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Mozambique: Police Attack Protesting Workers · Global Voices
Jornal @Verdade

On the 6th of April, officials of a branch of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) – the Rapid Intervention Force (FIR)  – used violence to put an end to a protest by the employees of the private security firm Group Four Security (G4S).
Allegedly [pt] G4S has been illegally discounting employees’ salaries, and they were now complaining about an worsening situation since June 2010. At the demonstration, workers appealed for payment of unreasonable discounted pay by the employer, as well as for the payment of holiday bonuses and overtime.
Screenshot from the video featuring FIRs violent intervention. Available on Youtube by verdadetruth.
On Facebook, the jurist Hbro Chipas says that the workers strike was illegal, for not having been convened according to “what the law calls for”. Chipas analyses the case, claiming that there are “two perspectives” [pt] on the attack:
a da violência gratuita protagonizada pelos  agentes da FIR, e a outra, os estragos perpetrados pelos seguranças
In a comment on the Facebook page of the newspaper @Verdade, photographer Hugo Costa corroborates Chipas’ observation.
Uns acham que “fazer greve” significa que têm o direito   de agir como selvagens e vandalizarem tudo o que encontram pela frente   destruindo propriedade privada e agredindo quem não tem nada a ver com o   que reivindicam; e os outros acham que “intervenção policial”  significa  ter luz verde para demonstrações de violência gratuita e  abuso de  autoridade gozando de plena imunidade!!
Independent of the “two perspectives” presented, Chipas found the police action against the strikers to be brutal and added:
espero que as  autoridades competentes nao fiquem  impávidas e serenas perante essa  situação deveras chocante. Aquele  senhor  nao constituía nenhum perigo  futuro nem iminente, não  fornecendo qualquer tipo de resistência.
In one video of TVM, one sees the violent reaction of the officers of the Rapid Intervention Force who set upon a G4S security guard who has already been subdued and put into the police truck.
The video unleashed a number of reactions of disgust in the citizen media, and it was principally via Facebook that numerous Mozambicans, and foreigners, showed their indignation with such acts of violence.
Referring to the statement [pdf] of the Liga Moçambicana de Direitos Humanos (LDH) [Human Rights League] – that demands the investigation into those responsible for the attack and the firing of the commander of the Rapid Intervention Force, General Binda – psychologist Linette Olofsson wrote:
inaceitável num Estado de Direito! Faz-me lembrar dos tempos da ditadura em Moçambique, 1975-1994 onde não se respeitava os Direitos Humanos; (ainda hoje são violados com se vê) O comandante da FIR deve ser demitido imediatamente. Segundo a LDH, este mesmo Comandante fez estragos na Província de Nampula. O nosso Estado ainda é dominado por militaristas camuflados de democratas! São horríveis estas cenas.
"People are more scared of the police than of criminals", Amnesty International report "License to Kill – Holding the Police Responsible in Mozambique" (2008) .pdf
In Mozambique violence by police officers who should be upholding law and order is nothing new, as showed a report published in 2008 by Amnesty International – License to Kill. A year later, in 2009, another report by Amnesty – I don't Believe in Justice Anymore (Já  não acredito na Justiça [Pt])- documents various “cases of homicide committed by the police in Mozambique”.
A similar case to that at the G4S workers protest occurred in April 2009, when a policeman fired on striking construction workers [Pt].
Also during the popular revolt of September 1 and 2 of 2010 (reported by Global Voices) the police fired against protesters, killing 11 people, according to a report [Pt] by the Center for Public Integrity.
Oflia Macie, a student, commented:
Estes polícias pensam que podem fazer o que quiserem e nada é  feito por eles…eu pessoalmente ja vi 2 polícias em Tete agora em  fevereiro batendo em dois miudos dos seus 12 e 13 anos de idade so porque não tinham BI, aí sairam chapadas, murros, pontapés e ate bateram-lhes com a  própria AKM, quando viram que os miudos ja estavam a sangrar levaram-nos para a 1ª Esquadra… eu pergunto eles estao para proteger, fazer justiça? ou para pôr  terror a população?? E estes da FIR são os piores selvagens!!
During the police intervention against the G4S workers, 24 protesters were detained and are imprisoned in the cells of the 18th precinct of the Police. Unconfirmed reports [Pt] indicate that one G4S worker lost his life during the violent blows he suffered during the brutal intervention. To date, all of the FIR officers remain free.
On the presumed death of the firm's security guard, on Facebook Inusso  Mario Jojo Mutambe appealed to a mobilization
toda G4S a nível nacional deveria fazer uma marcha atê a FIR
Communications and marketing specialist Celso Miguel shared his indignation
até quando teremos de viver com   essas impunidades??? uma vida se foi, uma mulher ficou viúva, crianças   ficaram sem pai, o país perdeu um cidadão… esses polícias se esquecem   que os impostos que aquele indivíduo descontava, todo santo mês, servia   também para pagar o salário dele??? nunca soube! sinceramente, quem se   responsabiliza????? QUEM????… é revoltante ver uma coisa destas   acontecer no nosso país!!!! Quem nos devia defender é quem nos mata!!!!
For Ivone  Gonçalves there are still “many barriers” to the implementation of human rights in Mozambique. Pessimist in what relates to justice, she laments:
Infelizmente o Ministro do Interior nada vai fazer para punir os agressores e como sempre vão ficar impunes porque não existe justiça no nosso País. A justiça só funciona para o ladrão de galinha!
To conclude, Boa Matule appeals to unity against intimidation:
Isto é resultado de uma força politizada e cujo único objectivo é intimidar as pessoas! Mas a verdade é que nós somos maiores que eles! Unidos podemos revolutionar Moz [Moçambique].

author: Jornal @Verdade


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Portugal: Squatting an Empty School in Porto · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

A group of citizens called ES.COL.A (school) [an acronymn for self-managed collective space] has occupied a Portuguese public school that had been abandoned by the municipality of Porto 5 years ago. Read the manifesto for the creation of a community center on their blog [pt], and find out about the legal framework applied.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Sara Moreira


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Puerto Rico: Blogging Again · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

After a long hiatus, one of Puerto Rico's blogging pioneers, Manuel Clavell Carrasquillo, has returned to Estruendomudo [es]. He comes back with a brief reflection [es] on Pablo Casals and Albert Camus.

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


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Puerto Rico: Performance and Roots · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Music scholar, musician and blogger Raquel Z. Rivera interviews [es] the Puerto Rican dancer and choreographer Noemí Segarra about her latest piece, “de rumbo de rumba.”


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Puerto Rico: What is a consensual relationship? · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Journalist and blogger Mari Mari Narvaez reflects on the Supreme Court's decision [es] to exclude “adulterous” victims from the special protections offered by the Law against Domestic Violence of Puerto Rico.


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Russia: Regional FSB Tries to Prosecute Blogger for Anti-Putin Photo · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Kasparov.ru writes [ru] about the case of Georgiy Sarkisyan, leader of Orel city United Civil Front. Sarkisyan had posted a photo [ru] with a slogan “Putin – pid…z” (an offensive word for homosexual male). After that Orel city Federal Security Service filed a complaint in order to start a criminal case. A common story happened in Komi republic few months ago. Then, however, the prosecution against the blogger stopped.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Suriname: Mickey Mouse Art  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Mickey Mouse as “a customized symbol for progress”? Srananart's Blog explains.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Swaziland: Protest Leaders, Journalists Arrested · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Union leaders and activists in Swaziland took to the streets of Manzini on Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 April, 2011, demanding political reform and calling on King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute monarch,  to return power to the people.
Riot police fired tear gas at protesters, arrested union leaders and journalists. The Institute for Democracy in Africa (Idasa) has called on Swaziland to avoid “a repeat of crises we have seen in conflict-ridden Libya and Ivory Coast.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on authorities in Swaziland to allow the media to report freely on anti-government protests following the harrasment of ten local and international journalists.
King Mswati III of Swaziland. Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson, in public domain.
Nastasya Tay, a reporter from Eyewitness News, was detained by Swaziland police on Tuesday:
Nastasya Tay, the Eyewitness News reporter detained by Swaziland police during the protests yesterday (12 April 2011) and escorted out of Manzini, has been speaking about media freedom in the kingdom.
Lutfo Dlamini, the Swazi Foreign Minister, had told South African journalists that the media in Swaziland were free to report anything they liked.
Not so, says Tay, who went on to say that people in Swaziland were too scared of the authorities to speak to the media.
Another journalist, Rob Hartgers (@RobHartgers), tweeted about his detention in Manzini on Tuesday April 12:
@RobHartgers: Btw: got detained by police twice today in Manzini, together with other journo's. No freedom of speech in #Swaziland
Two journalists working for Agence France-Presse (AFP) were also detained on Tuesday.
The Swaziland Democracy Campaign and the Swaziland United Democratic Front have released a statement saying that repression will not dent democracy campaign in Swaziland:
The Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC) and Swaziland United Democratic Front (SUDF) are outraged at the continuing repression being meted out to those organisations making up the democratic constituency in Swaziland on the second day of their campaign for justice. Reports that leading trade unionists and other activists have been re-arrested, forced underground, subjected to bullying tactics and having their peaceful and completely legitimate meetings disrupted and criminalised. To emphasise on this situation, reports have just been received that a meeting of SNAT is currently being surrounded by armed security personnel, and the likelihood of further attacks is imminent.
A statement from PUDEMO talks about “uncompromising and rough attitude of the state’s security agents”:
*PUDEMO Statement on the workers protest action: issued on 13April 2011*
**
Today members of the trade union movement were unable proceed with their protest action because of the uncompromising and rough attitude of the state’s security agents. As witnessed yesterday, the workers were again targeted harassed and intimidated in the streets of Manzini. Scores of the worker activists were further detained in the notorious Manzini Regional Headquarters. Seemingly almost all the workers who were in the city have experienced detention in the last two days, turning Swaziland into a police state where people are detained for talking to their cell phones or standing and chatting in threes. Again today scores were forcefully prevented from excersing their freedom of movement from their areas to join the protest action.
More union leaders have been arrested, Swaziland Commentary reports:
The Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) offices were raided yesterday at around 12:30 pm by close to 20 police officers and the staff officers of the federation were assaulted.
We report today that; the Deputy Secretary General of the Swaziland Processing and Allied workers union, Comrade Wonder Mkhonta, Comrade Ntombie Langwenya, of Swaziland National Association of Teachers, women’s wing committee and Comrade Moses Buthelezi have been arrested and they are detained in Hlathikhulu Police station.
The coordinator for the Swaziland Democracy Campaign, Mary Pais Da Silva, has also been arrested:
Mary Pais Da Silva, Coordinator of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign, who was arrested yesterday (12 April 2011) while in the middle of a telephone interview with a journalist at South Africa’s Talk Radio 702, was back on air today to talk about what happened next.
She describes the treatment she received at the hands of police officers:
This below is a personal account of the treatment I received at the hands of police officers today:
1. Two male comrades and I were at the SFTU offices where we were sending out information to our international friends on the happenings of the protest action billed for today.
2. At roughly around 1230hrs, an army of male police barged into the offices and whilst I was in the middle of a telephonic, live interview with talk Radio 702 and headed directly to me and began punching and slapping me on my face.
She concludes:
I will not be intimidated by these bullish antics of the government. Bashing me only strengthens my resolve in the role that I play in the democratic movement in Swaziland.
THE GOVERNMENT OF SWAZILAND MUST GO TO HELL AND ON THE WAY THERE, THEY MUST KISS MY BEAUTIFUL BEHIND!!!!
Has Swaziland turned into a police state?:
It is quite something to watch the machinery of the Swazi state swing into action. I don’t think I have ever seen so many cops on the streets in my life (and I lived through apartheid).  If you are driving on Swazi roads right now you will get stopped and checked any time you drive anywhere. If you are travelling on a minibus you will also be required to get out of the vehicle and have your bag searched for weapons. However, if you are not in a minibus you will probably get a ticket for some minor infraction on your vehicle. For some reason every offence in Swaziland costs E6o (that is R60 and €6).
Jinty Jacson says that the president of the Swaziland Union of Students, Maxwell Dlamini, is missing:
Maxwell Dlamini, one of the main organisers behind national protests due to begin tomorrow is missing. So are 3 other youth leaders –  while another is on the run, fearing for his life.
Dlamini, who is president of the Swaziland National Union of Students (that’s him above addressing the crowd on March 18th calling for the Prime Minister’s resignation) was on his way back from the border last night. He had gone to South Africa to help plan the demonstrations since organisers did not feel safe doing so in Swaziland.
He was last seen at a police roadblock very near our place in Mbabane last night. Amongst the  others who have gone missing are the deputy president of the banned PUDEMO youth organisation, SWAYOCO – Sifiso Mabuza, (who told me in March being arrested is part of his job and he is used to it. He said, “We are saying to people of Swaziland they must get ready. They can’t keep getting crushed by police then they go home and keep quiet”.
For more reports, follow “Swaziland April 12 uprising: reports from the ground” from Free Africa Media.
#Swaziland on Twitter, April 13
Benita Levin (@benitalevin) from Johannesburg:
@benitalevin: For the latest on the situation in Manzini in #Swaziland…catch updates from #EWN‘s @NastasyaTay on @702, @947Highveld and @ewnupdates…
Brandan Reynolds (@brandanrey) from Cape Town:
@brandanrey: #Swaziland‘s #Democracy movement gains momentum, Brandan Reynolds’ Business Day Cartoon, Wednesday 13 April 2011: http://t.co/RrUeQSw
Elles van Gelder (@ellesinjozi) from Johannesburg:
@ellesinjozi: protests in #Swaziland died but people defiant and ready to make a new plan to go out on the streets a local journo tells me.
Ylva Kronheffer (@ylvakronheffer) from London:
@ylvakronheffer: @ACTSA_UK. #Swaziland protesters not giving up.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Thailand: Censorship video · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Jon Russell interviews ‘Madastro’, a young Thai student who made a video about censorship in Thailand. The video has already generated more than 100,000 hits on YouTube.

author: Mong Palatino


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Ukraine: Politicians on Facebook and Twitter · Global Voices
Tetyana Bohdanova

With over a million of Ukrainians using [uk] Facebook and over 80,000 users on Twitter, more and more Ukrainian politicians choose to join these services. Currently, there are over 50 of them on Facebook and over 20 political parties and their individual members on Twitter.
Ukrainian Internet business and social media marketing website Watcher.com.ua has set up a real-time popularity ranking [uk] of politicians’ accounts on these two services.
Ukrainian politicians’ popularity on Facebook and Twitter
According to Watcher.com.ua, as of April 12, 2011, most popular Facebook pages were: opposition leader “Batkivshchyna” (uk. Fatherland) party head Yulia Tymoshenko’s (fake), with 5,421 “likes”; MP Lesya Orobets’, with 2,229 “likes”; and deputy head of “Batkivshchyna” Oleksandr Turchynov's, with 1,602 “likes”.
A screenshot of Ukrainian politicians' popularity rankings on Facebook and Twitter, as of April 12, 2011
Facebook accounts with 5,000 friends belonged to MPs Mykola Tomenko and Oles Doniy, leader of the right-wing party VO “Svoboda” (uk. Freedom) Oleh Tyahnybok had 4,995 friends, MP Lesya Orobets – 4,789 friends.
Most popular (verified) Twitter accounts belonged to: Yulia Tymoshenko – 12,832 followers, “Sylna Ukraina” (uk. Strong Ukraine) party leader and Vice Prime Minister Serhiy Tihipko – 4,294 followers, and Lesya Orobets – 4,197 followers.
Politicians’ activity on online social networks
On April 4, 2011, Maksym Savanevsky of Watcher.com.ua also published an analysis [uk] of the politicians’ online activity on Facebook and Twitter. Below is a translation of the major findings:
The main conclusion that has been drawn during our analysis of Ukrainian politicians’ activity on social networks is that not a single political force has some sort of a strategy of operating in this environment. Problems become apparent already at the technical level. For instance, “Za Ukrainu” [For Ukraine] party is present on Facebook in a form of a private account, which can be deleted at any time due to breaching the rules of the social network.
Political party “Sylna Ukraina” [Strong Ukraine] representatives have chosen a rather strange strategy. They have created two pages, for both the party and Sergiy Tihipko [party leader] in Ukrainian and Russian languages – 4 pages in total. I can’t imagine how anyone at their headquarters could agree to divide the audience based on the language principle, but some of them must have been convinced successfully. The content is identical in both language versions.
Some politicians on Facebook behave like regular users and do not differ from others in any significant way – they discuss photos of their friends, share impressions of something they have just purchased, rarely mentioning their political activity. I think a part of Volodymyr Aryev and Oles Doniy’s friends have no idea that these two are MPs.
But there are some differences in their behavior. For instance, Doniy already has 5,000 friends, which is the limit on Facebook. It is difficult to imagine a person who could have not even 5,000, but 500 real-life friends. So, it’s apparent that many people would like to befriend an MP, and the latter does not refuse their requests.
Another MP Andriy Shevchenko has chosen a different way. Although he has been the first Ukrainian politician to join Facebook, he has a comparatively small number of friends – just a few hundred. Most likely those few hundred are his actual friends. But on Twitter, where users need no confirmation from someone they want to follow, Shevchenko has about 1,500 followers, and with this number is the 5th among the Ukrainian politicians [on Twitter].
On reaching the limit of 5,000 friends, one of the politicians-pioneers [of social media] – Lesya Orobets, has changed her strategy. Parallel with a Facebook account, she has created a Facebook page. All her activity is now focused on the page, while she uses the private account to communicate with her real friends. Orobets is quite successful on Twitter as well – she has over 4,000 followers and has a chance of taking the 2nd place and leaving Serhiy Tihipko behind.
We’re expecting the number of politicians’ Twitter accounts to increase in the nearest time. It is connected with the simplicity of the service as well as with its successful utilization by Yulia Tymoshenko [the first Ukrainian politician to have a “verified account” on Twitter]. Just in one and a half month she has accumulated 12,000 followers, which is unexpectedly good, considering the overall Ukrainian Twitter audience being 100,000-150,000 users.
Another observation – in contrast with 2009-2010, the activity of fake Facebook accounts of politicians has declined. Nevertheless, Yulia Tymoshenko’s page still holds the top place on Facebook ratings, although it has nothing to do with either her political party “Batkivshchyna” or with its leader.
Considering the potential transformation of the Ukrainian electoral system from proportional to a majority-based, many politicians might want to start thinking about the Internet today, as an important instrument of working with their electorate, and especially in constituencies that are comprised of cities with 100,000 residents and up.
Session in the Ukraine parliament, Kiev. Image by Sergei Svetlitsky, copyright Demotix (07/04/2011).
Social media, Ukrainian government and the opposition
Although online activity of Ukrainian politicians continues to increase, the number of those personally present on social networks remains comparatively low. This can be explained by the fact that the majority of political actors still perceive television as the main channel of communication with the electorate, and control over television – as the key [uk] to political success. However, taking into account the deteriorating press freedom [en] in Ukraine, it is understandable why most politicians who actively utilize social media (see rankings above) represent the opposition.
As for the President of Ukraine, according to official sources, he has no accounts on social media networks [uk], including Twitter. A fake Twitter account @PresidentUA that seems to mirror some official announcements from the official presidential website currently has almost 2,000 followers, and another one, @Prezident_UA, has 715. A fake Twitter account that impersonates the Ukrainian PM Mykola Azarov (@PremierUkraine) has over 1,300 followers.
Back in 2009, the previous Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko set up a Twitter account @President_UA (see this GV post), which apparently was maintained by his press-service. However, many Internet users criticized it for being boring and generally demonstrating a very low expertise with using the micro-blogging tool.

author: Tetyana Bohdanova


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Malawi: The Power of a Blog Post · Global Voices
Victor Kaonga

The High Court in Malawi's business city of Blantyre ruled yesterday in favour of university lecturers arguing that they cannot be forced back into lecture rooms “infested with spies”. This is contrary to the view of their employer, the University Council, which wanted them back to class or out of job for striking.
The two-month old stand-off between the universty lecturers and their employer has led to the closure of the University of Malawi's main colleges: the Polytechnic and Chancellor College. Global Voices ran a story in March 2011 about classroom spies and academic freedom in Malawi.
University lecturers taking part in a protest demanding academic freedom. Photos source: Boni Dulani blog.
Blog power
But no one would have known that things were so bad if one blogger, Boniface Dulani, had not written a post titled “Mutharika's dictatorship hits a new low: Unima's Blessings Chinsinga summoned by Inspector General of Police” on February 12, 2011, two days before Valentine's Day.
The post was about Malawian lecturer Blessings Chinsinga who was summoned to appear before the Inspector General of  Malawi Police to respond to allegations that he has been inciting  students to demonstrate against the government.
The mainstream media got wind of this story much later that day and followed up the development. Mainstream media published the story the following day or later.
On 12 February, Dulani, a political science lecturer but currently studying in the United States wrote:
Now it has just come to my attention that my good friend and occasional  contributor to this blog, Blessings Chinsinga, was this morning (12  February, 2011) summoned to appear before the Inspector General of  Malawi Police to respond to allegations that he has been inciting  students to demonstrate against the government.
Needless to say I am  so mad to hear this story and enraged that the Bingu government is  sinking so low as to threaten University academics with serious yet  unfounded accusations. In any case, the right to demonstrate is  enshrined under Section 38 of the Malawi Constitution so it should be no  crime to even contemplate organizing one (as indeed is happening with  the Monday demonstration organized by HRCC and others). To his credit,  Blessings, is taking a more philosophical and reflective approach to  this sad episode. I can only hope this does not silence him and other  critics who courageously speak in defence of Malawi's hard-won  democracy.
Even after being summoned by the Police, Blessings Chisinga, did not succumb to intimidation. He wrote a guest post about the poverty of ideas:
Ideas are at the heart of progress in any sphere of endeavour. Without ideas, the world would virtually come to a standstill. However, ideas have to be competitive in order to steer progress. Any attempt to ‘monotholize’ ideas is disastrous. Even at an individual level, such an attempt can only result in stagnation, if not retrogression.
This reminds me of what one of our Reverends at Zomba CCAP used to say in most of his sermons and I quote “each individual is a walking civil war”. In other words, an individual is a bundle of contradictions which in the final analysis in an epitome of progress. To sin or not sin, one engages in some kind of debate. Rarely is sin not a product of rather protracted debates in our minds.
Ideas are particularly powerful in the world of politics. The evolution of political systems from monarchies through autocracies to democracies is a product of an open contestation of ideas.
University lecturers demanded an apology from the Inspector General of Polics. The Inspector General of Police (IG), Pater Mukhito, refused to apologize to the lecturers and assure them of academic freedom. The issue was further amplified when Mukhito's boss who also happens to be the Chancellor of the University of Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika advised the IG not to apologize. Instead he ordered the lecturers back to the lecture rooms.
In a twist of events, through injuctions, the courts have been the saving ground for the university community while other colleges joined the protests in solidarity with the Chancellor College academic staff.
Recently the international community has not only condemned the action by the university authorities but also called for academic freedom in Malawi. This included students from Martin Luther University in Germany. Meanwhile many other academic institutions have issued a rallying call for support towards academic freedom in Malawi.
While most bloggers seem to support the academic staff, one Mzati Nkoloksa has a different view:
National development is like nature, like a basket of items. There is education, which Professor Chinsinga offers. There is national security which Mr. Mukhito is performing. There is agriculture, which most of us are doing. No single item is more important than the other because we are all working towards national development.
If one element in our national development basket says it cannot listen to anyone, it can speak only, we have a challenge to overcome. Those of us teaching in the universities should begin to accept that we are one part of national development and we need to remain in dialogue: we need to speak and listen, not just speak.
The story about the academic freedom has put President Mutharika is some bad light with the academic community with some likening his reign to the days of Malawi's first president Kamuzu Banda when lecturers were arrested or forced to leave the country for making statements that did not please the government.
Just like what Dulani wrote in conclusion on 12 February, the university community has refused to keep silent and now it might be the government that may have to listen and obey. Dulani says, “…we will not be silenced”:
In my view, the lecture room is the academic's sanctum – one needs to be  free to speak and provide concrete, relevant and contemporary examples –  preferably local ones – without the fear of being summoned bto appear  before the Police. I have to say that inspite his ineptitude, the former  President, Bakili Muluzi never resorted to such grotesque tactics to  silence us. And we will not be silenced.

author: Victor Kaonga


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Argentina: Cine York, one of ‘Argentina’s Hidden Gems’ · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

The Argentine Post writes about one of “Argentina's hidden gems,” Cine York in Buenos Aires: “The classy, inviting nature of this little theater couldn’t contrast more with the loud, plastic, cookie-cutter nature of modern shopping centers that have come to dominate the urban landscape of huge swaths of the U.S.”

author: Silvia Viñas


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Blogging Latino Literature and Technology · Global Voices
Yarisa Colón Torres

Five years ago, Valerie Russo founded a successful blog named Literanista [en].  This Puerto Rican-Sicilian writer talks with Global Voices about her vision, achievements and future goals.
Global Voices: As explained in Literanista [en], creating and working on this blog helped you find your dream job.   How did this happen?
Valerie Russo: Back in 2006, when I created Literanista [en], my day job was in print publishing as a copy editor and on my downtime, I got increasingly involved in the web, reading blogs, posting in forums and message boards. About three years prior, a friend and I had launched our own community forum. One day it dawned on me that I could manage my own personal “site.” I never thought of Literanista as a personal journal as many blogs were perceived then, it was always had an angle, a niche to fill, a focus – it just so happened that that angle was very intertwined with my own personal interests and passions – multicultural literature, culture and science.
I was lucky enough to work on these projects at a time when they were becoming extremely important in shaping a lot of converging aspects of the web (cultural, business, etc.,) or what we think of today as new media or the social web. I developed skills early on that quickly allowed me to qualify for tech-related, marketing, and editorial jobs that perhaps five years earlier, I would’ve never guessed that it would’ve been in my scope – not even with my degree in anthropology.
Blogger Valerie Russo
GV: Can you share some thoughts about your experience as a social media strategist? What interests you the most about this growing field?
VR: The most fascinating thing to me about social media and technology is the rate and speed at which it is #1 changing the very fabric of our culture and world; and #2,  the exponential rate at which the speed of new technology is being created.
Technology is growing and exploding into all sorts of aspects of our lives that it once really didn’t touch at all and then that cultural shift is happening even faster and faster because technology itself is evolving at an ever-increasing pace. If you think of the rate of new technological advances and how long they took to gain mass acceptance (think automobiles, radio, telephone, etc) and then look at the rate at which things like Facebook (500+ million users in 5 years), iPads (half a million sold on launch day to 70% new user consumers), app usage and so on are becoming accepted you can see how much the acceleration is increasing.
I find this extremely interesting and culturally relevant. It is also pretty neat how it is creating a convergence of what we once looked at as separate fields. Things we thought of as once promotional are now look at as transmedia narratives. There is no longer a distinction between offline and online, most of us are always plugged in – even those who don’t own a PC. I love how “social” the web has become, how empowering it is to everyday people, to the powerless as well as the rich and famous. I think we are in for a great ride – and the best part of this history is that it is our story – we are the creators of it.
GV: How did you envision Literanista?  What was the main purpose?  Has it changed over the years?
VR: Amazingly, Literanista [en] hasn’t changed much from my original vision. The purpose of the blog was always to fill a void, to create a place for issues and books or authors that I felt weren’t focused on enough in traditional media. For example, the issues and stories of Hispanics, multiculturality, and feminist groups that were dismissed, invisibilized or marginalized and/or constricted by categories within society that they didn’t fit into neatly. Overtime, as my interest into technology grew, that also became a focus.
GV: Can you describe your relationship with Literanista’s readers?
VR: I have a great relationship with my readers, who are worldwide. There are many that I feel I knew personally from their comments and emails and some I have had the privilege to meet in real life. One reader from Austin even came up to New York to visit and meet with me last year.
Many authors too have contacted me and relationships have blossomed through the blog and then other social media outlets. In addition to that companies and brands, and artists, constantly reach out to me to keep me in the loop of news and items of interest. It’s pretty neat because one fear of all writers – from bloggers to bestselling novelists is that no one will read your stuff – but I am a firm believer that if you build it – write it – they will come. You just have to take that leap of faith and it doesn’t hurt to be a great writer or have something interesting to say.
GV: Why did you decide to focus exclusively on Latino/a writing? How do you pick the books that are reviewed on this blog?
VR: It was something very personal to me. The books that made the biggest impact on me were books that either changed my worldview and/or I could relate to – and while of course, I related to many, many diverse books and authors like Shakespeare, Dickens, and Dostoevsky, the ones that really spoke to me where the ones that felt like home to me – the stories of Piri Thomas or Isabel Allende and those were the ones that I felt no one ever really highlighted unless if specifically referencing Latino literature. I wanted to change that – I wanted to create a place were this ‘type’ of literature was an everyday discussion.
The books I feature on my website have to be either written by a Hispanic person, or discuss or cover an issue relevant to Hispanic culture within and outside of the US (such as immigration, or race…), or are [cover the] multicultural Diasporas relevant to my audience. I lean heavily toward adult literary fiction (my personal reading bias) but I do cover non-fiction and other genres from time to time.
GV: Which books (reviewed on your blog) have transformed your views on the craft of writing?
VR: I often don’t have time to ‘review’ a book in the real sense of the word on my blog. Many times I feature a book and build a post around it without necessarily sharing all of my own views, interpretation, and analysis of it. All I say is “check this out” – because that’s all I feel my role really is – to put it on your radar.
A few books beloved to me that also really impacted my writing are “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón,”The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Díaz, “Blindness” by José Saramago, and “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy. I am drawn to epic stunning stories that are holistic in the sense that they are brilliantly written, rich with history and drama, and stay with you long after you read the final sentence. I admire Zafón for creating such imagery that makes me want to travel into his narrative. I admire Díaz, on a personal level for being a native homeboy who rose to win a Pulitzer Prize, as well as for creating a masterpiece woven with threads of contemporary humor and nerdism, to historical Caribbean roots and culture, and more – brilliant. Saramago and McCarthy are masters of language, creating searing beautiful lines and imagery that are haunting and eloquent. I can only wish to one day write anything like the aforementioned.
GV: How have you been able to integrate all these interests – technology, research, publishing and marketing – to develop your work as a poet and novelist? Does keeping such an updated blog influences your current writing projects (for example your novel)?
VR: Literanista [en] has become the home of my art, a place to archive dreams and thoughts, poems and pictures, inspirations and to craft and evolve – and do this for others’ work too. Working on it and writing online allows me to craft and hone my skills and build and engage with a community that shares a similar interest. It’s my platform, my soapbox, my corner of the hood but it’s also a journey, one that is developing, that draws from all the aspects of things that I am learning and discovering. It is very parallel to my writing. Hopefully one day [both] will come together and surge into something bigger than my blog and me, and leave behind a legacy. In the meantime, I hope you will stop and check it out!

author: Yarisa Colón Torres


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Brazil: Reading Habits and Cultural Roots · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Journalist and blogger Marcos Bahé criticizes [pt] a statement made by Luciano Siqueira, a State Deputy of the Communist Party, who said that Brazilians don't read much because of oral traditions inherited from indigenous and african ancestors. Bahé ironically adds that he thought it was because books are expensive.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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Brazil: The Biggest Brazilian Newspaper Violates Labour Rights · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

The biggest Brazilian newspaper, Folha de São Paulo, violates labour rights for its journalists, says [pt] Altamiro Borges in his blog. Borges enumerates some of the “failures“: besides not having contracts, journalists are being underpaid or even not paid for working overtime.


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China: Netizens’ Interpretation of Indecent Sculpture · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Sophie from ChinaSMACK translated Chinese netizens’ interpretation of an indecent sculpture in Guilin city.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Côte d’Ivoire: Brutality Continues After Gbagbo’s Capture · Global Voices
Julie Owono

This post is part of our special coverage Côte d'Ivoire Unrest 2011
Since their capture on April 11, 2011, pictures of former Côte d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo [fr], his wife, and their entourage [fr] have spread on the web and via international newspapers.
One picture in particular provoked a strong reaction: journalist Israël Yoroba, currently correspondant for TV5 in the Ivorian city of Abidjan, posted [fr] on Facebook the following image of Simone Gbagbo on the day Laurent Gbagbo was arrested along with his wife:
Simone Gbagbo surrounded by Republican Forces at Hotel du Golf in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Posted by Israël Yoroba on Facebook.
So far, over 360 Facebook users have commented on this strong image, showing the former first lady in a humiliating position.
Treatment reserved for a former president
Sob Edry Brice Agbo [fr] compares this treatment to the one reserved for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein:
[…] Regardes comment on traite de façon indigne un president et la premiere dame (ou ex selon certains), ça n'augure pas de meilleur lendemain. La situation actuelle est comparable a celle qui a prevalu en Irak avec Saddam Hussein, sans comparer Laurent Gbagbo à Saddam. Nous connaissons  la suite.
Arsène Pro-Dally [fr] referring to the first adress of Alassane Ouattara after Gbagbo's arrest, writes:
Prions qu'on ne tombe pas encore à plus bas que la poussière. Bonjour la réconciliation!
Zon Guiriekpe Michel [fr] writes:
MAMAN SIMONE PARDONNE à TOUS CES MéCRéANTS. LE PEUPLE EST MEUTRIE DANS SA CHAIR PAR LES AGGISEMENTS DE CES DERNIERS QUI NE CONNAISSENT PAS LA VALEUR D UNE FEMME ET SURTOUT D'UNE PREMIERE DAME
Other netizens believe the treatment the Gbagbos are receiving is well-deserved for all the atrocities they were involved with during their reign.
Reacting to an article published by blogger Guy Kouassi [fr] entitled ‘I cried’ (J'ai pleuré), Roma comments:
[…] Il mérite ce qu'il mérite…arrêtez de nous distraire en jouant les sentimentalistes. Ces milliers de morts inutiles ne reviendront plus jamais. Par contre, lui il a la chance de vivre. Je le préfère humilié mais en vie au lieu de la tuerie atroce de Guéi Robert lorsque Koudou a pris le pouvoir en 2000.
Human rights violations in Abidjan
The arrest of Laurent Gbagbo did not put an end to the Ivorian conflict. News website Abidjan.net published an Associated Press article reporting atrocities committed by Alassane Ouattara supporters against Gbagbo's.
The Facebook group La majorité Présidentielle [fr], which gathers 10,496 supporters of Gbagbo, posted a series of recent pictures of Abidjan, the economic capital of Côte d'Ivoire and country's main city. The images, taken in the Riviera area, shows students and young men suspected of being part of Gbagbo's Young Patriots movement:
An atmosphere of terror in Riviera, Abidjan. Image from La Majorité Présidentielle on Facebook.
Students and young men are mistaken for Gbagbo's Young Patriots. Image from La Majorité Présidentielle on Facebook.
In the following picture, the person posting the image names Koné Zakaria, former commandant of a regiment of Guillaume Soro's rebellion [Alassane Ouattara's prime minister], as one of the protagonists of the scene commiting the violence:
Koné Zakaria in a scene of violence. Image from La Majorité Présidentielle on Facebook.
Amnesty International denounced on April 12, 2011 reprisals by forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, now President of Côte d'Ivoire.
This post is part of our special coverage Côte d'Ivoire Unrest 2011

author: Julie Owono


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Cuba: True Democracy  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“If young gang members are sentenced to several years behind the bars for robbing a gas station, the same should apply to bankers, managers, financiers, or even presidents of countries if they engage in corruption”: Iván García fears that “democracy is stammering.”


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El Salvador: Economic Well-Being Tied to Support for Democracy · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Voices from El Salvador's Weblog summarizes a recent AmericasBarometer survey, concluding that “The results of the survey show, for the most part, that economic well-being, whether that of individual families or that of the nation’s government, is one of the strongest factors that affect the public’s support of democracy.”


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Gabon: Issues in the Oil industry Sector · Global Voices
Mejasoa Razafimihary

On Monday, April 8, oil industry workers returned to work following an announcement made to AFP by Arnauld Engandji, spokes-person for ONEP (the National Organization for Petrol Industry Workers), stating “the demands have been met.  We do not want to cause chaos”.  ONEP, an organisation of between 4000 and 5000 members, went out on strike (fr) to obtain new regulations relating to the employment of foreign workers within the sector, who “they accuse of taking the place of Gabonese workers”.  The strike has cost (en) the government and oil companies some 131 million US dollars .
Shortly after the return to work was announced (en), Total Gabon announced that it “was going to make available 20 billion Central African CFA francs to finance the renovation of Port-Gentil airport, (fr) through the PID fund (Diversified Investment Provision), according to the terms of an agreement signed recently between the oil company and the Gabonese government.”
On the afrique-espoir (hope-Africa) blog Benoit Thelliez explains the details of the renovation plans (fr)
The short term aim is to lengthen the runway in order to allow super-carriers like the Boeing 777 to land, then to completely rebuild the airport terminal building once the the current building has been totally demolished.  The first phase should not take very long to complete explains Jean-Philippe Magnan, Managing Director of Total Gabon, who expects to see “the first commercial flights (Ed: international) before the end of 2011″.  Ultimately, the new airport, which will also be endowed with a presidential wing, should be completed in 2012.
Thelliez adds:
The PID fund has existed in Gabon since 1974 and was originally managed by the French International Bank of Africa.  The money is paid out of ministerial funds “in proportion to their [the oil companies’] turnover and is tax free.  The size of this fund is set on an annual basis as per the agreement between the administrative authorities who act as trustees of the fund and the oil companies, and depend on the agreed investments.  In theory, this cannot exceed 10% of the actual turnover of the company.”
These funds are set aside by the oil companies “to finance economic, social or educational investment which the government requires them to carry out.”
This initiative has come at the right time as oil production is declining and the State needs to boost investment in the rest of the economy.
Stéphane Ballong explains (fr):
It has to be said that oil production in Gabon has been stagnating for the past few years.  From 371000 barrels per day (b/d) in 1997, it progressively slowed to a rate of 243000 b/d in 2007.  Since then it has remained around 250 000 b/d, according to official figures.  Unless a major new discovery is made which would allow for a significant upturn within the sector, the watch word of the Gabonese oil industry remains, for the time being, revamping the more marginal fields and using new technologies to increase production from the more mature fields.
This petroleum fund has often been more profitable for electoral campaign outside of Gabon that at home.  As such the Wikileaks revelations confirm systemic corruption (fr)within Gabonese financial systems.

author: Mejasoa Razafimihary


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Gabon: Movement in the Petroleum sector · Global Voices
Mejasoa Razafimihary

[All links to external content in French]
While the rest of the world searches for alternatives to petrol, it is the basis of almost the entire economy of countries like Gabon. Several months ago the country was rocked by revolts that went widely unreported yet which by the end of January saw the leader of the political opposition declare himself as the new President. The issues are now extending beyond politics and are now impacting Gabon's petroleum sector, which provides 60% of the national revenues.
Libreville, Gabon by carlosoliveirareis via Flickr Creative Commons License 2.0
AFP reports that since Saturday April 2nd:
La quasi-totalité de la production pétrolière du Gabon, 4e producteur sub-saharien, était stoppée samedi, au deuxième jour de la grève des employés du secteur, alors qu'à Libreville et Port-Gentil, les stations ne disposaient plus de carburant.
Shell and Total, the two largest operators in the country have seen their production come to a complete standstill.
The main demands of the protesters concern the use of foreign labour :
L’Onep (l’organisation nationale des employés du pétrole) a lancé une grève jeudi à minuit afin d'obtenir un décret réglementant l'emploi de la main d'oeuvre étrangère. L'Onep entend à la fois lutter contre l'emploi de hauts cadres expatriés et surtout contre le recours à une main d'oeuvre africaine ou asiatique qu'elle estime peu ou pas qualifiée.
As Desiré Clitandre Dzonteu explains, the President had announced the creation of an audit system for the petroleum sector.
Cet audit a pour ambition de contrôler les flux financiers issus de l'industrie pétrolière et de renforcer sa gouvernance au Gabon. […] L'objectif au bout de cet audit, a souligné le chef de l'Etat, est de voir si les termes des contrats sont avantageux ou non pour le gouvernement gabonais.
It appears that either the employees or the State are showing signs of a desire to end the relationship with the management of Gabon's petroleum sector. Serge Tchaha continues:
Il y a toujours la peur du syndrome hollandais qui guette les pays qui ont ce type de ressources. Cependant, il faut aussi admettre que ces ressources sont un réservoir pour l’amélioration de la santé économique et financière des pays .
It seems we have not heard the last of this affair.


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Jamaica: Vampire Humour · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

With the help of Trinidadian artist Christopher Cozier, Active Voice reveals another dimension to the recent Vybz Kartel cartoon controversy.


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Korea: A Collection of North Korean Post Stamps · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

South Korean blogger/journalist ID: Aroma of Desert introduced [ko] a collection of rare North Korean postage stamps.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Macedonia: Fast-Track Lawmaking, Privacy Alert · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Macedonian Parliament disbanded itself today, as part of the process of preparation for the June elections. The ruling majority used the previous period to rubber-stamp a huge number of draft-laws submitted by the government, including a new attempt to legalize unconstitutional police surveillance.
According to an analysis [.pdf, mk] by FOSIM, after the PM announced his acceptance of early elections, the government incurred new public debts of around EUR 505 million, and used the funds for advertisements, public administration jobs, stipends for students, and procurements. In the law-making sphere:
In only six weeks, in absence of the opposition, the government's parliamentary machinery surpassed itself and sneaked 171 draft-laws, and then with unseen speed voted to accept 43 laws. Only 2 of these laws are needed for harmonization with the EU's legal framework.
Even though in normal circumstances, all legislative proposals need to undergo a process of public debate, the fast-tracking reached comic proportions when the Parliament's “assembly line” processed 102 laws in one evening [mk].
Rubberstamp photo by Filip Stojanovski, published under CC-NC License
During June 2010, Global Voices provided coverage of the previous attempt to pass legislative changes without public debate and against the provisions of the Constitution, which clearly states that surveillance must be performed upon court order only. As a reaction, a group of NGOs started an online campaign which gathered around 1,700 individual supporters.
Refering to this case, legal expert Kire Milovski analyzed [mk] the new “totalitarian invasion… of our bedrooms” on the Macedonia in EU blog:
…for reasons unfathomable to everyone else, [the Administration] persistently strives to provide some form of legality to police surveillance without court order. Last year they would have sneaked such non-constitutional changes into the Law of Electronic Communications. However they were stopped by the always awake and probably the only keepers of the right to privacy in this so-called state, the civic sector led by FOSIM, Metamorphosis and Transparency Macedonia. These organizations requested assessment of constitutionality of the [amendments to this law] from the Constitutional Court. On December 15, 2010, the Constitutional Court [invalidated] the amendments in question, defending the right to privacy of citizens of the Republic of Macedonia.
[…]
In normal states and democracy, these kinds of stories would finish with a happy ending, while here in Quasiland the story goes further. So on Saturday, March 31, 2011, without the opposition, the ruling majority in the first reading adopted the Draft Law amending the Law on Criminal Procedure [mk]. This law changes four articles of LCP, including the following unconstitutional provision. The previous version of the article stated:
“In order to provide information and evidence necessary for successful criminal procedure, which cannot be obtained otherwise or their provision would be linked with greater difficulty, the court may order the taking of special investigative measures related to the crimes contained in the Criminal Code.”
The proposal of the Government and the Ministry of Justice, just deletes the words “the court” and leaves the door open again for prosecutors from the Ministry of the Interior to take special investigative measures without judicial warrant. Is further comment necessary? Can we expect the ruling majority to come to their senses in the meantime and at the second reading to intervene with amendments to restore this provision in its proper position? Or we would need to put our faith in the Constitutional Court again, and prepare new initiatives for assessing the law's constitutionality?
Ajvan Doktor® [pun on the term Veterinarian, combining Turkish word for animal and the word doctor] wrote [mk] about other paradoxical legislative changes:
Hasty lawmaking often happens in Macedonia! Somebody said in the Parliament that it is much better to have any kind of law, instead of no law at all! As a result, we have loads of dysfunctional, unconstitutional, inapplicable, and ambiguous laws…
…There are even laws in conflict with each other, as the law on legalization of illegal construction, which is in conflict with at least five related laws, and in contradiction with the Constitution, as it legalizes the crime of constructing (“wild”) buildings without proper documentation, unheard of in most legal states!
The latest pearl is the Law on additional condition for performing public functions (what a sound-bite!) which requires:
“The Person from Article 5 of this law, who has performed a public function, and who is not deceased, is obliged to submit written notarized statement to the Commission for Facts Verification stating that he did not cooperate with the State Security organs…”
“And who is not deceased”!? Do our new laws now apply to deceased persons!? What a pearl! Imagine a deceased person submitting a statement…! Does this mean that this state will soon recognize Zombie-citizens?
In a fitting coincidence, Kire Milovski ended his post like this:
Possibly it is best to end this text with the questions posed by Gogol in his masterpiece Dead Souls, who compares Russia with a troika that madly rushes forward like the wind, without a known goal (English translation by D. J. Hogarth):
And you, Russia of mine—are not you also speeding like a troika which nought can overtake? Is not the road smoking beneath your wheels, and the bridges thundering as you cross them, and everything being left in the rear, and the spectators, struck with the portent, halting to wonder whether you be not a thunderbolt launched from heaven? What does that awe-inspiring progress of yours foretell? What is the unknown force which lies within your mysterious steeds? Surely the winds themselves must abide in their manes, and every vein in their bodies be an ear stretched to catch the celestial message which bids them, with iron-girded breasts, and hooves which barely touch the earth as they gallop, fly forward on a mission of God? Whither, then, are you speeding, O Russia of mine? Whither? Answer me! But no answer comes—only the weird sound of your collar-bells.
Does this address to Russia applies to Macedonia also???
PS
I must not forget the European dimension. We'll read all about it in the October version of the (un)Progress Report in the process of European integrations.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Nepal: Can Internet Be Shut Down To Mark Protest? · Global Voices
Rezwan

Nepali Internet users were caught in disarray as the Internet Service Provider’s Association of Nepal (ISPAN) shut down its internet service last Sunday 10 April, 2011 from 1pm to 2pm, as a mark of protest against the government's crackdown on ‘illegal VOIP call bypass’.
In a statement ISPAN condemned the Nepal Telecommunications Authority’s (NTA) act of arresting and making false allegations against the Internet Service Providers (ISP) of aiding illegal call bypass operators.
Crackdown
Image by Flickr user Jamarier (CC BY-SA 2.0).
In recent months, the NTA has cracked down on several illegal call bypass rackets, which use VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) via Internet, giving users the opportunity to avoid the heavy fees for such calls charged by licensed voice operators.
The Nepali blogosphere is criticizing the shutting down of Internet and they feel that this is a breach of the Interim Constitution, which is against such obstruction of communication.
Nepali is not impressed with the strike of the ISPs:
There are legitimate reasons to protest, I get it. But who protests against an alleged police wrongdoing when one of your own gets caught commiting a crime? Our ISPs, of course. And the people that again bear the brunt are us – you and I.
The blogger points out:
The right to Internet Service is a fundamental (interim) Constitutional right of a Nepali citizen. Unacceptably violating my rights, the ISPs decided to turn their routers off for an hour this afternoon in Nepal causing me mass anger.
Pradeep Kumar Singh asks how ethical is the Internet outage:
[..] This is INTERNET, How come you have right to stop people access to this network? Internet can break or make things. [..]
Internet may be luxury or even leisure stuff for most of the Nepalis but that doesn’t mean that it’s not taken seriously anymore. Trust me a lot of users consider this a basic need now and by saying that I mean it, “a basic need” in fact taken for granted. After all, Internet is pivotal and crucial for Information these days.
XNepali acknowledges the demand of the ISPs, but opines:
ISPAN demands of safe environment free from fear of unwarranted police action seems a valid demand. But, why are the unsuspecting customers punished for the government action?
Yam Gurung comments on a post in blog My Sansar [np]:
I am not happy the CIB shutting down so called call bypass and arresting ISP peoples. We live in Hong Kong for 15 years. We can make quality and economy calls to our families in Nepal only when so called illegal call bypass is active in Nepal. Since CIB started arresting ISP and raiding VOIP centres calling Nepal have become tremendously expensive for Nepalese living abroad.
I request NTA and CIB to let illegal VOIP operate until Nepal Telecom reduce its rates and expand its network capacity so that call gets connected each time. Please help us to get connected with our families living in remote places where there is no other communication.
ISPAN has called off their protest program after the Nepal Telecommunications Authority had committed to investigate about the VOIP issue.

author: Rezwan


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North Korea: One American Has Been Detained  · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

North Korea confirmed that it has detained an American man. The United States is urging North Korea to release the man on humanitarian grounds. North Korean Economy Watch blog summarized the latest detention cases.


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Pakistan: Lahore, The City Of Foods And Food Lovers  · Global Voices
Rezwan

Sepoy at Chapati Mystery posts pictures of street food in Lahore and discusses how the  people enjoy food there.


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Pakistan: Pukhtun Stonehenges · Global Voices
Rezwan

Salman Rashid at Doodh Patti highlights two stone circles in Pakistan which have been dated between the 14th and 12th century BCE.


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Palestine: Kidnapping of Italian Activist in Gaza · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Update (Friday 15 April, 2011): It has been reported by various international media outlets that Vittorio Arrigoni has been found dead in the Gaza Strip hours after being abducted on Thursday 14 April, 2011.
* * *
Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni was kidnapped today in Gaza by a Salafi-Jihadi group, who say they will kill him if Sheikh Abu Al Waleed Al Maqdisi, recently arrested by the Hamas government, is not released.
Vittorio Arrigoni (profile picture from Facebook)
Arrigoni – known as Vik – has been in Gaza for over two years with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). (See this Global Voices post about him.) Gaza blogger Omar Ghraieb writes that Arrigoni's kidnappers are threatening to kill him:
Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, ISM volunteer in Gaza, was kidnapped earlier today in Gaza city. Later, a youtube video surfaced showing Vittorio blindfolded and beaten up.
Salafi Jehadis claimed the responsibility of kidnapping and abducting him asking Hamas government in Gaza to release Abu Al Waleed Al Maqdisi in 30 hours starting from 11 am today 14\4\2011 or else they would kill him.
All journos in Gaza, Vittorio's friends here and his friends everywhere ask Hamas to immediately intervene and release Vittorio who worked hard to help Gaza for a long time.
Please let's all pray for his safe release.
The video Arrigoni's kidnappers released has since been disabled. It showed Arrigoni blindfolded, having been beaten, with text rolling over the screen detailing the demands of his captors.
Some reactions to the kidnapping on Twitter:
@SanaKassem: To all Gazans. A great supporter of the Palestinian struggle, #Vittorio Arrigoni, has been kidnapped in #Gaza. He needs your support.
@Omar_Gaza: Hamas we ask you to immediately intervene and release Vittorio Arrigoni now, Italian ISM worker! #Gaza #FreeVittorioNow
@jmalsin: Stunned, sickened, after seeing the video of what salafists claim is a captive Vittorio Arrigoni, who I met several times in Gaza.
@forumeditor: Why kidnap Vittorio Arrigoni who's trying to help the their own cause? His abductors r disgusting: anyone's fair game so they get publicity.
Vittorio Arrigoni's Facebook page is here.

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Qatar: Enjoying a Drop of Rain · Global Voices
Omar Chatriwala

There’s nothing like a change in weather to get people talking, and in a desert country, what’s more exciting than rain?
Residents of Qatar got a bit of rain and reactions on Twitter was a mix of shock, awe, confusion, and wishes for more to come.
Monday evening offered a bit of foreshadowing for the pleasant gift to come.
@SequinMiner: Will it rain?? Crazy Skies over Doha – Short Timelapse for IPhone http://twitpic.com/4jmcid (click to see video)
Tuesday didn't get off to a great start:
@WeatherSteff: A dusty Doha day and getting worse. Winds increasing, gusts to 50kph later…and chance of rain (perhaps thunderstorms?!) from 6pm onwards.
But sprinkles began in the afternoon, stopping and starting sporadically through the rest of the day.
@mukesh6582: Wow Rain Started in # DOHA #QATAR. :) Yuppppppppppppy
Doha rain
@dohanews: It's raining, it's pouring… oh wait, it stopped already #doha #rain http://twitpic.com/4jy7o3
@jmugford: @dohanews We've got thunder in Duhail!
@DohaCandy: pouring with rain in ain khalid #doha #qatar
@hussdajani: LOL, ok, my question comes again….. What the hell is wrong with the weather in Qatar? #rain #hot http://yfrog.com/h85kptjj
@mabdrabbo: Rain in Doha http://instagr.am/p/DFL5w/
@NasiminDoha: I must say #rain in #Doha is a joke ;p
@SybnDoha: @NasiminDoha haha, Rain as you knew it in the U.S. no longer exists. You'll learn to appreciate the 5 second sprinkles. #Doha
@casa_fuego: Nice my car is dirty again #doha #rain ☹

author: Omar Chatriwala


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Russia: Yuri Gagarin’s “Public Diplomacy Legacy” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Yelena Osipova of Global Chaos pays tribute to Yuri Gagarin and his “public diplomacy legacy” in this overview of web stories and events devoted to the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Bangladesh: New Year Festival Getting Popular Each Year · Global Voices
Rezwan

Jyoti Rahman at Mukti analyzes why each year the Pahela Baishakh, new years celebrations in Bangladesh are getting bigger and more popular with the participation of mass people.


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Ghana: Bloggers React to Demeaning and Misleading Article  · Global Voices
Mac-Jordan

On April 8, 2011, Ghanaians came across a very demeaning and disgraceful article titled “Inside the criminal world of Ghana's e-mail scam gangs” by Thomas Morton, which got featured on the CNN website. Ghanaian bloggers consider the journalist to be completely uninformed and biased.  After reading the article, Maame Serwaa Adu (@SekondiGal) tweeted:
a classic example of irresponsible journalism
Bloggers from Ghanablogging.com discussed this  very article amongst themselves where they expressed various opinions and pointed out the weaknesses of the article.
Ghanaian bloggers at a monthly session
One could tell from Graham Knight‘s opening paragraph in his post that he was not happy with the “facts” from the article:
Distortions, exaggerations and untruths come easy when reporting Africa because they build upon a set of common themes in which certain stereotypes are taken for granted. Attitudes to poverty, corruption, crime, etc. provide a foundation on which other narratives are built. These narratives are dominated by a viewpoint from those outside Africa.
He also went on to stress on the various lies been peddled by the article below:
The fabrications about the environment in Accra, begs the question whether the writer has actually seen for himself or heard second hand.
The accusation that ‘most’ Ghanaians have to use crime to buy a nice car betrays the obvious reality of Ghanaian life.
Nana yaw Sarpong, who blogs at Ready to Chew, titled his article: “Another Fool Writes on Ghana–Bad Reportage Akwaaba.” He says:
I have a job. Many Ghanaians own 3 bedroom houses. Buy their cars with their incomes not loans. There are good roads, Skyscrapers, Banks, 5 Star Hotels and Slums. But water sachet sellers do not even make up a percent of the population. I dare say only an ignoramus who sat in his car the whole time in Ghana would cough up such write-ups.
Here comes a big disappointment:
This article should be treated with the disdain that it deserves; highly disappointed in the idiot who wrote it. Has he taken a good look at where he is coming [from]? There is crime, unemployment and the likes. The idiot who wrote it should seek to correct all that before trying to correct ours. We do have some developmental problems but not as he/she has put out there.
I couldn’t beg to disagree with Edward Tagoe’s article which actually responded to all Thomas Morton's lies. He observes:
Anyone who has stayed in Ghana long enough will realize majority of Ghanaians and the authorities governing them are disgusted with the Sakawa problem just as much as any foreigner is. Sakawa is an off-shoot of what started as ‘advance-fee fraud‘ or 419. This phenomenon has gradually grown into a lucrative engagement for some young people in Ghana. Advance fee fraud or 419 is reported to have originated from Nigeria and is gradually creeping into other parts of of the West African region.
His reaction/response to one of the blunder or “fact” is below:
Unemployment rate as we all may know is technical figure that represents not the number of people who are without jobs but rather the number of individuals who have been without job for a particular period of time, and have made or are making a conscious effort to find jobs within that period. For me therefore it is no wonder that governments everywhere in the world hide behind this definition to produce numbers that paint brighter pictures of their economy. If Ghana is a culprit then all countries round the world are too.
Blunder 2: The Ghanaian government likes to boast that their unemployment rate is in the single digits ….The actual unemployment rate for 15- to 24-year-olds hovers between 25 and 30 percent
Ghanaian flag with African map. Photo courtesy of @Abocco
I was happy when I woke up this morning to see a Letter to CNN titled: “CNN Gets Ghana Wrong” written by Kobina Graham.
Kobina Graham, is the editor of the quarterly Dust Magazine, which is produced for and about the people of Accra. He couldn't help but join the band-wagon of bloggers in reacting to the demeaning and false-peddling article about Ghana. Instead of attacking the article just like others did, Kobina decided to choose some quotes, pick them apart and show what his problems were with them.
Quote: “Filed under: Web”
This in fact was my first problem with the piece. I would have filed it under ‘Vaguely Creative Non-Fiction’. Or under ‘Well-Intentioned But Undercooked Journalism’.
Quote: “Ghana is doing extremely  well by African standards. Of course “by African standards” means there  are dirt roads leading past the brand-new, gold-columned presidential  palace…”
Condescending, but I won’t  even go there. I drive on that road on my way to work everyday and it’s  in one of the most tarred areas in Accra. Ask the French whose Embassy  is – unfortunately – next door.
He also responded to the iced-water selling lie:
Quote: “… and it seems 1 percent of  the country is blowing their country’s GDP at bars with $50 cover  charges while the other 99 is selling bags of water at stop lights.”
Not every rich Ghanaian acquired their money through scamming the State. Note also that those  wealthy Ghanaians are always outnumbered at these bars by – how do I put this delicately – white people. Yet we’re not sitting here accusing  every white person in Ghana of being here to scam Ghanaians. The writer gets away with  this because of the words “it seems”. If this were a court of law, I’d  have yelled “objection!” and the judge would yell “sustained!”… but a  picture would already have been painted in the jury’s mind.
Kobina also made a case about the “sakawa” menace in the country.
Quote: “Sakawa (which originally  referred to a specific credit card scam) now means pretty much anything  involving money — if you wear a bunch of flashy brand-name clothes  you’re dressing “Sakawa,” if you’ve got a nice car it’s a “Sakawa” car —  all of which makes sense considering internet scamming is the only way  most Ghanaians can afford this.”
Actually,  the accusation most often levelled at people who get rich suspiciously  quickly here is that they were involved in drugs… and – although  sometimes true – it isn’t always the case.
Quote: “Right now Sakawa is in its salad days. The Sakawa Boys movie franchise has made it up to “Sakawa Boys 8″…”
Hardly surprising in a film industry in which MOST films make it to part 4 at the very least.
Quote: “… and Ghanaians of all ages  and interests (but mostly “young” and “not being poor”) are packed into  internet cafes finding more and more ingenious ways of ripping off Westerners.”
Again with the embellishments. Are you sure we didn’t go to Mfantsipim together? I  remember how my classmates used to embellish stories about having lost their virginity. I finished back in 1994. Let me know if we’re in the  same year group.
Qoute: “… a few, like our guide Seva, see Sakawa for what it really is: a massive bubble just waiting to burst.”
Funnily enough, this was  somewhere you could have overstated facts but didn’t. There aren’t that  many computers in Ghana. Yet we are already amongst the world’s best at  online scams. Very worrying, and as more of us get connected to the  internet, this may increase. That said, not ALL Ghanaians are involved  in internet fraud – young or old. Not even the majority. I reckon it is –  at best – a significant minority. Feel free to prove me wrong.
Ghanaian bloggers find the article misleading and wonder why western journalists find nothing positive in Africa. Most of the youth in Ghana are not involved in “sakawa” nor selling sachet water (pure water).
Opportunities for the youth in the job market have never been higher in Ghana. There are many young Ghanaians who create their own businesses like Edward Amartey-Tagoe, co-founder of Nandi Mobile and Esi Cleland, co-founder of Afrochic Clothing.

author: Mac-Jordan


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Burkina Faso: President Campaoré Flees from Mutiny · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Grioo reports that Burkina Faso President Campaoré has fled the Capital City (fr) Ouagadougou under the pressure of mutinous soldiers. The onset of the discontent in the army was reported on April 2nd when a mutiny first broke out.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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China: Yang Hengjun’s thoughts on his kidnapping · Global Voices
Andy Yee

China Media Project has posted an English version of the blog of Sino-Australian novelist Yang Hengjun, who shared his thoughts and feelings on his disappearance from Guangzhou airport last month, widely imagined as part of the Chinese government crackdown on activists.

author: Andy Yee


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Colombia: Netizens Discuss ‘Law Lleras’ on Copyright  · Global Voices
Lully

On April 4, the law “which regulates liability for infringement of copyright and related rights on the Internet,” called “Law Lleras [es],” was presented before the Congress of Colombia. This law seeks to be consistent with the obligations for the possible acquisition of a free trade agreement with the United States. The name of the law is in honor of its creator [es], the Minister of Interior and Justice, Germán Vargas Lleras.
Roberto Andrés Díaz, in his blog Maestro de la computación [es], explains how this law could affect the user:
[…] con este proyecto se podría penalizar incluso con cárcel a todos aquellos que usemos Internet para compartir o descargar música, películas, programas, libros, artículos, etc. sin pagar los derechos de autor con animo de lucro. También sancionará a los proveedores de servicio (ETB, Telefónica, Telmex, EPM, UNE, COMCEL, TIGO, Movistar, Etc…) que faciliten la “piratería” o copia ilegal de dichos contenidos, lo que obligará a estas empresas a bloquear paginas, puertos de programas P2P, suspender el acceso a usuarios y hasta darnos de baja del servicio.
This has raised concerns in thousands of netizens who have reacted on social networks.
The daily El Tiempo points out the protagonists from both sides of the debate:
[…] por un lado, están los defensores del software libre y, por el otro, los autores de contenidos, cantantes, directores de cine y empresarios, que piden una lucha sin cuartel contra la piratería en la red.
Created by Eneko for 20minutos.es and 20 minutos (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The new site Recrea [es] defends the project, and among other things, says:
Re-Crea considera que la coyuntura creada por la presentación del Proyecto de Ley, mejor conocido como “LEY LLERAS”, es una oportunidad única para sentar las bases de lo que será el respeto por una sociedad digital libre, por el libre intercambio de ideas y por la creación cultural, fruto de un dialogo colectivo en Colombia.
In his blog [es], Luis Ángel Pérez tells readers to prepare for the law; while Sergio Augusto Ovalle, in his blog Continental Cyberlaw [es], proposes a way to face these new copyright challenges realistically:
Los amantes de la libre cultura que promulgan el nuevo paradigma de la libre difusión de la cultura y la información, han ideado mecanismos como las licencias libres de “Creative Commons” por medio de las cuales yo decido que se puede hacer con mi obra, eliminando el intermediario que gestiona mis derechos de autor, y así siendo mas consecuente con los fans, o con los usuarios que se benefician a nivel personal con las creaciones intelectuales.
In equinoXio [es], Carolina Botero [es] raises the concern that internet is a means and not an end. She also writes about the bill's procedures that are inconsistent with existing laws of the country:
La obligación que se impone a los proveedores de servicio de Internet de establecer un esquema contractual para desconectar a los infractores reincidentes choca también con la idea de que el único facultado para esto es el juez […]
In Alt1040 [es], Global Voices author Geraldine Juárez expressed her disagreement and argued that,
La piratería —como la gente con una visión muy reducida de como funciona la circulación cultural en este siglo—, no se arregla con leyes para perseguir a piratas, se arregla ajustando los precios, así como los modelos de producción y distribución. No hay evidencia de que las descargas afecten el monopolio cultura, al contrario.
Carlos Armando Cuervo, in his blog Pulso de Opinión [es], says he disagrees with the writing and design of the bill:
Estamos asistiendo desde hace dos días a un nuevo episodio de arrogancia legal y confusión conceptual en la redacción y presentación de la nueva ley que “regula la responsabilidad por las infracciones al derecho de autor y los derechos anexos en internet.”
On Facebook users have created pages and accounts against the law; while on Twitter users manifest a number of complaints and report cyber-attacks on Law Lleras and government [es] websites.
Anonymous Colombia (@Anonymous_Co) warns:
Señores @Gobiernoenlinea van a tener mas “inconvenientes técnicos” en las próximas horas, gracias. ;) #leylleras #opcolombia
Users @Juankof and Alex (@0Driver) report on online attacks:
@Gobiernoenlinea –>DOWn , cuales problemas técnicos lo que tienen es la #marcha2.0 en contra de la #leylleras #opcolombia
Electronic engineer Carlos E. Velazquez V (@cevelasquezv) relates the law to similar regulations like law Sinde from Spain, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA):
Ley Lleras? Ley Sinde? ACTA? DMCA? acordadas en los TLC? No protegen los derechos de autor, ni promueven la creatividad #leylleras
Finally, Carlos Felipe Isaza (@cuimbo) makes a sarcastic reference to impunity with the death of people like Jaime Garzón and Orlando Sierra:
En Colombia siempre han protegido los derechos de los autores; los autores intelectuales #leylleras #impunidad #jaimegarzon #orlandosierra

author: Lully


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Czech Republic: Presidential pendemonium · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Czechmate Diary discusses how the Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, apparently snatches a pen during a state visit to Chile, and how people now are sending him loads of pens so that he will not be left without one.

author: Vilhelm Konnander


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Egypt: Gene Sharp Taught Us How To Revolt! · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.
Last February, Sheryl Stolberg of The New York Times wrote an article about the political science professor, Gene Sharp, whose ideas were credited by her as being an inspiration for the Egyptian revolution, as well as many other uprisings in the region.
Few Americans have heard of Mr. Sharp. But for decades, his practical writings on nonviolent revolution — most notably “From Dictatorship to Democracy,” a 93-page guide to toppling autocrats, available for download in 24 languages — have inspired dissidents around the world, including in Burma, Bosnia, Estonia and Zimbabwe, and now Tunisia and Egypt.
Some bloggers in the Arab world reacted right after the article was published, but not many people noticed the issue back then. Later on, about two months later, two Egyptian users on Twitter (@HanaSelim and @3arabawy) decided to use the Egyptian way in order discuss Mr. Gene's influence on the revolution. They started a new hashtag on Twitter that mocks the claims of The New York Times article – #GeneSharpTaughtMe.
I myself have never heard of Gene Sharp before, as so do many others, and that's why many of them started to wonder who Mr Sharp was after seeing the hastag.
Mostafa Hussein remembered he'd already read one of his books before but draws the line there.
Others also added their two cents.
Finally, Soha Bayoumi wanted to make it clear that Gene Sharp is not the one to be blamed here.
This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.

author: Tarek Amr


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Egypt: Mubarak in Detention  · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.
Just a few months ago, many Egyptians might have wished to see the country's then-President Mubarak in jail, yet almost certainly none of them imagined this wish might come true one day.
However, on Wednesday April 13, 2011, Egyptians woke up to the news of Mubarak's detention first thing in the morning. Here is how the moment was documented in the Egyptian social media scene.
Celebrating a dictator's detention
The Egyptian writer Ibrahim Farghali compared the moment [ar] to that of the first man in space:
Yesterday, Russia celebrated the anniversary of the first time a human being went into outer space, Yuri Gagarin. And today Egypt celebrates its former president Hosni Mubarak's journey to prison.
We hope that one day Egypt celebrates similar achievements like those of the first world, and we hope then that the revolutionary spirit continues to exist in the streets.
Zeinobia also wrote a new blog post about the moment, simply titled, “A Historical Moment“. She then elaborated how the president's sons were also detained:
Zeinobia then continued to explain that Mubarak is facing charges of murdering protesters and stealing public money; however, till now Mubarak is staying in a hospital for health reasons. Alaa and Gamal Mubarak are facing the same charges as their father.
Reactions of the people
Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff documented the moment by his own way, with a series of cartoon drawings.
Mubarak Before and After Jan25 Revolution, illustration by Carlos Latuff
The majority of Egyptian status updates on Twitter over the past couple of days have also been about Mubarak's detention as well.
Mubarak's voice recorded message [ar], which he sent to Al-Arabiya news channel and which turned out to have been written by the Egyptian well known lawyer Fareed El-Deeb, is believed to be the last nail in Mubarak's coffin:
In the past weeks, Torah Prison became not only host for Mubarak's sons, but it has also been hosting many of the pillars of Mubarak's regime. People on Twitter did not miss the chance to mock this fact:
Various fake Twitter accounts of Mubarak, his family (Suzanne Mubarak, Alaa Mubarak, Gamal Mubarak and his wife Khadija), and his regime (Fathi Sorour, Safwat El-Sharif and Ahmed Nazif) have also been created to make fun of them.
Car carrying banners in celebration of the detention of Mubarak, posted on Yfrog.
Finally, despite all this, and despite the list of Mubarak's anti-achievements written by Ahmed Hayman, some people still sympathise with the former president:
This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.


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Equatorial Guinea: Few, but Strong Virtual Voices · Global Voices
Ana Lúcia Sá

When the called “Arab revolts” exploded, some wondered if the same was possible in Sub-Saharan Africa. These winds of freedom spread along the demonstrations and through one fundamental tool: the Internet. Blogs and twitter accounts were used not only to pass information or call upon people to struggle for rights, but also as platforms to share thoughts and demands of freedom.
Egypt has about 200,000 blogs and 5 million Facebook users. This is very different from Equatorial Guinea, where only 2% of the population has access to the Internet, and there are about 11,000 Facebook users and two blogs. Two known blogs.
Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel (Malabo [es]) and Eyi Nguema (Opinión desde Guinea Ecuatorial [es]) are the only bloggers writing in Equatorial Guinea. But their blogs are hosted in Spain, the first one on the digital magazine Frontera D [es] and the second in the newspaper El País [es].
Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel. Photo courtesy of Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel.
The comparison with the Egyptian situation on this subject isn’t haphazard. On February 11, 2011, while hundreds of people were at the Tahrir Square and Hosni Mubarak announced his withdrawal, the president of the Spanish Congress of Deputies, José Bono, was visiting Equatorial Guinea, making famous the sentence “it is much more that unites us than what separates us.” And he wasn’t talking about the Equatoguinean people, but the dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema, in power since 1979.
On the same February 11, Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel started a hunger strike, to protest against the “dictatorship that eats our souls” and against the Spanish support of Obiang. In his last post [es] before the hunger strike, Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel wrote about the dictator Obiang and his presidency of the African Union. He criticized building roads and houses for institutional events, while the Equatoguineans have to confront the lack of basic social infrastructure and the destruction of their homes when they are in “strategic” places:
En Malabo, y en las inmediaciones del poblado de Baney, pero cerca de la costa, han arrasado un terreno muy grande para construir los hoteles, los establecimientos de lujo y las residencias particulares de los presidentes africanos para cuando se reunirán para celebrar la cumbre anual este año.
In his blog Opinión desde Guinea Ecuatorial [es], Eyi Nguema also highlights the lack of governmental social and economical policies for the population: how to live without electricity, how to manage the need of water, how to make Equatorial Guinea a country with a place within the global networks. And how to make a country for the nationals and not for foreign interests or the political elite related to the clan Nguema.
aquí los guineoecuatorianos no controlamos nada de eso; por lo que huelga meter el dedo en la llaga y exhortarnos a trabajar con la idea de que hemos de luchar por nuestra independencia
Along with their constant struggle for political autonomy, the quest for the right to build their own houses is an everyday issue in Equatorial Guinea. In his most recent post [es], Eyi Nguema writes about the houses in his country:
En efecto, lo que sucede es que, para no vivir en la intemperie, se compra cuatro tablas y cuatro pies derechos de madera (o bloques de mortero de cemento y arena), más chapas de hojalata y se levanta un cobertizo; a un lado se excava el pozo para el agua que se va beber y a otro, el que albergará las aguas residuales (fecales incluidas) y listo. Aquí cuando se habla de viviendas, en un 80% o más, se habla de construcciones de este tipo.
These bloggers don’t hide the fact that Equatorial Guinea is a rich country. There is plenty of oil, wood and water. But most of the population lives in misery, with high rates of infant mortality and a paralysis in agriculture. Human rights violations, such as political persecution and summary executions, are rampant, as confirmed in the most recent Human Rights Report of the country.
Blogger Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel’s also writes about these issues. But in his case, cyberactivism is a true commitment with the polis. This blogger and famous writer often says he has a free mind and no intentions of entering formal politics. But when he saw himself forced to leave Equatorial Guinea after he began the hunger strike, he was already a political symbol. He describes Equatorial Guinea as a “republican kingdom” or a “non republic,” and with this in mind he wrote about nepotism and the confiscation of the state by Obiang while he was in his country. Now he lives in Barcelona and writes about the perils of the apathy of the national and the international communities, and the absence of action because of fear. He argues that one of the arguments is [es]:
Aquí estamos bien. Es África. Hay países peores que este. ¿No has oído la radio?
The national radio  suffers severe political censorship. People who listen to the Radio-Télévision Nationale de Guinée Équatoriale don’t know what has happened in Tunisia, in Egypt or Libya. In a country without newspapers, they can only depend on mouth to mouth spreading of news. Or those who have access to the Internet can read the Asodegue [es] page, the only website with other information about Equatorial Guinea.
Under these extreme circumstances, the blogs of Eyi Nguema and Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel offer two of the very few possibilities to build a virtual space for free expression. This is Africa, says Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel.

author: Ana Lúcia Sá


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India: How Much Is A Housewife Worth? · Global Voices
Rezwan

In a ruling Indian Supreme Court questioned the Indian government’s Census parameters which placed housewives in the same economic bracket as “prostitutes, beggars and prisoners”. In this context Phoenixritu tries to fathom how much is an Indian housewife worth.


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India: The Missing Girl Child Exposed In The Census · Global Voices
Rezwan

Using the recent census data in India Razib Khan at Sepia Mutiny tries to analyze why the ratio of girl child against the boy child is dropping in different parts of India.


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Is Empowering Women Key to Eradicating Global Hunger? · Global Voices
Juhie Bhatia

This post is part of our special coverage Global Development 2011.
This post was commissioned as part of a Pulitzer Center/Global Voices Online series on Food Insecurity. These reports draw on multimedia reporting featured on the Pulitzer Gateway to Food Insecurity and bloggers discussing the issues worldwide. Share your own story on food insecurity here.
As global food prices continue to remain high, with potential increases on the horizon because of soaring oil prices and supply concerns, experts says there is one often-overlooked solution for fighting hunger: women.
Gender gap
Woman farmer harvesting high yielding maize variety. Image by Flickr user IITA Image Library (CC BY-NC 2.0).
Women are vital to food production in many developing countries, making up on average 43 percent of the agricultural labor force. Some estimate that 80 percent of those involved in farming in Africa and 60 percent in Asia are women.
At the Envision forum last week in New York City, during a panel focused on women's roles in alleviating hunger and poverty, United Nations Development Programme Under-Secretary General and Associate Administrator Rebeca Grynspan said:
Even talking only about the rural areas, women produce 50 percent of the food of the world. They receive only 1 percent of the credit but they produce 50 percent of the food.
In addition to a lack of recognition, a report released last month from the United Nation's (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization says that while female farmers’ roles may vary across regions, they consistently have less access to resources and opportunities than their male counterparts. Closing this gender gap could lift as many as 150 million people out of hunger.
Ma. Estrella A. Penunia, posting on the website of the Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development, lists six key reasons why we should care about female farmers, including food security issues. Meanwhile, Emily Oakley, a United States (U.S.) farmer who has studied small-scale farming in dozens of countries, reflects in a post on the blog In Her Field on women in agriculture:
In most places I have visited, women are more than just supporters of agriculture; they partner with their husbands in day-to-day tasks, decision-making, and planning.  In Kenya, it is far more typical to see a woman by herself with a child strapped on her back turning up a field with a hoe in hand than it is to see her joined by her husband.  In a remote village of Western Nepal (the kind of remote that means half a day’s walk to the nearest road), the farmer everyone in town agreed was most innovative was a woman.  Her farm stood out on the hillside as an oasis of growth and diversity where other farms were experiencing soil erosion and poor yields.  I recently participated in a farmer-to-farmer project in the Dominican Republic focusing on women farmers in commercial hoop house production of bell peppers.  This is just the tiniest taste of women’s work in agriculture.
Food for the whole family
Many women work as subsistence farmers, small-scale entrepreneurs, unpaid workers or casual wage laborers. Giving these women the same tools and resources as men, including better access to financial services, technical equipment, land, education and markets, could increase agricultural production in developing countries by 2.5 to 4 percent, according to the UN report. These production gains could, in turn, reduce the number of hungry people by 12 to 17 percent, or by 100 to 150 million people. There were roughly 925 million undernourished people globally in 2010.
Empowering women could also improve food security for their entire family, says the report, because women are more likely than men to spend additional income on food, education and other basic household needs. But Dipendra Pokharel, a researcher in Nepal, says on his blog that women's roles in the home can also mean their needs get overlooked:
Women farmers often have different priorities than their male counterparts, and this can, in many cases, be related to their direct role in feeding their family. In the rural areas of Nepal, traditionally men control the outside world and women the inside of the home. Such traditional perspectives can contribute to the lop-sidedness of ‘gender blind’ information, collected by outsiders with the intention of helping a community. It is usually the men who provide information to the outsiders. This means that women’s priorities are often overlooked, unless they are specifically taken into account. This also supports the view that the female farmers receive less extension services which are needed to transform their subsistence-based farming system to a more commercial one.
Female farmers operate smaller farms than male farmers, on average only half to two-thirds as large, according to the report, and their farms usually have lower yields. They are also less likely to own land or have access to rented land. The report shows, for example, that women represent fewer than 5 percent of all agricultural holders in West Asia and North Africa.
Jane Tarh Takang, who has worked with farmers in West and Central Africa, discusses  land rights issues in an interview by Edith Abilogo posted on FORESTSBlog, the blog of The Center for International Forestry Research:
In most communities in Africa, women and girls have very limited access to property and land compared with boys and men. Without land, they cannot produce resources to feed their family or generate income, and this results in extending the poverty cycle to their children. This situation is worse when it comes to widows or unmarried women…In cases where the existing farmlands have been depleted due to unsustainable agricultural practices, men would prefer to reserve the fertile areas for their own use and leave the less fertile ones to the women.
Elfinesh Dermeji, an Ethiopian female farmer who attended the Workshop on Gender and Market-Oriented Agriculture in Addis Ababa earlier this year, says in a post on the New Agriculturist that it is not always easy to get women involved in agriculture:
In some families when the men are positive and they want their wives to participate, the woman is not business oriented or she's not motivated. On the other side there are some men, when women are motivated and they want to participate, they don't want her to leave the house. They would rather not have that income than have their wife involved in an association.
A search for solutions
Still, numerous projects globally are involving female farmers, from encouraging women in Ghana to buy tractors to lobbying the Philippines government to allow the wife's name on land titles to increasing the use of information and communication technologies among Ugandan farmers.
On OneWorld South Asia, Ananya Mukherjee-Reed describes how 250,000 Kudumbashree members, a network of 3.7 million women in the Indian state of Kerala, have formed farming collectives to jointly lease and cultivate land:
‘As farmers, now we control our own time, resources and labour,’ was the refrain I heard over and over again. Dhanalakhsmi, a young woman in Elappully, tells me that the change in her role from a labourer to producer has had a profound effect on her children. ‘They see me differently now. When we are at meetings discussing our farms, our incomes, or simply sharing our problems, they watch with a lot of interest.’
But bloggers say more can be done. In a post on Solutions, Yifat Susskind argues that the U.S. should buy crops from local African farmers as part of their foreign aid. Dipendra Pokharel says rural women must gain social and political space in private and public domains. Melissa McEwan, blogging on Shakesville in the U.S., challenges the misconception that only men are farmers by compiling almost 100 photos of female farmers worldwide.  The report says changes are also needed at the policy level.
Whatever the approach, Ma. Estrella A. Penunia says to truly succeed it should be inclusive:
As farming in many developing countries is a family endeavor, the one important thing also that can greatly help women farmers is the support that they will get from their husbands and male leaders /members of their organizations. In households where both the man and the woman have been sensitized to the dynamics of gender and believe in equal rights and opportunities, the full potentials of a woman farmer are harnessed to the fullest.
This post is part of our special coverage Global Development 2011.

author: Juhie Bhatia


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Japan: Living near a nuclear reactor · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

Photographer and blogger Buddhika Weerasinghe published some pictures of people who live in proximity of a nuclear power plant in Fukui prefecture.

author: Scilla Alecci