Stories
June 27th, 2008
Shhh… The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2008 Has Begun
· 15:37 ·If it's quiet on Global Voices the next couple of days, it's because we've transported around 80 of our editors, authors, and translators to Budapest, Hungary for a Summit about online freedom of expression, citizen media, and the role of Global Voices in the next year. You can follow all of us live throughout the day via webcast, liveblog, Twitter, and photos. See how, on our Summit website.
Many Global Voices bloggers who have worked together virtually for more than a year are meeting here face to face for the first time. It's a public meeting that has attracted around 200 participants from all continents, including over two dozen journalists from mainstream media. Thank you to everyone who is here in Budapest, or following from abroad.
A snap shot of the conference room towards the end of the first day. By Neha Viswanathan
February 5th, 2008
USA: Voices Without Votes
· 17:17 · AmericasThere are few subjects that spark the imagination of bloggers worldwide - and United States foreign policy is one of them. Today, Global Voices is launching a new website with Reuters that opens a window on the global conversation about the 2008 presidential election in the USA.
It's called Voices Without Votes.
Global Voices challenges people to listen to people beyond their own borders. We translate back and forth from blogospheres in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe in hopes that people may come to understand and care for one another across borders.
We also encourage international media to talk to and report on the concerns of ordinary citizens around the world. Hopefully, looking at US politics more closely through a kaleidoscope of world blogs will be a compelling and thought-provoking experience. Send us links to blogs you would like us to link to, including your own.
Our Middle East and North Africa Editor, Amira Al Hussaini is going to be editing the website with help from other Global Voices editors and volunteers. Check in regularly at Voices Without Votes until Americans finally hit the polls and elect a president in November 2008.
Meanwhile, the world is still talking! Are you listening?
8 comments · »»January 19th, 2008
Puerto Rico: Sexual Politics
· 17:41 · AmericasPuerto Rican bloggers grapple with questions of feminism, reproductive rights, and gay marriage in this round up of posts.
The gay marriage debate has arrived in Puerto Rico, where Christian groups, assisted by United States hardliners against abortion and gay marriage, like the Alliance Defense Fund, are seeking an amendment to the Puerto Rican constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a woman only.
Edwin Vázquez, blogging at Cargas y Descargas fear this change to the constitution would “legitimize the persecution of homosexuals and hetrosexuals who cohabit”. In a post called “The Inquisition in Puerto Rico” [es], he points to the numerous civil rights breaches committed by the Alliance Defense Fund and says:
No permitamos que gente de afuera venga a trastocar NUESTRA CONSTITUCIÓN. Eso es lo que nos espera en Puerto Rico. Casi veo a la mayoría de los legisladores reuniéndose con estos trogloditas. La línea está trazada y no hay lugar para la indiferencia. A luchar por nuestros derechos.
We cannot permit that people from the outside come here to subvert OUR CONSTITUTION. This is what awaits us in Puerto Rico. I see almost the majority of our legislators backing up these troglodytes. The line is drawn and there is no room for indifference. To the fight for our rights.
Nuyorican (New York + Puerto Rico) blogger Mamita Mala has been to the movies to see Juno, a film about a teenager who becomes pregnant out of wedlock. A single mother, she reflects on an article she read about how several recent films about unexpected pregnancy suggest not having an abortion leads to a happy ending:
Originally after seeing the movie, I thought about taking my 10 year old to see Juno. But suddenly I backtracked. My daughter and I have had candid discussions about sex and pregnancy and contraception but not about abortion. Am I ready for that?
Hey mom what’s an abortion? Have you ever had one?
Um yeah, and I thought of aborting you.
Of course I would never say that, at least not in that hard harsh way but just what sort of a message do I want to send to my daughter about such an issue? Especially in an age when an abortion is harder to get , especially for young women of color. Especially in a culture that already looks at it’s young woman as sex objects in one breath, and in the same breath expects them to keep their knees locked to a reggaeton beat.
At Tinta Digital, Eugenio Martínez Rodríguez wonders [es] whether new strands of feminism in Puerto Rico are actually less about female equality than female superiority. He asks whether there could be a campaign against this female version of “machismo”, without implying that women should not have equal rights. “What is the alternative? To do nothing?” he asks.
5 comments · »»January 4th, 2008
Global Voices: A review of 2007, and big plans for 2008
· 22:15 · Americas , Central Asia & Caucasus , East Asia , Eastern & Central Europe , Middle East & North Africa , South Asia , Sub-Saharan Africa , Western EuropeNo one could have predicted that a post on Chinese ant farmers would become the most read story on Global Voices in 2007.
The top stories on this website were primarily those where local bloggers became important sources for the international media (and democracy activists), like protests in Myanmar, Pakistan, and the current unrest in Kenya. Or they attracted droves of readers because almost no one else reports on “faraway” regions and stories like the tropical storms in Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Honduras, and Oman.
In the past days, Global Voices authors and editors have highlighted some of the top stories in blogospheres of their different regions. See what bloggers in the Americas, the Caribbean, the Caucasus, Hong Kong, Korea, and the Philippines felt were the most important issues in 2007 - and share in hopes for the future with Syrian, Morrocan, Arabic and Portuguese-language bloggers.
‘Sexiest' stories on Global Voices in 2007
Quantity isn't always a measure of quality, but here's a quick look at some more of the most read posts on Global Voices in 2007.
(Bankrupt ant farmers protesting in Shenyang, photo from “The Free China”)
Several top posts were originally published on our Advocacy website about online censorship and freedom of expression. The enormous popularity of posts like those on Chinese ant farmers or environmental protests in Xiamen were surely linked to the fact that local internet media and blogs were censored.
It doesn't have to ‘bleed' to lead on Global Voices, but it seems to help. Traffic on posts about the execution of Saddam Hussein, an honor killing in Southern Kurdistan, and a neo-Nazi execution video in Russia were all high.
Sex and scandal also never fails to attract online readers (do we need a sex editor?). Among the most salacious stories in 2007, were a US hip hop artist's gyrations in Trinidad, a polygamous holy man in Indonesia, sexual expression in Hong Kong, and most recently, the infidelities of a Chinese television host.
Global Voices in 2008
Global Voices' daily readership has doubled since the beginning of 2007, and quite atypically for an English-language website, China is the country we receive the most readers from after the United States.
In 2008, we expect to attract even more readers from non-English speaking countries with the help of our incredible Lingua translators who now translate Global Voices post into a dozen languages, including Arabic, Bangla, and Malagasy. They have grown to become one of the biggest volunteer translating communities on the web.
International mainstream media are asking questions about world bloggers like never before. Global Voices authors and editors are currently being interviewed and quoted on citizen media and politics almost weekly in newspapers, magazines, radio and television. Our new Special Coverage pages with live feeds from hand-picked blogs have been linked to by a wide array of online media.
Finally, Global Voices regional and language editors will be reaching out to more bloggers in countries we do not currently cover, inviting them to join our network of more than 100 volunteer authors (send them an email if you think it should be you!). From October to January the number of posts by our authors write rose by 20%.
New projects on the horizon
Our Rising Voices initiative has just awarded micro-grants to five new blogging projects in Jamaica, Kenya, Iran, Madagascar, and Uruguay, following the success of the first round of grantees in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Colombia, India, and Sierra Leone.
With support from Reuters, Global Voices has named an environmental editor, Juliana Rotich, and a new video editor, Juliana Rincón Parra (being named Juliana was not a requirement for the job). These two editors will be expanding our coverage on both subjects worldwide.
Global Voices will also be partnering with Reuters on a project to report on what the global blogosphere is saying about the US presidential election.
These are just some of the exciting initiatives coming out of the Global Voices community in 2008. Happy new year to all our readers, bloggers, translators, innovators, and supporters.
2 comments · »»December 14th, 2007
WeMedia: A chance to tell them what you think
· 23:26 ·
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.
1 comment · »»December 10th, 2007
Happy Human Rights Day 
· 18:23
· Today, is International Human Rights Day and while this is good cause for reflection (and depression) about the terrible state of affairs in the world, there are also some remarkable victories to celebrate. Activists around the world are finding new, innovative ways to use technology to tell their stories, and fight back against censorship and oppression.
Yesterday, six Global Voices bloggers on different continents participated in a conference call with Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson, and Graça Machel. You can listen to an audio recording of the conversation here (thanks to Preetam Rai).
These heroes of human rights have recenltly joined forces with Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi and eight others in a new group called The Elders. And they are asking the world's bloggers and citizen media activists to help them in their campaign to make human rights more relavant to individuals around the world.
A new campaign
The Elders new online campaign, Every Human has Rights is aiming to get as many signatures as possible on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
On openDemocracy's women's rights blog, 5050, I wrote:
… Desmond Tutu said he would like to see “a billion” signatures on it. I wonder how many have even read it? Considering the enormous mailing lists of organizations like Amnesty International, UNICEF, Action Aid, and other who are partnering in the effort, it shouldn’t take too long to reach the first million signatures. But 1 billion signatures? Has that even been done before?
The second goal of the campaign is to get world citizens and activists to upload videos about human rights violations on WITNESS' new website, The Hub. It's launching in beta mode today. The idea was originally tested in a pilot project on Global Voices in partnership with WITNESS.
Sameer Padania from The HUB was also on the conference call. He wrote in their blog:
… it was left to Graça Machel to speak particularly of human rights organisations at the grassroots. She made clear the Elders’ own feeling of “responsibility to bring forward the stories of the world,” but she recognised the power of new media to do the same with real immediacy, and she appealed to bloggers to bring out “stories of resistance and success.”
And then she hit on what we see as one of the Hub’s most important roles: “For the campaign to be global,” it needs to connect with “small organisations that don’t have the space or the resources to get recognition or power.”
What would you have asked the Elders?
The Elders said they need the help of bloggers as the campaign moves forward and welcome suggestions. We didn't get to ask all our questions as John Kennedy, Global Voices Chinese editor, points out in his account of the conference call in Chinese and English, and to nearly 150 friends on Facebook (how many of the Elders are on Facebook yet, he asks).
He wrote:
6 comments · »»Again, what would you have asked these people? … In a discussion on global re-commitment to human rights values led by an internet petition, when do issues like privilege and access get factored in? From where I sit, this could be a redundant issue—when was the last time a North American born during or after the 1980s signed an online petition and did anything to follow through on it? As a regular Facebook user, I probably click off on a dozen a month.
I guess that's where horizontal international perspectives like those which can be found on Global Voices Online come in. What does international perspective even mean to an old freedom fighter like Nelson Mandela in a post-Communism, post-911 world? Does he have a blog yet? Is there even anyone for these Elders to pass the cause on down to? What's so wrong with existing frameworks and networks that people like these would see the need to play the wisdom card as means of continuing to do what they see as right?
December 2nd, 2007
Blogging World Aids Day
· 20:47
· Americas , South Asia , Sub-Saharan Africa Bloggers around the world marked World Aids Day on December 1 by speaking openly and strongly about HIV and AIDS. Each post is a tribute to the fight against the epidemic, which only grows stronger through silence and misinformation.
Malawi: Tell your story
In Malawi, Global Voices author and journalist Victor Kaonga shares a memory from the first interview he ever conducted with an openly HIV positive woman:
I had traveled from Malawi's capital Lilongwe for over 350 km to meet this lady in a rural area in Zomba. Connecting to her village, I had to cycle about 20 km with my recorder and notebook.
The lady had a story which I thought was worth pursuing and capturing for broadcast. What attracted me to her was the fact she did not hide she was HIV positive and to declare so in 1999 in Malawi was almost a taboo. Yet she defied all odds of the time even when ARVs were no there. Eight years down the road, it is still difficult to do away with the golden silence over AIDS in Malawi.
Bangladesh: Breaking taboos
In Bangladesh, a sociologist and AIDS activist, Kathryn B. Ward, has created a series of safe-sex posters featuring “Mr. Bunny”, a rear-view mirror toy holding condoms. On this poster, he says in Bangla: “I have condoms and money. Let's make love. Smart rabbits always wear-use condoms.”
Worldwide: Changing minds
Internews has created an interactive map of Local Voices journalism on public health and HIV/Aids around the world. It features the stories of journalists who have undergone training to report on the crisis openly, and audio and text from Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe.
Sylvia Chebet produced this piece for Citizen TV in Kenya on blood safety:
Caribbean: Reclaiming lost hope
In Jamaica, Yardflex talks about HIV postive women who have reclaimed their sexuality:
“You can have your sexuality…you don't have to lose it because you have HIV…” People tend to think that contracting HIV can spell the end of their sex lives, but HIV-positive Africans of all ages are now being urged to reclaim their sexuality and live healthy, normal lives. “I got this [HIV] through sex, so [I thought] my sexuality was gone and I felt I needed to stop dressing attractively and wait to die,” Florence Anam, 28, an information officer at the Kenya Network of Women with AIDS, told IRIN/PlusNews.
The Pulitzer Center of Crisis Reporting has created a beautiful multimedia website called the Heroes of HIV in the Caribbean.
Brazil: Treatment and prejudice
In spite of devastatingly high HIV-infection rates, Brazil has managed to turn their tragedy into a story of survival. Since 1996, the Brazilian government has guaranteed access to antiretroviral drugs to anyone in need. Blogger, Olhares da Stelinha (pt), says treatment alone is not enough:
0 comments · »»Brazil has found an exemplary method of treating Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome that is considered a world reference by the WHO (World Health Organization) . Now we, Brazilians, need to find a way to put an end to prejudice against the disease and its bearers and be more supportive of what we are by nature. Ending the prejudice and increasing prevention must become daily habits in our lives.
November 19th, 2007
Puerto Rico: Environmental Activist Turns Himself In
· 00:19 · AmericasPuerto Rican environmental activist “Tito Kayak” turned himself in to police on November 14 after a spectacular televised escape, following a week-long protest atop a 200-foot construction crane in San Juan. He was protesting a disputed luxury development that environmentalists warn will cause serious damage to public beaches.
Tito Kayak (real name, Alberto de Jesus) has a long history of high altitude stunts behind him. In the United States in 2000, he climbed the Statue of Liberty and hung a Puerto Rican flag from her crown. In 2005, he attempted to exchange the UN flag in front of the UN building with the Puerto Rican one. Two years later he hung the Palestinian flag from an Israeli tower in the West Bank.
Photos are copyleft from IndymediaPR.org
Dominican blogger Catarsis Diaria [es] writes:
¿Y qué es lo particular e interesante de esta protesta? Su huída -evadiendo a la Policía, que tiene una orden de arresto en su contra- a través de sogas y un kayak, para luego huír a nado por la laguna del Condado, en San Juan. Tan espectacular “hollywoodense” fue, que mis amigos del blog puertorriqueño de noticias humorísticas “El Ñame“, le han dedicado una noticia en el sentido de que ya lo están buscando para ser el próximo Bruce Willis.
And what is so interesting about this protest? His escape - evading the police, who had an order for his arrest, with ropes and a kayak - and then fleeing by swimming through the lake of Condado in San Juan. It was so spectacularly “Hollywood”, that my friends at the Puerto Rican humor blog “El Ñame”, have dedicated a news item to him, announcing they are offering him the position of the next Bruce Willis.
Indymedia Puerto Rico have posted a video of Tito Kayak's escape, and another (below) recorded moments before he turns himself in. He encourages Puerto Ricans to unite, commit civil disobedience, and do everything they can to stop and delay the construction of luxury housing and hotels on the coastline of the island.
Several bloggers posted links to the video, including Fulano X [es] who wrote: “This is a small tribute to the actions of Tito Kayak, admired by some misunderstood by others, who with his actions has created the necessary movement to provoke a discussion about the atrocities of this country.”
Rue Morn at Latrina.net [es] says:
El desarrollo de Puerto Rico no puede construirse a cuesta de la destrucción de los recursos naturales y de la violación de los reglamentos existentes … no se le puede seguir riendo las gracias a los que por soltar par de billetes y decir que crean unos cuantos empleos quieran convertirse en los dueños de lo que nos pertecene a todos por derecho propio. Puerto Rico como un todo es el que debe lucrarse de los recursos naturales e históricos, no los que tienen la capacidad de engordar a las ratas que se hacen llamar Gobernantes.
Development in Puerto Rico can not be created at the cost of the destruction of our natural resources and the violation of existing laws … we can't keep smiling thanks to everyone who hands over a few bucks and say they will create jobs. They want to become the owners of what rightfully belongs to us all. Puerto Rico as a whole is who should be profiting from those natural and historic resources, not just the ones who have the capacity to fatten the rats who call themselves our leaders.
0 comments · »»October 15th, 2007
Special Coverage: Burmese protests 2007
· 08:20 ·
It's not often that bloggers become a primary source in a global news story. Recent protests in Myanmar simply would not have been as big a story if there weren't brave people on the inside (and outside) willing to risk everything to spread news, photos and videos via the internet.
Burmese bloggers have even become a news story in their own right, attracting headlines from across mainstream media, and outrage when the internet was blocked by the junta in an attempt to silence them.
At the peak of the protests, Global Voices' South-East Asia editor Preetam Rai posted daily reports, links, and translations with the dedicated help of our Burmese authors. We have collected these posts on a Special Coverage page that includes links to articles written about Burmese bloggers in mainstream media, and further links to citizen media campaigns in support of the protesters.
As MSNBC's tech blogger, Will Fernia reports:
20 comments · »»For international news of this nature Global Voices should be your first click, not just for news but for further links and translations. It's certainly better than randomly clicking through blog directories for worthwhile blog content.
June 14th, 2007
G8 Summit: Is the world a better place yet?
· 04:58
· Americas , East Asia , Eastern & Central Europe , South Asia , Sub-Saharan Africa , Western Europe The G8 (+5) met in Heiligendamm, Germany last week. The world's richest countries came to agreements on climate change and poverty in Africa that are unlikely to satisfy most critics of global capitalism.
Global Voices has linked to comments from India, Russia, and Africa in the past week. And people from as far away as Peru and Japan have participated in protests against the meeting.
Jewels in the Jungle in Germany has kept track of some of the best articles and blogging on the G8 around the web (especially from Africa), and says:
I’m not as disappointed and pessimistic about the outcome of these talks as some people seem to be but at the same time you have to wonder, are the G8 Summits relevant anymore? Were they ever useful in helping to solve the world’s problems?
It has all become such a circus for the politicians and every group under the sun to voice their outrage and anger about all kinds of causes that have little or nothing to do with the summit agendas that one has to ask, why bother?
Francisco Xerinda on the excellent AfricaVox2007 blog of nine African journalists is more positive:
The last four days here in Germany have been dominated by the anti-globalisation protests. The roads are constantly blocked and the police keep telling us to take a different route.
But for me the practical irritation is worth it; such protests really do matter to me. I saw the impact they had two years ago when pressure from civil society at Gleneagles led to debt relief for my country, Mozambique.
Patricia Daniels, on openDemocracy's openSummit blog reported on the G8 Summit and Alternative Summit from the perspective of women's rights. She advises readers not to bother reading the G8-Summit declarations. “They mainly contain bland statements which commit the G8 to nothing,” she says.
Predictably, millions of YouTube viewers were more interested in whether newly-elected French president Nicolas Sarkozy was drunk at his G8 summit press conference…
2 comments · »»
About Solana Larsen
I am a Danish-Puerto Rican journalist and activist, and I live in New York. I am the managing editor of Global Voices (this website), and used to be an editor with openDemocracy.net. My personal blog is solanasaurus.com and I blog in Danish about technology at blogbyblog.dk. Hablo Español. Solana Larsen's Space
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