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Bahrain: Meet the Bloggers! · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Thursday 2 August saw the 31st gathering of Bahrain's bloggers, and instead of giving you a summary of blog posts this week, I'm going to introduce you to the bloggers who attended the gathering this month.
We have to start with Mahmood Al Yousif, who organises the monthly get-togethers, and is of course Bahrain's ‘blogfather’. Mahmood's current blog, Mahmood's Den, has been in existence since April 2003, but he has had a number of sites over the years, and his first foray into online communication was very early:
I am fascinated by computers and their potential. Especially communication and how that marriage can bring disparate peoples together. I started one of the first BBS (bulletin board service) in the Gulf in ‘86. Called it Stray Cats BBS and proceeded to commandeer my wife’s monthly salary to pay the telephone company! I put a stop to that in ‘91 I think much to my wife’s happiness!
Mahmood says his philosophy is to keep things simple, and to enjoy what he's doing. He writes about everything, and he feels his liberal views strike a chord with people who don't always feel able to speak out. His site certainly is popular, with visitors from all over the world; Mahmood's Den has up to 10 000 unique visitors a day. (You can see the site statistics for 2006 here.)
Our next blogger is Ashish Gorde, whose blog is called Eureka Express. Ashish started Eureka Express in December 2004, as a venue for his personal reflections, and with the intention of developing and showcasing his creative writing. However after a while it became a place where he could ‘rant’ about issues that concerned him. Ashish also feels his blog gives him an opportunity to try to work out his identity, as an expatriate born and brought up in Bahrain.
H. started his current blog, The Straight Forward Times, about a year ago (though he is another pioneer – he first blogged on Xanga, from 1999). At first he focused on reporting on public issues, but then his blog became more personal at a time when his life was undergoing many changes. These days he has lost the urge to discuss public affairs; he still has opinions, but doesn't feel the need to let off steam about politics anymore.
Butterfly began her blog in November 2006. Her blog, هذيان الحروف (Hallucination of Letters) is in Arabic, and she attracts readers from all over the Arab world. Her blog is a place for her observations and thoughts; she writes about a variety of topics, about anything that interests her, though her posts tend to be more about cultural issues than political matters.
Gardens of Sand is a Bahraini based in the USA, and she started her blog in 2006. She says she writes about anything that stirs her – ‘that makes me either happy or sad’ – whether it is trivial or great. She writes in English, but sometimes posts material from elsewhere in Arabic.
Eyad began his blog in 2005, simply called Eyad's (though it is subtitled Eyad, who used to be Human – and he calls himself Eyad the Great). He covers any issue that touches him, tending towards the political. He recommends his most recent post, entitled One United Bahrain in My Office.
Three other people were present at our meeting: The Joker, who no longer writes, but has something up his sleeve to be revealed very soon; Tariq Khonji, a former journalist who is also taking a break from writing, and yours truly, bint battuta in bahrain.
The monthly blog meetings are being moved to Saturday mornings, to allow people who cannot make it on Thursday evenings to attend. So in future we hope to be able to report on much larger meetings, and introduce you to even more of Bahrain's bloggers.

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Barbados: Crop Over Marred by Crashes · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Crop Over is one of Barbados’ most beloved festivals.  Lasting about five weeks and designed to celebrate the end of the local sugar cane harvest, its Carnival-like atmosphere culminates with The Grand Kadooment – a parade in which large throngs of elaborately costumed revelers depict a variety of themes and basically have a great time at this all-day street party.
But the event that grabbed Crop Over headlines this year was not the opening gala or the Pic-O-De-Crop calypso competition.  It was the terrible bus crash that claimed the lives of six Barbadians as they made their way to the Party Monarch Finals.  The nation was suddenly thrust into mourning and Barbadian bloggers have been extremely vocal about it…
Barbados Free Press offered its condolences to the victims’ families and linked to an online report which gave details of the accident and printed the names of the deceased.  Barbados Underground linked to the same story, adding:
“We have some strong views on how this matter was handled yesterday; but we appreciate that it is the morning after and continues to be a very sensitive time for the family and the country.”
BU then issued this caveat:
“For those readers who do not want to read about our initial views which we will elaborate on at a future date you can stop reading HERE.”
The blog then goes on to say:
“We want to state for the record that Minister Dale Marshall should relax a little. This is not a time to score cheap political points…The Party Monarch Finals on the East Coast should have been canceled. Some novel way of splitting the prize money among on the performers could have been done. BU is abolutely sure that patrons would have understood. People in and out of Barbados would have understood.”
Cheese on Bread also had a few questions:
“Do the officials at the Ministry of Public Works drive around Barbados? Can't they spot potential road hazards just like the rest of us mere mortals? Why does it appear as if people have to die before the relevant authorities improve certain roads?”
Bajegirl  posted an online poll to determine how many people were of the opinion that the Party Monarch Finals should have been canceled once news of the accident broke.
Notes From The Margin was full of praise for Barbados’ emergency services, “for showing amazing grace under inhuman pressure”:
“Most persons do not know that Barbados has a very detailed, very well thought out system for dealing with mass casualty events. In the recent past it has been used most frequently for accidents involving ZR’s. Sunday was by far the most serious incident that it has been used for…I’m particularly impressed that a review process is being automatically done with a debriefing of the participants, and that counselling has been put into place for not just the victims but the first responders as well.”
As Barbadians the world over turned to the internet for information on the tragedy, Barbados Free Press noted that “as a matter of sad record, today has seen the highest number of visitors that BFP has ever had in one 24-hour period”:
“We point these statistics out with no joy or sense of accomplishment because, of course, we wish today had never happened the way it did – but the visitor statistics are an indication of the interest and concern shown by folks everywhere.  All of us at BFP hope that the families and friends who are suffering at this moment can take some small comfort in knowing that the entire Bajan family at home and around the world is praying for them and sharing in their troubles.”
The blog also asked the question: “When will it be appropriate to ask ‘What Went Wrong?'”:
“Even families in the midst of tragedy are torn between their need of privacy and comfort with loved ones – and their realisation that if they don’t demand accountability, there may be none.  Injected into all this is a reality that many…have doubts about the integrity of some in the police and the government. This lack of trust in our public officials makes things more difficult for everyone, even the police and public officials who are earnestly and honestly attempting to bring order and provide answers so that this never happens again.  Some of our readers are already discussing possible causes, and some are being very quick – way too quick – to assign various levels of blame to named persons or the government.”
Living in Barbados suggests that accidents like these are “a common cost of fast development”:
“Barbados is made up mainly of narrow roads, and some of the driving that I have seen is totally out of keeping with an essentially rural environment, with vehicles being driven more like racing cars, especially buses.  My hope is that Barbadians learn from the spread of this problem in other Caribbean countries and work hard to avoid such tragedies becoming common place.”
Barbados Underground was critical of the fact that “the Barbados Labour Party Blog or their official website is in no rush to extend condolences via the online medium”:
“We acknowledge that they would have communicated sympathy in the traditional ways but at a time when technology makes the Internet a more effective tool in a communications plan, it speaks volumes for where we are as a people given our reluctance to use what is without a doubt the most effective and efficient means to communicate a message.”
To add fuel to the fire of controversy, Barbados Free Press broke the news that journalists at the scene of the crash were allegedly assaulted by members of the police force.  This was soon followed by a post that claimed the police “might have been a wee bit hasty in destroying what would have been extremely useful evidence in reconstructing the accident scene”:
“You see, the Nation News journalist had taken photos that no one else took – not even the police – and in all the efforts to remove the living and the dead no one else took photos of the bus and the scene exactly as it was at that time.  Only Culbard’s photos had those original details, and the police destroyed them.  I simply long for a professional police force that sees respect for the rule of law as their highest duty and enforces it uniformly across our entire population.”
Notes From the Margin, on learning that the Nation News filed a complaint with the police department, says:
“There would seem to be the need for a clear policy on how the police/journalist interactions should take place in these events. It is unrealistic to believe that the press will not be present at a mass casualty situation. It is unrealistic to believe that they will not try to cover the event. While the victims have a right to dignity and privacy, there is the issue of freedom of the press and the right of the public to know. With the lack of a consistent policy on this matter, we will continue to see stories like this in the media.”
Another story like that did hit the media a few days later, when an Emancipation Day crash killed four family members.  Barbados Free Press:
“My friends, I am lost for words. It has been a rough day…my faith sometimes wears very thin.”
Living in Barbados could say nothing more than:
“I have no particular comment at this time, other than a sense of numbness when I look at the result of the crash in the form of the overturned vehicle. Again, my sympathies go to the families and friends who are now grieving. It has been a brutal few days on this island.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Harijaka sumarizes TED Talks in French · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

For all you francophones out there, Harijaka (Fr) is posting French summaries of the recently released videos from the June 2007 TED Global Conference in Arusha, Tanzania.  He's summarized Euvin Naidoo‘s opening address and George Ayittey on Africans taking responsibility for, and finding solutions to, African problems.

author: Jennifer Brea


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Hundreds of bloggers support jailed students in Iran · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

A group of Iranian bloggers have started a movement to remember and create awareness about several university students that have been arrested in recent months, including three who are still in prison. The idea for the campaign is to rename as many blogs as possible to “August the 5th” (14th of Mordad in the Iranian calendar).
The detainees’ families say the students — all in their early 20s — have been subjected to physical and psychological pressure ranging from verbal abuse to beatings with cables. It seems their worst charges are insulting the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic and inciting public opinion.
August 5th, 2007
According to the  14mordad blog, this date is:
The 101-st anniversary of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution. But Iranian people still struggle for democracy and student activists are still sent to jails.
In support and memory of our fellow activists, some of whom are bloggers as well, a group of Iranian bloggers will change their blog titles on August the 5th to “August 5th: The day of support for jailed Iranian students”. We invite you, even as a non-Iranian blogger, to participate in this cause. You can join by sending us e-mail to 14.mordad@gmail.com
The blog says 397 bloggers have already announced their support to this initiative and more will join in next days.
Hamid City who supports this initiative has also published the photos of jailed student activists and some other political prisoners. The blogger suggests [Fa] that each person should encourage ten of his/her friends to join.
Mir remarks [Fa] that after 101 years after Constitutional Revolution, Evin Prison is still full of the brave children of Iran.
Fardayekvatan says [Fa] let’s write about justice and democracy and jailed students. Maybe each of us can become a candle in the heart of the desert.
Ganji calls for support
Akbar Ganji, journalist and a former political prisoner asks people to support jailed students in an open letter. Kamangir writes:
Akbar Ganji, the respectable political activist who spent over five years behind the bars, has written an open letter to Iranians asking for their help to release the imprisoned Iranian students from prisons. Remembering his days in solitary confinement and reminding everyone of the crimes the Islamic Republic has committed under the name of holiness, he writes “women rights’ groups and labor syndicates receive support from abroad because there are related organizations everywhere. Students, on the other hand, do not have a counterpart in the West and are more vulnerable.”
Islamist bloggers vs. Iranian TV
There are other bloggers who are busy with other issues. Several islamist bloggers have recently criticised Iranian national TV. One of main reasons is that about two weeks ago, Iranian TV anchor Farzad Hasani grilled police chief Sardar Radan on the mistreatment of women in latest crackdown.
Abdeto says [Fa],  that anchors and their guests do not respect real Islamic dress code although they are on national media where people from different social classes watch them. It becomes worse everyday, says the blogger. Their way of dressing can influence millions of people and it becomes a fashion very soon. The blogger says the anchor tried to make chief police nervous.
Agahii writes [Fa] we consider national TV an instrument to educate our children with revolutionary values but by looking at films and series that are encouraging comfortable life and becoming wealthy I have a real doubt that TV works in this way. It needs to change. How can this organization hire anchors who do not respect Islamic rules? The blogger adds he is surprised to hear so much western music on Iranian radio.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran:Watch Farshid Mesghali’s sculptures · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Homeyra introduces us to Farshid Mesghali's creations. He has recently won the Icograda – International council of graphic design associations – Achievement Award in Tehran.


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Kenya: Why political parties have failed Kenyans · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Emily discusses party politics in Kenya, “The question to ask is whether Kenya’s politics has truly ever had any roots in political parties. This has not been the case for a number of reasons. One, illiteracy and widespread poverty is a great curse that has prevented true democratic Party practices from taking root.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Malawi: Street that stinks · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ndagha wonders who is responsible for cleaning up streets in Lilongwe, Malawi: “I went to Lilongwe Old Town where there are generally lots of banks. The site is not as impressive as the inside of the beautiful buildings. I am not sure who is responsible for cleaning up.”


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Nigeria: In defence of the Nigerian Super Blog · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Pokenosing defends the Nigerian Super Blog: “As a new comer, I personally think Naija Super Blog is a good thing and the administrators of Naija Live deserves some credit for their initiative, the Naija Super Blog displaying the whole content of a person’s blog page does not reduce the amount of visitors/clicks you get on your site but on the contrary, it motivates a person to visit the full page of the  authors’ blog ………. but anyway I still stay don’t be offended to the likes of David and Akin (though they are not asking me for it), as this issue has made me an addict of their blog pages.”
Follow the summary of the whole debate here.


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Russia: Notes From Irkutsk and Poronaysk · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Siberia-born photographer and blogger Oleg Klimov, who has been traveling across Russia since June 23 and whose sketch about the Baikal-Amur Mainline was translated for Global Voices here, wrote this (RUS) about his native land and its people when he reached Irkutsk in early July:
([Lake Baikal]). The landscape is almost like in [Sochi], only the atmosphere is different and the water is cold. In July, the mist is making its way to the shore of the “lake-sea” in thin ribbons that resemble cigarette smoke. An incredibly “live” sight. Sometimes it feels as if Baikal is breathing.
[…]
They respectfully call all those who came from beyond [the Urals] “Rossiyane” [the term that is normally used to denote all citizens of the Russian Federation, regardless of their ethnic or other backgrounds], and all those who are from closer locations – “Sibiryaki” [Siberians]. It's not that the locals take special pride in their origin, but more likely, they treat it ironically, and they express their respectful attitude to zauraltsy [those from beyond the Urals] because deep inside, at some genetic level, they feel that Siberia is not Russia.
According to our theory, the “Siberian mentality” has been formed as a result of enormous mixing of peoples and nations, as well as repressions, exiles, historical settlements, harsh nature and just an irrevocable love for freedom. […]
[…]
People here are surprisingly open-minded. Almost everyone you run into is ready to tell you the story of his or her life… People don't turn aggressive here when you start circling around them with your camera; more often they begin to smile and only ask what the hell you're doing there… and when you explain to them, you almost always hear this in reply: “Well, come on, take pictures of me!” By that point, it is often not interesting anymore, and so I just end up chatting with them “about life in general”… The problem is that I enjoy chatting and traveling no less than I love photography ;-)
Roughly half a month after he posted this Siberian update in his travelogue, Klimov was already on the island of Sakhalin, in the town of Poronaysk. Below are some of his observations from that remote place (RUS):
- Hey, bro! Where are you from?
– From Moscow.
– Give me a cigarette, bro…
– And where are you from?
– From [Kyrgyzstan]. Came here to catch fish.
– And how is it?
– They don't give us good jobs. They say you should go fishing to [Lake Issyk-Kul in eastern Kyrgyzstan]. Here I can only cut fish. Little money, much work…
[…]
It smells like fish and caviar here. Everything smells like it. The town smells this way from the year it was founded, in 1947. Porridge, meat, bread – all smell like fish. [People] smell like fish. Along the coast, there are fish corpses, cut-up and rotten, with caviar already extracted from them, and they make the whole town smell like fish. People here are like fish themselves and if you get married here, you'll smell like fish for the rest of your life and will [sleep] with fish. There's only one prospect here – to rot on the shore or to [generate caviar] and then rot anyway.
[…]
In Poronaysk, red fish is bought from poachers (who are called fishermen here) for 3 rubles [$0.12] apiece, and red caviar for 100 rubles ($4) per liter. If a fisherman doesn't have a car, he just throws the fish away and puts caviar into a bottle. Right at the shore, you can exchange half a liter of vodka for one liter of caviar. Then you can drink it together with the fisherman and follow up with caviar. Russian business is good business.
[…]
Gastarbeiters [migrant workers] are disliked here as much as they are disliked in Moscow. They get the lowest-paying and the hardest jobs in fish processing. They are often cheated by various “agencies” – which first get the money for the tickets and the “tax”, then take them to the island [of Sakhalin] and desert them there… “the agency's representatives disappear… and after that people are forced to work for what little they are paid in order to return home.
[…]

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Senegal to raise airport tax · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

Blog politique au Senegal questions the wisdom of the government's plan to increase the airport tax (Fr) when most tourists come to Senegal, not in search of the country's unique culture, but for a cheaply-priced tropical getaway.


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China: Lost names of the brick kiln slaves · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Following up on the horrific brick kiln slave scandal from earlier this summer, one journalist blogger has launched an online campaign to find the names and whereabouts of the more than three hundred freed kiln slaves the government failed to release, and to correct the faulty details on the small list that was made public. Joel Martinsen at Chinese media news blog Danwei has translated the background to the campaign, noting that it is being strongly supported by many independent bloggers and progressive journalists [zh].

author: John Kennedy


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Iran:A photo of Female Communist Fighters · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Thanks to Nasiri, we can see some of Alain Keler‘s photos of first days of Islamic Revolution.First one shows female communist fighters with their guns.


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Afghanistan: Hostage crisis · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Mohammad Fahim Khairy translates passages of an article by local Afghan media claiming that four female Korean hostages have been sexually assaulted by their kidnappers.

author: Ben Paarmann


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Afghanistan: Relevant or not? · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Afghanistanica develops two arguments: One that says that Afghanistan's importance is exaggerated and the other which argues that the country should not be forgotten.


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Afghanistan: Six years on · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Six years after its invasion of Afghanistan, the United States has announced it will curb aid to the war-torn country. Bonnie Boyd thinks this does not make much sense at all; and Joshua Foust again disagrees with The Economist, arguing that things in Afghanistan are not as bad as they have been for much of the past thirty years.


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Argentina: Cristina Kirchner and the Classmate Laptop · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Pablo Mancini [ES] writes about the recent photo where Presidential candidate Cristina Kirchner appears at a table with a Classmate laptop in front of her.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Argentina: Following the Impacts of Mining · Global Voices
Jorge Gobbi

Mine exploitation in Argentina has been controversial for decades. While this kind of activity is presented as economically positive, many populations strongly oppose it due to its environmental impact. In many cases, the start of mining projects in the region has raised reasonable suspicion of connivance between the local political power and transnational companies. In these negotiations, the possibility of large profits was quite an incentive to ignore the will of local populations that oppose these kinds of economic activities. Since 2003, the blog Oro Sucio [ES] follows the topic of mine exploitation and its political and environmental impact. Luis Claps, who maintains the blog, is also the spanish Editor of Mines & Communities Network. He has a degree in Communications Sciences from the Universidad de Buenos Aires. He's part of the Asamblea Patagonica contra la Contaminacion y el Saqueo (Patagonic Assembly against Pollution and Plunder), the Union de Asambleas Ciudadanas (UAC) and the Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictos Mineros (Latin American Mining Conflicts Observatory), and has participated in many forums and reunions of communities affected by the mining industry in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Equator. He lives in the patagonic region of Puerto Madryn, Chubut province, Argentina.
In this recent interview, Claps discusses his interest in this field and how his blog draws attention to the impacts of mining.
Global Voices: How, where, and when did you come up with the project? What reasons triggered the interest in working with this topic?
Luis Claps: Oro Sucio was created in the middle of 2003. We'd been closely following the struggle of Esquel against the Canadian mining company, Meridian Gold.  We had been working on our thesis for the communications degree at the University of Buenos Aires.  The topic was precisely on this case, so we had a lot of material. We decided to make use of this material, publish it, and somehow fill part of the hole that the local and national press left in regards to the this mining issue. We perceived there was good work there and that it was a space where we could be useful as advanced communications students and future professionals.
GV: In the blog there are several articles by many authors and from many locations in Argentina. How do you contact them or organize this coverage?
LC: To attempt to provide full coverage of all the mining conflicts is almost impossible. We make a quite heterogeneous and sporadic selection of material, since the site doesn't update on a determined regular basis, but rather whenever we can. We publish documents that are the result of collective fieldwork. Also, we keep in contact with many people and organizations that work in this problem in  Argentina and other countries as well. Of all the amount of information around, we try to ultimately publish the least visible cases, and what we feel needs our support. And also, every now and then, some informs of our own or from trustworthy colleagues.
GV: The topic of mining usually leads to important mobilizations in many Argentinean locations, but these are poorly covered by the big media. What do you think are the causes?
LC: We believe the causes are diverse, and that each case has a particular mix of circumstances. There's a big dependence on official advertising guidelines, especially in the regional media, and this discourages a deeper coverage. There's a logic in the journalistic activity that forces the press to constantly jump from one topic to the other. There's straightforward censorship and strong pressure, in many cases. But there's more: the Venezuelan mogul Gustavo Cisneros (owner of Caracol Television, I-Sat, Space, Radio Disney, just to mention a few media) is part of the Barrick Gold Corporation's board of directors, one of the world's most powerful mining companies. So, there's many issues. But the assemblies and popular movements know all of this perfectly, and they go out to manage their own press coverage and intervene in the media's agenda. And they do it quite well. There are moments when the collectively accumulated information  (in an autonomous, patient, word-of-mouth kind of way) reaches a level where it's no longer possible to restrain, not even by the big media. When this happens, even the politicians assume a speech that adjusts to the community's arguments, and they try to capitalize or domesticate the problem. On the other side, there are colleagues that work by advising mining companies to develop “crisis management” strategies.
GV: One of the most present topics in mine exploitation is the relation between political power and the companies.  Could you cite cases in which the people's mobilization and the media coverage definitely stopped projects that would've affected the environment?
LC: For communities potentially affected by mining projects, there are only partial victories, there are no definite triumphs. In our country, there were very important advances: in Esquel the Meridian Gold project was stopped; in Ingeniero Jacobacci, it was the Calcatreu project from Aquiline Resources; in Mendoza, a law that prohibits the use of toxics in open sky mining was recently approved; in La Rioja, Barrick Gold announced that it's leaving Cordon del Farnatina because a similar law that was approved and the neighbors had cut the access route to the project for over four months!
In these cases, there was a lot of work from all available fronts: communication media, legal actions, public manifestations, legal modifications, etc. But Meridian Gold still has its office in Esquel, and last year, it started taking legal actions against four neighbors and two local journalists. Aquiline Resources continues exploration works in the south line of Rion Negro, while it tries to “modify the province's political conditions” (as we read in the press releases from Toronto), and as if something was missing, Carlos Menem is a candidate for governor in La Rioja, with some possibilities to win the elections next August. So, unfortunately, the threats are still there. Just like political power, capital also recycles, changes faces,  returns, straightens, and goes straight to the attack.
GV: What are the topics that are most covered in Oro Sucio, by specific problems or location?
LC: We cover a little what happens in the Patagonia, which is our area. And mostly it's two lines: resistance to mining project and the mining companies’ strategies facing this resistance. We understand that mining mega projects operate on many different levels: political, legal, social, environmental, and economic. We try to identify the particular aspect on these levels, in the framework of a more general or global outlok. Another issue that interests us is the connection of the different experiences of the struggle, many of which involves the company itself: for instance, Barrick Gold operates in San Juan and La Rioja (Argentina), Valles del Huasco (Chile), Ancash (and other regions in Peru), Nueva Gales del Sur (Australia), Marinduque (Philippines), USA, Tanzania, Papua Nueva Guinea… How can information be exchanged in solidarity among those affected around the world?
GV: Could you mention other sites that cover similar problems?
LC: Yes, there are many other sites. In spanish: the one from the Asamblea de Vecinos Autoconvocados por el NO A LA MINA de Esquel [ES] and the Coordinadora de Asambleas Ciudadanos por la Vida de La Rioja [ES]. There are sites for specific campaigns such as No a Pascua Lama [ES] or the global protest against Barrick. You can also check the site of the Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictos Mineros [ES], the Confederación de Comunidades del Perú Afectadas por la Minería [ES], or the OLCA de Chile [ES]. The DECOIN [ES] site covers the long conflict between Íntag's communities and the Canadian company Ascendant Copper in Ecuador. In the English language, there's the Mines and Communities Website, and many sites of organizations such as Mining Watch Canada.

author: Jorge Gobbi


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Armenia: Buying underwear · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Nareg shares his experience of how difficult buying underwear can be in Armenia.


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Armenia: Election update · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Onnik Krikorian provides a comprehensive update of new developments in the run-up to next year's presidential elections in Armenia, including the opposition's inability to rectify past mistakes.


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Bangladesh: Floods and Crisis · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Rezwan on the floods in Bangladesh, and the resilience of the flood affected.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago: Hindu Temple Desecrated · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Religious tolerance is one of the major factors that differentiates civilized people from the barbaric,” says Barbados Free Press, on learning that six masked men are allegedly responsible for desecrating one of Trinidad's most cherished Hindu temples.


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China and South Korea: China’s pride offended · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Some pet shop in Yongin City (in South Korea) had made a photoshoped version of Tiananmen gate that used a picture of a dog instead of Chairman Mao — the issue then turned into an international affair as China's pride claimed to be offended –More from R Elign, Marmot's Hole.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Blogger goes to court · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Back in late February, bridge blogger I, Yee wrote a post on the plight of Yetaai, an open source programmer in Shanghai who had noticed that a website of his had been blocked. Yetaai did some tests and discovered the problem originated within the China Telecom network, so he phoned them up and was told the problem was “irreversible”. What China Telecom wouldn't do was put that in writing, so he did some more tests, got them notarized, and took China Telecom to court.
“Robust personal accounting with function of double entry booking, e-billing, tax processing, budgeting, and foreign currency ex rate revaluation,” is the description of the open source private accounting software his website, now hosted on SourceForge, provides.
With his numbers of supporters growing, a court date had originally been set for May 29, but on the day before the first hearing, the judge announced the trial would be postponed. On Friday, August 3, Yetaai's first hearing was held; here‘s what he wrote afterwards:
8月3日的第一次开庭
庭审纪实
一审之前
可能一直关注本案的网友还记得法院对一审本来的排期是5月29日，后来延期了。
6月18日，我到新的公司报到，案子输赢不能掌控，就算赢了也不能当饭吃，生活还必须得继续。
7月11日，到北京出差，参加一个ERP系统实施项目，预计十月结束。项目经理是个老外，和我的沟通很不错，我也希望能帮到他。
7月27日礼拜五下午约两点：打电话给法官，他确认法院正在排期，应该是在8月3日礼拜五。
7月30日礼拜一约10点：收到李立律师的通知，法院的传票已经到达，定于定于2007年08月03日上午09时00分在上海市浦东新区丁香路 611号本部第三法庭开庭审理。下午收到了新传票的扫描复印件。考虑到项目正在集成测试，三个顾问要应付三十个用户，就决定让律师单独参加庭审算了。
8月1日礼拜三下午1点，突然接到李立的电话，称法庭上需要所有的证据的原始件。它们现在在我酒店的文件箱里！
晚上7点，宅急送的快递员冒雨到达，我十分不放心的将原始件交给了他。他告诉我，最迟将在8月3日送达，我说那我就死定了。请他特别关照，我愿意付加急费。小伙子笑了，不收，说我们会特别关照的，一定明天送到。付小费，不收。看着他冒着大雨骑自行车离去，我心酸得厉害，小伙子本人是在加班吧。我还心慌得厉害，他有一个商业承诺，但是不知道他的公司是否能兑现。回到房间，静坐了大概一个小时，终于下定决心，返回上海参加庭审。同时拨通快递小伙的电话，要求退货，不料他说快递已经上车了，正在前往飞机场的途中。
8月2日请好假。通知李立，我将出庭。他建议我们8：30在法庭门口碰头，再简单交流一下。晚上搭乘飞机晚点，预定7点起飞的飞机到9点才开始登机，夜里十一点半，飞机飞抵虹桥，十二点多踏进家门。
8月3日早7点11分，接到李立的短消息，说快递已经送到。起床，早饭时看到儿子，想起”The Insider”中Jeffery Wigand希望他的女儿能看到他的揭发烟草公司的电视节目。轻轻叹了一声气。我是想带儿子去旁听法庭，不过，老婆不同意，不希望儿子接触这种她所谓劳命伤财的事情。媒体？我的口哨声也不错，不过还是省省吧！
8月3日早7点30分，老婆还是开车送我去法院，然后她将去上班。“从这里拐弯”，我提醒她，老婆猛地把车停到了我说的车道。“都是你，旁边的车道都绿灯了。”“这边挺好走的。”老婆闷声不吭。“旁边座的那个家伙怎么那么可恨，又要天天和他打交道。无论他怎么笑，我都看着来气！恨不得给他一耳光，以后凡是都得听我的。”老婆听着这个HIPHOP，终于笑了。停车，kiss，飞吻，我爱你。
庭审
发了一个短信谢谢快递员小伙，他回答我他为能向我提供服务很快乐。
法院大门口认识了维基百科的苑明理先生特地赶来旁听此次庭审，他很支持我们的做法。
9：00整，法官打开了第三法庭的大门。终于见到了电信的两名代表。
蔡东辉法官很年轻，审判长和人民陪审员介绍时没有来得及记下名字，书记员钱丽莹。两名电信的代表名字似乎叫乐迎伟和王向东。乐是一个很漂亮的年轻女士，王是一个个高偏瘦的先生。法官轮流介绍时，我试图和每个人都微笑一下，除了蔡法官外，没有得到回应。大约介绍完毕时，我注意到有了第二个旁听者，很有精神头的一个年轻人，我也冲他笑一下，他回应我一个持续了几秒中的盯视。我猜他是电信一方的。庭审结束时，他和乐王两位一起默默交谈了一会。不过，直到他走时也没有再给我们一个眼神。
辩论的过程主要是蔡法官宣读程序，审判长掌握节奏，也会提一些问题，比如什么是代理服务器等等，李立和乐小姐主辨，我有时候会做一点补充，主要是一些事实的细节。我方的要求主要是被告修复故障，说明故障的原因，并赔偿一些费用，如公证，上网费等。律师费虽然相对较高，但赔偿律师费的要求因为我方事先准备不充分，当庭放弃了。由于对于双方对于身份和服务合同的认定都没有异议。辩论的主要焦点很快就集中到如下两点。
1. 不能访问网站的现象是否在服务现场（我租赁的ADSL线路终端介入地点）发生了。原告的主要证据是公证书和送达对方法定代表人的公证函。公证书是在公证处的办公室对其电脑上网进行的一系列操作的记录。公证函描述了原告碰到问题后，向电信服务中心报修的电话和对其“非回复性原因”的答复不满意的投诉。被告承认收到了报修电话和公证函。承认没有对公证函回复。被告认为，公证书记录的行为地址不在服务现场，要求认定无效。进而认为，公证函的内容和本案无关，因此没有回复我的公证函。我方认为，公证处也是通过上海电信的互联网宽带接入，（这一点在公证书中并未明确说明，但对方也未反驳，不过我在做公证的时候询问过公证员，确实如此，同时他们使用ADSL直接接入，没有通过公司网络。即便对方反驳，我方也有其他辅助性证据，因为公证书的访问结果的一个屏幕拷贝是电信的广告页面，而且包含情欲挑逗性质的照片。），按照互联网的公众理解，在不同的接入点访问同样的URL应该获得同样的结果，否则，应该是接入点进行了操纵。考虑到公证处的公信力，和本案电话申诉的细节，应认定原告陈述的事实属实。
2. 这一现象是否应该作为故障由电信处理，换句话说，按照双方合同约定的服务此现象是否应该由电信承担责任。如果承担，承担什么样的责任。原告要求对方对此的责任包括修复，或说明原因，对被告原先所给的“非回复性原因”，原告不能认可。被告提交了原告上网的记录，同时声称电信已经将原告的设备连接到互联网，证明这一通道连通，服务并无瑕疵。其服务仅限于连通这一通道。我方认为，对方提供的通道没有按照原告的要求从互联网上获取真实的信息，而是提供了一个虚假的广告性页面。这一通道不符合公众对互联网的常识性认知，又没有对用户进行事先告知。违反了其合约要求符合公众常识的规定。
具体辩论的过程比较繁琐，以后拿到庭审记录会张贴到此处的。
事后，李立律师对我说，他希望我本案能胜诉，中国的网友好运。但由于干扰本案判决的外部原因太多，牵扯的时间精力也太多，如果一审输掉的化，他不能再帮我打二审。我感觉他还是一个能力很强的律师，对业务很精通，互联网背景也很强。但缺少媒体和大众的支持，和我一起堂佶科德式的对抗强大的官僚机构，我也不能太强求他。
送走李立，致电蔡东辉法官，询问他的一些看法，他表示目前还不太方便透露。同时他认为本案的一审宣判将会很快到来。但刚才李立律师告诉我，高院规定的期限是六个月。我不是太在意判决的快慢，我只需要一个公平的正义。但没有公众的压力，现在的法庭会进步到正确判决本案吗？也许我应该反过来期望法庭的胜诉能唤起公众对正义和平等的期望。我想我还是赶紧回家亲亲老婆吧，她还有很多地方等着我去寻找亲昵，真正的快乐！哪怕我是一个下等人？


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Colombia: Mask Making and New Media · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Juliana Rincón Parra unveils the work of Taller Santo Domingo [ES], which was a workshop in the city of Medellín where students made masks and incorporated the use of new media.


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El Salvador: Declaring Romero a Saint · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Tim Muth of Tim El Salvador's Blog links to two recent stories, which helps explain the politics behind whether slain Archbishop Oscar Romero will be declared a saint.


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Global Voices is seeking a Video Editor · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Global Voices is seeking to hire a Video Editor.
THE JOB: The Video Editor will be responsible for keeping track of online citizen-produced video from throughout the world and selecting clips to be featured and contextualized in articles on the Global Voices web site 2-3 times per week. The Video Editor will work closely with the rest of the Global Voices editorial staff (managing, regional and language editors), and will also be expected to attend regular online editorial meetings.
As GV is a virtual organization, the Video Editor will not be expected to relocate. Regular access to high-speed internet connectivity will, however, be a key factor in being able to carry out this job.
THE REQUIREMENTS: Our ideal candidate has an international outlook and solid experience in blogging and online citizens’ media with a special emphasis on online video. Solid English-language writing editing skills are a must, but a strong familiarity with the current tools, web sites and trends in online video worldwide is important. S/he has the ability to work independently and responsibly with only remote supervision.
Ideally, s/he will have the ability to read and write well in at least one language other than English and have a working knowledge of other languages. Preference will be given to candidates from outside the United States and Western Europe.
To apply, please send your CV and a letter of interest to editor@globalvoicesonline.org. The application deadline is Friday August 24, 2007.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Hong Kong: Assassination of our past · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Young and handsome movie star Daniel Wu wrote in his blog about his feelings on the clearance of Queen's pier for demolition: As the last of the protesters were dragged away by police from Queen’s Pier Tuesday night, I could not help but feel emotions of sorrow, to anger, to helplessness. Hong Kong is losing its heritage, its history and its sense of self. We are stuck with a government that believes economics can solve everything but they are sorely wrong.


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India: Amby Car · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

An icon on the roads, the Ambassador car turns 50 years old. More at Sepia Mutiny.


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India: Being a Soldier · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Blogeswari remembers a poignant moment when she witnessed a coffin being taken on board a flight during the Kargil War, and spares a thought for the armed forces.


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India: Sainath and Objectivity · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

P Sainath, a journalist known for his work on rural India is awarded the Magsaysay award. The Vantage Point on Sainath's work, and the notion of objectivity.


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Iran:528 bloggers support jailed students · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

14 Mordad reports that 528 bloggers have announced their support for jailed student activists.


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Iran:Asian basketball · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Razeno informs[Fa] that for the first time Iranian basketball team won Asian basketball championship.The blogger says basketball is less popular than football in Iran and it is a reason why,politicians, are not interested in that.The blogger adds basketball team is lucky that politicians do not put their nose in its business as they do with football.


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Iran:Government shutdown a leading journal · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Zannevesht reports [Fa] that Shargh,a leading pro reform journal was banned by government. The journal was accused of interviewing a homosexual poet.


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Iran:Soheil Assefi,a journalist and a blogger,arrested · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

According to media and RSF,Soheil Assefi, a blogger and a journalist,was arrested yesterday. In his blog,he has asked government to free Mansour Osanlou,a syndicate leader.He has also published a painting of,Bijan Jansani, a late Marxist leader.


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Jamaica: Message from the Heart · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“If we continue to dish out evil for evil and bitter for bitter then the world will never be a better place. There are good men and women behind bars no matter what their circumstances are.”  Norris Gordon at The Inmate Diaries sends a message from the heart.


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Jamaica: On Race  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“To talk about race is to be seen as racist”: Antilles blog quotes Jamaican-born author Nalo Hopkinson.


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Japan: 3D animation from photos · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Edo from Pink tentacle blogs the new technology of motion portrait: Motion Portrait is a killer little piece of digital animation technology that easily transforms an ordinary digital photograph of a face into a living 3D animation that can blink and move its eyes, turn its gaze to follow the movement of the mouse cursor, express a range of emotions, sneeze and more — all in a matter of seconds.


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Japan: More signs of Abe’s end · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Japan Observer has some analysis of the implications of recent upper house election in Japan, including: international politics, in particular anti terrorism special measures law; signs that show Abe's final defeat.
Besides, there are two letters written by Japan NGOs on the political implication of the UH election result at interlocals.net.


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Kazakhstan: Election (and Cycling) Races · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Adam of neweurasia came up with series of posts dedicated to the ongoing election campaign. It is comparatively calm this time, with no flagrant cases of arrests, attacks or murders of opposition members or seizures of independent newspapers as it was during the 2005 presidential campaign.
However, irregularities still take place abundantly. Adam writes about claims of the opposition at early stages of the campaign, and also on quite smart techniques employed by the authorities for attracting loyal foreign observers and for positive information coverage of the elections in the West. The opposition, in turn, tries to recruit support from owners of right-hand drive vehicles.
Ehot, a LiveJournal blogger, criticizes the opposition: “The real statesmen must have deeper insights into how the mechanisms shall work, not simply generate slogans” (RUS). Sav-age objects in the comment section: “Let the opposition make mistakes, learn by them, grow and get stronger. I am against unlimited power limited to one person”.
Weathercock, a Kazakhstani living in Australia, is a pessimist: “There is no opposition in Kazakhstan, as well as separation of powers, independent press etc etc” (RUS). Meanwhile, the opinion polls show that the opposition Social Democratic Party has all chances to win at least 20%, running in closely after the ruling “Nur Otan” party.
Count-asylum, referring to a discussion on the ZonaKz forum, comments on shady manipulations in an interactive poll on the official website of “Nur-Otan”. After the counter showed that the Social Democrats would win over the party in power, the results were bluntly annulled. “Even Internet voting cannot go without fraud”, he jokes bitterly (RUS).
A-strekoza is bored with the campaign: “‘Nur-Otan’ held an Open Doors Day, which was a complete circus. The discussion was about petty larcenies in condos and miseries of an old lady getting stuck in a lift regularly. The latter was accompanied by tears. I wonder, did she get extra payment for that?”
Hackuna  from Ekibastuz (Central Kazakhstan) is unhappy with the political consultants, with whom he was unfortunate enough to deal recently: “They are totally inadequate, but they make good money now without any stress whatsoever. They can work for 22 candidates simultaneosly and render several minutes a day to each. Just make a fuss and intimidate a candidate with possible provocations – and he is wholly yours” (RUS).
However, the blogosphere's attention to votes and elections is not only limited to the parliament. KZBlog informs about interactive contest to vote for the sexiest CIS President. “The poll is led by V. Putin. Nazarbayev only got 0.9% of the votes, putting him last except for Rakhmon (Tajikistan) and Karimov (Uzbekistan)”. Wondernews is bewildered by another piece of news – a Kazakhstani girl who won Grand Prix during a striptease dance contest: “I don't know whether it's good or bad news. But Borat should definitely make use of it”, he says (RUS).
James of neweurasia reacts on a recent article of an American expert that claims that autocracies are allegedly more successful in promoting economic growth. “Economic growth for economic growth’s sake misses the point. More important are questions about the nature of the economic growth and whom it benefits”, he stresses. In another piece he reviews the perspectives of Kazakhstan's bid for OSCE chairmanship, saying that “the recent reforms to Kazakhstan’s constitution, however, have basically ensured that the OSCE leadership will look like a bunch of hypocrites should Kazakhstan get what it wants”.
Derek, an author who kept a close eye on the trial of the American businessman Mark Seidenfeld in Kazakhstan, was glad to inform that the court cleared the defendant of all charges. However, ARNA, a company for which Seidenfeld used to work and where he allegedly misused funds, protested against the court decision and is intent to challenge it in higher instances (RUS).
Registan features a post on the envonmental catastrophe on Balkhash Lake (Central Kazakhstan), which is threatened by water diversion projects in China. “It seems the lake faces many threats beyond China’s internal colonization and ill-conceived water projects. The copper factories of the nearby towns have apparently so poisoned the land grass no longer grows”.
The community of bloggers from Almaty featured a poll on how do the people manage with the lack of money. Apparently, most Kazakhstanis prefer to borrow money from friends and relatives, or from the employer, and only 23 per cent are ready to take credit from a bank (RUS).
Steve Le Vine shares fresh rumors on the so-called Rakhatgate, the affair of ex-ambassador to Austria and former son-in-law of President Nazarbayev, Rakhat Aliyev. He fell in disgrace after a number of accusations brought forward against him by the Kazakh law enforcement bodies and currently awaits his extradition, which Astana expects to happen in August. “The word is that Aliyev… has met with U.S. Justice Department lawyers in Vienna. The subject: his possible testimony in the upcoming foreign bribery trial of James Giffen”, he says.
But the “Aliev Affair” was well overshadowed by the doping scandal during the Tour de France, a premiere world cycling event. The leader of “Team Astana”, the most promising breakthrough of the season sponsored by the Kazakh government, was disqualified from the race after alleged blood transfusion.  Ben of neweurasia comments: “Astana’s display during the fifteen stages has not been very conducive to Kazakhstan’s image: Known as “Team Borat”, it was protected by muscley bodyguards, it never signed the official Anti-Doping statement, and was keeping communication with the press at a bare minimum”.
The Kazakhstani blogosphere was furious, many bloggers believing that the scandal was a set-up provocation. “French cyclists rallied against doping, while their bosses literally “buried” Vinokurov in their interviews. The saddest thing is to read that organizers of the race don't want this or that cyclist to become a winner”, writes xxrock. Mkaa is very upset: “Disgusting and mean. It is a clear provocation of the French” (RUS). The kazakhstan community on LiveJournal even tried to stage a flash-mob in support of Vinokurov and Team Astana, who, in the opinion of milis-kz became “the victims of arbitrariness and insinuations of the race administrators and anti-doping officials”.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Kyrgyzstan: SCO summit · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Kyrgyz Report reports that the guest houses built to host the heads of states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) have been finished, dearly costing the average taxpayer. Meanwhile, Mirsulzhan Namazaliev lists several of the strange and silly regulations put in place to ensure the SCO summit will proceed smoothly.


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Maldives: Secret Haven for Pedophiles · Global Voices
Nihan Zafar

Maldivian bloggers are expressing outrage over the prevalence of child sexual abuse in the country and the lack of firm action by the government to address the issue.
Maldives has been rocked by the news of four rapists receiving a light sentence after a judge decided that because the raped girl did not shout or scream, it meant she gave consent. Moreover the rapists were banished to another island community where they could go on preying. In another incident a girl studying at a high school alleged that her mathematics teacher sexually harassed her during a tuition session. The school administration tried to downplay the incident and the foreign teacher was allowed to leave the country before an investigation was conducted.
In a separate incident several girls from the remote island of Goidhoo alleged that their Koran teacher who is also the Imam of the island molested them. After a short investigation the Imam was allowed to return to the community.
Maldives Health blog has discussed the issue here.
This is it. Again. They have accepted it before. It has happened again. This time a twelve year old girl has been found to have “consented” for having sex with the god damn rapists. Just because she did not scream does not mean she consented. This is fu….. ridiculous. Angers me. A twelve year old girl will be so freaking terrified to utter a sound. Arrrgh…
The blog says the Maldivian government takes ‘a silent and deadly approach to child abuse in the Maldives.’
Jaa’s blog criticizes the judge’s decision that the raped girl gave consent.
I skim through Maldivian news now and then and try sink in the madness going about these days but none, absolutely none, has left me as unsettled and enraged as the news regarding the recent ruling on the case of a 12 year old girl being sexually assaulted by a group of 4 axe-wielding men.
Maldives Today in a post titled ‘Paradise for Paedophiles’ narrates the history of child sexual abuse in the Maldives and concludes that the government has a history of not bringing the perpetrators to justice and pardoning convicted paedophiles.
The blog criticizes Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the country’s dictator, for his lenient stance on abusers.
The Maldives, as a signatory of the Convention on the Rights of the Child CRC, has been taken to task by the body for country’s deplorable child rights record. Not only has Maumoon Abdul Gayoom openly showed his support for child abusers, but he has never, in his three decades of office, introduced a single piece of legislature to protect children from sexual abuse. As a result the Maldives has seen a proliferation of paedophilia.
A survey published this year has shed more light on the prevalence of child sexual abuse in the Maldives. According to its findings, one in three woman aged 15-49 years have experienced physical or sexual abuse while one in six women reported to having been sexually abused when they were under 15 years of age. Given that the survey focused only on females, social workers have rightly commented that the actual figure for child sexual abuse may be much higher. If figures for children of both sexes are taken into account, the Maldives may very well have the highest rates of child sexual abuse in South Asia, probably even the world.
The findings of the survey have been downplayed by the minister in charge of protecting child rights, Aishath Mohamed Didi, who worked in UNICEF before she joined the dictator’s cabinet. Didi has told Minivan News that statistics for child sexual abuse in the Maldives fell within the norm of other countries.
With a dictator and a cabinet minister defending pedophiles, the bloggers of Maldives are facing a rough battle but at least in the blogosphere the silent and well-kept secret of pedophilia in the paradise is no longer a secret.

author: Nihan Zafar


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Pakistan: Bhutto and Power · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The Pakistani Spectator on the ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's lust for power.


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Peru: 7 Wonders of Lima · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Juan Arellano of Globalizado [ES] recaps the campaign to list the 7 Wonders of Lima.


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Puerto Rico: Illegal Licensing Scheme · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As news broke in Puerto Rico over a massive illegal medical licensing scheme, Gil the Jenius writes: “The basic principle of caring for the patient's health has taken a back seat to greed, narrow self-interest and corporate profits.”


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Romania: Cemetery and Church Pictures · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Romerican posts cemetery pictures from the northwest of Romania (where they “[greet] death with a smile”) and church pictures from the northeast (where they paint “demons, death, and killing”).


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Romania: “Gastronomic Globalisation” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Andy H of Csikszereda Musings writes about “gastronomic globalisation”: “certain food items” that were not available in Romania when he settled there three years ago.


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Russia: 1937 · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sean's Russia Blog writes about one of the orders that marked the beginning of Stalin's Terror.


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Russia: North Pole Flag-Planting · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Accidental Russophile posts a detailed entry on the Russian North Pole flag-planting; Tim Newman of White Sun of the Desert writes that though the Russians he knows are proud, North Pole shouldn't be this country's priority right now; Siberian Light calls Russia's recent behavior “little more than expensive grandstanding”; and La Russophobe blasts Siberian Light for another post, on Canada's reaction.


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Russia: Sakhalin Earthquake · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

White Sun of the Desert writes about a 6.4 earthquake that has recently hit Sakhalin.


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Singapore: A Country Worth Fighting For · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Singapore celebrates its national day this week. Gerald Giam says “Our country might have its flaws, but if we take an honest look at the state of our nation, most of us will agree Singapore is still a wonderful place to live in, and little red dot worth fighting for.”

author: Preetam Rai


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Somali: Somali actors and actresses wanted for new film · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A Somali filmmaker is looking for Somali actors and actresses for a Somali-American film: “We are shooting a new Somali-American film with multiple themes and story lines that run parallel to each other.This is a no-budget/low-budget kind of movie. This movie will be shot in St. Paul/Minneapolis area. If you live out of state, you whole trip, food and lodging is covered. The exposure to the local film community would be more fulfilling and priceless for a career in movies.”


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South Africa: Rugby meets blogging · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

SARugy.com is looking for ways to engage with South African bloggers: “SARugby.com have launched a competition for all South African bloggers ahead of the World Cup. We have decided to give away the new Springbok jersey to the winning blogger in our competition.”


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Sudan: the documentary you are not supposed to watch · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

We Blog for Darfur writes about Jihad on the Horseback, a documentary the Sudanese president does not want you to watch: “The Arab media has sadly done a bad job at covering the Darfur conflict seriously and thoroughly. There hasn’t been any investigative piece of journalism or a documentary from an Arab news outlet that examined the horrific situation on the ground in an extensive manner. Hence when we came across the documentary Jihad on Horseback, it was a breath of fresh air. But it still gets tricky…”


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Tajikistan: Drug trafficking · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Having just toured the Afghan-Tajik border area, Ian at Beyond the River has some thoughts on the cross-border drug trafficking so rampant in this area.


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

In respectful memory of the events of August 6th 1945, Thebookman shares a fascinating post about an artbook called Hiroshima.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Online Connection · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Whatever you place on the web will be found”:  Karel Mc Intosh says that there's an online connection between your personal and professional identities.


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Tunisia: online writer freed and website editor to appear in court  · Global Voices
sami ben gharbia

On Tuesday, 24 July 2007, the Tunisian government has released the human rights lawyer and online writer Mohammed Abbou who had been jailed for nearly 28 months. Mr Abbou was arrested in March 2005 and sentenced to prison for three-and-a-half years for writing online articles criticizing the Tunisian penitentiary system and comparing his country’s political prisoners with those held in Abu Ghraib. “My release is the result of actions of resistance to oppression undertaken by Tunisians capable of saying no to a regime in violation of basic human rights,” said Abbou in an interview with Al Jazeera.
But in the main time, the editor of the online news website Kalima (censured in Tunisia) Omar Mestiri is facing a libel suit based on an online article he wrote last year accusing a pro-government lawyer of fraud. The suit could result in a three-year prison sentence. “The charges are invalid because the article in question cannot be read online inside Tunisia as the website is censored by the authorities,” Reporters Without Borders said.

author: sami ben gharbia


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Uganda: the Ugandan Blogumentary · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The movie, the Ugandan Blogumentary, is finished: “The competition is not until the end of August so it still hasn’t been shown to the public but you guys opinion mean a lot to us so we really hope you will enjoy it and think it was worth the trouble of having us flowing you with the camera!”


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Uzbekistan: Google censoring opposition? · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Jamiyat reports that the website of an Uzbek opposition party has been filtered by the Russian version of Google: “Visiting this website may harm your computer.”


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Uzbekistan: Pop music everywhere · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Don't like pop music? Don't go to Uzbekistan in the summer, advises Joshua Kucera.


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Zimbabwe: Pol Pot revisited · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

What has Zimbabwe got to do with Cambodia?: “Zimbabwe suddenly looks like it has been in a war. The shops are empty, there is little traffic and everyone is walking around in a daze. People stop me and ask what is going on? Well just remember Pol Pot. He came to power in Cambodia in the mid seventies, launched what they called the Khmer revolution and in a matter of months they reduced the capital city to a shell occupied by 25 000 people – down from two million.”


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Arab Beauty Sparks Debate  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Arab beauty is sparking a heated debate  at Highlander's blog from Libya.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Arabisto: Where Arab Americans Make a Difference · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Arabisto is an Arab American blog where Arab Americans make a difference. This week I speak to founder Nadia Gergis who tells us about the site, why and how it started and the future it holds for them.
1. What is Arabisto? When and why was it formed?
Arabisto.com is the Arab-American street. It’s probably the only place on the web where you can find a group of diverse voices who write on issues from the Arab-American perspective in a non-secular, unbiased manner. Our writers are in college, they’re getting their doctorates, they’re working professional journalists and they’re also Baby Boomers. They are American, Kasmiri, Pakistani, Arab, French, Republican, Democrat, Christian, Jewish and Muslim. Additionally, we also provide daily breaking news from the Middle East and surrounding region that you won’t see on mainstream news.
As for when and why it formed, last summer I went on a quest to find a Pan-Arab site that was similar to some of the mainstream blog sites, but written from an Arab or Arab-American perspective. I searched for days and couldn’t find one. Don’t get me wrong, I love Global Voices Online and other blogs like Abu Aardvark, Juan Cole’s Informed Comment and KABOBfest, but I wanted to find a site that contained news and blogs in one place.
I was really disappointed when I could not find what I was looking for and then my husband, whom I met in college, said why don’t you just create one. I contacted five original bloggers in August 2006 to launch the following month. People immediately said they’d love to join the community. One of the first people I approached was Courtney Radsch, who used to write for the New York Times and the Daily Star in Lebanon – she’s getting her doctorate at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, D.C. and writes at www.arab-media.blogspot.com. She was so articulate, she just got it – you know when you’re reading something and you know this person gets it? Well, when she said yes to Arabisto.com, I thought great we’re on a roll here. She is currently writing her dissertation on the Arab media's influence on foreign policy and National Public Radio just picked up one of her last blogs on Arabisto.com. It’s a heavy subject matter but she makes it easy for the reader to understand the complexities of the Arab media – not many people are able to do that.
2. How many writers and contributors do you have and where do they come from?
We’re a group of 26 bloggers, all from very diverse backgrounds, who are either from the Arab world or surrounding regions or have an interest in the Middle East and its neighbors. Some of our bloggers include our very own Arab-American Seinfeld  – well known comedian Dean Obeidallah who lives in New York and organizes the New York Arab American Comedy Festival, the author of Web of Deceit – Barry Lando lives in France, Dr. Ghassan Rubeiz who was the secretary of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches for the Middle East lives in Florida, Texas-based Naeem Randhawa directed American Ramadan, and Rima Abdelkader is a New York-based correspondent who previously worked as a journalist with the United Nations and with Bridges TV.
Ideally, we’d like to have one blogger from every Arab state, either based here or there. Extending outreach to some of those bloggers is difficult because they are hesitant to join an Arab-American blog or many of them wish to remain anonymous because of political issues in their countries.
3. What do they write about? What are the most outstanding moments in the life of Arabisto?
We write about everything from honor killings, police brutality against women in the Arab world, the changing face of democracy in the Middle East and surrounding region, politics, world leaders – nothing is off limits and all of the bloggers have complete autonomy concerning the subject matter they want to write about.
Because of the current civil war in Iraq, a lot of our blogs focus on the humanitarian strife there. Of course, we also focus on the suffering of the Palestinians under occupation. Mohammed Mar'i, who is also a correspondent for the Arab News, lives and works out of Ramallah so he gives readers a good perspective of what’s really happening on the ground there.
As for outstanding moments, several of our bloggers have had their posts reprinted, with permission, in mainstream magazines and newspapers. I think that’s what makes us all proud, when a mainstream publication realizes the quality of writers and want to replicate that by reprinting our blogs in their publications – that speaks volumes about our writers.
Getting noticed by Global Voices was quite a nice great surprise as well!
4. How do Arab-Americans perceive you? Have you become their number one stop when surfing blogs? Is this a goal? If it is, when do you think you will realize it?
That’s a really good question. I get emails from people loving us and I also get emails about what we can do better on the site. More and more I am getting requests from other traditional Arab-American publications to link to them, I guess that’s a good sign because they’d only ask to be linked to you because they know you’ve got tons of traffic coming to your site. It hasn’t been easy, we first started with anywhere from 200 to 300 visits on the site daily, now we see anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 US and international visitors a day.
At first, I think many traditional Arab-American publications thought we were either a flash in the pan or a maybe even a threat to their advertising. When I look back now, it’s kind of ironic that Arab-American publications didn’t give us any press when we first started. The Arab News in Saudi Arabia did a story on us, but not one single Arab-American newspaper or magazine did. Several Arab blogs did, thankfully, which helped spread the word about Arabisto.com. I think this is similar to what’s going on in the mainstream editorial world – these traditional publications fear us because they don’t understand us.
Of course, we’d love to see the day when Arabisto.com becomes a household name not only for Arab-Americans but all Americans who want an alternative source for all news Middle Eastern. I am positive that in another year, we’ll have about 5,000 visitors a day. I’d say when we get about 10,000 visitors a day, that’s when we can really say we’ve grown beyond our goal of being an “Arab-American” publication.
5. What have you done to bridge the gap in the perception of Americans of Arabs, their heritage, religions and cultures?
Most people automatically think Arabs are Muslims from the Middle East. Well, not all Arabs are Muslims and not all Muslims are from the Middle East – and the term Arab has sort of morphed into a generic term used to describe anyone from that region. Additionally, some Arabs don’t think of themselves as Arabs, they like to be called Lebanese or Syrians because they have so much pride in their country’s heritage. What we do on the site is show that people from the Middle East and surrounding regions are moderates who are open-minded. For example, one blogger from Morocco Christine Benlafquih wears the niqab, which if you live in the Middle East is very normal. You don’t even think twice about it there but here it’s a different story. Her writings show that women who wear the niqab are normal, have very strong opinions and are not afraid to say what they think – contrary to what people may perceive about those that wear the niqab.
Over time, I think we’ve shown the public that we here for them and write on issues that are important to them. We’re pundits but we also provide serious commentary on issues that matter to all Arab-Americans, no matter what age group you’re in. We’re a public forum of alternative voices who aren’t afraid to tackle topics that don’t reach the mainstream media. We’ve gained the trust and credibility of our readers, which is a hard thing to do so we thank them for letting us into their daily lives.
Last month, Rima Abdelkader wrote a great piece on Doritos and how their products could possibly contain pork enzymes in their cheese seasonings. In another piece, she wrote about how the show “24” portrays Arabs on the show. As much as we all love Jon Stewart’s Daily Show and The Colbert Report, I highly doubt you’ll see them tackling some of the touchy subject matter we tackle on the site.
6. How is online citizen journalism shaping up the Arab-American dialogue? Do you feel you are reaching out to everyday Americans or are you just discussing issues amongst yourselves?
At the end of every month I send our monthly statistics to our bloggers. I am still surprised when I see some of the countries that frequent the site. Just this past week, we had 225 pageviews from Sweden, 72 from the Russian Federation and 146 from China. But the majority of our visits come from the US and Canada followed by the UK, France, Spain and Japan so it feels really good that we’re reaching beyond Arab-Americans and readers in the Middle East. I’ve always been very transparent about our visits and pageviews since we launched, so the bloggers and I have been able to watch us go from almost no visitors and pageviews to where we are now. In May, we’re tracking 23,636 visitors in the US — and overall worldwide including the US we’ve got 54,314 visitors, according to our statistics tracker.
We’re working on making our comments section more user friendly so that there will be more dialogue between users and bloggers – that’s one of the biggest complaints we’ve had, our commenting system needing to be changed. Hopefully when that changes – there will be more dialogue with the bloggers and users.
Another issue I think we’re running into is people from the Middle East are somewhat paranoid about giving their opinions, so they may have something to say about one of our blogs, but they’ll refrain from leaving comments because culturally it’s not what they are used to – being vocal about politics and other issues.
7. The Internet has made the world a virtual global village. Are you just targeting an Arab-American audience or the Arab and American public at large?
Before Arabisto.com came along, you had one choice for news from the Middle East – AlJazeera.com. I have the utmost respect for AlJazeera.com, but I felt why not add personality to that? Why not add a touch of pop culture to that? Why not add topics and commentary that younger Arab-Americans can appreciate? How about getting the more Arab-American voices in blogs? Let's connect with readers and give them an opportunity to comment. Send us your letters and we’ll personally respond to you. That’s what we do on the site. So as we grow, we’re seeing that our readers come from all parts of the world. We recently got a letter of support from an Irish-American organization so I think we’ve won over the Arab-American community and we’re slowly finding fans outside that base – which is really a testament to our bloggers and their writings.
8. Do you get any feedback from readers?
Yes, sometimes people write asking for advice and sometimes they just want to vent about how it feels to be an Arab-American post 9/11, which as we all know, has been very difficult. I encourage all our readers to write us through the Web site or at media@arabisto.com. It might take me a day or two to get back to you, but I will.
9. Do you get any funding or support or is it a volunteer-run site?
We do get a nominal amount of support from advertisers, but all the bloggers write on a voluntary basis. I was responsible for start-up costs and now the monthly costs to maintain it.
10. What are your hopes and plans for the future as far as Arabisto is concerned?
My hope is that one day Arabisto.com will become as mainstream like other blog sites like The Daily Kos, Breitbart.com and The HuffingtonPost.com.
I guess one of our goals, to get noticed by Global Voices, has been fulfilled — today in fact! We’re all very humbled and grateful for that. We hope that we can change some of the views that people have about Arabs and Arab-Americans with Arabisto.com. Like Mahatma Gandhi said, “you must be the change you wish to see in the world.”


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Argentina: Boca Juniors Teams Up With Unicef · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

The popular Buenos Aires football team Boca Juniors recently teamed up with UNICEF, where the organization's logo will now appear on the squad's jersey, writes eBlog [ES].


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Aruba: Fighting Crime?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Scared Monkeys thinks that Aruba's latest initiative to help combat crime shows “style over substance once again.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Bangladesh: Enemy property act and Floods · Global Voices
Rezwan

In this weeks tour inside the Bangladeshi blogosphere we will discuss an old black law enacted in time of war being put to use by land encroachers and creating human rights abuse on minorities. We will also look at the dark truth that haunts women in Bangladesh and many parts of the world and which is exploited by commercial organizations. These and much more in this week's round-up:
Enemy property act:
We take you first to Dhaka Blog where Asif discusses a dark act enacted before the independence of Bangladesh:
Following the 1965 war with India, the Ayub government (of Pakistan) in its infinite wisdom decided to constitute something called the “Enemy Property Act”. It allowed them to declare any citizen an “enemy” and confiscate their property. Following Bangladesh’s independence, Mujib’s Awami League government…..reconstituted the act in 1974 calling it the Vested Property Act.
Then he shows the ways which all the political governments used it to repress the minorities, especially Hindus. He calls it the real national shame.
Drishtipat Group Blog Unheard Voices explains:
Encroachers have misused the law with the help of corrupt state authorities to grab property by identifying Hindus as “enemies of the state.”
To amend the situation, the former Awami League government had enacted the Vested Property Repeal Act in 2001. But it was never implemented because of objections from politically influential encroachers and legal complications.
The Blog comments that it is about time to repeal this black law.
Does skin color still matter?
Himadri Ahsan writes in Adhunika Blog about a dark truth that still haunts women in many regions of the world especially Bangladesh.  The Blogger says:
Skin lightening products continue to be one of the fasting growing beauty products in the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, Africa and among African Americans.
The obvious cause of this phenomenon is the deeply rooted social stigma attached with dark skin. In Bangladesh a fair skinned person is often praised and compared with a Sahib (an English man) or Pathan (a Pakistani), establishing the superiority of both the groups of people that ruled Bangladesh.
Politics with flood and the demolition of a building:
In the midst of Flood the national debate is the lack of political party's involvement in the relief efforts of the Flood affected areas. As a state of emergency is in place, open political activities are not allowed. In the Middle of Nowhere reports that the Government has criticised the politicians saying that it’s time to help flood victims, not for politics. The Blogger asks:”What, in fact, is meant by doing politics with Flood?”. A Government adviser probably has the answer quoted in a recent televised interview: “They are free to help others like any ordinary citizen but no mileage with political banners will be allowed.”
A Nikonian's Blog however points out:
WHY we see a humble Subedar holding a toilet to pose for a photo while distributing those to the villagers? WHY do we even hear as tiny officer as a Lieutenant’s name on television when government officials go to distribute food to flood affected people? Isn’t this flood used for political gain by army itself?
While Bangladesh was reeling with the devastations of Flood, its citizen witnessed demolition of a 22 storied Building (Rangs Bhaban) televised live. Unheard Voices raises some pertinent questions:
What was the rush to demolish an office building of such a magnitude in less than 24 hours notice?

author: Rezwan


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Barbados, Bahamas: Crop Over & Junkanoo · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Kadooment Day signals the end of the Crop Over festivities – Living in Barbados explains, offering interesting comparisons to the Bahamas’ Junkanoo festival.


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Barbados: Hurricane Season  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Notes from the Margin is breathing “a little bit easier now” about the upcoming hurricane season…


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Barbados: Power of the People  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A 3.6 million dollar drug haul causes Barbados Underground to write: “Each citizen in Barbados has a responsibility to do the right thing. Sometimes, it takes only one or two persons to step-up, which can have a significant difference on outcomes.  In recent times, the missing ingredient has been the influence and power of our people.”


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Bolivia: Open Software in Aymara · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Willy Andres [ES] writes about the recent project that translated AbiWord into Aymara, one of the indigenous languages of Bolivia.


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China: Recommended M.Phil Entry · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Peking University (Beida) has recently increased the quota of recommended M.Phil entry, Xueyong suggested in his blog that the recommendation system has to be back up by education reform, including leveling the standard of universities and redesigning the entry examination.


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Colombia: Art, Poetry and Flower Festivals in Medellín · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

Colombian bloggers recently wrote about the end of the MDE07 Art Festival, an event which attempted to bring contemporary art back into local conversations and back into the lives of the citizens. They also discussed the recent International Poetry festival and the upcoming Fair of the Flowers. In Equinoxio [ES], Carlos Uribe de los Ríos posts a comprehensive review of the results of MDE07.
El Encuentro de Medellín 07 –ciudad + arte contemporáneo– fue la realización cultural más grande, importante y ambiciosa del año. No hay duda. Y aunque comenzó propiamente en enero y terminó en junio, su epicentro de abril y parte de mayo se convirtió en una especie de llamado urgente, creativo y multifacético a una comunidad expectante y a veces desconcertada por las propuestas. Pero de eso se trataba.
The Event Medellin 07 -ciudad + contemporary art- was the largest, most important and ambitious cultural event of the year. There's no doubt about it. And although it officially began in January and ended in June, its epicenter in April and part of May became a sort of urgent , creative and multifaceted call to an audience: expectant and sometimes disconcerted about the proposals. But that's what it was all about.
In Lo Cultural [ES], Jorge Montoya explains:
Los artistas independientes de la ciudad son tenidos en cuenta a medias por las organizaciones responsables de gestionar los eventos respaldados por presupuestos estatales. Así parece leerse en la apreciación de Raúl Jaime Gaviria, director de la Revista Asfódelo, acerca de los pasos para la selección de las producciones artísticas protagonistas del MDE07, quien afirma que “se sigue cometiendo error tras error en las políticas de la cultura en Medellín y lo peor es que estos errores generan víctimas que no son otras que cientos de artistas que le han apostado valientemente a la creación, casi siempre en medio de las peores condiciones y en la soledad más extrema”.
The independent artists of the city are barely taken into account by the organizations responsible for arranging the events backed by state funding. This seems to be the appreciation of Raúl Jaime Gaviria, director of Asfódelo magazine, about the steps taken to select the artistic products to take center stage on MDE07, who states that “the same mistake, one right after the other are being made in cultural policies and the worst thing is that these mistakes generate victims who are none other than the hundreds of artists who have bravely gambled on creation, who are almost always immersed in the worst conditions and the most extreme loneliness”.
Álvaro Ramírez from Ojo al Texto writes:
Medellin sigue vibrando después del famoso MDE07. Por su parte estamos en el XVII Festival Internacional de Poesía, entre julio 14 al 22 con entradas libres y gratuitas a todos los actos.
Luego llega la Feria de las flores que además de ser una especie de carnaval anual, se ha ido cargando de sentido con actividades culturales como V Festival de Cine Colombiano a realizar en el marco de la Feria de las flores, y que se llevará a cabo del 2 al 10 de agosto del presente año.
Medellin is still vibrating after the famous MDE07. On the other hand, we are currently in the XVII International Poetry Festival from July 14th to the 22nd with free admission to every event.
Then along will come the Flower Fair which besides being a sort of annual carnival, has been loading up with meaning by joining with cultural activities such as the V Colombian Film Festival to take place within the Flower Fair and will take place from August 2nd to the 10th of the current year.
JumpTV Latin America and the Caribbean [ES] will be transmitting the Flower Festival events on the web and have the schedule on their blog. In addition, Luz Carvajal has pictures of the Annual Silletero (flower carrier) parade on her space as well, where she explains the origins of the flower carrier tradition and how they began by carrying flowers up and down the mountains strapped to chairs on their backs, but people as well.
The International Medellín Poetry Festival has also been commented on several blogs:
Nuevas Letras blogger Harold Alvarado Tenorio posts an open letter to Fernando Rendón, requesting information regarding finances and organization of the poetry festival, and demanding replies regarding the destination of the funds from awards and prizes. Papelón con Limón writes about expectations Argentinean poets have of the Festival in Colombia.
AQPDescubre [ES] posts:
Este año, el Festival celebra, igualmente, el Premio Nobel Alternativo que le fue concedido en diciembre de 2006 y que, según declaró Franco, “significa la reconfirmación de la necesidad de paz”. Significa, en sus palabras, “que vamos a insistir en que la palabra tiene que estar presente en el proceso de transformación del país”. El poeta aseguró que “el premio se lo dieron al pueblo de Medellín que ha hecho que esto (el festival) sea importante”.
This year, the Festival also celebrates the Alternative Nobel Prize which was awarded on December 2006 and which, according to Franco [Gabriel Jaime Franco, the event´s director], “means the reconfirmation of our need for peace”. It means, in his words, “that we will insist that words have to be present in the process of this country's transformation”.  The poet assured that “the award was given to the people of Medellín who have made this (the festival) important”.
Poemas del Alma [ES] posts as well:
Una de las principales novedades será la presentación de una antología con 222 poemas, provenientes de 113 naciones, que será publicada a modo de video en el sitio YouTube.com. Rendón explicó que la tarea demoró cuatro años, tiempo en el que recibieron ciento videos y los fueron editando.
One of the principal attractions will be the presentation of an anthology with 222 poems coming from 113 nations, which will be published as a video in the website YouTube.com. Rendón explained that the task took four years, a time during which they have been receiving hundreds of videos and have been editing them.
Picture of Silletero taken from SantiNaranjo´s flickr page.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Georgia: Messages to Abkhazia · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Fifteen years after Akhazia broke away from Georgian territory, Georgians wrote messages to the inhabitants of the separatist province on a board in the capital Tblisi. Like Soviet soldiers’ inscriptions on Berlin's Reichstag after WWII, none of the messages contained anything negative: “We are missing you Abkhaz brothers.” Steady State wonders what the Abkhaz would have to say to their Georgian neighbours.


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Honduras: Open Sidewalks in San Pedro Sula · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

La Gringa's Blogocito writes about San Pedro Sula's achievement of relocating the street vendors that had previously occupied the city sidewalks, and “many people couldn't get used to the idea of walking on the sidewalks and continued to walk in the street.”


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Hong Kong: E-government · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Charles Mok criticized the two recently launched e-government websites govhk and youth. gov.hk, both are non-interactive web 1.0 websites (zh).


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Hong Kong: Government Promotion of DRM · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

I Resource Center (IRC, a company owned by the Hong Kong Government) announced yesterday that the song, “Just Because of You”, which celebrates the 10th anniversary of reunification, can be downloaded with DRM protection. Plastichk laughed at the practice as the song was meant to be distributed as wide as possible for the purpose of celebration (zh) and DRM would certainly kill the purpose.


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Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Live from Baghdad relates to us the humanitarian crisis in Iraq.


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India: Blogs and censorship · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Sunny Days on self-censorship and blogs, as some bloggers talk of anonymity and blogging about family.


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Iran:Covering Iran’s Revolution · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

In View from Iran, we read an interview with Marie. Marie is an award-winning filmmaker, artist, and teacher who lived in Iran for over a year during the American hostage crisis. Her love affair with Iran did not end when she left the country but rather continued.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran:Tortured students · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Khorshidkhanoum[Fa] has given a link to an article that explains how three student activists have been tortured in prison.Thier families say Majid Tavakoli,Ahmad Ghasaban and Ehsan Mansouri, have been beaten up and deprived of sleeping.


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Iraq: Gross Misunderstanding of Reality · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Iraqi blogger Alaa, The Mesopotamian, writes about the gross misunderstandings among people in Canada to reality in Iraq.


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Iraqi Government in Turmoil  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Marc Lynch updates us on the latest storm facing the Iraqi government.


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Jamaica: New Literary Voice · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“I doubt we have heard the last of his storytelling and the literary world is better off for it. There are too few voices speaking from the margins…”  Geoffrey Philp reviews Jamaican Colin Channer's new novel.


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Japan: A Visit to Tokyo’s Homeless District · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

Debito has posted a report about his visit to Sanya, Tokyo's day-labourer and homeless district. He writes that: “unless you have a reason to come here at all (cheap hotels during the World Cup 2002, day laboring), you could possibly spend your life in Tokyo and never know the place existed.”

author: Chris Salzberg


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Japan: The Seikaryo Dormitory · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

Roy Berman at Mutant Frog Travelogue writes about Seikaryo, a Chinese student dormitory located in Tokyo constructed in 1927 by an organization belonging to the Japanese colonial Governor General in Taiwan.


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Jordan: Ban Smoking in Public Places  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Sugar Cubes from Jordan is urging her readers to sign a petition to ban smoking in public places.


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Jordan: Husband’s Permission for a Passport · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Natasha Tynes from Jordan wonders  whether she still needs her husbands permission to apply for a passport.


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Kazakhstan: Artpologist · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Daniel describes his efforts in putting up an art exhibition in Almaty. He has three weeks left and is working all day every day.


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Kazakhstan: Glamour weekend · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Beau Gordiner shares his experience of an unbelievably glamour weekend in Kazakhstan's southern capital Almaty.


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Kyrgyzstan: Adoption · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Kyrgyz blogger Mirsulzhan Namazaliev received an email of a woman who recently adopted a baby from the mountaineous Central Asian nation. She asks about cultural traditions and why the mother gave up her little baby daughter.


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Malaysia: Slow Development of Kuching · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Kenny Sia finds the reason why his hometown Kuching is lagging behind with its development.


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Medellin, Colombia: From Kidnapping Capital to Renaissance City · Global Voices
David Sasaki

In the first Rising Voices podcast we visited Bangladesh, where the Nari Jibon center is teaching young women in Dhaka to express themselves by participating in the online conversation. This week we are changing the format and releasing this podcast in two separate parts.
First we become acquainted with Medellín, Colombia; its violent past, its current tenuous peace, and the mathematician mayor who is comissioning gigantic modernist libraries in the city's most impoverished neighborhoods.
In the second part of this podcast, which will be published later in the week, we'll focus on the HiperBarrio project and learn how a few motivated Medellin bloggers are headed to the hills of their city to teach the tools of citizen media to working class youth.
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In today's podcast we speak with:
The introductory background music is “Madrugada a la Gil Evans” by the Paloseco Brazz Orchestra and was found on ccMixter. The closing song, “Del Cielo Que Nos Robaron” is by Colombian trova musician and blogger, Lizardo Carvajal. It was released under a Creative Commons 2.5 license as part of the iSummit 2006 DVD.
As promised in the podcast, here is a YouTube video of Medellin's MetroCable:
It is also worth reading Andres Duque's thoughts on the MetroCable and how it has helped transform Medellin.
Subscribe to the Global Voices podcast using any of the following links:
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author: David Sasaki


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Mexico: Safety in Monterrey · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Ocho Cuartos [ES] comments on the recent Washington Post story about safety in his city of Monterrey, Mexico.


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Morocco: Tourism Dive  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The number of tourists is dropping in Morocco because of security threats, writes The View from Fez.


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Nepal: Contemporary Nepali Journalism · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Nepal Monitor on Yubaraj Ghimire, the editor of Samay and Newsfront, a new English newsweekly in Kathmandu, discussing contemporary Nepali journalism.


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Nicaragua: Ex-Pat Returns Home · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Our Man in Granada returns from Nicaragua and tells us why. “If you plan to stay there then make sure, before you take the plunge, that you’ll have enough to occupy your time.”


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Oman: Translation Lesson  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The Muscatis from Oman offer us a language in translation here.


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Pakistan: Blogmeet in Karachi · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

the olive ream has photographs from a blogmeet in Karachi. Maheeda and Metroblogging Karachi have more.


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Palestine: Life in Gaza Under Siege · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Palestinian Dr Mona Al Farra links to an article with an interview with her about life in Gaza under siege.


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Panama: OLPC in Future Plans? · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

One Laptop Per Child News speculates on whether comments made by Nicholas Negroponte means that Panama is close to being included in the OLPC project.


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Philippines: Police Uses YouTube for Public Service Message · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

The police officers in Makati acted in and uploaded public service videos to help the viewers understand the modus operandi of the criminals.


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Russia/Georgia: Russian attack? · Global Voices
Ben Paarmann

Andy at Siberian Light reports that Georgia claims that attacked its territory from the air, sparking a diplomatic row.

author: Ben Paarmann


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Saudi Arabia Presents Wine to Blair  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Although alcohol consumption in banned in Islam, Saudi Jeans writes about how Saudi Arabia presented Tony Blair with fine wine as a gift.


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Saudi Arabia: Support Abdulrahman Seddiq · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Saudi Jeans writes about a new initiative to show support to a terror suspect detainee, Abdulrahman Seddiq, who was allegedly unfairly arrested.


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Scandinavia: “Rysk Mosaik” Russia Bloghub · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Rysk Mosaik is a new Scandinavian bloghub for blogs in Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian, about Russian politics and society. It currently publishes posts from six Scandinavian blogs, but has the potential to become a regional Russia bloghub. The downside of it is that it is limited to blogs in Scandinavian languages.

author: Vilhelm Konnander


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Sneak Preview of Jordanian Blogger Identities  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Naseem Tarawneh from Jordan gives us a sneak preview of the identities of bloggers on the Jordanian blogosphere.


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Sri Lanka: HSBC and References · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Indi.ca has a scathing take on HSBC Bank's policies on issuing credit cards in Sri Lanka.


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Sudanese bloggers pay tribute to political hero · Global Voices
SudaneseDrima

This week the two main topics the Sudanese blogged about are on the late politician and former vice president Dr. John Garang and Sudan's acceptance of the Darfur UN resolution.
Sudanese Returnee was one of those who blogged in honor of Dr. John Garang:
The late Dr. John Garang is probably the greatest Sudanese politician in history. A Christian and a southern Sudanese from the Dinka tribe, Garang had a different view of what the problems of Sudan really was, and a clear vision/solution to these problems.
Black Kush honored Dr. John Garang in another post of his own too:
Two years ago, the former freedom fighter and Vice President of the Sudan Dr. John Garang de Mabior died in a helicopter crash in the junlges of South Sudan. In his honour, the Sudanese lit candles, laid wreaths and pledged support of the CPA. However, the expectations of the peace is slowly turning into desparation.
Black Kush also blogged about Sudan's recent acceptance of the Darfur UN resolution:
Sudan has won a huge diplomatic coup with its acceptance of the new hybrid force for Darfur. UNAMID (United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur) will be a force that follows Sudanese demands: African structure, no chapter seven, no force disarmaments, no threat of sanctions. As the FM said, Resolution 1769 was made with their full consultation.
Kizzie wrote an excellent post about Sudanese inferiority complex.:
We constantly bring ourselves down. We dislike ourselves. We are always trying to be something we are not. We view ourselves as inferior and others as superior. We need to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery!
The dream of the average Sudanese girl is to marry well and have a lighter skin. Lighter skin is viewed as beautiful (Sudan is not the only one in this case!).
She also wrote a post about the poor Arab coverage of Darfur. In it she mentions Nabil Kassem, an Arab who made a documentary on Darfur called Jihad on Horseback.
The Sudanese Thinker, applied a simple SWOT analysis on Sudan.
Konyokonyo, a Southern Sudanese doctor in South Sudan wrote about the problem of alcoholism there:
Just a few days back my next door neighbour was found dead in his house. Friends say he had been drinking all the hight before. And the diagnosis: “ketuk”! Last week another guy was brought into my clinic, very sick, with signs of liver failure. He had a very long history of drinking.
There are many stories in Juba in the past, with very similar endings, like people being found dead under trees. Now the phenomenon has gone up several scales for the worse. Many people are talking about the epidemic of drinking in Juba, but nobody cares to do anything about it. The unfortunate thing is that people continue to drink during working hours, in the offices.
And last but not least, Amjad, a Sudanese in Oman is at it again with another movie review:
So yesterday evening I finally got the chance to watch The Simpsons Movie with a bunch of friends.
…All in all, the movie was very good, but if you didn't watch it yet, I recommend waiting for the DVD release. It is worth watching, but not worth being watched in the movies.

author: SudaneseDrima