Global Voices » Food

China: Motor-Powered Breakfast Crepes

Juliana Rincón Parra — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:28:50 +0000

The Presurfer shares a video where we can see how the Beijing Jianbing is made. This large breakfast crepe is made possible thanks to a very steady hand and a motorized wheel that allows a really large and thin crepe to be evenly cooked.

‘What’s Eating Singapore' Data Visualizer

Mong Palatino — Sun, 13 May 2012 02:21:06 +0000

Singapore's Health Promotion Board uses the What’s Eating Singapore? data visualizer to survey the five most popular foods in Singapore based on social media posts. It's updated every three days. This week's most popular food items are pizza, curry, and sushi

South Korea: Continuing Mad Cow Controversy Over US Beef Imports

Lee Yoo Eun — Sat, 12 May 2012 12:35:10 +0000

Since last week, South Korea has seen continuing protests against importing beef from the United States after mad cow disease broke out in California. The Korean government dispatched its inspection team to the US to quell the public anger incited by the government's unkept promise to halt the beef imports immediately the disease was detected. However, the inspection team's lack of control over the investigation process and the biased member selection process further deepened South Korean's distrust of the government.

South Korea's Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries sent a nine-person inspection team that checked infected cattle and meat packing facilities in the United States right after the disease was detected. They returned only to announce on May 11, 2012, there is no real human health threat posed by American beef and concluded that the country will maintain its quarantine inspections regime on the beef without halting imports, a solution that totally contradicts the government's promise made in 2008. The Korean public responded to this result with heated discussions and criticism online.

One of South Korea's prominent political bloggers IamPeter clarified [ko] the reason for public distrust of the government's version of the story:

원래 광우병 미국 현지 조사단은 정확한 실태 파악을 위해 발병 농장 방문, 사체의 조직 검사 등 모든 의혹을 밝힐 수 있는 조사를 하기로 되어 있었습니다. 그러나 지금 광우병 미국 현지 조사단은 미국 측이 허용하는 장소만 가서 구경만 하고 있습니다. 광우병 발병 현지 목장 방문은 아예 하지도 못했고, 광우병 소의 사체 조직 검사도 미국 측에 의해 좌절됐습니다. 도축장 방문도 수출용이 아닌 내수용 도축장에만 갔다 왔습니다. 결국 광우병 미국 현지 조사단이 했던 일은 아무것도 없습니다. 그저 미국이 보여주는 지정된 코스를 충실하게 견학만 하고 있습니다.

The inspection team was supposed to carry out a thorough inspection including visiting the farm where the disease was detected and having a biopsy on the dead cow in order to dispel every suspicion. However this inspection team merely toured around some places which the US side allowed them to visit. They never even made it close to the farm where the disease broke out and the biopsy was also turned down by the US. And the visit to meatpacking facilities was limited to the domestic facilities and not the one handling beef which will be exported internationally. In summary, the inspection team did nothing. They had a field trip to some spots and stayed on a travel route all planned out by the US.

A brochure of anti US beef import protest planned on May 12 (left). Image shared by twitter user @hudanchu

Sarcastic comments ridiculing the inspection team inundated blogs and the twittersphere. Lee Hyang-ah commented [ko] below a related news article:

세금으로 미국여행 잘하고왓지뭐…자기들이 미국가서 광우병조사한다고하면 아이고 오시느라고 고생많았습니다. 앉아서 커피나 먹으면서 같이 얘기해봅시다. 이럴줄알앗나?? 뭔 뜻으로 조사단을 보냇는지 모르겟다.

They had a quite a good trip to the US with the taxpayer's money. Did they really think the US would welcome them when they came over to inspect for mad cow disease? Did they really think the US would say, “What a trip you had. Come and take a seat over here and discuss this issue over a coffee”? Really? I don't see the reason for dispatching the inspection team.

A net user @555773 tweeted [ko]:

[…]농장에도 방문도 못하고 조사한 결과가 이상이 없다며 검역 강화에만 치중하면서 중단은 하지 않고 국민의 불안감만 안기고 있는 정부를 신뢰할수 없다

They (referring to the mad cow disease inspection team) did not even visit the farm (where the disease broke out). The government is trying so hard to persuade us that US beef is safe and want to focus on continuing the quarantine regime, instead of halting the imports. And this kind of behavior makes South Korean people more anxious and harder to trust the current government even more.

Baek Chan-hong (@mindgood) tweeted [ko]:

헛물만 켜다온 광우병 조사단 “미국산 쇠고기 안전” 결론…그럴거면 이메일로 조사하지.

The dispatched team's inspection was totally useless. And they concluded that US beef is safe. Is this all we can get? Then it could have been better to inspect the case via email.

Another Twitter user @korea486 tweeted [ko]:

광우병 조사단 귀국,미국 쇠고기 이상 없다고 발표했군요! 광우병 조사단? 관광단 유람단 아니였나? 이 이인간들 미국소 먹을까요? 안 먹을까요?

The mad cow disease inspection team returned from the US and announced there is nothing wrong with US beef. Did they just call themselves an inspection team? I thought they were a tour team. What do you think- will they eat US beef in the future?

Cho Neung-hee(@mbcpdcho), a producer at MBC who is also a former chief producer of investigative journalism show “PD Notebook” tweeted [ko]:

조사단장을 맡은 주이석 질병방역본부장은 지난 2008년 4월 미국쇠고기 졸속협상시 협상단 실무담당자였다. 2008년 6월에는 PD수첩 제작진을 형사처벌해달라며 대검찰청에 수사의뢰서를 제출하고 관련 진술을 한 사람으로 조사의 객관성과 공정성이 의심된다.

The leader of the inspection team Joo E-suk, also the head of the animal quarantine office, was actually the one who handled the administrative stuff during the US beef import negotiation process back on April 2008. On June 2008, he even requested an investigation of PD Notebook reporters (who covered the danger of the mad cow disease) by the Supreme Prosecutor's Office and indeed testified against us. I highly doubt this investigation's objectivity and fairness.

Some news reports revealed that scientists and scholars who are against the US beef imports were excluded from the team.

The government argues the most recent case in California is a very rare atypical case and the case is unlikely to have caused by animal feed. However, another tweet [ko] by Cho made references to some US officials from the Clinton and Obama administrations who said they cannot verify for the moment whether there is any possible connection between the disease and the animal feed and they can't confirm the origin of this atypical case. Cho added [ko]:

[…] 학자들의이 반론으로 미국정부도 그 원인을 모른다고 후퇴했는데.. 유독 한국 농식품부는 사료가 원인이 아니라고 ‘추정'된다며.. 그러니 안전하다며.. 국민을 설득하려는지 참으로 안타깝군요. 사전예방의 법칙! 어디갔어?

Due to scholars arguments, even the US government have stepped back and acknowledged that they don't know clear reasons for the disease outbreak. But South Korea's Food/Agriculture Department alone ‘assumes' that the animal feed is not the cause of the problem, so it is safe. It is so pathetic to see them trying hard to persuade Korean people. Where did the rule of “Prevention” (in health policy) go in this country ?

IamPeter added [ko] after his analysis:

“정형 광우병은 없어졌다”고 했는데, 세계동물보건기구(OIE)의 2011년 광우병 통계에는 총 광우병 29건 중 정형 26건, 비정형 3건으로 나와 있습니다. […] 광우병에 대한 과학적인 결론은 100% 진실이 없습니다. 아직 정확하게 규명되지 않은 일들이 많기 때문입니다. 그렇기에 더욱 위험합니다. 과학적으로 규명되지 않았기에 위험하지 않다는 주장은 ‘바다의 깊이를 현재 모른다'라고 말해놓고, ‘그러니 빠져도 괜찮다'라는 말과 다를 바가 없습니다.

The government said that the ‘typical' disease case has disappeared. But according to OIE's [note: OIE refers to International Office of Epizootics which still known by its French acronym Office International des Epizooties] statistics on mad cow disease in 2011, among the total 29 mad cow disease cases, 26 cases of were ‘typical' and three were ‘atypical' cases […] There is no 100 percent verified scientific truth in the mad cow disease controversy yet, since there are lots of parts that need to be proven. That is what makes this situation more dangerous. (The current South Korean government's) logic is, ‘It is not dangerous since the risk of the disease has not yet been scientifically proven'. To me it seems like saying, “We don't know the depth of the ocean yet, so it is okay to fall into it”.

Kenya: Chronicles of a Kenyan Farmer Online

Ndesanjo Macha — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:24:42 +0000

E.K. Kamwenji is a Kenyan blogging farmer residing in Nyeri. Kamwenji worked in different sectors unrelated to agriculture before he realised the importance of using latest technologies for networking and marketing of farm produce.

He explains his journey into farming:

Kenyan blogging farmer. Photo source: Kamwenji's Facebook page.

Thus I am a farmer by profession. The undergraduate course took 4 years and after graduating I ventured into job hunting. Initially, I was employed in a small farm. I was in charge of production but after 14 months, I quit due to low pay which was irrespective of performance as per the agreement.

During this period I was searching for another better paying job but I found myself working in areas that are not related to horticulture. These included sales at an auto shop and programming at an IT company. It was an eye opener as I realized that farmers are generally looked down upon especially the small scale ones.

I also got to know that it was important to incorporate other concepts of business into agriculture to transform it, to bring it to per with the current state of things i.e. use of latest form of technology in order to improve on not just the farming techniques but also on the networking and marketing of farm producers and produce.

How did Kamwenji become a blogging farmer?:

I started my blog not so long ago, mostly as a therapeutic way of ‘telling someone’ about my challenges, joys, disappointments, mistakes and progress. Many of my friends ask me why I choose farming yet there are many other appealing professions out there. I love farming. I desire self reliance especially when it comes to food and most of all following my calling. I find more fulfillment tending to my livestock or crops even with its many setbacks than many of my friends do seated behind desks in offices.

My blog is to not only to record my journeys as a farmer but also to serve as an encouragement to the many jobless youth in Kenya of whom many if not most have migrated and many more still migrate to the capital cities in search of white or blue collar jobs leaving their family farms with no one to till.

My Blog does not give a daily account of my activities in the farm as most are redundant. Rather it gives highlights of the ups, the downs, the learning points and setbacks in a summarized form.
It’s quite hard finding time to even update my blog on a weekly basis leave alone daily thus I just jot down a few notes in the evenings and come up with a more holistic post afterwards.

In one of his last year's posts, Kamwenji discussed his plans for operating a successful livestock project:

My main objectives are to fully operate a sustainable farming venture. The major project is to have the livestock up and going. This is important since this department is not affected by the weather and market for the produce such that one can have a proper plan with.

The cows and goats are for dairy production. Hopefully, if all goes as planned, in the next 2- years they should have multiplied and the milk production should not be less than 60 litres. If they happen to delivery young ones that re male, these are to be raised up to an age where they can be sold at a good value enough to acquire heifers and does(she goats)

In the geese section, the aim is to have twenty adult females. There are adequate to ensure that they lay ad hatch enough chicks unlike poultry Chicken) geese tend to stay long before laying and only lay 5-7 eggs before becoming broody. The good thing is that they do have a better market.

In another post written this year, Kamwenji shows how environmental degradation in Kenya affects farmers:

Talking of weather, the region I come from (or undertake most of farming for that matter) has been in the news due to frost affecting the tea farms both small-scale and large scale. It is quite tragic if you ask me because for the longest time Kenyans have been ignoring the calls for environmental conservation. The haphazard weather patterns we have seen in the last 5-10 years have been worrying especially considering our country is smack in the middle of the tropics.
Tree-cutting has been the order of the day and recently the area around Mt. Kenya - which is less than 20 miles from the farm - had a wild fire which was contained after more than 3 days. A similar but less serious situation was also reported along the Aberdare Ranges. These two highlands provide the area around Central Kenya with much of its water and this also trickles down to the other parts of the country in Nairobi, Eastern and Coastal regions. Reduce the acreage of trees on these areas and you drastically affect the water table and patterns downstream. I'll not lecture you on this for now.

In addition to blogging, Kamwenji uses YouTube to share stories about his farm. The two videos below are from his 5-part YouTube series:

This is a 5 part series video of my farm in Karatina Nyeri. You will get to see; The dogs, Goats, Cows, Calves, Geese as well as the foodcrops; Bananas, napier grass, beans, maize and fruit trees.

I also take you through how I use the manure generated from the cows into the farm.

Join me as I take you on a tour of my farm.

Kamwenji is also on Facebook and Twitter. His blog was nominated in the Agriculture Category in this year's BAKE Blogger Awards.

South Korea: Fearing Mad Cow Disease, New Protests Against US Beef

Lee Yoo Eun — Sun, 06 May 2012 20:13:27 +0000

Thousands of South Koreans held candlelight protests this week to demonstrate against continued beef imports from the United States after the detection of mad cow disease in California in April. Four years earlier in 2008, when several tens of thousands gathered for the candlelight vigils to protest a planned import, the government eventually made promises to halt imports immediately whenever the disease breaks out.

The unkept promise now reignites public anger and has revived the four-year old tradition of candlelight vigils.

Twitter Photo by user @notable1980

Twitter user @notable1980 tweeted [ko] with a photo of protest above:

[촛불시즌2][2012년5월2일7시청계광장][…]”작은 실천이 세상을 바꿉니다.”

[Season Two of Candle Light (Vigil)] [7 pm, May 2, 2012, the City Hall Choenggye Square] […] “Small actions change the world”

Twitter Photo by @opentree20

Another user @opentree20 tweeted [ko] the photo above and said:

2009년 광우병 촛불이 처음 밝혀진지 딱 4년만입니다. 4년 전 그날처럼 국민들이 같은 마음으로 한 자리에 모여 촛불을 높이 들고 있네요. 미국산 소 수입 즉각 중단하십시오!

It has been exactly four years since the candles were lit up in 2009 to protest against the mad cow disease (-tainted meat). With the same mindset of those days back in 2009, Korean people now sit together to hoist up their candles. Please immediately halt importing US beef!

Twitter photo by @hyojinlovelove.

Kim Hyo-jin (@hyojinlovelove) tweeted from a scene of protest that continued late into the night.

이 시간 청계광장. 미국산 광우병 소고기 수입 반대 집회. 어김없이 촛불을 들다. 시간이 지날수록 더 많은 사람들이 모이고 있어요.

Now at Cheonggye Square- a protest against mad cow disease infected US beef imports. We lifted up our candles. More people have gathered as time goes by.

Twitter photo by @sisyphus79

A tweet by user @sisyphus79 read [ko]:

촛불 4주년 광우병 쇠고기 반대 촛불집회 현장입니다. 4년 전 그때의 공기가 이곳에서 느껴집니다. http://twitpic.com/9gcd4i

This is the scene of candle light vigil against the mad cow disease tainted beef — just like what we had four years ago. I can feel the same air in this place.

Twitter Photo by @gree

Twitter user @gree tweeted [ko] the photo above and said:

다시 모이고, 다시 밝힌 촛불들이 외칩니다. “거짓말 정부 못 믿겠다. 광우병 쇠고기 수입 중단하라!”

The candle lights have once again came together and have been rekindled to shout out, “We can't trust this liar government any more. Stop importing the mad cow disease-tainted beef”.

Protesters waved candles and flags, sang songs and held banners that said “Protect the sovereignty of the people” and “Stop US beef imports” as can be seen in the pictures above. About 4,000 police officers were dispatched to the protest scene and some demonstraters have been arrested [ko].

Twitter Photo by @ytnmania

YTN Labor Union, for employees of a South Korean national cable news channel, (@ytnmania) tweeted a photo of police (above) blocking the protesters:

4년만에 다시 모인 청계광장 광우병 규탄 촛불집회에 앵그리 YTN 조합원들도 참석! 경찰 청계광장을 미리 점거해서 자리가 비좁네요!

It has been four years, and the protesters have come again to stage a candlelight vigil against the tainted (US beef) at Cheonggye Square. We, the ANGRY YTN members have attended, even though this place is so crowded as the police already occupied the Square.

Back in 2008 mass protests broke out and continued for over a month. Since the government lifted its ban on imports, South Korea is now the fourth-largest importer of US beef in the world.

@wjsfree posted a video explaining why people are so concerned about the import in a Storify story.

A mass protest which started on May 2, 2012 continued for another day and is likely to continue throughout the next week. Several thousands gathered on the first day of protest and about a thousand [ko] continued rallying throughout the next day.

South Korea’s influential one-man media, Media Mongu uploaded a photo of a young girl who participated in the protest with her mother and grandmother. They are holding banners that read “Halt Imports (two on the right)” and “Protect Our Sovereignty (on the left)”.

Twitter Photo by Media Mongu

@jhohmylaw tweeted [ko] about his reasons for protesting on the second day:

(내가 오늘도 청계광장을 가는 이유) 1.촛불시위는 이제 시작일 뿐이다 2. 어제는 국민의 힘을 제대로 보여 주지 못했다. 3. MB정부, 쇠고기 수입중단 안하고 있다 4.자식의 안전을 걱정해야 하는 아버지다 5. 그곳에 가면 기분이 좋다.

(Why I go to the Cheongye Square again today) 1. It is only the beginning of candle light vigils. 2. Yesterday's protest was not strong enough to show the people's power. 3. The MB government [President Lee Myung-bak's initials] has not halted the import yet. 4. I am a father of children who worries about my kids' health. 5. I just feel good being there.

Even the nation’s far right-wing newspapers which side with the government on almost every issue released a statistic [ko] showing 72.5 percent of Korean people want to halt the US beef imports. Meanwhile, a more progressive newspaper, Pressian, retrieved an image [ko] of a government advertisement from an old newspaper. The ad, paid for by the government's health department, said, “There is nothing more important than the public health. Count on us to protect you” and “If mad cow disease-contaminated beef were ever detected in the United States, we will immediately stop imports”.

The government's second promise was to run a thorough inspection on all imported beef and the origin of the disease breakout, which many Twitter users such as @yoji0802, thinks casts doubts [ko] on the accuracy of the results even before the inspection starts.

India: The Best Tea Cafés

Rezwan — Sun, 06 May 2012 10:57:41 +0000

There is a new hype in India - the rise of tea cafés (tea lounges or tea bars). Charukeshi lists some of the best tea cafés in different Indian cities which you can explore.

Global Voices Podcast: Food for Thought, Food to Eat

Jamillah Knowles — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:46:51 +0000

Hello World!

Welcome to another edition of the Global Voices Podcast.

In this edition we explore the latest work and events in the Global Voices community. We also speak with some friends about the cross cultural elements of our lives, with a special focus on food: both food for thought, and to eat!

Silvia Vinas

First up, Silvia Viñas our Latin America regional editor, has been finding out more about translation on the Web. Intercontinental Cry is is a grassroots journal for the global indigenous movement, providing news, videos, petitions, commentary and action alerts. The site recently launched in Spanish, so Silvia had a chat with Editor and Publisher Alex Cacherino-Gorman, about spreading the news in a different language.

A previous version of the podcast said Silvia Viñas spoke to John Ahniwanika Schertow. Silvia actually spoke to Intercontinental Cry in Spanish editor Alex Cachinero-Gorman.

New Rising Voices grantees

Last month we announced, six new Rising Voices grantees from Guatemala, United States, Paraguay, Palestine, Peru and Myanmar. These new project have joined our global community will each receive microgrants to help get their ideas off the ground. Congratulations to all of the grantees!

Rising Voices

Beatrice Catanzaro is a visual artist and one of the newest additions to the Rising Voices community with her project, Food Tales from Nablus. Alongside her friend Fatima she is working with women from the heart of the Old City in the city of Nablus, Palestine, to celebrate their culinary skills. One of the major components of their project will be the creation a cooking school for foreign visitors that will employ local women as chefs and instructors. We speak with these two amazing ladies to find out more about their work.

Food across borders

If there’s one thing we like to share together at Global Voices - as well as news and stories - it has to be food. This July 2-3, we will be at the Global Voices Summit 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya, and it will be a pleasure to meet, discuss and eat with colleagues from around the world.

Gustavo Arellano, editor of the OC Weekly in Orange County, California and the writer behind ‘Ask a Mexican‘, has been on a culinary journey to find out how Mexican food has become so popular in the United States in his new book, Taco USA. Journalist, producer and blogger, Cyrus Farivar chats with Gustavo about the flavours that cross borders.

Mexican Food on 1806 Haight St in San Francisco, California. Photo by Rupert Ganzer on flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the podcast. As ever a huge thank you goes to all of our contributors and interviewees, and especially to Yazan for being great company and a brilliant co-presenter. Whether it is food for thought or something to eat, the Global Voices community always has it covered.

The Global Voices Podcast, the world is talking, we hope you’re listening!

Music credits

In the podcast you can hear lots of lovely Creative Commons music. Thanks to Mark Cotton for his fantastic creations and thanks also to all of the wonderful voice over performances and clips that help to glue the podcast together.

Africa: Calls for Transparency Over Marked Increase in Land Deals

Lova Rakotomalala — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:25:59 +0000

An international coalition of researchers and NGOs have released the world's largest public database of international land deals, reports the Global Development blog of The Guardian's (UK). This marks an important milestone in highlighting a developmental issue that has received little attention in the international news cycle.

The report states that almost 5% of Africa's agricultural land has been bought or leased by investors since 2000, and emphasizes the fact that this is not a new issue, yet points out that the number of such land deals has increased tremendously in the past five years.

Many observers are increasingly worried that these land deals usually take place in the world's poorest countries and that they impact its most vulnerable population, the farmers. The benefits seldom go to the general population, partially because of a lack of transparency in the proceedings of the transactions.

An additional report by Global Witness, entitled Dealing with Disclosure, emphasizes the dire need for transparency in the making of land deals.

World's poorest nations targeted

The Global Witness report lists that 754 land deals have been identified, involving the majority of African countries for about 56.2 million hectares.

Target countries of land deals from the Land Matrix Project

The nations targeted are usually some of the poorest in the world. The countries with the most deals in place are Mozambique (92 deals), Ethiopia (83), Tanzania (58) and Madagascar (39). Some of those deals have made headlines because they were conducted to ensure control over food imports, when the targeted regions faced major food crises.

The NGO GRAIN has already explained in detail the gist of their concerns in an extensive report released in 2008:

Today’s food and financial crises have, in tandem, triggered a new global land grab. On the one hand, “food insecure” governments that rely on imports to feed their people are snatching up vast areas of farmland abroad for their own offshore food production. On the other hand, food corporations and private investors, hungry for profits in the midst of the deepening financial crisis, see investment in foreign farmland as an important new source of revenue. As a result, fertile agricultural land is becoming increasingly privatised and concentrated. If left unchecked, this global land grab could spell the end of small-scale farming, and rural livelihoods, in numerous places around the world.

In Malawi, land deals have grown increasingly prevalent to the detriment of the local farmers. A report from Bangula explains the challenges faced by Malawian farmers, Dorothy Dyton and her family:

Like most smallholder farmers in Malawi, they did not have a title deed for the land Dyton was born on, and in 2009 she and about 2,000 other subsistence farmers from the area were informed by their local chief that the land had been sold and they could no longer cultivate there. […] Since that time, said Dyton, “life has been very hard on us.” With a game reserve on one side of the community and the Shire river and Mozambique border on the other, there is no other available land for them to farm and the family now ekes out a living selling firewood they gather from the nearby forest.

Land construction in Madagascar. Photo by Foko Madagascar, used with the author's authorization

Farmers in Madagascar share similar concerns because they do not own the rights to the land they farm and an effective land reform is yet to be implemented. The Malagasy association Terres Malgaches has been at the forefront of land protection for the local population. They report that [fr]:

Les familles malgaches ne possèdent pas de document foncier pour sécuriser leurs terres contre les accaparements de toutes sortes. En effet, depuis la colonisation, l’obtention de titres fonciers auprès de l’un des 33 services des domaines d’un pays de 589 000 km2 nécessite 24 étapes, 6 ans en moyenne et jusqu’à 500 dollars US. (..) . Face aux convoitises et accaparements dont les terres malgaches font l’objet actuellement, seule la possession d’un titre ou d’un certificat foncier, seuls documents juridiques reconnus, permet d’entreprendre des actions en justice en cas de conflit.

Malagasy families do not usually own an estate property document that enable them to secure their lands against land grab. In fact, since colonial times, one has needed about 24 steps, 6 years and up to 500 US dollars to get such documents. There are merely around 33 agencies in the country that deliver such documents for a country that is 589,000 kilometres square […] In the face of the increasing land grabs that Malagasy land is currently at risk of, this certificate is the only document that can trigger legal action in case of conflict.

The association also reports on the practices of a mining company Sheritt, in Ambatovy, which have created a buzz in the local blogosphere because of environmental concerns for the local population and business malpractices (via MiningWatch Canada):

Sherritt International’s Ambatovy project in eastern Madagascar – costing $5.5 billion to build and scheduled to begin full production this month – will comprise a number of open pit mines (..) it will close in 29 years. There are already many concerns about the mine from the thousands of local people near the facilities. They say that their fields are destroyed ; the water is dirty ; the fish in the river are dead and there have been landslides near their village. During testing of the new plant, there have been at least four separate leaks of sulphur dioxide from the hydro-metallurgical facility which villagers say have killed at least two adults and two babies and sickened at least 50 more people. In January, laid-off construction workers from Ambatovy began a wildcat strike, arguing that the jobs they were promised when construction ended have not materialized. The people in nearby cities like Moramanga say that their daughters are increasingly engaged in prostitution.

Video of a worker's testimony in Ambatovy.

Solutions for the local population?

The plight of Madagascar's farmers' plight may be slowly changing though. Land reform discussions are in progress, according to this report:

According to a paper presented at the 2011 International Conference on Global Land Grabbing, about 50 agribusiness projects were announced between 2005 and 2010, about 30 of which are still active, covering a total land area of about 150,000 ha. Projects include plantations to produce sugar cane, cassava and jatropha-based biofuel.
To prevent the negative impacts of land grabbing, (The NGO) EFA has set up social models for investors, with funding from the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The goal is to help investors negotiate with the people in the area where they want to implement projects, as a way to prevent future problems.

Joachim Von Braun, formerly of the International Food Policy Insitute (IFPRI), wrote the following regarding land deals:

It is in the long-run interest of investors, host governments, and the local people involved to ensure that these arrangements are properly negotiated, practices are sustainable, and benefits are shared. Because of the transnational nature of such arrangements, no single institutional mechanism will ensure this outcome. Rather, a combination of international law, government policies, and the involvement of civil society, the media, and local communities is needed to minimize the threats and realize the benefits.

The need for transparency in land deals is further emphasized by Megan MacInnes, Senior Land Campaigner at Global Witness:

Far too many people are being kept in the dark about massive land deals that could destroy their homes and livelihoods. That this needs to change is well understood, but how to change it is not. For the first time, this report (Dealing with Disclosure) sets out in detail what tools governments, companies and citizens can harness to remove the shroud of secrecy that surrounds land acquisition. It takes lessons from efforts to improve transparency in other sectors and looks at what is likely to work for land. Companies should have to prove they are doing no harm, rather than communities with little information or power having to prove that a land deal is negatively affecting them.

Cuba: Interview with Ferrer Garcia

Janine Mendes-Franco — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:50:40 +0000

Pedazos de la Isla posts an interview with recently-released political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia.

Sri Lanka: Tackling Agricultural Surpluses

Rezwan — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:52:40 +0000

The Sri Lankan Government is facing a new kind of challenge, tackling surplus production of rice. The Economic Development Minister of Sri Lanka Basil Rajapaksa has suggested to export the surplus of rice and vegetables in the country. There has also been suggestions that oil should be purchased bartered with rice.

But what is the reality on the ground? Are farmers happy with the surplus productions? There is very little information on the plight of the farmer in the Press. Rajaratarala, blogger and a farmer, terms the export of rice an insult to the paddy farmers of Sri Lanka. The blogger comments:

It was reported a short while ago today, April 18th 2012, that the Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, KA Sakalasooriya, has announced the creation of four zones for export. [..] It was further announced that in the next Yala season this paddy would be purchased at Rs40/kg.

Why is this announcement insulting? He has no clue about rice farming, about yields on different soil and growing conditions, and on different varieties of paddy.

I have planted 6 varieties of paddy, and I have personally sold door to door, 14 varieties of rice arising from this paddy. [..] Rs 40/kg is not enough to compensate for the lower yields. [..]

I really suspect that if farmers produce paddy at this price for the quality that is required for export, it is the Miller who will make the profit again, as he has the market sown up, and all the Government is doing by making this promise is doing the bidding of the Millers who have given the Govt. an undertaking to buy this paddy at this price.

Paddy fields in Sri Lanka. Image from Flickr by Nishan.sl. Used under a creative commons license BY-NC-ND

The blogger sheds a light into the plights of the rice farmers in Sri Lanka, who are not obtaining a fair price for their produce, in another post:

There is no profit in growing paddy on an acreage that is less than 5 acres which comprise, 70% of the paddy land grown today. So REMEMBER the rice we eat is grown by people making a sacrifice!!! For no gain, not even enough to pay for a daily wage of Rs200. So what does the future hold?

Rajaratarala depicts in another post how the millers control the market and take the cream out of the business. The blogger suggests:

In order therefore for the excess paddy in Sri Lanka to be absorbed, the Govt. must purchase and store at least 6 months supply in large silos around the country and also have a plan to build a large mill for export quality rice, that requires special standards of quality control to compete with international standards, which this mill also has. This mill owner makes more money selling to the local market, the export market to him is actually more competitive!

Lastly the blogger explains how to tackle the economic surplus and says that he is not against export:

The govt. must have a policy on how each segment is treated, incentivized and compensated. [..] The transfer of the pricing determinant from the Miller, the wholesaler and intermediary to the grower, is what economists the whole world over are even now grappling with without answers, leaving agriculture to Market supply and demand dynamic that is only in the farmers’ favor when shortages are in the horizon.

Cuba: Diaspora Reacts to Ferrer García's Release

Janine Mendes-Franco — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:52:50 +0000

Cuban prisoner of conscience Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia was released over the weekend. Diaspora bloggers comment on this most recent development.

On Friday, the situation appeared as if nothing would change. The former “Group of 75″ prisoner had already been imprisoned for close to a month and had gone on a hunger strike to protest his incarceration. Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter wrote a post about “the courageous Ferrer García family”, which gives some valuable background to his case:

The Castro regime wanted to execute José Daniel Ferrer García in 2003 requesting the death penalty in a show trial but the international outcry caused them to back down and sentence him to a 25 year prison sentence instead. After the untimely and sinister death of Cuban Lady in White founder, Laura Inés Pollán Toledo on October 14, 2011 the threat to José Daniel's life cannot be underestimated. Like Laura Pollán, José Daniel has a nonviolent strategic vision and an ability to mobilize and organize people combined with great courage.

Since the latest detention of José Daniel Ferrer García on April 2, 2012, his brother Luis Enrique has organized a campaign for his release and is tweeting both from his own account and his brother’s twitter account to raise awareness and solidarity.

Please be vigilant with regards to the plight of José Daniel Ferrer García and speak up for him because his life may very well depend on it. After 24 days in detention, Cuban officials have yesterday finally made known that they plan to accuse José Daniel of ‘public disturbances.'

Soon, news broke that Ferrer García had decided to suspend his hunger strike and activity aimed at expediting his release was increased: Pedazos de la Isla posted a detailed account of “some of the many Cubans who reside behind bars in a prison cell for defending human rights and freedom in Cuba”, adding:

Let us demand their immediate release!

Ferrer García's release appeared to happen soon afterward: Uncommon Sense reported yesterday that:

Cuban opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia was released from jail on Sunday, almost a month after his most recent arrest.

But, the blogger, not wanting to appear overly optimistic, added:

Ferrer, one of Cuba's most active opposition leaders still faces charges of ‘instigating, directing and financing public disorder' in eastern Cuba. No trial date has been set.

The thumbnail image used in this post, “jail”, is by the_kid_cl, used under an Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) Creative Commons license. Visit the_kid_cl's flickr photostream.

Haiti: Death by “Clairin”

Janine Mendes-Franco — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:29:39 +0000

“In early 2011, a dozen people died after drinking ‘clairin' – a traditional Haitian alcohol drink – made with methanol in the Fond Baptiste region, north of the capital. Another 20 or so were blinded or paralyzed”: Haiti Grassroots Watch learns that “judicial, health and commerce authorities have not investigated who was responsible for the tragedy” and that “the production and sale of clairin – and ‘fake clairin' – continues with no regulation”, saying: “The tragedy could occur again at any moment, on an even larger scale.”

Trinidad & Tobago: Talking Common Sense

Matthew Hunte — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:29:10 +0000

The Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies, based in Trinidad & Tobago, has posted video of the presentations from one of its Common Sense Convois series, ”Food First: Building An Economy From the Kitchen to the World”: Roger Pulwarty, climate scientist, and Sam Dowlath, former CEO of the National Agricultural Marketing and Development Corporation.

Estonia: Places to Eat Out in Tallinn

Veronica Khokhlova — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:08:41 +0000

Nami-Nami recommends places to eat out in Tallinn in Spring 2012.

Cuba: Resorting to Hunger Strike

Janine Mendes-Franco — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:36:39 +0000

Cuban netizens, primarily from the diaspora, are once again blogging about instances of police abuse in the country and how the island's justice system routinely makes hunger-strikers out of prisoners of conscience.

Uncommon Sense republishes a report from the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy about “a recent clash between the Castro police and a large crowd of Cuban citizens who in one instance, said no to repression”, while babalu notes that:

The repression against Cuba's Ladies in White, a peaceful group of human rights activists continues without abatement.

In a later post, babalu adds:

It is news that unfortunately has become routine every Monday morning: The women members of the peaceful Cuban human rights group the Ladies in White arrested by Castro State Security agents for attempting to attend Sunday church services.

Imprisoned dissident and former member of the Black Spring “Group of 75″, Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, continues to get lot of attention from the Cuban blogosphere - even more so after his “Me están asesinando” (”They are killing me”) testimony, which Blog for Cuba carries here [ES]. The statement from Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU) (the Patriotic Union of Cuba) refers to Ferrer's commencement of a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment. Uncommon Sense explains that:

No formal charges have been filed against Ferrer, but the authorities have accused him of ‘public disorder' and ‘convening marches,' his role as the national leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba.

Ferrer was one of the Group of 75 dissidents sentenced to lengthy prison terms during the ‘black spring' of 2003, and whose release was part of a deal struck by the Catholic Church, the government of Spain and the Castro regime. However, Ferrer and 11 others were the last to be released because they had rejected overseas exile as a condition of their release.

That's right, Ferrer had a chance to leave Cuba with his family, but he chose to stay and to fight for freedom.

Which is why tonight, he is jail.

And which is why again, he is laying his life on for that fight.

Pedazos de la Isla posts an update explaining how other activists on the island are mobilizing to support Ferrer and other prisoners of conscience:

During this past week (and weekend), a number of dissidents throughout the island have carried out different kinds of protests- from pots and pan demonstrations to strikes- demanding the release from prison of various political prisoners/detainees, among them Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia (arrested on April 2nd after the political police raided his home), Jorge Vazquez Chaviano (detained on March 27th as he was trying to travel to Havana from Santa Clara to assist the Papal Mass), Niurka Luque Alvarez (a Lady in White who was arrested on March 16th while she protested against a forced eviction in Havana) and Sonia Garro Alfonso (arrested after being shot at by police agents with rubber bullets).

The demonstrators declared that they would fast (only eating during the night) and they hung signs outside the house with the names of those unjustly arrested.

Human rights activist Guillermo Farinas reported on his Twitter account (@Chirusa32) that, at around 9:30 PM on Sunday, the former political prisoner Librado Linares, a resident of Villa Clara, suffered a ‘violent act of repudiation (…) for putting up signs outside his house demanding freedom for Jose Daniel Ferrer and others'. Later, it was confirmed that Linares was physically assaulted by regime-organized mobs. However, he was not detained.

Generation Y says that she “knew they would go after him”:

José Daniel, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), is today State Security’s main headache in the East of the country. He occupies that place — admirable but dangerous — in part because his every word projects honesty and determination. Good-natured, young, conciliatory, he has managed to revive a dissident movement languishing between repression and the exile of some of its members. His drawing power, and the respect many have for him, comes also from his perseverance and, in particular, from the fact that he is quicker to embrace than to distrust. He has become a human-bridge between several citizen projects and, right now, that makes him a sharp stone in the Cuban government’s shoe.

For 23 days this tireless Santiaguan has been detained. His wife, Belkis Cantillo, still has no information about how much longer he will be under arrest, or even if they plan to file legal charges. Some of us, his friends, have a bad feeling. José Daniel Ferrer has come to have an ability to call people together that frightens the Cuban authorities and they will punish him harshly for that.

But Ferrer is not the only prisoner on hunger strike - Uncommon Sense reports that:

Cuban political prisoner Luis Enrique Labrador has [also] started a hunger strike to demand that prison guards who beat him recently are punished by their superiors.

For many jailed dissidents, the hunger strike appears to be the last-resort method of protest in Cuba.

The thumbnail image used in this post, “Hunger Strike”, is by Ivan Rumata, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Creative Commons license. Visit Ivan Rumata's flickr photostream.