when you arrive in Budapest “before you get to the nice stuff.”


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Hungary: Referendum · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Hungary is to have a referendum on health care, Pestcentric reports.


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India: Caste Wars and the Law · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The Social Blog talks about Caste Wars and the National Security Act. “On Saturday night, the Government of Rajasthan enforced the National Security Act in eleven of its districts. Most of the news reporters have talked about its imposition but none about its implications. One needs to understand that the Act is basically a ‘preventive detention’ act, one of the greatest legitimate ills in our country. I use the word legitimate because it is a violation that is given sanction to in the Constitution of our country.”


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India: On A Thousand Splendid Suns · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The Middle Stage on Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. “The fictions of Khaled Hosseini portray not just a world out of joint – an Afghanistan racked first by conflict with the Soviets and then a civil war – but also, within it, families where unnatural formations are prevalent and guilty secrets harboured. This surfeit of disorder results in extravagant narratives that are always ticking away like timebombs. Disaster is never more than an arm's length away in Hosseini's work, as guns and bombs on the streets, and an insensitive and authoritarian patriarchal culture inside the home, create an atmosphere “of abasement, of degradation and despair”.”


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Iran:It is enough Mr.President · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Soroosh says[Fa] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,Iranian president, recently announced the countdown for destruction of Israel has started. The blogger says to Ahmadinejad even if it is true,it is not your business.If you can, you should construct your own country.The blogger writes we are tired of these words.You are just like a new student who comes to university and does everything except studying.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iraqi Graduation  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“You must look at this video on the NY Times website showing young Iraqis at graduation.
This story is a tragedy. And it reminds us that human beings survive and are beautiful; we dance for joy in the midst of unimaginable horrors,” writes  Leila Abu-Saba.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Kazakhstan: Election Changes · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

At neweurasia, Adam says that recent changes to election laws are a step in the wrong direction for Kazakhstan.


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Kuwait: Omani Cyclone · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Everyone has heard about the cyclone by now that is just reaching Oman and is expected to move north towards the Eastern provinces of Saudi and then maybe Kuwait,” reports Kuwaitism.


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Kyrgyzstan: Visit from SecDef · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Kyrgyz Report reports on the meetings in Bishkek between Kyrgyzstan's president and the US defense secretary in which the status of the US airbase in the country was discussed.


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Malaysia: Newspapers Asked To Show Restraint on PM’s Wedding Story · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

The Prime Minster's office broke the news of Malaysian prime minster's upcoming marriage. Newspapers are being asked to go easy on the coverage. Rocky's Bru writes “Now, you won't believe this! Editors from the mainstream media were summoned for a briefing on the wedding just now.”


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Myanmar: Why I hate the SLORC · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Nyein Chan Yar is asking the ruling military junta in Myanmar to go to hell.


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Pakistan: Law, Religion and Media · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

chapati mystery responds to the “tunnel vision of imperialism” as displayed in a debate between Obama, Hillary and Edwards. “Edwards, Obama and Clinton may not know this – or care – but the Press in Pakistan has been the most vital organ of civil society throughout its existence – through Ayub or Zia or Bhutto or Nawaz. The rise of cable channels has been largely on the back of opinion and news shows anchored by strong personalities with live-studio call-in elements. These same channels carried live footage of the MQM thugs shooting and killing on May 12 as well as the police raids on the channels for attempted shut-down of the transmissions – much to the embarrassment of the spin machines.”


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Pakistan: World Environment Day · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Metroblogging Islamabad on World Environment Day. “In commemoration of the same day, the Ministry of Environment and the United Nation's office in Islamabad jointly screened Al Gore's famous 2005 documentary on global warming called ‘The Inconvenient Truth’ in the Islamabad Club Auditorium. Preceded by addresses by a UN representative Mr. Alvaro Rodriguez and the Minister of State of Environment the audience was educated on the severe effects of global warming all around the world and how scientists and Mr. Al Gore came to know about it. The movie also had a lot on about Al Gore's private affairs and personal life, his political campaigns and his world renowned campaign in the shape of Kyoto Protocol.”


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Palestine: Arab TVs · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“I don't even know why I bother with Arabic channels and news! Every time I turn to one of the channels I see the same old propaganda crap,” notes Palestinian blogger Qwaider.