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Brazil: Twitter raises awareness of plight of São Paulo squatters · Global Voices
Marta Cooper

Around two thousand people, many of whom are slum dwellers who face the threat of eviction, occupied four abandoned buildings in central São Paulo early Monday morning, calling for improved housing projects. The organisers, Frente de Luta por Moradia (Front for the Struggle for Housing, FLM), have been using Twitter to cover the occupation and successfully garner a wider response [pt], including from mainstream media. Talks between the occupiers and representatives from the city's Housing Department are due to recommence this afternoon (7th October). Follow the coverage here.


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Brunei: Football blogs · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Fes-Retro and Sports-Brunei are two prominent football bloggers based in Brunei.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Mong Palatino


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Brunei: Social media situation · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Geek in White from Brunei reacts to the seminar given by the government on the rights and responsibilities of bloggers. The author advises authorities to study further the social media situation in the country since the blogging community is not as big before.


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China: Education expense · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

How much money Shenzhen parents are willing to spend on their child´s education? Maryannodonnell shares some interesting stories she overheard with her readers.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Colombia: Medellín Receives Habitat Honor Award from UN-HABITAT · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Albeiro Rodas reports: “United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, gave the Habitat Honor award to the City of Medellín in recognition for the advances of its administration to fulfill the objectives of the millennium like poverty reduction by the implementation of three main programs in the Andean city: ‘Solidarity Medellín’, ‘Healthy Start’ and ‘Quality of Life Survey.’”

author: Silvia Viñas


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Costa Rica: The Threat of Drug Trafficking · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

In La Suiza de Centro America [es] Dean Córnito has written two posts about drug trafficking. The first post [es] introduces the topic from a Costa Rican point of vioew, and the second [es] focuses on the strategy to fight it.


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Egypt: Firing Eissa, or Firing Free Press · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

Al-Dostour – one of the leading Egyptian independent newspapers – new owners have fired the paper's editor-in-chief and founder Ibrahim Eissa, sparking a discussion on blogs on the incident as well as Egypt's media scene.
Al-Dustour (also Al-Dostour and Al-Dostor, meaning “The Constitution”) was founded in December 1995. What started as a weekly newspaper published every Wednesday soon turned into both a daily and weekly newspaper. In August 2010, prominent businessman and president of the liberal opposition Al-Wafd party Sayed El-Badawy acquired the newspaper, along with other businessmen, among them the Coptic businessman Reda Edward.
Another Egyptian newspaper, Al-Masry Al-Youm, commented on the deal then saying:
News of Eissa's sacking has been discussed by bloggers in Egypt, who also took the opportunity to analyse what is going on in the Egyptian media scene.
Issandr El Amrani wrote about the firing of  Ibrahim Eissa on his own blog, Arabist. He also commented on the unconfirmed news then that stated that Eissa might have been fired for insisting to publish an Op-Ed written by Egyptian presidential hopeful Mohammed ElBaradie, and the speculations that the new owners of the paper were against publishing it.
Zeinobia then commented on ElBaradie's Op-Ed, and how she believes this is not the real reason for firing Eissa.
Mohamed El-Etr then tried to guess the real reasons behind Eissa's firing.
Thus we can understand the reasons behind Eissa's firing, and how the evidence has proved that El-Badawy is having a deal with the regime.
On a macroscopic level, other similar issues has been taking place in Egypt recently. A few days ago, Eissa himself has suffered from stopping his TV shows, “Baladna Bel Masry” on ON-TV. Zeinobia wrote here how the show might have been stopped after the channel – which is owned by another Egyptian businessman, Naguib Sawiris – received orders from the regime to do so.
Ahmed El-Masry also wrote in his blog a list of incidents that happened recently such as stopping Amr Adib's show, Al-Qahera El Youm (Cairo Today) on Orbit satellite channel, and the fear of the owner of Dream-TV satellite channel that their leading talk-show might get stopped, as well as many other incidents.
Although some of the above incidents might have a non-political background such Amr Adib's show, at least this is what has been claimed, and some others may be just speculations and uncertain news like that of El-Baradie, Alaa El Aswany [Ar], and Ahmed Bahgat, yet no one can deny El-Masry's right to wonder if all these incident have happened by coincidence, and he has all the right to be afraid of the future.
Egyptian bloggers might be pessimistic, as some of incidents stated above – including the firing of Ibrahim Eissa from Al-Dostour – might be really due to non-political reasons, and some of the expectations might not be very certain, yet at the end of the day, the independent and opposing media outlets are falling one after the other. And people are wondering if there are hidden hands playing a certain role in taking those outlets down or not.
Finally, the below status update written by Ahmed Shokeir on his Twitter account should summarize how the bloggers here see what is going on in the media scene now:

author: Tarek Amr


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Ecuador: Photographs of September 30 · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

On Flickr, Germán López shares a set of photographs of the police strike on September 30. The photographs are under a Creative Commons license.


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Hungary: Local Elections · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Notes on the Oct. 3 local elections in Hungary – at Hungarian Spectrum, here and here.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Jordan: To Palestine, With Love  · Global Voices
Betsy Fisher

Bloggers in Jordan, where a majority of people are descended from Palestinians, wrote extensively about issues in the West Bank and the Middle East this week.  Jaraad asks “Who Spreads the News?”
When an unknown pastor of a small church in Florida with only 50 (some even say 30)congregation members announced that he will burn the Quran in September 11, 2010 both Muslims and Christians were enraged. Christians wrote thousands of article defending their religion from such abhorrent act and Muslims wrote, tweeted, blogged about this, will be/will do, act. In some Muslim countries riots erupted and people were killed. The pastor is happy because he got his 15 minutes of fame and Muslims are happy now because the Quran is not burnt.
Case closed.
But, why when Jewish settlers burn a mosque and many copies of Quran both Jews and Muslims chose to be silent? Why we didn’t read tweets, facebook pages, and blogs about the actually-happened-crime? Unlike Florida’s Pastor wants-to-burn-Quran, this time Jewish settlers burned a mosque and copies of Quran.
My question is why the want-to-be-famous Florida Pastor got all the attention he wanted and more but when Jews actually burned a mosque and Qurans mouths are zipped? Who and what made the Florida Pastor story a worldwide news? Why there was so much talks, discussions and debates about this story?
With all the communication technology we have right now the world is becoming like a small village . Still news is spread selectively.
Arab Crunch wrote about a new iPhone app that uses Google mapping technology.  In answer to Jaraad's concerns, this app puts ongoing developments directly into the hands of interested consumers:
Facts on the Ground enables users to view and filter Jewish Settlements based on areas that have full or partial control by Palestinian authority…the year it was established, population, ideology (or lack of), character (secular or religious), amount of ‘private Palestinian land’ it occupies, and a graph that tracks its population growth.
This is another example how iPhone and google maps have been used for social causes.
Other bloggers discuss ways to be involved in relief efforts for Gaza. AquaCool praises her friend who is cycling from Pisa to Rome in order to
spread world wide awareness concerning the suffering of the people of Gaza, and to raise funds for the Welfare Association‘s many humanitarian projects addressed to the Palestinian people…Let’s all support Mishal and help him reach his target, to be able to help Gaza and its people.
Others are supporting or personally joining the convoys that are attempting to break the naval blockade of Gazan ports.  KinziBlogs writes the following tribute:
Our sweet dentist … has been teaching fifth year Gazan dental students on-line! She was able to use her gifting, her talents, and her experience to benefit liked-gifted students in a very difficult situation. She said is has been a joy, and soon, she will be meeting them for the first time, bringing instruments and assessing the dental equipment being used there.
… she told me she would be joining the 5th Lifeline Convoy.   Are you inspired?
Aboudism is himself joining a convoy.  He wrote on October 5th:
In a few hours I will be joining the Global Life Line 5 (Vivapalestina) “Sharyan Al Haya 5″ in its trip to Gaza…I go there today with mixed feelings, excitement, responsibilities and obligations back home, family and love left behind, among many other things.
Nobody knows how long this trip will take. Nobody knows if will get stuck in Latakia, or if we will get stuck in the middle of the sea. The only thing that I am sure of is that I feel that I have to be part of this global movement to end this siege on Gaza.
On Oct 6th, he updated from Turkey.  His group fell behind schedule in Syria where:
We had to make a stop in each governorate for a small reception from the governed. This was very time consuming and it made run very late.  Despite all the difficulties of driving at night in such roads and accompanying the convoy, it felt different to see all these people gathered to wave their hands to you, and to see that somebody is admiring your work and that your efforts are already being valued.
This focus is not unique to this week.  Jordanian bloggers continually focus on the West Bank and Gaza, demonstrating Jordanians support for the Palestinian people.

author: Betsy Fisher


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Latvia: General Elections · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Reactions to the outcome of the Oct. 2 general election in Latvia -at Baltic, Failed State Latvia?, and All About Latvia. Itching for Eestimaa writes about the New York Times’ coverage of the Latvian election and the Baltic region in general.


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Nigeria/Brazil: The Yoruba Institute in Brazil · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Jeremy posts a link to the Yorube Institute in Brazil: “The holders of the culture, thousands of miles from home.  Perhaps one day, the culture will return home and find less ambivalence and confusion..”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Pakistan: A Patriarchal Society · Global Voices
Rezwan

“From a teenager girl to mature women; every female in Pakistan faces the problem of being harassed by her male counterpart. Wherever she goes from a school to the market she is not secure in terms of being teased by males,” comments Hifsah Saeed at Chowrangi.

author: Rezwan


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Pakistan: In Search For A True Leader · Global Voices
Rezwan

“Pakistan needs a sovereign and honest leadership”, says Dr. Arif Alvi at Teeth Maestro.


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Philippines: Dancing flight attendants · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

A plane flight safety demonstration danced to pop tunes by the flight attendants of a Philippine-based commercial airline is a recent a hit on YouTube.
According to an airline official, the dancing of the safety procedure demonstration is simply one way of combining service and entertainment.
“The safety demo dance rendition is just another way to bring out our fun culture and showcase our homegrown talents. We plan to roll this out onto more flights after receiving great commendations from the global public.”
Cebu Pacific is a budget carrier in the Philippines which dominates the local airline industry.
An association of flight attendants and stewards, however, is alarmed by the gimmick and the spread of the video on the net.
While it may look like a harmless publicity stunt to attract passengers at first glance, in the long run the stereotyping of flight attendants as entertainers will surely have a negative and sexist impact in the minds of the public, at the expense of the unwitting female-dancer-flight attendants.
This gender insensitive packaging is a throwback to the unenlightened past during the 50s and 60s when “stewardesses” were made to wear hot pants and mini-skirts to appeal to the dominantly male business travelers. To make them dance in front of passengers takes this mind-set to new lows.
As of this writing, the video already have 6,866,006 views, 13,720 likes, and 529 dislikes since its uploading on September 30. It also attained a variety of YouTube honors, according to Techpinas.
The video has elicited both positive and negative comments in Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter. Many lauded the dancing flight attendants for making safety demos less boring. The video's detractors, however, condemn the practice for espousing sexism and gender discrimination. A sample of some comments on Facebook:
Samuel Raterta i like it. passengers became more attentive to the safety features of the aircraft. also they only danced at the start not the whole flight.
Prince Valdez lets face it sex sells…
Tine Sabillo Sex sells because we tolerate such cheap sexist marketing schemes. And yes, there are a lot of not-so-young PAL FAs. They've been fighting for equality. They are safety professionals after all. This is not some beauty or talent contest. People will still ride airplanes even if the FAs aren't that “hot” or “pretty” because travel is a necessity. No to gender and age discrimination at work.
Mabel Balanquit what the fuss about it. its a nice strategy. its entertaining :)
Rey Refran ”throwback to the unenlightened past during the 50s and 60s when “stewardesses” were made to wear hot pants and mini-skirts to appeal to the dominantly male business travelers.” < — I see a disturbing parallelism here with the resurgence of McCarthyism in the Philippines, eh?

author: Karlo Mongaya


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Photos Of Anti-China Protests In Japan · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Kai Ping posts a widely circulated e-mail with many recycled anti-China protests in Japan in China/Divide and invites the readers to discuss on whether or not or how to handle such mis-informed information online.


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Puerto Rico: 133 Law and Order Officers Accused  · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has just announced the arrests of 133 Puerto Rico state police officers, municipal police officers, officers of the Corrections Department and of employees of the federal government in Puerto Rico on charges of corruption. The operative has been described as the largest in the FBI's history. Twitter is buzzing under #arrestospoliciapr.

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


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Puerto Rico: Stamps for Fast Food  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Puerto Rico has got to be the most bass-ackwards nation on Earth, canceling chess in schools because it's too passive while flinging federal funds around to promote fast food excesses”: Gil the Jenius hopes this is “the last of the mega-stupid ideas.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Russia: Acoustic System of President  · Global Voices
Dmitry Davidov

Bloggers chibis and yarosh analyze the acoustic system that appeared on the latest photos taken at the Russian president's residence. The cost of the system is around $200,000, the bloggers say, but it is not the most advanced or expensive acoustic system.

author: Dmitry Davidov


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Russia: Police Proposes Internet Traffic Control  · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Internet news portal Cnews writes [RUS] about the latest proposal by the IT-department of the Russian police to require Internet providers to block (on court demand) “illegal traffic.” If the proposal is put into legal form and approved, a number of law enforcement units (police, special services, prosecutor's office) will be able to limit foreign traffic.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Russia: Putin Turns 58, Gets Erotic Calendar as Birthday Present · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Moscow Diaries writes about an erotic calendar – allegedly featuring female students of MGU's journalism department – that was created as a present for PM Vladimir Putin on his 58th birthday.


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Russia: Vladivostok’s Golden Horn Bay Bridge Controversy · Global Voices
Masha

Center of Vladivostok and Zolotoy Rog, photo by Vladimir Kobzar
On September 8, 2010, Vladivostok city administration announced [RUS] an open discussion about the name of a new bridge over Golden Horn (“Zolotoy Rog“) Bay. The bridge will connect two parts of the city and allegedly help the traffic. Also, there will be the second bridge that will connect the city and the closest island.
These ambitious and expensive projects are part of the preparation process for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, which will take place in Vladivostok in 2012. The budget for this event is huge, but not much has been done yet. Only two years are left and the bridges are not even halfway done. Vladivostok citizens have reasons to suspect that the two gigantic bridges will never be built on time and the money will vanish in someone’s pocket, thus leaving the city without the necessary infrastructure.
On his blog, Vladivostok's mayor Igor Pushkarev provided [RUS] a possibility for users to vote for the favorable name of the bridge over the bay. People could choose out of 30 names. The following names were the most remarkable ones: Hope Bridge, Golden Bridge, Zolotoy Rog (Golden Horn, after the name of the bay), Darkin’s Bridge (after the name of the current governor), Far Eastern Bridge, etc.
Blogger hiamado wondered [RUS] why there was no such a name as Kickback Bridge (“откатный мост” in Russian), alluding to various corruption cases tied to the summit preparation process.
APEC preparation became a subject for countless jokes both in the regional blogosphere and offline. Local bloggers have created an alternative list of names for the bridge. In April 2010, even before an open discussion was announced, blogger matvienko_vlc provided his critical evaluation of the initiative. He gave examples of alternative names for the bridge taken from various bloggers. Here are some of the examples:
«Мост Бесценный», «Мост Мы-б…-уже-и-не-надеялись», «Путинский», […], «Мост в светлое будущее», «Медвепуть» («Путинпровод»), […], «Откатный» (вариант — «Золотой откат»), «Ворота в ад», «Хайшеньвей-бридж».
These mocking names reflect the attitude of ordinary people towards the government and the whole idea of the APEC Summit.
On Sept. 20, a daily news outlet Novosti Vladivostoka (News of Vladivostok) informed [RUS] that citizens of Vladivostok could monitor the construction works via publications on a blog called churkinsky_most (Churkin Bridge). According to the article, this blog provides the latest information on the maintenance works for the APEC Summit. In reality the blog gives an idea of how this bridge will look like by providing computer-generated images (like this one or this). Not much is written there about the real situation and problems on the construction sites.
An accurate image of the bridge construction works is provided by bloggers hajoff and zeka_vasch in the Vladivostok city LJ community. There you can find pictures of the construction sites and of the houses that have to be destroyed to clear the space. At the same time, it is unclear what will happen to the people who live in these houses.
Unfortunately, all the people’s dissatisfaction and distrust is being totally ignored by the local government. Luckily enough, people react to these issues and share their views and stories on blogs. Voting for the bridge’s name will be over in mid-October. Of course, the name Golden Kickback Bridge was not on the list, even though it reflects the nature of this initiative better than any other name.

author: Masha


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Russian Officials Push the Balance in Internet Governance · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Nezavisimaya Gazeta [RUS] and CircleID blog present two opposite viewpoints on the Russia's proposition to transform Internet governance process at ITU conference, that would allow the International Telecommunications Union veto ICANN decisions. While the former source considers it an effort to “de-Americanize” the Internet, the latter believes this is an attempt to bureaucratize the Web.


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Rwanda: The Bee-keepers of Mayange · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Learn about the bee-keepers of Mayange village in Rwanda from Graham Holliday: “The village is home to 33 bee keepers, a number of whom are part of the Millenium Development Goals (MDG) scheme which received a lot of press coverage in September.”


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Slovenia: Opinion Polls for the Upcoming Elections · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sleeping With Pengovsky analyzes the polling data for the upcoming mayoral and city council elections in Slovenia's capital Ljubljana.


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Somalia: Hawala Tech and Banks in Somalia · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Erik looks at Hawala and bank systems in Somalia: “Somali’s have been using the Hawala form of money transfer for centuries, to the tune of approximately $1.6 billion annually. Somalia, per capita, has one of the largest diaspora populations in the world.”


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Trinidad & Tobago: Easy & Lazy?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Do Trinbagonians take the easy way out?  KnowTnT.com‘s Edmund Gall cites three instances in which he thinks “it's a case of doing what's easy and wrong rather than doing what's right and difficult.”


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Trinidad & Tobago: History of Calypso  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Calypso, along with the steelpan, is probably Trinidad & Tobago's greatest cultural export”: MEP Caribbean Publishers blogs about Calypso History Month.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Thoughts on CLICO · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Plain Talk puts in his two cents’ worth on “the CLICO fiasco”, saying: “The Government needs to use its legal machinery to start prosecuting the guilty and stop the talk. The people are already confused and are looking for clear leadership…”


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Vietnam: Faculty shortage · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A Vietnam-based blogger writes about the faculty shortage and other problems plaguing the local universities.


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Angola: Angola’s Most Famous Slave Trader · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Angola’s most famous slave trader Dona Anna Joaquina will be the topic of the Angola Field Group’s presentation Thursday, October 14 at 8:00 PM at the Viking Club in Luanda, Angola.


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Bolivia: Video Interview with Bolivian Blogger and Twitter User Vania Balderrama  · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Hugo Miranda from Angelcaido interviewed [es] blogger [es] and Twitter user Vania Balderrama (@capsuliana). In the video interview, Vania talks about blogging, Twitter, women and technology, and what it means to be Bolivian.


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Chile: Podcast Interview with Creator of Blog ‘Zancada’  · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

El Quinto Poder [es] interviewed [es] Paty Leiva, creator of the blog Zancada [es], the most widely read blog written by and for young women in Chile.


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China: Chinese bicycle · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Wenxue city has a collection of photos taken by the French photographer Alain Delorme, showing how Chinese cyclists arrange their merchandises against the laws of physics.


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China: Guanxi · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

David Wolf from Silicon Hutong reproduced some discussions among China Business circle on their understanding of Guanxi in doing business in China.


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Ecuador: Breast Cancer Awareness Month · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Pitonizza [es] writes about Breast Cancer Awareness Month, reporting on events that will take place in different Ecuadorian cities to try to raise awareness.


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Indonesia: West Papua Flashflood · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Google Map of Wasior, West Papua, Indonesia
More than 80 people died and hundreds more are still missing after a flashflood devastated the remote town of Wasior in West Papua, Indonesia.
The town is now isolated which makes it difficult to transport emergency relief. Here is a report from the Indonesia Environmental Information Center
The collapse of local bridges has made it difficult for aid workers to gain access to villages and provide relief to homeless survivors. Tents, food and drinkable water are the prime necessities; the local government has sent flood assessment teams to Teluk Wondama district.
Blogger Melanophus is also trying to get more updates about the situation in Wasior
[…] banjir menutup bandara wasior sehingga pesawat batal terbang.
The blogger is trying to learn updates from radio, however the bad reception made it nearly impossible:
Siang hari juga ada laporan kontributor RRI Manokwari terkait bencana banjir bandang tersebut sayangnya telingaku kurang bisa monitor dengan baik karena suara bunyi radio kresek-kresek.
Malam ini aku mendapat info dari seorang teman yang sedang menjga keluarganya di UGD RSUD Manokwari. keluarganya adalah korman banjir bandang yang dievakuasi dengan helikopter dari Wasior soreh tadi.
seorang teman juga bercerita bahwa ada rekannya yang meninggal akibat tertimbun longsoran.
Hingga sat ini belum ada berita pasti bagaimana kondisi terkini di Wasior karen sejumlah temna yang berada di sana tidak bisa dihubungi. kemungkinan jaringan telepon sibuk atau rusak.
Blogger Amos wrote a comment on his post:
Iya kita semua prihatin atas bencana ini. Kami juga sedang mengusahakan bantuan dan relawan untuk sesegera mungkin ke wasior memberikan bantuan.
Here are some Facebook reactions
Perempuan Mencatat We express our condolences for the citizens of Wasior, West Papua, on the flood that had taken dozens of casualties and thousands refugee.
Chisato Tomimura Last week, I audited a logging company in Wasior, Papua. Two days after we left, the town of Wasior was hit by landslide and flood. 78 people died, and 85% of the town is now covered with debris, including the airport where we spent 8 hours waiting for a flight. If it had occurred 2 days earlier, or if our scheduled had delayed for 2 days, I would be dead now. Thank goodness I'm alive :)
Setiadi Sopandi 86 dead 66 missing in wasior, papua – seems no big deal compared to today's jakarta traffic & flash flood


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Jamaica: Bail for Buju?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As the judge presiding over the Buju Banton drug trial considers whether the singer should be granted bail, Girl With a Purpose says: “Many Jamaicans and those who love Jamaica and Reggae music are still holding our breaths…”


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Jamaica: Don’t Blame Nicole  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

In the wake of Tropical Storm Nicole, owensoft.net says: “It's not all Nicole's fault…if you look at the situation closely most of the road infrastructure simply was not designed to handle long periods of rain fall.”


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Macedonia: Human Rights Activist Accused of Libel · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Žarko Trajanoski, a human rights expert and activist, posted a scan of EUR 50.000 libel lawsuit [MKD] against him by a TV talk show host Milenko Nedelkovski. The defendant allegedly damaged the pro-government media personality's reputation by qualifying his calls to “liquidate” “traitors” as hate speech, and considers this act another attempt to scare dissenting voices into silence.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Mexican Cuisine Declared Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO · Global Voices
Andrea Arzaba

Do you know anybody who does not know what enchiladas are? Or someone who has never had tacos or any other type of Mexican food? Mexican cuisine is well known for its variety of flavors and colors, and for its combination of different spices and unique ingredients. Traditional Mexican food is based on corn, beans and different types of chili peppers.
Chilaquiles. Image by Laura Taylor, Flickr user bookgrl used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license
National Relevance
Journalist Tatiana Gutierrez, from the Mexican publication elsemanario.com.mx, describes how food played an essential role in Mexico's bicentennial celebration:
Vamos a cerrar con broche de oro este periodo de sugerencias a realizar durante las celebridades bicentenarias, ¿cómo?, con lo más preciado que tiene México: su gastronomía.
Mexican food in the country is very diverse. You can find big differences in each state and province, from North to South, from the hot climate regions to the coasts, and from the mountains to the arid areas. There is a great variety of cultures and communities within the country; this is why the food from each region has different textures, flavors and scents.
David Emery, in his article “Top 10 Most tasty cuisines in the world”, writes about the international diversity that makes up what Mexican food is today:
Known for its varied flavors and spices, Mexican Cuisine is a result of the Spanish conquistadores’ interaction with the Aztec culture. Most of the Mexican food we eat today is a delicious combination of ancient traditions, Aztec, Mayan and Spanish. The French also had their part in the story, adding baked goods such as sweet breads and the bolillo.
Shrimp tostadas with avocado. Image by Matt Saunder, Flickr user mttsndrs, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic Creaative Commons license
Twitter users often tweet about the relevance of Mexican food in their lives. Mayela Gonzalez (@mayelagonzalez), a  Mexican user from Monterrey, tweeted a few days ago:
comí mole =) que delicia!!! #MexicanFood
User Isaaco @Isaacloco, also located in Mexico, wrote:
y para ke se les antoje.. comeré unas ricas #enchiladas verdes!!!! hayy ke sabrosas!! =)
International Relevance
But Mexican food does not only stay in the Mexican palate; Twitter users from other countries also talk about Mexican cuisine:
Chris Gonzales (@Chris1356J)  from Albuquerque, US, said:
#tacos are the best food
And Texan citizen Jessica Clemmons (@JessicaClemmons) stated:
Nope sorry #Arizona… Your #Mexicanfood has NOTHING on ours in #Texas!. Nice try though.
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American-born blogger Cristina Potters has eaten in 28 of Mexico's 31 states and in Mexico City. In her blog Mexico Cooks! she writes about everything from typical and local Mexican food to the culture that surrounds it. She also rates restaurants around the country and even writes some recipes. Potters has been living in Mexico for about 30 years of her life, and she likes to describe the purpose of her blog as:
a culinary travelogue, an adventure for the  palate, mind, and spirit.
Vegetarian Chiles en Nogada. Image by Madeleine Ball, Flickr user madprime, used under an Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license
Mexico's cuisine recently won the honor of being declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. Tim Johnson, the Mexico bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers, wrote on his blog Mexico Unmasked:
A little over a month ago, a Mexican official announced that the nation’s cuisine has finally attained status by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The official  announcement comes in early November in Nairobi, Kenya. But in short,  the incredible variety of Mexican food is finally receiving its due. No  other nation’s food has been given this honor.
Now, get this: France has been rejected twice!  The last time France applied, in 2008, President Nicolas Sarkozy  declared that, said, “We have the best gastronomy in the world — at  least from our point of view. We want it to be recognized among world  heritage.”
Well, France must now play catch-up with Mexico, amigos.
Full of delicious contrasts, diverse in flavors and unique in its own olfactory sensations, this cuisine is a must, even for the most discerning palates around the world.

author: Andrea Arzaba


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Nigeria: Fela’s music is the weapon Nigeria needs · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Remembering Fela Kuti and the relevance of his music in Nigeria: “Whenever there is a crisis or any news of injustice in Nigeria my mind goes to Fela and I wish he was still here to articulate events through his music. His music and his words reached all sections of Nigerian society in ways that Twitter and Facebook never will at least not in the near to medium future.”


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Nigeria: Internet entrepreneurs meetup · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Nigerian Internet entrepreneurs will meet this weekend in Lagos: “This is the first meet-up of Nigerian Internet Entrepreneurs. It is an avenue for Nigerians that are creating startups to come meet themselves and have some beers.”


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Peru: Mario Vargas Llosa is Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón

On Thursday October 7, Peruvians woke up to what has been called the “News of the Year”: Mario Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature by the Swedish Academy.
José Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa was born in 1936 in Arequipa. While he was still a child and after his parents’ divorce, he and his maternal family moved to Cochabamba, Bolivia. Later on, the whole family returned to Peru, as his grandfather was appointed for a diplomatic post in the Northern Peruvian city of Piura. At the age of 10 he moved to Lima. There, he met his father for the first time. Until that moment, he believed his father had passed away.
He attended the Leoncio Prado Military Academy in Lima, but he withdrew and finished his studies in Piura. He then got admitted into the National University of San Marcos to study Law and Literature. At age 19 he married Julia Urquidi, who was his maternal uncle's sister-in-law and was 13 years his senior. At a very young age he started to work as journalist for Peruvian newspapers.
When he graduated from college, he was granted a scholarship to study at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. Once the scholarship ended, he and his wife moved to Paris. They got divorced in 1964 and a year later he married his first cousin Patricia. He has three children: Alvaro, Gonzalo and Morgana.
In 1990 he ran for the Peruvian presidency, but got defeated by Alberto Fujimori.
The Academy decided to award Vargas Llosa with the Nobel Prize “for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat.”
Mario Vargas Llosa at the Cervantes Institute in New York on October 7, 2010, after the announcement that he had received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Image by Flickr user Globovision, under an  Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license.
As expected, the Peruvian blogosphere is abuzz with the news.
The blog Mate Pastor [es], by Juan Sheput, shares the words Vargas Llosa said for a local radio:
Indicó que él ya se encontraba trabajando en su despacho, a las 5:30 de la mañana, preparando sus clases pues dicta cátedra en la universidad de Princeton, cuando lo llamaron de la Academia Sueca indicándole que en 14 minutos darían el anuncio.
Mario Vargas Llosa indicó que él pensó que era una broma, como años antes, cruelmente, le hicieron a un escritor italiano, Alberto Moravia.
The bloggers from Sophimania [es] wrote a post with the title “At last! Vargas Llosa is awarded Nobel Prize of Literature”:
En una primera declaración, desde los EEUU, Vargas Llosa dijo sentirse “muy conmovido y entusiasmado” por el premio. El escritor peruano, quien también tiene la nacionalidad española, reside por ahora en nueva York ya que dicta clases en la Universidad de Princeton.
The blog Marcamasi [es], by Gustavo Alayza, expresses something that surely had been in the minds of Peruvian citizens more than once:
Fue el eterno candidato. No eran muchos los medios que resaltaban este año podía hacer la diferencia, sí indicaban era una posibilidad. Fue una agradable sorpresa. Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa fue elegido Premio Nobel de Literatura 2010.
C. Valcárcel, the blogger from Nos siguen pegando abajo [es], tells us about his first literary encounter with Vargas Llosa:
Tendría yo menos de diez años y había encontrado en la biblioteca de mi casa una antología de cuentos peruanos. Había empezado, precavidamente, por los cuentos más cortos, dejando los más extensos para otros momentos. Sin embargo, el último cuento que me faltaba por leer, y que también era el último de la antología, no era el más extenso. Lo había intentado leer anteriormente, pero me parecía algo extraño. Para mí era casi una ficción, alumnos rebelándose contra el director del colegio (¿militar?). El cuento se llamaba Los Jefes y era de Vargas Llosa.
On Twitter, the hashtag #vargasllosa is receiving continuous updates and “Mario Vargas Llosa” has been a worldwide Twitter trending topic for almost 12 hours. Luis Alejo Rojas, (@Quest048) posted:
Y pensar q los peruanos votamos x Fujimori en lugar de Mario Vargas Llosa; 20 años despues uno esta en la carcel y el otro gana el Nobel.
En verdad Vargas Llosa es un trome, hasta para ponerle el nombre a su hija es un capo ( Morgana ) , yo le hubiera puesto juanita nomas.
Walter Meléndez (@amigoperu76) said briefly:
Soy del Perú…de la Tierra de #VargasLlosa……..
Ricardo Feregrino (@iRickferegrino) said sarcastically:
Y ahora resulta que TODOS han leído a #VargasLlosa y que su felicidad es genuina.
On November 3, Mario Vargas Llosa will publish his most recent novel, El sueño del celta, about the life of Roger Casement. It does not have an English title yet, but it can be translated as The dream of the Celtic.

author: Gabriela García Calderón


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Peru: Mario Vargas Llosa Wins Nobel Prize for Literature · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

The Latin Americanist reports: “This morning, Peru's Mario Vargas Llosa was announced as the winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature. According to the Nobel Prize's website the journalist, essayist, and playwright received such a prestigious accolade ‘for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat’.”


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Puerto Rico: “A Day to Treat Others Well” · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

In Brujas y Rebeldes [ES], feminist blogger Amárilis Pagán Jiménez criticizes a female senator for declaring  “The Day to Treat Others Well,” while doing nothing to help victims of domestic violence. This year, 19 women in Puerto Rico have been murdered by their partners  or ex partners.


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Puerto Rico: Cancer of Corruption  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Of the news that “the largest FBI corrupt policemen investigation is going down in Puerto Rico“, Gil the Jenius says that the reason local authorities couldn't handle the case themselves is “because corruption has become the norm in Puerto Rico and no local agency could ever hope to make headway against it.”


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Russia: Blogger’s Car Vandalized after Youtube Video · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Dgudkov tells about threats he received and, as an evidence, supplies [RUS] a picture of his car vandalized by the unknown. The threats, he says, are connected with the recently published video [RUS] named “Our Mexican Bay” that depicts oil spill authorities refuse to acknowledge.


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Russia: Bloggers Meet With Iranian Ambassador, Avoid Sensitive Topics · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

The meeting of Russia's top-bloggers with the Iranian Ambassador in Moscow three days after Hossein Derakhshan had been sentenced to 19.5 years of imprisonment for “anti-government propaganda” highlighted the clumsy attempts of the Iranian online diplomacy in Russia. It also showed commercialization and excessive cynicism of some of the popular Russian bloggers.
On Sept. 30, 2010, LJ users tema, nl, sergeydolya and a few others visited the Iranian embassy to meet with “Iranian bloggers”: Ambassador Seyed Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi (aka LJ user sajjadi [RUS]) and Pavla Ripinskaya (aka pashili), author of the book “Incredible Iranians.” Sergey Dolya, a popular travel blogger and social media entrepreneur, posted this enthusiastic entry [RUS]:
Обед длился пару часов. По-русски посол господин Реза Саджджади не говорит и общался через переводчика. Вначале он рассказал нам краткую историю своей страны…
[…]
Потом мы позадавали вопросы. Похоже, что так же как и о Ливане, у нас неправильное мнение об Иране. Люди там добрые, открытые и гостеприимные. В общем, надо ехать и проверять. Господин Посол обещал помочь с визой.
В целом, встреча прошла очень позитивно. Много шутили, мороженое в конце поели. Посол подарил нам по 2 коробки фисташек (реально вкусные оказались, сладенькие) и книжку на русском языке в палец толщиной о том, как устроена политическая система Ирана. Могу одолжить почитать интересующимся.
Then we asked some questions. It appears that our opinion of Iran is wrong, just like our opinion of Lebanon. People there are kind, open-minded and hospitable. In general, we have to go and check. The Ambassador has promised to help with the visa.
All in all, the meeting went very positively. We joked a lot, ate ice cream at the end. The Ambassador presented us with two boxes of pistachios (they turned out to be really tasty and sweet) and a book in Russian, a finger thick, about the political system of Iran. I can lend it to those who are interested.
Blogger Norvezhskiy Lesnoy, too, sounded as dry and insincere as a Soviet newspaper [RUS]:
В ходе беседы блоггеры обсудили перспективы развития российско-иранских отношений на современном этапе, обменялись мнениями по ряду актуальных вопросов международной повестки дня. Стороны выразили удовлетворение динамичным развитием отношений между блоггерами двух стран, подчеркнув взаимную заинтересованность в их укреплении на благо дружественных народов России и Ирана.
The date of the meeting suggests that it was an Iranian attempt to fix the image of Iran in the eyes of the Russian blogosphere. None of the other bloggers who attended the meeting wrote anything about it. Later, Sergey Dolya refused to reply to any comments about human rights in Iran. Cynicism of the bloggers who agreed to attend such an “online diplomacy” event (and, even more, later wrote about it), after an Iranian blogger had received the most severe punishment in world history, outraged [RUS] Denis Loktev, a TV journalist:
Российские блогеры радуются как дети, когда их приглашают посидеть за одним столом с послом Ирана, развешивают там уши лопухами под рассказы о достоинствах иранской политической системы, уходят осчастливленные пакетиком сладеньких фисташек и принимаются рассказывать благодарным слушателям, как же они раньше ошибались насчёт Ирана и какая же это на самом деле замечательная страна: http://sergeydolya.livejournal.com/219995.html
О том, почему в Иране их коллег-блогеров бросают умирать в тюрьме за критику режима, любители халявных фисташек как-то не поинтересовались.
Какой позор.
These fans of free pistachios have somehow failed to ask why in Iran their fellow-bloggers are getting thrown behind the bars to die for their criticism of the regime.
What a shame.
Another popular blogger, LJ user drugoi, also didn't know [RUS] how to interpret why bloggers with several thousand friends would attend such a meeting and ask no questions about the situation with the blogosphere in the country.
LJ user sumlenny explained [RUS]:
кстати, этот постинг Доли отлично показывает, почему все надежды на то, что блоггеры-де контролируют власть, концерны и пр. лучше СМИ – это достаточно нелепые надежды. Блоггеры – такие же нелюбопытные, манипулируемые и пр. люди, плюс к этому они не имеют даже тех небольших моральных и профессиональных тормозов, которые имеют журналисты даже в самых несвободных СМИ. Случаи успешного контроля со стороны блоггеров за властями и пр. скорее стоит отнести на случай невероятну удачных совпадений.
In another discussion, blogger iratus wrote [RUS]:
Самое неприятное в этих людях, это то что у них нет никакой позиции. […]
Неужели вы правда ждали от этих людей неудобных вопросов г-ну послу? […] Им все равно рядом с каким флагом фотографироваться, лишь бы рейтинг не падал. А то в будущем перестанут на халявные мероприятия звать и билеты на самолеты и отели оплачивать.
Did you really think they would ask the Ambassador any inconvenient questions? […] They don't care next to what flag to have their picture taken, as long as their rating doesn't fall. Because if it does, then nobody will invite them to free events and pay for planes and hotels in the future.
Reflecting society, the Russian blogosphere has a hierarchy. LiveJournal, with its “friend” system and the rating based on it [RUS], represents one of the mechanisms of creating such a hierarchy in the virtual space. Probably, the hierarchy system can explain why LiveJournal became so popular among Russian bloggers.
The number of friends, as well as the number of mutual links and comments, affect the blogger's LiveJournal rating. Popularity is achieved partly naturally, partly with the help of various techniques of “fixing” the rating (for example, when a group of not-so-popular bloggers comments on the posts of more popular ones). The more comments and links, the higher the position in the “top blogger” rating. As soon as the “top blogger” gets into the Top 50, he/she starts to receive offers from PR agencies and corporations to review their products. Some PR agencies have their own networks of bloggers who promote products, services or even political messages.


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Russia: Recent Flash Mob Leaves Male Users Guessing · Global Voices
Vadim Isakov

Recent flash mob on Vkontakte.ru, the most popular Russian social network, consisted of female users changing their online statuses to what would start with “And I love doing it on…” and adding the places where they usually leave their bags. The double meaning of this sentence immediately attracted the attention of (clueless) male users.

author: Vadim Isakov


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Senegal: Wade’s Son Takes Over Energy Ministry as Power Outage Increases   · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Seneweb reports that power outages are becoming increasingly problematic in Senegal [fr]. More protests come about as food cannot be conserved without electricity. President Wade's son, Karim Wade has been assigned the Energy ministry in addition to his  other duties as minister of International Cooperation, Territorial Management, Aerian Transport and Infrastructure.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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South Korea: Pusan International Film Festival Begins, Twitterers Abuzz · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

The 2010 Pusan International Film Festival(PIFF) begins today in South Korean city of Pusan(sometimes spelled Busan)where stars from Hollywood, Bollywood and China gathered with film-makers. PIFF’s official twitter is buzzing with enthusiastic movie fans [ko]uploading photos of the festival and updating their favorites star's schedule.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Failing the Children  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A young boy recently committed suicide while a teenaged girl tried and failed, leaving Abeni to comment: “Too often, children battle abandonment, sexual molestations, emotional and physical abuse in a period of their development that should be carefree…those who are supposed to be their caregivers have become their abusers leaving behind damaged little ones.”


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Tanzania: Crowdmapping 2010 Tanzania Elections · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Vijana FM radio station in Tanzania uses Ushahidi to collect reports on the 2010 Tanzania elections.


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Tanzania: NGOs and the media in Tanzania · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Peter discusses the relationship between Non-Governmental Organisations and the media in Tanzania: “NGOs are increasingly working out how to deal with the media: at the crude end wondering what the market rate for a brown envelope is, to more sophisticated relationships with editors and writers.”


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Trinidad & Tobago: Eighth Wonder  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Does the Wonders of the World list go past seven? If so the Pitch Lake would definitely be included”: MEP Caribbean Publishers visits La Brea.


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Africa: Fellowship for Promotion of Indigenous African Languages · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The Kasahorow Fellowship, now open for the first time to students across Africa provides a USD$500.00 award for the study, promotion and development of indigenous African languages.


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Africa: InMobi and the future of mobile advertising  · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Erik writes about InMobi and the future of mobile advertising in Africa: “Yesterday Ankit Rawal, head of advertising for inMobi in Africa, spoke at the iHub. He spent a good amount of time explaining why Africa was so important to their growth strategy, and used a good bit of data from an InMobi research project to show why.”


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Africa: Make Your Own Baobab Juice · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Miriam shares her recipe for making baobab juice: “Baobab (bay-oh-bab) a very healthy fruit found in almost all countries of Africa, is just starting to gain popularity in the western world.”


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Azerbaijan: Playing the Armenian card · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

This post is part of our special coverage Caucasus Conflict Voices.
As Azerbaijan prepares for parliamentary elections on 7 November, opposition bloggers are unhappy with the conduct of the vote so far. This week, for example, concerns were raised regarding the registration of opposition candidates, and now the local media is starting to publish what critics of the government consider to be black propaganda aimed at discrediting them in the eyes of the electorate.
And, as the conflict with Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh remains unresolved, some bloggers say that there are a few very simple ways to achieve this. In Mutatione Fortitudo, for example, details how to build what it calls a smear campaign.
Now, just a month left to the election, another smear campaign seems to unfold. In short, Ali Karimli is accused of bargaining with foreign powers – if they support him in the upcoming election, he is ready for every concession in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
But how to prove this and how to make people believe it?
[…]
First, you order “The 525th Newspaper” to publish an initial article, where the whole conspiracy is explained – Ali Kerimli will sell Karabakh if “foreign powers” will bring him to power.
[…]
Second,  Russian-language news website 1news.az publishes an article based on and citing original material in 525 where they repeat the same allegation – Ali Karimli will sell (if not already sold) Karabakh in exchange for power.
[…]
Third, Armenian media outlets pick up the news and report – Azeri opposition leader is ready to any concession in Karabakh issue, reports Azeri media. PanArmenian for example, cites both 525th and 1news.az.
[…]
This part of the job is over. Now it is time to inform Azeri people of this evil conspiracy – and finally, Azeri TVs and other media step in: “Armenian media reports that Ali Karimli has pledged to western circles that he is ready to any concession in Karabakh issue in exchange for support in the upcoming election.”
The Önər Blog [AZ] also comments.
Azərbaycanın analoqu olmayan iqtidarı var. Bu insanlar güya parlament seçkilərinə hazırlaşır. Kampaniyalarının da məzmunu təxminən bundan ibarətdir ki, “biz pisik bəli, lakin müxalifət də pisdi, onlar gəlsə yenə də pis olacaq”. Ağılları bundan o tərəfinə çatmır. Çünki ağılsızdılar. Absurd içində yaşamağa öyrəşiblər. […]
[…]
Çox gözəl aydındır ki, bu Əli Kərimliyə və müxalifətə qarşı növbəti qara pr kampaniyasının başlanğıcıdı. Bundan sonra daha pis şeylər gözləmək olar. İsa Qəmbəri mason, Əli Kərimlini erməni agenti çıxaracaqlar. Belə də davam edəcək. Bundan qətiyyən narahat olmağa dəyməz. Bunlar şərəfli mübarizə nədir onu başa düşməyiblər. […]
[…]
It is quite clear that it is start of another black pr campaign against Ali Karimli and opposition. One can expect worse things after that. Isa Gambar will be announced a mason, Ali Karimli an Armenian agent. It will continue like this. No need to be worried about it at all. They do not realize what a dignified fight is. […]
Some opposition supporters and activists also tweeted and updated their status lines on Facebook with comments suggesting a conspiracy against the opposition in Azerbaijan waged by both the local and Armenian media. However, few media outlets across the border covered the story, and those that did have long been known for republishing stories from elsewhere without first checking facts.
Nevertheless, while there is nothing to indicate whether allegations of purposeful complicity and collusion between the media in both countries occurred, the potential damage of such claims by the pro-government media against the opposition is very real indeed. However, some such as aligenjevi [AZ] at least noted the irony in a comment left on the Azerbaijani version of the first blog quoted in this post.
Xatirimdədir, Ermənistanda prezident seçkiləri olanda koçaryan-sarkisyan komandasının Ter-Petrosyana qarşı istifadə etdikləri arqumentlərdən biri, sonuncunun Azərbaycan mediası, azərbaycan cəmiyyəti tərəfindən arzuolunan olması idi.
Yəqin indi ermənilər bizimkilərə borcu qaytarırlar :)
Seems like Armenians pay their debts. :)
Unfortunately, however, playing the Nagorno Karabakh card in both countries has become a common feature of all elections since independence. And if recent votes in Armenia, as well as the imminent election in Azerbaijan, are anything to go by, the sensitivities surrounding the conflict on both sides seems to indicate that this will continue for the foreseeable future.
This post is part of our special coverage Caucasus Conflict Voices.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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B.V.I.: Hard Hit by Otto  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Repeating Islands republishes news of the British Virgin Islands’ struggle to operate under a State of Emergency, which was enforced due to severe flooding.


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Bangladesh: Feminist Responses Towards Fundamentalists  · Global Voices
Rezwan

Kaberi Gayen at E-Bangladesh discusses about the role of women in response to the growing fundamentalism and neo-liberal economy.


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Bangladesh: Power Generation Options · Global Voices
Rezwan

Zahid Hussain at End Poverty In South Asia blog discusses the dilemma in the demand pressured Bangladesh power sector – whether the users will opt pricey dependable power supply or low cost unreliable energy.


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Bermuda: Calling Calypsonians · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“It's a shame that folk music and calypso in Bermuda is a virtually dead art”: BeachLime.com thinks that the country needs calypsonians.


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Brazil: 9 year old victim of “electoral bullying” · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Arnóbio Rocha, in his own blog, denounces [pt] what he calls “Electoral Bullying”, an episode in which his 9 year old daughter was attacked by children of about the same age in a middle school, while defending her father's candidate in the Brazilian presidential election. Eduardo Guimarães, from the Blog da Cidadania [Citzenship Blog] also repudiated [pt] the episode.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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Brazil: Discussing the presidential elections · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

André Egg, from the blog Um Drible nas Certezas [A Dribble in Certainties], posts [pt] a series of links evaluating the outcome of the Brazilian presidential elections.


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Brazil: more media censorship · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Rogério Tomaz Jr, from the blog Conexão Brasília Maranhão [Connection Brasília Maranhão], comments [pt] on the censorship suffered by psychoanalyst Maria Rita Kehl, fired by the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo (The State of São Paulo] over an article [pt] criticizing the media's coverage of the Brazilian electoral process.


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Burundi: The Future of Burundi Film Center · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Christopher reflects on the work and the future of Burundi Film Center: “So before the rain season arrives in late September, we’ll be touring the new films all over the country to five provinces and 13 different communes, and hopefully keeping some seed money to get things ready for next year.”


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Can We Halve Global Hunger by 2015? · Global Voices
Juhie Bhatia

This post was commissioned as part of a Pulitzer Center/Global Voices Online series on Food Insecurity. These reports draw on multimedia reporting featured on the Pulitzer Gateway to Food Insecurity and bloggers discussing the issues worldwide. Share your own story on food insecurity here.
World leaders from some 140 countries gathered at a United Nations Summit in New York from September  20-22 to discuss the best approaches for achieving eight poverty-reducing goals by 2015, including combating global hunger.
These Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted in 1990 to encourage social and economic development in the world's poorest countries. With only five years left to meet the goals, which range from slashing poverty to improving access to education and health care, the pressure is on.
The U.N. distributes bags of rice. UN Photo/Sophia Paris
The first of the goals (MDG 1) deals with poverty and hunger issues, and one of its targets is to halve the global proportion of people suffering from hunger between 1990 and 2015 from 20 to 10 percent. Some say that rapidly reducing hunger is essential for reaching the other MDGs.
Blogging for ONE, a global advocacy project for reducing poverty, Malaka Gharib writes that she appeared on the television show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon during the week of the U.N. summit and realized that most of the audience had never heard of the MDGs. She showed audience members a chart and asked them to choose which goal they found most compelling. Three out of five picked hunger. She quotes:
“Hunter, New Hampshire: “Goal 1. Hunger is something that’s been kind of a constant and hasn’t been solved yet or made any better than a few years ago. And hunger is not like a disease that can be cured.”
Liam, New York: “MDG 1. Everybody’s gotta eat.”
Michelle, Canada: “MDG 1. There’s enough to go around, so we need to figure out how to distribute food properly.”
Hunger has already been reduced from 20 percent in 1990–92 to 16 percent in 2010. Some countries, including Congo, Ghana, Mali, Vietnam, Guyana and Jamaica, have already achieved the hunger target of the goal, and others including China and Brazil are coming close. In September, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said that the number of people who will suffer chronic hunger this year has fallen from last year's record 1.02 billion to 925 million.
In spite of these declines in hunger, however, there are still more undernourished people worldwide now than there were in 1990. The FAO says it will be extremely difficult to achieve the MDG 1 hunger target by 2015.
A report released by the anti-poverty organization ActionAID before the U.N. Summit, revealed that 20 out of 28 poor nations are off track to halving hunger by 2015 and that 12 are actually going backwards. And it's not even the most economically struggling countries that are doing badly ― nearly half of India’s children, for instance, are malnourished.
Devinder Sharma, a food and trade policy analyst blogging on Ground Reality, laments India's lack of progress and questions the global hunger statistics.
“By 2010, the world should have removed at least 300 million people from the hunger list. It has however added another 85 million to raise the tally to 925 million. In my understanding, this too is a gross understatement. The horrendous face of hunger is being kept deliberately hidden by lowering the figures. In India, for instance, the [hunger] map shows 238 million people living in hunger. This is certainly incorrect. A new government estimate points to 37.2 per cent of the population living in poverty, which means the hunger tally in India is officially at 450 million. Even this is an understatement.”
Several events parallel to the U.N. Summit brought attention to hunger issues. A street protest by ActionAid, for example, raised awareness of the importance of female farmers in alleviating hunger and poverty. Charlie Harris, blogging for Americans for Informed Democracy (AIDemocracy), joined the action and dressed up as a farm animal:
“We were representing the farm animals of women in developing countries, and we were there to advocate on their behalf. Women farmers, if empowered and supported, can help achieve the MDGs. They are closest to those that are living in conditions of poverty and hunger, and have the power to dramatically affect those communities.”
On the Summit's second day, a forum called “1,000 Days: Change a Life, Change the Future” highlighted child undernutrition, stressing the importance of proper early feeding in combating extreme hunger and poverty. Tonya Rawe, blogging for the humanitarian organization CARE, says the event gave her hope:
“The nutrition initiative is designed to target what CARE has called the “Window of Opportunity”: the crucial first 1,000-day period that includes pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s life. This “window of opportunity” is a critical time to address malnutrition head on – to enable a child to have the greatest opportunity for the rest of his or her life. Hunger and malnutrition kill more people than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. And yet, as I wrote yesterday, our efforts to tackle hunger face great challenges. It can seem daunting – but I’m encouraged.”
The Summit's final outcome document provides recommendations for each goal. For MDG 1, the document calls for  addressing the root causes of poverty and hunger, pursuing job-intensive and equitable economic growth to promote full employment and promoting the empowerment and participation of rural women. However, some were disappointed that the document didn't really address how governments will increase their efforts to fight hunger. Tony Burkson, a London-based consultant who works with companies in Africa, questioned the value of the MDGs entirely on Africa On the Blog:
“The trend is quite clear, the International Development community and their friends in the NGO [non-governmental organization] world got together to hash out an over ambitious plan which they knew would most likely never be achieved. Every five years they meet to pat each other on the back and come out with the same press releases i.e. we have seen some progress but we are still far off from achieving these goals hence we need more development aid in order to achieve them…Whilst these goals are undoubtedly well intentioned they are just not practical. Different countries have different issues, and to expect more than 100 countries to achieve the same goals in a defined period seems rather simplistic.”
Blogging on End the Neglect, Anjana Padmanabhan, the social media manager for the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, says it was hard to escape the summit's passion. Still, she questions whether that energy will actually translate into action.
“What will happen when the excitement dies down? Will governments keep their financial promises?… Is Oxfam right when they said that the MDG summit was a ‘mirage?’ It’s hard to judge what was really achieved this week, since it seems that much of what was announced was already in the works. We all know one thing. The road to achieving the MDGs will be a difficult one…With only 5 years left, it's hard not to be cynical about what can be reasonably achieved.”

author: Juhie Bhatia


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Chile: Most Mapuche Prisoners End Hunger Strike · Global Voices
Felipe Cordero

On October 2, following intense negotiations with the Chilean government, 25 Mapuche prisoners being held in jails in the cities of Concepción, Angol, Temuco and Valdivia, ended a hunger strike that lasted 82 days. Nonetheless, 14 Mapuche prisoners held and hospitalized in Angol, Victoria, Cholchol and Temuco have not yet ended the strike [es].
"No to Military Justice." Photo by Flickr user Periódico El Ciudadano, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.
As previously reported by Global Voices, the 38 Mapuche demanded an end to Chile’s Anti-terror Law, a Pinochet-era decree that allowed “for the trials of civilians by military courts, as well as the presentation of ‘protected’ witnesses whose testimonies are heard and recorded anonymously.”
Radio Tierra (Earth Radio) [es], a citizen radio station, reported that [es]:
El Ejecutivo desistirá de todas las causas bajo ley antiterrorista que están en los tribunales del país.
The Executive [branch] will give up all lawsuits under the anti-terror law in courts across the country.
Citizen newspaper El Observatodo [es] added that [es]:
Entre los acuerdos comprometidos, el ejecutivo desiste de los encausamiento por delitos considerados como actos terroristas, ya que no tiene convicción de que estos califiquen bajo esa denominación. Además, el gobierno continuará impulsando las medidas para modificar la legislación, con el fin de que los civiles no sean encausados bajo la justicia militar.
Among the agreements reached, the executive [branch] gives up lawsuits for crimes considered as terrorist acts because it is not convinced these qualify under this category. Moreover, the government will continue to promote measures to modify the law so that civilians are not prosecuted by the military justice [system].
The negotiations were led by the Archbishop of Concepción, Ricardo Ezzati [es]. The full text of the agreement between the government and the Mapuche prisoners can be read here [es].
Twitter Reactions
On Twitter, the hashtag #mapuche has been used throughout the duration of the hunger strike to share news and track developments. After the announcement that most Mapuche prisoners were ending the hunger strike, a lot of users, like Bligoo (@bligoo), expressed a sense of joy. Felipe Salazar Tobar (@fhsalazar) was happy, but showed some caution [es]:
Me alegro por el fin de la huelga de hambre de los comuneros, pero con ello no se termina el conflicto #mapuche.
I’m happy for the end of the hunger strike of the “comuneros,” but that doesn’t end the #mapuche conflict. [In Spanish, the word “comuneros” means “community members.” In Chile, the word “comuneros” is widely used to refer to members of  Mapuche communities specifically. Hence, people refer to the prisoners on hunger strike also as the “comuneros” on hunger strike.]
Paz Ramírez García (@pazrg) said [es]:
No se pude hablar de FIN de huelga hasta que TODOS los comuneros depongan, de eso se trata todo esto, de igualdad. http://bit.ly/c90HvB
We can’t speak of the END of the strike until ALL “comuneros” end it. That’s what this is all about, it’s about equality. http://bit.ly/c90HvB
Health and Political Complications
The blog País Mapuche [es] has reported extensively throughout the strike. It recently informed about the deteriorating health of Felipe Huenchullán, one of the hunger strikers.
Según los datos entregado por los medico del hospital de victoria, el peñi Felipe Huenchullan anoche sufrio un preinfarto y se encuentra con una grave neumonia, con mucha fiebre, los familiares del peñi y su comunidad se encuentran muy preucupada por lo que puede suceder.
According to information given by doctors in the Hospital  of Victoria, last night, our brother Felipe Huenchullán suffered from an angina and has a serious pneumonia with a lot of fever. Relatives and his community are very worried about what could happen.
País Mapuche [es] also reported on statements made by Sabás Chaguán, Chile’s Attorney General, who said:
“del punto de vista procesal penal estamos haciendo nuestra labor, nuestro trabajo, y sería notable abandono de deberes si no aplicamos la ley Antiterrorista. Ahora, si se modifica la ley, aplicamos la ley modificada”.
Climate of General Mistrust
Recent unconfirmed accusations have fueled mistrust. The blog of the Autonomous Community of Temucuicui [es] made a serious accusation [es] against Chile’s Minister of Health, Jaime Mañalich (@jmanalich), that spread quickly through Twitter:
El ministro de salud, Jaime Mañalich concurrió esta tarde a las dependencias del hospital de victoria, donde se encuentran internados 6 de los presos polìticos Mapuche de la cárcel de Angol […] Al ver que los comuneros no desistían en dejar la movilizaciòn […] les amenazó señalando que “daría la orden para que retornacen a la cárcel de Angol y que ahí los dejaría morir.”
The Minster of Health, Jaime Mañalich, went this afternoon to the hospital of Victoria facilities, where 6 of the Mapuche political prisoners from the Angol jail are hospitalized […] Seeing that the “comuneros” will not abandon the demonstration […] he threatened them saying that “he will order their return to the Angol jail and the he’d let them die there”
Global Voices contributor Felipe Cordero (@felipe_cordero) used Twitter to contact [es] the Minister of Health and inquire about this accusation:
felipe_cordero: @jmanalich Ministro, Es cierto lo de la amenaza a huelguistas? Le agradecería si me lo aclara, gracias http://ow.ly/2Nub1 (ver tweet)
jmanalich: @felipe_cordero Ni siquiera me imagino a que se refiere. (ver tweet)
@jmanalich Ministro, su respuesta me confunde un poco La acusación hecha aquí: http://ow.ly/2Nub1 ¿es cierto o no?Es bueno saber su versión. (ver tweet)
jmanalich: @felipe_cordero Es falsa. Mi solicitud es que se hospitalicen los tres últimos comuneros que quedan en Angol. (ver tweet)
After a meeting between a spokesperson for the Angol prisoners and Supreme Court President Milton Juica [es], the spokesman said [es]: “today  it's the government's turn to look for an alternative exit to this  problem, such as advancing towards a concrete solution, a solution that  effectively reflects this government has a different [kind of] concern  than other governments with regard to the demands for land that exist,  particularly in the communities where the political prisoners come from.” The Minister of Interior replied that [es] “the end of the hunger strike is not the end of a problem, it's the beginning of a new stage.”
It is expected that the government will continue to pressure the  strikers, but that it will not intervene in land disputes at the moment,  possibly to allow time to design a nation-wide policy to deal with  indigenous land disputes. It is also expected that the Catholic Church  will continue to mediate to solve the stalemate.

author: Felipe Cordero


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China: Nobel Peace Prize Winner – Liu Xiaobo · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A few hours ago, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced its decision to award the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.
It is a moment of great joy for concerned Chinese citizens as Liu Xiaobo represents human rights activists’ determination in struggling for the peaceful transformation of China's political system. He was arrested in June 2009 and sentenced to 11 years imprisonment under the charge of “inciting subversion of state power” after Charter 08, a proposal for constitutional reform, was published.
The Jailed Nobel Peace Award Winners
However, the Chinese government, in response to the Nobel Committee's decision,claimed that [zh] Liu is a criminal who has been found guilty in a Chinese court and that the Committee's decision has violated the mission of the Nobel Peace Prize.
A tweet from Akiranns is probably the best response to the Chinese government spokesperson's statement:
你知道上一位，获得诺贝尔和平奖的坐牢人士是谁么？卡尔·冯·阿希厄茨基。那时他的国家谁在执政？希特勒。
Netizens Arrested for Having Dinner Party
As if to assert Akiranns’ association of the two Nobel Peace Prize winners’ backgrounds, Chinese police officers have chosen to crack down on Chinese netizens’ spontaneous dinner celebrations of this memorable event in both Shanghai and Beijing. Hanlu1911 reports from one dinner on Twitter:
上海饭醉活动取消，关注被带走的石扉客和其他不知名草泥马，警察拿着围脖上头像来对人，一只年青的草泥马被认出，目前广场警察和便衣四处出没。
Teng Biao has identified at least 8 Chinese netizens who have been taken away by police in Beijing's Dongcheng:
王荔蕻、天天刚刚被东城区警察带到景山派出所。“十几个人连踢带打,满嘴脏话,骂骂咧咧”。阿尔、小路、屠夫被带到和平里派出所。许志永、何杨、@pengmomo等都被警察带走。饭醉还没开始，就都被抓了。请关注！
因聚会庆祝和平奖被带到派出所的推友有：@wlh8964 @pengmomo @leewua @heyang519 @zhiyongxu @tufuwugan @xiaolu8964 @renjiaqi 等。请关注。
Censorship
Apart from the arrest action, the propaganda machine has continued to keep the news from spreading to the general public by imposing strict censorship on the Internet.
First of all, all special feature on the Nobel Prize from major portal websites have been taken down today, including the special feature from 163.com, Sohu.com, Tencent and Sina.com.
Secondly, the Chinese term “Nobel Prize” (諾貝爾) and “Peace Prize” (和平獎) became unsearchable in major search engines.
Third, soon after the announcement was made, twitterers, such as @haojinsong reported that mobile text messages with sensitive term “Liu Xiaobo” (劉曉波) could not be sent out.
Creative expression
Despite all these censorship measures, words still spread around the Chinese internet. For example, on Sina's microblog site, bloggers used pictures and English to avoid censorship. SongLingge#2 posted a picture of Liu Xiaobo and wrote:
分享图片： 这位越来越像圣雄甘地的家伙，就是刚刚获得2010年度the Nobel Peace Prize 的“中国圣僧”。
Fan Zhixing, a reporter urged his colleagues to record the history made today:
记者同仁们，键盘在你手下，你们准备怎样来记录这一天，让这一天在被提起的时候，光芒与阴影交相反映呢？
Huang Yangda wrote (post since deleted):
聽說拿了和平獎的是個中國人，卻不是黨人啊！因為他好像被奪去了政治權利。忘了他叫什麼名字，怎樣寫都寫不出來。
Chongtou Yip retold the news with an allegory:
从前有一位蛮不讲理、暴力的父亲，因为儿子不听话，所以把他毒打及关在房间內。可是，学校老师同学都表扬他，邻里都赞许他，这位父亲能不看到自己的过失吗？
廖偉棠 posted a poem and dedicated it to all political detainees:
致一个被囚禁者（116°46′E ，39°92′N） 莫须有的罪也莫须判 他们想把你在每一篇檄文中删除 使你成为真正的莫须有先生。 他们从永定河中捞出空气冻成的白骨 给你做了莫须有的铁窗、莫须有的枷锁， 却没想到你从白骨里蘸墨 画出了梦里人焚烧的春闺余烬。

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Waiting for Nobel Peace Prize result · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Mark Mackinnon posted photo of journalists waiting outside the Beijing residence of Liu Xia, wife of Nobel front runner Liu Xiaobo, 45 mins before announcement.


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China: Where Wen Jiabao’s political reforms should begin · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Responding to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao‘s views on political reform in China given during a recent interview with CNN, college professor and education critic Xu Xiliang, writing on his Caijing blog [zh], takes a familiar tone and suggests two areas for Wen and other Chinese political leaders to begin introducing reforms:
目前中国经历十年的互联网启蒙，国民已经非常觉醒，同时经济实力也有很大的增长，政改的条件已经臻于成熟，同时，中国的经济发展与国内外形势，已经到了不政改就难以为继的地步。目前国内，面前日益严重的腐败与不受约束的权力越来越猖獗的寻租现象，社会矛盾日益突出，压力越来越大，官员腐败、环境污染、食品药品安全受到严重威胁，贫富差距日益扩大，绝贫困人口日益增多，维稳成本也是与日俱增。目前已经到了不改不行的地步。如果不及时抓住机会主动地改，那么，接下来只有被动地接受变化。那时引起的社会动荡不安将会更加剧烈。而国外，却由于中国运行的规则与世界主流相分离，因此，中国在国际上日益孤立，形成包围圈与威逼之势。顺应潮流，进行改革，使中国顺利融入世界怀抱，成为十分急迫的问题。
正是基于这样的国内外形势，基于这样的认识，温家宝几乎利用每次公开讲话的机会，都要赤胆忠心地提到政改问题。其对国家，对民族一片赤诚之心跃然纸上。
这次，他又次提到政改问题，而且一次比一次急迫而热烈。甚至用了“风雨无阻，至死方休”来表达他的政改决心。
On this occasion, he has once again brought up the issue of political reform, and like each time before, the issue was made more urgent than the last, even going so far as to express his determination to see out political reforms “rain or shine, unto death.”
Despite the resources available to someone like the Premier of a country, Xu continues, to the end of initiating political reforms, the breadth of the problems are at the same time beyond even the State Council‘s ability to enable reforms of such scale. But Xu identifies two areas from which Wen and company could start:
一、把世界一流大学引进中国办学，打破中国目前行政权力垄断大学的局面。世界一流大学，如果在中国能够办几百间分校，这对中国打开政治改革的僵局，将会很有效果。因为教育是培养人的事业，是百年大计，因此，从教育入手会有可持续性，一流大学将会打开一扇扇被蒙蔽了的思想心灵窗户，让国人看到一个五彩缤纷的世界，这对解放国民思想，开阔国民眼界，提高国民素质有极大的帮助。
二、尽可能开放互联网，不要让中国的互联网变成局域网，与世界隔离开来。要让国人知道，世界因为互联网之后，变得越来平坦了、开放了。这也为中国人站到世界一切优秀文明成果的平台上提供了极有利的条件。互联网平台在学习资源上，价廉物美，不用白不用。印度以前许多方面都远不如中国，但是，因为互联网出现之后，印度人充分利用开放的互联网，学习世界的一切优秀文明成果，他们不但融入了世界主流，而且以从未有的生机活力追赶美国，他们的发展速度目前也许不如中国快，但是，印度的经济增长是建立在贫富均衡，且有利于平民的方向上，因此，他们的经济增长是良性的。

author: John Kennedy


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Ghana: Interview with Ghanaian musician Koby Maxwell · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Museke talks to Ghanaian musician Koby Maxwell: “Koby gave a marvelous performance and became the toast of the audience. He spent the weekend in the Bay Area and Museke caught up with him to learn his story and find out about his music.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Guyana: Enforcing Equality · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Although Guyana’s Constitution affords women equal status as citizens, just a few hours spent watching real life in action will demonstrate how society does not honour women with their lawful right”: The Guyana Groove says the problem is enforcement.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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India: Making Fun Of Ethnic Names · Global Voices
Rezwan

Runa at Uber Desi blog sees a disgusting and disturbing trend in international mainstream media which she describes as “hidden racism via making fun of ethnic names”.

author: Rezwan


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Indonesia: Defending “right to worship” · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Jennie S. Bev writes about the duty of the Indonesian government to protect the people's right to worship. There have been a series of attacks against Christian church groups in the country in the past months.

author: Mong Palatino


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Japan: Photos of a WW2 Shipyard · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

Michael Gakuran published pictures of the Ruins of the Imari Kawanami WWII Shipyard [en], which was used as a munitions factory in and as a ship factory during the war.

author: Scilla Alecci


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Latin Americans Comment on Mario Vargas Llosa’s Nobel Prize in Literature · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

“Mario Vargas Llosa” became a worldwide Twitter trending topic on October 7, as Latin Americans woke up to the news that the Peruvian author had received the Nobel Prize in Literature. The announcement was mostly welcomed as a triumph for Latin American literature and the Spanish language. Voice of America titled their article, “Peruvian Writer Says His Nobel is Tribute [to] Latin American Literature.” Latin Americans shared their different views on the announcement through blogs and Twitter.
In Mexico, Alfredo Guzman (@ideasdelmaza) thought it was an insult that Vargas Llosa had won the Nobel, and Humberto García Neri (@hacheoficial) tweeted:
¿Celebrar a Vargas Llosa? Mejor celebren a los Incas y la belleza de su pueblo. Perú es hermoso.
On the other hand, Mexican writer Alberto Chimal (@albertochimal) said he was glad that Vargas Llosa had received the prize. Tryno Maldonado (@tryno), a writer from Oaxaca, Mexico, referred to another long-time candidate for the prize, 81-year-old Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes:
Mario Vargas Llosa. Photo by Flickr user Daniele Devoti, dadevoti, used under an Attribution 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license
As the day progressed, bloggers from all over Latin America began to publish posts dedicated to the Peruvian author.
Argentinean blogger Juan Carlos Lynch [es] says that he found out about the news through Twitter. He explains that he has a “direct relationship” with Mario Vargas Llosa's son Álvaro, and that as a result, he has crossed paths and exchanged greetings with the Nobel Laureate several times. Juan Carlos describes Mario Vargas Llosa as,
un gran señor. Un hombre  alto, de pelo blanco, mirada muy profunda y gesto duro, que está siempre  impecablemente vestido. Que inspira respeto. Pero esa imagen esconde a  un gran ser humano. No sólo una persona de trato afable y un interesante  sentido del humor, sino además un hombre de convicciones firmes,  “familiero”, apasionado por todo lo que hace y, sobre todo, sumamente  generoso.
Martha Colmenares [es], a Venezuelan writer and analyst, wrote on her blog:
Me da muchísima alegria el Premio Nobel de Literatura 2010 al escritor  peruano Mario Vargas Llosa a quien tuve la oportunidad de conocer y  entrevistar para mi libro “La otra Piel” junto a  la escritora Norka  Armand, hace unos años, y  aparte de nuestra admiración por su obra,  quedamos deslumbradas por su personalidad.
In the blog El Clavo en el Zapato [es], Fadrique Iglesias Mendizábal from Bolivia shared his personal experience with the work of Vargas Llosa:
Fue el primer autor que pude leer con atención en mi adolescencia. […] Se cierra un ciclo de grandes escritores. Ahora quedan los nuevos, sus sucesores aunque es muy aventurado soltar  nombres.
Fradrique then recommends two young Latin American authors from the Andean region: Daniel Alarcón and Rodrigo Hasbún.
Mario Cordero, from the blog Diario Paranoico [es] from Guatemala, explains that some of Vargas Llosa's critics who do not agree with his political views think he did not deserve the Nobel Prize:
Sí, Vargas Llosa es de derecha, políticamente hablando. Pero el Nobel no  es un premio político (o al menos, no debería ser tomado como esto). Es  un premio literario. […] Entonces, habría que resaltar que Vargas Llosa es un excelente escritor, y su premio lo respalda con calidad literaria.
He concludes,
Aprendamos esa lección: separemos al  Vargas Llosa escritor, que merece el Nobel, y el Vargas Llosa político,  que podría no simpatizar con todos.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Myanmar: The Irrawaddy Blog · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Independent media site The Irrawaddy, which publishes critical news stories and opinion articles about Myanmar, has recently launched a blog.


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Namibia: Adventures of a Bush Pilot in Namibia · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Follow adventures of a bush pilot (bush bird) in Swakopmund Namibia.


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Pakistan: Twin Blasts at Karachi Sufi Shrine · Global Voices
Rezwan

Yesterday two suicide bombs struck Abdullah Shah Ghazi (a sufi) shrine in Karachi, killing at least 10 people and injuring at least 50 others. Fahad Desmukh posted in his blog some eyewitness reports recorded at the shrine just after the blasts occurred.


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Republic of Congo: Bass Player from Japan Learns Lingala to Collaborate with Music Stars · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Japanese-born bass player Niwa explains in this video interview that his motivation for learning Lingala was to get better acquainted with the music scene in Congo [fr/ln].  Niwa is now also a Congolese citizen and has played with Congolese music superstars Tonton Zao and Bisso Na Bisso.


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Russia: Another Calendar – and Questions – for PM Putin · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Moscow Diaries writes about another calendar for Vladimir Putin, which was created in response to the “boobies-for-Puties calendar” by a different group of female students of MGU's journalism department and features some tough questions for Russia's PM.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: Erotic Vs. Political. Battle of Calendars. · Global Voices
Vadim Isakov

They say journalists should be objective and impartial and never get too close and personal with politicians. When young female journalism students decided to openly express their admiration for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, “objectivity” and “impartiality” were overshadowed by sexual innuendo and erotic lingerie.
Although the fact that several young Russian girls posed half-naked for a calendar is nothing new, many people were outraged that the name of the MGU journalism department was attached to the pictures. The Moscow Diaries provides a detailed account of the incident here [ENG] along with an English translation of the posters. The scandal went well beyond the  student community and of course became among the most discussed topics of the blogosphere.
Blogger TovarishK pretty much sums up [RUS] the opinion of one group of bloggers who considered the half-naked journalism students as improper and offensive:
На самом деле, надо быть конченным подонком и извращенцем, чтобы в стране, где огромное количество проблем, вызванных некомпетентностью власти, дарить этой власти в подарок эротический календарь.
timur_nechaev77 seconds this [RUS]:
К сожалению, холуйство и проституция типичное явление среди представителей студенческого быдла, и кто холоп в душе, тот так холопом и останется, независимо от наличия диплома о высшем образовании.
And here is another blogger, obormoto, expressing his opinion [RUS]:
Очень показательно. Студенток журфака МГУ с юных лет учат, в чем их главный талант, для чего они нужны стране. А главное учат, как правильно общаться с властью – быть похожей на придорожную блядь (см. “прокатите на калине”).
A day later, another version of the calendar came out of the same journalism department. It featured different female students who were dressed officially and who asked unpleasant political questions (see The Moscow Diaries article with English translation of the “different” calendar here [ENG]).
Unlike the erotic calendar that was also sold in regular supermarkets, the political version is online-based and does not have (yet) a physical manifestation. However, bloggers encouraged people to print out those pages and put them on the walls in their homes or work places.
After a while, the “calendar case” began to take the shape of a farce with a slight political connotation.  Blogger zlaya_uchilka, for example, released another version of the calendar [RUS] with pictures of half-naked male models from glossy magazines and ripped-off sexual innuendos targeted at Putin from the very first version of the calendar.
edgar-hoover went even further and created calendar with images of half-naked retired women [RUS] expressing their love for the recently sacked [ENG] mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov (Luzhkov was very popular with Moscow retirees who, thanks to the mayor’s efforts, enjoy the highest pensions in Russia). And ibigdan posted a version of the calendar [RUS] with faces of Russian and occasionally international  high-profile politicians (like Barack Obama) praising Vladimir Putin. The case gradually becomes an Internet meme.
The “battle of calendars” simultaneously emerged on different platforms. Russian traditional media also actively cover the scandal blowing it out of proportions. But it is not surprising that the blogosphere and social networks (Vkontakte.ru, for example) provide much deeper look at the case due to their interactivity and public engagement.


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Slovenia: Ljubljana Election Guide, Part 4 · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The last installment of Ljubljana's “2010 local election guide-extraordinaire” – at Sleeping With Pengovsky.


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Somali Pirates Captures Taiwanese Fishing Boat off Madagascar Coast  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Somali pirates may have seized  Taiwanese fishing ship Feng Guo and its 14 crew members off the east coast of Madagascar. Le Matinal adds that  Mauritius PM will speak out today in favor of an inter-regional strategy  against piracy [fr]. Feng Guo had a fishing license issued by authority in Mauritius.


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Tanzania: CCM and Political Debates · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Shurufu analyses Tanzania's ruling party (CCM) refusal to take part in political debates before 2010 General Elections: “One of the most difficult things to do during political campaigns is to, first, establish a clear and coherent narrative about your agenda and second, to go out there and consistently articulate that narrative. All sorts of things can happen to throw you off course.”


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Trinidad & Tobago: Honesty  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Plain Talk “would like to suggest to the current Administration that they return to the Parliament and use the forum of a revised Budget to level with the people on the exact nature…[of] the anticipated financial hit we are going to take regarding the CLICO crisis.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Talking to Mc Farlane  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinidad Carnival Diary publishes a two-part interview with mas designer Brian Mc Farlane, here and here.


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Africa: African elite rulers, quacks and bulimia · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“African elite rulers, quacks and bulimia” by Tanzanian blogger Nkwazi Mhango: “Like Mugabe, Kikwete is currently using public funds to run his campaigns in order to remain in power. His chief campaigners are none but his wife Salma and his son Ridhiwani.”


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Africa: On Traditional Healers · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A light-hearted film with an important message about the relationship between modern medicine and traditional medicine: ‘When a Kenyan man discovers he is HIV positive, he turns to a traditional healer for help. But what advice will the witch doctor dispense?”


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Bangladesh: Increase In Cost Of Living · Global Voices
Rezwan

An Ordinary Citizen wonders whether the Bangladesh government should “take necessary steps to keep the inflation controlled and to reduce the cost of living” to avoid loss of faith among common citizens.


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China: Congratulations to the Freedom Fighter Liu Xiaobo · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

China digital times translated blogger Ran Yunfei's blog post dedicated to 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.


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China: Liu Xiaobo the intellectual · Global Voices
Andy Yee

On 8 October 2010, Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He is a renowned literary critic, political essayist and activist based in Beijing. Trained in literature and philosophy in the 1980s, he was then described as a ‘dark horse’ in China’s literary circle for his pointed critiques and emerging prominence. This is how Xu Youyu, professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, describes Liu Xiaobo in the 1980s in his open letter calling for the peace prize to be awarded to Liu:
What brought Liu such attention at the time wasn’t merely the sharpness of his writing or his pointed critiques, but also how thorough he was in his thinking and how much more influential his criticisms were of mainstream ideology and dogma in China than those of other intellectuals.
Fast forward 20 years, and there is a great transformation in Liu’s style and thinking. This is how Evan Osnos, who last met Liu in December 2007, describes him in the New Yorker (8 October 2010):
Liu had always been a classic type of the Chinese intellectual class—lean as a greyhound, bespectacled, with a wry sense of humor—but on this December day he looked even gaunter than usual: his belt looked it like was wrapped nearly twice around his waist, and his winter coat drooped. Unlike some Chinese scholars popular in the West, he exuded no aroma of privilege: he had no dual appointments at universities abroad, no obvious awareness that he could be the toast of New York or Berlin, no Davos-worthy polish. Nor did he have the posture of a firebrand. Instead, he struck a technical and unhurried tone as he explained why he had co-authored an open letter that summer, urging Chinese leaders to do more on human rights. He described it not as an act of provocation, but one of duty.
For Liu, the year 1989 was a transformative one. He left his post as visiting scholar at Columbia University to play a crucial role in China’s pro-democracy movement. He spent two years in prison for his role. The political upheavals had transformed Liu’s outlook. In an essay reprinted in the website China in Perspective, Cheng Yinghong, a Chinese scholar, described this shift in Liu’s ideological orientation as from romanticism to empiricism; in style as from arrogance to humility:
如果说80年代在刘晓波的眼里，是文化传统或者一种比较超验的东西在压抑人性、人欲和自我，那么今天则是国家和政治体制这些更加直接或者容易被经验证实的因素在压抑个人。因此，对像不一样了，关怀仍然没有变。我想这大概也是把前后两个刘晓波联系在一起的线索。
In Liu Xiaobo’s eyes, if repression on the individual and human nature in the 1980s was due to cultural or transcendental reasons, then today’s repression is due to more empirical reasons such as the country’s political system. Therefore, though the targets have changed, his sympathy and humanity have not. And this is what links the two Liu Xiaobo’s together.
Cheng further explains how Liu’s scope of criticisms on the society has gone beyond his early training in literature and philosophy after the transformative year, and how this makes him different from other intellectuals in China:
他不同于大陆自由主义知识份子的其他代表人物，如秦晖、刘军宁、何清涟、徐友渔、朱学勤等人，他们原来是什么方面的专家，现在仍然是那个方面的专家，在知识和训练上也许会有很大的扩展和延伸，但没有经历过那样的全面转型。凡是学界中人，都会了解这种转型的艰难。你可以偶尔对跨专业的问题发表一点意见，但很难成为那个方面的内行。就对每一个专业问题发表意见的深度和广度来说，刘晓波在他所涉猎的每一个领域里当然起不到上述专家的作用，但他对每一个领域中和现实关系最密切的关键问题却始终保持着敏感，而且对这些敏感问题之间的关联有宏观的把握。因此他的写作不但起到学界和一般读者之间的桥梁作用，而且也成为人们了解大陆自由主义思想发展和社会演变之间关系的一条途径。
Liu Xiaobo is different from other representative figures of liberal intellectuals in China, such as Qin Hui, Liu Junning, He Qinglian, Xu Youyu and Zhu Xueqin. They have remained experts in their original academic fields. Though they may have extended their knowledge and training, non have experienced transformation to the extent of Liu’s. People in academia know that such transformation is difficult. You can sometimes express opinions outside your field, but it’s difficult to be expert in that field. Judging from the breadth and depth of Liu Xiaobo’s comments, it is clear that he has not reached the level of expert in all fields. However, he is well aware of all the key issues in each field and their linkage to social realities, and grasps the overall picture of relationships between the key issues. Therefore, his writing not only serves as a bridge between academia and the general reader, but also becomes a channel through which people can understand the evolution of liberalism and social transformations in China.
Hu Ping, chief editor of Beijing Spring, further comments on Liu’s writing and networking in a recent article in China Human Rights Biweekly:
晓波也是中国异议运动的主要组织者。多年以来，中国的异议群体发表了大量的公开信、抗议信、呼吁书以及纲领和宣言，其中相当一部分是晓波起草、发起或组织的。这不但是因为他思想敏锐，笔头快，而且也因为他声望高，人脉广泛。晓波交游广阔，国内的海外的，华人洋人，体制内体制外，老年中年青年，学术界文化界法律界新闻界，民运人士维权人士独立作家，很多人都愿意和他打交道，愿意和他合作。虽然说对晓波不满者也不乏其人，但平心而论，在异议阵营中的头面人物里，又有几个-如果有的话-比晓波拥有更多的人脉呢?
Xiaobo is the main organizer of the China’s dissident movement. A large proportion of open letters, protest letters, appeals and declarations issued in recent years were initiated or drafted by Xiaobo. This is not only because of his sharpness and quickness of thoughts, but also because of his reputation and networks. Whether it is in China or overseas, Chinese or foreigners, governmental or non-governmental, young or old, academia, cultural, legal or media, activists or writers, all are willing to make friends with and co-operate with Liu Xiaobo. Although some have expressed dissatisfactions with Liu, within the dissident community, who, if any, can match Liu’s networks?
Books by or about Liu Xiaobo in foreign languages are somewhat hard to come by. As Hu Ping explained in his article, he and a few other friends are close to finishing the process of editing a book containing selections of Liu Xiaobo’s writing. However, readers need to wait until next year for the English and German versions of the book. Hu Ping explains why the process of editing the book is so difficult:
我对晓波的著述非常熟悉，按说选起来应该不费力气；然而一旦着手编选，才发现这项工作很不好做。第一，晓波的著述太多，11本书，近千篇或长或短的文章，要从这么多著述中选出二、三十万字的一部文集，如何取舍就是个大问题。第二，晓波写文章，总是面对中国读者，尤其是大陆的读者。由于文化差异，更由于语境的差异，外国人读他的文章是不是能读明白，能准确领会，挑选哪些文章更合适，也是一个很麻烦的问题。再有，对晓波这样的人物，一般读者不但对他的思想观点感兴趣，而且也会对他的生活经历感兴趣。然而晓波虽写过几百万文字，却没写过自传，也缺少别人给他写的传记。这不能不是个 缺憾。
As I am very familiar with Liu Xiaobo’s writing, editing the book should be an easy task. On the contrary, I find it very difficult once I embark on the process. Firstly, Xiaobo’s writing is too plentiful – 11 books, plus nearly a thousand pieces of articles. To select 200 – 300 thousand words from this pool and collect them into a book is a big task. Secondly, Xiaobo’s writing are all directed towards Chinese readers, especially those in the mainland. Because of cultural and language differences, the selection needs to take into account foreigners’ understanding and interpretation of the articles. Furthermore, general readers will not only be interested in Liu Xiaobo’s thoughts, but also his life experience as a personality. Unfortunately, although Xiaobo has written millions of words, he has not written about himself. We also lack a biography of him written by others. We cannot help but admit that this is a regret.

author: Andy Yee


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China: The Nobel Prize and the CCP’s Ignoble Response · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Jottings from the Granite Studio comments on the Chinese Communist Party's response to the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize award.


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China’s ‘Directed Public’ receives Nobel Peace Prize · Global Voices
Andy Yee

Timothy Cheek from the University of British Columbia has a video commentary on the Nobel Peace Prize and an article on China's directed public sphere at Asia Pacific Memo.


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Cuba: What happened with Twitter? · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Ellery Roberts Biddle comments on the reaction of some bloggers [ES] to the technical difficulties that impeded sending Twitter messages via SMS in Cuba: “This raises an uncomfortable question about how activists and advocates  for free speech online (a group I consider myself to be a part of)  interpret and respond to evidence of censorship.”

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle