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China: How does the young generation view Confucius · Global Voices
Robert Woo

A rumor circulated on the web that all the 2D versions of Avatar have been pulled out of the Chinese cinemas to make way for the domestic movie Confucius. Despite reports like this, government officials quickly denied it. Yet like all rumors, even if wrong, they may contain a kernel of truth.
Confucius is often regarded as China’s most important cultural icon, greatest sage and almost as a source of Chinese civilization. However, no matter what Confucius really meant in his analects, for thousands of years many different people with many different agendas have interpreted Confucius in the ways they wished. The emperors borrowed the extensive imagery of mandate of heaven to consolidate their ultimate power; now, the contemporary leaders praise Confucianism to reinforce the concept of a harmonious society; while nationalists also join the party simply because Confucius was Chinese.
In this context, it is no surprise why such a rumor was able to gain currency. Many people ridicule at yet another possible attempt to appropriate the aura of Confucius to the service of the State, by using executive order to make sure that people will watch the new film, while ousting a popular western film that evokes sympathetic feelings among many Chinese
However, how does the young generation really feel about Confucius? A public page on Renren.com, China’s largest Social Networking Service site for young people, gives us some interesting insights.
The public page ‘owned’ by Confucius was put up last November. Since then, more than 77,000 people have ‘befriended’ him and there have been nearly 27,000 comments left for him. There has never been a reply from him yet.
A quick scan through the comments reveals that the overwhelming majority of the visitors solicited help from Confucius in his role as a saint-god, for no other reason than the passing of school exams.
圣人~物理化学分数还没出来~来拜一拜~您懂的~！
孔嗲嗲 来看你咯 虽然不知道你的幕后操纵者是谁 但还是很虔诚的拜拜你 今天下午最后一门哦 爷懂得哈~
爷爷，保佑老师手下留情…………保佑我今天可以上百度………
我也拜一下..子曾经曰过..中文写作不挂科!!
孔圣人…我的线代啊…
拜什么也不如拜孔老夫子有用。我知道您古往今来什么都懂。2500年不是距离。明天Computer arch。晚生靠您托梦了。如果我睡的话。
子啊～据可靠消息，这次考试语文的作文题目就是针对您老人家的某句话写篇议论文，鉴于本人十分不擅长议论文，故前来拜拜，望给予灵感～
Note here that in order to translate “拜” I hesitated over which word to use. It should be translated as worship. However, worship implies rather more belief and faith than it is the case. In China, many people visit temples of all kinds and kowtow to whatever deity that is believed to promise good fortunes. It is obvious that Confucius is seen here as another one of those who sit in the Chinese Pantheon.
There are also a variety of themes besides soliciting help. Some reflect nationalistic sentiment
恩，中国文化！绝对中国！
Other comments are downright entertaining.
夫子…你懂我的…拜！
二哥 您憔悴了 让这帮小学生给你折腾的 您老主意身体。
老头,中国现在有一帮2B拿你拍烂片来着,你被糟践了啊,对你深表同情一下.
He has also been compared with Brother Chun, a popular Internet meme originating from Super Girl Li Yuchun with similar deified quality
春哥孔子一起拜
他们都拜春哥。我觉得，还是拜你比较现实。

author: Robert Woo


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Egypt: Engulfed by Floods!  · Global Voices
Nermeen Edrees

Over the past few days, several Egyptian governorates and cities have been engulfed by a severe wave of flash floods and heavy rains.
At Egyptian Chronicles, Zeinobia reports:
Officially we have a catastrophe in Egypt whether in Sinai or Aswan. Mubarak has Aswan to see the damages there. The communications between the two cities and the outside world are nearly cut. The ministry of health has announced that 4 citizens were killed because of the floods where as 41 citizens have been injured . Of course these are the official numbers , we can expect much larger losses considering the fact there are missing people especially in Al Arish.
In an update, Zeinobia stated that the death toll has increased to 15.
The floods practically left many parts disconnected especially in Sinai.
Alanay, who blogs from Sinai, says:
In Sinai, where houses and vehicles have been swept away, people were angry as relief and support didn't arrive in a timely manner.
Sinai news wrote:
Nawara Negam posted a few videos on her blog showing the extent of the damage.
In an attempt to make up for the shortcomings in the government and official aid sources and aid relief efforts during crises, representatives from political parties and well as NGOs formed a committee to support the floods victims.  In their statement they mentioned that an aid convoy had set off to Sinai carrying urgent humanitarian needs:
0122259860 – 0122418128- 0106114257 – 0190611846 – 0101044264

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Nermeen Edrees


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Egypt: Farewell Jean Simmons  · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Egyptian famous director, Mohamed Khan, and blogger Zeinobia mourned the death of their favorite American actress Jean Simmons (1929 – January 22, 2010).

author: Eman AbdElRahman


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Egypt: Portraits of Egyptians · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Tabsir.net published (here and here) few portraits of ordinary Egyptians, by the English artist Frederick Goodall (1822-1904), in the mid to late 19th century. Goodall's work is famous for providing a meticulous “ethnographic” view of Egypt at the time.


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Greece: Fiscal Deficit · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

This month's updates on the 2009 Greek fiscal deficit – by Edward Hugh at A Fistful of Euros: here, here, here, here, and here. And a warning to Hungary – here: “So, Hungarian politicians be warned – You are not Greece right now, but you could so very easily end up where that poor, unfortunate country finds itself, and especially so if you make wildly optimistic growth scenarios, and debt to GDP forecasts, and doubly so if you think that coming out of the loving arms of the IMF will leave you free to go about your business as you see fit.”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Guatemala: United for Haiti After Earthquake · Global Voices
Renata Avila

In 1976, a powerful earthquake killed nearly 23,000 Guatemalans, most of whom were poor and indigenous peoples living in slums and other vulnerable areas. During that time, many people across the globe had not been aware of the conditions of poverty and stark contrasts in Guatemala. However, following the disaster, the formation of reconstruction groups and the arrival of massive international cooperation gave rise to organizational growth in rural and urban areas. Now, Guatemalans are united to stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti. Various efforts from different communities are taking place to lend support to those victims of the Haiti earthquake.
Guatemala City after 1976 Earthquake (image in the Public Domain).
El Zacapaneco [es] reports that in Gualan, a rural village of modest income, local media, radio, and television stations gathered together to organize a Telethon, where they collected up to US$2500, as well as many in kind donations. El Poptuneco [es] (based in Poptún, Petén) is also inviting people to donate and help. The blog Cultura Cristiana [es] is inviting people from the Protestant church to collaborate as good Christians and show their love for Haitians. Noticias La Esfinge [es], from Coban invites people from all religions to pray for Haiti.
The Guatemalan Army is permanently collaborating with United Nations peacekeepers. They have many troops deployed in Haiti, and as quickly as the Government could, they sent the Specialized Unit of Humanitarian Aid and Rescue, as reported by the blog Perspectiva Militar [es]. In addition, a trained German Shepherd dog traveled with the Army to help them find the victims. The blog that provides information about Guatemalan Firefighters also reports [es] that a specialized unit was sent promptly to the island. Sensluze of the blog Banana Smoothie [es] describes the options Guatemalans have to help on her post Help Haiti!
Walter González of the blog Guatemala en Decimas [es] wrote a poem dedicated to Haiti, as did Oxwell77 of the blog Guatezona [es] who wrote a poem. RockRepublik [es], the biggest community of rock music fans in the country, debated extensively about the best ways to help people affected by the tragedy.
In light of the recent tragedy in Haiti and the reminder of Guatemala's own earthquake more than 30 years ago, the blog from the Fire Station in Antigua, Guatemala provides  precise instructions on what to do before, during, and after an earthquake.
Finally, Alejandro Ramírez, a Guatemalan film producer based in Haiti has been documenting the tragedy. He writes in an open letter he sent to Havana Times [es]:
I’ve walked all of the streets of Jacmel —with my two cameras hanging from my neck— without feeling the slightest sense of aggressiveness or seeing any strange looks (something I can’t do in Guatemala City or Caracas).  The whole town received me with affection and even took me to the most severe problem areas.  I felt sorry for my complete lack of Creole or French, because residents recounted stories that I couldn’t understand.  However many Haitians speak Spanish and were able to convey their feelings to me, an unknown white guy who was invading their space.
He also added:
So how can the media say that everything is a disaster if there is a mountain of hearts that still beat with the human feeling of solidarity, which is always noticed more among those who have less?  And in these moments, this town is possibly one with the least – and the most.

author: Renata Avila


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Iran:Green Cyber Army vs. Pro State Cyber Army · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Green Cyber Army says it is going to support Green Movement in the virtual world where Iranian government has launched its own cyber army. Iranian Cyber army recently hacked Twitter and Chinese Baidu  but does not claim any direct link with Iranian government.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Israel: Activists and bloggers protest against deterioration of human rights  · Global Voices
Carmel L. Vaisman

“Guess which country arrested 17 human rights activists today?” asked blogger and former Yedioth journalist Gal Mor on his Facebook status on January 15, 2010.
Among the activists arrested in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah was the Executive Director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) Hagai Elad. The activists participated in a series of ongoing weekly demonstrations of both Palestinian and Jewish activists, against Jewish settlers moving into the neighborhood while banning Palestinian families from their homes by a court order, claiming those were former Jewish homes illegally colonized by local families. Li Lurian of Peace Now, who has taken this video of the demonstration, was among the arrested, as well as blogger Didi Remez.
Two weeks before his arrest, Elad wrote in a column on Ynet website saying:
“Many protesters felt during this year that their freedom of speech in the only democracy in the Middle East isn't taken for granted. The oppression of protest isn't a police job in a democratic country; its job is in fact to protect the freedom of speech”
Lawyer and blogger Jonathan Klinger writes that Elad's arrest is against the law and another sign for the death of Israeli democracy:
“Elad was arrested as a punishment for protesting and not because he posed any danger to the public. Such ‘punishment arrests’ are described as illegal by law and their aim is to prevent others from protesting and choosing to act on their democratic rights. Without protest there's no democracy.”
The Israeli court indeed ordered to release the activists immediately (after 36 hours), However, blogger Lisa Goldman who attended the weekly demonstration on Friday (January 22, 2010), reported Remez (@DidiRemez) was arrested again along with 15 Israeli activists. Further personal account of the “Sheikh Jarrah round ups” is available in English on Ibn-Ezra‘s blog.
Human rights, from various perspectives, has been the main issue on the agenda of Israeli bloggers and tweeps (Twitter people) in recent months, in light of some of the current administration's policies perceived as a threat on Israel's democracy. On December 11th, 2009, ACRI initiated a unique human rights parade in Tel Aviv, uniting 116 NGOs supporting human rights from various points of view and with varied agendas.
The protest focused on a range of policies marking a peak in the deterioration of human rights in Israel as it was described by ACRI on the protest blog: policies like the Nakba law, the deportation of foreign workers, the biometric database law (see detailed report below), and a “general atmosphere of growing social gaps, silencing of protest, racism and violence”. Thousands of people attended the parade (see video clips), held just one day after the international human rights day.
Bloggers are “giving the finger” to the biometric database
Of all human rights related activity that took place in recent months, the anti-biometric law activity was among the largest web campaigns that Israel has known so far, including the cooperation of 160 Israeli bloggers, a dedicated blog and Twitter account, and a busy Facebook page.
The biometric legislation proposal suggests a compulsory biometric database of all Israeli citizens as part of switching to biometric IDs and passports. Blogger Hani Zuveida explains the perils:
“The biometric law or better yet ‘the big brother law’ aims at creating a detailed digital database of all citizens, that can easily be exposed to commercial firms and their interests but also be vulnerable to criminal offenses like identity theft and framing of innocent citizens by breaking into the database. And all of this in the name of “protecting” IDs from being forged – out of the frying pan into the fire. Public servants are a peculiar species: these are the people we elect to represent our best interests as legislators or ministers but suddenly they ‘disconnect their wires’ and set out to an independent life reversing the circumstances: instead of doing what we tell them to do they start telling us what's best for us. In my opinion this is one of the most dangerous situations in a democracy.”
Bloggers have taken a personal issue with minister Meir Shitrit, who pushed this law forward, questioning his motives and integrity. A-list bloggers Gal Mor and Effi Fuks, who dug up circumstantial evidence against Shitrit's motives and demanded a through inquiry, have deleted their original posts after reaching an agreement with Shitrit's family and published an official apology and denial. However, blogger Rehavia Berman, often referred to as “the bad boy of the Israeli blogosphere” republished the alleged accusation suggesting commercial interests behind the database and a backstage link between Shitrit and OTI, the company who is to carry out the database.
Bloggers have frequently attended Knesset sessions discussing the biometric legislation reporting on Shitrit's conduct in pushing this law. As a result, Shitrit attempted to ban bloggers from these public sessions, as documented on camera by blogger Eran Vered. At the same time, a blogger, who is also a hacker, set up a website showing the public that the allegedly protected database of the internal affairs ministry has actually leaked to the web and this information on each citizen is available to everyone (the website is now down). On his blog he explained this demo was designed to show the same can easily happen to the biometric database.
Blogger Karine Barzilai-Nahon, head of the Washington University iSchool, has prepared a special report on biometric policies worldwide which was presented to the Knesset as well. She writes:
“To date, there is no western democratic country that keeps a biometric database of all its citizens without their consent. There is only one country that keeps a compulsory database: Hong Kong, but this database is temporary and is deleted immediately after issuing the ID. England, France and Japan have a voluntary database that wasn't made compulsory because of public critic. A few countries are considering various biometric policies but not implementing them although it is an approved legislation, because of ongoing public debate and fear of giving too much power to political bodies. The chairman of the Knesset's science and technology committee asks not to demonize the proposed legislation because they're not inventing the wheel and Israel's no different than other countries, but this report shows it actually is.”
Bloggers and activists’ efforts led to several setbacks and compromises in the law, however, key bloggers involved in the protest reported these setbacks are aimed at cooling down and evading public protest and manipulations prompting “voluntary” inclusion through sanctions discriminating non-volunteers. Human rights activists have lost this round on December 7, 2009, when the database law was accepted by the Israeli Knesset, yet they marched against its implementation in the human rights march a few days later.
As fewer and fewer media channels and individual reporters cover such policies from a critical human rights perspective, the activists have taken their issues to the web, finding common grounds and blending with key bloggers and tweeps to fully employ alternative media platforms in attempt to influence public opinion and struggle for democracy de-facto.

author: Carmel L. Vaisman


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Kazakhstan: Strong debut in Hopman Cup · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Dina says that it is so far a successful season start for the Kazakh tennis players with their solid performance in Perth during the Hopman Cup.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Morocco: Bloggers Mourn Freedom of Expression · Global Voices
Hisham Almiraat

Nebrash Eshabab [Ar] is a Moroccan collective blogging platform. It published a call for Moroccan bloggers to “mourn freedom of expression in Morocco during a week, from 25 to 31 January,” in order to raise awareness about the deteriorating situation of free speech in the country.

author: Hisham Almiraat


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Morocco: Meet the Cartoonists · Global Voices
Hisham Almiraat

Casey Scieszka and Steven Weinberg are two American cartoonists, creators of “a book/art/zine/stuff” operation called Telephone and Soup. They have settled recently in Morocco and are announcing the organization of a meet up in a café downtown Rabat on January 26, around the Shitty Kitty comics concept, inviting people to join them, draw little kitties on paper with captions and hang out with new folks.


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Morocco: “Smile, You’re in Fez” · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

The View from Fez gives us a look at the new mascot of Fez in this post.

author: Jillian C. York


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No IPL Transmission In Pakistan · Global Voices
Rezwan

Spring Of Autumn reports that the Cable Operators Association of Pakistan will not show any match of Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket because they felt that Pakistani players were deliberately excluded from the tournament.

author: Rezwan


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Russian Blogger Harassed For Marrying Chinese · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

Maria Gromakova in China
The common notion that the Internet empowers those with democratic and liberal values is occasionally challenged by stories coming out of Russian online communities. The blogosphere can certainly be a place where people share valuable content with wide audience, but it can also become a platform for attacking virtual identities. Unfortunately, availability of information and growing connections between virtual and real personalities make online harassment as real as it gets.
Maria Gromakova, a young blogger from St. Petersburg, experienced the evil potential of the Internet first hand. Constant attacks of Russian radical nationalists on her blog turned Maria's life into a living hell and made her and her small family leave Russia.
Maria studied philology at St. Petersburg University where she concentrated on teaching Russian to foreigners. She also played at a local theater and worked as an anchor at a local TV station. In 2007, Maria started teaching Russian at one of the universities in China. There she met Bo, a professional athlete and her future husband.
Maria has been keeping a blog on Livejournal.com [RUS] since 2005. Colorful posts about life in China quickly made her online diary popular with more 1,500 regular subscribers to the blog posts.
Maria and Bo came back to St. Petersburg in 2009 just few months before their son was born. Maria's blog was filled with joyful updates about their first child. This turned out to be a terrible mistake.
In one of her blog posts, Maria told readers that she and her son had been attacked on a city train. One of the passengers pushed Maria when she, Bo and their son were getting off the train. Maria nearly fell down but Bo caught her at the last moment. She also recollected that the person who pushed was loudly complaining to his friends about “Russian whores who make mutants with Asians.” Meant to expose an ugly face of Russian extreme nationalism, the blog post caused a different effect.
“It all started with a young man who openly supports fascists’ points of view,” Maria told in an interview to Global Voices. “He found my blog with this story and photos of my child. He put those photos on his blog with comments about “a bloody race prostitute who gave a birth to a defected product from the racial perspective.”
This motivated many supporters of rock_my_cock, the blogger who started harassing Maria online, to visit her blog and leave offensive comments and threats.
“I want our race to survive,” rock_my_cock wrote to Maria. “It’s not a question of personal desires, but eugenics. And you have wasted your genetic code. I am very frustrated by it.”
Rock_my_cock later deleted his account on Livejournal.com
But the harassment did not stop there. Few days later, Maria got an e-mail that contained a photo collage with a terrifying name “How to cook a baby.”
“They wrote that the only way I can get excuse for my guilt against the Russian nation for marrying Asian is to kill our ‘frog’ [the name Russian nationalists gave Marina's son – GV), since ‘he is not human,’ and make a soup according to instructions that were attached,” Maria said. “They also promised to visit me and taste the soup. I was also required to divorce my husband immediately or else they threatened to hurt him.”
Those people also said that they knew Maria's home address and phone number.
Unable to tolerate the harassment any longer, Maria published a blog post where she revealed her intentions to find the people behind the threats and report them to Russian authorities. The blog was hacked soon after the post and all blog content was deleted. The same thing happened to Maria's and Bo's e-mail accounts. The hackers later published “How to cook a baby” collage on Maria's blog and wrote that “the soup from the son was very delicious.”
Maria did not have any choice but to address the blogosphere [RUS]:
Господа!
Это Мария Громакова строчит с аккаунта своего мужа.
Сегодня ночью наши отечественные фашисты взломали мне ЖЖ!
И удалили ВСЕ записи, начиная с 2005 года. […]
Поэтому очень прошу всех, кто может мне хоть чем-то информационно или по факту помочь – связаться со мной по мобильному телефону в виде смс. Или, не связываясь со мной, просто хоть что-то сделать, чтобы мне помочь!
The word about the story spread around Russian online community and led to angry reaction from ordinary bloggers. LJ user Pushba wrote:
Где мы живет и о чем мы думаем – уже не важно. Важно то, что меня трясет, когда я думаю о фашизме, особенно в контексте нашей страны.
Я, конечно, понимаю, что этот ублюдок просто повышает себе гребаный рейтинг подобными постами, но не могу не написать об этом. В данном случае – жестокость выживается только жестокостью – кто бы его сварил?
At the same time, some people were afraid to actively defend Maria. They did not want to turn into the next victims of the nationalists. In his post “Nationalists hack accounts on Livejournal,” LJ user desp-immigrant wrote:
Разумеется, это можно сделать, если вы не боитесь, что с вашим журналом сделают то же самое, что с журналом Марии. Это риск, реальный, не такой уж маленький.  Но если не реагировать никак, потому что вас лично это не коснулось, то вы знаете, во что это может в итоге перейти. Уже было.
Several bloggers blamed Maria for revealing her true identity online. “The reaction of the majority of people was ‘it's your fault,'” Maria told Global Voices. “They told me that I shouldn't have kept the blog. I shouldn't have posted photos online and shouldn't have talked about my family. They said if I wrote about birds and butterflies, nobody would have harassed me. But since I am not ashamed of my Asian husband and my child, I have attracted all that.”
Tatyana Tihomirova (a.k.a. LJ user Tanchik) is one of the most active defenders of Maria. She blamed [RUS] boggers for being passive and dismissed any allegations that Maria was the one to blame for what happened to her.
Когда ж до вас до всех дойдет, что вся эта мразота резвится и в реале, и в интернетах только и исключительно потому, что вы, лично вы “не кормите троллей”, молчите в тряпочку, даже в ситуации, когда на ваших глазах такое происходит и раз за разом советуете “не обращать внимания”. Если вы не обращаете внимания в ЖЖ, то вы же не обращаете внимания в реале. Только не удивляйтесь потом, что на вас же не будут обращать внимания тогда, когда жертвой станете вы сами. В реале или в ЖЖ.
Tatyana urged other bloggers to monitor activities of radical blogs and collect any documents and posts that violate Livejournal's terms of use. She suggested informing Livejournal administration of any evidence of abuse. Tatyana also called for lawyers to help Maria.
Indeed, many bloggers tried to assist Maria in her online struggle. Some helped by spreading the word around the blogosphere and making the topic one of the most discussed online. Others helped to restore Maria's e-mail account. A special collective effort was targeted at identifying the attackers. Maria shared IP addresses and nicknames of bloggers who harassed her and the online community helped to reveal  the attackers’ real identities.
But the online attacks on Maria continued. She would get text messages with fascist content on her mobile phone. The threats against her and her son also did not stop. At some point, the hackers cracked her personal profile page on a popular Russian social network Vkontakte.ru. They also stole $35 from her mobile phone account.
Maria was desperate. She wrote a blog post [RUS] where she alleged that she became a victim of not only fascists and radical nationalists, but also many ordinary and respectable people who usually prefer not to show their xenophobia in real life. Maria suggested that those people use anonymity online to hide their real identities and their hatred of foreigners. She warned that those online actions can easily grow into something real and more dangerous that could affect everyone:
Да, меня, как и всю эту историю, через день-два забудут. Жизнь продолжается.
Невозможно всё время жить на баррикадах. Глупо. Да и не нужно.
Просто не забывайте, что на моём месте легко можете оказаться ВЫ.
Ваша семья. Дети. Внуки. Друзья и близкие.
Maria currently lives in Beijing with her husband and son. She said that the online harassment had unfortunate consequences that made her leave Russia. A story about Maria in one of Russian newspapers attracted the attention of local immigration officers. They refused to issue a permission for Maria's husband to stay in the country. They later came to Maria's apartment at night to check Bo's immigration status and ordered him to leave the country withing 24 hours.
Maria's blog continues to be a target of online attacks.
“I can’t say the story has ended,” Maria said. “I know that people who previously harassed me monitor my blog and occasionally write some ugly things on their blogs and online communities. But at least they didn’t try to hack my blog and e-mails or steal information since the middle of December 2009.”
What bothers Maria is that the people behind those online attacks are still unpunished. Bringing legal actions against them requires Maria to be physically present in Russia and she is not sure she wants to experience the story all over again.
“The story proves that everything is possible on the Russian Internet,” Maria said. “We just found ourselves on the edge. And we had to leave the country. It’s good that we had an opportunity to leave. It would be worse if we didn't.”
Maria's story raises few important points about nationalism and hatred on RuNet. The phenomenon of trolling [ENG] is not new and very popular in Russia. There are some well-known examples when bloggers were forced to stop a certain kind of online activity or even commit so-called “online suicide” (erase their blogs). It also not surprising that online attacks against Maria had a clear racist connotation.
The thing that attracts attention here is how the attacks unfolded. It is clear that all this started almost by accident. The blogger who initiated an attack wrote [RUS] later that stumbled upon Maria’s blog by chance when he was looking for his friend with the same last name. He also tried to explain [RUS] the nature of his attack:
Я цинично поржу над любой темой. Вообще над любой. Вообще делать из чего либо -=святое=- это бред. Мне, честно говоря, решительно насрать на этого косоглазого уродца, его папу и маму. Ну согрешили, с кем не бывает. Кто-то с резиновой бабой спит, кто-то – с расовонеполноценным, каждый дрочит как он хочет. Я примерно догадывался о результатах и эффекте своего действия. Меня всё устраивает.
However, in this case, we can point out few factors that go beyond the phenomenon of trolling. The nature of attack might be approached as “cruelty of anonymity commons.” The attack has a self-emerge and swarming nature.
The first post attracted attention of people who had a variety of reasons to follow it. Those reasons ranged from mere curiosity to racism and fascism. The further development of attacks went far beyond the control of their initiator. This case showed how the Internet empowers the most radical elements of society and gives them new tools to fulfill their goals without accepting any responsibility for results. To some extent, we can treat this phenomenon as a “long tail” of political identity when a radical minority has as strong impacts as majority. As we could see, the only effective response here is self-emergence activity by the majority that might stay passive and cautious about responding to the attack.
The self-emerged transformation of radical elements into attacking crowds can take place not only online. In 2009, Russian security officials claimed [RUS] that few dozens of people were killed in Moscow area at the so-called “criminal flash mobs.” It is especially common with hate crimes committed by Russian radical nationalists.
“Following networked distribution of message with a detailed instructions, people who don’t know each other gather at meeting points with one purpose – commit a crime,” Igor Sundiev, an expert at the Russian Ministry of Interior, said. According to Sundiev, people who participated in the flash mob agreed to kill the first non-Russian that they see and run away.
There is another significant difference in Maria's case. Previously, the most of “crowd based online” attacks targeted people who were considered public figures in online or offline world. These attacks usually were limited to a blog itself and used primarily trolling methods. In the case  of Maria, the victim was a private blogger.
Moreover the attacks had the most comprehensive nature than ever before.  Not only the blog, but all the possible online platforms that were related to identity of the victim including e-mails, social networks and private content pages turned into a target for violent hacking and destruction. So, this case should be addressed as a multiplatform attack against online identity.
The effect of this kind of comprehensive attacks is growing due to increase in importance of online representation. An online identity is not a luxury but a crucial element in personal and professional development.
The story of Maria Gromakova is not the only story that proves it. Recently, few dozens of blogs in Livejournal were erased by unknown attackers. Most of bloggers who lost their blogs kept them for 5-7 years. The stories of these bloggers show clearly that loosing a blog is not just an unpleasant accident, but something that might cause a psychological trauma.
In the current information reality, blogs are not just a reflection but a part of one’s identity. That is why the multiplatform attacks or acts of online vandalism should be approached not just as private cases of hacking but a new category of crimes – crimes against online identities. Consequently, a special strategies and measures are required for defense and protection of online identity representation as well as for facilitation of online community response to this kind of crimes.

author: Gregory Asmolov


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Russian Spam Tycoon Shares His Methods And Targets  · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

Russian “spam tycoon” Petr Ivanenko said [RUS] in an interview that his main targets were the U.S., Great Britain, Australia, Spain and Italy. He explained his new spam methods and talked about collaboration with credit cards online thieves.


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Saudi Arabia: A Barcamp · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Qusay announced that a new Barcamp, in Saudi Arabia, will be held at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) on January. The barcamp will focus on entrepreneurship.


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Saudi Arabia: AIDS treatment takes step backward · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

The subject of AIDS/HIV has always been a taboo in Saudi Arabia, where the debate is raging over the treatment of patients like criminals. Recently, Saudi Arabia announced its plans to shut down a volunteer clinic in Jeddah’s King Saud Hospital that is known for providing medical services, counseling and privacy to AIDS victims. Bloggers lash out at the move saying it is a step backward.
The Saudi government reported that in 2008 the number of AIDS patients in Saudi Arabia was 13,926 with 3,538 Saudis. An estimated 505 were Saudi females and 769 non-Saudi women.
Wafa, who attended a workshop held by a Saudi organization fighting discrimination against AIDS patients, wrote:
I know for a fact that lots of people here still think that being an aids patients is your fault, and that you must have got it through sexual relationship. A few people know the difference between Aids and HIV. A lot of aids patients are being stained with shame and people look down on them. We really need to spread the word for a better knowledge of the disease and stop the discrimination against aids patients.
Wafa further explained how the whole society is not welcoming to help the patients, with even the religious leaders increasing the problem due to their ignorance about the causes of the disease:
The problem happens in the whole society. When the First and only Saudi organization for aids started its work, it was faced by ignoring from almost everyone thus it has no financial resources, society feared that acknowledging the organization is the first step to accept the existing of AIDS in Saudi Arabia, mostly because it is still believed that the cause of it is sexual relationships.
Religious leaders also denounce the organization saying that it is working in a westerns manner by accepting illegal sexual relationships and asking for money to help with its consequence.
Another Saudi blogger Sabria S. Jawhar, an IPhD Student in the UK, mentioned that although times have changed, but the most important rule for victims stayed the same. They have to keep the disease a secret from friends, acquaintances and even family. She then explained the new problem facing patients, in regards to shutting down the clinic in Jeddah’s King Saud Hospital:
Now, it’s scheduled to be shut down and its AIDS patients distributed all over the Kingdom for treatment. It appears that just when Saudi Arabia achieves parity in treating AIDS sufferers with the rest of the world, as it has with its organ transplant policies and with its specialization in separating conjoined twins, it takes a step backward.
The closure of AIDS services at King Saud threatens the privacy and consistent treatment of patients. It also increases the likelihood of spreading the disease because the trust built by King Saud doctors, nurses and support staff must be rebuilt with strangers at another medical facility. This is not an easy task.
[…]
The transfer of patients also begs the question of what will other medical centers do with them. Will these patients be grouped with non-AIDS patients or be treated in a specialty ward? Will their privacy be protected?
And, unlike any other society, AIDS patients need special treatment, and high level of privacy, as Sabria continued to explain:
The emotional bond among hospital employees was strong. A trust existed between the patient and employee. Unlike many Western AIDS patients who don’t hide their illness, Saudis insist on it because it means being judged by one’s family and friends. The trust between patient and hospital employee meant their secret was safe.
One AIDS patient said recently of King Saud Hospital: “When we go there we feel like we are treated like human beings. I know people will listen to me. But I don’t tell anyone else.”
That secret is now at risk as these patients are shuttled to different facilities. Ensuring proper treatment and taking precautions to prevent AIDS from spreading is now at risk.
One of the commentators on Wafa‘s post, Angie Nader, pitied these patients and said:
Even there is so much talk about aids throughout the world…it still is here..we have to do whatever we can as human people to make this disease stop. And those who are suffering from eaither…we need to show them respect and let them live with dignity.
Adding my voice to Angie, I wonder if something will be better done to help these suffering patients..


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Serbia: Belgrade Photos · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Many new Belgrade photos at A Yankee-in-Belgrade, including this one of a man on a bus and this one of “winter foods” sold at a local market.


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Sudan’s First LGBT Rights Organization? · Global Voices
SudaneseDrima

Throughout 2009, the Sudanese blogosphere has been in slumber mode. However, many previously inactive bloggers are blogging again along with new ones that have arrived on the scene recently.
But that's not all. Sudanese blogger, Kizzie wrote about the website launched by Freedom Sudan, The Sudanese LGBT Association.
Freedom Sudan is the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) organization in Sudan. Our organization has been formed in December 2006. Our status is illegal. Homosexual behavior is illegal in Sudan and homosexuals facing the death penalty. That's why our organization was formed in secret and all our activities are carried out secretly, hoping that one day we will get accepted in our communities and even in our families, and hope that we can be FREE to be the way we are. Freedom Sudan is an organization run by volunteers only.
Our main goals are:
The organization also has its own Twitter account here.
There haven't been any reactions to this news yet within the Sudanese blogosphere. Also, before Kizzie broke it out, she wrote about a Sudanese Facebook group encouraging participation in Sudan's upcoming elections this April, the first one in two decades.
The group is called Girifna, Arabic for “We're Disgusted” or “We're Fed Up” and it has more than 4,200 members. You can learn more about it at an article posted on its website called Q&A with girifna.
The here's what Kizzie wrote about the Girifna Facebook group.
Apparently, Sudanese people my age actually care about the elections! I wasn't very optimistic about my generation in my Menassat article published a few weeks ago. I even came up with a name for our generation…Generation Passive….the passive youth of Sudan.
Girifna is a beacon of light to be honest! It literally means “I am disgusted” (I can totally relate to their frustrations!)
Waad Ali, meanwhile, blogged a brilliant original post about the signs of genocide and analyzed the situation in Darfur. The signs of genocide according to Waad Ali are:
… The first sign is classification. Now of course all human beings classify; there’s always us and there’s them, there’s our group and there’s the others. This is not necessarily of course a genocidal step, but its absolutely necessary for genocide
… The second sign is symbolization, where we have words or symbols that express those classifications.
… The third sign is dehumanization. It’s  where we equate the group that is targeted as being a cancer or microbes in the system. In other words,  It’s where we begin to treat one group as somehow less than human.
… The fourth sign of genocide is organization. If a hate group is formed that is organizing to carry out hate crimes
… The fifth sign of Genocide is Polarization, in which the hate groups try to drive the society apart. Basically they try to drive out all the moderates who could stop the process.
… The sixth sign is what I call preparation. It is the stage were people are armed and  militias are trained to carry out  genocide.
… The seventh sign is what I call Genocide, “legally”.
… The eighth sign is denial. All the way through this whole process, the people who are committing Genocide Deny that they are doing it.
Moving from the topic of genocide, let's now take a look at a topic that many Sudanese bloggers covered recently in the wake of the Lubna trousers affair: what women wear.
Nersrine Melik, blogging at The Guardian, writes:
“I am averse to any legislation which dictates what women are allowed to wear as much as I am averse to the niqab. Although there is little consensus over its religious obligatory nature, this is a red herring that detracts from the more important question of personal liberty. However, there are situations where a full face cover poses security and identity questions. Freedom is not absolute when it encroaches upon the rights of others. Covering one's face whether that person is a man or a woman has simple practical ramifications.”
When the Lubna trousers affair erupted, virtually every single Sudanese blogger criticized Lubna's arrest by the authorities. Adil Abdalla has a different opinion though, and is actually critical of Lubna in light of her recent visit to France where she traveled to promote her new book “40 Lashes for a Pair of Trousers” written in French.
She was a shock to our distinctive culture.. in Sudan, conservatism is potted with open-mindness, where sky is the limit for your imagination, yet respect the fundamentals of our grassroots and common perceptions..
She was not that moral-driven one, nor dressed as modest as shown in press.. Police had caught her at midnight in a suspicious club.. A witness claimed her dress was totally different, almost naked; yet some activists helped her to change all to embrace the government in highly charged time of politics and power game..
Regretfully, she ashamed her country, and aided who want to shame Muslims.. She is too small to be any player, yet a tool for big players.. Now, she is immunized in Europe, and will be forgotten shortly.. but the hurt she caused will be deeper and wider to heal..!!
In another sign that the Sudanese blogosphere has grown from its tiny community of a dozen or so blogs, Drima at The Sudanese Thinker compiled a list of Sudanese bloggers he's managed to find so far.

author: SudaneseDrima


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Taiwan: A look at wedding traditions · Global Voices
David Reid

Life in Taiwan attends two banquets for an engagement and a wedding and discusses the importance of wedding traditions in Taiwan.

author: David Reid


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Tajikistan: The people’s dam? · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Andrey translates the TajikVoice’s post, which tells about the officials of Tajikistan, who are forcing citizens to buy stocks in a dam project and donate money for its construction.


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Tunisia: And They Censored Arabicca!  · Global Voices
Lina Ben Mhenni

The Tunisian blogger Fatma Arabicca, who  was arrested two months ago, resumed blogging a few days ago, and more specifically on Sunday, January 17, 2010 . But she was surprised to discover that her blog was censored by the authorities on Friday, January 22, 2010. So, the blog, with a single post, has been censored in less than a week as this link shows.
Bloggers were quick to express their opposition to this censorship. Khannouf  wrote:
Le nez bouché, le regard embué par un rhume et la tête fiévreuse, par une colère, entre autres : Fatma vient d’être censurée. Après ses tracas, avec courage son blog est ressuscité par un billet « unique » posté le 17 janvier, et 53 commentaires furent reçus pleins d’enthousiasme de retrouver cette jeune femme au verbe franc.
La7mer commenting on the block notes:
News was quick to move to Twitter, where users informed one another of the block. Here are some tweet shots about the matter :
But Fatma Arabicca is not the  only victim of censorship today as journalist Sofiene Chourabi has seen his blog For a Democratic, Social, and Solidarity Tunisia  being censored for the fourth time in two months.
So US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was not wrong when she mentioned Tunisia among the countries controlling and limiting the access to internet in her speech about internet freedom delivered at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

author: Lina Ben Mhenni


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Turkmenistan: Turkmenistan mends relationships with Russia  · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Elina Galperin reports that Russia and Turkmenistan signed an agreement to expand bilateral “strategic” energy cooperation, including resumption of Turkmen gas supplies to Russia.


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Bahamas, Haiti: Solidarity  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A new website is launched by “a group of Bahamian webizens who hope to mobilize in support of a realistic and sensible immigration policy with respect to Haitians and their children.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Bangladesh: 3rd Person Singular Number · Global Voices
Rezwan

Bangladeshi blogger Muhammad Shihab Jahir at Bioscop reviews Mostafa Sarwar Farooki's critically acclaimed Bangla film 3rd Person Singular Number.


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Chile: Modern Day Human Rights for the Mapuche · Global Voices
Nike Jung

The Museum of Memory and Human Rights was recently inaugurated in Santiago, Chile. The Museum documents human rights violations committed during the 1973-90 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. Blogger Santiago Miró of the blog Negro Sobre Blanco [es] points out that the effort is unique in Latin America. “Hopefully other museums like this will open their doors across the region,” adds Emiliano Balerini of the blog Humanos de Derechos [es].
Museum of the Memory in Santiago. Photo by Walala Pancho and used under a Creative Commons license.
An interruption took place during the inauguration when two young Mapuche women shouted from a lamppost just as President Michelle Bachelet, a torture victim herself, was speaking about human rights. One of the women identified herself as Katherine Catrileo, sister of Matías Catrileo, a 22-year-old Mapuche indigenous activist, who was shot and killed by Chilean police in January 2008. The two police officers were handed a 2-year suspended sentence, in which they would serve no prison time.
The blogger TotemRac reminds his readers that human rights issues are not limited to the time period during the Pinochet dictatorship:
La parcialidad de este proyecto queda de manifiesto al reconocer Históricamente solo el periodo 1973 – 1990 … Mamá Bachelet coloco la 1ª piedra el 10 de Diciembre del 2008 dijo … que “no haya espacio para la exclusión, sea por razones políticas, religiosas, socio económicas, étnicas, de género, o de cualquier tipo, la discriminación debe ser desterrada”, bueno si no hay espacio para la Exclusión o Discriminación Política, ¿Por qué solo reconoce el periodo 1973- 1990?, o ¿los DD.HH nacieron el 11 de Septiembre de 1973 y terminaron en Diciembre de 1990?, o ¿Son solo validos los DD.HH de solo una parte de los Chilenos?
It is the ongoing conflict with the Mapuche community that has been drawing attention to the issue of human rights in present-day Chile. For example, Chile holds about 50 Mapuche captive without trial for suspicion of terrorist activities. The Chilean government says it is acting in response to frequent arson attacks on trucks, violation of private property, and attacks on buses with passengers. By contrast, Mapuche leaders accuse the Chilean state of having been subjected to torture, racism, and forged evidence to incarcerate them as terrorists [es].  There have even been arrests of foreign citizens and other Chileans accused of assisting members of the Mapuche community with committing crimes.
Among the more high-profile arrests are the Basque citizen Asel Luzarraga Zarrabeitia, and the Chilean journalist and acclaimed filmmaker Elena Varela, who is being accused of charges such as assisting in the organization of two bank raids, theft with homicide, theft with violence, and illegal association with intent to commit an offense. Her trial has recently been postponed for the third time. Varela had been working on a documentary about the conflict between lumber companies, the Chilean state, and the Mapuche over the use of land.
Blogger Lucía Sepúlveda Ruiz comments on the blog by León Huarancca Quichca [es]:
El caso de Elena Varela ejemplifica asimismo las dos caras del gobierno de la Presidenta Bachelet, que por una parte premia a la artista con el FONDART 2007, el más importante concurso de fondos públicos para el cine, para el documental “Newen Mapu, mapuche, la Fuerza de la Tierra”, y por otra, la encarcela y requisa sus entrevistas a líderes de las luchas recientes por recuperación de la tierra ancestral.
An exasperated blogger from Argentina comments on the site Kaos en la Red [es]:
O sólo se ve lo que se hace de un solo lado?? Si los atacan constantemente, si no respetan sus leyes, sus etnias, si son avasallados, llegando a encarcelar a la cineasta Elena Varela, y al escritor Asel Luzarraga, por el solo hecho de referirse a este Pueblo Originario, de defenderlos…que se puede esperar?? JUSTICIA?? Si no la hay, si solo impera la imparcialidad….Lamentablemente en mi País, tampoco se repetan a estos Pueblos, se los expulsa de todos lados, se venden laas tierras con ellos adentro. Realmente siento como Argentina una verguenza terrible de las autoridades de ambos países.
Members of the United Nations have criticized the situation, most recently a day after the Museum's inauguration. On January 12th, James Anaya, UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Human Rights said that there seems to be a “circle of violence” in the situation. Earlier in 2009, Anaya had remarked that it is necessary to distinguish between terrorists and delinquents [es]. Chile repeatedly invoked an anti-Terrorism law, which was signed during the Pinochet era, against Mapuche demonstrators.

author: Nike Jung


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China’s Orwellian Future · Global Voices
Andy Yee

John Chan (陳冠中), an author from Hong Kong who is currently living in Beijing, has written a novel entitled The Fat Years: China, 2013 (盛世 – 中國, 2013). The story happens in 2013, when China enters a new era of material prosperity and everyone is happy, while the western world enters another financial crisis. The novel is compared with George Orwell’s classical political fable, 1984. It is already published in Hong Kong and scheduled for publication in Taiwan, but will not be published in mainland China.
China in 2013
How will China look like in 2013? Zhang Tiezhi (张铁志) of Taiwan’s China Times summarizes the social conditions as seen in the novel, which, to certain extents, are what we are witnessing now:
西方国家在2011年再度爆发经济危机，进入「冰火期」而陷入长期停滞。唯有中国安然无恙，比今日更为富强、更为自信；人民们充满幸福感，甚至很high。中国的盛世来临了。
Western countries faced another economic crisis in 2011 and entered a prolonged ‘ice and fire’ period of stagnation.  China, unharmed, becomes even stronger and more confident than today. People are happy, or even ‘high’. The Age of China has arrived.
书中主角说：「我知道中国问题还很多，但你想想，以美国为祸首的发达资本主义国家自我摧残，二零零八年金融海啸后，稍有起色才没几年，又再度陷入滞胀期……，至今未能爬出谷底，唯中国能独善其身……不仅改写了国际经济的游戏规则，更重要的是社会没有动乱，反而更和谐。真不由你不服气。」
The main character said: ‘I know China still has a lot of problems. But think about it, the developed capitalist countries, headed by the US, have destroyed themselves. They have only recovered from the 2008 crisis for a few years, and are now in deep troubles again… Only China can spare itself of the crisis… Not only has China rewritten the rules of the global economy, it has also maintained social harmony. You cannot but appreciate this.’
在书中的2013年中国，北京最重要的学术书店万盛书园倒闭了，自由派重镇刊物「南方周末」停刊，书店中任何关于反右、文革的书都消失了，曾经记载一段社会动乱时期的报纸现在也都消失了。而少数拒绝遗忘历史的人，成为与这个社会格格不入的边缘人，甚至被视为疯子。
In the year of 2013 described by the book, Beijing’s most important humanities bookshop, Wansheng, has closed down. The important liberal magazine, Southern Weekend, has ceased to exist. You cannot find in any bookstores books about the anti-right campaigns and Cultural Revolution. Newspapers which recorded past periods of social instability are all gone. The few people who insist on having a memory of history are marginalized, or even treated as insane.
Newspeak
In 2013, so the book describes, China will also promote a set of national strategies, summarized in 10 points:
1. 一党领导的民主专政；
2. 稳定第一的依法治国；
3. 执政为民的威权政府；
4. 国家调控的市场经济；
5. 央企主导的公平竞争；
6. 中国特色的科学发展；
7. 以我为主的和谐外交；
8. 单民族主权的多族群共和；
9. 后西方后普世的主体思想；
10. 中华文明举世无双的民族复兴
1. Democratic dictatorship under one-party rule;
2. Rule-of-law with stability as top priority;
3. An authoritarian government which rules for the people;
4. A state-controlled market economy;
5. Fair competition dominated by state-owned enterprises;
6. Scientific development with Chinese characteristics;
7. A self-centered harmonious foreign diplomacy;
8. A single-ethnicity sovereignty with multiple ethnicities;
9. Post-western and post-universal values;
10. Renaissance of the matchless Chinese culture
This is reminiscent of ‘Newspeak’, which Liang Wendao (梁文道) commented:
听起来好像没什么了不起，你仔细看他们好像每一样都是矛盾的。既然是央企主导，他又怎么能是公平公正呢？既然是科学发展，怎么还会有中国特色呢？但是无所谓，那个年代这些矛盾的词都被统一起来了。久而久之，大家就适应了，就没问题了，这是一些新词语嘛，对不对，然后至于我们现在很多人关心的什么人权问题，自由问题，那些东西到了那时候也不重要了。
Seems there is nothing special about them, but on closer look, each point is contradictory with itself. If it is state-owned enterprises dominated, how can it be fair? If it is scientific, how can it be Chinese? But never mind, in time these contradictory words will all be unified. After a while, people will become more familiar with them, wouldn’t they? By that time, the so-called issues of human rights and freedom will become unimportant.
Happiness without freedom?
Will freedom and human rights become irrelevant in China? In a thoughtful twitter broadcast organized by Du Ting (杜婷) this month, the author himself and a Professor from the Chinese University of Hong  Kong, Zhou Baosong (周保松), touched upon the issues of freedom:
周保松: 对历史的反思就是深化对问题的理解。盛世到底怎样，这样的盛世是否值得追求？我们需要思考。自由为何对我们重要？自由不是独立在幸福以外，自由就是幸福的一 部分。
Zhou: Reflections on history is essential to deepening our understanding of problems. Is such kind of ‘fat years’ what we are after? We need to think about that. Why is freedom so important to us? Freedom is not independent of happiness, freedom is part of happiness.
陈冠中: 幸福和自由不对等，剩下没有自由的幸福，世界是否可以自然持续？在內地可以看到，官话套话越来越厉害。历史上曾经有过，八十年代进行过反思，认为影响了中国的发展。巴金说了，说真话，但是这些年又回来了，没有了说真话的自由。
Chan: With the inequality between happiness and freedom, resulting in happiness without freedom, could the world sustain itself naturally? In mainland, we can see that official ‘newspeaks’ are becoming more and more common. In the 1980s, the Chinese society went through a period of self-reflections. Ba Jin spoke out, and spoke the truth. But in these years, we have fallen back. We have lost the freedom to speak the truth.
陈冠中: 为何只要用的词、字语不同，就不高兴。我们知道，如果只有正面的反馈，没有负面的反馈，是非常糟糕的。中国只有一个声音，丧失了纠正错误的能力。所以自由非常重要。
Chan: Why does [the government] become unhappy once the words used are inappropriate? We know that it would be terrible if there are only positive, but no negative, feedbacks. If China only has one voice, it will lose the ability to self-correct. Therefore, freedom is very important.
Lord Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong, said China promoted the idea that one could get rich without needing democracy. But he did not think that the Chinese model of ‘authoritarian, illiberal, proto-capitalism’ would win out, because it lacked the ‘safety valves’ provided by democracies during tough times. As Winston Churchill famously said, ‘democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.’
[Note: publishingPERSPECTIVES contains more extensive translations of news and commentaries related to the novel.]

author: Andy Yee


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China: Hillary Talks About the Problem of the Chinese Internet · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Max R from China Geeks translated human rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan's comments to Hillary's talks about the problem of the Chinese Internet.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: No more dirty joke via SMS · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

According to last week's Xinhuanet report, Mobile China Shanghai branch will start suspending a mobile phone's SMS function if they find the number distribute “vulgar”, “pornographic” and other illegal contents(Details see GVA). Other cities and mobile companies also carry out similar practices since the beginning of 2010. The new policy implies that the campaign against the proliferation of pornography on mobile devices as outlined by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) official document has entered the second stage.
As Damon from interlocals.net points out, “the monitoring of mobile SMS has not only invaded citizen’ private life but also set up an infrastructure to crack down social mobilization via mobile phone”.
Mainland blogger Gaulo is also aware of the presence of Big Brother behind the filtering of dirty joke:
手機短信受到管制，其實意味著我們所有的短信都受到了管制。我們所發的每一個字背后都有一雙眼 睛在盯著，時時刻刻！這不是流氓行徑么？不難想象以后如果我們用手機調情是不是也會在中途突然受到警告，然后被強行勒令去寫保證書？越想越覺的恐怖。我們 到底是什么樣的國家？我們想成為什么樣的國家？網絡收網先行，現在有輪到手機了。我們的自由和隱私再也無法捍衛了，我們已經退到了邊緣的邊緣，最終我們無 路可退。我們沒有特權，甚至連基本的權利也沒有，任意被踐踏。算了，我祈求政府把我們都從閹割了吧
Visame2 advises lovers and couples to use secret codes in their communication:
从 现在起,应该赶紧学学电视上特务的接头暗号,比如用“打酱油”代表想亲热之类,但“俯卧撑”是万万不能用的.而且,一定要随时关注“技术标准”的变化,一 旦用“打酱油”当暗号的多了,人家的“词库”必然要与时俱进更新,就像现在“同志”这个曾经最普通的称呼已经被很多网站屏蔽一样.
Prominent writer Han Han decided to test the system:
我看到一个新闻说，以后手机上转发黄段子或者黄色信息将停止该手机短信功能，必须到公安局写下保证书才能开通短信功能。政府就是这样，他永远给你一个动词 和名词，然后永远不解释这个名词，比如说，不能反革命，但从来不告诉你什么是反革命，不能犯流氓罪，但从来不告诉你什么是流氓罪，这次是不能发黄段子，但 是从来不告诉你什么是黄段子。我本将心照政府，奈何政府没标准，导致了有些朋友莫名其妙就触到了雷区，甚至有些五毛党都经常陷于拍个马屁结果审核没通过的 尴尬。…鉴于快到 新年，为了避免广大网友在转发各种短信的时候不幸被停机，导致年初一进派出所写保证书的悲剧发生，我决定牺牲自己，在这几天里，源源不断的转发各种黄段 子，直到我的手机被停机了，我再上来转告大家，到底什么叫做黄段子或者黄色信息。所以，最近接收到我的黄色段子或者色情短信的朋友们，请不要误会，我不是 在发春也不是要调情，我只是在探索。


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China: War of Internet Addiction · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

DigiCha introduces an online video called “War of Internet Addiction” which a satire on the government’s attempt to “harmonize” China’s Internet with forced installations of “Green Dam Youth Escort”  and the travails of Chinese World of Warcraft players over the last several months.


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Costa Rica: Charges of Plagiarism in Presidential Campaign · Global Voices
Luis Diego Molina

On February 7 of 2010, the general election for 2010-2014 period [es] will take place across Costa Rica. The leading presidential candidates are Laura Chinchilla of the official party National Liberation Party (PLN), followed by Otto Guevara of the Libertarian Movement Party (ML), and with less popular support are the candidates Ottón Solís of Citizens’ Action Party (PAC), and Luis Fisman of Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC). There are another five parties that are considered to have a remote chance during the campaign. In referring to the presidential candidates this week, the word plagiarism has gained prominence in the Costa Rican blogosphere.
Several bloggers, including Conejitos Suicidas [es] was informed by the Twitter user @masala777, who denounced the advertisement from the Libertarian Movement candidate Guevara. Currently in second place in terms of voting intention, Guevara's ad consists of an open hand and the slogan “Change now,” which looks very similar to an image from a Guatemalan Christian Church, named Word in Action. The image from this activity called Generation of Change can be seen here. In reference to this subject, Conejitos said:
El caso no solo remite a lo referente al plagio, sino también a un tema de propiedad intelectual, misma que todos los que trabajan en este sector saben que se trata de uno de los sectores más desprotegidos por nuestras leyes y autoridades, y como no? si hasta alguien que puede llegar a ser presidente los plagia? ¿Será culpa directa de los encargados de la publicidad del ML, o de una mala jugada de un colega? ¿Ustedes que opinan?
Guevara is also accused of plagiarizing the idea of providing computers to students and student centers from a document (.pdf) from the Fondo Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (National Telecommunications Fund), according to the blog Manda Güevo [es], which states:
los planes de gobierno en este país son una verdadera cochinada que al final no sirve de nada, esto es conocido hasta por los propios partidos políticos los cuales ya no se desgastan pensando en propuestas innovadores y recurren al plagio dentro de ellos.
The candidate of the PUSC, Fishman was also accused of plagiarism by the the blog Infierno en Costa Rica [es] (Hell in Costa Rica), for its latest advertising spot “El menos malo es el mejor (video),” which means “The lesser evil is the best” and the idea was based on a scene from the Whoopi Goldberg film Sister Act. Faced with this complaint the Costa Rican newspaper La Nación, asked Fishman if this was true [es], and he replied, “Yes, and I don't care… if they say that it is a copy, then I don't care. The idea was taken from ‘Sister Act,’ but they were nuns.”
Photo of candidate Luis Fishman, courtesy of Habla Costa Rica
These are the most recent cases of plagiarism in political campaigns, however, last year it was discovered that the candidate for the Citizens Action Party, Otton Solis took 19 paragraphs from the strategic plan of the Costa Rican Social Security Administration [es] for his own government health plan the health area, which the candidate acknowledged as an error.
These examples can be frightening to the bloggers who wonder how those who seek to rule the country can be capable of such actions.

author: Luis Diego Molina


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Ghana: Regional Minister, Kofi Opoku-Manu, Going Under? · Global Voices
L. Abena Annan

Ashanti Regional Minister, Kofi Opoku-Manu, has recently taken great heat for remarks he made during a speech to supporters of the ruling party, National Democratic Congress (NDC) on January 6.
According to Ghana’s Ato-Kwamena Dadzie, Opoku-Manu “urged party supporters to resort to violence to resolve their differences.”
Dadzie reports in his article, “Opoku-Manu Must Go” with a direct quote from the Regional Minister:
If you can slap him, do so.
Dadzie states:
Comments like these are reckless and irresponsible. You don’t expect a man in Mr. Opoku-Manu’s position to utter them. But he did.
Two days later, he had no recollection of what he had said until a recording was played back to him. That was when he came to his senses, acknowledged his momentous folly and offered an apology, which only came after some big wigs within the government instructed to clear the mess he has created.
Below is Opoku-Manu’s apology as quoted by Dadzie:
I’ll be the last person to advocate for warfare of any type and having listened to this myself, I must say I really feel sorry.
Dadzie interjects with this comment:
But he didn’t stop there. He offered a veiled defense. He claims he was speaking in a “charged environment”, implying that he wasn’t using his head. He was speaking by heart. You could say he was farting with his mouth.
For opening his mouth too wide to spew such dangerous nonsense, Mr. Opoku-Manu has shown himself to be an irresponsible man who doesn’t deserve to occupy the position he does. He must be sacked. And if there is anyone who deserves a hefty slap it is him. That half-hearted apology he offered only after he had been instructed to do so is not enough.
He must go.
Responses to Opoku-Manu’s comment seem to be mostly in the negative.
David S. left this comment on Dadzie’s blog post:
At a time when Ghana's democracy is in its infancy, the last thing we need is someone encouraging political violence. Nobody wants this country to become like Zimbabwe or Iran. He should be made to resign for encouraging people to damage our democracy with political violence. He is an enemy of democracy.
Banske said this about the same post:
I wonder why people are asking for sacking-sacking doesn't solve the problem. If Ohene Ntow made this statement, what would have happened? If Wereko-Brobby, Jake etc made the statement….What would the BNI/National security do? And people pretend Mills is humane. Sacking him wouldn't stop the order he gave and similar ones given by the Rawlingses, Vanderpuyes, Anyidohos etc. Sack him as RM and bring him to the presidency? This man was the RCC chief director under NPP and that was not enough for him.
If you are born an idiot, you can be 1000years and will still be an idiot that is what OM has confirmed. Is only the fool we sees political appointment as a permanent job. Idiocy can be seeing political appointment as a matter of life and death. By the way Mills is dumb, timid, and powerless and so has not heard/seen anything.
Nana Poku wrote in his article at Modern Ghana, “Opoku-Manu Must go, Apology or Not”:
The more important point is this: how can he assure his political opponents of fairness? How can they trust him to be an honest broker should any matter of political violence come before him as the Chair of REGSEC? How does he ensure the safety and security of the very people he wants beaten up?
I believe he's lost the integrity required for a position as Regional Minister. He must resign or be made to. We were all witnesses to the many cases of intimidation and harassment of political opponents during and after the 2008 elections. The last thing we need in this country is for officials, who should know better, to be purveyors of violence and intimidation, themselves.
A press release by the Alliance for the Advancement of Democracy (AAD), an interest group for the progression of Ghana’s democracy, posted by MyJoyOnline stated:
The Alliance for the Advancement of Democracy (AAD) wishes to condemn the Ashanti Regional Minister- Hon. Opoku-Manu for his malicious and distasteful comments made over the weekend; which have the propensity to destabilize the peace and security of this nation.
The Alliance for the Advancement of Democracy (AAD) also views the call by the New Patriotic Party on Hon. Opoku Manu to resign and the subsequent invitation by the appropriate Security agency on the subject matter as most unfortunate and highly hypocritical. AAD believes that, he who seeks equity must come with clean hands and that the New Patriotic Party's blatant disregard and failure to condemn violent acts of the former Central Regional Minister- Hon. Edumadzie, and the similar comments of Hon. Maxwell Kofi Jumah, Hon. Mike Ocquaye, Dr. Nyaho. Tamakloe, etc. as morally reprehensible and ultimately negates any good intent to uphold the rule of law and to consolidate peace and security in Ghana.
AAD believes that the apology of the Ashanti Regional Minister is an indication of gross remorse and must be accepted in good faith but we however insist that his averments militates against his status as the Regional Minister and the Chairman of the Regional Security Council. We therefore hold the strong view that he must honorably resign or the President must find it necessary to remove him from office. During the 2008 General elections, the President was touted as a man of peace (‘asomdwehene’) and must therefore be committed in working with public officials and appointees who reflect his character and principles.
Sonia left this comment in response to the AAD press release:
I have monitored the activities of AAD and have come to the conclusion that their sense of objectivity and insight in national issues must be commended by all well meaning Ghanaians. I wish AFAG and all pressure groups learn from the brains behind AAD. I believe in the point that he who seeks equity must come with clean hands. The NPP must be bold to condemn their own else they will never be taken seriously.

author: L. Abena Annan


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Haiti: Lessons Learned  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Carol and Tom in Haiti post a list of lessons learned in the aftermath of the earthquake, while Trinidadian blogger Tattoo writes about the dos and don'ts of disaster aid.


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Haiti: Media Operations Center launched for Haitian journalism · Global Voices
Fabienne Flessel

Réseau Citadelle announces the launch of the Media Operations Center, an initiative from Reporters without Borders and Quebecor, aimed at facilitating the field work of local and foreign journalists in Haiti as well as establishing collaboration between the media and NGOs.

author: Fabienne Flessel


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Haiti: Media Responsibility  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Repeating Islands posts an excerpt from Rebecca Solnit, who, “disturbed by media coverage of alleged looting in Port-au-Prince following the earthquake, posted a powerful article decrying the criminalization of victims by the media.”


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Haiti: Signs of a “normal life” in Port-au-Prince · Global Voices
Fabienne Flessel

Radio Métropole Haiti  provides a list [Fr] of activities belonging to a “normal life” resuming in Port-au-Prince, around banks, gas stations, supermarkets and fruit and vegetable markets – the revival of business in Haiti's capital highlights the gap between the haves and the have-nots.


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India: The Dak Harkara · Global Voices
Rezwan

There was a time in Indian subcontinent when the Dak Harkaras (Post runners) ran 8-10 miles in each direction and back to carry letters and news. Maddy looks back at the golden age of the only type of postal service available in those days.


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Iran: Iranians commemorate Neda’s birthday  · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Many people inside and outside Iran commemorated Neda Agha Soltan‘s 27th birthday. Unfortunately, Neda was not there to party and instead of receiving gifts, she was shot dead by Basij militia on June 20, 2009, during a protest of thousands against the Iranian presidential election results that declared Mahmoud Ahmadinejad president. Her death was captured on video by bystanders and uploaded to the Internet. She died with her eyes wide open, and her last moments transcended citizen media to mainstream media, reaching millions of people.
Neda, without any doubt, became a symbol for the protesters, who showed their respect to her once more on Saturday.
Nedaye Mihan Sabz (which translates to Neda's Green Homeland) writes [fa] that “green people (in reference to  protesters against the Iranian regime) and Neda's family was present by Neda's tomb. They lit candles and decorated her grave with her photographs. Security forces were present.”
Several Iranian blogs also published a photograph of Neda's parents.
Balatariny says  [fa] Neda died with her eyes wide open and Iranians should not live with their eyes wide shut.
Bipanahm writes [fa] that many people, including human rights activists and mourning mothers, marked Neda's birthday. He said that security forces at first prevented people from filming the event but then retreated after protests from those present.
Azarmehr writes that Iranians remembered Neda in front of Press TV‘s (the Islamic Republic's television channel) offices in London.
He notes:
Press TV‘s constant lies about Neda to tarnish her image became a focus point for those who wanted to mark this day in London. Iranian expats as well as non-Iranians gathered outside Press TV offices in Hanger Lane to commemorate Neda and at the same time perhaps jolt the conscience of those who are still working for this propaganda arm of the messianic junta in Iran.
He also posts the following photograph from the gathering:

author: Fred Petrossian


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Jamaica, Haiti: Using the Language · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamaica's Active Voice says: “Trust the Brits to do the right thing. While our newswomen and men are contorting their mouths reproducing peculiar versions of the Queen's English, British broadcasters are broadcasting to Haitians in their mother tongue–Kreyol.”


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Japan: Doraemon Jet · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Pink Tentacle reports on the Japan Airline's anime-themed aircraft, Doraemon Jet.


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Japan: Grand Sumo Tournament · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

Godo Chillida published a photo reportage on the final day of the Tokyo Grand Sumo Tournament.
The photographer captured intense pictures of the wrestlers and the decisive match.

author: Scilla Alecci


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Kenya: Abdullah al-Faisal stirs confrontation  · Global Voices
Njeri Wangari

As on Thursday 21st Jan, the government of Kenya was at its nerves end trying to raise over US$,400,000 in a bid to deport Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal to his home country, Jamaica using a hired plane. This was one of the many failed attempts to get al-Faisal out of the country due to his terrorist nature which was deemed a risk to the East African Country, Kenya.
Just who is Sheikh al –Faisal and why has his stay in Kenya caused the death of a police officer, a protester with several others nursing injuries and countless losses to business owners in a recent protest in Kenya's capital, Nairobi?
Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal a Jamaican Born Muslim Cleric
Born Trevor William Forest to a evangelical family in 1964, al-Faisal left Jaimaica for the UK in the 1980s.
According to Wikipedia, he is a radical Muslim cleric who preached in the United Kingdom until he was convicted of stirring up racial hatred and urging his followers to murder Jews, Hindus, Christians, and Americans.
El-Faisal was sentenced to nine years in prison while in Britain, of which he served four years before being deported to Jamaica in 2007.
On the New Years Eve to the year 2010 al-Faisal was arrested by the Kenya Police at a mosque in the Kenyan coastal town of Mombasa for preaching contrary to his tourist visa.
It is due to his “unjustified’ arrest that Muslims in Nairobi held violent demonstrations last week, Friday 15th January just outside the Jamia Mosque at the heart of the capital city. The demonstrations led to a bloody confrontation between the Muslims, the police and civilians who were opposed to al-Faisal’s presence in Kenya. A policeman and a protester were both shot. They both later succumbed to  injuries while in hospital.
The news of the bloody protest first appeared online via twitter with many twitters in the Central Business District(CBD) giving updates and warnings on the chaos that had taken over the CBD as well as the amount of tear gas that had covered the city like a cloud of smoke.
A screenshot of tweets by http://twitter.com/Mwanikih. The tweets start from the bottom up giving a chronology of how the protests unfolded.
RT @robertalai: Checking out “Its Kenyans against Terror and fundamentalists” on Bidii Afrika: http://ning.it/5hIsIB ~ nice n truthful read!
10:24 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu
RT @hilum: AL Shabaab is in control of Nairobi now ama? ~ not for long i can assure u!
6:18 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu
RT @robertalai: @mwanikih a policeman was shot from the mosque. We were there. Its religious bigotry helped by akina Al Amin Kimathi #fb
6:16 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu
@soleaddict1 Trust me. And they are not a day older than 18 from what i can see. Radicalisation at its worst my friend!
5:55 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu in reply to soleaddict1
Guys chanting ”Kenya yetu”.
5:53 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu
Police are just standing by watching with their guns n dogs as 10 kids bring city to a standstill! Shameful!
5:47 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu
I see a start of Somali intolerance by Kenyans. Kimathi Street looks like Mogadishu!
5:30 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu
This is getting serious, a hooded guy just stabbed some guy n ran into the mosque. This madness needs to stop!
5:16 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu
Methinks the muslims protesting are Al Shabab. Teargas is doing nothing for them! Looks like they've been thru some training…#scary!
4:15 PM Jan 15th from web
4
How can my nose be running faster than my legs?
2:49 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu
With all due respect, u dont migrate from Somalia to come n start messing with my life. Just saying!
2:23 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu
Kwani where's the GSU?
2:16 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu
All this for the illegal Jamaican cleric? Surely!
2:11 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu
City Market traders have now joined the cops and fighting the demonstrating muslims!
2:05 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu
Stay away from CBD, muslims n police in runnin battles. Tear gas in plenty
1:51 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu
The BBC  website first broke the story of al-Faisal deportation from Kenya on the 7th of January with information that he(al-Faisal) was being deported to Gambia upon request after his arrest.
Since then, it has been a diplomatic charade that has left the Kenyan Immigration Minister, Otieno Kajwang’ between a rock and a hard surface.
Abu Nihla who runs a Muslim blog, Muslims In Kenya  posted the news of al-Faisal’s arrest on 6th January under the headline Sh Abdullah el-Feisal is being held by the Kenyan police. He has since written 4 other posts giving updates on the story with the latest being a video calling out to all Muslims to join together in defending the rights of al-Faisal.
Demonstrations by Muslim demanding the release of al_Faisal in Nairobi,Kenya
Some of the responses that he received regarding the Kenyan Muslims protest for al-Faisal’s release were:-
Munir on January 9, 2010 at 7:19 pm | ReplyMunir
50Rate This
Sheikh Abdullah Al-Fasal is a convicted terrorist. Why would peace loving Muslims protest his expulsion from Kenya?
on January 21, 2010 at 12:58 pm | ReplyAlmanurar
00Rate This
That proves that Muslims are not peace loving. They need to change their mindsets so that we can have a peaceful world
on January 11, 2010 at 12:24 am | ReplyTruth Detector
40Rate This
A person who incites others to murder should be locked up. Deportation is too good of punishment for a murderer.
Potash, a Kenyan writer and blogger wrote an open letter to Kenyan Muslims on Monday 18th January in his blog ‘A Kenyan Urban Narrative’
On Friday last, a section of you took to the streets of Nairobi to protest against the deportation of a fellow Muslim, the Jamaican born cleric Abdullah al-Faisal. The Kenyan media, which many of you have accused of fuelling Islamophobia and I am with you on that one, informs me that six police men were wounded in that protest. One of them has since succumbed to his injuries. That policeman was shot, isn’t that strange?
Read the rest of his letter here.
The TERROR FREE SOMALIA FOUNDATION in its blog,  revealed
that Somalia released a song whose lyrics said it would march to Nairobi to make the calculation for what cops do to the Muslims in Kenya there.
“We will cross the border and into Kenya, Insha Allah we are able to be in Nairobi,” said the six-minute duration of the song backed by a gunshot weapons. “When we've got there, we will kill, we have the guns, just guns. Army of God was in the street, slowly but surely, Insha Allah we will soon be there,” the lyrics go.
This is on their latest post Al-Shabaab Terrorist Threatens Attack on Nairobi.
Alex Thurston in his blog Sahelblog gave a rundown of the personalities that shaped the week with the story of al-Faisal and the Kenyan Muslim protest being among them.
A nairobian’s perspective gave his personal take on the protest in his post Muslims Protest the detention of Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal in Kenya on 16th January
Other blogs that broke the story were, Musoma Tanzania, BrandKemistry and Tea and politics
Onyango Oloo gives a personal account of the his experience during the protests, in the blog San Oo Aung’s Blog
As at 6pm yesterday (21st) a Kenyan tweeter broke the news that al-Faisal had just been deported out of the country.
http://twitter.com/TerryanneC
Ok..Abdulah Al Faizal has finally been deported
about 1 hour ago from web
apparently he left abroad a gulf stream jet according to govt reports..council of Imams have called off planned demo's for tomorrow
about 1 hour ago from web
Kenyan newspapers confirmed that today(Friday 22nd ) in their various headlines although  details of his flight ticket, as well as plane he took, are yet to be revealed.
It is also yet to be confirmed that he did indeed, leave the country.

author: Njeri Wangari


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Lebanon: 90 Presumed Dead After Ethiopian Airlines Jet Plunges into Sea · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Condolences poured in on Twitter after an Ethiopian Airlines jet plunged into the Mediterranean minutes after its take off from Beirut, Lebanon. All 90 people on board are presumed dead after the plane caught fire during a lightning storm and crashed into the sea.
@tsepeaces retweets an eye witness as saying:
RT @patrickgaley: Eyewitness Naame “We saw an explosion in the sky like the sun, it was there for seconds then vanished into darkness”#ET409
He also tweets:
The plane was a ball of flame for a second – these are haunting words :-/ #ET409 May they all Rest in Peace!
Daily Star reporter and Huffington Post blogger Patrick Galey quotes a Lebanese man who lost 10  friends on board the flight:
Fouad Shihab, 10 friends on board: “I was meant to be on that plane and look what happened. All my friends are dead.”
In an earlier tweet, he writes:
Just returned from Rafiq Hariri airport, scenes there are terrible. No information, spoke with people who have lost entire family
Hichame Assi  (@hiconomics) writes:
Very sad to hear about #ET409… I hope it's as painless as possible to all family and friends. Allah Yer7am (May God have mercy on them)
Georges Azzi, who has been following the coverage on television, wasn't impressed and tweeted:
Lebanon: too many TV Stations= too much airtime #et409 #coverage switching into sensational and fictional mode #fail
Samer, who tweets @meetsamer, also expressed outrage at Lebanese media saying:
Lebanese media has no decency or any sense of ethics, they're already referring to the missing ppl as “dead” #ET409 #Lebanon
Amer Tabsh (@arzleb)  shares similar sentiments and writes:
LBC (Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation) analysis of the #ET409 is very stupid and wrongful #fail
He also shares the hotline number for information and inquires on the crash:
Hotline 71207326 for info & inquiries by the Victims families  / Hotline 1701 to inform of any wreckage of bodies sighting #ET409 #Lebanon
Meanwhile, Tala is shaken by the news and tweets:
25 bodies have been taken out of the water, 2 of them were children. And they hardly identify any of them. R.I.P  #ET409
CNN's Cal Perry was also tweeting and in one message says:
Such a sad day #et409 – tomorrow we'll try to get down to the beach. Tonight's piece from the airport. PM Hariri trying his best to console
Nathan Redd is in agony and writes:
I seriously cannot concentrate on anything today. #ET409 is the only thing on my mind today.  My heart is broken.
And @nightS sums up the day saying:
It's a very sad and horrible day :( #ET409

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Sri Lanka: Political Reporter And Cartoonist Missing In Colombo · Global Voices
Rezwan

Journalists For Democracy In Sri Lanka blog informs that a political reporter and cartoonist is missing in Colombo on the eve of the presidential elections. Prageeth Ekneliyagoda has disappeared yesterday night (24th of January).


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Sri Lankan Presidential Election: Social Media In Election Reporting · Global Voices
Rezwan

In less than 24 hours Sri Lankan voters will start to vote to decide who will be their 6 president. The intense campaign of the candidates on the roads have also pumped the adrenaline of the netizens as many are rallying behind their choice of candidates and providing useful information to the voters as well as taking up the task of online election reporting.
Sanjana Hattotuwa of ICT For Peacebuilding (ICT4Piece) has recently delivered a lecture at the Sri Lanka College of Journalism on the use of social media in election reporting. He discussed how social media tools like Flickr, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Wikipedia etc. are being used or can be used for the election campaigns.
He then discussed the use of social media in election monitoring. Examples included ‘The Centre For Monitoring Election Violence‘ site, which publishes daily monitoring report and updates location based mapping of the incidents using Google Maps.
Indrajit goes on to show how Facebook and twitter are also used for election monitoring.
Nibras Bawa at Groundviews analyzed the online election campaigns of the candidates:
Mahinda’s online campaign has the technology, not the vision, not because they don’t understand computers, but because they don’t understand how to make technology harness the passion of their supporters. His campaign team is everywhere online, but they don’t mobilize voters and organize communities. They don’t build a consensual database of mobile numbers by promising that in return, supporters would get campaign news before the media.
I am yet to see Fonseka’s online strategy. He shouldn’t confine himself to an amateur website and a few Facebook Ads. It shows one’s capacity or the lack of it.
While there are allegations that Sri Lanka’s Election Commission failed to promote a campaign on voting, some citizen media sites like Lanka Rising are providing valuable information on ‘how to vote':
There is always an element of doubt in the mind of some people in casting vote in elections in Sri Lanka because different elections use subtle variations of use of preferential voting system. However, if you know the simple rules of voting in presidential election together with using commonsense will make your voting a very simple task. (Read the rest here).
Indrajit Samarajiva at Indi.ca also posts some useful information regarding voting:
NOTE THAT YOU DON’T NEED TO HAVE THE POLLING CARD TO VOTE IF YOUR NAME IS IN THE REGISTRATION LIST. Make sure that you carry with you your NIC or any other recognized picture ID with you when you go to vote.
Ranjith Wijewardene at Lanka Page depicts a specimen of a ballot paper.
Beyond Borders asserts why every Sri Lankan voter should vote:
Because you should, because you have a responsibility, and if you don’t, then please spare us your arm chair politics. If you don’t think your voice should count, then you might as well be silent.
Other information available online include Transparency International's special report on election expenditure, survey predictions etc.
Meanwhile the Twittersphere is catching up with the election madness, however, the use of specific hashtags was not seen:
sukub: Srilanka- Since November 23, a total of 897 incidents of election related violence has been reported.
VoteglobalSouthAsia: Sri Lanka opposition warns of election coup (AFP)http://bit.ly/8dpND0 #SriLanka
slelections: RT #srilanka campaign laws banning ads on final days & cutouts etc is silly and unenforceable. #slelection… http://bit.ly/6SC3zX
ChandruPandian: Looks like Rajapaksa is walking a lonely path…the rest of the world seems to be turning against him #srilanka #lka #win
Both of the major candidates, Mahinda Rajapaksa and  Sarath Fonseka held their last rallies. Whether to put the verdict on “presidential promises, or for a change” – it seems that the voters are at crossroads.
But nevertheless Sri Lankans like Cerno share this optimism:
Whoever wins we’ll move on to something better.


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Timor Police Brutality Video · Global Voices
Keta Haluha

Police brutality in Timor-Leste is not new, but getting it on video is.  This is something of a “Rodney King” moment for Timor-Leste and its police service.
Timor Police (PNTL – Policia Nacional de Timor-Leste) brutality captured on video. (Screen grab courtesy A.Tilman)
On 21 January 2010 a video showing what is apparently a serious case of police brutality was published online via facebook and then very quickly afterward on YouTube. The video speaks for itself.  The video was picked up almost immediately by some Timor bloggers, including but not limited to Timor Hau Nia Doben.
During the Portuguese colonial period, the administration and its police were regularly abusive towards Timorese.  Between 1975-99 Indonesia's Suharto regime occupied Timor-Leste and police brutality was both regular and extreme.  Since Timor-Leste gained its independence in 2002 police brutality has been at a much lower level although no one keeps decent records. However, it has been the subject of considerable media attention recently.  Tempo Semanal weekly newspaper has covered the issue several occasions in the past two months on its weblog (Story one, two and three).
The video was released initially by Opposition Member of Parliament for the FRETILIN party, Jose Teixeira.  His facebook page comment attached to the video is read below.
Ida nee mosu iha Atauro bainhira iha inaugurasan ba kompetisaun internasional kail ikan…….asaun viola direitus humanus neebe labele tolera iha ita nia rain.
Atauro island, lies 10km off the coast of Timor-Leste north of the capital city, Dili – and as such lies within the jurisdiction of Dili District.  Dili District is supposedly under the executive police control of the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT).
Interestingly, at least two United Nations Police officers are seen in the video, and they watch events calmly even as one PNTL officer rushes into the fracas to hit the victim with the butt of a shotgun.  The video ends with them and other bystanders, both Timorese and foreign, watching the police drag the victim off the beach, out of frame and into the bushes.
United Nations police officer watchs as Timorese police bash a local youth with fists, feet and a shotgun shoulder butt.
It is unknown if any investigative or disciplinary action took place. It appears unlikely seeing as the person who released the online version of the video appeared surprised and shocked by events.  This individual is also member of the National Parliament's Committee B for National Security, Defence and Foreign Affairs, and as such oversees the police.

author: Keta Haluha


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Africa Cup of Nations: David knows kung fu and he’s Googled you!  · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The 2010 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon 2010) is currently taking place in Angola. The tournament began on 10 January 2010 and will conclude on 31 January.
SuperSport, the provider of pay-television sports coverage across the continent of Africa, has a team of sports bloggers discussing Afcon 2010. Here is a short roundup of posts from SuperSport Afcon 2010 Blogs:
David knows kung fu and he's Googled you!, begins a post by Thomas Mlambo's post about Afcon 2010 suprises:
David knows kung fu and he’s Googled you!
Well, well, well, talk about an Afcon of surprises. For many years now, in football anywhere in the world, the traditional superpowers, or so-called Goliaths, have dominated and pretty much bullied the minnows, or as I will refer to them, the Davids of the game, except in the odd friendly match.
But in keeping with the way the world is now, “David” has recently purchased himself a gym contract, consults a personal trainer , does yoga every morning and rides his mountain bike on weekends, all while going to martial arts class every Tuesday, just as a way of keeping fit. David is now fit, focused and prepared. He’s not a scared boy with a rock in his hand anymore.
The end result? A nation like Malawi has won a first ever Africa cup of Nations finals match, destroying Fifa 2010 World Cup qualifier Algeria 3-0 on the second day of the tournament.
Burkina Faso then had me watching a game in Cabinda against Cote d’Ivoire where it was clear that their coach, Paulo Duarte (known as the Mourinho of Africa, as he was once “the special one's “ assistant ), had used the Internet to study the superstars they would face and had found a website called “KeepDrogbaQuiet.com”.
“Have playing standards plummeted at the Afcon?,” asks
Mark Ouma, a football analyst on Soccer Africa on SS3:
When Hassan Shetata says the competition standard at the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations has dropped, it triggers an increased desire to take a closer look at proceedings in Angola.
Ever since taking charge of the Egyptian Pharaohs, coach Shehata has been a man of very few words. So something special must have triggered his comment. Three inter.pretations come to mind.
First, at face value, there is a measure of merit in Shehata’s words. The African teams in Angola who will be going to the World Cup in June — Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cote d’Ivoire — failed to win their opening matches in Angola. It could be argued that each showed the lack of commitment that drove them to prevail in Africa’s most rigorous World Cup qualifying contest. Subsequently the five teams won their second match.
Now they are all through to the quarterfinal. Going forward there are valid lessons for each of the World Cup-bound teams. The level of competition at the World Cup will be far more stringent.
Thomas Mlambo believes that “goalkeepers really can give you an upset stomach“:
I wasn’t going to write a new blog for a few days still but it’s the only thing I can do to try relieve the foul mood that watching Zambia lose to Cameroon put me in.
I’d just had a great dinner during the break between matches and had eased into my favourite position on my most comfortable chair so that I could fully concentrate on a match that would see the fluid, stylish Chipolopolo try upset the rather poor, and so far relatively toothless, lions
Then I was given indigestion…
Goalkeepers really can give you an upset stomach,
Kennedy Mweene‘s (one month) late Christmas gift to the Cameroonians, spoilt my evening.
I mean, I’m not Zambian, but still the sight of that “granny power” hopeful of a shot from Geremi actually crossing the line to bring the Lions level literally gave me heartburn.
It had me reaching for my phone to call both Ponga (Liwewe) and Mamadou (Gaye) just so that I could vent my frustration. Damnit, it’s not easy to watch football home alone; there’s nobody there to swear at when such upsetting things happen.
Mamadou Gaye, one of the most popular and controversial sports commentator in Africa, did not believe that the Super Eagles will get far in the tournament:
It’s bye bye Super Eagles Bonjour a tous, I would like to start by presenting my sincere apologies to my dear friend, the Big Boss Keshi, and all of you. Keshi is a good friend of mine, I could not control myself to see him failing, but I had no intention to undermine his qualities or character.
During his tenure as the Malian national coach I visited him at least seven times to give him my support. Once again, I say sorry to all of you that got hurt. I promise you that I will never repeat it again. Thank You.
I feel very honored and humbled by the messages you keep sending to me. I appreciate your understanding and passion for our common game of football.
At last the group stage of the 27th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations is over. With it come tears of joy and sadness. My predictions had mixed results.
For now the Super Eagles can say bye bye Angola 2010, after managing to beat the two greatest underachievers of the Nations Cup: Benin and Mozambique, who never won a single game in their history of the Africa Cup of Nations.
You might be asking yourself, why I am insisting on retiring some players? We know as a fact that in our continent most players cheated in their age.
When Angola, the host nation, was eliminated by Ghana, Lubango was so quiet even dogs did not bark that night, reports Thomas Kwenaite from Lubango, Angola:
Lubango went to sleep early on Sunday night. The hosts of the 27th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations — Angola — have been eliminated by Ghana, who defeated them 1-0 in the quarterfinals. There were no motorbikes that skidded and screeched their tyres across the tarmac or the blaring of car hooters. I couldn’t even hear a dog bark!
Thomas also writes about his experience traveling in Angola:
We arrived in Lubango in the most dramatic fashion. Again, I must confess that I do not harbour a negative attitude towards Angola but really, to undertake a journey of 35 minutes in 10 hours and five minutes is unacceptable, with no one bothering to inform us that the plane had been delayed.
In fact, since our arrival in Angola three weeks ago, every time we undertook a trip to the provinces of Cabinda, Benguela and Lubango, we arrived at the airport as early as 7am but would reach our destination any time after 6pm and sadly, much as my Angolan friends try to make it sound as if I whine a lot, that is unacceptable. Their airline needs to jack up its act.
I am not trying to be funny but for a domestic flight to be delayed by seven hours without anyone from officialdom attempting to notify you as to what went wrong is shocking. I accepted the first day, when it took us eight hours for a 40-minute flight, that perhaps the volume of people in the country is a new experience to them and makes it impossible for them to ferry their passengers around on time.
Nigeria has secured a spot in the semi-finals after beating Zambia's Chipolopolo boys. But does Charles Anazodo still believe that the god of football is Nigerian?

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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