Archive for
August 17th, 2005


Stories

Blog-city Blocked in China? 

a small portrait of this author Frank Dai · 23:04

From yesterday afternoon, blog-city, a famous BSP is beginning to be blocked in China. Now it was still under filter by GFW, the project to detect key words and block websites . By using proxy blog-city is still accessible in mainland China.

Anti, a prominent blogger who was also a veteran journalist for international news, told on his blog hosted on blog-city that after he posted the protest in China Youth Daily his blog began to be inaccessible. Anti has been blogging about the wrongdoings of government for long time. So many Chinese bloggers are not very surprise to see his blog and blog-city blocked. Now he has shifted to his backup blog on MSN Space.

Gordon, who is working with blog-city supporting team, hopes that this blockage would be just temporary. He also invites other Blog City bloggers in China to contact him (Via Imagethief and The Peking Duck). He said that the blog-city team is now working to find a solution.

Now Chinese Bloggers are facing a serious problem of where to blog, especially those who want to speak freely. More and more foreign BSPs are being blocked, such as Blogsome, Typepad and Blogspot. Almost all the BSPs in Mainland China have a rigid system of censoring “bad words” which are considered to be politically or pornographically sensitive. If hosted on independent domain server, the blogger need to register their personal information. For bloggers who want to blog freely and securely, they can resort to “Adoptablog” program.

The Firewall is expanding. Who will be the next?

11 comments · »»

Spotlight Bolivia 

a small portrait of this author David Sasaki · 18:52

Alexey writes, “these days I have been pleasantly surprised at the coverage that some blogs made about the bolivian political situation” and it's certainly hard to disagree with him. With Bolivian special elections scheduled for early December, the English speaking Bolivian blogosphere has been incredibly active and eloquent in presenting the nuances of their nation's politics.

Evo Morales (also here), the leader of MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) has been receiving the most attention from bloggers, the mainstream media, and Donald Rumsfeld. Alexey, in his latest post, explains:

When explaining the political situation to some of my friends, I said to them that I do not believe Evo Morales, candidate of MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo), is going to win. He is the leader of the main party that leads the alternative political groups (that is alternative to the ones traditionally in power). While previously he had good support from the people, he lost support because of the troubles that Bolivia had been in, some months ago. Initially he tried to portray himself more moderate than he was, but later, he became more extreme when he saw that the other alternative groups were accusing him of being too moderate and conciliatory. In the end he decided to go for the extreme proposals (nationalize gas) and extreme measures (block roads) losing the support that he previously had.

Last week Miguel of MABB predicted that Evo Morales would try to recruit the light-skinned intellectual, Alvaro Garcia Linera for vice-president as a way to unite the left. Prensa Latina confirmed exactly that today. Miguel has also been hard at work arguing that Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga has been trying to unify the right, which has resulted in a “blue state, red state” like divide throughout the country.

Blog from Bolivia blogged at length on how the former president, “Tuto” has had to reinvent his image to appeal to a new generation of voters after returning from a stint in the U.S. as a political consultant. Ph.D. candidate Miguel Centallas has just recently updated his excellent BoliviaWiki - an online notepad for his dissertation on Bolivian politics - with recent cabinet biographies.

There's also been plenty of blog noise about the alleged links between Evo Morales, Hugo Chavez, and Fidel Castro in what is jokingly (or not) being referred to as the Latin American “axis of evil.” Miguel Buitrago says the U.S. is foolishly giving more attention to Evo Morales when it accuses his campaign of being supported by Chavez and Castro. Miguel Centallas agrees and explains, “Sure, the US doesn't want Evo in office. But pointing this out only strengthens Evo's support among anti-American voters.” Boli-Nica, in a long and thorough post, tries to dissect the various motivations at play:

As for Chavez, he has all the motivation in the world to destabilize Bolivia. Why? First because its fun. Helping overthrow a pro-U.S. government like Sanchez De Lozada's creates headaches for the U.S. and it comes cheap. It has the added benefit of messing with neighbors like Peru and Colombia, who are scared of this type of instability. Plus, the Colonel gets “evidence” for all the B.S. he talks about the failure of neo-liberalism - the big Chavez bogeyman.

He is also unhappy about Morales' announcement that he would nationalize the gas industry. Nathan of Trip Trap has written some on Bolivia as he travels around South American and, finally Eduardo Avila, currently traveling in Southern Africa, will surely have more to say about the upcoming elections when he returns.

4 comments · »»

Sharm Relief 

a small portrait of this author Karim Elsahy · 12:55

Following the devastating terrorist attacks in the Egyptian tourist hub of Sharm Elshiekh, Pray4Peace.org (a Massachusetts incorporated non profit organization) set up a fundraiser called Sharm Relief at SharmReleif.com.

Word circulated quickly through a network of blogs comprising of both Egyptian and non Egyptian writers. Donations at SharmRelief.com have now exceeded 20,000 LE and a special account has recently been set up in Egypt through the Egyptian Red Crescent to collect local donations as well.

Donations have come from every corner of the globe and here is what a few of the donors had to say.

I rode my bicycle from Jerusalem to Cairo last autumn and spent a lot of time on the Sinai coast, as well as in the desert with Bedouin. I have nothing but happy memories of the kind people I met there, and feel terribly that they have to bear the brunt of this latest stupidity.
-Micah

It's the least I can do in these times for the people involved considering all the friendship they have shown me in my visits. Also coming from London, I appreciate the sense of loss, but understand the need to hold firm and resilient.
-Simon.

Why did I choose to donate? What the terrorists did was evil but there is not much that I can do about their acts. I can't do anything to ease the pain of those who lost a loved one to their evil acts. What I can do is provide a little help so that a poor family doesn't sink as far into poverty due to the loss of the breadwinner for their family.
-Richard

Many have donated time and skill as well. All of the legal advice comes from a New York attorney, Zoss from Zosome made the Banners (which are available here in HTML), renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Nabil Elsahy has signed on to perform three cases to be elected by the Red Crescent and dozens more have volunteered their time and effort to the organization of private fundraisers due in the coming weeks.

Bloggers from Orientalism and Nouri, Expats in Australia and New Haven respectively, to Miss Mabrouk and Athena proudly have the banners up linking to SharmReleif.com.

Karim Elsahy

0 comments · »»

BREAKING NEWS: BANGLADESH BOMB BLASTS 

a small portrait of this author Rezwan · 07:55

Today I was attending one seminar in Dhaka and the phones started to ring at around 11:30 AM. Keens were checking whether everyone was alright as a series of bombings were reported across the country. Some people who came in that moment were wondering why the busy streets and squares were so lean in traffic. We were hearing of some really confusing reports. But the scene looks like this as of now from reports of the private satellite TV channels:

* Around 100 bombs exploded in 58 different locations.

* The bombs appeared to be homemade and capable of causing only limited damage. Sophisticated timing device were used to synchronized these explosions across the country to cause maximum panic .

* Blasts reported in 36 of the 64 districts in synchronization between 11:00 -11:30 AM today.

* There are some wild speculations about casualties but about 120 are reported injured. So far no deaths reported. More figures to come as the situation develops.

* Key installations like government offices (even the secretariat in Dhaka), high courts, press clubs, busy squares and universities targeted.

* Leaflets of a Islamic terrorist organization Jamayetul Mujahideen were found at blast sites in Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet and Mymensingh. The leaflet said:
“It is time to implement Islamic law in Bangladesh. There is no future with with man-made law. Bush and Blair be warned and get out of Muslim countries. Your days of ruling Muslim countries are over.”

* At least 45 people were arrested from different locations across the country.

It is the total failure of this government whose security forces were overpowered by the synchronized attack in many locations showing the might they possess. The government and the political parties politicized the investigations of the previous bomb blasts and hence let the perpetrators running lose. They still don't have a clue who did it. Now the general Bangladeshis are paying for it. Its time to tackle them with a cool mind. No need to panic which they want to inflict upon us. ‘We are not afraid' - this is the message we should send to those bastards.

3 comments · »»
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