Archive for
January 25th, 2008
Stories
Guatemala: Esquipulas and Rabinal, Two Symbols of Peace
Photo by Renata Ávila of Cofradía en Rabinal
Two villages in Guatemala celebrate very important festivities in January. These feasts are “Esquipulas” and “Rabinal”. Esquipulas has become a transnational celebration and attracts devoted pilgrims that arrive from other countries in order to venerate an image of a Black Christ. This was also the symbol of the Peace Negotiations througout Central America. The image of Christ in Esquipulas is a special one as Hecho en Guatemala [es] explained on his post Esquipulas, city of faith
El referido Cristo, es una imagen de Jesús Crucificado, a la cual, millones de devotos de Centroamérica, le rinden culto desde hace más de 400 años en el templo católico que lleva el nombre de este pintoresco poblado. El adjetivo de “negro”, se debe a que con el paso de los años (según muchos, al humo de las velas), el color de la madera en que fue tallado el cristo, se fue tornando oscura, hasta adquirir el color negro de la actualidad.
It is an image of a cruxified Christ, which millions of Central Americans have been devoted to for the last 400 years, and is located in the church with the name of the picturesque town. The adjective “black” is due to color of the wood of the sculpture turned dark (according to many, due to the smoke from the candles), and nowadays it is black.
Esquipulas is located in the department of Chiquimula, but the faith and devotion for the image crosses borders, according to El nuevo blog de Esquipulas [es]:
La devoción por el Señor de Esquipulas ha trascendido fronteras hasta hacer de Esquipulas la ‘Capital Centroamericana de la Fe’ y también ha sido adoptada por católicos latinoamericanos residentes en Estados Unidos. Esta tradicional celebración del ‘Señor de Esquipulas’ se viene llevando a cabo anualmente en los diferentes condados de la ciudad de Nueva York y desde hace tres años se celebra en la Catedral de San Patricio, gracias a las gestiones de la señora Rosa María Mérida de Mora, cónsul general de Guatemala en Nueva York y la Hermandad Arquidiocesana del Señor de Esquipulas NY. También se festeja en Nueva Jersey y finalmente la solemne celebración culmina en el condado de Brooklyn.
Devotion for the Christ of Esquipulas has crossed borders and has made Esquipulas the Central American Capital of Faith, and it has also been an image that has been adopted by Latin American Catholics living in US. The traditional celebration of the Christ of Esquipulas has taken place every year in the different counties of New York, and it began to be celebrated in St. Patrick's Cathedral three years ago, thanks to the actions of María Mérida de Mora, general consul of Guatemala in New York and the Archdiocese Brotherhood of the Christ of Esquipulas in NY. It is also celebrated in New Jersey and the celebration concludes in Brooklyn.
El Zacapaneco [es] tells what an old lady of his town thinks about the festivity:
Nos Cuenta Doña Clemencia de 85 años de edad, junto a su familia, nos dice que ella tiene aproximadamente 20 años de estar viajando a este Municipio de Esquipulas en estas fechas para darle gracias a Dios por permitirle terminar un año mas, y empezar uno nuevo, a la vez deja su ofrenda en Río de los deseos, para pedirle un deseo a Dios y que se lo haga realidad.
Mrs. Clemencia, who is 85 years old, tells us that she has been visiting Esquipulas with her family for approximately 20 years to thank God for giving her another year of life and for beginning a new one. She places her offering in the “river of wishes” to pray to God for her wish that she asks might come true.
The other town celebrating a Saint with huge expressions of folklore, with a magic mixure of indigenous, Spanish and popular expressions of faith is Rabinal. Every January, Rabinal celebrates San Pablo with a festival of “Cofradías”. Rabinal is a place that suffered a lot during the armed conflict, and many of the traditions were not practiced during this difficult time, where many masacres took place there.
To keep the memory alive, James on his blog Mi Mundo tells the details of the conflict and the remarkable efforts of the people to keep this memory alive, as the survivors built a museum to remember:
Besides helping maintain alive the historical memory of the still recent atrocities, the museum also provides a number of other services such as a library, computer lab, and a specific exhibit dedicated to the local Maya Achi culture and its rich traditions.
But winds have changed. Now they are celebrating again. Blogger Con sabor a naranja mi dulce Rabinal [es] (with a taste of orange, my sweet Rabinal) said that thanks to donations they were able to buy the things required for the festivities. On his post La Nación Rabinal, he describes the syncretism of the celebration:
Hoy por hoy la celebración de la feria y fiesta titular en honor a San Pablo Apóstol, se realiza el ritual en honor al AJAW, Corazón del Cielo y Corazón de la Tierra. (uk`ux kaj jay uk`ux ulew). Lo esencial de nuestra coexistencia sobre la Madre Tierra es la armonía y hermandad con el prójimo y la naturaleza misma de la cual somos parte importante para su protección y conservación…
Nowadays we celebrate the festival in honor to San Pablo, and we practice the ritual in honor to the Ajaw, the heart of the heavens and the heart of the earth. The essence of our coexistence with the Mother Earth is the harmony and brotherhood with others, and with the nature itself. We are part of such nature, an important one for its conservation and protection … “
There are several cofradías, groups of dancers, mostly indigenous, wearing masks and honoring Catholic saints. San Sebastian is one of the “Cofradías”, with its own Blog [es], where they uploaded the program of activities, the other cofradía with a blog is San Pablo [es], where they even published a web magazine about the festivities.
The city where the cruelest violence of war and the city where peace negotiations started, both have traditions that survived with the passage of time. They bring people together and brings paganism and Catholicism together, indigenous dances with prayers, and a dark color on a beautiful image of Christ. Above all, they bring the feeling of hope and happiness which involves colors painting the Guatemalan sky.
Tunisia: An Introduction
The “Tunisphere” is a group a passionate Internet users and bloggers even if their number is not as high as in neighbouring countries like Morocco. In this post, I will introduce you to some of them.
One of the pioneers of the Tunisphere is Hou-Hou, who is based in Canada and writes posts either in French or in English. His topics are general and focus on technology or social issues in Tunisia and Canada. He is also the brain behind the first and most famous Tunisian aggregator - tn-blogs.
Another leading blogger is Adibs, who is a veterinarian. His blog though tackles different social issues and he belongs to the first wave of Tunisian bloggers. He writes in French.
Subzero Blue is the former GVO author from Tunisia and he only posts in English and Arabic. He initiated the idea of Tunisian Blogger meetup and now he advocates micro-blogging via twitter too.
Tarek Cheniti, who is a PhD student in Oxford, UK, writes a lot of his posts in English, French and Arabic. In the latter, he uses the Tunisian dialect instead Standard Arabic. He also advocates the use of the Tunisian dialect as an official language instead of Standard Arabic. He covers a lot of political (Governance aspect), economical and social issues in his posts.
One of the good examples of the Tunisian blogosphere's diversity is Diana Magazine, which is the blog of a law student, who writes in Arabic, English and French. He is really interested in the political situation in Lebanon and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales!
Yosra, is another active blogger, specialising in writing about marketing and online media. She also contributes to the first newspaper supplement about Tunisian blogs every week and was responsible for the Tunisia Blog Award 2007. Another blogger interested in online media and web2.0 is Mehdi Lemloum, whose has a personal blog with emphasis on marketing, public relations and Tunisian soccer.
Since last year, the number of blogs in the Tunisian dialect and Arabic have been increasing. BTB is a famous blogger who writes a lot in the Tunisian dialect in an ironic way, while Khil we lil, who posts in French and the Tunisian dialect, writes a lot about cultural aspects and the southern region of Tunisia.
Meanwhile, Boudourou is a common initiative led by some bloggers who criticize Tunisia's traditional media and how media process the information in their Arabic posts.
But it is not always quiet on the Tunisphere. Some blogs raise a lot of controversy when they first appear. Among those, is Kifi, whose addition to the Tunisian aggregator created a stir, because of the clear sexual orientation of its author. Kifi means “similar to me” in the Tunisian dialect. Having said this, it isn't the first blog administered by a gay blogger. The first is Mon enfer. Both bloggers post in French.
Bahrain: Save the Patients
A doctor by profession, Bahraini in Alaska is appalled with the inhumane manner in which certain patients are dealt with at the main government hospital in Bahrain.
Here is his story:
فقبل عدة أشهر قال طبيب طوارئ لزوجة مريض بالسكلر ردا على توسلها له بادخاله المستشفى لسوء حالته ” هاذا مو هوتيل مال أبوك !!!” لتاخده مضطرة لمستشفى خاص الذي بدوره أعاده للسلمانية لسؤ حالته ومن ثم للعناية المركزة حيث انتقل الى رحمة الله.
Yemen blocks independent news websites
Numerous Yemeni websites have been blocked recently by government-controlled ISPs. Among them is the popular YemenPortal (English version of the site here), Yemen’s first multi-source news crawler and search engine, which extracts headlines from news sites that are being blocked by the authorities. YemenPortal is inviting Yemeni internet users to access the website through a mirror they build at yemen.arabiaportal.net.
According to Reporters Without Borders access to at least seven other Yemeni websites have been blocked since October:
Access to YemenPortal from within Yemen was blocked two days after Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Mujawar and other government officials accused the press on 17 January of “jeopardising the country’s national interest” and “promoting incitement to secession.”
In May of the last year, Yemen’s Ministry of Telecommunications blocked access to two opposition news websites (www.al-shoura.net and www.aleshteraki.net) because they reported on the humanitarian situation and the fighting between the army and Shia rebels in the northern province of Sa’ada.
In this interview I speak with YemenPortal.net administrator Walid Al-Saqaf, who talks about the threats to the freedom of online expression in his country:
Sami: what kind of websites that are being blocked in Yemen and how do you explain the recent move by Yemeni government-controlled ISP's to ban your website and others?
Walid: I believe RSF made an excellent and thoughtful assessment in their release when they said the regime is suffering from a number of setbacks and challenges and decided to target the media instead of resolving them. Indeed, news websites have started to gain popularity and influence public opinion more than any other time in the past. YouTube videos of the ruthless attacks by security forces against protesters in Aden were posted online in YemenPortal.net and news, views and discussions on the separatist movement in the south along with the rebel war in the north have all had strong influences on the local press, which are increasingly picking up and rerunning stories and news from online media sources.
In other words, the government is fearful of new media's influence on public opinion and would like to suppress it, just as it did for broadcast and print media through monopoly and licensing restrictions.
Sami: Who is responsible for the block? Was it a governmental decision to bar access to YemenPortal?
Walid: It is definitely the government, but it is not clear to me which part of it. I heard from reliable sources that it is the national security apparatus that prompted this ban. This also came after harsh comments by the Minister of Information (as reported in the above RSF release). But it is 100% clear that the government was the one behind the ban.
Sami: How would you assess the general filtering situation in Yemen?
Walid: One word: ‘alarming'. This is because we are supposed to be in a democratic country where freedom of the press and expression are guaranteed in the constitution. This is a serious blow to all the pledges the regime gave to the public and the world. It is particularly alarming to see that the government is careless about complaints from international advocacy groups and organizations in the face of such oppression. The more the world criticizes the regime, the more it insists on it, noting that it is a ‘domestic' issue that other nations or organizations should not interfere in. The censorship of pornographic websites has been tolerated by the society, but the government's resorting to censorship of websites merely for news and opinion marks a dangerous tendency towards dictatorship.
Sami: What has been the response of Yemeni Internet users to the the ban?
Walid: The response was positive to a very large extent. I received solidarity messages and hundreds of requests for membership. Readers are expecting the alternative domain (yemen.arabiaportal.net) to be blocked any time, so they would like to stay in touch and learn the second alternative domain that we will use if/when the first alternative domain is blocked.
There are however certain elements on the net that seem to support blocking websites. This is a minority and in my own opinion, they are either misguided or actually elements paid for by the authorities to give the impression that readers want this ban to ‘protect national interests' and other rubbish.
What I would like to point out here is that the nature of YemenPortal.net as an umbrella and source of information on thousand+ sources makes banning it equivalent to banning information coming from all those sources. The search engine had already tracked more than 200,000 items and is growing rapidly. It has an English section as well and strives to cover the widest array of sources on Yemen as possible. It started in Yemen but was planned to extend to the Arab world through the arabiaportal.net project. But this ban held us back.
The aim is to liberate people from restrictions on what they can see and read. In a solidarity meeting with more than a couple dozen news website managers and workers in Sana'a on Jan 23, a decision was taken to fight this ban by applying new technologies and techniques to allow blocked websites to have a prominent location on the front page of YemenPortal.net and renew the website's DNS whenever one is blocked. This way we hope to neutralize the impact of censorship because it is virtually impossible for the government to keep on blocking each and every website that has a link to the dynamic DNS that will be created.
Nari Jibon: Bloggers discussing education, emancipation and poverty
The last time we featured Nari Jibon, the women bloggers, among other things, discussed the problems of dowry of Bangladesh. David informed earlier this month about Nari Jibon's video training.
More from the Nari Jibon Blog Bangladesh from our view:
Trainer Shawn of The Uncultured Project trained the students/staff (bloggers) how to take good picture and video. He showed the rules of taking good picture and video. He trained the staff on podcast interview.
“In the same ceremony four students were selected and awarded as best bloggers (Two from English and two from Bangla blog). They are Zannat Ara Amzad (The street beggar), Sherin Sultana (An anecdote of my friend, Mitu), Sufia Khatun (Protivar Bilupti- Abolished talent) and Nafisa Mobassara (Mayer dadur biye—Marriage of mother’s grand father).”
Nurunnahar Islam Munni writes about the importance of education for women in order to change their lives for the better:
“Educated girls can lead her life with a good planning. She knows how to enjoy life and keep a happy family. If girls become educated they will be conscious about their rights.
An educated mother can maintain her family and teach her children properly & give proper guidance. She can be very conscious about her children’s health and nutrition. An educated girl can do job and can help her family financially, better than an uneducated girl.
Therefore it is told that ‘Give me an educated mother, I will give you an educated nation'.”
Sherin Sultana lives in the capital, Dhaka, for livelihood but she misses her village. She describes a recent holiday she spent in her village home:
I passed my time by gossiping and making fun with my pet dog Tuktuki, my pet cat Monti and Ponti (Monti’s child). The water, winds, trees even every bit of dust, every thing of my native place seem very close to me.
I also passed my time by singing songs, gossiping with my family members & with my friends and in every evening we went for a walk at the riverside.
She faces the reality:
In the busy Dhaka city now I also became a very busy person like city’s people. I lost all of my wants, joys and laughs for being busy and having pressure of real life.
Narijibon staff Golam Rabbany Sujon compiles some of the bloggers experiences about the problems women face in Bangladesh. Some excerpts:
I am Afroza, age 16, when I used to study in the school my mummy used to give me company to go and return from my school everyday. Now I study in a girls’ college but still now my mummy gives me company almost everyday when I go outside of our house. My elder brother is only three years senior than me but he went to the school and college alone. How independent my brother is!
Read the rest here.
Mahfuza Parul describes her day out to her friend's village in Boalkandi.
Helen Sarkar posts [bn] a touching story on the Bangla-language blog Amader Kotha about the thoughts she had when her favorite jacket was stolen by flood refugees:
আমার এত পছন্দের একটা জিনিস চুরি হয়ে গেল—এই দুঃখে আমার পাথর হওয়ার উচিৎ ছিল। কিন্তু আমি একবার চিৎকারও দেইনি তার বদলে যে নিয়েছে তার জন্য সহানভুতি এলো। মনেমনে ভাবলাম যে নিয়েছে সেতো আসোলেই চোর না, ওকে চুরি করতে হয়েছে একমুঠো ভাতের জন্য।
আমার কেন যেন মনে হয়- আসলে না আমরা যারা ভালো আছি তারাই সমাজের এক শ্রেণীর মানুষকে চোর হবার শিক্ষা দেই, ওদেরকে পরোক্ষভাবে বোঝানোর চেষ্টাকরি, সুন্দর ভাবে বেঁচে থাকার কোন অধিকার তোমাদের নেই। তোমরা নষ্টহয়ে যাবে, চুরি করবে, ছন্নছাড়া জীবন তোমাদের জন্য।
It occurs to me sometimes that we who are well off let a class of people be thieves. We try to tell them indirectly that they have no right to live a decent life. You go astray, be thieves and this turbulent life is for yours only.
আমরা নাকি সভ্য জগতের মানুষ- আমরা ছোট সাহায্যের প্যাকেট দিয়ে কিনতে চাই অসহায় ক্ষুধার্ত কোন শিশুর কান্নাকে, বৃদ্ধের আর্তনাদকে সহায়, সম্বলহীন মানুষগুলোকে। কিন্তু প্রতিকার করতে চাই না- আর যেন বন্যা না এসে দুকুল ভাসিয়ে যেন আমাদের সম্পদকে নষ্ট না করে দেয়, না-ভাসিয়ে দেয় আমাদের অশ্রুর সাগরে।
Farjana Akter shares a story about her first time visit to the Cox's Bazar beach. She says:
The scenery of the sun set in the Bay-of-Bengal is unforgettable.
Shanta Islam shares with us an interesting story of her school final exam. Nina Sultana Mim portrays one Pitha (cake) seller. Nilufa Akter shares [bn] a fairy tale she heard in her child hood.
Nafisa Mubassir tells of [bn] the story of the marriage of her mother's grandfather. About a century ago child marriage was prevalent and the bride was only 5 while the groom was 15. At that age they did not know what marriage was all about and it was more like the marriage of the dolls.
In contrast Salma Siddiqa Mumu writes that the mentality of women of Bangladesh has changed. More and more women are coming out of the home where they were merely housewives and are participating in various activities to be financially independent now.
More blogger profiles were posted on the Nari Jibon blog. The bloggers portrayed were Asma Akter, Linda Pandey, Sharmin Chowdhury Shikha, Jannatul Fardouse Nargis, Kamrun Nahar, Farjana Huque, Shifat Binte Quaium & Bushrat Binte Quaium [bn], Laili Jahan Meghla, Ayesha Parvin [bn].
We hope to show you some videos and podcasts of the participants in our next roundup on Nari Jibon. If you would like to help support Nari Jibon, you can download a PDF of the 2008 Nari Jibon Calendar and make a donation (suggested $10) via Give2Asia.
Lebanon: Car Bomb Targets Counter-Terrorism Captain
Yet another terrorist attack targeted Lebanon leaving behind deaths and destruction. Today, at 10am local time, a car bomb killed Lebanon’s active counter–terrorism police officer, Captain Wissam Eid and three others. The explosion along the Hazmieh highway, just on the outskirts of Beirut, also wounded 38 other persons. Following are some of Lebanese bloggers’ reactions to the incident:
These bloggers posted photos from the site of the explosion:
Friday Lunch Club, who also has links to new sources. Bilad ash-Sham has two posts with photos here and here.
These bloggers have updates and reflections on the explosion:
Eliedh and Independence 05 both posted updates.
Harryzzz was at the scene 40 minutes after the explosion and reported what he saw:
I've just come back from the place where a bomb exploded, on Friday morning. Pretty messy. According to officials 6 dead, although I only arrived at the scene around 40 minutes after the attack took place and all victims were already taken away by ambulances. Due to an enormous traffic mess, I could not reach the place quicker.
Blacksmiths of Lebanon posted a video showing live footage of the explosion broadcast by a local TV station.
The Human Province reacted to those who consider the explosions to be messages:
Everyone always speaks of a “message” that's being relayed by this bomb or that. Perhaps I'm just daft, but I don't know what these messages are, to whom they're addressed or from whom they're postmarked. It's like playing the telephone game (téléphone cassé, if you're from Lebanon) where a message gets sent down a chain of whispering kids until it's unintelligible at the end. The only difference is that instead of whispers and kids, it's car bombs and mangled corpses.
Beirut Spring wrote a post asking: “Who killed captain Wissam Eid?”
Links for Fri, 2008-01
Luiz Carlos Azenha [pt] has started a series of posts in which he intends to translate all the official documents about the American support to the 1964 coup in Brazil, currently kept by George Washington University's National Security Archives. In this second post, he deciphers a “message from the then ambassador to Brazil, Lincoln Gordon, to his superiors in Washington”.
Srebrenica Genocide Blog republishes a list of child victims of the Srebrenica massacre issued by Bosnia & Herzegovina's Federal Commission for Missing Persons.
UNICEF has just published its annual analysis of the mortality rate of children under 5 years. Among the conclusions, Angola, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, East Timor and Cape Verde have rates far above the admissible, considering Brazil as the standard intermediate and Portugal as the only one who moves to a typical position of a “developed country”. See a comprehensive report at Timor Lososae Nação [pt].
Dan McMinn returns to Ukraine and resumes blogging at Orange Ukraine; one of his first posts is on two Ukrainian women politicians: Yulia Tymoshenko and Raisa Bohatyryova.
Andre Lemos [pt] reports that, to celebrate the anniversary of 454 years of São Paulo, Second Life has inaugurated its main avenue in the virtual world at the New Island Brazil (183, 182, 41). “At least 20 thousand users are expected to take part of the celebration to launch the new island”.
Rodrigo Serrate of La TeVelisión [es] notes the obvious similarities in the new logo of the Bolivian channel Gigavision and the Argentine station Telefe.
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