Archive for
December 19th, 2006
Stories
Delhi Summit Reflections: We ARE the People of the Year.
As global voices editors, authors, community members, and allies convened our second annual summit in Delhi this weekend, TIME magazine dedicated its “person of the year” to YOU: people around the world who are taking media creation into their own hands.
(Photo by Jace. Click to enlarge.)
The TIME article praises the individual “for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game,” etc. The article concludes: “This is an opportunity to build a new kind of international understanding, not politician to politician, great man to great man, but citizen to citizen, person to person.”
That, in a nutshell, is exactly what Global Voices is all about.
The problem is that the “new kind of international understanding” that TIME describes, a world of true “citizen to citizen” communication, remains a still-distant dream. The reality is that Web2.0 - and the potential for empowerment that it represents - remains largely inaccessible to large numbers of people on the planet, and is not being accessed by many more, for many reasons.
(Photo by Georgia. Click to enlarge.)
How do we help more people become creators of their own media? What kind of outreach can Web 2.0-savvy citizens provide to the still-uninitiated? How do we bridge massive and endless barriers of language and culture? Are the technical tools accessible enough to the next billion Internet users, or are we in need of new solutions better suited to the developing world? And how about people who are being prevented from speaking - or being heard - by governments, corporations, and other powerful entities? These were exactly the questions we tackled during our public meeting on Saturday.
The World Championship of Brazilian 2.0 Football
Brazilians still have fresh memories of the defeat of the national team in the last World Cup in Germany, when the group of international shining stars was unable to show the needed will to win on the field. As a result, Porto Alegre's Internacional triumph in the Club World Cup this weekend in Tokyo comes as a meaningful Christmas gift earning for Brazil the unofficial title of having the top global football team. The victory has brought back the pride of being the best in the world. But the special fact of this being achieved by a group of lesser known Brazilians who play in the country, as well as conquering the Barcelona favorite ( Ronaldinho's team) in the final game generated interesting reactions in the blogosphere. Could we say that Brazilians are discovering a more efficient way to play the game?
No final, quem esperava qualquer espetáculo por parte dos espanhóis acabou se frustrando com a eficiência dos brasileiros na contenção de jogadas. Na frente, o Inter viu suas duas grandes apostas - o capitão Fernandão e o novato Alexandre Pato - com atuações tímidas, diminuindo seu poder ofensivo. No final, porém, foi o reserva de Fernandão quem roubou a cena. “Depois de uma bola importante do Iarley no contra-ataque, fiz o gol do título. Todo mundo lutou para conquistar este título para a torcida. Fazer parte de um grupo desses é excelente. Eu estava no banco, mas tentei ajudar meus companheiros”, disse Adriano.
Inter derruba Barça com gol de reserva e é campeão mundial - Blog do Rodrigo Oliveira
Inter derruba Barça com gol de reserva e é campeão mundial - Blog do Rodrigo Oliveira
To hell you f***ing murderer…to hell…go and meet your other chums who are burning in hell now!!!!
(or Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome)
These were the words of, normally, mild-mannered blogger Marshmallow26 to the news that her uncle's neighborhood had been blown to pieces by a suicide bomber who had aimed his load at one of the houses but in his hurry killed no one but himself. And she describes the scene:
Lebanon: Hassan Nassrallah
The secretary general of Hezbollah S H Nassrallah and his speech that was directed to the demonstrators partaking in the sit-in protest in Beirut was the subject of many posts in the Lebanese blogs this week. And as usual, the opinions are as diverse as the political point of views of the writers. The selections here are from the diverse spectrum of opinions. They are stated at random with no particular order or grouping.
Let us start with Perpetual Refugee who returned after a long break with a post about a conversation with a gay friend and supporter of Nassrallah and Perpetual Refugee’s unsuccessful attempt to convince him of his mistake:
This was what freaked me out. An educated man. My friend. Openly gay (except to his mother). Supporting Nasrallah. All because they belong to the same ‘sect’. Nothing else.
He seemed to have forgotten that his fundamental rights as a gay man. A gay Lebanese man. His rights were also being besieged by the demonstrations. The very rights that were struggling to flourish into something real. Starting with the most basic of rights. The right to live. As oneself.
Savonaroll at Remarkz uses wit, sarcasm, and ridicule, to criticize the faults in PM Sanyoura’s reply to Nassarallah’s address to the protestors.
(more…)
Links for Tue, 2006-12
Trinidad and Tobago's Minister of National Security has predicted that the 2006 murder rate will not surpass last year's: Manicou shares his thoughts on such daring forecasts.
The Bermuda Football Association's decision to have the Government sponsor a well-loved annual tournament, has apparently gone hand in hand with renaming it in honour of the island's Premier - a purely egotistical move, according to Christian S. Dunleavy at Politics.bm.
On being nominated Time Magazine's Person of the Year, Arubagirl writes: “Blogging isn't going to replace mainstream media anytime soon. What it is doing right now, and that is hugely important, is keeping it honest. In check. Technology has caused great, great evil in the world. But this? Computers / Internet / blogging? Is a good thing.”
Declan Butler reports on the death verdict in the Tripoli Six case: “By now, I am sure you all will have heard the grim news from Libya. I’ve written a short factual account here: Medics sentenced to death in Libya. I’ll blog more later, after taking stock. The six health professionals have 60 days to appeal to the Supreme Court — their ultimate chance to obtain justice.”
Carpetblogger marks Leonid Brezhnev's 100th birthday with a Brezhnev joke: “Stalin, Krushchev and Brezhnev were riding on a train. The train comes to a halt in the middle of nowhere. Stalin yells out: ‘kill the engineer!' Khrushchev calls out: ‘rehabilitate the engineer!' Brezhnev says: ‘pull down the window shades and pretend we're still moving!'”
Eid Ul-Adha is just around the corner and will be coinciding with the end of the year this time around. This Eid marks the end of the Hajj (pilgrimage) each year to Mecca and is known as the feast of sacrifice. Muslims who can afford it buy and slaughter animals and distribute the meat among the poor and relatives. However, many Muslims in Western countries are unable to perform the ritual because of the laws of the countries they live in. To solve this issue, MMM says that they can scarify animals online.
The Turkish Invasion posts a few Soviet New Year's greeting cards and writes about and posts pictures of a weird rally that took place in Moscow: “Now here is how the Moscowites rehearse their record breaking attempt by converging the most amount of Santa Clauses in a a single city […] (Boring detail: Actually, they are commemorating the battle of Moscow (…but being dressed as Santa Claus and the Snowqueens is a bit weird))”
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