It is nevertheless worth considering. The bombing at Shindand is but one problem facing the often neglected west of Afghanistan. Typically thought to be more stable, and more secure, and more prosperous than the rest of the country (it is), Herat nevertheless faces some enormous challenges, starting with the so-called “Tajik Taliban.” As Tim Foxely explains,

The idea that now other ethnic groups are starting to emulate, if not actually join, the Taliban and conduct resistance against the Kabul regime lies somewhere between “a very real cause for concern” and “everybody's worst nightmare”. It evokes the “tipping point” concerns of ISAF commanders past and present that the population might eventually get fed up with tens of thousands of international soldiers charging around dropping bombs on them and a corrupt government that fails to deliver and shift their allegiances elsewhere. The other angle is the very high likelihood that Akbari was sacked from his position for being corrupt or incompetent or both and is therefore having nothing more than a big sulk, Afghan warlord style. As such, it would be a localised and exceptional situation and probably nothing to worry about.

This is an excellent summary of just how difficult it is to determine which problems in Afghanistan require serious consideration and near-panic, and which ones are, for lack of a better term, cyclical variations in a standard conflict pattern.

Kandahar bazaar during Ramadan, courtesy Flickr user Chooyutshing.

This can manifest itself in a couple of ways. Alex Strick van Linschoten, for example, just returned to Kandahar from a few weeks abroad. What has he noticed upon his return?

If there’s one thing two weeks abroad (California and London) does it gives a certain perspective on the things you quickly accept as ‘normal’ when living in Kandahar. If someone would unholster his pistol and place it on the table at Café Nero in London I think they’d have a problem or two, but in Kandahar I don’t blink twice when interviewees or friends come in off the street and lay their AK-47 or even once an RPG next to the wall.

Otherwise the city’s pretty quiet.

Indeed. Further north, Harry Rud wanders through the trash-filled streets of Kabul, and remarks on just how disconnected foreigners can fell when locked inside their armored compounds:

Many foreigners here are not allowed to step foot outside their compounds, have lists of places they can and (more often) cannot go to, and strict rules about how high the walls, how thick the barbed wire, how many armed guards surround them. It is not a situation most want or enjoy. It drives many to distraction. I am lucky to be able to walk a little further, though it gives me no greater feel for the place when I’m too nervous to stop and look around me.

It’s hard to describe the causes of that nervousness. There’s the obvious but unlikely risk of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then there’s that disconnect; the sense of us and them it breeds, of being so very out of place and watched by an unknown crowd. A bird-like suspicion, to stretch the point.

But this raises the question: just what, exactly, is the West doing in Afghanistan after seven years of occupation? Azar Balkhi notes that in the West, there seems to be mindless panic but no real sense of urgency:

Pakistani Taliban fighters openly flogged two butchers for selling the flesh of animals in the northwestern Swat valley today September 25, and in the same day the Pakistani soldiers fired at American reconnaissance helicopters that were escorting U.S. ground troops along the volatile border Thursday, sparking a five-minute ground battle between the countries.

This is all happening as President Asif Ali Zardari and Hamid Karzai are promising
Washington help in the war on terror and meeting with the top American leaders in New York…

Heavily armed Taliban fighters brought the blindfolded butchers to a crowded market in Kabal sub-district and flogged them in front of a throng of about 200 people. The media was also called by the Taliban to cover the event but there is no any government to stop them.

Which brings us back to where we started: Afghanistan's extreme complexity. The latest meme to be making the rounds of policy offices in London, Washington DC, and Brussels, is negotiating with the Taliban. Christian Bleuer wonders:

* what “Taliban” (Quetta Shura? Local semi-autonomous commanders? Hizb? Haqqanis? Others? all at the same time?)
* and if answer is “Moderate Taliban” then please define who exactly they are.
* don’t you already consider the Afghan government’s reconciliation program to be a form of negotiation?
* do you really not know about the Afghan government communicating/negotiating with insurgents?

All that being said, there remain bright points of life within Afghanistan. Andrea shares just such a moment, and it really cannot be done proper justice through excerpting. It will have to stand on its own.

In Ecuador the reports of the National Institute of Statistical and Census (INEC) released today, show hopeful indexes, inflation decreased compared with last year's value for the same moth of September (0.66% vs 071%). It seems President Correa doesn't have too much to worry about on this area, although nobody knows for sure how is he going to implement the changes approved in the recently passed Constitution. Other countries, however, haven't been as lucky. Today, even Sao Paulo, the largest financial center in Latin America, had to suspend its meetings twice, falling first by 10% and then 15%, closing to a lower 5.43%, Mexico lost 5.40%, Buenos Aires dropped 5.90%, Santiago -6.02% -4.86% Bogota and Lima sank (-9.27%).

Galo Chiriboga (Ecuador Mines and Oil Secretary) is concerned that oil prices are falling below 90 dollars and this could affect Ecuador and its plans to finance their all time waited reform. So far, the Constitutional reform is budgeted at 3.700 millions of dollars, though getting to that ammount will be far more difficult  if oil prices fall below the $ 85 per barrel, which is the price set as a reference to estimate the 2009 Ecuadorian budget.

Looking outside of their borders,  some bloggers in Ecuador are in doubt that the $700 million bailout will solve the global economical crisis the U.S.A has started. Joselias Sánchez Ramos of Dialogo con Joselias [es] (Talking to Joselias) jumps in and agrees that American crisis affects the whole world and particularly Latin America.  He believes that there are some who will certainly benefit from this:

La crisis del mercado financiero estadoundiense pronto dominado por cuatro titanes que ofrecerán toda la gama de servicios financieros: Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup y Bank of America.

Omar Vargas of Cambiemos Ecuador [es] (Changing Ecuador) asks himself how different this intervention of the Federal Reserve in the U.S. is to the reactions under similar circumstances that took place in Ecuador back in 1999 and finds that it is no different.  He also criticizes the bailout, stating that it will just strengthen the idea that no matter what financial obligations are acquired, how business is handled or money is invested, Uncle Sam will come and save the American's day. He concludes:

El salvataje hecho a AIG no debió haberse dado, pero la situación política (elecciones) los estándares morales y éticos equivocados y una ideología paternalista de los gringos a la larga producirán una crisis mayor en los EEUU y se extenderá a nivel global.

Another Ecuadorian blogger (also journalist and writer) , Rubén Dario Buitrón translates into Spanish and publishes in his blog the open letter written by Michael Moore. The heading he picked for re-publishing this letter, says it all: El salvaje salvataje en EE.UU [es] (The savage bailout in the U.S.)

He says:

I chose the six countries in the book because they are routinely referred to in the West as “enemies” or “allies” of Washington and we were rarely gaining true insights into life for average citizens, away from stories about “terrorism”. I wanted to talk to bloggers, writers, dissidents, politicians and citizens and hear their stories, removed from “official” perspectives.

Antony attended the Global Voices Summit 2008 in Budapest as a panelist. You can find several references to Global Voices in his book.

Here, Antony presents his book on You Tube:

I interviewed him about the book:

Q: Before starting your trip to Iran, you wrote that you were skeptical that the internet on its own can bring real revolutionary change to this country. What do you mean by revolutionary change? And what do you think now?

The concept of revolution is a fluid term. I met few people in my travels that wanted great shifts in their country. My book profiles a number of dissidents and bloggers across the globe who are striving for political, social and moral change – including Saudi Arabia’s most famous blogger, Fouad Al-Farhan, recently released from prison for challenging his nation’s nepotistic rule - but they recognize that only a tiny minority of citizens would join them in massive upheavals.

The internet cannot on its own bring large change, but it can facilitate and empower people to find their voice and campaign openly. No technology has existed before the web to do this. I don’t idealise the internet, nor believe Western-style democracy is the goal of people in the countries I visited. Foreign meddling is largely resented, though opening up the lines of communication with Westerners is welcomed.

In Iran, after nearly thirty years of revolution, most young people I met were exhausted; what they don’t want is to be bombed by the US or Israel.

Q: You quoted an Iranian journalist who worked with international news agencies, and said that foreign media in Iran are only interested in nuclear issues and Al–Qaida. Don't you think it is the same in other countries? After all, Iranians are more interested in the US elections than the American health care system. How do you see the role of blogs in covering the less “hot” issues in Iran?

Western media is currently in a massive crisis of confidence. Resources are declining, fewer journalists are being employed and localism is being celebrated. It’s therefore not surprising, though regrettable, that so many stories in our press about a place such as Iran is obsessed with Ahmadinejad, terrorism, Iraq or human rights. These are all vitally important issues, but they don’t define the place.

My book reveals a side of Iran that is rarely seen in our terrorism-obsessed media.

Living in Sydney, Australia, I see daily the obsession with the US election, as if we all have real influence over Barack Obama or John McCain’s campaigns.

Blogs in so-called repressive regimes cover issues that time-constrained and narrow Western journalists usually do not. For this reason alone, they should be discussed and promoted.

Q: Are there any real commonalities between the Iranian, Egyptian, Syrian and Saudi Arabian blogospheres, or any radical differences?

The Iranian and Egyptian blogospheres are large and growing, and influencing the political process. The regimes, recognizing this, are increasingly imprisoning bloggers and activists to try and silence them. International solidarity, from other bloggers and certain governments, is making the job of repressive regimes more difficult. Imprisoned bloggers won’t be forgotten.

I was impressed with the depth and diversity of the voices in both Egypt and Iran, something I feature extensively in the book, from the left to the right, women, activists and Islamists. Frankly, this scene is far more engaged than in many Western nations.

In Saudi Arabia, the blogosphere is less developed though still remains active. Censorship of “pornographic” sites is limited, though the regime is starting to fear the power of activists. Reading female bloggers – as a gender they’re actively marginalized in society – is refreshing if we want to understand this previously “silenced” group.

Q: What were the biggest challenges you faced writing this book and doing your research?

Gaining full access to some of the countries was challenging. Investigating the role of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other Western multinational firms and their collusion in web censorship in a state such as China. Protecting my sources was equally important. I took precautions before I contacted bloggers in most countries and when I arrived there.

A key aim of the book was to move away from the traditional role of Western journalist as a filter of quality. In every featured country, my perspective is unavoidable, of course, but I was determined to redefine my position in relation to the people I was interviewing. Their voices were far more important than mine.

Q: What do you think about the role of Global Voices in helping people learn about unheard voices? Any ideas for how to make Global Voices more efficient?

The strength of Global Voices is its ability to educate readers across the world about different countries and cultures, often issues and perspectives ignored by the myopic Western media. Language remains a key problem, however. More effort should be placed into finding connections between the West and the rest because the internet is currently a space where these two worlds rarely interact.

A most controversial issue is the suggestion on introduction of an internet filtering system in Hong Kong. In part 4 of the consultation paper, it states that the main issue at stake is:

Given the emergence of new forms of media, particularly the growing popularity of the Internet, members of the public consider it important that measures are taken to protect youngsters from the dissemination of obscene and indecent materials on such new media systems.

The government layouts a number of options:

Option one: co-regulation approach that demands Internet Service Providers to:

1. tighten up their service contracts with subscribers by incorporating specific clauses which prohibit subscribers from publishing obscene or indecent articles;

2. formulate measures against repeated offenders, which may involve limiting the bandwidth made available to such offenders or imposing temporary suspension or termination of service in case of contravention of contractual terms;

3. implement a voluntary labelling system and encourage webmasters to label their websites to indicate whether they are suitable for children and youngsters;

4. provide filtering services to subscribers for the purpose of filtering out web content which is not suitable for children and youngsters.

Option two is mandatory approach via legislation:

to make it mandatory for ISPs to provide filtering service to their subscribers so that
children and youngsters will be protected from web content not suitable to them. This would enable filtering of content from both local and overseas websites.

Option three is statutory approach, which targets at content providers:

1. websites are required to provide warnings if they display indecent materials;

2. an access control system is to be established to authenticate the age of the web users. For example, web users are required to input their credit card data before getting access to webpage containing indecent materials to ensure that they have attained the age of 18;

3. empower enforcement agencies, upon receipt of a judicial warrant, to issue a “take-down notice” to the indecent websites or the ISPs concerned; and

4. prosecute content providers who fail to comply with the statutory requirements.

Martinoei criticizes that all the suggestions imply an introduction of Great Fire Wall in Hong Kong:

蘇錦樑呢條X建聯黨員，話咁快就要在香港引進防火長城，淫審處本來己經被指權力過大，依家權力仲要大到搞過濾名單，係咪想搞香港版防火長城。照香港有大衛像都係淫褻嘅硬膠前科，隨時成個高登都會列入過濾名單，咁樣仲成世界？仲惡過廿三條。

Although the government stresses that it doesn't have any fixed position, erynnyes from Those were the days is still angry at the government's suggestions:

當然，政府把一切說成諮詢，政府沒有立場，甚至在文件中提出反對者聲音，以顯示中立，可是在童工角度，有些立場、建議，根本提出也是罪，因為這是削弱香港互聯網自由，完全毋須討論，皆因沒有任何妥協之餘地！那份諮詢文件，就像互聯網的23 條，只想打造一個超越中國的打壓互聯自由的香港金盾！

Hystericireul posts a large picture of David Statue in his blog to protest against the Indecent censorship policy. He also makes a dozen points on the consultation:

10. 淫唔淫，根本就係同洩唔洩一樣，各施各法各隨心。除左少部分好明顯變態嘔心核突既物品之外，根本好多物品就無一個清晰定義去界定點為之「淫」，尤其是當你成班仆街連大衛像都可以覺得係「淫褻」既話，仲有乜野係唔淫？vv物語講西，淫唔淫？西廂記夢中交合，淫唔淫？莫非我地以後創作時就唔可以打破古人既曖昧，照樣講到扑野就「呵呵，哈哈，嗯嗯」算數？

11. 根本個問題係，健立一個健康健全既人格，咁佢睇乜都唔會變壞。而家係你班撚樣搞柒左個社會，成班小朋友未升中先西窿，3456789p玩齊，呢個係佢地腦荀未生埋既問題，我地要做既係好好教導佢地，而唔係一味禁絕囉。

There are also some discussions from Internet forums, such as from pumb.org:

User169167 criticizes the government's official ability in governing Hong Kong:

雞有病 = 唔俾賣活雞唔使煩
樹有病 = 斬晒佢唔使煩
色情網頁教壞細佬 = block晒佢唔使煩

政府班高薪厚職既天材知唔知咩叫教育？

說穿了其實就係借管制色情網頁為開端，繼而達至更容易收緊其它題材網頁(例如政治、社論)，壓抑社會另類渠道反對聲音。

User george2be said that the government power should stay out of the filtering mechanism:

家長同學校想filter, 應該自己裝軟件做. 政府可以提供資源同條件令呢d軟件更易買到 (如跟機可以加). 根本無需要立法賦予政府設立過濾機制既權力.

正如莫乃光講, 現在最大問題係淫審處裁決標準不一, 缺乏公信力. 連定標準既機構都亂七八糟, 在未解決呢個問題前, 點可能立法比佢權力去過濾更多既言論同資訊.

倒行逆施莫過於此.

User P-U-M-B pointed out that the internet would eventually become intranet under such policy direction:

咁搞法 !! internet 變左intranet

Kay sets up a facebook group on defending internet freedom to follow through the consultation.

Visit to Carandiru, photo by Flickr user silmaraelis, published under a Creative Commons license. The caption says “the souls had longer been forgotten there”.

The Carandiru Massacre, considered a major human rights violation in the history of Brazil, happened sixteen years ago (October 2, 1992) after a riot broke out in the 9th Pavilion of Carandiru Prison Complex in São Paulo. The riot went out of control, which led to the elite force of the Military Police being called in and a confrontation which resulted in the reported death of 111 prisoners. No police were killed.

Human rights groups claim most prisoners were unarmed and offered no resistance, and that the police also fired at inmates who had already surrendered or had tried to hide. Regardless of this, no one has ever been punished, and the only person to be tried was the commanding officer of the operation, colonel Ubiratan Guimarães (assassinated in September 2006 in a possible crime of passion). He was initially sentenced to 620 years in prison but the conviction was later revoked after mistrial claims.

Many Brazilian bloggers republished the same pieces of news from the media, but only a very few dedicated an original post to the day. Dinha [pt] was one of them, remembering it as the “biggest act of cowardice committed by the Brazilian State against the imprisioned population in the country's history”:

Ontem, 02/10/2008, fez 16 anos que o Estado divulgou oficialmente que massacrou 111 cidadão brasileiros. Todos os que foram massacrados, assassinados, não estavam em guerra franca com o Estado, mas sim, no momento do massacre, eram prisioneiros, estavam sob cutódia desse mesmo Estado. Por isso estavam desarmados e mais, muitos estavam trancados em celas.

In a blog post called “Impunity”, Tarso Araújo [pt] reminds us that nobody has been made responsible for this crime, and that there is no estimate of when the accused will be tried:

O fato de o processo envolver muitos réus, além das dificuldades estruturais do Judiciário para responder ao acúmulo de ações pendentes, faz a tramitação ficar lenta.
O processo está em grau de recurso no Tribunal de Justiça de São Paulo (TJ-SP). Por haver indícios de autoria de crime doloso contra a vida, o juiz determinou que os réus fossem julgados por júri popular, situação com a qual os denunciados não concordam.
Depois que o TJ-SP decidir a questão, será necessário definir os procedimentos para o julgamento de um número elevado de réus. Não há previsão de prazo para que os réus sejam julgados.

Answering a question posted on Yahoo! Answers about how the rebellion started, Pucca [pt] shares a piece of story she learnt through an acquaintance, one of the few inmates from the 9th Pavilion who survived the massacre:

Um conhecido de família viveu aquele inferno. Ele nos disse que na verdade ninguem sabe afirmar exatamente como tudo começou. Ele disse que ajudou a jogar mais de 200 corpos dentro do fosso de supostos elevadores existentes no presídio e que tiveram suas portas lacradas com concreto. Seu amigo de cela (barraco) foi morto por policiais, ele só sobreviveu porque se escondeu atras da porta, quando as celas foram desocupadas pelos presos a pedido dos pms ele disse que correu juntamente com tantos outros presos pelas escadarias da prisão que estavam lavadas de sangue e cachorros pastor alemão iam ao encalço deles. Um dos cachorros mordeu sua mão direita. Disse que ficou no pátio com outros presos mais de 12 horas pelados e todos de cócoras. O crime dele???? Participou de um assalto a uma casa lotérica, réu primário cumpria pena no pavilhão 9, onde tudo começou.

The Hub brought an interview with P.P., who was serving next door on the 8th Pavilion and watched the horror unfold from his window. He says that the official number of deaths, 111, reflects only the re-claimed bodies - he believes there were more than 300 deaths. Together with a group of about 30 other inmates, he was summoned to help to carry the bodies, 50 of which he carried on his own. P.P. laments that, 16 years on, the case is marked by impunity and forgetfulness:

“It was ugly. But what hurts me most - how absurd it is that it has now been forgotten - no one talks about the Carandiru Massacre here in Brazil anymore” (P.P. in interview with Raquel Quintino - a human rights activist from the Universidade de Comunicação Livre).

The Carandiru Prison Complex used to be South America's largest prison and once housed nearly 8,000 inmates. The prison was demolished on December 9, 2002 to make way for a public park. YouTube user mtrombelli has a video documentary shot by students of journalism showing its last moments, empty cells and the demolition. Flickr user ispic has a gallery of pictures taken just before the demolition.

Those who would like to dive deep in the history of the prision and the massacre should start by watching the highly regarded film Carandiru, directed by Hector Babenco, and inspired by the best-selling book Estação Carandiru (Carandiru Station, as yet un-translated) by Brazilian physician Drauzio Varella, who worked in Carandiru as a volunteer addressing its AIDS epidemic from 1989 to 2001.