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The Week That Was - Bolivian Blogs

Este artículo también está disponible en español en el sitio Blogs de Bolivia

Another election in Bolivia is only four days away. A dearth of information characterizes this election of 255 Constituents to the assembly that has the task to rewrite the Constitution. On July 2, Bolivians will take to the polls and Briegel Busch finds the fact that many do not even know their candidates or what exactly is at stake very worrisome. As he writes in his blog, Bolivia-Eclipse [ES], this lack of information could have an adverse effect on history because indifferent and uninformed voters may only add to the uncertainty that the country currently faces.

In addition to this election, a Referendum on Autonomy will also take place on July 2. A “Yes” vote is far from a sure thing, as it may have appeared at one time. Earlier in the year, President Evo Morales openly supported and pushed through Congress the convocation of this Referendum. However, over the past few months, this positive support turned to neutrality. Recently, Morales admitted that he will be voting “No”. Others in the MAS party have not formed a consensus. Busch also comments about this inconsistency among the ruling party and the lack of clear and solid reasons why some oppose this quest for departmental autonomies.

Some residents of El Alto ( a ever-growing city, located near the capital, La Paz), including councilmember Roberto de la Cruz, participated in a unique protest in support of a “No” vote in this Referendum. The blog Poco Comun [ES] has a picture of these Alteños in mid-winter.

Sebastian Molina emphatically states that he will support the “Yes” vote. In his blog, Plan B [ES], he thinks that “increased decentralization is necessary, not only of the resources, but also power in the intermediate levels (Prefectures, governorships or however the Constituent Assembly decides upon) between the central government and the municipalities.” Another factor that has solidified his vote is that the final decision on what type of autonomy Bolivia would have, should the “Yes” vote win, would take place within the boundaries of the Constituent Assembly and the new Constitution, which will then be voted upon by the public in another referendum.

During this election season, many proposals are being bandied about, including one controversial proposal to eliminate Roman Catholicism as the official state religion. Sebastián Sánchez Villalpando, who blogs at Palazos a la Piñata [ES], was pleasantly surprised that such a debate could take place in a country like Bolivia, as he sees incongruence that a democratic country could even have an official state religion in the first place. However, Morales, who earlier stated, in an interview with CNN Español, via a link from the blog Morir antes que esclavos vivir [ES] that traditional religious festivals should be abolished because “they are European colonial symbols and unnecessary economic expenses,” later recanted and publicly stated that he was, in fact, Catholic himself.

Finally, the coldest night of the year has always been celebrated on the day known as “San Juan,” held on June 23. Bolivians don’t stay inside on this coldest night, but take to the frigid night air with their traditional bonfires. Each year, the local governments plead to its residents to resist the urge to partake in this tradition citing the ecological and environment damage that these bonfires cause. Nevertheless, many do not heed this call and the day after is characterized by a heavy haze on the major cities, which causes problems with those with allergies, such as Ceckis who wriges at Lost in Confussion [ES]. She doesn’t see why people have to take part in something just because it is tradition and those who defend it by saying that other countries like the United States contaminate the air even more, which is no justification. She ends her post because she must look for medicine to alleviate some of the symptoms caused by the heavily-contaminated air.

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Why No Mention of Slavery in African and Haitian Fiction?

Alice Backer · 21:40 · Sub-Saharan Africa , Americas

Why is there so little mention of slavery in African and Haitian Fiction? That is the question that Togolese France-based blogger Kangni Alem addresses in a prolific and well-thought out blog entry. He deplores that African fiction does not count more passages on the different waves of slavery that have plagued the continent and while he points out that Haiti's literature does not have much on the topic either, he finds the causes of the ommission by Haitian authors more excusable.

A Thousand Year-Old Phenomenon Ignored

il suffit de parcourir la bibliographie romanesque de quelques pays africains ayant payé un tribut lourd à la saignée esclavagiste pour toucher du doigt l’ampleur du silence quant au traitement du sujet par la fiction. Qu’il soit togolais, béninois, nigérian ou angolais, l’écrivain de ces contrées semble reléguer aux oubliettes des pans entiers d’un phénomène qui a quand même duré presque mille ans et connu trois phases principales: celle des traites antiques internes à l’Afrique (environ 14 millions de victimes, estiment les historiens), celle de la traite orientale touchant le monde musulman entre le 7e et le 19e siècle, et enfin la traite occidentale, la plus référencée, entre le 16e et le 19e siècle.

One need only thumb through the bibliograhy of novels from a handful of African countries who have paid a heavy price for slavery to understand the enormity of the silence surrounding the subject in fiction. Whether Togolese, Beninois, Nigerian or Angolan, the writers seem to ignore broad swaths of a phenomenon that has existed for about a thousand years and known three main phases: that of the ancient slave trades internal to Africa (about 14 million victims, historians estimate), that of the Eastern trade touching the moslem world between the 7th and 19th centuries, and finally the most referenced between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Sur le point qui concerne les traites internes ou domestiques surtout, la faiblesse relative du nombre des études consacrées à l’esclavage domestique par les historiens africains contraste fortement avec l’ancienneté du phénomène, sa généralisation à l’échelle du continent, son ampleur variable d’une époque à une autre, le rôle et les fonctions des esclaves dans tous les domaines d’activités, la diversité de leur statut social.

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Kurdistance:

Deborah Ann Dilley · 17:12 · Middle East & North Africa

No tricks or wittiness today folks, here is just the straight skinny on the Kurdish Blogosphere.

Hiwa Hopes this week gives a great link to an article about the frustration of a Kurdish immigrant to the UK about the lack of mixer taps. And honestly, I didn't know that the taps were separate in the UK, because they aren't in the US. Plus, Hiwa posted a rather funny picture of Slemany traffic.

Vladimir, who writes on From Holland to Kurdistan, gave links this week to articles he has written for Kurdish Media. The first is about Kurdish Fashion Designer Sohrab Darisiro and the second is about a new page about the Kurds on Al-Jazeera (which I am desperately trying to find).

Iraqi Kurdistan writes this week about the failure of the Al-Maliky government in Iraq for not yet implementing Article 140, which decreases the Arabization of Kirkuk….for a great forum article on this (I found it really helpful) see Kurdish Media.

Roj Bash! has some excellent historical photos of old Kurdistan and a link to a funny little mix-up when a Syrian Ba'ath newspaper inadvertantly published a photo of the World Cup crowd in which a Kurdish flag was shown.

Rather than linking to each individual update, I am just going to ask my regular readers to check Save RojTV for the latest in the news about the 56 Turkish mayors who are facing prison time for signing a letter in support for Roj TV. The Kurdish world seems to be just waiting breathless for more information as to what is going to happen post-indictment.

Mizgin from Rasti writes an excited and hopeful post about a friend of hers who has recently arrived in the US from Northern Kurdistan (Southeast Turkey):

I am deliriously happy today because today, for me, has been a holiday, my own personal holiday, my own day of rejoicing.

I have learned that a friend from Amed has arrived in the US and he may now begin to work toward his dreams, dreams that were never possible in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan for a Kurd, dreams that now have an equal opportunity to become a reality. No one here will tell him he must forget that he is a Kurd in order to attain his dreams. No one will tell him he can't speak Kurdish or that he must speak Turkish, nor will the police detain and torture him for the crime of being a young, male Kurd.

I hope that the rest of your week is as blessedly happy as Mizgin feels today, till we meet again.

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More Football and This is Nigeria

David Ajao · 11:23 · Sub-Saharan Africa

lingua → zhs · zht

Football fever is hot in the air and Nigerian bloggers share their thought.

Aba Boy is Identifying with the French

It was so easy (as a black person and an immigrant) to identify with the French team that beat Spain yesterday. The team that played yesterday was made of black players like Thuram, Gallas, Abidal, Makelele, Vieira, Malouda, Govou, Henry, Wiltord and Zidane who by the way is Algerian.

African Shirts identifies with the Ghanaian footbal team: We're still Ghanaian (and partly Brazilian)

The Black Stars acquitted themselves well, but they suffered from the perennial African disease of non-scoring-itis. Brazil, on the other hand were clinical, and 3-0 was a flattering score. Fat Ronaldo scored after being written off by the media, and he has now scored the most World Cup goals ever. Ghana missed Michael Essien desperately, because he would have been the one to check Brazil's marauding midfielders. He must have been bitterly disappointed.

Black Looks gives an overview of the Ghana - Brazil encounter: Ghana keeps pride for 81 minutes!

Ghana had nothing to loose except possibly their pride - they always looked like maybe they could take the game with great play from Appiah, Amoah, Pantsil and Mensah but poor finishing and of course once they had settled down and remembered the D word. Essien’s absense had to be crucial - what with the ref dishing out yellow cards to Ghana like ballons at a kids party but I always felt a goal was possible and even a win. Whatever - I think we can all live with loosing to a not so great Brazil but Gyan’s dive was blatant and shameful - and Thinkers “man” - well he’s still singing - scores a goal and then stands around for 89 minutes waiting for someone to pass him the ball - may be if he did a bit more work……..! but then he doesnt have to I guess.

Just Thinking Out Loud! is full of praises for the Ghanaian team: Life is not fair…for real!

I just got back to my desk after watching that game (though I must say that I saw only the second half) and I just can't imagine any other loss that could be more painful than that. This was a team that everyone thought Brazil would just ride over. But as the game started, Ghana proved that was not going to happen. During the 1st half, I was on IM throughout with a friend that was watching it and he kept me abreast of how the game was going. He kept on telling me how Ghana was playing a great great game! By the time I got to my friend's place to watch the 2nd half, I saw what he was saying. He couldn't have been more on point than that. I mean Ghana plaaaaayed! They played much better than Brazil played. And that was without Michael Essien. They played a great game for sure.

Naijablog shares Jide Adeniyi-Jones' thoughts on Nigeria

‘This is Nigeria’

It is hard to say precisely when Nigeria lost its way, but soon after the demise of the first republic we lost our self-confidence. In defense, we took refuge behind words like Giant, Great and Excellence as if their forceful proclamation would endow us with the qualities that they define. The very need for these superlatives in the face of our obvious challenges is itself symptomatic of our neurosis. But it is a little too easy to seek the root of our current predicament in military intervention. After all the military were hardly the bastion of the brightest and the best of our pre-independence population. So in the battle for the soul of the nation, they are unlikely to have won such a resounding victory; even with all the instruments of coercion at their disposal. No, I think we have to look a little farther back.

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What are Indian Bloggers Talking About?

Kamla Bhatt · 10:16 · South Asia

The recent Readers Digest Survey about which city was polite yielded some rather interesting results: New York topped the list and Mumbai came at the bottom, in other words Mumbai was the rudest city in the world. The results came as a mild shock to many denizens of this chaotic and wonderful city by the sea. Interestingly like NYC, Bombay/Mumbai is also a city if islands and they share a lot of other things in common. Back to Mumbai and the survey. Having spent a year recently in Mumbai, I was a bit taken aback to see that Mumbai was the rudest city in the world. The results underscores an important fact/variable/dimension that the survey failed to take into consideration. And that is that the cultural underpinnings of each country is different and what is polite in one part of the world might be considered impolite in another part of the world. A long time ago Desmond Morris wrote a wonderful book on the same subject and how some supposed universal gestures have different interpretations in different parts of the world. I wonder how the folks at Readers Digest overlooked this important variable?

So, here is what bloggers had to say about Mumbai/Bombay being labeled as the rudest city: So, here is Sheks whose post has an interesting title: Falsely True, Fictionally Factual. Read and discover what his take on this survey. Here is Farzana's take on Mumbai as the rudest city, has love got anything with being rude? Read what Farzana has to say. Vijay Kumar of Bombay Lives pulls no punches and writes that he is considering canceling his subscription to Readers Digest.

Speaking of politeness, hospitality…the city that comes to mind is Lucknow. Lucknow is synonymous and well-known for its leggedary hospitality. Lucknow is the capital of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, and is a city steeped in history, culture and food. Raj, who grew (more…)

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Bangladesh Blog Buzz

Rezwan · 09:06 · South Asia

The latest happenings in Bangladesh related blogs around the world:

* Tourism: A tourist in Bangladesh explores Mainamati, where a number of Buddhist archeological sites can be found.

* Pictures: Zev posts photos of Sonargaon, the ancient capital of Isa Khan's kingdom in Bengal. It is located near the current-day city of Narayanganj, Bangladesh. More pictures from Zev of old Dhaka, now capital of Bangladesh.

* Society: Adhunika blog discusses two important issues in Bangladeshi society “When to get married”: Before or after graduation? And on the status of the single women in the society.

* Review: Journalist Ahmede Hossain does a review of a Bengali film : Ontorjatra (Home-Land) directed by Tareque Masud and Catherine Masud.

* Religion: In his quest for truth and spirituality, Sadiq finds that Jesus travelled also to India.

* World Cup: Shafiur writes how dramatic the symbolism in football can be. Mezba classifies the ubiquitous flag wavers.

* Blogs and business: Razib of the South Asia Biz Blog comments that blogs can help South Asian companies grow.

* Living: Dutch expat Hermie living in Dhaka has had enough with her American neighbor.

* Bangla Blogging: “Give me a notepad, I will give you a community“- Hasin hayder the man behind the sensational Bangla blogging platform “Somewhereinblog.net” writes how it was born and its latest developments. He has thoughts of expanding it to a wider community.

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