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WeMedia: A chance to tell them what you think

Solana Larsen · 23:26

lingua → de · es · jp · zhs · zht

What would you tell 300 of the world's leading digital industry people?

The next WeMedia Conference will be in Miami (26-28 February 2008), and thanks to support from The Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, the organizers (iFocos) are offering fellowships that cover registration fees and travel from any country to a few lucky bloggers, academics, or activists who are using technology to make the world a better place.

Global Voices bloggers will be there too, offering critical global perspectives on new media, - as our team did in 2006.

It's easy to apply. You need to answer three questions about why you would like to be there, how you want to make the world a better place, and what online communication tools you value the most. Deadline is 21 December, 2007. Get on it! Anyone can apply. The lucky fellowship recipients will be responsible for their own visa applications to the United States and possibly lodging.

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Guatemala: The Tradition of Burning the Devil

Renata Avila · 17:09

lingua → mg · es

Photo by Denise Phé-Funchal and used with permission.

Vibrant neighborhoods covered with lights with children playing around in the streets because school is on vacation, and one knows Christmas is in the air. The mixure of religious and pagan traditions also come together on December of each year.

On December 7, especially in urban areas, the tradition is to “burn the devil”, as Desde Guate [es] described for us:

El 7 de diciembre se celebra en Guatemala una tradición muy arraigada que llena de fuego las calles y de humo el cielo. Se trata de la tradicional quema del diablo, a través de la cual los ciudadanos expulsan todo lo malo de sus casas y sus vidas, en otras palabras, este personaje es el rostro de todo lo que es visto como negativo (mala suerte en el trabajo, amor, salud, etc).

On December 7 a deeply rooted tradition takes place in Guatemala , where the streets are filled with bonfires and the sky is covered by smoke. It is the traditional burning of the devil, which is a way to expel all the evil from people's houses and lives. In other words, this character is the face of all the negative things (bad luck at work, in health, in love, etc.)

On his post The hell with it! blogger El Toronteco recycled and translated anold post of blogger Ronald Flores [es], who captured the essence of the experience of “burning the evil”:

Me han dicho que quemar esta ensarta de cachivaches y papelejos era hacer que el diablo ardiera en sus propias llamaradas, que era necesario para entrar a la época navideña con la casa limpia. En ese contexto, confieso que he practicado más de una vez este interesante rito de purificación. He lanzado a las llamas cuadernos de clases que durante el año aborrecí, cartas de amores fallidos y de reproches que recibí o que escribí sin enviar, fotografías en las que no salí como quise, manuscritos de novelas sobre las que ya jamás pienso volver.

Me gustaba, en el frío de diciembre, acercar el rostro y las manos a las llamas, ir deshojando los cuadernos, ver cómo el papel se consumía y las letras que resaltaban sobre la blanca hoja se iban difuminando en la negra tinta de la ceniza. Hoy pienso hacer algo similar, aunque distinto. Voy a salir a la calle al final del día. Voy a sacar los rencores todos, los que he venido acumulando durante este último año, las envidias todas, los dolores todos y les voy a hacer arder en la hoguera de vanidades que ando arrastrando torpe e inútilmente conmigo.

I've been told that burning that pile of trinkets and useless printed material made the devil burn on his very own inferno, and that this custom was necessary to begin the Christmas season with a clean home. Within that context, I confess that I have practiced more than once this interesting purification ritual. I have thrown to the flames notebooks from subjects I detested during the year, letters from unsuccessful loves and reproaches that I have received or that I have written without sending, pictures where I didn't come up as I wanted, manuscripts of novels that I will never touch again.

I have enjoyed, on the cold of December, putting my hands and face close to the flames, and tear apart the pages from notebooks, observe how paper was consumed and the writing that popped out from the white paper vanished under the growing black ink of the ashes. Today I plan to do something similar, though different. I am going out onto the streets at the end of the day. I am going to take all the resentments, those that I have accumulated throughout the past year, all the envies, all the pains and I am going to make them burn in the bonfire of vanities that I keep carrying around uselessly.

The blog Manra [es] describes why the season is special:

El diablo ya fue quemado a estas horas, ahora es ceniza nada más, espero que en esas llamas se hayan ido por un rato al menos nuestras penas, nuestros sufrimientos, que este frío nos traiga vientos nuevos, nuevas vibras.

The devil is gone now, all that is left are just ashes, and I hope that our sufferings and pain have left with the flames, and the cold weather might bring new winds, new vibes.

The funny blog Los Tragos [es] even suggested a drink for the day: Satan.

Ingredientes

1 oz. de Hesperdina (Aperitivo elaborado con corteza de naranjas)
1/2 oz. de Ginebra
1/2 oz. de Whisky
1/2 oz. de Tequila
1/2 oz. de Ron
1/2 oz. de Vodka
Granadina
Hielo

Preparación

A un vaso agregar la Hesperdina, la Ginebra , el Whisky, el Tequila,y el Ron; luego la Granadina y por último el vodka prendiéndole fuego. Tomar lo más rápido que se pueda :)

Ingredients

1 oz. of Hesperdina (aperitif made with orange peels)
1/2 oz. of Gin
1/2 oz. of Whiskey
1/2 oz. of Tequila
1/2 oz. of Rum
1/2 oz. of Vodka
Grenadine
Ice

Preparation

In a glass add the Hesperdina, gin, Whiskey, Tequila, Rum; and later the Grenadine and at the end the Vodka and light it on fire. Drink it as fast as you can :)

Now the devil is gone with the smoke, the streets are still covered with lights and fireworks at nights. The days are amazing with brilliant blue sky, and you can see any of the 33 volcanoes of Guatemala without clouds and the smell of Christmas time.

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Morocco: Christmas in the Maghreb

Jillian York · 15:56

lingua → ar · de · es · mg · jp

Although Morocco is primarily a Muslim country and although it's only the second week of December, Christmas is apparently in the air - at least for Morocco's foreign resident bloggers.

Connie in Morocco, a Peace Corps blogger, is ambivalent about the Christmas season - torn between missing home and not missing the commercialism of American Christmas:

Being here has not changed the way I feel about the American Christmas season; I was beginning to get quite fed up with the commercialism and more reluctant to be sucked up in it. Being here has certainly made me even more aware of the reason for the season, as has become the cliche. I so miss family and friends, and music and all that, and the exchanging of a few thoughtful gifts, but I must admit it is a bit of a relief not to have all the advertising etc. “in my face.” That being said, it will be great, though, to be back home next year for the Christmas season.

Nicole of Moving to Morocco shares photos of her first Christmas in Morocco, complete with Christmas tree, remarking upon the surprising cost:

Moroccan Christmas tree

had wrote before that the store here was putting up X-mas decorations while we were there and Zouhair kept going back everyday to see if they had trees yet. Like 2 or 3 days later he came home from work and said they had them and we should go get one. We got to the store and I was really surprised at the amount of decorations and trees they had! We got the biggest tree (6′) and it was $12. I was thinking they would be expensive because there probably isnt a huge demand for it, but I was wrong, they were cheap!

Heather of Moroccan Meanderings remarks upon the lack of Christmas spirit surrounding her:

It is hard to believe it is almost Christmas. So few signs of it here, no Christmas trees in public, no decorated shops and decorations only available in the big supermarket here…

Having spent one Christmas of my own in Morocco, I can tell you that it is quite a different feeling to be so far away from the traditions I've grown accustomed to. That said, Moroccans are wonderfully accommodating and although the holiday isn't celebrated, there are plenty of Christmas trees around! Happy holidays!

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Environment: In Bali, an inconvenient last minute proposal from the US

Juliana Rotich · 11:41

Global voices has been following the climate change talks in Bali, via the special coverage page. The following posts also appear as part of the aggregated feed to Reuters indicate a developing story coming out of Bali.
Yesterday, Rory of Carbonsmart expressed discouragement with the talks in Bali, saying

In all likelihood, the real punchline on the final day will be that there is no knockout blow to global warming. No magic strategy to solve global ills. No elegant solution, just a messy tangle of promises to reach agreement sometime in the next two years. Indeed, that's all some people are hoping for as an outcome of these two weeks: a commitment to negotiate a global deal under the UNFCCC. Not the deal itself.

Well, later that day, the other shoe dropped. A post from David Steven of Global Deal reported a late night update from Bali, where as he puts it…”the US has thrown a hand grenade into the talks on the Bali roadmap.” David points out the the crux of the US proposal that may be a last minute deal breaker especially for developing countries. He also includes the reasons why this is a controversial move at the end of the conference.

The core of the US proposal is that developed and developing countries should be treated in the same way, with countries taking on targets according to “their level of economic development and significance” or some similar formulation.
Why is this controversial?
Three reasons:
1. It gives the Europeans nothing of what they have been asking for in terms of strong, binding international targets for developed countries.
2. It is sure to raise the hackles of the big developing countries, China and India. They are highly suspicious of US attempts to force them to take on targets when America itself has stayed proudly outside the Kyoto protocol.
3. Finally, and I think most importantly, this is a major shift of direction, introduced not at the 11th hour, but the 13th. This is not a ‘compromise text' but a completely new proposal.

Rory, adds his thoughts on reading the above report, relating the announcement to Climate Security Act currently in the US, and how it could affect trade with the developing countries.

What I'm wondering is whether it will really make much difference to the Americans, if they do pass the Climate Security Act. The Act is a protectionist measure that essentially hedges Washington's bets. If developing countries don't adopt carbon emissions targets, the Act will give America the means to block trade from those countries.

In addition,

If internationally agreed targets for both developed and developing countries are going to be based on levels of economic development, as the US is suggesting, one way to be truly equitable would be to consider not only current emission levels but also the historic emissions from past economic activity. Just as an assessment of the sustainability of a new building considers the embodied energy in the materials used to construct it, or product labelling might include the carbon emissions from its manufacture (as the US Climate Security Act is proposing), so too entire economies have a level of “embodied carbon” that needs to be considered.

Brian Cascadia has a ‘meta' view of the Bali conference, looking at the challenges faced by the US environmentalists, and of relevance to the recent developments in Bali. The post is ‘Carbon Justice or Carbonacracy?'

Our narrow, US-centric focus on the obstinate evil Bush distracts us from major conflicts in climate policy at Bali. The reality is that the movement for climate justice in the majority world — for climate justice activists from the Global South (also known, derisively, as the “third world”) — Bush’s is but one side of the climate injustice coin. What we here in the US are missing is that this struggle is an old one: it’s the struggle of the powerful against the disempowered, against the hegemony of the United States and it’s allies, their dominance of everything and anything, including “saving the planet”.

It is quite likely that the fossil of the day award could be awarded to the United States, and as this story develops, I would recommend checking the aggregated feed to see the latest posts. The feed will be active for several days after the conference in order to cover post Bali views from bloggers around the world.

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Neigbourhood Diaries: Growing Citizen Journalists from Grassroots

Rezwan · 02:56

lingua → ar · pt · es

Originally posted on Rising Voices.

Kalam is a 3 year old project to discover young people from marginalized communities in Kolkata as creative writers and critical thinkers and instigate their cultural consciousness. It is a movement for young people to claim their right over their lives by rewriting their own stories, their communities, and their world according to how they see it. Its manifesto emphasizes:

“We must talk about ourselves in our own words, on our own terms. Poems and stories of our lives will now be written, and we will write them ourselves. And we will share our poems and stories with everyone.”

The word Kalam (ka-lum) exists in six languages [Hindi, Urdu, Bangla, Nepali, Farsi, Arabic] and it means a pen or pencil or an instrument to write. It is the perfect title of this commendable initiative for the multilingual community in Kolkata. They’ve already made notable works and produced content using print to encourage creativity and self-expression with poetry and creative writing.

But now, affordable, online technology can help Kalam achieve its goals better.

A Rising Voices micro grant helped them establish “Neighborhood Diaries”, which trains underprivileged youth living in Kolkata’s slums to be citizen journalists. They will conduct workshops on critical thinking, journalistic writing, audio-visual media and new media technologies like blogs, podcasts etc. According to its project proposal:

“ND will benefit the target community — youth slum dwellers (child laborers, children of sex workers, and low-income school-going youth) — by mobilizing them to think and write about their personal and community stories, issues, and histories, as an integral and vibrant part of the socio-cultural fabric of urban India and publish them on blogs accessible to the globe. This program and practice will foster dignity within communities often viewed as powerless, illiterate, and culturally impoverished.”

Meet the people behind Neighborhood Diaries (and Kalam): Bishan Sammadar, Harleen, Sahar Romani, Rohini, and Maitrayee (picture above from left to right).

The team of educators includes Urbi Bhadhuri and Bina Dalui who were chosen from a time-consuming selection process.

We are glad to announce that after the long process of setting up the infrastructure from staff, to partners, to neighborhoods, finally Neighbourhood Diairies started its 15-week workshop series. The workshop commenced on November 26, 2007 in partnership with the local NGO, Sanlaap taking place at Bow Bazaar High School in Kolkata. The participants were 15 youth residents of the area recruited by Sanlaap, a non-profit organization which helps sexually abused female children in the red light areas of Kolkata, South and North 24 Paraganas with youth shelters and vocational training. It has an integrated child development program in the red light areas of Kolkata as well as a support group for women in prostitution.

Read about the participants, the Bow Bazaar Neighbourhood Journalists, a vibrant group of growing teenagers with great spirit and enthusiasm here.

The first session put a series of questions to the participants:

“Just like we’ve realized the false/fragmented/skewed stories around different neighborhoods, how do you think other people think or imagine your personal neighborhood? What are the stereotypes surrounding your neighborhood?”

“Do you think it is important to tell the stories of this neighborhood as an insider and resident?”

The participants responded:

The group was amused at how “problems” were the first thing they are asked about Bow Bazaar from outsiders since they live in a red light area. The concluding activity of this introductory session involved the participants to remember the forgotten or ignored stories of their neighborhood and write a brief story/vignette. The stories ranged from incidents of evictions of old neighbors, adolescent love in the back drop of a chai (tea) stall, a girl in the neighborhood being forced into sex work, a heroic brother who pays for his sister’s education and sends her back to school, and a football tournament lost due to a leg injury.

The second day at Bow Bazaar involved filling out profiles of participants, creating personal maps of themselves and of Bow Bazaar.

The day three proceedings included observations and invoking sensory perceptions (sound, smell, light, touch) of Bow Bazaar among the participants. They were also asked to choose a landmark of the locality and describe why it was important for them.

At the end of the day three sessions the participants were able to create interesting postcard vignettes such as this one:

Bow Bazaar Means…

The sound of conversations from the road leading home,
The smell of alcohol,
Bow Bazaar means the sight of fallen, drunk man on the stairs.
Bow Bazaar means feeling coolness on the rooftop of my home.

By Pooja Dolui, Age 13

Please keep an eye on the Diaries Blog (or subscribe to its feed) for more updates from this unique project.

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