Archive for
February 20th, 2006
Stories
Afghan Whispers: Civil Society, Corruption & Secularism
· 19:16
Safrang writes about civil society in Afghanistan :
“As the world is becoming a small but global village such proceedings not only entails scattering within the human family but also undermines the efforts for peace and solidarity around the globe.
The civil society of Afghanistan, likewise, does not consider resorting to violence a rational solution to religious, social, cultural and political problems.
Therefore, we urge that people from all cultures, civilizations and religions, pave better grounds of dialogues with respect to and acceptance of one another. Realization of such a vision can liberate the human race from all forms of torture, contempt and humiliation as well as facilitates to have a beatific and immune life which every human being deserves in our common home, the earth.”
Sohrab Kabuli writes about overwhelming corruption in country and in government. He is also not optimistic about the London conference outcome. He says violence and drug smuggling is present everywhere.(Link in Persian)
Gap az Gap says in Afghanistan any secular and non-fundamentalist political conditions are steps towards freedom and better conditions for Afghan women and different oppressed ethnic groups. (Link in Persian)
1 comment · »»Pakistan: Blog-o-tracking
· 16:17
It is bad enough having my blog routinely reviewed by dot gov and dot mil domains but now I think I am also being followed by some rather unsavory net characters while cruising the internet highway searching for interesting blog posts for GV. I have to publicly declare here, that my critique is not specifically targeting the Bush Administration, as I am an equal opportunity satirist and consider any government fair game but I have to admit that residents of 1600 Pennsylvania provide the most material for banter, burlesque, caricature, causticity, chaffing, irony, lampoonery, mockery, parody, pasquinade, persiflage, play on, put-on, raillery, sarcasm, send-up, skit, spoof, squib, takeoff, travesty, and wit.
As this post is being monitored by suspicious GPS satellites, I shall quickly present my selection of this week's Pakistani blog posts.
Suspect Paki writes a rather eloquent commentary on Evil Ideology; Glasshouse comments on the continuing cartoon protests; Me Here also rants about the protests turning into riots; Organic Brew also takes a stab at the unrelenting protests; Fountainhead explains the state of the earth; and finally, I lighten things up with my Oscar preview.
Well, I better be off, as I am still being watched. I shall return next week, disguised as a hunter who shoots millionaire lawyers for sport.
1 comment · »»African women blogging this week
· 13:38
As per usual, African women have blogged about a variety of issues over the last week.
Incidences of violence are rising in Uganda as the country prepares to hold general elections next week. Black Looks writes about the volatile situation in the country and highlights the violations of human rights perpetrated by the current government.
President Museveni has now been in power 20 years and like most leaders who over stay their welcome he is fast moving towards becoming a despot. One of the essential tenants of a democracy must be to limit the number of years any one person can serve as leader of the country to not more than 10 years.
‘Why can’t democracy just grow up and be a woman?’ asks Rombo in an article where she writes ‘what nobody warned us is that when democracy is a baby, it cries a lot, it poops a lot, it cannot feed itself, and it demands round the clock attention’. She also says: ’But it’s our baby, and no one else’s. And no one else is going to grow it up but us’.
Molara Wood has posted a (very) short story and fascinating by a talented writer - Crispin Oduobuk who is based in Nigeria. On her blog, you can also see photographs of ’stupendous Nigerian females working their ‘geles’ (headties)’.
Ore writes about the trials and tribulations of going back home, the longing for the familiar and the difficulties in dealing with the ‘inefficiencies’ she sees every day
’causing so many resources (people’s mind and talents included) to go to waste’. She says: ‘On some days, I remember all the reasons I wanted to move back home. And on others, I’m just spilling over with impatience and rage. Life goes on nonetheless’.
’I live history all day everyday and every night while I sleep’ writes L.W. about Black History Month, currently taking place in the US. She therefore does not consider the day something to be relegated to ‘the shortest month of the year’.
Pilgrimage to self writes about her search for an ‘ethnic version’ of a Barbie Girl styling head as a present for her daughter which is fruitless as all she can find are ’blue eyed, blond haired and white skinned’ styling heads.
Although I grew up playing with predominantly white dolls, it didn't have any sort of profound effect on me growing up. However, I think the fundamental difference was that I was surrounded by black people - my people - all my friends where black (or mixed race), and that kept me grounded and proud to be who I was. So I had my white dolls yes, but then I also had my cousins, friends, teachers who told me ‘Tales by moonlight' about my heritage, my people, my world.
My daughter doesn't have this here - one of the problems children living in the Diaspora (how I detest that word) face. It is up to me to teach her about her roots and keep her proud of her heritage.
Finally, Prousette tells a story regarding a lucky escape from a conman and writes ‘if something does not feel right, it probably is not'.
1 comment · »»Bahrain: another eventful week in review
· 12:58
From time to time, churches and Christian communities in Bahrain organise excellent Parish Family Days where a plethora of backgrounds mix and mingle, and raise money for charity too. Monu brings us a picture of one of these days, with plenty of multicultural stalls selling food and lucky dips with excellent prizes to bring the punters in to part with their money for good causes. Present on the day was a good contingent from the Far East all the way to Europe with more than 60 stalls to experience. Of course these days are not limited to just Christians, but the whole community joins in, demonstrating Bahrain's religious tolerance; which is much in need especially at this difficult time with the continuing turmoil and violence produced by politicising “the cartoons“, Abdulhadi Khalaf urges us to sign a letter which plots a way to solving this problem by more tolerance, dialogue and understanding. A declaration is English, Arabic and Danish is Available for those interested, as well as another one in Arabicpdf by Arab intellectuals.
On the other side of the spectrum, Haitham Sabbah brings us news that an Israeli News Agency has hijacked Google to try to suppress Iran's attempt to discredit the Holocaust. More importantly; however, he raises the question that there is “No denial of Holocaust, yet you deny Palestinians rights, and the massacres of Palestinians and other Arabs. I don’t want to compare, but let me remind you of some: and goes on to list tens of what he considers massacres which should be recognised by the world community.
Mohammed Ni'mah, a new blogger on the scene who blogs in Arabic, believes that the “winner” of anti-semitism this week is one of Bahrain's leading artists - and one who has contributed daily political cartoons for over 30 years to Ahbar Al-Khaleej, a daily Arabic newspaper in Bahrain - Mr. Muharraqi, as documented by the Anti-Defamaation League.
after the break: a reward for a killing, Bahraini parliamentarian encourage the Danes to research non-fossil fuels, customer service evaluations, Religious Policeman's interview, a Bahraini proves that there is water on Mars, language bastardisation, and more! (more…)
1 comment · »»All Quiet on The Chinese Front
· 04:27
The topic of Internet and press censorship in China continued to draw heated debate after the US congressional hearing on this issue last week. Rebecca MacKinnon wrote a comprehensive review of discussions among the English-language blogs on China. She also quoted from two well-known Chinese-language bloggers - Anti and Keso.
These two bloggers shared similar views as expressed by Anti and translated by ESWN:
The freedom and rights of the Chinese people can only be won by the Chinese people themselves. When the US Congress proposes Internet freedom of information legislation, this is truly treating the freedom of the Chinese netizens as maids that they can dress up as they see fit.
(Anti’s old blog was removed by MSN Spaces due to censorship. His new blog on blog-city is not available in China.)
Other than Keso and Anti, the rest of the Chinese bloggers seem pretty quiet on this issue. Searches in Chinese on Sina and Bokee, two major Chinese BSPs, , and MSN Spaces, the only international BSP available in China, yielded the following results:
-“US Congress” And “Freedom” didn’t return any result.
-“US Congress” returned many results, most of which did not mention the congressional hearing last week. Only one blog reposted Anti’s article cited above.
-“Press freedom” returned many results, most of which are on the Reporters Without Borders's 2005 ranking of China as the 159th on the index of press freedom, like this blog.
The Chinese government has suppressed reporting on this US congressional hearing in the mainstream media in China, which must have contributed to the relative silence on this issue in the Chinese-language blogosphere. Meanwhile, there is indication that the Chinese netizens are not as excited by this issue as their foreign counterparts. Mercury News, a US newspaper, included the following interviews in a recent article:
“I can find all that I want,” said Chen Zhao, 24, a Tsinghua University doctoral student. “I seldom find pages I can't open.”
Another student, Wang Jinlin, supported the censorship. “Some things are not good for people to read,” she said.
Some of the search results from “Press Freedom” did discuss the censorship issue head-on. One such blog lamented the sorry state of Beijing News under government crackdown, the event of which was detailed by the English-language blog Danwei. In the comment section, one reader wrote:
[translated] Did you (the blogger) study journalism? I did. From my class not many stayed in the profession after graduation. Now it's more than one year after graduation, the few who are still in journalism are trying their best to get out. I can't speak too much for others, but at least I'm one such deserter. Those who study journalism for their ideals are suffering greatly.
In contrast, the Chinese-language blogosphere is witnessing escalating discussions on The Steamed Bun Lawsuit. The case, explained by ESWN, was filed by the prominent film director of the Farewell My Concubine fame, Chen Kaige, against the author of a 20-minute video clip spoofing Chen's latest martial arts fantasy, The Promise (known in the West as the Master of the Crimson Armor). This topic is prominently featured on Sina’s blog home page .
The fact that a film-industry law suit beat the important topic of media censorship in the Chinese-language blogosphere could be read two ways – that China’s media is depressingly suppressed; or, that Chinese netizens are using this law suit to vent their anger at the establishment. Massage Milk, a well-known Chinese-language blog, said the following about the 20-min video clip, as translated by ESWN:
The emergence of parodies tells something — that people are skeptical of and disgusted with mainstream culture. They have no choice about the things that are forced upon them. The Chinese people are pitiful because they only see just a few Chinese-made movies each year without any choice. They are disgusted with the sham that is mainstream culture but they have no choice. But they don't have the right to speak out, so the consequence of this disgust is to deconstructive methods to “bring down” the manufactured products.
If only we could say the same about people's anger with press freedom in China.
9 comments · »»Voices from Zimbabwe and the Great Lakes
· 04:11
Zimbabwe: Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), a civic action group looking out for the welfare of Zimbabwean women, held their third annual valentine's day protest march. This is Zimbabwe blogged that flyers promoting the march brought Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, to a standstill days before the event.
This is Zimbabwe's continued coverage of the march reveals that several hundreds of the protestors, including babies and men, were unjustly arrested and held by Zimbabwe's paranoid police.
Burundi:Agathon Rwasa reports that the UN is compelling the FNL to disarm unconditionally. The post also notes that,
Predictably, FNL apologists have attacked the UN for it's new-found resolve, even as the FNL murdered another four people, including a Catholic priest.The anonymous author of an article on the “African News Dimension” website claims that “many Burundi analysts” believe the UN's comments are “ill advised”, but says nothing about who these analysts are, or what the basis is of their alleged expertise.
The article makes no mention of the August 2004 Gatumba massacre, which is widely believed to have been a joint attack by the FNL and its Congolese and Rwandan Hutu-extremist allies, or of the longstanding evidence offered by Human Rights Watch and other groups of links between the FNL and former members of the Rwandan army implicated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The article appears to suggest that such claims have been fabricated by the Burundian government for the sake of convenience.
D.R.C: Sahara Sarah sattirically describes what she calls “the Nescafe Model of Development,”
Rather than real coffee, most establishments, office coffee areas (if you are lucky enough to have one), etc. have Nescafe - instant coffee. It's just not that great. And rather than just recognize it's inadequacies and replacing it, it's just modified and jazzed up to appear better than it is. This is a nice metaphor for governments and development in many third world countries. Say you have a bad road maintenance system (or a “Nescafe” road system)
Congo Watch's Ingrid has an intriguing report on the possibility that UN peacekeepers will stop fighting alongside government troops if they continue to commit human rights violations .
Malawi: Blogger Mike of Hacktivate highlights rockstar Bono's recent remarks at the prayer breakfast held in Washington responding that,
After reading the transcript from his talk, I am convinced that Bono has a God given role to play. It is a must read for people tired of Christian hypocrisy, for people interested in Africa, for Christians themselves, and for people who love to see George Bush challenged (he was there) on issues of social justice.“God is with the vulnerable and poor.
God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house? God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives? God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war? God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.”
Mike is also challenging Malawi's open source developers to work on a project for cash.
Rwanda: On the occasion of Heroes day in Rwanda earlier this month, George Conard contemplates the apparent contempt displayed by many in Rwanda towards Paul Rusesabagina, the man on whose life Hotel Rwanda was based.
One of the interesting things that has stood out for me in this coverage has been the number of articles and references to Paul Rusesabagina, the man portrayed by Don Cheadle in the movie Hotel Rwanda as the manager of the Hotel des Milles Collines in Kigali. There is a lot of bitterness and anger toward Rusesabagina, with many writers arguing that he has exaggerated his role and acts during the genocide, that he only really saved a few people, and that he has downplayed the role of others at the time…0 comments · »»I was talking with a friend here in Kigali about this over dinner tonight, and we both agreed that the film was clearly a Hollywood production; more specifically, it wasn't a documentary and didn't try to be, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. While I can understand the desire to educate people about all of the heroic acts during 1994, the fact remains that Hotel Rwanda probably did more to raise awareness in the West, and especially in the US, about what happened here than everything else that was made, shown, or published in the ten years prior to its release, and I can't help but think that's a good thing.
Indonesia: Blog aggregators, President's new site and Prophet Muhammad Cartoon
· 00:46
With the growing numbers of blogs it becomes more difficult to find, read and follow and what each other is posting in their blogs. One can simply solve the problem of reading and following blog posting by subscribing to their feeds and read the posts trough RSS clients or readers, but finding a good blogs for reading to begin with is different matter altogether.
For this we usually depends on a blogger authority figure to point out a blog that worth reading.
For others who would want to find new interesting blogs by themselves they now can resort to blog aggregators.
Currently the Indonesian blogosphere has given birth to several blog aggregators. While several of them are sprung from a blog community, there are others that are a fruit of resourceful individual blogger.
Here are the Indonesian blog aggregators and short description about them:
Planet Terasi
Owned and maintained by Ronny Haryanto, a postgraduate student in Sydney, Australia, Planet Terasi (terasi = dried shrimp paste) is the first and oldest Indonesian Blog Aggregator with a preference for original Indonesian related content with pinch technological/geek taste. It currently aggregates about 60 blogs and updated every hour.
Links
Eastern & Central Europe
Raffi Aftandelian of Maaskva: Nashimi Glazami shares his thoughts on one of Russia's most prominent war journalists, Anna Politkovskaya, the nature of her writing, and the practice of reading newspapers in general. (This post is in two languages, English and Russian, as all the posts in this blog are.)
Eastern & Central Europe
ArmYouth Blog reports on heavy security at a rock festival and how stereotypes held by security caused trouble for concertgoers.
Eastern & Central Europe
Alan Cordova reports on a small victory in the case of a jailed Tajik democracy pioneer.
Eastern & Central Europe
Oneworld Multimedia has a roundup of the English language Armenian blogosphere and the Armenian language Armenian blogosphere.
Eastern & Central Europe
neweurasia reports on the massive deals signed by French construction firm Bouygues with the Turkmen government.
Eastern & Central Europe
A Dushanbe expat writing for Registan.net reports on the impending destruction of Tajikistan's only synagogue.
Eastern & Central Europe
Harmick of Blogrel has a roundup of Armenian pop culture news.
South Asia
Delhi is going to host a BarCamp on the theme of ‘Next Generation Internet' - “BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees.” says Gaurav Bhatnagar.
South Asia
The politics of language and identity. Razib on Bangla and the expectation that anyone who is brown speaks Hindi.
South Asia
In the background of the current regime in Nepal - United We Blog! covers the anniversary of the Kantipur Media Group.
Eastern & Central Europe
br23 blog encourages Belarusian Internet users to write to Microsoft to protest what appears to be the company's Russification policy: “If in your browser settings you chose Belarusian as the first language […], then all the materials on support.microsoft.com would always appear to you in Russian. Even if you explicitly append “/be” to the article’s URL, it will still display all articles in Russian.”
Eastern & Central Europe
LJ user greenmih, a Russian photographer, posts black-and-white photos from an anti-Lukashenko, pro-Belarus solidarity rally that took place in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow this past Saturday (RUS). Politically-minded hooligans tried to disrupt the rally, but did not succeed.
Eastern & Central Europe
br23 blog introduces the four Belarusian politicians who have managed to collect more than 100,000 signatures and were registered by the Central Election Committee as presidential candidates: Alexander Lukashenka, Siarhiej Hajdukevich, Alexander Kazulin, and Alexander Milinkevich.
Sub-Saharan Africa
What an African Women Thinks discusses the issue of the “female body”, “image” “diet” ……Bombarded by these images every which way she turns, how can today’s average woman not become self-conscious, self-doubting and acutely aware of where and how far she falls short ? (of a standard set by who, she does not know but she has a sneaking suspicion.)”
Eastern & Central Europe
Tobias Ljungvall draws a parallel between today's Belarus and Russia under Lenin, and muses about Lukashenko's regime, the Russian ‘managed democracy' model and the upcoming election. He also mentions solidarity rallies that took place in Stockholm on Feb. 16 - and one that was dispersed by the police in Minsk.
Sub-Saharan Africa
The Voice of Africa Radio has been awarded an FM licence. David Ajao's writes “In a nutshell, VOAR is London’s first African radio station….“The station was launched to act as a true Pan-African voice for the African community…. (it) has a strong speech commitment, providing phone-in discussion programmes for local residents to discuss issues affecting the African community both within London and internationally. Programmes are broadcast in a range of African languages as well as English, French and Portuguese.”
South Asia
Kamla has a podcast on the call of Bollywood. She interviews - “Beth Watkins is a self-confessed Bollywood addict, and is part of a growing tribe of Bollywood fans in North America. Her interest in Bollywood underscores a growing trend that Bollywood films appeal to a wide audience who are not necessarily from Asia or Africa, the traditional domain of Hindi films.”
East Asia
travel-itch visits a Buddhist crematorium in Cambodia: “It looked like most Southeast Asian temples: walls of whitewashed concrete topped with curlicues of gilt plasterwork, and shiny bas reliefs jutting out from dark-painted surfaces. But there was a large pile of wizened-looking logs next to it.”
East Asia
Sarapan Ekonomi critiques John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman: “His self declared crime — inflating the forecast of electrical demand to force Indonesia into bankruptcy — has turned into an important engine of Indonesia’s economic growth since the early 1970s.”
East Asia
Colors of Life contrasts the sentences in two murder cases in Malaysia: one involving a lover's quarrel, another involving inflamed passions over harsh words. Both were emotional crimes, yet why did the perpetrators of the latter get lighter sentences?
East Asia
All U Can Eat Buffet discusses MILO, a drink made from chocolate-flavored powder that children all over Southeast Asia have grown to love. He's found at least two types: one made in Malaysia, which is sweeter, and one from Australia, which is creamier.
Americas
Erwin C. and Andres Duque both write about the murder of a transgender woman and the Guatemalan police officers who have been implicated in the case.
South Asia
India's elite administrative service becomes less attractive by the years to young people. Jasmine in conversation with three IAS officials.
Americas
Afflicted Yard links to an anti-crime rap song recorded by Jamaican Senior Superintendent of Police Renato Adams.
East Asia
On a recent performance trip to Taiwan, Li Yuchun, the winner of China's first Super Girl contest (modeled after the US show American Idol), was forbidden by the government to speak to the local fans or media. Austin Arensberg considers that the gag order “represents the desire for the CCP to control every aspect of their popular culture - even if it ends up looking totally ridiculous”.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Molara Wood reports on an evening in Lagos celebrating Nigerian writer, Chinweizu, co-author of Toward The Decolonisation of African Literature…….”Chinweizu was billed to and delivered a lecture on LUGARDISM AND THE PROSPECT OF AFRICAN POWER which ranged over the usual Chinweizu territory - but more concerned about the survival of Nigeria and Africa in a vein more hair-scraping than the usual Afrocentric stuff”
Eastern & Central Europe
Sitting in an Internet cafe, with the electricity out and a generator running, David Sheern of David in Albania comes up with Albanian Trivia Quiz. Answers provided at the end of the post.
Americas
¡Pura Vida! posts about the 2,000 doctors and 20,000 health workers currently on strike in Managua, noting that “the average doctor here makes around $300 a month.”
Americas
Fabiola Bazo has a hyperlinked and bilingual analysis of inequality as an election issue as Peruvians get ready to head to the polls.
Americas
Analyzing Hugo Chavez's recent proposal of amending the constitution to allow for his indefinite re-election, Oil Wars calls it a tactic to force the opposition to participate in the upcoming elections which they have threatened to boycott. Miguel Octavio, however, argues that the amendment “would essentially fulfill Chavez' autocratic ambition of perpetuating himself in power.”
Americas
Don Ray got exclusive permission to photograph the newest mega-supermarket in Panama's northern city of David.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Afromusing comments on the depleted forest lands of Kenya and the need to replant trees. Would you be willing to spend $5 to replant trees? If so contact Afromusing.
Americas
Sangroncito describes the preparation that has gone into Salvador's Carnaval and says that today feels like the “Calm Before Carnaval.” Mama Lisa posts an English translation of a Brazilian folk song about the Carnival called “Mama Paquita.” Made in Brazil has a picture of U2 fans camping out for tonight's concert in São Paulo.
Americas
Iriepeople.com publishes a recipe for Escovitch Fish, while Can Cook Must, Cook hunts for a good roti in London and reviews a new Caribbean cookbook.
Americas
Owen tries to get to the bottom of a press report that high school girls were caught having sex on a bus.
Americas
Abeni reports that a “gas war” is on the verge of breaking out in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as Texaco pushes to increase the price of a cylinder of cooking gas from EC$30 to EC$43. Abeni wonders “if the Petro Caribe gas that came in from Venezuela a few days before elections is a factor in Texaco's stance”.
Sub-Saharan Africa
One Ethiopia presents the positive side to Ethiopia's recent political crisis under the repressive regime of Meles Zenawi……..”We have taken the tiger by the tail and we won’t let go. Mr. Meles has no idea how close he comes to the truth every time he brags about how Ethiopia is nearing to be a real democracy. And when you think that only last year we would have settled for a few more seats and just a little more opening up of the economy.”.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Weichegud!ET Politics comments on “Ethiopians and their America complex”…Well, I figure part of it is scapegoating, Ethiopian-style. I mean, it feels good to blame our problems on someone else. And who better to blame them on than the greatest power in the world. After all, only the great America could stop proud Ethiopia from achieving its potential.”
Sub-Saharan Africa
Politics ZA also comments on the coming South African local elections and possible changes in “voting patterns” that may affect the overall success of the ANC.
Sub-Saharan Africa
This is Zimbabwe comments on the difference between the lives of the “filthy rich” Zimbabweans and the rest of the population. …”The ostrich syndrome is typical of the filthy rich upper class complacency, those who don’t vote because they don’t want to rock the boat, don’t read the papers because there’s nothing they can do about it, don’t discuss politics because they find it so boring!”
Sub-Saharan Africa
Adventures of a Retired Armchair Traveller reports that the DRC constitutional referendum has been approved. Alongside the approved constitution is a new blue and red flag.…..”The blue is to symbolize peace, and the red, in this case, is to commemorate the estimated 4 million Congolese who have lost their lives due to the years of conflict.”
Americas
Attillah Springer and Nicholas Laughlin are stage-side as the Peter Minshall-designed Carnival king, “Son of Saga Boy”, makes his second public appearance. caribbeanfreephoto has a Flickr photoset.
Sub-Saharan Africa
The Fish Bowl comments on the South African government initiative to encourage citizens to return to SA to fill the skills shortage
Sub-Saharan Africa
South Africa is about to have local elections and South Africa blog poses some important questions to local politicians
Americas
The Trinidad & Tobago World Cup Blog summarizes last week's Soca Warriors-related news. The Soca Warriors are Trinidad & Tobago's national football team.
This site is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
Please read our attribution policy.
Sponsors
| Korea content supported by |
 |
Japan content supported by |
 |