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Lusosphere blogs report the latest political twists in East Timor

Jose Murilo Junior · 22:14 · East Timor , Portugal

Since the last report from the lusophone blogosphere, the crisis in East Timor has evolved with the country now divided between the President Xanana Gusmão and the Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri. Once again, reading about the situation in the Anglophone media tells a quite different story from what appears in Portuguese language blogs. There is quite a gap between the two perspectives.

“Australian media news, which influences all the regional and international information on the issue, describes Timor crisis as an internal fight for power where an ‘unpopular' prime minister is opposed by a popular movement. Although the words ‘oil' and ‘gas' are the cause of the Australian intervention, they are rarely mentioned in these news reports.”
East Timor: a new cold war - Informação Alternativa

“The Australians use Ad Hominem arguments in the attacks on Timor's government. In this article published in Australian News — owned by Rupert Murdoch (see wikipedia) — the writer, a neoliberal (as only a neoliberal journalist would be tolerated by Murdoch), demonizes the Timor government using the strategy of using leftist labels. Marxist leaders have failed: it's the ‘label' (homophobic, fascist, Marxist, etc.) The labeling marginalizes the opposition and avoids better reasoning. As we know, Marxism has not guided the Fretilin party of the Prime Minister for years. But the author resurrects the late 70's ideological language with obvious intentions.”
Timor: hearing the Australian version - Letras com Garfos

“The history of the struggle for independence of East Timor is also a narrative about the Australian political acrobatics in trying to put its hands in the vast amount of oil in the surrounding seas, currently evaluated as worth 30 billion dollars. Nevertheless, Australia always made its support of Timorese independence appear as a humanitarian mission of fostering and protecting ‘human rights'. Today, the media still echoes this storyline.”
East Timor: Australia - Peacekeeper or Petroleum Predator? - Expresso Online

The absence of cross-language reports in traditional media may be the reason for the gap in perspective and in understanding of what's going on. There is a great chasm between what is reported in English and what is appearing in Portuguese. It's the passion for blogging about the East Timor crisis in the Lusosphere that is amplifying and expanding awareness of the many sides of the conflict and bringing the gaps in interpretation within the different language spheres into high visibility. (more…)

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Belarus: The Language Issue

Veronica Khokhlova · 18:29 · Eastern & Central Europe

In a perfect world, languages would be nothing but a way for people to communicate with each other - no language would be considered superior or inferior, children would be encouraged to study as many as possible. In the real world, however, languages are being used as political and ideological tools way too often, and in Belarus, for example, this has resulted in the Belarusian language practically vanishing from everyday use, replaced by the Russian language, and Russian being shunned by the politically conscious Belarusians.

LJ user wolny, a Belarusian living in the United States, writes (BEL) about his recent linguistic adventure on a bus in New York City:

Today, something interesting happened to me. On my way back from work, I was talking on the phone with [LJ user] e_ndrus. Because a group of young blacks was on the same bus and they were acting pretty [loud], I was forced to interrupt my conversation. Someone was getting off the bus at the next stop, so I got a chance to sit. I took an empty seat, and a woman sat down next to me and addressed me in Belarusian right away. I was speechless for a moment. =) She had been surprised herself when she heard me speaking Belarusian. It seemed to me that she used to teach in the past because her language was good but slow. She was interested in the Diaspora (said she was trying to look for the people but didn't find anyone), and I recommended [a Diaspora get-together] to her. We'll see if she shows up.

Here's a seemingly unlikely yet unsurprising response to this story (BEL):

slotoviepus: Cool! I think it was only once in my life that I happened to hear in a Minsk tramway how ordinary people were speaking in Belarusian - not during a language class, not in front of a TV camera, without any reason, simply on the tramway… This was nine years or so ago.

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Reporters Without Borders: How They Protect Bloggers & How You Can Help

Mary Joyce · 18:22 · Projects , Blogger News

Last month, Global Voices launched its Help These Bloggers page, signaling the organization's entry into blogger advocacy. (Find out how to add our advocacy badge to your website here.) Although always part of Global Voices mission, support for jailed bloggers became particularly pressing in the past six months due to the arrests of two bloggers close to the Global Voices community. Global Voices' Northeast Asia Editor, Hao Wu, was detained without charge in China in February. He has still not been granted access to his family or to a lawyer. The second blogger arrested was Alaa Abd el Fatah, co-creator of the Egyptian blog Alaa and Manal's Bit Bucket. Fortunately, this blogger's story ends happily. Alaa's release was announced this week, after six weeks in prison, and he returned home after a horrific night in a police cell.

Nevertheless, as the influence of political bloggers increases so does the persecution they endure from governments who wish to silence all voices of criticism. In fact, 50% of all people arrested for statements made online are blogger. It was in order to learn more about this phenomenon that I visited the international headquarters of Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans Frontières), a Paris-based organization dedicated to defending press freedom around the world. I was there to talk to Julien Pain, head of RSF's Internet Freedom Desk. I was interested in how Julien and his colleagues protect bloggers.

RSF was founded in 1985 by four French journalists who wanted to defend imprisoned journalists and protect freedom of the press around the world. The Internet Freedom Desk was a natural outgrowth of this goal. It was founded in 2001 as a direct reaction to the perceived crack-down on media after September 11th. Explained Julien, “Governments used the fight against terrorism as a pretext for controlling the internet and invading privacy. This worried us.” The Internet Freedom Desk at first focused on protecting privacy on the internet. However, when Julien took over the desk in 2003 he changed the focus to advocating on behalf of people who are jailed or persecuted because of what they write online.

In the beginning, bloggers were not the focus. The people most often targeted by authoritarian governments were “cyber dissidents,” traditional political dissidents who “went cyber” and started publishing critical material on the internet. They were not writing in blogs, but rather on traditional websites like Boxun.com, a US-based site advocating for human rights in China. Even in September 2005, when the Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber Dissidents was published, it was cyber dissidents and not bloggers who were most often targeted by repressive governments. This was because, according to Julien, political blogging was still in its infancy in most of the world and thus bloggers did not pose much of a threat. Bloggers made up only 7% of all people arrested for statements made online, compared with 50% today.

(more…)

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The World Cup Online: Discovering Lionel Messi's Blog or Blognovela

David Sasaki · 16:18 · Americas

The anonymous nature of the web is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, everyday citizens living under repressive regimes, can easily learn how to blog anonymously and express themselves without fear of reprisal. On the other hand, it is difficult if not impossible to verify the real identity of the author on any given blog. That doesn't mean, however, that people don't try. Ecuadorean media professor, Christian Espinosa explains the controversy around a weblog purported to be authored by the young, Argentine football celebrity, Lionel Messi (ES).

Whether it really is or isn't the blog of Lionel Messi, we can certainly say that more than 250 people are commenting on the journal that supposedly belongs to the Argentine football player renowned for being one of the world's young players with the greatest promise (he recently turned 19).

I've enjoyed reading how the people try to discover if it is or isn't the very same Messi, checking the time difference between Argentina and Germany, his spelling mistakes (the love and hate attitudes toward the new writing used in text messages is worthy of a study), and other comments which are incredible.

Whoever he may be, he continues posting theoretically from Germany with hundreds of followers reading on and, day after day, making an authentic blog-soap-opera.

Blog or Blognovela?

The blog of Lionel Messi or his impostor is Blog de Lio

Here are some of his categories and you can draw your own conclusions …

Friends

Misc.

Family

Memories

Work

Related

Now I remember that, in Chile, something similar happened with the blog created by the ex-president, Ricardo Lagos and those who doubted that it was really his blog. Supposedly there's going to be a book about it. No matter what, the blog medium has become a way to deal with these celebrities on a daily basis.

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UN Human Rights Council & Presidential Election

Farid Pouya · 04:38 · Middle East & North Africa

Several bloggers wrote about the presence of Saeed Mortazavi, Tehran chief prosecutor, in the Iranian delegation to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. A few bloggers tried to find out why Iranian government sent such a representative with a very poor human rights record. Some other bloggers try to remind us what Moratazvi did and share their reasons to protest against his visit. Let’s look at some of these blogs.

Upside down world!

Reza Allamezadeh, blogger, writer & movie director, considers Mortazavi's participation in the UN Human Rights Council shows how much our world is upside down. According to the blogger, even the Iranian Parliament considered Mortazavi was involved in the torture and murder of Zahra Kazemi, Canadian-Iranian journalist. The blogger adds

Now we see him (Mortazavi) promoted by the Leader and become a member of Iranian human rights delegation in Geneva. The Iranian State is just making fun of the world(Persian).

Iran Emrouz is upset that most Iranian blogs do not protest against Mortazavi’s presence at the UN conference. The blogger says why are so many blogs are silent about Tehran's chief prosecutor's presence in UN council? (Persian) The blogger asks

Was not he, one of the suspects in Zahra Kazemi’s murder? Is not he the one who closed down so many journals?

Message to inside country!

Masoud Behnoud, journalist, writer and blogger tries to find out why Mortazavi was sent. He writes The judiciary has many diplomats & international law academics that know the world and can talk a foreign language (Persian). Behnoud writes the Mortazavi does not know any language other than his mother tongue. The blogger adds

Mortzavi’s trip might be a political message for inside the country. The people in charge of government wanted to send a message to reformists… that they (the government) do not fear any propaganda against them.

Wanted!

Hanif, blogger & journalist, talks about Manouchehr Motaki , Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister, and his reaction to the Canadian government ‘s request to Germany (Persian) to arrest Mortazavi. Hanif reports what Motaki said in response:

Canada should be careful which country it is talking to! In the Islamic Republic’s opinion a country like Canada is insignificant and this country should not think somebody is going to pay attention to her requests. This country has made a lot of political mistakes from the victory of Islamic Revolution.

The blogger is quite surprised regarding the reaction of head of Iranian democracy and his inability to use “diplomatic language”.

Meanwhile, at the same time that some bloggers are trying to figure out why Mortazavi was sent to the UN conference in Geneva, some other Iranian bloggers are trying to find out why Ahmadinejad won last year's Presidential election.

Economic Promises

Abtahi, reformist politician & blogger writes in Webnevesht that Ahmadinejad came to power thanks to his promises to solve economic problems and he did not talk about international relations. Abtahi writes about Ahmadinejad after being elected as President he has become a front runner in the nuclear crisis instead of leaving this function to other Iranian diplomats (Persian). The blogger says Ahmadinejad should have concentrated on people’s economic problems rather than playing the role of a radical leader.

Ahmadinejad, the only option to change?

Ofoghe Azadi asks if reformist journalists didn't realise that the most important critic regarding former President Khatami's government was his economic failures. So how did they then expect people vote for Mustafa Moin (reformist candidate) who even did not talk about economic problems during the election. Khatami could not pass even legislation bills through Parliament. People wanted something to be changed. May be Ahmadnejad was the only option (Persian).

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