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China: Secret Arrest to be Justified by Law Amendment  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The Chinese government is in the process of completing an amendment to its Criminal Procedure Law (CPL). The draft, released for public consultation on 30 August, 2011, has sparked an intense debate among  law professors and lawyers, as it has granted police legal justification for secret arrest and investigation.
Controversial amendment
The following anonymous commentary [zh] analyzing the CPL in details has been widely circulated in the past two weeks:
Police in Beijing, China. Image by Flickr user faungg (CC BY-ND 2.0).
但公检法及律师界、学界各方博弈至今，部分条款出现了许多设计上的隐患。例如，万众聚焦的修正案草案第84条：“拘留后，应立即将被拘留人送看守所羁押，至迟不得超过24小时。除无法通知或者涉嫌危害国家安全犯罪、恐怖活动犯罪等严重犯罪，通知可能有碍侦查的情形以外，应当把拘留的原因和羁押的处所，在拘留后24小时以内，通知被拘留人的家属。”此项免除“通知”义务规定，也适用于监视居住、逮捕等强制措施。
…几种情形，都可以成为对当事人“依法失踪”，并不通知家属的理由。这是本次修法遭到民众谴责最激烈的“侵犯基本人权”条款。
Despite the negotiation among the public security, procuratorial and peoples’ courts organs, the lawyers and the scholars, there are still some hidden problems in some of the clauses. For example, clause 84 has become the focus of public attention: “Upon arrest, the suspect should be sent to a detention center within 24 hours. With the exception that the police are unable to contact the suspect's family, or if the case involves national security, terrorist activities or serious criminal activities, and if the process would obstruct the investigation, the police should notify the family members within 24 hours regarding the reason and the location of the detention.” Such exceptions also appear in “house arrest”, “arrest” and other coercion measures.
… It implies that under the above mentioned circumstances, the suspects could “be detained according to the law” and their family members would not recieve any notification. This is the clause that violates fundamental human rights and that the public finds most scornful.”
In addition, the article also highlighted various other problems such as lack of protection of the “right to silence” and the introduction of “secret investigations”. The writer also pointed out that in recent years, the exceptional circumstances listed in the CPL – “unable to contact”, “obstruct investigation” and “in suspect of undermining national security” – have been used to justify the repression of dissidents, rights defenders and religious leaders.
Indeed, many political dissidents, human rights lawyers and netizens had been abducted by police in secret under the excuses of the “Jasmine Crackdown” since February this year.
Law professor and lawyer, Chen Yousi looks into [zh] the social and political implications of the CPL regarding “secret arrest” in Tianya:
…特别是“无法通知”这一条，完全可以适用到所有的流窜犯罪和异地犯罪。而象浙江省的流动人口犯罪，已经高达60%。如果这三种现象可以不通知，中国将会实际上出现大量的逮捕、拘留人员秘密失踪的现象，后果将极其严重，危害极大。
二、家属知情权是所有嫌疑人权利保护的基础，是律师介入帮助的前提，如果允许秘密逮捕，将出现委托人和监护人缺失，大量的犯罪嫌疑人将得不到家属的关护，没有办法聘请法律帮助律师，见不到律师，得不到律师的法律帮助，是对《律师法》的反动。明显是一种倒退。
Email and phone surveillance
Apart from secret arrest, the amendment has also justified secret investigation, which involves email and phone surveillance:
密侦法定化将严重侵犯普众的基本人权和隐私权。…一旦密侦证据可以作为法庭证据使用，侦查机关为了破案，会迅速在所有的案件中采用技侦手段。这次立案将密侦的审批权放到县一级公安局，执行中为了方便他迅速会扩大到副局长、刑侦队长、派出所长。因为对于一些重案组而言，第一线侦办人的权力很大，往往会先办后批。审批权基本上会失控。
这次的法条上列的密侦案件范围，公安是“危害国家安全犯罪、恐怖活动犯罪、黑社会性质的组织犯罪、重大毒品犯罪或者其他严重危害社会的犯罪案件…”“其他严重危害社会”这个概念是无穷大的外延。“严格的审批手续”基本上就是一句空话，没有可控性。检察院的密侦范围更大，几乎覆盖了全部的侦查范围：“重大的贪污、贿赂犯罪案件以及利用职权实施的严重侵犯公民人身权利的重大犯罪案件”…
Earlier this month Hong Kong based newspaper, the South China Morning Post, reported that a high ranking official in the Chinese military did not support the amendment. Law professor He Weifang's quoted the news [zh] in his Weibo, attracted more than 1,700 comments. Below is a selected translation of  the discussion:
@雪落有谁聆 秘密拘捕法案今天可以对准平民，明天你的政治对手同样可以用来对付你。请君入瓮就是这么来的
@江海捡贝翁 支持不支持有什么用，全国人大什么通不过？
@醉金刚 心里真不愿军人干政，在这个特色体制内此刻他们说句话又能带来效果，纠结啊，长远来说还是不能干政。
肖芳华律师 谁先提出这条建议的，先把他秘密关押几天，看看他什么反应。
Instead of entering the debate, lawyer Yuan Yuelai expresses his ultimate frustration [zh] about the legal system:
【刑诉法修改，谁还抱有幻想？】这个国家，连守法公民的人权都保护不了，征地拆迁、上访信访中政府肆意践踏人权，甚至无视老百姓生命的恶性事件从未间断，怎么可能有保护犯罪嫌疑人和被告人的人权呢？刑诉法立法目的是打击犯罪，保护人民，即人民民主专政，而不是保护人权，不是已经清楚了吗？


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Colombia: Bogota’s Mayoral Campaign · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Mike Ceaser comments on Bogota Mayoral candidate Enrique Peñalosa's decision to “campaign with ex-President Alvaro Uribe.” Mike argues that “by campaigning with the conservative Uribe […] Peñalosa is giving up any chance for the vote of young progressives, altho [sic] few supported him as it is.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Silvia Viñas


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Cuba: More Arrests Post-March  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

More reports of activists being arrested in the wake of a peaceful protest march that took place this past Saturday.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Jamaica: Golding to Resign?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamaica and the World republishes a Wikileaks cable that sullies the image of the government, while Girl With a Purpose reports that “Prime Minister Bruce Golding dropped a bombshell on Jamaicans…announc[ing] his intention to resign as Party Leader of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).”


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Kenya: Bloggers Pay Tribute to Wangari Maathai · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

African bloggers are paying tribute to Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental and political activist who died Sunday after a battle with cancer.
“Rest in Peace Mama Africa,” says Susan:
News of demise of Nobel Peace Laureate Prof. Wangari Maathai after a long battle with cancer is shocking. I have been wondering why she has not featured much in news lately even with succession politics of 2012 getting hot and when Kenyans need the opinion of women like her. Kenyans will surely miss this humble and noble lady.
Rest in Peace Mama Africa.
Wangari Maathai. Image by Flickr user On Being (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
Taabu notes that Wangari was a first in almost everything:
She came. She battled. She won. She was a first is almost everything she put her head and heart into. The first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. The first African woman to win the coveted Nobel peace prize in 2004 for her conservation efforts. And now a bright light has been dimmed. The cruel hands of death have snatched Prof Wangari Maathai from our midst. Shame!!
The death of this distinguished lady marks the end of an era epitomized by Wangari's love for nature/trees and environment but above all else her relentless fight for social justice and freedom. Death, how cruel is thee? But we will shame you by choosing to celebrate the productive life of Prof Wangari Muta Maathai, an icon who lived well ahead of her time.
Mwalimu Mati writes a personal memory of Wangari Maathai:
A week ago I was asked by a friend in the United Nations system to try and find Prof. Wangari Maathai because they were unable to.  My task was to communicate to her that on October 31st 2011, the United Nations Population Fund wished to have her attend a special ceremony of seven world leaders (including heads and past heads of governments and states) to commemorate the event of the global human population crossing the 7 billion person mark.  Wangari Maathai’s office did not let on, but it is now apparent that she was not going to make that date in New York.  This morning I woke to the sad news of her passage.
Wangari Maathai was someone I knew from childhood.  She was a great friend and contemporary of my parents and so I will always appreciate how, as I joined the ranks of the struggle, she always treated me with collegial respect; even when I had no clue what I was doing.
Simon thanks Wangari in Swahili:
Asante kwa yote,…
…..hasa kwa kutukumbusha,…
……. nguvu ya MTU MMOJA katika JAMII!
Pumzika Mama!
Mwangi remembers when Wangari was beaten up by security guards during a demonstration in Nairobi:
In 1989 Maathai's protests forced then President Daniel arap Moi to abandon a personal plan to erect a 62-storey office tower in a Nairobi park. In 1999 she was beaten and whipped by private security guards during a demonstration against the sale of forest land near the capital Nairobi. The famed Freedom Corner, now remains a sacred reference place where most protests are started or ended in Nairobi.
SW Maina describes her as a woman who refused to bow:
A true believer. A fighter. An icon of courage. She fought for the environment – our forests – against more powerful foes – askaris armed with batons, trigger happy police officers, a myopic government of fools – and all she had was her trademark leather ankle boots and tree seedlings – and she won. Her legacy lives on. She has inspired many to not bow to any pressure in the quest for sustainable development – development that does not destroy the environment –  and she has also inspired many African women. To be strong. To believe in themselves. To be proud of being African women.
Opalo remembers as kid watching Wangari on television:
I remember as a kid watching TV and seeing a woman who was the head of the greenbelt movement being chased around by armed policemen. All I knew was that she was fighting to protect Karura forest and freedom corner in Nairobi from land grabbers. This woman was Wangari Maathai, the first woman in eastern Africa to receive a PhD. She would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize and do all Kenyans proud.
Gukira identifies key lessons for humanity from her work:
Wangari taught us how to be audacious: to speak and act fearlessly in the face of insurmountable odds. To care for futures yet to unfold. To care for strangers in worlds to come. To act with conviction. To care about the public spaces we share, and to ensure those spaces remained public. Indeed, the history of public space in Kenya is inextricably linked to Wangari’s name.
She made it possible for us to envision acting when we thought action was impossible. She acted to create beauty.
Wangari is an inspiration to S. Wangene:
When I was a little girl, Prof. Wangari featured a lot on TV because of her work. I often saw her fight, cry, on behalf of the environment. It wasn’t until I was older that I understood her passion, what she lived for, what she had a heart for. This woman was one person who gave her everything no matter what stood in her way. She is an inspiration to me.
This is how Sokari wants her readers to remember her:
In her honour let us continue to plant trees, plant seeds of life, plant good governance, plant love of each other
It is exactly what Naomi Mutua is doing:
Following the demise of Wangari Maathai, I thought it only sensible to get people to plant trees, and I thought that if we could do this together, even better.
This is what has progressed so far:
a) I have spoken to the foresters at Karura Forest. They will provide an acre of land, and the seedlings to do so. We will do this at Karura for logistical reasons. However, this doesn’t mean that you cannot go and plant trees on your own initiative, elsewhere. Plant as many as you can!
b) We have to raise at least 280,000/-. 80,000/- will be used to clear the land of shrubbery, so that you can walk through it and plant trees, as well as 200,000/- to maintain the seedlings. I still have not factored in the costs of providing portable loos and dustbins at the site, as well as water for the seedlings (any volunteers?)
An update of Naomi's initiative:
Hello everyone,
Thank you so much for the support that you’ve given for the #WangariTrees Campaign.
So far, we have raised Kes. 58,050, via Mpesa and Pledges. We are still way off target, as we need Kes. 280,000/- to ensure that an acre of land with 1,100 trees is planted and tended for 3 years at Karura forest.
The Mpesa number to send your donations is: 0717-704133, registered under Naomi Mutua.
Hot Secrets posts a list of personalities and celebrities who have expressed their condolences to her family:
Wangari Maathai’s death has been felt by many. Despite Trending on Twitter, thousands of personalities and celebrities have expressed their condolences to the family for this profound loss.
Nelson Mandela’s Twetter page remembered the fallen legend by posting a link to photos of her lecture during the 3rd Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture on the foundation’s Face Book.
The Passing of a Humming Bird is a poem dedicated to Wangari by Mburu Kamau:
The bird hummed where eagles feared,
Sang the taboo words,
Tuned to the emancipation of masses,
With an ecstatic difference.
She walked where angels feared,
Talked the language of the voiceless,
When the breeze blew against all odds
And put on a brave march.
As the dawn for our liberation – the Second Birth,
She stood for the truth, with fearless attitude,
And earned a viper’s wrath.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Russia: A New Online Game Might Change Offline Moscow · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

A graduate of Strelka Institute Andrey Goncharov gave an interview about his final project an online game “Crowdsourced Moscow 2012″. According to the interview the game  can contibute to real democracy and allow people to participate in reshaping the offline public space of their city through online.

author: Gregory Asmolov


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Russia: Pro-Kremlin Youth Movement Leader Seeks New Internet ‘Activists’ · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

A journalist  from “Afisha” magazine had succeded to attend a secret meeting in the underground Moscow bunker dedicated to the training of a new generation of pro-Kremlin Internet activists organized by a leader of “Nashi” youth movement Vasiliy Yakemenko. Yakemenko demanded from pariticipants to initiate citizen Internet-based campaigns and argued that the main goal of these activities is a stuggle against any threat to stability in Russia.


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Spain: Police “Welcome” 15M Protesters in Paris · Global Voices
Chris Moya

The so-called “indignant march” [es], composed of three deployed groups (Meseta, Toulouse and Mediterranean), left from Madrid, Barcelona and Toulouse with Brussels as its final destination.
The aim is to spread the 15M message and demands (15M is the name given to the movement in Spain because its started on May 15) to the European Union heads of state. Once they crossed the Spanish border, each group found itself accepted by the residents in each of the towns and cities through which they marched. Occasionally, residents and passers-by have been surprised, but have mostly shown complicity.
Las marchas indignadas quieren llegar a los corazones y mentes que impulsaron un movimiento capaz de generar conciencia, unión y amor. Esas ideas y emociones han creado proyectos sociales capaces de unir no solo a una nación sino a un mundo; esta es nuestra intención. (http://marchabruselasmediterranea.blogspot.com) [es]
15M in Paris
Once they arrived in Paris on September 17, they decided to organize an assembly in the Bercy neighborhood and subsequently a demonstration throughout the streets of the French capital, looking for a place to sit for a few days before continuing the journey to Brussels, and set up an information point for French citizens who were interested.
Accustomed to suffering unjustified aggression from security forces, solely for spreading information or camping out in public spaces, demonstrators warned others of the possible dangers they were exposed to, and that a large police presence would not mean that the march could continue calmly, but rather that intimidating police force would be widespread.
After a calm, happy and peaceful march, with respectful by-passers who did not disrupt traffic, over 100 people met on Saint Germain Boulevard to walk towards the French Parliament when, according to the current model of police action already typical, they found themselves surrounded by a police squad that began using two loads of tear gas.
Afterwards, this group of 100 people opted to offer passive resistance and ended up sitting on the floor. But the anti-riot police dragged the demonstrators, sprayed their faces with pepper spray, and detained almost all of them.
@marcheparis: La marcha a Bruselas del movimiento 15-M es disuelta a golpes por la policía en Paris #marchabruselas #walktobrussels bit.ly/q6VQ13
Police violently detain a peaceful protestor.
The total number of detainees reached 80, who were spread in various police stations throughout the city, were shown in the press release from @acampadasol on their website [es]:
In the press release, they asked the Spanish media to offer more news coverage of the protest and arrests:
Es imprescindible que un máximo de medios españoles difundan la información con el fin de facilitar los trámites de liberación de los detenidos.
Ultimately, this did not happen and the news of almost 80 Spaniards detained [es] by French authorities remained as a brief piece of news in some media outlets, while others simply avoided reporting it at all.
@spainrevolt: Detienen a más de 100 españoles en Francia y no lo cuentan. bit.ly/nuKGd1 #elpais, os echamos una mano con la edición de mañana?
Subsequently, they realized that 11 detainees will have to appear before a French judge for having broken the glass of the vehicle that transported them. Although they are already released, they will have to appear in court before October 31.
The detainees are transported to police premises.  Source: http://www.facebook.com/15mMarchaBruselas
Olivier García, the detainees’ legal adviser, labeled the decision to present them before a judge  “disproportionate” [es], and said that the fact that the District Attorney is processing a similar demand is “unprecedented.”
Fueron detenidos para un control de identidad, cuando eso puede hacerse en la vía pública, y trasladados en un furgón policial a la comisaría.
Following this Parisian nightmare, the march continues its path to Brussels.

author: Chris Moya


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Trinidad & Tobago: Loving Delicious · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

TECHTT shares his thoughts on the new Delicious site.


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Barbados: Fire Service Hot on Social Media  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“I am surprised and impressed by their use of social media”, says gallimaufry.ws of the Barbados Fire Service, adding: “Other government departments in Barbados could learn from their example.”


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Bolivia: Videos of Vigil in Support of TIPNIS Marchers · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Mario R. Duran posts videos [es] of a vigil held in La Paz to support indigenous marchers in their struggle to defend TIPNIS.


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China: A rejected entry permit to Hong Kong · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Annie Lee from ChinaHush translated a blog post by a mainland Chinese Su Gengsheng, who expressed her frustration over the application of entry permit to Hong Kong.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Shanghai Metro Crash Injures More Than 200 · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Samuel Wade from China Digital Times reports on the Shanghai Metro Crash happened yesterday (September 27). More than 200 people were injured in the accident.


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China: Why do rumors explode in China? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

China Media Project has translated the editorial of China Daily discussing the spread of rumors in China.


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China: Xinjiang’s Most Popular Song · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Josh recommends an Uyghur pop song from Xinjiang presented by a trio,  named Shahrizoda, from Uzbekistan.


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Cuba: 14 on Trial for Girl’s Death  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“It seems that we’re destined to remain in the dark about yet another case that we’ve only found out about through foreign newspapers and independent bloggers”: Rosa Martinez, writing at Havana Times, doesn't understand the authorities’ silence on the death of a Cuban minor.


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Cuba: Female Prisoner on Hunger Strike  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Pedazos de La Isla uploads a video showing “what happened on Saturday, September 24th, to Sara Marta Fonseca Quevedo and other dissidents who were peacefully protesting”, while Uncommon Sense notes that Fonseca has since begun a hunger strike.


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East Timor: Tasi Mane Petroleum Infrastructure Project · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A local Non-Government Organization, La'o Hamutuk, has set-up a special website page to gather information, monitor project updates, and document the resistance of a community to East Timor’s Tasi Mane Petroleum Infrastructure Project.
Tasi Mane (Male Sea) Project is among East Timor’s flagship strategic development programs:
To bring petroleum development to our shores and provide a direct economic dividend from petroleum industry activities, supporting infrastructure will be developed on the south coast of Timor-Leste.  This will be led by the Tasi Mane Project, a multi-year development of three industrial clusters on the south coast which will form the backbone of the Timor-Leste petroleum industry.  The project will involve development of a coastal zone from Suai to Beaço and will ensure that required infrastructure is in place to support a growing domestic petroleum industry.  Tasi Mane will include the Suai Supply Base cluster, the Betano Refinery and Petrochemical Industry cluster, and the Beaço LNG-Plant cluster.
Overview of the Tasi Mane Project
East Timor is dependent on its oil revenues but economists have already advised it to diversify its economy. La'o Hamutuk thinks that Tasi Mane reflects the continuing dependence of the country on the petroleum industry:
…the 2011 state budget allocates over $30 million for the Tasi Mane project, more than twice as much as the Ministry of Agriculture. We lamented the nearly exclusive focus on the petroleum industry (and resulting lost opportunities to explore other possibilities for economic development).
Since there is consensus that Timor-Leste needs to move away from oil-dependency in the long-term, we are disappointed that petroleum processing is the only industrial development discussed. What about agricultural processing, or light industry to replace imported products? The capital-intensive oil industry will provide few jobs for anyone, including Timorese. Allocating most of our intellectual and financial resources to the petroleum sector obstructs moving to a non-oil economy after oil and gas reserves are used up in 13 years.
The group is concerned that a large amount of public money has been allotted to a single project:
We also wonder about the economic viability of the Tasi Mane project, given that no private sector investors have shown interest. From an investment perspective, the returns may not justify the amount of public money being expended
It also doubts if the project will generate enough number of jobs for the local population:
…nothing is said about how many jobs these projects will provide for Timorese workers, how much land they will take from uses such as agriculture and fishing, how many people will have to be displaced, or how much revenue they will generate for the state.
If Parliament does not receive such information in a credible and accessible form, we urge you not to give the Government a “blank check” for a project which may turn out to be useless or have negligible benefits
Based on the government’s Procurement Portal, most of the companies which signified intention to participate in the program are foreign companies. One of the qualified firms, TOKE OIL & GAS SA, received a contract worth US$6,639,517.
Community assembly about the project. Image by laohamutuk.org.
The Tasi Mane became controversial because many communities will be affected and displaced by the project. One community member, Manuel da Costa, clarifies that the people are not against development:
…the south coast land will be a Promised Land for Timor-Leste's development, but we children of Betano will become victims of development. We from Betano support development, but our needs must be considered.
The Betano community has already agreed to give up four hectares of their land to the government but it protested the occupation of their other lands:
The People of Betano, Aldeia Bemeta months ago offered four hectares of their land to the Government in order to construct a heavy oil power station. Recently the Government contracted Tinolina Construction Ltd, to prepare the site. During this process they occupied more land.
Because this occupation of land was more than the original agreement between the Government and the Community, the community began to organize themselves as is their right, consecrated in the Constitution as People of an “independent nation”.
The Government and the Company showed a lack of transparency and much manipulation of facts throughout the entire process, and there are many inconsistencies in their story.
When they protested, the action was violently dispersed by the police:
Because of this the community carried out a peaceful action in the field. However the community suffered violent actions from the Police who went to intervene and prevent this peaceful demonstration

author: Mong Palatino


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El Salvador: Youth Participation in Elections · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Blogger Jjmar from Hunnapuh [es] comments on youth's lack of interest in the elections and in politics in general, a problem which Jjmar argues is reflected in the low number of registered young voters in the 2009 elections and for the upcoming 2012 elections.


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Kuwait: After Three Months in Prison, Court Releases Twitter User · Global Voices
Mona Kareem

Three months ago, with sectarianism reaching its climax in the public sphere after the Bahraini protests, a Kuwaiti Twitter user  named Nasser Abul (@NasserAbuL) was arrested for insulting the Bahraini and Saudi regimes.
At first, many people thought arresting Abul was caused by his sectarian tweets, which he wrote to express his anger towards what is happening to adherents of the Shia sect in Bahrain; however, that was not the only charge. Abul spent three months between the state security police and the central jail and his court sessions were postponed several times. Finally, the court decided to release Abul after sentencing him to three months, which he had already served, for insulting the Sunni sect.
Nasser Abul after his release. Picture taken from the Facebook group "We are all with Nasser Abul".
This decision came weeks after the sentencing of a Sunni tweep called Mubarak Al-Bathali (@mubaark) to three years in jail for insulting a religious sect and trying to “hurt national unity”. Al-Bathali, unlike Abul, did not try to deny what he wrote on Twitter. The sentence was later shortened to six months in jail.
Kuwaiti mainstream media has not been transparent about the details of Abul's case and what is generally assured is that he denied writing his tweets, saying that someone hacked into his account and tweeted the controversial posts.
Online, Kuwaiti netizens kept on using the sectarian insulting posts against each other. When looking for  reactions to Abul's release, one can hardly find anyone dealing with this case as a human rights or a political case. In the Kuwaiti National Online Forum, a discussion was started after the release of Nasser Abul when a forum member called Al-Ashtar [ar] wrote the following:
Another member of the forum named “Bidoon Mojamala” [ar] responded by saying:
Al-Ashtar wrote another reply in this post, which went on for several pages, saying that sectarianism is very common in Kuwait:
Sager [ar] tried to speak the wise word saying that people should defend the Shia Nasser Abul and the Sunni Mubarak Al-Bathali equally:
Further Reading:
Advox: Three Netizens Detained

author: Mona Kareem


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Mali: Senegal and Mali Final Expected in Afrobasket Women 2011 · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Starafrica comments [fr] on the Afrobasket Women Championship 2011 currently being hosted in Bamako, Mali: ” Mali, the host country and vice-champion, and Senegal, winner of the last Championship, are very convincing during this 22nd edition […]. The two national teams remain invincible. Coming up on the horizon is a final between Mali and Senegal on October 2, as in the previous Afrobasket Women Championship.”

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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New Caledonia: From Paris to Nouméa in a Microlight Plane · Global Voices
Claire Ulrich

Two French microlight planes enthusiasts, aboard the microlight Spirit of Noumea, are planning to re-live French aviators Paul Klein and Henri Martinet's groundbreaking 1939 plane journey from Nouméa, New Caledonia, to Paris. Their journey can be followed on this map and is also documented via their diary [fr] on the project's site.

author: Claire Ulrich


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Philippines: Creative Protests During Campus Strikes · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

Last week's nationwide campus strikes against education budget cuts saw the lively and creative integration of online tools to mobilize thousands to fight for the right to education. From September 19-23, 2011, thousands of youths joined massive street protests supported by their teachers and public school administrators.
Protest, Philippines. Photo: Victor Villanueva
Creative means of protests were also explored by students to express their opposition to President Noynoy Aquino's reduction of state subsidy for education and social services; what could possibly be the world's largest planking protest – was held in the historic Mendiola bridge leading to the Presidential Palace:
Planking protest, Philippines.
There's also the “freeze mob,” wherein activists suddenly froze in the middle of a busy school lobby or corridor, arousing the curiosity of passersby, before inviting other students to walkout of their classes to join bigger protests:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPTjIHYUrY4&feature=player_embedded
A “Budget CUTtoure” fashion show was one of the activities held during the campus strike in the University of the Philippines Diliman. Denise Chan of the blog Dreamer's Disease describes this buildup activity for the march-rally:
Budget CUTtoure was all about the deconstruction of clothes; we had plain shirts printed with the anti-budget cut logo, and we cut-up the shirts.
Denise, a clothing technology major at the said university, posts photos of herself posing with the stylish slogan shirts in her blog:
The student council of the UP Visayas College of Management meanwhile spearheaded what they call “the blackboard campaign.” Student council officers walk around their campus encouraging fellow students, teachers, and school employees to write messages against the cuts in small pieces of blackboard with chalk and take their pictures posing with their messages. There are now over a hundred poses posted online:
They also initiated a “Black FB Pic Campaign” where students and other Facebook users were encouraged to change their profile pics to black for the duration of the weeklong campus strike:
The Black FB PIC campaign is one of our ways to express to our administrators and financial planners that we, students of the College of Management are not satisfied with their investments in education. This is also our way of expressing that we as Iskolars ng Bayan feel belittled with the below par appropriations that they grant social services.
Another online Facebook campaign encourages supporters to change their names to “[Name] Opposes Budget Cuts.”
Far from containing youthful unrest and idealism in the virtual world, these online actions had the particular aim of encouraging participation in the street protests in the real world. Particoloured, for instance, blogs about his rally experience and shows how Facebook literally had a role in compelling him to join the protests:
Gabi na noon. Ika-22 ng Setyembre, isang Miyerkules. Nag-post ng status ang isa kong bagong kaibigan sa Facebook tungkol sa pinakabagong budget cut ng administrasyong Aquino. Sang-ayon naman ako sa pinost niya, kaya ni-like ko. Mamaya-maya, nag-comment siya na “Lahat ng nag-like nito, dapat samahan ako mag-strike bukas! LOL.”
A month before the campus strike week from September 19 to 23, students created the Facebook group “Kilos Na Laban Sa Budget Cuts” (Act Against Budget Cuts) which was joined by at least 3,000 Facebook users in its first 12 hours. The group now has over 9,000 members and serves as the online campaign center providing the latest information and updates regarding the campaign.
Experiencing chronic unemployment, low wages, expensive tuition, and successive cuts on education, the Filipino youth has a long and colorful history of activism.
They led the resurgence of the nationalist mass movement in the 60s and early 70s, which culminated in the fiery protests of tens of thousands during the First Quarter Storm of 1970. The youth were at the forefront in the protest movement that toppled the Marcos dictatorship in 1986 and the Estrada regime in 2001.
They continue to take an active role in national politics and have intervened decisively with regards various social issues, especially with the worsening crisis now afflicting the global economy. The internet medium gives this militant tradition a twist as online tools are used by youth activists to encourage participation in offline protest actions.

author: Karlo Mongaya


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Puerto Rico: Online Forum for Good Dads  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Over the years, I've worried about how I'm doing as a father”, says Gil the Jenius – which is why he has nothing but praise for a new website that “bring[s] good Dads together and let[s] them…share what it is to be a father.”


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Recreating China Map into Maga · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Shanghaiist collects a series of anime character drawings recreated from the China map.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Black Power Documentary  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“You could put all of the scholarship produced by the University of the West Indies and all the newspaper and TV stories done about the 1970 uprising in Trinidad and Tobago on one side and, when you tossed the single DVD of ’70: Remembering a Revolution into the other pan, the scale would come crashing down on ‘70’s side”: B.C. Pires thinks the documentary about the Black Power Revolution is a must-see at this year's T&T Film Festival.


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U.S. Virgin Islands: Shaken Up  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“After several near-misses by tropical storms, the island has now escaped trouble from new earthquakes”: News of St. John has the details.


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Zambia: Netizens Start Countdown to 90 Day Change Promise · Global Voices
Gershom Ndhlovu

Zambia’s new President, Michael Sata, has in the last three elections he has participated in promised to transform the nation in 90 days including putting more money into people's pockets. Now that he has finally been elected head of state, expectant netizens have started the countdown.
Some of Sata’s supporters on Facebook are convinced the countdown has started on a positive note while others say that expecting any meaningful transformation in 90 days is unrealistic.
In another development, a “90 Day Agenda” group has opened a Facebook page to push for it.
Zambians try to catch a glimpse of the new President at his inauguration ceremony in September 2011. Image by Commonwealth Secretariat Flickr page (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
Henry Mando on The Zambian Peoples PACT observes:
The 90 days theory is already working..Chinese mines have offered 80 percent salary increases on the Copperbelt to their workers, while Sun International has began paying out the sales charge arrears that were previously withheld and this has been accompanied by a salary increase. So you can imagine what will happen when the tax rate is reduced and more and more money continues to pour in our pockets…
Whether this is a joke or not, Festus Daka adds a humourous twist to President Sata's promise and the people's expectations:
From the tym pf [ruling Patriotic Front] was anouced wina of polz [winner of the polls],i v sold more than 600 piece of cargo pants.reasons from the client is tht thy want cloths wit plenty of poket since its mo money in our pokets
One netizen, Hachi Beekay, quotes opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) leader Hakainde Hichilema asking youths to mark December 23, when the 90 days promise for more money in people’s pockets expires:
HH has challenged the PF to prioritize policy implementation as the time for political promises is over, adding that the ruling party’s 90days expires on December 23 and Zambians will appreciate all fulfilled promises as a Christmas gift.
Kaimfa Chandang’oma adds Hakainde Hichilema’s order to the youth to march to state house if the promise is not fulfilled:
HH [Hakainde Hichilema] has incited the youths of Mandevu that by 23rd December if there is no “more money in their pockets” they should match to state house and demand for their money . . .
Lissa Ngenda Mwenda defends President Sata:
Our president is hardly a week old and yet the doubting Thomases are so quick to query his lack of action. Truth is only the blind have not noticed change. Some of this change brought on even by ourselves because we know we are now being led by action. Let's not be quick to judge considering there is not much we can boast about under the previous government unless you were “fortunate” enough to be a relative or a mistress.
On the 90 Day Agenda Facebook page, Yewa Kumwenda identifies priority areas for government to work on within 90 days:
My humble suggestions of what the PF govt must start working on within 90 Days.Some were pronounced during campaigns, while others werent. Take a look&comment.
1.Constitutional Making Process(Mungomba Recommendations)
2.Reviewing of mine taxes
3.Repealing archaic labour laws
4.Spreading tax to informal sector&reducing PAYE
5.Cutting down on Cabinet positions/scrapping DC position
6.Giving upcoming Zambia businesses good incentives
7.A workable agric&agro forest policy
8.A pro education, pro health, pro agriculture, pro science&technology, pro diversification from mining budget for 2012
An article quoting the opposition politician Hakainde Hichilema asking the ruling party to focus on 90 day promise and not violence has attracted many comments. Katongo writes:
chines here in ndola have started to increase salaries for the workers !!!!
more money in the pockets what do you want to see in 90 days? labour laws will be followed starting from now . HH [Hakainde Hichilema] you showed the poeple hate to PF and so you are starting but just wait for a short 90 days then ask poeple working in the chinese companies and then you will see what the pesident meant un less you are still dalo [dull] as you were before elections.
what you need to do is to reflect on your failiers [failures] then re organise your party and then you may win elections in 2027
Dispelling accusations that HH is speaking out of bitterness, The Real Muntu wrote:
He is not speaking out of bitterness. How can a party that has won elections and has good leadership allow thugs to take law into their own hands? No one should celebrate over anarchy because next time it will catch you the celebrants. Watch out already unilateral decisions have started. Today the three airports have been renamed without a Cabinet in place. Isn’t this autocratic leadership? Instead of peddling insults on the internet, lets be sober and help our leadership. This euphoria will be short lived. Soon reality will dawn on every-ones face and loud cries will start from the very people who are celebrating big. Please be real. Violence will not help anyone and if this is the first action of the PF in the famous 90 days then it is regrettable.

author: Gershom Ndhlovu


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Bahamas: Time to Take Action Against Crime  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As a missing child is found dead, Weblog Bahamas says: “I would call on Prime Minister Ingraham to not wait until next Monday to make a statement to the nation on crime. The time to act is now… and we must act swiftly and prudently.”


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Brazil: Blogging Carnival in Defense of Abortion · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

The Brazilian blog Blogueiras Feministas (Feminist Bloggers) has selected [pt] a series of posts about the women's right to abortion following a blogging carnival that took place on September 28.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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Brazil: The Tie of the Case Folha Versus Falha  · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

It's a tie, says [pt] the journalist Luiz Carlos Azenha about the sentence of the case of the newspaper Folha de São Paulo versus the satirical blog Falha de São Paulo. Journalist Rodrigo Vianna discloses [pt] an interview he made with Lino Bocchini, Falha's creator, and also reproduces the legal sentence.


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Brazil: The Sexist Ad of Supermodel Gisele Bundchen · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Thalita, from the blog Futepoca, comments [pt] on a lingerie advertisement featuring the Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen that has been object of intense discussion because of its alleged sexist content.


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Cameroon: Attempted Mutiny in the Economic Capital? · Global Voices
Julie Owono

Cameroon-Info [fr] reports that gunfire broke out in the morning of September 29, 2011, on the Wouri Bridge in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon. Website Koaci.com [fr] reports that it was an attempted military mutiny and adds that the Special Units of the army were deployed. Reuters talks about “uniformed gun men”. A discussion is currently taking place on the Twitter hashtag #cmr11.

author: Julie Owono


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Cameroon: Calm Before the Storm? · Global Voices
Julie Owono

This page is part of our special coverage Cameroon Elections 2011.
Cameroon's presidential election will take place on October 9, 2011, but the lack of stake [fr] in the outcome felt by the general population is leading to a lack of interest  [fr]. The election marks the grand finale of a tumultuous political cycle started in February 2008.
February 2008 riots
In 2008, a constitutional amendment that unlimited presidential terms was adopted by the National Assembly. This decision caused an outcry in the international community and led to riots in February 2008 which were severely repressed; according to Human Rights organisations, more than 100 citizens were killed and more than 1,000 arrested.
In February 2008, anti-government riots spead through Cameroon. These buildings and vehicles in Kumba were targeted for being government related or owned. Image by Caroline Thomas, copyright Demotix (04/03/2008).
Calm was restored after the Army repressed the demonstrations, and after the President, Paul Biya, delivered a strong speech [fr] against the opposition, who he accused of manipulating the Youth.
In a WikiLeaks cable sent in March 2008 by Scot Ticknor, political and economic chief at the United States Embassy in capital Yaoundé, it is explained that these events could reveal deeper political instability:
How long will the “enforced calm” last?  […] All our European diplomatic colleagues, except the French, believe the potential for renewed unrest in the short term remains. None of the grievances of the public have been addressed, whether in the President's speech or the government's actions. […] Even if the current situation remains calm, last week was a reminder that there are many unresolved issues, both political and economic, that are likely to resurface at some point down the road, possibly soon.  The 75-year-old Biya is increasingly isolated and unpopular and Cameroonians, while generally peaceful, have shown themselves capable of violently taking to the streets.
Another WikiLeaks cable reveals that in September 2008, influential intellectuals depicted a dark future for the country:
Charles Ateba Eyene, an outspoken critic within the ruling CPDM party, concurred with Owona Nguini's fundamental diagnosis, saying that Cameroon is sitting on “a volcano.” He  averred that the crisis is largely generational, with older elites seeking to  maintain dominance.  Highly centralized power structures and thoroughly corrupt officials at all levels of government have created a system of elite patronage which fundamentally fails to deliver services.
The following video was posted one year after the riots on YouTube. Viewed more than 20,000 times, it shows a young man who was shot dead by public forces during the riots [Warning: Graphic content]:
This crackdown has, according to a post [fr] on camer.be, installed a fragile truce and a climate of fear in the country. An attempted protest was swiftly prevented in February 2011.
Elections tailored for Biya's victory?
Since the February 2008 events, the Cameroonian opposition has been reproached for its lack of organisation, its stagnation and its inability to present a serious prospect to counter incumbent President Paul Biya's Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM).
In an article on Afrik.com entitled “Cameroon : Opposition Preparing The Victory of Paul Biya” [fr], the author writes:
Comme à son habitude, l’opposition camerounaise n’a pas réussi à présenter une candidature unique à une élection capitale pour l’avenir du pays et qui se joue à un seul tour.
Moreover the continuous criticism aimed at the Cameroonian Electoral Commission (ELECAM), including claims that it is an instrument for those in power to control the elections, does not bode well for a free and fair ballot.
A 2009 WikiLeaks cable reveals the content of the criticism:
In a February 9 meeting with Ambassador, Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization (MINATD) Marafa Hamidou Yaya was very discouraged about the ability of the Electoral Commission (ELECAM) to run a good election. Recently named ELECAM officials were incompetent and corrupt, he said, adding that a failed election in 2011 could result in major civil unrest.
According to this article from the website allafrica [fr], the electoral campaign has been tailored in a way to ensure that Paul Biya succeeds:
(…) La démocratie camerounaise n'est pas comme les autres démocraties véritables où tout se déroule dans une transparence totale. Elle a ses caractéristiques propres, ses stratégies particulières pour que le président sortant garde son fauteuil.
Possible post-electoral crisis?
The question of possible post-election violence is being taken seriously by the incumbent regime, which has strengthened its security capacities. One thousand military students have been added to the contingent already present in Douala, the country's economic capital, explains Cameroonian daily Le Jour [fr].
The prospect of unrest has also been considered since comments made by the current Minister of Justice on a possible ethnic division after Biya's ruling were revealed in a WikiLeaks cable:
In a recent, wide-ranging and frank discussion with the Ambassador, [Amadou] Ali said the foundation of Cameroon's stability is the detente between Biya's Beti/Bulu ethnic group, which predominates in Cameroon's South Region, and the populations of Cameroon's three Northern Regions, known as the Septentrion, which are ethnically and culturally distinct from the rest of the country.  The Septentrion will support Biya for as long as he wants to be president, Ali predicted, but would not accept a successor who was either another Beti/Bulu, or a member of the economically powerful Bamileke ethnic group.
According to an article published on Radio Netherlands Worldwide Africa Desk website, “Cameroon fears ethnic clashes following WikiLeaks cable“, the question is a source of great preoccupation:
The ‘revelation’ by Wikileaks has caused a general outcry in the central African country. The article was in the newspaper headlines for several days and has caused a stir on the streets of Cameroon. “Such statements are a threat to our country’s stability. If ethnic groups fight each other for power, we might find ourselves in the same situation as Rwanda in 1994,” fears Edjouma Alain, a civil servant in the capital Yaoundé.
This page is part of our special coverage Cameroon Elections 2011.


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Chile: Indigenous Leaders to Meet With Congress · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

In Indigenous News, Ryan Seelau reports that “on October 4th and 5th, Indigenous leaders from across Chile will meet with the Chilean Congress to discuss the implementation of ILO [International Labor Organization] Convention 169, and particularly, the right to consultation.”


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China: Sex Education · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

While young people are interested in sex, 65.9% has not received any sex education and misled youngsters see abortion as a way of contraception. (More from China Hush)


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Cuba: A Tireless Defender of Gay Rights · Global Voices
Elaine Diaz

Francisco Rodríguez Cruz is a Cuban journalist and activist who for over a year has maintained a controversial blog [es] committed to advancing the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Cuba. This is a community that has experienced a difficult history of discrimination on the island.
Paquito, as he is commonly known on the web, does not only address issues of sexual diversity and gay rights in his blog. He has also been writing of his own personal experience, for the past five years, of battling HIV and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.
“Those who have the privilege to access Internet from Cuba should aim always at improving something in the country, not only deal with external hostilities. Perhaps then we would develop much faster,” he says.
In a previous interview last year, with Tele Sur, Paquito was asked about his blog and said, “At first, some people said it was impossible for someone with my characteristics to exist in Cuba: HIV-positive, communist, gay, father, journalist.” But Paquito, with all his multiple dimensions and complexity, really does exist.
Here is the video of the Tele Sur interview [es]:
Paquito is a member of Hombres por la diversidad (Men for Diversity), a social network of the state-run program National Centre for Sex Education, but he has also supported civil society and independent associations and the recently founded Rainbow Project, which aims to participate in debate on public policies and raise awareness of institutional homophobia. They advocate changes to Cuban law that eradicate discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender.
Francisco Rodríguez, journalist and blogger at "Paquito el de Cuba."
On December 2, 2010, Paquito was received by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, at the ministry's headquarters, along with other representatives of civil society in Cuba [es] who questioned Cuba's support for an amendment to remove reference to sexual orientation from a United Nations resolution condemning summary executions (executions without trial). During this meeting, the foreign minister said there would be no changes in Cuba's policy to oppose any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender.
After this unusual dialogue, Paquito suggested to the authorities in March 2011 that they should support an international UN declaration to eliminate “criminal penalties and other human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” And they did, in June.
Meanwhile, Paquito continued denouncing irregularities committed by Cuban police, who repeatedly fined visitors to a gay spot in central Habana.
Gerardo Arreola, a journalist from La Jornada in Mexico, wrote about his efforts [es]:
Su activismo ha tenido giros tan insólitos como el que lo puso frente a la policía, primero como infractor, luego como demandante y finalmente como interlocutor.
Paquito is now fighting his latest battle. He has run, literally, after the Cuban Minister of Justice, María Esther Reus, to ask her what happened to the updated draft of the Family Code, a law that would approve, along with a number of important benefits for all Cubans, legal marriage for couples of the same sex. The minister replied that she has until 2013 to submit the law for parliamentary consideration.
Paquito does not give up: “There will always have to be someone to ask the questions that will prevent people from forgetting,” he says.

author: Elaine Diaz


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Cuba: Jailed Activists  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Uncommon Sense continues to keep a close eye on three members of the Damas de Blanco who were arrested recently, as well as political prisoner Sara Martha Fonseca, whose son was allegedly attacked after trying to obtain information about his jailed parents.


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Greece: “Europe, come be in my shoes, before judging me” · Global Voices
Asteris Masouras

Global Voices in Greek translator Margie Lazou posts an open and unvarnished account of her daily struggles as a single mother in crisis-ridden Greece on her personal blog: “All those people out there in Europe, please, come live here, be in my shoes for some time before judging me.”

author: Asteris Masouras


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Global: Key Quotes and Tweets from the Internet Governance Forum · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

This post was originally published on Global Voices Advocacy.
As the Internet Governance Forum is a truly epic event both in the online and in the offline world, it's really hard to do justice to the whole complexity of the discussions and debates that are taking place amongst hundreds of representatives from governments, companies, civil society, the technical community, and grassroots activists who have gathered for four days in Nairobi, Kenya.  (To learn more about the IGF, an annual multi-stakeholder meeting to discuss key issues related to the Internet's future now in its sixth year, see the Netizen's Guide to the Internet Governance Forum on Global Voices Advocacy.)
Therefore, in true Global Voices fashion, let me share some key quotes and tweets from participants accompanied by short commentaries. (Note: some quotations might not be 100% precise.)
United Nations Office in Nairobi, the location of the Sixth Annual IGF Meeting. Photo by Alexey Sidorenko.
1. Remi Caron, a Dutch cloud computing entrepreneur:
Data Schengen agreement could be very beneficial!
Comment: Remi said that it's really easy to break various European laws in the course of providing and using third-party cloud storage across European borders. In order not to criminalize cloud data, an international agreement is needed.
2. Open letter signed by Civil Society and Internet Governance Caucus and nine other NGOs about the Russia/China proposed cyber-security code of conduct:
[…] What we miss in the proposed code of conduct is any reference to the multistakeholder approach, established by the Tunis Agenda as best practice in internet policymaking, and the role of civil society in strengthening the security and stability of the Internet as proposed by the Code of Conduct. […]
3. A debate on DNS filtering:
@JosephOwino DNS blocking of illegal online content is like curing a disease with pain killers! :p
Comment by Dan McQuillan:
yes, because you get addicted!
Comment: The panel on content blocking, held for the most part by government representatives, didn't fully reflect the multi-stakeholder approach. The dominant discourse didn't even question the need for content blocking or removal, automatically assuming that there is some content that needs to be either blocked or removed.
4. Twitterer @Tadtel:
Amazed by Kenya's 3G prices. Paid USD 10 for 1 week of unlimited 3G access.Safaricom coverage throughout Maasai
Comment: The development of Kenyan ICT is incredible (at least on a technological level) – three backbone cables connect the country to the global web, and one more is in development. The locals, however, point out that the bottleneck is not in the backbone – rather it is in compute illiteracy.
5. Burt Kaliski, Director of the EMC Innovation Network:
not only the attack, the defense can also be distributed – through the cloud. The Cloud can absorb the threat.
Comment: Speaking of the advantages of cloud computing and the Internet's future security challenges.
6. Amr Gharbeia, Egyptian social media activist, and now Technology and Freedoms Programme Officer at Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
Facebook and Twitter are social tools. *We* are the social network.
Comment: The Arab Spring and the much-debated mobilisation power of social networks have brought a huge wave of preventative regulation, and frankly speaking, pure fear among governments. The threat, however, is not the social networks, but the empowered citizens of the new world.
7. Panelist at panel on ccTLD's (country code top-level domain names like .uk, .cn, or .ru) :
There are three main trends in #ccTLD: Growth, growth, growth
Comment: The discussion about Internationalised Domain Names (IDN) and ccTLD's were discussed in positive, excited tones. The question of the balkanization and the fragmentation of the Internet was not debated.
8. Larry Strickling, United States Department of Commerce:
We can choose to expand bureaucracies or we can expand jobs…The future of the Internet is at risk. The multi-stakeholder model is being challenged.
Comment: Probably the most important debate of this IGF: the model of Internet governance is being challenged not only by the ‘usual suspects’ (China, Russia, etc who simply disregard the multi-stakeholder model in preference of the governance made through inter-government agreements) but also the European Union who argue for a more important role of the national governments in the decision-making process.
9. Vint Cerf, co-creator of the TCP/IP protocol and a person commonly known as the ‘father of the Internet':
We need common agreements – what is acceptable and what is unacceptable behavior on the network. This has a great deal to do with ethics.
Comment: The search of the balance of the regulation and the self-regulation is a leading idea of the IGF11. How can our global society make the Internet a space that is simultaneously secure, innovative and free? There are no easy answers.
Editor's note:
Our sister website, Global Voices Advocacy recently launched a new series called “The Netizen Report”, a regular overview of recent global developments related to the power dynamics between citizens, companies and governments on the Internet.  We hope that these regular reports can provide netizens around the world with useful information about who is seeking to influence and shape the digital platforms and networks we increasingly depend upon, and how. Armed with information, we are in a better position to defend our rights, and to make sure the Internet evolves in a manner that is compatible with the right to free expression of all people, everywhere.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Jamaica: Upcoming Elections · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Bruce Golding yesterday confirmed that he will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, which according to Girl With a Purpose, means that the country should brace itself for “political maneuvering, with many speeches and media appearances by all candidates.”


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Kenya: RIP #WangariMaathai · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Tweets keep flowing in honor of Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental and political activist who died last week after a battle with cancer.
Wangari will be accorded a state funeral, @CapitalFM_kenya reports:
@CapitalFM_kenya: President #Kibaki has announced that Prof Wangari #Maathai will be accorded a State Funeral; flags to fly at half mast tomorrow and Friday
@echoinggreen shares a quote from Wangari Maathai:
Wangari Maathai. Image by Flickr user e pants (CC BY 2.0).
@echoinggree: “..there comes a time when…we have to shed our fear & give hope to each other. That time is now.” – Wangari Maathai #heros #bebold
Where is my signed copy of Wangari's book?:
@GeeBrunswick: I am so vain…frantically looking for my signed copy of Dr #WangariMaathai's book.
Rest in Peace Prof. Wangari Maathai:
@mbuguanjihia: Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” — Mark Twain Rest in Peace Prof Wangari Maathai.
Sad…
@waithash: #WangariMaathai Sad and worse is the fact that I never heard of her illness. @kenyangetter #cancer
Kenyans will plant trees next month in her honor:
@K24Tv: Kenyans will be planting trees at the Karura forest on Saturday Oct 1st between 10am – 5pm in honour of the late Great Prof.#WangariMaathai
It is the little things we do that will make the difference:
@OfficialKimora: “It's the little things citizens do. That's what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees.” RIP #WangariMaathai #Africa
@RobertAlai says:
@RobertAlai: Nairobi river should be cleaned in honour of Wangari Maathai.
@StateDept says:
@StateDept: #SecClinton: Wangari Maathai understood the deep connection between local and global problems, and helped give ordinary citizens a voice.
Best tribute to Wangari Maathai:
@missbwalya: Best tribute to Wangari Maathai – “She came. She battled. She won.”


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Mexico: Baja California Anti-Abortion Law Upheld by Supreme Court · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

The Mexican Supreme Court failed by one vote to overturn a Baja California law that declares that life begins at conception. Aguachile calls this “tragic news” and argues that in “In  other states, PRI and PAN local legislators will feel emboldened by the  Supreme Court decision to press similar legislation.”

author: Silvia Viñas


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Nepal: Film South Asia 2011 Starts Today · Global Voices
Rezwan

Aaakar Post reports that the eighth edition of Film Southasia, the festival of South Asian documentaries, is due to started today in the capital of Nepal. The festival will showcase 36 outstanding non-fiction films from all over South Asia.

author: Rezwan


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Pakistan: Update On Flood Relief · Global Voices
Rezwan

Teeth Maestro posts updates of some ongoing flood relief projects of SARelief in Pakistan. You can track the relief activities by following the hashtag #pkrelief on Twitter.


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Taiwan: Polyglot teaches you Taiwanese indigenous languages · Global Voices
Portnoy Zheng

Mike Campbell, a polyglot who can already speak fluent Mandarin, Hakka, Fukien-major languages used in Taiwan, along with a dozen of other languages, is now teaching people how to speak Sediq,  Truku, and other rarely spoken Taiwanese indigenous languages on Youtube that now even most indigenous people now cannot speak.

author: Portnoy Zheng


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Trinidad & Tobago: Cuban Film at T&T Film Festival  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

B.C. Pires has a couple more must-see film picks at this year's Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Venezuela: Thinking Succession Amid Rumors About Chavez’s Health · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

“Renewed rumors about Chavez's health have led to a new round of jockeying for power and influence in Caracas”: Bloggings by boz comments on “Venezuela's succession void”, an issue he also blogged about in July.


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Vietnam: Cash Transfer Programs · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Stoney Chenal reviews the experience of Vietnam in implementing Cash Transfer programs.


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Why don’t South Asians talk to each other? · Global Voices
Rezwan

South Asians consist of one fifth of the planet’s population and they have similar cultures. And yet some kind of loose confederation between South Asian countries looks like an unattainable dream. Dheera Sujan at South Asia Wired wonders why South Asians usually do not talk to each other.


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Wikileaks Cables on Laos · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Wikileaks has released a set of cables that involve Laos. Blogger Lao Bumpkin identifies the relevant topics in the uploaded files.


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Afghanistan: Donor dependence · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Nick Fielding writes that the US and other donors have provided 90 per cent of Afghanistan's public expenditures in 2006-2010. With the 2014 target date for the withdrawal of US troops, the question is how the government in Kabul would fund its security forces, who use up the lion's share of this donor income.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Bhutan: Promoting The National Language · Global Voices
Rezwan

Penstar stresses the need to simplify and promote use of the Bhutanese national language Dzongkha decreasing dominance of English language.


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Brazil: Citizens Blame Governor for Police Charge on Teachers · Global Voices
João Miguel Lima

Brazilian citizens used the hashtag #CidEspancaProfessores (Cid beats teachers) in solidarity with public school teachers who were beaten by the police on September 29. That day, a proposal of the governor Cid Gomes for changes in the career development of teachers was passed in the Legislative Assembly of Ceará. After 54 days of strike, teachers occupied the Assembly on Wednesday (28).

author: João Miguel Lima


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Cameroon: How Candidates Are Navigating the Social Media Landscape · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Dibussi looks at how candidates in Presidential Election 2011 in Cameroon are navigating the social media landscape: “President Paul: The president’s relatively recent social media presence is part of a much broader (and reportedly very expensive) PR campaign crafted by Patricia Balme, the most recent in a series of French “communications guru,” who have managed the President's image since 1992…”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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China: Obama Fried Chicken · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Obama Fried Chicken (OFC) is now opened in Beijing. (From Shanghaiist)

author: Oiwan Lam


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Colombia: Incarceration of Bogota’s Former Mayor Stirs Debate  · Global Voices
Robert Valencia

Colombian politicians have given the media much to talk about in the last couple of weeks. Aside from the uproar that Congressman Juan Manuel Corzo sparked over his “fuel subsidy,” now Samuel Moreno Rojas, the former mayor of Bogotá who was banned from running for office [es] as of May, has been sent to prison [es] while facing accusations of embellishment, fraud, and extortion after some irregularities found in contracts for the third phase of Transmilenio, Bogotá’s bus rapid transit. While his trial on corruption charges is pending, President Juan Manuel Santos appointed Claudia López Obregón as mayor-in-charge until a new major is elected in October.
Samuel Moreno. Photo from campuspartycolombia on Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Moreno clinched the country’s second most important executive office by pledging the construction of a long-awaited metro system, hence granting his former left-leaning political party, the Alternative Democratic Pole (PDA in Spanish), a second administration in a row. But the so-called contracting carousel given to the Nule Group [es] forced PDA to expel Moreno and apologize [es] to those who voted for him, stating that “sadly, the Mayor drifted away from the unity’s ideal, and he didn’t rule according to the party’s pragmatic vote and orientations.”
It is not the first time the Morenos have been involved in political scandals. The mayor’s grandfather, Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, took over the presidency in the mid-50s through the only military coup in Colombia’s modern history and whose then-political party turned out to be one of the most fearful insurgent groups, the M-19, after losing the 1970 presidential bid. Today, Moreno’s brother, Ivan, is also facing charges [es] under the contracting carousel, as well as his mother, Maria Eugenia “La Capitana” Rojas [es].
Indeed, their political stripe and current bribing scandal captivated several bloggers’ attention. La Silla Vacía [es] (The empty chair), for example, looks at the Morenos’ timeline in politics and their declining reputation:
La gran fuerza que lograron los Moreno Rojas que comenzó en la presidencia de Ernesto Samper, después de 1994, se fue cayendo poco a poco. Así como, según lo dice Alberto Donadío en su libro el ‘Uñilargo’, el general Gustavo Rojas Pinilla mantuvo su poderío gracias a la corrupción, sus nietos hoy están en la cárcel por esas mismas costumbres”.
The Economist, in one its blog, explains that the political party Moreno once belonged to needs new alternatives:
Legal left-wing parties have never had it easy in Colombia, which has been fighting a Marxist insurgency for nearly five decades…Until the Democratic Alternative Pole comes together or is replaced by a new democratic alternative party, its supporters’ views will not be sufficiently represented in Colombian politics.
Americas Quarterly says this bribery scandal has meant enormous expenses for the city:
This is the most expensive corruption scandal in the history of Bogotá. The attorney general estimates, for example, that transferring the Transmilenio contract from Transvial to Vías Bogotá, which was done under the authorization of the IDU and benefited the Nule brothers, cost the city approximately $119 million. Among other things, this has resulted in delays in expected road maintenance and other transportation improvement projects scheduled for 2009 have yet to start.\
Forsale Inmobiliaria [es], citing newspaper El Espectador, underscores that former Mayor Moreno believed such accusations are based on rumors:
Afirmó que tan sólo sabe que hay una investigación abierta y ‘esto hasta ahora está empezando’. En el mismo sentido, aseguró que el viernes en la diligencia en la Fiscalía desvirtuó con documentos, acciones y hechos lo que se ha dicho
Cheers and jeers reached their juncture on social media platforms. On Facebook, for example, there’s a group called “We Support Samuel Moreno Rojas: Our Mayor” [es], and one of its members, Gloria Cecilia Caviedes, says the following:
Sigo creyendo que SAMUEL es inocente es un montaje lo que hicieron. Los bandidos son los NULE para no devolver la plata y quedar como los buenos. elprocurador está con ellos y la fiscalia. Que intereses ahi alli [sic]
On the same network there is a page titled “To Repeal Samuel Moreno’s Administration – Join!” [es]. A post addresses that Moreno’s dual citizenship (he was born in Miami) is a two-edge sword, thus the need to keep him within Colombian borders to face the charges against him:
Como Samuel Moreno nació en Miami y tiene doble nacionalidad es mejor no dejarlo arrimar al aeropuerto.
On Twitter, El Espectador (@elespectador) shares a link that shows images of the place Moreno will be put under custody, located in a somewhat comfortable place inside the Carabineer School in Bogotá:
Aquí dormirá Samuel Moreno en condición de detenido http://bit.ly/rhYHcz
Financial newspaper Portafolio (@Portafolioco) echoes the judge’s decree that led to Moreno’s apprehension:
El juez que dictó la medida dijo que el ex alcalde de #Bogotá es “un peligro para la sociedad”. http://bit.ly/pA31gC#samuelmoreno
Juan Nicolás Riveros (@NicolasRiverosG) predicts that the PDA candidate to the Mayoralty, Gustavo Petro, could very much resemble Samuel Moreno administratively speaking:
si Samuel Moreno fue malo imaginen la alcaldia de @petrogustavo yo no quiero vivir en una ciudad que no quiere progresar, por eso voto @enriquepenalosa
Meanwhile, other users like Luis Heredia (@luishere) defend the PDA candidate by comparing Petro with Moreno:
La diferencia entre Samuel Moreno y @petrogustavo es que el segundo tiene buenas intenciones.
Humor always makes its way on Twitter, and a tweet by @bacteriaopina describes a scenario where Moreno seems to be negotiating something with the Attorney General, in reference to the contracting carousel:
Fiscalia pide carcel para Samuel Moreno y Samuel Moreno pide el 6%
And Cristian Patarroyo’s tweet (@cpatarroyo) also makes use of sarcasm:
Solo espero que Samuel Moreno no arme otro carrusel, con los caballos de la Escuela de Carabineros.
Finally, other Twitter users seem to adopt a more neutral standpoint. Paula Cantor Guzman (@paulacantorg) raises the following questions with their respective hashtags:
Pregunta a los ofendidos: Cuanto exactamente se robó Samuel Moreno? o al menos de que contratos? #samuel#objetividad

author: Robert Valencia


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Cuba: Inequitable Party  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Generation Y compares the official distribution of “rental properties, cars, businesses [and] houses” to a pinata at a children's party, saying: “What is most worrying is [that] the…existence of such a mechanism will undoubtedly feed corruption, ‘socialism,’ and put into the hands of government sympathizers the fattest strings for when it becomes necessary to pull on them in unison.”


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Cuba: The Reality of Prison  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A former political prisoner blogs about his experience with the Cuban jail system, here.


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Incredible Photos of North Korean Mass Game · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Photographer Sam Gellman took 50 photos of a large-scale Mass Games in Pyongyang during his 4-day trip to North Korea. Although nearly 100,000 North Korean were mobilized for the game which is  heavily laden with regime's propaganda, net users left good comments on Gellman who captured these incredible images.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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India: An Interview With Swechha · Global Voices
Rezwan

Meghavarshini Krishnaswamy at Youth Ki Awaaz interviews Swechha,  an NGO  based  in  Delhi, which  is  a  multifaceted  organization  working  for  environmental  conservation,  waste  management,  underprivileged  children  and  volunteer   placements.


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Kyrgyzstan: Pushing for the state language in campaign · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

murzaki writes about the Kyrgyz language test, which is a part of the presidential candidates registration in Kyrgyzstan. Some observers believe this exam may be a tool of screening away unwanted politicians, but it probably also marks the start of politicization of the state language issue.


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Laos According to WikiLeaks · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

This post is part of our special coverage WikiLeaks and the World.
WikiLeaks has released a set of Laos files that confirmed the country’s underdevelopment, endemic corruption in the bureaucracy, and the fragile state of its environment.
Andrew Walker thinks the cables “offer little insight into the upper-level workings of the Lao party-state” but there are other interesting revelations:
In recent months several cables have appeared in the Wikileaks files from the US Embassy in Vientiane. They offer little insight into the upper-level workings of the Lao party-state, as one might hope (but hardly expect). But there are other points of interest.
One cable, an assessment of Asian Development Bank’s Country Strategy and Program (2006), offers a stinging rebuke of bilateral and multilateral donors in Laos, particularly their failure to leverage reform in areas of governance. The criticisms (both of Lao governance and foreign aid) are familiar but the frankness is unusual
Luang Prabang, Laos. Photo by jmhullot used under CC License Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The frankness of the views expressed in the cables surprised Eisel Mazard:
You’ve got to hand it to the diplomatic corps for taking the rhetoric up a notch from the usual feature section of The Economist; I can’t shake the sense that these guys are frustrated authors, yearning for an audience that could appreciate this kind of vitriol.
I really wasn’t expecting the cables to be this catty; it’s almost as if the bureaucratic context encourages them to step it up, in order not to be ignored amidst the pile of such reports that comes and goes with each season.
Here is an excerpt of a cable discussing the unequal economic conditions in the country:
Although GoL(GOvernment of Laos) ministers and officials with salaries of less that 75 dollars per month sport villas and cars worthy of Monte Carlo, GDP per capita is still officially less than $400…Unemployment is epidemic, underemployment is endemic, crime is rising, and the investment climate is among the least hospitable in the world.
It's no accident that these economic ills are not addressed.  There is almost no rule of law or basic human freedom in Laos, and education is in the hands of a corrupt and ideologically hidebound ministry that uses ADB money to build a grandiose but unnecessary new ministry building while rural children sit on logs and try to remember what a teacher looked like.
But Bill, a resident of Vientiane, criticizes the “relative myopia of the cables”:
As a longtime Vientiane resident, I’m mostly struck by the relative myopia of the cables. They cover a period of intense change in the country, and they are mostly saying nothing is changing, besides some material about their own relationships with the Lao government improving. Broadly they are far more about what Washington cares about (Hmong; money laundering; who the Lao government votes for at various UN meetings; limited progress on western style democratization) than what people in this country care about.
Journalist Lao Bumpkin identifies the relevant Laos-related topics in the WikiLeaks website:
Wikileaks has released it's cache of Laos files. I haven't read any of it yet, when I do I'll add to the end of the post. So far no news of cabinet ministers having falang mia nois or other important happenings.
Let’s sample some interesting opinions and observations about Laos. This is how elections are conducted in Laos:
By-and-large, Lao citizens took the election seriously, as a matter of national pride. The public announcements broadcast from polling stations played on the patriotism theme; we overheard one announcement telling voters they were demonstrating to a skeptical world that the Lao people cherished their voting rights and were faithful to their government and the Party. Voters were expected to show their regard for the electoral process. Women who showed up to polling stations wearing slacks or “improper” dress were sent home. In spite of the guarantee of a “secret” ballot, election officials were on hand to inspect each ballot to make sure the voters took their responsibility seriously and voted correctly.
Development projects are hurting the poor:
Intent on giving an open door to some foreign investors, the government has few compunctions about trampling on its own citizens, ignoring their traditional lands and livelihoods and utter dependence on their environment for their survival.  In the near-absence of meaningful rule of law, those affected are at the mercy of sometimes venal, usually uncaring, bureaucrats administering the land use system.  As Laos’ reputation grows as an “easy” place for investors in sectors like hydropower, plantation forests and mining, more and more of Laos’ poorest citizens are likely to find themselves dispossessed of their traditional lands.
In Laos, “government officials are presumed to be corrupt unless proven otherwise”:
In general, there is no sense among Party officials that there is anything significantly wrong with corruption, though a few stalwarts still hold to the socialist ideals of their youth.
A direct consequence of decades of abuse of power is that there is no public trust; government officials are presumed to be corrupt unless proven otherwise.
Opium cultivation is on the decline but communities which once depended on poppy cultivations are starving:
From the late 1980's until 2005, Laos was the third largest producer of opium poppy in the world.  Significant poppy cultivation took place in about ten of 17 provinces, and authorities took no significant action against it, though they did tax opium until the mid 1990's.
The GOL estimates that half or more of all former poppy growers have yet to receive any significant assistance from any source to establish alternative livelihoods.  The World Food Program reports that, in a number of communities formerly dependent on poppy, serious and widespread food security issues have emerged this year…There are grounds for serious concern that farmers might be compelled  to revert to poppy cultivation or starve.
This post is part of our special coverage WikiLeaks and the World.

author: Mong Palatino


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Macedonia: Protests Against Police Brutality Continue · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

This post is part of our special coverage Macedonia Protests 2011.
Several hundred people continued the street protests against police brutality in Skopje on September 29, 2011. The Macedonian media largely obeyed the embargo on covering the protests.
The #protestiram hashtag continues to serve as the gathering “space” for Twitter users:
Protesters marching towards the Court. Photo by Shmrkot, published under Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 2.0)
Vnukot reported in English and Macedonian:
More than a month after the [last protest], street protests against police brutality in Skopje, Macedonia continued today. This time, protesters asked for the legal proceedings to be expedited [mk] in the case of the death of Martin Neshkovski, as well as the inclusion of all witnesses that stepped forward.
The protest at the end of September started at the same location – behind the Mother Theresa memorial house. Afterwards, the protesters went on to march on the streets of the capital. [A photo gallery by Shmrkot]
Unlike previous protests, this time the police forgоt that they have to stop all traffic on the streets occupied by protesters. A few close encounters occurred, but no conflict arose, due to the fact that there was no stopping for more than a few minutes at any location.
The protest moved from the Parliament to the office of the District Attorney, the Courthouse, over the Stone Bridge to Macedonia Square, the scene of the crime.
Protests against police brutality continue in Skopje, Macedonia from Dejan Velkoski on Vimeo.
Jovan Postolovski, a laid-off journalist from A1 TV, tweeted [mk]:
An “I told you so” moment, regarding the fact that only two TV channels–[Alfa] and 24Vesti–reported about yesterday's protest…
He refers to his post [mk] from June 12, at the time when protesters decided to not appear on the “anti-government” A1 TV talk show in order to avoid being labeled as pro-opposition alongside it:
There's a difference between the true reality and media reality. In the true reality you gather every day at 6 pm behind the Mother Theresa monument and protest through the streets of Skopje. You revolt against the murder and the cover-up attempt, and have been organized via social networks, without any political parties and organizations.
But this is the reality for several hundreds protesters, passersby, people who live in the streets you pass, the policemen that follow you, your families and friends that you've explained what you do, and the social media users reached by the protest calls. I cannot give percentages and numbers… the estimate might not be miniscule, but how many thousands it can reach?
And now… there's the media reality. And this reality is different with each media. If you watch some of the media, you won't know you've been protesting at all. On others, you see only short clips with politicians who visited the protests repeated over and over, and journalists claiming that the opposition organized the protests. There are media which report what you know… that several hundreds/thousands people gathered to protest against police brutality, organized via social networks.
And if the true reality reaches several hundreds people, this, the media reality is a reality for hundreds of thousands (with total potential audience of over 2 million).
If you follow the media you'll see that only a few of them relay the true reality. You are lucky that the most watched and most influential media outlet (A1) reports like this. On the other hand, you have the second (Sitel), the third (Kanal 5), and the fourth (MTV) most influential media… which create very different media reality.
If you want to achieve something with the protests, media reality is very important. If you equate all the media and refuse coverage of the protests or participation in studio shows (where you can better explain your demands) in a short while something will happen to suppress what you do, and the protests will either have very little or no coverage in the news.
[Note: Soon after Postolovski write this, the A1 stopped functioning, thanks to persistent efforts of various state institutions, from the Internal Revenue Office to the nominally independent regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications. Since July, the pro-government television stations noted above have dominated Macedonian TV-space.]
According to the Broadcasting Council's data on the registered media, 18 TV stations have national coverage and additional 59 have local or regional licenses, but as media expert and blogger Roberto Belichanec once noted:
Plurality of the media does not equal plurality of opinions.
This post is part of our special coverage Macedonia Protests 2011.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Mexico: #ReformaPoliticaYA (‘Political Reform Now’), Reactions on Twitter · Global Voices
Miguel Angel Guevara

It has been several months since citizen organizations and activist have tried to attain the approval of a political reform. This political reform mentions various points [es] including, among others, the possibility for citizens to present initiatives directly to the Congress, a preference initiative for the leader of the Executive Power and reelection for mayors and legislators.
The issue that has attracted the most attention from this reform is reelection. Reelection in Mexico was blocked in the 1917 constitution because of the negative precedent left by the government of Porfirio Díaz. The reform is seen by many as a positive step forward in the long maturity process Mexican democracy has experienced since the shift of party power in 2000.
Representative Dina Herrera (PRD) during the vote, with congressmen from PRI. #ReformaPoliticaYA. Image from @albertoserdan on Twitpic, used with permission
In April [es] of this year, the Mexican Senate approved the reform, sending it to the lower chamber for ratification. Due to the end of the normal session period, the reform couldn't be approved in the past months. Yesterday, the discussion was reopened at the commission of constitutional matters.
The issue of reelection is very controversial, since a fraction of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is opposed to it, thus sparking a wave of outrage among reform supporters.
Hector Saúl Tellez (@hector_saul1) expressed his frustration with the PRI's fraction:
A q le teme el PRI?? Porque detienen las Reformas? #ReformaPoliticaYA
Fernando Pineda M. (@elpilguanejo) called his congresswoman to vote in favor of the legislative reelection:
Diputada @adelarobles , recuerde que usted representa a los ciudadanos y no a su partido. #ReformaPoliticaYA con reelección
The voting on the subject of reelection ended up tied on the first round because representative Dina Herrera (from the Party of the Democratic Revolution) changed her mind after asking, “what are we voting for?”, as Leunam LC (@leunamlc) said:
Chale, la diputada Dina (PRD) vota y después pregunta qué se está votando? #ReformaPolíticaYA
The first round of votes resulted on a tie with 14 votes for and 14 votes against, so it had to start again. This time Representative Dina Herrera voted with an abstention, therefore the reelection was buried with 14 votes against and 13 in favor.
According to Foundation Mexico SOS (@MexicoSOS) the congresswoman was influenced by a congressman from PRI:
Diputada Dina Herrera del PRD había votado a favor, luego fue coaccionada por dip. Martel (PRI) y anuló su voto #ReformaPolíticaYA
For Javier A. Santoyo F. (@JavierSantoyo) the PRI's attitude is halting democracy:
Hoy se vio para que quiere usar su mayoría el PRI + PVEM, simplemente para frenar la democracia y rendición de cuentas #ReformaPoliticaYA
The debate was described by some as a “show”; it got to the point where the PRI asked citizens to leave the debate, as Juan Pablo Espinosa (@JuanPabloEMT) explained:
En plena comisión el PRI pidió que nos fueramos que ” por que andabamos robando camara y armando espectáculo ” #ReformapoliticaYA
JC (@zedzenka) showed his frustration with the reform obstruction:
#ReformaPoliticaYA !!! Porque, el #PRI, obstaculiza las reformas? Es el nuevo #PRI?
YONOFUI (@YONOFUI) One of the citizen leaders of the reform, who camped in front of the Senate last summer, said:
#Uuuuuffff!!! Que día! Como dijimos esta es el inicio de lo más fuerte de #ReformaPoliticaYA
The discussion is only starting and we will have to wait to see the politicians’ reactions to the indignation shown on the social networks.

author: Miguel Angel Guevara


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Pakistan: The Relation With The US And Its Importance · Global Voices
Rezwan

Chowrangi discusses the recent stand-off between USA and Pakistan and its implication on the war on terror.


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Sri Lanka: Visa On Arrival Cancelled · Global Voices
Rezwan

Sri Lanka has cancelled issuing visas on arrival to 76 countries and visitors from those countries will have to get prior Visa approval through an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) system. The Puppeteer analyzes whether it will effect the tourism industry in Sri Lanka.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Expenditure & Accountability  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Discussion is revolving around the country’s earnings from our energy resources and the likely size of the next year’s budget, expected to be delivered in early October”: Afra Raymond warns that “without proper control over expenditure, we will continue to lurch from crisis to crisis.”


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Turkmenistan: Spoken and unspoken lyrics of Turkmen literature  · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Tomyris reports on the fifth annual book fair hosted in Ashgabat this month, and notes that while literature in Turkmenistan is being celebrated, it continues to be suppressed and dominated by propaganda.


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United States: Increase in Poverty Rate Amongst Hispanics · Global Voices
Robert Valencia

The American economy is at a standstill and seems stuck on that plateau. The unmovable unemployment rate has been added to the poverty rate that affects more than 46 million people, 15.1 percent of the population, according to the latest Census figures. Experts confirm that this is the highest rate since 1993.
The numbers reveal a panorama that isn't very encouraging. The average domestic increase suffered a drop of 2.3 percent since 2009. The number of people without medical insurance coverage is about 50 million people, and the number of people older than 16 who haven't worked at least one week, increased from 83.3 million in 2009 to 86.7 million last year.
Homeless in San Francisco, USA. Image by Son of Groucho (CC BY 2.0).
Unfortunately, the minorities, Hispanics in particular, aren't excluded from the spectre of poverty. The average suffered a sharp decrease of 2.3 percent, from US$38,667 to US$37 ,759 in 2009, which indicates that this group still hasn't recuperated from the figures from 1999 prior to the drop in 2001. To put the severity of this issue in perspective, poverty in the United States also exceeds that of other countries in Latin America like Argentina (8.1 percent), Chile (9.8 percent), Uruguay (6.3 percent), and is getting closer to that of Brazil (19.3 percent), according to a report from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
USA español [es], a blog by Cristina F. Pereda, cites the disheartening figures that avoided the advancement of Hispanics:
Mientras que la renta per cápita se redujo en 1.2 por ciento para el conjunto de la población, en el caso de los hispanos descendió un 3.5 por ciento entre 2008 y 2009. También empeoró el nivel de ingresos de las familias, que se redujo casi un 8 por ciento, sólo por detrás de las afroamericanas (con un 11.8 por ciento) y en comparación con niveles del año 2000.
The blog GB Latino TV [es] included a video report from an Argentine reporter in which the presenter is shocked by the level of poverty in the United States. He gives a short summary with respect to this:
El 15,2% de los estadounidenses vive en la pobreza, lo que se traduce en más de 46 millones de habitantes. Su nivel más alto desde 1993, informó la oficina de censos de ese país.
InmigranteTV [es], besides offering the same census results of Hispanic families, outlines that the recent patterns in the economy have been overshadowed by the Obama administration:
Esta es otra situación muy negativa, sobre todo cuando el presidente acaba de presentar un plan de empleo con el cual se espera darle un estímulo a la economía.
Twitter users didn't expect the results of this Census. PV Marketing (@pvmkt) [es] shares a video:
Video que habla de que uno de cada cuatro #hispanos en EU, son pobres. http://goo.gl/bKMkX
Meredith Dodson (@dodsonadvocate) [es] isn't so surprised by these halting statistics:
Alarmante, pero no del todo :( RT @alexcawthornedc: tasas de pobreza para negros e hispanos (>27%) más de 2 veces q los blancos #povertydata#Census
Carmen Ortiz-McGhee (@ortizmcghee) [es] is astounded by the state of poverty among Hispanic children:
Hispanos=37 por ciento de los niños en pobreza según un nuevo reporte del censo…espeluznante!
Alex Guerrero (@Vzla22 ) [es] says it all in the first word of his tweet:
Inaceptable: 15% de estadounidenses viven en pobreza. Entre los latinos el % es 26.1% = 1 de cada 4 >> http://1.usa.gov/pCOqCe#latism
In conclusion, for Eileen C. Rivera (@eileencrivera) [es] the results of the census are another bad precedent for minorities in the the country:
Más malas noticias del reporte del Censo: tasa de pobreza para hispanos se disparó al 26.6 por ciento, para los negros aumentó a un 27.4 por ciento. http://wapo.st/nF4sMS


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Uzbekistan: Activists detained for photographing child labor · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Tomyris reports that two members of an unregistered Uzbekistan’s Human Rights Society were detained by the authorities for photographing schoolchildren picking cotton in the country's southern province.


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Uzbekistan: Exiled opposition member murdered · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Avicenna reports that one of the most active members of the Uzbek opposition in exile Fuad Rustamkhojaev was assasinated in Ivanovo, a Western Russian town where he lived for the last 6 years. The victim's colleagues are outraged by the brutality, blaming the political regime in Uzbekistan for the murder.


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Uzbekistan: Violations of religious freedom · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Mansurhon reviews the speech by Uzbekistan's expert and rights activist regarding violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief in this country. The speech, delivered at the Annual OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meetng, warns that these violations represent a serious risk to Uzbekistan’s future.