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Should Uganda’s Abortion Law Be Revised? · Global Voices
James Propa

When faced with the stigma or trauma of an unwanted pregnancy in Uganda, through situations such as lack of family planning, rape, incest and forced marriage, many women and girls resort to abortions.
However, Ugandan law is unclear on the issue. Article 22(2) states that “no person has a right to terminate the life of an unborn child except as may be authorized by law”, so there is a question as to how much and when the doctor can legally help a woman to abort. Abortion is also regarded as a taboo by most cultures/tribes in Uganda and is believed to bring misfortune to the family.
As a result, women resort to village clinics or traditional healers, or use crude methods such as clothes hangers, hitting the stomach with stones, ingesting a lot of tea leaves, or a drug overdose, which can result in excessive bleeding and ultimately death in some cases.
Pregnant woman. Photo used with permission from str8talkchronicle.com.
Abortion activist and lawyer at Law and Advocacy for Women in Uganda, Kaboneke Zaamu, recently said:
If the people who are supposed to provide the service do not understand the law, then how about a lay person in the village?
There are approximately 267,000 abortions carried out in Uganda every year; the Center for Reproductive Rights & Development (CEHURD) believes Uganda needs to do something about abortion and the law. The organisation has come up with a campaign to make sure the law is revised and also make it clear to local people and health practitioners on when they should help a woman to abort.
Not all Ugandans share this view. According to Silver Kayondo on Uganda Christian University website, abortion cannot be clearly legalised:
Even if some of the provisions in the P.C.A were inconsistent with the constitution, they would be null and void because article2 (2) of the constitution provides;”If any other law or custom is inconsistent with any of the provisions of this constitution, the constitution shall prevail…” For fellow Christians, the commandment from God is we should not kill.
God alone is the author of life and He alone can terminate it.
CEHURD is now working on a countrywide campaign to educate the nation about abortion and women's rights to receive medical help in instances of rape, incest and also when a woman's life is at risk.
Yet Ugandans are divided over the campaign, as netizens’ comments below show.
Bennie51 thinks its not fair for the unborn child's life to be ended:
What happens to the poor unborn child “protect, promote and fulfil human rights”. that child does not deserve to die. All measures possible shoud be put in place to avoid unwanted pregnancies. However once pregnacy has occured, then women whould go through and give birth
Josephrubs asks whether fetuses do not have a right to life:
How do you define unwanted pregnancies? In most cases, having sex is a choice..on just few cases are people forced into sex. While you claim human rights, dont foetuses have a right to life. Practically, as long as they are formed, it is life already. Which part of Ugandan schools has no minimum access to information on safe sex? Stop promoting people's carelessness! If you cant have safe sex, then leave it unless you are raped!!
Eventmobil replies to Josephrubs’ comment:
Your comment makes no sense in the light of the Ugandan ‘president’ currently trying to ban sexual education from schools. This leaves even more little girls as UNKNOWING VICTIMS TO OLDER RELATIVES AND NEIGHBOURS. Knowing nothing about contraception and sexuality makes the children even more curious and brings high risks for (DEFINATELY) unwanted pregnancies. For me, I teach my little girls EXACTLY about sexuality, contraception and family planning, and also about the right to say “NO” to any dirty old man who tries to approach them.
Paul thinks abortion is murder to the unborn child and asks whether teaching students about abortion will not only teach them how to take innocent lives:
Abortion is murder! Do you want to teach school children how to kill innocent human life? Think about it….
Kojjauncle argues that its better to teach girls how to avoid unwanted pregnancies instead of teaching them how to end pregnancies:
WHY NOT SOLVE WHAT LEADS TO ABORTIONS?? ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO HAVE SAFE SEX IF THEY MUST… ABORTION IS REAL MURDER! YOU CAN ONLY READ THIS AND COMMENT JUST BECAUSE YOU WERE NOT ABORTED. WHICH ASSURANCE TO YOU HAVE TO SAY THAT YOU WERE CONCEIVED AT THE MOST CONVENIENT MOMENT?? LOVE LIFE, STOP MURDER. ABORTION IS MURDER.. MOREOVER OF THE INNOCENT
watata says abortion is an ungodly act which Ugandans can't accept:
Ugandan can't accept such act. Please don't even try to talk about such ungodly act
Kamundu Moses is against strict laws against abortion leading to more maternal deaths and therefore asks policy makers to be more flexible:
With the strict law against abortion it is still being carried out behind doors leading to death of youthful Ugandans. It accounts for 26% cases of maternal death in Uganda.Russia with a strict law against abortion found 256 human embryos dumped in a forest of recent,Russian authorities are still investigating the origin of these human embryos.
Why can't our policy makers become flexible and revisit the law like western countries because the strict law is not doing much to curb the practice,it is instead putting people's lives at risk.
Namusisi Juliet notes that making abortion illegal in Uganda has led to many unskilled practitioners engaging in it:
With this mentality of aborting being a crime in the laws of Uganda,has forced many unskilled practitioners to engage in it and therefore leading to deaths of many young women.I therefore suggest that awareness to the public on circumstances under which abortion should be practiced ,should be emphasized and those who engage in it illegally should be worked upon by the law.
Amooti Businge says:
Introduce sexual reproductive health education in schools, establish pregnancy/parents-to-be counselling services, change attitude to respect pregnancy outside marriage, especially, christians emphasing the role of Mary who became pregnant surprisingly outside of marriage, set up fund to help pregnant women. Otherwise with the reported failure of ABC in fight against HIV ugandan women are heading into more troubles.
A study by the Guttmacher Institute titled ‘Abortion Worldwide: A Decade of Uneven Progress’ shows that 23% of women seeking abortions in Uganda go to traditional practitioners, 56% go to doctors or nurses, and 15% try to self-induce using highly dangerous, crude methods. About 5.5 million women in Africa risk their lives annually when they decide to terminate a pregnancy.

author: James Propa


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South Korea: Golden Lion Winner ‘Pieta’ Reveals Society’s Dark Side · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

The Golden Lion award-winning Korean film ‘Pieta‘, which is also South Korea's submission for the 2012 Academy Awards (in the foreign-language film category) has sparked social media buzz and ignited various public discussions in the Korean blogosphere this week. As the film became the center of media attention, more revelations were made about the dark side of South Korean society.
Although the film achieved monumental success in Korean movie history by receiving one of the most prestigious awards at the Venice Film Festival on September 8, 2012, the movie director said he is still struggling to find theaters to show his film in South Korea. Some Twitter users supported his claim and tweeted that there is no movie theater running the movie in Choogju [ko] city, Masan [ko] city and not even in one of the multiplex theaters [ko] in his region.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jBpEiDwNuN8
The movie is a brutal, violent story of a loan shark who one day meets a woman claiming to be his mother in his journey toward redemption, but finally comes to a devastating end. The story is being interpreted as disclosing the inhuman and dangerously materialistic aspect of the Korean society. Twitter user @whitestar612 wrote [ko]:
[…] 영화 ‘피에타'는 자본주의가 결국 없는 자들이 서로 물어 뜯어 죽이는 구조라는 것을 극단적으로 보여주는 영화였다. 픽션이지만 결코 픽션으로 넘어갈 수 없는 우리 사회의 단면.
Another user @slowcinema commented [ko]:
영화 ‘피에타'는 우리 사회로부터 소외되고, 외면당한 채 처절하게 살아가는 사람들을 대상으로 삼고 있었고, 곪아터지기 직전, 너무도 고통스런 그들의 현실이 아프도록 적나라하게 드러나 있었다.
The reviews about the movie and the director were not unanimously positive. The movie director Kim Ki-duk‘s works, although lauded by movie critics and loved by art fans, have been turned down by general public. Most of his films are brutal, violent and often appear to be misogynistic. A majority of the female characters in his films are almost always being raped and abused physically and mentally by the male characters. In Daum Agora, South Korea's biggest public forum, netizen bestlife resonated [ko] the ordinary audiences’ sentiment.
영화를 보고 마음이 평안해지는 것이 아니라 토할 것 같은 역겨움…억지로 보라는 건지…여성관객들을 유린하는 듯한 영화[…] 강자에게 억압당하고 약자에게 화풀이하는 현상이 반복되고 있습니다.
Bestlife made a harsher remark [ko] on the movies’ repeated theme of raping, calling the director “one who gained success by torturing and raping women”.
Others focused more on the director's personal background. Kim has been widely seen as an outcast in South Korea’s film industry and has been struggling for decades for refusing to make mainstream commercial films. Twitter user @ichwell wrote [ko]:
김기덕의 수상은 자랑스러우면서도 한편 부끄럽다.사실 한국영화계가 그에게 해준것이 없다.그의 제작비의 대부분은 자신의 돈과 해외판매 수익으로 충당된것이다.한국영화계가 키워낸 감독이 아니라 한국밖의 관객과 영화인이 키운 감독이다.
Agora user haeorm wrote a detailed post [ko] praising the director's success.
그의 상업적 영화에 대한 불신과 순수 예술영화에 대한 고집 때문에 20년 째 국내 영화계에서는 이단적 괴물급 아웃 사이더 감독으로[…] 공식 학벌이 중졸이고 서울 청계천이나 구로공단에서 노동자 생활을 하며 청년시절을 보냈던 바닥 인생 김기덕이 어찌하여 한국사회에 굳어저 있는 학벌,노동,무식,빈곤,차별이라는 철옹성과도 같은 진입 장벽을 뚫고 […]
The user added that Kim was an example of rags-to-riches story that brought hope to other struggling young Koreans.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Sudan: YouTube Banned After Protesters Burn German Embassy · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Angry Sudanese protesters attacked the German and American Embassies in Khartoum on Friday 14 September, 2012, in protest against a movie produced in the United States, which insults Prophet Mohammad.
The YouTube video of the 14-minute low budget movie trailer, entitled ‘The Innocence of Muslims’, has sparked the anger of Muslims around the world. In Libya, an angry mob attacked the US Consulate in Ben Ghazi, killing the American Ambassador there, as well as three Embassy staff.
The repercussions of the attacks have trickled down to the Internet in Sudan, with video sharing site YouTube now blocked by the authorities , after the company refused to take down the offending video.
New Khartoon: Khalid Albaih shares this cartoon on censorship in Sudan on his Facebook page (17/09/12).
Sudanese blogger Usamah Mohammed tweeted on 16 September:
@simsimt: Confirmed by many Sudanese tweeps, @YouTube has been blocked in #Sudan.
And Khalid Albaih explains:
@khalidalbaih: Talks that #Sudan has blocked @YouTube after refusal to take the video that started the riots down
On Twitter, netizens are looking for answers why the German Embassy was attacked in Khartoum.
Egyptian Alyaa Gad, who lives in Switzerland, comments [ar]:
مصري في أمريكا يعمل فيلم مش حلو فيحرقوا السفارة الألمانية في السودان. دا سببه الرئيسي أنكم بتضربوا العيال على مؤخرة الرأس كتير. مش باهزر.
@AlyaaGad: An Egyptian in the US produces a movie which isn't nice so they burn the German Embassy in Sudan. The reason for this is that they hit children on their heads a lot. I am not joking.
On YouTube, yas9966 shares this video which shows the Sudanese protesting and attacking embassies:
Uncle Google says the Sudanese burnt the German Embassy because the American Embassy was far. He tweets [ar]:
المُبرر الوحيد لحرق “السودانيين” للسفارة الألمانية.. أن السفارة الأميريكية بعيده شوي! :)
@UncleGoogle: The only excuse for the Sudanese to burn the German Embassy was because the US Embassy is a bit far away
And Omar Alhady explains [ar]:
السودانيين طلعوا مكسلين يروحوا السفارة الأمريكية فعلا، بس بعد ما حرقوا الألمانية وسخنت معاهم، جابوا أتوبيسات وطالعين على الأمريكية
@Asadx: The Sudanese were really too lazy to go to the US Embassy but after burning the German Embassy and things heating up, they took taxis and are going to the American Embassy
Saudi Bassam Al Dakhiel offers another explanation [ar]:
سبب مايحدث في #الخرطوم : أن الحكومة السودانية مشددة أمنها على السفارة الأمريكية لذلك المتظاهرين حرقوا السفارة الألمانية واقتحموا البريطانية!
@Bassam_13: The reason for what's happening in Khartoum: The Sudanese government has heightened security around the US Embassy so the protesters burned the German Embassy and stormed the British Embassy instead.
But Sudanese Mansoor Eltayeb remarks [ar]:
حزب البشير اراد إيصال رسالة للمجتمع الغربي من خلال #حرق_السفارة_اﻷلمانية أنه في حالة سقوط نظام البشير سيواجهون نظام اسلامي متشدد . لكنه أخفق
@mansoorEltayeb: Al Basheer's party wanted to send a message to the West through the burning of the German Embassy which says that if Al Basheer's regime falls, they will face an extreme Islamist regime. But it had failed.
Meanwhile, Palestinian writer Yaser Al Zaatreh says [ar]:
ما علاقة السفارة الألمانية بالقضية. السودانيون ذهبوا للعنوان الخطأ، مع أننا نعارض استهداف السفارات وموظفيها.
@YZaatreh: What's the connection of the German Embassy with the matter. The Sudanese seem to have gone to the wrong address although we are against targeting Embassies and their staff.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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United States: Spanish Stands Out in Political Conventions · Global Voices
Robert Valencia

In the race for the White House, the political conventions held at the end of August and beginning of September served as a showcase for the Republican and Democratic parties. Following tradition, each party gets an hour during primetime to choose the official presidential candidate. While presenting their future leaders, party members launch mutual attacks and promote campaign programs.
This year various Latino leaders from each party took the podium, such as Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio (of Cuban descent) while Democrats ceded the platform of the Time Warner Cable Arena to the Mayor of San Antonio, Texas,  Julián Castro (of Mexican descent). Among other Hispanic figures with prominent roles at the Democratic Convention were journalist and television personality Cristina Saralegui, and Benita Veliz, a representative of the DREAMer movement that advocates for undocumented students hoping to legalize their immigrant status.
Obama-Romney: The face-off Latinos are waiting for. Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
The conventions demonstrated the continuously growing importance of the Spanish language. Speakers from both parties incorporated Spanish phrases during their speeches in English: Rubio  said  “'En este país, ustedes van a poder lograr todas las cosas que nosotros no pudimos”.
Castro also recalled what his grandfather used to say to him as a child: “Que Dios te bendiga” (May God bless you).
Although the conventions acted as a barometer of what will be a tough battle for the presidency, it remains to be seen how Hispanics, who have voiced many concerns, will react to the proposals made by President Obama and Mitt Romney. Some Latino activists express disappointment with Democrats because of their immigration policies—such as the UndocuBus, that took passengers to Charlotte, North Carolina to place pressure on President Obama to resolve the immigrant status of thousands of undocumented persons. Others are worried about Republican proposals—as we mentioned in an earlier post—in regards to social issues. However, some of these doubts may dissipate in the event that the Spanish language channel Univisión arranges a bilingual meeting between the two candidates. The television event, titled “Conozca al Candidato” (Get to Know the Candidates), has yet to set a confirmed date.
Blogs like Ignacio López's believe conventions not only serve as a platform for future leaders of each party but also seek to win the votes of undecided voters, who can determine the course of the country for the next four years at the eleventh hour:
En la actualidad las Convenciones siguen un guión cuidadosamente construido que tiene por objeto dar un espacio a los liderazgos emergentes para darse a conocer- sin opacar al eventual candidato- así como crear un foro en el cual el partido político puede transmitir un mensaje, sin interferencias, al electorado norteamericano. Estos eventos se basan en un equilibrio cuidadoso, se pretende agradar a la base- generalmente el espectro más radical del electorado- a la vez que se coquetea con los votantes indecisos- generalmente la sección moderada de la ciudadanía.
Germán Yanke (@germanyanke) speaks about the role of Latinos in past conventions:
@germanyanke: Es curioso. En las convenciones de los partidos en Estados Unidos siempre hay un hispano “electrizante”.
@germanyanke: It's interesting. In the party conventions in the United States there is always a “shocking” Hispanic.
On the subject of race, the Puerto Rican television network Wapa Televisión (@WapaTV) predicts the Latino vote will be huge:
@WapaTV: Activistas anticipan un aumento en el voto hispano, tras sendos llamados en las convenciones republicana y demócrata. http://ow.ly/dycg7
@WapaTV: Activists anticipate an increase in the Hispanic vote, thanks to calls to action during both the Republican and Democratic conventions. http://ow.ly/dycg7
Gonzalo Dieguez (@gonzadieguez) stresses the influence of the Hispanic vote:
@gonzadieguez: Porque es importante el voto hispano en EEUU? Porque representan el 16% de la poblacion americana y el 10% del electorado en estados claves
@gonzadieguez: Why is the Hispanic vote important to the United States? Because it represents 16% of the American population and 10% of the electorate in key states

author: Robert Valencia


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World: Hilarious Muslims Rage on Twitter  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Twitter was a happy place for Muslims today, who took turns to pour out their rage, 140 characters at a time. Some were even creative enough to share memes.
Earlier today, Newsweek tweeted its upcoming cover story: Somali-Dutch activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali on how she survived Muslim rage– and how we can end it.
Its next tweet read:
@Newsweek: Want to discuss our latest cover? Let's hear it with the hashtag: #MuslimRage.
The hashtag #MuslimRage opened the floodgates of fun, ridicule and endless jokes. Tweet after tweet, netizens bashed the stereotype of the angry vengeful Muslim, following massive demonstrations held across the Muslim world in protest against the 14-minute trailer of a movie, deemed insulting of Prophet Mohammed and Islam. The movie, ‘The Innocence of Muslims’, was uploaded to YouTube.
An angry mob attacked the United States (US) Consulate in Ben Ghazi, Libya, where they killed US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other American Embassy staff. In Sudan, they burned the German Embassy in Khartoum, before heading down to the American Embassy.
Back at the #MuslimRage hashtag, Muslims show another face. Hijabi Girl screams:
@HijabiGrlPrblms: You lose your nephew at the airport but you can't yell his name because it's JIHAD. #muslimrage
One interpretation of Jihad, common name for Muslim males, is holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty.
@POCKETSARA shares the confusion of some with Muslim prayer rituals:
3 or 4 Rok3as? shared by @POCKETSARA on Twitter in response to the #MuslimRage hashtag
The Ruku is the act of bowing down while standing in the Muslim prayers. The number of ruka'as varies from two to four, depending on the time of each of the five obligatory prayers.
@Hijabidefender shares this picture on Twitter
And @HijabiDefender shares this tweet with the picture above:
@HijabiDefender: When you are smoking sheesha and you see hijabi smoking sheesha your reaction OMG SHE’S SO HARAM #MuslimRage
A Hijabi is a term used to call women who wear the Hijab or Islamic headscarf; the sheesha is a hubble bubble smoked across the Middle East and Haram translates to a sin in Islam.
Meanwhile in Yemen Adam Baron, a journalist who works there, shares this photograph of the raging Muslims:
Yemeni friends wave to journalist Adam Baron at an anti-government protest during the Yemeni revolution. Photo shared on Twitter
He tweets:
@adammbaron: 2 yemeni friends spot me taking a photo as they demonstrate against their US-backed (now fmr) president. #muslimrage
In another tweet, he writes:
@adammbaron: Last Oct, an activist friend handed me a tear gas canister labeled ‘made in the USA.” “look,” he joked, “a gift from your govt” #muslimrage
And, from Egypt, Sarah Carr jokes:
@SarahCarr: The other day I rang my friend Mohamed up but he said, “I can't talk now, I'm raging” and hung up violently #muslimrage
Global Voices author Jillian York has compiled reactions from Twitter on Storify.


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Argentina: Online News Sites Embrace Social Media · Global Voices
Laura Schneider

The Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA [es] for its initials in Spanish) presented the results of a survey of more than 70 online news editors in Argentina. Some of the survey's conclusions [es] refer to the use of social networks:
94% of online media editors think that social networks favor journalistic work, mainly because they increase the amount of sources of information.
The complete report can be found here [es].

author: Laura Schneider


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Armenia: Homophobic Editor On Air · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Unzipped: Gay Armenia says that it is glad the pro-opposition A1+ TV, a station deprived of its broadcasting frequency in 2002, now has a program aired on another channel. However, the blog also notes that it is disappointed to see that a homophobic newspaper editor is involved in its production.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Bahrain Censors UN Website for Human Rights Session Live Stream · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Human rights activist Mohammed Al Maskati, who is attending the Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, tweets:
A screen shot of the censored UN webcast page shared by @MohdMaskati on Twitter
@MohdMaskati: Authorities in #Bahrain put obstacles to access #UN website for live stream because of my intervention in the #HRC21 http://twitpic.com/aucktm
He shares the screenshot above which shows the blocked site with the censorship message. The page can now be accessed in Bahrain.


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Bangladesh: Draft Online Media Policy Draws Criticism · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

There are almost 200 online newspapers in Bangladesh but no specific regulations exist for them. The government of Bangladesh has taken steps to fix this by preparing a draft policy, which will be finalized by next month (October 2012). The government is now seeking opinions from people concerning online media on this regulation.
This regulation stipulates that a onetime payment of Bangladeshi Taka 500,000 (USD 6,100) should be deposited with the Ministry of Information to get a license for an online news portal. Each year this license should be renewed by paying 50,000 Taka (USD 610). The license fee can be revised by the government at anytime.
Online Newspaper logo by Vectorlib.com from Shutterstock. Image by Lasse Kristensen.
Netizens have expressed outrage about the fixing of such high fees for the license. Aminul Shrabon [bn] at blog.BDNews24.com writes:
অনলাইন পত্রিকা করতে ৫ লাখ টাকা নিবন্ধন ফি এবং বার্ষিক ৫০ হাজার টাকা নবায়ন ফি করা হলে, সেটা হবে অনলাইন পত্রিকা বন্ধের পদ্ধতি. যেখানে সহজ পক্রিয়ায় একটি দৈনিক পত্রিকা’র অনুমোদন পাওয়া যায়, সেখানে অনলাইন পত্রিকা’র নিবন্ধনে এটি বিরূপ অবস্থার সৃষ্টি করবে।
The steep BD Taka 500,000 registration fee for online news portals and its renewal fee of 50,000 Taka is a prelude to the closure of news portals. Where it is easy to get approval for print media, this will create impediments in the registration of online news portals.
Blogger Arif Jebtik has called it an online journalism tax [bn] instead of regulation.
He asks:
একটি অনলাইন পত্রিকার পক্ষে কত আয় করা সম্ভব যে তাঁরা পাঁচলক্ষ টাকা দিয়ে লাইসেন্স কিনবে? এই লাইসেন্স নিলেই কি সংবাদ মাধ্যমগুলো জায়েজ হয়ে পড়বে? তাঁদের সাংবাদিকতার মান রক্ষায় নীতিমালায় এখন পর্যন্ত কোনো কথাবার্তাই বা নাই কেন?
How much must an online news portal can earn so that they can afford to pay Taka 500,000? Does this amount validate whatever they do? Why is there no talk of policies regarding maintaining the quality of journalism?
Shahjahan Siraj [bn] thinks that this will dry up the job opportunities the online media industry has created.
এর অর্থ হল এই অনলাইন পত্রিকার প্রসার করে যারা দুই টাকা রোজগার করে কর্মসংস্থানের যোগাড় করেছে সেইটাও বন্ধ হয়ে যাচ্ছে। অর্থাৎ সরকার অনলাইন পত্রিকায় কর্মরত সবার পেটে লাথি মারতে চাইছে।
This means that whose who are trying to earn their bread by popularizing online media will be stopped. The government is threatening the livelihoods of those who are working in these news agencies.
Ashikur Rahman [bn] comments in a post at BDNews24.com:
হাস্যকর সিদ্ধান্ত। যারাই কথা বলবে তাদের বিরুদ্ধে তাদেরই আইন অথবা নীতিমালার আওতায় আনা হবে। স্বাধীন গন-মাধ্যমের জন্য এটা শুভকর সিদ্ধান্ত নয়।
A ridiculous step. Those who will talk against will be brought under the regulation. This is not a good sign for the independence of the media.
Vatir IP [bn], a blogger at Somewhereinblog.net comments:
দেশের মঙ্গল চাইলে এই ফি'টি কোন ভাবেই ৫ হাজার টাকা অতিক্রম করা উচিত না, তবে উপজেলা, জেলা, সিটিকর্পোরেশন এলাকা ভেদে এই ফি সর্বোচ্চ ১০ হাজার টাকা হতে পারবে। তার সাথে অনলাইনে বিনা আমলাতান্ত্রিক জটিলতায় প্রত্যন্ত উপজেলা থেকেও যেন একটি অনলাইন পত্রিকা তথ্য মন্ত্রণালয়ে রেজিষ্ট্রেশন ও ডিকলিয়ারেশন উভয়ই পেতে পারে সে ব্যবস্থা তথ্য মন্ত্রণালয়কে সবার আগে করতে হবে।
If we want progress of the nation, this registration fee should not be more than Taka 5,000 (USD 61). But this may vary up to Taka 10,000 (USD 122) in urban areas. The Ministry of Information should first ensure that bureaucracy does no hinder registration and declaration of new news portals even from the remotest places of the country.
Robayat Ferdous [bn], a teacher in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication of Dhaka University, said in an interview with the Daily Manabjamin:
সরকার যে পদ্ধতিতে নীতিমালা করতে যাচ্ছে এই পদ্ধতিটিই ভুল। নীতিমালা করার আগে যারা এই অনলাইন গণমাধ্যমের সঙ্গে জড়িত তাদের সঙ্গে আলোচনা করে মতামত নিয়ে খসড়া তৈরি করা উচিত ছিল। কিন্তু তা না করে খসড়া করে তার ওপর মতামত দেয়ার জন্য বলা হয়েছে। এছাড়া লাইসেন্স নেয়া এবং নবায়নের জন্য যে পরিমাণ অর্থের কথা বলা হয়েছে তা অনেকটা নিয়ন্ত্রণ আরোপের মতোই।
The steps the government has taken in implementing the policy is wrong. They should have consulted with the people associated with online media in the country before preparing the draft. But they have asked for consultation after preparation of the draft. And the high fees stipulated for registration and renewal sounds like imposing control.
Amriul Islam [bn], editor of BD24Live.com online portal, questions a recent consultation at the Ministry of Information. He expresses his doubts over the news that representatives from the leading online newspapers were present in that consultation:
প্রথম সারির অনলাইন পত্রিকাগুলোকে সরকার কিভাবে পরিমাপ করল? ওয়েবের মান ও পাঠক সংখ্যার ভিত্তিতে না ওয়েবের মালিক বা সম্পাদকের ভিত্তিতে।
How did the government stipulate which are the leading online newspapers? On the basis of quality and readership or by the social acceptance of the owner and the editors of the newspapers?
He also complained about the silence of the media:
অবিশ্বাস্য হলেও সত্যি যে, অনলাইন পত্রিকার মূখ রোধ করতে সরকার যে পদক্ষেপ হাতে নিয়েছে তা নিয়ে প্রিন্ট মিডিয়া মুখ খুলছে না। বিষয়টা একদমই পরিস্কার। অনলাইন পত্রিকা প্রসার দিন দিন বারার কারনে প্রিন্ট মিডিয়া হারাচ্ছে তাদের পাঠক, গ্রাহক, বিজ্ঞপনদাতা।
It's unbelievable but true that this move by the government is not being covered well by the media. This is crystal clear. The proliferation of online media is hampering the business of print media as they are losing readers, subscribers and advertisement to them. So they do not want online media to prosper.
Mohammad Arzu quotes some of the portions of the draft policy to show how absurd they are:
11. Professional and Technical Quality:
(g) All online news media portals should be hosted in a location inside Bangladesh. The DNSI (Domain Name Server Internet) Protocol should be notified to the Ministry of Information.
(j) No local online portal should link to other local and international news portals.
14. The following program/news should not be published/broadcast:
(b) Any news/program that is violating the main principles of the state and the governance;
(e) Any indecent or provocative satire/music/advertisement/news or any program with subtitles that may pollute, corrupt or hurt peoples’ feeling and morality.
(k) Any news/program that may hurt the feeling of any friendly country.
Considering all these it seems that rather than for regulation, the online media policy exists more for control.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


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Bolivia: 4 Injured in Clash Between Miners · Global Voices
Pablo Andrés Rivero

Clashes between private cooperative miners from the La Paz Departmental Federation of Mining Cooperatives (Fedecomin in Spanish) and unionised miners from the state-run Bolivian Mining Corporation (Comibol in Spanish) are reported from downtown La Paz, Bolivia's seat of Government. The confronted groups are attacking each other using dynamite. Four injured have been reported so far. Hashtag #ConflictosBolivia is following the events.

author: Pablo Andrés Rivero


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Bringing the Venezuelan Literature Boom to English Speakers · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

This post is the first part of a two-part series of our conversation with Venepoetics author Guillermo Parra on Venezuelan literature (online and offline) and his translation of the poet Jose Antonio Ramos Sucre.
Venezuelan literature, and especially the works of Jose Antonio Ramos Sucre, have a new place online and in the English language thanks to Guillermo Parra and his blog Venepoetics.
Guillermo is a Venezuelan-American blogger living in the United States (US) who has been writing about Venezuelan literature online for over ten years. He discovered Venezuelan poetry through Juan Sánchez Peláez in 1997, while he was working as a librarian in Providence, Rhode Island. Since then, Guillermo has become a devoted follower of the literary movement in Venezuela and its outreach outside the country – or lack thereof.
Guillermo Parra. Image used with permission.
This issue is reflected in one of his posts about Alberto Barrera Tiszka's ‘The Sickness.‘ Here Guillermo comments about the absence of Venezuelan literature in other languages:
Why has Venezuelan literature remained so completely untranslated and unknown in the United States and England? When compared to other Latin American countries, such as Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, or Chile, the number of Venezuelan writers translated into English has always been minimal. This hasn’t been for a lack of innovative, important writers. But Venezuela’s invisibility in the global literary landscape is an issue we don’t have time to address here. Regardless of that dilemma, Venezuelan literature has been experiencing a boom for the past decade, with an avalanche of publications, awards, workshops, presentations and a growing readership in Venezuela, Latin America and Spain. The Venezuelan boom is particularly evident in the field of fiction, where several generations of writers are currently producing work that is worthy of attention well beyond the country’s (or Latin America’s) borders. This spring gave us the publication in English of a short novel that’s emblematic of the Venezuelan literary boom at the beginning of the 21st century.
We had an enriching conversation with Guillermo via email in which he told us about his experience with Venepoetics and how it lead to the publication of his book. He also told us about how social media has connected him with other people devoted to Venezuelan literature and its expansion outside the country.
Furthermore, Guillermo shared other places on the Internet where netizens talk about Venezuelan literature, and also his impressions about a literature, which he believes, is experiencing a new flourishing.
[…] En cuanto a la literatura venezolana hoy en día, soy de los que piensan que estamos en un momento muy bueno para la literatura. Sí creo que hay una especie de boom de literatura venezolana en estos días, con una gran cantidad de escritores buenísimos, de varias generaciones publicando cosas muy buenas. Por medio de los blogs, Twitter, Facebook y los periódicos venezolanos en línea, he podido tener aceso a todo tipo de información sobre lo que se está publicando y haciendo hoy. Una de las mejores fuentes de información sobre la literatura venezolana hoy es el Twitter de Ficción Breve Venezolana que llevan Héctor Torres y Lennis Rojas. Otra fuente imprescindible para mí es el Twitter de Roger Michelena.
[…] Regarding Venezuelan literature of today, I share the opinion of those who think we're in a very good moment for literature. I do believe there's a sort of boom in Venezuelan literature these days, with a big variety of great writers, coming from a lot of different generations, publishing very good pieces. Through blogs, Twitter and Facebook, as well as online Venezuelan newspapers and journals, I've been able to have access to all kinds of information about what is now being done and published. One of the best sources of information about Venezuelan literature today is Héctor Torres and Lennis Rojas’ Twitter account Ficción Breve Venezolana [es]. Another essential source for me is Roger Michelena's [es] Twitter feed.
Guillermo also told us about his book, a translation of selected poems by Jose Antonio Ramos Sucre, and how it was born out of his work on the blog Venepoetics:
El libro es el producto de mi trabajo con mi blog Venepoetics. Por medio del blog fue que se me acercaron lectores venezolanos, entre los años 2003 y ahora, y ellos me animaron en mi labor de traducir poesía venezolana. Muchos de los textos de Ramos Sucre que traduje para este libro aparecieron primero en mi blog, en versiones un poco distintas.Yo usé mi blog como un taller público para este proyecto de traducir a Ramos Sucre, siempre pensando que el material debería salir en un libro en el futuro […] Por medio del blog, he tenido la suerte de conocer a varios escritores venezolanos, y de alguna manera sentirme conectado con lo que está ocurriendo hoy en día en la literatura venezolana […]
The book is the product of my work with Venepoetics. Since 2003, Venezuelan readers approached me through the blog, and encouraged me in my work of translating Venezuelan poetry. A lot of the texts I translated for this book were published first on the blog, in versions that were a bit different. I used my blog as a public workshop for this translation project, thinking that the material should be published as a book in the future […] I have been lucky to meet a lot of Venezuelan writers through my blog, which has made me feel somehow connected with what's been happening in Venezuelan literature.
He continues:
Mi contacto con blogueros (y luego tuiteros) venezolanos comenzó con dos personas, la profesora Iria Puyosa y el narrador Héctor Torres. Los conocí por correo primero, siguiendo sus blogs y luego en persona durante una visita que hice a Caracas en el 2007. Creo que ellos son un ejemplo del espíritu de generosidad y compromiso con los blogs […] Desafortunadamente, la literatura venezolana es muy invisible en los Estados Unidos, no se conoce y a veces siento que mi blog es leído por muy pocas personas, aunque llevo casi una década escribiéndolo…
My contact with bloggers (and then Twitter users) started with two people: Iria Puyosa [es] and  Héctor Torres [es]. I met them by email first, following their blogs and then in person while I was visiting Caracas in 2007. I think they represent the spirit of generosity and engagement with blogs […] Unfortunately, Venezuelan literature is quite invisible in the US. Few people know about it, and that makes me feel sometimes that my blog is not read by too many people, even if I've been writing on it for over ten years…
Join us in the next part of this interview where we will share some of Guillermo's translations. We will also discuss more thoughts on the works and the authors behind Venezuela's narratives of today and their role in the country's literature boom.

author: Laura Vidal


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Central African Republic: The Cities of Sibut and Damara Attacked by Rebels · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

The RJDH-RCA (The Human Rights Journalists Network of the Central African Republic) reports that [fr] armed rebels claiming to be a faction of the CPJP (Convention of the Patriots for Justice and Peace) attacked the national army in the cities of Sibut and Damara in the North of the country. A speaker of the CPJP denies the implication of the CPJP and asserts that the attackers are rebels from Chad.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Georgia: Brutality Behind Bars · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

A video showing prisoners being beaten up in one of Georgia's modernized prisons has been uploaded onto YouTube. Other videos appears to show more graphic incidents with one comment on Facebook hoping that they ‘provide impetus to serious structural reforms’ and that ‘prison personnel are held responsible.’


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Guyana: Seeking Justice for 17-Year-Old Victim of Police Shooting · Global Voices
Matthew Hunte

Today [18 September, 2012] marks a week since 17-year-old Shaquille “Georgie” Grant was killed as a result of a police shooting at a shed on Third Street, Agricola. 20-year-old Romel Bollers of Brutus Street, Agricola was wounded in the incident and he, along with a few other men, were held in police custody for questioning.
The police claim that a shot was fired and that they were simply returning fire – but this version of the events was contradicted by an anonymous eye witness who was contacted by the Alliance For Change (AFC) leader Nigel Hughes, who posted the testimony on his Facebook page:
After I heard the gunshots, I went back to peep and I saw the same boy who was crying before, lying motionless. The police were still standing over the men.
There was one police officer who was very agitated. The rest of the police officers were saying to him ‘humble yourself, calm down.’
While the boy was crying out, the policeman said to him ‘you ain’t dead yet’
Two young boys ran out from an apartment. The police put the other two boys to lie on the ground. They ran out after the shots were fired.
According to family members, Grant planned to join the Guyana Defense Force after his 18th birthday, which ironically, would have been the day after he was killed. A post mortem on Grant's body revealed that he was shot three times – through the head, heart and buttocks.
Mainstream media in Guyana posted news reports about the shooting on YouTube: here, Grant's friends Troy Greenidge and Jamal Henry recount their experiences; here, AFC leader Nigel Hughes holds a press conference with the mothers of the two boys who were shot. This news clip shows protests outside the Brickdam Police Station:
The Guyana Youth Student Movement released a statement condemning the shooting:
The youth arm of the People’s National Congress Reform, the Guyana Youth Student Movement (GYSM) is horrified at the Tuesday 11th September 2012 gunning down of 17 year-old Shaquille Grant. The Agricola East Bank Demerara shooting is alleged to have been committed by a member of the Guyana Police Force. It comes on the heels of the anniversary celebrations of the People’s Progressive Party’s so called ‘youth arm’.
The organisation also noted that this shooting was not without precedent:
The Tuesday 11th September 2012 killing also brings back chilly memories of the June 7th 2010 gunning down of 16 year-old Kelvin Fraser by a rank of the Guyana Police Force, the December 6th 2011 shooting of APNU officials and supporters by ranks of the Guyana Police Force and the July 18th 2012 killings of three Lindeners by ranks of the Guyana Police Force. It must be noted that in every shooting incident mentioned, youths were either put at risk, badly injured or killed. The GYSM condemns such heinous acts; the senseless killing of our youths must end now!
One Voice Can Win saw the latest shooting as an indicative of an out of control police force:
It is clear to OVNN that chaos exists in the Guyana Police Force. As the Ministry of Home Affairs continues to limp along with a now defanged Minister in whom the public has already declared no confidence, Police Commissioner Leroy Brummel seems to be incapable of seizing control of the errant ranks within the force who continue to wreak havoc on innocent citizens.
In a follow up post, One Voice Can Win called for major overhaul of the Guyana Police Force and criticized Police Commissioner Leroy Brummell‘s statement that Grant may have been “in the wrong place at the wrong time”:
I hope that I never happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I hope that God grants me the wisdom to know where that place is. Enshrined in our constitution are certain basic rights to life and liberty, and one should feel free to engage in the activities of daily life anywhere and at anytime without the threat of summarily execution or murder by police. Acting Commissioner of Police Brummell showed grave insensitivity when he said that Mr. Grant was at the wrong place at the wrong time; how could he make such a pronouncement when the investigation is still ongoing? And how does such a careless remark not influence or taint the proceedings?
This past Sunday, one of the country's newspapers reported that an Agricola bus driver who is a accused of being linked to the police actions has gone into hiding after his car was burned. He is alleged to be a relative of one of the police officers involved.

author: Matthew Hunte


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Italy: Workers Occupy Sardinian Coal Mine · Global Voices
Fabio Brambilla Pisoni

This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.
Some 460 jobs at risk, 350 kilos of explosives and more than 100 miners about 373 metres below ground. These are the figures involved in the latest drama to have erupted in Italy, prompted by the economic crisis affecting all of Europe.
It involves miners working in the Carbosulcis coal mine in Nuraxi Figus, a hamlet of Gonnesa on the island of Sardinia. A company controlled by the Sardinian regional government, Carbosulcis manages the only coal mine in Italy, located in one of the areas of the country that has been worst hit by unemployment.
On August 26, 2012, 50 miners (who were joined by 80 more the following day) occupied their workplace, declaring that they were “ready to do anything”, even blow up the mine, after threats that it would be closed at the end of the year. For eight days these men remained at a depth of nearly 400 metres, only deciding to end their occupation of the mine on September 3, following the government's announcement that the mine would not be closing.
Demonstration in support of the Nuraxi Figus miners. Photo via “Sulcis in Fundo” Facebook group.
Politicians stall, protests continue
While the effects of the economic crisis rumble on, politicians continue to stall for time and the protests carry on. Similar demonstrations have been conducted by the workers at the Ilva steel works in Taranto and those at the Alcoa aluminium plant in Sardinia.
At the Carbosulcis pit there is not enough coal being extracted to justify continuing operations, and therefore new business initiatives are needed, especially those to encourage CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) technology.
On August 28, two days after the occupation of the mine began, a new Facebook group, Sulcis in Fundo [it], was created in support of the miners. Below are some of the comments left on the group's page:
Mariano Attardi [it] writes:
SICURAMENTE CI RICORDEREMO ALLE ELEZIONI CHI HA RIDOTTO COSì I MINATORI SARDI,TENETE DURO SIAMO CON VOI
Franco Giannoni [it]:
[…] la Miniera e’ un Industria e come tale deve essere gestita guardando ai mercati Internazionali coi giusti costi e non con passivi da spavento come la intendono in Italia negli ultimi 30 anni!
Banners on the gates of the Carbosulcis mine. Photo via the “Sulcis in Fundo” Facebook group.
On this point, Roberto Serra [it], one of the miners involved in the dispute and an active member of the Facebook group Sulcis in Fundo, wrote:
Naturalmente non mancano i timori di quel che può causare una nuova tecnologia,ma non ci si può fermare nel progresso: o si va avanti crescendo o si resta fermi e non si va avanti nel tempo restando in uno stato di arretratezza.
The European Union is planning to finance six CCS projects in Europe but only one of these is in Italy, and the Carbosulcis miners are seeking a clear explanation from the government on the company's future, and that of the almost 500 families who depend on its existence.
In an interview on Sussidiario.net [it], Giovanni Matta, the regional secretary of the CISL (Confederazione Italiana Sindacato Lavoratori) trade union declared that:
La responsabilità del governo è che a oggi, nonostante gli impegni, non si pronuncia . . . Si parla di produrre energia da carbone, andare verso alcune opportunità alternative agli idrocarburi, ma il governo non ha scelto e nel caso della miniera del Sulcis addirittura pare che voglia scegliere di non intervenire e di non valorizzare il progetto.
Later in the same interview [it] he explained that:
La protesta è esplosa adesso perché solo ora il governo afferma che non intende perorare la causa e sostenere il progetto in sede comunitaria. Nel marzo scorso il presidente Ugo Cappellacci aveva dichiarato che era tutto a posto, in quanto era arrivato il via libera per il progetto e quindi finalmente i 400 posti della miniera erano salvi.
In an interview [it] with the Tiscali news site on August 28, mine employee Sandro Mereu explained what had motivated him and his colleagues to occupy the mine:
La miniera è la nostra vita e vogliamo tenerla aperta. Dicono che ciò è roba del passato, ma negli anni abbiamo anche presentato dei progetti innovativi di sfruttamento del carbone Sulcis, e ogni volta che la soluzione sembrava vicina, qualcuno ci ha messo i bastoni tra le ruote, portandoci a un nulla di fatto.[…]Noi in miniera abbiamo dell’esplosivo per le necessità lavorative, ed abbiamo però paura che qualche minatore possa perdere la testa e fare qualcosa di sconsiderato, visto che la situazione può diventare ingovernabile.
The situation became even more dramatic the following day when an employee and RSU (Rappresentanze sindacali unitarie) trade unionist, Stefano Meletti, slit his wrist [WARNING: Graphic content] in front of journalists. The images spread like wildfire.
Online, however, the gesture prompted mixed reactions. One YouTube commenter, yyuri51, declared:
..che idiozia! Cosa insegna a suo figlio un uomo che fa finta di suicidarsi? Che i problemi si risolvono con atti folli? Se avesse voluto suicidarsi non lo avrebbe fatto davanti alle telecamere…complimenti ha un posto di lavoro assicurato come sindacalista. Le aziende assistite e non sono competitive è giusto che chiudano! I lavoratori devono avere un supporto economico ma non si aiutano le aziende fallimentari. Questo vale anche per la Fiat.? La Sardegna è piena di laureati disoccupati!
But many people have spoken out in support of the miners. On the website of the Sardinian newspaper La Nuova Sardegna [it], Andrea Randaccio commented:
E così nel paese che si interroga sul nuovo centrocampista del milan irrompe il minatore disperato. Gli scioperi, le manifestazioni anche eclatanti, non servono a nulla. Vogliono il sangue.
On the blog, Running Life, Carolina Duepuntozero [it] wrote on August 30:
Ho visto ieri il servizio al tg e sono rimasta davvero colpita da tutta questa vicenda e dal gesto disperato di quell'uomo. In effetti, se non ci fosse stato di mezzo l'esplosivo.. forse i giornali nemmeno se ne sarebbero accorti
The flags and banners of the trade unions representing the miners. Photo via the “Sulcis in Fundo” Facebook page.
On August 31, after almost a week of underground protest, a march took place from Carbonia to Gonessa, 14 kilometres away. Some 200 people participated in the demonstration, including workers from Sulcis companies affected by the crisis and citizens who sympathized with their circumstances, which – for the most part – remain unresolved.
This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

author: Fabio Brambilla Pisoni


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Jamaica: Time for Twitter · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Twitter gives you the ability to tune in to any locality you wish as long as there are people from there on Twitter.
Active Voice explains why she makes time to tweet.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Latin American Women as Key Development Partners · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Moms, students, working professionals and women from all walks of life are the driving force behind a gender revolution that has made huge contributions to our region’s prosperity.
In Americas Quarterly, João Pedro Azevedo and Louise J. Cord write about how Latin American women are driving the region's prosperity.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Mauritania: The Burden of Being Black    · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

How is it not to know what it is like to be free? To have your every waking, sleeping and living moment and your whole life and destiny in the hands of another that owns you? [..] this is not about history or a hypothetical question, but the here and now: Mauritania in 2012, where African Mauritanians are enslaved by their Arab compatriots.
Njeri Okono guest blogs for The Movement for Justice and Equality in Mauritania on contemporary slavery in Mauritania in 2012.


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Russia: Continued Scandals Plague the Registration of Opposition Candidates · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Earlier today, blogger Maksim Kononenko highlighted [ru] the Coordinating Council candidacy of convicted terrorist and neonazi Nikolai Korolev, who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of 15 people in 2006. On the election's official website, Korolev is listed as a “political prisoner” in the General Civil (not Nationalist) category. In an angry response on Kononenko's blog, Leonid Volkov, the election's Commissioner, wrote [ru], “You suck dicks [sic] at knowing what you're talking about.” Volkov also characterized [ru] the convicted terrorist as a “conscientious dude,” arguing that Korolev requested the removal of a swastika from his original candidacy photo, in order to protect the election's web portal from extremism charges.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Russia: Ksenia Sobchak’s Civil Platform Candidacy · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

This post is part of our special coverage Russia's Protest Movement.
Earlier today, the Central Elections Committee officially registered [ru] a bevy of candidates for the coming elections of the first Coordinating Council of the Russian Opposition. Among today's new entries to the General Civil category was socialite and opposition activist Ksenia Sobchak [ru].
Sobchak's Squad
No sooner than this became news, Sobchak posted to her LiveJournal the text [ru] of a grand pact called “The Civil Platform,” signed by her and ten others. And Sobchak's allies are no lightweights.
There's Dmitri Bykov [ru], one of Russia's most recognizable living poets, whose political satire series “Citizen Poet” made him a star of last winter's protests. Next is Liudmila Ulitskaia, a critically acclaimed novelist and a member of the “League of Voters” — an artists and intellectuals collective also formed last winter. Bykov, too, is a member of the Voters League. In fact, Sobchak's bloc boasts another three of the League's literati: professional blogger Rustem Adagamov [ru], television host Tatiana Lazareva, and journalist Sergei Parkhomenko.
Russian socialite and TV host Ksenia Sobchak joins the protest in Chistye Prudy area of Moscow, 8 May 2012, photo by Maria Pleshkova, copyright © Demotix.
The Platform's remaining signatories include a famous film director (Vladimir Mirzoev [ru]), the former chief editor of the oppositionist biweekly journal “Bolshoi Gorod” (Filipp Dziadko [ru]), a noted economist and human rights activist (Irina Yasina [ru]), a popular television humorist (Mikhail Shats, Lazareva's husband), and a renowned geneticist (Mikhail Gelfand [ru]). Lazareva, Shats, Ulitskaia, and Parkhomenko have yet to be formally registered as candidates, though there is no reason to assume they won't also be added to the list.
Election Commissioner Leonid Volkov announced [ru] on September 16 that he was working through a backlog of more applications (many from “very famous people”), and hoped to publish the final list of approved candidates by Friday, September 21.
A Lack of Transparency
One of the results of Sobchak's late entry into the Coordinating Council election has been to highlight the tenebrous procedures governing the approval of candidates. For instance, though the deadline for new entries passed two days ago, the Commission still expects to register another 80 candidates [ru] — a full third of the expected total pool.
For the next four days, the Commission will work out who does and doesn't qualify for a spot on the ballot in October. This process will happen “behind closed doors,” as it has since August 20, when the first applications came rolling in.
While it's nothing but a conspiracy theory to posit that Sobchak's candidacy is a post-deadline invention, it is strange that she never before publicized any plans to join the Coordinating Council race. Moreover, the Commission's refusal to be fully transparent about who has applied to register (and when) is conducive to uncomfortable questions about the internal workings of the election.
In a press release [ru] on September 15, Volkov addressed concerns about the obscurity of the the registration process (specifically for the Council's three “ideological” wings). His answers demonstrate to what extent the Coordinating Council remains a still frail hodgepodge of independent forces. Several times, Volkov insists that the Commission must protect its apolitical standing, and subsequently defer all registration decisions to the three wings’ appointed representatives [ru]. (Aleksandr Ivanov heads the Lefist wing, Denis Yudin the Liberals, and Elena Denezhkina the Nationalists.)
In a particularly revealing passage, Volkov writes:
Для самого ЦВК и для внешнего мира все выглядит так, как будто решение о допуске кандидата в тот или иной идеологический список принимается единолично членом ЦВК от той или иной курии. На самом же деле, курии выстроили внутри себя некую сложную систему принятия решений, результаты которой доводят до остальных членов ЦВК представители курий. Детали этой процедуры ЦВК не известны.
To both the Central Elections Commission and the outside world, it looks as if the decision to admit a candidate to this or that ideological list is adopted solely by the Commission representative from that wing. In fact, the wings have constructed their own complex decision-making systems, the results of which the wing's representative delivers to Commission. The Commission itself knows nothing about the details of these [internal] procedures.
The situation is ironic, given the fact that a lack of government transparency is precisely what the opposition is ostensibly battling against. Such abuses of power were on regular display last winter. For example, closed procedures may have enabled Mikhail Prokhorov to skirt the rules [ru] for registering as a presidential candidate last December, when he (or his handlers) apparently overlooked a paperwork requirement in the registration process. (As soon as the federal Elections Commission noticed the mistake, it miraculously discovered the necessary documents in its archives.)
While the elections process implemented by Volkov and his team is undeniably impressive, questions about certain inconvenient features persist.
Sobchak's Platform
The Civil Platform is the first non-party coalition to emerge among the Coordinating Council's candidates. (Other hopefuls have promised to form blocs, such as Leftist Aleksandra Volkova [ru], but no one has yet delivered, to this author's knowledge.) Volkov wasted no time in praising the group's emergence, writing [ru] enthusiastically:
Очень хочется теперь увидеть “Региональную платформу”, “Список московских гражданских активистов” и т.п. – вместе со сложившимися уже партийными списками, это даст нам крайне интересную конкурентную картину.
Now one strongly hopes we'll see a “Regional Platform,” a “List of Moscow Civil Activists,” and so on. Together with the already-established party lists, this offers us a very interesting competition.
Responding to Sobchak's manifesto, film director Valery Otstavykh pointed out [ru] on PublicPost.ru that the theses of the “media candidates” bloc are actually quite strange.
Indeed, the eleven signatories — all presumably running for office in the new Coordinating Council — announce definitively that they “are not politicians” and do not seek “the battle for power.” They go on to state that their priority will be “implementing workable demands” and not “populist gestures” (leaving it ambiguous if the latter is meant to describe how they view the protest movement's official goals). Finally, the group registers its disapproval of the Council's very structure, calling the idealogical wings “contrary to democratic principles,” and vowing to eradicate them from the organization, if elected.
In a tongue-in-cheek response [ru], Aleksandr Ryklin (chief editor of EJ.ru and a Coordinating Council candidate [ru] in the Liberal wing) took Sobchak to task for apparently failing to appreciate the ideological wings as a necessary compromise that safeguards the prospects of political unknowns.
Writing on Facebook, Ryklin compared the opposition's vote to electing the members of a livestock co-op. If Sobchak (who, throughout the RuNet, is often accused of bearing a certain resemblance to a horse) entered that race, her television stardom would undoubtedly bring her victory, Ryklin reasons. “That's why [ideological] quotas are necessary,” he explains, “so that elections don't leave our livestock in the hands of TV hosts, journalists, and show business representatives.”
This post is part of our special coverage Russia's Protest Movement.


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Russia: Omsk Telecom Temporarily Bans YouTube · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

For roughy seven hours earlier today, Rostelecom's customers in Omsk were unable to access YouTube. The short-lived ban prompted a flurry of panicked online activity, including urgent tweets [ru] from the city's most vocal netizen, Viktor Korb. The short-lived ban was apparently in response [ru] to YouTube hosting clips from the film “Innocence of Muslims,” which sparked recent anti-American riots across the Muslim world. Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov indicated [ru] on Twitter that he expects Russian courts formally to ban the film soon, which Google will then block on YouTube.


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Russia: SocialCamp, Crowdsourcing and Open Data · Global Voices
Teplitsa

A SocialCamp Russia ‘unconference’ took place in Moscow from 7th to 9th of September. Over the course of three days social activists spoke about projects aimed at raising awareness, improving mutual understanding, promoting philanthropy, and much more.
Teplitsa Social Technologies [ru] organised a session called “Civic and Social Internet Projects: A Success Story,” during which the developers of civic applications and internet based non-profit projects shared stories about the emergence and development of their ideas. Some had evolved spontaneously – as a result of a college assignment, or in the form of a photo album on a social network. Others were a reaction to the political situation in the country. Still more were tools that can have both emergency and peacetime applications. Each presenter was asked a variety of questions, but we stuck with the same question for everyone: “Would your project have been possible without the Internet?”
OpenStreetMap: Whence a map of Krymsk? Cases of rapid mapping after emergencies.
Ilya Zverev presented the project OpenStreetMap and its usefulness in a variety of situations. On the one hand, it became one of the most important coordination resources for volunteers and emergency workers after the flooding in Krymsk. On the other hand, it can be used as a navigation tool for those newly moved to an unfamiliar part of town.
Would your project or the idea behind it be possible without the Internet? What would it look like?
Ilya Zverev: During the Soviet era some children drew maps of their area as a hobby. They marked the locations of the buildings, the shop, the walking paths… They did it just for fun and between them created many disconnected fragments of a larger map. The Brits who started this project [OpenStreetMap], travelled around by bicycle, motorcycle and car, and in the process gathered a large database of GPS tracking information. But without the internet all of this was just uncoordinated data with which it was impossible to work. The Internet became the connecting link that made it possible to merge all these “kids’ doodles” into one big picture, and all the GPS tracking information into one database in which the individual tracks came to resemble a map. The Brits noticed this and thought “Why not make a map, seeing as these tracks already look like one?” So, without the Internet, people drew maps, yes, but creating a map of the world could not have happened.
Grakon: online tools for the self-organisation of election observers.
The online platform Grakon, which functioned as a virtual coordination centre for election observers, was developed by Sergei Kolylov and Ilya Boikov.
Would your project or the idea behind it be possible without the Internet? What would it look like?
Ilya Boikov: It probably would have been possible – offline, we would have focussed our activism on interacting with political parties and groups of observers. The concept of the project, however, is the self-organisation of observers in the field. It's important that an observer is not alone but in a team, so we proposed coordinating by means of an Internet resource [Grakon]. It's practically impossible to imagine this kind of integration without the Internet. It would have been a completely different project.
I-HISTORY.RF
The SocialCamp conference format allows for anyone to become a co-organiser; to change the scope or become a speaker. Renat Zakirov took part in the Teplitsa session with I-HISTORY.RF [ru], a project dedicated to recording the memories of people who have witnessed historic events. Many of the stories are truly remarkable — all come from ordinary people.
Rospravosudiye
Gleb Suvorov presented the project Rospravosudiye (literally Russian Justice) [ru] – the largest directory of attorneys, lawyers and judges based on open databases pulled from judicial websites. Read an interview with Suvorov here [ru].
Would your project or the idea behind it be possible without the Internet? What would it look like?
Gleb Suvorov: It wouldn't exist. The project wholly depends on the internet: the information sources are all online. The users are online. We could maybe give it a try without the Internet, but it would be very laborious and irrelevant.

author: Teplitsa


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Saudi Arabia: Authorities Threaten to Block YouTube · Global Voices
Anas Soliman

The Saudi official news agency, SPA, reported earlier today that the Communications and Information Technology Commission reacted to the trailer of the movie “Innocence of Muslims” by threatening to block YouTube, which has blocked at least one clip since the statement was published.
SPA reported [ar]:
قامت هيئة الاتصالات وتقنية المعلومات بتوجيه شركات الاستضافة في المملكة بحجب هذا الفيلم […]، كما قامت الهيئة بمخاطبة شركة جوجل لحجب جميع روابط اليوتيوب الالكترونية المحتوية على الفيلم وفي حال عدم الاستجابة لهذا الطلب فستقوم الهيئة بحجب موقع يوتيوب بالكامل.
The Communications and Information Technology Commission has ordered Saudi ISPs to block that movie […].  The Commission has also contacted Google to request blocking all YouTube URLs that lead to the movie, and in case they did not respond, the Commission would block YouTube completely.
Saudis, who have ranked first in worldwide YouTube views, overall reacted to the statement with anger and sarcasm.
YouTube has blocked at least one clip since the statement was published, via @essamz
Saudi blogger Thumar al-Marzougi tweeted:
على احتمالين، بسوء ظن: الدولة تريد استغلال فرصة الفيلم لتقوم #حجب_اليوتيوب بما يشمل نشاطاته الفكرية والسياسية، بحسن ظن: ماهيب عارفه وشو حجب
@thumarm: Two possibilities, with the assumption of bad faith: the state either wants to take the chance to block YouTube and all of its thoughtful and political content, or they do not know what blocking is.
Saudi Twitter user Mousab Fouad tweeted:
اليوم #حجب_اليوتيوب عشان مقطع ١٥ دقيقة بكرا حجب تويتر عشان ١٤٠ حرف! اللعنه اللعنه
@DrRAYQ: They will block YouTube for a 15-minute clip. Next they will block Twitter for a 140-character tweet! Damn it!
Saudi columnist and economist Essam al-Zamil tweeted:
الفيلم المسيء تم حجبه عن مصر وليبيا. لذلك حجبه عن السعودية من قبل يوتيوب سهل جدا. ولا يحتاج تهديد ووعيد!. #حجب_اليوتيوب
@essamz:  The offensive movie was blocked [by YouTube] in Egypt and Libya, and it will be very easy for YouTube to block it in Saudi Arabia, no need for intimidation!
Since the statement, YouTube has blocked at least one clip.

author: Anas Soliman


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Trinidad & Tobago: Sinking Ship?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

After the debacle of Section 34, diaspora blogger Jumbie's Watch says that it's time to call a new election.


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Albania: Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A poster for the Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival 2012.
The Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival 2012 opens in Tirana today. This is the third time that the festival is being held; this year's theme is “TALK TO ME – multilingualism and communication”; the program of the three-day event is here.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Argentina: Why are Citizens Outraged?  · Global Voices
Laura Schneider

[All links lead to Spanish-language websites unless otherwise noted.]
Argentinians calling for “justice, freedom, security, and currency exchange” marched [en] on September 13, 2012, throughout the country.
The blog Pienso, luego Pienso, Luego Existo published an extensive analysis of its vision for the protests and commented on the good and the bad of the march:
Lo bueno de la protesta, fue también el ánimo festivo generalizado, y la sensación de seguridad que había porque eran todos “como uno”. Como bien diría más tarde Relato Del Presente, fue la única vez que saqué el celular de mi bolsillo sin miedo a que me lo afanasen […] También estaban esas extrañas ganas de salir a abrazar a cada uno de los que estaban ahí; así de grande era la alegría de saber que se estaba entre hermanos. Diferentes, con distintos motivos, pero hermanos patrióticos al fin.
When it came to the bad, the author wrote:
Lo malo de la protesta, es lo mismo que dije en el post sobre los cacerolazos en tiempos K [Kirchner]. Debería haber sido algo serio, y no con risas por doquier (aunque, admito, es contagiosa esa alegría y hasta es beneficiosa en cierto punto); la gente tiene como un desconocimiento de los peligros que implica hacer semejante marcha (había muchísimos chicos y jóvenes); y no deberían ser cacerolas, sino algo más organizado e integrante. Por ejemplo, ya se está hablando de una marcha para Octubre con remeras blancas. Eso sí sería más idóneo.
March on September 13, 2012 in Buenos Aires. Photo by Maximiliano Ramos, copyright Demotix.
Moreover the author added:
También hay que unificar los reclamos hacia fines más nobles y abarcativos. Pedir por el cepo al dólar es un derecho también justificado, pero menos representativo o importante que el comer por $6 o la inseguridad. Hay que aprender a reconocer las prioridades. Lo mismo pasa con los cantitos de “yo no la voté”: recordemos que hay muchos allí que SÍ la votaron (lo noté ahí mismo) y se sienten apartados del reclamo por ello (y no deberían; la autocrítica o el reconocer el error no es limitante ni excluyente).
What was demanded?
The blogger known as “crazy Mario” from Te escracho ya summarized the various demands. Among them was “the abuse of national broadcasts”, a topic that was previously covered in a Global Voices post [en]. National broadcasts are the coordinated and simultaneous transmission between radio and television channels of official announcements.
La convocatoria, que creció informalmente a través de las redes sociales en Internet, tuvo como consignas el reclamo contra una posible re-reelección presidencial, la inseguridad, el abuso en la utilización de la cadena nacional, las restricciones para las importaciones, la compra de dólares y los viajes al exterior, entre otras decisiones del Gobierno.
Currency exchange
The Argentinian government has implemented a series of measures [en] that exercise control over the currency market. The latest measures affect purchases made with a credit or debit card using foreign currencies. As stated by the Federal Tax Administration (AFIP), “the Federal Tax Administration implemented a 15 percent fee on purchases made outside of the country.”
In the same statement, AFIP also commented that the companies that administer the cards should “provide detailed information about the purchases made by the credit cardholders and anything additional […] identifying the country in which the purchases were carried out”.
Changes to election law
A constitutional reform that would allow President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to run for reelection has also caused concern among those Argentinians who took to the streets in protest on September 13. Tony de Vivieros on the blog 6to Poder – Aldea Global explained what this constitutional reform would mean and commented about other reforms to the country's election law:
El kirchnerismo ha promovido una reforma de la ley electoral de Argentina para introducir dos cambios muy controvertidos: reducir la edad mínima para votar a 16 años y habilitar la participación electoral a los extranjeros con al menos dos años de residencia permanente en el país.
Security
March in Buenos Aires, September 13, 2012. Photo by Maximiliano Ramos, copyright Demotix.
Safety in Argentina is a matter of concern for many Argentinians, and a recent speech by the President in which she referred to leave given to prisoners for cultural activities sparked controversy. Those who protested on September 13 cried “enough” in reference to the lack of security. On that day, María Celeste (@tehdramaqueen) shared on Twitter:
@tehdramaqueen: #13ASTA carteles en la marcha: justicia para las víctimas deinseguridad http://yfrog.com/nx2njbgj
A country divided?
In a post titled “The binary country”, blogger Gaston Maine mentioned these and other reasons for which Argentinians went out and protested en masse on September 13. He described that in Argentina it seems as if “someone has drawn a line on the ground of the country in chalk, and we find ourselves divided in two camps”:
Nos quedamos sin opciones. Nos hicimos fundamentalistas, absolutistas, binarios. Los que ayer salieron a la calle son anti K [Kirchner], imperialistas que odian a Cristina, ricos que cuidan su ranchito y no les importa el crecimiento del pais. Los que ayer se quedaron en su casa son K, loros repetidores de la mentira del gobierno, chorros, choripaneros, beneficiarios de algún plan social.
Maine concluded:
Mientras pasa todo esto, un 54 [refiriéndose el porcentaje que votó por Cristina Fernández de Kirchner en las pasadas elecciones] que ya dejó de serlo se rie de “la otra mitad”; y de esa otra mitad, un grupo de improvisados piden -otra vez!- que se vayan todos. Parece que no aprendimos nada.
Upcoming protests
The Yo no vote a la Kretina, y Ud? [I didn't vote for the Cretin, and you?] Facebook page is organizing another march together with other groups. And on Twitter, @reddemilitantes has called for protest on October 27 to coincide with the anniversary of the death of former President of Argentina, Néstor Kirchner [en].


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Australia: Violence at Sydney Protest Against Anti-Islam Film · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Jim Brown, on his blog Grace Filled World, reflects on the nature of Anger and Mercy, in light of the violent protest in Sydney on Sunday 16 September 2012 over the anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Bangladesh: First Ever Youth Tech Camp In Dhaka · Global Voices
Rezwan

The U.S. Embassy in Dhaka in collaboration with a local organization called iEARN have hosted a Youth TechCamp in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from September 16-18, 2012. Details can be found in the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program alumni Bangladesh blog.

author: Rezwan


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Brazil: Internet Bill of Rights Vote Postponed Again · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

The progressive Bill of Rights for Internet users in Brazil, the Marco Civil da Internet, which was expected to be voted in Congress today, September 19, 2012, ended up being cancelled for the third time since June. The vote was postponed until after the elections in October, inform Twitter users under the hashtags #MarcoCivil and #MarcoCivilJa (Bill of Rights now).

author: Sara Moreira


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China: Cancer Villages · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Shelley Jiang from Tea Leaf Nation blogs about the painful cost of development in China –  the increasing number of cancer villages all over the country:
Officially and unofficially, the Chinese media have reported 459 “cancer villages” throughout China… Once a rare disease, cancer is now the biggest killer in both urban and rural China; mortality rates have grown 80 percent in the last 30 years.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Porn Star Appeals for China/Japan Friendship · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Popular Japanese porn star Sola Aoi appealed for friendship between Chinese and Japanese early last week when the tension between China and Japan elevated. But her friendly gesture was not well received. Below is Sola Aoi's Chinese calligraphy posted in her micro blog appealing for friendship. (More from ChinaSMACK)
Friendship between Chinese and Japanese. By Sola Aoi.


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Colombia: A Love Poem for Bogotá · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

British writer Vicki Kellaway shares a love poem for Bogotá (Colombia's capital) in her blog Banana Skin Flip Flops.


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Dominican Republic: The Crime of Being a Rocker · Global Voices
Pamela Martínez Achecar

On the morning of September 2, 2012, one of the most spine-chilling crimes in the last few years took place in the Dominican Republic: the murder of José Carlos Hernández (Chiva), a young, 23-year-old Dominican rock musician residing in Argentina.
The homicide took place at a night club in the National District, only a few days after José Carlos arrived in the country on vacation. The suspects (who had known the victim for years) stabbed him 27 times with a weapon that police identified as a 10-inch rambo-style blade.
Despite the Public Ministry's failure to issue an official explanation of the events, many said that it was, as Public Prosecutor Yeni Berenice — one of the most respected judiciary figures assessed– a hate crime. She defined it on her Twitter account (@YeniBerenice) in the following way:
José Carlos Hernández. This photo has been widely disseminated throughout the Internet.
@YeniBerenice:  El crimen de odio se motiva en prejuicios en función de raza, género, religión, nacionalidad, ideología, orientación sexual…
@YeniBerenice: Hate crimes are motivated by prejudices in terms of race, gender, religion, nationality, ideology, sexual orientation…
According to the hypotheses shared by different government authorities, it is believed that the killers murdered the young man because of socio-economic differences, since everyone belonged in the “Heavy Metal sphere,” which had quite a limited audience in the country. But if the cruelty of the homicide weren't enough to torment the victim's family and those close to him, the Dominican press [es] tainted the integrity of José Carlos’ memory by filling different newspapers with value judgements and accusing him of Satanism as well as diabolic ritual practice because he had piercings, long hair, and dressed differently.
The accusations were the order of the day and society's most conservative sectors continued to echo these defamations before they revealed details and testimonies from the case. Nevertheless, a more liberal faction of the population declared their marked disagreement with the situation, which ended up generating heated debates — above all on social networks — about the different taboos and prejudices that still dominate the Dominican national imaginary. Diverse personalities with great influence in the country made their disagreement with the generalized reaction to the crime clear.
For example, Mariana Barrenese, an economist specializing in public policy, share the following via Twitter [es]:
@MaruBarrenese: Soy economista, especialista en Pol Fiscales. Salgo en TV, radio y diarios. Tengo 3 piercing y 3 tatoos. #BastaDePrejuicios
@MaruBarrenese: I am an economist, specializing in Fiscal Policy. I am on TV, the radio, and in the newspapers. I have 3 piercings and 3 tattoos. #BastaDePrejuicios [es] (#EnoughWithThePrejudice)
Similarly, figures in show business like the promoter, presenter, and television host Yolanda Martínez, posted on her Twitter @YolandaMart [es]:
@YolandaMart: A mi no me preocupan tatuajes ni piercings. A mí me preocupan el odio y la falta de compasión.
@YolandaMart: Tattoos and piercings do not worry me. What worries me is hate and lack of compassion.
On the other hand, writer and communicator Camilo Venegas positioned his criticism on Twitter towards the poor use of the media and its role in the perpetuation of society's disvalues, saying [es]:
@CamiloVenegas: Los medios de comunicación a veces se convierten en eficaces promotores de prejuicios y antivalores, como el machismo y el racismo.
@CamiloVenegas: The media sometimes become effective advocates of prejudices and anti-values, like machismo and racism.
Nonetheless, the debate was not limited to Twitter, as the majority of Dominican television and radio programming dedicated space to discuss the issue on a more professional and academic level. Different civil society organizations joined the discussion, and even to this day, the youth continues to debate the pros and cons of tattoos, piercings, and prejudices in an overarching sense.
Authorities still have not officially validated any of the versions that attempted to explain the incident nor have they announced any measure focused on easing certain beliefs and considerations that underpin many of the double standards that even now, in the 20th century, Dominicans harbor as universal and irrefutable truths. Meanwhile, research continues and social pressure to clarify the facts intensifies — especially due to the lack of confidence in the Dominican justice system and the various channels of information.

author: Pamela Martínez Achecar


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Egypt: 1.5km Human Chain Protest Outside Nile University · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

A 1.5km human chain outside Nile University. Photo shared by @kandily on Twitter
@Kandily shares this photograph on Twitter, showing a human chain which he says [ar] measures 1.5km made up of students outside Nile University, which has been appropriated to the Zewail City for Science and Technology (ZCST), after the revolution. The students are protesting against the loss of their not-for-profit university.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Egypt: Artists Re-Paint Murals Destroyed by Police · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Artists painting murals on Mohamed Mahmood Street in Cairo after police erased them. Photograph shared by @RashaPress on Twitter
Artists are back at work on Mohamed Mahmood street in Cairo, after authorities erased revolution graffiti. @RashaPress shares the photograph above of artists repainting murals on the street, off Tahrir Square, a few minutes ago.


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France: Study Shows GM Corn Fed Rats Display Higher Tumors Levels · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Guillaume Malaurie reports that [fr] a team of French researchers led by Pr. Gilles-Eric Séralini found that laboratory rats fed with a steady diet of Monsanto genetically modified corn displayed higher levels of tumors and multiple organ damage than those of control rats.  The researchers worked in quasi-clandestine conditions [fr] to prevent interference with their research.


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India: Hurrah For Hornbills – Defence Project Stalled in Narcondam · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

A proposal from the Indian Coast Guards to install coastal surveillance radar and power supply in the Narcondamm Island, a tiny, volcanic island in the Andaman Sea, has been stalled by India's Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). This news, coming after months of concerted, intensive campaigning against the proposal, has been welcomed by birders, ornithologists, ecologists, conservation activists and wildlife enthusiasts.
The remote, tiny Narcondam Island is home to the endemic Narcondam Hornbill, a highly endangered species, of which only about 350 are left today.The species is protected under Schedule 1 of India's Wildlife Protection Act. The bird is also listed as endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Narcondam Island, India. Google Locator Map by EVS-Islands on flickr CC BY-2.0
The Coast Guards’ proposal, which was duly recommended by the Andaman and Nicobar administration and their State Board for Wildlife, called for diverting 0.637 hectares of land from within the Narcondam Island Sanctuary for installation of the surveillance radar and its accompanying power source.
The installation was claimed to be necessary for remote surveillance of the strategically located Andaman and Nicobar islands as well activities on the coastal seas. However, that would also mean clearing a part of the forest to make a new road as well as increased human presence on that island.
Environmentalists argued that all of this would endanger the fragile ecosystem of the island and pose severe threat to the hornbill population and could even lead to their extinction.
The Narcondam Hornbill. Image by Kalyan Varma CC BY-NC-SA 2.5
The campaign(s) to save the Narcondam Hornbill has been commendable. For example, Conservation India had been running an active campaign urging citizens to take up the cause and petition members of the MOEF and the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL). They had also launched a video campaign to generate awareness about the issue and to mobilize public opinion in favour of preserving the island's ecosystem.
Here is the YouTube video, used with permission.
Other efforts included letters sent to the Ministry by various individuals as well as petitions by organizations such as Nature Conservation Foundation, Bombay Natural History Society etc. The views were finally corroborated by the Ministry's Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) after deliberation on the numerous petitions they received and a site inspection.
The committee finally recommended that the radar project be moved to an alternative site or alternative methods of surveillance be explored that would not have negative impact on the region's ecology. The Environment Ministry's memorandum [pdf] stated:
(The) Ministry is of the view that the other options for the purpose, like installation of off-shore structures and several other viable options are available, which can spare the unique habitat of Narcondam lsland from disturbance. However, there is no such option available for the Hornbill, whose survival may get seriously threatened if the establishment of proposed RADAR is allowed on the Narcondam Island. In view of the aforesaid, the proposal of diversion of 0.637 ha of forest land for installation of Coastal Surveillance RADAR and power supply source at Narcondam Sanctuary Island cannot be recommended.
At India's Endangered, Atula Gupta elaborates the reasons why, despite the country's security being an important matter, Narcondam is not the right place for the radar project. She writes:
It is never an easy decision to make when the question is about the country’s security. The coastal guards are planning on installing a series of such radars across the coastline of India for enhanced security surveillance. This is an important move, especially after the 26/11 terrorist attack.
But the roadblock here was the island that is the only place in the world, where one can witness the glorious hornbills. According to experts, these birds nest on tall trees about 250 m above the ground. During nesting period, the female shed their flight feathers and are locked inside their treehouses  as they tend to the young chicks.
The radar installation would have surely disturbed the habitat and the additional human presence, roads etc. would have completely destroyed the conditions necessary for the hornbills’ survival.
However, blogger Arhopala Bazaloides at Karela Fry points out that this step by the MOEF will not be enough to protect and save Narcondam as rampant tourism related anchorage as well as other factors are also creating threat to it's fragile ecology.
There is a police outpost and a lighthouse on the island. Goats were introduced in recent times, causing changes to the ecology. The current step is probably in the right direction, but the short attention span of conservation bodies probably dooms the island ecology anyway. As increasing numbers of cruises and tour groups pull into anchorage, this single act will not suffice to save the island.
Currently, the Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Ms. Jayanthi Natarajan has stalled clearance for the Coast Guard proposal which the Defence Ministry had stated to be a critical one.  She has asked the Defence Ministry to “constitute a committee of experts” to study and work out other viable solutions that can ensure the defence and economic security of the country without compromising the endemic hornbills of Narcondam.

author: Aparna Ray


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Iran: Government Offices Logging Off the Internet · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Iran is planning [fa] to move the country's 42000 government offices away from the World Wide Web to “national internet” next week,according to the Iranian Minister of Communication and Technology, Reza Taqipour.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Kosovo: Venice Biennale “Newcomer” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Facebook page “Southeast Europe: People and Culture” notes that “Kosovo is one of this year's newcomers to the [Venice Biennale]”:
The pavilion allows visitors to share their views on Kosovo's future design landscape.
More on the Kosovo Pavilion – here.


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Mexico: A Photographic Glimpse into Midwifery Around the World · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

Intercultural Midwifery is the topic of this Offbeat Mama guest photo blog post by Brooklyn based photographer Alice Proujansky. While five months pregnant she traveled to photograph a cultural knowledge exchange in Quintana Roo where students from the only government- accredited program in midwifery went to study with Mayan traditional midwives from rural area.
The traditional midwives shared their knowledge on practices common to them such as uterine massage while learning from the students how they could handle birth emergencies.
Alice Proujansky Image from her Birth series
As Alice Proujansky describes on her website where a slideshow of photographs from this trip can be found:
This cultural exchange integrated best practices from indigenous healthcare rooted in traditional, isolated, impoverished regions with professionalized, evidence-based maternity care, and is part of a trend toward embracing midwifery in Mexico.
From her blog post CASA Midwifery Students on a Journey:
After preparing their public health presentations – including hand-sewn model pelvises, breasts and amniotic sacs – the students from CASA midwifery school boarded a run-down bus, ate American cheese and hot pepper sandwiches, and rode 32 hours from their school in San Miguel de Allende to the small city of José Maria Morelos in the Southern state of Quintana Roo. There all 40 students slept on the floor of a classroom at the Universidad Intercultural Maya and gave presentations to local traditional Mayan midwives about prenatal resuscitation, post-partum hemorrhage and other topics. The traditional midwives, who had learned from relatives and practiced for many years, taught the students about home births in hammocks, herbal medicines, and their own approaches to obstetric emergencies and prenatal care.
Also on Ms. Proujansky's website are other documentary series on maternity such as Delivery, where photographs show the conditions in a Dominican Republic maternity ward, and Lagos Midwives on how Nigerian midwives provide much needed and welcomed care through a free clinic run by Doctors Without Borders.
Here's an audio slideshow with color images of Lagos Midwives that also includes audio from interviews with midwives in the clinic:

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Myanmar: 500 Prisoners Released  · Global Voices
Chan Myae Khine

More than 500 prisoners in Myanmar are expected to be released[my] this week. A number of netizens assume that it's a political tactic in preparation for the president's trip to the United States.

author: Chan Myae Khine


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Myanmar: Video of Traffic Police Accepting Bribe · Global Voices
Chan Myae Khine

A traffic police accepting bribe from a bus conductor, Yangon, Myanmar. Photo from video uploaded by Nyan Linn Aung
Nyan Linn Aung uploaded a video of a traffic police accepting bribe from public and private buses in Myanmar. With incredibly low salary rate for traffic police, corruption is still rampant in the agency.


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Philippines: ‘Anti-Cybercrime Law Threatens Media Freedom’ · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 was signed by Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on September 12, 2012. The main proponent of the measure, Senator Edgardo Angara, hails the passage of the law:
With this law, we hope to encourage the use of cyberspace for information, recreation, learning and commerce. By protecting all users from abuse and misuse, we enable netizens to use cyberspace more productively.
Internet shop in the Philippines. Photo from Flickr page of Silicon Gulf
This measure will deter people from committing crimes because the virtual world will no longer be a lawless realm. Its enactment sends out a strong message to the world that the Philippines is serious about keeping cyberspace safe.
But critics fear the law could lead to the curtailment of internet and media freedom in the country. They question in particular the last-minute inclusion of libel as one of the cybercrimes in the law.
Raissa Robles is concerned about the impactof inserting the libel provision in the law:
What makes the libel rider interesting is that it is SUCH a clumsy cut-and-paste job, without any attempt to take into account the nature of the Internet.
No congressional public hearing was ever held on libel in the Internet.
This section on libel has grave implications for freedom of speech on the Internet. People who post on Facebook, Twitter and write comments in news websites can be sued for libel in much more insidious ways than those in the traditional news media.
I am all for making people personally accountable for what they post online, but not this way.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines explains why the law is a threat to media freedom:
The enactment of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 was, to say the least, sneaky and betrays this administration’s commitment to transparency and freedom of expression – nil.
The inclusion of libel among the crimes that may be committed with the use of computers poses a threat not only against the media and other communicators but anyone in the general public who has access to a computer and the Internet.
The Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility asserts that the enactment of the law reveals the ‘restrictive mindset’ of the country’s leaders:
Prior to its passage, the Philippines had been distinguished among its Asian neighbors for the absence of regulatory legislation affecting the Internet. It can signal the opening of the floodgates of Internet regulation that will affect Filipino netizens, given the restrictive mindset of the country’s leaders. It is a distinct possibility to which journalists and bloggers, ordinary citizen and anyone committed to free expression through whatever medium, should be alert, and must be prepared to combat.
Meanwhile, AttyAtWork is worried about the other provisions of the law that could violate the privacy and civil liberties of internet users:
R.A. (Republic Act) 10175 allows, without any need of a warrant, a real-time collection of traffic data by law enforcement agencies. It also authorizes the Department of Justice (DOJ), by mere prima facie evidence, to block or restrict access to computer data.
There is no need to secure a warrant from the court to gain access to traffic data. That means law enforcement, by mere notice/order to the ISP, can require such ISP to divulge and preserve data relating to a communication’s origin, destination, route, time, date, size, duration, or type of underlying service.
Cocoy reflects on the lessons of the campaign to block the passage of ‘restrictive’ legislations such as the anti-cybercrime measure:
At the same time, the passage of the cybercrime law is an indictment of our tribes. We have failed us. We who understand technology have failed to bridge the digital divide. We are failing to educate how things are, and how things work. The tribes have failed to provide a constant campaign to be heard and to influence public opinion. We must now seriously reconsider how our collectivism can positively reshape society in the long term.
The police and business process outsourcing companies are happy over the enactment of the cybercrime prevention bill.

author: Mong Palatino


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Puerto Rico: Corruption Ranking  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Riding the crest of public corruption, Puerto Rico cements its place as #1 with an astonishing 130 corruption convictions–convictions, people–in 2011.
Gil the Jenius blogs about this dubious honour.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Romania: “Church and State” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

At OpenDemocracy.net, Luke Dale-Harris writes about the Romanian Orthodox Church's “threatening influence on democracy in the country.”