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Israel: Arab Citizens of Israel Oppose National Service · Global Voices
Gilad Lotan

“Arab citizens of Israel” is a phrase used to describe Arabs or Arabic-speaking people who are not Jewish, but are citizens of the State of Israel. (definition: Wikipedia)
The Arab-Israeli sector comprises of over 1.4 million people (some 19.8 per cent of the Israeli population). Their dual identity is highly complex, in a country torn by an ongoing struggle between their two nationalities. Many Arab citizens in Israel feel that the state actively discriminates against them, just from being in its essence a ‘Jewish state’. Arab-Israeli youth are not required to serve in the military so as not to place them in an awkward position, fighting against their brothers. However, there has been a recent government initiative, aimed at passing a law requiring all Arab-Israeli youth to engage in some form of national service. This includes a range of volunteering possibilities with organizations in deprived communities and towns.
This proposal was received poorly by many of the Arab-Israeli community leaders. Here are translations of several Hebrew blog posts from Jewish and Arab citizens in Israel, reacting to this minority's complex social stance.
In his blog post, Avraham Pechter, an Israeli lawyer and consultant, describes the problematic reactions from several Arab-Israeli community leaders regarding the proposed national service:
Two months ago the government decided to start encouraging national service in Israel within the Arab-Israeli sector. This is voluntary service, which is also directed towards the Arab sector. Youth who are currently exempt from Military Service will be asked to volunteer in hospitals, community centers, drug rehabilitation centers, schools, clinics or any other charity services. Israeli-Arabs are exempt from the compulsory military service for obvious security and ethical reasons; they are not placed in the embarrassing position to fight the Palestinians. Yet they long for equality in this country without showing any intent on integrating and improving the Arab-Israeli community's social status, which can benefit immensely from this proposed national service. It is hypocritical behavior, trying to maintain the existing conditions: highlighting our differences, deepening poverty and crime, which result in their internal political gains.
…
Arab-Israeli parliament member Jamal Zahalka claimed that “the Arab society will extract those who volunteer to the national service and consider them as lepers”, in reaction to the formation of the national service committee. Other Arab community leaders who support Zahalka's stance stated that national service is the first step for the physical extermination of the Arabs.
And I ask – where is the logic here? How can the Israeli youth be required to serve and help the Arab sector's welfare while Arab youth are exempt because of their leader's requests? While the Arab community leaders righteously claim that there is a rise in crime, drug usage and violence within their communities, they still request volunteers from the national service and more funding, while they label those of them who want to volunteer as “traitors” or “lepers”.
…
In another blog post an Israeli reacts:
The Israeli government is trying to pass a law for compulsory national service for the Arab-Israeli sector. The protests did not fail to come, some hair-raising when reading their comments and claims regarding this law – “This will bring to Israelization of our youth”, claims an Arab-Israeli parliament member.
Excuse me, but are you not Israelis already?
Or are you Israeli only when it comes to accepting your national stipends, government pension, health insurance, water and electricity service? A committee gathered in Haifa today to discuss the topic of this new law proposal. Reading the comments and claims that were stated there, I wonder how we will all end up. The gap between our two separate sectors seems impossible to bridge.
In the following blog post an Israeli-Arab describes how it is to be an Israeli born Christian Arab:
As an Israeli born Christian Arab, my identity is complex and confusing. Even though I feel completely Israel, voices from the Arab side claim that I am Palestinian. Our roots were conquered here 60 years ago. The Israelis do not really let us feel Israeli. They look at us differently. I don't really know what we are. If we rebel against this country, the Jews will make us feel shameful that we, as Israelis, oppose our own country. But on the other hand, if we protect Israel because it is the land we live in, the Palestinians will call us traitors, and claim that we forgot our own people; forgot where we had come from… But the truth is that the Palestinians do not like the Israeli-Arabs. In fact, they hate and despise us even more than their hate towards the Jews. And the Jews in this country hate the Arab Israelis, because they are similar to Palestinians. So which side do we belong to??

author: Gilad Lotan


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Jamaica: Eating in Kingston · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Stunner‘s taste buds are excited about Kingston Restaurant Week.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Japan: Cat Pot Video · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Cat pot video became a popular motif in Japan. According to Mari, this is the first video clip and here is the search result from youtube.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Japan: Fingerprints, mugshot, welcome to Japan · Global Voices
Hanako Tokita

Despite protests from human rights organizations and the foreign community, new immigration procedures, which require all non-Japanese citizens over 16 years of age to be fingerprinted and photographed when entering Japan, will come into effect on November 20, 2007. Fingerprinting of foreign nationals in Japan is not a new affair, however. Japan used to fingerprint foreign residents until, following protests mainly organized by “special permanent residents” of Korean and Chinese descent, the system was abolished in 1999. But this time, it came back under the name of the war on terror.
Illustration: Flickr user stbeck CC-BY-NC-SA
To many Japanese, the introduction of the new system, let alone the passing of the bill, is still unknown. futureeye points out to the fact that the new system has been put in place without most Japanese even knowing.
今回の一番の問題は、住基ネットのときのような、賛否両論に分かれた議論がなんらなされていないことです。この法案がいつ通ったのかさえ、国民の大部分が知りません。日本政府の言い分としては、「外国人に対しての指紋照合制度であり日本人は無関係の法案のため、住基ネットのときのような議論は不要である」程度の反論が考えられます。しかし、前述したように、相互主義は世界政治の常識です。後々日本人に付けが回ってきます。このような法案を、我々が知らないうちにこっそりと通していいのでしょうか？
Blogger Danny Choo writes:
I'm not exactly sure how fingerprinting somebody is going to stop evil intentions. If a person wants to blow him/herself up then a fingerprint is not exactly going to stop them from doing so.
I can see how it can play a part in preventing overstay – photos of overstayers can be published as soon as their permitted stay has exceeded for example.
As Japanese blogger oheohehe puts it:
時代の状況を考えれば当然の事です。
やましい事を考えている人間だけが文句を言うだけだ。
例えば朝鮮人や〜社民党の方々、弁護士の一部・・・・・
This blogger gives his version of explanation as to why foreigners should be fingerprinted.
指紋押捺制度はこう説明すべきなのだ。
外国人には日本人と違って戸籍がない。
だから日本人と異なる取り扱いをしても，不当な差別にあたらない。
戸籍がないため，入国している外国人は一定の管理の必要があるといえる。
また外国人犯罪も凶悪化している。入管行政の実効性も確保しなければならない。
ただ写真照合では同一人かどうかの判断は極めて困難。
個人を特定する上で「指紋の押捺」が最も確実といえる。
ゆえに指紋押捺制度は必要。
Unlike Japanese citizens, foreigners do not have koseki.
Therefore, treating foreigners in a different way is not unfair discrimination.
Because foreigners do not have koseki, there is a certain necessity for foreigners who have entered Japan to be kept track of.
Also, the intensity of crimes committed by foreigners is increasing.
Just matching photos is not enough to verify that it's the same person.
Fingerprinting is the most efficient way of identifying an individual.
Therefore the fingerprinting system is necessary.
On the other hand, there are many bloggers who express their criticism of fingerprinting. Blogger Odoru OL writes:
海外旅行で入国審査時に顔写真や指紋を取得されるのは、犯罪者の予備軍と見られているようで、あまり気分は良くありません。
まして、審査官はともかく、入国審査窓口に並んで待っている外国人を誘導する警備員のような人たちの態度は、往々にして悪いことが多いです。
なので、テロ対策という名目は分かっていても、完全にテロを防止できるわけではないのに、なぜ善良な市民がそのしわ寄せを受けるのか、といった文句も、長い行列にうんざりしているときには、頷いてしまったりします。
（時間がかかりすぎて搭乗時刻に間に合わなくなると、一転してスルーパスになることも疑問です。）
So, even though I understand that it is a part of the anti-terror measures, when I get sick and tired of being in a long line, I have to agree with those who complain: why do good citizens have to deal with this even though you can never completely prevent terrorism? (The fact that you are allowed to pass through [immigration] in cases where you are close to your boarding time and [being checked] would take too much time also raises questions.)
Tako expresses his disappointment and criticizes the Japanese government for focusing on the wrong target.
この１１月から、日本へ入国する外国人は入国審査で「指紋採取」および「顔写真撮影」されることとなるんですって(例外あり)。これは米国に続いて二国目です。
いつだったっか、日本在住の外国人に対し、外国人登録時に指紋を取らなりましたよね。頭から外国人を犯罪者扱いしなくなったから「日本もまともに近づいたね」と思っていたのに、ああ残念。
今回導入される入国審査規定の紹介ビデオが政府のホームページで見られるので、興味のある人は是非見てください。
テロ対策という大義名分ですが、うさんくさいなあ。
近年のテロって、同国籍の人物によるものばかりじゃあないですか（イギリスで起きたテロは少なくともイギリス国籍の人物だった）。それに日本で起きたテロらしいテロと言えば地下鉄サリン事件などで、結局日本人の仕業だったし。
訪問者を疑うよりも国内の怪しい組織の動きにもっとアンテナを張ってもらいたいものです。
Some time ago, they stopped fingerprinting foreigners in Japan. I was thinking [at the time]: “Japan has stepped closer to becoming a decent country”, since Japan had stopped automatically treating foreigners as if they were criminals. Oh am I disappointed.
You can watch a video explaining the immigration examination policy, so check it out if you're interested.
They say they are doing it in the name of anti-terror measures, but it sounds sketchy.
Many recent cases of terrorism were carried out by individuals who held citizenship of the country (the terror incident in England at least was done by British nationals). And speaking of cases in Japan that you could all terrorism, we have for example the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and that after all was done by Japanese nationals.
Rather than suspecting visitors, I wish they would instead keep an eye on the actions of suspicious organizations in Japan.
For comprehensive background and up-to-date information in English, see the fingerprinting NJ archive at debito.org.

author: Hanako Tokita


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Japan: Mobile Manga · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Nicholls from Japundit blogs the finding of a questionaire about manga culture and mobile phone.


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Japan: Panama, again? · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

Boguspokesman at Bogus News reports that conversations [ja] on Japanese forums about the sinking of a Panamanian freighter off the coast of Japan yesterday have been very critical of Panama. At 2-channel, one person blamed Panamanians for having “bad manners”, another wondered what the frieghter was even doing near Japan, and another drew manga expressing the sentiment that “Panamanian boats are dangerous”.

author: Chris Salzberg


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Kenya: Fusing music with humanitarian work · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Helen blogs at Mshale about a unique Kenyan gospel group: “Gospel Singing Group Milele does more than sing worship praises. They use their international fame as musicians to work on humanitarian projects.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Kyrgyzstan: Education Reform · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Almaz reviews the efforts to reform the education sector in Kyrgyzstan, saying that for landlocked country with no hopes for industrialization, the only way is to become a service-oriented country, which requires highly qualified personnel.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Kyrgyzstan: Interview with E.Baisalov, a Politician · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

The Roberts Report comes out with the exclusive interview with Edil Baisalov, the well known political figure and democracy activist from Kyrgyzstan.


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Kyrgyzstan: Parties Struggle for Power · Global Voices
Asel

Political events in Kyrgyzstan for the past several weeks have spurred a lot of discussions, assumptions and dispute among Kyrgyz bloggers. Following president Bakiev's decree on dissolution of the Kyrgyz Parliament and resignation of the government, new parliamentary elections will be held on December 16 this year, and about fifty political parties applied for participation in these elections.
Edil Baisalov informs that the Social Democratic Party, led by Almazbek Atambaev, had its VIII conference on 10th November in the Ballet and Opera Theatre and announced the party list. Atambaev, acting Prime-Minister of Kyrgyzstan, declared that he will do his best to ensure that the parliamentarian election is fair and transparent (AKIpress):
As a chairman of the party I will try to make sure that the election is held fairly and freely, since any gerrymander during and after the election will lead to disunity in the country. One revolution was enough for us.
On AKIpress forum, Aibek1961 leaves a witty reply to Atambaev’s statement:
Free election is something new in our practice. If it is going to be free and fair, then the Social Democratic Party would lose out.
The pro-presidential party Ak-Zhol that was created nearly a month ago had also held its conference and announced the party list members among whom there are Cholpon Baekova, a Chair of the Constitutional Court, State Secretary Adahan Madumarov and five ex-MPs. Kyrgyz bloggers were unhappy to see the change of the position of ex-MP Kabai Karabekov, who was one of the strongest opponents of the government during the April strike and now joined Ak-Zhol. For instance, bored says:
Shame on Karabekov! I did not expect it from him, I am really disappointed..
While Yad has a more realistic approach:
Nothing to be surprised about. For me it was even more surprising to see for how long he was pretending to be in opposition.
Ex-Prime Minister Felix Kulov is a chair of the Ar Namys party, which has not released its party list, because the law enforcement bodies launched an examination of the party conference's delegates. During a press conference given to AKIpress, he said:
Should there be mass falsifications during the parliamentary elections on December 16, the spring of 2008 would be very unpleasant in combination with increase of prices for food products.

author: Asel


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Kyrgyzstan: Violence aganist Women · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

GenderStan posts some official statistics on violence against women in Kyrgyzstan, and the figures cited are very alarming.


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Malaysia: Malaysia Protesting PM’s Policies · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

“There are a number of reasons why a growing number of Malaysians are getting quite pissed off at Abdullah Badawi and his administration” says Mahaguru.

author: Preetam Rai


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Mozambique: The young rapper and the power of words · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Moçambique para todos [pt] publishes video and lyrics from thought provoking rapper Azagaia, from Mozambique, who “is back to the scene and releases tomorrow his latest piece of work. Check out the lyrics of a song that is already very popular, especially in the intellectual debate circles”.

author: Paula Góes


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Nepal: Political Games and Media · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Bahas on the dirty games played by political parties in Nepal, and how the media seems to go along with it.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Nigeria: ATMs for Visa cards · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

David Ajao finds ATMs for visa cards in Nigeria: “I was plesantly surprised last night to discover that ATMs that support Visa cards are now available in Nigeria.”


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Pakistan: On fighting the Emergency · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The Emergency Times has a moving post on why it is crucial to fight for Pakistan in the current situation.


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Pakistan: Profanity, journalists and the Emergency · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Metroblogging Islamabad on the issue of three foreign journalists being asked to leave Pakistan due to some terms used to describe Musharraf in the UK publication Daily Telegraph.


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Russia: Books on “The New Cold War” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Economist‘s Edward Lucas seeks help in promoting his new book, due to be published in February 2008 – The New Cold War: How the Kremlin Menaces Russia and the West (not to be confused with Mark MacKinnon‘s The New Cold War: Revolutions, Rigged Elections, and Pipeline Politics in the Former Soviet Union, published earlier this year).

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: Chewing Gum in the Soviet Union · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Like a million other things, chewing gum wasn't freely available in the Soviet Union: a true defitsit item, zhvachka was not something to be taken for granted – especially if you were a kid.
In the post translated below (RUS), LJ user tvoron recalls a childhood experience that appears comical now, but must have been rather traumatic at the time, 30 years ago:
In 1977, when our class was preparing for the “Farewell to the ABC Book” holiday, a group of French visitors arrived to our school.
It happened during the long break. The French were walking down the hallway, giving presents to the kids.
The French knew very well what the kids lacked, what kept them from being totally happy. We lacked chewing gum…
Actually, some of us could've been missing it, but I, aged seven and a half, haven't even tried it once, even though I was rather knowledgeable about the subject and had even seen it more than once in the possession of my friend Natasha: with obvious pleasure, she was sending Tutti-Frutti sticks – bought by her parents [on checks at Beryozka store] – into her mouth. Natasha wasn't greedy: sometimes she'd take a little white ball out of her mouth and offer it to me to finish chewing on it. But, for some reason, I was too squeamish…
Finally, though, the great moment arrived. The French were offering sacred stuff to the kids. Some received dragées, others – stick gum, still others – little balls, and some – little cubes… And I got a strange flat round thing that looked like a little medal, from a smiling elderly lady…
Chocolate medallions wrapped in gilded foil weren't new to me, but it was for the first time in my life that I was seeing a medallion-shaped chewing gum. Well, that made it even more interesting. I tried to scratch the foil off the coveted chewing gum, but in vain. And only when my teeth squeaked in a mean way a couple times as they touched the little medal did I realize that it wasn't a chewing gum. It was some junk with a profile of some unknown guy engraved on it, that's what it was…
I sat shocked throughout the last class and the whole time after school, and only in the evening, when I entered the apartment, I wept out loud. I was bemoaning all the hopes that hadn't come true and didn't listen to my parents’ consolation attempts. And I absolutely didn't care about the anniversary medal issued to mark 200 years since the birth of Napoleon…
Here's part of the discussion of this sad story:
tvoron:
[…] The pseudo-zhvachka is still there, by the way – at a closer look, it turned out to be extremely nice ;)
roma_2:
Yes, that's what I wanted to ask: what's become of it?
Today's first-graders wouldn't cry if given a medallion, I guess, quite the opposite :)
tvoron:
It's been lying in a box for 30 years already. Sometimes I take it out and look at it.
ukropinka:
Poor child.
tvoron:
It's okay. My parents, deeply affected, bought me a whole pack later, from the Arabs at the [Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University dorm]. […]
mamzik21:
[…] Someone gave me a bubble gum cigarette in 1966, when I was in the second grade, and I was totally excited. I was extremely proud, and the girls envied me. I was biting off small pieces and chewed and chewed and chewed on them, and then I kept this bubble gum in a candy wrapper for a long time… :)
tvoron:
Oh, how familiar it is: to chew – to save it – then to chew again. Bubble gum cigarettes, they were made in Czechoslovakia, no?
mamzik21:
I don't remember – I mean, I don't know. A girl named Irochka Ushakova gave it to me. Her parents worked either at the [Ministry of Foreign Trade] or the [Ministry of Foreign Affairs].
multi_mouse:
How horrible. It's nothing but a tragedy when you're seven.
One of my mama's patients presented her with a large pack of chewing gum, and mama used to give me one every Saturday after checking my [grades] – and only if every single grade of the week was an A, I'd receive this joy. There was an educational element present in it. But from the health point of view it was harmful, because I used to chew this gum for three or four and sometimes even five days, since I knew that I wouldn't get another one until next Saturday. And it's terrible unhealthy – you can only chew one gum for half an hour, or an hour at the longest, and not for over 70 hours, and it ended up turning black and melted away like burned cellophane, and, most likely, turned into some horrible poison.
***
To learn more about chewing gum in the Soviet Union, read Alex Novikovski's pieces at Gum Wrapper Times: the Online Chewing Gum and Wrappers Collector's Newsletter – here and here.
To see the wrappers of Soviet-made chewing gums, click here.
A YouTube video of the Soviet-time Estonian chewing gum commercial is here.


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Russia: “How Fascists and Racists ‘Get’ Web2.0” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Evgeny Morozov writes about “the ugly face of cyberactivism in Russia,” using one of the top-ranking posts in the Russian blogosphere “to highlight how much user-generated racism is out there.”


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Sierra Leone: Bucket Showers · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Sandra writes about bucket showers in Sierra Leone: “In my last post, I mentioned having to take a bucket shower. To some this may sound strange. But for most people in Sierra Leone, this is daily routine.”


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Slovakia: Dubček’s Legacy · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Dr. Sean's Diary discusses about ways of looking at Alexander Dubček's legacy: “Possibly, we should think back beyond the humanism and apple pie to remember the more authoritarian impulses during the 1960s of Dubček et al to regulate pluralism and debate so as to ensure they delivered social consensus around the ‘right’ result – something often overlooked in many accounts because the Prague Spring was progressive and democratically minded by the standards of communist one party rule in Eastern Europe.”


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Slovenia: Danilo Türk’s Victory · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Center-left opposition party candidate Danilo Türk won nearly 70 percent of the vote in Slovenia's presidential election Sunday. Sleeping With Pengovsky notes that “smear campaigns do not work in Slovenia” – because undecided voters cast their votes for the victim. Dr. Filomena writes that the first day after the presidential election “is the first day of the parliamentary election campaign” – and discusses Slovenia's economic and social troubles in the comments section to this post-election post by The Glory of Carniola.


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Slovenia: Law on Funding of Municipalities · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sleeping With Pengovsky writes about the political meaning of the recent ruling of the Constitutional Court “on motion of the City of Ljubljana (supported by three other municipalities) to repeal several articles of the Law on Funding of Municipalities.”


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Somalia: Elders getting involved with security · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Steve discusses latest issues in Somalia: By request from local clan elders, Mohamed Deere, the warlord-turned-nominal mayor of Mogadishu, Somalia, has called off disarmament operations in the nominal capital, and consequently the elders “are now involved in the security of the city.”


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Somalia: Massacre in the streets of Mogadishu · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Banaadir posts a video showing the cost to human life in the Somali conflict and quotes Bob Marley's Redemption Song: “”How long shall they kill our prophets, While we stand aside and look? ooh!” Bob Marley


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South Korea: National Worker Rally Not Just Anti-FTA · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

CINA from Jinbo net criticized AP and Reuter for interpreting the recent rally as an Anti-FTA protest. It is an annual national worker rally and this year the messages included anti-war and civil rights.


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Southern Sudan Has a New Health Hazard · Global Voices
SudaneseDrima

We begin this round up of the Sudanese blogosphere with Drima's announcement of the launching of Sudan's DailyVoices and Iraq's DailyVoices. He recently came back from a conference in which he was happy to meet Irshad Manji, a Canadian Muslim feminist.
Amjad seems happy too but for a different reason:
This morning I went to my interview at the American Embassy in Muscat for my student visa application. Have I mentioned that my final decision is to go for Texas Tech University? I got admitted to Texas Tech al-hamdulillah to a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering program.
… I gathered my documents & everything then went to the interview. It went very well al-hamdullah and everything was smooth.
He blogged about a new documentary on Darfur:
The documentary, Darfur Now, has been released yesterday, November the 2nd, on a limited release. I just hope I can get a copy to watch as soon as possible. I guess it's a good documentary to show those people who don't know about Darfur's issue, to show them & aware them of what is really happening in Darfur.
Daana, contemplated the idea of using clean and renewable energy to power Sudan:
Sudan is suffering widely from under-development and most areas of Sudan do not have access to basic services, let alone energy or power. Is it possible that we could convert to the use of alternative energy sources that we are so abundantly blessed with? After all we have plenty of water that is not being utilized, the sun shines all over the country almost all year long, and wind energy is easily produced.
Kizzie, Wholeheartedly-Sudaniya blogged about a Sudanese novelist:
I just heard about “Travelling with Djinns”, a book written by Jamal Mahjoub. Mahjoub was born in London to an English mother and a Sudanese father. He was brought up in London and Khartoum.
Dr. Konyokonyo tells us about a new annoying menace facing Southern Sudan:
Anyone who steps into Juba will definitely notice that there are as many motor cycles as there are people! It is utterly unbelievable.
Long time back, motor cycles are very few. Post CPA there is a flock of imports, especially new model call Senke. The bad side is that it is the young people, barely ten or or years who cruse around town in them. And there are the accidents.
Doctors know long time back that when the mangoes are in season, many children will be admitted to hospital with mango fractures, sustained due to a fall from a mango tree.
Now the trend is in the senke. They almost make accidents every single day. One time, they were really piled up at the traffic police station. What a menace! These young people also drove them while intoxicated.
Senke has become a health hazard.

author: SudaneseDrima


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Swaziland: Mathematics and patients · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ryan shares his observations about numbers and patients in Swaziland: “Mthobisi’s fleece sweatshirt had the number ‘14’ on it. I remember this value because it matched Mthobisi’s CD4 count on 31 January, 2007, just before he started ARVs.”


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Syria: Foreign Policy · Global Voices
Yazan Badran

This month's topic on Creative Syria‘s Blogger Forum was one that is guaranteed to cause storms of debate among the different bloggers.
The question read:
Syria's Foreign Policy
Which international and regional powers (Turkey, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Untied States, Russia, France) should Syria try to have good relations with. Should Syria be more involved or more hands off in its surrounding region's many conflicts.
We start with Wassim, who argues that Syria ought to stay the course in its current foreign policy, especially when it comes to strengthening its ties with Russia, Turkey and Iran.
The death of Arabism and the realignment of many regional players on the side of Israel and the United States meant that a new appraisal had to be made and Syria has in fact made it. At this moment it has no need to be flexible on any issues since it (and Iran) remarkably still hold all the cards. However, rather than expect to rest on its success and hope to negotiate a better offer, Syria must intensify its efforts to roll back this influence, anything less could jeopardise all it has worked for.
Qunfuz, while agreeing in general terms with Wassim, brings out the notion that the current conflict is not in reality a sectarian one, in spite of the many attempts to depict it as such.
The current regional division is often misleadingly cast in sectarian terms, despite the Syrian regime’s secularism and Hamas being a Sunni organisation. It is much more useful to understand these opposing alliances in terms of those who welcome US-Zionist hegemony underpinned by American military bases, control of resources and the unfettered penetration of regional economies by Western capital, and those who refuse to submit. It is my opinion that Syria is on the right side in this.
Tarek Barakat, argues simply that it is a better relation with all of these countries [including Israel], that is the answer.
But Iran and to even a lesser extent Turkey, can offer Syria so much before the latter will need to move back to a multi-polar realm. Syria needs Saudi Arabia and the Americans way more than they need her because both can provide Damascus influence Iran cannot. And if the Syrians can’t win the American support due to conflicting strategic interest then at least they should avoid antagonizing them.
SimoHurtta, thinks that Syria's relations with its regional neighbors is much more important than its relations with the EU and the US.
Syria should concentrate on finding the elements which unite the areas/nations and actively work for a tighter Middle East’s political and economical union. Only co-operation can save the area from decades long civil wars and the faith of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Ehsani, feels that the Syrian regime has the mistaken view that Americans will be leaving Iraq in the near future, a view that is jeopardizing their foreign policy and interests.
Failure to deal with this reality has cost the country dearly. Having resisted the American invasion while working tirelessly to sabotage any chances of it becoming a success, Damascus made itself a target in this White House. The first price to pay was in Lebanon. The old tacit approval of its total control of that country’s political process soon gave way to a sudden reversal of fortunes. The Hariri murder was the final catalyst. Syria soon found itself forced to undo a strategy that has been carefully put together by Hafez Assad over the past 30 years.

author: Yazan Badran


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Mexico: State of Emergency in Tabasco · Global Voices
hj barraza

Photo by _…:::Celuloide:::…_ and used with a Creative Commons license
Since the beginning of the month the state of Tabasco, Mexico has been incrementally flooding due to massive rains. Today, more than 80% of the state is completely flooded leaving thousands homeless, and stalling the economy. all their crops have been lost. The whole state has been declared disaster zone, and it will take more than three months to clear the water from the area. Many are saying that this a worse scenario that New Orleans.
Bucefalo [ES]  writes from firsthand experience and provides a list of needed supplies:
Estamos sin agua potable, ya no hay camiones que repartan agua purificada…las despensas se están agotando, y las compras de pánico ya se dieron, y queda poco, pero tampoco pueden surtirse por obvias razones. Y los que tienen todavía algo, se aprovechan con precios exagerados. Lo que no entiendo es por qué las filas para cargar gasolina (donde por cierto solo queda magna), si estamos rodeados de agua y nadie puede salir.
We are without potable water and there are no trucks to distribute the purified water….the supplies are running out and there have already been purchases due to panic and very little remains, but it cannot be stocked for obvious reasons.  For those that still have things on the shelves, take advantage of the situation with exaggerated prices.  I don't understand the long lines to fill up on gasoline, if we are all surrounded by water and no one can leave.
Enigmatario [ES]  provide a very rich coverage of the tragedy with hour by hour updates.
J.S. Zolliker from Realidad Novelada [ES]  several statistics regarding the current events.
Mexico has declared a state of emergency in all 17 municipalities of Tabasco State.
The Secretary of Public Health announced that during this week a mass fumigation will take place to avoid the emerging of possible diseases. He also promotes preventive measures such as burying dead animals and getting rid of stalled water in public areas.
Government expects the emergence of diseases and the recovery efforts while they have been fast, they don't suffice the requirements. The scale of this tragedy has overwhelmed all the governments capacity. Lucky the entire country has been quick to answer to the relief call.
Margarita Almada  points us to several ways we can donate anything from 20 pesos (USD$2) to food, water, and clothes and lists where to send the funds.
Videos are posted by Daria that shows an aerial view of the damage.

author: hj barraza


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Tamil Blogosphere: Anuratha’s ongoing battle with breast cancer · Global Voices
Mathy Kandasamy

Tamil Blogdom is generally considered to be a place to have ‘fun’. A bunch of people standing around in groups discussing politics, movies, music, technology. A different set of people sit together talking about literature and churning out poetry and short-stories. Yet another group can be seen jumping around bursting with joy. Amidst the chaos, small group of people can be seen sitting in a corner sharing their experience and imparting knowledge.
Anuratha from Chennai, India is one of them. She starting blogging in July 2007 and has only blogged 33 entries so far. She has shared her experience in battling breast cancer. Each post contains valuable information and she emphasizes the need to ask questions. And to keep asking them.
A few days ago, Anuratha wrote about visiting her son in Singapore. And just recently on October 23rd she wrote about her health at that time. After listing a few troubles she was facing, she confidently continued to talk about her mental state. Anuratha was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2003. And she tells us how shocked she was and how ignorant she was at that time.
Here's what she says..
My husband and I looked for books on breast cancer when I was getting radiation treatment. We were able to locate two books in Tamil. Manimegalai publications book on cancer and Dr. Muthukuraman's book on mouth cancer. I searched the Net with my husband's help and learned quite a bit. http://breastcancer.org a website operating from America has a chatting room for breast cancer survivors. I participated there with my husband's help.
All these opened up a new world for me. I wanted to meet some people who got diagnosed with cancer.
Kumudam Snegethy magazine carried interviews by Neeraja and Girija, both cancer survivors who were counselling others. I wanted to meet them and contacted the magazine. I was able to talk to Girija and asked to meet her. We went to meet her the very next day. She was very helpful. She told me that she visits Adyar cancer hospital every month and counsels cancer patients and their families. She told me mostly the families needed more counseling than the patients.
Anuratha continues with her experiences in meeting several people who were diagnosed with cancer and others who help those diagnosed with cancer. Anuratha had also started writing about her experience in magazines.
Anuratha also talks about what she learned from other women. She talks about the need to keep things secret. Anuratha shares anecdotes of neighbours and others avoiding women diagnosed with breast cancer. Some women did not share their diagnosis and their interaction with the society did not change. But some of their families especially husbands started avoiding them. Anuratha continues on sharing others’ experiences and blogs about her decision not to share information about her illness with others.
Anuratha might have decided not to share with the people she comes in contact with in person. But she has been very generous in sharing information about her fight with cancer online.
Anuratha presently in Singapore is facing health problems now. She has been to visit the doctors in Singapore and has been in touch with her doctor back in India. She is taking some medicines now. But she is finding it difficult to talk. Most of the time she was only able to talk one or two words. Her most recent post was written on November 11, this Sunday with her husband's help. She is going to leave for Chennai as the medical costs in Singapore are quite exorbitant compared to India.
Tamil Blogdom has come together and is continuing to leave comments full of encouragement and prayers.

author: Mathy Kandasamy


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Trinidad & Tobago: Women in Goverment  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Caribbean Free Radio‘s response to the Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister's appointment of a record 11 government positions to women: “I’m willing to wait and see whether some of the appointees — female and otherwise — of whom I have such low expectations surprise me.”


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Ukraine: 2007 Art Kyiv · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Olechko reviews the 2007 Art Kyiv fair and points out that there are better ways for Ukrainian artists to make it to the Venice Biennale than by producing numerous Venice landscapes.


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Ukraine: More Reactions on Georgia · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Foreign Notes writes about the Ukrainian politicians’ and journalists’ reactions to the events in Georgia – here and here.


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Ukraine: On the Road to Coalition · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Foreign Notes writes about “alliances of convenience,” “subsequent betrayals” and the “behind-the-scenes deals” that are – for better or for worse – paving the road for “a workable coalition in the newly-elected Verkhovna Rada.”


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Ukraine: Ruined History · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Olechko writes about and posts photos of Olyka and Klevan: “Two rival towns going back in sixteen hundreds now are ruins with a palace/castle and a cathedral each. One castle now is a psychiatric hospital, the other – a ruin, home to junkies and stray sheep.”


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Ukraine, Russia: Ecological Disaster in Kerch Strait · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Ukrainiana writes about the ecological disaster in Kerch Strait.


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Ukraine: The Telnyuk Sisters · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Ukrainian Musical Matters writes about the Telnyuk Sisters – aka “dissidents of show-business” and “banished princesses” of the Ukrainian music scene.


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Uruguay: Approval for XO Purchase · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Rodolfo Pilas writes about the green light given to the Uruguayan project Ceibal that will purchase One Laptop

author: Eduardo Avila


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Uzbekistan: Russian Tycoon for the President? · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Libertad provokes a discussion on whether it would be good for his country to have Alisher Usmanov, an ethnic Uzbek, a ferrous metal, a mining tycoon and Russia’s 18th richest man, on the presidential post of Uzbeksitan.


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Venezuela: Chavez and the King of Spain · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Venezuela News and Views takes a look at the conflict between Hugo Chavez and the King of Spain, who asked the Venezuelan president, “why don't you just shut up?” at a recent conference in Santiago, Chile.


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Acoustic Debit Card for Africa · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Olivier Gabirault writes [Fr] about Maâtcard, an acoustic, prepayed debit card for developing countries which will debut in Cameroon next April.  The Maâtcard functions like a normal credit card, but also emits a unique, unfalsifiable sound, enabling users to securely make payments, buy air time, or transfer funds by telephone.

author: Jennifer Brea


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Afghanistan: Explosions of Violence · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

More than 40 people, including five Afghan lawmakers and a number of children, were murdered on Tuesday in one of the deadliest suicide attacks since the fall of the Taliban,  said Afghan officials. Several bloggers share their regret and opinions on this topic.
Sanjar says[Fa] that many people including five Afghan members of parliarment were killed in a  suicide attack in the Baghlan province of Afghanistan on Tuesday, 6th November. The blogger says according to the statistics of provincial hospitals more than 40 were killed and 145 injured.
HomeinKabul says, “We’re all heartbroken. Another loss for our nation.”
Dialogue 3 says [Fa] he is very sorry that Mostafa Kazemi, the former head of the economic commission of the Afghan Parliament, was murdered in this suicide attack. The blogger says Afghanistan lost one of it’s smartest politicians. Dialgue 3 says he has written dozens of pages against the thoughts and actions of Kazemi, but still really regrets his disappearance.
Asiaheart says [Fa]  the Peace Conferences in Afghanistan failed to bear fruit. The blogger counts that in two months, from August 9 to October 9, there were 17 suicide attacks, 5 explosion and 508 people lost their lives.
Rumors and violence
Az Heart says [Fa]  there are rumors in Iran that several Afghan men sexually violated (raped) an 18 year-old girl. According to the blogger, a 90 second film shows this girl begging several men not to rape her! The blogger writes that Iranian officials reject the rumors that the men in the film were Afghans, but when newspapers reported that they were Afghan immigrants, several innocent Afghans were beaten and knifed by angry people in public.
A missing journalist
Sanjar says:
Ghows Zalmay is a media professional. I know him for quite sometime. He has published a new translation of the Koran. Zalmay has been arrested after complaints from religious scholars that the new edition was un-Islamic. He was arrested on the border on Sunday while trying to flee into Pakistan. Demonstrators protested in two Afghan provinces against the new translation of the Koran into Dari, the second most spoken language in Afghanistan. Religious scholars are outraged at Mr Zalmay's new edition of the Muslim Holy Book.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Afghanistan: Jirgas and Distortion · Global Voices
Joshua Foust

A while ago, we learned that Hamid Karzai was willing to negotiate with the Taliban. Little has come of that, and Afghanistanica offers an explaination:
I would love to see some questions on the loya jirga included in a large-scale survey of Afghan public opinion. I wonder if the average Afghan hears about the newest loya jirga and has the same reaction as an American who is told the government is forming a commission to “study the issue.”
It's interesting he said that, since in the latest Asia Foundation contained some data on popular support for both the jirga (assembly of tribal leaders) and the national government in general:
Afghans continue to espouse confidence in national security forces (both army and police) as well as in traditional institutions such as Shuras and Jirgas. However, “less than half of the respondents had confidence in the government's justice system, political parties and local militias.”
So if the justice system is not well regarded, but jirgas are, what could that mean? It could be, as Atash Parcha argues, that not enough educated Afghans are returning to their country to help get it working again:
Where are our educated Afghans? Your country is calling you, awaiting you, in need of you. In every Afghan childs weep, in every Afghan mothers tear, in every Afghan fathers quest… You are the answer!
Our Afghans abroad who were once respected engineers, doctors, professors, lawyers in their homes are now taxi drivers. Even a king away from home is a beggar.
But it is not just the educated. Parcha continues:
I think of that first bomber, who, en route to killing, accidentally caught a glimpse of worship, which is nothing but the wish to affirm life, which is another name for God. I think of the bomb masters, who recruited those boys, manipulated them, tricked them into imagining that death could be an affirmation. And I think of those who created the situation within which all of this unfolds…
The revelation here is that, in the new age, every bomber is a suicide bomber.
Indeed, it is a strange struggle, one that seems destined to last forever. Abu Muqawama has some more thoughts on what counterinsurgency is like in Afghanistan.
“No! No!,” says Sardar Mohammed. “We don’t trust the governor. If he gets food, he gives it to 10 families. He puts money in his pocket. We trust you more than him. Bring aid directly to us.”
Bramble’s view is that the governor is as good as officials get around here. The U.S. officer, like his country and NATO, is caught in the hall of mirrors of contested nation-building. The exchange at the village has traversed cultures, civilizations and centuries. For Western soldiers trained to kill, and now in the business of hoisting an Islamic country from nothing as fighting continues, that’s challenging.
I don't know how you could unravel such a tangled mess on anything less than decades, though many (including, according to the Asia Foundation survey quoted above) do feel a deep appreciation of what the U.S. is trying to accomplish. It's just difficult to know how the U.S. is doing.
What of those of us in the West, who want to contribute (or at the least advocate proper policies), but cannot get a proper idea of what is going on? Õnne Pärl, an Estonian photographer, offers a glimpse of just how much of a distorted picture the West receives:
After one-month routine in Estonia, Kabul seems dangerous and unattractive. Especially thanks to media – there is a lot of coverage as there are more than one hundred Estonian troops in Helmand. After a while I stop reading the articles about Afghanistan written by Estonian journalists, spending one-week war-tourism-trips in south. Last one I tried to read began with sentence: ´”There is no doubt that military helicopter is the most preferred transportation in Afghanistan.” Really?!
Pärl, I think, provides us an appropriate end to this survey.
Conversations in Estonia about our living here are almost always the same: how can you live in that horrible country?
My reply is: it is beautiful country.

author: Joshua Foust


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Afghanistan: Rumors Fly About the Baghlan Bombing · Global Voices
Joshua Foust

The horrible suicide bombing of November 6 in Baghlan, which killed dozens, including several members of parliament, has consumed the Afghan blogosphere. I was made privy to a rumor about the bomber's origin: the United National Front, the political coalition of former communists and Northern Alliance warlords. I expressed skepticism, however, given that Bernahuddin Rabbani, one of the UNF's leaders and the former President of Afghanistan, has been vehemently opposed to suicide bombing for decades. Similarly, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, another prime suspect, has utilized suicide attacks in the past, and supposedly maintains a stable of suicide bombers ready to strap on an explosives belt. Carl Robichaud, collecting a series of quotes about the incident, suggests the same:
“There is a question why the provincial officials were not with their parliamentarian guests. And it is a question why there was shooting after the explosion.”
- Burhanuddin Rabbani,  leader of the United National Front.
This would still suggest it was an inside job, however. Péter Marton, who has done an extraordinary job of rounding up various news accounts, posts from a BBC story suggesting that the unusual deadliness of the bombing could be because it was packed with upwards of a thousand ball bearings:
That's an explanation regarding the high number of the victims (for an attack by a single suicide bomber). It is also noted in the article that this wasn't the first time ball bearings were used in a suicide attack in Afghanistan – and you know who are responsible for suicide attacks so far in Afghan history.
He's referring to the Taliban. Marton also notes:
[I]f rumours were to get out of hand, that would reinforce Hazaras’ sense of being victims (killed by the scores during the Taliban; Bamiyan's governor's complaints that they are not getting as much aid as the southern provinces that are rewarded in her view for the insurgency there; the traditional Hazara-Kuchi and Hazara-Pashtun enmities; and then this…).
The implication, of course, is that at some point the Hazara may turn against ISAF and NATO—which would be very bad news indeed for the West. Mohammad Fahim Khairy sees the hand of Karzai, and posts some brutal pictures of the aftermath:
The answer is President Karzai’s team planned the attack. They wanted to vanish Mr. Kazemi because he was the most active member and spokesman of the Opposition Party National Front who Karzai’s gang feared a lot…
Democracy is dying.
Of course, a lesson I have slowly learned, is that rumors can rarely be separated from truth in Afghanistan, something that has been true since it came to exist. In a very real sense, the “objective” truth of history does not matter, as the stories that are repeated and passed on as pieces of cultural identity will ultimately matter more. If enough people think there was a Karzai-led conspiracy, there was a Karzai (or UNF, or Hekmatyar)-led conspiracy, regardless of whether there really was one or not.
So, while everyone mourns and tries to unravel the horror of the Baghlan bombing, I suppose there is little we can do but pray for the victims’ families, and hope these incidents do not permanently bury any prospect of peace in the land.


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African Students in Morocco · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Not all Africans from south of the Sahara are coming to Morocco with hopes of emigrating to Europe; more and more are coming to study [Fr].


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Argentina: Punteros in Election Politics · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Martin Varsavsky posts a video that discusses the role of “punteros” in Argentine election politics.


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Argentina: The Art of the Asado · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Daniel K. guestwrites at Expat Argentina and provides the do's and don'ts at an Argentine “asado,” which is roughly translated to barbeque.


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Bahamas: Behind the Scenes · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Nicolette Bethel blogs “about the difficulties that come with serving in public office”.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Bahrain: News Blooper · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif  nets a blooper from the Bahraini national news agency's website.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Bahrain: Remembrance Day · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahrain-based blogger Bint Battuta marks Remembrance Day with a poem.


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Bangladesh: On Freedom of Speech · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Unheard Voices reflects on comment moderation, freedom of speech in the context of Bangladesh today.


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Philippines: Bloggers Take on Blast at Legislative Building · Global Voices
Tonyo Cruz

An explosion of still-undetermined origin destroyed the South Wing of the Philippines’ House of Representatives complex, killing a lawmaker and a driver of another.  Two other solons lead the list of injured.
Killed were Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar and Marcial Tualdo, a driver for Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan who was also among the 12 in the injured list.
Updates were immediately posted by just me, on his face is a map of the world, PinoyAmbisyoso.com, ederic@cyberspace, Piercing Pens, Bryanton Post, Pinoyhood  and Fish Tank.
While in Filipino, this report shows vivid images of the tragic incident:
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV
Life Spices is shocked that the House is not spared:
Imagine, if our government building were not safe anymore? How about public places that we ordinary people go? to think this building should be tight with security?
Blogbites also asks the same questions.
Questions are hurled by fabricating reality:
sino ang nasa likod ng pagsabog na ito? ano ang dahilan?. sa ngayon, wala pang mga kasagutan. Teka, magkakaroon pa kaya ng mga kasagutan? [who is behind this blast? right now, there are no answers. wait, will answers come?]
life is beautiful, a blog of a former student of teacher-turned-Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan who was among those injured by the blast:
Let us pray for the fast recovery of Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan, (she's my college professor in Ateneo) and to others who were injured and wounded. her driver died instantly in the blast. at this moment, she doesn't have any idea of the status of her driver. in a radio interview, she just said ” d ko pa alam kung saang hospital sya dinala.”
damn, when will this will end?
eloindigoart has one request:
sana huwag gamitin ni GMA ito na rason para mag-declare ng martial law [i wish Gloria Macapagal Arroyo won't use this as a reason to declare martial law]To my mind, this is not an accidental explosion, but let me leave it at that. Let's wait for the police to do their requisite investigation of the incident.
Also monitoring the news was A Pinoy Investment Banker's Homepage who makes a guess but says that we should wait for the results of the ongoing probe:
To my mind, this is not an accidental explosion, but let me leave it at that. Let's wait for the police to do their requisite investigation of the incident.
Note: This blog roundup is also posted at tonyocruz.com.

author: Tonyo Cruz


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Bolivia: Celebrating Todos Santos · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Bolivia recently celebrated the holiday of Todos Santos, which is based on All Saints Day.  However, there are also native practices that have become a part of this important day.  Local communities and families gather to bake bread, build altars to welcome the spirits of deceased relatives, and visit local cemeteries. Some participants of the project Voces Bolivianas (Bolivian Voices) chose to write about their experiences with this holiday.
Alberto Medrano of El Alto Noticias [es] took a more journalistic approach looking at the history of the date and how over the years it has had to compete with Halloween.
De seguro que la población alteña, visitará los Campo Santos de  Villa Ingenio, Mercedario, llevando sus ofrendas, comida, música autóctona, esperemos que en esta ocasión no predomine la borrachera y el excesivo  consumo de bebidas alcohólicas, y mas bien los familiares o amigos festejen de una manera sana el día de Todos Santos, y se discrimine totalmente a las “calabazas de Halloween”.
Surely the residents of El Alto will visit the (cemetary) Campo Santos de Villa Ingenio, Mercedario, by taking their offerings, food, local music, and we hope that on this occasion drunkeness and excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages will not dominant, and instead family members and friends celebrate All Saints Day in a healthy manner and it is totally distinct from the “Halloween pumpkins.”
Cristina Quisbert of Bolivia Indigena [es] describes the day's activities:
Ayer 1 de noviembre se recibió a las almas a medio día con una mesa preparada y adornada con diferentes tipos de panes, tantawawas, las coronas, la escalera, el caballo, frutas, pasancalla, flores, la comida preferida del difunto, etc. 2 de noviembre cargados de todo lo preparado nos dirigimos al cementerio para hacer rezar, no se acaba lo que hemos preparado, a cada risiri (rezador) le damos un plato compuesto de panes, fruta, pasancalla, etc.
Yesterday, on November 1 at noon, souls were welcomed with an altar prepared and decorated with different types of bread, tantawawas (bread in the form of children), crowns, ladders, horses, fruit, candy, flowers and the favorite food of the deceased.  On November 2, with all of which was prepared, we went to the cemetery to pray, and to each person that prayed, we gave them a plate full of bread, fruit and candy, etc.
Due to his religious beliefs, Ruben Hilari of Lenguas y Comunicacion [es] does not observe the holiday, however, he shares an anectdote shared by a friend who experienced the holiday in a mine.
Esto sucedió cuando él tenía sus 8 años. Sucedió cuando el viajó a una de las minas con su madre para ir de visita ante su tía. Pasó cuando ellos habían planificado la visita en un todo los santos. La anécdota es que él y su mama sin saber muchos rezos lo habían hecho. Resulta que en la mina todos eran conocidos menos ellos. Lo anecdótico es que toda la gente les veían extraño y todos les invitaban para que rezaran. Toda la gente de la mina les rogaba. Ellos no pudiendo hacer nada iban comiendo de casa en casa solamente por lo que eran extraños.
This happened when he (Ruben's friend) was 8 years old.  He took a trip with his mother to visit his aunt in one of the mines. It happened during a trip on All Saints Day. He and his mother visited without knowing many prayers. In the mine, everyone was familiar except for them and everyone looked at them strangely.  However, all of them invited them to pray.  All of them pleaded with them to pray.  They couldn't do anything (because they didn't know the prayers), but still went from house to house where they were served food only because they were visitors.
Preparations for the holiday is a family affair.  Graciela Romero of Compartiendo Ideas Nuevas [es] writes about baking the bread.
Los hornos hicieron su vientecuatreada sin descaso trabajaban porue salia uno entraba otra a las cinco de la mañana o en si segun la llegada lo que si estamos seguros es que cada uno hizo hacer a su gusto con los ingreientes que querían bueno también según el alcancé de cada bolsillo por ejemplo yo al ir venir o regresar veía ala gente a cargar sus panes a las señoras a otras se observaba llevando en carretones en .canastas,en bañadoras las tanta wawas,sus panes algunas hicieron a hacer su pan por costumbre o tradicion otras por la necesidad porque de seguro que el pan escaseara en las tiendas de las zonas el pan de batalla.
The ovens worked non-stop since one entered at 5 a.m. Each one made the bread according to their tastes, but as well as what they were able to afford. When I came, I saw the people load their breads and I saw women take the bread in baskets, carts or tubs. Some of the bread was made because of tradition and others were made out of necessity because there was no bread in the stores.
Finally, Juan Apaza of Corazon de los Andes [es] provides a descriptive account of his experiences on the date.
Una costumbre muy sutil de insertar ,la practican los padres,por medio de la familia a la comunidad .Obligado y arrastrado iba yo…¡ dejando mi bandera de individualismo!, y mas tarde : “a cumplior y seguir con entusiasmo esta tradicion”.
_Asi iba yo reflexionando,cuando ya se divisaba el lugar sacrosanto:_EL CEMENTERIO…
Uno espera ver a gente triste ,apenada,un ambiente funebre,llorando todos a moco tendido…¡pero no!
Todo es alboroso,ajetreo,musica,risas,alegria y compartimiento…
Y de repente:
_ Como estas hijo…!
_Alguien me agarra y me abraza! , y apenas reacciono y reconosco en ese semblante alegre ami tio(que no lo habia visto desde hace un año),y antes de que diga algo…:
_¡zaz!, ¡toma! servite esta chichita,cansado pareces.Agarro el vaso y al fondo
It is a tradition very gentle to be a part of, which is practiced by the parents, through the family to the community.  I was obligated and dragged!  Leaving behind my individualism! and later, “to fulfill and follow this tradition with enthusiasm.”
That is what I had reflected upon, when I saw the holy site: The Cementary
One would expect to see sad and sorrowful people at a funeral-like atmosphere, crying very messily, but no!
Everything was noisy and with a lot of bustle, music, laughter, joy and fellowship…
and then all of a sudden
“How's it going, son!”
Someone grabs me and gives me a hug. I react and recognize the happy figure as my uncle (I have not seen him in over a year) and soon after he says something..
“Here! Drink! Have some of this chicha (fermented corn drink), you look tired.  I take the glass and drink the entire thing.


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Bolivia: Effects of the Inflation Rate · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Miguel Centellas of Pronto* takes a look at the worrisome inflation rate in Bolivia, which has affected the lower middle classes and small business owners the most.


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Brazil: Day 1 of Rio IGF · Global Voices
Paula Góes

IGFWatch brings an update of the Internet Governance Forum‘s first day. “The most provocative speaker though was Bob Boorstin from Google, who defended the company's role in determining how its search results should be filtered”.


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Brazil: First Brazilian netcitizen is revealed · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Sergio Amadeu's blogue [pt] reveals the identity of the first ever Brazilian netcitizen, who he has met in a conference. “So, the great  Marcelo Tas [pt] is to Brazil what  Yuri Gagarin was for the former URSS. I knew we had had a first netcitizen, but I didn't know who it was”.


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Brazil: Police, a tough nut to crack · Global Voices
Paula Góes

The song theme of the popular Brazilian film Tropa de Elite [Elite Squad], about police corruption in Rio, has become background music for the Pernambuco's Police Forces. They sang the lyrics by Tihuana when were called to calm down a rebellion in a prison, as reports PE Body Count [pt]: “The chorus “Elite Squad/ A tough nut to crack/ get one/ get all/ will also get your back” was considered a provoking and intimidating act by the inmates’ wifes.”


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Brunei: Respecting Laws · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Old Man laments the disregard for traffic laws in Brunei.


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Burkina Faso: No famine, but farmers still in peril · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

In Burkina, the government's announced there is no danger of famine, but peasants say [Fr] this season's rainfall and agricultural production have been particularly bad, and many have had a difficult time harvesting enough to feed their families these last two weeks, writes Ramata Sore.


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Cambodia: Forced Eviction · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Vutha posts images of latest land grab incident in Cambodia.


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Chile: Waiting Around With LAN · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Marcelo Aliag of Bloggeando la Vida [es] writes about his poor experience with the airline LAN especially on the route between Santiago and Antofagasta.


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China: Art of Censorship · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Zhao Mu criticizes the head of CCTV, Yang Wei Guang, who described censorship practice as art in handling with politics (zh).

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Harmony Survey · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Kenneth Tan from Shanghaiist reports on the national harmony survey by  East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST).


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China: Spicy Crayfish · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Hegel Chong wrote the migration of Crayfish from Louisiana to Japan and then China (zh). Now it has become the most famous street food in major cities: spicy crayfish.


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China: Stock Market · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Chong Nanhai from AQ weekly shows how the China stock market works by giving the Aeropace Communications Holding (600677) as an example [zh]. The stock price has been dropped from RMB34.72 in Oct 22 2007 because of the China space travel to RMB8.54 on Nov 8 2007.


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China: Who Will Farm the Land? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Joel Martinsen translated an article written by He Bing, a professor at China University of Politics and Law, about the problem of aging in China's agricultural sector.


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Colombia: Large Hail Storm Rocks Bogotá · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

The Colombia Herald writes about the biggest hail storm in the history of Bogotá, which caused mass cancellations and injuries from the large hail.


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Cuba, Jamaica: The Logical Song?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Babalu Blog links to an article printed in the Jamaica Gleaner that he believes is “twisted logic”.


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Dominica: Things Must Change · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Steve's Dominica notices the subtle changes around him.


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Dubai: Car Fires Under Investigation · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Seabee from Dubai writes about how authorities are investigating the increasing number of fires in vehicles in this post.


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East Timor: Timor Radio Connect · Global Voices
Paula Góes

The project Timor Radio Connect is to be presented today to its country partner Portugal, reports A Rádio em Portugal [pt]. “The aim is to develop an online platform for their 14 community radio stations, from 12 districts in East Timor”, says blogger Jorge Guimarães Silva.


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Egypt: Kareem tortured in prison · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Jailed Egyptian blogger Kareem Sulaiman is being allegedly abused in prison, according to a statement issued by the The Arabic Network for Human Rights information and Hisham Mubarak Centre for Law, reports freekareem.org.


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French-Congolese Musician Kamini’s New YouTube Video · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Tu bloggues ta part introduces a new YouTube video [Fr] from French-Congolese musician/comedian/provocateur, Kamini.


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Guyana: Violence Against Women  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“It is time for men to change their attitude toward women – and it needs to start with the nation’s supposed leaders,” writes The Guyana Groove, as she tackles the issue of violence against women.


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Indonesia: Loving Scotland · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Anita on why she loves Scotland.


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Indonesia: Must Blog · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

“All Indonesian must blog, yes I insist that sentence firmly..” says Wazeen


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Israel: Peace With the Palestinians Now · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Israeli blogger David Bogner discusses why it's not possible to make peace with the Palestinians now.


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Israel: Soldiers in Winter · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Israeli A Soldier's Mother updates us with how her son Elie is doing this winter.


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Jamaica: Push Carts  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Montego Bay Day By Day features a photograph of one of the Jamaican town's push cart vendors.


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Jordan: Clueless People · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Some people are clueless! Completely and utterly clueless! They do something, it goes haywire and look around for some scapegoat to blame it on!” writes Qwaider from Jordan.


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Jordan: Dyslexic Children · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Jordanian Kinano coaches us on how to discover whether our children could be dyslexic in this post.


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Kazakhstan: Aliev Affair and OSCE Bid · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Adam Kesher reviews the launch of trial over Rakhat Aliyev, the ex-ambassador and Kazakhstan president's son-in-law, and the new round of bargaining around the country's bid to chair the OSCE.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Kenya: CFC-Stanbic merger · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Bankelele updating his readers about the CFC-Stanbik merger in Kenya: “An extraordinary general meeting to approve the CFC – Stanbic merger was held on November 12 at the Intercontinental Hotel.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Korea: Role of the National Election Commission for the Coming Presidential Election  · Global Voices
Hyejin Kim

The National Election Commission (NEC) announced on the 22nd of June that internet netizens can’t support or criticize specific parties or specific candidates for the presidential election on the internet. Since the announcement, there are many worries that the NEC is taking freedom of speech away.
In particular, one post that talked about a presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party (GNP) was forcefully deleted by the NEC. Netizens question the extent of the role of the NEC.
대통령 이명박, 괜찮을까?
링크를 확인해 보시면 알겠지만, 이명박에 대한 언론 기사들을 나열해 놓은 글입니다. 이 글을 선관위에서 선거법 위반으로 제재하고 있다니… 이게 더 기가찰 노릇입니다…
‘집권하기도 전에 임기말’
이 말이 딱입니다…
이 분이 대통령이 되면, 우린 더 이상 마음대로 대통령 욕도 못하게 됩니다…
이명박을 경제 대통령으로 생각하고 계시는 분들…
단지 경상도 살아서 이명박 찍어야 겠다고 생각하시는 분들…
꼭 저 글을 필독해 보시기 바랍니다.
이런 사람이 대통령 후보 지지율 50%라는게 너무나 부끄러워 집니다..
제가 단언컨데 저 시리즈는 불길과 같은 속도로 퍼져나갈 것이라 생각됩니다.
보고 싶은데, 막으면… 더 보고싶어하는 사람 심리 때문이죠…
저 글은 언론사의 기사의 나열로 이루어진 글인데도, 언론에서는 세상사람들이 다 알게 될때까지 저 글에 대해 입도 뻥끗하지 않을 겁니다.더하면 더했지, 덜하지는 않을 사람들이니 말이죠~
선관위의 만행이 있기 전에 조금이라도 더 많은 분들이 보게 되길 바랍니다…
위 링크도 짤리게 되면, 다른 링크를 찾아서 항상 볼 수 있게 만들겠습니다…
‘Before taking over, the end of his term.’
This is so right… if he becomes the president, we might not be able to criticize the president…
People who think of him as the economic president.
People who think of voting for him because he’s from the same province.
Please check the post. I’m ashamed that he is the frontrunner, having 50 percent approval.
I can affirm that the post will spread like flames. It’s the basic instinct of humans that the more they’re blocked, the more they would like to see. The post collected articles from journalists, but the press is not going to speak out. They’re more than the NEC, not less than them.
I hope that more people can see the post before the NEC blocks everything. Even though the link I found will be erased, I will link it to others.
An upset netizen deals directly with the NEC.
오늘 선관위로부터 메일이 왔다. 예전에 필자가 올린 대통령 이명박, 괜찮을까?에 대한 삭제 요청 메일이었다. 일단 이 메일을 받고 보니 일단 몇가지가 궁금한 점이 생겼다. 그래서 선관위에 전화해서 궁금증을 직접 물어 봤다.
1.	사실을 적시한 게시물이 왜 선거법 위반인가?
게시물의 사실, 공정성 여부를 떠나 특정 후보에게 불리한 내용이면 선거법 위반이라고 한다. 김연수님의 UCC가 비록 사실을 적시하고 있지만 이명박 후부에게 불리한(또는 그렇게 수집된) 게시물이기 때문에 선거법 위반으로 고발된 상태라고 한다.
2.	게시물을 링크하는 것도 선거법 위반인가?
“불법 게시물의 배포를 금하고 있으며, 링크는 클릭하면 바로 게시물이 표시되기 때문에 배포와 마찬가지로 본다”는 답변을 들었다.
사실을 적시해도 선거법 위반이고 이런 게시물을 링크해도 선거법 위반이라고 해서 추가적으로 몇 가지를 더 물어봤다.
1.	외국의 이명박 괜찮을까라는 게시물로 리다이렉션?
얼마전 필자가 만든 텍스트큐브 플러그인 URL 전환기가 떠올라서 대통령 이명박, 괜찮을까?로 접속하면 외국 서버로 자동 연결하는 방법을 문의했다. 일단 URL 리다이렉션에 대한 인식이 없기 때문에 다소 혼란스러워 했지만 “접속한 뒤 바로 이명박 괜찮을까라는 게시물이 보이면 모두 선거법 위반이다”는 얘기를 들었다.
2.	구글을 검색을 이용해서 찾아가는 방법을 알려주는 것도 선거법 위반인가?
“클릭해서 바로 해당 게시물이 보이지 않으면 위반으로 보기 힘들다. 따라서 논의를 더 해봐야 겠지만 선거법 위반으로 보기는 힘들 것같다”는 답변을 들었다.
결론으로 얘기하면 다음과 같은 방법으로 대통령 이명박, 괜찮을까?의 위치를 알려 주는 것은 선거법의 위반이 아니라는 점이다.
1.	구글에서 대통령 이명박, 괜찮을까 찾기  를 클릭
2.	첫번째 링크(zombiepower – 대통령 이명박, 괜찮을까?)를 클릭
…. 진실은 주머니속의 송곳과 같다. 숨기려고 하면 할 수록 주머니를 뚫고 나오는 것이 바로 송곳이다. 따라서 감추려고 하기 보다는 인정할 것은 인정하는 것이 낫다. 이런 형태로 UCC를 삭제하려고 하면 오히려 꺼진 불씨를 되살리는 일밖에 되지 않는다.
Some netizens compare this issue to the period of dictatorship in Korea.
저녁에 케이블 채널에서 영화보고 있는데 처가댁에서 전화가 오드라구요.
TV에서 뭐 하니까 보라고…..
저 내용이더군요. 대선 후보자 지지나 추천, 반대까지 모두 불법으로 간주한다는 내용이더군요.
순간 번뜩 오금이 저리더군요… 어어 나도 관련 글 썼는데….
이런 생각도 동시에 들더라구요.
4공, 5공 시대의 망령이 인터넷을 맴도는구나………..
네티즌을 관리하겠다니…이건 뭐 세상 거꾸로 돌아가는구나 라는 생각이 들대요.
지금의 이 민주주의 어떻게 만들어진겁니까?
국민들이 가만히 자빠져 있고, 입다물고 있는데 정치인들이 정치 잘해서
이만큼 민주주의 만들어진건가요?
선관위가 대선관리 잘 해서 이만큼 선거풍토가 마련된건가요?
꼭지가 살짝 돕니다.
이건 솔직히 민주주의를 위해 죽어간 열사들에게 물먹이는 소리 아닐까요?
과거 학생들과 시민이 함께 시위와 거리행진을 왜 한겁니까? 한사람에게도 더 부정부패를
알리는게 목적이었잖습니까? 단지 그게 온라인으로 넘어온 행위로 발전한거라 보거든요.
이제 뭐 인터넷에 글 쓸때도 시위할 때 처럼 허가받고 하란건가요?
인터넷에는 세상사는 모든 문화가 존재합니다. 그 중 언론 역시 포함되고,
과거 언론사를 통해 생산되던 기사를 단지 국민들은 수동적으로 받아들이는 역할만이 가능했고,
잘못된 기사라도 걸러들을만한 능력이 없었습니다. 부정부패가 뿌리 박히고, 조중동이
활개를 쳐도 국민이 할 수 있는건 거리운동이 전부인 시절이 있었습니다.
언론은 통재되었고, 광주에서는 대학살극이 벌어져도, 다른 시도의 국민들은 알길이 없었습니다.
일반인에게 받아들일 수 있는 정보통이라곤, 신문과 공중파가 전부였으니까요.
인터넷이라는게 자신의 지지자가 아니라서 상대방을 비방하고 깎아내리는 역기능도 있겠지만,
어떤 사람이 대통령을 해야하고, 어떤 사람은 해서는 안되는건지 알 수 있는 순기능 또한
존재합니다….
선관위는 무엇이 중요한지 조차 모르는 것 같습니다.
How did we make democracy now? Did politicians make it, while people didn’t care? Owing to the roles of the NEC, did we make this election spirit?
I’m mad.
Frankly speaking, it is insulting people who died for democracy.
Why did citizens and students have demonstrations and march? It was to let people know about corruption in politics. Now it has been developed on-line.
Do we have to get a permit in order to write on the internet?
There are all kinds of cultures on the internet. Speech is also included. In the past, we just passively absorbed the media and didn’t have abilities to figure the wrong media out. What we could do was hold demonstrations when political corruption was so deep and conservative newspapers could exist. Information we could get was just from newspapers and broadcast media.
While the internet has the reverse function to blame others, it also has the proper function to let people know who should be the president and who should not be the president….
The NEC doesn’t even know which one is important.
The case to delete any posts related to the election by the NEC seems to be not rare.
내가 썼던 글은 “마법의 MD5″(http://www.newspace21.com/mix/btl_kr.php)라 하여 사람 이름을 입력해놓으면 자동적으로 격투가 시작되어 승패가 나오는 게임에 각 정치인들의 이름을 넣어본 결과를 소개한 글이었다.  MD5에 각 정당의 경선에 참여한 사람 이름을 넣어보았는데 놀랍게도 각 정당의 경선결과와 정반대의 결론이 도출되었던 바, 이를 토대로 대선에서 누가 승리할지를 예측해보았는데, 모 후보가 패배하게 되므로(실명을 거론하고 싶으나 선거법 위반이라고 할까봐ㅋ) 실제로는 그 모 후보가 당선될지도 모른다는 내용의 일종의 우스갯소리였다…
특정 후보를 지지하거나 비판하는 글이 아니었고, 단지 재미삼아 우스갯소리 글을 올렸을 뿐인데도
선관위에 의해서 삭제조치가 된 것이다… “선거에 영향을 끼칠 목적으로 쓴 글”이라는 이유로.. 과연 저런 우스갯소리가 선거에 영향을 미칠지도 의문이며, 이런 수준의 글을 쓰는 것까지 선거에 영향을 끼칠 목적의 행위라면, 우리나라 국민들은 선거운동기간전까지는 모두 정치에 대해서는 아무런 말도 못하고 살아야 한다는 말과 다름이 없다….또한 삭제하려면 먼저 글쓴이의 의견을 물어보는 것이 도리이며, 백번 양보해서 먼저 삭제한다 하더라도 왜 삭제했는지 그 이유(이러이러한 표현이 선거법에 저촉된다)를 밝혀야 할텐데 그저 “귀하의 글은 선거법에 위반되었으므로 삭제조치합니다”란 통지만 달랑 해놓고 있는 것이다대한민국이 과연 민주주의 국가인지 의심이 든다
I didn’t support or criticize any specific candidate. I just put the post as a joke. I don’t think that that kind of joke will affect the election. If this kind of writing is even regarded as behavior that affects the election, it means that we should not talk anything about the election. In addition, if they would like to delete it, they should have asked the writer. If they did before, they should have apologized and explained why it had to be delected. But they just send a notice, “Your writing violates the election law and therefore it will be deleted.”…. I have doubts about whether Korea is a democratic nation or not.

author: Hyejin Kim


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Laos: Lao Market Delights · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Lao Voices introduces interesting snacks from Lao Markets.

author: Preetam Rai


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Lebanon: Presidential Elections Debate · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

Lebanon has officially entered the constitutional period for the election of a new president. This has not happened yet. Electing a president in Lebanon is done by parliament. So far the date for assembly has been postponed twice. The great schism in the country between the two major political factions is one of the many reasons for the delay. There are also the fears of more violence or unrests that may ensue if a non–consensual president is elected. Local and foreign negotiations and interventions are taking place nowadays. The deadline for the election is November 23. This is when the current president’s tenure is over. Parliament has been called to convene on November 21 for the elections – two days before the deadline. Most people hope that an agreement will be reached before that date. It is noteworthy that November 22 is Lebanon’s Independence Day. Here are a few reactions from the Lebanese blogosphere concerning the upcoming elections. Keep checking back since there will be more in the coming two weeks.
Walid mentions the disagreements that cloud the Lebanese society and how difficult it is to talk or write about an idea since there will always be an opposing one. And after some analysis of the situation he concludes with a suggestion of how to end the deadlock:
Great controversy arises every time one writes about Lebanon. One reason is the extreme polarization, a factor that perturbs dialogue and puts in place two mutually eliminating opinions that diverge on a deep structural level. […]
The only viable solution for the Lebanese deadlock is to let the majority speak about its interests and choose, directly, which discourse represents its interests.
What about the constant postponing and waiting till the last minute before getting a new president? Well, Riemer Brouwer advices us not to worry:
Given that most Lebanese systematically arrive late and seldom plan ahead, there might still be plenty of time. […] Here, life is less structured and more flexible. The Lebanese are used to doing things the last minute and it’s exactly this feat that comes in handy now.
For Mustapha the negotiations taking place between Lebanese parties to reach a consensual president “are part of an opaque and complex process that leaves the people clueless and powerless.” He states:
We know Mr. Hariri is talking with Mr. Berri. We also know that Mr. Hariri is talking with Mr. Aoun. That’s all. With the exception of a few clarifying statements here and there, we the Lebanese are in the dark when it comes to negotiations on who the next President will be.
While R who writes at Voices on the Wind sees that the idea of a consensual president is naive and ridiculous, because, among other things:
In all likelihood, the person whose name they agree on – our next president – will be an inconsequential fool with no popular support whatsoever. Thus making an almost ceremonial position whose only real power is to impede even more ceremonial.. Of course, by compromising here, M14 is opening the door to the next question, that of a national unity government, on which they will have to compromise again in the face of threats of unrest and civil war – in other words blackmail.
Jounoune posts about Hezbollah’s opinion about the election, which was declared by its chief Hassan Nasrallah:
Nasrallah backs early polls to defuse presidential crisis…'The whole world’ cannot disarm resistance – and cabinet [government] is ‘a bunch of thieves and murderers’
Sursock is sarcastic about the U.S. constant warnings to others not to interfere in Lebanon’s elections while it does just that:
I can just see the headlines now, “Bush warns Lebanese voters not to meddle in presidential poll.”
Leila's Magazine posts an analysis which describes the struggle in Lebanon and the region as between nationalists who are for self determination and internationalists who are for a new world order that was declared since 1991:
Most people view the political impasse as between Opposition and Loyalists, Syrians and Lebanese, Lebanese and Israelis, etc. However, the true confrontation should be viewed between the “internationalists” (from all sides – who want this global government and create the environment that justify more international involvement) and the “nationalists” (from all sides as well – who need to better reach out for one another, become more vocal, and save their country’s sovereignty and constitutional rights). […]
Currently, with regard to Lebanon’s presidency, there are certain scenarios that, if they materialize, would justify more international involvement and less Lebanese sovereignty. On the other hand, the “nationalists” from all sides must, of course, prevent these scenarios from developing and take measures that would sustain constitutional standards and unified governmental institutions.
Abu Kais details the new French initiative which he describes as a democratic choice outside democracy. He also suspected that the session that was to be held this week will be postponed, and that suspicion turned out to be true:
This is what the French are marketing in Lebanon and Syria: a mechanism by which the Maronite patriarch names 5 presidential candidates, who would then be reduced to two by Hariri and Berri, before parliament convenes to choose one.[…]
Starting Monday, the world will converge on Lebanon to pressure the Lebanese to agree on a list of candidates, Sarkozy style (sadly, not French style, for that is not French democracy we see here). Also on Monday, a session to elect a president will probably not take place, awaiting the terrorist to pass a test he failed many times. Somewhere along the way, in between assassinations and mass terror, much of the world forgot that for democracy to work, democratic choices need to be made.
Finally, Blacksmith recaps everything that has been said about the expected elections on his blog:
For the past week, we’ve been quiet on the issue of the upcoming presidential election, but that’s only because we’ve already said most of what needs to be said.
The elections are not over yet and neither will the bloggers’ reactions be. So expect more to come.

author: Moussa Bashir


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Libya: New Boyfriend · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

From Libya, Khadija Teri humours us with a story about her new boyfriend Mark Read. Read all about it here.


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Myanmar: Jotman Talks With an Opposition Strategist · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Jotman has posted a video interview with a Burmese opposition strategist.


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Nigeria: ATMs for Visa cards · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

David Ajao finds ATMs for visa cards in Nigeria: “I was plesantly surprised last night to discover that ATMs that support Visa cards are now available in Nigeria.”


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Nigeria: Nigerian football back in the days · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ababoy remembers Nigerian football in the 1980s: “1980 kicked off a glorious period in Nigerian football. Nigeria had just narrowly failed to qualify for the 1978 World Cup, losing 0-1 to Algeria in Lagos, courtesy of a Godwin Odiye own goal. I just about remember Ernest Okonkwo (Commentator extraordinaire) screaming “It is a gooooaaaalll!!!, Nigeria has scored (everyone’s on their feet) against Nigeria (celebration stopped).”


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Nigeria: This is Nollywood · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

This is Nollywood is a film about the Nigerian film industry: “Despite all odds, Nigerian directors produce between 500 and 1,000 movies a year.”


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Pakistan: Emergency and Fundamentalism · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

All Things Pakistan on why the emergency is the least of the country's worries, fundamentalism topping the list.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Pakistan: Flash Mobs and Democracy · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Andy Carvin on the idea of flash mobs being used in Pakistan to protest against the Emergency.


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Pakistan: Protests and Beyond · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Chapati Mystery on how protests will continue beyond the first few days. “These nascent protests will not go away. In fact, they have awakened a new segment of the civil society against The General.”


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Pakistan: Thanking Musharraf · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The Pakistani Spectator has a slightly different take on the Emergency, thanking Musharraf for what he's done so far.


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Palestine: Learn Arabic · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Arabic is the second fastest growing language, writes Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah.


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Palestine: US Schools Bans Palestinian Dance · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah explains why he is enraged that a Palestinian Folkloric band's performance has been cancelled at an American school.


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Peru: How to Prepare Andean Cuisine · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Noemí Vizcardo Rozas of Habla Quechua [es] posts two videos that shows how to prepare traditional Andean cuisine.


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Philippines: Writ of Amparo as Human Rights Weapon · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Alarmed by the high number of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the country, the Philippine Supreme Court decided to take a more pro-active role in defending the human rights of ordinary citizens. Last month, the Writ of Amparo took effect which was described by Chief Justice Reynato Puno as “the greatest legal weapon to protect the constitutional rights of our people.”
The Writ of Amparo was one of the many proposals made in the two-day summit on extrajudicial killings convened by the Supreme Court last July. Journal of the Jester-in-Exile identifies some of the summit recommendations:
-Amend the Rules of Court to issue protective orders in favor of witnesses in cases of extrajudicial killings;
-Expand the definition of “extrajudicial killings,” as specified in Supreme Court Administrative Circular No. 25-2007 to include extrajudicial killings of persons by reason of their advocacies;
-Create disputable presumption of knowledge by the superior of the acts of the subordinate, and eliminate the presumption of regularity in the performance of official duties in prosecution of cases involving extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances;
-In habeas corpus proceedings, allow petitioner to ask the court for an order so he or she can search specific private and public premises under guidelines prescribed by the court in the presence of the Commission on Human Rights and police;
-Transfer the venue of a case to prevent undue influence;
-Encourage judges to use perpetuation of testimony rules or the rules on conditional examination of witnesses;
-Review rules on evidence, hearsay, and modes of discovery; amend the Rules of Court to establish disputable presumption of command responsibility; and
-Allow use of electronic, remote testimony.
Lexfemme uploads the whole text of the Writ of Amparo. Section 1 of the writ states that it is “available to any person whose right to life, liberty and security is violated or threatened with violation by an unlawful act or omission of a public official or employee, or of a private individual or entity. The writ shall cover extralegal killings and enforced disappearances or threats thereof .”
The Mindanao Examiner provides a background of the writ:
“Amparo, a Spanish word that means protection is a Mexican legal procedure that aimed at protecting human rights. The “recurso de amparo” is an exhaustive remedy which originated from Latin America's Mexican, Chile and Argentina legal systems. Mexico's Amparo is found in Articles 103 and 107 of the Mexican Constitution — the judicial review of governmental action, to empower state courts to protect individuals against state abuses.”
Bloggers Atty. Manuel J. Laserna Jr. and Atty-Wanna-Be notes give the main features of the writ. The Bystander lists the the significant portions of the rule:
1. The petitioner is exempted from the payment of the docket and other lawful fees, thereby giving him full and free access to courts authorized to issue the writ;
2. The petition can be filed on any day and at any time with the Regional Trial Court of the place where the violation was committed or with the Sandiganbayan, Court of Appeals, or the Supreme Court;
3. The writ is enforceable anywhere in the Philippines;
4. The respondent named in the writ, after being served therewith, must not only show in his return that he did not violate or threaten with violation the human rights of the aggrieved party but he must likewise show the steps taken by him to determine the whereabouts of the aggrieved party and the person or persons responsible for the violation. This simply means that a general denial by the respondent of the allegations in a petition for a writ of amparo, unlike in habeas corpus, is no longer sufficient to absolve him from responsibility;
5. The respondent must raise in his return all possible defenses available to him.  Otherwise, they will be deemed waived;
6. The hearing of the writ, which is summary in nature, shall be scheduled not later than seven (7) days from the date of its issuance;
7. The court, upon the filing of the petition, may grant temporary reliefs to the petitioner or the aggrieved party like temporary protection orders, inspection orders, production orders, witness protection orders and the like;
8. If the respondent happens to be a public official or employee, he cannot evade liability or responsibility by invoking the presumption of regularity in the performance of duty; and
9. The respondent who refuses to make a return or who makes a false return or otherwise disobeys the lawful process or order of the court shall be punished for contempt either by imprisonment or fine.
Our thoughts are free quotes National Union of People’s Lawyers secretary-general Neri Javier Colmenares who described the writ of amparo as a legal remedy that “could pierce the veil of impunity shrouding the perpetrators of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines.” The lawyer also explained why the writ is a powerful legal measure:
“The writ of habeas corpus requires the military to physically produce missing persons suspected to be in its custody. The writ of habeas data, meanwhile, requires that the military produce evidence or items containing evidence on the whereabouts of missing persons believed to be in its custody. In habeas corpus or habeas data petitions, the courts have no power against the military’s denials of allegations.”
Writer Tony Lopez says the writ can be a tool against corruption too:
“Under this broad meaning and applying it as a layman, I take to use the writ of amparo as intended to protect not just life, not just liberty, not just security—but economic security which to me means your job, your livelihood. In that sense, I believe the writ of amparo is an awesome tool against corruption, by both government and the private sector. You can argue that you are poor because you have no job or economic security. You have no economic security because the economy is doing poorly. The economy is doing poorly because the government is corrupt. It sounds like an extended logic but it is an argument easy to understand.”
Nordis writer Mary Ann Manja Bayang warns against exaggerating the importance of the writ:
“This is not a solution to enforced disappearances or extrajudicial killings. It is a remedy issued by a democratic Supreme Court which we hope could abate human rights violations. But like so many other remedies within a corrupt and filthy system, this will only have a band-aid effect. Do not be misguided with the wrong perception that it is a solution to the problem.”
Activism 102 says the writ “sheds more light to find the disappeared despite the seemingly insurmountable odds.” Beyond what you see and Concerned Citizen Kane are impressed with the performance of the Supreme Court. TUCP uploads an article which views the writ as a legal tool which could be used by communists against the government.
Wow Philippines reports the first Writ of Amparo to be issued in the Philippines. The Mindanao Current on how the writ was used to protect an urban poor leader. Tek 4 the Pipol? blogs about the first legal victory which used the writ.
The Daily PCIJ features the recommendations of the Hong Kong Mission for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines on how to improve the human rights situation in the country:
-Immediately release all people being arbitrarily detained, and improve prison conditions in all of the country’s detention facilities;
-Ensure the creation of a well-resourced, credible, independent and effective system of witness protection;
-Immediately and effectively investigate all allegations of human rights violations, making use of physical and forensic evidence as well as testimony from witnesses;
-Without delay, bring all perpetrators to justice through fair and transparent trials before civilian courts and ensure that adequate reparation is provided to the victims and their families, in line with international standards;
-Halt the use of blacklists, such as the so-called “Order of Battle” that brand individuals as being “Enemies of the State”;
-Ensure that individuals and organizations are able to carry out their work in favor of human rights without risks, threats, reprisals or impediments;
-Improve the transparency and accountability of all State institutions; and
-Resume peace negotiations and at all times respect international humanitarian law and human rights laws and standards.
Related articles: Extrajudicial killings, Anti-Terror law

author: Mong Palatino


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Russia: Khodorkovsky on the Election · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sean's Russia Blog posts a translation of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's letter to a Russian blogger, in which he explains why it is necessary to vote in the upcoming parliamentary election.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: Moscow Car Crashes · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Two-Zero posts a video of car crashes in Moscow.


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Russia: Moscow City and Its ‘Gastarbeiter’ (Photos) · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Charles Ganske of Russia Blog goes up to the 35th floor of the Federation Tower and takes pictures of the Moscow City, “the largest construction project in Europe.” LJ user kunstkamera – journalist Yulia Vishnevetskaya – walks around the Moscow City down on the ground, photographing the people – Tajik gastarbeiter (migrant workers) – who are actually building the gigantic international business center, as well as their living quarters and makeshift praying areas right under Moscow's Third Ring beltway.


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Russia: North Caucasus Situation · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Russian general with “a reputation for brutality in Moscow’s Chechen campaigns” warns that “the security situation across the Northern Caucasus is deteriorating rapidly,” Window on Eurasia reports.


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Russia: Parachute Inventor · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis writes about Gleb Kotelnikov, the man who patented the first knapsack parachute in 1911.


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Russia: Photos of a 1902 Building in St. Pete · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

LJ user an-drevv takes photos inside the 1902 residential building on the corner of Zagorodny Prospekt and Zvenigorodskaya Ulitsa in St. Petersburg. The building's condition could have been worse, the blogger writes: right now, though, there are still enough of original items that can be restored.


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Russia: Politkovskaya Diary · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sean's Russia Blog reviews Anna Politkovskaya posthumous diary: “The misery in the book is so thick that it is difficult to isolate what Anna Politkovskaya stands for.”


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Russia, Ukraine: Oil and Oil Spill · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sean's Russia Blog writes about the recent disaster in the Kerch Strait and the “ecological costs” of Russia's “dependency on oil exports.”


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Russia: Ulan-Ude · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Russian Blog writes about “dostoprimechatelnosti” of Ulan-Ude, one of which is the biggest Lenin head in the world.


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Russia: Zenit – Champion! · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Megan Case mentions the long-awaited victory of St. Petersburg's football team in the national league championship: “After the game, the city went wild – it felt a bit like New Year on the streets.”


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South East Asia: Delicious · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

How to say delicious in several South East Asian Languages.


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Thailand: Pakistan · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Fringer is asking readers to help sign a petition aimed at ending the emergency in Pakistan.


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Thailand: Strange Weddings · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Nye Noona looks at an strange wedding ceremony in Thailand.


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Trinidad & Tobago: A Walk on the Wild Side  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

In honour of National Game Week, Can Cook, Must Cook fondly recalls  her “first taste of wild meat” and posts a Trinidadian recipe for roast leg of deer.


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Turkey: Military Might · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Turkish blogger Murat Altinbasak keeps us abreast with Turkey's aerial military might in this post.


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Vietnam: Floods · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Virtual Doug talks about the floods in Vietnam and how the Vietnamese people are coping with the floods.


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Xinjiang: Blogging the XUAR · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Bboyd informs about two blogs for the western Chinese province, populated by Turk ethnos of Uighurs. It’s difficult to get strictly Xinjiang information from the wealth of news about China in general, and these two citizen journalism sources would be helpful for all those who are interested in the topic.


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Abu Dhabi: Ferrari Theme Park · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Abu Dhabi will soon have its own Ferrari theme park, writes Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah.


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Afghanistan: Examining Private Security · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Bboyd reviews the recent report from Swisspeace that discusses private security contracting in Afghanistan, and says that the research -due to its extensiveness and care – gives some bona-fide examination of the issues.


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Afghanistan: Journalist Arrested · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Nasim Fekrat reports that Ghows Zalmay, a media professional from Afghanistan, was arrested on the border on Sunday while trying to flee into Pakistan. He is accused of that his new edition of Koran is allegedly un-Islamic.


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Argentina: Documenting Recoleta Cemetery · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Robert Wright and Marcelo Metayar recently launched a blog called AfterLife, which documents and tell the stories behind the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina and is geared towards English-speaking visitors.


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Argentina: Side Effects of Paper Mill Controversy · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

De Todo Un Poco [es] writes about the paper mill controversy brewing between Argentina and Uruguay and its side effects, where he writes, “today it is very common to find a Uruguayan talk poorly about Argentines, which is something that wouldn't have been so common four years ago.“


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Argentina: Taxi Drivers Refuse to Enter Some Neighborhoods · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Some neighborhoods in Buenos Aires are off-limits because some taxi drivers refuse to enter due to security reasons.  Juan Pablo Meneses of Cronicas Argentinas [es] writes about the views of these taxi drivers and one who says, “There are many neighborhoods that I would only enter driving a tank.”


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Argentina: Viewpoints on Botnia Paper Mill Conflict · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

In Grito Argentino [es], Daniel Marquez and Daniel de Michele write about the Botnia paper mill conflict between Uruguay and Argentina.


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Armenia: Donor Fatigue · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Raising concerns about corruption, Nazarian says he is unsure whether to donate to the annual telethon held in the Diaspora to raise funds for Armenia.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Armenia: First President to Respond  · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Armenian Observer reports that Armenia's first president, Levon Ter Petrosian, will hold a rally on Friday to respond to critics of his time in power. Meanwhile, the Armenia Election Monitor 2008 comments on a Russian analysis highlighting why he might need to.


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Azerbaijan: Terror Plot Reality Check · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Asking Tough Questions in Tough Places is skeptical about the way last month's foiled attempt to stage terrorist attacks on government offices and diplomatic missions in Baku, capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan, was reported.


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Barbados: Bajan-Speak · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Cheese-on-bread has a few tips on how to speak like a Bajan.


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Bolivia: Libraries for El Alto’s Youth · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

After public backlash against bars in El Alto, which was accused of corrupting the city's youth, Vilma Colque of Cultura en Bibliotecas [es] proposes that culture in the form of libraries be alternatives for the youth to pass their time in a positive manner.

author: Eduardo Avila