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November 4th, 2005


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The Poetic Side of the Cambodian Blogosphere 

a small portrait of this author Beth Kanter · 16:50

Poem in Cambodian language by Seserak

Several Cambodian bloggers have been sharing their poetry online. The poem above, entitled Autumn in English, is by Seserak, a Cambodian college student studying in Japan and probably experiencing quite a different fall than in his homeland. The poem is translated into English in the comments.

Tharum posted a poem entitled, Life Reading and is about the importance of reading. Tharum's poem was inspired by a gift of a poetry book from another Cambodian blogger, Jinja who blogs about the local arts and literary scene.


KhmerOverseas , a Cambodian living in Texas, often writes about the poetry he is reading by Cambodian poets, some published in online journals. His packing list for his next trip back to Cambodia, includes requests for poetry books from friends and relatives.

Those who aren't writing poems or about poems on their blogs can certainly find a wide variety of Cambodian poetry readings offline, including Swedish/Cambodian poetry.

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Selections from the Caribbean blogosphere 

a small portrait of this author Georgia Popplewell · 14:03
http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/58975864/

“Divali in Trinidad” by Taran Rampersad

A few selections from this week's conversation in the Anglophone Caribbean blogosphere:

Bahamas
Expat Wolfgang has his tongue firmly in his cheek when he declares that his is not a Bahamian blog. The bloggers at Bahama Pundit have plenty to say this week, with Larry Smith reviewing a book on pre-Columbian languages and offering a useful overview of the Bahamian blogsphere, Sir Arthur Foulkes reminding Bahamanians not to be complacent about civil rights and Nicolette Bethel calling for a different approach to tourism. And Lynn Sweeting finds problematic the absence of women's rights from the current discussions around national heroes.

Barbados
Two reactions to the October 26 march staged in Barbados by the group Lifeline Expedition, in which descendants of slave owners donned chains in an effort to apologize for slavery: Jdid calls the event “a travesty, a mockery, a despicable imitation which trivializes a serious part of our history” while Titilayo is relieved it's all over and happy that Barbados is continuing to forge alliances with African nations.

Belize
Andy Hunt reports on the progress of the Belize Jungle Dome project..

Bermuda
The Limey wonders whether the creation of a National Drugs Control Ministry is a good idea, and suggests that hunting–of realtors!–would be a useful addition to the island's tourism offerings. And an “Open Mike” post about the national cricket team's removal from field during the recent tour of Namibia sparks a stream of lively comments.

Cayman Islands
Odd Blog talks about “light pollution” in the Cayman Islands.

Dominica
Billy posts a short report on the 27th anniversary independence celebrations in Dominica.

Grenada
YingYang engages in some eye-rolling at the notion that the region's banana growers are surprised that the recent WTO ruling didn't go in their favour.

(more…)

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The Nigerian blogosphere this week 

This author has no photo Sokari Ekine · 10:17

Gbenga Sesan and Edward of  Jangbalajugbu Homeland Stores had a car accident on their way to Obafemi Awolowo Univeristy in Ile-Ife from Lagos. The car went off the road and somersaulted a few times so I think they are lucky to be walking or even alive for that matter - so glad you are all safe.

Timbuktu Chronicles praises the work of Bunker Roy who established the Barefoot College in 1972 with the “conviction that solutions to rural problems lie within the community”. Bunker Roy's presentation at the recent Pop!Tech conference in the US

reinforced one's faith in the power of the individual, as Mahatma Ghandi himself
said “You must be the change you want to see in the world”

Musings of a Naijaman remembers missing Nigerian student, Olamide Adeyooye who sadly was found murdered in Mississippi.

Her friends had mounted a massive internet awareness raising effort to help find her, especially in the face of the alleged US media obsession with "blonde and blue eyed victims" and it's really sad it ended this way……….Of all the messages people posted on various sites I really liked this one-No one can hurt her now!

Chippla's Weblog suggests that rather than spend huge sums of money developing anti-malarial drugs funds should be used to find ways of "eliminating the female anopheles mosquito which happens to carry the microorganism that causes malaria.  One solution would be to return to the use of DDT(Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) which was banned in some countries  in the 1970s as an "organic pollutant".  He suggests that

“The potential dangers of DDT to the environment need to be weighed against the catastrophic problems which result from malaria”

Africa Unchained reports on a new film, The Bitter Aftertaste, that denounces  fair trade.   The filmmakers, WorldWrite,  hope it will

“challenge the belief that fair trade is a panacea for poverty in the developing world. It claims that western consumers have been duped into thinking that fair trade is an effective poverty-alleviation tool, when in fact it does nothing to address the root causes of poverty.”

Naijablog and Nigerian Times both remind us that the 10th of November marks the 10th anniversary of the extra-judicial execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni eight.

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Justice for Abdolkarim 

a small portrait of this author Mostafa Hussein · 09:53

Justice for AbdolkarimThe events of the 21st of October did not end in complete peace. A new alarming, yet not directly related, development took place. This time shaking the Egyptian bloggosphere more strongly than ever, as it affected one of its own. For the first time an Egyptian blogger has been detained by security forces.

By Egyptian law, freedom of speech is not a right when it comes to blasphemy of religions. And this is what Abdolkarim did a day after the events of Alexandria. He wrote a very harsh post that attacked Islam, he also published his writing at Civic Dialogue. On his blog, the post attracted many disapproving and angry comments.

The Azhar student has usually been very outspoken against Islam and this was not his first post with such opinions.

Yesterday, Malek, Mohammed and Haitham went to meet his family. Abdolkarim, has his photo, email, phone number and address publicly displayed on his blog. They mention that his family appears to be nonchalant about what happened and are expecting him to be out in few days. Yet they are not exactly sure where he might be at the moment and are reluctant to take any action. His brother thinks that he might have been tipped off by one of the local fundamentalists because of a post he wrote about one of their leaders and not because of the last post he made.

Abdolkarim, lives in the same neighborhood the violent riots of the 21st of October took place. He has troubled relations with some local Islamic fundamentals in his neighbourhood. One of those fundamentals might have a hand in the riots. They printed out what he writes and distributed it to enrage people against him.

In an email sent on the day of his detainment he wrote to Milad, in response to a survey about Egyptian bloggers that he doesn't mind his name being mentioned in it. He says that although what he writes is considered very sensitive by many. Freedom of expression is in jeopardy if religion is going to be considered a red line. He says in the email that he was once attacked by some thugs as a reaction to what he writes and publishes. Almost everyone in the blogosphere do not support his opinions at all. Yet, a lot stand against his detention by security forces.

Malek says (Arabic) that such acts weaken the images of Islam. As a civilised debate would reconstruct all his invalid opinions. Other believe in his right for a free trial. While some see that this is totally against freedom of speech. However, the comments of some anonymous posters and non-bloggers consider his detention a right thing and that the security forces did a good job. Accusing the bloggers who started the campaign, that they are trying to blindly copy Western democracy.

Ibn abdel aziz warns (Arabic) that the security forces might be dividing the blogosphere, when they take away someone outspoken against Islam, Muslims would cheer. If they detain a radical Muslim; secularists and Christians would cheer. One by one they would divide bloggers.

Baheyya wonders if:

“It remains to be seen whether he has been “preventively detained” for the usual 15-day chunks and whether he will be formally charged by State Security Prosecution. The first few days (sometimes weeks) of a detention are always the murkiest, with Amn al-Dawla deliberately keeping everyone in the dark to instill fear and confusion. The causes of Karim's detention thus remain entirely unclear. Did neighborhood toughs instigate the police to arrest him? Are security agents punishing Abdel Karim for his writings? Why did his family appear to be unconcerned with locating his whereabouts?”

Alaa warns that people detained by security forces face very little chance to be tried fairly, and that he might be tortured. Alaa also switched his Egyptian blogaggregator to aggregate posts about Abdolkarim only.

Abdolkarim, regardless of his opinions, has the right for a fair trial.

The Commitee to Protect Bloggers is also following the news.

technorati:

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The Upcoming Chinese Blogger Conference 

a small portrait of this author Frank Dai · 08:31

The Chinese Blogger Conference would be held from Nov.5 to 6. Chinese Bloggers are very enthusiastic at the first-ever meeting with their online friends. Many of them are already in Shanghai, where the conference located. They would discuss a wide range of issues such as Blog, Podcast and RSS etc. Also our director of GVO, Rebecca MacKinnon would be also on this occasion, moderating a panel called “Blogging Across Borders ”.

Yining had some photos and a post about a pre-meeting of some bloggers who had just arrived Shanghai. Aether had some photos of the conference building maps of the location.

For people who are interested in Chinese Blogosphere but unable to reach the scene, the conference provided many online approaches:

Live Video: Powered by Sehaha
IRC Chat: irc://irc.freenode.net/#socialbrain (For IRC tutorial here)
Skype: Special Conference Room
Google Group: CnBloggerCon Group

Further information:
Schedule
Introduction to some Speakers and Panelist
Invited Bloggers
Local Weather

Welcome to the 1st Chinese Blogger Conference!

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