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Korea: Entertainers’ lives, media and internet  · Global Voices
Hyejin Kim

Na Hoon-a, a legendary singer in Korea famous for his charisma during his 40 year career and for numerous rumors about his personal life, surprised everyone at a press conference. He disappeared from public over a year ago, as rumors swelled that Na had his genitals cut off by a gangster for messing with his girlfriend. After public denial from two actresses who allegedly were girlfriends of the gangster, Na decided to have a press conference and criticize the media. His dramatic press conference prompted many netizens to write.
The majority of netizens criticize the irresponsibility of the media and worry about the function of the internet.
누군가 당신의 성기가 깡패들에게 잘려 불구가 되었다고 전국에 소문을 냈다.그리고 언론은 그것을 대서특필하며 당신을 파렴치범으로 몰고 몹쓸짓의 죄값으로 테러를 당한 것이라고 누명을 뒤집어 씌웠다.
힘없는 당신은 어찌 할 것인가? 기자 회견을 열어 나는 멀쩡하고 괴소문은 사실이 아니라고 하자, 언론은 당신의 기자회견에 대해 보도하면서 ‘당신만의 < 반박>, < 해명>‘이라는 표현을 썼다. 당신에게 덧씌워진 주홍글씨, 어떻게 할 것인가?
한국 연예 매체, 이대로 좋은가 ?
이번 나훈아 관련 소동을 통해 많은 국민이 언론의 무책임한 보도와 그 피해의 심각성에 대해 인식하게 되었다. 멀쩡한 사람에 대해 ‘죽었다’ 혹은 ‘흉칙하게 다쳤다’ 등의 괴소문을 유포하면 언론이 이를 받아 확대 재생산하는 식의 정보 흐름 채널은 하루 속히 차단되어야 한다. 피해자에게 씻을 수 없는 명예훼손과 상처를 남기은 물론 한번 훼손된 이미지는 좀처럼 회복하기 힘든 주홍글씨가 되기 때문이다. 더우기 그것이 평생을 바쳐 명성을 쌓아올린 원로 연예인일 경우, 그런 행위는 한 사람의 인생을 완전히 파괴하는, 살인보다 더한 행위가 된다. 이런 잔인한 행위를 거리낌없이 자행하고 있는 것이 오늘날의 우리 언론의 현주소이고 루머 유포, 치고 빠지기식 보도, 선정성 기사 쓰기의 백태는 이제 연예 부문을 넘어 점차 다른 보도 분야에까지 번지고 있다. 인터넷의 등장으로 쌍방향 소통이 가능해지면서 악의를 품은 소수가 얼마든지 괴소문을 유포시킬 수 있는 환경이 조성되었고 실제로 인터넷을 통한 연예인 명예훼손과 허위사실 유포가 위험 수준에 다다른 것이 현실이다. 유언비어가 술자리 안주거리에 머물지 않고 언론 이름으로 보도 매체를 통해 확대 파급되어 전국 각계 각층의 국민에게 전파된다면 이 세상은 괴소문을 유포해 한 사람의 인생을 파멸시키는 게 너무나도 손쉬운 세상이 되어버린다.
What would you do if it happened to you? Opening the press conference, you can say I’m normal and that gossip is not true. But the media writes about your press conference, ‘your
Korean entertainment media, is it fine to leave it like this?
Through the event between Na Hoon-ah and media, people came to recognize the irresponsible report from the media and the seriousness of the damage.  There have been bad gossips, such as that ‘he died’ or ‘he was horribly injured.’ The media took the gossip, and expand and reproduce it. This kind of method should disappear soon. Defamation and pain that the victim can hardly get over are like scarlet letters that could not be deleted at ease. In addition, he is an elderly entertainer who has accumulated his fame. It is more than murder to destroy a person’s life. This cruel action is taken by media at present. Spreading rumors, hitting the news but not taking responsibility, and yellow journalism are not just from entertainment media, but spreading to general media. After the introduction of internet, minorities who have bad intentions can spread fake stories to the dangerous level. Groundless rumors don’t stay with drinking places. It spreads over under the names of media. It circulates to all people. It is an easy world to destroy a person’s life.
While not a few opinions about criticizing the singer’s excessive gesture appeared after the press conference, negative sides of the internet and media have been raised as an issue.
텔레비전에 비친 나훈아 기자회견장에는 수많은 언론사 기자들로 붐비는 모습이었다. 아마 수 백 명은 됨직했다. 그런데 나훈아 씨가 기자회견을 했지만, 기자회견 후에 나훈아 씨에 대한 질의응답이 없었다. 물론 나훈아 씨가 기자회견 후 떠나버린 탓이겠지만, 나훈아 씨의 일방적인 얘기만 들어야만 했다.
과연 연예인의 말을 그대로 믿어야 하는가? 과거의 경험을 볼 때 연예인의 말은 뒤에 거짓으로 밝혀진 경우가 많았다. ‘아니 땐 굴뚝에 연기 나랴?'라는 말처럼 모락모락 피어나는 연기는 아궁이에서 불을 땠기 때문이다. 물론 나훈아 씨는 아니 땐 굴뚝에 연기가 났을 수도 있다. 그러나 기자들은 실체적 진실을 더욱 추적해야 했었다. 이런 점에서 나훈아 씨의 일방적 기자회견에 침묵한 기자들의 모습은 참으로 한심했다. 나훈아 씨에 대한 추측성 보도를 일삼은 한국언론은 크게 반성해야 한다. 무슨 “설, 설, 설”은 개인의 명예를 해치기 때문이다. […] 그렇다면, 나훈아 씨가 말한 대로 “신문에 뭐라고 나왔느냐, 남의 마누라 뺏어갔다.”라는 기사가 나왔다면, 나훈아 씨가 적극적인 차단에 나서는 것이 정상이다. 지금 괜히 “키우는 개XX, 혹시 개 없는 사람들은 옆집 개, 건넛집 개도 좋습니다.”라는 억울한 심정을 호소하기 이전에 적극적인 해명을 해야 했었다. 사태가 악화되도록 잠적에 잠적을 거듭한 나훈아 씨는 과연 책임이 없단 말인가?
그나저나 나훈아 씨에 대한 확실한 근거가 없는 소문의 가해자는 매스컴과 인터넷이었다. 개인 블로그와 댓글, 인터넷 매체와 포털 사이트, 기성매체 등 다양한 모습의 언론이 소문을 확대 재생산했다. 소문이 천 리를 간 셈이다. 그렇다고 기자회견 후 부화뇌동하는 식으로 이번에는 나훈아 씨만을 일방적으로 두둔하는 매스컴과 인터넷은 최선을 다해 꼴불견을 보여주는 것 같았다. 참으로 멍청한 매스컴에 멍청한 인터넷이다.[…]
Korean media should be ashamed for making speculative articles about Na Hoon-a. “Rumors, rumors, rumors” could damage an individual’s credit. Like Na Hoon-a said, “What did newspapers say? I took another guy’s wife,” he should have actively reacted to this. Why did he say, “If I did, you can call me dog x x. or if you don’t have a dog, you can call me you neighbor dog x x” like that instead of a clearer explanation? Does Na Hoon-a, who didn’t do anything and just disappeared, not have any responsibility?
Those causing harm with these groundless rumors are media and internet. Various media, such as individual blogs, opinions, portal sites, and media, spread the gossip and reproduced. The gossip went a thousand-li. But after the press conference, it is unbearable to look at the media and internet, which unilaterally support Na Hoon-a. The media is so stupid and so is the internet.[…]
The singer’s rumors have not disappeared even after the press conference.
나훈아, 과연 잘못은 없나?
어제의 기자회견으로 인해, 일단 나훈아가 자신에 대한 루머들에 대해 해명을 하였습니다. 그러나 기자회견이 끝나고도 모든 것이 시원스럽게 해소된 것만은 아닌 것 같네요. 나훈아는 자신은 억울하며, 모든 것은 가지달과 방조자들의 잘못이라고 강변하였습니다. 나훈아는 왜 자신의 여행기간 중에 루머들에 대해서 알면서도 침묵을 한 것인지 이해가 되지 않는군요. 자기 스스로도 누구보다도 한국 언론의 속성을 잘 안다고 한 사람이, 그가 침묵으로 일관함으로 인해서 문제가 커질 수 있음을 몰랐을까요? 10개 이상의 나라를 자유롭게 돌아다니는 동안, 국내에 있는 자신의 회사 직원에게, 간단하게 라도 루머는 사실이 아니라는 공식 발언을 왜 지시하지 않았는지 의문입니다. …. 그가 가만히 있는 것이 암묵적으로 루머를 더 사실처럼 믿게 만들어 버린다는 것은 연예계 경력 40년의 그가 누구보다도 더 잘 알았을 겁니다. 또, 여러차례 이혼과 결혼의 경력이 있는 그이기에 더욱 그렇게 믿어져 버릴 가능성은 더 높았습니다. 기자회견에서의 해명도 석연치 않은 부분이 많은데요. 자신이 남의 부인을 탐했다면, 개 XX라는 발언은 그의 감정을 표현하기는 했지만, 어떠한 증거도 되지는 못합니다. 또, 간통죄가 있는 국가이기에 자신에게 문제가 있었다면 간통죄가 적용되었을 것이라는 말도 그다지 설득력은 없는 것이 간통죄의 경우 신고할 수 있는 사람은 각 사건마다 단 1명이기 때문이고 그 사람이 신고하지 않는다면, 간통죄는 성립하지 않습니다. 그런 관점에서 본다면, 간통죄 언급만으로 그의 결백이 입증되기에는 너무 많은 경우의 수가 있을 것 같네요. 어제 기자회견의 가장 이슈였던, 하반신 공개발언도, 실제적으로 공개된 것은 하나도 없기 때문에 하나의 쇼맨쉽에 지나지 않는다고도 볼 수 있을 겁니다. 한마디로 어제의 기자회견은 연예계의 생리를 잘 아는 노련한 엔터테이너의 카운더 펀치 같은 쇼맨쉽에 의한 헤프닝에 불과하며, 명확히 밝혀진 사실은 별로 없다는 것입니다.
After the press conference yesterday, Na Hoon-a explained about the rumors. But everything has not completely disappeared. Na Hoon-a said that he’s victimized and they’re all reporters and supporters’ faults. I don’t understand why he was silent about all rumors while he traveled. He said that he knows about Korean media more than anyone else. But why did he keep the silence and made the rumors get bigger? While he traveled more than 10 countries, why didn’t he ask his agents to have a public announcement saying that the rumors are not true? His 40 year career as a singer must give the hint that his silence could make rumors authentic. Due to his several divorces and marriages, the rumors sound more authentic to people, he could assume. His explanation at the press conference was not trustful. His statement, dog x x if he longed for another man’s wife, was his feeling, not evidence. He also said that if he had an affair with a married woman, he could be arrested because of adultery. It’s not persuasive enough. A person who is able to report adultery is one person per case. If the person doesn’t do anything, adultery doesn’t exist. With this observation, there are still a lot of questions about his innocence. The biggest issue from the press conference yesterday, the announcement to expose the lower half of his body was also just showmanship. Therefore, the conference yesterday was a skillful entertainer’s showmanship and nothing has been proved.
A blogger questions the meaning and power of writing.
글은 배설하는 것이 아니다.
붓으로 이루어진 범죄라 하여 가볍게 여길 수는 없습니다. 붓이 칼보다 강하다고 말하는 문필가는 많습니다. 하지만 그들 중 적지 않은 이들이 붓으로 이루어진 범죄가 칼로 이루어진 범죄보다 더 큰 처벌을 받아야 한다고 말하면 억울해 합니다. 바르지 못한 일입니다. 붓이 정녕 칼보다 강하다면, 그 책임 또한 더 무거워야 합니다.[…] 이번에 나훈아의 여연예인 두명에 대한 언론압살 사건을 해석하는 블로그들의 행동은 크게 두가지로 나누어진다. 하나는 나훈아의 생쇼에 고무되어 같이 기성언론을 씹느라 정신없는 블로거들. 그리고 또 하나는 다른 의미로 나훈아를 욕하거나 그에 대한 또 다른 음모론을 이야기하는 블로거들… 인터넷에 글을 올리기로 작정한 이상 우리는 다른 의미에서는 공인이나 다름이 없다. […] 어느정도 공적인 송석을 가진 것이라 이야기 할 수 있다. 이러한 공적인 속성을 가진 글은 나 혼자 보고 쓰는 일긱게시판과는 속성이 다르다. 말의 어투나 말의 세기를 조절해야 하며 나의 의견이 잘 전달될 수 있도록 조심히 해야 한다. 이번에 이렇게 루머가 확신이 된 것은 바로 기성언론의 기자 하나가 자신의 추측성 글을 블로그에 올리면서 금새 확산이 된 것이다. 그는 물론 기자로서 자신의 글을 언론에 올린 것이 아니기에 면책성을 받아야 한다고 이야기할 수 있다. 그러나 그것은 아니다. 그가 기자인지 모두 아는 이상 자신의 글에 책임을 져야 한다. 글은 배설하는 것이 아니다.[…] 글은 절제의 산물이다. 절대로 배선의 산물이 아닌 것이다.

author: Hyejin Kim


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Armenia: Asylum · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Unzipped raises the case of a 16-year old Armenian asylum seeker in the UK and asks if anyone can shed more light on the case.


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Armenia: Corrupt Justice · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Nazarian, a blogger supporting the candidacy of former president Levon Ter-Petrossian in the 19 February election in Armenia, says justice is corrupt and cannot be taken seriously in Armenia. In particular, the blogger cites the case of four Ter-Petrossian activists who have been detained on suspicion of beating a heckler during this pre-election campaign period.


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Armenia: Forgotten Circus · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Leaving behind the “political circus” that is election time in Armenia, The Armenian Patchwork visits the real one which is attempting to make a comeback. The photo blog posts photographs and an account.


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Armenia: On the (Unofficial) Campaign Trail · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Thursday marked the annual celebration of St. Vardanants day in Armenia, but this being pre-election period it also represented yet another opportunity for the prime minister to enjoy a media moment or two in support of his presidential bid. My Armenia Election Monitor 2008 has photographs and an account of the event.


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Armenia: Political Satire · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

With the media becoming as polarized as society is ahead of the presidential election due to be held in Armenia on 19 February, The Armenian Observer posts a satirical cartoon that the blogger believes represents the state of the local press.


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Bangladesh: Expat blogging · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

joybangla lists out some interesting blogs by expats in Bangladesh.


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Bangladesh: Grameenphone · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Bangladesh Corporate Blog on Grameenphone – the largest mobile phone company in the country.


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Barbados: Police ignoring drug dealers? · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Barbados police go after drug users, including tourists, but ignore the dealers, says Barbados Free Press. Why?


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Barbados: Press pays attention to blogs · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

A leading Barbados newspaper runs an editorial on “The Blogging Phenomenon”; Living in Barbados offers an analysis of the coverage.


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Bolivia: The Festival of Alasitas · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Photo by Cltn and used under a Creative Commons license.
Ekeko is a diminutive fellow with a jolly disposition.  His happiness may have something to do with the material wealth overflowing in his arms.  Miniature versions of dollar bills, euros, fancy cars, houses, and college diplomas can all be seen in the presence of Ekeko.  In Bolivia, Ekeko is a character associated with abundance and prosperity, and he is the central figure in the Festival of Alasitas.  This event is based in the city of La Paz, but can also be seen in other cities of Bolivia. Cristina Quisbert of Bolivia Indigena [es] describes the appearance of Ekeko and states that his appearance has been changing to reflect a more mestizo features.
Some bloggers in El Alto write about this festival.  Juan Apaza writes about some of the scenes from Alasitas in El Alto Hoy [es]
las alasitas es considerada una fiesta( es el encuentro de todas las esferas y status sociales ) vivida en miniatuara para conocer el imaginario de la cosmovision aymara…
es facinante ver como los deseos ,inquietudes y planes de la gente adquieren forma :
lujosos departamentos.
autos ultimo modelo.
titulos universitarios…
todos los alimentos….de la cocina…
fajos de billetes…dolares…y euros….pa que nunca falte…
van pasando por el saumerio de las yatiris a las 12 00 del dia ,pa que se cumpla y se vuelva realidad…(ahi va enfrascada la fe …)
este es un acontecimiemto unico.
ALASITA……….es un vocablo aymara que significa comprame…!
Las Alasitas is considered a festival (where one can find people from all social statuses) experienced in miniature and to get to know the Aymara cosmovision.  It's fascinating to see the wishes, hopes, and plans of the people that buy:Luxury apartments
The latest cars
College degrees
Food items for the home
Endless amounts of currency…dollars and euros
People pass by the location of the Yatiris (traditional medicine-men) at 12 noon so that their wishes come true .. (there is where faith comes in)…this is a unique event.
ALASITA is from the Aymara word meaning “Buy From Me”.
Felipe Puacara of Tecnología Comunicacional [es] adds a little more details to the rituals [es]:
A la hora mencionada mucha gente entre mayores, jóvenes y niños se encontraban ansiosos de adquirir billetes, casas, vehículos, cosas para el hogar, títulos universitarios, y otros, para que puedan ser una realidad durante el año 2008, el deseo personal fue adquirir algunos billetes para que no falte en el bolsillo, lo anecdótico aparte de realizar las compras, fue las ansias de buscar personas, que en el entorno aymara se los denomina “YATIRIS”, que significaría algo así como VIDENTES, para que puedan realizar la CHALLA de las miniaturas adquiridas, complementando de este modo el deseo de realidad. La challa, se constituye en un ritual andino que consiste en la acción de rociar con una bebida (alcohol o vino) y realizar el sahumerio con incencio.
At the indicated time, old, young and children become excited to acquire bills, houses, vehicles, household items, college diplomas, and other things that they want in 2008.  The desire to buy some bills is so that one's pockets aren't empty during the year. In addition to shopping, there was some excitement to find those that in Aymara are called “YATIRIS,” which can be said to mean “PSYCHIC,” so that they can CHALLAR (bless) the purchased miniatures, which helps make these wishes into reality. The challa is an Andean ritual that sprinkle these items with a drink (alcohol or wine) and cover them with incense.
In addition to the minatures, Wara Yampara of El Alto Productivo [es] writes about banks and their role in wishmaking in Alasitas.
Las alcancías son muy necesarias para aquellas personas que quieren ahorrar, hay alcancías pequeñas hasta gigantes de más de 50 cm. de alto, estas alcancías al igual que los objetos de estuco, son elaboradas un año antes de las alasitas, es decir que para las alasitas del próximo año, ya en Marzo empiezan a elaborarlas. La costumbre de las alcancías es comprarse una para poner ahí todo nuestros ahorros, la mayoría compra alcancías para los niños, aprendiendo en el año el valor del ahorro.
Para el negocio se compran de alcancías en forma de toro negro esto para la buena fortuna en el negocio, pero también existen puestitos miniatura, es decir tiendas, carnicerías, peluquerías, zapaterías, abarroteras, fruteras, puntos de llamada, etc.
Para el amor la costumbre es regalar a un amigo una gallina, para que aquel amigo tenga su pareja, o una gallina con sus pollitos para que esa pareja de amigos tenga hijos; y si es una amiga entonces debemos regalarle un gallito para su buena fortuna en el amor.
Banks are very important for those that want to save.  There are small banks and large banks up to 50 cm in height.  These banks are also made of stucco and are made one year before alasitas in March for use next year.  The tradition of the banks involves buying one to place all of our savings.  Most buy banks for children in order to teach them the value of saving.
For businesses, banks in the form of black bulls are bought so that there is good luck in business, but there are also minature booths, stores, butchers, barbershops, shoestores, fruit shops, call centers, etc.
For love, the tradition is to give a chicken to a friend who wants a partner or a chicken with chicks for the couple that wants children.  If it is a female friend, then a rooster is given to her so that she has good luck with love.
Some of these bloggers enjoy that these traditions are remaining strong in spite of external influences.  Loyola Larico writes about a story that was handed down by her grandfather [es].
Una me contó mi abuelo que mas o menos cuenta así: En vísperas del 24 de enero una familia de padres con un hijo y su esposa se encontraba en apuros uno porque eran fabricantes de los objetos en miniatura para las alasitas, sucede que el hijo de la familia había sufrido un accidente y la nuera daba a luz justo en esos días, por tal razón no podían terminar de hacer las miniaturas, una noche llego a su puerta un señor mayor regordito de nombre Pancho que pedía pasar la noche en la casa de la familia, la familia siempre generosa con la gente le dejaron quedarse, entre platica y platica le contaron a que se dedicaban y el problema que tenían, y el señor en eso se ofreció ayudarlos la nuera dio a luz esa noche, mientras toda la familia esta en esos acontecimientos, Pancho había terminado de surtir los pedidos para las alasitas, cuando llego la familia a la casa sorprendidos del hecho afirmaron sus creencias en cuanto a las alasitas. Realmente el Ekeko existía y los había visitado.
My grandfather told me one of these stories, and it goes like this: On the eve of January 24, a couple along with their son and his wife were hurried. For one, they were manufacturers of miniature objects to see at Alasitas. In addition, the son had suffered an accident and his wife was due to give birth precisely on those days. For those reason, they could not finish the order of the miniatures. One night an older, chubby man named Pancho knocked on their door. He asked if he could stay the night at the family’s home. The family had always been very generous with others and let the man stay the night. During conversation, the they talked about their work and the problem that they were facing. The guest offered to help. While the daughter-in-law gave birth, Pancho had finished all of the orders for Alasitas. When the family arrived home, they were surprised of what had happened and reaffirmed their belief in Alasitas. Ekeko really existed and was the visitor.
Finally, she shares additional words of wisdom from her grandfather about traditions in El Alto [es]:
Nuestras tradiciones nos dan mucho fuerza para seguir adelante y afianzar nuestro sentido de vivir. Viéndolo desde el punto de vista cultural no debemos olvidar nuestras tradiciones y costumbres. Mi abuelo siempre decía si sabes de donde bienes sabrás a donde ir.
Our traditions give us a lot of strength to move ahead and highlight our way of life.  Seeing things from the cultural point of view, we must now forget about our traditions and customs.  My grandfather always said, if you know where you come from, you'll know where to go.


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Bolivia: Watching Movies in El Alto · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Dora Romero of Las Ideas Son Primeo [es] writes about movie screens in the city of El Alto, Bolivia and that all types of people enter to watch the latest movies: shoeshiners, women in traditional garb, children, and couples in love.


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Brazil: Last minute ban on Holocaust-themed carnival float · Global Voices
Paula Góes

A few days before the official  Carnival kicks off, Unidos do Viradouro samba school had a float banned from the parade, after Jewish groups took a stand against it for featuring a pile of dead victims of the Nazi Holocaust. The Israelite Federation of Rio de Janeiro filed a lawsuit and a judge issued an injunction banning the float from the parade.
If the school decided to ignore the decision and carry on the parade with dead bodies, it would  face fines of $113,000 as well as $28,000 for each dancer dressed as Hitler. Viradouro's theme this year is ‘It freaks out‘ and the controversial float would be among other ones that evoke shiver: birth, horror and cold, all together eight sensations that aimed to  provoke a collective shiver.
On learning the news, American living in Rio Rachel Glickhouse  was less offended than she was  sad, because she could see more ignorance than malice in the choice of such a subject:
So here is the problem: ignorance. Carnaval is a time when Brazil turns everything on its head: the rich and the poor are equalized, what is normal becomes not, and the insane and the unallowed and the sensual and the uninhibited become the centerpieces of the festival. But since the guys over at Viradouto have no concept of the gravity of the Holocaust, to them it just seemed like another thing to “turn on its head” during Carnaval. Carnaval is not a time to take things seriously, but rather to overturn what is normal to enjoy a time of absolute ridiculousness that only happens once a year. (…) I doubt a samba school would make a float depicting the “disappeared” and tortured Brazilians during the dictatorship, or of slaves getting beaten by a master. The Holocaust is simply out of these guys’ frame of reference. Most of them are from favelas and live in a world completely different from the one most of us know.
However, Brazilian bloggers are divided. Some considered the ban correct and appropriate, and the float a trivialization of a historic tragedy. Others think that everything should be allowed at Carnival or called the ban censorship. Alex Castro [pt] was among the second group:
Diga rápido: o que é pior? Que alguém se proponha a fazer um carro alegórico sobre o Holocausto (com direito a judeus mortos e um Hitler dançando sobre eles) ou que uma juíza se ache no direito de proibir essa barbaridade? (…).  O pior da censura é que ela fere os direitos do público de formar sua própria opinião. Em princípio, eu acho a idéia de um carro alegórico sobre o Holocausto de um mau-gosto enorme mas, agora, graças à censura judicial promovida pela Federação Israelita, eu nunca vou poder formar minha opinião, nunca saberei como teria sido essa barbaridade. Sim, eu entendo que alguém que perdeu o pai no Holocasto poderia se ferir com esse carro alegórico, mas essa é uma das desvatangens de se viver em uma sociedade livre. As vantagens compensam, confie em mim. Os direito do público de ter acesso à obra, mesmo que de terrível mau-gosto, devem ter preferência em relação aos direitos do ofendidos – exceto em casos de calúnia, difamação ou injúria.
Tell me quickly: what is worse? Someone proposing to make an  allegorical float about the Holocaust (including even  killed Jews  and a Hitler dancing on them) or a judge thinking that she has the right to ban such barbarity? (…). The worst thing about  censorship is that it curbs the  public's rights to have their own opinion. In principle, I think the idea of a float about the Holocaust was in rather poor taste, but now thanks to judicial censorship promoted by the Israeli Federation, I will never  be able to have my opinion, I will never know how such barbarity would have been. Yes, I believe that this float would hurt the feelings of someone who lost their father in the Holocaust, but this is one of the disadvantages of living in a free society. The advantages are greater, trust me. The public's right to have access to artwork, even terribly bad taste ones, should have be  in preference to the rights of those offended – except in cases of libel, defamation or injury.
Meanwhile, Christiano Bianco [pt] defends the idea, considering it a fair protest against the Holocaust:
Não sejamos hipócritas. Napoleão, imperadores romanos e tantos outros déspotas sanguinários são lembrados nos enredos das escolas desde que o Carnaval existe. Por que só Hitler não pode aparecer? A iniciativa de Paulo Barros deveria ser encarada como um protesto face aos descalabros do Holocausto e não como chacota e banalização.
Let's not be hypocrites. Napoleon, Roman emperors and so many other bloodthirsty tyrants are reminded in the samba schools plots since Carnival was created. Why is it that only Hitler can not appear? Paulo Barros’ [the lead designer] initiative should have been seen as a protest against the misfortunes of the Holocaust and not as mockery and trivialization.
Whereas Ana Paula Freitas [pt] can not see any sense in Viradouro's choice of theme anyway:
Eu só não posso entender como uma escola de samba acha legal fazer uma ‘homenagem’ ao holocausto colocando no carro alegórico um monte de cadáveres e alguém vestido de Hitler sambando em cima deles. Tipo. SAMBANDO. Desculpem a falta de sensibilidade pra piada, sério.
I just can't understand how come that a samba school finds it cool to pay ‘homage’ to the Holocaust putting in a float a lot of bodies and someone dressed up as Hitler dancing samba on top of them. I mean, dancing samba. Forgive my lack of sense of humour for jokes, seriously.
Gilberto Fontes [pt] believes that the Carnival is not the most the appropriate forum to address this issue, especially when there are still holocaust like events happening in the world:
O enredo “É de arrepiar” não precisava apelar tanto. O Holocausto é fato, é história que se repete no século XXI, quando ainda acontecem genocídios como em Darfur, no Sudão, onde cerca de 400 mil darfurenses já foram dizimados de 2003 para cá por milicianos janjawid apoiados pelo governo sudanês na disputa que opõe a população árabe muçulmana do país aos muçulmanos não-árabes da região devido a questões de distribuição de terras e recursos. O carnaval não é fórum adequado para se tratar o tema. Nem este nem qualquer questão séria ou polêmica. A festa é das plumas, paetês e lantejoulas. Pode ser palco de críticas, mas também o é de sonhos e ilusões.
The theme “It freaks out”  needed not to be so invoking. The Holocaust is a fact, it's history that repeats itself in the twenty-first century when there are still genocide in Darfur, Sudan, where in 2003 around 400 thousand people were killed by janjawid militia supported by the Sudanese government in disputes that turns the Muslim country's Arab population against the region's non-Arab Muslims over land and resources distribution issues. The carnival is not the appropriate forum to address this issue. Neither this or any serious issues or controversy. The festival is for the plumes, pom poms and glitter. It can  be used as platform for criticism, but also it is also there for dreams and illusions.
Ricardo Pinto [pt] agrees with him and makes a comparison with what would be the trivialization of terrorist acts if shown at the same kind of parade and location:
Seria quase como, por exemplo, uma escola de samba resolver apresentar um carro alegórico mostrando os escombros do WTC, sobre eles todo o tipo de coisas que iriam desde laptops quebrados até pernas e cabeças humanas decepadas e de fundo a efígie do Bin Laden.
It would be almost like, for example, if a samba school decided to parade a float showing the WTC's rubble, and on the top of it the  kinds of things that would have been there such as laptops, broken legs and beheaded human heads with  a bin Laden's effigy in the background.
Similarly, Fernando Rizzolo [pt] believes that it is important to remember the Holocaust, but this should be done in a different way:
O Holocausto deve ser relembrado com a visão da liberdade, mas não de liberalidade como carnaval, festa alegre, bonita, enfim, uma ofegante epidemia onde não há lugar para tristezas.
The Holocaust should be reminded with the view of liberty, but not with the liberality of carnival, a  joyful, beautiful festival, anyway, a  breathless outbreak where there is no place for sadness.
Rio's Carnival starts this Sunday, February 3. The highlights of the celebrations  are  12 separate 80-minute parades by samba schools from the city's shanty towns over two nights. They feature  hundreds of drummers and thousands of dancers to compete to be the champion. The themes often depict social and political issues  and this is not the first time there were last-minute problems for Samba Schools. In 1989, Roman Catholic Church has barred floats with figures of Christ and the Virgin Mary and the samba school had to cover or modify them.
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Chile: Asian Culture Blog · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Vive Asia [es] is a new blog for Chileans to discover the Asian culture and was created by the National Congressional Library in Chile.


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China: Premier Wen Jiabo’s Tear · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Buliaoyuan listed out the occasion when premier Wen Jiabo shed tear because of people's suffering. Then the blogger points out that it is about time for Wen to visit Bobo city and shed tears for Hu Jia family (zh).


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China: Traditional Tibetan Song  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Michael blogs his experience as a voluntary teacher in Jinyuan. He also posts a video with his students singing traditional Tibetan song.


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Czech Republic: SMS Tickets · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Brno passengers will soon be able to pay for their tram rides via SMS, the Czech Daily Word reports.


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DoGooder.tv: A video sharing site for NonProfits · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

DoGooder.tv is a website for videos with a cause. Through it, non-profit organizations can promote their cause for a specific audience: one that is already interested in hearing what they have to say, and figuring ways in which they can help out.
See3 CEO and DoGooderTV´s creator Michael Hoffman was kind enough to grant me an interview, and in his own words, this is what they do:
DoGooderTV is a project of See3 Communications. See3 is all about helping nonprofits tell their stories on the web. We primarily use video and social media / websites to tell the stories. We have been helping our clients use existing tools, such as YouTube and the dozens of other video sharing sites and social networks. Some of our clients kept telling us that they had a problem with these sites. They were OK, but they worried about control of their brand, and whether the audience and the surroundings were appropriate for their messages.
So they decided to create DoGooder.tv, where nonprofits can brand their videos to a specific audience that is interested in making the world a better place. The idea is that any person interested in non-profits and their body of work will see the videos on DoGooderTV and they´ll be able to read more about the organizations and their causes, inform themselves about volunteering and donation opportunities, create a community around the issues they care about and share their experiences and their efforts with other like-minded individuals.  Following is a 1:04 minute video uploaded on dogooder.tv by international human rights organization Witness’ The Hub project, “a participatory media website for anyone, anywhere in the world to upload, view, share discuss and take action on human-rights related media.”
Every day DoGooder.tv is growing, as more non-profit organizations from around the world register on the site, uploading their videos. They discover about DoGooderTV though word of mouth, through articles read on other websites which mention it and many have joined drawn to their Annual Video award contest. This year´s contest theme is: From the Ground Up: Using Technology to Engage Constituents and Make the World a Better Place. Nten (the Nonprofit Technology Network) and See3 have joined to invite the winning organization who posts on DoGooder.tv the best animation, video or mashup used to engage constituents, to an all expense paid trip to the  2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference. The following video is last year´s winning entry: Avaaz foundation´s  2:31 video Stop the Clash of Civilizations, a call for action and peace in the Middle East.
For anyone wishing to be a part of the contest, there´s until February 15th 2008 to submit your videos on the DoGooder.tv website. I asked Mr. Hoffman for his advice for a nonprofit organization who doesn´t know much about online video but wants to participate:
My first advice would be, just start. If you don't have video, make some. You can get inexpensive cameras, you can find volunteers. Or if you have the resources, nothing beats professional video.
And if you have video, my advice is not to let it sit on a shelf. If you have anything longer than 5 minutes, look to cut it up into shorter engaging pieces. And then distribute those pieces on your own website, on DoGooderTV and on the social networks that are likely to have people who will support you.
You can't just put something online and expect that something will happen. You have to work the communities. You have to seek out the influential people online who already care about your issues.
There are many many organizations.And the ones that do not begin to SHOW their stories and document their work are going to have a harder and harder time getting attention — for fundraising, for policy change or for education.
So whether you are a nonprofit interested in getting people to know about what you´re doing,  if you are a viewer who wishes to see the efforts others are making to change the world a little bit at a time and if you want to know how you can help out,  DogooderTV is a good stop along the way.
This last video, by the Center for Global Development, shows the way a woman´s life in Bolivia could be changed through action.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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East Timor: On the Human Rights Watch report · Global Voices
Paula Góes

A comment left at the Timor Lorosa e Nacão blog contests the reliability of today's Human Rights Watch report on violence in the Portuguese speaking countries Angola, Brazil e East Timor: “Of course, as an NGO based in Washington and financed by the State Department North American (and by a host of corporations), HRW would never mention that the USA are the largest of all violators of all rights plus one. Or what is the aggression and invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan, as not to even mention the Palestine?”


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Ecuador: The Price of Corrpution · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

According to a report from Transparency International, Ecuadorians spend 533 million dollars in bribing public officials. La Voz de Guamote [es] says that this especially affects the poor.


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Europe, Russia: “The New Cold War” by Edward Lucas · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Marginalia reviews Edward Lucas’ The New Cold War: How the Kremlin Menaces both Russia and the West.


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Georgia: Photo Blog · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Kaukasus again posts more of the excellent work of Georgian photo blogger Lela Meparishvili.


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Guyana: Warning poem · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Signifyin’ Guyana posts “the angels warn”, a poem by Guyanese writer Balwant Bhagwandin, and notes, “The recent history-making violence in Lusignan makes the warning prophetic and urgent.”


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India: Copyright and the Law · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Law and Other Things on Supreme Court of India ruling that there can be no copyright in the raw text of court judgments/decisions.


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Iraq: Hail Storm and Work · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Neurotic Iraqi Wife describes a day which started with a hail storm in this post. She also writes about an outstanding colleague, who wants to leave Iraq.


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Jamaica: Staring at strangers · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Does it seem that Jamaicans like to stare at strangers? Moving Back to Jamaica explains why that might be.


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Japan: Imai Noriaki · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

At The Westerner's Fear of the Neonsign, calligraphykid writes about the experiences of freelance journalist and blogger Imai Noriaki, who became famous in 2004 as one of three Japanese to be taken hostage in Iraq.

author: Chris Salzberg


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Japan: Snow Creatures · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Edo posts some photos of snow creatures with Japanese characteristic.


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Jordan: 10 Tips for Bloggers · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Jordanian blogger Qwaider posts 10 things bloggers should avoid in this post.


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Jordan: Price Hike · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Thank you, Jordanian government, for removing subsidies and hiking gas prices across the board. We’ll all be walking a little…stiffer…after next month,” writes An American in Jordan.


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Kazakhstan: U.S. Ex-President Clinton Involved in a Money-Related Scandal · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Josh Foust reports on an article in The New York Times, which reveals Bill Clinton's involvement in a suspiciously easy uranium mining deal between Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev and a wealthy Canadian mining magnate with whom he happened to be friends whilst traveling to Almaty.


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Kyrgyzstan: Ombudman statistics and elections · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

GenderStan reports on the increased concerns over the Kyrgyzstan's Ombudsman office, as local women’s NGOs are uniting against Ombudman’s initiatives and many other NGOs complaining about lack of understanding between them and the institution.


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Middle East: Internet Outage Enrages Bloggers · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

What is a blogger without access to the Internet? This was the dilemma facing tens of thousands of bloggers in parts of the Middle East and Asia, after a cable in the Mediterranean was damaged, crippling millions of Internet users. No surprise, some of the region's bloggers were fuming especially when they realised that it could take up to two weeks to fix the damage and have to deal with slow Internet in the meanwhile.
Qatar:
Thanks to slow Internet, Mohamed Nanabhay in Doha sends us a Twitter message saying:
Apparently some undersea cables have been damaged near Alexandria, Egypt and thus the 28.8k type internet speeds on my ADSL..
Bahrain:
Braving slow connections, Bahraini Mahmood Al Yousif  says the fact that such a large part of the world depends on ‘one cable’ for its online communications is ridiculous and needs to be addressed. He adds:
The real question is, how is much of the fastest growing economies in the world dependent on a single undersea cable? Didn’t anyone think of a redundancy plan which covers just such an eventuality? One which would withstand such a technical disruption with complete transparency to the customers?
Ammar too was left scratching his head and after listing his country's achievements goes on a rampage saying:
It boggles the mind to think that a country on the scale of the above would actually be internetless for a full day. Yup, the internet was down EVERYWHERE today morning, probably for a good 8 hours or so, and we just got it back about 30 minutes ago. That's for people, companies, banks, institutions, schools, coffee shops, etc.
They are joined by Ali7, another disgruntled customer.  Meanwhile, Bint Battuta calls on bloggers to leave their frustrations at home and attend the country's Blogger's meeting instead. She notes:
Don't sit at home feeling frustrated by your slow internet connection!
Come and talk to people instead!
We're meeting on Saturday (2 February).
Kuwait:
In Kuwait, Forza blames Egypt for the cut, while Mark volunteers:
Slow internet is better than no internet
K The Kuwaiti says it may take two weeks to fix the problem and Fonzy describes life without Internet, saying:
I’m sure yesterday was a frustrating day for a LOT of people.  At around 11:00 a.m. the internet was down in the whole Middle East. Everything seems functional today but it is still a little slow, but I got to say that although it was cut for less than a day, it felt like eternity!
UAE:
Syrian blogger Dubai Jazz, who lives in Dubai, is also angry with an Egyptian fisherman for the breakdown of Internet communications in the region. He writes:
I couldn't do anything significant during the slow down. I couldn't even post comments on my own blog let alone others. Gmail was also down. Youtube? … forget about it.
All this was because some extra-witty Egyptian fisherman has decided to drop his anchor deep in the Mediterranean. Not only he'd dropped the anchor so deep and hurt one of the cables supplying bites to the Middle East and India, he had also dragged his anchor for 400 meters and cut another main cable in the process.
We could live with one cable cut, but two?
That, in my standard, is unprecedented.
And the fisherman is certainly demented.
Tunisia:
“Internet goes down, everything goes down…” writes Subzero Blue from Tunisia. He then takes the opportunity to reflect on our attachment to technology and its impact on everything we do. He notes:
This is what's so scary about technology; we quickly get so used to it, we integrate it into our everyday lives and work, we become dependent on it for everything we do, and then when it fails for one reason or another our lives stop, we're left crippled and helpless; we can't go back and we can't move forward; we just have to wait for things to be sorted out so we can go back to life as usual.
We're too dependent on technology, and we don't have a fail-safe plan; a major technological meltdown in the future could bring the whole world to a stand-still; and blow us back centuries into the past.


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MENA: Let it Snow .. · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The image above was taken by Alajnabiya, which translates to The Foreigner, an American in Palestine.
Needless to say, it was a happy day for her children, who got an extra day off school.
“My kids are happy this morning. After 2 weeks of winter vacation, they went back to school for one day, and then it snows! It started with hail last night.
By 6:30 am everything looked white. If there is any snow here, school and everything else is canceled. It's a public holiday!
My kids are thrilled. They were jealous before when Jordan got snow and we didn't. The lemon and olive trees look funny with all the snow. I hope we don't end up with too many broken branches,” writes Al Ajnabiya.
From Palestine, we move to neighbouring Jordan, where Naseem Tarawnah shares a few pictures of an Amman buried in snow, among them the one I posted above.
“If you thought the first day was bad, the second day has been worse. In fact, save for the occasional sirens of an ambulance in the distance, Amman is so silent this morning you could hear a pin drop. The cars are buried in snows as are the rooftops and satellite dishes. Looks like things might not get back to normal till Saturday,” he explains.
For kicks, Naseem also shares with us a photoblog on how to make snowmen and women! Click here to check out his imaginative friend's creations.
More of Naseem's snow pictures are available here.
In Jerusalem,  CK also shares some snow pictures and comments:
This is what I woke up to yesterday morning. Winter in Jerusalem is already difficult enough but when you add snow to the mix, oy… what a balagan (mess). The last couple of weeks have been freezing but at least I could always pop down to the shuk and get some Gat infused hot chocolate, lots of oranges for squeezing or whatever I wanted. But with the snow? Everything was closed.
Rebecca from Israel also shares some snow pictures and quips:
I can't believe I was playing in the snow just five weeks after walking barefoot on the beach.
Syria too had its share of snow and Mouffaq Qabbani had his camera out as he walked barefoot in the snow.  He blogs:
when u go out door in such a weather with bare footed :D
and the snow start melted between your toes OH its awesome
u feel NOTHING ,i mean NOTHING AT ALL :D
In the midst of all this, Sandmonkey from Egypt feels left out and yearns for some snow in the land of the pyramids.
“Where is the snow?” he asks.
He continues:
This is not fair. It's freezing here yet there is no snow. Where is the freaking snow?
I suggest that we egyptians plan a trip to Lebanon or Jordan, because if we are gonna freeze our butts off, we might as well have some snow to play in!
Related GV posts:
Iraq: Snow in Baghdad
Videos of Snow in Baghdad
MENA: Brrrrrr …It's Freezing


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Morocco: Author Honoured · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The View from Fez reports that famed author Tahar Ben Jelloun was honoured by French president Nicolas Sarkozy.


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Morocco: Couscous of the Dead · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Margot the Marrakesh Mystic has a two-part piece on Couscous of the Dead.


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Morocco: Kefta Tajine  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

SunnyRaindrops shares a recipe for kefta tajine, a Moroccan specialty.


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Morocco: Marrakech Marathon · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Connie in Morocco shares stories from the Marrakech Marathon and water cuts at home.


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Mozambique: An update on the mass kidnapping case · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Ivone Soares [pt] has an update on the strange mass kidnapping in Mozambique that she reported earlier this week, which went unnoticed by the press, even after a press conference about it: “The most alarming thing is that up to now nobody has any information on the whereabouts of the other people who Hamade met in the camp from where, fearing for his life, he run away”.


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Pakistan: Musharraf and Zia · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Crow's Nest on Musharraf's recent outburst in the U.K, and how he might end up meeting a fate similar to another military dictator in Pakistan.


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Pakistan: Women and the workplace · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Metroblogging Islamabad on working women in Pakistan being harassed at the workplace.


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Palestine: Rousing Speech · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Leila Abu Saba posts a statement by Israeli activist, Shulamit Aloni, read at the Saturday Gaza protest, which she described as a rousing speech.


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Palestine: Snow Pictures · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Anne P. posts snow pictures from Palestine in this post.


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Paraguay: Herb Market · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Muna Annahas writes aboutthe traditional herb market in Asunción, Paraguay and the different uses of each.


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Peru: Decorative Philosophy on Public Transportation · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Sentimiento Combi [es] is a new Peruvian blog that collects photographs of decorative text on the sides and windows of combis, which are buses and cars used for public transportation in Lima. The site writes, “all of this literature expresses the idiosyncrasy of the Limean, his “philosophy”, his lifestyle, and is expressed by the drivers of these units of public transportation, for full view of everyone.”


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Peru: The Fascination with Cuy · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Alejandro at Peru Food writes about all of the curiosity and fascination with cuy.  This rodent, also known as a guinea pig, is a popular dish in the Andes and can be prepared a number of ways.


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Russia: “A Guide for the Cautious Traveler” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

IVAN vs JAAN guest-blogs at La Russophobe about the dangers of traveling to Russia.


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Russia: “All Snow is in Samara!” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Inspired by Amira Al Hussaini's post on the cold spell in the Middle East, I've decided to do a roundup of the Volga region bloggers’ reactions to (and their photos of) the record snowfall that paralyzed the city of Samara and trapped hundreds of cars on the Samara-Ufa highway last week, forcing local authorities to declare state of emergency.
LJ user vas-ska posted two photos (that looked more like abstract painting at first) of cars buried under the snow and declared this (RUS) on Jan. 25:
All snow is in Samara!
According to a report (RUS) posted on Samara's official portal on Jan. 29, some 7,000 tons of snow had been transported out of the city the day before.
LiveInternet.ru user _azum_ posted this report (RUS) on Jan. 25:
In the past three days, two monthly norms of snow have fallen in Samara.
[…]
The scariest part is that ambulances can barely function. It takes them around three hours to arrive, because cars get stuck and doctors have to walk. Also, people say that many stores have run out of bread. And they can't get more delivered because trucks cannot get through.
And the most terrible thing is that highway M5 has come to a halt from [Syzran] to [Penza]. It stands still literally. Such a multi-kilometer jam has been there for 25 hours already. The cars have been able to pass only 30 km in this time!!! Both trucks and small cars are stuck there. They all have almost run out of gas and food.
[…]
They say that the last time something like this happened was 20 years ago!!!!!
Diary.ru user ~i-am-supergirl posted more photos of snow-covered cars – and wrote this (RUS) of their owners’ ordeal:
The Day After Tomorrow movie started the day before yesterday
[…] Only the most stubborn have managed to dig their cars out (from my backyard, only one neighbor – an ER doctor – left on time, in the morning, after working hard to get the car out and clean the snow off the road). Hmm… and there's nowhere to park, too. But why am I telling you all this? Take a look yourself (all snow piles are actually my neighbors’ cars).
[five photos]
[…]
Here's a report (RUS) from Saratov, which has also been hit by the blizzards, and yet another car picture from Samara, by LJ user ptath:
For the second day, the city's traffic is practically paralyzed. The amount of snow makes up for the bare asphalt of the previous months.
The problem is that snow isn't being cleared away from the roads. Not at all. In these two days, I've only seen snow cleaning equipment twice, and it was standing there idle. All the roads, including the city's main streets, are covered with 10-30 cm of thick snow – with ice underneath.
[…]
Everyone's late for work, but no one's asking any questions.
[…]
The governor and the city authorities are on TV, announcing cheerfully that this year they've managed to avert the crisis, and that 70 items of snow cleaning equipment are busy at work on the streets (of their government cottages perhaps), and that traffic police control problematic intersections (partly true), and that there are no traffic jams (a statement meant for the elderly people who aren't leaving their houses).
[…]
Finally, a photo from Samara, where similar problems are taking place:
[photo]
A friend's car that spent 7 hours buried in snow. He dug it out, but was still forced to walk to work – because all the roads are covered with snow piles.
More Samara photos: from LJ user kotty – here; from LJ user ez-listening – here.
A video reposted on YouTube from the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper – here.
Finally, a few photos and notes on the weather in Samara from Dmitri Minaev of De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis, a Russian history blog:
Beg your pardon for this little digression. The weather's getting really nice here. I always loved winters and it's been a long time since I saw a good blizzard. It started two days ago and still continues.
***
[In response to a sympathizer's comment]
I hope it stays that way till April! :)
[…]
***
[In response to another comment]
[…] This weather is very much like what I remember since childhood. If my memory serves me right, it's always been like this, except for the last 20 years when even the weather changed for the worse. […]


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Serbia: Smokers’ Paradise · Global Voices
Sinisa Boljanovic

Serbia marked the National No Smoking Day on Jan. 31, but, as one Serbian blogger noted, “Serbia is the paradise and El Dorado for smokers.”
Below is the translation of the Jan. 29 post by Predator:
The legal poisoners rule Serbian cities, villages and squares. There is no bigger Mecca, El Dorado and Paradise for smokers than Serbia. People smoke everywhere […]. I see people who smoke in Belgrade's bakeries, butcher shops, pastry shops, hospitals, offices, government buildings every day. Of course, there are official labels at these facilities – no smoking.
On New Year's Eve, I watched a baker smoking for five minutes during his break in the Toma bakery. He lit a cigarette and spread ashes around the mixer for dough. Then do you know what he did? He threw his cigarette butt on the floor and went on rolling dough for pizza.
There are a lot of similar cases in Belgrade every day. There is no reaction. Everyone is silent, everyone is pretending not to see how smokers are poisoning them.
One Serb came to Belgrade from the U.S. for the New Year's, after being away for a long time. I asked him about his impressions of Serbia. Hmm, what can I say to you? The man was shocked to see so many people smoking in Belgrade's streets and throwing their butts anywhere they went. He told me he had never seen so much trash, plastic bags, papers, cartons in the streets of Serbia's capital. […]
Nikola Tosic analyzed economic and health effects of smoking on his blog a few months ago:
Serbia's tobacco industry is a significant part of a vicious circle that burdens the society in several ways.
The government makes the first step by supporting production of tobacco in order for its quality to improve and its price to become acceptable for producers. Demand for the cigarettes is very high and homemade production is not sufficient. That is the first expense for taxpayers. The government manipulates the price of tobacco with our money to keep producers of tobacco satisfied.
Producers such as Phillip Morris and British-American Tobacco make the second step. They blackmail the government by firing workers if the situation is not good for their business.
Demand for cigarettes is the third step. The percentage of smokers in Serbia is among the highest in the world. […]
Medical expenses are the fourth step. They make up for the heaviest burden on the national budget. Smokers use budget resources more often than others, because they are more likely to get cancer and cardiovascular diseases, for which hospital treatment is very expensive. […]

author: Sinisa Boljanovic


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Serbia: The Election and Its Consequences · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Fistful of Euros is making predictions on the consequences of Serbia's upcoming vote.


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Trinidad and Tobago: Carnival art · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Trinidad's art galleries are filled with Carnival-themed work right now, says SexyPink, but is it just aimed at tourist dollars? “We have to reach inside ourselves and pull out much more.”


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Trinidad and Tobago: Reading Andy Ganteaume · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Jamaican writer Geoffrey Philp takes at look at the recently published memoirs of Trinidadian cricketer Andy Ganteaume — who scored a century in his one and only Test match, 60 years ago, then never played Test cricket again.


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UAE: Little Girls Suffer · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“I'm rather pleased to see that the UAE is formally addressing the incidence of child rape and molestation and has proposed this 12 step initiative,” writes teacherlady, who posts the initiative and comments on it.


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Ukraine: Odesa Pictures · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Scraps of Moscow posts pictures from Odesa, taken in summer 2006.


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Ukraine: Yushchenko’s Secret Residence · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Foreign Notes writes about president Yushchenko's residence in Koncha Zaspa: “It is never been seen by ‘lesser mortals’. There are no known official photographs this place. t was built by former president Kuchma, who now lives very comfortably just a few doors away in a newly-built prestigious dacha. […] The orange revolution seems a long way away.”


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Young citizen journalists getting into the act in Kolkata · Global Voices
Rezwan

It has been eight weeks since the Neighborhood Diaries project first started. Every Monday evening from 6pm to 8pm the participants have gathered in a classroom on the 3rd floor of Bowbazar High School in Kolkata, India for their workshop on citizen media. Only one session was rescheduled due to an electricity outage, which is common in these parts of the world. So, all together, seven sessions were completed. Their curriculum is has been well-detailed and the methods are both innovative and impressive. It would be great to collect them and make a manual for training citizen journalists elsewhere in the world.
From their project blog:
We start off each session by sitting in a circle and sharing last weeks reading. Then we proceed on to the next assignment through interactive activities, discussion, group games, individual and sometimes, outdoor writing. Catch a glimpse of our Monday evenings below:
Details from the sixth session:
“Session Five’s journalism assignment was an investigation and interview on different personalities and characters of Bow Bazaar. Through our discussion in the session, the youth journalists came up with Goondas (neighbourhood bandits), Neighbourhood Beneficiaries, Heroic Survivors, and Bhashan Baaj (folks who have something to say about everything).”
Below are some highlighted excerpts from the participants portrayals of neighborhood characters. The original texts were in Bangla which were later translated by the ND project leaders.
Tania and Jyotsna portrays Monoranjan Das, A Kind Hearted Para Beneficiary:
“He gives away blankets in winter time to the poor and needy. He provides medicine from his shop to people when they need it.”
Supriya and Pinky Lal writes about Tulshi Mashi a surviving woman:
“She thinks only one thing– that there was a time when she had to beg for rice. But now she has been able to stand on her own feet. She has come a long way.”
More writings on what it's like to live in the community by participants were updated recently in the project blog:
Surojit writes about a Garments seller:
“After having studied till standard viii, he had to leave studies due to problems at home. He is now 24 years old. He sells clothes underneath the Sealdah over-bridge. At home he has his parents and two sisters. He shoulders the responsibility for each of them. Since he could not complete his education, he hasn’t been able to land a better job. He hopes that his sister will stand beside and support her parents when she becomes independent.”
Pinky Lal shares the plights of a domestic help:
“The rooms have beds in two tiers there. If one takes the upper bunk, the cost is Rs.1450/-on a monthly basis whereas the lower bunk costs Rs. 1300/-. So Buli decided to opt for the lower bunk.”
Tania Mondol writes about the struggles of a fish seller:
“Tapa is doing this business ever since childhood. He has had some level of education. Even with his education, he was forced to take up this job because he had to take up the responsibility of his parents, a younger brother, an older sister and her ailing son. He sells varieties of fish in the Bowbazar area, and earns enough to be able to meet the demands of an ordinary life.”
Rahul Goswami shows the inhuman living conditions of a shoemaker:
Musha da is a shoemaker. He is not a bit ashamed about this identity. He belongs to a lower middle class Muslim family. His room is like a dark, claustrophobic pigeon-hole. Musha da himself does not recall what colour the walls of the room had been. It is a 6 foot by 4 foot room. There is no bed, but a chatai and pillows are laid out on the floor. The walls are nearly covered by hanging heaps of saris and other clothes. There is no separate space for cooking, the lavatory has been curtained off to create a small kitchen. There is no window in the room, not even one as small as a mirror. The smell of the room is a peculiar medley of leather smells, the smell of cream shoe polish and dampness. Though it is not apparent from outside, once you enter the room you feel that it has ended even before it has begun.”
And Anjali shares the heartbreaking story of a sex worker, Jyotsna:
Jyotsna had studied upto class 2. She did not enjoy studying, and therefore left it. When she was 11-12 years old, she was married off in a social ceremony. Her puberty started 3-4 months after her marriage.
Read on the upsetting story how her husband committed suicide and how she was compelled to choose prostitution, to feed her daughter.
Session seven’s assignment included showing participants ways to make changes in the neighborhood. One of the methods to teach these budding journalists is enacting a problem they see emerging in their neighborhood (from their own perspective) and enacting a solution they think is feasible (from their perspective). They were given a home assignment to write an article researching a Problem/Issue of their neighborhood.
We hope that with these amazing workshops these citizen journalists will not only be good writers but enrich their knowledge and human qualities as well.  Though the Neighbourhood Diaries participants will be taking a break throughout February and March in order to prepare for their school exams, we look forward to their return at the beginning of April.

author: Rezwan


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Africa: A month into 2008: Hope, Dreams, Living · Global Voices
Paula Odhiambo

2008 is one month old. Different African women bloggers are going through different spiritual experiences. For many, this is just another year, exactly the same as 2007, and 2006, all the way back to the day they were born. For some, it began on a high note, with excitement and festivities; for others, hopes were dashed and disappointment could not be hidden.
One day, In the Midst of Her felt pulled toward the book of Jonah and discovered that she is not too different:
One night after wondering what to read, I decided to read the book of Jonah. I don’t know why I felt pulled to it, but I decided to heed the desire and do it. I love the bible because it tells of the character of God. Here is what I learnt from the book of Jonah; I learnt of myself… the Jonah in me…
Jon 1:3
But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
I think of how many times knowing what was desired of me, purposely gone the opposite way. I look at Jonah’s story and say, “if God ever called me to do something, I would run to it immediately. But do I need to physically hear God’s voice to have this passion?. Knowing the word of God is hearing the word of God and we should be quick to do everything the bible states.
Some Broken Heart is going through a see-saw of emotions, first grappling with the situation in Kenya:
my heart thumps…thumps…but only weakly
Shouls i be afraid of me, or of them?
Am I my greatest enemy or are they my greatest enemy. 2008, and am scared that life is passing me, afraid that i myt loose, all I have maybe to insanity, i dont seem to have feeling no more, am going numb inside…….
and then dealing with the loss of “Thomas”:
I believe I can find love again, am young, am not some old woman who has been married for 40 something years, who just cant bear to move on, but resolves to age lonesome in honour of her late husband. I am a young, beautiful woman who fell in love with you, had the best years of my late teens with you, and lost you when we were almost there, and now am having problem trying to get over you, death has no mercy.
and finally choosing to trust God in all things:
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
Rinsola, meanwhile, is grateful for a new year and confident that God’s grace will see us all through the tough times.
I'm so grateful to God for yet another year, i honestly can't thank Him enough, but i pray i would always be thankful to Him. I also pray that we'ld all have numerous reasons to be thankful to God this year. I personally i'm looking forward to being a recipient of His 2008 BLESSINGS, I'm going to believe Him and His words especially those things i thought to be impossible (EVERYTHING is possible to him who believes Mark 9:23) and i hope you all are highly expectant this year also.
To my fellow bloggers, lookerbys’ and readers let's walk through 2008 with God, believing Him, and that His grace, strength and love would see us through this year. Remember the challenges would come, but it is POSSIBLE with Him.
Faraja has determinedly decided to take the road of resolution:
I decided to call this my “year of surprises” figuring that if I just live my life with God leading me it would have to work and the end result would be more happiness because I’d taken the pressure of myself. Surprises can be more enjoyable than planning every minute detail…it was time for me to stop trying to control my life.
And Vee shares her longing to give birth to a set of twins:
I had a dream where I was pregnant with twins last night. I woke up so disappointed that I wasn't pregnant, which is why I'm freaked out! Like, how can I possibly want to be pregnant? I'm 25, shouldn't I want to hold on childishly to my independence and freedom? Shouldn't I be actually jumping for joy at the realisation that it was all a dream, and not be wallowing in self pity at the loss of my [phantom] pregnancy? Its official there's something wrong with me!… Abba, you know I really want to have a set of twins right? So when the time comes, please keep that in mind. But in all scenarios let Your will be done.
February’s already here, but we’re all still finding our place and getting our footing in 2008. It is bound to be an interesting year, and is already full of great expectations. Within the despair lies an indestructible ray of hope. Those who dream carry in them a longing for the fulfillment of their hearts’ desires. If we could see the future, we would all know what 2008 holds for each of us, but for now, we hope, and we dream, and we live on.

author: Paula Odhiambo


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Angola: Africa is burning, who cares? · Global Voices
Paula Góes

“Chad is on fire. The same for Kenya. Sudan too. This will be followed by the Central African Republic. The conflict in Darfur has claimed at least 200 thousand lives and caused two million refugees and displaced persons. What about Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia? But does that matter? Important, indeed, is the wedding today, at the Elysée Palace, of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and singer and former model, Carla Bruni.” Orlando Castro [pt] claims that the international community does not care about Africa.


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Armenia: Blogging Congressmen · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Armenian-American Political Action Committee, a new U.S.-based Diasporan lobbying group, has started its own blog. Unlike most Armenian blogs, however, those writing for it are two U.S. Congressmen, Frank Pallone and Joe Knollenberg. The first hasn't started posting yet, but Knollenberg has an entry on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.


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Come Explore New Videos at Rising Voices · Global Voices
David Sasaki

The first round of Rising Voices outreach projects have already been training participants in underrepresented communities how to use the tools of citizen media for just over seven months now. Of course in the beginning they started slow. First each of the project participants created their blogs and learned how how to link to other information on the internet. Slowly, the projects then explored digital photography and photo-sharing websites like Flickr. Now many of the projects are taking their media production skills to the next level by using Windows Movie Maker to produce short video documentaries that reveal the realities of the communities where they live.
These videos are, of course, far from sleek Hollywood productions. Which is exactly what makes them so valuable. They show life as it really is, not as we'd like it to be. You can always see the four latest videos from Rising Voices projects on the front page of our website. Every video is subtitled in English and many are available in other languages as well. For example, La Receta from HiperBarrio is already available in Bengali, Chinese, English, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. You can always help us translate all of the videos into other languages using dotSUB. To watch any of the videos with subtitles, simply click on the video player where it says “Choose a language …” To help translate the video into another language that does not appear on the list, click on “translate this video.”
All of the videos are currently downloadable in their native language, though we will soon make downloads available with English subtitles as well. We are also in the process of creating a special video archive page and increasing the size of the video player in order to make the subtitles easier to read. We hope that you will continue to check back and keep up to date with the latest videos from Rising Voices participants.
Rayones by Jorge Jurado
“Rayones” translates into English as “tagging”, a particular form of graffiti in which names, nick-names, and brief messages are scrawled in public places and on the sides of houses and building. In fact, as we learn in this video production by HiperBarrio participant Jorge Jurado, tagging can even take place on human skin. (And probably not where you're expecting!). Jorge's video is a thoughtful meditation about an activity which is common in La Loma, Colombia along with other working class neighborhoods around the world. Is tagging vandalism or a form of individual expression?
Interview with Monwara Begum by Taslima Akhter
Taslima Akhter is the video-blogging trainer at Nari Jibon in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She recorded a heartbreaking interview with Monwara Begum who describes the abuse she endured at the hands of her husband and his family.
Banda Paniagua by Dnabier Sady
The Paniagua Band from the Medellin's outlying community of La Loma used to be one of the city's most famous musical groups. But as you will soon learn in this brief documentary by HiperBarrio's Dnabier Sady, today very little is heard of or from the family group that has endured five genrations.
This is just a small sampling of the videos that have already been produced by Rising Voices projects. In upcoming weeks we will have more videos from Voces Bolivianas, HiperBarrio, and hopefully other projects as well. Stay tuned!!

author: David Sasaki


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Iran:Breast kisser sentenced · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Dime a Zone writes that an Iranian PhD student in St. John’s, Newfoundland in Canada was sentenced to an additional 18 days in prison for sexually assaulting a woman on an elevator.This student said “you can’t expect all males to control themselves when the breasts are out.”

author: Fred Petrossian


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Japan: Insider trading at public broadcaster NHK (Part 2) · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

The uproar last week about the discovery of insider trading at Japan's public broadcaster NHK has died down, with former Asahi Breweries advisor Fukuchi Shigeo having taken over for beleaguered NHK president Hashimoto Genichi, who resigned days ahead of his scheduled end-of-term. Fukuchi has been criticized for his lack of experience in journalism or broadcasting.
This week, more comments from bloggers on the insider trading scandal at NHK (for more background see part 1).
One blogger described insider trading as potentially suicidal for any media outlet:
会社は、重要な情報開示が、市場に過激な影響を与えることのないよう、取引終了後に発表することが多い。ただ発表前に原稿を報道機関に渡しておくため、今回のようなことが起こり得る。報道機関がこのようなことでは、会社などは、彼らに情報を流さなくなる。これでは報道界の自殺行為だ。
Blogger and former Asahi newspaper journalist Hara Junjirou expressed a similar sentiment in his blog:
ＮＨＫの報道を担当する職員がインサイダー取引の疑いがかけられている。事実ならジャーナリストの風上にも置けない。しかも一度に３人も容疑者が出た。日常的に行われていたとしたら重大である。
私がいた朝日の経済部は昔から株取引は禁止されていた。インサイダー取引規制もなかったし、社内規則などの成文法もなかった時代だが、だれも破るものはいなかった。従業員規則に盛り込まれたのは、最近である。
今回の事件は規則がなかったから起きたのか、それともＮＨＫ職員のモラルが低下したためなのか、どちらなのだろう。
成文法はなくてもわれわれは株取引はしなかった。規則以前の職業倫理の問題だと思っていた。ジャーナリストの倫理が揺らいでいるのだろうか。
ジャーナリストは一般の人より高い倫理観が求められるといわれる時代になった。職業上知り得た情報で私腹を肥やしていたら、だれもジャーナリストに真実を話さなくなる。報道機関の自殺行為であることはいうまでもない。
Blogger finalvent, on the other hand, didn't think the amount of money involved in the trading was actually that much:
ＮＨＫの記者の例でいうと、儲けはたかだか５０万円くらいのようだし、さっと儲けが出た時点ですっこめたということで、端から小遣い稼ぎだったようだ。が、５０万円というのはＮＨＫ記者の年収にすればはした金と言っていい。いや、５０万円をはした金とかいうとネガコメレッドにすかさず悪口言われそうだが、いやいや私や彼女のような貧乏人じゃない。ＮＨＫ記者ならねということ。
Blogger toritori1987, finally, interpreted the whole event in terms of society's fixation on money:
バブル以来、世の中は金、金、金。
金に執着するあまりすっかり魅力のない社会になってしまった。
金がものをいう世界は大抵の場合モラルが崩壊しており、人間社会の基本が機能しなくなっている。
お隣の国、中国や韓国がそういう国になっているのは仕方がない。
しかし当の私たちの国がそうなっていては話にならない。


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Nederlands:Holland Loves Muslims · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Thanks to Eutopia site,Tori Egherman,Kamran Ashtary,Shervin Nekuee and Farhad Golyardi,”the Holland loves Muslims Petition” is launched.


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Paths of the Portuguese Language: Africa-Brazil · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Luiz Felipe de Alencastro [pt] publishes the transcription of a a speech by him in 2006, in the symposium “Paths of the Portuguese Language: Africa-Brazil”

author: Paula Góes


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Saudi Arabia: Stop Organised Religion · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Organized religion is what takes the soul out of believers. Let's just put a stop to it,” writes Ubergirl87, who is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.


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Armenia: Effects of Corruption · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Bruce Tasker, an expat worker currently attempting to claim damages from the World Bank for blacklisting, continues to allege widespread high-level corruption in government and the international money-lending organization. His Blowing the World Bank Whistle now takes a look at the effects of that alleged corruption.


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Armenia: Hollywood & Reality · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Going Home says that films such as Speed might seem believable in Hollywood, but the reality in Armenia is somewhat different. In particular, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the blogger cites traffic, law enforcement and corruption in the country as just some of the reasons why nobody would ever plant a bomb on a bus in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.


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Armenia: On the Campaign Trail · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Saturday saw the prime minister and still presidential favorite campaign on my doorstop. My Armenia Election Monitor 2008 has an account as well as photos from the free concert staged by Armenia's top pop stars, including this year's Eurovision Song Contest contestant, Sirusho in his support.


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Armenia: Revolution in the Making? · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Archuk's blog saysthat the return of Levon Ter-Petrossian to the political scene in Armenia for the 19 February presidential election is part of some external plan to normalize and stabilize the South Caucasus . The blogger asks “Who woke up Levon Ter-Petrossian?”


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Brazil: Police is after lieutenant blogger · Global Voices
Paula Góes

There are more than 100 comments showing solidarity with lieutenant blogger Melquisedec Nascimento [pt]. According to him, Rio de Janeiro's Governor Sergio Cabral ordered yesterday that he was arrested immediately. The Police force in charge of the task paid visit to his home this Saturday, but he was nowhere to be found. “What greatly irritated Cabral was a photo composition and a video posted on the blog, in which the governor is depicted as Pinocchio”.


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China: Lunar new year approaches with tragedy growing · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Crisis looms large across the south part of the country with the 2008 China Snowstorm showing no signs of letting up. Trains are trapped [zh] on tracks, cars stuck on highways, flights have been delayed and canceled up and down the east coast and at least one woman has been trampled to death [zh] beneath the hundreds of thousands of stranded travelers at Guangzhou‘s train station in the south, scrambling in misery to make it home for the Olympic Chinese New Year of the Rat, which begins on Thursday.
The impact has been worse in other parts of the south, not accustomed to dealing with snow in any amounts, leaving large parts of Hunan and Hubei provinces freezing but without electricity and in some cases, water. Nearly all of normally subtropical Guizhou province, one of China's poorest, is in crisis mode now, with large areas urban and rural encased entirely in ice.
For the areas that still have electricity, the shared experience is being shown online. Here one Youku user somewhere in Guizhou writes that with both water and electricity off, over ten thousand people have gathered at what appears to be a natural hot water source (**please be warned that in the fifth video down, closeups of dead bodies are portrayed):
Another user from Guizhou writes in shock at all the ice, in a province which very seldom sees snow:
More shocking images of the response efforts, also from Guizhou:
Dozens of similar citizen reporter-style videos can be found on Chinese video sharing websites; this one comes from Hunan:
Several days ago a bus traveling from Chongqing to Guizhou overturned on the highway, resulting in 25 deaths. Someone took the time to film the salvage effort at the extremely grisly scene:
TangFlyBra at hoopChina asks in a post on Friday, “Guizhou, are you still alive?”
首先，贵州是最早开始凝冻天气的城市，也是受灾最严重的城市，这场漫天的大雪对贵州的伤害远远大于其他地区，因为贵州是喀斯特地形山脉，大部分公路都是环山而建，因此一旦路面无法出行，就意味着那些山里的城市和乡村将与世隔绝，没有任何能出去的可能！现在贵州很多县都已经断水断电并且与外界失去联系无数天了，加上当地本来就比较贫穷，当地人民完全是被抛弃在了大山里。
发飙：湖南是全国的交通枢纽、广州是返乡农民工的聚集地，于是漫天的报道都是这些省，而受灾最严重的贵州呢？是否已经被人遗忘了？昨晚看到公布的灾害各地的更新列表，首页居然没有贵州省！去他大爷的！
其次，贵州的电塔由于厚厚的结冰已经倒塌了无数了，电塔上的结冰有接近1公分厚，这就意味着一座电塔上面现在被数吨的东西压着，这能不倒吗？贵阳前几天已经大面积停电停水了，贵州省委开会都是点蜡烛了，省会尚且如此，更何况其他城市。
发飙：当全省人民都在无限的痛苦之中，中央电视台连线贵州贵阳记者进行最新一轮灾情采访，首先问的第一句话是：“这次最新的降雪对你们那里有影响吗？”我操！当贵州的雪不是雪是吗？然后我期待着贵阳的记者把严重的问题说出来（我爸妈现在已经没办法出门了，昨晚的冻雪又造成了地面厚厚的一层冰，贵州所有的道路都是高低起伏的，可以想象一下现在贵州基本已经是一个巨大的溜冰场了）。你们知道记者花了十分钟在说什么吗？在说他妈的移动、联通和电信的基站如何如何被影响，然后如何如何去有人每隔七小时用柴油发电机去保证大家能顺利打手机。。。那些山区里的老乡们都他妈快冻死饿死了，就算贵阳也都停水停电又没法出门了，你他妈的居然在这里说保证手机信号的事情，我FXXK！！！
Hunan is a national traffic hub, and Guangzhou is where migrant workers gather to return home, so reports have all been on these two provinces. And Guizhou, which has seen the most devastation? Have people forgotten it already? Last night I saw the latest list of disaster areas, but I didn't even see Guizhou province on the front page! God dammit!
What's more, countless electricity towers in Guizhou, covered in ice nearly a centimeter thick, have toppled over. With a ton of ice pressing down on it, what electricity tower wouldn't fall down? For several days already, [the provincial capital] Guiyang has been without electricity or water. Even the provincial government is lighting candles now just to convene, and if that's where they're at, other cities must be worse.
As the entire province is stuck in endless misery, CCTV reporters from Guiyang did interviews for an update on the latest of the disaster. Their first question was, “have you been affected there by the latest snowfall?” Fuck! It's not snow if it's Guizhou snow, is that it? Then when I expected the Guiyang reporter to start asking the serious questions (my mom and dad, btw, can't even get out door now, the frozen snow from last night's fall has turned the ground into a thick layer of ice. All the roads in Guizhou are on rolling land, so you can imagine that the whole province is pretty much one big skating rink now), do you know what the reporter spent ten minute talking about? That fucking China Mobile and China Unicom relay stations have been affected, and how every seven hours someone is going and using a diesel generator to make sure everyone's cellphones work smoothly…the people in the mountain villages are about to fucking freeze and starve to death, and all of Guiyang is without power or water and can't even go out, and you're still fucking here talking about ensuring cellphone usage? Fuck!!!
Zhao Mu, director of main news portal Sohu.com's blogging services, posted on his blog today a thread of netizen comments that has been making the rounds:
Aqua and green are little to no hazard areas
贵州已经是零下5，6度，已经几乎是湿冷的极限，能很快带走人体热量，贵州人民短水短电，粮食及其危机，能源无法保证，生活艰辛无法想像。
希望天气早日结束，在成都关注和同情你们！
谁来拯救雪困中的贵州人？
现在到处都是关于雪灾的消息，贵州属于重灾区。我是一名在京的贵州人，所以尤其关注贵州的灾情，但是却发现从网络以及电视、报刊杂志上能了解贵州灾情的消息不多，不断和家人、亲友短信电话，得知的也是交通情况恶劣，都匀福泉等地无电供应等很片面的了解，直到刚才才从一友人处了解到一些比较全面且真实的情况，在此发表，希望版主能让此贴迅速通过并置顶以引起大家的关注，以此来为我家乡人民谋求一丝希望！否则再这样下去，我们这些身在异乡的贵州人将无颜面对家乡父老。
。。。
“仁怀现在就是一个死城~好惨，停水、停电、没有物资没有油，道路全封闭都两个星期了，连中枢街上都是一层冰，房顶上的冰有7cm厚，已经有人冻死了，火葬场没有油烧尸体好残忍。我们全员上路都快顶不住了（他们是交通警察），这是我从来没有经历过的残酷，有时我都在想象这是不是电影，感慨和平安定多好呀！今天终于来了3个小时的电又停，我正回来开服务器UPS（这是一种电源设备）马上用完。好累。
寒灾起初中央没有引起重视，没有任何准备。要是中央再不采取紧急措施空投物资的话，我们这里真的要大规模的死人了。
（我问仁怀市现在状况如何，政府有何反应，他回答：）什么都运不进来，运油的车都翻在了路上，连行政中心都没有电，街上的炭买12元一斤、蜡烛5元一支、冻熟的白菜5元一斤还是限量。政府也没有办法
（（我问他还能坚持多久？）顶多还能坚持2天，还没有救援的话，将是尸体成山。
I hope the weather ends soon. With care and sympathy from Chengdu.
Who's going to rescue the Guizhouers trapped in the snow?
News is everywhere now of the snow catastrophe, and Guizhou has been one of the hardest-hit regions. I'm from Guizhou, living now in Beijing, and that's why I'm paying particular attention to the Guizhou disaster. I've noticed that there's not much to be found out about what's happening there now from the internet, television, newspapers or magazines, so I've been keeping in regular touch with family members and relatives, over the phone and through SMS, and I've learned that the traffic situation is horrible, but even less about places like Duyun and Fuquan with no power supply. Right until just now when I got from one friend a pretty comprehensive picture, which I'll post here, and I hope the webmaster hikes this up so more people see it, and to give the people back where I'm from a shred of hope! If things keep on the way they are, us Guizhoers around the country won't have enough face left to go back and face the folks at home.
[…]
“Renhuai is already a dead city, it's so tragic. No water, no electricity, no supplies and no oil. All roads have been closed for two weeks already, and even the main streets are layered with ice. The ice on the roofs of houses is seven centimeters thick, and people have already frozen to death. The crematory has no fuel to burn the bodies with, it's tragic. Our whole squad can barely stay on the road (they're traffic police), this is more merciless than anything I've seen before. Sometimes I even wonder if this isn't a movie, it makes things a lot easier to handle! Today we finally got three hours of electricity and then it stopped again. I'm going back now to turn on the server UPS (this is a kind of power source) as I'm almost out of power. So tired.
The central government wasn't led to pay that much attention when the cold first struck, so there wasn't any preparation. Now if the central government doesn't keep up the emergency goods air drops, we're going to have large-scale deaths here.”
I ask what the situation is now in Renhuai, if the government has taken action, and he answers: “they can't move anything in, the fuel transport truck flipped on the road, and even the administrative center has no power; coal on the street is selling for 12 RMB a jin, candles 5 RMB a piece, and frozen cooked cabbage at 5 RMB a jin is still limited. There's nothing the government can do.”
I ask him how long they can last. “Two days at most, and if we haven't been saved by then, there are going to be mountains of corpses.”
News we could hear sooner than not; at least in Guangdong province, local transportation authorities didn't hesitate to repeat the true situation of tracks restored and numbers heading home in the face of Ministry (and The Minister) of Railways’ fabrications to that effect during Wen Jiabao's visit to the provincial capital's train station earlier this week. Southern Group reporters are being recalled, presumably so Xinhua can take over.
Making the most of the situation, a group of boys in hard-hit Bijie, Guizhou, filmed themselves hiking up to a local television transmission tower where locals are passing the time playing on an sloped ice patch:

author: John Kennedy


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Kuwait: Crazy Month Rolls By · Global Voices
Abdullatif AlOmar

It was a crazy month all around – from crazy weather to nutty Internet connections and price hikes.
Insane is how Marzouq,  over Zdistrict, describes the weather. He further explains:
What has been going on for the past couple of days has been nothing short of insane, it has gone from cold to warm back to cold. I look forward to the weekend just so I can go riding but that is shot because of the 25- 37 Km/h winds. It has made it difficult for people to be outside so most of everyone is staying in or going to the malls.
From the weather, we move to a crazy price hike in cinema tickets. 3baid writes about the price hike on cinema tickets from the the country's only operator.
From the official Cinescape website:
Effective 7th February, ticket prices will be KD 3.000 except on Mondays.
Way to go Cinescape! It’s now even less attractive to watch movies there.
Pearl too has another price hike to report on and writes about a Kuwaiti juice company increasing the price of juice.
raising their prices but for selling a pack of 40 mini juices (125ml) for the insane price of KD 3.400, while a pack of 24 regular juices (250ml) is sold for the price of KD 3.600. Silly silly silly!!!
Bureaucracy too is having its toll on blogger Yousef at somecontrast who is hating himself for:
Yesterday I went to Shuwaikh’s port near Kuwait University. I wanted to tell everything in details, but that proved to be impossible… so many little annoying details.. most of which were intangible.. you’d have to go there once and know what i’m talking about
The recent Internet outage is not helping either and Forzaq8 is pointing fingers at who is to blame for it and proclaims:
yes Blame Egypt for it
In other non-crazy posts, Qais over at Io81 writes about how a local business works:
Many have heard or used 6alabat.com, its a simple website where you log in, browse for a restaurant and order. Then 6alabat.com takes the rest, i wont talk about the miss hap that 6alabat has like making incorrect orders etc etc…but i will explain how he makes a profit for other to understand
Meanwhile, Fonzation writes about a decision to close seven private schools in residential areas that has finally been implemented in Kuwait and thinks it may reduce traffic. He explains:
This will definitely minimize the extreme traffic we are witnessing on the 4th ring road everyday! Just like there are residential area, industrial areas, office areas, and so on, there should be areas designated for schools.

author: Abdullatif AlOmar


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Discovering the Peruvian Carnival · Global Voices
Paula Góes

The author of Tordesilhas [pt], a blog by a Brazilian living in Lima, is surprised to discover that there is a beautiful tradition of carnival in Peru. In this post, he explores the Cajamarca, Ayacucho and the Amazon areas carnival.


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D.R. of Congo: Author and blogger disagree on Congo · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Kinshasa based blogger, Fred, writes: “Rory MacLean has done me the honour of responding to my recent post, berating him for writing, in a review of Tim Butcher’s Blood River for The Guardian, that ‘there is little difference between the Congo seen by Stanley and by Butcher’, and suggesting that readers should weep for Congo but not go there.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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D.R. of Congo: Closer look at peace agreement · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A closer look at the peace agreement in the Democratic Republic of Congo: “Average number of signatures per page: 40, Signatories using blue pens: 35, Signatories using black pens: 3 (Alan Doss, new UN SRSG; Dennis Kalume, Interior Minister; Didier Bitaki Wateshe, Kifuafua Mai Mai group), Signatories using green pens: 2 (the acting Governor of South Kivu + an unidentified witness), Most graphically distinctive signature: Didier Bitaki Wateshe, of the Kifuafua Mai Mai group (Ufamundu/Masisi axe), Most expansive signature by surface area: Kibiswa Kwabene Naupess, representing the national civil society delegation, Nicest fountain pen: Alan Doss, UN SRSG…”


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Japan: How many Japanese blogs are there? · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

On January 22, blogger smashmedia asked readers of his blog to answer a questionnaire [ja] on the topic of: “How many blogs are there in Japan?” [ja]  In another post [ja], smashmedia reports that respondents on average estimated the number of Japanese blogs at 2.44 million. Other results: 23% answered that they post blog entries every day, and 29% blog 2-3 times per week. The average age of respondents was 31. smashmedia notes that results are biased as 63% of respondents report that they come from Tokyo.


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Japan: Newspapers launch news portal “Aratanisu”, bloggers respond · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

Three of Japan's largest newspapers, Nikkei Inc., Asahi Shimbun Co. and Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, on Thursday  together launched a new online news portal referred to as Aratanisu (“新s” in Japanese). The site aims to provide side-by-side coverage of news stories from each newspaper in order to allow readers to easily draw comparisons on front page news, general news and editorials. Links from article summaries on the main Aratanisu webpage lead to original articles posted at the newspapers in question.
Bloggers have reacted with skepticism at the new portal [ja], pointing to the absence of RSS feeds, to the lack of any long-term archiving function, and to the lack of interest on the part of users in comparing news coverage from major papers. Many have also questioned the need for another news site [ja] given the existence of news aggregators like Google News. Others have reflected on the lack of coverage of areas such as economics, international news, sports, and culture [ja].
Not all users were critical of the site, however. Twitter user youzaka, for example, explains the name “Aratanisu” itself and the URL allatanys.jp in a positive light:
やっぱプロが編み出しただけあって「あらたにす」のネーミングセンスはすごい。仮称のANYがAllataNYsの中にちゃんと入っているし、”新s”ということで新しいかんじプンプンだし、新はNEWなのでこれすなわちNEWｓサイトでもある。
Many bloggers did not find the name so appealing, however. Blogger atm2k2 writes:
「あらたにす」ですか。ネーミングが良くないね。あすてらす製薬の広告かと思ってしまった。朝日新聞と読売新聞、日本経済新聞が立ち上げたインターネット共同事業のことである。
いまどき、こんなもので新聞への回帰を図ろうなんて真剣に考えているのでしょうか。狙いは別のところにあると見た方がよさそうだ。「新聞勝ち組連合」で何かを始めようということか。
At Gato News, meanwhile, blogger and former journalist Fujishiro Hiroyuki, co-author of the book “Blog Journalism: Media for 3 million people” [ja], wrote of the news project:
プロジェクト名・ANYとして注目されていた日経・朝日・読売の合同サイト「あらたにす」がオープンしました。舌をかみそうなネーミングだけでなく、ネットユーザーからはサイトについても「新しさがない」「GoogleNewsのほうがいい」などとイマイチ評判が良くないようですが、個人的には３社の記事を比べるというコンセプトはなかなか面白いと思います。一般ユーザーがどれくらい使うか分かりませんが、ニュース好きにとっては使い勝手がありそうですし、情報・リテラシー教育などにも使えそうです。
[…]
あらたにすは、ニュースアグリゲーターとして3社のサイトにアクセスを流すという役割だけでなく、「売り」も明確です。「くらべる一面」というキャッチコピーの通り、一面の読み比べがトップページとなっていますが、社会面、社説、注目テーマなどに加えて書評も比べられ、各社の論調、視点の違いが良くわかります。くらべる一面の下のほうには日経・朝日・読売の編集局からその日のニュースをどのように捉えているのかコメントもあり、インターフェイスも分かりやすい。
[…]
新聞社はコンテンツを生み出していることもあり、いまだにニュースアグリゲーターを軽視（どころか敵視）している人もいるようですが、コンテンツだけでなく、そのコンテンツをいかに見せるか、ユーザーに届けるかと言う「編集（見せ方、新聞社で言う整理）」の価値が重要なことが明確になったと思います。ヤフーのトピックスがよく読まれているのも、この編集の力です。商品を単に陳列するだけでは売れないように、情報も同じで見せ方を工夫すれば、より読まれる可能性があります。
The most bookmarked blog article on the topic, however, is almost certainly that of blogger and former television director anti-monos, who compared the new site to another joint news portal, 47news (for background about 47news see this YouTube video in English). In the post, bookmarked by nearly 300 Hatena users, anti-monos writes:
はっきり言ってしまえば、「あらたにす」は間違いなく失敗する。かつて共同通信と地方紙連合が立ち上げた47NEWSと同じくらい、過疎状態になる。なぜダメかと言うと、RSSに対応していないのも驚いたが、構成自体が新聞といったマスコミの論理から1ミリも抜け出せていない。
コンテンツの中身を見ると、まずは朝日、日経、読売の一面記事を紹介して比べる。さらに社説、各紙の注目テーマが並ぶ。新聞紙面と違う目玉と言えば、「新聞案内人」なる有識者が、新聞の読み方を教えてくれる。さすが全国紙が集めてきただけあって、「新聞案内人」は伊藤元重東大教授、小林陽太郎元経済同友会代表幹事などそうそうたる面々になっている。
だが「一面記事」、「注目テーマ」、「社説」、「新聞案内人」と来て、気がついてしまった。やはりダメだと。既存の新聞そのものなのだ。つまり、すべてが「上から目線」で押し付けがましい。
例えば一面記事というのは、新聞社が「きょう日本国民が知っておくべき最も重要なニュースはこれです！」という意味を持つ。まあ、勝手な新聞社の独りよがりなのだが、新聞記者というのは自分の記事が一面になるかどうかがかなり気になる。読者に新聞社のニュース価値判断を押し付けている。「社説」はもはや説明の必要もないほどの「押し付け」。
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既存のマスコミが絶対に理解できない、かつ生理的にも受け付けられないネットの特徴は「編集権を読者に委ねている」ということ。新聞、ラジオ、テレビと既存のマスコミはすべてニュース価値をマスコミの側で判断し、それを受け手に与えるという構造だった。何をどう扱うかは最初から最後まで、すべてマスコミ次第。つまり「編集権を完全にコントロールできる」状態。言い方を変えれば完全なる「押し付け」だ。だから、マスコミはブログやＳＮＳなど受け手の側が発信、編集するというのは生理的にも受け入れられない。
ところがネットだと、２ちゃんねる、ニコニコ動画でも、マスコミの作った「ニュース」はすべて盛り上がるための「ネタ」に過ぎない。ネットに放たれたとたん、マスコミのコンテンツは、マスコミ自身が与えたお仕着せの「ニュース価値」から開放されてしまう。良くも悪くもなのだが。そこがマスコミにはアイデンティティに関わるだけに、決定的に理解できない。平均年収千数百万をもらっていても、社会経験などほとんどない記者が経費で飲み食いしながら、政治、経済、天下国家を語り、経費のタクシーで深夜に帰宅、そして紙面では格差社会を嘆くなどという、マスコミにとっては能天気な時代はもはや終わろうとしているのに。