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Japan: Changing New Year Celebrations

Hanako Tokita · 23:37

lingua → es · zhs · zht

New Year's Day is the most important holiday for many people in Japan, where anything “first of the year” bears a special value: first day of the year, first sunrise, first dream, first sales…

Traditionally, people put great effort into preparing for New Year's day, turning the house upside down cleaning it, and cooking special cuisine called osechi days before the turn of the year. Family members and relatives, as well as friends and acquaintances, gather for the occasion and exchange New Year's greetings. Or at least that's the way things used to be.

Blogger akane3 remembers how she used to celebrate New Year's when she was growing up and compares it to how her own kids spend the holiday:

昔の頃のように、古式ゆかしき伝統にのっとったお正月を過ごされたのは
はて　どれくらいあるだろう・・・
私が幼い頃は、毎年のお正月にはお約束のようにして
親戚や知人がお年始の挨拶に来られて
それはそれは普段になく　賑やかな感じで　まさにお正月!！っという特別な日だった。
御節料理だって、正月にしかお目にかかれない代物ばかり。

I wonder how many people actually spend their New Years the traditional way…
When I was a child, every year around New Year, relatives and acquaintances would always come to visit for New Year's greetings.
It was unusually busy and was a special day with a true New Year's feeling.
Osechi was also full of stuff that you would see only at New Year.

されど　時は平成、、、それも２０年ともなると
御節料理も普段・・・しかも年中　お目にかかる代物ばかりの食材だし
飽食の時代の申し子とも云える現在っ子達には
めずらしくもなんともないようでして、感激の欠片も無いのが現状のようだ。。。

However, in this 20th year of the Heisei era,
even osechi is made up entirely of ingredients that one sees everywhere, all year round.
Today's kids, who might be called the children of the age of gluttony, don't seem to find [osechi] unusual and are not thrilled at all. This seems to be the reality…

Kite flying is another common theme during Japanese New Year's holiday that has been changing in recent years. Blogger sorao, who lives in a rural town in the countryside, shares what she saw while taking a walk on New Year's day. She writes:

農道の向こう側で小学生低学年くらいの子供２人とお父さん・おじいちゃんらしき人が凧揚げをしていました。
子供２人は手作り凧をあげようと奮闘していてとても微笑ましかったです。
遠くに出かけるばかりではなく、こういう田舎の田んぼ道で凧揚げを楽しむお正月も良いものだな、と思いました。

I saw two young elementary schoolkids and a person who seemed to be their dad or grandpa flying a kite across the farm road.
These two kids were trying hard to fly a hand-made kite and I found it very cute.
Rather than travelling to a distant place, spending the New Years holidays flying a kite on a rice field path in the countryside is also nice, I thought [to myself].

Shinjuku Hanazono Shrine
Hatsumode: a long line of people at Hanazono Shrine, Tokyo

Unlike other New Year traditions, hatsumode, or first visit to a shrine or temeple, is sill quite popular among many people. mmpolo, who used to go to four local shrines for hatsumode, recently found out about the history of this tradition and has changed his yearly custom:

さて、先頃正月に神社へ参拝する初詣は日本の古い伝統行事などではなく、明治になってからある鉄道会社が始めたものだと知った。ヴァレンタインと同じだったのだ。それを知って今年から初詣を簡略化することにした。４社のうち吾嬬神社だけにしたのだ。

そういえば江戸時代の話にも浮世絵にも初詣は描かれていない。賢い鉄道会社の社員がいたものだ。

By the way, I recently found out out that Hatsumode, a custom in which people go to a shrine and pray at New Year's, is not an old Japanese traditional event, but was started by some railway company in the Meiji period. It's like St. Valentine's Day. Knowing that, I've decided to simplify my Hatsumode from this year on. I've decided only to go to Azuma Shrine.

Come to think of it, Hatsumode is not mentioned in either stories from the Edo period nor in ukiyoe. What a smart railway company employee.

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Morocco: The Freedom to Blog

Jillian York · 21:52

lingua → ar · pt · bn · mg · es

Morocco is often touted as one of the freest of the world's majority-Muslim countries. Women enjoy nearly equal rights to men, the press is comparatively liberal, few websites are banned, and now, bloggers are free to write about what the press cannot, according to a recent article published by Agence France-Presse (AFP) which claims that the Moroccan blogoma is the “liveliest free-speech zone in largely conservative Muslim North Africa.”

The View From Fez was the first to link to the article, pointing out:

The View From Fez is one of the few successful blogs in English and is read by around a thousand people every day.

And to back up their claim, The View From Fez shares the results of the recent Morocco Blog Awards, in which they were voted the #2 Morocco blog.

Kelvy K. (It Belongs to Man to Err), an Indian blogger residing in Kuwait, said this of the article:

well since we Indians have all the freedom we want, we wont understand it when blogs and press freedom are not allowed. We will feel it is ridiculous when so many blogers end up in jail for many of their comments. Like for example, a Saudi bloger is in jail now for some blog article of his, similar cases have happened in Africa, Tunisia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Algeria etc..

The Morocco Report also mentioned the article, saying:

As a Morocco-related blogger for the past two-odd years, I would have to agree with the article - Moroccan bloggers really do have significant freedom in what they choose to write about, as evidenced by some of the posts seen at maroc-blogs.com.

Needless to say, congratulations blogoma! May you continue to generate interesting, exciting, and thought-provoking posts, and may the freedom to express your ideas continue.

The article itself mentioned popular Moroccan bloggers Larbi and Mehdi7.

Incidentally, Everything Morocco also had something to say about being part of the blogoma:

I blog from home now, on a laptop with a DSL connection, in one of the oldest fully-functioning medieval cities in the world. As I sit here typing this, neighbor women are carrying their bread to the public oven and donkeys are hauling goods down the narrow streets of the city and tourists are picking over the displays of hand-crafted souvenirs in the souks. Satellite dishes dot the surrounding rooftops where many women still wash laundry and prepare spices by hand. You are just as likely to spot a sheep or a rooster on a roof as a cat or a swallow.

Time and technology seem to be always advancing, faster now than ever, but in a comforting way, the daily routines of life stay the same. That's especially true in Fez.

But while many advances are occurring in Morocco, both in the areas of technology and freedom, there's still a long way to go. Blogger MoTIC (fr) tracks injustices and censures in Morocco. Sami ben Gharbia of Global Voices Advocacy has also been covering censorship issues in Morocco.

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Touring Libyan Blogs: the price of fame

Fozia Mohamed · 13:10

lingua → ar

During my monthly trip to Libyan bookstores or to whatever bookfairs there happens to be; I'm always pleasantly surprised at the actual amount of Libyan work on display. My reaction is to buy the books that I feel I'm interested in or those about which I know nothing.

In a recent event at the Faculty of Law ( El-Fateh University) where being the bookworm that I was, I made sure to attend their book exhibition for the opportunity to buy at subsidised prices, I came across a novel called “Hunger has many other faces” (unofficial translation). Neither the quality of the paper nor the artwork did really catch my eye, but the fact it was by a female author did. She was an unknown quantity ( at least to me) but I decided to buy it nevertheless. I was more so encouraged since it was not too thick. Being among the first buyers the salesman had no change to give back, so he asked me to return in an hour's time when business would have picked up. An hour later to the dot, I'm happily back with a heavy load of books only to be greeted by an indifferent gaze from the guy. It was sold out!

What surprised me next was that this little novella by an obscure Libyan author seems to have raised quite a storm in the blogosphere on the one hand and in some Libyan regions on the other even warranting a mention in Aljazeera which elicited six pages of comments.

Let's give the word to the Libyan bloggers. The debate unfolds first over at CNNLibya, where Khalid Jorni writes :

“Because she has been a trial lawyer for ten years, and because she knew the weak points and the gabs of the Libyan law, she refrained from attacking Islam by her own identity, she preferred to create an imaginary character, and to make it compare between Islam and Christianity in a prejudged unjust way, and as it has been already planned and expected, the book was unintentionally advertised by the spiritual leaders who fell into the trap by criticizing it in their Friday Sermons, subsequently demonstrations took place, petitions were signed, and shraga people of Benghazi went mad at the writer and her tale, thus and overnight she became a national celebrity, all libraries ran out of the book, and Libya's greatest religious scholars were brought to courts, just as criminals or thieves, to pay the price of messing with a law expert, and to be an example for whoever allows himself to defend the greatest and the world's fastest growing religion!”

Ghazi over at Imtidad , took up the issue from another point of view, loudly asking ‘why don't we read? ‘ in which he explains the relationship between reading and being civilised and able to form critical opinions.

البعض سيتحدث عن الالتزام في الكتابة بقيم المجتمع وعاداته وتقاليده، وهو أمر مقبول ومريح، ولكن أين هي هذه العادات والقيم والتقاليد عند معايشتنا للواقع، البعض يقول لا يجوز السماح بنشر روايات تضم أقوال على لسان ابطالها يسبون أو يشتمون، ونحن نسمع كل يوم في شارعنا سباباً وشتماً بشكل معتاد، البعض يقول أن الكتاب الذين يتناولون الدين وتمظهراته الاجتماعية في كتاباتهم الروائية أو الشعرية يسعون بذلك إلى الشهرة السريعة من خلال ذلك، ولكنهم لا يتذكرون هذا الكتاب أو ذاك الكاتب إلا بعد عدة سنوات من صدور الكتاب أو بعد أن تسقط نسخة منه بالصدفة في حجر أحد مبتدئي القراءة والكتابة، فتقوم الدنيا على الكتاب ومؤلفه، ويصبح في يوم وليلة من المشاهير فمن يا ترى سعى للتشهير وللأشهار والدعاية للكتاب والمؤلف.

Translation : Some will talk about the non-commitment to the traditions and mores of a society when writing, which is something acceptable and one should feel comfortable with. However, where are these morals, principles and traditions in reality. Some said it is not permitted to publish novels that include insulting statements by the heroes, yet we hear insults on daily basis on our streets. Some say that writers that talk about religion and its social aspects in their fiction work or poetry are running after quick fame yet they only recall this or that book after several years of its issue or when a copy falls by chance in the hands of a beginner to the world of reading and writing. It is only then that heaven and earth are moved about this book and its writer and the author becomes a star overnight. Who is then striving for libel or publicity and advertisement for the book and its author.

Tasnim from Epiphanies, has a concise summary of Wafa Buessa's book:

” The novel, written in the first-person for “dramatic effect” as the writer says, tells the story of a girl who is forced by “living circumstances” to leave a stereotypically cloistered Libya and go live with her uncle's family in Egypt. Here, the protagonist begins to broadcast her rejection of and hate for Islam in no uncertain terms, seeing an alternative in the Coptic Church because the “doors are always open.”‘

Morever Tasnim argues that ” Because, when a lawyer who has just released her debut novel decides to take legal action against those who denounce her heroine, it does seem to indicate a slight jumbling of job descriptions. The words Publicity and Stunt also cross the conspiracy-addled mind.”

While I'm still waiting for my own copy almost regretting not paying the five extra Dinars to the guy who had no change I can already partially speculate that from her interview replies Wafa is pulling a stunt a la Ayaan Hirsi Ali or acting like her trailblazing namesake Wafa Sultan, or the Bangladeshi Tasleema Nesreen.. Salman Rushdie's classic ” Satanic verses” comes to mind, but also the 2006 Danish cartoon crisis which earned fame to a number of unscrupulous bloggers who banked on their anti-Islamic sentiments.

This controversial novel has brought up a storm of protests and words in the comment sections and Tasnim's post reprinted on the Mideast Youth website has raised further debates about the truly interesting nature of this case. But it's not about literary critique nor religious freedom, what is striking and different than Ayaan, Wafa and the usual anti-Islamic sentiments is made clear by Tasnim when she says that “it is like an inversion of the usual freedom of speech issue. It’s not the author but the critics who are in court for expressing their opinion[…]There’s no censorship involved here. No fatwas, no death threats and no apostates. The power, in this equation, is with the attorney turned author. “

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Peru: Cinencuentro Covers Peruvian Cinema

Juan Arellano · 00:26

lingua → pt

Cinencuentro [es] was one of the first blogs dedicated to film in Peru. Juan Arellano interviewed two of the blog site's members Lucho Ramos and Laslo Rojas for an article on the site BlogsPerú [es]. This is an excerpt of the interview and to read the entire article in Spanish, please visit the original link [es].

Juan Arellano: Please tell me about yourselves

Lucho Ramos: Even though I studied Electronic Engineering, I have always been interested in audiovisual communication. I am from Cusco, but I have been working in Lima for more than 10 years and currently I am part of TV Cultura, an NGO and where I feel like a fish in water. During this time, I developed a love for film that has brought me to become a part of Cinencuentro. It was all Laslo's fault that I began to blog :), it must have been in 2004 when I first heard about blogs (La Petite Claudine was one of the first blogs that I read), but I didn't realize what a blog was, even though in my defense, I have been connected to the internet since 1995, including forming part of a mailing list about Amiga computers and later on the Tolkien Peru mailing list. I can communicate in English and Quechua. I am married to Mary and have a son, Joca, who is 11 years old. Both of them have blogs, and I am very happy. My other hobbies are music, reading, traveling and working under pressure.

Laslo Rojas: I am 27 years old. I am a graduate in Information Technology. I found out about blogs in mid-2002, when I visited some Peruvian LiveJournal pages. I later found out about Cinencuentro during its original phase and later online. In this group, I made great friends that helped me with personal and even, professional growth. Thanks to Lucho I became a part of TV Cultura. Little by little, I was drawn closer to their new projects and initiatives and it was also a desirable working environment. I became familiar with the beginnings of National Links, above all in the technical aspects and later I was added to the team of NAPA. As one might say at that moment, “my life changed.” I try to find time during the week to watch a movie in the theaters or on DVD, read a good book, listen to mp3s on my cell phone for those trips to the “73″, watch the latest episode of Lost, 24 or Heroes, or in the best of cases spend some time talking with friends.

Juan: And how did Cinencuentro begin?

Lucho: At the beginning of 2003, we came together for the first time after spending a long time of exchanging messages on the movie list of RCP, and we became seven friends that went to the movies more than once a week and we gathered to talk about movies over the course of many hours.

Laslo: In those gatherings, the Cinencuentro group was formed and months later a Blogger blog was created, which was to find a way to publish and share small reviews about new movies amongst ourselves . Months passed and the 9th Lima Film Festival arrived, and with that excuse we decided to put all our movie-going interests on the blog. After this, we wanted more and we decided to add news, conduct interviews, share soundtracks, cover movie openings, distribute information about movie clubs, and highlight everything that is directly or indirectly related with film.

Juan: How do you share the work between the team?

Laslo: In a mobile form of way, the daily work was conducted by Antolín Prieto until a few weeks ago, and now Jorge Esponda and Miguel Piscoya are now in charge to create the content that can be found on Cinencuentro. I also help with the editing, publishing of content, general administration, moderation of comments, updating of static content and publicity. Lucho is also in charge of general administration, and above all adding new ideas for content. Anto is in charge of reviewing the daily edition and suggesting new content. That is the core team.

Lucho: Nothing would work without the contribution from all of the members of Cinencuentro, and their contribution varies according to the free time of each. Currently the most active contributors are Gabriel Quispe, Juan Jose Beteta, and Blanca Vásquez (from Spain) for the movie reviews. Mary Panta is involved with the general production and Rolando Jurado is involved with the photos. Actually, it is during the important events, such as festivals where the production increases. For example, at the beginning of this year, Rodrigo Portales, Luis Carlos Burneo and Juan Daniel Fernández went to cover the International Independent Film Festival in Buenos Aires. In all, I would say that there are about 15 people that contribute content on a regular basis and another 15 that do so sporadically.

Juan: What is the difference between the original Cinencuentro and the current version?

Laslo: A lot, from the ability to publish with blogs to the number of collaborators of the blog (more than 30) to the primary interests that are reflected in the blog. For example, we began to focus on movie reviews, then the content shifted to the most commented and popular films, now we are placing emphasis on that cinema that we would like to see, which unfortunately does not arrive to our theaters, not only in Peru, but all of Latin America.

What do you think of Peruvian Cinema?

Laslo: Peruvian cinema as it is now, is ripe for a type of resurgence, in the capital and above all in other cities across the country. I see our cinema with a lot of curiosity, with interest and in some cases with a certain subjectivity, when one watches the work of people that one might know in one way or the other. Actually, I do not know all of the details about the reality of film in past decades, but one can see now the relative boom with the appearance of many new directors. In any case, I hope that this is a time to consolidate Peruvian cinema.

Lucho: As Laslo says, this is a fascinating time for Peruvian cinema, because I think that finally there is a good number of directors, especially young one, with the desire for renewal and change. Our hope is that these directors continue to take risks and tell their stories without excuses. It is interesting to note that many of these directors are also movie lovers, thanks to a large part to the availability of pirated material. On the other hand, one must take into account that in Cinencuentro, there are many directors, more than half of us have projects on the way or have a project in mind. That makes us have a hand in many parts, dedicated to film because we are part of the art. To balance things, we must also say that there is a lot of bad Peruvian cinema.

Juan: There are plenty of blogs and people that write about cinema. How do you see these blogs, are they of good quality? Are there some that should be highlighted?

Lucho: I think we are seeing the initial phase of the phenomenon, as there is definitely a good amount of blogs dedicated to film, some are maintained by just one person (La tetona de Fellini) and others are group efforts (Los Cinerastas, La Cinefilia no es patriota, El buen cine) and others. There are some by critics well-established in the field (Páginas del Diario de Satán, La soga), not including the blogs of film companies, production houses, unions, movie clubs, etc. I think the most interesting are the blogs maintained by people without experience in critique or journalism. They tend to improve the quality of reviews and serve as practice ground for future critics or directors. On the other hand, the established critics are starting to use blogging tools in order to publish their articles on online magazines or newspaper sections. I think we are forming a movie enthusiast blogging community that should serve - among other things - to promote a common agenda (elevate the level of movies in the theaters, complain about the inaction of the State, to have a presence in the traditional media, festival coverage, but at the same time maintain independence and healthy competition.

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