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Global Voices Wins Highway Africa Award · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

Winners: Dorothee Danedjo from Cameroon with Ndesanjo Macha of Global Voices. Photo by Ettione Ferreira (used with permission)
Global Voices Sub-Saharan Africa coverage won the Telekom Highway Africa Award for “Best African ICT Blog”. Regional editor Ndesanjo Macha accepted the award (and trophy!) in South Africa on September 11, 2012 on behalf of the team. Blogger and multi-media journalist Dorothy Dandejo from Cameroon was the runner up in the same category.

author: Solana Larsen


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Iran: Blogger Moved to Isolation Cell · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Several sites are reporting that jailed Iranian blogger, Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, has been moved to an isolation cell in Tabriz prison. Nehzatsabz blog says [fa] Hossein's health condition is worsening (he has a serious kidney condition). Hossein was arrested in August 2012 after traveling to the East Azerbaijan province to assist earthquake victims. Only weeks before, in July, he had been released from jail on $500,000 bail.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran: Much Ado About Anti-Islam Movie · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Demonstration by Swiss embassy in Tehran. Source: IRNA
On Friday, September 14, 2012 The Islamic Republic News Agency reported that “Iranians all across the country launched rallies today after Friday Prayers to protest the film insulting Prophet Mohammad.” As usual, they burned American and Israeli flags.
Meanwhile Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday demanded that the United States punish those behind “The Innocence of Muslims” an anti-Islam film blamed for sparking violent protests in the Middle East and North Africa.
One of main locations of protest was in front of the Swiss embassy in Tehran. The Swiss government, acting through its Embassy, has served as the Protecting Power of the USA in Iran since 21 May, 1980. (photo above).
Iranian bloggers shared their diverse ideas on the film and the demonstration.
No silence
Niaregh condemned  [fa] the film, asking President Obama to offer his apologies to the Muslim world and stop the film. The blogger also asked the Islamic world to condemn the film and not to remain silent. The blogger says we live in a time when those who claim they are ruling the world shout human rights slogans, but ignore religious values and insult them.
Did you see the movie?
Saeed Shabani writes [fa]:
Basiji [islamic militia] sisters demonstrated in front of the Swiss embassy in Tehran. Protesters carried placards with following slogan: If Khamenei gives me a jihad order, the world's army can not stand against me. I want to know what do they mean by “world army”.
Barfaye Koohe Dena asks [fa]:
Does history repeat itself and Barack Obama follow Jimmy Carter's path? [referring to US Democratic President who lost an election to Ronald Regan in 1980] …in this post I want to say to extreme Islamists, if insults to Muslims are bad, then how is insulting other religions good for you to do?
Arman asks [fa]:
Protesters, did you see this movie? If you ask one of these protesters this question, they can not answer. Thousands die in Iran because of pollution, and many on roads because their vehicles do not meet the necessary standards, and the government does not do anything to improve the situation – yet none of you say anything.
Garbage but…
Artificial Intelligence writes:
I find the most recent movie about Muhammad distasteful, disgusting  and pure garbage. Yet I believe everyone out there should create a movie making fun of Muslims, Muhammad and other Islamic notables… Heck, you should make fun of Moses, Jesus and all other prophets while you are at it. Its all disgusting but it does not deserve violent action, violent threats or fear mongering.


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Jamaica: The Modern Sonnet  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamaican diaspora litblogger Geoffrey Philp interviews author Pamela Mordecai about her new work, ” Subversive Sonnets”.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Japan: Imagining Future Japanese-Korean Relations with ‘Free Hugs’ · Global Voices
Mari Wakimoto

Below is a video showing a performance by a young Japanese man in Seoul, Korea; he is holding a sign reading “Free Hugs for Peace”. The video was made about one year ago, in the summer of 2011. The creator, Koichi Kuwabara, began to attract the attention of Twitter users anxious about Japan-Korea relations, soon after the video was introduced [ja].
In fact, in August 2012, tensions in the relations between the two nations were exacerbated. On August 10, South Korean President Lee became the first incumbent president to set foot [ja] on the islands of Takeshima, which ignited a sovereignty dispute between both nations.
Japanese Prime Minster Noda held a special press conference [ja] on August 24, in which he emphasized that “Takeshima is a territory belonging to Japan”, and suggested that a reduction in the Japan-Korea currency swap agreement should be considered.
Rumors of increasing tensions between the two nations have been talked about on a daily basis, in the media and on the Internet since the events of August. Amidst this uproar, Koichi Kuwabara's video spread via Twitter, and has touched the hearts of many viewers [ja]:
@megumoyamamoto: もう連日の報道にうんざりなので、心にしみた。
@NADA_DANCHI: どこの国でもいい人わるい人、両方いるんだよね。新しい世代で過去を反省共有しながら更に前進したいものだ。フリーハグ…マイケルの曲抜いても涙でそうだ。新しい世代！
@aytkk:【拡散希望】取りあえずこの動画をみるだけで何かが変わる気がする＾＾
Considering these positive reviews, user @hyonggi [ja] analyzed the hostility towards South Korea of some “netizens” who exercise influence on the internet:
この動画に出てくる「向こうに行けというジェスチャーで妨害するおっさん」だけを
編集して取り上げるような事をしている人達が「ネトウヨ」とか「ネチズン」って事なんだろう。
Also, in comments on the portal website Hatena, y043 [ja] noted the date on which the video was posted, and wrote:
2011/08/27にアップロードだから一年前の出来事か。今やっても同じ反応であって欲しいけど。
While increasing numbers voiced their approval, @617utogs [ja] had some candid advice for Twitter users who admired the video:
当人がやるのは勝手だし素敵だけど、わざわざ今ツイートすることではないと思う。
こういうツイート見て国家間の問題と混同する人が出てくるのは嫌だな
Furthermore, many negative comments were posted on YouTube, including those by user tenmer100323 [ja]:
現実を見ない薄っぺらい乙女チックな平和願望と自己満足な行動。
韓国との国交断絶を切に望む。
The creator of the video, Koichi Kuwabara, describes why it was made, in comments [ja] on his blog:
僕はマスメディアが報じない韓国の真実の姿を見せたかったし
「日本と韓国はお互いうまくやっていけるんだ。」
「両国の未来に希望はあるんだ。」
ということを証明したかった。
He also made an appeal [ja] for cooperation:
い～ろんな意見がネット上に飛び交ってますが
このビデオを見て、素直に自分の心で感じたことが正しいことだと思います。
「自分が感じたことを良い方向へもっていくにはどうすればいいか？」
解決策を一緒に探しませんか？

author: Mari Wakimoto


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Japan: Radio Airs Story of Fukushima Province Evacuee · Global Voices
Keiko Tanaka

Multilingual community radio station FMYY in Kobe has aired a radio drama titled “Under Invisible Clouds” [ja], the story of Yasuko Sasaki, one evacuee from the town of Namie in Fukushima Prefecture. This story was produced by volunteers in Hiroshima as a part of the 100 Stories Project [ja] about northeast Japan folklore.

author: Keiko Tanaka


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Pakistan Reacts to Anti-Islam Movie · Global Voices
Sidra Rizvi

After the violent protests in Egypt and Libya which left the United States (US) Ambassador to Libya dead, embassies across the populous Muslim nations have taken strict security measures to prevent further damage. The trouble started when a 13 minute video of an anti-Islam movie was released to a social media website.
Violence broke out in the Egyptian city of Cairo and soon spread to the Libyan city Benghazi sparking a chain reaction in Middle East as well as other countries of South Asia. The country of Lebanon saw its share of trouble after protesters set fire to KFC and Hardees restaurants in Tripoli. The German and British embassies in Sudan also came under attack while an American school in Tunisia was also targeted.
Closer to home, nearly 10,000 protesters took to streets in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, burning the American and Israeli flag along the way. Muslims in neighbouring India too attacked the US embassy and pelted the building with stones.
Pakistan reacts
In the wake of these protests, diplomatic agencies across Pakistan tightened security. The US embassy beefed up its security for possible threats against it.
A rally held by Majlis Wahdatul Muslameen started from the G-5 Imam Bargah in Islamabad and marched to the US embassy on Friday, 14 September, 2012, in protest. Strict security measures kept things under control. Demanding a public apology from US for the film, the protesters also called for its immediate removal from social networking websites.
In Lahore, hundreds of protesters came out on streets after Friday prayers and burnt American flags. Hafiz Saeed, the leader of a banned militant organisation Jamaat ud Dawa also participated in the rally calling this an US conspiracy.
The financial hub of Pakistan, Karachi – still recovering from the tragic factory fire that killed hundreds of workers – also witnessed rallies that were organised by Jamaat-e-Islami. The members of the protesting group called for a ban on the movie as well threatened to attack the US embassy in Islamabad if the government failed to take notice.
Activists of Jamat-e-Islami chant slogans against the anti-Islam movie released in the USA, Karachi, Pakistan. Image by Owais Aslam Ali. Copyright Demotix (14/9/2012)
In 2006, after a Danish newspaper printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad causing widespread controversy, nearly 70,000 people came out on streets of Peshawar, generating state-wide havoc. A powerful explosion took place near the Danish embassy in Islamabad killing six and wounding dozens.
Angry, but peaceful
The protests held across the country on this occasion, though angry, were peaceful and there were no reported aggravated acts of violence.
@CMShehbaz: Peaceful demonstrations and rallies were held against anti-Islam US film throughout Pak today.
Scores of people on Twitter shared their dismay at the tense situation:
@TahaSSiddiqui: American flag burning ceremony in Islamabad, 500 meters from Diplomatic Enclave where US embassy is based.
@Ali_Abbas_Zaidi: minor boy armed with guns, poster saying “Who has disgraced my Prophet?”. Prophet would want you to pick a pen instead.
@HaroonRiaz: How simple it is to stir a riot in Muslim countries for just about anyone living in a Western country. I find it fascinating.
@Zoya_Altaf: So it seems like #protests all over the country… #pakistan
@Manticore73: Was expecting an industrial-strength rant from local mosque today – but nothing. How is it elsewhere?
@ImtiazTyabAJE: Only about 20-30 actual protesters. Rest appear to be curious after-prayer onlookers. #pakistan
@akkhan81: Islamophobes are successful at turning Islam hate videos into debates about free speech, and Muslims always seem to fail that test.
As acts of violence continue across the Muslim world, Google has temporarily restricted access to the infamous video in Libya and Egypt. According to its officials:
Under YouTube’s terms of service, hate speech is speech against individuals, not against groups. Because the video mocks Islam but not Muslim people, it has been allowed to stay on the site in most of the world. [..] However, given the very difficult situation in Libya and Egypt we have temporarily restricted access in both countries.
This was an unprecedented move on the part of Google, Jillian York at Global Voices Advocacy has details.

author: Sidra Rizvi


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Portugal Protesting: “We Want Our Lives” · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

[All links in Portuguese except when otherwise noted]
This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.
In a few hours it will be known if the demonstration ‘Screw the troika! We want our lives‘ (Que se lixe a troika! Queremos as nossas vidas) [en], will have managed to bring together to the mains streets and squares of Portugal an amount of people which hasn't been seen for a long time.
The moment Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho announced more austerity measures, on September 7, 2012, he seemed to have given plenty of reasons for an increasingly generalized mass of the population to take to the streets and protest. The impact of the measures is more and more visible in the pockets and accounts of both public and private workers, in daily life and at the end of the month.
A few hours before the beginning of the demonstrations called for in 36 cities in Portugal, the 100,000 clicks on Facebook event pages had already been substantially exceeded. “A much higher figure than the 69,000 in the page that called for the demonstration held back on March 12, 2011, which took nearly 300,000 people to street”, had been reported by RTP a day earlier.
In addition to the events which are expected to take place from north to south and in the country's islands (mapped here by David Ferreira on Twitter), there are also protests scheduled for Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris, the United States and Canada, and even Fortaleza, in Brazil.
Screenshot of the countdown website O Governo Português Já Caiu? (Has Portuguese Government Fallen Already?).
On social media
On Twitter, hashtags #QueSeLixeATroika and #15sPT are already in use, as well as the usual #Passos, #troika and #crise. The tag #15s is being shared with the Iberian-wide protests that are also taking place on September 15, in Spain.
On social media there is no lack of creativity on the preparation for the demonstration, as illustrates P3 on its posters gallery or in the suggested Tumblr Trespassa o Passos.
Any citizen reporter can share their images in a recently launched blog which aims at centralizing and making available photos of the protests. O que diz a rua (What the street says), accepts submissions via Twitter (@fotosdamanif) or by email (to the address “fotosdamanif” at Sapo.pt or Gmail.com).
There are videos being shared on the YouTube channel of the organizers of the demonstration (queselixeatroika), such as a flashmob on the eve of September 15 in front of the IMF office.
The videos call for mobilization, illustrate the austerity measures and the current state of the country's economy, and try to clarify some “Myths and Unmyths of Troika” such as the video that follows titled Destroika [Untroika, a play with the words ‘troika’ and change in Portuguese, ‘troca’]:
“In this moment all Austerity measures imposed by the current Government only worsen the state of our economies”, believe the creators of the video Basta Porra Basta (Enough Hell Enough), on which the IMF is featured as “a normal bank [that] wants its dividends, paid without appeal or grievance” and that “gives a hell if the people are hungry or not”, while “our pocket politicians that were raised in the breasts of Freemasonry and the Political Parties, say yes to everything that these vultures ask, and force austerity measures”.
The video presents “two ways to solve this ‘crisis’ once and for all”, with a hint of sarcasm:
1ª Solução – Pressionar a Europa a criar urgentemente uma confederação de estados Europeus, com uma única legislação e mercado único apoiado directamente pelo BCE e governado a partir de Bruxelas. (…) E Portugal relega-se para uma posição de colônia balnear da Europa e prestador de serviços a nível Europeu, delegando o sector primário aos outros estados Europeus.
2ª Solução – Revolução e Independência da Nação Portuguesa! Todos os políticos e deputados actuais dos partidos do PS/PSD/CDS serão extraditados para um país da CPLP a ser designado. Entramos em incumprimento e saímos da União Europeia, ninguém paga mais um tostão da dívida. Voltamos ao Escudo e irá ser redigida uma nova constituição baseada no mérito e na igualdade de oportunidades entre cidadãos.
1st Solution – Pressing Europe to urgently create a confederation of European states, with one single market legislation and supported directly by the ECB and ruled from Brussels. (…) And Portugal is relegated to a position of seaside colony of Europe and services provider at the European level, delegating the primary sector to the other European states.
2nd Solution – Revolution and Independence of the Portuguese Nation! All political parties and members of the current PS/PSD/CDS will be extradited to a CPLP [Community of Portuguese Language Countries, a subtle critic to Prime Minister's recommendation back in January for the youth to emigrate] country to be designated. We go into default and we leave the EU, nobody pays one more penny of the debt. We go back to the Escudo and a new constitution will be drafted based on merit and equal opportunities among citizens.
Are you taking to the streets?
“The Whole” of the public accounts (summarized in a table published on the blog Blasfémias) and the measures taken to cover it, can displease an increasingly broader slice of citizens. A letter by the writer and essayist Eugenio Lisboa, octogenarian, addressed to the prime minister and reproduced in the blog of Eduardo Pitta says:
Falei da velhice porque é o pelouro que, de momento, tenho mais à mão. Mas o sofrimento devastador, que o fundamentalismo ideológico de V. Exa. está desencadear pelo país fora, afecta muito mais do que a fatia dos velhos e reformados. Jovens sem emprego e sem futuro à vista, homens e mulheres de todas as idades e de todos os caminhos da vida — tudo é queimado no altar ideológico onde arde a chama de um dogma cego à fria realidade dos factos e dos resultados.
I spoke of old age because it is the department that, at the moment, I have more on hand. But the devastating suffering that the ideological fundamentalism of Your Excellency is triggering throughout the country, affects much more than the slice of the old and retired. Young people without jobs and no future in sight, men and women of all ages and from all walks of life – everything is burned on the ideological altar where the flame of a blind dogma in face of the cold reality of facts and results burns.
The question is what number will in fact go to the streets on this summer afternoon when the thermometer is reaching 30 ° C.
Some may passively let themselves go by the typical inaction that João Moreira de Sá (@arcebispo) ridicules on Twitter (mentioning the corruption case that involves the buying of submarines in 880 million euros):
se eu for para a praia com um cartaz “Abaixo os Submarinos” (que até contém ironia), conta? #15SPT
if I go to the beach with a banner “Down with the submarines” (which even has irony), does it count? #15SPT
Others are replicating the manifesto ‘Screw the troika’ and say they are looking for “something extraordinary”:
Se nos querem vergar e forçar a aceitar o desemprego, a precariedade e a desigualdade como modo de vida, responderemos com a força da democracia, da liberdade, da mobilização e da luta. Queremos tomar nas nossas mãos as decisões do presente para construir um futuro.
If they want to bend us and force us to accept unemployment, precariousness and inequality as a way of life, we will respond with the force of democracy, freedom, mobilization and struggle. We want to take in our hands the decisions of the present to build a future.
This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

author: Sara Moreira


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Russia: Protest Movement Struggles with Keeping Itself Democratic · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

This post is part of our special coverage Russia's Protest Movement.
RuNet Echo has recently commented on the cyclical and insular nature of Russia’s online political tusovka, noting the return of the “tomato terrorist” [GV] Andrei Morozov to the protest scene. Now another blast-from-the-past has briefly captured the attention of Russia’s bloggers.
The similarities are striking. Like Morozov, Maksim Martsinkevich, who goes by the nickname Tesak (Machete), gained notoriety on the RuNet between 2005 and 2007 for actions that can be described as trolling. Like Morozov, he recently returned from a stint in prison. And, remarkably, both men had also harassed liberal journalist Yulia Latynina.
Nevertheless, compared to Morozov’s rather innocent tomato antics, Tesak is a much more odious figure. A white-supremacist skinhead, he served three-and-a-half years in prison on two counts of inciting racial and religious hatred, convicted under Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code.
Tesak addressing Navalny. September 14, 2012. Screenshot from YouTube video.
The first incident occurred at a debate between popular blogger Maskim Kononenko (formerly Mr. Parker) and Latynina. The debates were organized and moderated by Aleksey Navalny, who filed a complaint [ru] against Tesak and his friends for continuously shouting “Sieg Heil” [ru] and raising their hands in a Nazi salute [ru]. At the time, some conjectured [ru] (and others outright claimed [ru]) that Navalny had invited Tesak to liven up the scene and cause a controversy. Navalny's complaint [ru], at any rate, led to Tesak’s arrest and conviction.
While serving time for this offense, Tesak was tried and convicted of recording and distributing a video in which he and several other skinheads pretended to kill a Tajikistani drug dealer, while dressed in KKK uniforms. The video, along with other racist and snuff-like footage, was distributed through a website founded by Tesak’s skinhead group “Format 18.” The website was shut down in 2007, however Internet Archive has some captures of the front page [ru], containing sales offers for its own instructional videos, along with copies of Leni Riefenstahl's fascist classic Triumph of the Will. After his release, Tesak has mainly stayed off the political radar, using his YouTube know-how to start an amateur Russian version of To Catch a Predator, posting the resulting videos on his blog [ru], and a VKontakte page [ru]. He also runs self-help seminars [ru] and distributes odd videos [YouTube] explaining that theft from grocery stores is okay because it is factored into the price.
One of Tesak's self-help videos. September 14, 2012. Screenshot from YouTube video.
Given this history, it is probably not surprising that members of the Russian political opposition in charge of organizing the coming elections of its Coordinating Council refused to register Tesak [ru] to stand as a candidate in these elections, on the basis of the following:
[O]н неоднократно публично высказывался о своем категорическом несогласии с целями и ценностями протестного движения, выраженными в декларациях митингов декабря 2011 – июня 2012 года, и, следовательно, представляя регистрационную форму и указывая в ней о своем согласии с целями и ценностями протестного движения представил заведомо недостоверные сведения.
One of the committee members disagreed with this formulation, pointing out that Tesak fulfilled all the formal requirements for registration, and furthermore, that it is impossible to conclusively prove whether he agreed or disagreed with the movement’s “aims and values.”
The bizarre decision, which is akin to the Republican Party refusing Mitt Romney a spot in the primaries on the basis of his prior statements about health care, immediately attracted criticism [ru]. For example, some point out [ru] that Boris Stomakhin [ru], a pro-Chechen journalist who spent several years in prison for inciting hatred under the same Article 282 as Tesak, was registered with no problems.
More importantly, a movement that espouses free and fair elections looks odd when it refuses to register someone on the basis of their assumed beliefs. After all, if Tesak’s ideology and persona are abhorrent, or if he lied about his political views, then presumably no one will vote for him. This, in a word, is democracy.
This point was made by DemVybor’s Vladimir Milov in his blog [ru]. Even though Milov believes that the whole conflict could be a provocation from the Kremlin, he argues:
[Е]сли уж ввязался бы в такую историю, то спокойно допустил бы Тесака, потому что нельзя его бояться — если уж не можете выиграть у Тесака, то тогда вообще туши свет сливай воду, куда там в большую политику собрались.
Of course, after this statement, Navalny and Garry Kasparov accused [ru] Milov of supporting Tesak and being a Kremlin project. (Accusations like this are common in the internecine world of Russian opposition parties, which the Coordinating Council could potentially unite.)
Leonid Volkov, one of the protest movement's committee members and the developer of the Coordinating Council's voting platform, wrote a long post [ru] trying to explain the decision against Tesak. In it, he claims that Tesak’s registration fees were paid by a NASHI functionary, and therefore it is clear that he only submitted his candidacy to discredit the movement.
Nationalist blogger nomina_obscura has a different account of Tesak’s motivation, attributing it to desire for revenge [ru]:
[Г]лавный двигатель Тесака в кампании по избранию в КС – это, конечно же, никакие не нашисты и кто там еще, а желание добраться до дрожащей от ужаса глотки посадившего его на три года Навального
Indeed, while Tesak remains marginalized, Navalny (also a self-professed nationalist, and at the time of Tesak’s arrest a member of the National Russian Freedom Movement [ru]) is now the unofficial leader of the liberal opposition. For many, Navalny’s brand of nationalism increasingly seems to be either palatable or immaterial, while Tesak’s remains frightening. Perhaps now Martsinkevich wants to contest his perpetual role as bogeyman?
This post is part of our special coverage Russia's Protest Movement.

author: Andrey Tselikov


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Russia: Religiosity & the Murdered U.S. Ambassador · Global Voices
Donna Welles

Responding to the attack on U.S. embassies and diplomatic territories across the Muslim world (specifically the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three members of his staff in Libya), Russian bloggers have addressed the perceived growth of religiosity in their own country, and used the incident as an opportunity to discuss the wider consequences of political unrest.
Several media outlets have emphasized the connection between these anti-American violent outbursts and U.S. support for the Arab Spring. Evaluating the legitimacy of the recent bloodshed, many RuNet bloggers have questioned the validity of violently “avenging” Western religious liberality.
Blogger Evgeny Schultz contextualized the recent events in the Middle East amid growing religiosity in Russia in a post titled [ru], “Religion on the March: In Libya and Russia”:
Объяснение всегда просто: “Так требует вера, Бог”. […] Они экстраполируют всезнание, благость и всемогущество Бога на предстоятеля своей религии. И естественно, власть не собирается пропускать возможности мимо себя. Для власти религия – мощнейший электоральный рычаг. Но не понимает власть, что рычаг этот не им подчиняется. И рано или поздно ударит их по лбу. А вместе с ними и всю Россию. Никакие тактические выгоды не оправдают того стратегического тупик [sic], в который ведет клерикализация.
J. Christopher Stevens, United States ambassador to Libya from June 7, 2012 until killed in an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi on September 12, 2012 (photo taken 23 April 2012), photo by U.S. Department of State, public domain.
Schultz's nuance, if one can call it that, has not characterized the reactions of all netizens. Hardliner Orthodox blogger Archbishop Sergey Zhuravlev, for instance, posted [ru] a militant anti-Islam rant in response to the mob attacks on American embassies.
On Twitter, some have aired skepticism about the effectiveness of violence as a response to sometimes offensive material.
In Baku, Azerbaijan, Rahman Haji wrote:
Один идиотский фильм о Пророке перевернул пол мира.Посол в Ливии убит, флаги США срывают с посольств на всем Ближнем Востоке. Просто ужас…
In Chelyabinsk, Sergei Tretyakov tweeted:
Ирония дня: ливийские мусульмане увидели в интернете ролик про то, что мусульмане – не миролюбивые, обиделись и убили посла США в Ливии
Others have been more ambiguous in their commentary. In Tula, for example, Gregory Bukreev connected [ru] the anger allegedly incited by an anti-Muslim film to the Pussy Riot case.
В Ливии убит посол США за фильм,где плохо показан пророк Мухаммед,а остающиеся на свободе участницы Pussy Riot готовят новую акцию.Подумайте
What is the public meant to “think” exactly? Bloggers seem to be united in disapproval of the mob violence against American foreign dignitaries, but a more vexing issue is Russia's own struggle with religious pluralism, including matters as troubling as homegrown Muslim and Orthodox extremism. The Orthodox Church's own growing influence, of course, was and remains a major concern for secularists following the Pussy Riot controversy.

author: Donna Welles


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Saudi Arabia: Committee Backs Legalizing Infinite Detention · Global Voices
Anas Soliman

The Committee of Islamic and Judicial Affairs in the appointed Saudi Consultative Assembly supported suggestions to relax the requirements for execution and to give courts the right to approve infinite detention.
The current law mandates unanimity in the national Judicial Council for death sentences, but the suggested amendment would allow death sentences to pass by a majority of opinions.
Al Riyadh newspaper reported:
The committee said that the reason for them to support the amendment is that:
Moreover, the committee supported an amendment to give courts the right to extend detention periods for uncharged prisoners infinitely.
Saudi reformist and previous political prisoner Moubark al-Zuair commented:
Member of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association Abdullah al-Sa'id said that this was an attempt to pass the Anti-Terrorism Law, referring to the infamous drafted law which was leaked by Amnesty International in July 2011.
Saudi Twitter user, Jihad, commented:

author: Anas Soliman


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Trinidad & Tobago: Acts of Integrity? · Global Voices
Matthew Hunte

Afra Raymond shares a series of emails he sent to the Integrity Commission and Minister of Finance of Trinidad and Tobago, questioning “the complaince of CL Financial Directors with the Integrity in Public Life Act.”

author: Matthew Hunte


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Trinidad & Tobago: Down the Rabbit Hole?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Further to the outrage expressed by political bloggers in Trinidad and Tobago earlier this week, the country's Parliament convened to debate the controversial Section 34, which resulted in it being repealed – but citizens, both on and offline, seem to be taking limited comfort in the law's recall.
The blogger behind The Eternal Pantomime practically live blogged the Parliamentary proceedings on Facebook, then summarized her impressions in a post called “34Gate”:
In the aftermath of the Barnum and Bailey Circus Show that passed for a debate…the crucial questions still remain unanswered.
No member of the Cabinet has yet satisfied the public’s concern about why they decided to pluck Section 34, along with 4 other minor clauses, out of the Indictable Offences Act and proclaim it on the evening of August 30th while most of the nation was busy with Independence celebrations…and there was I simply thinking is because Kamla love to fete! Nope, all the fetes were weapons of mass distraction.
The Opposition asked the same questions in each of its presentations: Why were the provisions agreed to by Senator Volney ignored, and parts of the Bill proclaimed; and why was that particular clause pulled out for proclamation when it was proclaimed  in the manner it was proclaimed.  However they did all manage to agree on repealing the Law retroactively. the Bill now moves on to the Upper House.
In a section of the post sub-titled “How It went Down”, the blogger continued:
What we also learned is that our silkened luminaries, after hustling to proclaim Section 34 on August 30th, realised that the Bill was flawed and hustled just as quickly to repeal it, all on their own….no public pressure from the Opposition and the US…they did this for us, the nation, because they always listening to us. Doh mind Kamla could never answer any of our questions directly.
She also detailed how Section 34 had “a different wording before it was passed in the Lower House and went to the Senate” and how, “when the Bill got to the Senate, under Justice Volney’s stewardship the wording changed”:
The Opposition asked why was there a change in the wording of the Bill between both Houses…this question was never answered.
At no point in time in the course of the debate did any member of the Cabinet read or quote from the Hansard…which has on record Volney agreeing to undertaking certain provisions before proclaiming the Bill. It was only the Opposition quoting from the Hansard.
The Eternal Pantomime concluded:
The biggest blow to the government’s case though is DPP Roger Gaspard’s claim that he was not consulted on the Bill, and further, after giving the time line of the Bill’s passage and proclamation, arriving at the conclusion that it appears to be a conspiracy.
The Opposition has now laid a careful case for why they cannot trust the Government and why the public cannot trust them either.
Plain Talk, meanwhile, thought that the Section 34 “fiasco” had “the potential for damaging the sanctity of some of this country's highest Offices and bringing into question the credibility of their holders”:
If one were to put God out of one's thoughts for a minute and ponder the implications of the issue based solely on the evidence already in the public domain it could appear as if there was a massive conspiracy to utilize the Parliament to create an escape for (at least) two party financiers of the government and if that is what occurred in reality then surely we need to stop the conversation right here and begin whatever passes for impeachment proceedings in this country.
The blogger then posed a few critical questions “to see just how deep the rabbit hole goes” and concluded:
Surely everyone concerned on all sides of the political and national divide must be aware that we have crossed the Rubicon here, that we cannot simply pick up our marbles and move on.
This matter has to be taken to a conclusion that restores public confidence in the institutions of governance and ought not to be considered resolved until all those who were involved in any way are, at the very least, removed from public office and investigated for any wrongdoing or misbehavior.
Against this backdrop, diaspora blogger Jumbie's Watch noted that a “certain minister” had “been seen in Tobago sipping champagne with the owner of a resort where his ministry held a retreat” and commented:
Said resort is owned by one of the two men currently taken advantage of the proclaimed section 34 of Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act.
Given that this minister was allegedly in with the legal adviser to the government to set up this particular act of Parliament, specifically for the benefit of the two men, it seems to me that the haste in celebrating is a little presumptuous.
aka_lol, tongue firmly in cheek, summed up the entire affair this way:
It is rumored that self-proclaimed law experts, Anand and Hubert, will not be getting their complimentary iPads from Parliament as punishment for sneakily making a hole in a brand new law through which two of the country’s most popular accused criminals, Ish and Steve, had planned to escape.  It is also rumored that Hubert has already protested this latest atrocity saying he will get a medical certificate stating his heart was set on an iPad 2 while Anand bawled out how he needed not one, but two tablets for his latest headache.  If these rumors are true then the legal duo will have to continue to tote millions of dollars worth of paper in an out of Parliament while their colleagues pretend their tablets are on.
When the news to this latest Government-approved law hole was highlighted by the press, the public and Government officials feigned surprise and horror with some true supporters wondering what was taking the Government so long to pay their pipers.


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Trinidad & Tobago: The COP Motion  · Global Voices
Matthew Hunte

Philip Edward Alexander shares audio of Vernon De Lima's motion at the Congress of the People's National Council calling for the party to “disassociate itself from the People's Partnership” if National Security Minister Jack Warner wasn't removed from the cabinet. The motion was defeated and De Lima resigned as vice-chairman of the party.


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China: Censor Machine Suspended for Anti-Japan Mobilization? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

As the tension between China and Japan over the disputed Diaoyu Islands (also known as the Senkaku Islands) has elevated, large scale anti-Japan protests have taken place all over China in more than 80 cities over the weekend.
Some of the demonstrations turned violent, protesters started attacking Japanese style restaurants, shopping malls and shops; some even tried to set fire to Japanese vehicles. Yet, in a country where online activities are closely monitored and public security forces are extremely effective, many wondered what made these nationwide protests possible.
Free More News‘s video shows how protesters in Changsha attacked and mobbed a Japanese shopping center in September 15, 2012:
Coordination of protests
Many netizens pointed out that the protests were coordinated via QQ groups, which are more “private” than other social media platforms such as Weibo. From Sina Weibo, Mars explains [zh]:
Protesters set fire to a car in Xian. Photos from Free more news.
微博仅是一个相对小众的平台，君不见各种QQ群、QQ空间上病毒式传播的反日宣传，那里的受众才是上街打砸抢的主力军。
Weibo is not a popular platform. The anti-Japan propaganda is spreading via QQ groups and QQ space like a virus. The violent protesters are stirred up by these platforms.
Also on Weibo, user Economist finds out [zh] that government civil servants were active in mobilizing the protests:
今天吃饭时一朋友说连续2天看到同学QQ群中发布几日几点到哪里集合反日，用词几乎一字不改。我赶紧问发布的这两个同学在哪儿就职。答曰一个在地税局，另一位在某军工央企驻当地的研究所。
A friend told me during a meal that we received the same protest call message from different alumni groups via QQ. I asked him about the background of the senders. He said one is working for the land revenue bureau, one is working for a research center in a military corporation.
zy in boston raises [zh] a technical question:
我非常疑惑，深圳这么多人上街反日，难道QQ软件里的三个监控外挂都因为爱国而暂停工作了吗？
How come there are so many anti-Japan protesters in Shenzhen? What about the three layers of monitoring existing in QQ? Are all these functions suspended because of patriotism?
Indeed over the past two days, even though words like “Rally” (游行) have not been searchable on social media platforms, the term “Anti-Japan protest” has not been banned. Words like “Diaoyu Islands”, “Protect Diaoyu”, “Protest”, and “Crushing” even appear in the hot topic search list.
Below is the screen capture of the “Anti-Japan Protest” (反日示威) search result:
Behind the scenes?
Hu Zimei raises a series of questions and wonders [zh] who exactly is behind the scenes:
越来越觉得这事不对劲：1,四五十个城市同时起动；2,人数不多,但破坏力大,几乎全部中青年男性,集结后立即打砸,目标感强；3,防暴警察的执法不作为步调统一；4,各路喇叭媒体和官博忙不迭对打砸暴行定性为爱国行为的过激表现；5,显示打砸暴徒的微博被极快删帖。这是不是一场根本与人民无关的有组织的暴行？
Something is wrong. 1. 40-50 cities are protesting at the same time; 2. The total number of participants are not too many but the protests are rather destructive. Most of them are young men, they work together to launch attacks at some very specific targets; 3. The riot police are not prepared; 4. The state-controlled media and opinion leaders consider the violent protests as radical expression of patriotism; 5. All micro-blogs that show the violent scenes are deleted. I wonder if this is organized violence that has nothing to do with people?
Some bloggers believe that the protest is related to the upcoming 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Some news reports have already pointed out that the numbers in the Politburo Standing Committee (top leadership of the Communist Party of China) will be reduced from 9 to 7 seats and the secretary of the Political and Legislative Committee will be dismissed from the core leadership.
The Committee is designed to oversee public security, law execution and judiciary in China and has been responsible for “stability maintenance” in the past few years. Such an arrangement is believed to be related to the scandal of the former Chongqing party Secretary Bo Xilai, who is closely connected with the Head of the Public Security Bureau and the current Secretary of the Political and Legislative Committee, Zhou Yongkang.
Below are some of the speculations found on Weibo [zh]:
唐吏宋：宣传口子和政法口子在某位大神的指点之下搞出了这么一些卵子。这就是他们想要的结果。然后就有借口进行以后一系列行动了。那个时候就又有得玩了。这才是他们的目的。他们是导演。你们甘愿当演员。受害者和受益者是谁麻烦动个脑子这样的剧本每个朝代都有上演。难道我们也要经历一次么？
Tang Song history: The propaganda authorities and the Political and Legislative Committee are working together under some commands. This is what they want, an excuse for them to take action. Then they can re-enter the scene. This is their intention. They are the directors and you are the voluntary actors. Please think who are the victim and who gain from this? History has be recurring through out all the dynasties. Do we have to go through this again?
全能RVP：为何台湾香港没有发生反日打砸抢？只有一个原因，就是共军自导自演+共军洗脑导致！～
RVP: Why there is no violent act in Taiwan and Hong Kong? Only one reason, the Communists are self-directing the whole act.
常啸九天￼：您老还看不出来吗？这就是借反日之名发泄对政府的不满，其背后可能有“毛左”的操纵。当局内外交困了！
Cry out loud: Can't you see? They are making use of the anti-Japan protest to express their anger at the government. The Maoist Left is probably behind this. The central authority is caught in the middle of internal and external tension.
Rational voices
While angry patriots are in the street protesting, cooler heads do prevail online as the Tea Leaf Nation pointed out [zh]. Below are some of my picks from the more rational voices:
WeMarketing：通过这次反日打砸抢，对中国又有了新的认识，虽然已经是2012，但历史可以轻易重演，今天是以反日为名，以后可能会以反资本家，或者反外籍为名，只要你所在的人群是需要被打倒的那个，你的个人财产就可能被人不用负责的毁掉，你的人身安全就无法受保证。义和团、红卫兵、爱国贼，一代传一代。
WeMarketing: I know a bit more about China in this violent protest. We are now in 2012, but history still keeps recurring. This is in the name of anti-Japan, next time in the name of anti-capitalists, or anti-foreigners. If you are among the group of people being targeted at, you can't protect your property and your own safety. Boxer rebellion, Red Guards, patriotic thugs, one generation after other.
城市茅屋：历史上的义和团和红卫兵都是先被人当枪使，然后再被人当替罪羊，千万不要成为粪青！打砸抢谁获利啊？动动脑子吧！
hut in the city: In history, both the Boxer and the Red Guard are used as weapons and then turned into scapegoats. Don't join the angry youth. Who will gain from these violent acts? Please just use your brain.
乐嘉￼：日本的高明在于用中国的7平方公里不经意间居然撬动起整个中国大陆960万平方公里疯狂的自残而我们中的很多人还以为自己是英雄。老娘问我打仗咋办，我说不怕打仗怕文革。
Leja: The Japanese are so smart. They make use of a 7 kilometre square piece of land to stir up the crazies all over China's 960 million square meters of territories. Some of us still feel that they are heroes. My mother asked what would happened if the war started? I said I am not afraid of war but I am afraid of the Cultural Revolution.
As the violence has elevated, riot police have adopted stronger measures. However, as the anniversary of the Muken Incident is approaching on September 18, the anti-Japanese sentiment may continue to grow in the next few days.

author: Oiwan Lam


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East Timor: Contact Details of Government Officials · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

La’o Hamutuk links to a page containing the contact details of East Timor's Parliament members and ministry officials.

author: Mong Palatino


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Indonesia: Protest Action Against Anti-Islam Film · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A protest action in Surabaya, Indonesia against the film ‘Innocence of Muslims’. Photo by dJoko Kristiono, copyright Demotix (9/15/2012)
A protest action in Surabaya, Indonesia against the film ‘Innocence of Muslims’. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim-dominated nation.


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Iran: Jailed Activist Denied Right to Call Family · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Several Iranians reported in Balatarin, a link sharing site, that Majid Tavakoli, a jailed student activist has been denied the right to call his family from prison for 20 months.


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Iran: Street Stage Play · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Tehran Live has published photos from a street stage play in front of Iranshahr Theater in Tehran.


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Malaysia: Parenting Guidelines on How to Spot Gays and Lesbians · Global Voices
Jerrenn Lam

A parenting seminar in Penang, Malaysia organized by Yayasan Guru Malaysia Bhd and Putrajaya Consultative Council of Parents and Teachers Association drew controversy after it issued guidelines for parents on how to detect symptoms of homosexuality. The guidelines were allegedly endorsed by the Ministry of Education.
According to the guidelines, the symptoms for gays are the following:
- Muscular body and a fondness for showing off the body by wearing clothing, such as by wearing V-necks and sleeveless tops
– A preference for tight and bright coloured clothes
– An inclination to be attracted to men
– A tendency to carry big handbags, similar to the kinds used by women
An anti-LGBT rally in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo by ahmadluqman Ismail, copyright Demotix (4/21/2012).
Meanwhile, the symptoms for lesbians are below:
- Showing attraction to women
– Distancing themselves from women other than their girlfriends
– A preference for hanging out, sleeping and dining with women
– Absence of feelings for men
Urbestfren thought the guidelines were absurd:
From all these pathetic assumptions made, it is safe to say that more than 50% of males in Malaysia are gay? Since they wear sleeveless or tight or V-neck t-shirts. Also, gays somehow prefer lighter colour clothing and hold a women-like bag when hanging out. Wow. That’s new to me.
From this, I have learnt to judge a book by it’s cover by assuming that all of the above male models of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week are gay.
Moving on to the lesbians, lesbians tend to distance themselves from other women other than their companion. That’s interesting, I’m pretty sure I know tons of lesbos out there. Hmm. In addition, they like to hang out, have meals and sleep in the company with women. To all the women out there who enjoy hanging with y’all gal pal, be careful!! People might be judging you. What if I like sleeping with my mom? Does that make me a lesbian?
What an interesting guideline filled with stereotypes and prejudism.
Joel Wong describes the list as ‘laughably insane':
Now the problem with this whole set of guidelines is everything. I'm serious. Every single thing in this list is so laughably insane that the person (or persons) who drew up this list must have been drunk out of their minds or high as hell. These idiots are utterly confused by the entire concept of what it means to be homosexual. Of course, I don't claim to know how homosexuals think but but holy shit, you don't have to be a homosexual to be insulted by the stupidity of the whole thing.
Personally, when I see a muscular guy wearing tight sleeveless clothes, the first thought that comes into my mind is not, “GAAAAAY!” On the contrary, I would nod knowingly to myself because I know how conventional clothing is ill suited for the muscular guys. The only reason they wear sleeveless is because their muscular biceps and triceps and all the other ceps totally rip apart sleeves. Gigantic muscles are sleeves’ worst nightmare.
Jackson Yee thinks the intention of the ministry in endorsing the guidelines is malicious:
In fact, I am receptive to the guidelines posted. Firstly, it’s a guideline. Guideline means a proposed series of hints. It does not necessarily fit in the entire gay community in its respective individuals’ characteristic. Secondly, I personally think that this guideline to some extent contains some truths, as the hottest gays are always publicized. Furtherance to that, it means that the “normalized” gays (as for the perspective of the ignorance group) have not gained enough spotlights. Thirdly, I would think this guideline is serving a good laugh to the experts in the field of gay rights activism.
However, the intention of MOE behind publishing the guidelines for “spotting a gay” is malicious. It is to drag the gays out to the public so that the gays could be given counseling or the so-called “reparative therapy”. Again, it’s funny to see how ignorant the MOE could be. On the other hand, to a gay person, the intention of spotting a gay presumably is to seek for the sense of togetherness, security and warmness in the face of threats being posed to the gay community in Malaysia almost every fortnight.
On Twitter, the topic became popular as well.
@arunasena The Guidelines for Gay & Lesbian firmly placed Malaysia as the World's Leading Draconian Country. Good job.
@MrToffee Just when I thought my country was getting progressive, along comes Malaysia's Ed. issuing guidelines for spotting gay/lesbian symptoms. :P
@jeangreyxx Deeply amused by these guidelines published by Malaysia Educ Ministry on how to spot gay and lesbian children. Srsly.
@ailaazizul< Humiliation made worldwide
@cptai More famous for wrong reason! :(
@nikisingh Beyond ridiculous
@dannyshuster Uh-oh better take a 2nd look at my closet…
The ministry has denied endorsing the guidelines. But it vowed to continue helping parents in preventing the youth to be involved in ‘unhealthy activities':
However, the MOE views cases of social ills seriously and would constantly give direct and indirect guidance to all students to avoid getting involved in unhealthy activities.

author: Jerrenn Lam


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Nigeria: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Declines WTO High Post · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria's Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy is not interested in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) top job.  Pascal Lamy will retire soon and there's been speculations that Okonjo-Iweala may seek to replace him.
Y’ Online quotes an e-press release from Mrs Iweala's office:
“For the avoidance of doubt, Dr Okonjo-Iweala is not a candidate for the leadership of the WTO. She has also not expressed any interest whatsoever in the position.”
Global Voices reported on Okonjo-Iweala's historical bid for the World Bank presidency in March and April respectively.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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Peru: Alternative Mistura: Eating in the Street · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

It's that time of year when Peruvians and foreigners alike seem to go crazy paying a higher price for food that can normally be found at a cheaper price. Yes, we are talking about Mistura, the mega-event that over the past few years [es] has been bringing together growers, cooks, business owners, chefs and of course, droves of the public eager to consume popular Peruvian food.
There is no doubt that these types of events are a great opportunity to experience new things. However, good food can be found in Lima at any time of the year, even in the most unexpected places.
Breakfast on the go
Like any other modern city, Lima is up early and locals do not always have the time to eat before leaving the house. This is a problem for some, but for others, it's a business opportunity. In this video uploaded by YouTube user djn4nd1ll0 [es], University of Lima students investigate this dynamic:
Things like leche con quinua (milk with quinoa), leche con maca (milk with maca), pan con tamal [es] (bread with tamales), with sweet potato, avocado, chicken or chicharrón (pork rind), are typical meals for breakfast on the go but are not exclusive to morning hours. For example, although the pork rind sandwich is a classic breakfast, it's also found at night, as YouTube user lightpackertravel [es] recorded in this video while walking through the Miraflores district in Lima.
Yucas fritas
We continue with yucas fritas (fried cassava), a type of food usually eaten on the go in the streets of Lima. The dish is not actually prepared with pieces of yuca but rather with yuca flour. The following video from YouTube user Justrendering [es] allows viewers to appreciate the preparation of this dish. The user adds: “The video is taken at a food stand at the Magdalena Market in Lima, Peru. “
This recipe can be found in a note [es] by Facebook user Antiguas Recetas Peruanas (Old-Fashioned Peruvian Recipes). The blog Dulces de Colores (Colorful Sweets) offers us an alternative recipe, “Yucas fritas de carretilla” [es] (Fried cassava from the cart), and also comments:
Quizás conozcan esta receta con otro nombre pero en Peru quien no a comido en la salida del colegio unas yuquitas fritas calientitas , o cerca al mercado o plazuela […] ahora la prepare y encanto en casa, a comerlas calientes y espolvoreadas con azúcar blanca ummmmmmm rico de verdad el nombre de carretilla o carretillero es porque en Perú así las venden , en un esquina un señor con su carretilla vendiendo estas yuquitas.
You may know this recipe by another name but who in Peru hasn't eaten some hot yuquitas fritas while leaving school or at the market or town square? […] Now I made them and they were a hit at home; eating hot yucas sprinkled with white sugar ummmmmmm delicious really and the name “de carretilla” or “carretillero” because that's how they sell them in Peru, a man on the corner with his cart selling yuquitas.
Picarones
Picarones are another delicacy you can find in the streets of Lima or almost any city in Peru. Picarones are a type of dessert usually eaten during the afternoon or at night. The YouTube user Oportal [es] filmed the following video and added: “We stopped for a moment to enjoy these delicious Peruvian picarones, where a lady described how to prepare them.”
The blog Mistura de Perú shares a recipe for picarones and also explains [es]:
Aunque por el nombre pueda parecer que se trata de una especialidad picante, los picarones son unos dulces en forma de anillo muy conocidos y apreciados en Perú y Chile.
Although its name may make it seem like we're dealing with a spicy speciality, picarones are ring-shaped sweets that are well-known and appreciated in Peru and Chile.
Anticuchos
If we are talking about emblematic Peruvian dishes, we cannot forget anticuchos, something that everyone who visits Lima should try. They can be found in both high-end and more popular restaurants, and of course, at food carts on the corner of many neighborhoods. Below is a video from Enlace Nacional [es] (National Link) about doña Pascuala's anticuchos:
The famous Tía Grimanesa [es] is famous when it comes to anticuchos. In the following video from YouTube user orquestaericarteta [es], we see the interaction between a Peruvian living in New York during a visit to Tía Grima:
The famed reputation of these anticuchos is not in vain, despite what one may think at first impression. It is a well-known secret that the best anticuchos are those directly from the cart. This may be due to how quickly the anticucho goes from the grill to the client's mouth or the effort put into the seasoning and preparation of the dish. What's clear is that if someone wants to try the best anticuchos in Lima, they will find them in the street, not in a restaurant.
Peruchito, writing under the same name, gives us an anticucho recipe and also adds [es]:
Para un peruchito no es extraño hablar de anticuchos. Nos referimos a ese anticucho de corazón de res y su delicioso sabor producto de su preparación al carbón vegetal. Ya sabemos que en nuestra jerga criolla anticucho también se le dice al más veterano del barrio o quizá a alguna “arruga” de antaño que se tenga que resolver, pero esta vez, hablemos de ese delicioso manjar peruano. El que encontramos, por ejemplo, al llegar a la esquina de la tía Grimanesa Vargas y se sirve bien preparado con su aroma a choclos recién sancochados y papa con ají que hace la delicia de todo buen peruano.
For a peruchito, it's not strange to talk about anticuchos. We're referring to that skewered heart of beef and its delicious flavor thanks to its preparation with charcoal. We already know that in our Peruvian slang anticucho is used to refer to the veteran of the neighborhood or perhaps to some “wrinkle” of yesteryear that must be resolved, but this time let's talk about the flavorful Peruvian delicacy. What we find, for example, upon arriving at Tía Grimanesa Vargas’ corner, well-prepared and served with the aroma of recently roasted corn on the cob and potatoes with chili is what makes the delight of all good things Peruvian.
As one can see through the story of these two anticucheras (cooks that make anticuchos), the preparation of food has not only been a way to make a living, but also a vehicle for economic and social progress and even a means to be recognized within the community.
Caldo de gallina (Chicken Soup)
But returning to the culinary matter at hand, we cannot finish this journey through the street foods of Lima without the celebrated caldo de gallina, a specialty that is usually eaten at night well and into the morning, even when day has already started for those who leave from work at dawn or those returning from some party.
The following video uploaded by YouTube user ytaperu [es] is a report about caldo de gallina in Lima prepared by University San Martín de Porras students:
In another video, YouTube user EdwinTarazonaNews [es] presents what he considers the best caldo de gallina:
There are numerous [es] recipes [es] and varieties [es] of caldo de gallina. In one his entries on the blog Perú Gourmand, Fernando Cataño offers some information on the history of this dish and where the best caldos de gallina can be found in Lima. He also explains [es] the reason for its fame:
Convertido ya en un clásico, el Caldo de gallina se ha convertido, acentuadamente en los últimos 20 años, en un platillo obligado a la hora de resurgir espíritus combativos y preparar nuevos ímpetus a las luchas por emprender, sean éstas de cualquier índole, desde las más atrevidas estrategias de seducción y embate sexual hasta las más nostálgicas representaciones de una adolescencia que se fue para no volver más.
Already a classic, in the last 20 years caldo de gallina has been converted into an obligatory dish during resurgence of combative spirits and new impetus to undertake struggle, whether these moments are the most daring strategies of seduction and sexual attack or the most nostalgic representations of an adolescence now gone never to return.
There are many dishes not included in this summary, such as papa rellena (stuffed potato), empanadas, the popular fried liver with yucas, cebiche al paso (ceviche on the go), rachi and pancita (varieties of tripe) usually sold by anticucheras, corn on the cob with cheese, emoliente (a Peruvian herbal drink), and much more. However, the diversity of Peruvian gastronomy cannot be limited to one post, and more than reading or viewing, the best way to experience and enjoy Peruvian food is with the palate.

author: Juan Arellano


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Russia: Forecasts for the Protest Movement’s Elections · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

This post is part of our special coverage Russia's Protest Movement.
In 35 days, the Russian protest movement will jettison its most spectacular and schismatic trait: its spontaneity. On October 20, the new “Central Elections Committee” headed by Leonid Volkov will hold two-day elections to select forty-five individuals to form the first “Coordinating Council of the Russian Opposition.” When this process is complete, the protest movement will have a representative body for the first time, providing a powerful, if somewhat controversial, institution that at last formalizes opposition leaders’ legitimacy in Russian politics.
Today marks the deadline [ru] for candidate-registration, though Volkov has indicated [ru] that the Committee is working through a backlog that might add another fifty people to the current total. At any rate, we can now study the list of candidates [ru] and begin to draw some conclusions about the group's makeup, as well as forecast who is likeliest to win a seat in the Council.
The design
First, let's briefly review the structure of the election, so we can understand what is at stake. Voting is planned to take place both online and at physical ballot installations across Russia. (Commentators usually describe it as an online election, probably because the bulk of participation is expected to occur through the Internet.) At this moment, 142 individuals have registered for a total of 45 Council seats. Not all candidates are in direct competition, however.
The Coordinating Council has four internal divisions: General Civil, Leftist, Liberal, and Nationalist. The first wing holds thirty seats, and the “ideological courts” hold another five each. 116 people are currently registered in the General Civil category; 6 are registered for the Leftists; 11 for the Liberals; and 9 for the Nationalists. Put another way, each General Civil candidate has a 26% chance of victory, each Leftist an 83% chance; each Liberal a 45% chance; and each Nationalist a 56% chance. (Until earlier today, there were actually only five Leftist candidates registered in total, meaning that they were effectively running unopposed.)
Oddities and curiosities
Before moving onto our core quantitative analysis, it's worth highlighting a few anomalies in the registration results. The most obvious inconsistency is that only Nationalists appear to have registered their highest profile representatives in the “ideological” category. Konstantin Krylov, Vladimir Tor, and Aleksandr Belov are a few of the biggest names in Russian nationalism, and you'll find them all competing for Nationalist seats on the Coordinating Council.
Writers and novelists lead unsanctioned march in Moscow. May 13, 2012, by Maria Pleshkova, copyright © Demotix.
The Liberal field is only slightly more competitive, but the creed's best known figures are largely absent. Alexey Navalny, Ilya Yashin, Boris Nemtsov, and others are all listed in the General Civil race. The most surprising registration belongs to Sergei Udaltsov, a radical Stalinist, who dodged the Leftist category and also registered to compete for a General Civil seat. The same is true of leftists Oleg Shein, Anastasia Khrustalnaia, and others.
Given the registration patterns, candidates must realize the relative ease of winning an ideological seat. If that can be assumed, it seems that most high-profile oppositionists (other than the nationalists) have consciously opted for the tougher competition in the General Civil category. The reasons for this are likely twofold: (1) winning a seat in the more competitive race bestows greater legitimacy, and (2) there is a general stigma to the ideological wings that ambitious “uniters” have tried to avoid. (Navalny, for example, condemned [ru] separate ideological columns in the February march at Bolotnaia Square, earlier this year.)
It is also worth noting that the candidates are overwhelmingly male. In fact, just 13% of the people running for seats in the Council are women. Among the ideological wings, that figure drops to 8%. (All nine of the registered Nationalists are men.) While there has always been a gender imbalance in the protest movement, the Council's candidates represent a new level of disparity. In February 2012, for instance, the Levada Center determined [ru] that women made up at least 35-40% of last winter's street demonstrations.
Putting it to the test
Many of the people commonly considered to be leaders of the protest movement are extremely popular bloggers. Most of these netizens write on LiveJournal, though there is an increasing use of Twitter and Facebook. Observers have long asked the question: can blogging translate into genuine political prominence?
The coming Coordinating Council election presents a unique opportunity to test that concept.
To that end, Global Voices has compiled a list of all persons currently registered for the election and ranked them according to “blog authority.” The ranking metric we used belongs to Yandex, which describes its methodology as follows [ru]:
Рейтинг блогов рунета — это способ узнать о самых популярных и авторитетных блоггерах русскоязычной блогосферы. Рейтинг составлен на основе авторитетности – интегрального показателя, основанного на данных о том, как часто другие блоггеры ссылаются на рассматриваемый блог, кто именно ссылается, с учётом количества комментариев в блоге, количества известных нам читателей блога, а также других данных о блоге и его положении в блогосфере.
RuNet Blog Ratings is a tool to discover the most popular and authoritative bloggers of the Russian-language blogosphere. The rating is based on authoritativeness: an aggregated measure of data reflecting how often other bloggers link to the blog in question, and who exactly is doing the linking, in addition to the number of comments a blog receives, the number of readers we can identify, and other information about the blog and its stature in the blogosphere.
Before reviewing our findings, it is important to note that Yandex apparently fails to index Facebook in its ratings, meaning that certain candidates appear to be virtual unknowns, though they might actually have many subscribers on the world's largest social network. The individual who certainly falls into this loophole is Olga Romanova, who is extremely active [ru] on Facebook and is probably a shoe-in to win a seat in the Coordinating Council. (In the last year, Romanova has also played a crucial role in the opposition's fundraising efforts.)
That said, our research is still instructive. Having reviewed all the candidates, we believe that the absence of Facebook indexing is a noteworthy but not catastrophic shortcoming of our data.
What follows are the results of our study:
General Civil Category
Leftist Category
Liberal Category
Nationalist Category
This post is part of our special coverage Russia's Protest Movement.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Syria: Reflections from the Balkans · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Macedonian non-profit outlet Diversity Media published an article/podcast [mk, sq] about the Balkan states’ reactions to the situation in Syria, featuring a statement by GV Author Ruslan Trad (among others, including the Macedonian politician Stojan Andov [en, mk], who served as the Yugoslav Ambassador to Iraq in 1987-1991).
According to the article, while Serbia arranged a special flight to evacuate its citizens, Borche Stamov, the spokesman of the Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, when asked about his compatriots, just stated: “Most of the foreigners already left Syria, so probably the Macedonians are among them.”

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Thailand: Mobile App for Traffic Reports · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Thailand's National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre has released a mobile application called FM91BKK which helps users to access specific traffic reports in their areas.


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Ukraine: “Ashes of Freedom of Speech” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A few hundred people gathered [uk] at Kyiv's Independence Square on September 16, 2012, to honor the memory of Georgiy Gongadze, a Ukrainian journalist who disappeared on this day 12 years ago, and also more than 60 other journalists who have lost their lives in the years since Ukraine gained independence in 1991.
The participants of the memorial rally lit candles and stood around white paper boxes that had the names of the dead journalists written on them, as well as the words “honor,” “honesty,” “truth,” and “freedom of speech” (photo [uk] by Andriy Balan/@Andriy7MU).
Later, they set the boxes on fire (photo [uk] by Andriy Balan/@Andriy7MU), and also burned posters [uk] with portraits of the ex-President Leonid Kuchma and his former aide, Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, who are believed to have played a crucial role in Gongadze's disappearance.
Georgiy Gongadze memorial rally of 2011. Photo by Veronica Khokhlova.
Leaving behind the symbolic “ashes of freedom of speech,” the people then marched uphill from Independence Square to the Presidential Administration compound, to demand a proper investigation of Gongadze's disappearance case.
User Anton Hurin (@AntonHurin) tweeted [uk]:
It's been 12 years, and the real guilty ones haven't been punished. Moreover, some of them are still around at the political arena. […]
A Kyiv residents’ online community @Kyi_Net tweeted [uk]:
[…] The initial agreement was [to march] without any slogans, but people are chanting [along the way]: “Kuchma – to jail!”, “Freedom – to speech!”, “Out with the gang!” […]
Olha Perekhrest (LJ user olli_grafomanka) posted photos from the memorial rally on her blog and wrote [uk]:
[…] It's the evening when one is thinking, “God forbid that my friends become political journalists.”
The names of those who had died were read. [Was found] hung, burnt alive, traces of injections on the body, a [contract killing], knife wounds, head wounds… People should not be dying because they are doing their job well. People should not be dying because of their profession.
We lit candles. Put flowers to the ashes of the freedom of speech. A minute of silence. But silence hung over Maidan [Independence Square] anyway. Only the metallic noises from the dismantling of the stage where a concert was held yesterday. Life went on outside the circle of the people [who came to the rally]. Some approached, asking what was going on. Some stayed. The names and faces were being burnt. And this cold metallic sound…
Freedom of speech the Ukrainian way – to come and yell at the wall.
But it's worth it to come and yell. At least to be able to hear yourself.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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A QQ Conversation on the China-Japan Island Dispute · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Xujun Eberlein from Inside out China translated a QQ conversation on the China-Japan Island dispute to help the outside world understand how ordinary people felt about the conflict.


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Bangladesh: A Voice for the Challenged · Global Voices
Rezwan

Amader Kotha features the exemplary works of the award winning blogger Sabrina Sultana who is using blogs and other social media tools to improve the condition of the physically challenged in Bangladesh.

author: Rezwan


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Bulgaria: Sofia, “Past&Present” · Global Voices
Ruslan Trad

Sofia: Past&Present. Image by Aleksander Nikolov, used with permission.
To celebrate the Day of the Bulgarian capital Sofia on Sept. 17, Alexander Nikolov posted a photo project called Past&Present. Each photo in this project combines an old and a new image of selected locations in the city.

author: Ruslan Trad


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China: Protesters Arrested for Human Rights Banner at Anti-Japan Rally · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

More and more believe that the weekend anti-Japan protests in more than 80 cities are state sponsored. The arrest of three protesters in Shenzhen who were peacefully demonstrating in the middle of thousands of anti-Japanese protesters yesterday demonstrates how the police officers were effectively and selectively controlling and managing the protests.
According to citizen rights NGO news website, canyu.org [zh], three human rights activists were arrested in September 16, 2012, during the anti-Japan protest:
（参与2012年9月16日讯）今天上午，反日游行在深圳繁华街道华强北、市民中心等许多地方如火如荼进行，深圳民主人士姜卫东、子元等人按耐不住追求自由、民主、人权和平等的急迫心情，也跟着游行队伍打出自由、民主、人权、宪政等横幅，结果被便衣国保发现，于中午一点左右被抓捕，至今仍无任何消息，电话一直打不通。
敬请外界紧急关注！联系电话：15167233712
(Canyu's news brief on 16 September 2012) This morning, the grand anti-Japan rally took place in the Shenzhen downtown area, around Huaqiang North and Citizen Center. Shenzhen democrats such as Jiang Weidong, Ziyuan, took the chance to express their aspiration for freedom, democracy and human rights. They joined the rally, holding a banner with words: Freedom, Democracy, Human Rights and Constitutional Rule. They were discovered by undercover security police and arrested at around 1 p.m. They have been out of contact since then. Their phones are disconnected.
Please pay attention to this! Our contact phone number is 15167233712
Three Shenzhen citizen rights activists are protesting for democracy in the anti-Japan rally. They were quickly arrested by undercover police. Photos from canyu.com
The above piece of information somehow echoes with C Custer's observations about the police's role in the anti-Japan protest:
Like many people around the world, I’ve spent some of the past few days looking at photos and reports about the escalating anti-Japan protests in China. There is an excellent collection of them here for those that are interested… for anyone who has been to a protest in China before, your second inclination is going to be to say this: where are all the fucking cops?…
Now, let’s compare that to photos from the Beijing “Jasmine revolution” protest, an incident so small that it not only didn’t have any car-flipping, burning, or rioting, it didn’t even have any protesters. There was an army of police there…
[…] The evidence that China is turning a blind eye to these protests is overwhelming. The absence of China’s police forces is glaringly obvious, especially in contrast to the vast numbers that turn up and start jumping in front of lenses and smashing cameras whenever a protest China’s government doesn’t like is scheduled to take place. China has clearly shown it is more than capable of keeping anti-Japan protests under control if it wants to. The obvious conclusion now — the only conclusion now — is that it doesn’t want to.


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Ethiopia: Remembering Jailed Dissident Blogger Eskinder Nega · Global Voices
Endalkachew Chala

On 13 July, 2012, Ethiopia's federal court sentenced a prominent Ethiopian blogger Eskinder Nega and 23 other opposition activists to 18 years in jail for allegedly participating in terrorist activities.
Eskinder Nega is a journalist, who turned to blogging to find a breathing space online for his dissenting views, has been in a prison for a year now. 14 September, 2012 marks the first anniversary of his arrest. The Ethiopian online community remembers him on Facebook:
Mesfin Negash writes:
One year since journalist Eskinder Nega arrested in front of his son. We mark the day demanding the release of Journalists and other prisoners of conscience in Ethiopia. Light a candle wherever you may be today. We want Eskinder and others FREE!
Ethiopian jailed blogger and journalist Eskinder Nega. Photo courtesy of FreeEskinderNega.com
Jawar Mohammed shares Qale'ab Tadesse Che Jr.’s note which was written by Serkalem Fasil, the wife of Eskidner Nega, and demands that the Ethiopian government free all political prisoners:
It is one year today since Eskinder Nega was thrown to jail , he was then falsely charged with terrorism and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment.
According to the note below by his wife and fellow journalist Serkalem Fasil, when he was a
rrested, Eskinder was bringing their 6 year old child from school. The police stopped him on his way and would not even let him bring the kid home. They violently split the boy from his father. What was strange was that they ( police) kept video tapping and taking pictures as the boy was crawling on the ground and crying watching his father who was being thrown around and hand cuffed. None of them tried to comfort the terrified baby.
Since then all the young child could to talk is police. He repeats how the police took his father.He is scared that they would come any time. He is terrified of them.
Serkalem asks, “now tell me who is the terrorist?”
She says she is worried more about the psychological impact this had on her young son than incarceration of Eskendir, because unlike the child, the father was prepared and knew this was coming. She says every every time he leave the house, Eskinder used to say goodbye to them because he suspects he might be snatched away before returning home in the evening.
Free Eskinder Nega and the rest of the over 30,000 political prisoners languishing in the various Ethiopian jails.
Meanwhile, Facebook users created a Facebook group which says “iCare” with all members of the group making their Facebook profile pictures with an Ethiopian flag with a note on it which reads “I care!”:
Nebiyu Hailu one of the members of the group writes:
Every single day [especially 14 of September] shows me that Meles Zenawi was monster, evil, cruel dictator. Thanks God I’ll never see Meles again. But this good-for-nothing Epdrf guys must free up Eskinder Nega, Andualem Arage & other political prisoners. I really care! we need freedom. After all we live in a big prison.
Zone Nine, a blog which is a host of nine young Ethiopian bloggers, reports the online event and demands the release of all political prisoners [amh]:
ኢትዮጵያውያን የፌስቡክ ተጠቃሚዎች የረጅም ጊዜ ጦማሪውና የነፃነት ተሟጋቹ እስክንድር ነጋ ወደ እስር ቤት የገባበትን አንደኛ ዓመት የፕሮፋይል ፎቶዋቸውን (በዚህ ምስል) በመቀየር እያስታወሱት ነው፡፡ ዞን ዘጠኝ እንደ የሕዝብ ውይይት እና የነፃነት ደጋፊነቷ እስክንድር ነጋንና ሁሉንም የሕሊና እስረኞች መንግስት እንዲፈታ ትጠይቃለች፡፡
The one year anniversary of the incarceration of Eskinder Nega is being marked by Ethiopians on Facebook! Ethiopians are changing their profile pictures with an Ethiopian flag with a message on it! As a group of bloggers who firmly believe in free press and free discussion we demand to the Ethiopian government to free Eskinder Nega and all political prisoners!
The Ethiopian government has increased its online censorship activities since September 2011. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), since 2011 the Ethiopian government has convicted 11 independent journalists and bloggers under a sweeping anti-terrorism law. Among those jailed are two Swedish journalists who are serving an 11 year prison term for allegedly supporting an ethnic Somali rebel group.
Eskinder Nega is the winner of Pen America's PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award for his endeavor for freedom of expression in an extremely inhospitable media landscape.

author: Endalkachew Chala


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Free Money Day Hits the Streets · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

Free Money Day, an annual event on September 15 to promote sharing economies. Photo by @Donmacca on Flickr (CC-BY-2.0)
Citizens from 24 countries handed strangers free money on September 15, 2012, in order to raise awareness about the benefits of economies based on sharing. The annual Free Money Day is an initiative of PostGrowth, an international network committed to creating global prosperity without economic growth.
Here is a Free Money Day video from 2011:

author: Solana Larsen


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Greece: Poster Response to Unemployment Crisis · Global Voices
Veroniki Bacharidi-Krikoni

“Unemployment”. Photograph by Absent.
In blog post entitled ‘Cirque de Grece’ (Greek Circus), Kostas Kallergis shares an Athens poster mocking the Greek Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, which is inspired by a poster for Cirque de Soleil's ‘Alegria‘ show.
In the poster, ‘Anergia’ rhymes with ‘Alegria’ and means ‘unemployment’ in Greek. Unemployment in Greece reached 23.6% [el] during the second quarter of 2012, according to ELSTAT figures.

author: Veroniki Bacharidi-Krikoni


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Kenyans Rally to Help Destitute Former Female Champion Boxer  · Global Voices
Richard Wanjohi

On 3 September 2012, Kenyan television station Kiss TV broadcast a moving interview with former female professional boxer Conjestina Achieng, who made a name for Kenyan boxing across the continent. Achieng is currently destitute and suffering from mental illness.
The former boxing champ has like many former sports personalities, seen the authorities turn their back on her even after she made a name for the country with her impressive achievements.
She won the GBU (Global Boxing Union) Middleweight title in 2004 after knocking out Fiona Tugume of Uganda. In 2005, she again won the WIBF (Women's International Boxing Federation) middleweight crown by knocking out Guillermina Hernandez of Argentina. She also did contested for the middleweight division in the WBU (World Boxing Association).
Following this story, there was a great outpouring of emotions, comments and views from Kenyans online. On Twitter, under the hashtag #KOT4Conje (KenyansOnTwitter for Conjestina) netizens made a passionate appeal to fans to raise money for her medical and other expenses.
Here are samples of the responses:
@EADestination: Three cheers to the Kenyan public supporting our national boxing heroine! #KOT4Conje on.fb.me/RHYXRH
@kiokoj_Official: We are sinners if we can treat our sports men and women like this! #KOT4CONJE
@ZawadiN: The media coverage of #ConjestinaAchieng is still disturbing. Can't the story be told while protecting her privacy? #KOT4CONJE
@iammutukufred: #WhatsMoreImportantThanVPResidence #KOT4CONJE ! [referring to the new residence built for Kenya's vice president which cost the taxpayer figures in the region of KSh. 400 million]
‘Conjestina Achieng Will Rise Again’
Conjestina Achieng in practice – Image courtesy of Empoweringladychitchat.blogspot.com
There were also a couple of bloggers who found time to write something regarding this unfortunate state of affairs. NairobiOne stated this in their post, ‘Conjestina Achieng Will Rise Again':
Konvigilante also had this to say about Conjestina's state:
The Pride of Kenya who set the stage for all Kenyan female boxers, Conjestina Achieng’ has recently emerged from oblivion and dominated the social sites. This time not to re-live her glory days as Kenya’s female boxer ranked 5th in the world but to depict the misfortune that befell her along the way.
It seems that life has gone sour for our once ”Hands of Stone” champion. She is now claimed to have gone mad and is now forced to live in deplorable conditions in a one roomed house on the outskirts of Nairobi despite having the opportunity to brush shoulders with the mighty like Laila Ali (Mohammed Ali’s daughter).
SportsKenya's blog post asked about other sports personalities who may be suffering from conditions such as Conjestina's or worse:
A section of mainstream media yesterday showed us the deplorable state that one of Kenya's better known female boxers Conjestina Achieng is living in. Last year she was checked into a mental facility after her sister managed to get the media to highlight her plight and was released though it has been claimed she's still on the verge of ruin from substance abuse and depression.
We share our concerns and hope that Conjestina's condition improves. But of greater concern is what happens to many other former sports personalities. From former footballers to former athletes and boxers we have seen the sorry state that most of them have ended up in. Abuse of alcohol, cases of depression as well as abandonment from their handlers are some of the issues they suffer from.
In a country where social services are still very deficient especially for the middle-aged and the ageing, the Government has not helped matters too by having not much in structures to look into such issues. It's even worse for sports personalities who have to look at their respective sports federations and organisations most of which still struggle to manage daily affairs let alone the very sports people they ought to think of.
Brandlyf asked this on its blog, Who is a True Kenyan?
Journalism Dry Cleaner a blog by a former journalist, admonished the mainstream media for a poor job in covering the story:
Sitawa Wafula in her blog raises serious concerns about mental illness in Kenya and how Conjestina still remains her hero despite her state:
She also summarises her post appropriately as follows:
On Thursday, 13 September, prominent Kenyan personalities came together via a tweet-up ( informal meet-up) to raise funds for the boxer and her family. Using the Twitter hash-tag #PamojaConje and now with a Twitter handle @PamojaConje, the personalities were able to raise over 100,000 Kenyan Shillings (about US$ 1,200) on the first night.
In light of this issue, many Kenyans have asked the Kenyan Government to put in place structures that would ensure retired sports personalities do not suffer in their retirement. A proposed Sports Bill has been in the offing to finance such developments but whether it will be enacted into law before the end of the year is another thing.
As for now, the retired sports personalities will have to rely on the ingenuity and generosity of the Kenyan public.

author: Richard Wanjohi


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Portugal: Massive Protest Against Troika Sparks Momentum · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

[All links in Portuguese except when otherwise noted]
This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis
Since the period that followed the end of dictatorship in Portugal in 1974, there hasn't been such wide participation in a protest [en] as September 15's massive anti-austerity mobilization ‘Screw the troika! We want our lives‘ (Que se lixe a troika! Queremos as nossas vidas) [en].
Between 660,000 and 1 million people of all ages took to the streets in more than 40 cities throughout the country and abroad, booing the government, the troika [of inspectors from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund], the inequity, the growing unemployment and impoverishment and the lack of justice and opportunities for all.
Social networks have been abuzz, with the hashtags #15sPT and #QueSeLixeATroika still being used on Twitter. The blog O que diz a rua (What the street says) gathers a vast set of crowdsourced photos and videos of the protests that are used to illustrate this post.
The challenge is the day after
The figures show how an increasing proportion of the population of this country of roughly 10 million is discontented with the measures imposed by the government and the troika to address the public debt. On September 7, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho had announced more austerity measures to be implemented in 2013, which will visibly worsen the impact of debt in the pockets and accounts of both public and private workers.
Photo by Pedro Antunes shared on the blog “O que diz a rua”. Castelo Branco, 15/09/2012
Whereas the scale of the protests is a sound and clear sign that people reject those measures, the coming weeks are expected to bring more developments in the political arena, with President Cavaco Silva having called a State Council meeting next Friday, September 21, while the state budget for 2013 is expected to be voted on in parliament on October 15.
Photo by Teresa Valente shared on the blog “O que diz a rua”. Coimbra, 15/09/2012
Meanwhile, citizens are using their blogs to reflect on the momentum that the protests have brought, and writing about possible paths for strengthening citizenship.
Photo by 35mm (Luís Afonso) shared on the blog “O que diz a rua”. Lisbon, 15/09/2012
“Instead of complaining about politics, it is time for us to do it”, writes journalist Daniel Oliveira, on his blog for Expresso newspaper:
só é possível derrotar a austeridade com propostas alternativas credíveis. (…) a convergência dos que se opõem à austeridade não se faz com apelos, faz-se com a demonstração prática de que há mais coisas que os unem do que as que os separam.
it is only possible to defeat austerity with credible alternative proposals. (…) the convergence of those who are opposed to austerity should not be accomplished with calls, but with the practical demonstration that there are more things which unite them rather than separate them.
Photo by Vanessa Vedor shared on the blog “O que diz a rua”. Lisbon, 15/09/2012
Looking for inspiration on how citizens have “intervened in society and started demanding more democratic participation” following the economic crisis in Iceland in 2008, groups are organizing screenings of a recently launched documentary Pots, Pans and Other Solutions (Global Voices reported on the preparation of the documentary in September 2011, Portuguese ask Icelanders about democracy):
The payment of bank debts by citizens went to referendum. The government was forced to create a Council to write a new constitution: a citizens’ group – without politicians, lawyers or university professors – who opened the discussion process to everybody and managed to approve by consensus a draft proposal.
In Iceland, many citizens are now organized in associations and have substantial proposals for a society where everyone can participate.
Professor Heitor Alvelos from the University of Porto, believes that the real “challenge is the next day”. He argues that “the demand of a new country involves the reinvention of the paradigms of social relations”, and writes about lessons learned from the aftermath of March 12's Scrapping-by Generation [en] protests, saying that one should neither “start making proposals” nor “organizing movements”:
O início de uma mudança efectiva deveria partir tão simplesmente de um convite para que todos passassem a sair à rua -todos- os Sábados, sem agenda, tão somente para re-inventar o espaço público (geográfico, social e afectivo) de forma intuitiva e generativa, infinitamente múltipla. Falando com estranhos, ampliando o micro-debate, descobrindo semelhanças, diferenças, pontes, barreiras, contrastes e conciliações. Cuidando a longo prazo de um tecido social vivo, activo, auto-regenerador.
The beginning of an effective change should start as simply as from an invitation for everyone to start going to the streets -every- Saturday, without an agenda, only to re-invent the public space (geographical, social and affective) in an intuitive and generative way, infinitely multiple. Talking with strangers, amplifying micro-debate, finding similarities, differences, bridges, obstacles, contrasts and conciliation. Nurturing in the long term a living, active, self-regenerating social tissue.
“They've reduced me to this. What should I do?” Photo by Paulino Coelho (@cita_57) on the blog “O que diz a rua”. Porto, 15/09/2012
Whatever comes out of this, the Portuguese did demonstrate they CAN STAND UP!
The above celebration [en] comes from the other side of the world, New Zealand, where Rita Bento Allpress, a PhD researcher and one of the more than one hundred thousand Portuguese people who leave the country every year, followed the protests from early Sunday morning via Twitter.
Meanwhile more protests and actions are scheduled for the next days and weeks, and many are being organized on Facebook, as an article on P3 informs.
This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

author: Sara Moreira


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Russia: Reading Genius into Putin’s Blunders · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

One of the more striking things about Vladimir Putin, aside from his affinity for displays of machismo, is the degree of nuanced multidimensional-chess-like strategic planning attributed to him and his team by both opponents and supporters.
Take the Pussy Riot case. One of the common tropes is that Putin lost face and international prestige during the trial, perhaps bowing to pressure from the Orthodox Church to the detriment of his own reputation. Several well known opposition intellectuals have advanced a different theory, however, explaining the harsh verdict and resulting public outcry as a singular coup for Putin.
Vladimir Putin at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos, 28 January 2009, photo by Remy Steinegger, CC BY-SA 2.0.
In his blog, Other Russia leader Eduard Limonov speculated that prosecuting Pussy Riot and concentrating public attention on the case actually allowed Putin to further fracture the opposition movement. According to him [ru]:
[Pussy Riot] принесли исключительно вред, — разделили общество, взвинтили страсти, отвлекли гражданское общество от борьбы с властью, разделили его и вовлекли две разделенные части в борьбу друг с другом. […] Светское общество может и консолидировалось, но традиционный народ попроще опять оттолкнули истерикой […] В конечном итоге выиграла все-таки власть.
[Pussy Riot] exclusively caused harm — divided society, incited passions, distracted civil society from the fight with the government, split it in two, and got the two sides to fight each other. […] The secular part of society was perhaps consolidated, but we repelled the traditional, simpler people once again with hysteria […] In the end, the government won.
Vladimir Milov, leader of DemVybor, another opposition party, aired a similar opinion [ru] in his blog:
Чем жестче власть обращается с Pussy [Riot], тем сильнее визжит и беснуется интеллигенция и “креативный класс”, проклинает церковь, обзывает последними словами всех православных подряд. […] Тем больше поводов для власти сказать засомневавшимся избирателям: видите, ребята, на смену нам хотят прийти безбожники, ненавидящие православие, у которых главные герои и кумиры – срамные девки, сплясавшие в храме. […] Рядовой избиратель посмотрит на такое и скажет: ой, нет, не надо нам таких икон и действующих лиц, лучше уж мы по старому. Кто бы ни был инициатором этой “идеальной провокации” в храме, власть ее эксплуатирует в свою пользу на 150% […] заставляет соперника делать невыгодные для него шаги.
The harsher the government treats Pussy [Riot], the more the intelligentsia and the “creative class” scream and rage, cursing the Church, using unpleasant epithets for all of the Orthodox. […] All the more reason for the government to tell the doubting voters: see, guys, those who want to replace us are godless haters of Orthodox Christianity. Their main heroes and idols are shameless girls, who danced in the temple. […] The average voter will look at this and say, “Oh, no, we do not need such icons and characters. Better to stick with what we've got.” No matter who thought up this “ideal provocation” in the temple, the government exploits 150% of it in its favor […], and causes its opponent to take unfavorable steps.
Lyudmila Alexeeva, the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group (who recently picked up blogging again after a year long hiatus), also seems to think [ru] that the show trial was meant to distract:
У меня стойкое впечатление, что история с «Пусси Райот» вызвала огромный отклик в самых разных СМИ не только потому, что многие (и я в том числе) были действительно возмущены преследованием этих девушек, но на общественное возмущение наложилось и сознательное раздувание ажиотажа вокруг этого дела сверху. Для чего? Для того, чтобы мы поменьше думали о судьбе арестованных участников митинга 6 мая. А ведь этот готовящийся судебный процесс будет неизмерим по масштабам с судилищем над девочками из «Пусси Райот».
I have a strong impression that the “Pussy Riot” story provoked a huge response in a variety of media, not only because many people (myself included) were angred by the persecution of the girls, but together with public outrage there was a deliberate fanning of the hype which came from up high. What for? In order to get us to think less about the fate of the arrested protesters from the May 6 protest. This coming trial will be immeasurable in scope compared to the judgment of the girls from “Pussy Riot.”
Masha Gessen at the Personal Democracy Forum, New York City, 12 June 2012, photo by Sandira, CC BY-SA 2.0.
In a similar vein, journalists argue whether or not Putin's recent conversation with Masha Gessen, the former editor of a geographic journal and an LGBT activist, was all part of some masterful public relations campaign. Gessen refused to cover Putin’s flight with the cranes, and was later fired by the journal owner, presumably for this offense. Later Putin invited her to a private meeting, which Gessen later described in a newspaper article [ru]. That piece, while ostensibly anti-Putin, also managed in part to portray him in a positive light as a statesman that cares about ecology, seeks compromise, and is not afraid to seem a little foolish.
Journalist Alexander Timofeevsky believes that Gessen's article was provoked intentionally. Because she is so predictable, he argues, Gessen could be relied upon to react as she did, walking straight into a trap [ru]:
[Она] наорала по телефону на Путина, потом пришла на встречу походкою альфа-самца, потом написала про это текст, очевидно, прямой и честный, словом, проследовала по направлению, проложенному ей Администрацией: ать-два. […] Они ждали этого текста. И дождались его.
[She] yelled at Putin over the phone, came to the meeting strutting like an alpha-male, and then wrote up the story in what is obviously a straight-laced and honest account. In a word, she walked the line drawn for her by the Administration: hup, two! […] They were waiting for this text. And it did not disappoint them.
Whether or not Vladimir Putin and his staff are indeed masterminds remains a mystery. Perhaps it is pleasant to think that the actions of the Russian government — as inept as they often seem — are all part of some larger, capable plan. Though many may disagree with that plan, this grand vision clearly holds allure even for Putin's most outspoken critics.

author: Andrey Tselikov


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Serbia: Gastarbeiters’ Houses · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Nothing Against Serbia posts photos of the migrant workers’ houses in Eastern Serbia and explains the “Gastarbajterske Kuće” phenomenon:
[…] the effort to make money in the West (under arduous circumstances) has to be showed off back home as a reward for the hassle! […] The houses itself are made with expensive materials and fittings, the land where they stay is usually worth just a couple of dinars. The biggest part of them are occupied only for a month during the summer. […]