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Tanzania: Dar es Salaam Armoury Explosion Death Toll Rises  · Global Voices
J. Nambiza Tungaraza

The death toll from the military depot blast in Dar es Salaam has gone up to 22.  Six service personnel and 16 civilians have been confirmed as killed by the military depot blast on Wednesday April 29, 2009, at the Mbagala Armoury, 15 kilometres outside the city centre of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania's largest city with a population of about 3.5 million.
More than half of the dead were children, many of whom drowned in a river in the panic following the blast.
The powerful blasts caused the collapse of several nearby buildings and ignited rockets and other weapons that showered shrapnel on bewildered residents. A total of 755 houses have been destroyed and 4,000 people rendered homeless.
Immediately after the explosions, Red Cross officials set up two camps to support the victims, including more than 1,192 children who were admitted by Wednesday night after getting lost while running for safety.
While Investigations are under way into the cause of the blast, the government has set up an inquiry to asses the damage caused by the blast and has pledged compensation to all those affected.
On the day the explosions occured several Tanzanian bloggers posted updates immediately after the blasts. Basil Msongo described the situation [sw]:
HALI ya usalama Mbagala bado si shwari, watu wengi wameumia na wengine wamezimia kwa hofu.
Taarifa kutoka kwenye kambi yalipolipuka mabomu hayo zimedai kuwa huenda itatokea milipuko mikubwa kuliko iliyotokea hadi sasa kwa kuwa kuna mabomu makubwa hayajalipuka.
…  Baadhi ya mabomu yamelipuka kwenye makazi ya watu, moshi umetanda Mbagala na kwa ujumla shughuli za kijamii zimeathirika sana.
And Charahani wrote:
Mamia ya wakazi wa jiji hilo hasa Mbagala na vitongoji vyake walionekana kuchanganyikiwa walikuwa wakihangaika kukimbia nyumba zao kwa lengo la kujiokoa. Katika harakati za kujiokoa baadhi ya wananchi ho walitumbukia mtoni huku baadhi yao wakiwasahau watoto wao na vikongwe nyumba bila msaada wowote
The day after the blast the initial shock turned into sessions of anger and questions about those responsible for the ‘accident’. There were angry reactions in a post with photographs of Tanzania’s president Jakaya Kikwete, Vice President Dr. Shein and other leaders visiting the site of the blast and temporary camps in Michuzi's blog:
We need to see some one anakuwa fired kwa uzembe uliotokea roho ya mtu ina thamani kubwa sana sasa uzembe wenu mmesababisha watu kupoteza maisha wengine viungo alafu hao majeruhi mtawaangalia kwa miezi mitatu tu mtaendelea na shughuli zenu na hivi 2010 inakaribia dah…. Hapa tunataka kuona watu WANAKWISHNEY waziri wa wizara usika, Naibu wake, mkuu wa kikosi cha maafa yalipotokea Mwamunyange ooooops huyu jamaa smart kidogo aendelee kutumikia nchi yake lakini hao wengine niliowamention tunataka kuona uwajibikaji wenu sio pole sizizokuwa na manufaa kwa wahanga wa tukio husika.
In another post with an aerial photograph showing bewildered residents confused along a freeway and another with some residents inspecting missile remains in a residential area prompted readers to blame not only the army and the government but citizens as well:
Hii inaonesha hatari kubwa ya kuhifadhi makombora (missiles) karibu na makazi ya watu wengi.
Haya siyo mabomu, bali nia surface-to- air missiles za kutungulia ndege, pia sitashangaa kama kuan surface-to-surface missiles ambazo zaweza kufyatuliwa na mzinga wenye midomo 20, hiyo kuruka kwa mpigo ktk uwanja wa vita.
Another reader said:
… muhimu ni kufuata sheria za usalama na utunzaji wa silaha mbalimbali,ila ajali huweza kutokea.
Mazingira ama makambi ya jeshi ni mazuri sana, salama, kuna utaratibu safi na utunzaji wa mazingira ni namba moja! ndiyo sababu popote kambi ilipo,raia watasogea na watajenga tuu, ukiangalia  maeneo yote hayo yalikuwa misitu minene wakati jeshi lilipo establish makambi lakini with time wananchi wamesogea na wengine wamevamia kabisa! Wakiambiwa waondoke hawataki na wanaenda hadi mahakamani!
makambi kuwepo mjini siyo tatizo, maana hata nchi za wenzetu hilo hilo lipo tena wana mambo ya hatari zaidi ya maghala ya silaha!,
Ila nadhani kuna umuhimu wa  kuwafundisha watanzania “raia” mbinu za awali za medani na jinsi ya kusaidia na kujisaidia panapotokea balaa lolote.kwa sasa watz wengi bado “bongo lala” -penye hatari sisi tunakimbilia,utayari na kutambua hatari ni karibu na sifuri -JKT irudishwe upya kuondoa uzembe unaojionyesha na kuweka watu fiti kwa mujibu(kupiga msasa).
Tusipojali haya,it will cost us more than we can imagine!
The government, the military and the police are responding to the situation.  Lukwangule has posted a press release from the Prime Minister’s Office promising compensation to all those affected by the blast:
Serikali imeshaanza kugharimia gharama za mazishi kwa watu waliokufa katika ajali hii, na itaangalia jinsi ya kuwapa pole wale waliofiwa ili kupunguza makali ya maisha na kuwasaidia waliopata ulemavu kwa matibabu na vifaa…
And regarding the issue of having military arms depots close to residential areas, Basil Msongo has short post  where the Tanzania’s president explains why ammunitions depot is located near residential areas:
Rais Jakaya Kikwete amesema, ghala hilo halikujengwa katika makazi ya watu, kwa kuwa lilijengwa mwaka 1976 nje ya makazi hayo.

author: J. Nambiza Tungaraza


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Ukraine: Interview With Michael Forster Rothbart · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Natalia Antonova of GlobalComment interviews photographer Michael Forster Rothbart about his “Inside Chernobyl: Life Goes On” exhibition that opened in Kyiv in April.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Venezuela: Conflict Between the Media During Earthquake · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

The earthquake that awoke Venezuela earlier this week had a wide variety of reactions among bloggers. After all the panic and the worries finally subsided, most of these bloggers shared different strategies to protect and prevent accidents during an earthquake. The importance of alternate media was evident, since mainstream media took too much time to inform or alert.
This natural phenomenon also pointed out the contrast between the role of mainstream media led by the government and the private sector, which also meant a big fight between the government and opposition. While both sides tried to inform and contract each other, most of the warnings and recommendations came from Twitter, instant and text messages.
La tempestad by Héctor Rattia and used with permission. La tempestad by Héctor Rattia and used with permission.
In the end, the earthquake was the starting point of new discussions, demands, reflections, and also humorous expressions, which is something that has never been absent in any of this country’s events in the Venezuelan blogosphere.
Luis Enrique Blanco, in his blog La Conciencia Ciudadana [es] points out the great importance of alternate media in this kind of crisis:
… A las 5:00 a.m. yo, un pendejo cualquiera, estaba claro de que había ocurrido 15 minutos antes en la República. Bueno, El ministro El Aissami a las 5:30 a.m. conjuntamente con el Alcalde Jorge Rodríguez, casi una hora después, estaban esperando que FUNVISIS les confirmara el informe del sismo pero en su lugar se dedicaron a desacreditar la información que suministraba GLOBOVISION la cual esencialmente era la misma que yo había recibido de manera bien informal.
¿Que puede esperar un venezolano cuando los encargados de informar no lo hacen y en cambio se dedican a utilizar momentos importantes de alerta para cantar su canción revolucionaria?  (…) No conformes con la metida de pata que los voceros del Gobierno Central habían ya protagonizado, casi prohibían faltar a clases alegando que, no existía peligro de réplica y esta se suscitó a las 10:30 a.m., afortunadamente sin hechos que lamentar.
En fin, como el título dice, este round lo ganaron Twitter, Facebook y Messenger Live
At 5:00 a.m., I, just another idiot, had a clear idea of what was going on 15 minutes before in our Republic. Well, the Minister, along with the Mayor, almost an hour later, were waiting for FUNVISIS (Venezuelan Seismic Investigation Foundation) to confirm the report of the earthquake and, in the meantime, they devoted themselves to discredit the information given by Globovision (a private channel network), which was, essentially, the same information I received in a very informal way.
What can a Venezuelan hope for when people in charge of information don’t inform, but take moments of high alert to sing their revolutionary song? (…) Also, the government’s spokesman, not content enough with their faux pas, almost forbade missing class for this reason, saying that there was no danger of aftershocks… and there was one at 10:30 a.m., but nothing happened to anybody, fortunately.
In the end, this round was won by Twitter, Facebook and Messenger Live.
Daniel of Venezuela News and Views also writes about how this earthquake moved the government’s point of balance more than it did to the earth itself in his post Globovision Shakes Chavismo Early this Morning:
There was a rather strong quake early this morning close to Caracas. Even in San Felipe I felt it enough to wake up. Fortunately it was very brief and thus no major damages reported or loss of life. But apparently there was a lot of loss of pride among chavismo.
See, Globovision the 24 hours news channel did its work: they had staff at hand, they started inquiring, but no one was around to tell them what was happening. VTV was RE-transmitting the Chavez Sunday show, Alo Presidente. God forbid the wisdom words of the beloved leader would be interrupted to tell the audience that there had just been an earthquake. Besides they already knew about it: did they not feel it?
Globovision then tried the next logical step, to ask the Venezuelan seismological thing, FUNVISIS. Nobody was attending. So Globovision went to a US specific site where indeed they found the quake, its magnitude and its epicenter.
Well, that was apparently too much for chavismo who even sent the education minister, silly sycophantic and ineffectual Navarro, to blast Globovision as destabilizing the country with alarming news and showing that they suffered of “psychotic dissociation”, not realizing of course that he was presenting himself as a poster boy for the disease in that speech
Naky Soto in her blog Zaperoqueando [es] also wrote some thoughts about the little battle among different sources of information and what would happen if the effects of the earthquake had been more serious:
Es insólito que una circunstancia como esta también sirva para la diatriba política. Ravell comunica lo del temblor sobre la base de la falta de información “oficial”. Perfecta plataforma para que todos los medios, periodistas, voceros y ministros (oficiales, claro está) le brindaran mayor importancia este señor que a la necesidad de información que requería la gente antes de salir de sus casas.
La ministra Eckhout (rindió declaraciones ilógicas) sobre el poder de la naturaleza y su necesidad de venganza por los daños que la humanidad le ha hecho avalados por el capitalismo, alejándonos de la sabiduría de nuestros ancestros indígenas.
It is incredible that something like this can also be good for political fights. Ravell communicates about the earthquake and the lack of “official” information; a perfect starting point for all the media, journalists, spokesmen and ministers (from the government, of course) could give more importance to the information that people needed before they leave their homes.
Minister Eckhout (gave some illogical declarations about) nature’s power and its need for revenge because of all the damages made by humanity with the help of capitalism, which distances ourselves from our indigenous ancestors’ wisdom.
The occasion also opened the way to jokes and other impressions, something very much in touch with the Venezuelan character, which uses humour as one of the sharpest ways to point out what is going on around almost any event.
In El Espejo del Venezolano [es], (The Venezuelan Mirror) there are some of people’s impressions on the earthquake:
Ya en el transcurso de la mañana se escuchaban los relatos de cada quien. Hubo un par de historias que me parecieron interesantes. Otro pana, quien pasó una “agitada” noche junto a su novia, no entendió que esos temblores no habían sido causados por él hasta que vio las noticias (suele pasar). Otros dicen que fue la gripe porcina que aterrizó en Venezuela, mientras que algunos argumentan que fue obra del imperio.
During the morning we could hear some of people’s stories. There were a couple of them that seemed interesting to me. A friend of mine, who passed a very “agitated” night with his girlfriend, didn’t find out until the next morning, when he saw the news, that those shakes were not caused by him, but by the earthquake (that happens). Some others say that it was the swine flu that landed on Venezuela, while some others stand that it was the work of the Empire.
El chiguire bipolar [es] (The bipolar capybara), a very popular blog based on humour and politics, published this picture of Francisco Garces, the spokesman of the FUNVISIS saying, “Garces admits he has not learned yet  how to handle the new seismometer”
Screenshot by El Chigüire Bipolar and used with permission
Finally, bloggers think that the most important thing is that there are not enough ways to avoid all the terrible consequences that could come with a hard hit from nature; an idea well summarized by Soto [es]:
Lo más grave es que si llegase a ocurrir un verdadero sismo, nuestras debilidades están más que probadas, tenemos fallas considerables en infraestructura que no necesitan de enfrentamientos de opositores o defensas revolucionarias, antes bien, ojala comencemos a prestarle atención a las recomendaciones que durante años han realizado la gente de Protección Civil (otrora Defensa) los bomberos y hasta la Cruz Roja con sus equipos de rescatistas. Pareciera que a 10 años de la tragedia de Vargas-Miranda, la lección sobre la prevención no está asimilada.
The worst part is that if a real earthquake happens, our weaknesses would be more than obvious. We have a notable lack of infrastructure that does not need any disputes coming from the opposition or revolutionary defenses. I hope we can begin to pay attention to all the recommendations given by Civil Protection, the firemen and the Red Cross for years now. It seems that 10 years after the Vargas-Miranda tragedy, the lesson on prevention has not been learned properly.

author: Laura Vidal


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Algeria: Berber, Arabic or French?  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Algerian linguist Lameen Souag asks: “The key issue in Algerian linguistic politics – substantially overshadowing the question of the role of Berber – is what should be the language of bureaucracy and education: Standard Arabic (the official language, and the primary pre-colonial language of literacy for all Algeria) or French (the colonial language, and hence ironically
the language which most of the few educated Algerians at independence had studied in.)”

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Algeria: Countdown to the crackdown  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The Maghreb Politics Review reports: “After the recent hostage release by the southern/Saharan wing of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, there has been much political and military movement in Algeria, Mali and the surrounding countries. According to numerous press rumors, a major joint operation in the border areas is about to go into action any day now.”


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Armenia: Shooting the messenger (reprise) · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Security, in the Caucasus and beyond…. follows up its first commentary on the nationalist reaction to talk of a breakthrough in talks to normalize relations between Armenia and Turkey. In its second post, the blogs examines recommendations made by the International Crisis Group (ICG).

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Armenia: Yerevan election update · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Writing for the Frontline Club blog, Global Voices Online's Caucasus editor rounds up some of the latest developments in this month's crucial municipal election in Yerevan. In particular, the entry singles out two incidents involving police and opposition supporters as well as an aborted assault on a local journalist.


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Bermuda: Government & the Media  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Premier of Bermuda has announced that he will reduce the government's contact with certain media organizations in an effort “to reduce the rancour and lower the toxicity that have become the norm” – Vexed Bermoothes responds: “This, to put it bluntly, is sign of power and control run amok” and posts an update in which he compares the Premier's attitude towards the press with that of President Obama's.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Brazil: The Character Assassination of a Presidential Candidate · Global Voices
Thiana Biondo

Her name has already been put forward by Brazilian President Lula da Silva as his preferred Workers’ Party (PT) candidate for the 2010 presidential election. Since gaining Lula's support, Dilma Roussef has received overwhelming attention from the Brazilian press. It seems, however, that the mainstream media have set aside good journalistic standards when it comes to news stories about Roussef.
This is a fact that has not been missed by Brazilian bloggers, who have questioned the true intentions behind a series of recent false media reports.
An economist, Dilma Roussef worked as Secretary of Energy in the state of Rio Grande do Sul before joining the federal government in 2003 as the Energy Minister. In 2005, she was appointed Chief of Staff of the Presidency. In her youth, Dilma Roussef was a member of the resistance movement against the military dictatorship that staged a coup d'état in 1964.
Recalling the maybe-candidate's life during the dictatorship, the biggest Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo (with a daily circulation of more than 300,000) published a front page news story on 5 April using a spam email as their main source, while alleging that the information was found in the Public Archives of São Paulo State (DEOPS). They published an image of a fake criminal record for Roussef that has been circulating on the Internet for more than a year. It does not exist in the public archives. The story was about Roussef's alleged role in an event 40 years ago that never actually happened, namely the kidnapping of then Finance Minister, Delfim Netto.
Was it just a lack of investigation? A naïve error? Was the paper's motivation the intention of creating sensationalism and selling more copies?
For blogger Rodrigo Vianna [pt], there is no doubt that there were political motivations:
O selo “capturado” não era comum em fichas desse tipo no DOPS. Documento pode ter sido forjado por sites de “extrema-direita”. A “Folha”, pelo visto, mantem as velhas parcerias…
Estava já evidente que a tal “reportagem” fora feita sob encomenda para ser usada no programa politico de 2010. O uso de uma falsa  ficha do DOPS seria apenas um passo a mais na caminhada da “Folha” rumo ao esgoto.
Screenshot of the newspaper story from Paulo Henrique Amorim's blog
Roussef sent a letter to Folha de São Paulo asking for clarification on the material that was published without evidence – based on an event that did not happen – but the paper neglected to publish it.
Luis Nassif's blog brought this to light [pt] by publishing a copy of her letter. She wrote:
“Apesar da minha negativa durante a entrevista telefônica de 30/03 sobre minha participação ou meu conhecimento do suposto seqüestro de Delfim Neto, a matéria publicada tinha como título de capa “Grupo de Dilma planejou seqüestro do Delfim”. O título, que não levou em consideração a minha veemente negativa, tem características de “factóide”, uma vez que o fato, que teria se dado há 40 anos, simplesmente não ocorreu. Tal procedimento não parece ser o padrão da Folha de São Paulo.
(…)
“Por último, cabe deixar claro que a ficha falsa foi divulgada em vários sites de extrema direita, como: a) Ternuma (Terrorismo Nunca Mais), blog de apoio ao Cel. Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, ficha falsa postada em 30 de novembro de 2008; b) Coturno Noturno – Blog do Coronel: ficha falsa  postada em 27 de março de 2009 (a ficha está “atualizada” apresentando uma foto atual) (http://coturnonoturno.blogspot.com/2009/04/desta-parte-dilma-lembra-tudo.html). A partir daí, outros sites na internet também divulgaram a ficha: a) http://fórum.hardmob.com.Br/showthread.php; b) http:/www.viomundo.com.Br/blog/dilma-terrorista/
Fake files like this one have made rounds on the internet for over a year. Bloggers noted that Roussef's picture has been updated
Coturno Noturno o Blog do Coronel – which can be translated as “Night Combat Boot, the Colonel's Blog” has military-camouflage design, and has mocked the Roussef's past, when she was arrested and tortured for fighting against the dictatorship in the early 1970s. The blogger [pt] threatens that this is only the beginning:
No dia 27 de março, o Blog publicou um post mostrando uma ficha da ministra Dilma Rousseff, que descrevia os seus velhos tempos que tanto a orgulham quando convém, com uma mudança bem humorada: a foto foi atualizada para mostrar a nova fisionomia embotacada e repuxada da candidata.
“Diga pra velha que eu volto! Diga pra ela se tratar!” E volto não tão crazy como antes, com o beneplácito dos leitores e pelo voto direto, mas com a minha melhor qualidade: a capacidade ilimitada de irritar petralhas até dos mais altos escalões. Candidata, a gente nem começou.
The only retraction by Folha de São Paulo of its false report was published on 25 April, twenty days after the fake file made the paper's front page. This time, the story was not considered front page material; nor did it observe rules of the equal proportion when a newspaper publishes a second piece of information in order to correct a previous one. After reading the content of the paper's retraction, Blog do Melo [pt] reaches two conclusions and posts a copy of an article [pt] entitled “When the “we made an error” aims to veil a fraud” – written by journalist and professor of Fluminense Federal University Sylvia Moretzsohn:
Quando publicou a reporcagem sobre o tal sequestro de Delfim Netto (que nunca houve), a Folha queria atingir dois objetivos: mostrar que Dilma era uma “terrorista” (você entregaria o governo na mão de uma?) e fustigar os que combateram a ditadura, que para a Folha e Pinochet (veja vídeo acima) foi ditabranda. A jornalista Sylvia Moretzsohn (…) escreveu o seguinte artigo, publicado no Observatório da Imprensa [pt], onde mostra que o erramos da Folha significa fraudamos:
“(…) No entanto, errou, também, duplamente: primeiro, ao dizer que o jornal havia reconhecido ser “falsa” a tal ficha; segundo, e mais importante, ao tratar como “erro” algo que é evidentemente uma fraude. Delimitar com clareza a distinção entre uma coisa e outra é fundamental para uma crítica justa, dadas as implicações – jurídicas, inclusive – que cada uma dessas práticas importa.'”
We can find further critiques of the way that the newspaper made its mea culpa in Rodrigo Vianna's blog [pt]. He mentions another fake file for São Paulo's Governor José Serra on which the politician is described as Nosferatu, a terrorist and a vampire, and his past as a militant student activist is also mentioned (Dilma and Serra both fought against the dictatorship, as did many other current Brazilian political figures):
Mais de 20 dias depois, a “Folha” publica neste sábado (sem chamada de capa, ressalte-se) um texto estranhíssimo, sob o título: “Autenticidade de ficha de Dilma não é provada”.
Não é provada por quem? A quem caberia provar, se não ao próprio jornal que estampou o material em sua primeira página? Ora, até para manipular e fazer campanha antecipada é preciso um pouco mais de cuidado. Mas a “Folha” dá mostras de caminhar rapidamente rumo ao esgoto.
O pessoal da policia paulista que não gosta muito do Serra fez circular pela internet uma “ficha” do Serra. A autenticidade “não pode ser assegurada – bem como não pode ser descartada”. Foi essa a frase da “Folha” para definir a “ficha” da Dilma. Será que a “Folha” publicaria a “ficha” do Serra?
The fake file of São Paulo governor José Serra
After having been the target of Folha de São Paulo's shallow, sensationalist article about her political-militant past, Dilma Roussef was again the focus of the media soon after. This time because of a health treatment. Last week, she had an operation to remove a linphoma and will undergo chemotherapy for three months. Again, Rouseff's name appeared everywhere in the blogosphere, and again mainstream media behaviour fed the blog fervour.
The journalist and blogger Paulo Henrique Amorim, who coined the term Partido da Imprensa Golpista (PIG) – an acronym of Portuguese words meaning Party of the Coup-plotting Mass Media – analyses the media reaction in a few of his posts. In the first, before the news was made public [pt] he said Folha published on its front page, off the record, false news about Dilma Rousseff’s cancer:
Isso não é notícia que se dê em off. (…)
Segundo o que dizem os médicos de um hospital que deixa vazar uma informação dessa gravidade, a candidata do presidente Lula à presidência da República tem, hoje, depois de totalmente extirpado o câncer, tanta chance de ter outro câncer quanto qualquer pessoa.
A edição de hoje da Folha deve ser conservada em formol, porque se trata de uma antologia do jornalismo em decomposição que se pratica nesta subdemocracia.
In a second post, the day after [pt] he explains how the media is plotting against the possible candidate. According to Amorim, the media is “assassinating” [pt] the candidate:
A manchete do Globo é: “Câncer e tratamento longo abalam candidatura de Dilma“. Na edição online: “Dilma anuncia tratamento contra câncer”.
Dilma Rousseff não tem câncer.
Teve.
O câncer na fase 1A foi TOTALMENTE extirpado.
Ela faz agora quimioterapia preventiva.
Some blogs, like Alerta Total [pt] consider the cancer is likely to be used as a political strategy by the government during the presidential elections:
O anúncio oficial da doença seguiu o ritual de mais uma operação de propaganda política do Palácio do Planalto. Dilma chegou ao hospital acompanhada do ministro Franklin Martins, o bolcheviquepropagandaminister de Lula
More than a year in advance, it seems that the presidential battle in Brazil has already begun. As always, low tactics and the intensely veiled participation of media vehicles that are scarcely impartial or neutral will be present through the whole process. It is, therefore, highly recommended to take all media information with a large pinch of salt.

author: Thiana Biondo


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Burkinabe community in Cote d’Ivoire · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Quophy Blogeur [Fr] writes about a man raising money from the Buriknabe community in Cote d'Ivoire for the next election, but questions his motives.

author: Jennifer Brea


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China: Isaac Mao #twinterviews Hu Yong · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Those faithfully following the #China Twitter stream late on the working day on Thursday were treated to a surprise when Isaac Mao began twinterviewing Peking University associate professor of new media Hu Yong, author of several books related to Internet theory and culture.
From Mao's blog, Isaac 2.0, here is the transcript:
#1 作為中國最早感知互聯網浪潮的一撮人，當時和現在有什么差別？
当时是亚当和夏娃的简单乐园，现在“失乐园”了，成了丛林。盛行丛林法则。
#2 可是《數字化生存》并沒有考慮到那么多復雜情況，是否還是過于理想？
《数字化生存》的最大价值，是指出了未来社会的基本建构成分是比特而不是原子。这可以解释为什么今日众多产业面临绝境，也可以解释为什么中国政府花费那么大的人力物力修墙。当然，我那时和尼葛洛庞帝一样，是个乐观主义者，相信“闪闪发亮的比特”
#3 可是我還是有疑問，尤其對中國，比特對傳統的思維催生變化了嗎？
传统思维的变化不是一日之功。比特开启了众声喧哗的进程：我们原来鸦雀无声，一旦有些机会说话，谁都不会好好说话，只会聒噪。但不要小看说话的作用：它是心理疗伤，疗中国千年专制之伤。
#4 正要問《眾聲喧嘩》這本書，大家是喧嘩了，可是獲取手段多的人似乎更焦慮，那么沒有信息的人似乎反倒很安逸，這是真諦嗎？
好问题！这就是为什么那些获取了更多信息的人要致力于发起更多的对话和讨论。有时候我们用新技术武装至死：我们如此陷入技术的拥抱之中，忘记了社会的基本面。今天中国需要的是对一系列社会的基本问题进行讨论：一个拒绝讨论重大问题的文明，不是导向极权主义，就是通向死亡。
#5 你的電視媒體實踐也產生了很多影響，例如CCTV-2的變化（我叫#CCAV)，是否更有相互比較的意味
我反对有人主张的对央视的新闻、宣传节目与网络都采取“不看、不上、不听、不说”的“四不”政策，因为每一寸阵地都值得去争取
#6 在《草根不盡》報告導讀中，講了媒體和權力的關系，新媒體似乎更激進地改變這種關系，但是也被有效地鉗制在一定強度內，縱觀媒體史，會亘古不破嗎？
福柯尝言：“权力得以稳固，为人们所接受，其原因非常简单，那就是它不只是作为说‘不’的强权施加压力，它贯穿于事物，产生事物，引发乐趣，生成知识，引起话语。”新媒体就是要既反抗“不”的高压，又反抗“是”的贯穿；既牢记奥威尔，更不忘赫胥黎
#7 在美國，傳統媒體產業已經惶惶不可終日，四處尋找出路，這種先發焦慮是不是更有利于中國媒體軟轉型？
报刊和书籍更容易转型，因为它们的市场化较高；电视很难，因为中国电视有着畸形化的结构，且有意识形态和垄断的双重挡箭牌。无论如何，450亿元的外宣投资不会鼓励转型。
#8 这个外宣媒体让我很困惑的，是不是会解决很多外国人就业的问题？
南加州大学传媒系尼古拉斯•卡尔教授有个精辟之见，他把中国政府通过报纸、电视和文化交流作出的一系列努力称作是“通过对外宣传的对内宣传”。换言之，对中国政府来说，让中国人看到他们在向全世界宣传中国文化更为重要。很多人在质疑外宣的效果，这是树错了靶子
#9 那么中国教授呢？在教室里，是否也需要時常自我審查？尺度是什么？
尺度？跟媒体的情形一样吧，存在于边界的试探之中。当年关于淫秽物品的界定在美国有个笑话：淫秽物品？它从来不能成功地用浅显易懂的语言界定，但是当我看到它时，我就知道它是。在中国，言论的非法与失当，也是如此吧。
#10 如果倒退回20年，有互联网，是不是社会看上去比今天更乐观一些？
呵呵，回到未来……80年代是中国60年最好的时光，那时，至少有“两个重大”——重大事情让人民知道，重大问题经人民讨论……想想看，用互联网实现两个重大，是不是更乐观一些？

author: John Kennedy


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China: Living Buddha stuck in court · Global Voices
John Kennedy

More than a year since the March 14 riots in Lhasa, Joshua Rosenzweig at Siweiluozi gives an update on the case of Tibetan living Buddha Phurbu Tsering, charged in part with possession of a firearm, along with reasons why delivery of a verdict in his trial has been postponed.


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China: Questions about progress · Global Voices
John Kennedy

After ninety years of democracy and science, can a blogger get sincere answers to to-the-point questions posed to his Peking University professor about the progress China has made since the May Fourth Movement? Find out from Alec Ash at 6.


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China: Reading Mao Yushi · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Little-known outside of China, Mao Yushi is one of the more prominent individuals associated with Charter 08; for more on what really defines the respected economist, see several valuable translations from Anton Lee Wishik II at Mei-Zhong Guanxi.


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China: Response to Yellow Peril talk · Global Voices
John Kennedy

The anonymous China News Wrap blogger has translated People's Daily editorial, “Talk of a ‘Yellow Peril’ begins again in the West”.


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China: Uyghurs in Pakistan extradited · Global Voices
John Kennedy

A blogger at The New Dominion notes that while nine Uyghurs in Pakistan have been extradited to China, the fate of others at Guantanamo remains uncertain.


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Dominica: Doing vs. Being  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“We Dominicans on a whole must avoid lingering in the past and mulling over the circumstances that led to our perceived errors in judgment”: Dominica Weekly reminds us that we are more than what we do.


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DRC: Former child soldiers wait for government to pay · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Congoblog [Fr] tells the story of two former child soldiers who are still waiting for the reintegration money promised by the government.  They survive by collecting garbage and grating cow horns to make Nkulo, a traditional dish.


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Haiti: Senate Elections Explained  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Haiti’s Lavalas movement effectively destroyed the credibility of the April 19 Senate election through a successful boycott campaign called Operation Closed Door”: Kevin Pina, writing at HaitiAnalysis.com, explains.


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India: Interference in Nepali Affairs  · Global Voices
Rezwan

Srinivasan Ramani at A New Praxis in a changed world comments: “the Indian ambassador's moves to pressurize the Nepali polity to retain Katuwal was a blatant expression of interference in Nepali affairs. Any self respecting Nepali, let alone a Maoist or any other leftist politician would have bristled at this interference, which however is part of a long legacy of intrusion in Nepali affairs.”

author: Rezwan


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India: Why we should vote for independent candidates · Global Voices
Rezwan

While discussing about the independent candidates in the Indian elections 2009, Muthu Kumar at The average everyday – Reality Fictionized answers the question: “Why should we vote for independent candidates if we think they are worth it?”


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Jamaica: IMF · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Prime Minister Golding is putting his loving hand out to the International Monetary Fund for a loan to help Jamaica’s struggling economy,” writes Jamaica Salt, adding: “The last time Jamaica got help from the IMF was not a great thing.”  Abeng News Magazine also weighs in, here and here.


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Martinique, Guadeloupe: Emancipation Celebrations  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The French overseas territories of Martinique and Guadeloupe will soon be commemorating the anniversary of the abolition of slavery, according to Repeating Islands.


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Pakistan: Internally Displaced Persons  · Global Voices
Rezwan

CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan updates the latest state of the Pakistan’s Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who are fleeing the fighting escalated by the military’s recent operations against the Taliban.


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Peru: Indigenous Communities Continue Protests · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

This post is part of our special coverage Forest Focus: Amazon.
For quite some time, the indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon have been mobilized due to attempts by the current government to infringe upon the rights to their ancestral lands. These lands are thought to be good for mining and oil exploration, and some say that is where the real intentions lie. Recently these protests have restarted throughout different parts of the Amazon region, Tarapoto, Yurimaguas, the Napo Rivers, and other regions.
Few Peruvians bloggers have reported on the news, although some external websites, such as Servindi [es] and Indigenous Press [es], which are dedicated to collecting news related to indigenous issues have published about the protests.
In the blog RIDEI [es] (International Network of Intercultural Studies), Marco Huaco writes about what these protests mean for the protestors themselves:
Desde el 09 de abril se ha declarado por segunda vez en el Perú una protesta de los pueblos indígenas amazónicos de significativa envergadura. Es muy probable que no percibamos el fuerte significado e intensidad de esta protesta -ni la firmeza de su resolución- porque no conocemos el enorme esfuerzo y sacrificio que reporta a los indígenas amazónicos el movilizarse en defensa de sus derechos: a diferencia de las protestas urbanas en los que sus participantes se movilizan y luego van a casa, la movilización amazónica puede suponer el traslado de amplios contingentes humanos que se transportan por ríos y que luego emprenden larguísimas caminatas de horas a fin de llegar a centros poblados desde los cuales hacer sentir su presencia y voz de protesta.
Eso les cuesta alejarse drásticamente de sus comunidades, dormir en calles y plazas, alimentarse con sus propios recursos o con apoyo solidario de la población citadina y gastar mucho dinero -que no les sobra- en este empeño, todo ello bajo una sólida organización y disciplina colectivas. Todo este sacrificio no se hace en vano. El experimentar esta realidad motiva sus divertidas risas, burlas y sarcasmos cuando escuchan que el Gobierno y sus periodistas sirvientes difunden que han sido organizados, financiados y manipulados por ONG…
Since April 09, for the second time a protest of significant magnitude was declared by the Amazonian indigenous communities.  It is very likely that we do not perceive the strong meaning and intensity of the protest, nor the strength of their decision because we do not know the enormous effort and sacrifice that brings to the Amazonian indigenous to mobilize to defend their rights, unlike the urban protests in which participants mobilize and then go home, the Amazon mobilization may involve transfer of large human contingents that are transported by rivers and then take part in long hours of hiking to reach population centers from where they show their presence and voice of protest.
It is difficult for them to stay away drastically from their communities, sleep in the streets and plazas, feed themselves from their own resources or with support and solidarity from the townspeople and spend a lot of money – which they do not have – during this endeavor, all of this under a solid organization and collective discipline. All this sacrifice is not in vain. To experience this reality motivates their laughter, mockery and sarcasm when they hear that the Government and its servant journalists say that the protestors have been organized, financed and manipulated by NGOs …
From De La Selva Su Web On [es] writes about a piece of news that appeared on the website of Radio La Voz de la Selva 93.9 fm about a naval ship that attacked the Napo indigenous community:
espero que respeten los derechos humanos, después cuando se les va la mano dicen que ellos no lo hicieron y que la justicia es injusta . A la hora de meter la fuerza con los débiles ahí son buenos, pero haber a la hora de defender las fronteras, toda la vida pierden, encima están metidos en lios de corrupción robo y malas prácticas de todo. Por el otro lado, si los indígenas están protestando es porque están cansados de tanta indiferencia e injusticias que nosotros los supuestos civilizados les ocacionamos. Más bien que las autoridades reflexionen y que los iquiteños apoyemos la lucha indígena.
One can find news about recent events in the protests in the Amazon Web Radio Voice of the Jungle [es]. Another blogger from the jungle region, Carlos Ramirez Sanchez writes in his post David against Goliath [es]:
La gota que rebalsó el pate de masato fue la promulgación del DL 1090, que modifica aspectos importantes de la Ley Forestal. Así, excluidos de toda decisión, con un gobierno central que hace oídos sordos a sus reclamos, privilegiando las inversiones privadas a los derechos de quienes son los posesionarios milenarios, las cosas han llegado a un límite peligroso.
But the blog Gran Combo Club [es] writes extensively about the subject:
El gobierno peruano a comienzos de abril firmó varios contratos con diversas empresas 1, entre ellas Talisman, aquí, sin consenso alguno con los ciudadanos que viven en los territorios afectados por esos contratos, que están amparados por diversas leyes, sin ningún esquema de consulta o compensación. Esta actitud del gobierno motiva la gran protesta que se vive actualmente en buena parte del territorio nacional. Se estima que el 70% de la Amazonía peruana ya está concesionada por un Perú caracterizado por el crecimiento contaminador al estilo de China
And the Gran Combo Club [es] also discusses the new leadership from popular leaders who may have been inspired by US President Barack Obama:
En los últimos años en el país ha habido movilizaciones importantes a todo nivel. Serían movilizaciones que no crean líderes, espontáneas, de “pobladores”, de “nativos”, etc. sin cabezas visibles que expresen un discurso claro sobre qué se quiere para el país. ¿Es esto así? No lo creo. Más parece haber una desatención de parte de los medios a lo que viene fermentando el país. Sólo le prestan atención cuando quienes tienen algún tipo de poder ajustan cuentas entre sí. Veamos nomás la protesta amazónica y la indiferencia gubernamental, mediática e intelectual que se le ha prestado. El moqueguazo, en cambio, no fue desaprovechado por los detractores mediáticos de Del Castillo. Las protestas no reciben cobertura en sí mismas, sino cuando hay algún interés de por medio en la cumbre. El lío social acaba siendo un “lío de blancos”. Cómo se organizó, se formó el consenso y quiénes lo hicieron quedan fuera del enfoque mediático. Lo que se ve es la protesta terminada, presentada en general como algo violento y amenazador, es decir, en su versión más sensacionalista. En todo el Perú, no obstante, puede haber surgido una nueva generación de dirigentes, muy activos en hacer sus reclamos, que queda invisibilizada y a la que no se le sigue el proceso. Una gran omisión.
Another post on indigenous rebellions can be read at Amazilia [es].
This post is part of our special coverage Forest Focus: Amazon.

author: Juan Arellano


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Poland: “Cool Inventions” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

“Six cool inventions you didn’t know were Polish” – at Polandian: bulletproof vest, mine detector, walkie-talkie and a few more.


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Poland: Hitler and Abortion · Global Voices
Sylwia Presley

This poster appeared at the end of April in several public places in Zielona Gora, as Gazeta.pl reports. The poster contains photo of Adolf Hitler and text: “Hitler was first to introduce legal abortion in Poland. – The right to choose is not freedom, but extermination of the innocent. For feminists killed children are stats, for us a tragedy.” There is also a photo of a fetus and another slogan, “Abortion is a murder,” in red letters, with Falanga website URL at the bottom.
Action was initiated by Falanga neo-Nazi organization originally to protest against abortion, however representatives of Falanga organization do not deny the posters serve propaganda purposes and hope to help recruit new members.
First reactions, just on the same site's forum, are quite strong. Adkalin remarks [PL]:
When will we finally get rid of this shit?
Junkier agrees with the content of the flyer [PL]:
Every form of fight with abortion, which is nothing else than murder, and with feminism, sick left-wing ideology of decay of society, luckily in Poland pushed back to the margins, deserves warm welcome.
Forum users discuss facts about Hitler's political views, but when it comes to the poster itself, gosc:boso oraz kaczo states [PL]:
‘those posters do not promote Nazi movement, nor Hitler’
Instead they only promote organization of clearly fascist views…
I still hope that there is no place for trash like them (Falanga followers, I mean) in Poland
Matt‘s point on this one in more general [PL]:
EVERY portrait of Hitler is Nazi propaganda. Not everyone will read and understand the text below it.
Commentators of the action question the facts mentioned on the poster, both here, as well as in other on-line venues. Katolik posts on forum of another daily, Dziennik.pl [PL]:
It's worth reminding that Hitler followers banned abortion related to their race, which they claimed to be superior, but supported abortion of other races, perceived as inferior ones. As a Catholic, I keep a neutral view on this topic, even though Catholic Church strictly bans abortion and calls it murder. As for Falanga, I have seen their deeds. It's a bunch of youngsters who in groups of three can attack a single man. They do not shine with their intellect, courage, nor with moral values.
On the forum of local magazine Gazeta Lubuska, ~nn~ expresses his opinion about the action [PL]:
This is actually quite funny, because I associate those bold boys with followers of the sir on the picture… As for the content, it is at least harming – what about the theory of state of protection, what about dreams of a house with a garden for each German – at least in Ukraine… There you go… one-sided and narrow-minded. Take care Adi, history will appreciate you once…

author: Sylwia Presley


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Russia: Car Wash and Christ the Savior’s · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

24-hour car wash in the Christ the Savior Cathedral's compound – at Pictures of Moscow.


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Russia: Helping the Homeless in Moscow · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Notes on Moscow writes about volunteering to help the homeless.


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Saudi Arabia: “Why I don’t feel like blogging?”  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Saudi blogger Mashi Sa7 [Ar] wonders whether his lack of interest in blogging stems from the fact that his country is one of the worst 10 countries to be a blogger in, according to a recent report published by the Committee to Protect Journalists.


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Saudi Arabia: Women not allowed  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Saudi blogger Aysha Alkusayer describes how her hopes were dashed after being turned away from an audition, which was supposedly open to both sexes, in Riyadh. “Today I hoped and this was wrong. It is probably best to believe that discrimination against, race, gender or faith would never change,” she writes.


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Southeast Asia: Twitter reactions on H1N1 virus · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

In the previous post, I featured the reactions of Southeast Asian bloggers on the H1N1 virus. This time, I will highlight the twitter reactions from twitterers in the region. Twitter posts are alternative sources of information and news updates about the virus scare. They also help us figure out the sentiments and knowledge of ordinary citizens about the H1N1. Here is a sample of the tweets in the region:
Singapore:
andrewong2024: Swine flu will now be called H1N1… The pigs are innocent. I'm having pork chop for lunch later!
tealeafs: Bad mood. Burning throat. Troubled mind. Unsettled feeling. Kinda broke. Swine flu, melting ice-caps, falling economy … pizz off. Gdnite
maxteo: SG Army banning their personnel from going to HK, Macau just because HK is under the affected list now with 1 confirmed with swine flu.
feministmentor: RT @gssq “90 people get the swine flu and everyone wants to wear a mask. Millions get HIV, and no one wants to wear a condom”
lemonadediets: just discover a way to fight the swine flu using the traditional chinese herbs.. a chinese experienced doc just shared it wif me.
Malaysia:
ranbutan93: Staying at home.Afraid that swine flu finally hitting home.Helping sister doing history.Anybody know bout the LoN?
Almahera: I don't know anyone who calls it H1N1. It's still swine flu to most of us. Doesn't make any difference anyways. Like changing ITM to UITM.
mikefoong: if I am perspiring. It's a good thing means no swine flu. When I am sneezing you better run. I can sneeze quite loud. :P
nocturnale: If I were a swine flu virus, I would only infect my dishonest, lying, duplicitous nemesis.
syooq: just got a scare that the westerners-imported SWINE FLU (or SELSEMA BABI we Malaysians called it) has find its way into Asia…yikessss!!!
Indonesia:
aulia: A maid who arrived in Surabaya from Taiwan is the 1st suspected Indonesian swine flu carrier according to #metrotv (via @wolwol)
fujitasenpai: RT @BrandingComm: Rebranding Idea: instead of “Swine Flu” how about “Hamdemic”, “Aporkalypse” or “Snoutbreak”?
antonnyliem: Dimsum@ taipan. Yummy! Unfortunately because of the swine flu all pork has been replaced with beef. Poor porky.
cindywombywomby: @tear96 haha xD my friend thought swine flu means swan flu lol
jovitwiggy: I could go another 10 years without hearing the words “swine flu” again. Seriously people, there's better news. What's Britney doing?
Philippines:
lindtdale: It's crazy to travel nowadays. impossible for you not to get harassed at the airport because of the swine flu. FAIL.
keanoidd: Obesity is the real swine flu.
eybiay: wishes that the suspected swine flu case in Cebu is not true. :(
acieissobloggin: im afraid of pork right now but im much terrified that swine flu is going to hit the country anytime. and hey,we're not in any way prepared
danni_cj: I hate it when I turn on the news and find people being paranoid about this swine flu and realize that they remind me so MUCH of myself.
Thailand:
ktardwut: When i told my roommate i was sick she nearly ran from the room while asking me if i had swine flu. Lmfao. Paranoid much
aardvarksilver: Swine flu….still? At least it takes our minds off the economy for a while.LOL
stickmanbkk: Hope I dont get the Swine Flu. I got wasted in the naughty Bangkok bars last night. Woke up this morning to find a pig sleeping next to me.
zen_global: is “swine flu” the latest in global population control?

author: Mong Palatino


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USA: Opening Conversations on Sexual and Reproductive Health · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

Planned Parenthood, a non-profit organization that provides free or inexpensive sexual health services to young men and women in the United States and abroad, has launched a YouTube campaign. The organization is encouraging people to share their thoughts and experiences around getting tested for sexually transmitted diseases, educating their kids about sex, and discussing reproductive rights issues.
Even in the United States, where abortion is legal (albeit under attack), these are difficult topics for people to confront openly. So perhaps not surprisingly, there have not been many video responses from viewers sharing their own stories. Nonetheless, a search on YouTube will turn up a few videos from ordinary people sharing experiences about getting an HIV test, including one from Keisha770.
In online videos, Planned Parenthood shares helpful tips on how to talk to your children about sex and sexuality, including a simulated parent-child conversation between two adults. Below, mother and daughter Haydeé and Marcella Morales discuss how they have put some of these lessons into practice in their own family.
And here, in another video by Planned Parenthood, individual Americans discuss the importance of affordable birth control.
In this video, by an organization called Sex Etc., which helps teenagers to inform other teens about sexual health, a young man named Josh goes for his first HIV test in New York.
Citizen media can be an important tool for people to share sexual health advice, especially considering how a lack of accurate information can lead to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted teenage pregnancies, and unsafe abortion methods, as well as prevent women from taking control of their own sexual and reproductive rights. This is particularly true for women of color in the U.S., who have the highest abortion and unintended pregnancy rates. Sadly, there is also an enormous amount of misinformation in the same space, so sources should be vetted carefully.

author: Solana Larsen


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Vietnam: Masks against pollution  · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

In Vietnam many people wear masks not as a precautionary measure against contracting the H1N1 virus. Masks are used because of the dust in the city.


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Algeria: Lamenting the Freedom of Press  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Algerian blogger Bilad Talsiman [Ar] laments the conditions of media in the Arab world in this post he wrote to mark the Freedom of Press day.


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Americas: Carter Center Blogging Regional Visit · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Jennifer McCoy of the Carter Center Americas Programhas been blogging while accompanying former US President Jimmy Carter during his visit to Latin America where they met with several of the region's leaders.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Bahrain: The Secret of Nicknames  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahraini blogger Ali discusses his nicknames and how people started using them in this post.


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Bangladesh: Rabindranath Tagore, The Versatile Literary Genius · Global Voices
Rezwan

On the 148th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, the greatest poet of Bengal, An Ordinary Citizen explores the versatility of the talented Nobel Laureate. He was a poet, visual artist, playwright, novelist, educationist, social reformer, nationalist, business-manager and composer.


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Central & Eastern Europe: Swine Flu (aka “California 0409”) · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Below are some of the Central and Eastern Europe bloggers’ reactions to news reports on swine flu and measures taken by some of the governments to keep the disease from spreading to their countries.
Blogging Balkanistan and other Eccentricities turns to history and posts an excerpt from an eyewitness account of the Thessaloniki plague epidemic of 1724, written by Pylyp Orlyk, a Cossack hetman, and highlighted in Mark Mazover's non-fiction book, Salonica, City of Ghosts. The blogger ends the post with this note:
[…] As for the current pandemic several Balkan countries have imposed a ban on pork imports from the US or Mexico, while reviewing their emergency response.
And here's one exchange from the comments section:
Daniel:
Guys, cancel your Mexico vacations, and insted of ordering pork – try eating a roasted goat. It’s awesome.
bloggingbalkanistan:
What does goat taste like?
Croatian Crescent writes this about the coverage of Croatia's one suspected swine flu case:
A 22 year old girl who returned from Chicago to Osijek, in the far East of Croatia, was suspected of having swine flu. In a special press conference, Health minister Darko Milinović told the girl was being kept in isolation and monitored. Večernji list put a picture of the girl online, with a bar over her eyes as if she is some kind of criminal.
A day later we know that the girl is not infected with swine flu. Actually, she doesn't even have “normal” flu. She recovered from swine flu in a day, but I wonder how much time she needs to recover from the stigma. […]
Sleeping With Pengovsky writes this about the fear of swine flu – and xenophobia:
[…] However, the rise of Fascism today is connected to one other phenomenon. The Culture of Fear.
Did you notice that all of the sudden economic crisis is no longer top issue? Turn to any news channel and you’ll see a 24/7 live reporting on swine flu. The fact that so far it killed less people than your average flu does every year is not important. What is important is what it could do. The fact that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction was not important. What was important was that it could have had them. It is also very important that certain corporations make a lot of money in such cases. […]
Ari Rusilla of BalkanPerspective/Blogactiv.eu writes about the possible effect of the swine flu media hype on the June 2009 European Parliament election:
[…] Swine flu has been in headlines nearly two weeks.  The media hype is not in any scale to the real thread, it can be good entertainment like circus in ancient Rome and a tool to put the common people’s focus on trivialities.   For example if European Parliament elections have attracted quite a few people so far there is now good change that the whole election will be passed unnoticed due the swine flu panic. […]
Ukraine Today writes that the Ukrainian president should stay away from focusing on the domestic politics aspect of the swine flu emergency:
[…] The epidemic crisis was not helped by a President seeking to place all blame and responsibility on his political enemies whilst hand balling any responsibility, which is what Viktor Yuschenko had done. Maybe Yushchenko would be better off placing his energy in getting Ukrainian authorities to start cleaning up the Country as a visit to Ukraine is at times like visiting a garbage dump (literally). […]
The Czech Daily Word writes about travel to the Czech Republic and “a sad paradox” that the swine flu emergency has created:
[…] During the times of unilateral USA-Czech visa regime many politicians, tourists and journalists (including myself) used to mention the fact that the system had been humiliating (”we have to, they don’t“).
And now every American who arrives in the Czech Republic is screened. “Luckily” we do not have regular Mexico-Prague flights, so passengers traveling from Mexico have to change flights in Madrid where some precautions have been in place as well… […]
Both The Czech Daily Word and Czechmatediary write about the warning issued by the Czech health minister; here's a quote from a Czechmatediary‘s post:
[…] For now the Czechs have enough of the anti-viral medicine for about 2.2 million people which is sufficient for about 20% of the Czech population. The Minister of Health, Daniela Filipova, warned citizens not to buy out all of the protective masks as well as the Tamiflu medicine which, if overused, can cause a resistance of the virus to the other otherwise helpful antiviral agents. […]
Lituanica writes about something of a swine flu-related pharmaceutical emergency in Lithuania:
As the Lietuvos Rytas daily writes stocks of anti-viral drugs costing more than 100 litas (EUR 29) have been swept out of Vilnius pharmacies, although the medication is only sold on prescription. Pharmaceutical companies believe this is due to the threat of swine influenza pandemic. […]
Streetwise Professor writes about the Russian authorities’ decision to send “all passengers arriving in Russia from the United States or Mexico” through “contact-free heat sensor” to test their temperatures:
[…] Whew.  Glad there’s a “contact free” test.  When I read the first paragraph, I had a vision of a Russian Nurse Ratched standing at the end of the jetway in Sheremetyevo with a thermometer, and NOT one of those nice little electronic oral ones, if you know what I mean.
Uhm, I mean a temperature may be a necessary condition for swine flu, but it’s hardly a sufficient condition.  My 15 year old had a fever last week.  Pretty sure it wasn’t the swine flu.  Talk about a test tailor-made for false positives.  In other words, a complete waste of resources with virtually no prospect of any benefit.  Unless the whole idea is to discourage foreign tourists, and to deter Russians from traveling abroad. […]
Streetwise Professor also writes about import restrictions on “uncooked pork from Mexico, California, Texas and Kansas” imposed by the Russian authorities:
[…] Russia has routinely used health justifications to ban imports of agricultural products that compete with domestic producers.  This just seems another transparently opportunistic attempt to exploit health fears to engage in protectionism. […]
In the comments section to this post, some of the readers compare Russia's response to the measures taken in other countries.
Leopolis writes that “Russia's WTO accession my be first casualty” of swine flu:
[…] Over the past year, Russia has failed to ‘relist’ 34 US pork processing, production and storage facilities – effectively rendering around half of all US pork production ineligible for export to Russia. On April 8, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) called on the Obama administration to decelerate Russia’s WTO accession until it began to “play by the rules and stop its blatant actions to restrict US pork.”
Until this week, Russia has not been able to identify any health or sanitary reasons for blocking US meat imports – the requirement for justifying the block as per its 2006 bilateral WTO obligations. The ineptly named swine flu now presents a reason for Russia to approve US meat facilities on a plant-by-plant basis – actions inconsistent with the WTO’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement requiring WTO signatories to recognize equally standards in other countries. […]
Sean's Russia Blog reports on the alleged discovery of the first two swine flu cases in Russia – both in passengers who arrived from New York City – and writes about other geopolitical dimensions of the emergency:
[…] Interestingly, in Russia doctors call the virus, which has damned the good name of the pig the world over, “California 0409.”  That should make pigs feel better, but what of the sensitivities of us Californians?
[…]
Mexico as epicenter has of course inspired our American xenophobes into a fury of anti-immigrant hate.  Fox News has predictably led the anti-immigrant charge with accusations that illness is part of some kind of viral conspiracy against America.  It is only a matter of time they follow the Israelis in adopting “Mexican flu.” […]


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China: Blogged down with swine flu · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Kai Pan at CNReviews traces how China, despite having so far kept H1N1 from reaching the mainland, has still managed to end up at the center of a number of blog posts regarding the epidemic.


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China: Journal entries from summer 1989 · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Philip J. Cunningham at Frontier International continues his series of posts tracking the day-to-day developments from this time twenty years ago, during his time as a journalist in Beijing, and updates today with an old journal entry and photos of a lunch with Hou Dejian, among others.


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China: Not subsidizing Expo 2010 · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Adam Minter at Shanghai Scrap is having trouble getting answers to why the United States government is having trouble getting its pavilion together for Expo 2010, but he has nonetheless had some success at piecing the back story together.


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Georgia: Public discontent and political strategies · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Social Science in the Caucasus comments on the relatively low turnout at opposition rallies in Tbilisi, Georgia. The blog notes that while discontent with the government is high, that does not mean the majority of Georgians support the opposition. In fact, the analytical blog argues, many are instead undecided and the opposition has failed to formulate an appropriate strategy which appeals to them.


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Guyana: Advertising Issue · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The new Banks beer commercials in Guyana have blogger Imran Khan incensed: “What does it say about a company which foists upon a nation an advertisement lecturing to the citizenry that we should all guzzle alcoholic beverages because it builds the nation?”


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Guyana: Press Freedom Ranking  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As mainstream media sources (and a regional blog) report that Guyana's press freedom ranking has improved, Signifyin’ Guyana says: “Well, in a region with Mexico and some of the other Spanish-speaking countries where there's an outright war on the press (so to speak), it's easy to see why Guyana government's lift on a ridiculous boycott…can be seen as a relatively free press environment.”


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Haiti, Dominican Republic: Enough  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

In the wake of an alleged reprisal killing in which a Haitian man was beheaded in Santo Domingo, blogger Wadner Pierre says: “Our government must use this case to put an end to the targeting of Haitians in the DR once and for all.”


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India: Analysis of Elections – Phase 3 & Phase 4  · Global Voices
Rezwan

Offstumped published an analysis of the 3rd and 4th phases of Indian Elections 2009.


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India: Low Cost Airlines Performing Well · Global Voices
Rezwan

Rajesh Jain at Emergic comments on the performance of the low cost airlines of India: “the air travel experience is now much more consumer-friendly.”


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Jamaica: A Sensible Tax  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamaica's Yardflex.com is overjoyed that “smokers and drinkers will now have to shoulder the bulk of the taxation measures intended to plug the hole in the government's budget.”


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Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago: Poetry Picks  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp features the poems of Trinidadian author Jennifer Rahim.


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Japan: Japanese electro-pop and clubs · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

If you are interested in “Tokyo & Japan's clubs, electro-pop, and Shibuya-kei-related scenes”, check out Chipple.net (in English): a “Japanese music, movie release and event announcement blog”.

author: Scilla Alecci


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Jordan: Message to Saudis  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Jordanian blogger Hareega shares his thoughts on Saudi Arabia's underage brides in this post.


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Jordan: Queen Rania on Twitter  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan is now on Twitter. Catch up with her tweets here.


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Kenya: Responsible Tourism in Maasai Villages · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A video from Joseph about responsible tourism in Maasai villages. F

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Kuwait: Election Drama, Filthy Clinics and Domestic Abuse · Global Voices
Amer Al-Hilal

Salutations from Kuwait! Amer Al-Hilal here with another round-up from the Kuwaiti blogosphere, ranging from posts concerning after shocks of Swine Flu, to embarrassing official printing gaffes, to the humanitarian plight of the domestic workers and much more.
We start off with the popular blog 4th Ring Road  which mocks the religious ‘Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation’ for neglecting their English copy before publicly printing thousands of documents with the embarrassing gaffe: ‘Kuwait Awqaf Pubic Foundation.’
Since its election time, various bloggers such as Jelly Belly Nonsense visit candidate headquarters to soak in the political rhetoric. However, her visit to candidate Dr. Abdulla Al-Turaiji's tent left her offended at what transpired. In a post entitled ‘Jelly Belly and the Elections‘ she states:
Last night I went to Dr. Abdullah Al-Turiji with my cousin and it was her first experience as well… everything was going well until this guy who is apparently a presenter in Scope TV [whose name is] Anwar Malallah showed up… anyways they brought up the issue of the citizenship/aljenseya… he started talking about Kuwaiti men marrying non-Kuwaitis and stealing the men from Kuwaiti women and how these “foreigners” are taking their rights by being Kuwaitis themselves and how their children may turn out different because of this marriage! At this point I looked at my cousin and we were both VERY ANGRY… if you don't know this already my mom was Bahraini and I said was because she has the Kuwaiti citizenship now and she had it for the past 30 years and my cousin mom is American but she chose to keep her American citizenship and never got the Kuwaiti but that's not the issue here the issue was how this asshole was basically attacking our moms!!
248am‘s Mark (who just returned from a trip to Amsterdam) was subjected to a Swine Flu checkup on arrival at Kuwait Airport (‘Back From The Clinic‘) and was told to validate his health papers with a local clinic the following day:
I passed by the Salmiya clinic in the morning to get the H1N1 flu paper I got from the airport signed. It was my first time there and I have to say the place is disgusting. Can’t believe that’s actually a medical center, it looks more like a big kitchen or bathroom. I even found a big dead bug on a dirty and stained floor, gross! Anyway went to the proper department where this woman with a really large book took down my name and travel information. She asked me if I was sick, I told her no so she told me to come back on Sunday and that was it.
Moving on to human rights issues, conscientious blogger q8sws in a moving post called ‘Numbers‘ highlights the plight of domestic workers in Kuwait:
I've talked with people who work with abused domestic helpers in their embassies and I was able to get a rough estimate on the numbers we are dealing with: 80 maids at the Ethiopian embassy (embassy already full and now turning away runaways);400 maids at the Indonesian Embassy, 100 – 300 maids at the Philippines Embassy (it fluctuates pretty often), 300 at the Sri Lankan embassy.
I also know that Indian embassy officials dragged out a crying and pleading Indian woman from the embassy in plain sight of everyone, who was claiming abuse, and telling her that was not the place for her to go. These numbers are obviously not accurate down to the last person – they are rough estimates. And I can tell you that these ladies are not all happy and healthy. Having personally been to the Philippines embassy myself, I was devastated to see women lined up from corner to corner in a basement room, taking up every available space.
A human being is not a number. Every single person deserves to be treated as a special, unique individual. But even when dealing with numbers, please remember that these are only runaways that make it to the embassy. There are more like these in the hospitals, in their employer's homes, in the jails and deportation centre, hiding out illegally somewhere in Kuwait, forced into prostitution and of course – in the morgue.
Lastly, moving on to technology A Puddle Of Red alludes to Endgadget‘s article's concerning Cablevision offering 101 Mps speed in NY and parts of the East Coast for only $99 a month stating that in Kuwait “you can't even get 256K for that price“.

author: Amer Al-Hilal


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Malaysia: “Demonizing” the new Prime Minister · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Malaysia's former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, criticizes the Western media for “demonizing” the country's new Prime Minister


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Mozambique: Portable Apps in Mozambique · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Writing about Mozambique, David notes that “USB drives” or “Memory sticks” are an incredibly handy way for people with limited resources to get their toe in the door of the technological world.


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Myanmar: Rogue Wind Blasted through Mandalay City · Global Voices
tan

MgHla wrote that on May 6, 2009, a rogue wind blasted through Mandalay, the third capital city of Myanmar.
Photo from the blog of MgHla
He wrote:
“After I attended a seminar, I came back to the office around 4pm. On the way, I saw that there was a whirlwind of wind, and there were a lot of dust.  Not soon after I had reached the office, around 4:30pm, the wind became stronger, and it also started to rain. Probably because the wind was too strong, the rain was not coming down from above, but going side-ways. It was very noisy also. Thankfully, it only lasted about 30 minutes. If it had gone on for about 3 or 4 hours, it would have been like being in Nargis cyclone. When I came back from work, I saw the billboard on the corner of 80th St. & 35th St. on the ground. I heard that the backside of a car was also crushed under the billboard, but when I passed near there, the car was not there anymore. A signboard advertising engine oil became wrinkled at the corners. Small billboards on 35th St. railroad overpass also either fell or broke. It is time for the Municipal to check the integrity of the billboards. They should scrutinize the permits being handed out to erect billboards over our heads….”
The quote mentioned in the post is a translation done by the author. The original quote is written in Burmese language.

author: tan


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Online campaign for Laos · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Library for Laos is an online campaign to raise funds for children’s books in rural Laos.


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Philippines: City Hall on fire · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A city councilor in the Philippines blogs about the fire accident which damaged her office and several parts of the city hall complex.


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Russia: Authorities Embrace Skype · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Profy writes about one of the implications of the Russian authorities’ discovery of Skype: “Another problem here is that Russian authorities are known for their corrupt practices so it is no wonder that Russian people are already wondering if they will have to bribe the officials via Webmoney – a popular Russian analog of PayPal – instead of passing cash under the table at a face-to-face meeting.”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: Microsoft’s Investments · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Profy reports that “Microsoft is going to invest as much as $300 million to the Russian market within the next 3 years.”


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St. Lucia, Jamaica: Indian Arrival Day  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Repeating Islands blogs about the celebration of Indian Arrival Day in St. Lucia & Jamaica.


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Syria: Just Say Sorry  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Syrian blogger Omar, who is based in Canada, wonders what would have happened had Osama bin Laden apologised after the September 11 attacks: “[O]ver 100 Afghani civilians died in an accidental “strike” (a soft word for bombing).  What does Clinton do? Well she apologizes, she just release a statement saying that she’s “deeply, deeply sorry.”  That should patch things up with family members who are left grieving over their loved ones.”

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Talking to Jamaican writer and blogger Marlon James · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Jamaican writer Marlon James
Marlon James was born in Jamaica in 1970. His first novel, John Crow's Devil (2005), was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His second novel, The Book of Night Women — described by one reviewer as “both beautifully written and devastating” — was published in February 2009. James now lives in the United States, where he is a professor of literature and creative writing at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.
James is also a blogger. Since May 2006 he has posted occasional ruminations on books, music, movies, politics, and society at Marlon James, Among Other Things. The New York-based litblogger Maud Newton recently interviewed Marlon about his new book. Soon after, I also did an email interview with him, focusing this time on his blogging activity. Here is an edited version of our conversation.
Nicholas Laughlin: In a recent blog post you criticised “elitist” anti-Internet writers who scorn blogs. Do you actually run into a lot of those? These days it seems like everybody's blogging, and even mainstream publications like the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, etc. have blogs, podcasts, and twitter feeds. Where and wherefore is the vein of resistance to online media?
Marlon James: Anti-Internet scorn? Where to find it? In the literati itself. Some of it is good-natured ribbing, but a lot of it is a basic belief that the Internet simply cannot be the meeting space for solid intellectual thought and engagement. This has led to feuds before — I'm thinking of the stupid hissy fit that writers at N+1 magazine stirred up over blogs like The Elegant Variation a few years ago.
I'm the biggest believer in the permanence and the importance of the book, but literature existed before it and it will exist after it. We tend to think that because the Internet is an inevitability, everybody is online and nobody has any issues with it, but people still look at the Internet as the bogeyman waiting to happen. It's where old pedophiles lure out young girls or boys. It's destroying reading. It has made up a quick-fix culture (and here I thought it was quick fixes that caused that). That said, the Internet has degraded common knowledge to a matter of opinion, or at least whatever has just been posted on Wikipedia. All these concerns may be true, but this was once said about the novel, radio, and TV.
This doesn't mean everybody should start blogging. One thing that afflicts this online confession culture is that many of us have very little to say, but are dead set on saying it. But so many of us have things that need to be said, and the Internet is the only place where those voices can be heard.
NL: Do you feel your blog has widened the audience for your fiction?
MJ: I’m not really sure. My friend Don Lee is convinced that my blog persona is a completely different person. A creative writing teacher told me once that my literary persona is a far better writer. At one point there were people who knew me as a blogger, and nothing else. I started blogging because there were so many things to get off my chest that fiction could not convey. In particular, stuff about how we live today. Maybe I was also too lazy to find a job with a magazine. I have very little desire to confess anything, nor do I come alive only when there is an audience. I'm not even sure that people read what I write. In some ways my blog is a clearing-house for my thoughts. In other ways, it's a dress rehearsal for what I really want to write.
NL: How is writing for your blog different to, say, writing a short essay for a print publication? Do you have a different approach, intent, voice when you write for online publication? Does the medium matter? Is there material you would not write about were it not for your blog?
MJ: My blog posts are very much searches, me writing towards finding what I really want to say. For some reason that feels more natural in a blog format, the act of getting my s**t together. In print, my post about “The Bigots On My Bookshelf” would seem unformed and slightly inconclusive, but online it seems like what it is, my going through a process. I had no idea at the beginning of that article how it would have ended.
I might be wrong, but I've always felt that with print I should at least know what I'm supposed to write before I write it. Or at least have a driving idea. I’m also more likely to write a blog post purely out of rage, with no concern for rationality — exposing a raw nerve, you could say. None of my writing is that far removed from how I speak, but blog posts are probably the closest. This may come as a shock to some who think I walk around burdened by heavy thoughts, when all I’m thinking of is how to get the new Buffy comic. Speaking of Buffy, I also use blogs to riff on pretty much everything BUT literature. There’s more to life than books, after all. Not much more, but still….
NL: Which might be another way of asking: do you think of your blog as a literary work?
MJ: No. A searching exercise, yes. A playground for thoughts to grow, certainly. My amateur attempts at journalism, probably. Storage for essays, more often than not. But I’m probably alone in thinking that art is better cooked than raw, and my blogs tend to be raw.
NL: Have you ever thought of using the blog medium or form to write a fictional work?
MJ: Now we enter into where I am a Luddite. A good story is a good story regardless of medium, but I wonder sometimes who does this? Blog fiction is loaded with as many pitfalls as self-published fiction. Certainly there is good work out there, but there is also, as far as I have seen, bad work held together by the hubris of the author, or put another way, work that probably would not be published.
Blogs, like self-published work, do reveal more often that they should how essential good editors are. Genius can come from everywhere, but it’s hard to find it when a huge percentage of this stuff is just writers defecating online. I’m sure those are fighting words. But it’s sort of like the beauty queen stereotype. Sure it’s dismissive and offensive to assume that all beauty queens are stupid. But why do I keep meeting only the stupid ones?
NL: Which literary blogs do you read regularly? Do you follow the very small Caribbean literary blogosphere, or feel that it's a community you belong to?
MJ: This aspect of the blogosphere I’m interested in very much. The building of community. Binyavanga Wainaina spoke about this at a 2007 PEN conference, and I’ve referred to it before; him saying that it was the Internet that built the community of contemporary African writers. A group base, that not only spoke truth to power but was also too physically scattered, too elusive yet palpable and too easily accessible for the powers that be to stop it.
Caribbean authors are so scattered and apart for all sorts of reasons, coming together once a year for the Calabash Literary Festival [in Jamaica]. I don’t know if we’ll ever get our Paris, but we could come together online. I’m not sure what that means exactly, but I do believe that writers need community, for moral support if nothing else. I never felt more alone than when I was writing my first book. That said, I read Guyana Gyal, Long Bench, Geoffrey Philp’s blog, Active Voice, and a whole bunch of other blogs that I can’t remember. Or I just go to Global Voices and they point me to where I need to go.
NL: Which Caribbean writers would you like to see blogging?
MJ: V.S. Naipaul clearly has s**t he needs to deal with. Maybe if he got more stuff out online he would save us from him dropping it all over his work. I’m just saying.

author: Nicholas Laughlin


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Trinidad & Tobago: Lack of Integrity  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Somehow I don’t feel a self-confessed, under-pressure, serial plagiarist should be allowed to even come within 1000-feet of a member of the Integrity Commission much less chair it”: This Beach Called Life thinks that Trinidad and Tobago's “new Integrity Commission is even worse than the last”, while B.C. Pires asks: “As with governments, do countries get Integrity Commissions they deserve?”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Ukraine, Germany: Interior Minister’s Drunken Brawl · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Foreign Notes and Ukrainiana (here and here) report on Ukrainian interior minister Yuri Lutsenko's drunken brawl at Frankfurt airport.


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Armenia: Banned TV station resumes broadcasting… via mobile · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Writing on the Frontline Club blog, Global Voices Online's Caucasus editor comments on a new service introduced this week by the banned pro-opposition TV station A1 Plus to offer video news services via mobile. The entry also looks at the larger issue of alternative voices going online to circumvent government attempts to control the media and freedom of expression.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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China: Four Great Rivers Conservation · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Asia Society's China Green project has produced a video explaining the eco-conservation project at four great rivers region in China.

author: Oiwan Lam


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East Timor: From sighs to steps forward with the use of the Internet · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

Being willing to listen what bloggers are talking about, Global Voices faces big challenges to cover the blogospheres of regions where people are not using citizen media. That is the case of East Timor, where there are many Internet connectivity problems which make blogging very difficult. But what are the challenges that bloggers from East Timor face when uploading content to the Internet? And what are the projects, nonetheless, arising in the Timorese blogosphere?
It is common to hear Timorese bloggers sighing at their inability to post as often as they would like to. Ângela Carrascalão, a blogger and news correspondent for the popular Portuguese newspaper Público, started her blog [pt] in 2006 and today still regrets the obstacles she finds while writing for the Web.
Está lenta, muito lenta a Internet. Enervantemente lenta! A lentidão não se prende todavia com o calor intenso que é normal nesta altura do ano, é  a razão lógica de ser da nossa indolência e nos tolhe os movimentos…
The same author makes an interesting point about the real need for Internet access in a country where there is a lack of almost everything:
Nos distritos do interior não há Internet. Poderia ser simples dizer isto e com isso concluir que estamos mal, que somos um país subdesenvolvido. Mas, que importa que não haja Internet, se ali, no Timor profundo, falta tudo, ou quase tudo?
There is no doubt that the Internet plays an important role in providing communication channels as well as education to isolated areas. Presumably due to the actual delay concerning Internet technologies in the country,  later this year the Government will launch an amusing solution based on the broadcast of pedagogical television shows [pt]. This system is not innovative, as it was common in Europe in the 80’s, but it apparently provides a fitting solution for the absence of infrastructures that East Timor still faces, 10 years after the special autonomy referendum was held.
Nevertheless, more and more initiatives are appearing willing to act on economical development through the use of online communication tools for trade. One example is the Peace Dividend Trust, a non-profit foundation dedicated to the “support of long-term economic recovery by increasing the purchase of goods and services available in the country”.
Photo by Peace Dividend Trust Timor Leste, used with permision
One of the Peace Dividend Trust projects in East Timor is a Procurement Database that aims to “identify goods and services” and “to work with local businesses specifically to facilitate the process of switching to local suppliers […] that can reliably meet the operational needs of international agencies”.
Their website provides a powerful search tool where visitors can look through 26 different businesses categories in all the districts of East Timor. Through this, it is possible to find quite thorough information about each formal business, concerning the type of activity, services and products available, contacts, references and other useful information. It also supports an interface for people to provide feedback about each business. Buy in Timor exceeded 2,000 entries in March 2009, becoming a unique reference concerning local economy and the private sector development and entrepreneurship. The following blog post from the end of March 2009 reported:
To date 50.05% of visits have come from users inside Timor-Leste, 13.37% from Australia, 7.80% from Singapore, and 6.48% from Indonesia. (see graphic above)
There are now 2,013 unique business profiles online and the job of verifying further new businesses in Dili and the districts continues.
The Timor-Leste Procurement Database has had 43,435 hits in just 10 months. These hits have been generated by 8,272 separate visits. The website is designed to connect institutional and individual buyers (both inside and outside Timor-Leste) with domestic suppliers.
The above quote is taken from one of several blogs that have been recently launched by Peace Dividend Trust Building Markets project in East Timor. These blogs provide up to date information while enhancing new ways to “Buy locally, rebuild markets, employ young men and increase the stability of post-conflict and fragile states”. One of the most active blogs is Serbisu Iha Timor-Leste / Jobs in Timor-Leste [te].
Ema hot-hotu bele uza blog ida ne'e atu hare Vaga Serbisu iha Timor-Leste no atu buka informasaun kona ba serbisu iha Timor-Leste laran e liur.
Photo by Peace Dividend Trust Timor Leste, used with permision
Through the Building Markets project, a big diversity of  businesses are promoted in different blogs. The  Carpinteria Sanders [en], for example, is a blog to support a new carpentry furniture supplier from Dili. Diverse woodwork is presented at Manu-Koko, a group of artisans that make carvings from Mahogany, Teak, Mangrove, and Saria. It is also possible to find real estate sources, such as Aluga Uma Timor which aggregates several rental opportunities all over the country and Itimuran, for eco-accommodation on Atauro island. Cheap Car Dili posts information on cars for rent, and Diamond Workshop tells the story of  a vehicle repair and maintenance business.
The Procurement Database project addresses the international community as the main consumer of the local services which are being promoted online, and reportedly it reaches many people in the country. The other part of the challenge ahead is to get local people – the national community – involved, both as consumers and also as content managers for those blogs.
In fact, not many initiatives are known to empower Timorese people, especially from rural areas, through online technologies. Therefore communication, trade and education in the first person through these media still has a long way to go in East Timor.
***
This is the last piece in a series of posts to celebrate the existence of the Internet in East Timor and to draw attention to the current situation. The first article explained the huge digital divide in the country, while in the second one Jen Hughes was interviewed, explaining how she founded Suai Media Space, whose main objective is to make the voices of Suai youth heard all over the world.

author: Sara Moreira


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Ecuador: Local News from Cuenca Absent from National Newspapers · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Esteban Mendieta wonders why news from the Ecuadorian city of Cuenca rarely makes the national newspapers [es], such as the important long distance running race “Las Cruces” that is celebrating its 45th edition. Much of the coverage is devoted to the larger cities of Quito and Guayaquil


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Ecuador: Municipal Palace of Guayaquil · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

La Plegaria de un Pagano [es] provides a historical overview of the of the Municipal Palace in Guayaquil, Ecuador, which was constructed 70 years ago.


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Indonesia: Battle over Intellectual Property Rights · Global Voices
Juke Carolina

Recently, the US Trade Representative (USTR) released its annnual Special 301, an analysis on US trading partners’ seriousness to reassert the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) within their respective judicial soils.
Despite government's effort to crackdown IPR hijacking activities, the USTR placed Indonesia in Priority Watch List, alongside IPR violator heavy weights such as China and Russia.
The slipping of Indonesia's status from Watch List to Priority Black List was considered a slap on the face by Indonesian officials.
Quoted by The Jakarta Globe through Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu, the state said it is concerned for Indonesia's downranking.
From time to time, the national police destroys massive amount of pirated CDs in public and this is paraded by the  local media.
In the capital Jakarta, pirated DVDs and CDs are omnipresent. The “sidewalk retailers” can be found every 50 meters in popular hangouts in Central and West Jakarta.
William on his blog Etersoul agrees that Indonesia should remain on the blacklist.
Lalu bagaimana tanggapanku sendiri? Aku sendiri akan mengatakan dengan lantang SETUJU!!
Mengapa sampai aku bisa mengatakan hal ini? Realita di lapangan memang menunjukkan kalau orang-orang di Indonesia ga menghargai karya yang dibuat oleh orang lain, mungkin karena miskin kreatifitas atau memang pengen maju dengan cara yang instan. Tapi untuk miskin kreatifitas aku sendiri merasa ga terlalu benar, karena toh banyak anak bangsa yang akhirnya bisa membawa negara ini menjadi lebih terkenal dalam hal yang positif.
[…]
Biarpun polisi bertindak untuk memberantas obat-obat palsu, DVD bajakan, atau bahkan sampai merambah ke dunia maya dengan menangkap para plagiarist artikel, tetap saja ga akan efektif selama di otak orang-orang yang hidup di negara ini hanya cara instan saja yang terpikirkan. What a shame.
[…]
Despite the police's effort to tackle piracy of medicines, DVD, and even as their effort branched out to the virtual world where they try to stop online article plagiarizers, their work will not be effective as long as they put in their mind (how to benefit themselves with) the easiest ways possible.  What a shame.
Creativesimo, a local community blog, speaks about the irony of this downranking:
Selamat buat Indonesia! Setelah merilis undang-undang informasi dan transaksi elektronik menyusul undang-undang hak atas kekayaan intelektual, lalu disusul beberapa penggrebekan sporadis – baik sekadar proyek ataupun serius – Indonesia mendapat ganjaran. Peringkatnya naik dalam daftar hitam pembajakan software, kalo dulu Watch List sekarang Priority Watch List. Huebat!
Indonesia sekarang sekelas dengan Rusia dan China dalam hal pembajakan. Tetapi: apakah pencapaian teknologi informasi kita sama dengan mereka? Jelas kalah jauh! Lalu mengapa yang kita perangi adalah pembajakan dan bukannya kebodohan atau ketinggalan
Indonesia is now on the same class with Russia and China in terms of intellectual rights violation. But: do we have the same IT achievements like them? Obviously we're left way behind! So why are we fighting the (IPR) violations instead of fighting the lack of education or our (education) lag?
Government's willingness to eradicate IPR piracy is shown with the establishement of Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights under the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Republic Of Indonesia. However, the police's knowledge to detect illegal softwares is still poor [id].
This May mark the launch of  Indonesia's first Intellectual Property Academy. The school, which located in in Depok, West Java, is founded in collaboration with the Japanese government, through Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

author: Juke Carolina


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Iran:A presidential candidate launches internet TV · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Mir Hussein Mousavi, former Prime Minister, launches an internet TV in Iran's presidential election battle.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Japan: For the Price of a Plane Ticket…? · Global Voices
Tomomi Sasaki

Recently, an initiative by the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare offering to cover the travel expenses for unemployed nikkei nationals who wish to return to their home countries has been causing a stir. The offered amount is 300,000 JPY ($3,000) plus 200,000 JPY ($2,000) for each dependent; the government will pay for the plane tickets and wire the rest of the money in U.S. dollars once the recipient(s) have returned home. In return, they lose eligibility to reenter Japan on a nikkei status of residence for a ‘certain amount of time’. Officials are unclear on how long a time this will be, just one of the reasons that have left this initiative open to a flood of criticism.
Many Japanese bloggers are using the word ‘severance pay’ when taking up this topic. For example, Kaoru Domoto at Harem Journal read a widely referred to article in the New York Times and said:
実はタイムズの記事を読んでからネットで日本の記事を探し、「帰国支援金」という言葉を見て、さらに驚いた。英文記事には「支援」に相当する言葉はなかったのだ。だってこれ、「支援金」じゃなくて「手切れ金」でしょうが。
Debito Arudou goes further and calls it ‘a repatriation bribe‘:
This scheme only applies to nikkei, not to other non-Japanese workers also here at Japan’s invitation. Thus it’s the ultimate failure of a “returnee visa” regime founded upon racist paradigms.
[…]
Don’t treat foreigners like toxic waste, sending them overseas for somebody else to deal with, and don’t detoxify our society under the same race-based paradigms that got us into this situation in the first place. You brought this upon yourselves through a labor policy that ignored immigration and assimilation. Now deal with it here, in Japan, by helping non-Japanese residents of whatever background make Japan their home.
Lenzabile approves of this comment by the Mayor of Hamamatsu City as convincing and practical criticism: “We need to put our heads together and come up with ideas, such as allowing reentry once recipients have repaid their travel expenses”. S/he worries that:
もちろん少子高齢化時代において移民問題は重要ですが、個別案件を安易に「移民を積極的に導入すべきか？」という問いの賛否に結びつけると、目の前の懸案事項をどうするかの問題（日系人の困窮、生活保護の問題、政府の財政、帰国希望者の存在等）が霞んだり、無用の対立を生んでしまう気がしてなりません。
Local municipalities and Hello Work Offices job centers have been holding briefing sessions for the proposal. The blogger at Libertad attended one in Nagoya:
愛知県内では、豊田に４００人、豊橋に400人集まって関心の高さをうかがわせましたが、名古屋は何と170人しか参加しなかった。僕自身、そのうちの名古屋の説明会に１７日、参加してみました。ふだんはコンサートで使われるセンチュリーホールがお通夜のように重苦しい雰囲気に包まれていました。仕方ないのだけれど、ブラジル人のような普段陽気な人たちの集まりなのに、実に静かで暗いのです。檀上の厚労省の人と通訳が一方的に進める説明会にはあまり反応がなく、ロビーでは、当日の受付係りのブラジル人通訳が何人もいて、手持無沙汰にしている姿が実に印象的でした。
Ja Fui Gata, from Nagoya, doesn't like the idea of the sound of the proposal, and says the situation is worrying:
Acho esse plano de ajuda um presente de grego. Afinal, o que fica patente e que o governo japones quer se ver livre dos nikkeis, esquecendo que ha 100 anos o Brasil acolheu muitos japoneses num momento de crise neste pais (primeiramente 781 pessoas) . Muitos estao inconformados com a situacao. Apesar de saber que o governo japones tem feito algo para ajudar neste momento de crise, vejo essa oferta com muita desconfianca. O que sera que o brasileiro tem feito de ruim nesta terra para ser tao rechacado?
* Read a previous Global Voices article that covers the history of nikkei Brazilians in Japan that Ja Fui Gata mentions: Japan, Brazil: A centenary of Japanese Immigration to Brazil.
Kurati, who lives in Gifu Prefecture, observes that “Japan will never be again that dekassegui (guest laborers) paradise”. He says returning home is just one option among others:
Quem ta proximo da miseria ,tem mais e que pegar essa ajuda e sair fora. Quem ta aguentando a situacao,continue forte e se adeque a nova realidade do arquipelago.Ja vi muitos brasileiros reclamando da vida na agencia publica,mas a realidade e dura em qualquer lugar do mundo.As empresas escolhem quem quiserem.Onde que no Brasil,uma empresa empregaria um cara que e analfabeto,e por vezes mal conhece o idioma?Pois e aqui tb e assim.Nao era assim antes porque a economia ia de vento em popa,e as empresas contratavam gente ate pra girar manivela.Agora,o Japao esta na merda,mas pelo menos tem dinheiro em caixa,e vai gastar esse dinheiro fazendo remendos no pais..

author: Tomomi Sasaki


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Russia: Gas Pipeline Blast in Moscow · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Russian bloggers are posting photos of the fire caused by a gas pipeline blast in Moscow a few hours ago: LJ user buchwurm, LJ user goodwine, LJ user principiale, LJ user maroot, LJ user volland. A YouTube video by HorseWhispererRF is here.


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Sri Lanka: Unbowed and Unafraid · Global Voices
Rezwan

ICT For Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace) informs that a new Sri Lankan website named “Unbowed and Unafraid” – has been launched today, which “aims to continue the spirit of investigative journalism of the slain Editor of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunge.”

author: Rezwan


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Taiwan: Labors protested against unemployment on Labor Day · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

Chaotang took some photos on Labor Day showing the protest against unemployment. David had an article describing why the labors gathered.

author: I-fan Lin


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Taiwan: Lessons in diplomacy · Global Voices
David Reid

The Far-Eastern Sweet Potato reviews the book Nixon and Mao: The week that changed the world. He says the book offers lessons for the US and Taiwan in their current diplomacy with China.

author: David Reid


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Azerbaijan: Bloggers, Global Voices Online author reportedly detained in Baku · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Frontline Club blogger and Global Voices Online author Ali S. Novruzov has reportedly been detained in Baku as the Azerbaijani capital prepared for a planned youth demonstration. Tweets from a reliable source report that at least one other blogger was also detained along with the head of the National Democratic Institute in Azerbaijan, but that they were simply walking on the streets. Updates in the comments section of this post.


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Bahrain: An Alcohol Ban – And Then? · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Bahraini blogger The Dude fears for the consequences of an alcohol ban, as proposed by Bahrain's MPs.

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Bahrain: Telecom Mafia · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Bahraini blogger Funaki believes there is a new kind of mafia in Bahrain – the telecommunications companies who provide Internet services.