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Global Voices Most Read Posts in 2011

Solana Larsen — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:46:50 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Global Voices in 2011.

Our top 20 list of most read posts on Global Voices for 2011 includes four from Japan, three from Egypt, and two from the Philippines. But only one story is about a giant crocodile!

It's been an incredible year for the reach and recognition of citizen media around the world, and that means Global Voices is no longer as lonely a media voice when it comes to reporting tweets and blog posts. Still, where mainstream media interest wanes, we're the ones who strive to continue documenting what local bloggers everywhere need the world to know.

Self Defence Forces arrive at the scene of the tsunami in Japan. Image by cosmobot, copyright Demotix (13/03/11).

Some of our proudest moments of 2011 will never be reflected on a top 20 list like the one below. This year we exceeded 500 active volunteer authors and translators of countless languages and countries, and we've published more than 2,600 long posts and 6,300 short ones in English alone.

Inevitably, many of the stories that don't get as wide a readership as they deserve are from countries that tend to be overlooked in international media. Unique coverage from across Africa, the Caucasus, Macedonia, the Russian language Internet, Latin America and indigenous rights are among some of the highlights. See the 2011 regional reviews by our editors and authors for a glance of what you may have missed.

Our Middle East and North Africa team deserves special mention this year. Throughout protests, blackouts, threats, they have managed to pull though and keep writing. The bloody images still proliferate, but our authors seek out constructive voices and angles for dialogue. So often, they've shared local humor and context that is difficult to appreciate from abroad without a guide.

Perhaps for the first time ever, China doesn't figure on our top 20 list of the year. These are particularly chilling times to blog about controversial subjects - something Global Voices authors in many other countries unfortunately also experience. This makes the stories that do come from anywhere free speech is frowned on even more precious.

Most read posts on Global Voices in 2011

Our most visited special coverage pages were:

In 2011 the world has learned more about the transformative power of online citizen media. We believe the best way to support these emerging voices on a global scale is to listen. Thanks for reading Global Voices! And please consider supporting our work with a donation.

This post is part of our special coverage Global Voices in 2011.

Global Voices: Donate Today

Georgia Popplewell — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:23:12 +0000

2011 has been an extraordinary year for online content. Global Voices has been there as revolutions happened, dictatorships fell, and network effects rippled through the cities and neighborhoods of our contributors reporting from around the world.

To celebrate what’s been an extremely exciting year for us, we, along with our friends at Morningside Analytics, have created a limited-edition poster that visualizes “attentive clusters” of bloggers who link to Global Voices and cite similar online content. The resulting image portrays the scope of the Global Voices community, and turns it into a work of art that commemorates an important year in the history and impact of citizen media. The poster is available to anyone who donates US$25 or more. Reserve yours today through this link. We’ll be mailing out posters in January 2012.

Even if you don’t want a poster, we’d love your support. Regular donations are tax-deductible in the U.S, and can be made through our Donate page. And please also be sure to share this post with your networks!

Global Voices is a volunteer community of over 500 writers, translators, and digital media activists who bring you underreported stories and conversations from around the world. Watch our new video highlighting images and quotations from some of our supporters:

Global Voices is at the centre of a truly global conversation, and your support helps keep us there. Thank you!

Global Voices Russian Partners With Neweurasia.net

Ekaterina — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:12:03 +0000

We are pleased to announce partnership of Global Voices in Russian with Neweurasia.net, one of the most prominent citizen media platforms in Central Asia and about Central Asia, which has a large Russian and English speaking audience.

Neweurasia focuses on news and analysis generated by young people from the ground. The site casts light upon under-reported issues and provides a space for young, bright minds to make themselves heard. It was created back in 2005, when several online activists joined forces to develop a platform for blogs with low editing needs and quick, direct publishing.

It is worth mentioning of course, that one of the platform founders was also Global Voices author Ben Paarman. Today, the site has an extensive network of bloggers from five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), who all share amazing stories of lives, achievements and challenges in their countries.

Taking all this into account, the partnership of Global Voices and Neweurasia.net is a logical step, given the activities of the two communities and their similar goals. We are very excited to start our cooperation with one of the most amazing and popular citizen media platforms about Central Asian region.

We started with exchanging our logos. You might have already seen the Neweurasia logo on the Global Voices Russian site and our logo is placed on the Russian version of Neweurasia, which means that Global Voices will be more accessible for a Russian speaking audience. Both sides are open-minded and do not exclude other forms of partnership in the future.

We are grateful to the people who worked hard to make the cooperation possible. So, we owe a big “thank you” to Oliver Dams, project manager and technical manager of Neweurasia.net and one of the founders of the site, and Yelena Jetpyspaeva, social media officer of Neweurasia.net, for being receptive and open to new ideas.

Also, we would like to thank the team of Global Voices in Russian, authors and translators alike, for producing content and making the site interesting for Russian speakers.

Arab Bloggers Meet in Tunis

Rebecca MacKinnon — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:12:31 +0000

On Monday in Tunis, the 3rd Arab Bloggers Meeting kicked off with a day-long public conference. The meeting is co-hosted by Global Voices, Nawaat and Heinrich Böll Foundation and is attended by around 100 bloggers from nearly all Arab countries. Naturally, the conference was well-blogged, not only on the official Arab Bloggers blog, but also by many participants.

Links to media and blog coverage are being collected here (please post in the comments section to let us know what we may have missed).

An Al Jazeera story about the meeting proclaimed: “Arab bloggers say Arab Spring has gone global“. English-language blog coverage included Jillian York's posts on Day 1, Part 1 and a special panel featuring Tunisian bloggers who are now involved with Tunisian politics in various ways. The biggest news came from a ground-breaking talk by the new president of the Tunisian Internet Agency, in which he revealed that Tunisia secretly tested censorship software for Western companies.

Mohamed ElGohary, co-editor of Lingua Arabic. Photo by Mohamed Alâa Guedich (used with permission)

The meeting continues in a smaller, invitation-only workshop setting for the next three days. Participants continue to tweet about the discussions in multiple languages using the #AB11 hashtag, and the conference blog will continue to post updates. So stay tuned.

The 2nd Arab Bloggers Meeting, held in Beirut in 2009, is believed by many bloggers to have played an important role in building personal ties and trust among bloggers throughout the region - ties which enabled them to coordinate more easily during the Arab Spring.

New Partnership Between Global Voices and El Colombiano

Elizabeth Rivera — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:17:54 +0000

Global Voices in Spanish has a new agreement with a mass media outlet, newspaper El Colombiano (The Colombian) [es], the leading paper of the city of Medellin, Colombia, which will allow their readers to access Global Voices content in Spanish through a blog created for this purpose inside the EC-Blogger section of the online version.

The blog is simply entitled Global Voices and has been online since Sunday, September 18, 2011, with an article published daily.

The project has gained the enthusiastic support of various El Colombiano employees, like Interaction Editor Catalina Montoya, journalists of the Interaction area Diego Agudelo and Perla Toro, and technology reporter Estefania Botero, the person who initiated the contact.

On our side, team members of Global Voices in Spanish have collaborated to make this possible, especially Catalina Restrepo and Adriana Gutierrez.

To can get an idea of the selected content for El Colombiano readers, here are the posts they have published up to now [es]:

Also, a small presentation post:

Starting today, we will bring you the summaries of what Latin-American bloggers as well as those around the world are commenting, as well as notes on web activism, reports of ICTs entrepreneurships related with social and cultural topics, threat reports and freedom of speech assaults, and many other interesting notes.

We hope that this agreement will bring our global content to people that normally don't read us; content that is based on what netizens express through new media and social networks platforms, reported and analyzed by our authors. This will help El Colombiano readers get a taste of what is going on in the Internet world and among those who inhabit it.

Update on Global Voices Mentorship: Meet the Activists

Leila Nachawati Rego — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 07:01:03 +0000

For over a month, ten Global Voices bloggers have been working with activists from ten different countries as mentors of members of the new Blogger Swarm of Activista, the youth network of international development organization ActionAid. The mentorship focusses on blogging, networking and online capacity building.

Members of the Activista Blogger Swarm (pictured here) are each working with a Global Voices mentor

In a previous post we introduced all the participants, and now we would like to invite you to find out more about the activists involved, via the Activista Youtube channel. Here's Kodili, from Uganda, sharing why she became an activist, her motivations and her expectations of the Blogger Swarm project:

Follow the Swarm!

The Blogger Swarm aims to put youth at the forefront of the discussion about food and climate justice, the issues on which the activists involved are focusing their individual work and research.

With the help of Global Voices mentors they are working on their blogging skills while getting more comfortable with using digital tools for collaborative work and online networking. Here is a list of some of their latest blog posts:

Awa Njie (Gambia) | Overcoming global hunger and poverty - smallholder women farmers are the key players
David Habba (Nigeria) | “I will never be a farmer!”
Anajana Luitel (Nepal) | Is our education reproducing gender norms?
Benadette Chandia Kodili (Uganda) | Waste is wealth
Emilia Jomalinis (Brazil) | Try a kitchen garden
Hannah Moloney (Australia) | Hats Off to Small Farmers
Collins Odhiambo (Kenya) | Government's deaf ears to the hungry
Tina McPherson (Australia) | If you always do what you have always done, you WON'T always get what you have always got
Elly Ahimidiwe (Tanzania) | My father, the feminist
Afrin Chowdhury (Bangladesh) | Blogger Swarm and me
Loyiso Zweni (South Africa) | Why my friends do not want to be farmers

To stay updated subscribe to the Blogger Swarm blog or follow our mentors and mentees list on Twitter.

Thanks for supporting this initiative!

Global Voices Seeks Administration and Finance Manager

Ivan Sigal — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:50:44 +0000

Global Voices seeks a Finance and Administration Manager to support our operations on a daily basis. The selected candidate will join a small, energetic team of project directors, editors, and technical staff who run Global Voices projects. Global Voices has experienced rapid growth in the past year, and requires an efficient manager who can help us to improve and maintain our administrative and financial processes, work with us on developing and maintaining operational budgets, and help build efficient and cost-effective operations solutions as we expand.

The manager will be responsible for the following:

Manage Global Voices finances on a daily basis, including maintaining and updating the operational budget, tracking and categorizing incoming revenue, processing invoices, coding and preparing expenses, reconciling the budget on a monthly basis, managing bank relationships, and working closely with our accounting firm on all aspects of financial management.
Maintain and update records of all grants, contracts, and other revenue sources, including a monthly expenditures against grants, and a calendar of financial and administrative reporting obligations.
Maintain and update legal and regulatory files, tax filings, personnel files, and staff benefits, and other administrative matters as needed.
Design and update document and budget templates and forms.
Work with other core staff members to draft proposal budgets.
Work with department heads to set up and maintain department budgets.

We are seeking a candidate with the following skills:

Previous experience in nonprofit finance and administration, including experience managing grants, revenue, and bookkeeping.
Strong Microsoft Excel and Quickbooks skills.
Previous experience with grant and contracts administration, management of revenue flows.
Highly organized and efficient, with the ability to multi-task.
Ability to work independently in a wholly virtual environment - Global Voices has no office or physical headquarters.

To work effectively with our community, we would prefer that candidates:

Have experience living and working internationally, or have traveled extensively in the developing world
Have experience working in diverse, multicultural environments.

Candidates located in Trinidad and Tobago or Washington D.C. may receive some preference, as several of our key managers are based in those cities.

The ideal candidate should have a commitment to the values and goals of Global Voices, they will be joining a relatively new and growing management team who are dedicated to amplifying the voices of world. There is no geographic requirement associated with this position, but travel is expected. Candidates must have access to broadband internet connectivity and comfortable using VOIP services such as Skype, and be comfortable working in a wholly virtual environment. We welcome candidates from outside North America and Europe, and encourage people currently working on the Global Voices project to apply.

The position is full-time, but employment status will be independent contractor.

To express your interest, please send a cover letter and CV to “adminjob AT globalvoicesonline DOT org” by no later than October 17, 2011.

Blog Carnival: Nicaragua - Migration

Silvia Viñas — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 19:43:39 +0000

Global Voices in Spanish is interested in encouraging blogging and promoting blogger networks, and is currently doing so through its ‘Festivales de Blogs‘ (Blog Carnivals) [es]. The Carnival helps generate original content with a certain level of reflection and analysis, and participating bloggers can at the same time benefit greatly from the visibility their work gains by being referenced on Global Voices (GV). Let's look at the details of this new Carnival:

Scope: Nicaragua

As the geographic base and center of our second 2011 Blog Carnival, GV has chosen Nicaragua, a Central American country that frequently does not receive adequate media coverage. In Nicaragua we have a number of collaborators and blogger friends who this time were the ones who took full responsibility for this virtual event.

Although most bloggers, and the best known, are located in Managua, we also expect participation from bloggers from other cities. Furthermore, due to the Carnival's topic (migration) we expect Nicaraguan bloggers living abroad to also participate.

We would like to clarify that participation is not restricted to Nicaraguan bloggers or blogs that are dedicated exclusively to the topic indicated in the following paragraph - any blog and blogger living in Nicaragua can participate.

Topic: Migration

As in many Latin American countries, migration is present from the beginning of Nicaragua's history; from the first indigenous groups who reached the territory, the African slaves who arrived to the Nicaraguan Caribbean coast and the Spanish who founded cities, to the Chinese, the Dutch, and the English pirates who occupied the territory to hide.

Migration is an important phenomenon in the country due to war and military conflicts that led to emigration for survival and political reasons: frequent earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions have also led to internal migration. Even economic reasons have influenced personal decisions to migrate.

What are the stories behind the people who migrate? The drama families experience is incremented by the migration of mothers and parents. Children and adolescents grow up without adult care, and some children also migrate to work and help their families.

What impact is the constant migration of Nicaraguans having on the country's social fabric? 7 in 10 young Nicaraguans say they want to leave the country; 26.9% of Nicaraguan professionals live abroad and will continue to leave the country because there are no signs of economic improvement through work. What is being discussed about this issue on the Nicaraguan blogosphere?

Participation:

This time the weight of the Carnival has been assumed by a group [es] of enthusiastic Nicaraguan bloggers, who invited their peers to blog about the proposed topic from September 1-10, 2011. However, as in previous versions of the carnival, any Nicaraguan blogger can participate by posting a post on migration in Nicaragua on his or her own blog. The post has to be original; in other words, written by the blogger, not copied from another source. The structure, style and extent of the post fall under the blogger's discretion.

This group of volunteers has created a blog [es] for the festival, and they are actively using social networks like Facebook and Twitter, where you can follow the Carnival with the hashtags #BlogsNi and #Migración.

At the end of the period of participation we will proceed to arrange and summarize the participating posts in order to publish a summary post for Global Voices. Depending on the amount of participation we will be able to quote posts or not, this is mainly due to reasons of space. Any questions may be directed here. You can see results from our previous Blog Carnivals in Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, and Mexico.

Note: This is not a competition, therefore there will be no winners or losers. It is about looking for contributions, collaborations and testimonies on the proposed topic, in order to develop a broad, varied and updated picture on the topic.

We look forward to your support, collaboration and participation!

Blog Carnival: Mexico - Is There a Solution to This Violence?

Negarra Akili Kudumu — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:22:46 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.

One cannot deny the existence of the numerous reflections that have emerged as a result of the historical consequences of violence; the key question being how to avoid it. One of the strongest discussions has been that of ‘non-violence', lead by well recognized figures such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Their approaches encouraged people not to use violent means to protest or to respond to violence.

This implies a life decision and years of work, so in this fifth installment of the Blog Carnival: Mexico - Citizenry, Violence and Blogs, rather than focus on large scale ideas such as non-violence, we will look at more immediate actions, like local debates (in this case in Mexico) or governmental decisions.

"For the peace of Ciudad Juárez by Flicker user laap mx (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Is there a solution to this violence?

Putting it in another way: What is being done to stop the violence? Juan Tadeo, for example, comments [es] on the comprehensive proposal recently presented by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), a document [es] that recognizes the gravity of the situation and that identifies the problems of the current public policy on security. Juan concludes:

acepto que el documento en cuestión no representa una “cura milagrosa” ni la solución a todos los problemas del país en materia de inseguridad, sin embargo no me queda duda de que es a través de propuestas similares, provenientes de todos los sectores de la ciudadanía, que se podrá combatir a los problemas que aquejan a México. Nos queda el reto de analizar a detalle y de manera exhaustiva la propuesta en comento, difundirla, cuestionarla y enriquecerla, para después exigir a nuestros representantes (legisladores) que pongan manos a la obra y demuestren si su lealtad y compromiso son con México, o con intereses personales y de partido.

I accept that the document in question doesn't represent a “miraculous cure” nor the solution to all the country's problems as it relates to insecurity, however I have no doubt that it is through similar proposals coming from all sectors of the citizenry that we will be able to combat the problems that afflict Mexico. There remains the challenge to analyze in detail and in an exhaustive manner the proposal, disseminate it, question it and enrich it, so that afterwards we can require from our representatives (legislators) that they put their hands to work and demonstrate their loyalty and commitment to Mexico, or to personal or party interests.

Omar Rábogo Vital and Lucía Bergara publish a post on the Altoparlante blog of Article 19 in Animal Político [es] where they analyze Mexican President Felipe Calderón's discourse against violence. They summarize their impressions in this manner:

La violencia es una realidad en México. Las cifras oficiales y los testimonios de las víctimas no mienten. No se puede permitir que bajo el discurso de seguridad nacional se sigan perpetrando violaciones a los derechos fundamentales. No hay seguridad nacional sin respeto a los derechos humanos. La estrategia del Gobierno Federal para legitimar su guerra contra el crimen organizado y el discurso que ha utilizado el presidente Felipe Calderón en varias ocasiones se contradice. Es obligación de los gobiernos informar a la ciudadanía de las acciones y estrategias que se implementan. Un discurso que intenta encubrir violaciones a los derechos humanos y reflejar una realidad inexistente no ayuda a la construcción democrática de un país.

Violence is a reality in Mexico. Official statistics and the victims' testimonies don't lie. One cannot allow that underneath the national security discourse they continue perpetrating violations of fundamental rights. There is no national security without respect to human rights. The strategy of the federal government to legitimize its war against organized crime and the discourse that President Felipe Calderón has used on various occasions is contradictory. It is the obligation of governments to inform its citizens of the actions and strategies that it implements. A discourse that intends to conceal human rights violations and reflect a reality that doesn't exists doesn't help the democratic construction of a country.

Epriani in #SinLugar touches upon the same theme of governmental security policies briefly in his post “The agreement that no one remembers” [es].

Han pasado casi seis meses desde la firma del Acuerdo para la Cobertura Informativa de la violencia promovido en el marco de Iniciativa México. Hasta ahora, el acuerdo no es más que un evento mediático, una mera ocurrencia política sin consecuencias. El observatorio de medios creado en el marco del acuerdo no ha emitido ningún resultado (tendría que haberlo hecho al tercer mes). El sitio web no reporta ninguna actividad distinta a la difusión del acuerdo. Los medios continúan actuando exactamente igual que antes del acuerdo.

Almost six months have passed since the signing of the Accord for News Coverage of Violence promoted within the framework of the Mexico Initiative. Until now, the agreement hasn't been more than a media event, a mere political occurrence without consequences. The media observatory created in the framework of the agreement has not issued any results (it should have been done by the third month). The website doesn't report any distinct activity other than the circulation of the agreement. The media continue acting exactly in the same way that they did before the agreement.

Sofia López Olalde, from the blog En busca de ciudades sustentables, comments [es] on recent statistics that contradict the official triumphalist discourse, indicating that Mexico is more impoverished and more violent.

Sería mejor que el gobierno volteara a ver, leer y escuchar de verdad a la ciudadanía que ya no sólo se queja, a la ciudadanía que ahora propone cambios de fondo, reformas políticas, estructurales, estrategias para salvaguardar la integridad de la gente, a la ciudadanía que hoy mueve conciencias a través de palabras cargadas de verdad. O ya por lo menos que el Gobierno Federal deje de enriquecer a las televisoras pagando cantidades estratosféricas de dinero por la aparición de anuncios que publicitan el buen trabajo del gobierno; que aseguran que en México se puede hoy “vivir mejor”, que “a Michoacán le esta yendo muy bien” y que “el Gobierno Federal trabaja por tu seguridad”. Basta ya de seguir defendiendo lo indefendible.

It would be better that the government returns to see, read and really listen to the citizenry that doesn't just complain but that now proposes profound changes, political and structural reforms, strategies to safeguard the integrity of the people, the citizenry that moves consciences with truth filled words. Or at least that the Federal Government stop making TV networks rich by paying stratospheric quantities of money for the appearance of announcements that broadcast the good work of the government, that assure that in Mexico one can “live better” today, that “in Michoacán they are doing very well” and that “the Federal government works for your security”. Enough of continuing to defend the indefensible.

Alejandro Galicia writes [es] on his blog Uno en la Red about this “violated citizenry”, analyzing Mexican democracy and society as well as the State's use or misuse of violence:

La sociedad mexicana per se no es violenta, ha sido violentada tanto por carencias como por el tipo de respuesta del Estado a la violencia, esta depende de factores estructurales o de satisfactores presentes o ausentes. Primero, México arrastra problemas de pobreza estructural que inhiben el crecimiento económico, pero muy especialmente, por la distribución de la riqueza, […] lo que ha llevado a la concentración de la riqueza en pocas manos […] En segundo lugar, ha creado un sistema político parasitario que congela toda iniciativa de cambio estructural dentro del propio sistema de poder político, son los mismos gobernantes los que están muy conformes con el actual sistema de corrupción, […] por ello, la urgencia de una verdadera Reforma Política a la que todos los partidos se han adherido pero sin decir qué tipo de reforma y para cuando, esta apatía y largas es clara cuando estamos a un año de un nuevo proceso electoral en 2012, de aquí la falta de un real interés por llevar a cabo dicha reforma.

Mexican society per se isn't violent, it has been violated as much by deficiencies as by the type of response of the State to violence, this depends on structural factors or on present or absent satisfiers. First, Mexico brings problems of structural poverty that inhibits economic growth, but especially due to the distribution of wealth […] that has concentrated wealth in the hands of a few […] In the second place, it has created a political parasite system that congeals all structural change initiatives within the public power system, these are the same leaders who are very satisfied with the current corrupt system, […] therefore, the urgency of a real political reform to which all parties have signed but without saying what kind of reform and when, this apathy is clear when we are one year away from a new electoral process in 2012, hence the lack of a real interest in carrying out such reform.

Enrique shares a couple of short posts with examples of citizenry in action, the first from Father Alejandro Solalinde [es] and the second [es] referencing the site of the Movement for Peace [es]. In another post [es] he also explains the important civic expression that resulted from the March for Peace and the National March led by the poet Javier Sicilia:

Hay muchas opiniones encontradas de lo que ha sido la discusión sobre el movimiento que encabeza Sicilia. Si bien ya han habido otros que le han precedido, cierto es que en esta ocasión el gran valor de Sicilia ha sido darle voz y cara a los caídos y a los dolidos. […] Leía por ahí que alguien preguntaba irónicamente: ¿Dónde estuvo Sicilia durante cuatro años y medio en que la inseguridad no tocó su soberanía personal? Contestaba yo: En el mismo lugar donde hemos estado todos los demás que hemos tenido suerte de no ser afectados… […] es evidente que la lejanía y desvinculación que tenemos los unos de los otros evita que este título ('Todos somos Juárez') sea del todo cierto. Es ahí, en ese momento, cuando la movilización de Sicilia cobra la importancia que ha tenido. Nos ha vinculado, de forma muy dolorosa, al dolor de los otros; porque no estamos excentos como probablemente no pensó tampoco el poeta antes de la muerte dolorosa de su hijo.

There are many opinions around the discussion of the movement that Sicilia leads. Although there have been others who preceded him, it is true that this time the great value of Sicilia has been to give a voice and face to the fallen and to the hurt. […] I read that someone asked ironically: Where was Sicilia for the four years that insecurity did not touch his personal sovereignty? I answered: In the same place where all of us have been that have been lucky enough to not be affected…[…] it is evident that the distance and decoupling that we have prevents this title (”We are all Juarez”) from being true. It is then, in that moment, when the mobilization of Sicilia takes the importance it has had. It has linked us, very painfully, to the pain of others; because we are not exempt as the poet probably also didn't believe before the painful death of his son.

We conclude this sample of the Blog Carnival with another post by the prolific Enrique Figueroa, this time about hope [es] and the passivity or proactivity with which we can deal with things. A great theme to end with.

La esperanza debe de servirnos como motor para lo que queremos lograr, no como simple anhelo que evadimos cuando nos toca actuar y tomar al toro por los cuernos. […] Eso sucede por ejemplo cuando abordamos el siempre difícil tema de la violencia en México. No todo se acabará con un cambio de presidente, que si bien está equivocado en su estrategia (la mejor muestra es el número de muertes acumuladas), […] también hay muchos males que llevamos arrastrando desde hace muchos años. […] Podemos esperar, esperar a que nuestras acciones tengan efecto, o simplemente esperar, esperar y esperar sin que nada cambie…

Hope should serve as a motor for what we want to achieve, no as a simple longing that we evade when it touches us to act and we take the bull by the horns. […] This happens for example when we tackle the always difficult theme of violence in Mexico. Not everything ends with a change of president, who although is wrong in his strategy (the best example is the cumulative death toll), […] there are also many ills that we carry, dragging them with us for many years. […]We can hope, hope that our actions have an effect, or simply hope, hope and wait and nothing changes…

By Flickr user Tu Ciudad Mi Ciudad (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

We are very thankful to all those that were excited about participating in this Carnival, taking time away from other activities (for something that was born so far away [es] from Mexico it wasn't so bad); also to those who supported us with the publicity, of who I would like to especially mention Pepe Flores of Vivir México for the interview [es] on the blog allowing us to reach more people, to Ernesto Priego of #SinLugar for the circulation [es] (and participation) on the site, and to the people of Mujeres Construyendo, who helped to promote [es] the event. Equally to the Twitter users who retweeted our call and the participating posts as they were published, above all @rabanovengador and @ernestopriego who until now maintain the hashtag #vocesmx. Thanks guys!

On the other hand a recognition for Adriana Gutiérrez, Cati Restrepo, Indira Cornelio and Soraya Sacaan, the team of Global Voices in Spanish, who did their part so that everything would go well in this year's Carnival. But most of all thank you in advance to anyone who has time to read this post and each of the posts linked below, where you can see a series of very different blogs but all offering honest and relevant opinions on the topic. I highly recommend a walk through all of them, an actual sample of the Mexican blogosphere. Until the next festival!

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.

Editor's Note: For length and readability, we decided to post the usual summary of the Carnival in several parts. Here the first, second, third, and fourth, this is the fifth and final summary.

Blog Carnival: Mexico - The United States and Violence in Mexico

Silvia Viñas — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:35:43 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.

In this fourth installment of the summary for our Blog Carnival: Mexico - Citizenry, Violence and Blogs we present the participants who wrote about the relationship between the United States (U.S.) and Mexico on issues of violence.

The U.S sets a worldwide standard and its actions affect people all over the world. On the issue of violence, many associate the events of September 11, 2001, with a change in the way countries fight against drug trafficking and deal with matters of public security. Although confronting the perpetrators of violence was always a priority, after September 11 the discussion and the actions around persecuting these individuals became more frequent.

Regarding the relationship between Mexico and the U.S, it is also worth remembering that they share a border and that only one other country besides Mexico is as geographically close to the American way of life.

Migrants are also fed up; by Flickr user Brenmorado (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

The United States and violence in Mexico

Just as there is much talk about Mexican migrants who go to the U.S. in search of opportunities and to escape violence, the U.S. also goes to Mexico, but to make war. This is what Jeanne M Dorado of Lapuff analyzes and questions:

No. I’m intrigued at how since the death of OBL the US has now turned its beady eye to their neighbors south of the Rio Grande. What really needs to stop is this senseless Mexican violence that is now an everyday occurrence thanks to the latest war in vogue, Drugs. As global Gestapo, concerned with protecting the virtues of gentle folk, how does the US plan on stopping this frenemy? […] The “War on Drugs” has a nice ring to it and feels like a morally correct battle to wage. It also jives with all of the other “wars” the US is currently occupied with, so the pill is easier to swallow. But who is it exactly that we’re fighting against? And why are all these random Mexicans dying?

The presence of the U.S in Mexico it no only physical. Katitza Rodríguez from the Electronic Frontier Foundation analyzes the U.S. government's plans to permanently monitor public data on the Internet, plans that were unveiled by Mexican newspaper El Milenio:

The document, obtained by El Milenio through a U.S. Freedom of Information Act request, discloses how OPC’s National Operations Center (NOC) plans to initiate systematic monitoring of publicly available online data including “information posted by individual account users” on social media. […] The NOC report […] reveals that NOC’s team of data miners are gathering, storing, analyzing, and sharing “de-identified” online information. The sources of information are “members of the public…first responders, press, volunteers, and others” who provide online publicly available information. To collect the information, the NOC monitors search terms such as “United Nations”, “law enforcement”, “anthrax”, “Mexico”, “Calderon”, “Colombia”, “marijuana”, “drug war”, “illegal immigrants”, “Yemen”, “pirates”, “tsunami”, “earthquake”, “airport”, “body scanner”, “hacker”, “DDOS”, “cybersecurity”, “2600″ and “social media”.

Yalí Noriega Curtis, from Reflexiones de una RIta, also blogs about the role of the United States in the so called ‘War on Drugs'. Besides analyzing possible solutions to this conflict and the role citizens could play, she adds:

A final consideration is to remember the interests of the United States of America, our neighbor to the north. The USA is one of the largest markets for Mexican and other South American drug dealers, which of course promotes the production and transportation of drugs across this country. This is compounded with the trade in firearms flowing from the USA into Mexico, supplying the drug cartels with all the weapons they need to continue the fight against the federal government as well as with each other. No long term solution to the conflict currently unfolding in Mexico will be complete without addressing these two issues. Unfortunately, they do not seem to be a priority at all in the American cabinet.

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.

Editor's Note: Due to the article's length we have decided to publish this summary in several parts. Here are the first, second, and third installments. We will soon publish the fifth and final summary.

Blog Carnival: Mexico - Is Mexican Society Violent by Nature?

Jen Fumero — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:51:40 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.

In this third part of the summary for our Blog Carnival: Mexico - Citizenry, Violence and Blogs, we showcase posts that reflect on whether Mexican society is violent by nature.

Violence is a phenomenon with multiple manifestations –from armed clashes to verbal abuse– that are influenced by culture. But who establishes the variables that measure if violence has become a ‘natural' part of society? Perhaps we should look at the fact that people seem to no longer be surprised or astonished with news about one murder, but they do react when they hear about the murder of hundreds. On the other hand, there seems to be a “fascination” with violent characters; a sort of game that legitimizes violence in a context in which people no longer trust the government.

In this summary we also include the posts investigating or showing the influence of violence on different expressions of popular Mexican contemporary art.

Build peace with justice. By Flickr user Indira.cornelio user. Used with permission.

Is Mexican society violent by nature?

There is much talk about Mexico being a violent country. Juan Ramon Anaya, from the blog deutschlango, seems to agree with this at some extent: he titled his post “Mexico, an armed movement every 100 years” [es].

Cada vez que leo sobre los asesinatos resultado de la cruzada contra el narco emprendida por nuestro Felipe “corazón de” Calderón, no puedo quitarme de la cabeza la tesis de que todo fue un error y que simplemente se le salió de las manos, y que ahora estamos pagando todos los mexicanos, incluso sus allegados (recordemos el “accidente” de Muriño, secretario de Gobernación). Quizás sea el destino que llevamos en nuestra historia pues cada siglo se desata un movimiento armado : la independencia de 1810, la revolución de 1910 y ahora la lucha de Calderon de 2010.

Every time I read about murders caused by the war against drugs carried out by our Felipe “heartfelt” Calderon, I can't get it off my mind that everything was a mistake and it just got out of control. Now we, the Mexican people, are paying for this, even the president's allies (remember Muriño's –the government secretary– “accident”). Maybe our historic fate leads us to this, since every century an armed movement takes place: 1819 independence, 1910 revolution, and now Calderon's fight of 2010.

Ariel Martinez Flores, from the blog Amblalluna, focues [es] on another aspect of Mexican society that is causing violence: corruption.

Hubo un candidato a la presidencia de la República que acuñó la frase “La solución somos todos”, pero el mexicano común, el hombre de la calle decía jocoso e ingenioso: la corrupción somos todos” y esa generalización del fenómeno, fue el terreno fértil para el crecimiento de los grandes corporativos de la producción y distribución de drogas que a la sombra de la corrupción y la consecuente impunidad, crecieron y crecieron protegidos por funcionarios de todos los rangos y áreas del estado, hasta que llegó un momento en que ése estado se encontró en grave peligro de perder el control del país y no tuvo más alternativa que tratar de frenar a sus socios que amenazaban con quedarse con todo el negocio.

There was a presidential candidate that coined the phrase “ We are all the solution”, but an ordinary Mexican, a man cleverly and hilariously said: We are all corruption. This generalization marked the path towards the growth of big production and drug distribution companies; they grew and grew in the shadow of corruption and impunity, protected by government employees from all ranks and positions. Then there was a moment in which the state was at a serious risk of losing control of the country and it did not have any other choice than to try to stop its partners who were threatening with taking over the business.

Rosalia Guerrero, from the blog Enluranada also refers [es] to this issue, looking at day to day occurrences like piracy and crime:

Yo no sé ustedes, pero yo no quiero financiar a la delincuencia, por que la piratería hoy en día es una industria grande en la cual los que están detrás de no son los vendedores que nos reciben los 10 pesos por el disco sino la delincuencia organizada, que ocupara ese dinero no sólo para más discos sino para armas, balas y generación de narcóticos. Este es el punto de reflexión de esta columna, ¿Quieres financiar a los delincuentes? Por lo tanto ¿Hasta cuando seguiremos justificando nuestras acciones incorrectas?

I don't know about you, but I do not want to finance delinquency. Piracy is a huge industry with many people behind it. It is not about sellers who receive 10 pesos for the CD, but about organized crime that will use that money not just for copying more records, but for weapons, bullets and drugs. This is the main reflection of this post: do you want to finance crime? How long are we going to justify our wrongdoings?

Ian Keller, from the blog Tlacotzontli, does not agree with the idea that Mexico is inherently violent. He affirms [es] that the past cannot be judged using the current standard, and that violence is not about nationalities.

este es un problema de la humanidad quitando diferencias de credo, de nacionalidad, de sexo o preferencias y para muestra vale solo un botón. ¿Recuerdan el ataque en Noruega, un país llamado del primer mundo, habitado por la gente más civilizada? Un fulano con problemas mentales severos se gestó en ese país a pesar de sus más altos valores sociales. Creo yo que la única forma de erradicar esta violencia es educar con valores a nuestros hijos, […] hablo de aquellos que nos hacen ser temerosos de Dios, de ese temor que inculca el respeto y obliga a hacer lo correcto por convicción propia; de hacer el bien y evitar el mal; de amar a los demás y tratarlos como nos gustarían que nos trataran. El mundo será diferente si en verdad trabajamos en depurar toda esa maldad que vemos en las noticias, en las películas, y en las novelas mexicanas.

This is a problem of mankind, no matter the gender, nationality, beliefs or sexual orientation. Do you remember the attack in Norway, a ‘first world' country, with the most civilized population in the world? A person suffering serious mental disorders grew up in that country in spite of its great social values. I think the only way to eradicate violence is teaching our children […] I am talking about those who make us fear God, that fear leads us to respect and forces us to do the right because of our belief; doing good and avoiding evil; loving others and treating them as we would like to be treated. The world would be different if we truly worked on cleansing the evil we see in the news, in movies, in Mexican soap operas.

May 8th, I march for peace. By Indira Cornelio, used with permission.

Art, literature and music

Enrique Figueroa Anaya, from the blog Asfalto Tecnicolor, published a short story for the Carnival called “La Pasarela“[es]. It is about women affected by violence, sometimes in an indirect way.

On the subject of creative writing, Ernesto Priego published a post [es] in #SinLugar about poetry and violence, where he comments on the impact that violence has had in his writing process, and states:

México sufre diferentes tipos de violencia, que van de los más “sutiles” o transparentes y por lo tanto no siempre notados (por ideológicos, expresados en prácticas y actitudes culturales, usos de lenguaje, etc.) a lo más directos (feminicidio permanente, la guerra contra los drogas, crimen e inseguridad urbanas, etc.).

Mexico suffers from different types of violence, from transparent or more subtle violence that is not always noticed (for instance, ideological violence that is conveyed in culture, language, etc) to the most direct violence (femicides, the war against drugs, urban crime and insecurity, etc.).

Art allow people to denounce or talk about violent events they have experienced. Art is also a form of resistance. Jorge Tellez talks about this in “Words of Violence” [es] in #Sinlugar, where he mentions some initiatives that intend to portray reality through poetry and photography:

En México se dice que “ya estamos hasta la madre” de casi todo lo que importuna. Estamos hasta la madre de la contaminación, de los baches, del tráfico, de la selección, de la política, de la corrupción, […] Un claro ejemplo de esto es la campaña Alguien tenía que decirlo, cuyo propósito es el de documentar fotográficamente irregularidades que los habitantes de la ciudad de México viven diariamente, mediante la denominación de cada problema antecedido por la palabra “pinche”: Pinche bache, pinche tráfico, […] pinche violencia. […] Sí, de acuerdo: pinches drogas, pinche narcotráfico, […] pero ninguna de estas palabras supera el valor denotativo de nuestra indignación. Por eso iniciativas como la de 100 mil poetas por el cambio aparecen este 2011 para darle un nuevo valor a la palabra y devolverle la connotación perdida.

In Mexico we say that we are “fed up” with all our problems. We are sick of pollution, pot holes, traffic, the national football team, politics, corruption, […] A great example of this is the campaign “Alguien tenía que decirlo” [es] (someone had to say it), which aims to document through photographs the problems that citizens in Mexico go through every day by using the word pinche (horrible): pinche pot hole […], pinche traffic , […], pinche violence, […] and yes, of course, pinches drugs, pinche drug trafficking, but none of those words clearly depict our anger. Therefore, initiatives like “100 mil poetas por el cambio” (100 thousand poets for change”) have appeared in order to grant new meaning to the word and get its real connotation back.

Enrique Figueroa also shared images in two posts for the Carnival. The first one is called “Interferencia” (Interference), with a picture by Alejandro Briseño showing crosses in memory of murdered women contrasted with political propaganda. The second post, called “Silencio incómodo” [es] (Uncomfortable silence) shows a picture by Jorge Alberto Mendoza, and Enrique explains why he chose this title:

(esta) imagen se me hizo representativa de lo que se vive en muchos sitios de México. La llamé ‘Silencio incómodo' porque no se me ocurre otra forma para expresar lo que sentimos cuando vemos, escuchamos o leemos, sobre algún suceso violento que estremece a nuestro país.

This image represents what people experience in many parts of Mexico. I called it ‘Uncomfortable silence' because I cannot think of any other way to express what we feel when we see, listen to or read about a violent event that shakes up our country.

Ernesto Priego also talks about the worldwide presence of the subject of Mexican violence in comics, and ironically about “The silence of the [Mexican] comic” [es].

Como lector de cómics, defenderé siempre el potencial del medio para contar todo tipo de historias, pero como mexicano me preocupa que hasta ahora sea sólo la visión foránea y primermundista la que determine los discursos sobre la violencia mexicana. […] Los franceses obtienen becas para publicar un hermoso libro sobre Juárez, pero los mexicanos de Juárez quieren publicar en Estados Unidos y hacer películas y vender figuras de acción. […] La excepción que conozco al gran vacío narrativo en forma de cómic sobre la violencia en México es el trabajo de Édgar Clément.

As a reader of comics, I will always defend its capacity to tell all kinds of stories, but as a Mexican I'm worried that so far just a foreign and first world vision determines the discourses on Mexican violence […] The French get a scholarship to publish a beautiful book about Juarez, but Mexicans from Juarez want to publish comics in the U.S and make movies and sell action figures. […] I just know of one exception from the narrative comic gap about violence in Mexico: Edgar Clément's work.

On the subject of music, Enrique Figueroa chose [es] several songs by Los Tigres del Norte, a Mexican band that tends to include a lot of social content in their lyrics. Enrique tells us that he chose this music because,

la música que acompaña a los mexicanos expulsados, aquellos que como bien dicen los Tigres del Norte, “mientras los ricos se van para el extranjero para esconder su dinero y por Europa pasear, los mexicanos que venimos de mojados casi todo se lo enviamos a los que quedan allá”.

it is the music that accompanies the expelled Mexicans, those of us that as Los Tigres del Norte say, “while the rich travel abroad to hide their money and go to Europe on vacation, Mexicans who come [to the U.S.] illegally send most of our things to those ones who are still there”.

Enrique also talks about cinema. In his post “Los Invisibles” (The Invisible) [es] he links to a recently awarded documentary about Mexican migration with the same name.

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.

Editor’s note: Due to the article's length we have decided to publish this summary in several parts. You can read the first and second installments. This is the third part, and tomorrow we will publish the fourth.

Global Voices Partners with UNFPA on 7 Billion Actions

Solana Larsen — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:40:17 +0000

In 2011 the world's population will exceed 7 billion people. To mark this milestone, Global Voices has been commissioned by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to write a series of posts that celebrate how one person or group can still make a difference in a world of 7 billion people. The stories, by Global Voices authors in different countries, will form part of a global campaign called 7 Billion Actions. Every story will also be translated by Lingua into the UN languages French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Arabic.

The challenges of keeping the world's people alive and healthy are many.

Young and old in Sri Lanka by Michael Foley on Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND)

Nearly all of the population growth taking place (97 out of every 100 people) is happening in less developed countries, where people are already vulnerable and at risk from weather disasters, water and food insecurity. In wealthier countries, people are concerned about low fertility, and ageing populations. And across the world, the gaps between rich and poor are growing.

Global Voices covers the challenges of global development year round (see our special coverage on the Millenium Development Goals) but with this series we're looking forward to trying something a little different. We'll be celebrating the positive initiatives of individuals and organizations with short portraits that could inspire action elsewhere. Women's rights, education, sustainable urban and environmental development, are all issues that require urgent solutions, and clearly citizens themselves need to be a part of them.

Our authors for this series are based in Malawi, Egypt, Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Brazil, and many more countries. Between them, they speak more than a dozen languages. Through their writing and translating we hope to introduce you to many new people, ideas and stories you won't hear about elsewhere!

Visit 7 Billion Actions to engage with the campaign.

Here's a slideshow by the UNFPA about the population challenges ahead.

Blog Carnival: Mexico - Citizen Media on the Scene

Louella Mahabir — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:39:49 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.

In this second entry of the summary of the Blog Carnival: Mexico - Citizenry, Violence and Blogs, we present the posts that discussed the use of the internet in this violent context. Bloggers spoke a lot about the role of the internet in today's society, and issues heavily argued upon like the existence of citizen media. Will citizen media replace traditional reporting? Does it transcend or impact the reality of society? These questions led bloggers to consider the internet as a fundamental right and a reason to strengthen and introduce ways of guaranteeing freedom of expression.

Bloggers considered the relationship between violence, citizenry and blogs not only from the perspective of the internet, but also from the media as a whole. Today information isn't a right to merely consume information, but rather citizens feel there is a need to be able to produce and share content. We could affirm that a certain tension is still lurking between ‘official' and ‘citizen' reporting.

Stop the bloodshed. From Flickr user otromundoesposible_com (CC BY 2.0).

Citizen reporters on the scene

A good example of the aforementioned tension is Miguel Ángel Guevara's reflection on the media coverage of violence in his post “La eterna primavera” [es] (The eternal spring) from his blog mit liv:

No comparto la idea de censurar la información, pero si creo que los medios de comunicación deben de ejercer su labor de una forma más responsable. ¿Cuáles son los efectos a largo plazo en un niño que sólo escucha noticias violentas? ¿Estamos creando seres humanos violentos desde el inicio de sus vidas? La cobertura mediática va más allá de las líneas tradicionales de libertad de expresión, trascienden hasta la naturaleza humana e irrumpen el tejido social. Los ciudadanos debemos de exigir una cobertura más sana, íntegra y objetiva. Podemos hacerlo compartiendo experiencias, informando, organizándonos para exigir a las autoridades.

I don't agree with the idea of censoring information, but I do believe that the media should execute its function in a responsible manner. What are the long term effects on a child who listens to violent content over an extended period of time? Are we creating violent human beings from the start of their lives? Media coverage goes beyond the traditional lines of freedom of expression, transcending human nature and interrupting the natural flow of society. Citizens should demand cleaner and more objective media coverage. We can do it by sharing experiences, informing and by organizing ourselves to face authorities.

Jorge Escudero Villa in his blog Óbice writes [es] about the search for truth and its importance in citizen media:

Para llegar a descubrir la verdad, en la medida en que esto sea humanamente posible, es necesario poder discutir todos los elementos relevantes, y hasta los irrelevantes, dejando que cualquier persona se exprese sobre cierto tema y confrontar opiniones, es por ello que el Blog se convierte en un instrumento valiosísimo. Es en el contexto, narrado en supra líneas, donde se esconden historias que no se muestran en medios de comunicación “tradicionales”, además, ni son políticamente correctos; son en todo caso, el reflejo de una sociedad, que pretende, con letras a veces escritas con sangre, sanar del dolor inmenso y contínuo que sufre y que de ninguna manera debe volverse cotidiano,

To get to the truth, or as close as humanly possible to it, it is necessary to be able to discuss all relevant elements, and even the not so relevant, allowing everyone to express him/herself about certain issues and share opinions. This is why blogs are such an important tool. It is in this context, told in vague lines, where we can find stories that are not reported on “traditional” media or that are not politically correct; they are all in all a reflection of society, that aim, with words sometimes written in blood, to heal the immense and ongoing pain we are suffering, a pain that should by no means become routine.

Enrique Figueroa Anaya of Asfalto Tecnicolor asks “What kind of country are we creating for the future Mexicans who will live in it?” and discusses [es] the use of blogs:

No pretendo cambiar al mundo, ni tampoco pretendo ser un revolucionario de sofá que por twitter y blog “alza la voz” para después regresar a la televisión y perderse en la liga de fútbol de mi país (sí veo el fútbol eh, tengo derecho a escaparme por un ratito del día a día). Soy sólo un ciudadano sencillo que con el día a día de sus acciones busca lograr un cambio, un mejor sitio para los que están en mi entorno, e inclusive un momento de reflexión que nos lleve a dar ese pequeño extra que en general podría levantar a nuestro país. Porque si bien los grandes revolucionarios serán siempre admirados por sus agallas y liderazgo, al final como la historia misma, los cambios los escribimos los anónimos con nuestras pequeñas acciones.

I do not intend to change the world, nor do I intend to become a revolutionary from my sofa and only raise my voice through Twitter and blogging and then go back to watching television and getting lost in my country's football league (yes, I watch football, I have a right to escape a little from day to day). I am only a simple citizen trying to make a difference with my day to day actions to create a better place for everyone around me, and even inspire a moment of reflection that pushes us to give that little extra that in general can help to lift our country. Because, even if the greatest revolutionaries were always admired for their guts and leadership, in the end, just as it is with history, changes are written by the anonymous with our small actions.

But when we talk about citizen media we are not just talking about blogs. Ernesto Priego reminds us of this in the post “On Hero Reports and Civic Media” [es], published in #SinLugar:

la instancia más exitosa de este proyecto ha sido precisamente el implementado en Ciudad Juárez, y que se conoce en español como Crónicas de héroes. Mediante una campaña de difusión y de integración-compromiso público, el equipo dirigido por Yesica Guerra, trabajando con Tec Milenio, Tec. de Monterrey campus Juárez, IADA, Preparatoria Allende, Uniendo Esfuerzos por Juárez, ha animado a ciudadanos a reportar casos de “heroísmo” cívico, geolocalizándolos y visualizándolos en un mapa interactivo.

the most successful moment in this project (MIT Centre for Civic Media) has been implemented in Ciudad Juárez, and is known in Spanish as Crónicas de héroes [es] (Hero Chronicles). Through a publicity and audience integration-compromise campaign, the team led by Yesica Guerra, working with Tec Milenio, Tec. of Monterrey Juárez campus, IADA, Preparatoria Allende, Uniendo Esfuerzos por Juárez (Uniting Forces for Juarez), has encouraged citizens to report cases of civic “heroism”, locating them and visualising them in an interactive map.

And it is precisely Yesica Guerra who from her blog at the Center for Civic Media tells us that Crónicas de héroes [es] will soon reach a new stage:

Currently, CRÓNICAS DE HÉROES is exploring new terrain, planning on launching bi-national implementations along the U.S-Mexican border, striving to unite sister pair cities in these regions. […] The present conflict in Mexican cities and the disparities between pair cities along the border is a subject that cannot be ignored. However, by only focusing and reporting on the negative happenings in those regions, the everyday perspective of citizens is dragged down and possible positive outcomes obstructed.

In the popular blog Vivir México, Ismael Flores informs [es] of other citizen media initiatives related to journalism and migrants:

En La Plaza —blog albergado dentro del sitio web del periódico Los Angeles Times—, varios periodistas contribuyen con artículos de análisis y opinión […] Este es el caso de Daniel Hernández, quien en su artículo Internal migration flows below the radar in Mexico […] explora la migración interna en nuestro país a partir de una visita que realiza a la ciudad de Querétaro. […] Mexodus, (es) un proyecto de colaboración periodística realizado entre universidades norteamericanas y mexicanas. En él, estudiantes de periodismo de ambos lados de la frontera se entregan a la labor de documentar la migración de familias enteras desde Ciudad Juárez hacia los Estados Unidos u otros estados más seguros de México —como Querétaro.

In La Plaza —a blog on the Los Angeles Times website—, various journalists contribute analytical and opinion based articles […] Like Daniel Hernández, whose article Internal migration flows below the radar in Mexico […] explores internal migration in our country from the perspective of the city of Querétaro. […] Mexodus, (es) a collaborative journalistic project conducted among universities in North America and Mexico. Through this project, journalism students from both sides of the border have taken it upon themselves to document the migration of entire families from Ciudad Juárez to the United States or other safer states in México —like Querétaro.

Mariel García Montes from the blog Thought Experiment #45,730,944 reminds us of another way the public uses citizen media in the post Los “tweets” que arruinaron la fiesta [es] (The “tweets” that ruined the party):

El 15 y el 16 de septiembre de 2010, México celebró el aniversario número 200 del inicio de su guerra de independencia. […] En la primaria, cuando eres un niño mexicano, aprendes que puedes estar orgulloso de México porque logró organizarse y luchar por la independencia de España. Es independiente. Tú eres independiente. ¡Come!¡Celebra! […] Mientras lees esto, […] Hay un pueblo en el que la gente revisa las redes sociales en línea para ver información sobre balaceras antes de salir al trabajo para saber qué caminos deben ser evitados. Para estas personas, 200 años no importan “sólo porque sí”. […] Si miras de cerca las publicaciones en línea sobre esta celebración, puedes oír mil reflexiones que sucedían en cada minuto de la fiesta. ¿Deberíamos estar celebrando en un año en el que la guerra contra el narcotráfico ha alcanzado su punto más sangriento? ¿Es seguro celebrar, ahora que sabemos que el narco está dispuesto a atacar a los civiles como una respuesta dirigida al gobierno? […] “No hay nada que celebrar”

On September 15 and 16 [2010], Mexico celebrated its 200th anniversary since the start the war for independence. […] In elementary school, when you are a Mexican child, you learn to be proud of Mexico because of its organisation and execution of the war for independence from Spain. Mexico is independent. You are independent. Eat! Celebrate! [es] […] While you read this, […] There is a town where people check social networks to get information about shootouts before they lave for work, to know which routes should be avoided. For these people, 200 years are not important “just because”. […] If you look closely at online publications about this celebration, you can hear a thousand reflections that follow every minute of the party. Should we be celebrating in a year during which the war against drug trafficking has reached its bloodiest point? Is it safe to celebrate, now that we know that the narco is prepared to attack civilians as a response to the government? […] “There's nothing to celebrate”

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.

Editor's note: Due to the article's length and to make it easier for you the reader, we have decided to publish this summary in several parts. Here is the first instalment, this is the second , and we will shortly publish the third.

Blog Carnival: Mexico - Verbalizing the Violence

Stephen Cairns — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:17:31 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.

After reading the 36 participating blogs for the Blog Carnival: Mexico - Citizenry, Violence and Blogs, there is little doubt that despite everything that has been written, commented and analyzed on the subject of violence in Mexico, there is still more to be said. In posting on their individual perspectives of the violence, some have struggled with putting it into words. This has been an exercise in exorcizing, processing and transforming the violence. By doing this, it is hoped the vicious cycle is broken for the next generations. It is generating not just acts of resistance and protest, but also steps to avoid future violence. It's not a secret: violence will not be condoned; it will not easily be legitimized.

#nosoncifras @tienennombre. From Lockerz.com user Daniel Gershenson http://lockerz.com/s/121154026

Verbalizing the violence.

We start the collection of posts submitted to the Carnival with “A Shout of Pain” [es] from Ana Lilia Rodríguez Olvera in her blog Poeterno (en honor al arte). She lets us know: “The following text was written as a scream of desperation and releases the tremendous anger I have against the attackers of my grandfather…”:

Seguramente tú los perdonaste, de fe, de ley, los perdonaste porque así eres tú, pasible y seguro, y maravillosamente empático. Pero yo no los perdono, yo no soy capaz de decir ya ni modo, la resignación llegará, la resignación es una vaga consecuencia de nuestra historia por el mundo. Yo no los perdono porque te mataron a ti de cuerpo y a mí de alma. ¿Cómo puede perdonar un cuerpodesalmado? ¿Cómo puede perdonar un árbol seco?

Surely you forgave them, out of faith, out of respect for the law, you forgave them. That is how you were before it happened, calm and confident, marvelously empathetic. But I don't forgive them. I'm not capable of saying those words. Though eventually resignation will come; resignation is one of the undeniable facts of life. I don't forgive them. They killed you; they took your body and a part of my soul. How can a person without a part of their soul forgive? How can a dried up heart forgive?

If some of us deny forgiveness of recent events, others deny forgetting of these events. This is what we are told [es] in the blog Papás DF by Diana Medina through references to recent events, and her words “The news story shelf life has already expired. The news is from last week and for the modern news cycle, where what happened an hour ago on Twitter is ‘old news', what happened the past May 31st is far from our consciousness. For this reason I'm writing. So that we don't forget this event.”

Los niños y niñas que vivieron la balacera en Monterrey siempre la van a recordar. Hay una generación de futuros ciudadanos que tienen en sus recuerdos actos violentos dentro de su país, su casa de identidad cultural. Por otro lado están los niños y niñas que viven otra realidad, como si vivieran en otro país, pero que han aprendido desde pequeños que el país ya perdió, que la violencia nos derrotó ¿Cuál será el futuro de esta generación en la que la idea de su país se quebrantó? Esa es la que me preocupa.

Children that survived the shooting in Monterrey will keep remembering it. There will be an entire generation of future citizens with memories of violence in their country, forming a part of them, a part of their personal identity. On the other hand though there are children that live in another reality, as if they were living in another country. These children have learned since they were young that the country has already been lost and that the violence has beaten us. What do you suppose will be the future of a generation of people that already believe the country is broken? This is what worries me.

Also discussing the forgotten, Daniela Pérez Michel reflects [es] on her blog La Trinchera. The act of forgetting in her post is not voluntary; it has been imposed:

Decir que duele es repetitivo. Oímos, leemos y vemos a diario el rostro del dolor en una provocación mediática diaria, que se nutre de una pantomima escandalosa sobre un deber ser democrático de palabras efímeras y vacías. Tan sumamente vacías, que se congratulan de acuerdos sobre dejar de informar entre medios que cuentan entre sus publicaciones periódicas, aquellas que muestran las imágenes despedazadas y crueles del #Mexicorojo.

Saying that it hurts is redundant. We hear, we read, we see daily the face of pain in a constant media onslaught that nurtures a scandalous fiction about what must it mean to be a democratic nation in ephemeral, empty words. So empty that the there is a self-congratulatory agreement among the media to not report on what is happening. This media releases publications that show cruel, shattered images of #RedMexico.

Leonor Reyes Pavón on the blog El Gallinero Revuelto writes [es] about the daily violence and the effect that violent images have, despite the fact that the writer lives in an area that hasn't suffered as much as the rest of the country:

¿Como no vamos a vivir con miedo, si estas imágenes son el pan de cada día? Es cierto, ahora la tecnología nos permite muchas veces enterarnos rápido de lo que esta pasando, sin duda también es usada irresponsablemente lo que fomenta el miedo y la incertidumbre, recuerdo por ejemplo cuando estuvieron hace un par de meses los narcobloqueos en Guadalajara y las balaceras, por lo que leía realmente me asuste y en seguida me puse en contacto con dos amigos muy queridos, resulto que no era tan grave como parecía, aunque en el momento por la información que circula, no siempre responsablemente, se crea un panico generalizado. Sin duda hay casos exitosos como #reynosafollow en twitter o El Blog del Narco que buscan ayudar a informar a la sociedad de manera veraz de lo que esta aconteciendo en el país.

How can we not go on living in fear, if we're fed these violent images with our breakfast every day? Of course, technology lets us find out what is going on much quicker now. There is little doubt it is used irresponsibly when it spreads fear and uncertainty. I remember for example a few months ago when there were roadblocks by criminal organizations in Guadalajara and shootings. When I read the news I really was scared. I immediately got in contact with some close friends near the violence. It turned out it wasn't as bad as it seemed although at the time the information being published, rather irresponsibly, created a general panic. However there are good counter-examples of responsible reporting such as #renosafollow on Twitter or Blog del Narco that try to keep people informed in a truthful manner about what is going on right now in our country.

Ernesto Priego on #SinLugar, goes a little further and speaks about weapons and drug trafficking [es], a traditional source of violence:

¿De qué manera hemos normalizado el papel definitivo del acceso a las armas en el conflicto de la droga en México? ¿Cuáles son los peligros de acostumbrarnos a su presencia y apariencia, y hasta cuando lo vamos a tolerar? ¿Cuándo quedará claro quiénes son los verdaderos culpables de que el periodismo cotidiano se haya vuelto una nota roja permanente?

In what way have we normalized the accepted role of access to guns in the drug conflict in Mexico? What are some of the dangers of getting used to their presence and visibility? Until what point will we tolerate them? When will it be clear that the truly guilty ones are the daily papers and media that seem to be becoming sensational, tabloid news?

El Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida AC (GIRE) brings [es] us another aspect of the violence, the women that suffer:

A las mujeres en este país se las agrede por el solo hecho de ser mujeres. La Ley General de Acceso a las Mujeres a una Vida Libre de Violencia define esta violencia como “cualquier acción u omisión, basada en su género, que les cause daño o sufrimiento psicológico, físico, patrimonial, económico, sexual o la muerte tanto en el ámbito privado como en el público”.

The women in this country are being hurt just by being women. The General Access Law of A Violence-Free Life for Women defines violence as “whatever action or omission, based on gender, that causes women psychological, physical, economic, sexual damage and/or suffering, including death, as much in a private setting as in a public one.”

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico's Drug War.

Editor's Note: Due to the article's length and to make it easier for you the reader, we have decided to publish this article in several parts. This is the first part, shortly the second part will be available.

Chile: New Partnership Between Global Voices and Mi Voz

Silvia Viñas — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:37:03 +0000

Global Voices and Mi Voz - a Chilean network of online citizen newspapers - have just launched a new partnership. Every month Global Voices will publish an article with stories from Mi Voz, amplifying the voices of their citizen correspondents to an international audience. Meanwhile, Mi Voz will publish an article prepared by Global Voices with content agreed on by the editors of both organizations. In addition, both will share any additional content freely, in accordance with Creative Commons policies.

Global Voices readers have had a little taste of Mi Voz thanks to the articles written Katie Manning, a reporter for Mi Voz and the first contact that helped us initiate discussions to start this partnership. Katie will continue to share content from Mi Voz in English on Global Voices.

With this partnership Global Voices will enhance its coverage of Chilean news from a hyperlocal citizen perspective focused on news outside the capital, Santiago. Mi Voz has more than 10,000 citizen journalists reporting for their 18 media outlets from 14 regions across the country. Founded in 2005, Mi Voz say that they are moved by “the goal of generating media where all those different actors shaping the local reality can actively engage on dialogue, take action on the issues they care about, and open new doors as they push local agendas.”

Mi Voz announced this partnership on their site El Paradiario 14 [es].