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Madagascar: Living abroad changes a man · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

In an article published in March, economists William Easterly and Yaw Nyarko noted that in Sub-Saharan Africa, remittances (money sent by immigrants abroad back to their home countries) on average amounted to 81 percent of the foreign aid received by an individual country.
The role of the diaspora in the development of Madagascar has been discussed previously in the Malagasy blogosphere. Bloggers recently discussed the impact of living abroad on the behavior of Malagasies and how it alters their relationships with their friends and relatives back home.
News2dago narrates how a close friendship with an old friend from school slowly vanished because that friend left for France:
“Nisy ranamana izay niray dabilio tamiko ary tena akama be mihitsy izy io tany @ taona 1992 tany ho any izahay no nihaona farany rehefa azo moa ny Bacc dia nanam-bitana ranamana ka lasa tany frantsa nanohy ny fianarany. Ny tena moa dia teto @ tanana ihany safidy moa io tsy misy omena tsiny mihitsy. Nivadika teny ihany ny volana sy ny taona tsy dia henoheno intsony ranamana taty aorina fa misy inona ary olona sendra nahalala azy no niteny tamiko oe nanam-bady izy! Ny tena moa manoratra email ihany fa tsy misy valiny intsony e!”
I had a good friend throughout high school. He was my benchmate. I last saw in 1992 after we both received the baccalaureat ( high school diploma), my friend got lucky and pursued his college studies in France. I chose to stay back home, a personal decision, no one to blame here. Years went by and news from my friend, initially frequently received, gradually faded away. One day I learned from a common acquaintance that he actually got married. I kept sending him emails but to no avail.
News2dago adds that he too had a chance to go to France in 2005 but after careful consideration, decided to stay at home. He cites a few reasons: the camaraderie seems lost among Malagasy people once in France, everyone for himself, no bonding over playing cards, plus he used the money to move abroad to create his own current project. “This is better than having to deal with those guys abroad with their fancy diplomas.”
He adds:
“Ny namana taloha ary ity toa mody fanina izany satria niantso azy efa in-3 aho t@ izany fotoana izany dia noraisiny t@ voalohany nandeha ny resaka ary natsidiko ny teny hoe “hibôsy kely any @ lisany any lesy aho raha sitram-po ny Tompo a”, “hay ve hoy ranamana”, “miantso anla ihany aho rehefa tena tapa-kevitra e”. Nanomboka teo dia lasa messagerie vocal foana ny finday-n'ilay ranamana”
I called him once to chat a bit and reminisce. I told him that god's willing, I might go there for work and be one of you guys. “Oh really ?” he replied then. Since I said those words, whenever I call him, I always get his voicemail.
In a related story, news2dago said that his niece came back to Madagascar from France to get married with a fellow Malagasy she met there. They had th whole wedding planned to the T, even bringing a professional photographer from France. They asked to use his internet connection to plan their holidays to Mahajanga after the wedding. Yet they did not deem necessary to say goodbye when they left the country back to France. Living abroad really does change a man.
Reacting to the story, Ravatorano believes that feigning indifference or ignoring former friends is not limited to compatriots abroad. However, he believes it is a minimum to respect people who helped you out. Simp quipped: ” Forgive them for they are only human… good deeds are the seeds of good fortune and bad deeds are like karmic Damocles sword.”
lehilahytsyresy gives a possible explanation for forsaking real friendship for utilitarian friendship (mg):
“Rehefa voaporitra mafy ao anaty fiaraha-monina gejain'ny concurrence ady-saritaka isan'andro isan’ andro izy, dia normal raha toa ka raiki-tapisaka ao an-tsainy koa izay fomba fisainana “namana-raha-misy-patsa” izay, mba hahafahany mi-survivre. Rehefa avy eo koa anefa, dia tsy afaka intsony ilay toetra ka na dia ny havana koa aza, dia lasa anaovana “havako-raha-misy-patsa”.
“When Malagasy abroad are squeezed by the reality of life abroad, rugged competition and everyday life stress, it's normal that the “friendship if rich” attitude prevails, it's necessary for survival. However, that behavior becomes ingrained into them so even with relatives, it eventually becomes “related if loaded”.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Malaysian blogger arrested again · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Hard-hitting Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin was arrested again by police for allegedly violating Malaysia's Internal Security Act. Another journalist was arrested too.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Mong Palatino


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Morocco: Mohammed Erraji Provisionally Released · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Today, Moroccans rejoiced at the news that Mohammed Erraji, the blogger who was arrested and quickly jailed, has been let out on bail.  But the rejoicing was short-lived, as bloggers discuss a system mired in its ways and Erraji's upcoming retrial.
A Moroccan About the World Around Him explains how Erraji was freed and why the Moroccan judicial system refuses change:
Why such an underhanded intervention? considering the international response to the convulsive judgment Erraji was victim of, the stealthy intervention seeks to depict the Moroccan justice as a functional system, the Moroccan governance as democratic and stable; these characteristics are a catnip to foreign investors. Domestically, such an intervention will avert a greater erosion of confidence in the justice system.
But why did such a travesty happen in the first place? Are the officials who orchestrated it so blatantly incompetent? They are not. Is the judge who sent Erraji to rot in jail so ignorant of judicial procedures? He is not. They are simply following a deeply ingrained political and social tradition in Morocco: ingratiating themselves with the Palace hoping for a “GRIMA.”
Myrtus explains the story, but is remiss that Erraji must still stand trial:
Agadir's Court of Appeals has decided today to grant freedom to blogger Mohamed Erraji, who was sentenced to two years in prison just a few days ago.  The court based its decision on the fact that the prosecution did not comply with certain provisions with regards to the press code.
However, Mohammed Erraji is not completely out of the woods yet.  He's scheduled to appear in court again on September 16th.
Blogger Ibn Kafka explains the law surrounding Erraji's case in this post [fr] and has called for a blog strike on Monday in support of Erraji.  My own blog contains an English translation of his message.

author: Jillian C. York


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Mozambique: Political crisis in central city of Beira · Global Voices
Egidio Vaz

This open letter comes after the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) leadership in the central Mozambican city of Beira announced on August 28 that Davis Simango, mayor of the city of Beira, would not run for his second term office for the local elections taking place on November 19, 2009.
As an immediate response to the announcement, angry Renamo and Simango supporters took control of the party’s delegation in protest against president Afonso Dhlakama’s decision of substituting Simango by Manuel Pereira. The decision sparked off two days of demonstrations in Beira, as Simango's supporters came onto the streets and demanded that the decision be reversed.
On the following Friday night, police used tear gas and rubber bullets against a crowd that had gathered in front of the Renamo offices in the neighbourhood of Munhava. During the scuffles, a reporter from the Beira daily paper “Diario de Mocambique”, Antonio Chimundo, was physically attacked by Renamo members who accused him of working for the ruling Frelimo Party.
Many analysts including some Renamo parliamentarians condemn Dhlakama’s decision and praise Davis Simango for his decision to run as an independent candidate. The original version of the letter below is available on my blog in Portuguese.
Excelência, não iria deixar passar a oportunidade de expor as minhas impressões acerca da sua pessoa como líder de um partido que outrora já foi grande. Quero também prometê-lo que no próximo ano não o irei esquecer.
Sir, I would not let go the opportunity to expose my views about you as leader of a party that once was great.  I also want to promise that I will not forget you next year during the general elections.
Sim, não o irei esquecer quando me lembrar de tanta gente que assassintou políticamente. O Magazine Independente avançou uma lista bem curta de alguns dos seus ex-colegas que consigo militaram na Renamo, mas que por sua vontade foram expulsos sob alegações da “bases”.
Yes, I will not forget when I remember so many people that you politically assassinated.  The Independent Magazine published a short list of some of your former colleagues that fought together with you in Renamo. But by your decision, were expelled claiming the will of the “bases” (party members and supporters).
Para já, importa dizer que V. Excelência não age e nunca agiu de acordo a vontade das bases, à semelhança da Guerra que orgulhosamente diz ter dirigido.
O Sr. Dhlakama assassinou políticamente gente com maiores capacidades de liderar organizações políticas que o senhor; gente que, pela sua bagagem acadêmica, tacto diplomático e inteligência, levavam bem alto o nome da Renamo durante os tempos de guerra civil, das negociações de paz, da reconciliação nacional e durante os debates da Assembleia da República. Hoje, pessoas com esse perfil podem se contar aos dedos das mãos!
Hoje em dia, V.Excelência, políticamente já não passa de um nado morto. Moçambique deve ser dos poucos países do Mundo onde “cadáveres políticos” coexistem lado-a-lado com os vivos, sem causar tanto arrepio para os últimos.
Sim, não me vou esquecer de si, depois de assumir três derrortas pesadas em três eleições presidenciais; não me vou esquecere de si, cansado que estou em ouvir as suas mentiras e ditos sem consequência.
V. Excelência deve ser dos políticos que mais mente neste país; e dos políticos que mais fala sem ter em conta as consequências: anunciou que não iria tomar parte do Conselho de Estado após as eleições de 2004. Mas agora têmo-lo bem sentado, se bem que de lá não ouvimos nenhuma contribuição que fosse da sua autoria, muito menos um barulhosito; não quis reconhecer o resultado das eleições de 1999, mas acabou reconhecendo; fala que é democrata, mas sabemos todos nós como tentou massacrar Devis Simango…mais palavras para quê?
V. Excelência não é digno de se igualar a uma perdiz, mas sim à uma galinha poedeira que não se cansa em partir ovos que ela própria põe. Na minha terra, galinhas desse tipo são lhes queimados os bicos sendo o tamanho destes inversamente proporcional à quantidade de ovos que andam a partir.
For now, it’s important to stress that Mr. Renamo President do not act and has never acted accordingly to the will of the bases; the same you did in relation to the grinding war that you proudly claim to have commanded.
Mr. Dhlakama, you politically murdered people with higher capabilities of leading political organizations than you, people who, by their academic baggage, diplomatic tact and intelligence, raised higher the name of Renamo during the times of civil war, of peace negotiations, national reconciliation and during the debates of the Assembly of the Republic.  Today, people like those are as fewer as ever in the whole history of Renamo!
Sir, nowadays, you are politically a mere a dead body.  Mozambique should be one of the few countries in the world where “political corpses” coexist side by side with the living, without causing shiver to the latest.
Yes, I will not forget you, after consenting three smashing defeats in three presidential elections; I will not forget you, tired I am in listening to your lies without consequence.
Dear Mr. Renamo President, you should be of the politicians who most lie in this country, and politicians who more say without taking into account the consequences: you announced that you would not take part of the State Council after the 2004 elections.  But now there you are very well seated, quiet and mutt; you did not want to recognize the outcomes of the 1999 elections, but you recognized; you claim to be a democrat, but we all know the way you tried to massacre Devis Simango … more words for what?
Mr. Renamo President, you are not worthy to equal yourself to a partridge, but the lying hen who never tires to crack eggs that she lays.  In my land, such hens have their beaks burned up, being the size of their beaks inversely proportional to the amount of eggs that they crack.
Como dizia Salomão Moyana, V. Excelência é dos poucos infiltrados da Renamo que teima em ficar apesar de já ter sido descoberto. E sinceramente, aguardo novas de si quando em 2009 perder esmagadoramente a favor de Armando Guebuza. O melhor que deve fazer é ficar calado até essas eleições. Depois de perder, convoque o Congresso para anunciar de novo a sua candidatura para 2014! Nesta altura, os seuscolaboradores directos virão de Maríngoe (homens armados) para Maputo. Porque os que agora o ajudam serão por si ainda este ano ou princíupios do próximo explusos, quando começar a decidir quem vai a Assembleia da República e quem fica de fora.
Ainda bem que a Beira já não conta consigo. Continue a ganhar sem trabalhar. Porque ser da oposição significa para si sentar-se à sua sombra e lançar achas de ciúmes à quem está disposto a fazer diferente em prol do povo. Bem haja S. Excelência. Mas tenha em mente que em 2014, pessoas como as que actualmente ainda acreditam em si irão rarear.
As Salomão Moyana said, You, Mr. Renamo President, are of the few infiltrated in Renamo who, despite having been discovered, insist in staying.  And frankly, I await from further news in 2009 after your overwhelming defeat in favour of Armando Guebuza.  The best you should do for now is to remain silent until those elections.  After losing, call for a Convention to announce your candidacy for the 2014 presidential elections! Then, your direct collaborators will come from Maringue (Dhlakama´s residual armed men). Because those who are presently supporting you will be shortly expelled by yourself during this year or beginning of next, when you start to decide who is going to represent you in the Parliament.
Great to know that Beira City does no longer support you. Carry on earning your wages without working.  Because, doing opposition is for you sitting at your shadow and instigating envy against those you think ready to serve people.  Long live Mr. President!  But keep in mind that in 2014, people like those currently supporting you will scarce.

author: Egidio Vaz


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Philippines: Electoral fraud · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Cheating is possible even in an automated election system, Morofilm writes.


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Russia: Getting the Message Through · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Kosmopolit comments on the difficulties for Russian leaders to get their message through internationally, when their political language does not come across to their audience.

author: Vilhelm Konnander


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Russia: South Park Extremism · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sean's Russia Blog reports: “The Russian Extremism Law has found a new target: South Park.”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: Ukrainian NGOs Exporting Orange Ideas? · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Osteuropablog discusses [GER] an article on Rosbalt.Ru about a perceived threat of Ukrainian NGOs in southern Russia bringing an Orange Revolution to the country.


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Russia: Western Response · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Robert Amsterdam writes that “the Western response to [the Russian-Georgian conflict] should be mercantile and specific. The West should attack the visas, bank accounts and financial transactions of those involved in the planning of this invasion, as well as those who intend to invest in these occupied territories.”


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Saudi Arabia: Women and their drivers · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

“In Saudi Arabia you can tell a lot about a woman by her relationship with her driver. Yes I call it a relationship. Because, unlike anywhere in the world, drivers are a necessity and not a luxury that is used on a whim.” Read a description of the different relationships at Saudiwoman's weblog.

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Showbiz candidates in Indonesia · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The 2009 Indonesian elections get more interesting (or disappointing?) as entertainment celebrities have been tapped to run for elective posts.


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Singapore: New rule for cigarettes · Global Voices
Angilee Shah

Singapore Customs announced yesterday that they are taking extra strides against illegal cigarette smoking. Beginning Jan. 1, 2009, in addition to the graphic warning labels that already line the shelves of 7-11s, every cigarette in Singapore will need to be marked with the letters SDPC (which stands for Singapore Duty-Paid Cigarette). Bloggers – smokers and nonsmokers – react.
The Singapore Customs image (left) of what these marked cigarettes will look like is showing up on many blogs.
Tong’s Blog does the math:
This means that if anyone, ANYONE that is found in any corners of singapore buy,sell or smoke unpaid taxes cigarettes will be FINED $500. This is for first time offender.
For two or more, once you are charge on court and it's successful you will be fined 20 times.
$500×20= $10000
Carrot Asylum does more math:
I pay S$11.60 for a pack of Dunhill Frost in Singapore and MYR$6 (S$3 approx) in Malaysia, if I remember correctly.
I'm sure Malaysia would have also imposed a duty on the cigs and MYR$6 is definitely not the cost price. It has to be a lot cheaper. For the sake of argument, let's just say that the cost price of a pack is S$2 and the retailer marked each pack up by $1. That means S$8.60 are duty fees.
Memoirs of Bra (a Singapore blog who responds to the Interests section of his Blogger profile with, “As in real interest? Smoking.”) offers tips to the counterfeiters who give Singaporeans a cheaper alternative to hefty duties on cigarettes:
Contraband suppliers pls take note.
The words are 3mm in length.
Font is Arial. Remember to Caps Lock.
Pls manufacture accordingly.
James Soh of Living in Singapore Today takes the health-conscious perspective:
Well, if you happened to be a smoker, better clear your stock now and make sure those packs you buy from 1st January 2009 has the “SDPC” stamp.
Or better still, why not take this chance to quit smoking. It’s expansive, hurts your health and others around you and you need to follow a whole list of rules just to light up a stick anyway. So think about it, quitting smoking is not that difficult if you really want to do it.

author: Angilee Shah


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Thailand: Samak out, but protests continue · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Thailand's Prime Minister was ordered by the court to step down for violating the constitution. But Bangkok protesters vow to continue with their campaign until political reforms are instituted.


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The Middle East Remembers 9/11  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Today marks the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the US, a pivotal day in history and a day which brought about so much heartbreak and destruction not only in the US but around the world. Bloggers from the Middle East reflect on the disaster.
Jordanian Hareega wishes it never happened:
I wish it never happened. It could and should have been prevented.
You may ask, how come I'm still remembering this event even though most Americans (82% on today's CNN poll) are not doing anything significant to mark it?
I don't believe in conspiracy theories. I do believe that it was those 19 low-life men that flew those planes into the towers and into the Pentagon, and doubt that the US government had an active role in bombing the towers or shooting the planes. I am buying all of this.
But what infuriates him the most is what happened on September 12:
I'm just not buying anything from 9/12 afterwards.
I can't buy how the CIA could not have prevented this attack, or why wasn't anyone fired from the administration for not preventing them. Why wasn't anyone from the government held responsible in a country where it's “rumored” that every adult is responsible for his or her own mistakes?
How come all the warnings before the attacks were ignored, and different key figures in the government gave contradictory testimonies without being forced to say the truth?
How does the US expect the world to take it as an example for democracy when the very democracy brought criminals like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice into office, and the same democracy failed miserably to make them pay for the lies that wasted the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and shattered the whole country of Iraq.
His anger continues:
There are several reasons for me to wish 9/11 never happened. It's the 3000 victims, and those who were murdered in retaliation. None of them should have died, and those responsible for their deaths were not held accountable and will never be held accountable in a country that claims to be the leader of the democratic world. They just proved that all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets, and that the first victim when war comes is truth.
Fellow Jordanian Qwaider, at Memories Documented, takes a trip back in time. The blogger, who lives in the US, was vacationing in Jordan at the time:
I remember exactly what I was doing, who I was with, and how we all reacted, that warm September afternoon 7 years ago, as someone rushed into the room to say, you won't believe what's on CNN!
Qwaider adds:
Then followed the difficult times, the “random” screenings at the airports, the profiling, the visits by the FBI, the wiretapping, the no-liquids-or-gels on flights, the you-can't-argue-with-stewardess-or-you'll-end-up-in-Guantanamo-bay. Everything
That day, was the day when many civil liberties died… Many people continue to suffer it's aftermath, and chances are, the world will never be the same way again.
I will never forget that day …
Still in Jordan, Kinziblogs also remembers the day clearly:
I stood frozen with my dishtowel clutched to my chest as I understood that someone had actually planned to fly two planes into two office buildings, plotted to destroy the lives of whoever got in the way. Our guest immediately said: “This  was Osama Bin Laden’s work”. I had no idea who he was. His almost-fiance said: “Please God, don’t let it be Arabs who did this, the world hates us enough already”.
And MommaBean remembers Ramzi Doany, a Christian Palestinian who was killed on the day:
I didn't know Ramzi personally. But, as I'm sure you all know, Amman is a VERY small town. It's so small that when the World Trade Center was destroyed on September 11, 2001, one of our own was lost. Ramzi was not only from Jordan, he was not only Palestinian, he was not only Christian, he was a member of our family. Although we weren't related (even by marriage), we were related by faith, by worship, by practice. Ramzi was one of those American myths, the forgotten, the glossed over: the Palestinian Christian…
And when those planes went down, I listened to little-thinking colleagues talk about “those Palestinians” who were rejoicing. I explained that “those Palestinians” were mourning one of their sons. You would be foolish to think that out of nearly 3000 people, a Palestinian wasn't killed.
From Israel, Aussie Dave writes a few observations on the anniversary. Among them are:
* Seven years on, and people still don’t get what this war is about. Heck, most people still don’t get that we are in a war at all.
* Al Jazeera (predictably) reports a poll which suggests that more than 50 per cent of people “reject the official belief that the attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, were carried out by al-Qaeda.” Of particular interest:
Of the countries surveyed, Egypt and Jordan had the highest percentages of people who believed Israel was behind the attack, polling 43 and 31 per cent respectively.
Palestinian Haitham Sabbah links to a WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 17 nations, where the majority in only nine countries points the finger to Al Qaeda as being behind the attacks. Jordan's The Black Iris also reflects on the polls, describing the day as what “eventually paved the way for a great deal of horrific days outside the US.”
On Lebanese blog The Ouwet Front, which reflects the personal views and opinions of the Lebanese Forces members, N10452 writes:
May all those who died in this terrorist attack rest in peace.
7 years from that date, terrorism is still spreading and more victims are dying everyday.
USA has failed to assimilate the terrorist threat unfortunatelly, but my hopes are that the World is fully aware of this prominent threat and will act accordingly in the years to come.
September 11 marks another anniversary for Iraqi Ladybird:
Today 11 September 2008 is exactly the day 2000 since the U.S. occupied Iraq under the name “liberating Iraq”. Thanks to Al-Akhbar article as a reminder of achievements of this “liberation”:
In 2000 days, about 1 million Iraqis killed and 4 million displaced which is the biggest exodus largest since the Palestinian refugee crisis in 1948. As for the American side there are 4155 dead soldiers and 30324 injured, add to this 176 dead Brits and 138 dead from other nationalities.
The costs of the occupation exceeded 1 trillion dollar, most of it is paid by the American taxpayer.
For Israeli Yael, the world has changed since September 11 in “unimaginable ways.” She adds:
It changed far beyond the huge hole left in the Manhattan skyline, the tall and magnificent buildings stretching skyward with their lights that used to fill my view as I sipped coffee on my couch and wondered about the lives of those working so late and providing me, by their office lights, almost a magical experience every evening of every day. Those buildings, lights, and lives disappeared seven years ago today but a lot more disappeared with them.
The change went beyond Manhattan, and it went beyond the U.S., and it went beyond the wars that destructive, senseless, inconceivable act sparked in Afghanistan and in Iraq. The entire world changed. While the world and the people of Manhattan and Washington have returned to their everyday lives, their daily routines, a banal normality, it is a new normality that we all live with. The world not only seems a far less safe place but is in fact less safe.
Yael continues:
September 11, 2001 ushered in a worldwide intifada. Since that day, terrorist plots have been fostered and foiled in nearly every Western country –including countries that before have seen no acts of terrorism directed against their lands, such as Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark — and some of those terrorist plots have succeeded. It has heightened the acts of terror in those countries that are far too familiar with terrorism such as in India, Indonesia, Spain and across the Middle East.
One Jerusalem agrees that the world has indeed changed from that day, and poses the following questions:
What would the world be like if there was no 9/11? Would America still go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq? Would George W. Bush still be elected for a second term? Would the Georgian conflict and the possible emergence of a second Cold War still be happening?
Jordanian blogger Ali too has a question:
Today is the sad 7th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it is not really an anniversary but remembering the 3000 innocent lives lost in that day. It should be a time for all to remember the dead in a day that realy have changed America and the whole world. What have the American government really accomplished so far, is America safer now?
He also compiles a list of how the world was pre and after 9/11.
And for Teachthemasses's School Days another conspiracy theory is in the making:
A fire has broken out on a train going through the Channel Tunnel today on the anniversary of 911.
Coincidence?

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Trinidad & Tobago, U.S.A.: Sexual Politics · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Her winning smile and girl next door looks serv(e) to convince me that she could possibly be the scariest woman to be seen in western politics since Margaret Thatcher.  But what I don’t appreciate is the fact that the American media did what can only be interpreted as an honour killing of Bristol Palin just because her mother won’t let her decide what she can and can’t do with her uterus”: Trinidadian blogger Attillah Springer blogs about sexual politics.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Trinidad & Tobago: What’s Wrong  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As a Trinidadian man dies after his car was firebombed, Coffeewallah blogs about the many things that are bothering her about her country.


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U.S.: Obama and McCain on Russia · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sean's Russia Blog notes that Barack Obama and John McCain “are basically saying the same thing” about Russia in their speeches: “Both are rather bland statements that are more to say that they know Russia exists rather than how to deal with it.”


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Bolivia: Government Declares Martial Law in Pando · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Bolivia continues to face social unrest, as anti-government crowds occupied government institutions in the city of Santa Cruz, and other clashes with pro-government supporters in the regions of Pando left 15 dead.  As a result, the government declared martial law in that department.
President Evo Morales has even called for the expulsion of U.S. Ambassador Phillip Goldberg, accusing him of conspiring with the opposition. Consequently, the U.S. government has also asked for the expulsion of the Bolivian ambassador in Washington, Gustavo Guzman. Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, in a sign of solidarity, also asked for the expulsion of the U.S. ambassador in that country [es].
Many bloggers are writing about the events, and many others are capturing dramatic photos and videos.  On his Flickr account,  Julio Ricardo Zuna Cossio provides first hand photos of the occupation of the institutions in Santa Cruz.  Fernando of Vecino Barrio [es] also has firsthand photos of the destruction suffered by the public buildings.
Through rumors and stories, it is often difficult to find out the real story happening in each city.  Renzo Colanzi writes in first-person format recounting his experiences during the tense and uncertain times in Santa Cruz [es].  In addition, to receiving SMS messages of possible confrontation and stories of arrest:
A la una de la mañana fui llamado por un primo que me indico que se dirigía a la Plaza 24 de Septiembre debido a que le habían dicho que un grupo de masistas venia enfrentarse. Como vivo a pocas cuadras me dirigí a la Plaza, pero no ocurria nada en el lugar.  (…) En la Plaza ya se sabía de esta camioneta y que también había una vagoneta Land Cruiser, que estaba realizando el mismo acto con cualquier grupo de jóvenes que era encontrado por las calles del centro.
At one in the morning, I was called by my cousin who told me he was going to the Plaza 24 de Septiembre because they told him a group of MAS (the government's party) supporters came for confrontation.  As I lived a few blocks away, I went to the Plaza, but nothing happened there.  (…) In the Plaza, there was knowledge of this truck (that had stopped people) and that there was also a Land Cruiser that was doing the same thing with any group of young people that were found in the center of the city.
This uncertainty is affecting especially hard those that have not participated in marches, protests or confrontations.  Karen Heredia of Santa Cruz writes about precautionary measures being taken by many families [es]:
Me toco ir luego en la tarde al mercado, ahí veía a la gente comprar como si mañana no hubiera tal. Creo que hasta ayer, todo me parecía surreal hasta que escuche la charla de dos señoras, mientras la casera les vendía comida en lata. Ellas contaban como cada una de ellas se preparaban para lo peor, en este caso una guerra Civil. Argumentos a favor, argumentos en contra…
Lo que dijo una de ellas termino la discusión de quien tenia la culpa:
“Bueno, sea como sea, quien tenga la culpa, lo cierto es que no hay gas, no hay plata para comprar mas comida, gasolina ni diésel y ahora todos los días estamos con la pena de que nos maten, no se puede vivir así”
It was my turn to go to the market, and there I saw people buying goods as if there were no tomorrow.  I think until yestereday, everything seemed surreal until I heard two women talking, while the vendor sold them canned food.  They were talking about how they were preparing for the worst case scenario, in this case Civil War.  Arguments for, arguments against…
They ended the conversation with who was at fault:
“Whoever is at fault, what is certain is that there is no gas, no money to buy more food, gasoline or diesel, and now everyone is afraid that they will kill us, we can't live like this.”
The major points of disagreement between the central government and the departments of Pando, Beni, Santa Cruz and Tarija are the revenues from the hydrocarbons (IDH for its initials in Spanish), which has been decreased and channeled into another government program for a pension for the elderly, as well as the Constitutional draft that the government wants to put to a nationwide referendum.  The governors of these departments want for the autonomic statues that were passed in a controversial referendum to be included in this Constitution.
The armed forces remain to be a major factor in resolving this crisis. Miguel Centellas of Pronto* writes:
Another question has to do w/ the military. So far, the military has essentially sat this out, despite direct mob attacks on military installations (which left more than a few conscripts & junior officers injured). Instead, the confrontations have mostly involved civilian groups like the UJC (pro-autonomy) & pro-MAS groups. Will the military eventually help restore order or guarantee political dialogue? Can Evo count on the military to back his government? So far the military has made clear that it doesn’t want to use lethal force w/o express written orders from the president (they don’t want to be held responsible for the resulting casualties).
However, a recent communication from the Armed Forces has hinted at an operation to retake the occupied buildings, according to a reprint in Al Minuto [es].
Mario Durán contributed to this story with the submission of links.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Brazil: Justice aims at Twitter and hits innocent bloggers · Global Voices
Débora Medeiros

Brazilian bloggers Raquel Camargo, Fernando Souza and Gabi Zago [all in Portuguese] had quite a surprise last Tuesday September 9, when Twitter Brasil [Pt], the blog they feed with news about the social network Twitter.com, was taken offline after a court decision.
Raquel Camargo [Pt] tells us how they were notified about it:
Hoje de manhã recebemos o seguinte email da empresa que trabalhamos para registrar o domìnio de nosso blog:
Prezado sr.,
Estamos entrando em contato para informar-lhe que o site twitterbrasil.org foi bloqueado em virtude de decisão liminar emitida pelo Tribunal Regional Eleitoral do Ceará.
Caso deseje receber cópia da decisão, favor informe um fax para envio.
Atenciosamente
Como  podem ver, ao clicar no link do TBrasil, o blog está realmente fora do ar com a mensagem “Página em construção! Esse domínio foi registrado, porém ainda não está configurado…”
This morning, we received the following e-mail from the company we registered our blog domain with:
Dear Sirs,
We are contacting you to inform that the site twitterbrasil.org has been blocked due to a decision of Ceará's Regional Electoral Court.
In case you wish to receive a copy of the decision, please let us know your fax number.
Best regards,
As you can see, when you click on TBrasil's link, the blog is indeed offline, with a message that says: “Page under construction! This domain has been registered, but not yet configured…”
Apparently, there had been a misunderstanding on the part of Ceará‘s Regional Electoral Court (TRE-CE [Pt]), in the Brazilian Northeast Region. Liberdade Digital [Pt] was quick to take a screen shot of the decision page – before it was taken down from the Supreme Electoral Court's website, which now displays an error message.
One could say it all began with the electoral process Brazilian cities are currently going through to choose their mayors for the next four years. In Fortaleza, the state of Ceará's capital, the candidate Luizianne Lins is running for re-election as mayor. Despite the fact that several political parties support her candidacy, Lins is facing opposition both from citizens who regret voting for her in the previous elections and from other politicians. A few weeks ago, the opposition appeared online, through a fake profile [Pt] on the social network Twitter.com.
The first fake profile
Blog e-leitor [Pt] was among the first to spread the news, pointing out the fake profile's features, along with this screen shot of the page:
Na barra lateral, link para a página oficial de Luzianne e ironia com o slogan da Prefeitura (“Fortaleza ‘Bela'”) e um prognóstico (“Prefeita de Fortaleza até o dia 31 de Dezembro de 2008″).
A atitude de quem fez essa página foi típica de spammers: adicionou mais de 500 pessoas apenas na última noite. Até agora, 9h, dezessete pessoas estão “seguindo” este perfil falso.
On the sidebar, there's a link to Luizianne's official page and an ironic statement of the city hall's slogan (“Beautiful” Fortaleza) and a prognostic (“Mayor of the city of Fortaleza until December 31, 2008″).
The person who built this page shows an attitude that is typical of spammers: they have added over 500 people overnight. Up to now, 9 am, seventeen people are “following” this fake profile.
Hours later, the fake profile revealed its real intentions, no longer presenting itself as Lins’ official profile, but as a disillusioned elector, since it had received a notification from Ceará's Regional Electoral Court.
“Promoting Twitter to the masses”, says the second fake profile in a screen shot taken by Desopilando [pt] blog.
Even so, Lins’ committee requested that the page was taken completely offline. It was then that the misunderstanding happened, according to Lins’ press office in an e-mail to Techlive [pt]:
Como forma de preservar a imagem de Luizianne Lins, a Coligação “Fortaleza Cada Vez Melhor” entrou com uma ação em que solicitou a retirada do falso perfil localizado no site www.twitter.com. Em nenhum momento foi solicitada a retirada do blog Twitter Brasil.
O juiz Emanuel Leite Albuquerque acatou o pedido dos advogados da ação de retirar o falso perfil na última terça-feira, 09 de setembro. Infelizmente, por um engano da Justiça Eleitoral, foi bloqueado o blog Twitter Brasil. Uma vez detectado o erro, o blog já voltou ao ar no mesmo dia, à noite.
As a way to better protect Luizianne Lins’ image, the “Fortaleza Better and Better” coalition filed a lawsuit in which it asks for the removal of the fake profile located at the site www.twitter.com. The removal of the blog Twitter Brasil was never requested.
Judge Emanuel Leite Albuquerque agreed with the lawyers’ demand to remove the fake profile last Tuesday, September 9. Unfortunately, due to a mistake made by the Electoral Court, Twitter Brasil was blocked. Once this mistake was detected, the blog went back online on the evening of the same day.
Lady Rasta [Pt], however, dug up the full decision and found out that the mistake may have actually been made by Lins’ lawyers. She quotes the judge Emanuel Leite Albuquerque's decision in which he mentions that the coalition had said “that such website – Twitter – is a foreign entrepreneurship which has however an office in Brazil “hosted at the domain http://twitterbrasil.org/”.
Quickly, the story was all over the web and Twitter itself was bubbling. Several blogs posted about the issue, such as IceCream [Pt]:
Na minha opinião, o mínimo que o TRE deveria fazer é: Um pedido de desculpas formal pelo incidente e tratar de conhecer um pouco mais essas ferramentas e as novas tecnologias urgentemente. De que adianta nós brasileiros termos o melhor sistema de votação do mundo, se nossos Juízes eleitorais não conhecem o funcionamento das nossas redes de relacionamento digital?
In my opinion, the least TRE [Regional Electoral Court] should do is: issue a formal apology for the incident and try to learn a little bit more about those tools and new technologies immediately. Does it matter if we Brazilians have the best voting system in the world when our electoral judges don't know how our digital social networks work?
Fundamental [Pt] compared the Brazilian electoral laws concerning the Internet to the reality of elections around the world:
Enquanto muito do charme da eleição americana vem de todas as manifestações pela internet, assim como também foram movimentadas as eleições argentinas, espanholas e francesas, aqui a opção é pelas amarras. O estúpido disso, repito, é que a proibição atacará os candidatos que queiram fazer ações assumidas, positivas. Para fazer contra-campanha, hospedar blogs na Bratislavia, dissimular IPs, pra fazer diabrura, qualquer adolescente sabe. E mais: a Justiça não tem como fiscalizar. Infelizmente é este tipo de ação que eles estimulam.
While much of the charm of the American elections come from all the manifestations on the Internet, as well as the way this happened in the Argentinean, Spanish and French elections, here the option is for bindings. The stupid thing, I repeat, is that the prohibition will damage those candidates who want to take clear, positive action. Any teenager knows how to counter-campaign, to host blogs in Bratislava, to dissimulate IPs, to make pranks. And more: the judiciary system has no way of overseeing this. Unfortunately, this is the kind of action they encourage.
Blogger and journalist Leonardo Fontes [Pt] considered the consequences of the judiciary's actions to Lins’ campaign and to the Electoral Court's reputation:
Do ponto de vista jurídico, é até monótono voltar a falar sobre o assunto dado o repertório de arbitrariedades que acontecem desde o caso Cicarreli, mas do ponto de vista político, Luizianne Lins já tem o que esperar:
* conseguiu que uma das comunidades mais ativas, unidas e com poder de mobilização, caso dos usuários do Twitter, se voltassem contra ela. E pior, na internet, isso nunca fica restrito a apenas um site, é de se esperar também algo no Orkut e outras redes de relacionamento, é simplesmente impossível medir com precisão o quanto isso vai feder na web;
* o site oficial de campanha vai sofrer Google Bomb em breve, já existe mobilização em torno;
* a coordenação de campanha vai se surpreender com a quantidade de reclamações que chegarão pelo site;
* posts e mais posts Brasil afora com toda uma antipatia à sua campanha.
Resultados colaterais? O TRE-CE ficará conhecido como um dos mais ignorantes na matéria, por errar totalmente o alvo. E, é duro dizer isso, mas o criador do perfil falso, se utilizando de uma prática que ronda a criminalidade e a total falta de ética, conseguiu exatamente o que queria. Sua estratégia não poderia ter sido mais certeira. Lamento que a campanha de Luizianne tenha caído em uma armadilha tão vulgar e elementar como essa.
From the legal point of view, it's even boring to talk about this subject again, given the repertoire of authoritarianism that has been happening since the Cicarelli affair, but from the political point of view, Luizianne Lins already has a lot to look forward to:
* she managed to turn against her one of the most active, united and able to mobilize communities such as Twitter. And worse, on the Internet, it's never restricted to just one website, you can expect something also on Orkut and other social networks, it's simply impossible to measure precisely how this will stink on the web;
* the official campaign wesite will soon suffer a Google Bomb, there's already a mobilization;
* the campaign coordinators will be surprised at the amount of complaints that they will receive;
* posts and more posts throughout Brazil will display rejection to her campaign.
Side effect damage? TRE-CE will become known as one of the most ignorant on the subject, for missing the target entirely. And, it is hard to say this, but the creator of the fake profile, using a method that's almost a crime and displays a complete lack of ethics, got exactly what they wanted. Their strategy couldn't have been more precise. I'm sorry that Luizianne's campaign fell for such a vulgar and elementary trap.
Twitter Brasil‘s team had also something to say, once the blog was back online. In their opinion, this isn't over:
E agora, a história terminou? Não. Não podemos nos calar diante essa falta de maturidade e responsabilidade. Fomos atingidos por um problema que não tem a menor relação com o trabalho que desenvolvemos aqui. Nosso país vive uma situação lastimável, onde nossa justiça eleitoral não sabe nada sobre internet.
Pelo visto, o Twitterbrasil.org foi o escudo do Twitter.com, afinal, se não tivesse errado o alvo, a plataforma de postagem estaria então fora do ar? Agora, que o “escudo” foi tirado da batalha, o que vai acontecer?
Is the story now over? No. We can't be silent before this lack of maturity and responsibility. We were hit by a problem that had nothing to do with the work we develop here. Our country is going through a deplorable situation, where our electoral justice doesn't know a thing about the Internet.
As we can see, Twitterbrasil.org served as a shield to Twitter.com, after all, if they hadn't missed the target, wouldn't the platform be offline? Now, that the “shield” has been taken from the battle, what's going to happen?
Not the first blunder
If you want to know more about the country's justice's blunders when it comes to the Internet, start by reading our previous article Brazil: Inventive censorship, and the case for anonymity. There are many links to previous posts on Global Voices Online.

author: Débora Medeiros


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Brazil: An interesting piece of “digital” art on the wall · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Joelma [pt] publishes a very interesting picture of a “digital” graffiti she found on a wall at a street nearby the office she works in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It is worth a visit.

author: Paula Góes


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Honduras: Snubbing of New US Ambassador · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Aaron Ortiz of Pensieve thinks that it is plain lunacy that the Honduran president Mel Zelaya snubbed the new US ambassador on the day that he was to present his diplomatic credentials, possibly out of solidarity with Bolivia, which had recently expelled the US ambassador in that country.


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Iran:”Eternal Iranian islands of Persian Gulf” · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Kourosh Ziabari, an Iran based blogger, writes that the Persian Gulf and its islands have been under the absolute administration of Iran from the ancient times. He adds “UAE’s claims to Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunb islands are boring.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran:Persian Translation of Iranian Blog Study Now Available · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Berkman Center for Internet and Society in Harvard has made its study about Iranian blogosphere available in Persian. You can now read “Mapping Iran’s Online Public: Politics and Culture in the Persian Blogosphere” in Persian.


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Morocco: Police Officer Shot by Member of Royal Family · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

After months of relative quiet in the Moroccan blogosphere, two incidents have everyone talking.  One, of course, is the recent case of Mohammed Erraji.  The other is the recent news that a police officer has been shot by a distant member of the royal family.  The bloggers tell the story…
Au début était le Blog … introduces the latest news:
Décidément, la rentrée est très chaude au Maroc. En voilà un incident qui va ridiculiser un peu plus la justice marocaine. 24 heures après le procès express et grotesque du blogueur Mohamed Erraji, le makhzen* s'illustre à nouveau.
For sure, the back-to-school season in Morocco is heating up. And now we've got another incident that's going to make the Moroccan Justice system just a little bit more ridiculous. 24 hours after the speedy and grotesque trial of blogger Moham Erraji, the makhzen* has distinguished itself once again.
Blogger Metalloman quotes [fr] Le Soir Échos**, which tells the story as it happened:
Le mari d'une princesse (sœur de Hassan II) a tenté d'abattre, mardi a Casablanca un policier en uniforme. Ce dernier lui avait simplement demandé les papiers de la voiture.A la clinique où il a été transporté d'urgence, Tariq Mouhib, policier de la circulation à Casa-Anfa, a du mal à croire ce qu'il a vécu ce mardi 9 septembre 2008. Les yeux larmoyants, il touche l'impact de la balle sur sa cuisse gauche, murmure quelques mots inaudibles, puis replonge dans un état second…
The husband of a princess (sister to [the prior king] Hassan II) shot a police officer in uniform on Tuesday in Casablanca. The latter had merely asked him for his papers and car insurance. In the clinic where he was taken to by ambulance, Tariq Mouhib, traffic officer [stationed at] Casa-Anfa, has difficulty understanding what he lived through this Tuesday, September 9, 2008. With tears in his eyes, he touches the spot where the bullet impacted his left thigh, mumbles a few inaudible words, then falls back into his state of shock…
…A la clinique où il a été transporté, la situation du jeune policier est jugée stable. «C'est une balle à fragmentation. Nous n'avons pu extraire que le gros morceau. Six petites particules sont encore plantées dans la cuisse. Nous ne pourrons nous exprimer qu'après 24 heures», explique un infirmier sur place. Dans la salle de radiologie, le jeune policier est en pleurs. Deux mots reviennent dans sa bouche : «Il m'a traité de bakhouch, de debbane. Je n'ai pourtant fait que mon boulot». Tarik est ensuite placé dans une chambre sécurisée, avec double vitrage. Une infirmière reste constamment a son chevet, pendant que plusieurs commissaires et autres responsables de la wilaya défilent dans les couloirs de la clinique casablancaise. La famille du jeune policier est d'abord interdite de lui rendre visite, mais sa mère est autorisée, exceptionnellement, à le prendre dans ses bras. En quittant la chambre, elle est visiblement sous le choc. Elle murmure des mots inaudibles, avant d'éclater en sanglots : «Je n'ai que deux fils et ils ont voulu me tuer le premier». A la tombée de la nuit : une question est sur toutes les lèvres : qui peut bien être le conducteur de la voiture ? «On sait que c'est quelqu'un de très important et qu'il est proche de la famille royale. C'est tout», affirme un policier présent à la clinique.
…At the clinic where he was taken, the young officer’s condition is deemed stable. “It was a hollow-point bullet. We were able to take out the largest piece. Six smaller particles are still implanted within the thigh. We won’t be able to say more until after twenty-four hours have passed,” explains a nurse present at the scene. In the radiology room, the young officer is in tears. Two words return to his mouth: “He called me bakhouch [insect], debbane [fly]. I was just doing my job.” Tarik is then placed in a secure room with double-paned windows. A nurse is constantly by his side, and for several hours several police commissioners and other top level officials with the wilaya travel back and forth through the clinic’s hallways. The young officer’s family is at first prevented from visiting him but his mother alone is authorized to take him in her arms. Leaving the room, she is visibly in a state of chock. She mumbles a few inaudible words before breaking into sobs: “I only have two sons and they wanted to kill my first one.” As night falls, one question is on everybody’s lips: who could the driver of this vehicle been? “We know that it is someone very important and close to the royal family. That’s all,” concedes a police officer present at the clinic.
A Moroccan About the World Around Him analyzes the situation and is left with this conclusion:
In a democratic country, Al Ya’koubi would have been pulled out of the car and handcuffed at the scene; he would be sitting in jail waiting to appear before a judge to be charged with assault and battery, and attempted murder on a uniformed police officer during the course of official duties. But here in Morocco, the sentence had already been cast the moment he shot and kicked you like a piece of trash, then calmly, remorselessly sat in his car making phone calls and waiting for your colleagues. You would think an insane man would turn his weapon against the crowd.
In a democratic country, even cops are not authorized fragmentary rounds because their use is inhumane and causes devastating internal injury. They are however used by criminals.
In a democratic country, even if, in the goodness of your heart, you decided to forgive your attacker, the government, as a true representative of the people, out of concern for their safety, would not concede its right to unleash the full wrath of the law on a psychopathic criminal who represents a serious danger to people. But here in Morocco, the safety and comfort of your high ranking attacker supersedes that of the common people; he is above the law. From a distorted perspective, you could say that the government is his representative against you.
Does the uniform you so proudly wear make you a representative of the law? A protector of the people? Does it command respect? Not by all it seems. Is there a law that punishes those who disrespect a uniformed officer (let alone shooting and then kicking him)? Of course there is. Will it apply to Al Ya’koubi? Let’s use Erraji as a standard for this one.
Are we all equal before the law, or are some more equal than others?
But I was told that the king does not stand for such overbearing, criminal attitudes as that displayed by Al Ya’koubi, nor does he stand for the actions of the officials who, by their toadyism, deride his efforts to drive Morocco into the 21st century.
This is an epochal moment. Let us hope.
*Makzhen is a term for the governing elite in Morocco, centered around the king and consisting of royal notables, businessmen, wealthy landowners, tribal leaders, top-ranking military personnel, security service bosses, and other well-connected members of the establishment.
**Le Soir Échos is a daily French-language publication in Morocco which is not available online.
Translations by Lydia Beyoud


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Peru: A Tie is Not a Triumph · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Luis Aguirre from Bloodyhell [es] and Isabel Guerra from Las Burbujas Recargadas [es] think that the media are overestimating the 1-1 tie against Argentina achieved by the Peruvian national football team, which is an unexpected change of attitude since the same media had been saying that the team should “just go away.”

author: Juan Arellano


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Russia: South Park Rally in Moscow · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Robert Amsterdam writes about the South Park ordeal in Russia; LJ user al_31f posts photos from a Sept. 13 rally in Moscow in support of South Park and 2×2, the TV channel that was broadcasting the cartoon; YouTube videos from the rally are here, here, and here.


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Saudi Arabia: Traditional menswear revitalised – meet the iThobe · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

The traditional apparel for men in Saudi Arabia is a long white garment called a thobe. Recently a number of designers have been transforming the look of the thobe by adding colour – even designing an iPod-friendly iThobe. What is the verdict of bloggers on the new styles?
John Burgess of Crossroads Arabia comments on an article just published by The Washington Post about changes in thobe design:
The Washington Post reports that the dour uniformity of the white Saudi thobe is facing revolutionary pressure from a new fashion designer. What’s more, the ruling family is throwing its support behind him. I found it interesting that the designer, Yahya al-Bishri, claims that the white thobe is a relatively recent development to Saudi culture and that previously there was much more variety in men’s wear. He reportedly showed early photographs to the King to back up his claims. That got him the support he needed against religious conservatives who were convinced that he was trying to destroy the culture. Interesting read, particularly when taken along side the trend for Saudi women to break free of their plain black abayas.
Ahmed Al-Omran of Saudi Jeans welcomes the new designs:
As men in Saudi Arabia are usually dressed either in black – for women – or white – for men –, I usually try to appreciate the moments when I’m abroad and enjoy the colorful clothes people wear, spending much of my free time walking down the streets and observing others. That’s why I was glad to see my friend Faiza Ambah elegantly profile Saudi fashion designer Yahia al-Bishri, the man who put color back in menswear here. His boldness also inspired others like Siraj Omar and Lomar Thobe to redefine the traditional Saudi garb. However, and from what I have seen, it seems that young Hjiazi men [from the western region] are embracing the new trend more than their counterparts in Najd [central region], which is to be expected as people in the central area are more conservative. Although I only wear a thobe occasionally as I prefer my casual outfit of jeans and t-shirts, I personally like the idea of updating the thobe with new styles and colors, and I plan to get myself one of those cool Lomar thobes in the near future. The problem is that they are relatively expensive, as their creators admitted, but I think it is worth getting them for special occasions.
Last month Jordanian blogger Wael Attili who blogs at Sha3teely visited Saudi Arabia, and posted some of his impressions:
The Saudi culture is one of the most amazing and interesting cultures I have ever seen. I believe it is one of the most controversial urban environments in the modern world. The war between traditions and modernity, rules and freedom, religion and globalization, wealth and achievements. The place where you can do everything but you are not allowed to do anything…
He comments on the new fashions:
Another interesting thing is the concept of the Lomar Thobe. I found it really amazing where young Saudi designers are trying to develop new modern, cool trends based on their culture and traditional customs. The concept of merging the new, cool and hip with the traditional thobe to represent the needs of the new generation of young Saudis is really genuine and extraordinary. I wish that we can see this somewhere in the upper part of the Middle East. … Take a look at the ithobe designed specially for the ipod and the other interesting collection which they have. The Lomar thobe is originally comes from Jeddah and its spreading all over the kingdom.


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Blogger of the Week: Daniel Duende Carvalho · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

To those of us who were at the Global Voices Online Citizen Media Summit or who have had a look at the photographs posted online from the gathering, you may have seen a guy in a hat seeming to be unnoticed. Well, that was Daniel Duende Carvalho, our Lingua Portuguese Editor, and he did not go unnoticed – no matter how hard he tried. Indeed he was a very talkative participant. But I'd like, before start an interview with him, bring to the readers what Jose Murilo has to say about him:
The amazing thing about Daniel and I is that we keep reconnecting everywhere. Ever since I can remember of my history, we were always getting together around games, gadgets, books, friends, jobs (not girls, thank God), and parents. No surprise at all in the fact that we are together again in Global Voices — connecting and creating in  an ever-expanding network that now has many voices and relatives — just like a really big family.
Well, said that let's see what Daniel has to tell us.
How and when did you learn about blogs and start blogging?
Well. To be honest, it was in the (Brazilian) spring of 2002. I was bored one night in my somewhat far off home and then began reading some of my friends blogs. It sounded like something interesting to do, and then I created the Alriada Express [Pt] (whose archives date to that day in April '02). My blogging was mostly about nonsense and personal remarks at first. That kind of blogging was very common among my group of friends at the time. Some days later, I showed my blog to some people that are great bloggers today, but that had no blogs at the time, and heard things like “this is a complete waste of time”. I “wasted my time” for years, and then I think I began to get the sense of it. I don't consider myself a great blogger today — in fact it comes as as surprise to me to be featured in this respectable series of interviews! — but I think I know a thing or two, and sometimes know how to spread it through my good ol’ Alriada Express. In the beginning of 2007 I created O Caderno do Cluracão (The Cluricaun's Notebook, in Portuguese), my blog about literature, photography, my outlook on arts and culture and, above all, my writings. In the last few (or not so few) months it's been hard to find the time to blog, but if you ask me, my newer blog is about writing I miss the most. Currently almost all my “blogging time” is dedicated to Global Voices, and I believe this is fair. It's better to provide workforce to a wonderful project like Global Voices Online (and Global Voices Lingua) than to flaunt my ego ranting almost alone in my almost abandoned blogs.
How did you get involved with GV?
In the (again, Brazilian) winter of 2007 I've heard about the Global Voices Lingua project, and the possibility to create a Portuguese site translating the great content published at Global Voices Online. I already knew Global Voices Online for about one year then, and visited it at least once or twice a month to check the news, spending one hour or two reading about what's being said around the world. I was living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, then, and I was working with the Brazilian cultural site Overmundo [Pt]. But I was craving to come back to my hometown, Brasilia, Brazil's capital, and in the end that's what I did. When I came home to Brasilia, I was looking for a job but otherwise had plenty of free time. That's when I began translating for the newborn Global Voices em Português site, with a (not so) little help from a friend. In the beginning of July I've heard that the choice for the site coordinator was being made, and some days later was officially informed that I was chosen for the task. In the last one year and one month I've been translating, coordinating GV Lingua Português and, when possible, writing roundups and articles for Global Voices Online.
Let's talk a bit about Lingua
Lingua is a great project, that gives back all the content compiled to Global Voices Online (in English) to the linguistic groups from where all those wonderful, shocking and important words came from. It's more than fair exchange. It's the answer for a great demand for high quality citizen journalism content in languages other than English. More than that, Lingua is a very important experiment on volunteer translating and localization. Each day we are learning how to deal with extensive, very lively, volunteer communities and how to manage to translate not just the words, but the meanings, of what those global voices are saying. It's very exciting, and in my humble opinion something that is very demanded by the contemporary internet citizens: the group experiences geared to making things work and producing content.
However, Lingua sites are not visited as they should. How can we improve this?
Lingua sites visitor numbers are growing steadily, if not fast. I believe it's a matter of time before the global linguistic blogospheres discover them. The Lingua teams around the globe are doing a great job 24 hours a day, and such great work usually gets recognized in time. But of course there are things that can be done to improve that. Most of them are already being tried and done by some or all the teams. I believe the most important of them is to create an horizontal and collaboration-oriented relationship with the blogospheres that speak their languages. Once the bloggers discover that Global Voices not only quotes them and provides them with things to be quoted, but it's like a bigger brother that can help advance important issues and conversations, they become more than happy to help in any way they can. Bridge blogging, the work done wonderfully by Global Voices, is part of the worldwide conversation system that is the reason all of us write in our blogs: to be read, listened, and make part of the global conversation concerning issues local and global alike. Lingua is finding its place, and it's being found day after day by bloggers all around.
When was it that your interest in translation started?
That's a great question. Since I learned how to speak more than one language, and I was thought how to speak and write in Portuguese and English almost at the same early age, I was fascinated with the differences and similarities between the meanings and concepts in the diverse languages. When I was still very young I loved to translate song lyrics and English prose fragments to my friends. Years later, I came in contact with many collaborative translation projects on the web. The most important of them were Wikipedia. I collaborated with Wikipedia for almost a year, and learned a lot from that time. When the Lingua project appeared in my life, it was like remembering the past Wikipedian days with a plus: a better integrated and more dynamic work, with a great team. And a great team makes all the difference when you're trying to translate and make sense of things you don't always grasp completely — a situation every translator knows very well.
Why did you stop collaborating with Wikipedia?
Well. I was very disappointed with the way many moderators acted in the Portuguese and English (language) Wikipedia. I gave my time, many hours of it each week, to write and care for more than 20 articles. But they had a hard time speaking nicely, and even a harder time discussing matters in a reasonable way. And they ended up “losing” me, for I wouldn't lose my time collaborating in a project where moderators make me feel like they're doing a favor to me to let me collaborate. Wikipedia is a wonderful project, and I always link to it when some clarification is needed in specific subjects, but I'm sad to point that behind those wonderful pages we have a lot of people being frustrated in their efforts to collaborate everyday by moderators that are, to say the least, very poorly chosen and trained. Wikipedia definitely lacks something that overflows at Global Voices Online and other projects around the world: respect for people, kindness and humaneness.
Speaking of peopple, what about the Portuguese lingua team?
There are no words to thank and recognize all the WONDERFUL work that's being realized everyday by the Lingua Teams. Portuguese Lingua Team, the one I know best and interact with everyday, is always surprising and making me very proud to wear the badge of “coordinator”. But I'll tell you a secret: most of the time they're so brilliant, that they need very little coordination at all. Some days the team works so well that I feel like I'm just one more translator among them, and they're usually great translators, and that makes me even feel belittled in my less-than-brilliant translating skills. Ok, I used a lot of words just to say LINGUA TEAMS ARE AMAZING! :D The same goes to the huge team behind these wonderful global voices we translate everyday. They're just as amazing, and it's an honor to have the chance to bring their words to the Portuguese language.
You mentioned that in your blog, you write about cultural themes, and that you even worked on a site devoted to such issues. Can you merge that hobby with your Global Voices labour?
I like to post roundups on the Brazilian literary blogosphere whenever I can, but that's not as often as I would like to. The Brazilian Portuguese speaking literary blogosphere — with blogs on literature and blogs where original short stories and poetry are posted — is huge, and a lot of great artists are using their blogs mainly (or solely) to publish their literary works right now. Surprisingly, few citizen journalism bloggers seem to care about literary blogs, or even take them as a serious artistic expression in the country. On the last Campus Party held in São Paulo, Brazil, there wasn't even a mention of literary bloggers on the event schedule, and few if any of these bloggers were around to be seen or to speak for their class. In fact, they don't see themselves as a “class”. Rather, most of them seem to think themselves as regular writers and critics that use the internet as their media of choice. Some internet stars in Brazil seem to shun such nonchalance. But I digress… I believe the short answer for your question is: trying to give voice to this part of the blogosphere that doesn't care about YouTube, Citizen Journalism or Twitter, but that definitely has something to say, and does so beautifully in prose and verse. The question is: will anyone care for them?
Tell us something about the place you live Is it like all of us – non Brasilians – think life in Brazil is like? I mean lots of sun, samba and parties?
Life in Brazil can be like that to some people, mostly in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador or other seaside cities. But that's hardly the reality for the vast majority of people in Brazil – rich or poor. In fact, Brazil is so big that we can hardly say we have something like a “Brazilian lifestyle.” In my case, I live very far from the sea, in the capital city of Brasília, DF. I'm not very fond of sun, mostly because of my general geek upbringing (lots of books, being born in front of a computer, etc…), and although I deeply respect our samba and sertanejo (traditional country music) traditions, that's hardly what I've been listening in the last 30 years. To put it short, life in Brasília usually is mostly work and booze. We don't have much else to do here than that, we don't party a lot nor have a true cultural life. And the new law that threatens with prison anyone who is caught driving after drinking even a single sip of beer is driving us even more to the work side. :) But I must make it clear that Brasilia is one of the most unusual places in Brazil. In most other cities we have a lot of parties for all tastes, and wonderful cultural life. But don't just assume that all Brazilians like sun, samba and parties. There's a lot of us that prefer moonlighting, rock music and internet cafes, although it sounds as definitely not very “Brazilian” to the outside observers.
So, if a lot of Brazilians are so driven to computers and the Internet, what do you believe is the place of blogs and blogging in the Brazilian life?
This is not an easy question. First of all, even with our rising internet access standards in the last five or six years, mostly due to improvements in Brazilian economy and e-inclusion and outreach projects being held in the country (the best ones are from the Government), we still have a huge part of the population that don't even know what a computer (or even daily meals) really are — what to say about internet? Even among our digitally connected population, most people hardly steer very far from Orkut (Google's social network is an amazing hit here since 2004!) or the big content sites, like Terra Magazine or UOL. If they ever read blogs, these are the ones sponsored or linked by these sites, or some few other blogs that managed to fall into the popular taste. Most of these blogs don't talk about much else than visual jokes and charges, celebrity gossip and such things. The very rare other blogs that get a lot of traffic tend to repeat the mainstream media in almost every aspect. But the real small part of the Brazilian netizens that blog and read a lot of blogs is still significant, when you think about the huge scale everything takes when we're speaking about Brazil. So, we can say blogs and blogging have a great importance to this “small group of hundreds of thousands”, and that's the lot where our great bloggers come from. And they're actively blogging about many things, they're fighting against absurd laws like Eduardo Azeredo's Cyber crime Bill, and they're actively discussing our country and our world. The problem is that it's hard for them to really aggregate, or have a true voice, in a place where everything is so huge and full of noise like the Brazilian internet. It's hard to talk and be heard in the middle of our big-media sponsored internet samba. But if you're really paying attention, there's a lot of interesting things going on in our blogosphere and even inside Orkut's huge communities base (basically owned by the Portuguese speaking Brazilian users). Browsing Jose Murilo's or Paula Goes articles can give you a taste of our really active bloggers. They're many, but still far from being representative of the Brazilian online lifestyle, if we can ever say we have one.
And what do these “few hundreds of thousands” blog about?
Ouch! That's an even harder question, my friend. It's like asking what are the Peruvian bloggers, or the Mozambican bloggers, or the Swedish, or the Iranian bloggers blogging about. Lots of things, although some subjects become real hot sometimes and lots of them blog about it for some days. But still, these words would apply to any of the above mentioned blogospheres. I can't say (i.e. I don't know, hehehe) if we have any special particularities about the subject choice or conversation dynamics in our blogosphere, other than the ones that might come from the particularities of its size — at the same time so relatively small and absolutely large. We're starting to have more and more bloggers that come from more economically and socially challenged backgrounds now, and we used to have mostly white-upper-middle-class bloggers before, and that's a change for sure. Some subjects that didn't really matter in the past to most of our old-school-monetization-oriented-white-southern bloggers are now being more and more discussed by these new people on the blog-block, and that's a wonderful note. But it's still early to ascertain exactly what does it mean. To end my obvious answer, here come's my favourite obvious remark: “Brazilian internet is always changing, but we still don't know what will happen”. Sorry for the obvious answer, anyway. I believe the best answer that we can give is being given everyday by Paula Goes and José Murilo in their articles. Stay tuned to them, for I suspect they are some of the best to speak about Brazilian blogosphere.
Photo by Luis Carlos.


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Africa: Your Majesty, Stop Marrying! · Global Voices
Victor Kaonga

Several Malawian journalists joined many others in attending a three-day Highway Africa conference at Rhodes University in South Africa under the theme Citizen Journalism: Journalism for Citizens. The conference which is the largest annual gathering of African journalists (over 700 in attendance) focuses on new media issues and is also the forum for critical reflection on journalism, media and technology and a celebration of Africa.
Edna Bvalani gives an update about the conference and says that the conference which is the 12th since 1996 is an important one for the African continent:
In this digital era, a journalist need to be more equipped on how to gather and disseminate information as quickly as possible. Hence, it is important to realise that media is a vital tool of information in any democratic, intellectual, cultural, economic and social development of our societies.
During the conference, there was a generous mention of Global Voices as one of citizen media initiatives helping put amplify the voices of the citizens throughout the world.
This author, Victor Kaonga, blogging on Ndagha attended the conference and simply gives it a mention on his blog.
However, his earlier blog post reflects on how Malawi Government is unlikely to connect rural communities to the information highway. His post titled Will Malawi Connect Rural Communities? comes in the wake of a Commonwealth Telecommunication Union sponsored three-day high-level international conference that took place in Malawi. The conference was Africa's biggest ICT forum focusing on Last Mile Solutions for connecting rural communities. However, the author argues that Malawi government does not have adequate telecommunication infrastructure, ICT policies and a supportive financial environment towards connecting not only rural areas but also urban areas.
As the situation is today, the country is a laughing stock as our connectivity is not adequate, hence majority of the country is not benefiting from the modern information and communication technologies thereby still remaining on that side of the digital divide. If the government is to realise the dream of connecting rural areas in Malawi, more commitments and urgency on several issues may help to make the rural connectivity a reality. Otherwise it remains a dream.
Air Malawi should go
An economist and new blogger Watipaso Mkandawire looks at the debate surrounding the selling of Malawi flag carrier Air Malawi, which is said to be in serious financial waters. After giving a range of recent examples of countries that have privatised their national airlines, Mkandawire who has worked for a while on investment issues for Malawi responds to the proposal on privatizing the airline:
I see arguments of those that want to keep the “national asset” as trying to keep 100% of 0 instead of keeping say, 49% or 10% of 100. Air Malawi is technically bankrupt and keeping it as is, is basically betraying tax-payers in Malawi who require these resources for better use (health, education etc). Zambia has no national airline, but its airports are busier than those in Malawi. The private carrier currently operating has grown by the day…..Should Air Malawi be liquidated and a new joint venture established with COMAIR? I will go for it. What do you think?
Malawian advises King Mswati of Swaziland
Regular blogger and journalist Kondwani Munthali writes about the recent 40th national independence day of Swaziland which was attended by Malawi's president Bingu wa Mutharika. In a post titled, Celebrating Poverty: The Moral Story of Swaziland, Munthali implores African leaders to extend advice to King Mswati to stop marrying.
I wish one of our leaders told the King that its time he stopped marrying as many as he wants, it doesnt help with the current Aids epidemic and the image of a nation trying to grapple with modernity and traditional.
There is a sentence that “only the King can change tradition”-I believe His Majesty the King of Swaziland has a capacity to promote the beautiful Swazi culture with real freedoms and public expenditures that show that the King cares. The King is supposed to look after his people first not his many wives!

author: Victor Kaonga


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Egypt: A Racist Video Game · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Muslim Massacre is a video game that has been released lately, where gamers have to use all sorts of weapons to kill as many Muslims and Muslim figures as they can, including ALLAH Almighty. Egyptian bloggers react.
Zeinobia is alarmed that young people are embracing violence is such a manner and enjoying themselves “wiping off” adherents of another religion:
I will not deny that it is disturbing because those who play these games are generally from the young generations who are raised upon the hate of another religion and its believers to that extent that they want to wipe them. Spreading the culture of violence through that means or way is not less dangerous than other ways of spreading the culture of violence. Video games in general are proving to be dangerous more and more, GTA inspired crimes are moving from North  America to Asia.
Tarek echoes similar sentiments:
The issue here is not the game itself; it's that endless chain reaction that really scares me. The media, circumstances and fundamental Wahabis deeds started it a while ago, and they all succeeded in brainwashing people’s minds and created that evil Muslim stereotype in their minds. Then people like the Danish Cartoonists and this Computer Games Developer started to reproduce this stereotype and feed it back to the media and people around them. And frankly I can't tell how this endless loop will end. In fact some reasonable newspapers and TV channels in the west started to exert some efforts in order to stop all this, but it's now like an imp, once you get it out of its bottle, it's really hard to get it back there again.

author: Eman AbdElRahman


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Egypt at the Paralympics · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Egypt's special athletes are making waves in Beijing, China, where this year's Paralympic Games are being held from September 6 to 17. While Egypt clinched one bronze medal in this year's Beijing Summer Olympics, athletes in the Paralympics are achieving a success like no other. So far the team has won four gold, three silver and four bronze medals.
Ibn Ad Dunya writes:
Medals seem to be like magnets to the Egyptian Power lifting team in the current Paralympics in Beijing. Egypt just collected it´s second gold in the men´s 56 Kg category by Sherif Osman, who broke the world record three times along the way to the Podium, settling for an end result of 202.5 Kg.
[…]
This was the second gold after Fatma Omar´s gold yesterday, her third consecutive Paralympics GOLD, after having won in Sydney in 2000 and in Athens four years later.
[…]
I’m actually very pleased to hear about another female participant in the power lifting still waiting for her hour of glory (tomorrow hopefully), Rania Alaa Eldin Morshedi has a five-year old son , but still continues to compete on international level. This is something unusual for women in sports in Egypt, they usually drop their career as soon as graduated and got married, in my view they give up their career before having reached their peak, and in fact sometimes not being able to collect the fruit of their hard labor for years and years.
Zeinobia too sums up the total medals achieved so far:
A big salute to our heroes in Beijing Paralympics who raised our heads high with their great performance. Thanks to our heroes we received till now 6 medals: 5 in Power lifting and one in athletics. We got two gold medals, one silver and three bronze.
For detailed information about the medals won by the Egyptian team taking part in the Paralympics, check out the games official website.


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Estonia: Support of the EU equals Estonian part of the people · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Babel Tallinn reports about a survey that gives 84% support to the EU among the total Estonian suffrage – coincidentally the same percentage of citizens who are Estonian by ethnicity.


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Iran:Small School & Successful Blog · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Homeyra, an Iranian blogger, writes how a teacher in a small village in Iran shared his experience in his blog and attract attention and support.


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Iran:The Blogging Revolution  · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Antony Loewenstein’s The Blogging Revolution will be available on Amazon soon. The Blogging Revolution talks about Iran, Egypt,Syria,Saudi Arabia, China and Cuba. This is how he describes the book.


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Latvia: The political referendum-legitimacy link · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Veiko Spolitis of Baltic discusses the tendency of an increasing number of public referenda in Latvian politics – as opposed to parliamentary decisions – and links it to failing legitimacy of the political elite and partisan politics in the country.


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Montenegro: The .ME Domain Release · Global Voices
El Hud

The big news of 2008 in the world of domain names was that someday, we'll not need what is called the Top Level Domain or TLD in the manner that we do now. For example, instead of going to the address https://www.globalvoicesonline.org, it could just be http://globalvoicesonline.  Of course this day is far off in the future and we don't really have much of a timeline for the deployment of this system.  In the meantime, that TLD is a very important item and because of that, the release of the new extension, .ME has received a decent amount of attention.  After all, who wouldn't want to own such domains as: watch.me, love.me, or thisannoys.me?
It's rather plain to see in the official site that the source of this .ME extension isn't really advertised all that much, when in fact it actually turns out to be Montenegro's country extension.  Yes, this country with a population of only 589,000 has one of the newest domains on the web.  People may be surprised to hear that it's a “new” country extension as Montenegro has officially been an independent country since 2006 and an autonomous region in various capacities for the decade preceding.  Some time back, I wrote about how the history of name assignments came about on, Hudin:
Take for instance former Czechoslovakia. When the internet came around, it got the .cs extension, which was then given up as they split in to the Czech Republic – .cz and Slovakia – .sk… So, .cs actually got re-purposed in to the ill-fated union of Serbia and Montenegro. They of course have since split and have become .rs and .me respectively… This is all something of a mess, except in the case of Montenegro. They've gotten quite a windfall with the .me domain. If they want to (and most likely they will) they can open up registration to anyone…
It's much the same as what happened to Tonga who received .to and Tuvalu which received the even more coveted .tv extension.  Naturally, selling off the national domain to international customers raises a good deal of alarm from the citizens.  A person by the name of ‘Ego_and_HIS_OWN’ wrote on MADEinMontenegro (MNE):
…it is completely and unreasonable to award a company all rights and exclusivity over the sale of domains. This is certainly something that is against the interests of Montenegro, where it is necessary that her brand will be available to everyone, within the population. Thus probably due to interest groups of individuals who are very highly paid on this work and whose close friends are members of this council. The domain is practically taken from Montenegrin society and sold for small money and is doing irreparable damage to Montenegro and its future.
These concerns are well-justified as to date, Montenegrin registrants for the .ME extension don't even breach 1% of the total 100,000 names registered, although provisions were officially made for filing by Montenegrin companies and brand holders to buy their names before .ME was released internationally.  Naturally, the United States and United Kingdom are the top two countries for registrants as ‘me’ is an English word and is not a commonly used word in Montenegrin.  One can see the breakdown of the top 10 registrants, here.
While the history of this domain is readily apparent, there comes the question of how does one go about registering a name?  New domain names are not like the ones we all know, making registering website.me a bit more of a process than registering website.com.  One writer on MADEinMONTENEGRO (MNE) named, ‘anon1′ was among many to list the possibilities that should be registered:
We should now grab and register on their behalf addresses of all types: milodjukanovic.me; svetimarovic.me, ficovujanovic.me, bolnica.me, zdravstvo.me, berza.me, … and after that sell others for a lot of money.
But it's not that easy.  The initial release of the names (or landrush) wasn't a simple system wherein one could just visit a registrar and buy the name.  The Montenegrins set up the system to fully monetize these domains by using an auction system.  I was curious and made an attempt to buy a name myself over this last summer as I wrote on my site, Hudin:
I searched around for a name that seemed to be available, which was taste.me, filled out the forms, submitted the credit card info and thought that I was the proud owner of this name. Oh how I was wrong… It turns out that this was all for the better as paying that initial $100 for the name was not actually buying it. It was reserving a place in line to be able to bid in a domain auction further on. All of this is not readily apparent and with good reason. I doubt most folks would be $100 for the right to then bid on something as small and silly as a domain name… Oddly enough, I continued to receive updates about the auction for taste.me. This was interesting to follow because unlike a normal auction where there is a set time frame, the way this auction worked was that once someone submitted a bid, if there was a new bid submitted within 24 hours, the auction would continue… In the case of taste.me, the auction went on for about two weeks and ended up at a final price of $6,505.
Other names were auctioned at $30,000 and up.  If this system wasn't hard enough, a number of names were purposely held back from general consumption.  These will be auctioned off on September 25th.  Needless to say the whole method has been less than transparent, but for those who wish to try and register a name now, they're costing about $20, but it appears that they log popular name choices to put them to auction.  So, if you decide to take a chance and buy mykittyneeds.me, you may find it costing you a good deal more than $20 to buy it in an auction at a later date.  In short, good luck.

author: El Hud


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Russia: Valdai Discussion Club · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Step At A Time and Window on Eurasia write about the Valdai Discussion Club and the coverage of Russia in the West.


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South Africa: Case Against Zuma Invalid  · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

East Coast Radio Newswatch reports about the trial against the ANC (South Africa's ruling party) leader, Jacob Zuma: “The Pietermaritzburg High Court has just ruled that the decision to prosecute ANC leader Jacob Zuma on fraud and corruption charges is invalid.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Western Sahara: Summer is Over for Sahrawi Children · Global Voices
Renata Avila

Summer is a time when many people take the chance to explore new, different places. They go beyond the border of their countries, and explore a different architecture, landscape and language.  Life can dramatically change during a summer vacation, because the world is definitely not flat and there are a lot of challenges outside the home and routine activities. Sometimes famous people visit the “other side” –  places which face extreme conditions, and the impact is that big on them that they commit to a cause, as Javier Bardem did after visiting refugee camps in Western Sahara. The Oscar winning actor now supports Todos con el Sahara.
Blogger Viento del Sur writes about the actor's solidarity with Sahrawi people. He says Bardem declared when visiting the refugee camps:
La situación empeora año tras año. El proceso de paz está bloqueado y eso afecta especialmente a los más débiles. Mujeres, niños y ancianos", señaló Bardem, recordando que hay 200.000 personas que fueron españolas "abandonadas en el desierto desde hace 33 años
The situation worsens year after year. The peace process is blocked and this especially affects the most vulnerable people – women, children and the elderly, said Bardem, reminding us that there are 200,000 people who were once from Spain and have since been abandoned in the desert 33 years ago
Indeed famous names attract attention to a cause. Artists such as Manu Chao, the writer Eduardo Galeano and other famous people have visited the refugee camps in the past, and committed to the cause, as Caminando en el desierto  says:
Si estos compromisos públicos sirven para avanzar, aunque sólo sea un paso -que sirven, sin ninguna duda- bienvenidos sean. Y aunque me gustaría que los verdaderos progresos se lograsen con la suma de los pasos individuales de quienes somos simples ciudadanos, debemos reconocer el mérito indudable que tienen estos apoyos.
If such public statements are helping to advance the cause a little – they undoubtedly do- such comments are welcome. And even when I would like for real progress as a result of the sum of individual efforts of average citizens, we must truly recognize the merits of this support.
And in Spain many families host  Sahrawi children to spend the summer in their homes, and share a different culture in a safer environment, (you can see for example, Sahrawi chilren in Cordoba ) but in September summer is over, and it is time to say goodbye to their host families as Amigos del Sahara says:
os niños saharauis han acabado sus vacaciones en extremadura y  han vuelto a Tindouf.
Sahrawi children have ended their vacation in Extremadura and are back in Tindouf.
Two lovely initiatives capture the attention of many people on the Web. Pencils for Peace (Lápices para la Paz) supports children facing armed conflicts by providing them with pencils and education materials and they discover a nice story in a recycled can:
Y aquí mismo, a pesar de la situación de exilio permanente, están ellos, con sed de aprendizaje, sonriendo y siendo felices a pesar de todo. A pesar de que el suelo de la escuela no es uniforme y alguna mesa esté coja..,de que la pintura de las paredes se caiga por la tremenda erosión de este lugar…, ellos siguen pintando con sus ceras maravillosas, la palabra libertad.
En un rincón del aula veo un bote.
Es una lata de leche en polvo. Y de él salen unos bonitos brotes verdes. Pregunto qué es y los niños entusiasmados me dicen: – ¡¡Son lentejas, son lentejas!!.
El profesor sonríe: – "Es una forma de que ellos sepan que el mundo no es sólo desierto y un lugar donde apenas existen las plantas. Día a día todos los niños vigilan los brotes para que nunca les falte el agua. Siempre hay que tener presente la esperanza…"
And here, in spite of the permanent exile, they are hungry to learn, while smiling and being happy despite everything – despite the fact that the floor of the school is not even and some tables are not balanced … the paint on the walls is fading due to the tremendous erosion… they are still painting the word freedom with their wonderful crayons.
In a corner of the classroom I see a can.
It is a can of milk powder. And from it,  beautiful green sticks with leaves are growing. I asked what it is, the children excitedly told me: They are lentils, lentils!!!!
The professor smiles: – "It's a way to let them know that the world is not just desert and a place where there are hardly any plants. Day after day the children have to take care of the plants so it will never lack water. One must always have hope … "
And the other initiative is  Refugees Exhibition, which was hosted by volunteer Bars in Spain during the summer to collect funds and help Sahrawis.
During the summer some children have discovered Spain and shared life with their host families, others stayed behind in the refugee camps and were lucky enough to see Javier Bardem outside the big screen. These are baby steps to help them have a normal childhood in the middle of an armed conflict.  And now they are back to school in the refugee camps, using their new pencils and learning about a whole world of words.

author: Renata Avila