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Bahrain: The Silent Killer - Carbon Monoxide

Amira Al Hussaini · 19:08

lingua → bn · zht · zhs · es

A couple in a car in the garage. The air-conditioner is on. One of them dies. This is the story Bahraini blogger Dr Haitham Salman has in store for us (Ar) - plus an explanation of how it happened and precautions to avoid such tragedies.

Dr Salman, who lives in Michigan, the US, writes:

طالعتنا الصحافة قبل أيام بخبر من عدة أسطر عن موت شاب في العشرين مختنقا ونجاة الفتاة من موت محقق من التسمم باول اكسيد الكربون نتج عن وجودهما معا في سيارة في كراج مغلق والسيارة شغالة من أجل التكييف.
لم يستوقف هذا الخبر أحدا ولم يفرد له مقال واحد في الصحافه, رغم أن هذا الأمر قد حدث قبل ذلك أكثر من مرة وفي كل مرة ينتهي بوفاة ألاثنين معا. ويعقب ذلك خليط غير مسبوق من الالم والحزن والحسرة و الكتمان والفضيحة وتنتقل التفاصيل همسا وتلميحا.

A few days ago, newspapers broke the story of a young man, in his 20s, who died from suffocation and the survival of a girl from carbon monoxide poisoning in a few lines. They were both in a car in a closed garage and the car was turned on, for the air-conditioning. This article did not make anyone think as none of the columnists wrote about it in our newspapers despite the fact that such an incident had happened before more than once, with couples dying in all of them. Following such accidents, there is always a mixture of pain, sadness, despair, silence, scandals and the transfer of details between people in whispers.

Dr Salman's solution for such tragedies is more awareness.

أرى انه من الواجب علينا جميعا التنبه لخطر التسمم بأول اكسيد الكربون وان نساهم جميعا في تثقيف شبابنا من هذا القاتل الصامت. والموضوع من الاهمية بمكان بحيث يجب الا يمر مرور الكرام. فالامر سوف يتكرر دون شك. أرى أنه يجب ان يدرج هذا الأمر ضمن امتحان السياقة مثلا.

I see that it is our duty to warn society of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning and we all have to contribute to creating awareness among youth of this silent killer. This is an important issue which shouldn't be allowed to slip away. If we do so, then such incidents will recur in the future. I feel that such a topic should be included in drivers' examinations.

As a doctor, Dr Salman shares with us information about this poisonous gas. He explains:

وما يميز التسمم بهذا الغاز, أنه تسمم مخادع يتسرب ببطء دون رائحة أو طعم أو تهيح. ويلتصق بشدة بالهيموجلبين مزيحا الاكسجين ومانعا لنقله الى الجسم باكمله, ونقص الاكسجين يؤدي الى تسارع في معدل التنفس الذي بدوره يزيد من استنشاق الغاز مسببا زيادة في التسمم ونقصا اكبر في الاكسجين. ونقص الاكسجين عن الدماغ يودي الى فقدان الوعي ومعه تفقد فرصة النجاة من الموت

What distinguishes poisoning with this gas is that it is a treacherous poison which leaks slowly, without any smell, taste or irritation. It attacks the hemoglobin and stops oxygen from going to the body. The lack of oxygen leads to an increase in breathing, which in turn increases the inhaling of this gas, thereby causing more poisoning and a greater deficit in oxygen levels. The decrease of oxygen in the brain leads to a loss of consciousness and with this you lose your chances to escape death.

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Venezuela: Second Annual Blogstock

Luis Carlos Diaz · 13:49

lingua → pt · es

Over the course of two days, the Venezuelan blogosphere [ES] gathered for the second year at a site far from the capital to celebrate with musical bands and alcohol. Blogstock is “the” party. There are no lectures or symposiums to define the digital world, nor some conclusion reached for the use by internet users. It was all about a celebration of a gathering of digital camaraderie and it was a party on full-blast [ES].

In its second consecutive year, Blogstock gathered dozens of bloggers, Twitter-users, Flickr-users and other forms of information citizens (infocitizens) for a night of concerts, drinks and food, Venezuelan-style.

The event was streamed online for those that stayed at home. There was also a Flickr tag to tell the whole story. “You are not ready for this,” was the slogan that gathered people by the initiative of “Los Guaraos” (aka the “disorganizers), who summarized the event with videos [ES]. The event also counted on a meme to list of things to bring to the event, to avoid contigencies, such as the items shown by Impulsos y Sentidos [ES].

David Luna, the photographer, said that the gathering was [ES]:

Una noche bastante divertida, entretenida, llena de muchas anécdotas, de compartir con personas que solo leemos de vez en cuando y ponerle rostro a la mayoría de los nicks que abundan en la blogosfera.

It was a fun and entertaining night. It was full of stories shared by people that we read from time to time, we were able to put faces to the nicknames that are abundant in the blogosphere.

This takes place in Venezuela? This could be asked of those who follow the political happenings in the country. Inti of Equizopedia [ES] provides the answer:

Mientras el mundo exterior piensa que Venezuela va hacia el socialismo más “extraño” y “extremo” jamas visto, mucha gente aquí no se toma las cosas muy en serio. La mejor virtud del venezolano (a su vez el peor defecto) es que aquí la gente es feliz. Pocos habitantes del planeta tierra viven tan contentos, como los nacidos en la patria de Simón Bolívar. Quizás el petróleo, la (fuera de toda regla y estadística) cantidad alucinante de mujeres bellas, la cerveza o el ron, ayudan en definitiva a que la vida acá sea increíblemente más “relajada” que en el resto de los países. Y hasta en la pasión vertiginosa política que nos tiene atrapados actualmente, buscamos la manera de seguir viviendo, riendo, disfrutando y rumbeando. Y como en todos lados, hay gente más y menos responsable con sus actos. Algo tiene este desenfadado país, que es difícil de copiar, y más explicar.

While the outside World thinks that Venezuela is heading for a “stranger” and “extreme” form of socialism never seen befote, many people here don’t take things so seriously. The best virtue of a Venezuelan (also his worst defect) is that here the people are happy. Fewer people on the earth live as content than those who were born in Simón Bolívar’s homeland. Maybe it’s the petroleum, the incredibly beautiful women (more than statistics), beer or rum, helps make life incredibly more “relaxed” than in other countries. Even with the dizzying politics that currently has us trapped, we look for ways to continue to live, laugh, enjoy and party. And here as in other places, there are people who are more or less responsible for their actions. This uninhibited country has something that is difficult to copy and even less, explain.

The Venezuelan blogosphere continues its way with necessary joyful rituals and distractions, for the good of personal tranquility. Hopefully it will take place again in 2008 or next Christmas.

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Rising Voices Seeks Micro-Grant Proposals for Blog Outreach

David Sasaki · 04:17

lingua → bn · pt · mg · es · fr · zht · zhs

Application Deadline: November 30, 2007

Rising Voices, the outreach arm of Global Voices, is now accepting project proposals for the second round of microgrant funding of up to $5,000 for citizen media outreach projects. Ideal applicants will present innovative and detailed proposals to teach citizen media techniques to communities that are poorly positioned to discover and take advantage of tools like blogging, video-blogging, and podcasting on their own.

In July we funded five projects out of the 142 applications we received from over 60 different countries. The first five Rising Voices grantees are based in Bangladesh, Colombia, Bolivia, India, and Sierra Leone. You can view their applications by clicking on the relevant links underneath the sub-heading “Grantees” in the sidebar of the Rising Voices wiki.

Rising Voices aims to help bring new voices from new communities and speaking new languages to the conversational web, by providing resources and funding to local groups reaching out to underrepresented communities. Examples of potential projects include:

Convincing a group of taggers or graffiti artists to transfer their medium of expression from walls of buildings to blogs, podcasts, and online video.
Approaching a local NGO with the offer of training their participants to blog and upload video in order to document the NGO's work and the community where the participants live.
Distribute $10 digital cameras to two different groups of the same community and create a Flickr group where they confront each other's photographic perspectives of their city.
Distribute mp3 recorders to participants of a youth group and help them produce monthly audio documentaries featuring elders who describe how their community has changed over the decades.

This second round of funding differs from the first in one important aspect. You have the choice to submit your application via email as before or you can publicly post your proposal on our wiki and receive feedback on how it can be improved. Public applications can be posted on the wiki at any time and can be reworked as often as the applicant sees fit, but all applications must be finalized by the November 30 deadline.

Rising Voices outreach grants will range from $1,000 to $5,000. Please be as thoughtful, specific, and realistic as possible when drafting your budgets. Successful projects will be prominently featured on Global Voices.

To learn how to apply using the wiki you can view the screencast below or visit the instruction page on the wiki. If you would like to submit your proposal privately via email you may do so by downloading the application and emailing it to outreach@globalvoicesonline.org by November 30. No late applications will be accepted.

Download grant application in .DOC format
Download grant application in .RTF format