Archive for
November 21st, 2005


Stories

New Specialist Blogs: A Growing Chilean Opportunity 

a small portrait of this author Rosario Lizana · 18:23

Inside the Chilean Blogs world, we have a specialist blog community. This community is characterized by people that have worked for the government, or are in the academic field, participate in social movement and also have leadership in their area. It is not only a thematic blog community, these are advisors that have moved to the blog world to express their own beliefs and they have a deep commitment to building a better society. They use the blog as a platform for spread their knowledge. Most of them are advisors, have governmental jobs or have some government relations, or just because of their leadership are in some way involved in the architecture of social meaning. What follows is not a complete list of all the specialist leadership bloggers, but a selection that will be growing in the next post.

José Miguel Muga works on the Congress library as Director of the project for Innovation of services for parliaments and citizens, oriented to develop public value to actual and new library services, sponsored by IADB. His blog is a mixture of social and viral marketing.

José Joaquin Brunner is an expert on the field of education, ex Secretary of Education; actually he is a research-professor of Adolfo Ibanez University and also member of the directive board of the International Institute of Planning Education (IIPE), of the UNESCO. His blog is about education and reflections about it. Another education field is design: Rodrigo Walker, Director of Design School of “Universidad Mayor” , works with students to develop skills that allow them to be competitive about the opportunities that international economic treatments give us, in the industrial design area. The blog is oriented to give students that vision.

Jorge Navarrete is an Advisor of the council committee of the National Defense Ministry, and his blog is about different publications of national and international political issues. Also, Clara Szczaranski, head of the Council of the same ministry has her personal view of life on her blog, using it as a form to express her reflections.

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This Week in Palestinian Blogs: More than Checkpoints 

a small portrait of this author Shaden Abdul Rahman · 15:03

Yesterday the 20th of November was the Universal Children's Day. Happy anniversary children of the World, may you celebrate this year and every year with joy, health and peace…

Palestine Blogs took the opportunity to remember Palestine's dear children who has been suffering under the Israeli occupation since as early as 1967 and wish them a happier anniversary next time.

By pharaoh.berger

On other issues, Palestine Blogs write about the withdrawal plan of UNRWA that is taking place after the Gaza Disengagement Plan. Refugees protested, claiming that aids are still needed as the city continues to live under occupation represented by the continuous air raids of the Israeli forces and the all-night-long terrorizing sound of Supersonic Booms.

“Creativity is a bless”, says I. Quoting Naseem Trawaneh, Palestinian refugees can be found now in Gumball Machanies.

Great news for Palestinians, you can now cross the borders to Egypt or move freely between Gaza and the West Bank. And on Novemebr 25 Gaza seaport construction would begin.

peacepalestine posted a very interesting story-like article by Zaki Boulos reflecting on the Palestinian elections. Zaki thinks maybe elections isn't the answer.

Imaan from Living in Gaza City blogged Sheikhs who shake it!, thanks for the laugh Imaan. Also check photos of beautiful Gaza she took from her friend's livingroom window.

Four days ago, the 17th of this month marked the day when Berlin Wall has fallen. It is now celebrated for two happy anniversaries, the falling of a wall and the day when Palestinian villagers united with Israeli and international activists to protest against the Apartheid Wall.

Hillary Clinton and Condoleeza Rice, two minds that think alike? well, at least when it comes to the Wall maybe. umkahlil says it is time the US taxpayers see the two ladies for what they are: “self-serving politicians with little regard for the human and civil rights of their fellow men and women.” As for Hillary, I'm not surprised a bit, not even if she suggested Palestinians eat cake. Besides, Hillary is fully aware of what she's talking about, after all it is only to protect us all from terrorism, get it through your thick heads Palestinians, Israel occupational forces took only 5330 dunums of your land affecting more than 30% of your families, took full control of all your water supplies just to let terrorists (not you, terrorists!) die from thirst. They might also let you suffocate with gas everynow and then to calm you down. I'm sure the US can learn a lot about how to fight terrorism without torture from Israel. God help us…
Back to Hillary's statement,Mike Odetalla, wrote a very profound letter to Hillary condemnig what she said.

On checkpoints, a must-see documentary filmed by Israelis is now available on DVD. Some parts of the reviews were really touching, I wonder what it's like to watch it, or what it's like to live it:

In a not particularly optimistic but entirely poignant conclusion, a group of young Palestinian men sit in the dark at a checkpoint, in the pouring rain and thunder. One of the men protests that he has been sitting there for ten hours…
By “The Electronic Intifada

The waiting is a central theme in this film. The Palestinians are waiting to go home, to go to work, to go to classes, to go anywhere, but they wait: anger and frustration fueling their discontent. Women and children turned away at the door and you hear a Palestinian man wondering out loud if these children are also terrorists. “Terrorists don’t come through the checkpoints. Isn’t that right?” he says.
By The Black Iris of Jordan

For another real story about checkpoints, read what the Bethlehem Blogger wrote about his visit to a zoo in Jerusalem.

Olympia sister of Rafah is building connections between the two cities right from Rafah. On November 29, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, a video conference will be held with ORSCP delegates in Rafah. In Rafah Pundits also, Rachel Rebuilding Project in Gaza rebuilds hope in Gazans houses, one house at a time.

Some fresh news from the International Solidarity Movement says residents of Tubas area will hold an anti-checkpoint demonstration on tuesday.

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the Mufti of Jerusalem said that the walls surrounding Al-Haram Al-Sharif around Al-Aqsa mosque and the old city has been weakened by Israeli excavations. Rafah Pundits reported what Sheikh Sabri has said to Al-Jazeera.

On a follow up on Iman Al-Hams‘ case, her murderer was acquitted on the 16th of this month. The Israeli soldier shot Iman (13 year old) on her way to school putting 17 bullets into her body although was warned according to a tape that Iman was just a child who was scared to death. The soldier said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old, nevetheless, he was acquitted on all charges.

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Afghanistan Blogs: Dead Poetess, Violence & Liberation 

This author has no photo Farid Pouya · 11:55

Guftugo ( it means dialogue), an Afghan blogger, writes about Nadia Anjoman, poetess who was murdered by her husband in Herat. Many say jealousy motivated husband to kill this young poetess. Guftugo say in dark Afghanistan's dark society men like women are oppressed. Guftugo asks himself how Nadia's husband could do such a crime (Link in Persian). Maybe we can find answer in Sanjar's blog (Link in English) from Kabul:

“Is violence a need or a mistake? violence comes to existence when people mishandle or can't handle a conflict. However, as time pass violence transforms to a habit.”

Guftugo also talks about Abdul Ali Mezrai who was killed by Taliban about eight years ago. Mezrai was the Wahdat (”United”) party's leader. According to Guftugo Mezrai believed in equality between women and men. He also thought federal system is best one to govern Afghanistan.

Afghanistan Warrior (link in English) reminds us that 13th of November was a great day for Afghanistan:

“The 13th of November, is the anniversary of when the Taliban fighters escaped from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. On this day the Northern Alliance, with the help of coalition forces, overthrew the Taliban regime from the capital Kabul and made them withdraw to the southern and southeastern provinces as they were ousted from Kabul. The Kabul citizens were freed from the hardline regime's prison and they came out onto the roads and celebrated the defeat of the Taliban government and they started their free lives.”

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Pakistan: Damage to Pakistani Nuclear Facilities because of Quake 

This author has no photo Angelo Embuldeniya · 09:52

Hours after the earthquake in Pakistan, the QuakeHelp team received many emails (such as this one) from readers voicing their concern about the safety of Pakistan's Kahuta Nuclear Facility which was located just 100km away from the quake's epicentre. The following report has been double-checked by various sources and it has been confirmed that there has been damage to the Nuclear Facilities in affected areas (Kahuta is located much closer to the epicentre that the areas mentioned below):

There is fifteen to twenty per cent damage to Pakistani nuclear facilities and storage sites in the Northern Areas, especially in Skardu and Chitral, and the local population faces the risk of contamination, but a curfew has been imposed, and they are being actively prevented by the authorities from leaving the area. Because of the serious damage to the nuclear facilities in the Northern Areas, the Pakistan government has turned away international relief teams, prevented Indian Army relief work and Indian Air Force supply drops, and withdrawn the consent for Israeli assistance, fearing that Mossad agents would be infiltrated who would destroy the atomic establishments.

While Western sources did not say that reactors had been damaged in the 8 October earthquake, they confirmed that missile silos had developed cracks, and storage facilities had taken a hit, and since the epicentre is likely to be seismically active for another two years, they expressed fear of further collapse of the nuclear establishments. To prevent leak of this massive nuclear destruction, Pakistan both bottled up the local population by imposing curfew, and did not permit international inspection of the disaster-hit areas.

Source: NewsInsight via the South Asia QuakeHelp Blog

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Kenya and the Constitutional Referendum 

a small portrait of this author Nish Matenjwa · 04:37

Kenyans vote today, November 21, on a referendum to a draft constitution that has acrimoniously divided the country. President Mwai Kibaki leads the ‘Yes’ campaign, symbolised by a banana, and the ‘No’ campaign, symbolised by an orange, is made up of several cabinet members including Raila Odinga, the Minister for Roads. Results are expected on November 23; the constitution will be enacted on 12 December, Kenya’s Independence Day, if the Yes campaign wins.

In brief, the draft constitution proposes investing the presidency with greater powers, the main area of contention for the Orange campaign, which favours a constitution where a prime minister shares executive powers with the president. While both the Yes and No campaign have concentrated campaigning around this issue, attention has shifted from other proposals such as the call for radical land reform, the outlawing of gender and other discrimination and the inclusion of clauses providing for affirmative action.

During the campaigning, both sides have accused each of instigating a dirty tricks campaign and at several points, the process has been reduced to heckling including President Kibaki’s notorious outburst when he called the opposition
“Wapumbavu” (stupid people) and “Mavi ya kuku” (chicken shit). Several people have died in violent clashes in the referendum’s run-up, thus far. Professor Wangari Maathai has called the referendum ‘a farce' and says she is voting for neither side. What should have been a process that strengthens democracy has been reduced to a race for political prestige rather than a debate on the complex issues in the charter'.

In the weekend preceding the referendum, below is a summary of editorials and commentaries in Kenyan dailies.

Instead of meaningful discussion, the debate around the constitution was side tracked by the introduction of ‘personality contests and other agendas’, says Gitau Warigi in his Sunday Nation (subscription required) commentary. The process leading to the referendum has exposed ’the frightening, ugly face of Kenya that lurks just beneath the surface’ due to the ‘incredible hatred running around disguising itself in the colours of democracy and free speech’.

In the The East African Standard, Chaacha Mwita writes about the historical events that have brought about the need for constitutional reform and states that Kenya ’is a nation at the risk of disintegration’ if the voting tomorrow is not ‘guided by reason and truth in the voting booth’.

The Kenya Times says the results of the vote ’should be the ultimate mark of [the people’s] sovereign authority in charting the destiny of the country’ and whether yes or no, this result ‘must be respected by the two opposing sides’.

Kenyan bloggers have had plenty to say about the draft constitution and the referendum.

In a post entitled Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me where he says voting in the referendum is important for the democratic process, Mentalacrobatics asks Kenyans to ask some important and necessary questions of themselves and of politicians before voting such as ‘whether anyone in this referendum is in it for the Kenyan people’ as he feels the ‘wider, bigger political’ is getting lost.

Keguro creates a neologism – hetero-theocracy – meaning to ‘seemingly acknowledge diversity and difference only to resolve ostensible conflict through recourse to authoritarian paternalism’ and takes issue with specific clauses within the draft constitution that give primacy to Christianity and heterosexuality while appearing to ’support and nurture cultural and ethnic diversity’.

Tony Sisule says the government, with no consultation nor agreement from the people of Kenya, has imposed a draft constitution on Kenyans that is an ’illegitimate product cobbled together by a few people to serve vested interests rather than general good’. He urges Kenyans to vote No.

Kenyan Pundit posts interesting photographs of the referendum process.

Gatua wa Mbũgwa who writes to refute the rumour that the Kenyan government is planning to cancel the referendum as a pre-emptive move against impending defeat in his Gikuyu blog, says President Kibaki has made it clear he wants the referendum to take place. Gatua urges Kenyans to carefully read the draft constitution and to vote according ’to their conscience and how they see fit’.

Writing that she does not ’normally talk about politics’ on her blog, Lois says she has voted Yes and hopes ‘the people of Kenya vote sensibly and vote Yes’.

Migz says the referendum has become so politicised such that he is doubtful on ‘whether the majority of Kenyans will vote based on informed decisions around the constitution’. He sees the comical side of the process and tells a joke about a man who ’went bananas when he found oranges in his fruit salad’.

Stating that she will be voting in the referendum, One African Woman is impressed by how far Kenyans have ‘come as a nation, how much wider the democratic space is now than in times past’ and celebrates ‘the sense of Kenyans engaging more than ever before in determining their future’.

JKE congratulates the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) for compiling a ‘list of shame’ containing the names of 40 politicians ‘whose derogatory speeches along ethnic and racial lines’ were an incitement to violence during the campaigning and feels ’there’s this big gap between the electorate and their elected representatives’.

Because any amendments or revisions of the constitution will require an extended debate and a one million signatures petition if passed, ‘the elitist lawyers, social activists, foreign-funded NGOs, ivory-towered professors, political retreads and professional nit pickers’ who drafted the constitution have found a way of making money says Orwells_Ghost. His opinion is that ’the taxpayers of Kenya will be funding their endless squabbling’.

Illustrating how the referendum has divided Kenyans along ethnic lines, Kibara writes about a recent visit to a Kenyan online forum where he was shocked to find people he considered friends advocating ‘genocide for all Kikuyus’ because of their alleged support of the Yes campaign and is now proposing a a novel method for resolving ethnic conflict.

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