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Armenia-Turkey: Mixed reaction to Obama speech in Ankara · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Having promised to recognize the massacre and deportation of as many as 1.5 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire during WWI as genocide if elected president, the large and influential Diaspora lobby in Washington had hoped that this week's visit by U.S. President Barack Obama to Turkey would see a campaign promise fulfilled.
But, mindful of the delicate state of negotiations between Armenia and Turkey to resolve the past, establish diplomatic relations, and to open a shared border closed since the early 1990s, Obama instead avoided using the word itself. While there has been little reaction to the speech from most Armenian bloggers so far, the general response worldwide has been mixed.
Referring to Obama's campaign pledge intended to attract the Armenian-American vote,  Enotitan Revolution is less than impressed.
President Obama’s sly diplomatic skills were put to the test while visiting Turkey. Although a firm supporter of recognizing the Armenian Genocide in the United States, he gently tip toed over the subject, careful not to use the word ‘Genocide’, as to not upset his Turkish hosts, yet during his campaign for presidency, then Senator Obama openly declared, “America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian Genocide”. I guess truth, justice, and Human Rights are only good enough for drumming up financial support on the campaign trail.
Conservative Insider agrees.
Interestingly, there are some Americans of Armenian heritage who literally loath the Turks, and who have family members who died at the hands of the Turks, But today, in Turkey, Obama reneged on the genocide conclusion and refered to it as merely a “view”. […]
[…]
If you are Armenian, you can consider yourself officially sold out.
But, if there were bloggers who felt Obama had broken a promise, others such as Gateway Pundit believed the opposite.
This was either brave or foolish…
Inside the Turkish Parliament today, Barack Obama ripped on Turkey for the Armenian genocide of 1915.
This was a brave move for the young president who has shown general weakness in foreign policy.
[…]
This is a very sensitive subject in Turkey.
Pass/Fail also comes to the same conclusion.
One of the key issues brought up during this visit was the killing of over 1 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire after World War 1.  During the election campaign, President Obama stayed committed to a view that this mass murder should indeed be recognized as a “genocide”. […] Standing next to Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Obama declared that “I have not changed my views” on the issue. […] In his address to the Turkish parliament, President Obama further declared that “the best way forward for the Turkish and Armenian people is a process that works through the past in a way that is honest, open and constructive.”
Comments from Left Field was impressed.
One other thing I was very happy about: Obama’s mention of the Armenian genocide (although he did not use that word). But he did make it clear that history is important, and that when painful events of the past go unacknowledged or unresolved, it “can be a heavy weight.”
I think he got the point across. Moreover, that point was made so much more effective because, before he ever mentioned Armenia, he talked about the painful legacy of our own past. He said the work of democracy is never done.
I am telling you, I am so impressed with Barack Obama. Yes, unquestionably, he has disappointed me in some areas, but overall he is, in my opinion, a visionary and an original, unique voice in our political history. He’s a leader — a real leader. […]
Grand Rants is not of the same opinion.
[…] Obama quickly showed not only his lack of experience as a political leader, but also proved himself to be a statesman who can not be trusted to stand by his words.
In the Armenian blogosphere, or at least among those bloggers who did comment on the speech, the reaction was similarly divided, and seemingly between members of the Diaspora and those from the republic.
For Sevana at Life in the Armenian Diaspora, Obama's words — or the lack of one in particular — were not well-received.
Obama's first chance to openly acknowedge the genocide has come and gone. He struck out. Very, very disappointing. April 24 is his next chance. I hope he doesn't blow that one, too.
Echoing sentiments expressed by the media in his native Armenia, however, The Armenian Observer disagrees.
U.S. President Barack Obama, on his first day of visit to Turkey, said his views on mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915, which he has termed genocide, have not changed.
[…]
However, Obama said he prefers not to focus on his views, in an attempt to be more encouraging around the Armenia-Turkey border opening talks.
Global Voices Online author Simon Maghakyan at Blogian concurs.
While some Armenians seem unhappy with Obama’s statement – there is now a SHAME ON YOU OBAMA Facebook group – I find Obama’s words tactfully affirmative. […] Specifically, he stated that 1) […] Turkey committed genocide but I won’t use the word genocide since 2) there seems to be real hope for normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations, 3) but Turkey needs to demonstrate that the normalization is process is real […], and (4) the latter should automatically include genocide recognition by Turkey. In Turkish professor Taner Akcam’s words, “[Obama] really pushed the borders, in a very positive and very smart way.”
Moreover, his comparison of the Native American experience – which is clearly an experience of genocide in the eyes of Turks – was also to the point (not mentioning that it was exactly what I had suggested to do in an earlier post :D).
There can be a lot more said about Obama’s handling of the situation. I am personally satisfied with the way he handled the issue given the place and time restrictions.
Regardless, the issue has most certainly not gone away, and many will now be waiting to see what Obama does on 24 April, the day when Armenians worldwide commemorate the massacres. In the meantime, some of the issues which will likely factor into Obama's decision are mentioned on my Frontline Club blog.
[…] sending out the right message from secular Turkey to the Islamic world is vital in order to repair the damage caused by his predecessor, George W. Bush. Moreover, the U.S. continues to need Turkey's help in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the August war between Georgia and Russia, Turkey's potential role as a counterbalance to Moscow's influence in the South Caucasus has also become apparent.
[…]
[…] There are also hopes that normalizing relations between Armenia and Turkey will benefit regional stability and contribute to finding a peaceful solution to the long-running Armenian-Azeri conflict.
[…]
Others simply consider that Armenia and Turkey might well be on their way to resolving outstanding grievances on their own […] and it is that fact alone which is likely to influence Obama's decision on whether to support such efforts rather than risk derailing them.
Ultimately, however, the consensus of opinion expressed by bloggers, and regardless of their opinion about Obama's speech, is that Turkey must come to terms with its own past. What they disagree on, it seems, is how.
Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008, Licensed under Creative Commons

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Bangladesh: Feat Of A Photoblogger · Global Voices
Rezwan

Bangladeshi Photoblogger Shabhanaz Rashid Diya is delighted to inform that one of her photos has been shortlisted in the Sony Cannes World Photography Awards 2009 Contest and will be on display at the winner’s exhibition in Cannes.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Rezwan


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Barbados: Job Losses  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“In Barbados, the sense of fear expressed in public commentary about job losses has increased in recent weeks”: Both Barbados Underground and Living in Barbados blog about the ripple effects of the global economic crisis.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Bermuda: Tourism Effectiveness  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“There is much debate in Bermuda regarding the effectiveness of the Bermuda Ministry of Tourism”: Vexed Bermoothes explains.


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Colombia: David and Goliath Battle Between Supermarkets · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Piso Tres [es] compares the business rivalry between a smaller supermarket and a larger supermarket chain in Medellín, Colombia to a battle between David and Goliath. Many thought that the smaller store would close, but credits its determination for its success.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Colombia: Dream Traffickers Copyleft Publishing House · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Carolina Botero of equinoXio introduces the copyleft publishing house “Dream Traffickers,” which recently was in Bogotá, Colombia for a talk at the National University of Colombia.


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Colombia: Representative in the YouTube Symphony · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

John Wilson González, who plays the trombone, is representing Colombia in the YouTube Symphony writes Campus Comunicativo [es].


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Cuba, U.S.A.: MLK Tributes  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Havana Times reports on the official Martin Luther King tribute in the capital, while Uncommon Sense blogs about the MLK tribute by Cuban civil rights activists who “gathered to remember and honor King as someone who has inspired their own struggle for freedom and justice.”


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East Timor: Blog for the gay community · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A blog was set up for the gay community of East Timor

author: Mong Palatino


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Egypt: 90th Anniversary of Egyptian Revolution  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“This month Egypt should have celebrated as a country officially  the 90th anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution in 1919. I am not shocked by the poor and sad reception of the anniversary in Egypt but I am angry from this silly fight between the Wafdists and the nationalists/Nasserists/ Socialists on the revolution and the  character of Saad zaghlol,” writes Zeinobia, from Egypt.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Egypt: Activist Ahmed Ala’a Arrested  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Mo Eltaher's Blog from Egypt (Ar) reports that activist Ahmed Ala'a has been arrested in Egypt for participating in the April 6 Day of Anger. The blogger posts his photograph but no information about his charges.


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Egypt: April 6 – A Day of Anger · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

On the first anniversary of the April 6 strike, Egyptians failed to carry out a similar national strike. Months before the day, voices were getting louder asking people of all walks of life to take part in a new national strike to protest against the low economic status, and to demand a democratic reform in the  “Day of Anger.”
Ibn ad dunya sets the tone for the day:
Day of anger. In memory of those who lost their lives, got tortured and abused, sacked and imprisoned in connection with the events of April sixth 2008, in Mahalla al Kubra and elsewhere, and also in solidarity with those making their voices heard today, in what is called the Day of Anger by the organizers. And also in support of the brave workers whom have lead by example, over the last years, and also won some battles. April sixth 2009.
Yet, hours before the strike, people were divided between total believers in the day's success, and others doubting if the day would have any tangible results. Egyptian bloggers were also confused. At a time when some were passionately asking Egyptians to join the strike,  others [Ar] were busy analyzing the reasons why the call might fail.
"Be with the revolution" designed by Egyptian leftist, based on a photograph taken from last year's 6 of April protests in Mahalla.
A day before the strike, Mido wrote guidelines to tell people how they can join in the protests:
However, the day started like any other normal day, as Zeinobia mentioned in her tweet, then one by one more updates from Egyptian bloggers were pooling in, under Twitter's #6April tag.
In comparison to last year's spontaneous movement and the worker's strikes and demonstrations, especially in El Mahalla, this year's initiative was met by the fictitious approval of the opposition parties and opposition from the workers themselves; and so the few protests that took place were almost only held by students in Egyptian universities, along with another one in front of the journalism syndicate.
You'll find pictures taken for Ain shams university clashes on Yallaly and Tadamon Masr blogs. And while Haqii blog posted live coverage from Cairo University protests, Mohammed Maree and Reso posted other pictures from el Mansoura university. Other bloggers covered the Alexandria and Helwan university sit-ins.
Zeinobia wrote a detailed account of the preparations, and followed up on the story as the day progressed.
As usual, journalist and blogger Sara Carr joined the protest at the journalism syndicate and wrote an excellent report entitled “6 April, again“, while Per Bjorklund wrote another post in pictures, highlighting how the police officers were scattered in streets in plain clothes.
Image taken by Scarr from the protests infront of Journalism syndicate.
On a different note, Joseph Simons, Arabist, Sand Monkey and Arabawy mentioned similar thoughts about how they were provoked by the calls, and their reservations against the 6th of April movement.
According to the Arabist:
The short story: what had been talked about nonstop for the past month as a “day of anger” with national outbreaks of protests all over the place completely fizzled out with a pathetic whimper. About 40 people were arrested, mostly in Kafr al-Sheikh, and security presence was slightly more massive than usual. Clearly Gaza is a vastly more important issue than this ill-defined “day of anger”, and the very real, very serious anti-Mubarak movement in Egypt should dissociate itself from the “Shabab 6 April” if it wants to get anywhere. If they keep doing this, I predict a surge in the number of new applicants to join the NDP. Egypt’s activists and opposition politicians are discrediting themselves if they make a big deal about a day of protests that most don’t even participate in – and no, joining a Facebook group does not count.
There isn't much to say about the day of anger except that -as usual- it resulted in a number of students and activists arrested ahead of the day, and a woman lost her pregnancy, as well as a notable number of detainees [Ar] and a stolen hope for a real reform in Egypt in the near future.

author: Eman AbdElRahman


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Egypt: Mystery surrounds Sudan airstrike  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“About two weeks have elapsed, a bunch of fanciful reports have come out, but we still don’t know much more about the airstrike in North Sudan that Israel, or possible the United States, allegedly carried out,” writes The Arabist from Egypt.


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Egypt: Social Resistance Blog Available in Spanish · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“News of the Egyptian social resistance is now available in Spanish and Catalan,” reports Arabawy, from Egypt.


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Elections in India and Women · Global Voices
Bhumika Ghimire

World’s largest democracy, India, will hold general elections starting in a few weeks from now. In a country of more than a billion people, general election is nothing sort of a “make or break” time for many interest groups, political parties and the common folk. For how their life will be for next five years is decided on that day.
A rainbow of colours of rural Indian women gathered as volunteers for social mobilisation and development in their villages.
Indian women, who have long been denied their rightful position at home, at work and at the helm of power also have a huge stake in upcoming elections. Female literacy in the country (based on 2001 census) is at 53.63% compared to 75.26% for male, but Indian women are not completely shut off from the political process. Level of their participation is increasing and a some prominent parties have women as leaders.
Although more and more women are becoming aware of their voting rights and participating at local level politics, a report suggests that this year less women are likely to be elected to the country’s parliament.
“The introduction of the Women’s Reservations Bill in 14th Lok Sabha has prompted more women asking for tickets from major parties this time, but the selection of candidates by the latter reveals that electoral politics in India still remains a male preserve.
Including party Chief Sonia Gandhi, only nine women figure in the list of 90-and odd Lok Sabha candidates announced by the Congress so far and the BJP list of 232 candidates, contains only 21 women.
The Left Front, which has accused both the BJP and the Congress of lacking political will on the women’s reservation bill, has fielded only two women out of 42 candidates in its bastion West Bengal, down from five it had fielded in 2004 elections.”
Samiya Anwar, a female voter, writes about upcoming elections focusing on her hometown of Hyderabad:
“There are more women issues than men to be addressed. Isn’t it? First, it is the safety of women in society she dwells in. Many women in the Old City (of Hyderabad) do not trust police. They go through domestic and physical violence and don’t complain. We need a system where women can approach cops fearlessly. The issues like water shortage, frequent power cuts, road accidents and physical abuse of women at workplace should be given first thought.”
Question of caste is a big one during election time in India. As someone said “Indians don’t caste their vote but vote their caste”, the politics of dividing people based on their caste and exploiting them as “vote banks” is a common practice.
Joshua Meah blogging about caste system and of women in Indian politics at Washington Note says:
“India n. (perhaps it has potential as an adjective as well?): the land where the opposite of everything is always at least a little bit true. This is the same country that has produced a great number of enormously powerful female politicians long before America even honestly broached the subject – Indira Gandhi being the case in point. Even now, the head of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state and the home to 130 million people, is headed by a woman of dalit origin (India's lowest caste). The progress of India's democracy in terms of its movement toward social equality has in some ways been as breathtaking as it is heartbreaking.”
Vinod Sharmaalso discusses “vote bank” through an imaginary exchange of words between three powerful women- Mayawati (Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh) who is a “dalit” (lower caste), Maneka Gandhi (Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law) and prominent social and animal rights activist, and Sonia Gandhi (Maneka’s estranged sister-in-law) and Congress party supreme. Here is an excerpt:
“Sonia: The Congress party is a national party with a glorious history.
Mayawati: And no future.
Sonia: Don't say that. Please. It hurts. We are confident of coming back to power on our own.
Mayawati: Really? Look, I don't care whether anyone is from the Gandhi family or a raja or maharaja. If you or your son threaten my vote bank in any manner, I will put you both behind bars.”

author: Bhumika Ghimire


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Ethiopia: Book prompts campus protest · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“Hundreds of Addis Ababa University’s Oromo students protested against the sale of a book which they said was a “distorted” history of the Oromos at the book fair being held at Sidist Kilo campus,” writes Ethiopia blogger, Arefe.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Europe: Obama’s Visit · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Obama in Europe roundup: thoughts on Obama-Putin meeting and arms control – at Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces; BBC's Mark Mardell on Obama in Prague – here, here and here; notes on the Prague visit and link to Obama's speech – at Czechmatediary; The Reference Frame notes, among other things, that “everyone noticed that Michelle changed her dress every hour ;-)” and that “in Strasbourg, Obama invented the Austrian language”: “If Bush had done the same thing, the media would be full of hateful comments about his stupidity. But no one (except for the Czech media!) cares that Obama has no clue that the Austrians speak German.”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Ghana: Ghana from various angles · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“Ghana from various angles” is a photo-essay by Peacenik Hurler, a volunteer working and blogging from Ghana.


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Haiti: Vaccination Drive  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Haitian Blogger has his doubts about the motives of various NGOs that “are in the process of vaccinating 1 million Haitians with an oral polio vaccine.”


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India: Whose Opinions In Opinion Polls? · Global Voices
Rezwan

Vinod Sharma at India Retold comments on the opinion polls aired in Indian TV channels: “these polls reflect not the opinion of the people who are going to vote but of ‘opinion makers’ who are using the platforms of these channels.”


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India: Joining the ranks of shoe-throwing nations · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

First it was George Bush, then the Chinese Premier and now today it was the turn of the Indian Home Minister to be the target of a shoe-missile. Priya Ramani at livemint Blogs talks about the politics of shoe-throwing.

author: Aparna Ray


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Iran: Bloggers write an open letter to the Leader · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Salam Demokrat, an Iranian blogger, reports [fa] that several Iranian bloggers wrote an open letter to the Iranian Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to protest the death of Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, Iranian jailed blogger.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran: Cold Spring in Photos · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Kosoof, a leading photo blogger based in Iran, has published several photos of unusual cold spring in Tehran.


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Iran: Jailed blogger was nominated for a freedom of expression award · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Hossein Derakhshan, a jailed Iranian blogger, is among nominees for a freedom of expression award: The Economist New Media Award. Read more here.


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Japan: Rocket Launched  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Tobias Harris has been writing about Japan media and government's reaction in Observing Japan. His latest post is about Japanese government next move in UN Security Council.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Liberia: Corruption leads to cabinet changes · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Nathaniel blogs about corruption in Liberia, “With mounting pressures from various quarters of the Liberian civil society to have some public officials of the Liberian government sacked due to corruptions and coupled with complete frustrations and disappointments from the Liberian leader, the government has effected some major changes in its cabinet with the Ministers of Agriculture and Public Works whose qualities of works of late have led to most of these calls taking center stage.”


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Life in East Timor · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Loro Horta writes about the social and economic situation of East Timor. Horta writes: “While poverty has been part of daily life for the majority, it now exists side by side with small pockets of scandalous affluence resulting from the oil bonanza.”


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Mexico: Easter Week Activities in Monterrey · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

There are activities for all ages during the holidays around Easter Week in Monterrey, Mexico including a Pixar exhibit for children writes Perla Cristal Gómez of Vivir México [es]


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Moldova: “Chisinau Burning”? · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Lyndon of Scraps of Moscow reviews recent blog, Twitter and media coverage of the situation in Moldova.


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Moldova: Twitter Updates · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Twitter updates on the situation in Moldova (via Tweetscoop): #Moldova, #Chisinau, #pman. According to Mihai Moscovici, the latter “is the acronym for Piata Marii Adunari Nationale, name of the central square in Chisinau, Moldova.”


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Morocco: A Different World · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Peace Corps volunteer Duncan of Duncan Goes to Morocco shares his experiences in the big city of Fez and contrasts it with his life in rural Morocco.

author: Jillian C. York


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Pakistan: Chief Justice Criticizes The Handling Of The Taliban Flogging Case · Global Voices
Rezwan

Baithak reports that Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the chief justice of Pakistan criticized the handling of the Taliban flogging case. According to the blogger, he has “assailed the officials for laziness and self-importance, and challenged them for not taking up the case until it became a national scandal in recent days”.


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Rwanda: Life after genocide · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

katch up discusses economic and socio-political situation in Rwanda after genocide: “Polically Kigali is stable. The leadership of President Kagame has managed to stay focused on its vision of uniting the people inspite of their long history of intentionaly fueled ethnic hatred.”


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South Africa: The Best Green Blog is… · Global Voices
Juliana Rotich

Urban Sprout! The recently concluded SA Blog Awards featured a category for Best Green Blog, which Urbansprout clinched this year. The blog celebrates the news and gives kudos to another longtime Green Blogger – Rory Williams of Carbon Smart. Rory Celebrates 5 years of writing about various energy and environmental issues.

author: Juliana Rotich


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South Korea: Protesting NK Missile Launch · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Todd from Ohmynews! has written a photo report on a protest on April 5 against North Korea Missile launch.


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Suriname, Dominica: Updates · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Two updates from Repeating Islands Blog: a Surinamese victims’ group is considering legal action against the Netherlands for its alleged role in the country's 1980 coup and Dominica has declared that it “will no longer be supporting the whale-killing position of the Japanese government in the International Whaling Commission.”


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Syria: News From Syria on Twitter · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Tweet tweet. The Syria News Wire is on Twitter. Follow @syrianews,” writes News From Syria. Many bloggers are now pairing their blogging activities with Twitter.


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Thailand: Statistics on southern violence · Global Voices
David Reid

The ongoing conflict in the deep south of Thailand has claimed over 3,000 lives since it began in 2004. Bangkok Pundit has analysed some statistics of the number of deaths and injuries and the types of incidents. See part 1 and part 2.

author: David Reid


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

“Quick! Look busy. Obama is coming. Hide away anything that would suggest that we have screwed up priorities and should be spending $600 million doing the things we are paying lip service to in the Summit of the Americas declaration
”: Attillah Springer wishes Trinidad and Tobago would get its priorities straight.


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Tunisia: Obama Snubs Sarkozy · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Tunisian blog Nawaat posts a video which they claim shows US president Barack Obama snubbing French President Nicolas Sarkozy – who is later seen embracing Tunisian President Zeinalabideen Ben Ali.


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Zimbabwe: Hunting elephants in the national parks · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A report has just been released by the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force about hunting being carried out in Zimbabwe’s National Parks by an American  company called ‘Cape To Cairo Safari’.


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Zimbabwe: The truth from the Deputy Prime Minister · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Eusebia discusses the recent speech by the Zimbabwe's Deputy Prime Minister, “The speech was so full of truth that it made me realise that at least we have one man in the coalition government who has the intelligence to objectively evaluate perfomance of the coalition government and point out exactly were they are going wrong.”


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Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai’s Rhetoric · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Is the unity government in Zimbabwe a success?, “Some media reports state that the unity government has been successful so far. Morgan Tsvangirai thinks so too.”


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Azerbaijan: Reflections on Obama visit  · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines hails Obama's recent visit to Turkey as a success and says that despite threats from Azerbaijan, a country still effective at war with Armenia, no retaliatory actions have been taken yet. The blog concludes that the visit could yet spell real change for the Caucasus.


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Azerbaijan: The view from Baku · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Following U.S. President Barack Obama's speech in Ankara on Armenian-Turkish relations and the need to resolve the conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh, Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines sums up and comments on the view from Baku.


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Barcamp Hanoi 2009 · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Barcamp Hanoi will be held on April 19. More than 48 logo designs have been submitted for the event.


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China: 2.3 Billion Earthquake Museum  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Fauna from ChinaSMACK translated netizens’ comments on government's plan to spend 2.3 billion yuan on the construction of Beichuan National Earthquake Ruins Museum.


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China: Psychiatry with Chinese characteristics · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Peking University Law Professor specialized in forensics, Sun Dongdong, told China News Weekly on March 23 that 99% of China's petitioners (zh) are mentally ill and that he support for forced hospitalization of them.
Update (April 8, 2009 @ 8:00): Internet monitor center issued a notice to webmasters of portals and forums instructing them to delete action call but not general comments and posts (via twitpic):
Translation of the memo:
All information and posts that incite, organize, plan and network for action in related to “Sun Dongdong's comments” should be deleted. No special measure for general comments and news. Don't manage and deal with non-action call information. Remember this! Please sign to receive this.
Another update (April 8, 2009 @ 7:30): There is an e-mail calling for  joint signature to urge the Ministry of Health to disqualify Sun's expert status.
Who is mentally sick?
Update (April 8, 2009 @ 6:30) : Last weekend, some visit petitioners in Beijing, gathered outside the West Gate of Peking University to show their discontent. Police was there to maintain order, there were no conflict. So who is mentally sick? The petitioners made their point with their action (picture via 163.com):
Psychiatry with Chinese characteristics?
Here are some of Sun's words in the article pick up by Gen Wen from China News Weekly:
对那些老上访专业户，我负责任地说，不说100%吧，至少99%以上精神有问题——都是偏执型精神障碍!
他们为了实现一个妄想症状可以抛家舍业，不惜一切代价上访。你们可以去调查那些很偏执地上访的人。他反映的问题实际上都解决了，甚至根本就没有问题。
把他（们）送到医院就是（对他们人权的）最大的保障。
In order to actualize a paranoia, they can give up their family and pay visit petition at all cost. You can do the investigation on the paranoid petitioners, the problem that they put forward had been solved, there aren't any problem at all.
To send them to hospital is the greatest protection (on their human rights).
The blogger pointed out that Sun's comment is closed to fascism. His judgment was shared by many netizens and Sun was forced issued an apology (zh) via chinanews.com on April 6:
Some of the content [of what I said in the magazine] was inappropriate, and brought forth controversy and misunderstandings. I deeply regret this. If some of the content hurt some people’s feelings, then I wish to extend my deepest apologies. I also truly hope that they [petitioners] would be able to go through legal channels to solve their issues.
China Digital times’ translation
Explain your position please!
However, not so many people buy his apology as he didn't further explain his words. Beifeng posted an open letter to Sun from Weng Yenhai from Aizhixing Institute of Health Education in Beijing:
1、难道仅仅是“语言表述不当”吗？如果你认为是语言表述不当，那么能否现在详细地阐述一下你对相关上访者和精神疾病关系的立场？你对上访者、上访专业户、老上访专业户究竟如何看待？你认为哪些人患有“偏执型精神病”？你认为应该如何对待上访者？如何对待上访者中的精神病患者？我认为，你如果发表一个谴责滥用精神病学迫害上访者的声明，你会得到原谅的。
2、人们对你有“误解”吗？在哪里误解你了？
另外，人们普遍关心你作为我国精神卫生立法工作的专家在立场工作中的立场和意见。能否给大众说明一下？说明一下在你中国精神卫生立法中的工作职责和你对不同问题的立场意见。
请说明。此信函抄送两个我经常使用的邮件组。
2. Have people misunderstood you? Where exactly they have misinterpreted you?
Moreover, people are concerned about your position and opinion as a expert in legislation work regarding Psychiatry. So please spell it out. I have copied this letter to two email group.
Animal Professor
In ifeng's discussion thread, there are more than 9884 comments on Sun Dongdong's incident, here are some of the top comments:
From Chongqin city posted on April 3 with 5635 supporters:
孙东东教授肯定精神有问题，要不怎么会提出这样的没有常识、没有人性、没有的问题？！！！真是“臭不要脸”。
From Shandong posted on April 3 with 2705 supporters:
别胡扯了，99％的上访者都是有冤屈得不到妥善的解决。这个黑暗混乱的社会，在农村的不公平事件尤为严重，农村大多数穷的要命，而干部们却腐败横行，帐务混乱，土地乱卖。腐败如此下去，中华民族确实就没有希望了、、、、、、、、、
From China posted on April 3 with 1760 supporters:
天呀！！！这就是北大教兽！！！
From Shenzhen posted on April 3 with 1131 supporters:
孙东东医治精神病多了,他自已也是精神病了。现在社会贫富不均而且差距大,加上个别政府机构为所欲为。社会不公现象严重存在,特别是基层老百姓。不经家属同意将上访人员强制送医院是违法行为。
From Jiansu posted on April 3 with 994 supporters:
中国有如此教授，真让人莫名惊诧。
“公安部信访办:绝大多数上访者诉求是有道理的”（2009年03月12日 14:16中国青年报）
From Liaoling posted on April 3 with 948 supporters:
我看应该首先将这个狗庇孙东东送入精神病院吊打三天！！！
Sun on Melamine: Don't create trouble
Actually this is not the first time that Sun Dongdong stood out to defend government policy. During the Melamine poisonous milk incident, he said the government had no flaw in dealing with the problem and criticized media and netizens for blaming the government (via Tianya Sept 2008):
我想大家关注很正常，我们社会需要有责任感的人，但是有时候媒体、网友关注的偏，偏在也走得极端，上来先想怎么索赔。我觉得首先应该先找原因。另外一个没有必要去给有关部门找麻烦，你现在麻烦找得越多，越去质疑什么的，可能不利于事情的解决。
There were 8255 comments in the post and a majority of was criticizing Sun.


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Colombia: Humanitarian Minga Recovers Bodies of Awá Indigenous · Global Voices
Julián Ortega Martínez

On March 23, 2009, a group of 470 Colombian indigenous, mostly from the Southwestern and Central region, departed [es] from El Diviso, a small town (corregimiento) belonging to the Barbacoas municipality in Nariño department. It was the ‘humanitarian minga‘, a mission the indigenous carried out in order to rescue the bodies of their fellows from Awá tribe, who were murdered in February by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which admitted [es] they killed 8 indigenous, accusing them of co-operating with the army. One week later, on April 2nd, the group of around 700 people (including a few journalists from domestic, alternative, and especially foreign media, indigenous senator Jesús Piñacué, and two officers from the Ombudsman's Office; around 300 joined the march on its way) went back to El Diviso, where they held a public conference. The minga managed to recover 8 bodies, including 5 of them from the February massacre.
The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC for its Spanish initials), which organized the minga with the Indigenous Unity of Awá People (UNIPA, for its Spanish initials), had been posting daily updates on the minga on their blog. On March 25 they published [es] a report about the Extra-Ordinary Assembly of Indigenous Authorities, held the weekend before the minga, where they discussed how they became caught in the middle of the Colombian internal armed conflict:
En esta región del país donde habitan cerca de 15.000 indígenas Awá la disputa por el control territorial por parte de los actores armados legales e ilegales y algunas estructuras del narcotráfico en medio de las comunidades indígenas ha puesto en riesgo la integridad física, cultural y territorial de los indígena[s]. Para la Asamblea [Extraordinaria de Autoridades Indígenas] esta disputa: “ha vulnerado nuestros derechos y nuestra autonomía, desconociéndonos como sujetos políticos y de derechos y nos consideran como estorbos tanto para el régimen de derecha como de izquierda por el hecho de defender nuestra madre tierra, nuestra autonomía y cosmovisión propia, por nuestra posición integral, amplia, clara, transparente en la insistencia por defender la vida”.
Also on March 25, the minga found [es] a common grave with the bodies of Orlando Taicús (father), James Taicús, and Hugo Taicús (sons), who, according to the indigenous authorities and based on information provided by the community, were murdered by FARC in September 2008. The report from an investigative commission of the minga [es], issued on April 2nd, states that an underage girl from the same family had her leg amputated after being shot with a rifle. The rest of the family (“three widows and four orphan children”) were displaced from the territory. On the  March 27 post, the indigenous claimed that they found members of the public security forces inside the Awá indigenous territory, and demanded all armed groups to refrain from any action against the minga.
On March 29, the minga arrived to the place where the February massacre may likely have occurred, the remote Tortugaña Telembí resguardo (reservation), and found [es] four corpses, two males (one was 15 years old) and two pregnant women, both less than 25 years-old. The post also states that a forensic commission from the Inspector General's Office arrived to the jungle area, guided and protected by the indigenous guard. The children who died inside their mothers’ wombs were posthumously named Ñambí and Telembí and honoured [es] by the minga after their return.
The next day, a fifth body had been found nearby, as well as proof of the presence of armed groups, as Sergio Vargas from El Macarenazoo alternative newspaper writes [es]:
En el octavo día de Minga, lunes 30 de marzo, se desplazó la última comisión a una vereda cercana de El Volteadero, loma arriba. Allí, se encontró la octava tumba, se hizo el registro pertinente, pero, además, se hallaron pruebas de la presencia guerrillera: Trincheras construidas en el subsuelo y galones con estopines, aparentemente utilizados como bombas que funcionan con el mismo mecanismo de las minas quiebra patas, incluso se hallaban banderas blancas justo encima de donde estaban construidas las trincheras.
En el paso que utilizamos cerca de cuatro veces para desplazarnos de El Volteadero a El Bravo encontramos una mina que estaba desactivada, pero que fue acordonada por la seguridad de los mingueros. Estaba tapada con tierra, pero la salida de dos cables dio cuenta de que estuvimos al borde de una tragedia, no queríamos venir con más muertos. En ese mismo paso, se encontraba, al lado de la trocha, un laboratorio de procesamiento de cocaína. Desde la primera hasta la última vez que lo vimos hubo cambios sustanciales; al principio un plástico transparente lo recubría, pero ya al final éste se había caído, y varias canecas en su interior habían sido movidas. La Minga tenía prohibido pisar este tipo de terrenos, por lo cual es ilógico pensar que un miembro de la comisión humanitaria pudiera haber generado estos cambios, además integrantes de la guardia indígena aseguraron haber visto en sus inmediaciones dos guerrilleros armados ingresando al laboratorio.
On the eighth day of the minga, Monday, March 30, the last commission travelled to a small town (vereda) close to El Volteadero, up the hill. There, the eight tombs were found, the appropriate record was made, and in addition, proof of the presence of the guerrillas was found too: trenches built on the subsoil and gallons with detonators, apparently used as bombs which work with the same mechanism of land mines, there were even white flags just above the places where the trenches were built.
On the pass we used around four times to move from El Volteadero to El Bravo we found a deactivated land mine, which was sealed off for the safety of the minga walkers. It was covered with dirt, but two cables coming out from it made us realize that we were on the verge of a tragedy, we didn't want to have more dead. At the same pass, we found, at one side of the road, a cocaine processing lab. From the first to the last time we saw it there were substantial changes; at the beginning, a transparent plastic covered it, but in the end it had fallen to the floor, and several bins inside had been moved. The minga had been banned from stepping on that kind of grounds, therefore it is illogical to think that a member of the humanitarian commission could have caused those changes[;] besides, members of the indigenous guard claimed they had seen in the surrounding area two armed guerrilla fighters entering the lab.
Vargas also slams the mainstream media (by calling them “propaganda mass media”) for having “slandered the minga” by claiming the indigenous “were starving” and that senator Piñacué was one of  people most affected. This was because two helicopters (one of the Colombian Red Cross and other from the Acción Social government cooperation agency) had reached the area carrying food. According to Vargas, the food was delivered to the displaced indigenous people at El Diviso.
Finally, the minga came back to El Diviso and presented the report issued by an investigative commission. Despite not having found all the bodies (besides the 8 deaths admitted by FARC, there were other 3 murders and another 6 indigenous are reportedly missing), the minga claimed they had fulfilled [es] their initial objective, condemning FARC's “cruelty by beheading, torturing, and murdering our brothers Awá,” including the two pregnant women with their children, adding that FARC are perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity. The minga also condemned another armed actors, such as the ELN guerrillas, the paramilitary squads, and Los Rastrojos —a drug-trafficking band—, “who abuse the human rights of our communities and hurt our people's autonomy.” They went on by saying that “any act of violence committed by armed actors wherever it comes from will be condemned and denounced by our organizations and [other] human rights organizations,” demanding the material and intelectual authors of the massacre to be convicted. They also clarified that, unlike what some media published based on Army reports, “there were no bodies” with land mines on them.
The report of the investigative commission [es] provides details of what the minga found during their 10-day journey:
En desarrollo del recorrido se logró llegar a la quebrada el Ojal, perteneciente a la comunidad el Bravo, encontrando allí, a las 12: 45 PM, el cuerpo sin vida de Omaira Arias Nastacuás, quien fuera brutalmente asesinada contando al momento de los hechos con 3 mese[s] de embarazo. Según los testimonios, este cuerpo padecía muestras de torturas practicadas por arma blanca.
(…)
En la misma avanzada en predios de la desembocadura de la quebrada el Ojal al rio Bravo se logró encontrar los cuerpos (sic) de Blanca Patricia Guanga Nastacuas con aproximadamente 18 años de edad, quien en el momento de los hechos contara con 7 meses de embarazo. Se evidenció que su vientre fue abierto con arma blanca, extrayéndole el bebe. No logrando encontrar el cuerpo del bebe.
Al lado se encontró el cadáver de Robinson Cuasalusan, quien padeciera las mismas formas de torturas. Dedos amputados y degollado su cuello.
During the journey the minga managed to arrive to el Ojal stream, which belongs to El Bravo community, finding, at 12:45 PM, the dead body of Omaira Arias Nastacuás, who was brutally murdered being 3 months pregnant when the event occurred. According to witness accounts, this body had signs of tortures perpetrated with a sharp instrument.
(…)
On the same outpost, near the mouth of el Ojal stream to the Bravo river, the bodies (sic) of Blanca Patricia Guanga Nastacuas, approximately 18 years-old, 7 months pregnant when the event occurred, were found. It was evident her womb was cut open with a knife, the baby being removed. The baby was not found.
By her side, the corpse of Robinson Cuasalusan, tortured the same way, was found. His fingers were amputated and his throat cut.
La comisión denuncia la orden que dio la FARC a los pobladores de no tocar ni dar información sobre los cuerpos ni sobre lo sucedido so pena de muerte.
Para esta comisión es de claro conocimiento que los argumentos que las FARC, presenten como actos justificatorios, es una farsa, pues las comunidades indígenas de Tortugaña, no son colaboradores ni sapos del Ejercito, por el contrario son comunidades que se encuentra aterrorizadas por los constantes combates que se han venido desarrollando en esa parte del territorio indígena Awá.
Por último esta comisión concluye, que antes de ocurrir los hechos el Ejercito Nacional si estuvo, en las viviendas de las víctimas instando a los comuneros participar en su lucha contra la insurgencia.
Expuestas las anteriores consideraciones, queda claro que por un lado el territorio Awá de Tortugaña es un cementerio colectivo y que es la Minga Humanitaria la que logra destapar ese escenario de impunidad que se venía gestando en este territorio por causa del temor de sus pobladores.
The commission denounces the order FARC issued to the indigenous to not to touch the bodies nor give information about them or the events, under penalty of death [if they do].
To this commission it is clearly understood that arguments FARC give as justification are a farce, because the indigenous communities of Tortugaña are not Army co-operators or snitches[;] on the contrary, they're communities which are terrified because of the combats happening in that part of the Awá indigenous territory.
Finally, this commission concludes that before the events occurred the [Colombian] National Army indeed did [visit] the victims’ houses, urging the community members to participate in their fight against the insurgency.
The considerations above exposed, it is clear that, on one hand, the Awá territory of Tortugaña is a collective cemetery and that it is the Humanitarian Minga the one that managed to uncover this impunity scenario which had been developing in this territory because of its inhabitants’ fear.
The minga states that they managed to do what some State institutions couldn't, making evident that “many of the official government arguments are false and that it lacked a true political and moral will to rescue the bodies and intervening in the Awá people social issues.”
According to an Ombudsman's Office press release [es], three of the bodies found were moved by the Inspector General's Office forensic commission to the port of Tumaco, whereas the coordinates of the remaining five were recorded by the Ombudsman Office's officials in order to the Attorney General's Office technical forensics team to disinter and remove the dead bodies.
Caruri agrees [es] with the minga‘s conclusions about the government:
En dos meses las autoridades colombianas no fueron capaces —ni tuveron siquiera la intención— de buscar esos muertos. Porque no eran suyos, no eran “de los suyos”, no eran importantes, no generaban retribuciones políticas, no daban votos.
Qué lástima. Qué vergüenza!
On Sunday, the ONIC reported and denounced [es] the death of Hermes Nastacuás, another Awá indigenous who stepped on a land mine put by FARC. His three little children, who were walking with him, were wounded. The land mines were located in the same area the humanitarian minga had been days before. This crime's news was echoed by EFE news agency [es] and other local media.

author: Julián Ortega Martínez


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Cuba: Restaurant Closure  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A famous restaurant in Havana is shut down by the authorities, prompting Generation Y to comment: “I’m deeply shamed that the police in my country are dedicated to imprisoning enterprising citizens, while the streets are full of criminals who snatch purses, steal and defraud.”


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Cuba, St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Easter Week  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Havana Times blogs about Easter Week celebrations in Cuba, while in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Abeni says: “One thing I love about Easter is the increased presence of fish.”


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Dominica, Bahamas: Rastafari  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As two Customs employees in the Bahamas face possible dismissal because of their hairstyle, Dominica Weekly says: “Once the women conduct themselves professionally, are able to do their jobs efficiently and keep their hair and appearance neat I see no problem in them hav[ing] dreadlocks…”


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DRC: Unpaid Soldiers Pillage Civilian Homes · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Last week, Radio Okapi reported that members of the FARDC, the Democratic Republic of Congo's military, pillaged several homes in Kirumba, 200 kilometers north of Goma.  The soldiers, who have not been paid in three months, stole cash, telephones, and electronics:
Pillage systématique la nuit de dimanche à ce lundi, dans le quartier Mbogho de la cité de Kirumba, à plus de 200 km au Nord de Goma. 21 maisons ont été pillées par les hommes en arme et en tenue militaire, rapportent à radiookapi.net des sources administratives sur place.
D’autre part, dans la cité de Kayna, à plus de 150 km au Nord de Goma, dans le territoire de Lubero, les paysans ne se rendent plus dans leurs champs, depuis 2 semaines en raison des tracasseries des militaires FARDC. Des autorités administratives dans les 2 cités indiquent que, depuis plusieurs jours, les militaires vivent au dos de la population au motif qu'ils ne sont payés depuis 3 mois.
Systematic pillage from Sunday night until this Monday, in the Mbogho neighborhood in Kirumba town, more than 200 km north of Goma.  21 houses were pillaged by armed men in military uniform, official sources on the ground told radiookapi.net.
Meanwhile, in the town of Kayna, more than 150 km north of Goma, in Lubero territory, farmers have not returned to their fields for two weeks because of the of harassment FARDC soldiers.  Authorities in the two towns indicate that for several days, soldiers have been living off the backs of the people because they have not been paid in 3 months.
On Alex Engwete‘s blog, several discussed the story.
Wavre criticizes the army's lack of bravery and predation of the people they are supposed to protect:
Il nous faut reformer notre armee de fond en comble. Un nouvel esprit civique, un sens du devoir, un respect et une sympathie pour la population.Un soldat n'est pas une race etrangere qu'un civil, ni le protecteur automatique d'un pouvoir aussi inepte soit-il.  Retablir la solde des soldats est essentiel et indispensable.Mais est-ce que nos dirigeants le veuillent vraiment???J'en doute grandement, car nos dirigeants trop souvent se garantissent le pouvoir grace a cette horde de sauvages affames et indisciplines, commandees par des officiers souvent incompetents, mercantiles,peureux et affairistes.
Sans une armee bien entretenue et disciplinee, nous n'aurons qu'une democratie de nom et tout a fait de facade. et malgre notre immense avantage numerique,nos “soldats” continueront a deguerpir au premier coup de feu face a une quelconque petite armee organisee.
We must reform our army from the bottom up.  A new civic spirit, a sense of duty, respect and sympathy for the people.  A soldier is not a separate race, nor is he the automatic protector of a power as inept as our.  [Paying our soldiers what they're owed] is essential and indispensable.  But do our leaders really want that?  I highly doubt it, because our leaders too often safeguard their power thanks to this starving and undisciplined hoard of savages, led by often incompetent, mercantile,  cowardly, scheming officers.
Without a well-maintained and disciplined army, we will only be a democracy in name; it will all be a facade.  And despite our immense numerical advantage, our “soldiers” continue to flee at the first gunshot in the face of whatever small, organized army.
For years, the people living in eastern Congo have been at the mercy of a countless number of armies, militias, and rebel groups.  Gangoueus explains:
Il n'est pas bon d'être né à l'est de la RDC. A quel saint vont se nouer les populations de ces régions? Quand ce ne sont pas les rwandais qui les rançonnent, ce sont les ougandais et si ce ne sont pas les ougandais, ce sont les rebelles de Nkunda ou d'un autre chef milicien. Sinon, c'est l'armée congolaise qui les maltraite. On fait comment?
Matabeleland:
On feint d'être surpris par ces agissements, alors que tout le monde le sait que dépuis des lustres, je dirai dépuis la fin de la force publique la RDC n'a jamais eu d'armée, nos militaires ont toujours pris pour cible la population qu'ils sont censés protéger.
bakunde defends the FARDC, invoking the service of Katanga's :
Et quand vous avez parlé des FARDC voleurs tour à tour vous palerez de quoi après? Hormis l'évocation de menus larcins commis par l'ensemble de 100000 soldats congolais quel sera le sujet de la prochaine conversation? Il es triste qu'un pays aussi vaste que le Congo ne susscite qu'un seul point de discusssion de votre part depuis plus de deux ans. C'est tout ce que vous savez du Congo. Tiens les gendarmes Katangais qui sont restés des années en Angola n'ont jamais fait parler d'eux sauf lorsqu'ils comùbattaient…
OURAGAN responds:
pauvre BAKUNDE plaindre les congolais qui veulent que leur armée soit exemplaire ,digne et forte …vous espérez que tout les congolais soit complaisant et indulgent comme vous ceux qui profitent du système désastreux et humiliant pour les congolais donnez nous les raisons d'être fier de vos 100 000 milles FADRC humiliés sur tout les terrains des opérations militaires ou de leur missions de rétablir l'ordre préférant les pillages et les viols a ce jour il n'y a pas de raisons d'être fier de cette armée de votre pouvoir
Alex Engwete, responding to bakunde, believes there is Katanga's police are not to be praised:
…Je connais donc intimement les anciens Gendarmes Katangais. Ce régiment était dirigé par le sanguinaire Colonel Tshimpola, l’assassin du Colonel Tshatshi. C’étaient des pillards et des tueurs — tout comme les autres soldats congolais. Sur ma rue à Pumuzika, à Kisangani, deux de ces tueurs — je me rappelle encore le nom de l’un d’entre eux : le Sergent Venant — ont abattu le père de mon copain, père d’une famille nombreuse, qui s’entêtait de ne pas leur céder son vélo Raleigh… Alors, ne raconte pas des bobards sur les Gendarmes Katangais…
Le Colonel Tshimpola avait lâchement assassiné le Colonel Tshatshi à Kisangani.  Le Colonel Tshatshi, commandant du 3ème Groupement de l’ANC, s’était rendu au bureau du Colonel Tshimpola pour lui demander d’ordonner à ses hommes de déposer les armes en vue de commencer le processus d’intégration de ses hommes dans l’Armée Nationale Congolaise à Kitona. Le Colonel Tshatshi s’était déplacé sans gardes du corps, sans armes, avec son chauffeur. Ivre de chanvre, le Colonel Tshimpola l’a froidement abattu, dans son bureau, avant de sortir pour tuer le chauffeur ! Vers 10 h du matin ! Alors, ne nous parle pas des gendarmes katangais comme s’ils avaient l’éthique des samouraïs !
…I know well these former Kantaga soldiers.  This regiment was led by the murderous Colonel Tshimpola, Colonel Tshatshi's killer.  They were pillagers and murderers–like all the other Congolese soldiers.  On my street in Pumuzika, in Kisangani, two of these killers–I still remember the name of one of them: Sergeant Venant–beat my friend's father, father of a very large family, who stubbornly refused to give them his Raleigh bike…So don't tell me stories about Katanga's forces…
Colonel Tshimpola shamefully killed Colonel Tshatshi in Kisangani.  Colonel Tshatshi, commander of the ANC's 3rd regiment, went to Colonel Tshimpola's office to ask him to order his men to lay down their arms in preparation for the integration of [Tshimpola's] men in the Congolese National Army in Kitona.  Colonel Tshatshi went there without body guards, without weapons, with his driver.  High on weed, Colonel Tshimpola beat him in cold blood, in his office, before going out to kill his driver.  At 10 in the morning!  So don't speak of Katanga's forces as though they had the ethics of Samourais!
bakunde responds to Alex, writing, “the heroes of our enemies are not our heroes.”
@Alex, Vous pouvez défendre vos positions sans être excessif. Ce soldat valeureux nommé Tshimpola Colonel des forces armées congolaises est un héros pour les siens,pour les katangais et pour ses frères d'armes de part et d'autre.

author: Jennifer Brea


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Ecuador: Blogs, Twitts and Beef Get-together · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

iPab [es] announces the Blogs, Twitts and Beef get-together in Quito, Ecuador scheduled for April 18.


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Ecuador: Cell Phone Robberies in Quito · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

The younger brother of Andrés Rodríguez of Modestamente Humano [es] was robbed of his cell phone outside of his school in Quito, Ecuador. Unfortunately, the insecurity is so common that many have similar stories to tell.


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Egypt enters new GPS era  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egyptian Zeinobia reports on Egyptian Chronicles: “At last the GPS ban is lifted in Egypt thanks to a Presidential decree issued recently. NTRA has approved the use and import of GPS mobile phones and cars with GPS navigation system.”


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El Salvador: The Death Penalty as the Only Solution · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

The only solution to halt the wave of violent crime in El Salvador is to restore the death penalty writes MPITES [es] and does not think that human rights groups have a right to provide their opinion because they are not the ones caught in the middle of “the daily terror of so much crime and extortion.”


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Georgia: April 9 protest coverage · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

As part of an online project, the GIPA Journalism School Blog will be covering tomorrow's planned opposition protest in Tbilisi. In the first post, Sako's Blog says that most residents of the Georgian capital are unhappy with the president, Mikhail Saakashvili, but will not necessarily participate in the protests.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Georgia: Tbilisi braced for mass protests · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

This is Tbilisi Calling, the blog of Al Jazeera English's Matthew Collin, posts video and a report on tomorrow's planned opposition rally in the Georgian capital.


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Haiti: Planting a Garden  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Konbit Pou Ayiti seeks to create sustainable solutions to hunger in Baie d’Orange, Haiti by “working with local officials to plant a garden that can benefit the community.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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India: BJP’s IT Vision And Poverty · Global Voices
Rezwan

Atanu Dey takes a look at the $80 billion dollar IT vision plan of the Indian political party BJP and comments that: “there is not even the slightest indication of whether the massive spending will result in any benefits to the poor who need help.”

author: Rezwan


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India: The Advent of Citizen-Driven Election Monitoring · Global Voices
Rezwan

We are living in an era of information overload. As new media tools are becoming accessible to more and more people, everybody is chipping in with their sides of a story and disseminating first hand reports. Today there is a plethora of instant information via twitter messages and other citizen media tools. The phenomenon like the successful use of Twitter during Mumbai attacks is unpredictable, has value in real time and cannot be archived.
That is where Ushahidi makes a difference. Ushahidi (‘witness’ in Swahili) is an tool that was used to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. It provided a mechanism for the local observers to submit reports using their mobile phones or the internet. The information was filtered by local activist volunteers and an archive of the events were kept in an website using geographical mashup which is accessible to readers. Its success led to its replication as a tool for crisis reporting in some other places of the world.
Eric Hersman, one of the persons behind Ushahidi describes the process of filtering the information in Ushahidi:
Crowdsourcing the filter: how does it work?
The good news is that the Ushahidi model has been introduced in India too. Vote Report India, a collaborative citizen-powered election monitoring platform based on the Ushahidi engine, will monitor the parliamentary elections in India, which is starting in a few weeks from now.
Eric Hersman writes:
At Ushahidi, we’ve seen a number of deployments of the platform, but few have been as well organized and grown with as much community input as this Indian one, led by Gaurav Mishra. On the technical side, Selvam Velmurugan of eMoshka, a non-partisan non-profit organization to enable stronger democracies through increased citizen awareness and engagement, has done most of the heavy lifting.
Interestingly, Indian has a Twitter-like service called SMS GupShup that has millions of users subscribing to certain channels. The team is creating city-specific update accounts on Twitter and SMSGupShup for the top 8 cities in India (ex: VoteReportMumbai, VoteReportDelhi etc.). They can then point the RSS feeds for these cities to these accounts and give users four options for subscribing to alerts: by email, by RSS, or by SMS on Twitter or SMSGupShup.
Gaurav Mishra of Vote Report India, also a Global Voices author, writes in his own blog:
Basically, users contribute direct SMS, email, and web reports on violations of the Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct (PDF). The platform will then aggregate these direct reports with news reports, blog posts, photos, videos and tweets related to the elections from all relevant sources, in one place, on an interactive map.
We are hoping that Vote Report India will not only increase transparency and accountability in the Indian election process, but also provide the most complete picture of public opinion in India during the elections.
In a previous post Gaurav weighed on Twitter and Ushahidi to find out which is the better mobile citizen reporting tool considering India's situation.
Indians can send in reports to Vote Report India in four ways:
1. SMS to 5676785
2. Email to report@votereport.in
3. Twitter with hash tag #votereport
4. Online via web form


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Indonesia: Lessons from the dam tragedy · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Love Ely shares some thoughts on why the Situ Gintung dam collapsed in Indonesia. He also proposes that those who live in disaster-prone areas should prepare for an emergency response system.

author: Mong Palatino


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Iran:”90 sites were dismanteld” · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced in Gerdab site the name of about 90 sites that they have dismanteld a few weeks ago. Most of these sites were accused of being involved in poronographic and anti-Islamic activities.


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Iraq: Obama’s Visit Just Fine  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Iraqi Pundit comments on US President Barack Obama's visit to Iraq and says: “President Obama, who sounded different from Sen. Obama, did fine.”

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Italy: citizens provide news and reflections on the earthquake in L’Aquila · Global Voices
Bernardo Parrella

On Monday April 6th, at 3:32am local time (01:32 GMT), L'Aquila, capital city of the central Abruzzo region, 60 miles northeast of Rome, was stricken by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake [en]. Even if the country is not new to such tragedies, this is Italy's worst earthquake in three decades. The latest figures include more than 250 people dead, 1,000 people injured (100 of them seriously), and over 25,000 people left without homes. Overall 26 towns and villages have been hit [it], and some virtually destroyed. The trembling was felt all over central Italy, including Rome, where it was even captured on film by the TV show “Big Brother” 24/7 cameras [it].
Rude awakening
The first pictures appeared immediately on Flickr and many more were uploaded during the day.
Similarly, the first news was transmitted by local Twitter users (particularly with hashtags #italy and #terremoto) and quickly spread throughout the world, thanks to services such as Breaking Tweets [en] – even before the satellite news channels broadcasts.
[Awaken by the earthquake, look up immediately
info on twitter (and I find them)]
And in the early morning hours more news and comments began to pour in on Facebook. On the group “Terremoto in Abruzzo” [it] (Earthquake in Abruzzo) Chiara urges people “not not leave them alone” and writes:
l'Aquila distrutta… speravo fosse un sogno ed invece è tutta realtà… non ci posso ancora credere… mi si stringe il cuore… ma l'Aquila ritornerà ad essere bella come prima ed a emozionarci ancora.. Sono vicina a tutti…
Many ready to help right away
On the same “Terremoto in Abruzzo” group, someone from Messina, a city in Sicily, says he's ready to hit the road to go there and help, just like many others:
vorrei partire come volontario x dare un aiuto anche io.. qualcuno che è della provincia di messina sa dirmi come fare?? chi contattare? fatemi sapere… grazie
On the first day alone, on Facebook there were about 500 different groups, with appeals for solidarity and action – like this one from Daniela in Reggio Emilia:
in questo drammatico momento di immenso dolore, mi rendo disponibile ad ospitare una famiglia presso la mia casa, offrendo loro un alloggio confortevole, e tutto il mio sostegno morale.
Also Alessandra has in her heart the many homeless people and writes:
Facciamo un gruppo in cui le persone che hanno più di una casa si offrono di mettere a disposizione un'abitazione per gli sfollati del terremoto. Io sono disponibile.
COME CI POSSIAMO MUOVERE?
Citizen media help to cope with tragedy
Daylight brings into sharp focus the magnitude of the tragedy and the web is the preferred place to disseminate information worldwide in a split second. On YouTube, Mastrostyle uploads a  slideshow with several moving photos. Also Lukalove creates another poignant slideshow using the online software slide.com. Several people ready  with video- or cell-cameras descend into the wreckage to talk with the victims and people involved in the rescue efforts.
Here is a video showing a girl just extracted from the rubble being taken in an ambulance. While the following video includes some interviews [it] with people displaced in a park in L'Aquila:
Criticism of mainstream media coverage
The event seems to make everybody very tense and sensitive. Many cannot even tolerate small mistakes from major news outlets online. The pensierispettinati blog [it] noticed that the photo gallery from L'Aquila published by the daily Corriere della Sera website includes one photo that doesn't belong to this tragedy: it's a picture of the May 2008 earthquake in Sechuan, China. They removed the offending picture, only to inadvertently post, a short time later, another picture related to rescue efforts in an earthquake in Turkey.
Several bloggers criticized [It] another major newspaper website, Repubblica.it for somehow exploiting the tragic event, boosting their advertisements and banners among its reports.
An avoidable tragedy?
Many netizens are also claiming that the earthquake was somehow expected: being an area at risk, the Abruzzo region was monitored closely. In fact, only a week earlier, using his own invention of gas radon measurements, Giampaolo Giuliani, a scientist related to  the National Nuclear Physics Institute, had even predicted a very strong earthquake in a nearby city and alerted local officials about his findings.  But the Head of the Civil Protection Agency, Bertolaso, immediately accused him of alarmism, threatening to sue him if he kept talking about it – so Giuliani kept his mouth shut.
The story is still very much alive in the blogosphere.  Enzo Giarrittiello, on his blog La voce di Kayfa writes [it]:
Ora che purtroppo le sue previsioni si sono avverate, seppure con una settimana di ritardo rispetto a quanto aveva inizialmente ipotizzato, non sarebbe il caso di stanziare fondi per favorire la ricerca di Giuliani anziché mandarlo in prigione?  Dando per scontato che le sue teorie sono pure illazioni, senza nemmeno cercare di capire i principi su cui si fondano, non ci si comporta in maniera oscurantista assumendo lo stesso atteggiamento dei censori medievali?
On Facebook, many groups were launched in solidarity with this researcher, while in a few hours more than 100 comments were posted on a related story on Repubblica.it [it], including one comment referring to a 2005 online forum detailing the method utilized by Giuliani [it] to forecast earthquake and his international operative connections.
On the other hand, the official scientific community refuted the validity of his predictions, including an interview with the director of the National Nuclear Physics Institute, where he states: “Giuliani doesn't work for my Institute and on this issue we need to be very careful when we say something publicly.”
What's next?
Unfortunately it seems inevitable to have controversial issues overshadowing the actual tragedy in such circumstances. Several Italian media sources and netizens are already debating the reconstruction plan and funding, with an overall cost estimated at about 1.2 billion euros. However, the situation on the ground is still far from over.
Many fear the death toll will rise even more – the latest figure is at 260. Rescue workers are working non-stop looking for survivors: a 98-year-old grandmother was found alive Tuesday after being buried for 30 hours. On the same night temperatures fell to 39 degrees in L'Aquila, dipping to near freezing at higher altitudes. And the area has been rattled by more than 200 tremors, some of them as higher as 5.3 magnitude.
Here more details [it] about donations and other assistance options.
————-
.

author: Bernardo Parrella


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Jamaica: Learning from Adveristy  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Adversity and being a writer, especially one from the Caribbean, are synonymous”: Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp shares what he has learned.


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Japan: The best remedies for hay fever · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

id: Fromdusktildawn sums up [ja] the best items and treatments against hay fever (花粉症, kafunsho).
The blogger illustrates the pollen structure and the allergens that cause the hay fever through graphs and microscope images, and accurately reports on the different masks, vacuum cleaners and air filters purchasable in Japan.

author: Scilla Alecci


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Jordan: No Honour in Killing  · Global Voices
Rami Abdelrahman

For the past three weeks, Jordanian bloggers have been renewing calls against “honor killings,” following a court conviction of a father – and his two sons – for beating his daughter to death for “going out with full make up.”
The case sent waves of awe and shock across the Jordanian blogosphere and some of the mainstream newspapers, as this was the seventh case this year of women being murdered brutally by their relatives on the suspicion that they had committed “adultery.”
Blogger Kinzi was among the first to call for Jordanian male bloggers to break their silence about this topic.
“You all rose well when it was Gaza. This time, the evil is within our own land, perpetuated by our own laws, executed by Jordanian hands. Don’t you care as much for your fellow female citizens as you do for innocent Gazan women?”
The Arab Observer answered with a post initiating an email campaign:
“It is time for our local media, whether it is printed or online, to stand up to their responsibilities towards Jordanian citizens. It is time for you all to raise up your voices and lobby to abolish such retarded law. We awe it to ourselves, to our mothers, to our daughters and to our wives, we ought to provide them with dignity, equality, and safety. No Jordanian woman should fear the prosecution of a male relative. No man should get away with murder under the name of honor.”
Jordanian law stipulates that a man who finds his wife or a related female engaged in “adultery” and kills or wounds her as a result of this discovery in a “fit of fury” receives a reduced sentence, according to articles 340 and 98 of the Penal code. The Jordanian parliament, with conservative, tribal and Islamic MPs leading majority of seats, has failed twice in 2003 to reverse or change these laws. Seven cases of “honor killings” took place that year.
Joining other bloggers, Qwaider wrote in support of stopping honor killings, saying there is no proof whatsoever that this is related to Islamic laws and teachings.
Many think that honor killing has it's roots in the Islamic Shariah. Quite frankly nothing can be farther from the truth. In fact, Islam doesn't take people's lives as award for committing adultery without proof… You really need 4 people to see them in the act as witnesses…  The punishment for any unmarried person (male or females) is few flogs (or the modern equivalent).
He called upon fellow bloggers to start “a campaign to protest the unjust, inhuman, and extremely degrading dishonor killing pardons that are spelled out in the law.”
The calls were echoed in the Syrian blogosphere.
According to blogger Bam Bam, there has been little interaction between Jordanian and Syrian bloggers. But the recent campaign found support  from Syrian bloggers as seen in posts written by Abu Fares, Razan, and last but not least KJ who wrote a fictional story entitled “why I killed my sister.”
Bam Bam goes on to say this is high time to ask all the tough question:
“Are honor crimes an isolated occurrence or a culmination of several events that lead to them ? how frequent do those events occur and if I reduce the occurrence of the most frequent event can I reduce honor crimes? Why do people commit honor crimes? is it because of religion , to protect social status and reputation, or some other reasons?”
Just as bloggers continued to spread these messages, another case was reported – a 19-year-old man was charged of stabbing his 21-year-old sister, just after she was released from the governor's protection. He confessed to the murder, saying his sister “often left their family home to go to an unknown destination.”
Blogger Kinzi commented on the sentence, saying it is an “improvement from the six months slap on the hand.”  The man was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.  She added that blogger Naseem Tarawnah  had written about the murder when it took place in 2007. He then wrote that the victim, as in many similar cases, was not sexually active.
It is estimated that an average of 18 to 20 cases of “honor killings” are reported in Jordan every year, according to this televised report.

author: Rami Abdelrahman


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Kenya: A ‘Cheetah Zoo’ in Nature Conservancy? · Global Voices
Juliana Rotich

The Mara Triangle blog is looking into a controversial project that would result in construction of a ‘cheetah zoo’. William posts about the news that the Kenya Wildlife Service had stopped construction of such a zoo, and provides links to more information about the project.


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Maldives: Facebook Changes Lives · Global Voices
Rezwan

Island Chic's Babble has a crush on Facebook and comments: “I am definitely grateful for the changes it has brought to my life and how it has helped me understand myself better than I ever did before!”


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Moldova: “Grape Revolution” / “Twitter Revolution” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Peaceful protests that took place in Moldova's capital Chisinau on Monday, following the victory of the ruling Communist Party in the April 5 election, turned violent on Tuesday, as protesters stormed and set fire to the parliament building.
Lyndon of Scraps of Moscow has been posting updates and translations of the blog, Twitter and media coverage of the situation in Moldova: in this comprehensive and insightful post, Lyndon links to some 30 different sources, and there is more relevant content to be found on his blog, tagged “Grape Revolution” (“If the protesters manage to hold out and dig in downtown, we'll be searching for a name – perhaps it could be the Grape Revolution, or the Wine Revolution, in a nod to Moldova's most famous non-human export.”).
Nosemonkey's EUtopia and Julien Frisch have more links to coverage of the protests. Here's one observation from Nosemonkey's EUtopia:
[…] But with both internet and phone networks down in Moldova itself, reliable information is hard to come by. The major Western television news networks are – so far – silent on events in this small, largely ignored country, and so (as so often) Google News is your best source for press reports. It’s all strangely reminiscent of the early stages of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution four and a half years ago, where the attention of the Western press was similarly slow to turn to the East, and information was similarly confused and confusing. […]
Mihai Moscovici and kosmopolit are among those who have been posting regular English-language updates on Twitter; the latter also has two blog posts by a Chisinau-based guest-blogger – here and here.
While it's too early to speak of the outcome of the post-election uprising, one thing is sure: the impact of social media on facilitation and coverage of the protests in Moldova – which is known as “the poorest country in Europe” – has been outstanding.
Evgeni Morozov wrote this on Foreign Policy's net.effect blog, in a post titled “Moldova's Twitter Revolution”:
[…] Will we remember the events that are now unfolding in Chisinau not by the color of the flags but by the social-networking technology used?
If you asked me about the prospects of a Twitter-driven revolution in a low-tech country like Moldova a week ago, my answer would probably be a qualified “no”. Today, however, I am no longer as certain. If you bothered  to check the most popular discussions on Twitter in the last 48 hours, you may have stumbled upon a weird threat of posts marked with a tag “#pman” (it's currently listed in Twitter's “Trending Topics” along with “Apple Store”, Eminem, and Easter).
No, “pman” is not short for “pacman”; it stands for “Piata Marii Adunari Nationale”, which is Romanian name for the biggest square in Chisinau, Moldova's capital. […]
[…]
Ever since yesterday's announcement that Moldova's communists have won enough votes to form a government in Sunday's elections, Moldova's progressive youth took to the streets in angry protests. As behooves any political protest by young people today, they also turned to Facebook and Twitter to raise awareness about the planned protests and flashmobs. […]
[…]
The related posts on Twitter are being posted at a record-breaking rate – I've been watching the Twitter stream for the last 20 minutes – and I see almost 200 new Twitter messages marked with “pman” (virtually all of them in Romanian, with only one or two in English). In the last few hours there have also emerged several “smart” aggregators of posts on the subject, like this one – they have to contextualize what exactly is happening — and this one for YouTube videos. Many blog posts are also being updated in real-time – minute by minute – check this one. There are also a plenty of videos on YouTube and photos, including those uploaded to Facebook. […]
Andy of Siberian Light quoted from Morozov's post and made this comment about Twitter – “the latest darling of the Revolutionati”:
[…] Twitter is certainly how I found out about today’s protests. But I do wonder how much Twitter has really been used to generate the protests. More likely, I think, it’s been used (and used brilliantly) to get the word out to people outside of Moldova, and to make the world sit up and take notice. […]
Rotterdam-based “networking enthusiast” Cezar Maroti believes it is somewhat misleading to label the events in Moldova as “Twitter Revolution” only. On Twitter, he wrote, here and here:
There are only 71 Twitter users in Moldova http://ow.ly/2idK This cannot have been orchestrated through twitter! […]
***
We DON'T have a Twitter Revolution in Moldova. It's a Social Network Rev. Other SNs are also used: Y!mess Youtube Flickr Facebook […]

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Nicaragua: Failure in the Use of ICTs · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Even though Nicaragua was the 2nd Latin American country to get the internet, a recent 406 page study shows that it has failed to take advantage of the use of ICTs. Juan Ortega writes that Nicaraguans themselves are to blame, but provides some suggestions for initiatives for how to improve this standing [es].

author: Eduardo Avila


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Pakistan: Teaching Urdu To Expatriate Kids · Global Voices
Rezwan

Aisha PZ at All Things Pakistan urges the expatriate Pakistani parents to teach the Pakistani state language Urdu to their children.


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Philippines: Alternative to layoffs · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Noting that job layoffs are on the rise in the call center industry, Mi from the Philippines advises companies to cut salaries instead of reducing the workforce.


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Sri Lanka: What Happened To The Money? · Global Voices
Rezwan

Rising of Ceylon asks some questions regarding the international aids that have flown into Sri Lanka after the Tsunami in December 2004: “what happened to all those money which came to the country in bucks? What happened to all those plans which the government had??? Where did they all go???”


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St. Lucia: Walcott & Oxford?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

St. Lucian-born Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott apparently has “the slimmest of edges” in “the campaign to succeed Christopher Ricks as Oxford professor of poetry”, according to Caribbean blog Repeating Islands.


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Tanzania: “Satolicious” Collections · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ladybrille writes about new collections, “Satolicious”, by Tanzania's designer Mustapha Hassanali, “His collections encompassed bridal gowns, traditional African fabrics sewn into Afro-Western fusions and beautiful strapless multi-colored silk chiffon gowns that appeared to move with such fluidity.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Tanzania: Zebra and Giraffe According to Tanzanians · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“Zebras” and “Giraffes” according to Tanzanians, “In a conversation late last night with one of my Tanzanian colleagues, he explains that in Dar es Salaam it is not unusual to label women ‘zebras’ and ‘giraffes’.”


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Thailand: Thousands join anti-government protest · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Tens of thousands of protesters joined the opposition Red Shirts in Bangkok in a bid to topple the government. Many of the rallyists were supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.


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Zimbabwe: Deputy Prime Minister Speaks the Truth · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Eusebia discusses the recent speech by Zimbabwes Deputy Prime Minister, “The speech was so full of truth that it made me realise that at least we have one man in the coalition government who has the intelligence to objectively evaluate perfomance of the coalition government and point out exactly were they are going wrong.”


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Bahamas: A Free Society?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“In a free country, identity and employment should not be linked. One should not be dependent on the other”: Nicolette Bethel warns that the Bahamas is going back to “plantation” values.


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Bahrain: The Real Highway Code? · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Jeremiah, blogging at Prophet in Bahrain, has outlined what he believes is the Bahrain Highway Code: “1. At any junction 1 in 4 cars must do a U-Turn.”

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Brunei: Creating Environmental Awareness · Global Voices
Senor Pablo

The recent Earth Hour event has seen the world banding together in the endeavour to raise awareness on the need to look after the fragile environment of the Earth.  Voting for Earth was called out.  As reported by my fellow GV author Noor Hidayah, in the case of Brunei, many bloggers seem to be supportive of the initiative and local papers have provided more reporting on the event.  While many saw Brunei’s participation as an achievement, many also deemed it as an insufficient action to preserve the environment.
One of the local papers, Brudirect, reported on the last minute attempt to get people involved in the Earth Hour event. Although several corporations such as car dealers, hotels and individuals participated, they feel too little was made in educating the public about the event.
“While the initiatives made by these admirable few are commendable and exemplary, Brunei's efforts have been far overshadowed by the vast efforts in the neighbouring countries leaving Brunei, a country that makes up one third of the Heart of Borneo, far behind in eliminating complacency and ignorance of climate change and its devastating effects on the Earth.”
“A 19-year-old local student studying at Maktab Duli Pengiran Muda Al-Muhtadee Billah admitted to being ignorant of Earth Hour. When told of the efforts of schools in neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore, she said: “They never mentioned anything about Earth Hour in school let alone what it is about.” The absence of local public service announcements has also left much of the public “in the dark” on the significance and importance of Earth Hour 2009.”
Interesting enough, the University of Brunei Darussalam supported Earth Hour.
“Staff members of UBD spoke of how the awareness of energy conservation in students should be embedded as part of their curriculum as it was important for the next generation”.  Assistant Registrar for the Chancellory, Kenny Liew said that with this cause, it would put UBD on the level of a world-class university. “This is a good step forward for us, not just on the education side but also to create awareness amongst the university's community as well as the public,” he said. “I don't think Earth Hour is transparent in Brunei because some people still do not know the rationale behind it. Someone needs to highlight the main purpose behind it and we hope that UBD can advocate it,” he said.
Another local paper, Brunei Times, reported that
Many Bruneians are still in the dark on the procedures and objectives of participating in Earth Hour 2009 to battle global warming.”The concept to take action against global warming is interesting and has potential, but its feasibility has to be questioned, said Frankie Tong, a sales executive working in the private sector.”I have seen an advertisement about it on Astro but to be honest I have no idea what it is about or what it is for,” said the 25-year-old. “I think it is kind of stupid to urge the public to switch off their lights because most of us will not pay attention to it. It might be a better idea to have the government shut down the power for us instead,” he added.
Blogger Hard Break Kid mentions the places where Earth Hour was observed  while Nurture Nature uploads a video about Brunei's participation during Earth Hour.
Blogger Scripted Destiny believes that joining Earth Hour is a vote to save the environment:
People of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming.
DenCorp observes that Earth Hour was a failure in Brunei.
All and all, Earth Hour was a total failure in Brunei. There was no support. The senior citizens didn't understand the whole point. The younger couldn't care less.”
Slay3rzz points out what Earth Hour is all about
“The main objective of this campaign is to continue to be energy efficient beyond Earth Hour, making small actions everyday to achieve our goal in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.”
Z-Fame is surprised to learn that Brunei joined the Earth Hour. Simplisti thinks that Brunei's participation in the event would improve its global image
We can show the world that we can do something. Then, maybe the perception that people of Brunei live on pokok (trees) will be banished.”
Green Campaign  provides information on how to help reduce the negative impact on the environment by using reusable bags instead of plastic bags. Some of the green initiatives are already proposed before but not many are supporting them. In most restaurants and food stalls, styrofoams containers are used instead of reusable containers. The same goes for the reusable shopping bags. Although many initiatives were introduced to the public, the lack of incentives in using them made customers to leave them at home.
Personally, I  use them but not all supermarkets welcome them. For instance, I was stopped by a security guard at a big supermarket for trying to bring in bags into the store. The lack of coordination amongst the staff organisation in the supermarkets  created this set back. Also many supermakets do not want to stop providing plastic bags to customers for fear of losing customers.
The Earth Hour event highlighted the need for continued awareness on the need to preserve the fragile environment. There are many initiatives that can be taken up by ordinary citizens rather than waiting for government authorities or NGOs to highlight them.
Brunei's participation during Earth Hour

author: Senor Pablo


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China: A Satire That Caused an Uproar in Both China and The Philippines · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The story of Chip Tsao's War at home has traveled to mainland China, and nationalistic sentiment is moderating netizen's reaction. China digital times has translated mainland Chinese netizens’ reaction.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Health Care Reform · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Josie Liu from China in Transition comments on the China health care reform blueprint.


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Cuba: 10th Havana Biennial · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Havana Times posts photos of installations featured in the 10th Havana Biennial, which continues until the end of April, while Yohandry's Weblog [ES] wonders whether there are two biennials.


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Egypt: Stranded Palestinian Mother Tweets Ordeal from Cairo Airport · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The ordeal of a Palestinian mother and her two children, who have been stranded at the Cairo International Airport for an entire day so far, has engaged Twitter users across the region today.
Journalist Laila El-Haddad, who is en route to Gaza from the US via Cairo, kept her followers, friends and the general public informed of her ordeal through a string of tweets at GazaMom, creating another cycle of retweets, Facebook entries and blog commentaries as hope dimmed and her stamina was put to test.
On her blog, Raising Yousuf and Noor: dairy of a Palestinian mother, El-Haddad explains:
We have been stuck in Cairo airport for nearly a day now. We are neither being allowed entry or exit by Egyptian authorities, who insist that as long as Rafah Crossing is closed, they are under strict orders not to allow Palestinians in.
This is despite a signed letter of consent I received personally from the Egyptian consul-general in Washington the day of my travel from the US.
To quote the Egyptian officials here in the airport “so sue him”.
Using reason, she writes:
I tried to plead that it was not my fault Egypt was in the way of my home- that if I could,I'd parachute in; that i simply wanted to go back home.
El-Haddad's dilemma is compounded in that her visa to the US has expired:
We cannot return to the US b/c my visa has expired and I was planning on renewing it in Beirut where I was to meet up with Yassine after my Gaza stay.
And we are not being allowed entry to Cairo because Rafah is closed.
And no one is giving her answers and yet the blogger is determined to use whatever means are available to her to let the world know her story:
No one seems to have an answer, other than whast was told to me this morning. No one knows where my file is or what is going to happen. I have an off again on again wifi signal, and tryig my best to keep updates on twitter @gazamom.
The only certainty is uncertainty.
Her tweets started four hours after arriving in Cairo, where she states her situation:
Later on, uncertainty sets in, as hope dims:
Using the technology, El-Hadded decides to record her ordeal:
She then turns her attention to her children, who are travelling with her, telling us:
Turning back to her situation and that many Palestinians find themselves in, El-Haddad writes:
She ends her tweets with the following messages:
After going missing for three hours, El-Haddad tells us where she was:
Egyptian blogger Arabaway picks up the story and posts it on his blog:
Palestinian blogger Leila el-Haddad is held by the authorities at the Cairo International Airport and facing deportation… She’s keeping us updated via her twitter…
And writing for The Huffington Post, Global Voices Online Morocco author Jillian York observes:
Long gone are the days of no witnesses; whereas previously someone detained in an airport would be denied communication, save for perhaps a phone call, access to wi-fi means that any absence of updates from Leila will be noticed. And access to a pocket-sized video camera such as the Flip means that Leila is able to record hours of footage, exposing the conditions where she is being held for the world to see.
Meanwhile, El-Haddad's saga continues. Her crime: