Archive for
November 15th, 2006


Stories

The Week that Was - Bolivian Blogs 

a small portrait of this author Eduardo Avila · 22:15

Juancito Pinto was a little drummer boy, who had traded his drum for a rifle during the War of the Pacific of the 1880s. He perished at the hands of the Chilean army and his name is still synonymous with Bolivia’s long standing attempts to recuperate sovereign access to the sea. His legacy lives on when the Bolivian Ministry of Education implemented the “Bono Juancito Pinto,” which is a cash payment of Bs. 200 (approximately 15 USD) to each child, upon condition that they are enrolled and are attending primary school.

Marco, a blogger from Tarija, recalls portraying young Juancito in a school play. Even though he would have preferred to have assumed the role of more well-known heroes like Eduardo Avaroa or Ladislao Cabrera, he sees the new government policy as something that can improve the lives of children in Bolivia. He writes in his blog Pandemonium [ES] that he understands some of the criticisms, but he thinks this is something positive:

Me ubicaré entre los defensores de la medida. ¿Por qué? Por una sencilla razón. Porque el solo hecho de garantizar, que miles de niños bolivianos vayan al colegio por lo menos hasta quinto básico y ahí además reciban gratis un buen desayuno escolar (al respecto aplaudo la profundización de esta medida implementada por la Prefectura de Tarija) es, no un pequeño avance, sino un paso de titán.No hay que ser un experto en desarrollo humano para comprender que el reducir los niveles de deserción escolar y de desnutrición infantil nos da una esperanza real de un futuro mejor.

I stand with those that defend this measure. Why? For one simple reason because it guarantees that thousands of Bolivian children attend school at least through primary school and also receive a free school breakfast (I also applaud the further efforts of the Tarija Prefecture), which is not just a small accomplishment, but a giant step. One does not need to be an expert in human development to understand that reducing the levels of school dropout and child malnutrition provides us a real hope of a better future.

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Russia: Lenin's Mausoleum 

a small portrait of this author Veronica Khokhlova · 18:40


Lenin's Tomb, Moscow, USSR, 1985 - by JoeBlogger

Three months before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the legendary “sound-manipulator” Sergei Kuryokhin proved quite convincingly (albeit facetiously) that Vladimir Lenin had been a mushroom and a radio wave.

Kuryokhin died on July 9, 1996, at the age of 42. His widow explained what had inspired him to expose “the leader of the world proletariat” the way he did (RUS, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Aug. 18, 2005):

[…] Sergei [Kuryokhin] once saw a program on [Sergei Yesenin]'s death. The author of the program was supporting his claim that the poet had been assassinated with some absolutely absurd things. They were showing photos from Yesenin's funeral and saying this: “Look where this man is looking, and this one is looking in the opposite direction, and this means that Yesenin was murdered…” Sergei watched the show and told me: “This way, you can prove just about anything.” […]

On Nov. 7, 2006, eighty-nine years since the 1917 Lenin/mushroom-led revolution, which resulted in the birth of the Soviet Union, LJ user valkorn posted links to the 32-minute video of Kuryokhin's famous prank (RUS, here and here), originally broadcast on May 17, 1991, on the Pyatoye Koleso (”The Fifth Wheel”) TV show, in the city whose name would change from Leningrad to St. Petersburg on Sept. 6, 1991.

Like Leningrad, cities and streets have been renamed, some of the Soviet history got erased, but Lenin still lies in his Mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square, in relative obscurity most of the time. Recently, however, a little bit of a spotlight fell on him due to the renovations about to take place in his abode.

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China: Touchy topics 

a small portrait of this author John Kennedy · 17:16

BBS forums used to be the venue of choice to make oneself seen and heard in the Chinese blogsphere, until blogs came along and most of the biggest and best BBS names took their reputations and readers and set up their own spaces. While BBSes, some in blog+BBS hybrid form, are still running strong, though not as wild as in their heyday, they still do offer a quantity that blogs do not. Anonymity with a guaranteed profile probably remains the biggest draw, and many stories are broken there that can't be seen in mainstream Chinese media.

But it's not all for free. Of the thousands of posts coming into the bigger sites—most self-censoring just enough to keep themselves open but not so much as to bore readers—each day, undoubtedly many posts disappear with no-one the wiser. At KDNet, however, one of the biggest of the big, one strategy which seems to be working for them is to keep the offending post, but keep it on lockdown, available to read but closed to comments. Not blocked yet in some way not safe, what do these kinds of posts imply? A sensitive topic edge of mentionability? Fittingly, KDNet's locked links appear grey instead of the usual black. Here are those found posted Wednesday night, Beijing time:

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The Moroccan beauty shines in France while more Moroccan bloggers “call it quit”! 

a small portrait of this author Farah Kinani · 07:37

It's alarming. More and more Moroccan bloggers are taking vacation from blogging! And while A Moroccan haute couture stylist displays proudly his identity by transforming a Caftan into an elegant Moroccan flag, other Moroccans questioned their belonging to a country they say is harassing their religious belief.

The patriotic Caftan

Label Ash posted(Fr) about Albert Ouaknine(Fr), The Moroccan Haute Couture stylist who made sensation in the mystical Caroussel du louvre by presenting a Moroccan collection of caftans representing the multicultural Moroccan identity.

Mohamed El Kortbi was touched by the lesson of tolerance(Fr) in Oiknine's show.

Thou shall not fast or pray or wear the veil!

Many bloggers opt for sensationalist titles, omitting to consider that some of their blog’s visitors would not be up to reading any further than the title. The result is that they end up having a wrong idea about a critical situation. That is what happened to many bloggers when they have run into this title “After the veil, Ramadan and the prayers are under fire in Morocco” (Ar).
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Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome 

a small portrait of this author Salam Adil · 07:33

Crimson rain,vermillion mane
And few people walking, few people sane
From Carmine and Cardinal to Persian Red
To Falu to Gules to just a Red, plain!

From Scarlett of screens and the Five of Maroon
Alluding all voices and blurring your noon
You wonder and ponder then what to do
It goes on and goes on then red comes your moon!

There in the menu, Rouge comes some Wine
Harvesting little heads a drink that is fine
Hue from Sangria to justly Cerise
I serve you Grails then your soul is mine!

From brighter to darker, Red shades of blood
Of Rosso Corsa to the roads they all flood
So speedy, so fierce of Fire Engine flames
To a crash in red, and ends in a thud!

In brighter or darker, all shades of Red
Could come your joy or what you dread!

Shades of Red by Pumpkin Nibbler

As far as politics is concerned, it seems as if three years have been crammed into a single week. The week in politics follows how Iraqi bloggers have responded to the seismic shifts. For a change, only happy stories in the words from the street and if you read to the end find out what really goes on in the mind of an undergraduate university student.

If you read no other blogs this week read these: (more…)

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Voices from Zimbabwe 

This author has no photo Zimpundit · 05:54

It has been a busy two weeks in Zimbabwe.

The major headline out of Zimbabwe over the last two weeks was the submission to President Mugabe of a vision document drawn up by Zimbabwe's churchleaders titled “The Zimbabwe We Want: Towards A National Vision for Zimbabwe“. Kubatana Blogs has a round up of the different responses to the document.

For his part, Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC responded thus to the document,

We believe the latest initiative from the Church, like previous efforts by both local and international political players to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis, shall lead us to a cul-de-sac as long as Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF remain stuck in a state of denial. The absence of a political will to attend to our bleeding nation has become the single biggest obstacle to progress.

A national consensus and a national vision shall remain elusive for as long as the dictatorship defines, in its own terms, what constitutes people’s freedoms, people’s choices and a people’s way of life.

We believe it is important for our nation to heal its wounds and re-build for the future, recognising that what binds us is far greater than what divides us, celebrating our diversity and differences as individuals and as communities, and with a common resolve to institute safeguards to ensure that never again will our dignity be undermined by any one person or political party.

While the church effort is a well intentioned and a noble attempt to reaffirm what the rest of the country has been aware of for the past 26 years, a speedy breakthrough to this national crisis hinges on the behaviour of Mugabe and Zanu PF. The urgency of the matter cannot be over-emphasized. We believe Mugabe and Zanu PF must embrace the reality and allow the nation to express itself out of the crisis.

The crisis is essentially political; we need to work together and create an enabling political environment for a national vision to be realized. We are ready to make an unconditional contribution through open and principled dialogue towards a new Zimbabwe in the national interest.

In our national executive meeting we noted that Zimbabwe needs a stable political environment to allow for a new Constitution; open the way for a free and fair election; and enable us to embark on a reconstruction agenda, national healing and a stabilization programme.

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