By Flickr id: Ushio Shugo

In September, Makoto Yuasa, Secretary-general of Anti Poverty Network (反貧困 Han Hinkon) [ja], had already pointed to the problem explaining Japan's poverty issue in this way [en]:

Ever since the high economic growth of the 1960s, Japan has inhabited the myth that all Japanese people belong to the middle class. However, Japanese-style employment, which is at the heart of this myth, has been transformed by the increase in nonregular employment and other factors, and a growing number of Japanese live in poverty.

As many debate on their blogs, nowadays the income gap in Japan is far from being new. When the economic Bubble burst in the early 90s it revealed the weaknesses in the Japanese system and since then many experts say the country has never completely recovered from recession.
Ysaki suggests how this problem has always existed but have been regarded by most Japanese as a somebody else's problem.

この記事を最初に見た時に、私は部落問題に近いな、と感じたんです。それは、私たちの隣に確実にその問題があるのに、知らないふりをする。見ない振りをし、無関係を装ってきた。

Miyabi-tale considers that the issue has a long history and that responsibility must be traced back to political inertia.　

驚くべきは、この数字が今年ではなくて数年前のデータでさえすでに7人に1人いるという事実で、リーマンショック以降の世界恐慌の不景気のあとでは今現在では少なく見ても5人に1人はそれくらいの値になっていると考えられることである。自民政権下では、公式発表的に「日本に貧困はない」「一億総中流家庭」なんていうキャッチコピーもあったわけだが、現実はまったくそうでないということが改めて浮き彫りにされたわけである。

By Flickr id: caribb

There are those though who prefer to consider the other side of the coin.
Ukkii hopes that this black period in the Japanese social and economic history would bring a return of the strength of spirit for which the Japanese people are renowned.

し・か・し
国の景気が良くなるまでこのままでいいのだろうか
貧しかった戦後の日本国民は、みな必死で頑張ってここまでよくなってきています
あの時代のハングリー精神があればきっと国を変えれなくとも企業の生き残りは可能だと思います
私は一社員でありますが社長のような視点で物事を考えていくことを目標としています
視野を広げればいろんなことに発見や改善が見えてくるからです
ハングリー精神なんて言葉、現代では死語なのかもしれませんが
僕はこの言葉を提唱していきたいと思います

Do all pregnant women deserve equal human rights, or do pregnant women in prison forfeit those rights?

There are a few questions that come to mind regarding a pregnant woman's right to live and to raise her child when she has been convicted for some sort of crime:

• What is it like for them to be pregnant and have their child behind bars?
• Should they be a priority when there are other women outside of correctional facilities without medical assistance?
• Should maternity overrule any other legal conditions to ensure a pregnant woman's human rights?

USA: women in labor no longer to be shackled.

Could you imagine a woman giving childbirth with her hands in handcuffs and her feet shackled to the bedposts? Malika Saada Saar, founder and executive director of the Rebecca Project for Human Rights, tells us about this practice which still happens in the United States of America, where pregnant women serving time have been routinely shackled during labor and childbirth as a common practice in some correctional facilities, even though it is dangerous for the health of both mother and child. Following is a video interview included in the same article written for RH Reality Check, an online community on sexual and reproductive health and rights which does information and analysis for reproductive health:

What happens to an inmate's baby after childbirth?

Different countries have different regulations regarding children in prisons. For example, in Argentina, according to Ajintem, an information portal for migration information, a law was passed last year specifying that pregnant women, women with children younger than 5 and those with handicapped children would benefit from spending their prison term at home under house arrest. This law would benefit not only the mother, who in prison wouldn't receive suitable health care during her pregnancy, but also the child, who would either be raised in an unsafe environment deprived of freedom with deficient health controls and food, or be raised away from the mother, causing another series of problems. However, the message is for magistrates to follow the spirit of the law and grant this permission to those women not involved in violent crimes, to ensure that the rest of the civilian population doesn't see pregnancy as a get out of jail free card.

In the Canary Islands, according to the Prisiones y Penas blog, which writes about the issues surrounding jails and prisons, women are allowed to keep their children of up to 3 years of age with them in their cells, but in the company of other inmates, which isn't the best environment. Thus, pregnant women or women with children under 3 are told upon entry to the prison that it isn't good for the child to grow up behind bars, and options are given for them to send the child off to family members. This is also the case in Peru and Russia. In the US, there are only two correctional facilities which allow for this, in New York and in Nebraska, as told by renowned photographer Jane Evelyn Atwood in her 3 part photo documentary for Amnesty International, called Too Much Time, where she visited dozens of prisons all over the world to record and document the lives of inmates.

Why does the US correctional system not generally allow women with babies to keep them? Atwood explains that due to the hostage situation, it is not allowed. In the Prison Photography Blog they address this claim:

Children are excluded from all but a couple of US prisons. The security threat is cited as the reason: a child inside a prison is a constant vulnerable life and constant hostage target. The claim seems a little bogus when penal systems of other countries are brought into consideration.

The Atwood documentary in the Amnesty International site features both a section on the process of giving birth in shackless as told in Vanessa's Baby and another on prison systems and motherhood, with fotographs of the women while the photographer reads an essay on her experiences visiting the prisons and taking the pictures.

Pregnancy as a bargaining tool?

Why are rights for pregnant women in prison so controversial? In Russia Today, a Russian broadcasting channel, the subject is mentioned when discussing children born and raised in the Russian correctional system:

Skeptics think some mothers deliberately get pregnant simply to ease life in prison. Hospital leave, then lots of scheduled time with your child – it is all better than sitting in a stone cell, they claim.

And there are women for whom it seems that pregnancy is the only way to escape a sentence, as was the case back in June, when a British woman incarcerated and sentenced to death in Laos due to drug smuggling got pregnant in prison and escaped being executed, since the Laos government would not execute a pregnant woman. The claims made according to the Daily Express, a British newspaper, are that she got artificially inseminated “to secure a more lenient term”.

In their words: Women tell of their children and prison life

Geraldin Rodríguez, an Argentinean spending time in an Ecuadorian jail due to drug trafficking tells Marcos Brugiati, a writer who contributes with the art related online publication Plastica-Argentina, the story about acting and performing in jail, getting pregnant in prison and having her child. She was allowed to keep her baby with her, but decided that the child needed to grow up free:

“Decidí que salga para vivir, tenía miedo que sufra de grande los traumas que hoy tengo. Se lo llevó al año mi hermano quien se hice cargo con su esposa”.

Juvinete is in a Spanish prison, and was pregnant when she was incarcerated for drug trafficking. She tells her story to regional Spanish newspaper NorteCastilla. Three years after giving birth to her baby in prison, her child had to leave her side, and was sent to a foster family. Juvinete sees her daughter every 15 days and every two months she gets a 2 week leave to spend time with her. However, things don't seem to be looking up: there is a chance Juvinete will be deported to her natal Brazil, and she fears for the consequences this change would have on her child. She does have advice for any woman who decide to get pregnant while in jail:

-Intento convencerlas para que no se queden en estado dentro porque ver a un niño privado de libertad es muy duro, es irresponsable. Ellos no tienen que pagar nuestros errores.

In Woman and Prison, a website dedicated to visibilizing women's experiences in the correctional system, inmate Kebby Warner speaks of her own pregnancy while doing time in a US prison, and how she was treated during her pregnancy, labor and afterwards, when her child was taken away from her. Here is an excerpt where she writes about the birthing process:

During the labor, no one is allowed in the delivery room. My family didn't even know I was in labor or had her until after I left the hospital. During the three days some of the guards stayed in the room, but most of the time, when the nurses asked them to sit outside the door, they complied. I have heard horror stories of women being chained to the delivery bed. I am so grateful as to have not experienced this. Most of the nurses treated me as a human instead of a prisoner.

You can read more testimonies about growing up with a parent in prison and the different effects incarcerating women may have on their children in Women and Prison.

So what do you think? With pregnant women around the world not receiving health care of any sort, should additional efforts be made to benefit women who are in prison? Is there a difference between mothers serving terms in correctional facilities and those outside? Should they be treated differently?

Image used to illustrate post is “17 de noviembre” by daquella manera.

Our underlying theme is investigating how ICTs affect human development. There are many who argue that connection to the internet and/or mobile phone technologies will increase people’s participation in government, in economies, in education and thus increase their standard of living.

Technology and access to internet has advanced so much in the past years, that some will argue that there is no longer a question of whether people in remote areas will soon communicate online. Rather, we should talk about what forms of communication will take place.

The UK-based blog Mainstreaming ICT, says the time to integrate the mobile phone and the computer is now.

The Internet and mobile phones are both communication and information technologies so it makes sense to try to integrate them. We’ve been trying to intergrate them for a number of years with limited success but finally the Internet is becoming widely available and usable on a large number of mobile devices and at a reasonably low cost in many countries.

Of course the mobile browser based Internet is a different experience. You have to think in a different way - for instance: -
• Instead of Email - Think SMS
• Instead of computer sized screen - Think Mobile Phone screen
• Instead of huge functionality - Think MOST IMPORTANT functionality and simplicity
• Instead of flashy stuff and high bandwidth - think SIMPLE design and low bandwidth

…It makes sense to initially look at linking in with the big social networks such as Facebook/My Space & Ning - they all have Mobile Internet Interfaces but .. the sites weren’t originally designed with mobile in mind and IMHO it really shows.

Low bandwidth? No problem

One major problem facing internet users in the developing world is the combination of slow connectivity (or, interrupted connections) and graphic-intensive websites. News websites and social networking sites are often the worst offenders. (Here’s a nice rundown on the popularity of various social networking sites in Africa and Asia.)

Christian Kreutz at the blog Crisscrossed has a theory that many of the world’s languages have not been widely translated for applications, because so many people can’t read popular websites. The reason? Page load times are too long for people with questionable connections.

Here's a few examples:

• Checking up a profile on Facebook or at least access the log in page, which has alone almost 800kb! In a cybercafe, where you have to pay fees per minute, it may take up to 3 minutes with a dial up modem connection.
• Video or audio upload is almost impossible with a low bandwidth connection and can cost you a lot when your tariff is measured in volume instead of time.
• This blog is based on Wordpress, which is a great open source tool, but unfortunately not made for a dial up connections. If you want to publish a new post on Wordpress (2.7.1), you have to download over 750kb first.

Unfortunately even the free and open source community has little activity around low bandwidth solutions.

The blog Aid Worker Daily, based out of the US, has found a solution to viewing these slow-loading websites:

I am not sure how many of you are familiar with Loband but it is one of the best options for viewing websites over low bandwidth connections. It strips out all images, formatting, etc and leaves you with a text only rendering of the page which is still quite legible. You can view Aid Worker Daily over Loband HERE. Loband is the offspring of the geniuses over at Aptivate. (Of course, if you are using Firefox you can always go to Tools -> Options -> Content and deselect ‘Load images automatically’.)

Here is the home page for Global Voices Online via Loband.

Crisscrossed lists other products for low-bandwidth connections.

One really great initiative is Maneno, which not only tries to provide a low bandwidth blogging solution in Africa, but also focuses on offering multilingual options emphasising on various African languages such as Bamanankan and Swahili, beside French, English, Arabic and Portuguese. I got in contact with Maneno recently and their team ensured me that their system is designed as low as 13 kb without images and 33 kb including images…
Twitter can make a difference as it lets you send and receive messages via mobile phone. But, unfortunately, Twitter gave up its free SMS service a while ago. I asked one of the Twitter founders, Jack Dorsey, at the e-stats conference when the free service is coming back, to which he replied ‘on mid year.’ This leaves the question, ‘what can be said in 140 characters?’ Quite a lot when you look at the Mobile Voices project just featured by the Netsquared N2Y2 challenge.

But one thing is for sure, just because you only have low bandwidth connection, does not mean you want to see dull, text based websites. There are various ways to make websites look appealing and still reduce the data size considerable. Aptivate has excellent Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth.

Full disclosure: Maneno, the multi-lingual, low-bandwidth blogging platform, is in part run by three Global Voices authors. Here is a GV post about it.

Micro-blogging for fun and profit

People like micro-blogging, popularized through sites like Twitter and the business-oriented Yammer, because it is fast and relatively low-bandwidth. It’s quicker and easier than email and often even more informal. Micro-blogging has changed the way groups conduct crisis management, event coverage and issue advocacy.

But not everyone wants to attempt to micro-blog on the big sites because of the lack of privacy. There are a number of technologies that allow organizations to put micro-blogging to their own use to facilitate community building online.

Louis Gray, a US-based blogger, explains the federated platform of Laconi.ca, which he describes as a “group Twitter” – speaking to a distinct community rather than to the whole world.

Well, actually, it's more of a small community concept I'm refering to - your business can actually build communities off of this protocol, starting with the software that Identi.ca has provided. Identi.ca and Twitter are both very broad communities. People of all types and tastes are on those services. Those services are good for that - it's a great way to build relationships, meet new people, and find information. However, there is no way currently for me to associate only with those of like tastes and culture. For instance, if I am into college football and you are not, you aren't going to be interested in the details of the games I'm watching….

Now, what if [the US-based sports network] ESPN were to launch a version of Laconi.ca just for sports lovers? It would just take a simple install of Laconi.ca and a little cobranding of their logo, look, and feel and soon an entire community of sports lovers would be sharing their love for sports, communicating back and forth, and showing their other sports-loving friends what they're doing in their sports-loving life. At the same time, they could still follow all of those same friends they follow over on Identi.ca and even other interest communities, all while still on the ESPN sports community, remaining on the ESPN site. Imagine if this same technique was launched for Moms, Dads, religions, or even just your local city or town?

Here is a write-up on another open source micro-blogging platform: OpenMicroblogger.org

My mobile phone, my friend

The last post in this series began with the argument that we need to update the old story of the fisherman using his mobile phone to find the highest prices for his product. Back to the blog Crisscrossed, here is an update on what makes the mobile phone so important.

It is so special because it combines all former media, such as telephone, Internet, and even radio and television, and because one can:
1. Communicate and receive information (radio, television and Internet)
2. Document and collect information
3. Publish information in text, audio and video
4. Can network in different ways on a peer-to-peer basis

He also noted the mobile phone will help shape the public sphere by allowing citizen journalists to take photos. Phones allow people to participate in radio programs and through SMS-based campaigns. And they allow people to monitor elections.

Patrick Meier, from the group DigiActive, argues that people can now become activists simply by using a mobile phone. Portable telephones have been employed to organize and coordinate protests – specifically in the Philippines, Spain and Pakistan. Mobile phones have also been used to document human rights abuses, in Egypt, Tibet and Morocco.

But problems do exist. The cost of SMS communication is very high, especially in Africa. Mobile networks can be controlled by the government, Kreutz says. And, mobile providers are in businses to make money, not facilitate protest marches.

Sending hundreds of SMS texts

FrontlineSMS distributes a program allowing users to send and receive SMS messages in large groups without having to hook up to the internet.

Here is a write up in the blog Pulse + Signal about a FrontlineSMS project in Malawi, where they distributed mobile phones so doctors in hospitals can communicate with health workers in remote villages.

Despite all of the technological advancement surrounding these portable command centers of communication – all the bells and whistles that come equipped – we are at a point in the public/global health world hardly any of it matters.

A large amount of [moble technology for health] mHealth’s impact is being focused into developing, low-resource countries where there are numerous health issues needing to be addressed. The helpful technology that comes into play is SMS (Short Messaging Service). Fondly referred to as texting, SMS is one of the most basic aspects of the cell phone where data entered can be sent back and forth between phones. This service has been wildly useful in the implementation of more effective health initiatives around the world.

Finally, a video of FrontlineSMS staff training community health workers using SMS technology.

Blogger Royale Somalia profiles a young female Somali doctor in Mogadishu who'd graduated last year, he writes:

In December 2008, 20 Somali students overcame huge odds and graduated from medical school in Mogadishu—the first batch to do so for almost two decades in the failed Horn of Africa state.

Dr. Hafsa Abdurrahman Mohamed, 26, was one of those receiving a diploma from the capital’s Benadir University. Upon completing her studies, she decided to work for the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), using her skills to help provide free medical care in Somalia.

The East African Philosopher comments on Somali President Sharif Ahmed's visit to US and the US government's policy shift in dealing with Sharif:

In December of 2006 Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, currently only-in-name president of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, was on the run from the Ethiopian army, the CIA, and the U.S. Rangers.

East African Philisophers continues:

This week Sheikh Sharif is in Minneapolis, MN (and the home of this crazy congresswoman) meeting with Congressmen, Governor, and city councilmen/mayor. Couple of months ago he had a meeting with Secretary Clinton in Nairobi during her Africa trip. From terrorist to president for Sheikh Sharif in just two years. That, friends, must be a first. To me this says a lot about the U.S.’s awful foreign policy than anything else.

The Kenya Somali Blog says Somali government is recruiting Somali youth from Kenya:

Somalia's U.N.-backed government has recruited more than 170 young Kenyans and former servicemen to help it fight rebels in the failed Horn of Africa state, local leaders in eastern Kenya said.

Mohamed Gabow, the mayor of Garissa, told Reuters the enrolment of ethnic Somali Kenyans was being conducted at a home in Bulla Iftin village, on the outskirts of his town.

The recruitment is not a secret. Those involved are not worried. They are going around all the villages to announce the exercise,” Gabow said in an interview late on Thursday.

Writing as Bedounia at Dove's Eye View, Leila started blogging in January 2004. In that month she wrote:

The point of this blog is to focus on a vision for peace. Concentrating on the solution is the only way to bring that about.

When her father died in 2006, Leila wrote:

Elias Abu-Saba lived the values I hope to promote in this blog: mutual tolerance, social justice, and concern for the earth. He wanted to see those values embodied in Lebanon, his beloved homeland, as well as in
America, his adopted country. Because many people in Lebanon and around the world read Dove's Eye View, I am going to tell you some important things you must know about him.

More on Mr Abu-Saba's amazing story here.

Sympathies from around the world poured in after Leila's death on October 12.

From Egypt, The Arabist has fond memories of Leila, saying:

Leila Abu Saba, of the blog Dove’s Eye View, passed away yesterday after a long struggle with cancer. Laila was a frequent reader of this blog and, especially in its early days, a prolific commenter. She was dedicated to peaceful coexistence among Palestinians and Israelis and, more generally, Muslims, Christians and Jews. We agreed on these issues but disagreed about her pacifism (or my anti-pacifism). She was an optimist, as this entry on her blog from a year ago, “Hello Kind World” shows.

Fellow Lebanese-American blogger Dr Assad Abu Khalil, or the Angry Arab, writes:

I never met Leila, but she often communicated with me on Facebook and on email. She even brought me books from the Middle East. She once participated in a “fly a kite for peace” affair in Oakland, and I wrote some smart ass comments and mocked it. She was not pleased.

John Ballard, at Newshoggers, is distraught:

Leila Abu-Saba has died of cancer.
A part of me dies with her.
I cannot write any more about her yet.

At About.com: Middle East Issues, Pierre Tristam notes:

We'd exchanged many emails and links over the few years we knew each other through our sites. She never let anyone imagine that her voice would be silenced. Not so soon. Or that her copious world of words would become a memorial. But there they are. Let's hope the site, Leila's testament and sanctuary to supreme civility, never disappears.

And Canadian Maryanne Stroud Gabbani, who lives in Egypt, borrows a title from one of Leila's blog posts to mourn her friend. In A Dove Has Flown, Maryanne writes:

One of the wonders of the internet is the ability to keep up with friends of ours from all over the world…and to make these friends in the first place. Many years ago when I first started blogging, Leila Abu-Saba posted some comments on my blog and we became net friends. We followed each other's blogs and when we discovered Facebook we connected there as well. For quite a few years, Leila was battling first breast cancer and then liver cancer as well and just recently she lost her fight to stay with us.

She continues:

The title to this piece is a link to Leila's blog post which was a meditation on cancer, forgiveness, and politics. I don't know anyone who could have expressed this better. Friends of hers are making sure that her books get published, the task that she was trying hard to finish in her last days. Look for them and let her words, thoughts, and spirit live on.

Leila's manifesto for hope is a good place to start.

On Twitter, Middle East commentator Marc Lynch remembers:

Lebanese blogger Mustafa, who blogs at Beirut Spring, shares similar sentiments:

And her sister-in-law Debbie McLeod writes:

May her soul rest in peace.

Waiting for El Nino Rains

Kenyans are waiting for the El Niño rains anticipated between now and December 2009 with mixed feelings. Inasmuch as the El Niño is itself a natural disaster that in it's ‘moderate' form is expected to displace at least 100,000 people and leave 750,000 in need of humanitarian aid according to IRIN, most Kenyans actually want this El Niño.

Normally, people would be running scared at the prospect of drowning or losing property and livestock in the expected El Niño flooding, but not this year. The drought in the East African nation has been hard and long - with at least 10 million Kenyans facing hunger (IRIN) - and the populace will take anything with water in it: Even a natural disaster.

American national, Katherine Herzog, commenting on an Ewaso Lions blog post titled ‘When will it rain, the drought persists in Samburu', said “A ‘moderate' El Niño rain event will hopefully transform the region which you skillfully and painfully describe. Although rain on hard, dry ground usually means flooding - rain in any form will be a boon for man, livestock and wildlife alike.

Wildlife is normally more tolerant to drought than humans and livestock but wild animals are starting to die. Ewaso Lions described the situation in early September:

Unfortunately, due to the lack of water, waterbuck, impala, buffalo, warthog, cattle, donkeys and sheep have begun to die everyday. Large groups of close to 20 warthogs that were around in April and May have now reduced to 1 or 2 warthogs and even they have begun to die. I watched a crocodile die the other day. He had come out of hibernation and literally dropped dead outside his hole. More animals will die over the next few weeks reducing the species numbers and diversity within the area. Pressure on the reserves from livestock will continue. Animals are dying; every week, every day, every minute.

Predators are however doing well now that there are many weak and dying animals making easy prey for them. There is however the increasing risk of being hunted down by cattle herders as more and more livestock are driven into the wildlife reserves in search of pasture and water. The presence of livestock in wildlife territory means that they are likely to be preyed upon by predators, which then will be killed, in retaliation, by the herders. Ewaso Lions blog adds:

However, due to the drought and the river drying up, there is more pressure on the reserves from livestock, increasing the human threat to lions and we are working hard to try and monitor all individual lions inside the reserves.

This was in early September and although a little rain has been reported in western Kenya, with some flooding occurring in Kenya's third city Kisumu, El Niño is not here yet. The drought continues. Even in the so called ‘wildlife capital' of the world, Nairobi National Park, the situation is no better. The water holes are drying, there is no grazing or browsing vegetation, and the situation is worrying. Will Knocker posted on October 7 saying:

Even giraffe -supremely adapted to life on the African plain- are getting hungry & wandering far & wide in search of browse -including to my garden in the Silole Sanctuary. In the Langata Forest some of their favourite food shrubs - Rus natalensis -has died owing to drought.

On October 7 again, the Lion Guardians continued to lament about the devastating drought reporting that the situation has deterioriated since they first reported about the drought. They say:

The drought is still continuing here, and the animals and people are struggling badly. Everyone hopes rain will fall soon and bring back some life to the parched land. The water hole near to our neighbouring lodge Ol Donyo Wuas is constantly visited by many elephants, as well as very thin herbivores like these zebras, all looking for the scarce water.

and,

There is no grass left to be eaten anywhere, and the wildlife and livestock are starving. These hills were once covered with long green grass - now there is nothing for the animals to eat.

In the Mara wildlands that flank the world-famous Masai Mara National Reserve, the Predator Aware blog reports difficult times for the Maasai community:

The Masai Mara communities are under huge pressure with the ongoing drought and the loss of cattle as pastoral ism is their number one income earner at present followed by tourism.

In response to a comment from one of the blog readers, Predator Aware laments the dwindling of the wildlands lifeline, the Mara River, and utters the same prayer that is on the lips of all these bloggers:

Yes the Mara River is seriously low . The degradation of the Mau Forest which is the headwaters of the Mara River as well as the drought have caused this. Rain is the only healer and we hope it comes soon.