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Haiti, U.S.A.: Remembering Fr. Jean-Juste · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Blogger tributes are pouring in for the late Fr. Gérard Jean-Juste, a Haitian Roman Catholic priest who was known by his admirers as a champion of the poor and an ardent supporter of the Fanmi Lavalas political party, headed by ousted President Jean Bertrand Aristide.
Jean-Juste gained global attention in 2005, when he was arrested for the murder of Haitian journalist Jacques Roche, a move that his supporters say was politically motivated – Haitian blogger Wadner Pierre called it “a flagrant act of political repression.”  Soon after his arrest, Amnesty International named Fr. Jean-Juste a “prisoner of conscience”; after about six months in custody, the charges were dropped and he was freed.  He was also granted a temporary release by the interim Haitian government, allowing him to travel to the United States to receive medical treatment for the leukemia with which he had been recently diagnosed.
Cancer wasn't the only enemy Fr. Jean-Juste was battling – even after the murder charges against him were dropped, he continued to stave off charges of firearm possession and conspiracy, even though no evidence had ever been produced to substantiate the allegations. Haiti, Land of Freedom, happily marked the day (June 19, 2008) that the priest was free of all charges:
Father Jean Juste spoke with HaitiAnalysis by telephone from his parish in Haiti – the Church of Saint Claire – where a boisterous celebration was well underway. “I thank my Lord Jesus” he said.  “I believed He would not abandon me. I forgive everybody who contributed in my two illegal arrests, which could have cost me my life. I could have died in jail. Now I can continue serving the poor.”
The Catholic Church hierarchy in Haiti suspended Jean Juste for political activity rather than speak out in his support while he was imprisoned. Asked about the suspension, which has outraged his numerous supporters, Jean Juste expressed confidence that it would be lifted.
“I am not guilty and they will reject their decision to allow me to do my job at the church as Jesus did until the last minute before he betrayed and arrested”.
Parish priests like Jean Juste, and Jean Betrand Aristide formed part of the ti legliz (little church) movement. It distinguished itself by opposing the dictatorship of Jean Claude Duvalier.
On May 27, 2009, Fr. Gérard Jean-Juste became free of all earthly shackles as well, passing away at the age of 62.  Bloggers continue to pay their respects:  Dying in Haiti republishes Fr. Jean-Juste's obituary by The New York Times, and remembered his many good deeds…
He tirelessly worked for the people of Haiti for decades.
He pleaded at Mass for the help of Saint Jude.
My wife and I knew him as a man of his word. He always followed through no matter how big or small the issue.
Father was courageous also. He never backed down.
Rest in peace, Father. And when you bump into Saint Jude, tell him to not forget Haiti.
The Haitian Blogger republishes an article by Professor Bell Angelot:
Father Jean Juste was always coupled to what’s just and morally right.
A powerful spirit has left this earth, and our mourning darkens the whole city. A griot left for eternity and the whole tribe is in tears. But though the prophet is gone, his light remains. The Haitian community of Miami has just rung the toll to announce in pain, and in a flood of tears the departure from this planet of Reverend Father Gérard Jean-Juste. Father Jean-Juste was one of the pioneers of Liberation Theology alongside Jean Bertrand Aristide of Haiti, Leonardo Boff of Nicaragua and Oscar Romero of Salvador.
Father Jean Juste was the flag bearer for Haitian immigrant rights, for those without papers, for those who braved the shark-infested seas and for whom Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is still denied. Father Jean Juste was a man of justice, his very name called forth what’s just.
Finally, Repeating Islands remembers Jean-Juste as the man who “waged a relentless battle against unequal treatment for Haitians in the courts, the media, the streets, and occasionally, from jail”, noting that “reactions to Jean-Juste’s death underscore his commitment to the Haitian people.”


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Honduras: Strong Earthquake Shakes Country · Global Voices
Leonidas Mejia

Honduras awoke early in the morning of May 28 when an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale shook the country. The epicenter was located 130 kilometers northeast of the city of La Ceiba, along the Atlantic Ocean coast. At 2:24 a.m. local time, the earthquake caused residents to emerge from their houses in the darkness in order to find safety. Five deaths were confirmed, more injured, and slowly there is the discovery of damages to the country's infrastructure like buildings, bridges, and highways.
Microblogging platforms like Blipea and Twitter were the first to report the earthquake from users in San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa and La Ceiba. Many reported on the situation around them using the hashtag #temblorHN (earthquakeHN).
Yamil Gonzalez @yamilg wrote:
hable con mi tia que vive en la ceiba dice que estuvo fuertísimo se asustaron bastante, los adornos y todo eso se cayeron al piso #temblorHN
Roberto @roberto wrote:
yo escuchaba que el armario se mecía casi salgo corriendo a la calle
Jagbolanos @jagbolanos wrote:
Me desperto, estoy esperando por si hay replicas
Some Honduran bloggers were not able to immediately update their blogs because of the energy and internet outages in their communities.  However, Janpedrano Blog [es] was one of the first to provide information about the earthquake receiving updates from friends and family.  He received a phone call from his brother:
Mientras estaba al teléfono con el, mi messenger parecía árbol de navidad con mensaje tras mensaje de familiares y amigos en San Pedro Sula dejándome saber que es lo que estaba pasando. Incluso una amiga que vive en Suiza me mando un mensaje para ver si yo ya sabia del mismo. La palabra que creo fue el común denominador en todos estos mensajes fue “horrible”, ya que pues fue una sacudida que pues la mayor parte de la gente jamás había experimentado. Mi mama vive en Roatán por lo que la llame para ver como estaba, y pues igual fuera del susto estaba bien.
He also provided updates throughout the day including the collapse of The Democracy Bridge, one of the country's most important bridges [es].
La Gringa's Blogicito was delayed in reporting her impressions because of the lack of electricity, but later wrote that this was her first earthquake she experienced since living in Honduras.
Born in Honduras and its Spanish version Nacer en Honduras [es] provided links from local newspapers.  In addition, Interartix [es] shares a map of the epicenter and the tsunami alert that was issued, but later withdrawn.
The various online sites of the national newspapers struggled to remain online because they received many visitors, especially from abroad in the United States and Spain, who were looking for information about family and friends.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Leonidas Mejia


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Hong Kong: SC group censored June 4th special feature · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Daisy, an editor from Esquire, a lifestyle magazine under South China media group in Hong Kong, disclosed in her blog that the top management banned the publication of 15 pages June 4th special feature in its latest issue. The top rank company staff, after looking at the layout, said the special feature is an act of “incitement” and told their staffs that they could resign if they disagreed. The whole process is very brutal. Below is a full translation of her blog post.
(Apology and Correction: Yesterday I mixed up SC Media group with SCMP when I submitted this post in the title. Although I edited it in less than 20mins, the feed have spread through twitter and re-tweeted by many others. Even though globabvoices has deleted the original tweet and put up a correction, we cannot control the re-tweeted messages, which appeared in the twitter search. So here, I made this public apology and correction again. All mistakes are mine and I will be more cautious in the future. )
A never to be published June 4th Special Issue
前一天還慶幸自己在一家包容性和多元性皆強的雜誌工作。
六四專題難做，lifestyle 雜誌的六四專題更難做，論政治性新聞性，我們不比跟日報比媲，想義正嚴詞大呼平反六四又怕老氣橫秋，經過不斷的推倒重來，我們找到了方向，並實踐了。
文章寫好、相片拍好、layout 砌好，甚至已經送往印刷，但最後，因為大老闆的一個電話，專題被抽掉，同時，有關該期雜誌中所有提及六四字眼的文章，皆要經過修改，三小時之後，這個六四專題真的可以消失得無影無踪，彷彿從未出現過。
然後，一個狐假虎威的公司高層，把我和幾位相關的同事叫到會議室，會議室氣氛很凝重，我們似是犯下彌天大禍。那名高層手拿著那份專輯的 copy，上面的文字被黃色的螢光筆畫得一塌糊塗，然後她將「有問題」的句子逐句讀出，說：「這是煽動。」當然還有一堆不知所謂的說法，包括公司的決定毋須要向員工解釋，若有不滿同事可以隨時離職等屁話，還假猩猩的問大家有何意見。
他媽的我還可以有甚麼意見，你是老闆，你說了算，但她居然還說我像是不認同公司立場，我是打工，但不是你的走狗，無須甚麼屁都要與公司同一立場吧！你有權禁止你認為有損害公司在內地生意利益的東西刊出，你有權炒我，我有權不做，但是你不必像文字獄般逐隻字審查我那一字有煽動成份，這裡是香港，不是大陸，而且即使這份專題寫著我名字去大陸派我也不信有人要捉我去打把，別弄得像是我們犯了殺頭般的大罪似的。
撫心自問，是次六四專題的文字圖片內容，不算處理得特別出色，當中也沒有甚或驚天動地的內幕要爆，但是我不憤。
好可怕。我原本覺得壹傳媒偏激，但我發現，原來香港剩下願意咆哮聲音的，或許只有它了。
好可怕。原來沒有人抹殺香港的新聞和言論自由，是我們的媒體集團為利益甘願放棄。
好可怕。從前覺得內地用強硬的手段，又捉又打又軟禁的，控制人們的言行，好可怕，之後感覺近年好像好了點，到奧運時又好像再好了一點。但現在，我發現，原來軟霸權更可怕，中國強大了，他們不必再用任 physically 的手法打壓人們，只要不讓你回國經商，那麼想賺錢的人們便會乖乖收聲。我感覺如此情況還將繼續發展，中國好野！
2009年5月26日，《君子雜誌》的 143 至 156 頁被他們抽走了，但他們不能在日曆上抽了六月四日。感謝歷史讓我們看清商人的真貌。
South China Media group
Under the SC media group, there are a number of lifestyles and entertainment magazines including: Jessica, marie claire, HIM, Esquire, CarPlus, Xp weekly, 3 weekly, Capital Weekly, Capital Money, Capital, Capital CEO, Capital Entrepreneur and SC kid.
SC media is a subsidiary of South China Holding Limited, which is an investment holding company with subsidiaries involved in investment, financial services, media, and the manufacture of shoes, toys and micro-motors.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Iran:Bomb explosion killed 20 people · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

A bomb explosion killed 20 people in a Shi'ite mosqe in the Iranian south eastern city, Zahedan. Nimroz, a Zahedan based blogger, says [fa] after explosion some Sunni stores and a Sunni mosque were attacked by Basij forces.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Jamaica, Cuba: Amnesty International Report  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Iriegal and Jamaica Salt comment on Amnesty International’s criticism of the Jamaican police force, while Havana Times notes that the organization”recognized…that the US blockade on Cuba has a negative effect on the general population.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Jamaica, U.S. Virgin Islands: Cruise Control  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The popularity of cruises to Caribbean destinations gets Jamaican diaspora blogger Labrish thinking about “the overwhelm of the environment, marine and land, that these mega-cities-on-the-sea bring with them.”


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Japan: Open access online journal Journal@rchive · Global Voices
Tomomi Sasaki

Librarian Charles Ellwood Jones writes about academic journals focusing on antiquity at open access online journal Journal@rchive, an archive site of J-STAGE operated by the Japan Science and Technology Agency. The site offers high resolution scans and OCR texts on a wide range of journals.

author: Tomomi Sasaki


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Pakistan: Bloggers On Swat Relief Drive · Global Voices
Rezwan

The Observers features Pakistani blogger Teeth Maestro's humanitarian relief efforts for the IDPs in Swat region.

author: Rezwan


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Pakistan: Bomb Blasts In Peshawar · Global Voices
Rezwan

Chowrangi reports that four bombing incidents “hit Peshawar and rocked Pakistan on Thursday killing thirteen people and injuring more than 120 people”. Pak Tea House says that the fight against terror will only be won if Baitullah (Mullah) Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban chief is brought to justice.


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Russia: Blogging for Justice in Hit-and-Run Accident Case · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

On May 13, 2009, a Subaru Forester car hit a pregnant woman who was crossing the street in Moscow. She died in hospital later. The perpetrator escaped the scene of the crime, but eye-witnesses remembered his license plate number. He turned out to be an off-duty police officer. On May 21, he was still not apprehended. On that day, the victim's husband, Alexey Shumm, started a blog (RUS) to draw public attention to this tragic case and to document his attempts to seek justice. Below are some excerpts.
The first post, written on May 21, 2009, has generated over a thousand comments so far:
[…] They did not save her. She died that very morning. She was my beloved wife, the only one – Lena. The mother of our daughter Nika.
She was killed by that driver, she and our second unborn baby girl…
That's it.
Now I'm looking for an answer [to the question of] who did it. I wasn't with her then, so I'm paraphrasing others.
[…] It turned out that the driver wasn't the car's owner. It appears that they've found and even interrogated him. He is a police officer from [Moscow's] Southern District. […]
Today, on May 21, I've learned that they are again re-sending the materials [of the case] […] to [his “native” police station], because he was off-duty.
It's been nine days already. The case hasn't been opened. He is free. All the information arrives in small drops, only after my inquiries.
I'm afraid that this […] will go on and on. I don't want this to remain a secret. And I will do everything to find the truth and [have] a trial.
I'm ready to meet and talk, if this can be of any help.
If someone saw this accident, please write me.
[…]
May 22, 2009:
Today's news
Submitted […] a complaint to the prosecutor general's office.
Stopped by at the investigative unit [of the Internal Affairs Department of the Southern Administrative District] […]. [A detective there] talked about the accident – according to her, the driver got into the oncoming lane as he was passing the two cars (whose drivers were eye-witnesses) that were letting my wife cross the street. Of course, she did not expect to be hit from the opposite direction…
[…]
Thank you to all of you, people, for responses and offers of help.
I know the driver's name: he is Zhirov Roman Igorevich.
And those who write about “going to his home with a gun” – please do not write about it.
May 23, 2009:
My plans now are these:
1. Need a lawyer. Am meeting on Tuesday, as soon as I can, with the Public Verdict Fund […], they've offered assistance. Many more have written me, and I'd like to understand how to choose the best team. […]
2. Need all the eye-witnesses. Will be posting leaflets in the neighborhood. Got a message today that a camera from the nearby parking lot might have recorded everything.
3. Continue meeting with the mass media. Today were Echo of Moscow [radio station], [Komsomolskaya Pravda daily], RIAN [news agency]; RenTV on Monday. Lots of offers, not enough time.
4. Am getting lots of letter, trying to sort everything and respond to suggestions as much as possible. Thank you very much to you all – we are trying to stay strong.
Nika is okay, was a little sick yesterday (due to stress, I guess), today all is well already.
May 25, 2009:
News
1. At the Investigative Unit, they told me today that the case had been opened, gave me its number. Didn't tell me who is in charge, though. “You'll be summoned later.”
2. The camera on the nearby store doesn't reach to that street, so there's no use in it. The guys at the store didn't see the accident itself, walked out later.
May 26, 2009:
Lena
Today is Lena's birthday…
May 28, 2009:
Was at the prosecutor's office.
[…] they've recognized me as the victim and questioned. Now I have the right to study the materials of the case. The detective seems like a normal guy to me, and I hope this impression will not turn out to be a mistake.
Zhirov will be questioned tomorrow, it appears, and only then they'll determine restraint measures for him. For now, he is still neither a defendant, nor a suspect…
Managed to find an eye-witness. It appears that this Zhirov exceeded the speed limit, flew by the intersection on red light and drove into the opposite lane. I don't know what state one must be in to drive like this. But in the Internal Affairs Ministry's press release they are writing that he “was sober.”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Serbia: Torture or Therapy?  · Global Voices
Sinisa Boljanovic

Last week, on May 21, a short film about torture in the Spiritual Rehabilitation Center “Crna Reka”, located in south-western Serbia, was shown on the web site of the Time (Vreme),  a Serbian weekly magazine. The patients of this center are drug addicts and its head is Branislav Peranovic, a Serbian Orthodox priest.
Nearly all Serbian media have shown the horrible scenes from the short film, in which Peranovic is shown beating one of the patients brutally with a spade and with his fists.
Ombudsman of citizens, Sasa Jankovic, is one of the officials who reacted very quickly. According to the Vreme web site, Jankovic said that he had brought criminal charges against nine identified persons from the Spiritual Rehabilitation Center “Crna Reka” near Novi Pazar because of quackery and committing assault and battery. Jankovic also said that, according to the video, it was obvious that the patients of the center had been injured very seriously and that could not be a treatment or therapy.
Serbian bloggers reacted to the report very quickly, too, and so did representatives of the Spiritual Rehabilitation Center “Crna Reka” and the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Ivan only posted the video instead of words on his blog. Here are some of the comments:
WarnY, 5/21/2009:
Initially, I felt nauseous.
Then I thought it over and recalled one talk with my friends, and realized that everything does not look the way it is.
Namely, the word is about people who are on a path with no return. For them and their families anything is more acceptable than if they go on with their lives the way they used to. […]
Ivan replied: 5/22/2009:
Yes, everything that you said is right but when I saw how that hippopotamus was breaking his jaws, I felt ill.
Banjac,  5/23/2009:
In comparison with tortures that drug addicts have survived because of thefts and crimes that they committed, what was shown in the video represents insignificant torture. If drug addicts break a car lock and steal a radio from it, they will be beaten much more. Finally, ask drug addicts’ families how much difficulties and sufferings they have survived and ask them whether they agree with the methods of priest Branislav, and I know surely that they are do not mind. He accepted this job with all his heart and he is trying to help. The torture that was shown in the video is a natural thing in those circles, where it is very difficult for a man to think rationally and humanly. In the end, the “Crna Reka” center is not a source of drug addicts, but the place of Christ’s resurrection who bled for all of us. By faith in God, have my absolute support, priest Branislav.
Foxy Lady,  5/25/2009:
I didn’t watch this video because I am quite a young girl. I just read about it.
I don’t know how drug addicts are, and don’t know what kinds of treatments are being used in hospitals, but I know that if they beat a drug addict, they will get a beaten but not a treated drug addict as a result.
Arnam, 5/27/2009:
This is terrible, such cretins should be arrested. This is pouring out of the vials on people. Regardless of whether someone is a drug addict or not, such act is not normal and has nothing to do with treatment. What's happening is a catastrophe.
On the official web site of the Spiritual Rehabilitation Center “Crna Reka” the following is published, among other things:
[…] Chronology is simple. Biden comes to Serbia. Bishop Artemije doesn’t welcome him in the High Dečani monastery since he represents the occupying forces. Domestic progressive forces are bitter and use the video to discredit bishop Artemije who gave his blessings for the founding of the center as well as priest Branislav who has been the center's head for about ten years. […]
Will Serbian drug addicts be finally thankful to Biden for all that he did for him as well as in Serbia and Kosovo and Afghanistan? […]
Peranovic’s statement to the B92 TV station was published on the Vreme’s site:
“We sometimes use force, of course, in agreement with the parents. And patients were warned just in time that we would not tolerate the violation of our rules. Those who have a drug addict at home knows well what I'm speaking about.”
Silja, one of patients of the “Crna Reka” center, says:
I am Silja and I have been a patient of the “Crna Reka” center from October 29, 2008. I think that I am more competent than any journalist to speak about this topic. I have a message for everyone who believes the orchestrated attacks on the Orthodox Missionary and Spiritual Rehabilitation Center “Crna Reka” – the attacks in which all the media in Serbia took part: stop condemning the center’s staff for something that they had no personal experiences with. It is an absolute falsehood that torture is used as therapy. If there is a torture, it is applied to small patients who don’t obey the rules in the center and who hinder all of us who want to treat ourselves. It is strictly forbidden  to bring drugs into the center, any kind of physical conflicts as well as thefts, insulting, running away from the center. Each violation of these rules has to be punished. That happens rarely and it is used in case of need. There are a lot of patients in the center and if the rules are not obeyed, it would be chaos there. You have to know that drug addict is ready to do anything when he is in crisis.
Serbian blogger Markos wrote on his blog on the web site titled Trista cuda:
[…] Some of the parents who were at the camp yesterday had an absolutely different opinion from the majority of the public regarding the brutal methods of re-education of drug addicts. […]
Markos quoted a statement of Vera from Novi Sad, mother of one of the patients:
“My son has been staying there for four years. If he had not come to the center, he would have not survived. I bought a rope for him and I said to him that he should hang himself if he could not live without drugs.”
She added that she was against torture. But treatment in the Institute for Substance Abuse didn’t help her son. He came out from there after [nine sorts of remedies had been tried on him, but still remained a drug addict].
Blogger Nikola Knezevic quoted a statement of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, among other things. Here is an excerpt of it:
The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church received with astonishment and regret news about brutal violence toward patients of the substance abuse in monastery Crna Reka in the Rasko-Prizrenska Eparchy. Records which were shown and acknowledgment by clergyman are irrefutable evidence of violence which is absolutely unknown to evangelic spirit and the Church’s mission.
Because of that, Synod calls reverend bishop Artemije to immediately dismiss illegal stationary and bring church-legal action against clergymen who committed the violence. […]
Knezevic concluded his post with these words:
What astonished  and shocked as much as the incident did is the high level of masochism of parents. In accordance with the principle “the end justifies the means,” they were absolutely indifferent to or supported the way in which their children were treated in the “Crna Reka” center. It is surely one more alarming sign that violence has become acceptable in our society.

author: Sinisa Boljanovic


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Trinidad & Tobago: Police Presence  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

From Trinidad and Tobago, Mauvais Langue cannot believe that “in the year 2009 they [the police] still saying they have no vehicles”, while B.C. Pires takes great pride in the way his friend, through a letter to the Editor, comes “around the wicket, to send one right up into the block-hole of Trini police.”


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UAE and Saudi Arabia: “It’s Gonna Be a Scorcher!” · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

The Hollywood film Ishtar, about lounge singers in Morocco who get caught up in an international plot between the CIA and the “Emir of Ishtar” is unmemorable but for one line: “It's gonna be a scorcher!”  This past week, Gulf residents have found themselves saying just that, as temperatures in the region rose well into the 40s (Celsius).  As junvalerio, based in Dammam, explains:
Saudi Arabia seems to have been hit the worst, according to Twitter users there.  smqasim puts it bluntly:
Saudi, based in Riyadh, was complaining about the heat as well…
…Until Khaled put him in his place:
But Saudi Arabia isn't the only country experiencing a massive heat wave.  Kjarjous, in Dubai, has quite a tale to share:
Lastly, Arabear‘s tweet should serve as sufficient warning to anyone considering a summer vacation to the Emirates:

author: Jillian C. York


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Zimbabwe: Is Movement for Democratic Change backing down? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Is the Movement for Democractic Change in Zimbabwe backing down?, “In a shocking about face, the MDC told the media yesterday that they could live with Gideon Gono because they can “manage and control him” through a revision of the Reserve Bank Act.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Afghanistan: Aid Money Used Badly · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Colla reviews the first report by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, which noted that the military command overseeing $15bn in US military aid cannot be sure the money is being managed effectively.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Bolivia: The Launch of Social Networking Site for Diaspora · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Karen Heredia aka Joup [es] announces the launch of Bolivianos Globales, a social networking site for those in the Bolivian diaspora.

author: Eduardo Avila


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East Timor: Thoughts on Abortion A Few Days Before Law Approval · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

There has been a dramatic debate in East Timor over recent weeks about the provisions of the new draft penal code pertaining to abortion. The draft article 144 of the penal code deals with “interruption of pregnancy”. Draft article 142 deals with “non-punishable interruption of pregnancy”. By the proposed article 144, abortion is crime and those who perform abortion will be punished with imprisonment terms ranging from 2 and 8 years.
This excerpt was taken from the East Timor Law and Justice Bulletin (ETJL), in a post named “What happens when abortion is illegal”. At the beginning of June, a new Penal Code will take effect in East Timor, defending the criminalization of abortion, except in underage cases or when the mother's health is in jeopardy. Abortions derived from incest and rape cases will be punished.
Abortion in East Timor is not a new debate and neither is its illegal practice through the so called traditional medicines, ETLJ continues:
It is not a long search to find both incest and the death of women through incompetent abortion agents in recent East Timorese history. In November 2008, the Judicial System Monitoring Program reported on a case in the Oecusse District Court that arose from the death of a woman who was administered a traditional abortifacient.
The prosecutor's indictment in that case stated that in March 2007 in Betasi, Taiboko the first defendant entrusted some traditional medicine to the second defendant to be given to the victim J and to be taken in accordance with instructions set out by the first defendant. The aim of the two defendants was to enable the victim to abort her four month old fetus. The defendants instructed the victim to take the medicine regularly for three weeks. After several days the victim aborted the foetus and died.
Photo taken in Oecussi by Flickr user NeilsPhotography shared under a Creative Commons License
At the beginning of 2009, East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) posted about Women in Timor ‘having unsafe abortions’ and in the same month UNICEF reported that 1 in 35 East Timorese women die in childbirth.
Three months later, an Australian woman working for the Timorese Government’s Gender Equality Secretariat in a post called Action not words – Women’s Peace Conference, comments on the event [en, pt, te] that took place in early March this year (the conference speeches can be found here). According to her, abortion was under debate at the conference with a strong impact on women who were discussing gender issues in East Timor:
There was a noticeable amount of white malae (foreigner) women, but overwhelmingly the women were brown. This conference was for them. And talking about using contraception in Timor, which is 90% Catholic – talking about spacing your family and perhaps having 5 kids instead of 8 or 10 – talking more generally, in public, that women need to have a public voice – this was very controversial and generated a huge buzz of voices in the room.
(…) I can see that of course this event was more than just words for hundreds of people. I was told that the next day at the event, abortion was discussed. This is not something that people talk about openly here! They have criminalized it and put in place hospital policies that try to prevent abortions at all costs. Yet it came up. This is not just a discussion; this is women feeling safe enough to get together and talk about issues for all of society. They will go home energized and talk about what they heard and saw in Dili and let me tell you, there are some driven people in this country and they aren’t all foreigners. They have women’s NGOs galore here, it’s the only way to get their voices heard most of the time. The ideas shared here are going to result in new ways and programs. Someone might even go home and leave next time her husband beats her; or they might say ‘Hey, let’s wait a little longer before we have that 7th kid’.
I can only hope.
The “huge buzz of voices” when talking about these issues may be related to the fact that Timorese culture tends to follow the Catholic Church's moral conscience, which played an important role in the country’s self-determination during Indonesian times. Its opinion on abortion is nevertheless quite controversial.
Photo shot outside a church by Flickr user NeilsPhotography shared under a Creative Commons License
Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, the Portuguese blog Timor Lorosae Nação published a short post [pt], which acted as a powerful trigger for a long discussion about abortion issues:
O novo Código Penal criminaliza o aborto com uma pena que pode chegar aos oito anos de cadeia. Os crimes sexuais têm vindo a aumentar no território. Será que há repercussões?
There were more than 60 comments on this post, covering topics ranging from contraception to free will and freedom of choice, suicide and euthanasia, religion, family planning, rape, the world economy and distribution of wealth, justice, etc. However a comment [pt] reduced the extent of issues to two types of vision: the woman’s and the child’s, playing with the meaning of the Portuguese word for foetus (feto) and its homonym in Tetum meaning “woman”.
A questão do aborto é uma questão complicada e muito sensível que tem sido e será sempre foco de grandes debates entre várias partes com diferenças de opinião relativamente ao valor da vida humana.
Se ambos os ‘fetos’ (feto bebe em estado de desenvolvimento no útero e feto ‘mulher’ na língua Tétum) pudessem falar o que diriam por sua vez cada um deles?
‘Feto’ mulher: Filho/a, não te quero, vou-te abortar.
Feto (bebe): …?
If both ‘fetos’ (baby foetus in a state of development in the uterus and ‘feto’ woman in the Tetum language) could speak what would each of them say in their turn?
‘Feto’ woman: Child, I do not want you, I will abort you.
Foetus (baby): …?
Another interesting comment [pt] related to the particularities of the Tetum language states:
Em Tetum a gravidez diz-se “isin rua” (literalmente traduzido significa “dois corpos”) o corpo da mae e o corpo do feto.
O feto, apesar de estar a desenvolver-se dentro do corpo da mae, e’ um corpo, uma vida distinta numa relacao de simbiose com o corpo da mae para se poder desenvolver.
Um aborto por isso nao equivale a remocao de uma parte do corpo da mae como se de um simples caso de amputacao se tratasse.
Seria a remocao e a cessacao forcada de uma vida humana distinta, fragil e indefesa numa relacao simbiotica com o corpo da mae.
Por isso nao e’ uma simples questao de dizer “e’ o meu corpo e eu posso fazer o que quiser com o meu corpo” porque na realidade o aborto representa a imposicao do desejo de um corpo sobre o um outro.
Therefore, an abortion is not the removal of part of the mother’s body like a simple matter of amputation.
It would be the removal and termination pursuant to a separate human life, fragile and defenceless in a symbiotic relationship with the body of the mother.
It is not a simple matter of saying “it is my body and I can do whatever I want with my body” because in reality abortion is the imposition of the desire of a body on another.
Even though the most part of the comments were made by expats or non-Timorese netcitizens, the voice of a Timorese woman was raised [pt] among the others’:
Sou Timorense! Sou Mulher! Sou católica e sou CONTRA o aborto.
Contudo, acredito que em certos casos, a vontade da mulher deveria ser respeitada, não a vontade da igreja ou de padrecos que pensam que reinam Timor.
Será certo mandar uma mulher ir para a cadeia porque fez um aborto, quando esta foi VIOLADA, por um BANDIDO? Não! Pensem como se fosse alguém que vos seja querido, uma filha, uma irmã, mãe etc… ai talvez já não vomitem as palavras em favor desta VERGONHOSA lei! (…)
Photo by Flickr user Graham Crumb shared under a Creative Commons License
Children, prostitution and abortion
Often related with the abortion debate, prostitution occurring in East Timor is apparently being ignored by the mainstream media. Back in 2005, Kirsty Gusmão, the wife of the then President Xanana Gusmão, stated in the Diario Tempo journal that “should the Timor-Leste government not take measures soon the current levels of prostitution will increase. Sooner or later, Dili will be full of prostitutes.”
East Timor Law Journal published on Morality, Religion and the Law – Abortion and Prostitution in East Timor that:
The criminalisation of abortion and prostitution have been a factor in the infliction of great harm and suffering upon women and results in social dislocation, exposure to grave health and safety issues such as HIV/AIDS, drug use, and violence as well as life-threatening underground abortion clinics.
Three years later, Loro Horta posts at Open Democracy – The curse of commodities – linking “oil-fuelled growth with child prostitution in Timor-Leste”:
Near schools men wait in their cars for young girls to approach them. A young school girl relates her story, “we approach them and tell them we need a new pair of shoes to go to a party. We go with them and then do it and get our shoes”. Girls are reported to have sold their bodies for as little as $5. In the countryside local journalists have reported various cases of girls as young as 10 prostituting themselves for $1.
The blogosphere regrets [pt] that prostitution has now evolved to lower ages and is occurring in the country:
Mas que estupidez. E qual e a pena de prisão dos que andam a aliciar as menores para a prostituição? Devido a pobreza a muitas jovens que se vendem por um telemóvel e muitos dos graúdos com poder de gastar andam nisso. Se os jornalistas investigarem irão apanhar muito peixe na rede. É só verem a historia das trocas de telefonemas para apanharem e trazerem a luz esses marmanchos que vão bater o peito na missa todos os domingos e comungam e ca fora no dia a dia abusam das menores. (…)
Photo by Flickr user NeilsPhotography shared under a Creative Commons License
The online debate eventually evolved to poetry trading on abortion issues (“Não soube do Mundo”  [pt] / “Didn't know about the world” and unnamed [sp]).  Ze da Labia wrote a poem named “Quero ser criança em Timor”  [pt] (“I want to be a child in Timor”) as a response to a comment asking for it:
Quero ser criança em Timor
Quero ser feliz e sentir-me amada
Quero beber leite
Para ter ossos fortes
Quero ter uma cama para dormir
Onde haja uma almofada
Para poder sonhar
Quero ser criança em Timor
Quero ter um par de sapatos
Para que os meus pés
Cresçam saudáveis e limpos
Para poder andar para a escola
Sem ter que coxear
Quero ser criança em Timor
E ter roupa para não andar nu
Quero cobrir o corpo
Deste calor ardente
Que me estorrica a pele
Quero ser criança em Timor, ter bicicleta
Poder comprar uma trotinete
Ir de Dili a Bazartete
Não levar porrada de cacetete
Comer bem no restaurante da Odete
Arroz, sopa ou mesmo omolete
Passear de camionete
Mas dispenso a espingarda sete sete
Mas a minha mãe ja tem onze
Vou ficar no banco de suplentes
Levar agua aos que tem sede
Ver passar a banda e nao tocar
Ver saltar a bola e nao chutar
Partir os ossos so de esperar
Porque sem calcio, custa a sarar
E la tenho que aturar
Os graudos que nao sabem mandar
I want to be a child in Timor
I want to have a pair of shoes
So that my feet
Grow healthy and clean
In order to walk to school
Without having to limp
I want to be a child in Timor
And have clothes not to go naked
I want to cover my body
From this burning heat
That burns my skin
I want to be a child in Timor, have a bike
Be able to buy a power scooter
Go from Dili to Bazartete
Not to be beaten with a stick
Eating well at Odete
Rice, soup or even omolete
Go for a walk on a truck
But off for rifle seven seven
But my mom already has eleven
I will sit and wait
I’ll bring water to the one’s who are thirsty
Go see the band and not play
See the ball jump and not kick
Break the bones only to wait
Because without calcium, it costs to heal
And so I must take
The big ones who can’t rule

author: Sara Moreira


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Egypt: Cairo Refugee Film Festival · Global Voices
Marwa Rakha

A wholehearteldy Sudaniya invited me to the Cairo Refugee Film Festival blog where I was introduced to some great background information on refugees in Egypt:
In the last three decades, Egypt has become host to refugees fleeing conflicts and persecution in Africa, Asia and Middle East. Many refugees have made Egypt their home and various refugee communities live amongst Egyptian, contributing to the Egyptian society. Though Sudanese are considered to be the largest refugee population, there are also large numbers of Somalis, Eritreans, Ethiopians, North Africans, and even more from Central and West Africa as also Iraqis. Refugees from the Middle and Far East also seek asylum in Egypt. In addition, there are an estimated 70,000 Palestinians. These refugees are often falsely identified as economic migrants, rather than a vulnerable population who fled their homelands due to political unrests and violence.
The Cairo Refugee Film Festival is an attempt to integrate refugees in their new host country:
Since the vast majority of refugees will never be resettled, integration in Egypt is of great concern and the need of the hour. This is possible only when when the misconceptions between the host communities and the refugee communities are cleared and an appreciation and understanding of the others’ circumstances is fostered.
Against this backdrop and with a view to bring the refugee and the egyptian communities together, the idea of a film festival took birth.
Taking place from June 16 to June 20 at the Rawabet theatre in downtown Cairo, the festival being held in commemoration of the World Refugee Day, seeks to:
chronicle the lives, struggles, and achievements of refugee populations around the world from the 1930s to the present day. We aspire to break the Egyptian myth that the refugee movement is an Afro-centric problem and that refugees are always African. Through the medium of film, we aim to sensitize the Egyptian community on refugees’ stories, obstacles and resilience.
The blog also lists sponsors, collaborators and organisers, schedule, and workshops being held in conjunction with the event.

author: Marwa Rakha


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Iran: YouTube, Broadway music and the Election · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Campaigners in the Iranian elections have used YouTube in different ways to promote their favorite candidate or discredit their opponents.
Four candidates will be on the ballot for the presidency on June 12, including the current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The others are Mir Hussein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Mohsen Rezaei.
One video appearing on YouTube compares former Prime Minister, Mir Hussein Mousavi to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the tune of the old Broadway song, ‘Anything You Can Do’. The text at the end of the film concludes that Mousavi is more rational than Ahmadinejad whose policies have damaged Iran's economy.
There is another YouTube film that targets former Reformist President, Mohammad Khatami who is campaigning for Mousavi.
As Tehran Post once noted, the most popular genre of jokes in Iran is the ethnic joke. The main protagonists of most ethnic jokes are Azeri Turks. In this video Khatami tells [fa] a joke about a naive (Azeri) cleric in Ardebil who did something stupid, although his intention was to show that the Ardebilis are geniuses. A couple of hundred Azeri students held a protest against Khatami for making this joke (see the video), and asked Mousavi, who is Azeri himself, to condemn Khatami. Meanwhile, Khatami has claimed the film is a fake montage.
Digital Kalashnikov, an Iran based blogger and journalist, has captured several interesting events on video during this presidential campaign. He recently published a film where Mehdi Karroubi, former Speaker of the Parliament, and his supporters forcefully broke through the gates of Amir Kabir University when he was banned by university authorities from delivering speech.


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Jordan: King Goes Undercover  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Jordan's King Abdullah visited the Health Ministry's Patients’ Affairs Department in disguise to see what services were being offered to citizens seeking treatment. Naseem Tarawnah jots down his thoughts on the visit in this post.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Jordan: Twittering Queen and Undercover King  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Jordanian The Arab Observer observes on Twitter: “In Jordan: A Queen who twitters and a king who goes undercover! A cool Royal family, no?”


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Kazakhstan: Special Report by BNE · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Elina Galperin reviews the special report on Kazakhstan, which is especially interesting right now as the country is closely tied to world markets and is therefore struggling.


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Mongolia: Wiretapping to be discussed · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Bilguun informs the readers that the Mongolian Parliament is to discuss possible changes to the Communications law, which includes legalizing wiretapping of mobile communication for law enforcement purposes.


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Qatar: Online Resources · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Marjorie in Qatar links to a number of essay collections about Qatar's history and culture that are available online.

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Uzbekistan: New Attacks and Bombings · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Noah Tucker reports that one or two offices of police/special services departments in Khanabad, Eastern Uzbekistan, were attacked by a group of armed men.


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Cyclone Aila, Another Blow to Bangladesh · Global Voices
Rezwan

Although cyclone Aila, which had battered the Southern parts of Bangladesh recently, was not powerful, it had done much damage causing tidal waves in the coastal areas. “Aila swept away many areas, which were still recovering from the hurricane Sidr,” updates, Life As I Know It .


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Czech Republic: African Czech for European Parliament · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Czech Daily Word writes about an African Czech who is taking part in the race for the European Parliament.


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Indonesia: Jailed For Complaining · Global Voices
Juke Carolina

The case of Prita Mulyasari, a mother of two,  is currently the hot topic among Indonesian bloggers. She wrote an online complaint letter [id] against a private hospital in Tangerang, one of Jakarta's suburban areas, and now she is being charged for violating chapter 27 verse 3 of the Information and Electronic Transaction Law (UU ITE) [id].
Prita shared her experience of being maltreated by the hospital on a mailing-list. The hospital took legal action against her. That online complaint may result into six years jail term and maximum fine of 1 billion Rupiah (nearly US$ 98,000).
Erwin Mulyadi shared his opinion on his blog, saying:
Seakan kembali ke masa lalu, kebebasan berbicara bakal kembali jadi hal yang mewah di negeri ini. Salah-salah, apa yang kita bahas di internet bisa dijerat dengan pasal ‘pencemaran nama baik’ pada UU Informasi dan Transaksi Elektronik (ITE).
[…]
Peristiwa ini lantas menimbulkan keprihatinan bagi saya, yang mengharapkan bahwa pelayanan apapun (termasuk rumah sakit) harus berorientasi pada kepuasan konsumen. Bahwa saat kritik disampaikan (entah dengan redaksional yang subjektif, gaya bahasa yang emosional dan tidak mengikuti kaidah bahsa hukum yang aman) lantas berbuah penjara, tentu membuat keprihatinan kita semua yang terbiasa menulis di ranah maya ini, termasuk para blogger yang menjadi komunitas jurnalis citizen yang paham benar istilah ‘kebebasan berbicara’. Oke taruhlah apa yang ditulis oleh Prita memang dianggap tidak benar dan penuh kebohongan, apakah reaksi ‘balasan’ melalui gugatan ini tidak terlalu berlebihan? Bisa dibayangkan efek psikologis dari peristiwa ini terhadap para penulis yang selama ini kritis dalam ‘meluruskan yang bengkok’ dan bisa dibayangkan betapa mudahnya tiap kritikan akan digugat dengan tuduhan : ‘pencemaran nama baik’
This unfortunate event saddens me; I personally hope that any service (including hospitals) should aim to have customers satisfaction. All criticism (whether presented subjectively or written in anger, which therefore didn't follow rules on writing's decency) that caused the writer to be put in jail surely saddens us, who often write in the virtual world and bloggers who are considered as citizen journalists who are aware so much about “freedom of speech”. Let say that Prita, who's said to lie, don't you think that the (legal) response is a bit too much? We can all imagine the psychological effect of the case for writers who are critical  in “making things right” and we can imagine how easy criticism is being labeled as “defamation”.
A post on daily social network says:
Sangat disayangkan memang ketika anda mengajukan keluhan di internet, ternyata justru berakhir di penjara. Sedangkan kalau dipikir-pikir di koran-koran terkemuka hampir setiap hari ada saja keluhan terhadap perusahaan ini dan itu dan belum pernah saya dengar ada yang dipenjara karenanya. Mungkin sebaiknya kita lebih baik mengeluh di koran daripada lewat online? Memang sih ada juga kasus penulis surat pembaca yang dipenjara, namun yang ternyata keluhan tersebut diforward dari internet (anonim).
Fakta yang menarik bagaimana orang Indonesia tidak mampu menerima kritik bahkan dari pengguna yang katanya adalah raja. Apapun keluhan anda terhadap instansi apapun, silahkan keluhkan langsung di koran saja dan jangan melalui media online. Keluhan di koran pasti diperhatikan dan dicarikan solusi, keluhan via online akan membawa anda ke penjara.
Apakah ini namanya kebebasan berekspresi? Demokrasi? Sungguh menyedihkan.
Is this freedom of expression? Democracy? How pathetic.
Commission for Human Rights’ (KOMNAS HAM) official said[id] that the court is overreacting to use an ITE law to sue a consumer, the commission also said that they're ready to facilitate the victim's family for justice.
Meanwhile,  Indonesian Internet users are taking the public advocacy to the country's latest favorite networking site Facebook.
This case came under the spotlight after the Indonesian Supreme Court acquitted the plea for ITE's reassessment.
Another court session for Prita is set for next week.

author: Juke Carolina


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Internet in North Korea, Nokia’s Ovi Store, Google Wave and Tech Happenings  · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Internet in North Korea
In a previous story we talked about Egyptian telco Orascom helping launch a 3G mobile network in North Korea. Last week several press reports claimed that internet access is now available on this network. There is a lively discussion on at nkeconwatch.com on just what type of content is available on this network and if the access is to the full internet or is it a limited intranet of sorts. I found one comment by a visitor to North Korea that gives us a glimpse of wider internet in the secretive nation.
Also interesting, a trendy local college girl we met in the hotel bar told us that she used to have Internet at home and that in the 2004-2005 timeframe she had been doing Internet dating. She would find a boy online and have him show up at a public place near her apartment block. Spying on him from above, if she didn’t like the way he looked, she would not come out to meet him. The Internet service was suspended in the 2005-2006 time-frame and she was very unhappy about that. She liked the Internet, regardless of the limited and NK-specific services that may have been available.
Nokia's Ovi Store
Nokia launched it's version of app store  called Ovi store. Nokia phone users can now register on this store and buy apps for their mobiles. Tech bloggers are comparing Nokia's attempt to Apple's offering.  Medianama, an Indian tech blog compares the usability of Ovi store to Apple's app store
Nokia has a substantial number of handsets in the market, each has its own form factor and operating system. Consumers won’t exactly be pleased when a particular application isn’t available for theirs. That’s where the iPhone App store has an advantage, since it’s the same OS, and just one type of app. In that context, Nokia’s reach doesn’t quite appear to be the advantage one thought it was.
Malaysia Mobile Tech News talks about another challenge facing Nokia app store initiative
However, it is difficult to achieve what Apple has done with the AppStore, simply because Apple didn’t give software publishers a choice when it started selling the iPhone – either sell through the AppStore or via very-limited-reach third party means (meaning Cydia and the Cydia Store, if you’re familiar with the iPhone).  Nokia didn’t start off this way – every software publisher sold through their own website, or another mobile software e-marketplace, and to force “coerce” them to now come under the Ovi Store to the exclusion of every other avenue is an impossible task.  After all, what’s the compelling reason for them to move over to the Ovi Store?
See also: Nigeria now Number 9 on Opera Mini Global Chart
Web Services
While access of any sort is a good news in North Korea, netizens in Vietnam are lamenting the loss of a popular online service – Yahoo 360. Taitran in Vietnam describes the feeling in Vietnam after Yahoo announced that it would be closing the service.
Google was busy at its developer event giving away free Android phones and launching a new product called Wave.
Singapore based elearningpost writes how Wave is more than a groupware application that other vendors are selling.
The Wave is not just another application, it's a whole new way of using online information. If you have not seen the demo yet, you should. The Wave takes collaboration to a whole new level. When I was watching the collaboration demo, I felt the entire experience was more like an extension into multiple minds rather than the ‘switch-type’ collaboration we see in the likes of Sharepoint and Lotus Notes. The engagement just felt more organic, more emergent, more fun.
Also from Singapore,  Rambling Librarian analyzes how Google Wave can be used by librarians to  “transform the way we provide Enquiry and Advisory services. Or how we research, collaborate and publish documents”.
Tech entrepreneur Jonathan Gosier at Appfrica and based in Uganda isconcerned about the usability of the product in low bandwidth situations.
Of course, I have to point out that all this real-time communication stuff only matters to the fraction of people on the planet with good bandwidth. Here in Uganda, I’m so glad when an email actually makes it out of the queue that I don’t even bother to think about ‘rewinding’ conversations and dragging and dropping video! In all seriousness, it’s this reduction in basic utility for all users that worries me. Most Google’ products are by-in-large accessible no matter what kind of computer you’re on (except maybe Google Earth). With Wave they seem to be going down a path that might be a little more exclusive in nature. Not a deal-breaker but a concern none-the-less.
See also: The Startups That Rocked UnConference 2009 (Singapore), Indiblogger State of the Indian blogosphere report for May 2009 (India)
Events
Web designers in Vietnam had their WebcampSaigon 1 event that Fresco2.0 describes as a “a dedicated community by designers for designers”. Fresco2.0 has pictures and presentations from the event.
Neighboring Thailand had its Barcamp at the Sripatum university in Bangkok that also attracted technogists from Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong. The two day events had people talking about web 2.0, design, databases, content management systems, social media and hardware hacks. Some of the participants stayed overnight at the venue, coding and hacking. The presentations are at the Barcamp Bangkok 3 Slideshare page. Here is one from Kulawat about Agile.
Not every thing was tech though. Vietnamese delegate Huy Zing conducted a Salsa dancing session.
31o5 has a collection of great images from the event.
Earlier in May, Tokyo tech enthusiasts held their Barcamp. Participants gathered at Sun's Yoga office and talked about tech startups in Japan, Twitter, Japanese popular culture among other things. One of the popular session was a demo of Solaris Live USB creator by Hiroshi Chonan. Hiroshi is the developer of this utility that lets PC users try the Open Solaris operating system without going through an installation. In the video below a fellow Sun presenter points out why this live usb creator is important for the distribution of Open Solaris.
Another gadget that you see a lot in Tokyo tech events these days is the Poken. It  looks like a USB drive and come in cool designs. You can store your contact information on a Poken and then exchange it with someone else just by placing your Poken next to another one. Here you see attendees at Tokyo barcamp networking with their pokens.
If you are in India, and working on a tech startup, the proto.in event would interest you. Amit Mittal at venturewoods.org writes
What got me excited though is the 3 day bootcamp that Proto.in is putting together. Day one will focus on diving into the business plan you have for the company, and combing through all the fine details. Day two, they teach you and groom you on how best to deliver a pitch (some advertising guys coming in here to help.) Day three, is all about the stage — well known event management company “BuzzWorks” will teach you how to handle yourself in front of the camera, what to do and what not to do when in a public forum.
Sydney tech enthusiasts have also announced a “recession” edition barcamp to be held on the 27th of June. Their new activity this time round is the Think Tank room.
Finally, we have a new idea for a few of the sessions – the Think Tank room. The Think Tank room is a small room with no projector and no tech – just enough room for a small group of people discussing ideas. And what better ideas to discuss than ideas about the future.
See also: Make Tokyo Meeting 03: Where You Can See Future, Magic And Junk In A Place

author: Preetam Rai


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Iran: Khatami answers bloggers’ questions · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

On Sunday, Mohamad Khatami, the former reformist Iranian president, who is backing Mir Hussein Mousavi‘s candidacy in the Iranian presidential election, took part in an internet TV programme launched by reformists called Mowj4.
Khatami answered questions from the internet, including from bloggers, Facebook members and Twitter. He answered questions on different topics such as the election, foreign policy and the internet. Khatami also said he spends at least one hour a day reading blogs and websites. He also said that although he is not a blogger himself, he loves blogs.
This event was organized by bloggers and most of the questions were read by two Iranian bloggers, Hanif Manzori and Somayeh Tohidloo. Internet users used different tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Email and Yahoo! Messenger to submit their questions. We also can read reactions to Khatami's interview via FriendFeed.
On FriendFeed we can also see that Khatami says establishing a diplomatic relationship with the U.S. should not be a taboo, and that Iranian foreign approaches with Mousavi as president would be different and more rational than they are now. Khatami also stated that the march of the internet is unstoppable, and that it is the government's responsibility to provide appropriate service to population.


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Iran: Khatami answers questions in Internet · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Iranian news sites and bloggers such as Sahel Salamt reports that Mohamad Khatami, former reformist president, takes part in an internet discussion via Face Book, Twitter and Yahoo Messenger answers questions. The blogger says  [fa] it is the first internet experience in Iran where a high- ranking politician answers directly questions.


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Go Farm, Young Man! – How Farming in Japan is Changing · Global Voices
Tomomi Sasaki

For a country that identifies strongly as being historically agricultural people, the landscape of Japan's agricultural sector is bleak, and has been for some time. Simply put, the workforce is rapidly aging and there aren't nearly enough successors. The price of rice has gone down, and structural reform is unlikely with the powerful coop organization Nokyo (農協) and whatever political party is in power. The Tokyo Foundation offers statistics in a report, ominously but aptly titled ‘The Perilous Decline of Japanese Agriculture‘. It starts, of course, with everyone's favorite nogyo (農業 / agriculture) statistic – ‘Japan's food self-sufficiency ratio has dropped below 40%’.
However, the circumstances surrounding agriculture are changing.  Farming is undergoing a makeover for better or worse, as covered by Scilla Alecci in ‘Japan: Agriculture the latest trend among celebrities‘. This follow-up post highlights some aspects of that change in an attempt to explore its scope.
Reporting for Duty by flickr user megabn
Farming and Food Safety
Growing concern for food safety is one of the factors that have contributed to this change in the way of thinking. The blog ‘What Japan Thinks’ reported last year that ‘food safety worries five in six Japanese‘:
Q2: Which of the following do you strive to do regarding your eating habits ? (Sample size=1,089, multiple answer)
Many consumers don't mind paying extra to ensure that their food is ‘safe’, especially in the wake of an incident in 2008 when dozens were poisoned by frozen dumplings imported from China. In a typical example, Tamagomama lists some reminders in a blog post advising expectant mothers:
多少高くても「安全でいい食品」を買いましょうね。
できれば「生産者」の顔が見えるモノにしてください。
輸入品は避けましょう。
中国に限らずアメリカなどの食品も。
国産で皆さんの近くでとれたモノがいいです。
生産者の顔がわかるものがベストです。
家族の命をまもるためにも、他人が守ってくれるのではなく、我が身と家族は自分で守りましょう。
Farming and Unemployment
With the economy in steep decline, the government is looking to connect increased agricultural employment as one answer to rising unemployment, especially for temp workers with cancelled contracts.
Nina Fallenbaum reported on her participation in a pilot agriculture-experience program:
Here’s the very simple idea: send 18 to 40-year-old city slickers to rural communities for a free five-day trip to learn farming, meet local people, and perhaps be tempted to adopt that way of life for themselves. Administrated by an environmental nonprofit group, a grant from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture paid our food, bullet train fare, lodging — everything (and I’m not even a citizen!). Seems extravagant, but compared to the amount of money spent on recent bank bailouts it’s a very cheap form of stimulus — and benefits rural areas, young people, and the agricultural sector simultaneously.
Farming and the Internet
Here are some cases of people harnessing the power of the Internet.
Yasai8313, who produces rare vegetables, uses the Internet to
cultivate sales channels [ja]. Tomato farmer Shinichi Soga succeeded in connecting the popularity of his blog directly to sales, as covered by the Japan Times in  ‘Younger farmers blogging their way to success‘. Seebit, a company that produces video content for the Web, runs a website that sells rice. They offer footage from an on-site Web camera so that people can see how the rice is growing. There's a social networking site for all people related to nogyo, Boku-nou (Our Agriculture), which also enables people to buy and sell farming equipment.
Online learning is available as well. Toshihide Muraoka introduced one such example on his blog:
秋田県農業研修センターが運営する「インターネットアグリスクール」が人気を集めています。インターネットを利用して、農業のやり方や秋田県の自然の知識を学ぶことができます。２００１年に開始して以降、東京、愛知、長崎など全国から約２００人が受講し、毎年、定員（３０人）はほぼ満員状態。スクールを通じて農業の魅力に引かれ、これまでに９人の受講生が県内で農業を始めています。
Farming and Other Industries
Companies and organizations in industries unrelated to farming are re-thinking their relationship with agriculture. In one example, marketer and blogger happy-kernel commented on the news that the Kakegawa City Amateur Sports Association in Shizuoka Prefecture is starting an agricultural farm business.
野菜嫌いな子どもたちに、野菜作りを手伝わせることで野菜嫌いがなくなったり、観察力が高まるという指摘もあるように、中年以降、お腹周りが気になり始めた運動不足の肉好きの人たちにとっては、運動を兼ねた野菜中心食へ転換できるきっかけとなるかも知れないのだ。
とすれば、体育協会がこのような試みをすることにも、意味があるだろう。
何よりも参加者にとっては｢新鮮・安心・安全な野菜｣と｢運動＋健康｣が手に入るのだ。
今後このようなアプローチの｢健康作り｣が、注目されていくのかも知れない。
In conclusion
Most Japanese farms are small and family-oriented, and the image of ojiichan and obaachan (grandpa and grandma) tending to their plot of land day in and day out, a typical setting in Japanese folklore, isn't that far from present reality. What will happen next? Where these trends will lead to is yet to be seen, but it's all part of one big and developing wave.


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Malaysia: Globalization Dilemma – Educational Progress or Preserving Ethnic Identity? · Global Voices
Jude Chia

When a contentiously protracted education decision is no longer strictly an education issue, it blows up to the center stage with strong public debate and protest.  The teaching of science and mathematics in English (PPSMI) implemented in 2003 replaced Malay and other ethnic languages as the medium of teaching instruction for science and mathematics subjects in primary (elementary) and secondary (high) school level. It is set for a final decision after long reassessment and repeated delay, with influential lobby groups at the center stage aimed to appeal to the Ministry of Education to revert to the previous policy of teaching science and mathematics subjects in Malay and other ethnic languages. Their main argument has been to preserve the relevance of ethnic languages especially the preeminence of Malay language as the national language in the age of rapid globalization.
Image Source: flickr by albanna83
We may rightly ask why is there still such great resistence 6 years after its implementation? Besides, Ministry of Education has clearly stipulated the objectives of PPSMI in raising future competitiveness of students and the nation overall. Does the intent not warrant collective effort to overcome challenges and obstacles that may be encountered during its progress? The mainstream media has been highlighting the dominant views of various lobby groups, what about the views of neglected key stakeholders – parents and students who will be strongly impacted by the decision?
A group of concerned Malay parents established a platform to lobby for the support of PPSMI:
kita tidak boleh nyatakan bahawa guru kurang kompeten dalam menyampaikan mata pelajaran Sain dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris sebagai satu alasan untuk memansuhkan dasar tersebut. […] Jadi biar pun susah untuk kita mendidik anak-anak kita Sains dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris, kita harus laksanakannya supaya mereka lebih berdaya saing di arena antarabangsa pada masa depan.
Another parent, Nuraina A Samad said:
We all benefited from learning English. So many rural Malays benefited from having a good command of English.
Student Bobby Ong reflected on his personal experience in Chinese medium school:
It took the government such a hard time making English the medium of instruction for Science and Maths in schools and now you want to revert the policy? And your argument is to protect Chinese culture? […] Being in a Chinese environment with Chinese subjects is not good enough to learn Chinese eh? Not all Chinese kids are good in English too, ok? I see so many students from Chinese schools graduating with poor speaking and writing skills.
Noor Ainulfahim, an ethnic Malay student delivered a blunt critique that more time is needed to judge the progress of PPSMI and it should not be construed as neglecting the significance of Malay language:
Memperjuangkan BAHASA MELAYU? […] Are you denying the fact that most science books are in English? […] We are still teaching BAHASA MELAYU in SEJARAH, GEOGRAFI, PENDIDIKAN ISLAM […] dan ini belum termasuk semua subjek elektif […]
However, not all students are fully supportive of PPSMI. Mohamed Idris delivered a stinging attack on English and the illusion of competitiveness and internationalism:
The truth of the matter is that English does not make us international. It can help us know more about English-speaking countries like the US, UK and Australia. It could help us connect with some Davos people who do not have much to tell about their own culture.
John Lee proposed:
What seems likely right now is that the government will switch back to the old policy for primary schools, while maintaining English in secondary schools; I think this is maybe the best compromise we can hope for. […] Ideally, since students have six years of exposure to Malay and English in primary school, they would be able to use either language in secondary school.
And Poobalan, an online social activist supported the move for the Indian community but with a special condition:
Proponents of Tamil as the medium can argue that materials are available in Tamil, and the possibility of those subjects being taught by non-Tamil teachers (less jobs for Indians). However, I think a clause can be included that the teachers of Science and Math must be bilingual so that when necessary the teachers can provide explanation in either Tamil or English.
Parents and students of various ethnic backgrounds highlighted here are fairly supportive of PPSMI, but is it a bias that because they are proficient in English? What about those from rural community who are struggling with English and whose opinions are not represented at all in social media platform? As the core argument revealed from above, it incessantly centers on the debates of ethnic language and cultural preservation, future competitiveness for students and the nation, along with implementation obstacles and recommendations. So the title sums up the dilemma here, does globalization progress can only be attained at the expense of our unique ethnic identity in a multi-ethnic country? Let us anticipate how Malaysia tackles and balances the core of this issue.

author: Jude Chia


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Morocco: Campaigning for the Disenchanted · Global Voices
Hisham Almiraat

The electoral campaign for the local council (or communal) elections in Morocco, due on June 12, 2009, was officially launched  on Saturday, 30 May. Some 30 parties will compete for 27,000 rural and urban council seats spread across the country over about 22,000 electoral districts. A quota has been imposed on all parties to guaranty a minimum of 12 per cent women representation, whilst the voting age has been lowered from 23 to 21. The government pledged neutrality in the process and declared through its ministry of interior that “all measures will be taken to prevent vote-rigging,” a phenomena that has long plagued electoral processes in the north African kingdom.
Walking in Bernoussi (a neighbourhood in Casablanca), by oNico® in Flickr.
These elections come after an amendment of the so-called Communal Charter that organizes and determines the role of the communes. The reform intends basically -according to some analysts [Fr]- to strengthen the political power of the communes, to reinforce their independence and to increase their accountability. It is way to ensure good governance -at least officially.
The debate seems to be raging over the Moroccan blogosphere about the relevance of the process, participation over boycott, and the balkanized political scene.
Taha Balafrej [Fr], recollects his memories of a similar poll held back in June 1997, only to find out unsatisfactorily, that the obstacles to progress that he detected 12 years ago are still standing on the way:
[C]e pays que nous aimons tant, se trouve empêtré dans une situation délicate. Il est confronté à des défis importants, vitaux. Pour s’en sortir, il a choisi une voie consensuelle. Celle de la construction démocratique. Pas à pas. Jalon après jalon. Pour y arriver, de nombreuses années de formation et d’apprentissage, sont nécessaires. Pour réussir, l’engagement de tous est indispensable. Mais ces bonnes paroles, ces précautions, ces considérations objectives, rationnelles et claires butent sur des logiques négativement manœuvrières, sur des ambitions malsaines. Sur des appareils qui ont des logiques et des visions qui tranchent avec le bon sens.
Disenchanted, El Yacoubi comments on the aforementioned post as follows:
[Ces élections sont] un hypersouk où les voix s’échangent , se vendent , se bradent.
À gauche , comme à droite : des promesses et des billets..circulent , s’entrecroisent , s’affrontent , s’entrelacent et se séparent , avec un sourire entendu et moqueur .
On the 25 May, a new group, calling itself “the Association of Moroccan Bloggers” [Ar], believed to be close to the banned Islamist group of Al ‘Adl wal Ihssane (Justice and Charity), appeared on the blogosphere, calling for a campaign to fight electoral corruption by reporting through electronic means, all cases of electoral fraud that bloggers might encounter. The “manifesto” reads:
The campaign is vehemently supported by veteran human rights activist and retired politician, now blogger, Abdelkader Alami [Ar]:
Morocco has indeed suffered throughout its 50 years of independence from endemic corruption, not least during electoral processes. Transparency Maroc [Fr], a branch of Transparency International, an NGO committed to fighting corruption, whilst it salutes the creation of the ICPC, the newly founded anti-corruption authority, deplores “the lack of efficient reforms and the persistence at the level of the communes of poor services and infrastructures, corruption and cronyism.”
On a more derisive tone Mounir Bensaleh [Ar], writing on the collective blog Nebrass A'shabab [Ar], explains the ethology of a new species of what he describes as “electoral domesticated animals.” They are a bunch of political opportunists who have become so familiar to Moroccan voters:
Most recurrent themes seem to be apathy, disinterest and often ignorance of electoral issues. This is a sentiment Mohamed Behrani [Ar] blogging on Nebrass A'shabab tried to touch upon:
This disillusionment stems from deep concerns about the relevance of such electoral process in countries such as Morocco where the power remains essentially centralized.
Throughout the Maghreb, 2009 will definitely be remembered as an electoral year, but as Nawaat, a dissident Tunisian collective blog explains:
Regrettably, these elections –[…]presidential elections in Algeria, Tunisia’s presidential and legislative elections in October, and Morocco’s local council elections in June – attest not to the vibrancy of democracy in the region, but rather to its lingering authoritarianism.

author: Hisham Almiraat


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Morocco: Sacred Fez · Global Voices
Hisham Almiraat

Collective blog, The View from Fez covers the opening ceremony of the 15th edition of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music  [Fr] in this post. “[O]nce again the Sacred Music Festival began with the arrival of the hugely popular Princess Lalla Salma, who received a standing ovation from the almost capacity crowd,” reports the blogger.


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Palestine: Report On Use Of Depleted Uranium In Gaza · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Moments of Gaza links to a report claiming to have evidence that depleted uranium was used in the Israeli attacks on Gaza earlier this year.


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Poland: Wedding Survival Guide · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Polandian shares “15 things you need to know about Polish weddings – the survival guide.”


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Russia: Bloggers’ Memories of Soviet Maternity Hospitals · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Last December, Sinisa Boljanovic translated a number of heartrending childbirth stories, written anonymously by Serbian women and posted on the “Mother Courage” award-winning site, launched and maintained by Serbian blogger Branka Stamenkovic/Krugolina Borup.
Earlier this month, LJ user germanych, a Russian blogger, asked his readers to share their experiences of giving birth in the Soviet Union. While Branka Stamenkovic's “Mother Courage” initiative is an attempt to change the situation for the better, the Russian blogger's goal has been to document a lesser-known chapter of the Soviet history.
In the initial post, he wrote (RUS):
[…] For some reason, I have an impression that Soviet nurses […] treated women in labor as if it was wartime and the woman was having a baby from some SS officer. That is, with some hatred mixed with squeamishness. For no apparent reason. It was a strange thing to hear about, considering that in movies they were showing the opposite: when mother and child were leaving the maternity hospital, nurses were flying around them, all so kind, all smiles.
[…]
So here is a question to the women reading this blog: would you please share your impressions of the atmosphere that surrounded you in the Soviet maternity hospitals? […]
The feedback that LJ user germanych received from his readers prompted him to write a follow-up post (RUS), in which he quoted over 20 bloggers, some of whom shared stories that were not their own but their female relatives’ (a few comments were submitted by male bloggers). Below is a sampling from this collection.
vladimirgin:
When in 1984 mama was giving birth to my brother […] it was horror-horror, according to her. [Medical staff] only began moving somewhat when she started yelling that she was a doctor, too, and would be able to find the right person at the [municipal health department] to whom to write an adequate complaint about them. If she hadn't yelled, my brother would have been likely to be stillborn (there were labor complications).
terkat:
Post-natal hygiene devices were the hospital's non-disposable cloth napkins squeezed between legs: for some reason, it was forbidden to wear panties :(((. No pantiliners were still non-existent then. This is something that I recall with horror… My negative memories of the maternity hospital are connected with hygiene devices.
shisho4ka:
We were also in a state of complete “pantylessness” – plus the worn-out and somewhat torn hospital dresses and gowns. It wasn't allowed to bring any underwear from home, and other things were not welcome, either. Slippers were also from the hospital, I guess. Family visitation was prohibited, of course. All new fathers were roaming outside, down below, calling their wives loudly. One (free) phone for the whole floor and huge lines to use it…
madlesha:
Winter of 1984. Leningrad. The Institute of Pediatrics. Terrible attitude, everyone talks arrogantly, everyone's busy. It was very cold, minus 25 Celcius [minus 13 Fahrenheit] outside. No hot water, relatives were not allowed to pass water-boilers for us. My mother sent a box of sugar for me, all of us in the room were secretly eating it. There were 12 of us in the room. No bathtub, the toilet was [in a very bad condition]. Scary to remember it…
greenbat:
1989, [Yaroslavl]. Because of painful labor, a woman threw up. A nurse was pushing a mop to her nose, yelling: “Clean after yourself!”… 1990, St. Petersburg. A tipsy nurse overturned a crib with newborns in it, as the shocked audience watched.
bormental_r:
Our first child died because the doctors didn't show up. My wife was screaming, and they'd come up and say: “That's okay, this is your first labor, this is nothing. Be patient, don't scream!” And when they got alarmed, it was too late. He was stillborn – intrauterine asphyxia. And when my wife, exhausted from crying, finally fell asleep, listless, a nurse woke her up – the child had to be given a name, for the paperwork. A stillborn child. And they woke her up for that and demanded that she name a dead child. Even now when I recall this, everything in me turns inside out. 1975, [Sverdlovsk]…
LJ user kialu, who had her child at the age of 18, shared a similarly horrifying experience and ended her comment with these words:
[…] For ten years, my son's birthday was for me the day of nightmarish memories. Fear and horror mixed with shame. I've gotten over it now. But my son is 16 now, and I haven't had it in me to have a second child – and will never do…
LJ user germanych also posted a few memories of those who had their children delivered abroad or more recently – “for comparison”:
klepak:
The conditions at maternity hospitals have changed – children are not taken away, visitations are allowed, husbands are allowed to be present during birth, there are also individual birthing rooms, and a shower in every room.
***
michellemohn:
In Germany, I had a difficulty understanding why the obstetrician was so incredibly polite, careful and nice… Turns out, they treat all pregnant women like this…
Here is LJ user germanych‘s conclusion to this post:
[…] Judging by additional comments, […] nothing has changed in many of today's Russian maternity hospitals since the [Soviet times] – same rudeness, dirt and torturing of the women […]. But there is nothing surprising about it, because in state institutions of the Russian Federation the same contemptuous treatment of human beings still survives the way it was [in the Soviet times]. Basically, maternity hospitals are the die-hard bastions of [the Soviet system]. The newly-emerged commercial maternity hospitals somewhat solve the problem with the availability of normal, safe childbirth care. In general, I think that the global reforms in Russia should begin with [reform of] maternity hospitals.
And here is another follow-up post by LJ germanych, on the impact of the previous one:
[…] The post has generated the total of about a thousand comments and has spent a few days in the [Top 30 posts at Yandex Blogs portal]. Moreover, it was the #1 post for the whole day. […] But this is not the main thing.
The main thing is that a number of readers have labeled me a very non-objective person, who has deliberately collected all kinds of dirt and thus provoked equally dirty comments. Like, those women who had an okay experience with Soviet maternity hospitals just didn't want to write comments at such a place.
Well, to prove that I am all for the all-inclusive objectivity, I've decided to take out comments from that very first post, which talk positively about Soviet maternity hospitals and arrange them into a separate post. And I'd like to see: will it make it into the top ranking? And what kinds of comments will it get? […]
Here are just two of these “positive” comments:
vladimirgin:
When I was being delivered, the level of care was perfect – because the midwife and the doctor were my mother's friends. […]
***
shisho4ka:
1990. […] Normal impressions… […] Medical staff acted in a correct way. Without rudeness, but without special love and care, either. In general, at that time I felt that I was lucky, had been expecting worse treatment…
In a yet another follow-up post, LJ user germanych summarized the results of his “balanced approach” blogging experiment:
As expected, the post about how good Soviet maternity hospitals were neither made it into the top ranking at Yandex, nor generated even a hundred comments. For some reason, there haven't been too many people ready to support the theory that all kinds of horrors written about Soviet maternity hospitals had nothing to do with reality. […]
LJ user germanych also quoted this “positive” comment (that has since been deleted by its author), to emphasize what the Soviet system was really about:
I, too, cannot say anything bad about Soviet maternity hospitals, since my father-in-law was [a high-ranking Communist Party official]…


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Russia: “Uncle Mirza’s Cabin” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sixty-one photos of Moscow's migrant workers, by Yuri Kozyrev and LJ user kunstkamera – at LJ user burtin‘s blog (RUS).


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Spain: Wikimovie, created through online participation  · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

In Spain, beverage company Mahou has decided to climb on the online participation bandwagon and have turned to the internet to  create and produce a short film where directing, casting and production decisions have been made by the community of participants at the WikiPeli site.  With close to 3000 users, voting has been the democratic way in which decisions have been made, and a couple of famous Spanish directors, José Corbacho and  Juan Cruz have been in charge of putting into operation the community's decisions.
On the Wikipeli youtube channel they've been posting step by step updates of how the film is coming along. This next video shows the main directors apologizing for not being able to find a gray limo for the shooting. The color was decided by the winner on a local radio show.  They couldn´t find a gray limo, and it would be really expensive to paint it, so they had to go with white, however they justified themselves by stating that since the limo was where a bride would be transported, white is not completely inappropriate.
This is the general dynamic for decisions made during the WikiPeli production: for example, when they needed a male actor to be “devoured”, they received many entries, and with audience voting, they finally selected Abel:
Here you can see the other competing casting videos for the male actor:
They have also counted on participant's suggestions and submissions to select the soundtrack:
Currently, they have finished filming and are currently editing the movie, and on the last post on their blog they explain the difference that special effects make in movies:
Para ilustrar esto que os digo, os dejo un vídeo de un momento del rodaje, para que veáis el papel de los efectos especiales, que formarán parte de una de las escenas más impactantes. Os queremos mostrar cómo se lo montaron los especialistas para que, en una puerta metálica, apareciera una terrorífica figura humana, con la consiguiente reacción de pánico de Martín Rivas, nuestro Álex.
At the moment, they are in the process of selecting the name the movie will have, which were narrowed down to three from all the others the participants (called co-directors) sent in.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Syria: Campaign to boycott telecom companies and demand lower rates begins · Global Voices
Anas Qtiesh

Image by donknuth
In a extremely connected world, Syria is still lagging behind; The Internet was introduced to the public close to the year 2000 and currently the penetration rate stands at about 17%. The vast majority of users, however, still endure the screeches of a dial-up modem due to the country's weak broadband infrastructure. Cellular networks were licensed to operate in Syria in 2001 and ever since day one, the media echoed the customers’ discontent with service rates. The state of the struggling Syrian telecoms sector is largely attributed to the US embargo on the country and corruption within the Syrian telecom bodies.
Syrian bloggers decided they have had enough with the current prices Syrian mobile carriers – Syriatel and MTN Syria) – and the services they offer. The reaction came in the form of a campaign to boycott of mobile carriers on June 1st which was picked up [ar] by the local media.
The campaigners sent out the following message:
Anarchist Queer weighed in saying [ar]:
And on Twitter Salamm said[ar]:
"I Like this Mobile Boycott campaign, and I'm spreading it around (offline) it would've been better if it were for more than one day."
Finally, Somar from Syria Talk said in a reply to a comment:

author: Anas Qtiesh


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Taiwan: Chinese tourist arrested for spying · Global Voices
David Reid

A Chinese businessman, visiting Taiwan as a tourist, was arrested for taking photos of a military facility in Taipei. The Far-Eastern Sweet Potato discusses the security implications. The Foreigner in Formosa comments on how he was released without bail.

author: David Reid


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A Pakistani Actor In Star Trek · Global Voices
Rezwan

A Pakistani shines in Hollywood – CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan discusses “the casting of Pakistani actor Faran Tahir as Captain Robau in the recent box office hit Star Trek.”

author: Rezwan


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Azerbaijan: Science fiction author dies · Global Voices
Ali S. Novruzov

Nigar [RU]] and Jja_verner [RU] report that Yana Kandova, chairwoman of the Baku Club of Science Fiction Authors and herself a blogger, has passed away at the age of 30 from heart disease. Her works can be accessed online here [RU].

author: Ali S. Novruzov


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Bahrain: First Tweetup Date Set  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahrain's first Tweetup is scheduled to be held on June 6, from 4 to 6pm local time. It will be an opportunity for social networking Twitter users to meet face to face.


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China: Do I still love China? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Inside-out China wrote a piece reflecting on his feeling for China, in term of culture, people and the state.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Cuba, U.S.A.: Don’t Shoot the Messenger · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“This is not the first time I’ve heard that MSN Messenger is blocked for Cuban users,” writes Generation Y, revealing: “Now the prohibition comes from the other side, precisely on the part of those who built a program that helps us escape government control.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Dubai: At a wedding reception · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Dubai Jazz, a Syrian blogger who lives and works in Dubai, attends a local wedding reception and shares his ‘delicious’ experience in this post.


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Global Lullabies: The Arrorró Project · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

lullaby by Wide© Raf.f
Artist Gabriela Golder from Argentina has taken it upon herself to discover, record and collect lullabies from all over the world, and to find connections among them in the Arrorró project.  Rising Voices director David Sasaki wrote about the project on the 80+1 website, where he interviewed Gabriela on camera, and got authors and editors for Global Voices involved by inspiring many to record themselves singing the lullabies they remembered from their childhood.
David Sasaki wrote:
I sat down with Golder at El Hipopotamo in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires to learn more about what has been discovered in the 200 videos that have already been recorded, and how the project will evolve over the next two months leading up to its simultaneous live exhibition in Buenos Aires and Linz. Our conversation was in Spanish, but I have added English sub-titles to the video:
Inspired by the lullaby project,  he recorded himself singing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, a song he remembered his parents singing to him to send him to sleep:
Our own Managing Director from Trinidad and Tobago, Georgia Popplewell also joined in, with Blanket Bay:
Lova Rakotomalala sang a lullaby from Madagascar about a duck:
Thanks to Onnik Krikorian and Veronica Khokhlova  who suggested it, we bring you this Russian Animation Project that illustrates lullabies from all over the world with illustrations explaining the songs lyrics. Following, an Azerbaijani lullaby about a baby dreaming about his life, and a Ukrainian one where winter lulls babies to sleep. More lullabies from different countries can be found here:
This next one is a Brazilian song meant to scare babies into sleeping, suggested by Paula Góes: Ox with a Black face, where the Ox will take away the children who are scared of the black face. On the following video, a young girl is singing it:
Another lullaby with scary lyrics and an enchanting melody is the Shimabara Lullaby, roughly translated by Hanako Tokita as:
“I am too poor and not attractive so I won't be sold…. Please go to sleep or a trafficker
will come and get you… I wonder where all the girls are now and where they were sold to… Ororonbai, Ororoanbai…”
First of all, thanks to all the authors and editors who participated with sending in their childhood lullabies and recommendations, even if we couldn´t include them in this post. Please wait for Part II!


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Haiti, D.R.: Tensions Erupt · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Tensions along the Haitian-Dominican border often revolve around environmental issues,” writes Repeating Islands, adding: “This was once again the scenario…as violence erupted in northwestern Dominican Republic after authorities destroyed plots planted with fruits and vegetables by Haitians on Dominican protected land.”


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Indian Students Under Attack In Australia · Global Voices
Rezwan

Rashmi Bansal at Youth Curry discusses about the recent attacks on Indian students in Australia.


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Indonesia: Governor uses Facebook · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Rudy Ariffin, the Governor of South Kalimantan in Indonesia, has been using Facebook for the last five months. He spends between 30 to 60 minutes in the evening to communicate with his constituents.

author: Mong Palatino


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Indonesia: Presidential and VP candidates · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Indonesia's election commission has announced the names of candidates for President/Vice President who will be running for the election on 8 July 2009. All candidates have gone through general medical check-up and wealth review.


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Jamaica: Calabash & the Maroons · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Litblogger Geoffrey Philp recounts his experience at Jamaica's recently-concluded Calabash Literary Festival, while Trinidadian Sharon Millar offers some insight into the Maroons of Jamaica.


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Jamaica: Justice System · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamaica Salt is “interested in looking at the whole system of justice in Jamaica – or rather the lack of it.”