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China: Doctoral Student Accuses SARFT of Movie Censorship · Global Voices
Meng Zhang

Dong Yanbin, a doctoral student in China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL), accused Beijing UME international movie theater and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) of castrating the recent blockbuster Lust,Caution directed by Taiwanese director Ang Lee, Jinghua Times reported on Wednesday. Dong indicated that the theater screening the abridged version of Lust,Caution had infringed the consumer's fair trading and knowing rights, and SARFT had violated the social public interests because of its unestablished movie rating system. Dong held a view that the complete version of Lust,Caution had been widely welcomed in other countries and regions; as a consumer, the Chinese audience were not lack of qualities of judgment and appreciation, so they should have had the equal rights for consumption. Receiving Dong's accusation material, the Xi Cheng Court in Beijing had given a preliminary examination of it, but in the end the Court didn't place a case on file for investigation since they think Dong should firstly provide a full version of the movie as evidence.
With its mainland premiere on November 1, the box office of Lust,Caution has climbed over 90 million RMB during the past two weeks in China. Besides the love and espionage plot based on the short story by Chinese author Eileen Chang, the most attractive and controversial thing was about the deleted 7-minute erotic and violent scenes of the movie which were considered as improper content by the Chinese official censors. According to Sina‘s statistics, the number of reviews on Lust,Caution in their blog community was up to 1.5 million that had definitely hit the record in Sina's history, and among those, many of the bloggers expressed a complaint about the deletion of the movie. As expected, Dong Yanbin's accusation had inflamed a new tide of online criticism and controversy on SARFT regarded as the censorship center of radio, film and TV in China.
The comments on Dong's prosecution and the censored movie in Sina:
作者: 游客 (北京)
支持一下！！花一样甚至更高的钱，看的却是被剪的七零八落的影象。分级都喊了这么多年了，广电局成天都在干 什么？？法院也是，原告要能提供未删节版的，还去华星干吗？
Author: guest (Bejing)
Support it!! Spending the same or even more money, what we see is the disorderedly cut images. People have called on film rating for so many years. What's the SARFT doing all day?? The same to the Court, if the plaintiff(Dong Yanbin) can provide a complete version, why did he go to the UME theater?
作者: 游客 (江苏苏州)
支持,广电总局不是在净化艺术,而是在亵渎艺术,中国人的思想大部分都不再是小农思想了,以自己的思维来度 量和限制别人,是一种极大的不民主和不公平!
Author: guest (Suzhou, Jiangsu Province)
Support it! The SARFT does not purify the art but profane it. Most of the Chinese do not have the small peasant ideology any more. it's greatly undemocratic and unequal to judge and restrict others by one person's thoughts!
作者: 游客 (福建漳州)
哗众取宠，不删就是A片，这谁都知道，A片的买卖是违法，不只放片的人违法，去看的人也是违法的
Author: guest (Zhangzhou Fujian Province)
It's Claptrap. Everyone knows that without the cut it's totally an adult movie. The trading of adult movie is illegal. The ones showing the adult movie break the laws, and the people to see it also break the laws .
作者: 游客 (天津)
记住，不让你看，你就老老实实别看就行了！譬如，作为中华人民共和国一部分的香港的凤凰卫视，尽管其播出内 容足够“正面”, 但有人不喜欢，还不是宣传部一个指令，就给掐了！他有权，他想怎么干，不需要对老百姓做 什么解释！
Author: gust (Tianjin)
Remember that if you are not allowed to see it, just behave yourself and don't see it! For example, although as one part of China the Hong Kong Phoenix Satellite Television had broadcasted some enough “positive” programs, someone didn't like it, so an order from the Publicity Department just cut it! They have power. What they want to do needn't be explained to the public!
作者: 游客 (北京)
我们社会的文明是需要这些既有法律和经济学专业素养，又有勇气和精力去较真的人来推动的。这些人的所作所为 ，是对官僚请害消费者利益行为的抵抗，我觉得值的赞扬。
Author: guest (Beijing)
Our society civilization should be promoted by these who have professional capacity for law and economy, and courage and efforts to argue. Those people's behavior is a protest against the bureaucrats that infringe on consumers’ interests. I think the person like Dong Yanbin deserves a medal.
作者：游客 （浙江金华）
删的是有点不行啊，我也看了一遍了，觉得不怎么样，没有网上说的，什么什么好的，我也觉得被删了东西了，觉得很不爽啊，看完后，觉得怪怪的。我支持这个博士，我们大陆的观众也应该有公平权嘛，凭什么我们大陆的观众总看一些不完整的呢，是不是觉得我们不会欣赏那些被删的东西啊，把我们当小孩子啊?
Author: guest (Jinhua, Zhejiang Province)
The deletion is not that good. I've seen the movie but I don't think it's perfect or as good as what the reviews said on Internet. I also find out something deleted and feel unhappy about that. The feelings were odd after I saw the movie. I support this Doctor (Dong Yanbin). We mainland audience must have the equal rights, too. Why we always see some incomplete works? Do they think we can not appreciate the deleted footage and regard us as Children?
作者：游客
内地至少删了三场激情戏,两场恐怖场面,也就是有五场高潮戏没人,一个电影如果五场高潮戏没,也就是一个人 去了四肢和头,这样的电影还能反映艺术家的创造和观众兴奋的期待吗?官员你们的良心都去哪了?
Author: guest
At least, three passion footage and two thrilling scenes were canceled in mainland, which means five climaxes of the movie are cut. A movie without its five great scenes is like a person without head, arms and legs. Can such kind of movie reflect the artist's creation and the audience's expectation? Government officials, where are your consciences?
Every year, only 20 foreign-made movies can be granted permission from China authorities to screen in mainland. “This has nothing to do with our movie theaters. The abridged version is shown throughout the country. We also want to show the complete version for people but the abridged or the complete is totally decided by the SARFT,” a UME theater manager said. In fact,the strict movie censorship system has upset a lot of Chinese movie fans for years since under that, most of the imported movies are “re-edited” by the SARFT in a brutal way. Besides Lust,Caution, the most recent example may be is the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End in which Chow Yun-Fat, one of the most famous actor in China, was criticized for its Chinese pirate appearance so that his performance was reduced to 10 minutes and the SARFT's reason was Chow's role “vilifies and humiliates the Chinese” while the public's reaction was “we are confused about Chow's role because no sooner had he appeared on the scene than he was killed.”
A blogchina blogger named Sima Pingbang (司马平邦）calling on people not to see the castrating Lust,Caution in theaters associated the movie censoring with China's serious pirate problem:
有时甚至怀疑电影审查与盗版是“连襟兄弟”，往往越是被他们删剪的电影，越是盗版市场的宠儿（或者不如干脆不允许[色，戒]登陆内地市场就完了），而且，更不会见到他们对盗版有任何有力的打击，但这一回，我们只能在盗版商那里看到足本的[色，戒]了。
Sometimes I even doubt the movie censorship and the pirates are close brothers. Usually, the more scenes cut by SARFT, the more popularity the movie will enjoy in the pirate market (or why not just forbid Lust,Caution to enter mainland). Additionally, we seldom see the authorities take any strong and effective way to control pirates, but this time we can only find the complete-version of Lust,Caution in the pirate vendors.
Ren Haiyong who used to study in CUPL is also a blogger of blogchina. He gave his own perspective on the college friend Dong Yanbin's behavior:
作为中国政法大学的校友，我对学弟董彦斌的起诉，非常赞同也非常理解。不管是不是法律人士，都会想到：作为法学博士的董彦斌不会不知道这样的起诉，百分之百是不会胜诉的；甚至连法院受理都难。然而，作为法学博士，他深知法制社会是需要有人去努力推进的。看到我们的法制化水平还停留在这样的档次上，他不能沉默，他要用一个看似幼稚的起诉举动，用他微弱的声音，极力地发出呐喊！他要向电影院，更要向电影的审查部门高呼，还我看片的自由！
……
我希望有自尊心的中国人,对这种不尊重我们人格的行为，都能发出正义的呼声！时代在进步，人们的民主意识也在增强，我希望那种曾经有过的、现在还在继续的，把中国人看成是永远长不大的孩子的人，应该看到社会发展的潮流。顺时代潮流则昌，逆时代潮流则亡，这句话在任何时代的任何国家,都永远适用。
As a CUPL alumnus, I pretty understand and approve college brother Dong Yanbin's accusation. No matter whether being a law professional, we all know: as a Doctor of law, Dong Yanbin definitely knew that such prosecution would one hundred percent fail; it's even difficult for the Court to accept it. However, as a Doctor of law, he deeply knew that the society needed to be promoted by someone's hard efforts. He could not help keeping silent when he saw our legalization process still stayed on such a low line. He was trying to use a seeming childish behavior of accusation and his slight voice to do his utmost to shout out! He would shout to the movie theaters and especially the movie censorship department that give our freedom of seeing pictures back!
…
I hope all the Chinese with a sense of self-respect, can put forward the call of justice to those who do not respect our human dignity! The era is progressing and people's democratic consciousness is also being strengthened. I hope those, who used to think or still continue to   regard Chinese people as never grown-up children should see the trend of the social development. Those who submit to the era tendency will prosper; those who resist it shall perish. This sentence is applicable to any country in any times forever.

author: Meng Zhang


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China: Labour Contract Law and Huawei’s Violation · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Chris O'Brien has a detailed post on how the news about a local company, Huawei’s decision to “ask” 7,000 of its employees who had been working for the company for eight years or more to resign had been harmonized in the mainstream media. Huawei's action is seen as a way to circumvent the new labour contract law.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Professor Shot to Death by Police · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Liu Xiaoyuan comments on a recent news about an assistant professor being shot to death in Guangzhou city by local police (zh). According to the police report, the gunshot was a self defense act as a police was dragged by the professor's car (with a fake military car number) for several meters when the police was in duty. The blogger points out that the police story is unbelievable as the victim had been shot twice.


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Dominica: CSME  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“The deep complexes Caribbean people still have cannot be buried under Caribbean unity,” says Caribbean Man, as he encounters limitations with the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Estonia: “In the Soviet Times” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Itching for Eestimaa shares a few “in the Soviet times” stories, Estonian and otherwise.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Estonia: The Language · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Itching for Eestimaa writes about regional peculiarities of the Estonian language.


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Estonia: The Swedes · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Itching for Eestimaa writes about Estonian Swedes: “…I came to the conclusion that Estonian Swedes do have a certain unspoken minority status in Estonia: they are marginal. No one writes about them. No one thinks about them. They exist, are deemed somewhat exotic, but then forgotten. They are simply unimportant. They are considered similar enough to Estonians to not be constructed as a social problem, and left at that.” The post has received 25 comments so far.


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Hiring: Global Voices seeks an Executive Director · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

The new board of directors of Global Voices met this week and decided it was time for an exciting step: hiring an executive director for Global Voices. Believe it or not, Global Voices has operated for almost three years with no one formally at the helm of the organization, and with no full-time employees. As our work and scale expands, we've reached a point where we need someone to coordinate and head up our fundraising, management and public relations efforts.
This is likely to be an extraordinarily challenging task, but for the right person, it's a terrific opportunity to help our community reach new heights. The job description follows below – please feel free to share it with anyone you think might be helpful to us.
Global Voices is seeking an Executive Director to oversee the Global Voices Online, Rising Voices, Global Voices Advocacy projects and the community that supports these endeavors. Global Voices is a multinational virtual organization, supported by the paid and volunteer efforts of over 100 people on every continent. Our executive director must possess a wide range of professional and personal skills to help our project reach its potential as the leading international citizen media community online.
The Executive Director will be responsible for the following:
- Management oversight of Global Voices major programs, including direct management of team leaders for the website, language translation, advocacy and outreach projects
– Draft and manage operating budgets for the organization
– Fundraising responsibility, which includes grant writing and creating networks to increase funds
– Maintaining relationships with past, current and future foundations and corporations in order to maintain and increase funding base
– Financial management of the organization
– Maintaining relationships between a governing board, advisory board, paid staff and volunteer staff
– Overseeing PR/media relations for the Global Voices network of projects
– Extensive travel in the course of representing Global Voices
Specifically, we are seeking a director with
- Strong leadership skills
– Experience managing a multilingual, multicultural team
– Experience supporting nonprofit or commercial projects through corporate and foundation fundraising
– Experience working with mainstream news outlets and journalists
– Experience with or strong understanding of citizen media, including blogging, podcasting, and videocasting
– Experience managing substantial ($1m+) budgets
– Strategic planning experience, preferably in a nonprofit or media context
– The ability to work independently and be able to produce results
To work effectively with our community, we would prefer that candidates:
– Have experience living and working internationally, or have traveled extensively in the developing world
– Are active bloggers or creators of online media
– Are multilingual, with fluency in English and at least one other language
– Have experience working in diverse, multicultural environments.
The ideal candidate must have a passionate commitment to the values and goals of Global Voices, they will be joining a well established team of editors and authors who are dedicated to amplifying the voices of world. There is no geographic requirement associated with this position – Global Voices has no office, headquarters, etc. – but substantial travel is expected. Candidates must have access to broadband internet connectivity and comfort working in a wholly virtual environment. We strongly welcome candidates from outside North America and Europe and encourage people currently working on the Global Voices project to apply.
To express your interest, please send a cover letter and CV to “edjob AT globalvoicesonline DOT org” by December 7th.

author: Ethan Zuckerman


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Hong Kong: Uwants · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Poon Wai Hang blogs about the most popular internet forum in Hong Kong, Uwants (zh). It ranks second among traditional Chinese language webistes, however, the sources of income are very limited.


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India: Democracy and Pakistan · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Atanu Dey takes a rather harsh look at the future of Pakistan.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Jamaica: All Work and No Play · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Yesterday while at work, I looked on the computer clock, noted that it was past 4:00pm and silently cheered. When did I become a clock watcher?” asks CityGirl.


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Jamaica: Ignorance or Bliss? · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“It hurts me to say the truth — those of us in Jamaica who are educated and employed benefit from those who aren't,” writes Francis Wade, as he blogs about economic realities.


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Japan: NEC Fingerprinting Technology · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Edo from Pink tentacle gives some technology background of the fingerprinting foreigners policy in Japan: NEC helps Big Brother watch foreigners in Japan.


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Kyrgyzstan: Kyrgyz Boxing Champion Arrested  · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Asel reports on the arrest of Kyrgyz boxer Almazbek Raimkulov in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a professional boxer, living in the States for a long time and known as “Kid Diamond”. The alleged reason for his detention was his refusal to show up under the American flag.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Latvia: The ‘Subdued Revolution’ · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Very belatedly, three links to All About Latvia‘s posts featuring Aleks’ thoughts about the recent ‘Subdued Revolution’ in Riga – here, here, and here.


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Latvia: The ‘Umbrella Revolution’ · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Peteris Cedrins of Marginalia has more on Latvia's recent “polite little revolution” – ‘the Umbrella Revolution”: here and here.


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Malaysia: Book Banned · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Malaysian opposition politician Lim Kit Siang regrets Malaysian government's decision to ban a book by a progressive religious scholar from Indonesia. One of the commentator feels the ban is a good thing as now more people would be interested in reading it.

author: Preetam Rai


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Mozambique: Congratulations to Tas – BOBs2007 · Global Voices
Paula Góes

A runner up for the the same category, Diário de um Sociólogo congratulates [pt] Marcelo Tas for winning the Best Weblog Portuguese prize and invites other blogs from Mozambique to make themselves known: “Finally, I would like to make again this invitation: sign up for  BOBs2008, I make an special invitation for Mozambicans. You will have more visibility, will gain more empathy and be in touch with much more people, will spread your ideas around the world and make the blogosphere more Mozambican.

author: Paula Góes


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Nepal: Nude Children and Television · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Legal News From Nepal on the ways that child rights can be denied – including children being shown in the nude on television.


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The other side of the coin: English blogs in Burkina Faso  · Global Voices
John Liebhardt

As Burkinabé journalist Ramata Sore pointed out last month: “In Burkina Faso, blogging is more than a pastime. It is the eyes and ears of thousands of net users.”
She was writing about French-language blogs of this former French colony, a country known for its strange political hegemony of a ruler who recently celebrated 20 years in power. For Burkinabé journalists and citizens, she says, the blogsphere is a place to freely report and discuss topics the government would rather have left unsaid.
For the growing list of English-language bloggers in Burkina Faso, blogging is also more than a pastime. English bloggers of Burkina Faso do make passing references to political issues facing Burkina Faso, like the effects of U.S. cotton subsidies on Burkina’s farmers or the anniversary of Tomas Sankara’s death. Like expatriates everywhere, English bloggers in Burkina more often leverage their platform as a way to describe this country on the verge of fascinating cultural changes.
It’s true, English-language bloggers may hail from unique backgrounds – missionaries, high school students, businesswomen, freelance journalists – but what ties them together is they all have passed more than a few years in Burkina Faso. What Burkina’s English bloggers lack in numbers, they make up in breadth of knowledge.
The elder statesman of Burkina bloggers is Keith Smith, a missionary who has lived amongst the Fulani people since 1992, making a base in Gorom-Gorom in northern Burkina Faso. His blog, Under the Acacias, marries current events, deep local knowledge, curiosity with a well defined compassion.
Here’s a snippet of a typical post of Under the Acacias:
In the period after 9/11, [Osama bin Laden] t-shirts were to be seen everywhere, worn around Gorom-Gorom and sold at the market, with ObL in various heroic poses. Like the boy I met, many people who have no idea who ObL is, and who certainly would not support his cause, were trotting round Gorom with his face adorning their chests. If you have no money to buy new clothes, and someone offers you a free t-shirt, what will you say…?
I can only imagine that someone with a lot of money had them made and shipped in, and then distributed or sold very cheaply through the network of Wahhabiya Muslims there. This is the Islamic sect to which ObL belongs. It doesn't imply that the Wahhabiya in Gorom support ObL of course, anymore than the Gorom church receiving t-shirts for distribution with David Beckham on should be seen as England football supporters.
The Wahhabiya are a Sunni sect, a more conservative, and revivalist group than the other Muslim sects in Gorom. (We have 4 altogether, including the Tijaniyya, the Ahmadiyya, and the Qadiriyya). However, the Wahhabiya in Gorom are generally peaceable – certainly not extremist or terrorist. But they are fairly new arrivals in Gorom – in the last 10 years – and their particular form of Islam (traditional dress, rejection of the use of charms, way of praying etc) has set them apart and caused some tensions – even arguments – with the other sects.
They are not wealthy, but they do get money from somewhere – for example, to build their mosque (another cause for fall-out with the other Muslims, who claimed there should only be one “Friday mosque” in town). Maybe the same source provided the ObL t-shirts. Maybe they were surplus to requirement – after all, Wahhibiya Muslims don't generally wear t-shirts…
Beth is a self-described mother of four who has spent the past nine years in Burkina Faso. As the title points out, BurkinaMom’s Life in Africa, Beth’s blog is full of tales about family life (one entry is called “Spoiled Expat Brats in Ouaga”), her dealings with launching a local NGO and occasionally, the current events that intrude on the personal and professional aspects of her life. Her writing is infused with a mordant sense of humor and humility in the face of trying to keep a family together in a complicated country.
Her posts are also known for the unique perspective she brings, especially when she attempts to explain various cultural issues to her readers. Although she covers important topics, Beth doesn’t subscribe to the notion that her blog is “serious.” “I don't usually get so political in my blog,” she wrote in one piece. “I don't want to get emails from weirdoes and writing on politics is the best way to have that happen.”
Her writing works best when she mixes the serious and the strangely comical with attempts at domestic tranquility. Here is part of a running description of what took place during an inexplicable gun battle that erupted between the Burkina military and police forces in December 2006, where some of the worst fighting took place about six blocks from her house:
I will probably venture out, despite warnings to the contrary. I have [work] stuff to take care of. If I see anything interesting, I’ll be sure and post again today. If I get hit by a stray bullet, Ill get JP to post for me.
On a happier note, today is Severin’s 11th birthday! His grandparents sent him a Star Wars Lego set that must have cost over $100 and have over four billion pieces. He’ll probably have it assembled in less than an hour.
Beth's daughter, Valentine, has also joined the blogsphere. She’s a high school student and writes My So-Called Life in Africa. It’s not updated very often, but Valentine also shows a gift for description and narrative of life in Burkina. Most posts vary between life as a half-American teenager going to a French school (one post is called “Vampires ate my yearbook”) and Ouagadougou seen through the eyes of a very perceptive foreigner.
Here is a good taste of her writing style:
Yesterday when I was coming home from school on the bus, my friend Nadège pointed at the end of the street we were on. The sky was darker and looked dirty. Then we saw enormous clouds of dust coming our way. We turned left off the road on to a dirt one – big mistake!!! We closed all the windows just as a hard wind picked up. Enormous waves of sand from the Sahara Desert had come our way!! We could barely see 100 meters in front of us!! We could hear the grains of sand hit the bus. It started raining lightly, which calmed the sand storm, but not by much.
Nadège has to walk 15 minutes to get to her house from the bus stop. As we arrived on the road of my stop, we felt sorry for the people on bicycles and women trying to save their fancy hairstyles. I opened the bus door and a wave of sand came over me!! It scraped my skin and got in my eyes. I ran to our car and jumped in, covered in sand. There had never been a worse sand storm than this!!
I found out today that after I got off, the bus driver drove Nadège right up to the front of her house. Lucky her
Stephen Davies has spent the previous four years in Burkina Faso. He works in the same mission as Keith, but resides in a different northern Burkina city, Djibo.
Stephen is a published author, writing children’s books, newspaper articles, travel pieces. (As Keith recently pointed out to me, one of Stephen’s books, the Yellow Cake Conspiracy, was written as pure fiction, but is now taking on a life of its own in Niger.)
Stephen’s blog, Voice in the Desert, feels like a combination of his various writing projects. Like other expats, Stephen infuses lot of local color and knowledge to his writing – along with a wry sense of humor. He can focus on intensely local issues – or rather, courtyard issues – or he can analyze how larger international events affect Burkina Faso. What separates Voice in the Desert is that Stephen’s posts often have a polished literary feel, like you’re reading a short story or well crafted essay.
Like this piece he wrote about the Burkina Faso census:
Samba Normé and Idrissa Cisse came round this afternoon and argued with each other. Samba Normé is a Fulani man who scrapes a living in the bush by selling wood and dodging forestry rangers. Idrissa Cisse is a townie, currently working as a door-to-door inquisitor for the nationwide census. We sat outside in my yard making tea on a small charcoal stove.
It was Samba who started the argument. He downed his shot-glass of tea (traditionally ‘bitter like death’) and turned to Idi. ‘Onon yimbe resonsmon mbooda,’ he declared. ‘You census people are evil.’
Idrissa looked hurt. ‘Why do you say that?’
‘You come and tire us out with hundreds of questions and you don’t give us anything in return. You ask us lots of impolite questions like how many cows and goats and sheep we have in our herds. And you ask us if we own a mobile phone when you can see full well that we don’t even own shoelaces.’
The census-taker shook his head. ‘You bush folk are the ones who tire us out,’ he said. ‘You lie about everything. You even lie about how many children you have, because you think that if the desert djinns overhear they might come and steal one.’
‘I told the truth about my children,’ said Samba haughtily.
‘What about employment?’ said Idrissa. ‘Did you tell your census-taker what you do for a living?’
‘And have the forest rangers knocking on my door in the middle of the night? Of course I didn’t. I said cultivateur. Everybody knows that cultivateurs get left in peace.’
‘There!’ cried Idrissa. ‘Liars, all of you! Burayma Gorel in Jawjaw told me to write him down for two cows, and when I got up to leave, his cows came home. I counted thirty-five.’
‘That’s because Burayma Gorel knows what you people are like! You’ll come back next year and announce that the government is introducing a special bovine tax: a thousand francs per cow.’
‘We’re census-takers,’ said Idrissa. ‘You can trust us.’
‘Oh really?’ Samba wagged his index finger in front of the census-taker’s nose. ‘You obviously didn’t hear about Al Haji Abdulsalam.’
‘What about him?’
‘His census-taker asked him to give three examples of what he says to his wife when they are making love at night.’
Amusement and professional solemnity chased each other across Idrissa’s face. ‘He shouldn’t have asked that,’ he said at last. ‘That wasn’t in the questionnaire.’
Samba took the second shot-glass (traditionally ‘sweet like love’) and downed it in three indignant slurps. ‘Anyway,’ he said, ‘it doesn’t matter what you ask, does it? When you go home in the evening, you make up all your results.’
I expected Idrissa to deny this accusation hotly, but he did not. He drained his glass of tea and shrugged his shoulders. ‘Have you seen how long those questionnaires are? If we filled out one for each family in the bush we would still be doing the census when Isa calls Muusa.’ (Fulani slang for ‘a very long time’).
‘So Samba’s right,’ I said. ‘You fake the results.’
‘Not all of them. Every day we do the first three or four properly, then for the rest we just write the head of household’s name and whether he looks rich or poor or very poor. We can pad it out later.’
For a long time no one speaks. The teapot hisses on its charcoal stove. It is Idrissa who finally breaks the silence. ‘You’re not going to tell anyone, are you?’
Stephen’s wife, Charlie Davies, has also recently begun blogging under the title Blooming Desert.
Finally, my blog, Africa Flak, tries to keep up with various current events facing Burkina and the rest of West Africa while giving readers a sense of context (and levity) often not found in the international press. I am a freelance journalist who has spent the past few years in Ouagadougou attempting to find a home for my narrative journalism on Burkinabé.
Burkina Faso also hosts a passel of blogs by Peace Corps volunteers, young Americans who spend a few years out in the countryside, living in villages and small towns. I’ll try to cover some of their blogs in my next post.

author: John Liebhardt


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Pakistan: Media and the UAE · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Pakistan Politics on Musharraf's influence getting to the UAE – resulting in the Pakistani news channel Geo TV being shut in the UAE as well.


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Pakistan: Who is Protesting? · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

All Things Pakistan on the protests in Pakistan, who the participants are and what the situation is really about.


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Papua New Guinea: PNG After Two Years · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Svandermark returns to PNG after two years and notices a lot of changes.


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Peru: Global Voices Translation Manager Interview · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Global Voices Translation Manager Juan Arellano is interviewed by Mi Blog de Blogs [es] about his work.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Philippines: Competing with North Korea · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Philippines might soon be competing with North Korea says Postcard Headlines.


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Russia: Muslim Neighborhoods in Moscow · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Window on Eurasia writes about Moscow's Muslim “enclaves.”


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Russia: Pepsi/Coca Cola in the USSR · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis writes about the complex – and sometimes scary – relationship between Pepsi Cola, Coca Cola, the Soviet and U.S. leaders, as well as the ordinary Soviet citizens in the 1970s.


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Russia: Political Cartoons · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Robert Amsterdam re-posts Russian political cartoons – here and here.


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Russia, Ukraine: Kerch Strait Disaster Podcasts · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Yegor Timofeyev of Greenpeace Russia is podcasting (RUS) from the scene of the ecological catastrophe in the Kerch Strait over at PODstantsiya, a podcasting project of the Moscow-based Foundation for Independent Radio Broadcasting.


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South Korea: Cheering for Test Takers · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Matt from Gusts of Popular feeling blogs about the cheering activities related to the annual university entrance examination in Seoul.


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South Korea: Workers’ Protest · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Jamie from Two Koreas blogs more on last weekend's workers’ protest commemorating Chun Tae Il, a worker who immolated himself in the early seventies in protest of the regressive labour relations that animated the sweatshops of the textile boom of those days.


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Sri Lanka: Country, Lineage and Identity · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

London, Lanka and Drums on the question of identity – given that the author has Sri Lankan parents but was brought up in the UK.


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St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada: Cost of Living  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As the Grenadian Prime Minister calls for a regional summit to address the rising cost of living in the Caribbean, Abeni says: “Go ahead and have the summit but am betting we will be told that the global situation is responsible for price hikes…Remember, the politicians do not have the answers.”


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Syria: Mourning Lost Sailors · Global Voices
Yazan Badran

This week, the Syrian coast was washed in the black color of mourning, after the shocking news of the Syrian vessel [Georgian flagged, but owned and operated fully by Syrian crew] “Haj Ismail” was hit with the horrendous storm that hit the Black Sea last week, along with another nine ships. Only two out of the 17 crew members survived. All of the seamen were younger than 33 years old.
Abu Fares’, A Tartoussi [from Tartous city on the Syrian coast], who knew many of these sailors and their families, reflects on the tragedy.
This is a repeat and devastating blow we suffer year after year before Tartous goes into a stupefied rendition of mourning. There are no faces to take a last look at, no bodies to bury, no tombstones to sit by and cry. Mothers would go on eternally in a state of animated suspension, staring out of windows, waiting for a phone call or a courier bringing a message of a miracle.
The emotionally charged post attracted a pour of comments and prayers for the lost seamen.
One commenter, Dubai Jazz, asked, “is there anyway these accidents could be avoided?”
Abu Fares’ answer was:
Well, I hate to give an answer when the wound is still bleeding. However, statistically speaking, the sheer number of drowned Syrian ships suggest that something wrong is going on. In particular, vessels sailing to the Black Sea run a much higher risk. These vessels are usually old, ill-maintained or have reached the end of their useful lifespan. They are not allowed anymore to call European ports, and by that I mean Western Europe because they are deemed unsafe. Most of these vessels were never ocean cruising ships to start with so they either retire after serving longer than normal lives or drown in the unforgiving sea.

author: Yazan Badran


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Taiwan: Friendly City · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Michael Turton posted an initiative to make Taichung A Barriers-Free City for All International Guests. The proposal was drafted in 2004, but has some significance against the recent campaign for Taiwan to join the United Nation.


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Thailand: Jotman Wins · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Thailand based blogger Jotman has won the “Reporters Without Borders Award” in Deutsche Welle's Best of the Blogs (BOBs) competition.


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Thailand: Politicians · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Siam Sentinel on how Thai politicians have “graduated from lying to the people to lying to the Emerald Buddha“


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The BOBs: And the winners are… · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

You've waited with bated breath.  You've sat by your computer.  Perhaps you've even flown to Berlin…that's right, Berlin, where the awards ceremony for The BOBs (Best of Blogs), a competition hosted by Deutsche Welle and co-sponsored by Global Voices, was held November 15.  At the ceremony, the results were announced – the winner of this years top award is Xenia Awimova, a 23 year-old aspiring photojournalist who lives and works in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
Her blog, Foto-Griffaneurei (literally translated to “Photo-Maniac”) highlights her black and white photographs of life in and around Minsk.
Christian Gramsch, Program Director at Deutsche Welle, said of the blog: “With few words this excellent blog succeeds in portraying the daily life of people in Belarus.”  Awimova herself, upon hearing of the award, explained her blog's success: “In Belarus there are not many independent newspapers or other platforms where people can express their opinions.  That is why a lot of young people write in their blogs.”
Alive in Baghdad, a popular video blog about daily life in the Iraqi capital, was also honored with the Best Videoblog award. The winner of the Best English Blog award was Valour-IT, a blog that raises money to buy laptops for injured American soldiers.
A special Reporters Without Borders prize was awarded to anonymous blogger Jotman, whose coverage of the 2006 coup in Thailand and recent protests in Burma has at times exceeded that of the mainstream news.
The full list of winners for this years Best of Blogs awards are as follows:
Best Weblog: Photo-Maniac
Best Videoblog: Alive in Baghdad
Best Podcast: Die Gefühlskonserve (German)
Blogwurst: Little Galerie (French)
Reporter without Borders: Jotman (Thailand / Burma)
Best Weblog Arabic: Aljazeera Talk
Best Weblog Chinese: Lian Yue's The Eighth Continent
Best Weblog Dutch: Frankwatching
Best Weblog English: Valour IT
Best Weblog French: Actualités de la république démocratique du Congo
Best Weblog German: Behindertenparkplatz
Best Weblog Persian: 35 Grad
Best Weblog Portuguese: Blog do Tas
Best Weblog Russian: /dev/karlson/mind.log
Best Weblog Spanish: A mis 95 años
All in all, about 100,000 users visited The BOBs website to vote for their favorite blogs from over 7,000 weblogs nominees, making this year's awards an enormous success.  So, if you're a blogger, get typing, because next year's awards are less than a year away and you could be a part of it!

author: Jillian C. York


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Trinidad & Tobago: WordPress Woes · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Lifespan of a Chennette is in Turkey without WordPress and compares herself to “that cat on the wall, in Antalya, sulking a bit…I had no intention of making any kind of political comment on Turkey, but this is frustrating.”


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Vietnam: Flood Clean Up · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Virtual Doug writes about the flood cleanup in Central Vietnam.


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Vietnam: Visit to Mekong Delta · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Pho takes us to the Mekong delta region in Southern Vietnam.


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Algeria: Studying Korandje · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Algerian blogger and linguist Lameen Souag is doing fieldwork in Tabelbala, where he is speaking “Korandje” – a clearly endangered language.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Bahamas: RIP Dr. Mac · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“We’re grieving because of the kind of man we’ve lost. And we’re grieving because his was a violent death”: Nicolette Bethel mourns the loss of Thaddeus Macdonald, Dean of the Faculty of Social and Educational Studies at the College of The Bahamas.


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Bahrain: Kitting Out An Islamic Car · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

This week in Bahrain we have a thoughtful post about the nature of God, a story of a sex education class, visitors’ varying experiences of both Bahrain and Spain, and a complaint about public toilets. There is also an intriguing examination of the specifications an Islamic car should have…
We start with a treat for bird lovers, with a photo from Bahrain Observations.
The nature of God
Ali Abdulemam continues a series about the ‘manufacture’ of certain concepts within Bahraini society, and in this post he turns to God:
Teaching good values…
Al Kaseef tells us about a class for sex education and moral values:
Two different Bahrains…
Mohammed AlMaskati writes about the indignation of a local newspaper editor, who objected to some recent articles in British newspapers about the political situation in Bahrain:
Yes my friends, both the British Times and the Independent have officially “lost a lot of their credibility” after publishing articles talking about sectarian discrimination, and a “futile democratic reform” around Bahrain. This must be in part in a campaign led by the British Press to defame our beloved country and most probably Islamic countries as a whole.
Or how would you justify articles that note such unthinkable and despicable issues that has no place in our country, after spending an entire hour with them supported by a fleet of other local journalist and even a British citizen explaining the prosperity of the country and the comfortable and rich life lived by the good people of Bahrain, with speedy access to governmental housing, and a total unemployment rate under 1%, inflation at an all time low, and constituencies blindly based on the total number of citizens living in that particular area and of no sectarian incentives behind planning them at all. After explaining all of this to them they would STILL go back home and end up writing an article noting the negative side of Bahrain! […] Without any appreciation to our hospitality they still talked about sectarian discrimination, in an act nothing short of total distortion of facts not only to the British people, but to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown. And how would anybody even bring up such nonsense about Bahrain the country whose appointed governmental ministers are equal in numbers for both sects, and is probably the only country its Military is open without any restrictions to members of both Muslim Sects.
Ammar certainly believes that people should try to see the ‘real’ Bahrain:
A famous musician superstar and his brother are in the country, and have been here for a good few weeks now. So far, their host has been taking them out to the top end restaurants, the 5-star hotels and resorts, the modern shopping malls, and so on. Being here even for a few weeks, this is pretty much the only side of Bahrain that they've seen; a modern, upscale country, full of rich people, high class hangouts, and luxury cars.
I meet up with them once every now and then, and so far they've seemed to enjoy the country. After all, it's not every day you stay in a country full of lavishness where everyone (apparently) seems well-off, and everywhere you go is modern.
I caught a sort of yearning for something though, through one of their conversations. Although a great life, something about it felt fake; all the restaurants, the cars, the opulent life was nice, but there was no real substance behind it. Something was missing.
The conversation drifted off to the fact that not everyone in Bahrain lived like that, and actually far from it. A good percentage of the Bahraini population haven't even visited some of these restaurants they go to every day, as they cost way beyond what they can afford. Some don't live in lavish buildings and drive fancy cars. No, there was another reality behind what appears to be a land full of prosperity and affluence. They didn't believe it at first, until I promised to take them for a tour around the real Bahrain.
To find out what that tour involved, see here.
… and two different Spains
Bahraini Rants has had a holiday in Spain:
Ibiza and the Balearics:
Take away all the industrialized nightclubs and insane posters, the hippies, the clubbers, the DJs, the bullshit and the hype, and you’re left with something incredible, a place with real magic, beautiful beaches, great food, lovely country side, and a laid back vibe that you just can’t beat. With the season wrapping itself up, I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed Ibiza if I had been during the shmack dab middle of hectic season, everyone was just so happy that things had calmed down and we enjoyed a nicer holiday because of it … However; in true European fashion, the nude sunbathing did catch us off guard. Walking along the beach searching for a spot, we were continuously surprised by the image of naked privates. Let’s setup there. Shit no, 7 naked Germans sunbathing and having a BBQ on the beach, let’s just find another spot. I’m just curious, aren’t they worried about flying sparks? Crazy naked Germans and the burning bush.
Mohammed AlMaskati also made trip to Spain a while back, but feels he didn’t make the most of what the country has to offer:
It wasn’t till the last bloggers meetup that the thought that I haven’t really seen the “cultural side” of Spain had hit me. Those two weeks I was there were spent either chilling on some beach, eating at some restaurant, or just wandering around with the car looking for some attraction, a zoo, a go-kart track, a paintball field and a miniature golf was all there is to it. […] What’s worse is during my return trip I decided to spend a couple of nights in London, and being the typical Arab tourist that I am have again wasted the opportunity not at museums and theaters, but exhausting my credit card limits on an endless shopping spree. And the fact that I didn’t have company didn’t help much either.
Toilet trouble
Yagoob is having difficulty finding a decent public toilet in Bahrain:
I hate going to the toilet in Seef Mall..
Why does everyone think that wet is ‘clean’?! Once you walk into a toilet the floor is wet and covered in dust mud and the seat is also drowned with water and God knows whatever liquids, even when you use some loo roll just to rinse off the water.. Surprise Surprise! The toilet roll is soaking wet!
And to top off all this, even the door and its handle are soaking wet and because people keep on doing this the wood of the door starts to rot and starts to look like a bloody shipwreck under the sea!
Top gear
Ammar reports on the announcement of a new ‘Islamic car’ – and has some suggestions as to what that should mean:
Now, Proton decide to create a car, put a compass in it pointing to Mecca, and a compartment for your praying mats, quran, and so on. Okay, all very well, but to me that just sounds like a regular car with a $10 compass installed. I personally think a car needs more substance to actually get the label “islamic”, and so i've come up with a list of new ‘options’ for the car to actually deserve being labelled that:
- The radiator can only be topped up with a 50/50 mix of coolant and zamzam water
- If you are a girl, the car will not let you ride with another man, unless you have a relative with you (ie, your brother, father, etc)
- The car can be filled up with gas any time of the day during the year, except in Ramadan, where you can only fill up the car after the sun sets
- If you are a man, you may buy up to four of these islamic cars. If you are a woman, however, you may only buy one
- No seatbelts, because if God is willing (In Shaa'Allah) that an accident will happen and you're going to get injured, a seatbelt really isn't going to stop it
- The car goes to auto-pilot mode and drives to the nearest mosque as soon as the athaan (call to prayer) is heard
- The car stereo is automatically set to all the quran and islamic radio stations, and nothing else.
- The car greets you with “Al salam alaikum” every time you switch it on
More from Bahrain in a week's time…

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Barbados: Evolving Architecture  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Cheese-on-bread follows the evolution of Barbadian architecture.


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Barbados, Jamaica: The Lightbulb Went On · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Barbados Free Press continues to follow the story on the Jamaican lightbulb scandal, comparing it to corruption in their own country.


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Egypt: Police Order Teens’ Rape · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egypt-based The Arabist  links to a story which accuses police officers of ordering the rape of two teenagers. “Does it ever stop? The number of cases of torture and worse in Egyptian police stations that have come to light in recent months is staggering,” notes the post.


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Egypt: Why is Israel Scared? · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“I can't find a reason why Israel is so scared that any Arab or Islamic country would own a nuclear program !! Seriously I do not find a good reason to all what the Israelis are doing whether from leading the world against Iran or attacking Egypt and KSA for their announcement that they would start a peaceful nuclear program,” writes Egyptian blogger Zeinobia.


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Haiti: Picture Show  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Alice Smeets posts a selection of her “12 best Haiti pictures”.


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Rising Voices in Sierra Leone and Bangladesh · Global Voices
Rezwan

Originally posted on Rising Voices.
Sierra Leone:
The Think Build Change Salone (TBCS) initiative seeks to help rebuild post-civil war Sierra Leone by providing ICT training to young people placed at paid internship positions with local non-profit organizations so that they may gain work experience and contribute to development projects.
In September Vickie Remoe-Doherty, of the Think Build Change Salone, described the challenges she was facing when seeking out young, capable and passionate interns from the capital city, Freetown.
Vickie was finally able to find 14 young leaders to advance the TBCS initiative and you can view their profiles here. They are being placed at various non-profit organizations around Sierra Leone. When they become comfortable with the new media tools, they will start documenting their experiences in those organizations.
The first experience was logged by Kadi Yata Kandeh (26), a third year student of Nutrition & Dietetics at Fourah Bay College with excellent academic records. Last month she posted the profile of her intern organization ‘Mano River Women’s Peace Network (MARWOPNET)’. This month she writes about her experience in the Training of Trainers Workshop at Bo titled “Engendering Conflict Early Warning and Response”.  The training advocates women to participate actively and contribute substantially to peace consolidation not only in Sierra Leone but throughout the Mano River Sub-region.
She shares:
“The Workshop was a challenge for me because it was my first workshop on residential (where I had to stay over night), and on Peace Building. I was one of the reporters, so I had to be attentive to all speakers for valuable contributions.”
Read more of her experiences.
Sahr Emmanuel Joseph is a second year Economics student at Njala University. He joined as an intern in Peace and Development Corp Program, a project under National commission for social action (NaCSA). In his informative post he describes his role and experiences there. He has some advices to the potential interns and opines:
“Information and technology knowledge is actually low in the country as stated by Siera Vision President I would recommend if donors agree to fund them let the organization provides information and technology training for student in the various university by organising free citizen media workshop for student in the various university and also organising educative programme that will enhance technology capacity of the students.”
Noah Suluku is the second youngest intern at age 21. He posts some pictures of the “Children of Bay” picking through garbage.
Bangladesh:
In the second part we take a closer look at Nari Jibon’s recent blogging activities. They are arranging regular fortnightly meetings about their progress. In the last meeting on the November 10th they summarized that since the beginning they have posted 105 articles (both Bangla and English) and 32 more in the pipeline for editing.
They arranged a training program for twelve new and old bloggers (Nari Jibon students/work-study students), covering digital photography, the basics of blogging, how to write a post, what to write, etc.
We have seen more blogger profiles posted to their Bangla and English blogs. The new bloggers think that the most important part of this organization is the Nari Cybercafé where the PCs are situated and they can blog there. They discovered blogging only after coming to Nari Jibon and they are now happy and eager to share their stories to the world.
Sherin Sultana thinks that because she is from a middle class family she cannot be exceptional. She describes the limitations of being a member of a middle class family:
“We don’t have abundance of money. If our watches become useless, we change only the belt or battery and change those again and again. But we never change the dial or buy a new one. If our shoes get useless we try once again to add another sole. We can’t expect more than enough to our necessity. Our self respect is very high so we can’t want something to anybody. If we don’t have anything then we try to get those by our own ability. Our life is measured and tied by the circle of middle class.”
But she is optimistic and cherishes the values middle class lives possess: sorrows, pains, love, affection and unlimited respect.
Nina Sultana went to a slum in Dhaka and experienced their poverty and difficult life styles up close. The slum people live in a dirty environment. They are deprived of fresh food, water and good shelter. They suffer from hunger, malnutrition and different kinds of diseases. She thinks their poverty leads some of them to break laws and engage in mugging and stealing.
Hasina Akhter describes [bn] her ancestral village, Bogadia, situated in Noakhali district, which boasts of having most of the basic amenities like electricity, water, and gas.
Nari Jibon’s Dr. Kathryn B Ward posted about Justice for Nadine and Rahela, two Bangladeshi victims of domestic violence and aligned Nari Jibon blogs with the Bangladeshi blogosphere who are advocating this issue quite vocally. Finally words of concern from Dr. Ward center on the deadly Hurricane Sidr which made landfall in Bangladesh Thursday night.
Their next training will cover the operation of video cameras and digital cameras for some Nari Jibon staff members and also for some students. We expect to see more photo and video blogging from Nari Jibon bloggers soon.

author: Rezwan


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Iran:Interview with a Photo blogger · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Pars Arts has interviewed “Life Goes on in Tehran”,an Iranian photo blogger.In Pars Arts we read that “the photo blog Life Goes on in Tehran highlights ordinary Tehran life in an effort to dispel Western myths and poorly slanted media coverage about Iran.”

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran:Workers in tears · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Jomhour says[Fa] that he saw several workers in tears because they did not get paid and they wish to die.


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Iraq: Drop in Violence · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“My relatives in Baghdad welcome the security improvements in the city. They say they can see a marked difference just since September,” reports Iraq Pundit.


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Iraq: Four Years of Iraq the Model  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

It's been four years since Iraq the Model has been launched.


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Jamaica, U.S.A.: Impulse Purchase?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“When I travel back to the U.S. I am blown away by how often the message is beamed at me to ‘BUY NOW, OR ELSE.’  Here in Jamaica, however, things don't quite work like that” – and Francis Wade likes it that way.


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Japan: Fingerprinting divides family · Global Voices
Chris Salzberg

Blogger Lionel Dersot wonders what parents of mixed children should do when the family is split at the airport, the foreign parent subjected to Japan's new fingerprinting regulations. Remarking that no one has yet raised the issue, he asks: “Is it too intimate in the age of no-privacy to think and talk with others about it?”

author: Chris Salzberg


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Jordan: Interesting Stories  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Here are some of stories in the media which Jordanian blogger Naseem Al Tarawnah found interesting.


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Korea: Samsung Scandal · Global Voices
Hyejin Kim

Samsung lobbying scandal – the creation of a slush fund, the bribery of prosecutors and government officials, and an effort by the chairman, Lee Kun Hee, and his aide to illegally help his son take over control of Samsung – recently has shaken Korean society and seems to affect the coming presidential election. Three presidential candidates agreed to seek a special prosecutor to investigate alledged bribery and other wrongdoings involving Samsung. The conservative Grand National Party (GNP) wants to look into the money Samsung allegedly gave in 2002 to “congratulate” the current president Roh Moo-hyun’s victory in the presidential election.
Netizens try to guess how much power Samsung really has.
연일 삼성의 뇌물 수수와 비자금 문제로 시끌벅적 하다….삼성이 아니었다면? 진작에 회장 불려가고 난리 났을 거다.
삼성돈 받아 먹은 검사들은 그게 뇌물도 아니라고 생각했을 지도 모른다. 댓가성이 없잖아~ 하면서 말이다. 다들 주는 돈, 안 받으면 뭔가 인정을 못 받은거 같고, 정히 현찰이 부담스러우면 뭐 받을 거 많지 않은가.. 백화점 상품권도 있고 고급 와인도 있고, 마눌님 가져다 드릴 명품도 있고.. 하지만 기자들이 받아 먹던 촌지가 사라지는데, 그 작은 악습 하나 없애는데 이 사회에서 걸린 시간을 본다면 삼성의 거대한 검은 돈은 사라지는데 얼마나 걸릴지 모른다. 아니 어쩌면 안 사라질 수도 있다.
삼성의 돈은 이미 삼권분립으로 상징되는 국가 권력을 능가한지 오래이기 때문이다.
문제는 저 삼성이 노무현의 참여정부와 어떤 관계가 있으며, 그 관계가 어느정도 알려지고, 어떤 효력을 발휘할 것인가 하는 점이다. 삼성은 당연히 청와대를 관리했다. 어떤 관리가 있었는가가 문제이긴 하지만 검찰청 검사들 관리하는 것 보다야 훨씬 더 “잘” 관리했을 것은 불문가지이다….외적으로 알려지고 언론에 보도된 거 말고도 삼성은 청와대에 다방면으로 개입하고 있다.청와대에서 무슨 테크니컬한 미팅이 있을 때, 삼성연구소의 지원으로 대부분 이루어진 것은 청와대 관계자들 사이에서는 잘 알려진 얘기이다…초기에 서슬 퍼렇던 시절의 노무현의 정책들 중에서 재벌관련 정책이 시간이 흘러가면서 무척이나 무디어 진 이유에도 관심이 간다….청와대는 이미 삼성에 의해 알게 모르게 관리되어 온 것이다…절대적으로 확실한 것은 삼성은 절대 침몰하지 않는다는 것이다. 정권은 유한하지만 돈은 무한한 것이라는 재벌들의 속담이 다시금 화려하게 입증될 것이 뻔하다…
Prosecutors who got the bribes from Samsung might think that it’s not the bribes, giving the excuse that there was no recompensation. They seemed to think that not taking the money means not to be recognized and there are others things to receive without cash. Department vouchers, high quality wine, and products of famous brands for wives…
But getting rid of bad customs such as bribes toward journalists took so much time in this society. In terms of gigantic Samsung’s black money, nobody knows how long it will take. Or maybe not forever.
Samsung’s money has surpassed the national authority long time ago. The problem is what relations Samsung and Roh Moo-hyun have, how much their relations will be publicized, and what kind of influence they will have. Samsung controlled the Blue House. We don’t know how it has been controlled, but I’m sure that it was controlled ‘better’ than those prosecutors… besides we know in public, Samsung has intervened in the Blue House in various ways. Whenever the Blue House had some technical meetings, it is already know that they have been organized by the support of the Samsung Economic Research Institute… Even though Roh Moo-hyun’s policy toward chaebol was strict, it has been blunt…. The Blue House has been unconsciously controlled by Samsung…What I can clearly say is that Samsung is not going to be submerged. What chaebol’s saying, the political power is finite, but the money is infinite, is proved.
Ethics becomes a big issue related to this scandal.
삼성을 왜 싫어 해야 하는지 모르겠다는 후배가 있어요, 한술 더 떠서 삼성 정도면 그만한 로비는 해야 하는 것 아니냐고도 하고요. 반도체와 휴대폰을 만들어 글로벌 시장에서 인정 받는 기업이니 어느 기업이나 하는 로비를 가지고 회사 무너 뜨릴 마냥 덤비는 건 대중영합주의라고도 합니다.
삼성에 대해 싫어하고 좋아하는 취미가 아니지요, 사람들은 좋고 싫음과 옳고 그름을 종종 헛갈리는 데요. 삼성의 행위가 옳고 그름에 대한 판단이지요. 좋고 싫음이 아닙니다. 김용철 변호사로 부터 불거진 삼성 비자금 의혹의 본질은 이건희, 이재용 일가가 사적 자본의 이익을 위해 불법적으로 기업지배구조를 재편했고 이를 무마하기 위해 오래도록 비자금을 조성하여 국가 기관을 매수한 것이지요. 그러니까 물음은 여기서 시작해야 합니다. 이런 행위가 옳은지 그른지 물어 보는 겁니다. …
글로벌 시장에서 삼성을 인정하는 것이 있다면 제품 경쟁력이나 마케팅 능력이겠지요. 하지만 글로벌 초일류 기업이 오직 제품 경쟁력과 마케팅 능력만으로 척도되지는 않겠습니다. 세계에 모범이 되는 기업이라면 기업의 이익창출도 중요하지만 사회적 윤리, 노동복지, 경영자 마인드도 빼놓을 수 없는 것입니다….
군사 독재시대에는 민주주의를 이루기 위한 민중의 저항이 있었다면, 오늘날은 거대 자본과 시장 지배체제에 대한 민중의 저항이 절실한 시기 입니다. …김용철 변호사가요? 그 분은 배신자도 아니고 하물며 영웅도 아닙니다. 엄밀히 말하면 그는 뒤늦게 양심의 소리를 경청한 측은한 한 인간에 불과 합니다. 그도 말했지만 그는 이 사건을 통해 처벌 받아야 되는 사람 중에 하나 입니다. 그를 이 사회적 처벌에서 구원할 수는 없습니다. 그래서도 안되지요. 다만 그가 처벌 받기 전에 이 사회가 지켜줘야 하는 것은 그가 아니라 그의 양심입니다. 그가 홀로 고민했을 때는 개인의 양심이겠지만, 이렇게 된 이상 이것은 사회적 양심이 되어야 합니다. …
It is not about whether we like Samsung or not. People are often confused what they like or dislike and what is right or not. This scandal is about what Samsung did right or not, not about what we like or dislike Samsung. The principle of this scandal which was begun from the lawyer Kim Yong-chul is that the Lee Kun Hee and Lee Chae Yong family organized the company illegaly in order to accumulate benefits of private capitals and, in order to hide it, they bribed government organizations. Therefore, the question should start here, whether this action is right or not….
What we can acknowledge Samsung in the global markets is the competitive power of their products and marketing ability. However, super enterprises in the global markets are not just measured by the competitive power of their products and marketing ability. If it is the model of companies in the world, profits from the companies are important, and social ethnics, labor welfare, and managing mind are also significant as well….
In the military dictatorship period, there were people’s protests in order to accomplish democracy. In these days, there are people’s protests against massive capital and market leader system….the lawyer Kim Yong Chul? He’s not a traitor and even not a hero. Strictly speaking, he is a human who listened to consciouness later. As he said, he is also the one who has to be punished through his disclosure. He can’t be saved from this social punishment. He shouldn’t be. But before he is punished, what this society should keep is not him, but his consciousness. When he was in agnony by himself, it would be the individual consciousness, but now it is the social consciousness….
Individuals or citizen organizations actively try to get support from citizens through signature campaigns or voting campaigns. And others analyze how media reacts.
오늘 올라온 기사는 총 107개이다. 노컷뉴스가 포함되었다면 총수는 더 증가했겠지만 구글 리더  의 문제로 노컷뉴스는 제외됐다. 기사의 수는 조선일보가 가장 많고 그 다음이 한국일보이지만 조선일보와 한국일보는 이데일리와 연합뉴스의 기사가 많이 포함되어 있으므로 역시 가장 비중있게 이 문제를 다루는 신문사는 한겨레신문으로 보인다. 중앙일보 1건을 빼면 대부분의 언론사에서 골고루 다루고 있다.
언론사별 삼성 비자금 뉴스
경향신문 (7)	국민일보 (3)	동아일보 (12)	머니투데이 (9)
서울경제 (4)	세계일보 (6)	오마이뉴스 (9)	조선일보 (20)
중앙일보 (1)	프레시안 (5)	한겨레신문 (14)	한국일보 (17)
오늘 삼성 비자금 뉴스에서 단연 눈에 뛰는 부분은 그 동안 삼성에 대한 종의 본능으로 일관하던 검찰이 독립적인 수사를 위해 특별수사본부를 만든다  는 내용이다. 그러나 검찰이 지금까지 보여준 종의 본능을 보면 과연 특별수사본부를 만든다고 해서 공정한 수사가 이루어질지는 의문이다. 시민단체에 그 동안 계속 요구한 특수부  를 특검이 가시화되자 만든 것을 보면 체면차리기용 뒷북이 아닌가 싶다. 물론 특수부를 어떻게 꾸리는지 조금 더 두고봐야겠지만 그 나물에 그 밥이 아닌가 싶다.
두번째는 여전히 충성의 기술을 보이고 있는 청와대에 대한 기사이다. 청와대는 15일 대통합민주신당과 민주노동당, 창조한국당이 국회에 제출한 삼성 비자금 특검법안에 대해 거부권을 행사하지 않겠다는 입장  이지만 작금의 상황을 보면 청와대 역시 삼성이 장악한 것  으로 보인다. 물론 청와대는 이런 주장을 근거없는 억지라고 주장  하고 있다.
세번째는 이미 예견된 일이지만 김용철 변호사의 도덕성을 흡집내기위한 기사가 올라왔다. 바로 부천에 김용철 변호사 명의의 노래방에서 불법 영업을 하다 적발됐다는 기사  이다.
The most noticeable part from today’s news was that the police on the side of Samsung will make a special investigation bureau for independent investigation. But as far as we know about how the police was for Samsung, I doubt that they will implement the fair investigation.
Second is about the Blue House, which still shows loyalty to Samsung. Even though the Blue House said that they will not object to the bill that three parties suggested to the National Assembly, how they behave shows the Blue House has been already controlled by Samsung. Of course, the Blue House denies it.
Third is about criticizing the morality of the lawyer Kim Yong-chul.
Many netizens criticize how Samsung itself treats this scandal.
이 사건의 본질은 그동안 재벌이 얼마나 지능적으로 법망을 피해다녔는지를 내부고발자에 의해 그 실체가 드러나 본격적으로 그 수사의 막을 올리려고 하는 순간인데 수사 착수도 하기전에 벌써부터 국내 경제에 타격을 입힐수도 있다고 협박아닌 협박을 하고 있으니 삼성 관계자들의 머리속에 도대체 뭐가 들어있는지 알 수가 없네요
수사가 본격적으로 시작되면 최고 의사결정권자들의 손발이 묶이게 되고 그러다 보면 삼성내부의 사업구조 개편, 수천억원에서 수조원대 투자와 연구.개발프로젝트의 의사결정이 지연되면서 글로벌 경쟁에서 뒤처질 수도 있다는 우려를 하고 있습니다.
매번 우리나라 재벌기업들 사건 터질때마다 이런 논리로 법위에 군림하였지요. 글로벌 시장에서 재벌기업의 역할을 강조하면서 선처를 바라는 모습들은 이제 너무나 뻔한 행동들입니다. 그러다 보니 재벌기업들의 탈법행위는 근절되지 않는 것이지요.
On the other hand, there are opinions to focus on how Samsung generates positive influence.
종사자수 약 50만 될라나
식구수로 따지면 약 200만
하청까지 따지면
엄청난 숫자가 삼성때문에
먹고산다
대한민국의 보물이다
삼성 등 대기업들은..
Including subcontractors, an enormous number is leaning on Samsung.
It’s the treasure of Korea. Big enterprises like Samsung…
So, what is the main point?
삼성 자체가 아니라…
님 말처럼 휼륭한 기업을 썩어 문드러지게하는
썩은경영인을 욕하는 것임…
경영자가 곧 삼성은 아니죠…
삼성의 일부분 중에 경영자가 있는 것이지..
사과에 썩은 부분 도려내지 않으면
사과 전체가 썩어 내버려야 하는 것
If you don’t take a rotten part of an apple out, it means that you leave the whole apple to rot.

author: Hyejin Kim


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Qatar: Churches and Christians  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Marjorie in Qatar discusses churches and Christians in Qatar.


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Russia: To Vote, or Not To Vote? · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

To vote – or not to vote? To “vote with your feet” – or to follow Mikhail Khodorkovsky's advice (RUS, translated here) and vote for one of the smaller parties that you don't “despise”? To boycott the election – or to spoil the ballot? To be proper and check one of the ballot's squares – or to get mischievous and write a swear word across the page?
These are the questions that quite a few Russian bloggers seem to be considering right now.
Half a month ago, LJ user tvoron saw a handmade poster at a bus stop in Moscow, which, in a rather crude language, urged voters to write a three-letter Russian obscenity on the ballots, in order to protest, among other things, the elimination of the “against all” option and the minimum voter turnout requirement.
Below is an exchange (RUS) between two of tvoron‘s readers:
odalizka:
You know, I totally agree with the authors of this creation. I myself am going to do something similar, if I go there at all. […]
jarud_bra0n:
Do you realize that the more ballots get spoiled, the more seats go to the [pro-Kremlin United Russia]?
odalizka:
What's that, some new law that we've got? Interesting.
But even if it is so, what do you suggest? To go and vote for [Grigory Yavlinsky's Yabloko]? Honestly, I'm not going to vote at all – let this farce – whose results are known in advance – is taking place without me. And the United Russia will get what it needs anyway.
jarud_bra0n:
Yes, this is the law. Whoever hasn't showed up, or spoiled the ballot, or cast a vote for a non-winning party – this person has given his/her vote to the leader as a gift (in our case, to the United Russia).
I suggest to vote for any other party that's likely to get past the [7-percent eligibility threshold], preferably for the one that'll come in second or third. They are all bad. But the only way to protest is to vote for them.
I guess I'll vote for the vegetables – [the Communist Party of the Russian Federation]. Even though a few years ago I would've given myself a beating for this. […]
odalizka:
[…] Well, thank you, young man, but I wasn't reading [samizdat copies] of [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn] and [Joseph Brodsky] throughout the night as a kid to vote for the Communists when I'm 37. No way.


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Saudi Arabia: Women in Business · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahraini blogger Esra'a posts a podcast featuring a lecture by Saudi businesswoman, Madawi Al Hassoun, a board member of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce. “If you don’t know much about Saudi women, if the main thing you hold against them is their inability to drive, if you think Saudi women are doing nothing to achieve progress and change in the country, or if you’re just curious about what Mrs. Al Hassoun has to say – I suggest you listen to this podcast carefully,” she writes.


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UAE: Sex Abuse Awareness Site Banned · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

A site on sexual abuse in the Middle East, Sexual Terrorism, has been banned in the UAE, reports Mideast Youth, which runs the online project.


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Armenia: Return of the King President · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Levon Ter Petrosian, Opposition Rally, Liberty Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
Without a doubt, the most significant event this winter has been the return of the first president, Levon Ter Petrosian, to the political scene in Armenia. Resigning in 1998 and living virtually as a recluse, Ter Petrosian came out of self-imposed retirement on 21 September — the 16th anniversary of Armenia's independence — to launch a blistering attack on the government and his successor as president, Robert Kocharian. Most observers took the criticism as indication that Ter Petrosian intended to again run for office.
On 26 October, at his first public rally, he confirmed such speculation by declaring that he would indeed run, but not everybody was happy. While considered an educated and formidable politician and statesman, many Armenians still hold Ter Petrosian responsible for the dire economic situation they found themselves in during the early to mid-90s when electricity shortages were commonplace, and corruption and cases of political persecution sky-rocketed.
In 1996, it is widely believed that the presidential election which secured his second term in office, was falsified.
In the wake of opposition protests following the '96 election, Ter Petrosian sent the tanks out onto the streets of Yerevan and opposition activists were persecuted and harassed. No wonder then, that not only did many expect the first president to account for his time in power, but they also demanded it. A rally staged Friday in the capital's Liberty Square was billed with that intent. Unzipped sets the scene.
Friends report from Yerevan that there are leaflets all over the capital inviting people for a (second) mass rally by ex-President and presidential hopeful Levon Ter-Petrosyan on 16 November. The main expectation of people who plan to go to the rally is that Levon at last will answer to the criticism over his period of presidency. They hope to hear his reflection over such issues as corruption, 1996 presidential elections (which many consider was a green light to all subsequent election frauds), Karabakh and so on. People expect and hope. Will Ter-Petrosyan deliver? We have to wait and see.
Even those opposed to Ter Petrosian's return such as Raffi K at Life in Armenia were intrigued.
Today is the 2nd Ter-Petrossian speech at the Opera (tonight). I don’t know if I’ll go – most the people I know who have gone have been rubberneckers, not supporters, and I am not sure I want to contribute to the swelling of his supposed ranks with rubberneckers. However, he is supposed to provide an explanation for his shortcomings today, which would be quite interesting – though I’m not sure I’d understand all the academic Armenian.
Opposition Rally, Liberty Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
Setting the scene for the event, and inadvertently adding to the intrigue, the government did all they could to disrupt the meeting. An open-air pop concert scheduled for the next day in the same location, even though such events are unheard of in the winter, meant a huge stage erected would take up a significant amount of space. The concert was sponsored by the Yerevan municipality and the ruling Republican party of the main government candidate for next year's election, prime minister Serzh Sarkisian, as Unzipped explained.
Election period is the best for Armenian pop music loving crowd, more specifically youth, and it is officially started. We've seen it during parliamentary elections. We've already seen an introduction for presidential elections on 26 October.
This Saturday, just a day after ex-President Ter-Petrosyan 2nd rally, there will be an open-air free concert in Opera square (Freedom sq) with invited pop stars from Russia, including Dima Belan. Formally, concert is organised “for students”. However, it is sponsored by Yerevan mayor and Republican party.
“You go do your rallies, we will do concerts. Now see who will have more numbers.” […]
As it was, however, the stage was used by Ter Petrosian and his political allies as The Armenian Patchwork explains.
Once again opposition parties supporting the candidacy of Levon Ter-Petrosyan for president organized a rally on 16 November.
Ter-Petrosyan spoke from the stage on Freedom Square, from which Russian singer Dima Bilan and Armenian singers would perform the next day, a concert sponsored by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia.
The crowd reached more than 10,000 […]
Khachatur Sukiasian, Opposition Rally, Liberty Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
Local multi-millionaire businessman Khatchatur Sukiasian, also known as Grzo, was subject to tax inspections due to his support for the former president. Ironically, it has been frequently alleged that Sukiasian has evaded taxes during his time at the top of the pile under Ter Petrosian. His family is also reportedly related by marriage to former Minister of the Interior Vano Siradeghian still wanted by Interpol for masterminding several political assassinations in the 1990s.
A few days before the event, a youth activist from a minor political party, — the Democrat Hnchakian Party (SDHK) — was beaten by masked men while distributing anti-Sarkisian leaflets in a district of Yerevan. The Armenian Observer decried both the beating and the nature of the leaflets. Pro-Ter Petrosian and opposition activist Aramazd even reported that some leaflets advertising the rally were being systematically removed or defaced by government supporters, but despite the added publicity such tactics offered to the opposition, turnout at Friday's rally was little more than the previous one.
Even if the organizers put the number at 85,000, a figure impossible to achieve in Yerevan's Liberty Square, Reuters reported 12,000 while Radio Free Europe said 20,000. Bloggers, however, put the number at 10-15,000, but nonetheless said the gathering was impressive even if far smaller than the 50,000 recently reported in neighbouring Georgia. Even bloggers, such as The Armenian Observer, who have been highly critical of Ter Petrosian said that the speech by the first president was inspirational.
The crowd [responded] to the speech very enthusiastically, at least in the tight center where I was standing, and for a moment I felt inspired and elated. I felt, that it’s great after all, that Ter-Petrossian decided to come back – the political struggle has become so much more interesting by that. LTP is definitely much more charismatic and a better speaker then any of the politicians in the opposing camp – and today I felt for the first time ever, that he might actually have a chance of winning, because compared to him, Serge Sargsyan seems dull and weak to say the least.
Although not present at the rally, Unzipped was also pleased that Ter Petrosian finally addressed some outstanding accusations and criticisms of his time in power. Ironically, however, his greatest regret was bringing the current president and prime minister to Armenia from their native Nagorno Karabakh, the mainly Armenian-populated self-declared but unrecognized Republic in neighbouring Azerbaijan. The current favorite to take over from the current president is the prime minister, Serzh Sarkisian.
“Seeing the latest steps by Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian, I am increasingly convinced that I need to repent and ask for absolution,” he told about 20,000 people who gathered in the city’s Liberty Square. “Therefore, I belatedly but sincerely apologize to you for bringing Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian to Armenia and foisting them upon you.”
“If I made mistakes in my staffing policy – and I really did – this is the biggest one. In fact, this is not a mistake but a disaster which I inflicted on our people. So help me rid you of that disaster,” he added, drawing cheers from the crowd.
[…]
My initial impression is that the speech […] “contained a long-awaited critical analysis of his track record in government”. People may agree or disagree with what he said. But importantly, for the first time, he faced up his past in public and, overall, delivered expectations of the rally. His speech contained other important statements too which may be crucial in shaping up further developments in pre-election Armenia. Once more Levon proved that he is the one who is setting the ‘theme’ for the election campaign.
With three months left before the 19 February 2008 presidential election in Armenia, The Armenian Observer rightly concludes that Levon Ter Petrosian is now shaping up to be the main opposition candidate aiming to contest the vote against the prime minister. Given the dynamics of Armenian politics, the race is now likely to get very heated and potentially volatile. Moreover, with the objectivity of the media in Armenia questionable, bloggers are taking on a very crucial and important role.
And while there might not be many posts on the election for now, what is lacking in terms of numbers is more than made up in terms of quality. Photographs of the 2008 presidential election in Armenia to date are here.
All photographs © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007.
Hovannes Hovannisian, Opposition Rally, Liberty Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
Stepan Demirchian, Opposition Rally, Liberty Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
Levon Ter Petrosian, Opposition Rally, Liberty Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Bahrain: Gas Deal with Iran  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Iran has signed a multi-billion gas deal with Bahrain. Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif has the details here.


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Bahrain: GulfRun Photos · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Lebanese blogger Mark, who lives in Kuwait, posts pictures of GulfRun, a motor sports race from Bahrain, here.


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Brazil: Black Pride and the racism debate · Global Voices
Paula Góes

From 1550 to 1888 at least 3 million Africans were brutally shipped to Brazil by the slave trade, making nearly half of all the slaves brought to South America. Most of them came from Angola and Mozambique, then Portuguese colonies in Africa, and were subjected to forced labor in the north-east's sugar plantations.
Throughout the years of slavery, thousands managed to escape and set up liberated communities known as quilombos. The most famous of them was the Quilombo dos Palmares, in Alagoas, led by a runaway slave called Zumbi, who became a symbol of resistance for defending it against attacks from colonial forces. Zumbi was killed in 1695 and on the anniversary of his death, November 20th, the country renews its ongoing fight against discrimination.
(Picture by Iberê Thenório)
Bloggers reflect on social exclusion, racism and pride
The African cultural influence remains strong in Brazil, a country where people of African descent form nearly half of the country's 180 million population. Even so economic, social and other forms of racial discrimination remain the main legacy of the enforced mass migrations of the slave trade. According to the latest census, in 2000, Brazilans of African descent account for 63% of the poorest section of society although only 5% of this group declare themselves ‘of black origin’. Roice, Leandro and Milena, students from the secondary state school Jair Toledo Xavier, take a look at the numbers [pt] and reflect on the causes of discrimination:
A lei proíbe o racismo, mas mantém estruturas sociais e econômicas que o alimentam. Pode evitar que um viole o direito do outro, mas não tem como levar brancos e negros a se amarem e menos ainda como ajudar cada pessoa a se sentir bem em sua pele e em sua identidade cultural. No Brasil, os dados oficiais mostram que as desigualdades sociais são mais profundas à medida que as pessoas pobres não só são empobrecidas, mas são negras.
The law forbids racism but maintains the social and economic mechanisms that feed it. It can stop people from violating the rights of others, but this can't make blacks and whites love each other, and it is even more hopeless at making people feel good inside their own skins and with their cultural identities. In Brazil, official numbers show that social inequalities are deeper inasmuch as poor people are not only impoverished but black.
(Picture by Iberê Thenório)
Is the law really working at all? Aldo Cerqueira Santos [pt] publishes a collection of accounts by people who have been discriminated against and poses some questions for reflexion. The last of them is:
Estes depoimentos aconteceram há dez anos. Por que até hoje existe preconceito racial.
These accounts happened 10 years ago. Why is there still racial prejudice nowadays?
But is there in fact racism at all in such an ethnically mixed country as Brazil? This is still a much debated and highly controversial issue. Edu amasses more than 50 comments on his three posts on the subject. In one of them he writes [pt]:
O único tipo de preconceito que existe é o preconceito SOCIAL, relacionado à condição financeira e os símbolos de status ostentados pelo indivíduo. Neste país, não se olha cor antes de se julgar uma pessoa – se olha o que ela tem no bolso. No pulso. O que ela veste. Um negro rico é mais respeitado e bem tratado que um branco pobre – como se fosse uma pessoa melhor apenas por ter grana.
The only type of prejudice that exists in Brazil is SOCIAL prejudice relating to personal financial conditions and displays of status symbols. In this country, one doesn't judge others by their color – one looks what there is in people's pockets. On their wrists. How they dress. A rich black person is more respected and better treated than a poor white one – as if they were better people because they have dosh.
Zélio Luz [pt], who reports that he still faces racism after establishing himself as an engineer, is among those commentators who disagree with this post, inviting the author to put himself in black people's shoes for one day and listing some of the situations he has been through in a racist Brazil:
Muitos como o dono do texto, dizem que temos complexo de perseguição… imaginemos que você seja negro, e que entre em um desses cursinhos preparatórios, depois de trabalhar o dia inteiro, para pagar é claro o tal cursinho. Vai ao banheiro e se depara com a seguinte mensagem: “SAI FORA PRETO AQUI NÃO É SEU LUGAR” o que você faria? Imagine-se caminhando em um bairro nobre, vestido “arrumadinho” indo para o trabalho, alguém o vê se aproximar e percebendo sua negritude, atravessa para o outro lado da calçada segurando sua bolsa desesperadamente, o que você faria? Imagine-se agora em uma balada na vila olimpia, arrumadinho novamente, alguém lhe entrega as chaves do carro e lhe pede para que guarde no estacionamento, o que você faria?
Many people, such as the one who wrote this post, say that we have a persecution complex… imagine that you go on one of these courses [to prepare for the university exams] after a whole day's work to pay for said course. You go to the loo and stumble upon this message: “GO AWAY NIGGER, THIS IS NOT A PLACE FOR YOU”, what would you do? Imagine that you are walking through a posh neighborhood, all “dressed up” to go to work, someone sees you getting close and perceiving your “blackness” crosses to the other side of the road, holding their bags desperately tight. What would you do? Now, imagine you are going out in Vila Olímpia, again dressed up, and someone gives you the car keys and asks you to find a car parking space, what would you do?
(Picture by Iberê Thenório)
One of the highlighted topics of the above debate was a legal measure approved in May 2004 that allowed federal universities to use a quota system, according to skin color and social class, in order to improve access for people of  African descent  in further education. This is referred to as ‘soft racism’ and is the worst kind of discrimination, according to Reality is out there [pt]:
Falo daqueles que acham que, sim, os negros são inferiores e precisam de um tratamento diferenciado por parte dos brancos privilegiados senão nunca chegarão a ser nada na vida. Aqueles que não acreditam que, dando-lhe consições iguais, um negro é capaz de disputar uma vaga de trabalho em igualdade de condições ou até mesmo levar vantagem sobre um branco.
I am talking about those people who think that, indeed, black people are inferior and need to be treated differently by white people otherwise they will never get anywhere. Those who don't believe, given equal conditions, a black person is  capable of competing in the job market in parity or even in an advantageous situation over a white person.
Truth be told, in Brazil the term ‘racism’ is mostly used regarding discrimination against people according to the color of their skin. Sérgio Mendes [pt] reminds his readership that the word racism should not only have this connotation:
Já que tanto se batem pela questão do racismo contra os negros, poderiam, sensatamente, perceber que o inverso também o é. A palavra racismo não tem um componente “negro” no seu significado. Racismo é o preconceito que determinada raça ou etnia tem contra outra, independentemente se são brancos contra negros, negros contra brancos, portugueses contra espanhóis, paulistas contra nordestinos ou sérvios contra croatas: é racismo da mesma maneira, independente de qual parte parta.
As the question of racism against black people is often targetted, one could, reasonably, acknowledge that the inverse idea is also racism. The word racism does not have any ‘black’ component in its meaning. Racism is a prejudice that a certain race or ethnic group has against others, regardless whether they be white against black, black against white, Portuguese against Spanish, people from São Paulo against people from the Northeast or Serb against Croat irrespective of which side it starts on.
(Picture by Iberê Thenório)
Eduardo Peret goes further, reflecting on discrimination of all kinds, against homosexuals, women and races concluding [pt]:
Então, vamos todos nos educar para a verdadeira perfeição, alcançando as virtudes da tolerância e da aceitação mútua. Aí, sim, as paradas, os dias internacionais e as comemorações de consciência e de orgulho serão desnecessários. Porque todos nós seremos verdadeiramente iguais, tal como quando nascemos.
So, let's all educate ourselves for real perfection, reach the virtues of tolerance and mutual acceptance. Then, indeed, the pride days, international days and commemorations of pride and awareness will be unecessary. Because we will all be truly equal, as we are born.
(Picture by Iberê Thenório)
Jaqueline Lira, a teacher and blogger, has the last word on this debate saying she  is proud of her descent [pt]:
Tenho orgulho de ser negro. Não sou marrom, nem furta cor, nem camaleão. Sou negra.
I am proud of being black. I am not brown, nor iridescent, nor chameleon. I am black.
If you read Portuguese, Valeu Zumbi [pt] is a new blog that has been set up to spread information about the Black Pride celebrations accross Brazil.
All the pictures that illustrate this feature have been kindly provided by Iberê Thenório. See his full set from last year's Black Pride in Avenida Paulista, São Paulo.


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Brazil: First student radio celebrates gold anniversary · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Milton Ribeiro celebrates [pt] Radio Universidade's 50th anniversary. This radio run by students at the University of Rio Grande do Sul was the very first station he tuned into. “I started to listen to it daily when I was 15 and I had no idea that the station had been born in the same year as me”. His long post describes the importance of the station for the cultural local scenery.


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Brazil: Recycling the idea of recycling  · Global Voices
Paula Góes

“If there is anything that should be recycled in Brazil, it is the concept that Brazilians have of recycling itself”. Starting by this idea, Nivaldo Simões shows in a detailed post [pt] how the model of recycling adopted by Brazil and by other developing countries – of not reducing the waste first – is creating an even bigger problem than bringing any advantages.


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Brazil: Updates from the BlogCamp BH · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Superfície Reflexiva has live updates [pt] from BlogCamp BH, a bloggers meeting in Minas Gerais taking place this weekend. Ronaldo Ferraz is experimenting reporting also through a new tool, Twitter. The first day left him disappointed: “The subject that I feared most, blog monetization, was the dominating topic in the first day and the place did not make it possible the type of conversations that I expected from a meeting like this”.


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Brazil: Without internet for 95 hours, 43 min, 17 sec, and couting… · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Surviving since Tuesday night with no internet connection and blogging from an Internet cafe, Gabriela Zago [pt] describes the Brasil Telecom service as the worst ever: “They informed us by phone that the connexion cables had been stolen, but that the problem was to be sorted out the following day (that is to say, Thursday, the Proclamation Day bank holiday)”. She bets the problem will take another week to be fixed.


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Iran:Expensive dogs protect Ahmadinejad · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Istgah reports[Fa] that the four dogs recently added to Ahmadinejad’s security team have been purchased form Germany for $150,000 each.


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Iran:No to Circus · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Several Iranian Green bloggers,including Mojgan Jamshidi,say[Fa] “no to circus” in Pardisan Natural Park in Tehran.They say that it is shameful to see suffering animals in a natural park.


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Iraq: Busy College Life  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Iraqi blogger Najma describes her busy college life in this post.


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Iraq: Football Players Seek Asylum in Australia  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Three Iraqi football players are seeking asylum in Australia, says Iraqi blogger Ladybird.


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Jordan: Election Watchdog · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Jordanian site 7iber is starting a new citizen journalism experiment – an election watchdog, writes Naseem Al Tarawnah.


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Jordan: Guantanamo Bay Sad Story  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Following the release of two Jordanians from the high-security Guantanamo Bay prison, Jordanian blogger Hareega admits that he is weary of men with beards (extreme religious men). He also adds that Guantanamo Bay “is a very sad story.”


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Jordan: Income Tax · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Will 90 per cent of Jordanians be exempt from income taxes? Jordanian blogger Khalaf  informs us that this is a question many MPs are not able to tackle.


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Jordan: My First Crush  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Jordanian Roba Al Assi takes us on a trip down memory lane to her school days in Saudi Arabia and her first crush. Read about it here.


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Kuwait: Afghani Hashish Oil on Sale · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Kuwaiti blogger bo9agr discovered a strange find at the local supermarket – where Afghani Hashish oil is on sale.


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Kuwait: Busy with Activities  · Global Voices
Abdullatif AlOmar

It seems as if it's activity week in Kuwait. With cooler weather, Kuwait's bloggers are out of the doldrums and writing about their everyday activities.
We start with bb q8 over at Kuwait Advertiser, who shares with us his pictures of an event in the Light House Church in Kuwait.
Today at the Light House Church in Kuwait City, a Harvest Festival was held.
This fundraising event is held once a year as a Thanks-Giving Festival.
Image courtesy of Kuwait Advertiser
Marzouq over at zdistrict brings us the latest from  Gulfrun, an annual event in which Kuwaitis drive their sports cars to Bahrain and race over there.
My hat goes off to the gulfrun organizers for making this happen, I was really surprised how many cars there really were, you can’t tell how many there are when its at night. I came directly from work to the parking lot on the Gulf Road but it turns out I am one of the few that came directly from work, everyone went home and changed, then came. Many cars met up on the way there and you could hear them coming. I met up with one of the support vehicles and a Monster of a Porsche, and we were searching for the parking lot.
Yo_ghurt over at stillkuwaiting informs us about a new environment friendly change in Kuwait.
Maybe I just found out, as I don’t shop at the big Co-ops much: I was in Mishref Co-op yesterday and I’m glad to see that they are offering a choice of paper or plastic bags now. The paper bags are made of recycled paper and are sponsored by various companies under the Environment Friends Campaign
Meanwhile, Hellraiser is going on a road trip on a bike from Kuwait to Beirut, Lebanon, and started a new blog and named it Kuwait to Beirut to document everything that happens to him on the trip. He has just reached Beirut but that's not the end of it. We are awaiting for his return trip.
Well I guess my plans on resting went out through the window, the gang decided to go to Beirut, I guess this is why I am able to blog again. We left marmarita at 13:00, and arrived to Beirut around 17:00.
EXzombie over at exzombiesm draws to our attention another event – Project Turtle 2007.
As always, same as every year since 2000, Project Turtle is now a 7 year old Kuwaiti/Japanese project that is carried out by the Japanese society in Kuwait……!!!
same as last year the Project will target Shuwaikh Beach Park, where all the Japanese people in Kuwait JOIN in to clean the beach in order to enhance Kuwaiti people’s awareness of environmental protection…..!!!
Last but not least,
Forzaq8 wonders why there wasn't any attempt to advertise that there is a book fair at the Kuwait Fair grounds.
As far as i know ,, and according to the Kuwait international fair company [ KiF ]
The book fair is from 13th till 23 of November
of course i haven't noticed any ad or even a small bit in the newspapers

author: Abdullatif AlOmar


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Laos: Development in Pakse · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Laovoices has images from fast developing river town Pakse in Laos.


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Lebanon: Compromise President · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The Blacksmiths of Lebanon discuss who the ideal ‘comprise’ president of Lebanon could be in this post.


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Morocco: Trampling Marakkesh  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Marakkesh is regaining its days of glory as the Mecca of tourists. With new mentions in international media, what do Moroccan bloggers have to say about the influx of tourists into their country? Here are the views from two of Morocco's louder bloggers.
Laila Lalami is appalled with the damage some tourists bring to ancient sites.
“The New York Times has a travel piece on Marrakesh, which I fear will result in even more tourists crowding the city. When we were there last spring, I saw a moronic British tourist sticking his ass out of one of the windows of the Ben Youssef Medersa. The floors of the seminary's student rooms were damaged by all the activity, and one of the guides kept touching the exquisite plaster work in the inner courtyard with his bare hands. (The photo above gives you a small idea of what you'll see on any given day at the famous medersa.) The tile floors at the Bahia palace were completely falling apart, and people had no regard for the artifacts. The Menebhi palace was also starting to show signs of wear. Sad,” she laments.
Meanwhile, A Moro in America (Ar) counters the argument saying that targeting the ‘right’ type of tourist will bring much needed money to boost the tourism industry and other trades linked to it.


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Palestine: Crossing Checkpoints  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Marcy Newman is in Palestine and writes about her experiences crossing checkpoints and visiting Palestinian villages there.


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Philippines: Adsense Earnings Via Western Union · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

If you are in Malaysia or Philippines, you can get your google adsense earnings through Western Union.


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Nicaragua: Software Freedom Day Group Wins Award · Global Voices
GV Contributor

Software Freedom Day, a celebration of Free Software and Open Source, announced tha the SFD group for Nicaragua won one of three top places worldwide for their efforts on bringing Open Source Software to the people.  Their event was held on September 13th in Managua, with the participation of organizers: Grupo Ubuntu Nicaragua [es], Suse-NUI Nicaragua [es], Grupo Fedora-ni [es], and Debian GNU/Linux Nicaragua [es].This is the email announcing one of the organizers the good news:
We are very pleased to tell you that the SFD NIcaragua 2007 Team competition entry for Best Event has been chosen as one of three winners! Congratulations!We were very impressed with your event. You had excellent community participation and non-geek inclusion, activities, media coverage (we loved the interviews!), collateral, technology demonstrations and of course information about Software Freedom and FOSS. Your teams hard work and dedication is inspiring and the excellent media coverage you achieved is tribute to those efforts.Well done! You do your country and the FOSS community proud, and are a true example of what Software Freedom Day is all about!Please pass on our congratulations and praise to your team, and your community.Cheers,Pia
Check the SDF group page  which details all the efforts being made to help people jump into open source software.  The page includes conference preparation and most importantly, conclusions post-conference:
7. Conclusions

author: GV Contributor


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Afghanistan: Market in Jalalabad · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Õnne Pärl of the Afghanistan photoblog posts a cute picture of crops and spices on the “bazzar” market in the Afghani city of Jalalabad.


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Afghanistan: Prospects for Baluchi Valley · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Peter Marton reviews the current situation and perspectives for further development of the Baluchi Valley of Afghanistan. More presence of the Afghan authorities might secure the area better, but there are indications that this might still be challenged very much by the Taliban, as the area is still a hotbed of insurgent activity.


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Afghanistan: Taliban Regrouping · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

hadi1121 says that quite a few people have now complained about Taliban regrouping across the border in Pakistan or even perhaps in Iran. “Taliban are gaining ground, planting IED’s and probably exporting ideas and experties from Iraq at faster rate than ever before”, hadi1121 notes.


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Angola: Miss Landmine Angola · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Omodudu blogs about Miss Landmine Angola: “The web voting for Miss Landmine Angola is open until April 3, 2008. Have a great weekend.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Armenia: Rising Prices · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Armenian Libertarian-Socialist Movement takes a look at various theories in circulation to explain recent price rises in Armenia.


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Bahamas: Fashion Designer Murdered · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“The second brutal murder in the same neighbourhood in two days”: Nicolette Bethel reports on the passing of Bahamian fashion designer Harl Taylor.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Bangladesh: Helping the victims of Sidr Cyclone · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Mash urges people to contribute to the relief efforts in Bangladesh, and Rezwan has a post on how people can help the victims of the Sidr Cyclone.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Bangladesh: Investment and Disaster · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

At LirneAsia, a post discusses the incompetence of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, and the government's lack of investment in the same – and how it contributed to greater devastation by Sidr Cyclone.


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Bosnia & Herzegovina: Fear of Another War · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

TOL's Balkanizer writes: “When Bosnia turns up on the NYT editorial page, things are not good.” And: “…Bosnians, regardless of ethnicity, do not see a clear way out of this crisis.”

author: Veronica Khokhlova