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Cameroon: Video Shows Harsh Conditions of Rural Medicine  · Global Voices
Jennifer Brea

In 2000, the World Health Organization ranked Cameroon's health care system 163rd in the world.  That's somewhere below Mauritania and just above North Korea.   As in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, doctors in Cameroon work without adequate training or equipment–a fact that in itself is not surprising, but is made disturbingly real by four young Americans who shot this amateur video (WARNING: contains nudity and graphic images) of surgery in a rural hospital in Cameroon.  The video shows doctors who are seemingly indifferent to basic hygiene or their patients’ dignity, let alone the desperate groans of one woman whose anesthesia begins wearing off in the middle of the operation.
Recently posted on 20mai.net, a Camerounian citizen media site, the video provoked a heated discussion.  The filmmakers’ ostensible goal was to portray the harsh reality of health care in Cameroon.  Some applauded the makers of the clip for documenting the deplorable and dangerous conditions in which these doctors work.  Others wondered if this video was little more than a piece of “voyeurism,” put online to entertain whites.
One reader calls GRISSOM, a medical doctor from Cameroon, describes his reaction:
Je suis médecin, alors ce genre d’images me choquent-elles ? Oui et non… oui parce qu’évidemment les conditions dans lesquelles se déroulent l’opération (hygienne, salubrité, aseptie déplorable « en plein air» , anesthésie déficiente, salle non sécurisée, la liste est longue) ne peuvent que heurter la conscience professionnelle qui sommeille en moi, mais de l’autre, non je ne suis plus choqué parce que cette réalité là dans nos campagnes il y a bien lurette que ça existe…
Pourquoi on en est arrivé là ? C’est la conséquence de nos maux, de nos tares collectives. Manque d’anesthésistes (pénurie criarde) comme dans bien d’autres spécialités médicales, c’est pas nouveau. Je connais plusieurs anesthésistes camerounais formés en Afrique de l’Ouest qui jamais ne rentreront au pays (comme bien d’autres médecins). Pourquoi ? C’est pas à moi d’y répondre, je ne décide de rien depuis les sphères de ceux qui ont pris le pays en main comme leur prorpiétés. Ces même personnes dont le sport favori est le détournement des fonds à échelle hierarchisée (mes collegues sortis du CUSS ayant fait leur stage intégré dans le Cameroun profond savent de quoi ej parle) et qui s’appuie sur un peuple insouciant pour qui consommer la bière chaque soir en voyant Eto’o marquer (ou rater) des buts avec une belle wolowoss à côté d’eux suffit pour être heureux et ne plus se soucier du reste.
Many placed the lion's share of the blame on the country's elites.
…je pense que tout etre humain a le droit de naitre et de mourir dans la dignite.chers gouvernants arretez de nous bourrer les oreilles avec le SIDA et autres inepties.regardez dans quelles conditions travaillent des personnes qui ont choisi de sauver des vies pendant que vous empilez milliards sur milliards sous vos lits et dans vos comptes en banque…
honte,honte,honte a vous…
…I think that every human being has the right to be born and to die with dignity.  dear leaders, stop stuffing our ears with AIDS and other nonsense.  look at the condition in which the people who have chosen to save lives work while you pile millions and millions under your beds and in your bank accounts.
shame, shame, shame on you…
charles nguingock writes:
je ne suis pas vraiment surpris puisque nos élites se font soigner en Europe et aux Etats-Unis il ya de quoi négliger le peuple CAMEROUNAIS.Que DIEU leur pardonne.
I'm not really surprised; since our elites are treated in Europe and the United States, what is it to neglect the Camerounian people?  May God Forgive them.
Marie Damien writes:
Vous avez vu l’entrée de cette femme en salle d’op? On croirait assister à un spectacle de nudisme. Il n’est pas seulement question de matériel, mais aussi de notions d’hygiène et de conscience professionnelle… Il est temps que nos dirigeants prennent conscience de ce qui se passe autour d’eux. On ne peut fermer les yeux éternellement sur cet état de choses. Est-ce que l’auteur de cette vidéo pourrait nous dire si cette est sortie vivante de la salle d’op?
Did you see the entrance of this woman into the operating room?  It was like a nudist show.  It's not simply a question of equipment, but also the idea of hygiene and professional conscience…It is time that our leaders wake up to what's happening around them.  We can't close our eyes forever to this state of affairs.  Can the author of this video tell us if this woman left the operation room alive?
EVARISTE KPADE responds:
ouf!!!pour une fois on accuse pas la france.merci cher camarades pour votre lucidité!
wow!!! for once we aren't accusing France.  Thank you dear comrades for your lucidness!
Portraying a false image of Africa?
Still many other readers criticized the video itself, in particular, the questionable choice on the part of the filmmakers to show footage of a naked patient, and the choice of the doctors to allow four men, none of whom wore sterile clothing, into the operating room.
eboa lembe:
pour moi cette video perd sa credibilite a partir du moment ou elle est filme par des blancs.il faudrai vraiment etre naif pour croir qu,ils font ce reportage par sympathie pour les pauvres Africains car si l,Afrique croupi dans la misere c,est bien grace a eux.Alors ce que moi je proposerai est qu,il est tant pour nous de nous auto informer sur toutes realites qui se vivent chez nous .Car d,aucuns diront qu,ils sont surpris de savoir que les choses se passe ainsi chez nous ,mais ceux qui les informe c,est des gens qui vienne de loin ,en plus c,est la bete(les blancs).Moi je ne dirai pas que je suis choque par ces images car je sais qu,il y a pire a voir ds notre chere terre mere..
for me this video loses its credibility the moment it was filmed by whites.  we must really be naive to believe that they documented this out of sympathy for poor Africans since, if Africa is rotting in misery, it's thanks to them.  So what I would propose is that it's up to us to inform ourselves about all the realities that exist in our country.  Some will say that they are surprised by what happens here, but those which inform them are people who come from far away, and moreover, they are beasts (the whites).  Me, I'm not surprised by these images since I know that there is worse to see in our dear motherland…
Silas:
Je suis en même temps stupéfait par l’absence de dignité imposée à cette martyre de nos folies par les médecins qui laissent qu’on la filme nue, et qui de surcroit laissent entrer des individus non protégés par des tenues adéquates en matière d’hygiène, lesquels de surcroit prennent des photos!!!!!…
…Je ne sais pas pour vous mais bien que n’étant pas médecin je n’ai pas attendu cette video pour connaitre les conditions inhumaines dans lesquelles certain(e)s font vivre leurs compatriotes. Je n’ai pas non plus attendu cette video pour diversifier mes sujets de conversation! Si ces médecins avaient voulu montrer leurs conditions de travail, il suffit de filmer cette salle même vide, la salle d’attente et dire devant la caméra les conditions dans lesquelles ils travaillent!
At the same time I'm amazed by the lack of dignity imposed on this martyr of our insanity by doctors who let them film her nude, and who, moreover, let in individuals who were not adequate in terms of hygiene, who moreover take photos!!!!!…
…I don't know about you but even though I'm not a doctor, I wasn't waiting for this video to come along to know the inhuman conditions in which some of our countrymen live.  And I wasn't waiting for this video to add variety to my topics of conversation!  If the doctors wanted to show their conditions of work, it would have been enough to film the room, empty even, the waiting room, and to explain in front of the camera the conditions in which they work!
On the original YouTube site, GrandHustle27 takes issue with the title: “African Surgeries”:
this is ridiculous i live in Kenya not far from AGAKHAN HOSPITAL. it has state of the art Equipment with highly skilled Doctors. WHY would you put up a video like this. what are you trying to prove or portray. and you put the heading as AFRICA.
this aynt right. CHANGE THE heading to a title that reference where this took place. dont generalize a whole CONTINENT IN ONE DINGY LOCATION. COME ON YOU KNOW THIS PORTRAYAL IS FOALS AND WRONG.
Nadine:
ESSAYONS DE PENSER PLUS LOIN QUE CES IMAGES! C’est pareil que les images des Somaliens qu’on passe le temps à montrer à la TV; Étant soi-disant la vraie image de l’AFrique
LET'S TRY TO THINK A LITTLE MORE DEEPLY ABOUT THESE IMAGES!  They are like the images of Somalia they show on TV to pass the time, showing the so-called true image of Africa
A call for action
Heartening was the fact that many of the readers brainstormed possible responses to the video.  One suggested locating the actual clinic where the surgery took place (“Assuming that the doctors (incapable of cleaning a room) wanted to make known their working conditions, can we at the very least provide them with anesthesia (with the hope that the doctors won't sell it)!?,” Silas writes.).  Another, petitioning the government.
Jean asks if all the readers who are actually in Cameroon can't meet up and write a letter directly to the President or engage in some other kind of collective action  He explains:
En Europe, Amerique, etc.., dans tous ces pays riches, c’est la société civile qui décide, c’est à dire quand il y’a un problème comme le notre, toutes les associations sortent dans les rues pour manifester et le gouvernement est obligé de trouver une solution rapide face à celui-ci…

author: Jennifer Brea


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Chile: A Proper Funeral for Víctor Jara · Global Voices
Issa Villarreal

Thirty-six years after his death, Chilean singer songwriter Víctor Jara had a proper funeral. A crowd of thousands of artists, public figures, fans and militants gathered on December 3 in Santiago [es] to pay homage to the musician, theatre director and activist who was murdered during Pinochet's military coup.
The funeral was attended also by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and Jara’s widow Joan Turner. User medrparada provided a video of the Chilean community marching in celebration down avenue Santos Dumont:
Jara, a central part of the Nueva canción movement, was a supporter of Salvador Allende in the 60s and early 70s. As the investigation of his violent death in 1973 resumed in recent years, an army conscript of Pinochet was charged with the murder and Jara's body was exhumed in June for an autopsy.
While it was understood by the community that the singer was tortured, the details were confirmed by the Legal Medical Services (Servicio Médico Legal) on November [es]: he died with fractures produced by blunt objects, as well as 44 bullet wounds in different parts of his body.
The enormous funeral gave the artist a strong presence on the web, with people from around the world. As the event was transmitted online by the Víctor Jara Foundation, users created their own stream of Jara’s lyrics in Twitter, like Rodrigo (user @rtapiap) told [es]:
mi timeline esta lleno de versos de Victor Jara, en breve le pongo play a su discografía (pasando por el VJ Sinfónico)
Nicole (user @HenriquezNicole) shared his devotion for the folk singer on Twitter [es] and attended to the funeral:
Mañana caminaré des[d]e Plaza Brazil hasta el Cementerio General.. no lo haría por nadie, solo por Víctor Jara!
The Spanish blogger from Ciberculturalia remembered Jara’s cause and its cost [es]:
(…) Víctor Jara, un hombre comprometido, solidario, defensor de la libertad que terminó pagándolo con su propia vida.
Last may, blogger Roberto Castillo, on his blog Noticias secretas, responded to a columnist [es] from newspaper El Mercurio who confessed, as a literary figure, to Jara's murder. The column led Castillo to acknowledge the prevalence of the singer songwriter’s figure in the collective memory of Chile:
La figura de Víctor Jara y su obra incandescente se habían salvado hasta ahora de la corrosión amnésica o de los manejos de imagen que han caracterizado a la eterna transición chilena. El cariño del público y la constancia leal de generaciones de artistas han mantenido el brillo de sus canciones y preservado el recuerdo de la manera en que fue asesinado. El informe de la Comisión Rettig, en su caso, sólo vino a confirmar los detalles horrendos de una historia conocida: la gente no sabía que habían sido cuarenta y cuatro los disparos, pero sí sabía de sus manos quebradas a pisotones y culatazos.
On his blog Cuestiónatelo todo, José Luis shared a black and white video of Jara playing “Te recuerdo Amanda” [es], one of his most popular songs. He wrote:
Hay tantas canciones que escoger de Victor Jara que es una pena colgar sola 3. Siempre cercanas al pueblo, al campo, a la fabrica, a la madre, al dolor del explotado, a la lucha de los mas humildes. Todas ellas se basan en la vida de los obreros y los campesinos chilenos, que en el Chile que construyeron con la llegada de la Unidad al poder eran los verdaderos protagonistas del futuro… Ese futuro que los fascistas segaron en nombre del capitalismo.
An unparalleled influence on artists and musicians from diverse musical styles, Victor Jara directed more than 15 plays, and released 9 albums between 1966 and 1974, including Canto por travesura with a selection of traditional Chilean songs.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Issa Villarreal


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Ecuador: First results form Google Zeitgest · Global Voices
Issa Villarreal

Christian from Cobertura digital comments on Ecuador's most frequent Google searches in 2009 [es] as service Zeitgeist opens results for the country for the first time.


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Iran: Fariba Pajooh, a blogger in prison · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Fariba Pajooh, an Iranian  blogger and journalist, has been in prison for more than 100 days. According to [fa] Ghomar Asheghaneh, an Iran based blogger, her parents do not know what to do and her father is in a bad physical condition.[Update: She was released on 23th of Decmeber 2009].

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran: International Solidarity Builds Momentum · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Hadi Ghaemi, a leading human rights activist, writes in Huffingtonpost: “Much of the international public and media consider mass protests in Iran to have ended, because images of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators no longer appear on TV screens… But the protest movement is alive and continues to challenge the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, and to demand fundamental rights.”


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Japan: A History of Modern Japanese Literary Criticism · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

Ryan Morrison of Neojaponisme  gives an overview  [en] of the history of modern Japanese literary criticism.

author: Scilla Alecci


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Jordan: Amman’s Dating Scene  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

For a preview on the dating scene in Amman, Jordan, check out House of Curiosity.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Russia: Online Forum Beats Media in Covering Night Club Fire   · Global Voices
Gregory Asmolov

Fire at the night club “Khromaya Loshad” (Lame Horse) [RUS] in a central Russian city Perm killed more than 100 people. According to an official version, the fire was caused by fireworks inside the club. Within minutes after the tragedy, Russian Internet users turned to blogs, forums and social media sites to share information about the horrific event.
An lj user starina-klin, who lives next to the night club, reports [RUS] on what he can see from the window of his apartment. His updates are short and descriptive:
“Khromaya Loshad” is burning.
Apparently, there are some people inside. People outside run around without warm clothes, shout some names and constantly call someone on their mobile phones.
Looks like they put down the fire. They are taking people out of the club.
Dozens of bodies lie on the road. Rescuers walk among them trying to pick the ones who are not that hopeless. Occasionally, they drag someone to ambulances.
They surrounded the perimeter. They evacuate bodies.
A reporter in headphones and with camera – apparently professional one – tried to break the cordon. A man stood on his way: “Don't shoot video, my son died there. Don't shoot video!”
Another lj user from Perm kostyanus provides a long list [RUS] of updates from different sources mixing reports from Russian TV, recollections of victims and rumors about the tragedy. An lj community gorodperm (City of Perm) [RUS] is also filled with discussion and information about the fire.
However, it looks like the major online source of information about the tragedy was a local forum Teron.ru [RUS]. A victim of its sudden popularity, it crashed during the first few hours after the event due to thousands of people trying to access it at the same time. Teron.ru became the first place where people started to create a list of victims. The same forum was also a major source of information after a plane crash in Perm in September 2008 [ENG].
A member of Teron.ru Cleanol broke the story [RUS] at 1:47 a.m. (45 minutes after the tragedy) by mentioning a conversation he had with his friends via ICQ (online messaging program) who told him about the fire. Very soon, another user JeromShakur  replied that he had been at the place of the tragedy and complained about ambulances that had arrived 15 minutes after the explosion. A user M.R. joined the discussion by publishing several pictures of the rescue efforts. He also wrote that he had helped in the evacuation of victims:
My role was to flip victims over on their sides and bend their knees. I don't know why but it is what the only doctor at that time told us to do.
There are only 50 percent of people alive. I determined that by their eye pupils… I used a flashlight. I did it so the police could help only those who are still alive.
2fiera, another member of the forum, added:
There are dead people and lots of them. A brother of my husband was there. He said they brought a lot of people out of the club and only two of them were alive.
User evgenis explains why many people died and dismisses any information about a possible explosion that was reported by local and international media:
I just talked to my friend. He was there with his company. Thank God they are alive. He says that there was no explosion and everything started burning because of fireworks. Many people were isolated from the exit and suffocated. :-(
In early morning, the forum user Temb)4 explained what had caused the fire:
A major Russia news Web site Lenta.ru [RUS] used  one of the pictures  from Teron.ru forum for their coverage of the horrific event. All pictures from users of Teron.ru were picked up [RUS] by a popular Russian TV news program “Vesti” (News).
As seen from those examples, Teron.ru for the second time became a very important source for everyone who tried to get more information about the tragic event. There are several reasons why this particular online community was more useful for mainstream media than regular blogs and why it provided the most information about the tragedy.
Teron.ru already proved itself in the past as an important source when it became the major place online to get  information about  the plane crash in Perm a year ago. Unlike the blogosphere, the forum is a localized content platform revolving around a local community. It provides a framework for people living in Perm to share valuable  information.
Consequently, a major part of information is not just exchange of links and discussion, but updates from people who saw what happened with their own eyes or know something about what happen from reliable sources. Since the local online community is a relatively narrow group of people who know one another, the information tends to be more credible. Many of the forum members personally know people behind avatars and user names and often met  them in real life. Furthermore, many forum members are also familiar with the place where the fire happened – the night club was a popular spot in Perm – and are able to identify unreliable information immediately. It also seems that moderators of the forum are aware that the mainstream media use it as a source of information and that is why they tried to minimize the amount of posts with dubious accounts.
We can see that Russian mainstream media, although still cautious about Internet, use the information from the forum before their reporters arrived to the place of the tragedy. Also, many Internet users tend to use the forum as one of the major sources of information about the tragedy along with traditional forms of media.

author: Gregory Asmolov


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Australia Faces 2010 Climate Change Election · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

The fortnight before Copenhagen has seen a topsy-turvy political bun-fight in Australian climate politics. The Rudd Labor government’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) Bill was amended after negotiations with the conservative Liberal National Coalition, only to be defeated by them in the Senate. The Liberal Party dumped their leader Malcolm Turnbull and rejected their own deal. New Opposition leader Tony Abbott has hung his leadership on a climate sceptic strategy.
The Liberals were derided in much of the mainstream media. Business journalist Michael Pascoe spared no punches in his assessment of the new policy direction:
Australia's carbon policy limbo (in the religious, not dance, sense) will be exercising plenty of business strategists over the long hot summer as they wonder how and when coincidence or policy might favour them.
It's made all the harder though by the uncertainty over where Tony Abbott is heading. Apparently the federal Liberal Party is staging its very own Christmas pantomime, a new interpretation the perennial Australian favourite, the Magic Pudding.
In this version, Tony goes in search of the Magic Carbon Pudding – a pain-free way of reducing CO2 emissions.
While inhabitants of the real world generally believe a rich nation can only be weaned off cheap and dirty energy on a diet of carrots and sticks, Tony has promised to find the Magic Carbon Pudding before the summer is over. This pudding apparently is stick free, meaning Australia's carbon footprint can be reduced without any cost. Truly amazing.
In search of the Magic Carbon Pudding
Nevertheless, the Liberals survived two by-elections on the weekend unscathed. The ruling Labor Party did not run candidates in the conservative’s safe electorates. It was left to the Greens to make a contest but they made little impact on the Liberal vote.
Some see it as an endorsement of Abbott and his new hard-line climate politics. Graham Young, Chief Editor of Online Opinion , blogs at Ambit Gambit. As a Liberal Party member he has often been out of step with the leadership. On this occasion his sceptical views are closer to the new leader's  and Graham was quick to explore the implications of the by-election wins:
AGW and the ETS will be subjected to closer scrutiny as it is now obvious that a large number of electors do not automatically regard them as reasons to vote for the government.
That in Higgins the Greens ran high profile global warming hysteric Clive Hamilton who has argued democracy is not up to the challenge of dealing with global warming reinforces that last point.
… Abbott's elevation was based almost entirely on the ETS issue, so any change in the terms of debate will help him. It will also probably harden his line on it.
Abbott to get boost from byelections
The Piping Shrike was sceptical about Abbott’s consistency about global warming:
Does Tony Abbott think human activity has caused climate change? It’s hard to tell. He told an audience in Beaufort a few weeks ago that the climate change argument was “crap” and that he was only going along with it for political convenience. Then by last week he was openly telling the media his doubts that the climate was even warming at all, talking about the world cooling since 2000 and that the climate was warmer when Romans were growing grape vines on Hadrian’s wall. Now “released” to say what he really feels, he says he believed in the importance of climate change action all along!
Once more, with feeling
On the other hand, Stating the Obvious seems to favour a non-conformist approach and hit a positive note about the change of leadership:
In Australia, we have the first political party to change leaders over climate change. The Opposition Liberal Party has nailed its colours to the mast by ditching an alarmist for a sceptic. Not only that, but the new leader, Tony Abbott, as soon as he was voted in, called for a secret ballot on the Emissions Trading Scheme in the party room and the vote went 54-29 against the ETS, giving him a firm mandate to oppose this economy-wrecking legislation in the Senate.
Liberal leadership spill: Tony Abbott wins
The by-elections have apparently reversed the rising seas of climate change science, tidal fashion:
Well, the backlash those on the left were predicting against the Liberal Party in Federal by-elections for the seats of Bradfield and Higgins has failed to eventuate. What they labelled a “referendum on climate change” has been just that, but not in the way they thought. In fact, with very little change in the Liberal Party margin in both seats, I would say this is a ringing endorsement of the new leader, Tony Abbott and his climate scepticism, and the Labor Party should be worried. So much for the public wanting urgent action on climate change. The tide has turned.
Liberals win Bradfield, Higgins as Malcolm Turnbull urged to create ‘third force’
Damian Lataan’s blog Murdoch's Propagandists claims to expose ‘Murdoch's Lies and Propaganda Empire’. He summed up how he sees the Australian community’s views:
The majority of Australians, regardless of party politics, are now green-leaning. They might not vote Green but they certainly are far more interested in the environment today than ever they were before. Most accept, despite the recent nonsense about a few scientists trying to fudge the numbers, that climate change is a very real problem that the world cannot afford to ignore.
He concluded by an allusion to Tony Abbott’s avowed Catholicism:
Abbott wants businesses to profit today without any of the costs for tomorrow. God, so Abbott believes, will look after tomorrow.
IT SEEMS TONY ABBOTT ISN’T A CLIMATE CHANGE SCEPTIC AFTER ALL.
At times the climate change debate in Australia has more to do with religious zeal than scientific objectivity. It could become fertile ground for demagogues.
The short term result of all these political machinations is that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd goes to Copenhagen without cap and trade legislation and without a climate change consensus at home.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Cambodia: Ban sale of dog meat · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Vutha is supporting the proposal to ban the sale of dog meat in Cambodia

author: Mong Palatino


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Cambodia: Facebook impact on blogging · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

GV author Tharum explains the impact of Facebook and other social networking sites on the status of blogging in Cambodia.


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Cambodia: Khmer Rouge parade video · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The Eyes of the Pineapple uploads an old film footage of a parade of Khmer Rouge armour on the streets of Phnom Penh.


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HIV spread in Indonesia · Global Voices
Juke Carolina

Indonesia is facing a huge challenge in tackling the spread of HIV virus in the country. Health agencies believe that the number of HIV-positive patients are bigger than currently reported.
HIV-positive patients are still feeling outcasted and discriminated in many healthcare centers.
The disease is still portrayed as a direct punishment from God for those who strayed from religious teachings.
Condoms are either frowned upon, ridiculed or condemned by religious organizations, making it difficult for the government to push its HIV prevention agenda.
Spreading fear among the youth
A widely spread wrong evidence can be deemed as the truth. This is what happened in Indonesia when a professor said that condoms couldn't prevent the spread of HIV virus because condoms have pores.
Chris Green on wrote his blog :
It was back in September 1995 that I first learned that condoms have pores. The report in the Republika daily, that condoms have holes 1/10 micron in diameter (whereas HIV is only 1/600 micron) must be correct because it was written by a professor: Prof. DR H. Dadang Hawari. […]
since then I have learned that Prof Dadang is typical example of our faith-based, rather than evidence-based, academics. And even IDI (writer's note: Indonesian Doctors Association) felt it must respond. So they arranged a debate on condoms, exactly 14 years ago today. This was held in the medical faculty of the prestigious University of Indonesia, and I was there. Prof Dadang was due to speak, presumably on the ‘side of the angels.’ However, he pulled out at the last moment, as he as always done when called upon to defend his position. So the debate went ahead, one-sided, without him.
[…]
The challenge of ‘pored’ condoms has since come up, it seems, at least once a year.
[…]
At least that was until this year. Now it's just gotten worse! I've just read in the Jakarta Post (Students told to nip bad habits in the bud) about a young high-school student who has become ‘one of the 92 ambassadors of the Jakarta Stop AIDS campaign.’ At 15 schools he has visited, he has told fellow students that “there is still a risk of contracting AIDS through the use of condoms because they have pores through which the virus can pass,” He says he learned what the Post rightly calls this ‘scaremongering information’ at a workshop organized by Unilever and Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa (an NGO doing outreach on drugs to youth), and ‘based on material from the National AIDS Commission.’
HIV epidemic in the easternmost provinces
Indonesian Papua,  dubbed the star of the eastern Indonesia thanks to its natural resources and its pristine forests is also home to rare and exotic austronesian animals and insects.
In Papua, where sanitary and clean running water are often seen as luxury, condoms are either too scarce to find or to expensive to buy.
The slow response of the central government provoked an accusation of ethnic cleansing among the Papuans by allowing the virus to spread.
Papuan children. Photo by Flickr user 710928003
Ronald Gunawan, a doctor working for World Vision, wrote an opinion in a local newspaper, and copied it on his blog:
[…] Kerap terdengar keluhan masyarakat atas lambannya upaya mengatasi masalah HIV/AIDS di Tanah Papua. Tidak jarang keluhan ini dilanjutkan dengan tuduhan yang mengarah pada kesengajaan pihak tertentu untuk memusnahkan orang Papua melalui virus ini. Kalimat-kalimat seperti ini bukan hanya terungkap dalam pembicaraan tidak resmi, tetapi juga dalam pertemuan-pertemuan resmi.
[…]
Tidak bisa disangkal, derap pembangunan di Provinsi Papua dan Papua Barat sangat lamban. Ini dapat dengan mudah dilihat dari masih banyaknya sekolah tanpa kehadiran guru-guru, banyak kampung belum terlayani pelayanan kesehatan, serta penyampaian informasi penting terhambat, karena terisolasi gunung, lembah, dan rawa- rawa.
[…] We often hear the people complaining about the government's slow response in tackling HIV/AIDS problem in Papua land. Often, these complaints also include an accusation that some parties are intentionally trying to eliminate the people of Papua through this virus. These accusations circulate not only in casual chats but also in official meetings.
[…]
Undeniably, the development in West Papua and Papua provinces is extremely slow.  This can be easily seen through schools that have no teachers, villages without basic healthcare centers, and the slow spread of important information, and isolation which is mainly due to the mountains, valleys and swamps.
On his blog, Ronald uploaded an ilustration based on true events that says some youths in Papuan village use plastic to replace the scarce and expensive condoms.
Women are largely at risk
Poverty in many areas in Indonesia forced parents to trade their daughters for money. Prostitution is a risky industry that is publicly condemned but generate a healthy sum of income for many people and a fertile ground for HIV virus to grow and spread.
According to Dr. Nafsiah Mboi of the AIDS Prevention Committee, 9 to 12 million lives are at risk due to the spread of the HIV virus in Indonesia. The country also witnessed the jump in number of housewives and women infected by the incurable disease mostly because the risky sexual behavior of their partners.
The following is an interview video of Dr. Mboi:
Stopping the disease religiously?
According to the Ministry of Health, until September 2009, there are about 18,422 HIV/AIDS patients. While Indonesian AIDS Foundation (YAI) said that until March this year, the number of HIV/AIDS patients in Indonesia is reaching 23,632 patients, a jump from 22,262 in 2008.
The government implements the ABCD (Abstinence, Be Faithful, Condoms, and Drug-free) program to stem HIV spread in the archipelagic country, but according to Kholda Naajiyah on Hizbut Tahrir website, the program is ineffective and making condoms available everywhere means endorsing acts of promiscuity.
[…] dengan kampanye kondomisasi misalnya, masyarakat seolah diajari untuk melakukan seks bebas karena sudah dijamin aman dari HIV/Aids asal memakai kondom.
with condom availability campaign for instance, it means that the people are thought to commit extramarital sex because they're guaranteed to be HIV/AIDS free as long as they're using condoms.
Naajiyah said that  imposing fines and punishment are important:
[…]
Para pelaku yang terlibat dalam jaringan bisnis narkoba harus dihukum berat. Pecandu yang sudah tobat harus diawasi agar tidak kambuh lagi dan yang belum tobat diberi sanksi agar jera melakukan hal yang sama.
He also said that closing the red light districts could help stop the spead of disease:
Penularan HIV/Aids melalui hubungan seks bisa dicegah dengan menutup lokalisasi pelacuran yang selama ini menjadi lokasi berisiko tinggi terjadi perpindahan virus HIV. Para pelacur yang biasa beroperasi harus diberi sanksi tegas karena telah melakukan perzinaan yang melanggar tata susila di masyarakat.
The central government lack of political will is partly due to religious groups which see condom distribution as a symbol of moral regression.
Blogger Patung, elaborates:
In Medan, North Sumatra, the provincial government distributes free condoms to prostitutes in red light districts.
The parliamentary faction of the Justice Party/Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) however is not happy about it, with PKS spokesman Zulkarnain saying the distribution of, so far, 2,880 condoms was not a good way of dealing with HIV/AIDS, since contraception was intended to prevent pregnancy, not to stop spread of disease.
Zulkarnain hoped new governor Syamsul Arifin would stop the policy and instead focus on helping prostitutes to reform themselves and find other work.
In the capital Jakarta, condoms can be found easily at pharmacies, automatic vending machine and even 24-hours convenient stores, however a report [id] said that the use of condom is still low, about 1,3% of birth control users.
On Monday the government launched Condom Week as part of  national  HIV/AIDS prevention program.

author: Juke Carolina


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India: Value First · Global Voices
Rezwan

Supriyo Chaudhuri at Sunday Posts argues that the reason for the success of Indian businesses is that apart from resilience and improvisations their thinking keeps ‘value’ first for a product.

author: Rezwan


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Indonesia: Coins for justice · Global Voices
Juke Carolina

Earlier today, Prita Mulyasari, a housewife who was prosecuted for writing a complaint email regarding a bad hospital service, was found guilty for defaming a private hospital by the Tangerang High Court. The court ordered her to pay a fine of Rp. 204 M (US$ 21,680) to OMNI Internasional Alam Sutera hospital.
Salary of a factory worker in Jakarta is roughly US$ 106 per month.
Indonesian net users are buzzing to collect the sum in form of coins because they are outraged by the court decision and they hope the coins will overwhelm the hospital, said one activist to local newspaper Kompas.
“When justice is spared, we collect coins”, says tagline of Koin Keadilan, coins for justice, a new website dedicated to collect coin donation to pay Prita's fine.
Image on www.koinkeadilan.com
An online declaration on the site says:
Tentang cara, kita bisa dan boleh berbeda pendapat. Misalnya tentang perlu atau tak perlu dalam pengumpulan koin. Yang pasti kita sama-sama di posisi ini: rasa keadilan kita terlukai. Spirit kita pun sama, bahwa keangkuhan kekuasaan yang ingin mengenyahkan kebebasan berpendapat melalui kriminalisasi harus kita lawan.
About the method, we might disagree with one another. Whether it's necessary to put donations in coins or not. But we agree in one thing: that justice is being hurt. We feel the same thing, that power and arrogance that wish to eliminate the freedom of expression  by criminalizing it, should be fought.
Protests and solidarity tweets are being sent out using the hashtags #freeprita and #helpprita.
AdibHidayat: Rencana acara akan dibuat di Hard Rock Cafe Jakarta. Detail akan kami update secepatnya. Konser Amal Pengumpulan Coin #freeprita
A concert is planned in Hard Rock Cafe Jakarta. Details and updates coming up. Charity Concert for coins.
Treespotter: Dear All, drop a coin for Prita – drop a coin for common sense. Or lots of coins. She needs 2,5 tons of it. http://koinkeadilan.com/
el15abeth: Social media does not expire..we know Prita is innocent. The verdict will only give Omni hospital a bad rep. #freeprita
hiYano: #freeprita gambaran sebuah “dpr online” yang bisa lebih “berbahaya” daripada “dpr jalanan” jangan pernah remehkan kami yang “online”
#freeprita is an illustration of online people's parliament which could be more “dangerous” than street parliament, never underestimate us who are online.
Legal experts said that Prita's prosecution under the new cyber law is unfair because the law won't be fully implemented before April 2010.
Blogger Aditya share his thoughts about the power of Microblogging:
Saya percaya dengan kekuatan jejaring sosial untuk menyebarkan kabar ini seluas-luasnya, paling tidak se-massive gerakan facebookers untuk gerakan “cicak vs buaya”. Tapi, saya tidak tahu apakah uang sejumlah itu dalam bentuk koin busuk pula akan terkumpul dalam waktu cepat.
Bukan saya mau meremehkan gerakan ini, tapi tahu sama tahu, biasanya yang seperti ini hangat-hangat di awal saja. Mudah-mudahan tidak ya!
I believe in the power of social network tools to spread this sort of news widely, at least as seen on massive movement of facebookers in support of Gecko v. Crocs (author's note: anti corruption battle between citizens’ backed graft fighter versus the police). But, I wonder if that sum of money in form of coins could be collected soon.
Not that I want to underestimate this movement, but we all know, that this kind of thing usually could end up cold like yesterday's potato. Well, hopefully not!
Concluding his post, Adithya asks his readers:
Kawan, jika dan hanya jika, Anda peduli dengan persoalan kebebasan berpendapat dan perlindungan atas hak-hak konsumen, bergeraklah.
Friends, if and just if, you really care about freedom of expression and the protection of consumer's right , get a move on.


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Iran: Internet access down pre-protests · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Several bloggers and sites in Iran reported one day before another mass protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, internet access in Iran is largely down. Haghemoslamema, an Iranian blogger, says [fa] this is a good opportunity to leave our computers at home and go chanting against regime in the streets.


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Iran: People chanted “God is Great” on rooftops · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Several Iranian bloggers including Web Neveshteha reported [fa] that people chanted Allaho Akbar (God is Great) on their rooftops tonight in Tehran and several other cities as protesters are preparing for another anti government demonstration tomorrow (7th of December). Listen to their voice here.


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Iran: Tensions Rise as Student Day Approaches · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

The Iranian opposition has planned a large demonstration for Monday, December 7 as Iran marks the annual Students Day, commemorating the assassination of three students in 1953.
European students plan green solidarity photo shoot
Opposition groups have warned  demonstrators that they are likely to meet a tough response from the security forces.
The Iranian ‘green’ movement have already taken advantage of a number of state-sponsored events such as “Quds Day” to organise demonstrations. According to media on Sunday most of Tehran's Internet links were down in what sources close to Iran's technical services said was “a decision by the authorities” rather than a breakdown.
Mojtaba Saminejad, blogger and human rights activist, writes [fa]:
As 7th of December [16th of Azar] approaches, arresting students and preventing them of studying becomes worse than ever. Again, the “military coup base” came to this conclusion that by massive arrests of students they can disturb the December 6th program and students’ gathering. But this year is different from other years, and students will have a great number of Iranian people there to support them. This day, the Student Day will became a National Day, but the coup agents will still ignore it.
Several citizens around the world have used YouTube to support Iranian protesters such as this woman from Germany who says that on December 7, ‘My heart is with you until you become free.’
Iranian citizens have launched Divarnevisi (meaning ‘writing on the wall’) a website  where they publish posters, teach others how to write slogans in the street, and share the photos of the slogans and pamphlets from different cities of Iran.
We can find several examples of posters for December 7. Here is one example where we can see the photos of Iranians like Neda who were killed after 12th of June election by the security forces.


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Philippines: Aerial view of Davao · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Life in a Snapshot uploads a picture of an aerial view of Davao City, located south of the Philippines.


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Russia: A Blogger’s Account of the Rescue Effort in Perm · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

At least 109 people died and more than 130 were injured Friday night in a fire caused by the ignition of a pyrotechnic display, and in the resulting stampede, at the Lame Horse nightclub in the city of Perm.
In an earlier GV analysis of the citizen and mainstream media coverage of the Perm tragedy, Gregory Asmolov has translated two of the nearly instant updates from one of the users of a popular local forum, Teron.ru, who happened to be outside the nightclub when the fire broke out – and who ended up helping out with the rescue effort:
[…] A user M.R. joined the discussion by publishing several pictures of the rescue efforts. He also wrote that he had helped in the evacuation of victims:
My role was to flip victims over on their sides and bend their knees. I don't know why but it is what the only doctor at that time told us to do.
There are only 50 percent of people alive. I determined that by their eye pupils… I used a flashlight. I did it so the police could help only those who are still alive. […]
A day later, the same Teron.ru forum user summed up his heartbreaking experiences and observations in a detailed post (RUS) on his LJ blog (http://yakimovmihail.livejournal.com/), parts of which are translated below:
My wife and I were taking a walk outside our house…
First, some noise in the backyard and loud voices. People standing by the emergency exit of LH [the Lame Horse nightclub], some sitting and coughing, spitting. Talking calmly, though, without panic. Then some guy comes running to the fire station nearby, all black, and starts screaming that there are “thousands of people” in there and they are all burning, etc. At first, we thought he was drunk. But the firefighters must have known about the situation by then and were running around like crazy. As a result, everyone who was at the fire station at the time drove out or simply ran to the site of the fire in a minute. I walked to the compartments from which fire trucks were driving out and closed the gates after them. I'd never seen them leaving the gates open like this before.
We went down and walked around the building on 9 Kuybyshev St. to the side where the small park is. Right away, I saw a man in rags, with no hair or eyelashes. Only his eyes were burning, but his whole face was covered with soot. But he was moving normally, walking back and forth. I talked to him. He asked if he was burned badly. But I told him that he looked okay. Then another victim, similar to the first one, came up to me and addressed me by my first name and patronymic. Turned out he was a colleague of mine. He said he didn't remember how he got out. But he, too, asked me how his face was and, in general, how he looked from the outside. (Later, I learned from reports that he was taken to Moscow with 80 percent of his skin damaged.)
But at that point it somehow didn't appear that horrible. The victims were walking back and forth, some were sitting on the ground. Some ten people, all in all. Thick black smoke was coming out from the small windows of LH, but no one was running out from the building itself. And it seemed that it wasn't so horrible after all.
The horrible part started in five minutes or so. The firefighters got dressed, connected to the fire hydrants – which, by the way, were functional and the water was coming. And that's when they began to drag the people out…
This, of course, was impressive…
They carried out the first two women, lay them on the asphalt right by the entrance. Someone began to administer [CPR] to one of them […]. But then more people were carried out. And were placed right there. The firefighters could no longer walk, had to jump over people…
Two ambulances arrived, and people started to drag the doctors apart, showing the victims to them and demanding that they help them. This was, perhaps, the hardest moment.
Then people began to self-organize. They stopped doing the [CPR]. First, we tore off the red vinyl banners, turned them around and lay them out on the opposite side of the road. Prepared a place to put as many people as possible. […] A few guys – ten or so – turned up and started dragging people from the entrance (receiving them from the firefighters, obviously), and carrying them to me […]. I determined a task for myself – to turn the victims over to their sides. This was a recommendation of a doctor, who was the only one there then, and who later left somewhere, too. This, perhaps, was the worst thing about the organization [of the rescue effort] – there was no one to do the initial examination of the victims… :( I had a flashlight, and I was doing it the way I could, relying on my army experience. I was lifting their eyelids and pointing the flashlight into their eyes. The alive/dead results were 50/50. We were trying to somehow separate the dead ones from those who were alive, but those who were carrying [the victims] didn't really obey, of course, and didn't pay attention – they were just dragging [the victims]. […] Later, though, they started doing things more sensibly – for a person to lie on the side, it is necessary to bend one of [his/her] knees. At first, I was doing this, and then the guys who were carrying [the victims] began to do it properly themselves.
At some point, there was a quiet period, sort of. The firefighters were running back and forth with [firefighting equipment] and there were no new victims. This was when, I guess, ambulances started to arrive. I didn't see them. I just understood that the guys who were carrying [the victims] from the entrance were now yelling that [the victims] should be taken to the ambulances. This is when we needed the flashlight again. I remember that they kept trying to carry away the girl who was lying near me. But I stopped them from doing this because I already knew that she no longer needed to be carried anywhere. And then the police officers showed up and started carrying the people away, too – likely, to the ambulances. They obeyed me for a while even – I used my flashlight to pick out the people for them, who needed to be carried away.
Then they started carrying people from the nightclub again. And everything got mixed up again. Some were taken to the ambulances right away, […], others were just placed on the road. Again, I guess there were not enough people with flashlights for the initial sorting out [of the victims]. This is very bad, of course.
This was when my part was over. Some people in uniforms showed up and the real rescue began.
And a few more remarks:
[…]
It was bad that many people were drunk, and this, along with the hysteria, did not contribute to the order and organization. This is how it was at the very beginning. These drunk, hysterical people were rushing among the injured and the dead, obviously looking for their relatives. They were turning [the victims] over to their backs. Had to [turn the victims back to their sides] after that. And, perhaps, it wasn't too good to be moving [the victims]. […]
[…]
It also seemed strange that the firefighters didn't try dragging the people out through the emergency exit in the back of the building. Would have been not as messy this way, perhaps.
[…]

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: Mobile Internet Provider Filters Opposition Websites · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

Russian WiMAX provider Yota [ENG] blocked several opposition Web sites, such as  www.kasparov.ru, www.rufront.ru, www.rusolidarnost.ru, www.nazbol.ru, www.namarsh.ru and www.newtimes.ru, DileSoft [RUS] reports. Those sites are inaccessible in Moscow and Krasnodar.

author: Alexey Sidorenko


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Africa: Marking World AIDS Day Poetically · Global Voices
Njeri Wangari

positive…
the status of my H.I.V
negative…
your attitude towards me
nonchalant…
is how I choose to be
pretenders…
you allegedly sympathize with me
true colors…
you show them when I turn my back
pity…
I surely do not need it right now
life…
I am full of it and I am living
understanding…
I have a condition like anyone else
positive…
the status of my attitude
determination…
is filled inside of me
oh yes..
I have the will to live
I am positive…
in every aspect
of the word!
All Rights Reserved.
Mike Kwambo
This is a poem that was written by Mike Kwambo a poet member of Mstari Wa Nne poetry group based in Nairobi, Kenya and a sports blogger. The poem was written  and posted on the Mstari  Wa Nne facebook page on 1st December 2009 in marking World AIDS Day, a day that was celebrated everywhere in the world with a renewed message of hope to the infected and the affected as well.
Ashlee’s South African Blog too wrote a poem on HIV and AIDS. This is what she says about the poem, which follows below:
“This poem is about HIV an AIDS. I wrote this poem to make people realise that life is not all about sex and all that. But to acknowledge that many people have died of HIV and AIDS and that it many children have been left alone to sometimes take care of their families, teenagers and brothers. HIV is a very out in the open disease that people have to protect themselves from. They say abstinence is a better way to increase a better future of a HIV free generation. All I am saying is, don’t let things that are being said about you offend you. Just take it and put it into a better understanding and let go of it. And don’t let your past determine what you are bound to be in the future.”
And the Nation Shall Die
As I fall to the night
I hear a cry
A cry of a nation
She’s gone
What has become of our nation?
For an orphan has been left
Left to fend for itself
Too many promises
More talk
Less work
We were friends
You know my status
You run away
You tell the nation
They say ‘a friend in need is a friend indeed.’
I saw a future, a bright future
But it never came
I saw a great success; success that disappeared
I saw a nation, a beautiful nation
Which turned me into a slave
A beautiful nation that became so cruel
It turned me into a victim
And the nation shall die
It shall die in the night
For a disease that eats you alive has risen
And the nation shall die
All Rights Reserved
A young girl living in the Sihawukelwe Lauren Children's Home for AIDS Orphans  in South Africa performs a  poem on HIV/AIDS filmed in the Umzinyahi Village near Durban, South Africa.
Young children from Kenya performed the poem ‘Aids is My name’ in the video below shot for the Global Health Council
On my own blog Kenyan Poet, a poem gives the initials A.I.D.S. a whole new meaning, “Africa's Ignorance of A Dying Society” (AIDS)
I have always thought that scientists are the most bright people
Most learned, most elite, most Einstein
Staining our bleached minds with the power foam
Performing studies, research and forming powerful opinions
About matters of matter, anti matter, apples and samples
My thoughts on History’s Invented Views (HIV) have been molded by them
But no matter how much I want to agree with them on the cause
Like Newton's scoffers, I vehemently ridicule this theory.
Once upon a time, there was a man
The man was walking in the forest one day
When he came upon a monkey
When the man saw the monkey,
He thought to himself,
“Now that monkey looks sexy”
“I bet its female”
And so he went closer,
And sure enough, the monkey was a she
A smirk cut right across his face
A bright bulb light his dark black brain
His black thoughts went on over drive
“Hey monkey, what do u say, me and you…………….”
The rest as they say is HIVstory, the HIV story
Read the rest of the poem here

author: Njeri Wangari


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Azerbaijan: Culinary Blogging · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Leyla's Room interviews Farida Sadikhova Buyuran, the blogger behind AZ Cookbook. Posting recipes, backgrounds and photographs of traditional Azeri cuisine, as well as other dishes, the interview details Farida's passion for food and cooking and says a book is on the horizon.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Barbados: Tourism Weak? · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As Barbados approaches Tourism Week, Living in Barbados notices that “many people seem confused about what is happening to this sector, which is a main earner of foreign exchange and provider of jobs in the economy.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Behind the scenes of Kiva’s micro-lending · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

“Kiva is not quite what it seems,” says David Roodman on The Open Book Blog on the Center for Global Development. And Matt Flannery from online micro-lender Kiva.org responds.

author: Solana Larsen


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Bermuda: Of Leglisation and Violence · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Bermudian bloggers discuss the issue of retroactivity as it applies to the proposed Public Access to Information legislation, while Catch a fire hopes that public response to “a new community focused action group to combat the downward spiral of violence” will be as good as it has been for PATI.


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Bolivia: Presidential Elections in Social Networks · Global Voices
Issa Villarreal

Blogger Manuel Buitrago of Mabb analizes the prolific coverage of social networks at Bolivia [es] as the presidential elections for 2009 come to an end.


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China and the World Map of the Internet  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Uln from Chinayouren reprocesses the world map of the Internet to examine China's position and relation with the rest of the world in the Internet.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: The Internet situation in Xinjiang · Global Voices
John Kennedy

“Today marks five long months,” writes Far West China blogger Josh Summers, since Xinjiang, China's largest province, was unplugged from the Internet. With answers to the questions many have been asking, Josh notes: “[w]hile any internet content, especially for English-speakers, is extremely limited, there is plenty still available to be found in Chinese.”

author: John Kennedy


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China: Young people and housing · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

China Hush puts together an interesting discussion related with the property bubble in China. The focus of the debate is on whether people below 30 should be able to buy a home.


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Cuba: One Year of Blogging from the Inside · Global Voices
Issa Villarreal

November 27 marked the date of the first anniversary of Bloggers Cuba [es], a community of bloggers dedicated to write about their country “from the inside”. Along with their collective blog, their work also includes the “Cuban reader”  [es], a collection of RSS feeds from more than 30 blogs of the Cuban blogosphere, that can be used as a starting point for any visitor who wants to read about the country.
What makes Bloggers Cuba unique is their inside perspective: although there are more than 700 blogs that deal with Cuba as a subject, they regard the majority of these blogs as being maintained by authors that live outside the isle. Their insight has brought friction towards the authors from readers and conversely strengthened the friendship among contributors, as they recalled in a roundup about their anniversary post [es].
Contributor Roger TM shared:
Hace poco más de un año, éramos solo 11 personas en un aulita fría del Palacio Central de Computación, luego de varios encuentros esporádicos, se fueron sumando otros Blogueros que teníamos cierta afinidad en cuanto a ideas. Hoy hace exactamente un año vio la luz este proyecto, que ahora, más que ser un grupo de Blogueros con ideas afines, somos un grupo de amigos (…)
Boris:
Te pueden cerrar una puerta, te pueden dejar solo, te pueden acusar y querer llevarte a la hoguera… pero si tienes buenos amigos, te puedes salvar también. Eso ha sido Bloggers Cuba, una comunidad de amigos reunidos entorno a un blog, unas cuantas cyberaficiones comunes, algunas ideas sobre cómo debe ser esta isla… Y muchas ganas de hacer, de soñar en grande, aunque después, no pocas veces, nos hayamos quedado en la ilusión. Y lo mejor: nadie nos convocó, nadie nos pidió hacerlo, nadie controló el “cumplimiento de la tarea”. Nunca antes me sentí tan libre.
David:
“Tu eres francés, no te metas en nuestros problemas, no opines, no te asiste el derecho, si lo tuyo es el rock, métele caña a las guitarras y sigue apoyando las bandas, pero deja mi política en paz que no te incumbe… no postees más en blogs de tantas estupideces como esas, limiítate a lo tuyo… ok?”…
Me gané innumerables insultos, provocaciones, amenazas, descalificaciones gracias a Bloggers Cuba :) … pero Bloggers Cuba me confirmó que no todos los gusanos (gente que ha dejado la isla) son malos y que no todos los revolucionarios son buenos, y vice versa. Bloggers Cuba ha abierto una puerta de diálogo y ha inspirado nuevas plataformas de blogs cubanas administrada desde adentro: Voces Cubanas, Blogcip… BC fue pionero en eso.
Zorphdark:
Un par de horas después de un aburrido mediodía de mayo recibo el único correo que he marcado con una estrella en GMail. Era una invitación de BC para ser parte de su comunidad. Han pasado más de seis meses de aquel intenso respirar y aún no lo creo. “No soy digno” -pensaba; “¿qué publicar?” -todavía me pregunto. Llego al punto de encuentro, a una fiesta inolvidable, y conozco a muchas de las personas que han influido directamente en mi vida desde entonces: gente que admiro profundamente, con la que me siento de maravilla, con quienes invertiría decenas de horas para conversar. Seres humanos VIP, llenos de imaginación, de juventud y cubanía.
Bloggers Cuba also publishes a summary of their monthly posts as a zine available for download in PDF format.

author: Issa Villarreal


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Featured Author: Mac-Jordan Holdbrookes-Degadjor · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

In August 2009, Maker Faire Africa took place in Accra, Ghana and it attracted builders from all across the world who wanted to showcase their latest inventions. Members of the local internet community also took part by promoting and writing about the festivities, and some even volunteered their time to help out at the event. A blogger, Mac-Jordan Holdbrookes-Degadjor was one of the local Ghanians who assisted, and he became a very valuable resource because of his array of knowledge about his hometown.
Photo of Mac-Jordan taken by Georgia Popplewell.
These interactions led to several collaborations, such as the start of his blog on the Maneno platform and he also became an author for Global Voices writing about the Ghanian blogosphere.
This video filmed in August 2009 introduces Mac-Jordan, where he talks about his blogs Accra Conscious Forever and Accraboy, as well as his active participation on Twitter.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Guyana: Let Them Eat Cake · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“The best smell of Christmas for me is the smell of black cake”: Signifyin’ Guyana is getting ready to bake!


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Honduras: Ballot Irregularities in San Manuel · Global Voices
Issa Villarreal

Juan Carlos Rivera shares on his blog Mirada de Halcón pictures of supposed ballot irregularities in the municipality of San Manuel [es] during the recent elections in Honduras.


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ICT4D for Women: Opportunities and Risks · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

As digital technologies open up new spaces and possibilities, there is a lot of optimism about empowerment of women, and alleviation of gender disparity. According to the ITU, the UN agency for ICT issues:
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be used to close the gender gap by creating new jobs for impoverished women.  Women, for example, have been at the forefront of the village phone movement, selling airtime to rural people too poor to own their own phones.  ICTs can also be used to promote basic literacy and education for women and girls, provide job training and prepare women for careers in the ICT sector as well as to ensure health and safety.
As far as women’s empowerment at the bottom of the pyramid goes, the buzz has been more centered on mobile phones than computer-related ICTs.
This video about women and ICT by Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) gives us some insights into the probable reasons why.
In an article for the IDRC, “Women’s use of information and communication technologies in Mozambique: a tool for empowerment?” Gertrudes Macueve, Judite Mandlate, Lucia Ginger, Polly Gaster and Esselina Macome point out other important reasons why the mobile phone has been relatively more gender responsive than the computer-related ICTs.
We find that women have already started appropriating the mobile phone, finding their own ways to overcome difficulties of literacy, language and costs, working together and using it as a tool for expanding their assets and capabilities with no need for technical training or back-up. Perhaps this is the best example of self-empowerment through utilizing new ICTs…
… If computer-related ICTs were providing a real solution to rural women’s immediate problems, they would have appropriated them and used them to strengthen their ability to solve problems, make decisions and choices, and take desired actions.
Strategic uses of ICTs are being made in other key areas of empowerment, such as combating violence among women. A recent Stanford University Study report by Dayoung Lee indicates [pdf] that mobile phones lower a woman’s tolerance of domestic violence significantly by giving them greater connectivity and access.
Lee writes:
Phones may empower women by giving them better access to social services. Given the privacy of talking on the phone, women can more easily report domestic violence or consult family planning agencies
However, that is not to say that ICTs are a panacea for gender discrimination. The world of ICT and gender remains a complex one. Where we have seen positive strides towards gender equality, we have also seen ICTs provide another space for the further marginalisation of women, and scope for exerting greater control, power and perpetrating violence against them.
Lee writes that though the benefits of a mobile phone was indisputable, they depended ultimately on having access to a mobile phone in the first place. According to her:
Household ownership of mobile phones does not indicate that women have access to them, or that women own them. Because mobile phones can be carried around, husbands may have more complete control over them than over landline phones. If they take the mobile phone to work, for example, women have no means of taking advantage of it.
In their GenderIT.org paper  “Violence against Women and Information Communication Technologies: Uganda Country Report: Strengthening women’s strategic use of ICT to combat violence against women and girls”, the authors Aramanzan Madanda, Berna Ngolobe and Goretti Zavuga Amuriat highlight the tenuous relation between ICT and violence against women.
Privacy invasion through SMS stalking and monitoring and control by spouses is growing. Men control women’s use of mobile phones and give or withhold permission to their wives to use them, when and how. The link between mobile phones and killing of women are not incidents in isolation. Some women have acquired two SIM cards to forestall domestic violence. This is a sign of women’s empowerment as telephones provide a means through which to break male control by opening contacts to the outside world. Women use mobiles to contact police officers in the event of domestic violence. Women’s organisations use the internet in combination with TV, radio, newspapers and other print media to highlight violence against women.
The Blank Noise Project is one such initiative we have seen in the recent times – to raise awareness and voices against street sexual harassment of women. Examples of other initiatives are a) a Bangladesh national campaign for strategic use of ICT to end violence against women from 2008 and b) Texting for Social Action in Africa organised by the Gender Based Violence Prevention Network in collaboration with Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET).
Berna Twanza in this blog post, wonders if ICTs can further marginalize women in society. Berna writes:
Women’s lower levels of literacy and education relative to men as well as negative attitudes towards girls’ achievement in science and mathematics, largely contribute to the gender dimensions of digital divide. Women’s lower degree of economic security than men and gender-related constraints on their time and mobility also limit their access, use and participation in shaping the course of ICTs compared to their male counterparts.
This calls for deliberate efforts to enable women benefit from ICTs, these include creating awareness about the benefits and opportunities offered by ICTs among women, building women/girls’ capacity in ICT use, setting up projects or initiatives aimed at increasing women’s access and use of ICTs, encouraging girls to take up science and IT courses as well as eliminating gender stereotypes and factors that prevent women taking up ICT opportunities.
In this video below, Kutoma Wakunuma from Sheffield Hallam University (UK) talks about mobile phones in Africa and their impact on gender relations. The interview was filmed at MobileActive08. Kutoma talks about how control over the ubiquitous mobile phone has become symbol of control and power in traditional families of the developing world such as Zambia.
In her 2008 case study on “Mobile Cell Phones and Poverty Reduction: Technology Spending Patterns and Poverty Level Change among Households in Uganda”, Kathleen Diga from the IDRC noted :
Certain household members rarely made use of the mobile phone while the household head maintained possession of the tool. Women, for example, have calls completed on their behalf as partners fear the overuse of their airtime. The fear may also develop from a perception of breakdown in head authority within households of this conservative community. These negative perceptions appear to re-enforced asset control particularly with the mobile phone within the household.
In a highly informative post on MobileActive.org, “Deconstructing Mobiles: Myths & Realities about Women and Mobile Phones”, Anneryan Heatwole highlights some positive impacts of mobile phones and gender-neutral programs.
Of course, there are documented positive impacts of mobiles; programs such as Text To Change, BridgeIT and Souktel, while gender-neutral, offer great opportunities to women – from anonymous sexual and reproductive health information, to the reinforcement of positive professional female role models, to fair access to job opportunities. And indeed, mobile phones have been shown to be a successful source of personal and professional growth for women in many instances. In Steven Klonner and Patrick Nolen’s 2008 case study “Does ICT Benefit the Poor? Evidence from South Africa,” the authors show that mobile phones can have a distinctly positive economic effect on female users
(But) this is a key issue in the debate: are the women who most need access to mobile phones getting it? In the poorest areas, cell phones are scarcer than in richer areas, and cost and literacy improve greater barriers to women who tend to be poorer and more likely to be illiterate than men. While we lack any kind of reliable data on access to phones by sex globally, women who are most at risk for domestic abuse or isolation are often the ones who are most likely to be unable to access mobile phones. Similarly, it is often the poorest, most rural women who could most use information about market prices, civil rights, and female health care.
In fact, Lee’s study recommends that the government consider offering mobile phones at subsidized costs to women to enhance their access.
There is a growing voice among activists and bloggers to pressurize policymakers into integrating gender in ICT policy processes. In this context, Anita Gurumurthy writes in the UN GAID [Global Alliance for ICT and Development] blog:
The issues for gender and development are not only about women in the IT sector, but about the global economy itself and what ICTs have done to alter for instance the social contract between labour and capital… Discussions for what is good for gender justice in the information society are thus relevant to women's rights and citizenship in multiple spheres – in geographically situated communities, within nation states and in a global, transnational space…
Berna argues that we need to consciously include gender in ICT policy, if we want to tap into the benefits of ICT in the area of bridging the gender divide. She writes:
Available evidence indicates that without explicit articulation of gender in policies, gender issues and concerns are not likely to be considered during implementation. Moreover, policy making in technological fields had been noted to ignore the needs, requirements and aspirations of women unless gender analysis is included. As such, without specific attention and action, there would be no equitable distribution of benefits for men and women, with women often disadvantaged.
However, even if these policies would be put in place in the near future, how will we be able to evaluate the progress made in this arena? Well, APC WNSP’s GEM is an “evaluation methodology that integrates a gender analysis into evaluations of initiatives that use ICTs for social change. It is an evaluation tool for determining whether ICTs are really improving or worsening women’s lives and gender relations, as well as for promoting positive change at the individual, institutional, community and broader social levels.”
Are women passively waiting for policymakers to decide their fate with respect to access to ICTs? “No” says Helen Hambly Odame, Associate Professor at the School of Environmental Design & Rural Development at the University of Guelph in Canada. She writes, “Women are not ‘waiting’ for access to ICTs, but rather using ICTs when they are available to get around the constraints they face in politics, society and economy.”
Necessity is the mother of invention, they say, one can only hope the desire for a safer, better quality of life will ensure that more and more women will come forward for ICT4D initiatives.

author: Aparna Ray


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Iran: Student Day Demonstration on YouTube · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Thousands of protesters defied the Islamic regime today by protesting during Student Day, chanting slogans against Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, and protesting the government's foreign policy. They also burned photos of Iranian leaders. According to several news websites, security forces clashed with students and arrested some of them. As usual, Iranian citizens covered today's event and let the world learn about it.
“What has happened to oil money”
At the University of Tehran, protesters chanted “Death to the dictator” and “What has happened to the oil money? It is in the pocket of Basijis (Islamic militias).”
“Military force support support”
At Amir Kabir University, also in Tehran, the students chanted slogans such as: “Down with the dictator”, “Military force support, support,” and “Do not be afraid”.
Down with Khamenei in the streets of Tehran
Remember the Martyrs
Elmo Sanat University in Tehran marched with Kianoush Asa‘s photo, a student who was murdered by security forces in the summer of 2009.
Protesters demonstrated in several other cities such as Mashad.
… and Kerman where they chanted “Sweeper brother take Mahmoud [Ahamdinjead, Iranian president]”

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran: Students chanted slogans against regime · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Iranian students demonstrated against Islamic regime in Tehran and chanted slogans such as “death to dictator”. Watch the video here.


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Jamaica: Climate Awareness · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“IT'S no secret that we could treat our island and its environment a little better, not least in terms of energy consumption”: Letter From Jamaica is heartened by the fact  that the island “is becoming more sensitive to the issue.”


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Kenya: Bloggers discuss Kenyan explosive drama, Shuga · Global Voices
Haute Haiku

Staying alive campaign being the world largest youth focused HIV prevention campaign content together with MTV bring an explosive drama for the world AIDS Day Shuga . Shuga slides  away from the  ordinary comfort zone and portrays life of six college students living the life on the first lane: alcohol, sex, love and money and focuses on how the youth put themselves and others at risk of contracting HIV:
Shuga is a hard hitting 3-part drama series that follows the lives and loves of a group of cool young students whose bright lives and fabulous futures are balanced on a knife edge due to their love of risk and danger. It’s a story of love, sex, Friday nights and the indelible marks we leave on one another. Shuga tells the story of Ayira, a modern girl who knows exactly what she wants and what she’ll do to get it; but will her passion for an older man come at the expense of long term soul mate Ty? Running parallel is the Romeo and Juliet style love story of Virginia and Leo – while the two are destined to be together, will they be able to get past the obstacles that stand in their way? Shuga is based in Nairobi, Kenya; in the heart of East Africa.
Shuga explores the issues of sexual relationships among urban youth against a background of continuing HIV/AIDS infections. It examines the ramifications of sexual decisions on the lives of young people and their partners and loved ones. The drama format is a powerful medium to put across important lifestyle messages to educate and engage young people.
Story revolves around Ayira, a hungry ambitious girl who wants everything in life and nearly blows away a durable relationship by sleeping with an older man suspected to be HIV+ for a job. Shuga starts with a class being told to sell themselves  before a panel of judges for a job offer and Ayira offers a sultry innuendo that a judge finds sickening and she exclaims, “But sex sells.” “Sex sells cars, toothpaste…” On Rafiki Kenya blog:
We like Lupita Nyong'o, who plays Ayira, because she is a great main act, has lips to die for, and her sex scenes are oh so hot cool! Ayira is a beautiful, confident and vivacious 22-year-old, grade-A college student. Originally from Langata she now lives in Buru Buru with her mom and little sister. Her father left Ayira's mom for another woman six years ago – an act which deeply affected Ayira. She is now determined to get her mother and sister out of the financial strain her father left them in, and see a return to the comfortable life they once enjoyed. She has a steady, loving boyfriend called Ty, however Ayira is distrustful of men due to her father's behavior. She wants more and she wants it quickly. Her hunger and impatience for life clouds her judgment and sense of values.
Some theme on the movie:
“Hi ni story ya ma boys, in gear five,
Madem wa fly getting down with the music, feeling fly,
Furahi day nights, music vibes, sweat and sex in the air.
This is a story of true love, lust, broken trust,
It is the story of bright lives, entwining and colliding,
Hi ni story ya morning after, mabyebye baadayes,
Madoa sugu zimeachwa
So what do you do when the party catches up with you?
Has the ride been worth it?”
The youth are watching Shuga and that forces them take time to reflect on their life and where it  is heading to,  where it supposed to be. Shuga bridges the gap between lust and love and it has been said some youth have flocked the free VCT centers around town for HIV testing erected by the government this week. A blogger Lydia Njeri writes:
Shuga is not your everyday Kenyan drama series, it is one that will keep you glued to your screen, keep you entertained while at the same time get you thinking hard of how you’re living your life.
“At first I was just acting out my part, but it reached a point I stopped being Kenneth the actor and become Antony as it got me seriously thinking about my own life” Antony one of the main actors in the drama series commented.
The new drama series promises to keep you fascinated by the Confident, beautiful ladies, who are full of life, dress with a mission and love a life of partying and one night stands.
On the other hand the young energetic men will keep your head spinning with their swagger, flashy cars and the women in their lives.
The drama is filled with Kenyan artistes, singers, actors appealing to 18- 25 demographic that is obsessed with the music culture,  fashion addiction and lots of parting cutting across, while the same time talking about safe sex, abstinence and openness which has not been witnessed before. Shuga uses phrases like “Don't let your erection determine your direction!” , “Are you sleeping with anyone? Then there is no problem“” an excuse not to use a condom, “trying to be one of the boys” and  “you turn out negative then you start dropping your panties again”:
Shuga is generating quite a buzz in Kenya, the series actually seems to be quite appealing to the young urban middle and high classes. Shuga seems to challenge young people and is igniting a movement to change their sexual behaviour. It's educating, it's provocative, it's funny: “Don't let your erection determine your direction!” Kenyan youths are asking each other: “Who are you in Shuga?” It's amazing, young people have even gone for tests after seeing this movie. Others, who are not that interested in the sex aspects, are saying Kenya has actually great potential for a vibrant movie industry.
In the end they reclaim their lives back and take control but not telling the viewer what to do but to reflect first, on her blog Out and About Africa Brandie writes:
Well that curiosity is now being feed by the MTV Staying Alive Ignite three part series called shuga. Based in Nairobi, the show looks at young students in the city and the impact of their decisions. The Staying Alive campaign by MTV focuses on getting youth the information they need to make the right choices to help prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS (use this as a major hint about the theme of the series). The Kenyan series is one of three releases (the other two set in Trinidad and Tobago and the Ukraine) and I can tell you it was really well done! It totally doesn't feel like those after school specials from back in the day. Instead, MTV has gotten hot young actors and actresses, a good story line and loads of famous Kenyan musicians to cameo making sure that the youth of the nation (at least those with access to TV) will hear the message. Considering that it was the kids of my good friend in Kenya that even informed me about this, I think they are getting their message across.
On  The Saturday Post Zambia:
The documentary addresses social and economic factors that contribute to the high HIV prevalence and new infection rates, particularly among young people, in Sub-Saharan Africa and the world.
“The film resonates with young people. The main aim is to increase knowledge and start a debate about HIV among young people so that they don't get infected. It aims to encourage behaviour change to prevent new infections. The secondary phase is to remind people that HIV is not a death sentence. People can live positively with HIV,” said Mary.
She added that Media 365 as campaign managers for Ignite – an MTV campaign that challenges young people to change their sexual behaviour – will embark on road shows as part of its activities.[…]
And Pepe Haze, who stars as Ty, said he believed abstinence till one marries was the only way to avoid HIV infection among youth.
Some comments about the series:
Shuga has changed me in a very huge way. Thanks
cant wait to finish download its seems amaizing….am looking forward to learn more about aids
wow, thats exatly what happens in real life..good stuff!
I loved the production, it really hit home for me as a young Kenyan and it has definitely impacted on how I live my life… I hope you can show it in schools somehow! Great movie! M
what a way to mark the world AIDS day! the point is driven in so loudly and accurately to miss its target. am so challenged by the reality and the impact the shuga series has on me. congrats, keep it going till every youth and old lives responsibly.
Shuga truly rocks its like a mirror shows exactly what happens amongst us youths…i learnt alot though not enough so am waiting for more of it
Lupita + Co. – you are doing Kenyans (esp. youth) proud by this production. It may even save lives! Kudos….

author: Haute Haiku


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Madagascar’s forests decimated for $460,000 a day · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

As the world's nations gather today in Copenhagen for the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, Madagascar, having already lost 90% of its original forest, faces continued threats from black market logging.  An illegal traffic of rosewood, a topic of conversation in the Malagasy mediasphere for a few months, has now been thoroughly exposed by an undercover team of investigators.  The details of this very profitable traffic have  been made public and shared by many citizen bloggers and scientific publications. The latest report produced by Global Witness and Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) states that about $460,000 USD worth of trade is cut down each day, with enforcement efforts hampered by the continued absence of a government of national unity. The full report is available here (and in French here).
Malagasy blogger Achille quotes from the report (fr):
En 2009, huit navires porte-containers ont quitté Vohémar avec à leur bord un total de 19 730 rondins et 50 584 planches dans 324 containers autorisés par le MEF (voir Annexe 9). Cela revient à environ 9 700 tonnes de bois de rose.
Video showing the life of the villagers living in the area  demonstrates that they clearly did not benefit from the rosewood traffic:
When one compares the $460,000 a day from the trade with the fact that 89% of the Malagasy population live with less than $2 a day, it is easy to understand why corruption and inequality are commonly regarded as the main obstacles to human development in Madagascar.
Another independent report supported by the Jane Goodall Institute Schweiz  was published this week confirming the extent of what the authors, Schuurman and Lowry, call the “Madagascar Rosewood Massacre” (pdf).
The authors also contributed to this video to raise awareness of the extent of the loss in biodiversity due to the traffic:
The US Senate legislated on this issue and Congressman Blumenauer (D-Oregon) wrote in a statement:
After a coup in March, the new and weakened government of Andry Rajoelina issued sweeping decrees allowing the harvest and export of wood from protected forests and World Heritage Sites. The Obama administration has condemned the de facto government, and the Wildlife Conservation Society, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and Conservation International have denounced the wholesale exploitation of some of the world's most diverse forests and decimation of the local population's resources and livelihoods
The rosewood scandal have now had a serious impact in the political process of Madagascar. Former president Albert Zafy threatened to disclose names in the current Rajoelina government if a solution to unblock the deadlock over the government of national union is not found soon. The necessity to reach a government of national union is also pressed on by the conditionality of foreign investments by the United States ( AGOA and  MCC) and the European Union (fr)  (NB: 70% of the Malagasy government budget come from foreign aid).
Interestingly, this decree allowed for the legal investigation of Gibson guitars. Their headquarters were raided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service because the guitars were made from rosewood from the illegal traffic in Madagascar. Judging from reactions of Twitter users around the world, the fact that Gibson guitars were implicated provoked more reactions that the potential loss of the ring-tail lemur habitat.
The issue of deforestation in Madagascar  is unfortunately not limited to rosewood trafficking. Slash and burn agriculture has caused much of the anthropogenic deforestation of the region. The NGO Vakanala has produced a remarkable 3D real time visualization of the numbers of bush fires affecting Madagascar:
image via http://vakanala.org
Rosewood via Achille52, at http://reflexiums.wordpress.com
Similarily, the Malagasy NGO Mistinjo has also focused its effort on capacity building of local communities that work towards forest restoration and carbon sequestration in Andasibe.
Local bloggers have been raising awareness over the loss of the national rain forest for a long time ago now. But they do more than just raising awareness, Patrick, a blogger from Tamatave, has been steadily replanting trees in the Toamasina region and involved many other associations in this process:

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Namibia: One woman’s story · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Watch a video of a woman's story related to forced sterilisation case going on in Namibia: “Have a look at this story, by Esther Sheehama. Esther’s story is an example of the kinds of stories we are hearing from many women, and highlights why we are fighting forced sterilisation.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Nepal: India-Nepal 1950 Treaty · Global Voices
Rezwan

Bhumika Ghimire's latest vlog stresses that its time to re-negotiate the India-Nepal 1950 treaty of peace and friendship.


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Pakistan: Bolster National Pride · Global Voices
Rezwan

Pakistani blogger Teeth Maestro advocates a two-pronged approach towards the war against Taliban; military and the instillation of national pride.


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Russia: “Free Labor or People For Rent” Video · Global Voices
Alexey Sidorenko

LJ-user kashamanka [RUS] posted a video [RUS] where two women tell their stories of being tricked into working for a Moscow company that never paid them salaries.


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St. Lucia: Going Digital · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Under the prevailing economic situation, the region’s bookstores and publishers have little choice but to try and control their costs as best they can in order to survive”: St. Lucia's Caribbean Book Blog examines the impact of the digital revolution on the region.


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Argentina: Gay Pride Parade 2009 · Global Voices
Issa Villarreal

Blogger Nimphie shares photos from the Gay Pride Parade [em] of Buenos Aires of past November. Note: Some photos may not be suitable for all audiences.


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Bermuda: Deflecting the Issues? · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Bermuda's Wishful Thinking says of the island's political climate: “Racism has become a method of deflection, a way to avoid responsibility and detract from the actual issue at hand.”