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Eritrea: The Plight of Eritrea Refugees in Egypt · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Release Eritrea, a charity based in the UK, is concerned about the plight of Eritrean refugees in Egypt: “In recent days, five Eritreans have been shot by the Egyptian border guards on the border with Israel. They managed to cross the border despite their wounds, but later died in Israel of their injuries, reports coming from Israel confirm.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Germany: Learning German with a Blog · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

Every Tuesday, Canadian expat Marie in Berlin uploads recordings of the peculiar new words she learns in German to her blog.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Solana Larsen


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Greece: Wave of Racist Attacks on Immigrants in Athens · Global Voices
Asteris Masouras

In the past days, right-wing extremists in Athens, Greece have launched pogrom-like attacks on immigrants in the downtown Athens area. It began on May 10, 2011, one day after a 44-year old escorting his pregnant wife to the hospital was mugged and stabbed to death. There is no evidence as to the identity of the killers, but racist gangs have gone on something like vengeance spree on immigrants -or even foreign-looking Greeks- who they hold generally responsible for rising crime and unemployment in Greece.
A protest against the killing of the expectant father on May 10, in the same location where the mugging happened, drew a crowd of hundreds that eventually led to the attacks.
A man injured in racist attack after protest in Athens, 12 May 2011. Photo by Epoca Libera, copyright Demotix
Dozens of people have been injured in the past days, and there has also been one death, which is still being investigated for motive. There has been a marked increase in incidents of violence against immigrants and asylum-seekers in Greece in recent years, but this degree of openly racist violence in the streets is unprecedented.
Twitter has erupted with reactions from citizens.
Media reports
Media professional @doleross provided live news coverage of the attacks on immigrants following the protest around 18:00 on May 10.
@doleross: Σε “κυνηγητό” κατά μεταναστώνστην 3η Σεπτεμβρίου έχουν επιδοθεί οι συγκεντρωμένοι για την δολοφονία του 44χρονου.Εμφανίστηκαν τα ΜΑΤ #rbnews
@doleross: MEGA τώρα: Ακροδεξιοί στην 3η Σεπετεμβρ. δέρνουν και κυνηγούν μέχρι μέσα στα σπίτια τους αλλοδαπούς. Η αστυνομία δεν επεμβαίνει. #rbnews
@doleross: Πληροφορίες αναφέρουν ότι ομάδες “τιμωρών” έχουν βγει κ σε άλλες περιοχές της Αθήνας κ άλλων δήμων, “αναζητώντας” αλλοδαπούς.#rbnews
Greek expats summarized the distressing news. Film producer Yanni Koutsomytis tweeted in English:
@YanniKouts: Racial violence erupts in downtown Athens following killing of a 44-yr Greek man. Ultra-right groups indiscriminately attack immigrants now
Greek new media theorist Nikos Smyrnaios observed in French:
@smykos: Grèce, une société au bord de l'implosion: un homme assassiné sauvagement à Athènes => des extrémistes racistes pourchassent des immigrés.
Eyewitness reports
"This is Greece". Twitpic photo by Nektarios Sylligardakis.
Eyewitness reports of attacks on immigrants between 19:00 and 21:00 were sparse, but dramatic:
@nsyll: Κυνηγούν ποιον είναι λίγο μελαψός http://twitpic.com/4vypvc
@potmos: Σπάνε 1-2 καταστήματα “ξένων” τώρα Αχαρνών
@bezesteni: Καμμια 50ρια φασίστες και περίεργοι μεσήλικες Ηπείρου και Γ´ Σεπτεμβρίου. Αρκετοί νεαροί με μαυροκόκκινα στην Αχαρνών και τα γύρω στενά.
@zairacat: damage control: μαθαίνω ότι υπάρχουν πολλοί μετανάστες χτυπημένοι στα εφημερεύοντα νοσοκομεία.
The wave of racist attacks in Athens continued the following days, with one killing of an immigrant man possibly linked to racial motives [el], arson attacks [el] and a second anti-migrant pogrom following a protest [el].
Reactions on Twitter
Sharply divided, the Greek twittersphere reacted to the news of he lethal mugging and the racist violence that followed with a mixture of outrage, apprehension and resignation.
The media were also blamed by many for inflaming racial hatred.
@doleross: Λάδι στην φωτιά ρίχνουν ανεύθυνα δημοσιεύματα από “ενηνερωτικά” πορταλς με τίτλους όπως: «Φόβοι για νέα “Δεκεμβριανά”» #rbnews
@radicalalchemist: ΣΚΑΙ: “Απο τις κάμερες φαίνεται οτι είναι μαροκινής ή αλγερινής καταγωγής” Κάμερες που κάνουν και ταυτοποίηση στοιχείων φαντάζομαι έ?
@Cyberela: Θα το ρίξουν στο μεταναστευτικό κύμα των λαών της Νότιας Αφρικής και της Μέσης Ανατολής.
A distressing allegation was made by Constantinos Alexacos:
@constantnos: Εδώ και μήνες υπάρχουν blogs φερόμενων αστυνομικών και ακροδεξιών που λένε ότι θα κάνουνε πολιτοφυλακή. Ουδείς ίδρωσε…
Some Twitter users pointed out core issues engendering violence in the city center. The demographics of entire housing blocks have changed, as right-wing groups have mounted more anti-immigrant campaigns.
@Anastasialadiab: Πόσο ανόητοι όσοι πιστεύουν ότι για την εξαθλίωση του κέντρουτης Αθήνας φταίνε οι μετανάστες κ όχι αυτοί που έδιωξαν τους Μόνιμους Κατοικους
And urged authorities to react to the growing humanitarian crisis facing Athens:
@mao_tse_tung: η τραγικότητα του σημερινού εγκλήματος μπορεί να γίνει εξαιρετική αφορμή για ν αρχίσει η προσπάθεια να αλλάξει η κατάσταση. Δήμαρχε ξύπνα!
While others mused on the self-perpetuating nature of violence:
@nsyll: όταν απαντάς στην βία με βία σίγουρα έχεις χάσεις κάθε δικαίωμα να ζητάς ανθρωπιά
As interest on Twitter abruptly moved on to other things for the night, like the popular Eurovision song contest, Helena Chari offered a damning deadpan:
@helena_chari: ελλαδα: ουτε euro, ουτε vision, μονο eurovision

author: Asteris Masouras


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Haiti: Taking Responsibility for Cholera  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Stanley Lucas thinks that “this [UN] mission needs to be held accountable for its actions, including the cholera, and should be more responsibly managed – or it needs to be closed.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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India: 34 Years of Communist Rule Ends in West Bengal · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Today, Friday 13 May, 2011, saw change sweeping across the political landscape of West Bengal, India's fourth most populous state. Mamata Banerjee, leader of the All India Trinamool Congress Party (TMC), proved all skeptics wrong and swept into power, ending the 34 year long Communist rule in the state. Her party won 186 of 274 seats in the ongoing assembly elections, and together with allies, now commands 227 seats, heralding a decisive, landslide victory.
What was more, the Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee himself lost his seat to the TMC candidate by over 16,000 votes and resigned soon after, accepting “the verdict of the people”. After a 13-year long wait, Mamata Banerjee is on her way to becoming the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal.
A victory sign is displayed by a party worker of Trinamool Congress after the poll result of West Bengal Assembly election 2011. Image by Arindam Dey. Copyright Demotix (13/5/2011)
Throughout the day, the city wore a holiday look. The roads were pretty empty as most people sat glued to their televisions, following the vote-counting updates and analysis on a minute by minute basis. The entire state was abuzz with anticipation – “Will she? Won't she?”.
By afternoon the mandate was clear. The Communist Party had been routed, not only in West Bengal but also in Kerala – another of their bastions.
CHANGE – the people's choice. Image by author.
Netizens too were abuzz with the historic news. Tweets poured in fast and furious – some congratulatory and others hoping that the change eventually will be translated into positive action and good governance. Some also expressed concerns in this regard.
@swatigs: Historic win for TMC in Bengal for a generation who have seen only one party rule – we hope the ‘poriborton’ (change) will turn to progress.
@IndiaIn: Mamata shatters red citadel, sets to be WB's first woman CM: Set to take over the reins of West Bengal as its first woman chief minister
@subroto_kar: Congratulations Mamata and TMC. People of West Bengal have voted you with hope, don't let them down.
FirozeHoque: Congratulations Mamata Banarjee.We wanted change,you gave,love you Didibhai.#TMC #bengal
@rravishankar7: Mamata decimates the Left after almost 3 decades.  India – the greatest democracy in the world. #democracy, #womenpower
@rameshsays: @thenewshour – Mamata is in the best position to effect radical changes in a State languishing in the “stone age” for long.
@ghoshsaikat: Finally the Red building has fallen to the Green group. But the question is does TMC have the necessary administrators to run a State Govt.?
@StevenWatson5: Congrats to Mamata. However, can she and her members be able to govern a state like West Bengal for the full term. I doubt it.
@ajaykumaraajtak: The biggest question in WB: will Mamata match soaring expectations of  people. Bengal is so deprived that disenchantment will set in fast.
On the ground, there was jubilation and celebration among the TMC party workers and their allies and supporters. The mood in the party offices of the Left told it's own story.
The scene outside the local TMC party office and that of the ousted CPI(M). Image by author.

author: Aparna Ray


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Jamaica: The Simple Life  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Diaspora blogger Grasshopper Eyes The Potomac wants to keep things simple.


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May 11, 1981: 30 Years Ago, Bob Marley and François Mitterrand · Global Voices
Thalia Rahme

“François Mitterrand and Bob Marley, united for eternity on May 11th 1981″, [fr] is a post on the blog Calédosphère commemorating the 30th anniversary of the passing of the “God of Reggae”, Bob Marley, and the election of former French President François Mitterrand. Bob Marley fans can visit the blog [fr] to follow in the footsteps of the Jamaican star, as well as see photos and videos of the making of the documentary “Sur les traces de Bob Marley” (In the footsteps of Bob Marley), which aired on May 11, 2011, on Radio Nostalgie and Skynet.

author: Thalia Rahme


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Mexico: Day 4: 80,000 Citizens Demand Peace, Justice and Dignity Against the War on Drugs · Global Voices
Geraldine Juarez

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.
The National Protest for Peace, Justice and Dignity started its final stage early on Sunday, May 8, from the National University (UNAM) in Mexico City. International media reported that between 80,000 and 90,000 protesters joined the silent crowd on different points of the route across the capital.
#marchanacional at Eje Central, Mexico City. Image by @alconsumidor
Fountains were tinted red in the city:
Fountain in La Alameda. Image by Geraldne Juárez.
And political cartoonists set up a small workshop in Bellas Artes, to help demonstrators draw their banners.
Die Better (a pun related to the government's slogan "Live Better") Image by @jaimediseno
Citizen activists set up a booth collecting signatures to promote a trial in the International Criminal Court against President Felipe Calderón and all others who might be responsible for war crimes during the last 4 years of the War on Drugs.  John Ackerman tweeted [es] that around 10,000 signatures were collected during the protest to support this trial.
In Bellas Artes, near the main square of the city, the atmosphere was friendly and playful, but people showed their discontent and opposition towards the violence generated by Calderón's strategy. Almost everyone had banners, flowers and flags.
"They put the guns. Mexico puts the deaths". Image by Geraldine Juárez
"We are what we do to change what we are". Image by Geraldine Juárez
#Marchanacional (national march) finally reached downtown Mexico City in silence.
Javier Sicilia in downtown Mexico City with #marchanacional Image by Geraldine Juárez
The crowd yelled: “No More Blood! We've had it up to here! Not one more dead!”  (¡No más sangre, estamos hasta la madre, ni un muerto más!) through Cinco de Mayo Avenue:
The main square, El Zócalo, was already packed before protesters entered. Some of the parents that have lost their children spoke while demonstrators entered the square.  The father of Adriana Morlett was there again, denouncing the government for corruption. A mother that lost her son –a graffiti artist– demanded public spaces for street artists, and another father shared the story of the killing of his two sons: an architect and a graphic designer. A member of a community police group in Guerrero spoke about their experience in turning their community into one of the most secure areas in that State thanks to citizens taking the lead.
Patricia Duarte (@madreABC), who heads the movement Cinco de Junio [es], read the proposed National Accord.  She also announced the citizen trial for the ABC Kindergarden case where 40 children died in a fire. Parents of the victims are still seeking formal justice.
Patricia Duarte from Movimiento Cinco De Junio. Image by @alconsumidor
The National Accord, to be signed in Ciudad Juárez on June 10, has 6 points that are described in detail in the complete document [es]:
1. Exigimos verdad y justicia.
2. Exigimos poner fin a la estrategia de guerra y asumir un enfoque de seguridad ciudadana.
3. Exigimos combatir la corrupción y la impunidad.
4. Exigimos combatir la raíz económica y las ganancias del crimen.
5. Exigimos la atención de emergencia a la juventud y acciones efectivas de recuperación del tejido social.
6. Exigimos democracia participativa, mejor democracia representativa y democratización en los medios de comunicación.
Javier Sicilia took the microphone, thanked participants and said that Mexico must be a place full of people in the streets “at the right place and at the right time”.  Then he demanded the resignation of the Public Safety Secretary, Genaro García Luna, as a signal that the President is listening to the demands of the people: “We want a message from the President announcing that resignation to know that he listens to us”.
He later read Heidegger and continued with this speech:
We have come so silently because our pain is so great and deep, and the horror from it is so immense, that there are no words to say it. With this silence, we say to the authorities responsible for the security of this country that we do not want one more death because of this  growing confusion that only looks to suffocate us, like they suffocated the breath and  the life of my son, Juan Francisco, and  Luis Antonio, Julius Caesar, Gabo, María del Socorro, the Commander Jaime, and many thousands of men, women, children and elderly people killed with the disdain and vileness of worlds that are not and never will be ours.
To tell us and tell them that we believe the nation can still be reborn and emerge out of its ruins, to show the lords of death that we are standing.
He also questioned the fact that some governors have been publicly denounced as accomplices of organized crime and still are in the administration and their political parties protect them. He denounced the partidocracia  and its complicity with mafias, which will lead voters to think about which cartel or de facto power to vote for in the next elections. Sicilia also reminded listeners that legislators attempted to pass the National Security Law under the table, and said that it is absurd that the national security is reduced to a military issue.
ThinkMexican created a Storify post with the development of #marchanacional in many cities of Mexico. Vivir Mexico made an impressive compilation with photos of that day; Demotix also published a curated photo essay about May 8.
Leo Gzz (@Sicapeas) uploaded one of the best visual chronicles of May 8, which includes testimonies of parents and family members of young victims of the War on Drugs.
Many cities in Mexico and in the world joined Marcha Nacional in solidarity. A gallery of the demonstration in  Tamaulipas – a State where clandestine graves with a recent total of 188 bodies have been found – by ContigenteMX is available on their site.
In Germany, demonstrators in Frankfurt and Berlin demanded immediate demilitarization of Mexico.
In Paris, demonstrators participated in “Action Empty Envelope”  in Champs Elysse  and marched to the postal office to send 100 envelopes labeled with incidents of violence to Calderón's office in Mexico City. Emmanuel Delaloy published a photo essay of these events.
Marcha Nacional in Paris. Image by Emmanuel Delaloy
Eduardo Molina (@molintosh) tweeted a picture of London demonstrators protesting outside the Mexican Embassy. New York and Barcelona joined too:
"National Emergency: Not one more death" in Barcelona. Image via @mimooso
"No More Blood" in New York City. Image by @marthacristiana
Mainstream international media like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post  and The Guardian reported on the national march. Al Jazeera prepared this feature about #marchanacional:
Hours after the protest, the federal government issued a press release [es] where it expressed respect for the protest and reiterated that violence is not generated by the police and the army.
However, on Monday May 9, national security spokesman, Alejandro Poiré, defended Public Safety Secretary Genaro García Luna in opposition to the demands of Javier Sicilia. President Felipe Calderón offered to dialog with the main organizers of #marchanacional:
We can agree or disagree [..] Of course that doesn't exclude the possibility and the responsibility to dialog, to listen to each other and understand each other.
This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.

author: Geraldine Juarez


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North Korea in the Grip of South Korean Soap Fever · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

South Korean soap operas have gained a huge popularity in North Korea nowadays, even to create new slang among teens, Hanciema posted on the new trends in one of the world's reclusive state.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Russia: Blogger Continues to Fight for Right to Photograph  · Global Voices
Vadim Isakov

Popular photoblogger Ilya Varlamov (zyalt) continues to report on the violations of his constitutional rights to freely photograph in any public place. Varlamov's latest attempts to take pictures in the Moscow-City, a business district of Moscow, led, as always, to confrontation with private security services.

author: Vadim Isakov


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Russia: North Caucasian Website DDoS-attacked and Hacked · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Caucasian Knot reports [ru] a hacker attack on golosingushetii.ru (Voice of Ingushetia), an independent North Caucasian website. In March 2011, the website was subject to a DDoS attack. This time the online offenders managed to hack the website and delete its content. The content has been backed up and now the website is restored.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Russia: Opposition Blogger’s Trial Starts After a Year of Detention · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Caucasian Knot reports on [ru] Alauddin (Aleksey) Dudko's trial that started only on May 10, 2011, year after his arrest. Dudko (LJ-user ingushetiya_ru), opposition blogger, had been charged with drug and explosives possession. Dudko's lawyers claim, police set him up in order to prevent his blogging activity. According to the last report from the court [ru], the prosecution hushes up the details of the search in Dudko's flat during which explosives and drugs were found.


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Russia: Quantitative Research Proves Blogs Set an Alternative News Agenda · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Bruce Etling, Berkman Center scholar and one of the authors of the “Mapping of the Russian Blogosphere” research, posts the initial results of the Russian online media content analysis. While the “Russian TV channels and newspapers (traditional and Web native) cover topics similar to each other and to the Russian government,” opposition blogs provide “an alternative agenda to mainstream sources,” the blogpost at Media Cloud blog says.


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South Korea: Blogger’s Phone Review Deleted by Samsung · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

In South Korea, an influential blogger's negative review of a Samsung smartphone has been taken down due to pressure from the manufacturer. Internet users have harshly criticised the nation's biggest conglomerate, Samsung Electronics and Naver, the nation's biggest web portal, for censoring the blogger.
Hahm Young Min is an influential IT blogger who has several thousand daily readers on his blog, Hahm Young Min's DicaGallery. Hahm posted a review of Samsung's newly released smartphone, Galaxy S2 on April 2, 2011, entitled “Nine shortcomings of the Unusable Galaxy2S of Samsung”.
Screenshot of Hahm's removed post.
“Temporarily suspended”
Several days later, the original post was nowhere to be seen. In its place, was this message from the blog host Naver: “This post has been temporarily suspended due to reader requests. The decision was taken in accordance with Korea Telecommunication Law, Article 44 Clause 2.”
A image of Hahm's now unavailable post, has meanwhile been circulated across the Internet. Hahm is believed to have written the controversial review after using a test version of the GalaxyS2 phone for three weeks. In the review, he pointed out nine shortcomings of the new smartphone, such as the phone's resolution, the amount of heat emitted during use, the battery life, the price, the accessories, the screen's white balance, and minor glitches in the phone's camera.
The public response to the removal of the post was intense. Many, such as IT blogger Green Monkey criticized [ko] Samsung for violating free speech. The blogger said Naver's explanation was a lame excuse, and that Hahm's review was just one among hundreds he had published on gadgets and software:
(함영민씨의) 게시글이 ‘다른 이용자의 요청으로 임의 게시중단'이 되었다. ‘다른 이용자'가 누구인지 감이 오는데, 네이버측은 망할 정보통신망법을 들먹거리며 무려 1443개의 댓글과 191개의 공감을 얻은 게시글을 날려버렸다. […] 함영민씨는 ‘갤럭시S2가 출시되면서 이에 대한 장점들만 나열된 결과가 모두 하나같은 찬양일색. 공동구매 포스팅만 보여지고 있어 안타까운 마음에 손가락을 움직여 봅니다'라고 임의삭제된 갤럭시S2 리뷰를 하게 된 배경을 밝혔다.[…] 여하간 네이버 IT블로거가 그간 삼성전자 휴대폰의 장점들도 리뷰해 왔는데, 갤럭시S2의 단점을 언급했다고 게시글을 삭제토록 한게 누구인지 정말 궁금할 따름이다.
In a May 7 post, Hahm published [ko] the text of an email from Samsung explaining what their position:
함영민씨의 글 중에 소비자에게 오해를 불러일으킬 수 있는 부분이 있어서 보완 요청을 드리려고 했던 것인데 진행과정에 문제가 있었던 것 같습니다.
Samsung also explained where they wished to see adjustments:
1. 함영민님의 리뷰폰이 출시 이전에 제품을 리뷰하신 것으로, 현재 출시된 제품이 아닌 테스트폰임을 명확시 전달.[…]2.리뷰이기 때문에 주관적 견해 중심의 리뷰는 인정하나, 소비자에게 잘못 전달 될 수 있는 제품 기능상의 오인지 정보의 정확한 전달 요청.
Hahm accepted Samsung's points and acknowledged that he holds a greater responsibility as a featured ‘IT Power Blogger’ on the Naver website.
제가 일전에 올린 ‘갤럭시 S2 몹쓸 9가지 단점'에 대한 포스팅이 일일히 열거하지 않아도 아실만한 큰 파장을 일으키고 있습니다. 제가 올린 갤럭시 S2 9가지 단점에 대한 리뷰는 주관적인 의견입니다. 일반 블로거는 그럴 수 있어도 파워 블로거로 이런 주관적 리뷰를 남기는 것은 문제가 있다란 지적에 대해 그리고 과장된 표현이 될 수도 있는 ‘몹쓸'이란 단어를 제목으로 채택한 것에 대해 저도 그 책임감이 중요하다는 것에 대해 다시 한 번 통감하고 있습니다.
Because of Samsung's immense power in Korean society, many bloggers have approached this case from a censorship angle, while mainstream media instead focused on the abuse of power by influential bloggers. One news article on Money Today [ko], criticized top bloggers for losing their objectivity while enjoying perks, such as financial benefits from sponsors, free coupons and gift sample packages, and invitations to fancy promotional events. Meanwhile, many bloggers have strongly protested Samsung's behavior as a threat to free speech online.
까칠Ryan wrote [ko] on his Me2Day micro-blog:
이 기사의 뉘앙스를 보아하니 IT기기등의 리뷰를 많이 진행하는 블로거들의 의견을 ‘권력화'라고 매도하면서 소비자의 자유로운 의견개진에 대해 견제를 가하려는 의도가 다분히 엿보입니다. 언론의 자유가 있는만큼 개인적인 자격으로 제품에 대해 어떤 주관적인 평가를 하던지간에 그건 블로거 자신의 개인의견일 뿐이고, 거기에 대해 제조사측에서 포스팅에 대한 수정보완 요청을 하는 행위 자체가 월권처럼 느껴지는건 나뿐인지.
Naver and Daum, the nation's two biggest web portals, and other websites specializing in blogs, such as Tistory and Egloos annually select dozens of ‘power bloggers’ in different categories to reward the most prolific bloggers and boost the blogosphere. When you are nominated to be a power blogger, higher readership is guaranteed, and you may be contacted for paid reviews and extra financial benefits from advertisements and sponsorship.
Power blogger badge from Naver.
These sites also give you a ‘Power Blogger Badge’ for your blog and a gift set. One Naver power blogger, Hilander, posted photos of various gifts he received from Naver. They included gift coupons, business cards and card cases, and even a little crystal trophy.
As power bloggers gained more influence and favors, several started writing reviews that almost sounded like advertisements. More prudent bloggers, such as Hajaj1 commented [ko] that since there are several IT power bloggers who post fraudulent reviews to favor certain brands, Hahm should have been extra careful in writing his review to dispel doubts about his integrity.


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South Korea: Tweeters Helping Residents Suffering from Water Cut-off · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

As more than a half million residents in Gumi area in North Gyungsang Province have suffered from a water cut-off for over four days now, South Korean Tweeters went to help the distressed residents by supplying bottled water and wiring money gathered via Twitter. One of influential Twitters, @mediamongu posted photos of the rescue scene.


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Trinidad & Tobago: The Firing of King  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Bloggers are still reacting to the firing of the Minister of Planning, with aka_lol saying, tongue-in-cheek: “I think it is wise for any Government to promptly get rid of any Minister who can’t even manage to carry out an everyday piece of corruption effectively.”


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Uganda: Museveni’s Swearing in Overshadowed by Rival’s Return · Global Voices
Rosebell Kagumire

This post is part of our special coverage Uganda: Walk to Work Protests.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was sworn in Thursday for the fifth time after winning the February 18 elections with 68 percent.
The ceremony was graced by a few African presidents, from Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Nigeria. Museveni’s swearing in was overshadowed by the arrival of his arch rival and three time challenger Dr. Kizza Besigye who had been flown to Nairobi for medical treatment from injuries sustained during a violent arrest last month.
Arch rival's arrival
Dr. Besigye was almost stopped from coming back to the country the day before the ceremony. Blocked from boarding a Kenya Airways flight after reports that the Uganda government would not allow the airline to land if he was on board, Besigye was later offered a seat on another evening flight which he declined. Together with his wife and former confidante Museveni Winnie Byanyima, they chose to come back on the very day of the swearing in ceremony.
The army used used tear gas and canes to try to disperse crowds gathered along Entebbe Road as they waited for Besigye. The military had to make way for foreign dignitaries to be able to access the road to the airport as a journey that usually takes about a hour, took Besigye and his crowd of supporters over six hours to make it to the city.
Ugandan riot police ready for action. Photo by @oletan.
Reactions from the people
Earlier on Tuesday, police had  sprayed pink paint on protesters who were trying to access the Constitution Square in Kampala, a place government has alleged Besigye wanted to turn into a Tahrir of sorts.
Popular hashtags for the day were #uginauguration, #Besigye, #Walk2work and #Uganda. Ugandans thronged to Twitter and Facebook to air their views and report events of the day.
@27sunshineave wondered what’s special about the fifth time of swearing in:
#ugandainauguration ah ah, I'm bored..how is a man swearing in for the 5th time new to me… Where's #besigye at?? Now that's interesting
Even as the ceremony went on, many Ugandans like @irrynne still wondered why billions of shillings were being spent for President Museveni's fifth swearing in ceremony:
So billions of taxpayer money just to see him do it a fifth time? #ugandainauguration #BS
@Elirri pointed out a little stammering by the president as he sworn in:
Museveni stammers while swearing in. Isnt he sure he's the right candidate to have been sworn in??? #uganda #ugandainauguration
And @cobbo3 indicated that winning a fraudulent election and beating up opponents can mess the speech of even the most eloquent of men:
@Elirri Winning disputed polls and beating down rivals will mess with the speech of even the most eloquent man. #uganda #ugandainauguration
@gatimo1 said that President Museveni shouldn’t have read the oath:
M7 ws reading the oath!! By now, he shd know it by heart.. #ugandainauguration #uginauguration
@gaetanokagwa thinks that Museveni doesn’t just have five years but ten more years to rule Uganda:
The next 10 years of rule under #Museveni are going to be very interesting in #uganda. #ugandainauguration
On Facebook the talk of Museveni’s inauguration was a top topic in the early morning hours.  But Nobert Mao, the leader of Democratic Party leader who has been jailed for taking part in the Walk to Work protest  had to dispel rumours that opposition had planned a parallel swearing in ceremony.
Javie Ssozi says [Login required] the fifth swearing in ceremony was not as newsworthy as Besigye’s homecoming.
Samuel Makokha used his Facebook page to give updates of where Besigye’s convoy was and how the military and police were trying to break into crowds that gathered to welcome Besigye.
Dennis Muhumuza says he hopes Museveni uses the next five years to address the issues affecting the masses in Uganda.
Benon Herbert Oluka feared that if Museveni’s convoy went back to the State House using the same route Besigye and his supporters were at, there was likely to be a confrontation.  Others like Tony Ofungi captured videos of planes in the skies as the President was sworn in.
Charles Odongtho wondered what to make of  the absence of President Paul Kagame of Rwanda.
Before the swearing in ceremony ended, attention shifted to Besigye and his convoy and so did the Twitter and Facebook users.  @StoneAtwine wondered if the army top officials who were all glued to their phones throughout the swearing in were giving orders to halt Besigye’s movement:
They must be giving orders for Besigye movements from EBB. “@Billynkid: Hahah top brass all on there phones. #uginauguration”
Besigye convoy meets Mugabe convoy. Photo courtesy of @UgInsomniac.
Then came tweets about police use of teargas on Besigye’s supporters. @malonebarry said Besigye and his supporters got teargassed as Museveni and his group danced:
Reports #Besigye supporters being teargassed as Museveni's dance on other side of town #walk2work #uginauguration #Uganda
@beewol pointed out that events of the day in Uganda are in three seasons: Inauguration, walk2work and the clash on Entebbe road with Besigye supporters:
Season 1 #uginauguration is over. Season 2 #walk2work is just getting started. Season 3 #TheClashOnEbbsRoad is coming to cinemas near U
@MusanaMusana reported sounds of gunshots in various Kampala suburbs as security forces moved to restrict crowds gathering waiting for Besigye:
“@jssozi: gunshots in Nateete, mengo area as police disperse Besigye's supporters. True hero's welcome.. #walk2work”
There was also a buzz about why the police were turning to blue water and pink paint to deal with crowds after shooting several demonstrators last month. XKMato explained the reasons for using water and pink paint:
I hear the point of blue water and #pinkstuff was because tear gas can't spoil cameras and phones… #walk2work #uginauguration #Besigye
Officials from Besigye’s party Forum for Democratic Change like Anne Mugisha were updating their followers as Besigye’s convoy took time to make it through crowds. Mugisha reported that the military had beaten some of their supporters around Kisubi a few kilometers from the airport [the message is currently unavailable].
The events in Kampala put the media under intense pressure. Most television stations showed Museveni’s swearing in ceremony live and when the ceremony closed, WBS TV stole the show with live coverage of Besigye arrival. Other stations registered complaints from Ugandans.
@rhyzcharles equates the lack of live coverage for Besigye's arrival on some television stations to betrayal:
NTV has betrayed us this time on #Besigye arrival to #Uganda
@sieitai reported many incidents where security operatives were blocking journalists from doing their work:
… more stories of journalists’ cameras grabbed by plain clothed security hoodlums again! what a life! #walk2work!
It took more than 8 hours for Besigye to cover 25 miles from Entebbe Airport to Kampala as thousands of supporters lined along the road to see him.
@Oletan described the security situation as a Mamba party showing a picture of APCs (Armoured Personnel Carriers) which are locally know as Mamba.
@UgInsomniac waited for Besigye’s convoy to pass for many hours She wondered if it was worth the wait:
#Besigye in Lweza. He turned up. Finally. Not sure it was worth the wait. #uganda #ugandainauguration http://twitpic.com/4wnkgf
Finally, the Urban Legend describes the ceremony with a light touch:
I sweya:
He stuttered at “ob…observe law…” He thought it was a typo and fired whoever included ‘law’ in his speech.
Crowd:
The crowd was mostly comprised of old people. Those who only vote for one issue: The man saved us from those of Amin.
Invitation list:
Tired, hungry and pissed off presidents only. It’s as if a cook had run up to Museveni and whispered: “Sir, their lunch is not yet ready. We are out of tomatoes and they are expensive in the market.”
Left-right:
The gunmen who marched in honour looked like they were threatened with a salary reduction if they didn’t march.
Facebook:
The lazy and cowardly middleclass who share Besigye’s sentiments towards the Museveni government were so angry that they furiously entered their usernames and passwords and status-updated their anger while threatening to continue their Walk To PC campaign if the government didn’t stop the violence they were reading about on other people’s walls.
Angela Katatumba:
She shouted the national anthem. Next time, Mister President, allow us to sing it for ourselves.
This post is part of our special coverage Uganda: Walk to Work Protests.

author: Rosebell Kagumire


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Uganda: Police Paint Protesters Pink · Global Voices
Rebekah Heacock

This post is part of our special coverage Uganda: Walk to Work Protests.
Ugandan police have responded to the past month's ongoing Walk to Work protests by spraying protesters with tear gas and live bullets.  During a demonstration on Tuesday, they took a different tack, firing water cannons filled with pink liquid at demonstrators who were attempting to walk to Constitution Square in the center of Kampala.
Uganda's New Vision Newspaper tweeted a photo of opposition leaders covered in the paint. yfrog Photo user flashdancer11 shared the photo below:
Some bloggers pointed out the irony of the government spraying protesters pink — a color often associated with the gay and lesbian community — given the anti-homosexuality bill currently making its way through Uganda's Parliament. Blogger Afrogay writes:
…might this also be a subliminal response to the leader of the opposition, Kizza Besigye, for pledging four months ago to decriminalize homosexuality if elected?
To which AfroGay would say to the head of the military guys drenching opposition in pink: thanks guys but the pink color is really just a metaphor. There is no need to take it too literally.
The hashtag #pinkstuff is also popular topic in the Ugandan Twittersphere:
@Rosejackson3: So illegal to #walk2work in UG w/o permit. If you drive, windows smashed & tear gas to face. If you fly, blocked. If you stand-#pinkstuff
@ishtank: On the other hand, think of the stories we'll tell our great-grandchildren. “Kaaka, where were you the day #pinkStuff #trended on #Twitter?”
While many found the “pink stuff” humorous, others are still upset at the government's treatment of protesters. Blogger KellyUganda writes:
Why does this seem incredibly Hitler/Nazi-esque to me? As if people don't have the right to demonstrate! I don't know how Museveni can even pretend to be running a democracy. No doubt these people are being sprayed pink so that police can harrass and interrogate them and abuse them in the effort to crush their spirit of civic duty and freedom of expression!
In a post titled “Turning Pink,” another blogger, Rhino, laments the government's actions:
I'm starting to dislike my government very much, it shows so much fear, infantile logic and an alarming willingness to resort to violence. That is not what I want from it. I want it to be just, to inspire me to be a better person and to help me create a better place for my kin and I to live in. I don't want it to threaten me with death should I choose to differ in opinion and practice, if that is the society it wishes to create, then I would rather not be party to it.
This post is part of our special coverage Uganda: Walk to Work Protests.

author: Rebekah Heacock


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Uganda: Women’s Groups, Lawyers Join Walk to Work Protests · Global Voices
Rebekah Heacock

This post is part of our special coverage Uganda: Walk to Work Protests.
The temporary absence of Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye, who was flown to Nairobi for medical treatment after being sprayed directly in the eyes with tear gas during Walk to Work protests on April 28, 2011, appears to have spurred even more citizens to action.
As the protests enter their second month, the original group of opposition politicians has now been joined by women's organizations and lawyers who are angered not only by high fuel and food prices, but also by the brutality of the government's response to the protests.
Edward of the Echwalu Photography blog describes the women's demands:
Express solidarity with women, men and children suffering from the high food and fuel prices, no more use of live ammunition, indiscriminate physical assault on civilians, promote fundamental rights of citizens enshrined in Chap 4 of the constitution, address social and economic issues, address food security, unemployment, health and education.
Edward also posts a number of photos of the women's organizations protests, including one of women near a fuel station sign advertising premium fuel for 3,490 Ugandan shillings per liter, or approximately $5.50 per gallon:
Ugandan women's organizations join protests against rising fuel and food costs. Photo by Echwalu Photography
Timothy Hatcher of Araa Linuga blog compares the women's protest to the British suffragette movement a century ago:
I read on the internet today that the spirit that the suffragettes in the UK possessed in the early 20th century was lost in our world. Uganda at times seems a world away from the UK, but some sentiments are universal and do not depend on locale. I hope that Monday's display of solidarity of women for a cause important for all within their society, even when there was the potential for personal harm and/or arrest, is a sign that the spirit is reviving.
Last week Uganda's lawyers went on strike to protest the violence with which police have cracked down on demonstrators. This is the not the first time Uganda's lawyers have gone on strike to protest the government's treatment of Kizza Besigye, who has been arrested and jailed numerous times in the past few years. In 2005, Brian of the blog Black Star Journal described an earlier strike:
Today, the Ugandan Law Society held a one day strike in favor of the independence of the judiciary, which the lawyers feel is threatened.
They are particularly incensed by an event that I wrote about earlier. Dozens of military commandos showed up to surround the court building, during legal proceedings launched against opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye.
If Dr Besigye is truly guilty of the crimes the regime accuses him of, then surely they don't need military intimidation of the civilian courts.
Though Besigye appears to be at the center of the protests, Iwaya of Mad and Crazy cautions observers to remember that the true heart of the demonstrations is not support for the opposition but outrage over the country's current economic situation:
W-2-W is not about Dr. Besigye though the government propaganda machine has worked its damn hardest to try and reduce it to the person of Besigye. It is about the appalling economic situation Ugandans find themselves in today led by an unresponsive government that folds its hands and declares, “There's nothing we can do,” to alleviate your suffering, but you have got to keep paying those taxes on time.
This post is part of our special coverage Uganda: Walk to Work Protests.


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Ukraine: The Untold Story of the Victory Day Clashes in Lvov · Global Voices
Will Partlett

From watching Russian television this week, you might think that the annual May 9 commemorations of the defeat of Nazi Germany in Lvov, Ukraine, were under siege from throngs of neo-Nazi, Ukrainian nationalists.
Television footage showed hooded young Ukrainians attacking World War II veterans, giving Nazi salutes, and chanting nationalist slogans.  As they ripped St. George ribbons from people's shirts, it seemed that Ukrainian youth had forgotten the terrible sacrifices made by the Soviet Union to defeat Germany.
Supporters of the right-wing Svoboda party and people wearing St. George ribbons clash during Victory Day celebrations in Lviv, Ukraine. Photo by Pavlo Palamarhuk, copyright © Demotix (05/09/2011).
There are few historical events that evoke more passion across the vast space of the former Soviet Union than World War II.  And for good reason.  Even conservative estimates of the cost of the war are unimaginable: more than 20 million dead.
In Russia, May 9 – known simply as Victory Day – is a day for Russians to honor the terrible sacrifices made to defeat Hitler's Germany in what is widely known as the Great Patriotic War.  Indeed, for many Russians, these sacrifices represent nothing less than the simple and glorious triumph of good over evil.
For people in regions caught between the Soviet Union and Germany, however, the legacy of May 9 is not so simple.  In Ukraine, for instance, it is the day to remember the terrible sacrifices made during the war – as well as the day that ended Ukraine's hopes of independence from the Soviet Union.  Indeed, Ukrainian nationalists had hoped to take advantage of the war to fashion an independent Ukraine.
The Bronze Soldier, Tallinn, Estonia, 1988. Photo by Jens-Olaf Walter (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, both the Russian government and some ethnic Russians still living in the newly independent republics have sought to defend the Soviet Union's historical legacy in the face of what they see as unfair historical accounts of Soviet imperialism.
Nationalists, on the other hand, have sought to cement their position as independent nations in the face of what they see as Russia's neo-Soviet imperial ambition.
This simmering tension reached the surface in Tallinn, Estonia, in 2007, when Russians openly clashed with authorities after the Estonian government announced that they would be moving a World War II monument known as the Bronze Soldier.  Soon after, an unprecedented Russian cyber attack shut down the Estonian government.
The May 9 clashes in Lvov seemingly presented another example of this simmering tension.  With images of Ukrainian nationalist groups attacking aging World War II veterans, the Russian media had the perfect opportunity to paint Ukrainians as proto-fascists, intent on desecrating the sacred memory of Russian sacrifices in the Great Patriotic War.  For instance, Russia Today‘s story on the clashes reported that:
Not everyone regards Victory Day as a cause for celebration. In Western Ukraine, nationalist party members have violently disrupted a memorial service as veterans paid tribute to those who perished in the war . . .  Unlike most of the post-Soviet region on May 9th, the western Ukrainian city of Lvov became a vicious display of neo-Nazism. Several thousand activists from radical nationalist parties blocked the entrance to Red Army soldiers’ cemeteries, preventing war veterans from getting inside and paying tribute.
The clashes also fostered a wide-ranging debate on Oleg Kozyrev‘s blog [ru], after he posted a clip from Russian television detailing the events.  In hundreds of comments, bloggers debated the meaning of the clashes.  Were the clashes signs of a growing fascist, neo-Nazi movement in Ukraine?  Or were they result of a small minority of idiotic Ukrainian ultranationalists?
One of the most interesting parts of the debate centered around an blog post [ru] from Egor Kustov (LiveJournal user ru-indeec), a Lvov-based Russophone freelance copywriter.  His eyewitness account gave a more complete version than the one on Russian television:
Меня не интересует политика, но всё же не могу не написать о том, очевидцем чего я стал сегодня от львовского Холма Славы. Жаль, не взял фотоаппарат.  Итак, прогуливаясь по Лычаковской, я увидел большую группу людей с красными и российскими флагами, транспорантами, плакатами. Я, конечно, читал, что акция пророссийской партии “Русское единство” то ли состоится во Львове, то ли не состоится… запутано там всё у них было. Ну вот, думаю, всё же приехали. […] Они, как по команде, вдруг стали выкрикивать лозунги, оскорбляющие местных жителей. Причём, заметьте, лозунги не политические, а оскорбляющие людей по национальному признаку. Больше всего запомнилось “Хохлы – параша! Победа эта наша!”, “Смерть Галичине!”… были и прочие. Конечно же, спустя пару минут завязалась потасовка. Поскольку численный перевес был, естественно, не на стороне провокаторов, им пришлось убегать. И тут с их стороны раздались выстрелы. […]
Mr. Kustov's account of the Russian provocateurs complicated the clean narrative of Russian victimhood.  In a subsequent post [ru], Mr. Kustov denied allegations that he had written this eyewitness account for money and stated that he was simply trying to defend Lvov's image. He wrote:
[…] Такую акцию, в которой участвуют провокаторы с обеих сторон, не сложно устроить в любом городе. В Москве тоже бывают массовые беспорядки с участием больших групп скинхедов (в масках, со знамёнами и т.д.), но ведь СМИ после этого не навязывают мнение, что всё население города – фашисты? […]
For Mr. Kustov, these clashes were simply a media-created tempest in a teapot, the product of extremists on both sides.  And there is no sign that the furor around these clashes is settling down.  Two days after the clashes, the Russian Duma issued a statement calling on the Ukrainian authorities to punish the Ukrainian nationalists behind the clashes. Mr. Kustov ended with a saying:
Во времена холодной войны между СССР и США кто-то из политиков (не помню кто именно) сказал: “Фермеру из Оклахомы и крестьянину с Поволжья ведь нечего делить. Поэтому им война не нужна. Она нужна политикам”.
And that is perhaps the biggest untold story of these clashes: Mr. Kustov and the silent majority of Russians and Ukrainians in Lvov have little practical use for this big political game.

author: Will Partlett


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Africa: Helsinki Africa Film Festival · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Wanjiku wa Ngugi, the founder of the  Helsinki African Film Festival talks to Beti Ellerson about the representation of Africa in Finland and this year’s theme “Women’s Voices and Visions”


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Azerbaijan: Scary Azeri on Amazon · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Scary Azeri shares with her readers the good news that a fictional story penned by the blogger is now available as part of a collection for sale on Amazon with proceeds being donated to War Child Holland, a charity focusing on children affected by armed conflict. She also describes how new media and technology contributed to making publication of the e-book possible.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Brazil: Young Man Recycles Wood by Building Instruments · Global Voices
Debora Baldelli

David Rocha, a talented young man from São Paulo outskirts, has been building instruments from any kind of used wood, as the video in this post illustrates. Some of his accomplishments so far are a cavaquinho, a Brazilian rebec and an acoustic guitar made with wood from a cod box, all with amazing sound.

author: Debora Baldelli


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China: editorial on 2008 earthquake blacked out · Global Voices
Marta Cooper

China Media Project has translated an editorial from liberal newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily commemorating the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. The piece, which featured references to detained artist Ai Weiwei, who had attempted to investigate the deaths of children and collapse of school buildings in the disaster, was removed from the newspaper's website [update] before reappearing the next day.

author: Marta Cooper


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Colmbia: Video Shows Anti-Riot Police Agression Towards University of Antioquia Student · Global Voices
Cati Restrepo

Carlavanessa1302 uploaded a video to YouTube which shows a clash between students from the University of Antioquia in Medellín and the Mobile Anti-Disturbance Squardron (ESMAD, police riot control unit). The riots ocurred on Thursday, April 12 after students protested against the reforms the government seeks to make to Law 30 of education.

author: Cati Restrepo


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Gambia: The Arrest, Detention and Release of News Reporter · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Learn about the arrest, detention and subsequent release of a judicial reporter of The Daily News in Gambia: “Baba Sillah was assigned to make further findings about the alleged murder of one Cherno Alieu Suwareh, who was allegedly tortured to death by four officers of National Drug Enforcement Agency of The Gambia.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Ghana: Dos and Don’ts of Accra · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

This is Mac-Jordan D. Degadjor 10 Do’s & Don’ts of Accra, Ghana: “Are you coming to Ghana’s capital city of Accra for the first time? There are a lot of stuffs you can do and others you can’t/shouldn’t do. First off, I’m going to start with the DON’Ts.”


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India: Taxi Cab For Women In Delhi · Global Voices
Rezwan

Shital Shah at Think Change India writes that an innovative start up in Delhi, which is training women to drive taxi cabs to provide abuse free transport for women.

author: Rezwan


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India: The IPL Cheerleader Who Blogged · Global Voices
Rezwan

Hanna Ingber Win reports that The Indian Premier League (IPL) had fired a South African cheerleader after it became known that she was blogging about cricket after-parties.


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Indonesia: Blog Reactions to Bin Laden’s Death · Global Voices
Juke Carolina

This post is part of our special coverage The Death of Osama Bin Laden.
The news about the death of the “king of terror” Osama Bin Laden traveled fast around the globe like wild fire. But Bin Laden's death wasn't received with much fanfare in Indonesia, a Muslim majority country.  Government officials reminded the public that his death was a victory for the United States (US), not Indonesia.
Indonesia's hardline Muslims are considerably small in numbers but very vocal, and they're not afraid to show respect to their fallen hero.
However, the responses from the Indonesian public differ. Jenny S. Bev, an Indonesia-born, California based columnist, wrote this on her blog:
Barack Obama believed that justice have been served. It may be so to a certain level. At least now we have a closure for all 9/11 victims as the person responsible for their deaths had been forced to taste his own medicine. This moment, however, is the beginning of a new chapter: the new normalcy in a world without Osama bin Laden.
Ms. Bev expects terror splinter groups to strike back so it's highly  important for the US to renew its foreign policy. She further said:
[…] it is good timing for the United States to make adjustments in their foreign policies that would reduce feelings of insecurity and helplessness in other countries, while at the same time increasing alertness for any possible friction.
The temporary euphoria of Osama’s death should be taken as a somber reminder that there are alternatives to going into war with other countries. A strong intelligent team can be more efficient and effective than spending trillions of dollars and ten years of hunting down one person for the price of thousands of civilians’ deaths.
Blogger Isro Machfudin posted a poem which he found profoundly moving, written ten years ago at the wake of 9/11, by Anis Matta, the current chairman of Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), an Islamist political party. Here are parts of the poem:
Osama…
Kamulah yang mengunci mulut bangsa-bangsa adidaya,
Supaya mereka terdiam
Maka mereka hanya bisa mengamuk.
[…]
Kamulah yang merampas rasa aman
Dari jiwa bangsa-bangsa tirani
Maka mereka tak pernah bisa tidur nyenyak.
[…]
Osama oh Osama… Osama oh Osama…
Mari kita senandungkan lagu keabadian
Bersama nurani anak-anak manusia
Yang merindukan taman surga.
Banner "Osama the mujahid" at the Islamic Defender's Front headquarters in Jakarta. Photo appeared on entbluextv.com
Many Indonesians were relieved to learn the death of the modern jihad icon. Blogger Katedra Rajawen, said:
Terlepas Osama dianggap sebagai penjahat atau pahlawan, saya hanya ingin mengatakan, bahwa sesungguhnya tindakan membunuh adalah sebuah perbuatan frustrasi
karena ketidakmampuan untuk mengasihi orang lain.
Blogger NRG07 said:
I have never understood the minds of people who kill by the name of religion, and Osama bin Laden certainly was a poster boy for this ideology. If his death would mean anything to Indonesia, first of all, it would be a signal that as long as anyone is there spreading terror, there would also be people against it.
He believes that despite Bin Laden's death, the world shouldn't put its guard down yet, since the ‘war on terror’ is far from over.
I wouldn’t be relieved that Osama bin Laden has died, if the spread of radicalism, hatred and intolerance is still there.
The blogger was referring to the government's inability to prevent religion-related violence in the country.
This post is part of our special coverage The Death of Osama Bin Laden.

author: Juke Carolina


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Interview with Cati Restrepo, Global Voices Contributor · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

A few weeks ago I found myself in Medellín, Colombia, when I realised that up until then there was no interview with Cati Restrepo [es] on Gobal Voices. I decided to rectify this omission and got straight in touch with her and we met up in a place known as Pueblito Paisa [es], where I recorded the videos included in this post. The remainder of the text was completed in the following days.
Of course, I am taking it as read that everyone knows @Catirestrepo, who was the natural leader and most public face of the project financed by Rising Voices: Hiperbarrio, a project which she left one year ago. Whilst she was a member of the project, Cati was the winner of the Miss Talent prize in the city of  Medellín, which led her to front her own project known as Women and Digital Inclusion [es]. In addition to being an active Global Voices collaborator [es] she is  also currently involved in many other things. I would therefore like to invite you to get to know her a little more.
Global Voices (GV): Hello Cati, tell us about your life before blogs and social networks…
Cati Restrepo (CR): It was really a fairly quiet, normal life. I was at school (I discovered blogs and social networks when I started university) and I basically spent my time doing all of those tasks related to being at school, or singing, playing my violin and reading any book I could find.
So as you can see, it was a fairly simple life which was based around my family and academic projects and that library environment taught me responsibility and discipline and is partly to blame for the fact that I seem to go “against” my maternal Caribbean genes, they are lovers of vallenato music and seafood, which are things I struggle with now. Although the question of seafood is simply a matter of learning to enjoy it, my love for vallenato died a long time ago as a result of not being able to sleep in December with the rumba music coming from the neighbours’ houses.
And well, if you're talking about a time “before blogs”,  I was a keen hiker and early-riser so I loved to go out walking, making the most of the all of the greenery around me and soaking up the first rays of the sun. There are no more of those walks now.
GV: Could you describe your area for those who don't know Medellín or Colombia?
CR: I live in San Javier [es] – La Loma which is a neighbourhood located between the urban and rural areas of the city of Medellín. It is a meeting place between one dynamic and another which means that you can enjoy air which is much cleaner than in the city itself (Medellín being a fairly green city), but you still have the presence of a regional road which leads not only to the downtown area of the city but also other nearby towns.
It is not an area with a lot of urban facilities – parks, libraries and that kind of thing – (partly because of the fairly mountainous geographical conditions, partly because of a struggle for resources) but about 12,000 people live there, divided among 8 fairly different districts.
There are both clearly residential neighbourhoods and places where there are elderly people working on the land; which, as you can imagine, makes it fairly interesting to live here, or in Medellín in general where the same feeling exists: it is a service sector focused place (and previously a textile one), but whose outskirts are less urban and have a feeling of nostalgia for the rural lifestyle. So if you want a country atmosphere, just go a few minutes out of the the city and there it is.
GV: You mentioned your love of reading. Could you recommend some books to us?
CR: I'll name a few rather than recommending them, as books whose stories have affected me quite a lot, but that doesn't mean that this is the only type of reading I go for. First of all, I think that it would be good to read The Little Prince again. It's a book in which something different happens with each reading.
As for Columbian authors, One Hundred Years of Solitude really stirs the emotions; and another  which I discovered recently: Fragments of Furtive Love by Héctor Abad Faciolince, which is the story of a woman who has had many lovers in her life and who tells the last of these the story of one of her previous lovers after each time they make love.
I could also mention some stories by women in Arab countries: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is really beautiful and 300 Days in Afghanistan [es], by the doctor Natalia Aguirre (which was made into a book after being published in a magazine) is a very human approach to the life of a culture which we know little about in the West.
GV: Apart from your experiences with Hiperbarrio and Global Voices, do you use the internet for anything else in your life?
CR: As I mentioned before, my involvement with the internet coincided with my going to university. During the first semester I was invited to take part in HiperBarrio [es] (a Rising Voices project) and that's where the story with the blogs began. Social networks came soon afterwards thanks, for example, to Juliana Rincon [es], who taught me to use Twitter and also by my own exploration.
The most important thing I get out of using the internet in my life is a fairly important tool for self-expression. It has enabled me to meet a lot of people and at the same time to promote myself. Events I have signed up to, or to which I have been invited, are thanks to contacts I've made via the internet and to the fact that I have been able to promote myself. I could also say that I have met some of the people who are now important in my life after they have spoken to me on blogs and since I started to get involved in projects related to citizen media.
GV: Tell us about your academic career.
CR: I'm a Social Work student in the last year of my degree and you could say that Social Work found me. When I left school I chose to apply to study one option in Exact Sciences and another in the Social field at university, and that's how I came to apply for Chemical Engineering (which I loved at school) and for Psychology or Social Work which appealed to other interests in my life such as working with people and being a leader of X or Y thing.
I didn't get a place on the Chemical Engineering course, despite have the necessary marks, so when I found out that I could sign up for Social Work I did so even though one week later people were telling me, “Listen, there is a place on the Chemical Engineering course”. It was just then that I took the definitive decision to stay in the social work field, partly because at school I had been in research groups relating to social topics and because the offers for short courses which I started had a lot to do with community work and simply because I enjoyed it.
GV: How do you reconcile your profession with your love of citizen media?
CR: Good question. Reconciling Social Work with my love of citizen media is something which I have always had to “confront”. A lot of my professors don't see the internet as anything important, whereas I think that it deserves all of of our attention especially if you want to engage with society.
We ought to recognise that society is changing, right? And that a large part of the dynamic of today's society flows via the internet. Not to recognise that would be a terrible mistake, so I'll be in class debating with my professor every time the author of a text mentions globalisation (Professor, doesn't the internet form part of globalisation?) or having fun when we talk about rights and naturally information come up as one of them. Not to mention when we talk about working with teenagers or young people and I can say “Ahh, see how they can spend all day on the internet and they don't separate one reality from the other? They grew up with that!”
However, I'm sure that academia is just one stage, a cycle which I hope to complete successfully and that in the end combining Social Work and communication will not be a decision made by the people giving my classes, but it will be my own decision as a professional. In fact, when I've had to give workshops relating to citizen journalism it is very difficult not to include techniques I've learned as a Social Work student and not to reflect on things like “It should be possible to work from difference” and “It must be recognised that another person is a human being, before being a doctor, psychologist etc”. In conclusion, I love the fact that the citizen media have informed my professional training.
GV: A lot is said about the power of social networks in Latin American countries, but we see things like what happened to Mockus and we come to doubt that power. What do you think?
CR: Here I'd like to use the term “virtual citizens”. My opinion is that a certain percentage of those using social networks end up taking on a self-obsessed view of themselves as national heroes saving the world through the internet, but forgetting that the real work is outside and that we existed before we had computers and that things were done at another pace, whether they worked or not.
Even if the internet has changed social dynamics and enabled self-expression, we mustn't forget that  in our context the number of people with access to IT equipment is low compared to the total number of citizens. Therefore, you might see 50 computers arrive in a school, but…what are they being used for and which tools are being taught? Even the teachers need to be shown how to use the equipment (many of them are resisting because they are being forced to use computers) to take computers beyond the tool itself and show them how to use them effectively.
And well, what happened with Mockus is that while he caused a phenomenon on Twitter and Facebook (the vast majority of internet users were promoting his candidature), in the “real world” his main opponent and the now president were doing work at grass-roots level. A lot of people had faith in him because Mockus was standing out online, but they forgot that the internet access rates in Colombia are not high. Indigenous and rural communities, for example, have difficulty just getting an email account and it was to those people that the current president was successfully appealing (by clean or dirty tactics, but successfully) and this made the difference.
However, it should not be ignored that there are many grass-roots groups using the internet to make themselves known and to seek resources and that there are many people for whom the internet has become a tool for self-expression and for promoting their skills.
GV: In line with that, how do you see the outlook of the various initiatives on the internet in Colombia?
CR: This outlook is double-sided: one positive feature has to do with the fact that the internet is reaching more communities and its use is becoming “qualified” somewhat, but the other side is that it sometimes closely resembles the expression “a lot of geeks but nothing substantial” and I'll explain:
There are many projects, but I don't see any movement between them. Projects can be said to be good, interesting, but they have a short-term impetus and then reach a point at which they attain an egotistical and self-obsessed stance and, as I mentioned in another question, I believe that life moves at a different pace and the fact that our actions here make us feel important, does not mean that we are “the last bottle of water in the desert”.
I think that this is what's happening to some of the internet projects in Colombia: they overestimate the value of their achievements and this leads them not to mix between themselves and even to turn their initiative into a circle of communication between its members and no-one else. There are a lot of stories to be told, but I think that sometimes they don't come out due to the cult of the self which sometimes surrounds the internet. This finally manifests itself in that we always see the same groups of people at computer-related events and, what is worse, conversing only with their computer screens rather than with other people.
I believe it would be in the interest of everyone to foster a real level of integration here, taking advantage of the added level of equality that the internet gives us. If it's saying, “Look, here are communication tools that allow us to empower communities.” Why not use them effectively for that and turn everything that happens here into a real and active exercise of citizenship?
GV: Is there anything else you'd like to add?
CR: I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the way that the Global Voices community has welcomed me, both as a participant in Rising Voices and later as an author. It is very satisfying to be able to meet everyone, and to hear their stories, and to learn so much from what is written and published about their countries. Furthermore, it has been wonderful to be able to read more about my country and the world in general through what I find on the internet (which is part of my daily aim since I was invited to join the community as an author). Each person at Global Voices and every story I have heard represents endless ways which have allowed me to decide what to learn and what to dream and to see that there is always something more to do and certainly there are many voices that need and deserve to be heard.
Thank you Cati for your time. For readers who are interested I leave you with the links to the group of one of the projects which Cati is currently working on: Young people online for peace – Castilla [es], the My Blood Foundation [es], of the popular singer Juanes; to the page of the Colombia Turner Syndrome Foundation [es], a project which Cati is working on; to three videos on Medellín as seen from the Nutibara hills (1, 2, and 3) with Cati describing the different areas of the city, and this video in which Cati explains what the Arepa is all about. (This isn't the point, but I don't like the Arepa and neither does David Sasaki).
The photo in this post comes from Cati's Flickr account and is used with her permission.
The videos were translated and subtitled by Jessica Fawcett and Louella Mahabir

author: Juan Arellano


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Iran: Students protest against dictatorship · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Marsiehaye Khak and several bogs inform that students will protest against dictatorship and repression in Iran on Sunday.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Japan: Design Related Reconstruction Assistance Projects · Global Voices
Tomomi Sasaki

A group of creatives have set up Design311 [ja], a site that introduces post-earthquake reconstruction assistance projects inspired by art and design.

author: Tomomi Sasaki


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Kuwait: Bloggers React to the PM’s Seventh Cabinet · Global Voices
Mona Kareem

Kuwaiti bloggers continue to discuss how their government is run this week, following the naming of a new cabinet by Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah.
In a previous post, I wrote about how the Prime Minister was reappointed despite getting questioned by the parliament, alongside his various ministers. A few days ago, the new Kuwaiti cabinet pledged their oaths in front of the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah after 38 days of waiting since the previous cabinet submitted its resignation because the parliament wanted to question two ministers of the Al-Sabah ruling family.
Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheik Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah. Image by Flickr user Kuwait-Ra'ed Qutena (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
Kuwaiti bloggers wrote posts and comments on the 27th cabinet in the history of the country. Dahim Al-Qahtani, a blogger and political activist, wrote a post saying [ar]:
حكومة تلد أخرى، وبرلمان يلد آخر وهكذا يواجه النظام السياسي في الكويت عقبات متجددة بسبب إهمال السياسيين للإصلاحات التي لا يستمر نظام سياسي بالفاعلية من دونها
Another blogger, who calls himself 5alif, made his comments [ar] on the new cabinet, most importantly the two ministers of the ruling family, who were going to face parliamentary questioning before the cabinet's resignation. He analyzes the meaning behind bringing back those two ministers in the new cabinet despite what had happened earlier:
عودة الوزراء الشيوخ في مناصبهم مؤشر على تعقيد الموقف داخل الأسرة وأيضاً على قوة كل طرف، فالرئيس بعد أكثر من شهر يعيدهم في مناصبهم وهو ما يدل على عدم إمكانية اقصاء أحدهم مهما شكل من خطر على مستقبل الحكومة
Sharif Roma, a Kuwaiti blogger writing under a nickname, wrote a post in bullet points to make his comments on the new cabinet saying [ar]:
المواجهات في البرلمان لن تقف أو تخف لأن اصل المواجهة والاحتقان بسبب سمو الرئيس لا وزرائه
Another Kuwaiti wrote in his blog, What's up [ar], a post on choosing Dr. Amani Bourisly as the trade and industry minister – which makes her the only female minister in the new cabinet:
تشكلت الحكومة الجديدة من ٣ ايام تقريباً، لا تغيير كبير ولكن التغيير الذي فعلاً خلاني أتفادل هو التغيير في وزارة التجارة والصناعة وتم تعيين الدكتورة أماني بورسلي وزيراً لها. في هذه الحكومة الجديدة حصلت امرأة واحدة على الوزارة، وأي امرأة؟ دكتورة التمويل والمنشآت المالية في كلية العلوم الإدارية جامعة الكويت أماني بورسلي، عقلية اقتصادية فذة ومميزة
Kuwaiti blogger Hamad wrote a post about the prime minister and his new cabinet, and here is a quote [ar] from its introduction:
كم من الوقت ستهدر الحكومة القادمة او التعديل على حكومة تصريف العاجل اكثر مما اهدرته حكومات ناصر المحمد الست السابقة، فلا تغيير منهجي ولا هم يحزنون
Le Koweit, a blogger interested in local politics, wrote many posts on the Kuwaiti government, and one of the recent ones he posted was entitled “The Kuwaiti Holocaust” [ar]. In it he writes:
لدينا في الكويت هولوكست سياسي متخصص في حرق الوزراء وهو مجلس الوزراء، نعم لدينا هتلر كويتي قام ببناء هذا الهولوكست وقيادته على مدى خمس سنوات وهو الشيخ ناصر المحمد رئيس مجلس الوزراء من أجل حماية نفسه وكفالة بقائه أطول مدة ممكنة في الحكم

author: Mona Kareem


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Pakistan: If Your Mosque Had WiFi! · Global Voices
Rezwan

Pakistani blogger Farrukhunplugged posts some imaginary social media conversations possible if mosques had Wifi connection.


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Paraguay Celebrates its Bicentennial · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

On May 14 and 15, Paraguayans will celebrate 200 years since their independence from Spain. Blogger Andrés Colmán Gutiérrez criticizes [es] that festivities are centered in the capital, excluding the “‘other country’ (the country that produces and feeds the capital)”

author: Silvia Viñas


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South Africa: Homophobia Hurts · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Free Gender is a black lesbian organisation based in Khayelitsha township of Cape Town, South Africa: “As human rights defenders, we are also gender friendly towards transgender and intersex persons in our community. The organisation was founded in 2008 and have since participated in various protests/ political meetings/ guest talks at academic and public forums.”


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Africa: Reactions to The Beatification of Pope John Paul II · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Portraits of the Blessed John Paul II in the streets outside the Colosseum.  Photo – Abkodo2 for GV
From 29 April to 2 May hundreds of thousands  of mostly young pilgrims from all around the world landed on Rome to  participate in religious ceremonies for the beatification of Pope John Paul II, known as “JP2”, declared “Blessed” on May 1 by his  successor, Benedict XVI, in the presence of official delegations from 87 countries and 2,300 journalists. In central Rome, posters of JP2 were  pasted on all the bus stops, power poles and some taxis [all links in French].
During his pontificate, John Paul II made 104 apostolic voyages outside  Italy, out of which about 40 to Africa. From the more than 150 million African Catholics, we would have expected an emotional homage but the event was celebrated quietly, and was sometimes the subject of criticisms on African blogospheres.
In Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the  apostolic nuncio Mgr Adolfo Tito Yllana presided over an official  Eucharistic celebration in Notre Dame cathedral. Catholics here celebrate the memory of this pontiff every year, as Bienvenu Ipan reminds readers on allafrica.com:
Bien avant cette messe de béatification, la Chaire Jean Paul II a organisé, le lundi 25 avril 2011, un concert de musique classique en hommage à Karol Wojtyla. Mais aussi, pour célébrer le sixième anniversaire du « retour vers le Père du serviteur de Dieu, de ce vulnérable pape Jean Paul II».
In Senegal, Thierou expresses his admiration for JP2 on seneweb.com:
Pour moi qui suis musulman, le Pape Jean Paul II a rempli une mission au service non seulement de la foi chrétienne, mais aussi au service de la  foi universelle en Dieu. A mon avis, sa résistance face à ceux,  nihilistes et autres lobbyistes, qui cherchaient à le faire démissionner  lorsque physiquement il fut au plus mal, cette résistance donc s'est  soldée par une éclatante victoire de la foi sur les ennemis de l'église.
However,  kabyles.net is struck by the contradictory track record of John Paul II:
Progressiste dans certains domaines, ce pape était aussi étonnamment rétrograde sur les questions de société : contraception, ordination des femmes, célibat des prêtres, divorce, remariage. Et Jean-Paul II perdit sans conteste son droit à la béatification en ne parvenant pas à fixer une norme juridique pour évincer les pédophiles de la prêtrise.
Blogger Jacky is still outraged by the paedophilia scandals revealed  under John Paul II’s pontificate, which he did not firmly denounce:
A l'occasion de cette cérémonie, je pense à toutes les victimes des pédophiles protégés par Jean Paul II au cours de son pontificat.Pour lui les souffrances des enfants ainsi martyrisés comptaient moins que la réputation de son Eglise. Jean Paul II complices des pédophiles ? Je ne franchirai pas le pas mais quand même oublier tant de victimes au cours de son procès de béatification, c'est navrant !
On weekly Jeune Afrique, Tshitenge  Lubabu M.K. recalls the abuses in several provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Uganda by those they call the sango bidoba in the common Lingala language of the Congo (literally “fornicating priests”):
L'affaire qui, ces dernières années, a eu le plus grand retentissement en Afrique francophone concerne un prêtre français, le père François Lefort des Ylouses, qui a officié au Sénégal au milieu des années 1990.
The article refers to other cases in several provinces of the RDC, in Kenya and in Uganda.
Afaithful awaits the beatification of Pope John Paul II, Saint   Peter’s Square in Rome.  Photo – Giuseppe Cicci.  Copyright Demotix.
On the day of his beatification, another scandal has made African bloggers react: the attendance of the solemn mass by the Presidents of Cameroon, Congo, Togo and Zimbabwe and two deputies of President Dos Santos of Angola, all considered to be dictators and all accused of atrocities against their own people. The first two, Paul Biya and Denis Sassou Nguessou are involved in the «Biens mal acquis» (”ill-gotten gains“) controversy. As for President Robert Mugabe, he is wanted by the International Criminal Court and banned from Europe, but the Vatican has nevertheless invited him
Commentator patricedusud, on Challenges.fr,  is shocked:
A quoi servent les condamnations unanimes des états si le pape peut inviter en toute impunité  Robert Mugabe, le président du Zimbabwe, à la béatification de son prédécesseur ?
Il avait déjà été invité dans l’indifférence générale aux obsèques de Jean Paul II en 2005.
Jean Paul II se retournera-t-il dans sa tombe lorsque le tyran aux mains pleines de sang s’inclinera sur son cercueil ?
surlefeu.fr published the official reaction of the Vatican:
(…) le porte-parole du Saint Siège, le père Federico Lombardi, a observé que « le Zimbabwe est un Etat avec lequel le Saint-Siège entretient des relations diplomatiques ». « Il n’y a donc rien à cacher » sur la présence de ce président africain qui sera aux côtés de quinze autres chefs d’Etat du monde entier, a-t-il dit.
Cameroonian Joël Didier Engo   published a virulent article  the following day, 2 May, on the blog nousbouger, “What makes African tyrants run to the West?”:
Comment analyser la propension des tyrans africains et de leurs suites à se précipiter en Occident à la moindre occasion? Ils y prennent visiblement beaucoup de plaisir…mais s'avèrent chroniquement incapables de s'offrir le même environnement socio-politique, technologique, sanitaire en Afrique.
However, in Italy, this video, more than anything else, amused the  blogosphere; it shows the embarrassment of the President of the Italian  Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, seeing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi asleep during the beatification ceremony.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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Azerbaijan: Eurovision Victory · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

This post is part of our special coverage Caucasus Conflict Voices and Eurovision Azerbaijan 2012.
Surprising many, Azerbaijan won last night's Eurovision Song Contest in Dusseldorf, Germany. Although expected to do well in the annual international music competition, Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Camal, performing under the stage name of Eli and Nikki, clinched the coveted award in front of a 36,000-strong audience and millions of viewers watching the show live on television.
Naturally, Facebook and Twitter carried the news, including tweets from the act themselves:
@ELDARQASIMOV: WE ARE THE FIRST THANK YOU ALL WE LOVE YOU FROM #AZERBAIJAN ! #EUROVISION
@NiGARCAMAL: THANK YOU WE ARE THE FIRST I LOVE YOU ALL ! #TURKEY #AZERBAIJAN #EUROVISION
Some viewers, however, were confused exactly where Azerbaijan was:
@oliviaaNJ: Still trying to figure out where Azerbaijan is… *looks at world map* FOUND IT… oh….
@Eeefaa182: Azerbaijan is reall… :O i found ithttp://twitpic.com/4y4ue8
Clapham Omnibus also noted the difficulty that many had in locating Azerbaijan on the map, but pointed out that its oil wealth might make it one of the few countries able to afford to host Eurovision next year:
So, most of Europe reached for their atlases last night – where exactly is Azerbaijan again? That’s right, next year Europe will extend to within 1000 miles of China, and only a hop away from Iran!
[…]
Apart from worries over the state of hotels and gay rights in Azerbaijan, the European television companies will no doubt sigh with relief – Azerbaijan is one of the few countries rich enough to stage the competition in the current economic climate, and they are absolutely desperate to do so. Should be mega – expect something to rival Moscow in 2008.
Nevertheless, with concerns from international human rights watchdogs about the internal situation in the country, some Azerbaijani activists were not convinced. Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines, for example, was not so enthused:
[…] Yep, here we are, for yet another Eurovision song contest. And as Azerbaijan celebrates its this year victory with a song called “Running Scared” by Nikki and Ell, one of Azerbaijan's young activists, Elnur Majidli declared wanted by Interpol. You know why? Well, simply because Azerbaijan chooses to spend thousands (if not millions) of government money on things like Eurovision while paying no attention whatsoever to the internal situation on the ground where for the record, journalists and activists get arrested on faked up charges.
So yea people, continue celebrating something as unnecessary and stupid as a Eurovision song contest, while turning a blind eye on human rights, freedom of expression and all the other violations taking place in your country. Because who cares about that right when Azerbaijan won such an important event of the year?!
Others agreed, but some saw Azerbaijan's victory as an excellent opportunity to implement much needed reform in the former Soviet republic:
@amnestymanc: congrats to #Azerbaijan for #Eurovisionwin! Now pls free elections & media, no political prisoners & no torturehttp://tinyurl.com/5tggdmy
@scaryazeri: Great! Now that everyone is excited about #Eurovision, we can all forget about human rights and other issues in #azerbaijan!
@GoldenTent: #Democracy advocates of #Azerbaijan – 12 months of #Eurovision coverage can work to your advantage – start your engines! ;) #Caucasus #esc
Because of the still unresolved conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, some Armenians were also upset by the win:
@RMA_fan: @shahad6 stupid azerbaijan won Eurovision =(
Such reaction is not new to Eurovision with Armenians and Azerbaijanis often engaging in petty squabbling and sometimes even worse. In 2009, for example, Azerbaijan obscured the telephone number for viewers to vote for Armenia and its National Security Service called in at least one Azerbaijani for questioning after he managed to do so anyway.
Meanwhile, Armenia displayed the photograph of an Armenian monument in Nagorno Karabakh in a deliberate attempt to provoke Azerbaijan. Indeed, with Armenia hosting the Junior Eurovision contest later this year, and Azerbaijan already stating that it will not participate, the conflict between the two countries did not go unnoticed by the oikotimes:
I have the feeling that a lot of things happened last night in the Eurovision 2011 scoreboard. My thoughts since last night are storming my head and I have to share them with you as I am totally surprised (personally) that Caucasus countries (Armenia and Azerbaijan) are the winners and hosts of the two EBU family events (junior and senior Eurovision Song Contest).
[…]
It wouldn’t also be Baku 2012 if EBU had taken actions in 2009 when Azeri arrested 6 citizens with the accusation that they have voted for their eternal enemy, Armenians. This was never punished but just a small fine. The relations of the two countries are still in the red alert and security issues will definitely emerge next year. Do not forget that those two nations in the 80s were strongly killing each other over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Will Armenia participate next year? If yes, will Azerbaijan allow them in the country? You know that you cannot visit Baku if your passport has a visa from a previous visit to Armenia!
Naturally, key questions about Armenia's participation in the competition if it is to be held in Azerbaijan next year will likely surface although Emmy, this year's entry for Armenia, said that she would perform in Azerbaijan after Eli and Nikki said they would sing in Armenia.
- Если бы «Евровидение» проходило в Ереване, вы бы поехали туда?
-Мы всегда ждем приглашений от всех стран. Музыка, искусство — это не вопрос национальности.　 Мы будем рады участвовать в концертах везде.
Q: If the contest is held in Yerevan would you go there?
A: We are always waiting for invitations from all countries. Music, art – it's not a question of nationality. We will be happy to participate in concerts everywhere…
Unzipped: Gay Armenia, perhaps the main blog for Eurovision news from the Caucasus, commented on the situation:
I hope Armenia will go to Baku in 2012.
We should stop – and this is a good occasion to start with – once and for all this complex of losers or complex of inferiority between our countries, whenever either Azerbaijan or Armenia wins any international contest.
All talks of Armenia boycotting Eurovision in Baku I consider ridiculous and loser’s talk. Let’s pass that psychological complex, and rather concentrate on the quality of performance and the act chosen.
On the other hand, Azerbaijan must ensure that Armenian delegation and fans not only from Armenia but worldwide are able to attend the contest without having any problems with their yan/ian surname.
Ianyan also sounds a cautious note of optimism:
The duo are celebrating their win in Düsseldorf, and no doubt will be hailed when they return to Azerbaijan in the coming days, but for Armenia, who was sent home with Emmy’s “Boom Boom” during the first semi-final,  the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest presents a conundrum if there ever was one.
The neighboring countries have no formal relations since 1994, due to the longest-running conflict in the former Soviet Union, the Nagorno-Karabakh war. The seven year entanglement  saw an estimated 25,000 killed soldiers and civilians and one million people displaced, according to Human Rights Watch.
[…]
Perhaps the the presence of the best of the worst (and sometimes worst of the worst) pop music Europe has to offer might start a thaw in relations and hasten diplomacy and dialogue between the two countries. After all, “music has no borders” answered Eldar and Nigar during the press conference.
Others such as Jake Jones, a former democracy worker in Azerbaijan and his Azerbaijani wife, accomplished jazz singer Ulviyya Rahimova, demonstrated that unity was possible via social media alongside other Azerbaijani tweeps:
@Peaceweet: Hopefully next year #Armenians coming to #Azerbaijan will be big step towards peace in Caucasus. I'm so done with fighting! #Eurovision2012
@JonesJakeThe: #Eurovision fans from #Azerbaijan #Armenia and #Georgia celebrate and watch togetherhttp://twitpic.com/4xmqvg
Away from the politics, however, Facebook was awash with Azerbaijanis posting video of celebrations in Baku, the country's capital, in the early hours of this morning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5uC1yIyirg&feature=player_embedded
This post is part of our special coverage Caucasus Conflict Voices and Eurovision Azerbaijan 2012.


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Azerbaijan: Eurovision win, but… · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Unzipped: Gay Armenia reflects on last night's win in this year's Eurovision Song Contest by Azerbaijan. In particular, the blog rounds up reaction from Azerbaijanis critical of their government's human rights record and also ponders the likelihood of Armenia participating if the contest is held in Baku given the still unresolved conflict over Nagorno Karabakh.


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Japan: Daniel Kahl “Stop the Hysteria” · Global Voices
Tomomi Sasaki

TV personality and activist Daniel Kahl has taken to YouTube to appeal that the international media Stop the Hysteria, saying “They purposefully select to broadcast ONLY negative items coming out of Japan, even though the situation is improving in many ways”.


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Japan: No Nuke Art · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

A group of anti-nuclear activists started No Nuke Posters [en], a project “for a post-nuclear future and for those working to rebuild amid Japan's nuclear crisis”. They accept submissions of original artworks [en] that will be published on the website under Creative Commons license (by-nc-sa).

author: Scilla Alecci


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Lebanon: Two Marches, Sunday 15 May · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

Lebanon is witnessing two different marches today, May 15, 2011. The first is the Seculars’ March Towards Secularism taking place in Beirut, and the second is for the right to Return to Palestine taking place in the border village of Maroun el Ras (South Lebanon).

author: Moussa Bashir


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“Namazu-e” from Japan: Earthquake catfish prints · Global Voices
Tomomi Sasaki

Pink Tentacle posted numerous images of namazu-e (“catfish pictures”), a type of color woodblock print that became popular after the Great Ansei Earthquake, which struck current day Tokyo in 1855. The mythology namazu and earthquakes is still prevalent in contemporary Japanese culture; one such example being the icon for the iPhone app that gives earthquake warnings.


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Philippines: New bar examination format · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A Filipino lawyer revealed that the bar examination format would be modified next year. Aside from the traditional essay questions, examinees will also answer multiple choice examinations.

author: Mong Palatino


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Philippines: Political Prisoner Writes Online Prison Diary · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

A Filipino artist, journalist and activist who is being detained by Philippine authorities has created a blog to document his prison experience and reflections. His family, friends, fellow artists and writers, and supporters from civil society have also been using the net to campaign for his freedom.
Ericson Acosta was about to ride a motorized boat heading for the rural town of San Jorge in the eastern Philippine island of Samar on February 13, 2011 when he was arrested by elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Amusingly, Acosta’s captors took issue with his bringing a laptop while travelling in the countryside. Their accusation that he was a ranking leader of the underground communist movement, however, is no laughing matter.
The number of victims of extrajudicial killings in the region reached 126 while 27 became desaparecidos (disappeared persons) in the region under the previous administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Acosta was writing a Human Rights situationer on the region at the time of his capture.
The military subjected Acosta to tactical interrogation and charged him of illegal possession of explosives. Civil society groups, writers, artists, his family and friends have decried these allegations as trumped-up and called for his unconditional and immediate release.
Acosta remains detained at the Calbayog City sub-provincial jail, also in Samar. According to the human rights alliance KARAPATAN, Acosta is one more addition to the 353 political prisoners languishing in Philippine prisons as of December 30, 2010.
Campaigns calling for the release of all political prisoners in the country have been a regular feature of the political scene since the times of the Marcos dictatorship. The ruling party has long made it a practice to harass, intimidate, and even kill government critics and social activists working for more equitable distribution of wealth and the empowerment of the poor.
One of the new things about the campaign for the freedom of Ericson Acosta is the extensive and creative use of online tools in the advocacy. Unlike Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci, who would have to wait for almost three decades until his Prison Notes can be published, Ericson Acosta’s own prison diaries are regularly posted online at acostaprisondiary.blogspot.com.
The Jailhouse Blog contains Acosta’s experiences in prison like the entry written last April 13:
I suppose I’m still basically ill-adjusted with my present prison set-up. I find it almost impossible to write during the day. The heat inside the cell is simply oppressive – there is no ceiling here, the lone window is less than a square foot, and my tarima is just beside two charcoal stoves that burn non-stop. The noise outside and the frenzied – sometimes juvenile, sometimes zombie-like goings on among my 12 kakosas (fellow prisoners) inside a stifling, cramped-up space are just too distracting, disorienting.
Or the entry written last April 17:
In many ways, dalaw (visit), hangin (wind) and great expectation are all quite synonymous as far as the inmates here are concerned.
The visiting area or dalawan is almost three times the space of any of the regular cells. It also functions and is interchangeably referred to around here as pahanginan. Once a week, each cell group, composed of twelve inmates on the average, gets the chance to lounge here for a few hours. The idea is to somehow experience breathing – not necessarily fresh but simply – air. There’s almost an extreme absence of oxygen inside the cells, especially between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm. And so the weekly pahangin is such a gracious respite the inmates anticipate with excitement much like waiting for a scheduled dalaw.
The blog also features Acosta’s prison reflections:
Yet prior to my illegal arrest and detention, I had long and pretty much accepted that, for all its intents and purposes, I had already been a rather obscure, almost estranged member of this community. This had been a consequence among the many trade-offs, so to speak, in choosing to work fulltime in the anti-feudal, anti-fascist and cooperative movement of poor peasants and farm workers in the countryside.
Being uprooted from one’s immediate and familiar milieu was, in fact, a sacrifice of considerable weight… There was romance to it too, of course, and as a poet, nothing of the earthy images of ricefields and barefoot children, nor the primal sounds of crickets and crows ever escaped me. There would be times, however – and these I think were moments of lucid self-appraisal – when it seemed as if I had somehow escaped poetry.
And poems written by Acosta while in jail are also posted in this same prison blog.
Apart from putting up the online prison diary, the organizers of the Free Ericson Acosta Campaign also came up with an online petition. They also posted a Facebook page that has so far taken 788 likes as of this writing.
Backing for the campaign to free Acosta continues to grow as proven by the growing number of statements, testimonies, and other articles compiled in the campaign blog freeacosta.blogspot.com. The struggle for freedom by Acosta and other political prisoners in the Philippines continues.

author: Karlo Mongaya


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Puerto Rico: “Fast track” Designations · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Law scholar and blogger Hiram Meléndez Juarbe analyzes the worrisome velocity [es] with which the Legislature, dominated by the pro-statehood party, has confirmed two additional judges to the Supreme Court.

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


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Puerto Rico: Honoring Ismael Rivera · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

In 80 Grados [es] César Colón Montijo honors the memory [es] of one of the greatest salsa singers of all times, Ismael Rivera, “El Sonero Mayor.”


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Puerto Rico: New Documentary · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

@sire_damiano interviews musician and filmmaker Guillermo Gómez Alvarez [es] about his most recent documentary “Una identidad en absurdo” for the music blog Puerto Rico Indie [es].


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Singapore: Cancer treatment subsidy · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Deborah Choo, writing for The Online Citizen, features the story of a cancer patient who found out that cancer treatments are not being subsidized by the Singapore government.


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Singapore: Changed political landscape · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Catherine Lim explains why Singapore's political landscape has changed despite the victory of the ruling party in the recent general elections.


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Singapore: Dog meat · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A Singapore blogger urges authorities to rethink the ban on the selling of dog meat in the city state.


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Spain: Real Democracy Now!  · Global Voices
Ana Lúcia Sá

The Spanish online movement Democracia Real Ya [es] demands the human right to live with dignity and the end of political and economic corporatism. They have convened a national protest for today, May 15 in many cities in Spain. You can follow the demonstrations on Twitter under the account @democraciareal.

author: Ana Lúcia Sá


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Afghanistan: Battle for Nuristan · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Joshua Foust reports that hundreds of insurgents attacked the capital of Nuristan province in Afghanistan.
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author: Adil Nurmakov


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Africa: African Champions League Results · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

In a post published on May 9 on Afrik.com, Ali Makha  analyses [fr] the results of the African Champions League: ” The semi-quarter finals in the African Cup gave their verdict this week-end. In Champions League, TP Mazembe saved the day  against WAC, while in the CAF Cup, FUS Rabat had to bend to the law of  the Primeiro de Agosto club.”


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Africa: On Mobile Banking And Cyber Agriculture  · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Francophone blog afriqueavenir.org, in its review of new technologies in Africa [fr], highlights how mobile telephony is essential to economical growth: ” Providers [of mobile phones] offer unlimited country-to-country roaming packages in addition to technologies able to meet the demand for online  services, such as mobile banking or even « cyber agriculture », providing farmers with information on market prices via sms.”


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Azerbaijan: Euro “Vision” · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Etiraz comments on this weekend's Eurovision success for Azerbaijan in Düsseldorf, Germany. The blog says that while proud of the victory, the country still lacks basic democratic credentials and hopes that the year ahead will bring positive change although it also warns that surveillance of activists might be even more than usual.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Azerbaijan: Eurovision Pride · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Scary Azeri comments on her country's success in this year's Eurovision Song Contest by saying that she doesn't understand how ecstatic many of her fellow Azerbaijanis are about their victory. In particular the blog notes the high level of poverty in the country while also wondering if Eurovision fans from Armenia or representatives of LGBT communities worldwide will be well received for next year's contest in Baku, the capital.


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Brazil: How a Blog Post Ended Up in the Cannes Festival · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

A brazilian blogger, Alê Felix, unintentionally made it to the Cannes Festival, after writing [pt] about a moving and random conversation she had had with a boy in Rio de Janeiro. Her post was picked up by the film-maker Felipe Joffily who is presenting a short film on it today in Cannes, explains [pt] Rosana Hermann.

author: Sara Moreira