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Ganji's Hunger Strike & Lebanon Conflict

Farid Pouya · 12:58 · Middle East & North Africa

Dissident journalist Akbar Ganji and his supporters called for a three days hunger strike to attract attention on Iranian political prisoners. Several bloggers have talked about this hunger strike movement and some discussed Ganji’s regime change idea.

Bring Iranians closer to each other

MardomIranema thinks that Ganji’s call for hunger strike despite of all discussions has been a positive action. The blogger believes this fact that several people from different political or ideological background joined the strike movement may bring Iranians closer to each other [Fa]. The blogger adds

در جمع افراد حامی اعتصاب غذا افرادی از جبهه اصلاحات بوده است که باید غنیمت شمرد. و اینکه افرادی به مانند اکبر گنجی و موسوی خوئینی شاید بتوانند این مرزایجاد شده را بشکنند.حضور فاطمه حقیقت جو نماینده شجاع مشارکتی مجلس ششم و حامی شرکت در انتخابات در برگزاری و ساماندهی این مراسم در امریکا جای خوشوقتی بود که این هم می تواند جز نکات مثبت این گردهمایی باشد و شاید روزنه امیدی به کم کردن فاصله ها شود و نکته مهم دیگر حضورجعفر پناهی کارگردان سینما در روز اخر مراسم در دفتر ادوار تحکیم حاوی نکات مثبتی است….و امیدوارم کلام محسن مخملباف کارگردان سینما را روزی اشتباه بدانم که گفته بود اکبر گنجی تنها شخص زنده ما ایرانیان است

There were people from the reformist front among hunger strike supporters and we should consider their presence valuable. People like Akbar Ganji or Mosavi Khoeini may be able to break already existing borders (between different groups or people with different ideas). The presence of Fatemeh Haghigatjoo, a former deputy in Parliament, to support and to organise the hunger strike movement in US is another positive sign. Jafar Panahi (a prize winner movie director) was present in TahkimVahdat (student association) in the last day….. I hope Mohsen Makhmalbaf (famous movie director) was wrong when he says I think the only person alive in country is Ganji.

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French-Speaking Bloggers on Rabat Conference on Migration

Alice Backer · 09:07 · Middle East & North Africa , Sub-Saharan Africa

What Will the Conference Bring?

Says France-based African blogger Le Pangolin,

Du 10 au 11 juillet 2006, s'est tenue à Rabat au Maroc, la première rencontre interministérielle euro-africaine sur les problèmes des migrations entre ces deux continents.Elle a regroupé 57 pays africains et européens et certaines organisations humanitaires qui se sont bruyamment invitées à la table de négociation.

From July 10 to 11, 2006, the first interministerial Euro-African meeting on the problems of migrations between the two continents was held in Rabat, Morocco. The Conference attracted 57 African and European countries and a couple of humanitarian organizations that insisted on inviting themselves to the negotiation table.

Though cautious in his wording, Senegalese blogger-mayor Robert Sagna, was willing to give the conference's resolution the benefit of the doubt:

L’Europe, l’Asie, l’Amérique, l’Australie et même l’Afrique connaissent le phénomène migratoire ; il faut savoir le gérer ; la répression n’est sûrement pas la meilleure manière, comme le souligne la Déclaration de Rabat, il faut engager un dialogue politique, mais les solutions durables à mon avis passe par la Croissance et le Développement d’une part, et une répartition équitable des résultats de cette croissance et de ce développement, d’autre part.

Europe, Asia, America, Australia and even Africa are all familiar with migrations; it is important to manage the phenomenon properly. Repression is probably not the best way, as the Rabat Declaration emphasizes, we need to start a political dialogue but durable solutions in my opinion should involve growth and development on the one hand and an equitable distribution of the results of that growth and development on the other.

France-based African blogger Le Pangolin agreed that policing was a short-sighted solution and had mostly harsh words for the conference, for Europe and for Morocco: (more…)

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Bloggers on Virtual India

Kamla Bhatt · 08:50 · South Asia

Virtual India is a different place, and this week's developments in the virtual world clearly demonstrated and highlighted that geographical and IP address barriers can be circumvented and people can come together for a common cause. Bloggers of Indian origin from across the world came together and wrote, and wrote and wrote. Mainstream media across the world picked up on what the bloggers were writing, and I think that clearly demonstrated that bloggers are an effective force. It is another matter that some MSMs (in India) tried to get some viewership mileage from this entire experience.

Right to information, right to reading and writing on blogs, and right to use VOIP. Bloggers were writing and posting their thoughts in a fast and furious manner on these subjects. After a whirlwind trip of these various rights in this great inter- connected and virtual world, we take a much needed break and take a virtual tour of some wonderful wildlife images.

Blogs, VOIP, and Right to Information.

Blogs from blogspot and typepad and a bunch of websites were banned in India this past week. Desi Pundit, an aggregator of blogs on India has an exhaustive list of bloggers on this topic, the work arounds that many tech-savvy bloggers created for readers to access their blogs. The sticky post outlines the entire episode. The ban has been lifted partially and over the weekend it is expected that all blogs will be accessible. The debate has now shifted to a new topic and a new set of questions about censorship. Again, Desi Pundit has a stick post on this set of new issues.

Sanat Mohanty has a post on Right To Information Act in India. He writes:

"Since the first of July, a concerted effort by Civic Society Organizations, Non Government Organizations, individuals and a prominent TV news channel - NDTV and leading national newspapers are coming together to launch a national campaign…"

Read to find out what else Sanat has to say on

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Blogs are Improving Citizen Concerns

Rosario Lizana · 00:38 · Americas

You’re riding on the highway at maximum speed (120 K/H), talking with a friend, calm. Suddenly a public bus passes you so fast that curiosity gets ahold of you: how fast is this bus is going? And the driver decides to follow the bus.

Carlos Verdugo (ES) posts the experience: “We were literally between Tongoy and Los Vilos, at the maximum speed allowed, when a greased lightning was coming to our vehicle to pass us, and we ask Is a bird? No, is it a plane?, No. Is it superman? No, it's Ramos Cholele (a bus company in the region)”.

He continues describing that they followed the bus to discover the speed. 170 K/H. This is not the end of the story. They record it with mobile and post it, eliciting more than 60 comments sharing the concern. El Morroccotudo (ES), a weblog newspaper from the region posts it to.

So, various media outlets ask them for permission to use the video.

In the last few weeks, a house robbery inspired a man to build a blog (ES) for expressing his concern about the crime in Chile. Students coordinate national strikes by blogs and fotoblogs. Neighbourhoods that demand the release of a homeless man and for spread the information build a community blog and web page. Last week, a bloggers campaigned for the victims of a flood in the south. Chile has 16 million citizens. So, for other countries these should be everyday responses, but for us it is a way of adjusting media to social concerns.

While the Chilean media have still been slow to adopt blogs and other technologies, citizens have started using them, and slowly blogs are starting to be the sources of information once occupied by the traditional media.

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