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Tweeting the Vybz Kartel Trial & Telling Jamaican Stories  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Vybz Kartel murder trial continues to capture the attention of Jamaican netizens.  Annie Paul of Active Voice “finally made it” to the trial last week, and provided some valuable context:
Jamaican DJ Kartel and his four co-accused are charged with the murder of Clive Williams aka Lizard, an associate who apparently borrowed two guns from the DJ and was subsequently unable to return them. It is alleged that in retaliation he was murdered by the DJ and his accomplices. In an unprecedented move Kartel and company have been held without bail for two and a half years, while rumours have swirled that the Police had incontrovertible evidence of Lizard’s murder at the hands of Kartel and his friends. The evidence was said to be in the form of text messages, voice messages and videos found on cell phones belonging to the DJ that were taken into custody by the Police when he was arrested on 29 September 2011. There was also a series of text messages sent by Lizard Williams to his girlfriend saying that he feared for his life and begging her to inform the police.
She admitted that some observers are sceptical of such evidence.  On Twitter, for instance, Peter Dean Rickards suggested:
If someone preppin' to murder me the last thing I'm going to be doing is sending txt messages…maybe I'm different.
— Peter Dean Rickards (@afflictedyard) January 14, 2014
However, Paul also said:
Quite a few people have made up their minds that the entertainer is guilty of the crimes he’s accused of. So much for the accused being considered innocent until proven guilty.
Which is exactly why she wanted to attend the trial “live and direct” herself.  She described her experience in compelling detail:
I thoroughly enjoyed being in court [last Wednesday] to witness Pierre Rodgers (co-accused Sean Storm’s attorney) systematically pick apart Detective Sergeant Patrick Linton’s testimony. Linton is the former head of the Cybercrimes Unit who downloaded and presented the evidence collected from Kartel’s phones. While waiting for a legal friend to arrive to take me into Courtroom 2 where the Kartel trial was scheduled, I bucked up Supreme Court Judge Bryan Sykes who assured me that I needed no such escort, having a right as a member of the public to attend the trial. That may be true in theory, but in reality entry wasn’t easy.
Had I not been escorted by a legal heavyweight the four heavy set plainclothes policemen outside the courtroom who interrogated us while barring entry would have intimidated me enough to make me leave. Having finally breached the hallowed theatre of justice I was surprised at how small the courtroom was, and intimate; i found myself seated about six feet away from Kartel and within spitting distance of the jury. The DJ wore a shocking pink shirt and orange tie and held a matching orange handkerchief that he occasionally squeezed or twisted in his hands.
I don’t know if there were any other members of the public there, the seats were mostly taken up by plain clothes policeman nattily dressed in suits with different coloured ties and lawyers in their John Crow like robes.
The rest of Paul's post compiles a selection of tweets “from the account of the person tweeting on behalf of Vybz Kartel, followed by some of @Emilynationwide and Legatus Maximus’s tweets capturing some of the action”:
Moonie deh home already. One more soon fwd not guilty anyday now. 1 by 1 d whole Gaza crew a fwd home.
— Adidja A. Palmer (@iamthekartel) January 9, 2014
The case is the Crown vs Kartel; no 1 shud b shocked that a ruling by a judge wud favor the CROWN .But all that matters is d jury's decision
— Adidja A. Palmer (@iamthekartel) January 9, 2014
Remember dat Babylon have a lot riding on dis case dont xpect them to do the decent thing n admit there is not enuff of a case to continue
— Adidja A. Palmer (@iamthekartel) January 10, 2014
Wrong date, wrong machine, wrong terminology, improper chain of custody, no gloves, no dna, no fingerprint – n d man dem still inna jail????
— Adidja A. Palmer (@iamthekartel) February 1, 2014
Legatus A. Maximus’ tweets dealt primarily with the debate over the digital evidence:
#courtroomchronicles Rodgers has him against the ropes with the SD card …it really ought to hav been mentioned as it stores much of data
— Legatus A. Maximus (@thelockedwonder) January 29, 2014
#courtroomchronicles Linton is visibly not as confident as he was yesterday. He no longer sits upright ..but is bent over. Smile forced ..
— Legatus A. Maximus (@thelockedwonder) January 29, 2014
#courtroomchronicles good cross by Rodgers. Devoid of drama …but extremely methodological and effective. He is focused and quite competent
— Legatus A. Maximus (@thelockedwonder) January 29, 2014
Cucumber Juice, meanwhile, was still ruminating on the lessons inherent in the trial:
Remember Tivoli, May 2010?  That story, a defining moment in Jamaican history, was and still is being told by Mattathias Schwartz.  We don’t even have a barrage of songs about Tivoli.  It’s like we’ve locked the events of May 2010 away in some deep dark recess of our collective consciousness, fearful of really looking at what happened and what it may say about us.
Remember the first Jamaican Bobsleigh team?  That story was ultimately told by Disney.  Right now there is a lot of goodwill and focus on the 2014 two-man Bobsleigh team from Jamaica and much of it is framed around Cool Runnings.
Then, only last week someone wondered out loud on Twitter whether and when there’d be a movie about Adidja Palmer’s current trial.  I hope that there is! To repeat:  There is so much rich detail in the charges that were brought against Mr. Palmer.  The ins and outs of this trial would make any screenwriter happy, and somehow I think that Mr. Palmer would be a willing collaborator.
I raise this issue of telling our stories within the context of the Kartel trial because I expect that many Jamaicans simply want Mr. Palmer to disappear from the Jamaican news cycle.  He should be banished to furtive verandah and cocktail party chatter, nothing more.  They’d probably hope for less.  That strikes me as hopelessly superficial (that is, of course, unless you’re the victim’s family and friends).  It also raises the question I think of what or who is respectable enough to be claimed as Jamaican.
To her, the good, the bad and the ugly are inextricably interwoven into the concept of Jamaican identity:
Our history and current happenings are not always palatable but they are ours, and, together, they weave together the tapestry of our society and influence our collective consciousness.  Face it, talk about it, deal with it.  These things are all Jamaican and a part of Jamaica.  I wonder if it is that given all the pressures of a still young independent nation whether it is that we’ve implicitly decided that we cannot afford the luxury of fully exploring our experiences and history.  There is no time and no space.  Life is so challenging for many and surviving is the ongoing concern.  Somehow that strikes me as unhealthy at worst and a missed opportunity at best.  We’re neglecting our chances to identify, define, celebrate, explore, and examine the themes that comprise Jamaican identity and what it means to be Jamaican.
Why aren’t we telling our stories?


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8 Irresistible Food Blogs From Sub-Saharan Africa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Breadcrumbs sweet potatoes dish. Photo by Wangeci Wandere. Used with permission.
Food is life. It unites us all. Here at Global Voices, we love food, so we bring you eight yummy food blogs from Sub-Saharan Africa.
1. Scrumptious South Africa
Scrumptious South Africa is a food blog run by Jane-Anne Hobbs Rayner, who is a cook, food writer, recipe developer and professional freelance journalist:
My site Scrumptious, which pioneered recipe blogging in South Africa almost seven years ago, is an independent food blog all about careful, patient home cooking, and about how to prepare excellent food for family and friends.
The recipes on this blog are, with a few early exceptions, my original work: I have devised, developed and thoroughly tested them myself. Of course, there are very few recipes these days that can be called truly original: every recipe builds on the work and patient testing of many generations of talented cooks, chefs and alchemists. Where I've adapted an existing recipe, or drawn on the work of other cookery writers, or found inspiration in someone else's recipe, I always say so.
2. Dobby's Signature
The logo of Scrumptious South Africa blog. Used with permission.
This is a Nigerian food blog by Nigerian blogger Dobby:
I'm dobby, a culinary enthusiast with a flair for Local Cuisines in Nigeria and around the globe. Welcome to my online recipe diary where I explore and showcase dishes from my Nigerian kitchen to inspire meals in yours. Let me confess, i'm not a professional chef…..Yeah! i'm not. But Cooking is one of my major hobbies and i do it well. Whenever i'm not cooking, i do illustrations/graphic designs too as shown on the blog. So, Stick around and explore Nigerian food from my own point of view.
Dobby's signature is a Nigerian Food Blog focused on Showcasing Nigerian dishes, Exploring Traditional food recipes and Flavors with strong emphasis on Photography, Diversity, Vibrant colors and Health benefits… Just the way Mama makes it ;)
3. Kadi African Recipes
Oumou Bah from Guinea shares her passion for food on her blog. The blog also uses YouTube videos:
I love the fact that in Africa, mealtimes are moments of great gatherings for big families. In most African countries such as Mali, Somalia, through Guinea, Nigeria and Eritrea, people use their fingers instead of a spoon, fork and knife to eat which make the meals more special and taste so unique.
The dishes are mostly made of meat, chicken, fish and vegetables all usually accompanied by the staple such as rice,FouFou, Tô, ugali and many more . Peppers and spices are widely used, which gives the taste especially African cuisine. Also without forgetting the vegetable leaves such as sweet potatoes leaves, Ukazi, bitter leaves and so on . Yams, corn, okra, and tomatoes and many other vegetables are also heavily used varies according to the region.
The YouTube video below from Kadi African Recipes show how to make Attiéké, the main dish of the Ivory Cost:
4. Taste of Tanzania
After sharing recipes online on various sites since 2004, Miriam Rose Kinunda now runs the Taste of Tanzania blog:
Tanzania is located in East Africa (Indian Ocean is on the East). Since Persians visited the coast of East Africa dated as early as 17th century, they introduced many things including spices and some recipes; example, Pilau, Haluwa, samosa, Bagia, etc. Our diet is a mainly African, and a little bit of Indian and Arabic. I hope you will enjoy these simple recipes from Tanzania and a few of my favorate from other countries.
Miriam Rose Kinunda started to post Tanzanian recipes just for fun in June 2004 with the domain name miriammalaquias.com; In 2006 I changed to mirecipe.com and started to blog, In July 2009, I decided to give this site a name that fits, A taste of Tanzania
5. Chef Afrik
Adhis, the owner of Chef Afrik, plans on “cooking my way through Africa one country at a time”:
First started in November 2011, Chef Afrik is my African food and travel lovechild. The site's motto, “Cooking my way through Africa one country at a time”, indicates my pursuit as a Kenyan diasporan to discover the continent of Africa through its food. As well as showcasing food from all over the continent “In the Kitchen”, I also enjoy interviewing people who work with African food, whether as food writers, bloggers or chefs in my “Get to know” series.
6. Foodie in the Desert
Wangeci Wandere believes that anyone can cook no matter where they live. She started her food blog in a Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya:
Thanx for stopping by Foodie in the desert, my online home for recipes I try out and my culinary journeys from all around the place. Here, I share recipes that I have tried and loved anything from a simple stew to a complicated dessert, a few kitchen disasters and I will give you a few tips and tricks here and There.
I am a big believer that ANYBODY can cook whether you live in a bedsitter (studio apartment) or a lavish duplex, whether your a bachelor who just moved out of home or a wife with 4 kids. I started this blog in Kakuma refugee Camp, I live in a tiny studio apartment and I barely get any supplies so if I can do it so can you. So join me in discovering how to spice up your meals using supplies that you can find in your local supermarkets.
7. A Hungry African
This is a blog written by Brandi Phiri, a graduate student in Botswana, who despised cooking until recently:
Madombi (dumplings), a local cuisine in Botswana, in chicken stew. Photo by Brandi Phiri. Used with permission.
I’ve never really been a fan of the kitchen or any chores involving it. Until very recently I despised the Kitchen, I mostly especially despised cooking, anyone in my family will attest to that!
But after finally moving into a campus flat equipped with a kitchen I realised I didn’t want to eat boring food. If I was forced to feed myself everyday it would be with good food!
Traditional African cooking (at least in southern Africa) doesn’t allow for much experimenting or variety. We don’t play fast and loose with spices like the west Africans or Indians, our baking is mostly limited to plain cakes,breads and buns, our staple food is nsima/pap/sadza/ugali/posho/fufu/bugari/phaletshe and we tend to favour meat stews. Of course there is slight variation from country to country. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with traditional African food, nothing at all however I yearn for something different at times, something to surprise my taste buds and that is how my culinary adventures began.
8. Mzanzi Style Cuisine
South African blogger Thuli started Mzansi Style Cuisine in 2011 to encourage young people to cook and provide them with an online platform to access traditional and indigenous dishes:
Indigenous dishes are not widely documented reason being that the knowledge was passed down from generation to generation by training young women. Nowadays things have changed, young women move to the city to get education and jobs before they could have that entire food heritage passed down to them by the older generation. Well, I hope to bridge that gap through this blog. In addition to that, I urge young people, both women and men, to spend more time with the older generation. By that I mean our grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts. Let us embrace them, listen and learn from their experiences. Knowing where one comes from makes for a grounded individual and there is nothing cooler than that.
There are many more African food blogs than those listed above. Do you have a favorite African food blog? Please share it in the comments section below.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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British Mother Yells at Syrian Officials: “Why Did You Kill My Son?”  · Global Voices
Rami Alhames

“Why did you kill my son?” yells Fatima Khan, the grieving mother of British doctor Abbas Khan who was killed in Syria, at regime officials who were in Geneva for peace talks aimed at ending the country's civil war. Dr Khan had traveled to Syria to provide humanitarian aid in Aleppo, and according to his mother, was killed because “he entered Syria illegally.”
The video, uploaded on YouTube by newutopiacity1 (subtitled in Arabic), shows Mrs Khan confronting Syrian regime officials  about the death of her son in Syrian custody on December 16, 2013.

author: Rami Alhames


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Caribbean Diaspora Blogger Makes Meatless Monday Meaningful  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinidadian diaspora blogger Afrobella usually blogs about all things glamourous – fashion, beauty, fitness – but occasionally, she will wax poetic about food, which, of course, has a glamour of its own.  Her culinary interests lie Caribbean food, usually, and the challenges she faces finding the right West Indian ingredients while living in a North American metropolis. She manages, though, and today she shares her recipe for a Rainbow Pizza recipe that does something extraordinary, at least in Caribbean menu terms: It offers a tasty meal – without meat – which is perhaps the most loved staple of West Indian diets.
Her post begins by acknowledging the genesis of the Meatless Monday concept:
[It] dates back to conservation efforts during World War 1, but regained popularity in the last decade as a public health awareness initiative. The idea behind it is to improve public health by going meatless once a week, to reduce risks of cancer, heart disease and diabetes while reducing your carbon footprint and improving the environment.
She continues:
I love the idea, and have been wanting to eat less meat and more veggies for a while. My husband is totally not cool with it and wants to eat meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. It makes things challenging for me. It means that I have to try that much harder to create something delicious and healthy that we’ll both enjoy.
Afrobella succeeds, though – after checking out a few recipes on Pininterest, she gives the pizza dish her own special flair by “up[ping] the ante and add[ing] some roasted veggies”:
When I shared the photo on my Instagram and Facebook pages, the response was huge! Everyone’s asking me for the recipe. And it’s SO EASY. Like, stupid easy. Let me share it with you!
Rainbow Pizza, a la Afrobella.
You can check out the recipe and follow the method here.  Then, add the veggie ingredients in the sequence of rainbow colours:
Decorate in rainbow stripes! Like I said, I used the following, in order from right to left – mushrooms, broccoli, yellow bell pepper, red bell pepper, roasted tomatoes, and red onion. Some of my veggies were roasted veggie leftovers…so effortless and delicious every single time!
Then you taste the rainbow (sorry, I couldn’t help it)!
There was one challenge with the pizza, though:
Because it’s in veggie based stripes, depending on how you arrange your veggies, your slices probably won’t include all of them. The next time I make this pizza, I’m making it on a circular crust so I can get all my veggies on one slice.
It was yummy, easy, and if you have kids, they’ll probably love it.
Here's hoping that meat-lovers, or as they're called in the Caribbean “meat-mouths” will agree.  Enjoy!

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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China Reports That Snowden Claims Aliens Control America  · Global Voices
Abby Liu

China's Xinhua new agency reported on January 28 that Snowden had claimed aliens controlled America. Although the story was soon deleted, it had spread all over Sina Weibo. Weibo users didn't take the story seriously, they even created an image of Alien Obama.Mitchell Blatt from CHINA TRAVEL WRITER BLOG has translated part of the report into English as well as netizens’ reactions.
Photo from Sina Weibo

author: Abby Liu


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Data Journalism Awards Calling for Entries · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

Global Editors Network will be awarding 8 prizes in 8 categories for the most impressive work in data journalism from all over the world. A combined total of 16,000 Euros will be awarded to the winners. Submit your entries to the Data Journalism Awards before April 4, 2014.

author: Solana Larsen


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Do You Have What it Takes to be a Mexican Newspaper Editor?  · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

On PBS.org you can take “The Reportero Challenge”, a game inspired by the documentary Reportero which presents various scenarios that journalists and editors face in Mexico:
You have been offered the position of Editor-in-Chief at El Centinela-Investigador. Since its inception, the paper has stood up to the drug cartels and a corrupt government, and the decisions you make will affect the newspaper's credibility, its circulation and the safety of its staff.
Do you have what it takes? Take the challenge here.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Forget What You Know About Visiting Kosovo · Global Voices
Marie Bohner

A trip to Kosovo nowadays would convince anyone that this country, far from its sometimes negative reputation, has indeed a lot to offer. According to the World Bank data, more than 70 percent of Kosovo's population is under 35 years old, which surely explains the fact that on the flight this Global Voices author made to the country's capital Prishtina, half of the passengers were under 10 years old. This makes for quite the start to an unusual holidays!
Kosovo youth, while having to deal with terrible unemployment rates of 55.3 percent, manage to energize the country and push the rough memories of war further and further away. US blogger Adventurous Kate comments how first-time visitors feel:
It’s my first time in Kosovo, and I don’t know what to expect. Just the mention of “Kosovo” in America brings to mind an image of war, of death, of ethnic cleansing, of bombs. Even though this took place more than a decade ago, I’m wondering just what kinds of scars the country will bear.
Far off from the scars, what strikes the freshly arrived visitor most are Prishtina's incredible cafés. Everyone should experience the taste of a perfect macchiato on a sunny and well-designed terrace, looking over the frenetic errands of passersby. It certainly is not a legend that the coffee there sometimes tastes even better than an Italian one – we apologize to our Italian friends for this, but it must be said!
Enjoying a latte macchiato at the Shipja e Vjetër café in Prishtina
The Dit’ e Nat’ café celebrating the Irish poet Yeats
Although it might be true that Prishtina's architecture, mostly grey and anarchic buildings, is not its main attraction, the city is buoyant in its attitude and style. Its walls are full of graffiti and other forms of street art; the soul of the city appears on them an open book to visitors.
“I love colors” and “I love flowers” appear very frequently on the walls of the city, mostly in the saddest parts.
Urban art urging people not to forget the leaders of Kosovo's independence are visible here and there.
Creative details are available on every corner in Kosovo.
Kosovo's people seem to look more towards the future than stay stuck in the past praising war heroes or pacifist icons of Kosovo's battle for independence from Serbia, like Ibrahim Rugova. Kosovo, now the newest nation in Europe, was historically a part of Serbia and previously Yugoslavia. The 1998-99 Kosovo War was fought between the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, made up by Serbia and Montenegro at the time, and the Kosovo rebel group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), with military air support from NATO, after 10 years of non-violent resistance from the civil society of Kosovo.
Although portraits of Ibrahim Rugova, the first president of newly independent Kosovo, as well as of the leaders of the armed resistance are visible here and there, the general impression to the newcomer is that today's actors of Kosovo are building up their own models. Witnessing the elections in Kosovo from Prishtina in November 2013, Darmon Richter comments:
Newspaper stories about riot police and violent assaults in polling stations do nothing to give a sense of modern-day Kosovo, save for the few pockets of the country where race rivalry is still rife. In the city of Pristina, people crave recognition of their independence… but all in all, it's about as normal a city as you'll find anywhere in the Balkans.
In fact, with a reported 60% voting turnout nationwide, democracy almost seems to be working better here than it does in the UK.
In the center of Prishtina, street art bearing Kosovo's first President Ibrahim Rugova's image is still there, but the colors are washed out.
Somehow, Prishtina could appear as a “mini-Istanbul” in the sense that it is sitting quite balanced between a post-Ottoman and a Western European culture. Kim's travel blog, from an American and Korean perspective, underlines the surprising cosmopolitan atmosphere of the “city of love”:
After visiting Pristina, I truly understood why people had been calling Kosovo a fast developing and energetic country. You could see the new buildings coming up everywhere, and could see foreigners traveling (majorly European) around the city and there were many exciting restaurants available besides just Balkan foods (…). Although I did not see any Asian people at all, one of my friends informed me that he had seen four Japanese people touring around the city. I wish I was there to witness the ASIANS walking around the city, that would have been hilarious. We probably had exchanged strange looks thinking “what the hell are you doing here…?” haha
What comes out of it is, just like in the Turkish city of wonders, a fascinating mixture of traditional silver art craft shops, highly modern new cafés, a multitude of bakeries, some old mosques being rebuilt, and some churches left to rot. In the center you can see some incredible buildings like the Prishtina University library, which appears almost as an unidentified object in the middle of the communist architecture that inhabits the rest of the area. Kim's travel blog also mentions this building:
You could see many historical buildings around the city, and you could tell Kosovars were very proud of them. University of Pristina, the best one in Kosovo, was structured nicely. Also right next to the university, there is Pristina National Library, which was quite impressive and weirdly designed. My friend who currently works at University of Pristina had explained to me what the structure and the design was based on, but … of course this chicken head had forgotten about it. Maybe I will google and Wikipedia it later.
The magazine Kosovo 2.0, available in English, Albanian and Serbian, is the new brand of this educated, multilingual and very open, worldly society. Covering politics, arts, fashion, social debates, women and gender issues, Kosovar topics and global subjects, the magazine is available in print as well as online. Kosovo 2.0 also offers a selection of the latest sounds produced locally, mostly electro genres, which are available online : http://www.kosovotwopointzero.com/player. Enjoy the musical ride!
The flashy colors of a new way of life can not be ignored on the Pristhina walls.
Prishtina is full of surprises for visitors from any origin. But as Kosovo is young, it is growing and changing very quickly. So do not lose any more time and, if you can, hop on the next plane or car and take a moment to discover this promising city and its joyful contradictions. If you are quick enough, there might still be a piece of cake there for you!
Tasty and creamy! Almost too much, but not quite.

author: Marie Bohner


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Meet 3 Talented African Lady Geeks Involved in New Media · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

The new technology sector is booming on the African continent. The force behind this growth is mainly driven by the talent and passion of young Africans for innovation and information technology. However, these talented young people are also well aware that various areas of the tech industry in Africa are still a work in progress: skill development, competitiveness and equal opportunities for all.
We asked three talented bloggers from Francophone Africa for their opinions on new media in their region and what being a female geek (known as a ‘geekette‘) means for them.
Mariam Diaby [fr], who is based in Côte d’Ivoire, defines herself above all as an entrepreneur interested in all things digital. Her studies took her as far as London to the London South Bank University.
Julie Owono is a lawyer at the Paris Bar. Originally from Cameroon, she contributes regularly to online publications such Global Voices and Quartz Magazine and is head of the Africa office of Internet Sans Frontières (Internet Without Borders).
Lalatiana Rahariniaina, based in Antananarivo, Madagascar, has been blogging since 2008. Passionate about writing and photography, Lalatiana shares her views on Malagasy society on her French-language blog Ampela Miblaogy (Woman Who Blogs). One of the winners of Radio France International's Mondoblog competition in 2011, she received training from the Atelier des Médias [fr] – RFI in Senegal. Atelier des Médias is a francophone social network that studies the evolution of media around the world.
Mariam Daby. Photo used with her permission
Mariam Diaby (MD): Alors là, pas du tout. C'est vrai que j'ai toujours adoré les jeux vidéos (même si je n'y joue plus très souvent), que mon premier réflexe est de “tripatouiller” tout nouvel appareil technologique qui me tombe sous la main, que l'informatique a fait partie de mon cursus universitaire et que je travaille dans le domaine, mais non, je ne suis pas une Geek. Je suis juste attentive au monde des NTIC.
Mariam Diaby (MD): Not at all. It's true that I've always loved video games (even if I don't play them very often), that my first instinct is to play around with any new device that falls into my hands, that IT is major part of my studies at university, and that I work in that field, but I'm not a geek. I just pay close attention to the world of IT.
Julie Owono (JO): Qu'est-ce qu'être une Geekette, aurais-je envie de demander. Dans l'imaginaire, Geek et son féminin Geekette représentaient des êtres peu sociables, toujours le nez dans leur ordinateur, à la poursuite du dernier gadget électronique. Cette vision a sûrement changé aujourd'hui, et si Geekette, c'est être une personne qui utilise de manière intensive les nouveaux médias, dans un but précis, je pense en effet pouvoir dire que j'en suis une. Internet et les outils qui en sont des dérivés offrent des possibilités en terme de démocratie, de participation multi-acteurs dans le jeu politique, de gouvernance, de transparence, toutes ces questions qui m'importent. Je suis à ce sujet très fière d'un outil nommé Feowl sur lequel j'ai travaillé, et qui permet de mesurer le défaut d'électricité dans les métropoles africaines.
Julie Owono (JO): “What does it mean to be a geekette?” is what I want to ask first. It used to be that geeks and geekettes were thought of as unsocial, with their noses pressed to their computer screens, searching for the latest electronic gadget. This perception has surely changed today, and if being a geekette means being someone who uses new media intensively with a specific goal, I think I could say I'm one. The Internet and related tools offer possibilities in terms of democracy, multi-stakeholder participation in politics, government, transparency, all of these things which are important to me. In this respect, I'm really proud of a tool I'm working on called Feowl, which allows the electricity deficit in African cities to be measured.
Lalatiana Rahariniaina (LV): Si geek veut dire être passionné dans un domaine précis – dans mon cas le blogging – alors je pourrai peut-être en faire partie. Je tiens juste à préciser que ma vie n’est pas que virtuelle.
Lalatiana Rahariniaina (LV): If being a geek means being passionate about a specific topic – in my case blogging – then maybe I am one. But just to be clear, my life is more than just the online world.
Je crois que les femmes africaines ont su s'imposer ces dernières années. Des femmes comme Marieme Jamme représentent le visage de la “Technology African Woman”. Il n’ y a pas de différence entre femmes et hommes, il n'y a que les compétences qui parlent, et sur ce point il n'y a rien à redire. Pour moi, elles ont le mérite qui leur revient.
MD: I think African women have known how to find a place for themselves in recent years. Women like Marieme Jamme represent the face of the ‘Technology African Woman’. There is no difference between women and men, what's important is their skills, and on that point there's no more to be said. For me, those women deserve a lot of credit.
Julie Owono. Photo used with her permission
JO: Il faut d'abord signaler que nous ne sommes malheureusement pas si nombreuses… ou alors nous nous cachons bien ! J'organise parfois des formations portant sur l'utilisation des nouveaux médias, les candidatures féminines se font rares ! A quoi cela est dû, peut-être est-ce à cause de l'éducation distributive, en fonction des genres, qui irrigue encore le système éducatif et l'inconscient de beaucoup de parents dans l'éducation qu'ils transmettent à leurs enfants : les filles auraient plus des âmes de littéraires que de techniciennes. Il faut croire que les choses ne sont pas si différentes ailleurs qu'en Afrique, mais fort heureusement, elles sont en train de changer progressivement. On voit se développer sur le continent de plus en plus de programmes pour encourager les vocations de femmes technophiles, et celles-ci, surtout parmi les jeunes générations, ont une idée différente de leur place dans ce monde des nouveaux médias, et de leur rapport avec ces nouveaux médias. Et puis, le fait d'avoir de plus en plus de modèles ne peut qu'aider. J'ai moi-même été, et suis toujours, très inspirée par le parcours d'Ory Okolloh. Donc pour répondre, la geekette africaine c'est encore une perle trop rare, mais c'est aussi un formidable réservoir d'idées, de projets, et de progrès.
JO: First of all, it needs to be said that there aren't many of us… or we're hiding somewhere! Sometimes I organise training events for using new media, and female participants are rare! Why that is, maybe it's because of distributive education, based on gender, which still guides the principles and subconscious of lots of parents in educating their children: girls are seen as literary, not technical. Things aren't very different outside of Africa, but happily they are changing slowly. We're seeing more and more programmes being developed to encourage girls to choose technical careers, and these women, particularly in younger generations, have a different idea of their place in the world of new media and their relationship to new media. And the fact that they have more and more role models must help too. I myself was, and am, always inspired by Ory Okolloh. So as an answer, the African geekette is still too rare, but she's also an incredible reservoir of ideas, projects and progress.
LR: Je ne pense pas que dans le monde des nouveaux médias on distingue particulièrement les femmes des hommes. Cependant, si on parle de Madagascar, on constate qu’il y a peu de femmes par rapport aux hommes qui s’intéressent réellement aux nouveaux médias.
LR: In the world of new media, I don't think we really discriminate between women and men. But if we talk about Madagascar, you can see that there are few women in relation to men really interested in new media.
MD: Je ne pense pas du tout, au contraire. Les réseaux sociaux sont tellement efficaces en terme de viralité, qu'il est encore plus facile de diffuser l'information sur les geekettes comparé aux médias traditionnels.
MD: I don't think so at all. To the contrary, social networks are so effective in terms of going viral that it's even easier to diffuse information about geekettes compared to traditional media.
JO: Finalement, à force de vouloir être totalement différent, “disruptive” comme on dit, le secteur des nouveaux médias a fini par ressembler aux secteurs d'activités plus traditionnels : un monde sexiste, où les femmes n'aurait qu'exceptionnellement un rôle important à jouer. Pour autant, contrairement à avant, le plafond de verre est peut-être moins insurmontable : avec Internet, et l'ouverture que cet espace offre, il peut être un peu moins compliqué d'accéder à un réseau d'autres femmes ayant réussi, et de se faire introduire, d'être soutenu lorsqu'on a des idées, de mettre en application ces idées avec trois sous pour commencer, recevoir des financements, avoir des modèles de réussite (je pense à Sheryl Sandberg, Marissa Meyer et al.), comme je l'écrivais plus haut. Le plafond de verre il est surtout dans le mental à mon avis : penser que pour y arriver dans ce domaine, il faudrait avoir le cerveau d'un homme dans un corps de femme.
JO: At the end of the day, by seeking to be completely different, ‘disruptive’ as we say, the new media sector has ended up resembling more traditional branches of business: a sexist world, where women only rarely have an important role to play. Nevertheless, compared to before the glass ceiling is maybe less impossible to break through; with the Internet and the opportunities that it offers, maybe it's a bit less complicated to get in touch with a network of other women who have succeeded, to be introduced as a newcomer, to be supported in our ideas, to start working on these ideas without the need for a huge amount of capital, to get financial aid, to have successful role models (I'm thinking of Sheryl Sandberg, Marissa Meyer etc.), as I mentioned before. In my opinion, the glass ceiling is above all psychological: thinking that to get somewhere in this field, you need to have a man's brain in a woman's body.
Lalatiana Rahariniaina. Photo used with her permission
LR: Je ne crois pas. Dans le cas de Madagascar, comme je l’ai dit précédemment, les intérêts des femmes sont ailleurs. C’est ma façon de voir en tout cas. Mais j’avoue que c’est un défi permanent entre les tâches, les devoirs, les activités qui m’incombent. Et c’est peut-être l’une des raisons de cette grande absence des femmes malgaches dans le monde des nouveaux médias. Sinon, puisqu’on parle du sujet, le glass ceiling n’a pas sa raison d’être. Si les femmes veulent vraiment s’y mettre, je ne vois aucune raison qui pourrait les en empêcher. Il faut arrêter de se passer pour des victimes. C’est une grande opportunité pour montrer ce dont femmes sont également capables de faire sans toujours vouloir « s’immiscer » ou entrer « de force » dans une « culture bro ». A croire qu’on doit demander la permission aux hommes. Pourquoi ne pas créer notre « propre culture » ? Petite précision, je ne cherche pas à dénigrer qui que ce soit en disant cela – genre groupe d’hommes contre groupe de femmes. C’est juste pour dire que de notre côté, nous les femmes, nous pouvons également faire les choses, alors faisons-les.
LR: I don't think so. In Madagascar, as I said before, women's interests lie elsewhere. That's how I see it, anyway. But I admit that it's a constant challenge, between the tasks, the obligations and the activities that fall to me. And maybe that's one of the reasons for this absence of Malagasy women in the field of new media. But seeing as we're on the subject, there is no reason for the glass ceiling to exist. If women really want to do so, I don't see any reason why they shouldn't achieve their goals. The victim culture needs to stop. It's a great opportunity to show that women can achieve just as much without always wanting to ‘interfere’ or push their way into the ‘bro’ culture. You would think we need men's permission. Why not create our own culture? Just to be clear, I'm not trying to take away from anyway by saying that – I don't see it as women against men. All I want to say is that we, as women, can also do things, so let's do them!
MD: En Côte d'Ivoire, nous avons des Geeks, des informaticiens et des sympathisants de la technologie. Parmi les Geeks, il y a ceux qui pensent innovation et développement, et il y a les autres. Nos technologues font bouger les choses à petits pas avec la communauté qui grandit, mais l'accès technologique n'est pas optimal pour qu'une culture geek s'impose et que notre Silicon Valley locale éclose réellement. Cependant, ces dernières années, ça bouge fort avec les forums et évènements technologiques.
MD: In Côte d'Ivoire, there are geeks, IT technicians, and people who like technology. Among the geeks, there are some who focus on innovation and development, and some who don't. Our technologists are making progress in small steps with a community that is growing, but access to technology isn't good enough for a geek culture to really get off the ground and for our own Silicon Valley to really flourish. Despite that, in recent years there has been a lot of movement, with forums and technology events.
JO: La culture geek au Cameroun évolue rapidement, elle est dynamique, inventive. Elle se créé ses propres opportunités, et je pense qu'elle fera évoluer la société. Sa principale faiblesse : les pouvoirs publics camerounais n'ont pas encore compris l'intérêt d'investir massivement dans les nouvelles technologies. C'est d'ailleurs le sens d'une préoccupation que j'ai quand je pense à mon pays : le coût prohibitif de l'accès à Internet. Quelle culture geek peut sereinement s'épanouir sans un Internet de bonne qualité et à un prix raisonnable ?
JO: The geek culture in Cameroon is changing rapidly, it's dynamic, inventive. It's creating its own opportunities, and I think it will make society change too. The main weakness is that the administration in Cameroon hasn't yet understood why it should make huge investments in new technology. That's the reason behind one of my preoccupations when I think about my country: the prohibitive cost of Internet access. What sort of geek culture could blossom without high quality Internet at a reasonable price?
MD: De la vulgarisation  des investissements pour la formation et l'équipement. C'est entre autre, ce dont le secteur IT a besoin en Côte d'Ivoire.
MD: Greater investment in education and equipment. That's one of the things the IT industry needs in Côte d'Ivoire.
JO: Plus de femmes bien sûr, et un Internet beaucoup moins cher en Afrique Sub saharienne.
JO: More women, of course, and much cheaper Internet access in Sub-Saharan Africa.
LR: Une meilleure utilisation des outils TIC par les citoyens.
LR: People making better use of ITC tools.

author: Rakotomalala


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North Korea Rips Off Mac OS X · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

North Korea has released its own operating system, Red Star Linux, which remarkably resembles Apple's Mac OS X. One tech writer calls it ‘basically a Linux distro skinned to look like OS X‘ and if you want to check yourself, visit North Korea Tech blog who explains in detail with many screen shots.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Pakistani Journalists on Taliban Hit-List · Global Voices
Fakiha Hassan Rizvi

Journalists of Hyderabad held a protest against the killing of 3 Media organization workers in Karachi. The Tehrik Taliban accepted responsibility for the killings. Image by Rajput Yasir. Copyright Demotix (18/1/2014)
Violent militant organization Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has officially declared the country’s media as fair game in their war against the Pakistani state. The TTP issued a religious decree or fatwa against some Pakistani media houses and prepared a hit list with names of two dozen journalists and publishers.
This comes as the Pakistani government has decided to pursue ‘peace talks’ instead of a ‘military operation’ against the banned outfit.
The 29-page fatwa accuses the media of continuously lying about the TTP and their objectives and attributing terrorist attacks to them that they had nothing to do with. Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan explained to Pakistani daily Dawn:
For a long time, we have been asking the media to be impartial. We are not forcing it to change beliefs. We are simply asking the media to be fair in coverage …Despite the tall claims of truth and nothing but the truth, the media has been acting as propagandists.
Three people associated with the TV channel Express News were killed when their company car came under attack in Karachi on January 17, 2014. Following the attack, Ehsanullah Ehsan claimed that the TTP was responsible:
The reason of the attack is that in the war of ideologies all media channels… are acting as propagandist and as rival party.. We will attack all the media houses that are involved in carrying out propaganda against us.
Media caught in the line of fire
Dawn columnist Cyril Almeida shared the views of a popular Urdu language current affairs show host Mushtaq Minhas in this piece:
“If the focus was on news before, now it’s on views,” Mushtaq Minhas, co-anchor of Bolta Pakistan on Aaj News, said. “(The Taliban) want to dilute the growing state and society narrative against them and want to impose their own narrative.”Minhas claimed that the growing sophistication of the Taliban’s media operations – both in terms of putting out their own message and closely monitoring the electronic and print media in Urdu, English and regional languages – has meant that the Taliban are alert to growing public and media criticism of the TTP and the possibility of an impending military response by the state against the TTP.
Malik Siraj Akbar, Washington DC-based editor of the banned news site The Baloch Hal, which reports on Pakistan's restive Balochistan region, worried that such attacks can lead to paralysis of the media. He wrote in Huffington Post:
The Taliban do not only justify their attacks but they also demand equal air time for propagation of their extremist ideology in the news media. This is a bizarre expectation but completely snubbing their demand is likely to endanger the lives of several other journalists in the future. If one media group concedes to the Taliban wishes out of fear of being attacked, the free media will ultimately end up compromising its integrity and reliability among the masses.
Ayesha Siddiqa, author of ‘Military Inc: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy’, explained the divided state of the country after attacks of this nature in an opinion piece for Al Jazeera:
Such statements, followed by attacks, tend to divide the country and society into two camps. While there are those who are frustrated by the government's inaction against the Taliban, others have a similar feeling but for a different reason. A number of young men and women I spoke with in urban centers of South Punjab sympathise with the TTP rather than their own soldiers. Their reason, as one young woman stated: “What's wrong with the Taliban asking for implementation of Sharia? If fighting is the only way they force the government to do what people want, then so be it.”
According to the official Twitter account of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), (@PTIofficial), a political party in Pakistan that advocates peace talks with the Taliban:
Our media has been flooded with dollars. You advocate dialogue and our media labels you a “Taliban Sympathizer”. #IKonJAAG
— PTI (@PTIofficial) January 13, 2014
Ever since media liberalization legislation passed in 2002, the Pakistani media, especially the broadcast industry, has become a powerful and independent institution. According to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, the number of private television channels has grown to 89, dozens of which are news channels.

author: Fakiha Hassan Rizvi


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Photos: Wedding Photo Shoots in China · Global Voices
Abby Liu

For most brides and grooms-to-be in China, wedding photo shoots are an important part of wedding planning. The photo shoots, usually require multiple outfit changes and various props, can cost up to $15,000.
ChinaFile features photographer Guillaume Herbaut's wide-angle shots of soon-to-be newlyweds posing (or taking a break from posing) for their portraits. Instead of wedded bliss and joy, the photographer sees alienation and a sense of loneliness.


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Podcast: Taiwan  · Global Voices
Abby Liu

Sinica Podcast held a discussion about Taiwan from their personal experiences. The discussion explores Taiwanese's personal identity, their culture, media situation, health care system, as well as Taiwan's political relations with the mainland.


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Fighting the Poor Instead of Poverty in Angola · Global Voices
Cláudio Silva

In a move aimed primarily at improving the image of Luanda, Angola's capital and largest city, the government of this Southern African country announced a controversial measure: from now on, it would be illegal to engage in street trading in Luanda. Buyers as well as sellers would be fined.
Street sellers have been a way of life in Luanda since colonial times [pt], and there are several songs from well-known national musicians that celebrate this particular part of the culture. These men and women sell just about anything and everything on the streets.
Angola is currently one of Africa's strongest economies and is enjoying new-found wealth coming primarily from its oil industry. However, the wealth does not trickle down to the great majority of Angolans, and the country has maintained one of the worst social inequality levels in the world.
“Fruits vendor on a street near the Alvalade Hotel (Average price per room per night 450 US dollars). You can't find a decent hotel room in Luanda for less than 400 US dollars/night. A basic lunch in a decent restaurant (Just one course meal and a bottle of still water) will cost you about 75. The poor are finding harder and harder to manage to survive here.” Photo and caption by Ionut Sendroiu copyright Demotix (8 October 2010)
“The Governor of Luanda Fights Street Vendors” [pt] was the title of one of the most liked and shared posts last week by Mana Mingota (Sister Mingota, in English), one of Angola's most popular Facebook pages. A fictitious character, almost no one knows who is behind it. Yet the page, which posts advice, humor, and commentary about a diverse range of subjects that appeal to the country's younger, Internet-active generation, has nearly 76,500 fans – more than most well-known brands and celebrities in Angola.
The post reads:
Tantos problemas para combater, água, luz, saneamento básico, emprego para os jovens, falta de casa, comida cara, prostituição legalizada, venda de bebidas a menores de idade, consumo exagerado de álcool pela população, acidentes de viação, falsificação de documentos, burocracia na emissão de documentos, propinas elevadas das universidades privadas, gasosas nos polícias, corrupção nas escolas, mau atendimento das repartições públicas, ene problemas, e a sua excelência senhor governador está com todas flechas apontadas para as zungueiras que com sacrifício tentam ganhar a vida para alimentar famílias e colocar os filhos na escola para não virarem delinquentes. Sinceramente muitos aqui pensam ao contrário!!!
So many problems to resolve – water, electricity, basic sanitation, employment for the youth, lack of housing, expensive food, legalized prostitution, the sale of alcohol to underage kids, an exaggerated consumption of alcohol in our society, motor vehicle accidents, document falsification, bureaucracy in the emission of new documents, high cost of education in private universities, police corruption, corruption in schools, horrible public service, so many problems and his Excellency the governor has all guns pointed at the street vendors who make many sacrifices and are just trying to earn some money so that they can feed their families and put their kids through school so that they don't turn into criminals. Seriously, a lot of people here think backwards!!!
The banning of street traders – or zungueiras, as they are locally known – appears to be part of a larger effort to hide Luanda's poor and dump them in the city's outskirts. Out of sight and out of mind, if you will. Besides zungueiras, inhabitants of Luanda's sizeable slums are also frequently awakened by the sound of bulldozers razing their homes to the grounds without prior warning, and then they are taken on buses to land without basic livable conditions.
“For most of the inhabitants, the skyscrapers of Luanda mean nothing but a background.” Photo and caption by Ionut Sendroiu copyright Demotix (8 October 2010)
Due to a variety of factors including a prolonged civil war and notoriously low investment in education, the majority of Angola's workforce is unskilled and over a quarter are unemployed.
According to the recently released “Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI 2014 Angola Country Report” [pdf], which covers transformation towards democracy and market economy in 129 countries:
[…] the population in [Angola's] cities often depends on informal commerce to make ends meet. This is especially the case in the capital Luanda, where an estimated one-third of the population lives, and which is alone responsible for 75% of GDP production.
Zungueiras. Photo shared by the blog O Patifúndio under a Creative Commons license (BY-NC-ND)
The same report states that 70 percent of the informal workforce is made up of women. Invariably, the government's latest policy will adversely impact women, who are the most vulnerable in these sorts of cases. And it didn't take long. The anti-corruption watchdog Maka Angola recently reported that nearly 50 women, children and men were detained, some for three days, in the same cell in a Luanda police station for being caught selling goods on the street.
But this is nothing new. As Louise Redvers states in an article published last week examining this same issue on the website of Open Society Initiative for South Africa:
[…] worse still, these women are regularly abused by exploitative police officers and government inspection teams, who beat them, steal or damage their goods and subject them to bribes. You can read more about the scale of this horrific abuse – and the seeming impunity of the officials involved – in this damning Human Rights Watch report released last September.
Popular reaction to the government's latest measure has been one of incredulity mixed with widespread condemnation, but it's important to note that not everyone thinks this way. Many have applauded the government's decision, saying that street selling was getting out of hand and that it was detrimental to the city's image. And I've seen how zungueiras can turn any empty patch of concrete or asphalt into an unsanitary open-air market.
But as Angolan rapper MCK sings:
em vez de combater a pobreza estão a combater os pobres.
Instead of fighting poverty they are fighting the poor.
Street selling is not the problem – rather, it is the effect of a much larger issue, which is the government's inability to address the massive gap between the haves and the have-nots. It is the government's inability to address poverty despite the huge oil riches that the wealthiest Angolans are enjoying. And it is their mistaken belief that the way to deal with poverty is by hiding it.
“Commercial street in Luanda.” Photo by Ionut Sendroiu copyright Demotix (31 October 2010)
A quote in Louise Redvers’ piece cited above is particularly eye opening:
I remember very clearly one very well-dressed and expensively US-educated Angolan oil worker telling me: “We can’t have these people on our streets anymore, not in the city centre next to places like Sonangol. We need to improve our image, we are a modern country, these people can’t be here like this.”
Angola is a country where the National Registry is closed for four days because there's no “system” (read: intranet). Where a routine Western Union or Moneygram transfer can take several trips and several hours. Where there is no reliable water or electricity distribution. Where the government is incapable of providing even the most basic services to its population. Where the government spends only a small fraction of its budget on health and education, amongst the lowest figures in Africa. Where corruption is a way of life and where the government has forgotten its promise from independence that the most important thing to do was to resolve the people's problems.
The zungueiras and the country's poorest will continue to bear the brunt of this image-conscious makeover until more serious policies aimed at reducing poverty and giving the poor another option to sustain themselves are enacted.
Also read Clara Onofre's post on Global Voices (2008): Angola: Hawkers face a hard life with dignity and courage

author: Cláudio Silva


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Surname Change As “National Duty” in Tajikistan · Global Voices
Iskandar

Following a controversial assertion by Tajikistan's Prosecutor General, senior officials in the country continue claiming that citizens whose surnames end in “-ov” or “-ev” are not patriots. Speaking to journalists today, Gavhar Sharofzoda, the head of the Tajikistan Language and Terminology Committee, said [ru], “Getting rid of Russian endings in surnames is a national duty of every citizen of Tajikistan”.
Kharsavor responded [ru] in his blog:
“National duty”? What kind of “national” duty? When will our ignorant officials finally realize that only the constitution can define what a “national” duty is? Serving in the army is, for example, a duty for guys. While a decision regarding how to write one's surname is something private.
When will they finally understand that Tajikistan is home to people from different [ethnic backgrounds]? I am an Uzbek, for example, and every fifth person here is an Uzbek. There are also Pamiris, Russians, Kyrgyz. Why in the world do officials define for us which surnames are “national” or “patriotic”? They have already renamed all villages and streets. Do they now want to do the same to people?
As with previous similar statements, Sharofzoda's comments have also triggered a wave of angry reactions on Facebook.

author: Iskandar


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Top 10 Chinatowns in the World  · Global Voices
Abby Liu

THE WORLD OF CHINESE takes a look at some of the oldest and biggest Chinatowns in the world, including the ones in San Francisco, Vancouver, Lima (Peru), Havana (Cuba), London, Paris, Manila, Singapore and Melbourne.


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Trinidad & Tobago: The Fun of Forty-Something  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinidadian diaspora blogger chookooloonks shares ten reasons why being over 40 rocks!


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Youth Orchestra ‘Jafraa’ a Bright Spot in War-Torn Syria  · Global Voices
Rami Alhames

Jafraa Band. Source: Jafraa Facebook page. Used under CC BY 2.0
Shakespeare once said, “If music be the food of love, play on.” But what if this “food of love” risks the player's life? This is case for the young musicians who make up the Jafraa orchestra at the Palestinian returnees camp in Homs, Syria.
Led by music teacher and children's coach Amer Shanati, the band counts 45 to 55 children from ages seven to 17 years. Though music is often described as the language of the world, it pays a heavy price in war-torn Syria to survive. Most of their “relatively expensive” instruments are either borrowed or donated due to the poverty of the residents of the camp. Their music is a welcome distraction from the noise of bombardment and fighting that takes place outside besieged Homs.
Jafraa is 100 per cent dependent on social media to broadcast their performances as Syria lacks any kind of public musical activities since the government prohibited musical productions at the provincial and state levels. Shanati mainly uses Jafraa.Music on YouTube and Jafraa.homs on Facebook to post the band's work and to show the world that beyond the horror in Syria, there are still talented people who deserve not to be forgotten in the chaos.
In the few emails that I exchanged with Shanati, he expressed his enthusiasm and pride for Jafraa, which performs “committed art”, a term that in Syria means the music of classic singers and musicians who enriched the Arab world's musical culture for generations, like Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Fairuz, Umm Kulthum, and Wadih El Safi, among many others. These young players are making magnificent efforts to underscore their talent by playing the 1969 classic song by Um Kulthum “Alf Leila wa Leila” (One Thousand and One Nights):
Shanati introduces the band on Facebook page as follows [ar]:
فرقة_جفرا_للفن_الملتزم فرقة موسيقية غير تابعة أو مموّلة من أي جهة حكومية أو مؤسسة من مؤسسات المجتمع المدني أو جمعية
أو مشروع على اختلاف انتماءاتهم..
فرقة جفرا أُسّستْ منذ عام 2007 بجهودٍ ذاتية متواضعة لتغني اللحن والفن الأصيل
تتألف من مجموعة كبيرة من الأطفال و الشباب يقوم الأستاذ “عـــــامر شناتي” بتدريبهم في غرفة صغيرة في مخيم العائدين/حمص/سوريا.
ولكل من هؤلاء الأطفال حلمه في الحياة العملية سيجتهد ويدرس لتحقيقه , ولكن ستبقى جفرا هي ركنهم الدافئ والخاص يحلقّون مـن خلاله في فضاء اللحن الأصيل والكلمة الملتزمة لينثروا عبرهما معاني الحب والسلام والجمال لكل من حولهم ..
وعليه تقبل فرقة جفرا للفن الملتزم فقط تبرعات و إحياء حفلات برعاية أشخاص أو مؤسسات لغايات إنسانية و ثقافية أخلاقية بحته
دون أي شــــــــروط تُفرض على الفرقة …
The Jafraa band of “committed art” is an orchestra which is not affiliated nor funded by any party, civil community institution, association or any other project.
The Jafraa band was established in 2007 with modest intentions to perform melodies and original art. It consists of a large group of children and young people led by Amer Shanati, a music teacher who trains them in a small room in the returnees camp in Homs, Syria.
Each of these children has a dream for his future; however, Jafraa will remain their warm and private corner from which they fly into space, with melody and committed music to spread the meaning of love, peace and beauty around them.
Jafraa Band. Source: Jafraa Facebook page. Used under CC BY 2.0
The Jafraa band accepts only donations and concerts sponsored by people or institutions for humanitarian and cultural purposes, purely without any conditions imposed on the band.
The band takes its name from a famous poem about a pretty young Palestinian girl named Jafraa (or Jafra) who captured a poet's heart. Despite uncertainty around the story, generations considered Jafraa an icon of beauty and love in the Palestinian culture from which Shanati and many of his little heroes are descended.
Answering a few questions about how Jafraa is operating, Shanati responded modestly:
I use social media to ease the delivery of the voice of children to the world where is no media coverage exist in our neighborhood. Our followers reactions are significant, give us hope and we feel happy to know that they are waiting every new video we upload.
Nevertheless financial aid is very tiny, but it is important, even though I know the reason of material lack and extreme poverty. We are still looking for more funds so that we can own our musical and audio equipment and become more independent with a spacious room to accommodate a larger number of children. We are suffering from the slow Internet connections and power outages which complicate our communications and hamper our future plans; however, we aim to continue despite the difficulties.
Our work is a message to show that we insist on living our lives, although it seems impossible, and despite the restricted potential for growth we need to show to the world our talents to help us grow instead of being defeated.
I dream of developing this band to a higher level of fine musicians and of finding more talent to help the children overcome the recent crisis that has affected them psychologically.
Back to Shakespeare's quote: “If music be the food of love, play on / Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting / The appetite may sicken, and so die.”
It's doubtful that he was talking about physical death. I wish all talent of the world better circumstances than those of the little Syrians in the Jafraa band, who give hope, a tiny light at the end of Syria's dark bloody tunnel.


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A Call for More Religious Tolerance in Mauritania   · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed, a 28 year old blacksmith in Nouadhibou (a town 465 km north of Nouakchott, Mauritania), was charged with  apostasy by the penal court for questionning on online forum some of the decisions of the Prophet Muhammad regarding Djihad. Following the charges, Professor Mustapha Ely, author of a dozen books and an international consultant, came to the defense of the blacksmith on the blog kassataya [fr]:
Jusqu’où ira-t-on pour brandir l’Islam en toute occasion et détruire des vies. Sommes-nous devenus moins clément que le prophète Mohamed lui-même ? Pourquoi cet acharnement contre un individu qui veut dénoncer sa vile condition sociale ?
Une société qui entretient des castes et considère une partie de ses enfants comme des sous-hommes, a-t-elle d’ailleurs le droit de s’en offusquer ? Et si cela était ne devrait-elle pas prendre exemple sur son Prophète pour pardonner et conseiller pour remettre celui qui faute dans le droit chemin ?
How far do are we willing to go to wield Islam on any occasions and hence destroy lives of the common men. Have we become less tolerant than Prophet Muhammad himself? Why all this rage against an individual who just wants to denounce his harsh social condition ?
Can a society that maintains the cast system and considers some of its children as sub-human even take offense at such words? And if this society were indeed rightful offended, should it not follow the example of the Prophet and forgive the man, and guide him in order to not stray anymore ?

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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French Influence on Vietnamese Cooking · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Writing for The Culture Trip, Melissa Pearce reviews the French impact on Vietnamese cooking:
The French brought many ingredients and flavours to Vietnam, most popular and noticeable upon entering the country is probably the baguette, which the Vietnamese adapted and today create their own style of baguette using rice flour.

author: Mong Palatino


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Some Kazakh Bloggers Dine With the Mayor, Some Get Jail Terms · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

Almaty Mayor and selected Kazakh bloggers, February 5, 2014. Image by @evlaman, used with permission.
A court in Kazakhstan has sentenced three bloggers to 10 days in jail on “minor hooliganism” charges. Nurali Aitelenov, Rinat Kibraev, and Dmitry Shchyolokov were detained  by police outside a restaurant in Almaty, where the city's mayor, Akhmetzhan Esimov, was meeting with selected bloggers on February 5. The three young men were prevented from entering the restaurant because they had not been invited to the meeting. They were also not allowed to film the restaurant. Police detained the three bloggers after they unfolded posters saying “Esimov Talks To Tamed Bloggers Only” and “Esimov! Come Out”.
‘Corrupt bloggers’
The meeting with the mayor has split the Kazakh blogger community. Those who had not received an invitation to the event accused the invited bloggers of being “venal” or “corrupt”. One of the detained individuals, Aitelenov, tweeted one day before the meeting:
Завтра у #Есимов‘а на ланче… #Алматы #KAZ #аким #ЕсимовЖГИ pic.twitter.com/xQhEGXFQkK
— IT-len-off Нурали (@extremkz) February 4, 2014
Tomorrow at #Esimov's lunch… [Text under Esimov's photo reads, “Dear corrupt bloggers”].
Shortly before his detention, Aitelenov tweeted this image:
Акция против продажных блоггеров @YakovFedorov @KaDumanKz @iKairat #есимовжги #Алматы #KAZ #Есимов #аким pic.twitter.com/KDJo4BT7Mr
— IT-len-off Нурали (@extremkz) February 5, 2014
Rally against corrupt bloggers
Several social media users found it strange that the bloggers who had frequently criticized the Almaty mayor were dining with him at one of the city's most expensive restaurants, apparently at his expense.
Надеюсь, хоть кто-то из блогеров на обеде с Есимовым догадался достать портмоне, и заплатить за свой обед?
— Cinemaholic (@baitukenov) February 5, 2014
I hope at least some of the bloggers attending a lunch meeting with Esimov have taken out their wallets and paid for their food?
Some netizens interpreted the meeting as a deliberate tactic by the mayor to divide the blogger community and improve his own image.
Блестящий ход акима: Если блогеры не придут на встречу, значит не хотят идти на диалог. А если придут, то однозначно продажные.
— Rustem Karymov (@rustem_karymov) February 5, 2014
Brilliant move by the [mayor]: If bloggers don't come to the meeting, they don't want to hold a conversation. If they do come, they are corrupt.
Blogger Ernar Prediktor suggests [ru] that the Kazakh public views bloggers as “just and independent”. He argues that the meeting with “not the most prominent or popular” bloggers was part of the Almaty mayor's public relations campaign:
[P]ебята, вас просто поюзали. Использовали имидж блогера для достижения своих целей. Теперь на каждом углу будут говорить (писать), что аким такой распрекрасный и демократичный, без проблем встречается с представителями алматинцев, решает совместно проблемы и пр..
You have been used, guys. They have used the blogger's public image for their own benefit. Now they will claim everywhere that the mayor is good and democratic, that he easily meets with the representatives of the residents of Almaty and solves problems jointly with them, etc.
‘Useful’ meeting
But those who attended the meeting and some of their followers on social media sites thought the event was useful.
Судя по встрече блогеров с Есимовым, на большинство он произвел благоприятное впечатление и вызвал симпатию. #Есімовсәті #есимовжги
— Марина Андрейченко (@glazishi1) February 5, 2014
Judging by the bloggers’ meeting with Esimov, he has made a good impression and evoked their empathy.
Following the meeting, bloggers have also responded to criticisms.
Если кто-то считает что возможность иметь хоть какой-то цивилиз-ный разговор и озвучить проблемы сводяться к оплате чека в ресторане анфолоу
— жадность=грех (@evlaman) February 5, 2014
If someone thinks that an opportunity to have at least some kind of a civilized conversation and discuss problems is a matter of who pays the bill at the restaurant, unfollow [me].
Ещё недавно все орали, что не могут достучаться до #Есимов, теперь же те, кто не попал к нему на прием, хаят тех, кто попал. #Казахи, короче
— Али Джи (@ali_g_aka_kamaz) February 5, 2014
Only recently they all complained that they could not get hold of #Esimov; now those who are not at a meeting with him curse those who are there. Typical #Kazakhs.
Bloggers Samson keeps a record of online discussion related to the Almaty mayor's meeting with bloggers here [ru].

author: Alexander Sodiqov


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Moscow School Shooting: Firsthand Accounts and Mistaken Identities · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

Tragedy struck a Moscow school Monday morning when a straight-A student brought two hunting rifles to class and killed his geography teacher, also shooting two police officers that tried to apprehend him (one of them later died). As is often the case in the modern era, some of the tragic story played out online.
One girl, who attends the same school, wrote a post [ru] on the social network VKontakte about what happened:
Сегодня в моей школе было вооруженное нападение, утроенное одним из учеников 10 класса. Убит учитель географии – Кирилов Андрей Николаевич (светлая память !!) […] У Андрея Николаевича 5-ти летний сын. Мне бы безумно хотелось, что бы эта ПАДЛА оказался на месте сына учителя. Имя террориста – Гордеев Сергей. Предположительная причина – 4 в четверти по географии. Парень шел на золотую медаль. Теперь парень пойдет в тюрьму.
Today there was an armed attack at my school, perpetrated by one of the 10th grade students. The geography teacher has been killed – Andrey Nikolaevich Kirillov (bless him !!) […] Andrey Nikolaevich has a 5 year old son. I really want that ASSHOLE do end up in the place of the teacher's son. The name of the terrorist is Sergey Gordeev. Suspected reason – a B in geography last quarter. The guy was aiming for a gold medal [valedictorian – A.T.]. Now the guy will go to jail.
Another girl, who apparently goes to a nearby school posted an Instagram selfie [ru] (later deleted) of students making faces at the camera, commenting: “f*ck.” Later that day an alleged first-hand account by one of Gordeev's classmates was was published [ru] by former Kremlin PR guru Gleb Pavlovsky on his Facebook page. The source is anonymous, and gives gory details of the murder:
Вдруг кто-то стучиться в дверь.[…] Появляется лицо Гордеева. […] Андрей Николаевич не успел ничего сказать, как Серёга стрельнул ему в лицо. Андрей Николаевич сделал пару оборотов, сбил у художника с парты вещи и упал на пол, хлестая кровью. […] Серёга говорит:”А теперь вопрос на оценку, почему он ещё не сдох? Я же его убил” Потом говорит:”всем два балла” и стреляет ещё пару раз в Андрея Николаевича.
Someone knocked on the door. […] Gordeev's face appeared. […] Andrey Nikolaevich didn't have time to say anything, Sergey shot him in the face. Andrey Nikolaevich turned a few times, knocked some art materials from the desk and fell to the floor, bleeding. Sergey said: “And now a question for a grade, why isn't he dead? I killed him” Then he says: “everyone gets a D” and shoots Andrey Nikolaevich a couple more times.
According to this student, Gordeev then took the class hostage and started talking to them about his life and his belief in god. When his mother called, he talked to her, calling himself a “psycho” and saying that he wanted to die. Later, Gordeev's father showed up, and after some negotiation managed to disarm him and free the students.
Legislative troll Vitaly Milonov memefied: “The shooter was a 10th grader and a straight A student – we should ban the 10th grade and straight A students.” Anonymous image found online.
Later it became known that Gordeev's father is an officer in Russia's security forces, a fact that was pounced on by opposition bloggers. Alexey Navalny tweeted [ru] that this probably meant that the beat policeman didn't check Gordeev-elder's gun permits and storage safes. Other bloggers referred [ru] to the shooter as the “son of an FSB agent” or “son of a secret policeman,” and jokingly wondered [ru] if this mean the parliament would ban security officers from owning personal weapons. At the same time, yet more [ru] bloggers [ru] wondered [ru] why no one is mentioning the fact that the father is allegedly affiliated with the security apparatus. This led Sultan Suleymanov, an editor at Tjournal (a tweet aggregator), to sarcastically tweet:
Фуф, ну слава богу отец школьника оказался ФСБ-шником. А то уже не знали, за что его ненавидеть — не мигрант, не правый, не гей
— Султан Сулейманов (@sult) February 3, 2014
Whew, good thing that the student's father turned out to be an FSB agent. Before that people didn't know what to hate him for — he wasn't a migrant, a nationalist, or gay
A case of mistaken identity caused some of that hate to be wrongly aimed at a different Sergey Gordeev, for a time. Journalist, blogger, and notorious internet troll, Maxim Kononenko (f.k.a. mrparker) found a VKontakte photo [ru] of a Sergey Gordeev which he posted on Facebook and tweeted. He caveated the photo, saying it was “preliminary.” Other twitter users, and later mainstream Russian media, picked it up [ru] without fact checking and ran it in publications (likely illegally because the individual is a minor). The Gordeev in question later posted a picture of himself holding a newspaper [ru] with his face on the front page, as a way to prove that he wasn't the guy. He wrote:
Ребят, вы извините дурачки 1) Я Сергей Гордеев это правда!!!!!! 2)Я не стрелял не кого (просто ошиблись, тоесть ТВ врет) 3)Если это был я я бы сейчас не фотался с газеткой!!!(Кстати сегодня был в “Комсомолькой правде” Там все прихуели когда меня увидели…….)
Guys, sorry but you are idiots 1) I am Sergey Gordeev, that's true!!!!! 2) I didn't shoot anyone (it's just a mistake, the TV is lying) 3) If it was me I wouldn't be taking photos with a newspaper right now!!!(By the way, I was at Komsomolskaya Pravda [newspaper] today, they all sh*t their pants when they saw me……)
Kononenko later apologized [ru] for his faux pas, reiterating, however, that he wasn't the one to publish the photo in mass media.
“I was so brutal because of computer games” says Stalin. Anonymous image found online.
Meanwhile, Russian members of parliament, eager as ever for something to blame, blamed [ru] guns, violent movies, video games, and American influence. RuNet funny man, poet and journalist Ivan Davydov tweeted in response:
Депутаты мелко мыслят. Чтобы избежать стрельбы в школах, запрещать надо не оружие, а школы
— ivan davydov (@ivan_f_davydov) February 3, 2014
The MPs are thinking small. To avoid school shootings, you shouldn't ban guns, you should ban schools

author: Andrey Tselikov


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Nigerian Blogger Blossom Nnodim Talks ‘Social Media for Social Good’ · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Blossom Nnodim is a Nigerian writer, master of ceremonies and social media enthusiast. Nnodim is passionate about the good inherent in social media, and she not only uses social media to create value, but also to spread good.
Global Voices caught up with Nnodim to discuss her #AdoptATweet campaign, the positive impact of social media, and the role of online platforms in Nigerian politics.
Nwachukwu Egbunike (NE): “
“Social Media for Social Good means creating a positive societal impact using social media as a voice.” – Blossom Nnodim
(Image used with her permission)
Blossom Nnodim (BN): The Blossom you do not know is one that is outwardly fearless but inwardly at a crossroad between doing what is right and what is expected from the society. She deliberately sees life as a “half filled” cup despite the fact the emptiness often time outweighs the fullness.
BN: The #AdoptATweep brand came out of a desire to create as many “overlords” as possible on Twitter. I joined Twitter actively after the existing “cabal” had already being formed. At this point I realized that most Nigerians tend to take Twitter validations serious either by way of retweets or follow-backs by an assumed overlord.
The real truth about coming up with the #AdoptATweep concept was to demystify the entire Twitter concept and make regular users become celebrity users in the shortest possible time.
Following the success of the first year, the concept naturally took on a more serious approach and it was at this point that the “Twitter-preneurship” focus of #AdoptATweep was explored and the focus shifted. More details can be found here.
NE: You are an advocate of Social Media for Social Good. Can you explain what this means?
BN: Social Good is an action that benefits society. This gives a somewhat non reaching definition especially with the invention of social media. As such, the striking word in the term “social good” is the social component, which aptly conveys the “shareable” aspect of the term. Social Media for Social Good means creating a positive societal impact using social media as a voice.
Anyone with access to technology, Internet, qwerty keyboard, etc. can organize an impact reaching campaign that has the possibility of benefiting the society. Social good is the process of using social media and social-focused communities to create a positive impact on our surrounding environment.
NE: There have been fears over Nigeria’s government ramping up of Internet surveillance and, most recently, failed attempt to gag netizens. What is your take on free speech and the Internet?
BN: There is a thin line between freedom of speech and hate speech. This line is not always clearly defined and as such netizens could in a bid to break the news inadvertently share updated that could tear down instead of building up.
The Internet surveillance bid and recent attempt to “gag” citizens at first glance may seem like an effrontery on freedom of speech. Deep down, the key focus is on false information. The only challenge is on the full explanation of what false information means. If the Federal Government [of Nigeria] is both the decider on what false information is and who becomes culpable in disseminating false information, the challenge could range from intimidation of the opposition to clear cut witch-hunting.
NE: Do you think the Nigerian blogosphere has the capacity to influence traditional media's news reporting, especially in matters of investigative journalism or seeking greater accountability from political leaders?
BN: It is sad to note that most traditional media platforms have allowed the narratives of the new media to shape and define their news reportage especially in the negative spectrum of professionalism. There are ethics and values that guide news reportage in the traditional media which is commonly lost by the qwerty hugging private citizen with access to internet and social media. What that conveys is that sedation is rife and unsubstantiated news is common with the social media and as such the traditional media should be more informed in news selection culled from the social media.
In summary, I believe the traditional media might have inadvertently allowed some of its core values to become eroded in the quest to keep up with the quickness and speed associated with the new media.
There are however, a few success stories where news trend in the new media have spiraled a more objective reportage by the traditional media.
NE: A large percentage of Nigerian youth are upward mobile, tech-savvy and vocal netizens. Do you think that these young netizens can propel the change that Nigerian needs?
BN: The large proportion of the yuppie generation is ideally passion driven with little or no concern for diplomacy and tact. The latter attributes are core ingredients in driving change. When passion is the only driver, what we see is a class of people that allow sentiments to rule their advocacy efforts.
I believe that if more young people focus on getting their facts right before embarking on any given campaign, the change that is expected will become inevitable. Secondly, young Nigerians should shed the entitlement mentality and make far reaching demands that even politicians cannot relegate to the background. What we see is a situation where politicians believe that they are doing young people a favor by making the special advisors and technical assistants. This may seem ideal in the short run but in the long run, we find out that several of such positions have little or no impact in policy shaping.
NE: The national electoral umpire just announced the schedule for the 2015 general elections in Nigeria. Do you think that social media will break new ground in the campaign and influence voting during this election?
BN: The power of social media will not be absolute if offline engagements are not put in place to ensure effectiveness of online campaigns. The extent social media will add value to the quality of the 2015 election will be determined by the offline actions ranging from voter registration, exercising franchise and field monitoring to ensure credible election process.
The outcome of an election is decided by the ballot box and not the update box of social media platforms.
NE: What do you think will be the future of the Nigerian blogosphere after the 2015 elections?
BN: I foresee a better sanitized reportage as most individual bloggers and social media users will ideally align with specific political parties. We will have folks leaning to affiliations not out of fear of walking solo but out of conviction that they are on the right track.
A two mega party system is actually what Nigeria needs and post-2015, we will have a better driven opposition that will be more focused on issues than on propaganda.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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It Was Stinky for Days, but Cambodia’s Garbage Strikers Won Their Battle  · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Trash piled up for three days in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, as hundreds of garbage collectors went on strike to demand a pay hike and better working conditions. The strike ended on Wednesday, February 5, when workers agreed to a slight pay hike.
More than 400 garbage workers of the Cintri company refused to work last Sunday to protest their monthly salary of 65 US Dollars. They vowed to dance until their demands are met such as a $150 monthly pay, health bonus, and overtime pay during weekends.
Cintri, a subsidiary of the Canadian Firm Cintec, signed a 50-year exclusive contract in 2002 to collect Phnom Penh’s trash.
Initially, the management agreed to a slight salary hike:
Cintri management agreed to raise the basic monthly salary for general staff from $65 to $80, and from $70.5 to $95 for daytime waste collectors. Nighttime waste collectors were offered a salary increase from $97.5 to $110, and daytime garbage truck drivers were offered an increase from $110 to $120, and from $120 to $135 for nightshift drivers.
But workers rejected the package. After several negotiations, and after several days of mounting trash in the city, both parties came to an agreement. Street cleaners will now get $90 per month and truck drivers will receive $130. In addition, a health care center will be funded by the company. The uniform fee charged against employees will be scrapped too.
During the brief garbage strike, Phnom Penh residents complained of stink coming from the uncollected trash in the streets. Below are some reactions on Twitter:
MT @doyle_kevin: Outside main post office Phnom Penh on Day 3 of strike by city's garbage collectors. pic.twitter.com/zGYwXe3EUj #Cambodia
— Tweet Cambodia (@tweetcambodia) February 5, 2014
Growing the raw ingredients of Le Parfum du Penh, destined to be the scent of the week…or longer. pic.twitter.com/62nFkaJpLg
— Casey Nelson (@LTO_cambodia) February 4, 2014
#garbageddon #Cambodia! it stinks but great to see rise of #protestKH – whether garbage collector or garment worker http://t.co/5VroO7gHfa
— Devi Leiper O'Malley (@devi_lo) February 5, 2014
Obviously the ‘do not put garbage here’ signs aren't working. pic.twitter.com/R179IIiSwM
— (###) (@25hip25) February 5, 2014
The launching of Cambodia's first public bus was not enthusiastically reported because it coincided with the strike
For a month Phnom Penh has a public #bus! But today not so many ppl on the bus stops, maybe bc of heaps of trash? pic.twitter.com/0c3N7bfJvw
— Marta Soszynska (@m_sosz) February 5, 2014
After the end of the strike, garbage workers started collecting trash in the streets
So have striking garbage collectors returned to work? Here they are collecting garbage in front of North Korean Emb pic.twitter.com/9QhaZ3SFEM
— Chan Thul Prak (@prakchanthul) February 5, 2014
Yay! Trash collectors reach pay deal & Phnom Penh cleans up MT “@instupor: Cintri workers load a truck on riverside. pic.twitter.com/Lup1L80fum”
— Kevin Doyle (@doyle_kevin) February 5, 2014
Good to hear that #Cintri workers come back to work. Yesterday nearly everywhere smell trash. Personally workers deserved salary increased.
— Suy Heimkhemra (@Suyheimkhemra) February 5, 2014
The garbage strike came right after the government violently dispersed a strike by garment workers who have been demanding a $160 monthly minimum wage. It was feared that the garbage strike will be dispersed as well because of the increasing presence of military and police forces in the city.
*Thumbnail is from @LTO_cambodia


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Singapore’s Public Order Bill Threatens Human Rights · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Teo Soh Lung from Singapore, writing for The Online Citizen, warns against the dangers of the proposed Public Order (Additional Temporary Measures) Bill 2014:
Civil rights proponents should be wary of the unfettered rights of police officers to subject them to security searches and banning orders. Those who intend to organise protests, whether it be just one person or more, may find themselves arrested or issued with banning notices! By the time they file an appeal, the police would have thwarted their intent!
The bill was drafted after a riot erupted in the ‘Little India’ part of Singapore last December 2013. It was the first riot in 40 years.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Strategizing Social Media  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

ICT Pulse recommends 5 critical building blocks upon which organizations can develop an effective social media strategy.


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Work on the Panama Canal Grinds to a Halt · Global Voices
Ariel Moreno

Photo by André S. Ribeiro on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 2.0)
[Links are to Spanish-language pages except where noted.]
The GUPC (Grupo Unidos por el Canal), a Spanish-led construction group, has completely stopped work on the Panama Canal expansion project [en]. After more than 15 days of negotiations [en] the consortium decided to make good on its threat to shut down construction when its demands were not met.
Jorge Quijano, the canal administrator, indicated that while conversations between the parties could continue, the window of opportunity was closing and that prompt action should be taken.
It did not take long for patriotic outrage to make itself heard.
To better understand the stakes involved, it helps to know that for Panamanians, the Canal is sacred. It was born hand in hand with the nation. More precisely, Panama seceded from Gran Colombia and became an independent country in 1903 with the primary objective of opening up the Canal. As a result, Panamanians feel this crucial stretch of water to be part of their DNA, and since it was opened, they have defended it tooth and nail. Some have gone so far as to call it “the religion that unites all Panamanians.”
This notion was reflected in social media, where politicians of all stripes showed their support for the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), which remains firm in its determination to not negotiate outside the terms of the contract.
The journalist Manolo Álvarez collected the various statements made by Jorge Quijano, who guaranteed that Panama would not let itself be blackmailed by the GUPC and that the ACP was prepared to face them in court.
Canal no se someterá a ningún chantaje de Gupc y los enfrentaremos en cualquier terreno @radiopanama @canaldepanama pic.twitter.com/86r7Almr06
— Manolo Álvarez C (@manoloalvarezc) February 5, 2014
The Canal will not be subjected to any extortion by the GUPC and we will face them no matter the circumstances
Isabel St. Malo, who is running for the vice-presidency under the banner of the Partido Panameñista [en], tweeted her support for the ACP, pledging that the expansion of the Canal would be done with or without the GUPC.
Respaldamos mensaje del administrador Quijano, terminaremos ampliación con o sin GUPC. ACP, orgullo nacional!
— Isabel St. Malo (@IsabelStMalo) February 5, 2014
We endorse the message of Administrator Quijano, we will finish this project with or without GUPC. ACP, national pride!
Martin Torrijos, former President of Panamá and son of General Omar Torrijos—the man who signed the Torrijos-Carter treaties that returned the Canal to Panama—also indicated he stood behind the Administrator and commented that if they were able to make the Canal Panamanian, then surely Panamanians would be able to expand it.
La ampliación es nuestra,ellos se van nosotros nos quedamos,como dijo Quijano.Cumpliremos con Panamá.Si lo recuperamos,sin duda lo ampliamos
— Martin Torrijos (@MartinTorrijos) February 5, 2014
The expansion project is ours; they will go, we will remain, as Quijano said. We will fulfill our duty to Panama. If we got it back, there's no question we can expand it.
Popi Varela, a Partido Panameñista deputy, points out that the mistake made by Sacyr, the Spanish firm leading the GUPC, was to believe that the ACP was just like any corrupt government they could blackmail.
Sacyr piensa que está negociando con un gobierno corrupto no se han dado cuenta que la ACP es autónoma del Gob Central por constitución!
— Popi Varela (@varelapopi) February 5, 2014
Sacyr thinks they are negotiating with a corrupt government and haven't realized that the ACP is independent of the central government according to the constitution!
With its typical sarcasm, El Gallinazo requests that Panamanians not let “gringos” finish the work and that they themselves pick up the tools and complete the expansion project.
Panamá te necesita! No dejemos q los gringos terminen la ampliación. Agarren sus mazos y coas y vamos a terminar esa vaina nosotros mismos!
— El Gallinazo (@ElGallinazo) February 5, 2014
Panama needs you! Don't let the gringos finish the expansion. Grab your hammers and shovels and we'll finish this job ourselves!
Quintín Moreno opines that the GUPC should not be given any more chances and that another company should be found.
La ACP debe contratar una nueva empresa para finalizar la ampliación, el GUPC demostró ser desleal y oportunista.
— Quintín Moreno (@quintinmoreno) February 5, 2014
The ACP should hire a new firm to finish the expansion; the GUPC has shown itself to be opportunistic and disloyal.
The impact is being felt in Spain, where the share price of Sacyr plummeted when news hit the financial markets. This is how Mi Diario describes it:
Caen acciones de Sacyr en la bolsa española || http://t.co/86Rk3s0iWN || pic.twitter.com/AHJycga4QW
— Mi Diario Panamá (@MiDiarioPanama) February 5, 2014
Shares of Sacyr fell on the Spanish stock market
R.A. Benta says that this is the beginning of the end of the Spanish “brand” and that the real question is, “Who is going to pay for it all?”
Hoy Sacyr con el canal de Panana, mañana Arabia Saudí con el Ave,quien pagará estas megafiestas? #MarcaEspana #SíSí pic.twitter.com/wZqDrYbmgy
— R.A.Benta#SISI||*|| (@R_A_Benta) February 5, 2014
Today Sacyr with the Panama Canal, tomorrow Saudi Arabia with the Ave [high-speed train], who's picking up the tab for these megaparties?
Quijano's statements, assuring there is still wiggle room in the negotiations, indicate the ACP believes that the GUPC can complete the work. However, when it comes to Panamanians, patience for the manoeuvres of the consortium seems to have run out.

author: Ariel Moreno


text:
5 YouTube Channels African Food Lovers Should Watch · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

As part of our celebration of February as Food Month here at Global Voices Online, take a look at these five delicious YouTube video channels on how to cook African food.
1. Nigerian Food Channel:
Nigerian soup recipes, Nigerian snack recipes and lots more. Nigerian food recipes are increasingly gaining global recognition and I am proud to be able to use this platform to share tasty Nigerian food recipes in easy steps.
The video below demonstrates how to cook Nigerian dish Efo Elegusi, a soup made with ground melon seeds with assorted meat:
2. Afro Food TV:
Subscribe now and watch as chef and hostess, Yeti Ezeanii, takes you on a journey of everything epicuriously African. Learn popular recipes from different African countries and regions and get educated on the proper preparation of African cuisine.
The video below shows how to make pilau:
Pilau, An East African Rice dish and a great example of India's influence on African Cuisine. Tanzania's National Dish.
3. Kadi Recipes:
I cook and Eat African Foods.
In my channel you will find simple, delicious and easy to follow African Food Recipes. You will find the cuisine from almost all African countries. So join me on my channel and find out more about African foods
The video below shows how to cook peanut soup with smoked fish:
4. Taste of Tanzania:
This Channel brings to you healthy and simple recipes from Tanzania and once in a while will have from other countries in East Africa. Tanzanian recipes are the same as Swahili recipes. Here you will learn the Swahili cooking and also I will add more information on each recipe. Your comments and your questions are taken very serious.
The video below teaches viewers how to make chapati, a type of flatbread:
5. African Food Recipes:
My Goal Is That You Learn How To Prepare African And Spanish Food In a Delicious And Healthy Way—
Learn how to make banana fritters, a popular African snack, from the video below:
*Thumbnail source: Nigerian Food Channel Facebook page. Image used with permission.

author: Ndesanjo Macha