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Hong Kong: ever-worse place for expats? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Simon comments on a recent survey that Hong Kong is becoming an ever-worse place for expats, slipping behind Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney and Sierra Leone as a place to live. What's the reason behind?


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Hungary: Violence in Budapest · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Pestcentric and Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar report on the violence in Budapest as Hungary is celebrating the 1848 revolution.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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India: On street dogs · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

My Life on the culling of street dogs in Bangalore and how the dogs better treatment. “Once when I was returning home from Bangalore Central to my home near the airport by bus, I had to walk around a kilometer at 11pm. The streets were deserted and there were a number of stray dogs; a couple of them started growling at me, but I never looked in their direction and just kept walking as if I had not felt their presence.”

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Indonesia: Tribute to Australian Journalist · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Maverick Indonesia writes a tribute to Morgan Mellish, an Australian journalist for a financial newspaper. Mellish lost his life along with 21 other passengers when a Garuda Boeing 737-400 plunged off a runway at Yogyakarta.

author: Preetam Rai


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Iran:Anti war rally in Toronto, Canada · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Sibiltala[Fa] invites Iranian to take part in anti war demonstration in front of USA Consulate in Toronto, Canada. The blogger says usually there are a few Iranians who participate in this kind of demonstrations.It is organized by the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran:End of a nightmare in Moscow Airport · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

According to Kamangir, an Iranian family, a mother with two children, who stayed for nine months in Moscow airport,got accepted as refugees in Canada.You can see their photo here.


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Iran:Freedom of speech in taxicabs and butcher shops · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

View from Iran says Iran is a society filled with thoughtful and outspoken individuals. Only the bravest or the most desperate have the nerve to organize. The rest exercise their freedom of speech in taxicabs and butcher shops; at parties and swimming pools; in poems and through blog posts. There is no dearth of conversation and debate here


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Iran:Zarafshan,human rights activist is out of prison · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Rozmaregi  [Fa]says that Nasser Zarafshan,human rights activist and lawyer, after being in jail for 5 years,is out of prison today.


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Iraq: Lost in Translation · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Issandr El Amrani, writing in The Arabist, links to a story about the recruitment of someone who barely spoke Arabic to work as a translator in Iraq.
“Yet another story of greed, corruption and incompetence in the privatization of the US occupation of Iraq,” he exclaims.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Japan, Croatia: Restaurants · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Neretva River writes about Japan's two Croatian restaurants.


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Japan: Where are the Japanese comfort women? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Ampontan translates a post written by Kiyotani in response to the recent debate about Abe's claim that there was “no evidence” that the recruitment of “comfort women” had been “forcible in the narrow sense of the word”.: I really wonder why no one is talking about the Japanese comfort women. If there was organized prostitution under state management through the use of military comfort women, isn’t it reasonable to assume that a majority were Japanese (not counting the Taiwanese and Koreans as Japanese)?

author: Oiwan Lam


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Lebanon: Women, Politics and the Zalghouta · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

This week’s summary of the Lebanese blogosphere has posts about politics, peace activism, internal tourism, tradition, feminism and how to cook moghrabiyeh. So let’s start:
In an educational and well prepared historical essay, Mustapha Mond discusses what he sees as the major reasons of the political crisis that Lebanon is stuck with today:
The time has come to congratulate the Lebanese for creating the most polarized and dysfunctional country in the world. Here we are, roughly divided into two groups busy demonizing each other. and going out of our way to reject any validity in our opponents’ views. Each side asserts some kind of monopoly to what being Lebanese really represents, and holds massive demonstrations waving the same flag, but agreeing on little else. […] Of course, as Lebanese we have excuses which include a litany of grievances. Our first basic problem has to do with our history: it is the most exclusionary narrative you can think of, as it is only relevant to about a quarter of the population. Furthermore, history books go out of their way to alienate the rest of the country.
[…] Some people will argue that history is irrelevant, that it is just a lame excuse used by those not patriotic enough, who refuse to adapt to the widely accepted paradigm. But in order to believe in Lebanon, you have to be part of it. Currently we have two well-defined camps who accuse one another of not being Lebanese enough. They are both wrong as no single movement has a monopoly on what being Lebanese really represents.
Still in the domain of politics, Tearsforlebanon reports about a group of peace activists that demonstrated in Beirut for the politicians to lay off and stop driving Lebanon to the brink of a civil war.
Beirut- Hundreds of Lebanese peace activists demonstrated in Beirut against perceived threats of civil war to tell politicians to keep their “hands off” the fate of the people. Responding to calls by 12 groups, the protesters rallied at the intersection that once divided Christian east and Muslim west Beirut in the 1975 to 1990 civil war. One protester said: “By this action, we want to tell our politicians that they are irresponsible and that the Lebanese people will not let themselves be dragged into a new civil war.” Another protester said: “To live in uncertainty about tomorrow and in continual fear is not an inevitability.”
While Hillz writes an Arabic post in which he discusses civil war and political turmoil and contradictions from which the following passage is translated:
I need to write a script that does not end. After you finish reading it, you find that you are back at the beginning. Then you have to read all over again. […]
When I looked at the new ID card that does not have a mention of the owner’s sect, the barcode on its back caught my attention. I innocently said, (yes, I was innocent once upon a time), that the sect is hidden here. I said that the future has a war in store for us. Militia men will stand on road blocks with tech–devices that can swallow the ID card and reveal the sect that is hidden in the code. I expanded my theory to say that killing will become killing according to the electronic ID card version 2.1.
With all the problems, Lebanon is still loved by its inhabitants. Check out this photo essay by NightS about the southern Lebanese city of Tyre:
all my life I've been moving around and I got to have many wonderful memories from different cities…each one has its own magic…each one has its very special value in my heart…
So in order to be fair with these lovely cities, I won't pick one of them. Instead, I'll talk about a very beautiful place here in Lebanon, Tyre.
Tyre (Sour in Arabic) is a city on the Mediterranean coast of southern Lebanon, located 19 km north of the border with Palestine, 40 km south of Saida and 83 km south of Beirut. It's considered the fourth largest city in Lebanon. It was also a major Pheonician seaport.
Why do I love the city? because it's a great place to be. End of Story!
Okay I'll talk more…
Are you familiar with Lebanese tradition? Have you heard of the zalghouta? Okay, let Jamal explain:
The zalghouta:
first a note to my foreign readers: Even though it rhymes with it, Zalghouta has nothing to do with that One arabic word you know.
The Zalghouta is a physical feat involving the tongue and throat, usually, of a female. No, no, I repeat this has nothing to do with that one arabic word you know.
The Zalghouta is a loud expression of the happy ending of bachelor life. I swear it has nothing to do with sex, even though ladies who can perform it tend to have higher babies per uterus averages than women who can't.
I don't think it is either a genetically inherited talent or an acquired skill, it must be another one of these unexplainable Lebanese miracle mutations like full make up breakfasts and Walid Jumblat.
The International Women’s Day was last week, and Abu Ali seized the opportunity to write a post in which he discussed several topics relevant to feminism, among them, is the question of whether his veiled relatives need liberating:
My cousins are veiled and live in the South. We never touch or shake hands. When we meet, they place their hands on their chest and do a little curtsy. I make fun of them and run after them and hold them so they never get to go to paradise. We’re quite close, we talk about everything, politics, family, friends, loves. During the war, they stayed in the village and drove their cars at night to take food to the fighters in the hills. They also took turns guarding the village at night. When the war ended, they buried their dead, rebuilt their houses and sent their kids to school. How can I possibly liberate them? When I’m around them I feel I’m the one who needs liberating.
Talking about Women’s Day, Shirin’s parents are concerned that she is abroad studying. They have voiced their concern and have asked her to return to Lebanon. This is part of her story:
My father wants me to quit my studies and return to Lebanon. I have considered it before, especially after the war that had ruined my beloved homeland. It seemed to me that I needed to do something to help my country, and quitting my studies was a fair sacrifice.
But this is not the case now: my father wants me to quit because he is concerned. My mama (umi el3aziza) wants me to go back to Lebanon because she thinks that there I will be safe.
It surprised me, I thought that they were liberal enough to understand that the West isn’t their enemy, but now they are terrified. They are afraid that my studies might corrupt my mind and set me against Islam.
Finally, if all this reading has made you hungry, then maybe you would care for some moghrabiyeh. This is the recipe from Skylark.
Bon appétit.

author: Moussa Bashir


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Nigeria, Cameroon: Purple Hibiscus · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Cameroonian Sanaga Peregrinations writes  [Fr] of  Nigerian Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel Purple Hibiscus: “Important questions are raised in this book, between respect of tradition and conformity to christian teachings, does the fight against sin justify damnation on earth through corporal punishment?”

author: Alice Backer


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Panama: Carnival- Day 1 · Global Voices
David Sasaki

As promised, Rob Rivera has published a detailed first day account of his carnival adventure. “February is a very contradicting month: not only do you have the annual opportunity given to you by Hallmark to tell the person you love that you do (and if you didn’t then oh noes!) but right a few days later you’re granted to a 4-day holiday fueled by debauchery and lack of self control where you’ll drink you face off and chase as much tail as you possibly can… “

author: David Sasaki


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Panama: HSBC Sues Customer for Yahoo Postings · Global Voices
Melissa De León

#1: From Panama's Noriegaville News: Uproar among expats about HSBC Panama SLAPP suit
If the intention was to silence criticism of its service, the attempt has already miserably failed. A storm of protest and foreigners closing their accounts has so far been the result of a lawsuit HSBC Panama has brought against its client Peter Gordon for damages to the tune of $5,000,000 as a result of the defendant criticizing HSBC's service in two messages on a members-only Yahoo group and in 19 private letters to the bank…Read the complete post!
#2: From Chiriqui Chatter: HSBC vs. Peter Gordon
Once upon a time, a long long time ago, there used to be a contributor in many of the Panama Yahoo groups by the name of Peter Gordon. All of a sudden he quit posting. Recently, Don Winner explained why Peter had become so mute.
It appears that Peter Gordon had complained about the service he was given by HSBC on many of the Yahoo groups that he participated in. When the dust settles, maybe the full story will come out. However, for now, it appears that HSBC (according to Don Winner’s article) is suing Peter Gordon to the tune of $5,000,000. As Don says, “Holy Crap, Batman”…Read More
A visitor's comment on this thread, regarding the same issue reads:
In the US HSBC, which we should remember is the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, has enforced such oppressive contracts that one must now use binding arbitration. If HSBC slaps the customer with a $39 late fee it would cost between $5000 and $10,000 to dispute the fee. Obviously it will not happen. Having said that please remember that Shea v Household (HSBC) claimed late application of payments as far back as 1994. It still happens today. HSBC settled Shea v Household for $11 million (USD).
From credit cards to banking to mortgages to sub-prime mortgages HSBC has been likened to Providian, where high interest, overlimit fees, and late charges finally atttracted the attention of regulators. While perhaps guilty of the same and well deserving of the Providian comparison, HSBC decided on another path.
Sue customers, hold them to binding arbitration, and change US bankruptcy laws. Follow up by changing US postal regulations so one cannot track statements. Then structure HSBC USA whereby one holding company owns another which owns another. In the end the final holding company claims state regulation and not federal regulation and stalls any investigation. (T. Blake)
#3: From HSBC Interactive: HSBC Sues Customer for Yahoo Postings
I am a US citizen living in Panama. I recently learned of a very disturbing lawsuit filed by the multi national banking conglomerate HSBC in Panama – a country where anyone can be criminally prosecuted or civilly sued for defamation even if the statements that are the subject of the suit are absolutely true (truth is not a defense). The suit was filed by HSBC’s Panama branch, which is (I believe) an affiliate of the US corporation, against a British resident of Panama, Peter Gordon.
Peter had been a customer of HSBC Panama but cancelled his accounts because he was unsatisfied with HSBC’s service and felt they were nickel and diming him with excessive and unwarranted fees.
He posted numerous messages on several yahoo groups catering to foreign expats living in (or planning to move to) Panama warning people not to bank with HSBC because of poor service and excessive fees. Last year, the bank sued him civilly for defamation based solely on the yahoo
group postings (the suit seeks $5 million dollars in “lost business”) and got an order attaching not only his personal assets, but also the assets of a charitable foundation he had set up. (Panama law allows the plaintiff in a lawsuit to attach the defendant’s assets and freeze them until the lawsuit is resolved, which usually takes years.) Read More…
#4: From Panama Guide: And This is Why you Can't Just Run your Mouth
I happened to be in the Sala Civil of Panama's Supreme Court this afternoon, and I ran into a public announcement in the case of HSBC vs. Peter Gordon. According to the case file (which I read) HSBC is suing Peter Gordon for $5 million dollars in a civil case, alleging damages caused by Mr. Gordon through email exchanges on Internet discussion groups, as well as letters and other means of communications. The case file that I read was an attempt by Mr. Gordon's lawyers to have a "secuestro" removed from a private foundation called "Geelong." Read More…

author: Melissa De León


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Russia: Like A Spy Novel · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Edward Lucas posts “another unpublished and polemical draft piece on what may be a systematic Kremlin campaign of murder and intimidation–but of course may just be groundless paranoia.”


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Serbia: Busy Week · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

“Between the Milosevic memorial service; and a rock-n-roll concert/b-day bash for Mladic; a few people in Belgrade are having quite a busy week!” writes Bosnia Vault. “Yes but sadly you forgot Djindjic's anniversary which is being spoken of much more than the Milosevic service,” responds Bg anon.


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South Asia: Marriage of Convenience, explosion of Hindi blogs, time for a regime change, women in the Middle East · Global Voices
Rezwan

The latest buzz from different South Asian blogs:
Bangladesh:
After a visit to an old age home in Kolkata Sadiq M. Alam of Inspirations and Creative Thoughts thinks just as children, old people are the most beautiful people on planet earth.
Adhunika Blog is vocal against the marriage of convenience, which is common in settled marriages.
Rehan of BangladeshWeb Blogs depicts how Bangladesh is surviving against all odds with its 140 million people and still sustaining a GDP growth over 6 percent.
Bhutan:
JazzyYaris of Kuzu-Bhutan Weblog asks why Bhutan's civil institutions are so poor.
India:
Kafila Blog describes the explosion of Hindi blogs and the impact they are having in Indian blogosphere.
Sudhansu in Desicritics critically analyzes the E-commerce and Payment Gateways in India and comments it should come of age.
Blowing in the Wind says chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal has blood on his hand as police fired on villagers in Nandigram, more than 100 km from Calcutta to diffuse a protest by the villagers to stop their eviction. The government is trying to clear a huge area to build a special economic zone.
Pakistan:
The Glasshouse analyses why the Chief Justice of Pakistan was removed by the president.
Kashif Aziz of Chowrangi wonders whether it is time for a regime change in Pakistan.
Sri Lanka:
Groundviews, a Sri Lankan citizen journalism initiative reports the maltreatment of journalists by security forces in Jaffna.
Niro of a week in Sri Lanka sheds a light into the state of the Sri Lankan women in the Middle East.

author: Rezwan


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South Asia: Inter Immigrant Solidarity · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Sepia Mutiny on inter-immigrant solidarity in the US. “There are many layers of solidarity here: Islam, immigration, and a lot of professional overlap, particularly in the taxi and livery cab sector. Choudhury told me that Islam teaches that whenever there is tragedy in the community, anyone who is in a position to do so must come out and show solidarity…”


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South Korea: China town · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Asiapages explained why South Korea’s attempt to create a Chinatown near Incheon is seriously missing the point.


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South Korea: street vendors · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Matts has a nice post about the Seoul city plan in cracking down street vendors.


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Sri Lanka: Cricket! · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A Voice in Colombo develops cricket fever! “Now the wait is over for the Sri Lankan cricket fans, and we are playing our first match of the tournament today.”


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Sri Lanka: Rise of peace professionals · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

groundviews on the rise of peace professionals in Sri Lanka. “At the initial phase that began in the late 1970s and ended in the late 1980s or the early 1990s, many peace activities were supported by the trade unions and the church (through the church some foreign assistance was given). “


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Taiwan: The future of Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

On March 2, 2007, Executive Yuan, Taiwan, decided to change the name of ‘Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall‘ to ‘Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall’ and to remove the enclosing walls to make the area around the memorial hall a more open public space.
To keep the integrity of Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, which was built in 1980, Department of Culture, Taipei City Government, decided to evaluate if this area can be set as a national monument on March 5, 2007.
Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall collects stuffs used by  Chiang Kai-Shek, who was a president here from 1950 to 1975.  (The preserved remains of this previous president can still be visited in Tsu-Hu, Taoyuan.)  Wei-Chen Tseng thought we should change the usage of the place:
這一個廣闊的園地理應歸還全民，而非存留為專制獨夫所服務。
Chih-Hung Wang talked about the history of the memorial hall:
「戰時首都」所含攝的復國意識形態和威權政治，與「現代化都市」的追尋，這兩種都市意義也不見得會一直相安無事，而有潛在衝突的可能。有個非常明顯的例子 涉及了目前中正紀念堂所在基地的用途。《台北畫刊》第67期（1973.7）報導了「營邊新社區」計劃，要籌資一百五十億元在信義路營邊段建設六十二英畝 的「現代化商業中心」，興建五座十八至五十層樓不等的辦公大樓，三座廿四層至卅層的國際觀光旅館和公寓，四棟百貨商場，以及會議廳、世界貿易中心、文化中 心和遊樂設施等，大樓間以輸送系統連結，行人以履帶運送。該期的封面與內文，都附有透視圖，全是高聳的玻璃帷幕大樓。這個充滿「現代化與科技進步」想像的 計劃，預計1974年6 月起開發。但是1975年蔣介石過世，計劃急轉彎改為中正紀念堂的用地。
In the wrestling between the Democratic Progressive Party, which leads Executive Yuan, and KaoMinTang, which leads Taipei City Government, bloggers in Taiwan have different opinions toward the actions taken by the two parties.
No one goes to UK thought the point is not removing the enclosing walls:
中正紀念堂圍牆的拆除已有前例可循，兩廳院旁的部份欄杆圍籬在2003年就已拆除，由知名建築師姚政仲設計，他將圍籬撤除後所騰出來的空間，與書店、噴泉、咖啡座、戶外表演場、藝術旅遊諮詢中心相結合，圍塑出民眾休閒、看戲、買書、喝咖啡的絕佳去處。
也因此，「拆/不拆」圍牆的核心問題，永遠不在於強化「藍」、「綠」劍拔弩張的對決態勢，而在於能不能強化公民社會的網絡機能。
Prometheus thought even though politicians think the memorial hall is a political symbol, ‘to most people, it is simply a place for dating, jogging, and strolling.’
不過，對大多數人而言，中正紀念堂，其實不代表任何政治上的意義，僅代表了一個休閒約會的場所，還有跑步散步的地方。
How's sketch book also pointed out the same contradiction:
中正紀念堂作為威權的權威象徵，從仿中國宮殿的建築本體、週邊的空間配置（花園、廣場），到空間的使用（除了現在的兩廳院）處處流露著象徵符號。但有趣的 是，1980年落成的中正紀念堂，他本身的存在竟是如此尷尬。有多少人會去看蔣介石的銅像？去看蔣中正的文物？城市市民賦予中正紀念堂的是雲門、是樂儀旗 隊、是熱舞、是花燈、是演唱會…甚至是解嚴前後政治運動的基地：在蔣 家中正大廟底下，要蔣家交出壟斷的政治資源。這是一種多妙的嘲諷與記憶象徵。
並不是把深宮大院中正廟改成「台灣民主紀念館」 ，就代表我們珍惜所謂的「民主」了。拆掉圍牆，就空間而言的確會更有穿透性，但是不是有穿透性的空間就代表他是一個友善的，讓人可以沉浸在裡面的空間？
Changing the name from Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall to Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall does not mean how we cherish what is so-called ‘democracy’.  Removing the enclosing walls may make the space more transparent, but it cannot promise a friendly place where people would love to immerse themselves in.
Focus on Taiwan has similar opinion toward ‘Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall':
台灣的民主是現在進行式，不需要設一個民主紀念館來造其他的神，我認為蔣渭水，郭雨新、黃信介、鄭南榕等人一定不希望有人用這種類似帝王陵寢紀念館的方法紀念他們
From a different perspective,  George Lee concerned the tourism function of the place:
中正紀念堂已經是觀光客來台北的大景點之一了。許多外國朋友來到台北，除了故宮和小吃以外，通常也都會詢問中正紀念堂的交通方式、遊園路線。即使 蔣中正罪大惡極，那麼留著中正紀念堂也無礙史官撥亂反正，甚至更能當作當年威權統治的罪證。貿然改名，只是徒自讓台北市少了吸引觀光客的賣點，讓鄰近商家 和小販生意直線下落而已。
About the enclosing walls, bloggers also have different feelings.
Zonble pointed out that on Yuan-Hsiao Festival,  lanterns are hang on the corridors.  The current design keeps the lanterns from the rain, and the windows on the walls can deflect the light to the other side of the walls to form a ‘light corridor.’
在元宵節的時候，你可以看到，因為圍牆內部就是迴廊，而迴廊上頭可 以懸掛燈籠，迴廊有屋頂，所以燈籠可以因此不受雨淋，而圍牆上的造型窗戶同時又可以將燈光透射到外頭，從信義路或是愛國東路經過時，你會覺得自己走過一道光廊。
On the other hand, Life's basketball field said, ‘when I ride my motorcycle there, I need to walk around the enclosing wall to find the entrance after I park.  Every time I walk around the wall, the idea of climbing the wall is always in my mind.  I really think the walls obstruct the sight and they are better to be removed.’
有時騎機車去中正廟，停完車還要繞一下圍牆，每次繞圍牆的時候我滿腦子都想著爬牆。圍牆的確阻隔了視覺，拆掉會更好，我是這麼相信的。
After Taipei City Government made the memorial hall as ‘temporary national monument,’ bloggers questioned the motivation for the action.  The island left behind said:
看到「暫定古蹟」四個字，我第一個聯想到的是到現在遲遲無法定案的樂生療養院。第二個想到的，是台北市政府的邏輯不知為何？1925年由士紳合資興建的大龍峒孔廟圍牆要拆，而整整晚了55 年，1980 年建立的中正廟圍牆卻突然成了古蹟？
Trace said, ‘to claim their right to govern the place, the current rulers need to affirm themselves by denying the previous ruler.
為了保住統治正當性，即使是延續前朝的政權，也要透過否定前人來肯定自己。
Hopefully the politicians will take an action that is not only good for their political party but also good for the people.  After all, in this county, the civilians are supposed to be the one who has the power instead of an emperor, a dictator, or a political party winning the previous election.

author: I-fan Lin


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Tajikistan: More Energy Problems · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Vadim says that Tajikistan's electricity woes are getting worse.

author: Nathan Hamm


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Tamil Blogosphere: Reflecting on Women and Gender · Global Voices
Mathy Kandasamy

International Women's Day evoked quite a lot of posts in the Tamil Blogosphere.
Living Smile Vidya  is a transgender blogging from Madurai, South India. Through her posts she has been quite instrumental in making other bloggers understand the trials and tribulations transgenders face in India. Her personal recounts the troubles she took to be where she is now, an executive assistant in a private company. In her latest post she talks about how transgenders are being exploited in Tamil movies. She had earlier, written a post when the movie ‘Vettaiyadu Vilaiyaadu’ was released.
Mangai, a social worker from Delhi writes in detail about the ‘Domestic Violence Act’ that was made into a law in India in 2005. Unique aspects of the law, according to Mangai are the following: 1. Verbal and economic abuse are also considered along with physical and mental abuse. 2. The judge would make a ruling within 3 months of filing a case. 3. Abused women would be allowed to stay where would like to and the protection offices appointed in each district would be incharge of their protection. Mangai also talks about some women she met in a village camp in Haryana. Couple of women expressed their desire to become a member of the parliament, or the chief minister. The women's understanding of local issues and their knowledge about current affairs makes Mangai feel confident that the issue of female infanticide may be resolved soon.
Thanu, a doctor from Erode, Tamilnadu talks about female infanticide and sex selective abortions. She writes further on the issue of sex ratios in the world, and links sex selective abortions and female infanticide to the trend of lop-sided ratios. She explains how the concept of dowry, society's outlook on female children, traditions and rituals contribute to female infanticide and sex selective abortion.  As an example, Thanu talks about a couple who desire for a male child more than anything and are prepared to do anything. They went through six abortions and came once again to ask about the possibilities of getting a male child by artificial insemination. When the 45 year old wife was spoken to privately, she pleaded for her uterus to be removed. Thanu however asserts that the laws against sex selective abortions have become strict and most of the medical practioners follow them. But illiegal clinics continue to do scans and abortions. The ways used to kill the female babies are heart wrenching and horrible.
Tamilnathy, Srilankan-Canadian living in Chennai writes an introductory post about a book she's currently reading. It's the biography of C.K. Janu, a semi-literate tribal leader from Kerala translated into Tamil from Malayalam. Tamilnathy details the atrocities faced by the tribal women and female children and about C.K.Janu's fight to claim the land that originally belonged to the tribal communities.
Jazeela questions the need for a day for women. She also says that in many families, change is in the hands of women themselves. Mothers should bring up their children – male or female – with equal responsibility.
Thurgah from Malaysia talk about the improvement in the conditions of women over generations. Durga's grandmother went to school for some years, but she had to go and work in the rubber plantations. Durga's mother attended school. But girls were only sent to Tamil medium school while the English medium schools were reserved for boys. While Durga's mother also worked in the rubber plantations, opportunities for work in other areas started cropping up. Durga belongs to a generation of women who can study as much as they want to and can shine in any field they choose.
.:MyFriend:. from Malaysia talk about Vanajah a Malaysian Tamil woman engineer, who wanted to become an astronaut and trained for it. She was selected from 11,275 people and became one of the eight sent to Russia for training. Unfortunately Vanajah could not pass the gravity test and is now working as a researcher in Malaysia space agency. She is conducting shows to popularise astronomy. She is into blogging too.

author: Mathy Kandasamy


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Tha Balkans: The Mississippi Parallel · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Bosnia Vault compares Mississippi of the 1950s and 1960s to the Balkans of today.


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The Balkans: Adolf Hitler Controversy · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Ed Alexander of Balkan Baby finds himself in the middle of a controversy over his recent entry about “a restaurant owner in Mitrovica who seemed to believe that he was the incarnation of Adolf Hitler”: “All of this, whilst perversely interesting, has led me to the conclusion that I am happy to have finished writing about the part of my journey I spent in Kosova and that I am nervous about what will happen once I write about Srebrenica, the massacre that some people would want us all to believe never happened.”


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Uzbekistan: Blocked by the Government · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

The government of Uzbekistan has blocked access from Uzbekistan to the blog Registan.net.


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Uzbekistan: Mahalla · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

At neweurasia Tolkun posts a translation of a post about the meanings of the mahalla (small community or neighborhood) in Uzbekistan.


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Zimbabwe/South Africa: South Africa is a disgrace · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Izzy Mutanhaurwa is utterly disgusted, “I am disgusted, completely utterly sickened by the attitude of South Africa. I do not know why they are against regime change in Zimbabwe? The latest ploy by South African ambassador to the UN is nauseating , its garbage diplomacy that should be laughed at rather than taken serious, if the incompetent United Nations does not refer the issue of Zimbabwe to the security council this time it will have failed then it will confirm the obvious that its not fit for purpose.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Afghanistan: Reconciliation and Accountability · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Safrang continues discussion on reconciliation and accountability legislation in Afghanistan, wondering how both can be obtained in the country's current political climate.


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Bahrain: A better literary life for civil servants? · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

We begin this week's review of Bahrain's blogs with Lulu's review of Bahrain's second annual Spring of Culture. Regarding the music/poetry/dance performance headlined by Marcel Khalife, and which caused controversy because of the dance element, she says:
I'm all for the arts & freedom of expression, of course, but if I was an organizer, I would have made it a point to view the show first then make a judgement call on whether to invite it or not. After all, creating this controversy isn't really the wisest thing at this early stage..
Of the Lebanese dance troupe Caracalla, who used to have a good reputation, Lulu says:
I'm not sure if the band itself has deteriorated or if they just didn't bother to put up a good show for us here or if they thought we're just stupid Gulfies who don't know any better.
Gardens of Sand picks up on another post of Lulu's, and makes her own comments, about a political poem in Al Watan newspaper which criticised a pro-government Member of Parliament, Bahrain's only woman MP Latifa Al Gaoud, for siding with the opposition on a particular vote:
It saddens me that there are some folks who will side with the ‘poet’, so taken they are with the lies and brain-washed. Where Ms. Al Gaoud should be congratulated for voting her mind rather than towing the line, she is attacked for showing her allegiance to the people and not the government. When will we wake up and see our ugly truth? Until we do our situation and our beloved Bahrain will only deteriorate.
Still in the sphere of politics, Nurox refers to a report in Akhbar Al Khaleej newspaper in which the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) seems to be promising its employees not just a higher standard of living, but a better literary life:
In short, CSB is looking to improve government employees’ financial and literary well being.
So yes! Books! Lots of books! I’m updating my Amazon.com wish-list as we speak!
He concludes:
PS. I really just hope that wasn’t an Akhbar Al Khaleej typo.. I really do.. we could do with educating the masses.
More from an increasingly literary Bahrain next week!
Photocredit: Elaph: An Arabic news website.

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Bahrain: A Kite in My Heart! · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahrain-based blogger Bint Battuta attended a kite demonstration , at a time when she is actually feeling like there a kite in her heart.
“I feel like I have a kite flying inside me right now! Yesterday was my last day at work – in full-time work, that is, as I have decided to go back to freelancing. The job I was doing wasn't particularly hard, but I found much of it boring and frustrating because there was a lot of administration and bureaucracy,” she writes.


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Bahrain: Photography Vs Painting · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahraini blogger Silly Bahraini Girl  borrowed a photograph posted by blogger Mahmood Al Yousif  as an inspiration for a new painting.


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Bahrain: Spring of Culture  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahraini blogger Lulu reviews the Spring of Culture festival in Bahrain. “I'm loving the concept, but then I decided to be democratic in my show reviews at least. So the opinions below are based on (totally unscientific) polls I took of random fellow culture-mongers,” she admits.


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Central Asia: Local Democracy · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Tolkun Umaraliev agrees with the new Turkmen president's views on democracy — namely that it cannot simply be imported ready-made, but that it instead has to be adapted to local traditions and culture.


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China and Japan: Sino-Japanese Studies Journal Online · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

K. M. Lawson from Japan History group blog announced the digitization of the Sino-Japanese Studies Journal. The full journal is available online at ChinaJapan.org


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China: Film ratings were stopped by a phone call · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

DANWEI has a translation of a report from YWeekend which tells how the film ratings system were stopped by a phone call.


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Colombia: Para-Politicos · Global Voices
David Sasaki

More watchdog blogging from Adam Isacson: “here is our most current list of Colombian government officials and congresspeople facing accusations of assisting or associating with paramilitary groups.”


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Egypt: Bloggers Arrested in Anti-Government Rally  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egypt is at it again and amid little or next to no coverage in the mainstream media, its dynamic bloggers are living up to their reputation of being true citizen journalists, giving us a minute by minute break down of developments on the ground.
According to Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdulfattah, two bloggers were among more than 20 people arrested for taking part in an anti-government rally called for by opposition movement Kefaya to protest against Constitutional amendments which will allegedly give the ruling party more power.
Abdulfattah‘s concerns were in their place, and blogger Mohammed Adel, along with Mohammed Taher, were both arrested.
According to another post on Abdulfattah's blog, the demonstration, in which bloggers reported the heavy-handedness of the police in dispersing the crowds, was called for by Kifaya to protest against the unilateral amendments being made on the Constitution by the National Party. He says the changes to the Constitution aim to “ensure the continuation of the dictatorial rule over the country, the inheritance of succession and the abolishment of judiciary monitoring of the elections.”
One of the bloggers, who describes himself as a Leftist Egyptian, writes about how he too escaped imprisonment but not humiliation at the hands of the security forces.
For a comprehensive report on what's happening, our best bet would be to check journalist and blogger Hossam Al Hamalawy‘s blog – whose reporting dotted with photographs which show how the police handled the protesters, such as this:
“Police cracked down on Kefaya’s demonstration against Mubarak’s authoritarian constitutional reforms on Thursday, detaining more than 35 activists.
I arrived in Tahrir Sq by 5pm… The last time I recall seeing Cairo as I saw it today, was probably in March 2003 with the crackdown on the anti-war riots. Central Security Forces trucks were everywhere. I spotted at least seven trucks by the Egyptian Museum, four at Abdel Moneim Riyadh Sq, at least three in Mohamed Mahmoud St. in front of the American University in Cairo, at least six by the Mugamma’ neighboring the US embassy in Garden City. The uniformed soldiers were not initially deployed outside their trucks, but the entire downtown area was occupied by plainclothes security agents from State Security police who were literally on every single corner, street and square in the company of three or four uniformed police generals, and some senior security officials in suits,” explains Al Hamalawy.
We were moving slowly, and still pushed by the police from our backs into Talaat Harb Sq, and then we got into another scuffle with the same rude blond State Security agent in the middle of the square. He and his friends kept pushing us in the chests, so we started a slurring match, and pushing back and fourth. A battalion of uniformed CSF troops was mobilized quickly to surround the 12 of us. It was pathetic. Bloody pathetic, to see the regime mobilizing all of those troops for such a small number. The two women lawyers in the crowd screamed at the police after we were circled, and after good five minutes we escaped running towards the Tagammu Party HQ, from where I was hearing chants.
Nora Younis, who is in the US,  also continues to update her story as more details emerge.
“Reading the list at Alaa’s blog I stopped breathing. I have been also reading lists for days and days at Abdel Monem blog – ana ikhwan and everyday carries more numbers and faces behind bars. The day will come when I will read the name list of government officials and state security generals held accountable for their crimes Mr. Mubarak. Your suggested constitution is farce and you already know it. It wouldn’t hurt your aging delicate ears to hear it once more in Tahrir Square – would it? You sell yourself internationally as a secular regime while you impose on us article II of the constitution and use it to discriminate against Copts, Baha’is, other Egyptian citizens and Abdel Kereem. You sell yourself locally as a religious government while you crush the Muslim Brotherhood. You make sense no more!” she writes.
In the comments section to this link, Abdulfattah  Younis wonders:
I am shocked at the poor media coverage to the event
We used to get online photos faster than this
And this stupid report by reuters say the total was 30 protesters and 4 were arrested.. On what sense could the total be 30 if 35 were arrested? http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15364703.htm
Who was covering the event from Reuters?
Meanwhile, blogger Zeinobia, reminds us that the bloggers were not arrested for their blogging activities.
Ok I was right when I said from couple of days that it would be the Spring of anger, it seems it will be one of Spring for one hell of a Summer
Just from few minutes ago I checked “Manal and Alaa.net” new pink blog “beautiful chic design at last thank God” and it turned out that today's protest of Kefaya movement against the Constitution amendments ended sadly as it was reported that 32 from the protesters were arrested among them according Alaa two bloggers Mohamed Adel who is from the Muslim Brotherhood and Mohamed Taher who seems to be from El-Gad party as I understand from his blog. Of course they weren't arrested because they are bloggers but because they are participating in the protest against the Constitution amendments, this is just a side remark
There sure is never a dull moment in Egypt!


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El Salvador: Deadbeat Parents · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Tim Muth on “Deadbeat parents from El Salvador”: “This is an aspect of Salvadoran emigration to the US which you do not often read how about — what happens if a parent stops providing support to children left behind in El Salvador?”


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Electronic arts scene mingles with marginalized communities in Colombia · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

Take electronic media, a community with a violent history and music, and you have the necessary ingredients to make a Pixelazo.
“Pixelazo is the new Colombian node in the Pixelache festival network. The first Pixelazo event will be organised by Intermundos.org in collaboration with Pixelache Helsinki and several Colombian collaborators.”
Pixelazo´s purpose is to bring to the city of Medellin knowledge on the possibilities of expression these new technologies can bring, by combining this worldwide movement with the cultural and community life in Medellín via workshops, forums, conferences and round tables.
This first Pixelazo  Event kicked off with a series of workshops at Comuna 13 , an area of Medellín where civilian warfare took place for many years, and which was considered one of the urban militias.
I didn't sign up for any of the different worshops, however, I did go to the round table which took place in the El Benedikta Zur Theatre in San Javier. The small theatre was full with students from the community, and I was luckily able to grab a seat close to the front. Most of the audience was sitting on the stoops, against walls, and on the floor, as the seated sections were overflowing. The speakers were Bogotrax organizers DJ Charles Tox and the musician, Krak in Dub, who shared their experiences on free parties from France to Bogota's Bogotrax. Erik Sandelin  talked about his projects on personal technologies and social action spaces and demonstrated the ophonine pophorn , his newest media installation. Closing the round table were Jaygo Bloom, David Bernard and Dan Norton from Pointless creations, who talked about VJing and on how to mix video live and see the electronic maracas and video switchboard. One after another, they talked to us about their passions, and it was hard not to get infected by their enthusiasm for this project and electronic adventure.
After the round table, we headed down to San Javier park for the “Audiovisual Stew,” an electronic free party and public square in which the workshop participants were able to showcase their work along the national and international guests. The community of Comuna 13 came out with curiosity to see what we were up to, walking under and around the multi-dimensional screens from the screen workshop, seeing the moving video being projected on them, and the trees surrounding the basketball court. They would also get close and watch with envy those who touched electronic interfaces created in Erik Sandelin and Asa Stahl´s workshop until someone would promt them to touch the metallic parts themselves as well and mix the sound and video on that installation.  The crowd was mostly concentrated in front of the screens and children raced around with white flags in front of the video beams, creating moving screens for the live mixing of video while music played by national artists Z-Dey and Iraka from Medellin and by the international guests DJ Charles Tox and Krak in Dub, blasted in the background. The latter also jammed with local artists Zon Bata from the Comuna 13 and the MC John Primera from Caracas/Cartagena.
Pixelazo's activities went on throughout the weekend; this time going out into public places. Erik Sandelin showed off the Ophonine pophorns in the monthly fleamarket of San Alejo during the afternoon, and then the activities moved towards the Parque del Periodista, a popular counterculture hotspot where they threw an electronic party. It was here where the participants from the VJ workshop showcased their work, by mixing live video at this streetwide free party, videos which had been recorded around the comuna 13 and which were projected on the facades of neighboring buildings.
This was the first part of the events for Pixelazo. There are other activities programed throughout the year until June´s Main event; the Selvatorium: where a selection of foreign and Colombian artists will participate together in a 10 day laboratory in the city of Leticia and its surroundings in the Amazon.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Free Kareem Action · Global Voices
sami ben gharbia

Watch the video – labeled “Free Kareem Action”- of the demonstration held yesterday by Reporters Without Borders in front of the Tunisia, Egypt and Cuba, stands at the tourism trade fair in Paris in protest against the dreadful record on freedom of speech in these countries.

author: sami ben gharbia


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Haiti: Chavez Visit and the Diplomatic Dance · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Anticipating Chavez's upcoming visit to Haiti, Roody Edme writes [Fr]: “His arrival requires an apt diplomatic dance… The recent American decision to list the country as a nation that might possibly benefit from the ethanol project echoes Caracas’  decision to make us benefit from the Petro-Caribe clause … While we want to avoid always hiding in “American skirts”, we also should not act like rebellious children. “


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Hong Kong: The Second CE Election Debate · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

ESWN has a sum up on media report and statistic of the Second Hong Kong Chief Executive Debate.


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Iranian Women Activists in Pain and Ahmadinejad’s Trip to NY · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Two of 32 women activists, Shadi Sadr (thanks to Kosoof,we can see her photo here) and Mahboobeh Abassgholizadeh, who were arrested during a peace demonstration in Tehran on 4th of March, are still in prison. The remainder of the jailed women activists were set free.
Sadr is a lawyer and founded Rahi NGO to help women with legal issues. According to Women's Field [Fa],authorities shut down this legal center on Thursday March 15. The same source reports that Karvarzi Center, another NGO set up to help civil society activists, run by Abassgholizadeh, was closed by government on the same day too.
One of these jailed women shares her conversation with her interrogator in prison.
Interregator and prisoner
Mahbobeh Hossein Zadeh in her blog, Parndeh Kharzar [Fa], shares her experiences and conversation with her interrogator.
Interrogator: If you get free about what you will be writing
Blogger: threating, interrogation, psychological torture, humiliation, your bad treatment and prison’s bad conditions
Interrogator:Will you write that we talked about information about your life and you became speechless
Blogger: it is not important thing to control people’s telephone
Interrogator: you should praise God that parallel security ( intelligent) agents do not interrogate you.
Tears for jailed mother
Omid Memarian, blogger and journalist, talked with one of these jailed women’s daughter and reported that in his blog.The blogger says Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh’s daughter, Maryam Ommi, talked with me about her fears and worries about her mother’s arrest, investigation, and pertinent follow-ups. Omid's Interview is published in Roozonline. The blogger asks:
“Have they questioned any detainees about other individuals such as your mother?” She answers: “Yes. The interrogators wanted to separate the others from them [these two women]. For example, they have told them not to follow these [two] women. Or, they have been asked “what was your relationship with these [two] women? What were you doing for them? Why did you go to their offices?” They tried to tell the others that these [two] women were after self-promotion, but that they are good people, and this type of psychological games.”
Women movement's actions in question
Alpar [Fa] who praises women’s courage says at present, after 8 March, women activists  may analyse to find out if collecting signatures for women campaign against discrimination and gradually extend women’s knowledge is not more important than politicizing and emotionalizing women movement?
The blogger wonders whether parents now will let their daughters join women activists?
Hoder writes: The new confrontational approach by women's activists in Iran can only help the conservatives in the establishment to paint their activities as a security threat and after isolating the moderates in the establishment who defend women's cause, crush the whole movement.
There is no more choice
Saz Mokhalef [Fa] does not agree that the women's demonstration was revolutionary or violent.The blogger says: The reformists are in a closed circle where they can only propose voting and no other protest acts. They ask others not contact foreign press, not to demonstrate, not to chant slogans and not to carry placards…on other side, the government continues censorship, puts more pressure on women activists, who are not permitted to organize meetings in their own homes and who get fired…Can you tell me what these women are supposed to do?
It seems that some people still believe that women-related issues are not a priority and that we should first think about democratization in Iran, and then who should be made responsible for the suffering and discrimination millions of women are facing?
Iranian bloggers’ concerns are not limited only to internal affairs but also the Iranian nuclear crisis has become a big concern too. One of their recent concern is Iranian president's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  decision to travel to the United Nations in New York to explain Iran's nulcear program.
Please don't go but…
Haji Washington  [Fa]says please stop Ahmadinejad from coming to the United Nations. The blogger says his presence will make things worse and it will be a grave political danger for us. Western countries do not like him. He suggests that Ali Larijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, makes the trip in his place.
Iran Paprazi [Fa] says: Somebody stop this brother? He says countries’ representatives are there to defend their national interests if you [Ahmadinejad] could have been able to defend ours, all the world would not be united against us. You [Ahmadinejad] think United Nations resolution is just a piece of paper, then why would you take this long trip…for a piece of paper.
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a reformist politician, says with each new resolution against Iran, economic conditions become more dark. He says the least expectation from Ahmadinejad's trip to NewYork is to stop the UN from approving a new resolution against Iran. If it happens, then it will be a successful trip [Fa].


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Kenya: challenges facing entrepreneurs in Africa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Kenyan business blogger, Henry Karanja, is interviewed by the BBC, “The BBC World Service interviewed me yesterday on challenges facing entrepreneurs in Africa.”


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Kenya: cyber-activism in practice · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Kenyan Pundit blogs about an article in the BBC about Mzalendo project, “Great piece on Mzalendo by Andrew Heavens who blogs who at Meskel Square.”


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Kyrgyzstan: Latin Kyrgyz · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

The Azamat Report argues that Kyrgyzstan should reintroduce a Latin alphabet for the Kyrgyz language. It briefly used a Latin script while part of the Soviet Union.


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Latvia: Documentary on Latvian President · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Vilhelm Konnander writes about a documentary being made on Latvia's outgoing president Vaira Vike-Freiberga.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Liberia: building a house out of sticks · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“Obadiah Gondolo is building a house out of sticks. He will make the walls out of mud, and the roof out of palm thatch. The whole process will take three weeks, and will cost him nothing….,” via Liberia Stories.


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Libya: The Adventures of Mr Behi · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Iranian blogger Mr Behi has moved to Tripoli, Libya, and tells us about life without his life, a computer on life-support and the importance of credit and debit cards. “I received my first salary in Tripoli but the money is in the bank, my debit card is in my hand but the pin for the card is not yet arrived. I was once with my manager at lunch once and I was asking so many of these simple questions about credit cards and it looked so strange to him that a a guy on my age never had his own Visa!” he writes.


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Mexico: $1,000 to get Naked · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Eduardo Arcos[ES] links to a post by Verónica Mellado [ES] offering bloggers $1,000 to videotape themselves getting naked. The winning submission will published on the web. Arcos suggests Paniagua [ES].


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Mexico: The World’s Third Wealthiest Man · Global Voices
David Sasaki

He is, writes Mark in Mexico, “the world's third richest man, whose fortune grew by 19 billion dollars just last year alone.” But will Carlos Slim jump on the Bill Gates/Warren Buffet philanthropy bandwagon? Spanish readers will also be interested in “Los 10 Secretos de Slim” from Enchílame.


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Nepal: Abdication talks and the provocative CD · Global Voices
Ujjwal Acharya

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s suggestion that King Gyanendra and Crown Prince Paras should abdicate created the loudest buzz in Nepal. Amid talks of going into republic after the king assumed the executive powers in Feb 1, 2005 and then lost it due to April 2006 Uprising – a people’s movement, Koirala, despite being soft to monarchy, talked like he favored republic. Bloggers welcomed it as United We Blog!
Prime Minister Koirala has changed the tone on monarchy which is a welcome move… This is very crucial and we applaud Koirala whatever he spoke today in his hometown Biratnagar. The time for celebrations hasn’t come yet but all roads are leading us to that direction. Koirala said that the nation was heading down the path of republic because of King Gyanendra.
Maila Baje of Nepali Net Book applauded the ‘inevitable u-turn’ adding that ‘Koirala is not a friend to Monarchy.’ KP Dhungana of Hamro Blog believes after the person who is leading the Nepal through a new phase speaking against monarchy, the republic is now ensured.
The bloggers believe Koirala has suggested a safe way out for the king. The Radiant Star writes:
If I am put into King Gyanendra’s position, of course, and if I am finished with my pack of options, I will not hesitate choosing abdication than waiting for the decision on republic. That way, he will not only earn some praise and a respectful retirement but it will also help to prove him what he did by taking up the executive power in Feb 1, 2005 is because of need of the time.
Apart from Koirala, the most talked issue was a CD. The Maoists accused the Palace of distributing CDs that contained provocative materials against them, and the bloggers jumped to find out what’s in the CD, and for most, it contained nothing.
Nepal Diary wrote:
हिजो मात्र कृष्ण बहादुर महाराले ठुल ठुलो स्वर मा पत्रकार सङ भनेछन् — हामीले राजा र पारष ले सडयन्त्र को ताना बाना बुनेको प्रमाण रहेको सी डी फेला पारेको छौ । तर के के न भेटियो भनेर ठुलो हल्ला खल्ला का साथ प्रचार प्रसार गरेपनि पारशको सडयन्त्र छ भनिएको सी डि मा खासै केहि भेटिएन। माओबादी सङ सम्बन्धित समचार का केहि कट्टिङ् हरु स्कयानिङ् गरेर राखेको मात्र पाइयो।
Umesh Shrestha of My Sansar has uploaded the video of the content of the CD.

author: Ujjwal Acharya


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Nigeria/South Africa: mobile yellow pages  · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Grandiose Parlor writes about the latest mobile technology in Nigeria and South Africa in “From Nigerian Yellow Pages to Bluetooth Enabled Marketing in South Africa.”


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Oman: Splashing Water · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Omani Blogger Umm Qusay is moved by water splashing on rocks. Read this to know why.


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Peru: The Juntos programme · Global Voices
David Sasaki

The Overseas Development Institute calls the Juntos program “the most ambitious and innovative government attempt at tackling childhood poverty in Peru, a country where two out of three children live below the poverty line and many lack access to basic services.”


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Poland: “De-communization Zeal” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The beatroot writes about the Polish government's “de-communization zeal.” Among other things, bloggers might be affected by the new law as well: “All journalists – public or private – born before 1972, must now be vetted for communist era collaboration.” The post has generated 51 comment thus far.


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Poland, Russia: Responsibility for Katyn · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The beatroot reports that “the Russian NGO Memorial has pledged to pursue all legal means to get Moscow to recognize Soviet responsibility for the deaths of over 20,000 Polish officers in the Katyn massacre of 1940.”


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Questions about the Armenian economy · Global Voices
Artur Papyan

There is some impressive growth in the Armenian economy, The Armenian Economist (of course!) says:
[…]Armenia’s economy has grown at double digit rates over the past five years. Construction activity accounted for much of the recent growth in the economy (see recent post). Changes in the underlying trend in construction activity and its composition over the past decade, however, may foretell further growth and expansion in the economy.[…]
However, there are questions the blogger says, and no one seems to be answering them, like: “Do we know of any studies on how labor markets are impacted by this? Also, has anyone explored the effects on future growth?” (The Armenian Economist)
iArarat has some answers about the Armenian economy – “Emigres are Armenia’s version of Oil”, the blogger hints by republishing extracts from this AFP article:
[…]One key to salvation has been a diaspora estimated at almost nine million people scattered across the United States, Russia, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Their donations and transfers to Armenia amounted to 1.2 billion dollars (900,000 euros) last year, an impressive chunk of the country’s 6.5-billion-dollar (five-billion-euro) GDP, economist Tigran Jrbashyansaid. “Emigres are Armenia’s version of oil.”[…]
Kornelij Glas has drawn attention to the “pointless and aggressive” competition between the mobile phone operators in Armenia (VivaCell and Armentel) as a result of which the corporate tariffs of Armentel mobile have declined 8 times. “How far below are we going?” Kornelij asks with pessimism, although it’s hard to see from his post what is so bad about having cheaper mobile service.
If competition is bad, monopoly is decidedly worse, especially natural monopolies like water provision. Raffi K. from Life in Armenia is “Waterless”:
[…]A stark reminder of this pain in the ass of life in Armenia. I am waterless today. I hate that such a simple thing, something you’d never think about in the US, and something so essential, can remain a problem for so long. They been 24/hr promising water for a good 6 years now… and not even an improvement in hours so far as I can tell.[…]
How about setting up some competition in the sphere? Right! I guess I got a little bit carried away…

author: Artur Papyan


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Russia: Coverage Critique · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Russia in the Media critiques Luke Harding's Guardian piece on Russia's poor; Russia Blog awards The Stranger's Annie Wagner with “the Shoe Award” for her review of the 9th Company movie.


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Russia: Has it Really Been Lost? · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Russian bureaucrats force Darkness at Noon to live without his passport; at some point, it looks like the passport has been lost; but then the blogger hears this: “In Russia we don't lose things. We just take a long time looking for them!” – and, bingo, “this little saying puts the familiar (and tired) question of ‘who lost Russia?’ in a new light: maybe Russia isn't lost after all – maybe we're just still looking for it…“


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Russia: Interview With Sean Guillory · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Andy of Siberian Light interviews Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog.


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Russia: No Toilet Seats · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Darkness at Noon ruminates on the missing toilet seats in the Russian public bathrooms.


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Russia: Unreliable Electricity · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Turkish Invasion experiences a blackout: “So another myth about Russia is busted…no reliable electricity.”


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Russia, USA: Cold War Movies · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Russian Kafe writes about Cold War films that could have caused “a child to write things like ‘I have been worrying about Russia and the United States getting into a nuclear war’ and ‘I would like to know why you want to conquer the world or at least our country’.”


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South Africa: Blog Awards Mashup: Blogging Is Dead, Where Art Thou Stormhoek?, Conflict Of Interest, and Elite Bloggers · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

South Africans are voting this month for the best South African weblogs in various categories. The final voting for The South African Weblog Awards – 2007 was open to the public from March 6 to March 16, 2007.
The main facilitators of the awards are South African bloggers, Rafiq Phillips and Jonathan Cherry.
This year's awards has generated debate and discussions about its fairness, the composition of judges, the nature and state of the South African blogging community and prominent blogs that were not nominated.
Conflict of Interest
The main point of contention about the judging panel is that some blogs in the final are written by members of the judging panel. The organizers hoped to improve the awards’ accuracy and fairness by introducing three groups to conduct the final voting:
This year the awards will work a little different to how we did things in the past to ensure that the results are as accurate and as fair as a possible.
The final voting this year will be done by three different groups:
1. YOU – the general blog reading public
2. A small panel of ‘celebrity’ judges.
3. A larger panel of South African bloggers selected by no other criteria than their passion for blogging.
Each category will be judged by 2 panel bloggers (who's votes have a 10% weighting each), an assigned ‘celebrity’ judge (30% weighting) and the public vote (counting for 50% of the weighted average). The weighted scores from each will be totaled together to determine the final winners.
Wozafriday thinks that the process is much better this year, but:
The thing is, like legislation, once you start trying to improve something you open up other loopholes. I won’t go into the debate about the new logo, that looks like it’s been well sorted, but here are  my reservations about the actual awards process.
I have no idea how or who determined the panelists but it does strike me as inappropriate that most of the panelists are also nominated for awards, as well as some obvious omissions from the panelists, I’d be intrigued to know how the judges got the nod.
Is it possible for a person who has never read a blog to determine which one deserves an award? Wozafriday continues:
I don’t quite understand what the judging criteria will be. How will a panel judge, who may never have read a certain blog, be able to objectively determine whether that blog deserves an award over another blog which the panelist has read the entire year. Are the panelists going to read the archives of all the blogs they have to judge. If they are, they’ll have a hard time doing that with bloggers like Peas and Champs who don’t allow access to their archives, at best the judges will have to assess the blogs on their last week of writing, no pressure on them next week then!
What makes certain panelists experts on the different categories, I stand to be corrected but I have not noticed a single panelist ever comment on any of the political blogs, except perhaps mine and Champs which are more social blogs than political blogs.
Perhaps there should be a seperate award, for example, a Panelists Award and then a Public Award.
Eric Eldstein argues:
Yes, blogs can’t be in the finals of a category a judge is judging, but a large number of the finalists blogs are the Judges blogs. Are there so FEW bloggers in SA? Can’t the blog awards find some impartial judges? Common guys, get real? Get some system of voting which is unbiased or get non SA bloggers to judge – here’s an idea: Get International Bloggers to Judge? It seems like an old boys blog club at the moment…
Jonathan Cherry, one of the organizers, tries to explain the process in a comment he left on Wozafriday:
I have to stress that the blog awards are not a club and are by no means meant for anyone but all bloggers. Nobody is being exluded and because its run by the bloggers themselves – no blog can be excluded (including ones owned by bloggers helping out on the panel).
Elite Bloggers And Nomination Based On Loyalty
domkop takes issue with the nominees:
What I would like to comment on is the nominees. I think it’s a joke and it just showed that whoever nominated did so because of loyalty and not because the blog is really good in that category..hmm… this sounds like our political elections, where majority of black people voted for the ANC purely because of loyalty and have no idea what the party stands for…but anyway… let’s look at some of the nominees.
Why? domkop asks:
Then of course the other category which really got my attention was the “Best Designed Blog”.  I have to say that there are some really good blogs here,  coda.co.za is a beautiful blog, but the rest? Common. What on earth is splattermail doing there? And Onalimn? Onalimn has the narrowest reading pane I’ve ever seen, and it’s probably still 95% pure template that was copied from somewhere. The other 5% is the logo change. And then SomeNoOne, best designed? Wow… shockerrrr…
Solution? domkop again:
That’s about all I have to say. Sorry that it’s not positive, and uplifting, but when it comes to “Awards” there needs to be a complete level of transparency and logic. Both is lacking here. Maybe I should start my own awards. My own circle of trust dammit!!
youngBlood sees this controversy as an indication of a larger problem within South African blogosphere:
Instead what has developed is an extremely small and – I would argue – very closed community, which continues to butter itself up in the hope that this will lead to fame and fortune. Sure, some will no doubt say that these people are visionaries and trendsetters and without them we would have nothing, but it also runs the danger of creating a Mafioso which… [ed – edited due to space constraints]
Writing about the same subject of the nature and state of South African blogosphere, Nicharalambous wonders:
In the very heated debate on stii's blog regarding the SA Blog awards, the “elite” bloggers were mentioned as an issue in the SA Blogosphere. I am beginning to wonder if this “elite” is dominating in more ways than we may realise.
The SA Blog awards, *Muti and then the world!
Where Art Thou Stormhoek?
Why didn't blogs such as Stormhoek (a South African wine blog), Colin Daniel's blog and Vincent Maher's blog make it to the final? Stii.co.za says that Stormhoek and Vincent Maher have not joined the conversation:
that, my Stormhoek friends is why you missed out. That is why it is so damn important to JOIN THE CONVERSATIONS! When nominations time comes, you remember the guys you awed or fought with. The guys who you had convos in the blogosphere with.
Same goes for Vincent Maher. Almost EVERYONE reads his words of wisdom. He runs a great blog. The guy is a damn legend! Yet, he is not on there… Why?! Same reason I suppose. In all fairness, Vincent has read and commented on my blog a while ago. Unfortunately, one blog isn’t going to cut it. You need to be involved in the community.
Wired Gecko notes that one can have an awesome blog with the best writing, but it is necessary to be a “comment troll”:
The criticism that people who are “comment trolls” and who are one of the cool kids tend to be voted for more often.  This is a fair criticism, I think.  The question, I suppose, is whether the local blogosphere is a meritocracy or a democracy?  To me the blogosphere is a community and that means people vote for people they know.  That is one of the basic ideas behind something like Cluetrain and the blogging movement.  And people get to know you as a blogger if you participate in the community, link to other bloggers, comment and network.  The more you do that the more people know you and the fact that you exist and are more inclined to vote for you when the opportunity arises.
And a word of advice to blogs such as Stormhoek:
So, how do we fix this?  Well, we need to use the tools of the trade, so to speak, to increase the visibility of these blogs (our blogs).  If you want people to visit your blog and come to know you then you need to participate in the community.  You need to comment, leave trackbacks and link to blogs.  Simple.
But why would one forgets the hand that pours the wine?:
At first, I felt very much ashamed of myself. How the hell could we forget the hand that pours the wine at our very much liked geeky gettogethers?! Shame on the SA blog community. Shame on me.
Mike Stopforth asks, “Wherefore-art-thou-stormhoek?”
So what do you think SA? Is Stormhoek being arrogant or did we really forget about one of our best? Technorati says they’re in the Top 10,000 blogs in the world…
The answer is simple. Some blogs are nice to read and some are essential to read:
I’m stumped. I didn’t think to submit Stormhoek and I can’t tell you why. Maybe, for me personally, it’s because the Stormhoek blog is one of those that is a ‘nice to read’ and not and ‘essential to read’ and therefore has slowly dropped off my RSS radar. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a very successful, very relevant blog.
Did American judges see something in Stormhoek that South Africans did not see?
The overall standard of the entries is highlighted by the inability of Stormhoek to get a nomination in any category. Stormhoek was recently chosen by judges at the American Blog Awards as the 2nd Best Wine Blog in the world. But you have to note that all of those judges were Americans. And they were only judging wine blogs.
Jo'Blog sees Stormhoek as a great blog about Stormhoek, which happens to be wine, but not a great wine blog:
I’m thinking that the answer is pretty simple. Stormhoek is not, in my opinion, a great wine blog (others do disagree) – it is however a great blog about Stormhoek (which happens to be a wine). If anything, it should have been a best business blog contender.
The bottom line is this, local bloggers obviously see you as a great wine, and a great brand in general, they just don’t see you as a great blog. Yet.
Stormhoek would like to do better next year and is asking readers for help:
However, we also didn’t make it in any of the other 15 categories, some of which we have tried industriously to be good at.
We didn’t make it in ‘best blog’ (too much to expect), ‘humour’ (have to improve, Hugh), or ‘writing by an SA exile’ (bad luck Cath).
We’d really like to do better next year.
A blog is only as good as its readers think it is.
We’d like you to help us move up the rankings next year.
Please tell us what you think we can do. What you’d like to see in the Stormhoek blog.
We’ve asked for help with pack design before.
Here’s a chance for a blog enthusiast without serious drawing skills to help us improve.
Vincent Maher does not care that he was not nominated. Here is the list of issues he has with the process:
The judges:
1. The ethical issues and credibility issues about judging competitions was solved centuries ago: the judges are not allowed to enter the competition, neither are employees of the sponsors and family members. Nothing new there, so why not just do it the right way?
The nominees:
4. There is already a lot of chatter about the same people showing up on the everyone’s blogrolls and vague sense that what was once respectful backpatting has become large scale group masturbation amongst the local blogger power bloc. What this does is it lends some credibility to those thoughts, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE NOT ACTUALLY TRUE.
Kenyan Blogger Syndrome (KBS):
7. This smacks of KBS (Kenyan Blogger Syndrome)
Kenyan Blogger Syndrome (KBS)? He is probably referring to the controversy around the Digital Citizen Indaba.
Blog Awards Mashup: Blogging is Dead
Blogging is dead, declares Rafiq in “The Nas/2007 SA Blog Awards Saga Mashup”:
If blogging should die before I wake
I’ll put an extended trackback & ping every which way
Muti to every post, straining the server
Muti every post, eating your bandwidth
If blogging should die before I wake
I’ll put an extended trackback & ping every which way
Muti to every website, murder your server
Muti every post, murder the badnwidth
[sample]
Blogging just died this mornin’
And it’s dead, it’s dead
Everybody’s posts read the same, commercialize the game
Reminiscin’ when it wasn’t all business
If it got where it started
So we all gather here for the dearly departed
Blogger since a web-toddler
Mike Stopforth became a man then a mobster
If the guys let me get my last post on the blog
R.I.P., we donate our ad revenue to CLUG
Went from only html to XML
From ‘what is RSS?’ to feedburner
From default themes to custom-built skins
From 5 mintue design to winning an Apple TV
I’m lookin’ over my shoulder
It’s about eighty Linkedin Connections that showed up
And they came to show love
Fully-booked 27Dinner and the wikis closed shut
The South African Blog Awards started in 2005. The awards ceremony will take place in Johannesburg on Friday, March 30, 2007.
*Muti is a South African Digg-type site.


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Taiwan: 200 bloggers joint action · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The Save Lo Sheng Sanatorium campaign has developed into 200 bloggers joint action. In less than 18 hours, the bloggers got 150,000(TWD) for posting an ad in apple daily news to express their anger towards the state violence and the mainstream media's lack of coverage on the issue.
The action is initiated by HeMiDEMi, and supported by many bloggers who wanted to save the neglected news back to the frontpage in the newspapers. Coolloud has a detailed report (zh).


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Tajikistan: The President vs. Islamization · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

At neweurasia, Vadim discusses the Tajik president's opposition to the construction of new mosques. Vadim agrees with the president that the money could be better spent on new businesses and education.


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Thai Water Festival Brought Forward to Reduce Smog · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Malaysia and Singapore are usually the victims of the haze arising from the burning of vegetation in the neighboring island of Sumatra. During the worst hazy days some people who used to fly out to Thailand for brighter skies.  Now it seems some areas of Thailand are also suffering from this man made environmental disaster. Chiang Mai,  A popular tourist destination in North of Thailand is one of the worst affected city.
Kuhlsrule writes from Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.
It has been happening since early January, but only lately has it gotten really bad…
Days turn into weeks, weeks into months…The constant slashing/burning that has occurred here for two weeks has caused serious concern for anyone living in northern Thailand.  We experience dusk at midday, and can nearly stare straight into the sun now that the sky is darkened by smoke.  Our lungs fill up with pollutants until we break out in a series of burning coughs.  All outdoor activities have been cancelled until the smog moves off, but it doesn't appear to have anywhere to go.
We just keep hoping for wind, or rain…
Bangkok Recorder points to an idea that Chiang Mai city officials had
After recording critical smog levels in Thailand's northern provinces from forest fires, Chiang Mai city officials decide to bring Songkran celebrations forward hoping that the water-splashing festivities will raise the humidity, cause rain and clear the air.
Songkran is the traditional Thai water festival coinciding with the Thai new year. People celebrate Songkran by splashing water at each other.
Thaizer summarizes the efforts of Thai government in trying to solve the problem
I’m living in Chiang Mai at the moment and the last week has been unpleasant with many children and elderly people reporting respiratory problems. The army have been drafted in to help put out some of the forest fires and the Royal Thai Air Force has tried cloud seeding in an attempt to artificially induce rain to wash away the haze. The latter has so far been unsuccessful, but today there are encouraging signs that the situation is improving. The air is much clearer and for the first time in days, it has been possible to see clear blue sky and the outline of Doi Suthep.
Earlier, Lilian,  concerned about her family,  wrote
Its awful.  My family and friends are suffering from respiratory problems, itchy eyes, dizziness and generally irritible. I woke up this morning with a sore throat. Its the smog. My daughter asked if we have a gas leak. Thats  how it smells. It looks like fog. Thick fog. Apparently some planes couldn’t land yesterday due to the weather.
Planes are not landing, hurting the tourism industry in the area. Tourism is the mainstay of many people in this area. Meanderings writes
Who'd want to go visit a place where you can't see anything nor can you breathe?

author: Preetam Rai


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Africa: Blogging business, investment, and entrepreneurship · Global Voices
Benin Mwangi

In our first post on Africa's business bloggers we introduced you to the Africa bloggers focusing on business.  In this second post, we are only going to focus on a few blogs.
Apart writing about fashion and entertainment, J Kofi Annan explores such general business topics as corporate exectutives and business founders in Africa in his blog, Annansi Chronicles.
One of his recent post is “African billionaires on Forbes’ 2006 list.” This post is about Africa's business persons who made the Forbes 2006 list of billionaires (entry onto the list required assets of at least $1 billion). Before reading his post, I only knew of about three African billionaires who got there through business- Aliko Dangote of Nigeria and Kase Lawal also of Nigeria and Al Almoudi of Saudi Arabia ( the world's richest black person est. at $ 8 bil.), by way of Ethiopia.
Kofi's post shows that although business people in Africa often face some very unique and daunting challenges, it is still quite possible to achieve business success beyond measure as an entrepreneur in Africa. Here's what Mr. Annan  writes:
…Forbes Magazine has released their annual ranking of the world's richest people. The listings include rank, name, home country or state, age where known, wealth in billions of dollars and source of the money. The research that went into compiling the rankings began in early 2006 and ended on Feb. 9, 2007. The list shows how the U.S. is slipping, the Russians are rising, and keeping business within the family is great way to maintain wealth. I've  listed the rank, name, country of citizenship, age, net worth ($bil), and industry of the Africans who made the list below. If anyone has anyone of these people in their Rolodex hook me up. I hope to see some of you on the  list in the future.
African's who made the list:
#62, Naguib Sawiris, Egypt, 52, $10.0, Egypt, Communications (Telecom)
#158 Onsi Sawiris, Egypt, 77, $5.0, Construction
#158 Nicky Oppenheimer & family, South Africa, 61, $5.0, Mining/Lumber (DeBeers)
#194 Johann Rupert & family, South Africa, 56, $4.3, Retailing (Luxury goods)
#226 Nassef Sawiris, Egypt, NA, $3.9, Engineering/Construction
#432 Donald Gordon, South Africa, 76, $2.2, Insurance
#664 Samih Sawiris, Egypt, 50 , $1.5, Service (Hotels)…”
His other recent post “Minding my business” is equally interesting as it shows the growing spirit of entrepreneurship among Africans. The title immediately reminded me of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. Kiyosaki advocates business ownership as a necessary step towards financial freedom.
Kofi writes about his own clothing and fashion business, Annansi Clothing. What makes this particular post interesting is that Mr. Annan actually goes into what it takes to be a successful fashion designer and then he ends the discussion by pointing out the relevance of African entrepreneurs:
“…I tell you, running your own clothing company is not as easy as it seems, and doing it all myself is definitely not the best way to proceed, that's why I've resolved to get a team of interns. Over the years I've  seen many designers get eaten up by the grind of running a clothing label by themselves, and I certainly don't want to be a statistic. I think more than creating designs, and connecting with the many people who “get” the direction I'm trying to go in, many creative people neglect the business aspect. We are usually drawn to the fashion industry because of the “lights, camera, action” image of it, but the industry is highly complex and it takes a lot more than talent to grow in it. So while I love reading and writing about the goings on in the progressive African community, I think it is equally important to play an active role, and to do so my business must be intact. I never want to be that person who complains and criticizes others’ decisions without going through the process myself. And nothing shapes your perception more than walking in someone's shoe's to understand  the reason they make certain decisions. Of course this speaks directly to outsiders’ criticism of Africans and African business as well…”
Another blog that I would like to introduce to you comes from Uganda, by way of Denmark.  This is a group blog  called the Millenium Development Goals.
I wrote about C4-World recently:
C4-world is building an online platform; MyC4, which will allow companies across Africa to source loans and equity investments from the global community…
The platform will allow people from around the world who create online funded investment accounts to participate in auctions (they will bid an amount and the interest rate they wish to earn) to fund the loan requests posted by the entrepreneurs and SMEs.
In his post, A day to celebrate!, Tim Vang describes the reactions coming from various companies and company spokespersons in Denmark, who attended a C4-World African investment workshop for the dual purposes of earnings and helping to end poverty in Africa.
He writes:
“…Around 150-200 people attended the workshop and I was lucky to be one of the speakers. At the end of my introduction to MyC4 the organizer, Karina Hviid handed over the VERY FIRST MyC4-builder downpayment worth 15 x  DKK 1,000 (approximately USD 2,500) – each of the 15 companies will have their own MyC4 account from May.None of the companies are doing any business with Africa, TODAY. Yet they are open to learn and also agree that  poverty should have an END…”
We will finish this week's roundup with a South African business blog, Viva Startups. Viva Startups has a post about the rise of franchises in South Africa:
It seems that more people are choosing the franchise option when starting out in business than ever before. With statistics showing a 49% rise in the number of franchises available over the last two years, it is evident that the promise of a proven low cost model for creating the business of your dreams is an attractive one.
Correction: In  my first post I said that Money Talk was authored by Tosin. Money Talk is a group blog and Tosin is the administrator of the blog.
Otherwise, I hope that you enjoyed this week's roundup and we are anxious to know your thoughts. The world is listening.

author: Benin Mwangi


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Iran:Women in politics · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Mohammad Ali Abtahi,reformist politician, talks about women in politics.He writes When no reformist or conservative politicians provide the chance for serious development of women at high levels, it is natural that ladies start their own activities in political arena to defend themselves.The solidarity and social and political cooperation of ladies despite all their differences has been unbelievable, though due to having many leaders their real wishes have not been analyzed yet.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Bachelet’s First year as President of Chile · Global Voices
Rosario Lizana

The first woman to be elected president in Chile, Michelle Bachelet, has made it through her first year as head of state. General opinion said that several situations made it not easy, including the education strike and delay in implementing the new transportation system that is still receiving mixed reaction from the population.
El Chere of EquinoXio [ES] gives an overview in numbers:
¿Qué sugiere cuando una Presidenta tiene uno de los niveles de popularidad más bajos de la región (cerca del 38%), uno de los promedios más mediocres desde la vuelta de Chile a la democracia (3,8 en escala del 1 al 7) y ha debido hacer frente a constantes crisis tanto políticas (con su coalición) como estructurales y sociales?
Andrés Sanfuentes reminds us [ES] of the five areas that Bachelet proposed to focus on before she was elected.
“El Programa de Gobierno de Bachelet plantea cinco áreas temáticas, lo cual ayuda a ordenar las preocupaciones principales:
1.) Una nueva red de protección social.
2.) Condiciones para un salto al desarrollo.
3.) Un programa para mejorar la calidad de vida de los chilenos.
4.) El combate contra la discriminación y la exclusión.
5.) Un nuevo trato para los ciudadanos en todos los aspectos de la acción pública.”
1.) A new social net protection
2.) Conditions to jump for Development
3.) A programme to improve Chileans life quality
4.) A combat against discriminations and exclusion
5.) A new treat for the citizens in all the aspects of the public action.
Andrea Henríquez [ES] reveals a perspective shared by many which, in some ways, touches on the 5 thematic areas that Bachelet proposes:
A pesar de que en el 2006 el crecimiento económico fue de 4, 2%, el más bajo de los últimos tres años, las exportaciones aumentaron, impulsadas por el récord histórico que alcanzó el precio del cobre.
En comparación con el gobierno anterior, durante el primer año de gestión de Bachelet el desempleo bajó y la inversión en salud, vivienda y educación aumentó. También se impulsaron medidas a favor de la paridad de género y se presentó en el congreso una propuesta de reforma al sistema previsional.
Desde el inicio de su mandato las encuestas otorgaban a Michelle Bachelet un amplio respaldo, sin embargo, durante los últimos meses la tendencia ha sido a la baja. Según la encuesta de la empresa Adimark, la aprobación durante febrero fue de un 49,3%.
Compared to previous administrations, during the first year of Bachelet's management the unemployment rate went down and investment in health, housing, and education increased. She also pushed through legislation on gender equality and a proposal to congress to reform the retirement system.
From the beginning of her term of office, the survey gives Michelle Bachellet plenty of support even though the last few months the tendency has been less positive. According to a survey by Adimark, the approval rating from February was 49.3%.
Bachelet had to deal with deep problems in her first year.  A crisis in the educational system that ended with a  national students strike, a new system of transportation, the missing detainee wrongly identified that awoke human rights sensibilities, and the death of Pinochet last December without a general concern about how to deal with his controversial historical legacy. Furthermore, the left wing coalition crisis – spawned by several corruption scandals – also contributed to her loss of popular support. Bachelet was sworn in with exaggerated hope that she would bring a new era of cleaner politics to Chile. It remains to be seen whether or not she can overcome the obstacles of her first year in office to fulfill her five central objectives that were repeated so often during her campaign.

author: Rosario Lizana


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Bangladesh: The Police State · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Unheard Voices reproduces a mail on requirements in Bangladesh. “Both arriving and departing passengers need to possess the Immigration Service Code (IS Code) before they
report at the Immigration counter at Zia International airport. Failure to comply with the same may result in offloading of passenger(s).”. The email generates an interesting discussion in the comments space.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Gambia: President claims to have found cure for AIDS · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ask This Blackwoman comments on the report that President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia claims to have found a cure for AIDS, “President Yahya Jammeh has no formal medical training and yet Gambians sick with HIV and AIDS are consuming the herbal drink and claiming that it works.”


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India: On Nandigram and Singur · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

An update on the Nandigram issue at Kafila. Where the state swoops down to grab land. “Singur, unlike the impressions outside, is still fighting with strength and spirit. Thousands of bargadars, labourers and also landholders are not for the forcible occupation of land although fencing of 997 acres of the land, protected by the sheer police force i.e., the State’s might stands.”


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India: The Railway Children · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The Weight of Silence on India's street children, whose life centers around the Railways. “One, boys are more likely than girls to actually run away from home and leave their villages. Second, for the girls who do arrive, Gyan says they are the first to disappear. The sex trade swallows up the girls immediately. Obviously, some kind of more immediate intervention needs to occur, because once any child is plucked away from the station they are almost always lost.”


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Iran:Ahmadinejad’s new message in his blog · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Iranian president,Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote a new message in his blog.He says he got a letter from an American woman whose son was sent to Iraq.He writes I am sorry to say that the American people are kept in an absolute censorship concerning the outside world by their government.I am certain if the American people know where and on what, their tax money are spent, even the strong supporters of the government would not stand it and rush to the street to show their opposition in regard to that issue.


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Iran:New life for three journals · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

According to Madeh 19[Fa],judiciary authorities have given permission to three banned journals such as reformist Shargh to be published again.


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Malawi: Is homosexuality anti-Malawi?, Voices against former President, and Malawian blogger visits Yahoo! · Global Voices
Victor Kaonga

Homosexuality is one the most controversial topics and illegal to practise in Malawi. However, many Malawians in the diaspora are faced with the reality of gay or lesbian relationships. A regular Malawian blogger on MMalawikutheba is shocked at the behaviour of some Malawians who are gay and practise it in the diaspora. Writing in Chichewa, he asks Malawians not be taken up by Western lifestyles where homosexuality is allowed. He calls upon such people to go home and show their parents that they are marrying a fellow man or fellow woman and expect to be accepted. He deplores the lifestyle and says it is anti-Malawi:
Nanga kungoti tiri kunja ndiye kumangotengera makhalidwe alionse, mpakana kufika poti a malawi ayamba kugonana ndi amuna anzawo (akuti za u gay) Zonyasa! Makhalidwe oyipa ngati amenewa ndakayika ngati angapange athakhala ku mudzi kuja, tapitani nawotu anzungu anuwo ku Malawi mukawaonetse makolo kuti mwapeza banja, a malawi anzanga mwamuna mzako ungamugwire pati? kumvetsa chisoni kwabasi, akuti kunja kuno kuli ufulu! Khalidwe limeneli sila chimalawi, ndi lonyasa!
Voices against Muluzi
The announcement by former Malawi's president, Bakili Muluzi, that he wants to stand in the 2009 elections continues to generate political in discussions by Malawians at home and abroad. Bakili Muluzi served his two year-term between 1994 to 2004. Debate over the legality of his intention is equally strong. But the former president seems set, a situation that makes Bright Molande who writes at Anti-Bakili Muluzi blog look at Dr Muluzi's “Backward flight” comparing his presidency with Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda and the incumbent Dr Bingu wa Mutharika:
Muluzi’s 10 years are pitied between two visionaries and great statesmen. He had a mandate which was accomplished. It was short and transitionary. Muluzi’s mandate was to take Malawi from where Kamuzu Banda had left off particularly in 1964. Our societies had forms of democracy even before the coming of colonialists. … What Muluzi should have known is that after his mandate of restoring democracy, Malawi needs leaders with a vision to take over. There may be some within UDF. But now all sane Malawians of goodwill know that Muluzi was not gifted with a vision or commitment for development beyond his mandate. This is why it is extremely dangerous for Muluzi to come back.
No one would want a bite from a rabid dog. The cost and pain of is just unimaginable. A Lilongwe-based blogger Austin Madinga wonders why the Veterinary Department in Malawi no longer runs that anti-rabies campaigns. He says that a long time ago there used to be this radio advert from the veterinary division warning people:
that aChimpeni would be in a particular area shooting stray dogs. It advised people to always keep dogs on a chain or in an enclosure. It went further to warn people that aChimpeni would blow his whistle twice… Well a decade or more has passed since I heard that advert. I can also safely assume the same period of time has elapsed since any dogs were shot because these creatures seem to be a nuisance now more than ever before especially in Lilongwe.
Madinga invites others to confirm this by driving through Area 15 in Lilongwe. He also marvels at large number of male dogs around female dogs in the area, fighting and chasing each other.
Malawian blogger visits Yahoo!
A software developer and Systems Administrator flew to the US to attend the 2007 Nonprofit Software Development Summit and was able to visit Yahoo! offices. Soyapi Mumba blogs about his personal impressions about the trip, even comparing Malawian to the American pizza, which he says is much thicker than Malawian pizza:
We passed by Yahoo's Cafeteria where I got a delicious piece of pizza and a cup of Capuccino. The pizza in US is much thicker than that in Malawi and Yahoo!'s pizza isn't an exception, by the way.
Soyapi's experience at Yahoo!:
I met Leonard Lin, who co-founded upcoming.org and now runs Yahoo events like Hack Day. I also met Pasha Sadir who developed Yahoo Travel Planner and created the coolest web application of the moment, Yahoo! Pipes. I also met kevnull and Daniel Raffel (just finished listening to his SXSW 2007 podcast) who also work on Pipes.
After some minutes, I realised I was sitting next to Caterina Fake's desk. Caterina is the co-founder of Flickr. In fact, the book I picked and started browsing through belonged to her. She cheerfully came into the room and you can rightly tell from her blog posts how cheerful she is.
“Actually, you can have that book” she said to me while I held a “Design Like You Give a Damn” book in my hands. “Thanks”, I responded and took the opportunity to get an autograph from the web celebrity :) Since I couldn't get a picture at Yahoo, this is the only graphical evidence that I met her, right?
VOIP looses profit
Clement Nyirenda, a Malawian based in South Africa and an active client of VOIPs announces the closure of SAVoIP Network after some difficult months. SAVoIP Network came into being after South Africa's deregulation of the telecommunication industry.
Marnus says the projected income from members using their products never materialised-less than 1% of the network's more than 26,000 members ordered prepaid airtime or used the voip facility to call internationally.However, the overheads needed to be covered monthly. The ‘outflow’ was just far greater than the ‘inflow'! As a result, Marnus was left with no other option but to call it a day.

author: Victor Kaonga


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Kenya: Kenya’s victory over Canada · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Kenya blogger writes about Kenya's victory over Canada in World Cup Cricket 2007: Firstly, what a great performance by the team. It was not the fact that they won, but the way in which they won. There may have been some concern over the lack of penetration from the opening bowlers, and they will no doubt face a stiffer test against the Kiwis and Poms, but they bowled well on the whole and did not let Canada get away in the early overs.


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Malaysia: Soviet Style Media Management · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Bolehtalk is concerned that Malaysian authorities are trying to undermine blogs and online news sites.


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Myanmar: No Point Wearing Jewelery  · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Myouez wonders why people spend so much money on jewelery. “Today, my sister said she couldn’t find her necklace, I asked my mom how much it worth. Damn! I could buy a laptop with it. What’s the use of wearing it around?”


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Nepal: Nepalis in New York City · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Democracy For Nepal on empowering Nepalis in New York City. “I don't know how many Nepalis there are in New York City. 35,000? 40,000? Nobody really knows for sure. But we have got to earn voting rights in the city elections. The idea is not new. Those with green cards should be allowed to vote.”


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Pakistan: The attack on GEO · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Metroblogging Islamabad on the attack of Freedom of the Press in Pakistan. “Punjab Police entered Geo News office building in evening, shattered glasses and started shelling within office premises. Rubber Bullets were fired on reporters, camera men, hence injuring a few people as well. The camera coverage was demanded to be closed by the officials.”


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Palestine: Donning the Kuffiyeh for Fashion or Politics  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Palestinian blogger Maytha, who is based in the US, predicts that the Kuffiyeh (Palestinian head gear) is making a comeback on the West Coast. “(M)aybe it's LA fashionistas sheer dedication to innovative and cutting edge fashion trends…or maybe it's just the complete ignorance surrounding the socio-cultural history of the kuffiyeh and the politically charged controversy it is eneveloped in,” writes the blogger.

author: Amira Al Hussaini