Archive for
November 28th, 2006
Stories
Text Theft in Caracas
On November 17 Venezuelan architect and blogger, Guillermo Amador, jotted down a post titled “Traffic and Civilization” in which he criticized the Chief of Transit in Chacao [a neighborhood of Caracas] for claiming that the capital city's ever-worsening traffic problem had no solution. “Just because he doesn't know how to resolve the problem,” writes Amador, “doesn't mean that there is no solution.”
The rest of the post is precisely that: a four point plan to lessen vehicular congestion in the city. Ten days later Luis Carlos Diaz left a comment [ES] on the post informing its author that the text had been borrowed without attribution by the newspaper El Diario de Caracas. Amador responded with this post:
Lebanon: Minister Pierre Gemayel Assassinated
Lebanon witnessed this week the brutal assassination of its minister of industry and trade. This terrorist act overshadowed all other events and topics in the Lebanese blogosphere. Nevertheless, the posts were as varied and different as the political inclinations of the Lebanese themselves. Here is a sample of what they had to say:
Blogging Beirut and Liliane posted some pictures from the scene of the crime and from the demonstration and funeral that followed.
Lazarus comments:
It is telling when a group of warlords point fingers and claim righteousness when a young man is brutally killed. what is more disturbing however is the Machiavellian “intellectuals” who expect that riding the tailcoats of warlords to a sovereign and independent Lebanon is the way to go. They see a goal (which most us do share) and sincerely believe their path is the “smart one”, yet I wonder if they realize that they have been walking on a treadmill for the past two years.
Abu Kais saw that:
The battle for Lebanon right now centers on the tribunal that will bring the killers of Hariri and others to justice. The court’s local and foreign opponents are stopping at nothing to block its formation, including assassinating members of the cabinet that will approve the plan.
Ethiopia's bloggers disappear again
The bulk of Ethiopia's bloggers disappeared from Ethiopian computer screens for the second time in seven months this week.
All sites hosted by the popular Blogspot platform stalled when internet users tried to log on to them through their Ethiopian Telecom Corp dial-up connections.
The small stable of anti-government blogs hosted on the Nazret.com platform - including Urael and EthioBlog - also remained inaccessible (they have been unreadable inside Ethiopia since May).
Some of the bloggers themselves were quick to point the finger of blame:
This attempt by the government to completely censor all information in and out of Ethiopia is a desperate effort to keep citizens ignorant and unaware
wrote Ethiopian Politics in ETHIOPIAN GOVERNMENT BLOCKS BLOGS AGAIN!!
It can hardly come as a shock that the likes of Seminawork have been blocked again in Ethiopia. What is frustrating is that journalists will mitigate the block because authorities here will lie about it when asked. Memo to hacks: They're blocked. Period. It's not “mysterious”
Haiti: Impunity, President Preval and Farah Dessources
On November 15, Farah Dessources, a 20 year old first year University student was kidnapped and killed despite the payment of part of the ransom by her mother. Saturday during her funeral, a demonstration took place in Port-au-Prince, demanding that the Preval government do more to stamp out insecurity. There are very few Haitian bloggers but one seemed particularly moved by the issue, blaming the government for it. Haitians debated the issue on the many Haitian online communities and message boards.
In one post, blogger JoJo at France-based Collectif Haiti de Provence deplored (Fr) that the President and Prime Minister made more of an appearance at the Haitiano-Dominican Friendship games taking place during the weekend than at the Farah Dessources funeral and thought it symbolic of their lack of interest in solving the security issue. In another, he wrote (Fr):
La liste de ceux qui devraient comparaître devant une cour de justice est si longue qu’il faudrait plusieurs années pour un jugement équitable. Peut il exister une justice équitable contre un système qui cautionne, protège et tire profit de la douleur et la détresse des autres.
Monsieur Le président de la République, Monsieur Le chef de la MINUSTAH, Monsieur le premier ministre, Monsieur le Directeur de la PNH, messieurs les ministres, Messieurs les sénateurs, Messieurs les députés, messieurs les fonctionnaires du gouvernement. Votre indifférence n’a d’égale que votre turpitude et n’est que le reflet de votre incapacité à diriger une nation.
Links for Tue, 2006-11
Zhao mu blogs about a suicide note by Li Min-sheng in Shandong who hanged himself to death because of government's demolition project. The official response to Li's suicide was: people die everywhere because of demolition… (zh)
China Media project follows up the report and debate on blogger real name registration. The chairman of the Internet Society of China claimed that backstage real name registration is a limited real-name registration.
ESWN translates some netizens' comments on the CCTV series “Rise of Nations”.
ESWN translates some netizens' comments on the CCTV series “Rise of Nations”.
Tom Terry, Managing Director of Eagle TV in Mongolia, has a long, information-rich post on what appears to have been a fake hijacking by government agencies of a plane in Mongolia.
Debito blogs about a school ad: “E R English School needs a native speaker. Blonde hair
blue or green eyes and brightly character.“
At Registan.net Joshua Foust comments on the World Bank's new report on opium eradication in Afghanistan, saying that something new must be tried because the current approach is a failure.
Guyana-Gyal reacts strongly to a newspaper headline stating that the Guyanese Education Ministry backs corporal punishment: “I ain’t anti-discipline. I just am anti-beating a child. I wonder why we can't seek alternative ways to discipline. But the truth is, we so beaten, we don’t even know how to think creatively anymore.”
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