As Taiwan is a pioneer in the development of democracy among Chinese societies. In order to understand the issue's context and its political implications in different communities, GV-related bloggers from Taiwan, China and Hong Kong had a virtual meeting on Aug 22. There were around 20 attendants and 8 active participants involved in the cross-border dialogue.

In the meeting, GV-blogger Portnoy said that he could not trust the mainstream media report and there were no hard evident presented to the public yet. According to their previous experience, “news” can in fact become “rumors”. Instead of joining the accusation, he prefers to keep a cool head and wait for the investigation.

OJ shared Portnoy's feelings:

我想批判阿扁，因為他毀棄了過去選民對他的信賴。可是我也想批評媒體，因為媒體的報導如罪人拿石頭砸犯姦淫的婦女。可是我發現我的批判被困住了。因為如果我說阿扁很壞，媒體可能就會說我說得好。但如果我說媒體很壞，就會被誤會成我在幫阿扁找台階下。怎麼會是這樣？似乎是，只問立場時，就容不下一點人性空間？

I really want to criticize Ah Bian, because he has destroyed the trust from his voters. However, I also want to criticize the media, because they act like a criminal stoning a corrupted woman. However, I find that i am trapped by my critical stance. If I said Bian is bad, the media would say it is well said. And if I said the media is bad, people would think that I am help Bian to find a way out. If we only talk about standpoint, there is no space for being humane…”

However, there are still a number of heated comments in the blogosphere.

As Chen Shui-bian was once honored as the “son of Taiwan”, AboutSophia criticized that he is the “shame of Taiwan”:

沒看過一個男人這麼沒有擔當的, 把自己的A錢罪行, 推給一個他明知即使被判了刑, 台灣人民也會可憐她的他的太太。這個男人我根本不想稱他為前總統, 他配嗎?

I have never seen such a irresponsible man, pushing all his corruption sin to his wife, someone that people will feel pity. I don't even want to call him as former president, he doesn't deserve that.

However, as Portnoy has pointed out, many pro-Green (pro-DPP) bloggers are still more angry at KMT than Chen because they believe that KMT is more corrupted and has never received proper trial. Redorganic is among one of Chen's sympathizers:

對於阿扁的海外帳戶問題，我個人雖然不能原諒，但也是很同情的。

現在有證據說阿扁這筆錢是貪污來的嗎？沒有，完全沒有，大家不要被統媒的明示暗示所誤導了。

我從一些地方瞭解到這件事情的來龍去脈，扁嫂雖然貴為第一夫人，但在很多地方，還是非常的平民。

在2006年的紅衫軍之亂後，這麼大的危機，仍有平民特質的扁嫂，就做出了我們一般平民都會做的事情，就是把錢匯出台灣。

這樣的舉動，泛藍政治人物沒有嗎？泛藍群眾沒有嗎？這就是台灣受中國威脅，不是一個正常國家造成的。所有人民都沒有安全感。

Although I can't forgive Ah Bian's overseas account, but I am still in sympathy.
Is there any proof that the money is from corrupted sources? No, definitely not. So let's not be misled by the Pro-blue media.
I have heard from sources about the issue. Although Ah Bian's wife is the first lady, she is just a layman.
After the red army demonstration in 2006, facing such crisis, Ah Bian's wife, with her layman's attribution, made a layman decision by transferring the money overseas.
Haven't the Pan Blue politicians done so? Haven't the pan blue public done so? This is a result of the China threat, everyone doesn't feel safe.

Not everyone would accept such kind of excuse. Sitai from my1510 was outraged by Chen's response and believed the case is “the shame of democracy” (ESWN's translation):

I was reminded about of a popular saying on the mainland several years ago: “One can be shameless, but one can't be shameless to this extent!”

During the development of democracy in Taiwan, there were some signs of chaos. We cannot deny the greatness and exemplary of the progress of democracy in Taiwan on account of that, and we cannot deny the significance of democracy for our nation. Conversely, we cannot withhold the criticism of these chaotic signs just because Taiwan carries the aura of democracy on its head, nor must we regard these chaotic signs as the essential or necessary consequences of democracy.

Instead of criticizing the politicians, La Pensée Sauvage points out that people in Taiwan should really reflect on what went wrong:

不要再問：他們（阿扁一家）怎麼可以這樣那樣～

要問：為什麼他們可以這樣那樣～

或問：我們為什麼會讓他們這樣那樣？？？

Don't ask: How can they (Bian's family) do that?
We need to ask: Why they can act like that.
Or ask: Why we let they to do that???

The situation in Taiwan is also compared to the Philippines, the present president, Ma Ying-jeou actually compared Chen Shui bian with Marcos. Mong reminded us during the discussion that Marcos' swiss accounts were discovered in 1986, however, the money has not yet been returned to the Philippines. Portnoy agreed that Taiwan has been suffering for many bad feedbacks of not-mature-enough democracy. One drawback is the failure in passing the “Sunshine Bill” which requires civil servants to disclose their sources of income.

Independent media coolloud reports on a civic action calling for the implementation of sunshine bill. The spokesperson said that the issue is not just a matter of morality but related with the political system.

In Hong Kong and China, a cultural critics, Leung Man-tao has written an article “The Enlightening Lesson from Teacher Chen Shui-bian” (ESWN translation) which was widely circulated in the Internet. Leung believes that Chen's corruption can break the “Love Taiwan” partisan spell. However, most of the Taiwanese bloggers in the meeting don't agree. Both Portnoy and Anotherwork agreed that what they have learned is not to trust politicians.

Apart from Leung's piece, some bloggers echo the mainstream newspapers editorial that Hong Kong's judicial independence and anti-corruption effort are better foundation for democracy system when compared with Taiwan model. A million why actually feels proud of Chief Executive, Donald Tsang:

反觀香港特首曾蔭權,雖然無能,一無是處,但是,我肯定曾蔭權不會和陳水扁一樣貪贓枉法,洗黑錢,這一點係值得我地香港人感到驕傲嘅。

Looking back in Hong Kong, even Donald Tsang is so incapable, am sure that he won't do such thing as money laundry. We should be proud of this.

However, some bloggers also pointed out that government and corporate collusion, such as in the form of delay interest, has never been put on trial because we don't have democracy.

As for mainland China, there are some very negative remarks that put democracy in doubt. Shaofeng concludes that democracy only provide thugs an opportunity to enjoy a glory time:

我来了~
有些不和事宜的民主
也就是给流氓提供了一个合法的空间
一个个政党一生就是为了政治而活着
事实上民生已经成了永不破灭的谎言

Here I am,
Democracy is far from Harmony,
It gives thugs a legal space,
Political parties live for politics
And people's livelihood becomes eternal lie.

Even though Jin Jianzhong feels that Taiwan democracy is not mature enough, but the corruption investigation is still a breakthrough among Chinese society:

台湾社会的进步显而易见，要知道，嘉庆皇帝能够清除和绅，却没有胆量也不可能清算乾隆，而这一点岛内民众无疑是开创了先例。

Taiwan society is obviously progressive. As we know, Emperor Jia Qing could eradicate He Shen (a corrupted official in Ching Dynasty), he wouldn't dare to investigate Qin Long (His father). People in the island has really made a history.

Liu Xiaoyuan disagreed that Chen's corruption is a failure of democracy:

我以为，能把腐败”总统”拉下马的民主政治，这恰恰是一个好制度。

试想一下，这样的事如是出现在专制国家，由于是一党执政，谁会去揭一个已经退下位的前最高领导人的经济问题？如果不是民主制度，保障了新闻自由，媒体敢去曝光前总统的经济问题吗？如果不是实行了民主制度，确立了三权分立的政体，司法机关敢去追究前总统的法律责任吗？

把陈水扁送上”总统”宝座的是民主政治，把陈水扁拉下马投进监狱的也会是民主政治。

I think the democratic system has successfully brought down the corrupted “president”.
If such thing happens in authoritarian state with one party domination, who would dare to investigate a former leader? If we don't have the democratic system to ensure freedom of press, would the media be dare to expose the problem? If there is no democratic system to ensure administrative, legal and legislative independence, would the judiciary be dare to bring the former president on trial?
Democracy has elected Chen as the “President”, it will also bring Chen into jail.

Thousand years ago has similar revelation with our Taiwanese blogger: trust the system, not the people.

权力导致腐败，绝对的权力导致绝对的腐败。此言综观人类历史，果然屡屡应验。

由此可见，人类社会的亘古主题就是权力的分配和运行机制，这个问题解决绝不可靠人，而必须靠机制来约束，防止权力天然的腐蚀力和人天然的堕落可能。

Power leads to corruption, absolute power leads to absolute corruption. Looking back in human history, this is always true.
A mechanism for distribution of power has been a major thesis in human society, we can't depend on human being for solving the problem, we need a good system to prevent the natural corruption tendency of power and human being.

Special thanks to Portnoy, PipperL, Jacky Peng, Anothwork, Mong, Ancorena, Chong (and I-fan via e-mail) for all your active participation and for providing the blog links for this post.

Minos' Mine Kampf presents his analysis of the situation in his inimitable fashion.

Well, the kid gloves are finally off. The smiley mask, too, is slowly being dissolved by the vitriol oozing out of dilated facial pores. Dear Leader San, sans Chaplinesque mustache, stands before us in all his pint-sized totalitarian glory. A strongman-the-laaltein (trans.lantern) for our weird and wonderful times. A Sodomise-’em Hussein in the making. Der Führer Redux in khaki, whom we should face with right arms raised in reverent salutes, chanting Sieg Heil (or else crawl back into our little foxholes and go back to sleep).

In order to address the threat of religious extremism and terrorism, the government cracked down on the judges, lawyers, the media and human rights activists, while the religious extremists and suspected terrorists I suppose let out a collective “phew!” and went about their business.

Pak Affairs explains the reasons for “Martial Law – Lite“

Musharraf caught in the middle of this has been trying to strike a balance by appeasing its people and at the same time keeping NATO and US off the limits from entering Pakistani territory. It’s tough to be in Musharraf’s shoes at this point where he is trying to hold the country’s dignity in place and yet not agitate a wounded bear, the US.

The Chief Justice and most of the Supreme Court and high court judges were removed and their replacements were sworn in under the banner of “out with old and in with the new” and the subsequent protests resulted in the arrests of many lawyers. There's a complete blackout on all private Pakistani news channels and it has also been reported that the government has tried to restrict the publication of a supplement on the emergency situation by the Jung newspaper. By the way, Musharraf still believes in press freedom as he claimed in his speech. I guess he was talking about the freedom to get censored by the government.

Silsila-e-Mah-o-Saal asks an important question of supporters of Musharraf, while Windmills presents a fable that is worthy of publication as an opinion piece in a broadsheet newspaper in Pakistan.

There were rumours yesterday about President Musharraf being placed under house arrest by a faction of the army who were displeased with his abuse of authority. This rumour resulted in the Karachi stock exchange taking a massive hit. But Freedom and Democracy highlights an interesting video clip from GEO News that discusses the latest Supreme court order that warns Core commanders and servicemen from taking part in unconstitutional activities. Perhaps there was something to this rumour after all. (Although the news clip is in Urdu, the order itself is read out in English).

Baithak presents an update on the media's reaction to the emergency.

The anchor persons are saying that the people are angry (at the imposition of Emergency.) But from what we see here, across the channels, the media hosts appear angrier.

Procrastination presents a detailed review of Musharaf's address to the nation. (The post includes excerpts from the speech including the video of the speech.)

You’ll notice the “I” in Musharraf’s speech, i.e. “I did this, I did that” and his conflation of him and Pakistan and how everything he has done and is doing is for Pakistan. That is of course the staple of such speeches, I still remember Zia’s speeches.

Metroblogging Lahore presents a summary of Press views on the situation, while Metroblogging Islamabad highlights the link to the Dawn News channel live web cast.

Well, that's it for the current round up on views from the Pakistani blogosphere. I'm off to Karachi (Pakistan) for a short visit. It is short because my wife has placed Martial Law (more appropriately Marital Law) on my trip. She qualifies the reason as War on Terror. Hey, if Musharraf can use that excuse, why can't she!

[技术和互联网
2007 台湾网志青年运动会

中国首次允许播出同性恋的节目 ，其实他们不知道，同性恋Blog 已经公开流行。要知道，就是连黑猩猩也有猴权。Blogger的身份越来越从虚拟走向现实，如果你的志向是做一个公民记者或者社会批判者的话，也许将直面许多人身危险，请参考这份博客如何自保及安全指南 （GFWed ）。或者干脆学他们明目张胆的不说 。台湾的网志大会（雅名 “台湾网志青年运动会 ”）将在本月开幕，不知道今年大陆的“中文网志年会 ”是否能够在皇城根正常召开呢。

[Free Mickey] EMI宣布取消数字音乐中的DRM ，这也许是一个开端，当然也可能只是版权警察有了更好的办法 。确实到了整个音乐产业都要重新思考的时候了。保护版权等于保护创意？Inmedia选择的这个主题，用来垂问香港立法机构在修改版权法律的时候是否考虑到了在数字时代公众参与知识建构的价值和利益。香港的Blogger 能否在这场立法过程中发挥作用，真正维护版权法的价值观，阻止过度保护那些大财团的利益呢？在香港「知识共享行动」（Open Knowledge）会议上，台湾维基媒体协会的理事长邓杰先生（虎儿）打了个比方：如果你要开一家餐厅卖牛排，吃牛排是用刀子，但刀子是危险的，可以用来杀人，于是，为了防止有人用刀子杀人，所以，要我们在牢房吃牛排。

Google的一举一动永远是公众注目的焦点。在愚人节的疯狂恶搞过后，谷歌拼音输入法正式推出，随即陷入一片争议声中。是不是拿技术忽悠人或是用U盘堵住了Blogger的嘴巴，只有参加公关会议的人知道。谷歌输入法，不能算是很大的创意，加之还有抄袭的嫌疑。谷歌中国出品欲望过急地呈现出来，可惜也许会让粉丝们再一次不是滋味。谷歌拜倒在“防火长城”下姑且不论，还学会了自毁长城。而谷歌在中国的劲敌百度，日前进军日本市场后一直持续着来自中国访问量远大于日本本地的奇特风景。

wiki的小圈圈主义 或许也是web2.0的一个特质，那么让我们仰望一下浩瀚的星空，思考如何突破这个围城。网上更大的一个圈子恐怕就是GFW，不知道这个号称“无法破译”的量子密码通信网络 会对它产生什么影响？

IPv6迟迟不能广泛应用，2010年后用完了IP地址 ，我们该怎么办？

原来科学研究就是在讨好上帝，看来上帝的马屁不好拍，否则为何不增加一下人类性器官的数量，让我们更加high？都说人类起源自非洲，那么上帝也极可能是一位非洲人。可是田园洞人的发现 看来中国人并不受上帝的管辖。唉，科学上的争吵更是让人眼迷耳乱，谁叫学术永远是少数人的事情 呢？

歌曲都曾经要少一截的当下，Zola同重庆的“维权户”必然是要最终一起被和谐掉的，在这个时刻被GFW，也算是帮GFW作了一下推广，让更多人正视GFW的存在才算是支持英明的党。Zola 也可以回家继续卖菜了。虽然无法得知和解的真正的交易内幕，但Zola这么闹一把，展现出的个人媒体的能量已经足够让传统媒体重视起来了。重庆最牛维权户和开发商最终和解的结局不是某些国外媒体希望看到的，但是看大片的心态也未必不在国人心中存在…

科级干部能够有600平米的住房 ，看来我们都得向政府官员们学习。不过中华全国总工会还是挺关心工人阶级利益的，要不然怎么会给“麦当劳 ”和沃尔玛那么多压力呢？

药价虚高几十倍仅仅是药品企业的问题吗？国家药监局前局长郑筱萸因贪污受贿被捕后，药监局下属机关单位未被立案调查的腐败官员在我党的正确领导和强大威力的震慑下，共登记上交了价值260多万元的贿赂，清退了医药企业350万股票股份，上梁不正下梁歪！纳税人的钱养了一群蛀虫和败类！白衣天使在药品回扣面前都变成了魔鬼，老百姓看不起病，贫困夫妻付不起医药费投江自杀 。

当99%的医生都在拿药品回扣，100%的医院药剂科主任都在吃卡拿卡要公关费，当100%的医院院长都拿了巨额的医疗器械回扣，当国家卫生主管部门100%的保护下属医疗机构“违反医德国法”行径的时候，当国家药品监督管理局的被发现的官员100%的贪污受贿的时候，当医药公司药厂必须按照“潜规则”才能把放在台面上的“工作”完成时，当不行贿，合法的商业行为就无法进行的时候，这“钱规则” 巨大的行贿成本只有加到药品价格中去，而老百姓看不起病自杀 也是可以理解的“正常现象”了。当你看病所配的药物金额50-70%是花在厂家行贿成本中的时候，不要惊讶，大国崛起，百姓当然要付出大价钱，您去医院看病付钱时，就在为构建“盛世”买单。

当那么多外国人到中国来做器官移植 ，当然确实算是造福了中国的医院和病人 。但是，不知道公布《人体器官移植条例》后还会不会有新的形式出现。

方舟子说要灭了中医中药，政府要“大力”扶持中医药行业，而下属的“部分地方卫生部门”却以各种名义阻碍“中医”开私人诊所，而那些原来贴性病小广告，经历了原始资本积累的“福建莆田游医 ”，现在却可以光明正大的以“来自上海专家的医院 ”的广告持证营业，继续靠治疗性病，前列腺疾病，妇科疾病和不孕不育，坑蒙拐骗，上海长江医院只是其中的冰山一角。< /blockquote>

When there are so many foreigners here to have organ transplantation operations, it does benefit a lot to Chinese hospitals and patients. However, after the announcement of the organ transplatation regulations, we are yet to see the new happenings.Fang Zhouzi suggested to get rid of Chinese traditional medicine, while the Chinese government are trying hard to support it. Meanwhile “local health departments” are creating obstacles for Chinese medicine doctors to open private clinics. As for those “Fujian Putin travelling doctors”, with their tiny ads on STD, have gone through the primitive accumulation of capital, can finally get the licenses issued from “professional hospital from Shanghai” and continue to treat STD, testicular diseases, gynecological diseases, infertility and fool around. Shanghai Yangzi Hospital is just a tip of the iceberg.

[中国环境的恶化] 中国的妇女儿童拐卖现象严重 ，六合彩更加流行(GFWed ) ，成为了经济邪教。甚至有人认为，连于丹都是一种邪教 ，是愚弄大众的麻醉药而已。

对中国环保的批评我们终于有了挡箭牌，联想可是最环保 的公司呢。但是沙尘暴偏要来做对 ，那是谁也拦不住的。

[商业]
走光 在这个天气都可以买卖 的互联网上，通过blog赚钱也是理所当然的事情。那么草根博客应该如何确定自己网站的价值呢？估价三万就真得能够拉到三万元广告赞助吗？如果用搜索引擎能够帮助自己赚到钱 ，又如何计算它的真实成本呢？还是让我们感叹商业的魔力吧，走光的小屁屁那也是广告 。

在娃哈哈遭遇达能低价强行并购的时刻，我们在想：中国的超市里，如果少了娃哈哈，只剩下百事可口可乐三得利，康师傅统一，是何等的郁闷和悲哀！看来和鬼子合作，都得多个心眼，小心行事，他们来是赚钱的，而不是做慈善事业。不过中国公司玩小九九的招数并不少，所以中海油的洗钱计划被独立小股东们否决了 ，让人们见识了小股东的力量(GFWed )。中国海外上市公司将面临全球规则的监管，从官办商业上来体会草根力量也未必不是一个思想鸡汤，不知道是否会触动多少“官商”的奶酪。也正是这样，美国政府又挥舞贸易大棒，宣布对中国铜版纸征收高额关税，这当然是美国内部各种保护势力的作用。但是中国，只有一个政府声音的粗简模式下，缺少了民间真正的应对能力，面对这种事情就会麻爪。而类似的谜局也处处可见，政府在哪里，问题就在哪里。 常州纳科 的教训深重，不知道中国的政府官员们是否从中学习到了什么。不过显然陈进的故事还在各地不断地重演。

惠普公司中国总裁孙振耀正式加入“提前退休计划” (Enhanced Early Retirement Program)，将于今年5月31日离开惠普公司。不管是否是自愿 ，能够在一家大公司的中国首席位置上停留如此长的时间，也是一种难得的智慧，所以难怪惠普的员工也有戚戚焉 。
千橡的迷局更有趣 ，他们甚至玩起了媒体游戏 （E文），看来中国媒体中仍然有正义。不良企业大都出现在伪2.0企业身上，而真正的2.0创业者们正在努力把社会责任和企业精神结合起来 。

[生活]
追星追到家破人亡 ，折射出家庭教育的畸形和信仰迷失一代的思想真空，有人说有什么样的社会就有什么样的粉丝 ，而且在不同领域有不同的表现方式。父母如何避免伤害孩子的自尊心 ，需要众多家长很好的学上一课，或许这是我们的教育与众不同？一家人应当相互关爱，能够一起欣赏生活，才真是乐滋美事 。
mubei 上海独立影评人卡夫卡·陆遭遇车祸去世 ，但是他的BLOG 却依旧存在，这让人感到一种莫名的恐惧 。天堂里没有车来车往 ，但是希望天堂里还有电影院，让我们送他最后一程吧。面对已经不在的blogger,确实应当有他们的墓地 。
应当祝福的还有Microsoft Word的元老功臣Charles Simony ，他已经支付2000-2500万美元准备好搭乘俄罗斯联盟号飞船升空 。坚持锻炼好身体，也许你也会成为未来的太空旅客。

Session on freedom of speech

Russia has a vibrant community of bloggers on Livejournal platform. Recently, a group of volunteers started publishing the offline journal “Live Journal“, realising that the conversations online are too important to be ignored. “LiveJournal”, which republishes posts from LiveJournal bloggers, is distributed free of charge in Moscow cafés, and is soon to reach the regions.

Blogs help shed light to events not covered in official media and challenge perceptions about Russia built by the mainstream media. But there is also a lack of information within the country itself, compounded by differences in Internet penetration and uneven coverage of events. As one of the organizers of the conference, Irina Yasina, of the Club of Regional Journalists “Iz Pervyh Ust”, put it, “Information in Russia is only available to those who are not lazy to look for it. The majority are in a deep sleep, which is strengthened by Russian television, a picture reminiscent of Brezhnev’s times”.

Continuing her speech on whether Russia needs citizen journalism, Irina said that, for her, the blogosphere is a reflection of citizen participation. If people write blogs, they are concerned with what is going on around them. Russian civil society is scared to go and protest on the streets, and thinks it is dangerous to deal with people in uniform. It is not possible for them to remain quiet, though – thus, the protest is going on in blogs and civic media.

Dmitry Peskov, Director of the Center for Internet Policy, delivered his welcome speech, noting that the University of International Relations decided to convene this conference as blogs can already be considered part of international relations. Four or five years ago, when the first bloggers appeared in Russia, the IT administrators at the universities used to block access to Livejournal. Now, however, there is a need to explain the positive side of the blogosphere. The Centre for Internet Policy deals with practical policy issues, research on the Internet for private and state companies, and teaching. Last year, MGIMO took part in a competition for innovations in universities, and won 990 million rubles for their project, participative University 2.0.

Peskov said something that I has also come there to say - that there is a market for bloggers writing in English from Russia: “You should not just copy the existing schemes but look for new things, to experiment and build from the future, not giving way to old habits.” Some people in the audience were not so optimistic when referring to digital divide between major Russian cities and the regions. Peskov believed, however, in the state's plans to realize its plan to providing Internet access in schools, and connect each village within 5 years. MGIMO has a lead in web innovations: it is, for example, using Creative Commons licensing, which was translated to Russian, but does not yet have legal force in Russia.

Evgeny Morozov, TOL, speaking at the last session on the future of new media

A session on Freedom of Speech in the Russian Segment of Internet was organized for regional journalists, who shared their experience with the government's limits on online activities in order to better respond to such problems. Mikhail Afanasiev, editor of the web site “Novy Fokus” (”New Focus”), Boris Surganov (Zyryane.ru), Dmitri Kolbasin, and Irina Khrunova, a lawyer from the human rights organisation “Agora”, spoke at the session. There is not much regulation on Internet media, thus the authorities are not consistent with their restriction measures, and when online journalists get sued, most often it is for insulting the honor and dignity of officials (Criminal Code).

Mikhail Afanasev mentioned one case where one web site was “confiscated” by the state as a “tool for committing crime”. (It is still being published, with just one letter changed in its name). Some sites are punished for failing to register as mass media, others for doing just that. Citizen media sites, in particular, new but rapidly developing in Russia, are currently in a legal limbo: there is a need for a legal document that would regulate citizen media. The lawyer said that it is up to journalists to take the initiative, to urge the government to draft regulations before the state drafts them without consulting them.

My Global Voices presentation, with slides on new media kindly provided by Rebecca and Ethan, was part of the afternoon session. It was one of the three sessions: the others were on Realno.ingo, and on media and blogs by neweurasia’s Peter Leonard (now working in The Moscow Times). About 30 people attended Global Voices/neweurasia presentation, where I spoke about the development of citizen media in the West, the creation (Ethan's media attention map!) and structure of GV, examples of voices we are covering (e.g. Salam Pax and Mahmood Den) and project Lingua in Russian.

Among the questions the audience asked about GV were ones about the organizational structure and financing of the site, the attribution policy and the range of topics we cover. The day ended with a discussion about the future of citizen media, where an attempt was made to address questions such as “Is it okay to earn money by blogging?” and “Will there be any newspapers left in several years from now?” The final conclusion was that both media and blogs win from cooperating with each other. The cycle from blogs to media and back to discussion in blogs improves reporting: professional journalism will not become redundant, whereas blogging will become more professional.

We'd hoped that media pressure would lead to Hu Jintao to release Hao prior to his upcoming meeting with President Bush. Unfortunately, this looks increasingly unlikely. So today we're launching a letter-writing campaign and a petition to ask for Hao's immediate release.

Rebecca launched the letter writing campaign earlier today, and we're encouraging readers to write to their national governments, to the Chinese ambassadors in their nation, to their local newspapers, and to Chinese President Hu Jintao. Her post offers key pieces of information to include in letters or op-eds as well some useful addresses.

We've also launched an online petition, demanding that President Hu Jintao release Hao immediately.

The text of the petition reads:

We, the undersigned concerned citizens of the world, protest the detention without charge of Chinese filmmaker and blogger Wu Hao and call on the Chinese government to release him immediately.

Mr. Wu, a Chinese citizen and U.S. permanent resident alien known in the United States as “Hao Wu”, recently returned to live in China and produce independent documentaries. He was detained on February 22nd without being charged with any crime. Authorities have not given Wu Hao's family an explanation for the detention despite numerous inquiries. According to China’s own Code of Criminal Procedure, a person cannot be held without charge or arrest for more than 37 days. His detention has substantially exceeded that period of time.

It is our understanding, based on speeches by China's own leaders, that China aims to be a country governed by the rule of law. The detention of Mr. Wu without charge, and without access to a lawyer, would appear to be highly inconsistent with that aim.

If Mr. Wu has indeed broken the law, a country that respects the rule of law should uphold Mr. Wu's right to legal procedure. His continued unlawful detention is a clear violation of his universally recognized human rights. We ask for his immediate release.

We'd ask anyone reading this post to please sign the petition and pass the URL onto friends who might be inclined to sign it as well. Your email address is required to sign the petition, but it won't be published. If you're able to translate the petition into another language, please let us know - we'd like to make the document available in as many languages as possible.

Thanks for your support and thanks for caring about our friend.

There are potted biographies with lovely pictures which come with a complete archive of their writing attached. All useful information, but it lacks the human touch.

Since we're all often near computers there are other methods of interaction, of course. Instant messaging is possible when time zones mean we're awake at the same hour. E-mails cover the night divide.

Then I discovered from her blog that our south Asia editor, Neha Viswanathan had been invited by blogger Kamla Bhatt to be a guest on her regular podcast The Kamla Bhatt Show. You can listen to, or download, the podcast Podcast: Kamla Bhatt talks to Neha Viswanathan

On March 22nd it will be one month since filmmaker and Global Voices Northeast Asia Editor Hao Wu was detained without charge. We appeal to the Chinese government for Hao Wu's immediate release!

What happened to Hao?

Hao Wu (Chinese name: 吴皓), a Chinese documentary filmmaker who lived in the U.S. between 1992 and 2004, was detained by the Beijing division of China’s State Security Bureau on the afternoon of Wednesday, Febuary 22, 2006. On that afternoon, Hao had met in Beijing with a congregation of a Christian church not recognized by the Chinese government, as part of the filming of his next documentary.

Hao had also been in phone contact with Gao Zhisheng, a lawyer specializing in human rights cases. Gao confirmed to one of Hao’s friends that the two had been in phone contact and planned to meet on Feb. 22, but that their meeting never took place after Gao advised against it. On Friday, Feb. 24, Hao’s editing equipment and several videotapes were removed from the apartment where he had been staying. Hao has been in touch his family since Feb. 22, but judging from the tone of the conversations, he wasn’t able to speak freely. One of Hao’s friends has been interrogated twice since his detention. Beijing's Public Security Bureau (the police) has confirmed that Hao has been detained, but have declined to specify the charges against him.

The reason for Hao’s detention is unknown. One of the possibilities is that the authorities who detained Hao want to use him and his video footage to prosecute members of China’s underground Churches. Hao is an extremely principled individual, who his friends and family believe will resist such a plan. Therefore, we are very concerned about his mental and physical well-being.

More about Hao: From Scientist to Computer Guy to Filmmaker.

Hao began his filmmaking career in 2004, when he gave up his job as a senior product manager at Atlanta-based Earthlink Inc. and returned to China to film Beijing or Bust, a collage of interviews with U.S.-born ethnic Chinese who now live in China's capital city. Before working for Earthlink, Hao worked as a product manager for Internet portal Excite from 2000 to 2001 in Redwood City, CA Before that, Hao had also worked as a strategic planning and product development director for Merchant Internet Group, an intern for American Express Co. and a molecular biologist with UCB Research Inc.

Hao earned an MBA degree from University of Michigan Business School in May 2000 and a Master of Science in molecular and cell biology in July, 1995 from Brandeis University, where he was awarded a full merit-based scholarship. Before studying in the U.S., Hao earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the China University of Science and Technology in Hefei, Anhui province in June, 1992.

Hao the Blogger.

Hao has also been an active blogger, writing as "Beijing Loafer" on his personal blog, Beijing or Bust, named after his film. Due to Chinese government internet blocking of his blog hosting service Blogger.com, he also has a mirror version of the site on MSN Spaces. In early February Hao began contributing as Northast Asia Editor to Global Voices Online, an international bloggers' network hosted at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Writing under the pen name Tian Yi, Hao's contributions aimed to bring citizens' online voices from China and the rest of North East Asia to readers in the English-speaking world.

Why didn't we speak out about his detention earlier?

Hao’s family and friends in China have deflected questions about his detention for the past month, as authorities in contact with people close to Hao have urged them not to publicize the case. There had been hope that his detention was only for a short period of time, in which case publicity would not have been helpful.

For more information…

Hao's family and friends inside China do not want to be interviewed directly by the media at this time, and thus we will not provide journalists with their contact information. We have set up a website dedicated to Hao's release at: www.freehaowu.org. It will be updated regularly with new information that emerges about Hao's situation.

All further queries can be e-mailed to: freehaowu@gmail.com.

On Friday night I had the pleasure of joining the 8th Tunisian Bloggers Meetup, along with fellow WSIS participants Jeff Ooi of Malaysia and Isam Bayazidi of Jordan. After the craziness of the past several days, it was really nice to leave the conference behind, just talk about blogging, and enjoy each others' company. Presiding over the event were the blogger couple, Global Voices contributor Mohamed Marwen Meddah (MMM) aka "Subzero Blue" and his brilliant and beautiful wife who goes by the nom-de-blog "Aquacool." Many of Tunisia’s bloggers write in French and Arabic, not English, but many of them speak rather decent English (their third language) and we had some fascinating conversations.

We talked a lot about the explosion of blogging in the Arab world, and how it may be time for an "Arab Voices" to help connect conversations going on in various nations' blogospheres. Isam pointed out that bloggers in one country have a hard time knowing who the good bloggers are in neighboring countries, and it's time to create a platform for a pan-Arab blogging community. Sounds like a great idea to me.

Having Jeff Ooi there was a real treat. Everybody at the table sat rapt in fascination and suspense as Jeff told the story of his threatened arrest last year after somebody posted an anonymous, derogatory comment against Islam on his blog. In the Arab world, bloggers naturally share a lot of similar concerns. The conversation was intense as people exchanged experiences and views on how one balances the desire to speak freely with political and religious pressures of various kinds. 

The evening really whetted my appetite for our upcoming Global Voices Summit, in London on December 10th.

I believe English blogs of Arabic bloggers has different objective than those written in Arabic, and that is the reach to the west in most, and the first language of some for those who live outside the Arab world.

For decades, there were no open channels between the East and the West. Blogs was and still is a great opportunity for Arab with bilingual skills to reach other around the world. To start a process of “learning to unlearn” on the non-Arab mass, so that the old believes and values perceived about Arabs, their culture and society are corrected and/or updated, and to represent an alternative point of view than that presented by local and foreign official views. It is very essential mind opener tool.

One of the interesting characteristics of the Middle Eastern blogosphere is the wealth of bloggers like Haitham who blog explicitly to challenge perceptions of the Middle East in North American and European media. (See Mahmoud Al-Yousif's “about” page on his blog, Mahmoud's Den, for a mission statement on this subject: “Now I try to dispel the image that Muslims and Arabs suffer from - mostly by our own doing I have to say - in the rest of the world. I am no missionary and don't want to be. I run several internet websites that are geared to do just that, create a better understanding that we're not all nuts hell-bent on world destruction.”)

The whole interview is very much worth a read if you're interested in a better understanding of blogs from the Middle East.

I recently attended the Helsinki Conference 2005 in Helsinki, Finland (Sept. 7-9). The conference was a follow-up to the Helsinki Process on Globalization and Democracy initiated by the governments of Tanzania and Finland in 2002 to create a multi-stakeholder approach to solving world’s problems and build a lasting partnership between the North and South.

The main rationale behind the Helsinki Process is that since globalization is a cross-border phenomenon, it requires effective cross-border governance made up of different stakeholders such as civil society organizations, the media, trade unions, governments, religious institutions, academic institutions, private sector, and international organizations.

The first conference in 2002 took place under the theme: Searching for Global Partnerships. It focused on human rights. The conference this year was the second to be followed by the third in 2007 in Tanzania. This year’s conference was entitled: “Mobilizing Political Will” and focused on development. Over 600 participants from 70 countries discussed how to move the multi-stakeholder dialogue into concrete action.

I attended the conference through partnership between the Helsinki Secretariat and the Global Voices Project. One of the main sessions that I was expected to actively participate was the workshop on communication, media, and citizenship organized by the Inter Press Service (IPS). Unfortunately, I arrived in Helsinki the day of the workshop. By the time I checked in my hotel and left for Finlandia Hall with my friend Vkii, the editor of the Malaysian online paper, Malaysiakini, the workshop was over.

One of the issues that were intensely discussed in the workshop was the power and the effectiveness of alternative media. Participants concluded that alternative media has the potential of amplifying marginalized voices and empower ordinary citizens. The evidence of the power of alternative media, they pointed out, was seen during the London bombing, Genoa G8 conference, and the 2004 Republican Party convention.

During the workshop, Naeem Mohaiemen, a visual artist, digital-media activist, and filmmaker, pointed out that Muslim voices and issues such as Muslim migration to the North were not given priority in the conference. Later, in an email conversation, I asked him why he did not refer to the lack of presence of other religions in the Helsinki Conference. He replied:

It is obvious that there are very specific global issues that affect the Muslim community, i.e. active US involvement in crises in Muslim majority nations (Iraq, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, etc.), Muslim immigrants to North America and Europe, and post 9/11 racial profiling, detention, and deportation of Muslim immigrants.So it is a uniquely Muslim crisis, and not shared by other religious communities…

Naeem, who is based in Dhaka (Bangladesh) and New York (US), edits Shobak.org and is the Director of the documentary Muslim or Heretics. After September 11, he collaborated with other artists to create Disappeared in America, a film, lecture, and multimedia installation about the plight of Muslims in the US.

Blogging the Helsinki Conference as it was happening was not easy because there were many interesting sessions going on simultaneously and lots of interesting people to meet and interview. In addition, most of the time, due to the intensity of the discussions, I felt like simply sitting and listening. There were roundtables and seminars on poverty, gender equality, anti-corruption, health, small arms, governance, and human rights.

The President of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa, and his Finish counterpart, Tarja Halonen spoke at the conference on the second day. They both called for more action in mobilizing political will to build a fair world. Quoting the Finnish writer Zakarias Topelius who once wrote, “Nations need each other, for if each had everything he wanted, no one would seek out others, but each would live and work just for himself,” Mkapa said that cooperation is the best way to promote development and human security. Stressing the importance of the multi-stakeholder approach, Halonen said that this particular approach is effective because it offers a bridge across different opinions.

Throughout the conference, I had a distinct sense of déjà vu. I guess I have attended too many conferences and workshops on the subject of building a fair world. I had to ask the former President of Ireland and the Director of Ethical Globalization Initiative, Mary Robinson, if the world needed another initiative to tackle poverty. Robinson’s responded by saying that the Helsinki Process does not seek to create a new global institution or draft more reports. “We simply want to move the world into action.”

Concrete action rather than words, policy papers, or promises is the main spirit of the Helsinki Process. According to the Finish foreign minister, Errik Tuomioja, the Helsinki Process is a networking forum. I have to admit that the “multi-stakeholder” approach to addressing world’s problems is highly appealing. But how practical and effective the approach can be in solving real world problems outside the Finlandia Hall is something we have to wait and see.

The countries that are involved in the initiative at the moment have committed themselves to action. The countries, known as the Friends of Helsinki, include South Africa, Egypt, Hungary, Canada, Malaysia, Thailand, Mexico, Brazil, Algeria, and Spain. You may notice that the world’s powerful nation, USA, is not part of the Helsinki Process. There were many indirect references to the US in different sessions until when the President of the Brookings Institution, Strobe Talbott, decided to say something about it. “There has been a veiled reference to one country in this conference…my own.”

Most of the people I spoke with thought that the US was too arrogant to engage in a multilateral process initiated by “insignificant” countries such as Tanzania and Finland. Well, according to Talbott, the US has been experimenting with unilateralism that is why it is not one of the Friends of the Helsinki Process. He asked those involved with the Helsinki Process to strive to make the process as inviting as possible for the US.

One of the issues of that was of great concern to conference participants from Africa was corruption. Rudolph Amega-Etego, the Executive Director of the Foundation for Grassroots Initiatives in Africa, wanted to know why Western governments preach accountability and good governance to African countries while at the same time, they let their banks keep million of dollars stolen by corrupt African leaders. Other participants talked about western corporations that “buy” African governments.

I was able to speak with Birgit Errath, the Associate Expert with Global Compact, a UN initiative promoting voluntary corporate social responsibility, about corruption in Africa. She is optimistic that future Mobutus and Abachas of Africa will not be able to hide money in foreign banks. “Banks are forced to be more transparent because of funding of terrorists.” She believes that in the future it will be possible to prevent corrupt leaders from participating in the global financial system.

Global Compact works with corporations to help them become more responsible in four key areas: labor, human rights, environment, and anti-corruption. Currently, there are 120 companies in Africa working with Global Compact and a new regional center has been established in Pretoria, South Africa.

The conference ended with a strong commitment from participants to a multi-stakeholder cooperation. The next conference will take place in Tanzania in 2007 to asses the progress of the initiative.

While the conference was taking place, I was able to conduct an informal workshop on blogging to journalists and NGO activists from Africa. The leading photojournalist from Tanzania, Muhiddin Issa Michuzi, started blogging at Finlandia Hall the day I told him about blogging. Michuzi works with the Daily News in Dar Es Salaam. Another journalist working for the government paper and a university student will start blogging very soon.

I was looking forward to meeting, and possibly interview, two Tanzania’s presidential candidates, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jakaya Kikwete, who co-host the conference with his Finish counterpart, Errik Tuomioja. Kikwete, and the opposition candidate, Prof. Ibrahim Lipumba did not attend the conference because of their tight campaign schedule.Tanzania’s presidential and parliamentary elections are taking place next month.

On the last day of the conference, most of the participants attended a concert organized by Finnish civil society organizations. My Finnish friends told that we were going to see big names in Finnish music scene and that the 5 euro we were going to pay was nothing. Up to that day, I could not name a single Finnish musician. Actually, I decided to go because the venue was not far from where I was staying. To be honest, I was not expecting much.

Before the person everybody was waiting for, well, one of them, the chairwoman of the Tanzania Association of Non-Governmental Associations, Marie Shaba, managed to convince all Tanzanians in the audience to go up the stage to sing.

“We have to sing.” She insisted after some of us talked about our non-existent singing abilities.

“In Africa we say if you can talk, you can sing, if you can walk, you can dance.”

After an African elder says those words what do you do?We had to go up the stage. We sang the famous Kiswahili song, Malaika. Malaika is the Kiswahili song from East Africa made famous by Miriam Makeba and Angelique Kidjo. We then led the audience to sing the chorus to Bob Marley’s Get Up, Stand Up.

Then Kimmo Pohjonen came on stage holding an accordion. I am not into accordion music. I did not understand why everybody was so anxious to see him. Everybody moved closer. The whole place was quiet. After about 5 minutes, I realized that I was watching one of the best musical performances of my life. It was amazingly intense and full pure energy. Kimmo combines light effects, chants, body movements, tapping, and slapping to create a sort of a spiritual experience. He uses a sampler to create creative loops and soundscapes. He records himself chanting, whistling, slapping, etc., and plays them back to accompany his accordion.

Marie Shaba, who lives in the coastal town of Bagamoyo told me that the performance reminded her of a communal dance in her town that usually takes people into trance. What she did not know, I later learned from Kimmo, was that he attended the Bagamoyo College of the Arts where he learnt a lot from the local culture. His teacher and inspiration was the late Tanzanian musician Hukwe Zawose.

Ismo Alanko, the leading Finnish rock singer and guitarist, performed much later. Towards the end of his performance, Kimmo joined him. Watching these two musicians perform, I realized the disadvantages of having one nation (USA) controlling the world’s entertainment industry. When will the world know of Kimmo Pohjonen? Or Hukwe Zawose?

A few minutes after 3am, when Vkii of Malaysiakini was busy dancing and smoking next to the “No Smoking” sign, I met Sami Hokkanen. Sami is one of the coolest person in Helsinki. Sami is the managing director of Provisual Oy, a production company in Helsinki that delivers content in various technologies such as mobile devices, DVD, and the Internet. Sami, who gave me a quick tour of Helsinki, is behind the project, Pixoff.net, which shows Finnish short films and animation online for free.

Sami told me about the exhibition of Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s photos. I had to go see it before I left. I did not regret. The exhibition entitled Earth from Above is also on the web.

If you have a blog, here's what you can do. Sometime tomorrow, take a break from whatever it is you usually blog about, and post something constructive related to disaster relief. You can keep it topical to your blog; or, you can just dedicate blog space to listing websites where people can donate money (maybe even challenge people to match your donation). Or, share a story of a hurricane survivor. This goes for photo bloggers, podcasters and video bloggers as well - there's no reason why this should be text-only.

Though this is inspired by Hurricane Katrina, the goal is to deal with disaster relief efforts worldwide, posting about a disaster relevant to your community. Post lists of supplies needed for victims of yesterday's stampede in Baghdad. Post an update on how your family is recovering from the tsunami. Post multi-lingual resources for African families in Paris displaced by the recent apartment fires. Blog about whatever you choose, as long as it supports some kind of disaster assistance in a constructive way.

When you've posted to your blog, be sure to include a link to this Technorati tag: International Blogging for Disaster Relief Day. That way, when people follow that link, they'll be able to find a collection of all relevant postings published throughout the blogosphere. There will also be an RSS feed on that page, which can be used to aggregate all of the postings and display them on a single webpage. I plan to aggregate them on my Katrina Aftermath blog; you can do the same. (Later, I'll post a javascript on my Katrina blog to make it easy for anyone to do this - more soon.) One collection of disaster relief resources, countless bloggers. That's the power of the blogosphere.

So please join me tomorrow and participate in International Blogging for Disaster Relief Day. Take a break from whatever it is you normally blog about - even if it's just for one post - and give back to the Net.

To learn more about mobcasting, please visit this blog entry I wrote last January, entitled When Mobile Podcasting Leads to Mobcasting to see where this all got started.

The email list will be focused solely on this project; people who join the list should be interested in mobile phone podcasting and be willing to help us make this project happen.

To join the list, please send an email to mobcasting-subscribe [[at]] yahoogroups . com, with the spaces and brackets removed. Or, you can visit the Mobcasting list homepage.

Meanwhile, I've also created a DDN community that we can use as a workspace. The workspace has bulletin boards, document sharing and blog posting. Group members are welcome to post web resources, blog entries or files to this public page. We can also add news, events and feature stories to the site if they become useful at some point.

Looking forward to making this happen! -andy