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Martinique: Election, tension and abstention · Global Voices
Fabienne Flessel

On Sunday March 14th, all French citizens including those in the four French overseas departments (Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Reunion) were asked to vote for the regional elections and the regional assembly in charge of devolved powers such as planning adult professional training, building and funding public high schools, financing and promoting cultural projects.
The vote took place in a very busy electoral period: Martinicans were asked to decide for more autonomy in their department, only in January.
Two major elections in a three-month period may have been too much for the 55.55% of Martinican voters who decided to stay home and not vote, as shown by Bondamanjak's post [Fr].
Blogger Evolution Martinique comments on [Fr] this high abstention figure:
Le grand vainqueur de ce 1er tour, est à l’évidence le taux record d’abstention (plus de 55%) […].
In the same post, the blogger also gives possible reasons to explain why people resorted to abstention:
1. La répétition soutenue des consultations et des scrutins sur une période très dense entre le 10 janvier et le 14 mars.
2. La question du statut institutionnel aura été un enjeu majeur aux yeux des électeurs, reléguant les régionales dans la sphère de la politique politicienne.
3. La qualité bien terne du débat et des propositions politiques de même que le climat délétère dans lequel se déroula cette campagne.
4. Le choix incongru du vote au 2ième tour.
2. The issue of the institutional status must have been more important in the eyes of the citizens, whereas the regional elections are considered as politicking.
3. The low quality of the debate and of the political programs as well as the noxious atmosphere of the campaign.
4. The incongruous choice of voting for the 2nd round.
Martinican blogger [moi]'s playground shares her opinion about the first round of the elections, in a post which details the results for each list, along with her personal comments. Incidentally, she sums up the central stake of this election in Martinique [Fr]:
Trois listes se maintiennent donc pour un second tour ou le duel Marie-Jeanne/Letchimy annoncé va connaître son épilogue.
The same duel is acknowledged by Bondamanjak in a post entitled “André Lesueur, la troisième voix” (André Lesueur, the third voice).
Both [moi] and Bondamanjak comment on the significant decrease of right-wing voters in Martinique. She wonders [Fr]:
Depuis combien de temps la droite ne s’était pas retrouvée à un second tour d’élections régionales ?
A comment to Bondamanjak‘s post says [Fr]:
Juan […] j'ajouterai
pour terminer que la droite pour moi est menacée d'inutilité politique.
The remarks made by Martinican bloggers concerning the poor quality of the campaigns, the tiredness of the population with elections and the difficult position of the right-wing parties is not an exclusive feature of the overseas departments, since mainland French elections followed the very same pattern, as this post by French blogger Ma Liberté, explains.


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Martinique, French Guiana: Murder & Politics · Global Voices
Fabienne Flessel

Martinican blogger Bel Balawou  posts [Fr] an homage to the late policeman (from French Guiana) who was killed in the line of duty by an ETA Basque terrorist in the suburbs of Paris, last week. This murder happened between the two rounds of the French regional elections, causing more political debate about law and order in the country.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Fabienne Flessel


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Moldova: Homemade Wine Diary · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

An expat's homemade wine production diary from Moldova – at Moldovarious.com.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: Bloggers Expose Election Fraud Techniques · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

In 76 regions of Russia people went to voting stations on March 14 to cast their votes for local mayors and regional legislature representatives. The ruling party “United Russia” has won in most of those elections. However, the victory of the party in power wasn't absolute: in Irkutsk people preferred opposition candidate Viktor Kondrashov but this was the only case. Despite the increasing wave of protests (like in Irkutsk [RUS] itself, Kaliningrad, Moscow and others), “United Russia” managed to keep its dominance in all Russian regional legislatures as well as city administration offices.
One of the secrets of such “political stability” (besides state-controlled mass media) is a range of alleged numerous fraud techniques used both by party members and public officials during the elections. These elections were the first to show the power of Web 2.0. in uncovering them. Bloggers gathered evidence of fraud with their cell phone cameras and published them online.
Particularly members of the election observer association “Golos” [EN] (“A Voice”) were quite active in promoting election transparency and exposing fraud. The association installed a fraud hotline website “88003333350.ru” where everyone could post a fraud report. So far, 561 fraud cases have been noted.
Anti-Fraud Hotline, 88003333350.ru
Telephone Voting, Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk region
Blogger leonwolf made a capture of the local TV programme where a head of the regional election committee was inviting people to vote by using a phone line and without signing any papers (which is illegal). “You can just call, tell your passport details and if they match those in the database your vote will be counted,” the head of election committee said on TV.
Protocol Rewriting, Stanitsa Dinskaya, Krasnodar region.
Russian oppositional newspaper Novaya Gazeta posted a video [RUS], where an employee of the local election committee was allegedly rewriting the election protocol (a document presenting the final result of the election).
Vote For Relatives, Yekaterinburg
In the video below two women confess they were brought to the election station to vote for their parents (probably unable to get to the election station by themselves). Such procedure is legal if a person possesses an absentee ballot. But these two women, as well as the whole bus (can be seen on the background) of their “colleagues,” do not have it. And still they're allowed to vote. Not to mention that their transfer was paid by the regional government, as well as a sightseeing excursion after the election.
Mass Preliminary Vote, Ivanovo
The most popular fraud technique is a directed at a preliminary vote. It's been practiced among soldiers, policemen and sometimes students. In other words, regional authorities try to mobilize as many people as they can, especially if they have channels of pressure. For students such channel of pressure are various: grades, scholarships, ability to passing an exams, etc.
Blogger vitaliy-averin posted this video to illustrate such event:
This video shows a woman checking the absence of students, while these pictures depict a huge crowd at the college hall.
Ballot Insertion, Astrakhan
The video captures two people putting packs of ballots into the ballot box.
All these cases represent current situation with the Russian electoral system. The dominance of the ruling party is based on numerous illegal actions that result in the “expected” election results. At the same time, it shows the weakness of the political system that fails to conduct its political course without such anti-democratic and unlawful measures. But as the bloggers become more and more powerful and as the evidence of the fraud is being more efficiently distributed among Russian netizens, the government's failure to provide free and fair elections can become a real, not virtual, problem.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Russia: Filipina Babysitter and Moscow Police · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

English Man in Moscow recounts his family's Filipina babysitter's ordeal with the Russian police.


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Russia to Investigate Closure of iFolder · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

Russian Minister of Interior Rashid Nurgaliev gave an order to check  if the action of police against a popular Russian hosting ifolder.ru was legal. According to Lenta.ru, the order was given following request by president Medvedev.

author: Gregory Asmolov


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Serbia: Diaspora Serb’s Musings on “Serbs, Media, Justice and Me!” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A Diaspora Serb's views on collective blame, collective guilt and other relevant issues – at Balkan Anarchist.


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U.S.: Belarusian Diaspora and the 2010 Census · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Belarus Digest reports that “the Belarusan-American Association starts a new campaign with compelling slogan ‘Are you proud you’re Belarusian? Identify yourself on the 2010 census form!'”


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Afghanistan: Counterinsurgency is not just Talibans · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Joshua Foust reflects  on how the U.S. military chooses to portray the communities where it operates.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Afghanistan: Did the US invade Afghanistan? · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Nasim Fekrat reviews nine years of the US presence in Afghanistan and says that those cannot be considered as “invasion”.


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Afghanistan: Does Iran support the Taliban? · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Joshua Foust doubts  whether reports of Iranian support to the Taliban are credible.


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Afghanistan: Film archive survives or not · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Nick Fielding reports on the fact that the continuing survival of the Afghan National Film Archive, containing the only known copies of some Afghan films and documentaries, remains precarious.


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Azerbaijan: Reflections on Novruz  · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

This weekend marked the official start of Novruz, the Zoroastrian holiday marking the beginning of spring. Celebrated in many countries where Iranian influence has been strong, preparations started long before the actual festival, as last year's post on Global Voices Online detailed. In Azerbaijan, as elsewhere, Novruz is eagerly awaited and popular among foreigners and locals alike.
This year, for example, a number of Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) in the largest of the South Caucasus countries celebrated the event with Lost in Azerbaijan providing a thorough introduction to the holiday.
Today marks every Azerbaijani’s favorite day of the year: Novruz.
Novruz takes place on March 20-21st but the entire month prior to today people are preparing and anticipating the holiday.
Novruz  means “new day” and is the start of the New Year in the Iranian calendar, welcoming spring, new life and a fresh start.  It’s technically an Iranian holiday but celebrated by many Islamic cultures.  Throughout the past month Azerbaijani’s have been cleaning out and painting their houses, planting trees in their yards, cooking special dishes and visiting friends and relatives.
During the Soviet Union Novruz was prohibited and people were persecuted for following the traditions.  Now all Azerbaijani’s proudly celebrate and look forward to this time of the year.
The four Tuesdays prior to the holiday each have a name: Water (to purify), Fire, Wind, and Earth (new life). On each of these evenings at dusk families make small bonfires in their yard and everyone takes a turn jumping over the fire seven times reciting “Give me your redness and take my yellowness” which means “Take my hardships, give me your lightness.” […]
Perhaps the symbol most associated with Novrus is the sprouted wheat called “samani’.  These grass seeds are grown on a plate prior to Novruz and can by close to half a foot tall on the holiday.  Each family usually places the samani on the center of their table with a red ribbon tied around it.
Happy Novruz! Happy Spring, everyone! Wishing you peace, health, prosperity and wonderful new beginnings! by AZ Cookbook
Aaron in Azerbaijan tells his readers that they're “missing out on the knowledge of a tradition that stretches back a few thousand years, in dozens of countries throughout Asia” on the last Tuesday before Novruz.
Last night was the last Tuesday (Çərşənbə) of Novruz.  That means that Miri, my host mom, and a random friend, Orxan, set about jumping over fires (for Novruz, you celebrate each of the four Tuesdays leading up to March 20/21.   […] Apparently, you’re supposed to jump over fire seven times, so we lined up seven piles of the straw-type stuff and lit ‘em up.  We jumped over each one and I did a few extra rounds for folks who weren’t here to enjoy the fun of jumping flames. […]
If I keep a green bough in my heart, then the singing bird will come… by ♥ Lala ♥
In last year's post about Novruz on Global Voices Online, one Armenian commented and noted the similarities between the holiday and her own Trendez, another Zoroastrian holiday absorbed and changed by the Church when Armenia adopted Christianity in 301AD.
This year, the similarities prompted an interesting discussion on Twitter between an ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani.
Indeed, in her own post, Ianyan comments on Novruz, detailing the shared cultural influences in the region as well as her own personal identity.
I would be lying if I said that I solely identified myself as an Armenian. With my family from Tehran and a maternal grandmother from Tabriz who spoke Armenian, Farsi and Turkish, I have as much Iranian influence running through my veins as I do Armenian and American.
My parents grew up during a time in Iran when life was good. […]
As Armenian as they were, they were also Persian and everything – from the food, to the music, to the traditions have been passed down to my sister and I in the most charming way. Not because it was forced, or written into our daily lives, but because we were genuinely interested.
[…]
To me, being Armenian doesn’t symbolize an all inclusive club where only one set of traditions are observed and one language spoken. We are an amazingly diverse group of ancient people, who have, through the years, influenced and been influenced by a set of beautifully rich and magnetizing cultures, and denying this would be doing a disservice.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that simply speaking, diversity is good. Embrace it. […]
Happy New Year!
the haft sin table/ © ianyanmag

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Bangladesh: Mobile Based Donations · Global Voices
Rezwan

Shehzaad Shams at Bangladesh Corporate Blog suggests with examples that mobile phone based programs for collecting donation can work for Bangladeshi NGOs.

author: Rezwan


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Best of Blogs Awards: Don’t forget to vote! · Global Voices
Claire Ulrich

The international Best of Blogs Awards, organized by Deutsche Welle, have entered the final voting phase. You may now vote online until April 14, 2010, for your favorite blog(s) in eleven languages and various categories, including freedom of expression and climate change.

author: Claire Ulrich


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Dubai: Iranian Blogger Omid Reza Mirsayafi Remembered · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

About 40 young people from all four corners of the world came together in a cafe in Dubai and remembered the first anniversary of the death of Iranian Omid Reza Mirsayafi, the first blogger to die in prison. The meeting also reflected on the March 18 Movement, OR318, via art.
Junkie, a team member of March 18 explained the planning of this meeting saying:
I was thinking of organising a Tweetup (and arranging for a community-made art piece for the Movement on Thursday, 18 March.
The art piece would comprise of a large canvas where supporters of the movement can gather and express what freedom of speech means to them. They can use any conceivable medium – pictures, drawings, poetry, or even a plain ol’ simple “I want free speech. kthxbai” scrawled across the canvas to convey their messages.
Here are some of these art creations.
Against censorship
For Freedom of Expression
Here is a video film showing the event in Dubai:
OR318 -March 18 Movement – Dubai Edition from Areeba Hanif on Vimeo.
March 18 Movement uses animations to reach out to a large and young audience. Its second animation  already received 75,000 hits. It was featured on the global homepage of YouTube on the 12th of March.

author: Fred Petrossian


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E.U.: Debate Over the Euro · Global Voices
Suzanne Lehn

Is the euro dead or dying? economist and blogger Dominique Thiébaut asks [Fr] on his blog, Changes et Matières Premières. He weighs the odds a “sarkofranc” or “markel” might succeed the European currency, currently at the mercy of some members countries’ financial straits as well as international speculators.

author: Suzanne Lehn


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Haiti: Mourning relatives and coping with legal ordeals · Global Voices
Fabienne Flessel

Haitian blogger Espas Aysien  writes a post [Fr] focusing on the difficulty for Haitians to mourn the death of hundreds of thousands relatives in Port-au-Prince and neighboring cities.


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Haiti: Reconstruction for Haitians or with Haitians · Global Voices
Fabienne Flessel

Haitian Alterpresse republishes a letter  [Creole] from Haitian social organisations which openly criticise the Donor's Conference which took place in the Dominican Republic on March 17th. According to them, it will not lead to a long-term development project nor include the population in the reconstruction scheme. Here is the French version.


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Japan: Brussels sprout in Kyoto · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

Photographer and blogger Sigrid, author of one of the most popular Italian gourmet blogs, is in Kyoto. Wonderful pictures of the city and of the delicatessen she has, together with mouth-watering Japanese recipes for the Cavoletto di Bruxelles‘ fans.

author: Scilla Alecci


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Kazkahstan: Flood and the government · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

KZBlog reports on the aftermath of the flood in Kazakhstan, saying that corruption might have been the main reason for the tragedy.


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Kyrgyzstan: Osh town redevelopment  · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Iskender writes that the Kyrgyzstan government proposes a 15-year plan of complex redevelopment for Osh, an old town also called as the Kyrgyz Southern capital.


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Lebanon: Baysour’s Oasis Hoax · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

BabaGannouj et La Zaytouni has images of Plitvice National Park in Croatia which are returned by Google Image search whenever one is searching for the village of Baysour in Lebanon. “Even sites such as Souwar.com incorrectly show pictures of the Croatian Park and label them Baysour, Lebanon.” BetLZ tries to answer the question of “how did this hoax begin?”

author: Moussa Bashir


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Lebanon: Billboards for Mothers’ Day · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

Beirut Drive-by Shooting posts photos of the Billboards planted along the Lebanese roads. One billboard about Mothers’ Day states: “because she gave you the gift of life” and the blogger comments: “…and you gave her backache, stretchmarks, swollen feet, indigestion, morning sickness, exhaustion, constipation, weight gain, bloating, dry skin, hair loss,  hormonal mood swings, pain, varicose veins…”


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Lebanon: Environmental Awarness · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

Emir Bachir discusses Lebanon’s environment which he believes is in free fall and posts a list of priorities that need urgent attention.


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Lebanon: Runaway Maids · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

“When a maid runs away from her employer's house, the police station is  unable to act because there's no law criminalizing runaway maids. So the  police station officer tells the Lebanese employee to say that she  stole money,”  writes Ethiopian Suicides.


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Lebanon: Shankaboot, first Arabic webdrama · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

A topic of several blog posts in the Lebanese blogosphere is Shankaboot. “Shankaboot– the world’s first Arabic webdrama – takes us into the  beating heart of modern Beirut street life through the eyes of Suleiman,  our 15 year old, happy-go-lucky delivery boy.” Enjoy.


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Lebanon: Special Photographs  · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

Shezshe goes around Beirut and other places in Lebanon spotting and photographing special people with special things and/or unique outfits.


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Lebanon: World’s Richest Man Dropped By · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

A collaboration between Qifa Nabki and Maya Zankoul resulted in a comic strip about the visit of the world's richest man, the Mexican of Lebanese origin, Carlos Slim Helou, and who was “fêted in the Lebanese press for demonstrating the inherent superiority of Phoenician DNA in producing successful traders.”


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Malaysia: What’s The Real Deal With Palm Oil? · Global Voices
Daniel Chandranayagam

Palm oil has become the target of criticism from environmentalists and green activists in recent years. In fact, just this year Nestle, Marks & Spencer's and General Mills have reacted to their use of palm oil, either dropping suppliers who are allegedly non-sustainable suppliers, or else reinforcing their stance against the destruction of primary rain forests and biodiversity hubs in South East Asia.
The controversy surrounding palm oil, a source of agricultural revenue for many South East Asian countries, especially Malaysia and Indonesia, arose recently when a video surfaced on Youtube, parodying Nestle's KitKat advertisement. The video, by Greenpeace, has an office-worker opening a KitKat to “take a break”, but biting into what appears to be an orangutan's finger, rather than a chocolate wafer finger. The video, below, is part of the environmental group's campaign against Nestle's use of palm oil from unsustainable operations in Indonesia.
As what can be seen a result of this video, Nestle has now announced that they will cease buying palm oil from, Sinar Mas, an Indonesian supplier of Palm Oil. Team Orangutan reports:
Considering the amount of palm oil Nestle places in their products, it will be tough for them to get that amount from palm oil plantations that use sustainable practices.
Sustainable palm oil just doesn't exist. The land used for sustainable palm oil is limited. There is no way to supply the demand without destroying the rainforest. That is why we need to encourage companies to find alternative oils. The problem won't stop until companies replace or eliminate palm oil from their products.
While Nestle's decision is a temporary victory, we need to take it as encouragement that we can help change the situation and we can make a difference in our world.
Palm fruit, photo courtesy of Scott Parker
On a larger scale, Team Orangutan alarmingly states:
Indonesian officials have said they aim to more than double the country's crude palm oil output to 40 million tonnes by 2020 through increased yields and more plantations.
Rainforest destruction in Indonesia make it one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. It also kills hundreds of orangutans every day.
Palm oil is an unnecessary oil. We need to keep educating, and keep making an effort.
We can do this together. Together, we can protect the orangutans from genocide.
As a backgrounder on palm oil, at least in Malaysia, the Malaysian Agriculture blog, quoting a piece by Ahmad Ibrahim from the New Straits Times, stated:
Just a year ago, palm oil was on Cloud Nine. It was the toast of the country’s economy. The price of crude palm oil (CPO) breached the RM4,000 mark to touch RM4,312 a tone on March 3, last year. Price stayed above RM3,000 for about seven months, an all-time record.
Palm oil companies were dishing out big fat bonuses for their employees. Many were declaring handsome dividends for their investors. Oil palm smallholders were enjoying lucrative returns. Nobody then thought that palm oil prices would ever drop to unprofitable levels. Most in the industry were convinced that the palm oil price would never again dip below RM2,000 a tone.
That just demonstrated the overwhelming confidence many had in the palm oil industry.
Events of recent weeks have shattered that confidence. On Oct 24, last year, palm oil prices slumped to a low of RM1,390 per tonne, a massive drop from RM4,000.
Perhaps part of this slowdown in the palm oil industry is evidenced by an investigative piece of journalism, by Martin Hickman, entitled ‘The guilty secrets of palm oil: Are you unwittingly contributing to the devastation of the rain forests?’, on how palm oil is destroying virgin rainforest and threatening the survival of the endangered orangutans, among others, in Malaysia and Indonesia being awarded the ‘Environment Story of the Year’ by Foreign Press Association’s Media Awards.
The piece stated:
In its own way, palm oil is a wonder plant. Astonishingly productive, its annual yield is 3.6 tonnes a hectare compared with half a tonne for soy or rapeseed. Originally found in West Africa, palm oil is uniquely “fractionable” when cooked, meaning its properties can be easily separated for different products. Although high in artery-clogging saturated fat, it is healthier than hydrogenated fats. For manufacturers, there is another significant benefit. At £400 a tonne, it is cheaper than soy, rapeseed or sunflower.
…
Indonesia is trying to crack down on illegal foresting, but corruption is rife hundreds of miles from Jakarta. Satellite pictures show logging has encroached on 90 per cent of Borneo's national parks – and according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): “New estimates suggest 98 per cent of [Indonesia's] forest may be destroyed by 2022, the lowland forest much sooner.”
Considering the multi-use of the plant, palm oil has been a major agricultural focus in the region. Interestingly, Palmoiltruthfoundation provides a counter argument to the above, at least in the context of Malaysia:
Almost all oil palm expansion in Malaysia is pursued through the conversion of existing rubber, cocoa and coconut plantations or from logged over forest areas which have been earmarked for agriculture. Moreover, out of the total land area of 30.2 million hectares, only 6 million hectares have been designated for agriculture under the Third Malaysia Agricultural Plan. Oil palm cultivation falls well within the area zoned for agriculture. Ironically, the area still under forest cover remains at well over 60 %, certainly much higher than that of the developed nations from which all this brouhaha over Orang Utan habitats are originating.
It is about time that the world wakes up to such insidious and deceptive campaigns and that can only be achieved when the world develops the discernment to see through the veil and stop being lembus [cows]. That may be counter-intuitive but the herd instinct can only be overcome through education and clear branding and communication programs. Programs that will, ultimately, expose the lies and half-truths that appear to be the penchant and almost exclusive purview of CSPI and others of their ilk.
In addition, Tan Sri Yusof Basiron Malaysian Palm Oil Council CEO answered several questions on sustainable and green palm oil practices in the Malaysian Star newspaper, responding to a question on forest conservation:
There is legitimate concern over the protection of biodiversity of the jungles and natural forests. This is achieved by setting aside properly designed areas for conservation. It is not necessary to conserve all jungle. Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity decided many years ago that 10% of the world’s forests needed to be reserved to preserve forest biodiversity. In Malaysia, more than 50% of the country has been set aside for that purpose – the average in Europe is 25% – in a commitment we made at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.
Perhaps one of the biggest concerns about palm oil is the paradox of the destruction of forests by businesses in the palm oil supply chain, on the one hand, and their ‘corporate social responsibility’ initiatives, on the other. For example, according to the Rainforest Action Network blog:
General Mills, a company recognized for its CSR [corporate social responsibility] record the very same month that its head of sustainable development refuses to even have a conversation with RAN [Rainforest Action Network] about their palm oil policy, is clearly not that committed to “sustainability.”
…
In the world of Corporate Social Responsibility, the past two weeks have been an exciting time for companies like General Mills, receiving awards such as ‘Top Corporate Citizen,’ ranking 47th in the world’s  50 ‘Most Admired Companies’ and 29th on the ‘Diversity List.’ These awards recognize the company’s strong global reputation – at least according to Fortune Magazine and global business leaders.
But what this small group of decision makers doesn’t know is that millions of Indigenous peoples, endangered species and forests are at risk from palm oil expansion in Indonesia – thanks to General Mills.
It doesn't help that certain initiatives to assist in cleaning up the industry are now being accused of a form of ‘greenwashing’. According to the Canadians For Climate Change Action blog:
Environmentalists argue that what began as an initiative to clean up dirty palm oil production practices, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has become little more than an NGO-endorsed greenwashing tool. Rebecca Zhou, of Reportage/enviro reports.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was set up by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to involve companies in creating more sustainable ways of producing palm oil. However environmental experts believe that not only is the RSPO ineffective, it has become a way to green wash poor practices.
“The RSPO gives the companies a green front and encourages more consumption, which is precisely the cause of the problem,” said Valerie Phillips, forest campaigner of the Greenpeace branch in Papua New Guinea, one of the three countries most adversely affected by the palm oil industry.
In fact, the Rainforest Portal reports that an open Letter, signed by more than 80 organizations from 31 countries, was delivered in November 2009 to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), one of the founders of the RSPO. The letter urged the parties to stop ‘greenwashing’ and to stop certification of palm oil plantations as being ‘sustainable’ if they weren't. The portal states:
According to the Open Letter, palm oil companies certified by the RSPO are directly responsible for much social and environmental damage: dislocation of local populations’ livelihoods, destruction of rainforests and peat lands, pollution of soils and water, and contribution to global warming. These are the reasons why “palm oil monoculture[s] are not and can never be sustainable and ‘certification’ serves as a means of perpetuating and expanding this destructive industry”
Aside from these negative developments, more efforts are being made to achieve ‘responsible palm oil’. For example, the Forest Trust (TFT), an international nonprofit  body, is defining a responsible palm oil purchasing policy for European retailers. TFT's website states that it is aware of criticisms of the RPSO scheme, and as such it is working to set up a group of food manufacturers with the aim of: establishing monitoring and traceability systems to ensure plantations are complying with strict RSPO requirements; and, providing technical assistance to growers, particularly smallholders achieving RSPO certification.
At the end of the day, however, Peak Oil neatly sums up:
Palm oil plantations play a major role in the growing problems of deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions in Indonesia and tropical woodlands around the world. Last week's gathering of the International Conference on Oil Palm and Environment (ICOPE) is one move toward making the industry part of the solution.
Whether the palm oil industry can, in fact, be part of the solution to deforestation is a proposition that divides palm oil producers, manufacturers, retailers, and, naturally, environmental groups. At one extreme, sustainable palm oil production is considered an oxymoron. The opposite fringe sees critics of palm oil as dupes of a developed-world plot against poor farmers, built on myths of species extinction and climate change, funded by palm's rival oil and fat producers.

author: Daniel Chandranayagam


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Morocco: Tramway Line Reopens in Rabat · Global Voices
Hisham Almiraat

Mounir Bensaleh, who blogs on Des maux à dire [Fr], publishes pictures of the reopening of the Tramway line [Fr] in the Moroccan capital Rabat, which was abandoned 60 years ago.

author: Hisham Almiraat


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New requirements for Russian E-Gov Sites. · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

The Russian Ministry for Economical Development published a list of requirements for governmental Web sites that provide online services, reports lenta.ru. All the documents on the sites should be accessed without any pre-registration and additional software requirements and content on the sites should be reached with no more than 5 clicks.


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Russia: Activists Burns Effigy of Policeman · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Activists of the movement “Autonomous Action” burnt an effigy a policeman during the “political Maslenitsa“, indymedia reports (photos and footage available). The action was dedicated to Seva Ostapov, a young man violently beaten by policemen and later accused of assaulting them.


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Russia: Actor Calls Against Cooperation with Government · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Russian actor Aleksey Devotchenko wrote a desperate post about what professional actors can do to express their protest against current political regime. Among the measures proposed are: not to stage in ‘patriotic’ movies, not to participate in concerts organized by police or FSB and so on.


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Russia: Alpinist Destroys Cars And Blogs About It · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Karpovka.ru writes about blogger drunn2007 who works as an industrial alpinist climbing up house walls and breaking excessive ice. On his blog, drunn2007 posts photos of cars damaged by fallen ice adding quite cynical comments.


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Russia: Bank Employee Spoils Credit History for $0.26 · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Blogger logra published the recording of her conversation with a Russian bank employee who called her and in a strikingly impolite manner said he would spoil her credit history for the debt of 26 cents on her account. Logra's post gathered almost 3500 comments, seriously undermining the reputation of the bank.


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Russia: Prisoners Spend Their Time on Social Networks · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Internet and social networks help Russian prisoners spend their time in prison, says an article at chaskor.ru. Convicts use mobile Internet to access dating sites, search information, and even post their own videos shot on cell phones.


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Russia: Prosecuted Blogger Receives Journalist Award · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Mikhail Afanasyev (aka LJ user rukhakasia), blogger from Abakan, Eastern Siberia, received a Journalist Union Award “For Professional Achievement” for a series of articles about the accident at Sayano-Shushenskaya dam, Echo Moskvy reported. The articles led to a criminal case initiated against Afanasyev, which was closed later due to lack of evidence.


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Russia: Protests in 48 Cities Mark “Day of Anger” · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Bloggers post photos of mass protests dedicated to the “Day of Anger” held on March 20, 2010. Protests in 48 cities gathered around 20,000 people. Here are the links to pictures and videos from Moscow, Kaliningrad, Vladivostok, Novosibirsk and Irkutsk.


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Russia: Putin pros and cons go cyber · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

LJ user Anton Igorevich reports [RUS] that recent demonstrations against and for Russian Premier, Vladimir Putin, now have gone cyber, with websites against and in support of Putin, the latter being hacked, presumably by anti-Putinists.

author: Vilhelm Konnander


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Russia-UK: British troops return to Red Square · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Siberian Light questions the recent reports that British troops are to march on Moscow's Red Square for the first time ever on the 9 May Victory Day Parade, illustrating previous visits with pictures and videos.


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Russia-US: A Derogatory Dilemma · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Streetwise Professor reflects upon US Secretary of State's, Hillary Clinton, visit to Moscow and reacts against her not responding to insults from Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, fearing this will become a pattern in US-Russian relations.


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Serbia: Architectural feats from a world exhibition · Global Voices
Vilhelm Konnander

Nothing against Serbia writes about the Serbian pavilion at the 1900 Paris world exhibition and posts pictures to illustrate it.


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Singapore: Anti-Death Penalty Campaign · Global Voices
Shawn Lim

Yong Vui Kong, a 21 year old Malaysian, was convicted by Singapore's High Court in 2008 of trafficking  42.27g of heroin and given the death sentence, mandatory for offences involving more than 15g of the illegal substance. He claimed that he was just a drug mule and was tricked into carrying the drugs. He filed an appeal but told his lawyers later to withdraw it, one week before the hearing in April.
In December last year, represented by Mr M. Ravi, he was given the chance to file a new appeal. The Court of Appeal said it had a duty to hear new legal arguments even after a criminal case had come to a close, especially if it involved the death penalty.
Most bloggers are against the death penalty, pointing out that many countries have done away with the death penalty and a teenager shouldn't be sentenced to death.
Singaporean blogger, Andrew Loh, wrote in his post on advocacy journalism blog, The Online Citizen:
Many countries have reversed their positions on the MDP. And all countries have pride. Yet, these countries perhaps placed a higher value on human life than national pride – especially when there are compelling reasons to do so.
And with the mandatory death penalty in Singapore, there are indeed compelling reasons for us to re-look the legislation.
Singaporean activist blogger, Rachel Zeng wrote:
However, I do hope that the humanity and logic existing within the judges will help them see that this young boy does deserve another chance to make up for his grave mistake – something that he did not realised until he was told after his arrest that heroin was not as ‘harmless’ as tobacco
Singaporean blogger, Xue Jianyue wrote:
Sentencing Yong Vui Kong isn’t going to solve the problem of the trafficker employing people of his age to smuggle drugs again and again because people like Kong, who is poor, unaware and desperate, can always be found in any society and tricked by drug smuggling rings.
He also argues that teens shouldn't pay the price for their ‘ignorance':
There is a difference between a person committing the crime knowing of the consequences and a person not knowing of the consequences. We should not hasten to punish both of them with the same penalty.
Singaporean blogger, Terence Lee, wrote:
And so what if a person is guilty? It makes no sense to punish a drug mule while the drug lord is left to hire another desperate drug trafficker.
And why the harsh treatment? Do trafficking drugs equate with a more severe crime like murder, and therefore equally deserving of the dealth penalty?
Where is the justice in that?

author: Shawn Lim


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South Africa: Remembering Sharpeville Massacre · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

On 21 March 1960 the South African police opened fire on a crowd of black protesters who were part of political campaign organized by the Pan African Congress (PAC) against pass laws. It is estimated that 69 people were killed on that day in the township of Sharpeville. This horrific event is commonly known as Sharpeville Massacre .
Sharpeville massacre was the turning point in the history of political resistance to Apartheid in South Africa. Since 1994, 21 March is Human Rights Day in South Africa. March 21 is also the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in memory of the massacre.
Every March 21st, Rethabile posts a poem to remember Sharpeville massacre. His Sharpeville poem for this year is posted on Black Looks:
the day king walked
from selma to montgomery,
the tops of trees shook
as in a forest, and shivered
for this man who had crossed a line
of centuries in the south, but
even more south, we worried for our lot,
resolved as we were to break you,
but you to put us with our ancestors.
of course there have never been questions:
why shoot them in the back? why shoot them?
why shoot? why? but our name got its shrine
where the children now gather,
for sixty-nine of us lay on the street
on that day in march sixty. as others
filled hospitals and covered cell-floors
with clenched bodies, dachau
was completed, stowe published her book,
alcatraz was shut down for good, and
we moved from non-whites
to non-carriers of passbooks.
© Rethabile Masilo
He also posts a poem by South African political activist and poet Dennis Brutus. It is titled, “A Poem About Sharpeville”:
What is important
about Sharpeville
is not that seventy died:
nor even that they were shot in the back
retreating, unarmed, defenseless
and certainly not
the heavy caliber slug
that tore through a mother’s back
and ripped through the child in her arms
killing it
Remember Sharpeville
bullet-in-the-back day
Because it epitomized oppression
and the nature of society
more clearly than anything else;
it was the classic event
Nowhere is racial dominance
more clearly defined
nowhere the will to oppress
more clearly demonstrated
what the world whispers
apartheid with snarling guns
the blood lust after
South Africa spills in the dust
Remember Sharpeville
Remember bullet-in-the-back day
And remember the unquenchable will for freedom
Remember the dead
and be glad.
© Dennis Brutus
Travel Blog Portfolio wishes all South Africans a safe and peaceful Human Rights day and ask them to learn more about Sharpeville Day.
How could such atrocities happen and no one is punished?, asks Sokari Ekine:
It’s been a long time coming, but change is gonna come, sang Sam Cooke about America. He could have been singing about South Africa, or the world, even. For what is baffling is how Sharpeville 1960, Soweto 1976, King’s and X’s murders, the Civil Rights movement, Mandela’s 27 years in jail, not to mention the thousands tortured and killed in South Africa, and tortured and lynched in America, what is baffling is how these have not entered the minds of all and instructed them on the evils of discrimination and segregation in all its forms. That is truly baffling to me.
It is also amazingly stunning that all these things happened and almost no one got punished for it, no international hunt for the wrong-doers, no motivation to see them “brought to justice,” as George Bush the son would say about so many who had committed so less. Today is a day to remember and to know why it should be remembered
Alpha Christian discusses the link between Good Friday, Human Rights Day and Sharpeville Day:
In a recent column in the Beeld, Nico Botha, deals with this anomaly where the Good Friday falls on the same date as the Human Rights Day, or, even better, the commemoration of Sharpeville Day. For many the debate was whether we will loose a public holiday as workers.
Where are we to find the key to link Good Friday to the significance of today, Human Rights day, Sharpeville day ?
I believe the little dialogue between Jesus and Pilate helps us to start to understand this link.
Michael Trapido remembers this day in his post on Thought Leader titled Sharpeville Redux and a Bit More:
On that fateful day a group of between 5 000 and 7 000 people converged on the local police station in the township of Sharpeville, offering themselves up for arrest for not carrying their pass books.
As the large crowd gathered the atmosphere was peaceful and festive with less than 20 police officers in the station at the start of the protest. Police and military tried using low-flying jet fighters in an attempt disperse the crowd without success.
As a result the police set up Saracen armoured vehicles in a line facing the protesters and, at 13:15, incredibly, opened fire on the crowd.
He continues:
The official casualties were 69 people killed, including 8 women and 10 children, with more than 180 injured.
To date the worst case of police insanity in the history of this country.
As a result there followed a spontaneous uprising among black South Africans with demonstrations, protest marches, strikes, and riots taking place throughout the country.
This led to the government declaring a state of emergency on March 30 1960, which saw more than 18 000 people detained.
Texas In Africa notes that Sharpeville was the first major turning point in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and that the massacre led to the militarisation of the anti-apartheid movement:
The rest of the world started to question the regime's racist policies much more openly; South Africa left the commonwealth a year later.
It also provoked the militarization of the anti-apartheid movement. The ANC's militant wing, MK (Umkhonto wa Sizwe) and Poqo, the military wing of the PAC, both formed soon after the massacre. The next thirty years were marked with horrific acts of violence before – to almost everyone's surprise – the evil of apartheid ended peacefully.
Five years later to the day, American civil rights protesters led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began marching from Selma to Montgomery. The attempt by 600 marchers to do the same thing three weeks earlier culminated in Bloody Sunday, an attack by local and state law enforcement officials. With a protective order from a federal judge, five times as many marchers turned out for the March 21 walk. A few months later, LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act, which effectively ended the last vestiges of legal discrimination in the south.
My students (whom, you will remember, are almost all black men) sometimes debate the question: “Are you a Malcolm or a Martin?” What they mean by this is, “Is social change best achieved through peaceful means (as MLK carried out his work) or violent means (as Malcolm X advocated)?”
I cannot even begin to claim to be qualified to answer this question. If we look at political history, it's clear that MLK's nonviolent methods worked to restore voting rights and some degree of social equality for American minorities, and they worked relatively quickly. MK and Poqo's violent methods certainly also had an effect on the apartheid regime, although the struggle was very long and ultimately did not end because of violence but rather because of economic turmoil and Mandela's willingness to negotiate a peaceful settlement with de Klerk. But nothing approaching true equality of economic opportunity has happened for the vast majority of blacks in either country.
Abioye discusses the international dimension of Sharpeville Day:
In 1966 the General Assembly of the UN proclaimed March 21, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The UN called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination. The Canadian government and various institutions in Canada including Carleton University and the University of Toronto, colluded with the white supremacist apartheid government of South Africa by refusing to
divest and continuing to trade with the government and South African companies.
South Africa Good News has posted a statement from Nelson Mandela Foundation:
March 21, 2010, marks 50 years since 69 unarmed protestors were killed by South African police outside a police station in Sharpeville, south of Johannesburg.
Nelson Mandela burning his pass on March 28, 1960, in protest to the atrocities at SharpevilleWhen commemorating Human Rights day, during his presidency, Nelson Mandela said: “21 March is South African Human Rights Day. It is a day which, more than many others, captures the essence of the struggle of the South African people and the soul of our non-racial democracy. March 21 is the day on which we remember and sing praises to those who perished in the name of democracy and human dignity. It is also a day on which we reflect and assess the progress we are making in enshrining basic human rights and values.”
Photographer Greg Marinovich has Sharpeville Massacre photos on his blog.
The Sharpeville Massacre led to new ways of political organisation and resistance.  The African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan African Congress (PAC) were banned after the Sharpeville Massacre.
Monako Dibetle notes in his column in the Mail & Guardian that Sharpeville is still bleeding. Recently, the residents of Sharpeville rioted over poor social services .

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Tajikistan: Free speech vs. courts  · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

The saga of three judges and three newspapers continues in Tajikistan and has taken an interesting turn as the journalists fight back with a new recording revealing the corruption in the Supreme Court, neweurasia’s Alpharabius reports.


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Translator of the week: Audrey Lambert and her students in France · Global Voices
Claire Ulrich

Audrey
Audrey Lambert teaches English to advanced students of the Lycée Ozenne, a public high school in the capital town of south-west France,  Toulouse. A faithful volunteer translator at Global Voices in French since 2008, she is also a pioneer of using Global Voices in the classroom, where it has now been part of her students’ advanced English curriculum for two years.
Traditional question: how did you discover Global Voices?
I stumbled upon Global Voices in French by chance and was happy to see everyone could contribute. I find translating a very stimulating exercise. Very tricky sometimes, but it brings enormous satisfactions when you finally crack it. Plus, I've been made to feel welcome by a very warm community (Note: how could we edit this? Audrey likes us!). In 2008, I've taken it a step further and asked my students to translate blog posts into French, as part of their translation exercises.
My students have completed high-school, they are training for very competitive and difficult exams to get into “Les grandes écoles“, the French “elite” schools.  A high level of English and news literacy is required of them, they will be evaluated on both. For instance, we listen to radio news in English during my classes. At their level, they  have no real problems with the source vocabulary. What is difficult to achieve with Global Voices, compared to other translations of mainstream media articles they have to do,  is to recreate in French the looser style of writing on blogs, the bloggers’ tone, personality, jokes, slang.
Which routine did you set up? Do they enjoy it?
It certainly makes a change from their regular English curriculum, which is very scholastic and focused on exams. I have tested a number of methods: one post per student, or one post translated by many students. This year, they work in pairs. They chose themselves what they want to translate, deadlines are after school holidays or long weekends. Translations have to be handed in by email. We've set up a special user account on Global Voices in French to publish their translations (see last year's and this year's). In a way, they have produced something unique, so they are credited. To see their work and their name on the Web is a real incentive, some are very impatient to see it live on the Web.
Would you recommend this experiment to other teachers?
To be honest, be prepared for a lot of work! I'm sometimes overwhelmed when, on top of everything else, I get fifteen translations by email to read, comment and edit. But it truly is a very rewarding experiment, I do recommend it to other teachers. It builds a more personal relationship with students, I get to know them a little better from the posts they pick. I do not grade their translations, which makes for a more relaxed teacher-student relationship.
Students are credited at the top of the posts for their translations
How are citizen news media perceived in a French scholastic environment?
Teachers of advanced classes are pretty free to chose the material we work on. I informed the inspectorate at the beginning of this experiment and it was well received. As for myself, translating for Global Voices taught me a great deal on a linguistic as well as a cultural level. I've had access to news never (or seldom) covered by traditional media. I see citizen media as a considerable advancement in democracy. Blogs bring a new perspective, a personal view on a wide variety of subjects.
Was your true calling languages or teaching?
I always wanted to teach. As a kid, I taught my dolls and teddy bears. I fell in love with English when my mum – who lived for 8 years in South Africa – taught me English songs for children. Later, I had to chose between English and Spanish, which I also love. I majored in English literature, with a graduation paper on the myth of the Amazon in Elizabethan literature! I love reading contemporary literature in English and would love, one day, to translate into French one of my favorite novels. But time is tight, and for the moment, I dedicate myself to my other passion: advocacy for animals. My dream is to have the opportunity to live close to primates…
"Les Jacobins" cloister in Toulouse, the French town where Audrey lives and works  (Photo by nz_willowherb on flickr used under a Creative Commons licence)


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Uzbekistan: Economic purge · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Dafydd takes a look at various versions of why did the Uzbekistan's president order the arrest of a whole slew of Uzbekistan’s richest people.


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Bangladesh: Government Websites Hacked · Global Voices
Rezwan

Ahamed Bauani informs that twenty district websites of Bangladesh out of sixty four were hacked recently. The blogger suggests that the Bangladesh Government should take the incident seriously and install proper security measures.


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Chile: Changes in Government Websites with Arrival of New Administration  · Global Voices
Nike Jung

On a number of official Chilean government websites, such as the Chile Government [es] or Presidential Photos sites, no document older than March 12, 2010 can be found. Information belonging the previous government is not longer available. For example, the entire photo archive from the governments of Michele Bachelet and Ricardo Lagos are no longer available. The date coincides with the day after that President Sebastián Piñera was inaugurated as Chile's new president.
Government of Chile website
A debate ensued on the blogosphere about the meaning and significance of the deletions. Did the officials from the new government update the information or did they deliberately take down any reference to previous governments? Piñera's government is a marked change in Chilean politics, which brings the first right-wing government to take power in 20 years, since the country returned to democracy. With this, some bloggers say that the information should have been kept online since it was financed and belongs to the Chilean people.
Pablo Bello (@pablobello) tweeted:
Nueva administración elimina archivos de fotos de Bachelet y Lagos –  así se instala la derecha
Blogger Javier Sajuria believed that there was a chance for bi-partisan cooperation and unity, when Bachelet invited President-elect Piñera to attend the Summit of the Americas. However, this optimism turned to disappointment with the news of the removal of the files. He writes that it was a missed chance to begin the new government in unity and good faith and writes that “history does not begin on March 11 [es]” :
Al sacar esos registros de los sitios, no sólo están haciendo un proceso de limpieza de información, sino que nos están notificando que no están a la altura de las circunstancias. El Gobierno nos está diciendo en la cara que no le importa el legado de las administraciones anteriores y que, en lo que a ellos respecta, Chile comienza el 11 de marzo de 2010.
[…]
Existe la esperanza que esto siga tratándose de un error, pero cada vez son menos. Para el resto de nosotros, sólo nos sirve continuar exigiendo una solución de este tema que, por menor que parezca en estos días atormentados, no será menor el día de mañana, cuando queramos reconstruir nuestra historia. Son estos pequeños actos los que nos hablan de las actitudes del nuevo Gobierno, de la prepotencia con que realizan ciertas acciones y de sus inesperadas consecuencias.
By removing those records from the sites, not only are they going through a process of information cleansing, but they are telling us that they are not up to the circumstances (continuing the policies of previous administrations). The Government is telling us to our faces that it does not care about the legacy of previous administrations and that in their opinion, Chile begins on March 11, 2010.
[…]
There is hope that this is only an error, but more and more there is less hope. For the rest of us, all that is left is to continue to demand a solution to this issue, however unlikely it may seem during these difficult days, it will be more difficult when we want to reconstruct our history. These are small actions that reveal the attitudes of the new Government, of the arrogance with which they carry out certain actions and their unexpected consequences.
Sajuria offers alternatives, such as handing over the files to the Libraries, Archives and Museums Directorate (Dibam), so that they can archive the information. This would allow the public to access the information as needed.
Blogger Luis Ramirez concurs that the cleansing does not appear to be caused by coincidence or over-zealousness, but rather as a political statement [es]:
Me consta que esta desaparición forzada de la historia no fue un “error técnico”. Hablé con dos personas (una del nuevo gobierno y otra del antiguo) que me confirmaron que efectivamente esta situación se produjo.
[…]
No es un tema de racionalidad, es un tema de ser respetuosos y empáticos con esa parte de la nación que no votó por ellos y que son, ni más ni menos, que casi el 50% de la población.
[…]
Para decirlo con toda claridad: una política de eliminación sistemática de la memoria histórica de los anteriores gobiernos, no es compatible con la unidad nacional. No pueden pretender borrarnos.
I know that this forced disappearance of history was not a “technical error.” I spoke with two persons (one from the new government and another from the previous government) that confirmed to me that this situation actually occurred.
[…]
It is not a matter of rationality, but a matter of being respectful and sympathetic to that part of the nation that did not vote for them and they are, neither more nor less than about 50% of the population.
[…]
To put it clearly: a policy of systematic elimination of the historical memory of the previous governments is not compatible with national unity. You cannot try to erase us.
Montserrat Nicholás of the blog Curvas Políticas [es] provides her thoughts on the situation calling it “website burning.”
Así, Piñera (seguramente sin quererlo) inauguró lo que antes solo se conocía como “quema de libros”, y que hoy hemos querido llamar “quema-webs”.
Además de demostrar una falta de buenos modales y de no entender la Presidencia misma como un espacio continuo dentro de la tradición republicana, lo quema-web es altamente nocivo para el acceso a la información y la estampa de la Historia del país.
Entendemos que se quiera exhibir una fuerza resolutiva y se quiera disipar cualquier relación con el gobierno anterior pero borrar contenidos que son creados con fondos públicos (por muy insignificantes que sean) y emitidos desde la Presidencia, no es más que borrar la Historia misma y obstruir el acceso, deliberadamente.
Thus, Piñera (certainly unwittingly) initiated what was previously only known as “book burning ” and what we might call today “website burning.”
In addition to demonstrating a lack of good manners and for not understanding the Presidency as a space of continuity within the Republican tradition, website burning is highly harmful, with regards to the access to information and to the image of the country's history.
We understand that you want to show a resolute force and want to dispel any relationship with the previous government, but deleting content that has been created with public funds (however insignificant they may be) and emitted from the Presidency amounts to nothing more than erasing history itself and deliberately obstructing access.
However, Patagon comments and points out that the information might have just changed locations [es], and that people are getting carried away:
no sea paranóico e infórmele a su amiga que el sitio del “Gobierno de Chile” es para mostrar eso, información referente al gobierno de chile no de “Los Gobiernos de Chile”. Y evidentemente ese sitio no es el lugar idóneo para preservar nuestra historia. Yo me imagino que la administración saliente se encargó de poner la información histórica donde corresponde.
[…]
los gobiernos son quienes administran el estado en un periodo determinado de tiempo, por lo tanto es natural que la Web de un gobierno mantenga solo la información que éste estima importante y en este sentido, eliminar contenidos podría en el peor de los casos ser un error, pero de ninguna manera debiera significar algún tipo de censura.
Don't be paranoid and tell your friend that the site “Government of Chile” is for to show that, information relating to the government of Chile and not of the “governments of Chile.” Evidently that site is the not suitable place to preserve our history. I imagine that the outgoing administration commissioned to place the historical information where it belongs.
The governments are the ones that administer the state for a determined period of time, and it is natural that the website that the government administers should only contain information that they feel is important, and in this sense, eliminating content could be in the worst of cases – an error, but in no way should it mean that it is some type of censorship.
Other commenters like Felipe Zuñiga point out that new governments in other countries [es], like the United States, did not leave the information from previous governments on their new websites when they took office.
Regardless whether the elimination of the content was deliberate, an error, or whether it was relocated to another place, the changes in the website has stirred up debate during a historical transitional period in Chilean politics.

author: Nike Jung


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China: Oxfam’s ill-intentions  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

CDT translated a notification issued the the CCP's education bureau back in February which defines Oxfam Hong Kong an overseas organization that infiltrates into China.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Shanxi Vaccine scandal · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

PH from Veggie Discourse puts together various local reports on the “undetermined” causes led to death, disability, or serious sickness among nearly one hundred children in Shanxi. Many believe that the sickness and deaths are result of vaccines that are exposed to high temperature.


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Chinese netizens’ open letter to the Chinese Government and Google · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Rebecca MacKinnon has summarized the viewpoints of some Chinese netizens who have issued an open letter to express their stand in censorship.


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Cuba: Feeling the Tremors · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuban bloggers report on the earthquake tremors that hit the island two days ago.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Haiti: The Real “Slavery”  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Exploitation of child domestics is a global problem, not a Haitian ‘slavery’
issue”: The Haitian Blogger republishes a piece by Ezilidanto that exposes the real “slavery” in Haiti.


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India: Foreign Education Bill · Global Voices
Rezwan

Ashish at Desicritics discusses the merits and demerits of the recently passed Foreign Education Bill in India.


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India: Live Tweeting From Wedding Ceremony · Global Voices
Rezwan

Soumyadip at Cutting The Chai got married last month in Delhi and was live tweeting from his wedding ceremony.


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Iran: Iranians marked holiday under surveillance · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Iranians marked, Charshanbeh Soori, a holiday that leads up to the Persian new year under the watchful eyes of riot police Tuesday night, after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei the Islamic Republic's leader discouraged the celebrations. Charshanbe Soori is a prelude to Nowrouz, the Persian New Year which starts on March 21 and marks the arrival of spring.
Iranians celebrated the festival by lighting bonfires and leaping over the flames in an act that symbolises a hope for happiness in the new year.
Several citizens filmed and reported this event where, in some cases, political slogans against the Iranian regime were chanted. In other cases people just celebrated by dancing.
Police confronting people in Haft Hoz district in Tehran
People chant against Ayatollah Khamenei in the northern city Rasht
Dancing in Bandar Anzali in the north of Iran


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Iran: New wave of blogger arrests · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

The Iranian state-run news website, Irna [fa] and ultra conservative newspaper Keyhan  [fa] announced this month that members of Iran Proxy, a group fighting against censorship and filtering, had been arrested. The news sites also claimed in an announcement that the Iranian government had disrupted several “U.S. backed cyber war networks” and arrested 30 people. Iranian news sites did not mention how many of the arrested people belong to Iran Proxy group.
Iran Proxy has used twitter and their website in the fight against web filtering. In an interview with Radio Farda, a representative of the group said they have been working for six years in an ‘underground’ fight against censorship.
Three months ago, the group announced on its website [fa] that due to financial pressures they were stopping their activities.
Keyhan reported that the leader of the group is a blogger named “Seyed Hussein Ronaghi Melki” whose pennames are Babak Khoramdin or Babak blogger. The newspaper claims the blogger was based in Tabriz and was involved in human rights activities. According to Keyhan he has been arrested by security forces.
Babak Khoramdin used  [fa] the photo above on Twitter and his blog [fa] where he shared ideas on human rights and political issues.
Meanwhile, Iranian reformist websites announced [fa] that Mehdi Aboutorabi, founder of Persian Blog, a leading blog provider in country in the country had also been arrested. Aboutorabi was a supporter of the presidential campaign of one of Iran's main opposition leaders,  Mir Hussein Mousavi. Since the presidential election on 12 June, the Iranian authorities have arrested hundreds of journalists and political activists, and also many bloggers. Aboutorabi's arrest has no relation to the Iran Proxy group.


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Jamaica, U.S.A.: On Extradition · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Blogging about Jamaica's refusal to extradite Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke to the US, Active Voice says that “there's no level playing field”, while My View of JamDown from UpSo adds: “The fact is that Jamaica is neither America's weed nor cocaine dealer!”


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Japan: Foreign trainees’ sad stories · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

A photo-reportage by Buddhika on five Chinese female trainees who reportedly escaped from the fabric factory of Tode Bussan (in Toyama prefecture) where they were underpaid and exploited.


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Morocco: A Photo Competition · Global Voices
Hisham Almiraat

The View From Fez announces a readers’ photography competition, in anticipation of the blog's fifth anniversary next October. Photographs should be taken in Morocco and can be submitted by email.


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Trinidad & Tobago: No to Co-Ed · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“One of the latest national topics is the Ministry of Education's pilot project to convert twenty co-educational (or co-ed) secondary schools into same-sex (or single-sex) schools”: KnowTnT.com and Ken Sambury comment.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Red Earth  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

MEP Caribbean Publishers has the scoop on Trinidad and Tobago's Red Earth Eco Arts Festival, which, in commemoration of World Environment Day, plans to focus the spotlight on the country's “fragile fresh water systems: rivers, streams, waterfalls, underground springs and mangroves.”


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UAE: Skin Whitening Cream · Global Voices
Katharine Ganly

Arabmania questions the popularity for skin whitening creams in the Arab world, and gets lots of comments here.

author: Katharine Ganly


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Africa: Crowdfunding in Africa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Erik writes about crowdfunding and seed funding in Africa: “We’re starting to see a few angel investors like Sean Murphy of Chembe Ventures making their way around the continent, but they are not nearly enough to fulfill the capacity of ideas and individuals who need startup capital.”


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Bangladesh: ‘CrossFire’ Photo Exhibition Barred By Police  · Global Voices
Rezwan

Shamim Ashraf at Straight From Bangladesh reports that a photo exhibition on the extra judicial killing of the police force and the elite force RAB was shut down by the police.


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Barbados: Ten Year Sentence  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Barbados Free Press is disappointed that the murderer of a tourist was sentenced to only ten years in prison: “Barbados doesn’t want any scrutiny about robbery, rape and violence against tourists…”


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Bermuda: Violent Crime  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Vexed Bermoothes says that crime in Bermuda is “a lot worse than most people assume, particularly given the small size of this rock and the even smaller neighbourhoods that are being scarred by this violence.”


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China: Google.cn migrated to Hong Kong  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Finally Google has decided to leave China. Soon after the announcement, Google stopped censoring the search result of google.cn by redirecting the site to google.com.hk. In Google's official blog, David Drummond, the corporate's chief legal officer explains that its decision is due to the Chinese government's “non-negotiable legal requirement” in self-censorship. However, Google's R&D work will continue to stay in China.
On the other hand, China (via Xinhua) says Google has “violated its written promise” and is totally wrong” by stopping censorship.
Meanwhile, google.com.hk is subjected to keyword filtering by the China Great Fire Wall, while its domain is still accessible in China. Rebecca MacKinnon points out that the ball is now on the Chinese government's court:
1) Whether they will block all of google.com.hk, which until now has not been blocked. If they are smart they will just leave the situation as is and stop drawing media attention to their censorship practices.
2) Whether they allow Google to retain its ad sales and R&D businesses in China.
Even though there were reports forecasting Google's departure, many Chinese netizens still feel sorry about the news. Jason Ng from Kenengba interviewed Chinese twitterers on their apprehensions regarding Google's decision and received more than 100 responses. Here is a summary of his findings:
有人担心百度会一家独大，搜索结果里的虚假信息会日益增多；很多人担心，他们喜爱的Google服务，比如Gmail, Reader, Calendar将无法使用；有站长担心Adsense项目会被搁置；也有人认为，这将使得中国互联网倒退10年。
在这些草根网民的眼里，Google退出中国并不如政府的某些官员所说–“中国互联网照样健康发展”。Google为互联网带来的改变，绝不仅仅是创造了最好的搜索引擎。
Google是一家值得所有互联网从业者敬佩的公司，它总是无时无刻给互联网带来新的惊喜以及新的模式。在一定程度上，Google代表着免费互联网的趋势，代表着技术的前进方向，代表着网络中立的理念。这是Google的三个代表。
Among the grassroots internet users, the retreat of Google is far away from what the Chinese government officials’ description that “Chinese internet will continue to grow healthily”. The Change that Google brings to the Internet is not limited to the creation of best search engine.
Google is a most well-respected Internet company. It keeps introducing new innovation and surprise to the Internet. To some extent, Google represents the trend in free Internet service, the direction of technological innovation and net neutrality stand. This is Google's three representations.
The blogger foresees an government launched propaganda campaign against Google in China:
1、新华网、人民网、中国网等“官方新闻网站”会发布很多Google的负面社论
2、网易、新浪、搜狐等新闻网站关于Google的正面新闻一律不予刊登
3、网易、新浪、搜狐等新闻网站关于Google的新闻跟帖里肯定是一边倒支持政府的
However, many internet users still decided to show their support to Google by sending flowers to Google Headquarter in Beijing:  Gaoming1916 interviewed a number of supporters:
Moreover, around 100 of Google supporters gathered at Google China Headquarter tonight for a candle night vigil. However, they were stopped by security guards and polices:
@yanglicai: 一辆警用面包车停下，6，7个警察下车，说＂请离开，不要聚集＂。人群齐唱＂嗷，可爱地草尼妈＂
@tengbiao: 警察驱赶，很多便衣。我看到声援者百人。
Twitter is a most important platform for uncensored opinions on Google departure and twitter users share their views with hashtag #googlecn. Below is a selection of comments:
@roseluqiu: 谷歌走了，在我看来只不过是修正之前的错误，遵守不做恶的承诺。其它的公司，既然没有这样的价值观和原则，所以也不必苛求他们。但是因为自己要求不高而批评google,那就是非常卑鄙的行为了。在google问题上，看到了很多小人。 #googlecn
geekinmedia 央视新闻频道在播谷歌，果然如我所料，把谷歌说成一个传播淫秽内容的黄色网站了
@laokalaoka 以前买奶粉去香港，现在上GOOGLE去香港，以后打预防针，也可以去香港吗？
@zhanghui8964 人如草，民如屁，官如匪，党如寇。–谷哥，你先走吧，这地方不适合你，但我们会在不久的将来热烈地迎接你有尊严地归来。 #googlecn
@heicailiao: For HKers like myself, Google's move shows how valuable HK's autonomy is. We must not budge, not an inch.
@SecretaryZhang 真理部指令：请各地清理借此事攻击党、国家、政府部门、互联网相关政策的文字、图片和音视频等。请各地清理声援谷歌、给谷歌献花、挽留谷歌、为谷歌叫好等跟政府政策唱反调的文字、图片和音视频等。请各地主管近期派专人监控谷歌相关信息，如有群体性事件信息。 #GoogleCN


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China: Singing farewell to Google · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Following the closure early this morning of Google's mainland China search engine Google.cn, which now redirects to its Hong Kong-based counterpart, supporters of the company have throughout the day descended once again on Google's Beijing headquarters to pay their last respects.
As Google's prepares to (partially) depart, a number of serious questions remaining unanswered, both for the Chinese government and, as noted by Bill Bishop at DigiCha, Google itself.
With Google fans (and plainclothes secret police) gathering around the Google sign, netizen Gao Ming took the opportunity to interview several of the former on which of Google's localized services they will miss.
[update: Gao Ming's video has been removed from Youku (see above), but a backup copy (below) has been stored at dotSUB] [update2: someone has uploaded a recording of Beijing's Google fans being asked by police to disperse, followed by their singing of the Grass Mud Horse song]
Later in the evening, the crowd of reportedly [zh] a hundred supporters began singing the song of the Grass Mud Horse, until police made them disperse. Under the Jacaranda Tree blogger C.A. Yeung bridge-tweeted around that time that “[m]ore than 10 Chinese human rights activitists & many more netizens are gathering at Google China headquarter.”
At just after 10pm, one of those, lawyer Teng Biao, tweeted that the crowd had begun to dwindle; a photo from Jason Ng shows that the flowers and cups which had been left on the Google sign had been removed.

author: John Kennedy


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CPJ Hires Internet Advocacy Coordindator · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

Danny O'Brien blogs that he has accepted a position as the first internet advocacy coordinator of Committee to Protect Journalists.

author: Solana Larsen


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Ghana: Accra Twestival 2010: Social Media Activity With Substance?  · Global Voices
L. Abena Annan

If social media is changing communication patterns in the West, it sure has not fallen short of touching interesting places on the African continent. During the 2008 Ghana Presidential elections, many Ghanaians took to social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to share concerns and opinions about the process. When the winner of the race was announced, these same sites became spots for jubilation – at least for supporters of the winning party.
Logo of Accra Twestival. Courtesy of Accraconsciousforever.blogspot.com
Online celebration events have been scheduled, for instance, after the 2008 U.S. Presidential elections, and thousands of people from all over the world have signed up to attend, virtually. So it is no surprise that people from this same digital era have decided to take advantage of the techno-crazed lifestyle and jump on an Accra Twestival in Ghana. Well, this time it will take place offline.
MacJordan, one of Global Voices’ own, is collaborating with Rodney Quarcoo, a recognized Ghanaian photographer to bring this seemingly entertaining event to the people of Ghana. But this is no ordinary affair. As MacJordan coined it in a post about the event:
[It] is aimed at supporting a great cause; that is securing Educational materials for children in deprived areas in Ghana.
He further elaborates in the post:
On Thursday 25 March 2010, people in hundreds of cities around the world including Accra will come together offline to rally around the important cause of Education by hosting local events to have fun and create awareness. Twestival™ (or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good. All of the local events are organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of all donations go direct to projects.
Where will the funds go? The same thread provides this information:
Each city hosting a Twestival will be given the opportunity to select an area of education to support. This will be recognized with a special icon on their website once they have set a goal. For as little as $28USD they can provide the uniform, books, pencils, and paper a child needs to attend one year of school. Concern Worldwide is able to guarantee that 100% of Twestival funds will go direct to project costs. This means that the money would be used for material purchases (curriculum, desks, pencils) as well as project activities such as construction of schools; rehabilitation of classrooms; teacher/management training; PTAs; HIV/AIDS school clubs; water and sanitation in schools; health education in schools; education advocacy; vocational/life-skills training for youth, farmers and women; and curriculum development for secondary school/university.
The vibrantly designed logo for this event, created by Quarcoo, does a great job of evoking excitement about the festival. A February 9 tweet on Quarcoo’s Twitter page in response to the announcement of the event read:
Let's go tweople. Let's make it happen.
Accra Twestival’s Twitter Page has been calling on people to sign up to volunteer at the event. According to this page, the organizers seem to be reaching out to some of Ghana’s popular music artists to get involved and make a event successful.
An eye-catching message on Accra Twestival’s Twitter page read:
Education gives people a voice in their communities. It also makes people aware of their rights and opportunities.
Indeed. Education is an area with much need of intervention on the continent, especially rural Africa. It would be interesting to see how much need is met with Accra’s Twestival.

author: L. Abena Annan


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Guatemala: Transport Blockades as Protest · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Luis Figueroa of Carpe Diem [es] writes about the blockades placed by public transport drivers in Guatemala City, who are protesting the lack of security and crime often targeted at them. However, Figueroa writes that all people have a right to protest, but not with blockades.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Haiti: Debt Forgiveness  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Repeating Islands links to a Business Week report that confirms the Inter-American Development Bank “has agreed to forgive $479 million in debts owed by quake-ravaged Haiti”.


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Haiti: World Water Day  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Haiti Innovation blogs about World Water Day 2010.


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Kenya: Is Makmende Kenya’s first Internet sensation? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Is Makmende Kenya's first Internet sensation: “Unless you’ve been offline for the better part of two weeks its Kenya’s first viral Internet sensation, and his name is Makmende! Yes. Makmende is something to smile about! He is Kenya’s first super hero and boy does he rock!”


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Nepal: Death of a polarizing ‘statesman’ · Global Voices
Bhumika Ghimire

Former Nepalese Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala passed away on Saturday March 21st, after prolonged illness. He was an influential and powerful presence in Nepalese politics, but was also often controversial and polarizing figure.
Girija Prasad Koirala  Image via Wikipedia, used under Creative Commons License
Despite his sixty years long public life and five different terms as Nepalese Prime Minister, Koirala's unreasonable ambitions for his daughter marred his reputation.
Blogger XNepali comments,
“Giraja’s role in bringing the Maoist in mainstream politics and stop (sic) the civil war in the country have been highly appreciated. To honor his role in resolving Maoist conflict in Nepal, the Nepali government has recently nominated him for the Nobel Prize.
In the final days he was accused of being too much daughter-centric. His role in establishing his only daughter, Sujata Koirala, in politics, making her the deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister was highly criticized.”
Girija Koirala's inability to successfully govern, or his lack of management skills was analyzed by Deepak Adhikari in an article published back in 2006.
“An analyst says: “Koirala has historical legacy but he lacks statesmanship.” Once Koirala was an ardent anti-communist. But, as the oft-quoted dictum goes: Politics made him share bed with strange fellows. He traveled all the way to Delhi to strike a deal with Maoists in order to bring them into mainstream politics. This will be the toughest task Koirala-led government will face in coming days.
…………..He is invariably steeped in controversies. He is not only blamed for betraying his colleague KP Bhattarai, but also blatantly dubbing young and pro-republican leaders Narahari Acharya and Gagan Thapa as agents of palace in the eve of NC’s 11 general convention……”
Due to his pivotal role in the country's peace process and ongoing efforts to write a new Constitution, Koirala's untimely death has attracted international attention and concerns too. India seems especially concerned. United States also re-iterated that true tribute to Koirala will be to finalize the new constitution and to accelerate the peace process.
Uttam Babu Shrestha at MySansar says that void left by Koirala's demise has put Nepal's peace process in a tough spot. Those who in the past criticized Koirala's inability provide strong leadership are faced with the challenge of directing the peace process to a positive conclusion.
“समग्र शान्तिप्रकृया र नेपालको राजनितिको आशाको केन्द्र वनेको छिनछिनमा अक्सिजन लिएर बाँच्दै गरेको त्यो कुनो अब रहेन । वाहिर उनलाई गाली गर्दै कुर्लने तर उनको पिँडीमा गएर टाउको कन्याउने क्रमको अब अन्य भएको छ । देशको शान्तिप्रकृया संविधान लेखन जस्ता मुद्दाहरु यतिखेर अक्सिजन लिएर बाँचिरहेको छ केहि दिन अघिको गिरीजा प्रसाद कोइराला जस्तै । हिजो गिरीजाले हामीलाई नेतृत्व गर्न दिएनन् भन्दै ठुला ठुला भाषण ठौक्दै उनीमाथि दोष थुपार्नेहरुलाई उनले मैदान खालि गरिदिएका छन् पार्टी भित्रको र देशको राजनितिमा पनि । अक्सिजन लिएर वाँचिरहेको शान्तिप्रकृयालाई तार्किक निष्कर्षमा पुराउने वा नपुराउने ? कोमामा रहेको संविधानसभालाई कोइराला जस्तै अवसान हुन दिने कि तग्राउने ? हिजोसम्म गिरीजालाई दोष दिदै आफ्ना कर्तुतहरु लुकाउनेहरुलाई इतिहासले नयाँ जिम्मेवारी सुम्पेको छ – गर या मर ।”
“A corner of hope for the entire peace process and Nepalese politics which was on life support is now gone.The game of criticizing Koirala in public but then going back to his doorstep seeking help has now ended.Like Koirala's final days, country's constitution writing and peace process is now on life support. Koirala has left the filed for those who screamed in the past that he did not give them the opportunity to lead. Whether to lead the peace process to a comprehensive conclusion,  whether to revive Constituent Assembly which is slipping into coma? history has placed new responsibility to those who accused Girija Koirala in the past and hid their own deed-do or die”
There is no doubt that Girija Koirala's demise has left a big void in Nepalese politics. His presence will be missed in the coming days as the political parties struggle to complete new constitution writing process within stipulated time. The debate over his legacy and his history of ineffective management will drag on. He was a politician after all and no one in public life has been able to escape public scrutiny-not even after death.

author: Bhumika Ghimire


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Nepal: Twitter And Facebook Reactions On Girija Prasad Koirala’s Death · Global Voices
Rezwan

Dinesh Wagle at United We Blog! for a Democratic Nepal compiles Twitter and Facebook reactions on the death of former Prime Minister of Nepal, Mr. Girija Prasad Koirala.

author: Rezwan


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Pakistan: Child Abuse On The Rise · Global Voices
Halima Khan

There is a disturbing rise in child abuse cases in Pakistan. According to UNICEF Local Officer Shamshad Qureshi the reason is lack of proper law enforcement, negligence of parents and lack of awareness among the children and the society. He also said that the major factor for pedophilia in Pakistan was the easy access of people to children due to the negligence of parents.
Faheem Haider at Bangladesh Foreign Policy Blog discusses about the abuse of children and child workers in Pakistan and Bangladesh. He doesn’t mince as he shows us another very common side of child abuse:
“Unable to feed a growing family, desperate parents farm out their children to affluent homes to serve as servants, maids or nannies (child-keepers is the more proper sense in which these children are employed in those house-holds).  These children then become, effectively, the wards of their employers and are often treated like personal property.  The birth parents remain out of sight, perhaps hundreds of miles away, unaware that their babies are just so much flesh and burdened bone for the caprice and rubbed temper of their unbecomingly unkind lords.
Justice has been put aside for these children.  They are the flotsam of unsettled poverty and the repackaged gifts of unhinged circumstances.  Opportunity does not avail them; outcomes remain unmarked and the appropriate ends to which they might be working are unknown to them.  Justice is for these children an inattentive teacher.”
Fatima Bhutto is not only a influential political heir but also a humanitarian. In a blog post in The Daily Beast she doesn’t leave much to be said by painting a grim picture of child abuse:
“The brutal murder of a 12-year-old maid, believed to have been killed by her powerful employer, has stunned the country. But from the corrupt government to the honor killing of a wealthy woman, the country's rich always get away with it.
Shazia Masih, a tiny 12-year-old who looked years younger than her age, was laid to rest last week after a Christian funeral at Lahore's Cathedral Church. She had been employed by the wealthy and influential former president of Lahore's Bar Association, and for a generous $8 a month she cleaned her employer's toilets, the cars that filled their suburban garage, and the filth that collected on the floors of their home.”
This YouTube video shows that a teacher of a government school abused a student as punishment but nobody did anything.
The term ‘child abuse’ covers a wide array of very diverse kinds of crimes subjected towards the minors. It signifies physical as well as mental pain. When an adult tries to use a child as a sex toy it is child abuse. When an adult tries to appease his labour needs at a lower cost it is also child abuse. When a child is exploited as a commodity and traded for monetary or non monetary produce it is child abuse. When an adult forces the child to push himself beyond his strength overlooking all health guidelines for children it is child abuse.
Pakistan is a country that does little in protecting its young worlds from the many horrors of child abuse that they are exposed to in and around the green pastures.

author: Halima Khan


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Pakistan: Intervention Of The Judiciary · Global Voices
Rezwan

Faisal Naqvi Monsoon Frog writes about the economics of judicial interventionism in Pakistan.


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Is Russia an Enemy of Internet?  · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

The degree of freedom on the Russian Internet is an issue for debates. Some put Russia on the same list of “Internet enemies” with China and Iran. Others strongly oppose this kind of generalization and claim that Russian Internet is the most liberal and unrestricted public sphere in the country.
The recent “Internet enemies” report [ENG] by international non-governmental organization “Reporters Without Borders” tried to bring some order in regards to placement of Russia on the Internet freedom scale. The organization placed the country on the list of “Countries under surveillance.” This placement and especially the justification for it by the report’s authors raised discussion and disagreement in Russia.
The original report states [ENG]:
After the takeover by the Kremlin of the audiovisual media early in the Putin era, the Internet became the freest space for discussion and information-sharing in Russia. Yet its dependence is threatened by blogger arrests and prosecutions, and the blocking of independent websites labeled as “extremist.” The Web has also become a first-rate sphere of activity for government propaganda and could become a political control mechanism.
It names a long list of government affiliated activities that should be considered as limitation of Internet freedom. Among those activities is web surveillance system  “SORM-2″ that makes possible to monitor online content for security agencies. The reported also noted the fact that some of major social media platforms were bought out by oligarchs with close ties to the government. “Reporters Without Borders” additionally cited the story of blocking oppositional websites by WIMAX Internet provider Yota, cyber attacks against liberal websites and persecutions against bloggers.
But there are some more optimistic statements. The report suggests that “the Internet has become a space in which people can denounce the corruption of Russian officials.” However, it concludes that despite this fact “the impact of these online mobilizations, blogs and new media on Russian society is still relatively limited” and warns that censorship on RuNet (Russian Internet) may increase.
Right after the report was released, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress, asked few Russian Internet experts to comment on the report. Famous blogger and journalist Oleg Kozyrev said [RUS] to RFE/RL:
Мы живем в ситуации, когда любой блогер может стать участником уголовного дела. Но тотального преследования блогеров, конечно, сейчас в России нет. Есть просто эпизодические удары по некоторым гражданским активистам. Я бы разделил ситуацию с блогерами на два типа: собственно преследование государства – силами правоохранительных структур, провластных политических организаций. И когда блоггер подпадает под административные или уголовные правонарушения из-за того, что законодательство его надежно не защитило.
The executive director of “Social networks” agency Denis Terehov opposes [RUS] the idea of censorship on RuNet:
О какой цензуре можно вести речь, если на сегодняшний день в Рунете есть 60 млн. аккаунтов сети в “Контакте”, 50 млн. аккаунтов в “Одноклассниках” и 2 млн. дневников в “Лайф Джорнале”. Кто кого контролирует? Кто кому не дает писать? Мы же не в Китае, где цензурируют “Гугл”. Мы же не в Казахстане, где отключили “Лайф Джорнал”. Никто никому не запрещает писать, объяснять свою позицию.
The head of “Freedom of Speech Protection Foundation” Aleksey Simonov emphasizes [RUS] the difference between Internet and Russian traditional media where editors and reporters know in advance what they are not allowed to say:
Что касается Интернета, то там цензуры не может быть. Цензура – это предварительный просмотр перед публикацией. Но ведь невозможно предварительно посмотреть, например, блог, верно? Вопрос не в том, чтобы не дать этому выйти, а в том, чтобы наказать за то, что уже вышло. А это уже называется по-другому.
However, beyond the discussion if the Russian Internet is censored or not, the way that this claim was explained by the “Internet Enemies” report raised some debates and discussion.  Alexander Amzin, Internet expert for the major Russian online news agency Lenta.ru wrote an article that argued with most of facts that were included in the Russian chapter of the “Reporters without Borders” report.
Amzin writes [RUS]
Эти шесть страниц – самое удивительное собрание мифов и легенд Рунета последних нескольких лет.
According to Amzin, some of the facts in the report are old news. For instance, SORM-2 system works since 2000 and there are no clear evidences that it caused any repressive actions. Moreover, Amzin reminds that most of countries in the world have some systems for traffic monitoring. Other old news a purchase of Livejournal.com by a Russian oligarch with some ties to the Kremlin. There also no clear evidences that it had any impact on freedom of expression on this most popular blogging platform in the country.
Amzin also reminds that the blocking of websites by Yota provider included governmental websites. He notes that the further development of this incident showed that this block was not censorship but a technical problem. The Lenta.ru expert points out that Vadim Charushev  who was confined against his will in a psychiatric hospital wasn’t the creator of Vkontakte.ru social networks, as the report claims, but a social networking activist. Amzin also disagrees with the claim that Russian law authorized the government to intercept Web data without a prior court order.
The most outrage of Amzin was caused by the report's statement about a group called the “Brigade” that includes people who leave pro-government comments  (some of them are allegedly doing it for money).
К сожалению, аналитикам “Репортеров без границ” никто не объяснил, что “бригада” является городской легендой Рунета. Говорят, что у всех популярных блогеров есть куратор в органах. Говорят, что все патриоты сидят на зарплате. Говорят, что власти специально организуют распределенные атаки на оппозиционные сервера. Все это слухи одного порядка, для критического анализа которых достаточно бритвы Хэнлона
Amzin also says that the claim that online mobilization is limited on RuNet ignores the reality. However, there is one point the Russian expert agrees on:
Может создаться впечатление, что отчет состоит из одних ошибок. Это не так. Серьезная часть документа занимает ровно одну страницу. Там перечислены блогеры, которые за свои высказывания понесли уголовную ответственность или просто стали фигурантами уголовных дел. Блогеров действительно сажают, и это действительно очень плохо.
The article by Amzin also raised a discussion among RuNet users. Some of them claimed that Amzin himself demonstrates exaggerated patriotism and mentioned very recent stories that raised lack of confidence in RuNet zone including shutting down of Torrents.ru and Ifolder.ru websites.  One can also recall the case of Yandex blog rating closure [ENG] that removed one of the most powerful platforms for alternative agenda setting on RuNet.
One of the comments to Amzin's criticism, however, opposes [RUS] the claim that the “Brigade” is just an urban legend:
Тролли есть. Все сайты где обсуждается наше родное дерьмо валят тупыми однотипными комментами с целью свести обсуждение на банальные оскорбления. И за это начисляется зарплата. И есть кураторы. Автор, Вы не из них? Истеричное выдергивание ошибок списка “врагов интернета” выдается как необъективность всего списка. Автор считает, что “Репортеры без границ” не в состоянии мониторить инфу про Рунет?
The controversy around Russian chapter of “Internet enemies” report emphasizes the high degree of complexity of the reality in the Russian segment of the Internet. The questions of government’s involvement nature, censorship and limiting freedom of speech have no simple answer. RuNet has to be under surveillance. Including Russia in the list of countries that should raise concerns is certainly justified. But it also requires careful approach that can distinguish myth form facts, try to investigate the complexity, and avoid “black and white” approach that categorizes some of processes as evidences for repressive actions by government.

author: Gregory Asmolov


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Spain: MyWorld Video Winner tackles unemployment · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

The BBC's video contest My World Video has come to a close, and from the hundreds of submitted entries, they've selected their winner:  Frederico Teixeira of Samapayo in Spain who made a 2 minute video on the unemployment situation in his country. The simple video shows his reflection in a front-loading washer and explains how he deals with frustration of not finding a job. You can view other winners here.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


text:
Trinidad & Tobago: Horning  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

From Trinidad and Tobago, This Beach Called Life blogs about “horning”.