Recently posted on 20mai.net, a Camerounian citizen media site, the video provoked a heated discussion.  The filmmakers' ostensible goal was to portray the harsh reality of health care in Cameroon.  Some applauded the makers of the clip for documenting the deplorable and dangerous conditions in which these doctors work.  Others wondered if this video was little more than a piece of “voyeurism,” put online to entertain whites.

One reader calls GRISSOM, a medical doctor from Cameroon, describes his reaction:

Je suis médecin, alors ce genre d’images me choquent-elles ? Oui et non… oui parce qu’évidemment les conditions dans lesquelles se déroulent l’opération (hygienne, salubrité, aseptie déplorable « en plein air» , anesthésie déficiente, salle non sécurisée, la liste est longue) ne peuvent que heurter la conscience professionnelle qui sommeille en moi, mais de l’autre, non je ne suis plus choqué parce que cette réalité là dans nos campagnes il y a bien lurette que ça existe…

Pourquoi on en est arrivé là ? C’est la conséquence de nos maux, de nos tares collectives. Manque d’anesthésistes (pénurie criarde) comme dans bien d’autres spécialités médicales, c’est pas nouveau. Je connais plusieurs anesthésistes camerounais formés en Afrique de l’Ouest qui jamais ne rentreront au pays (comme bien d’autres médecins). Pourquoi ? C’est pas à moi d’y répondre, je ne décide de rien depuis les sphères de ceux qui ont pris le pays en main comme leur prorpiétés. Ces même personnes dont le sport favori est le détournement des fonds à échelle hierarchisée (mes collegues sortis du CUSS ayant fait leur stage intégré dans le Cameroun profond savent de quoi ej parle) et qui s’appuie sur un peuple insouciant pour qui consommer la bière chaque soir en voyant Eto’o marquer (ou rater) des buts avec une belle wolowoss à côté d’eux suffit pour être heureux et ne plus se soucier du reste.

Many placed the lion's share of the blame on the country's elites.

…je pense que tout etre humain a le droit de naitre et de mourir dans la dignite.chers gouvernants arretez de nous bourrer les oreilles avec le SIDA et autres inepties.regardez dans quelles conditions travaillent des personnes qui ont choisi de sauver des vies pendant que vous empilez milliards sur milliards sous vos lits et dans vos comptes en banque…
honte,honte,honte a vous…

charles nguingock writes:

je ne suis pas vraiment surpris puisque nos élites se font soigner en Europe et aux Etats-Unis il ya de quoi négliger le peuple CAMEROUNAIS.Que DIEU leur pardonne.

I'm not really surprised; since our elites are treated in Europe and the United States, what is it to neglect the Camerounian people? May God Forgive them.

Marie Damien writes:

Vous avez vu l’entrée de cette femme en salle d’op? On croirait assister à un spectacle de nudisme. Il n’est pas seulement question de matériel, mais aussi de notions d’hygiène et de conscience professionnelle… Il est temps que nos dirigeants prennent conscience de ce qui se passe autour d’eux. On ne peut fermer les yeux éternellement sur cet état de choses. Est-ce que l’auteur de cette vidéo pourrait nous dire si cette est sortie vivante de la salle d’op?

Did you see the entrance of this woman into the operating room?  It was like a nudist show.  It's not simply a question of equipment, but also the idea of hygiene and professional conscience…It is time that our leaders wake up to what's happening around them.  We can't close our eyes forever to this state of affairs.  Can the author of this video tell us if this woman left the operation room alive?

EVARISTE KPADE responds:

ouf!!!pour une fois on accuse pas la france.merci cher camarades pour votre lucidité!

wow!!! for once we aren't accusing France.  Thank you dear comrades for your lucidness!

Portraying a false image of Africa?

Still many other readers criticized the video itself, in particular, the questionable choice on the part of the filmmakers to show footage of a naked patient, and the choice of the doctors to allow four men, none of whom wore sterile clothing, into the operating room.

eboa lembe:

pour moi cette video perd sa credibilite a partir du moment ou elle est filme par des blancs.il faudrai vraiment etre naif pour croir qu,ils font ce reportage par sympathie pour les pauvres Africains car si l,Afrique croupi dans la misere c,est bien grace a eux.Alors ce que moi je proposerai est qu,il est tant pour nous de nous auto informer sur toutes realites qui se vivent chez nous .Car d,aucuns diront qu,ils sont surpris de savoir que les choses se passe ainsi chez nous ,mais ceux qui les informe c,est des gens qui vienne de loin ,en plus c,est la bete(les blancs).Moi je ne dirai pas que je suis choque par ces images car je sais qu,il y a pire a voir ds notre chere terre mere..

for me this video loses its credibility the moment it was filmed by whites.  we must really be naive to believe that they documented this out of sympathy for poor Africans since, if Africa is rotting in misery, it's thanks to them.  So what I would propose is that it's up to us to inform ourselves about all the realities that exist in our country.  Some will say that they are surprised by what happens here, but those which inform them are people who come from far away, and moreover, they are beasts (the whites).  Me, I'm not surprised by these images since I know that there is worse to see in our dear motherland…

Silas:

Je suis en même temps stupéfait par l’absence de dignité imposée à cette martyre de nos folies par les médecins qui laissent qu’on la filme nue, et qui de surcroit laissent entrer des individus non protégés par des tenues adéquates en matière d’hygiène, lesquels de surcroit prennent des photos!!!!!…

…Je ne sais pas pour vous mais bien que n’étant pas médecin je n’ai pas attendu cette video pour connaitre les conditions inhumaines dans lesquelles certain(e)s font vivre leurs compatriotes. Je n’ai pas non plus attendu cette video pour diversifier mes sujets de conversation! Si ces médecins avaient voulu montrer leurs conditions de travail, il suffit de filmer cette salle même vide, la salle d’attente et dire devant la caméra les conditions dans lesquelles ils travaillent!

On the original YouTube site, GrandHustle27 takes issue with the title: “African Surgeries”:

this is ridiculous i live in Kenya not far from AGAKHAN HOSPITAL. it has state of the art Equipment with highly skilled Doctors. WHY would you put up a video like this. what are you trying to prove or portray. and you put the heading as AFRICA.

this aynt right. CHANGE THE heading to a title that reference where this took place. dont generalize a whole CONTINENT IN ONE DINGY LOCATION. COME ON YOU KNOW THIS PORTRAYAL IS FOALS AND WRONG.

Nadine:

ESSAYONS DE PENSER PLUS LOIN QUE CES IMAGES! C’est pareil que les images des Somaliens qu’on passe le temps à montrer à la TV; Étant soi-disant la vraie image de l’AFrique

LET'S TRY TO THINK A LITTLE MORE DEEPLY ABOUT THESE IMAGES!  They are like the images of Somalia they show on TV to pass the time, showing the so-called true image of Africa

A call for action

Heartening was the fact that many of the readers brainstormed possible responses to the video.  One suggested locating the actual clinic where the surgery took place (”Assuming that the doctors (incapable of cleaning a room) wanted to make known their working conditions, can we at the very least provide them with anesthesia (with the hope that the doctors won't sell it)!?,” Silas writes.).  Another, petitioning the government.

Jean asks if all the readers who are actually in Cameroon can't meet up and write a letter directly to the President or engage in some other kind of collective action  He explains:

En Europe, Amerique, etc.., dans tous ces pays riches, c’est la société civile qui décide, c’est à dire quand il y’a un problème comme le notre, toutes les associations sortent dans les rues pour manifester et le gouvernement est obligé de trouver une solution rapide face à celui-ci…

Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing asked Pete Masters of MSF for some more information on the project and then posted his reply:

Condition: Critical was launched one year ago by Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to bring to the world's attention the plight of the people living through the war in Eastern Congo (DRC). BUT, rather than MSF at the focal point, it is the people and their stories that take centre stage. In this, the last chapter of the Condition: Critical project, listen to the stories of four people telling how the conflict has affected their lives.

A year ago we wrote about the project “Condition: Critical” and their call for action:

A campaign by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) to raise awareness on the stark state of the DRC will start on November 20th. The Condition:Critical project will collect voices from the war in Eastern DRC, starting off with a documentary to be published on the launch date. The trailer is extremely moving, starting with the poignant testimony of a child born and raised during the war, who perceives his future as a bleak path leading only unto death.

This is the same story that begins this next video telling the story of the war in the Congo and how it is affecting the people who live there. It also tells of the work MSF are doing in the area, trying to save as many people as they possibly can:

The following story has the pictures drawn by a former child soldier who tells of how he was kidnapped as a child and forced to commit terrible acts:

Francoise was locked in her home when it was set on fire. She was gravely burned and lost both children due to that event: one died inside the burning house, the other in the hospital. Even through her physical pain, she confesses that the hardest pain to deal with is the one in her heart.

Bahati tells how he saw his wife, mother, father and brothers die in the war and then he fled to a refugee camp, where they are still afraid due to the insecurity there. Since he is alone, he has to work to eat, and he teaches anyone who asks him how to be a lumberjack, so they don't starve to death, and hoping they in turn will also help anyone else in need.

Mishoka's brother was killed, and he was left to flee with his own family as well as his brother's widow and young daughter. He fled with all his village, carrying only a mat and a blanket, and now has to provide for all his extended family in a war situation.

You can visit Condition: Critical and leave a message of support to the People of Eastern Congo by clicking on the map filled with green squares and leaving your own. MSF will then share some of the messages with the people in Eastern Congo. To read about MSF activities and the current medical situation in the Congo, please read here. And for more eyewitness accounts on the violence and critical situation in the DRC, here.

There have been several success stories in African and Asian markets, and many efforts to expand, replicate or launch similar services, but stiff opposition from bankers and regulators has slowed development in many instances. In India, for example, the Reserve Bank of India has opposed allowing mobile-based financial services (via non-bank led model) saying it would be difficult to control the creation of credit outside the banking system. The Indian Home Ministry additionally expressed concerns regarding misuse and the possible security implications.

It is doubtful whether such obstacles can delay the progress of m-banking services for long, but meanwhile there are several technological, logistical, and security challenges that must be ironed out to make these alternative financial services more inclusive for the unbanked sector. Furthermore, another CGAP study from February of two of the fastest growing mobile banking networks serving poor people - M-PESA in Kenya and GCash in the Philippines - revealed that despite their rapid growth, the providers continue to face difficulties turning a profit as well as paying sustainable fees to the small shops and agents that earn commissions on transactions.

M-PESA in Kenya

One of the most quoted success stories of m-banking for the unbanked has been Safaricom's M-PESA in Kenya.

Since M-PESA launched in 2007, the service has impacted the lives of many East Africans, a significant number of whom, until then, had been unserved by the traditional banking system. By March 2009, M-PESA already had 6.8 million registered users in Kenya and that number is growing by the day.

In the video below, John, a Nairobi taxi driver and an M-PESA customer talks to Paul Lieshman and Seema Desai about his use of the service and what impact it has had on his life.

The “early adopters” of M-PESA were most likely migrant workers in need of an economical yet reliable channel to send money “back home”. However, the benefits of the service soon drew others, who were otherwise neglected by the traditional banking system. This innovative financial service was a convenient, easily accessible and more economical channel, than the ‘distant’, traditional banking systems that had failed to include them in their ambit.

Exploring future options for the unbanked

Using Philippines as a case in point, the CGAP-GSMA Mobile Money Market Sizing Study offers further insight into the various needs among this unbanked segment. It states:

People who use mobile money users are not all alike. One third of mobile money users do no remittances at all, bucking the prevailing perception of the service. A significant group use mobile money quite intensively: more than 4 times per month, with more than half of their transactions going to something other than sending/receiving money – e.g. airtime top-up or cashless purchases in stores. Surprisingly, 12 percent of low-income mobile money users do not own their phone. These represent sub-segments of the population worth exploring further.

Operators should explore services beyond remittances and airtime top-up. Savings holds particular promise as a highly demanded service. When asked what additional services they would be likely to try over mobile money, low-income users enthusiastically said savings (65%). One in ten unbanked mobile money users is already storing an average of $31 in their mobile wallet, or about one-quarter of their household savings.

In their October 2009 paper “Scenarios for Branchless Banking in 2020”, Mark Pickens, David Porteous, and Sarah Rotman indicate the forces that will shape the future of branchless banking include demographic changes, activist governments, security concerns, internet browsing capabilities, and the global financial crisis. According to their report, wiring the electronic retail payment infrastructure is an important goal, but it is not sufficient on its own to alleviate poverty.

Katrin Verclas, the co-founder and editor of MobileActive.org. - a citizen media source that tracks developments in this area, feels that we still have a long way to go before moving money on mobiles through m-banking can truly benefit the poorest of the poor. In a a blog post from 2008, she said:

Mobile financial transactions do reach the poorest of the poor in two areas right now: 1. Micro-finance, where mobile financial services are being explored as a way to facilitate instant transfer of loans and repayments via mobile, and 2. Cash aid (mobile cash payments) by donor countries and humanitarian organizations who provide relief in famine or post-conflict areas.

The future is indeed bright for moving money on mobiles in many developing and middle-income countries but extending the benefits to the poorest of the poor are still elusive. Recent studies, most notably from the World Bank’s InfoDev and the British development agency DFID, indicate that there is little evidence that m-banking services as they exist today have been “transformational”…

As far as the future success of the ‘m-banking for the unbanked' is concerned, Katrin's observations are as follows:

In short, questions around consumer adoption and the illdefined and complex regulations hinder this market and the potentially transformational idea of m-banking to date, requiring thoughtful approaches on both fronts and enabling environment where mobile banking can thrive.

Victeria and Globuleo is the retelling of Romeo and Juliet in 3D animation, and it makes their odds even harder since Victeria is a flu virus and Globuleo is a white blood cell: a most impossible love story would be hard to come by.  Los Filmes Videocreation and Vectorial Animation Studios, both companies located in Cali, Colombia and a team of additional Colombian talent: animators, scriptwriters, singers, artists and producers came together to make this short movie happen and it is being released online for free today, December 4th.

Following is the trailer for the short:

The short has been promoted through microblogging tool Twitter and you can follow them by adding @Victeria3D to your account. They also have a Facebook page where you can show your support.

To view the Spanish language short, you need to visit the Victeria y Globuleo site and sign up for a PIN code which will be requested before you log in to watch the Online Premiere.

On Julian Eduardo Albornoz's blog at El País of Cali newspaper website, he wrote about the short:

Después de más de un año de trabajo, en el que participaron 4 animadores y más de 25 personas de apoyo en tareas adicionales como música, ilustración, voces, diseño de personajes o imagen real, entre otras, se obtuvo la versión de 8 minutos que estará disponible para todos aquellos que obtengan sus boletas gratis registrándose en www.victeriayglobuleo.com.

Dirección de Alexander Giraldo y Marcial Quiñones, Guión original de Alexander Giraldo.

In this post, we will examine some more ICT based tools and applications in the arena of early warning systems to help reduce damage to life and property in natural disasters across the globe.

Esther Nakkazi, writes in her Ugandan ScieGirl blog:

Research done with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has proven that an investment of [every] $1 in ICTs used for disaster management through monitoring and response could save $14- $22 for rehabilitation after the disaster.

Some of the key challenges in the path of early disaster prediction and warning are that of data collection, analysis and dissemination. Remote sensing and GIS capabilities through seismographic networks, deep ocean sensors, and satellite based systems, are being focused on by governments to meet these challenges and develop effective early warning systems as in the case of the various Tsunami Warning Systems across the globe.

Wilbur K. Ottichilo writes in Agritech Kenya about Africa's use of satellite based technology in the area of disaster warning:

In the last six years, RCMRD (Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development) has been at the forefront of promoting remote sensing and GIS in Africa, collaborating with NASA to establish a satellite-based disaster early warning system known as SERVIR for Africa. SERVIR provides real-time information on many disasters, including droughts. The information is made freely available on the Internet.

Many other organisations and institutions in Africa are now also providing satellite data and information for drought and disaster management, including the InterGovernmental Authority on Development’s Climate Prediction and Application Centre (ICPAC), in East Africa, the Southern African Development Community, and AGRIMET in West Africa.

Chanuka Wattegama writes in an e-primer for the United Nations Development Programme “ICT and disaster management” [pdf]:

The first important steps towards reducing disaster impact are to correctly analyse the potential risk and identify measures that can prevent, mitigate or prepare for emergencies. ICT can play a significant role in highlighting risk areas, vulnerabilities and potentially affected populations by producing geographically referenced analysis through, for example, a geographic information system (GIS). The importance of timely disaster warning in mitigating negative impacts can never be underestimated.

Navigation and mapping tools such as GPS, Google Earth, and Google Maps are therefore increasingly becoming indispensable in designing effective Disaster Management Systems. According to John Hanke, the Director of Google Earth and Maps, these applications proved their mettle during the days of Hurricane Katrina:

Over several long nights, the teams from Google Earth and Google Maps created satellite imagery overlays of the devastation in the affected region, which showed more accurately the scope of the disaster. Soon after, we were told that rescue workers and the U.S. Air Force were using Google Earth to find people who were stranded.

Given the high penetration of mobile phones across the globe, use of mobile alerts through bulk SMS cell broadcasting, to send out early warnings to the communities at risk, is increasingly becoming a mainstay of an effective disaster management system. Growing importance of open-source applications such as FrontlineSMS, RapidSMS is likely in the near future.

Governments of various countries too are now including mobile alerts in their kitty of early public warning systems. For example, the Bangladeshi authorities are currently trialling a text message disaster alert service which will enable them to warn the public (mobile phone subscribers) of impending natural disasters, such as floods and cyclones. SMS based services are also coming in handy for aid organisations in the arena of disaster response and/or mitigation. For example, post-tsunami, the Sri Lankan government used SMS services to inform people of locations from where aid was being distributed.

In her article “Mobile Cell Broadcasting for Commercial Use and Public Warning in the Maldives” Natasha Udu-Gama explains the benefits of cell broadcasting in the context of the disaster-prone Maldives [pdf]:

The use of cell broadcasting for public warning in the Maldives has gained more attention, since the unique characteristics of the country appear to complement this technology. An island nation composed of groups of 26 atolls of about 1,192 islets of which 250 islands are inhabited, it is crucial that a public warning system be able to reach all of the inhabited islands scattered within the Maldives.

In the following video by MobileActive08, Robert Kirkpatrick of inSTEDD.org, Erik Hersman of Ushahidi, and Christopher Fabian of UNICEF discuss the role of mobile media in crisis and disaster relief.

“Can Telecenters become Disaster Early Warning Centers?” asks Sameera Wijerathna, an ICT4D Activist in Sri Lanka, in this post. His answer - both yes and no.

Yes, it can be. Telecentre is a place rich with ICT.
No, it is too much to expect from a Telecentre.
Most of the telecentres are located in rural areas; most of those areas are prone to disasters, natural or man-maid. Telecentres located in those areas but still with ICT facilities telephone, internet, fax, etc. can receive a message from a central disaster early warning centre. So if we have a simple mechanism to disseminate that information, maybe using megaphones we can convert a Telecentre to Early Warning Centre in the village. Even after the disaster occurred, that Telecentre can continue a play a role of coordinating the relief work, impact assessment, finding missing people

Updates on Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter can also act as warning systems. Twitter has already proved its utility in the arena of breaking news, including early information on natural disasters. Yet, there are some concerns regarding the reliability of tweets as a formal early warning system by government authorities.

Mark Prutsalis at Living Prepared Blog in New York expresses his concern over government agencies using Twitter as an emergency notification service.

No government agency should be using Twitter as an emergency notification service. That would be irresponsible… Twitter is not reliable enough for any government agency to use as an “emergency notification service” (or for an individual to use the sole means to be notified). Those government agencies who choose to tweet emergency event information should only be doing so in addition to a formal alert & warning system that they control the infrastructure for – or is under the control of a commercial company who has been contracted to provide such services with a guaranteed service level agreement in place.

On Conflict Early Warning and Early Response, Patrick Meier discusses an ecosystem based approach to effective early disaster warning and response that will allow for self-organized “P2P capacity building”. Moving on to a global perspective of this very ecosystem, he wonders about the possibilities of connecting the various early warning platforms and information sources available today to form a super-system GSS (Global System of Systems) as depicted below:

Global System of Systems (GSS)

Could this indeed be the future path for global early warning systems? Meier offers some food for thought:

What if we connected these various organisms to catalyze a super organism? A Global System of Systems (GSS)? Would the whole—a global system of systems for crisis mapping and early warning—be greater than the sum of its parts?
[…]
Can such a global Info Web be catalyzed? The question hinges on several factors the most important of which are probably awareness and impact. The more these individual organisms know about each other, the better picture they will have of the potential synergies between their efforts and then find incentives to collaborate.

On YouTube albaraa1994 posted this video showing the flooding:

Saad Al Dosari says:

If anybody wishes to write a management book about project management failures, he will find plenty of examples in this aged bride of the red sea; Jeddah. Project management failures, this is my only explanation to what happened in Jeddah this past week. Millions and millions of riyals have been spent on projects that promised state of the art infrastructure to the long time forgotten city and guess what; those projects could not stand four hours of rain!

Ahmed Al Omran says:

This would not have happened if the people of Jeddah had a say in how their city is run. This would not have happened if there was transparency and accountability in how our country is governed. I’m beyond angry and disgusted.

According to MuSe:

Ironically most of the dead were non-Saudis and the poor, even death know how to discriminate. lots of head should be rolling the following days , lots of unfaithful and corrupted officials, but i am not optimistic about that, they keep gambling on our forgetting nature.

Najla is outraged:

Zuhair Alghamdi has an idea:

Eman Al Nafjan makes a suggestion:

Heavy rains led to flooding because of how the city is managed. Millions go into its infrastructure for digging sewers and putting in pipelines and paving roads but by the time the money finally trickles down to the purchase of material and hiring contractors, it doesn’t cover the costs anymore. For the past few years the people of Jeddah have been complaining and grumbling about it. […] I propose that the king hand over the Jeddah municipality to ARAMCO as he did with KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) when it became apparent that officials were skimming the budget.

KAUST is near Jeddah, and some students have written about how the rain affected the KAUST campus. Eric says:

This morning, after a rather romantic thunderstorm, all hell broke loose; along with a handful of houses. […] After blocking out the sirens and the impressive filing of emergency crew workers lining the streets I was able to soak in the damage of this otherwise harmless rain storm. The roads were flooded two feet deep in water, the entire female population had been evacuated from their housing (sent to Jeddah for at least the next week), and ten male students were relocated because the conditions in their homes were “uninhabitable” (in other words, they didn’t just have leaks, they had entire ceilings collapse in the middle of the night as a result of water build up). In short, KAUST had become a refugee camp in a matter of hours.

Another KAUST student, Nathan, writes:

Heavy rain is something like a natural disaster because the infrastructure here is not designed to handle water. Homes flooded, streets flooded, and the mobile phone network was knocked out for a while. The rain was pretty incredible, we must have got three inches in just under an hour (about 7.5 cm). The weather network says that Jeddah only gets 54 mm of Rain every year - we've exceeded our limit for the next 1.5 years in one night!

Ibrahim Hudaif asks:

Do they have at least a disaster recovery plan for the Shaheen the supercomputer center at KAUST?

Finally, Ahmad Qushmaq points out what makes these floods a little different:

OneMinutesJr Logo

The OneMinutesJr project gives young people between 12 and 20 years of age from many corners of the globe the opportunity to express themselves, speak out and learn audiovisual skills to communicate across borders, languages and distances through 60 second videos.

The OneMinutesJr project results from the joint effort of the European Cultural Foundation, the One Minutes Jr. Foundation and Unicef, as well as other partner organizations. On their website, you can browse through years' worth of one minute videos from different countries, some sent in by individuals, others are results from workshops where youth are taught the skills to write, film and edit their ideas.

These short videos portray the concerns, ideas and dreams of youngsters from many different backgrounds, and give us a window into their daily lives. For example, from Poland, Ludmila Kierczak makes a video explaining who she is. To view the video, please click on the image below to go to the OneMinutesJr site.

In Bangladesh, Mobasshera Tarannum Adiba illustrates a couple of articles from the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In the video, I want Freedom, she touches on Article 12: Children have the right to have their views heard and their voices should be respected and Article 16 which states that every child has the right to privacy.

From Mongolia, Tuvdenjamts (Tuvden) Altankhyag illustrates the right every child has to their own culture:

And in this next video, Simone Tonge from Antigua and Barbuda, exercises her right to freedom of expression in Confessions of a Female Adolescent:

Ibrahim Ide from Niger illustrates the right children have to a family that loves them and protects their rights in With or Without:

For more one minute videos, you can check out the main site for the project at TheOneMinutesJr.org or you can visit the UNICEF One Minutes Jr. Channel on Youtube to see many other 60 second videos created by youth on the topic of Childrens' Rights.

Seneca Dance, Letchworth State Park, NY

A new Native American National Heritage day is being celebrated in the United States on November 27, the day after most people there celebrated Thanksgiving. The new national holiday is the culmination of an annual National Native American Heritage Month in November that was passed into law in June.

The Friends of Leonard Peltier blog shared part of US President Obama's statement:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 2009 as National Native American Heritage Month. I call upon all Americans to commemorate this month with appropriate programs and activities, and to celebrate November 27, 2009, as Native American Heritage Day.

Leonard Peltier is an American Indian Movement activist sentenced in 1977 to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for the murder of two FBI agents killed during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, following what is known as the Wounded Knee incident. In 1992 the US actor-director Robert Redford produced the documentary Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story, and his case has been largely covered on international media - with various government entities around the world calling for Peltier's release and an on-going pouring of online activism.

In a post entitled A Day To Honor Native Americans on the Huffington Post, California Democratic congressman Joe Baca (a primary sponsor of the bill establishing Native American Heritage Month) wrote:

American families gather together on the fourth Thursday of every November to celebrate Thanksgiving in remembrance of a feast hosted by the Wampanoag Native Americans for the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1621. While we always remember the feast of Thanksgiving, we seldom pay homage to the Wampanoag hosts or recount what happened to them afterward.

By the time the Jamestown colony was founded in Virginia in 1607, the most accurate estimates are there were substantially more than 30 million Native Americans thriving in numerous tribes and cultures from the North American shores of Alaska to the tip of Cape Horn in South America. Unfortunately, the treatment of Native Americans over the next 300 years is one of the darkest chapters in American history.

Several celebrations and Pow-Wow gatherings took place throughout the country, following a variety of educational and artistic activities throughout the month of November. A large collection of photos and slide shows related to Native Americans events is also available on Flickr.

The Friday Native America Calling show addressed the issue: “As First Americans, what is our existing heritage? What are the things we will pass on to the next generations for them to celebrate?” - with several people calling in to share thoughts on the air. The program aires daily on 52 stations (and on the web) in United States and Canada, reaching about 500,000 listeners weekly.

On Friday morning, November 27, a public ceremony – “Healing Turtle Island” (#turtleisland) – took place in front of the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City:

The event site has historical significance, as it is near where the first Collegiate Church was raised in Fort Amsterdam. And, just across State Street The Netherlands Monument stands as a reminder of the greatest misunderstanding by the Dutch of Native Americans: Peter Minuit’s so-called “purchase” of Manhattan in 1626 for 60 guilders’ worth of dry goods. The Lenape, having no concept of private ownership of land, likely believed that Minuit was not purchasing the island but instead thanking them for the aid they had given the Dutch settlers when they first started arriving here.

Under the phrase, “Pride in our heritage, honor our ancestors”, the First Nations Urban Survival blog shares a great collection of YouTube videos by Native American people and artists, including the following “Turtle Song” performed by the Spirit of the Dawn, a Wabanaki singers/drumming group from Maine:

On Native American Netroots, “A Forum for Native American Issues”, StuartH shares one of his youth diary entries about a Navajo Nation meeting “by many medicine men, tribal college leaders, tribal government and legal experts and others concerned about the issue of spreading water from sewage treatment onto the slopes of a sacred mountain”:

…on deep reflection, I believe that if the core of indigenous experience is ever lost, all mankind will suffer from that in ways we may never grasp. I prefer to take what opportunities there might be, to honor what wisdom I might be able to comprehend. That isn't an easy process, and yes, it is full of contradictions.

What I am saying is that the differences between perspectives have in the past led to killing and huge conflict. We should contemplate, instead, the ways that we can learn to open our minds to new dimensions of understanding and gain new ground in the process. That is something to consider and give thanks over - for the future.

Hozho Nahastle (May there be Beauty).

Take Back The Tech is a collaborative campaign which takes place during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence (25 Nov - 10 Dec). Its goal is to promote ICT to end violence against women. In Pakistan, P@SH@- Pakistan Software Houses Association- is taking the initiative forward and have already launched the campaign on various online platforms.

Jehan Ara, President of P@sh@, initiated the campaign after holding a small meetup with bloggers to help find ways in which the campaign could be beneficial. On her blog  In the Line Of Wire, Jehan shares details of the campaign and ways in which people can help collaborate.

From 25 November to 10 December, get ready to click your mouse, flex your SMS fingers and engage full energy to take control of technology to end violence against women. PC’s Women’s Programme calls on users of the radio, television, internet,
emails and mobile phones to Take Back the Tech!

Meanwhile Jehan also launched the campaign on Twitter which has received an overwhelming response from men and women alike.

jehan_ara: Let us discuss what legislation exist to fight Violence against Women using ICT and whether they need to be changed/reviewed #takebackthetech

rai_azlan It is well-known that violence often ends when others intervene. #takebackthetech

faisalkapadia: FOR THE WOMEN OF PAKISTAN lets put an end to domestic violence against them #TBTT

Fariha Akthar at Far Quest shared announced the online campaign in a post:

I devoted most of my free time today in attempting to TBTT….yes to “Take Back The Tech!” and it’s going to be so at least till the next 16 days. [..]

We here in Pakistan have planned to run the local TBTT Campaign.(..) We have laid down a basic day-to-day activities plan as well that we will follow mainly to create awareness about female harassment issues and sharing tips on how to fight back this menace.

Rai Azlan at “My land Pakistan” blog discussed the need to highlight incidents of violence against women.

Living in a male dominated society I sometimes  consider myself superior over the opposite gender, it might be the influence of the overall social air. However I believe that superiority comes with responsibility and one can only be superior if the entire obligation toward him is being fulfilled.

[..] As soon as I got to know the importance and the aim behind this campaign I felt like it might be the way I can try to fulfill my responsibility.

Teabreak, Pakistan's largest Blog aggregator, announced its support for the campaign, calling all bloggers to join in and spread the word. Teabreak is home to over 1200 registered bloggers across Pakistan. Taking up the initiative will help amplify it to a larger audience. More support poured in when “The Laid Back Show“, hosted by renowned bloggers Awab Alvi and Faisal Kapadia, dedicated an entire episode to the campaign in order to help spread awareness and gather more support.

The campaign has triggered debate over the use of social media tools and has discussed cases of online harassment. Lets hope that this initiative culminates into a more powerful campaign to combat violence against women- a campaign that is not limited to 16-days but will last till the percentage of women facing violence declines appreciably.