The blogger at Postre Literario [es] writes about this focus, “To talk with Ciro Alegría is to feel the pride in the indigenism that we have in our blood and that makes us different, unique, grand because of our history.”

Perhaps, Alegria's best-known work is Broad and Alien is the World (1941), which according to the La República newspaper, is “brilliant from the beginning. The novel Broad and Alien is the World takes place in a mountainous community in Northern Peru, troubled by the resistance of its residents and its wise mayor troubled by the plundering by the political bosses, the Holocaust, and the emigration by the victims.” The novel was awarded the Grand Prize for Continental Novel in 1941. The blog Desafío Perú [es] summarizes the work:

la aldea de Rumi, auténtica protagonista de la novela, cuya vida se describe maravillosamente, es objeto de la codicia del terrateniente blanco; destruida, sus habitantes se dispersan: unos mueren, otros son reducidos a esclavos o marchan a las grandes ciudades. El mundo es ancho y ajeno es así un gran cuadro épico de las luchas de una arquetípica comunidad indígena contra los tres poderes que quieren destruirla: la oligarquía terrateniente, el Ejército y el Gobierno al servicio de los intereses estadounidenses.

Gonzalo Espino of the blog La Alforja de Chuque [es] writes the following in an analysis of the book:

Un aspecto descuidado por la crítica es la singularidad de lo maravilloso -lo mágico maravilloso- que aparece a lo largo de la novela. Se trata de pasajes que resultan extremadamente sospechosos, por que cuestionan nuestro esquema de realidad, y aun siéndolo, los ubicamos como aspectos extremadamente ficcionales. Pongo, aquí solamente dos casos: el de la comunidad Muncha allí donde no hay agua, pero sin embargo una joven tiene “macetas de claveles” que crea esa sensualidad olfativa en medio de la sequedad o el otro caso, es el diablo que atraviesa los andes y que en el relato sabemos que es el Mágico.

Eduardo Jiménez of the blog El Observador [es] takes stock of his writing and notes that his other works did not reach the level than his most famous book:

siempre me pregunté porqué llegó Alegría a un silencio casi total luego de la publicación de El mundo es ancho y ajeno. Siguió escribiendo, sí, y publicando uno que otro libro desperdigado en el tiempo, pero sin llegar jamás a esa cúspide que significó El mundo… Sólo queda la especulación para dar una respuesta. Posiblemente sintió que ya había llegado a su límite, a ese non plus ultra que los escritores de verdad reconocen en su fuero interno y ser conciente que lo publicado después no estaría a la misma altura. Con El mundo es ancho y ajeno terminado y publicado, su pathos ya estaba agotado, salvo que hubiese repetido fórmulas, lo que un escritor auténtico jamás haría.

Alegría spent a large part of his life in exile in Chile, the United States, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. As a member of the APRA political party, he was also jailed twice. It was here where he developed ideas for his novels. Writer Eduardo González Viaña tells an anecdote in his blog El Correo de Salem [es]:

Cuando lo conocí, varias décadas más tarde, Alegría me contó que allí, entre sueños y en medio de las cuatro paredes carcelarias, había visto a Rosendo Maqui y a los diversos personajes de su épica novela “El mundo es ancho y ajeno”. “Me moría de ganas de salir de allí para escribirla”.-me dijo. A Ciro le fue conmutada la pena de muerte por una prisión que padeció algunos años para luego exiliarse en Chile.

There were several events honoring the life and works of Alegría, such as a ceremony at the San Marcos Cultural Center on November 4, according to the blog La Torre de las Paradojas [es]. In addition, in the city of Cajamarca, the IV Gathering of Peruvian Storytellers “Ciro Alegría.” More information can be found on the event's blog [es].

In particular, L4L shares his observations from yesterday's hearing, and specifically on the decision not to enter phone records in Hajizade and Milli's defense into court.

During today’s hearing of “Wild-beating-taekwando-champions-bloggers-Adnan-and-Emin” case I was able to enter courtroom for the first time. Mixed feelings of what was happening. I saw Emin and Adnan, saw how strong they are. And this made me happy and proud. I had dozen or so rounds of laugh in the expense of “victims” Vusal and Babek. I was annoyed as hell.

Azercell answered to enquiry of the court and gave reports on calls made on July 8 by “victims” and Adnan. […] reports of Adnan’s calls shows that he was in the 39th police station. This little fact demolishes the case of the prosecutor. This shows that Adnan and Emin weren’t brought to police station handcuffed. […]

[…]

Then Vusal showed that he is “real Caucasian man” with valor and strong feeling of “qeyret”. He asked judge not to give Azercell’s report on his calls to defense. “I don’t want them to disturb my relatives and those close to me”. […] naturally, judge is “real Caucasian man” too, so he understood Vusal’s tender feelings and was with him on that.

Anyways. Amnesia. Adnan and Emin answered few questions after Vusal and Babek and they were so clear and accurate, contrast was almost scary. […]

[…] People like Emin and Adnan who made their choice and are proudly standing by it. Who will not back off. We should help their case. Only this way this nation will shake its AMNESIA.

Meanwhile, Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines remembers events to date, but also looks to the future.

Its been 4 months since Emin and Adnan's arrest- time goes by but somethings simply don't change. […]

[…] happiness and sense of victory slowly disappeared as in July, two youth activists- Emin Milli (30) and Adnan Hajizada (26) were arrested and charged with “hooliganism” and are now facing up to 5 year of imprisonment. They didn't do anything- they were attacked by two men who are now treated as “victims” and are set free while Emin and Adnan are spending their time behind bars. But they are keeping their chin up. […]

[…]

Looking back it makes one wonder will there ever be a change? Will people actually enjoy their lives rather than worry about making extra money to feed their families? Will our youth be able to study in corruption free universities and actually get a descent education? Will people be happy again? For now, there is only one answer, time will show so let it go by but be patient and hopefully we, or our children, or our grand children will see that change…

Incidentally, the date set for the next hearing (11 November) will coincide with a roundtable discussion on the case at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.

Hooliganism or Freedom of Speech? The case of two bloggers detained in Azerbaijan

On July 8, 2009, two bloggers and political activists, Andnan Hajizade and Emin Milli, were arrested in Azerbaijan on charges of “hooliganism”. The bloggers were detained shortly after posting a video on YouTube mocking the Azeri government's purchase of donkeys from Germany. After nine trials, the two bloggers (both without prior criminal records) remain imprisoned. The four presenters will form a panel discussion to speak about this particular case of the bloggers and what it means for freedom of speech in Azerbaijan as well as the greater Caucasus region.

Present for the event will be Parvana Persiani, Hajizade's girlfriend and a senior figure in the OL! Azerbaijani youth movement, who will also be attending next week's World Blogging Forum in Bucharest, Romania.

Global Voices Online will interview her there and Persiani will also feature in a live online interview on Kosmoshow.

Full coverage of the detention and trial of Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli is available in the Azerbaijan section of Global Voices Online and on the OL! Blog (in English and Azeri). The hashtag #EminAdnan is also used on Twitter.

One of the initiatives is Sadaka Reut, and this is what they say about their program:

With the majority of Palestinian and Jewish youth physically segregated from one another (in separate communities and schools) and fears, racism and prejudice the result, we look to build alternative models for interaction between the two groups. The ‘Building a Culture of Peace’ program seeks to create a space in which both Palestinian and Jewish youth may feel equal, respected and recognized as individuals and as national collectives.

The members of their program have also been participating in the One Minute Video Project, where they learn about video activism during a one-week workshop. Here are some of the results, and you can see the rest by clicking through to their site:

Arab:

AM/FM:

Few Love Singing:

Another initiative is the Windows for Peace project, which started back in 1991 as an effort to produce a bilingual and bicultural magazine for youth as a way for them to connect and learn about the conflict, promote equality and empower youth. However, it hasn't been easy, as they explain on their site:

It is no simple task for Israeli and Palestinian youth to overcome the vast amount of misinformation and stereotypes they are taught about one another. The limited availability for interaction, a result of living in mostly segregated communities and exacerbated by the ongoing violent political conflict, perpetuates the historical fears, prejudice, and hatred that divide the two peoples. Windows is therefore dedicated to fostering large scale change in the way Israeli and Palestinian youth see themselves, “the other” and the conflict. Participants in Windows programs go through experiences that promote conflict transformation among both peoples, towards a peaceful reality with which both sides can live. We believe that a just and lasting peace must be based on democratic values, human rights, and mutual knowledge and acceptance of “the other.”

They are also working on a new initiative called Through the Lens, where 15 to 17 year old youth who “graduate” from the magazine continue developing skills to create short films, news pieces and other video productions to further “productive, peace-building dialogue and positive interaction”.

Here is a video where the participants of Windows speak about their experience in the group and how they have dealt with the challenges it represents to get out of their comfort zone and speak about difficult topics such as the conflict between Israel and Palestine:

As the children in the video state in so many words: they may have a hard time dealing with many of the opinions and perceptions other children express, but having the space to discuss issues in a safe and secure manner helps them understand the world they live in with a possibility to interact, learn and share with other children and youth and even change these perceptions.

Today is also notable for another event — the continuing trial of detained video blogging youth activists Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli in Baku, Azerbaijan. The last court hearing was adjourned because witnesses did not turn up. Media Helping Media comments on the latest developments in what many consider to be a politically motivated case to silence dissent in the country.

The trial of Adnan Hajizade and Emin Abdullayev (also known as Milli) was adjourned ten days ago after a brief appearance by the two on hooliganism and violence charges.

[…]

Those campaigning for the release of the two men suspect that there may be political reasons behind the delays.

Media freedom groups have been protesting about the arrests and detention and claim it is part of an effort to limit freedom of expression.

Two days ago, Emotions on Air, Mind Mute, a newly launched English-language Azeri blog, reflected on the the case against the two young activists.

I started to intensely think about Emin and Adnan. I came to be proud of their parents,teachers and elders. I became curious about books they have read. I got jealous of friends they have, as they were lucky to know these great men personally.

Now it hurts very much that they are in prison. Their great time of lives has been stolen. Their summer has been taken away. Their parents spend sleepless nights. They have been deprived to enjoy their work, make mistakes, hang out with youth and talk to them. Their email inboxes are flooded with messages and run out of extra space.

But they keep on inspiring youth. They are hoping and planting seeds of liberty. They are spiritually free despite that their physical freedom is limited.

[…]

I think of my future now. How will it be? Will it come at all given the society I live in. Will I be arrested one day? My kids I will have.. if ever. […]

All I know is I want them to be hooligans like Emin and Adnan.

Nevertheless, many of Hajizade and Milli's supporters remained resigned to more delays.

As it was, the hearing was held although witnesses displayed selective memories. As usual, friends and supporters of Hajizade and Milli used new and social media such as Facebook and Twitter to update others.

The fact that key witnesses and the alleged victims themselves were unable to provide testimony prompted one supporter to hope that the trial might now end.

However, although it was proven that the two activists had reported an incident of physical assault against themselves, missing key evidence soon gave many reason to fear the worst. [Update: Eurasianet has since reported that the phone records were ruled inadmissible by the judge]

Amidst criticism that the authorities are stringing out the trial indefinitely, their fears were probably well founded. Despite calling a break, the hearing was not resumed.

Yet, while the action against Hajizade and Milli looks set to continue in a trial considered by the international community and local civil society organizations to be highly flawed, perhaps the last laugh went to Hajizade and Milli's supporters who noticed the irony when the two activists were taken away.

Also somewhat ironically, the date set for the next hearing will coincide with a roundtable discussion on the case at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.

Hooliganism or Freedom of Speech? The case of two bloggers detained in Azerbaijan

On July 8, 2009, two bloggers and political activists, Andnan Hajizade and Emin Milli, were arrested in Azerbaijan on charges of “hooliganism”. The bloggers were detained shortly after posting a video on YouTube mocking the Azeri government's purchase of donkeys from Germany. After nine trials, the two bloggers (both without prior criminal records) remain imprisoned. The four presenters will form a panel discussion to speak about this particular case of the bloggers and what it means for freedom of speech in Azerbaijan as well as the greater Caucasus region.

Present for the event will be Parvana Persiani, Hajizade's girlfriend and a senior figure in the OL! Azerbaijani youth movement, who will also be attending next week's World Blogging Forum in Bucharest, Romania.

Global Voices Online hopes to interview her there and Persiani will also feature in a live Internet interview on Kosmoshow.

Full coverage of the detention and trial of Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli is available in the Azerbaijan section of Global Voices Online and on the OL! Blog (in English and Azeri). The hashtag #EminAdnan is also used on Twitter.

The Somali Media Centre is an independent forum for the Somali journalists in and outside the country. It is established to promote the profile of the brave, hardworking journalists who devoted their lives to serve their people worldwide.
Somalia has been dubbed as a failed state, a country associated with death, long running civil strife, warlords, terrorism and modern piracy. But one of the most successful stories over the years has been the rise of the independent media and freedom of thought. However, the dedication and reporting of the truth come at a price.

The Centre publishes running blogs by these journalists. Also, the Centre distributes news content and reports by the journalists. The Centre coordinates between the Somali and non-Somali journalists. It gives non-Somali journalists who may be traveling to Somalia with first hand advice and contacts. The Centre also works with high profile international media organizations in commissioning, producing and filing stories and reports about Somalia and the Horn of Africa region.

Solana Larsen writes about the origin of Somali Media Centre project:

In case you hadn't guessed, I'm not Somali.

In journalism school in London in 2002 I had a classmate named Harun Hassan who I used to ask a lot of questions about life in Mogadishu and Somali politics. After we graduated, we remained friends and I introduced him to writing for openDemocracy.net where I was a commissioning editor for a few years. Later on, I became a managing editor at Global Voices Online, where we occasionally also have stories about Somali bloggers.

Harun used to tell me about ideas he had for media projects involving the Somali community in London. He created a newsletter on paper in Somali, and at one point he approached me about making a website for something he called the Somali Media Centre.

Media coverage of the Somali community in the UK was so negative and inaccurate, Harun felt the only way to correct it, was to make it easier for UK journalists to find Somali journalists and researchers to talk to.

We made a website and blog, but we were soon distracted by other work and the project lay dormant.

The website you are looking at now, is our second attempt at creating a networking tool for Somali journalists and others to use to help improve global understanding of Somalis and Somalia.

Below are some of latest blog posts from The Somalia Media Centre:

In a post titled, Affair to Remember, Fathia Absie writes about the conviction of Joshua Asisa, a peace-keeper in Somalia, for engaging in an affair with a young Somali woman:

Military court in Kampala convicted Joshua Asisa to a one-and-half years in prison. Mr. Asisa who is a member of the AMASOM peace-keepers in Somalia have been found guilty for engaging in an affair with a young Somali woman by the name of Nimco Omar and impregnating her after marrying her under a false pretence by telling her that he was a Muslim.
This story took place last year in Mogadisho but no one heard of it till this young woman went to Kampala and took Mr. Asisa to court for lying to her. Mohamed Abukar Ahmed who is the Journalist that broke the story has told me that he has learned the story after it was reported by a news paper in Uganda. After that Mr. Ahmed tried to get in touch with the leaders of the Somali community in Kambala and was able to get in touch with the girl. He told me that Ms. Omar told him about her story and how she met Mr. Asisa who is doctor. He was working at a private hospital for the Uganda military in Mogadisho.

“in the spirit of spreading the word..,” writes Idil Osman:

The recruitment taking place in the Somali refugee camps in Dadaab, Northeastern Kenya has stirred some controversial outbursts by many in and outside the region. However what I am particularly bewildered with is the stand-point of the Kenyan government. I did an investigative report on this issue earlier on at work where the defense minister of Kenya firmly claimed Kenya had not given permission for this recruitment to take place.
Meanwhile witnesses and human rights activists are recording and documenting evidence of these youngsters being put in Kenyan military trucks and driven to Kenyan military training bases.
Many of these youngsters are taken under false pretence and the promise of regular salary and a stable job with a UN/EU/AU backed military project.
In reality they are being recruited to go and fight in the very war they fled from and had turned them into refugees. Many of these young refugees are reported to be underage and taken without their parents' consent. It also violated their international human right as refugees according to the recently released Human Rights Watch press release, because refugees are meant to be kept in civilian conditions.

Solana discusses the issue of “unnamed sources” in Western media reports in her post titled “When Local Sources go Unnamed“:

just picked up the latest edition of National Geographic Magazine for their story on “Shattered Somalia”. The photos of Mogadishu by Pascal Maitre are beautiful, though they show a lot of destruction. And the writer, Robert Draper gives a fair and sympathetic summary of a complicated history. He also definitely makes the challenges of foreign reporting in Somalia clear.

Curiously, Somali journalist Harun Hassan is mentioned by name in a photo caption of a traffic guard in Mogadishu, but as far as I can see nowhere in the text itself. Why the reluctance to reveal sources? If Draper has taken the trouble of contacting and interviewing Somali media sources, why not share this information with the readers?

Is this a typical experience of Somali journalists who assist Western journalists with their reporting? I hope members of the Somali Media Centre will help shed light on what it's like to be on that end of the reporting team.

You can see the list of current members of the Centre here.

I See the Light by si David on Flickr

The plan, unveiled in the southern Moroccan city of Ouarzazate during a ceremony attended by king Mohammed VI and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will, according to the local news agency, enable the country to equally divide its renewable energies' national production between solar, wind and hydroelectric sources by the year 2020. By then, renewable energies will account for 38% of the country's overall energy production, according to the source.

Taha Balafrej, blogging on Vue du Maroc [Fr], explains that there might be a viable economic basis for the country's new policy inclination. He writes:

Dans le milieu des affaires, un intérêt grandissant est perceptible. Il faut reconnaître que l’effet Obama n’est pas étranger à cette prise de conscience animée par les opportunités économiques qu’elle engendre. Un pays comme le Maroc qui dépend presque entièrement des importations pour son énergie, et dont les ressources en eau se raréfient, a tout intérêt à rejoindre les pays qui y croient et y investissent.

The solar project, which is both publicly and privately funded, will benefit from American solar and steam technology, which seems to have won the market over traditional investors–primarily French–which is something thestrategist, blogging on Genesis Morocco, unequivocally endorses:

Seems the Europeans are out on this one. A clean shot for [American investors]. I'm all for it, the Europeans cannot match the Americans expertise in managing large scale programs…

thestrategist, publishing an open letter to the Moroccan king, further explains [Fr] his enthusiasm. He writes:

[Cette technologie pourrait] nous libérer des aléas de la pluviométrie en utilisant l'énergie abondante et renouvelable […], afin de dessaler l'eau de mer et approvisionner outre les besoins de l'industrie et des ménages, un système d'irrigation nationale en appoint, voire en remplacement, de la stratégie des barrages…

Whilst the majority seems to be supporting the scheme, not everybody is impressed. Jebli, commenting [Fr] on a post published by online news journal, Hesspress [Ar], finds the cost way too expensive. He writes:

[C]e projet solaire va produire 2000Mega Watt/h, pour un cout de 9 milliards de dollars, ce qui est TROP TROP TROP cher.
Une centrale nucléaire, sa construction de bout en bout coute 1,5 milliard de dollars et produit 1000Mega watt/heure.
Ainsi, avec 9 milliards de dollars le Maroc aurait pu créer 6 centrales nucléaires, et aurait produit 6000Mega watt/heure.
Franchement, je ne comprend pas le choix de nos dirigeants, ils choisissent des téchnologies au hasard, sans réflichir, vraiment ils gaspillent l'argent public.

Commenting on the same post, Hay Bin Yaqdan sees in the project [Ar] another stranglehold of foreign powers on local resources. He writes:

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Shimokitazawa's spaghetti-like mess of streets and train lines evoke passion among some, frustration among others. The area has earned a name for itself as a breeding ground for creative young artists with its dozens of small theaters, art galleries and music venues. While eccentric characters like Rikimaru Toho fit perfectly into this urban environment, others see the maze of narrow streets as a dangerous fire hazard and a giant urban congestion knot in need of unwinding.

Planned route through Shimokitazawa (Subsidiary Route 54)

The entire area happens to lie in the path of a would-be thoroughfare running through Shimokitazawa to Shibuya, originally set forth in a “War damage revival plan” drafted all the way back in 1946. After several changes, that plan was brought back to life in 2003 and demolition and construction work has been slated to start in 2010. Should it be executed, the plan will split Shimokitazawa apart with a 26-meter wide expressway, Subsidiary Route 54 (補助54号線).

While the basic shape of those redevelopment plans had been known for some time, it was only a few weeks ago that the first glimpses of the new design finally emerged on the blog of Kuniyoshi Yoshida, a local landowner and head of the Shimokitazawa South [ja] shopowners' union. Comments which began to appear on the blog, blasting the new design for its failure to respect the Shimokitazawa atmosphere, were swiftly deleted, but hostility against the plans only grew.

New Shimokitazawa Station design

In a blog entry [ja] that drew a large response [ja], blogger and writer Hideaki Matsunaga [ja] explained why:

リリー・フランキー氏をはじめとして、下北沢の文化や町並を愛する人たちが、下北沢再開発に反対の意見を表明している。そこには、住人も、住人以外も含まれる。しかし、今、下北沢で何が起こっているのか、なぜこのデザインがこんなに反発を受けるのか、その経緯について簡単にまとめてみる。

The blog entry starts with a bit of history:

下北沢は「Ｘ」の交点に当たる。新宿から伸びる小田急線がその一つのラインであり、渋谷から吉祥寺に伸びる京王井の頭線がもう一つのラインである。新宿・渋谷・吉祥寺、そして小田急線で成城の東宝撮影所や祖師ヶ谷大蔵の円谷プロ旧本社などとつながる交点、それが下北沢である。

(Note: all photos of Shimokitazawa reproduced with permission from the blog of Hideaki Matsunaga.)

かつて農村地帯だった駅周辺は次第に郊外の宅地化していった。やがて、横光利一、東郷青児、宇野千代、萩原朔太郎、斎藤茂吉らが住み、「下北沢文士町」という要素も持つようになっていく。萩原朔太郎の『猫町』も下北沢地域を舞台としている。この街と切り離せない作家として、森茉莉らもいる。（→萩原朔太郎 猫町 散文詩風な小説）

戦後の闇市の時代を経て、下北沢は住宅地から繁華街へと発展していった。さらに本多劇場をはじめとする小劇場やライブハウスが次々と生まれ、演劇・音楽・サブカルの街、あるいは演劇や音楽を目指す若者たちが多く集まる街となる。

闇市の記憶を残す下北沢北口の駅前食品市場は、やがて衣料品「アメリカ屋」ブームを起こし、その記憶は下北沢に多く見られる古着やファッションの小さな店に引き継がれているといえよう。

迷路のような、とたとえられる下北沢。狭い路地が複雑に走るゴチャゴチャ感あふれる街は、徒歩によって回遊できる空間として親しまれてきた。

この下北沢の街が大きく変わろうとしている。そして、その変化は下北沢を「破壊」するものであると考える人が、下北沢住人にも、あるいは下北沢に来る人にも、非常に多い（一方で、その変化を歓迎する商店主もいる）。

In the next section, Matsunaga points out that there are actually two parts to the redevelopment plans for Shimokitazawa. The first part, which he does not personally oppose, is already underway and focuses on expanding the number of tracks on the Odakyu line and burying them to reduce the number of crosswalks.

The second set of redevelopment plans are of a different kind:

さて、この小田急線地下化工事はすでに始まっているが、一方でこれとセットのようにして進められているのが「都市計画道路補助54号線（以下、補助 54号線）」という26メートル幅道路の建設計画、ならびに下北沢駅前にバスロータリーを造るという計画（世田谷区画街路10号線）である。この道路・バスロータリーが、下北沢の街を根底から破壊するものとして反対されている。そして、小田急線地下化と道路事業がセットで行なわれることで世田谷区は補助金をせしめたと考える人たちもいる。

補助54号線は、下北沢演劇文化発祥の地ともいえる「スズナリ」を背後からたたきつぶし、北沢タウンホールの北側を抜けて本多スタジオを踏みつぶし、下北沢北口の街のど真ん中を貫いて、環七と同じ幅の自動車道で街を分断・破壊しようという計画である。そして、環七と都心を結ぶ道路となる。

また、この補助54号線から旧小田急線路跡地に沿って下北沢駅北口に伸びる道路は、駅前食品市場の雑然とした空間を取っ払って作られる駅前ロータリーにつながる。

In the next section of the blog entry, Matsunaga points out some implications of the redevelopment project:

駅前ロータリーができることで、高層ビルの高さ制限が大きく緩和される可能性も指摘されている。下北沢一帯の建物は低いものが多く、これも歩く街としての性質を生み出しているが、これが一転して高層ビルの町へと変貌する可能性もある。

And he explains:

もちろん、再開発については（今回の白髪爺さんを筆頭に）「地元」でも歓迎する声がある。今回の衆院選前に各陣営に確認したところ、自民党は再開発こそが地元の活性化につながると全面的に賛同していた。民主党は、本当に必要な道路か再調査して不要不急であれば計画見直し、という、どちらともとれる見解だった（一応、無駄を省くという趣旨ではあるのだが、八ツ場ダム中止のように明確な態度を示しているわけではない。ある民主党都議会議員は、「消防車が入れない狭い道は防災上問題」と、事実上再開発賛成を表明している）。みんなの党は、下北沢については詳しくないが、下町風情は残したい、という見解であった。それはさておくとしよう。

この再開発歓迎派は、要するに、今までのゴチャゴチャした下北沢が大嫌いなのである。闇市の記憶を受け継ぐような、北口食品市場が平成の今に至るまで残存していることが許せないのである。自動車が入ってこれないのが発展と進歩を阻害していると感じているのである。

Returning to the original topic of the design for the new Shimokitazawa station, Matsunaga writes:

下北沢という街の記号として存在するもの、たとえばそれはスズナリであり、駅前食品市場であり、車の入ってこない（タクシーさえもなかなか入って来たがらない）「徒歩空間」の路地であるが、そういうものが補助54号線と駅前ロータリー計画によって、文字通り「ブルドーザーでならされようとしている」。

そしてその後にやってくるものとして提案されたのが、よりによって今回の「下北沢駅駅舎整備イメージ案」なのだ。なぜこんなガラス張りの幾何学的な（つまり非人間的な）ものが「下北沢にふさわしい」のだ。「きれいさっぱりすっきりで直線的な、清潔で明るい駅舎」のどこが、ゴチャゴチャくねくねチマチマでジグザグの、雑然としているが活気のある下北沢の街にふさわしいのだ。

多くの下北沢フリークがこの案に対してほとんど反射的に反発を覚えたのは、決して偶然ではない。まさにそれは「今までの下北沢」のイメージ（あるいは下北沢を守ろうとする人たちの持つ下北沢のイメージ）と、「今までとは根本的に異なる下北沢」を作りたい人たちの願望するイメージが、まさに正反対、明らかに対極に位置するものであったことを意味する。

Reflecting on his own relation to Shimokitazawa, he continues:

別に下北沢に生まれ育ったわけではないが、その街の雰囲気を楽しみ、好きになってきた一人の人間として、そんな感傷やノスタルジーを感じている。そして、それを共有する地元の人たちと、そうではない地元の人たち、あるいは外部の人たちがいる。

下北沢再開発問題は、決して（八ツ場ダム問題のような）地元VS外部の闘いではない。街とは何か、街の発展とは何かについてのイメージの対立である。

(In response to many bookmark comments, Matsunaga wrote a follow-up post [ja] in which he clarified his position on a number of points. In particular, he emphasized that while he is personally against the Sub-Road 54 plans, he is not against the expansion/burying of Odakyu line tracks. He also responded to many comments claiming that the redevelopment is necessary for safety reasons.)

Update (Nov. 7)

Some more pictures of Shimokitazawa:

The Suzunari theater in Shimokitazawa (photo by mamacharikinoko)

Building in Shimokitazawa (photo by mamacharikinoko)

Cafe in Shimokitazawa (photo by mamacharikinoko)

These ventures weren’t picked by any scientific method; nor do they constitute any consensus of how ICTs will look in the next few years. These are just projects that caught my eye. Because these projects leverage technology in rural areas, let’s start with a discussion on how public internet kiosks could develop in the next few years.

Broadband? by wseltzer on Flickr.

In his blog ICTlogy, Ismael Peña-López wonders whether public internet kiosks like telecentres and cybercafés will evolve into enhanced e-centers, “where communities will gather and benefit from several community resources, computers and Internet access among others? Or will they just disappear?”

He continues:

As libraries have provided more than books, but a place where to learn to read and find kindred souls, it is my guess that public Internet access points will disappear as such, and will either be embedded within existing structures (libraries themselves, or civic centres, to name a few) or the existing telecentres and cybercafes will evolve into a next stage where the learning and community factors will be much more relevant. We are indeed seeing plenty of examples of this, and it is a matter of time that priorities or the focus turns upside down: instead of going to access the Internet and finding people, one will go and find people and use the Internet as an enhanced way to socialize. At its turn, this should be accompanied by the end of this false dichotomy on whether your a citizen or a netizen, as if the network had a live and a citizenry on its own. But time will tell.

Shilpa Sayura

Shilpa Sayura, which means sea of knowledge, is an interactive digital self-learning system based in Sri Lanka. Shilpa Sayura’s course of study began with eight subjects that parallels the national education curriculum so students in remote and rural areas can prepare for national school examinations in Sinhala, the country's predominant local language. The project has added another three courses, including lessons in Tamil and English.

Shilpa Sayura's open-source software was given away to non-profit educational providers and to rural Nansalas, a chain of government-developed telecentres. These telecentres in Sri Lanka fulfill many roles: Some provide connection to the web, but also offer fax, photocopying and printing services. They make money from phone calls, VOIP, and provide a bill-payment service. They are also places, the government hopes, where other ICT projects can bloom.

Harsha Liyanage, originally from Sri Lanka, blogs at Sustainability First: In search of sustainable telecentres. He records some of the issues Shilpa Sayura is attempting to overcome.

[The] Absence of competent teachers and adequate facilities handicap rural students in 80% of the Sri Lankas population. Now over 500 telecentres at rural outskirts provide a new window of opportunity. Shilpa Sayura enables students to interact with ICT to study 8 subjects digitally at tele centers and develop their knowledge to prepare for national examinations.

In March, 2008, Liyanage explained that Shilpa Sayura was undergoing growing pains.

Having a success story of a very compelling pilot, the project struggles at scaling up. Every telecentre operator of over 500 telecentres in Sri Lanka needs to have Shilpa Sayura installed in their telecentre. But, e-Fusion acknowledges it is not feasible at this present state.
• It needs technological improvements to ensure trouble free smooth run.
• Also needs technical capacity building at the telecentre operators to assist the users.
• Need to improve help-desk capacity to accept escalating demands
All these needs significant capital investments. They recognize it is not reasonable to tax the government to support further. Thus eyes at the CSR goodwill of the corporate partners.
In the mean time they plot the plans for an appropriate business model.

The blog Technology and Cultural Festival in Kandiyapitawew from Sri Lanka explains the educational benefits of the project.

We believe ‘Shilpa Sayura’ could contribute to addressing the issue of the shortage of school teachers, especially in distant rural area one which continues to be a setback to the county’s educational system.

The ‘Shilpa Sayura’ e-learning package covers eight school subjects, in Sinhala from grade six to O level. Shilpa Sayura’s simple interactive means of self study caters to students in remote communities with no access to urban educational resources. Still in its pilot stage Shilpa Sayura now operates in 20 ‘Nenasalas’ or tele-centers located in distant villages and promotes the concept of self learning among students in these secluded communities…The next phase would be the transformation of Shilpa Sayura into a National project to strengthen rural education and bridge the gap between rural and urban students.

M-Pesa

The next project takes place in Kenya, where the blog Global Warming contends the mobile phone is revolutionizing society.

There are presently over 17 million [mobile phone] subscribers and the fact that it is presently facilitating money transfers almost says it all. There are the two things that make everything work. One is communication and the second is convenience of transferring cash. After that you are in business anywhere.

M-Pesa began in 2007 as a way to perform simple banking transactions through cell phones. The telecom firms behind the project didn’t charge registration fees or require customers to have a bank account, often a major hurdle in Kenya because few people deal with traditional banks. Once signed-up, customers can use the M-Pesa application to pay bills, purchase more phone credits and transfer money within Kenya through data-enabled mobile phones. M-Pesa now allows customers to book airline tickets. Safaricom, the company responsible for M-Pesa, is beginning a pilot project to let customers pay for water usage.

M-Pesa agent in Bunda by emilsjoblom in Flickr.

In July 2009 M-Pesa totaled more than seven million subscribers, who collect or send money through a network of more than 1400 bank agents, making it the largest bank in the country. These customers transfer more than $2.5 million every month.

Just a few weeks ago, M-Pesa went international, moving into the United Kingdom by allowing people to send money back to phone numbers in Kenya through a web interface. The transaction costs as little as $8 US for sending 150 Pounds. A 2005 study found traditional money transfer firms charged fees between 2.5 and 40 percent of the transfer for anything below 100 Pounds.

David Zarraga, from the blog Mobile Behavior has a good rundown on how M-Pesa works.

Registered M-PESA customers can “deposit” hard currency with any M-PESA agent in exchange for e-money, which is uploaded into the customer’s M-PESA account. For 38 US cents, the customer can then transfer this money to another registered customer’s M-PESA account via SMS. Once the recipient receives the SMS confirmation, the hard currency can then be withdrawn from the nearest M-PESA agent, completing the money transfer process.

How does the M-PESA service benefit the average Kenyan? Olga Morawczynski, a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh who spoke at the GSM World Congress in Barcelona last February, shared the story of Martin, a shoe-maker in Kibera, an informal settlement just outside Nairobi. Martin makes about US$ 20 a day from his trade and sends a quarter of his earnings to his wife and mother, who live in Western Kenya, over 100 miles away. M-PESA saves Martin time, allowing him to work his trade instead of having to travel far outside his place of work to find a bank. The service also enables him to make frequent transfers – about 5 times a month – thereby allowing him to send a week’s earnings when his family needs the money most.

The blog Bankelele: Nairobi Banker lists advantages and disadvantages for banking with M-Pesa.

Benefits of m-pesa banking
- 24 hour banking: More reach & access than any bank or ATM network
- Mobile banking with operator tends to be cheaper then mobile banking via bank provided services
- Saving in transport costs and banking transaction costs
- Can pay a variety of bills for utilities at a low cost
Challenges of m-pesa banking
- Lack of float at dealers to transact/occasional mpesa system downtime
- No credit history; and the clumsy expensive statement from Safaricom not useful yet
- Calls for discipline to build savings
- Funds are not insured, and are more prone to crime. And dealing with a stolen phone in Kenya is not a pleasant experience.

eChoupal
Indian Tobacco Company, one of India’s largest exporters, created eChoupal, a series of rural information centers where farmers can communicate directly to other farmers, different markets and experts through the internet. These village internet kiosks were first installed for farmers to learn in local languages the latest information regarding national and international prices in soy, wheat, tobacco and shrimp. But the platform has morphed to providing other important information, such as weather conditions and the latest scientific practices. In 2006, eChoupal counted 3.5 million farmers who used 5,200 internet kiosks throughout more than 30,000 villages.

Harvesting Wheat #1 by Meanest Indian on Flickr.

The farmers pay a local coordinator a small sum to use the kiosk, which can also be used to order seed, fertilizers and other goods.

The blog NeoProducts Kiosks, from the UK, makes the point that part of eChoupal’s success comes from leaving behind the traditional buyers.

e-Choupal has been created by ITC Limited to enable rural farmers in India to buy and sell agricultural produce like soya beans, wheat, and coffee. It does this by allowing them directly to negotiate the sale of their produce via a network of PCs and kiosks in 6,500 centres spread across 100 districts in 10 states. Previously, the farmers had to go through numerous and sometime corrupt intermediaries.

What a great idea and what a fantastic use of kiosks! Allowing shared public access to interactive technology is what kiosks are all about. And this is only the beginning.

Chirag Jethmalani is a management student from Mumbai who blogs about Indian business in Squamble. Here he provides his take on e Choupal.

e Choupal was conceived to tackle the challenges posed by the unique features of Indian agriculture, characterized by fragmented farms, weak infrastructure and the involvement of numerous intermediaries…

Traditionally, these commodities were procured in “mandis” (major agricultural marketing centers in rural areas of India), where the middleman used to make most of the profit. These middlemen used unscientific and sometimes outright unfair means to judge the quality of the product to set the price. Difference in price for good quality and inferior quality was less, and hence there was no incentive for the farmers to invest and produce good quality output. With eChoupal, the farmers have a choice and the exploitative power of the middleman is neutralised.
ICT platform that facilitates flow of information and knowledge, and supports market transactions on line.
* It transmits Information (weather, prices, news),
* It transfers Knowledge (farm management, risk management)
* It facilitates sales of Farm Inputs (screened for quality) and
* It offers the choice of an alternative Output-marketing channel (convenience, lower transaction costs) to the farmer right at his doorstep
* It is an interlocking network of partnerships (ITC + Met Dept + Universities + Input COs + Sanyojaks, the erstwhile Commission Agents) bringing the best-inclass in information, knowledge and inputs.

Just because e-Choupal has a good platform and business model doesn’t make it a gurantee for success in India. To do this, people must understand rural markets.

Rural markets are both economic and social networks and there is a strong connection between the operation of social and economic transactions. Understanding the operations is vital before the systems are conceptualized. Use of local population, as much as possible helped the network to get the acceptance closely.

Two Kenyan men on Saturday became the first gay couple to wed in London. Charles Ngengi, 40 and his bride, Daniel Chege Gichia, 39, became civil partners under the controversial Civil Partnership Act which came into effect in the UK in 2005 allowing couples of the same sex to have legal recognition of their relationship.
The couple tied the knot at a civil partnership ceremony at Islington Town Hall in North London at 11.30 a.m. UK time. According to the Act, a civil partnership is defined as a legal marriage between gay and lesbian couples, and any couples who enter into a civil partnership obtain the new legal status of civil partners, instead of the traditional husband and wife status.

Tamaku, a blogger on The Diary of a Gay Kenyan was the first to publish a post expressing his excitement in the transition Kenya is going through and the story hitting the stands:

I am overjoyed that a gay wedding of Kenyans in London has made the news of the national press. We wish the lucky couple all the best in this new chapter of their lives together. George and I are thinking of the same, to deepen our commitment to one another - even though these unions are not recognised here. It's early days yet but we are determined to have a ceremony to exchange rings and vows witnessed by close friends and family. I'll wear white of course, don't even think to mutter but Tamaku's been around the block a few times unless you are a nun yourself. lol!

We hope you'll accept our invitation when the time comes. Tonight we are just both so happy to raise a glass or two to the newlyweds.

Donn, a gay photo blogger says he knows and has heard of a lot of Kenyan gay couples legalizing their union and he is wondering what the outburst is for, he says gay couples have wed in different countries where gay marriage is legal:

The two gay men above, who got married in the UK last Saturday….was really an eye opener for many Kenyans.The news of the marriage was on the airwaves throughout the weekend…I am sure now every corner of this country knows about it…since it was a hot topic in almost every radio station.Well to me they are not the 1st…there are other many Kenyan gay couple i know who got married in Spain, Canada, South Africa, and UK as well, but the

Most bloggers were not happy with the way the story was handled, the journalists have been described as lopsided; hungry-for-story; fame, self benefit and monetary pay. The journalists tracked down the home of the family members of the newly wed and camped outside the compound waiting for a comment from the parents on what they think of their son marrying a man. The family have been tormented as visitors always coming to the homestead just to witness:

Everyone in Kenya is hungry for something, now adding to the pack is journalists, this people are hungry-for-story, they wait for the slightest twitch to hit their headlines. If you think Mohamed Ali from KTN was the only journalist in Murang'a waiting to interview the parents of the newly wed couple, you are wrong, he is not. Well, apparently journalists are actually camping outside his home town, is it Charles, the supposed “bride”, waiting to interview the mother on what she thinks about her son being in a sexual relationship with a man. They went with the wedding pictures to show the parents and the mother was shocked beyond words, she has gone mute, she doesn't talk or eat. The father is since drinking his life away and hasn't gone sober since, but he was heard saying he is waiting for the bride

According to the website misterseed, the newly wed had a telephone interview and they were not pleased in how the Kenya media have portrayed them, they feel journalists had crossed their boundaries, they ask why they had to drag the family into “this”, but they still still remain hopeful that the laws in Kenya are changing and they will have a second wedding back home:

Mr. Seed telephone conversation with Mr. Chege and Ngengi the gay couple who married in London on Saturday 17th October, 2009. “Good morning Ngengi, how are you doing.” Mr. Seed asked on Thursday afternoon (22nd October). “I am fine Mr. Seed although disappointed that the Kenyan media has gone beyond the limits by visiting our parents in Murang'a to interview them. We understand that the KTN and Nation screened the story on Wednesday evening. How can they visit our parents because of our case. The parents and family has nothing to do with our case. We have not committed murder. The law allows this in the UK. Tell them to concentrate on taking the killers to Hague than concentrating with us. We are innocent people. Furthermore we are on honeymoon and they should not try to spoil our honeymoon. You know what Mr. Seed, the law in Kenya is changing soon and we might even decide to go and do another wedding down there.” Mr. Ngengi concluded with a light touch while laughing.

Radio disc jockeys engaged listeners in the debate igniting the rage and callers called in to call the union unafrican, uncultured and sinful:

Interesting, today morning this was a topic of discussion at Kiss 100 and the guy hired to be a comedian a fake ass one said, ” unethical, unpalatable, uncouth and unafrican.” He went further to say that he would throw his brother from a fourth floor flat if he came out to him and said that he was gay. He also said that gays should be burnt. Really! gays have got no place, some callers went on to say not in our culture and again “unafrican” What's that? J

On October 14th the Malawi Police Service arrested 21 year-old Gabriel Kondesi for owning and operating a radio station in Soza Village in the southern district of Mulanje, without a licence from the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA). On Friday October 16th Mulanje Second Grade Magistrate Aristotle Lameck Mkwapatira ordered Kondesi to pay a MK50,000 fine ($357), or serve a 10-month imprisonment sentence, according to an October 20th story by journalist Lucas Bottoman in the print edition of The Daily Times. Unable to pay the fine, Kondesi was sent to jail, and a media frenzy erupted.

Kondesi interviewed. Photo by Jack Mcbrams.

The story stunned Malawians both online and offline, who expressed their shock and anger on blogs, listservs, chat forums and other social media forums such as facebook. By Monday October 19th Kondesi was released after his family and well-wishers in his village raised the money and paid the fine. His family sold their television set, a DVD Player, bags of cement, and also borrowed money from other members of the community, according to Nyasatimes, The Nation and The Sunday Times. Details about the story have since been emerging, and a facebook group has been created, by Daud Suleman, to express support for Kondesi, and raise awareness about “what African youths can achieve through applicable necessary technologies.” The group had 380 members as of Friday (Oct. 30).

Thus far it has emerged that Kondesi dropped out of school in the 7th grade, and has since been operating his Pachikweza Radio Station, made out of crude gadgets that included “an old cassette player, a Nokia 1110, capacitors, two aerials and transistors,” according to Clifton Kawanga in The Sunday Times. Kawanga writes that Kondesi was employing up to ten other young people, whom he paid whenever he had the money. Listeners in the community were paying MK20 (approx. $0.007) to have letters read, and MK50 (approx. $0.003) for letters advertising business. Kawanga adds that MACRA charge $150 for community radio licences.

Malawian papers differ on which frequency Pachikweza was broadcasting, with one paper saying it was on 98.5FM, and another paper saying it was on 105.1FM. The radio station could be heard well beyond his village, crossing the national border into Mozambican territory.

It has also transpired that Kondesi did visit the offices of MACRA in 2007, but no one there helped him. “I travelled to Blantyre two years ago and the people at Macra said they would communicate with me through the Mulanje District Commissioner but I have got nothing up to now,” The Nation quoted him as saying.

Immediately the story broke out, blogger Clement Nthambazale Nyirenda wrote on his blog:

This guy is a genius! Why condemn him to prison when he did not know that what he was doing was wrong? A suspended sentence would have been better.

I, therefore, would like to call for his immediate release from prison. These are the kind of guys whom we should sponsor to ensure that their spirit of innovation is well nurtured for the good of the country and the world at large.

Also reacting to the story and calling Kondesi a genius was Joe Mlenga, writing on his blog:

I'm glad to learn that well-wishers and his family have managed to pay the 50-thousand Kwacha fine imposed by a court for the unlicensed radio. I appeal to the broadcasting community and business fraternity to help this young man achieve his dream of operating a radio station. Who knows what innovation Gabriel will come up with next given proper resources.

Other Malawians have expressed their support in various ways, including Gospel Kazako, Managing Director of Zodiak Broadcasting Station, who contributed money to reimburse the family for the loss they incurred in trying to find the money to pay Kondesi's fine. Kazako was quoted by Nyasatimes as saying: “As broadcasters, we need to support fellow broadcasters whenever they are in trouble. I don’t actually understand when courts should grant suspended sentences but, as a radio man, I am here to appreciate that this boy is a genius.”

And according to the facebook group “in support of Pachikweza Radio Station“, more support from other Malawians has been pouring in already, with several people drawing inspiration from the success story of William Kamkwamba, who also had to drop out of school before his genius could unleash itself. Eddie Mombera has written on the group's page that Kaphuka Private Secondary School, one of Malawi's elite private secondary schools, has offered Kondesi “a scholarship for all his secondary education,” promising to support him through to the University of Malawi's Polytechnic, Malawi's premier engineering school. An article by Lucas Bottoman in The Daily Times of Friday October 30th quotes both Kondesi's father, Jonas Kondesi, and the Managing Director of Kaphuka Private Schools, Mr. Jackson Kaphuka, as confirming the scholarship.

Mombera later added on the facebook page:

There is a small grouping of people running SMEs accross the country which i belong to. We had a summit in Btown this week and we were so moved by the boys arrest such that we contributed over a Mk100,000 [approx. $714] for his release but when we heard that he was… out, we decided to run a fund for him so that he can go back to school.

On Wednesday October 28 Caroline Kandiero reported in The Daily Times that MACRA had since given Kondesi a free licence, and had also promised to fund the radio station for up to MK10 million (approx. $71,500) in equipment and infrastructure. The article quotes MACRA's Acting Director General Mike Kuntiya as saying, “We do not expect to spend more than K10 million, but we also need to visit the place and conduct surveys to see what will be needed.” And on the facebook page started to support Kondesi, McDevis Kamende, who once taught secondary school mathematics and geography, and now works as a micro-finance banker, has offered to help Kondesi with school lessons to enable him study toward Malawi's secondary school exit examinations: “I will donate 40 hours of part time education -Maths & Geography to Gabriel so that he sits for MSCE in three years time.”

In September, Sony released an ad for Playstation 3 which included the line, “You can't believe everything you read on the Internet – otherwise, I'd be a Nigerian millionaire by now.” The ad was met with consternation from many Nigerians, and the Federal Government requested that Sony make a formal apology (Sony did apologize and later withdrew the ad).

Around the same time came the release of District 9 – a sci-fi blockbuster which was critically well-received but irksome to many Nigerians. The Nigerian government took offense at the film's depiction of Nigerians as criminals and cannibals, banning the film within Nigeria and asking the Censor's Board to confiscate it from theaters. Online, the movie provoked varied reactions, with some taking the view that the film presents a racist view of Nigerians, while others defended it as a fictional representation with little bearing on reality.

Adamu Waziri at EVCL points out that often Nigerian depictions of Nigerians are equally unflattering:

Nollywood, our indigenous movie industry, has portrayed us in a much harsher light to both national and international audiences. There was a time where you couldn’t get Nollywood movie that didn’t include one of the following or a combination of them; fraud, juju/witchcraft, armed robbery, incest, adultery, cannibalism and of course our favourite, corruption. Nollywood has been pumping out thousands of movies with these themes for years with no real opposition from the general public or any Ministry.

… Banning films sets the wrong precedent; in fact it can be dangerous. Let us the public debate the issue. We are mature enough to do so. In fact our Minister has succeeded in giving the movie more publicity which I’m sure she didn’t intend to do.

Nicole Stamp comments on race in District 9:

The thing that really upsets me is that most people who see this movie won’t question, or even notice, this incredibly racist portrayal…. Why can’t the Nigerians just be people with logical motives like money and weapons? Why do they have to go out of their way to be ooga-booga savages? ….it is impossible to disregard the charged portrayal of Nigerians which when viewed in a larger context, is beyond damaging or defamatory but is dangerous.

Read more on the debate at Nigerianstalk.org or google “district 9 race”.

More recently, Time magazine published a slide show by the South African photographer Pieter Hugo which featured scenes from Nigeria's “Nollywood” movie industry. Though not so controversial as District 9 or the Playstation commercial, the photographs nonetheless prompted debate in the blogosphere, with discussions over whether such depictions of Nigeria fall under the category of artistic freedom or cultural bias.

Solomon Sydelle at Nigerian Curiosity writes:

I definitely understand the need to push the envelope, after all that desire has led to some of the most creative masterpieces and accomplishments of all time. However, with these pictures, I struggle to develop an appreciation of them and/or what they represent and believe that they unnecessarily relied on biases that will only confirm certain stereotypes for Hugo's mainly Western audience.

These events are especially ill-timed as they correspond to a new initiative launched earlier this year to “Re-brand Nigeria.” The initiative is sponsored by Dr. Dora Akunyili, Nigerian Minister of Information and Communication, and has been met with both praise and criticism (see here for the discussion at Global Voices).

Bunmi Oloruntoba at  A Bombastic Element discusses the re-branding campaign in the context of a recent BBC discussion on the subject:

The minister has a good case when she argues that Nigeria is overlooking a lot of positives, has not been telling her stories and is making the mistake of letting the world define her image based on its notoriety alone. And she has some good examples of the positives. But the BBC sought out a few PR and branding experts who counter by saying, if the country wants to rebrand itself, it needs to give any PR team a lot more to build on. Those interviewed said, consistent power supply and an end to a diesel generator economy will make rebranding Nigeria “effortless.” And to prove their point, 13:40 mins into the program… well, you don't need to be a Nigerian to figure out what happened.

A bright spot in the discussion of Nigeria's image was a widely circulated video of Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speaking on “The danger of a single story.” Adichie comments on the pitfalls of a monolithic image of Africa as a site of catastrophe; she cautions that limiting ourselves to a “single story” flattens experience and creates stereotypes. For many bloggers, Adichie's remarks resonated with their frustration at the depictions of Nigeria prevalent outside the country.

Shade NonConformist  writes of the connection between Adichie's speech and Nigeria's image:

I believe this is what Chimamada Adichie meant about The Danger of a Single Story lecture she gave at TED. It becomes a problem when the only portrayal of Africa that we see is one involving dead animals, poverty, disaster, death, corruption, celebrity adoptions…you know the whole nine yards. Now I'm not saying Africa does not have these issues. We can all agree that we do. I'm arguing that these issues are not specific to African countries.

… I/We will never stop criticizing depictions of Africa that are unbalanced and prejudiced. Presenting a balance depiction of Africa is crucial. As Africans we also need to act as vessels who are willing to be instrumental in the change we want to see (and will see) in our beloved continent.

At the website Voto x Uruguay [es] (I Vote for Uruguay), there are many videos with messages of support for this motion by Uruguayans living abroad. who want the right to vote. There were videos submitted from Canada, Spain, France, and the United States. This video created in the Spanish city of Ferrol shows a group of Uruguayan ex-pats, who gathered to simulate a vote, as a way to show their support for their right to vote.

However, the result on election day was “No,” with only 36.93% voting “Yes.”

The other plebiscite that attracted more attention and caused more sad and surprise reactions, was the question that attempted to annul the Law of Expiration [es]. This current Uruguayan law establishes that the crimes committed by the military and the police during the last civic-military dictatorship, which included multiple violations of human rights, would remain with amnesty.

The United Nations has observed the law, and it has also been repudiated by the Organization of American States [es]. However, in the end the vote results to annul the law reached 47.36%, and it did not reach the necessary 50% + 1.

This result caused strong and sad reactions from the various online communities. In Facebook, for example, in the two days following the vote, there were a large number of groups created, such as Parliament Should Annul the Law of Expiration [es], I Cannot Believe that the Law was not Annulled [es], National Mourning [es], and I Will Never Forget [es].

For some, like 19-year-old Mauricio P. Milano of the blog Montevideo Blogger [es] writes why he neither voted “no,” nor “yes” in the question:

Aunque ya saben que afortunadamente no me tocó vivir la época de la dictadura en Uruguay, con los pocos años que tengo ya he vivido lo suficiente como para escuchar cientos de relatos sobre esta historia, a favor de los militares y a favor de los tupamaros. Quizás el eclecticismo que me caracteriza sea propio de una generación que vino después que se calmaron las aguas, como la mía; pero la opinión que he venido a formar de todo esto es que ambos grupos estuvieron mal, hubo crímenes (secuestros, asesinatos) de los dos lados y en realidad ninguno de ellos puede lavarse las manos de lo que han hecho. Esto es históricamente innegable. Y no voy a volver a comentar lo hipócrita que es el simple hecho de que, ante tal evidencia, uno de los presidenciables en estas elecciones nacionales pertenezca al grupo de los tupamaros, porque ya me expresé sobre esto en la primera parte de este post (click acá para leer).

Lo que quiero decir hoy, a favor de la justicia y del derecho de elección que tienen quienes estuvieron involucrados en esta historia, es que considero inaceptable que mi generación deba cargar con la decisión de anular o no la Ley de Caducidad. Por el simple hecho de que no lo vivimos y nunca vamos a entender la verdadera profundidad de los conceptos que encierra, porque no tenemos nada que ver con eso. En pocas palabras, no tenemos por qué asumir las cagadas que hicieron los que vinieron antes que nosotros. Y decir esto no es mirar para el costado. En todo caso, es mirar para adelante. La sociedad, como cada una de las personas que la compone, tiene heridas. Y como heridas que son, es obvio que arden. Pero como heridas que son, cuanto más se las revuelva, más van a tardar en cerrar. No voy a dejar que lo que pasó antes contamine a mi generación, no quiero esa enfermedad social.

Finally, in Asi Ta'l Mundo, Botija [es], there are thoughts on why the law was not annulled. He writes that these plebiscites should not be conducted on the same day as elections because too many are overwhelmed and that the information does not arrive as it should.

Várias vezes me interroguei se vale a pena participar neste processo e se o meu voto não me torna conivente com uma farsa. Mas, apesar de tudo, acredito que neste caso a abstenção só vai beneficiar o Partido no poder e junto a minha voz aos que apelam ao voto.
Se não houver contrariedade de última hora, amanhã, mesmo não sendo feriado para mim, farei uma longa viagem para depositar o meu voto.

After a 45-days-long electoral campaign, characterized by gestures of violence, in most cases by militants of FRELIMO, few hours from the vote, the voices of the civil society multiply, calling for an organized election, without violence. Good judgment is called for from the candidates so that they can accept the results from ballot box as a demonstration of the people's will. The call of the civil society extends to the press, especially the publicly-owned media, asking for impartiality in their coverage of the event.

The director of the Technical Secretary of Electoral Administration-TSEA, Felisberto Naife, came public to vouch for the conditions of the voting process in Mozambique as well as in 7 other countries, 5 of them in Africa and 2 in Europe: Portugal and Germany. But not all the countries will allow expatriates the right to vote. The blog Comunidade Moçambicana highlights the case of Malawi [pt]:

O governo do Malawi não autorizou os moçambicanos a votarem excepto nos consulados e embaixadas, de acordo com Felizberto Naife numa conferência de imprensa do STAE, esta manhã. A CNE pretendia que os moçambicanos no Malawi pudessem votar em cinco diferentes locais, mas o Malawi não o permitiu. É o único país que proibe votação fora de embaixadas e consulados.
Entretanto, Naife disse também que o STAE não conseguiu utilizar um helicóptero na província do Niassa devido a falta de combustível. Isto pode causar alguns problemas para fazer chegar materiais de votação às assembleias de voto mais remotas.

Nevertheless, despite the reassuring speech of the TSEA director, close to the voting day, the mass media reported that there are regions with no fuel to supply the helicopters in charge of distributing materials to the voting areas where access by road is difficult. This is the case of the province of Niassa, in which a helicopter had to be diverted to the province of Nampula, due to lack of fuel.

The director of TSEA, without explaining the reason of lack of fuel in those places, minimizes the impact of the aerial operations, stating that helicopters were placed in areas in which the electoral process had already been scheduled in accordance with the means currently available. Without further explanations, the director guaranteed the materials' arrival in all voting places.

Image from the blog Debates e Devaneios.

In Nampula, province with one of the biggest electorates of the country, a journalist from STV, a private TV News channel of Mozambique, as what he described as a “strange phenomena”, reporting yesterday afternoon that around one thousand people were accredited as electoral observers, by an organization with no competence to do so, the Mozambican Forum of Electoral Observation, and most of them were affiliated to FRELIMO.

According to the reporter, such observers were taken by state cars to different corners of the province; when the reporter asked the electoral bodies, namely the TSEA and the National Commission of Elections, they claimed not to know anything about the accreditation process, having heard of it only because of the reporter and that they would start an inquiry of this case.

This issue not only raises suspicions about potential fraud, that often “flavor” the Mozambican electoral processes and are rejected by the ruling party, but it also highlights the abusive use of the state's resources by FRELIMO, in a very documented and amplified way, as remarked by Álvaro Teixeira:

Amanhã, dia 28/10, é um dia muito especial para um belo país chamado Moçambique e para essa terra da boa gente que é o Povo Moçambicano. É dia de Eleições, um dia que deveria ser natural numa democracia consolidada e amadurecida, mas sobre o qual recaem as maiores suspeitas de ilegalidades cometidas pelo partido no poder, a FRELIMO, que controla todos os organismos que deveriam ser independentes, como a CNE e o CC, a seu bel-prazer, conseguindo perverter o conceito de democracia que é a inclusão, transformando-o em exclusão.

This way, despite the reassuring speeches of electoral organizations and despite all the conditions for the vote, there are important aspects that concern many Mozambicans, such as the existence of areas where elections will not be held because of lack of material; what happens will legitimate the voices of some opposition parties that have been accusing the ruling party of conspiracy with the TSEA to prepare a fraud. There are, at the moment, a total of 2073 observers, 1543 of which are Mozambicans and 530 from other countries. 922 journalists were registered, 42 of them foreigners.

In addition to the national and international oversight and the support of media to bring impartiality to the electoral process, the citizens of Mozambique have the project Verdade-Eleições2009 [pt] which uses the Ushahidi platform to monitor reports, events and discussions on the electoral process throughout the nation. The website, which works as an aggregator of citizen media, allowed the political engagement of Mozambicans by the use of blogs, Twitter, news feeds, reports and headlines, all of which also by the use of SMS.

Lu Guang has been documenting the ecological disasters in China resulting from the rapid growth of the economy since 2005, focusing on environmental pollution and the problem of schistosomiasis (bilharzia). Over the last three decades, peoples' living standards have constantly been on the rise in the country. At the same time, industrial pollution has brought serious consequences for public health and for the environment at large.

It was the first time for a Chinese national to win this award and, what was more important, one of the first times that China’s perilous environmental situation was presented with such visual power. What is in his photos is something far beyond any single environmental issue, but the desperation and hopelessness of people whose life has been stuck in a hell on earth.

China Hush shows the entire photo collection with translated captions. Here are some samples:

There are over 100 chemical plants in Jiangsu province coastal industry district. (江苏滨海头罾沿海化工园区) Some of them discharge wastewater into the ocean; some heavily contaminated sewage is stored in 5 “Sewage Temporary Pools”. During the 2 high tides in every month, the sewage then gets discharged into the ocean with the tides. June 20, 2008

Hebei Province Shexian Tianjin Iron and steel plant (河北省涉县天津钢铁厂) is a heavily polluting company. Company scale is still growing, seriously affecting the lives of local residents. March 18, 2008

Villagers from Kang village in Linfen City, Shanxi Province (山西省临汾市下康村) due to long-term consumption of the polluted water contaminated by industrial waste, there were 50 people who have cancer and cerebral thrombosis. 64-year-old Wang Baosheng got ill since 2003, he has fester all over his body so he cannot go to bed and lying face down on the edge of the bed each day. July 10, 2005

Henan Anyang iron and steel plant’s (河南安阳钢铁厂) sewage flowed into Anyang River. March 25, 2008

Inner Mongolia province Heilonggui (黑龙贵) Industrial District, the couple who worked at the Plaster Kiln and just got home. March 22, 2007

It is not only the critics overseas have been deeply impressed, but citizens at home have also been startled by these images. On one of China’s largest web portals, 163.com, more than thirteen thousand people commented on their frustration, fright and gratitude to the photographer for revealing it in such graphic manner.

这是中国吗？国庆阅兵应该把这些图片展出来。

山西啊，在山西活了20多年，临汾呆了四年，然后下定决心，这辈子再不去临汾了。那边真不是人呆的。记得以前爸爸说过他年轻的时候去临汾，都说那里是花果城，街道旁边都是果树。现在我是没看到什么花果树，在临汾的时候都不愿意上街，出去一圈，鞋子就是黑的了。晚上在屋里睡觉，早上起来，鼻孔里都是黑乎乎 的，两天洗一次头发，水象墨汁。在那四年，学会了不穿浅色的衣服，我的衣服都是黑色的。淡色的没法穿，一天洗一次，但是晾着也脏啊，没几天就洗不干净了。从来没见过月亮星星。晚上的时候感觉天空压的很低，都觉得快喘不过气来了。唉，糟蹋啊

死了一部分人 穷了一部分人 然后富了一些人

是个有良知的中国摄影师！

我是学环境工程的，看到这些，心里就不舒服。我们天天喊着奔小康，奔小康，都不知道人们的贫富差距越来越大了。那些只为赚钱，不管他人生命的人，不是畜生而是禽兽。。。

As expected, there always will be some people irritated by the fact that this is a Chinese photographer getting a reward from foreigners by disgracing China.

将最丑陋的一面展示给世界就可以拿奖，这位摄影师的人品啊····

However, such an attitude is quickly rejected by the common sense of most of other people.

老卢，支持你，我们太需要正视自己的缺点了。那些说三说四的人，你们没有生活在那种地方，不知道他们多么希望有人帮他们能说句话。

In a series of posts, we shall trace and examine the increasing role and impact of ICTs in the area of disaster management.

Nobel Laureate R.K. Pachauri, while addressing the 5^th convocation of the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT) in January 2009, highlighted the need for ICTs in dealing with natural disasters and other weather-related events that pose a threat to human life and property.

[…] Climate science has advanced at a phenomenal rate largely because powerful computers can now run very complex models that simulate climatic conditions on land as well as the oceans. Our assessment of future changes in the climate as a result both of natural as well as human factors is dependent largely on the power of models that are being used today and our ability to assess the impacts of climate change in different parts of the world. In response to future projections of these events, governments, civil society and even business organizations can take effective measures to adapt to changes that would occur.

Citing an example from 2003, Dr. Pachauri said:

“I would like to give the example of a major heat wave that took place in parts of Andhra Pradesh in 2003, as a result of which almost 4000 people lost their lives according to official records. […]

“When studying this major problem, it became apparent that ICT infrastructure could have saved perhaps all the lives that were lost if it had been put in place properly and utilized effectively. There was, for instance, no early warning provided to the victims of the heat wave. Nor was there any follow up in terms of providing medical advice to those who suffered from heat stress, such as the need for oral rehydration therapy and simple healthcare for those who were affected. Even television channels could have been used to spread proper awareness and information to protect the lives of those who were affected were not used.

“There are several examples of coastal disasters where people affected can be warned on a timely basis and evacuated before the disaster itself takes place. When a hurricane hits the coast of Florida, the infrastructure available is used to provide adequate warning and notice to those likely to be affected, and entire townships are evacuated. When a cyclone of even lower intensity hits the coasts of Bangladesh or Orissa, major damage takes place, because not only is there lack of shelters and infrastructure to house those who are affected, but there are inadequate systems for early warning and guidance.

“Today even mobile telephones could be used as an effective medium to provide early warning and thus save lives and property”.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking at the Telecom World 2009 in Geneva, also highlighted the role of ICTs in addressing key issues, including natural disaster reduction.

“Through good climate science and information sharing, ICTs can help reduce the risk and impact of natural disasters… when an earthquake hits, a coordinated ICT system can monitor developments, send out emergency messages and help people to cope.”

The UN Secretary-General’s statement echoes the paradigm shift in Disaster Management mentioned in the 2005 presentation by Sujit Mohanty, namely:

• From relief and recovery to Risk & Vulnerability management
• Introducing culture of preparedness at all levels
• Strengthen decentralized response capacity in the country
• Empowerment of vulnerable groups and ensuring livelihoods
• Learning from past disasters.

In the aftermaths of large-scale natural calamities such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the world was forced to wake up to the need for coordinated and collaborative harnessing of the power of ICT systems in managing natural disasters.

Paul Currion in humanitarian.info stated that:

“In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, there has been an astonishing amount of activity in web-based initiatives responding to the consequences of the disaster. Examining the characteristics of the response of the technology community to Hurricane Katrina tells us much about the way the web has shaped social responses to disaster, raises some interesting issues about the impact of ICT in disaster response, and points towards what might happen in future.[…]

“It was clear following the Indian Ocean tsunami that the information revolution was in the process of changing the way in which we respond to disasters. This was demonstrated by the rise of web-based fund-raising; Christian Aid raised over $700,000 online in nine days, amounting to nearly four times as much as it raised through donations over the phone. The spread of broadband, improvements in satellite telecommunications and the availability of imagery has made possible GIS and cartographic projects that would not have been possible five years ago. The rise of the open source movement has led to initiatives such as the Sahana project, an attempt to develop a suite of web-enabled applications for disaster response organisations.

Currion goes on to talk about the “first responders of the wired world”, netizens who spring to action to fill in information gaps that the governments of the respective countries and even the traditional media often struggle to fill. However, given the high influx of information post-Katrina, it was soon apparent that multiple data streams would be more effective if they were collated, consolidated and served from a more centralized platform. Thus we saw initiatives such as the Katrina PeopleFinder Project and the Katrina Help Wiki come into play.

In this context, it would not be unfair to say that the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami (SEA-EAT) blog, set up during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, was a trendsetter of sorts–the first project of its kind that demonstrated the power of engaging ordinary people effectively to channel information in order to bridge the gap between those who needed help and those who had help to offer. According to Dina Mehta, one of the key people behind the SEA-EAT blog,

“I think what we managed to do was demonstrate perhaps the largest ‘people's' coordinated effort on the web during disasters, that it was possible and that too without any formal organizational structure. There’s also something in the ability for these efforts to bring in ordinary citizens from all walks of life - people who aren’t necessarily dedicated or working in this space - most of us have different professions and regular jobs too - but just a human need to help.”

While the SEA-EAT blog focused on “keeping the information flowing”, the Sahana FOSS Disaster Management System in Sri Lanka functioned as a more structured, holistic system that helped manage the large scale of the disaster of 2004. The project was deployed by the Sri Lankan government's Center of National Operations (CNO) which included the Center of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA). Generalized later for global use, Sahana has now grown to become a globally recognized project with deployments in many other disasters such as the South Asian earthquake in Pakistan (2005), Southern Leyte Mudslide Disaster in Phillipines (2006), the Jogjarkata Earthquake in Indonesia (2006), the Peru Earthquake (2007), the Myanmar Cyclone (2008), etc.

In 2005, Michael Gurstein of the New Jersey Institute of Technology wrote his reflections on the web-based initiatives and what he perceived as the need gaps in these situations:

“Scanning the Net for information and for stories I was struck by a couple of things concerning the role (and lack of role) of the Net in these events. The Net appeared to be playing a very significant part in responding to the needs of those at a distance–the on-lookers for information, stories, ways of contributing and so on; families and friends of those possibly impacted with attempts at creating listings of the found and the lost and for those on the ground to manage the concerns and queries of those farther away; and one expects that behind the scenes much of the co-ordination and planning that is being done by aid organizations is being done in ways that are pushing the boundaries of Computer Mediated Communication and managing at a distance.

“But I guess I'm a bit surprised that the Net wasn't able (yet?) to bridge the information divides between those who had some idea about what might be coming (the scientists and those immediately impacted) and those who might have been able to make some use of that information in the places where the impact took appreciable time to be realized.

“The problem here was not, I think a “the Digital Divide” that is, it wasn’t because of a lack of “access” to information, although apparently that too was a problem overall; rather, it seemed to me to be another example of what I've referred to elsewhere as the gap between “access” and “effective use”…From what I can gather many if not most of the communities impacted had Internet “access” in one form or another. What they (and here I would include those with the knowledge who couldn't use it as well as those without knowledge) lacked rather, was the social infrastructure which could have turned Internet access into an “effectively usable” early warning system.

“Some had the information—the scientists who detected the earthquake and could understand how that could result in a Tsunami and those who felt the early impact either of the earthquake or the Tsunami—but couldn't use it. Others needed the information—the coastal villages around the Indian Ocean—but couldn't or weren’t able to “get it” at least in a timely and usable form. The “degrees of separation” imposed by nationality, language and perhaps most important, domains of knowledge and profession (and the related lack of social linkages, network based trust relationships, communication pathways and so on) impeded the communication between the two groups and one wonders whether this was simply a matter of it still being early days in our Internetted world or something more profound and permanent. (Michael Gurstein, The Journal of Community Informatics, (2005) Vol. 1, Issue 2, pp. 14-17)”

Observing the loss of lives in typhoon Ketsana that hit Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia in October 2009, Paul Conneally posted the following on his blog Head Down, Eyes Open:

“In many poverty stricken areas there is no access to TV or radio (or Internet for that matter) to help communicate warning messages. Aid agencies must work with communities to find out which methods of communication work for them at the time of an emergency and run simulation exercises to put this into practice. Often mobile phone text messages or even sending people out into the streets with megaphones, as was the case in these emergencies, prove to be most successful.

“[…]Early warning, early action in high disaster risk countries needs to be seen as a mindset, not a mechanism or technology, and works best when it spans timescales, anticipating disaster by days, hours, months, years and even decades. It must also be firmly linked to early action by decision-makers, and must cover ‘the last mile' -linking early warning mechanisms not just to the most ‘at risk' communities, but to the most vulnerable people within those communities.

“Strengthening community capacity to prevent and/or cope with the impact of disasters and crises is a concrete way to save lives and better protect livelihoods, and prevent such shocks from crippling development within the poorest countries. Early warning and early action is also more cost effective than traditional disaster response and saves more lives per pound spent: public money buys four times as much humanitarian ‘impact' if spent on preparation and risk reduction, rather than on relief items.”

In India, the 2004 tsunami was a clarion call for the government, NGOs and the civil society to effect a paradigm shift and realise that preparedness was the key to minimising the impact of natural disasters.

To enable better planning and preparedness, the India Disaster Resource Network [idrn.gov.in] was set up as a National initiative under the Govt. of India-UNDP DRM programme in collaboration with National Informatics Center, Government of India. The task of this Network was to create an online database for capturing the countrywide inventory of equipment and skilled human resources available for emergency response. The role of this ambitious, yet comprehensive database would be to help minimize emergency response time through effective decision-making on mobilization of human & material resources. The project was to ensure systematic data collection & collation from government line departments, public sector units, the corporate sector, etc at the district level. Other initiatives launched were:

• The Disaster Inventory Database (implemented in Orissa) that would allow vulnerability analysis through longitudinal study of geo-referenced inventories of local level data of past disasters (small, medium and large-scale).
• Community Contingency plans based on GIS technology that enable the visual presentation of critical data by location that can be used for coordination and implementation of relief efforts
• Development of communications infrastructure to ensure 100% coverage of disaster prone areas through satellite and ISDN linkages
• Community based ICT systems and
• Disaster/ incident surveillance system that will allow for quick, smooth, seamless data capturing and disseminating facilities.

Here is an example of implementation of this strategy/philosophy of preparedness by an NGO in Tamil Nadu following the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004:

In the next post in the series, we shall explore disaster warning systems and the various ICT-based tools and applications that have been, are being, and can be put to use as an early warning system to help reduce and or mitigate the severe damage to life and property in the wake of natural disasters across the globe.