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Ecuador: The President Pushes Free Software

Eduardo Avila · 23:35

The use of YouTube to disseminate messages has now reached the presidential palace in Ecuador. Last month, President Rafael Correa spoke about the use of free software and its benefits for his country. The video was featured on the channel used exclusively for videos coming from the Communications General Secretary of the Presidency of Ecuador.

Transcript of address:

Queridos amigos. Les saluda Rafael Correa, presidente de la República del Ecuador. Ustedes saben que es la hora de la integración de América Latina en todos los aspectos, entre ellos el aspecto tecnológico y el uso de tecnologías informáticas.

Por eso es necesario que todos adoptemos, tanto a nivel público cuanto a nivel privado, el software libre. De esa manera garantizaremos la soberanía de nuestros estados, dependeremos de nuestras propias fuerzas, no de fuerzas externas a la región. Seremos productores de tecnología, no simples consumidores. Seremos dueños de los códigos fuentes y podemos desarrollar muchos productos que, incluso, con una adecuada articulación de nuestros esfuerzos, puede ser de suma utilidad para las empresas públicas y privadas de la región.

Por eso, todos a utilizar software libre. El Gobierno ecuatoriano ya lo estableció como una política de Gobierno y de Estado. Esto será un importante paso para la integración y, por qué no decirlo, para la liberación de América Latina.

Dear friends, the President of the Republic of Ecuador sends you greetings. This is the hour for the integration of Latin America in all of its aspects, including in technology and the use of information technologies.

For that reason, it is necessary that we all adopt, on a public and private level, the use of free software. In that manner, we will guarantee the sovereignty of our states. We will depend on our own efforts, and not on the external forces on the region. We will be producers of technology, and not simple consumers. We will be the owners of the source codes, and we can develop many products that can, with cooperation of this effort, can be very useful to public and private companies in the region.

For that, everyone must use free software. The Ecuadoran government has already established this as a governmental and state policy. This will be an important step in the integration and, why not say, for the liberation of Latin America.

Naturally, many bloggers were quite impressed with the use of this technology. Ecuador's own Christian Espinoza, who writes a technology-focused blog called Cobertura Digital [ES] and was one of the first to draw attention to this phenomenon. In fact, his coverage of Correa's message drew some interest from the Video Blog Telúrica.

Additional applause came from Chilean bloggers, such as Fayer Wayer [ES] had this to say about the new videos.

También me parece que sí es la labor de un Presidente definir las políticas públicas, y anunciar que el Gobierno abandonará tecnologías propietarias y apoyará tecnologías abiertas, tal como lo ha hecho Noruega. El sector privado puede hacer lo que quiera, pero si el Gobierno apoya y utiliza software libre, está dando el ejemplo y certificando que la alternativa funciona.

Un gran paso para Ecuador, y esperemos que sigan avanzando, mejorando la integración de su población a las tecnologías de la información, ya que actualmente tienen uno de los precios más elevados de conexión a internet en América Latina.

I also think that this is the role of a president to define public policy, and announce that the government will no longer use licensed technologies and will support open technologies, such as what Norway has done. The private sector can do what it wants, but if the government supports and uses free software, then it is providing an example and assuring that the alternative really works.

It is a big step for Ecuador, and we hope that they continue to progress, improving and integrating information technologies for their population, since they currently have one of the highest prices in Latin America for internet connections.

Then, from Guatemala, the blog Dumitraqui [ES] wrote:

No discuto la posición política de el Presidente Corea si es buena o mala sencillamente no la conozco, pero me parece genial invitación que hace a pasarse al OpenSource, y usar las nuevas tecnologías a nuestro alcance. Es importante mencionar que El Presidente Corea posee su propio canal en YouTube para difundir vídeos de comunicados presidenciales. Es un buen ejemplo del uso de la tecnología. Haber que otro presidente sigue los pasos o copia la idea. ¿será GBush, LdaSilva, FCalderon, UChavez OBerger?

I am not going to discuss the political positions of President Correa, and whether they are good or bad, because simply I do not know. However, his invitation to use OpenSource software and the new technologies is great. It is important to note that President Correa has his own YouTube channel to distribute videos of his presidential messages. This is a great example of the use of technology. Let's see which other president follows his steps or copies the idea. Could it be (George) Bush, (Lula) daSilva, (Felipe) Calderon, (Hugo) Chavez or (Oscar) Berger?

And from neighboring Colombia, The Pirated Network [ES]:

En muchas otras cosas, no me gusta mucho la forma de Gobierno de Rafael Correa, pero esta iniciativa es de las mejores que he visto en un lider Latinoamericano, ¿¿¿Será que alguna vez en la vida algún lider Colombiano se le ocurrirá alguna idea como ésta???

In many other things, I do not like Rafael Correa's government, but this is one of the best things that I have ever seen from a Latin American leader. I wonder if a Colombian leader has ever thought of something like this.

One comment on the Fayer Wayer site, noted the following:

Notable el canal de youtube de la presidencia de Ecuador, sin embargo el sitio de la presidencia de ecuador es windows (notar el .asp)

The Ecuadoran president's YouTube channel is noteworthy, however, the Presidency's Website uses Windows (note the .asp).

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Arabeyes: Breast-Feeding Dilemma

Amira Al Hussaini · 14:19

Imagine having to breast feed your colleague at work - five times - to ensure that your relationship remains professional! This is the fatwa (religious edict) that had Arab and Muslim bloggers buzzing with excitement and anger this week.

According to news reports quoting the Associated Press:

Ezzat Attiya had issued a fatwa, or religious edict, saying adult men could breast-feed from female work colleagues as a way to avoid breaking Islamic rules that forbid men and women from being alone together.

In Islamic tradition, breast-feeding establishes a degree of maternal relation, even if a woman nurses a child who is not biologically hers. It means the child could not marry the nursing woman's biological children.

Attiya - the head of Al-Azhar's Department of Hadith, or teachings of the Prophet Muhammad - insisted the same would apply with adults. He argued that if a man nursed from a co-worker, it would establish a family bond between them and allow the two to work side-by-side without raising suspicion of an illicit sexual relation.

And since such an idea amounts to sexual harassment - forget the giggles and ridicule, AP reports that Al Azhar University was quick to revoke the ruling.

Al-Azhar University, one of Sunni Islam's most prestigious institutions, ordered one of its clerics Monday to face a disciplinary panel after he issued a controversial decree allowing adults to breast-feed.

Jokingly, Tunisian blogger Leilouta suggests that the edict would help create team building activities in the workplace.

For Naseem Al Tarawnah from Jordan discussions about the fatwa caused his “hairline to recede half an inch.”

I’ve had a run in with at least 3 debates on TV this week causing my hairline to recede half an inch. People literally wasting their time on a round table debate about this topic. Even so much as debating this issue, giving it an ounce of credibility, is like arguing with a drunk.

My generation is suffering from fatwa withdrawal. We either accept such idiotic “laws” as Islamic and thus swing to the farthest depths of the right or we are so disgusted by them that we become unattracted to religion and reject it forthright. I don’t deny that there are outer forces at work with an anti-Islamic agenda but the forces within are more troubling.

There was a time when Islamic universities accepted only the brightest people and even then they were doctors, chemists and poets; pushing their respective fields along within Islamic thought. Instead, we have this now. Maybe there will come a time when a student requires a 95% average to even be considered for Islamic scholarship. It would be a giant leap from the current prerequisite of just being literate (barely) but I think it could happen.

Palestinian blogger Amal A found the idea hilarious.

See these guys at Al Azhar University may seem like they have too much time on their hands, but in fact they are not sitting around twiddling their thumbs; they are working hard on coming up with Fatwas to help Muslims deal with some of the challenges facing them in these challenging times.

So the latest Azhar fatwa, ingeniously thought of by the head of the Hadith section at the university who argues it's based on a Prophet's strong Hadith (sayings), is trying to solve the problem that in this darn age men and women are spending time alone together at work when that is forbidden. The solution? Easy! The problem can be easily solved by having the woman nurse her colleague. Yep. Nurse him as in put her breast in his mouth. This way they become related through nursing and as such can be alone together without breaking any moral or religious codes. But they need to keep accurate records of who nursed whom so things don't get mixed up. Once a man is nursed by a woman, she can take off her veil in front of him because now he's “forbidden” to her.

From Bahrain, Mahmood Al Yousif jumps on the bandwagon, saying the fatwa was an insult to Islam.

What the right dishonourable twat issued his fatwa that should a woman share an office with a male colleague, which is haram (verboten, forgetaboutit, nowayjosé, gostraighttohellanddonotpassgo), as unmarried males and females should not mix, she must be accompanied with a chaperon, or she should breast feed that adult male five times in order for their unchaperoned existence together be Islamically lawful, halal!

How about that for flexibility? Who said that Islam was a rigid religion?

Now. I would not be surprised that men all over the Muslim world standing erect while a queue of women pass by, boobs hanging out and breast feeding the line in order to protect their rights and allow them to live in a halal environment with men.

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Darfur: The Reality, the Agenda & the Proposed Solution

SudaneseDrima · 14:18

Darfur, in the minds of different people, constitutes and means different things. This is due to the fact that we, the general public around the world are getting exposed to a tirade of conflicting views and information. As that continues, so will our polarization. Therefore, the long and seemingly endless debates will keep stretching and as that happens, innocent lives will continue perishing.

There is hence a need to bring diverging opinions closer together by assessing and analyzing the views on both sides and presenting the results in a non-politicized context as best as possible. This is extremely important if we truly want to appease the situation.

Darfur in the Minds of Westerners

If you ask any person in America or the West who’s heard about the Darfur conflict what they know about it, they’ll most probably tell you, “it’s a genocide being waged by Arabs against Africans” and that “the United States and the UN must intervene to protect innocent lives”. That’s about all they know. Why is that?

When it comes to awareness, the massive majority of Americans are only listening to one main organization. The Save Darfur Coalition. It’s their story and narrative that the American people pay most attention to, a story, which doesn’t focus on important root causes such as water shortage and desertification. It’s a story that has made the conflict seem primarily racial in nature when it’s really not. Furthermore, it’s a story that doesn’t accurately portray the true situation and that some say has become politicized.

The Save Darfur Coalition is oversimplifying the Darfur conflict. That doesn’t help because when people don’t understand how complex things are, the solutions applied have a much higher possibility of exacerbating the situation rather than appeasing it.

Sleepless in Sudan, shares a similar view in a blog entry dated back 2 years ago when she was an aid worker in Darfur:

Find out more. The conflict in Darfur may be complex and the context somewhat daunting, but it’s hard to help when you’re ignorant about the issues involved. It’s going to be a lot easier for you to help the people of Darfur if you try to understand the situation and use your knowledge to take certain actions

…No matter how good your intentions, uninformed opinions or arguments will not take you very far.

Understanding the situation is indeed crucial.

Darfur in the Minds of Muslims and Arabs

For most Muslims and Arabs who have heard about Darfur, the conflict is one, which has been over exaggerated by Zionists in an attempt to use it as a pretext for invading Sudan and getting to the wealth of natural resources it possesses. These include oil and uranium. As a result many Muslims and Arabs simply downplay the seriousness of the violence. Others completely deny it even exists. Why is that?

The Khartoum government and their supporters successfully managed to deflect people’s attention away from the reality. They did that by playing “the Israel Card”. In the Arab and Muslim worlds, pointing the finger at Zionists tends to work extremely well.

The True Reality of Darfur

Arabs Vs Africans?

The portrayal of the Darfur conflict primarily as “a genocide waged by Arabs against Africans” is an inaccurate oversimplification. This article will provide you with an idea of what Darfur is really about and the complexity of its state of affairs. It doesn’t stop there though. There’s more and the following stresses it further:

Ahmed Mohamed Haroun is one of the two named by the ICC as suspected war criminals involved in Darfur. This is a picture of him.

Does he look Arab to you?

The Khartoum government is not waging war in Darfur because it’s primarily interested in wiping out certain ethnic African populations. All the Khartoum government mainly cares about is fighting the rebellion and maintaining its solid grip on power in the country. It’s primarily an issue of wealth and power sharing. Only after that do ethnic and tribal factors come into play. The recently settled eastern conflict in Sudan further proves this point. The Khartoum government has marginalized the inhabitants of eastern Sudan just like it has done to Darfur (and Southern Sudan) even though the tribes in eastern Sudan consist of ethnic Afro-Arabs and ethnic Arabs who crossed the Red Sea from the Arabian Peninsula about a century ago.

The recent discovery of oil in Darfur is also a factor. Part 4 of Inside Sudan, by VBS sheds more light on this.

The Scale of Violence

In today’s Internet Age, hiding the death and destruction occurring in Sudan’s western region simply isn’t going to work. There are thousands of videos and pictures available online for anyone to see. Moreover accessing Google Earth and zooming into Darfur via satellite, reveals extra surprises. People can disagree about statistics and numbers but there is no question as to how bad and horrific the situation in Darfur is.

Downplaying the mass violence and pretending it doesn’t exist is morally wrong. It indicates a lack of respect for Sudanese lives. Furthermore, pointing the finger solely at the Zionists and retreating back into a state of denial doesn’t help ease the suffering of millions of women and children struggling in Darfur and in refugee camps.

The Agenda Behind Darfur: The Enablers & Turabi’s Role

The Agenda

It would be very naïve to think that there’s no agenda behind what’s happening in Darfur. One does exist.

We always witness talk in the mainstream media about China and how it’s “the enabler of genocide”. It’s a good thing that China is being put under scrutiny for its enabling role in this conflict but… what about the rebels? Who are their enablers? From where are they getting their financing? Which parties are providing it to them and why?

How can the rebels afford their ongoing war against al-Bashir’s NCP dominated Khartoum government? How can they afford their travel expenses in and out of European countries?

Certain groups are providing them with the financial means to do so. The question is who? Moreover and more importantly what is the agenda of those financiers? They certainly have one. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be financing Darfur’s rebels in the first place. In politics, nothing comes for free.

It’s known that Chad allegedly provides the rebels support. It’s also known that wealthy Darfurian businessmen overseas outside Sudan provide support too. What isn’t well known and focused on in the Western mainstream media however is the agenda of regime change some powerful groups have in mind. The influential right-wing organization Project for the New American Century, for example has the following published on their website:

Now it's time for the threats to end and the consequences to begin. After all, in addition to the humanitarian imperative, the United States has a strategic interest in Sudan. Khartoum is one of seven regimes on the U.S. government's list of state sponsors of terrorism, and Sudan's dictatorship has had ties with almost every significant terrorist organization in the broader Middle East. Al Qaeda was based in Sudan during the 1990s, and other terrorist groups continue to operate there freely. This month Die Welt reported that Syria and Sudan have been collaborating in developing chemical weapons and may have used them against civilians in Darfur. Thus, in moving against Khartoum for its human rights abuses, we will also be striking a blow in the war on terrorism.

Al-Bashir’s worries are not baseless. The United States and Israel did after all support the Southern Sudanese militarily and financially against the Northerners during the long and bloody Southern- Northern Sudanese civil war which raged on for more than 2 decades.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise. It was in their interests to destabalize a hostile regime.

Are Darfurian rebels receiving support from the United States and Israel directly or indirectly through neighbouring countries like Chad?

Professional journalists and the Western mainstream media should definitely dedicate more time to answering this question.

Turabi’s Role

Many aren’t aware of Turabi’s role in the Darfur conflict. The following are excerpts highlighting his involvement:

Although analysts have emphasized the racial and ethnic aspects of the conflict in Darfur, a long-running political battle between Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir and radical Islamic cleric Hassan al-Turabi may be more relevant.

A charismatic college professor and former speaker of parliament, Turabi has long been one of Bashir's main political rivals and an influential figure in Sudan. He has been fingered as an extremist; before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks Turabi often referred to Osama bin Laden as a hero. More recently, the United Nations and human rights experts have accused Turabi of backing one of Darfur's key rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement, in which some of his top former students are leaders.

Because of his clashes with Bashir, Turabi is usually under house arrest and holds forth in his spacious Khartoum villa for small crowds of followers and journalists. But diplomats say he still mentors rebels seeking to overthrow the government.

Dr Khalil Ibrahim, a protege of Islamist hardliner Dr Hasan al-Turabi. Formed in November 2002, JEM is increasingly recognised as being part and parcel of Dr Turabi's Popular Congress. Time magazine has described JEM as “a fiercely Islamic organisation said to be led by Hassan al-Turabi” and that Turabi's ultimate goal is “the presidential palace in Khartoum and a stridently Islamic Sudan”. [2] Khalil is a long-time associate of Turabi's and served as a state minister in Darfur in the early 1990s before serving as a state cabinet-level advisor in southern Sudan. Ibrahim was a senior member of the Islamist movement's secret military wing.

Proposed Solution

1. A well-informed individual is a more effective and capable individual. Understanding the conflict thoroughly is vital for the achievement of any real long-term peace.

2. Just as al-Bashir’s NCP dominated Khartoum government is playing a war role, so are the rebels. Before any negotiations for a comprehensive and inclusive peace agreement take place, the fighting needs to stop. The enablers on both sides can make that happen (if they're actually interested).

3. Turabi’s involvement needs to be addressed and dealt with.

4. The peace agreement has to be satisfactory to the rebels and the Khartoum government needs to make some concessions that address some of the key rebel demands. Otherwise any agreement will be a meaningless piece of paper.

Darfur’s innocent women and children have suffered for way too long.

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Join the Debate on Darfur 10am (EST) TODAY!

Georgia Popplewell · 13:59

Darfur Reuters

Further to our earlier post, here's a quick update on the Reuters Newsmaker event on Darfur, which takes place in New York starting at 10am EST today. Our Sub-Saharan Africa editor Ndesanjo Macha will be live-blogging the event at his blog, Jikomboe, so you'll be able to follow the proceedings there. Reuters will be tossing to the GV team from time to time for questions and feedback, so please leave any comments you may have either on this post or on Ndesanjo's blog.

In related news, Reuters Alertnet this morning released the results of its poll on the situation of Aid workers in Darfur (full coverage here).

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Bangla Blogs: Breaking Taboos and a Debate

Rezwan · 07:26

lingua → fr · zht · zhs

The Bangla blogging platform Bandh Bhanger Awaaj is buzzing with discussions, debates, memes and literatures. Hundreds of bloggers and thousands of readers are keeping this space lively.

It is generating a lot of interest among the bloggers and readers with its variety of posts. Recently there was a wave of memes and literature serieses by the bloggers. Sadiq has posted a milestone by liveblogging the cooking of a Sting Ray fish. Some other bloggers follow suit in live blogging implementations of other exciting recipes.

And amidst all this, bloggers are bravely using their spaces to vent out their thoughts and questions. An anonymous blogger Yusnikto recently questioned with some logic who wrote ‘Quran’, the religious scripture of the Muslims. He quoted Dr. Ibne Wareq and tried to prove that it is the prayer of Prophet Muhammad towards Allah and not from God.

This had created havoc in the blog as some protested that it had hurt their religious feelings by questioning Quran. However some other bloggers reacted wisely and started to counter the post with logic. Trivuz showed that Yusnikto was wrong as there are clear statements in Quran that Quran was brought to the Muslims through Prophet Muhammad. Dikkhok Dravid supported Yusnikto saying that only a human being can write and in medieval ages verses were created and conveniently named as creation of Gods and Goddesses. Samudrer Uttal Torongo vowed that Quran cannot be written by a man.

Overwhelmed with the sensitivity of Yusnikto's post the moderators of the site reacted by removing the post. But then something extraordinary happened. Many bloggers started protesting the moderation of Yusnikto's post. They said that it is a clear violation of freedom of speech. Although many agreed that the post contained weak logic, they felt that logic should be countered with logic, not with impeding freedom of speech. And the site authority had to bring the post back eventually.

This is something remarkable in the predominantly Muslim society in Bangladesh. No media there would dare to publish this kind of stuff. Self censorship is in the way of freedom of speech in many societies in the world. But on a blog people can write anonymously, and quite often the outcome is a sane debate.

Mahbub Sumon sums up the episode and reminds bloggers of their responsibilities:

প্রত্যেক লেখকেরই রয়েছে লেখার স্বাধীনতা, রয়েছে মত প্রকাশের স্বাধীনতা। তবে সেই স্বাধীনতা মানে এই নয় যে , যা ইচ্ছে লিখে ফেলবো বা বলে ফেলবো। স্বাধীনতারও একটা সীমারেখা আছে। ব্যক্তিগতভাবে আমি মনে করি, ধর্ম এমন কিছু বিষয় না যে এটা নিয়ে আলোচনা করা যাবে না বা প্রশ্ন করা যাবে না। তবে সে আলোচনা অবশ্যই হতে হবে সুন্দর, যুক্তিনির্ভর ও অন্যের অনূভূতীকে আঘাত না করেই।

Every writer has freedom to write, freedom to express his/her opinions. But this freedom does not mean that he/she can write just about anything. Freedom has a boundary. I think personally that religion is not something that cannot be debated or questioned. But that discussion should be nice, logical and without hurting other’s feelings.

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Rising Voices, Helping the Global Population Take Part in the Global Conversation

David Sasaki · 05:58

lingua → pt · es · fr

Thanks to the generous support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Global Voices is now starting a new outreach project, Rising Voices, which aims to spread the benefits of citizen media to regions, languages, and communities that are currently underrepresented on the conversational web.

Rising Voices will serve as the third arm of Global Voices' triad of amplifying independent voices worldwide, advocating for their right to free speech, and providing universal access to citizen media tools as is described in our founding manifesto. To better understand how our focus has evolved from mere aggregation of worldwide blog content to this new pro-active initiative of spreading social media tools to underrepresented populations, it is worth looking back to 2004 when the Global Voices Manifesto was first drafted and at how far we've come since.

In December of 2004 - still before the explosion of weblogs and podcasts that have now become unavoidable parts of our daily lives - Global Voices co-founders Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca MacKinnon invited bloggers from around the world to convene in Cambridge, Massachusetts for the second day of the Berkman Center's Conference on Internet and Society. These blogging pioneers from Malaysia, China, Iraq, and beyond agreed that we were witnessing the dawn of a new era of communication in which individuals around the world were finally able to take advantage of the decentralized web thanks to the availability of self-publishing tools like blogs and podcasts, which radically transformed every computer into its own printing press and radio station.

This post isn't meant to perpetuate the idealism that dominates the rhetoric around citizen media; just the opposite. However, it's still worth looking back over Global Voices' first two years and recalling some of the stories and conversations that exemplify what happens when ordinary citizens are given the power to make their voices heard, to tell their own stories.

In March of 2005, President Askar Akayev’s administration in Kyrgyzstan collapsed under the protest of what soon came to be called the Tulip Revolution. Via the newly buzzing blogosphere, we were presented with accounts, photographs, and analysis in real time as developments unfolded. The same was true a week later in Zimbabwe where Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party extended its control over the country despite widespread allegations of vote rigging. In April 2005, Ory Okolloh gave Global Voices readers their first introduction to Kenya's nascent blogging community which started with a strong foundation of government watchdog blogging that continues today. A month later, it was Ndesanjo Macha's turn to give us our first look at the Swahili-speaking blogosphere, which at the time numbered no more than fifteen.

We were also given immediate reaction when Iranian blogger-favorite Dr. Mostafa Moeen lost in the first round of the 2005 elections and again in August when local bloggers protested newly elected President Ahmadinejad’s cabinet nominees. While Wikipedia became the go-to location for up-to-the-minute information about the July 2005 London bombings, Global Voices offered the initial reactions of Muslim and Arabic-speaking bloggers from the Middle East and North Africa. The debate over the Central American Free Trade Agreement was and continues to be made personal. Not only has Iraq become a nation of importance to us all, but so have individual Iraqis thanks to the dedicated coverage by Salam Adil.

We all debated the gray area between free speech and inciting violence following the publication of the infamous Danish cartoons. Likewise, last year's World Cup in Germany took playful web nationalism to a new level. Nepal's April Revolution of 2006 was a daily part of our information consumption thanks to the tireless citizen reporting of Kathmandu's booming blogosphere.

There is no doubt that the widespread enthusiasm for sharing local stories with global readers which defines Global Voices is a step closer toward a world that favors dialogue and understanding over ignorance and brute force.

But these past two years have also taught us that certain regions of the world and certain demographics within those regions have benefited from the boom in citizen media more than others. Most bloggers and podcasters still tend to be middle or upper-middle class. Most have a college-level education. Most live in large cities. And of the 70 million weblogs now tracked by Technorati, 95% of them are written in just 10 languages. The truth is, what we often call the ‘global conversation,' is a privileged discussion among global elites.

We are currently developing a curriculum of multilingual, how-to learning modules which will assist workshop leaders and citizen media evangelists who want to explain to friends and peers how to start blogging, podcasting, and video-blogging.

We will also soon be announcing the first round of microgrants for innovative project proposals that extend the reach of citizen media to communities that are otherwise unlikely to come into contact with new media tools like blogging and podcasting. Stay tuned for more information about how to apply for a grant and please feel free to write in with any concerns, comments, or suggestions at outreach@globalvoicesonline.org.

More information about the Knight Foundation News Challenge awarded to Global Voices is available at the Berkman Center website.

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D.R. of Congo: Should Christian Revivalist Churches Be Encouraging Political Activism?

Jennifer Brea · 04:43

Continuing an age-old debate–is religion the “opium of the people” or can it be a catalyst for social change?–Congolese blogger Blaise Mantoto at UDPS Liege says the Congo’s Christian revivalist churches, which he cynically refers to as “for-profit spiritual shops,”
encourage political disengagement [Fr]. He calls on revivalist churches to rewrite their missions, arguing they should inspire their followers to improve their social and economic situation through political activism.

UDPS Liege is the Belgium-based branch of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, a major Congolese opposition party and a vocal critic of Joseph Kabila, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Revivalist and charismatic churches have become increasingly popular in the Congo–at the expense of Catholic churches–by offering magical and miraculous solutions to the misery and insecurity Congolese have faced for decades. (These churches have also made news for making money off of the cruel exorcisms of child witches.)

But whether or not these churches encourage apathy, not everyone agrees that religion and politics should mix.
(more…)

5 comments · »»