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Malawi/Ghana: We are all Ghanaians · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

In “We’re all Ghanaians: Reclaiming Pan-Africanism for the African Renaissance,” Steve Sharra writes: In Malawi we have every reason to join the Ghanaians, and the entire Pan-African world, in celebrating Ghana’s jubilee. As Walusako Mwalilino reminds everyone on the Malawi listserv Nyasanet, it was in Ghana that Malawi’s first president, Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, spent a good part of the 1950s, where he became very close to Dr. Nkrumah, having first known each other in London where Dr. Banda has been practicing medicine for sometime. Dr. Nkrumah would eventually become actively engaged in Malawi’s own struggle for independence from the British.


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Mexico: New Outlet for New Translations · Global Voices
David Sasaki

C.M. Mayo announces the first edition of the Tameme chapbook ~ cuaderno. Meant to “celebrate and disseminate new writing and translation in an attractive and affordable format,” the inaugural issue features the story “Carne verde, piel negra ~ An Avocado from Michoacán” por ~ by Agustín Cadena, which won Mexico's San Luis Potosí Award for Short Story.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: David Sasaki


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Nepal: Adoption and trafficking  · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Deepak's Diary on the adoption racket in Nepal. “In a poverty-stricken country like Nepal, parents may well be ready to sale their kids. One: hoping for the well-being of their kids; that they will get quality education and thereby quality life in a Western country. Second: they may have been lured by the false promises and the money from the traffickers.”

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Nepal: The costs of politics · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Our Dream takes a harsh look at the political tactics in Nepal. “If one of their demands are not met, they will go for a “bandh” no matter how much the costs be. To be simple, these people aren’t aware of the actual costs. They are so narrow-minded that they do not have the capacity to gauze the costs and benefits of an action.


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Russia: Major Auditing Firm’s Tax Problems · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Siberian Light reports on PricewaterhouseCoopers’ recent brush with tax police in Moscow.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: SakhalinExpats.com Forum · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Tim Newman of White Sun of the Desert sets up an online forum for Sakhalin expats: “Considering the number of expats here and the size of the oil and gas projects both present and future, it always surprised me how little information is available to anyone coming here, or indeed for anyone who is already here.  Whereas most oil towns have a multitude of websites where people can read about the place, Sakhalin doesn’t really have any, and my blog seemed to be providing information that people obviously couldn’t get elsewhere.”


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Russia: Salaries and Workload · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

White Sun of the Desert discusses Russian salaries (low) and the workload they cover (not too intense).


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Russia: Slain Journalists · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sean's Russia Blog writes about the 20 journalists who have been killed since Vladimir Putin became Russia's president.


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South Africa: South African blog search · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Tyler Reed announces a new South African blog search, “SA Blog Search is something I wanted to start a while ago. I setup the co-op search engine through Google and registered the domain. I just never got around to doing anything with it. So today I had some spare time and thought I would quickly chuck it up.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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South Korea: from Yeosu Fire to migrant labour reform · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The Yeosu migrant detention centre's fire has developed into a call for legislation to protect the safety and rights of migrant labour in South Korea. Jamies has a very detailed report with background at interlocals.net.

author: Oiwan Lam


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South Korea: International Woman’s Day · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Voice of the people has a photo essay on the International Woman's Day.


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South Korea: school uniform · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The price of uniform becomes a talking point in South Korea, Matt has a summary of the issue at stake.


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Spain: Atena 3 on YouTube · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Eduardo Arcos says [ES] Antena 3 is the first television station from Spain to distribute its own content on YouTube.


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Taiwan: Yuan-Hsiao Festival: carry a lantern, play firecrackers, and worship deities · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

Nowadays, people in Taiwan start working in the fifth day after lunar new year eve.  However, in tradition, the 15th day, Yuan-Hsiao Festival, is the the last day of the holidays.
Based on Alanruo, these full-moon festivals are related to the productive cycles in agriculture.  At the start of spring, Yuan-Hsiao Festival is full of the expectancy for life, and this is why farmers hope for abundant harvest, women hope for children, and singles gather together during this festival.
凡是月圓型的節日，大致都與農耕生產週期有關。春天適值農作伊始，過節時充滿對生命的盼望，元宵的活動中便蘊含豐富的生命意識，舉凡農夫祈求豐收、婦女求子、未婚男女社交都集中在此時進行。
(It might be true: Yuan-Hsiao Festival this year is March 3rd, Valentine's Day is Feb 14th, and Mardi Gra is Feb 20th.)
同時，又因為燈諧音「丁」，張燈本身又有祈子嗣之意涵。
In Taipei, we have yearly lantern demonstration.  You can watch the major lantern here.  If you watch it carefully, you can see a Farris wheel, Taipei 101, and a circling train.  If you think it is not modern enough, how about this lantern?  The major producer of this Gundam lantern, bean20, spent two and half months building the lantern with the help of 11 people.
People also go to the mountains to send ‘Tien-Deng.’  The origin of this tradition is Ping-Hsi, Taipei County.  In the past, ‘Tien-Deng’ is a safety signal for families.  Nowadays, it is a messenger to the deities.  If you are not satisfied in watching people sending ‘Tien-Deng’, how about sending your own ‘Tien-Deng’ on line?  Do not forget to write down your wishes in the blank area.
Although people enjoy this activity, Alhorn observed the poor dog lanterns last year (last year is ‘dog year’).  Alhorn said, ‘the life of these lanterns is shorter than the time we need to develop the film.’
原來，節慶花燈的保存期限，
比一整捲銀鹽底片的曝光時間還短。
Alanruo talked about the old tradition of carrying the paper lanterns with candles:
提蠟燭點亮的燈籠，才有燈籠燒掉，「出燈／丁」愈燒愈旺的好采頭。電池＋燈泡的組合，只是製造更多萬年環境污染而已。
‘Tien Deng’ also raises serious safety concerns.  weatherman said, ‘this activity has serious public safety problems.  I recommend that our government should make people more aware of the danger, and we can reduce unnecessary loss.  People should know that we do have regulations for this activity, and we have responsibility for our ‘Tien-Deng’ if it affects public safety, airplane navigation, environment protection, or other disasters.’
造成許多潛在的負面效應，特別是危急大眾安全。也建議政府宜加速進行宣導，減少不必要的損失，民眾也應了解目前已非無法可管，因施放天燈導致公共安全、飛航安全、環境保護或其他災害事故者，會有相關的法律責任。
While the northern Taiwanese lighted up the lanterns, the southern Taiwanese tried to use firecrackers to expel bad luck.
Yen-Shui, a small town in the plain, and one of the major harbors in Taiwan three hundreds years ago.  In 1882, many people died from a plague.  After asking the ‘Kuan-Kung’ (one of the major deities), people decided to walk the statues of the deities and set firecrackers.  The plague was controlled after the ceremony, so this activity is held every year thereafter.
If you think we use normal firecrackers, you are wrong.  The firecrackers in Yen-Shui is called wasp-firecrackers.  Local people always spend a lot of money making or buying firecrackers, and then they will set them toward the statues of the deities.  Because they have the largest and the wildest firecrackers in Taiwan, young people will wear helmets that protect the whole head and clothes that cover the whole body and walk close to the statues to feel the crazy firecrackers.  This year, they even built the longest (13 km) firecracker in the world, which is called ‘the legend of fire dragon.’  (It only took 45 mins to burn out!)
In addition to carrying a lantern and playing firecrackers,  we worship the deities.  You can hear traditional music in the ceremonies in Alanruo's blog.  She also described the ceremonies:
元宵是上元天官賜福之辰，過年過節，廟會祭祀仍然會關注到好兄弟的需要，所以也要辦普度施食賑孤。
Think this is old-style?  How about deities dancing with electronic music?  In an ancient story, the third prince (Nézhā) is a naughty boy.  In recent years, the third prince is the first deity embrace electronic music and dance.  In Siddhartha's blog, some people left messages to support this change, while some people disliked it.
About reviving traditional ceremonies, cwyuni has another idea:
我覺得有使命為平常有拜有保庇的眾神明挺身而出，策劃一系列年輕人也可以同樂的節慶活動。建議下回三太子李哪吒作壽或是媽祖她老人家出巡， 我們不妨齊聚全省各大廟宇倒數，過了午夜大啖素雞素鴨或大茂黑瓜以示慶祝，罐頭山旁邊捻一炷清香互送「永保安康」車票祈福，最後嚼兩片旺旺仙貝，張開雙臂 對天空大喊一聲「旺旺！」取代「Happy New Year!」或是「Merry Xmas!」

author: I-fan Lin


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Touring Libyan Blogs : Bring a Chaperone or Go Back Home · Global Voices
Fozia Mohamed

Libyan bloggers have been quite prolific on many topics this past week, however what easily dominated their minds this time was the ‘invisible’ law regulating the Libyan females under the age of 40 from travelling abroad.
No one seems to have a concrete idea why it is being put on the agenda, and speculations abound.
Dania2004 from Our little family adventures cannot digest the news :
“My dad is a lawyer.. he would always say that Libya has the best laws regarding gender equality… and that women are privileged to live here because they will always know that they are protected by the means of law….and that they just need some knowledge and information about their rights and duties […] to go to visit my family i need my husband to take me there…and since his holiday time is different from mine.. he will have to return back for his studies , then come back again to Libya to take me back.. as if I'm a bag…or a piece of furniture” “
Sereeb  in her post   Shame on you  is full of bitterness best described in this one sentence  ” what a wonderful gift to women in women’s Day!! “
It's good to see a man's point of view on this topic. Braveheart calls it a strange decision.
“I can't understand the benefit of this decision,” he laments.
The discussions generated were rich and varied, but Highlander was the one to remind us that we are dealing with a  decision as no one can find the actual text for up to now.
“It seems some women have been turned back, and I also read plenty of references to this Law, but I do not see the text or a copy of it anywhere.”
She wonders if  it is  in retaliation for the actions of some Libyan girls abroad that may have “disgraced” the nation, but cannot fathom the wisdom of it all. You can read the rest here.
A good idea would be to check the comments for a fuller picture.
In the meantime let's hope grounding Libyan women will be shortlived.

author: Fozia Mohamed


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Trinidad & Tobago: New Shakespeare play? · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

“How this previously unknown Shakespeare play came to be in the West Indian Reference Library in Port of Spain I don't know,” writes blogger Jeremy Taylor, as he runs an excerpt from the aforementioned work, which describes events bearing “an uncanny resemblance to events in Trinidad and Tobago this last week.”

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Venezuela, Bolivia: Summit of Presidents and Social Movement · Global Voices
David Sasaki

As many leftist Latin American commentators insist that Bush's visit to Latin America is meant to impede regional integration, Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez are organizing the “First Summit of Presidents and Social Movements” in June. A translation to English by Bolivia Rising gives more details.


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Zimbabwe: a growing list of human rights abuse · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

This is Zimbabwe‘s list of human rights violation by Mugabe's administration,”Gift Tandare is the name of the young man killed by the Zimbabwean police yesterday. He was a young activist trying to participate in a rally yesterday, organised to voice objections to the myriad human rights abuses under Mugabe and Zanu PF in our country. He leaves behind a wife and three young children (primary school age).”


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Zimbabwe: activist shot dead by police · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

This is Zimbabwe posts an update on Zimbabwean government crackdown on pro-democracy activists:
“The Save Zimbabwe Campaign, a campaign initiated by the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance, decided to press ahead with a prayer rally earlier today despite police refusal to grant permission for them to go ahead (read our recent posts on the bannings of meetings and demonstrations). The government cracked down hard.”


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Afghan Whispers:Alcohol,Women and Iranian connection · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Afghan bloggers and non Afghan bloggers who write about Afghanistan have lot of stories to share: From alcohol to women and afghan immigrants problems.
Alcohol
Onne Parl tells us why alcohol disappeared from the market last autumn. The blogger says
one can hear two versions why alcohol disappeared from the markets in last autumn. First, Islamic Government is really concerned with availability of alcohol. Secondly: it is a question of money. Considering the low prices, it was clear, that taxes were not included. When government started taxing alcohol, shops refused to pay. Alcohol moved out or it is just hidden, as informed people tell.
Women in Pain
Afghan Lord talks about Women's day,the 8 march,and afghan women's conditions. He writes
sometimes Afghan men beating their wives for nothing just they like it to show their power and anger in his family member. When they feel to beat their wife they do it immediately. Many parents marry their daughters off to wealthy men aged 60 and 70. A shocking story of child bride at the age of four in Kandahar is one example of thousands. Many parents sell their daughters like materials, they are not care where does she goes and what will happened on her. About 57% of Afghan girls are married before the legal marriage age of 16; about 60-80% of marriages are forced.
Safrang says almost same stroy about women in Afghanistan.He says
On the eve of another International Women’s Day the lot of Afghan women has not improved considerably since the fall of the Taliban. That is the unanimous verdict from the UN, AIHRC (Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission) and a number of other organizations and reports in the media. Domestic violence, forced marriages, lack of access to health services (and of lesser immediate concern, to education) remain alarmingly high.
Humanity has no Borders
Thanks to Jadi, an Iranian IT expert and blogger, we discover that a group of Iranians have launched a campaign to protest the Iranian government's mistreatment of Afghan immigrants. We can look at several photos of campagne here. One of the slogans says “humanity does not no any borders” and another slogan means “when injustice becomes a law then resistance becomes a responsibility.”

author: Fred Petrossian


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Algeria: Special Focus on Mauritania  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Algerian blogger Lameen Souag has kind words for Mauritania. “On the rare occasions when it makes Western headlines, it's generally for slavery or famine, but this week it's distinguishing itself in a rather nobler fashion: holding its first free presidential elections,” he writes, while giving special attention to languages there.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Armenia: Half Silly/Half Serious · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Anoush Armenia reports on a recent half silly/half serious exhibition in Yerevan that was intended to provoke participants into thinking about whether or not they are satisfied with the reality around them.

author: Nathan Hamm


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Bahrain: Child Abuse in Schools · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahrain-based blogger Haitham Sabbah links to a shocking video showing a fight between two students in a classroom, apparently arranged by a teacher! “I have no clue where was this video clip taken. It is a classroom in one of our schools around the Arab world. The teacher’s accent sounds Syrian; however that doesn’t necessary mean that this toke place in a Syrian school. Teachers from all around the Arab world spread over many countries specially in the Gulf region,” he explains.


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Bahrain: Islam Needs Positive Public Relations · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Islam needs a public relations campaign makeover, writes Bahraini blogger emoodz, following news reports that a  British Muslim has been found guilty of soliciting murder during a London rally against cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad.


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Bahrain: Newspaper Accused of Spreading Sectarianism · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif  blames a local newspaper for spreading sectarianism.  “Whatever it is, the only way to defeat such sectarianism is not to give in to it and expose it wherever and whenever you encounter it no matter how small the incident is,” he writes.


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Belarus: Past or Present? · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Having watched The Lives of Others – the winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, “a grim portrayal of life in East Germany before reunification and the twisted relationship between cultural elites and the Stasi secret police” – TOL's Belarus Blog observes: “But as I spoke to my friends in Minsk, read the websites with news from Belarus, and recalled travels to that country, I realized that in some parts of Eastern Europe, the film was more about current events than the past.”


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Bolivia: Who’s to Blame for the Rains? · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Blame it on El Niño or blame it on the West. Either way, much of the eastern part of Bolivia found itself drastically affected by heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding that left thousands displaced and caused millions of dollars of damage.  Reaction or lack of reaction from the government was interpreted in political terms, as many were left wondering why the government of President Evo Morales did not immediately declare the area a national disaster.  The reaction from the rest of the country showed the true colors of its citizens with hundreds of thousands of dollars raised.
Officially the high volume of precipitation was caused by the phenomenon known as “El Niño” (The Child), but President Morales wondered aloud whether some of the western countries may have been directly responsible for these unusual and deadly weather patterns.  Jim Shultz from the Democracy Center blog says that Morales raises a good question, whether Bolivia is bearing the result of these climate changes possibly caused by industrialized nations. Federico Fuentes also reports on this ongoing debate in his blog Bolivia Rising, which reprinted his article that was also published in Green Left Online.
Many in the department of Beni waited for a declaration of national emergency, yet it seemingly did not come.  Andrés Pucci did not understand the insensitivity of the Minister of Rural Development, Susana Rivero, who said that such an emergency would be declared only in the event of a tsunami.  Considering that Bolivia is a landlocked country without a coastline, Pucci thought the comment was even that much more absurd.  Days later, the government decided to declare the national emergency in the three provinces most affected.  Some analysts say that the decision not to declare a national emergency had more to do with the ongoing process of land reform, than the government's sensitivity to the disaster.  According to the land reform law (INRA), any lands under such a declaration are no longer eligible for any reversion.
A new blog called Déjà vu [ES], written by Erick Sivila Flores thought the media coverage was unfairly using the tragedy to collect money in benefit.
También, es muy lamentable que se use este momento tan delicado para: canales de televisión queriendo hacer su obra de beneficio, mostrando personas afectadas llorando, osea es muy bajo…… sin pompas ni sonajas sería mejor no?
It is also regrettable that some television channels in an effort to do their charity work are showing crying people that have been affected, that’s low…it should be without pomp or noise, right?
While the images of the disaster filled the television screens, many Bolivians took the images to heart and came aboard the campaign “Solidarity Bolivia,” which raised nearly 3 million Bolivianos (approximately 375,000 USD). Mauricio Aira and his new blog Bolivia Primera Plana [ES] urges all religious, political, social and business organizations to join the cause. In spite of all the name calling and resentment among Bolivians in the polarized political and social environment, the anonymous blogger Morir Antes Que Esclavos Vivir [ES] salutes those Bolivians that contributed to this campaign and writes, “Congratulations, Bolivia, that is what it means to be Bolivian!” Carlos Hugo Quintanilla of Del Quintacho su Rincón [ES] also applauds the show of solidarity and says that this shows that Bolivia is one country.
This time, last year:
Visits by Uruguayan President Tabaré Vazquez and a visit by President Morales to Chile continue Bolivia’s attempt of integration with the rest of its South American neighbors.  The heavy workload assumed by Morales in his first two months of office also shows his lack of desire to maintain a family.
Special thanks to Mario Duran of his blog Palabras Libres [ES] for submission of links that contributed to this article.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Brunei: English Language Standard in Brunei · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Old Man is not too happy with the standard of English language in Brunei and takes the education system to task. “I know there are lots of arguments about the Malay language, about it being our mother tongue and that we should uphold it etc etc etc, but if it affects negatively the future of our children and their employability, then we really should change our way of thinking. Who really employs only malay speaking staff nowadays? Cant something be done to improve the quality of english language teaching in our primary schools”

author: Preetam Rai


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Cambodia: Blogger evangelists urge youngsters to share knowledge and experience · Global Voices
Tharum Bun

Since its inception in last year, blogging training aka Personal Information Technology Workshop has introduced basic use of IT skills to more than 2000 students from 10 Cambodia's universities.
A personal information technology workshop in session. Image from Kalyan Keo‘s blog.
After a few months of preparation, the workshop of Personal Information Technology has come to the stage. The first one was held at International University (IU) on Aug 21 with some 50 participants and the second was at Pannasastra University of Cambodia (PUC) with more than 400 students…
In August 2006, Mean Lux, the blogger advocate who introduced the term Clog and Clogger for Cambodia blog and Cambodia blogger, launched a workshop named Personal Information Technology to provide training that include several sessions such as: how to use email, browse the Web, and more importantly how to create and maintain blog. Up till now, more than 2000 university students participated in the organized workshops.
In the largest and most vibrant Cambodian city, Phnom Penh a large percent of people speak English and have access to computer and the Net at Internet café.  The workshop organizers and their sponsor are optimistic that they can play an active role in conducting the workshops for participants from as many higher education institutions as possible. The blogging workshop has been made possible with technical assistance from one of the Internet Service Providers, CityLink. Besides providing the cost of producing training materials, the ISP also make the Internet connection available at every practice session.
Mean Lux, his four other blogger evangelists (Kalyan, Virak, Chantra and younger Kalyan) are able to run the workshop with the recognition and appreciation of university lecturers who reserve conference hall for over one hundred attendees as well as some computer desktops that connect to the CityLink’s internet link. At Build Bright University in Siem Reap, about 200 student attendees took the course.
Clogger, a term coined in 2004 that derives from “Cambodia blogger,” is now widely known to 2370 university students in Cambodia. Months before blog became popular in the country that year, an early Cambodian blogger began a series of training in some provinces, offering IT enthusiasts an introduction to use personal publishing tool to post opinions and ideas.
Presenter Kalyan gave her personal impression after a workshop in Cambodia's largest university that attracted 400 student:
Yesterday our workshop on Personal Information Technology was held at PUC, and beyond our expectation there were about more than 400 participants including the Deans and the lecturers. I was very nervous…
Automated publishing services like Blogger and WordPress are free for users from a commercial point of view.  Personal presence on the Web is no longer for elites, academics and geeks. New voices of these Internet story tellers, thoughts and opinions are common and has become central point for conversations spurred by opinionated readers that begins dialogs. The interaction may not be real- time, but still, the two-way communication is another effective way of critical idea exchanges on a particular issue. With all these, suddenly, there are many more voices reporting information. While this explosion is bound to cause some confusion, it also means many more ideas, viewpoints, and opinions are available to the public. The result can only be a better-informed world, one where no centralized entity can control what others can learn.
Clog  refers to a heavy shoe traditionally made of wood when talking about attire. This term also means something that works against somebody as an obstacle or hindrance. Metaphorically, what Camobdia blog aka Clog is about is hardly understood.
When the Internet arrived in Cambodia in 1996-97, several years after China and about two decades after the Internet was invented, a few Cambodians, working alongside the expatriates from international aid agencies, for the first time, experienced electronic mail, then a new revolutionary way of communication. And about a decade later it is heartening to see more Cambodians embrace these new high-tech services, one of which is blogging.

author: Tharum Bun


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Cricket World Cup 2007 through the eyes of the bloggers · Global Voices
Rezwan

The 9th World Cup cricket started with a colorful opening ceremony in the Carribean islands. The tournament is scheduled for 51 matches in a span of one and a half months. The itinerary can be found here, the tickets here,    and here is the official website. (via Cric Blog)
The third world view lists cricket blogs and portals from South Asia.  A compilation of Cricket World Cup 2007 TV, Radio and Internet live Broadcast links can also be found there.
Mahesh of i3j3 cricket posts some images of Mello, the world cup Mascot.  A Voice of Colombo posts details on the Cricket World Cup venues, where the matches will be played.
Bharath Hemachandran has done an interesting pre-world cup warm up match performance summary of the 16 playing nations. The Googly posts the world cup group previews.
Do you know what Sri Lanka had in 1996 that they don’t have now? ‘The element of surprise’ is the answer tells Dark Horse. Bangladesh aims to enter the big league says Miraz at Bangla Cricket.
The Commentary Box reports that the world cup trophy was damaged in Kolkata while handing over to ICC earlier last week. Scribbler on the net reports the umpires on the ground will hear the faintest of edges via hearing aids. Hope the players don't appeal to him closely.
Google has launched an official blog, which will  be authored by former Indian cricketer Krish Srikkanth.
No doubt the world will suffer some loss of productivity, because millions of cricket fans worldwide will spend hours in front of TV as claimed by a British report. However Samir in Eye on Cricket says this won't have an impact on the Indian economy.

author: Rezwan


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Dubai: 200 Women Preachers Trained · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Secret Dubai Diary  posts a news article which says that 200 women are being trained as preachers in the rich Emirate. He describes the development as “extremely encouraging and significant news.”


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East Timor: Airshow in East Timor · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Diligence is impressed by the military chopper maneuvers in East Timor. “I asked some Timorese if they knew of any trouble spot (they usually know) but no-one knew.  I am none the wiser but it certainly was a spectacle with a fair bit of swooping, coming to a halt then speeding off again.  Better than TV.”


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Georgia: Internally Displaced Persons · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Onnik Krikorian reports on and posts pictures of ethnic Georgians who were displaced by fighting in Abkhazia


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Guinea-Conakry: standing up to a power-hungry President · Global Voices
Gavin Simpson

The technological revolution that enables ordinary citizens to capture and upload video footage on the web has been slow to take root in West Africa.  Up to now we haven’t featured any video content from this part of the world on the Human Rights Video Hub Pilot.  So this week we're bringing you a rare clip that has made it online from Guinea, the francophone nation whose capital Conakry has been in a state of siege in recent weeks, and where it appears that the struggle continues towards self-rule and sustainable peace:
The clip shows the Guinean Army firing indiscriminately on a crowd of civilians who were demonstrating their growing discontent with the increasingly autocratic ways of President Lansana Conté.  Such eye-witness video footage is especially valuable because voices from the Guinean grassroots are difficult to find in the blogosphere.  Most of the online commentary about Guinea in crisis has come from international news agencies and bloggers from elsewhere in Africa.
GV author Jen Brea last month put together an excellent overview of the unrest in Guinea.  The crisis reached its climax when President Conté declared martial law and deployed government troops with instructions to use armed force to restore order.  The ensuing stand-off led to the deaths of more than 110 people, many of them youths and children killed by gunfire on the streets of Conakry.
Organisations like the International Crisis Group warned that unless real change took place in Guinea, chaos would spread quickly with disastrous consequences.  On the ground, civil society refused to back down.  Further bold resistance to martial law from the labour unions and the wider populace – backed by the Guinean Parliament – brought about a renewed end to the general strike on 25 February 2007 and the appointment of new Prime Minister Lansana Kouyate, who appears to be a product of consensus.
As GV Francophone editor Alice Backer picked up last week, the Senegalese blogger Alex Seck (Fr) is now talking about Guinea exiting out of its crisis.  But the prevailing general tone is still cautious: national union leaders (Fr) and their international counterparts are stressing that it is vital to remain vigilant about this so-called return of peace to Guinea…
There are many warning signs to be drawn from the recent history of conflict in the West African sub-region.  For several years attention has been drawn to the risk that Guinea could be the next country to slide into violent unrest.
Wars in the neighbouring countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire had originally positioned Guinea as a haven for hundreds of thousands of refugees.  However, the enormous numbers of people migrating across Guinea’s volatile borders also included former fighters from neighbouring wars who are vulnerable to being recruited into new hostilities.  Some international analysts have spent years contemplating responses to possible conflict in Guinea and the wider humanitarian crisis, while significant concerns have developed around the precarious position of Guinea’s Forest Region as a source of instability in its own right.  Yet in essence the central causes of conflict in the sub-region have always been traceable to bad governance and failures of leadership.
So who holds a leader like President Conté to account when his tyrannical tendencies spiral out of control?
Here on the Human Rights Video Hub we’ve been trying to make the point that accountability can stem from ordinary citizens equipped with the technology to capture abuses on film – as the video clip in this piece demonstrates.  The problem is that local media in countries like Guinea are still weak, with little access to the tools required to document or disseminate evidence of such abuses of state power.  Nor is there much of a Guinean blogosphere to speak of, leaving most people reliant on news websites like AllAfrica.com and Guineenews (Fr), or blogs like Friends of Guinea, to receive reports or analysis about the latest developments.
These sources were supplemented in recent weeks by bloggers from elsewhere who were moved to drive the online debate.  For example, Senegal’s Alex Seck (Fr) declared that Guinea was on the brink of imploding (Fr) and that the failure of the international community to condemn or put pressure on President Conte was “shameful”.  East African blog Charcoal Ink said the turmoil was a reflection of familiar political trends in Africa: “there is a power struggle going on and power is that delicious elixir that my African leaders can’t get enough of”.
Finally, one of the most interesting responses to the unrest in Guinea was the defiant posturing of the national youth music scene, represented most prominently by the Fonike collective (Fr), which produced a hip-hop video (Fr) in solidarity with the citizens who protested against Conté’s “dictatorial regime”, as well as the following reggae clip:
Unfortunately these voices of the musical youth seem to have little genuine impact, partly due to the fact that much of West African politics is oblivious to grassroots opinion and only really responsive to its “big men”.
So now the most immediate challenge is for one such big man, Prime Minister Kouyate, to seize the momentum (Fr) that the emergence from this violent period has afforded him.  To make tangible progress and to prevent Guinea slipping into conflict, Kouyate will need robust assistance from his national and international allies.  And most importantly he’ll have to stand strong against the whims and excesses of power-hungry President Conté, in order that the clashes witnessed last month do not become the forebears of yet another devastating West African conflict.

author: Gavin Simpson


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India: Ardh Kumbh Mela · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Swajana has a video from the Ardh Kumbh Mela. The pilgrimage occurs four times every twelve years, once at each of the four locations. Each twelve-year cycle includes the Maha (great) Kumbh Mela at Prayag, attended by millions of people, making it the largest pilgrimage gathering around the world.”


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India: Google helps the Indian Government censor the net · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

ContentSutra on the recent news report that Google may help the Indian Government on their cyber censorship exercises. “Orkut has entered into an agreement with the Enforcement Directore arm of the Mumbai Police: as per DCP Enforcement Directorate Sanjay Mohite, Orkut will share IP details of those who post “objectionable content” on Orkut and blogs. Apparently, all it will take is for DCP Mohite to send an email to Orkut. “


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India: Yay for Mumbai Police! · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

superstarksa takes a scathing, sarcastic take on Google agreeing to provide IPs to the Mumbai Police. “But I do have some questions for them. While they are at it, will they crack down on the few hundred idiots who use a picture of the bare torso-ed Salman Khan as their profile display picture. And what about the hundreds of faux Asins, Jyothikas and as if the real one is not enough, Aishwarya Rais?”


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Indonesia: Increase in Defense Spending · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Indonesia Matters has a post on Indonesia's Defense Minister explaining why they need to raise the defense budget by 15%.


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Kazakhstan: Education Steppe · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Ben Paarmann notes that Kazakhstan's president was very impressed with Qatar's Education City after his visit there yesterday, and reports on problems in Kazakhstan's education system and a bit on how the government might try to solve them.


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Kyrgyzstan: Virtual Trip to Osh · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Tamara Tashbaeva takes readers on a quick virtual tour of her hometown, Osh, a city that she says she does not get to visit often enough.


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La Reunion: Women’s Day and Women’s Magazines · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Blogger Pierrot Dupuy comments [Fr] on a local women's magazine's Women's Day issue: “One of the main articles is titled Mentalities Must Change. Sure, no doubt. But why then do all the ads featured in the magazine contribute in conveying a negative image of women?“

author: Alice Backer


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Latvia: Imaginary Extremism · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Marginalia writes about Latvian graffiti, the “annual scandal on March 16th” and the largely imaginary “extremism” in Daugavpils: “The idea that there could be a significant movement devoted to Russian-bashing in a rather harmoniously multicultural city where ethnic Latvians make up only about a fifth of the population and Russian is overwhelmingly the lingua franca is quite simply ludicrous to anybody who knows this town.”


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Latvia: The Showdown · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Marginalia and All About Latvia write about “the Showdown” between Latvia's outgoing president and the parliament “over the control of the national security services.” (In another post, All About Latvia reports: “The President announced Saturday the push for a national referendum regarding national security laws in the country. If the people support the President in the referendum, Vike-Freiberga can go on to dismiss the Parliament and call early parliamentary elections.”)


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Morocco, Tunisia: Women to Give Nationality to Children Born to Foreign Fathers · Global Voices
Alice Backer

TunisienDoctor writes [Fr]: “Finally another Arab country, Marocco, adopts a law that authorizes women to give their nationality to their children even when married to foreigners. Tunisian women have had this right for about 20 years.”


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Myanmar: Introducing New Blogs · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Burma Underground is introducing new blogs that talk about Myanmar.


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Nepal: On Maoists and Voluntary contributions · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

United We Blog! on attending a Maoist meeting. “They said that the Maoists didn’t threaten but it was unwise to cause problems with them. This is becoming a constant theme. The Maoists are probably being honest when they claim that donations are voluntary. What they don’t realize (or at least don’t admit) is how many people give them support because of intimidation without that intimidation being overtly communicated.”


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Oman: How Not to Flirt · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Omani blogger Lym , who is based in Australia, wasn't impressed with the advances of a fellow Arab from the UAE, who was desperately trying to draw her attention.


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Oman: Rent going up · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Rent in Oman is going up, according to Omani blogger Muscati. “Rents in Oman have been going through the sky for the past six months and the situation is now heading out of control. In the past month people have been getting notices from landlords increasing rents by unheard of amounts, and with immediate effect as well,” he writes.


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Pakistan: On Maps · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Light Within on (mis)representation on the world map. “In Mercator’s map Greenland is bigger than Africa, which is in reality 14 times larger. Scandinavia is shown to be the same size as India although it is actually only one third the size. The erstwhile USSR (22.4 million square kilometres) seems bigger than Africa, which is 30 million square kilometres.”


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Panama: CookingDiva Melissa De Leon Wins Again !!! · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Leon Kadoch congratulates fellow Panamanian blogger, Melissa de León, “The Cooking Diva” for winning the Bloggie Award for “Best Latin American Blog” for the second year in a row. Melissa herself is grateful to her many fans.

author: David Sasaki


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Qatar: Al Jazeera Cameraman Force-Fed · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Friends of Al Jazeera blogger Karim posts a story which claims that the “lawyer of Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj, who is detained in Guantanamo Bay, has said his health has worsened and he is being force-fed through his nose.”


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Qatar: Weblog Awards a Let Down · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Qatar-based blogger Morad Rayyan isn't impressed with the results of the Seventh Annual Weblog Awards. “Though I refuse to acknowledge the list of winners since they have scratched my blog from the list of nominees due to discrimination towards Koreans and Jordanians and blah blah… but since I have a big heart and I can easily forgive people…I congratulate all 2007 bloggers “winners”..” he writes.


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Romania, Moldova: Interference? · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Public Policy Watch – Politici Publice in Moldova writes about allegations by the Moldovan government that Romania is interfering with Moldova's internal affairs.


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Russia: Still Some More on Putin’s Munich Speech · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Edward Lucas of The Economist posts “a long rant written last month about Putin and Russian foreign policy which was never published and is now slightly out of date.”


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Tajikistan: Russian Food Aid · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Vadim is surprised to find out that Russia is a major supporter of the World Food Program's program in Tajikistan.


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Turkey is Typing: You Tube “Should I Stay or Should I Go” · Global Voices
Deborah Ann Dilley

Last week Global Voices reported on the temporary ban the Republic of Turkey put on media site YouTube.  The background of the issue stems from a single video posted by a Greek accusing the founder of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as being gay.  In response to this video, which was deemed as “Insulting Turkishness”, a court in Turkey blocked all access of YouTube within Turkey.  When the offending video was removed, access was again granted.  Turkish reaction has come in a variety of forms: anger at the Greeks and the entire situation, anger at the Turkish government's reaction, and outright embarrassment.
Childish Anger
From the international community standpoint, the entire situation is seen as a childish display:
Ordinarily, a ridiculous exchange like this stays in the schoolyard. Those posting may actually still be in grade school, for all that anyone knows. With the global commons that is emerging online, however, governments prone to meddling with free speech no longer know what to leave on the kiddie table and what to treat as dangerous. Which just serves to illustrate how ridiculous government concern over “insulting Turkishness,” as the law phrases it, are. Adults in a free society should not be so delicate as to require government protection from juvenile insults to their nationality or religion. Taking these taunts so seriously only brings them greater attention and dramatizes a deep insecurity in those who feel so insulted.
Me and Others lashes out at the Greeks:
i have seen some very patriotic greeks who dont hesitate to use the lowest vocabulary the english language may contain against turks and our values, and yet cannot represent any bit of opinion which resembles… an opinion. even though i am pretty much sure that these people are supported by the ultra nationalist greek groups which might even have links to the greek government, lets forget about such allegations for a second. lets say that these people are indivuals who decide to attack the values turks have, and they are not backed by any groups by no means and they are alone. ok. so what does that mean? the low mind-state of these human like creatures gives a good idea of what they teach in greek schools: hatred. it is so sad that people of a nation who claim to have a very rich history and cultural assets can come up with nothing but hatred only. from this point of view, it is not Ataturk or the turks they humiliate, but only themselves.
Turkish Anger
Of course, the majority of the anger has been focused on the Turkish Government itself.  From Athanasia's Daily:
Because some videos contain insulting claims on Atatürk, Istanbul First Criminal Peace Court decided that we the Turkish people should no longer have access to YouTube! Are you out of your mind?! I have serious doubts if these bureacrats know what internet means and what YouTube looks like. People, internet is something that is designed for everyone's access and participation. It is even thought as a “public sphere”. That is to say, there should be no censorship in internet and everyone should be able to express whatever they think. OK, Atatürk issue is something that we are highly sensitive about and it may argued that Turkish people were right to react those videos. However you dont have the right of blocking our access to the entire YouTube. This is called censorship.
From Metroblogging:Istanbul
I am not totally surprised but it is still surprising; as a citizen of Turkey i know how mighty steps can be taken by the State in case of emergency. One of the most popular websites, YouTube is banned in Turkey for a single video. All the background can be found here or here. The video is ugly. It insults the founder of the Republic. Like it or not, Atatürk is a sacred figure for most of Turkish citizens. And an insulting video would trigger such a popular reaction. However, would it be necessary to legally stop the access to Youtube?
Me and Others points out the absurdity in blocking the Greek video but not others:
there are tons of pkk propaganda in youtube, there are videos showing how kurdish terrorists kill turkish troops, followed by kurdish terror lovers praising the videos, and yet, i havent seen a word been talked about it. so, to be honest, i think the new turkish generation should find a way to get rid of these so old minded decision makers, who ever they might be, or who knows, maybe the blogger.com might be prevented too because of my humble post here.
Embarrassment
Erkan's Field Diary sums up the embarrassment of the situation the best: “Our daily, hourly, minutely self inflicted humiliation in the eyes of world continue.”
Part of the problem was also the reaction of the Turkish people (not just the government) to threats against their identity, as Mavi Boncuk states:
It is time for Turks everywhere to grow up. Stop fighting the world by choking e-mail boxes. Do meaningful things before “Interneti alan Uskudari Gecmeden.”
Stop asking “ulufe’ from the coffers of Turkish Nation. The structure of nation to nation business only works with top level approaches. Hiring lobbyist is only natural. Go beyond these hang ups. Truth will prevail if the Turkish Diaspora can come out of their ghettos of the mind and make friends in the communities they live in, master languages, be politically active and volunteer. It is a long trek and is the only way to reach a destination. Read, investigate, discuss, disseminate information, make your ideas known to others and stop crying over spilled YouTube.
What now?
According to Erkan's Field Diary, the ban on YouTube was not lifted because of protests from the Turkish people:
I am 100% sure, Turkish citizens were not effective in revoking the ban but our elders finally thought this was to be great damage to the national reputation.
What I have presented here is only a fraction of what has been said about this issue.  I would be curious to hear what you have to say on the topic.  What is your opinion on government censorship?  Are their instances where censorship is a benefit to the people?  What limits can be put on “Insulting Turkishness” and how far outside of the Republic of Turkey should the prosecuting of such extend?

author: Deborah Ann Dilley


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Ukraine: Retro Tickets · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

MoldovAnn discovers a rather amazing thing: theater tickets she has recently bought in Kyiv for the Russian production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” were printed way back in the Soviet times (photo is enclosed).

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Zimbabwe: Mugabe will not stand alone · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“”But Mugabe will not stand alone when the time for judgement comes, and it shall,” writes Isabella Matambanadzo blogging at Black Looks: “All other African leaders who have applauded his excesses will finally feel their guilt. Especially you, who had the power to intervene but chose instead to say Zimbabwe, it’s an internal issue. Zimbabweans, what are they doing for themselves?”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Zimbabwe: opposition demands release of its leaders · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The opposition in Zimbabwe demands the release of it leaders, via Cry Beloved Zimbabwe: The regime has resorted to arresting forces of democratic change. The whole country is under siege from the forces of tyranny.


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Abu Aardvark: What’s With Al Hurra? · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Abu Aardvark (Marc Lynch) spends some time looking into the past, present and future of Arabic channel Al Hurra – a US-based satellite TV channel, which is sponsored by the US government.


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Argentina: Passenger List of Italian Immigrants in 1961 · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Upon discovering the passenger list of the ship Federico that sailed from Genova, Italy to Buenos Aires in March 1961, Jeff Barry asks his readers for personal accounts of anyone who immigrated by ship from Italy to Buenos Aires. Luis Cella, the Argentine grandson of Italian immigrants who now lives in Vienna, lends his critical eye in a comment.


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Armenia: Construction & Growth · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

The Armenian Economist examines growth in Armenia's construction market. Growth in construction accounts for much of Armenia's recent economic growth, and the blogger argues that the new construction will spur other growth.


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Bolivia Cochabamba Post-Rainfall · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Every cloud has a silver lining. Or, in this case, a rainbow. Following Bolivia's devastating floods, Eduardo Avila posts a photo of a rainbow arching over Cochabamba's attractive skyline.


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Bolivia: Constitutent Assembly in Cobija · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Bolivia's Constituent Assembly is traveling around the country to collect the opinions of everyday citizens on how the constitution should be re-written. As Miguel Buitrago explains, they were in for a surprise on their first stop at the small border city of Cobija.


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Caribbean, Cricket World Cup: Dissecting the win · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Caribbeancricket.com's Ryan Naraine is interviewed (audio) by CaribUpdate about the West Indies team's win over Pakistan in yesterday's opening match of the Cricket World Cup.


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China: egao · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Onemanbandwidth has a nice article on egao (spoofing) culture.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: rural village · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A photo essay to explore the rural problem in China by Lung at inmediahk.net (zh).


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Cuba: Disneylandia? · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Luis M. Garcia reports that plans are afoot to build a theme park in Cuba. Val Prieto wonders “what the hell would a communist Cuba theme park consist of?”, and gets some interesting suggestions.


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Cuba: Show yourself, Fidel · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

In response to media reports that ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has participated in a conference call, Ziva asks: “So where is he?  I know he's not the Pope, but if he has an ounce of life, shouldn't he address the Cuban people?  Surely he could be wheeled  out to some balcony to at least wave to  his anxious supporters.“


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Dubai: Racist Car Sales Ad · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Dubai-based blogger Sans feels there is a hint of racism in a car sale ad.


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Egypt: On the Falafel-Hummus War Front · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egyptian blogger Whispers of Madness  is still laughing at the Falafel and Hummus war going on between his Palestinian and Jewish friends.


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Egypt: Palestinians Kidnap BBC Journalist · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egyptian Kangaroo links to an article which says that Palestinians have kidnapped a BBC journalist.  “Now how does that help their case , I don't know , what do they gain by doing this , again I don't know,” says Kangaroo.


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El Salvador: Vatican’s notification to Fr. Jon Sobrino, S.J. made public · Global Voices
David Sasaki

“You can now read for yourself the notification from the Vatican to Father Sobrino declaring that certain propositions in his writings ‘are not in conformity with the doctrine of the Church.'” Tim Muth links to the full text.


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Georgia: Gelati and Motsameta · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Onnik Krikorian posts photos of Gelati and Motsameta, two religious sites in Georgia's Imereti region. The former is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


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Georgia: Seven Year Itch · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Social Science in the Caucasus examines divorce rates in Georgia, noting that at least there, the popular belief that marriages break up after seven years is simply not true.


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Ghana: 50 Years of Freedom · Global Voices
Oluniyi D. Ajao

Ghana, the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence, was 50, on 6th March 2007. Although the celebration, Ghana@50, of the west African nation is year-long, the climax was on Independence Day, when a national parade of Ghana's Armed Force was held at the Independence Square in Accra.
Ramblings of an African Geek, a blog run by a Ghanaian, shares some high points of last week's celebration in a blog entry titled: “The Flag is still flying……………“:
Ghana turned 50 on Tuesday and a host of foreign dignitaries showed up to help us celebrate our position as the first sub-saharan country to be given permission to run our own affairs.
More interesting to me than the official celebration though, was the public response to the event.
Accra and Tema have been covered in flags for a couple of weeks now.
There have been brisk sales of flags and Ghana themed memorabilia.
Just about every car, taxis included, is flying the flag. Literally the city has been awash with red, gold green and black. Even more so than when Ghana was starting to dominate teams who were expected to murder us in the World Cup.
On independence day people showed up at the square to get seats early in the morning. Reportedly by 4:30 A.M it was impossible to find a seat even if you’d paid for one.
Oluniyi David Ajao, a Nigerian based in Accra Ghana, shares some photos of the main event: “Ghana 50th Independence Anniversary Parade photos“:
Ghana is 50. Oh! You know that already?
Well, I was at the Independence Square in Accra on 6th March 2007, the day of the Independence Anniversary, and took over 100 photos of the event.
See the Photo Album of the 50th Independence National Parade here.
My Pen and My Paper gives a thumb-up to Ghana in the entry: “Giving it up for Ghana“:
I hereby give Ghana my kudos and a big BOW!!! I never knew – now I know. On two occasions-3 and 2years ago, I had been to Kumasi in Ghana, to the KNUST, with the first two letters “K” and ”N” referring to Kwame Nkrumah. I enjoyed my trips, took many pictures and made many friends for keeps. What attracts me to Ghana is the peaceful environment – its almost in the air, and everybody just walking peacefully, minding their own business, no wahala – compared to Lagos-state hustling-life-style.  If Ghanaians were white, I would have said my observations had a reason, but considering they are as black as I am, some even blacker, I remember I wondered “what is the secret of this people“.  To be entirely honest, there are a whole lot of things that Nigeria can learn from Ghana…lesson#1 is: how to line up at a bus-stop. I was so surprised to see a tall man lined up behind a child at a bus-stop. The thought that crossed my mind was, if this could happen in Nigeria.
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen…of Ghana doesn't have much to say about Ghana's Independence day, but shares a photo of the front cover of New African: Happy Birthday, Ghana!: You are Jubilee! ;-):
Happy Jubilee!!! This is a cover of the latest edition of New African. The cover is, well, not surprising. It dedicates a good 45 pages, including the odd advert, but almost fifty anyway(!!) to Ghana!
THE iPINIONS JOURNAL also adds some salient points about Ghana: “Good (news) Friday: Ghana celebrates 50 years of independence“:
On Tuesday Ghana kicked off 12 months of celebrations to mark its 50th year of independence. This milestone is especially noteworthy because Ghana was the first black nation in Africa to sever the Lilliputian chord of British colonialism in 1957. And since then it has been heralded as a beacon of stability and sustainable development on a dark continent plagued by corrupt governance, economic stagnation and civil strife.
Nevertheless, Ghana’s growing pains have been considerable. And most notable in this respect is the fact that – after cajoling the parliament to rubber stamp legislation to confer dictatorial powers and make him president for life – Kwame Nkrumah, the socialist father of the nation, was ousted in a military coup in 1966. Although, given the way his name and likeness (as in the bronze statue pictured left) are revered in Ghana today, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone there who thinks his ouster was justified.
Sociolingo’s Africa blog shows to share links to some international news websites, and how they reported the event: “Ghana: Celebrates 50 years of independence“
Ghana’s 50th anniversary of independence on 6th March has generated quite a lot of comment from around the world. As to be expected heads of states converged on the Ghanaian capital Accra and reports abound.
It was not all merry. Abocco's blog shares some salient points about the state of Ghana today: “Reliable electricity and energy at Ghana@50“:
I've talked to a lot of Ghanaians back home about the excitement regarding the celebration of Ghana's golden jubilee. A lot of them have complained about the amount of money being spent to celebrate Ghana's golden anniversary of independence when they do not have reliable power (electricity) and constantly have ‘lights off’. Ghana has outgrown the Akosombo dam and it cannot produce enough energy for its population. When I heard Obibini Takyi's Akosombo Kanea on radio a week ago, I had found the perfect song for a blog entry about Ghana's energy crisis, a topic I haven't touched yet. What a perfect time to do that in the midst of the Ghana government's promise to give its resident citizens uninterrupted power supply for almost two weeks to commemorate Ghana's 50th anniversary of independence?
We conclude this round-up, with “An overview of Ghana@50“, as written by the blog thepeoplesvoice.org:
Momentous, festive and the pinnacle of Ghana's Independence celebrations is March 6 and a delightful President John Agyekum Kufuor has asked the citizenry to give thanks to God for how far he has brought the nation. Giving to Caesar what belonged to Caesar, he gave the political outline of Ghana's independence and lauded the first President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah and his colleagues from the United Gold Coast Convention who, in 1947 launched the last phase of the process towards independence.

author: Oluniyi D. Ajao


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Hong Kong: blogger abuse · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Bigbrainwave writes down his telephone conversation with a newspapers reporter who requested him to comment on social and political issues so that she could quote from it (zh)! Bigbrainwave complains that if the commercial media want proper commentary, they should pay.


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Hong Kong: Copyright = creativity? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The Hong Kong Government has announced the consultation paper on “Copyright protection in the Digital Environment” in early January this year. Many has pointed out that the consultation is based on the interest of corporate copyright holders rather than individuals and consumers. Worse still, some suggestions within the consultation papers are threatening to freedom of speech and expression, and eventually the development of creative industry in Hong Kong.
I have put up a post at interlocals.net about the background of this consultation and an announcement of a upcoming symposium in April 1, Copyright = Creativity in response to the government's paper. The official annoucncement of the symposium is at the to be launched open knowledge project website (zh).
There are not so many discussions in the local blogsphere yet as the public is still ignorant of the details of the consultation and the government’s advertisement has been trying to equalize copyright protection to protection of creative industry in Hong Kong.
Charles from Civic-express pointed out in early Jan that
希望大家能注視到香港的數碼版權諮詢，打擊侵權不能以落伍的版權概念掛帥，必須全面平衡各方利益，消費者也要意識到他們是有權爭取更多的權益；政府不能偏聽有組織和國際財團支持的一方，保障消費者和本地小型創作者利益，是政府在政策檢討中的責任。
Pigazine also felt that the consultation has neglected public interest:
就諮詢文件而言，好像側重了版權持有人的保護，而有點兒忽略了大眾。
On commenting the copyright infringement of local newspapers against a blogger, hkxforce asked whether the government are willing to protect ordinary citizen.
政府在《在數碼環境中保護知識產權》中，大力協助大企業追討市民侵權，但是政府又有沒有想過要幫助小市民向大企業追討呢？
諷刺的是，是次諮詢是由工商及科技局的工商科負責。看來，政府根本是打正旗號由工商角度出發，小市民的權益並不在考慮之列。
Ironically, this consultation is carried out by the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau, it is rather obviously that the government's starting point is from the interest of commerce and industry sector and does not take into account the right of ordinary citizens.
A local teacher, Fongyun summarized a discussion of a seminar organized by the education bureau on the government consultation in Feb . He quoted from comments from the floor that:
太嚴苛的版權法會妨礙教育，繼而影響資訊流通和創意發展(鼓勵創意是版權法聲稱的目的)。法律是限制人的行為，所以越少越好。
有老師問及「翻譯」和「改寫」版權作品當教材的問題。
法理上，版權包括翻譯和改寫的權利，這些 adaptations 要得到版權持有人的同意。
將來的「公平處理」是否涵蓋這方面，似乎並不確定。
對於圖書館而言，由於科技進步，不時都需要把舊影音檔案進行「格式轉換」(format shifting)，所以她很怕會觸犯法例和產品使用條款。
A local artist Karden  whose work has recently been infringed by a commercial magazine, comments that
作為一個會創作的人，到出事之後才去看什麼是creative commons, 實在羞恥到極點。
原來現有的版權法制度根不能全面保障原創人，簡單來說有錢的創作人也許可以得到較多的保障，窮人如我就比較難，他們可以從文事途徑追討，窮人如我，律師多數也不建議。
Then I find out that the existing copyright system cannot protect the author or the creator, or, so to speak, the wealthy people can enjoy more protection. Poor as I am, it is very difficult. The wealthy can use civil law to protect their rights, poor as I am, the lawyer would ask me not to pursue.


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India: A dog’s life · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A recent move proposing that street dogs be killed has It's a Dog's Life blogging devotedly to save the dogs. “And this is what we do to voiceless creatures. I wish they had the power to vote! What is more sickening is the religious angle being added to it. A community, they say, wants dogs to be killed. Which religion, which messanger, which Prophet on earth ever said kill helpless animals? Can we please keep religion out of this?”

author: Neha Viswanathan


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India: More on Orkut and Mumbai Police · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The Orkut-Mumbai Police issue results in a wide range of opinions. Rashmi Bansal appears to think it's not such a bad idea. “Personally, I believe it may be a good idea to take action in a few cases to set an example for which deters future juveniles (in age or thought process).”. Confused disagrees and writes about Freedom of Speech.


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India: On “boardroom pin-up girls” · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

An article in a mainstream media publication has sthreeling reading between the lines. “Why is it a work-home balance struggle only for the woman? Not once does she consider suggesting that men share or should share the responsibility of the household. While evaluation of general work culture will help no doubt, how much impetus is a consumer-driven industry going to provide if it affects deliverables and time lines?”


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Iran:Several teachers were arrested · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

According to Khorous a few hundreds security agents repressed teachers’ demonstration in front of Parliament[Fa] and several of them were arrested.Teachers have asked for a salary raise but their negotiation with government failed.


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Jordan: Ice Cream Picture Sparks Debate · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Jordanian blogger Roba got more than she bargained for when she posted a photograph of some yummy ice-cream. Read the comments section to see why.


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Kazakhstan: Women’s Day in Sayram · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Michael Hancock writes about the Women's Day celebrations at the school he teaches at in Sayram, Kazakhstan.


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Lebanon: Hummus Day · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

According to Lebanese blogger As'ad AbuKhalil,  today is Hummus Day in Lebanon. “On this auspicious occasion, I am providing Hummus to my readers–for free. To enjoy, please pour olive oil generously over your keyboards, and you shall have Hummus oozing from the monitor,” he suggests.


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Lebanon: Terrorists Caught · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Lebanese blogger Mustafa sheds some light on the political scene in Lebanon , after the arrest of a terrorist network. “While the March 14 media was celebrating the capture of a “Syrian-based terrorist network” and the March 14 Minister of Interior was busy pointing his official finger at Syrian intelligence, the Syrian-apologists immediately began casting doubt,” he writes.


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Liberia: floating hospital · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Liberia Ledger blogs about a giant floating hospital in Monrovia: “giant floating hospital has arrived in the Port of Monrovia, carrying 400 staff for the purpose of repairing cleft upper lip & palate, crossed eyes, flesh-eating diseases, and other important surgeries that most Liberian hospitals can't do. Of course, this is a great thing, and they should be commended.”


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Mexico: Domestic Education for Men · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Now here's a pro-active way to celebrate International Women's Day. Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard wants men to change their attitudes about domestic work.


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Morocco: Child Beggars – A Lucrative Business · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Approximately 15% of beggars under the age of seven are hired workers and are paid between 50 and 100 dirhams per week to beg for their employers, writes Samir in The View From Fez.


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Nepal: Blogger threatened · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Nepali Voices reports on a blogger being threatened. ” Umesh Shrestha, the blogger behind hugely popular MySansar.com, has been threatened of ‘action within 24 hours if he publishes anything that directly or indirectly supports Maoists or terrorists’. An email with subject line reading ‘last information’ by Maoists Defense Group, not known so far, has threatened him. “


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Pakistan: block on Blogger has been lifted! Until…? · Global Voices
sami ben gharbia

According to Dr Awab Alvi, co-founder of the Pakistani “Don’t Block The Blog” campaign, the block imposed on blogs hosted on Blogger has been lifted for about a week. The Don't Block The Blog campaign was launched in response to the blanket ban on the Blogspot.com blogging platform instituted by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) more than a year ago, on 3rd of March 2006.
However Dr Alvi says the lifting of the ban was not a deliberate move on the part of the authorities:
it was quite simply due to an accident that the PTA was forced to lift the filters. A week back a number of filters at the monitoring center started acting up which resulted in quite a large number of websites getting blocked for one reason after another, showing large timeouts etc.
The current incident began on February 28th when, in a bid to filter out certain websites deemed blasphemous by the Supreme Court, the  Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited  (PTCL) blocked access not just to a limited number of sites but also to thousands of major websites and email servers. A press release issued by “Don’t Block The Blog” on the 6th March 2007 gave a sense of the scale of the action:
the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority accidentally blocked millions of websites which suddenly came inaccessible for internet users in Pakistan. The accidentally blocked sites are popular, noncontroversial web pages with high traffic, including Google.com, Download.com, Microsoft.com, Gmail.com, Yahoo.com, BBC, CNN, Systematic, Akamai, PC World, MTV, Best Buy, Logitech and ESPN.
Bloggers reacted as well, and were joined in their complaints from an unexpected quarter – blogger Ifaqeer was surprised to see Pakistani newspaper covering the block of thousands of vital websites and email servers:
It seems that the utter stupidity of the blocking of websites in Pakistan has gotten to a point where even the mainstream media (I never thought I would use that phrase for a Pakistani newspaper) has noticed.
Indeed, according to several Pakistani newspapers – like The News which was following the development of the block- the PTA was under heavy pressure from local ISPs and IT-dependent businesses who, according to The News,  “suffered 20 to 30 per cent revenue loss” over the five days of the block. Pakistani ISPs were, in their turn, under pressure from subscribers and average non-activist Internet users who went through agonizing five days without connection to popular sites and reacted with overwhelming complaints against local ISPs.
“Every single ISP that is connected to the Internet through ITI* suffers, and the ISPs get to be blamed for PTCL’s dirty job“, a senior official of Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (ISPAK), is quoted as saying to The News newspaper.
In an attempt to explain the sudden mass-blocking, one ISP sent a letter to all its subscribers:
The sites, like Microsoft, Yahoo etc, pull their content from different servers distributed across different networks. Few of these networks have been blocked by ITI on the PTA directive … The reason is that these networks are also hosting some information which is objectionable, but instead of blocking that particular web site, PTCL has blocked the whole networks, which is causing serious issues in display of Internet content.
This case has made it clear that firm pressure issued from average Internet users, subscribers, ISPs and IT-enabled industry can have a decisive impact on forcing the government to lift the block. And this is what happened  on Sunday 11th of March when the PTCL “decided to revert to the pre-February 28 scenario“, adopting seemingly a “more sophisticated and smarter means to filter out the blasphemous material“, The News wrote.
As The Internet Censorship Explorer (ICE) wrote on March 5, 2007:
Overblocking tends to create a significant backlash, especially from non-activist Internet users. While people can often tolerate the blocking of some sites (often extremist, or offensive etc…) it does not significantly impact the experience of everyday users. But when people’s regular browsing and blogging is interrupted they quickly become aware of censorship’s impact and campaign against it.
Because the unblocking of Blogspot.com was “accidental” and a quick-fix solution, Dr Awab Alvi is expecting that it will be resumed shortly. As he told me by mail:
At present NOTHING IS BLOCKED, but we are being very careful as I can almost assume that in short due course it shall resume once they have figured out the problem. If they don't YIPPEE great for us, but looking at the local situation here and the surmounting tension in Islamabad as regards to the Chief Justice crisis, I would not be surprised to see some blocking to come again.
Furthermore, especially after the last statement made by PTCL senior executive vice-president (IT) Ameer-ud-Din and published by the Pakistan Times, we can only fear that the unblock was a temporarily measure:
We have not undone what we did to comply with the SC** order. We are still filtering the websites.
* ITI: Information Technology Infrastructure.
** Pakistani Supreme Court.

author: sami ben gharbia


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Pakistan: On protests and politics · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

iFaqeer on the political developments in Pakistan. “You see, one thing I have always said about Pakistan is that one of the problems we have in keeping our governments honest and our military in its barracks is that we don't, as a rule, do street protests about actual government high-handedness–or bread riots. And on the other hand, like everyone else, we're not very fond of lawyers as a profession. And judges, like a lot else in Pakistan, are just dismissed as part of the whole corrupt system.”


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Palestine: It’s All in the Kuffiyeh · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Trent Reznor, lead singer of one of the greatest bands of this generation, Nine Inch Nails, rocks the kuffiyeh (black and white head gear associated with Palestine) in his latest video – “Survivalism”, writes Nadeem at Kabobfest.
“Given the fact that he's a well-known/outspoken anti-war activist who's already both hip and controversial, I'd be willing to bet anyone 5 shekels that he actually knows the meaning behind the scarf…” he writes.


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Russia: House on the Embankment · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Darkness at Noon visits the “House on the Embankment” Museum in Moscow and shares his thoughts and observations on the history of Stalin's Soviet Union: “The Great Terror of 1937-38 took an enormous toll on the upper echelons of the Soviet hierarchy, and nowhere was that toll more apparent than at the House on the Embankment. It is estimated that one-third of the building's residents (about 700 individuals) were victims of Stalin's repressions.”


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Russia: Moscow Power Plants · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Russian Kafe links to a Flickr set of photos of Moscow power plants by Flickr user elephantr.


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Russia: Regional Elections · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

This past Sunday Russians voted in regional elections for legislative assemblies in 14 of Russia’s 86 regions. Although their choices failed to surprise anyone, bloggers did find much to write about.
Andy of Siberian Light:
It probably won’t surprise you to hear that pro-Putin party United Russia came first in 13 of the 14 regions, with around 46% of the vote. Nor will it surprise you to hear that newly formed pro-Putin party A Just Russia won in the 14th region.
[…]
For me, though, I was impressed that the Communist Party managed to hang on to a reasonable share of the vote – finishing second overall, with around 16% of the votes cast.
Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog:
There isn’t much to say about the results of Sunday’s local elections in Russia. That is except that Putin’s “managed democracy” seems to be going at full steam. The elections wielded few surprises, both in terms of results or scandals.
[…]
Lastly, and perhaps, more importantly it appears that one of Putin’s legacies is to make Russia into a two party system[.]
[…]
[…] Russia is developing its own versions of the Republican/Tory and Democratic/Labor Parties. The Russians are learning liberal democracy very well.
James Westlake of ApricotFlan:
There’s not a lot interesting or surprising about the results from Sunday’s state parliament elections in 14 provinces across Russia. As predicted, the two pro-Kremlin parties won all contests, with United Russia accounting for all but one of those.
[…]
- Boris Gryzlov, the head of United Russia and speaker in the federal parliament, called for the sacking of the governor of the single province which Just Russia won, Stavropol, for failing to ensure United Russia won there. This suggests to me that he doesn’t fully espouse a classically democratic mindset.
- The Communists had a stronger than anticipated showing. They didn’t win anywhere, but they had more second places than Just Russia (seven versus five) and almost doubled their vote in some key centres, compared to the last contest. And they did that with a budget which was one-twentieth of United Russia’s and one-fifteenth of Just Russia’s.
In a separate entry, ApricotFlan has covered the specifics of this year's campaign – and here's his conclusion:
[…] Winston Churchill likened observing Russian politics to watching bulldogs fighting under a carpet. For all of Putin’s vaunted popularity and control, power is not as stable or as entrenched as it might seem from the outside. Just don’t expect that carpet to be lifted anytime soon.
Samara-based Dmitri Minaev of De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis voted for SPS (the Union of Right Forces, an opposition party one step closer to its “imminent electoral death,” according to Sean's Russia Blog). In an update to his election post, Minaev describes what the vote was like in Kurgan oblast (and it reads like something from The Onion):
In one of the villages where 30 electors are officially registered, only two people voted: the candidate himself and his friend. Quite naturally, the candidate was elected with 2 votes. According to the new Russian laws which abolish the minimum turnout requirement, the election was absolutely valid.
Another Blow to Democracy (assuming you can hit a phantom) is the title of VeryRussianTochkaNet‘s election post. He writes:
Well, yeah, United Russia has won the regional elections. Well, yeah, they were massively employing the administrativny resurs and playing dirty here and there[.]
[…]
If the 1996 presidential elections had been completely free and fair, Gennady Zyuganov, of the Communist Party, would most likely have rounded off the 20th century as the leader of former Russia, and launched the USSR, slightly shaken by that 1991 fluke but recovering, towards the glorious horizons of the new millennium. If everyone got equal airtime nowadays, and there was no tampering with anything, why, people would enthusiastically vote the opposition – but not the kind of opposition you expect. I presume it wouldn’t be much of a relief for the Fierce Critics of the Kremlin, Inc. if instead of the little bald man they love to hate, they’d have to meet Russia for Russians, Inc. […]
[…]
[…] My personal affliction is that there’s no one at all on the Russian political scene that I could support. I may vote the SPS again this December, for lack of a better option; but I wish for something vivaciously down-to-earth, economically and civilly liberal while not making a fetish of liberty and about as tough on the new-fangled gay/abortion/PC lobbyism as the U.S. Republican Party, except on firmly secular grounds. (Funny how many people from a particular political culture will find this a contradiction in terms.) But enough being confrontational before there’s even anything to be confrontational about. United Russia has won another ugly victory – but frankly, and sadly, this doesn’t mean anything.
VeryRussianTochkaNet also translates from the Russian-language blogosphere's current hits – an account of alleged fraud by St. Petersburg-based LJ user veliber, who served as an election observer, and a really awesome collection of bloggers’ voting stories, photos and videos compiled by Russian journalist Natalya Radulova (LJ user radulova):
[…] Russian bloggers have noted, for example, that United Russia campaign billboards weren’t put down on election day; some people were surprised to find non-existent next-door neighbours on the voters’ lists, or to learn from their relatives that their signature magically appeared opposite their name on the list when in fact they didn’t vote. Or consider this piece of subliminal messaging, spotted by a blogger from Vologda:
It’s supposed to be a general instruction on how to vote; yet, the “sample” party ticked off on the sample voting sheet is none other than United Russia; and below, in red type, it says, “a vote marked otherwise is considered invalid”. Here’s a rundown of the most interesting election-related posts; even if you don’t read Russian the images of voting sheets and United Russia billboards vandalised in protest speak for themselves. […]


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Russia: Sokolniki · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

maaskva: nashimi glazami links to YouTune videos of Moscow's Sokolniki Park.


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Russia: “The Duality of Free Speech in Russia” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Darkness at Noon guest-blogs at La Russophobe about the distinction that has to be made between powerful and powerless critics of Putin's regime: “If you are a critic of the state and possess enough power (whether measured as money, influence, actual political power, readership, or sensitive information) to make the state feel threatened, you are not safe in Russia. Even more disturbingly, you are not safe abroad either. If, however, you are an ordinary citizen, you are more or less safe from the state.”


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Russia: Who Lost It? · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Russia in the Media disagrees with the Washington Post's Op-Ed Columnist Fred Hiatt on his assessment of Russia's current problems: “[…] who's to blame for losing Russia and what's to be done about it? While he did not manage to come up with any coherent answer to the first question, except general disingenuous whining about the allegedly sad state of affairs in Russia, his recommendations on what's to be done were so downright silly that I simply could not ignore them.”


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Senegal: A Report Card for Reporters Without Borders · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Le Pangolin posts [Fr] a press release by the Syndicate of Information and Communication Professionals of Senegal stating that a recent Reporters Without Borders report on the Senegalese elections was “selective” in its interest and “approximative”.  The report goes on to say that the RSF report used “nebulous methodology” and “abusive generalizations”.


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South Korea: Daechuri video · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Micheal Hurt posted a video done by Bum Lee, which is a tribute to the art of Daechuri. The village has been struggling against forced demolition and the construction of military base.


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Suriname: Miss India Suriname photoshoot · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Photographer Karel Donk posts photos and a short report on a recent shoot involving the winner and first runner-up in the Miss India Suriname pageant.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Taiwan: Preservation of Losheng Sanatorium · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

More historical background on the preservation campaign of the Losheng Sanatorium written by Liu Kwang-Yin at interlocals.net.


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The Costa Rican media ignored the Anti-CAFTA march · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

Cristian Cambronero from Fusil de Chispas [es] sums up the blogger perspective on the Costa Rica Anti-Cafta marches in his February 28th post. The media refused to report on the event, and when they did, they insisted on stating that no one had showed up. On some of the blogs he links to there are comparisons of pictures of prior rallies with the newspaper´s tally compared to pictures of this latest march and and the numbers don´t add up. It seems the Costa Rican blogging community took it in their hands to report on what they saw and heard that day. The cited articles are in Spanish:
“Civilian journalism for some. People saying things. The Anti-Cafta march that took place last monday left much to be said…” in Desencantosdesirena (Mermaid´s Disenchantments):
Si en enero había 50 mil en tres cuadras y media y había 23500 en 16 cuadras de marcha, pues la única explicación es que los de la “marea verde” de Arias se multiplicaron… como los votos en la Sala Cuarta, en el TSE y en las encuestas…
Similar positions can be found in The March´s voice (audio and photographs) in La Foto Salió Movida (“The picture came out blurry”); March that marches against the march in Coyunturacostarica (“Costa Rican juncture”); The “quotable” quotes from the march´s “messiahs” in Labirradehoy (“Today´s beer”); and March against CAFTA in 100alsurdecasiopea (“100 KM south of Cassioppea”).
In Nomelocreo (“I don´t believe it”) :
“…los medios de comunicacion tradicionales (Canal 7,Repretel,La Nacion, ahora también canal 13) quieren tapar el sol con un dedo, insisten en que fueron “cuatro gatos”, que solo fueron sindicalistas, que somos una minoría, que no llego nadie etc.”
We see the same frustration within posts like “Massive march against CAFTA” by TLCenespañol (“CAFTAinSpanish”); “Massive march demands the Costa Rican government to desist” in Lopobresdelatierra (“the poor of the earth”); and “A handful” in El voyeurismodexand (“Xand´s voyeurism”).
In Mandagüevo:
“Por otras cosas la verdad no sabemos como sentirnos, la vara fue democrática, tuanis, civilista, discurseada, etcétera. Pero Manda Güevo, Albino desapareció! (…) Los chicos del MEA cada día adoctrinan gente más joven (el pin dice Venezuela es el amigo, el TLC el enemigo o algo así)
“They say we were about 200,000″ in Julia Ardón
and from La Manopeluda (“the boogeyman”):
La marcha tuvo su mérito, eso no se puede negar. Pero desde la óptica de crecimiento y desarrollo del movimiento contra el TLC, hay señales que tienen que tener a los organizadores muy preocupados. Todo parece indicar que el movimiento contra el TLC, lejos de crecer y hacerse más fuerte, se está erosionando cada día mas.
“Esthetic violence against CAFTA” in JulioCórdoba; “The march in images” in NOTLC (“NOCAFTA”); and, in Estandovivalavíspera (“Being alive on the Eve”):
Claro, hoy en que hasta la resurrección de Cristo está en jaque, pues esos escasos veinti tantos mil eficientemente contados tendrán que hacerse sentir más que 4 millones dormidos.
Luismonge added his thoughts to the pile with “Costa Rica lives”, Roberto Gallardo with “Notes on the march” and, from Temas Serios, an “Open letter to Rodrigo Arias”.
Pictures of the march by Eugenio.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Tunisia: Prison Visit Blocked · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Or Does it Explode reports to us how Tunisian officials blocked a prison visit recently here. “(A) delegation of the Tunisia Monitoring Group – an international alliance that tracks repression of free expression in the land of Ben Ali – tried to visit imprisoned lawyer Mohammed Abbou. Readers may recall Abbout as the lawyer who denounced torture in Tunisian prisons and was summarily sent to jail. In protest, he sewed his own mouth shut,” writes the blogger.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Venezuela: Bush and Chavez Tour for Regional Support · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Opposition bloggers Miguel Octavio and Daniel Duquenal on the competing hemispheric tours of US President George Bush and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.


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Afghanistan: Reconcilation or Accountability · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Safrang discusses the choice between reconciliation and accountability in Afghanistan, asking why the country cannot have both.

author: Nathan Hamm


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Arabisc: Egypt – The Home of Thousands of Political Prisoners · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egyptian blogger Ala'a Abdulfatah claims that there are thousands of political prisoners in his country, who are behind bars without trial.
To draw attention to the plight of such prisoners, Abdulfattah and another blogger Malek, interviewed the parents of one prisoner as well as a lawyer involved in similar cases.
Who is Abdulmonem Jamaluddin?


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Arabisc: Sorting Through Arabic Blogs  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

With thousands of posts on blogs written in Arabic daily, do you realise how difficult it is to pick a handful for translation for Global Voices Online twice a week?
Moroccan blogger Mohammed Saeed  Hjiouij  seems to be suffering from the same problem. He is at a loss on which blogs are better than others in the Arabic blogosphere.
However, unlike me, Hjiouij has an ingenious idea to beat the blogging blues.
Hjiouij  also suggests that all the articles be tracked by technorati to ensure that a list is compiled of the best Arabic language blogs.
Well, I guess I will have to wait until March 31 to know what the result is.


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Argentina: Subterranean Surfing · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Pasa en Buenos Aires, the official weblogs of Buenos Aires, says that metro lines B, C, D, and E will have free Wi-Fi access [ES].


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Bahrain: Iranian Artist Refused Entry · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahraini blogger Silver links to a newspaper article which says that Bahrain refused to grant an Iranian artist an entry Visa into the country here.


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Bahrain: The Problem with Parliament · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“I am quite convinced that this parliament doesn’t know why it was actually voted in. Apart from the sectarian overtones in almost every thing they do, they cannot distinguish between parliamentary work from that of the pulpit,” writes Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif about the way his Parliament functions.


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Bangladesh: On the future · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Unheard Voices on the hope felt for the future of the country when in Dhaka. “You give the people of Bangladesh some opportunity to prove themselves, some financial backing, a roof to work under; they will bring about great things, they will make impossible things look very easy.”


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Bolivia, Haiti: Debate Over “Blue Helmets” · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Federico Fuentes of Bolivia Rising translates an article by Pablo Stefanoni about a debate over the presence and conduct of Bolivian UN troops in Haiti and the Congo.


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Bosnia & Herzegovina: Coffee Grinders · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

London Sevdah writes about a very special coffee grinder: “My mum brought this one over from Bosnia when we were excaping the country as refugees – it was one of the few items that made it into the few travel bags which we were carrying our belongings in.” In Sarajevo today, coffee grinders “are made from empty (used) grenade shells” – an act that, to many, “symbolises converting evil into good by reusing evil resources to serve and promote long term positive purpose of tradition.”


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Brazil: Hip Hop and Education · Global Voices
David Sasaki

On a program by Brazil's Ministry of Culture to use hip hop as a way to keep kids in school, Made in Brazil writes: “I had not read about the program before even though it was conceived by minister of Culture Gilberto Gil in 2003, but I highly agree that the government needs to open its eyes to finding new and improved ways of giving a chance to kids and teenagers growing up in empoverished areas.”


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Cambodia: North Korean Restaurant  · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Details are Sketchy reviews a North Korean restaurant in Cambodia.

author: Preetam Rai


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China: Euthanasia blog · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Jeremy Goldkorn from DANWEI introduces an Euthanasia blog written by a 28 years old woman,  Li Yan, who has been suffering form cancer since very young age.


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China: Neighbors talking on the Net · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Things are looking slightly better for China's property owners, but the right to vote has yet to reach the cities. Over the past few years property owners have done their best to pick up the slack, but sometimes have to resort to violence to get their needs met.
Do Chinese cities have residential tenancy acts? If property owner rights are so shaky, who's looking out for those who rent the apartments out? Home owners have begun organizing themselves and, according to a post from indy blogger 50mm, so increasingly are residents in a few communities in southern China's Shenzhen, just across the border with Hong Kong:
深圳房地产信息网为在深圳的每个小区都建立了业主论坛，业主们在自家楼盘的网络空间里交流，增进情感。网络论坛，在一定程度上成为购买商品房的市民们的网络福利。那些住在城中村的人们呢？住城中村的有不少是刚进入深圳的年轻人，收入相对比较低，他们有强烈的网络交流的需求，但深圳却没有相应的城中村论坛，因为城中村的住户们，对自己住的社区缺乏认同感，就像是风吹的沙子，到处流动，四处搬家。所以也没有人来为城中村的住户建立网络论坛。
真的是这样吗？我认识一个叫阿蓉的朋友，她在下沙住了12年了，和房东成了很好的朋友，她走在村子里，大部分的人都认识，她是看着下沙村慢慢地从一个城市边缘的村落慢慢变成了喧嚣的人口堡垒。像阿蓉这样的人，对下沙产生了强烈的依赖，她说，如果搬家到别处的话，会感到非常不方便。
“Satellite photo of the Tri-Sha Area”
下沙村在福田区滨海大道以南，新洲路以西的片区，这附近聚集着好几个城中村，而且都冠以沙字头，沙头，沙尾，沙嘴，沙头又分上沙和下沙，这几个村紧靠在一起，住在里面的有几十万人，里面有很多像阿蓉这样的人，他们是外来户，但在这里住的年头不短。
其实对于刚搬进城中村的人，他们也需要有一个资讯平台，村里哪家米粉店好吃，哪家休闲中心的足浴服务好，租房的人要找租赁信息，最近我看到有个 三沙社区的一个网站，他们就提供了这么一个网络服务，一个叫Benny的年轻人架设了一个BBS论坛，给以沙头地区为中心的城中村住户提供网络交流平台。论坛分本地信息和娱乐休闲信息两大板块，十几个小板块，最近的几个帖子是，一个网名叫”虎落平阳”的网友发贴，名为”今天路过下沙武装部的时候差点被狼狗咬！”，还有一个叫”三杀一水”的网友控诉：”今天在下沙公园散步被偷了手机”。目前来看，来这个论坛的人数还不是很多，同时在线人数为数十人。

author: John Kennedy


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China: police post on Shangfang · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Ai Weiwei transforms a deleted post in Sinablog into photo files. The post is written by a police Wu Yuo-ming from Wubei, who gave detailed account of his experience in “stopping” people from Shangfang (visiting the higher authority to file complaint). The police pointed out that such kind of practice would not only waste money but making the situation worse (zh).


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Costa Rica: Tico Tarzan video · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Uri Ridelman shares a video of Gilberto Shedden Graham, better known in Costa Rica as “Tico Tarzan”, and his domesticated crocodile, Pocho.


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Croatia: Defense Documents Stolen? · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Neretva River reports on an alleged robbery: “the Croatian Generals Assembly, an association of HV generals, had their offices broken into. No money or valuables were taken during the robbery; however, documents related to Operation Storm and the defense of Ante Gotovina were found to be missing.” In an update, the blogger wonders: “Was there a theft or did someone misplace a few documents and just doesn't want to admit it?”


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Cuba: How Cubans in exile measure time · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Marta Darby posts an image of the Cubana Aviación plane ticket that brought her, as a small child, from Cuba to the US in 1961, plus a video comprising home movies set to a Celia Cruz song: ‘When we encounter other Cubans wherever we are, there's always a sweet recognition. Then comes the interview: “Where are you from? How long have you been here? Do you still have family there?”‘


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Cuba, Venezuela: Castro won’t stop calling Chávez · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

“Chávez and Castro are always on the phone (ever heard of email?). Chávez would never admit it, but I wonder if he gets tired of Fidel constantly calling,” writes Vivirlatino‘s Jennifer in the preface to a post reproducing a portion of the transcript of a telephone conversation between convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.


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DRC, Belgium: 25th Anniversary of UDPS · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Le Renouveau Congolais posts pictures [fr] of UDPS Belux's (Belgium-Luxemburg branch) celebration of the party's 25th Anniversary.  UDPS is the main DRC opposition party.


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East Timor: Blogger Counters Newspaper Article on East Timor  · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

An Australian Age story on East Timor argues that East Timor was  better off under Indonesian rule. Living Timorously counters the points made by the newspaper. East Timor was a former Portuguese colony that was forcibly integrated into Indonesia in 1976.


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Eastern & Central Europe: Post-War Ethnic Cleansing of Germans · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

“During 1945 and 1946 some 14 million Germans from Central Europe and the Balkans permanently lost their traditional homelands due to a ruthless campaign of ethnic cleansing,” writes J. Otto Pohl in a post about this neglected post-war crime.


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Eastern & Central Europe: Travel and Food · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Wu Wei travels from Ljubljana to Croatia and, on a Slovenian train, to Venice; writes about her trip to Trakai, Lithuania, and shares her thoughts on Vilnius; posts photos from her three trips to Lake Bled outside Ljubljana; – and eats “dandelions for lunch” at “Klub Preserne Zdravlice” restaurant. (All posts have pictures.)


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Egypt: First Female Judges Named · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Writing for The Arabist, Issandr Al Amrani links to a newspaper article which says that Egypt has named its first female judges.


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Egypt: French Demonstrate to Free Kareem  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bloggers and free speech activists living in Paris, France, turned out en mass to demonstrate  against the imprisonment of Egyptian blogger Kareem Nabeel Sulaiman opposite the Egyptian stand at the World Tourism Trade Fair.


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Egypt: How Big a Threat is Militant Islam?  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egypt-based blogger Tom Gara is wondering how big a threat is militant Islam. “For me, it just isn't that big. Islamic terrorists, if they are lucky, will manage a couple of medium profile bombings of tourist sites each year, and maybe something larger (New York, London, Madrid) every few years. This sucks, and our security services should relentlessly hunt down these people and take them out of the game. But is it really that much of a threat to the world?” he writes.


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Egypt: Jailed Egyptian Blogger Kareem Wins Award · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Jailed Egyptian blogger Kareem Nabeel Sulaiman  has won  the 2007 Hugo Young Award for Journalism at the 7th Annual Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards Ceremony, according to Free Kareem, a website dedicated to his freedom.


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Egypt: List of Threatened Sites  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Blogger Tim Seah lists the URLs of the blogs and websites being threatened with closure in Egypt here. “Since a court has yet to rule on whether these are libelous, archiving them in Egypt may be risky. So people outside of Egypt who might be interested in hosting mirrors, here are the urls. They include the sites of some of the most prominent human rights organizations in Egypt,” he writes.


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Egypt: Protestors and Bloggers Arrested · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

More than 20 demonstrators, including two bloggers, have just been arrested for taking part in a demonstration protesting against amendments to the constitution in Cairo, according to Egyptian blogger Ala'a Abdulfattah.


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Georgia: Kutaisi Market · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Onnik Krikorian takes readers on a photo tour of a market in Kutaisi, Georgia.


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Guinea: the future of Friends of Guinea · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Following the recent political turmoil in Guines, what will the future of Friends of Guinea be? “As mentioned in an earlier statement, FOG is not going anywhere. While we all hope for the Peace Corps’ re-insertion into Guinea as soon as is practicable and safe, FOG will remain active organization regardless.
Guinea is not the first country from which the PC has been evacuated. I will be in contact with Friends of Liberia, Friends of Sierra Leone and Friends of Côte d'Ivoire to see how they managed the transition.”