Global Voices Online » 2007 » October

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Russia: A St. Petersburger in Moscow

Veronica Khokhlova · 21:27

lingua → es

Russian bloggers are, of course, eagerly discussing the upcoming elections and other newsworthy political developments, but there's still plenty of room in the country's blogosphere for apolitical reflection. Below is one example.

Two days ago, during her visit to Moscow, LJ user aneta_spb (St. Petersburg journalist Svetlana Gavrilina) wrote this sketch (RUS) - and filed it from “the-street-named-after-I've-again-forgotten-who” in Kuzminki district of the Russian capital, where she is currently staying:

MOSCOW

The terrible thing they've got is their subway.

I used to have some grasp on this system, but I no longer understand anything. How can stations located side by side belong to different lines, why are the areas around turnstiles completely covered with pieces of paper, and sometimes, in the train cars, old newspapers are scattered around, and in general, when you've finally entered the subway, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're riding somewhere, because first, you have to run through a kilometer of some passes and escalators…

There are dogs walking inside the subway, and crows and doves flying around.

What's convenient here is that everywhere, on every corner, you can buy what you need - a pastry, cigarettes, socks, a t-shirt, lotion, etc. Of course, all this street trade results in total mud and suspicious individuals standing around, but if you just need a shirt, you can't run around the boutiques, right?..

Prices. Just like our own, or, perhaps, one or two rubles lower.

The people. There are many kind and unhappy ones. The girls at cafes are polite.

And - they are giving directions there now. Before, no one knew anything. Perhaps, it's because there are many “ponayekhavshiye” [newcomers, non-Muscovites] there now, who have to know the city well…

Absolutely crazy construction everywhere. As for parking, traffic, crossing the street, they are all kamikaze here, I think.

Many individuals with unmistakably edinorosskiye [United Russia, pro-Putin party] mugs. Yes, it's almost like it's written on their mugs, especially near some government offices.

Khrushchyoby [residential areas where most building were built under Nikita Khrushchev; khrushchyoba rhymes with and is a derivative of trushchyoba, a slum] - (I'm staying in one of them) - [they are just like anywhere else, nothing extraordinary].

I haven't seen a wholesome image of the city so far, but I haven't had too much time, and I was all nervous and sick yesterday, but it hasn't happened today, either.

All in all, there's not much to imitate for our city's imitators. But they do imitate anyway.

Though, there are ideas that could be borrowed - like, a flower bed here and there, flowers.

Below are some comments to this post:

lxe:

I haven't seen a wholesome image of the city so far

There's no such thing. [Moscow is an] archipelago.

aneta_spb:

I don't know, I used to sense it before. Even if it's an archipelago.

avla:

[…] It's a big village […].

aneta_spb:

Yeah. With weird street names. Saw a Komissariatsky Pereulok [Commissariat Lane] yesterday. I mean, we have weird names, too [in St. Petersburg], but mainly [on the outskirts], while Komissariatsky is in the very center [of Moscow]!

(I remember in St. Petersburg-Leningrad, there was Ulitsa Krasnogo Elektrika [Red Electrician Street], and it was always making me laugh, because I, somehow, could very vividly imagine this red electrician…)

vika33:

everywhere, on every corner, you can buy what you need

Aha, Sveta, I've noticed this, too. And there are public bathrooms at every corner. :)

And in the subway - and only there, though not at every station - there's wonderful Mexican fast food. :)

And a great Zoo. :)

So Moscow does have certain advantages. ;)

aneta_spb:

I've got enough of the Zoo in the political reality :-))) […]

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Pakistan: In the wake of the attacks

Omer Alvie · 20:52

lingua → bn · de · mg · zht · zhs

On her return from an eight year self imposed exile, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was welcomed to Karachi with a procession of thousands of her supporters, and two successful suicide bombers. The attack resulted in 136 dead, hundreds more injured and a public that was left in utter shock, obviously due to the nature and scale of the attack.

The initial responses from all Pakistani politicians was the same until the following morning, when the blame for the attack ricocheted in every direction hitting everyone from Musharaf, to the intelligence agencies, to the MQM leader Altaf Hussain, and then finally hitting Al Qaeda and the Taliban (according to Benazir).

Needless to say, the public have their own opinion about who is ultimately responsible.

The Pakistani blogosphere naturally reacted instantly to this horrific terrorist attack. All Things Pakistan presented an appropriate reaction to the event; The Pakistani Spectator concludes that the attack will generate further support for the PPP; and Ali Eteraz describes the scene of the crime and the resulting reaction to the attack.

Tears of the moon, writes an angered response on the political scene in Pakistan,

First of, we all know we are blessed with the most conscientious of leaders… Leaders? Let me rephrase that… We have been blessed with politicians deigned to rule us with all their gracious, sloth like selves encased in gilded cages and bullet proof enclosures. They are for the ‘awam’ while they stand behind hordes of people from the awam to keep them safe from the awam. Oxymoron, is it? But just the term, moron should suffice here!

An interesting point brought up by Dr. Shahid Masood (a political commentator on the ARY channel) was that he was personally informed by Benazir Bhutto that she had sent a letter to Pervez Musharaf, prior to her traveling to Pakistan, listing out the names of three (political) personalities who should be investigated as possible suspects, in case she was killed in an attack upon her arrival to Pakistan. She naturally kept the names confidential. (Just thought I'd throw this in there to stir the pot a bit)

Zindagi holds the mayor Karachi responsible for the lapse of security, while the Glasshouse who held an optimistic view of Benazir's arrival back to Pakistan wrote an addendum to his post (following the attack) highlighting some interesting initial responses to the event.

Senior PPP party members were quick to blame the regime's secret agencies for carrying out these blasts. A successful return for Benazir Bhutto does threaten the Musharraf regime, so these accusations do have a logical basis, particularly when these agencies are known for carrying out such incidents.

Desicritcs presented some intriguing facts about who could be responsible for the attack, as does the Counterterrorism blog. And finally, Beyond the Punchline lays partial blame of the high body count on Benazir herself.

Just to let you all know, I am also returning to Karachi after an 8 month self-exile (work related), sometime in the first week of November. Don't worry, I don't have a welcome procession planned for my arrival.

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Philippines: Deadly Mall Blast Shocks Filipinos

Tonyo Cruz · 17:24

lingua → bn · de

Citizen journalism and citizen punditry is alive in the Philippine blogosphere, and we saw this within minutes of a deadly blast at the popular Glorietta mall in Makati City, the country's financial capital.

As of posting time, eight have been confirmed killed while 120 others were being treated for various types of injuries.

Manuel L. Quezon III rounded up first-hand accounts, initial reactions and updates. Also taking note of furious blogging about the bombing was Blog Addicts. In fact, Inquirer came out with a special site on the incident.

Photos of the crime scene or disaster area taken and posted by Disney Cute Land are now all over the internet, including the frontpage of the country's most popular news website.

Videos courtesy of Gambit01 who was at Glorietta could be viewed here.

My Life was there when it happened:

It was just an ordinary friday afternoon and we were assigned to man the booth at Glorietta. Its actually located beside the Havin a Baby store at Glorietta 1. We were scheduled to man the booth from 10am - 3pm since another group would be manning from 3pm to closing time. Around 12:30pm, Didith ate her lunch and left Jacy and I behind. When she got back after eating, Jacy said she was still too full to eat while I was really planning on eating once I go home.

Around 1:30pm we were saying that we need to give away all of our fliers before the next group comes in. Then I distinctly remember I was seating on the couch facing the Glorietta 2 side when I heard a big boom. Together with the big boom was an earth shattering like earthquake. Then in just a couple of seconds, I saw something fell from the ceiling. It was a big chunk but it looked like it didn't weigh much. Then everybody started running as fast as they could towards our direction

Calls for prayers came out from citizens, including pas_la_truie. Babble On says:

let’s also pray for the long term implications of this event. Remember we have the Human Security Act now in effect in the Philippines. Plus there’s a lot of political chaos going on, with accusations of bribery, impeachments complaints, calls for resignation and large scale corruption charges being hurled everywhere. Political alliances are slowly breaking, and the last thing we need is a “terrorist attack,” if it is one, to splinter the remaining stability we have.

For mallrats and those with fond memories of Glorietta. the incident boggles the mind, says Akomismo:

A bomb hit Glorietta 2 while I was ending my class with Rosal today. For me, G2 was where I used to get my comics (Filbar’s) and the last thing I bought in that area was an R2-D2 Mr. Potato Head I gave to a friend for her birthday. The store where I bought that toy is now gone.

Akomismo also shared that his mom was there and, thankfully, got spared:

Mom was there when it happened. She was packing her stuff in the Gold’s Gym locker room when the bomb hit. For her the sound is unforgettable — just imagine an entire hallway of glass shattering and stone breaking both punctuated by high-pitched wails and unadulterated screams. Dust from the debris found its way to the locker rooms about 150m away from the site of the blast. Thankfully she made it out unharmed and relaxed despite being incredibly afraid. She is proud to discover that she can remain calm awhile everyone else went into a frenzied panic. These are the days I am inclined to believe in a God and His angels; regardless I am thankful.

Tragic, yes, but The Four-eyed Journal is a but suspicious about the bombing and begs answers to some questions:

Why was there no reports or warnings or intelligence alerts that we get to recieve every now and then during the height of the call for the GMA to resign and coup rumors to overthrow her administration?

The government’s intelligence units were so quick to issue warnings of terror alerts or coup attempts or plots to destabilize the government last year. But now that something horrible did happened, why is the government acting too calm and collected, it’s as equally disturbing as the bombing itself?

What happened to all that training and assistance, particularly anti-terror related training, exercises, assistance the AFP got from the US military?

Is this another ploy of the administration to distract the public from the recent wave of scandals that has once more ‘exploded’ into its face? Or is it a signal to all its opponents and critics that this administration would not go down without a fight?

The suspicions have become widespread that The Warrior Lawyer explains:

This may be a case of the tail wagging the dog, as Malacanang operatives are supposedly looking for ways to redirect public attention away from the latest shenanigans involving President Arroyo and her immediate circle. The Makati Business Club has labeled the incident a possible “diversionary tactic”. Sen. Trillanes warns against Arroyo’s setting the stage for a declaration of emergency rule. These reactions were prompted by the obvious question: Who has most to gain in the immediate term by this fomenting an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty?

People are now looking intensely at the investigation and staying vigilant over possible maneuvers by the President to use the incident to justify emergency rule or martial law.

9 comments · »»

Egypt: My Different Feelings Towards Blogging

Gr33nData · 14:55

lingua → pt · de · zht · zhs · jp

You consciously decide to blog about your life and go into personal details. Then you realise that all your relatives and friends have been reading your blog.
Now that you are exposed, are you as free as you thought you were?
Egyptian blogger Mohamed El Tohamy (Aka 2-Hamy) tackles this issue here (Ar) and writes about his new feelings towards blogging.

بعد فترة في التدوين .. عرفت أسهل طريق في نجاح المدونات هو أن تكتب موضوعات السياسية و أرتبطت فكرة السياسية بمعنى كلمة مدونة عن الناس البعيدة عن المجال ..ولكني فضلت أن أدون عني وعن حياتي الشخصية وعن أصدقائي .. ظلت مدونتي نجاحه حتى أصبحت عائلتي و أصدقائي و معارفي تتابع المدونة ..لم أعد أكتب مثل ما قبل ..لم أعد أشعر بحريتي وتمنيت لو كنت شخصية خفية لا احد يعرف من أنا ؟ بدأت أشعر أن كلامي سوف يحسب في يوم من الأيام عليا .. لدى شعور غريب أن شخص غريب سوف يظهر في حياتي ويكون قرأ كل ما كتبت … تخيل شخص يعرف عنك كل شئ وأنت لا تعرف عنه اى شئ
لا أستطيع أن امتنع عن التدوين ولا أستطيع أن أعود إلى الماضي و أن أدون بحرية

After blogging for a while, I realised that the simplest way to have a successful blog is by writing about political subjects. People not familiar with blogging linked politics to blogging. However I preferred to write about my personal life and friends. And my blog became successful until I found out that my family and friends read it. And then I found myself not capable of writing as before. I am not comfortable any more, and wished that I was a hidden person whom no one knew. I started to feel that everything I say will be taken against me. I have a strange feeling that someone I don't know will show up in my life and that one will be reading every post I wrote. Can you imagine that there is someone who knows everything about you, and you know nothing about him/her.
I just cannot stop blogging; I cannot go back in time and I also cannot write as freely as I used to do before.

1 comment · »»

Taiwan: 2007 Taiwan Pride Parade

Leonard Chien · 14:30

lingua → zht · zhs · pt · jp

On October 13th, the fifth Taiwan Pride Parade took place in the eastern district of Taipei. Close to fifteen thousand people joined in this activity. The theme this year is “Rainbow Power.” Participants are divided into seven groups, wearing and holding seven different colors to form a huge rainbow on ground. This is the embodiment of LGBT pride!

(Photo from peellden's flickr)

(Photo from A-Meow's flickr)

這次參加遊行的團體，來自從各角度關懷性別以及人權議題的團體。包括全台灣各大專院校的性別研究學系與相關社團、性別人權協會、台灣人權促進會以及婦女新知等等團體。除此之外，也有著不同性別認同的團體，以及長期關懷愛滋病友人權的關愛之家、愛之抱抱團等團體。

Organizations joining this parade are concerned with gender and human rights issues from various perspectives, including departments and clubs from many universities, Gender/Sexuality Rights Association Taiwan, Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Awakening Foundation[zh], etc. Harmony Home Association Taiwan, which long focuses on HIV/AIDS human rights issues, and Freehugs for HIV/AIDS[zh] are also present.

在這次的遊行團體當中，還可以看到幾位媽媽帶著才幾個月大的孩童參加遊行。她們正是同志家庭權益促進會的成員。同志家庭權益促進會一直為了同志合法結婚以及合法領養的權益而努力。以電子報的方式，發送關於同志結婚以及領養的相關訊息，而現在也在朝向電子報紙本化的方向而努力。今年也與三缺一劇團，合作了〈一百種回家的方法〉的劇碼，以戲劇的方式表達同志組成家庭的困境。

In the parade, several mothers walk with their infants. They are members of Homosexual Family Rights Association[zh]. This advocacy group has been promoting gay marriages and adoption. They issue e-papers about related information and are trying to publish printed edition. This year, the association cooperated with theatrical company “Short One Player” to perform a play named “A Hundred Ways of Going Home[zh],” trying to emphasize difficulties that homosexuals face when having a family.

My mom is a lesbian and she is perfect. (Photo from piglee&awid's Wretch)

One child and two mothers equal to a happy homosexual family. (Photo from peellden's flickr)

Freehugs for HIV/AIDS. (Photo from A-Meow's flickr)

Besides a happy festival, this parade has a serious request. Independent media Coolloud writes[zh]:

今天的遊行提出訂定「反性別歧視法」、「同居伴侶法」等訴求，主要針對LGBT社群在就業、婚姻、求學過程中遭到的歧視與制度上的阻礙；除此之外，國家機關透過社會秩序維護法、刑法235條等惡法，與警察機關利用「釣魚」等方式對「援交」、「性工作者」採取不人道的對待；對於LGBT社群聚集的場所，惡意地掃蕩、破壞社群的生存權利。即將在今年12月9日國際人權日前夕舉辦外勞大遊行的台灣國際勞工協會秘書長吳靜如特別上台，希望今天參與遊行的朋友們，一起來參加外勞的遊行，她說，就因為外勞與性邊緣者，同處弱勢的地位，所以他們在居住權、就業、性自主等，備受壓迫，她希望外勞、同志，所有的弱勢者可以一起走向多彩的社會。

The parade asks Legislative Yuan (the Congress) to pass “No Gender Discrimination Law” and “Cohabitation Law” in order to eliminate discriminations and institutional challenges that LGBT community faces in school, marriage and job market. In addition, the government treats sex workers inhumanely by using Social Order Maintenance Act and Articale 235 of Penal Code. Police sets up traps to arrest sex workers and maliciously sweeps LGBT gathering places. On December 9th this year, Taiwan International Workers Association will hold a migrant workers parade[zh] on the eve of Human Rights Day. Secrectary general of TIWA, Wu Jing-ru calls on everyone to join that parade because sexual minority and international workers are both disadvantaged groups. Both groups are oppressed in terms of housing rights, employment and sexual autonomy. She hopes internaional workers, LGBT and all disadvantaged people can come together towards a diversified society.

“Is transexual wrong? Is transexual wrong? Is transgender wrong? Is transgender wrong?” This beautiful lady chanted “Trangender is not guilty” in the parade and asked national health insurance to cover transgender operations. (Photo from Yang Chih-Hsiang's flickr)

Participants ask the government to draft “No Gender Discrimination Law” and “Cohabitation Law”. (Photo from peellden's flickr)

Ykan, a lesbian, writes down her thoughts after the parade[zh]:

中途看到形形色色的人，有的人真的好勇敢！高喊著：
”同志不是罪，同志沒有錯”
”我是同志，要求平等”
”變性有錯嗎？”
”還我人權”

I see so many different brave people shouting:
“Homosexuals are not guilty! Homosexuals are not wrong!”
“I am gay. I want equality.”
“Is transexual wrong?”
“Give back my rights!”

天后張惠妹的到來掀起了高潮，我不是第一次看到現場的阿妹演出，但我是第一次這麼的喜歡阿妹，因為她對同志的友善，沒有商業，沒有渲染，有的是看到她對同志滿滿的好感和關心，還有付出！

The popular singer A-mei's participation excites so many people. This is not my fist time to see her live show, but this is the first time I like her so much. She is so friendly to homosexuals without any business operations. We all appreciate her contribution and consideration.

看著這麼多人、一萬五千人走上街頭，沿路被很多人拿著照相機，攝影機拍著，沒有畏畏縮縮，只有驕傲！我很慶幸我來了，不然我永遠不會知道當個同志是可以很驕傲的，我們也是跟一般人一樣，我們多麼需要人權。

那一下午到晚上的感動，震撼我心，直到永遠！

15,000 people come up to the street and videotaped by others on the way. They have nothing but pride! I am glad that I am here, otherwise I will never know it can be proud to be a homosexual. Just like others, we need human rights so much.I am moved and touched by this event forever!

For more pictures, you can look at photoalbums of Flickr users Damon Lin and sunnydoll. shafferswows has uploaded several clips of A-mei's performance that night on Youtube.

Originally written in Chinese by GV Chinese team member, FoolFitz

0 comments · »»

Bangladesh: Art, Brick Lane, female writers and Bangla E-Books

Rezwan · 06:37

lingua → de · es

Enough with politics that usually dominate the posts in the Bangladeshi blogosphere. Let's start this week's round-up with some arts, movies and literature related pieces.

Sid of Serious Golmal writes a well informative article on the life of S M Sultan, the master painter of Bangladesh commemorating his 13th death anniversary. Sultan was born in Norail (in Kushtia in the southwest of Bangladesh) in 1923. Born to a mason, he was a natural talent and did not complete his study in the Calcutta College of Arts and Crafts. Later on he created a wave in the West when he visited USA and UK under a cultural exchange program and displayed his paintings. From 1953 to 1976 Sultan lived in virtual obscurity, living the life of a Vaishnava Sanyasi.

Sultan's Adam
(The First Tree Planting: Sultan 1976: courtesy Serious Golmal)

“Sultan’s paintings may be sold at Sotheby’s in London today but for the people of rural Norail, the guru entered folk legend more than half a century ago. They tell us that animals were drawn to him, that he could converse with them, that hundreds of his works are scattered all over the world in all manner of places, given away as gifts, that he cared not for fame or material wealth, choosing to travel from village to village, country to country, returning at last to his source.

He lived in three continents but never had a fixed abode, never attached prices to his work, never married. He wore his hair long, chose to live out his days in rural Bengal with his dogs, cats, rabbits, birds and snakes rather than the big international cities that beckoned when recognition of his genius came early in his life.”

Kotha Chilo (Stories to tell) blog reviews the movie based on Monica Ali's award winning novel Brick Lane. The filming of Brick Lane caught much media attention because of protests of some members of Bangladeshi communities in the UK and the unit had to change location of filming to avoid threats. But Monica Ali maintains that “the ‘controversy' was whipped up in the media”.

“Monica Ali's 2003 novel Brick Lane was feted for its ability to blend the personal and the political as it recounted the experiences of a young Bangladeshi woman's journey of self-discovery. It was illuminating about the hidden lives of Britain's Bangladeshi community and the growing racism abroad in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The respectable film version heavily compresses the novel into a less complex but still touching, small-scale tale of female empowerment that almost feels like a variation of Shirley Valentine.”

Bangla Blogging platform Sachalayatan [bn] boasts of being more of an online writers' community rather than a collection of some conventional blogs. It has been promoting budding as well as established writers to post their literary works there. And adding more to the task it has already published a few literary E-books in Pdf versions and has more collaborative projects [bn] in hand. Now users can read it online or download their copy of the literature free, print it and read it like a conventional book.

The first publications is a collection of poems of Sunil Saifullah, a notable young poet who prematurely ended his life in 1981. Some of his poems were only once published by the students union of his University (Jahangirnagar University) in 1982. But these few books went into oblivion in course of time and now he is barely known to people of Bangladesh. Bloggers of Sachalayatan first discussed about his works, went to the University library to collect a copy of the book and recreate the Book. You can download the book from here [bn].

Some comments [bn] on the feat:

সৌরভ: জয় হোক এ উদ্যোগের। এ চেষ্টার মাধ্যমেই জন্ম জন্মান্তরে সজীব থাকুন আমাদের মাঝে কবি সুনীল সাইফুল্লাহ।

Sourav: Bravo to this initiative. With this work let poet Sunil Saifullah live among us for eternity

সুমন রহমান: বাংলা সাহিত্যে এরকম সারপ্রাইজ আরো কিছু আছে। আমার মনে সচলায়তনের ই-বুক প্রকল্প দিয়ে সেসবের সুরাহা আমরা করতে পারবো।

Suman Rahman: There are more such surprises in the Bangla literature. I think we will be able to sort them out with the Sachalayatan E-Book project.

Another recent Bangla E-Book publication “Fele Asha Chelebela” is a 109 page collection of childhood memoirs of twenty one bloggers which portrays the true picture of the lives of Bangladeshi youths, society, their upbringings etc. Its popularity prompted the bloggers to decide to publish it in future as a printed book with more collections of writings. You can download it from here [bn].

You never know some day these collaborative Bangla E-books with the help of New Media will be able to really change the scenario of literature of the country.

And last but not the least please do read the recent writings of the female bloggers of the Nari Joibon project to know about Bangladesh from their view. Nari Jibon is a not-for-profit organization in Bangladesh who is providing education to poor and under-privileged women making them self reliant through different short term education and skill development programs. It has brought these female voices to Blogging with the help of a Rising Voices micro-grant.

1 comment · »»

Voces Bolivianas: Two Mile High Citizen Media (Part I)

David Sasaki · 03:11

lingua → pt · es

So far we have looked in detail at two of the five Rising Voices citizen media outreach award winners. In July we featured the Nari Jibon center in Bangladesh, which is teaching web 2.0 literacy to young Bangladeshi women in the capital city, Dhaka. In August we moved our sites to Colombia and discovered how bloggers there were taking advantage of the city's impressive new network of libraries to teach participatory media to marginalized youth from the neighborhoods of Santo Domingo and La Loma.

It is now time to focus our sights on El Alto, Bolivia which, at 4150 meters (13,615 feet) above sea level, is one of the highest cities in the world. It is also one of the poorest. Among young Bolivians today, El Alto is best known as the epicenter of the 2003 - 2005 Bolivian Gas War, which intermittently blocked access to the international airport, as well to oil and gas supplies. The movement likely played a role in the election of current president, Evo Morales, who campaigned heavily on his promise to nationalize the country's vast natural gas reserves.

The role of El Alto's activists have, however, given rise to a common stereotype that the mountainside suburb of La Paz is an outpost of communist rabble-rousers and little else. The portrayal of El Alto in both the English and Spanish-language mainstream media is almost always highly politicized.

The goal of Voces Bolivianas is to leave stereotypes behind and offer Alteños a chance to tell their own tales. As the project's About Page explains:

Voces Bolivianas is a participatory citizen’s media project that promotes the use of ICT (Internet and Communication Technologies) to allow Bolivians especially from underrepresented groups to share their stories about their lives and communities, thus deciding how they are represented.

On their Rising Voices project blog, Eduardo Ávila, Hugo Miranda, and Mario Duran have documented how they prepared for their successful outreach endeavour. After finding a suitable internet cafe and passing out flyers at Universidad Publica de El Alto to recruit participants, they got straight to work and held their first hands-on workshop on September 22.

In all, 23 eager participants showed up. You can visit each and every one of their blogs at the Voces Bolivianas El Alto aggregator.

Taking into account that 79% of El Alto's residents are Aymara, the Voces Bolivianas team was intent on finding a translator who was willing to translate select posts from Spanish into Aymara. Their efforts led them to Dora Romero, a full-time student and part-time translator at El Alto's Public University. The result? The first-ever Aymara-language weblog.

In addition to the group aggregator, some of the most interesting posts are also featured on the main page of the Voces Bolivianas site. Those featured posts are then translated into English and Aymara.

In the follow-up to this post we'll take a closer look at some of those featured posts and how Alteños choose to describe their own lives, their own community.

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Japan: Starving in the Land of Plenty

Chris Salzberg · 01:03

lingua → zhs · zht

The recent story of a man starving to death [Ja] as a result of not being able to receive welfare assistance, made famous thanks to his having documented his last days in a diary, sparked many Japanese bloggers to reflect on the broader implications of their country's welfare policy.

Blogger SkyTeam connects the death by starvation to policies of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party:

餓死した患者さんは肝臓病や糖尿病があったということですが、そういう病人さんの布団を剥ぐような真似をするのが「美しい日本」と「抵抗勢力と戦った」自民党政治の結果です。

The patient who starved to death had a liver ailment and diabetes. The imitation of actions like this one, in which a sick person is denied a bed, is a result of the Liberal Democratic Party's “Beautiful Japan” [policy] and [its drive to] “fight opposition forces”.

大半の方には生活保護などまったく関係ないと思われますが、この地区の生活保護世帯の生活保護の認定は厳しいと聞いております。きちんと大手マスコミも報道すべきでしょうが・・・新聞記事にもなりませんね。

It is thought that the majority of people have absolutely no connection with the welfare program, but I've heard that the process for being approved to receive public assistance in this region is extremely harsh. The mass media should properly cover this issue, but… there is nothing in the newspapers about it.

もちろん、生活保護を受けてながら、勝手気ままな生活を送っている方も中には見えます・・・でも、生活の糧を得るための最終手段を奪うのは行き過ぎのようにも思います。

Of course, there are people receiving welfare who live their life as they please… but taking away the last available means for people to receive their subsistence, this is going too far I think.

Blogger Sen, meanwhile, discusses the particularly harsh policy toward welfare assistance enacted by the local government in Kita Kyushu:

生活保護というのは、最後のセーフティネットではなかったのか？北九州市で、生活保護をなかば強制的に辞退させられたかたが、誰にも看取られること無く、亡くなっているのが発見された。

Isn't the welfare system the safety net of last resort? In Kita Kyuushuu, none of the people who were half-forced to withdraw from the welfare [program] were taken care of, and it was discovered that they were dying.

生活保護の申請は、国民、市民なら、誰でも申請できるはずのもの。がしかし、北九州市では、「北九州方式」と呼ばれる、生活保護申請をノルマを掲げて削減に取組んでいるというから、愕然とします。

In the case of Japanese nationals and citizens, welfare is something that anybody is eligible to apply for. However in Kita Kyushu, what is called the “Kita Kyushu style” is one which attempts to apply a quota reducing the number of applications for welfare assistance, and this shocks me.

Blogger Masami analyzes a report about local welfare policy in Kyushu, excerpting and commenting on key passages. One of these passages describes citizen participation in the drafting of budget decisions:

当然のことだが、この間の生活保護行政については、毎年、市議会の予算、決算の議決を受け、関係する常任委員会でも審議されてきた。「生活保護のありよう」は、市民の代表である議会から認められてきた。いいかえれば、市民の支持があったのである。

It is obvious perhaps, but regarding the recent welfare administration, every year, in the budget of the city council, decisions about accounting are received and are also discussed in the associated standing committee. “The existence of welfare assistance” has [as such] been approved by a parliament representing citizens. In other words, there was support from citizens [for this policy].

Masami observes that:

この「市民の支持があった」については、末尾（４７ページから）に添付されているアンケートを見ても想像できた。不正受給に対する市民の怒りのようなものを感じた。

[The statement that] “there was support from citizens” is easy to imagine if you look at the survey attached at the end [of the report] (from page 47 on). [Reading this,] I sensed the anger of citizens regarding issues like the dishonest receipt [of welfare assistance].

Finally, blogger lastchristmas looks into the future and asks where the current policy will lead Japan in the future:

でも、これからどうなるのでしょうか・・。
ますますこのような状況になりそうな感じもします。
誰でも病気などで職を失う可能性はあるわけですから、生活の保障や身寄りがなければありえますよね。

But what will happen from here on?
I have the feeling that this kind of thing will happen more and more often.
Everybody is prone to getting sick and losing their job, so if people have no life security or family relatives, then this kind of thing can happen.

お金があっても生活保護の支給を受けている人もいるらしいですが、本当に必要な人の保護を打ち切るのはやめてほしいです。

There are apparently people who collect welfare assistance even though they have money, but even so they should not cut of the security [income] of people who really need it.

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