Archive for
June 22nd, 2006


Stories

Chilean citizens' initiatives

A small portrait of the translator Rosario Lizana · 22:26 · Americas

Crime is on the increase. Citizens are tired. A victim of an armed robbery that occur two weeks ago in the capitol has started a social movement against the crime. In his first post (ES) , he puts forward a manifesto: “ My duty is not to legislate, I m not a parliament, to judge, I’m not a magistrate, to prosecute a criminal, I’m not a policeman, to look after the public, because I don’t work for the government”. He continues with a invitation to a peaceful demonstration(ES). He's had 561 comments on the post, most of them from people telling their own personal experience with crime and supporting his initiative.

Bloggers all over Chile have reacted to this concern. Consensus mauvicm (ES) describes the story of a woman who has been the victim of armed robbery 40 times in her house and who now sleeps with a gun. “Almost 50% of petty criminals spend less than a day in jail”.

Referring to the same issue, Cococita (ES) posts that

Incredible but true, in a country like Chile there exists something called the revolving door of justice, which means that judges release the most dangerous criminals who have been arrested, back into circulation for them to reoffend, again and again.

Patricio (ES) has analysed the first 100 days in power for President Michelle Bachelet. He touches on taxes, the bad manage of the students' strike, and about crime he writes

Justice only acts in favor of the criminals (”innocent until proven guilty”, shouldn't this be in the other way around, in the case of the accused?).

Lately, several citizens’ initiatives have been emerging - the student strikes, a horn protest against the high price of petrol and a campaign to extend the tube schedule. Celicia (ES) writes about these cases in her blog. She remarks in her post “I don’t remember in the last years of the left wing government having so many citizens' initiatives”.

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China: Revolution’s victims’ stories blogged, not forgotten (2/4)

A small portrait of the translator John Kennedy · 13:36 · East Asia

Chinese blogger-journalist Ran Yunfei (冉云飞) has spent a large part of his life researching the stories of those painted, purged and persecuted as right wing elements during China's Cultural Revolution; unable to have the stories published in any official media, he's turned to his own well-known blog. Early last month Ran gave a talk in a Chengdu teahouse—hotspots for grassroots discussions in pre-Communist China—the transcript of which he then posted on his blog in four installments. Here is the second:

需要说明的是，演讲中有一部分涉及对故乡重庆文化建设的评价，我什么场合都是这样说的。重庆现在高楼频起，但没有多少文化，不加强文化建设（不是中共所谓的精神文明，不是增加GDP的恶性乱搞），不会得到人们真正的尊敬。后来看到重庆的右派接二连三地联名上书，要求中共赔偿他们的损失，重庆人的血性令我尊敬。

What needs to be pointed out is that in part of this lecture can be seen some criticism of Chongqing's cultural redevelopment. I bring this up in every situation. Skyscrapers keep popping up all around Chongqing, but the same can't be said of culture. By not strenghtening culture (different from the Communist Party's so-called spiritual civilization, different from the disgusting screwing up of increasing the GDP), you won't win people's authentic respect. But seeing a succession of rightists' joint-signed letters coming out of Chongqing calling for the Communist Party's compensation for their losses, Chongqing citizens' courage has won them my respect.

(more…)

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Alaa Is Free

A small portrait of the translator Elijah Zarwan · 12:27 · Middle East & North Africa

Award-winning Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Seif al-Islam Abd al-Fattah walked out of Omraniya police station late this afternoon after spending 46 days in detention for attending a May 7 protest. I spoke with him soon after his release and he sounded fine—exhausted after a terrible night in the police station jail, but happy to be free and heading home. Manal and Alaa are Manalaa again.

“Joy is as infectious as sorrow,” the great Egyptian intellectual Taha Hussein wrote in 1929, “and among Egyptians nothing catches so quickly.” A tense hour today bore out the truth of that observation. Rumors suggesting that plainclothes police were beating Alaa and forcing him to remain standing for prolonged periods without sleep spread quickly over SMS touched off a flurry of activity over email and the Egyptian blogosphere. Manal must have spent some frantic minutes fielding calls from concerned friends and reporters. Alaa, she told me, was being held in terrible, crowded conditions with run-of-the-mill hoodlums in Omraniya police station. But his cellmates and the crowded, filthy conditions—not the police—were apparently the proximate cause of his suffering.

Then, minutes later, news came over SMS that Alaa was free.

Hossam al-Hamalawy's post summed up the mood:

he’s out… yes, finally out!!!! hohohohohoh!! MABROUK YA SHABAB! MABROUK YA TENNIN YA BAMBY! [Congratulations, guys! Congratulations, you pink dragon!]

He’s in great spirits. I asked him, “Shall we meet up soon?” He answered quickly, “Of course, next demo!” followed by a long laughter…

And Sandmonkey's agonized post, updated several times over the space of that confused hour, conveyed some of the afternoon's drama.

Perhaps because many of Egypt's Arabic-language bloggers were marching on the police station to demand Alaa's immediate release, the English-language Egyptian blogs carried the news first. The Arabic-language bloggers will join in soon. This time, they'll be joined by a familiar, funny, incisive voice even Torah prison couldn't silence.

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