text:
Lebanon: Living Through Terror · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

This was yet another violent week here in Lebanon. In addition to the military action, taking place in the North between the Lebanese Army and the militants, and the almost regular explosions taking place around the country, this week was marred by another assassination. A terrorist car bomb explosion took away the lives of Member of Parliament, Walid Eido, his son, his bodyguard and seven civilians who happened to be at the scene of the crime – in addition to around 10 injuries. As a result, a gloomy atmosphere looms over most blogs. Some wrote before the assassination about how the Lebanese were coping with the anxiety of expected explosions and/or war, while others happened to be at the site of the car bomb explosion during the blast and survived to share their experiences. Included in this summary are posts on the political, social and educational repercussions of the violence and explosions as well as tributes to the innocent civilians killed in the blasts and violence.
I will start this weblog with this drawing that Amal posted four days ago and which she titled “Death”:
Bloggers who were at the site of the explosion:
Two bloggers were at a café very close to the site of the explosion that targeted MP Eido. Both wrote about their experience. Photo Beirut said:
However, we were very very close to the bomb that just went off in Beirut late this afternoon, which killed the MP Walid Eido (a member of Hariri's coalition) and his son and two bodyguards as well as at least 6 others. Waleed and I were walking into the outdoor al-Rawda cafe on the seafront with some friends and were approaching a table next to the water when the massive explosion happened.
And Charles Malik was also there. His account of the explosion was mentioned in yesterday's roundups. He mentioned that: “Children were playing on the equipment under the setting sun. Mothers were holding their babies. Old men were smoking argile.” Then “BOOM!!!”
Bloggers who were very close:
In addition to being on the site during the explosion, other bloggers were very close to the explosions and also wrote about their experience and reflections. MFL reflected on the new found anxiety and fear that have become part of our lives:
As I speak, 20 minutes ago my house's foundation shook. I do not know who of my friends are down there (because my friends are meeting there today at this time). But I write, a car loaded with explosives blew up into kingdom, wounding 10 people and five people killed (and I hope the ones I know are not among them).
This is our new trend of life. Worry at every car parked, worrying if this car is loaded with explosives or not. Fear has locked most of the people in their houses, and citizens are dying.
Sietske In Beiroet also heard the blast while on her balcony and went down to the scene. In her photo–report, she takes us, step by step, through the “rather predictable” stages of what goes on when a blast of this type takes place:
Just as I got home, about to sit on that infamous balcony of mine, the house shook with that now familiar and rather powerful BANG BANG. I don’t know if it is the echo of an explosion that gives you the double-bang, or whether it was a double explosion, but whatever it was, it was pretty massive. The windows bent in and out, literally. But since they were all open, nothing broke.
Outside the familiar shattering of glass indicated however that this bomb was indeed pretty close.
Marcy Newman, who is campaigning for the relief of the refugees caught in the fighting in the North also posted about the car bomb in addition to her posts on the relief efforts. The blast occurred near her home just as she was about to reach it, after returning from the North.
Blogging Beirut posted images from the site with satellite images of Beirut and the location of the blast.
Blogging about the consequences:
Weazls Revenge writes on the fears that this murder and that the fighting in the North may break the fragile religious balance and lead to a new civil war:
The slaying was likely to further inflame Lebanon’s bitter power struggle between Saniora’s Western-backed government and its Syrian-backed opponents, led by the Hezbollah militant group. Many fear the violence could push the polarized nation with a fragile balance of ethnic and religious groups into a new civil war.
Wednesday’s blast also came as Lebanon is dealing with a separate conflict that threatens to spiral out of control: a nearly four-week battle with al-Qaida-inspired militants barricaded inside a Palestinian refugee camp near the northern city of Tripoli. More than 140 people have been killed in the Lebanese army’s siege of the Nahr el-Bared camp.
Green Resistance adds to the fears above, the fear of an increase in what she terms the racist attacks against Palestinians and Syrians:
What will happen? What will be the consequences of this latest bout of violence?
A legal expert – O. N. – expressed worry that the government would respond with an imposition of emergency law and a suspension of constitutional laws. (What difference would that be, I quipped.)  Perhaps. A more likely consequence is an increase in racism targeted against whomever is deemed as ‘the other’ – which, in this case, would be the Palestinians and the Syrians; an increase in knee-jerk, irrational reactions; an increase towards polarization – and thus increased chaos.
On the innocent victims:
Among the innocent civilians killed in the car blast were two soccer players who were training at the Nejmeh soccer field near the blast site. Abu Kais dedicated a post for the players and for the other innocent victims:
Today we mourn the judge, Walid Eido, and his son the lawyer, Khaled. We mourn the policemen who lost their lives fulfilling their duties. We mourn two of our youth, who played sports and hoped for a future of hard work and reward. We mourn the innocents who went about their lives as normally as they could, but ended up slabs of human flesh on a concrete floor.
In the North, two Red Cross volunteers were also among the innocent killed when their vehicle came under mortar fire a few days ago. Golaniya also dedicated a post in their memory.
On coping:
So how are the Lebanese coping with all of this?
Eyespy writes about the Lebanese attitude towards the increase in the security measures that is manifest in the increase of the military presence:
This excessive presence of the military spreading around, with tanks, and military jeeps, soldiers at guard with gear and weapon, does not fool fellow Lebanese citizens and co. that they are being protected. The Lebanese unlike any other nation do not respect their army, in fact most of the Lebanese males spent more time thinking about how to escape the military service, then the actual service time. They have a developed a strange practice towards “ the state missionaries that should protect, save and punish counter state activities, such as stealing electricity, that ranks in the same problematic frame as bombing and terrorism for examples.
Liliane noted that the school year has been cut short this year for fears of another war, civil war or maybe violence:
Usually school years in Lebanon begin late September (or early October, depending on the grade) and end mid to late June. On the other hand, this year, school and universities have closed their doors early June.
The reason behind all this rush is the fear of another war erupting this summer similar to last year's July war in 2006 that happened between Hezbollah and Israel. Moreover, a war is not necessarily what Lebanese officials are worried about, but matters such as Nahr Al Bared's which was not something to account for. They keep saying Lebanon is on the brink of another Civil War. Well in case one does happen, thank god schools have closed so early in summer so it can provide such a long bloody and disastrous summer for everybody to enjoy in their homes while watching it on TV.
Schedules of activities and events are being set taking into consideration the fears from explosions. Sietske in Beiroet discusses the new timetable and what they imply:
Some schools have taken the drastic step of starting the summer break earlier. […] Restaurants and bars in Monot and Gemayze, two popular districts, have seen their attendance drop to a virtual zero. After all, can you predict where the next one is going off?
[…] they cannot be ignored, so we organize our way around them. Graduation parties are canceled, or moved indoors. I heard from someone else the unlikely fact that house parties should end now by 11 o’clock (couldn’t verify this odd ‘party curfew’). Dinners are held earlier anyway, because we’d like to be indoors by ten if possible.
Play dates are now assessed based on the neighborhood where the play date lives, and what road needs to be taken to get there.
People monitor everything and everybody, trying to predict what might happen. A friend of ours, close to people in the government, mentioned that he had been looking for an apartment in Feraya. (Feraya is a resort town in the mountains, some 50 km above Beirut).
People go to the beaches in the city (concrete slabs around rectangular pools), rather than the sandy beaches down south and up north. What is a bomb explodes while you are at the beach? Better to be close to home.
NB: Some of the posts mentioned above were written before the assassination. More blogs than can be mentioned here are reporting, reflecting or commenting on the violence and events going on in Lebanon. Let us pray that this ends soon. Take care and hope to see you next week.


text:
Malaysia: Human Traffiking  · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Screenshot‘s Jeff Ooi has the bad news, the good news and more good news about the annual “trafficking in Persons Report” that cited Malaysia for its unsatisfactory progress in dealing with human trafficking.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Preetam Rai


text:
Mexico: Ultimatum for Hugo Sanchez · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Blog.com.mx [ES] thinks that Mexican National Team coach Hugo Sanchez should be removed if the team loses to Panama.

author: Eduardo Avila


text:
Morocco: Hajj and Vodka, Fez the Time Warp, and the Top Ten Reasons Why Maroc Telecom Censors · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Although the wave of posts on censorship following YouTube's censure has mostly subsided, the topic is still alive and well in the blogoma.  Moroccan blogger xoussef (fr/en) exclaims:
Depuis avant hier, Livejournal est tantôt accessible, tantôt censuré. Par contre, Google Earth est de nouveau libre d'accès…Pour combien de temps?!
As it turns out, MoTIC (fr) has created a “Top Ten” list of reasons why Maroc Telecom blocks access to Livejournal and Google Maps.  The list, available in full here, includes:
Raison n°10: Maroc Telecom le fait à la demande de la MAP, parce que celle-ci pense que Google profite de sa notoriété en appelant son service Google MAPs.
*MAP or Maghreb Arabe Presse is Morocco's state-run newspaper, available online in Arabic, French, and English.
Raison n°9: Dans le cadre de la réforme de l'administration marocaine, Google Earth a été sélectionné comme nouvel outil pour les mqadems qui seront bientôt dotés d'ordinateurs portables. Il n'est pas question de laisser le public accéder largement à un outil de l'administration.
*A mqadem is a person whose job it is to report to authorities the goings-on of the neighborhood in which he lives, as well as advocate for such things as new gardens in the neighborhood.  He can also provide a certificate upon request that proves a particular person has been living in the neighborhood.
Raison n°7: Maroc Telecom le fait à la demande du Ministère de l'Éducation parce que l'opérateur n'a pas l'autorisation du ministère pour donner des cours de géographie.
Maroc Telecom was not the only butt of this week's jokes.  Moroccan weekly magazine La Vie Economique made an interesting faux pas this week, captured in an amusing post by Laila Lalami:
Over the last few years, Moroccan requests for visas to go to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage have consistently outnumbered the quotas set by the Saudis, so the Moroccan government has been forced to set up lotteries for prospective pilgrims. More than 32,000 applicants will get a chance to win one of 7,700 spots. Such news, of course, makes local headlines, as you can see below from this scan of La Vie Economique. Now notice the ad accompanying the article.
Larbi, who originally posted the image, said:
On reste dans le spirituel. Un fac simulé d'une page de l'hebdomadaire marocain « La vie Eco » paru la semaine dernière. Tout le monde est servi !
Everything Morocco also analyzed the media this week, criticizing journalists who prefer to see Morocco suspended in time.  The entire post is worth a read, but this particular quote stood out:
Fez is evidently caught in a time warp that people are able to move in and out of at will and that's the big attraction – it's located in something like an alternate dimension or a parallel universe?
The last blog in the roundup for this week is El Hafa, who shares with us the news of Virgin Galactic, Virgin Atlantic's new “spaceline.”  The blogger says:
You can book your flight to space just from the Virgin Galactic official web site. All you need is $200000 and a minimum refundable deposit of $2oooo. Virgin Galactic is planning to propel its first astronauts by 2009. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie already made their reservations.
Even Paris Hilton is planning to go.. i don't know if she is going to bring her puppy with her this time….you never know…
Credit for the image goes to Larbi, who scanned it from La Vie Economique.

author: Jillian C. York


text:
Nepal: Constitution and Monarchy · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

United We Blog! points to the constitutional provision that could abolish monarchy if the monarchy is found interfering in the assembly election.

author: Neha Viswanathan


text:
Nepal: Trafficking and commitment · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Nepal Monitor comments on a US report on Nepal's commitment to prevent trafficking in persons.


text:
Nicaragua: Back to Plaza de la Revolución, Again. · Global Voices
GV Contributor

Pictures by Jorge Mejia
View of the Plaza, with the Vieja Catedral.
Every city has a place which serves as a symbolic and historic center. In Managua, Nicaragua, the place that served as that space is/was the Plaza de la Republica, known as Plaza de la Revolución. Many historical events happened at this plaza, such as pro-Somoza activities, the triumph of the revolution in 1979, the national literacy campaigns in the 1980s, among other events.
In 1999, with Arnoldo Aleman as president (and after several murals dedicated to the revolution were erased by his government between 1990 and 1996) the government decided to rename the Plaza de la Revolucion to Plaza de la Republica, and build a musical water fountain at the center. The decision was criticized as an attempt to dismantle the symbols of the revolution of the 1980s.
On June 5th, with the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) now back in power, the new government decided to restore the plaza to its original name and that the fountain must go. The media reactions were immediate.
However, there is also the opinion that the demolition of the fountain was just a smokescreen for covering two other bits of news.T he first one involved a group of investors being extortioned by the Nicaraguan consul Gerardo Miranda. The investors said the consul tried to bribe them at the FSLN's Secretaria (the official house of the party), which is also the residence and office of the Nicaraguan President. The previous presidential house is currently abandoned.
The case of Gerardo Miranda can be seen here, in spanish.
See the video about the Gerardo Miranda case in RealMedia (Video) by Esta Semana Esta Semana (This Week) is a investigative television program directed by Carlos Fernando Chamorro, who was the director of Barricada, a Nicaraguan newspaper in the 1980s.
The second piece of news that was said to be hidden by the plaza restoration was the international tour by President Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, which was sponsored by the government of Libya. The tour included stops in Venezuela, Libya, Iran, and Italy, but the last one was skipped at last moment. According to Nicaraguan law, the president must announce his visits to a foreign country, which is something that he didn't do.
On Television
Cana 2 of Nicaragua reported on June 8 about the fountain. See the video in YouTube. Local television stations have little or no power over their content that appears on YouTube.
President Ortega was in Libya at the moment of this newscast. To answer the criticisms, the first lady Rosario Murillo gave an interview to Nueva Radio Ya (website), which is a radio station closely linked to the government. Download the declarations of Rosario Murillo Download Here
Reactions in printed media (of many many others)
The two national newspapers dedicated headlines, opinion articles, and reports to this news. El Nuevo Diario: Historia no se quedó aparcada el 20 de julio (de 1979) (History that didn't stop on the July 20, 1979)
La Prensa: Alcalde Marenco reta a Murillo (Major Marenco challenges Murillo)
 Dionisio Marenco, the mayor of Managua gave his thoughts on the matter, and the ironic thing is that he is a member of FSLN, the government's party, but he didn't support the measure.
La Prensa also reported:
El periodista cultural Wilmor López recordó que en el período edilicio de Arnoldo Alemán (1990-1996) , éste mandó a borrar “de un plumazo y sin contemplaciones” varios murales que fueron pintados por reconocidos artistas nicaragüenses.
Entre los murales considerados con gran valor artístico que fueron borrados por Alemán, López mencionó el mural de la biblioteca del Parque Luis Alfonso Velásquez, el mural del barrio Altagracia y las pinturas del artista Víctor Canifrú en la Avenida Bolívar.
“En ese entonces nadie reclamó porque ignoraron esa barbarie”, recordó López. Sin embargo Alemán niega que haya destruido obras culturales.
De acuerdo a López, lo que está haciendo el Gobierno de Ortega con la destrucción de la fuente, es la restitución de la plaza histórica de Managua.
The cultural journalist Wilmor López recalled that when Arnoldo Alemán was the mayor of Managua (1990-1996) , he ordered the removal of the many murals painted by renowned Nicaraguan painters.
Among the removed murals with great artistic value were the ones in Parque Luis Alfonso Velásquez's library in Altagracia, and the paintings of Victor Canifrú along Avenida Bolívar.
“Back then no one protested that savagery”, said López. However Alemán denied the destruction of any work of art.
According to López, what the goverment of Ortega is doing is restoring of the historical plaza of Managua.
Palacio de la Cultura, with the broken wall.
Radio La Primerisima (RealMedia audio)
Radio La Primerisima (web site) is a Sandinista radio station, but two of journalists (including the director of the radio, William Grisby) were in favor of the restoration of the Plaza, but against the way that it happened.
William Grisby: La Plaza de Managua: una decisión justa, un procedimiento equivocado. Los apodos de los capitalinos.  (miércoles 6 junio)
Julio López Campos: Polémica sobre la recuperación de la Plaza de la República. (viernes 8 junio) (… The controversy on the restoration of Plaza de la República)
The forums
Nicaraguan web forums also discussed the fountain demolition.
Bacanalnica: Gobierno destruye fuente musical (Government destroys musical fountain)
Bacanalnica: Al rescate de la plaza de la revolución (To the rescue of the Plaza)
Rocknica: ** Destruyen fuente para reabrir Plaza de la República ** (Destroyed fountain to reinaugurate Plaza…)
SkycrapersCity: In memorian ” Fuente Musical “ Fotos de la fuente antes de la demolición. (Pictures of the musical fountain)
SkycrapersCity: Gobierno de ortega destruye fuente luminosa frente a Antigua Catedral Government destroys luminous fountain in front of cathedral.
In this post you can see how the Plaza looked before there were a fountain.
The works
The Blogs comment on the fountain
While the forums were participating in a more formal debate, the Nicaraguan blogs became creative with the theme.
Leonel Delgado published a short story written in 2000 [ES] about the Plaza (the fountain was built in 1999).
La Catedral y el Palacio Nacional (o de la Cultura) ya eran de por sí bastante feos. Con la añadidura de esa fuente y del Palacio Presidencial, todo adquiere un humor negro surreal y no es exagerado afirmar que se trata del lugar más claustrofóbico de Managua.
The Cathedral and the Palacio Nacional (or De la Cultura) were ugly enough already. With this fountain and the presidential palace, the entire place looks bleak
Gloria Ruiz wrote MALDITA [ES]
El Señor Presidente ve por la ventana. Tiene las manos entrelazadas. Ve la Capital, pero ve el pasado. Ahorita andan todos los chavalos alfabetizando. Estamos leyendo libros cubanos. La Chepa anda en la Alemania Socialista, estudiando pedagogía. Es feliz. Tiene su propia máquina del tiempo en su cabeza. Piensa con satisfacción en aquella victoria, y ve a la gente, a toda la gente, muchedumbre, multitud, aglomeración humana.
The Señor Presidente look out the window. His hands are crossed. He sees the Capital, but he looks at the past. All the boys are teaching others how to read and write. We are reading Cuban books. Chepa is in Socialist Germany, studying Pedagogy. He's happy. He has a time machine in his head. He daydreams of that old victory, and sees the people, all the people, commoners, the crowd, and humans.
Pictures by Jorge Mejía
Flickr set on the destruction of the fountain.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

author: GV Contributor


text:
Serbia: Asne Seierstad’s Book · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Bosnia Blog and Bosnia Vault review Asne Seierstad's book about Serbia.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


text:
Serbia: “The Hidden Fascism” · Global Voices
Sinisa Boljanovic

Hermann Hesse once wrote: “To speak is good, to be silent is better!” We Serbs seem to agree. Serbs will talk about world politics, about the relationship between America and Russia, but often prefer to be silent about things that happen in our own backyard.
This week, journalists could not get locals in Batajnica to speak to them about a double murder and suicide that happened in their town. The following is a translation of a reflective post (SRP) by Queeria, a Serbian blogger, commenting on the murder story and how it relates to past tragedies in Serbia on Blog B92 on June 13:
[…]
Yesterday, all Serbian news agencies reported the news of a drug addict who killed two old people with a knife in Batajnica and later killed himself. It is terrible!
Journalists immediately showed up to explore the incident and its background. But none of the neighbors wanted to speak about it.
[…]
Everybody pretended to be innocent, as if nobody had been peeping into the home of the unfortunate family until yesterday.
[…]
My favorite author, a feminist, a lesbian, a mother, [an African-American], [Audrey Lorde], left this invaluable sentence as her will to us: “If you are silent, you will not be yourself.”
But few of us […] believe that by speaking up we can solve anything.
[…]
It all reminded me of the stories of the invisibility of the concentration camps and the population that knew nothing about them.
Several villages were evacuated so that the Nazi could build Auschwitz – but none of the villagers knew anything.
When former prisoners, gays and prostitutes, came to erect a memorial to the victims in Dachau after World War II, representatives of other groups who had been prisoners, too, said: “We don’t know who you are!”
Nobody knew anything about [Srebrenica].
Nobody knew anything about [refrigerator trucks] with dead bodies.
Nobody knew anything about [the six Bosnian Muslims].
Nobody knew anything about the women who were raped during the war.
Nobody knew anything about the violence in the neighborhood.
Nobody knew anything about death threats to lesbians.
Nobody knew that gays had been sexually mistreated every day.
[Ceca Raznatovic] knew nothing about her valuable necklace.
Then it is utterly logical that nobody knew what happened in Batajnica.
From all that's been written I can make three conclusions.
First, the silence about evil always inevitably leads to fascism.
Second, everyone who keeps silent is an accomplice to fascism.
Third, there is too much silence in Serbia.
I am an anti-fascist and I cannot remain silent. To speak up has its price, but that price makes you free.
As Audrey said, to speak up doesn’t give me too much, but it keeps me from being an accomplice.

author: Sinisa Boljanovic


text:
Sri Lanka: The Liberals · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

One One Things reflects on participating in conferences, where liberals are shouted down without quite looking at the merits of liberalization.


text:
Street Food and the Gentrification of Vietnam · Global Voices
Mark Robertson

An otherwise innocuous blog post on chicken rice (com ga) in the Central Vietnamese town of Hoi An hides a disturbing little announcement for fans of Vietnamese street food.  After describing the chicken dish, longtime Hanoi-based food blogger Stickyrice writes:
“Alas, the vendor informed us, it was the final night of street food in the old town thanks to some new by-law preventing cluttered pavements coming into effect the very next day. Such vendors are being forced into proper premises or more obscure cracks and darkened spaces.”
Is this another doomed attempt to force Vietnamese streets into the mold of a Singaporean style modernity?  Or the death knell of Vietnamese street food?  Another food blogger Eating Asia laments in the comments to this post: “I think vendor-less streets are the wave of the future in Asia… I feel your pain.”
Street food is unfortunately often the victim of the march of “progress” in countries that perceive chaotic street life as anathema to development.  Sometimes the rationale is cosmetic (street food vendors clutter the streets); other times the objection is poor hygiene.
A recent article in Nhan Dan, the official Communist Party of Vietnam newspaper, announces an imminent “nationwide crack-down on food safety violators and the building of standards for food hygiene in general”.  The English-language article warns of plans to increase food inspections and stricter punishments for violators.
This campaign appears to be in response to industrial food safety concerns of the sort currently in the news about China (tainted soy sauce is the example given in the article).  It is still unclear to what extent this crack-down may affect the vital tradition of street food in Vietnam.
One hopes the Vietnamese government will recognize the inherent cultural value – not to mention tourist potential – of the lively street food scene of the nation, and see that food safety and development are not necessarily at odds with its street food traditions.

author: Mark Robertson


text:
The Balkans: Bush’s Watch and Stereotypes · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Belgrade 2.0 looks at the generalizations and stereotypes revealed by the George W. Bush's stolen watch episode: “…the biggest reason for everyone to be happy – is that this confirms one big stereotype: Albanians are all thieves, and furthermore, everyone in the Balkans is just waiting for the opportunity to rip you off, nick something from you and generally fool you in any way they can, just for the fun of it.”


text:
The Balkans: One Man’s War Stories · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Balkanizer runs the first installment of a story of one man's war experiences: “I was nine years old when Germany invaded Yugoslavia.  I was 60 years when war came again to my village in Bosnia.”


text:
Venezuela: Journalists Accused of Receiving Money from CIA · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Caracas Connect writes about a group of Venezuelan journalists that have been accused of receiving money from the CIA, but they explained that they merely took part in cultural exchange programs.


text:
Vietnamese bride and Korean bridegroom  · Global Voices
Hyejin Kim

A blog for a Vietnamese bride and Korean bridegroom who just got married. The number of Vietnamese and Korean couples in Korea has been increasing fast. [ko]

author: Hyejin Kim


text:
We can be like Germany · Global Voices
Hyejin Kim

‘We can be like Germany.’ A blogger dreams of Korea becoming a Grand Canal for Northeast Asia. [ko]


text:
Why netizens put other people’s posts on their posts · Global Voices
Hyejin Kim

A list of excuses why netizens put other people’s posts on their posts, instead of linking [ko]


text:
A Japanese blogger who studies Korean · Global Voices
Hyejin Kim

A Japanese blogger who studies Korean introduces herself and welcomes bloggers who would like to know about Japan and Japanese.[ko]


text:
A Korean politician who sexually harassed a female journalist in a drinking place  · Global Voices
Hyejin Kim

A Korean politician who sexually harassed a female journalist in a drinking place last year has been fined 5,000 US dollars, but is allowed to keep his position. There are many criticisms. [ko]


text:
Afghanistan: Charms of Bamiyan · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Kabul Diary writes on a visit to Bamiyan and the charm of the people who live there.

author: Nathan Hamm


text:
Afghanistan: Unintended Consequence · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Joshua Foust says that one of the positive unintended consequences of the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan is an improvement in the condition of homosexuals.


text:
Africa: Blogging TED Global · Global Voices
Benin Mwangi

Africa's business blogosphere is known for being many things:
And the list could go on and on. But one thing that it is not generally known for is uniformity. During the historic week of June 4 – 8, 2007, however, this was all to change – if only for a moment. That's because this was the week that TED Global 2007 convened in Arusha, Tanzania. This was the week that the African blogosphere and its friends made their voices known to the world. Bloggers whose writings normally cover a cornucopia of topics, ranging from social and cultural issues to technology and economic concerns, were suddenly focused on TED.
One of the blogs I knew'd be visiting often during TED Global was Hash's. Hash blogs from the States, but actually grew up in Kenya and Sudan and blogs about technology in Africa at White African. Here is an excerpt from his post about a Ghanaian technology entrepreneur that he met at the TED event named Herman Chinery-Hesse:
Yesterday’s talk by Herman Chinery-Hesse was one of the highlights of TEDGlobal for me. He is the owner of SoftTribe, the leading computer technology company in West Africa, and a dynamic speaker and visionary. He’s been a trailblazer in what he called, “tropically tolerant software.”
He stated the reasons for what he believes Africa has been left behind. His theory is that there are “hunted” and “hunter” nations. Some countries are positioned as places to go and grow businesses, others are positioned as the places to go and take resources from.
Next is Dave McQueen from the UK. now Dave normally blogs about culture and current events, but lately and prior to his trip to Arusha, I have noticed him blogging about economic conditions and perceptions in Africa at Dave Speaks. Here is a excerpt from his post summarizing his TED 2007 experience:
As I sit here a number of fellows have already emailed me, energized and ready to continue the dialogue and the plans of action from where we left off. I have added all my contacts to my addressbook and will spend the best part of this weekend replying and doing the same.
On the agenda for the next year are possible trips to Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya. (I will definitely be back in Tanzania soon as well). The vibrancy and expectations of so many contacts I have met show me that many African countries are on the tipping point of something great, and it is an honour and privilege to know that I will be part of this magnificent journey of change, teaching and learning with new formed partnerships.
I will be highlighting a number of the initiatives and people I have met on this conference on my blog (yeah I know I have a few) Simphani which focuses on stories of life, health and wealth from across the Diaspora.
Next I came to Jen Brea's site, Africabeat, and of course, as a Global Voices author and a very prolific writer, Ms. Brea is no stranger to you. I enjoyed reading this post where she describes an overall feeling that she found emanating from attendees at TED 2007 — that the time has come for the continent to write her own story. Here's the excerpt:
They took the West's gaze, and killed it, stomped on it, mocked it, burned its effigy (Joseph Conrad to be precise) so that we could start an entirely new conversation using an entirely different vocabulary. We killed famine, death, hopelessness, hunger, tragedy, poverty and started using words like potential, opportunity, wealth, entrepreneurship, ingenuity, art, imagination, creativity, success, investment, growth, choice.
These are words the media use liberally when writing about emerging nations like India, China or Brazil, but not to describe some of the fastest-growing economies in the world when they happen to be in Africa.
And speaking of Global Voices writers, the next blogger is a writer and editor at Global Voices — actually he's my editor! He is the prolific multi-lingual blogger Ndesanjo Macha, who hails from the same country that hosted this years TED Global conference: Tanzania. He is also an activist, attorney, and a journalist. Here he directs readers of his blog to another influential blogger who is one of the founders of Global Voices:
For english speakers, read Ethan Zuckerman, the god/budha of liveblogging.
Next is a brief post by one of the continent's most powerful online activists and legal minds. Ms. Ory Okolloh, who makes up one half of the ground-breaking online project called Mzalendo, which “Keeps an eye on the Kenyan parliment.” Ory wrote a piece on her blog Kenyan Pundit celebrating the arrival of her and her daugther at TED. Here is the excerpt:
Made it in one piece.
Baby KP was perfect…she already has the makings of a sophisticated traveller :-) , which is a good thing seeing that mama has a bit of wanderlust in her.
Then there's the post from Mental Acrobatics, who also represents the Kenyan bloggosphere. Here he highlights some heavy statements revolving around various aspects of economics on the African continent that were made by some of the TED speakers. Here is the excerpt:
No place in the world has ever grown a market sector on the type of risk that Africa’s farmers face.
Eleni Gabre-Madhin creator of Ethiopia’s first commodities market
Forget making poverty history. I want to make Africans rich.
Idris Mohammed believes that we should be talking about increasing wealth not reducing poverty.
I call it the African shuffle.
Idris Mohammed describes yet another graph that shows stagnant economic growth in parts of Africa where instead of rising the graph remains a flat line.
Dignity is more important that wealth.
Jacqueline Novogratz
Understand the power of patient capital.
Jacqueline Novogratz explains that taking time to engage with the communities you invest in helps the money do more.
Rafiq Philips of South Africa is a South African blogger that you should keep an eye out for, as his posts typically revolve around technology in Africa, as the one I'm going to cite below. But he also echoes the call to help the continent through providing tools that help the continent empower itself. This an excerpt from that post:
Screw the handouts to Africa, give us the tools that allow us to solve our own problems.
The “Mac or PC?” question was asked to all the fellows during the last breakfast at TEDglobal2007. Looks like they’ve been listening as Google and AMD have decided to give each of the 100 TED Fellows a bradnspanking new notebook. The only thing we have to decide is Mac or PC.
I have to wonder though, will it not be easier to source local Laptop suppliers in the TED Fellows countries with vaious keyboard, language and power requirements? Not to mention technical support? Unless… the noteboks will be those supplied by a manufacturer that already offer support in the countries the TED fellows are making a difference in?
And speaking of technology no post containing the words technology and Africa would be complete without the name Ethan Zuckerman. Here is an excerpt from him summarizing his after thoughts of the event:
Conferences like TED Global are only a couple of days long, but I find I can get surprisingly used to them – wake up, absorb a mass of new and provocative ideas, have a few dozen conversations, stagger back to the hotel, rinse and repeat. And then, all of a sudden, they’re over. It was almost humorous how quickly TED ended – Minister Okonjo-Iweala left the stage at 1pm, and half an hour later, many of the participants were on buses heading to basecamp to climb Kilimnanjaro.
Bankelele is one of the foremost bloggers in Kenya, and one of the things that makes him such a force to reckon with is the fact that he's a banker in real life and does not mince words. He dispenses industry-specific knowledge on banking in Kenya, as well as on the state of Kenya's economy. In this post, he compares his experience at TED to the excitement he felt during some of the world's most memorable sporting moments.
Mentioned earlier about being blessed/fortunate in life to see people like Michael Jordan (destroy Washington in their last game as the Bullets, though Scottie Pippen provided the winning dunk), Michael Schumacher (win the first US grand prix) and Tiger Woods (not enjoying his first US open). That all compares with being at TED Global in Arusha at which Kenya is well represented.
Afromusing blogs from Kenya too, I believe, and her posts are always thought-provoking. Here she writes about a speaker at the event who is from Nigeria who holds the distinction of having started computer manufacturing on the African continent. Below is the excerpt:
Florence Seriki: An African woman in computing. Omatek is the first African computing company.
She switched from Chemical engineering to computing where she started by selling hardware and training professionals in Nigeria. Keep doing what you are doing she says. In 1988 Omatek was incorporated and soon her company became a premier partner with Compaq and IBM [>$7mil in sales]. In 1991, she visited Asia she saw the supply chain and noticed the Chinese tech was developed in house.
While surfing the blogosphere for TED posts, I was very fortunate to have stumbled upon the blog of the world reknowned hip hop group called Soul Fege. They are a seven member group with a heavy Ghanaian influence. They are based out of California and their message is one of hope and empowerment for the youth across America. Here is their post about the event:
Wassup y’all. I’m BACK! Here on my first overseas trip of 2007. Yes, I’ve been keeping a low profile plotting ye’ ole’ renaissance, from my new digs in N. Hollywood CA! Loads of stuff has happened since I flipped to the West Side. Honestly I’m not even sure where to begin breaking it all down for y’all. But suffice it to say it’s been off the hook.
But to bring it back to the present, today is my first day at the TED Global Conference being held here in Arusha, Tanzania. ‘Tis the first time TED has come to Africa and I am straight up meeting the most AMAZING people every few minutes. It’s almost like a brain overload kid. I already have a bunch of folks to followup w/ and some potential collaborators and I haven’t been here 24hrs yet.
Next I came across a computer scientist who blogs from Malawi, named Soyapi Mumba. This was actually my first visit to his blog and I like his style of writing, which it is very to the point. Soyapi blogs about technology in Malawi, and here he writes about the impression that TED had on him and expresses a heightened sense of connectedness to the continent's emerging young minds:
Before going to TED Global, I kept hearing voices blaming governments for not doing this and that plus several other reasons why African countries cannot prosper unless some one from outside Africa does something.
At TED however, everyone I met was determined to solve Africa's problems without waiting for governments or donors. So I've come back energised and connected to the right community that will hopefully keep me motivated.
Next I bumped into a blog that seems to be mainly written in French and Malagasy. And the blogger is from — you guessed it — Madagascar. It is interesting to note that Madagascar is an island off the coast of East Africa and for some reason it is one of the continent's least mentioned countries. But the people of Madagascar have a great deal to tell the world. In fact this blogger, whose name is Harinjaka, was actually asked to speak to the audience and share with them a slice of Madagascar. Here is a snippet of what he had to say:
Please Help us to educate our people
Help us to provide an exposure of the Madagascar situation.
Madagascar is an island located off the eastern coast of southern Africa in the Indian Ocean. As the world’s fourth largest island.
Madagascar has been isolated from Africa for over 150 million years. For this reason, most of the plants and animals found on the island exist nowhere else on Earth.
Because of its remoteness, Madagascar was not settled by humans until
around 2.000 years ago.
Malagasy is the name for the people of the island and the national language is the Malagasy language.
Next back to South Africa with Ramon Thomas who I hear is quite a coach – like the one portrayed in the movie Hitch! He has two blogs that I am aware of: one is a blog that coaches singles in online dating and etiquette; and he maintains a separate blog/ podcast about internet trends in South Africa at NETucation. Here he authors a very informative post about former Finance Minister of Nigeria, Dr Okonjo-Iweala, who was one of the speakers at the event. Here is an excerpt:
The US and UK could not have been built without Africa’s Aid. When you situation is dire, and personal, you don’t care if it’s aid money or where the money comes from. Spain received $10 million in aid from the European Union. Ireland received $3 million in aid, and is now one of the fastest growing economies in Europe. Neither of these countries felt guilty or bad in any way receiving this money.
A new set of aid entrepreneurs are emerging in the individuals who founded very wealthy foundations. They may take over from the aid received from governments one day. The question is open as to how interested they really are in helping Africa. Are they listening? Are invited to serve on their boards to help with making decisions? The answer is no!
The next blogger on the list is based in Zambia, which is bordered in all directions by eight other countries in or near the southern part of Africa. Mweshi is his name, and he is an entrepreneur who does graphic design. Here he quotes the maestro of the event, Mr. Emeka Okafor, who is also an Africa blogger. This section of his post reads:
Planted seeds
Emeka put it well when he summarized the conference and said “what we have done at this event is plant seeds.” Indeed the seeds of change, progress, and a new African renaissance have been planted!
Finally, we come to the end of this post. And who more appropriate to end with than the organizer of the event — that's right, Mr. Emeka Okafor, entrepreneur and blogger extrordinaire. Here he sends out a warm thanks to the participants:
I must thank all those that made this possible. Chris Anderson the curator of TED sincerely believed that there was something ticking below the surface of this continent of ours and provided the tools and immense resources to bring its story to fruition,Bravo Chris!The TED team. The Bloggers, and their de facto leader —Ethan Zuckerman — . The inspirational thought leaders–Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, George Ayittey– and many others too numerous to mention…
Well, as much as I wanted to continue with this post, it had to come to an end. It took me quite a while to locate some of these posts (roughly four days) not to mention that I don't want to lose anyone's attention. Hopefully this piece does enough to convey the sense of “something really major” coming out of Africa, that oozed from the keyboards of everyone I've come across who attended the event. Also, please note that although I wanted to include all of the Africa bloggers who attended and blogged about TED Global 07′, I was not able to, and therefore apologize to anyone who was not included. Please feel free to expound on any omissions in the comments section below.
Otherwise, this post has been great fun to write! And one final note, in case anyone one is wondering how this relates to the theme that I usually write about, which is enterprise in Sub-Saharan Africa, there is in fact a tremendous tie-in.  To me, this event represents something that many of Africa's Sub-Saharan countries have been working tirelessly on for a long time: rebranding Africa's image.  This essentially boils down to public relations and marketing.  If people can connect with your story, or if they like the message. they are more likely to buy or invest in your products.  And TED 2007, as well as the bloggers in attendance, helped convey the message of hope and achievement on the continent.
Amazingly, the event seems to have accomplished something that even US$100 million of public relations consulting would not have done for the continent.  In a nutshell, this accomplishment has been the weaving together of a consistant, genuine, and believable story about the possibilty of Africa becoming the “next big thing”.  That in a few short years, instead of the Asian Tiger economies, we might all be talking about Africa's roaring “lion economies”. And that is big.

author: Benin Mwangi


text:
Africa: faking Africa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Read Black Looks on “faking Africa and stories of vanity.“

author: Ndesanjo Macha


text:
Africa: Is Africa ready for Google? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Al Kags asks: Is Africa ready for Google?


text:
Bahamas: Election Court · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“They should take their losses, pick up their marbles and go about their business of being the most effective opposition ever seen in The Bahamas.”  WeblogBahamas.com thinks that the former ruling party's decision to go to Election Court is a waste of time and money.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
Barbados, Antigua: CARICOM Journalists Deported  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

In the wake of the deportation of two CARICOM journalists from Antigua, Barbados Free Press writes: “Many Caribbean governments carry a veneer of civilized behaviour and adherence to democratic principles but quickly show near-despotic roots when the media actually does its job.”


text:
Barbados, Venezuela: The Arms Race  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“The ‘new Cuba’ in the Caribbean is using oil revenues to arm itself in ways that Castro never could.”  Barbados Free Press reports on Venezuela's purchase of weaponry from Russia.


text:
Bookcovers from Tahiti · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Tahiti: Litterature, Musique et… has been posting retro covers of Tahitian novels and books about Tahitian history, culture and society.

author: Jennifer Brea


text:
Central Asia: Literature in Translation · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Birds’ Books uses Uzbek author Hamid Ismailov's The Railway, one of the rare contemporary Central Asian novels translated into English, as a jumping off point for a discussion of Central Asian literature, language, translation, and the impact of modernism and the Soviet Union on Central Asia.


text:
Chile: The Most at Peace in Latin America · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Notas Al Margen [ES] writes about the Global Peace Index, which placed Chile as the 16th most at peace country in the world and the most at peace in Latin America.


text:
China: English Wikipedia Unblocked · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

DANWEI confirmed a nationwide unblocking of English Wikipedia. The Chinese version is still blocked.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
China: No customer service in Google · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Zuola visited Google's office in Beijing to cliam back his Adsense money. He took video and recorded the conversation with the receptionist. Chonghead has translated his video transcript.


text:
China: Wang Shuo’s Informer Letter Against Corruption of Censorship Department · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Wang Xiao-feng posted Wang Shuo's Informer Letter to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate against the corrupted practice of T.V program censorship teams. Wang Shuo is a contemporary Chinese writer who is well-known in Pi-zi (痞子) rascal behaviour. The letter is in the style of parody but capture the reality of censorship practice in China. Here is the text and translation:
王朔：给高检的举报信原文
为响应最高人民检察院反贪污受贿渎职监察厅发起的打击渎职犯罪专项斗争月，特公开举报广播电影电视系统各电视台电视剧审查小组利用审查节目普遍存在的收受剧组贿赂的严重渎职犯罪行为：
自90年代以降，各电视台纷纷成立了以退休老同志和所谓老艺术家为主的节目审查小组对每一部准备播出的电视剧进行政治审查。这本来是一项加强管理、制止电视剧愈演愈烈的港台化庸俗化倾向的举措，但绝对的权力导致绝对腐败，此一小组凌驾于各台专业部门之上，对电视剧能否播出握有生杀大权。自97 年以后，各剧组不得不以审片费向审查小组行贿以期获得通过，到目前为止，这一审片费达每轮审查小组每人三万至五万元人民币，多轮审查则多轮付费，基本没有一次通过的，至少两轮。即使最终不通过，也不退钱。也无人敢要，因为你这次被毙了还有下次呢，除非你不和他们打交道了。
我国电视剧每年生产将近两万集，以平均20集一部算，有近千集。我讲的三万至五万是北京广电系统价，外地可能各有出入。这近千集不管是否都能播出，但都要政审。以最低价每人三万论乘一千是三千万乘10年是三亿，再乘第二轮是六亿。这还不算饭钱，每次审查剧组都要包豪华宾馆，请审查人员大吃二喝唱卡拉 OK，找小姐。这笔账任何一个制片主任心里都清楚。他们和各电视剧导演都是证人。一问就清楚。
中国每年电影的全国票房在去年以前也就是10个亿。这帮孙子，每组不下于三五人，六个亿乘三五人也许五六人，我都懒得算这笔账了。神马老同志——败类！反叛！
举报人：公民王朔。2007年6月10号
Wang Xiao feng follows up the letter with three questions:
一、如果按王朔说的一年电视剧2万集，这么几个审查的人看得过来吗？如果看不过来咋办？
二、王朔是具名举报，既然举报，就不能把它当成是炒作，对公民举报，有关部门是不是该给一个答复，或者处理意见啥的？
三、如果以后王朔拍电视剧，会不会遭到打击报复呢？


text:
China: Zhongshan court decides case under Hong Kong law · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

In settling a contract dispute between a Hong Kong company and a local counterpart, the Intermediate Court of Zhongshan City in Guangdong Province settled the case according to Hong Kong law. Chinese Law Prof blog asked whether similar practice had happened before.


text:
Colombia: Clinton Receives “Colombia is Passion” Award · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Plan Colombia and Beyond gives three brief policy updates, including news that the Colombian president awarded Bill Clinton a “Colombia is Passion” award.


text:
Congo-Brazzaville: Misgivings about upcoming legislative elections · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Demain Le Congo-Brazzaville has major misgivings [Fr] about the upcoming legislative election, scheduled for June 24th.  For months Demain has been calling on President Denis Sassou Nguesso, without success, to establish an independent electoral commission to prevent the irregularities that have plagued past contests.
Moreover, 1807 candidates are running for 137 seats in the National Assembly, or about 15 candidates per seat.  Demain writes,
…ce qui est énorme ! Sassou a multiplié les candidats pour deux raisons : la première sortir le plus d'argent possible des caisses de l'Etat et multiplier les chances de voir un des candidats du pouvoir occuper le siège car sur les quinze candidats pour un poste au moins treize soutiennent ouvertement le gouvernement…
…what a huge number!  Sassou has increased the candidates for two reasons: the first is to funnel as much money as possible into the State's coffers and the second is to increase the chances of seeing a candidate of the [ruling party] occupy the seat, because for every fifteen candidates for a post, at least thirteen openly support the government…
Although all ministerial candidates were apparently offered 50 million cfa for their campaigns, Demain claims that Sassou has only given 15 million to his supporters and none to the opposition candidates, what few there are.  And yet 150 million has disappeared from the national treasury.  Demain concludes that the rest of the money must be going into Sassou's pockets.
“Sassou, by adopting electronic voting, won't forget to invent ficticious voters for his cronies,” Demain writes.  “Whatever happens, he will proclaims the P.C.T., his party, the majority in the Assembly.”
In another post, while Sassou fears election-related violence, Demain blames Sassou‘s unwillingness to relinquish power and to introduce true democracy for the violence that afflicts Congo-Brazzaville and accuses him of practicing forms of violence on a daily basis:
En confisquant l'organisant des élections législatives et présidentielles, comment monsieur Sassou peut-il s'étonner qu'il y ait de l'orage dans l'air dans son pays  ?…toutes les violences au Congo-Brazzaville ont une seule origine car elles viennent de Sassou Nguesso qui a peur de l'exercice véritable de la démocratie car il se sait mal aimé des populations du nord au sud du Congo. Il y a donc une solution pour qu'il n'y ait aucun risque de violence, monsieur Sassou : il faut que l'organisation des élections obéisse au protocole de transparence et d'équité que seule une   peut garantir. Encore une fois, Sassou stigmatise la violence potentielle en la niant car la seule violence autorisée, la seule qu'il admet est celle qui vient de lui. Or, la violence est multiforme : en affamant, en laissant les gens mourir sans soins, en condamnant sans raison, en laissant les gens boire de l'eau contaminée,  Sassou pratique au quotidien des violences qui sont mortifères car elles sont réelles.
After taking over the organization of the presidential elections, how can Mr. Sassou be surprised that there is a dark cloud hanging over his country?..all of the violence in Congo-Brazzaville has a single origin, they come from Sassou Nguesso who is afraid of exercising true democracy because he knows he is not liked by the people in the north and south of Congo.  Mr. Sassou, there is therefore only one solution so that there is no risk of violence: the elections must follow a protocol of transparency and equity that only a truly independent commission can guarantee.  Once again, Sassou stigmatizes the potential violence, negates it because the only permissible violence, the only one he allows is the one that comes from him.  This violence comes in many forms: by letting people starve, die without medical care, drink contaminated water,  and convicting them without cause, Sassou practices daily forms of violence that are mortifying because they are real.
A l'approche des élections, on voit Sassou multiplier des actions démagogiques dans le seul but d'obtenir une majorité à l'assemblée et d'être réélu président de la république. Nous espérons que les Congolais ne seront pas dupes. Sassou parle de “dialogue” et de “consensus”. Il oublie que c'est du droit et du sens de l'équité et de la justice que peut sortir un véritable dialogue qui aboutira lui à un consensus.
As the elections approach, we see Sassou increasing his demagoguery for the sole goal of obtaining a majority in the Assembly and being reelected president.  We hope that the Congolese people will not be fooled.  Sassou speaks of “dialogue” and “consensus.”  He forgets that it is from law and a sense of equity and justice that comes the true dialog that will can bring him consensus.


text:
Dear GV, From the iSummit · Global Voices
Renata Avila

It has been a year since we met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the community of iCommons has grown not only in number, but in its complexity and its importance as a network of people working together to build a community of freedom – to create, to use, to share and to discuss the future of the movement.
The venue is Dubrovnik, a beautiful city in Croatia, and the activity started at 10:00 a.m. The events can be followed on Second Life and anyone can ask questions that will be answered live by the speakers. It has four parallel streams, 1. Peer production: Legal and architectural norms: How can people share the global commons?, 2. Peer production: Social, technological and economical norms, 3. Open Education and 4. Practical Workshops.
Personalities such as Larry Lessig, Jimmy Wales, Jonathan Zittrain and Yohai Benkler will be the speakers at the Keynote Sessions.
Great projects such as Jamendo, Magnatune, Loftwork and Starwreck Studios have already discussed with the iSummiters about their models, which all of them use Creative Common Licenses. People from all over the world will be together until Sunday to share their views and experiences, and then apply it back home to create alternatives to copyright law.

author: Renata Avila


text:
Dominica: Health Care Ranking  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“When the world's wealthiest country, the U.S, ranks behind our small island, we must be doing something right.” Chris at Dominica Weekly is proud to learn that the World Health Organization ranks Dominica 35th in health care.


text:
Egypt: Muslim Christian Clashes Averted  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Everyday when I wake up in the morning I get on my knees and thank God that weapons and arms are not widely available in Egypt. If they were, there would have been some sort of a civil war in Egypt between its Muslims and Christians,” writes the Big Pharaoh from Egypt.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


text:
Gabon: Libreville mermaid hoax (via St. Petersburg, Florida) · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Association des gabonais d'Amiens dispels a mermaid hoax [Fr].   Photographs of a mermaid supposedly discovered dead on a beach in Libreville were actually downloaded from an eBay auction for a mermaid sighting in St. Petersburg, Florida.  The St. Petersburg photographs sold for US$1500 to a French natural history museum.


text:
India: Rajnikanth Movie Mania, Bollywood and Web Analytics · Global Voices
Kamla Bhatt

It is movie mania week and it is not from Bollywood but from Kollywood or the Tamil film industry.  Rajnikanth's  (or Rajni) Sivaji: The Boss is slated for release tomorrow (Friday, June 15, 2007) and the hype surrounding the movie has reached fever pitch level among his fans.  Rajni is the highest paid actor in India, and has a huge fan following in Japan. Yes, that's right in Japan where he was the topic of discussion between the Indian Prime Minister and the Japanese Prime Minister's meeting a few months ago in Tokyo. Such is the power of Rajni's stardom.  Onion Dosa has a post with lots of pictures about Rajni mania in Japan.
Sivaji; The Boss is the most expensive film produced in India. Before we look at the movie and the reaction from fans, here are some interesting facts about the movie from Techowaves:
1. Director Shankar used 2500 junior artists for the introduction scene of Rajnikant.
2. A huge set of glass house was built to shoot Sahana song.
3. 4K DI (Digital Intermediate) digital camera is used for the first time in India for this film.
The official countdown for the release of Sivaji began earlier this week and Kirukkal (Scribblings) writes:
6 days until Sivaji release and if you are living in the US grab your tickets at IndiaGlitz! Here are some exclusive Sivaji pictures!
From those exclusive pictures let us cut to the folks that are eager to watch the movie. Fans stood in long lines days before the movie's release to buy tickets for that coveted first show. Digression: In India you can generally buy your tickets in advance before the movie is officially released and for many people it is quite a big deal to see the movie on the first day.
Rising Tide writes:
I wondered had people gone crazy. What in the name of God these people are standing in a queue at 7 in the morning. Well, I got this snap (picture). This snap tells all the story.. One thing is clear, people in India are really crazy for stars like Rajnikanth. Second highest paid Asian star.
And what is the price of a ticket for the first show on the first day? Randomly writes:
First Day First Show is Rs.1200/-…. Curse my Bank balance.
I am in for Second day First show – Rs.500/-
As excited as a electron in its excited state. The Rajini Photon !!
Not everybody is  a Rajni fan, and Ghost Particle writes in And The World Stops for Sivaji  if you don't like him join the crowd and write about it. He also explains why the next few weeks might be traumatic for him.
Okay, first of all I'm not a big fan of RajniKanth. And the reason would be because I hate his fans. And here lies the dillema. The fans are 99% of all Tamil makkals. So it's like me going against the whole of the clan. But hey, I'm da ghost, so I'll do what I want. And I made it a point to tell my housemate (who is a brainless idiot who prays to Rajni) that I'm going to download and sell pirated copies of Sivaji on the day of its release. But hey, who am I kidding. One more day and the Rajni fever is slowly creeping up…yeh…its creepy. You have to be a Tamil movie fan to understand the force of the movies, even Yoda can't explain this one. Very strong, the force is, of movies. Its going to be a traumatic few weeks for me. I just hope they don't stick posters on me.
Given all this hype, will Rajni work his magic and make this movie a runaway success? Shyam K of Gajabuja Funda writes otherwise:
Since the entire media world is abuzz with Sivaji news, I think it is time to make a prediction. The movie, by Rajini's standards, will be a flop. Which means, it will make a profit of 30 or so crores. If you rewind back in time, Baba was a flop, as it made a profit of just 20 crores.
From India we shift to the influence of Hindi films or Bollywood at the international level. In case you did not already know this Bollywood is hugely popular in Africa, where Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha are well-known icons.  Andrew Leonard of Salon writes in this post:
The popularity of Bollywood movies outside India is usually, at least initially, an outgrowth of homesick Indian expatriate communities. But in West Africa, without any significant help from Indian audiences, Bollywood flicks developed a large African following as early as the 1950s.
You can actually find Bollywood fans among the cab drivers of New York. A few weeks ago I chatted with a cab driver from Burkina Faso in West Africa  about Bollywood films. You might be surprised to discover how popular Bollywood movies are in Burkina Faso. And get this there is a India Day celebration in Burkina Faso!
From movies we switch to measuring web analytics and traffic in India and China.  Given all that content is created in the virtual world one of the challenging issues for folks in India and China is how to measure the web traffic? There are cultural underpinnings on how content is consumed and how that skews web traffic measurement. Measuring web traffic in India and China is a little different and  sometimes challenging. Jeremiah Owyang, a well-known web strategist is looking for input on this topic.

author: Kamla Bhatt


text:
India: The Kanchipuram Girl and other photographs · Global Voices
Mathy Kandasamy

Keerthivasan from Chennai visited nearby Kanchipuram, a temple town. An avid photographer, he snapped a lot of photos but displayed only one! He did not even choose to take this photo. When he was busy concentrating on the temple elephant, a passerby with an authoritative voice demanded that he shoot this girl, who had accompanied her. Keerthivasan did not even pause to think and took this shot.
As soon as the shot was taken the Brahmin Iyengar woman and this girl continued on into the temple. It was his mother who asked if he took down their address. Keerthivasan says that he does not even remember that lady's face and furthermore he did not even show the digital photo to them. Then why? Ponders Keerthi. But he feels as if the photo is communicating something to him. Just what it is, he does not know. Do you?
Baranee from Coimbatore, India works on a ship and hence travels all over. He is an excellent photographer and is obsessed with sunsets. Once in a while, he shares other photographs taken during his journeys to the far corners of earth. This is taken in Turkey. Baranee says “Turkish girl's regard. She was watching fellow school girls’ dance with great concentration. Her concentration attracted me”.
Marakkanam Bala, Pondicherry is a journalist who carries his camera where-ever he goes. He chats up people on the streets and writes poignant accounts. His post about a 105 year old man seen begging on the street could be read here. Marakkanam Bala took this photograph of a girl enjoying fire-roasted Palmyrah Fruit in his native village.

author: Mathy Kandasamy


text:
Indonesia: Government’s Role in Attracting Investment · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Martin Manurang looks at the role of Chinese and Indian government in attracting investments and urges Indonesia to learn from them.

author: Preetam Rai


text:
Iran:Aramesh Doostar,an exceptional philosopher · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Majid Zohari says [Fa]you can be for or against Aramesh Doostar’s ideas but his ideas are a real challenge to “official ideology”.Doostar opened a window for people who do not follow a kind of religious ideology.

author: Fred Petrossian


text:
Jamaica: Homophobia and Tourism  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Francis Wade wonders whether the signals Jamaica is sending to the international community about its position on homosexuality is having an adverse affect on the island's image.


text:
Jamaica: Imagination  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Our imaginations determine the quality of our lives. Change, personally and nationally, occurs when the imagination is engaged in purposeful activity.”  Geoffrey Philp muses about charity, imagination and risk.


text:
Japan: Wooden Car · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

James from Japan probe introduces a Japanese Wooden Car: The vehicle, which can go up to 80km/h, costs around 32,000 US dollars.


text:
Kazakhstan: Loss of Soviet Architecture · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

At neweurasia, Daniel reports on the destruction of historical Soviet architecture in Almaty, Kazakhstan.


text:
Kenya: Defending citizen media · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Mental Acrobatics defends bloggers’ coverage of the recent bomb explosion in Kenya: “I would argue that it is stories like this that rather than showing the danger of blogs, HIGHLIGHT the importance of blogs and other citizen media.”


text:
Kenya: Mzalendo on Africa Journal · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Watch Mzalendo, eye on Kenyan parliament, on Reuters Africa Journal on Saturday.


text:
Khatami in Trouble  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami  is in trouble back home for shaking  “women's hands” while in Italy, reports …Or Does It Explode, which looks into human rights abuses in the Middle East.


text:
Korea: Loan Companies and Advertising · Global Voices
Hyejin Kim

From some time, advertisements for personal loan companies have appeared in TV, magazines, and newspapers in Korea. Famous entertainers showed their faces in these advertisements. It took time for people to figure out what kind of advertisements they are, but they are now among the most common.
Recently, the decisions of celebrities who sponsor personal loan companies have been harshly blamed in public because some borrowers have gone bankrupt since they couldn’t afford the high interest and some of them used money without fully understanding those companies. The sponsors are criticized because they lend credibility to the companies and, as a result, people are led to make poor decisions.
In order to keep their image, some of the celebrity-sponsors asked companies to stop advertisements and returned their earnings. Others apologized for their thoughtless decision to appear in such an advertisement in public. In contrast to those, one of the entertainers has recently appeared in the advertisement of a personal loan company, joined by his wife. He said that he is not going to give up the advertisement and is not shamed of his decision.
His behavior angered some bloggers.
대부업체 광고를 하는 연예인들은 시청자들에게 가장 신뢰를 받고 친근하며 믿음가는 인물들이다.
그런 연예인들이 팬들로 받은 인기를 악용해 무보증… 무담보… 무이자… 신용조회없이 대출가능… 30분내 대출… 대출을 쇼핑처럼 쉽고 빠르게… 을 외치며 전면에 나서고 있다 오늘 또 연예계에서나 사회적으로나 가장 모범이 되어야 할 이시대 최고의 터프가이 최민수가 팬들과 국민의 사랑을 가차없이 저버리고 그간 쌓아온 명예와 시청자들의 사랑보단 돈은 택한것이다.
물론 본인은 불법 광고도 아닌데 어떠냐 할수있다. 하지만 그건 요즘 돌아가는 사회적 분위기를 읽지못하고 하는 소리다. 결국 광고 속과 현실은 너무 동떨어져 있다. 대부업은 등록제로 합법적으로 운영되고 있지만 양의탈을 쓴 늑대다. ‘고리대금’ ‘사채’라는 부정적 이미지가 강하고 실제로 무분별한 대출로 피해를 입은 사례도 부지기수다. 우리 서민 경제에 얼마나 악영향을 끼치고 있는지 알면 그리고 본인이나 본인의 지인들이 그(대부) 늪에 빠져
허부적 거리고 당하고 있다면 감히 불법, 합법을 논하지 못할것이며 이처럼 당당해 지지 못할것이다.
아마 남의 일이라 생각하니 쉽게 생각했을거다. 돈을 택하면서 최민수는 이렇게 말했다
“사과하고 싶지 않다..”
‘사과하고 싶지 않다'는 최민수의 말은 한마디로 팬들과 시청자들을 깔보고 한 소리다. 다시 말하면 돈을 크게버는데 팬이욕하던 시청자가 비난하던 국민이 비판하던 그건 잠깐이고 그깐 욕을 얼마든지 먹을수있고 당당하게 버텨보겠다는 듯한 말투이다. 그 터프함을 엉뚱한데까지 쓰다보니 이런 망언이 서슴없이 나온것이다. 암튼 최민수 말대로 정말 시간가면 잊혀질지 두고볼 일이다..
돈에 명예까지 팔아먹은 연예인들… 이제 그들은 더이상 팬들과 시청자들의 가슴속에 없다.
Not all bloggers agree with him.
왜 연예인들의 사채광고가 문제인가.
대부업자들이 애들한테 돈 빌려줄 리는 없을 테고
독립적 법률행위를 할 수 있는 성인들에게만 빌려주는 걸로 아는데
문제의 본질은 연66% 라는 대부업법과애들 보는 투니버스 채널에서 사채광고 하는 게 문제인거다.
사채광고가 서민의 피를 빨아먹는다고?
사채도 돈 막 빌려주는거 아니다. 값을 능력만큼만 빌려준다.
당신들은 성인이다. 연66%라는 것은 언론이고 뭐고 다 떠들어서
알고들 계실 것이고 성인이라면 연66%에 대한 이자계산쯤은 다들 하실 테고
법적대리인이 없어도 독립적 법률행위를 할 수 있는 나이란 말이다.
스스로 판단해서 행동할 수 있는 게 어른이다. 판단력 부족을 남 탓 하지 마라.
사채광고 때문에 사채를 쓴다는 건 말도 안 된다.
사채광고 연예인 비판 때문에 문제의 본질이 가려지고 있다…
그렇게 따질 것 같으면 주류광고도 나쁘고 담배광고도 나쁘고 과자광고도 나쁜 거다.
Another blogger talks about how ridiculous those advertisements are and how dangerous they are,
청소년들이 TV앞에 앉아 있을 시간에 TV에서는 돈을 빌려서 독립을 하여 따로 살림을 차리겠다는 자식에게 훌륭하고 탁월한 선택을 했다고 칭찬을 해 주는 광고가 버젓이 흘러나온다. 청소년들에게 나중에 나이 먹거든 돈을 빌려서라도 독립을 하는 것이 탁월한 선택이라고 교육을 하는 것이다.
끔찍한 사고를 당해 수술대에 누워있는 환자를 앞에 두고 빌려간 돈 갚으라고 말하는 의사가 나온다. 더 가관인 것은 산소마스크를 쓰고 있던 환자가 돈 얘기는 대출회사에 가서 하라고 한다. 대출회사에서 무든 것을 알아서 처리해 줄 것처럼 말이다.
훤칠한 선남선녀가 멋진 옷을 입은 채 상당히 네가지 없는 모양새로 다리 꼬고 앉아 있다. 의류 광고가 아니라 폼나게 돈 빌리는 광고란다. 돈 빌리면 저렇게 폼이 난다라고 소비자들을 유혹한다.
국민의 10% 이상이 폐암이나 간암에 걸리지 않았을 뿐만 아니라 흡연이나 음주로 말미암아 건강에 심각한 영향을 받은 국민은 전체 국민의 0.1%에도 못 미친다는 사실이다. 그와 반대로 돈장사의 상품을 이용하여 생활을 하다 경제적 사망선고를 받은 국민의 숫자는 어떠한가? 자그마치 400만이다.
국민의 0.1%에도 못 미치는 숫자가 고통을 받는 것 때문에 철저한 규제를 당하는 것이 술이나 담배라면 국민의 10%에 가까운 숫자가 고통을 받고 있는 돈장사의 신용상품은 마약이나 불량식품처럼 아예 판매를 금지시켜야 하는 것 아닌가?
Another advertisement shows a doctor demanding money from a patient lying in the surgery room. The patient wearing the oxygen mask answers that he should ask a personal loan company. It shows that the personal loan company can solve any kind of problem.
Good-looking men and women sat crossing their legs with cool clothes. It’s not a clothing advertisement. It’s an advertisement to seduce the customers that if you borrow money, you can look like them.
People who are seriously affected by drinking and smoking are less than 0.1 percent. On the contrary, what number of people has been economically sentenced to death due to personal loans? It is 4 million. Due to this 0.1 percent, drinking and smoking are seriously controlled. How about this personal loan that causes more than 10 percent of Koreans to suffer? Don’t we have to prohibit it like drugs and poor quality foods?


text:
Kyrgyzstan: Manas Curriculum · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Bonnie Boyd discusses the inclusion of Kyrgyzstan's national epic into the national curriculum. The epic, Manas, is nearly half a million verses long and tells the deeds of the hero Manas and his descendants to secure Kyrgyz independence.


text:
Laos: Preparing Fermented Pork Sausage · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

The Lao Cook TV has a video post on preparing soo moo – fermented or soured pork sausage


text:
Malaysia: Comparing Malaysia and Singapore · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Being neighbors and having similar history and culture, Singapore and Malaysia get compared all the time. Esther, A Malaysian, having visited Singapore recently blogs her own take. (via Tomorrow.sg)


text:
Malaysia: Meeting Mr Shariibuu, Father of the murdered Mongolian Fashion Model · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Susan Loone is inviting Malaysian bloggers to meet the father of fashion model Altantuya who was murdered in Malaysia late last year. “He needs to know there are many many Malaysians who are kind and compassionate.”


text:
Miryang · Global Voices
Hyejin Kim

The star of “Miryang” or “Secret Sunshine,” a Korean film, was awarded best actress at Cannes. The film deals in part with religion, and can be seen as critical of Christianity. The issue is sensitive, and this is one of many opinions from bloggers. [ko]


text:
New Caledonia by aerodrome · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

5 minutes en Nouvelle Caledonie: Sebastian took a tour of New Caledonia by aerodrome and has the video to prove it.


text:
Palestine: Psychological Causes of Fighting  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Palestinian blogger Umm Khalil posts an article she received in an email spelling out the reasons for the Palestinian infighting here.


text:
Palestine: Why Hamas Wears Masks?  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Blogging live from Palestine, Charles Levinson explains why Hamas fighters wear masks.


text:
Peru: Food from the Jungle · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Juan Arellano of Globalizado [ES] takes his readers on a series of two blog entries to learn about delicious food from the jungle region of Peru.

author: Eduardo Avila


text:
Russia: 1985 Assault on Rembrandt · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis writes about a Lithuanian man who, in 1985, threw sulfuric acid at the most valued painting in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


text:
Russia, U.S.: Victims of Communism Memorials · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sean's Russia Blog writes about two recently consecrated memorials to the victims of Communism – one in Russia, the other in the United States.


text:
Slovenia: Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

This week's Best of the Slobs is up at The Glory of Carniola.


text:
Tajikistan: Iranian Investment · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Vadim reports on why Iran invests in Tajikistan.


text:
Ukraine: Elton John to Sing in Kyiv · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

uaMuzik and Nash Holos write about Elton John's upcoming concert in Kyiv.


text:
Ukraine, Russia: Dugin’s Views · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Ukrainiana translates a “Eurasian” perspective on Victor Yushchenko's Ukraine.


text:
Vietnam: Utility Costs · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Vietnam's growth has been attracting a lot of expatriates. VA to VN has a breakdown of what your utility bills would look like if you were to move to Vietnam.


text:
WITNESS/Global Voices Human Rights Video Hub wins One World Media award  · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Yesterday evening (June 14) , the WITNESS/Global Voices Human Rights Video Hub pilot took the award for best New Media project at the One World Media Awards in London. (Visit this page to see the full list of winners).
Conferred annually by the One World Broadcasting Trust, the awards “encourage excellence in media coverage that supports a greater understanding of the vital issues of international development. . . [and] recognise the unique role of journalists and film makers in bridging the divide between different societies, and communicating the breadth of social, political and cultural experiences across the globe.”
Global Voices and WITNESS were represented at the ceremony by South Asia editor Neha Viswanathan and former Video Hub editor Sameer Padania (now director of the Video Hub project at WITNESS), respectively. The Human Rights Video Hub beat out BBC's Tribe and the farming charity web site Cowforce for the award.
According to the citation, e-mailed to us this morning by Sameer, the One World jury
decided to award the Human Rights Video Hub Pilot because, although a pilot, it was felt that it enacted and focussed on the potential power of the contemporary participatory web. It has been built around some of the most compelling new media trends we are only starting to witness – the explosion of video sharing online and mobile technology. Making it easy for those without a computer to share human rights violations with global audiences in is potentially transformative. It was agreed that this site sets a benchmark that others must meet in using technology and digital media to bring to light injustices that would not usually be brought to a global public eye, and therefore had the potential to effect real change. It shows how the power of collaboration, distribution and aggregation can amplify the plight of others in an unequal society. It clearly fulfilled the One World Broadcast award judging criteria and it was felt that it provided a much needed portal, space and context, with the support of ethical and thoughtful editorial content, to put the spotlight on global cultures through different lenses.
The WITNESS/Global Voices Human Rights Video Hub pilot, which curates human rights video from around the world, was launched at the Global Voices web site in September 2006. The pilot is the first step in a larger WITNESS project designed to curate video, provide educational tools, and be a resource for activists, journalists and others interested in deterring human rights violations “through community-enabled advocacy, using visual imagery as a catalytic force”.
As Sameer Padania writes in this morning's e-mail: “I know people say this all the time, but the award really does belong to the brave, committed, talented people on the ground – bloggers, human rights advocates, journalists, lawyers, filmmakers, citizens – who fought to bring these stories to light, and without whom we genuinely would have had nothing to say or show.”

author: Georgia Popplewell


text:
Yemen: Block on SMS  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Yemen is blocking SMS distribution, following criticism of Yemeni President Ali Abdulla Saleh, according to ..Or Does it Explode.


text:
Arabeyes: The Power of Fatwas · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The stir caused by a fatwa or legal opinion by an Islamic scholar, which allows women to breast feed their male colleagues doesn't seem to want to die down. Two unconnected Arab bloggers ganged up this week to express their disgust with such fatwas.
Bahraini blogger emoodz doesn't mince his words
 when he spells out his anger at the level of backwardness Arabs and Muslims have delved to because of what he says are pre-Islamic practices, sectarianism, intellectual bankruptcy and moral decay. He explains his views as follows:
Moroccan blogger Al Hashara Al Maghrebia , which translates to the Moroccan Insect, too has had it with fatwas.


text:
Bahrain: Don’t Press ‘Forward’, Press ‘Search’ · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

We start this week with Sayyed Mahmood Al A'ali, who is pondering what he claims is a special preoccupation of the Arabs – conspiracy theories:
Redbelt received an email full of conspiracy claims; his summary of it follows:
This is telling Arab Muslims that:
1.They shouldn't use the word “Mosque” because it means mosquito house! And it should be called “Masjid” as it is called in Arabic.
2.That they shouldn't spell the holy city as “Mecca” because it means “the house of liquor” and thus must be spelled “Makkah”.
3.And lastly, that we should write the name of our beloved prophet as Muhammed and not to abbreviate it to MOHD because that latter means a wide mouthed Dog.
And the forwarded e-mail goes on that this is serious and you should tell everyone.
This is of course pure, grade A, utter %#e$$^.
I know many people just forward this out of good will but please oh please do not spread ignorance! Hell, Islam says that we should verify news and you don't! Just go do a Google search, a Wikipedia search and look in the dictionary. For Goodness sake, it took me 5 seconds to verify that this is bull. … Please oh please, DO NOT press forward. Press Search.
H. explains his long silence:
There just wasn't any news or residual after-thoughts that were worth reflecting on. The newspapers are reporting stupid headlines and stories of ridiculously low-quality. Parliament members are finding themselves a new game playing Cluedo, forming committees and “investigating” malpractice. Police, I reckon, are bidding on finding the lowest paid hooker. Oh oh, and check this out, the media have been calling the CNN names for documenting poverty in Bahrain. Now I can really understand why we are so upset with the CNN: we don't need the CNN to portray an ugly picture of Bahrain, we do a good job doing that by ourselves, thank you very much.
Concerned Citizen X seems to agree, as he describes attending a work seminar:
I was driving to the venue already 10 minutes late; the music was at full blast from my IPOD and I was in the groove, ready for anything.
I didn’t expect the power to be off! Thank you very much Ministry of E & W for embarrassing us in front of the foreign guests and making us look like a third world country, Bravo. It wasn’t until 9:15 am that the power was restored and we were back in the auditorium, before then we were fanning ourselves with leaflets just to keep cool.
And Silver has even harsher words for some of Bahrain's ministers:
Am I the only one noticing this? … I have noticed in the past few weeks a consistent attack on the citizens of our lovely country. Mainly coming from the government ministers by blaming the citizens for every kind of problem this country faces. The story begins with the Minister of Electricity and Water, we all read the comment in the papers, blaming on the citizens for the electricity blackouts in different areas of Bahrain. Second attack comes from the Minister of Labour, blaming Bahrainis for the unemployment problem. Saying that Bahrainis are sitting on their behinds and expecting jobs to come to them. Third attack comes Minister of Social Affairs (the smartest of them all), and I quote “Bahrainis only want to work in offices and comfortable jobs”, as a response to the question why so many foreigners are working in Bahrain.
Manama Republic describes this as ‘government by the fault-free for the fault-free':
By default, a constitutional, absolute monarchy is absolutely fault-free, unless royally decreed otherwise. So, a gentle public service reminder to fellow commoners of this faultfreeocracy: Next time you want to open your mouth to complain about key thing or turn your accusatory finger at key person, you better double lock your facts first. Chances are (at a regal 98.4%) that the fault may lie right at your doorstep (if you have one), or in your indoor wiring, or in your own brain wiring. This doesn’t lock you out of your constitutional right to complain (within agreed low decibels), only cordon you off from unnecessary embarrassment, not to mention a defendant dock at courtly places.
So when the Inherently Elevated, Ma3ali Minister of Electricity says that the source of your melt and swelter power-cut home is your neighbor’s extra room for his newly wed son, then this is a fact to switch by. … And when the Happily Elevated, Sa3adat Minister of Labour says that your productivity is a third of your European co-worker, he is being charitable rather than normally candid. … At a slightly lower strategic level, when Her Happily Elevated, Sa3adat Minister of Social Affairs, says that Bahrainis are lazy bunch who prefer to be unemployed than take tough challenging jobs, she is damn sure of her facts. … The summery executive summary? Buy a generator.
LuLu feels angry at an apparent flouting of the rule of law:
Rule of law sounds like a nice concept, unless you're one of those who in the past couple of decades or so considered themselves to be above and beyond any law. Take the so-called Malkiya “powerful man”: Malkiya is a small Bahraini fishing village, meaning that access to the sea is the lifeline of Malkiya's people. Now theoretically, Malkiya's shore is public property, except that a certain powerful person happened to be “granted” land by the sea.
In Bahrain, land distribution is a huge problem. Throughout the past years (or at least until the present King's time), lands have been distributed right and left in a semi-tribal fashion of ruler granting land his family and friends out of “generosity” (well, that's my polite word for it). The Malkiya “strong person” is just one of those who happened to be owning this piece of land by the sea. … In 2005, he started building an illegal “separation wall” that would have cut the fishermen's access to the public shore. The owner didn't even bother to get a building permit and was extending the wall almost 2.5Km into the sea. Of course, normally you would expect some legal action to be taken to A. Stop it and B. punish this outright violation. But since he is “powerful,” neither the Ministry of Municipalities, municipal council, nor the parliament could do anything. At the end, after significant embarrassment and press coverage, the King “talked” to the guy and he (graciously) agreed to stop building the wall.
Now the same person has decided to pull another antic. Why should the villager be fishing on “his” shore? and why bother with a professional fishing license and what not? Surely powerful people can exploit marine resources themselves?
Mahmood is also questioning the application of the law:
While I value the role of some members of the ruling family are doing in the development of this great country and their countless philanthropic activities which I know they are not waiting to be thanked for because they see these efforts as their duty, I have noticed that some ministers have started posting non-discreet “thank you notes” signing them with their personal names rather than that of their ministries at least.
I value His Excellency The Minister Mansour bin Hassan bin Rajab’s diligence in thanking Her Majesty the Queen for patronizing the opening of the Andalus Garden in Manama – which I am anxious to visit and benefit from in gardening ideas as a budding gardener myself – but my question here is: is it appropriate for His Excellency the Minister of Agricultural Affairs and Municipalities to sign such a thank you note personally? … Unless of course he paid for these himself from his own personal funds, then I have absolutely no problem with it whatsoever, He is free to utilise his own money how He sees fit. However, if He used the Ministry’s funds to do so, I would have thought that there are rules and laws against that which might go into the mismanagement of public funds and position areas.
We end with Hasan, a Bahraini who is studying in Japan, who poignantly describes the affinity he felt with a young homeless man:
This afternoon at 3.00pm, Kokubunji Station and its vicinity was a busy, busy place. … Today, as I walked by these usual nameless faces I was surprised to catch a glimpse of what seemed to be a homeless man. Unlike most of the homeless I have come across in Tokyo, this man was quite young; in his late 20s, I’d say. Who knows; if his hair wasn’t so mangy, his clothes so tattered, his eyes so blank – he might have even been a half-decent looking guy. The strange thing about him was that he was wearing a heavy jacket (despite the heat) and had an unusual smile on his face. People seemed to walk around him/dodge him/walk straight through him just as they did to me, and I started to feel an immediate affinity, at least at first glance. The two of us were both invisible to everyone else.
It didn’t seem that he noticed me, either (not that I wanted his attention). I guess I was invisible to the invisible.

author: Ayesha Saldanha


text:
Iran:Rugby Sevens Competition and Photos · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Thanks to Kosoof,a leading photoblogger, we can see several photos of first Rugby Sevens competition in Iran.


text:
Iran:UK Queen’s party and protesters · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Kamangir explains us in details what happened in front of UK Embassy where protesters tried to disrupt a party held in honor of the Queen Elizabeth II.The demonstrators finished up their gathering with issuing a statement in which they asked the Judiciary to prosecute those who attended the party.


text:
Iraq: Human Life Has No Value  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“It comes no surprise or shock to me, the horrid events that took place on Wednesday. In a country where human life has no value, why would a shrine that was built more than 1000 years ago be of any importance,” writes Neurotic Iraqi Wife about the latest wave of attacks on mosques and a shrine in Iraq.


text:
Israel: Is the West Bank Next? · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Allisonks, from Israel writes: “Now that Gaza is under Hamas control, all eyes are going to turn to the West Bank.”


text:
Japan: Confidential Police Files Leaked, Again · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

What do a group of sex crime victims, police informants, traffic violators, members of Japan's largest crime syndicate and a man being stalked by his girlfriend all have in common this week? If you count yourself as part of any of these groups, and particularly if you live in the Suginami Ward of Tokyo, you might want to check that your personal information was not among the 10,000 confidential police files — 9000 documents including private testimony, interrogation reports, bank account numbers, licence plate numbers and personal reports, as well as 1000 photos — that were leaked onto the Internet early Tuesday morning.
According to news reports, at about 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning, confidential police information, originally stored on the computer of a 26-year-old senior policeman of the Kitazawa police station in Setagaya, Tokyo, began appearing on the hugely popular Japanese bulletin board service 2channel. Apparently the police officer, contrary to instructions issued last year by bureau chiefs, had installed the file-sharing software Winny on his personal computer. The officer's computer reportedly already having been infected with a computer virus, all pieces were in place for an information leak on a massive scale.
As soon as the data was posted, a flood of messages to 2channel started to pour in, prompting the creation of a wiki page exclusively to the incident. Those who dug into the details of the data files found more than a few secrets they were never meant to know about.
Reactions to the information leak among bloggers for the most part expressed frustration and outrage. Much of bloggers’ anger was directed at the fact that a very similar type of incident happened just over a year ago, prompting  the introduction of new countermeasures which apparently didn't work. Compounding this situation, very recently confidential information was leaked by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces in a case which attracted considerable publicity.
An early comment (#35) on the 2channel bulletin board, posted by m r g n on the 13th at 16:10, summarizes the feelings of many:
またまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたまたつこうたか
Blogger nekotsume echoes the sentiment in slightly more verbose terms:
警察馬鹿だろ。
何度同じことを繰り返せば気が済むのかね？
しかも今回の流出量は半端無いようだし・・・馬鹿が道具を使うとこうなるという良い例。
How many times do they have to repeat the same thing before they are satisfied?
On top of everything else, this time the amount of leaked data is apparently enormous… this is a good example of what happens when idiots use tools [like this].
[…]
あーあ、馬鹿だねぇ・・・公務員って学習能力無いのかよ。
どうする気なんだろ、流出した捜査資料とかすごくやばいんじゃないの？
スレで言われているように２次被害が発生したら責任をどうとるつもりなのか。
まあどうせいつものようにウイルスやWinny開発者などなどのせいにして責任逃れするだろうけど・・・で、また同じことをくりかえす、と。
What are they going to do about this? The information from investigations that was leaked, this is really serious stuff, no?
As people are asking on the thread [of 2channel's itai news blog], how do they intend to take responsibility if there is secondary damage [to the people who's information was leaked]?
Well, as always, people will probably try to escape by pinning responsibility on viruses or on Winny software developers, etc., etc… and the same thing will be repeated again.
開発者に対策させればいいのにそれもさせない、警察って能無しなのか。
とりあえずこの流出させたヤツをどう処分するかが気になる。
ちゃんと責任取らせるのかな？
それにしてもニュースに使われている画像は恣意的だなぁ。
まるで２ｃｈが悪いかのような構成だし、これも責任逃れの一つなんだろうな。
Anyways for now, I'm just wondering how they are going to deal with all the leaked information.
Are they going to be held responsible?
And also, the images that were used in the news were used arbitrarily.
They [the images] are made to look as if to say 2-channel is the bad guy, and I guess this is one of their ways of dodging their responsibility.
Blogger newskaisetsu, who lives in Kitazawa, was also angry:
あれ？　警察の情報がWinnyに流出するのは、これで何度目でしょうか？
警察ほどの巨大な組織ともなると、末端まで学習するのは至難の業ということでしょうか。
え〜と、今度は北沢警察署…？　あれれ、ウチの近所じゃないですか。私は特段警察のお世話になっていないので、私の個人情報は入っていないと思いますが、「お世話になった人たち」にとっては心配かもしれません。
Blogger nagas questions the focus of the media on the software Winny rather than punishment for the police officer:
Winnyの報道内容は全てWinnyとその発祥地である2ちゃんねるに向けられ、なぜか行った部署、個人を罪で問うことはない。番組のシーンの多くはなぜかソフト、2ちゃんらしき掲示板と露出情報を思わせる紙である。
司法、マスコミともにソフトのせいにするほうが状況を良くするとの認識であれば痴呆の塊であるとしかいわざるを得ない。人災を自然災害として扱ってるのに気づいてないようだ。
Winnyの影響力の是非については事件とは関係ないので別で議論し対応するべきであろう。そもそも紙が情報漏えいの一番という事実があるのでセキュリティに対しては個人の徹底と、そういう情報を隔離する手段のほうをよく検討すべきである。
Blogger chako makes some suggestions:
自衛官や警察官は、日本で一番大切な情報を取り扱っているひとたちだと思います。
それが、このところ、情報流出源になってしまって、事件に取り上げられてしまっています。
普通のセキュリティに気を払っている民間企業ならば、私物ＰＣにもファイル共有ソフト、特にＷｉｎｎｙのインストールは、組織から禁止されているはずです。
だいたい、Ｗｉｎｎｙの利用目的は、著作権の利用権限のないひとたちが、違法に映画や音楽などの有償データを、不法に無償で交換し合うためのものです。
Ｗｉｎｎｙソフト自体を所持していることは、現段階では違法でないかもしれません。
でも、Ｗｉｎｎｙを使うひとは、明らかに著作権侵害をしてまで、違法コピーを手に入れようとするひとたちです。
個人的な趣味の範囲のデータ収集では、各自は問題ないと思っているのでしょう。
一昔の日本でも、有償ソフトの不正コピーが流行っていましたから・・・
どうしても、Ｗｉｎｎｙを使いたいひとは、Ｗｉｎｎｙ専用パソコンを別に用意すべきです。
そして、このパソコンには、機密情報は一切保存しないと決めて使うべきです。
こういう手法を隔離システムと呼びます。
どうしても、Ｗｉｎｎｙを使うなら、隔離システムで使いなさい◆
Finally, blogger kyasubaruniisan asks about the rights of the victims:
何度も言うけど、包丁で人を刺しても包丁メーカは悪くない。
まあ、包丁とWinnyでは”この世に登場した理由”の時点で異なる側面を持ってるけど。
ホント、「頭が悪い」としか言いようが無い。
なんでよりによって業務上の資料が入っている端末でWinnyやるの？
しかも、被害内容とかも含めた詳細な個人情報らしいじゃん。
警察が被害者の傷をさらに深くえぐってどうするの？　被害者の人権はどこにあるの？
この巡査長は”被害者”ではなく、
・過去に何度も「危険だから使用するな」といわれたツールを
・それでもなお、業務用の機密ファイルが存在するPCで使用した
悪意ある”加害者”だってことを明確にしないとダメだと思うんだよね。
しかも最初、「Winny使って無い」ってウソついてたんでしょ？（ソース忘れ）

author: Chris Salzberg


text:
Jordan: Swedes In Love With Lebanese Food  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Rami, a Jordanian blogger who lives in Sweden, links to an article about how the Swedes are heads over heels in love with the Lebanese cuisine.


text:
Kuwait: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly · Global Voices
Abdullatif AlOmar

This week's posts swing from good to bad .. sometimes just plain ugly.
We will start with the good.
philq8 shares with us news of the Filipino expats  celebration  of the Philippines National Day in Kuwait.
Filipinos in Kuwait shared a day of fun and games with their families, friends and acquaintances in a day long affair Friday during celebrations held at the Kazma gym in Adailiya on the occasion of their country’s 109th Independence Day.
Fahad Alaskr talks about news he read on the Kuwait News Agency.
I was amused by news I read today on Kuna (Kuwait News Agency) and I knew that our future is bright because the grandson of the Elder Emir (Elder Emir is a title that was given to Shaikh Sa'ad when he receded his title as Emir to the current Emir Shaikh Sabbah) has graduated with honors from the American School
The news snippet says: “His Highness Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah has met this morning in Bayan Palace with Amiri Diwan Advisor Shaikh Fahad Sa'ad Al Abdullah Al Salim Al Sabah accompanied by his son Shaikh Abdullah Fahad Sa'ad Al Abdullah Al Salim Al Sabah on the occasion of his graduation from the American School in Kuwait with honors and his acceptance at MIT in the United States of America.
On this occasion, as a citizen, I have got to ask: on whose expense is his scholarship?
intlxpatr snaps a few shots  of Kuwait's skyline.
Kuwait in the 1970’s was called the Paris of the Gulf. People who lived here then talk about it with great nostalgia, they call it paradise. Kuwait was an old trading city, full of merchants and traders. Kuwaiti men went out on fishing boats, and pearling boats, and the love of the sea is still deep in the Kuwaiti soul. The women were strong and adventurous, and took care of all the family business while the men were out to sea.
We move on to the bad news.
And on his blog , Z district talks about a strange phenomenon with most Kuwaiti businesses.
I have noticed this in Kuwait, but a lot of businesses face this problem when they are trying to move old stock. The way good businesses think is how to get rid of old stock and when it is more useful to discount below cost.
The one thing you notice in Kuwait is that even if something is old they really don’t lower the price because they don’t want to lose a fils on the item.
yo_ghurt talks about a new kuwait ban  on women working after 8pm.
“The Kuwaiti parliament has passed a law which bans women from working at night, Gulf News reports.
“The law, passed unanimously, prohibits women working between 8pm and 7am, with the exception of the medical profession. It also bans women from jobs that “contravene with public morals and in all-men services places at any time.”
Qias over at Io81 talks about  more bad news for Kuwait.
Again Kuwait has reached the charts of International Human Trafficking Report, again and again nothing is being done about Human Trafficking in Kuwait and we have been listed in the reports as a tier 3 country.
It's an ugly thing to see dead animals but Mini-R did not stand by when he saw a dead Police dog.
I found this body right outside my building when I looked out the balcony. After calling 777 and reporting it, they asked me to call the appropriate department. Of course, nothing was done about it. So much for our Ministry of InFerior.
Mini-R didn't stop there either .
I decided to pursue the mystery of the dead German Shepherd found outside my building. On my lunch break I went to the nearby Guard & Tracking Dogs Dept. for the Ministry of Interior.
Click on the link to read more about the mystery dog.
That's all from me this week. See you next week!

author: Abdullatif AlOmar